NORTHAMPTON — Noting that it will allow him to be more outspoken and less constrained on the council, City Council President William Dwight said Monday he will not seek a fourth term as the body’s president early next month.
Dwight, an at-large councilor who was elected to a fourth consecutive two-year term last November, has been council president since he returned to the council in 2012. He previously served four terms on the council as a Ward 1 councilor from 1996 to 2004.
His time as president saw the office transform after the adoption of the city’s new charter. Whereas the old charter saw the mayor preside over City Council meetings, Dwight has had that distinction for the last five years.
“I made it up as I went along,” Dwight said Monday, of his time as president.
In addition to presiding over council meetings, the president doles out committee assignments to councilors. The position pays $10,000 a year, compared to $9,500 for councilor at-large and $9,000 for ward councilors.
Dwight said the current nine-member council has a number of councilors who could “easily take my place” as president. The council will select its new leadership at an organizational meeting at the beginning of 2018. The council’s current vice president is at-large councilor Ryan O’Donnell.
Dwight jokingly referred to his decision to come back to the council as an “early stage brain injury reaction,” before saying that his service on the council has been the most important thing he has done in his life.
Dwight said he was considering not running for re-election in 2017 before the results of the 2016 presidential election changed his mind. He also noted that the council has a number of important issues in front of it, including the regulation of commercial recreational marijuana in the city.
As for whether he’ll seek another term on the council in 2019, Dwight said he was currently inclined not to, but that he did not know for sure.