City Edition
Essex County
Gloucester, Massachusetts
In November 2025, Gloucester fired its mayor. Not in a figure of speech: voters turned an incumbent out and put Paul Lundberg in the corner office, which is a thing a city of about thirty thousand people can do in a single evening. Gloucester has been making calls like that since 1623, when men from the Dorchester Company set up a fishing outpost at Stage Fort and never left. The ocean built this city and the ocean has taken people from it, which is why a bronze fisherman has stood at the wheel since 1925, watching the water that killed the men he was raised to honor. You live in a place that is old, stubborn, and small enough that your vote is a real fraction of the total. This guide shows you how Gloucester works: the Mayor who proposes the budget, the nine councilors who vote on it, the committee that runs your schools, the legislators who carry your voice to Boston and Washington, and the numbers underneath all of it.
Gloucester at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · City of Gloucester.
- County: Essex. Gloucester sits on Cape Ann, ringed by Ravenswood Park, Dogtown Common, Stage Fort Park, Good Harbor Beach, and the Annisquam River.
- Government: Mayor and a nine member City Council: four councilors at-large and five ward councilors. Mayor Paul A. Lundberg was elected in November 2025.
- Schools: Gloucester Public Schools, about 2,780 students across seven schools, led by Superintendent Amy Pasquarello.
How Gloucester’s Government Works
Gloucester elects its chief executive. The Mayor runs the city day to day, proposes the budget, and answers to voters directly at the next election rather than to any board. Alongside that office, voters elect a nine member City Council as the legislative body, which passes ordinances, sets the tax rate and votes the budget the Mayor proposes. Voters also elect a School Committee for the schools. The split is the point: one office proposes and runs, another votes and can say no, and you elect both.
The Mayor
The elected chief executive. Runs the departments, appoints the people who lead them, and proposes the annual budget. Also holds a seat on the School Committee by virtue of the office.
City Council
The nine-member legislative body: four councilors at-large and five ward councilors, all elected to two-year terms. It passes ordinances, votes the budget, and confirms the Mayor’s appointments.
School Committee
Seven seats: six elected members plus the Mayor, who holds the seventh by virtue of the office. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the Mayor, the nine members of the City Council, and the School Committee.
- The Mayor proposes the budget and runs the departments that carry it out.
- The City Council votes the budget and the ordinances, it can vote them down, and it confirms appointments to city offices.
- You take part: speak at a City Council meeting, bring a problem to the councilor for your ward, or run for a seat yourself.
Explore the Gloucester Edition
- Mayor’s OfficeThe chief executive and what the job actually controls
- City CouncilAll nine members, how to reach them, when they meet
- School CommitteeThe seven seats and the Superintendent
- City DepartmentsWho to call when something breaks
- Boards & CommissionsWhere volunteers decide real questions
- LegislatorsYour delegation on Beacon Hill and in Washington
- DemographicsWho lives in Gloucester, by the numbers
- Gloucester HistoryFrom a 1623 fishing outpost to America’s oldest seaport
- Non-ProfitsThe organizations holding the city together
- Student DataEnrollment, graduation, and spending
Your County Officials
Two of the people with the most direct power over your life are elected, and neither one sits on Beacon Hill. The district attorney decides who gets charged with a crime, and what they get charged with. The sheriff runs the county jail. The sheriff is elected by the voters of Essex County. The district attorney is elected by the voters of a prosecution district, and Massachusetts draws eleven of those across its fourteen counties, so a district attorney’s territory does not always follow a county line. Both appear on your ballot in Gloucester. Now you know what to look for.
Massachusetts elects fourteen sheriffs, one for each county, and eleven district attorneys, one for each prosecution district. The job is the same everywhere: the charging decisions, the jail. Look up any town in the state and see who holds these two offices there.
Your First Civic Action in Gloucester
You do not have to wait until you can vote to be heard. Here is a concrete path from a problem on your street to the people who can fix it.
- Pick the right body. Anything about a school, a course, a bus, or a teacher goes to the School Committee. Everything else, from a broken sidewalk to the tax rate, goes to the City Council.
- Find the meeting. The City Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 9 Dale Avenue. The School Committee meets at Gloucester High School, and its agendas are posted at schoolcommittee.gloucesterschools.com.
- Know your councilors. Four are elected at-large by every Gloucester voter, and five represent a single ward. You get to contact all nine, not just your own.
- Speak. The Council holds public hearings on proposed ordinances and zoning changes, and its meetings are public. Check the posted agenda for how to sign up.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a dead streetlight, or a missed pickup through the city’s online Citizen Request page.
- City Hall: 9 Dale Avenue, Gloucester, MA 01930. Mayor’s office (978) 325-5100. City Clerk (978) 325-5120.
- Council agendas and minutes: kept by the City Clerk, (978) 325-5120, and posted on the city’s City Council page.
- Gloucester Public Schools: 2 Blackburn Drive, (978) 281-9800, gloucesterschools.com.
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