Of the nine donations the Chelsea City Council accepted on Monday night, eight passed without a dissenting vote. The ninth was a used car worth about $4,000 from Todisco Towing, given to the Police Department for undercover work. It passed 7 to 1, and the one no vote came with a question the City Manager said he could not answer: where did the car come from?
The question
Councillor Lisa Santagate raised it as soon as the order was read. “When I saw this, I just wondered where the vehicle is coming from,” she said. “I know that this towing company tows vehicles … I just know that if people can’t afford to get their vehicles out of Todisco, it just doesn’t sit right with me that it would be someone who for financial reasons could not pay the fees and that that’s a car we’re going to get. And a lot of that has been happening with people who have been detained by ICE.”
City Manager Fidel Maltez said he did not know. “I cannot say the means through which Todisco received this vehicle. I cannot say. I can ask the question.” He described it as “a vehicle that Todisco had in surplus” that the company offered to the department “for undercover purposes,” not a cruiser that would be driven around town. He said the administration had told the council about the donation early and had kept the make and model out of the paperwork on purpose.
Santagate pressed. “There is a chance that it could be a vehicle that was taken from a Chelsea resident and then returned to the streets as an undercover vehicle. So someone could be seeing their own car that was confiscated helping the city.” She suggested the city ask instead for “a surplus vehicle that was not taken from a Chelsea resident,” and said, “I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but maybe just for moral and ethical reasons.”
The answers from the floor
Councillor Manuel Teshe, who said he expects to be admitted to the bar in about a year, said the chain of title makes the scenario unlikely. Taking ownership of a towed car and giving it away “would take a couple of years because you do need title,” he said, and if the car had a loan on it the bank would own it. “The likelihood of that happening would be very low.”
Councillor Deron Hines said the car could have been an impounded vehicle nobody claimed or a wreck, and “I don’t know if it was something that was from Chelsea. I would imagine that the Chelsea Police Department would be a little bit more tactful than that.” Santagate: “I would hope so. And maybe there’s a way to guarantee that.”
Councillor Giovanni Recupero said he knew how it works from the other side. “Somebody that had his car towed and then couldn’t get it out again, I could tell you how that works. They tow your car, they make you pay storage. If you can’t pay the storage, they own your car. So it could be anybody. Anybody’s car could come from anywhere … It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a Chelsea resident, but that’s how they get it. They don’t have to wait 20 years for it. If you don’t pay what they tell you to pay, they take it and then they can sell it.”
Councillor Calvin Brown had moved to adopt by roll call. The clerk confirmed a majority was enough. Voting yes: Todd Taylor, Recupero, Roberto Jimenez-Rivera, Hines, Teshe, Brown and Leo Robinson. Voting no: Santagate. Absent: Norieliz DeJesus, Tanairi Garcia and Kelly Garcia. The agenda had listed the recipient as the Chelsea Fire Department; the clerk corrected it to the Police Department when he read the item.
The rest of the money
The other donations, all accepted 8 to 0 with three absent unless noted, most of which we listed before the meeting:
$22,750 in sponsorships for the July 9 City Gala, from 23 donors ranging from $250 (Brown Jug, Dr. Deb Wayne, North Suffolk Community Services, Bella Isla, 212 Gallery) to $5,000 (Global Partners), with New Boston Investment at $3,000 and Wulf’s Fish, Bunker Hill Community College and Eastern Salt at $1,500 each. Maltez’s letter says the money funds the Chelsea Day fireworks.
$5,000 from Brooks Law P.C. of Medford, in two installments this fall, for reversible jerseys for the Chelsea Youth Soccer League.
1,200 size-4 Adidas soccer balls from the U.S. Soccer Federation, for which the city pays about $1,800 in shipping, to be distributed through Chelsea Public Schools and Soccer Without Borders. Brown, who moved it, said soccer “is growing really fast in our community” after the summer’s World Cup events.
100 tickets valued at $8,228 from the New England Patriots for the August 13 preseason game against the Colts, obtained by the Police Department for youth engagement.
Donations for the June All-America City trip: $4,920 from Global Partners for shirts and hoodies, a shuttle from Flatiron, airport parking from Pre-Flight, stress balls from Mass General Brigham Healthy Chelsea, tote bags from La Colaborativa, pencils from the library, photography from Matt Frank, hoodies from Chelsea Opportunity Academy, challenge coins from the Police Department and photo books from Darlene DeVita.
And $249,000 in Mass Save Community First Partnership grants, $202,520.01 from National Grid and $46,479.99 from Eversource, accepted 9 to 0 with two absent, with Chelsea acting as lead partner for Revere and Winthrop.
Under state law and the city’s ordinances the council has to vote to accept each gift, which is why a $4,000 car and a box of library pencils appear on the same agenda as a $17.6 million road project. The results of the whole meeting are here.