City Council · CivicPulse

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Meeting Title: City Council
City: Somerville, MA
Date Published: 2025-06-26

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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
SPEAKER_08	In accordance with Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2023, this meeting of the City Council may be conducted via remote participation. Please note that video and audio of this meeting is being recorded and may be shown on local access government channels and on the City of Somerville website and will be available for future review. Will the Clerk please call the roll?
Clerk	This is roll call. Councillor Mbah.
J.T. Scott	Present.
Clerk	Councillor Wilson.
J.T. Scott	Present.
Clerk	Councillor Ewen Campin. Here. Councillor Scott.
J.T. Scott	Present.
Clerk	Councillor McLaughlin. Here. Councillor Burnley.
J.T. Scott	Present.
Clerk	Councillor Saitz. Here. Councillor Strezo. Present. Councillor Clingan.
J.T. Scott	Present.
Clerk	Councillor Davis. Here. Councillor Pineda-Newfeld. Here. With 11 Councillors present, we have a quorum.
SPEAKER_08	Thank you, Clerk. Pursuant to our Rule 32, let it be known that the City Council salutes the flag of the United States of America, and let us recall our oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth to the best of our abilities and understanding. We'll begin this meeting with some moments of silence. Before I open it up to the full council, I do have a few I'd like to share myself. First, I'd like to share that our own Rich Reich lost his mother recently. Rich is a resident of Ward 7, so I'm going to read a piece of her obituary. Carol Patricia McNeil Reich, 75, of Bradford, passed away June 17 at Mass General Hospital. She was born in Boston on February 5, 1950. She was a tireless caregiver with never-ending energy. and presence for her beloved children, grandchildren, and friends. Overflowing with generosity and spirit, she was kind to every stranger, an avid learner, and with a brilliant and perpetually curious mind. She completed a BA in English Literature at Merrimack College and a Master's in Arts-Based Education in Endicott College. She never stopped exploring, reading multiple books a week up until the very end. She loved to sing and sing beautifully, playfully clever, quick and funny. She brightened every single room. It's such a beautiful tribute to such a special woman. And I just wanted to say our thoughts are with Rich and his family right now. We also unfortunately are mourning the loss of another one of our city staff's parents, Tom Gallaghani's father, Thomas Gallaghani, passed away on June 22nd, 2025, following a courageous fight with cancer. He was 82 years old, known as Tom to most, He's survived by his devoted wife of 56 years, Ginny Gallaghani, and his daughter, Lori, and her husband, Robert, his son, Thomas Gallaghani, Jr., and his wife, Krista, and six beloved grandchildren. He has a connection to Somerville and Ward 7 in particular. Born in March 20th, 1943 in Cambridge and grew up in Somerville, graduated from Matanon High School, class of 1961, and earned both a bachelor's and master's degree from Boston State College. Tom had an esteemed career spanning six decades as an educator and school administrator, impacting countless families, students, and faculty. He first served as a history teacher at Southern Junior High School and Somerville High School, and finished his long public service career as the headmaster of Somerville High. After retiring from Somerville Public Schools, he returned to his alma mater, Matanon High School in Cambridge, where he served as headmaster, and later as headmaster emeritus. A proud resident of Billerica for more than 56 years, Tom was deeply involved in his community. He served on the Billerica School Committee for 24 years and as a town meeting member for 18 years, always advocating passionately for children, families, and education. Tom was an avid reader, gifted storyteller, and a true people person who brought joy and laughter to those around him. A lifelong Boston sports fan, he loved cheering on the Celtics and Red Sox and enjoyed traveling with his family. He will be deeply missed, and we also send our condolences to Tom and his family. Any other members of our community wish to say something for moments of silence? Councillor McLaughlin.
Matt McLaughlin	Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to sign on to both. But I do want to acknowledge Tom Gallaghani Sr., who I did know, who was a building master at Somerville High when I graduated there. And I remember him fondly. He was a firm but very caring person. And I'm sorry to hear that he passed. And I remember about the time that I got on this council, Tom Gallaghani Jr. got a job in the city. And there's a Mr. Gallaghani in the room. And I had to turn around, make sure I didn't get sent to the building master's office. But I got to know Tom very well, just like I knew his father a little less. But I'm grateful to have had both of them in my life and to have them as public servants in the city, as well as Mr. Raish and all the people who work for the city and commit their time to the city. So my thoughts are with both of them.
SPEAKER_08	Councilor Clingan.
Jesse Clingan	Madam President, thank you. Through you, I'd like to recognize and keep in our thoughts the friends and family of Jason LaPorter. Jason was a friend of mine. We grew up in the city of Somerville. He would have been 49 years old. He leaves behind his wife, Christine LaPorter, his brother Frankie, his brother Keithy, and his sister Crystal, he survived, I'm sorry, his mom passed away a number of years ago. Jason had a heart of gold, he was the sweetest, one of the sweetest people I knew. He grew up rough, but he always stayed kind, and I'll always remember him for that, and I just hope that we'll keep his loved ones in our thoughts and prayers today.
SPEAKER_17	Thank you.
SPEAKER_08	Okay. Will everyone in the chamber who is able please rise for a moment of silence. You may be seated. I was remiss and did not share, since we are at capacity, our emergency instructions, so I will do that now. In the event of an emergency and we must evacuate the building, please locate the nearest emergency exit and exit to the farthest points of the parking lot away from the building. All exit doors have an exit sign above the doorway. All means of egress, including aisles, hallways, stairways, fire escapes, and exit doors within this city council chamber through to the public way outside of city hall must remain free and clear from obstructions including objects and persons so thank you for listening to that um madam clerk let's read the next item please item 1.3 is approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of may 22nd 2025. seeing no opposition the minutes are approved next item item 1.4 is approval of the minutes of the special meeting of may 29th 2025. Seeing no opposition, the minutes are approved. Next item.
Clerk	And I believe, Madam President, that we're going to take some items out of order.
SPEAKER_08	We sure are. It's not my last meeting. If I don't mess some things up, Madam Clerk. Colleagues, we are going to take just a few things out of order this evening, not surprisingly. So we are going to start with some citations, and then we'll move to our public hearings. do 4.1 which is a climate super fund bill resolution which we have a sponsored speaker here tonight to speak on that and then we'll move into the budget items and then after that we'll come back and take up our land use committee meeting committee report and then 714 to 716 which are items for meeting consideration tonight and then we'll go back to the regular order of the agenda so
Clerk	stay with me we are i will guide you through um this meeting this evening and with that madam clerk let's take up the next item thank you madam president the first citation will be item 2.2 a citation by councillor wilson commending jason diorio and kevin mccormick for their actions on june 11 2025 providing assistance to a community member in need council wilson
Jake Wilson	Madam President, on June 12th, a community member fell and hit her head while crossing the street in Spring Hill. Fortunately, a crew from our DPW Highway Division was there doing a sidewalk replacement, and they witnessed the incident. Jason Di Iorio and Kevin McCormick called 911 to report the injury. and then provided support and care while awaiting the arrival of the EMTs. A neighbor had called into 311 to report how wonderful, in their words, Mr. DiIorio and Mr. McCormick were in a really stressful situation. So it just shows how city staff are caring members of our community and we should be recognizing going above and beyond like this when it does happen. So I believe we have our DPW Commissioner Jill Lathan here.
SPEAKER_17	like to sponsor which related to speak absolutely commissioner latham welcome thank you commissioner joe latham dpw uh... jason and kevin can you come stand by please i just want to say as a commissioner dpw in my phenomenal crews that work in the city every single day the foundational work that you guys both do for this city. When I got that call and I said, they said that you two rushed to the aid of that elderly woman and Jason, how you got, you held her, you got on the ground and you held her head and you talked to her. And Kevin, you immediately called 911 and you made sure that she was calm and you both just were so securely and confident talking her through that incredible scary moment. As a commissioner, I am so proud and it is an honor and a privilege that you're on my crew, that you're on my team, and that you work for this city. So I just want to personally thank you for upholding our core values of dependability, teamwork, and customer service, because that customer service was up and beyond. So thank you so much.
Jake Wilson	That was amazing. Did you want to say any words? No.
SPEAKER_09	You good?
SPEAKER_08	Stick around, folks. We're going to pause for pictures in just a moment. We're going to do one more citation, so stick around because we'll want to take photos with you. Madam Clerk, the next item.
Clerk	Item 2.3 is a citation by Councillor Wilson commending the Somerville Pride 7th grade girls basketball team on their win in the Metro West Youth Basketball Championship.
Jake Wilson	Councilor Wilson. Madam President, lots of good stuff happening in our community. Our Somerville Pride seventh grade girls basketball team, as you mentioned, won that Metro West title earlier this year. It's, I believe, the first such title in over a decade for the program. And I think only the third time in the 35 or so years that this has happened. So it's a big deal. It's an achievement worth celebrating here today and letting them know just how proud of them their community is. I'd like to sponsor Coach Israel Garcia to say a few words here.
SPEAKER_08	Welcome.
SPEAKER_01	Hi, good evening everyone. I'm Coach Israel. First and foremost, I want to thank the Consular Jake Wilson, the Mayor and the Consular for giving us this special recognition. We receive it with special gratitude. As a team, in order for us to accomplish the goal, we did it with teamwork from parents, coaches, and these girls. They play with passion, discipline, and pride. Last but not least, we want the people of City of Somerville to feel proud they have a Metro West seventh grade girls basketball championship team. Thanks.
SPEAKER_08	Congratulations. Colleagues, let's take a five-minute recess. Oh, you're right. Yes. Stick around. We're going to show you some photos in just one moment. Madam Clerk, let's read the next citation then.
Clerk	Item 5.1 is a citation by Councillor Pineda-Newfeld commending the Kiwanis Club on the auspicious occasion of its 100th anniversary of support to the community.
SPEAKER_08	100 years. Incredible. Yes. Yes. I'll read the citation and then I believe Madam Mayor would like to say a few words. So citation, be it hereby known to all that the Somerville City Council and the Mayor offer their sincerest commendations to the Kiwanis Club on their 100th anniversary of service to the community. The City Council and the Mayor applaud the club's direct community impact and mission to improve the world by making lasting differences in the lives of children and adults. The Councillors and the Mayor offer their congratulations and extend their best wishes for the next 100 years. Congratulations.
Katjana Ballantyne	Madam Mayor, welcome. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So congratulations to the Kiwanis Club of Somerville on 100 years of service. Our city has changed a lot since 1925, but your support to our residents has been steady and unwavering. Toys and backpack drives for families in need, scholarships for our youth, Thanksgiving dinners for seniors, even karaoke. Earlier this month, I saw your members giving out helmets for bike safety in Carnival. It's clear that Kiwanis Club is a part of the fabric of our community. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude and congratulations on this amazing milestone.
SPEAKER_12	On behalf of the Somerville Kiwanis Club, I'd like to thank the mayor and the city councils. Some old corners 100 years ago didn't figure that in 2025 we'd still be around. But it's interesting that when you are giving back and doing something good, because that's how it all started, some business people wanted to do some good. One of the first programs was a Christmas program for underprivileged children. and we still continue that to this very day. But it isn't just small children, kids in middle school. How wonderful it is that the Somerville Girls' Pride basketball team won this fabulous championship, but it was maybe about 12 years ago or so that the Somerville Kiwanis Club held a pancake breakfast at the Mount Vernon Restaurant to raise money for uniforms because at that time, the Somerville girls high school pride basketball team didn't have uniforms. And we thought that's wrong. Our president at that time, Sandra McGoldrick said, let's do this. We raised several thousands of dollars and it went to the uniforms. I mean, We're around a long time because not only are we doing good, but we feel good doing this and That's something special, it really is. There are a lot of service clubs in Somerville, and they're all great. Somerville is definitely hands-on. It wasn't that many years ago that our past president, Ellen O'Brien, a former school teacher, was at the Somerville Public School, the library, the children's room, and at that time, it was in pretty tough shape. Do you know, that she raised with the club, our members, $10,000 that Somerville Kiwanis donated to the city of Somerville specifically for new furnishings, painting, and doing that room over. The symbol of Kiwanis is very involved in a lot of activities, and we appreciate the recognition. And I'd like to introduce, if it's okay, our club presidents. Yes? Tom Austin and Dom Austin, co-presidents. Man, thank you very much for this recognition. It means a lot. Thank you very much. My name is Robert Nissenbaum.
SPEAKER_08	Thank you. Congratulations. Colleagues, we'll take a five minute recess to take some photos with all of the folks that we are honoring this evening.
Clerk	Let's do a basketball team first. Y'all come in the middle.
Jake Wilson	Come right in here.
Clerk	We're going to push this table.
	Coach, do you want to take some photos on your phone?
	Oh, perfect.
	He's ready.
	All right.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, welcome back, welcome back and congratulations again to everybody. Okay. Madam Clerk, next item.
Clerk	The next item is item 2.1, a citation by Councillor Davis, commending outgoing Councillor Judy Pineda-Newfeld for her outstanding service to the people of Somerville as Ward 7 City Councillor from 2022 to 2025, and her distinguished service as President of this Council in 2025.
Lance Davis	Councillor Davis. I hope that wasn't a spoiler alert. So I'll be brief, but I just want to say thank you so much, President Pineda-Nufeld, for your leadership, your steady hand over this long, long period of your leadership. But even before you became our council president, provided a calm voice and a always information-backed approach to government, which I appreciate. And I'm very excited for your new opportunity, but very sad to see you go. And I will read the citation, and then I'll be quiet. I know the mayor would like to say a few words, and I'm sure my colleagues will as well. This is to Judy Pineda-Newfeld, President, in grateful recognition of her meritorious service to the City Council and the distinguished and exemplary manner in which she served her constituents, all of the Councillors extend their gratitude and express the hope for ongoing success in all endeavors.
SPEAKER_08	Thank you. Madam Mayor, I know you wanted to speak.
Katjana Ballantyne	Thank you. So good evening. It's my honor as mayor to recognize and celebrate the exceptional service of Councillor Judy Pineda-Newfeld, whose dedication to Somerville and whose deft leadership has aided us through unprecedented challenges and pushed us to always strive for a better Somerville. Judy. As we reflect on your tenure as Ward 7 Councilor and Council President, we see a leader who brought not just competence and vision, but genuine heart and unwavering commitment to equity and justice. Your service has been exemplary, from your everyday advocacy for residents to your critical role in our city's pandemic response. During COVID-19, I don't know if you all know this, the darkest days, you stepped up to lead the Immigrant Services Unit, ensuring our most vulnerable neighbors had access to vital information, resources, and support. Your work wasn't just administrative. It was deeply human, recognizing that behind every policy decision were real families with real struggles and needs. As counselor, you've championed comprehensive solutions to our city's challenges. Under your leadership, you've supported the city in achieving groundbreaking language justice efforts, helped secure funding to modernize public housing, and championed the Holland Street redesign that makes us safer. And that's just the highlights. On a bittersweet historical footnote, It took Somerville 183 years to achieve the milestone of having our mayor, city council president, and Somerville committee chair as women simultaneously. We're hashtag 183, okay? While it was wonderful while it lasted, ending this trifecta is certainly not the only loss our city faces with your departure from public service. As a Latina, as a Jewish woman, and a proud daughter of immigrants, you brought not just representation but lived understanding of navigating multiple identities in America. Your perspective helped our government better reflect our diverse community. Your background as a small business owner provided unique insight into local entrepreneurship challenges, while your experience as a community organizer brought inclusive policymaking and creative change. Whether working on pandemic recovery, environmental justice, or reimagining public safety, you consistently prioritize the voices of those who are most affected. Your leadership is reaffirming Somerville's sanctuary city commitment showed courage and moral clarity that will outlast your tenure. Judy, your service reminds us that effective leadership means building bridges, creating opportunities, and ensuring government works for everyone, especially the historically marginalized. You've shown us leadership with both competence and compassion, strategic thinking connected to human impact. While we're sad to see you leave elected office, we're grateful you'll stay engaged as a neighbor and an advocate. Thank you, Judy, for your dedication, integrity, and tireless work on behalf of all residents. Congratulations on your remarkable tenure and best wishes for your future endeavors. Thank you.
SPEAKER_08	So if I don't call on anyone, we can just move on. Councillor Clingan, I think I saw your hand up next.
