The Everett City Council’s first working meeting of 2026, on Monday, January 12, set much of the year’s agenda in one night: an ordinance to ban data centers from the Everett Docklands Innovation District, a demand that the assessor come explain why tax bills jumped, and requests for the agreements the outgoing administration signed with the Kraft Group and Wynn.
Three police promotions
The meeting opened with City Clerk Sergio Cornelio swearing in Neil Burke as a captain, Heather DuPont as a lieutenant and Eric Williamson as a sergeant of the Everett Police Department, with families pinning badges during a recess.
Data centers
Councilor Katy Rogers filed an ordinance adding data centers to the prohibited uses in the Docklands zoning, the former ExxonMobil tank farm controlled by the Davis Companies, after learning the 2024 master plan already allowed them. They “use astronomical amounts of water, electricity, and create noise,” she said. Councilors Stephanie Martins and Vivian Nguyen joined as cosponsors and the council sent it to the planning board, the required first step. Martins recalled a site tour where she told a Davis representative the company did a great job in Somerville and “don’t bring crap to the city of Everett.” Now, she said, “what we see is them using deceiving tactics with language that was hidden in that master plan.” Three residents and a Malden neighbor spoke against data centers; Stephanie McCullough handed councilors a packet of sources on utility rate increases of up to 25 percent in data center communities.
Tax bills
Peggy Serino held up a tax bill that rose almost $1,000, more than 4 percent, on a two-bedroom, one-bath house, and said assessments on the former mayor’s Abbott Avenue home rose far less than his neighbors’. JP Becton of Hancock Street made the same comparison. Councilor Guerline Alcy Jabouin’s resolution asking the assessor to appear at the next meeting and explain the new values passed; Council President Stephanie Smith asked members to submit written questions the Wednesday before.
Kraft, Wynn and ARPA
Councilor Michael Marchese filed a resolution asking the Kraft Group to help pay the debt on a Pope John High School renovation in exchange for naming rights. The idea drew fire in public comment before he spoke. “I’m not resigning,” he said. “If they give the damn money, give the money, take the money, build the school.” It went to the administration and the Kraft Group. Martins asked for copies of the memorandum of understanding with Wynn and the stadium agreement with Kraft, which she said were “DocuSigned from Aruba at the last minute” by the DeMaria administration; she said the Wynn MOU has arrived and the Kraft agreement has not. She also asked for the contracts signed by organizations that received ARPA money and for a new process to pay businesses that were “deliberately disqualified” from ARPA relief. Becton said he cannot find how $750,000 in ARPA money reported as spent on student jobs was used, or where interest on the city’s $47.1 million allotment went.
Also January 12
- Serino and Becton cited the Boston community benefits deal with Kraft, which Boston says is worth $48 million over 15 years, and asked what Everett gets. Becton said 6,250 fans walking from Sullivan Square would need 200 buses on Route 99.
- Lillian Gorham asked why the inaugural ball was not livestreamed and who knew about two hotels planned for Lower Broadway. Matewsky called the ball, run by the clerk’s office at the Connolly Center, “the nicest event” of his decades in office. ECTV’s livestream had no audio for part of the meeting; Smith said the recording would be posted.
- A resident named Larissa said the city is dirty because people litter, and that an eight-family conversion on her street gets six barrels for 12 people.
- The council accepted an Everett Bank donation for the tree lighting, renewed licenses for Classic Cars of Boston on Beacham Street and Fenno’s lodging house at 336 Broadway, and asked the veterans office for an update on a square for Cpl. Salvatore F. Sachetta at Woodville and Main streets, with the whole council as cosponsors.
Previous council meeting (January 6): Stephanie Smith Elected Everett Council President 11-0 as the City’s First Majority-Woman Council Organizes at the High School
