Better Budget Process to Fully Fund Schools, City Services, and Infrastructure

We’re all fed up with underfunded schools, broken streets and sidewalks, understaffed city services, and a beautiful new Medford Public Library that doesn’t have the funding or staffing to stay open on Sundays. Worse, Medford’s broken budget process means there is no real plan to fix these problems that impact residents every day. 

I’ve made engaging residents about Medford’s budget crisis my top priority during the FY23 and FY24 budget process, and this year, I proposed the Medford Better Future Budget Plan to create a new budget-making process that sets clear goals to increase funding and fix Medford’s biggest challenges. 

Thanks to the hard work of my City Council partners, Mayor Lungo-Koehn and the Council reached an agreement in June that, if faithfully implemented, will start us down the path towards creating a better budget process and fully funding city government.

Now is the time for us to come together and make the big decisions to fully fund the city budget and build a better future for Medford and all of its residents.

Over the next two years, I look forward to: 

• Passing a Budget Ordinance that implements the Mayor-Council agreement to create a better budget process before next year’s FY25 budget
• Establishing the citywide Financial Task Force to create and publish a plan in 2024 to fund major capital projects (like a new Medford High School and new Fire Headquarters) and address underfunding and understaffing in our schools and city departments 
• Working with Medford residents to implement the principles of the Medford Better Future Budget Plan, take urgent action to raise revenue, and fund a better budget for all of us

Transform Zoning to Build More Affordable Housing and Vibrant Business Districts

My top reason for running for City Council in 2019 was housing affordability and preventing displacement. Four years later, I still haven’t found a way to buy a home in the city I love, and I’ve seen even more friends and neighbors forced to leave the city they love because of skyrocketing housing costs. We need to make sure Medford stays affordable for people who want to stay here, and is affordable enough to welcome in new neighbors regardless of income. 

The new zoning provisions and city ordinances we passed this term are starting to help, but we need to kick our work into overdrive and put Medford at the leading edge of regional and statewide efforts to provide housing for all.

I’m proud to say that the Council will be devoting the next two years to “Phase 2” of updates to the Zoning Ordinance to turn the ideas in our citywide comprehensive plan, climate plan, and housing production plan into real policy. Through this, we’ll continue to ensure that new development meets our community’s needs, not the needs of big developers.

Over the next two years, I look forward to:

• Passing transformative policies as part of “Phase 2” of updates to the Zoning Ordinance to “re-legalize” tripledeckers; allow new multi-story, mixed-use buildings on main streets and in our squares; strengthen inclusionary zoning to require more affordable units; and more
• Climate-focused city planning (including passing the new Green Building Code) and making streets, sidewalks, and open spaces more walkable, bikeable, and accessible for people using all forms of mobility devices
• Encouraging smart economic development that brings in new commercial and mixed-use projects on vacant or underutilized land in the city

More Inclusive City Government Through a More Democratic City Charter

We’ve worked hard over the past four years to build a more inclusive city government that attacks systemic racism head-on and engages residents and communities that have been historically excluded from city government.

I’m proud of new City Council rules that make hybrid meetings permanent, and our passage of an official declaration that systemic racism is a public health crisis in Medford. We’ll continue supporting initiatives like our resilience hubs and community liaisons program that bring historically excluded residents and communities into city government and bring the work of city government out into the whole community. 

Medford needs to maintain and expand funding for great initiatives like the community liaisons program. Even more importantly, we need real structural changes to our City Charter, ordinances, and daily practices to make city government more inclusive and more democratic. 

Over the next two years, I look forward to:

• Fighting for a more democratic city charter with a larger City Council that is more representative of our community and that adds meaningful checks and balances into the structure of city government based on the three Charter Amendment proposals advanced by a 6-1 vote of the City Council in May 2023
• Ensuring that Mayor-appointed city boards and commissions are more representative of the racial and economic diversity of our community
• Increasing funding for community engagement and outreach to expand Medford’s community liaisons program and improve translation services at City Hall