All right, good evening, everyone.

I'm Jake Wilson.

He, him pronouns, Councilor Large and your finance committee chair.

It's 601 p.m.

And I'd like to call to order the Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 meeting of the Finance Committee, the Summer City Council.

First, I need to read you all this.

Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025.

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

We will post an audio video recording and a comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Centerville website and local cable access government channels.

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

Yep, this is roll call.

Counselor Mbaugh.

President.

Councilor Burnley.

President.

Councilor Klingon.

Present.

Counselor Scott.

President.

Chair Wilson.

Present.

All right, with that we have everyone here.

So we do have quorum.

Excellent.

I want to thank you all for uh for being here.

Good to have uh 100% attendance.

We're gonna take up tonight's agenda in the order posted.

Uh we will uh start with the approval of the minutes from our previous meeting, and that is ID number 25-1779.

Approval the minutes of the finance committee meeting of November 19th, 2025.

On the minutes, any discussion.

All right, the minutes are laid on the table.

We're recommend approval with one vote here at the end of the night.

We're gonna go now to our second agenda item, ID number 25-1742.

Uh it's the mayor requesting authorization to borrow $3 million $57,826 in a bond and to appropriate the same amount for the fiscal year 2026 street resurfacing program.

And we're gonna take this up along with uh our first appropriation, ID number 25-1743.

Uh the mayor requesting approval to appropriate $3 million from the street reconstruction and resurfacing stabilization fund for the FY 2026 street resurfacing program.

And I see we have uh Director Michael Richards uh from IAM and also uh Director Brian Postalweight from Engineering.

Take it away, please.

Whoever wants to take lead on this.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll uh I'll get this started.

Again, Michael Richards, Director of Finance and Administration for the Department of Infrastructure and Asset Management.

We've requested that these two items be considered together as they're part of our comprehensive FY26 street resurfacing program.

This is part of our annual uh appropriation request uh that's been included on our five-year CIP.

Uh this request and uh in a moment, Director Brian Postalwaite will share kind of our overall plan, how these are allocated and used.

But this uh keeps us on track with our five-year CIP.

Uh this request is in line with that total.

Um the stabilization request is uh requested here to defray some of that cost or relieve some of the burden on the bonding and the borrowing authorization.

We had previously uh expected to request $6,057,000 in change on the bond.

Uh and with Director Bean's guidance, we've reduced that to $3,057,000 in change with $3 million from stabilization to again uh decrease that that uh that impact on the borrowing authorization.

So these funds will be supplemented by other funding sources as again part of our comprehensive half-way 26 total streets package.

All right, thanks for that.

Uh colleagues, any discussion.

I'm sure there's something.

Six million dollar expenditure.

We all uh we all good with this.

Wish we could pay more streets, sir.

You and me both.

You and me both, counselor.

Uh all right.

Uh yeah, I'll echo uh our vice chair's comments there and and uh say uh more of this, please.

Colleagues, anything else on this?

Uh just uh since you since you keep uh kind of like activity and I guess you know, like I'm just curious to know if this is this will be somehow uh fully fund our street software program for 2026.

Through the church, excuse me, counselor.

Can you please repeat that question?

No, I'm wondering if this is you know this amount, you know.

Uh required, you know, a boat amounts in order quite to fully fund the fiscal year 2026 officing program for the streets.

Yes, thank you.

So uh as I mentioned, these two uh uh authorizations are part of overall five funding sources that will be used for two FY26 streets package projects.

Uh Director Postalweight has uh a PowerPoint presentation that he shared that I think maybe we be loaded as well on the tenth page of that presentation.

If Director Postalwaite is uh here, uh but I'll kind of spoil it here for you, uh, Councilor.

Uh you'll see the bottom, we have five different funding sources, one being chapter 90 for one nearly 1.9 million FY26 fair share, which is uh just a bonus allotment from the state, similar to the MassDoc chapter 90 program.

Uh our FY26 operating budget is the pay-go, and then you'll see that city bond and the stabilization fund.

So these five sub funds combined will fund the two projects that Director Postalway can get into for you as well.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

All right.

Director Postwith, you want to take it away?

Uh absolutely.

Um, and uh I will uh uh maybe spoil a little bit it the majority of the presentation is the same as what you all heard last year.

I think you have all seen the presentation before.

I think this slide is the most important slide.

Um and and I'll just cover a couple points on this before we go back to it.

We'll we'll flip through the rest of it quickly.

Um two key points here.

Um one is always uh we are, as Director Richards noted, we are following our five-year CIP plan.

Um we scheduled to spend about $9 million on FY26.

Um, and we are moving forward with that.

Um we broke this year's project up into two separate projects.

Um is our annual streets resurfacing project, um, which is um, if you remember some previous presentations, is a book job project.

It is a quick project to get out the door, and we are currently um working with PCS to get this out on the street within the next month or two.

Um and it uses state funds um so that we can get this out the door quickly.

The bond authorization, the stabilization fund is primarily going to fund the West Pearl Street Complete Streets project, um, which we are currently wrapping up design on uh with our consultant.

We have done a number of uh public outreach um programs uh to discuss the project with the community.

Uh and so that's why we've broken these up into two separate projects um so that we could expedite both of them on the time scale that was best suited for the design work on each.

Um uh we will be including a certain amount of specific ADA improvements and uh very street reconstruction on the Western Pearl um uh complete streets project, primarily because there's a handful of other side streets adjacent or near the West Pearl project um that justifies having that element closer to that contract.

So again, we're trying to get as much efficiency as we can out of our contracts by keeping contractors relatively close to where they are doing the bulk of their work.

Um so clerk, this is the absolute last slide.

We can roll to the front and we can flip through.

Um committee absolutely stop me at any point for questions.

Um uh most of this is just reprise information that we have discussed in years past.

Um next slide.

Uh so again, the primary goals of all of our street reconstruction project is traffic calming and safety.

So providing the bike lanes, the speed humps, the raised tables to um to best protect our most vulnerable users and also keep traffic flowing and ADA accessibility.

Um Scott, did you have a question during this uh at this point?

I see a hand up.

Oh, I I did.

I just had a quick one since we were talking about Pearl Street, sir.

Sure, Counselor Scott.

Uh I just want to want to be certain.

There's been a lot of work done in on Pearl Street over the last few years and uh those those turtles in the intersections in East Somerville.

I know they're divisive, but I've heard a lot of people love them.

Uh I guess I'm curious uh is the intention for when you say you're you're going west of uh McGrath.

Oh, so we're we're only talking about the stretch here between Magoon Square and uh McGrath, is that right?

Um through the chair, between roughly Gilman Square and McGrath Highway.

Um so uh clerk, if you just scroll down to I think it's slide five.

Maybe it's six.

One more, okay.

Next one.

I was wrong.

Yeah, this one here.

So um we didn't put the full design on here.

Um uh counselor, uh, but just showed you.

But since you asked this, this project starts right at the intersection of Medford and Pearl Street and then continues east until it hits um McGrath Highway.

And that's and on the other side of McGrath Highway, it ties into the Pearl Street project that we completed a few years ago.

All right, just looking out for my turtles, sir.

Thank you.

We will not be touching your turtles.

Uh put that one in the quotes of the city council minutes, uh, Mr.

Chair.

Absolutely.

Uh back to the presentation, director.

Okay.

Um, I think it's uh slide three we were on.

Um like every year, we base our uh street reconstruction prioritization on our five-year paving plan.

Um, this plan is uh we develop it every few years um to cover the entire city.

Uh just this year we started on a new three year streets condition assessment.

Um we have already begun working on the western third of the city.

Uh we've re we've assessed the roadway pavement.

Um we are working right now on the sidewalk conditions assessment for West Somerville.

This set of three years analysis is focused on an ADA assessment, looking at the specific ADA compliance of our sidewalks because we want to incorporate that into our five-year plan more clearly rather than using proxy information, which is what we've been using in the past few years.

