City Leadership
Mayor’s Office
The Mayor
Melinda E. Barrett
Melinda E. Barrett is the first woman to lead Haverhill in roughly 300 years of city history, and she reached the office the long way. A third-generation resident, she spent 10 years on the City Council first, and in 2020 her colleagues elected her the city’s first woman Council president. Voters made her mayor, then returned her for a second term in November 2025.
She came up through Haverhill’s own public schools, then earned a political science degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She returned home to help run the family business, Barrett’s Menswear, which opened downtown in 1917, and later ran Barrett’s Specialty Foods for 23 years until it closed in 2018, more than a century of her family doing business in this city. As mayor she leans on collaboration, with a stated goal of making Haverhill one of the best places in the Commonwealth to live, work, and visit.
| In office | Since January 2024 |
|---|---|
| Office | City Hall, 4 Summer Street, Room 100, Haverhill, MA 01830 |
| Phone | 978-374-2300 |
| mayor@cityofhaverhill.com | |
| Website | haverhillma.gov |
What the Mayor Does
The mayor is the city’s chief executive, so the daily running of Haverhill flows through this office. The powers behind that title are concrete:
- Writes the budget: the mayor proposes the annual city budget, the one document that decides what gets funded. The Council then reviews and adopts it.
- Hires the leadership: the mayor appoints and oversees the heads of city departments and many boards, the people who actually deliver services.
- Veto power: the mayor can reject an ordinance the Council passes. The Council can override that veto, but only with a supermajority.
- Chairs the schools: the mayor sits as chair of the Haverhill School Committee automatically, just by holding the office.
The Administration
Under the mayor sits a full administration: public safety, public works, finance, planning, community development, and more. Each department is something you can contact directly through the city’s department directory, without going through the mayor at all.
- City Hall: 4 Summer Street, Haverhill, MA 01830, open Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- 311 / Call Center: dial 311 within the city, or (978) 358-1311 from outside, for city services and service requests.
Contact & Engage
- Office of the Mayor: City Hall, Room 100 · 978-374-2300 · mayor@cityofhaverhill.com
- Request a meeting: call or email the mayor’s office to ask for time or raise a concern. They field resident requests as a matter of routine.
- Stay informed: the Mayor’s Office posts news and notices on the city website and on social media. Following along is the easiest way to catch decisions before they are final.
Sources
Haverhill government website (haverhillma.gov). Verified July 2026.
The mayor runs the executive branch, but the City Council writes Haverhill’s ordinances. See who holds your ward.