Housing and Community Development Committee

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Meeting Title: Housing and Community Development Committee
City: Somerville, MA
Date Published: 2025-06-30

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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_05	Thank you. I think we might have to do that a la Wayne Grove. Simple plug to the summer series that we'll be presenting. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Right. Anyway, welcome to the Committee of Housing and Community Development. I am the city Council are some stress of the chair. And today's Monday June 30th, 2025 is 6, 0, 6, it's a 6 p.m. We are in person is any all and we are remote and pursuant to chapter 2 of the act of 2025 this meeting of the city Council committee will be conducted here remote participation will post an audio Boarding audio video recording transcript or other comprehensive record of these proceedings seems possible meeting on the city of some of the website and local cable access government chance, but can you please call the roll. This is wrong. Councilor Davis. Council young campaign here. Thank you, the first time and the agenda is to approve the minutes of. March 4 2025 and if we may please put that on the table and we'll be needing to help with them. Next item on the agenda is order 250133 that the director of housing stability update this Council on the changes to condominium conversion and tenant protection laws as a result of the 2024 housing bond bill and how Sumnerville may strengthen its protections. We're just looking at this item. We have the Director of Office of Housing Stability, Director Ellen Schechter.
SPEAKER_06	Welcome. Thank you so much, Chair, and to the committee. Happy to be talking about the issue of condominium conversion. I am just going to say this whole thing is a little bit complicated, so I'm going to do my best to keep it really quick and to make it as clear as I can. So in the end of 2024 in the housing bond bill, a series of policy changes went into effect. And one of the policy changes that went into effect is that under state law in the past, before December 2024, There was authorization for cities and towns to control condominiums and evict condominium conversions and evictions, but only for buildings that had four or more units. So that was the state law throughout the Commonwealth. Somerville though had its own law and its own law dated back the relevant part to 1985. So while the Affordable Homes Act changed what the entire state can do, In this regard, nothing changed in the city of Somerville. And I'll just explain briefly why. Prior to this whole time, since the 1980s, Somerville has been regulating two, three, four, every size building. So that new power that other municipalities had, we already had because of our 1985 legislative authorization from the state house. And so there are, though, you know, two good things I want to point out. So what that means is we already have been doing what everyone else got permission to do. But I wanted to say two really positive things, I think, nonetheless. One, just so you know, we still go further than the state law allows. The state law says... that you can now regulate two and three family buildings that are not owner occupied. The city of Somerville under its legislation regulates all two and three families regardless of whether or not they are owner occupied or they are business owned or whatever it may be. So we still go further than is allowed under state law under our 1985 jurisdiction. But the second thing I just wanted to say, because it's really so exciting, is that it is estimated that there will be an additional 287,200 units that are regulated throughout the state. And this is not something that each city or town has to pass on its own. It just is. So this is a really big change. It's it says right here, I'm going to say three times the number of buildings are now regulated than in the past and nearly double the number of units that are protected. So while I have to tell you that under this particular change, there isn't anything that Somerville can do to expand its its uh its powers there's going to be a separate meeting tomorrow night for legislative affairs to talk about other issues about strengthening the pound ordinance but based on this provision we're already doing the maximum of what we're allowed to do so no additional changes there but really positive overall for the state fabulous uh i'm happy to open the floor for discussion uh counseling and camping do you have any thoughts or um questions
Ben Ewen-Campen	The burden of being the best. What can I say? The state is finally starting to catch up. No, through you, Madam Chair, I'm happy that there are proposed revisions that are going to be before legislative matters. I look forward to taking those up. And this is a helpful update, so I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_05	I'm excited to hear this and look for things that are awesome on. And thank you again to all you've done for our perspective for this as well. You've been an advocate for this since start. And I had a quick question that's related in its own way, but I think relates to this item. Is there any, has it ever been explored with the condo conversion ordinance and what we do here in Somerville? of extra protections to, are we able to legally ever allow some of the residents of preference when a unit comes onto the market? In opposed to like a global corporation coming in, a lot of things we all hear is how competitive the market can be. I know, I know that things are slowing, but We've heard that many residents in despair, someone may come bump down 30K over and can't compete with a global corporation. I know we have done everything we can to really slow down and slow down the flip side and flipping, of course. But has it ever been explored before? to be able to have some of the preference of a resident preference with purchasing of units that come on the market? Or is that beyond regulation and in a legal gray area? And if that's a totally like rogue question that totally not able to even hypothesize on or put it on, I won't. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_06	Thank you through the chair. I mean, I think I could do my best to answer that. In the context of condominium conversions, remember that all tenants are going to have that right of first purchase before anybody else on the outside can purchase. So that right is kind of built into the condominium conversion regulation process. Other than that, I think it is absolutely something we can do where we're giving an owner something in exchange. We're giving them potentially, we're giving them a variance or we're giving them we're giving inclusionary zoning, all of those, or even I know the city of Boston has a specific tenant selection plan that it uses in the city of Boston to sort of help tenant selection. So I think there are things we can do for properties that we regulate. And we typically are trying to do the most that we can do. But I do think that's an open-ended question about whether there are any circumstances where there are any properties that the city gives any money to that we might be able to have a little bit stronger preference for some of the residents or other kinds of protections. You have to be very careful because there are anti-discrimination laws and there are fair housing laws and We certainly couldn't impose something, I think, just randomly with the Somerville residency preference. I will note, though, research that was done by the housing division a while back has enabled us to have a Somerville residency preference for, for example, our inclusionary programs and our 100 homes programs, because when we looked at the data, we were able to clearly establish that having a residency preference did not provide a disadvantage for marginalized communities in the city of Somerville, since so many of those units were going to people of color and people of low income. So where we can do it, I think there's an argument that it doesn't violate fair housing rules, but just as a sort of random thing in the market and housing sales in general, I don't know of anything that you could do to prioritize sales to Somerville residents. Thank you.