Um the uh so when we get to executing um and analyzing our next five-year plan, we will begin using this new data that we're bringing in over the next over this year, next year, and the following year.

Uh next slide.

All right.

This is just a cover slide.

Thanks.

So again, um I I alluded to this or mentioned this earlier on the numbers uh slide, but we are breaking this up into two separate projects this year.

So we have an annual reconstruction project that uh effectively is reconstructing full streets, which is reconstructing the sidewalk and full curve to curb, where both the sidewalks and the roadway needs to be reconstructed.

On some streets, we are doing just sidewalk construction because the roadway is in access acceptable uh condition relative to other streets in the area, but the sidewalks need um extra help.

Uh and then we have a handful of partial pavements where we're milling and overlay just the travel way where our analysis shows the sidewalks are are not critical to being reconstructed.

And that's so that we can prioritize where our constituents and the community need the paving the most, whether it's in the roadway or the sidewalks.

Um we are also doing some accessibility reconstructions.

We know that there's some um isolated locations where race crossing, accessible curb ramps, but also speed humps, etc., where there are um extra locations, usually within the uh within the um area of the contract that needs some extra attention for uh safety and accessibility improvements.

Next slide.

So we have uh, as I said, we've already gone out to um or we're preparing to go out to bid for the the first half of this year's contract, and we have our streets assigned.

So we have three full streets that we're working on.

Uh uh Holy Oak Road, which is over near the Kennedy School.

This is a key road that I want to highlight for a moment.

Uh this street was uh recently upgraded their gas line.

It is also very high on our prioritization list.

So we are working with Eversource to receive funds from them to help us pay for reconstructing the street rather than Eversource pay to reconstruct uh or pay to do a permanent trench patch, and then we come in and pave it all over again.

They are supplementing our funds to uh pay for the whole thing, and that absolves them of the requirement to do the permanent trench patch.

So we do that moving forward where the trench patch reconstruction for the gas line and the city's work coincide so that we're getting the most efficiency out of the dollars that everybody's spending, and also minimizing the construction time that the abutters have to uh enjoy.

Uh the next two streets are Grandview Avenue and Aldersea.

And then we are also doing sidewalk only construction on Prescott Street and partial pavement only on Putnam Street.

Uh, you'll notice that the last four streets here are primarily focused in the Spring Hill neighborhood.

These are streets that we couldn't incorporate into the Spring Hill project, uh, but continue to be high on our list for reconstruction.

Uh so now that that project is over, we're pulling that into our annual reconstruction projects.

But we did definitely did not want to be doing annual reconstruction projects in the same work zone as the Spring Hill work at the same time.

Uh next slide.

Uh this slide I mentioned briefly uh for council Scott earlier.

Uh the second contract that we're going to be doing is a West Pearl Reconstruction.

Uh again, we've been doing some outreach.

We've been working on design uh with the community.

We are going to be about complete with design.

I would say by the end of January, maybe beginning of February.

So we're expecting to go out to bid uh sometime later in the winter.

Hopefully, midwinter, late winter, we'll go out to bid, and that will put us into a construction uh cycle of later the summer, early fall for breaking ground.

Um next slide.

Yes.

And I just wanted just to give a shout out to our um accessibility team who is really looking around the city on a pretty regular basis, analyzing what uh sections of our city have isolated ADA repairs that need to be conducted.

Many of these repairs are um otherwise in a sidewalk that is otherwise compliant or mostly compliant.

Um, so examples are uh in the bottom corner, there is uh a crosswalk with a sidewalk connection to the crosswalk, but no accessible curb ramp.

Um, and this one in particular happens to be at Elm Street uh near Willow, uh, which we have included in this project.

So we're going to be coming in and putting in a curb ramp uh at this location.

But we have a handful of these locations throughout the city.

We have other locations where there are trees that don't have accessible routes behind them.

So we are working on putting in uh bump outs around the trees where it fits into the rest of the street network.

Um, these are things that we uh execute when they are on our list and adjacent to our project.

Um, but as many of you will remember from last year, we consult with DPW when there are locations further away from our contracts that aren't efficient for our contractors to do, and we support them in working with their on-call contractors to do the same elsewhere in the city.

Um, so we will have a portion of funds to go out and address these isolated ADA upgrades.

Uh, and I believe that brings us to the last slide, which I discussed first, um, and which covers how we're breaking up these two contracts, both where the money is coming from and where the money is going to on each of these contracts.

Um, and absolutely happy to answer any questions that uh the committee may have.

All right.

Thanks, Director.

Colleagues, what do we have on this one?

These two, I should say.

Two items are before us here.

Now that you know the full plan.

Could it be the the presentation has answered all of our questions?

Uh if so.

Um, all right.

I don't see any questions.

I guess uh I'll thank you for coming and presenting to us.

It's always uh it's fascinating to get this view of what's to come.

Uh, I know that your team uh puts a lot of work into packaging this and then doing the work to make sure that you're trying to address the the most urgent situations.

So um I I'll ask a question.

Uh a street that you know doesn't show up in here, but who but the people are are adamant needs some attention.

What's the best way to go about doing something about that?

Um Chair, I think there are there are a couple good pathways for people who have interests in their particular street or one that they go on on a regular basis.

I'd say the first and best way is just to ping 311.

Um if the if the street is already on our five-year plan, um, we will let we will respond of where that street is on our five-year plan.

Um, and if it is not on our five-year plan, we'll explain why it's not on our five-year plan.

Um, sometimes there are new things that have happened over the previous years since the five-year plan was done.

And we do look at the streets as they come in to see if something is substantially different from what our original analysis showed.

Um it's rare for those things to happen and escape our attention.

Um, but like all people, we're not infallible.

And uh, we look into that to make sure.

Uh so if there are is a correction that we need to make to our plan, we will apply that information to the following year.

And director, it's also worth pointing out that you know the city is looking at you know planned utility work and and whatnot beneath these streets, such that we don't want to go fully resurface the street if it turns out it needs to be dug up for substantial work under that street uh, you know, shortly thereafter.

You are very correct, Chair.

All right.

Well, that was all I had.

If no one else has anything, we're gonna lay these two on the table to recommend approval.

Thank you both for joining us.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

All right, Clerk.

Now I want to take up our fourth and fifth agenda items together.

Uh that's ID number 25-1747 requesting the appropriation of 205,000 from the Dilboy Field Enterprise Fund retained earnings to the Dilboy Field Enterprise Fund electricity account for delinquent energy bills, and ID number 25-1748 requesting the appropriation of 225,000 from the unreserved fund balance, free cash, to the Dilboy Field Enterprise Fund electricity account for delinquent electricity bills.

Uh we have with us uh Chief of Staff Nikki Spencer.

I see we have uh DPW Commissioner Jill Lathen.

And is that everyone here to speak on this one?

I think.

All right.

Uh whoever wants to take this, please take it away.

That'll be me.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, through you, Nikki Spencer, Chief of Staff, she, her pronouns.

Um appearing before you tonight on behalf of Parks and Rec as well as the Valentine administration.

Um, when the mayor took office four years ago, we began a diligent effort to locate and centralize paying for utilities across the city into DPW.

There were many utility accounts set up across the organization, and it's been a painstaking effort to identify each account and then relocate them accordingly under DPW.

And the two items before you tonight, this was a messier process.

Parks and recreation originally held these electricity accounts for the Dilboy field, and the plan was to transfer this responsibility to DPW.

Over the last few years, Parks and Rack has experienced changes in staff as well as changes in location.

So Parks and Rec went from Walnut Street to the edgerly to the tab.

Paper bills did not always follow.

So in addition, at least one of the account numbers changed.

As a result, this was not a smooth transition over to um DPW to prevent this moving forward.

An electronic mailbox for invoice submittal has been established at Parks and REC.

As you can imagine, we're not thrilled with this outcome, but I also want to be fair to the Parks and Rec team, particularly our current finance manager who was instrumental in investigating this issue with the CFO.

I'm also thankful to our colleagues in DPW for ensuring that payments will be timely going forward.

