The Salem City Council voted 8 to 2 on Thursday, September 10 to change the city seal, adopting a task force recommendation that the new seal depict no human figure and no witch. The vote does not pick a replacement design or amend the city charter; it starts the process. Ward 4 Councillor Timothy Flynn and Councillor-at-Large Ty Hapworth voted no. Councillor-at-Large Conrad Prosniewski was absent.
The seal, which has been in use for more than 187 years and appears on birth, marriage and death certificates, shows a figure the task force and several councilors described as a stereotyped image of a person from the East Indies spice trade. Before the debate the council extended public testimony to 17 minutes so that 17 residents could each speak for one minute. Speakers were split between those who called the seal a piece of Salem’s history that should not be erased and those who said a city-sanctioned symbol should not make Asian American residents feel excluded.
How councilors voted, and why
Hapworth, who chaired the Committee of the Whole that sent the report forward, said he had supported a change earlier in the process but that his own research led him to believe the figure represented specific merchants Salem traded with rather than an entire racial or geographic group. He said the historical seal should be preserved and understood rather than removed. Flynn said he had heard from many residents, worried that a change would further divide the city, and questioned the task force’s process.
Ward 5 Councillor Lydia King said the council should center the experiences of the Asian American and Pacific Islander residents most directly affected, and noted that Salem had already changed how it represents its history when it renamed the Saltonstall School for Sarah Parker Remond. Councillor-at-Large Kyle Davis said changing the seal would not erase history, which museums and historians would keep teaching. Ward 2 Councillor Andrew Smith said the image no longer communicates its original meaning to most people and reads as a stereotype, and that the vote was only a first step, with a replacement and its cost still to be decided. Ward 3 Councillor Jason Sydoriak supported the change but criticized the task force’s charge and procedures and asked for a careful process to design the replacement.
After the roll call Flynn moved for reconsideration at the next regular meeting. The motion for immediate reconsideration failed, and the chair said the vote therefore could not be reconsidered, pending confirmation from the city solicitor. Flynn filed a late item two weeks later seeking a reconsideration vote on October 8.
Leaf blowers: first passage, 7 to 3
The council also gave first passage, 7 to 3, to an ordinance banning gas-powered leaf blowers, after an hour of amendments. Flynn, Hapworth and Council President Alice Merkl voted no. As amended, residential property owners and commercial landscapers must comply by January 1, 2030; all city departments and their contractors are excluded from the ban, an exemption added 7 to 3 over the objections of King, Ward 6 Councillor Katelyn Holappa and Ward 7 Councillor Andrew Varela. A motion by Smith to move the deadline up to 2028 failed 2 to 8. The ordinance keeps an emergency exemption that the mayor or fire chief can issue and adds an outreach requirement directed at landscaping companies, retailers within 10 miles and large property owners.
Flynn and Smith relied on a report from Public Services Director Ray Jodoin that current battery equipment has limited run time and overheating problems and is not sufficient for a city the size of Salem. Smith said replacing the city’s gear would cost taxpayers more than $400,000. King and Holappa argued the city should lead by example and that 2030 leaves time to replace equipment as it wears out. Davis called the ordinance harm reduction and said the council should move forward with an imperfect ordinance rather than wait for a perfect one.
The ordinance came back for second passage on September 24. The minutes of that meeting record a renewed debate, a withdrawn motion by Varela to put city departments back under the 2030 deadline, and a pending amendment by Smith asking the city to conduct its outreach “to the best of their ability” when the meeting adjourned at 9:03 p.m.
Also at the meeting
- The council extended the Senior Tax Exemption Program, the means-tested property tax break Salem adopted in 2020, for three more years through December 31, 2029. Davis said the program keys off the state circuit breaker credit, adjusts its income limits for inflation and has no asset test.
- A resolution by Holappa urging the Healey-Driscoll administration and the Legislature to end what it calls a SNAP access crisis passed 10 to 0. It says Salem has lost 1,251 SNAP participants, nearly 15 percent, since federal eligibility cuts took effect and that 77 percent of calls to the state SNAP line this year were disconnected.
- A proposal to raise the general electrical permit fee from $3 to $10 was sent to the Committee on Ordinances, Licenses and Legal Affairs. Sydoriak said the fee had not changed in about two decades.
- A zoning amendment allowing small roof-mounted wind energy systems, with setbacks, a height cap of the building’s maximum plus five feet and capacity limits, was referred to the Planning Board for a joint public hearing.
- The council accepted a $20,000 Cummings Foundation donation to the new Taxpayer Relief Fund for elderly and disabled taxpayers, two $4,000 donations for Salem Common benches from Dominic Ballard and Eileen R. Perry, and $3,258.76 from Salem Harbor Station for the Derby Street Mile.
- $156,482.66 was approved from the Retirement Stabilization Fund for vacation and sick leave buybacks.
- An Open Meeting Law complaint about the Government Services Committee’s July 9 meeting was referred to the city solicitor for a written response.
- Noise ordinance changes covering the two walkways beside 20 Central Street, parking and stop sign changes on Salem Street at Lafayette Place, and new fire lanes on Beach and Sutton avenues received first passage.
The minutes are on the city’s Agenda Center; the September 10 minutes are here.
