Hello, everyone.

My name is Naima Said.

I use she, her pronouns, word five city counselor, new traffic um parking chair.

I would like to order to call to order today's traffic and parking committee meeting with the summer of the city council.

Uh first, they will read the legal notice that allows us to do to have this meeting on Zoom.

Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of twenty twenty-three.

This meeting of the city council committee will be conducted via remote participation.

We'll post an audio video recording, transcript or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Samurai website and on local cable access government channels.

Clerk, could you please call the role to establish quorum?

Clerk.

Okay.

So just waiting for the clerk.

Perhaps you can leave and then come back.

Still recording, or yeah, I think we're still recording, but uh Peter just reconnected.

So hopefully um work now.

So we're just waiting here for the clerk to reconnect.

Try the audio again.

Yep, the committee clerks just reconnected.

Looks like committee clerks is immuted.

Anything clerk, if you could tell me by email, would it be helpful if we stop the recording and try to all join again?

Clerk, if you could tell me by email, would it be helpful if we stop the recording and try to all join again.

Let me know by email because we can't hear anything.

Yeah, I'm not seeing any email.

Um I think let's leave and try to reconnect because having an audio, let me see.

Maybe text message.

Um, yeah, having the clerk can call in too.

I mean, if it if they're if they try again and it still doesn't work, um, it's a zoom.

Yeah.

So there should be um a way to call in just to have audio.

And then one of us can share in the materials if that if it comes to that.

But seems like a good plan to try to come back, I guess.

Yeah, let's see.

We'll all do the same.

Yeah, let's leave and um come back, members of the public, apologies.

Um we're gonna have to uh leave the meeting for a minute.

Okay.

Um, if it works now.

Before we go live.

Um, so Peter says she's trying to get a little bit more.

Uh okay.

I think yeah, Peter is saying now to put the meeting in recess, so we end meeting and restart.

I thought that was that was what happened just now, but let's wait for Peter to end it.

Peter, if you can hear me, just end it.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's happening here.

Yeah, I'm not really understanding this.

Uh yeah, I mean, just call Peter.

Um, are you the chair?

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Madam Chair, there's there's there seem to be two meetings.

Um because Meredith.

Um's from our office in another meeting.

And she sees you.

I don't we don't see her in this screen.

So he's joining using the phone now.

Okay, good.

Just switch my ease.

Catherine you say something to make sure I can.

Catherine, can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you.

Okay.

Perfect.

Uh okay.

Peter, we still cannot hear you using the phone.

Peter, since you can hear me, can you make me the host?

I imagine even if he makes me the host, we still need the clerk.

And now we don't have Counselor Burnley.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh, all right.

Some of those nights.

Yeah, this is the first time it happens.

Uh, when do we call it?

Uh like this, yeah.

I've never had this happen either.

This is um, it's unfortunate.

Um, I s I see that Peter is still the host.

Um yeah.

Um, yeah, I texted him, but I think he keeps trying.

I think he is not able to make any changes to the accounts.

Okay.

I'm um texting with Yasmin and she um may be able to help.

Let me see.

We're gonna have quorum, which is you.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

That is a really bad thing.

Okay.

Yeah, still we can still hear the echo.

Very good.

About now, about now, about the issue.

And no.

Okay.

No, it's good.

Okay.

So we don't have Counselor Brunley.

Uh just texted him.

Okay.

Yeah, it means trying to help.

Uh, we're all set now.

We're all set now.

Okay.

All right, we have Peter now.

Okay.

Counselor Brunley is not here though.

Counselor isn't here.

So we don't have quorum, right?

We don't have quorum.

Let me let me just call him.

Okay.

I mean, I don't know if you're seeing anything on your end.

Yes, I'm not sure.

Yeah, sorry, everyone.

Counselor Burnley is not picking up.

He's not texting back.

We don't have quorum.

I don't think also Bernie joined after we disconnected, right?

I'm sorry, who?

Councillor Burnley.

Yeah, I don't think I've seen him either.

Yeah, I have he has never joined after we disconnected.

Um texted they called.

And this is my fun shape.

Well, should we have it on that?

Uh okay, it is 6:30 already.

Um I think I'm inclined to just not have the meeting.

Um between the technical difficulties and Councillor Burnley not getting back to me.

Um I just asked Brad, Brad, you're seeing an alternate meeting room.

That's where who else is there?

Is Councillor Burnley there perchance?

No.

Yeah, you mentioned your colleague Meredith may be in a different account.

And I was just wondering if some attention.