Um the course of centralizing functions across the city and pursuing efficiencies can be a challenging one.

In this instance, it took longer than we would have liked.

Um this administration is committed, however, to resolving these outstanding issues before the end of our term.

And I'm joined tonight by the CFO and DPW leadership who can also help answer any questions on this topic.

Thanks for that.

I had a sort of more in the weeds question.

I'm happy to leave it to colleagues if they have any higher uh higher level questions, I would I would say.

Otherwise, I'll start with my in the weeds question.

All right.

Um, as I recall a couple years back, there was a change in the Dilboy uh enterprise fund around how we accounted for um it was something involving electricity.

Uh Director Bean, do you remember what that was?

It was in, I think in the FY25 budget, it was something like we had been giving all the credits.

Something something about all the credits we've been getting were getting applied to Dillboy, and the change we were making was to stop doing that.

And we said we were expecting uh as a result to see larger electricity bills there.

Is that ringing a bell at all?

Um what I through you, Mr.

Chair, to you.

Um there was a change.

Uh the historic supplier and transmitter was Eversource.

And back uh in that fiscal year, I think it was October of 2024.

Um Eversource became the supplier and direct energy became the transmitter.

So it was a split situation.

And just in analyzing um the situation, um it appears that DPW has been paying the direct energy bills for Dilboy uh enterprise funds off of the DPW budget, but the Episource bills weren't being paid, they weren't being paid by parks and rec and there was confusion, I think.

I think I believe DPW thought they were paying the full freight with the direct energy.

Uh, but that's the best of my knowledge.

I don't remember the uh the credit situation.

Yeah, I'm trying to remember what it was.

I don't know if it was something involving uh the when the solar something I don't I don't know.

I'm just speculating here.

I thought maybe someone might remember better than I did.

Uh I see Councillor Scott has a question.

The other thing I'll just ask really quickly is uh I know it's a it's a priority project for for OSC uh to get those old school lights that are replaced with LEDs that should see if anyone's looking at the electric bill saying, wow, that's a big number.

Um replacing those with energy efficient LEDs uh and LEDs that also just won't bleed over and light up the neighborhood, uh, I know is a priority.

Um and I think that will help.

Uh I'll just point out when I'm a Dillboy, I can hear the lights.

That's a usually we can when you can hear the buzzing of lights, that's not a good sign for for efficiency.

So here's to go in efficient at Dillboy.

Um Counselor Scott.

Um, Mr.

Chair, you were just bringing back some childhood nostalgia.

I love a good uh yellow sulfur light.

Uh uh.

So although your point taken about efficiency, I'm sure we can get some uh LEDs and in a lower frequency.

I I just had a question.

I mean I've had so many questions over the years about our past two invoices.

This is a uh particularly spectacular example, but uh you know, not out of character with the problems that we've been trying to run down for years.

Um, I guess my only question is uh when you look in the detail here, uh you know, this is goes back to prior to November of 2022.

Uh, but I did see a couple months in 20, or I saw uh uh three bills in August of 2024, two of which were negative and one of which was positive.

And I've never had the uh electric company send me money.

Uh I'm just curious as to what happened here.

Is there a standardized payment that was continuing to get drawn?

And this is just the surplus above and beyond that, or how do we how do we end up with those negative figures in August?

I can't speak to that uh uh counselor Scott, uh specific uh charge.

I don't have I don't uh try and get into the weeds on each charge.

Um all I focus in on the outstanding charges.

Um but there was also a situation where uh through the DPW efforts, um late charges have been waived on these outstanding bills.

So I don't know if that's a factor in that in that credit.

I'm not quite sure.

I don't know if the DPW commissioner can add to that.

Hi there.

Sorry, my framing.

I'm have I'm with grandchildren right now.

Um, yeah, so we when we kind of pay some of these bills, sometimes if there was a double payment, they would offer us a credit for that.

Uh with the late payments, um, we were able to negotiate with them to remove those late payments um in good faith, knowing that DPW was going to be taking over and and cleaning up the these accounts.

Okay, but I appreciate that, Commissioner Lathan, but uh, I don't think that really explains what's happening in those uh lines.

I I I guess even if they were giving us a credit on our late fees, I'm not sure that would appear as a negative balance from the uh from the August of 2024.

I mean, if we were getting a credit line, I could see that coming down here more recently.

I mean, I guess let me ask this question.

When did the uh fact that we had 300,000 in unpaid electricity bills come to uh your awareness or the administration's awareness?

Oh, you're you're muted, Commissioner.

I'm sorry.

Um, from a DPW perspective, um, we were become aware of this when we got some notices from the utility companies that they wanted to do some shutoffs.

So, as we looked into what was happening, um, this is when this was kind of discovered.

And we worked in work with parks and recreation and its team to kind of get to the bottom of what's been happening.

And when when did those notices come in?

I don't know to the chair.

I'd have to look back uh to see exactly when those come in came in.

Um, I know that when Julie's for night was here, she was working with proxy recreation and um the auditing team to kind of figure out what was kind of happening with these accounts.

Uh all right.

Now uh so I guess that that begs me the question then of uh who given the director being, I understand you're just trying to get the bills paid and keep the city moving.

I appreciate that.

And I know operationally it's important to look forward.

Uh I guess I'm just curious, uh, and I don't need to be that person.

I'm just curious who is the person that is looking at each one of these line items and making sure that we understand we've got negative balances, for example.

Is there uh finance director of yes to the chair counselor Scott?

The DPW financial team with uh leading up by with Danielle Palazzo, uh working with Ed's team is is working with this and working really you know really well with Linda uh the Parks and Rec uh Finance Director and getting through this.

So it's been really a great team effort working with Parks Recreation and the finance team and auditing and finance team.

So we'll just continue to do that.

So we are DPW's committed to you know assisting Parks and Rec um and making sure this is this is gets cleaned up appropriately and and then we'll continue to move forward and take over all these accounts moving forward and um do our due diligence with that.

Uh all right.

Well, I appreciate it as always, Commissioner Lathan.

Um you know, every year I just say I hope this is the last uh last batch of invoices we find in a desk drawer, but uh there's always next year, as they say in the Red Sox.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'm all set.

Thank you.

And you know what I'll point out?

Uh maybe we should have caught this as a as a committee uh looking at the budget.

Uh I'm looking back through some past years' budgets.

I see about 75,000 a year budgeted for electricity.

And all I can find in terms of actuals is 6,800 spent during that time.

So I'll put my hand up.

I didn't notice that that we were that we had pretty much zero dollars in actuals coming out of there.

Um, you know.

All right.

We did question that, Mr.

Chair, by the way.

Didn't get a satisfactory response from the prior management at Parks and Okay.

All right.

I'll I'll just say, you know, in the in the in the realm of you know, accepting responsibility, that's one that slipped past me.

That was that we generally weren't paying the the the expenses uh that that line out of expenses was not generally getting paid.

So well, sir, I I will join you in that responsibility as the inheritor to Councillor Rossetti's beast of the budget title.

I uh apologize for not catching this.

You'll have another shot, counselor.

I will not.

All right.

Uh anything else on uh on these two.

I guess Mr.

Chim, uh what I if allowed, I guess um I have some in the comment without is of them, you know, that about the cloud department.

But I guess how do we prevent this again from happening?

Like, you know, is just my main question.

I can somebody tell me how this is not gonna happen again.

Mr.

Chair, we're consolidated all of these accounts under DPW should be paid on the one entity, and that should be DPW.

And the support staff at DPW should be focusing on all accounts in all buildings of the city.

So that's that's that's key.

Um I think that we, you know, we we first of all we don't want vendors mailing anything to anybody, you know.

So we have electronic mailboxes set up in each department, and it's incumbent upon department heads to facilitate um payment through the electronic mailboxes uh with the vendors and and encourage that.

In fact, put that into the contracts as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman said.

Thank you.

All right, anything else from the committee.

All right, I'll just say thank you all for catching this.

