SomerWiki A source-grounded wiki about Somerville, Massachusetts

Who is who

Updated September 21, 2026

What's happening

Somerville's government turned over almost completely in the last year. Mayor Jake Wilson took office in January 2026 and rebuilt the org chart into a cabinet-style structure, meeting weekly with about nine senior administrators instead of the 27 who used to attend department-head meetings. The City Council seated new members in January, restructured itself into ten committees so every councilor chairs one, and has Lance Davis as president. City Clerk Kimberly Wells moved up to Chief Administrative Officer and Courtney Henderson took the clerk's job.

Three of the eleven councilors are leaving on December 31, 2026. Ward 3's Ben Ewen-Campen and at-large Councilor Will Mbah won State House seats in the September 1 state primary and resigned; Ward 2's JT Scott, who was on no ballot, resigned the same day as Ewen-Campen so the two wards can share one special election in late January or early February 2027. Mbah's seat passes to Marianne Walles without a vote. See three Council seats turn over. Ward 1 Councilor Matthew McLaughlin lost his Senate bid and stays.

Mayor and administration

  • Jake Wilson — Mayor. Elected November 2025; ran the Finance Committee as a councilor before that. See wilson-reorg.
  • Kimberly Wells — Chief Administrative Officer. Somerville's City Clerk for nearly five years, confirmed 5-0 to the CAO job on February 2 saying she would build the post into "a true operational arm of the city."
  • Sarah Anders — Chief of Staff. Presented the mayor's office reorganization to the Finance Committee on June 9.
  • Ed Bean — Director of Finance and City Auditor. The numbers voice in every budget fight.
  • Michael Mastrobuoni — Budget Director. Ran the FY27 hearings and the "cut night."
  • Cynthia Amara — City Solicitor / City Attorney. The Law Department's position shaped the school budget authority dispute and the 90 Washington procurement.
  • Courtney Henderson — City Clerk. Recommended 4-0 on May 4; previously Somerville's first multilingual public information officer and Brockton's first director of immigrant affairs.
  • Tom Galligani — Executive Director of Strategy and Development (OSPCD), the department that absorbed planning, housing, economic development, and now sustainability. See equity-reorg.
  • Daniel Bartman — Director of Planning and Zoning. Presents nearly every item on zoning-amendments, the affordable housing overlay and backyard cottages.
  • Lisa-Anne Davidson — Director of Housing. Runs the consolidated rental waitlist — 4,302 households, closed. See rental-assistance.
  • Ellen Shachter — Director of Housing Stability. Her office serves over 1,100 households a year and holds the tenant legal-services contracts.
  • Rachel Nadkarni — Director of Economic Development. Carried the UCH-TIF district proposal and the lab vacancy response.
  • Richard Raiche — Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management. Water mains, the new school MSBA process, capital plan.
  • Eric Weisman — Commissioner of Public Works. Interim before being confirmed 4-0 on May 4.
  • Bradley Rawson — Director of Mobility. Street projects, bus lanes, McGrath.
  • Brian Postlewaite — Director of Engineering. Sewer separation, resurfacing, stormwater.
  • Karin Carroll — Director of Health and Human Services.
  • Colin Zeigler — Director of Public Health. Explained to Legislative Matters on September 15 why the city switched its rat program to vitamin D bait in 2024 (The rodenticide fight).
  • Jon Hillman — Public Safety for All project manager, running the civilian oversight design and the co-response pilot.
  • Maria Theresa Nagel — Director of the Office of Immigrant Advancement (Immigration protections).
  • Steven Nutter — Director of Sustainability and Environment.
  • Denise Taylor — Director of Communications and Public Engagement. Owns the somervillema.gov rebuild.
  • Amanda Nagim-Williams — Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Carried the contested DHS camera grant; presented the administration's zoning cleanup package and the warming center after-action report on September 10.
  • Anne Gill — Director of People Operations (human resources). Told Legislative Matters on September 15 that the long-vacant Director of Water and Sewer Operations job was downgraded to an operations role.
  • Suzanne Rinfret — Director of Traffic and Parking.
  • William Fisher — Emergency Management Director. Owns the continuity-of-operations plan and reports on the winter warming center at the former Cummings School.
  • Steve Craig — Director of Constituent Services. 311, over 118,000 service requests a year.
  • Anna Gartsman — SomerStat Director. Runs the resident wellbeing survey and Wilson's data dashboard.
  • Ashley Speliotis — Director of the Council on Aging.
  • Cathy Piantigini — Library Director.
  • Kevin Klein — Interim Director of Inspectional Services, on an extended temporary appointment. ISD enforcement is the sticking point in rental-registry and short-term-rental items.
  • Shumeane Benford — Police Chief. Deputy Chief James Donovan runs the department's directed-patrol work. See body-cams, surveillance-oversight.
  • Charles Breen — Fire Chief. Assistant Chief Sean Tierney handles apparatus and the traffic-calming dispute.
  • Rachel Strutt — interim Director of Arts and Culture (Arts and culture).

