Recording in progress.

And I'm now gonna pause because I realize I forgot to give our uh technical folks a 30 second heads up.

Good enough.

All right, got the thumbs up.

All right.

Um first off, please note that audio and video of this meeting is being recorded and may be shown live on local access government channels and on the city of Somerville website and will be available for future review.

Well, the clerk please call the roll.

This is roll call.

Counselor Hart here, Councilor Wilson.

Present.

Council Ewan Campin.

Here.

Counselor Scott.

Present.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Counselor Burnley.

President.

Counselor Saeed here.

Councillor Strazzo.

Present.

Counselor Klingon.

President.

Counselor Mbaugh.

President.

Counselor Davis.

Here.

With all counselors present, we have a quorum.

All right.

Uh 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.

We begin our meetings with a moment of silence.

Are there any counselors wishing to say a few words about members of our community tonight?

Councilor Shazel.

Thank you.

I'd like to honor Camilla Carmel M.

Collins, mother of Ferris Collins.

Beloved word for president.

Carmilla Collins, she was 86 when she passed away and peacefully in her sleep.

This was in October of uh 2025 this year.

She was a uh Somerville resident, an avid lover of animals, music, as well as a writer of prose, short stories, and enjoyed drawing and designing fashion.

She was raised by her parents in the Catholic faith, but also explored a wide range of other faiths.

She remained a woman of deep faith until her passing.

And she was the mother uh to two daughters, Carol A.

Stewart, Gallagher, Ferris Collins, Cheryl A.

Collins, and Patricia M.

Jordan and Teresa Granger.

And may her memory be a blessing.

Thank you, Councillor Clingen.

Mr.

President, thank you.

I'd like to sign on to that um remembrance and just say that I've known Farris for quite some time now.

She's uh very active member in our community, uh, very outspoken in the best kind of ways.

Um I'm really sorry to hear that her mom passed.

Um I've never met her mom, but just based on what I know about Farris, um, you know, her mom must have been pretty special.

Um so I also want to give my condolences uh to Farris and her family this evening.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

And I also have another Mr.

President, thank you.

Through you, I'd like us to remember this evening, uh Kevin Wells, Kevin Wells of Hampton Beach, formerly of Bill Ricca in Burlington, passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease on Friday evening, December 5th.

He was 64 years of age.

Um he grew up in Burlington and was raised and then raised his family in Bill Ricca before retiring in Hampton.

He he worked as an H VAC mechanic for over 40 years and was an active member of the IBEW Local 1505, serving in many leadership roles, including Chief Stewart.

He was also the uncle of our beloved Clerk Wells, who's here with us this evening, and uh he sh sh and she shared that one of the things that she learned from him was the art of the side hustle.

In addition to his career, he held many other jobs from property management to commercial cleaning to vending machines.

He was always looking for new opportunities to learn and stay active.

He was also always one of her most proud and enthusiastic supporters, starting from when he put up a big sign in the yard announcing when she was born as the first grandchild and all the way through bragging to his many friends about how she was the city clerk.

Um he survived by his wife Susan, uh also his son Kevin Wells Jr.

and his girlfriend Steph of Dunstable.

Uh one daughter, Laura LeBlanc, and her husband Andrew of Nashua, New Hampshire, and five grandchildren, Ryan, Jake, and Jack Swells, Emma and Alexis LeBlanc, and one granddaughter on the way, Kinsley Wells.

Um he was also a 43-year lifetime member of the Wuburn Stoneham Elks.

He loved cruising and traveling with his family and friends, Kevin and Susan, especially love spending time in Cocoa Beach.

Um I just asked that we remember Kevin and his family and our clerk wells uh on this that occasion and uh have our hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The whole council will sign on to that one.

All right, seeing no further, uh, would everyone in the chamber please rise as you are able uh for a moment of silence for the aforementioned individuals?

Uh, would everyone in the chamber please rise as you are able uh for a moment of silence for the aforementioned individuals thank you, Madam Clerk, first item.

The next item will be item 1.3 approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of November 13th, 2025.

See no discussion that item is approved.

Uh, we're now gonna take some items out of actually I guess the next item is the is uh the first out of order item is actually in order.

So let's take the first time.

Indeed, item 2.1 is a citation by Counselor Davis, commending Kevin Ryan for his life-saving actions on October 15th, 2025.

Thank you very much.

We have Commissioner Lathan here to speak this item.

Commissioner Lathan, please uh step forward.

Commissioner Joel Lathan, DPW.

Um Kevin, if you can come up, please.

Kevin, it is such an honor.

Um, when I heard that as an individual at DPW that you not only went out of your way to make sure that someone was cared for at one of our parks and playgrounds, but you slave you saved someone's life that you cared so much about this city, and you didn't hesitate.

You jumped right in, saw someone in need in this city, and took care of it.

And I am so incredibly proud of you.

I'm proud of this a human being that you are, and I'm so honored that you are here and works for this city and work for DPW.

To your family and your son, you are incredibly lucky.

Your son has a hero for a father.

So congratulations and thank you so much for what you did.

Yes.

You want to do this?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joe.

So uh again, echoing Kevin, just thank you for saving somebody's life.

I do also want to acknowledge one of our counselors who has saved people's lives, and it's counselor McLaughlin, because you're the one that put forth over a decade ago Narcan.

Oh, you know, so I do remember we started together, so I'm probably one of the few that has that long memory.

But um, you know, it's uh a community that thinks about people, that cares about people, and uh, but you acted.

So, you know, it's an honor and thank you.

You make us so proud.

So I'd like to read for the actions.

Kevin Ryan.

Uh uh here um be it hereby known to all that the Somerville City Councilor and the Mayor offer their sincerest, sincerest commendations to Kevin Ryan for his actions on October 15th, 2025, when without hesitation, he provided life-saving assistance by administering Narcan to an individual suffering an overdose in Statue Park.

The council and the mayor hereby extend their gratitude uh for your heroic efforts.

So here you go.

And counselor.

Yeah, okay.

So I just want to say uh President Davis, thank you for putting this forward.

Thank you.

Councilor McLaughlin.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Since I was recognized, and uh since we have a room full of first responders here, I do want to acknowledge all the first responders who actually administer Narcan to everybody.

I was proud to introduce the concept, but people back here have saved hundreds of lives, if not thousands of lives, and I'm very proud of everyone.

Uh I know I have personally had a friend who was rescued by a firefighter uh in administered Narcan uh right when this happened.

So thank you to all of you and uh to all the new firefighters who are gonna join us.

You're here.

Okay, that item is approved.

And the next item is item 2.2, a citation by Counselor Davis, commending Kelly Gates for her life-saving actions on November 5th, 2025.

All right, we have Kathy Piantagini here to speak on this item.

Please step up.

Good evening, everybody.

I'm Kathy Piantagini, director of libraries, and um I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for recognizing Kelly Gates tonight.

Um, as you know, Kelly uh was in a very similar situation where she administered Narcan to somebody that had overdosed in our public bathroom at the West Branch Library, and um I just keep thinking about how you know we go we have all these great um prevention training opportunities now.

Um we make it available in fistfuls for the public, and there's that which is just so amazing, and then the other part of it is then somebody actually administering our CAN, which in all the years I've worked in the libraries, I've never had to do anything like that, and I cannot imagine what it was like for Kelly to do that.

But um, I'm so proud of her and also grateful.

Um I think about my library staff, these are all people who have so much compassion, and um it's just I feel grateful, it's such a gift.

Um, they will do, they go over and above.

And then I say that and realize I think we have so many city people that do that.

I mean, tonight here, just um hearing Jill speak to the DPW employee that did the same thing, and also being here with all the first responders, police and fire tonight.

These are people that come to our libraries and do this like all the time and have such grace about it.

So thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Mayor Ballanton.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President, and thank you for putting this forward and Kathy for your words.

I echo everything uh that Kathy mentioned, and I would like to say on that particular day, a family member of mine was in the library.

And uh they said to me, you know, this incident occurred at the library.

I learned so much from the librarian from how they responded with calm and professionalism in a time when it was really, really scary.

So um I am accepting the citation on behalf of Kelly Gates.

I will bring it over to her, and I will read it.

It says, be it hereby known to all that the Somerville City Council and the mayor offer their sincerest commendations to Kelly Gates for her actions on November 5th, 2025, when without hesitation, she provided life-saving assistance by administering Narcan to an individual suffering suffering an overdose at the West Branch Library.

The council and the mayor extend their gratitude for her heroic efforts.

Thank you.

Okay, that item is approved.

The next item will be item 2.3, a citation by Councillor Strezzo, commending the Somerville Special Education Parent Advisory Council for their commitment to students.

Counselor Schazo.

Thank you.

And I do believe we have some CPAC members in the audience.

Come on down.

I would love to sponsor you up next.

So first, what is CPAC?

CPAC is the Somerville Special Education Parents Advisory Council.

And over the past year, the group was revitalized in uh CPAC serves students, every learner from birth to 18 in the school system, or sometimes uh out of district placements.

And CPAC is a group of special education parents in the district.

And over the past year, uh year and a half, they have been they've done amazing things and have stepped up at a an incredible level to presence in the community to ad advocating for students that are often unheard, un dismissed, and sometimes their rights are their civil rights protections are just slammed to the side.

But CPAC has been that presence to help hold the school district accountable to help bring information forward about IEPs and 504, knowing your rights and and speaking on behalf of so many students, parents, and guardians, and teachers in the district as well, and many times.

You do incredible work.

It is not, it is it is I see it, and uh it is not forgotten, and it is it glows.

I wrote that uh some of the things that you've done in the past year, you did a survey of the of the parents in the district, kids with 504s and IEPs, and for those that that don't know what a 504 and IEP is.

It's uh an IEP is uh individualized education plan, and a 504 is accommodations in the classroom that helps us that is supposed to help a student learn.

And you've done uh you created a very active online community group.

You have been fighting for accessibility and the civil rights protections, civil rights protections of Somerville learners.

You created uh you hold the school district accountable.

You have um you have written a letter with your concerns to DESE, which is the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which is the state uh uh regulation of what happens in each school district, and you brought attention to what the deficits and the things that are missing, the gaps that are happening within Somerville uh the school system and the education the here.

Some of our most vulnerable students have so much to um their lives have changed in such a positive way because of your presence, because of your advocacy and what you do.

And so I needed to present this citation because it needs to happen, and uh because of that, uh I would love to sponsor some of our members.

I don't know who has been sent today to speak, so please, if you could step forward, I'd like to sponsor you.

Uh so not sure who is going to speak to the case.

Counselor Strasser's sponsors and speakers representatives of the organization saying no objection, please go ahead.

Thank you so much, Councillor Strezzo.

Do just state your name for the record so that the minutes can reflect.

First and last name, yeah.

Charlotte Walker.

Um I'm the East Somerville Community School CPAC representative and parent of child, two children with 504s.

Hi, I'm Abby Hare, um, a mom of an SPS student with an IEP, the Capuano CPAC rep, and a retired teacher committed to inclusive practices in the classroom.

Hi, I'm Meredith Brown.

I'm a parent of two Winter Hill students, one of whom is going through the IEP process now.