Jesse Clingan	Thank you, Madam President. Through you, to you, I'll be brief. I know that we have a long agenda, and I'm sure everybody wants to say something. I really just want to say that, first of all, I echo the sentiments by the mayor and Councillor Davis. It's been a pleasure serving with you. You've been, as others have said, a steady hand. It's definitely going to leave a major hole in this body, one that's going to be hard to fill, and I guess we'll find out how that goes in election season. But as you know, my reaction when you told me you were leaving, which I immediately turned around and said, I know that this is not an easy decision for you, that you are definitely somebody who puts family first. I respect you for your decision, and I am selfishly sad, but I'm just wishing you the best. And you did a great job, and you're a public servant through and through. I don't know what the future holds for you, but I know that whatever it is, it's going to be awesome. And so I just want to thank you.
Kristen Strezo	Thank you. Councillor Strezo. Might as well go around the horseshoe. So, almost former Madam President, I am not happy that you are leaving, but I respect and honor your decisions. I thought you were a true leader on the council. I thought, I always appreciated your thoughtfulness on finding solutions to unite us as a body, which as Councilor Clingan said, with another year I would have liked to see how that would have possibly even been a ritual. True leaders can unite. and false leaders try to create dissonance. You were true leadership from little gifts when we celebrated births of children or birthdays with cupcakes and possibly the best cupcake I've ever had from Arlington. Don't tell anyone, but it was fantastic. But those little touches matter. in people's lives, and you did that. And I'll never forget, and I've told this story numerous times, but it was one of my favorite moments of early service with you. You were not yet on the council. It was during pandemic. I think it was my first term, and it was in the center. No, it wasn't even the center of the pandemic. It was the beginning, and it was just a horror show every day. And it was my first couple of months on the council, dear God. And one of the first things I wanted to do as a counselor was bring Dignity Matters to Somerville. I know we've talked about this a few times, but It just demonstrated who you are. Dignity Matters is free menstrual products for the lowest income of residents. And Somerville was on a waiting list to get free menstrual products into the food pantries. And it was just twiddling our thumbs and hoping that maybe one day soon it could happen. And I called you, Judy. And I said, here's what I would like to do, but we're on a waiting list. Is there any, like, how can, what can we do? And he said, hmm, let me think of something. And you did, and within, I don't know, it wasn't even, it was a week. It was possible, and it happened, and it changed lives, because those simple solutions change lives. You're a true leader. So, I'm gonna miss you on the council.
SPEAKER_08	Thank you. Councilman Kempin.
Ben Ewen-Campen	I am personally offended that you're leaving. No, just kidding. I'm really sorry to see you go. It was honestly surreal to watch you come onto the council as a new counselor, brand new, and immediately were just a total pro. That was not what it was like when I came on. I came on myself. I came on with a bunch of new counselors. I know that that is not typically how it goes. It was really, really, really... just extraordinary to watch you immediately understood what you were here to do how to do it how to get things done we work together as president and vice president for two years it was just a total pleasure um you know the fact that you were elected as vice president like six minutes after getting onto the council i think just reflects um that we all you know really just respect um you I have always been really impressed at how you get stuff done. It was really fun to work together on the overturning the no more than four adults, which had been this long-term issue. And once you were on the council, it was just like that. It was also really noteworthy. There were obviously times when you and I were on totally different sides of a vote, an issue. It never mattered at all. You were always completely kind, willing to work together in public and private. That is something I do not take for granted. It is really, really important. As you know, we're gonna miss you on the council. We are very excited to see what you do next.
SPEAKER_08	Thank you. Councillor McLaughlin.
Matt McLaughlin	Thank you, Madam President, for the last time. I'm sad to see you go as well. And this job is a labor of love, but it is a labor at times. And it can take a toll on family, on your private life, things like this. And one of the things that One of my least favorite aspects in every level of government is performative politics. And the thing that I give a compliment to you for is I never felt like you were a performer. You were just a steady grinder doing the work, doing the labor of love, not really seeking too much credit for it either, not getting headlines, not getting a lot of attention. accolades that you should get. So I'm going to give you the accolades now because it's hard to find steady, dependable, reliable people who are willing to sacrifice their time and put their name out there and subject themselves to abuse sometimes as well. So it's going to be hard to replace you. I hope we get someone good to replace you but it's going to be difficult and I will tell just one story just to show how reliable you are. that happened very recently where we had the charter meetings and we had an unexpected meeting for the charter that happened at a time when you had a long planned vacation and you phoned in, your vote was not needed that night. but you want it to be there, to be a part of a historic moment that meant a lot to me personally and will hopefully mean a lot to the city in general. And it's just that, that's a sacrifice to even just walk away from your friends, say, hey, I gotta go do something, I gotta take this vote, even though You weren't expecting to have to do that. And that's just one small example. And there's other examples where you just always made things about human beings, about the people who need your help. And that's what I'm going to miss the most. And I hope whoever replaces you carries that same spirit.
Jesse Clingan	Thank you. Can I just tack on to that? Weren't you on a cruise ship when you called in? Because that's not cheap.
Matt McLaughlin	That's expensive. I didn't want to say that because I was trenching my ground into national waters.
SPEAKER_08	I was really testing the limits of the Wi-Fi that night. Councillor Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Yeah, Madam President, we came in together as freshman counselors. I really appreciate your willingness to step up and lead. I know there were some challenging moments here that you found yourself having to preside over. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness towards city staff. I learned from you a perspective that you brought as a former city staffer. It influenced... you know when i came on i was inclined to just put in orders and and from conversations with you i changed that approach and i'm more inclined became inclined to talk to staff first before putting an order in so i appreciate that uh i always appreciate your sense of humor especially you know like i mentioned as as uh new counselors as we learn the ropes of this strange new job together um I appreciate your passion for your constituents and the policy advocacy you brought here for our immigrant community, for small business, for language justice, and definitely for curbside municipal composting. Thank you.
SPEAKER_08	Thank you. Councilor Mbah.
Will Mbah	Thank you, Madam President. Through you, to you, I'm just going to build on the text I sent to you when I heard that you are not running again. So it's been a pleasure just to see you. I had known you before you got into public office. Once you got in, I'm sure partly because of a lot of conspiracy theories and stuff like that, our beginning was a little challenging. But I think as a person, I've seen just how professional you've carried yourself. We work on many resolutions together, and I'm grateful to see that your genuine way of trying to engage and build something together, that's one thing that I respect about you. Thank you so much.
Naima Sait	Thank you. Councilor Sait. So first I want to echo the Mayor's sentiment and also Councilor Davis. I think they summarized really well your tenure as the World Councilor and as also Vice President and President. I want to thank you for your great leadership. As colleagues have mentioned, there have been some challenging meetings, and you did a really great job presiding. And thank you for your hard work as a world counselor and president, all while having a young child. I know how that feels. It's often invisible work. So big thank you for that. Thank you for just being professional and very thoughtful. and today, you know, putting together a card and a gift for me. Yeah, I'm excited for you and what comes next. Thank you. Congratulations, too.
SPEAKER_08	Councillor Scott.
J.T. Scott	Madam President, it's been mentioned before, but I don't think you'd be overstating how important it is and how useful it is to have that perspective of working in government at multiple different levels and multiple different roles, and I think that's something that you brought to this job, obviously, from day one, and I think the city's better off for it. I also don't think people understand sometimes just how hard it is to be a ward councillor, and especially how hard it can be to walk away from the ward counselor job with something feeling as unfinished as the teal square pit
SPEAKER_08	We almost got through this without the pit.
J.T. Scott	No, no, and I just wanted to say, all jokes aside, it is, I know how hard it is to walk away from the neighbors and the people that you have given up so much to work for, to support, to represent. I think all of us here try to be the representative that we wanna have someday when we step down, and I hope that you have that too.
SPEAKER_08	Thank you.
Jesse Clingan	Councilor Clingan. Can I say something on the pit? I just wanna say,
SPEAKER_08	I just want to say... Please do.
Jesse Clingan	Okay. Because if you only stayed a little longer, I think you would have gotten that pit. First of all, I aspire to have a pit as notorious as you. I have about two or three pits, and none of mine have been named. And quite frankly, I envy your pit.
SPEAKER_09	And...
Jesse Clingan	And I'm teasing, you know that. Everybody knows a work counselor doesn't have a ton of control over private property. That bothers me the most when I see people saying that about you, and I'll defend you, you know, like your brother. I want to thank you again, and up the pit. Thank you. Up the pit.
SPEAKER_08	I have a few words to share, not surprisingly. Okay before I do, my quick story because I see or saw Denise, our communications director in the background. I did work for the city during COVID and she's the one who hired me and I remember when I got the phone call to consider taking this contract role and it was going to be like leading a COVID recovery unit in the middle of a pandemic when you know my husband and I are then boyfriend, I think, and I were still like figuring out what COVID was. And I said, you know, I have to do this because it's for my city. It's for Somerville. It's for these residents. I can't not do this. I don't know what it means yet. I don't really know what this job is and I don't really know how I'm going to balance it with my other client work, but I have to do this because I care that much about the city. I remember him joking, well, how much of our apartments can be taken over by COVID materials? I said, I don't really think that's the job. Then a week later, the fire department delivered 8,000 masks to my apartment. This is a true story. And I lived in a single, you know, one bedroom little apartment. And so, you know, we had a good laugh about that. So we get them delivered all over to our immigrant families. But it was a very funny moment. But I share that because... because I wrote a love letter to Somerville and I think about what got me involved. I really believe my public service started in that contract role and it's because of my love of Somerville and the city. So I first wanna say thank you. Thank you for the honor of serving as a city councilor, as a Ward 7 city councilor. It's been one of the greatest privileges truly of my life to represent a city I love, to represent a city that believes in big ideas, in small actions, and that fights for justice while caring for all of our neighbors. I ran for office because of my experience during COVID, because I love this community, because I believe that local government at its best is where change is personal, tangible, and bold. And because I truly believed in my heart that together we can make Somerville more equitable, more inclusive, and more compassionate and kind. And you all know, I don't need to go through the list of accomplishments of this council over the last four years, but it's been extensive. the four unrelated persons rule, eliminating parking minimums, the guaranteed basic income pilot, securing money for clarinet redevelopment. I mean, I can go on and on. But also prioritizing language justice, which was so important to me, raising the bar for our city workers with a better contract, defending our status as a sanctuary and welcoming city. All things that happen in this council, often with little fanfare, but so important, not just because of the policy issues behind them, but because of who these policies center. Our most vulnerable neighbors, our immigrant families, renters, workers, families, folks that often get left out. But Somerville, it's a city that's not just defined by policy, it's defined by its people. And I went last night to our 4th of July fireworks celebration, and I just was reminded as I was walking through Broadway why I fell in love with Somerville. There were kids all over with sticky fingers from the ice cream melting off of their ice cream cones, our seniors that were dancing to Motown like no one was watching, families sprawled on picnic blankets, neighbors meeting each other for the first time, sharing bug spray, sharing policy stories. I heard folks talking about their experience trying to find an apartment, just eavesdropping, walking down the street. It was an imperfect, joyful, messy, special, magical night, which is what is Somerville at its best. Yet when you love something so deeply, you have to accept the pain and heartbreak that comes with that love. Pain like hearing about our residents that are being priced out. Pain like hearing about the small business owners that need to close up shop. A literal conversation I had this morning in Teal Square with a business owner that's looking for another place to go because they just can't afford to stay here anymore. Stories like our immigrants that are afraid to go to ESL classes because of the current political environment. Stories from families at my daycare who just can't afford to be here anymore. That pain and heartbreak is why I got into this work. It's why so many of you serve on this council as well. So to my colleagues, as I step away from this role, I leave you with my gratitude and, of course, with a charge. Here's that charge. I'm asking you to not lose sight of why you're here. That it's not about the power of this horseshoe, or pride, or personal comfort. It's for them. It's for the kids chasing bubbles, the seniors leading the dance floor, the working families trying to stay in their homes. It's for neighbors who don't always show up to our meetings, but who you're impacting every day by the decisions you make. Don't forget that your responsibility is not about power, but it's to people, including our city staff. It's not to self preservation, but to service. Our responsibility is not to political comfort, but it's to moral courage. One of the lessons I learned is that the loudest voices are often not the most impacted voices. They're not always the most vulnerable voices. Be brave enough to listen. Be brave enough to ask the hard questions. Put aside personality and put community first. Center equity not just in your language, but in your decisions, your votes, and your vision. Because our neighbors are depending on us to do that. So Somerville, my love, my city, you're the city of my heart, bold, brilliant, complicated, and deeply worth fighting for. I'm not going far. I'm actually moving to Ward 6. News flash. I'll be here as a neighbor, as a toddler mama who's in daycare in the city, and as an advocate, a fierce advocate who will show up at public comment every single time. thank you for trusting me thank you for believing in my work and our work together and thank you for reminding me of what love for a city can look like so with that with all my heart i really appreciate those kind words tonight and i'm looking forward to passing a budget soon and leaving on a high note so thank you again
SPEAKER_07	All right, back to work.
Clerk	Madam Clerk, next item. And we follow that with item 3.1, a grant of location from Cambridge Network Solutions to install a total of 75 feet of conduit in Meacham Road from utility pole 225 over nine to a point of pickup at 55 Davis Square.
SPEAKER_08	All right, I now declare this public hearing open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?
SPEAKER_16	Good evening, my name is Jeffrey Harrington from Cambridge Network Solutions. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak on behalf of this proposal. We're seeking the permission to install a new underground conduit to keep this new fiber optic line underground into an existing building located at 55 Davis Square in Somerville, Mass.
SPEAKER_08	All right, is anyone else here to speak on this item? Any hands? Okay, I now declare the public hearing closed. Any counselors who wish to speak on this? Okay, seeing no opposition, this item's approved. Next item.
Clerk	Item 3.2 is a grant of location from Cambridge Network Solutions to install one new hand hole at the Elm Street, Davis Square, Day Street intersection and a total of 128 feet of conduit in Day and Elm Street from the proposed hand hole to a point of pickup at utility pole 196 over nine.
SPEAKER_08	I now declare this public hearing open. Is there anyone here to speak on this item?
SPEAKER_16	Good evening, thank you. Again, Jeffrey Harrington from Cambridge Network Solutions, Director of Construction. We're here to propose, this is the other side of that circuit, to pick up from our existing fiber line that's in the middle of the street and an existing underground conduit, and to take that from the underground conduit to the pole.
SPEAKER_08	Okay. Anyone else here to speak on that item? Any hands? Okay, I declare the public hearing closed. Any councillors wish to speak on the item? Seeing no opposition, this item's approved. Next item.
Clerk	Item 3.3 is a grant of location from Eversource to install approximately five feet of conduit in Herbert Street from utility pole 88 over zero to a point of pickup at 53 Chester Street.
SPEAKER_08	I now close public hearing open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Jackie Duffy.
SPEAKER_05	Hi, how are you?
SPEAKER_08	Good, how are you?
SPEAKER_05	I'm excellent, thank you. I would like to install five feet of conduit in Herbert Street to provide electric service to 53 Chester Street.
SPEAKER_08	All right, anyone else here to speak on that item? Okay, declare public hearing closed. Any councillors who wish to speak on the item? All right, seeing no opposition, this item is approved. Next item.
Clerk	Item 3.4 is a grant of location from Eversource to install approximately 50 feet of conduit in Berkeley Street from utility pole 30 over 8 to a point of pickup at 54 Berkeley Street.
SPEAKER_08	I declare the public hearing open.
SPEAKER_05	Jackie Duffy. Jackie Duffy would like to install 50 feet of conduit in Berkeley Street, and this is to provide electric service to 54 Berkeley Street.
SPEAKER_08	Anyone else here to speak on the item? I now declare public hearing closed. Any counselors who wish to speak on the item? Okay, seeing no opposition, the item's approved. Next item.
Clerk	Item 3.5 is a grant of location from Eversource to install approximately 236 feet of conduit in Walnut Street, 148 of conduit in Giles Park, and two new manholes from manhole 25271 to a point of pickup at 33 Bow Street.
SPEAKER_08	I now declare public hearing open. Jackie Duffy.
SPEAKER_05	I would like to install 236 feet of conduit and two new manholes to provide electric service to 33 Bow Street.
SPEAKER_08	Anyone else here to speak on the item? Okay, I declare the public hearing closed. Any councillors who should speak on the item? All right, seeing no opposition, this item's approved. Next item.
