Framingham Finance Subcommittee FY27 Budget Review & Joint School Revenue Session - Feb. 24, 2026
Framingham Finance Subcommittee FY27 Budget Review & Joint School Revenue Session - Feb. 24, 2026
The Framingham City Council Finance Subcommittee met on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, to review the FY27 Fire Department and Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs budgets, join with the School Committee Finance and Operations Subcommittee for a revenue and school budget discussion, and take up the capital improvement program referral. The joint portion began at 8:05 p.m.; the School Committee adjourned at 8:54 p.m.
Fire Department FY27 Budget
- Chief Michael Butcher, joined by Assistant Chief John Schultz and finance director Dana Hagginson, presented the Fire Department request. The budget is about 94% personnel. The chief cited 'nearly 33,000 calls for service' in the past year, while a slide/historical comparison put current call volume at 'nearly 14,000' compared with 6,600 in 1993; the transcript contains both figures.
- The department requested four additional firefighters (one per shift/group) as the first step toward NFPA 1710's four-person apparatus staffing standard. Staffing has remained roughly flat for more than 40 years while call volume has more than doubled; new positions since 1993 have been mostly administrative.
- The overall request is a 6.1% increase over FY26, driven by contractual, market, and rate obligations. The department identified $500,000 in cuts, including about a $250,000 overtime reduction and changes to the educational incentive stipend, and is pursuing grants including a state staffing grant of about $75,000.
- Line items: energy increases only for market/rate; repairs and maintenance flat; professional/technical services cover injured-on-duty invoices, new-hire exams, and Lexipol; building supplies and professional development flat; firefighter gear increases due to market adjustment. The emergency management budget is flat, covering reverse 911/Smart 911/text-to-911.
- Councilor Stefanini noted overtime is about $2.1 million and asked whether the reduction is achievable; Chief Butcher said added staffing should reduce overtime. Councilor Malik asked why the city pays for reverse 911; Chief explained it is a local notification system for parking bans and similar alerts. Councilor Cannon supported the staffing addition and questioned professional/technical services; he also raised future station needs. Chief said the Route 9 station was built in 1969 and needs upgrades, the dispatch center move is targeted for early 2027, and the largest coverage gap is the western area near the Southborough line, with high-rises and response times of 13-15 minutes (up to 17 minutes in some cases). Councilor Cannon asked about the Galleri-type cancer blood test; Chief stated firefighters have a 10-15% greater chance of a cancer diagnosis, the test costs roughly $600-700 per firefighter, and testing all 150 firefighters could be phased. Councilor Cannon asked administration to raise the issue with GIC.
Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs FY27 Budget
- Mr. Snyder presented for the Division of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs. The division operates with 50.2 FTEs across parks, recreation, the Callahan Center, and Loring Arena. FY27 instructions required level-service salary and level-funded operating budgets; the only operating increase identified was $265 for the ESCO lease as stated. Personnel increases reflect union and contractual obligations.
- 2025 usage: 289 permits, 369 permitted facilities, and over 20,900 permitted hours; new events included Bay State Motor Festival, NCAA football, parkrun, youth tournaments, and 325th celebration events. The Callahan Center recorded 41,728 visits, 4,426 social service interactions, 1,743 van rides, 532 SHINE appointments, and 419 tax appointments. Loring Arena operates with minimal staff seven days per week, 16 hours per day.
- Requested positions: six full-time maintenance positions (four motor equipment operators and two working supervisors) to support Mary Denison Park and other high-use areas. Unfunded requests due to level funding include tree maintenance, court crack repair/seal coating, and professional consulting. For beaches, the city is advertising seasonal positions and has issued an RFP for lifeguard/aquatic management services in response to regional lifeguard shortages; a supplemental appropriation may be needed.
- The Callahan Center requests re-establishment of two part-time positions for multilingual outreach and age-friendly/dementia-friendly work, plus one small capital item: an 85-inch conference room screen. Unfunded needs include $10,000 for professional programming support and $5,000 for van maintenance. Loring Arena has level-funded operations; unfunded maintenance increases were noted.