My name is Kenneth Sinon.

I'm a husband, seminarian, and a proud girl batitude.

My family has been part of some of those Sumerville special education communities since pre-K, and my daughter's currently thriving in the AIM program.

I serve as the vice president of fundraising for Somerville CPAC.

My name is Jessica Perez Adams.

I have three children at the Kennedy who have both IEPs and 504s, and I am the CPAC's representative to the John F.

Kennedy School.

Um we also want to acknowledge Samantha Steiner and her immense dedication and work as a CPAC member and representative to the West community, summerville West Somerville Community School, who's regrettably unable to attend tonight.

And we are deeply honored to receive this recognition on behalf of the Somerville CPAC.

Our CPAC is a thriving community with dozens of families coming together to support not only our own children, but all of our Somerville students with or suspected to have disabilities.

We truly would not be here where we are today without the incredible work of Shu, Liz, and Kathleen, who have put in immense efforts over the past year as CPAC officers.

Our summable CPAC officers have intentionally molded our months modest group into the vibrant community it has now become.

Their unwavering dedication is uplifted families, plug CPAC deeper into our schools by providing a representative to each and created spaces for sharing knowledge, wins, opportunities, direction, and growth for everyone involved.

This public recognition is so meaningful, and we see it as one step of what we hope will be many toward full inclusivity in our city.

There are so many promising initiatives underway.

Somerville's first inclusive playground, the inclusive teaching working group, the Apple Institute, where Mr.

Ariano and Ms.

McDonald have wholeheartedly partnered with CPAC representatives and community members to identify and address barriers families face in special education.

We're also excited to launch our new fundraising organization, the Friends of Somerville CPAC and its board.

Any of our board members are here with fans.

Thank you.

Through this new 501c3, we'll be able to provide financial support for expanded Somerville CPAC programming and collaborations, like workshops for families and school staff alike, expanding outreach and community initiatives.

We're encouraged by this momentum and remain committed to working together to fulfill the important promise of equity that Somerville has made we believe deeply in the promise of special education that every child in our district should receive the free appropriate public education and support they need to thrive academically, emotionally and socially as futures of our city.

We remain committed to the belief that when students with disabilities, no matter how visible or invisible, receive what they need all of SPS students benefit.

Thank you again for this recognition and for your commitment to our students.

We look forward to working together not doing a good job reading lips Council Trash.

I think we do the next breakfast yeah I was going to say we have one more citation then we'll take a quick break so that we can get pictures of everyone in the chambers here if that's so speaking through the microphone now.

Absolutely thank you so much.

Thank you.

I said we if you folks want to hang out for for a minute we'll do one more citation and then we'll take a brief recess so that we can get uh get some photos.

The next item will be will be one taken out of order which is item 10 point one let's wait till we're on eight ish for this one if that's okay.

All right we'll do our best then let's take a uh brief recess for some to take some photos with the uh folks who just got the citation here for CPAC and we'll uh come back in a session as soon as those pictures are done right with yours yeah it's all full of gunk and Lord knows what's okay I got it what do you say I love it yes are we see you off the soccer field I know all right here I'm just gonna take the idea we're just gonna take the pictures I would not mind to that I guess they want this is his award I want him to get it he deserves there you go I'll take it yeah all right ready one two three stay there oh yeah get it right in there all right let's get everyone looking up here ready all right just for uh a few housekeeping notes so

Um, just for a few housekeeping notes, so um we have some items that have been requested to be taken out of order.

Uh, with no objection from the members, we'll take uh we'll take up next uh item six A, which is the report of the Committee on Appointments and uh personnel matters, um confirmation reports, personnel matters.

Um, then seven dot one four, then two dot eight, uh, then two dot four through two dot seven, and then seven two, seven three, seven four, seven five and seven six together, seven eight and eight point four.

And somewhere in there we'll take up ten points.

Yeah, we can't recommend so ten point something, whichever is the other ten point one, thank you.

Um, somewhere around eight o'clock.

We'll do our best to uh try and hit that mark, wave a flag or something when we're ready to roll with that one, Council Burnley, if you would.

Um in the meantime, that'll take us to our first out uh yeah, our first out of order item, which is uh six dot six A.

Yes, indeed, Mr.

President.

Item six A is a report of the committee on confirmation of appointments and personnel matters meeting on December third, twenty twenty-five.

Council Ewan Kipman.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I am very happy to say that the committee uh unanimously recommended a number of promotions in the fire department.

And I'm very happy to see Phil Chambers here tonight.

And I particularly want to recognize two extremely cute matching fire engine dresses.

Uh thank you all for being here.

Um, so I'm just going to read the names and then ask that the committee report be accepted so those folks can come do the honors.

Um, and forgive me if I get any names mispronounced.

We have Stephen Mauris for the position of deputy chief, Mark Ardolino to the position of fire district chief, Jay McKenzie to the position of fire captain, Nicholas Halloran to the position of fire lieutenant, Raymond Busey to the position of fire lieutenant, Ronald Hampton to the position of fire lieutenant, and Andrew Patrickin to the position of fire captain.

I ask that this committee report be accepted.

Any discussion on the committee report?

Seeing none, the report is accepted.

And would the uh folks please step forward and get your promotions?

If anyone wants to take pictures of any of the excitement happening here, please come right up.

Don't be shy.

Definitely avoid as many backs of counselors' heads as you care to step all the way in.

Yep.

Feel free.

Yes.

You can step right in the middle, you can step all the way around.

This is this is your chamber tonight, so please feel free to step forward and take good pictures.

Or just to get a good view.

All right, we've got Mark Artelino.

All right, then we're gonna get Jay McKenzie.

Congratulations.

All right, and then Andrew Patrick Wins.

All right, Nicholas Halloran, you're up.

Thank you.

All right, Raymond Beauty.

And Ronald Hampton.

Just want to see if there's any more cute kids that are going to come up.

All right.

Let's take a recess when we get some pictures.

So we'll be in recess until we're done taking pictures.

Call this meeting back to order.

We have a quorum.

We will now it being at eight o'clock, even though my watch says nine o'clock.

Apparently, I'm not at the daylight saving time having added.

Remind me to fix that later, Madam Claire.

Thank you.

Item ten point one is a citation by Councillor Burnley commending Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville for their community assistance.

Counselor Burley.

There is very little I can say that can match the kind of dedication and care that it takes to spend your time as a volunteer day in and day out, week in and week out, making sure that people have food on the table and are healthy and safe.

There's a little I can do to really describe the breadth of the work that Mammoths has done over the years, including uh making having clothing drives, creating mutual aid gardens, um, doing the work that ultimately became uh the community fridge network uh that is around our community.

And so rather than trying to grasp at words to accomplish that goal, I'd like to sponsor a group of residents who have continued to do that work over the many years since 2020.

So I would like to sponsor four individuals to speak who have uh written a speech collectively and voted on that speech by consensus, something I would never do.

Um if they would be so kind as to join us up here.

Council Brandon likes to sponsor the members, representatives of Mamas, say no objection, please step forward.

Do uh give us your names for the record and uh please take it away.

Okay.

Crystal Huff, they them pronouns Ward 5 of Somerville.

Rachel Hans, she, her pronouns Word 4 Somerville.

Jessica King, she, her pronouns uh Ward 6 of Somerville.

Murphy Spence, she they pronouns Ward 4 of Somerville.

As you heard, Mamas stands for Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville.

Mutual aid is the manifest understanding that everyone has something to offer and everyone has things that they need.

And we are stronger as a community when we share with each other.

Since March of 2020, members of Mamas have been embodying that love for our community.

We have a community pool of funds we collect from those who can donate money, and we've redistributed over a million dollars as of July of this year.

That's one measurement of our impact on Somerville in Medford, but it's not the only thing we've done.

We have a multilingual hotline that people can call for help, and we do our best to connect them with resources.

We grow food together in around 20 mutual aid gardens located on land shared by community members.

We organize free events to share clothing and other items, we distribute grocery cards to the community.

We share cars between neighbors for trips to community fridges and hospitals and Harvard Recycling Center.

We look after each other's children and pets, we teach each other to mend clothes and share hand me downs.

We redistribute air conditioners when it's hot outside.

We go on walks together, we work with other decentralized organizers to support those affected by federal actions.

We host a website with information for anyone who wants to join us in this work or to start their own mutual aid groups in other cities.

We know that we have spread love within Med Somerville and Medford in these ways.

Thank you.

Many of us struggled to feed our families.

Many of us experience different kinds of inaccessibility and barriers within this city, including language and transit.

We appreciate being recognized by Somerville tonight, and we also hope that you see how we've accomplished it.

We work with resources freely given by our shared community and distribute those resources without conditions attached.

We know from our work that it is not necessary to determine if someone deserves help before getting it to them.

Next year there will be a different mayor, and some of the people around this horseshoe will be different.

We hope that city officials will decide to put more resources into food security, rental relief, senior assistance, students, teachers, and all forms of art.

We hope that Somerville will continue to invest in forms of environmentally conscious response.

We hope that Somerville will continue to invest in environmentally conscious responses to climate change and pollution, protecting future generations as well as flora, fauna, and our waterways, like Galewife Brook and the Mystic.

We appreciate your actions to support the CSO funding resolution, and we hope to see more.

Most of all, we hope that Somerville will stop testing people to see if they're really poor enough to need support.

We won't right now run through the list of ways Somerville has means tested people and Mammoth such that they weren't able to access resources they need.

But if you want to talk to us after the meeting, we are here to share our stories, and I will definitely talk your ear off.

We would love to see a day when Mamas doesn't need a community pool of funds to help our neighbor to help keep our neighbors housed and healthy.

You all can help us do that.

You have the ability to negotiate over the budget and support our community in ways that we cannot.

Please use your powers over the city's finances, the departments and staff.

Please think of this moment next year when it comes to allocating money or approving budget lines.

Thank you for recognizing the work that Mamas does in this community.

Mutual aid will only get us so far.

So we are here in solidarity with the city officials working alongside us to create a more equitable Somerville.

We appreciate all of the work that you have done to take care of our community.

We believe that everyone has something to offer, and everyone has things that they need.

And we are a more resilient community when we trust and share with each other.

Thank you.

Counselor Wilson.

Yeah, Mr.

President, I want to thank Councillor Burnley for bringing this forward.

A lot of this work, you know, I know from talking to folks involved, it happens very quietly, right?

Uh people do not seek out attention for this.

If you ever want to see that the real impact of it, I would encourage you to go check out uh the free store uh that Mama stands up uh twice a year.

Once a year, twice a year, four four times a year.

All right.

Uh it's phenomenal.

The army of volunteers that assembles to to make that happen, uh, to set that up.

Uh typically the one I I've seen is at the East Somerville School.

It's amazing.

Uh you really feel the power of community.

You feel what people are able to come together and accomplish.

Um, and and then you see the impact that it makes.

Uh typically I've been there, you know, for the the setup and then again for the the cleanup afterwards.

And there's not much left at the end.

Uh there's a real need for this, and it leaves you just uh one sort of just wowed by the the level of need out there, but also feeling very good about the people who are standing up and rising to meet that need.

