---
type: "Bill"
title: "An Act An authorizing the city of Somerville to continue the employment of Charles J. Femino as acting chief of police"
description: "Substituted, on motion of Mr. Walsh of Peabody, for a bill with the same title (House No. 4465) [Local Approval Received]. May 16, 2024."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ma"
legislature: "Massachusetts General Court"
session: "193rd"
identifier: "H 4649"
citation: "Massachusetts H 4649 (193rd)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Thomas P. Walsh"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 8
vote_count: 0
first_action: "2024-05-16"
last_action: "2024-05-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/cb7778c0-ff0b-4027-b032-eb906c32f005"
source_url: "https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/H4649"
source_hash: "0d0feff216347c34ffa55a5e7084d4243f53de932ce1532ce4758c4546b30538"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ma"]
---

# Massachusetts H 4649 (193rd) — An Act An authorizing the city of Somerville to continue the employment of Charles J. Femino as acting chief of police

Substituted, on motion of Mr. Walsh of Peabody, for a bill with the same title (House No. 4465) [Local Approval Received]. May 16, 2024.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/H4649.pdf)

## Sponsors

- Thomas P. Walsh — primary (person)
- Christine P. Barber — cosponsor (person)
- Patricia D. Jehlen — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2024-05-16** Substituted for H4465
- **2024-05-16** Passed to be engrossed `passage`
- **2024-05-20** Read, rules suspended, read second and ordered to a third reading `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2024-05-21** Taken out of the Orders of the Day
- **2024-05-21** Read third and passed to be engrossed `passage, reading-3`
- **2024-05-22** Enacted `passage`
- **2024-05-22** Enacted and laid before the Governor `passage`
- **2024-05-30** Signed by the Governor, Chapter 106 of the Acts of 2024 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/cb7778c0-ff0b-4027-b032-eb906c32f005`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Massachusetts legislature records).