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OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Beverly City Council Regular Meeting - October 20, 2026

City Council — Tuesday, October 20, 2026

BodyBeverly, Massachusetts

SessionCity Council

DateTuesday, October 20, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 1:02:10

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

Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.

Speaker 1

0:14

Thank you very much, everyone.

0:15

I'll call the council meeting to order momentarily.

0:19

Before I do, I wanted to just take a few moments to first of all thank the members of the subcommittees and committee of the whole and members of the public who were just here with us, as well as members of our city staff, our Beverly Police Department, for a joint subcommittee meeting that we was just conducted between our subcommittees of public services and legal affairs, continued discussion of the topic

Unassigned speaker

0:40

of

Speaker 1

0:40

flock camera use here in Beverly.

0:42

So thank you to those subcommittees.

0:44

Thank you, Councillor Retundo, for chairing that joint meeting as well as well as Councillor Sonya.

0:49

I know you were stepping into the chair role for public services tonight.

0:51

Thank you for that.

0:53

I just wanted to mention, of course, we're still settling in here to our space in Beverly Middle School.

0:58

Thank you to the school department for having us here while City Hall is in transition as it's being renovated.

1:04

Um a few things we're getting used to the room.

1:06

We're getting used to the space for city council meetings.

1:09

And so we are asking that members of the public uh make sure that you are sitting sort of on this side of the column.

1:17

Many folks are um this behind the council.

1:21

We're going to ask that city staff um be seated there.

1:23

So mixon is there right now.

1:25

It's helpful to me if I need to be able to see city staff and they need to be able to see me if we call them up for a question.

1:30

Um so we did not mention that last time.

1:32

We're getting used to our space, and so I thank everyone for uh bearing with us as we are as we are learning more about the space for our meetings as well.

1:40

Um as is customary, I will just mention what's on the agenda before we get rolling.

1:47

Today we have five members of the public who have signed up to speak during our public comment portion of the meeting, and I'll say more about those spots as we come to them.

1:56

We have some routine business on our agenda this evening.

1:59

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

2:04

So with that, I'll officially call to order this regular meeting of the Beverly City Council, Monday, October 19th, 2026, 7 o'clock PM.

2:14

Ms.

2:14

Kent, will you please call the roll?

2:16

Crawley?

Speaker 2

2:17

Yeah.

2:17

Feldman, Houseman, Malady?

2:19

Yeah.

Speaker 1

2:20

Patando.

Speaker 2

2:20

Yeah.

2:21

Sonia.

Speaker 1

2:21

Here.

Speaker 2

2:22

Spang.

2:22

St.

2:23

Hilaire.

2:24

And Flowers.

Speaker 1

2:25

Here.

2:25

Thank you, Ms.

2:26

Kent.

2:26

Councillor Millady, would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Unassigned speaker

2:31

I

Speaker 3

2:31

pledge allegiance to

Speaker 1

2:32

the flag of the United States of America.

2:35

And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for

Unassigned speaker

2:43

all.

Speaker 1

2:47

Thank you very much, Councillor Millady.

2:50

As we're getting started, I also wanted to mention, of course, thank you to the members of the public who are here with us in person.

2:56

We always love having members of the public join us for our meetings.

2:59

Thank you also to Kim and the Bev Cam booth for keeping our meetings live and streaming so that folks can be following along with us even if you're not able to be here in person, and we're so glad for our BEVCAM partners for making that possible.

3:12

Thank you.

3:13

There are some members of our city staff here I'd like to mention as we're getting going.

3:17

Solicitor Beth Oldmixon is here with us this evening.

3:20

Thank you very much, solicitor.

3:22

Our city planning director, Darlene Wynne, is here as well.

3:25

Thank you very much, Ms.

3:26

Wynne, for being here with us, and of course, Mayor Cahill is here with us as well.

3:29

Thank you very much, Mayor, for being

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Procedural█████████████████████████████████████████████67%

Public Engagement████6%

Community Engagement████6%

Arts And Culture███5%

Technology and Innovation███5%

Engineering And Infrastructure███5%

Public Safety██3%

Public Infrastructure██3%

Summary of Proceedings

Beverly City Council Regular Meeting - October 20, 2026

The Beverly City Council held a regular meeting on October 20, 2026, at the Beverly Middle School due to ongoing renovations at City Hall. (NB: The council president opened the meeting by stating the date as 'Monday, October 19th, 2026' in the official transcript, conflicting with the supplied event metadata). The agenda included public testimony on the sewer billing structure and Flock cameras, a surprise recognition for Councillor Scott Houseman for his work saving the Cabot Theatre, the approval of easements for Millbrook Road, and routine subcommittee referrals.

Consent Calendar

Minutes Approved: Minutes from the regular meetings of May 4, 2026, and May 18, 2026, were approved by an 8-0 vote.
Jerry Perry Retirement: A letter of retirement from Budget Analyst Jerry Perry was received and placed on file by an 8-0 vote.
Site Cleanup Update: An update on the former Variant site at 150 Sawyer Road was received and placed on file by an 8-0 vote.

