City Leadership
The Mayor’s Office
The Office
Newburyport’s charter is unusually direct about where power sits. Section 3-2 says the executive powers of the city are vested solely in the Mayor, and that the Mayor may exercise them personally or through the departments under the office’s supervision and control. One sentence, and it decides a great deal.
Start with what the Mayor controls outright. The Mayor supervises and directs every city agency unless a law or the charter says otherwise, enforces the ordinances the Council passes, and keeps the record of the executive branch’s official acts. Section 3-3 gives the office the appointing power: the Mayor appoints all city officers, all department heads, and the members of every multiple member body for whom no other method is provided, excepting only the people who serve under the School Committee and under the City Council itself. The Mayor has the right to attend any meeting of any appointed body in the city, executive sessions included, and to join the discussion. The office is full time, and the charter forbids the Mayor from holding any other elective public office.
Now the limits, because those are what give a resident a second door. The Mayor cannot spend money alone. The budget the Mayor builds department by department is a proposal until the City Council votes it. An appointment does not stand on the Mayor’s signature either: under Section 2-10 the name goes to the City Council, which may send it to a standing committee that can require the nominee to appear and answer questions, and the appointment takes effect on the forty fifth day after notice is filed with the City Clerk unless the Council approves or rejects it first. Civil service positions are outside that process entirely.
The veto runs the other way, and it is Section 3-7. Every order, ordinance or vote the Council passes about the affairs of the city goes to the Mayor, except resolutions, the Council’s own choice of city officers, and its internal housekeeping. If the Mayor approves, the Mayor signs. If the Mayor disapproves, the measure goes back to the Council with the specific reasons in writing, the objections are entered in the Council’s records, and not sooner than seven days and not later than thirty the Council may take it up again. A two thirds vote of the full Council puts the measure in force over the Mayor’s objection. And if the Mayor neither signs nor returns a measure within ten days, it is deemed approved and in force, so silence is a decision too.
One more seat comes with the job. Under Section 4-1 the Mayor is the seventh member of the School Committee and serves as its chair, presiding, appointing every subcommittee, and voting on every measure exactly as any other member. So the same person who proposes the school budget also sits and votes on the body that adopts the policy it pays for.
The Current Mayor
Sean R. Reardon
Sean R. Reardon won the citywide race for Mayor at the biennial municipal election of November 4, 2025, taking 3,519 votes to James Joseph McCauley’s 3,212 out of 6,831 ballots cast. He took the oath of office at the city’s inauguration ceremony in the City Hall Auditorium on January 5, 2026, for the four year term the charter sets.
He also holds a seat most residents would not think to look for. The charter makes the Mayor the chair and a voting member of the Newburyport School Committee, and the city’s own Mayor’s Office page describes the job that way: working with the committee and the Superintendent on student achievement alongside running the city.
| Term | Four years, beginning the first Monday in the January after the election. Sworn in January 5, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Office | City Hall, 60 Pleasant Street, P.O. Box 550, Newburyport, MA 01950 |
| Phone | (978) 465-4413 |
| mayor@cityofnewburyport.com | |
| Website | cityofnewburyport.com |
How a Budget Actually Passes
A budget in Newburyport starts in the Mayor’s office, built department by department, and it arrives at the Council as one package. The Council then holds hearings on it and votes. Those hearings are the point in the year when a resident’s argument reaches the people who hold the vote, and they are public. If you want to change a number in the city budget, that is the room and that is the month.
Two numbers from the charter tell you how much agreement a budget needs. Six members of the eleven are a quorum, and it takes the affirmative roll call vote of six members to adopt an appropriation order. So a spending vote passes or fails on a majority of the whole Council, recorded by name, and you can read who voted which way in the minutes afterward.
Reach the Office
- City Hall: 60 Pleasant Street, Newburyport, MA 01950. Main line (978) 465-4413.
- Mayor’s Office: (978) 465-4413, mayor@cityofnewburyport.com. Inquiries may be emailed to that address.
- Hours: Monday to Wednesday 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, Thursday 8:00 am to 7:00 pm, Friday 8:00 am to 12:00 pm.
- Boards and commissions: a letter of interest and a resume go to the same office, which is how a resident gets appointed to one.
The Council is the other half of every decision the Mayor proposes.