So congrats to you all, a well-deserved honor.

Uh, appreciate everything you do.

Councilor Burns.

Counselor Ba.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I also want to thank Councillor Burnley for your leadership on this.

Uh it's been really an honor to actually know most of you, especially Christa was a friend.

I think Mama has been an extraordinary force for compassion, solidarity, and never to never support in our community.

So I just want to thank you for demonstrating what true community looks like.

You know, your work strengthens our social fabric.

It oblivions our most vulnerable neighbors and reflects the very best of our values as a city.

So I also feel very fortunate to have volunteer, you know, with mamas and also remember during the pandemic, Christa and I went to Cambridge, you know, got food, you know, at the distribution distribution centers, talked a lot of the community fridges.

I just want to say thank you.

You know, it's been an honor to actually, you know, walk with you in the community.

Thank you.

Council Ewan Campen.

Um thank you, Mr.

President.

So through you, uh Councillor Burnley mentioned that the council hasn't given a citation yet, um, and was surprised by that, but I think this makes it very clear why we haven't, um, because these are very dangerous ideas.

Um if the public hears about the free fridges and the free stores, they might start asking questions about the structure of our society.

Um I just remember in 2020 when this sort of emerged.

Um, it was just one of the most terrifying and darkest.

I mean, it was nothing like that has ever happened in our lifetimes.

The every kind of structure we counted on just ground to a halt.

And then all of a sudden, these weird like WhatsApp groups and uh notes being passed around neighbors started just kind of percolating up.

And it was so incredibly inspiring, and to this day it is um just basic human needs.

You know, when society really seemed like it was on the verge of collapsing.

Um, just watching this network of heroes emerge out of Somerville and seeing that you're all still doing it.

Also an indictment of how much more we have to do as a government.

So uh we are both appreciated everything you're doing and also for the constant goad that says that I should be doing more.

So I'll keep working on it.

Thank you.

Counselor Said.

It is a really important one.

And I'm glad we were you were able to do that.

Um before the end of the year in our last meeting.

And uh yeah, thank you so much for all the work you do.

Um everyone, uh especially all the work you've done during the pandemic and what you're doing right now as many of our neighbors are facing food insecurity.

Um thank you for serving our community.

It is work that is not that we don't see um so it's it's important that uh thank you for also reminding us to do our work to um and I look forward to collaborating and working together.

Um again, thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you I want to thank the members of uh Mamas as well.

Um I couldn't help but notice that there was pretty heavy uh Ward 4 representation, which doesn't surprise me because we we are sort of the like Wards one and four are sort of the last bastion of of of you know um uh affordable areas and and with filled with the type of people who um look out for each other and and understand what it's like to struggle.

So um so thank you for the work you do.

I appreciate it.

Um and yeah, just uh just keep rocking and um any anything I can do to help, let me know.

All right, seeing no further discussion, I will echo all of the comments of my colleagues and say thank you.

That item's approved.

Let's take anyone take some pictures.

All right, pre-free cess for pictures.

My camera sucks, that's why I was like, We don't come with a good AV, so where do we stand?

All right.

Carl's meeting back to order.

May have some more pictures later, just if I decide we all should take some pictures.

Because pictures are fun.

All right.

All right.

Um, we're gonna go back to some out-of-order items next.

Um, so Madam Clerk, item 7.14, please.

Yes, the next will be item 7.14, a communication of the mayor conveying an end-of-term report.

Madam Mayor.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone, Mr.

President, um, counselors.

Thank you for being here tonight as I formally submit uh an end-of-term transition report for the public record.

This report is meant to do something very simply, clearly document where Somerville stands in terms of projects and initiatives and provide a reliable foundation for the next administration, for the city council, and for the public.

When I first ran for mayor, I laid out a vision of an inclusive, equitable city where we can all thrive together.

That vision has guided every major choice over the past four years, from how we engage the public to how we invested in resources and how we strengthened our systems that city government relies on.

From day one, I believed in a city where the people most affected by policy have a seat at the table.

That meant strengthening community engagement, like launching the participatory budgeting, deepening anti-displacement work, and building out public safety for all, all shaped by residents, and hundreds of residents participated in those plans.

Equity isn't an easy path, and it's the right one.

Complex work that required our staff to innovate while still carrying out their daily responsibilities.

Nearly all full-time SMEU positions now start at or around sixty thousand dollars when many were still in the $30,000 range when we began.

Thriving means affordability, opportunity, and a healthy environment all at once.

To deliver on our progressive values, we must diversify our revenue.

As some of you, my colleagues here on the council have heard me say many times, is the biggest impact that we can have on the people who live here now.

And I started saying that 12 years ago was bringing in commercial development in the transform districts because it diversifies our revenue base.

It takes the burden off the residential property owner.

So my administration planned strategically for commercial development rather than leaving growth to chance.

Through tough tech zoning, the brick bottom plan and assembly, Somerville is now positions to generate roughly $255 million of community benefits that go directly towards supporting affordable housing and job creation.

Linkage fees and resources for our schools and core services.

Those investments created real results.

We increased and invested in our Somerville public school budget by nearly 30% over four years.

That's historic.

It's never happened before.

We built or upgraded 13 parks.

We strengthened street safety.

Our crash data has come down.

We advanced nationally recognized climate work, including our pollinator action plan.

We developed tough tough tech zoning that established a model for supporting both commercial innovation and creative enterprises.

Our natural environment is healthier, our built environment is safer, and our systems are more prepared for the future than they were four years ago.

And throughout, we centered people, youth, seniors, immigrants, communities, residents experiencing homelessness, persons with disabilities, and staff across every department of this city.

And we also filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to make sure that we made sure that our values as a sanctuary city, a welcoming city, uh, are known and uh supported by our entire community.

This report is a summary of our administration's work, a reflection of many people who shaped it, to the city council, thank you for your work we accomplished together for your collaboration and for the shared commitment to serving Somerville with integrity.

To city staff across every department, thank you.

Uh your skill, your creativity, your resilience, and your belief in this city.

To community partners and residents, thank you for showing up, speaking up, helping shape the path we follow with gratitude and with full confidence in Somerville's future.

I submit this report for the record, and I wish everybody a happy new year.

All right, that item is uh placed on file, and we'll go directly into uh another next out of order item, which is 2.8.

Yes, item 2.8 is a citation by Councillor Davis commending outgoing Mayor Catiana Ballantyne for her outstanding service to the people of Somerville as mayor from 2022 to 2025.

Madam Mayor, I'm not supposed to speak on items from the podium here, but I'll stretch the rules a little bit just to say thank you for your many, many years of service.

Uh going well back beyond your years as a mayor.

Um, as I know that everyone around the horseshoe can reflect, this is not a it's not a job that comes with a lot of thanks.

And I have to imagine that being mayor is even more so.

Uh that is even more so the case.

So um, for anyone who's willing to serve the city, uh I I'm always grateful, and for your work, um, all the things that we've worked on together, um, all of the initiatives that you that you took when you did become mayor.

Um, I'm very grateful.

Um, and on behalf of the council, I also thank you.

We'll give you this fancy plaque, so I'm gonna step down any discussion.

We'll start with Council and Campin while I'm coming around to uh hand you the plaque.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um Mayor Ballantyne.

Um you you've done a huge number of really good things for the city.

I I just want to focus on two in these brief remarks.

Um the first has to do with the really, really extraordinary investments that you made in the schools.

Um, and this was both in the annual budgets and it was in the contracts that you signed with the educators.

Um of course the contracts that were mentioned with the with the municipal unions.

Um these were really, really, really impressive.

Um, and I know that they were not easy.

Um, and those were just huge, huge accomplishments.

Um, and I was really impressed, and I think a lot of people were really, really impressed by that.

Um, and the other thing that I want to mention is the community benefits agreement for Summer Nova.

This is just one that comes to mind for me.

And they could steamroll that stuff and get their approvals and get their projects going.

And I think the reason that we had the first project labor agreement on this, the fur reason that we had this really kind of unbelievable community benefits agreement was, of course, because of the community organizing and the support of everyone here.

But the fact that you stood with us, I think really sent a very clear message.

And so I think you should be very proud of that as well.

And so I just want to say thank you for those.

Thank you.

Thank you through the chair.

Madam Mayor, thank you for serving.

And I've talked to a lot of people who whose lives have been improved by the work that you've done, whether or not they know it.

For example, we hear a lot as counselors, and I'm sure your office does it as well about parking and streets and the changes to the roads.

And I've talked to constituents of mine who I've disagreed with, quite frankly, uh sometimes vehemently about which direction our city should be going in.

And I think it is very easy to take on a role, a public role, and succumb to pressure.

When someone gets in your face or sends you emails or sends you uh voicemails that say, hey, you've been what what's this rotary doing here?

Why is there less parking on my street?

What what is this?

What is this traffic calming?

I don't feel calm.

Um to those people, I've had to stand there and say, I'm absolutely with the mayor on this one.

It is so so important that we prioritize the safety of our neighbors, whether that be when they are on the roads, whether that be when they are unhoused and there are folks who would rather see draconian measures taken to remove them from the community.

Um with your leadership on these fronts, I think you've withheld from taking many actions that other mayors, quite frankly, have to the detriment of their communities.

And I I think that is uh uh a sign of your own principles and values, as well as that of your staff.

And my one of my former bosses, uh, Cinder Elizabeth Warren, uh, used to say personnel is policy.

And the folks that you've brought into this administration and the folks that you've kept in this administration who've worked with this council, who spent an inordinate amount of hours um trying to improve this community, it's all just so important.

I mean, to give one short example, um Nikki Spencer, who was here uh and who lives somewhat in my area.

I remember I was walking down the street one day, not that long ago.

Um she knows what story I'm about to say.

And I was walking down the street on Medford uh and saw Ms.

Spencer walking towards me, and I was like, Oh, hey, thank you, Spencer.

She didn't see me.

I was like, oh, what the what the heck?

Um the reason though that she did not see me was because someone had called in an issue at Henry Hanson Park, and she was scouring the ground looking to see if some street level tiny uh issue she could spot in and correct or bring to the attention of our city staff.

And that is the kind of dedication that transcends the nine to five.

That is the kind of work that uh models what a public servant is.

And I give you a lot of credit for bringing in folks like that and for letting them shine and do their work without hindrance uh without political interference.

So I know this won't be the last we hear from you.

Uh and I look forward to seeing what you do next.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

Counselor Wilson, and then we'll go McLaughlin and say.

Yeah, thanks, Mr.

President.

I want to thank the mayor for uh many years of public service as the president mentioned.

First representing Ward 7 on this body, uh, and then for the last four years as mayor.

Uh as I've said repeatedly this year, uh succeeding uh a predecessor who was in the job for 18 years uh is a huge undertaking.

And I I'm incredibly incredibly grateful that uh you stepped up, Madam Mayor, uh for our city and did that work.

Uh over the past four years, uh I really appreciated Mayor Ballantyne investing in our schools, as was mentioned.

Um establishing that precedent of seeking formally input from counselors on our budget priorities, uh your centering of equity in your hiring, uh in the outreach that you did to uh when we did community processes in labor negotiations, uh and your commitment to street safety as was as was mentioned, and then work on pollinators is very popular in my household.

