De Jesus begins Second Year as Council President

By Adam Swift

The city council will move forward with the same leadership as last year in 2025.

At a special meeting on Monday night, Norieliz De Jesus was sworn in for a second consecutive term as council president. Todd Taylor will remain in place as council vice president, and Kelly Garcia will serve a second year as the council’s representative to the school committee.

Prior to the vote on council leadership, Councilor-at-Large Leo Robinson, the council’s senior member, gave a short statement on what he sees as the body’s direction in the coming year.

“As we enter the second year of our city council term, we need to work with the city administration on new growth and economic development by reaching out to companies to help grow the tax base and provide employment opportunities for our residents,” said Robinson. “We need to keep a close watch on our bottom line by reviewing the city’s finances when it comes to tax abatements, exemptions, and loopholes. Our generosity needs to remain in check for the future of Chelsea.”

Robinson said the city council also needs to be prepared and have plans for the time ARPA funds are expended, and that the council needs to encourage residents to participate in the comprehensive master plan process that will help guide the future of the city.

De Jesus said the council has accomplished a lot of planning in the past year and said she is thankful for the commitment of her colleagues on the city council and their willingness to work together and push forward so many initiatives.

“We kicked off last year with our council priorities, something that we had not done in awhile, but I am super grateful that we did because we really did initiate our work plan in that way,” she said. 

De Jesus said City Manager Fidel Maltez knew what to focus on from the council priorities and sketched out the master planning process that includes all the concerns and needs that many residents wanted.

“We had the chairs in our committees lead amazing conversations on safety, on housing, … on our new sports committee that we were able to create,” said De Jesus.

Many of the issues that the council is moving forward with, such as housing, are ones that have been discussed for years.

“We know that housing is a complex issue, housing is not solved with just one policy, so we are going to continue to work from different avenues,” said De Jesus. In the coming year, De Jesus said there also has to be a continued focus on jobs for Chelsea residents. “We have to make sure that our families are able to sustain themselves,” she said. “You cannot have a place to call home if your income is not safe and secure. Your income will not be secure if your health is not secure, and your health cannot be secure if safety concerns with your environment exist.”