All right, we're gonna call this meeting to order.

This is a meeting of the city council.

It is Thursday, November 13th.

Uh, I am Lance Davis, so you see him pronounced serving as president.

The clerk please call the roll.

I can indeed.

This is roll call.

Counselor Wilson.

Present.

Sorry, Counselor Hart.

Counselor Wilson.

Present.

Counselor Ewan Campin.

Here.

Counselor Scott.

Present.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Counselor Burnley.

Present.

Counselor Saeed.

Here.

Counselor Streso.

President.

Counselor Klingon.

President.

Counselor Mbaugh.

President.

Counselor Davis.

With 10 counselors present and one absent, we have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I want to extend a big welcome to our newest member, Councillor Hart.

Thank you very much for being here.

Recording in progress.

Counselor McLaughlin is at a meeting of Teen Empowerment where he's receiving an award.

He will join us as soon as he is able to.

Please note that video and audio of this meeting is being recorded and may be shown live on local access government channels and will be on the City of Summerville website and will be available for feature review.

Pursuant to our Rule 32.

Let it be known that the City Council salutes the flag of the United States of America and let us recall our oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth to the best of our abilities and understanding.

Shall we do remembrance?

Oh, remembrances, yes.

I forgot about that part.

We start the meeting with any remembrances, moments of silence.

Is there anyone uh in the room wishing to share amendments?

Counselor Ken Klingon.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, I ask that we all remember this evening.

Uh Maria Archangela, Angelica Parabello, uh, and her family.

Um she was 83 years old.

She entered into eternal rest surrounded by family on October 30th, 2025 in Burlington.

Uh she was born in Gaeta, Italy.

Uh Maria brought her warmth and enduring traditions of her homeland when she made her life here in the United States.

For 51 years, she was the devoted wife of Guido Parabello, and together they made their home in Somerville.

She was a loving mother of daughters, Teresa Parabello, Rosanna Parabello, who's the director of um community schools out of the Sumble uh public schools.

Uh longtime uh sorry, longtime uh employee of the school system.

Excuse me.

Sorry.

Um her family in our in her heart was uh her family was her heart and her world.

She cherished every moment spent with them.

Maria was also proud and doting grandmother to Dre Susa, Anthony Anastasia, Collin, and Angelica Smith, each of whom brought her immense joy in later life.

Um I'll just add to that that her passion was cooking and baking.

Um her vibrant spirit was evident in many hobbies.

She loves sewing and knitting, walks to Davis Square and traveling, especially to returning to Italy in summers and spending time down the Cape.

Um, and I just asked that we remember Maria and her family this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any others?

All right, seeing none, I ask that everyone in the chamber rise as you are able uh to uh for a moment of silence for the aforementioned individuals.

Thank you.

Now, Madam Clerk, let's start at the top.

And now, Mr.

President, the next item is item 1.3, approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of October 9th, 2025.

Seeing no objection, that item is approved.

Item 1.4 is approval of the minutes of the special meeting of October 21st, 2025.

Seeing no objection, that item is approved.

Item 2.1 is a citation by counselors Wilson, Klingon, and Strezzo, commending Fire Lieutenant Danielle O'Hearn for the publication of her book about and work with a first responder dog.

Give a moment for the folks to join us in the chamber here.

Counselor Wilson, you want to take the lead on this or absolutely Mr.

President.

Uh I'll read the citation.

Uh be it hereby known that all the Summer Rule City Council and the Mayor offer their sincerest commendations to Lieutenant Danielle O'Hearn in recognition of her work in the fire department with Millie, a first responder therapy dog, and the publication of her book, Millie the Brave, Fire Dog by Day, Heart Healer by Night.

The council and the mayor extend their gratitude for Danielle and Millie's commitment and service to the city.

Offered this 13th day of November 2025.

Thank you, Councillor Streso.

Thank you.

Oh, you know what?

I'm going to let Councillor Klinkin speak first because I have to very well that works.

Counselor Klingon.

Oh, I just want to say through you, Mr.

President.

Um, first of all, this isn't the first time we honor Danielle up here.

She's been up here for life-saving efforts uh uh on the job as a firefighter.

But she is my constituent.

I'm proud to um to to call her uh War 4 resident, and I'm really really excited about this book.

I was checking it out.

And I just want to say, you know, uh these little extra things, if you will, uh, you know, that that the departments do with regards to um uh therapy animals and so on, they really make a huge difference in people's lives every day.

So this is this isn't, you know, this is something extra that uh folks take on because this is what they they have in their heart as public servants.

So um I'm appreciative of Danielle's efforts and happy to have her up here this evening as her work counselor.

Thank you.

Councilor Stressel.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'm ready now.

I aside from uh Lieutenant O'Hearn being a proud so I I'm so proud of you serving Somerville.

I'm going to list some of the few of many accomplishments that uh we've that she has um well been awarded.

She's a City of Somerville citation 2021, Massachusetts Firefighter of the Year.

Meredith's Conduct Award from Governor Baker, 2021.

Massachusetts House of Representatives Citation for Bravery, 2022.

She and I work together on the Somerville Communication Boards.

If you are anywhere in a playground in Somerville, you may see a board attached to the wall, and it is a sign that uh Lieutenant O'Hearn uh brought forward to me, and together we worked on making it possible in Somerville so that if a child is non-verbal or just doesn't have the communication skills yet, they can point to the picture of what they want to do, like go up on the slide, or they're cold, or they want to go, or uh it it it's remarkable.

And she has also been uh first responder therapy dog handler, a member of the Metro Boston CISM team.

IAFF, peer support member and trained in psychological recovery, psychological first aid and trauma and crisis for group and individuals by the University of Maryland.

So with that, I am proud to sponsor Lieutenant Danielle O'Hearn.

Thank you for being here tonight.

Councilor Stresso, uh, would like to sponsor Lieutenant O'Hearn saying no objection, Lieutenant O'Harn.

Welcome.

Thank you so much.

I say I saved Millie, but she saved me.

And that's really where the journey began.

The magic that these canines have is unmatched.

The way they heal souls without saying a word.

The most anxious kid takes a breath, and the whole world feels a little less heavy.

We met children who are terrified of dogs, who've never touched a dog, and Millie showed them what trust and gentleness feels like.

We've had first responders break down crying into her fur after holding it together through things that would shatter most people.

And we've had plenty of folks just absolutely crack up because she's a total goofball and refuses to pretend otherwise.

But underneath it all, all of these moments is the bigger message.

When you teach a child empathy, compassion, you teach new adults who carry these qualities into the world.

When you remind a first responder in a dark place that there is still softness and hope in the world and in them, you change their day, but sometimes you've changed their entire life.

And that's what I wanted this book to say loudly was whether you're a kid who didn't get a great start in life, or a first responder who feels stuck and overwhelmed, or anyone who thinks they're too far off the path for a better future.

You always have the power to change your direction with bravery, courage, and most of all kindness, just like Millie.

Thank you for honoring this work.

She and I are just getting started.

Would you like to take a brief brief recess so we could take some pictures?

Yes.

All right, we'll take a five-minute recess to get some pictures, then we'll pick back up.

All right.

I call this meeting back to order.

Thank you, everyone.

We have a quorum.

Um we're gonna do the uh public hearings next.

Um, but I wanted to let folks know we're gonna take a few item after that we'll take a few items out of order.

Uh we'll start with uh ten point one and ten point two, uh and then seven dot twelve, uh eight dot four uh six A, which is the Finance Committee report, and then uh related to that seven three and seven four.

Okay.

Uh so let's uh go to the public hearings next.

The next item, Mr.

President is item three point one, a grant of location from Comcast to install a total of a hundred and sixty-four feet of conduit and one new vault in Broadway from existing manhole to the new vault at one sixty-eight Broadway, continuing to points of pickup at one sixty-eight, seventy-four, and seventy-six Broadway.

All right, I now declare this public hearing to be open.

Is there anyone in the chamber wishing to speak on the item?

I have it, Dave Flewelling.

Dave Flewling.

Good evening, Dave Walling Comcast, nine Forbes Road, Wuben, Massachusetts.

Dave to provide the service to number one sixty-eight, one seventy-four, and one seventy-six Broadway.

Dave, can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you.

Could you just start over because we missed the beginning part and I want to make sure everyone hears all of it?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um J for Welling Comcast, Nine Forbes Road, Wuben, Massachusetts.

We'd like to speak in favor of the Comcast petition to place 164 feet of conduit on Broadway to provide the service to number 168, 174, and 176 Broadway.

Okay, is there anyone else wishing to speak on this item?

No more hands, I declare the public hearing uh closed.

Any discussion?

All right, seeing none that items approved.

Item 3.2 is a granted location from Comcast to install a total of 223 feet of conduit and one new vault in Cross Street from an existing manhole to the new vault at five cross street, continuing to points of pickup at five, seven, and nine cross streets.

I declare this public hearing to be open.

Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Dave Flewellan.

Okay, is there anyone else here to speak on the item?

Okay, seeing none of declare the public hearing to be closed.

Is there any discussion?

All right, seeing none that item is approved.

Item 3.3 is a grant of location from Comcast to install a total of 83 feet of conduit in Stickney Av from utility poll two to a point of pickup at 15 sticky.

Dave Wooling Comcast nine forbes road woven mouse would like to speak in favor of the Comcast petition.

The place um eighty-three feet of conduit on Stickney Av for the purpose of providing service the number 15 stick me.

Okay, is there anyone anyone else here to speak on the item?

All right, seeing none of declare the public hearing closed.

Is there any discussion?

All right, seeing none that item is approved.

Item 3.4 is a grant of location from Ever Source to install a total of 48 feet of conduit in professors row from utility poll two eighty-nine over fourteen to a point of pickup at one twenty-four professors row.

I now declare the public hearing to be open.

Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duffy.

We'd like to install 48 feet of conduit in Professor's Row to provide electrical service to Tufts University at eleven one eleven professors row Med Fit.

Anyone else here to speak on the item?

All right, seeing none, I declare the public hearing closed.

Any comments?

All right.

See none that item is approved.

Item 85 is a granted location from EverSource to install a total of 253 feet of conduit and one new manhole in Interbelt Road and Rollin Street from existing manhole 24106 to a point of pickup at the Somerville Boston line.

I declare this public hearing to be open.

Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duff.

Jackie D.

Jackie Duffy Eva Source would like to install 108 feet of conduit in a new manhole and in a belt road in a 145 feet in Roland Street to provide electric service to 56 Rowland Street Charlestown.

Is there anyone else here to speak on the item?

All right, seeing none, I declare the public hearing closed.

Any discussion?

All right, seeing none, that item is approved.

Item 3.6 is a granted location from EverSource to install a total of 181 feet of conduit and one new manhole in Taylor Street from Mystic Ave to a point of pickup at 9 to 15 Taylor Street.

And now declare the public hearing to be open.

Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duffy Eversource would like to install 181 feet of conduit in Taylor Street and one new manhole to provide electric service to 915 Taylor Street.

Okay.

Anyone else here to speak on the item?

All right, seeing none that uh declare the public hearing closed.

Is there any discussion?

All right, seeing none, that item is approved.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

And that, Mr.

President will bring us to the first item that we are taking out of order, which is item 10 point one.

Give me one moment.

A citation by Councillor Burnley, commending Somerville for Palestine for their pursuit of justice and civic engagement.

Sir Burnley.

Thank you through the chair.

Um elections.

We've all heard of them.

Um for the folks across around this horseshoe, including our newest member, Councillor Hart.

Um, you know, our livelihood, the work the work that we do, our public service is all based on the consent of the governed.

It's all based on the support that we've all received around this horseshoe um from our community from the voters of Somerville.

Uh and I've always believed that the way you pay that back is by honoring the work that people the people of this community put into Somerville to make it a better place, to make it live up to its highest values.

Um and there's a group that I would like to honor today who took that call and ran with it.

Um around this horseshoe um remember some pretty contentious conversations we had um in the wake of October 7th, 2023.

And the frustration, the fear, the tr the pain that was really palpable in our community.

And out of those feelings of pain and tragedy and righteous outrage, Summerville for Palestine came together and created an environment of joy of community and of civic engagement.

Um exactly.

Um they hosted meetings every single week with food from local restaurants, listened to music, danced, um, helped each other feel empowered through various trainings.

And when it came time to talk to their neighbors about what they believe in about justice and how Somerville can do more, they went out into this community and talked to tens of thousands of people.

Now, I may I have a bias towards this kind of work as someone who uh cut my teeth doing community organizing and um trying as hard as I can to hold government accountable.

Um but I because of that, I know how difficult it is to have these conversations day in and day out, to put yourself out there in the public and share your deeply personal and heartfelt beliefs.

And I think that in doing so, Summerville for Palestine has created a home for so many residents who turn on the news every single day and see the destruction in Gaza in the pain of family members who have been suddenly orphaned by rockets and shells and bulldozers.

Um created an environment of love out of that.

And I think for that, they should be honored by the community that they live in and that they care deeply about.

So I'm just gonna read the citation very quickly, and I'd like to sponsor a speaker who can take the citation on behalf of Somerville for Palestine.

Be hereby known to all that the Somerville City Council offers their sincerest commendations to Somerville for Palestine for their uncompromising pursuit of justice, tireless civic engagement, and steadfast solidarity with the Palestinian people locally and in the diaspora.

And I would like to sponsor Mia Hadid, Haddad, why did I say Hadid?

Hadad.

Hey, local resident, hey, local resident, local leader, and uh Palestinian American.

Councillor Burnley would like to sponsor Mia Haddad.

Any interjection?

See in nine, Ms.

Hadad.

Thank you.

So beautiful.

Good evening, and thank you, Counselor Burnley Jr.

for honoring the work of Summerville for Palestine in this way.

Thank you to the council for inviting me to accept the citation on behalf of Somerville for Palestine, and I'm glad a lot of folks are standing behind me because this was not just one person's effort.

So my name is Mia Haddad, and I am Palestinian.

I've lived in War II for over four years, and I'm a leader of Somerville for Palestine.

On election night, I went to poll watch and record the tallies of all the votes for question three.

The feeling of peace that I felt, getting to see those numbers for the first time, and finally knowing that without a doubt, my neighbors, my community, overwhelmingly agreed that we shouldn't be funding the genocide, apartheid, and occupation of my people, is a feeling that I tell you I will never forget.

And when myself and our Palestinian leaders stood on stage at the after party and looked out at the crowd of hundreds of people that I didn't know two years ago, uh, but now that I could name every single person there, every single neighbor, and all the important conversations that we've had.

For the first time in my life, I felt safe.

I felt seen and I felt heard as a Palestinian, that my community believes human rights should extend to me and people who look like me, that Palestine should not be the exception.

I know every Palestinian in Somerville felt the same that night.

Palestinians in this room and everywhere around the world have been shouting from the rooftops about apartheid occupation and ethnic cleansing since even before 1948.

Even as it is so dehumanizing and unbearable, Palestinians in Gaza have been filming their own suffering every day without fail for over two years and begging for us to speak up.

I'm gonna have to interrupt you.

Sorry?

I'm gonna have to interrupt you.

I apologize.

I had a conversation with Councilor Burnley uh this afternoon after a conversation with the law department.

We cannot have discussion about this item, which is about the citation and the civic engagement that bleeds into any discussion of the resolution.

I'm not talking about the resolution, I'm talking about Somerville for Palestine and my lived experience as a Palestinian in this community.

I listen to I was a Palestinian voice I'm talking about my experience and why Summerville is.

I want to make sure I'm talking about my experience and why Summerville for Palestine even exists.

So I would love to be able to continue to speak if possible.

Absolutely, I'll let you continue.

I just want to make sure that I'm I don't know if you had we would have a conversation with Councillor Burnley to make sure you're gonna say the legal requirements that we are under to allow this citation to go forward tonight.

Right, I think go ahead.

Okay, thank you.

Umerville for Palestine was born from each and every one of us opening up our phones every day to bear witness to human beings in Palestine being tortured, starved, and killed in gruesome ways by Israel, all funded by our own tax dollars.

There is something that happens to a person after watching a man carry the remains of his child in a plastic bag, or hearing the sound of children screaming in agony, undergoing surgery with no anesthesia after deliberate gunshot wounds to the head and the chest.

This is a kind of calling that isn't necessarily something to award with a citation.

It's a calling that is the bare minimum any of us witnessing genocide should be doing.

Somerville for Palestine is the most beautiful community that I have ever been a part of.

I've shared this community with close to 2,000 people who have collectively signed our letters calling for a ceasefire, calling for boycotting and divesting, and in solidarity as Jewish voices.

We have 100 plus people show up to our bi-weekly meetings every single time consistently to learn and to act for Palestinian liberation.

We have held powerful community events.

We've held powerful community events like ceasefire iftars, free Palestine story times, and our community encampment and intersectional teachings with other community groups.

We've had book club and we've brunched together.

We found collective movement as a form of joy and resistance with our jujitsu trainings and our traditional DEPK troop teaching us the importance of Palestinian dance.

We have over 300 people who've spent every night and weekend for the past seven months out on the streets of Somerville talking to our neighbors, sharing stories of Palestine, and making sure people exercise their right to vote for question three.

Now we know that over 11,400 Somerville neighbors truly support Palestinian liberation as well.

