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Wilson's City Hall reorganization

Updated September 21, 2026

What's happening

Mayor Jake Wilson has rebuilt Somerville's government into nine cabinet departments, and the City Council has never taken a vote on it. The new structure took effect July 1 with the FY27 budget, which cut citywide headcount from 1,069.6 to 1,046.5 full-time equivalents — 13 layoffs of filled positions and 16 vacancies eliminated (FY27 budget book; June 4 council).

Wilson now meets weekly with about nine senior administrators instead of the 27 who used to attend department-head meetings, he told Cambridge Day in March. Each cabinet member runs a department made of divisions with their own budget lines.

At-large Councilor Will Mbah's May 28 order asking the administration to come before the Council and present the reorganization is still outstanding. The Council has met seven times since, through the September 10 regular meeting, and nothing on the record answers it. What did move is the paperwork behind the reorganization: on September 15 Legislative Matters recommended 5-0 the ordinance amending Section 2-323, the non-union position categories and salaries, to codify the retitling and regrading already baked into the FY27 budget. Director of People Operations Anne Gill confirmed there that the long-vacant Director of Water and Sewer Operations post was downgraded to an operations-oversight role that no longer requires the engineering credentials the old job demanded; recruiting continues and nobody has been hired (Sept 15 digest).

The story

The first act was a firing

Wilson came to his first Council meeting on January 8 with a modest request: $4,543.04 to fund three mayor's-office roles — a public liaison (Jesse Moose), a community partnerships liaison (Brenna Broderick), and the existing legislative liaison (Yasmine Raddassi). He said he wanted "a clear divide between the mayor's social media account and the city social media account because we haven't always seen that clear divide in the past." Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott quipped, "It's always a pleasure to see the mayor when they're not here to scold us."

The visible act came in February, when the city fired Arts Council director Greg Jenkins after almost 25 years. Wilson later said it was part of a departmental reorganization into "a cabinet-style architecture." Arts, libraries and recreation would become divisions under a new Executive Director of Culture and Community, funded in FY27.

Nine departments, announced in a budget

Wilson previewed the full plan at the April 14 financial-condition hearing, after Scott demanded the city look past 3–5% trims: "I'm old enough to remember when the entire communications department of this city was one person. Now just the core comms department… is 12 people, three of whom have titles that include the word director." Wilson confirmed a cabinet model of nine departments composed of divisions, with positions under review starting with vacancies, to create a "leaner, meaner setup on the city side."

The nine, as they appear in the FY27 book: Operations & Systems, Communications & Public Engagement, Finance, Infrastructure, Strategy & Development, Public Safety, Health & Human Services, Public Works, and Culture & Community — plus Executive Administration and the City Council.

The moves inside are where the fights are. Racial and Social Justice became Equity and Belonging and dropped from 9 positions to 4 inside Operations & Systems (see Racial and Social Justice becomes Equity and Belonging). The ADA Coordinator went to Human Resources, renamed People Operations. The SomerViva Office of Immigrant Affairs was split in two: an Immigrant Advancement division in Health and Human Services and a three-person Language and Communications Access division in Communications, carrying a $606,442 budget. 311 moved from Communications into Operations. Inspectional Services was split between a Permitting & Building Code division (41 positions down to 28) and Public Health. OSPCD became Strategy & Development, absorbing sustainability and running eight divisions; director Tom Galligani said it took three layoffs and two eliminated vacancies. The Arts Council became Arts & Culture; Parks & Recreation became Recreation.

Other cuts in the personnel table: Strategy & Development administration 11 to 9, Economic Development 12 to 10, Sustainability & Environment 10 to 8, Technology & Innovation 15 to 14, People Operations 18 to 17, Capital Projects 9 to 8, Grants Development 4 to 3.

Council President Lance Davis asked at the budget unveiling whether the City Clerk now reported to the CAO; Wilson confirmed the clerk and her staff still report to the Council, and that grouping the office under Operations & Systems is "for meeting/coordination purposes only."

Turnover at the top

The single biggest personnel move was Kimberly Wells. City Clerk for nearly five years, she was recommended 5-0 as Chief Administrative Officer on February 2 — Wilson called himself "utterly convinced" she had the right skills — and she said she would "build this position into a true operational arm of the city." She stayed in the clerk's chair until May 17, gave an emotional farewell on May 14 ("if the legacy that I leave is to be remembered for not suffering nonsense, I'm good with that"), and handed the office to Courtney Henderson, confirmed the same night.

Also confirmed: Ohemeng Kyeremateng as Parks and Recreation director (February), Eric Weisman as DPW commissioner and Henderson as City Clerk (May 4 recommendations, confirmed May 14), and 13 members of a reconstituted Climate Action Commission (July 6) drawn from 49 applicants. Kevin Klein remains interim director of Inspectional Services; the permanent job was still posted in the city's August 21 eNewsletter, alongside a deputy director of capital projects, a deputy director of engineering projects and a payroll director. The Digital Innovation Officer post from the previous administration no longer exists, and Sarah Anders serves as chief of staff.

On August 27 the Council confirmed five police officers — Chanthan Neang, Isaiah Saint-Vil, Joshua Benson, Christian Marsden (items 26-1235 through 26-1238) and Odamarys Pamela Acosta (26-1260) — plus Michael Avery to the Elections Commission (26-1296) and Mary Otiato to the Commission for Persons with Disabilities (26-1297), per the Legistar record.

The unanswered charter question

The 2025 charter says the organization of the city into agencies "may be accomplished only through an administrative order submitted to the city council by the mayor," with at least one public hearing and a 60-day window in which the Council may approve or disapprove — but not amend — the plan (Section 5-1). Legislative and policy analyst Brendan Salisbury told councilors in January that the mayor no longer has unilateral authority to reorganize city government."

The practical effect is that this reorganization reached the Council as a budget document instead. No administrative order appears in the Council's record through September 2. Mbah, "taken aback" by the cuts, got two orders through on May 28: one for a list of every position cut and how it aligned with the mayor's equity agenda, the other for the administration to appear and present the restructuring. Neither has produced a public hearing. Somerville Workers United's Nate Clauser told the Finance Committee on June 10 that roughly 90% of the eliminated positions belonged to the newly organizing Somerville Workers United unit — see The city workers' union drive and The FY27 budget; for the people involved, Who is who.

What's next

  • September 24 — the next regular Council meeting, where the Section 2-323 salary ordinance recommended Sept 15 can be ordained.
  • In Legislative Matters, undated — Item 26-1274, the mayor's August 20 request to amend Section 1-11(b) of the ordinances "to update enforcement personnel," which rewrites the table naming which departments may issue tickets now that Inspectional Services has been split. It was on neither the September 8 nor the September 15 agenda. See Building out the 2025 charter.
  • Outstanding — Mbah's restructuring presentation; the ADA Coordinator and Investigator hire, which the Public Health and Public Safety Committee expects an update on this fall.
  • November 1 — The charter-required capital improvement plan, the first in about four years: The capital plan Somerville hasn't updated in four years.