Oh, here it comes.

Here comes Councilor Burnley.

Yeah.

Sorry, there's a community meeting at the same exact time.

Was trying to do both and then thought I got a little bit more leeway because uh of the technical difficulties, but I am back.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh so uh just give me a moment now.

I was using my phone at this time to make sure.

Okay.

Before we go live, can you hear me?

Yes, yes.

Okay.

Peter, we can hear you.

Counselor, just okay.

So we can hear all three of us.

Perfect.

Um we are going to we can go live now.

Uh we're still live.

We're live.

The whole thing was live.

Okay.

Um, do we just keep it that way?

Yep, yep.

Okay.

I had no idea.

Okay.

Well, I'm sorry about that because uh I really thought we were not live.

So uh yeah, Clerk, could you please uh call the role?

Present.

Councilor Wilson and Councilor Saeed.

Present.

Okay, great.

Uh first uh let's begin with the approval of the minutes from the previous meeting.

Those minutes, there is a scriptness error.

Yeah, it reads that the minutes are from legislative matters meeting, but they're actually from traffic and parking.

The item number two five one five one nine is for the traffic and parking.

So we can't approve those.

So in all in favor, Councillor Burnley.

Council Wilson.

Councilor Sae.

Yes.

Those items, those minutes have been approved.

Great.

Uh Clerk, could you please read the first item?

Item two by Council Burnley, the director of parking.

Place no parking here to call on the signs on Walmart Street at Sunnyside.

And the item we have Director Ramfret.

Good evening.

Thank you, Suzanne Rinford, Director of Parking.

Um, so we started a service request, which is a work order when we got this uh request from the city council when I first came in on the 10th.

And since then, we've had the area check twice a day.

And it appears that there's been three tickets since the 24th, and we've been checking it a minimum of twice a day.

So typically we don't add signs for 20 feet from an intersection unless we see a big problem because once you start adding these signs, um it could be require signs all over the city.

So there's there's no sign required for this type of violation, according to Mass General Laws.

You can't supposed to park within 20 feet of any intersection.

So first, our first role is uh our first what we like to do first is make sure that we enforce it more often so that people get used to hey, I can't park here, and they see that they're getting tickets and the behavior will change.

So we would like to continue with that.

And if we don't see a change in behavior or we see the situation getting any worse, we can certainly add a sign.

But again, you know, this this could lead to many, many signs, many more signs throughout the city.

I think we have enough signs throughout the city as it stands.

So that's it.

Thank you.

Uh any questions from colleagues.

Uh no questions.

We'll mark this item as we're completed.

Next item.

Item three is an order by Council Saeith of the Director of Mobility and Seoul.

And I was muted again.

The director of mobility and solar speed bump on Ashland Street.

Good evening, Chair.

Brad Rosson, I serve as director of mobility in OSPCD.

Um, thank you for submitting this order, Chair.

I know that you have been working with local residents around the Kennedy School neighborhood and specifically on Ashland Street.

City staff are aware of this traffic calming request, and we have been in touch with a local resident who had organized a petition of neighbors to sign one of the city's traffic calming petition documents.

As we were in contact with that resident chair, we learned about a terrible crash in which a beloved pet was run over and killed by a speeding motorist.

And we extended our sincere um sympathies to that resident.

Um, this is a terrible, terrible experience.

We also communicated to that resident the standard operating procedures that the city uses to evaluate traffic calming requests like this one.

So we connected this resident and hopefully the entire neighborhood network to the online materials that the city uses to communicate how we evaluate traffic calming requests, whether they come in from direct council orders, from resident petitions, from 311 work orders, or from street outreach that our staff do on 12 months a year.

So hopefully folks have had a chance to see some of these great materials online.

Our standard process, as you know, chair, involves collecting data on the number and speed of motor vehicles on a given street.

It's really important for us to be able to benchmark conditions, and often we find that residents lived experience matches up with speeding percentages, top end speeds, but as you know, we have many more requests than staff are able to fill every given year or even in multiple year periods.

So it's important for us to have data to be able to compare apples to apples across all the Somerville neighborhoods that are asking for traffic calming treatments.

So, Chair, we have scheduled data collection for Ashland Street in spring 2026, as you'll probably remember.

We collect data in the spring and in the fall, but not in the summer and winter.

It's important for us to get representative conditions and conditions do tend to be different in summer and in winter.

So Ashley will be prioritized in spring calendar 26.

Once we have the data chair, our staff go through the next step in our standard process and communicate in writing with petitioners and neighborhood residents.