Well, I'm gonna uh bring it before us.

Uh good to put this one to bed.

And uh here's to I guess onward and upward.

But thank you.

All right.

That is going to bring us to uh our sixth agenda.

Sorry, just quickly just let on the table to recommend it.

Those two items were laid on table record approval.

Thank you for thank you.

I needed to give a disposition for that.

Uh that will then bring us to our sixth agenda item.

ID number 25-1744.

The mayor requesting the appropriation of 10,643 from the unreserved fund balance, free cash to the American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA fund uh to recompense the fund for unallowable expenses.

Uh we had uh discuss this one uh at a previous council meeting as a full as a full body.

Uh any questions here that can be asked in open session.

Counselor Scott.

Uh no question, Mr.

Chair.

I just want to point out that for the volume of funds that went through the ARPA.

This is uh a very small cleanup.

So I'm I'm you know, it's it's an impressive catch.

Thank you, sir.

Also here.

I'll echo uh the the vice chair's comments and and uh commend staff for for catching this one and fixing it.

All right, going once, going twice.

This one's laid on the table to recommend approval as well.

And then we're gonna take up our seventh and eighth agenda items together.

Uh so that's ID number 25-1745.

The mayor requesting approval to appropriate 250,000 from the community benefits stabilization fund account to the immigrant legal services stabilization fund account for legal services for immigrants and asylum seekers seeking permanent residency, and ID number 25-1746.

Uh mayor requesting uh approval to appropriate 250,000 dollars from the immigrant legal services stabilization fund for legal services for immigrants and asylum seekers seeking permanent residency.

Did I read that twice?

Uh I think I read those correctly.

If I didn't, uh somebody let me know.

Uh feels like I just read the same exact thing twice.

Uh anyway, we're taking up agenda items uh seven and eight together.

Uh yes, legislative liaison HUDTE.

Yes, Mr.

Church.

What I'm seeing on the screen are different items than what you've just read in.

I don't know if the items in the agenda have been moved into a different order.

Uh, but yeah, that's uh that is an interesting one, right?

I'm looking at that also, and that's that's not helping me figure this one out.

Um how many items do we have on this posted agenda?

Uh 22 is correct.

Does that mean uh clerk?

Could you scroll down to show the agenda?

What are the odds that some of these got flip-flopped?

And that uh 18 and 19 per chance might be the ones we're looking for.

Terry Wilson, can I ask you to they're duplicated?

When was the agenda you're referring to posted online?

Uh there's what was sent to, I don't know, there's what was sent to the clerk.

Um back on it would have been posted Friday, probably.

Interesting.

This is the one attached to the meeting online.

Yeah, yeah.

It looks like maybe uh not to throw anyone under the bus, but it looks like two items were incorrectly put in the wrong in the wrong section of the agenda.

Okay.

Well, I'm gonna guess that means we can't take up the two items we were looking to take up here because they aren't on the agenda.

Clerk, could you just quickly scan and see if you see anything on that agenda for uh from the community benefits stabilization fund and the immigrant legal services stabilization fund?

I mean, I guess they're not on there.

I'm looking over the agenda as well.

Yeah, I don't see them.

So my view is I don't think we can take those up because they're not on the agenda.

Uh yes, legislative leaves on HUDTE.

Okay.

So my plan is we're gonna have to get these discharged uh discharge from committee on Thursday night and take them up because these seem like two pretty important things.

So clerk, we're going to if eight and nine are duplicates, I believe, of uh or seven and eight are duplicates of later ones.

Um give me one second to look through.

What I see here is also what's in Legistar.

So we would, I believe, have to take action based on what we're seeing on the screen.

What if they're duplicates?

That is likely a Kim question.

I can text her.

All right.

While we text the clerk.

Well, let's since they're in order, let's take them up.

Uh actually, no, we're gonna we're gonna table, we're gonna come back to seven and eight.

Clerk, let's roll on to agenda item nine.

Uh that is ID number 25-1732.

The mayor requests approval to appropriate six thousand seven hundred fifty dollars from the medicinal marijuana stabilization fund for additional duties related to the out of school time activities for FY 2026.

Uh we have uh from uh from HHS.

Uh we have manager Anub Malik.

Um manager, please tell us about this request.

Um true chair.

Um I would like to nominate Chris Osman, the director of Summer Promise to speak to this item.

And I'm here also to uh support as well.

Chris, would you please?

I see Director Hosman's here with us too.

Director Hosman, please take it away.

Thank you so much.

So this request is related to uh increased level of duties for the summer promise out of school time coordinator.

There was an out-of-school time support position in the Somerville Public Schools that was eliminated when the person vacated the position.

There were additional duties from that um role that were a higher level of duties than what the current out-of-school time coordinator was tasked with.

So we're seeking funds to help do a higher duties allowance temporarily them to be able to continue the out-of-school time support work.

All right.

Thank you for that.

Any discussion on this request from the committee.

The items laid on the table.

Uh we're gonna then thank you, Director Hasman.

Thank you.

Uh we're gonna take up our 10th agenda item now, ID number 25-1736.

That's the mayor requesting authorization to establish a consolidated gift account for the veteran services department and to accept donations for veterans' holiday season uses and veterans in need of financial assistance.

Uh once again, manager Malik.

Um, Anook Malik, HHS Finance Manager through Chair Wilson.

Um, we are requesting um authorization to establish this consolidated gift account uh for the director of veteran services department under HHS Health and Human Services.

Um we have received um a total of four donations.

Uh we had received two last September, and we recently received two more uh from the same donor.

And we had been thinking uh what language we would like to use for the restriction uh to support the creation of this gift account, and we have landed at um the holiday season uses and um veterans who are in need of the financial assistance.

This also supports the donors' wishes as well, including director of uh veterans services, Jerome Thomas, who couldn't make it tonight.

All right, thank you for that.

Colleagues, questions or comments.

Discussion.

All right.

Uh this one's laying on the table to recommend approval.

Uh but don't go anywhere, manager Malik.

We got you for one more.

Uh sorry, 11th agenda item, ID number 25-1741.

Mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a 37 gift from the Tufts University softball team to the Health and Human Services Mobile Farmers Market revolving fund for market needs.

And once again, manager Malik.

Um true, chair.

Um this donation was provided to us from Tufts Softball team.

They raised the money um in the plate that they did.

Um this is going to get deposited into Somerville Mobile Farmers Market account.

However, the current restriction as it stands allows us to only use utilize the fund for um the state ABT reimbursement and cash sales.

This is a sum of Somerville Mobile's uh farmers market fund uh that kicks in every um July till October um during the summer months with preparations starting in June and ending in November.

So um this donation was um sort of to support um their wishes towards this um this work and so we are seeking approval to to deposit and utilize these funds for the next um season basically.

All right.

Big thank you to the tub the Tufts University softball team for uh for raising some money for a worthy cause.

Any discussion.

All right.

Items laid on the table to recommend approval.

Uh and thank you, Manager Malik, for hanging out with us tonight.

Next up, uh 12th agenda item, ID number 25-1740.

It's the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a 22,570 grant with no new match required from the executive office of public safety and security to the police department for mobile data terminals.

And I see we have uh Director Emily Wisdom from the police department with us.

Uh good evening.

Uh this is a pretty straightforward grant request.

Um this is this particular money comes through us to us through the state um through the Byrne Memorial Justice Program Um that for law enforcement.

Uh this year we requested um we actually requested five mobile data terminals and we're approved to be able to buy three with that uh 22,570.

Um a mobile data terminal for anybody who doesn't know is the um the computers that are in the cruisers.

So this will allow us to update a few of those that are that are older and replace those with uh three new ones.

All right, thank you for that.

And just to be clear, this is not one of those uh UASI grants that we've been scanning for so carefully in terms of language uh required to accept that uh obligations on the city that we would not agree with, correct?

Uh that's correct.

Um so this was it has been through through the application process was through the mayor and the the law team um to apply.

