Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 43, § 50 (2026)

City council; number; election; tenure

✓ current as of July 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 50. The legislative powers of the city shall be vested in a city council, consisting of nine persons, elected at large by and from the qualified voters of the city. One of its members shall be elected by the council annually as its president. At the first election held in a city after its adoption of Plan A, except as otherwise provided in this section, the five candidates receiving the largest number of votes shall hold office for two years, and the four receiving the next largest number of votes shall hold office for one year. Thereafter, as these terms expire, there shall be elected at each annual city election a sufficient number of members to fill the vacancies created by the expiration of said terms, each member so elected to serve for two years.

If the plan adopted provides for elections to be held biennially, at the first regular municipal election held under the provisions of such plan and at each biennial election thereafter, there shall be elected nine members of the city council to serve for two years from the first day of January following their election and until their successors are qualified.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 3 cases, 1930–1996 · leading case: Bd. of Health of North Adams v. Mayor of North Adams, 334 N.E.2d 34 (Mass. 1975).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Bd. of Health of North Adams v. Mayor of North Adams, 334 N.E.2d 34 (Mass. 1975). · cites it 2× “It is contended, finally, that the board of health has no power to compel the city council to appropriate money: North Adams has a Plan A government, legislative power, including the power to appropriate funds, being vested in the city council pursuant to G.L.c. 43, § 50. The…”

King v. Mayor of Quincy, 169 N.E. 894 (Mass. 1930). · cites it 2× “The present charter vests in the city council the legislative powers of the city (G. L. c. 43, § 50) and declares that they shall not “be abridged or impaired” by it.”

McSweeney v. City of Cambridge, 665 N.E.2d 11 (Mass. 1996). “43, stands in contrast to two other methods of electing multi-member councils commonly used in the Commonwealth: a city-wide election in which the voters designate only one name with the candidates receiving the largest number of votes being elected, G. L. c. 43, § 50 (1994 ed.)…”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.