SPEAKER_05	Thank you. Okay. With that, I'm happy to close this item. And thank you very much for coming tonight. I think you're also speaking on the Senate. So with that, we'll mark that item closed. The next one is order 250134 that the director of Cosmos Housing Stability Updates Council on Efforts to Raise Awareness for Eviction Ceiling Assistance in Light of Recent State Legislation Enabling the Ceiling of Evictions. Here to speak on the item, Gannon's Director, Ellen Chatter, of Office of Housing Stability.
SPEAKER_06	Thank you so much. Um, this is a really exciting thing to talk about. We've been working in this city on eviction record ceiling for the last six years, at least on the steering committee of a statewide coalition. And finally something did get passed, um, which is really exciting that happened in the, also in the affordable homes act that we discussed just recently, um, which was sort of omnibus housing legislation with a lot of different pieces. And I was just going to take two seconds for those, if anybody who doesn't know, to just describe the eviction record sealing process. Who can get their record sealed? Just two minutes. And then to tell you what we have done to advertise that. But I did just want people to know, for example, because when people hear eviction record sealing, we want to make sure that people understand some eviction records can be sealed. in some circumstances this does isn't a categorical anybody who has any eviction pending can seal their records and i did just want to note for the record that the reason why eviction ceiling is so important is because more and more um landlord screening companies are doing tenant selection for new landlords and so often If there is something, if somebody's name is on the eviction database, no matter what the reason is, why they were there, even if they won their case, even if it was somebody with the same name in their case, people can get excluded. And it's really, really important. just like the criminal, if you remember, the criminal justice movement that really came forward and said, you know, people shouldn't forever, never be able to get second chances. And so what this bill does is it allows for tenants to petition the court to evict if they have any no-fault evictions. So you didn't do anything wrong, but your landlord is evicting you. Let's say they want to sell their building or they want to raise the rent a lot higher than you can afford to pay, something like that. Any case in which the case was dismissed, Up until now, it didn't matter at all. These are available records. So now you can no-fault evictions if there's any dismissal, if the tenant won their case. In the case of non-payment, which is the vast majority of cases that are pending in Somerville District Court or in the Eastern Housing Court, you can immediately get it sealed if you have paid off the full amount of the judgment that the court made. So if the court said you owe $2,000 and you pay that amount, you then have to go to court and get something called the satisfaction of judgment, which is just a piece of paper saying, yes, we agree this was paid off. And then you would have the right to seal that record immediately upon payment of those monies. If you don't pay because you have been unable to, If four years have passed since the nonpayment eviction and there has not been another eviction action, you can petition the court to seal that record. But what you will have to do is show the court that you have some kind of financial hardship that has made it so that you were unable to pay the full amount of that judgment. So people can still go in and seal, but it's not automatic. There's something that you have to show in order to get that petition sealed. Similarly, with a false eviction, and I think we know false evictions are the kind of things you had unauthorized occupants, you left too many, your housekeeping wasn't good enough, whatever it may be, after seven years. You can go in to seal a record again if there's been no intervening eviction. So this really just says we give you that second chance when you've shown through your own behavior that you have been able to comply with your lease and or gotten treatment or gotten services that you needed. And so this behavior is not likely to repeat if you were to go into another unit. So that's the substance, more or less, there's more to this, but of what this is really about and who can seal evictions. So I wanted to talk to you about the outreach we've done. This law has been in effect since May 5th. I'm really excited. Somerville and Cambridge came together to have a regional response around Eviction Defense. And so far, we've done six workshops. And the things that we've done for those workshops, each agency sent out letters to different groups. So this was my office, TAS, Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services, De Novo Legal Services, and the Multi-Service Center and Housing Liaison in Cambridge. And so we all send out letters. Our office sent out a little bit over 100 letters to clients who had had addiction during the time that they were with us that looked like there might be a chance for sealing. We sent those out, all the agencies did, and we conducted the six workshops, which were wonderful. We decided we weren't going to screen for what city or town people came from to have low threshold barriers. Just you come and you sign up for this day, you come in and we will help you seal your record or let you know if it's not sealable. So we just have concluded the last of those six workshops. I wanted to tell you some of the other things that we have done. We ended up filing 17 petitions in our three Somerville workshops that we were here. One of the courts, interestingly, has done a lot of automatic sealing. The other court is setting hearings. And there's discretion with the court in terms of whether or not they're going to have those hearings or they're just going to, on the papers, seal the records. So those are the 17 cases that we are trying to seal. Of those, four have been sealed. The others are still pending. Again, it was one court did something different than another court. We sent eviction record information alert to our 800-person email list. We included it in our newsletter and in the next newsletter that's coming out soon. I did a whole article summarizing this. It has gone up in our social media feeds. We are in the process of incorporating it. All of you know, under the Housing Stability Notification Act, tenants have to be given certain documents at the inception of their tenancy and if they're being evicted. So we are in the process of revising those documents to include eviction record sealing information, so it will be in there. And we also have done multiple presentations to provider groups and tenant groups around