We've done this for several years in a row now.

And again, on the city's traffic calming webpage, folks can find written responses, technical memoranda that we revive to petitioners so they can see how their street stacks up against other candidates and all the different inputs to our decision making and prioritization that we use.

So to conclude, Chair, I want to definitely thank and appreciate everybody who has spent time volunteering, door knocking, speaking with neighbors.

Want to express gratitude to you as ward counselor and all at large counselors who do this kind of work to escalate these issues on our radar screen.

If anybody's um if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

But I hope that's a helpful brief summary.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director.

Thank you for uh the summary and reminding everyone of the process.

Um for thank we want to thank your staff for taking the time to uh get back to the uh the constituent and all the neighbors uh were being impacted by this.

Um as I shed with you offline.

This is a street that's very close to a school.

Uh so a um, you know, I understand like you need to collect data in the spring.

Uh, but I'm really hoping that this will be prioritized for next fall.

Um yeah, but as you said, it is terrible that we lost the neighbor lost you know his pet.

Um so we want to make sure, you know, this doesn't happen to God forbid children.

Um, so yeah, I will make sure to reach out to you at the end of the spring to so we can discuss the data.

Um, and go from there.

Um, but I just want to say elect for the record also by putting in a council order.

It does count um as a way to look for you to start considering that street for um data collection.

Um, and I want to thank the neighbor or the neighbors who have signed the petition and um submitted the petition to the mobility department.

Uh if there are no questions regarding this item, I would like to place to uh mark it as we're completed.

And next item.

Uh actually, I see uh counselor Brunley hand raised.

Thank you, Chair.

Can we take the next four up items up together?

I think we have one more item before we take all the rest of the items together.

Am I correct?

Let me just check.

Yes, we have we uh counselor Bernie, we have one more item and then we'll have we'll take item four and then we'll take all the rest of the items together.

Thank you.

Uh Lurk, would could you please read uh item four?

Item four is an audit of the director of mobility install a solar power digital your speed is display sign on shore drive westbound.

Counselor um Director Rossing.

Thank you, Chair.

Our response to this will have some similarity to the last item, Chair.

So again, staff always appreciate ward counselors and counselors at large helping amplify resident requests for speed management and traffic calming.

Um, city staff have been working with the ward for counselor and with local presidents on shore drive and speeding issues, particularly in that westbound direction for many, many years.

We know what a common cut-through route it is.

Staff have collected data on a number of occasions.

And although there are some raised intersections on Shore Drive, there are other longer sections of Shore Drive that do not have physical traffic calming.

And as a result, motorists are able to get up to dangerous speeds quite frequently.

Um chair, we will communicate with counselor Klingon.

Um, I think it's important to remind constituents and counselors that a speed feedback sign, like the one referenced in this order, can be a helpful intervention, but typically they are less helpful than physical traffic calming, like raised table intersections, like the one that exists at Shore Drive in Putnam today.

Um city staff have been working in partnership with Mystic River Watershed Association on a large-scale capital project chair that will rebuild elements of Shore Drive, ideally starting construction in calendar year 2026.

We've had a good community process, great partnership with Councilor Klingan and his constituents, as well as with our nonprofit partner at Mystic River Watershed Association.

And there are elements of traffic calming that can be included in that final design.

So for example, curb of Shore Drive on the west side near the boathouse will actually be moved into the street to create more room for green stormwater interest infrastructure.

Um I think it's important to note that we have a capital construction project coming that we think will offer many benefits, including speed attenuation.

We're happy to discuss in more detail or answer any questions.

Do not want to minimize the importance of this sign request.

But the last thing I will note is the sign that would be placed typically would be placed along the back of curb in the southbound direction.

And that is exactly where the row of green stormwater planters and new trees is designed to be cited as part of that project.

So I think we've got some work to do, Chair here.

Um I will follow up with the word for counselor.

Um and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have at this time.

Uh thank you, Director.

Um, I have no questions, uh, Council Brunley.

Uh thank you through the chair.

Um, just really quickly, I'm curious.

Uh I know that the city has an inventory of certain signs, uh, stop signs, the old signs, uh, street signs.

Uh, but this is a uh highly specific kind of sign uh that I imagine is more uh capital intensive as well.

Um could the director just speak uh to the best of his knowledge at this moment about uh what inventory we have around solar panel uh signs, uh speed signs, or if the additional uh excuse me, I'm about in a little bit of a noisy place, so you can hear any uh potential speeding around me.

