By Adam Swift
The Chelsea City Council kicked off what was expected to be three nights of hearings on City Manager Fidel Maltez’s proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget on Monday night.
Maltez brought forward a proposed $272,378,292 operating budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins on July 1. The budget funds City expenditures at $116,129,801 and School Department expenditures at $156,248,491, for a total budget of $272,378,292.
The school department budget is increasing by 3.55 percent, which the city manager has called a minimal increase to address the revenue loss from an enrollment decline of nearly 350 students.
For FY27, the city is increasing its support of Chelsea Public Schools by approximately $4 million, according to Maltez, which he said is the highest contribution above net school spending from any gateway community.
Maltez said the city is able to contribute this additional funding by utilizing $4,495,000 in reserves to support the budget.
Overall, the FY27 budget sees city expenditures increasing by 4.8 percent, which Maltez stated is the lowest annual increase since FY22.
At Monday night’s subcommittee hearings, the council dove into individual department budgets, hearing presentations from the IT department, the procurement department, the permitting and land use planning department, the police department, the fire department, emergency management, public works, and housing and community development.
The total proposed police budget for FY27 is $15.77 million, an increase of 3.26 percent over the current fiscal year.
“We are a very fluid organization with a lot of moving parts, but I am very proud of our department and we have made great strides in reducing crime and engaging youth and working in neighborhoods, fulfilling our mission of engagement over enforcement in neighborhoods,” said Police Chief Keith Houghton.
The chief said the proposed budget reflects the department’s needs in a very dynamic community.
District 6 Councilor Giovanni Recupero asked about the police department’s current staffing levels.
“We are budgeted for 115, including myself,” said Houghton. “We have three in the academy … it is fluid, we have two who just retired, I believe we are at 110.”
Houghton said he told the city manager that the goal is always to get to the 115 figure, but that it can be hard because of retirements or people leaving.
“But we are much healthier now than we have been over the last few years,” said Houghton.
District 1 Councillor Todd Taylor asked about the number of crime-related incidents going up in the annual report while all other incidents decreased.
“The categorizing of incidents is a lengthy and complicated process because you have to go through what the state considers a crime and what the federal government considers a crime,” said the police chief. “So our crime-related incidents, they are more the calls that we respond to when an alleged crime occurred, but it did not result in an arrest at that point. That is a call where an officer is responding that someone might have broken into their vehicle, officers responding to a person who fled shoplifting – those again are the calls that did not result in an action at the time of the incident.”
District 5 Councilor Lisa Santagate asked about increasing software licensing costs in the department.
“Our department is run on many different platforms … we have software for our body cameras, we have software for our cameras within the city that the city of Boston and the region use,” said Houghton. “All of that is licensed, there are some things that we don’t own outright, we have a product that you have to purchase licensing for the year for the upkeep and the upgrades and things like that.”
The proposed fire department budget for FY27 is just over $14.6 million, an increase of 7.25 percent over the current fiscal year.
Fire Chief John Quatieri said the budget reflects the city and the department’s plans to manage the implementation of Engine 4, which he said was a major step for the department.
“That engine has proven to be significant in helping us to meet the service demands of the city,” said Quatieri. “It enhanced our response efficiency, it has reduced response times citywide. It has done everything that we thought it would do.”
The fire department’s budget has two new positions funded as part of a plan to bring staffing up to manage the cost of Engine 4. The fire chief said the department is currently at 104 people for staffing, and the two new positions will bring it up to 106.
“We also have a grant that we applied for through Mass Gaming that will pay for two additional firefighters … so two additional in the next budget will bring us to 108,” said Quatieri.
District 7 Councilor Manuel Teshe asked about the city and the department getting additional financial support from Flatiron Energy for its proposed battery facility in Chelsea.
Maltez said the city will be getting about $600,000 per year from Flatiron as part of the community agreement, but he said the payments begin once the project is live. He said the project is scheduled to be ready to go live in 2028.
“That is really exciting for me, because that one project will mean $1.5 million in tax revenue, plus this $600,000 on top of that,” said Maltez.
Council Vice President Noriliez DeJesus asked the fire chief about the department’s new resident assistance program.
“One of the things I realized early on when I became chief was, as you all know, we had a pretty rough year with fires and there was a definite gap between after the fire was out getting residents temporary housing, and then how to get them back into their homes if they could,” said Quatieri. “There were always questions, so this unit was put together – they have probably a 10 page list of things they check off after every fire and the goal there is to give the property owner or the resident a copy of what needs to be done in order to get back into their residence.”