City Council

Eleven members: four at-large, seven wards. Terms run to the first business day of January 2028. The December 11, 2025 restructuring cut the committees to ten so each councilor chairs one.

  • Lance Davis — Ward 6; Council President, though several 2026 digests give McLaughlin that title; on May 14, with Davis and Vice President Mbah absent, McLaughlin was elected president pro tempore, and the digests appear to carry the label forward. Sponsor of the shelter zoning amendment; sits on the School Committee ex officio.
  • Matthew McLaughlin — Ward 1; chairs Public Health and Public Safety. Finished fourth in the 2nd Middlesex Senate primary and stays on the Council.
  • JT Scott — Ward 2; chairs Legislative Matters, the committee holding the ethical procurement ordinance, the body camera policy and the coming civilian oversight ordinance. Resigned September 3, effective December 31, 2026, after nine years; has endorsed Derrick Rice for Ward 3.
  • Ben Ewen-Campen — Ward 3; chairs Land Use, which holds the October 1 hearing on the administration's zoning package. Won the 27th Middlesex House nomination on September 1 and resigned effective December 31, 2026; Ward 3 goes to a special election (Three Council seats turn over).
  • Jesse Clingan — Ward 4; chairs Sustainability and Infrastructure.
  • Naima Sait — Ward 5; chairs Traffic and Parking. Pushed the rental registry hardest.
  • Emily Hardt — Ward 7; chairs Licenses and Permits. Endorsed Christine Barber for Senate.
  • Will Mbah — at-large; Council Vice President; chairs Confirmation of Appointments and Personnel Matters; a trustee of the Job Creation and Retention Trust. Top vote-getter in 2025 with 13,524; won the 34th Middlesex House nomination on September 1 and resigned by letter on September 11, effective December 31, 2026, writing that "Marianne Walles will succeed me."
  • Marianne Walles — at-large councilor from January 2027, as the fifth-place finisher in November 2025 with 7,900 votes; a union leader and social worker, in Mbah's description. Already filing zoning comments with the Council (item 26-1369, Sept 10).
  • Ben Wheeler — at-large; chairs Finance. Also sits on the Somerville Redevelopment Authority board, which designated Wood Partners for 90 Washington Street.
  • Kristen Strezo — at-large; chairs Housing, Community Development and Equity. Did not answer the roll on the September 10 shelter-zoning and UCH-TIF votes; clashed with Ewen-Campen the same night over the Cummings warming center.
  • Jonathan Link — at-large; chairs School Building Facilities and Maintenance and is the Council's representative on the Ranked Choice Voting Committee.

School Committee

Seven ward members elected in 2025, plus the mayor and council president ex officio under charter section 4-1.

  • Emily Ackman — Ward 1; School Committee Chair, per the city's September 9 new-school announcement. Argues one MSBA-funded school for Winter Hill and the Brown "saves taxpayer dollars." See The new school at 115 Sycamore Street.
  • Leiran Biton — Ward 7; Vice Chair. Opposed the consolidation in the spring, then voted on August 17 to send the 925-seat plan to the state "to avoid any delays." Chairs the School Committee's buildings subcommittee.
  • Elizabeth Eldridge (Ward 2), Michele Lippens (Ward 3), Andre Green (Ward 4), Laura Pitone (Ward 5), Emma Stellman (Ward 6) — the rest of the elected membership. Council President Lance Davis, a voting member, was the lone vote against the 925-seat submission.
  • Dr. Rubén Carmona — Superintendent of Schools. Presents the school budget to the Council; defended the Student Liaison Officer model on SROs.

State delegation

All four seats covering Somerville were contested in the September 1 primary; three were open, and the official totals settled all four; none of the four nominees has an opponent on Nov 3.

  • Pat Jehlen — State Senator, 2nd Middlesex (Somerville, Medford, parts of Cambridge and Winchester), since 2005. Retiring in January. Lead sponsor of the Somerville rent-control home-rule petition, S.22.
  • Erika Uyterhoeven — State Representative, 27th Middlesex (much of Somerville), since 2021; gave up the seat and won the Democratic nomination for Jehlen's Senate seat with 37 percent of the district vote. Sponsor of the tenant right-to-purchase petition, H.3910.
  • Ben Ewen-Campen — Democratic nominee, 27th Middlesex; the Ward 3 city councilor beat Olivia Gilligan-Corsetti and takes office in January.
  • Will Mbah — Democratic nominee, 34th Middlesex; the at-large city councilor beat Paul Ruseau and Chris Oates with 54.1 percent. Cambridge Day reports no Republican filed in the district.
  • Christine Barber — State Representative, 34th Middlesex (parts of Somerville and Medford). Gave up the seat for the Senate race and finished second, so she leaves the Legislature in January. Sponsor of the automated traffic enforcement petition, H.4179.
  • Mike Connolly — State Representative, 26th Middlesex (East Cambridge and East Somerville), since 2017; Cambridge Day counted him among the September 1 winners. Sponsor of the real estate transfer fee petition, H.3930.