And then again, when we accepted um this went through the law team and the mayor's office again for accept accept for acceptance.

Um it is the Byrne Memorial Justice uh program, not UASI.

That is correct.

Thank you, Chair.

A state program, correct?

It so it's coming to us through the state, uh, but it is it is funded with federal money.

That is true.

All right, I appreciate that.

I see Councillor Scott has a question followed by Councilor Burnley.

Of course.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Through you, you know, having reviewed the application.

Um, and there's a lot of talk in there about how the Somerville Housing Authority PD doesn't have any mobile data terminals in their cruisers.

They've got two cruisers and and no terminals.

Uh so I'm just curious, since only a subset of what we asked for was funded.

Uh, are we anticipating uh supplying those SHA cruiser PDTs or updating some of SPDs?

Wow, that was a lot of letters.

My apologies.

That's all right.

Um I believe that the three that that were funded are intended for the SPD.

Um though I can double check with um the chief and and let you know if you would like me to formally uh uh provide a memo.

I mean, it just seems like you know, we've got a choice to uh upgrade the SBDs versus getting anything at all in those SHA cruisers.

So it's um just a curious question.

Uh, but obviously uh setting policy and directing where the minute details of these funds go is uh a function of the director of the department, the chief and the uh the executive.

So uh I'm all set, Mr.

Chair.

Appreciate it.

All right.

And Councilor Burnley, you still uh hands down now, I think.

Did you have a question still?

Uh Councillor Scott uh had it was I had a question along some of our lines.

All right, thanks.

Councilor Mabaugh, you're next up.

Uh no, just to uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just wanted to echo uh Dr.

Wisdom's uh statement.

I think when as soon as she said it was pretty straightforward, actually put my eagle eye on it.

I realized it was actually straightforward.

So thank you.

I'm all set.

All right.

Not seeing any additional discussion.

The items laid on the table to oh wait, uh our committee clerks have maybe an update on what to do about our agenda.

And uh we're gonna lay this one on the table to recommend approval then.

Uh and yes, clerk.

Um I've been in communication with the city clerk, and um these two items, items seven and eight are duplicates of 20 and 21.

And so were we expecting a different specific item in place of these?

Yes, there were two other items.

Those are the ones that were were sent uh to be on the, I guess, you know what?

Here's one for go check your agenda and make sure the items you sent in to be on the agenda are on the agenda.

Um not to throw anyone under the bus here, but uh yeah, no, there were two items that were included that were supposed to be on his agenda that aren't.

So we'll have to just go figure out how to, you know, obviously, here we're facing the end of the end of the session uh in terms of the Thursday night's meeting.

So we'll have to figure out how to get those out of committee and get those taken up on Thursday night.

Let me quickly clarify this with them.

Um they're saying that these items were listed twice on um the email to the city clerks, and not other items potentially.

So let me clarify that.

As for these items, we'll just take a vote on one set of them and not both, but I will confirm about those other items.

So 17, so 25-1745 and 25-1746 uh were included.

I'm looking at the email.

Uh and somehow, you know, human error.

Uh we ended up with these other two duplicated in place of those two where they should be on the agenda.

Okay.

Um our city clerk Kim is um saying that as for the missing items, that would would need to be addressed on Thursday, unfortunately.

Yep.

And so they just address one set of these items for now.

That makes sense.

Makes total sense.

Thanks for clarifying that.

I appreciate that.

We will proceed with that plan.

Perfect.

All right.

Uh that is going to bring us to our 13th agenda item, ID number 25-1737.

Or Council Scott, did you have a question on that?

No, I just I just wanted to say, you know, I appreciate everybody trying to straighten it out.

I uh I think we'll be able to discharge those two items and approve them at Thursday's meeting, but no problem.

Uh and honestly, you've got a lot on your plate.

If uh a couple agenda items are the only things to slide in this transition, I'm gonna count us all very, very grateful and uh and lucky.

I I did just want to say it as we let that last item go.

Uh, and I do I do support recommending approval on that grant.

I just uh reread the application again, and so much of the justification of the application came from the extreme need uh of folks down in the mystics.

Um, and you know, the folks that are served by the Somerville Housing Authority.

We we hear over and over again, and actually we see it in the the statistics.

Uh, you know, ward two doesn't call for SPD nearly as much as uh as you know, some of the some of the other boards, some of the other areas in the city.

Um it it does kind of I have a hard time just sitting on the fact that having received only a portion of these funds, uh, that we're not directing those to the place where I think arguably uh they're most needed.

So I I hope you know, again, it ain't over till it's over, Mr.

Chair, but uh I would hope uh this comment at least would direct the administration to reconsider uh where those terminals go.

Uh if we can only get them into one place, I'd I'd much rather they go into the SHA uh cruisers rather than uh upgrading our SPD.

But that's just my Mr.

Chair.

I just had a hard time letting it go tonight.

I appreciate your indulgence.

Absolutely.

Mr.

Chair Councillor Scott, or sorry, Councillor Mabaugh, Counselor Scott just spoke.

Yeah, I share Councillor Scott's sentiment.

So I just want to put that on the record that everything he said, you know, I can call.

Thank you.

All right, thank you both.

All right, we are up to agenda item 13, ID number 25-1737, the mayor requesting approval to accept a gift of real property located at 17 Interbelt Road, also nine New Washington Street.

Uh from Ralph C.

DeVito Jr.

and A.

Bram trustee RCD Foundation.

Uh I see we have uh attorney Kathy Lester Salkart from the law department with us, uh, as well as executive director Tom Galligani from OSP C D.

Uh, who wants to talk about this one?

Attorney Salkert, maybe.

I can certainly get us started, Mr.

Chair.

Um, so this is real property that right now is called the Ralph and Jenny Center.

The name of the donor is the property owner.

It is a trust.

And there the trustee is an attorney who um wants to retire.

So he's trying to, and this was in the terms of the trust that this property be donated uh to the city for the purpose of maintaining a property eloquation for the council on aging, I believe.

Um, and Tom has more of the details about it.

Just as far as the address goes, the assessors carry it as 17 Interbelt Road, um, but it's commonly known as nine Washington Street.

New Washington Street, sorry.

And Tom.

Thank you for that.

Yep.

Go ahead.

All right.

Discussion on this.

I see Councillor Klingon has something.

Counselor Clingen.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Cheer through.

I mean, this is really exciting.

Like this is for us.

Like we're gonna, they're giving this to us.

Yeah.

So I mean, you know, I am curious if Tom knows, but um, you know, for the longest time, um, my previous life when I did a lot of organizing around addiction.

I used to hold uh Massachusetts organizing for addiction recovery more.

We used to the Lions Club will let us use the space up there.

So I know the space above the Council on Aging's downstairs space.

Um, and I'm curious is is the Lions Club still in there and and what is their lease look like, Mr.

Chairman?

Uh through the chair.

We current if we agree to accept this gift.

That is the holiday season, so I'd encourage you to accept this gift.

It's in the it's in the holiday spirit.

Um we will also be uh we're currently the city is one of five tenants in the complex.

The complex includes two separate buildings and an adjacent yard space.

Um the uh um the uh the Lions Club is on the second story of the building that is uh a little bit along New Washington Street.

The building on the corner is fully occupied by the New England home for little wanderers.

It has an office space there.

Uh the yard storage has two different tenants, uh Tito's towing and um let me check one more second.

So what would be the city?

What would the three, Mr.

Chair?

What would the city be getting?

Just the first floor of the Jenny Lynn Center building?

Through the chair, the city would be gifted the entire complex, including both buildings and roughly 34,000 square feet of land area.

So we would in essence be we would directly become landlords of those other tenants for the time being.

Wow.

Okay, cool.

Um, yeah, I mean, you know, I'm obviously my I don't want to seem like my um brains, you know, popping off with all these potential ideas.

I mean, like there are you know, I I frequent the dog park over there.

I know Tito's um the the auto body place and the old bank is now the little home political wonder.