Um as I've been constantly reminded here over the last month plus, the job of mayor is an incredibly demanding one, and we owe you a debt of gratitude for doing that work for the past four years.

So thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, counselor.

Council McLaughlin.

Thank you, Madam uh Mr.

President, and thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um I go way back to the Summerville Community Corporation days where we both served on the board together.

And I remember also when we both ran for office, it was your second time running for office after nearly beating an incumbent.

You challenged him again and ended up winning that seat.

That was really we had one progressive counselor, council of Girlworth, Alderman Gurwitz at the time.

Uh she was a sole voice on the council.

And then myself, Councilor Ballantyne, Councilor Niedegang, other people got on board, and when I look around this horseshoe and see all progressive faces, people all sharing the same values.

I think back to those days when you were campaigning and I was campaigning, and when we were serving on these uh the um community corporation board together, and I remember watching your canvas and said she's gonna be really good at her job, and I don't want to serve on the finance committee with her because I I know how in the weeds you were gonna get.

And uh seeing you as mayor, I I said this at another meeting, but I think the thing that I really appreciated the most is how much you focused on people who couldn't vote, uh undocumented immigrants, uh young people, teenagers, uh people who really don't have a voice in the on the ballot box, and you prioritize them, and I think that's continues to be important.

We need to keep focusing on that.

But I hope that's your last and legacy is always remembering the people who are not able to have their voices heard all the time and make it time for them and not taking uh Facebook photos like you didn't really advertise what you were doing in the community when it came to helping those most in need, which I think is very humble.

And I'm gonna miss you, but I'm not gonna miss you that much because I know you're gonna be here and you're gonna keep serving the community.

So thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

Counselor Sae, and then Counselor Klingon, and by the way, through you, Mr.

President.

Uh thank you, Mayor Ballantyne for serving our community for many years as counselor and as mayor.

Uh, I want to thank you and your administration for all the work, as you've mentioned on affordability, safe streets, and uh investing in our schools and our city staff.

Um I also want to thank you for including many women as part of your administration, women with different backgrounds, and for empowering them.

Um that we see that and I'm I'm very grateful personally.

And um, yeah, uh and especially also want to thank you for getting us through a pandemic through a pandemic, real difficult times, and uh right now for defending our Sanctuary City as a first generation immigrant.

I really I'm very very grateful um for you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Counselor Clayton.

Thank you, Mr.

President, through you to Madam Mayor.

Um Madam Mayor, it's been it's been quite a while since we uh had that beer at Sligo's.

Yes.

Um it was right around this time in 2017 when I when I was voted in, but I hadn't taken office yet.

Um and I was really proud to to um support you for president of the council at that time.

President through you to Madam Mayor um Madam Mayor it's been it's been quite a while since we uh had that beer at Sligo's yes um it was right around this time in 2017 when I when I was voted in but I hadn't taken office yet um and I was really proud to to um support you for president of the council at that time um you know being somebody who was a single mom and just like the the you know the the importance that that women have always played in my life in terms of uh influence and just um being really the only you know the the rock um I just I was I didn't think twice about it and uh and I um and I was really it was really a pleasure to serve with you as president and also on the council um you know I I uh I want to say that I I don't think it can be understated uh the street safety thing you know I saw some comments on social media recently where someone was like oh should we combine with Cambridge and someone was like no like Cambridge has had three crash fatalities in the amount of time that some will has had zero so um major improvements uh made under your administration um you know and the other thing I really want to thank you on is I mean you were integral in the 299 Broadway project and um so I can't thank you enough for making that helping that project come to fruition um you and your staff um which is why I'm excited to invite you to the demolition party on Saturday.

No no no no I'll tell you why because they start serving beer at 11 and we're gonna get that beer that we never that follow up beer we never had and we're gonna watch that building come down and I really really appreciate everything you've done for the city.

I also want to reiterate what people said about you know thanking your family as well um and yeah it's just uh good luck to you in whatever endeavors that you you take up um thank you thank you counselor counselor Bach Thank you Mr.

President uh the honorable Madame Mayor I remember first you're my neighbor which I really feel proud you know and Nikki was also my neighbor but I never had the privilege to see as much you know but I want to say when we went out to a coffee you know and it said one thing you know just your legacy it's about the equity that you spoke and you executed so I just want to say thank you for your leadership you know for the city and also your vision for a more equitable inclusive you know and resilient you know city will continue to guide you know this administration because you've really inspired and you a renewed focus in that direction so now we see more on housing your climate action just that community values that alone it's a legacy that I told you you know when we met that I'm really proud of and uh I just want to say that you led with empathy courage transparency and you've created a strong foundation for some of his future so on behalf of us we want to say thank you.

Thank you Mr.

Vice President can I just get one quick second bite of the apple I totally forgot to mention something I had it in my head that I was mentioned I should have wrote it down yes mean you were right um I don't I don't I want to recognize the fact that you uh took uh swift action on the winter hill when at a time when you know uh we had to decide whether or not we're gonna go back in that building and it was a tough decision to say that we we couldn't uh go back in that building despite you know um not really knowing the extent of things but just knowing that if you know so much as a crumb fell on a child you know it would have been it would have been really devastating so you made that decision and then really the speed at which you and your team got the edgerly uh school up and running was extremely impressive and uh that was really important to you know my constituents and the kids at the Winter Hill and um I just want to recognize that that the Edgly that the the the amount of time you all energy and time you put in to make sure those kids had a new temporary home uh was really great so thank you for that.

Thank you.

Counselor Scott Hart and then Trezel um thank you Mr.

President and uh thank you madam mayor.

Well uh everybody else has said a lot of things and I I do want to echo um my gratitude for your support of the neighborhood councils uh and the letting the community really drive those negotiations in a way that we never saw from previous administrations.

As as I say it it's it's a tough act follow about two decades of the same leadership in the city and uh you know it's been uh one of the things I've appreciated most is your your willingness to listen to uh and to make a course change when it's necessary uh I'm not sure I ever convinced the last guy that he was wrong but I can think of at least once that you moved a position and I appreciate that I will say um that one thing uh to talk about that surfacing resources that you devoted to folks in this city I don't think enough can be said about the summer viva uh office of immigrant affairs um and you know it's you have uh been in this seat where the buck stops there through a an actually almost comical series of cataclysms that have come from external uh landed on us landed on our city landed on our neighbors uh it's uh it's just unfathomable about uh how you try to keep the city moving forward in a direction while also trying to absorb those hits and take care of our neighbors as they take those hits.

Um it's you have uh been in this seat where the buck stops there through a an actually almost comical series of cataclysms that have come from external uh landed on us, landed on our city, landed on our neighbors.

Uh it's uh it's just unfathomable about uh how you try to keep the city moving forward in a direction while also trying to absorb those hits and take care of our neighbors as they take those hits.

Uh so I I want to share uh with you and also uh with all my colleagues here.

Um, you know, a few months ago uh I was uh there as long as as well as Councilor McLaughlin when one of our neighbors was abducted off the streets of East Somerville.

And thanks to uh the resources you set aside uh for Greater Boston Legal Services, uh Magdaleno is no longer in custody.

He's back in our community, he's back with his family.

And uh I and it's not just him, right?

There are so many people that the question of who can you call who can help in a moment of absolute terror and desperation, uh, especially from folks that aren't exactly a voting block necessarily, uh being devoting the resources so that when that call comes in, people uh which is policy were there to answer the call is uh is a legacy that I don't think uh many people are gonna understand just how impactful it was, but for those uh whose lives it changed, uh they will never be able to say enough how much it meant.

So uh that is uh that is a legacy that I I think you can be proud of, uh honestly, for the rest of your days.

So thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

Okay, Counselor Hart.

Thank you.

Um Mayor Valentine, Madam Mayor, I just wanted to say how grateful I am that I got to have you as my ward counselor and also our mayor for the past four years.

Um we all owe you a debt of gratitude.

The way that you lead with such integrity is really an amazing model um and the way that you're so committed to your values and equity and inclusiveness.

Um you really walk the walk.

Um and it's it's very um meaningful to the whole city and also to me.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

Thank you.

Council Chazo.

Thank you.

I will miss you.

Um I know that the role of mayor is an impossible job.

You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't, and you get blamed for everything.

And the great wins that you do accomplish is kind of uh the lead gets buried in the article a lot of times.

Um I respect you as a strong female leader.

You brought a lot of women with you.

And for those for uh for us women who were watching you in your in your power, I remember when you were first trying to be um city council president, and uh that was a fight because even though it wasn't it wasn't supposed to be as difficult as it was, um the reality is it was a lot a lot uh more of a fight than it should have been.

And you were a strong fem female visionary that just was like, no, I'm gonna do this, and you did it at several terms, and you were a great council president too.

Thank you, Council.

You were a great leader.

So thank you very much.

And uh and thank you for all you've done for women, for children, and for so many uh voices that just aren't always considered.

Thank you.

Counselor Wilson, back to you.

Thanks, Mr.

President.

I thought of something I wanted to add on here.

Uh flashing back four years ago, the last time this sort of thing happened, I I watched as you know, people said all sorts of nice things about each other, then the the meeting went on.

And do you remember how that that meeting ended with a really contentious thing about an ice rink, and I recall a uh uh counselor, future colleague talking about uh we lost another game of 4D chess.

And there's just a general fury from the council about feeling like they got put in a uh in a position uh where they had no choice but to approve something.

You never did that to us.

Uh I never felt like you stuck us in a situation where we had no choice but to approve something.

And that might sound like a small thing uh to the public, but it's a big deal to the council.

Uh it was a big deal.

I'll speak for myself.

It was a big deal to me that I never felt messed with on this council by your administration, and I think you deserve a lot of credit for that.

I appreciate it, and I just wanted to call that out here.

Mr.

President I just wanted to say the meeting's not over yet.

So I said Councillor Baugh.

No.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you.

I told you we might take some more pictures, but I'm inclined to do a couple more citations first.

Then we can all have fun things to hold while we're taking pictures.

So if council is okay with it, we'll take up some other citations first.

More citations, then we'll do some pictures and backpacking stuff.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Well we'll we'll take a proper moment to do that all together here, because you know, I I'm stuck up here.

All right.

Um so back to regular order of business.

Um I'd like to waive the readings of item 2.4 and 2.5 and and approve those unless there's any objection.

Um see none, those items are approved.

Uh Madam Clark, 2.6.

Item 2.6 is a citation by Counselor Davis.

Commending outgoing Counselor Willie Burnley Jr.

for his outstanding service to the people of Somerville as city counselor at large from 2022 to 2025.

Gonna break the rules again.

Council Burnley, thank you for your time here.

I will just say that I want to call out my the pleasure that I had chairing legislative matters when you uh came on to that committee.

Um and we had or the few years before that, we'd done some work.

I mean, we did some business in that committee, and I felt like we'd done the things, and then you came on and said, hold on, here's the things you did.

We can make them better, and here's a couple new things that we can do.

