Gloucester voters who went to the polls last week did a lot more than elect city councilors and School Committee members — and show their support for an unopposed mayor.

They threw out an embarrassing vestige of parochialism in favor of a better system of public safety.

The ballot vote to remove the city police chief's position from the Civil Service system was overwhelming — a majority of almost 62 percent. And that should show Mayor Carolyn Kirk and other city officials once and for all that Gloucester's residents are indeed open to a more independent system for selecting a police chief — including one from outside the department, and one who might even come in to lead the department with some chief's experience under his or her belt.

Outgoing Ward 1 Councilor Jason Grow especially deserves credit for getting the measure on the ballot and supporting it, since the City Council initially couldn't resolve its split on the issue, and their split initially led Kirk to back off it as well. But all city officials should get the message sounded by voters last week.

In many ways, this was the perfect time to undertake this vote — and to now press ahead to organize a search with the new format in place. For one thing, the change does not affect a sitting chief. The initiative picked up steam in the last year the department was under controversial regime of former Chief John Beaudette. But the department is already on a positive track in transition under Lt. and Interim Chief Michael Lane. It also allows the city and whoever becomes the new permanent chief to address more effectively the findings of a recent audit of the department by Mutual Resources Inc., a New Hampshire consulting firm — a company that made 365 recommendations, and found the level of distrust and dysfunction within the department under Beaudette to be "unbelievable."

This emphatic call for change on the part of the city's voters will not, of course, magically make everything right with the department. But it offers a better chance for it to happen, and to happen more quickly.

If the best candidate for the job is within the department, that's great — and that may well be the case in the upcoming search if Lane is indeed one of the applicants. Lane continues to do a good job as interim chief, and there seems little question he would be able to compete with any outside candidate who might be interested in the post.

But this vote clearly was not about Lane, and was not about anyone else in the current department. It was about the future, and about Civil Service itself, which has become dysfunctional a straitjacket for communities.

Voters have now removed that straitjacket; it's time for city leaders to make use of their overdue freedoms.