Two Chelsea City Council subcommittees meet back to back on Tuesday, October 27, to take up the city’s proposed $3.2 million purchase of 260 Marginal Street, the new fiscal year’s tax rates and Councillor Giovanni Recupero’s petition for a senior property tax exemption, according to agendas posted this week.
Ways and Means, 5 p.m.
The Sub-Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Councillor Norieliz DeJesus, meets at 5 p.m. in Committee Room 305 at City Hall. On its agenda:
- 260 Marginal Street, $3.2 million. Two orders would take $3.2 million from the overlay surplus for land acquisition and authorize City Manager Fidel Maltez to buy the parcel from its owner, named in the order as Hines, under a purchase and sale agreement the city negotiated. Maltez brought the purchase to the full council on October 5. The lot is next to city-owned 324 Marginal Street, and both are leased to Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Our report on that meeting.
- Leftover World Cup money, $40,438.51. An order would let the city spend what was left of the money set aside for FIFA World Cup community events on Chelsea Square community events instead. How the World Cup money was spent.
- Unpaid bills, $26,546.88. Costs from fiscal 2025 and 2026 that were never paid and are still owed to vendors would be paid out of this year’s budgets, under the state law that governs paying prior-year bills.
- Parking lot paving, $270,599.66. Money in this year’s capital plan for road and sidewalk work ($96,058.82) and road safety and traffic control ($174,540.84), which the order says is no longer needed because other funding came in, would move to the project to pave the City Hall and Senior Center parking lots.
Conference, 6 p.m.
The Sub-Committee on Conference, chaired by Council President Roberto Jimenez-Rivera, meets at 6 p.m. in the same room on two items: the fiscal 2027 tax rates, and Order 2601, Recupero’s proposed home rule petition to exempt income-eligible seniors who own and live in their homes from property taxes. Maltez, Deputy City Manager of Finance Paul Sagarino, Chief Assessor Jim Sullivan, Board of Assessors Chair John Taglilatela and City Solicitor Cheryl Watson Fisher are invited.
The petition died in the Aging and Veterans subcommittee in June on a 1-1-1 vote, after Councillor Leo Robinson declined to vote, citing a potential conflict of interest raised by the Solicitor’s office. Recupero had amended it to cover tax increases rather than the whole bill and to add a five-year residency requirement, and said he would keep pushing it. Our report on the June vote.
Charter Review, Monday, October 26
The Charter Review Committee, also chaired by Jimenez-Rivera, meets Monday, October 26, at 7 p.m. in the City Manager’s Office at City Hall. It will take public comment, finish the charter’s general and transition provisions left over from its last meeting, and start on Part II, the section on the City Council.
All three meetings are open to the public.
Photo: Chelsea City Hall. Daderot, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.