SPEAKER_05	Good luck in your new endeavors.
Clerk	Good afternoon. Thanks, Jackie. Item 4.1 is a resolution by Councillor Pineda-Newfeld in support of the Climate Superfund Bill.
SPEAKER_08	Yes. All right. Thank you. Councillor Burley wants to sign on to this. Councillor Wilson does as well. Councillor Sait does. Councillor Mbah. The whole council wants to sign on to this one. I'm going to sponsor a constituent, Grace Hall, who's in Ward 7, to speak on this item. Grace, welcome.
SPEAKER_00	Thank you. Good evening, Madam President and members of the City Council. I'm Grace Hall. I live in Teal Square. I'm an active member of UU Mass Action, which is a Unitarian Universalist social justice organization that's part of Mass Power Forward. That is an umbrella organization that includes many social justice groups across the state. and we have joined together in support of certain bills, including the Climate Change Superfund Bill, popularly known as Make Polluters Pay. The municipal resolution before you would show that Somerville supports the bill. And I'm asking you to join Boston, Cambridge, Medford, and other municipalities in seeking to make the larger fuels companies pay towards our efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. A similar bill has passed in Vermont, New York State, and Michigan. The bill applies widely. The monies could be used to update systems as varied as sewers and bridges, school buildings and public housing, and the electric grid. In addition, it can be used to combat heat island effects, as well as climate-related threats to our forests and food systems. I'm very pleased personally to note that 40% of the money is designated for use in environmental justice communities to support the people who have contributed the least to this problem yet suffer the most. It's clear that mitigation efforts will be extensive and expensive to reach our 2050 energy goals. Even if we eventually get help from the state, it hasn't happened yet, and perhaps even from the federal government under a different administration, we still won't have enough money to meet our needs. That is where this bill comes in. The large fossil fuel companies have reaped huge benefits over the years by ignoring their own scientists. Years ago, the scientists at these companies told them what was going to happen and their predictions were eerily true. They've really come true. And the companies responded after thinking about it by deliberately sowing doubt or even denial about the causes and effects of global warming. The publicists they hired included people who had worked for the tobacco industry and they were very successful in delaying public concern. The fossil fuel companies could at that point have pivoted to become the leaders in developing renewables. They could have actually taken over that whole solar and wind and everything and reaped huge profits and done very well by themselves. But it would have involved some change, some investments and so on. They didn't choose to do that. They chose just... to make the money that they could make at that time and go for it. The Make Polluters Pay bill is designed to make the largest fuel companies pay a small portion of their huge profits to mitigate some of the damage that they caused. It won't be enough, but it will really help. And I'm therefore asking you to vote for the Climate Change Superfund Bill Resolution that's before you. And thank you for giving me my time.
SPEAKER_08	Thank you, Grace. I think the whole council wanted to sign on to that one. Thank you, Councillor. Any questions? Okay. This item is approved. Next item.
Clerk	That is going to bring... Yes. Me? Oh, yes. That is going to bring us to the budget generally, starting with item 6A, a report of the Committee on Finance, meeting as a Committee of the Whole on June 3rd, 2025. Yes.
SPEAKER_08	Before we get to the Finance Committee report, we are going to move into discussing the budget. And so I'm going to recognize Madam Mayor to start us off.
Katjana Ballantyne	Thank you. Thank you to the council for your thoughtful contribution and deliberation and attention to our fiscal 2026 operating budget. Your diligent review and probing questions have once again added transparency and reflection to this process. We now have an FY26 budget before you that puts our community in a strong position to make progress on our shared values and our community's aspirations. There is so much that I'm proud of in this budget and so much goodwill that will allow us to achieve. That said, I have one significant concern regarding a vote taken on Tuesday night, and I will address this after these remarks. I don't want that one act to overshadow all the good that we've done, so while I will first focus on vital services and progress this budget paves for. paves the way for. This $380.1 million city budget that includes $112.3 million school budget that we put before you this year represents more than numbers on a spreadsheet. They reflect your choice to move forward with purpose, even even when the path ahead is uncertain. I won't sugarcoat it. Development has slowed, federal uncertainty looms, and costs continue to rise. We had to make difficult decisions, implementing a partial hiring freeze, drawing from reserves, and asking city departments to make strategic reductions to their budget. But while communities across Massachusetts are cutting services, laying off staff, and scaling back their ambitions, we've made it possible for our city to continue moving forward. At the heart of these budgets is our unwavering commitment to education. The 7.4% increase in school funding, all told, continues a remarkable trajectory. Since I took office, we've increased school funding by 34%. That's not just an investment in our children's education today, it's an investment in their future. I'm happy to update as well that the $1.5 million that my administration set aside for the new Somerville educators union contract has achieved its intended purpose those dollars will be folded into the budget contributing to 7.4 percent total increase it allowed the school committee to sell it settle that three-year contract this week with significant salary increases and improved starting wages for teachers paraprofessionals liaisons and school administrators On the city side, core services once again form the foundation of our annual budget. This budget makes sure that you will still find your librarian at the desk, your streetplow, and your recreation program on the calendar. This budget preserves every core function that residents depend on. But this is Somerville, so of course this budget aims to achieve more. This year we are mobilizing our entire organization around shared goals. With the cross-team approach, we'll be able to launch our new emergency vehicle preemption system that has helped first responders save lives. We're launching permanent supportive housing initiatives to address chronic homelessness and we're ready now to advance 77 climate forward strategies from exploring geothermal to increasing decarbonization. This budget shows what's possible when we work together. We'll also be advancing 974 affordable housing units in our housing pipeline, improving our warming center and hiring a homelessness contract coordinator. launching a compost pilot for 1,000 households, cross-training our DPW workers, and establishing the Armory as our now publicly owned arts center. These are more than just programs. These promises are making... we're making to our residents about the kind of community we're building together. Again, we created these opportunities for ourselves. My administration's achievement of a AAA bond rating for the third third consecutive year proves that fiscal discipline and bold vision are not contradictory. They create possibilities. Because we've managed our finances wisely, built strategic reserves, and earned the trust of the bond markets, we can take on these ambitious projects while keeping debt service costs lower. This budget shows that responsible government doesn't mean thinking small. It means being smart about how we use every dollar to create maximum impact for our residents. To the council, again, thank you for your partnership throughout this process. Your advocacy for your residents help ensure that every voice is heard in our deliberations. To our department heads and city staff, Thank you for your creativity and dedication. You never lose sight of our mission to serve residents with excellence. To our residents, thank you for your patience, your input, your vision for our future. As we move forward, let's remember what this budget we've built represents. A promise to our students that we'll believe in their potential. A commitment to our most vulnerable residents that we won't leave them behind. An investment in our infrastructure that will serve us for generations. And a declaration that Somerville will continue to be a place where everyone can thrive. Together, we're not just managing a city, we're investing in our people, our values, and our future. I look forward to the passage of this budget tonight so that tomorrow we can get to the business of turning this budget into a can-do Somerville residents expect and deserve. Thank you. I'd now like to address a deeply concerning cut that was made to the salary line in my office on Tuesday. To say it is disheartening that the Council has chosen to cut funding for a specific, occupied, and vital position and ultimately oust a specific person from their job is an understatement. I'm here today to be clear that I will always stand up for our workers when I find action against them unjust. And I also want to be clear that when I stand up for our workers, I am standing up for our community because our staff are the people they rely on to deliver every city service they value and depend on. I am hoping that those of you who voted for that last minute may have acted without full information or sufficient deliberation. With a better understanding of the stakes, I believe you will reconsider your position, so let me share some vital information. When we create positions, we seek for approval for their funding from the Council. And only then do we advertise to hire and fill them. We do this based on an expectation of constancy from this Council. When applicants leave their employment or uproot their families to join and service this great city, we enter into the serious compact with the commitment that they are accepting a job that they can reasonably count on. Then, as we expect professionalism from our employees, they in turn expect professionalism, fairness, and stability from us. And that professional compact extends to this council. To be clear, we all know in tough times there could be layoffs, that failure to perform can result in discipline or job loss, and that as needs in our community evolve, our job duties may as well. But no one, absolutely no one should expect their livelihood to be subjected to what amounts to surprise dismissal in this public forum. No one should suffer the risk of lasting reputational damage that can follow public dismissal. No one should expect a devastating job loss without justification and proper privacy-protected process. This action is not only reckless and profoundly wrong directed at an individual. It makes it harder for us to keep and attract the quality staff our community relies on. Who wouldn't think twice about working for a city where the council has the reputation for unjustly targeting and humiliating staff and public and ripping away their livelihood in an instant. After months and months of public process and numerous council deliberations, community members delivered a charter reform proposal to this council. It included support for the position you are seeking to cut. Just weeks ago, this very site council voted overwhelming to support our charter reform special legislation, which notably included this position. Just this week, I stood at the State House testifying in good faith to call for approval of our charter reform, which includes this position. Now suddenly we get a proposal to ignore that previously accepted community guidance to reverse the Council's legislative decision and to potentially ignore the legal requirements of our charter once it becomes law. I think with reflection, we can do better. I will note that in city management, we face numerous operational needs from facility management to cybersecurity that this individual works on daily. Yes, out of the public eye. but still making critical contributions. But I understand you may not fully know what each of our staff do daily, so I want to be clear. My door is always open. If you think a position should have different priorities, if you'd like to know what they do, if you have concerns of any kind, you are always welcome to come in and talk and deliberate with me. There is no need to resort to a move like this one that carries so many unintended consequences. And I have to share one more thing I hope you can understand. Every day, right now, we are seesawing between navigating the large looming threats of hostile federal administration. Every day, we are also steering a ship that delivers services that range from trash pickup to food access and mental health supports. This individual stood behind me in front of a dozen cameras as we took great personal risk to file a federal lawsuit to protect our sanctuary policies and constitutional rights. And then she came back and set to work on our billing systems, our IT strategy, and so much more. The whiplash of putting our shoulders to the wheels amid so much turmoil and the need and then having to have shift gears to address an issue we could have addressed more reasonably and collaboratively is something I hope we won't repeat. we need to join together via a single purpose right now more than ever we need sufficient staff to keep running the city more than ever we need to rethink this choice with the full consequences in mind and i urge you to reconsider your vote thank you thank you madam mayor
Jesse Clingan	Madam President, we're just speaking generally on the budget, right?
SPEAKER_08	Let's take up the finance items first, and then we'll speak about the budget.
Jesse Clingan	Just general on the budget?
SPEAKER_08	Yes, there will be opportunities to speak about the budget, yes. Okay. Yeah. Councillor Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Madam President, I've had multiple colleagues indicate to me after Tuesday night's meeting that they might want to reconsider their vote on an item from Tuesday. So just to make sure that everyone feels confident in their vote, I'd like to move to sever item 6E13 from the report of the Finance Committee and take that up separately for a vote.
	Okay.
Clerk	Item 6E13, which is item 25-1189, an order by Councillor Scott that the executive office administration personal services salaries line be reduced by $186,744 in the FY26 budget is now before this council.
SPEAKER_08	Okay. Any discussion? I apologize, Councillor. Councillor Davis.
Lance Davis	Thank you, Madam President. So thank you to the good counselor for listening to colleagues and bringing this forward. It wasn't my request, but I don't want to mislead anybody. I wasn't going to say anything about this, but after hearing the mayor's statement, I feel compelled to on a variety of levels. And frankly, I don't know where to start. I'll start by taking a step back. I still have not fully decided. I'm going to listen to the discussion here. But to the extent I'm considering switching my vote, it is entirely based on a very reasonable, very rational conversation I had this morning with a member of the Department of Intergovernmental Affairs. I will say that nothing that the mayor just said compels me at all. And in fact, I find it really disappointing. Last year, the dollars that correspond with this position were cut from the budget. We were then subjected to a show that the administration put forward, putting an individual up here to plea for their job. It was the administration that made it about the individual last year, and it is the Mayor's comments that are the only thing that is making this about an individual this year. This is not about an individual. The Council's vote has nothing to do with the individual holding this office. The Council's vote is to cut dollars from the budget. That is one of the only powers that we have as Councillors. And I've heard arguments that, well, if this cut holds, then in a week there's someone who won't be able to get a paycheck. I don't believe that's true. But even if it is, that can't be the reason we can't cut positions. It is a longstanding understanding, forgive the clunky phrasing, that this is one of the only things that the council can do is cut dollars from the budget. And if it happens to correspond with a position, then that's how it works. i completely agree that this type of thing should not be done for based on an individual it should not be done based on job performance that would not be appropriate in my opinion it's certainly not the reasons that i voted for for this motion the other night i voted for this motion because I have never felt that this position was appropriate or necessary. I went along with it on several occasions for a variety of reasons. I didn't argue to pull it out of the charter, although I was inclined to because it was clear to me that if I had done that, the mayor would never have signed the charter and it would not be in Beacon Hill right now. I did not bring the motion to take it out of the budget because, frankly, I thought that might lead us to where we are right now. But when the question was put before me, I had to, as I always have, vote honestly based on how I feel, which is that this is not how we should be spending the taxpayers' dollars. I'm not going to argue to you all to change your votes or to put the position back in. If that's the will of the council, fine. I don't think it's that critical an issue. But I just have to come back to the fact that it is once again the mayor's office and this time the mayor herself who is making it about an individual. And that is really, really, really unfortunate. And I'm just so disappointed that after what we went through last year, what everybody went through last year, including the individual who happens to hold this position and who I believe, I have every reason to believe is doing their absolute best at the position based on the guidance and leadership that they have. that it's now being made about that individual again, because from my standpoint as one councillor, that has nothing to do with this vote. And it's just, I find it unacceptable and really disappointing that the mayor is trying to make, is trying to turn this conversation into it being about an individual person, because it is not. I'll say just one more thing. What is stated in the Charter is not the same as this position. This is a position that the Mayor created, that the Council voted to include the funding in in the past. What is in the Charter is a Charter-created position with Council confirmation. A person in that role may well do many of the same things, although a future Mayor may direct them to do different types of things. I don't know. But it's not the same position. It's not the same entity in terms of how it exists in the context of our city government. If the charter that is on Beacon Hill is passed, if this money were to stay out of the budget and the mayor were to decide to accommodate that cut by removing this position and the charter was passed, I would expect to see a request for the salary for the position that's created in the charter. And having gone along with the charter, I would vote for it. I wasn't going to say anything about this tonight. I really wasn't. And if I had had just one phone call this morning, I would probably be perfectly silent right now. But the statement that we just heard compelled me to speak and to respond because I think that it's important that we as a body maintain our position and the limited authority and limited power that we have to cut funding from the budget. And if that funding happens to correspond to a position, then it is up to that department head to decide what to do. It can't be the answer that we can't cut a position because then a week later in July, we'll have a difficult time making the numbers work. That can't be the right answer. Thank you, Madam President.
SPEAKER_08	Council Member Kimmon.
Ben Ewen-Campen	Thank you, Madam President. So I view this very differently, I think. I have no I could not agree more that the council can cut the budget positions can cut funding I don't think there's any debate about whether we can do that there are also very specific consequences for those actions clearly and I think It's hard. I think if the council is going to take an action that has the effect of cutting the exact salary amount of one member of the administration, it's very clearly interpreted that way by the public, the administration. I don't really see that in bad faith. And I think if the council wants to do that, the very least that the council should do is deliberate on that. and clearly express what is happening. I'll just be really frank. When there was no deliberation on this motion and I went to a vote, I assumed that was because it was going to fail overwhelmingly. That's what I thought that meant. I was like, I don't wanna have the same conversation we had last year. I thought we all kind of landed on the same place. The fact that we could take that vote literally just without even discussing it, I don't think that's good. I know for a fact, i've heard from city staff just the effect that that has on them kind of psychologically and morale level that's not me speculating that that's very real i take those consequences really seriously i think it's absolutely the case that we can cut positions but we need to take that with the seriousness that it deserves and that to me at the very least like i would like to hear how people came to that decision and try to convince each other one way or the other, not literally not discuss it, take the vote and move on. I just, I don't think that is a classy way to act.
SPEAKER_08	Councillor Clingan.
