Waltham Council Approves $370,000 in FIFA World Cup Public Safety Spending

WALTHAM — June 8, 2026 — Waltham City Council cleared more than $370,000 in FIFA World Cup public safety spending and a $200,000 school roof appropriation at its June 8 session. The council accepted a Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism matching grant of $135,000, requiring the city to commit an equal $135,000 of its own funds to support hotel-corridor policing along Moody Street and Main Street from June 11 through July 19 — a package Captain Rodley framed as essential given Waltham's status as the state's second-largest hotel market outside Boston. A separate $383,392.78 MEMA reimbursement grant for Bentley University perimeter policing and a $100,000 police overtime reserve — held in case the council cannot convene mid-summer — were also approved unanimously. Councilor Anthony LaFosse, the night's most vocal skeptic, noted that Bentley, the French team's hotel, and FIFA itself were all profiting from the arrangement while Waltham bore the public safety tab: "Everybody else along the way is making money and we're spending money." The $200,000 Northeast Elementary School roof appropriation, required by Massachusetts School Building Authority grant rules, passed 11-0 on a roll call after the clerk read the full MSBA-mandated motion language aloud.