Somerville and to many Somerville-related, Cambridge and Somerville service providers. And last, our staff is now all trained. So anybody that needs help going forward, sealing their eviction, regardless of whether they have another need from our office, our office is able and willing to assist them. And the very last thing I'll say, because I think this is so unique and I'm really impressed by the trial court's actions in this, is that there's a really easy walkthrough system that they made to be simple to do pro se, where it just asks you questions and then it fills that petition out for you and it tells you if you need to provide service to the landlord, And it tells you any other steps you need to do. So actually, what's really encouraging is that as long as somebody has some familiarity with computer savvy, they're going to have to know their case numbers. But for the most part, it's really easy for people to do themselves. And we are available to help if there are any. issues that come up after this. So we're trying to take advantage of this change in the law and do everything we can to get the word out there. And please, all of you, please share. If you do happen to have any people that are in your district that need help with sealing, we'd be happy to help. So yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_05	Thank you. Thank you. Councilor McCaffin, if you wish to speak on this, you do not have to speak on every item, but I, of course, said it will. However, this is an issue you do, and I miss your hand.
Ben Ewen-Campen	Thank you, Madam Chair, through you. No, no questions. Just a huge thank you to the director and everyone who has been working to get the word out about this. It's really, really good news.
SPEAKER_05	Thank you. I think that's it. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. If this is like to another item that we leave. And we will move on to order 250247. The Director of Economic Development report on the economic impact to small businesses in Somerville as a result of federal immigration policy changes. We're going to speak on our item, which is the Director of Economic Development and Yes. If I may, I'm still here. I am just stepping in. I'm here.
SPEAKER_02	Okay. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. Real pleasure to be here to speak on this item. One of the things that I would probably start off by saying is by word of clarification, I'm deputy director of economic development, not director, so not ready for my promotion just yet. But it is a great pleasure to be here. This is an item that is of great interest to our division, and I know obviously to the council that this is being brought up. And there has been an opportunity to share some information before on this. What I will say, first of all, is that The Economic Development Division does not necessarily track economic data on our businesses per se. We would rely on a division like Somerstadt to provide support on economic data and research on that kind of information. It's my understanding that some of that information has been drafted and pulled together and Well, not at my full disposal here right now. I can certainly commit to bringing more of that together. It's my understanding that, for example, one of the points of information is on local sales tax data. And sales tax data being tracked over a certain period of time will give an indication as to whether sales are going up or down. Now, whether that is a result of economic situations or circumstances, remains to be seen, but that is one way of tracking an impact. So working with summer staff, we can certainly provide that information as follow up to you. What I would like to say is that at least anecdotally members of the economic development division work very closely with our small businesses in a number of significant ways through a lot of face-to-face contact. And we are aware of strong concerns on the part of our business owners for their livelihood, obviously, for the health and safety of their workers. And one of the things we try to do in collaboration with our sister agencies like SOYA, like our special services, like our licensing departments, provide information and access to some of the ways in which those businesses can be supported. I would like to, if you don't mind, maybe speak to some of the ways in which we have done that in the last several months. And in stepping back and talking through that, I will mention that we're at a bit of an inflection point now as an organization, as a division. Prior to and during the COVID season, there were a number of resources, one of which was ARPA. which provided us the ability to provide financial support in many ways. Following that and in this last fiscal year, in the midst of this last fiscal year, we were the recipients, economic development division for the city of Somerville. We were the recipient of an urban agenda grant of approximately a hundred thousand dollars, which I'll outline some of the impacts there. I mentioned those two financial resources because they are over the last, I would say year and a half, our implementation of and supporting the facilitation of those resources to businesses was one of the main ways we were able to provide support. With the decrease in those funding sources, as we all know ARPA has ended, and the Urban Agenda Grant has ended this fiscal year, one of our goals in the coming fiscal year with limited financial resources is to step up our efforts to do a couple of things. enhance our ability to communicate with businesses on technical assistance issues. Number two, to further our reach with what I'll call our sister agencies to provide the best guidance on best practices. And number three, to be a convener in one of the primary areas of support that we've learned is needed, and that is facilitating or easing the process of things like permitting, like licensing. One of the things we learned from our conversations with our small business owners is that as they look to expand, as they look to grow, as they look to start, as we all know, Somerville has a wonderful entrepreneurial spirit. They will say to us, hey, it's kind of, you know, we love the support you give, but it's a little bit kind of difficult to kind of get things done around here. And that's through no fault of anyone's. It's a matter of processes that need to be coalesced. And so one of the things we are making as a primary goal for FY26 is to, in the face of limited financial resources, being that convener and that facilitator of, for lack of a better way of saying it, streamlining resources and making it easier for folks to understand how to get through the process. Now that is, and that's the kind of thing that I would say here and now, we would love to be able to, back to this body on a global basis to provide updates on how that's going.
