This special meeting of the Somerville City Council was convened to receive the Mayor's presentation of the Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget, along with presentations on the Somerville Public Schools budget. The meeting included detailed overviews from Mayor William Wilson, Budget Director Michael Mastrobone, Superintendent Rubin Carmona, and CFO Bobby Barrera. Council members posed questions about budget priorities, layoffs, reorganizational changes, equity initiatives, and school funding. The budget was referred to the Finance Committee for further deliberation; no final votes were taken.
All right, I'll call this meeting to order. This is a special meeting of the city council. Today is Thursday, June 4th. My name is Lance Davis presiding. I use he, him pronouns. Uh please note that audio and video of this meeting is being recorded and maybe shown live on local access government channels and the city of Somerville website and will be available for future review. Would the clerk please call the roll? Counselor Ewen Campen. Here. Counselor Link. Here. Counselor Scott. Present. Counselor Klingon? Present. Counselor Streso. Present. Counselor Said. Here. Counselor Wheeler. Here. Counselor Hart. Here. Councilor McLaughlin. Here. Counselor? Counselor Davis. Here. With 10 members present, we have quorum. And I just got a text from Councillor Boss and he's a few minutes away, so we'll look forward to him joining us. Pursuant to our Rule 32, let it be known that the City Council salutes the flag of the United States of America and let us recall our oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth to the best of our abilities and understanding. Because this is a special meeting, we'll skip straight to the substantive items on the agenda. So that's going to take us to Section 7. Uh, unless there's any objection, anything else that we want to talk about? No? All right, good. Um I always want to give a fair chance. Um, as you know, this is a uh mayor's presentation of the budget. Um my intent is to um read in item 7.1. We'll hear that presentation, and that will be the bulk of the discussion tonight. At the end of the evening, we'll hear the remaining items. Uh, my my expectations those that all of the items will then be sent to uh committee, but uh it we typically wouldn't have uh discussion on the items in 7.2.7 uh 7.7. Of course, those are before us, so if there is something pressing, that it would be perfectly in order. Um, and then there's the two communications um from the city officers. So with that, madam clerk, could we take up item 7.1? Yes, 7.1 item number 26-0950, requesting the appropriation of 376, 778,493 to fund the fiscal year 2027 general fund operating budget. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, President Davis. Uh, through you, good evening.