City Council - Regular Meeting

AI Generated Transcript

AI Disclaimer: Summaries and transcripts above were created by various AI tools. By their nature, these tools will produce mistakes and inaccuraies. Links to the official meeting recordings are provided for verification. If you find an error, please report it to somervillecivicpulse at gmail dot com.

Meeting Title: City Council - Regular Meeting
City: Cambridge, MA
Date Published: 2025-06-23

Back to all meetings
View Official Recording
View Summary

AI Disclaimer: Summaries and transcripts above were created by various AI tools. By their nature, these tools will produce mistakes and inaccuraies. Links to the official meeting recordings are provided for verification. If you find an error, please report it to somervillecivicpulse at gmail dot com.

Time & Speaker	Transcript
Denise Simmons	How are you?
SPEAKER_28	Oh, you know what I wanted to say to you, Patty, too?
Unknown Speaker	Just one thing, if you notice.
SPEAKER_29	Really, Patrick caught it. Thank God.
SPEAKER_28	Yep.
Unknown Speaker	What about .
SPEAKER_27	Thank you.
Unknown Speaker	Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Oh, the one I needed both.
SPEAKER_11	What in the world?
SPEAKER_18	Where did it go?
Unknown Speaker	Oh, that one.
Denise Simmons	Thank you.
SPEAKER_27	um um
SPEAKER_29	Hey, Colin. You don't have any glasses on. You look so different. I kept looking and I'm going, there's something different about her.
SPEAKER_28	It could be worse. It's been worse. It's not good, but it's been worse.
SPEAKER_27	Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	I don't want Diet Coke.
SPEAKER_27	I want a salsa water. Stacey? Sure. That works.
Denise Simmons	Good evening. It's a great evening if we get out of this hot room early. That's right, right. Don't pull anything. Before I call the meeting to order, don't pull anything. All right. A quorum being present, I'd like to call tonight's June 23rd, 2025 regular meeting of the Cambridge City Council to order. The first order of business is a roll call of the members present. Deputy, no, Interim Clerk Crane, please call the roll.
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Azeem. Present. Present. Vice Mayor McGovern. Present. Present. Councilor Nolan. Present. Councilor Siddiqui. Present. Present. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Present. Present. Councilor Toner. Present. Present. Councilor Wilson. Present. Present. Councilor Zusy. Present. Present. Mayor Simmons. Present. Present. You have nine members recorded as present.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Madam Clerk. Please rise if you can to pledge allegiance to the flag and then pause for a brief moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, adopted by Massachusetts General Court and approved by the governor, the city is authorized to use remote participation at meetings of the Cambridge City Council. In addition to having members of the city council participate remotely, we also have set up Zoom teleconference for public comment. You can also view the meeting via the city open meeting portal or on the city's cable channel 22. To speak during public comment, you must sign up at www.cambridgema.gov backslash public comment. You can also email written comments to the city clerk for the record. And you can do that by emailing cityclerk at cambridgema.gov. We welcome your participation. If you're here and you want to participate, if you're here in person and you want to participate in public comment and you have not signed up, please go to Ms. Stefan over here and she'll make sure you are signed up. You have to do it before 6 p.m. Please note that the City of Cambridge audio and video records our meetings and makes it available for the public for future viewing. In addition, third parties may also be audio and video recording these meetings. Again, if you're here and you want to make a statement on the record on an item that's on the agenda and have not signed up for public comment, I would please ask you to see Ms. Stephan, and she will sign you up for public comment. You have to do that before 6 o'clock. That being said, we will now go to public comment. Public comment may be made in accordance with the Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 30A, Section 20G and City Council Rules 23D and 37. Once you have finished speaking, the next speaker will be called. Individuals are not permitted to allocate the remainder of their time to other speakers. When speaking, please state your name, your address for the record, and the item that you're speaking to. Given that we have 18 speakers, each individual will have three minutes. Ms. Stephan, the public comment is now open. The floor is yours.
SPEAKER_18	Our first speaker is Mark Eisenberg. Mark, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_43	Hi, everyone. Thanks for letting me testify. I'm Mark Eisenberg. I'm a Cambridge resident and a proud member of the Organizing Committee of Doctors Council, SEIU. I've been a PCP at Mass General Hospital for 40 years. When I started at Bunker Hill Health Center in Charlestown, I was in charge of my own practice, my own schedule. If I had a patient who was elderly or disabled or didn't speak English, I had the flexibility to schedule. an hour appointment. If I had to pick up my child from daycare, I could arrange my schedule so I could leave early if need be. Well, over time, MGH joined forces with the Brigham to become partners. Then a few years later, spent tens of millions of dollars to rebrand themselves as MGB. Now the healthcare conglomerate MGB has revenues of $22 billion, is the largest private employer in Massachusetts, and cares for over one-third of our residents. And who sits on its board of directors? Jonathan Kraft, whose claim to fame is that his father owns the New England Patriots. James Teclette, the CEO of the weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Carl Martin Yeti, liquor store magnate, as well as private equity investors and hedge fund managers. These are the people deciding the future of healthcare in Massachusetts. Mass General Brigham is currently lobbying against the primary care for you bill in the legislature, which is attempting to steer more money into primary care. My colleagues in primary care are drowning. Many are retiring early, cutting back their hours, or looking for a way out. A week doesn't go by without someone asking me for help finding them a primary care doctor because their doctor has quit. I'm out of luck because I can't find a doctor for my own self. A full-time primary care job at Mass General Brigham, as currently constituted, requires more than 60 hours a week of work. So instead, my colleagues are opting to be paid part-time so that they can actually have dinner with their family or go to soccer games with their children on the weekends. That's why we've decided to form a union, to have control of our work lives so that we can deliver better care to our patients. My colleagues voted overwhelmingly, 183 to 23, to join the Doctors Council SEIU by a 7 to 1 ratio. Instead of recognizing us, Mass. Gen. Brigham, through the auspices of Littler Mendelson, the largest anti-union law firm in the country, having twice lost their appeals to the New England NLRB, has now cynically appealed our right to unionize to the national NLRB, which cannot hear cases as it lacks a quorum. The city councils of Boston and Somerville have passed resolutions asking MGB to recognize our union. I'm hoping Cambridge will follow suit. Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Alana Lewis, followed by Clifford Stargill, then Steve Cortina. Alana, if you can unmute yourself, you have the floor, three minutes.
SPEAKER_20	Okay. My name is Elena Lewis and my address for I'm doing this statement on behalf of series.org 99 Chauncey street, sixth floor, Boston, Massachusetts, 0 2 1 1 1 1. I write in support of the apex clean energy policy order. Series is a Boston based nonprofit advocacy organization working to accelerate the transition to a cleaner, more just and resilient world. We work with investors, companies, and policymakers to advance actions that reduce emissions and build a cleaner, more resilient economy, all in a way that advances justice and equity. HE APPLAUDED THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE FOR ENTERING INTO A POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENT WITH APEX CLEAN ENERGY'S BOWMAN WIN PROJECT IN NORTH DAKOTA. A COMMITMENT TO PURCHASING CLEAN ENERGY WILL SUPPORT THE CITY'S NET ZERO GOALS. BUT THE BOWMAN WIN PROJECT IN NORTH DAKOTA IS CREATING SIGNIFICANT RISK FOR INVESTORS and its power purchasers by refusing to use labor, unionized contractors, and to ensuring that jobs created by this project benefit people in North Dakota who were formerly employed by the fossil fuel industry sector. As noted in my report, practices for just equitable and sustainable development of clean energy, a failure to prioritize local job creation, and health and environmental safety throughout the entire process, including land acquisition, permitting, construction, operations, maintenance, and changes to policy or regulation could create a host of financial and brand risk. Local politicians and regulators in North Dakota and other jurisdictions will be loath to welcome clean energy development to a community if local stakeholders have not been engaged to ensure that project will provide deep community benefits for the local workforce and environment. LACK OF COMMUNITY SUPPORT COULD UNDERMINE THE RAPID DEPLOYMENT OF CLEAN ENERGY AT PRECISELY THE TIME WHEN THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE AND EVERY OTHER MUNICIPALITY AND BUSINESS NEEDS IT MOST. THE FAILURE TO HIRE A LOCAL TRAINED BENEFITED WORKFORCE COULD LEAD TO COSTLY DELAYS IN THE PROJECT AND REPUTATIONAL RISK everyone involved. By living up to its transition commitments, Apex Energy could unleash new opportunities, including helping shape key regulations by collaborating with local governments, communities, and unions, improving customer loyalty and brand recognition, and submit the license to operate in a community by engaging with stakeholders throughout the planning and building process. spurring employee productivity, creativity, and flexibility by ensuring good workforce conditions and equal opportunities in local hiring, and getting access to technical talent by supporting and investing in retaining BUILDING SUPPORT FOR FUTURE PROJECTS BY DEMONSTRATING A TRACK RECORD OF PURSUING PROJECTS DESIGNED TO MAXIMIZE BENEFITS AND MINIMIZE IMPACTS. WE URGE THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE TO ADOPT THE PROPOSED APEX CLEAN ENERGY RESOLUTION AND WE URGE APEX ENERGY TO RECONSIDER ITS DECISION TO USE NON-UNION
SPEAKER_18	Thank you, Elena. Your time has expired. Please email the remainder. Our next speaker is Aaron Rosenthal, followed by Clifford Stargill, then Steve Cortina. Aaron, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_40	Thank you. Good afternoon, members of the City Council. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Aaron Rosenthal, and I'm the Research Director for North Star Policy Action, a think tank dedicated to data-driven solutions that help working people thrive. While our organization is based in St. Paul, Minnesota, where I currently live, I want to note that I previously worked as an assistant professor of political science at Simmons University in Boston. I continue to carry a special love for the area and miss eating lunch at Cambridge's own Clover Food Lab every single day. I'm here in support of policy order number 94, expressing Cambridge's disappointment with Apex Clean Energy's decision to forego the use of local union labor on the Bowman Wind Project. While the Bowman Wind Project's website currently talks up the hundreds of jobs and significant local spending that will come from the construction of the wind farm, the reality fails to match up with the rhetoric. My particular interest in this issue is motivated by a report we published seven years ago, which served as one of the first analyses of the economic impact associated with wind energy construction in the upper Midwest. finding was simple local workers do more to stimulate local economies as you might expect this is true while construction is happening when workers donate to local non-profits and send their kids to local schools but it remains true after the project is finished when workers spend their retirement and health benefits in the community to support their families buy local homes to pay local property taxes and go to local grocery stores and restaurants All told, we found that millions of dollars are lost for the local community when the construction workforce is primarily brought in from outside the area. Through this lost economic impact, hiring practices like those pursued by Apex Clean Energy undermine the future of the clean energy transition. Communities must believe that they will reap the full benefits of clean energy infrastructure that is being built in their backyards. Failing to fully engage the local workforce and economy at this stage in the clean energy transition may ultimately lead other towns and cities across the country to forego clean energy projects, creating a more dangerous future for all of us. It's difficult to overstate the importance of this moment. With clean energy infrastructure expanding rapidly nationwide, precedents set now will shape our energy future. Through policy order number 94, Cambridge can send a clear message that will echo into the future of clean energy construction. Customers expect a just transition that ensures dignity for workers and full benefits for host communities. I urge you to vote yes on policy order number 94 and tell Apex Clean Energy that their customers want better for our workers and our communities. Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Clifford Stargill followed by Steve Cortina. Clifford, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_42	Hi. My name is Clifford Stargill and I am from North Dakota. I actually live in Mandan. I've been a laborer for 17 years. um also i've worked at i've worked on a lot of projects i've worked in power plants pipeline and wind turbine as well just doing regular construction for the union and i've been apart and i've been a part of the labor's union for quite a while doing everything they've asked me to do so and the other thing i was going to say is that we put in the effort with the community and going to these public service meetings that we go to uh with the contractors to help our community so and we have a connection with the community that we live in so we are trying to uh maintain i guess maintain that with some of the companies that we we've been with we work for um Where was it? Okay. As far as this goes, as far as what I was saying, some of the companies like Apex have come in our state and have made promises about hiring local workers, whether it be union or not. And some of those jobs do deserve to be, have the chance, some of the people that live in the state should have the chance to work on these projects. Instead, they hire out of the state They hire people from Texas, you know, California. And a lot of these jobs, especially when they're doing wind turbines, they have lots of carpenters, iron workers, concrete finishers, laborers, and just none of those jobs have really gone to anybody from North Dakota. They hired out of, like I said, they hired out of the state. And my question is to Apex and the companies like them, where the jobs promised that they told us that they were gonna have. And I wanna finish by thanking Mayor Simmons and the members of the city council for standing up for organized labor in basic fairness to the mass labors of Local 151 for having our backs. Companies like Apex might think it's okay to treat North Dakota as a flyover country. But if it's customers like Cambridge speak up, they'll have to listen. Please vote for policy order 94. Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Steve Cortina, followed by Deborah Epstein, then Tina Alou. Steve, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_01	Thank you very much. Again, my name is Steve Cortina. I work for Laborers International Union of North America. And I just want to come to talk about Apex Clean Energy. I've served in the United States Air Force for six years, which brought me to North Dakota. I worked in the service industry, Applebee's. And I know that that couldn't support my family, my wife, my kids. So I had to move on to, as we call it, a big boy job. I had my first opportunity with the union working in coal plants like most I was. members of North Dakota. I started in 2007. Once I was done with that project right there in the coal plant, I moved on to the wind tower. I worked wind towers for five years for the rest of my career in the construction industry. Also, I'm still in the construction industry. It's just right now I'm a rep. talking about and trying to get our local members out to work. With all the wind towers that's going on in North Dakota right now, you should have thousands of stories like this, how they became where they was at and where they are right now with the great benefits and wages. With the apex that came to Bowman when And I have sat there, testified on behalf of the local workers for the local jobs here. They talked about 300 construction jobs. Made it seem like these all could go to local workers. I am the person that boots on the ground. I go out there. I talk to the workers. I see where they're from. And just to know if they ever did wind tunnel before. We was trained to do this type of work. We've done... CLEAN ENERGY FOR MANY, MANY DECADES. IF COAL DOES HAPPEN TO GO AWAY, WELL, WE WANT TO SAY THAT WE WANT TO CONTINUE WORKING IN NORTH DAKOTA. NORTH DAKOTA WORKERS HERE HAVE THE RIGHT FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK ON THESE PROJECTS RIGHT HERE. APEX HAD PROMISED ON THE STAND THAT THEY'LL USE LOCAL WORKERS. I STILL DON'T SEE THAT YET. So that's why I'm coming to you on this right here. We had dozens of skilled workers that can do these projects right here. And just because they say that they hired a local contractor doesn't mean that they are hiring local workers for this project right here. So of course I come to you today to please vote on policy order 94. Again, I want to thank you, Local 151, Labors 151, for having our support, for having our back right there. Ms. Mayor and the City Council, thank you very much for your time. Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Deborah Epstein, followed by Tina Alou, then Kevin Parris. Deborah, if you can unmute yourself, you have the floor.
SPEAKER_13	Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_13	Okay. As a resident who has followed the Lubavitch of Cambridge's proposal for the last 19 months, I was present at last Wednesday's meeting where the city solicitor advised the ordinance committee on the case.
Denise Simmons	Excuse me, Ms. Epstein. Ms. Epstein, can you hold your thought just for a moment? I just want to check with the clerk to be sure that's before us. I can't see behind me. Okay, very good. Very good. Yes, it is. You may continue.
SPEAKER_13	Okay. I was present at last Wednesday's meeting where the city solicitor advised the ordinance committee on the case of the petitioner's proposed zoning amendment. I was dumbstruck that the city solicitor was turning to the petitioner's lawyer, the lawyer who is representing the petitioner in a suit against the city for legal interpretation and advice. Where is the city's expert in defending municipalities against RELUPA claims? apparently nowhere for the city of Cambridge. The firm that Cambridge hired to support them in this effort, while a reputable firm, has strong experience in discrimination, but in employment law, not RELUPA. The residents of the city of Cambridge are without experienced legal representation in a very specific area of law. So the residents do feel that the city solicitor has invited the fox to guard the hen house. The residents feel unrepresented and unnecessarily left in harm's way. I implore the City Council to get better information regarding the possibilities via the case law of how Rallupa has been decided in many cases in favor of the municipality as they continue in this negotiation. The city has so much more latitude than has been represented by the city solicitor. These decisions have a serious impact on the lives of the residents of Cambridge. Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Tina Alou, followed by Daniel Liss, then Kevin Pranis. Tina Alou, if you can unmute yourself, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_03	Thank you. I'm Tina Alou and I live at 113 and a half Pleasant Street. I'm testifying tonight as the director of CEOC on policy order number three regarding possible amendments to the community benefits ordinance. CEOC was fortunate enough to participate in one of the four partnerships in the last round of community benefits funding along with De Novo in transition. This partnership was critical especially during the pandemic but allowing benefits funding to be used for capital expenses would also be an incredible support to agencies like CEOC. For us having the resources to be able to renovate our building in the outdoor space would make such a difference for people utilizing our services. Tonight I'm speaking about CEOC but I'm sure that other nonprofits would report similar issues. First, our building is not accessible, which can be very challenging for our older participants and for persons with disabilities. Although we often go to people's apartments and homes to provide services, rather than having them come to us, it's a challenge. Second, our food pantry space is small and right on the street. We have still managed to change to a shopping model to allow to choose there, but it's not the most comfortable process in such a small space. As an architect over our space constantly, We are trying to run a grocery store out of a one-story, one-car garage. And any of you who have walked by our building on Wednesdays have seen a line of people down Inman Street waiting to be served. Coming to a pantry is hard enough, but waiting outside is cars and residents. constantly pass by on such a busy street is even more difficult we've worked hard to reduce the wait time have set up tents with chairs on the side of our building and starting this wednesday we'll be offering tai chi classes in our backyard for pantry patrons to participate in while they're waiting but that's what we would want it to be especially as we expect the number of people coming to the pantry to increase even more Often people who visit us for the first time are shocked at how many services are offered in such a small space. We're proud of that. But our vision is to have a space to hold workshops and for the community to meet. We want people to not have to struggle to climb our stairs and stand up side by side in a cramped waiting room. We want them to have a space that they deserve. In closing, having community benefits funding to add to the support that's available from the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, with the COC and many other nonprofits in achieving our goals. I ask you all to support this policy order to encourage the city to review the ordinance and draft amendments which could make this happen. Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Daniel List, followed by Kevin Pranis and Lucas Franco. Daniel, three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_35	Good evening, Daniel Liss, 1 Earhart Street. Before I worked for the city, I had the honor of serving on the Community Benefits Advisory Committee. I'm very proud of the work we did coming up with a new model of distributing community benefits funds based on the objective results of a comprehensive community needs assessment to try to tackle the city's problems strategically. As for this policy order, I'm very open to the idea that using the funds for capital funding instead of programming may be the best thing for the community, but ultimately it doesn't matter if there is no money in the community benefits fund. If we're going to use the traditional model of having non-profits that get the ear of a city councilor have all the funding designated for them rather than giving a fair shot through the committee to nonprofits citywide, then whether it's operating funding or capital funding doesn't matter because there is no funding to be distributed. Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Kevin Prentice, followed by Lucas Franco, then Robert Simha.