SPEAKER_04	And to... I would love that. We're starting together.
SPEAKER_02	Love the conversation. Great. Thank you for that. And so we look forward to really what I'll say is as a division, we want to lean into our role as a convener. in that way, and to work with our sister agencies to make these things happen. So with that, I'll just highlight a couple of the ways in which we have been able to work and provide resources, financial and otherwise. The first I'll mention is not a financial resource, but it is what I'll call a technical assistance resource. We worked with the Massachusetts Area Planning Council this year to create a, I believe, first ever leasing handbook. And it is a guide that is for entrepreneurs, business owners, et cetera, to learn the best ways possible to access a lease, manage a lease, maintain a lease. That document is in multiple languages, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Braille. And it has been, it's been going like hotcakes. I actually was hoping to bring one down for you, but they've been so popular that I couldn't bring one, but I will forward you one online. It's a, it's a great resources that can be utilized. The other, um, Two items that I'll mention are, again, with the ARPA funding, we were able to put forward two grants with great success, a vitality grant, which provided supports for bricks and mortar, as well as a business enrichment program, which allowed us to be able to offer technical assistance. And, for example, a total of $576,000 $117 was given to 30 brick and mortar businesses in the span of January 24 through August. In the business enrichment program, we were able to give out an amount of $1.3 million in technical assistance dollars. And what that meant is that those dollars enabled businesses to access ways to learn about financing, ways to learn about planning, ways to learn about operations, ways to learn about marketing at no cost to them. Finally, the Urban Agenda Grant, which we received through the Commonwealth this year, enabled us to facilitate the creation of workshops and one-on-one and desired consulting opportunities for small businesses to learn about marketing, to learn about food safety. We have the ability to provide stipends to 17 home-based childcare providers of about $350 each, which enabled them to not only have a class and learn about the operations and the issues of licensing, et cetera, but also to provide some support for the operations that they do. The next thing I'll speak to is also something that has been mentioned in the context of supporting small businesses, and that is, I'll use the term marketing. And we really feel that what we hear through our conversations with business owners in the various districts that we visit, But also in conversations is that there is a desire for us to utilize, us being a division, to utilize our platform, if you will, to enable businesses to be better now. And there's a balancing act that we have to negotiate or manage there in that We as a public entity cannot promote a particular business, but what we can do is utilize our platform to promote what it means to do business in Somerville, or what it means to do business in a district of Somerville. So one of the things we, as you probably heard, several months ago did an initiative called It Takes All Shakes to Make a Square. What we wanna do now, we've brought on a part-time intern to help us take that initiative to the next level. And the one item that is in this person's purview is to help us come up with a social media policy that enables us to very clearly and succinctly articulate the ways that we can use our platforms to promote business in Somerville. And we hope to, our goal is to come out of that process, not only with a better social media presence for Somerville and businesses in Somerville, but also a more clear way to, without crossing any legal lines, support businesses in that marketing effort. So we're really excited about the prospect of having someone on board who's got the skillset, the sort of what I'll call the savvy and the technical ability to really think about that and help us come up with a policy that enables us to implement that moving forward. The last thing I'll mention, in terms of support for businesses is the fact that part of being a convener is our ability to create partnerships. Given the fact that there's limited financial resources nowadays and we're moving forward, I love the phrase that you used a little earlier, and we're stronger together. And so one of the things we've been thinking a lot about and which we will do as part of our FY26 goals is look at ways to strengthen the partnerships. at our disposal. And one of the partnerships we're looking to utilize and have utilized now is with the Chamber of Commerce. We have a fantastic, well, my words, partner in the new executive director. And one of the things we were able to do this year is for the first time ever, I believe, have participation of Somerville businesses in case of Somerville. We had upwards of 35 new businesses, local minority homes, who were part of this really what I'll call festival of what it means to have good food in Somerville, who had never been part of this before. They were able to participate with a lower cost fee to them. They are also now members of the chamber. And what that means is that they have access to that network. And as we all know, the chamber is very thriving. There are lots of wonderful businesses there. And so because of the ability for our staff to convene and work with and partner, that new collaboration with the Chamber is an existence that we're needing in a couple of weeks to talk about what we can do in the coming years. And as I talk about these initiatives, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the staff who make these things happen. Kellyanne Loughlin, Leticia Terroria, and Adriana Fernandez in particular, who are our dream team, a small business. And they make these fantastic programs run, but I would say also that a hallmark of their work is their ability to be beautifully relational. They really meet the business owners where they are. They really meet the employees where they are. They really meet the partners where they are. They really meet our fellow, the heads of our sister agencies where they are. And so it's one of the reasons why our weekly business office hours go so well, because in those meetings, we have a representative from ISD, we have a representative from crisis, and we have a representative from the departments that are engaged in that coordinating process to help move things forward. And that's because of the great work that our staff does. So with that, I'll stop and I'm happy to take any questions.