Sumerville for Palestine has taught me hope, shown me true humanity, and made me feel like Palestinian liberation is possible within my lifetime.

We share our skills, we teach each other, and we keep us safe.

As Palestinians, this is my identity and my struggle.

This is our identity and our struggle.

We can't walk away from that.

But others who have dedicated the last few years to making change from Palest for Palestine here in Somerville come to this from all walks of life, all intersections, and their steadfastness is a testament to our true Somerville values of caring deeply for others.

The people of Somerville for Palestine understand that the struggle for Palestinian liberation is an interconnected struggle that reverberates across all oppressed communities.

This is the purest form of grassroots organizing of community care and of solidarity building.

Though some of you might see question three or the work of Somerville for Palestine as something to wave off as trendy or divisive, the lived experiences of apartheid genocide and occupation are very real for us Palestinians.

They are woven in the fabric of our survival.

They are the reason I'm standing before you today, and the reason Somerville for Palestine even exists.

My family endured horror and violence and became refugees at the hands of Israel's occupation.

They attempted to return home many times, but settlers had taken their homes over.

They lost everything and everyone they had ever known, and they were the lucky ones.

Had they fled in another direction towards Gaza, like many of their neighbors, they would have been in Jabalia refugee camp with others from Jaffa, which today has been annihilated by Israel's bombs.

Bombs made by Lockheed Martin, bombs you and I and every Somerville pay for.

I would like to be able to continue.

I have I have more to say.

So this citation is for the my me and everyone here behind me's uncompromising pursuit of justice, tireless civic engagement, and steadfast solidarity with the Palestinian people.

So I'm standing up here to tell you about that.

If you can let me speak.

Okay, let's I'm gonna ask you to pause.

Um I don't know how much Councilor Burnley was able to share early today.

Um there is more that I would like to say.

I'm gonna ask you to pause.

Okay.

Um Madam Clerk, would you please read item 10.2?

Indeed, Mr.

President.

Item 10.2 is a resolution by Councillor Burnley in support of democratic divestment action regarding ballot question three.

Okay.

Um so I had a conversation with the law department this afternoon because this item was uh not submitted um in time for the regular agenda.

Um we have we are the council is subject to the Massachusetts open meeting law.

Uh the open meeting law says that uh an item that is uh that to be discussed, it has to be uh submitted um in time for the for the uh for the regular agenda.

That's 48 hours of uh business hours.

So because we had the holiday this week, the timing was a little different.

Um we can certainly take up this item, we can't take it up tonight.

Um there was a significant question as to whether it was appropriate to take up the citation.

I wanted to be able to do that.

The conditions under which we were able to do that is it is that the discussion is remains focused purely on the local organizing community.

I'll continue with that.

Can I continue?

It was motion uh it's just the reason I've paused a couple times is when is when we're getting into the topics that are also covered in the resolution.

This is our organization.

I understand.

All due respect, yeah.

Listen, I understand.

Okay.

No, this is not exclusive.

Please let me finish, okay?

We we are we are obligated to follow the open meeting law.

This body has already been cited once this year for a violation of the open meeting law.

We are not going to have that happen again.

I want you to be able to finish.

I'm I'm simply providing a reminder that we are required by law to keep the conversation away from the item that we can't discuss tonight that we'll have to pick up in the next slide.

I'm not talking about that.

So please, please continue.

If you'd like to.

The discussion, the discussion tonight cannot so it's gonna from counselors or from uh a sponsored speaker.

Like, do you have to scroll over speech?

For for the discussion, yes.

Because I'm under under the impression that open meeting is a good thing.

No, it's it's an excellent question.

It's an excellent question.

It's an excellent question.

It's it's one that I asked the uh city attorney's office today.

Um the city city attorney felt that it was questionable at best to allow the citation to move forward.

I really wanted to be able to do that and to give you the opportunity to speak.

So I'm trying to work within the bounds that they gave me to be to allow you to speak tonight, because I want you to I want to hear your voice, and I want you to be able to do that.

I also don't want to run a foul of the lawyers.

So I'm that's I'm just stepping in when the the topic goes to what what is also covered.

I understand there's there's very clear.

I hear you, I hear you, but you are literally silencing me from talking about my identity and my history as a Palestinian.

Which is my obligation as a president of this body.

Okay.

So please continue.

I'll continue.

I'm gonna continue because I would I would like to, and I think everybody in this room deserves to hear the work that Somerville for Palestine has put in because of everything that has happened in Israel and Palestine.

Okay?

If you can if you if the top if the first the topic of the citation, which is the community organization.

The work, the work Somerville for Palestine has been doing even before question three, but through question three is the purest form of democracy in solidarity with Palestine.

We have been engaging with our political system in Somerville for quite some time, holding meetings with each of you in this room, more recently trying to put a boycott resolution forward, before that to pass the ceasefire resolution, and in between to ask you to speak up about the violence that myself and other Palestinians, Muslims, and Arabs in this city have endured just for speaking out about Palestine.

We have met with our mayor and called on you all to uphold our Somerville values many, many times.

While I'm really proud of the incredible efforts that Somerville for Palestine has made, we shouldn't have been made to spend so many exhausting months and fight two legal challenges to do this.

I'm disappointed that we have been met with avoidance and inaction by many of you at every step along the way, even as our democracy faces challenges nationally, even in the same week that a member of our own community, Rumesa Osterk, was kidnapped for asking for divestment for Palestine.

Even right now, as you try to silence me for talking about Palestine, as we are getting a citation for our work in Somerville about Palestine.

Okay.

So we decided to engage in this democratic process as we should, to let people show you how much support this call for divestment really has, in the hopes that it would give you the people who represent us the confidence and the strength to push this boycott and divestment forward, the way that Somerville did in 2020 for prison labor and in the 80s for South African apartheid.

Through the language of question three, our community chose to center Palestine.

We spent months drafting this language, working with our Palestinian leaders, our Swana leaders, our Jewish caucus, our BDS leaders, lawyers elected, including many of you to craft the ballot measure language in a way that was extremely intentional, precise, and directly aligns with what we as Palestinians have called for in the movement of justice for Palestine.

We did not mince words or compromise in making clear that Israel is the perpetrator of apartheid, a genocide and illegal occupation, and that Palestinians are the victims of these crimes.

When we met with you over the fall and winter of last year, many of you shied away from these words, calling them some of you calling them divisive, some of you saying it was unrealistic, or maybe that a humanitarian approach would be best.

We had over 11,000 conversations in Somerville with residents over the last seven months.

Overwhelmingly, the people of Somerville affirm that companies complicit in Israel's crimes should be held accountable.

Moreover, I really really want to make clear to each of you today that Somerville voters were faced with the very words apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation.

And they saw them in reference to companies complicit to supporting Israel as the perpetrator and Palestine as the victim.

And each of those eleven thousand four hundred and eighty-nine voters overwhelmingly said a resounding yes to divest across all wards and in all but one precinct.

I hope you understand that this is the first time language around divestment has been this uncompromising, this unapologetic and so in its solidarity with Palestinians, and people still agreed.

And now you all know this to be true because Somerville proved it to you.

As a Palestinian, I can tell you that to pass any policy that doesn't explicitly name Palestine as an oppressed group and doesn't name Israel as an entity which is responsible for genocide apartheid and occupation of Palestine, doesn't protect Palestinians, and erases the struggle we as Palestinians have endured for decades.

And every Somerville community member who read our question and supports this language so holy as it is.

When we name this genocide so specifically and take action against it, we make it ever so clear that what Israel is doing is wrong, and we ensure that our communities across the country and around the world feel empowered and emboldened to speak out for Palestine.

Anything less is silent condoning, anything less is a racer.

And no, that Somerville for Palestine will continue to exist here in Somerville as long as Palestine is not free.

We will continue to stand out at the high school daily as we have been the way we've been doing for a over a year and a half.

We'll continue to show up for Palestine every day in every space in our community.

And while we really don't want to have to keep doing this, we will continue to come to this room to make our voices heard as people do in a democracy.

And myself and other Palestinians in Somerville can rest in the knowledge that there is no one else in Somerville to hold accountable.

No one else to pressure and get constituents to call, because our city has fully divested.

Moving forward, all you really have to do is your job and represent your constituents who voted overwhelmingly to divest from Israel's apartheid genocide and illegal occupation of Palestine.

Thank you.

Thank you.

But five minute recess for a photo.

Usually you do it this way.

Let's see who wants to be in it.

All right, let's call this meeting back to order.

Um quick update on the uh the items we're gonna take out of order.

Um counselors.

Um we're gonna do seven twelve next, as I said, we're gonna push eight dot four to the end of the out of order items so we'll do seven dot twelve, then the finance committee report.

And then the corresponding items that are seven dot three is dot seven dot four, because I understand the mayor is um uh wishing to speak on those items.

So uh next item will be uh seven dot two.

I see no objection, uh out of order.

Item seven dot twelve is a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept the in-kind donation of two canine animals to the police department for the purpose of providing support to victims and serving as an investigative resource.

Sorry, could you could just introduce yourself for the record too, just so clear and get it.

I yes, uh Chair, good evening.

Uh my name's Sergeant Devin Schneider.

Uh I supervise the family service unit in Somerville Police Department.

Um and I said we uh just uh brought this uh comfort canine here kind of as a uh demonstration.

Um as I said, my name is Devin Schneider.

I uh supervise the family services depart uh unit, the Somerville Police Department.

Our unit investigates some of the most sensitive and complex cases in our community, including sexual assaults, child abuse, domestic violence, elder abuse, internet crimes against children, and hate crimes.

Uh tonight I'm here to present a proposal for establishing a dual purpose canine program, one that serves both our victim support mission and our operational needs.

Due to the sensitive nature of our investigations, we frequently meet with survivors of deeply personal and traumatic crimes.

These cases often involve individuals who have endured sexual violence, child abuse, or domestic assault, crimes that leave lasting emotional scars.

Whether the interviews conducted by a police detective or by a certified forensic interviewer, survivors are often asked to recount the most painful and intimate details of their experiences.

This process can be emotionally overwhelming as it forces them to relive some of the worst moments of their lives.

Our goal is always to create an environment that feels safe and supportive as possible, allowing survivors to share their stories without additional trauma.

A comfort canine can play a crucial role in helping to achieve that.

We plan to acquire two canines as part of this initiative.

The first would be a general purpose community comfort dog that would be assigned to our community affairs unit to help support victims, strengthen our community engagement.

Uh this dog would be acquired through Pups for Heroes, which is a nonprofit organization that matches rescue dogs with veterans and law enforcement agencies.

This dog would serve uh same purpose as Cashin here.

Uh and the second canine would be a dual-trained canine through the National Computer Forensics Institute, NCFI, capable of both providing emotional comfort and detecting electronic storage devices.

This canine would be assigned to the family services unit where we'll assist in investigating uh investigations involving child exploitation and other digital crimes.

The NCFI canine would be specially trained to provide emotional support to victims of traumatic crimes during interviews and to detect the odor of electronic devices.

This dual purpose training is critical to our mission of protecting children from online exploitation.

The dog specialized electronic detection capabilities will significantly enhance our ability to locate hidden devices containing evidence in cases such as child sexual abuse materials, commonly referred to as CSAM.

CSAM refers to any visual depiction such as a photo, video, uh digital image or computer generated file that shows the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child.

The term CSAM is now preferred over child pornography because it more accurately reflects that this material documents a crime of victimization, not consensual and not pornographic content.

We've already seen the value of these uh dogs in action in previous investigations involving CSAM.

We've utilized the Massachusetts State Police Electronic Detection Canine Griffin.

Successfully located hidden electronic devices that human that human investigators had overlooked.

Having our own trained canine would allow us to bring that same capability to Somerville, enhancing our ability to protect children, while also providing trauma-informed support for victims during the most difficult moments of their recovery and participation in the justice process.

One of the most severe child sexual assault cases I've ever handled.

We introduced dogs during our interactions to support the survivor.

The presence of these dogs helped to ease anxiety enough for the survivor to share the details of assault, something that is often too traumatic for child victims to do.

Many child rape cases never proceed to trial because of the emotional toll on the victim.

But in this instance, we were able to move forward.

When the trial began, I arranged Brownie, which was a comfort canine from the Tuxbury Police Department, to be present in the court on the day the survivor testified.

The survivor's ability to testify ultimately resulted in the conviction of her abuser.

I strongly believe this case would not have progressed without the emotional support provided by Brownie and the other dogs involved in this case.

Electronic storage detection canines are trained to identify the odor of a chemical compound known as TPPO, which is found in nearly all electronic devices.

This ability allows them to locate hidden phones, hard drives, cameras, memory cards, and other devices, which often contain critical digital evidence.

Finally, beyond investigations, our proposed canine program will strengthen community engagement and trust.

Canine teams open the door to positive interactions such as public safety demonstrations and community events, helping to humanize law enforcement build lasting relationships with the residents we serve.

Thank you.

Any questions, any discussion?

Counselor Scott.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh I'm reading through the materials.

It appears there is no uh terms and conditions on this grant.

There's no memor uh memorandum of understanding that would require Somerville to comply with other uh federal requirements here.

So uh with that said, seems good.

Thank you, sir.

Anyone else?

Council Stressman?

Thank you.

I uh through you, Mr.

President to uh Sergeant.

You're a sergeant now.

Yes.

Yeah, I knew it.

I have when you up rank, I have to put in my brain.

To our sergeant, thank you for your work on this.

I know that this has been something that you have wanted to do for quite some time, and um positively impact our community.

And it has not gone unnoticed.

So thank you.

I can answer uh counselor Scott's question about the uh requirements for the uh NCFI dog.

There is no memorandum of understanding.

The dog is provided by um the NCFI.

Uh they provide all the training, they provide the funding for the training.

It's two weeks of training, and um they they have no memorandum understanding that expect us to use our own discretion and how we will use the dog.

There's no requirement uh for us to participate in any kind of federal operations.

I don't know what the very questionable tactics that are being employed right now to uh induce a yes vote on this.

Completely at our discretion.

Counselor Klingon.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, I was just note for for the the um dog is going around the chamber and saying hi to all of the counselors.

Those are the questionable tactics to which I was referring.

Through you, Mr.

President.

Yeah, I was just mentioning to the officers a little while ago, like in the subcommittee room that um Tooksbury had has Officer Waffles, who's a doodle, and they uh actually just added a second dog, Office of Pancake.

And so, and they're both like super adorable.

So I don't know what if we get a pick of the type of dog that that comes or or but I am definitely preferential, the doodles and definitely breakfast foods.

No, but seriously, um I think it's great.

I think I see the work.

I that you know, I follow Officer Waffles on social media, and uh he's serious about his job.

And uh so I I appreciate this and uh look forward to to uh having a canine hanging around.

Counselor Wilson.

They're good dogs, Mr.

President.

All right.

Seeing no further discussion, that item is approved.

We don't need a role call for a dogs, do we?

We don't.

No, all right, very good.

Thank you very much, officer.

Sorry to that then is going to bring us to the next item being taken out of order, which is item 6A, a report of the committee on finance, a meeting on November 10th, 2025.

Counselor Wilson.

Mr.

President, uh the finance committee met on Monday, November 10th, with all five members present.

We took up a seven-item agenda over a the course of a 55-minute meeting.

Uh in addition to the minutes from our October 21st meeting, we unanimously recommended that you approve tonight a prior invoice item, two grant acceptances, the creation of a housing assistance stabilization fund in order to be prepared as this administration and the next administration uh pursue funding for housing stability.

Uh finally, we discharged with no recommendation, a request by the administration to create a generalized community benefits stabilization fund to support larger, more general projects.

The committee heard this was done to bring us into compliance with the community benefits ordinance, and that funds earmarked for specific areas are going to remain in those separate accounts.

Uh, there were questions from Councillor Scott and from me about a spreadsheet we were shown of Union Square Community Benefits Fund amounts received and expended.

Uh Director Ignacio of OSPCD uh had agreed to provide updated figures, and that was shared with the committee last night.

Uh so with that I ask that you approve this committee report as submitted.

All right, thank you.

Any discussion on the report?

All right.

Uh seeing none, that is approved.

And then there are two related items that uh we will take up together or separately.

So there's a couple of items coming out of that committee report.

Oh, out of the committee report first.

Very well, yes.

Thank you, Madam Clack.

Let's do that.

Item 25-1560, which was discharged with no recommendation, which is a request of the mayor requesting approval to create the community benefits stabilization fund and accept a payment to the fund of three million nine hundred and forty-six thousand seven hundred and forty-two dollars and ninety-eight cents from the community benefit contributions outlined in project development covenants.

On the item, Councilor Scott.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

And um I I also want to thank Director Uh Ansio for getting this updated sheet to make sure that uh all the all the comings and goings of the money is public and understood.

Uh my objection at the time was mostly just trying to understand what this request was actually requesting.

So for members at home that might be uh concerned or confused.

Um basically the city missed a step uh years ago in not creating a separate bucket to store uh the covenant uh required payments for various developments, whether uh they were at 100 chestnut, 495 uh Columbia 808 winds are geez, they're all in board two.

Anyway, we ought to just call it the Ward II Community Benefits Fund, sir.

