Peabody mayor wants city administrator
Staff writer
Peabody mayor Catherine Weems spoke longingly at a city council meeting Monday night about hiring a city administrator.
“All our other municipalities have city managers, and they make a huge difference,” she said. “I really think we need someone who, on a consistent basis, is pulling the city together. I’ve done my best in the interim to help, but we really need someone on a daily basis to be calling the shots.”
Weems’ remarks came as part of a larger conversation about filling city positions differently.
“It just seems like we keep going around and around in the same ways,” she said, noting the need for long-term consistency.
Public works superintendent Erik Barnes resigned at the Jan. 7 city council meeting, citing the “anger and hostility” he had received from members of the public. Weems said she was still considering how that position should be filled.
“We’re looking at all the possibilities, and looking at whether we want to do things the same way as we’ve been doing them, or make changes,” she said.
In other news, payables are no longer being listed in Peabody’s city council agendas.
Other governments in the county routinely provide summaries of what expenditures of taxpayer money their council is voting upon.
“There are things in there that should not always be published,” Weems said. “We don’t want account numbers. We don’t want attorney-client information out there. Asking someone to redact all of that in black marker through photocopies and stuff to make sure there’s nothing out there is an extensive amount of work, when it can just go to the council and not be published publicly.”
Weems contended that other cities in the county do not include their receipts for every purchase. They do, however, list amounts.
Open records requests still can be made to see the city’s bills.
Council member Linda Martinez spoke about the need for a standing “fire lane” sign on Walnut St. in front of Sunflower Theatre. Lines mark the fire lane on the ground, but these are faint, and according to Martinez often ignored.
“At least once a week, I see a farm truck and trailer completely block the fire lane and four of my parking stalls in front of my businesses, and they’ll get out and have lunch and be in there 30 or 40 minutes,” Martinez said. “That’s not kosher.”
Martinez also proposed an online grievance form on the city’s website, so residents and city employees could file complaints about whatever they wished.
Kevin Burke objected to the idea, saying the city would get too many comments.
“It’s going to be Facebook all over again,” he said. “It’s going to give people someplace to cry. They can come in here and talk to us face to face, with the system we already have in place.”
Martinez said she understood but thought a grievance system might be useful for people who were unable to attend meetings. “We don’t have to decide tonight,” she said.