SPEAKER_05	So I'm excited about the efforts. I know that you know, economic development are always working hard. No one is different, except against that. But I'm grateful for the additional steps of Chamber of Commerce because they're their own entity. And that's, to your point, kind of a sister organization. And their resources are a little different from what we can provide and bounce off each other and In some cases for some businesses, um, maybe exposure to some parts of the business community that they might not interact in. Um, a lot of restaurants are always on the ground and very physical and back to the vein. Um, what a great way to network and connect and collaborate. It's fantastic. I did have a quick question. So I'm really excited to see where that goes. Like, no, hopefully, fancy alphabet, but just updates on that relationship spot. You said that better. With that, has there been any discussion on some things I've heard from on some small small businesses? is the issue of getting tax IDs or being able to, that some really small business would like to work with Somerville and be a vendor, but don't know the processes or it's, could definitely use help. And how does the city of Somerville, because I know it's more than one department, I imagine, that's purchasing, I know, that's money. Real quick, your turn. But this economic development, is there a possibility for assistance with that or has it been thoughts or actions on that or et cetera?
SPEAKER_02	It's a great question, Councilor, Madam Chair. The short answer is yes, there has been questions been asked. One of the things that has come out of our urban agenda grant work is that there were a series of operational workshops, how to start a business, being one of the operational management of the business. And one of the components of that question, I should say two stepping back, all of the workshops that were created with the Urban Agenda Grant are actually now online. They were videotaped. So for folks who were not able to attend in our office, there in our projects. Some of those things are answered in those workshops. That's number one. Number two, I do think that the economic development as a division can play a role in helping bring folks to the table who can help answer those questions. Because I'm sure you can imagine, particularly from the folks that you're hearing from, they may be afraid to approach the city writ large with a question of who to speak to. I think that is where we can play a role in making those connections. So one of the things I'd recommend outside here for this committee, and we can provide updates as need be, our regular small business office hours are Thursdays at 4. They're via Zoom. We can accommodate also in those, we can accommodate language needs. So if someone reaches out to us and has a language need, we can connect. and still work with them in the language in which they have targets to work with. So that's number one. And number two, again, reaching out to our economic development email. We have staff who monitor that regularly. So if someone sends an email to us looking for questions like that, we can triage those with our answers. One of the things, again, going back to our goals for F426, limited financial resources, we want to step up our game, so to speak, with regard to providing answers to questions and being the resources that are required.
SPEAKER_04	Yeah. Tom, to you, and Kevin, do you have any questions or thoughts about anything on that part?
Ben Ewen-Campen	No, Madam Chair, thank you. And through you, thank you very much for this information. This is a helpful update.
SPEAKER_05	Okay, I'm happy to focus on the process. So just really for the record, what is your name?
SPEAKER_02	Dana, D-A-N-A Whiteside, W-H-I-T-E-S-I-D-E.
SPEAKER_04	Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I do know that there's a new.
SPEAKER_05	You know, I think it's okay for you. I didn't think it all right. You're welcome to stay at the table.
SPEAKER_04	Yes.
SPEAKER_05	Okay. So our next item is the mayor's request to 5 1 0 0 5 or trusting approval of the 20 2025 26 of the urban development One year actual plan for community felt and block rent investment partnership emergency solution that programs here to. Speak on the agenda.
SPEAKER_04	You know mind me the title of your position, I mean yes.
SPEAKER_03	Thank you, Madam Madam chair, thank you for me no it's all good Thank you, Madam chair. Alan Ignacio, Director of Finance and Community Development for the Office for OSPCD. Here tonight with me is also Miranda Rubin, Program Compliance Officer, supporting our HUD entitlement programs. Tonight's item is an annual item that comes before you every year. Unlike a regular grant entitlement funds, we are not you know, required to have the grant accepted. However, we do have to file an annual plan. The plan is similarly a structured plan. Most entitlement communities that receive these funds do a similar filing every year. We were fortunate and relieved that this year all three of our programs were relatively level funded. CDBG at $2,477,825, and this funds the widest varieties of activities under the program. Home Investment Partnership was funded at $517,544, and focuses on housing activities and new housing development. And ESG, which is Emergency Solutions Grant, which focuses on homelessness prevention and support services, was funded at $218,817. Both the plan and public hearing presentation has been attached to the item. And with that, I'm happy to open it up to any questions anyone may have on the plan, the presentation, or the program.
