Northampton City Council Meetings

City Council FY 26 Budget Vote June 18, 2025

The Northampton Reparations Committee presented its final report but there was a great deal of controversy shared by members of that group over whether their work was done, which included some bitterly heated remarks from some members about others, including a council member who some felt seriously inhibited the forward movement of the mission. Council voted to extend the Committee's charge for an additional year as well as accepting their report of progress thus far.

The Council voted 10-0 to add $116,711 of potential state allocations to the school budget.

The mayor also found $101,000 idiscovered by the city IT director inside the schools’ own budget where there were duplicate line items and unused tech contracts. That cash now goes to teaching staff to restore 2 NHS staff and the garden program. There may be more once 'free cash' is verified this autumn. Of the 3 plans considered by the school committee, the FY '26 budget is still $539,000 below level services, which mean maintaining staff and programs at FY'25 levels. Staff attrition, non renewals and retirement or leave positions filled by new staff at the very lowest salary levels will result in ongoing challenges. There was no call to do a closer look across city departments to ascertain if there might be similar oversights or potential savings on line items.

Each councilor made a long statement about how and why they were going to vote on the FY '26 budget. Some statements were very long. Some were circuitous. Councilors Maiore and Dubs eloquently shared their concerns and rationale about a budget that does not address the ongoing school district crisis. The final vote on this part of the city budget was 5-3 (Maiore, Dubs and Rothenberg) as Councilor Jarrett could not vote on budget which includes a contract with Pedal People. The budget vote requires a 2/3 majority so the budget did not pass, however it will go into effect irregardless on July 1, 2025 as required by state law.

June 5, 2025 Full Council Budget Deliberations #1

Budget decisions on hold until June 18th but the mayor and finance director shared a somewhat puzzling series of presentations about their finance projections. The first projected FY '26 estimated revenues using 90% of actual FY '24 revenues. In some categories, estimated revenues were pushed above 90%, indicating efforts to increase the estimate for total FY '26 recurring revenues. A second presentation considered the school strong budget only as causing potential cross-department staffing cuts and did not look at alternative approaches to using existing city funds. Having approved $120 million in capital planning projects oddly early in January prior to looking at current city budget needs, our city finance director assured council that, "We have spent every single dollar of free cash."

Finance Committee Budget Presentations Public Hearing #2

Budget presentations by:

Fire and Rescue
Police
Department of Public Works
Central Services
Climate and Project Administration

Each department felt their budgets reflected full funding within the parameters of the mayor's allocation in terms of their real need to maintain essential services for FY '26 with the exception of Fire and Safety which appealed for additional staff to complete full shifts. DPW has the funding but is challenged in finding employees to staff open positions.

Finance Committee Budget Presentations Public Hearing #1