WHEREAS, On February 25, 2021, Mayor Alex B. Morse was appointed and subsequently approved by the Selectboard of the Town of Provincetown to serve as Town Manager, thereby having an anticipated resignation date from position as Mayor of the City of Holyoke before the end of his term; and

WHEREAS, The City of Holyoke Charter states that in the event there is a vacancy in the office of mayor more than six months previous to the expiration of the municipal year, the city council shall forthwith call meetings for a new election; and

WHEREAS, As currently written, if the Mayor resigns on or before June 30, 2021, the City of Holyoke Charter would require a special election process to be held in addition to the already regularly scheduled municipal elections in September and November; and

WHEREAS, Organizing and executing multiple municipal elections in a single year would place a large financial burden on the City of Holyoke, on top of the financial constraints of the ongoing public health emergency of COVID-19; and

WHEREAS, Requiring the City of Holyoke residents to repeatedly leave their homes in order to vote in multiple elections in the same year during the pandemic puts their lives, as well as the lives of City staff, at risk; and

WHEREAS, Holding multiple elections within the short time period of one year will create barriers to accessibility, lower voter turnout, potential voter confusion, and place disproportionate burdens on traditionally disenfranchised communities, such as immigrant, low-income, disabled, Black and Latinx communities such as ours;

WHEREAS, City Council President is unable to perform duties of Acting Mayor for an extended period of time, as it may be required; NOW THEREFORE BE IT

ORDERED, That a petition to the General Court, accompanied by a bill for a special law relating to the City of Holyoke, be filed with an attested copy of this order be, and hereby is, approved under Clause 1 of Section 8 of Article II, as amended, of the Articles of Amendment to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to the end that legislation be adopted provided, however, that the General Court may make clerical, editorial, or substantive changes to the language so long as it is within the general scope of the public objectives.:

PETITION FOR A SPECIAL LAW RE:

AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE OFFICE OF MAYOR IN THE CITY OF HOLYOKE

And that said act read as follows:

SECTION 1.  (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, if a vacancy in the office of mayor of Holyoke occurs at any time in the year two thousand and twenty-one, the vacancy shall not be filled by a special municipal election. Upon such vacancy in the office of mayor, the city council president shall act as mayor until the city council shall, by a majority vote, elect one of its members as mayor. 

(b) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the city council president while acting as mayor and the city councilor elected by the city council to serve as mayor pursuant to this act shall be entitled to simultaneously continue their duties as a member of the city council until such time as a mayor is elected and qualified at the regularly scheduled 2021 municipal election pursuant to subsection (c).

(c) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the candidate elected and qualified as a mayor at the regularly scheduled 2021 municipal election shall be sworn in as mayor to complete the balance of the mayoral term expiring on January 3, 2022 and shall be sworn-in for the term for which said candidate was elected and qualified at the regularly scheduled 2021 municipal election on January 3, 2022. 

(d) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, upon a vacancy in the office of mayor of Holyoke the city council shall elect one of its members as mayor pursuant to subsection (a) within 10 days of said vacancy occurring or within 10 days of the effective date of this act.

SECTION 2: This act shall take effect upon its passage.