SPEAKER_05	Thank you, Director. Well, first, I want to note now we are in real life. No more funds. No more who knows what the future holds. Um, what, um, if you're interested in speaking on this, uh, question, what, um, have you noticed from 25 to 26 from when you presented last year's plan that is there anything that really stuck out aside from, uh, that, uh, residents or. we may be interested in or selling?
SPEAKER_03	Yeah, absolutely. One item of note, or I would say the most significant item of note from both last year's plan and the previous five-year plan is that probably for the first time in 20 years, the city will be leveraging the full financing capabilities of the CDBG program. And we will be doing a section 108 borrowing to provide approximately $10 million in financing for phase two of the Clarendon Hill project. It's great, it takes some borrowing pressure off the city general fund. The only downside is it will cost the city approximately $500,000 in annual entitlement payment. But Clarendon is a much needed project that's gonna provide a ton of benefit for the city. So we're excited about being able to leverage our funds while we still have a healthy entitlement amount.
SPEAKER_04	Thank you. Councilor, do you have anything to add?
Ben Ewen-Campen	No, Madam Chair. I'm all set. Thank you.
SPEAKER_05	For right now, I'm really fine and ready to go through this and send it on off to the larger council. Thank you very much. Great.
SPEAKER_03	Thank you for hearing the item. Thank you.
SPEAKER_05	All right. Have a great rest of the night and also holiday season.
SPEAKER_03	You as well. Thank you, Chair.
SPEAKER_05	Thank you. Okay. You know, I probably should have just been like, no. To my credit, this was at it like last minute. So had I played Tetris with you to where we bumped it with the departments, it would have looked
SPEAKER_02	Laura Leigh Arroyo- No, it's totally fine.
SPEAKER_05	Laura Leigh Arroyo- So, Laura Leigh Arroyo- Order 251200, that the Director of Economic Development provide an update to this Council on efforts to mitigate construction impacts on small businesses in the City, Laura Leigh Arroyo- what resources are available to small business affected by construction, and what additional support can be made available. The following agenda item, the last one, the resolution behind this one is similar. And the reason I added it to the agenda for today was this was at Harding City Councilor Judy Pineda-Neufeld's request that this be added to tonight's agenda. I so very much apologize. This was rushed because not the intention. We've always had a great party dialogue on it. And we can always keep it in committee, but wanted to just honor her request and see where it goes. Sure. So Deputy Director, thank you again for being here.
SPEAKER_02	It's my pleasure. It's great to always have time and work with this committee.
SPEAKER_05	Likewise.
SPEAKER_02	This is something that's very important to our division. And we're very glad to have the opportunity to address this. I'll start by saying that two things relates to what I was saying earlier in the presentation, funding resources are limited. So the ability for economic development to provide funding resources to businesses that are impacted by construction is slim to very little, unfortunately. That being said, however, Our partnership with our small businesses is really important to us. It's our lifeblood. It's what we're passionate about. We also believe that where we can be most helpful and perhaps influential is in the ability to bring to the table those partners who also have a hand in looking at construction considerations. I would separate them into two categories, even though they're both related. The category that one is those projects, those construction projects that are city-led. And then the other category are those that are not city-led.
SPEAKER_05	Pardon me if I may, the independent contractors?
SPEAKER_02	Yeah, exactly. And so we have more control with those projects that are city-led. We have perhaps less control with projects that are not city-led. that are not salient. However, it's our belief that we still have a role to play in both of those. And that, again, part of our FY26 goals, related to what I was saying earlier about being a really good convener and facilitating what I'll call intentional communication, intentional strategic communication. There are projects, for example, that Perhaps our engineering division may have more involvement than we would. But because small businesses are impacted, those businesses are going to come to us and say, hey, what's going on? So what we would want to do, and we've initiated this process, is begin conversations with our engineering department, for example, and our communications department even, to say, what are those areas of activity we need to be thinking about? And what are the ways in which we can be working together to communicate more effectively at best? certainly in the realm of projects that are within city control. Now, for those projects that are not within city control, that are not led by the city third party, as you mentioned, we're beginning that conversation to think about how the city can work with those third party entities. For example, Eversource. That's an important entity. There's a lot of activity that is done at their initiation. So we're wanting to look at how we can be better aligned and prepared in communication so that our residents, our business owners, these are my words now, are not caught by surprise. And so by way of, this is not an update necessarily, but more an acknowledgement of this important issue. And I believe both our director McCartney and I have been in conversation about this, that it's the kind of thing that we want to review and provide some, provide opportunities. I would also even say that we will look for input from this body to the extent that there's kind of amenability to that. I think there's an opportunity to be strategic and hopefully more effective in our communication.
