Derry City Council

The Derry City Council is the municipal governing body of Derry, Maine, a town with a deeply troubled history. Throughout the novel, the Council is depicted as a consistently ineffective and often complicit institution that fails to protect the town's children from the cyclical violence of the entity known as It. Its actions—from imposing a curfew to approving urban renewal projects that erase the town's past—are shown to be superficial responses that never address the underlying horror, and its members are frequently implicated in the town's darkest events, such as the lynching of the Bradley Gang and the fire at the Black Spot.

Structure and Authority

The Council holds significant power over the town's daily life, including the ability to impose a seven o'clock curfew for all children, a measure adopted unanimously at a special session following the murder of Matthew Clements in 1958. This curfew, enforced by the Derry Police Department, was a direct response to the escalating child murders, but it proved utterly ineffective in stopping the killings. The Council also controls urban development, approving the construction of the Derry Mall on the site of the old Kitchener Ironworks, a location with a history of mass death. This act of urban renewal, which erased a site of tragedy, is emblematic of the Council's tendency to paper over the town's violent past rather than confront it. The Council's authority extends to the town's budget, where it has repeatedly pleaded poverty to avoid funding necessary upgrades to the sewer and drainage system, a network that serves as the primary habitat for the monster It.

Complicity in Violence

The Council's history is deeply stained by its members' direct participation in acts of mob violence. During the 1929 shootout with the Bradley Gang, the Council's representative, a man named Mueller, was instrumental in orchestrating the ambush. After the gang was gunned down by a mob of armed citizens, the official story was rewritten to credit the State Police and FBI, a cover-up that the Council actively supported. The Council was also complicit in the 1930 fire at the Black Spot, a Negro nightclub that was burned down by the Maine Legion of White Decency. The fire, which killed dozens, was set by prominent citizens, including members of the Council, who were angered by the club's popularity with white townspeople. The Council's role in these events is part of a pattern of looking the other way, a tendency that Mike Hanlon, in his research, identifies as a defining characteristic of Derry's governance.

Ineffectiveness and Denial

In the face of the 1985 cycle of child murders, the Council's response is a repeat of its past failures. It reinstates the curfew, organizes Mothers' Walker Groups to chaperone children to school, and publicly expresses outrage, but it never investigates the true nature of the threat. The Council's denial is so profound that it actively suppresses information. When Mike Hanlon attempts to research the town's history of violence, Chief Rademacher, a representative of the town's law enforcement, dismisses his findings and suggests he is mentally ill. The Council's refusal to acknowledge the supernatural evil at the heart of Derry is a form of willful ignorance that allows It to continue its predation. This pattern of denial is so ingrained that the town's very geography seems to conspire in it; the Council's failure to maintain the sewer system, for instance, creates the perfect labyrinth for It to inhabit.

Legacy and Collapse

The Council's long history of negligence and complicity culminates in the catastrophic storm and flood of May 31st, 1985, which destroys much of downtown Derry. The collapse of the Canal and the subsequent destruction of the Derry Mall, a project the Council had championed, symbolize the failure of its vision for the town. In the aftermath, the Council is left to grapple with a city that is literally falling apart, its infrastructure crumbling and its population fleeing. The novel ends with the suggestion that Derry itself may be dying, a final consequence of the Council's decades of inaction and its unwillingness to confront the darkness that has always been at the town's heart.