By Adam Swift
The Chelsea City Manager’s office is hosting a community budget meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18, at the Chelsea Senior Center located at 10 Riley Way (behind Chelsea Fire Headquarters). The meeting will be led by Deputy City Manager of Finance Michael Mason.
At the meeting, the community will have the opportunity to provide input on what they believe the City’s budgeting priorities should be during an initial listening session. The city team will then share insights into how budgeting decisions are made for municipalities, give an overview of the city’s past budgeting history, and share the outlook of Chelsea’s financial future.
This will be the first of two meetings about the city’s budget. The second meeting will be in April, with the exact date to be announced soon.
City Manager Fidel Maltez said one of the priorities of the March 18 meeting will be to lay out the financial landscape of the city and the budget process as it begins the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
Some of the factors that will affect the budget include items that are issues across the region and the country, including rising healthcare costs, inflation, and uncertainty about future energy costs.
Just as important as providing the financial framework for the budget to the residents, Maltez said, will be the opportunity for the residents to give feedback about what kind of city services and programs they would like to see in the budget.
“We are really taking from the playbook the Chelsea Public Schools have used for years,” Maltez said, when it comes to soliciting feedback from the public during the budget process.
The meetings are also part of the administration’s efforts to provide greater transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to the public, Maltez said.
To view the city’s current Fiscal Year 2025 budget and other financial documents, visit www.chelseama.gov/financedocs. For questions and more information about the event, contact Chelsea 311 at (617) 466-4209.