[Amended 11-8-1988]
(a)
Mayor, Qualifications -- The chief executive officer
of the town shall be a mayor, elected by and from the qualified voters
of the town. Any voter shall be eligible to hold the office of mayor.
The mayor shall devote his full time to the office and shall not hold
any other elective public office, nor shall be actively engage in
any other business, occupation or profession during his service as
mayor.
(b)
Term of Office -- The term of office of the mayor
shall be two years beginning on the first Monday of January following
his election and until his successor is qualified.
(c)
Compensation -- The town council shall by ordinance
establish an annual salary for the mayor. No ordinance increasing
the salary of the mayor shall be effective unless it shall have been
adopted in the first eighteen months of the term for which councilors
are elected and it provides that such salary is to be effective at
the commencement of the next term of office of the mayor.
The executive powers of the town shall be vested
solely in the mayor, and may be exercised by him either personally
or through the several town agencies under his general supervision
and control. The mayor shall cause the charter, the laws, ordinances
and orders for the government of the town to be enforced, and shall
cause a record of all his official acts to be kept.
The mayor shall exercise a general supervision
and direction over all town agencies, unless otherwise provided by
law. Each town agency shall furnish to him, forthwith upon his request,
any information, materials or otherwise as he may request and as the
needs of his office and the interest of the town may require.
The mayor shall appoint all city officers, department
heads and members of multiple-member bodies for whom no other method
of appointment or selection is provided for by the charter, excepting
only persons serving under the school committee, persons appointed
by state officials and persons serving under the city council.
Whenever a vacancy, either temporary or permanent,
occurs in a town office and the needs of the town require that such
office be filled, the mayor may designate the head of another town
agency or a town officer or town employee, or some other person to
perform the duties of the office on a temporary basis until such time
as the position can be filled as otherwise provided by law, by the
charter or by ordinance. The mayor shall file a certificate in substantially
the following form, with the town clerk, whenever he makes a designation
under this section:
I designate (name of person) to perform the
duties of the office of (designate Office in which vacancy exists)
on a temporary basis until the office can be filled by (here set out
the regular procedure for filling the vacancy, or when the regular
officer shall return). I certify that said person is qualified to
perform the duties which will be required and that I make this designation
solely in the interests of the Town of Agawam. (signed) Mayor
(a)
Communications to the Town Council -- Within six weeks
following the start of each fiscal year the mayor shall submit to
the town council, and make available for public distribution, a complete
report on the financial and administrative activities of the town
for the preceding fiscal year. He shall from time to time throughout
the year, by written communications, keep the town council fully informed
of the financial condition and administrative problems of the town
and shall recommend to them such measures for their consideration
as, in his judgment, the needs of the town require.
(b)
Special Meetings of the Town Council -- The mayor
may at any time call a special meeting of the town council, for any
purpose, by causing a notice of such meeting to be delivered in hand
or to the place of business or residence of each member of the town
council. Such notice shall, except in an emergency of which the mayor
shall be the sole judge, be delivered at least forty-eight (48) hours
in advance of the time set and shall specify the purpose or purposes
for which the meeting is to be held.
Every order, ordinance, resolution or vote adopted
or passed by the town council, relative to the affairs of the town,
except the election of officers, shall be presented to the mayor for
his approval. If he approves he shall sign it; if he disapproves it,
he shall return it, with his objections thereto in writing, to the
town council, which shall enter his objections at large on its records,
and again consider it, and the same shall be deemed approved and be
in force if it is not returned by the mayor, as herein provided, within
ten days after it was presented to him. If the town council, notwithstanding
such disapproval, by the mayor, shall again pass the order, ordinance,
resolution or vote by a two-thirds yea and nay vote of all the members,
it shall then be in force, but the vote thereon shall not be taken
before ten days, nor after thirty days, from the date of its return
to the town council.
(a)
Acting Mayor -- Whenever, by reason of sickness, absence
from the town of[1] other cause, the mayor shall be unable to perform the
duties of his office for a period of three successive working days
or more, the president of the town council shall be the acting mayor.
In the event of the absence or disability of the president of the
town council the vice-president shall serve.
[1]
Editor's Note: So in original. Probably should
read "or."
(b)
Powers of Acting Mayor -- The acting mayor shall have
all of the powers of the mayor except that he shall not make any permanent
appointment or removal to or from any office unless the disability
of the mayor shall have continued for more than sixty days, nor shall
be approve or disapprove of any measure passed by the town council
unless the time within which the mayor must act would expire before
the return of the mayor. During any period in which the town council
president, or vice-president, is serving as acting mayor he shall
not vote as a member of the town council.
(a)
Special Election -- If a vacancy in the office of
mayor occur in the first fifteen months of the term for which the
mayor is elected whether by reason of death, resignation, removal
from office, incapacity or otherwise the town council shall forthwith
order a special election to be held within ninety days following the
date the vacancy is created to fill such vacancy for the balance of
the then expired term.
(b)
Council Election -- If a vacancy in the office of mayor occur in the last nine months of the term for which the mayor is elected whether by reason of death, resignation, removal from office, or otherwise, the president of the town council shall become the mayor. Upon the qualification of the president of the town council as the mayor under this section, a vacancy shall exist in his seat on the town council which shall be filled in the manner provided in Section 2-6.