Jesse Clingan	Thank you, Madam President. Through you, I was one of those people that, you know, we did very little deliberation. The whole thing was about 120 seconds. Coming off of what happened last year, it's not a direction I necessarily would have went in. I agree with everything that's being said here, though, as far as being able to cut positions and whether or not, you know, and the position is a different position in the Charter. And I also don't... I've never seen anything like that just happen, and I'm really kind of offended by that. Quite frankly, I'm not sure what that was, but I was coming here with the intention of changing my vote, and I'm gonna stick to that, but I just want people to understand that, yes, the other night, things had happened really fast, and had I had time to think, I would've gone a different direction, but I also agree with everything Councilor Davis is saying and I also agree with the intention of the cut to some degree in that I Have never been a hundred percent behind this position as to whether or not it's integral or how important it is and I remain concerned with You know And maybe I'm one of those people that maybe I need to go up to the mayor's office and on my day off or something and try to find out what's going on. But I will be switching my vote and that's my statement.
SPEAKER_08	Councillor Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Yeah, Madam President, I don't blame anyone at this horse here right now who's feeling upset with what they heard a short time ago. I would just urge colleagues to put emotions aside here, look at this dispassionately. I spent Tuesday afternoon up at the State House testifying in support of our proposed Charter Home Rule petition. I don't want to see us take any action here. that gives Beacon Hill any reason to not approve that whole petition that we spent so much time on. In fact, I really hope they're not paying attention this week to what's going on around here. I would urge people to just put a motion aside on this one.
Will Mbah	Thank you, Madam President. I guess the way I came to this, I'm glad that the good counselor from Ward 3 asked about how people came to this decision. And of course, for instance, I've really never had a lot of connection with the central administration. I guess they have a different style of operating. I spoke with the Mayor, at first I was grateful that she called, and I've never really seen her really fiercely advocating for something. But I explained to her, I'm like, Madam Mayor, I don't feel like Your administration is out there communicating, having, so even when I cut, when I supported this position last time, I had no clue who the chief administration officer was until that conversation we were deliberating the issue. So for me, it's about, first of all, when you have people that are engaged with the counselors, we have this conversation, it's easier to understand what they do, their roles and responsibilities, I also share my priorities, my frustration, things that I'm trying to deal with. So last year when we cut this position, I went, spoke to the various department head and said, this is the way I operate. Again, I've always talked about conspiracy theory. It exists. It's fully operational. But I said, this is the way I want to operate. Let me get to know you, know your work, and so on. We went out once. And then after that, I've never seen this person. So I almost thought they left the city because you don't even see the conversation. And I realized that I had an issue with certain departments and tried to be very cautious in terms of how I'm addressing these issues. And I actually realized that, okay, let me send the chief administrative officer probably should be the one I should direct this, maybe the chief of staff. But I wrote a long text to this chief administrative officer with the intention that this person, if it's a fully functional operational person, will pick up the phone and just call me and say, like, hey, well, you know, I see that there's a second issue, you know, like, how do we... It's just simple as that. And all I got was... All I got was, good afternoon, text received, counselor. I said, wow, you know, it's, I don't know. It's like, I just, but I guess after speaking with the mayor today, it just, for me, it's like, I also feel like we supported each other, with this position. I also don't want it to fail at the State House. And hopefully, when we have this conversation enough time, it will actually change some things. People will actually start to take initiative and try to get to know us and know our priorities and see how we can work together because we're not working against each other. So this is just how I was just frustrated in terms of like just the communication. Even part of the reason for last year, they said, oh, they will communicate better. We've gotten a lot of surprises in the finance department with communication, but I'm not gonna dwell on that. That is not about the person, it's about just the office. But for now, for the sake of passage of the city charter, I think I will also let this position slide through, and so I will be switching my vote in support of the position.
SPEAKER_08	Council McLaughlin.
Matt McLaughlin	Madam President, I agree with all of you. Let me say, first of all, I don't appreciate what was just said. I have to just say that. And I'm voting against this cut. I'm not going to shame anybody who voted for this cut because I made this cut last year. And I gave my reasons. I said lack of communication from the IGA's office. lack of negotiation with unions, and the charter is not done, which had the IGA, which had the CAO position in it. All of those have been satisfied by me. So that's why I'm not supporting the cut this year, because the reasons I gave for supporting the cut last year don't exist now. So I'm not gonna make up new reasons and I'm not gonna say nothing either and just vote on it. So I'm satisfied enough to not support this cut, but I do understand people's frustrations with this position, not the individual, this position, and with what we just discussed, because I think a lot of this, Councilor Mbah just made a point, I think the issue is that there isn't an open door policy. The door is clearly closed. There's a glass door now instead of a wooden door, but the door is not open. And I think it's that lack of communication that brings us to this point where people are willing to vote without saying a word about how they feel on it because they figure it's over, like what's done is done. So I want to put that out there because I I felt shamed and embarrassed for my vote last year for starting the fire to begin with, and then felt less than 24 hours later completely validated by my beliefs. And I've had several people in the city actually thank me for making this an issue, which I'll leave that in the air for people. But I am going to put my personal feelings aside, put my pride aside, and just say, these are the reasons I said I don't support this position.
J.T. Scott	the reasons have been addressed so i'm going to vote and keep this position counselor scott thank you madam president i got to be honest i thought i would probably be the first one to ever move for reconsideration and i hope that recon reconsideration prevailed um But I am very glad, because it sounds like that's the motion that is about to be before us, that we're doing that. Because that's what a city council does. That's what a legislative, deliberative body does. It's, in fact, our only job. And whether or not people thought in that moment it needed another two hours of discussion or felt that all of the hours of discussion and years of experience of the thing allowed them to vote from an informed position either way it's an acceptable flow for how this chamber operates I as much as I know I am NOT everybody's favorite colleague as much as I know that this body can be a difficult one to work with I believe that we are not just as a city, but as a society, really seeing the importance of the independence of branches of government. So I don't have anything to say about the motion that was made, the vote that was taken, or any other way of it. I think we make motions all the time, we vote on them, and then we all move forward to try to build the best city we can to take care of our neighbors as best as we can. And I think the disrespect that was just expressed is corrosive because it's not just disrespect of the individual people around this horseshoe, but really the idea of the legislative branch and its responsibilities in its entirety. So I think that is deeply unfortunate. I think it's deeply disappointing. frankly i i don't have the same will towards anybody who voted on either side of this or anybody who wants to change their vote for any reason because that's the beauty of what we do here in the full view of the public every time we get together, four nights a week. So thank you to my colleagues for all of your thoughts. Thank you for being part of this deliberative process and it's my hope that we can just vote and move onward as we always do, Madam President.
SPEAKER_08	I want to speak to this, Councilor Davis.
Lance Davis	Thank you.
SPEAKER_08	I think I'm the only one around this horseshoe who sat on the other side, who was sitting where the city staff are sitting now, although on Zoom during the pandemic. I wasn't a staff member paid by the city during COVID, but for two years, for two budget cycles, I was a contractor and I worked incredibly closely side by side every day with city staff on the ground who were working every single day to protect our families during the pandemic. I saw what they went through, the gut wrenching experience our city staff go through every budget season. Every department feels it, not just the police department, not just our CAO, not just the mayor's office. Every single department, and I'm sorry to speak for you all in the back of the room, but every single department feels the fear, the anxiety, the pit in their stomach during budget season because of the tone and tenor this council can sometimes take to our city staff. That hasn't changed, and in my experience on this council, it's gotten worse. I think anyone sitting in the back of the room or listening in who works for the city, who saw what happened on Tuesday night, is wondering if they're next. is wondering, does every counselor know what I do? Does every counselor like me? Have I responded to every single counselor's text messages in a timely way? I just don't think that's a fair way to treat the people who are working every day on the ground with our neighbors and our constituents to get the job done. Folks are saying this cut wasn't personal. But I'm struggling to believe that it wasn't if the money that was cut on Tuesday night wasn't reallocated to any of the priorities that we've talked about as a council. I think as I've listened to deliberation, I'm struck by the concerns and the complaints that we don't understand this job. We disagree with the job. We're not hearing from this person. We don't see them out in the community. And I just want to remind you all on my last meeting that it's our job to figure that out. It's actually our job to understand the role to ask questions. That's our role during budget season in addition to cuts. It's our job to ask those questions, to reach out, to wonder, what are the priorities? Let me share my feedback with the mayor before budget season. Let me meet with folks to understand how this role intersects with other roles. As I have read and reread the job description, the home rule, this position in particular is an operations role. It would be like a COO at a company or a bigger organization. It's just because it's in government, it's the CAO. I'm actually really glad I don't see the COO around as a member of the legislative body. I'm not a member of the operations team in the city. I'm a legislator, and so I understand that there are layers to city government I don't see. There's a lot of city staff I don't see on a day-to-day basis. It doesn't mean I want to cut their job. And so I just urge you all to think about what our constituents are asking of us during budget season, what our constituents require of us, not just today, but the other 364 days of the year, as their representatives at this table. Because there are a lot of people not in this room. There are a lot of people not listening in. They're busy. They're feeding their kids. They're getting their kids to bed tonight. They're thinking about are they going to have a job tomorrow? Are they going to have money to pay rent? Are they going to have money to pay groceries? But they're asking us to ask the hard questions about our budget, make sure trash is going to get picked up, potholes are going to get filled with money for food insecurity, for unhoused neighbors, for all the issues and priorities that we care about. And we're spending a lot of time on what feels like a position that we may not know a lot about or may not understand that we debated for hours and hours a year ago, as you all know, you're all here for that. And I'm struggling to believe that this isn't personal. And I'm asking you to think about the city staff who are watching, who are wondering if they're next.
Jesse Clingan	I'm all set. So with all due respect, Madam President, any time if I'm gonna be lectured to like that, I'm gonna set the record straight. So just so you know, I do defend the city every single day. That is what our job is to do. We do understand what happens in the city. And quite frankly, I think what people are asking a lot of times is to cut more, and we don't. We're basically, there's not much to cut. We respect the budget, we go through the budget, and we were presented with a good budget. This is kind of going off the rails now a little bit. It's a little bit offensive to me because I'm probably a cream puff counselor. I remember back in the days before all of us were on when there was real accountability, where there was a lot of emotion involved. I mean, I try to be extremely understanding. I don't think that I pester staff or anything. for very much. I use 311 like a good boy. I don't know what to say after that. We're trying not to talk about this and waste a lot of time, but as long as narratives keep getting spun, that I feel like I have to then come back and say something in defense. People are applauding and stuff. I think we all work well together here. I think I've worked well with many of you. I think I barely work with most of you. I don't bother anybody as a council that much. Only when I need to get something done for constituents. So I'm sorry. It was tough to sit here and listen to that without getting emotional because every single day I'm out there defending what the city and trying to explain to them how understaffed we are and how under-resourced we are and how we don't have Cambridge's money and how all of these things that I'm defending constantly because it's true and because I do care about the people in this room. So that's all I want to say.
SPEAKER_08	Councillor Davis.
Lance Davis	Thank you, Madam Chair, Madam President. I was about to say pretty much the exact same thing. I'll keep it very short, but I just want to echo that. I say to constituents all the time that, particularly when they're complaining, they're bringing concerns about, you know, lack of whatever they feel should be happening, that in their mind isn't, as far as some department isn't doing something. And I emphasize that I promise you every single person in the city government is working four times harder than we have any reasonable right to expect them to be. We need three more of everyone there. That's all the more reason why I felt like this particular position might be, these resources might be better used somewhere else. I'll just leave it at that. I think that I don't think it's fair to attribute the statements that have been made about this specific position to other members of the department because I don't think anyone has said anything that suggests that.
SPEAKER_08	I think we should call question.
Clerk	On the item, to reduce the Executive Office Administration personal services salaries line by $186,744 in the FY26 budget. Madam President? Yes.
Matt McLaughlin	Can we just be very clear about what we're voting on? I know you just explained it, but what does a yes and a no vote mean, please? Madam Clerk?
Clerk	Thank you, through you. You are voting on the item. This is not a motion for reconsideration. The item was severed, and so the item is now before you. So we're voting for the cut.
Matt McLaughlin	You are voting on the cut. Yes is for the cut, no is against the cut. That's right. Thank you.
Clerk	On the item, Councilor Mbah.
SPEAKER_11	No.
Clerk	Councilor Wilson.
SPEAKER_11	No.
Clerk	Councilor Ewen-Campen.
SPEAKER_11	No.
Clerk	Councilor Scott.
SPEAKER_11	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor McLaughlin.
SPEAKER_11	No.
Clerk	Councilor Burnley.
SPEAKER_11	Aye.
Clerk	Councilor Sait. No. Councilor Strezo. No. Councilor Clingan.
Jesse Clingan	No.
Clerk	Councilor Davis. No. Council Pineda-Newfeld. No. With two councillors in favor and nine opposed, the motion is not approved.
SPEAKER_08	Okay. Councillor Wilson, next up.
Jake Wilson	Madam President, bigger picture budget time now. The Finance Committee has been busy, as usual this month, reviewing the proposed FY26 budget. Since the presentation of that proposed budget in the hearing on the school budget back on May 29th, we met on Tuesday, June 3rd for 55 minutes with all 11 counselors present for the public hearing, as required by ordinance. And then for three nights, uh for uh on june 10th for four hours and 18 minutes uh june 16th four hours and 42 minutes and june 18th for one hour and 51 minutes uh for what were the departmental hearings uh followed by uh this past tuesday for 59 minutes as a committee the whole for cut night i want to thank this entire council as well as the members of the finance committee for their perfect attendance this budget season That's the first time I think that that's been the case during my time chairing the Finance Committee, and that's important. We tried a new approach this year at the suggestion of council staff, where we skipped departmental presentations and encouraged councillors to pre-submit any initial questions well ahead of the departmental hearings for staff to answer with memos. As I previously explained to this body, the goal of this was to save time, but also to give staff the opportunity to look up information that they might not know off the top of their heads, improving the quality of responses and reducing the incidence of staff telling counselors they would have to get back to us with information. The budget hearings then could be used for follow-up questions or for any additional questions that have occurred to counselors. Those of you who were on the council in 2022 might recall me telling you how we set a modern record that year for efficiency with a total of 40 hours and 53 minutes spent on reviewing the budget that year that dropped to 28 hours and four minutes two years ago with the introduction of that option to do pre-submitted questions and staff memos in response and declined slightly to 27 hours and 50 minutes last year. Well, the combination of this year's innovations to the process and the nature of this FY26 budget, specifically its resemblance to last year's budget, saw a major improvement in efficiency. Prior to tonight, we came in at under 15 hours total spent in meetings on this budget. We talked during charter review about a more humane budget process. And between that meeting time efficiency and the quality of responses we're now getting in those memos, we birthed a much more humane process. This is my fourth and final budget season. As your finance chair, I want to express my appreciation for budget director Mastroboni, his staff and everyone in finance, IGA for all the liaising that they've done, our city staff and department heads. Our city council's finance analyst, Muhammad Uddin, and our legislative and policy analyst, Brendan Salisbury, and our committee clerks for clerking all those meetings, and my colleagues for going along with the innovations to the process these last four years. My North Star goal as finance chair with regard to budget season has always been to improve the process. of how we go about this really important work of ours, and then to chair these budget meetings in a fair, productive, and respectful way. So I'll encourage whoever chairs finance next year to take a similar approach because it's good for this body and for the city as a whole. And with that, I ask this committee report be accepted as submitted. Thanks.
SPEAKER_08	Council Clingan.
Jesse Clingan	Thank you, Madam President. Through you, I want to extend my thanks and gratitude to the Chair of Finance for his superior leadership skills, his attention to detail, his understanding of the city budget as a whole, and his way to manage folks in such a way that nobody Because of how empathetic we are to staff and to everybody's time, adopting this new way did cut it down to under 30 hours. I've been on this council for a while. I remember the days when it was a committee of the whole and we were here until midnight with a presentation from every department. Those presentations no longer happen. We send our questions in advance. Sometimes I miss the food that we used to come up five days a week, but ultimately, I think this is better for everyone. I think it's still just as effective and just as just as effective and just as robust. And so I just want to, again, give my congrats to the chair on a job well done. And thank you for your leadership, your management, and your superior skills as a chair of finance. Thank you.
SPEAKER_08	Councilor, I want to add to that as well. I'll just share, signing on to everything Councilor Clingan said, but your organizational skills with the budget has always been really impressive and I've always appreciated your willingness to be open to and accept feedback around how we do things better. So thank you and kudos to you. Councilor McLaughlin.