And it gave me an opportunity to get super excited again uh in that committee and work with you on some improvements of uh ordinances we are we'd already passed, some new things.

Um so I uh you know, I'm not gonna speak too much from up here, but I want to call that out because I had a lot of fun working with you on those.

Um and uh and I'll thank you for that and and for your service.

I'm going to look around for who wants to go first, Council Ewan Campen.

I'm gonna bring this plaque over to you then.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um so through you to my to my colleague, um, I'm very bummed that you're leaving the council that we're not gonna get to work together uh next term.

One of the strange things about the job of city counselor is that we have to find ways to take all of this energy from our constituents, the ideas that we hear, all this kind of pressure.

And then we need to try to figure out how to do something locally, um, how to channel it into like the very strange and specific power that we have.

Um and it's really not obvious or straightforward usually how to do that.

It really takes kind of creativity and effort.

Um, so many of the things that our constituents, you know, are being affected by are not directly in our control, obviously.

Um but councillor Burnley has just had an unbelievably impressive ability to find ways to take that energy and to focus it into things that I think really matter to people and that really make people feel heard and represented, people who often have not felt that way in the past.

Um and not only do you have those ideas, then you've put in just an unbelievable amount of work to get them done, as Counselor Davis just said, um, just kind of putting other new uh myself as a new counselor to shame in terms of just the ability to to get uh ordinances passed and get stuff moving.

It's been really impressive to watch um and on the issues where we've collaborated.

I've really really enjoyed it.

And I also just want to say a note um about the I don't know what you want to call it, courage that you've shown to speak up on stuff that is difficult, talking about Gaza, talking about Palestine.

That is not easy to do, you know, from one counselor to another.

I know that that is not easy to do.

Um, and I really appreciate the courage that you've shown.

Um I just want to express my gratitude for your public service um to say I look forward to working with you in the future, whatever comes next for you.

Thank you for everything you've done.

Counselor Wilson.

Thanks, Mr.

President.

Um I I first met our colleague at large uh in 2021 when we were both running.

Uh our first real conversation was uh a walk and talk basically around Spring Hill.

Uh and it turned out to be the first of many conversations.

Uh I I really enjoyed getting to know Councilor Burnley, uh serving alongside him on the uh on this body.

I I really appreciate uh your principled advocacy, uh, your sharp mind uh and a really good sense of humor.

Um I I consider you a friend, and it was an honor uh running uh with you uh in this year's election.

Uh I'm gonna miss having you as a colleague, uh, but clearly you're on your way to doing amazing things.

Um I'm looking forward to the next chapter for you, whatever that holds.

Uh I'm sure you'll continue serving the public.

Um I just want to say thanks for all your work on this body uh and especially on the finance committee over these years.

Cheers.

Counselor Scott.

Oh, thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh Councilor Burnley, I'm not ready for this speech.

Um, you know, it it is uh I think it I think it's hard for me to put into words what um your presence, your advocacy, what your work on this council has uh meant to me personally, uh in addition to what it's meant to the city.

Uh you know, this is uh certainly not an easy job, but uh in addition to that courage, uh I wanna I want to uplift this energy that that with which you have accumulated just an astounding legislative record.

Um but also you know, for for somebody who's taken heat over time uh for the strength of your convictions.

I I saw you take meetings with everybody who ever wanted to talk to you, anybody, uh, even folks that didn't necessarily want to talk to you.

You wanted to hear uh where they were coming from.

Uh I I think your outreach in the community, your presence in the community, and your unfailing dedication to lifting up uh the voices of people who are less often heard, uh lifting up the cause of justice uh in every venue is something that um it's been uh uh truly a balm to the soul uh for me.

I it has been uh beyond reassuring uh to know that you are gonna be here for all of the hardest discussions that we've had.

Uh and I'm really gonna miss your voice in this chamber.

Um I'm really gonna miss uh having somebody that uh that I know I can look to even to help clarify uh where my heart is.

Uh so thank you for being a colleague, for being a comrade, for being uh at times a guide and for truly picking up the work that um I started that several of us started over time, uh, and taking that work forward and actually seeing it all the way to conclusion with the work of community partners with advocates all over.

Um it is uh I don't I don't think many people in the public appreciate uh what a rough road you've had of it uh in this in this chamber uh in the streets of Somerville uh and what you've endured to serve your neighbors.

And uh I can just tell you that uh to the extent I understand it, I I appreciate it.

Um it's a it's a gift beyond value that you've given to Somerville uh and to your colleagues over the last four years.

So uh thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Thank you.

All right, okay, Councillor McLaughlin, Councillor Baugh, then Councillor Clinken.

Thank you, Mr.

President, through you to Councillor Burnley.

Um I was thinking about one of our many main heated debates around these chambers.

Um and one time when Councilor Burnley said, you know, everyone knows I don't agree with this man.

Um and at the end of the year, at the end of every year I look back about the things that I'm proud of accomplishing.

And one of the things I always see every year is how many of our uh items are passed unanimously or nearly unanimous.

And I look at this divided country and how nothing is getting done on the federal level.

Not much is getting done on the state level either, but we have a really divided country, and we have a united city of Sombal with shared values.

And I think about that and every year about what we have accomplished and how Council Burnley was a part of that, and how all of us were a part of a shared interest in the community.

And I think I'm gonna look back at these days years from now, and I'm not gonna think about the debates or the fights or anything like that.

I'm gonna think about what we all accomplished together and how we serve this community.

So I just want to say that and just let you know, Council Burnley, you should be very proud of your accomplishments, and I look forward to seeing what you do next.

Councilor Ba.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh Council Burnley.

I want to share everything that everybody has really said.

Um trying to figure out where to start, but I was starting from when we met, you know, and that is it's uh the first time you called me and you said you know you're planning to run for office and run for city council at large.

And I was on the council and the only person that looked like me on the council.

And the first thing I said was just congratulations.

You know I never met you well just even just and then finally we met.

You shared stories with me about yourself, your background.

All I've had is just admiration for you.

You lead with your heart.

I mean I it's it's unbelievable like I actually you know I I try to give everybody a fair shot like I don't approach people based on what people tell me but you know I it so you've just been such a a force and the the sentiment that you know keep coming up is courage.

You know so I just want to say thank you for your dedication you know in service to this community and your unwavering commitment to equity justice and transparent you know governance has really strengthened trust between residents and City Hall and also ensure that community voices you know were heard and respected.

That is something that when I think about you I'm really proud of you brought integrity you brought thoughtfulness and courage to your work every day and your leadership has left a lasting mark on this council.

So for me personally I I I feel it so um I'm duly grateful for your service and I know that you continue to shape outcome of future elections in this community I have no doubt about that.

Thank you.

Council Klingan thank you Mr President through you to Council Burnley echo all of what's been said um about your time on the council and about your record.

I'll just say that one of the things I'll miss is the as I'll miss your um licenses and permits routine that you often did bring in a little uh humor to the council um but just in terms of what I think about when I think about you is like your mind is the way you process information like you'll you you're extremely sharp as is as was mentioned and um just the way that like you know it'll seem like you're not paying attention to something but at this but then you'll like make a pithy comment and like I'm just it's impressive like the way that you are um able to to to process information um that's always impressed me about you and um it just it kind of it helps uh the way that you it just helps the the type of listener that you are and the way that you're able to take in information um and process it and it it it comes out in the work that you do so so that's one thing that I always just like kind of took note and was um really impressed by um and then of course like as was said um just you're you know not afraid to ta tackle the tough issues and um you brought you brought courage to the position and um I also look forward to seeing what you do next and uh wish you all the best thank you counselor site uh through you Mr.

President um thank you Councilor Brownley for being a great partner on the council uh thank you for your dedication to our community um for all the work on legislation over the years uh since I've known you you've always been very consistent and I I love you for that and as others have said thank you for standing up for the right thing from the very very beginning when it seems very difficult and one that comes to mind is solidarity with Palestine.

It takes courage and thank you for you know being the very first ones to be very vocal um on that and um and one thing I want to thank you for is inspiring um many of our neighbors people who normally are not engaged in like political life our rent a lot of a renters but especially young uh constituents um I'm saying this because one very good memory I have is when it was uh still teacher at some of your high school and they was working with a group of students of my students who are climate activists they were in sunrise and we were putting together this climate panel and they chose the people they wanted to invite and it was just helping them put it together where it was all them really and they decided to invite you um and uh I remember you know you talked how you like connected uh you know the the climate work with environmental justice and all that and um after the panel you know we were you know the because there was like an assignment after that about it and uh just my students spending you know time talking and sharing with me like how inspired they felt um about like the things you shared and uh you know they started looking you up and all that

And uh I remember, you know, you talked to how you like connected the you know, the the climate work with environmental justice and all that, and um after the panel, you know, we were, you know, the because there was like an assignment after that about it, and uh just my students spending you know time talking and sharing with me like how inspired they felt um uh about like the things you shared and uh you know, they started looking you up and all that and uh so I I just remember the impact you had on them, and that's one thing I really you know love, you know, about you.

Like everywhere you go, you you inspire you know, people and um I I know I have seen it um throughout the years, so thank you for that.

Counselor Hart Councillor Burnley, I just wanted to just want to appreciate you for all of your work for our city and all the ways that you've moved our city towards uh justice and inclusivity, and I've always enjoyed when our paths have crossed in the past, and I really look forward to them continuing to cross.

So thank you.

Counselor Burnley.

Through the chair.

Um I hate all this mushy stuff, quite frankly.

Um I I try to, you know, because you guys said all those mushy things, I'm gonna say a few misshy things um and then get to the bulk of my comments, but you know I think sometimes about you know the role that we all share on this horseshoe and how few people understand what it means to be a public servant, but also what it means to be a public figure.

Every one of us when we took on this role had to swear an oath, had to literally sign a book that is far older than me, um, but even a bit older than some of y'all.

Um and say upon pains of perjury that we were going to fight for our constituents to our best understanding within the confines of the law.

We can quibble about what that means.

Um, but it is such a rare thing in life to know one, so many people who have taken such a pledge uh and to be one of those people, uh, and I know it's not easy.

I know it's not easy for any of us.

Um so I appreciate that about all of you.

And I I'm not gonna go down the line because I don't want to take up too much time, uh, but I will say personally to counselor Scott.

Um you're one of the reasons that I have I have done this work.

Um you were incredibly instrumental in teaching me the ropes of how the council actually operates, uh, you know, the difference between a resolution and an order and an ordinance and how budget season operates.

I mean, that first year uh was it kind of a crazy year.

I think that's a year we we went past midnight, uh maybe um on one of our budget nights, and that was uh pretty intense experience.

Um but I the my ability to actually navigate these arcane processes is partly uh due to the support that you offered me both before I took on this role and during uh my especially my first I would say two years just to give me the the institutional history of this body of the city uh in a way that as a as a transplant um I didn't necessarily have.

And frankly, as someone who had not always paid attention to local government.

Um President Davis, uh I also share a lot of fond memories of legislative matters.

I mean, I didn't expect uh to actually find so much joy in in crafting laws.