Uh but that said, uh the real concern uh that the Union Square Neighborhood Council has expressed is uh making sure that the benefit payments uh that were obtained through that CBA process uh continue to flow to get uh to the job training and uh small business support that that it's dedicated for.

So right now, this looks like a lot of money being transferred out.

It is mostly a bookkeeping resolution.

Uh however, it will leave the Union Square community funds balance at less than $10,000.

So uh just want to make sure everybody understands.

I thank the administration for bringing the rest of the information, and uh I would move to recommend approval.

Any further discussion?

All right, I was uh roll call on that one.

On the item, counselor Hart.

Yes, Counselor Wilson.

Yes, Councilor Ewan Campin.

Yes, Counselor Scott, yes, Counselor McLaughlin.

Counselor Burnley, I counselor Said, yes, Counselor Strezzo, yes, Counselor Klingon, yes, Counselor Mbaugh, yes, Counselor Davis, yes, with 10 counselors in favor, none opposed, and one absent.

That item is approved.

And the next item from the committee report is item 25-1599, requesting approval to create a housing assistance stabilization fund under the provisions of MGL chapter 40, section 5B.

Any discussion on that item?

All right, seeing none, call the roll.

On the item, counselor Hart.

Yes, Councilor Wilson, yes, Councilor Ewan Campen.

Yes, Counselor Scott, yes, Counselor McLaughlin, Councilor Burnley, aye, Counselor Said.

Yes, Counselor Strezzo, yes, Counselor Klingon, yes, Counselor Mbaugh, yes, Counselor Davis, yes, with 10 counselors in favor, none opposed, and one absent.

That item is approved.

And then, Mr.

President, those two related items that you referred to are those items 7.2.

7.3, which is a request of the mayor requesting approval to appropriate $875,000 from the community benefit stabilization fund for food security initiatives.

Thank you, Mr.

President and Honorable Council.

Thank you for having me.

I come before you.

Oh, I should.

Oh, I wanted to if I may, uh Mr.

I want to welcome her in the best seat right away.

Pardon?

We put her in the best seat right here.

Yes, yes, yes.

Want to welcome you to your very first city council meeting, certainly as my ward counselor, and congratulate you.

So I come before you this evening to request your support for a critical investment in our community's well-being.

An appropriation of $975,000 for the community benefit from the community benefit stabilization fund to address rising food insecurity and the needs across the city of Somerville.

Uh I'm gonna just tell a little story.

Um investing in food and food security has been a top priority of my administration.

Um I think as many of you know, my parents lived through World War II and youth and young adults in World War II.

I'll share a story about my mother.

Um it was not uncommon to hear her say, and honestly, she told me the story when I was in my 30s, that she could go three to seven days, sometimes ten days without food.

Um, and recovering after uh World War II.

I can there was like a um for people workers who were rebuilding.

She says, I I'm the one that hands out the food.

I can wipe the scrape the scraps off the plate and put them in what they would do is paper, put them in paper and roll it up, and she would give it to her at the end of the week.

And what my mom did was put it through a food grinder to make patties.

Needless to say, we had lots of, she lived until she was 93, had stage four ovarian cancer.

I always, it's a joke now, but that what she could have contracted, you know, in that, but built her system to uh her body to be very strong.

And she lived until she was 93.

Um, but it was the community that stepped in.

It was a neighbor who stepped in.

The need we face here in Somerville is both immediate and growing.

Even before the federal shutdown, the impending changes to SNAP benefits and prior cuts to federal food grants were already impacting people facing food insecurity and agencies who work to fight it.

Somerville Cambridge Elder Services has lost federal funding that enables seniors to access community meals.

Changes to SNAP eligibility criteria will leave more families without the supports they once relied upon.

The end of ARPA funding impacted programs our community came to rely on.

These are not just abstract policies and funding changes.

They represent real hardships for real people in our community.

And playing political football with SNAP, a program that helps keep food on the table for one in eight Americans, but in Massachusetts, it's one in three, has deeply uh has only deepened through this crisis.

The programs we're requesting your support to invest in today span the full spectrum of food access, carrot cards, and our school food market initiatives, ensure that families and students have greater access to resources they need.

Supporting community meals, frozen meals, and a restaurant meal voucher program, ensure that those who cannot easily prepare their own meals still have access to nourishment.

Will store the critical transportation link that connects older adults to hot meals and community connection at our senior centers, and $500,000 of the appropriation would go directly to organizations doing daily essential work of feeding our community.

You know, that's the neighbor.

It's the community member, it's the person who saw my mom, but it's we see our residents here.

Would you stand if you're represented here?

The Somerville Homeless Coalition, Shepard's Kitchen, Elizabeth Peabody House, Food for All, Connection, Food for Free, The Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church, family table, and Somerville Cambridge Elder Services, get needed food to our neighbors when there's nowhere else to turn.

Thank you.

They build community around tables.

They see the faces of food insecurity and respond with compassion and commitment.

Their work is nothing short of heroic, and this investment, which I'm asking you to improve, reflects our commitment to standing beside them.

This funding will give them these organizations, our residents, our neighbors, the vital flexibility to use these funds as they know is most needed.

And it lets them know we have their back.

I'm going to ask you guys to stand too.

The Office of Food Access, Healthy Communities, and our Council on Aging.

Director Carroll and her team have worked tirelessly to identify gaps, coordinate responses, and ensure that every dollar reaches those who need it most.

Their expertise and compassion make these programs possible, and your support ensures this is possible.

This council has consistently demonstrated its commitment to food security through support of my administration's request and your own proposals for it.

Your leadership has ensured that Somerville responds to food insecurity, not as an afterthought, but as a priority.

Thank you for your dedication and for your continued support of our most vulnerable neighbors.

Together, we have already delivered more than $850,000 in food security related investments just in this fiscal year.

My administration has been growing that amount each year.

That covers everything from mobile markets and universal snap match programs to all three farmers market, the free markets at the schools, to food access coordinator, and hundreds of grocery cards to support our most vulnerable families during the holiday season.

Over the last few years, we've also directed more than two and a half million dollars in ARPA funds to programs directly providing food to our residents in need, including weekend carrot cards, just eats boxes, taxi to food programs, and significant funding for our local food pantries.

We've been growing our investment to address this most basic need as well through other initiatives.

We should be proud that when we ask the community to decide what to do with participatory budgeting funds, they voted to direct nearly $300,000 to food supports, like community fridges, a shared walk-in fridge, a freezer, as well as meals and nutritious foods to put in them.

Tonight's request builds on that foundation.

We're asking for $875,000 for food security initiatives and $100,000 for the senior taxis program.

These investments will provide staple foods, community meals, grocery cards, and ready-to-eat foods for high-risk populations, as well as those struggling to make ends meet, our public school students, home homebound individuals, those with limited kitchen access, food pantry users, SNAP clients, and older adults, and workers whose dollars just don't stretch far enough.

This is about more than meals.

It's about affirming that in Somerville we take care of each other.

It's about ensuring that no senior goes hungry when they can't get to a meal site.

It's about recognizing that when the federal safety net phrase, our local commitment must be stronger than ever.

I urge you to support this appropriation.

Together, we can thrive and strive to ensure that every Smervillion has access to the nutrition they need and deserve.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Director Carroll.

Let me ask is this Madam, should we apply your statements to uh both the um food security initiatives and the senior taxi program?

Yes.

Okay.

So uh Madam Clerk, could you please read 7-4 into the record just so we can take those up together?

Thank you.

Of course, Mr.

President.

Item 7.4 is a request of the mayor requesting approval to appropriate 100,000 from the community benefits stabilization fund to support the senior taxi program.

Okay.

Director Carroll, go ahead.

Thank you through the president, and thank you to the members of the council for having us.

Um I'm just going to read through the memo, and if there's questions after we can answer those.

Funds are being appropriated from the community or being requested from the community benefits stabilization account, as is appropriated based on the following.

This is to support the food security initiatives under the Office of Food Access and Healthy Communities, which are here tonight.

Food security initiatives.

With this funding, we will be able to support the food access gaps by supporting organizations that provide food security services to people experiencing food instability.

This includes staple foods, community meals, grocery cards, ready-to-eat foods for high-risk populations, including but not limited to Somerville Public School students, homeboys, and people with limited kitchen access, food pantry users, SNAP clients, and other adults.

So if there are questions, I'm happy to take them.

We're the team on this item.

And then we can go to the other council.

Thank you, uh Mr.

President.

If I may, I'm going to speak on both of the agenda items because they were combined together.

That's all right.

So we have 7.37.4.

Did you would you like to take up your related item at the same time or you want to wait until that comes around?

I can wait for it.

It makes sense, but we're already here, so let's just keep on driving.

Um thank you.

Uh through you to uh Director Carroll, but uh also Madam Mayor, I want to thank you very much for uh investing in in this crisis of food insecurity for being responsive, moving fast, and taking this extraordinarily seriously.

I look out out and the chamber audience and see all our directors, but see very few audience members here now.

And I can't help but wonder.

Imagine if we took food insecurity as seriously.

And I want to say that I remember when Madam Mayor, it was your first term when the senior taxi cab program, it was a it was started as a COVID response pilot program one year, and it evaporated.

And it it was a it was through the you're giving me a look at Madam Mayor.

The the it was evaporated through the state.

The state funding went away.

And seniors were saying how helpful this was in Somerville.

And Madam Mayor, you you took it up and you uh allocated the money.

That was the first year.

You didn't have to, but we were able to preserve the senior taxi cap program and our and make it our own in Somerville because of that.

And it it absolutely changes lives.

Going forward, I do worry about um the stability of funding because I feel like it's going to get worse.

And I feel like we have to get really creative with solutions, meaning that we're going to have to call on our Somerville residents, um, perhaps fill the chamber of um standing against food insecurity and doing everything we can to solve hunger, if that is a priority in our community.

We're going to really have to pull together as community members and including finding ways to get our neighbors who are homebound and unable to access a food pantry to an actual um to food.

But I I really appreciate the the work that you're doing with us and the um the money you're putting forward for this.

So thank you and thank you for stepping up, taking this seriously, moving quick.

That's it.

Thank you.

Counselor Klingon.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, happy to support this this evening.

Um I think this is a really um great way to use these funds.

Um it actually gets me thinking sort of about the community benefits uh um ordinance that we put into effect a few years ago and how you know some of us struggled with actually Councillor Scott sort of brought up where you know, well, if we have this general fund, does that water down like you know, certain areas that used to be pre uh, you know, uh the the money was accessible based on where the project was.

Um I don't know if we'd be able to appropriate this money to this particular issue if if that was the case, if we if it was sort of had to be tied to a certain uh area or project.

So I think this fund is uh is a great uh is a great idea uh by the mayor's team and um you know this is a a good use of this money.

Um as somebody who grew up you know eating welfare cheese and borrowing eggs and milk from next door neighbors.

Um, you know, I know what it's like to be on that type of assistance and when with with what's happening right now and the the stoppage of all of those funds.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh there discussion, Councilor Scott.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

I just want to applaud the administration uh on this effort to put this money into play quickly.

I understand uh there again, as you said, some communities may say, well, it's playing a little fast and loose, but right now there is incredible need, and that need is not one that can wait.

So I really appreciate this action.

Uh and I would just say there is uh as as our safety net continues to collapse, uh there are more programs that need urgent backstopping.

Uh and it's my hope that before the end of the year we will see some cross administration uh collaboration to ensure the continued functioning of, for example, Head Start, which uh supports 120 kids and families in our city.

So appreciate this action.

It gives me hope for the future and uh and makes me proud of our local government.

Thank you, sir.

I saw Councillor Um Ba and then Council Wilson.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just want to thank the administration and the mayor and the director also for the sweet action that you've taken to actually, you know, step in and substantiate like most of the gaps that have been created.

I guess one of the things when I ran to Councillor Scott was to actually ask him about also I was still unclear about the community benefit stabilization fund because of all these different uh groups that been we've actually authorized them to be doing stuff.

And I wanted to make sure that certain money wasn't year marked for some of their projects, because I also think about the post-secondary education program.

That is that's something that I would you know will re require as the mayor maybe plead that you should actually you know look into t taking some funds from that program to kind of like in uh substantiate that is a program that just got ended because it was being funded from APA.

So this is a program that actually helps, you know, like kids from the high school that can navigate the college process, you know, they are from like marginalized communities and that program is ended, it's helped like a hundred kids.

So every year for the past three years, they have 30 kids every year.

So but now it's just vanished.

I just think that you know, this is the the kind of you know, valuable use of funds that we can actually tap into and continue to kind of like help our community members.

So thank you.

Okay, uh thank you.

Counselor Wilson.

Yeah, Mr.

President, I want to thank the administration for bringing this forward.

I want to thank our our city staff and and our community partners for all the work they're doing on this.

Um I want to highlight something that the mayor mentioned in her remarks, which is if you're sitting there thinking, well, wait, didn't we just solve the the isn't the f the federal shutdown over?

Isn't the snap thing?

This is not about uh the SNAP situation.

This is about a situation that existed prior to that.

Uh that if you've if you've seen out there on social media perhaps the the efforts to raise funds uh to replace some of the the efforts through our schools to get food into into families' hands.

Uh this was a dire situation before the government shut down.

That made it that much worse.

So do not think for a second that just because SNAP is is back and and those cards have money on them again that this situation is solved.

Uh there are serious problems beyond that.

Thanks.

Okay.

Councilor Said, and then go back to Councillor Speaker.

Thank you.

Um, Mr.

President, I would like to thank uh the administration uh for this um action for acting fast and stepping up uh to make sure no neighbor goes hungry.

Um and thank you, city staff, all community uh partners.

And um, yeah, especially right now as our federal government is abandoning our most vulnerable neighbors.

Thank you.

Council Schaefer.

Thank you, Mr.

Baker.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Since we do have the directors here after this, can we m uh read the agenda items that I put forward on food insecurity as well, like after this.

Councillor uh Councillor Clayton.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Three, just a quick question.

I um I meant to ask a question at the end of what I said, which was if you could just give a maybe it's in the memo I didn't see, but if how are you dispersing those funds in terms of the different organizations?

Like Elizabeth People House, how much you know, if you just briefly describe that, what your thought process was and that's the question.

Yeah.

Thank you for the question.

And through the president, um these are the details we are working through right now.

The OFEC team, as I said, they have a monthly food coalition, so it's it's not like we're starting from ground zero in determining these needs.

They're working closely year-round uh with our partner agencies and um have you know understand where some of the gaps are to begin with.

So we will continue to work with them and refine both the gaps and the needs and um try to just make distributions based on what our partner agencies are telling us they need.

So we're working with them closely right now, and we'll come back to you with finalized plans and um agreements.

That's great.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Yeah, I trust all the community partners in the room that um you know they they are closest to the people who are the most in need.

So um that's all that really matters.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um so seeing no further discussion, we need a roll call vote on these two items, we can do that together.

Um at Council Schroeder's request, unless there's an objection, uh, we can then take up uh four dot four, four dot six, and perhaps four dot eight, uh Council Said.

Um we can stay on the same topic and and uh then move along from that.

So very well.

Um so on the two items before us, madam clerk.

Yes, on items 7.3 and 7.4 appropriating $875,000 from the community benefits stabilization fund for food security initiatives, and 100,000 from the community benefits stabilization fund to support the senior taxi program.

Counselor Hart, yes, Councilor Wilson, yes.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Yes, Councilor Scott, yes counselor McLaughlin, Councilor Burnley.

I Counselor Said.

Yes, Councilor Streso, yes, Councilor Klingon.

Yes, Councilor Mboss.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With 10 counselors in favor, none opposed, and one absent, those items are approved.

All right, very well.

So we'll go to we'll do 4.4, 4.6, and what did I say, 4.8 together, then we'll hit 8.4.

And Counselor Burnley, do I understand there's some folks here on to speak on 9.5 you'd like to sponsor?

Okay, so we'll we'll take that one up right afterwards, just so we can um not make not make folks wait.

Okay.

So that will bring us to item 4.4, a resolution by counselor Strezzo that the administration immediately assign a direct phone number connecting to a city liaison who is designated to answer questions from residents about food insecurity and SNAP benefit support.

Item 4.6 is a resolution by Councilor Streso.

That the administration take any available steps, including communication strategies such as robocalls, texting, and electronic road signs to reach out to residents about food insecurity due to the increase of poverty in Somerville.

And item 4.8 is a resolution by Councillor Say in support of direct assistance for SNAP recipients.

Councilor Shows.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Okay.

So it holds hey, direct everyone.

If I may, if that's okay.

Everyone?

If if we may, I think the the uh the hope was with everyone here in the room we could take up these related items.

Uh if we're we're still talking about food, if we'll be willing to say answer any possible questions.

Thank you.

Sure.

Thank you, thank you.

Duty partners as well.

Thank you, Mr.

Uh President.

Okay, so um I I really wanted to highlight 4.6 that the administration take uh available steps of communication strategies.

Uh Madam Mayor, Mayor Mayor, no?

Madam Mayor.

Uh through you thank you.

We we're taking up three items that are directly related to the two appropriations that we just made in hopes that with uh yourself and the director here in the room, we might be able to uh answer questions on those items.

If you'd be willing to stay, that'd be great.

No, yep.

Okay, thank you.