SPEAKER_05	Deputy Director, thank you. So much because, oh, boy, do I have thoughts. Let me just hand you everything that I'm holding in my brain that I've been told or some of it. And that I really appreciate just the bucketing of what we can control, what we can't control, but also third parties or independent contractors versus city projects. I just, and I hope that there is a really feasible concerted effort with the engineering department with getting the words out. Some horror stories I've heard, and I may have even mentioned it in HCD. So an example of when construction happens, And the business owners, like in a brick and mortar small, they have jackhammering going on. They didn't know that construction was happening that day. That is their day off. Now, if they had a little bit of a warning, they could have maybe opened another day instead of the day that they're coming. But they didn't know. They're there now. They can't actually function and operate because The noise is so loud, it's impossible to answer the phone or even hear customers that walk in. And the customers are deterred from walking in as well because they're going to walk down a different street and definitely not make a last-minute stop in to go in because there's everything happening right there. And then those projects can be ongoing for a month sometimes, right? So those are examples I've heard. I've heard examples of snow days, and this is a little different, but even just, and this was fascinating to me too, because it was not something I would ever consider, but how snow days impact small businesses. If a snow day is called and no one goes out and they can't park to make a splurge decision to get something at a store or a restaurant or something, that one day, can actually heavily impact their business for that month. And so those are a few examples that I hear. And just how distraught and just how totally helpless sometimes business owners feel in those situations. And I don't blame them. With third-party venues, our vendors, our communications facility contractors are just lovely. And my ongoing struggle to get the flyers from all the cable lines just respectfully in our community, that's an ongoing situation. So I know the struggle of control sometimes we have in our own community of what third-party vendors for thought with just, and this is where my question comes, with independent contractors, like some of the contractors that we hire and have contracts with and consider and choose when we put out bids. offer projects. Some we have worked with for decades, and I know. But for bad actors in the community, is there some kind of repercussion and a choice for which contractors we choose? An example I can give is a construction project. Actually, Counselor, did you go to space? How did you get up there so quickly?
Ben Ewen-Campen	I'm not taking questions at this time, but thank you.
SPEAKER_05	Okay.
SPEAKER_00	All right.
SPEAKER_05	That is, that is fine. That is your choice. Um, but, uh, counselor, you have been over, over in your ward where I saw, um, and you may very much actually know, uh, contractor in, uh, Spring Hill, uh, area where they're, they were driving dump trucks very fast up wrong way streets. to get there that much faster. And again, and again, and again, and again. And so with the contractors we choose, or do we have any power in the contracts? And I know this may be a different department and more of an open-ended question, but do we have the power? And do we wish to enact the power if we do have the power to... be choosy to ensure that the contractors we do choose, that they're respecting our community and our residents and those small business owners too sometimes. I've heard really bad situations with some contractors where they were, it definitely seems pretty targeted, where they were belittling a family when when they were they had a project in store to their home and where this contractor was leaving dust and debris and garbage and all kinds of things. And the relationship between the people who live next door and the contract happening, the contractors happening and the work that was being done became antagonistic. And became a living hell for that small family for what they had to endure. And it came to choice then for them to put their porta potty right outside their child's bedroom. Sure, it might've been a very, must've been, you know, maybe funny for them to do that, but we have contractors that sometimes disrespect our residents. And we, as a city, can pick and choose that or choose not to. so and with that with small businesses with small businesses can we make sure that they're considering our businesses and our brick and mortar as well when they come into projects or for instance like I've seen in other communities with some communities and this is not the same thing but similar kind of if there's a water. I'm sorry, street cleaning. There are some communities that put those yard signs up block by block. And yes, okay, we have our signs up. But this construction is happening. And I know sometimes we do put flyers up and whatnot. But are we absolutely positive that the message is getting out? And how long is this project going to get? And how do small business owners have to pivot when this happens? What does it look like for that? Was there some kind of potential master plan? So don't get those angry calls, angry emails, and angry Zoom calls on Thursdays. Or, you know, I don't want that to end up on you either. So just some energetic questions. Oh, sounds like you and Kevin came back from space. Welcome back.