Matt McLaughlin	Thank you, Madam President. Thank you as well to the chair for managing these meetings. And thank you to the mayor and the city for doing this. I want to lighten the mood for a moment. I thought this was going to be the easy budget year, but no budget season's easy. Like, I've been through 12 of them now. And it's always contentious, and that's part of the job. That's just how things are. But I do want to, like, I know, like, We got emails, we got public notice about things that were left off the table, money that should be allocated somewhere else. And I just think we're in really dark times right now as a city. And we're very fortunate to live where we live, to have the privileges and the money that we have here. But we're also being targeted as a city and as a region. And we're living in very dark, uncertain times. so i was appreciative to see a budget that still reflects our values that still is making putting people first and doing what we can when we don't know where the money is going to come from in the future so i attribute that i credit that to the mayor and all the staff for making that happen and hopefully we're going to get through these tough years and we can get back to like there's a number of things i requested this year that i did not get that i did not get and i accept that because i know that these uncertain times so thank you to everyone despite you know the fights that we have we're working as a city we're one of the most productive cities in the country in my mind and it's because of everybody here the budget is not before us so so hold your speeches um we're going to get there it's just the committee reports that's okay any other discussion on the committee reports councilman
Will Mbah	Thank you, Madam President. I just want to throw you to the chair. Thank you for your leadership as well. As a member of the finance team, I really admire the way you run those meetings. And even something as small as, you know, I had a bunch of items, and I had a conflict, and I said, I trust your judgment. But the chair was so gracious to keep those items in committee to the next finance meeting, those little things. it shows that it's a sign of statesmanship, so thank you.
Naima Sait	Councilor Sait. Through you, Madam President, to our Finance Chair, I also want to take a moment to thank you for your outstanding leadership, for being detail-oriented, extremely organized, but also always willing to answer questions and spend a lot of time on the phone whenever we call. And this year, I wanna thank you for improving the process and as you said, making it more humane and more effective. Council Burling.
Willie Burnley	Thank you, through the chair. Wow, what a year, right? This is, of my years on the council, the easy budget. I'll say that is a consequence of the changes that have been made by the good chair at large of the finance. I remember the first year that we got on and all the changes to the budget that year and how a few of my colleagues who are being quite gracious right now were a little less gracious to the chair about the process, the ways that we handled questions, the way that we moved forward the budget. It wasn't me. it was everybody saying the nice things but um over the years i i feel as though each year has gotten better uh in terms of the uh the efficiency the process the ease at which uh counselors can express their questions or comments um i will say if i we did make zero cuts this year uh we did spend the least amount of time on the budget that the urban record To me, those two things are not always good things. So I do not want to equate efficiency simply with being a rubber stamp because that is not the role of this body. That said, I do appreciate the fact that the chair did take a lot of lumps over the years. in order to morph this into a more humane process. And I feel like we've gone to a much better place than the FY23 budget, for example, which was a rough one and one where we did have meetings that went past midnight and where colleagues were quite frustrated with the process, with each other. Comparatively, this has been a much, much smoother year for the budget, in my opinion. And I do think a good deal of that rests on the shoulders of the chair of finance. So thank you for that.
SPEAKER_08	Councilor Scott.
J.T. Scott	Madam President, to quote one of the great poets of our age, Big Daddy Kane, chairing ain't easy. So you've done wonderful work, sir, and always looking to make the process more efficient. So appreciate your service this year.
Clerk	okay those committee reports are approved next item madam president i do just want to clarify since only one of them i believe was read that that was on the committee reports uh items 6a through 6e the finance committee reports of june 3rd 10th 16th 18th and 24th noted counselor wilson i just want to make sure so now all those items are before us put i believe in nine items before this council for a vote uh that were discharged with no recommendation
Jake Wilson	So Madam President, before we do that, can we please take up together all the FY 2026 budget items on tonight's agenda? That would be items 5.2 to 5.23, items 7.6 to 7.13, and item 10.3.
SPEAKER_08	Yes, and item 10.3 is the budget. So this is the time, if you have a speech, to make it about the budget.
Jake Wilson	I'm sorry, and I apologize. Before we do that, can I move to place, basically there are two items that are being replaced with corrected versions, so I'll move to place on file items 5-4 and 6-E-12.
SPEAKER_08	We'll place those items on file and I'd like to recognize Budget Director Mastroboni to speak on the budget first.
SPEAKER_22	Madam Chair, I'm sorry, Madam President, Mike Mastroboni, Budget Director. I'm here to just enumerate a number of small adjustments, corrections made. You know, when we submit the budget, that doesn't mean it's totally done. Staff in the finance office, staff in every department are constantly reviewing budgets, making sure that all $380 million are exactly as we hoped. The memo that I just passed out, and that's been attached to the item in Legistar, walks through those changes, as large as a couple unfunded positions and as small as $750 for OSHA certification. So the final budget grant total remains unchanged from the initial budget submission. The proportions are slightly different. So this memo walks through all those. If anyone has any questions, I'm happy to talk about those now. If not, I'm happy to sit down and start working on fiscal 27.
SPEAKER_08	After a short vacation, right, budget director?
SPEAKER_22	Madam President, tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_08	Colleagues, I will give you a moment to read through this memo, and then I'll open it up for questions.
SPEAKER_22	Madam President, while everyone's reading, if I may, I'm just really proud of the 99.99996% success rate of getting these numbers right. And I want to thank my colleagues and thank my staff. This is actually budget analyst, Addison Baker, where are you? This is his second and last budget, moving on to a great position with the MBTA. So I want to thank him and I want to thank Megan Huck and Paula as well, budget analysts. So they don't get a lot of praise, so thank you.
SPEAKER_08	Colleagues, any questions for budget director Mastroboni? Not seeing any, thank you. Colleagues, any discussion on the budget? Councillor Davis.
Lance Davis	Thank you, Madam President. Since I saved my speech, I'll give it now. Short one, though. I just want to thank everybody in the administration who put, I know, an unbelievable amount of time and work on this going back months and months and months, and perhaps to the morning after last year's budget, apparently. That wouldn't surprise me at all. As well as my colleagues on the council who serve on the Finance Committee. And I'll speak to that issue just briefly and start, I'm gonna start and then I'll come back and finish. And if I forget to do that, then know that I intended to come back and finish with this same point, which is that I'm incredibly impressed and grateful to Chair Wilson for being brave enough to completely tear this process apart and reinvent it with the help of the budget staff and many other members of the administration. I certainly have not necessarily agreed with all of the particulars of the approach over the years, and I share the concern that, you know, I think the good councilor at large made earlier that we should caution with just entirely equating efficiency and brevity with being a benefit. I think there's room for the pendulum to swing too far in one direction, but we very clearly are closer to the right spot now than we were when I joined the council 10 years ago, and we spent, June 1st, I'd tell my family I'll see them in a month, and we'd come up here and eat a bunch of good food and sit and learn a whole bunch of stuff about how the city plans to operate in the next year. And I say that because I think that the other point I want to make is that as we look at this process going forward, I do want to put the question out, and this is not to suggest that I have a view on this, I just want all of us to think about how the process looks to the public and how it serves the public. and whether there might be a bit of transparency that perhaps we've lost in the way that the process works now. I don't know if there is. The answer to that may be absolutely not. This is great. But I just want everybody to think about that. I'll be interested in sort of hearing folks' thoughts as we move forward into next year. But overall, again, and here's where I come back to ending that. I remembered to do it. To think that someone could come in and completely reinvent this process the way that Councillor Wilson has is I never would have believed it four years ago, and yet here we are. And so just an incredible tribute to you and again to everyone in the administration that helped and was a part of that process. It just shows, it's very brave and it shows great leadership. So thank you for that. That's all, Madam President.
SPEAKER_08	Thank you, Councillor.
Lance Davis	Madam President, if I may, one more person. Councillor Davis. This is where we deliberate, if there's anything else to talk about, just so we know.
SPEAKER_08	Councillor Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Madam President, I'll move to approve then.
SPEAKER_08	Wow. Okay, any discussion on that motion? Councillor Scott.
J.T. Scott	Madam President, are we gonna get shamed if we don't all make speeches?
Clerk	Madam President, if I may, I'll remind the council this is on items 5.2 to 5.3, 5.5 to 5.23, 6E2, 6E4, 6E6 through 6E11, 7.6 to 7.13, and 10.3.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, let's call the question. No rules needed. No rules needed. Then those are approved. Councillor Wilson.
Clerk	Not quite. That does put one, two, three, four, five, six, seven items before this council for a roll call vote. Those are item 25-1079, repurposing $77,000 in the racial and social justice stabilization fund. 25-1080, appropriating $77,000 from the racial and social justice stabilization fund. 25-1095, repurposing and appropriating $40,500 from the COVID-19 stabilization fund. 25-1034 appropriating two million fifty five thousand dollars from the facility construction stabilization fund 25-1035 appropriating two two million seven hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred and seventy dollars from the street reconstruction stabilization fund 25-1155 appropriating $1,126,489.31 from the Facility Reconstruction Stabilization Fund, and 25-1156, appropriating $150,955.61 from the Street Reconstruction Stabilization Fund.
SPEAKER_08	Any discussion?
Clerk	Okay. On those items. Councilor Mbah.
Will Mbah	Madam Craig, just one second. Is this all part of the committee report, or is this a new item that was submitted?
Clerk	Through the President, this is the seven items that I just read. Some of those were reported out of committee, some of them were submitted in the previous meeting and laid on the table, and some of them were submitted for this meeting today. You just voted to approve all of them, and now these are the ones that require a roll call vote. Do you want a minute?
Will Mbah	No, I think, one second.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, I think we're ready to take a vote.
Clerk	On these seven items, Councilor Mbah.
SPEAKER_08	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Ewen-Campen. Yes. Councilor Scott.
Willie Burnley	No.
Clerk	Councilor McLaughlin. Yes. Councilor Burnley.
Willie Burnley	No.
Clerk	Councilor Sait. Yes. Councilor Streisand.
Willie Burnley	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Clingan. Yes. Councilor Davis.
Willie Burnley	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Pineda-Newfeld. Yes. With nine councillors in favor and two opposed, those items are approved.
SPEAKER_08	Councilor Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Madam President, I will now move for reconsideration of all finance-related items in hopes that reconsideration fails.
SPEAKER_08	Madam Clerk.
Clerk	On reconsideration, Councilor Mbah?
Jake Wilson	No.
Clerk	Councilor Wilson?
Jake Wilson	No.
Clerk	Councilor Ewen-Campen? No. Councilor Scott?
Kristen Strezo	No.
Clerk	Councilor McLaughlin? No. Councilor Burnley?
Kristen Strezo	Nay.
Clerk	Councilor Sait? No. Councilor Strezo?
Kristen Strezo	No.
Clerk	Councilor Cliggins?
Kristen Strezo	No.
Clerk	Councilor Davis? No. Councilor Pineda-Newfeld? No. With no councillors in favor and 11 opposed, reconsideration is not approved and those items stand approved.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, congratulations, colleagues. We will take a recess at this point and we'll come back in 10 minutes.
	Thank you.
Matt McLaughlin	okay welcome back madam clerk next item please thank you madam president the next item is going to be item 6f a report of the committee on land use meeting on june 17 2025. council mclaughlin thank you madam president the committee of land use did meet on that time all counselors were present we took up a number of uh good items here uh we took up let's see let me sorry one second So one, before we go, I'd like to sever an item from the committee report, item 250200. This is the Yimby-Dormer item that was placed on file, but the correct action should be to keep it in committee until it's placed on file. So we discussed this item. It was the planning board and the planning department had issues with this. The council spoke generally in support of the concept, but wanted to give deference and time to the city to maybe negotiate something with the Somerville YIMBY group. So we propose to keep this in committee so that it can run its course and then be resubmitted or renegotiated with the city. So I'd like this item to remain in committee. We took up the big summer NOVA items. All four amendments were before us and all four were approved. The big one being the arts and innovation sub area for the master plan development overlay district. We had a thorough discussion about this again. Councilor Ewen-Campen made a motion and amendment to guarantee that affordable housing would be built at this site. There were other technical amendments that kept the substance of the item still before us. We still did discuss the legitimate concerns about transportation and parking and traffic and whether this project will happen at all because even if it's zoned, it doesn't mean that it's gonna happen. We weighed the pros and cons and generally discussed that this council and our committee should not vote on this item based solely on any community basis or any negotiations made outside of the council, but based on the merits of the zoning before us. We discussed that thoroughly and had a five to nothing vote in favor of it. We also discussed the three other amendments that were before us previously that we sent back to committee. No changes were made on those items, but they were approved again. And then we had a brief conversation with Samantha Carr, our land use analyst, who updated us on citywide zoning proposals. Through her and Mr. Dan Bartman, we learned that more housing is actually being built in the UR and NR districts as opposed to the MR districts, which are on the main streets, which what we've been talking about when it comes to citywide zoning is building multiple stories close to transit. More housing has been built in the UR and NR district. Mr. Bartman attributed that to uh them being done as of right instead of needing a special permit and we did discuss the issue however though that changing things to ur or make an mr as of right may jeopardize our ability to enforce inclusionary zoning requirements so that's a concern that we have and we left that in committee that item will be continued to be discussed And then we also had another item that was in committee before, building official to waive certain dimensional standards for means of egress. Council Wilson made an amendment to basically strike out the word possible and insert the language feasible without undue financial hardship. This was in reference to, how do I explain that? There was basically to make sure that there would be more strict use of the word, I'll let Council Wilson explain that in a minute. It's a little complicated there. But that was our committee report. We have another items, and I submit this to be approved as submitted.
Jake Wilson	Council Wilson. Thanks, Madam President. I appreciate the chair's report on that. Yeah, just for some additional color on that egress one. It had come up in the public hearing, actually, a concern that an interpretation, when someone went to go get basically the ability to put an egress, someone might say, well, you could just put an elevator on the side. Why do you need a ramp in the front? And we felt that this language would make it very clear so that there would be no chance of an interpretation of, you know, something that is not very reasonable you know i would say forcing someone to put in an elevator on the side of a building when a ramp in front might suffice would be unreasonable so i was very happy with that outcome and i appreciate the chair indulging us sending that back to committee to make that change it was a good outcome thanks
J.T. Scott	Councillor Scott. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just appreciative of all the work that the Land Use Committee has put in on this and also wanted to express my gratitude for taking it back into committee so that some potential changes could have been discussed there. And I'm very grateful that all of these items are recommended out for approval tonight. Once the committee report is approved, I'm hoping that we can take 250131 first.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, any other discussion on the committee report? So Madam Clerk, we'll send 6F5 back to committee.
Clerk	Thank you, Madam President. And with that approval of the committee report, that places four items before this council for ordainment. And by request, the first of those will be item 25-0131, an amendment to articles 8 and 12 of the zoning ordinance to establish a new arts and innovation subarea of the master planned development overlay district.
SPEAKER_08	Councilor Scott. Oh, no. You don't want to speak on it. Okay. Questions for my colleagues? Discussion? Councillor Davis.
Lance Davis	Thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to acknowledge the communication that has continued to come in on this overall topic, this item, this proposal, the entire scope of this. I wanna talk for a minute just in this form with the full council about sort of my thinking on this overlay district and sort of because I've made statements about my general approach to zoning and sort of looking, doing it proactively rather than reactively. The overlay is really the key thing in my mind that brings me comfort here. You know, from a purely from a zoning standpoint, obviously from a practical standpoint, all of the work the ward counselor has put in place and the community members and the members of the administration to pick this up and really work towards something that hopefully is overall a good design. I recognize there definitely are still some valid questions about a lot of things here. And we've received a number of communications that are specific to the community benefits agreement that the neighborhood council approved recently. I'll repeat what I said in committee and that I heard other folks echo as well, including the good chair just now that You know, that in no way influences my decision on zoning because that's about a project, this is about zoning. And what I said in committee, for all I know, 90% of the people that voted yes for that don't actually want the project to go forward. They just, if it does go forward, they want the best deal they can get. Now, that might not be true either. It could be 90% the other way. The point is, who knows why people voted yes for that. It's certainly, I certainly don't take that as a, okay, therefore it's okay to vote for the zoning because there's a lot that can go into that. I think the overlay though is the key here because it's the thing that takes this from just changing zoning based on a developer's request to changing zoning to enable something that has come out of a long community process that still has a lot of oversight and a lot of checkpoints along the way from the planning board, from the Urban Design Commission, multiple additional opportunities for public input, for changes, for tweaks, for things that can happen. Anytime we're talking about changing zoning, any pictures you see, any plans, none of that means anything, right? Zoning is only the words in the zoning ordinance, and all the pictures and everything else, as we have learned sometimes the hard way in the past, can change. With the overlay, and Director Bartman walked us through this at the last committee meeting, and I I want to repeat my appreciation for that. There remains a number of additional steps here and additional public input, and so that gives me the comfort that I needed to sort of get past my philosophical concerns about the approach. So I just wanted to acknowledge that if anyone's sort of wondering where my thinking went. Thank you, Madam President.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, we have a queue here building. Is that on this point, Councillor Scott? Okay, so I have Councillors Ewen-Campen, Wilson, and Mbah, and then Scott.
