City Council in brief: City Council amends never-followed budgeting rule

Waltham City Council is required to pass its legislative budget in late January, but it has never met the deadline because the data it needs to set the budget is not available until February. Rather than have the council continue to flout the rule, the Ordinances and Rules Committee this week voted to change the budget deadline to the first Monday in March. 

Council President and Ward 9 Councilor Robert G. Logan said the council’s legislative budget includes city salaries, which are indexed to inflation. And it’s only in February that the Auditor’s Department receives the average federal consumer price index from the previous year and calculates salaries.

The committee voted to set the legislative budget’s deadline to the first Monday in March and amend the time of the budget hearing to 8 p.m. to align with the timing of the Committee of the Whole.

Additionally, the City Council’s committees:

• Requested an update on a resolution about compactable solar energy trash cans from the mayor and Consolidated Public Works director sometime in the next two weeks. (Economic and Community Development)
• Voted 3-2 against a request by Councilor-at-Large Colleen Bradley-MacArthur for an update from the Information Technology Department on a 2025 resolution to look into a citywide mobile app to report nonemergency issues. Logan, who is no longer on the committee, wrote the 2025 resolution, and said IT Director Donald Aucoin would visit the committee soon with updates. (Economic and Community Development)
• Approved a state Department of Conservation and Recreation lease of city land for a flood station. (Committee of the Whole)
• Voted 11-2 to authorize Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy to look into taking land at 67 Crescent St. by eminent domain to create a park. (Committee of the Whole)
• Accepted a $33,295.36 state grant for the Council on Aging. Council on Aging Director Patrick O’Brian said he expected to receive two more such grants by April. (Finance)
• Approved $1,851 for the Emergency Management Department to pay for updated self-contained breathing apparatus bottles for emergency responders. (Finance)
• Approved $9,665 in Adobe Acrobat licenses, upgraded monitors and City Council laptops for the City Clerk’s Office. (Finance)
• Approved an increase of $2.5 million to the Consolidated Public Works Department’s snow removal budget. (Finance) 
• Voted to give $70,000 to Veterans Memorial Skating Rink to pay for replacing a broken water tank. The committee requested a copy of the receipt for the new tank. (Finance)
• Reviewed the city’s income and spending halfway through the fiscal year. (Finance)
• Received documents the council requested last week detailing zoning exemptions required for a proposed hotel at 220 Moody St. The site’s developer said it would submit full renderings of its proposed design and a parking plan at the next committee meeting. (Ordinances and Rules)

Reviewed plans, timelines and mitigation commitments from the developers of three large proposed developments in west Waltham. These developers have requested that the City Council create mixed-use zoning overlay districts over the three sites to allow them to build housing. (Ordinances and Rules)