Massachusetts Statutes

Section 19. The city council at any time may request from the mayor, or, under Plan D or E, from the city manager, specific information on any municipal matter within its jurisdiction, and may request him to be present to answer written questions relating thereto at a meeting to …

Section 2. Any city, except Boston, which shall adopt, in the manner hereinafter prescribed, one of the plans of government provided in this chapter shall thereafter be governed by the provisions thereof; and the inhabitants of such city shall continue to be a municipal corporati…

Section 20. No ordinance shall be passed finally on the date on which it is introduced, except in cases of special emergency involving the health or safety of the people or their property. No ordinance shall be regarded as an emergency measure unless the emergency is defined and …

Section 21. No ordinance shall be amended or repealed except by an ordinance adopted in accordance with this chapter.

Section 22. Any ordinance, order or resolution may be passed through all its stages of legislation at one session, provided that no member of the council objects thereto; but if any member of the council objects, the measure shall be postponed for that meeting.

Section 23. Every proposed ordinance or loan order, except emergency measures as hereinbefore defined and revenue loan orders, shall be published once in full in at least one newspaper of the city, and in any additional manner that may be provided by ordinance, at least ten days …

Section 24. All official bonds, recognizances, obligations, contracts and other instruments entered into or executed by or to the city before its adoption of a plan provided by this chapter, and all taxes, special assessments, fines, penalties, forfeitures incurred or imposed, du…

Section 25. The civil service laws shall not apply to the appointment of the mayor's secretaries or of the stenographers, clerks, telephone operators and messengers connected with his office, and the mayor may remove such appointees without a hearing and without making a statemen…

Section 26. Except as otherwise provided in sections fifty A, fifty-nine A, eighty-six, one hundred and two and one hundred and twenty-one, if a vacancy occurs in the office of the mayor or city council before the last six months of the term of office, the city council shall orde…

Section 27. No mayor or member of the city council or school committee and no officer or employee of the city shall directly or indirectly make a contract with the city, or receive any commission, discount, bonus, gift, contribution, or reward from or any share in the profits of …

Section 29. All contracts made by any department, board or commission where the amount involved is five thousand dollars or more shall be in writing, and no such contract shall be deemed to have been made or executed until the approval of the mayor under Plan A, B, C or F, or of …

Section 3. None of the legislative powers of a city shall be abridged or impaired by this chapter; but all such legislative powers shall be possessed and exercised by such body as shall be the legislative body of the city under this chapter.

Section 30. At the request of any department, and with the approval of the mayor and city council under Plan A, B, C or F, or with the approval of the city manager and the city council under Plan D or E, the city council may, in the name of the city, purchase, or take by eminent …

Section 31. The school committee shall consist of the mayor, who shall be the chairman, and six members elected at large. At the first regular municipal election held in any city after its adoption of one of the plans provided in this chapter, there shall be elected, except as pr…

Section 32. The school committee shall elect a superintendent of schools annually, except as provided in section forty-one of chapter seventy-one, and may, under chapter thirty-one, appoint, suspend or remove at pleasure such subordinate officers or assistants, including janitors…

Section 33. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter and subject to any laws which limit the amount of money that may be appropriated in any city for school purposes, the school committee, in addition to the powers and duties conferred and imposed by law on school committees,…

Section 34. No site for a school building shall be acquired by the city unless the approval of the site by the school committee is first obtained. No plans for the construction of or alterations in a school building shall be accepted, and no work shall be begun on the constructio…

Section 35. All meetings of the school committee shall be open to the press and to the public, except as otherwise authorized by section twenty-three A of chapter thirty-nine. The vote on any particular measure shall be by yeas and nays, when requested by two members.

Section 36. Except as provided in this section, if a vacancy occurs in the school committee by failure to elect, or otherwise, the city council and the remaining members of the school committee shall meet in joint convention and elect a suitable person to fill the vacancy until t…

Section 37. A petition conforming to the requirements hereinafter provided and requesting the city council to pass a measure, except an order granted under section seventy or seventy-one of chapter one hundred and sixty-four or chapter one hundred and sixty-six, or requesting the…

Section 38. Signatures to initiative petitions need not be all on one paper. The papers constituting a petition shall be filed in the office of the city clerk, with the endorsement thereon of the names and addresses of three persons designated as filing the same, but all the pape…

Section 39. If any initiative petition is signed by registered voters equal in number to at least fifteen per cent of the whole number of registered voters: (1) the city council or the school committee shall, within twenty days after the date of the certificate of the registrars …