Um, but could the director just speak to our current inventory as he understands it and if the installation of such a sign will require you know additional purchases.

Chair through you, thanks for the question, counselor.

Um, our parking department led by Suzanne Rinfred actually maintains that inventory, counselor.

So I don't have the numbers at the top of my head.

However, they're easy to get, and we can do a couple of things that I think are responsive to your question.

One is document the existing inventory of radar feedback signs that exist citywide.

Most of them are solar powered, Chair.

Um, a couple of them are hardwired, but most are solar powered.

But then the counselor also asked about whether any um signs exist kind of in storage, ready to deploy.

Don't know the answer off the top of my head.

I can ask Suzanne that we can communicate back with the committee.

I believe the answer is no, but let us double check that if that's okay.

Um, city staff have been working to determine um priorities and criteria for use of this specific tool in our experience when we install them.

They tend to be effective for a certain amount of time, often six or twelve months, and then they kind of fade into the background for a lot of drivers.

So we see decreasing compliance and increasing speeding.

Um, so I think we've got some work to do in terms of figuring out when and where radar feedback signs are best suited, given our narrow sidewalks, ADA clearances required, uh, solar power limitations with tree canopy, et cetera.

So I hope that's responsive to the question, Chair.

Certainly.

Uh just as a follow-up, yes, it is responsive to the question through the chair.

Uh, I appreciate that answer also because I think it is tempting for uh the public and sometimes even counselors to to believe that we can solve this by just throwing something on the street or uh installing a new sign.

Um but that leaves out a number of factors, including whether we have the signs in storage, uh, you know, how much the a cost and the lead time to actually get them.

Uh and also, you know, the the kind of psychology of driver behavior, uh, which is certainly uh as much an art as a science at this point.

Uh so I just I think it's worth always bringing up that complexity because uh it is more complicated than it often seems on the surface.

And and frankly, I agree with the director that the structural changes are the most impactful here.

Um thank you.

That's all I'll say.

Okay.

Thank you, Counselor.

Uh, we'll mark this item as we're completed.

And uh we will take up the rest of the items together.

So from item number five to item item number eight.

Uh, Clerk, would you please read those items?

That this council consider whether to ban or restrict autonomous vehicle testing locally if permitted by law.

Item six is an order by Councillor Burnley, Councillor Scott.

That the city solicitor provide an opinion on whether an individual within a vehicle or the autonomous vehicle company would be responsible if issued a citation during autonomous driving testing.

Item seven is an order by Councillor Burnley and Councillor Scott that the city solicitor provide an opinion on whether this council can restrict the use of autonomous driving testing within city limits, either through an outright ban or through requirement of a special permit.

And item eight is a resolution by Councillor Burnley that the mayor disclose to this council any communication with Waymo or its parent company Google regarding autonomous driving tests within city limits.

So we have here um Dr.

Rawson, but also uh staff from the law department who would like to get us started on these items.

And Chair, if it's okay, may I just ask um that Assistant Chief Sean Tierney from Somerville Fire also be recognized.

So uh there's been an interdepartmental group working together to try to be responsive to the council's inquiries and orders.

Um we're happy to spend our discussion time with you in any way that you see fit.

But I also want to give a shout out to Kathy Salkurt, special counsel and mered of Stevers, um assistant city solicitor who prepared a technical memorandum that was communicated to this committee that hopefully can provide a bit of a framework for this portion of the discussion.

Right.

Um so good evening, um, madam chair.

I guess I'll get started.

I hope everyone had a chance to at least receive the memo and maybe not have a chance, even if you didn't have a chance to read it all.

Um as far as the questions, I did try to give answers that are that are based on the research that we've done.

Um I don't have the uh there it is.

Okay.

Whether um whether we can so the first the first question that I have if I'm taking this up in the proper order is that the city solicitor provide an opinion on whether we can restrict the use of autonomous driving within city limits.

Um at the present time, the city can restrict autonomous driving within city limits.

However, it's important to note that there are several state and state bills pending that would prohibit municipal regulation, preempt municipal regulation in this area, and there are also federal there's a federal law or bill pending that would also prevent the city from um regulating at all.

The brief um memo or letter that we provided walks through how things were handled since 2018.

There was an executive order that established autonomous the authority for autonomous testing, and it set up a process that's followed through DOT.

And in that process, there was also a memorandum of agreement where the municipalities were able to say whether they wanted the testing, and if so, it allowed them to specify the tr the streets and the time and the dates and things of that nature.

So we have this ability right now.

It could go away.