SPEAKER_39	kevin you have three minutes please go ahead you have the floor thank you very much uh mayor city council members my name is kevin pranis i live at 1469 van buren avenue in st paul minnesota and i work in minnesota and north dakota for liuna representing our members i want to thank mayor simmons counselor toner and the rest of the council members for your leadership on this critically important issue. We have been working for years to achieve a just energy transition in both Minnesota and North Dakota and with our international union across the country. This issue of making sure that local workers see the benefits that workers who've been maintaining coal plants and keeping the lights on for generations have their chance to work on a wind farm or a solar farm is critical to the success of that transition and we appreciate the points that have been made by north star policy by series and others both in comments and in the record here i want to make clear to members of the city council that our organization made every effort to make this a better project for local workers we participated in the original site permit hearing which took place in 2021 We provided evidence at that time that use of local workforce was feasible in that area and critical to maximizing the benefits of the project for the local communities and support for the energy transition. We offered APEX that we could provide skilled workforce to their general contractor to work on the project. but they were apparently uninterested in that. And the sad reality based on what our staff have seen on the ground is an estimate of less than 5% of all the workforce coming from North Dakota, despite the presence of lots of skilled workers who could have done much of this work. and in fact a majority of the workers coming from Texas and just like our brothers and sisters in Massachusetts would be frustrated if work that they do and could do to support their families locally was being done by workers who came mostly from Texas and all over the country folks in North Dakota feel the same way it's turning them off the energy transition and that's something that if we care about climate not only workers should be important to us so We urge the council to support policy order number 94, and I want to thank, in particular, Lionel's New England region, the Massachusetts Labor District Council and Local 151, among others, for this amazing example of cross-country solidarity. We've been tracking this issue for many years, and this might be the first case where a customer is really standing up to send a message to industry, and we have union workers from across the country standing up together to make sure that people are taken care of. Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Lucas Franco, followed by Robert Simhot and James Williamson. Lucas, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_23	Yes. Hi. Can you hear me okay?
SPEAKER_18	Yes, we can.
SPEAKER_23	Great. Well, good evening and thank you for the opportunity to comment on apex wind project resolution my name is lucas franco i live at 4128 22nd avenue south in minneapolis and i'm the research manager for leuna minnesota and north dakota and has been been mentioned we're a construction union of 14 000 members and our members across both states build and maintain critical and energy infrastructure we have many members that live in and around the bowman wind farm project in north dakota And as has been mentioned, many of these folks have worked in the conventional energy space for decades, have multi-generational coal workers and have earned really good family sustaining wages working on these projects and are eager for new energy projects and the job opportunities that come with them. Unfortunately, I'm here to share concerns with the Bowman Wind Project and encourage support for policy order number 94, uh to make sure that apex follows through on their commitments to hire good create good jobs and hire local workers this project is failing to put local workers to work including many of our members and it doesn't have to be this way it's very much a choice by the developer we've seen far too many renewable energy projects like this rely primarily on traveling construction crews And when this happens, local workers and local businesses miss out on benefits that should be realized. And frankly, there's no excuse to primarily rely on traveling workers. We absolutely have a sufficient pool of folks on the bench eager for work. As you heard from Clifton and Steve previously, it's completely up to the developer whether or not they prioritize local workers. And as you've heard from North Star, Economic impacts are very clear. Local workers spend three to four times more locally creating positive ripple effects for area grocery stores, restaurants, car dealerships, et cetera. Apex's failure not only hurts local workers such as our members, But it also importantly undermines the credibility of clean energy projects in places like North Dakota where communities are losing out on high paying conventional energy jobs. Their failure to follow through on promises to create local jobs creates backlash to the entire industry, which is which undermines vital efforts being made to tackle climate change and that's a huge concern for us as well. And while Apex might not listen to our complaints, they will listen when their customers demand that they do the right thing. And we greatly appreciate support and bringing forward policy order number 94 to encourage them to do just that. So thank you so much for bringing this forward and for the chance to comment this evening.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. For those waiting, we are at speaker number 10. We're going to go to Robert Simha, followed by James Williamson, then Paul Goodrich. Robert Simha, you have three minutes.
SPEAKER_45	Can you hear me?
SPEAKER_18	Yes, please go ahead.
SPEAKER_45	Hi, this is Robert Simheim, the Vice President of the East Cambridge Planning Team and the Chair of the Neighborhood Committee that worked with Biomed Realty that is proposing a zoning change that will be of great assistance to the community in East Cambridge and the Linwood area. I want to thank the City Council and Ordinance Committee for hearing us out earlier and we hope that The full city council will vote the amendment this evening. I just want to say that our volunteer East Cambridge committee and the people we work with closely at the Linwood neighborhood immediately adjacent work very hard to develop a plan that is responsive to good design and great advantage to the neighborhood, particularly for the East End House and other services in the area that we desperately need help on. This is a responsible and serious proposal that we hope that you will continue to support. We believe that the community benefits that attend this particular proposal will help East Cambridge become a much safer, better, and more supportive neighborhood than we've been able to accomplish on our own. Thank you very much for supporting our efforts and also for supporting this model of community development. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is James Williamson, followed by Paul Goodrich, Jennifer Odell, then Griffin Grabowski. James, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_44	Can you hear me?
SPEAKER_18	Yes.
SPEAKER_44	Thank you. First of all, on Mass General, a few years ago, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers were celebrating an important anniversary. And naturally, being Harvard, they had a panel discussion on health care. And they had a speaker. One of the speakers was a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. And she told a story about Mass General. It was the head of the biggest hospital in Toronto was visiting Mass General, and she, I think, or somebody asked him, what was the thing that impressed him most about Mass General? And he said, their billing department. You have 150 people in your billing department at Mass General, and at our Toronto hospital, we have four, and three of them are there to take care of Americans. Maybe there could be some cost efficiencies there. On Lubavitch Inc., evidently the neighborhood bully. over on Bank Street, it's quite bizarre that a settlement that has not yet been explained fully to the public, and as far as I know, well, maybe the city council will have a better idea, but it hasn't been disclosed to the public, a settlement of a half a million dollars for something that over time kept growing and growing to the point where the people who live in the neighborhood uh, must wonder whether the city council and the city administration are doing anything to defend their interests. Maybe that half a million should be given to people in the neighborhood so they can get some, uh, representation. Um, I hope city counselors will, uh, interrogate exactly what, what exactly is the nature of this settlement. Um, at the BZA, uh, hearing, uh, David, I never seen a move through anything quite so quickly and people were just allowed one minute and there was no interest at all in what anybody had to say, most of the people were actually from the neighborhood. The last thing I want to say is on the bridge crossing the the fitchburg rail crossing when I saw the words robust engagement. I felt like maybe that's the scariest words you can ever hear from the city administration. If it's anything like what happened at Linear Park, you know, it's something to be wary of. They had the Cambridge Housing Authority had 30 emails for people who had been displaced from Jefferson Park. They never sent them notices. The people running it solicited support letters from everybody but Brickworks. And I just think it could be much better.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Paul Goodrich, followed by Jennifer Odell, Griffin Grabowski, then Carmine Rossi. Paul, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_04	Mrs. Mayor, City Council, Paul Goodrich, I represent the 1,300 members of Labor's Local 151 here in Cambridge. And I just want to start out by saying thank you. Why would you guys care about a project that far away about workers that don't live in this area? I just want to say thank you. And the mayor knows how I feel about this. You guys have passed some of the most progressive legislation across the country, right? That prevailing rate legislation on city street cuts matters. You guys have lifted men and women that work for utilities out of poverty, gotten them out of public assistance, off of MassHealth, employer paid benefits, employer paid You guys have done that. You have lifted people up with your legislation. And we're asking you to do it now. The fact that you have some developers say, Cambridge, we're going to do the right thing with this money. We got it. We understand it. And we're 1,000, 1,500 miles away is crap. I am sick and tired of developers coming into areas thinking that they can do whatever the hell they want. And I just want to applaud you guys, and thank you so much, because there's workers up in vans, living in the middle of these prairies, working on these wind farms with no voice. Nobody's helping them, no one gives a shit. Excuse my language, Mayor. You guys are actually taking a stand. And again, it's in North Dakota, and its place is far away, but you guys have the ability. With these tax credits, to be able to say no to bad developers that do not care about workers, family supporting wages, benefits, some type of path to retirement. I just want to applaud you for it. I know it's hot. I know it's a long night. And thank you for sticking up for the men and women that are up there asking, does anyone care about us? So I just want to say thank you. That's my time. Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Jennifer Odell, followed by Griffin Grabowski. Jennifer, three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_02	Thank you. My name is Jennifer Odell. I live at 79 Potomac Avenue Southeast in Washington, D.C. I work for the Laborers Union in Washington, D.C. I help run our union's responsible investment program. The Laborers Union has over 100 benefit funds with about $72 billion in assets under management. We're also investors in Aries, the company that owns Apex Clean Energy, one of the portfolio companies. So we also have skin in the game, much like the city of Cambridge. I'm here to thank you, Mayor Simmons, and the whole entire council for sticking up for working people, not just here in Cambridge, but as Paul said, everywhere, North Dakota, Minnesota. I'm proud to be here to say that Cambridge demands fair pay and fair treatment for workers, whether they're working here in the city or for one of its contractors or a project in North Dakota and Minnesota. It's amazing really how much that means to our members who are helping to build those projects in North Dakota and the members here in Massachusetts. When the mayor found out that the city of Cambridge is helping to pay for a wind project in North Dakota where workers are being treated unfairly, she could have thrown up her hands and said, it's not the city's responsibility. But instead, she's asking the city and the city council to publicly hold Apex Clean Energy accountable. It's a really moving and really important thing to do. Apex is building a wind farm in North Dakota, and Cambridge is helping to pay for that. And like I said, instead, Apex has decided to bring in workers from places like Texas that leave local workers high and dry. We're really proud to help support the policy agenda, and we want to thank you once again for listening and for being here for workers. Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Griffin Grabowski, followed by Carmine Rossi, then Stephen Conlon. Griffin, three minutes.
SPEAKER_36	Hello, counselors. Griffin Grabowski, 46 Westway in Weathershield, Connecticut. I'm a longtime member of LIUNA Local 230, and I'm here, like many others, to talk about Policy Order 94. Apex Clean Energy is leaving our brothers and sisters in North Dakota out in the cold, and it is not fair. In LIUNA, we say that an injury to one is an injury to all, and right now, you have LIUNA members who are losing out on job opportunities because Apex thought they could get away with outsourcing work to workers who are coming from thousands of miles away. The issue is simple. If a company brought a bunch of people from Texas here to do my job, I'd be disappointed about it. If switching to clean energy meant me not being able to feed my family because a company won't hire local, I'd be against it. Right now in Congress, we're in danger of losing tax credits that are creating thousands of jobs for union laborers, and why would North Dakota workers want their representatives to save the credits if local workers can't even get their projects? IF YOU CARE ABOUT ORGANIZED LABOR, YOU SHOULD VOTE FOR POLICY ORDER 94. IF YOU CARE ABOUT STOPPING CLIMATE CHANGE, YOU SHOULD ALSO VOTE FOR POLICY ORDER 94. THANK YOU MAYOR SIMMONS AND ALL THE COUNSELORS FOR SUPPORTING THIS RESOLUTION, FOR DOING YOUR PART FOR WORKERS AND FOR THE CLIMATE.
SPEAKER_18	THANK YOU. OUR NEXT SPEAKER IS CARMINE ROSSI FOLLOWED BY STEPHEN CONLAND AND ASHLEY GASCHEK. CARMINE, THREE MINUTES.
SPEAKER_00	Good afternoon, my name is Carmine Rossi. I live in 51 Oscar Tucker Ave, 15 year member of LIUNA. Like my brothers and sisters from North Dakota, I spent a lot of my career working in power plants in the New England area. The work is hard, but I'm proud of what I've done to help keep our lights on and our homes warm, so are they. The men and women who build and maintain our energy systems deserve a chance to work on the next generation of clean energy infrastructure. But it looks like Apex doesn't intend to give North Dakotan workers that chance. Mayor Simmons, and Councilor Toner, thank you for holding Apex accountable. If we are going to buy wind energy from North Dakota, let's make sure we're buying energy that's produced with the help of local union workers. Thank you for your time, and please support Policy 94.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Stephen Conlon, followed by Ashley Gaschick, then Heather Hoffman. Stephen, you have three minutes.
SPEAKER_41	Thank you. My name is Steven Conlin, I live in Massachusetts and I am a proud member of LIUNA, Laborers International Union of North America for the last nine years. The customers of Bowman Wynn include some of the most respected institutions in the Boston area. MIT, Harvard, Mass General, Brigham Tufts, you name it. I've worked on construction projects for some of these institutions. And I can tell you that their commitment, I've seen their commitment to creating good local jobs and treating workers fairly. Apex could have made Bowman Wind a model for how communities can get together to fight climate change and create good local jobs. Instead, it looks like Bowman is becoming an embarrassment for Apex and their customers. The city of Cambridge might not be able to force Apex to do the right thing, but at least you're letting the future customers know that they're in for it if they partner with Apex. Thank you Mayor Simmons and the council for leading the charge for construction workers in Cambridge and in North Dakota. It is truly appreciated. Please vote yes on policy order 94, and thank you for your consideration.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our next speaker is Ashley Gaszczyk, followed by Heather Hoffman. Ashley, if you can unmute yourself, you have the floor. Three minutes.
SPEAKER_05	Thank you, and thank you to Mayor Simmons, Councilor Toner, and the other council members today for considering policy order number 94. I'd also just like to thank the Cambridge locals in attendance today for your patience and attention as a bunch of North Dakotans attend your meeting today. My name is Ashley Gashk. I live in Bismarck, North Dakota at 912 East Turnpike Avenue. For the last 10 years, I've been a public school teacher teaching eighth graders in Mandan, North Dakota. and I am currently president of the North Dakota AFL-CIO. On a personal note, my father worked construction until his retirement in 2023. And my family was very lucky that there were plenty of local jobs. He very rarely had to travel. And although the hours were long, especially in the summer, his work paid off. He wasn't just able to pay for me to take violin lessons and oboe lessons and private voice lessons, but he was also able to go to almost all of my concerts. As an advocate now for working people, I can say that the AFL-CIO supports climate action, but we also know that we won't achieve progress if our conventional energy workforce is left behind. The conventional energy economy has provided many family supporting union jobs for generations here in North Dakota. I mean, really, energy is one of our... biggest industries. And as a teacher, I attended more than one professional development seminar that was sponsored by the coal and gas industries. And they taught us about geology, which was really interesting, but we also learned about the promising job outlook that these industries held for our students. Honestly, a lot of our teachers, I think we're considering career changes when we heard what some of these workers were making per hour. Now, I went to a small college in Minnesota that had multiple wind turbines on campus. I've been all in on clean energy for a long time. So I was really excited to see investments in wind energy here in North Dakota. And we wanna make sure that jobs in the clean energy economy are just as good and as available to North Dakotans as the conventional energy jobs we have now. However, the actions of companies like Apex undermine local support for the transition to clean energy when they bypass North Dakotans and import their workforce from other parts of the country. I really hope that my former students will have the opportunity to stay here in North Dakota and support their family and have good wages and benefits, whether they choose to go to college or into a skilled trade. And so when the city of Cambridge and other companies of these projects demand that their developers prioritize creating good local jobs, it helps ensure that our young people will have the opportunity to pursue a career in clean energy in their home states. I appreciate your commitment to clean energy investment in my home state and your public service. And I hope that you'll support policy order 94.
SPEAKER_18	Thank you. Our final speaker is Heather Hoffman. Heather, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER_19	Hello, Heather Hoffman, 213 Hurley Street. I never would have guessed that this would be the top topic today, support the unions. I'd like to talk a little bit about RLUPA. I was horrified at that same meeting that a prior speaker talked about when the city solicitor said that a statute passed by Congress could overrule a constitutional provision, specifically in this case, the establishment clause. And I strongly agree with the previous speaker that the city has not received good legal counsel on this. You should insist that you get much better information about what the state of the law is, including the establishment clause, which is still part of the first amendment to the constitution. no matter how much people want to wish it away. So please do something about that because there are also people out there to sue you over the establishment clause. Now, quick one with respect to feeding kids. Yay, I look forward to seeing this every year with sadness that it's necessary, but thrilled that Cambridge keeps doing it. With respect to short-term rentals, I keep wondering how the city intends to enforce any of this. I hear stories year after year from people who talk about the apparently illegal short-term rentals in their neighborhoods, but I don't see the city doing anything about it. And it may be that I'm just not seeing what's happening, but I'd love to hear something about how the city actually enforces this. With respect to extreme heat, I would be remiss if I didn't note that the reason that my house is not an inferno is the incredible street tree that I can see from where I'm sitting through the window. Trees make a tremendous difference, and yet no matter what the city says, their actions TEND TO SHOW EXTREME HOSTILITY TO TREES. THEY MAKE THINGS BETTER. AND WE REALLY, REALLY SHOULD THINK ABOUT OUR FIRST CHOICE BEING CUT DOWN TREES. AND FINALLY WITH RESPECT TO COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, I KNOW THAT IT CAN BE DONE WELL. IF PERSONALLY ASKED A QUESTION UNDER OTHER THAN THE CURRENT that actually changed what the city was going to do for the better. So how about more of that? Thank you.
