Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini said Tuesday he plans to re-open talks with city councilors about overhauling the city’s entirely at-large election process, one day after receiving a letter from a group of civil rights lawyers seeking to diversify the city’s political leadership and threatening litigation.
Fiorentini said he has long supported plans to create neighborhood city councilors and has attempted in the past to propose such changes to voters as a ballot initiative. He says efforts have been thwarted by some city councilors who are aware that such a move might push them out of leadership.
“I think it's the right way to go, the right thing to do,’’ he said. “It takes an extraordinary degree of courage and public commitment to be able to vote for something where you might lose your own job. Some of them have been willing to do that, and I commend them for that.”
Fiorentini spoke a day after receiving a letter from the nonprofit Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights who said the current electoral process makes it difficult for people of color to join the city’s leadership. Currently about 30% of residents are Latinx or people of color yet all nine members of the City Council are white. Activists are seeking similar changes for electing members of the school committee, which also is comprised of all-white members.
Fiorentini said he had warned city councilors that, if the city didn’t address this issue, they could be at risk of costly litigation. He says he will reach out to the lawyers’ group and city councilors in the hopes of making improvements.
Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the lawyers’ group, said the group needs a formal response from the city with “concrete action steps.” He said Haverhill is one of the last large cities in Massachusetts that still has an all at-large election process. In 2019, the city of Lowell agreed to change electoral system in a settlement agreement with the lawyers’ group. Worcester similarly has agreed to changes following threats of litigation.
"It is critical for a diverse community like Haverhill, that is over 30% people of color, to have greater representation in its elected bodies,’’ Espinoza-Madrigal said.
The letter was sent out with support from local groups, including the local Latino Coalition.
Kalister Green-Byrd, a long-time Haverhill community activist, says she also is supporting the effort in hope of seeing more people in power that look like her.
“The community has changed,’’ said Green-Byrd, 87, who is African American. “It’s time for Haverhill to make a change that is a true reflection of the residents here.”
