City Council tables budget, moves forward with personnel ordinances
Budgets, wage ordinances, MBTA schedule, a school stabilization fund and more were discussed on this busy night
By Crystal Yormick
Medford City Council tabled the city’s budget submission for fiscal year 2027 until the council’s last public meeting on June 23 before the June 30 deadline to approve the budget creeps closer.
The city council is waiting on information regarding the city’s legal expenses before it plans to act in favor of the current proposal. Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn said she emailed councilors about a week ago offering to discuss the budget and any legal information; none have asked for a meeting yet, she said. Several councilors on Tuesday said this is a matter that should be discussed publicly, not “behind closed doors.”
It also passed a third reading of an ordinance to create a wage floor for janitorial and security services that are not covered by the wage schedules of the state, despite a request from Paul Righi and Fiona Maxwell to postpone the passage. Righi read a letter written by himself and Maxwell via Zoom at the meeting requesting additional time for those working on the ordinance to complete its review to provide “well-vetted recommendations.”
“Instead of passing the ordinance as is with some issues still not resolved is to finalize those issues and take care of them,” Righi said. “And then there’s no amendments that are needed to the ordinance.”
Councilors decided to move forward with the ordinance, saying that it had been worked on for about seven months and said they would have wanted to know about any potential legal problems much earlier in the process.
“Every week that we don’t pass this is a week that we can leave workers in the dark,” Councilor Justin Tseng said. “That we can leave workers without stability in the city.”
Union workers from SEIU filled three rows of chairs at City Hall, and one worker spoke in support of the ordinance, referring to his personal experience of losing his job after the city hired a non-union company. Three other community members spoke in support as well.
It also approved amendments of a personnel ordinance for the Director of Elections, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Director of Veterans’ Services, which the city’s administration strongly recommended against. The original proposal had the two of the positions in the same tier while another was in a different tier. The amendment proposes putting each position on the same level or grade.
Councilors went back and forth for about 40 minutes with the city’s Director of Human Resources Lisa Crowley and Chief of Staff Nina Nazarian before voting.
“[This amendment], if adopted in the third reading, would actually result in greater inequities to other positions inside the organization,” Crowley said.
Councilors pushed back against changing their amendment. They said they need to retain city workers by offering good wages and pointed towards a study conducted by the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management, an organization dedicated to government accountability, as another reason. The study recommended that all three positions are in the same tier, according to councilors.
Councilor George Scarpelli said keeping all three in the same grade would not have a large economic impact.
“This isn’t so crazy that we’re going to jeopardize our country,” Scarpelli said. “It’s only maybe a couple of $1,000. Nothing that’s going to be that drastic that we’re saying, ‘Well, we’re going to lose this. We’re going to lose that.’ I don’t think this is a heavy thing.”
The council also approved an extension of the hours for Cold Stone Creamery at 61 Station Landing from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. for the summer and approved a food truck permit for June 13. The original request included other dates as well, but the council tabled those until the next meeting to leave room for further discussions with brick-and-mortar businesses on how this might affect them.
The proposed MBTA bus changes and ways to inform residents were discussed as well, so they can get involved in the process. Councilors Bears and Tseng said they will try to have a meeting before the council’s next June 23 meeting. The MBTA is holding a virtual meeting about the proposed updated June 15 at 6 p.m.
It approved $5.5 million in retained earnings to the Water & Swerve Enterprise to water main replacement projects and over $1 million for the Medford Public Schools Special Purpose Override Stabilization Fund. This money would go into about 29 accounts, stipends for after school activities and coaches’ accounts.
“We wanted these stipends to be competitive with other communities around our area, so the stabilization fund continues to go into those areas, continues to lift up our budget and more importantly have a positive impact on our students,” said Noel Velez, director of finance for Medford Public Schools.
The council’s next meeting will be Tuesday, June 23.