I you know, I came in with a roadmap of I want to do these things to a certain extent, but you know, I learned a lot about how my own brain works uh from that committee and how um my background as a writer connects to the background of lawyers who are very particular about words, and I remember many meetings where we you know had debates about the difference between shell and will and you know things that would seem ridiculous and felt ridiculous, frankly, but their consequence we took extremely seriously.

And I remember many meetings where we, you know, had debates about the difference between shall and will, and you know, things that would seem ridiculous and felt ridiculous, frankly, but their consequence we took extremely seriously.

Um without that committee, so much of the work that I wanted to do would have been impossible.

And I there were so many times in which we could have dragged on longer than um it needed to.

And I remember particularly on when I was trying to pass an ordinance to make Somerville a sanctuary for gender-affirming health care.

Um, because I I remember 2023 knowing what was coming our way and seeing all the lawsuits against uh across the country uh targeting trans folks.

I remember you um really making it a stalwart effort to say we need to get this done now.

And we we could wait until after this break and we could you know give it a you know a few more looks over, but we should do this now.

And I remember us passing that in on in Pride Month of that year and later that year standing with the mayor um at one of our flag raisings and seeing what that meant to our LGBT students at Somerville High, uh to our staff who supported them.

And that sense of pride is something that I think should be shared across this uh body because that work mattered to so many people.

Um and although I I I like this little club we have, or I like being in this little club or in some respects.

Um I certainly did not run for office to be a part of a club.

Um I wasn't running to make friends.

I think I said that a few times, and it might have I don't know how that came off originally, but um I have always tried to to do this work n uh substantively and to make sure that we are actually having an impact on people's lives and making sure that the marginalized folks in our community are heard.

Uh and I could I could do a rundown list of all the laws I passed, which could take a while and be annoying.

Um but I I do want to just remind us all that that is why we're here.

There were ordinances that we passed while I was on this body where people literally flew in from Los Angeles, from New York, from all around the country to be in this chamber when some of those laws were passed and to see their communities represented.

Um I'm incredibly grateful to our community for giving me this opportunity to serve and to hear their struggles and to try um to support them and to use the the time that I had to honor folk the history of this community uh through folks like Leonard A.

Grimes, who is a black pastor and abolitionist who lived in Somerville in 1860s and 70s, who conductor of the Underground Road, who now has a park in East Somerville named after him because the m I was allowed to be placed on the memorialization committee in my first year and found his name in the 1870s Somerville census and submitted it.

That's a uh a piece of history that so many folks, including many folks who grew up here did not know, and that will be hopefully forever enshrined in this community.

So whether it's that or whether it's the item we had earlier today where we supported mamas, this work to me has always been about uplifting the voices of our constituents and materially trying to make their life better.

Um so thank you for giving me the opportunity to do that.

It won't be the last you hear from me, of course.

Uh I'm sure we'll have more debates and we'll get annoyed with each other, and you know, we'll we'll see each other across a bar and maybe tip a hat or something.

But for now, uh I'm grateful for the community for electing me and re-electing me, and I I hope to continue to serve in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Burnley.

Uh that item is approved.

Madam Clerk, next item.

Item 2.7 is a citation by Councillor Davis, commending outgoing Councillor Jake Wilson for his outstanding service to the people of Somerville as city councillor at large from 2022 to 2025.

Council Wilson, I have nothing good to say about you, so I will no, I'm just kidding.

Um like Councillor Burnley, I I as I said, uh I really enjoyed um working with you.

I will say that um the the one thing I do want to call out in my stretching of the rules here and and speaking from the podium is um is uh the way that we didn't work together.

Um because as folks know, I'm finance is not my jam, as Councillor Brandon, words, words are my jam, numbers not my jam.

Um you, however, uh took over the finance committee um uh at your very first day um and absolutely ran with it and uh uh not only completely reinvented the wheel um but did it in a way that that um took what was already it was the beginnings of a process to try and enable the council to continue to do its work during the month of June and really make that a reality.

Um so I am very, very, very grateful that I just got to w tune in when I needed to and not participate in the whole thing.

Know that there was a very very capable hands in in your leadership and all the members who served on that committee during that time.

Um if if uh be above everything else that I'm grateful for in your time and our friendship here.

That is the thing that I that I um you know was the most impressed by and the most grateful for.

That's the one thing I want to call out.

So thank you, Councilor Wilson.

And and I'm looking forward to never seeing you again.

Uh through the chair.

Uh Councillor Wilson.

Uh we we both ran to be on this cu uh body together uh almost four years ago.

Um and have served together two for two terms.

And as you have said to me many times, all this council, I I feel like you've never done me dirty.

Whether we've disagreed, whether we've come on different sides of votes, um, I always knew that you were never voting against me out of spice or pettiness or anger, but that you were making choices based on what you thought was best or the folks that you had communicated with.

Um recently we we did an endeavor together that I won't get too specific about uh for certain reasons.

Um you really helped set the tone of that endeavor.

You know, Lord knows if it was up to me, we would have been blowing up things, you know, it would have been a fire everywhere.

Uh but because of the relationship that we've had over the years, and because that you you've always tried to keep the temperature low and get to the work.

Um we were able to do something that I know s thousands and thousands of our constituents felt was positive and at times joyous.

Um I I will give one example.

I remember walking to uh a debate uh this year, and Counselor Wilson driving past me and be like, hey, you want to ride?

I'm like, well, yeah.

I mean, I don't drive, so that's great.

Uh and that is as someone who's worked in politics as well as served, uh, that is an extremely rare and absurd thing to happen.

Um and it happened with us several times actually.

And I think that that is a testament to your character uh and the kind of leadership that you try to bring.

And so um I'm grateful for the times that we've served together and that throughout it, despite any differences, we've always been able to continue to communicate um and build a relationship that is so much more positive than what I expected um stepping into this chamber for the first time.

Thank you for that.

Counselor Bach.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh Councillor Wilson, Chair Wilson, uh Mayor Leg Wilson.

So I I'm really I don't know.

I think I've known you for many years, even uh before I got on the council, even when I got on the council, I knew you and you you always communicated with me.

One of the most important and funny communication was when you sent me with debating between new construction and demolition.

And you sent me like a text with like just a war.

Like the the this is like this is like re renovation, and it was just like a small like a teen was standing.

Like just the loopholes in our policies that somebody it's trying to it's like a new it's a new construction, but they just it's like it says, well, this is this is actually a renovation that they are doing on the property, like that.

We all laughed about it, but we knew that this was just you know, like, you know, we need to amend and really strengthen our policies.

And then it was it just brought me joy to see you, you know, got on the council, and you've just been a statesman, you know.

I just want to thank you, you know, for your dedication and your service to the people of Somerville.

Um your collaborative, you know, approach to leadership stands out.

You know, just uh I can, you know, every single time, like the way you move things around, your flexibility, yeah.

It's just been something that I I admire a lot.

And I wanna say your professionality, respect for process and commitment to public service, elevated the work, you know, of this body.

And so we are sincerely thankful for the contribution that you've brought, you know, and for the positive, lasting impact that you are leaving us behind, and wishing you the best, you know, as you begin your new term as a mayor.

Thank you.

Counselor Hart and then Clint.

Hi, Councillor Wilson.

I just wanted to thank you.

You've been so incredibly thoughtful and generous to me as a brand new counselor, and it's really meant a lot, and I really appreciate it.

Um thank you.

Counselor Clay.

Thank you, Mr.

President, through you to Councillor Wilson.

Um it's been a pleasure to serve with you.

It's you know, it's gonna be hard to see you go on the council.

Our work pre precluded your time on the council, um working on the Healy School Yard, um, just your dedication to to our city, to our youth.

Um is it's been very impressive.

Um just the way you're able to you have your sort of your systems approach, your the the way the way you organize things, your attention to detail and and um uh punctuality, um generosity.

Well, I've just I mean, you know, when it when it comes to the meetings, your attendance, I mean you take the job very seriously, and um and I I appreciate that, and I and I and I appreciate that for our constituents.

Um be losing, you know, uh I like well, we're gaining a counselor that does live in Ward 4, you know, but prior to your time, uh Bill White, Dennis Sullivan, you know, all these people, it was great having uh uh at-large counselor.

It's like double, you know, set of eyes, double set of ears, um, in the area.

Um so that'll change, and also my getting rides up to City Hall, and and I'm on my own now.

Um but yeah, I mean you uh you serve with Grace as was mentioned, all the all the all the good things about you, you know, that that you're you're very thoughtful, and um yeah, I just you know it's uh I think uh good luck on your new endeavor.

I don't know why you would want that job.

Um I I think you're you know, as we know it's thankless, and as Councillor Strezzo said, you're damned if you do, damn if you don't.

Um but I I appreciate you stepping up to the challenge and I appreciate your service to this community, and I look forward to um working with you over the next term as our mayor.

And uh yeah, so just thank you.

Through you, uh Mr.

President, uh Counselor Wilson, thank you for your dedication.

I will very much miss you.

Uh, thank you for being thoughtful and generous and positive and always focusing on the work and putting our constituents first.

Um yeah, thank you for all your guidance and support, especially my first uh year on the council uh on finance.

Also finance is not my gem.

So uh it was very helpful to have all those spreadsheets.

So it was very helpful to have all those spreadsheets, which was that, you know, break down all the city finance and um yeah, so um you as others have said, you've been very good at uh spending a lot of time with our neighbors listening, um identifying the issues, and um looking for ways to solve you know those issues, and that's probably one thing they very much you know admire about you is you I've you keep working until you find the solution.

Um excited for you and for the next chapter.

Um yeah.

Thank you.

I have counselor Scott McLaughlin and you and Kevin.

All right, thank you, uh Mr.

President, and uh to our mayor elect.

Uh boy, there's there is so much to say, and I'm not gonna retread the ground, it's already there.

Uh obviously uh it's just it's been a real delight.

Uh you know, when you ran for office, uh I was pretty engaged in the other electoral projects.

So getting to know you as a colleague uh was really just started on that day one transition, and uh I gotta say it's been just a delight to see uh both how you approach uh approach the job uh uh externally and internally with a sense of openness and joy.

Uh you've obviously you've done a good enough job that folks said, yeah, we'd like more of that guy, which is as some people have said, I'd uh it's shocking.

I would always said I would need to get at least one divorce, if not two, to do this job.

So congratulations and good luck to you.

Uh I you know, uh people have said um that it's felt nice not to be messed with in this chamber.

And I I'd go a step beyond that.

One of the things that has always uh earned both my gratitude and my respect is the way that you've stuck up for your colleagues.

Um I can think of several occasions where uh stuff's gotten heated.

Uh and people have said some, you know, people have gotten out of line, and uh you've been unwavering.

I know there have been several times you've uh come to my defense, and you know, at least one time when you were like, hey, he's off a bit, buddy.

I I think that kind of decency goes a long way.

And I think it it sets a tone.

Um and it shows an integrity that uh is part of the reason why uh you get along with everybody, right?

Uh and that's that's a hard thing to do in high-stakes environments.

So uh I'm just grateful for your time here.

Uh I'm really excited about you being the mayor.

Uh, and I uh I think maybe I can get a head start uh by calling you an absolute bum and how upset I am about your spending priorities in this next budget season.