Public Comments & Testimony

Patrick Lucci (Ward 5) on Sewer Billing: Mr. Lucci argued that the city's practice of charging sewer fees strictly on water consumption (at a fixed rate of $7.29 per 100 cubic feet in 2026) rather than measured discharge violates Massachusetts General Law Chapter 83, Section 16. He stated this creates a legal mismatch because the Southern Essex Sewer District (SESD) bills the city on actual volume, and residents are charged for water that does not enter the sewer (e.g., irrigation). He presented estimates suggesting this generates roughly $3.198 million over a five-month watering season for 5,000 properties with 2,000 sq ft lawns. He urged the council to align the city's practice with other SESD members.
Brian Rodolfo, Rich Marino, and Mayor Mike Cahill Honor Councillor Houseman: The trio surprised Councillor Scott Houseman with a formal resolution recognizing his leadership in saving the Cabot Theatre. The resolution cited his 2013 efforts to organize business leaders who later founded the organization now operating the Cabot, leading to its 2014 reopening and 2025 renovations. The council spread the resolution upon the city records. Councillor Houseman expressed being deeply honored and speechless.
John Dudley (Ward 3) on Flock Cameras: Mr. Dudley expressed strong opposition to the city's Flock Safety contract. He argued the cameras feed data into systems accessible by agencies like ICE. He criticized Flock's contract terms for granting the company an irrevocable perpetual right to use local data, lacking guarantees against selling data, limiting data breach liability, and mandating legal arbitration in Georgia. He cited difficulties in Illinois and Indiana where municipalities faced fees and continued operation after attempting to terminate contracts. He urged the council to use its political influence to let the contract expire in 30 days.

Discussion Items

Millbrook Road Layout (Orders 264 & 264A): Assistant Solicitor Dole explained the three-step process for laying out a public way. With the initial step completed (Order 223), the council voted 8-0 to approve the second step (Order 264, taking of easements) and the third step (Order 264A, adopting the layout and accepting portions of Millbrook Road as a public way).
Finance & Property Subcommittee: During the subcommittee break, the Finance and Property subcommittee discussed Councillor Houseman's request for $2,000 for the Beverly Human Rights Committee. Due to the upcoming election pushing the next regular council meeting to November 9, 2026, the subcommittee decided to allow more time for Mayor Cahill and HRC Chair Eric Nudson to meet before scheduling a standalone meeting on the request.

Key Outcomes

Votes (All 8-0):
- Approved meeting minutes (May 4 and May 18, 2026).
- Adopted Millbrook Road orders (264 and 264A).
- Approved the waiver of right of first refusal for an affordable housing unit at 348 Rantoul Street.
- Granted a class two motor vehicle license renewal for Michael's Autobody.
- Received and placed on file the retirement of Budget Analyst Jerry Perry and the Beverly Site Cleanup update.
Public Hearings Scheduled: The council scheduled public hearings for National Grid underground facility petitions on November 23, 2026, for Woodbury Street (7:30 PM) and Dane Street (7:40 PM).
Appointments Referred: Multiple reappointments and appointments (Zoning Board of Appeals, Commission on Disabilities, Beverly Harbor Management Authority, Golf and Tennis Commission) were referred to relevant subcommittees for further review.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned unanimously (8-0).

Meeting Transcript

Thank you very much, everyone. I'll call the council meeting to order momentarily. Before I do, I wanted to just take a few moments to first of all thank the members of the subcommittees and committee of the whole and members of the public who were just here with us, as well as members of our city staff, our Beverly Police Department, for a joint subcommittee meeting that we was just conducted between our subcommittees of public services and legal affairs, continued discussion of the topic of flock camera use here in Beverly. So thank you to those subcommittees. Thank you, Councillor Retundo, for chairing that joint meeting as well as well as Councillor Sonya. I know you were stepping into the chair role for public services tonight. Thank you for that. I just wanted to mention, of course, we're still settling in here to our space in Beverly Middle School. Thank you to the school department for having us here while City Hall is in transition as it's being renovated. Um a few things we're getting used to the room. We're getting used to the space for city council meetings. And so we are asking that members of the public uh make sure that you are sitting sort of on this side of the column. Many folks are um this behind the council. We're going to ask that city staff um be seated there. So mixon is there right now. It's helpful to me if I need to be able to see city staff and they need to be able to see me if we call them up for a question. Um so we did not mention that last time. We're getting used to our space, and so I thank everyone for uh bearing with us as we are as we are learning more about the space for our meetings as well. Um as is customary, I will just mention what's on the agenda before we get rolling. Today we have five members of the public who have signed up to speak during our public comment portion of the meeting, and I'll say more about those spots as we come to them. We have some routine business on our agenda this evening. We'll take a brief break for some subcommittee work and then 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, October 19th, 2026, 7 o'clock PM. Ms. Kent, will you please call the roll? Crawley? Yeah. Feldman, Houseman, Malady? Yeah. Patando. Yeah. Sonia. Here. Spang. St. Hilaire. And Flowers. Here. Thank you, Ms. Kent. Councillor Millady, would you please 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, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much, Councillor Millady. As we're getting started, I also wanted to mention, of course, thank you to the members of the public who are here with us in person.

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