Along with electing their first woman mayor, voters in Boston Tuesday passed a pair of proposals to change the city's budget process and school committee structure.
Question 1 asked whether Boston should change its charter to shift some budget power from the mayor to the City Council. Having been approved by 67 percent of voters, it will empower the City Council to amend and veto a mayor's budget, as well as implement a participatory budget process for regular voters to weigh in on how Boston spends a portion of its money.
The issue was championed by East Boston Councilor Lydia Edwards.
"It's a wonderful mandate," she said Tuesday night. "It is time for the city to be as creative as possible, to be as innovative as possible, to look at the way in which we allocate funds and let people participate in a real way in where their tax dollars go."
Armani White, campaigns director at the Center for Economic Democracy, said in a statement: "Boston's budget should be rooted in the needs of Boston's residents. This decisive victory is a popular mandate for progress led by Boston residents across the city."
Question 3, a nonbinding proposal, asked if the Boston School Committee, which is currently determined via mayoral appointments, should become an elected body. It was approved by 79 percent of voters.
In a statement, Bostonians For an Elected School Committee said city residents "clearly believe that the current system with School Committee members appointed by the mayor does not serve them well."
"Now it’s time for the City Council, Mayor-elect Michelle Wu, and the Boston delegation on Beacon Hill to carry out the mandate of the voters and move swiftly to pass a home rule petition that will allow Boston residents to do what residents in every other city and town in Massachusetts already do — vote for the people who set policy for our public schools," the group said.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected the prospect of a high-voltage electric substation going up beside a park on East Boston's Condor Street, which was presented in Question 2.
Residents of the neighborhood, including Councilor Edwards, have complained the facility was proposed by Eversource without a proper community input process and would be better suited in an industrial location.
Edwards said the victory gives political opponents leverage against Eversource moving forward.
"It was meant to send a clear message to Eversource that what they're doing is not right," Edwards told GBH News.
The margin by which the measure was rejected, she continued, "suggests solidarity for East Boston around all of Boston for a green, for a practical solution for our energy needs and a real acknowledgement around the entire city that a substation in that location is ludicrous, wrong and no one wants it in East Boston, or their own neighborhoods."
