Great.

Good evening, everyone.

Hello, thank you so much for joining us this evening.

Whether you're joining us here in the council chamber or you are joining us via Bev Cam, thanks again to Kim in the Bev Cam booth as always for keeping us live and streaming so that folks can follow our meetings easily.

We appreciate Bev Cam being here as always.

I would like to take a few moments just to run over the agenda before I officially call the meeting to order so we can all know what's before us.

This evening we do have uh one resident speaker who signed up to speak, and so we will take that that speaker probably right at the top of the meeting.

We don't have anything else posted until 7 30.

That's when uh we have a first public hearing that was posted with National Grid for 7 30.

National Grid is actually requested just to continue that when they are so gathering information we had asked for.

Um so we will we'll need a vote to continue it, so we'll take that at 7 30.

And then we have three other posted public hearings at 7 50, 8 10, and 8 30.

Any members of the public who are here or watching and planning to come and join us, if you would like to sign up to speak in those public hearings, and you'll hear me say this again throughout the meeting.

The sign-up sheets are on the table under the window to my right, and you can sign up for those and we'll take public comment in the order that folks are signed up.

We also have some routine business on our agenda.

We'll take a break for some subcommittee work and we'll be back to finish it all up.

So with that, I'll officially call to order this regular meeting of the Beverly City Council, Monday, March 2nd, 2026, 7 o'clock PM.

Ms.

Kent, will you please call the roll?

Crawley?

Here, Geldman?

Here, Houseman, Mulady, Patundo?

Sonia, Spang, St.

Hilaire, and Flowers.

Here, thank you, Ms.

Kent.

Councillor Mullady, will you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God with liberty and justice.

Thank you very much, Councillor Millady.

Uh, for those who were not able to follow our conversation before, we were talking about different vocabulary words that have opposites that we use, like disgruntled, and it turns out gruntled is also a word, so thank you for using that, counselor.

Use it three times and it's yours.

Um, as I said, we will go right to our resident speaker who signed up to speak.

These are uh public spots for speakers that are available at any of our regular meetings, and so for those who are following, I always like to mention that there are up to five of these spots at any regular meeting, up to three minutes per speaker, and they can be signed up for by contacting the city clerk no later than 9 30 the morning of the meeting, and they are first come, first serve.

They are not spots where you'll necessarily see the council engaged in question and answer or back and forth with these speakers.

Um, it's not that kind of a portion of the meeting, but as I always like to point out, it's also still very important for us to hear from members of the public of the community, and we take those comments very seriously, and often they do come to inform future conversation that we have as a council.

Um so I would like to go to that speaker who signed up, uh, I A Sidikki, if you would like to go to the podium and uh Vice President St.

Hilaire, if you would be our timekeeper.

Um, if you hear Vice President St.

Hilaire's timer go off, if you would just draw your remarks to a close.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Aisha Sidicki.

I live in Ward 3.

My address is on file.

Per usual, I will start by reading a land acknowledgement.

I encourage the council to amend City Council rules and orders to incorporate reading one at the start of all meetings.

This meeting takes place on the unceded ancestral ancestral lands of the Nomceg and Potuka bands of the Massachusetts tribe, from whom the Commonwealth of Massachusetts took its name.

With deep respect and gratitude, we acknowledge the indigenous caretakers of these lands and waters who have lived here for thousands of years and who live here in diverse indigenous communities today.

I now pivot to concerns about about flock cameras in Beverly and our privacy and data security.

I'm not the first to speak at this podium about this very matter.

Mitchell from Ward 4 spoke on January 20th.

Diana also from Ward 4 spoke on February 17th.

I from Ward 3, and now it is March.

Echo their concerns.

I will read an excerpt from a recent letter, the ACLU of Massachusetts addressed to municipal leaders.

Here it is.

If your police department uses FLOC or a similar license plate reader, LPR provider, you we urge you to take immediate action to one disable any nationwide data sharing features, and two, amend contract language that may give the company the legal right to share your jurisdiction's data.

We strongly recommend you take the following steps with within the next 30 days.

One, inquire with your with your police department to determine if they use flock safety or other LPR technology.