Ben Ewen-Campen	Madam President, so I serve on land use. I've had a lot of time to ask questions. I have a speech on how I'm going to vote. Is that in order now? I want to defer if there are questions from people who haven't had a chance to ask questions.
SPEAKER_08	Councillors Wilson and Mbah, Scott, do you have questions? Okay, please, Councillor Ewen-Campen.
Ben Ewen-Campen	Thank you. I'm gonna vote yes. I think for those of us in the politics business, this is what we call a tough vote, which has a specific meaning. It's something that's consequential, but it also means that no matter which way we vote, there are going to be people who are frustrated with the outcome even if you run out of the room and refuse to vote right like this is something where people that we know and respect in our community are on opposite sides of of this issue and there's i got very wise advice from my predecessor alderman bob mcwaters when you have a tough vote you have to listen to all of the feedback that you get and then you have to decide what you think is the right decision and so i think this is a this is a large vote and i want to kind of share and walk through how i've approached it if you'll bear with me so from my point of view this process really started almost two years ago in the fall of 2023 the developer submitted their first version of this zoning proposal And that was ultimately withdrawn in the face of a lot of community pushback. And I just recently reread what I wrote at that time to my constituents. I wrote, I think it's a very good sign that the developer is going back to the drawing board and continuing to work with the various community groups before trying to move forward. My view, that I know is shared by others is that it is certainly reasonable to propose a larger scale development at this site, but the original plan was simply a non-starter based on the enormous amount of new parking spaces they were proposing, the lack of a commitment to include housing in addition to the new commercial space, a mixed use development, the lack of clear commitments to support the local arts community and the existing businesses, and lingering questions about whether the existing electrical infrastructure can even support the scale of the buildings that are being proposed. So that's what I wrote. almost two years ago. And basically what I was trying to say, and I think a lot of people around this horseshoe were saying, was we wanted to see a lot more commitment to serious community benefits and hearing changes to the proposal to mitigate the concerns specifically really around traffic, I think. And so that is what has happened over the last year and a half from my perspective. The city went about their own planning process. Mayor Ballantyne and the planning staff submitted the proposal that's before us now in March of this year. There was a public hearing in late March. We heard a lot of feedback. And those of us in committee, we've had really long and detailed conversations. A huge amount of that was focused on traffic and parking. I was ultimately really impressed by the work that has been done in this proposal specifically to minimize traffic issues.
	Thank you.
Ben Ewen-Campen	These include one of the lowest parking ratios in the greater Boston area, a commitment to free shuttles to transit stops, a really aggressive mobility management plan that, among many other things, creates stop points after every phase. So this is four buildings, multiple phases. After every phase, the planning board can amend or not allow new parking to be built if the traffic issues are spiraling out of control. That's serious, in my opinion. We've also amended the zoning to make sure that it will definitely include a residential component. Instead of just allowing it, it requires it. I've always believed that's really critical. And one thing about serving on the city council in Somerville is that our constituents reach out with really smart, thoughtful lists of questions and requests for information. i have done my best to to read every single one of those that we've gotten and i really mean it when i say it if there were concerns that were raised that i really could not answer and could not come up with a good explanation for um i would vote no definitely like there's i don't there's no sort of damocles hanging over us i very much consider this an open question until the very end of our deliberations um I've sent out a very long explanation in my newsletter and I've shared that's way too long if anyone cares about the details of this, but I've tried to take those really seriously and I personally have felt satisfied that I can answer all of the hard questions that we've got about this. While we were working on the zoning, the Union Square Neighborhood Council, just to be very clear, a completely independent nonprofit coalition of residents, workers, volunteers, has been negotiating this community benefits agreement with the developer, which would go into effect if these developments happen. And honestly, it includes things that I just never even dreamed would be possible, like having kind of gotten involved with local politics around the Union Square, and now seen a number of other projects go forward. These were basically pipe dreams, a project labor agreement, the first in Somerville history that means good paying, union jobs, an actual career ladder, benefits. These can be life-changing things for young people getting on these jobs for the first time. 1,000 square feet of art space, a community center for Somerville youth that they have already demonstrated is a success, financial contributions to nonprofits, and then even the power of this independent group to regulate traffic issues separately from the city's process. So when I look back at what I said publicly, that I wanted to see happen in this process, that has happened. I mean, I just take those as wins. I'm just kind of blown away by the work. It was not passive, right? It was really, really hard work that was done by this community to fight for these, in my opinion, just kind of extraordinary community benefits that are now included in this. So that's why I'm a yes. And lastly, just, you know, my colleague in Ward 6 just mentioned this, an enormous amount of the feedback we've heard recently has been about the community benefits agreement. And so I just wanted to say a few words about that. In my opinion, there are people who are opposed to the development for any number of completely valid reasons. And they knew that if the community benefits agreement goes into effect, really what that means is that there's a letter of support from the Union Square Neighborhood Council, right? Among all of the feedback we get from the public, one of the things we're gonna get is a letter of support from the Neighborhood Council, and these arguments will be used in favor of the development. And so there was this fear that, you know, if you're opposed to the development, this community benefits agreement is gonna be used to argue for it, so we're opposed, right? Totally respect and understand that. But my fear is that because this was kind of the first opportunity that the public had to oppose the development, I think a lot of kind of unfair shade was cast at the neighborhood council that honestly should be going to us. This is not in my self-interest to say, but we are the elected officials who are voting on the zoning. We are held accountable by elections every two years. We sign up for this job to take this kind of public feedback and criticism. The neighborhood council, I think that some of the kind of shade thrown at them has been I hate to say this, it should be directed at me and all of us rather than at the neighborhood council who are, they're just, they're volunteers who have given hundreds of hours of their time to try to make sure if this project happens, that the benefits, the economic benefits of this development are shared more equally in the city. So I'm very, very thankful to everybody who's been involved in this. I know that there are people who are gonna be disappointed in this vote, but that's why I'm supporting it and I wanted to share all that.
SPEAKER_08	Council Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Madam President, I spoke at length about this in committee last week, so I'll try to avoid repeating myself. I just want to say, like my colleagues, I've heard the voices of the neighbors of the site who are upset at the potential impact on their lives of this, who are upset about what they view as The voting, basically how the vote went down. I appreciate, I will name a number of folks who raised those concerns, but clarified that they're not questioning the integrity of the election, nor the work of the USNC, who by all accounts have really closely followed their bylaws and the agreed upon eligibility requirements for that vote on the CBA. But still, I know the criticism stings for USNC members. I know it's because they've told me that. and especially after the extended and really excellent work that they did negotiating those community benefits. So I think that's a shame. For the past weeks, I've been working on trying to address the neighborhood concerns. I've heard about things like the step back height, the lodging use, traffic impacts, construction impacts. I'm satisfied with the changes that we've made to the proposed zoning that addresses the first two of those. I appreciate the efforts by both the developer and by city staff to address the traffic piece at an earlier stage than when it's really supposed to happen. I still have concerns, but I'm gonna trust city staff and the planning board to ensure that those targets are hit. Ultimately, I've been reminding myself lately that unlike other projects where a development gets built and then sold, this developer intends to lease those residential commercial spaces and be there. They have existing commercial tenants who will be there throughout construction. they're going to have every incentive to want to minimize construction impacts on the neighborhood. And if they want to bring in tenants and keep them there commercially in the new space, they're going to make sure that it's not a traffic nightmare as well. They're going to find it's going to be tough to get people to want to go work somewhere and tough to have tenants if it's impossible to get to. So in that respect, they their interests should be aligned with the neighborhood's interests and i'm placing my faith in that uh and i'll be watching to see how this unfolds in the years to come but yes i i'll be voting in support of this as well councilman
Will Mbah	Thank you, Madam President. I want to thank the members of the land use committee, especially the chair, for all the work that has gone into this process. I don't sit on land use, but I've also met dozens and dozens of residents in the neighborhood, Union Square neighborhood members, even went on a walk with a few councilors in the rain. It was like a rainy day. I think it was Councillor Wilson. So it's been quite a process and I really appreciate the work that everybody has put into this and I'm actually voting yes also on this overlay zoning because why not perfect? This process represents the best of what community driven planning can look like. iterative, participatory, and anchor in long-term vision. The unanimous support from the land use committee and the backing of the ward councilor to me reflects a broad consensus shaped by years of engagement, public meetings, and negotiation. So this zoning flanked by a landmark community benefits agreement, like the good councilors, you know, from what Trey mentioned, and a project level agreement, you know, creates a rare opportunity to move from conflict to collaboration and to bring real public benefits like local jobs, youth pipelines, art space, and a climate tech cluster that will expand our commercial tax base This is something that Somerville urgently needs as lab vacancies grow and physical pressures mount. So that said, I also want to recognize the process wasn't flawless. So we should learn from that and commit to doing better. That's why I also support the creation of an independent oversight committee, ideally including members who oppose the project, to ensure transparency, monitor implementation, and hold all parties accountable moving forward. I want to highlight and underscore that participation is the price of progress. And by choosing to stay engaged, even when it's difficult, we preserve the possibility of a Somerville that is both innovative and inclusive. So thank you for everybody's involvement in this. The last person I ever met was our honorable state senator yesterday. And just to show that I want to be there to listen, to understand, to be present. And this is where I am landing on this. Thank you, Madam President. I'll be voting yes.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, here's our queue. We have Councillor Scott, then Councillor McLaughlin, then Councillor Clingan, then Councillor Sight.
J.T. Scott	Thank you, Madam President. I really appreciate the comments that I've already heard tonight. I appreciate not being first out of the queue here. I'm old enough to remember what land use committee looked like before we started videotaping all these meetings. And I honestly think it's a shame that folks can't see how amazing and impressive the land use committee is now. I'm also old enough to remember when it was the, what the ward Councilor Sait went. And I'm grateful for all the work that's been done by the members of the committee to not just take a developer at their word or a city staff at their word, but to really truly deliberate and do the work of this body in a really impressive way. I'm in favor of passing this. This is the end result of over a decade of organizing, not to mention the last two years of work that people have been putting into zoning and the community benefits agreement and the project labor agreement. I think this is, as my colleague from up the hill said, full of absolute wins for the community. and as has been very clear for a long time the struggle is eternal right the the work does not end today neither the work of uh ensuring compliance with the terms of the various agreements ensuring that you know the process continues with individual buildings site plan approvals over the next many years where there will be even more opportunities for public engagement and hopefully the next one of these community benefits agreements next one of these development review processes I've had the honor and privilege to get to preside over a lot of those in Ward 2 over the last eight years. And this is the best one yet, and I know the next one's gonna be better because we are always looking to improve. So this has my full support. I'm really grateful for all the work that's been put in by city staff. by the neighborhood council obviously and by all of my neighbors who are more engaged than ever and i think that's yet another win for the city so i am planning to vote yes and i would invite all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this proposal thank you counselor counselor mclaughlin
Matt McLaughlin	Thank you, Madam President. I also support it. You've got so much to say, but first I'll say I'm very happy to have shepherded this process, but many, many other people did a whole lot more work than me, particularly the ward councillors and the neighborhood council, and Rafi as well, for actually sitting at the table and negotiating with the city. I do want to address an item that's been discussed a few times that I didn't want to talk about was the election, which people have The ballot referendum, whatever you want to call it, which people have cast aspersions on, has no impact on my vote. I personally actually think it was an unnecessary step to have a vote like that, especially with a two-thirds threshold. I would have been disappointed if it failed with 35% of the vote, and I'd be expected to vote against something because a smaller group of people I'm a fully functioning elected official with my own mind. I have the ability to look at a deal and decide whether I think it's good or not for the community. And my role, I felt, was to just let these negotiations play out, let the neighborhood have a voice, and then when they were done with that, come to us and we decide for ourselves whether this is a good deal. I think it's a good deal. And I would say that by looking at history, the brief history that I have been a part of on this council, particularly votes around Assembly Square and Union Square, which many people celebrated and I felt like bitter defeat at times. eminent domain seizures, millions of dollars of city funds allocated to a developer so they can make money. And they absolutely brought benefits to the community. But the question I had in my position was always, where am I in this? Where are my friends? Where are the people I grew up with? And I did not see them in those debates and conversations. It was about the future. It's about the sum of all of the future and not the people here right now. And I'm very proud if I had any role in this at all was not now, but years ago, fighting with the community to have higher standards for development and have higher community involvement and that's what makes me immensely proud of this and again i think the other counselors who live in that neighborhood represent that neighborhood they did the really hard work but i'm very proud that we've set a new standard in the city and that people know that you know i i saw all i cared about was Are you coming to the table with the community? Are you negotiating with the community? And then I will decide for myself whether I thought those negotiations were in good practice, and they were. I saw people who spoke against this project at the first public hearing supported afterwards because negotiations were made, compromises were made. This did not happen in Union Square or Assembly. We were walked on. People had to file moratoriums and all sorts of issues that just made people in the community rightfully feel like maybe this isn't the city for me anymore. I feel very different about this project. I think this project says that this is our city, that developers have to meet our standards, that we're not just gonna give them what they want and beg for scraps. Tangible community benefits here that are gonna impact people that I care about, so I'm happy to support this.
SPEAKER_08	Councillor Clingan.
Jesse Clingan	Thank you, Madam President. Through you, I'll say that I'm going to be voting yes. Everything that's been said, I agree with, and all the thoughtful comments. One of the things Councillor Scott said was something about the meetings being recorded. That is true. They've been recorded since, I think, 2018 or 2017. But what's even cooler right now after COVID is that because it's a five-person committee, we can't you know participate but i've paid close attention and watched those meetings live via zoom i listened to all the thoughtful discussion and great and great questions by my colleagues so i'm grateful to them for really kind of putting this uh these zoning changes through the ringer and this project um you know a special thanks to the ward counselor who i know was also watching really closely i remember you also having these like hybrid meetings in the neighborhood that i also tuned into i was able to because you had them hybrid and you know just thank you to the community for their part as has been stated here by counselor mclaughlin and others that is a huge part of what makes this all such a great deal uh the the um the negotiating and the work you all put in uh to just make this project what it is now um is just something to be uh really marveled at since as was stated things were not like this just not too long ago so i'm happy to support this i'm happy um To vote yes this evening and I'm looking forward to future projects where the community has such a big say at the table and And I think the word is out that Somerville Is a place that you need to negotiate with if you want to build a massive project so Thank you councillor site
Naima Sait	Yeah, thank you, Madam President. Being on land use, I've heard from so many constituents who are not necessarily in my ward, try to listen to all the concerns and answer questions. Yeah, so having heard from so many folks, I spent a lot of time weighing the pros and cons and I appreciate the mobility department presentations, especially regarding traffic mitigation and also traffic during construction. This was probably the biggest concern they've been hearing from constituents. And also my concern, we had the chance to ask questions and hear from Rafi and we appreciate their presentation and their willingness to incentivize the tenants to switch to more environmentally friendly modes of transportation. I think I'm satisfied with the traffic mitigation plan. As others have mentioned, There is, even though there's a plan to build 750, parking spots. It will happen in four phases, and at any point during those phases, if the reports that are submitted by the developer are not satisfying, the planning board can always reconsider that. ask the developer to not build more. So yeah, therefore, I am satisfied. And yeah, another point is the community benefit agreement. We're all aware of all the wins and from that and also the project labor agreement, I think are two things to celebrate and it does set a really good precedent. And at the last land use meeting, there was an amendment made that I was very thrilled that it passed requiring residential housing rather than just allowing it. So for all these reasons, I'm planning to vote yes. Council Burley.
