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OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Beverly City Council’s Final Council Chambers Meeting and Quilt Presentation, September 21, 2026

City Council — Monday, September 21, 2026

BodyBeverly, Massachusetts

SessionCity Council

DateMonday, September 21, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 2:04:46

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:30

Good evening, everyone.

0:31

Good evening.

0:32

Thank you so much for joining us here for our city council meeting this evening.

0:36

It's a pleasure to have folks here with us in the council chamber.

0:40

Thank you for joining us.

0:42

And it's sort of a special meeting.

0:44

You may not have known that you were coming to such a special one.

0:46

There's many things on it that make it an interesting and very full agenda.

0:49

But as you know, City Hall folks are all moving temporarily out of City Hall for the renovation.

0:55

And so this is our final meeting for a long stretch in the council chambers.

0:59

So thank you for joining us in the the sort of final meeting for Council Chambers as it will look like this.

1:04

So you're all here for historic meeting.

1:06

You maybe didn't even know.

1:07

Thank you.

1:08

Thank you to those who are joining us as well via Bev Cam.

1:11

Of course, we uh offer our thanks as always to Kim and the Bev Cam booth for keeping us streaming and live.

1:17

Thank you.

1:23

Um thank you all for your appreciation for Kim.

1:26

It is it is truly we're being sincere though, in that it's truly important to have a partner like Bev Cam to make sure that our meetings are accessible for folks who can't join us here in person and can still follow along.

1:36

So we thank them for that.

1:38

Um as is my habit.

1:41

I thought I would run through our agenda before officially calling the meeting to order so that everyone can have a sense of what's before us this evening.

1:48

And so uh this evening we have a presentation right at the start of our agenda from the Garden City Quilters, and they'll be presenting Beverly 400's quilt, and so we look forward to that.

2:01

We do have five folks who are signed up for public comment at this meeting, and we thank all of those speakers for signing up and for being here to participate.

2:09

We also do have six public hearings scheduled, and so for folks signed up for public comment, we will get you in uh as soon as possible as I sort of also have us alternate around those times.

2:20

But I thank you in advance for your your patience and your flexibility and for being here to speak in those in those comment spots.

2:27

As I mentioned, six public hearings, they begin at 7 45 for their scheduled times, and so we'll take those as they are scheduled.

2:34

Then we have some routine business.

2:36

We'll take a brief break for some subcommittee work, and we'll be back to finish everything up.

2:40

So, with that, I'll officially call to order this regular meeting of the Beverly City Council Monday, September 21st, 2026, 7 o'clock p.m.

2:50

Ms.

2:50

Kent, will you please call the roll?

2:51

Crawley?

2:52

Here, Feldman?

2:53

Houseman, the lady, here, Sonia?

2:56

Here, Spang, St.

2:58

Hilaire, Flowers.

2:59

Here, thank you, Ms.

3:00

Kent.

3:01

Counselor Spang, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please?

3:04

Hi, to the flag of the United States of America.

3:14

Under God, an individual with liberty and justice for all.

3:22

Thank you very much, Councillor Spang.

3:26

I also did want to mention and recognize uh member of our city staff team who's here, uh, Brian Ailes, our city finance director is here with us this evening.

3:34

Thank you very much, Mr.

3:35

Ailes, for being here.

3:37

And I don't know that I see anybody else.

3:40

I don't want to miss anyone.

3:41

Um, of course, uh Jean from our CPC, thank you so much.

3:46

I'm so sorry I missed you there in the crowd, but thank you for being here.

3:49

And of course, we have a public hearing scheduled on the community preservation committee's budget, and we look forward to that.

3:54

Thank you so much.

3:57

Yes, thank you.

3:58

Uh Ward Six School Committee member uh John Taylor is here as well, and I see that you've taken your spot in the familiar Word Sixth School Committee member backbench.

4:07

Uh so thank you for finding your way to that uh to that uh traditional spot for the Ward Sixth School Committee member.

4:14

So, as I mentioned, at the top of our agenda, we do have a presentation from the Garden City Quilters, and so I'd like to invite members of the Garden City Quilters to the podium if they would like.

4:26

And Councillor Ratendo, I'd invite you to uh join them as well.

4:35

Yes, okay.

4:40

Okay.

4:42

All right.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Procedural█████████████████████████████████████37%

Public Services██████████████████18%

Public Engagement████████████12%

Racial Equity████████8%

Historic Preservation██████6%

Engineering And Infrastructure████4%

Community Preservation████4%

Public Safety███3%

Cryptocurrency Regulation██2%

Summary of Proceedings

Beverly City Council’s Final Council Chambers Meeting and Quilt Presentation, September 21, 2026

The Beverly City Council held a regular meeting on Monday, September 21, 2026, beginning at 7:00 p.m. It was the council’s last meeting in the current council chambers before City Hall renovation. The agenda included a quilt presentation by the Garden City Quilters, five public comment speakers, several public hearings, unfinished business, and committee reports. The meeting was broadcast through Bev Cam; future meetings will be held at Beverly Middle School Library.