Boards

  • Michael Capuano — Planning Board Chair; Amelia Aboff — Vice Chair, though the April 16 digest calls Aboff the chair and the June 18 one gives Capuano the gavel. The board's recommendations gate every zoning amendment; see before-the-boards.
  • Fiona DiMartino — Deputy Director of Planning and Zoning; staffs Planning Board and ZBA items.
  • Nick Salerno — Election Commissioner. Predicted a "humongous" November 3 ballot; it came in at 12 offices and nine questions. Will set the date of the Ward 2 and 3 special election (Three Council seats turn over).
  • Chris Dwan and Derrick Rice — chair and vice chair of the charter's Review of Multiple-Member Bodies Committee, which reports in December (Building out the 2025 charter). Rice, who organized the body-camera hearing petition, declared for Ward 3 on September 12.
  • Alessandra Seiter — chair of the Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee (Vitor Pamplona vice chair), which is writing its own comment letter on the Squires Bridge design.
  • Nick Pittman — managing trustee of the Affordable Housing Trust; trustees include Lisa Davidson, Councilor Emily Hardt, Diane Cohen, Andrea Shapiro, Mary Cassesso and, since July, Duncan Stuard.
  • Zoning Board of Appeals — one seat open; applications due October 30 (city notice). Hears the Teele Square hotel variances September 30.
  • Somerville Redevelopment Authority — owns 90 Washington Street; chair Phil Ergolini executed the Wood Partners designation agreement September 2 and expects a draft land disposition agreement September 30. Senior Planner Ben Demers staffs it.

Outside actors

  • US2 — the city's selected master developer for Union Square, holder of the Master Land Disposition Agreement with the SRA; represented at the Council by counsel Meredith Porter and Brian Hochleitner.
  • Wood Partners — designated developer for 90 Washington Street; revised proposal is 418 units in three buildings.
  • Andrew Flynn — CEO of Copper Mill, which withdrew the 26-story Davis Square tower on August 31 blaming the city for "no reciprocity." See davis-square-tower.
  • Hamilton Company — sought and then withdrew a Union Square rezoning; principal Jameson Brown.
  • Elaine Almquist — President, Davis Square Neighborhood Council; Christopher Beland is vice president, PJ Kim-Santos treasurer. Legislative Matters recommended the council's formal recognition 5-0 on September 15; the full Council votes next.
  • Serena Taylor — president emerita of the Somerville Homeless Coalition; filed with the state August 24 to run for Ward 3. Emily Doran, co-chair of the Union Square Neighborhood Council, has expressed interest in Ward 2 (Three Council seats turn over).
  • Binoj Pradhan — owner-developer of the Teele Square "Pit," seeking variances for an eight-story hotel at 1154 Broadway (Teele Square hotel at the Pit).
  • Save the Alewife Brook — Kristen Anderson and Michael Lenotto brought the community alternative to the city's draft CSO control plan.
  • Somerville Workers United — organizing roughly 200-220 non-unionized city workers with AFSCME Council 93; the Council backed voluntary recognition on May 28. See city-workers-union.
  • Mike Jefferson — President, Firefighters Association of Somerville Local 76, which signed a three-year contract September 15. Argues traffic calming damages apparatus and slows response (capital plan).
  • Center for Teen Empowerment — CEO Abigail Forrester and Program Director Aliyah Ewing led the fight against the FY27 cut to the program.

What's next

  • September 24, 2026 — next full Council meeting: DSNC recognition, the rodenticide items and the special-election order are all due there.
  • September 29 and 30, 2026 — Legislative Matters takes up civilian oversight; Public Health and Public Safety takes the warming-center report; the Housing committee meets.
  • October 1, 2026 — Land Use and the Planning Board hear the zoning package, Ewen-Campen's last big item as chair.
  • December 2026 — the Review of Multiple-Member Bodies Committee reports.
  • December 31, 2026 — Ewen-Campen, Scott and Mbah leave; Walles is sworn in within about three weeks; a Ward 2 and 3 special election follows in late January or early February. Legislative Matters, Land Use and Appointments all get new chairs. See Three Council seats turn over and Council vacancies.