2022 – 2025 End of Term Report for Mayor Katjana Ballantyne

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Letter from Mayor Ballantyne

Dear Somerville Community,

My vision for Somerville is an inclusive, equitable city where we can all thrive together.

When I took office as Mayor in 2022, this vision guided every decision we made at City Hall. This report summarizes what we accomplished together over the past four years during a period of both challenge and tremendous progress.

I submit this report so that as the next and future administrations set their course, they have a quick reference for areas of success and challenge to build on and address. I also place this in the record in gratitude and recognition of all who believed in and helped create progress in this amazing place we call Somerville over the past four years.

Building an Inclusive City

Inclusiveness means the people most affected by our policies have a seat at the table. Through new initiatives such as Participatory Budgeting, a multi-focused Anti-Displacement Task Force, and our expansive Public Safety For All efforts, we ensured community voices shaped our direction. We intensified outreach to meet residents where they are, building trust and creating opportunities for meaningful participation.

Whether the expansion of outreach staff across departments to grow citywide capacity or the focused intensive push to add literally hundreds of new engagement opportunities, we followed our commitment to keep our ear to the ground and honor that input with serious review and thoughtful follow-through.

An inclusive City means all of us supporting our values, even if they are challenged by our federal administration. That’s why I filed a lawsuit with Chelsea in defense of all our residents, regardless of immigration status.

Advancing Equity

A number of residents and staff have told me I could have taken the easy way out with our American Rescue Plan Act funding. It would be easier to just fund large infrastructure projects in one fell swoop and ignore the complex social impacts of Covid. We didn't. Instead, we covered multiple needs with $35 million invested in infrastructure and $40 million delivering initiatives and services for our most vulnerable residents.

Spending on infrastructure has a generational impact on our debt, budget, constituents, and community, and it is critical to address these foundational needs. We helped our people recover from COVID's impacts through often ground-breaking programs that staff mobilized to stand up. The complexity of this cannot be understated. Municipal innovation requires navigating challenging law, procurement, and capacity issues all while doing our regular daily work. From flexible rental assistance, guaranteed basic income, childcare support, and much more, we pushed for impact and delivered it.

Pay Equity and Investing in Our Workforce

We also took on structural inequities within the City workforce. Through the Wage and Compensation Study, and the negotiations that followed, we lifted historically low salaries within SMEU and improved benefits while righting long-standing inequities between comparable jobs. This is lasting pay equity and a reflection of my administration’s and our community’s commitment to doing what is right. More than just delivering updates to the same old contracts with the same old inequities built in, this was my administration acknowledging the right thing to do.

Deep investments in our schools addressed the same for educators and school staff. In the 9 current collective bargaining agreements between the school district and educator and staff unions, pay equity is at the very center. The most recent contract, taking effect in SY26, raised our school paraprofessionals’ pay to $50,000 a year, with full parental leave by the third contract year, setting us far above counterparts in Massachusetts and neighboring communities. The greatest impact here is that we lifted people up from the bottom.

With the same focus on attracting and retaining quality employees, we enhanced our Family Medical Leave Policy to be Paid Family Medical Leave. This new policy allows for 8 weeks paid leave for employees to care for themselves for a serious medical condition, birth/adoption of a child, and paid time off to care for immediate families with serious medical conditions, as well. My administration recognized the need to care for employees so they can care for our constituents.

Creating Opportunities to Thrive Together

To deliver on our progressive values, we must diversify and grow our revenue. That's why as a core focus of the last four years, and my entire time as an elected official, I pursued strategic commercial development. As a City Councilor, I pushed to increase the mixed minimum unit ratio for housing to commercial in transform districts, and as a Mayor, I helped set the City up to generate roughly $255 million in community benefits from major development efforts such as “Tough Tech” zoning on Somerville Ave, and the large planning projects at Brickbottom and Assembly Square. We also developed a tax increment financing agreement for the Winter Hill Urban Renewal Plan at 299 Broadway, allowing us to advance this long-planned affordable mix-use project. With affordable housing linkage fees, job creation agreements, and the tax base and benefits to invest in our schools, our streets, and our people, development in Somerville is the engine behind social progress.

With this approach, my administration was able to increase and invest in the Somerville Public Schools budget by 34% over four years. We were able to accelerate making our streets safer for everyone and save lives. We were able to build or upgrade 13 parks. We were able to create the Somerville Pollinator Action Plan that won national recognition for leading the way for other municipalities to help prevent pollinator population collapse. We developed “tough tech” zoning that established a model framework to support development for clean energy and transformative technologies, while also enhancing arts zoning to ensure parity and protection within our industrial districts.