So one thing that uh I have been worrying about this is mainly focused on 4.6 that uh getting the information out of uh two residents that are food food insecure, some are homebound, some may not have a lot of resources, and the idea of just getting it out there with robocalls if possible.

We know we do that with the ward meetings or any uh available situations that are happening in our city.

Uh Mr.

President, through you to Director Carroll.

And just an idea if if we can possibly use that for for the even just for the signs occasionally or different strategies to really make sure that residents loud and clear understand that if they are facing insecure food insecurity, they have numerous options to choose from.

I uh I know that we have 311 and I have heard of some residents calling 311.

I hear not that many, which gives me a little hope.

But at the same time, we don't know, and and maybe just people don't know what resources are available or where to go.

A lot of people that from what I'm hearing are experiencing food insecurity uh sometime for the first time, and uh just this is devastating.

And I don't know what we're about to face coming in the months ahead and the years ahead.

So we have to get as creative as we can.

That's all.

Thank you.

Dr.

Carroll, other communication strategies or resources we might be able to talk.

I I'm happy to answer through through the president.

Thank you for the question.

Uh this is something we spend a lot of time thinking about, and especially recently.

Um we are certainly so first of all, there's a number of mechanisms.

I'll run through them, and if you have questions, the team is here for seniors.

Again, 311 is a good starting point for anyone.

Um 311 is going to route calls to our OFAC office who will connect folks to services uh or to the council on aging, who if it's in regular business hours, they will pick up the phone and make the connection and organize for food to be delivered.

If it is after hours, we are consistently directing those seniors to the um project.

Um Ashley can tell me project uh just a moment.

The project bread hotline after hours number.

So they have a hotline and they take those calls on after hours.

So both um Somerville Cambridge Elder Services and ourselves are kind of consistently messaging that so people know where to call after hours.

Um we have the monthly again, the monthly coalition meeting, and it's kind of like some of our other uh group interdisciplinary meetings that are really involving the folks on the ground and the partner agencies.

So they are reaching their target uh populations.

Um they they were working with folks every day, they know how to reach them.

Um we our comms team is assisting with translation and uh consistent messaging, compiling resources, um, and exploring things like the reverse 311 mobile calls, um, keeping websites and Facebook pages updated, all of those things.

So it's a multi like with any of our you know strategies, it's an ongoing multifaceted approach to communicating out to um sometimes populations that are difficult to reach, but this group is uh the best has the best connection there.

So we rely heavily on that.

Um go ahead.

Yeah, Mr.

President, through you to Director Carroll, thank you for that.

Um really quick.

Uh I was trying to fumble with my phone while we have this on topic.

Does anybody have the number to project uh bread right now that we could just say live in the I know with all these master brains?

I know one of you has a like on Project Bread Hotline.

Yeah, just while we're here, in case anyone right here is you're gonna find it faster than I am Madam Clark.

Thank you, Mr.

Council Nijing.

Ashley.

The project bread food source hotline can be reached at 1 800 6453.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

All right.

That's all right.

And thank you.

Did you want to since we have uh item four at eight before us too?

Do you want to uh add anything?

I'm happy to give you the floor.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh I put in this resolution, I think about two weeks ago.

So we haven't received the updates from the state at the state level or from the administration.

So I'm very pleased to see again that the administration is stepping up and the city staff are um putting in the hours to make sure again no neighbors going hungry.

Um yeah, this resolution is to uh encourage our um yeah, the uh that we do something at the state level, not just putting in money uh the lot we have received a lot of updates, but ensuring that this is a priority, and um always thinking about not relying on the federal government when it comes to the most basic thing, which is having food on the table.

Um so yeah, that's basically what the resolution says.

Um I think uh the mayor's staff for um getting back to me and um with all the different ways you have been working the past uh week and a half yeah to make sure we meet uh our neighborhood's needs.

Thank you.

Um through the president, I wanted to add that as of about uh last month or so, the city now has uh eight to ten SNAP providers um who are able to enroll people in SNAP, and they're in our council on aging, our human services team, the library, and that's a relatively new thing to have so many folks able to enroll.

So that is part of our outreach.

That is our you know, part of the long-term sustainable plan is that if we can get people enrolled in benefits that they're entitled to, then they will have continual access, hopefully, um on an ongoing basis.

So uh we're working really hard on that program and expanding the number of folks in the city who can enroll people.

I'll send Councillor Klingon.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Uh, through you, just a quick question.

So earlier this week, the governor said that she was gonna quickly address try to fill the the SNAP gap as it were.

Um have you uh have they been in touch with municipalities at this point?

Is it too soon, or have you been in contact with the at the state level with how that money is going to reach our people is that through DTA or whatever?

Like is that they not communicate with you?

They do.

I mean, we the through the Department of Public Health at the state, we get a bulletins and updates at a very general level when things are happening.

I think other city staff probably are hearing uh different things as well.

Um we just we do know that benefits were restored onto cards as of last week for residents at their full amount.

Um so other than that, I'm not sure you know the specifics of it, but we certainly do get regular updates through as things are changing at the state and through the federals government.

Okay, thank you.

Further discussion?

All right, thank you very much, Director.

Thank you.

All right.

That takes us to oh, yes, all three of those will be marked approved.

Okay.

Uh that'll take us to eight dot four.

That's correct, Mr.

President.

Item 8.4 is an officer's communication from the director of housing conveying the 2024 housing needs assessment and financial feasibility analysis reports.

We have is it director Gagani?

Director Gagani, are you uh speaking on this one?

No.

Who do we have from the administration to speak on this one?

Uh we have a consultant who's gonna give a presentation this evening.

Very well.

Good evening, everyone.

One moment, let's uh get uh we want to uh give the clerk a chance to get the presentation up so everyone can benefit from it.

My apologies.

Tom told me to talk, so I talked.

Good to go.

All right.

Very good.

Uh please introduce yourself for the record and then uh take it away.

Sounds great.

My name is Kyle Talante.

I am the president of RKG Associates.

We're an economic development real estate planning consultancy.

Office is here in Boston and in Washington, D.C.

Uh I want to thank you all for the opportunity to be here tonight.

Uh I am going to do my best to be as brief as possible and cover this very comprehensive process.

Uh study that we just did.

Um, I don't know.

Am I controlling it or do I have to tell someone to flip the slides?

Okay.

All right.

Next, please.

So I just kind of want to talk to you.

We did two kind of studies.

One was a housing needs analysis.

We updated the housing needs analysis that was done about four years ago.

Okay.

Is that better?

Okay.

Sorry about that.

Not being loud enough is something I've never been accused of before, so thank you very much.

Um we did kind of two studies.

One was updating the housing needs analysis, and then we did a financial feasibility study to understand um in particular the the housing inclusionary zoning policy, but we looked at a number of of things.

And so I'm gonna start talking a little bit about the what we learned from the housing needs assessment.

Um first thing, and these are just high-level stuff.

Hopefully, you've all read the entire report.

I know it's been shared with you, so you're probably all familiar with this stuff.

But um, one of the things we learn is uh much of your um income controlled housing is located east central umerville.

That's not necessarily a good or bad thing.

We're gonna talk a little bit about the analysis that we did looking at different areas of the city and why that could be part of a challenge.

But there are other things that we've learned.

Um several existing of your existing restrictions on projects are coming due.

And so one of the things we learned through this process from our housing needs is preservation of existing affordability is going to be equally as important as the delivery of new affordable housing.

And um the conversion of condos to uh uh from apartments and luxury developments is really putting a strain on the availability of price appropriate housing, particularly at lower income levels.

Next, please.

Um that imbalance has been uh uh continuing as demand continues to outpace supply.

I want to be very clear, this is not an issue unique to Somerville, it's the entire Boston metro area, but the reality is there's more demand for housing than there is supply of housing even being built.

And that if you understand the basics of economics, is that means prices are going to continue to rise.

Um in our analysis, what we've learned is the greatest unmet needs right now are owner households earning above 120% of AMI, and that ranges between 120 and 180,000, depending upon the size of the household.

And for rental households at about 50% of AI, which is which will range from about 50,000 to 65,000 annual income based on the size of the household.

Next, please.

Part of it is a lot, a lot of it is legacy owners that have lived here for a long time, can't afford to move to the new place because it's so expensive to get in the housing these days.

But also the reality is that as you're looking at new development, things like universal design, for example, is a consideration as you increase the folks that have disabilities.

And then the uh another impact is the racial and ethnic diversity decline here in the city.

Um from a housing perspective, uh it if you look at the data, um, households of color, particularly immigrant households, tend to be larger and also tend to be more uh multi-generational.

And so, from a housing needs perspective, is the needs for some larger units was something that we learned that came out of the back end of this.

Thank you very much.

So now I'm gonna talk a little bit about our financial feasibility the inclusionary zoning or as we call it IZ policy, and I apologize for those of you who already know this, but I was asked to give a little bit of a primer on what it is here in Somerville.

Um, right now, for projects that are required to provide 20% of the units income controlled amongst three different tiers, and it's for projects that are four units or larger.

So if I'm building four or five to uh infinity, I have to deliver that.

And we're gonna talk a little bit about the impact of the size of project in just a moment.

But there are three tiers.

Um the income thresholds identified differ for ownership and rental.

For rental, tier one is 50% of AMI, tier 280, tier three 110, and then for ownership it's 80 percent, 110, and 140, which reflects the price differentials between rental and owner.

The formula for how units, uh IZ units are distributed amongst the three tiers is very complex.

It is not linear.

Uh, I'm not, I don't I think I'd have to spend the entire rest of my time explaining to you how that works.

But the point is it does distribute all the units between those three different tiers, and we're gonna talk a little bit about that about that in a moment.

And then the city also has a buyout or payment, a fee and loo option if a developer doesn't want to provide affordable housing, and there's a formula we're gonna talk about that too.

Next, please.

So I'm gonna start with the cliff totes, and then I'll get into the study materials for the final test.

Um, but generally what we learned through this process is market conditions, not just here in the city but in the region, have made new construction very challenging.

Three of the primary reasons, these are not the only reasons, but three of the primary reasons are the cooling off of life sciences has tremendously reduced demand for housing, particularly at the higher end at the price points because they are tend to be the highest paid jobs.

While that's going on, whether you're seeing demand starting to recede a little bit, um, the construction costs remain high.

And so, from a financial feasibility perspective, my ability to generate revenue for those market rate rents isn't as great, but my cost to build the units remains up there, and so that's a challenge.

And then building upon that, the equity investors, the folks that invest in these projects, that not the banks, but the folks that put the money behind it, they're getting much more selective as the market softens and cools, they are only looking for top-tier products, top-tier projects, projects that yield the greatest returns.

And so in the past, when they were willing to invest in a project that was yielding uh uh five and a half or six percent return, now they're demanding six and a half.

And so you're seeing demand contract, costs remain the same, and my ability to find the financing for my projects becoming harder and harder.

And so that has having impact.

So, what does that mean for us when in our analysis?

Well, any changes to the IZ policy is gonna require some countermeasures to avoid uh disrupting your development market.

So historically, not just here in Somerville, but throughout the region, it's all right, here's our IZ policy, what are we going to add now?

What are we gonna add now?

We're going to build upon that.

Unfortunately, the market right now, at this point in time and into the near future, doesn't really support that.

If you do something like that, our concern and what we're gonna talk about tonight is you're gonna create the challenge where it's infeasible for people to do any sort of market rate development.

And so it could slow down and even stop development altogether, which if you once again if you understand economics, supply continues to go down, but demand continues to stay up, it continues to erode around affordability of even existing units that are here.

So, what we're gonna be talking about tonight is rather than looking this end and this and and this end, which is our legacy approach, we're gonna be talking about this or this or and what are the trade-offs that we can do to reach it.

Our ultimate recommendation is if the city is looking to make any changes to the IZ policy, at least for the short term, is if identify the goal, the housing goal that you want to achieve, and then adjust the policy to achieve that.

Because right now we're not in a position from a market from a financial perspective to try and meet multiples at the same time.

And we're gonna talk about that in just a moment.

Okay.

So now kind of into the analysis.

We were asked to test is the market is the policies working in the current market, and then what are some of the policy changes we want considered and how that will that impact it?

Um for the current policy, we broke the city down into sub-areas because I'm sure you're all very aware, different parts of the city have different market potential and different opportunities.

And so we want to look at that and see how is the policy working, not just overall as the city average, but in different areas.

The three um considerations that we're gonna talk about primarily tonight are how can we deepen subsidies?

That was one of the questions we were asked to get to the to lower AMIs.

In particular, how can we get down to households at 30% of AMI?

And then what's the potential to expand to serve more larger households with like three bedroom units.

So I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this.

When I talk about the sub-areas, these are the sub-areas.

They're the colors on the map delineate to different areas of the city.

We worked with staff to make sure that those were accurate from a both from a market perspective and understandable, but um you're more than welcome to refer back to these.

Next slide, please.

The punchline that we learned when we looked at the analysis of your current policy is right now, the market is very challenging in most of the city.

Um, as you can see there, and by the way, just for record, green means it re meets or exceeds market expectations, red means it's below what market expectations are in terms of return for developers.

And so what we learned is that outside of um excuse me, sorry about that.

Outside of um Union Square and East Somerville, it is very challenging to do for-profit, non-subsidized housing projects in the city.

Um and I mentioned earlier about size of projects, you can see as the project gets smaller, that impact becomes more substantial.

And so smaller projects are adversely impacted by the current policy.

And so, next slide, please.

So, what came out of this for us is uh is the consideration from the city to adjust the inclusionary requirement based on where you are in the city.

There's a number of clients that we work for where they did they instead of having a single blanket 20% for the entire community, we say we recognize there are difference in markets, and we're recommending that you consider maybe lowering those requirements in different parts of the city based on the challenge to be able to do those projects.

If that is not palatable, and we understand that there's realities to all these decisions, we encourage you to consider to be able to potentially use financial inducements, either tax abatements or investments from the housing trust or other sorts of funding to help make those projects in other parts of the city work.

I want to go back to the very first point I made, which is we are not proportionally distributed, our affordable our income controlled housing.

The the the north and the west area of the city is the most financially challenged to do projects and the least representative.

And so this is one of the reasons why we came to this recommendation is how can we make it so that there's more opportunities in parts of the city where maybe there isn't access or choice for for households earning less than uh 120% of AMI.

Next, please.

So the first one I want to talk about is deepening affordability by removing tier three.

So effectively what we were asked to look at is what if we got rid of tier three, which is the 110% of AMI, and we just kept the 50% of AMI and the 80% of AMI tiers.

And so what that would mean is those units that we're gonna be at 110 are gonna be redistributed between the 80 and one and 50.

Well, as you can imagine, when I'm lowering the revenue without changing anything else, it creates greater financial infeasibility for development.

And so that's gonna be very, very challenging.

I want to remind folks that the reason why tier three was for those of you who don't remember from uh me or RKG, the last time we did the study with you a few years back, is one of the reasons why tier three was included because without it it it created financial challenges, and doing so again, it would do the same thing uh here in the community.

Um next, so our recommendation is if you're going to remove tier three, consider reducing the set aside the inclusionary requirement from 20% to 16%.

So what that does is you're saying, all right, you're gonna have to provide us with lower priced housing, and in exchange, we're gonna make you provide less lower priced housing.

So it creates a financial balance.

And it's what we in RKG define as revenue neutral, meaning we're gonna create an additional cost to you, and then we're gonna give a release so that we can you can get that cost back so you're not made not harmed in any way.

So that was that's uh a recommendation if you wanted to go to getting rid of the 110% tier.

Um, if lowering the requirement isn't an option, once again it goes back to financial inducements.

But at the end of the day, what we learned is if the city wants to try and get to lower incomes, it's going to have to either provide some relief in how many units we have to provide or provide some financial inducements without running the risk of creating adverse impacts on the marketplace.

Please.

Thank you.

Um the next was looking at specifically at 30% of AMI households, and so we did two different analyses.

One was changing the 110 to 30, so changing tier three.

So instead of 50, 80, 110, it was 30, 50, 80.

And then the other one was adding a fourth tier, which by the way, for the record, I do not recommend it's complex enough with three.

But we also looked at it from a fourth tier, uh, which would be a 50, 80, 110, and then 30% of AMI.

As I'm sure you can imagine, by changing the 110 to 30, had more uh dire financial impacts on feasibility than just adding a third.

Um, however, um with the by adding the the the fourth tier at 30% of AI, you still had some of the challenges that we heard from the market, uh, which is trouble finding tenants at 110% of AMI, particularly for rentals.

The reality is there is choice in this community at 110% of AMI for units that doesn't require me to get income verified or to continually get income verified, and to frankly to live in a units that's deemed um income restricted.

And so we heard from the marketplace that they're having a hard time filling those units, and that's not unique to Somerville.

We've heard that in Newton, we've heard that in Lynn and other communities where I've done similar work, and that also creates financial challenges.

Next slide, please.

So our recommendation right now is to not try and get to the 30% of AMI.

Uh there's a number of reasons for that.

One, 30% of AMI units generally are restricted or part of income or um public assisted housing, whether it's a light tech project or public assisted housing, and frankly, for-profit developers really aren't set up to serve households at those lower incomes, particularly when they come with um social services needs or uh physical disability needs.