So yeah, naturally, you know, we wouldn't want to mess with that, but the potential for even just you know, the yard, even if we want, yeah, I don't know.

I just like there's a lot of uh that's a this is a great great thing for the city to inherit uh from these folks.

So um hopefully, you know, doesn't it's not a boondoggle in any way like some other properties that we've you know inherited or sorry, acquired.

Um, but very exciting.

So yeah, absolutely great.

Thank you.

So many questions.

Yes, Councilor Mabaugh followed by Councillor Brandley.

Uh thank you, Chia Wilson.

You know, um I think all in Camarunda you have such a thing as a free lunch.

Since I came to the US, you know, I said there's no such thing as free lunch.

So I'm just curious as you know, what uh like what is it that we don't know?

Like, I mean, like just uh.

What is it that you know again?

There's no like uh it just I mean it just strikes me, you know, it's exciting, but at the same time, I want us to understand like all the if there's something on the line, you know, that we need to be aware of.

Yeah, that's a great question.

And we've been in contact with the trustee, the managing trustee, attorney Bram for about a year and a half, who is signaled that he's ready to uh retire as uh attorney Salchart mentioned.

And so we've been working with him for some period of time to give us a chance to completely understand what we're getting into.

What is this gift truly?

And so we've done the very typical stuff that one would do when acquiring a piece of property.

We did doing a title search, we've done um an environmental phase one environmental site assessment, and have talked to each of the tenants to get a sense of what's going on.

We also uh connected our DPW team to speak with Mr.

Bram, attorney Bram, and to go through the building to get an understanding of what will be inheriting, what kind of systems are in place, the HVAC system, the electrical system.

And they were allowed to do uh a fairly um quick assessment of the condition of the building, and it's in good shape.

It's not brand new, but um DPW didn't identify any obvious problems with the building.

So, like any building, any old building, we're gonna have to maintain it in the near term.

We've got some tenants paying some rent.

So we're gonna be able to manage this um at least as well as attorney Bram has been managing this on behalf of the foundation.

The the uh environmental site assessment came up surprisingly clean.

I'm not gonna say it's totally clean.

This is typical urban fill.

Again, this is a site that has experienced probably 150 years of uh development, rail yards in the in the in the past, and it um the site of an urban renewal plan about uh an implementation plan about 40 to 45 years ago.

Um, but um the environmental site assessment said, yeah, it's basically in good shape, given that's an industrial site and a commercial site, and uh you don't have much to be worried about.

Mr.

Chair, can I just jump in real quick just to speak if I could to it, Counselor Brown and Baugh's point.

Counselor, it's on this point.

Yeah, yeah, the piece that I think that the director is missing is that the rub is as far as what I heard in Roomerville back in the day, is that Ralph and Jenny Lynn, the the whole crux of the entire complex, but mainly the reason for the gifting to the city is to, as far as I know, make sure that the council on aging has a home in perpetuity.

That's like the linchpin of the whole thing.

Everything outside of that, it is my my understanding is just you know gravy, but essentially that is the unless I'm wrong, but that is the uh, I guess the rub, if you will.

It it's slightly nuanced.

The foundation was set up ultimately to benefit the city for some sort of public health or health reason.

And you could define health many different ways.

At some point in the past, the city um was able to move in the Ralph and Jenny Center.

Again, the Ralph and Jenny Center, I don't believe was an original tenant, but I could be wrong.

Um, so it's been there, and that's been the the benefit of the foundation is to allow the in the in the last couple decades, has been to allow the senior center to occupy that space rent-free.

And as attorney Bram has thought about dissolving the trust or just out dissolving the foundation, um, he realizes and recognizes and um that the bylaws of the the foundation maintain that it needs to continue to benefit the city, and from a health perspective.

So the thought was to donate the land, the entire property.

That way the Ralph and Jenny Center could continue to operate there for as long as um we wanted to be there.

Um, and that's once he gets as I understand it, it once he gifts the property to the city and in essence dissolves the trust.

And I'm not a lawyer, so I might be using technical terms inappropriately.

Um, but once the trust is exhausted, then he'll have met the uh the goal of the trust.

And but we own the property free and clear.

I don't believe uh we'll have any uh use restrictions or any kind of limitations on using the property in the in the future.

You good, counselor.

Counselor Klingon, you're you're good with that thing on that point.

Yeah, I would I was just trying to add to that backstory of how it came to be.

Gotcha.

That's all counselor by you all finished.

Can we jump to Council Burnham?

Thank you, Dr.

Garagun.

And thank you, Councilman, for substantial question.

All right, counselor Burnley, followed by Counselor Scott.

Uh Chair, I just briefly wanted to double down on Counselor Klingon's original uh comment.

Uh the city has uh had some difficulties being a landlord and during my tenure.

That was certainly.

Uh, and I think a significant element there has been its relationship with tenants.

Uh now the fact that this building has multiple tenants, uh, including those that are beyond uh the city itself.

I I think is very notable.

And I would just encourage this administration and the next administration to work proactively with those tenants as to the feature of this building uh and how we can best serve the city and the public.

And uh to be clear, the city and the public are different things.

Uh and sometimes might have different uh needs.

So just wanted to note that.

Here here.

Uh Counselor Scott.

Uh yeah, uh, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I I think my concerns are similar to my colleagues.

You know, we've received gifts of property.

Uh we've received the gift of two houses on Allen Street right here in Eden Square.

And the only purpose the city has put those two is just to use them as uh uh practice space for police clearance drills.

Um, you know, I I do also acknowledge the not great track record the city has had as a landlord uh recently for third parties uh and even uh how the city has handled buildings that were you know obtained for the for the purpose of the city.

We heard even earlier tonight about how a department uh in parks and wreck, right, has been uh relocated several times throughout the city.

So uh I certainly appreciate the gift 100%.

I guess it is my fervent wish for the upcoming administration to work at the city council, but also to work in the uh careful awareness of the original purpose uh of the Ralph and Jenny Center and make sure that we we continue that uh in its existing location.

So that's all I wanted to say, sir.

Appreciate it.

Thanks, Councillor Scott.

And I'll just say I'm I'm in the habit lately of talking about opportunities for improvement.

I think this is a good opportunity for us to show that you know we've learned lessons uh from from the armory and uh you know to do better and to do to do right by uh by people.

I'm I'm excited about this opportunity.

So uh seeing no further discussion on this one.

Uh the item is laid on the table to recommend approval.

That is going to bring us to uh, let's see, our 14th agenda item.

Uh that's ID number 25-1728.

Uh mayor requesting approval of a utility easement for N-Star Electric Company at zero Windsor Place, Boynton Yards.

Uh, once again, attorney Salkert.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, this is for a very small area, 100 approximately 150 square feet.

And the best um picture of it is on page um nine of the easement document.

There's a plan, and it's a very small parcel.

As you can see, it's goes over Windsor Place, and it's part of a line of electricity that's going through um 600 Windsor.

There's already a private NSTAR easement there for it for electricity on the top part of the northern part of the plan.

And this is just a little strip of land owned by the SRA that will probably be part of a street at some point.

Um, and that the SRA may very well convey to the city at some point.

But right now, NSTAR needs the easement in order to run their electric lines um to that site.

And it's the terms are similar, identical to the easement that was approved for 51 prospect, the substation that was used as a model.

Um, even though it's a small space, all of the same similar terms are in this easement.

Thanks for that, attorney Salgart.

Sorry, did you what did you say the square footage of that was?

I I'm showing 156 square feet, so it's really small.

Okay.

It's like yeah, six by twenty fet on the two sides, and then the length is 25 feet on one end and 30 on the other.

It's really small.

Okay.

That's more than 150 square feet, I think.

But maybe it's maybe you have to add 30 minutes.

No, yeah, no, it's a relatively small one.

Yeah, there's just sorry, just uh trying to square numbers there.

Um 200 square feet.

There we go.

Question or minus.

All right.

Uh thanks for clarifying that.

Counselor Scott.

Yeah, thank you, Ms.

Chair.