Um and a ban, as we pointed out, would most likely be challenged, even though it hasn't been banned yet.

There is um the state has in a in a sense also occupied the field.

There, there's they're handling it on a state level, and they're allowing a little bit of room for municipalities to be involved, knowing that every city is different and knowing that you know they're out right now getting the data collection to try to understand what the lay of the land is in each of the cities where there's been um data collection happening.

But they but I think you know we have to, and I'm hoping that the state will decide to keep that role for municipalities, but again, it could be preempted at the federal level.

I don't know if Meredith has anything to add.

But I'll pause for right now because I tend to keep talking if you don't stop me.

Any questions on Councillor Burney?

Uh Councilor Burnley.

Thank you.

Uh no questions uh through you.

Uh it's just it's good information for us to have.

Uh uh in just for a little context for members of the public who might be wondering why I submitted four different items on autonomous driving.

As referencing one of the items, uh Wimo, a company owned by Google, uh recently was doing some autonomous testing within the greater Boston area, including Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville.

There are uh plenty of reasons to believe that this uh autonomous driving is not dangerous.

Uh there's some good data that's come out of these companies, but there's also plenty of concerns about anyone or anything driving in the greater Boston region based on the ways that our roads are constructed historically, based on driver behavior, um, and the fact that uh we may not have accountability measures in place was greatly concerning to me in particular.

And so I wanted us to look into the legal capacity that we had in order to um, for example, see if we wanted to implement restrictions.

You can do autonomous driving if you get a special permits, or if we if data started to sour on this in general, if the council would want to move forward with uh a more restrictive approach.

Um just knowing where the legal landscape is, that is it's helpful.

And I I'll just bring this back to our colleagues to say if we want to move forward with uh some uh specific restrictions, uh based on the attorney's input.

I would say we should move quickly to do so.

Sure, if I may just want to thank you and the council for raising up these issues, staff who have been working on them for many years, being in contact with peer cities around North America to just try to understand new technologies, their benefits and their potential drawbacks, their potential applicability in the Northeast versus in other parts of the country.

Everybody around North America and even around the world is working through these processes and done right.

They can definitely improve many of the key outcomes that we are all interested in in our transportation system.

But Chair that said, some of the things that we've learned from early adopter peer cities is that we have many reasons to be concerned, just like we were rightly concerned when the ride hailing industry was brought into Massachusetts in 2016-2018.

These industries tend to result in net increases in vehicle miles traveled, and so congested narrow streets in places like metropolitan Boston can become that much trickier for many of our day-to-day requirements, realities, whether it's bus transit, urban deliveries, and freight emergency response.

We spent time with peers from around the country to make sure that Assistant Chief Tierney's peers are communicating their stories about how to interact with new technologies, new sensors, new vehicle types and weights to have fail-safes in place, training that is you know, culturally rooted in cultural context of individual departments and regions.

Um and response and mobility for first responders is one thing.

Scene management is another thing that has emerged from these early adopter communities.

How can emergen first responders on scene interact with robotaxis and other forms of autonomous mobility?

Um we know that our peers in the city of Boston have worked really hard to begin understanding potential labor impacts.

Um national peers have talked a lot about the importance of transparency and data sharing and ensuring that intellectual property can be honored on the one hand, but that public officials have access to live time data on crashes, on disengagements, um, on other issues that are part and parcel of autonomous ride hailing.

So there's a lot of work to be done.

A lot of cities around the country are working together to try to share best practices.

Um we have a long way to go, I believe.

And I think there's a real alignment between city staff, city council, as well as even the private industries.

Everybody wants a level playing field, safe operations, net reductions and driving, um, and smooth interactions between traditional mass transit like buses, traditional first response, like fire departments and ambulance companies.

Um I think that it's important that we continue to do this work together.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh everyone.

Uh, thank you, Council of Burnley for uh submitting these uh items.

Um uh constituents have been reaching out to me about this.

Um just so we can have the conversation and know just get to know what our options are.

Um, this is certainly very, very helpful.

And thank you, Director Rossin, for giving us the big picture.

And uh, you know, like all yeah, all like the things that could get impacted, uh, that we should start thinking about.

Um, as we uh try as a council as a city to decide uh what's best.

Uh Counselor Burnley, any further questions?

Uh Director Rossin, did you want to add something?

Sherry, thanks for your patience.

Um, one more thing I would like to flag um attorney Salkert mentioned this, but one of the things that we hear on the national scene is that the Massachusetts regulatory framework strikes a really good balance between protecting the public interest and fostering innovation and allowing for private investment and scaling with really really appropriate guardrails.