Often those those units are generally uh better off in areas where those there's a critical mass of demand, so providing those services makes a whole lot of sense.

So that's one of the biggest challenges is trying to get there.

The next is generally 30% of AMI units are tied to a housing voucher.

Um if you're familiar with Section 8 housing choice vouchers, um, generally 30% of AMI units are tied to those.

And so to go to 30% of AMI and you want it to work financially, you would need to commit vouchers to those units to be able to make it work financially.

And not only commit vouchers to those units, commit vouchers at the full potential value of those units of those vouchers.

And so that would be a requirement, frankly, to hit financial feasibility to get to revenue neutral, you would need to provide vouchers and provide them at the full value of the vouchers to make it revenue neutral.

And I I will say um one more thing, I'm sorry about that.

One more thing is right now we are on uncertain times about how the federal government is going to be continuing to fund housing programs.

And so by committing by being willing to commit more vouchers and the full value of the vouchers could be challenging if the federal government makes changes to how its strategy is in providing housing programs.

I just wanted to make sure that was understood.

Umcluding additional family-sized bedroom units, we looked at how do we say, well, you're gonna have to provide three bedroom units instead of a mixture that is consistent with what the rest of the development is.

Um as I'm sure you can uh understand, uh, that creates some financial challenges for two primary reasons.

One, uh they consume a lot more square footage than uh a studio one or two bedroom unit, and generally rents for larger units are lower on a per square foot basis than they are for studios ones and twos.

And so you're consuming more of the building space, and I'm getting less revenue for it.

So that creates financial impacts.

And the city also has the building envelope requirements, which are extremely restrictive because I can't get any more building space, even though I have to provide you more units that take up more of my building square footage.

And so that could be a tremendous challenge in terms of trying to deliver enough of the market rate units to offset the cost of the income controlled ones.

Next, please.

And so our recommendation is if you're gonna move to try and require more three-bedroom units, is change your percentage set aside from units, like 20% of units to 20% of square footage.

By doing that, and I provide more three-bedroom units, I'm still only have to provide you that same amount of square footage.

The upside of that is from a financial perspective, it balances out.

From the downside is you're then going to get fewer units.

Because I'm delivering you three studio units at 1,500 square feet, or one three-bedroom unit at 1,500 square feet, you're getting fewer units for the same amount of square footage.

But outside of doing something like that, um, the other alternative would be a bonus density program, where you say for every three-bedroom unit you give me, and we did the math on this, it would require three market rate units to offset the financial impact of providing an income controlled three-bedroom unit.

Um, however, that butts up against the housing building envelope challenge, is because if I have to give you more units, that means I have to make the building envelope larger.

And so that could be a challenge.

Um I think that there's opportunities to do this, but it's going to require a shift.

It's going from percentage of units to percentage of square footage, I think is the best bet that you have as a community.

Next, please.

Um we also reviewed your your fee and loop policy.

Um to put it very bluntly and succinctly.

Right now, you calculate what the construction cost of a unit and then you apply a two times multiplier for rental and a two and a half times multiplier for ownership, meaning that what I have to pay to buy out of those units is twice what it would cost me just to build a unit on site.

It has made it so that it's not very feasible for developers to take the the fee and loo policy.

If the goal is for the city to push for units to be on site, then leave it exactly the way it is because you're making a financial disincentive to buy out.

If the goal is in certain circumstances to negotiate a buyout because maybe the project is located in an area where there's already a high concentration of income controlled units, or it's an area of the city where it doesn't have good transportation access or it doesn't have good access to services, the the the development community under the current policy is going to resist that because the cost is so substantial.

So if you're looking to try and get more of that flexibility, then removing the multipliers would be the recommendation we exp we encourage you to do.

Next, please.

One more, please.

So we also talked to a number of developers that have built and are building in Somerville, and no, I'm not going to tell you who they are, and no, I'm not going to tell you what each of them said to me.

However, we asked them to give feedback on the process, and I'm sure you can understand the biggest thing we heard is the the unpredictability of the timeline of a project to get an approval.

And so they they gave us a number, it it it increases the length of the process, which builds cost.

It also increased risk because there's no guarantee of an approval at the end of the process.

And if you know anything about development, you know, risk and uncertainty uh uncertainty and unpredictability equals risk, which drives up costs.

And so that creates a challenge.

And as I mentioned earlier, this is disproportionately for small and mid-scale projects.

Um projects that are you know five to twenty-five units are much more sensitive to these impacts than than particularly uh particularly the larger ones.

So um next slide, please.

There's a number of recommendations.

I know I'm way over my time, and I am so sorry that I did that.

Um there are a number of recommendations that came to us through this process.

They're here on the slide, they're detailed in the in the analysis, and I'd be happy to answer questions if you have questions about that.

But that was the the nickel tour, if you will, of the analysis that we did.

To sum up, I would say that to go back to the kind of the cliffs notes slide is right now is not the time for us to be trying to expand the IZ policy.

If there are a if there is a specific goal you want to go approach, then we encourage you to look at what some of the trade-offs you can do to try and reach that goal.

But at least in the current market climate, trying to expand on your IC policy could create negative impacts on the development of housing in your community.

Thank you all so much for the time.

And Mr.

President, I'm happy to answer whatever questions you have.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Councilor Ewan Campen and Councillor Scott, Councilor Wilson.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, um, all of this is horrible.

This is just all terrible news.

I'd like you to leave the building.

No, just kidding.

Uh no, I hate these studies.

You know, we get these, uh I've we've had three or four since I've been on the council, and they're helpful because they put numbers and facts to what we all know is going on.

Um, and they kind of just make a really, really stark demonstration of how bad it is.

Um and in this case, you know, we're at uh a really, really difficult point in the market, so it also makes it really difficult for us to imagine kind of creative new solutions.

So I'll just say out of the gate.

Uh I I know that this is not gonna surprise anybody here, and I don't think anyone would propose it, but the idea of different uh inclusionary rates or different part of the city, um, that that is not something that I support.

Um I tend to think this stuff is cyclical.

Um a lot of work went into the policies we have now, and a time like now is not a time to freak out and try to dramatically change our policies.

Um that said, you know, we do have to kind of deal with the reality before us, so maybe I'll be proved wrong.

Um, but I don't have any questions.

I I just wanted to uh kind of respond to the overall site, guys.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Counselor Scott.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, I just had a quick question about uh that slide 12 chart.

Um which showed uh I guess to nobody's surprise, the Union Square is the best place to be building uh things.

But uh I guess one thing that jumped out is that the uh feasibility, the profit margins for the private developers uh went up when you went from the 15 to 75.

You also did a study of uh larger projects, a hundred plus unit projects.

Uh did that follow the same trend of the uh that it did it turn any of these other areas green if you had uh 150 unit project.

Uh so the answer to that question is we did do that analysis, and the response is no, nobody else turned green.

Okay.

Um it got better uh because of economies of scale of development, but it did not no one it did not push anybody up over the edge.

And um not for nothing, but why I mean I know why I think Union Square is the best place to do anything.

Uh but that said, is is the difference in profitability here on the IRR, especially uh uh based on the acquisition cost of the parcels involved?

That is definitely uh I'm sorry, that is definitely part of it.

Um the Union Square area has the revenue potential ratio to the cost to acquire dirt is better.

And that's uh I mean everybody who lives in Somerville recognizes the reality on the ground in terms of home prices uh in East Somerville and Union Square versus uh out in Teal.

I appreciate it.

Uh so I I really appreciate this study.

I think this is uh gives us some things to chew on.

I truly do think we can do more with zoning to encourage uh affordability, encourage development without displacement.

Uh but I I also and I also share my colleagues' uh desire uh to not weaken the inclusionary zoning policies that we already have.

I appreciate this as uh as a way to evaluate what targeted changes we can make uh with a policy lens.

And I look forward to that policy discussion with my colleagues over the coming months.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Counselor Wilson.

Yeah, thanks, Mr.

President.

Um yeah, seeing the the permitting process cited as uh as an is an issue here.

Uh, you know, we hear about the holding costs of these things and the impact on affordability uh of going through a a really long onerous and uncertain permitting process.

Um, you know, obviously I think well I'll speak for myself.

I I support a public process.

I think it's really important that we go through that process.

You know, I always think about what what we can do in terms of making that a a better, more productive public process, uh make it make more sense to people.

Uh on the permitting side, uh what can be done what what's currently happening in serial that could be done in parallel uh just to just to make it make it go faster in terms of of you know things outside the public process that uh could really help with those whole keep those holding costs down and result in in greater affordability.

Um I'm just struck, you know, we hear all the time, oh you know, we need more workforce housing, right?

We you know uh and then we hear repeatedly how difficult it is to get those hundred ten percent AMI units filled.

And I guess uh through the present uh is this just the case of our hollowed out middle class uh in the city in this region.

Is is that at the at the root uh uh of you know hearing these two things that that are seem very much in in contradiction.

So the um issue isn't that there isn't a need for it, the issue is the certification and if you don't mind my blunt saying the perception of living in an income controlled unit when there are other options, not just here in Somerville, but in the region, that I can pay the same amount of money, and then I don't have to go through the process of turning over my financials every year.

And and like I said, this is nothing unique to Somerville.

We ran into this in a number of other communities where I've done this analysis over the past 12 months here in the Boston metro area.

It's just a challenge like why am I going to be willing to jump through those hoops when I can just go find something else?

And so what we've heard is it can be one developer that we interviewed through uh these processes is they had a unit set empty for a year and a half because they couldn't find a tenant.

Well, they they did eventually fill it, but for that year and a half the revenue is zero.

And when you need to model that into your pro forma to understand how you're gonna be able to make money, that has a direct impact on your ability to provide those.

And so it's not necessarily that there isn't demand for them.

It's that the process I have to go through to get it.

I'm just not willing to do because I do have other choices.

I I I hope that answers the question.

Mr.

President, yes, it does.

Uh and it also highlights just the the really onerous certification and recertification process that people have to go through.

And again, much of that is dictated at levels above our municipal government.

Um, I've also engaged with the housing division on ways we might make it a a little more humane on people going through that.

Uh some of the thresholds that we choose to well that our our vendor who does that process has has chosen uh to require people to explain, you know, a PayPal or Venmo the payment that they've received.

Uh, you know, small ways like that, but you know, it's just what I hear stories from constituents of having to go hire legal help to just go through the certification process.

Uh yeah.

Uh I I'll echo my colleagues uh from from Ward 3 and Ward 2 uh comments on uh yeah, it's it's bleak.

Thanks.

Councilor Ba and then Strasbo then Clinken.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just want to thank you for the presentation.

It's a lot too true, and I can tell.

And also very stimulating policy recommendations.

I think about two years ago, I spoke to someone from Washington DC.

Is it I don't know if that's your staff that they were trying to have this uh housing needs conversation?

And so it's it's been interesting to see like some of the recommendation that you made, especially when you talk about like the addition of maculared housing, you know, in exchange for family control size, you know, where you're talking about like you know, like maybe like a rent control size apartment and when you like when it has help can you explain that uh also on what you mentioned like requiring three to one ratio you know of uh to reach like the revenue neutral return, that what is that, how does that look like in practice?

Sure.

So your first question is around the the unit sizes is if I'm developing a property and I'm limited to 50,000 square feet of building space, and I have done my math and I bought the property based on expecting to get 50 units.

And I'm just making that up for the sake of the conversation.

If I'm asked or required to deliver more units that are larger than a thousand square feet, then obviously I'm gonna get fewer units.

And so that has a financial impact on a project.

Um the second part of that is larger income controlled units, two and three bedroom on a per square foot basis pay less than studios and ones.

And so not only now I have to give up more of my building space, I'm going to get less revenue for it.

And so that has a financial impact.

So that's the answer to your first question.

Your second question about the bonus density is when we included an additional three-bedroom income controlled unit, we then started adding market rate units to see how many more were necessary to get the return back up to where it was before we added that additional one three-bedroom income controlled unit.

And on average, what the math came out to was if you if you if I'm gonna say, all right, you have to give me a three-bedroom unit, then I need you I need to give back to you three market rate units so that it can create enough revenue to impact the cost that I am gonna have to bear of having to deliver that three-bedroom unit.

And so the alternative to doing bonus density, because I understand the sensitivities around building envelopes is to transition from percentage of units that have to be income controlled to percentage of square footage.

So in my 50,000 square foot example, I would owe 10,000 square foot of income controlled housing units.

That could be 10 1,000 square foot two bedroom units, that could be five, two thousand square foot three bedroom units, that could be twenty five hundred square foot studios.

I we can talk about the mix of the units based on that square footage, but by doing that, I am limiting the impact of what the income controlled units have on the financial feasibility of the project.

I have to step back when Counselor Ba is speaking so that the camera can get him.

That's why I that's why I stand back from the podium.

I've been asked to do that.

Just so you know.

Um Councillor Strasso and then Councillor Klingon.

I'm up thank you, Mr.

President, through you too.

Um our speaker.

So do I hear this clearly that if I hear this correctly, you are trying to advocate for more studio and one bedrooms and less three bedrooms?

Uh we're not advocating for anything.

We what we're what I'm saying is from a financial feasibility perspective, when a developer is is figuring out how to what is they're gonna pay for a piece of land and they're looking at your current policy, it it says if I have to provide a certain number of income controlled units, if the distributors gonna be the same distribu distribution of the other units.

Studios, ones, twos.

Very few people are building three bedroom units right now, to be honest with you, because of the financials that we've talked about.

And so we're not advocating for anything.

What we're saying is if we choose to regulate the requirement of three bedroom units, there has to be some sort of trade-off if we want to mitigate the financial impact.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

President, through you.

Uh I get that.

But the reason we have we the need for three and two two and three bedrooms is because we are so we have so many families that can't stay in the city.

So the whole purpose of them being there is so we can stabilize and maintain more two and three bedroom families that need that.

So I am absolutely not in favor of that at all.

Um I am not even having a comfortable having this conversation without uh our our director of housing and office of housing stability as well in this conversation because we need to really consider I get from a construction and an infrastructure decision, but however, we need to figure out how this would impact things and and what they've seen, what they're going to see and what next year will represent.

Um I am not comfortable not including them in this as well with any decision making policy that that can go forward.

Um and I I don't support um eliminating uh inclusionary zoning in certain ways.

I I know that I'm grateful for the conversation, but I'm not willing to have that without uh those directors present.

Thank you.

Counselor Clinton.

Thank you, Ms.

President, through you.

Thank you for the presentation.

You know, I I know that um I mean it's it it sounds like some tweaks are worth considering.

Um I stand with colleague from Ward 3 that I definitely don't want to see different percentages in different parts of the city.

Um and I also think it's cyclical to some degree.

Um I mean one of the problem one of the things I want to name is that like basically even with the 110 AMI, I know people who turn down those units because when you start to add in all the other fees, like now the developers are having a water uh meter on the unit um as an individual unit.

Um they have these like service fees, which is like for trash and everything.

So when they do the math, it's like almost it usually comes out to be more money for them to take that apartment.

Um so you know, I I know that there are issues.

Um I I hear that, and um I look forward to having those conversations and trying to tweak things in a way that works for Summer World and that you know keeps people in their homes in Summerville.

Uh one question I had though was that um I missed some of the presentation I went to the restroom, but um, but I I didn't hear you at least I didn't see it in the recommendations anyway.

Did you visit the um demolition review ordinance at all as far as our policies around the uh demolition review?

I don't believe we did, no.

Okay.

I'm just curious.

You know, since I've been on the council, we went from we we we extended it from like a year to like 18 months.

Um and you know uh actually I get we get a lot of criticism actually because of people don't understand when a place is sitting dormant, it's because it's under demolition review for a year and a half.

I'm not saying I necessarily want to tweak that uh in in the other way.

I'm just curious where it fell into line with with you know developers' sort of um desire or or lack thereof to to build in Somerville, like if you had encountered those type of demolition review ordinances in other cities.

Um I I I can't speak intelligently.

I didn't do all the interviews as uh counselor mentioned.

I had staff who also did a number of the interviews.

So what I will commit to is going back and go looking through our information and see what we learned about that and providing that to staff if there was commentary on that we learned from folks and make sure that gets that gets to you all as well.

I just don't know it off the top of my head.

Okay.

Well again, thank you for the presentation and uh yeah, I definitely don't like anything I'm hearing.

Um, but obviously we have to be able to adjust even if it's temporary.

I just don't know what that looks like and what's gonna work for for our city.

So those conversations will have to be had.

Thank you.

Okay.

So in the order that uh you previously spoke, uh, Councilor Wilson on that point, and then we'll go back to Councillor Sheza.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, thanks, Mr.

President.

Uh to Councillor Clingen's question about uh the demolition review.

So in in the financial feasibility analysis report, so not in the presentation, but in that report.

Um when they were in the key basically the looking at the the barriers uh the the issues uh it did talk about the historic preservation review as adding additional difficulties that which that's when you talk about demolition review.

Um yeah, it is cited in that report as one of the issues.

Counselor Shezan?

Thank you, Mr.

President, and through you to uh our speaker.

Uh and I do think that 110 percent, 110 percent AMI there, I think there is room for tweaking it because I I do in my first term I served on the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and I know that there were issues filling those units back then, and that was many those were that was three terms ago.

