ARTICLE 1
Incorporation; Short Title; Power
Section 1-1. Incorporation.
The Inhabitants of the municipality of Methuen, within the corporate limits established by law, shall continue to be a body corporate and politic under the name "City of Methuen".
Section 1-2. Short Title.
This instrument shall be known, and may be cited as the Methuen Home Rule Charter.
Section 1-3. Form of Government.
The administration of the fiscal, prudential, and municipal affairs of the City, with the government thereof, shall be vested in an executive branch, to consist of the Mayor, and a legislative branch, to consist of the City Council.
The executive branch shall never exercise any legislative power, and the legislative branch shall never exercise any executive powers.
Except as may otherwise be specifically authorized by the Charter, no member of the City Council,
nor any committee thereof, shall take any part in the conduct of the administrative business of the City.
Section 1-4. Powers of the Municipality.
Subject only to express limitations on the exercise of any power or function by a municipality in the Constitution or the statutes of the Commonwealth, it is the intent and the purpose of the voters in Methuen, through the adoption of the Charter, to secure for the City all powers it is possible to secure under the Constitution and statutes of the Commonwealth, as fully and as completely as though each such power was specifically and individually enumerated herein.
Methuen will constitutionally have a city form of government and the General Laws that apply only to cities, or treat cities differently than towns, will automatically apply to Methuen.
For example, Methuen will conform to the debt limit, bond and notes issuances, etc. of Chapter 44, the Municipal Finance Act. as it applies to cities.
Section 1-5. Construction.
The powers of the municipality under the Charter are to be construed liberally in favor of the City, and the specific mention of particular powers is not intended to limit, in any way, the general powers of the municipality as stated in Section 1-4.
Section 1-6. Intergovernmental Relations.
Subject only to express limitations in the construction of statutes of the Commonwealth, the City may exercise any of its powers or perform any of its functions, and may participate in the financing thereof, jointly or in cooperation, by contract or otherwise, with the Commonwealth, or any political subdivision or agency thereof, or the United States government or any agency thereof.
