The Salem City Council voted 11 to 0 on Thursday, June 25 to authorize Mayor Dominick Pangallo to sign the Project Scope and Budget Agreement between the Salem School District and the Massachusetts School Building Authority for the high school project, the step that locks in the scope the state will help pay for. All eleven councilors were present and every roll call of the night was unanimous.
Capital plan and bonds
On the recommendation of the Committee on Administration and Finance, the council adopted the proposed five-year Capital Improvement Plan for fiscal 2027 through 2031 by an 11 to 0 roll call. It then gave second and final passage, also 11 to 0, to two bond orders for the fiscal 2027 capital program: $7,862,000 for the general fund and $7,660,000 for water and sewer. The fiscal 2027 trash fee, water rate and sewer user charge ordinances received second and final passage the same night.
Rent stabilization goes to committee
Ward 5 Councillor Lydia King introduced a resolution supporting state legislation that would let cities and towns stabilize rents, and moved to send it to the Committee on Community and Economic Development because, she said, so much had happened that week: the Supreme Judicial Court had struck the November ballot question on the subject, leaving the Legislature, with a July 31 deadline, as the only route. King said more than 1,200 verified Salem residents had signed the petition and that Salem residents were two and a half times more likely than residents elsewhere to sign it. Rents, she said, are up 35 percent in five years and 70 percent in 15.
Councillor-at-Large Kyle Davis said the council was not deciding rent control but asking the state to lift the ban, and pointed to the bill’s just-cause eviction protections. Ward 6 Councillor Katelyn Holappa said the city needs to build more housing and has not engaged in widespread zoning reform, naming the Church Street lot, the Sewall Street lot and the lot behind fire headquarters as downtown land reserved for parking. Ward 3 Councillor Jason Sydoriak, who rents and said he had been evicted twice growing up, said he had studied rent stabilization for a decade in his land use work. Ward 1 Councillor Erin Turowski, a renter for 20 years until two years ago, said she had read the Senate bill and welcomed the committee review. Councillor-at-Large Conrad Prosniewski said the committee was the place for a fair hearing of both sides. Four residents spoke during public testimony, three for the resolution and one against. The council adopted the resolution on July 9.
Also at the meeting
- Krystle Brown of Meadow Street was confirmed 11 to 0 to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board. Appointments of Dr. Javier Garcia-Perez to the Race Equity Commission and reappointments of Kirt Rieder to the Planning Board and Peter Habib to the Zoning Board of Appeals were held under the rules to the next meeting.
- Two orders by Holappa were adopted directing the Committee of the Whole to review the council’s rules and orders and its standing committees.
- The council approved a state ethics law exemption allowing Board of Health member Sara Moore to contract with the Health Department for a community food assessment for the Food Policy Council.
- The September 1 state primary election warrant was adopted 11 to 0, with polling places including Bentley Academy, the Community Life Center, Salem High School, Witchcraft Heights, Saltonstall, Bates and the Salem State Enterprise Center.
- Two transfers totaling $15,426.62 covered the Purchasing Department’s remaining fiscal 2026 copier costs, and three seaworm licenses and 21 public guide licenses were granted.
The minutes are here.