So I think this is another great example where Massachusetts is leading the way, and it's going to be important for Somerville and for many other cities and towns in the Commonwealth to continue to have access through that regulatory framework that's been in place since about 2017, 2018.

Okay, great.

Council Burnley.

Thank you to the director, to uh our attorneys and to you, Chair, for uh taking up all these items together.

Uh I did want to just hone in on one of them, uh, given uh the director's point around transparency here.

Um I I had an item in there about specifically whether the city uh had any contact with Waymo prior to uh this announcement or any communications.

Uh and I'm curious if one to that question, which I have some insight into, but uh also in terms of the administration's protocol or process around uh disclosure to the public when we uh know that there may be these this kind of testing on our streets.

I think it's important that not only the folks who are paying attention to the local news or who might have uh some insights into these processes are made aware, but that everyone generally has some sense when uh there might be you know a car next to them with no driver, uh or which to be clear in the case of the Waymo uh testing.

This was test not uh bring the it's really important that uh we not be shocked uh moving forward.

Chair, I'm happy to respond, but um Kathy may want to bat first here.

Okay.

Oh yes.

Um, madam chair, um, just wanted to point out to Councilor Burnley, he probably does know this, but because I I don't think we've said it out loud right now.

There are no vehicles that can operate without a driver present.

And the Waymo, when Waymo was in the city, my understanding is they were not doing autonomous vehicle testing at all.

They were gathering data.

It was just a data um collection um exercise.

That's correct.

And if I may add to Kathy's response, um again, I really appreciate the framing that Councilor Burnley has offered here.

So you'll notice in the written memo that the solicitor's office provided for the committee that we describe some of the outreach from the corporate groups um as they were notifying local jurisdictions of their human-powered video data collection effort in spring 2025.

So courtesy emails were sent to multiple cities and to multiple city departments within the city of Somerville.

And that is most certainly appreciated.

I think it is important to note, Chair, that city staff did not respond to any of these inquiries.

We are a busy city with many competing demands for our time.

We do not have a regulatory framework that prohibits standard street view video collection for the existing technologies that Google or competitors are using.

And we were not able to allocate any staff time to dig deeper into these issues, even though we appreciated knowing that things were coming.

But another one of the counselor's points that I'd like to respond to and acknowledge is the importance of transparent communication to the public, because I think that there can be misunderstandings.

Is this consistent with our best practices and surveillance management?

Um versus a passive human safety operator versus no human at all.

And so one of the things that the industry around the country has really started to articulate is the importance of those kind of communication strategies.

The Council of Burnley acknowledged a moment ago.

So I'm taking this note, Chair.

And if this conversation continues and we anticipate any additional steps in the future, um, Somerville staff, be sure to follow up and make sure that we've got communications protocols for the city council for the public at large on that topic.

So thank you very much.

Council Burley, any follow-up questions.

No, no follow-up questions through you, Chair.

Um I'm I'm satisfied with these responses and happy to mark these items as work complete.

Uh just with the the note and caveat that uh the first item about the council's considerations regarding restrictions or bans.

Uh obviously it's most appropriately in action taken up in legislative matters.

Um so I just want to be clear that uh marking this as work complete is not a sign of no future actions, uh, but instead that if we were to take up uh that it would be in a separate committee.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's correct.

Um yeah, thank you for adding that, counselor.

And Chair, if I can offer one more comment and kind of validate the discussion that the committee is having this evening with the benefit of hindsight, it is perfectly conceivable that the city of Somerville and cities like Somerville could have done a better job of planning for the ride hailing revolution in 2015, 2016, 2017.

Yes, we had a state regulatory framework at that time, but again, I'm really thinking about this current conversation and this current technological innovation through that lens of what we learned a decade ago, the last time a big disruptive um ride hailing and taxi service was brought to market.

Um we've learned so much in the last decade.

Um, so we look forward to continuing working with the council with our interdepartmental group, with our state delegation, our federal delegation and cities around North America to make sure the cities continue to have a seat at the table that is of critical importance and it cannot be said enough.

Thank you, Director.

Okay, if we have no further questions, uh we will mark items from item five to five item eight as we're completed.

And uh yeah, uh Clerk, if you could please um call the role for adjournment.

Only Council Burnley.

Aye, Councillor Saeed.

Yes, two members are voted to adjourn.

One is absolutely we are adjourned.

Have a good evening, everyone.

Thank you, you too.