So I and and yeah, exactly.

People they're essentially market rate units, and why would anybody who's a awarded a market rate unit for the can afford a market rate unit, why would they want to do a 110% AMI and have to go through the the very long and arduous uh recertification process?

I get that.

I I'm just concerned that I don't want to pull the wrong thread on the the sweater.

That's what I'm scared about.

So yes, we have to have this conversation.

I don't want to tweak things things without a conversation, like I said, with the other directors, but yeah.

I'll stop there.

Okay.

Mr.

Vice President, will you take the uh podium for a moment?

Is this in my stuff, but Chair Davis.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Um I just want to ask one question um just sort of for my thinking about as we move forward and look at all of the different options that we have before us.

Um and this slide particular, which I believe Councillor Scott, you said was slide 12 um for folks that have followed along almost one that's still up on the screen with the the table with all the um the return on uh uh rate of return and and the return on cost uh being in the red, all but for union square, as the good counselor from where to noted.

Um you know, as I look at that, it strikes me that um and I I try to think of like what might be behind that, there's a myriad of um of factors I would imagine.

Um one of which I would think uh may be the the uh the zoning allowance um uh what is what is allowed to be built in those neighborhoods, I would think has a significant um impact.

And union square, as we know, is is a significant portion of the square subject to um uh master plan or a plan unit to it was one of the fancy zoning things, and number it's late enough that I've forgotten which one it was, but um you know the only other place where there is a similar zoning overlay that allows significant um you know height and density is assembly.

Um you have assembly um grouped together with brick bottom and inner belt, so I wonder the degree to which the you know the the larger neighborhoods around it might be negating some of that factor.

Maybe not.

It's all purely just speculation as I'm trying to kind of understand the numbers, and I know everyone's kind of freaking out right now because I'm like doing numbers and this is not my jam.

Um but bear with me.

Um we have been talking this council has been talking um uh for a number of months, years, um more more most recently in uh in the last few months in the land use committee about upzoning around uh transit uh hubs um our around our two stations.

Um I correct that, and I don't know exactly how the calculation would go, if it would be a hypothetical or you know actually running numbers in a different scenario, if let's take Davis Square, it's the neighborhood that I represent.

Um that is the the maximum height in Davis Square is four stories.

That is the that is the maximum height that was there before we did the uh zoning overhaul, and it was very explicitly put in place to be a placeholder so that we could get um greater density uh bonus uh density bonuses and greater height um into the zoning in exchange for community benefits, et cetera, et cetera.

Lots of things have happened in the six years since then, and we won't go into the the sort of history.

But am I right that that another tool to unlock some of this might be to allow from the outset higher higher, you know, uh higher building heights, greater density within these units.

Um would that change the analysis even without other changes to our IZ um uh zoning?

So the answer to uh Mr.

President to the question is as long as we're not exceeding five stories, yes.

When you move from wood frame construction, which is up to five stories, into podium construction where you go to six stories.

The ground floor has to be concrete and steel by code.

Um that creates a another financial barrier because it costs more.

And in a place that where rents aren't premium, moving to podium construction or concrete sealed construction is infeasible.

And so that can have a benefit if you're going from four to five or three to five, that could have a benefit because you are staying within the same construction typology, but you're allowing for greater d development without additional ask.

So my acquisition for that site, at least in the short term, will be competitive.

Uh two follow-ups, Mr.

President, if I may.

Um through you, um my recollection is that is that we've been told that that that that number in terms of when you go from uh wood frame being uh you know no longer uh uh um from an engineering standpoint, I guess practical, maybe it's a building code, um, with six stories and not five.

So am I am I mistaken is it is is the numbers that you that you're based on that you're using is based on five stories?

Well, our understanding, and I'll have to go looking back is generally five stories as a max you do streak wood frame.

After that, you have to start adding a level of concrete and steel thing.

It's always possible that I've got it wrong.

Um the other follow-up is um is there a number, is is there a height at which the based on the the the you know formulas that you use for these calculations that that starts to come around again?

Not with the current rent potential you have in your community.

The cost to do concrete and steel construction is greater than what I could charge for the rent for those units.

Concrete and steel generally only works in extremely high revenue markets.

Caber Square, Pack Bay, Seaport, those types of places.

Uh, Council Wizard had to make it.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Yeah, to make a point.

Thank you.

Council Wilson on that point.

Thanks, Mr.

President.

Yeah, on that point.

Uh we've been hearing all along that there's a point at which uh, you know, steel frame construction actually does start making projects viable again, you know, 13, 12, whatever, wherever it is.

The cost of steel going up, maybe that point is creeping higher.

Uh I was just gonna bring up, you know, you all have heard me talk about type four construction, mass timber, uh, which is meant to fill that donut hole basically uh with projects.

And I'm I'm curious if you all looked into to type four at all.

I know it's new to Massachusetts relatively, it's about a year old in terms of our our building code.

Uh but there's a lot of excitement for that.

Cambridge just uh they're starting a type a tall type four building there in Cambridge.

And I'm curious uh if you looked into that.

Right?

Yes, we did.

Um based on the inform most recent information we looked at, type four to mass timber cost differential to traditional concrete and steel isn't substantial.

It is a little bit of a savings, but not enough to overcome the feasibility impacts of the current rent thresholds that we're experiencing most of Somerville.

Other questions?

All right.

Uh with the clerk note that uh Council McLaughlin has joined us and did a little bit ago.

All right.

Any further questions?

Okay.

Well, thank you for this.

Um always entertaining and and in very informative.

We'll um place us up out.

Director Galligani, did you want to add something?

I just want to share some closing comments.

Oh, by all means, yep, go ahead.

Thank you.

I appreciate this.

Um, Mr.

President.

This was a really productive conversation.

I love the tone of your questions.

Uh that's partly what we uh we're hoping for tonight is to get your brains thinking about what the trade-offs are, what are our values, um, what do we think is most important, and that will help us um figure out what policies we want to move forward with.

Um a lot has changed in the last five years since we last did this five uh this these two studies, the housing needs assessment and the financial feasibility study.

It's something that we're required to do every five years to make sure that our inclusionary ordinance makes sense in the current day.

Um so this really starts the process.

This is an important first step to really build our baseline of knowledge.

Um you can expect three things coming out of this.

Number one, um, my team and all of my team went from economic development, housing stability, housing, and planning are going to be trying to figure out work with you, work with the community uh in a public manner to find out what are the most important things based on the information that we have here and the analysis that's been done and the model that Kyle's team has shared with us and given to us, we can model different scenarios of how we want to tinker with our inclusionary ordinance.

My team, my entire team is going to be working on that over the next couple uh months, and we'd love to have a community conversation, work closely with the council to figure out if this is something that we really want to aim for in redesigning and modifying our inclusionary ordinance for the next five years.

And if if there's something there, we want to work on it, we want to work with you to figure out how we can make our inclusionary ordinance more impactful moving forward.

Um, we have a number of projects in the community that are shovel ready, but the finances don't quite work.

And that is another thread that we want to explore over the next couple months.

Are there projects that we can jump start and get going if we looked at additional subsidy, probably most realistically in the form of uh tax breaks, like the the strategy we used for 299 uh Broadway, and similar to what we used uh in offering to induce transmedics to come to the city?

Love to explore some specific projects and also use the model that RKG provide us, working with the council, working with the community to see if there's something that makes sense.

If there's a uh a bargain we can strike in order to get some housing going, significant housing going over the next uh couple years.

The third thread is uh our zoning team, Director Bartman.

If you look online, we've already started posting a project page to look intensively at our 2019 zoning ordinance overhaul.

To look to answer some of the questions that you're asking, are there things that we can tweak?

Are there ways that we can streamline our process, not lose our values that we built into that process?

But are there things that really aren't working and get uh achieving the goals that we outlined back in 2019?

Are there things that we can strip away and not see any impact from in terms of the quality of the projects and the kinds of things that we want our projects to help us with?

Um so those are three separate work threads that I hope you will want to participate with us because we want to participate with you and with the public to try to make our process better, make our inclusionary uh ordinance more impactful, and to see if we can jumpstart some projects.

So happy to uh and I look forward to working with each of you in hopefully all three of those threads.

Thanks.

Okay, uh Councillor Clang, do you have a question?

Quick question comment, um, Mr.

President, through you so I mean when you when you look at when you look back at the 20, as you said, 2019 changes.

Um when I think about 2019, I think about like we we uh we allow for two units in NR uh with uh and then a couple of years later we then we recently uh you know a year or two ago increased it to three units.

So are you able to sort of like look at it through the microscope of like if there if there's been a jump since the new changes?

Um because my my overall my comment is like government tends to be slow.

So, you know, if we start making these changes and it's cyclical, and by the time you know we enact anything and now there's a build boom again and we're giving away everything.

Um, you know, uh you know markets or whatever, you know, you know, uh I don't study these things, so I'm just we're relying on what you're telling us uh to some degree.

So I guess are you able to look at on the micro level is my question with regards to the some of the different tweaks um that we've we've made from even since 2019 and whether or not it's had any impact in that many years span, couple year span.

Uh through the uh through the president.

Um there's two ways I'm thinking about this.

I'm thinking about the inclusionary ordinance itself, and that's what this whole presentation and this whole study was about.

Is it working?

Is it achieving the goals that we set out in 2016 where we had the biggest change and then we had some modification to conclusionary in 2019?

So that's that whole work, that's what Kyle presented tonight.

Um when I'm talking about permit streamlining and looking at our ordinance and the way it functions and the process of the ordinance, not the different zoning um uh uh designations throughout the city, but the process by which somebody needs to follow, like demolition delay, um, all those processes.

Are they achieving the goals that we set out?

We created policies to achieve a goal.

Our demolition delay was to ensure that we are preserving our historic assets and finding a way to make keep those part of our community.

Is it working the way we thought?

And are there some tweaks we can make that could s quicken the process but still yield the same outcome?

I think it's important for us to be reflective, and it's been six years since 2019.

I think the time I think a lot of us uh, you know, certainly looking at the campaign trail uh over the last year, recognize that we need to take a good hard look at all of our permitting processes, and we're in a place where we can do that, and that uh this bandwidth, because development's not booming like it was three or four years ago.

Our planners have plenty of bandwidth to be able to really, you know, pop the hood and look under and look at the engine and see how it's working.

Thank you.

That's good to hear.

I know that counselors here have been trying to upsone for a number of years.

We had to get our own person.

So that's why I was wondering if you are you all gonna be bringing forward uh uh policy ideas that we then discuss, or are you relying on us to bring those forward?

Well, you can look on the webpage, Dan's team is uh starting a process to engage with the public and to look internally to look at all of our processes, and we hope you're a part of that.

And when we come up with some tweaks, there are gonna be some small tweaks that we'll bring to you, and then we'll we'll bring some probably more extensive beyond tweaks that we're gonna present to you for discussion so that we uh and again we we gotta involve the public as well too.

So there's probably gonna be some sense of public engagement before um proposals are ready for this body.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Okay, further discussion?

Counselor Scott.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Just to that point, I I want to appreciate what uh what the my colleague from Ward 4 had to say, especially about examining the results like as our director says, uh examining the results of these changes, do or are they achieving the policy?

Um I've actually been working with a constituent of mine to pull together exactly that data to show where the two family to three family once that uh affordability was removed.

So I'd be happy to loop you in on that, sir.

All right, thank you.

All right, seeing no further discussion, that will be placed on file.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

One more thing.

Hold it, take take it back from the file.

Anybody interesting, it's interested.

If you do a Google search for Stephanie Hirsch, there's a medium article, and then she links it to her um Microsoft document page and her housing hackathon that she had back in 2017 and 18.

I mean, there's still a lot of great ideas in there.

So it's a really good read.

Um, she was great.

That is all.

All right.

Thank you, Director.

Um, and thank you.

That item is placed on file.

And um, Council Burnley, you you have someone uh here to speak still on uh item 9.5.

I know it's dragged on a little bit here, but I don't want to make people wait longer if they are still here.

They through the chair, they are still here.

It's not I have it, it's his uh yes, you I I misspoke.

You became aware of the folks here and you raised it, so I appreciate you doing that.

Um would you like to sponsor somebody to speak on the item?

Yes.

So Madam Clerk, if there's no objection, we'll take item 9.5 out of order.

Item 9.5 is the public communication from 52 registered voters submitting a petition requesting a public hearing regarding out of the blue community arts space at Arts at the Armory, pursuant to section 2-11 of the city charter.

Council Burnley.

Thank you to the chair.

Uh this was a request for a public hearing uh related to ongoing issues at the armory.

Um really it's years in the making and has come up uh before this council a number of times uh over my two terms.

Uh but I'd like to hear it more from people who've been uh more closely related to the issue.

So uh firstly, of there are two people here that uh wish to speak on this item, and I'd first uh like to sponsor David Jebinski to speak.

Council Burnley would like to sponsor David Kamiski.

Any objection?

Seeing none?

Please approach.

And if you could just introduce yourself for the record so we can clerk and get good.

Hi, I'm David Jupinski.

This is my first time here.

Never been here before.

Uh hi, I'm David Jubinski.

I live in Somerville.

Uh I'm a local musician, and I work at uh entertainment arts venue in Somerville.

Uh I also help Parma collect signatures on this petition.

Um do you all know Parma?

Okay, good.

That's if you know her like I do, she makes herself known.

Um Parma has been a regular patron of my work for many years, but I just started learning about her eviction situation and the recent armory history this past year.

Uh as we all know, Parma is one of Somerville's most c colorful bohemians, and bohemians can sometimes be storytellers.

So I was initially doubtful of everything she was telling me regarding um the recent armory history, the armory master plan, and her eviction.

I thought this can't be accurate, she must be exaggerating, there must be another side to the story.

There's no way the city is acting in the way she's telling me.

But as I went down the armory rabbit hole, and it was very much so a rabbit hole, uh, everything she told me was verifiable.

I truly believe that if this armory situation was not so confusing to the average Somerville, we would be seeing a much more amplified response to what is going on.

I don't pretend to understand all the inner workings of how certain decisions are made, but from the perspective of someone in the private arts entertainment industry, these city-led armory decisions come off as a bit clumsy and I don't mean to be controversial, but uh sometimes incompetent.

And this eviction feels like the tip of the iceberg.

Uh I attended the mayoral arts forum at Warehouse 11 on August 25th, and I listened to all three mayoral candidates discuss the importance of art and their promise to reduce displacement.

The candidates seem to be in agreement that the city should work towards adding live work spaces.

At the forum, I learned all about the work that went into these studies and proposals in the Somerville Cultural Capacity Plan and the displace excuse me, displacement task force.

All three candidates discussed their vision of making the armory a leading arts hub.

Mayor elect Wilson admitted the city had been a bad landlord.

During the forum, Wilson also indicated the city uh the city studies are not enough and we need to take more action.

Talk is cheap, Wilson said.

It is true that the current administration is criticized for being inactive.

So it is confusing that when the city actually decides to take action and make a meaningful impact in artists' lives, it is to displace, it is to evict, and it is to eliminate artist housing.

There's no way this eviction is representative of all the work that went into all those cultural studies and proposals.

During this past campaign season, Parma and I were working with Councillor Burnley on solutions to this issue.

Had he won the election, Burnley indicated he could have potentially used executive action to keep Parma's apartment designated as artist housing.

Is that true?

Okay, good.

Anyone put the words in your mouth?

Uh I'm asking for Mayor Elect Wilson to consider uh the solution.

Uh Mayor Lect Wilson will take office in January, and Parma's eviction is set for February.

Please do not let this eviction be the Summerville and Artists' introduction to the new administration.

Rather, let its reversal be the introduction to Mayor Wilson and let this reversal snowball into an arts agenda that caters to local artists instead of an agenda that works against them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can I why while you're here?

Can I just clarification just for the record and I think it's pretty clear, but the um the the materials that you've that were filed, the signatures don't mention a public hearing.

But so the the request is they were submitted as a request to to uh um to hold a public hearing.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay, good.

So we got that on the record since if anyone's reading it, doesn't actually say public hearing anywhere.

Um want to make sure we close that loop for the for the records.

Very well.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh Council Burling.

Thank you.

And I'd also uh like to sponsor John Jay to speak.

All right, thank you.

Please introduce yourself for the record.

Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you, Willie.

This too is my first time speaking at a council meeting.

Hello, counselors.

Y'all may have seen me around town.

Um I lived in Somerville for about 10 years and out of the blue.

Um was one of the first art spaces that I partook in back when it was in Central Square.

And it, you know, it helped me um get the notion to like be creative.

And I would be very sad for it to be evicted from Somerville, which I don't think it's gonna be kicked out of Somerville.

Yes, they're at at the armory now.

Um and they want to stay there.

And um I hope that they can find a good home in this lovely city of the arts.

Um I'm not a great speaker.

I'm glad that I did doing this now, other than before the summer ball for Palestine group.

Because better than having to speak for in front of everybody.

I second everything that uh my friend over here says.

Good words of someone who's prepared.

Um but I just hopefully that like he said, uh, Mr.

Soon to be mayor, that you can support and not kick the out of the blue armory or out of the blue art gallery out of the armory in the middle of winter.

And if they if they can't stay there, at least find them a new home in one of the many empty spaces in Somerville.

