The Mayor of Chicopee is the
chief executive of municipal government in
Chicopee, Massachusetts. The
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
's office oversees the enforcement of all laws and ordinances within the city, appoints and supervises a majority of appointed officials, and serves as an
''ex officio'' member of the Chicopee School Committee. Chicopee has a
mayor-council government. Mayors of Chicopee are appointed through
direct
Direct may refer to:
Mathematics
* Directed set, in order theory
* Direct limit of (pre), sheaves
* Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces
Computing
* Direct access (disambiguation), a ...
,
non-partisan elections to a two-year term. The office has no term limits. The mayor's office is located in
Chicopee City Hall in
Chicopee Center.
The current mayor of Chicopee is John L. Vieau.
History
Prior to 1891, Chicopee had no mayor. The town was governed by an
open town meeting
Town meeting is a form of local government in which most or all of the members of a community are eligible to legislate policy and budgets for local government. It is a town- or city-level meeting in which decisions are made, in contrast with ...
and a
Board of Selectmen to oversee the day-to-day operations of the town. Chicopee received its city charter in 1890 and elected George S. Taylor, who took office in 1891. Under the charter, mayors were elected annually on the first Tuesday in December and took office on the first Monday in January. If the mayor's office was vacated, it was mandatory for an election to take place, with the President of the Board of Aldermen serving as acting mayor.
When the city charter was revised in 1897, the city council was changed to a
unicameral
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one.
Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...
system and the mayor no longer presided over city council meetings or acted with the council in declaring elections' winning candidates. Additionally, it was no longer mandatory to call a new election if the mayor's office was vacated within three months of a mayor's term ending.
The revised charter came into effect in 1898.
In 1938, the city's Franco-American Association endorsed holding non-partisan local elections. Proponents argued that non-partisan elections would alleviate racial or ethnic bloc voting and party factionalism. The city's first non-partisan elections were held in 1943.
List of mayors
Notes
References
{{reflist
Chicopee
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