Have a Safe & Happy Memorial Day weekend! Vol. 31, No.21 -FREEwww.advocatenews.net Free Every Friday Revere Senior Prom 2022 781-286-8500 Friday, May 27, 2022 Arrigo seeks change to School Committee composition Proposes additional ward seats, reduce at-large seats By Adam Swift M ayor Brian Arrigo is proposing a charter change that STYLIN’: Revere High School Principal Dr. John Perella is pictured with student Denzel Pereira at last Thursday’s senior prom at the Danversport Yacht Club in Danvers. See pages 8 & 9 for photo highlights. (Advocate photo by Tara Vocino) City Council enforces public meeting measures Will request rules for videotaping of meetings By Adam Swift F our police offi cers lined the walls of the City Council Chambers on Monday night (May 23) as Council President Gerry Visconti laid down the law about recent outbursts in the City Council Chambers and the rules moving forward. During a May 16 Committee of the Whole meeting, there were numerous outbursts from attendees in protest of a proposed life sciences building at the new Suffolk Downs development. “Before we begin, what I want to do is go over some of the open meeting laws that we are going to abide by moving forward for video recording rules as well as addressing the City Council and the audience behavior,” said Visconti at the top of Monday’s meeting. “Due to some of the behavior that happened at our last meeting, I think it’s necessary.” Moving forward, anyone who wishes to video record a City Council meeting will have to provide their name and address for the record to the council from the public speaking podium. “You would have to indicate that you are using a device, and then there are some reasonable requirements not to interfere with the meeting,” said Visconti. “If you do would create School Committee ward seats and increase its size by two members. “The restructuring would reduce the amount of at-large seats on the School Committee to two, and would establish six seats selected from within each of our city’s wards,” Arrigo stated in a letter to the City Council. “The net effect of restructuring would result in two additional seats on the School Committee, for a total of 9 members.” If Arrigo’s order is approved by the City Council, it would then be referred to Revere’s state legislative delegation for introduction as a special act before the full legislature. Arrigo stated that he anticipates the restructuring taking place before next year’s municipal elections. “Candidates for next year’s GERRY VISCONTI City Council President not notify the chair that you are recording, then you shall not be able to record the meeting, and in doing so, if you refuse, you are going to be asked to leave.” Video recordings will also not be allowed at the podium, and certain seats are set aside that are dedicated to people recording the meeting. “The notification serves as a clear warning; this is the warning, okay,” said Visconti. “If these rules are broken, you are just going to be asked to remove yourself because you are being disruptive, and if you refuse, you will be escorted by one of the police offi cers.” In order to address the council, RULES | SEE Page 20 election will have the option of running within the ward in which they live or for one of the two at large seats,” Arrigo stated in a separate letter to the School Committee. The School Committee is presently comprised of the mayor and six at-large members. Monday night, the City Council accepted the letter from the mayor and moved that the issue be discussed at the next meeting of its Legislative Aff airs Subcommittee. At Monday night’s City Council meeting, Revere resident Wayne Rose asked why the city is moving forward to change the composition of the School Committee. “I think the School Committee works the way it should,” said Rose, but then he added that in his opinion the School Committee should be disbanded altogether rather than making it bigger. Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri said the proposed charter change came about because Revere is one of the few cities in the state that has a solely at-large School Committee. He noted BRIAN ARRIGO Mayor that the few cities that did operate solely at-large faced successful lawsuits and that a similar suit could be aimed at Revere. “In the 2017 federal voting rights suit of Huot v. City of Lowell, the City of Lowell ultimately fell under a consent decree where they were barred from utilizing an exclusively at large electoral system for their municipal elections,” Arrigo stated in his letter to the School Committee. “The decree allowed for possible alternatives to include an exclusively ward-based system or a hybrid option such as the one the City of Revere is proposing.” Worcester and other municipalities have similarly reformed or sought to reform their charters in response to threats of federal voting rights suits. “The plaintiff s in each of these cases have been represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights and coalitions of corporate litigators and community organizers,” stated the mayor. “The suits allege that exclusively at large elections illegally dilute the voting power of minority voters in violation with the federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.” Arrigo said that as a minority-majority community with varying levels of diversity across its six wards as well as scant elected officials of minority backgrounds, Revere is particularly vulnerable to a similar lawsuit.
2 Publizr Home