Medford and Malden Run Petition Campaigns for CPA

Sept. 18, 2015: A municipality adopts the Community Preservation Act (CPA) through passage of a ballot question at the voting booth. There are two ways that the question to adopt CPA can be placed on the ballot. The first method, used by roughly 2/3 of the current CPA communities, is a vote by the municipality's legislative body (Town Meeting or City or Town Council) to put the adoption question on the ballot. The second method requires a petition to be signed by at least 5 percent of the community's registered voters, requesting that the question be placed on the ballot. Medford and Malden are attempting the latter.

Medford

Medford’s petition campaign showed overwhelming support for CPA. Supporters are currently awaiting the certification of signatures process to wrap up in the Clerk’s office. As long as all of Medford’s required signatures are certified by, CPA will be on the ballot in this fall. Medford’s website provides a lot of useful information for the community about the campaign for CPA. The 1.5% surcharge Medford is voting on would raise approximately $1 million annually.

Malden

Advocates in Malden are diligently working to collect the 5% of registered voters signatures needed to put CPA on the ballot for this fall. They are about two-thirds of the way with the deadline of September 22nd fast approaching. Malden supporters are predicting they will collect the remaining signatures this weekend. Malden is acknowledging that not all signatures may be certified and their goal accounts for an 80% rate of certification. Malden is trying for a 1% surcharge which would generate approximately $750,000 annually.