Ben Ewen-Campen	Thank you. You're welcome. Madam Chair, I just have a couple of thoughts to add to this. Through you, my perspective has been really shaped by the Spring Hill construction that it was a city project that is almost done, but has been, you know, three years of construction. And directly before that was the Somerville Ave, most of which was in Ward 2, but obviously affected Union Square and my ward as well. And You know, I want to say, like, the city has improved a lot in its outreach to small businesses and to residents. But I do think that there were a lot of missed opportunities around really basic communication stuff, in my opinion. So construction of that nature, long-term infrastructure, is just going to be disruptive, period. There is no sugarcoating it. But I was pretty startled by the lack of what I thought was kind of baseline, like large, friendly-looking signs that say, businesses are open, please continue to support. Once the Somerville project was underway, there was kind of the informal hashtag loyal to local and things like that. But just driving through, I felt like there was really not a lot of kind of open... like supportive signage basically which you know granted is that going to make every small business owner happy and feel supported no but i do think it it kind of it hurt certainly my ability to like stick up for the city in those moments because having these small really visible things i think actually does go a long way um i can't guarantee that it goes a long way with the bringing in people through the door when there's a huge construction project, but just in like relationships between the city and small businesses. I remember the very first thing that happened with the Somerville ads project, there was like a giant, one of those giant like highway signs out on Washington street that said like, uh, construction about to start, like expect disruptions for the next three years. Something like that. It said like construction will be complete in 2022. And this was in 2019. And it was like it became a joke online. It was like, what? This is going to be under construction for three years. And the business community in Union Square, like Beaumarket and all these small businesses were like terrified. Right. They were like, we can't. We've had no communications about this. This was starting in the winter. It was going to be the Christmas season. And then after the fact, there was a lot of like really effective catch up, you know, from from from economic development and other departments. Then there started to be business meetings. We're just kind of talking through all the logistics. You know, again, it was one of these things where I felt like we were on the back foot just for a lot of that. And so as we like grow and build up our capacity and continue to take on these large projects, I really hope that we are like investing in those meetings up front and better signage. You know, the Somerville Museum, they were like asking me for the city, for signage when Central was closed, just to say like, businesses are still open. And it did eventually come, but it took forever. Like it clearly was not on hand as like something the city had that they could just put in place. And I was surprised by that. So that's just my two cents. I think, you know, these projects are, they're always going to be difficult. Of course, I don't think that there's like a way to make it perfect. But I think we would buy ourselves a lot of goodwill if we were kind of demonstrating to the public that we care about this and kind of like having a lot of outward facing support for the local businesses that are bearing the brunt of this stuff.
SPEAKER_05	Agreed. Deputy Director, do you have any talk about this further? And I'd love to keep listening to the movie and come back to it as the months progress.
SPEAKER_02	And... Yeah, if I may, Madam Chair, I would say, well, and through you, thank you, Councilor Unicampen, What strikes me in the examples you gave an example that comes to you and camping game is there's an opportunity for us as a city to look at. How can be more strategic and effective in our communications, whether we can whether we control construction product or not. And I think that's the takeaway for me. And I wonder if, to your point about maybe keeping this in conversation, how we might look at how we answer those questions and seek input moving forward as to how we do that. And while again, economic development may not be the sole responsible entity, we can still be a convener to help those conversations move forward. So, yeah.
SPEAKER_05	I'd love to keep this item in the room. Um, and this last resolution, I'm happy to just keep it in committee as well, unless you, um, I'll announce it, but spoiler alert, um, if, uh, seeing how this was just added last to the agenda, um, I could just hold it during the thoughts, but, uh, we're not, that's thoughts are just accumulating. So, uh, yeah, information would not be a conversation too. Um, so this is resolution two five. 1178 that the administration notifying mobile square businesses of black construction projects.
SPEAKER_02	What I would say to that as well, I think. I like I probably overuse this word, but I do so intentionally and I it's opportunity and and to look at the this was raised for a reason, and so I think our our job so we're not going to develop it as. what I like to call a convener, is to do the work with our sister departments to determine that, and then come back with either a recommendation, or seek input, et cetera. So to the extent that you feel it's appropriate to keep it here in committee, and even make it part and parcel to the earlier item, I'd be .
SPEAKER_05	I would love to. Yes. HAB-Masyn Moyer- I can see the pipes over on the rooms were under him down and instruction blaring up, so I think we'll have a lot of time shot, but. HAB-Masyn Moyer- But want to make sure that we have a really great conversation about it on the Council, you can't then you have any thoughts on this before I keep it in committee. HAB-Masyn Moyer- All right, thumbs up we ran out of agenda items on that. We just, do we have the vote on the minutes? Or, okay, we do. Also, just very quickly, Councillor Clingan is the third member now. I misspoke, it's not Councillor Davis. So, Councillor Clingan, Councillor Ewen Kempin, and then Chair Storzow is the third member now. Okay. According to Ken. Is he here? No, he's never been here. Yeah, but in general, he is... HAB-Masyn Moyer- These are our newest members. Yeah, well, we'll have to throw a happy birthday. HAB-Masyn Moyer- On that's wonderful to hear. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, so we have three again. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Um, random agenda items. Do we. So should we vote or HAB-Masyn Moyer- So, so clean. HAB-Masyn Moyer- And so you can.
Ben Ewen-Campen	Yes.
SPEAKER_05	HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yes. HAB-Masyn Moyer- All right, with that I still have it, so we are turning into 711 p.m. And those minutes are grouped. Thank you. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Only pro or that was a quick meeting, I really was expecting as we ate, I did not want to hold you. HAB-Masyn Moyer- But you reserved, but I was like yeah. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Sure.