SPEAKER_18	Madam Mayor, that is all that we're signed up to speak.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Ms. Steffen. Pleasure of the City Council. On a motion by Council Wilson to close public comment, roll call. Councilor Azeem.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler.
SPEAKER_26	Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Toner. Councillor Toner. Absent. Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded as absent.
Denise Simmons	And public comment is now closed on the affirmative vote of eight members, one recorded as absent. The next order of business is the submission of the record. There are three. Minutes of the City Council regular meeting April 7, 2025. Minutes of the City Council regular meeting May 5, 2025. And minutes of the City Council regular meeting May 12, 2025. What is the pleasure of the City Council? Move adoption in place on file. On a motion by the Vice Mayor to adopt the three sets of minutes in place on file. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Counselor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Counselor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Counselor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Counselor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Counselor Toner. Absent. Councillor Wilson? Yes.
Catherine Zusy	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Toner is recorded as yes. Councillor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. And the minutes of meeting April 7th, May 5th, and May 12th of 2025. are accepted and placed on file by the affirmative vote of nine members. We move now to the city manager's agenda. I will be pulling items 16 and 17. What is the pleasure of the city council?
Patricia Nolan	Mayor Simmons. Councilor Nolan. Number nine.
Denise Simmons	Pleasure of the city council.
Catherine Zusy	Mayor Simmons.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Zusy.
Catherine Zusy	12, 14, and 15.
Denise Simmons	12, 14, and 15. 12, 14, 15. If there's no other- Madam Mayor. Councillor Wilson.
Ayesha Wilson	Four and five, please.
Denise Simmons	Let me read what has been pulled and put on the non-consent agenda. Number four was pulled by Council Wilson. Number five was pulled by Council Wilson. Number nine was pulled by Councilor Nolan. Number 12 was pulled by Councilor Zusy. Number 14 was pulled by Councilor Zusy. Number 15 was pulled by Councilor Zusy. Number 16 was pulled by the mayor, and number 17 was pulled by the mayor.
SPEAKER_13	Madam Mayor.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Wilson.
Ayesha Wilson	Sorry, apologies. Number six as well. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	Four, five, and six for me. and number six. On the balance, I will accept a roll call on the balance of the items on the city manager's agenda. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the city managed consent agenda has been adopted, accepted, and placed on file in the affirmative vote of nine members. We'll now go to the items that were pulled. This is called the non-consent agenda. The first item was pulled by Council Wilson, reads as follows. Transmitting communication for Yan Wang, city manager relative to the appointment of $101,463. I think it was, yeah, received from the Housing Authority for the Cambridge Employment Program to the grant fund human service salaries and wages account. Council Wilson, the floor is yours.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you, Madam Mayor. And through you, hello. I just wanted to get an update on this position and just have a better understanding for what the role will entail, as I see it, talk something about vocational support, and so just wanted to get a little bit more of an update than what was shared. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	Assistant City Manager for Human Services, Ms. Samenov, the floor is yours.
SPEAKER_10	Thank you. Through you, Madam Mayor, this is one of the three counselors, career counselors, for the Office of Workforce Development's Cambridge Employment Program. And for... I'm going to say at least 15 years, and it may be longer than that. The Housing Authority has given us funding for one of the positions. We do not treat that position any differently than the other two positions. The majority of clients served by the Cambridge Employment Program. Our low income live in some form of subsidized housing. A few of them are unhoused. And so this position, all three of our positions are filled. This is just the annual appropriation of the funding for the position. So we don't fund a position specifically to serve Housing Authority residents. However, we serve a large portion of Housing Authority residents, and the work that's being done is helping people prepare for job interviews, think about what's the pathway that they're interested in. We have lots of clients who come to us, get support to find a job, but that isn't really the job that they are looking for over the long haul. And so they're always welcome to return back and our staff will work with them on what's the next step for you. Council Wilson.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you, Madam Mayor, and through you to Assistant City Manager Suminoff, thank you for that update and that understanding. I wasn't quite sure. And at some point, I would love to see just a list of the residents who we are serving through this through this case management service and just get a sense of how many, what the social economic status is if we are collecting, I'm assuming we're collecting that data. Would love to get that. Thank you. And I yield.
Denise Simmons	Council Wilson yields the floor for the discussion. Hearing none, Council Wilson moves to accept the appropriation and place the memo on file.
Burhan Azeem	We'll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem.
Burhan Azeem	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Vice-Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner. Councillor Toner. Absent. Councillor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have eight members recorded in the affirmative with one recorded as absent.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. And the appropriation is approved and placed on file by the affirmative vote of eight members, one being recorded as absent. We move now to number five. This was pulled by Councillor Wilson, reads as follows. Transmitting communication from Yi-An Huang, city manager, relative to the appropriation of $2,000 to the grant fund, human service, other ordinary maintenance account. These funds will support a future teen-led event in Cambridge focused on raising awareness about teen substance abuse. Council Wilson, the floor is yours.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you, Madam Mayor. And this, I just wanted to congratulate our young people. I mean, we were down in, where were we? Tampa.
SPEAKER_11	We were in Tampa.
Ayesha Wilson	That's a long time ago. Yeah, it feels like it. It was colder here back then. But anyway, we were in Tampa when our young people from the Cambridge Youth Council won this award. So I just wanted to celebrate them and just congratulate them for that. Again, it's coming to us at this time. It's all good, but I just wanted to highlight their great work and just congratulate them on that win. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	Council Wilson, you have the floor. I just want to say, Ms. Seminoff, were you there with us in Tampa? Please, for the councilors that may not have been able to sit in on the ceremony, I mean the ceremony, the workshop, and for those that are listening in, could you say a little bit more?
SPEAKER_10	Through you, Madam Mayor, our youth council entered a video at the event, which were youth councils from across the country, and theirs was about building a better world. Thank you. Theirs was about building a world, a better world, and I think we all saw the video at that time, and the video is, I think, available on the Family Policy Council website as well. I think I see some confusion among the City Council a little bit. I want to say We have two appropriations tonight for $2,000. Number three is the Cambridge Youth Council, the one that you have been referencing. Number five, the one that was pulled, is also a $2,000 grant For the work of teens, in this case, it was the work of the teens from the Moses Youth Center who were part of a social capital pitch, and they won, I think it was third place, and got $2,000. First place, I'm sorry, the city manager's correcting me, and got $2,000 for their pitch.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. And although it was not pulled, we still want to say joyously and with full enthusiasm, we support the students on two fronts, the Moses Youth Center and our students from the Youth Council. So thank you. Is there further discussion?
Ayesha Wilson	No, I'll just echo that. Yes, our young people are kicking butt and taking names. So congratulations to them. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	Love it. So if there's no further discussion on the approval of the dollars and placing on file on a motion by Council Wilson, roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner. Yes. Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And so on city manager's agenda number five, we approve, the council approves the money and places the matter on file with the affirmative vote of nine members. Our next item is item number six, as pulled by Council Wilson, reads as follows. Transmitting communication from Yanwang City Manager relative to the appropriation of $569,252.50 to the grant fund human service other ordinary maintenance account. This award will be used to provide nutritious meals to Cambridge youth at over 45 meal sites throughout the city during the summer months when schools are closed. This was pulled by Council Wilson. I just want to also remind people before they speak, because the fans are blowing and they're blowing the air into our mics. Speak directly into your mic like I tried to.
Ayesha Wilson	Council Wilson, the floor is yours. Thank you so much, Madam Mayor. Does that sound good, y'all? All right, cool. Thank you. I'm really just happy to pull this and also to learn more and also to share to the public what this program is about, recognizing that I remember our time on the school committee, Mayor Siddiqui and I, and others on the school committee, we really advocated strongly to make sure that meals were free during the school day to our young people. And so to see programs that offer, recognizing that these are sometimes the only meals that many of our young people get, So to offer males, and I know that this isn't the first year, so through you, Madam Mayor, to Assistant City Manager Seminoff, if you're able to just share how long we've been running this service and how folks can learn more about where these sites are recognizing that there are 45 sites throughout our city which is really impressive but again these are options for many members of our community to be able to have a nutritious meal recognize that many of them do not get meals or may not get nutritious meals throughout the the time and this is during the summer thank you
Denise Simmons	ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICE PROGRAMS. ALL THINGS GOOD AND NICE IN THE CITY. VERY SERIOUSLY.
SPEAKER_10	THANK YOU VERY MUCH, MADAM MAYOR. I DON'T KNOW WHEN THE PROGRAM STARTED, BUT I'M PRETTY SURE IT'S BEEN OPERATIONAL SINCE AT LEAST THE LATE 1990s. SO IT HAS EXPANDED GREATLY IN THAT TIME, BUT I BELIEVE THE PROGRAM was operational back then. The 45 meal sites include meals programs at every one of the schools where there either are summer camps or summer school programs. So there are breakfast and lunch offered every day at all of those sites. In addition, many of our community summer camps are also eligible to have food delivered to their sites and it's a little bit complicated because as you know in the summer many of the programs will go to the beach or go to some other site for a day so it's a rather complicated program to run because if you are going somewhere for the day you want to make sure you have your lunch delivered early in the morning so that you can take it with you. In addition to that, we operate the program out of nine parks. And so in those parks, the summer food program is operated there and any young person, no identification is required. And in addition to that, in the summer evenings at all of the summer basketball leagues that are operational, we also offer dinners at those sites. And the dinners, again, are available to any young person. You do not have to be participating in the basketball league. And in addition, new this summer, we will be operating something called Fun Under the Sun, which will be every Monday and Wednesday in July, starting on July 7th, in a different park. Right after lunch is served in that park, the staff of our recreation program will run different games kickball soccer basketball so it's both an opportunity to learn field games so it's an opportunity to learn but also to bring out more young people to the parks council wilson fantastic thank you so much i again just i know that this program is really um
Ayesha Wilson	important as well as just well attended. And I think that that's also just speaking to the urgency and need around food, food insecurities and things of that sort. And so having a program that offers this is truly phenomenal and just making sure that our members of our community knows is reason why I pulled it. So thank you with that idea.
Denise Simmons	Council Wilson yields the floor for the discussion.
Patricia Nolan	HERE. COUNSELOR NOLAN. COUNSELOR NOLAN. YES, I JUST WANT TO THANK THROUGH YOU TO COUNSELOR WILSON FOR PULLING THIS BECAUSE IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT WE ACKNOWLEDGE THIS WORK AND THROUGH YOU TO MAYOR SIMMONS. CERTAINLY MY ENTIRE TIME ON SCHOOL COMMITTEE IT WAS A SUMMER PROGRAM, BUT IT HAS EXPANDED OVER THE YEARS AND IT HAS BEEN more communicated throughout the city. So it's critically important. It's been around for decades and it's something that we continually refine and improve. So grateful very much also for this funding that is a grant funding that is coming to us in order to provide this. Thank you, I yield.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Nolan, Neilsa, Flora, I would just say, in addition, Deputy City Manager, on behalf of the many families, this is very, it's really good to see that we're able to still be able to do this. It's trying, as the times appear to be getting every day, that we can do this for so many families is really a testimony to the city and to the work of the departments that do the work. So thank you. If there's no further discussion, roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern.
Marc McGovern	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the matter is adopted on... THE MONEY IS APPROPRIATED AND THE MATTER PLACED ON FILE BY THE AFFIRMATIVE VOTE OF NINE MEMBERS. WE MOVE NOW TO NUMBER NINE. THIS WAS PULLED BY COUNCILOR Zusy. NO, COUNCILOR NOLAN, I'M SORRY. READS AS FOLLOWS. TRANSMITTING COMMUNICATION FROM YAN WANG CITY MANAGER RELATIVE TO THE APPROPRIATION OF 2,800,000 RECEIVED FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION RECONNECTING COMMUNITIES GRANT PROGRAM 2,400,000 AND FROM THE BOSTON METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION Transportation Improvement Program 400,000 to the grant fund transportation extraordinary expenditure account for the design of the Fitchburg Crossing cycle pedestrian bridge project funds, which will be used to support the design cost of the new off-road bridge over the Fitchburg rail line that will connect Danny Park to ranger avenue neighborhoods and create greater access to recreational facilities retail and jobs for people walking and biking this was pulled by council nolan council nolan you have the floor
Patricia Nolan	Thank you, Mayor Simmons, and through you to the staff. This is totally exciting to see this on our agenda. We've talked about this bridge and this connection and continuing connections across the city for many, many years. I think it predates certainly me on council because we have some funds set aside from some of the development already at Alewife, I believe, for this bridge as well. There's easements in place. There's just so much work that has been done. And as the mayor, even reading the description, describes, it's expected to do a lot in terms of connectivity. My question is what is the timeline of the study and the scope and what will the process look like and how does this connect with the other funds that we have received for a bridge across this? I know that HealthBeak has been working on various iterations of this. I'm just curious about how far along this gets us to having this, whatever form it takes in place for this really important part of the city because it is where development is poised to happen, is already happening, and will continue to happen in a way that will reshape the city in hopefully very positive ways, and this is a critical piece of that infrastructure.
SPEAKER_17	Commissioner McKenna? Through you, Madam Mayor. So this is in addition to the bridge that's contemplated under health peak. So this is on the Danny Park side of things. And we're able to, with this appropriation and then with the funding, we're able to move through all of the environmental permitting, into design and all the way hopefully to full design and then we'll be ready you know we'll have a shovel ready project that we'll be able to continue on and then look for funding for the next step so this is really you know we did a preliminary feasibility study so that's passed us and now we are moving into the real hard work of design so this positions us really well to move it forward
Patricia Nolan	council nolan thank you right i recognize we're talking about two different we have one on one side and one on this side and this is the side that also has been underway for a while with the cambridge redevelopment authority did a whole connectivity study i had sat down and talked with a number of people about it would have been great if we didn't have a concrete conduit and we could have done an underpass because that's Cheaper, it's much safer, it's better for pedestrians and cyclists, but we can't do that because of some of the underlying infrastructure with the engineering studies. So assuming this gets it there, what is the timeline for completing this feasibility study, getting to shovel ready, and then how long would it take to move forward? Do we have any sense of that?
SPEAKER_32	Commissioner McKenna.
SPEAKER_17	Through you, Madam Mayor, I'm not sure if Bill Degnan has joined us online. He may want to. And did you say? Bill Degnan. Degnan. Degnan. Yes, I'm here. Mr. Degnan, are you here?
SPEAKER_14	Yes, I am. The floor is yours. Thank you. Through you, Madam Chair. So in terms of the timeframe, we've already started the procurement process for a design team for the project. And once we complete that, we need to finish up some paperwork with the MassDOT agency. And then the actual design process, we think, will take about 18 months to two years to complete. And that includes a full engagement process with the community, as Brooke mentioned, permitting, for engineering and environment, and then it's going to involve many steps with MassDOT2, getting them to review and approve our various stages as we complete the design. And after that kind of two-year period, as we get near the end of it and we have a better estimate for the construction of the project, we'll be looking for design funding, most likely on the the tip also from the Boston Metropolitan Planning Agency. So that would be, you know, state and or federal funds, plus any grants that we see that might be available if inappropriate.
Patricia Nolan	Councilor Nolan. Thank you. Did I miss here that 18 months and then we'd start design? That's what you said.
SPEAKER_14	No, we'd complete the design by then.
Patricia Nolan	Complete the design. Okay. And then. Right.
Denise Simmons	So, hold on for a minute. Anything we can do to accelerate this would be good. Counselor, thank you. I think Mr. Dignan was trying to finish a point. So, let's try not to cross-talk. Mr. Dignan, you were saying?
SPEAKER_14	Yes. So, no, we'd be finishing completing construction documents. So, completing the design by, like... two years, and then hopefully if construction funding is lined up, be moving into construction. But that is something that we'll need to be looking for as we move through the design process.
SPEAKER_32	Do you yield the floor?
Patricia Nolan	Yeah, I thank for the time and clarification, which had been a little bit murky, and I just hope it can be done sooner.
Denise Simmons	I do yield. I know you're anxious, but I wanted to see if the person online wanted to yield the floor. Anything you want to add, Commissioner McKenna? No, thank you. Does anyone else want to be heard on this item?
Paul Toner	Madam Mayor. Councilor Toner, the floor is yours. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Through you on that last point to Mr. Dinan or to the city manager, this is a design study and the funding is to do the outreach and planning. Have we any idea or... identified any source to pay for it once it's done. And I was curious, I think the last time I heard somebody throw a number around, this was maybe a $15 to $20 million project. Am I correct on that? And also, if anybody has an idea where the funding's coming from. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	The floor is open. Do you want to tackle this? Well, I see our deputy city manager, Mr. Bearden, did you want to speak to this?
SPEAKER_33	To you, Mayor Simmons, our expectation is that the cost of this project will be something in the order of $30 million. 30 or 13? Three zero. 30 million. And at this point in time, we have not identified funding. But I think the important thing for us is to have something that's shovel-ready. And so the expectation is that we will bring the design to a point where we can complete the design very, very quickly. And if, indeed, grant funds become available either through the TIP program or through other programs, we will be ready to move forward with the project on that basis.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Turner? Thank you, I yield. Councillor Tony yields the floor. Councillor Zusy.
Catherine Zusy	Thank you. Through you, Madam Chair, I just wanted to say that I'm absolutely thrilled about this, that we actually are getting these federal funds. When I was in Washington for the National League of Cities meeting in March, I actually met with folks from MassDOT about this project and about I-90. So I hope I-90 gets us positive. I hope they get their funding, too. This is fantastic. I didn't think it was going to come, and we got it. So three cheers. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	Council Zusy yields the floor for the discussion. So Deputy City Manager, just so people are clear, 2.8 is from the U.S. Department of Transportation. 2.4 is from MPO. Then there's another $400,000, which is... I'm not sure, so just so I'm clear, the council is clear. This money right now that we're about to appropriate is money that we're receiving from outside sources, federal government and the MPO. But after that, we're going to have to find money to actually do the work, because this is for a study, correct?
