The Somerville City Council Finance Committee convened on June 16, 2026 (meeting began June 15 at 6:03 PM and adjourned June 16 at 12:01 AM) to review the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 General Fund Operating Budget. The meeting covered three major agenda items: the FY27 budget review across departments (Culture & Community, Health & Human Services, Public Safety), an order regarding youth programming grants (Teen Empowerment), and unfinished business. The committee heard from department heads, division directors, and a public speaker. A motion to add $400,000 in funding for youth development services was laid on the table until the June 23, 2026 Finance Committee of the Whole meeting.
Good evening, everyone. I'm Ben Wheeler. I use he him pronouns. I'm a counselor at large and the Finance Committee Chair. It is 6.02 p.m. I'd like to call to order the Monday, June 15th, 2026 meeting of the Finance Committee of the Somerville City Council. Pursuant to chapter two of the Acts of 2025, this meeting of a City Council Committee will be conducted via remote participation. We'll post an audio video recording and a comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. We are joined by Clerk Delaney Fisher Cassiol. Clerk, could you please call the role to establish quorum? That again. Counselor Link. Counselor Strezzo. I believe I saw you come off mute, but I did not actually hear you, Counselor Straso. Present. Got it. Thank you. Counselor Hart. Here. Counselor Scott. Rosen. And Chair Wheeler. Here. All right. With that, we do have quorum. Everyone is here. Okay. Welcome everyone to the second night in our series of departmental budget hearings on the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget. First, as general note, if I pronounce your name wrong or get your title wrong, or use the wrong pronouns for you, please don't hesitate to interrupt me. I want to get it right. Thank you to the department heads who are appearing tonight, uh, and division heads and everyone else in a managerial capacity who'll be here. Thanks to all the staff members who've been preparing for budget season, and thanks to all the counselors here tonight and uh and who submitted questions in advance. Here's how tonight's meeting is going to work. For each department and division, if there was a departmental memo with responses to council counselor questions, then the clerk will display it. We'll invite the department or division heads to give a brief high level overview of their department. Sorry, let me be a little more specific. We'll invite the department heads to give uh a high level overview of their department's role within the administration and its role in the cabinet. Something like three or four minutes. We'll invite each division within the department to also give a short overview of its work when its turn comes, including any plans it wants to highlight for fiscal year 2027 and any major changes. I'm imagining here something like one to two minutes. I'll briefly recap any questions that counselors submitted and attempt to paraphrase the answers that are in the memos and invite the division heads to elaborate if they wish. Councilor members, council members, committee members can then ask any follow-up questions or further questions that they might have. And after we finish discussing any department or division, any counselor is welcome to make a motion for a cut or to make a motion for a resolution suggesting additional funding. These could also be made at the cut night or budget night. So any such motions will then be tabled until cut night, which is Tuesday, June 23rd. And I also encourage anyone making such motions to speak with the council's finance analyst, Mohamed Udin ahead of the 23rd. Now, first, before we actually begin the department hearings, we have an item that was referred to the finance committee that I'd like us to take up first. That is item two, 26-0979, an order introduced by Councilor McLaughlin requesting that the Director of Health and Human Services update the council on recent changes for requests for proposals for youth programming grants, particularly grants that impact teen empowerment directly. And I believe we have Director of Health and Human Services Karen Carroll, who can speak on this. And I believe we also have a speaker from the community whom a member of the committee wishes to sponsor to speak.