Roberto Jimenez-Rivera’s name is on 31 orders this year, more than any councillor except the Ways and Means chair. Most of them are not his. As Council President he files the administration’s business: the $272 million budget in four orders, the West Chelsea overlay, the Fitzpatrick-Prattville 40R district, the 305 Commandants Way and Broadway takings, the 357 Beacham Street purchase, the solar agreements, the Chief Economic Development Officer, and the election warrant. Reading his record means separating the President from the councillor.
His own agenda
The councillor’s own orders cluster around housing supply and immigrants. In January he filed the accessory dwelling unit ordinance, which passed 9 to 0 in April after a unanimous Planning Board recommendation. He carried the West Chelsea Mixed-Use Overlay District from filing in March to an 11 to 0 vote in June. In February he put the whole council’s name on a resolution to bring a Connecticut Sun practice facility to the industrial waterfront. In March he called the Conference subcommittee into session on the “ICE Out of Chelsea” petition from the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network and took each demand in turn with the police chief and the City Solicitor at the table. He co-filed the school bus camera order with Kelly Garcia, which passed 8 to 0 with Taylor voting present.
He also rewrote the council’s rules. He chaired the Rules subcommittee through January and February, produced a full revision, and shepherded it through a March 3 special meeting rule by rule. His January order on abutter notification for new developments is finally getting its Housing subcommittee hearing on September 14. He chairs the Charter Review Committee, which set a two-thirds threshold for any recommended change at its first meeting in August.
How he has voted
With the majority, every time. He voted no on Recupero’s three-family zoning in April, with five others. He voted yes on the Hines amendment in June that set the inclusionary fee at $275,000, which put him on the winning side of the year’s closest vote and against the version his own referral order had carried in March. His last vote against a council majority was in December 2025, before he was President, when he and DeJesus were the only no votes on $200,000 in Community Preservation Act funds for Creekside Commons park.
He has not missed a meeting or a roll call. He rarely moves business himself; the President presides while others move.
The profile
The record shows a president who runs the administration’s agenda faithfully and keeps a separate, identifiable agenda of his own: more housing by right, protections for immigrants, tighter council procedure. His two dissents both cut toward more housing and more affordability requirements. He led the at-large field with 1,146 votes in November. His biography is here.