SPEAKER_33	Through you, Mayor Simmons. Mayor, this is to actually do design work.
Denise Simmons	Design work.
SPEAKER_33	So we will have a design that will be essentially complete at the end of this process. And we will be ready to move forward with a construction project after that.
Denise Simmons	So this money is funding the design study that will come up with the design. And then how much will the actual path cost?
SPEAKER_33	So we're not going to know for certain until this time as the design. I'm sorry? We are not going to know for certain as to how much the design will cost or what the construction will cost until this time as the design is complete. Okay. And so, but the expectation is it'll certainly be, it's going to be a very expensive project. Okay. And so we'll be seeking funding from alternative sources so as to be able to actually construct the project once design is complete.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. Any further discussion, questions? Hearing none, Madam Clerk, roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Azeem? Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? Yes. Yes. Councilor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui?
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And City Manager's agenda number nine has been approved and the matter is placed on file by the affirmative vote of nine members. We now go to number 12. This is pulled by Councilor Zusy, reads as follows. Transmitting communication from Yan Wang, city manager, relative to the appropriation of $4,941,224 from the US Department of HUD to the grant fund human service program salary and wages account, $337,704. Did I think I read that wrong? To the grant fund human service program of the ordinary maintenance, $4,588,520. And to the grant fund human service programs travel and training account, 15,000. This grant was awarded under the federal fiscal year of 2024 continuum of care program competition. This is pulled by Councilor Susie. Councilor Susie, the floor is yours.
Catherine Zusy	Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to say that I'm so relieved. I thought there was some concern that we may not be getting this grant, and I just hope the federal funds keep coming to us. I'm thrilled. Thank you. That's all.
Denise Simmons	Are you yielding the floor? Further discussion? Hearing none. Solicitor Bear, did you want to say something?
SPEAKER_07	Thank you. Yes, through you, Madam Mayor. Just want to set expectations that we're appropriating the funds with the hope and expectation we will receive them. We have the preliminary injunction that the court issued that said that for the plaintiffs, which included the city, that HUD has to accept our grant agreements with the objectionable conditions crossed out and has to provide the funding without obligating us to comply with those objectionable conditions. We just today sent those grant agreements back to HUD including a copy of that preliminary injunction decision and crossing out the objectionable conditions and we do hope that this will result in receiving this funding that we're asking the council to appropriate today it is possible we'll have to have further action in court to actually compel the funds to come to the city and it's still an open question as the case proceeds if at some point the either the ninth circuit appeals court or the district court in washington state disagree with this preliminary decision that was favorable to the city and reverse that that it could at some point stop the city from continuing to receive these grant funds
SPEAKER_32	Yeah. Councilor, Councilor Zusy.
Catherine Zusy	Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. So I just want to make sure through you, Madam Mayor. So we haven't received these funds yet, but are we allocating them then with number 12? Why is this before us if we haven't received these funds?
SPEAKER_32	Solicitor Behr?
SPEAKER_10	Through you, Madam Mayor, we're going to tag team here on a combination of the legal consequences and what we're actually doing here. Because they're of the preliminary injunction which the city solicitor described, right now the federal government, in theory, HUD, is required to allow us to draw down the funds for what we think is probably the first three months and it's questionable as counts as the city solicitor said we don't know what will happen beyond that but the city is going ahead based on that and entering the grant agreements but as the city solicitor said should these decisions be reversed we would need to figure out what happens if we are not going to continue receiving federal funds. We are hopeful that following the preliminary injunction, as we allow our subrecipients, the entities we're contracting with, to to spend the money and we're allowed to draw it down from the federal government but how long we will be able to do that is something we don't know yet we believe we will be able to do it for the first three months but we're uncertain what will happen after that solicitor nothing further to add thank you
Catherine Zusy	Thank you for that clarification, and I'll hope that the money keeps on coming. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	Council Zusy yields the floor. I just wanted to say, and thank you, Solicitor Behr and Deputy Assistant City Manager for Human Services, Ms. Seminoff. Please wear name tags. It just makes it easier for me. These agenda items are just so important, and I think this vote is important so that we can start, I won't say deployed, but spending down those funds because it's steps in securing and deploying those federal resources, shaky as they are, that directly support Cambridge's affordable housing development and homeless services. The funds, as you know, are going to reflect both the city's ongoing commitment to responsible responsibly managing federal dollars even if they're precarious and the success we've had in completing the new grant awards to strengthen local programs and i just want to say miss seminar because i know a lot of this falls under your the umbrella of dhsp the grant the grant writing that has been still is vigorous and ongoing so that we can continue to fund the needed resources you know we always talk about housing not being a privilege it's a it's a right and it's that work so to the folks that do this work please on behalf of the council please acknowledge that we really do appreciate this and although this is a procedural these appropriations enable our housing and human services teams to continue critical Delivering critical support to residents facing housing instability and homelessness. So I suspect that the council will approve these items promptly, and we might even want us to move reconsideration so we don't have any pause at all in the deployment of these funds. Ms. Seminoff, you wanted to add?
SPEAKER_10	Thank you, Madam Mayor. Really appreciate it, and I will pass that along to our staff. But I also want to say that in order to get this in front of you tonight, an awful lot of people across different city departments worked really hard because we needed to get it to you within 24 hours of when we were in a position to do this. So the finance department, the budget office, the city solicitor's office,
Denise Simmons	our team at human services so i just want to say a lot of people worked hard to make sure this could happen tonight thank you so much miss simon i feels the floor no further discussion please call the roll
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Councilor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the appropriation is approved in the item placed on file.
Marc McGovern	Madam Mayor. Move suspension of the rules to move reconsideration, hoping the same will not prevail.
Denise Simmons	Were you anxious? I couldn't finish my sentence. I'm sorry. The Vice Mayor moves suspension on suspension.
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern.
Burhan Azeem	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui.
Marc McGovern	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Wheeler. Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner.
Unknown Speaker	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Counselor Wilson? Yes. Counselor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the rules are suspended on the affirmative vote of nine members on reconsideration, hoping the same will not prevail. Counselor Azeem?
SPEAKER_29	No. No. Vice Mayor McGovern? No. No. Counselor Nolan? No. No. Counselor Siddiqui? No. No. Counselor Sobrinho-Wheeler? No. No. Counselor Toner? No. No. Councillor Wilson. No. No. Councillor Zusy. No. No. Mayor Simmons.
Denise Simmons	No.
SPEAKER_29	No.
Denise Simmons	And you have nine members recorded in the negative. Reconsideration has failed and the item is final. We move now to number 14. This was pulled by Councilor Zusy. Reads as follows. A communication transmitting from Yanwang City Manager relative to the appointment of the members of the American Freedmen's Commission. This is pulled by Councilor Zusy. Councilor Zusy, the floor is yours.
Catherine Zusy	Thank you so much. I just wanted to congratulate you on drawing a really impressive group of people to be on this commission. And then I had a few questions. This was voted in by the council in December 23 before either of our times. I'm sorry, through you, Madam Mayor. I wondered, is the goal that this commission with the new executive director, who I'm wondering when will be hired, that they will prepare a report with recommendations and what sort of timeframe is for that?
Denise Simmons	I think the Director of our Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity, I think I said that wrong, Ms. Deidre Travis Brown will take the floor, but Director Brown, if you would take a nanosecond just to give a little back information, because there's a few of our members we're not serving when this was adopted. The floor is yours.
SPEAKER_21	Absolutely. Through you, Madam Mayor. So the ordinance was adopted in 2023 and was presented, actually brought to us by a counselor at that time, Simmons and Quentin Zonderman. And it was approved and ratified during that time period. We took some time to pull a group of people together key stakeholders from across the city to learn about how this how the commission might work, what the work we might be doing together, what we should engage, what's happening in the city presently, so that we'd understand background and get a sense of that. We had folks from various organizations as well as a diversity age group LOCATION THROUGHOUT THE CITY AND ALL OF THAT. SO WE LEARNED A LOT FROM THEM OVER THE COURSE OF TIME. WE HAD THREE DIFFERENT MEETINGS WITH THEM TO LEARN ABOUT AND GET BACKGROUND FROM THEM. AND THEN WE POSTED FOR THE COMMISSION ITSELF ONCE WE HAD A BETTER SENSE OF THAT AND COULD BEGIN TO DETAIL WHAT THIS WORK MIGHT BE AND THE SUPPORT OF THE WORK THAT WE NEED IN ORDER TO MAKE THOSE RECOMMENDATIONS. SO A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND ON IT.
Denise Simmons	Council.
Catherine Zusy	Again, through you, Madam Mayor, again, back to my question. So do we have a sense for when the executive director will be hired and what the timeline will be for, I presume they're going to produce a report with recommendations. I mean, maybe I'm asking questions that can't be answered yet, but do you have a sense for the timeline?
SPEAKER_21	So our next step is to, excuse me, through you, Madam Mayor, our next step will be to post the position for the executive director position. And once we have that executive director and we've identified the chair for the commission, we'll begin the process of identifying what the work will be and timeline. And we'll come back with that timeline to share with all of you and when you can expect a report.
Catherine Zusy	So, again, for you, Madam Mayor, are you thinking that maybe by the end of the year you'll have an executive director in place?
Denise Simmons	You know, Councillor, I don't want to put Director Brown on the spot. I would say, so that if we don't meet that goal, you can blame me, that Director Brown and a team of people, Councilor Wilson being included, have worked ardently, stringently, all day, all the time, over time and every time, to bring this before the council, and so it is clearly our intention to be able to bring this to you, because we would not want another council to have to be in the process of this ramping up. So it's our full intention, and I do want to acknowledge my colleague, Council Wilson, who came to the to the council this term and hit the ground running with trying to make sure that we move this forward as expeditiously as possible. So your concern is clearly our concern because it did take us a long time. And if you will indulge me, council, and my colleague, Council Wilson will indulge me. Let me just say a few things that might be helpful. First of all, I have to start by acknowledging Saskia Van Janes because she really, let's talk about something being a grassroot effort that she was very committed to making sure that happened. She is clearly an encyclopedic when it comes to this issue. She has so much knowledge. So I just want to acknowledge her. She had the vision and the dedication, as Director Brown would attest to, years ago when she first brought the concept of the American Freedmen's Commission to our attention. And her leadership has really paved the way for this policy order that I introduced with Counselor Zondervan, Quentin Zondervan, as Director Brown suggested. Now Director Brown, I think this preceded her in some ways, so she comes onto the job with this already in play. And a couple of things that we were able to do. First of all, we said it would be really important that we got the benefit of people who had already done this work. So we literally put together a group of individuals.
SPEAKER_21	We'll call them our stakeholder group.
Denise Simmons	Thank you so much. A stakeholder group, people who had done this work before in other cities and towns and say, this is what we're trying to do, this is what you've done, help guide our feet on this item, and which they did. So yes, it has taken longer than we had hoped, but we wanted to be as close to being right on this, because it was so important. So I say that to say, so we're not at the executive director yet, but we thought it was important to get the commission on board. And then move to the next step, which would be the executive director. And then of course they start doing this work. Now let me just say this. The commission faces a deeply complex and challenging task. We're not talking about reparations. Can I say that again for the people in the back? We're not talking about reparations. We're talking about something that's a little bit different. That's what makes this work so important that we do it right. Because we're not trying to do something that other cities and towns have done. And there have been lots of cities and towns that have done work around reparations. This is a little bit different. The selection process of the commission that's before us now is very crucial to their moving the work forward. They're almost in some ways, and correct me if I'm wrong, Director Brown, we're learning while doing. The commission, like I said, faces a deeply complex and challenging task. Other committees have launched similar efforts only to become mired in controversy. or analysis paralysis. And we must learn from those experiences, and that's what the stakeholder group was brought to do. And we met for months during the winter, the fall, and the summer, because we wanted to get as close to perfect, correct, I won't say perfect, but to get it as correct as possible. And I know folks are eager to have this work commence and get toward the finish line, but we did not get into the state that we need this commission yesterday. We're not going to get to the answer tomorrow. So we do certainly have to be thoughtful, patient, and thoughtful and patient is enough to say to make sure that We move correctly, not so much quickly, but correctly. And so this is going to take time and necessary care to make sure we do it right. It's important to acknowledge we live in a different, from the time that this commission was voted and now, it's a very different time. The federal government, the administration is working overtime against us. What I'm so happy is that we live in a city and town that says this is important to us and we're going to move it forward. I can't be more proud to be with a city council and an administration that says this is important, we're going to do it however long it takes. Bearing in mind that this work, like I said, when we first started, wasn't an issue. Context does really matter now. It's imperative that we begin earnestly in stride to keep external distractions from impeding the commission's work. Our goal is to develop a clear, practical roadmap grounded in history and reality, one that advances justice for the descendants of African-American freedmen in Cambridge. I cannot say again, this will not be easy work, but it's necessary. I think, Counselor, I think we have a full nine zero votes to support the work. and we're ready to continue to further it. But I just wanted to say that to set a little context for you. I do want to acknowledge the city manager, because even the city manager can often appoint someone, and take a back seat he was very engaged probably sometimes he didn't want to be engaged because i could be cranky but nicely cranky uh but this work is just so important but i wanted to just put that lay that out for you uh counselor to give you a little bit more background i want to turn it back over to director brown but so there's any fault you want to blame anybody for us going slow you blame me and i'll even i'll take a hit for well not a hit but i'll take the flack but But again, it's because we really want to do this work. We're talking about trying to undo the harms of several hundreds of years. And although people in Massachusetts often want to say, oh, we weren't involved and try to diminish their role, we're looking it straight in the face, addressing it, say it's a reality, and saying, now we're going to stand up and do what we can to fix it. Director Brown, Mr. City Manager?
SPEAKER_21	Through you, Madam Mayor, but I think that Councilor Wilson wanted to add.
Denise Simmons	Before I go to Councilor Wilson, I have to go back to Councilor Zusy because she still holds the floor. Sorry. Thank you.
Catherine Zusy	Okay. I just wanted to say I feel as though the commission has a very noble goal, and it will be a fascinating exploration not only to.
Denise Simmons	. .
Catherine Zusy	So again, I think this commission has a noble goal, and it will be a fascinating exploration into how there has been a history of systemic harm to American freedmen federally in the Commonwealth and locally here in Cambridge. So I find that interesting as a historian. I do think it is a very complicated issue. because it's hard to know what the criteria are for who was an American freedman, but I understand your point that this isn't about reparations. I'm very aware, I feel as though, and we had this conversation during the budget hearings, I feel as though diversity, equity, inclusion are actually part of the Cambridge ethos and really our DNA. It's like in everything we do. So, and I feel as though our programs, we do so much. I was looking at what Evanston, Illinois, which had a reparations program that was worth 10 million, did, and they did stuff we do already. They helped to fund housing assistance programs, mortgage assistance programs, home repair programs. We're already doing that, so it'll be interesting to see where this commission takes this when we're doing so much already. So I look forward to observing the work of this group. Thank you and I yield.
Denise Simmons	Council Zusy yields the floor. Council Wilson, the floor is yours.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you very much, Madam Mayor, and through you. Not much more to add based on what you mentioned, but I did want to just say, just the saying that folks may know, I think in terms of just our timeline, is that haste makes waste, and that slow and steady wins the race. And so I'm really just convinced that the timing that it took us to kind of get to where we are today was important, that we wanted to be mindful of that this is a new time, Commission and recognizing that across the nation there have been other commissions or task force, if you would, or what have you, that have been established that may have been dissolved or has a lot of conflict because folks can't maybe get along. So we want to recognize that these group of individuals that we have here, which again, I want to just appreciate everyone who applied to be a part of this and really congratulate those who have made it to be appointed here tonight, that this is a group of some excellent individuals across our city from older younger historians to newer folks to all the breadth of what we need in terms of representation i really want to just thank our chief chief brown and her team uh william belt for their work on this because again they were the ones they had to shuffle through identify everything, line everything up, make sure that they were doing their research on the ordinance because the ordinance while, again, shout out to Saskia Van James on her work, but maybe very vague to anyone that's just reading it and just wanted to really think about what is the direction that we're going in here. Recognizing through this task force, the stakeholder group that we had in those meetings that we had, that was extensive. And I just want to thank those individuals for, you know, dedicating their time with us and sharing their expertise around their thoughts, their feelings, and their hopes and wishes for what they hope to see out of this as an end result. And so just recognizing those various steps, again, this was voted in by the council in December, December 4th, I believe, of 2023. We are now June 23rd of 2025. It's been about a year, it's a year and a half. And so I think with meeting with the stakeholder groups, launching the applications, doing all those interviews of these individuals, and then getting us to this point, I don't think that's too long, especially for a new commission. If we already had a model and something to kind of work with, then I would say, sure, we should be maybe a little bit quicker. But I think this is right on cue. And I'm really hopeful. that under the leadership and direction of Chief Brown and her team, that we will have that application up for the executive position. We'll welcome a phenomenal executive director to this role and position, and that we'll be able to do the work. And understanding what the actual work actually is through this group, through the chair of this committee, and look forward to the updates. Right. That that will be able to share with the council as we move this forward. But again, just recognizing this is a new commission. I just ask that you give us and give the everybody some grace through timing, through what it all looks like and recognize that there is no real. that has been the perfect model for us to say, we wanna be there. But we do have great representation of things that have taken place across the nation, including here in Massachusetts, that we are able to pull some good best practices from to really think about how we could stand up, do the work, and make sure that we are of good representation to the members of the Cambridge community. Thank you, I yield.
Denise Simmons	Council Wilson yields the floor. for the discussion on this? City Manager?
