At its October 19 meeting, the Chelsea City Council heard how the city will choose its next police chief and a plan to take street sweeping in-house. It also set up its tax votes and heard two parents ask what will be done about next year’s school budget. The council held up the city manager’s request to spend $570,712 in linkage fee money, which we cover separately. It also voted 9-0 for a 70 percent local preference in the affordable housing lottery. Nine councillors were present. Councillor Hines was away at a wedding, and Councillor Tanairi Garcia was out for a family health matter. Our full transcript has every item.
Parents press on the school budget
Two parents spoke during public comment. Nadia, a lifelong resident and mother of two, said the city knew a shortfall was coming. She linked it to falling enrollment after immigration detentions in the city. “What actionable conversations and decisions can happen now to help resolve this, and what can we do to help avoid this in the future?” she asked. Heather Harker Ryan, a District 3 resident with two children in the schools, said the projected deficit is “staggering.” She said it could mean “ostensibly a third of our workforce being laid off if it were exclusively teachers.” She called it “probably another 5 or 10 year problem.” Council President Roberto Jimenez-Rivera said a meeting with the School Committee is being scheduled for November.
How the next police chief will be picked
Chief Keith Houghton reaches the mandatory retirement age of 65 in May 2027, as we reported Friday. City Manager Fidel Maltez’s letter on the search was not on the agenda. The council agreed by unanimous consent to have it read. Maltez will form a community police chief selection committee of “respected community leaders.” That committee will review all applications, interview candidates and send finalists to a second committee. The second committee is made up of the fire chief, department heads, the city manager and two city councillors, and it will recommend a candidate to Maltez. He will then negotiate the contract. The letter says the city wants the new chief to start before Houghton leaves, so the two overlap. Councillor Leo Robinson said that would keep the department from missing “a step in the community.”
Street sweeping could come in-house in 2028
A contractor sweeps Chelsea’s streets six days a week. The Department of Public Works says doing the work itself would save an average of $2.2 million over 15 years. The current contract ends in December 2027, and the city expects any new one to start at over $400,000 a year. Under the plan, DPW would add one full-time Licensed Public Works Specialist and 12 hours of overtime a week. Labor would cost about $135,000. The draft capital plan includes a $350,000 Elgin Pelican sweeper, which would need replacing about every five years. In-house sweeping would begin in January 2028. The capital plan came to the council the same night and was accepted and filed.
Councillor Todd Taylor welcomed the savings but warned of “huge shortfalls” ahead. “Everybody just needs to prepare themselves for less spending all the way around,” Taylor said, adding a “sneaking suspicion that property values may not remain as high as they are now.” Councillor Giovanni Recupero said he has long wanted the city to buy a snow-melting machine for the same reason. Councillor Calvin Brown said in-house work means “more labor” or overtime. He pointed to the striking Encore Boston Harbor workers: when the city saves money, he said, workers will ask, “Why aren’t we getting a piece of the pie here?”
Tax votes head to a hearing
Maltez asked for the two votes needed before the tax rate is set. The first is to keep the 35 percent residential exemption for owner-occupied homes, the maximum the law allows. The second is to adopt the minimum residential factor with a 1.75 shift, moving the most tax allowed by law onto commercial, industrial and personal property. Both orders go to a public hearing. Maltez’s letter asks for that hearing on November 16, so tax bills can go out by December 31. A council conference on the tax rates and on the senior tax exemption is set for next week.
911 contracts
The council approved, 9-0, the cost items of the Teamsters Local 25 contract for E-911 supervisors, with a $13,500 transfer from the salary reserve. A new contract for the 911 dispatchers in NEPBA Local 192 went to Ways and Means. It runs from January 2025 through June 2027, with raises of 1 percent in fiscal 2026 and 1.5 percent in fiscal 2027. It also includes a one-time retention payment in fiscal 2028 “due to the transition of the 911 regionalization.” The total cost over three years is about $166,000, and the first-year cost is about $8,800.
Other votes
- Roads and sidewalks: $116,942.80 from the state’s ride-hail (TNC) surcharge fund for sidewalk and road repair, 9-0.
- Old bills: $26,546.88 in prior-year bills, 9-0. That covers $17,666.01 to Tufts Construction for lead pipe replacement, $8,288.87 to the state Department of Unemployment Assistance for benefits, $542 to Ricoh for a copier lease and $50 to the Independent Newspaper for an advertisement.
- Island End River: The council voted 9-0 to amend its May 2025 eminent domain taking for the Island End River project. Jimenez-Rivera said the original order took a truck turnaround easement “that we did not mean to take” because of “an administrative error.” The amendment excludes it.
- Appointments: Gabriela Rodriguez to the Women’s Commission. Sharon M. Maronski to the Board of Registrars of Voters, to finish the term of John J. Connors Jr., who died. Matt Frank and Michelle Mirthes back to the Historical Commission. All 9-0, after Taylor objected to skipping the reading of the names. Jay Adams’s appointment to the Community Preservation Committee moved to a second reading.
- Library: Kelly Garcia’s order asks that the library’s needs assessment cover access for people with disabilities, parents and families with young children. It passed without objection. Maltez’s letter says a consultant will do the work in four phases from September through December, with bilingual community forums in October and November. Garcia showed a photo of a parent-friendly desk she found at a public library in Virginia.
- Construction vehicles: Recupero’s order asks the city to deal with construction equipment, vehicles and trailers left on streets overnight. It passed unanimously. “You shouldn’t take away parking in a city that’s very low in parking,” he said.
John Ruiz statue and the Mystic Mall
The city posted its call for artists for the bronze statue of John Ruiz on October 9. A selection committee will choose finalists, and the public will be able to comment on the designs. Recupero noted the money comes from Community Preservation Act funds. Robinson recalled the night Ruiz came home from his championship fight. “There was anywhere from 5 to 10,000 people in front of City Hall,” he said. Kelly Garcia, who sits on the committee, said, “If Philadelphia … has a statue of Rocky, so can Chelsea.”
The council also accepted and filed Market Basket’s master plan for the Mystic Mall site. Robinson said the city needs to “keep paying attention to that site” for the tax revenue it could bring.
Remembrances and announcements
Recupero asked for a moment of silence for George Chappell. “I seen him grow up in our city,” he said. Santagate asked for one for Aylin Vieira, a 2-year-old who died last Wednesday. Brown said the family is taking it very hard. The council passed Brown’s resolution honoring Shirley Ann Thompson, a lifelong resident and former school employee who turns 90 on October 23.
- Early voting for the November 3 election is under way at the City Clerk’s office in City Hall during regular hours this week and next, and this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- DeJesus said La Colaborativa holds a job fair Thursday at 12 p.m. at its Survival Center, 63 Sixth Street.
- Taylor said the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce’s 39th Pot of Gold and Halloween contest is Wednesday, October 28, 6 to 10 p.m., at Anthony’s of Malden, 105 Canal Street, Malden.
- Recupero said a gas smell on Congress Avenue comes from pipe work the city and the gas company have been doing for about three weeks. He said residents are not in danger. Anyone who smells gas can still call 911 or the gas company.
- Brown thanked residents who joined Sunday’s ALS walk on Admiral’s Hill. A councillor noted Chelsea High’s 14-6 football win over Medford on Saturday.