This is just a uh I mean this is a moth swing worth of sidewalk uh that's part of making sure that we get access for the GSEP, the Greater Cambridge Energy Project, that ever sources bringing in lines uh from their new transform substation down in Kendall uh up to here.

So uh I don't see any problem with this as the ward counselor recommend approval.

All right.

Well, if the ward counselor is supporting this, I have no problem with it.

Uh any other discussion on this.

All right.

The items laid on the table to recommend approval.

Attorney Salkert, thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thanks, everyone.

Have a good night.

All right.

That's going to bring us to our 15th agenda item, ID number 25-1697.

The mayor requesting approval, a transfer of 150 from the Office of Immigrant Affairs Neighborhood Improvement Council account to the Summerville Public Schools Food Services account for the Latin American and Caribbean Heritage Celebration.

This is a very small dollar figure.

Hopefully, people uh got a chance to look at this, but if there's any discussion on it, we'll entertain that right now.

I'll just say while I'm waiting for that.

That was a very good event.

I enjoyed that, and I appreciated people putting that on.

I don't see any discussion.

So the item is laid on the table to recommend approval.

And now our 16th agenda item, ID number 25-1733.

Uh, that's the mayor requesting approval to pay prior to your invoices totaling 147.86 cents using available funds, the Department of Health and Human Services Program Supplies and Materials account for meeting snacks.

Uh folks, it's a 187 or 147.86 cent item.

Any discussion.

Items lay on the table to recommend approval.

See, manager Malik was ready just in case.

I trust those were good meeting snacks.

All right.

Uh that's good.

Thanks for being here though, manager Malik.

Um, all right.

Now, folks, we have some cleanup to do here.

Uh, end of the year, it's our final finance committee meeting of the year.

Uh, which means we have some orders that people submitted.

Uh, these were taken up.

I think all of them were taken up.

We had discussion about them.

We kept them in committee in case there were further updates in case you know the the situation changed.

Uh anything substantive came up.

Uh, the only one that might not have been taken up as I think about it was one from Councilor Burnley about the uh financial implications of public safety for all.

I think that one may never have been fully just because the timing of of bringing in uh um the public safety for all task force person.

Um anyway.

IgA is here.

I would I would temper your expectations in terms of you know, from talking to IJ, there are no grand big updates on this.

There can be uh just some basic things, but you know, this was us doing I wanted to make sure that these got brought before us at the final meeting of the year as opposed to just letting them expire in committee.

So uh just wanted to table set a little um and appreciate IGA going along with this just so we can give some some closure here.

Obviously, these can all be resubmitted by next year's council.

Um, you know, if we want to to follow up on this, but just wanted to you know, wanted to have some closure here.

So uh clerk, I'm gonna just start reading these in.

We're gonna start with ID uh with 17th agenda item ID number 25-1677.

Um that is uh a resolution in support of the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority committing additional resources to stormwater management.

Uh Lisible liaison, was there any update?

Actually, Counselor Scott, did you have something on this?

Or you want to see if there's an update?

I just wanted to check in because my impression was the resolution was approved with a copy for discussion sent here.

Uh is that is that correct?

That's what I remembered.

Uh did people want to, I guess we'll give people the opportunity to talk about it.

You know, there's not, you know, did people we already had a subsequent presentation in here after uh after that initial present the initial presentation that came up in here?

If people uh want to have anything they want to say about it, council.

I just want to make sure that we approved the resolution and sent a copy to the state delegation, sir.

That's all.

Uh, you know, otherwise I'd move for approval, although this is sent for discussion as well.

Sent for discussion.

Yeah, we're just here.

If people want to discuss it, I'm happy to have discussion of it.

Nope.

Thank you, Ms.

Chair.

I just want to make sure we didn't uh miss a trick.

We did not, I don't believe.

Uh, but fair asking that question here tonight, given the uh agenda wildness we've seen.

So uh Councilor Mabaugh, this was your item, as I recall.

No, it was Councilor Union Campins.

Or was he anyway?

Councilor Mabaugh.

It doesn't matter, Mr.

Chair.

We joined this I meet that is that's right.

But but there's nothing to discuss for about I didn't think so.

So uh well, there that's the discussion right there.

So, unless there's anything else, uh, we're gonna mark this one as work completed, clerk.

Now we're gonna take up uh teeth agenda item ID number 25-0254.

That's in order by Councillor Burnley.

But the chief of police presented this council the financial implications of the public safety for all recommendations, specifically the cost to fund additional officers, acquire and utilize body cameras, and implement a co-response model.

Legislative liaison Hutter.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair and the three to the committee.

I have just a brief update on this.

This item was last on the agenda, I think in the spring, just before we hired our public safety for all project or program manager.

That person is on boarded now and has been working diligently over the summer and the fall to meet with staff to understand what how to build out this sustainable next steps for implementation of the public safety for all task force recommendations.

Those conversations have included funding, how that would be funded and both the midterm and long term with both the uh city's current resources or with um potential external funding sources.

There are no um conclusions at this time.

They're still working on that, so conversations are ongoing, but that work um is happening now, and we're excited to get the results of all of the that conversation in the new year.

All right, thanks for that.

Uh any discussion by the committee.

And Councilor Burnley, if you want to judge all right, Councilor Burnley first, followed by Councillor Scott.

Thank you.

Through the chair, uh please excuse my voice.

I'm a bit hoarse at uh at a very talkative uh weekend.

Um, and so I first would like to say uh please do not uh confuse my uh my submittal of this item for support for the contents of the item.

Um as my colleagues know, there have been multiple, multiple um studies, task force that have been created and proposed and executed uh in recent years relating to uh public safety as well as uh officer staffing.

Um and I would say quite frankly, some of those uh recommendations have come at the exact uh opposite of each other.

Um we've had recommendations that say we can have less patrol officers and by restructuring uh our model.

Uh we've had recommendations that say we should have alternative emergency response and not repeat not co-response model.

Um and we've had others that have contradicted those.

Um I simply through uh submitting this item wanted to have a better sense of what the financial implications were for the public safety for all uh recommendations.

Uh and although I will not be getting that in this meeting, uh, I encourage a memo be sent to the next council uh with uh more specific details on that, particularly around the co-response model and the utilization of body cameras, which some of my colleagues will remember uh previous council uh rejected uh during budget season uh and you know, urge for further legislative action before uh uh adoption of these.

So although we do want to have clarity on uh the financial implications in this meeting, uh I still encourage uh counselors to seek that and to ponder one how best those ones can be used, and two, um, which recommendations from the various uh studies and task force that uh have been created, uh, we should be moving forward with.

Thank you.

Thank you, counselor.

Uh counselor Scott.

No, I just wanted to uh express my gratitude for the item and and uh my very clear intention to keep following up on these items with the uh new administration, Mr.

Mayor Elect.

Uh, I think we're I I have hopes, high hopes for the future.

Uh, and look forward to continuing this conversation if we need to submit another item and bring uh those conversations to the public, happy to do so.

Heard, Chef.

Okay.

Uh seeing no further discussion on this, that item is marked work completed.

And that's gonna bring up our 19th agenda item, ID number 25-0649, that the director of intergovernmental affairs coordinate with department heads to assess which federal grants are likely to not be available in FY2026 and discuss with this council the potential impact on programs and services.

Once again, uh legislative liaison Hutter, any update on this one.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

As every member of this council is aware, federal funding has been tumultuous over the course of this year.

A lot of those impacts have been felt by nonprofits, institutes of higher education or research organizations, less uh on the local government side in terms of grants that have been frozen, canceled.

Um the experience the um impact the local governments have felt has been a lot of delays.

So at this time we don't have confirmation of any funds being um canceled or frozen, um, but that the process has been delayed and recent um furloughs of staff or um reduction in federal staffing have only added to those delays.

So there are several grants that we um compared to previous years, you have a particular cycle.

We've seen that process really stretch out from when the notice of applications are um funding opportunity is posted, when uh contracts are uh worked on, when award letters are happening, and even when funds are dispersed.

