The decision to increase the term to 4 years ultimately falls to West Springfield voters.
West Springfield Town Hall.
WEST SPRINGFIELD – The Town Council is expected to vote Monday on a measure that calls for increasing the mayoral term of office from two years to four years.
“For long-range planning it is a lot easier to have someone in place four years. You would not have the continuous campaigning you have with two years,” City Councilor Gerard B. Matthews, chair of the council’s Ordinance and Policy Committee, said Friday.
Matthews said that with a four-year term a mayor would have a better chance to work with the members of his management team.
The Ordinance and Policy Committee recently voted 3-0 to recommend passage of the proposal to the full council.
Town Council President Kathleen A. Bourque had asked that the committee look into the issue. Bourque has not yet taken a position on the proposal.
“I want to hear what Ordinance brings forth and hear what the other councilors say before I make a decision,” Bourque said.
Mayor Edward J. Gibson, whose term expires this year, favors lengthening the mayoral term of office on the grounds that it takes some of the politics out of running the city. Gibson has said under a two-year system a mayor has only 12 to 14 months to concentrate on the job before having to start campaigning for office again.
If the council approves the proposal and the mayor signs off, it would go to the state legislature. The legislature would decide whether to allow it on the local ballot. Matthews would like to have it before voters in November.
Forty-seven communities in Massachusetts have the mayoral form of government. Of those, 11 have four-year mayoral terms. Springfield recently increased its mayoral term of office from two years to four years, effective with the 2011 election.
The council will take the matter up during its regularly scheduled meeting starting at 7 p.m. Monday in the municipal building.
“Ultimately it is up to the people to decide,” Matthews said of the proposal. Matthews said he's “guardedly optimistic” about whether the legislature will allow the measure to be put on the ballot.
He said Newburyport will vote on the issue in November.