Kelly Garcia has filed three orders this year and has voted with the majority on every roll call but one, where she voted present. Her record is short and pointed, and it sits next to a public position on the schools that no other councillor has matched.
What she asks for
In February she asked the City Manager for a report on how the city supports people experiencing homelessness for reasons other than substance use: what services exist, how people reach them, where the gaps are. In April she co-filed with the Council President the order accepting the state laws that let Chelsea put violation cameras on school buses; it passed 8 to 0. In June she and Tanairi Garcia filed the order directing the administration to produce a comprehensive anti-displacement protection plan for elderly and disabled residents, with a report due in 90 days. That clock runs out around September 20.
How she has voted
On the two substantive splits she voted present on Recupero’s three-family zoning, the only present vote cast, and yes on the Hines amendment for the $275,000 inclusionary fee. She missed the August 17 special meeting, arrived late on June 8, and has been marked absent on five roll calls. She has made seven motions under suspension, several of them to take an item out of order.
The profile
The record shows a councillor whose own filings are about the safety net, seniors, the disabled and children, and who does not spend votes on dissent. She is the council’s delegate to the School Committee and served eight years on it, four as chair. Her biography covers her testimony to the Legislature on the state of the Chelsea schools, which remains the most substantive position any councillor has taken on education. She finished second in the at-large field with 1,081 votes.