No, no, no, no, no.

I uh I don't think so at all.

I think uh the the open line of communication, the collaboration uh that I've experienced with you uh getting things done, uh not just on a you know advancing policy uh standpoint, but just keeping the wheels of the city turning over the last four years um and the wheels of the city council turning.

Uh it's it's been a delight.

It's been really impressive, and it gives me a lot of confidence and hope moving forward for the next next few years.

So good luck, sir.

Council McGaughlin.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, perfect segue, thank you, Council Scott.

Um, yeah, I've been able to see in my years a number of election cycles come and go.

Uh they happen in four-year increments, I find, uh, which is why I didn't mind having the four-year term for mayor, uh, because things seem to happen in these interesting cycles.

I remember I got elected in 2013 with a slate of other people or informal slate.

And we that was a significant change in the direction of the city.

Four years later, we had the great R Revolution uh takeover of the city council, uh, which I was very proud to be a part of, uh, which felt very it was very positive and really didn't have even though it was a significant change, it went through kind of seamlessly.

Four years later, 2021, we had COVID.

Uh, we had a very heated election cycle, something that I'll always remember as just felt like, man, the city's really coming apart.

And I would watch these debates with colorful people, um, going back and forth arguing with each other.

And then there was this one guy who was just like, Mom with all of you.

I like everybody.

And that was that was Councillor Wilson.

And I was like, who is this guy?

And little did I know four years before he was actually at the 2017 uh victory party.

Uh so he was already involved in the community.

I did not know him that well.

Uh, but he came across, he won that fourth seat, and now four years later, he's gonna be the mayor of the city.

And I just watched uh being servant on the council, you know.

You know, I picked him for finance chair, because I said this guy has Zack together.

Like, let's see him deal with the numbers for us.

He excelled at that.

And then still I was like, you know, he makes a great cocktail.

He's texting me all the time, like, well, what is he about?

Like, well, where's he stand on things?

Uh, and I'm very proud to have served with you.

And I'm making all these jokes because there is something really good coming to this city.

Uh serving on the trans transition team, I've really seen that Jake is ready to run this city.

And I'm very impressed by it.

Uh the amount of thought he's put into this over the past four years, over the past many years, is really impressive to me because he comes, he's an unassuming person in some ways, but also very charismatic.

And I'm just really excited about the future in a way that I haven't been in a little while.

And I'm looking forward to serving on the city council with you as mayor, and can't wait to see what you do next.

So congratulations.

Thank you.

Counselor Ewan Kempen.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I think it's very noticeable to me that one of the themes of what a great colleague, um, Councilor Wilson is, um, two other city counselors.

I I very much feel that.

Just incredibly reliable, hardworking, um, taking on important roles on the council that don't often have a lot of public glory attached to them, but really need to get done.

Um, and I've always been very kind of inspired by that because it's clear that the reason you do that is because you really care about making the city run well.

Um, and the reason you care about that is because you want residents to trust the city.

Um, you want residents to have a good experience and to be able to rely on the city.

Um and it really it um something that you've told me um is uh, you know, there's this really disgusting Ronald Reagan famous quote where he says the most terrifying words in the English language is I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

And as Counselor Wilson has told me, and I'm I'm sure others that his view is like literally the opposite of that, right?

The the entire goal is to make sure that if there is someone who needs something and that there's no one there to help them, the government is there to support them, is there to help them for people where no one else will.

Um and I think that that really really comes through.

Um and then this this was said to me in confidence.

I hope it's okay to say it here.

Um I'm really thankful that you've pledged to repave all of Ward 3 specifically and to really kind of focus the resources of the city really on Ward 3.

Um, I think that was really big of you, and I want to thank you publicly on the record.

Councilor Shezzle.

You're a gentleman, and I respect that entirely.

You um oh I'm sorry, through you, Mr.

President to Counselor Wilson.

Um I'm excited about what you're gonna do.

Um I appreciate that you are open-minded.

And you do have grace.

And you listen, even when you drive me crazy.

Um but I do I I have enjoyed working with you too.

And I I am excited about what's going to come next.

And um you do take this real seriously.

So with that I'll stop.

But all good things.

Counselor Wilson.

Thanks, Mr.

President.

Um, no job is without its its challenges and its frustrations.

Uh, but I've generally really, really enjoyed uh my time on the spot, serving alongside y'all.

Um I knew going into this that uh as someone with an administrator's mind, it was gonna be a challenge uh and an adjustment uh for me being one of 11 legislators.

Uh I really tried to prioritize being a good colleague, uh recognizing good work from my colleagues.

Uh I made a point of, you know, when someone put in a good resolution of good order, I wanted to sign on to that.

You know, that was important.

Um this is a really weird job that we do.

Uh there's no job description.

Uh it's a lot of things that don't have a lot of glory attached to them.

It's it's work, it's reading documents, uh, understanding things like DOR regulations, uh form-based zoning, uh, mass general law, uh, M U T C D, etc.

Uh and constituents rely on us to to help them with issues.

And none of us is doing this for the paycheck.

Uh but I've enjoyed doing this weird job with each and every one of you.

Uh Councilor Hart, we're overlapping here for a couple of months, but but right away uh I'm struck by uh the degree to which I can tell that you're taking this job very seriously just right out of the gates.

Uh and I'm confident you're gonna be a great counselor for the people of Ward 4 or Ward 7, sorry.

Um Counselor Ewan Campen.

Um I'm repeatedly amazed by your ability to break down a complex issue into just simple, straightforward terms that everyone can understand.

It's a it's an amazing skill.

Uh four years ago, I told people that uh if they liked how you voted on things, they were probably gonna like how I voted on things.

Uh without ever intentionally voting the same way as you, I think that ended up being pretty accurate.

Um Counselor Scott, your eye for for detail is an incredible asset uh for this body.

Uh I'm flashing back to chairing the finance committee uh meetings as a newcomer uh in 2022 and all the times that you saved me embarrassment uh and and saved our clerks a ton of cleanup work uh with your patient sage advice as vice chair of the finance committee.

It's a big deal.

Uh Councilor McLaughlin, I consider you a mentor for all the time that you took uh answering all those questions for me uh when I first got elected, and then in that first year, you never once told me uh that I was worried about something that didn't really matter, uh, that I'd asked a dumb question.

Um instead you made uh a rookie counselor, the finance chair.

I think it actually turned out pretty well.

So uh Councilor Burnley, in addition to what I already said about you, I'll just say I'm a big fan of Willie Burnley Jr.

Uh Counselor Said.

Uh it's been amazing watching you just come into your own here this term.

Um you bring incredible perspective to our deliberations, and I want to shout out your work uh on the armory as being particularly impressive.

Uh you know what you did there, and it's impressive.

Uh Councillor Streso, your advocacy for for seniors and and families uh is just so important uh to the community to this body.

Um I know how how much it means to those groups that you're out there, making sure that they don't get overlooked, uh, because I hear it from them all the time.

Uh and I know you're gonna keep fighting for that next term.

I'm excited to to work with you on that.

Uh Counselor Klingon, I always describe you to other people as a real one.

I think that's uh probably the best way to describe you.

Uh you've been my ward counselor uh for eight years now, and we're just so incredibly lucky to have you in Ward 4 representing us.

Uh just really value the conversations we've had, you know, prior to getting in, but especially in office.

Uh it's just uh, you know, it's been so uh so special to me being able to have someone to talk to about that.

Uh Councilor Mabaugh, uh we missed out on serving together, uh, my first term on the council, but we got to to realize that dream here uh this term.

Uh your commitment to equity, uh to the climate, and and to families is really admirable.

Uh and I'm I'm so glad we got to be colleagues here this term.

Uh and President Davis, I I really admire your commitment to fairness.

Uh that's very important to me.

That's been that's been one of my sort of guiding lights during my time here, is just an absolute insistence on fairness, and I see that reflected in you.

Um I really enjoyed picking your brain about legislation, zoning in particular.

Uh, and I'm so glad you stepped forward to to lead this this council.

I'm looking forward to working with you next year.

Uh I'm moving on.

Uh I'm gonna see plenty of you all still come January.

Uh I've been paying attention to what matters to you all here, uh, as well as to the two newcomers uh who will be taking office here in January.

And I'm excited for my administration to work with you all on those things.

Uh here's to four great years and and to two great years to come here, hopefully.

Thanks.

Counselor Wilson, thank you.

Councilor Burnley, thank you, Madam Mayor, thank you.

We will take a brief recess to take some pictures.

And we'll reconvene when that's done.

You gotta come for a break, right?

Take that to the library on the case.

I don't know.

You know, I'm listening to you.

What?

One, two, three, four, five, say all right.

I can count to six.

That's all I need to count to.

We have a quorum.

Let's call this meeting back to order.

There's now officially a two red bill nights, so congratulations.

It's 20 of 10, and we're still not ready to start the regular order of business.

We've got a few other out-of-order items.

So these are uh well, you'll hear, but these are all financial items that uh for which the administration is um or otherwise are requesting um immediate considerations.

So let's start with sec with item uh seven dot two, madam clerk.

Item seven point two is a request of the mayor requesting approval of a change in the senior tax work-off program qualification criteria to a maximum income of eighty percent of area median income.

All right, we have Dr.

Spillyotis here.

Come on up.

Hi, good evening, everyone.

Ashley Spleotis, the director of the council on aging.

Thank you for having me here this evening uh to talk about Somerville senior tax work-off program.

Since the program's inception in the year two thousand, this program has really benefited our senior community, but also our city's workforce.

Each year we have 25 spots for seniors to work within city departments, and right now they're working in our mobile markets, they're teaching fiber arts, working in our libraries, and you know, most certainly working and helping to run our council on aging.

So every year from April to November, current members help perform these duties and then they then receive an exemption of fifteen dollars per hour worked up to fifteen hundred dollars on their January tax bill.

Uh very recently the Massachusetts legislature uh made an amendment to raise the exemption maximum to two thousand dollars and the city will be following suit this coming year starting in April.

Um but since the year 2015 to participate in the program, seniors must reside in Summer Somerville.

They must reside in the home where the tax exemption is going to be applied and have a maximum income which is currently set at 48,800.

Uh little known fact is that it was passed in 2015 and that was 80% of the current AMI in 2015.

Tonight we're asking to make an amendment to the tax work-off program to set the maximum income level to eighty percent of the current AMI.

This will allow for flexibility.

It will allow for the program to respond to income changes, and currently the eighty percent of the AMI would be 92,650.

I'm happy to share more information on the program or to answer any questions.

Any questions, discussion?

Councillor Scott?

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Just a quick one.

I mean, $15 an hour is not much.

And particularly in light of the conversation we recently had about mamas, uh, is there any reason that we and require uh means testing for participation in the program?

The $15 is currently set by the Massachusetts legislature, and that is the highest a city can offer.

It's in fact the only reimbursement or exemption rate there is.

So the current program is $133 hours worked for the $2,000 rebate and or $15, if like often we have seniors who might fall ill or sometimes aren't you know are traveling or just unable to participate for the full amount of hours, and then it's prorated.

Yeah.