Yi-An Huang	Sure. Thank you so much. Through you, Mayor Simmons. Just want to echo a lot of the comments that both yourself, Mayor Simmons, and Councilor Wilson shared. Really appreciate the work that each of you contributed and our Chief Brown, who has really spearheaded a lot of this. Just want to recognize that the work is both really important and also not easy. A lot of that time was also to recognize that we were going to be asking a number of people in our community to come on this journey with us. And it was really important for us to feel like we could describe how we understand this work. What is the goal? What are some of the challenges that we're likely to face? And that the city's committed to understanding that we may not have all of the answers right away, but that we do know what we're talking about. And so I would agree, like really appreciate the quality of people who are coming out being really thoughtful about this work and willing to bring their time and effort into this journey with us, and a lot of our commitment is to follow through with this work, to treat it with the seriousness that it really deserves, to respect the time that people are committing to us, and we're really excited to be at this moment.
SPEAKER_21	Director Travis Brown. Just to add to that, one of the things that we found most important for this group of people who've come together and have committed themselves to the commission is that they want there to be community engagement. very, very important and central to our doing this work and doing it well. It is to engage the community, the broad community, and everyone is committed to doing that. So I'm really excited about that and the work that we'll be doing with my colleague Jackson Price through community engagement and others throughout the city to do this work and do it well.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Director Travis Brown. I also wanted to mention, we talked about there were a lot of meetings, and the city manager attended, Director Travis Brown, but also Will Bent. I wanted just to formally and on the record thank him for his time, his talent, came to the meetings, kept the notes. was a equal partner in the decision. And I'm thanking you in advance because I know it's going to be a long, hard road. And I say that with excitement and a little bit of trepidation. The job that your office already takes on is large. This is probably going to be equal to that. And so I just want to be mindful of that and say to you, Mr. Ben, and to the other members of your staff, do not hesitate. to reach out to us and say we need a little bit more support the commission needs a little bit more of something because we don't want it to fail because we did not give it the proper uh attention so i with that i will yield the floor is there further council toner do you want to say anything on this no okay
Patricia Nolan	Councilor Nolan. Thank you. Through you, Mayor Simmons, just very briefly, I'm excited about this moving forward and also reminding all of us we have, as we've talked about, the community at large. And there's a lot of experts in this community, including we can bring in Richard Rothstein, who wrote The Color of Law, whose book makes it exceedingly clear THE GOVERNMENT IN CAMBRIDGE, INCLUDING MANY OF OUR OWN HOUSING, WERE DISCRIMINATORY IN ITS BASE, AND THIS WAS NOT 150 YEARS AGO, BUT IN THIS CENTURY, JUST ABOUT 50 YEARS AGO. SO THAT'S WHY WE ESTABLISHED, I THINK, THIS COMMISSION, TO HAVE THAT BE PART OF THE CITY DIALOGUE, TO UNDERSTAND HOW IT IS THAT WE ENGAGED IN IT AT VARIOUS LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT TO MOVE FORWARD. AND I RECOGNIZE IT'S VERY HARD WORK, AND I APPRECIATE COUNCILOR WILSON SAYING LET'S make sure we do this on a pace that is appropriate, thoughtful. Thank you, I yield.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Nolan yields, but brings up a very good point. Not so much about the book, The Color of Law, but when we think about the city, not this body that sits here necessarily, but this body may have some culpability when you start rolling back the layers. Brace yourselves for that cold, hard truth. If there's no further discussion, I will call for the roll.
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Azeem? Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern?
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui? Yes. Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	The matter, city manager's agenda number 14, the vote to approve was nine, unanimous vote of nine members. It is now placed on file. Thank you, Director Travis Brown. We'll move now to number 15. This was pulled by Councilor Zusy, reads as follows. Transmitting communication from Yan Wang, City Manager, relative to the appropriation of $250,000 from the Mitigation Revenue Stabilization Fund to the Public Investment Fund Community Development Extraordinary Expenditures Account. This is pulled by Council Zuzi. Council Zuzi, the floor is yours.
Catherine Zusy	Thank you so much, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to say that I support this study. I'm very excited about it. We had a transportation committee meeting where we really focused in on the shape of the study last week. And some of the good ideas were to study existing shuttle ridership and consider consolidations of those services. building on existing mass transit, how to better publicize the shuttles and to consider point to point transportation rather than routes as we think about municipal shuttles. So I think some really good ideas came from that and we'll look forward to seeing the RFP for the study. I did want to say, again, I feel like the study is so important because it'll make it easier to get around the city. I am surprised by the cost, however. I consulted a friend who is a transportation consultant. who thought it should cost far less. And I wanted to ask, through you, Madam Mayor, what the basis is for the study estimate. Do we know how many hours they're anticipating it should take, at what rate, and why should it take a whole year? Commissioner McKenna?
SPEAKER_17	For you, Madam Mayor, the $250,000 that we're appropriating is the full amount of the two mitigation payments that were made to the city. If we can do the study for less than that, which I certainly hope that we can, we're not gonna spend to that number. We did wanna appropriate the full amount of those mitigation funds. So we're looking to spend as little as we can while doing a very robust process for both kind of data analysis and outreach. So I think that both speaks to how much it will cost us cost us to do the study and the timeline. I think a year is, we'll do some upfront analysis that will inform the public outreach and then sufficient time for the public outreach and then wrapping up the study.
Catherine Zusy	Councilor Zusy. Yeah. Thank you. Well, I'm glad you're going to be, I'm glad it's not just, is this going to probably be a house doctor project? Anyway, I'm glad you're going to, you'll be analyzing the cost of a project. I just remember in the good old days when I was developing exhibits for museums, I would spend a year working on an exhibit and I might charge 20 000 which is how i got so rich right but it just seems to me like um uh yeah it just it doesn't it's 250 000 i know there's a lot of work that this will require but that sounds like an awful lot to me for what is being uh what we've defined thank you i yield council susie yields the floor council wilson
Ayesha Wilson	Sorry, can you go to Council Nolan and then me, please? Thank you.
Patricia Nolan	Thank you, Council Wilson. Council Nolan? Thank you. Through you, Mayor Simmons, I'm very happy to see this study. I do want to know if we, this seems like an opportune moment to take advantage of the range of institutions in the city. Can we reach out to, we have MIT right down the street. We have a huge number of professors and data rich analysts and lots of people with expertise in transportation using big data. Can we bring them in and have this be a project? And not just to save money, but to tie in the institutions into the network of our city that is one of the key issues we're facing, which is transportation across the city. So I think that's a question through you. Will we be reaching out to the institutions in the city, particularly MIT, which has many different departments, and could they help us with this work?
Denise Simmons	So to Owen, deputy whoever you are, do you want to speak to this or do you want to go directly to the commissioner?
SPEAKER_33	Through you, Mayor Simmons, I'm happy for Brooke to start and I'm happy to speak after Brooke if she wishes. Commissioner?
SPEAKER_17	Through you, Madam Mayor, it had not been our plan to do this through one of the universities. We can certainly look into it as we, you know, finish up finalizing the scope. I'm not sure, you know, it's sometimes luck of the draw if you have someone whose research area matches up with you and your timeline and your scope, but we can do some reaching out on that. Councilman Nolan.
Patricia Nolan	I think it's critical we do that. The institutions keep telling us they want to be more involved. I've heard that from a number of people. They're happy to be involved. There's a range of people working on projects directly related to what we're doing. They have big data. They have a lot of folks with expertise that we could benefit from. So I think we should reach out and understand if there's a match, and it could be matched up with some other consultant as well. It seems that this is that area that, again, should build on what the community knows and the closer we can have to an institutional player who, frankly, will be part of the solution. The dream is to have all our institutions, Harvard, MIT, the biotech industry, all together to say how can we have a solution one collaborative, consolidated, comprehensive system that provides affordable, frequent, and reliable service across the city in such a way that people do not feel like they have to use their cars. So I expect that to happen based on our renewed commitment to encourage institutions to be involved in our lives and see where it goes. I yield.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Nolan yields the floor. Councilor Wilson, the floor is yours.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I just want to echo that. I think in the meeting that we had last week, I know personally I mentioned making sure that we could do some work within, especially around the community engagement. We have experts right here in our community who will devote, dedicate, and have much stronger relationships within the community and could truly just benefit from dollars being brought back into this into the community um so through you madam man to commissioner walkins what would that look like to actually invest and reinvest these dollars back into the community and actually work within with some dedicated individuals um to work on even if it's a portion of it around the community engagement specifically i think that leg of it i think the uh the um To analyze, I think, to Councilor Nolan's point around MIT and looking at students or professionals, faculty members or what have you, I'm sure there's a great wealth of resources. There is, I know this for a fact, that there are great resources breath of resources right there but what would that look like for us to work within home and not invest these dollars in a place where quite frankly from my vantage point i don't see us getting the results that we need or desire from outside resources commissioner mckenna
SPEAKER_17	Through you, Madam Mayor, we definitely heard your comments at the hearing last week, and I think it's something that we've started talking about a little bit internally about how we can look. I think there's some exploration to be done for how we expand our model of community engagement to include paid participation, because I think that's something that staff has looked at in the past. There's some challenges to overcome, I think, but we are starting that process of looking at what exactly that would look like. So I can't tell you right off the bat, but we absolutely heard you, and I think that there's a lot of value there. And again, I think from the educational, from the universities, we can certainly check and see if there's some sort of alignment of folks who are looking to do this type of work and whether or not that would work. It's just hard to say off the bat before we do that outreach. Council Wilson.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you. And and while I appreciate like paid participation, I'm really just talking about the leaders of the work being embedded in our communities. So those are the folks that are out there on the ground investing in utilizing their relationships that they have with members in our community to engage around these conversations could help with creating the actual study itself, like meaning the questions that we would engage. And whether that's just a survey, multiple questions or what have you, or if it's smaller focus groups. I mean, it sounds like we have quite a bit of a timeline, like in terms of like a year to be able to do quite a bit of data. gathering and so we could probably utilize smaller focus groups we can utilize whether we're looking at students and like the actual the various population groups that we want to touch on to understand how folks in our in our city use transportation we have to have a breath of how we're doing this across the spectrum. And I just don't believe, I just don't have the confidence that an outside resource would actually provide us that breadth of the depth of data that we actually need and have the relationships within our community to deliver. So with that, I yield. Thank you. Council Wilson yields the floor for the discussion.
Denise Simmons	Council Turner?
Paul Toner	No, Madam Mayor.
Denise Simmons	Hearing none.
SPEAKER_29	Roll call. Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes, Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes, Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes, Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes, Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes, and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	In the city manager's agenda item number 15, the appropriation is approved and the matter is placed on file by the affirmative vote of nine members. Councilor Toner, would you please turn your volume up? It's very hard to hear you.
SPEAKER_11	Okay.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. Number 16 was pulled by the mayor and I reason why I pulled this item, which is, let me read it for it. It's a communication transmitted for me on long city manager relative to policy order 2024-33 regarding a request to amend Cambridge Code of Ordinance 6.08.001 regulation on vision of vicious dogs and to bring into compliance with state law and to create a kennel license. That complies with Massachusetts General Law Section 137A. I pulled this specifically because the action was a little different than the other matters. Does anyone want to speak to this? Vice Mayor?
Marc McGovern	Thank you, Madam Mayor. This was in response to a policy order that I filed with Councillor Nolan and late Councillor Joan Pickett. It came from some work that we did with the Animal Commission and the MSPCA. to bring Cambridge into compliance with the new state laws. I think it's pretty straightforward because it is just basically to update our ordinance to the new requirements. I don't know, is anyone from the Animal Commission here?
Denise Simmons	Is there any animal person? Christina is on Zoom.
Marc McGovern	Christina Carrera is online. Okay, great. Because I did have one question about the ordinance itself. I did receive an email, I don't know if anyone else got it, tonight from some customers at a kennel in Cambridge, a daycare for dogs. And they had some questions about... uh that the in the cities uh the city is requiring that dogs wear breakaway in in when they're in the kennel that they wear breakaway collars with their rabies vaccinations and license on the collar That is actually, from our understanding, is not a requirement in the state law. It's something that we're doing. And I just was wondering if we could get an explanation for that, because they're saying it's just difficult. They have to switch collars. They have to switch tags. And it's for them while they're inside the building. So I'm just wondering if Christine can explain why we're doing that. And is it outside the state law or part of the state law? Ms. Carrera, did you hear the question?
SPEAKER_15	I'M HERE. CAN YOU HEAR ME?
Denise Simmons	I CAN HEAR YOU.
SPEAKER_15	I DO HEAR THE QUESTION, AND I UNDERSTAND NOW THE CONCERN WITH OLLIE'S LAW REQUIRING SOME ADDITIONAL AMENDMENTS FOR KENNELS AND DAYCARES, BUT THOSE LAWS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN PLACE, THAT TAGS HAVE ALWAYS HAD TO BE WORN. THERE HAS BEEN SOME QUESTIONS RAISED BY KENNEL OWNERS AND STAFF For the safety of dogs, to require them to wear tags and collars. But those laws have always been in place way before Ollie's law was just taken into account.
Marc McGovern	Vice Mayor? Thank you, through you Madam Mayor. So will we, because according, I'm sorry, and again, I could be mistaken. But according to the email I received, they felt that they didn't have to do this before and are now being asked to do it is it just something that we're kind of enforcing now that it's always been there and maybe we didn't enforce it as much and now we are correct that's correct it is being enforced it's always been there
SPEAKER_15	but now it's being enforced because of the kennel inspections.
Marc McGovern	Great.
SPEAKER_15	Vice Chair.
Marc McGovern	Thank you, and through you, Madam Mayor. You probably have already done this, but I assume that we're talking with all the daycares and the kennels to let them know what the new laws are and making sure that how can we help them be in compliance, and we obviously don't want folks getting fined and things like that, so we're educating them as well and reaching out to them?
SPEAKER_15	Our offices have been to all the daycares that we're aware of, and we've given them all the information, some Zoom links, state emails, and flyers with all the information about the new laws and the new changes. We were out last month to all the kennels and daycares and the month before.
Marc McGovern	Great. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'll yield.
Denise Simmons	Vice Mayor yields the floor. I THINK I HAVE COUNSELOR NOLAN, THEN TO YOU, COUNSELOR SUZIE. COUNSELOR NOLAN.
Patricia Nolan	THANK YOU, THROUGH YOU, MAYOR SIMMONS, AND THANK YOU TO VICE MEMBER GOVERN AND COUNSELOR PICKETT, WHO ARE BOTH DOG PEOPLE. I'M A PET PERSON, TOTALLY FANATIC, BUT CATS. BUT WE DO HAVE, I THINK EVERY ONE OF MY NEIGHBORS HAS DOGS. BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, THIS WILL UPDATE OUR LAWS. And I just want to point out some of what it allows to do and through you to the staff by allowing us to increase the enforcement with the fines. It seems like that's one of the ways we have all heard issues where sometimes neighbors don't feel that we are regularly enforcing this. That this allows us, clarifies the rules and regulations under which people will have to ensure that their dogs are operating safely and it gives our staff then more ability to intervene in a dangerous situation across the city, which makes it safer for our residents, but also I think better for our staff as they deal with this. I believe that was the whole thrust of this, and we can either confirm it, I see Ms. Correa nodding her head, I don't need any answer. But I thank very much all the staff for working on this to address this, because it's been a problem in a number of instances. And when it happens, it's hard for us to say we can't really do anything about it. So thank you, Mayor Simmons, I yield.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Nolan yields the floor. Councilor Zusy, the floor is yours.
Catherine Zusy	Thank you, Madam Mayor. Also, I just wanted to say I think this is a good idea to update this code and I thought that the timing of our reviewing this in this morning seemed so ironic to me because there was a nuisance dog that was barking for two hours straight from 5.30 to 7.30 right outside my window this morning. I hope it doesn't happen again next morning. But it's important to have rules about nuisance dogs and dangerous dogs. And then Councilor McGovern and I have recently been contacted about a dangerous dog at a condo association that is threatening residents. Anyway, we live in a very dense city, and it's essential that we have clear rules and that we respect neighbors' needs for peace, quiet, and safety. And I feel like these ordinance updates will do that. So I thank all who participated in this. Thank you. I yield.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Zusy yields the floor for further discussion on this matter. Councilor Siddiqui, would you like to speak on it? No, okay. Councilor Toner, do you want to speak on this?
Paul Toner	No. Nothing to add, Madam Mayor. I'm happy with moving forward. Thank you.
SPEAKER_29	Hearing no for the discussion, we'll have a roll call. To refer to the ordinance committee, Councilor Azeem.
Burhan Azeem	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councilor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councilor Siddiqui.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Yes, Councilor Toner. Yes. Yes, Councilor Wilson. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	In the matter, city manager's agenda item number 16 is referred to the ordinance committee on the affirmative vote of nine members. The last item on the city manager's agenda was pulled by the mayor, reads as follows. A communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, city manager relative to short-term rental ordinance amendments. Again, I pull this item because it's different from the other items, and I wanted to see if there's anyone that wanted to speak to it, but its disposition is a little different from the others. Councilor Nolan. Thank you.