Opening Presentation

The Garden City Quilters presented the Beverly 400 quilt. The council thanked the quilting group, the Beverly 400 Plus Committee, and Historic Beverly. The quilt will be displayed/hung in council chambers and cared for during the City Hall work.
The council took a five-minute recess so members and quilters could take photographs with the quilt.

Public Comments & Testimony

Five members of the public signed up to speak.
A speaker discussed the council’s decision to cut the city’s DEI position, saying the position was created to give underrepresented residents a voice. The speaker noted that the position had a small budget, but it became the only significant cut, was called ‘a want, not a need,’ and that the cut had little budget impact but a large community impact.
Another speaker said DEI work includes providing laptop and Wi-Fi access to the 1,000 Beverly households without home internet, and educating the public so LGBTQ+ and immigrant neighbors feel safe. The speaker added that people who attend public meetings are not representative of everyone the city serves.
A further speaker recalled that at the council’s June 23 debate, all council members said they believed in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and acknowledged Beverly’s significant budget challenges, suggesting that commitment should guide the council’s decisions.

Public Hearings and Discussion Items

Council took up Order 221, amending Beverly Ordinance Section 253-24. A solicitor’s summary was used for the second reading. The transcript does not identify the subject of the amendment. Councilor Rotundo was thanked for community support and work on the item.
A utility-related public hearing concerned installation of two new conduits from a manhole just beyond the intersection of Cabot and School Streets to a new handhole on school property. Since that section of School Street was repaved the prior year, City Engineer Lisa Chandler advised that doing more work under the sidewalk could allow restoration of sidewalk panels instead of repaving the street. No member of the public signed up or came forward to speak.
Council discussed a proposed $134,413 set-aside in three categories—historic resources, community housing, and open space. Full applications would be posted for public comment and deliberations would take several months; there was interest, but the number of projects was unknown.
Before the 8:25 p.m. hearing, the council used time to take up unfinished business from a prior meeting and discussed scheduling items for the October meeting.
Committee reports included a public services update; the council heard that a contractor was mobilized and actual construction took about two days. The completed work was praised as timely.

Key Outcomes

The council voted to amend its rules of order regarding public comment. The change—which required a two-thirds vote because it changes council rules—removes the requirement that speakers state their name and address aloud during public comment. Instead, speakers can leave their address with the clerk when signing up and state the ward in which they live or work when addressing the council.
The council continued at least one public hearing and indicated the continued hearing would be at the Beverly Middle School Library, where future council meetings will be held during City Hall renovation.
The council acted on Order 221 and other agenda items, but the transcript does not include vote tallies.

Meeting Transcript

Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Thank you so much for joining us here for our city council meeting this evening. It's a pleasure to have folks here with us in the council chamber. Thank you for joining us. And it's sort of a special meeting. You may not have known that you were coming to such a special one. There's many things on it that make it an interesting and very full agenda. But as you know, City Hall folks are all moving temporarily out of City Hall for the renovation. And so this is our final meeting for a long stretch in the council chambers. So thank you for joining us in the the sort of final meeting for Council Chambers as it will look like this. So you're all here for historic meeting. You maybe didn't even know. Thank you. Thank you to those who are joining us as well via Bev Cam. Of course, we uh offer our thanks as always to Kim and the Bev Cam booth for keeping us streaming and live. Thank you. Um thank you all for your appreciation for Kim. It is it is truly we're being sincere though, in that it's truly important to have a partner like Bev Cam to make sure that our meetings are accessible for folks who can't join us here in person and can still follow along. So we thank them for that. Um as is my habit. I thought I would run through our agenda before officially calling the meeting to order so that everyone can have a sense of what's before us this evening. And so uh this evening we have a presentation right at the start of our agenda from the Garden City Quilters, and they'll be presenting Beverly 400's quilt, and so we look forward to that. We do have five folks who are signed up for public comment at this meeting, and we thank all of those speakers for signing up and for being here to participate. We also do have six public hearings scheduled, and so for folks signed up for public comment, we will get you in uh as soon as possible as I sort of also have us alternate around those times. But I thank you in advance for your your patience and your flexibility and for being here to speak in those in those comment spots. As I mentioned, six public hearings, they begin at 7 45 for their scheduled times, and so we'll take those as they are scheduled. Then we have some routine business. We'll take a brief break for some subcommittee work, and we'll be back to finish everything up. So, with that, I'll officially call to order this regular meeting of the Beverly City Council Monday, September 21st, 2026, 7 o'clock p.m. Ms. Kent, will you please call the roll? Crawley? Here, Feldman? Houseman, the lady, here, Sonia? Here, Spang, St. Hilaire, Flowers. Here, thank you, Ms. Kent. Counselor Spang, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please? Hi, to the flag of the United States of America. Under God, an individual with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much, Councillor Spang. I also did want to mention and recognize uh member of our city staff team who's here, uh, Brian Ailes, our city finance director is here with us this evening. Thank you very much, Mr. Ailes, for being here. And I don't know that I see anybody else. I don't want to miss anyone. Um, of course, uh Jean from our CPC, thank you so much. I'm so sorry I missed you there in the crowd, but thank you for being here.

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