My administration understood fiscal responsibility as a keystone to our ability to deliver for constituents. With sound management of city assets and growing revenues, Somerville achieved ‘AAA’ bond rating – the highest long-term municipal bond credit rating – for the first time in the City’s history in May 2023 and then maintained ‘AAA’ for three consecutive years. This status has been crucial for lowering borrowing rates for the city’s critical major infrastructure investments. Especially in a time when federal funding and economic uncertainty threatens our coffers, the pursuit of economic resilience is and must remain a central focus, so that Somerville’s core services and progressive goals can be maintained and attained.

A Thriving Future

This work reflects both my administration's efforts and our partnership with staff across all departments, and countless community members. When I first ran for Mayor, I promised open and inclusive government, affordability, jobs, good governance, climate change mitigation, and strong schools. This report shows how we delivered on those promises while charting the course for future progress.

The challenges of COVID-19 tested us, but we came through stronger. We've put plans and roadmaps in place to meet long-term challenges, guided by experts and community input. We've made measurable progress on residents' wellbeing and city operations.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this work—City staff, community partners, residents who showed up to meetings and surveys, and all who believe in Somerville's potential. Together, we've built a foundation and set the course for a city where everyone can truly thrive.

With gratitude and hope for our future,
Katjana Ballantyne
Mayor, City of Somerville

Introduction

“My vision for Somerville is an inclusive, equitable city where we can all thrive together.”
– Mayor Katjana Ballantyne

From 2022 – 2025, Mayor Ballantyne’s work at City Hall has reflected her vision of governance. Through her capacity as an executive of City departments and services, as well as an advocate at the state and federal levels, Mayor Ballantyne has led a wide range of initiatives to make Somerville a place where everyone can thrive. Initiatives were designed for measurable impact on constituents’ wellbeing and on the quality of City’s operations. Plans and roadmaps were developed with deep community input and guidance from experts with a focus on delivering real progress not just for, but also driven by, community members.

This report summarizes the City’s key efforts during Mayor Ballantyne’s two terms. While not intended to be an exhaustive list, it offers an overview of core priorities that the community and future administrations can build on.

Section I. Inclusiveness: Inclusive leadership means ensuring that community members have an opportunity to fully participate in the City’s governance. To achieve that, the Ballantyne administration has focused on three key areas of work among other efforts: 1) Civic participation and responsive government; 2) accessibility of services and resources; and 3) a focus on uplifting vulnerable and historically underrepresented communities, including immigrants.

Section II. Equity and Wellbeing: An essential tenet of the last four years has been equitable access to opportunity, resources, and wellbeing and dignity for all constituents, particularly those with the greatest need or who have historically been underserved. This section describes six major areas of work, including 1) Urgent responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; 2) supporting youth and education; 3) supporting unhoused residents and promoting substance use harm reduction; 4) supporting seniors and veterans; 5) public safety and racial & social justice; and 6) safe and accessible transit for all.

Lastly, in making Somerville a place “where we can all thrive together,” Mayor Ballantyne’s administration has employed a multi-layered agenda that encompasses making life more affordable for all, creating economic opportunity, and enhancing sustainability in the city’s infrastructure and operations. The sections below detail these initiatives.

Section III. Thriving – Affordability: Creating an affordable city entails supporting community members through challenges in cost of living. The Ballantyne administration’s three major areas of work include: 1) Supporting limited-income residents and families; 2) Housing stability and anti-displacement policies and measures; and 3) Improving people’s access to housing units, by facilitating unit creation and lowering barriers for renters and buyers.

Section IV. Thriving – Economic Opportunity: A vibrant local economy generates jobs, supports small and anchor businesses, maintains Somerville’s cultural diversity, is equitable for all, and supports education and skill building so that community members are prepared to seize opportunities. Here, the Ballantyne administration’s major areas of work include: 1) Commercial development and bringing jobs to the city, with an emphasis on shifting the tax burden from residential to the commercial sector, and zoning and planning for sustained revenue growth through future-oriented industries; 2) Improving jobs and investing in workplace development; and 3) Supporting small businesses and the arts.

Section V: Thriving – Sustainability: Somerville remains a leader in investing in infrastructure, people, and practices that ensure a well-functioning city into the future. The City’s major areas of work include: 1) Climate action and our environment; 2) Updating our urban infrastructure; and 3) Enhancing the City’s capacity to deliver services.

Section I: Inclusiveness

I.1: Civic participation and responsive government

City government should be accessible to and representative of all residents. Residents should be able to engage in governance and their community in ways that meet their needs. Under Mayor Ballantyne’s two terms, the administration has increased civic participation by thousands and access to government in ways that reflect the local constituency as well as modern advances.