- Councilor Malik questioned the farmers market's no-vendor-fee model; Mr. Snyder said only an application fee is charged and he supports keeping it that way; Malik asked for benchmarking to other markets. Councilor Cannon asked about a near-40% personnel cost increase since FY24; Mr. Snyder attributed it mainly to the six requested new positions. Councilor Cannon advocated for studying combined maintenance responsibilities; Mr. Decino said a proposal is being developed to expand a prior study, potentially merging park maintenance with DPW and separating recreation programming. Councilor Stefanini cited inefficiencies such as licensed plumbers mowing grass and said the city should solve it internally.
Joint Revenue and FY27 School Budget Discussion
- The School Committee Finance and Operations Subcommittee met jointly with the City Council Finance Subcommittee. School Committee attendees included Jennifer Moshe, Adam Freudberg, Brent Lewis, Jessica Barnhill, Superintendent Dr. Tremblay, and Executive Director of Finance and Operations Lincoln Lynch.
- City administration (Mr. Decino) presented revenue slides: total city budget requests are about $401 million excluding water/sewer enterprise funds, projected revenue is $382 million, leaving a $19 million gap. Options include free cash, excess levy capacity, or cuts. The school department's working number is $189 million, based on an increase of about $6.2-6.3 million over the prior year.
- Councilor Stefanini and Councilor King stressed that the city cannot sustain structural deficit spending; using free cash this year creates a larger problem next year. Councilor King questioned whether the meeting was premature because the mayor's budget proposal had not yet been released. Councilor Cannon requested actual FY26 revenue data be added to the presentation and cautioned against treating reductions from an inflated request as cuts; he explained excess levy capacity is residents' own money, not a city account.
- Adam Freudberg asked for the city's free cash policy, referenced Moody's reports, and said the current difference between the school request and the mayor's number is about $802,000. He said health-care savings from reducing roughly 84 positions could range from $672,000 to $2.52 million depending on individual versus family coverage. Councilor Stefanini replied that health-care cost increases will exceed any such savings and that the city should scrutinize its own budget. Mr. Decino noted layoffs also bring unemployment costs.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Jerry Bloomfield (via Zoom): called for full assessment of both city and school budgets, asked for the GIC health insurance cost number in the budget, warned about rising MWRA and health costs, and said free cash spending could leave only $12 million in the stabilization fund.
- Alison Tejeda, District 4 homeowner, parent, and CPAC co-chair: said adequate school funding is a core public service; stated Framingham's special education program is rated in the bottom 10% of Massachusetts districts; said families of children with disabilities may leave; asked the City Council to work with the School Committee to close the funding gap.
- Donna Kilcoyne: asked officials to define terms such as free cash and excess capacity; said using excess capacity would cost about $35 per million dollars pulled per average tax bill; noted snow/ice costs had already consumed $1 million and available free cash is about $2 million; called for honest budget communication.
- No public comment was made on the Fire or Parks items; a resident, Chris Mulroney, was present for the school budget but did not speak.
Capital Improvement Program
- The subcommittee took up referral 2025-074, the mayor's recommended capital improvement program. Councilor Stefanini moved to support the 31 road, building, school, water, and sewer projects recommended by the mayor and hold all other deferred items and vehicle requests for May review. The motion was seconded.
- Councilor Cannon and Councilor King objected that the subcommittee lacked updated background material and presentations, and that approving a portion of projects on the fly would be poor practice. Councilor Stefanini stressed construction-season deadlines, citing road projects and the Cameron Middle School fire alarm system; he also mentioned Winter Street sidewalk hazards. Councilor Malik asked the administration how the current list had been pared down; administration said it removed vehicles/equipment and focused on infrastructure.
- After debate, Councilor Cannon moved to recommend that the full City Council open the capital budget hearing and hold it open for about a month or more while the subcommittee works with the mayor, CFO, and COO to review each item. That motion was seconded and passed 5-0. No individual capital projects were approved.