Patricia Nolan	Thank you very much Mayor Simmons, and thank you for pulling this really important, I think, ordinance proposal. As people know, we've been talking about this for a while. I'm really glad we finally have these draft changes. It originally began with a policy order I filed almost two years ago with Councilors Azeem and Siddiqui. The city originally began regulating short term rentals in 2017, yet we haven't had any comprehensive reporting on Many residents have struggled with unregulated or illegal short term rentals in their neighborhoods. Our city staff has not had the ability really to enforce when questions are raised and it can be a real issue. Many other cities since 2017 have taken steps to regulate them, so we should really do everything we can to do this. Just to remind us all, we received an interim report in October 2024 from Commissioner McLaughlin indicating at the time there were 168 registered short-term rentals in Cambridge, and online records indicated that there were at least 515 short term rentals available in Cambridge, meaning there were over 300 unregistered ones in the city. So I have a number of questions related to this, including how are these changes going to address our ability to regulate? The biggest question is enforcement. There's one right by my, two blocks from my house, where it's pretty clear to anyone who looks at it, just like the one on James Way, which we have had a number of people here. that the residents are claiming, well, I own a two-family, but sometimes I live in one side and then sometimes I live in the other side, and they switch every week, it seems, because both of them are available for rentals. It's almost certain that it's actually an illegal rental. So some of these questions, and in particular, That one about how we make sure if you have an owner adjacent right next to an owner, just a separate one, do we make sure that if you're switching back and forth, you have to register as an actual owner occupied. And therefore, every time you change your occupancy, you need to re-register, which means pay another $500 fee. I think that's the kind of creative solution we can have to make sure that people aren't gaming the system. SUMMERVILLE IS A 90 DAY PER YEAR LIMIT ON WHOLE UNIT RENTALS. DO WE CONSIDER A LIMIT LIKE THAT? I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS THE TIME TO GO OVER ALL OF THESE OR FOR ME TO GATHER THESE AND THEN ALL OF US TO SEND THEM TO THE CITY STAFF IN ANTICIPATION OF THE ORDINANCE MEETING, BUT I DO THINK IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT for us to all review the work that was done by the city staff on this, reviewing a range of cities. Some of them were included, some of them were not. And that idea that there's hundreds of rental units in this city that are not apartments, right? We have an affordable housing crisis and instead we have hundreds and hundreds of units. and maybe even more that aren't registered or are registered on other things it it has contributed i think to to our i think need as a city to understand what is the extent of this and to understand how we can better enforce it so i think the specific question is how best to communicate these kinds of questions about how this will affect enforcement and other creative ideas to make sure that people who are abusing the system now will not be allowed to do that in the future
Denise Simmons	So we have several people, but we have from the Solicitor's Office, Attorney Elliot Veloso, and we have two gentlemen from Inspectional Services. I apologize for not calling your name, so please introduce yourselves. Peter McLaughlin. I could hear that. I could read your lips.
SPEAKER_09	Jimmy D'Angelo, Housing Inspector.
Denise Simmons	And Jimmy D'Angelo. Who would like to start off? Mr. McLaughlin.
SPEAKER_38	Yes, through you, Madam Chair. I think some of the questions that Councilman Nolan has are significant questions that I think should be brought to staff and look at the differences between that. We just received an email today as you did with the sum of all, but I think a lot of the changes we did through enforcement and through. you know, setting up a system where we give people warnings and we kind of laid a two tear type system of is it the first type of violation is like safety and then another tear down was nuisance violations. And I don't want to speak on how we were kind of stymied by the law. I think that's best for the law department. But I think that speaking about it with staff prior to at the ordinance committee would be the best advice for me.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Mr. McLaughlin. Do you want to add anything, Mr. D'Angelo?
SPEAKER_09	No, I just kind of echo what he said. And I think there is, like you mentioned, there is some restrictions on what we can do. Speak right into your mic because it's hard to hear you. Sorry. I think there was some restrictions of what we couldn't put in for like legal reasons. But I think even just proposing that prior kind of got us connected to some of these big companies like Airbnb. So at least we've kind of at a minimum established a relationship with them going forward to kind of help get some of these illegal listings taken care of.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Mr. D'Angelo. Mr. McLaughlin, Mr. D'Angelo, you have the floor. Elliot, Attorney Veloso, excuse me. Do you have anything you want to add?
SPEAKER_34	No, just to briefly add that it is our hope that the intention of these revisions are to increase the ability of ISD and the city to ensure enforcement and to clarify the conditions necessary in order to be a registered operator-occupied short-term rental unit here in the city.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. Attorney Veloso yields the floor. Counselor, do you want to have any other questions? I think what I'm hearing from them is they're not totally sure of all the answers. You could submit them, I'm sure, through the city manager, and that would start to bring some answers in to you.
Patricia Nolan	Yeah, I'll do that. There's a few questions and a few, and we are, hopefully we'll be sending this to ordinance, and I think it's incumbent on all of us to really, as we review this, to do this comprehensively. Well, it's first going to go to the planning board and to the ordinance committee. Yes, thank you. So I will yield for now. Very excited to see this. It's been a long time coming, and I know my aide has emailed this group about every month for the last year, hoping and waiting for this moment, so I'm quite glad.
Denise Simmons	And they enjoy those emails.
Patricia Nolan	They totally enjoy these. Look at the smiles on their faces. Hallelujah. Thank you. Through you, Mayor Simmons, I yield.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Nolan yields the floor. Councilor Toner.
Paul Toner	Thank you, Madam Mayor. Through you, I just wanted to say I understand Councilor Nolan has her concerns about Airbnb and she wants answers to her questions. But I do hope before we go down any path beyond just, you know, making these changes in the ordinance and updating the the language and providing ISD with the tools to enforce what we currently have on the books. I think we really need to have a broader conversation as a council and a community about what we want to do. Just this past few months, I've encountered a number of Cambridge residents who have, especially retirees, who are supplementing their income by Airbnb-ing rooms in their house, or when they go on vacation, renting out their home through airbnb so i just want to make sure that if we do start talking about going any further on restrictions of airbnb that we let people who are registered airbnb folks know and can be part of the conversation and not have it just be a conversation of the council where we come up with rules that folks in the community to know about MAYBE THAT'S A PLACE FOR THE HOUSING COMMITTEE OR THE LONG-TERM NEIGHBOR PLANNING COMMITTEE TO HAVE A HEARING. BUT I REALLY DO THINK BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER WITH FURTHER RESTRICTIONS, WE NEED TO ALERT THE COMMUNITY THAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT IT AND HAVE THAT CONVERSATION. THANK YOU, MADAM MAYOR. I YIELD.
Denise Simmons	COUNCILOR Toner YIELDS THE FLOOR FOR THE DISCUSSION. COUNCILOR ZUZI AND THEN COUNCIL WILSON.
Catherine Zusy	Thank You madam chair, I think the proposed amendments are a step in the right direction I had some questions Like how will the city get the word out of the need to register units? I mean, we'll have to have some big campaign to do that and I wondered if we were going to require Airbnb or TO DISPLAY REGISTRATION NUMBERS ON THEIR LISTINGS, LIKE IN BOSTON. AND I ALSO JUST WONDERED, AND MAYBE WE'LL DISCUSS THIS AT ORDINANCE OR AT ANOTHER MEETING OF NEIGHBORHOOD AND LONG-TERM PLANNING OR HOUSING, BUT I WONDERED WHAT OTHER REGULATIONS THAT SOMERVILLE, BOSTON, AND QUINCY HAVE INSTITUTED THAT WE HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO. I'D LOVE TO UNDERSTAND MORE OF THAT DISCUSSION, BUT MAYBE THAT WILL HAPPEN LATER.
Denise Simmons	Does anyone want to take a stab at that? You're sitting forward, so I didn't know if you wanted to speak to it. Or people just want to yield for now?
SPEAKER_38	I think the best would be to yield to now. We have made conversations with Airbnb and a couple of other ones. Verbo is another one that we did. And it's just, it's really... um a situation that it's it's legalities that come into play where airbnb um tells us one thing but then we try to do another thing so it's it's it gets complicated to where what is the city in in what what is the city's goals And then how important is it to get Airbnb to communicate? And Boston had to go through a court case for that. And as of now, I think the law department has gone to a point where we've come up with these new short term rental the new ordinance so we can take care of troubled people or troubled renters. And I understand Mr. Toner wanting to have, not taking them away, but it's real difficult to try to identify who's renting one out when we can't get Airbnb on the same side as us. So that's where the difficulty comes in.
Catherine Zusy	Council Zusy. Yeah, it sounds complicated and it sounds like this may be the subject of another meeting and maybe we support this. But we'll be moving this to. ORDINANCE OR HOUSING OR PLANNING FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION. ANYWAY, I SUPPORT THE I THINK WHAT YOU'RE PROPOSING IS REQUIRING OPERATORS EITHER TO LIVE IN THE SHORT-TERM RENTAL OR TO BE ADJACENT TO THE SHORT-TERM RENTAL. IT SEEMS LIKE THAT'S A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. SO ANYWAY, I THINK THAT COULD YIELD RESULTS AS LONG AS IT'S ENFORCED AND AS LONG AS WE REALLY MAKE SURE THAT AIRBNB OWNERS KNOW THAT WE WANT THEM TO REGISTER UNITS AND THEN WE, YEAH, MAKE SURE THAT UNITS ARE REGISTERED. THANK YOU. I YIELD.
Denise Simmons	COUNCIL ZUZI YIELDS THE FLOOR. COUNCIL WILSON, FLOOR IS YOURS.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I do definitely look forward to further conversations about this and where we can really dive deeper. I'm kind of with Council Toner on this one, where I just want to agree that we want to make sure that we're not going to do or cause, and these weren't his words, so I'm going to put this out there. unintentional consequences to this process in terms of those who may be living on fixed incomes and trying to supplement. So I'm just very curious as we continue this conversation, if there's any way for us to gather some information, some data, as to the who like who currently owns um and who currently has their homes um registered as short-term rentals and then if there is knowledge of other spaces or places that have but are not maybe registered through the proper channels if there's a way to understand why because i think also what will be a bit challenging is trying to enforce And again, I think that that will cause an additional burden on a family or an individual that's already in a very fixed income burden kind of position to have some additional fees be taxed on to them. So while I appreciate and understand the importance of this, I also don't want to cause any additional harm to individuals in our community. Deputy O'Riordan.
SPEAKER_33	Through you, Mayor Simmons, I fully understand, Councillor, as to what you're saying. I think for the Inspectional Services Department, the challenge up to now has been there are a number of people who are operating either on Airbnb or Vrbo that are not registered with the city. We've had conversations with both Airbnb and Verba, and they have committed to actually not putting properties on their system without them being registered with the city moving forward. And so to some extent, there's a responsibility on those entities to make sure that if indeed an entity, somebody is registering for Airbnb or Verba, that they're also registered with the city. And for them, I think the compelling issue from their perspective is We expect to inspect these facilities to make sure that there are no fire prevention issues. There are no code issues that continue to exist associated with these properties. And so it both protects the person who's renting and the homeowner in case something goes wrong. And so I think there's an alignment between us and these various companies moving forward so that we all operate with the same understanding and that when somebody does rent out their property for a number of days that they're doing so recognizing that these properties have been inspected and that they conform with local ordinances and laws. And so I think as a result of some of the court cases that have happened across the country, be it in New York or in Boston, there's a realization that we're not trying to eliminate Airbnbs or indeed short-term rentals, but rather want to work with them to make sure that they're operating safely moving forward. And so I think we have actually come into more alignment than we have previous to this in terms of our ultimate philosophy in terms of this. So I do think that the possibility of us communicating more directly with people who are proposing short-term rentals has increased fairly dramatically as a result of that.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you. Deputy, yields the floor, Council. Thank you. Through you, Madam Mayor, I appreciate that and really hope that we're able to increase those individuals and those units that are on Airbnb and that we're able to just boost up our partnership with those entities. With that, I'll yield. Thank you.
Burhan Azeem	council wilson yields the floor if there's no further discussion i'd like to entertain a motion to adopt as a zoning petition and refer to the planning board oh i'm sorry counselor's name i didn't see you uh no worries madam mayor um i was uh gonna say i'm fine with that motion if like that's the motion i would also be fine with sending it to nltp if that was the goal but it feels like we're just going to send it to the uh uh ordinance committee and i think that's fine but i just wanted to say um you know i think councillor wilson and councillor turner councillor Zusy made a good point and you know i don't particularly see a need to send it to ordinance immediately but if that's what we want to do that's fine with me as well
Denise Simmons	Councilor Azeem yields the floor. I believe it's required to send it. The ask here, or the requirement, is to adopt as a zoning petition and refer to the Planning Board and Ordinance Committee. If there's no objection to that and there's no further discussion, I'll entertain a motion. Oops. Yep.
Ayesha Wilson	Yes. Just procedurally, I want to... Sorry, Vice Mayor, did you...
Marc McGovern	i i was just going to say there's you know there's nothing preventing neighborhood and long-term planning from holding its own we don't have to refer this to it they you know that can just be scheduled while this is going to ordinance and absolutely
Denise Simmons	So the Vice Mayor is correct, so Councilor Azeem, if you wanted to, or if any member wanted to take this topic into committee, they are certainly able to, but the action we're voting on this evening is to adopt as a zoning petition and then refer to the Planning Board and Ordinance Committee. So if there's no further discussion, I'll entertain a motion. On motion by Council Wilson. We'll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the matter is referred to the petition, is adopted as a zoning petition, and referred to the Planning Board and Ordinance Committee on the affirmative vote of nine members. This concludes the non-consent agenda for the City Manager. We will move now to... policy orders and resolutions, but one quick question, Mr. City Manager, before you attempt to take your leave. I know that we talked just briefly about cooling centers because of the temperature, and if my colleagues would indulge me, I'd like to suspend the rules to have the City Manager give us a brief report. So on suspension, on the rules, to have the City Manager give a brief report on cooling centers and water facilities. Roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem? Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui?
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councillor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the rules are suspended on the affirmative vote of nine members. Mr. City Manager, the floor is yours.
Yi-An Huang	Thank you so much. Through you, Mayor Simmons, we're certainly very aware of the very hot weather today and going into tomorrow. I think the heat index is going to go up even more tomorrow and we will hopefully get some relief on Wednesday. We've been sending out a number of emails and outreach efforts just to continue to inform the community of the efforts that are happening and the resources that are available. I would say that the primary locations that we are offering for cooling spaces are city buildings. And so in particular, the libraries that we have located in many different neighborhoods, I would unfortunately report that we are having some challenges with the HVAC at the Valente branch. And so that branch library is closed today and likely will remain closed tomorrow. but all other branches of the library are open during regular hours. They'll have water bubblers available and we really want to welcome people to use those spaces. They're spaces that our community wants to be in and they're safe and cool. The Senior Center is also available for seniors. There's a schedule and activities that we have sent out. for that to be available. We've also been encouraging folks to use some of the community buildings that are public spaces. Both our local universities generously offer some of their buildings as spaces for the public to be in. MIT continues a pilot program called Cool Spots. which has air conditioned locations where residents are welcome to come hang out, stay cool, partake in activities. There's information available online at MIT. We sort of have this in the communication that goes out. The Harvard Smith Center as well is public space. It's very nice in terms of having a place for people to sit, spend time, be cool. And then finally, Cambridgeside. So that mall has seen a pretty significant refresh and is good open space for people. We've also worked really hard and I know staff have done a lot to ensure that our pools are open. So the War Memorial Recreational Center Gold Star Pool are open and the pool schedules are available online. DCR also has a number of pools that have been open and are available in Cambridge and close by. And finally, a lot of the water features in our parks have been turned on. Those are all available for families, children, and adults as well, if they would like to use the water facilities at our parks. We're encouraging people to check on their neighbors. I think a lot of our community resilience is really being connected to the people that you're living close to. And so especially if there are folks that don't have air conditioning or need an air conditioning, please check in on them. And I would note there's a pretty significant effort focused on those who are unhoused and who are out in elements. And so first step is distributing extra water. The Health Alliance has a street medicine team that's available Monday through Thursday. And the care team is also increasing their outreach and providing water to those who are unhoused. The Cambridge public safety departments, both fire and police and pro-EMS will also have cold water available and be distributing that. Finally, our shelters are also extending their hours and offering critical services during the heat wave. And so 240 Albany, First Church and Salvation Army all have extended daytime hours during the next few days. and we're distributing water. Salvation Army also offers shower services as well as 240 Albany and First Church. So I think those are the main updates. I'm not sure if I've missed anything, but happy to take questions as well.
Denise Simmons	Thank you very much. That's a lot of information. And so if that could be all posited in one place and perhaps sent to all the counselors, many of us have newsletters and could use this to get this, give this information. We just received a email from someone and you didn't mention this, but so I'm going to put it back to you. that she was looking for respite for herself and her cat. And what would you recommend, if you can, not to put you on the spot, but what would you recommend if someone has an animal that they also want to keep cool?
Yi-An Huang	I am not sure of all the policies in the public spaces that I spoke about, and so it may depend a little bit on the specific tolerance of this CAT for being confined and how it may behave in public. I've certainly seen cats carried around, and maybe there are those who are more expert in feline behavior, but I would say some of the public spaces... We have a few cat experts among us. I think some of the public spaces would be fine, and so I would probably encourage those as spaces to go to. It's a little bit harder in spaces like the library, where obviously only service animals are allowed.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Mr. City Manager. That was part of my concern. I understand people want to and need to keep their animals cool as well. My only concern is bringing an animal in a public place and someone who may have allergies or something to that effect. So maybe the best recommendation might be to contact the Animal Commission and get advice as to where you might be able to go with your animal. Is there any questions from the floor? Councilor Zusy and then the Vice Mayor. Yes, Councillor Zusy.
Catherine Zusy	Councillor Zusy. Okay, I just wanted to add, you know, Magazine Beach Pool is open. It's open every day until August 17th now. So it's open at 11.15 in the morning till 6.45. And it's a great place to cool off. There's also a splash pad there. There's the Artesani Playground, and then there's also the Francis McCray Memorial Pool at 349 Rinjav, which is also open. I think it has the same hours as Magazine Beach, but if you go to DCR Pools and Spray Decks, you'll find the hours for that pool. And I also know that the... Five Star Gold, Gold Star Mother's Park Pool is also opening on the 24th tomorrow. So that will be another resource for everyone. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Councilor Zusy. A lot of people refer to those pools by their street name. So Magazine Street Pool and the Ridge Avenue Pool, as it's finally known. I didn't know it was named for that person. Thank you for that additional information. Councilor Zusy yields the floor. Vice Mayor.
Marc McGovern	Thank you, Madam Mayor. Through you, I don't know if it's maybe a little too late for tomorrow, but if we are also encouraging folks to, the city buildings are one thing, but if we're encouraging folks to go to the mall or some other indoor public spaces, can we just make sure that we're communicating with the operators of those? I mean, I would assume that some of the folks who may go to the mall might be unhoused folks, and I don't want... them getting kicked out into the heat. So maybe notifying our police department or others to make sure that we're working with folks that are non-city buildings to be a little more lenient over the next few days. Thanks.
Denise Simmons	Vice Mayor, you have the floor. Anyone else that wants to speak? Hearing none, thank you, Mr. City Manager. That was important information. And if you can, email it to the council. That would be great.