Willie Burnley	thank you through the chair um yeah yeah guys uh i remember when i first joined this council uh back in 2022 uh when you're when you're a new counselor a lot of folks want to talk to you they want to show you around they want to give you a preview of the work to come down the years and i remember the first time i stepped on the raffi campus got a tour looked around was very impressed by what had been built and was speaking to some of the same people in this room. And I remember being asked specifically about a potential project, a potential upzoning and what it would take for me as a counselor to support it. This was the first time I had ever, as a counselor, spoken to a developer. It was not something that, when I was planning to become a counselor, I planned to do very much or wanted to do. It was not the reason I joined this body, frankly. But I remember clearly the conversation that we had and the response that I gave was, get the community on your side. Get a CBA and you'll have my support. That was three years ago. And many, many processes, many, many constituency groups from artists to environmentalists to local business owners to abutters to the thousands of people that will be impacted by both this project, the zoning, the CBA, and this PLA. And although I'm not ever someone who is fully satisfied with anything, frankly, and I do recognize that there are still legitimate concerns, both with process retrospectively and process moving forward, I was very clear with everyone in the community what my standard for this vote would be, and it was, get the community on your side, and I'll be on your side, because I'm with the community. And now that we're here, I'm gonna keep true to my promise, and I'm gonna support what the people of War II and III and beyond fought for in this agreement, and I'm gonna honor that with a yes vote.
SPEAKER_08	Any others?
Kristen Strezo	Council Schozo. I wanted to, I listened and talked and to all sides of the conversation and from many, many, many, many constituents, emails, calls, texts, et cetera, about this, all of the thoughts. And I am driven by the fact that this has been a long, years long process the years and years and years long process that it was driven by the community um that there i i am encouraged by the fact that there is a cba and a pla i'm very happy that there is union support in pla which is uh i'm really happy about that i had a question about transportation and i would like to get on record that uh from uh Director Galgani, I believe I saw, and if I may, Madam President, through you, that any Somerville resident can ride the transportation provided from employees. Is he here?
SPEAKER_08	Director Galgani? Yes. There's a question directed to you.
SPEAKER_11	Through the President, could you repeat the question?
Kristen Strezo	Yes, absolutely. Madam President, through you too, Director Galgani, I wanted to confirm on record that every Somerville resident can ride the transportation from public transport, from any T-Line or coming back and forth from Summer Nova or from Rafi Properties if they provide transportation.
SPEAKER_11	I'm gonna allow Rafi Properties to answer that. Yeah. The answer is yes.
Kristen Strezo	Right, so not through the microphone, but I'm trying to get it on record just here and now, okay. Madam President, through you too, Director Galgani, as the director of OSBCD, that's why I'm asking you.
SPEAKER_11	Thank you. Raffi Properties has just confirmed that yes, the shuttles that they are proposing as part of the mitigation and the mobility movement in that project will be available to every resident in the city, and probably every non-resident too, workers as well.
Kristen Strezo	Madam President, through you, so anybody who would want to be able to get on that transportation is allowed to get on there and ride it. True. Okay, thank you very much. So I wanted to hear, I will support this project. Thank you.
SPEAKER_08	Any other discussion, colleagues? Believe we need a roll call for this right madam clerk.
Clerk	We need a couple of them madam president We'll start with on enrollment and as a reminder This is item 25 dash at zero one three one the arts and innovation sub area of the master plan development overlay district.
	I
Clerk	On enrollment, Councilor Mbah.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Wilson.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Ewing Kempin.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Scott.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor McLaughlin. Yes. Councilor Burnley.
SPEAKER_16	Aye.
Clerk	Councilor Sait. Yes. Councilor Strezo.
Naima Sait	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Clingan.
Naima Sait	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Davis. Yes. Councilor Pineda-Newfeld. Yes. With 11 councillors in favor and none opposed, that item is enrolled and on ordainment. Hold on, we're still voting. With 11 councillors in favor and none opposed, that item is ordained.
SPEAKER_07	Next item.
Clerk	Thank you, Madam President. The next item before this council for enrollment and ordainment is item 25-0128, an amendment to articles six, nine, and 10 of the zoning ordinance to establish a new research and development zoning district.
SPEAKER_08	Councilor Scott.
J.T. Scott	just briefly on this this is the new R&D district text amendment as well as a map amendment this was the one that actually had raised concerns about at our last meeting I also wanted to extend my thanks to the land use committee for considering the modification of this down to two stories instead of two to four with the passage of the overlay I'm comfortable now moving forward with it at four so I just wanted to make make it clear and again grateful for the process thank you
SPEAKER_08	Thank you, Councillor. Any other discussion? All right, Madam Clerk, let's vote.
Clerk	On enrollment, Councillor Mbah.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Wilson.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Ewen-Campen. Yes. Councillor Scott.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor McLaughlin. Yes. Councillor Burnley.
SPEAKER_16	Aye.
Clerk	Councillor Sait. Yes. Councillor Strezo. Yes. Councillor Clingan.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Pineda-Newfeld. Yes. With 11 Councillors in favor and none opposed, that item is enrolled. And on ordainment, Councillor Mbah.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Wilson.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Ewan Kempin. Yes. Councillor Scott.
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor McLaughlin. Yes. Councillor Burnley. Aye. Councillor Sait. Councillor Strezo.
Kristen Strezo	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Clingan.
Kristen Strezo	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Pineda-Newfeld. Yes. With 11 Councillors in favor and none opposed, that item is ordained.
SPEAKER_07	Item clerk, next item.
Clerk	And the next item before this council for enrollment and ordainment is item 25-0129, an amendment to articles two, three through six and nine of the zoning ordinance to revise the regulations for arts and creative enterprise, office and residential uses.
SPEAKER_08	Any discussion? Council Burnley.
Willie Burnley	Just really briefly through the chair, don't F with fab.
SPEAKER_05	All right.
Clerk	On enrollment, Councilor Mbah.
SPEAKER_05	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Wilson.
SPEAKER_05	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Ewen-Campen.
SPEAKER_05	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Scott.
SPEAKER_05	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor McLaughlin. Yes. Councilor Burnley.
SPEAKER_05	Aye.
Clerk	Councilor Sait. Yes. Councilor Strezo. Yes. Councilor Clingan.
Naima Sait	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Davis. Yes. Councilor Pineda-Newfound. Yes. With 11 councillors in favor and none opposed, that item is enrolled. And on ordainment, Councilor Mbah. Yes. Councilor Wilson.
J.T. Scott	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Ewen-Campen.
J.T. Scott	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Scott.
J.T. Scott	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor McLaughlin. Yes. Councilor Burnley. Aye. Councilor Sait. Yes. Councillor Strezo. Yes. Councillor Clingan. Yes. Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Panetta-Newfeld. Yes. With 11 councillors in favor and none opposed, that item is ordained.
SPEAKER_07	Madam Clerk, next item.
Clerk	And one final item before this council for enrollment and ordainment, item 25-0590, an amendment to Article 2 of the zoning ordinance to allow the building official to waive certain dimensional standards for means of egress.
SPEAKER_08	Any discussion? All right, let's vote.
Clerk	On enrollment, Councilor Mbah? Yes. Councilor Wilson?
SPEAKER_05	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Ewen-Campen?
SPEAKER_05	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Scott?
Kristen Strezo	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councillor Burnley?
Kristen Strezo	Aye.
Clerk	Councillor Sait? Yes. Councillor Strezo?
Kristen Strezo	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Clingan?
Kristen Strezo	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Davis? Yes. Councillor Pineda-Newfeld?
Kristen Strezo	Yes.
Clerk	With 11 councillors in favor and none opposed, that item is enrolled. And on ordainment, Councillor Mbah?
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Wilson?
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Ewen-Campen? Yes. Councillor Scott?
SPEAKER_16	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor McLaughlin? Yes. Councillor Burnley?
SPEAKER_16	Aye.
Clerk	Councillor Sait? Yes. Councillor Strezo? Yes. Councillor Clingan? Yes. Councillor Davis? Yes. Councillor Pineda-Newfeld? Yes. With 11 councillors in favor and none opposed, that item is ordained. Thank you, counselor.
SPEAKER_07	Okay, next item, Madam Clerk.
Clerk	The next item, Madam President, is going to be item 7.14, a request to the mayor. Requesting approval to accept and expend a $119,095.58 grant with no new match required from the Mass Department of Public Health to the Health and Human Services Department for Public Health Services.
SPEAKER_07	Thank you, Madam Clerk. Councillor Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Madam President, just to set the table here, this item and the next two, I don't know if we're going to hear anything, but the explanation to me was these are three grant acceptances that need to get done before the end of the month, and that's why we're taking these up for immediate consideration tonight, as opposed to sending them to finance. Thanks.
SPEAKER_08	Any questions on this item? Okay, this item is approved. Next item.
Clerk	Item 7.15 is a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $110,280 grant with no new match required from the Mass Department of Public Health Bureau of Community Health and Prevention to the Health and Human Services Department for tobacco control and cessation.
SPEAKER_08	Any questions on this item for immediate consideration tonight? Okay, this item's approved, next item.
Clerk	Item 7.16 is a request to the mayor, requesting approval to accept and expend a $10,000 grant with no new match required from the MBTA to the Department of Public Works and Department of Infrastructure and Asset Management for reconstruction of a sidewalk and landscape area to facilitate relocation of an MBTA bus stop.
SPEAKER_08	Any discussion on this item for immediate consideration? Okay, this item is approved. Then I'm gonna ask for a five minute recess.
Clerk	all right um we have one more item out of order madam clerk next item thank you madam president the next item is going to be item 7.1 a request of the mayor requesting ordainment of an amendment to section 2-323 of the code of ordinances to update categories and associated salaries for non-union positions
SPEAKER_08	This is also an item for immediate consideration this evening. Right, Madam Clerk? So any questions on this item while we have city staff here to answer those questions? No questions? Okay. Council cleaning moves to approve. and I believe this needs a roll call. Yes, any discussion? Okay, this item is approved, Madam Clerk.
Clerk	And this item is now before the council for enrollment and ordainment. On enrollment, Councilor Mbah.
Will Mbah	What is that?
Clerk	Councilor Mbah, we are on item 7.1, ordainment of an amendment to section 2-323 of the code of ordinances to update categories and associated salaries for non-union positions.
Will Mbah	I'm ready.
Clerk	On enrollment, Councilor Mbah.
Will Mbah	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Wilson.
Will Mbah	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor Ewen-Campen. Yes. Councilor Scott.
Will Mbah	Yes.
Clerk	Councilor McLaughlin. Yes. Councilor Burnley. Aye. Councilor Sait. Yes. Councillor Strezo. Yes. Councillor Clingan. Yes. Councillor Davis.
SPEAKER_05	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Pineda-Newfeld.
SPEAKER_05	Yes.
Clerk	With 11 councillors in favor and none opposed, that item is enrolled. And on ordainment, Councillor Mbah. Yes. Councillor Wilson.
SPEAKER_05	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Ewen-Campen.
SPEAKER_05	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Scott. Yes. Councillor McLaughlin. Yes. Councillor Burnley. Aye. Councillor Sait. Yes. Councillor Strezo. Councillor Clingan.
SPEAKER_09	Yes.
Clerk	Councillor Davis. Yes. Councillor Pineda-Newfeld. Yes. With 11 councillors in favor and none opposed, that item is ordained.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, Madam Clerk, next item.
Clerk	That will return us to the regular order of business. Let's get the meeting started. And item 4.2, a communication by Councillor Pineda-Newfeld in her capacity as president, canceling this council's regular meetings scheduled for July 24th and August 14th, 2025.
SPEAKER_08	You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. We'll place this item on file. Next item.
Clerk	Item 4.3 is an order by Councilor Ewen-Campen that the Director of Engineering update this Council and community advocates on current efforts to fix the unsafe crossing of the community path at School Street.
SPEAKER_08	Councilor Wilson would like to sign on. Councilor Ewen-Campen and Councilor Strezo would like to sign on. And Councilor Clingan would like to sign on. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Councilor Ewen-Campen. If I may. Oh, this is Counselor Yancampin's item. Yep. Okay, Counselor Yancampin.
Ben Ewen-Campen	Thank you, Madam President. I've put in a number of items. This has been a really long-standing issue. When you're crossing the school street on the community path, there's this really dangerous 90-degree turn with bad visibility. The this has been an issue for a long time, but right now there is a extremely inspired group of advocates who are working to light a fire under us, which I very much appreciate the more the merrier. And so I'm hoping this can go to traffic and parking and so that we can get an update. It is my understanding that the city has brought on a architectural consultant to come up with a solution for this. We don't need to talk about the whole history, but it is going to get fixed. And the more public energy focused on this particular problem, the better from my perspective.
Kristen Strezo	Councilor Schizzo. Thank you, and I'd like to sign on to this, and I'm grateful that we're talking about it again because it's a very, very dangerous corner, and I've done it on a cargo bike, and it's virtually impossible to make the turn on a cargo bike, and not even the ones with the long, I don't know the terms, but I had the little basket one, and it was impossible. i don't know i'm not really creative but i i swear i'd be inspired to just take a jackhammer and just use my own cement and i'm terrible um and at crafty solutions but it's it has to be fixed sooner than later it's dangerous and i am worried about someone getting really hurt or or maimed we have to fix it immediately council about would like to sign on as well
SPEAKER_08	This item is approved and sent to traffic and parking.
Clerk	Next item. Item 4.4 is an order by Councilor Ewen-Campen that the Director of Mobility install a watch for bicycle signage for each street that intersects with the two bicycle lanes on Central Street.
SPEAKER_08	Councilor Ewen-Campen.
Ben Ewen-Campen	Thank you, Madam President. There's now a bike lane that goes against traffic on Central. And so for cars, especially coming out of those cross streets there, Cambria, Gibbons, those streets, it might not be natural to look for the bikes coming because the traffic is only coming from one way, but the bikes are coming from the other. There may already be plans underway to put this signage in that the project is only now wrapping up, but this is something I'm quite concerned about an accident happening. So I just put this in to emphasize the importance of this issue and I ask that it be approved.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, this item is approved. Next item.
Clerk	Item 4.5 is a resolution by Councillor Sait that the administration notify Magoon Square businesses of planned construction projects.
Naima Sait	Councillor Sait. Yeah, so for this one, this past week there was a big planned project in Magoon Square and I heard from small businesses they have not been notified. So we'd like to hear from the Director of Economic Development about it. So this will be sent to what committee?
SPEAKER_08	Probably Housing Community Development. I'm sorry? Housing and Community Development has a bunch of small. All right. I'm sorry, Public Utilities and Public Works.
Naima Sait	Public Utilities and Public Works? Yes. Will you send them? Okay. Councilor Schozo?
Kristen Strezo	uh thank you madam president i would suggest housing and community development unless you're in public or counselor to counselor site through you to counselor site that i'm happy to take it in housing and community development and we have discussed similar issues uh in other parts of the city where where local small businesses literally have to shut down for a couple of days because there is a lot of construction happening immediately outside the doors It's on their busiest days, and they didn't learn about it until the day the pounding started. So actual action has to be taken on this in more communication. I'm happy to take it in housing community development, but Madam President, through you to Councilor Sait, if you wish to discuss it in public utilities.
Naima Sait	I think as long as the director shows up and we can have a director there and have a plan. I saw Councilor Panetta-Newfeld, you put in a similar request that's more detailed. Where would that be?
SPEAKER_08	Because I thought they could just kind of... Yes, I was planning to send mine to Housing and Community Development. Sorry, let's do that. Okay. All right. So maybe we can send this one there and there'll be a similar one in there as well. Okay, next item.
Clerk	Item 4.6 is a resolution by Councilors Sait and Wilson that Eversource explain the reasons behind repeated power outages in Magoon Square and share what they have done to address them in the near term and what is being done to prevent long-term recurrence.
SPEAKER_08	Council Burnley would like to sign on. Councilor Sait.