So we're continuing to monitor that situation.

That could put us in a place for some of our grants uh where we don't see any dollars in fiscal year 26 because of how much it's been delayed.

Um that will obviously mean delay of projects in which those funds are seeking to fund.

Um, but at this time we're continuing to be in a monitoring situation and do not think there will be any currently there are any um cancellation of funds.

Um so it's hard to know what the impacts will be, but at this current time, this is where we're at.

We're in sort of a delayed mode.

Um I'm gonna guess the uh recent government shutdown did not help matters in terms of trying to get answers, is that I know that resulted in some grant application deadlines being extended as a result of that.

That is correct.

Added further delays.

All right, I appreciate that update.

Councilor Brindley.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, gonna keep uh straining myself here.

Um through you.

Before I get I have like a specific question and I have a broader uh table setting uh for comment.

Uh specifically uh through you to the direct uh to director.

Yeah, to liaison other.

There we go.

Um so we uh I know that there were uh some concerns around specifically the mass some MassDoc grants that would impact uh McGrath Highway.

Um are we uh uh clear about uh the distribution of those funds and our uh ability to execute on that project.

Uh through the chair, thank you for that question.

I failed to note that we uh the state has also which serves as like a pass-through for a lot of federal dollars, has also seen significant delays.

Um so they're sort of experiencing similar um funding uncertainty that the local governments are are experiencing.

Um for McGrath, my understanding from the most recent briefing I had on that project.

Um it's moving forward as planned.

Um there are challenges with program uh projects like that that are you know multiple years out in funding.

So there's a lot of opportunity for things to go awry, but at this time um it's moving forward as as planned.

All right, thank you.

That obviously um the chair, that project's one that uh will help reshape the way that our neighbors and uh constituents move around this community is a great importance, I think, uh, to our residents.

Um frankly, it is one that is um more friendly to those of us who do not uh drive cars, uh, and that that has been a point of contention at the federal level uh in recent year.

Um but more broadly, uh, I brought this item forward because the certainly our community has seen the impact of the tax on our federal grants, uh whether that's through programs like Head Start uh or on the city side uh programs and services, especially through HHS.

Uh and I again would just encourage my colleagues to keep a firm eye on some of these programs that are most impactful for our residents and about providing um whether direct resources to them and life saving resources um in particular.

But I'll hold off and uh yield to my colleagues to speak more.

Thanks, Counselor.

Uh Counselor Scott.

Thank you, Ms.

Chair.

Just to my colleague's point there.

Uh, since it was mentioned, I'm and I apologize if this was mentioned before, but there is in fact a uh public design hearing on the McGrath or project happening right now.

Uh so probably for another half hour after we get out of this business.

I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

And I'll say this is also, you know, that this is, you know, obviously we care about this just for the sake of the budget, but also, you know, we're sitting here thinking about potentially barring against uh future community development block grant uh receipts from the federal government, you know, to do some of the work at uh at Clarendon Hill, right?

And so ensuring that we're actually going to get those becomes really important, right?

So um on many levels, yes.

So this was uh I appreciate this order.

Any other discussion on this, Council Burnley, if you had additional things you wanted to share, this is a great time to jump in with those as well.

Not to push on this.

All right, all right.

Seeing no further discussion, we're gonna mark this one as work completed as well.

And I'm gonna take up then the final three items together as they're very much related.

Um that's ID number 25-1445 in order by Councilor Burnley, uh, that the city solicitor up to this council on the new immigrations and customs enforcement operation cooperation requirements attached to the forthcoming uh urban area security initiative grants.

Uh and 24 or 25-146 in order by Councillor Burnett, the chief of police or the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region representative updates council on the strategy for applying the urban area security initiative or any other federal grants.

Um applying for those grants.

Uh the require immigration and customs enforcement cooperation, as well as 25-1515.

Uh that is a public communication for Crystal Hoff submitting comments regarding items number 25-145 and 25-uh 1446 orders regarding immigration customs enforcement and shot spotter.

So we're gonna take the three of these up.

Um legislative liaison HUDR.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

And through you, the update here is that we are still waiting on the state.

Um they are in the structure for IWASI, they are the applicant to the federal government, and they will uh be the sort the distributor of the funds if they are accepted and dispersed to the state, then they can go out to the um participating communities.

So we're waiting to hear um about the agreement between this state and the federal government.

There was a meeting planned for December, but that has been postponed until January of the um of UASI.

So we expect an update in the new year um on what steps the state is taking, and then we can make a decision as a city from there.

So no update at the all right.

Uh thank you for that.

Colleagues.

Uh here's what I'll say on this.

Um, when signing any of these things, any these grant applications, um, any acceptances, that's where I think it's going to be really important that the law department and the mayor, whoever that is, uh really really running a fine-tooth comb over these obligations that we're potentially signing up for and making sure that we're not agreeing to anything that's out of step with our values as a community.

Um I'll commit to making sure that that's happening.

And I think we need to stay on top of this, and I'll also commit to making sure that uh this council stays updated on any changes that do come in.

Yeah, any other discussion.

All right, we're gonna mark the three of these as work completed then.

And that's gonna bring us to the end of tonight's agenda.

Um Clerk, could you please uh call the rule on recommended approval of everything laid on the table uh for a recommendation to approve?

And if you don't mind, please tell us those item numbers of what we are voting on here.

Yes.

Also, um I have confirmed with the clerks again, just to set the record straight.

The items um for tonight's agenda were properly submit submitted.

Um there was just an issue on the back end with creating the agenda this evening.

Um so at the council meeting on Thursday, um, you'll be able to suspend the rules to address those important items.

Um, but as of now, um, unfortunately, we can't discuss those.

Um, yeah.

Exonerated.

All right, uh, thank you for that.

Yeah, if you please read the the item numbers of what we are voting on.

Yes, so this is to recommend approval of items number one, two, three, four, five, six, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen.

Counselor.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Aye.

Counselor Clingen.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Chair Wilson.

Yes.

Okay, with all votes in favor.

It is 7 32, so we are adjourned, and we'll be recommending approval of those items.

Sorry, Clerk.

I do we didn't move to adjourn yet.

So sorry.

So on recommending approval.

I wanted to just I wanted to just before we adjourn, I just wanted to say quickly this is our final finance committee uh of the year.

Uh for for me, it's my final finance committee ever.

Uh I really enjoyed chairing this committee for four years.

Uh, I want to thank you all for the work that you did.

Uh, you know how much work we did on this committee.

This committee met more than any other committee over that time.

We processed more items than any other committee during that time.

Um, we do the work.

So uh I want to thank Vice Chair Scott for all the all the all the wisdom.

Uh all the so many times saving us from uh from doing something boneheaded, especially that first year when I was learning the ropes and figuring out how to dispose of items.

Uh just really really invaluable.

Really, really appreciate you for that.

Um, you know, to everyone who served on on finance, you know, over those years.

Uh, you know, that this you know, you all gave up a lot of your Junes to do budget season.

Uh and it uh, you know, it's a big deal.

And and I just really appreciate it.

I hope the public appreciates how much uh you all gave and uh just really really appreciate your serving on finance here with me.

So um, yeah, that's all I had to say.

Uh with that, uh Councillor Scott moves to adjourn.

On the motion, Mr.

Chair.

I just want to say don't say it's your last one ever.

You're ruling out a future comeback run as a counselor once you're done with mayor.

Never say never.

Councilor Mabaugh.

Yes, on that editor.

I want to, you know, just echo the sentiment of uh, you know, Councillor Scott as well.

So I appreciate the work and uh your dedication to you know this committee.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh clerk call the roll, please.

Great work, everyone.

On adjournment.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Yes, please.

Counselor Burnley.

I guess Council Klingon.

Yes.

Councilor Scott.

Yes, please.

Chair Wilson.

Yes, please.

All right, 7 34, and we are adjourned.

Thanks, everyone.

Thanks, everyone.

Thank you.