Yi-An Huang	Yes, through you, Mayor Simmons. I believe the email may have gone to the council earlier today at about 1 o'clock.
Denise Simmons	I didn't see it. Well, thank you so much. If folks don't have it, ask the city manager to send it. The intel will go to the top of your email. Thank you. So we're now going to go to the policy order and resolution list. That's the next order of business. I'm going to pull number one. What's the pleasure of the city council on the balance?
Sumbul Siddiqui	Mayor Simmons.
Denise Simmons	Council Siddiqui.
Sumbul Siddiqui	I'll pull number three, please.
Denise Simmons	Pleasure of the city council. Council Wilson moves adoption of number two and number four, the policy order and resolution list. Roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson.
Unknown Speaker	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	In policy order number two and number four are adopted the affirmative vote of nine members. We're going to go back to number one. This was pulled by the mayor and offered by the mayor. It reads as follows that the city council go on record expressing its profound disappointment over Apex cleaning energy decision to forego the use of labor. Local union labor on the Bowman Wind Project. First of all, I want to ask that we amend This order, my office, we omitted the vice mayor, so I'd like to amend it to add the vice mayor as a co-sponsor. And in addition, some things I just wanted to say about this order. It's my intention to lay it on the table. I had a very brief conversation with the city manager today in deference to him and having a little bit more further conversation with the vice APPROPRIATE VOTE OF THE COUNCIL, I WILL LAY IT ON THE TABLE, BUT IF ANYONE WANTS TO SPEAK TO IT, I'LL, YOU KNOW, LET'S HAVE THAT CONVERSATION AND THEN I'LL ASK FOR A MOTION TO PUT IT ON THE TABLE. BUT HAVING SAID THAT, I JUST WANT TO, I DO WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE TONY PINI FROM LIUNA, PAUL GOODRIDGE FROM LABORERS UNION, NEW ENGLAND REGIONAL ORGANIZATION, and Steve Cortina from North Dakota, all who came together to bring this issue to our attention, to myself, to Councilor Toner, and to the Vice Mayor. And Tony and the folks at LIUNA are among my trusted advisors on labor issues. And so when they reach out and say, Mayor Simmons, we may have a labor issue percolating, it sets off alarms for me and compels me to look into what's going on. So last year, when Cambridge entered into the agreement with North Dakota, it represented a novel and innovative approach to promoting clean energy and reducing our carbon footprint. And we were very optimistic about the potential benefits. However, LIUNA has raised concerns that while Cambridge may be reaping the environmental benefits, the skilled laborers on the ground in North Dakota may not be receiving the respect or the opportunities that they deserve. Specifically, LIUNA has advised that Apex Clean Energy has prioritized cheaper non-union, non-local workers over qualified local union labor, a move that runs counter to the principles of fairness and economic justice that we hold dear. Efforts by LIUNA representatives to engage APEX on issues that have been sent with polite but evasive responses, which only deepens my concern. And I want to note for the record that representatives from APEX have reached out to me to discuss their perspective. And I get that my schedule has not allowed for this meeting, maybe in this brief period where it's laid on the table we can do that. Nonetheless, I want to be clear, bringing these concerns into the open is essential. If this attention prompts Apex to prioritize aligning its labor practices with the values Cambridge stands for, then the policy order will proceed. Cambridge has long been a leader in marrying ambitious climate actions with social justice and workplace fairness. We expect our partners to uphold the same standards. I urge other municipalities, institutions, and stakeholders to exercise their due diligence and demand ironclad commitments to local skilled labor and all clean energy projects. You've heard me say a number of times, about doing the right thing the wrong way, and this is my impression that that speaks to this. So in short, clean energy cannot come at the expense of the hard working communities it is intended to serve. So I will yield the floor. I've asked to add the Vice Mayor. Is there any more discussion on this issue? Council Wilson, the floor is yours.
Ayesha Wilson	I too would like to be added.
Denise Simmons	So I'll amend my amendment to add the Vice Mayor and Council Wilson. Further discussion? So on amending the policy order number one to add the Vice Mayor and Council Wilson as co-sponsors, roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern.
Marc McGovern	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler.
Unknown Speaker	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Absent. Councillor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councillor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded as absent.
Denise Simmons	And the amendment passes on the affirmative vote of eight members, one recorded as absent on laying on the table.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem? Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern?
Marc McGovern	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui?
Paul Toner	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Councillor Toner?
Unknown Speaker	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the matter is laid on the table on the affirmative vote of nine members? Nine members. Nine members. Now, I did move to lay this on the table, but if the city manager, if there's something that you wanted to impart to us at this time, or the solicitor, we would gladly receive that information.
Unknown Speaker	Okay.
Denise Simmons	Megan, when you got up and walked away, that got my attention. So what is your pleasure?
Yi-An Huang	Sure. Would love the opportunity through you, Mayor Simmons. I would perhaps start to say that we recognize the importance of union labor and that is something that I've seen added in as a stipulation in different governmental contracts. I would defer to the solicitor a bit. I believe we've actually had discussions about to what extent local municipalities have the ability in these kinds of contracts to require different labor practices or prevailing wages. I think aside from that, there is deep concern from the perspective of the city that this is a process that we have been going through for many years. We did meet in executive session with the city council to discuss the contract negotiations that we were having in order to enter into this agreement, we have then entered into this agreement. And as part of that agreement, we did not put in a requirement around what is being requested. And so at this point in time, we would have pretty deep concerns for the city council, ultimately as the governance body representing the city of Cambridge, to be commenting after a contract has been finalized to reopen different stipulations that were not actually in the negotiation. I think this would put us at risk both in terms of potential breach of contract. It would open us to a level of legal risk and liability that we would be very uncomfortable with. And I think in addition, there are specific provisions within the contract that are concerning in terms of the specific text in the order, in the policy order. So I would perhaps turn it over to Solicitor Beyer just to check my summary statements. But I think we can also provide some of this in writing or discuss it with counselors separately before any action is taken on the policy order.
Denise Simmons	So before you give the floor over to Solicitor Barron, I appreciate and the reason why I put this on the table was in deference to you, Mr. City Manager, when you brought forth that you had some concerns. I can't speak for the entire council, I can speak only for myself. the council may or may not follow suit. If this requires an executive session, we can call one day to do that if that's required or allowed. That being said, based on what you've said and I hear what you're saying, I've not been sufficiently moved and I'll tell you why. My concern is that while we are reaping the benefit in having something that we can give to the folks of our city at a reduced cost, I feel like we're doing it on the bridge called someone else's back. And so that's where I struggle. And so I look forward, and again, this is why I've asked my colleagues to lay this on the table, to allow us to have a brief, some conversation on it, but right now, I don't feel as though I'm in a place where I would want to change. I have put this forward. My colleagues have followed me with this, and I appreciate that. I will bow to them if they want to give some more comments. But again, I've laid this on the table so that we can have more conversation. I just think it's troubling. that we, for whatever reason we got there, are dancing with the devil. So I will yield the floor. I don't know, Solicitor Beer, if you want to reserve your comments for another time, or do you want to hear more from the floor? Tell me what's your pleasure.
SPEAKER_07	Thank you to you, Madam Mayor, just briefly. And that mic is a little hinky.
Denise Simmons	Do you mind trying the other one, please? Thank you.
SPEAKER_07	Thank you.
Denise Simmons	And talk right into it.
SPEAKER_07	Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just to make sure. everyone has this background information. It's just to clarify that this agreement, this virtual power purchasing agreement is to purchase environmental attributes from electricity generated by wind power. And so the city entered into a contract for those environmental attributes to offset the city's electric use and the community aggregations electric use. But the city, it's a little bit different than a contract for construction. The city isn't part of the actual construction of the wind plant in North Dakota. Our agreement is just for after it's constructed. We have entered into this agreement to buy these environmental attributes. Thank you. So that is just one bit of background information. And then there are terms to that agreement that the city has entered into. There is a signed contract. The city did this as part of consortium with other purchasers that include MIT and Harvard. And all the consortium members were working together. AND WE ALSO AS PART OF THIS CONTRACT HAVE TERMS WE HAVE TO ABIDE TO AND SOME OF THOSE INCLUDE HOW WE'RE REPRESENTING THIS PROJECT AND WORKING TOGETHER WITH THE DEVELOPER OF THE PROJECT TO REPRESENT WHAT THE CITY AND THE OTHER CONSORTIUM MEMBERS AND THE DEVELOPER ARE ALL DOING THROUGH THIS PROJECT.
Denise Simmons	THANK YOU. VICE MAYOR?
Marc McGovern	THANK YOU. THROUGH YOU. There may be some terminology or some words and some of the whereases that may be strong and folks feel a little uncomfortable about, but I'm looking at the orders and I'm just not, The ordered section says, the first order, that the city council go on record expressing his profound disappointment over Apex Clean Energy's decision to forego the use of local union labor on the Bowman Wind project, an omission that stands in stark contrast to Cambridge's longstanding values of fairness, economic justice, and support for a skilled local workforce. That's not asking us to back out of a contract. It's not asking us to change the contract we agreed to. We're going on record saying, You're creepy people. We're disappointed, right? And we have every right to go on record and say we're not asking anyone at Cambridge to get out of anything. The second order that the city council go on record urging other municipalities, government bodies, educational institutions, and private entities to exercise extreme caution before entering into a similar agreement with Apex Energy and to seek ironclad assurances that labor and local hiring practices will align with the highest standard of social responsibility. Again, not asking us to get out of a contract. just saying we're disappointed and we want to warn others to be careful. And then the last order is just send a suitably engrossed copy. So I'm not sure. I mean, I try not to read between. When you write a policy order, you write, and especially in the ordered sections, you write what it means and what it wants to mean. And I think sometimes people read between the lines and say, well, what they're really saying is this. This isn't asking us to change a contract. This isn't asking us to back out of anything. This is just saying we think this is wrong and we want to go on record stating that we think this is wrong. So I'm not sure where the concern is from the city and the solicitor's office saying this might somehow jeopardize our contract. We're not asking you to jeopardize anything.
Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler	Madam Mayor, point of information. If this is on the table, can we keep speaking to it properly or would it need to be pulled off the table for us to keep speaking on it?
Denise Simmons	Yeah, I understand. You might need to pull it off the table. We could move on and the sponsors could work with the city manager and staff to figure out. We can do one better because I know people are actually melting in the room here. One person in particular who will not be named. So maybe we would just hold this conversation. We have amended it. Thank you for reminding me of that. And we're going to move on to another agenda item. So go to a cooler spot. You can get out of the hot seat. Thank you so much. We will now move to the next item that was pulled. It was pulled by Councilor Siddiqui. It reads as follows, that the city manager being hereby is requested to direct the city solicitor in consultation with the relevant city department and community benefits advisory committee to draft amendments to the community benefits ordinance that allow for the use of funds capital expenses provided that such expenses clearly advance the goals of the community benefits program. This is pulled by Councilor Siddiqui. Councilor Siddiqui is the lead sponsor. The floor is yours.
Sumbul Siddiqui	Thank you. I'll be brief. This was sponsored by Councillor Wilson, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Vice Mayor McGovern and as it says it's to call for some amendments to the ordinance and by way of background as was mentioned this work started in 2015 And needs have evolved. We've heard from various nonprofits about the different needs. And so after we discussed this with city staff and others, it was recommended we put in this PO. I think the intent also is to have a further discussion in Human Services as well, and so that's really the background. One amendment I'm going to say to the floor is in the last ordered we say that the city manager is being hereby requested to direct the city solicitor to you know draft amendments and then it says at the end provided that such expenses clearly advance the goals of the community benefits program and i would add any other suggested benefits i'm sorry amendments that may not be mentioned here because there may be others that the staff may suggest to us so that was my amendment to add after community benefits program to say and and any other suggested amendments and be it further ordered that the city manager report back
Denise Simmons	Discussion? Councilor Zusy.
Catherine Zusy	I think that sounds great. And I would like to be added as a co-sponsor to this policy order.
Denise Simmons	Very good. Councilor Siddiqui, Councilor Zusy, and I are asking if we could be added for the discussion.
Patricia Nolan	I didn't hear you. Sorry. On adding or just on overall?
Denise Simmons	On adding, because that's what the amendment was. So if there's any more discussion on being added, hearing none on being added. Councilor Toner, do you want to speak to on being added? Because that's what we're talking about, amending this policy or those two amendments. One is on adding and there's a line.
Paul Toner	I had a question. I'll wait until you add.
Denise Simmons	Is the question on either of the two amendments?
Paul Toner	No, it's about the policy order as a whole.
Denise Simmons	Okay, so on the two amendments, which is to add the mayor and the council, Susie, do you want to restate your amendment, Councillor? Does everybody knows what we're voting on?
Sumbul Siddiqui	Yes.
Denise Simmons	Do you want to restate it?
Sumbul Siddiqui	Yes, it's in the second and last ordered, and it's just to add. language in the first order it just to add after community benefits program and any suggested amendments and be it further do you have that she doesn't have it captured could you say that again please it's to add any suggested amendments and i'll send that to you
Denise Simmons	Does everyone understand the two amendments? Madam Deputy, can we take the two amendments together? So it's going to ask us, we're going to do the amendment by adding the two co-sponsors first. So on the co-sponsors, roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner.
Paul Toner	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	The policy order is now amended to add two names. The next amendment.
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner.
Paul Toner	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. Councilor Toner, you said you wanted to ask a question?
Paul Toner	Just a question, Madam Mayor. Thank you. Through you to the city manager or whoever.
Denise Simmons	He's not here.
Paul Toner	Well, then. Through you two, my colleagues who are bringing this forward, I'm sure you've all received phone calls. I just want to, and I'm fine voting for this, but I would just like some statement that this will not negatively impact the benefit that is going to go to the East End House as a result of the Biomed project, because some people have been very nervous and concerned that uh that may may have an impact so if i don't know if council sadiki wants to answer that but i just wanted to assure them that that's not the intent of this council sadiki
Sumbul Siddiqui	This is, I think, meant, this is overall part of the discussion of amending the process. It doesn't relate to that discussion.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Councilor Siddiqui. As I understand it, this is a standalone. We've had a community benefits process for a very long time, and this is amending. the community benefit process that we currently have. I'm not going to speak for Councilor Siddiqui, the sponsor, but I read it as looking at what we currently do under our community benefits program. This is an amendment to make it function in a wider, broader way than it functions right now. Is that correct, Councilor Siddiqui?
Sumbul Siddiqui	Yes, it is. I mean, I'm not going to discount that there are concerns. We heard it in public comment about just this notion of how nonprofits get money and when, and given the different needs that exist in our community. So I think... It's all related in that way, but it is a standalone in that I think we've discussed amending this for, this has been in discussion for quite a while.
Denise Simmons	For a while.
Sumbul Siddiqui	Go ahead.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Siddiqui yields the floor. I think the Vice Mayor, Councilor Wilson, and then Councilor Siddiqui. Council Wilson, excuse me. So Vice Mayor.
Marc McGovern	Thank you Madam Mayor. So a few weeks ago, few weeks ago and it was it was kind of just crazy timing we had on the same night we had both an update from the city on the on the benefits committee at the same time that the conversation about biomed Cambridge uh east end house motion was on the table and and one of the things that former counselor carlone pointed out uh in talking about the um uh in in talking about the community benefits advisory committee was that in the original policy order that the council passed it included to use those to be able to use those funds for capital projects but in the ordinance that the city presented and was eventually passed that was taken out and so um and then we were you know then we were talking about the Holy East you know biomed you know piece um the the biomed uh ordinance and that petition is going to come up for finalization on June 30th So that's, you know, at our next meeting, that's when we can ordain it and that's when we will be voting on it. This is obviously not happening by June 30th. So I see these as two very, as two separate, two completely separate things.
Denise Simmons	Vice Mayor yields the floor. Council Zusy and then Council Wilson. Council Zusy.
Catherine Zusy	Thank you, through you, Madam Mayor. The reason that I think this is so important, and I thank you for writing this policy order, is that I've just been shocked that Cambridge legacy nonprofits have failing facilities, and they all lack endowments. So I think if there isn't an opportunity for us to use community benefits to help them improve their facilities, I don't see that they'll have a source of funds for this. And also at the Cambridge Nonprofit Coalition last week, The Cambridge Community Foundation's Elizabeth Patton gave a presentation. Cambridge has over 578 active nonprofits and a total of 1,244 nonprofits. We have a lot of them. They provide tremendous benefit for the city. And some of them have really a great need for improved facilities. So I think it's important that funding capital expenses be an option with community benefits. Thank you. I yield.
SPEAKER_32	Councilor Suzy yields the floor. Councilor Wilson.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you, Madam Mayor. Through you to my colleagues, I want to appreciate the, you know, being a co-sponsor on this and just recognizing the various complexities, but also just the intention behind the Community Benefits Fund, the, you know, little bit of history around it and just understanding, like, is this actually fitting for our nonprofit providers today? But given the restrictions around infrastructure, capital infrastructure, as well as other things, we recognize that there's a deeper conversation that we need to have. And so as co-chair of Human Services, I appreciate the fact that we discussed this. referring a motion a couple weeks ago or maybe months ago now, I can't even remember, that we will have this conversation before that committee. And this just gives us a little bit more of a layout for what more to be discussing and making sure that we're taking that piece again around infrastructure, capital expenses, and other things that may come up. to have that conversation, but also to hear from our nonprofit providers on just the operations today, right, and just how things are flowing today. We recognize, to my colleague's point, around we have several organizations that are in some buildings that are just not – not okay, right? And so there's a lot of work that needs to be done across the board and we have programs that are a century plus old that are doing great work in our communities that deserve to look like they are being cared for and especially by a city where we are investing some significant dollars in other things that we are working together and making sure that we are providing those spaces for our programs to thrive and for our communities to feel like they belong. So I look forward to this conversation. I look forward to my colleagues supporting this policy order and we shall move forward from there.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Council Wilson. Council Wilson yields the floor. Councilor Nolan?