Naima Sait	Yeah, thank you, Madam President. So this is a really big concern in my ward. There have been repeated power outages in the Mugun Square area just this past, this month. And these outages have been going on for a few summers now. They're affecting small businesses. Just very recently, a group of seniors, they had to be evacuated. I have been in communication with the administration and been receiving updates from Eversource, but this is far from being solved. So that's why I'm asking for where is the short-term solution, but more importantly, where is the long-term solution here? And I would like to send this to, yeah, I think Public Utilities and Public Works. Thank you. Yes, and Council Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Yeah, thanks, Madam President. I want to thank our colleague from Ward 5 for the collaboration on this. Yeah, like she said, it's something that seems to happen every summer. It seems like it's getting worse this summer. Just driving through there and seeing traffic signals that are out, the reports online, people I know who live there who report long outages and during really, really hot times of year. Councillor Burnley, I know we lost you during a meeting when the power went out. yeah it's a real thing um and it's taken a toll last night a magoon square business owner told me that a power outage recently cost her business over six thousand dollars in lost business so yeah let's please get some answers get some commitments to resolving this from from eversource so it's not a recurring thing going forward
SPEAKER_08	Okay, we'll send that to Public Utilities and Public Works. Next item.
Clerk	Item 4.7 is an order by Councillor McLaughlin that the Director of Economic Development and the City Clerk discuss with this council policies regarding outdoor seating and how the city may make it easier and less expensive for small businesses.
SPEAKER_08	Madam Clerk, please send me on. Councillor McLaughlin and Councillor Davis and Councillor Mbah.
Matt McLaughlin	So this is an item we have discussed several times in the past, and I am a huge fan of outdoor seating. Anybody who ever asks for an outdoor seating license in my neighborhood, I'm always in support of it because it livens up the neighborhood, gives you fresh air. And we have made progress in terms of having more outdoor seating, but we also, a few years ago, amended some things to expedite this and streamline it, and now I'm getting from business owners that the process is so onerous that they're not even bothering to have outdoor seating, the process and the costs. several businesses on East Broadway have chosen just not to do seating this year. So I just want to have a discussion about this, see what can be done to address it, because especially if it's on a, like we have very wide sidewalks in East Somerville, you can have outdoor seating without taking parking spots away, without interrupting pedestrian safety, and I'd like to advocate for as much outdoor seating as possible. So I'd like to send this to Public Health and Safety.
Clerk	councilor schoeser would like to sign on and we'll send us a public health public safety next item thank you sorry i was getting ready yeah i know very thrown off there the next item is item 6g a report of the committee on licenses and permits meeting on june 25th 2025. council brinley
Willie Burnley	Through the chair, can I waive the readings of items?
SPEAKER_08	We're doing the committee report.
Willie Burnley	Oh, sorry. Yes. Well, now that I'm on it, might as well do it. Oh, well, fine. I'll do a community report first. So, thank you. Licenses and permits met for a relatively brief meeting, about an hour, and discussed a number of things, including double polls, where we spoke with Eversource, RCN, Comcast, and Verizon representatives, all about the 110 double poles in Somerville, and how we can work to lessen that number over time. We spoke about this previously in January, I believe, and there has been some progress. I believe we were told 12 poles, double poles were removed in that time, but there's still a long way to go, and we plan to continuously bi-annually meet with these companies to discuss how much progress they're making on removing these poles from the community. We had two public hearings regarding different items, one a garage, one 1,000 gallons of flammables, and we also discussed the efforts to enforce the Why am I blanking on the word? What? Yeah, closed captioning. For some reason I forgot the word captioning. Closed captioning ordinance, which in effect we were told there has not really been an effort to do so, although there was an initial emailing of businesses about the implementation of the ordinance. That was marked complete. We will, as I said, every six months or so, come back to the issue of double polls so that we can continue to see the progress there. And both public hearings were recommended for, both items that had public hearings were recommended for approval and are before you. So with that, I'd like the committee to approve this report. Thank you.
SPEAKER_08	Any discussion? All right, committee report is approved. Next item.
Clerk	Item 7.2 is a request of the mayor requesting approval of early voting dates for the September 16th, 2025 preliminary election and the November 4th, 2025 city election.
SPEAKER_08	Any discussion? Okay, Councilor Young-Kibben.
Ben Ewen-Campen	I just wanted, I saw Director Salerno here and he was in a short sleeve shirt and this is a formal meeting.
SPEAKER_08	Was he in a tan suit too? This item is approved. Oh, on this? Okay, this item's approved.
Jake Wilson	Council Wilson. Madam President, I'll move to weigh the readings of items 73 to 75 and ask those be sent to finance.
SPEAKER_08	Great, those items will be sent to finance. Next item.
Clerk	The next item is item 8.1, an officer's communication from the Director of Human Resources and Chief of Police, conveying information on entry-level police officer hiring practices.
SPEAKER_08	We will place this item on file. Councillor Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Yeah, Madam President, I'm happy to hear how effective this new hiring practice is proven to be. We got an update in finance, I think. It was on finance, both the departmental hearing and on cut night we talked about this. It's having success filling some vacancies that had been proving difficult to fill. I first heard about this in conversation with police department leadership a little prior to that. About a year ago, this council had asked for better communication from the administration. I think this is a good example of, I'll be kind and say, opportunities for improvement. I wish we'd gotten this update back when the decision was made to actually pursue this as opposed to after it had already been implemented and was resulting in hiring processes. So yeah, I would love to learn about these things earlier so we're not hearing about this from staff when it's happening.
SPEAKER_08	Noted, any other discussion? Okay, we'll place that on file. Next item.
Clerk	Item 8.2 is an officer's communication from the Director of Economic Development requesting that this council convene an executive session to discuss strategy regarding the disposition of 90 Washington Street.
SPEAKER_08	So we're gonna have executive session, just kidding. We're gonna lay this on the table. I'm glad someone likes my jokes tonight. For the next meeting, Madam Clerk, next item. Item 9.1 is the public communication. Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. Counselor Kibben.
Ben Ewen-Campen	My apologies for missing this. I just wanted to make a quick note through you on the previous item, 8.1, having to do with the hiring process. It's my understanding that we are going to have new candidates for new police officers on the upcoming agenda. typically what we would do with new hires our practice now is they don't go to committee because of for many reasons that we've talked about um so i would just ask the people please familiarize if you want to have questions totally valid this is a new process um just you know be prepared don't be surprised when those names are on the agenda at the july 10th meeting great thank you counselor next item
Clerk	Item 9.1 is a public communication from Patrick Conti and Bill Shelton, submitting comments regarding items 24-1460, 25-0128, 25-0129, and 25-0131, amendments to the zoning ordinance for lab, research and development, and arts uses.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, we'll place this item on file. Next item.
Clerk	Item 10.1 is an order by Council Pineda-Newfeld that the Director of Economic Development provide an update to this council on efforts to mitigate construction impacts on small businesses in the city, what resources are available to small businesses affected by construction, and what additional support can be made available.
SPEAKER_08	Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we've started the conversation actually a few moments ago. Let me just share a little bit background of why I'm putting this forward, why I think it's important. So a good friend of mine in Florida is the same representative and put a bill in place which I forwarded to our legislative liaison that creates a construction mitigation fund for small businesses when construction is happening in front of their businesses and they're adversely affected in particular you know we can we can see and and have data around the the effects especially on their revenue for that day. And so I just got really interested in like, what can we do here? And, you know, I know this is my last meeting. I'm hoping that this can be sent to HCD for Monday's meeting, Councilor Strezo, if that's possible, for discussion because I think As we're hearing, especially in the midst of construction season, but also planning for future construction seasons down the road, a small business that's barely surviving in these economic times has to close suddenly for two, three, four plus days for any various reasons for construction. You know, there's sidewalk reconstruction happening right now in my ward. Soon paving will start. You know, this is affecting Ward 6 as well, and a lot of the paving projects that we're all really excited about. But it really affects folks' ability to get to our small businesses, and it affects their ability to stay open and take business. So I just hope we can start this conversation and hear, particularly from our economic development team, you know, what are some of the efforts beyond just communication, which I think is the bare minimum, frankly, to our small businesses to support them during really heavy construction seasons in front of their small businesses. So that's what I'll say.
Lance Davis	Thank you. I'd like to send on to that. Councillor Streisand.
Kristen Strezo	Thank you, Mr. President, through you too, Madam President. I agree with you. I do feel that we have to be a bit more proactive, and we have to have a designated plan set in motion because, yes, and I'm grateful that you put this forward. I'm happy to put it on the agenda. and also if the business owners would be interested in speaking that night at housing and community development, I'm happy to sponsor them and keep it in committee if it is a conversation that we need to carry on for another meeting. I think it's something we absolutely have an implemented plan and are using every single time It's it's absolutely a barrier to business. So thank you for bringing this forward and thank you Mr. President the culture site for putting on forward that agenda item as well
Lance Davis	Councilor Wilson.
Jake Wilson	Yeah, Mr. President. There's a monthly Davis Square merchants meeting that happens. I know you're typically there. Councilor Burnley's been at some of those as well. At the May one, there was just a raft of complaints from really frustrated business owners just describing the impacts that they feel from this. We heard about a coffee shop who relies on their window for service. They showed up to work one day and their sidewalk was dug up. they couldn't operate. It really hits businesses hard, and there's gotta be a way to better inform them of impacts that are coming. And I know, we hear all the time how city contract, it's the same deal that you get with residential contractors, where you might think they're gonna come one day, maybe, you know, you get a range of dates, sometimes it's tough to get them to come in, but still, if we can just give them the most up-to-date info we have, I think that would help a lot. I made a suggestion of sharing, Jesse Moose's weekly right-of-way email, making sure that Economic Development's sending that out to business owners so they have some idea of what's coming that next week, much like we have. I just think it's got to be, you know what I'll say, another really good opportunity to do a little better.
Lance Davis	Okay, thank you. So that'll be approved and copy sent to Housing Community Development.
Clerk	Item 10.2 is an order by Councillor Pineda-Newfeld that the Director of Housing discuss with this council ways to inform tenants, landlords, and real estate professionals in Somerville of the fair housing laws.
Lance Davis	Councillor Pineda-Newfeld.
SPEAKER_08	Yes, thank you. So let me share a little story. So my family and I have been looking for a bigger apartment for my growing toddler, and the experience of hunting for a new rental apartment in somerville as a mom of a child under the age of six has been really illuminating for me and so i wanted to bring this because i don't have any answers to this problem but i do want to raise this the council level at the city level so we have really fantastic lead laws in the state of massachusetts that i won't bore you with the details here but that require owners and landlords to do lead mitigation if if someone if a family moves in and lead is found we also have really strong fair housing laws that prohibit discrimination against lots of different identities but in particular family status so you would think these two would go together what's really interesting about the process is that as you all know and i applaud the efforts to attempt to get the broker's fees out of this process that real estate brokers are often a very key part of this puzzle that as i am looking at i being tenant not city councilor but tenant judy is looking for a new apartment i will reach out usually to a broker because most of our the apartments in somerville are not usually listed by by owners and as the broker to show me the apartment. They usually respond with a bunch of questions about who's gonna live in this unit and tell me a little bit more about yourself. The minute I share that I have a family or have a child under the age of six, I get ghosted, truly. And I have documented evidence on the number of apartments I've reached out to and the number that get back to me. And it's about a 10% return rate. So only 10% of the apartments I've reached out to I've seen in person. That is not my experience when I moved three years ago. So I'm a renter, I move often, like a lot of people in Somerville, it's a pretty common experience. And I did not experience this when I was pregnant i did not experience this when i was a single person looking at an apartment i've only really experienced this this year and and i know that the rental markets change but i've also been in really difficult rental markets in the city of somerville as i've spoken both to kind brokers about this experience they just say you know You have a two-year-old. And it's hard because we can only show you lead-free apartments, which is usually new construction or things that have been gutted and renovated. And so most people don't want to deal with that. When I talk to parents, now that I've been sharing my experience with parents who also have kids around my age, they say, well, we are not moving until after the age of six because it's the nightmare. Or, you know, so we're squeezed into this one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartment until we're, you know, our hair is gray because it's so stressful or we move out, right? And we find a place in the suburbs or we find new construction or et cetera, et cetera. So it just seems to be there's these sort of ways in which the laws are squeezing our parents tenants in particular and I think figuring out a way to communicate because the fair housing laws are supposed to protect me against this right but I can't prove that I'm being discriminated against based on just not hearing back from brokers which is sort of an interesting problem to solve here and I think if we figure out a way to make sure that everyone who's involved in this ecosystem, the tenants, the landlords, the brokers in particular, have a better understanding of what the laws are and also tenants, how to protect ourselves. That might be a way that we can get at this. But I honestly don't have the solution here. I'm glad we have the strong laws that we do, but I do think that this is a way in which families in particular are being squeezed out, not just because it's expensive to live here, but because there's just fewer opportunities to find apartments and fewer folks that want to rent to a family with a child under the age of six. That's why I put this on here, again, hoping to really start the conversation and see where it goes from there, but I think some additional communication with folks in different parts of this challenge would go a long way.
Kristen Strezo	Mr. President, thank you to Madam President. I'm really grateful that you're bringing this forward. I'm happy to take it in housing and community development. about inequity, I can't recall, had it been housing. When we talked, now we've, first off, if you haven't yet filed complaints with the Fair Housing Commission and the commissioners within Somerville, please do, and I'm encouraging everyone, and I know you're a counselor, so you know these things, but also want to emphasize that anyone that is experiencing that, they have to be, report it they should absolutely report it to the Fair Housing Commission within Somerville because if we don't have the data right it's not happening and every one of my experiences with when I was on the rental market with kids is exactly the same even back then and that's not okay it's discrimination and We have, with the legislative liaison, or legislative analysis, have talked with the Housing Division and with Fair Housing on what we can do within Somerville, within our limits of our city. Where we stand, we have to report it to MCAD, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, and then they take it at the state. And then in the previous governor, there was a massive, what, three-year-long backlog. The current governor has enhanced staffing. I don't know what the current budget looks like. I haven't looked at it with that, but it's better. But we were hoping and we are hoping that we could one day have more ability to take that on within the city. And there are other communities, including Cambridge, that actually have the ability to address and investigate fair housing complaints within their city. We don't because we would require a home rule petition, which is a arduous process, we all know. Not that we would be scared away from it, but it's now just a long process to get to that. but we do have to report it to the Fair Housing Commission, and I'll stop talking because it's 11.05, but happy to take it in HCD.
Willie Burnley	Councillor Bradley? Thank you. Through the Chair, I'll try to be brief. want to applaud the council from ward 7 for bringing this forward this is something that i think is really important not only because we already have these laws on the books but because we know they aren't being enforced one of the thing one of the few questions i really one of the questions i asked during budget season to our housing division specifically were was do we do fair housing checks? When many years ago, I was an intern at a nonprofit called the Equal Rights Center where I learned how to do fair housing checks because they're integral in the investigations of housing discrimination. And there are nonprofits in our area that do some of this work, but the fact that we as a government are not in that realm really limits our ability to really collect data on what we statistically know is happening in our community, which is housing discrimination on various levels. I mean, this council has talked for years about discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders, which is illegal. We've talked about discrimination on racial lines, et cetera. I applaud these efforts I really think we should build at some point toward actually having these checks so that we can know where bad actors lie whether that is just from a lack of information whether that is brokers intentionally not showing properties to certain people or whether that is landlords looking at different tenants and telling them different information about the property there's a lot more that i think we can do in this area i'm curious to see where it goes legislatively but i hope that one day we move towards staffing towards fair housing checks and summer bill thank you thank you that's that item is approved with a copy to housing and community development
Clerk	And that brings us to item 10.4.
Willie Burnley	Thank you, I'd like to waive the readings of items 10.4 through 10.11 and not say anything fancy about them, thank you.
SPEAKER_08	I didn't hear you, and what?
Willie Burnley	And not do my whole spiel, because it's late.
SPEAKER_08	Okay, and are you asking for approval?
Willie Burnley	Yes, please.
SPEAKER_08	Oh, okay. Okay, those items are approved.
Clerk	Item 10.12 is a public communication from 12 residents submitting comments regarding the Summer Nova Community Benefits Agreement.
SPEAKER_08	We'll place that item on file. Next item.
Clerk	Item 10.13 is a public communication from Enrique Navarro submitting comments regarding a pedestrian signal.
SPEAKER_08	Place that item on file.
Clerk	And that brings us to the end of the agenda, Madam President. Councilor Mbah.
Will Mbah	Thank you, Madam President. Thank you for your work. We will miss you. I invite everybody to Mexico tomorrow. It's our 10th wedding anniversary with me and my wife. Wow, congratulations.
SPEAKER_07	You can applaud, you can applaud. Madam Clerk, are there any late items? There are no further items before this council, Madam President. I move to adjourn.