Um that would be great.

All right.

Could you just repeat your name clearly for the record so we can read it?

Yes, I'm John J.

Pillmeyer.

Um I work in Somerville.

Uh unfortunately I just moved to Cambridge, but I don't know.

Hopefully that doesn't take you mean anything less.

All right.

Thank you.

Um I I do request that you take this to public hearing for the out of the blue art gallery and Parma Chatter Padaye and Steve Asaro.

Uh they deserve to speak the truth of what's happening to them.

I believe from what I've heard from Parma, a good friend of mine, they have been treated unfairly at the armory um by uh I think I heard Tom Galligani, the current owner of the armory, which is also a city employee, which I don't know if that's legal or not.

I don't know all the legalities.

Are they allowed to leave own what the city owns it?

Okay, is all the letters are were all under his name, and I don't know.

She told me that he owned it, but whatever.

But I just hope she gets a public hearing.

All right.

Well, we will it is is my intent to uh to send this to committee um for that purpose.

I think housing community development, Council Strauss, that sound like a good spot for it.

All right, very well.

Is this so a public hearing in A C D if you so choose?

But I think that that would seem like the best uh committee for this one to go to.

See any other questions?

All right.

I think I think housing community development's probably given the nature of the request is probably what is unless there's an objection.

All right, so that is approved with a copy to um housing community development.

Thank you.

If I may it won't be before uh if I may, it won't be before the beginning of next year because it's too late to add it to the agenda, so that'd be known.

All right.

Uh at least don't let them have to move in the middle of February, hopefully.

We we will we will work on the uh on the scheduling job.

We'll see what we can figure out.

Um we do have we unfortunately we given the nature of the time in the calendar, we are limited in our number of days that are left um to work with.

Thank you.

All right.

Um before we start tonight's meeting.

Let's take a quick break.

Seven to nine minutes.

Or when or when everyone gets enough people get back there that we can start again.

So five things uh we can have to take the fact that we're going to still have to stay with my service until that ends.

Maybe just like small and then it comes right.

Yeah, we'll just have a dog.

Yeah, I mean more.

Yeah, I think why would you have a point?

The next order of business is item four point one, an order by Councillor Davis that the director of infrastructure and asset management update this council on how the foundation at the Brown School is monitored, whether mitigation is required to address any concerns, and if so, the details of those mitigation plans.

This is an item that came up with the school committee.

Uh seeing no uh no discussion that items approved and with a copies to school buildings facilities and maintenance.

Item four point two is a communication by Counselor Davis in his capacity as president, conveying this council's updated standing and special committee assignments and commission appointments for twenty twenty-five.

Item four point three is a resolution by Councillor Streso that the administration and relevant city departments discuss the cost and work required to get the founder's rank reopened and functioning.

Councilor Streso.

Mm-hmm.

Can you send it to Housing and Community Development Committee, please?

Approved with copy to housing and community development.

Item four point five is a resolution by Councillor Strazzo.

That the administration, the director of mobility, and the director of health and human services discuss the recent closure of the West Somerville Community Bike Path bordering Cambridge and present a plan to address this closure.

Counselor Strazzo.

I hand this ward seven work over to the Ward Seven counselor.

It's all yours.

Um I have enjoyed stepping into the role as a Ward Seven counselor and taking on more work uh Ward Seven is as an at-large counselor.

I'm happy just being an at-large counselor and um and and not having borders of where in I like to be able to roam.

However, this order to our newly appointed uh Ward 7 Counselor Emily Hart.

Yay.

Um was brought forward by by neighbors that uh uh that are very concerned now that they the Cambridge uh uh community path is is closed.

Cambridge uh Somerville right on the west side of our city.

And they're tossed around without very few answers of how this affects Somerville and their their um neighborhood.

And residents are being uh I'm sorry, uh bike path uh people, everyone using it are being diverted and detoured to go through side streets that may or may not be able to accommodate cars, people, etc.

And I have not had any success getting concrete answers.

I think we should discuss this in committee.

Counselor.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um I just wanted to thank you, uh, Counselor Streso, um, for working on this and just to uh state my concerns with the situation.

It does seem very dangerous.

There's um bikes and pedestrians going where there's no sidewalk and there's no signage and there's no preparation for for that kind of um traffic.

Um so I look forward to being able to uh address this.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Also forgot.

Also forgot uh there's also so the so there's numerous department directors that need to be discussing this as well.

Want to point that out.

Uh the the residents are also seeing an increase of needles.

And because the bike path is closed off in that little pocket, it there's as of yet to be heard any plan of how how we're going to be addressing that.

And uh I had another point, but I forgot it.

Anyhow, please send it to the committee.

Thank you.

HCD, yes, thank you.

So that item is approved for the copy to housing and community development.

Item 4.7 is a communication by Councilor Strazzell conveying concerns regarding the increasing costs to low-income pet owners and inviting community members to help solve concerns about pet food insecurity and the cost of veterinary care.

Council Stressel.

Thank you.

Uh if you if your SNAF benefits aren't coming in, how are you going to be able to feed your pet as well?

And I think we need to be talking about this.

I think that owning a pet is becoming more and more of a a class barrier, quite frankly.

Um that bills are uh out of control, and you can't even walk into a veterinary uh office without plunking down hundreds of dollars sometimes, simply even just for a vet visit.

Now when we talk about food and and what animals can eat or are et cetera.

First off, our our furry friends, our pets are are helpful with mental health and provide support and love and need to be present, and the idea of pet ownership should never be a class barrier.

We have Tufts additionally, and I would love one day to explore this as part of our pilot program if we get some commitments that Tufts has a veterinary um uh the program.

Is there any way that we can partner with Tufts and they could provide student-led services for pet owners, low-income pet owners in these times for residents of Somerville.

Can we have this conversation?

Can we talk about it?

And when we talk about food for pet ownership, Project Soup has um has some pet uh pet donations.

I'm also hearing of a few uh like striches and boops and uh other uh pet uh uh stores in Somerville that are accepting donations for foods.

We need so much more.

It's something I think that isn't considered when we talk about uh disparity and low-income people in our city, and we have to have this conversation.

Um yeah, I think it would be good to go to committee.

It's uh I I'm gonna say equity because it it's a very uh interestingly written order and want to make sure it's the conversation is is done properly.

All right.

That item will be approved.

Or actually just placed on file with a copy of the equity.

Item 4.9 is a resolution by Councilor Ewan Campin requesting that the administration cooperate with this council to establish a water and sewer rate commission to establish water and sewer rates and to oversee abatements, as is common in other Massachusetts cities.

Councilor Wilson would like to sign on.

Counselor Ewan Kevin.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Can we uh read the next item as well and take them up?

Um, Council Council State would like to sign on that first item as well.

And item 4.10 is a resolution by Councilor Ewing Campin in support of the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority committing additional resources to stormwater management.

Council and Kevin.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh I want to note earlier today I spoke with Councilor Mbaugh, who would like to be added as a co-sponsor on the the second item.

Um so we have a massively important issue that is facing the council right now.

Um and it's something I really do not think is getting enough attention.

Um and I think is honestly been quite hard for people in the public to understand.

And it is the issue of how we're gonna fix sewage overflows into local rivers, um, and specifically how we're gonna pay for that.

Um so I have two items on tonight's agenda.

First, I want to talk about a resolution about paying, um, and then I have a second proposal uh on what I think is uh is a better way for us to set water rates.

Um so to talk about sewage and and the costs.

So as everyone here knows, we are undertaking a legally required process to come up with a proposal um called the long-term combined sewer overflow plan.

Um this council has received many long, probably 200 or more PowerPoint slides from Director Risch.

Incredibly technical um presentations about a series of infrastructure projects um that are designed to address the fact that raw sewage after large storms goes into the rivers.

Alewife, Mystic, Charles.

Um the city, together with Cambridge with the MWRA is proposing a series of incredibly expensive, massive infrastructure projects that we will be legally required then to do.

Um and I think honestly, a lot of people in the public that they know about the problem, and but when they start hearing the details of these proposals, it's so technical and complex that people kind of throw their hands up.

Um so I really want to clarify this.

And and what I think the kind of message is.

The deal is cities like Somerville are being put in a completely impossible situation.

We are required to cover the lion's share of the costs of this infrastructure of reducing sewage going into rivers.

Um the MWRA, that's the Mass Water Resources Association, they they don't significantly contribute to stormwater issues, right?

They handle clean drinking water, sewage treatment, Deer Island, um, but they don't pay for the stormwater related the sewage overflows, um, and so a huge percentage of that cost comes on to us.

And the costs are astronomical.

And what this means for the public, um, if you look at the plan that Director Raish gave to this council, there's a slide where he says we expect rate increases for water and sewer bills over the next five years annually, 15 to 20 percent increases a year for five years minimum.

You can do the math.

That's basically tripling water bills in five years from where they are now, which is already has been very difficult.

Um so when I say I don't think that's going to happen.

Um that's not like me making a threat of what I'm gonna do.

Um I'm just describing a political reality that is not going to happen.

Um there there isn't a city council in the world that is going to voluntarily raise rates triple in five years and keep their seats.

Um you do not have to be a political genius to understand that fact.

So the the issue is even if we did magically get all that money uh to pay for this stuff, the plan is not even good enough.

Um I know that colleagues have met with the river associations that actually work on this stuff, they are like fuming mad because while these obviously make improvements, they do not eliminate sewage going into the L WAF.

They make it less frequent, but they don't eliminate it, and and other rivers as well.

Um so that's what I say, uh why I say it's an impossible situation, right?

We're being asked to spend basically an impossible amount of money to to burden ratepayers to do a project that's not even good enough.

Um so what is the solution?

I think it is extremely straightforward.

Um the MWRA needs to pay more.

Um I think they need to get much more actively involved in funding this plan right now, the LWF Brook plan, um, as well as m more generally.

Um so right now they're they're controlled by their enabling legislation set up in the 1980s that gives them very kind of strict guidelines on what they they do and don't get involved is, and uh and I personally think that that should be addressed.

Um this is a state level action.

Um but the issue is that the the stormwater issues that cause the sewage overflows, they're not caused by Somerville alone.

They happen regionally across, you know, the storms don't care the municipalities, right?

The issue kind of in terms of just basic physics is controlled by this huge area, and the economies of scale, the kind of sharing the burden among all these communities needs to be controlled by some kind of regional authority.

Um so the purpose of this resolution um is just to drive home a really simple message and to clarify the ask.

Um we need the state to take action so that the MWRA steps up to help cover the costs of planning and building the storm water and sewage overflow um plan.

Because right now we are just being put in a completely impossible situation and it is not going to end well.

Um that is uh I just hope that we can kind of simplify that message for the public.

Um I'll take a pause before talking about the water rates.

Okay, uh Councillor Schweiz would like to sign on, Councilor State would like to sign on, um Councilor Burnley would like to sign on, Councillor Hart sign on or speak.

Okay.

And Councillor Wilson, because the whole council.

Um I have Councillor Ba, Councillor Klingon.

We'll start there.

Thank you, Mr.

President, and uh thank you, Councillor Uincamp for that elaborate, you know, uh talking point about this because the way we we've seen this we've heard the loud and clear, even uh from the last presentation that we saw, is pretty clear that you know we do not want water quality downgrade because the with the presentation they went to the like the lowest section that they could possibly pull out.

So MWRA has proposed a revision of the water quality standard to avoid making required investments and a water quality standard downgrade will roll about decades of progress that has been made to clean up our rivers.

So it means that more pollution and four times as much seawage by 2050 due to climate change.

So when just as you know, the good counselor mentioned also, so they presented unworkable alternatives.

They're the proposed that to revise the water quality standard, explain why the various proposals for the updated long-term CSO control plan are unworkable.

And this were designed to be rejected for a number of reasons, including level of control, cost, construction impacts to the resource area and community impacts.

Such unworkable plans will support downgrading the water quality standard, permitting more raw sewage in our rivers.

And if you look back like 25-year level of storm control, that dimension that was needed, it's it's pretty clear that you know they will not even achieve that.

So there's no need for a water quality downgrade because mini like GEP even will not even allow that.

So it would be really crazy if actually the analysis allowed that to happen.

So and the next thing, like the good counselor said is that we want MWRA to be able to pay for this.

So the MWA was created for the state legislature in 1984 to tackle the region's greatest environmental crisis, that is sewage pollution, seawa infrastructure failures and decades of mismanagement.

MWRA was empowered with a dedicated funding mechanism for infrastructure upgrades through seawater rate increases.

If it, for example, the Boston harbor cleanup was mostly paid with MWIA funding through rate increases.

So those rate increases in the 80s and in the 90s raised about five billion dollars funding historic improvement at the Deer Island treatment plan, reducing combined seawa overflows.

So there's a precedence.

But the pollution problems in Boston Harbor, if you see the charts and the um the charts, the mystic, the Aliwai Brook are all part of that effort.

Like everybody's all lumped into it.

I'll wrap up my editorial here by you know saying like MWRA's responsibility for the Aliwai Brook Sea Seawall system, the two large interceptors, Aliwai Brook Conduit that was built in 1948 and the Aliwai Brook branch sea were built in 1896 belong to MWRA.

So the LY Brook Palm Station at Dilboyfield is owned and operated by them as well.

So according to their consultant, the regional sea wall system simply cannot move this much seawage during storms.

When it rains, the deer island treatment plan reaches capacity.

Chelsea Creek headworks backs up.

Then the Allyway Brook pump station is overwhelmed.

At that point, raw seawage from Cambridge, some of the discharges into the Alleware Brook because it has nowhere else to go.

So to wrap up, they can pay for this.

So MWR funding projects using bonds with over 30 years amortization schedule at 5.25%.

A billion dollar isn't so much money when you can split up among million customers.

So I think we we will be watching how this conversation unfolds, but I think we are all on the same page that you know.

And the thing that puzzled me before I wrap up is the fact that our director who is who is like the director of infrastructure asset management is also the chair of MWRA.

So when when Director Rage was presented, I wasn't sure if it was presented on behalf of the city or on behalf of MWRA.

You know, so it was it was a very interesting, you know, dynamic, but I think it will be nice to actually do that suppression, even if it means he refused himself because we don't know where his loyalty is.

But you know, I'll leave it there.

Councilor Clingen.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, you know, this is one of those problems that I feel like we inherited as a council.

Um I mean we did inherit it.

I don't know when it started though, historically, you know, I I hear the 80s in terms of you know whether this was sort of a similar move by government when um, you know, to to um like like the MDC, how the MDC used to be the MBC, then they became the uh then they became DCR and mass dot, you know, that so when government starts making these big shifts and making cuts and pushing costs back onto municipalities, you know.

You know, that so when government starts making these big shifts and making cuts and pushing costs back on to municipalities, you know, um as I said, we inherited this.

And I appreciate the leadership by Council U and Campa because I've been sitting here for a number of years hoping and expecting that the city would, you know, I don't know, maybe they maybe we weren't getting the banner uh that we were supposed to they'll basically get together and and push the state uh delegation to I don't know, undo the uh an acting legislation.

I don't know what that does to the MWRA on a statewide scale.

Maybe they need to regionalize and like I don't know.

That's up to them to figure out.

The bottom line is is that it angered me when every time they would say, by the way, MWRA, they they think we can actually pay more.

Like our people based on our income, like we, you know, the the median income, we can pay actually afford to pay more.

Um and as was said, I mean, the these rate increases, I mean, we had to do 30 percent increase with water 12 percent or water 18, 12, sewer 12.

Uh, you know, we can't keep going like this.

Um, you know, the the thing I I I want to say, so you know, you talk to people that used to swim in the mist in the uh the the Mystic River over by the boathouse.

So you talk to people I used to, when I was a kid, it was still a little bit cleaner.

I used to people used to fish.

I used to fish in the Al Wave Pro Parkway.

I grew up in West Somerville at it for a time.

Um, again, it's like all these 80s problems coming home to roosts, like similar to the Winter Hill schools.

This time of like austerity or whatever it was that we're now having to push on our ratepayers, and it's time to reverse that.

It's time to get, you know, Somerville does not have the money that some of its neighbors does.

And that's not even for fair for them to have to pay.

But I'm just saying to for Somerville, this is a huge burden.

Um and so I appreciate, you know, the like I said, the flashing light must not have sometimes that's what that's what it takes as one of us just be like, well, why are what what why are we accepting this as like you know, and I and from my point of view, I kind of thought, well, I feel like the city would be advocating you know, and and sort of pushing us, and maybe again, maybe we weren't getting the the red alert banner.

So I'm happy to support this and sign on, and I'm happy to support any uh you know efforts towards pushing the state delegation, representative barber and so on, uh, or you know, and and or reversing this uh the uh uh enabling legislation, whatever we have to do to uh to make this right.

So thank you uh for bringing this forward.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um one clarification, if I may, Councilor Ba um quick confirmation of my recollection is Director Raish uh serves as the chair of the executive committee and the advisor MWA advisory board, which is a separate entity from the MWRA as I understand it, just so there's no confusion there.

Um we can certainly uh ask him for some clarification next time he's before us.

Um do we want these to uh quote committee?

We want to leave them as they uh until the next item uh place about file till the next item comes up.

Counselor Clingen, President Penn.