Patricia Nolan	Thank you so much, Mayor Simmons, and thank you to everyone working on this. As Councilor Siddiqui said, this has been talked about at various times. And as Vice Mayor McGovern noted, Councilor Carlone came and said the original intent of the council was not necessarily to exclude it. So this is somewhat overdue, thanks to all the councillors who are bringing this forward. and to ensure that what we're doing is having a more comprehensive, clear, and transparent process by which we hope we would come together and understand. Sometimes we have community benefits here, and then we have some other pool over here, and then we have the community foundation. It's really important, just like when we provide after-school care, which we're coordinating now and understanding the whole ecosystem. Similarly, with the various ways that development dollars flow into our city, how is it that they're being used? Some of them gets used through INCREASED TAX REVENUE, WHICH THEN THE CITY COUNCIL DIRECTS, BUT THEN THERE'S A RANGE OF OTHERS THAT COME THROUGH VARIOUS MEANS. SO IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT THIS CONVERSATION WILL MOVE FORWARD, AND I UNDERSTAND IT WILL AFFECT ALL FUTURE PROJECTS. AS VICE MAYOR SAID, IT WILL BE, I'M SURE, A LITTLE WHILE BEFORE WE HAVE ORDINANCE LANGUAGE BEFORE IT, BUT I LOOK FORWARD TO SUPPORTING THIS AND TO GETTING THIS DONE IN A WAY THAT IF THAT'S THE GREATEST NEED OF A NONPROFIT TO CONTINUE THEIR INFRASTRUCTURE AND THEIR building or their construction, then that's what we should be funding so that they can provide those programs. And it has been said, as Councilor Wilson noted, there's a number of needs lacking here. We have now spent so much money as a city upgrading facilities in some areas. Let's try to see if we can have a more, I think, coordinated approach to funding non-profits. So thank you all for sponsoring this, and I will be supporting it.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Nolan yields the floor. Councilor Turner, anything else you'd like to say on this?
Paul Toner	No, that's it. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just wanted to assure people who are supporting the East End House this wasn't going to negatively affect it. Thank you. I yield.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Antonio yields the floor on the policy order.
Sumbul Siddiqui	Mayor Simmons? Sorry, just wanted to say my legislative aide was away and wanted to thank Naomi for helping draft this because she was right on it. So thank you, Naomi, for doing that. She wants hazard pay.
Denise Simmons	Exactly. Anyway, that's all. Thank you. On a motion by Councilor Siddiqui to adopt as amended.
SPEAKER_29	Roll call. Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	The policy order is adopted as amended by the affirmative vote of nine members. We're going to move now to the calendar items. The first calendar item is a charter right, which I exercised on June 16th. I've been in conversation with 32BJ. They have asked if I would hold this until our last meeting, June 30th. So I would like to entertain a motion to lay this on the table. Is there any discussion? On a motion by Council Wilson to lay it on the table. Takes a two-thirds vote. Deputy, who are you?
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui. Absent. Absent. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner.
Paul Toner	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded as absent.
Denise Simmons	And the matter is laid on the table on the firm to vote of eight members, one being recorded as absent. We're going to pass over the other items on the calendar, move on to applications and petitions. We do not have any communications. There's 289. What is the pleasure of the council?
Marc McGovern	Wave the reading, Madam Mayor, and move to place on file.
Denise Simmons	Really? The Vice Mayor asked that we waive the reading of the 289 communications and place them on file. Discussion?
SPEAKER_29	Hearing none, roll call. Councillor Azeem? Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui? Absent. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler?
Marc McGovern	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Toner?
Paul Toner	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded as absent.
Unknown Speaker	Yes.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Madam Clerk. I think the next item is consent resolutions. Pleasure of the City Council. There are three.
Catherine Zusy	I'd like to pull three, please.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Susie pulls number three. What about the balance? I think you said move the adoption, making them unanimous. Okay, just a moment. Council Zusy polls number three.
Ayesha Wilson	Council Wilson. Madam Mayor, I just wanted to poll number two just because it had to do with my announcement. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	Very good. So on number one, placing that, adopting it, making it an as upon adoption roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Excuse me. Councilor Zinn. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern.
Marc McGovern	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Counselor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Counselor Siddiqui? Absent. Counselor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Counselor Toner?
Paul Toner	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Counselor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Counselor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded as absent.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. We go now to the non-content agenda on resolutions. And the first one was pulled by Counselor Wilson, reads as follows. Congratulations to the Culture Lounge. Counselor Wilson, the floor is yours.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you. I just wanted to also announce that the Cultural Alliance, so again, they're going to be celebrating their one year anniversary. They'll be at Althea's this Sunday from 12 to 6 p.m., which is the rooftop over there at 907 Main Street. And I just want to just give a lot of credit and props, I guess. I don't even know another word right now. to Malaney Council and Kenny Utavicki for really forming this space and creating this community that's built around love of music, hip-hop, R&B, dancehall reggae, just so much joy that's in that space each and every month and for it to be a once a month space, they often sell out. And individuals that are coming into this space are just overjoyed. So I just want to say congratulations to them, wishing them many more years of success. And again, they were highlighted in the Globe. I look forward to presenting this resolution to them this Sunday, and yeah, just really proud of their efforts. Wonderful. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	Council, if I could ask if I could be added as a co-sponsor. I know that we're all listed, but- Absolutely. So if there's no discussion on the amendment, on the amendment, roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Zinn. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? Yes. Yes. Councilor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui? Yes. Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner?
Paul Toner	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	The resolution is now amended on the resolution as amended roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem? Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern?
Marc McGovern	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui? Yes. Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler?
Marc McGovern	Yes.
Paul Toner	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councillor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councillor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. I think we move now to the last one, which was pulled by Councillor Zusy, and it's I'm going to waive the reading. The floor is yours.
Catherine Zusy	It's to honor the Preservation Award recipients, and I thank Councilor Wilson for including me on this. Thursday night's Preservation Awards, which the mayor spoke at, was a great feel-good event to hear about significant buildings lovingly restored under the guidance of Charlie Sullivan and our Cambridge Historical Commission. Among the buildings receiving awards were three city buildings, including City Hall right here, the Inman Fire Station, and the Harvard Square Kiosk. Three Harvard buildings also won awards, Gund Hall that I hadn't realized was so leaky before it was restored, and then the two sustainable living houses on Kirkland and Sacramento streets. St. Augustine's African Orthodox Church, a project that I co-initiated with architect Gabe Syrah in 2018 with the Cambridge Port Neighborhood Association, also won an award. And again, So many people that have been involved with that project since 2018 were there. Missing were Chris Menjopra, though, of Black History in Action for Cambridgeport, who is a new father, and the Eccles brothers, who have really devoted their lives to the restoration and the continuance of St. Augustine's African Orthodox Church. All of these projects require time, money, and attention to detail, and provide the community with tremendous benefit, preserving the architectural character and variety of Cambridge. So it was a great night, and again, I'm proud to be a co-sponsor with Councilor Wilson on this resolution. Thank you. I yield.
Denise Simmons	Council. Council. Council Zusy yields the floor. Council Wilson, the floor is yours. I respectfully ask to be added as a co-sponsor as well. The floor is yours, Councilor.
Ayesha Wilson	Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Council Susie, for joining me on this one. I just wanted to appreciate the work of the Cambridge Historical Commission. I want to also appreciate the efforts of all of the awardees. I can just celebrate them. I was unable to participate while I had all hopes to participate. get there that evening um but traffic wasn't on my side and the several other events that were um going on that that evening did not allow me to get here to city hall so um i felt like this was the next best thing to be able to celebrate these individuals and to highlight them and and um just say i look forward to the next century of years that they're able to support and service our community so you know just i'm happy that our city does and invest in historical spaces and and making sure that they are preserved in and getting that recognition so again this was the least that i could do recognizing not only my absence but um also noting that they worked hard so thank you
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Council Wilson, for offering this resolution. And I would like to, again, add myself as a co-sponsor. So we're going to be talking about, at this point, the amendment. Council Nolan, you're speaking about the amendment?
Patricia Nolan	Yes, because I'd like to be added as well.
Denise Simmons	So we have two amendments. One amendment, two people. So there's no more discussion on amending this resolution to add Mayor Simmons and Council Nolan. Discussion having happened. HAVEN'T TAKEN PLACE, ROLL CALL.
SPEAKER_29	COUNCILLOR Azeem. YES. YES. VICE MAYOR MCGOVERN. YES. YES. COUNCILLOR NOLAN. YES. YES. COUNCILLOR SIDDIKI. YES. YES. COUNCILLOR Sobrinho-Wheeler. YES. YES. COUNCILLOR TONER. YES. YES. COUNCILLOR WILSON. YES. YES. COUNCILLOR ZUZI.
Catherine Zusy	YES.
SPEAKER_29	YES. MAYOR SIMMONS. YES. YES. AND YOU HAVE NINE MEMBERS RECORDED IN THE AFFIRMATIVE.
Denise Simmons	THE POLICY ORDER IS AMENDED ON THE AFFIRMATIVE VOTE OF NINE MEMBERS ON THE, EXCUSE ME, RESOLUTION, ON THE RESOLUTION AS AMENDED. Councilor Azeem.
Ayesha Wilson	Madam Mayor, sorry, excuse me. I just want to make sure as amended and with the full council added.
SPEAKER_29	Yes.
Ayesha Wilson	Is that usually how it goes? Okay. Thank you. Yes. We're in the middle of the vote, so let us complete. Apologies.
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Counselor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Counselor Toner?
Paul Toner	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Counselor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Counselor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the vote carries on the affirmative vote of nine members. That was on the resolution as amended. Yes. Counselor Nolan, do you want to speak to something that's not before us?
Patricia Nolan	No, I had wanted to speak to that, but it's done.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. Resolutions having concluded. Madam Mayor. Vice, I want to call you vice something.
Ayesha Wilson	I'll take it. I want to apologize and I don't want to prolong this meeting any longer, but I just want to suspend the rules. I do want to bring up resolution order number one. Mr. Keegan was actually my principal at the Kennedy School, and I do want to be added. I understand that we're all on it, but just would like to suspend the rule.
Denise Simmons	We're going to suspend the rule. So first vote is on suspension.
SPEAKER_29	Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councilor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councilor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. On amending a previously taken vote. Roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Sorry, I'm just trying to write it. Take your time. Councilor Azeem. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the policy, the resolution is amended. Suspended.
Unknown Speaker	Yes.
Denise Simmons	before us the policy the resolution is amended so as from Pete Feastley voted yes we should we should vote to amend we just amended yeah we did that and now we're going to do as amended as amended thank you so as amended roll call
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	The action carries on the positive vote of nine members. We are going to now move to committee reports. There are two. Pleasure of the City Council.
Patricia Nolan	Accept and place on file.
Denise Simmons	On a motion by Councilor Nolan to accept the two reports, one on economic development and university relations and the other government operations rules and claims committee. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem? Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern? Yes. Yes, Councillor Nolan? Yes. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui? Yes. Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the committee reports on economic development of May 6th and government operations. Committee report of May 21st. has been accepted and placed on file by the affirmative vote of nine members. We move to communications and reports from other city officers. There's one communication. It's an update on legislative activity. It is being offered by our interim clerk. Is there any discussion?
SPEAKER_29	Hearing none, roll call. Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Counselor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Counselor Toner? Yes. Yes. Counselor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Counselor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	Thank you, Madam Clerk. We now move to late resolutions. I do not believe there are any.
SPEAKER_29	Yes, there is.
Denise Simmons	There is. Okay. So we'll suspend the rules to take up late resolutions.
SPEAKER_29	Counselor Azeem? Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? Yes. Yes. Counselor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui? Yes. Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. We have nine members recorded in the affirmative. I'm sorry, I made a mistake, Madam Mayor. It's a late policy order.
Denise Simmons	All right, so do we need to retake that vote? No, I think we're okay. Okay, we'll use the vote that we used on the late policy order. There is just one. There's two. I'll read them. I just see one.
SPEAKER_29	So the first one is that the City Council go on record in support of H2343 slash S3653 enact expanding truck safety requirements sponsored by Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Vice Mayor McGovern, Councilor Siddiqui, and Councilor Nolan. Discussion?
Denise Simmons	All those in favor? If you're ready, just take the roll.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Marc McGovern	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Paul Toner	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative. I didn't see a second one, so yes, go ahead. The second one is a late policy order on a letter to the state legislature on Charter Home Rule H4156, sponsored by Councilor Nolan, Councilor Siddiqui, and Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler.
Denise Simmons	So this policy order is being offered by Councilors Nolan Siddiqui and Sobrinho-Wheeler. As the lead sponsor, we'll let you know that the proposal that we sent on the charter, Cambridge City Charter, is going to be before the House tomorrow. And we are sending this on with all due speed. to let them know how happy we are that they're taking this up and that you know we would like it to have a most favorable reception council known
Patricia Nolan	Thank you. As you noted, Mayor Simmons, we apologize for this late policy order. You noted that the hearing is actually tomorrow. And the council only heard about the hearing being scheduled for whatever reason Friday afternoon. So we did not get a chance to put this on the agenda. on the regular agenda um but it the ordered itself is is up there which is basically that we we go on record as a council asking them to pass what we already passed and sent forward as a home rule petition which passed unanimously of the city council and this came out of the an email that the a city solicitor sent indicating that the committee thought it might be helpful to have what it was, a summary of the charter home rule petition that we had passed. So that's what this represents. It's a letter that hopefully will be passed and then sent with all of us, after which I would like to file reconsideration to ensure that the clerk will be able to send this first thing in the morning. The hearing is tomorrow from 1 to 5. It summarizes our discussions and again, this is the humble we've been waiting for for a while and the election commission needs to make sure this gets passed in time if we can by the state legislature so that it can do all the work that would be required for this to be on the ballot in November.
Denise Simmons	Any further discussion, Councilor Wilson?
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you, I would just like to be added to this policy order, thank you.
Denise Simmons	So any other discussion on the amendment? Hearing none, I'm adding Council Wilson as a co-sponsor. We'll call.
SPEAKER_29	Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern.
Marc McGovern	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes, Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Counselor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Counselor Toner? Yes. Yes. Counselor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Counselor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the amendment passes on the affirmative vote of nine members. On the policy order as amended, roll call.
SPEAKER_29	Counselor Azeem? Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? Yes. Yes. Counselor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Counselor Siddiqui?
Unknown Speaker	Yes.
SPEAKER_26	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes. Counselor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Counselor Toner. Counselor Toner. Yes. Yes. Counselor Wilson. Yes. Counselor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.
Denise Simmons	And the matter is adopted on the affirmative vote of nine members as amended. Yes.
Patricia Nolan	Yes. I would like to move suspension for purposes of reconsideration, hoping the same will not prevail.
SPEAKER_29	On suspension. Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice-Man McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative. The rules are now suspended. On reconsideration? Councilor Azeem? Yes. No. No. No. Vice Mayor McGovern? No. No. Councilor Nolan? No. No. Councilor Siddiqui?
Sumbul Siddiqui	No.
SPEAKER_29	No. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? No. No. Councilor Toner? No. No. Councilor Wilson? No. No. Councilor Zusy? No. No. Mayor Simmons?
SPEAKER_26	No.
SPEAKER_29	No. And you have nine members recorded in the negative.
Denise Simmons	And reconsideration fails on the affirmative vote of nine members. We now move to announcements. I only have two. I'm gonna try to beat you to them. Thank you. Just wanna remind folks that we will be acknowledging Charlie Sullivan next Monday, June 30th at 3.30. There'll be food in the second floor hallway and then there'll be a brief program as it is expressed in our rules, that we can do special presentations just before the meeting. So it'll be at 5 o'clock here in the council chamber. Also, for those that just enjoy dancing, Friday is the dance party. So I just want to remind people that we'll be dancing in the streets. It starts at 5. It should be a great time to be had by all. I understand it has a revolutionary theme. I can't wait to see that. And so I will yield the floor with those two announcements unless I missed something, Mr. Alpert. Councillor.
Ayesha Wilson	Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just wanted to also add that we'll be celebrating our Deputy City Manager, Oden O'Riordan, and his retirement this Wednesday at 9 AM. I also wanted to name that, and I mentioned this in our committee meeting earlier today, that the Cambridge Small Business Pop-Up Marketplace is going to be hosted by the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, June 28th and 29th, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1175 Cambridge Street in East Cambridge. This is a free... This event is free and is a great opportunity to support local businesses and discover unique products. The other thing that I just wanted to emphasize was something that our city manager mentioned earlier and around. It is hot outside and it is important that we take care of and look out for our neighbors. So just please take advantage of cool spaces throughout our city and just stay out of the heat, but stay hydrated. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	It's a good reminder that tomorrow is said to be 105, so people should exercise due care. Council Susie.
Catherine Zusy	One more event on Wednesday, June 25th, 530 to 730, Taste of Cambridge at University Park. So it may be sort of hot that day. But that's another great event. And I forgot to mention earlier, it's like 10 degrees cooler at Magazine Beach under those shade trees with the river breeze. So I hope residents will go to our parks along the river. Thank you.
Denise Simmons	Councilor Susie yields the floor. Any other announcements? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. Yes. Yes.
Ayesha Wilson	Apologies, I just have one more. The fourth annual Battle of the Bridge is going to be happening at Hoyt Field. The Battle of what, dear? Battle of the Bridge. The Bridge. The Bridge. Cambridge. It's going to be happening at Hoyt Field. This is hosted by Starling Inc., Inc. Elite Classics, and others. So this will be happening on Saturday from 10 to 6. And there's also the Cambridge Family Fun Day that will be happening in the back of the Peabody School from 10 a.m. until... Maybe one, I believe it is, that's open to all Cambridge residents with children under the age of eight. It'll be a fun event with many activities, books, and snacks, and so much more.
Denise Simmons	Thank you. And with that, Council Wilson offers a motion to adjourn. Roll call. Councilor Azeem.
Burhan Azeem	Yes.
SPEAKER_29	Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councilor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councilor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner. Councillor Toner. Absent. Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have eight members recorded in the affirmative with one recorded as absent.
Denise Simmons	And the meeting is adjourned on the affirmative vote of eight members. Say eight. Eight. Two will be being recorded as absent.
Unknown Speaker	All right.