This past Thursday night all of the elected members of the four village Area Councils were sworn in at the rotunda in City Hall.
The 7 member Highlands Council is the granddaddy of them all and has been in existence for many years (30+?).
This is the 2nd term for the young, 9 member Upper Falls Council.
Newtonville and Waban have just elected their first ever 9 member Area Councils.
Does anyone know how the size of each council was determined or why they are different?
According to the Waban Area Council Website, they only had 9 members.
http://www.wabanareacouncil.com/content/wac-board
I think what happened was 13 people ran for 9 seats.
Newton Upper Falls and Newtonville were able to get 9 people to run for their area councils.
Newton Highlands was only able to get 7 people to run for their’s.
Oh yes. Thanks for the correction Joshua
Your Welcome, Jerry.
@Jerry: The title should now read “Newton’s 34 newest elected officials”
FYI: Excerpt from the City Charter:
“Sec. 9-7. Election of Council; Vacancies.
(a) A neighborhood area council shall consist of five to nine members. The term of office of each member shall be two years, and until a successor is qualified.”
The Charter also states that the petitioners who ask for an Area Council may set the boundaries and determine how many Councilors there will be (Although Sec. 9-7.(a),above, suggests that the number would be between 5 and 9 Councilors). They then need 20% of the registered voters to sign their petition, have the signatures verified, and receive the blessing of the Board of Aldermen to create a Council.
And, yes, Waban had a contested race for the Council with 13 candidates running for 9 seats.
Congratulations to ALL the newly elected Area Council members! May we have even more villages joining your example soon!