The inhabitants of the City of Chicopee shall
continue to be a body politic and corporate, under the name of the
City of Chicopee, and as such shall have, exercise and enjoy all the
rights, immunities, powers and privileges, and be subject to all the
duties and obligations, now incumbent upon and appertaining to said
city as a municipal corporation.
The administration of all the fiscal, prudential
and municipal affairs of said city, with the government thereof, shall,
except the affairs of the public schools of said city, be vested in
an executive department, which shall consist of one officer, to be
called the Mayor, and in a legislative department, which shall consist
of a single body, to be called the City Council, the members whereof
shall be called Councilor. The executive department shall never exercise
any legislative power, and the legislative department shall never
exercise any executive power, except as herein otherwise provided.
The territory of said city shall continue to
be divided into 9 wards, which shall retain their present boundaries
until the same shall be changed under the general law relating thereto.
The number of wards may, in any year fixed by law for a new division
of wards in cities, be changed by vote of the City Council, with the
approval of the Mayor, at or prior to making such division, but the
number of wards shall never be less than seven.