So through you to Councilor UN Campbell, have you talked to the state delegation at all?

I mean that it must have been I I have to think Senator Jalen or somebody this has to have come up or you know, is there any legislation in the works that we can support uh through a resolution of the state level?

Chairman Campbell.

Um Mr.

President, through you.

Um we are very lucky that Representative Barber is actually the chair of the relevant committee.

Um I I haven't had in-depth conversations, and you know, I I'm not sure that I should be the one to have those conversations.

Um, but uh I I think our delegation is very informed on these issues, and you know, we should I I certainly hope that we have these kind of move forward with some urgency now.

Do we send something to the state delegation?

Uh copy of something.

Mr.

President, the resolution asks for a copy to be sent to the delegation.

All right.

Great.

Councilor Ba?

Yes.

Uh uh to you uh Mr.

President, I think we should also send a copy to finance because we already have a C A CSO is in finance right now.

So we can just take both up together.

Any objection?

All right.

A copy will be sent uh to the state delegation as per uh the uh text of the resolution.

Uh those items are supposed to be approved with uh copy to finance.

And Mr.

President at the if it's all right, I would like to speak on the water rate commission as well.

Go right ahead.

So uh so let's uh let me correct myself.

Um the first item on uh second item, I guess, uh stormwater management will be approved copy finance.

Um counselor campan, um back to you on item 4.9.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

On the subject of rate increases, um I have always been really mystified um by the process by which the city council uh is is asked to to approve of the water rates.

Um as far as I can tell, it is designed by a maniacal sadist.

Um it is like the very last night of budget season.

The city council is the angriest and most exhausted and most fed up of the entire year, and then were asked to approve a giant rate increase or face some horrifically bad outcome.

Um I did learn it was actually set up by Bill White, not the maniac, actually one of my favorite summer billions uh of all time, but regardless.

Um I have learned many municipalities in Massachusetts have settled on a different way.

Um there are many municipalities that have an appointed water and sewer commission, appointed by the mayor and or the city council, obviously um with approval, confirmation by the council.

So these would be people who are subject matter experts who understand legal obligations that the city has taken, um, understand the rate burdens that the residents are facing, and then actually have the time and the expertise to discuss this and kind of do this in what I would hope is a kind of more um uh with enough time to really think about it.

Um so I I have begun to look into the process of actually formally proposing this.

Um and it seems the reason I have a resolution tonight is because it it seems like it's probably more than a simple ordinance.

I've been working uh with with Brendan, City Council staff.

Um it might involve a new administrative code under our new charter.

Um while we're working with the solicitor's office to figure out the nuts and bolts.

I just wanted to raise this issue because honestly it was news to me that there there is another way.

Um and I just want to kind of raise this issue if there are feedback um from colleagues, I I'm very much welcome it.

Council Clay.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I uh I I'm open to this idea.

I think I mean i you know it sounds like a much better idea, except uh you I and you did say that there would be council oversight, but it would be appointed by the the mayor's office.

I'm just you know curious wondering if people would because if if we're under the current system, we're pressured because the they say, well, we need money to do this project, the these infrastructure projects, and that's usually the basis of how we you know have how we're sort of the guns put to our head to decide these things.

Um so if you know the the perception might be that if they're just continuing to do these increases essentially at the best of the mayor.

Um, I would just be thinking that but but since you did say that uh and I'd be curious to have the conversation of how it happens in other communities.

Um appointment definitely sounds better than elected for sure.

Um so yeah.

Interesting topic, interesting conversation, definitely worth exploring, and I uh share your sentiments about you know the council being being the ones that are uh on the hook for this.

Um, but I have some reservations.

Councilor Pop.

Yeah, no, thank you, Mr.

President.

I think this is an excellent idea.

Just having like another layer, you know, before us to actually review this stuff, the technocrats, people understand also have a background in it, it's helpful for us.

So this is for me, this is like really no brainer.

But I I don't know why I would never thought about this.

Like it's very helpful to have because they will still come to us.

Uh we we define our approval for the the increases, but having another layer is is it's like you can you can't beat that.

Thank you.

All right, that item is approved.

Councillor Campin, um when we figure out what the next step is, we'll we can submit a new item.

All right, very well.

Next item, Madam Park.

Item 4.11.

Is an order by Councillors Mba and Saeed that the director of engineering and director of mobility coordinate to install a traffic light at the intersection of Benton Road and Highland Avenue to prevent fatalities.

That item is approved.

It was Councilor Bott.

Yeah, just just to say this is not just another random order.

I this is actually visited at I was like doing just uh uh a little I was at the Amory, saw like one of the sisters that live around there.

And just observing like the dynamics, she literally says she got hit.

Not as this is not a near me.

This is somebody that got hit three years ago.

I was like, wow.

It's like how did that happen?

She's like, oh, it when people are trying the cars and trying to turn left, they're only looking at cars.

They don't think about people crossing the street.

So I think it it should actually, you know, be looked at.

It should this should be a priority, you know, uh item that should be looked at.

You know, thank you.

Okay.

That item is approved.

Uh Council State, did you want to speak on that?

Three, Mr.

President to Councilman Ba.

Would you like to have this sent to traffic and parking to keep track of it or thank you, Councillor Zate.

Yeah, traffic impact.

Okay, approved with a copy of traffic and parking.

Item 4.12 is a communication by Councillor Mbaugh conveying a report of the job creation and retention trust fund.

Councilor Ba.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

You guys are gonna be hearing my voice a lot today.

Um so we met the this uh job creation and retention trust met on October 27.

Uh they took you know actions to commit funds to two and eight extensions of new existing programs.

And the first was under the new programs, you know, uh under the category of the good municipal jobs.

They involved 200,000 to summer the center for adult learning that skill to train workers for city facilities maintenance position, and then 200,000 to the summer v community cooperation to train workers in building construction skills.

Existing city employees as well as new applicants can apply for this enhanced skills training.

Second, in response to an RFP, the existing contractors have proposed extension of their programs, and the trustees have chosen to fund it.

They will total 914,000 dollars.

This includes programs of Bunker Hill Community College, Skill Cast, Mass Hire, MetroNot Workforce, but they involve eight English learnings linked to specific industry, technical training, career counseling, and preparation for work and specific sector technical training.

At the same time, this new and extended programs will get underway.

Two successful programs have finished.

First was the health care jobs training program of skill that has prepared trainees to take the nursing certification exam.

Sixty candidates have passed the exam as of August.

Three were already employed, and several others interviewing for jobs.

I think this remarkable.

And then this other program that disappeared that I mentioned, uh during this uh appropriation of funds, the postsecondary success program run by the Sumavi High School Counselors has been assisting and providing mentors after graduation for 90 former students, 30 each year for 2023, fiscal year, 2024 and 2025.

These graduates are now either in college or in technica and career training.

Unfortunately, because the APA grant monies have finished, the program has come to an end at the end of October.

So no reapplication was made because the trust is also running short in linkage revenue.

So a revival of this high school program could take place outside of the trust because some of these programs are even funded through the general funds in Cambridge and in Boston.

So I hope that you know, through this uh uh study of our stabilization accounts, we can find alternative funding to continue this program.

I hope uh uh I wish that we the um a new mayor is listening right here, you know, will kind of like jump back and take this program on.

May this report be accepted as submitted, Mr.

President.

Okay, thank you, Councillor Ba.

Uh that item is placed on file.

Item 4.13 is an ordinance by Councillor Wilson, amending chapter 8, Article 3 of the Code of Ordinances pertaining to secondhand dealer licenses.

Council Wilson.

Mr.

President, after hearing from a several business owner this fall about a really frustrating experience trying to navigate uh a licensing process.

Uh I spoke to our legislative and policy analyst about this.

Uh he and uh our licensing operations manager were extremely helpful in putting together uh the proposed ordinance uh that's before you here uh that we believe fixes uh that unclear language in our code of ordinances.

I'll ask that this be sent to legislative matters for y'all to do your thing.

All right.

Uh that uh referred to legislative matters.

Item 4.14 is an order by Councillor Wilson that the director of inspectional services update this council on the rodent hormonal birth control program being jointly piloted with the city of Cambridge.

Council Wilson.

Mr.

President, just uh send this one to run issues, please for our agenda.

Items uh approved with a copy to road and issues the next item then is item six B, a report of the committee on land use meeting and joint session with the redevelopment authority on November 6th, 2025.

Council McGaughlin Thank you, Mr.

President.

We did meet.

We had a good public hearing.

Uh the records are there.

I submit the community report to be accepted.

Any discussion on the committee report?

Uh seeing none, that is accepted as submitted.

Item 6C is a report of the committee on licenses and permits meeting on November 12th, 2025.

Council Burnley.

Thank you.

Through the chair, we met uh yesterday.

Uh for the approximately 15 minutes uh to discuss a single item proposed by Comcast who did not show up.

Um so if you're listening, Comcast, please show up next time.

Uh the item will remain in committee until you do.

And with that, I'd like for the report to be accepted as submitted.

Thank you, Council Burnley.

Uh seeing no discussion, that is accepted as uh submitted.

Item 6D is a report of the committee on public health and public safety.

Meeting on October 30th, 2025.

Council McGaughlin.

We had another great meeting that day.

I encourage you all to check out the minutes.

I submit the committee report to be accepted.

Any discussion on the committee report?

Seeing none, that is approved.

Item 6E is a report of the special committee on school building facilities and maintenance meeting on October 28th, 2025.

Council Clingen.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, uh we had also had a great meeting and um the video is online.

I asked that this report be accepted as submitted.

Discussion on the committee report.

Seeing none, that is approved.

Item 6F is a report of the committee on traffic and parking.

Meeting on October 27th, 2025.

Counselor site.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh we took up multiple items related to autonomous vehicle testing.

We discussed whether to ban or restrict autonomous vehicle testing locally.

Uh we learned from the law department staff that at the present time it is it is uh permissible to ban autonomous vehicle testing locally.

However, there is a pending legislation at the state and federal levels which would prevent banning it.

Staff added that if a local locality imposed a ban, it would be challenged in court.

I think that was the highlight of the meeting.

I request that the report be accepted as submitted.

All right, thank you.

Any discussion?

All right, see none.

That is accepted.

Approved.

Item 7.1 is a request of the mayor requesting ordainment of an amendment to section 2-309.9 and 2-09.

All right.

That is uh counselor just sending it to legislative matters.

Item 7.2 is a request of the mayor requesting approval of a pedestrian access easement and grant of a maintenance license for 495 Columbia Street.

All right, that'll be referred to finance.

Item 7.5.

Mr.

President, uh sorry, missed my cue here.

Uh I'll ask you waive uh the readings of items uh 75 to 78, 710, and 71, 713 to 718, and 10.4, and ask these be sent to finance.

All right, seeing no objection, those items are sent to finance.

Item 7.9 is a request of the mayor requesting approval to retain McCaffey and Nice LLC as outside legal counsel with respect to employment matters relating to immigration status.

We're just here for questions or yes, thank you, Mr.

President.

Um the administration would like to have this item for immediate consideration.

We should have a solicitor um Matt Syriago on the um a remote to answer any questions and speak on this item.

Thank you.

Any questions on the item?

Council Burnley.

Thank you.

Uh question and context.

Uh through you.

Okay.

Um through you, uh it's my recollection that council rightly can we confirm that we have um go ahead, Castler.

What wanna make sure we had someone hearing your question?

Yeah.

I just also was hearing something else.

Okay, what is that?

Um, through you, it's my recollection that uh we currently have a contract uh for these services, uh, but it expires next year or next the upcoming fiscal year, if I'm remembering right.

Is that correct?

Can you console on what is that?

Council President through your contract with with whom?

Hold please.

We're working through some technical difficulties.

You have representative from the law office on uh participating remotely, so I want to make sure that he can both hear the question and respond.

Uh sorry, can you hear me now?

We can hear you now.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Excellent.

Um this is an uh council president through you.

Um this is an uh council president through you, thank you uh to the good counselor with the question.

Um I just wanted to clarify with whom uh we may have a contract.

This is a new contract for a new outside council.

Through the chair correct.

Uh my question was the current contract uh is expiring next year.

Uh is is that information that you have?

I would just want to get that as a baseline.

Uh council present through yeah, it's uh we are requesting approval for a one-year contract, yes.

Um, but this is a new outside immigration attorney where we're seeking to retain uh to provide services for the first time given the complexity uh and the con the changes we're frequently seeing at the federal level in this area through the chair.

Thank you.

Uh yes, uh understanding that I'm just gonna leave my context uh as I stated, because I'm pretty sure my recollection is correct.

We have a contract with uh another vendor currently it is set to expire.

I I've tried to mention that a few times this year to uh because uh to the point of this item, I think it is really important that we ensure that these services are ongoing, that there are no gaps because these are the services provided through the immigration legal services stabilization fund that this council created um that are meant to support our neighbors when they face um deportation hearings or any immigration type hearings.

Um with that context, I understand why the administration will want to move quickly on this and try to get this approved uh without delay, particularly at the end of year.

So just wanna provide that context for the public and say I in support of this item.

Okay.

Any further questions or discussion?

All right, seeing none, then that item is approved.

Okay.

The next item then will be item 7.19 Mr.

President.

Thank you.

I would like to waive the readings of item 719 to 725 and refer those to confirmation of appointments 19 to 25.

See no objection, those are referred to confirmation of appointments.

Item 7.26 is a request of the mayor requesting confirmation of the appointment of Rona Fishman to the community preservation committee.

Council and Cabin.

I would like to move for approval.

Any discussion?

See no objection, that item is approved.

Item 7.27 is a request of the mayor requesting approval of an exemption from Marco McAllenny as required by MGL chapter 268A, Section 20B.

We've seen a few of these.

Any questions?

No.

All right.

Seeing none, that item is approved.

Item 7.28 is a communication of the mayor conveying the appointment of Charles McGonagall and the reappointment of Darcy Hanna and Cindy Lee to the municipal scholarship committee.

That item is placed on file.

Item 8.1 is an officer's communication from the city clerk submitting an amendment to the rules of the city council to align with the provisions of the city charter.

Let's send that to rules or legislative.

Or to legislative matters.

Is it something that is something we want in?

Yeah.

It was something we went on by January.

Let's send it to We got this one.

Item 8.2 is an officer's communication from the city clerk conveying block party licenses.

Black parties.

If you're not on the list and you haven't had a block party yet, call the clerk's office and find out how to do block parties because they're great.

That item is placed on file.

Item 8.3 is an officer's communication from the retirement board notifying this council of the declaration of Thomas Ross as the fourth member.

That item is placed on file.

Item 9.1 Council Burnley.

Yes, I'd like to move that items 9.1 through 9.4 be approved with the readings waived.

And I'll come back for the other ones with further context.

Okay.

Uh so it's 9.1 through 9.4.

Uh a few events coming up.

Uh seeing no objection.

Uh those are approved.

Item 9.6 is a public communication from Crystal House submitting comments regarding food access.

That item is placed on file.

Item 10.3 is an order by counselor Saeed that the director of mobility install a blue bike station at Junction Park.

That item will be laid on the table.

Mr.

President, I would like to send this item to traffic and parking.

Senate traffic and parking.

Okay.

It'll be then duly noticed and committee when it comes up so we can send it traffic and parking.

Item 10.5 is the request of the mayor requesting the appropriation of $67,000 from free cash to the executive department's special items account for mayoral transition expenditures.

Wait, did we already do 10.

Do we do 10.4?

Can I can I just say uh checked with the law department who checked with uh uh the state ethics commission?

I do not need to recuse myself from this.

Uh so the administration for uh because this is a very time sensitive issue, the administration has asked that it'll be uh actioned on this evening.

I chatted with the law department about that.

Move to approve uh motion to approve.

Any discussion?

Up to the mayor elect.

Your roll call.

No.

All right, that item is approved.

Uh Mr.

President, can I move for uh reconsideration in hopes that it fails?

Councilor Wilson moves for reconsideration in the hopes that reconsideration fails.

Does anyone wish to change your vote?

See not reconsideration is failed.

The next item is item 10.6, an officer's communication from the executive director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development, conveying a summary of community benefits funds that'll be laid on the table.

And then we came back out.

Will it be referred?

Will it be linked to that item?

It is it's linked to that item.

All right, then people will find it in due course so we can place that one on file.

Item 10 point sorry, did I miss one?

Okay.

No, okay.

Okay.

Item 10.7 is a new used car dealer license for Union Square Auto Sales at 39 Webster Avenue, 20 vehicles outside.

We can LMP, please.

Send that to license departments.

Item 10.8.

Councillor Burnley.

Just for clarification, for 10.8 through 10.10.

Are we allowed to approve them?

Do they need to be held down?

Is there a difference?

Thank you, Councilor Burnley.

I did discuss this with the law department today since we were having the conversation.

These are um all uh events that are coming up very quickly.

Um and so they express there is they expressed that that was not a significant concern if we decided to move forward on those this evening.

Then I move that uh items 10.8 through 10.10 be have their weeding readings waived and are approved.

All right, see if no objection, those items are approved.

And that brings us to the end of the agenda, Mr.

President.

Are there any late items?

I see no further items before this council.

All right.

Thank you, everyone.

And with that, Councillor Hart moves to adjourn.

We are adjourned.