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Somerville mayor urges council to reverse sudden cut to executive-office salary as budget debate continues
Summary
Mayor Ballantine told the council the June 25 vote to cut $186,744 from the Executive Office administration salaries line threatened a staff member's job and warned the action hurt recruitment and morale. The council debated the cut, then voted 9-2 to keep the reduction; a later motion to reconsider failed unanimously.
Mayor Ballantine and members of the Somerville City Council traded sharp public remarks Wednesday over a last-minute budget cut the council adopted earlier this week that targeted the Executive Office administration salaries line.
The mayor told the council the cut'which would remove $186,744 from the FY 2026 executive salaries line'put a staffed position at immediate risk and amounted to an unjust public dismissal. "No one should expect their livelihood to be subjected to what amounts to surprise dismissal in this public forum," Ballantine said. She asked the council to reconsider the change and warned that public targeting of staff would make it harder to recruit and retain qualified employees.
Council members defending the cut said the vote was an exercise of the council's appropriations authority and not meant as a personal attack on any individual. "The council's vote has nothing to do with the individual holding this office," Councilor Davis said in debate, describing the action as a budgetary judgment about an office that some councilors have long questioned.
The council first severed the budget line for separate consideration. On the separate vote to reduce the Executive Office administration salaries line by $186,744 (order noted on the record as item 6E13 / 25-1189), the council voted as follows: Councilor Scott (yes); Councilor Burnley (yes/"Aye"); Councilors Mbah, Wilson, Ewan Kampen, McLaughlin, Syed, Strezo, Klingen, Davis and Pineda Neufeld (no). With 2 councilors in favor and 9 opposed, the motion to make the cut was not approved.
After the result, Councilor Wilson moved for reconsideration of the finance-related items; that motion failed on a separate roll call with 0 in favor and 11 opposed. Ballantine and councilors continued to exchange sharply worded remarks during the session, with the mayor calling the earlier vote "reckless and profoundly wrong" and several councilors saying the mayor's public rebuke of staff was inappropriate.
Budget director Mike Mastroboni appeared to explain minor technical corrections to the FY 2026 document earlier in the meeting but was not party to the later exchange over the personnel funding decision. Ballantine also used her budget remarks to highlight priorities in the $380.1 million FY 2026 package, including a $112.3 million school budget and investments in supportive housing, climate strategies and a compost pilot.
Why it matters: The exchange exposed tension between the mayor's administration and the council over personnel funding and process. The mayor framed the cut as a risk to employee stability and public service delivery; several councilors framed it as a legitimate use of the council's power to change appropriations. The disagreement could complicate administration-council relations as the city implements the FY 2026 budget.
What happened next: After the votes described above the council approved the remainder of the finance committee items and moved on to land-use business. The mayor urged colleagues to reconsider the cut in future deliberations and reiterated a call to protect staff privacy and due process.
Notes: The transcript records a substantial public exchange on this matter, including remarks by Mayor Ballantine, Councilors Davis, Wilson, Klingen, McLaughlin, Scott, Mastroboni (budget director) and others. Quotes are taken verbatim from the meeting transcript and are attributed to the speakers who made them in the record.