Section 4. Ordinances, resolutions, orders or other regulations of a city or of any authorized body or official thereof, existing at the time when such city adopts a plan of government set forth in this chapter, shall continue in full force and effect until repealed, modified or …

Section 40. If an initiative petition is signed by registered voters equal in number to at least eight per cent but less than fifteen per cent of the total number of registered voters, and said measure is not passed without alteration within twenty days by the city council or the…

Section 41. The ballots used when voting upon a proposed measure under section thirty-nine or forty, or a measure or part thereof protested against under the following section, shall contain only a fair, concise summary of the measure, as determined by the city solicitor, which s…

Section 42. If, within twenty days after the final passage of any measure, except a revenue loan order, by the city council or by the school committee, a petition signed by registered voters of the city, equal in number to at least twelve percent of the total number of registered…

Section 43. The city council may, of its own motion, and shall, upon request of the school committee if a measure originates with that committee and pertains to the affairs under its administration, submit to a vote of the registered voters of the city for adoption or rejection a…

Section 44. If two or more proposed measures passed at the same election contain conflicting provisions, only the one receiving the greater number of affirmative votes shall take effect.

Section 44A. In every city, governed on September first, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, by any plan provided by this chapter, which accepts sections forty-four A to forty-four G, inclusive, in the manner provided by section forty-four H, and in every city, except Boston, which,…

Section 44B. Except as otherwise provided in section forty-four G, there shall not be printed on the official ballot to be used at any regular or special election the name of any person as a candidate for any office unless such person has been nominated as such at a preliminary e…

Section 44C. Any person who is qualified to vote for a candidate for any elective municipal office and who is a candidate for nomination thereto, shall be entitled to have his name as such candidate printed on the official ballot to be used at a preliminary election; provided, th…

Section 44D. On the first day, other than Sunday or a legal holiday, following the expiration of the time for filing the above described statement and petition, the city clerk shall post in a conspicuous place in the city hall the names and residences of the candidates for nomina…

Section 44E. The election officers shall, immediately upon the closing of the polls at preliminary elections, count the ballots and ascertain the number of votes cast in the several voting places for each candidate, and forthwith make return thereof upon blanks to be furnished, a…

Section 44F. The two persons receiving at a preliminary election the highest number of votes for nomination for an office shall, except as provided by section forty-four G, be the sole candidates for that office whose names may be printed on the official ballot to be used at the …

Section 44G. If at the expiration of the time for filing statements of candidates to be voted for at any preliminary election not more than twice as many such statements have been filed with the city clerk for an office as are to be elected to such office, the candidates whose st…

Section 44H. If, in a city governed on September first, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, by one of the plans provided by this chapter, there is filed with the city clerk, not later than one month before a regular city election, a petition conforming so far as possible to the prov…

Section 45. Sections one to forty-four G, inclusive, shall, upon the adoption by any city of any of the plans hereinafter set forth, apply to the plan so adopted, except as is otherwise provided in such plan.

Section 46. The method of city government provided for in the ten following sections shall be known as Plan A.

Section 47. Upon the adoption of Plan A, it shall become operative as provided in sections one to forty-five, inclusive.

Section 48. There shall be a mayor, elected by and from the qualified voters of the city, who shall be the chief executive officer of the city. He shall hold office for the term of two years from the first Monday of January following his election, and until his successor is quali…

Section 49. No ballot used at any annual, biennial or special city election shall have printed thereon any party or political designation or mark, and there shall not be appended to the name of any candidate any such party or political designation or mark, or anything showing how…

Section 5. Until superseded under this chapter, the organization of the executive and administrative departments, and the powers and duties of the officers and employees of any city adopting any of the plans provided for in this chapter, and the fiscal year of such city shall rem…

Section 50. The legislative powers of the city shall be vested in a city council, consisting of nine persons, elected at large by and from the qualified voters of the city. One of its members shall be elected by the council annually as its president. At the first election held in…

Section 50A. Vacancies in the city council shall be filled by the remaining members thereof for the remainder of the unexpired term.

Section 52. Upon the adoption of Plan A, all heads of departments and members of municipal boards, except the school committee, officials appointed by the governor, and assessors if elected by vote of the people, as their terms of office expire, shall be appointed by the mayor wi…

Section 53. In making his appointments the mayor shall sign and file with the city clerk a certificate in the following form: Certificate of Appointment I appoint (name of appointee) to the position of (name of office), and I certify that in my opinion he is a recognized expert i…