Key Outcomes
- No votes were taken on the Fire Department or Parks/Recreation budgets; they were informational presentations.
- School Committee Finance and Operations Subcommittee adjourned at 8:54 p.m. on a 4-0 vote after receiving revenue information and committing to continue FY27 budget review.
- The City Council Finance Subcommittee voted 5-0 to recommend that the full City Council open the capital improvement hearing and keep it open for a month or more, with city staff to work through project details and provide updated materials.
- Administration was asked to provide the city's free cash policy, add FY26 actual revenue data, and bring forward revised capital program materials as soon as possible.
- The School Committee planned to continue its FY27 budget reduction discussion at its next meeting; the City Council was scheduled to hold the capital hearing at its upcoming meeting.
Meeting Transcript
The finance subcommittee of the City Council is comprised of five council members and considers any or all questions appropriate for the purpose of considering the budget. Including the creation of new positions to the payroll, changes to the employee classification plan. Or any matters pertaining to increasing the City of Framingham employee headcount. The following City Council Finance Subcommittee meeting coverage is brought to you by the government channel, a service of the City of Framingham. Council Finance Subcommittee will come to order. And that's the third item on our agenda. Joining us this evening myself, Council Stefanini, Councillor Cannon, and Councillor Malik. First order of business is public participation. If there's anybody here that wants to publicly participate on any of the items that are not on our agenda this evening, feel free to take the podium and publicly participate. If not, we ask that you wait for the item that you're here for to come up on the agenda. Okay, let me just go out the zone land. And I knew it. Okay. Yeah, there. Um Chris Mulroney. Uh you're here for the school budget, is that correct? That's correct. Okay, so we're we're doing fire with them when we're doing public uh uh park and recs, and then we'll make sure you are signed up for the school part of the portion. Thank you. Thank you. Umbody being on public participation now. First order of business. A presentation by and a discussion with Chief Michael Butcher of the Framework Fire Department regarding the Department's FY2027 budget. If you want to introduce your team and we'll take it from there. Thank you, Chief. Good evening, everyone. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Uh I have uh Assistant Fire Chief John Schultz with me, and Mr. Dana Hagginson, who is our director of admin and finance. Um thank you for the opportunity to present the fiscal year budget for the for the fire department. Our mission is clear to protect life, property, and the environment through professional emergency response, fire prevention, public education, and community service. That mission guides every operational decision in every dollar in this proposal. This past year, your firefighters responded to nearly 33,000 calls for service. Behind that number are medical emergencies, working fires, technical rescues, hazardous materials responses, public service calls, and thousands of moments when our residents relied on us without hesitation. The demand for service continues to grow in both volume and complexity. Tonight I'm also presenting a modest but critically important staffing request request, the addition of four firefighters. This would add one firefighter, one firefighter per group, allowing us to move closer to staffing each frontline apparatus in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association Standard 1710, which calls for four firefighters per apparatus for safe and effective operations. These four positions represent the first step in rebuilding staffing levels, something that has not reoccurred in more than 40 years. As you'll see in this presentation, during that same period, our call volume has more than doubled, yet staffing has remained constant. The hazards facing our firefighters have increased, larger buildings, more complex construction, higher call acuity, and increased EMS demand. But our baseline staffing has not kept pace. And thank you for your continued support to the men and women of the Framingham Fire Department and for your commitment to a safety of our community. Um the PowerPoint in the uh because we have such a great agenda uh large agenda. If uh if you if you've seen this presentation, uh I will walk you through it, but if you've already seen it and you just have questions, we can go with that, but I can also go through the presentation if you'd like. Okay. Okay. Uh as you can see in our first slide here, um, personnel uh accounts for about 94 percent of our budget, uh, and and the rest is facilities and equipment. Uh and there's a slight uh increase, there's an increase this year, and that is due to uh contractual uh uh obligations. Next slide, please.
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