I I guess my question, Director, uh, is particularly why do uh why is it required that we have a gated maximum income uh that we means test uh to allow people to participate in the program or not we could consider not having any income criteria?

One factor of having the criteria though is that we only allow for 25 spots.

That could also be considered a change uh to be made in the program, but right now it would be 25 spots, and the thought is that it would go to the people who quote you unquote need it most due to income.

Okay, and I guess my final follow-up, Mr.

President, would just be uh do we have all 25 of those slots filled every year?

Is it an oversubscript?

Currently we do not, and that is the main reason why I'm here.

I've been with the city for nine years, director for about five.

Um since becoming director, I would say we have no more than twelve, but the interest is quite large, and it is all due to the income guidelines.

I would say most of the time the income people are trying to apply with are you know 50 in the 50 or 60,000 mark, um 92,000.

This proposal here would be higher than any other surrounding community.

For instance, Boston is set at 60 percent of the current AMI.

All right.

Well, I I appreciate that.

Mr.

Mr.

President, I'm supportive of this.

I just uh wondered if we can maybe remove one of those steps there to get more people in the program.

But uh thank you.

Counselor Shezzle?

I uh Mr.

President, through you to Councillor Scott, I vehemently oppose the concept of eliminating the um the amount of income.

Why?

Because 54% of Somerville seniors have an annual incomes of below fifty thousand dollars.

They need that help.

So I understand that yes, having no caps would be wonderful, but for those who actually need we need equity to be present in this, and this is demonstration of actual equity in practice.

So with that, in the 20, did you say 25?

Pardon me through you to our director.

Does that in is 25?

You said 20 or 25 slots, I forgot.

25.

25.

Is that capped at state level or can we expand it as well?

It's capped at city level.

City oh, it's city level.

So uh so is there an opportunity?

Is it a budget issue that we couldn't increase it, or is it a capacity issue?

Through the president, it's a little bit of capacity issue, um, but it is also a financial or reimbursement issue because this program does not run on any reimbursements, so some programs, uh certain veterans' benefits, there's a reimbursement from the state to the city.

This program does not have any reimbursement.

It is at basically a loss to the city.

Um through you to uh the director, um, can you please tell me uh off the top of my head I could look at but if you do have it, and if not we can follow up, but do you have the number uh of total amount that sure at 25 people for $2,000?

I'm sorry, no, no, no.

Um of the total amount of of that we invest into this program as an entirety that we take as a loss.

Currently it's 37,500, but moving it up to 2,000, it will be $50,000.

Um colleagues, if I may, um we spend so many things in our budget cycles for swag and tote bags and awesome stuff.

But imagine if we just didn't buy hand sanitizers that we give out at um or swag or I don't know stuff we give out at Summer Streets or some event and we invested instead to possibly even cap at $100,000 into this program for the next budget cycle, which I will be asking for now.

I just had this good idea.

You could literally see the light bulb above my head.

Um but what if we moved some money going forward into investing more into this?

Is there uh through you, Mr.

President, to um our director uh spellyotis.

Um is there a is there a capper of how many people can be included in this program at Mass General Law?

Um no.

No, cool.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

And yes, of course I support this.

Uh thank you the through the chair.

Um thank you for being here.

Uh thank you for your work as always.

I've seen you at a uh since my last meeting will be a little not super mushy, but just like a little mushy.

Seeing you at a lot of events, supporting seniors, uh working with the came uh Summerville Cambridge Elder Services.

Um you do really important work and I'm I'm glad for your service.

Um to the questions that were just asked earlier.

Um you made a point to say it is about capacity, financial capacity, but also that we're not currently meeting the full limits of what we have.

Um I certainly want to help as many seniors as we possibly can.

Um but to do that, it's not only a matter of money as you you implied, uh, but also a matter of making sure that more folks know about this program uh and you know the work the what is before us raising uh the limits on it.

Um so the question I have for you through the chair is um uh how is your department working to uh increase awareness of this and uh what work can the council do uh to help you in that uh endeavor?

Sure.

Through the president, excuse me.

Um right now we advertise through our own networks, but I have to be honest and say that we receive most of the referrals through you and through your um newsletters and through constituents um going to you and saying that they're having a tough time, or constituents coming to our social workers or social workers in the city and saying that they're having a tough time.

They're having uh tough time as mentioned before qualifying for certain programs because they might be slightly over income.

The greatest problem we see a lot at the council on aging is that many are homeowners who are receiving rent, and that rent is just putting them right over the gap of qualifying for SNAP benefits or qualifying for mass health benefits, and the senior tax workoff program is an alternative that is helpful um in meeting their basic needs, really.

Oh thank you for that.

Uh so uh with that information through the chair, um in the effort to actually help more folks, uh I would just turn it back to my colleagues and say looks like it's on us uh to make sure that more folks know about this program and uh that the departments uh social media is well known, you know, as someone who's looked at the the city's social media.

I know that some of my colleagues have more followers, so have more engagements uh with the public, and so you know perhaps there's a offline conversation that could be had in just in order to uh amplify the work that's being done here.

Thank you.

Okay, uh seeing no further item.

Do we need to roll call on that one?

No.

No.

Okay.

No further discussion, see if no objection.

That items approved.

Thank you.

The next item then is item 7.3, a request of the mayor requesting approval to use available funds in the city clerk salaries account and the amount of three thousand five hundred and ninety dollars and forty-one cents to fund assistant city clerk vital records and licensing and assistant city clerk legislative services positions.

Madam Clerk, would you give us some uh background and context on this one?

Mr.

President, thank you.

Through you, I think the item is largely self-explanatory.

Essentially, what it's trying to do is take three positions, make them two, take two existing positions, give them a little bit more responsibility, and that reorganization of the office, I think is going to just help streamline, it's gonna help eliminate some redundancies, and it's gonna help us deliver services more effectively.

Any questions?

Councillor Clay?

Through you, Mr.

President, just a quick question.

I'm sorry, I the math that you just did.

So we're not eliminating any is it is there will there be a loss of a position?

Are you through the president?

Yes, one position will be eliminated.

It the full text of the item does indicate that the savings to the office will be uh just about fifty thousand dollars for this fiscal year and about a hundred thousand dollars in each subsequent fiscal year ongoing.

Okay.

Umleagues, we just found 50,000 council Brennley.

Uh thank you.

Uh just just repeating again.

The last uh item was also valid, uh awareness.

Um but to the to this item before us, uh quick question through you to the clerk.

Um could you just uh give a little bit of background on the assistance city clerk legislative services position?

Yeah, yes, the assistant city clerk legislative services position is going to be the um legislative services manager position, but with a bit of additional responsibility to help support the work of the city clerk uh through the chair.

Uh just a little bit more clarity around is this around uh agendas?

Is it what is the expansion?

I guess the expanded piece of the role um largely involves clerking city council meetings.

It also adds an additional element of staff management.

Okay, thank you.

No.

No roll.

All right, seeing no objection, that item is approved.

Item 7.4 is a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a 1.4 million dollar grant with no new match required from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development to the Mobility Division for the Mass Works Program for the Union Square Plaza and Streetscape Phase 1 construction.

All right.

Do we have the member of the administration is is it director Rossin or is it a C I can't see who that is?

Alan Ignacio, all right.

Is that you here to speak to on this item?

I thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, through you, Mr.

President to the council.

This is a grant from um Mass Executive Office of Economic Development.

This is a MassWorks grant.

Uh we will be using this in conjunction with the uh recent design grant we received for the Mass Gaming Commission.

Uh we are still uh working on getting to 25 percent design uh with the mass with the gaming commission grant.

Um and then this will be the first 1.4 million uh applied to the eventual construction.

Um and you know, there's still again uh design and community outreach and uh plenty of work left to do, but securing these funds early now uh will help keep the project on track.

And with that, uh I'll turn it over for any questions.

Okay, Council Union Kevin.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'm thrilled about this, and I just want to clarify phase one.

This is largely focused on the intersection of prospect and Webster.

Through you, Mr.

President, is that correct?

Through the chair, I believe so, and I'm happy to have uh director Rossin um come back to you with the uh uh logistical um and engineering uh details, but I believe so I believe that is correct.

Don't certainly don't want to hold this up.

I just want to I I'm I'm excited about the whole project, but that is a really really dangerous intersection that all of us desperately want to get fixed.

Absolutely.

I believe we've already done some signalization work and and whatnot there, but yes, that will this that work will definitely be part of the continued improvements.

Through the president, it's not working.

Please send help.

Counselor Wilson.

Mr.

President, I hope we're not gonna mess with the best intersection in Somerville.

Any further discussion?

All right, seeing none of that item is approved.

Item 7.5 is a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $1,367,300 grant with no new match required from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to the Public Space and Urban Forestry Division for the municipal vulnerability preparedness program for the blessing of the Bay Urban Heat Resilience Project.

Can we take that together with 7.6, please?

Yes, indeed.

Item 7.6 is a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $500,000 grant with no new match required from the Department of Conservation and Recreation to the Public Space and Urban Forestry Division for the Blessing of the Bay Greenway project.

Do we have Director Oliveira on that?

Oh sorry.

I can uh I'm happy uh thank you through you, Mr.

President.

ISO division is under my purview of uh grants administration, so my team will be uh administering and overseeing uh the financial oversight of these grants.

So uh I do not believe there's anyone from PSUF here um tonight, but um I can say that this is uh we're cobbling together the these two pieces of funding along with we've already um committed and used some CPA funding and already done some uh initial work in the blessing of the bay um trail project.

Uh these funds will help continue that project to eventual completion.

Um would love to have your approval tonight to keep this project on track.

Okay, any discussion.

All right, uh seeing none, those two items are approved.

Uh we'll go next to 7.8.

Item 7.8 is a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $25,000 grant with no new match required from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to the Council on Aging for direct transportation costs for the senior taxi program.

Dr.

Spaliota suspend you again.

Yes, and thank you for having me once again.

Um, this uh earmark funding through the Massachusetts state budget directed through Mastot will be for direct costs for the senior taxi program.

It's a program that we are all familiar with.

Um it helps about uh seniors receive about 650 rides a month.

71% of those thereabout go to routine medical appointments, about 20% for food access to either food pantries or grocery stores, and then about six percent to local pharmacies.

In January, the program will also be expanded to help seniors um access meals at the senior center and other services there.

And um the 25,000 dollars will help defray that cost.

Okay, any questions, discussion?

All right, see none.

That items approved.

Thank you.

Indeed, item 8.4 is an officer's communication from the director of emergency management conveying the 2024 to 2025 coming school winter warming center after action report and improvement plan.

Director Fisher.

Thank you, President Davis.

So thank you for the opportunity to brief on this after action report.

I promise this during the budget hearings, and I said I think probably three months.

It's close to three months.

A couple more months, but we got it done.

But before I begin, I do want to um before we begin this report.

I do want to extend it a heartfelt thank you to starting with Mayor Catiana Ballantyne, the entire city council, the school committee, city staff, and the entire Somerville community.

Because together you recognize the critical human need and responded with compassion and dignity.

What it was very much needed in this situation.

Your unwavering commitment ensured that people had a warm place to stay, nutritious food to eat, and uh essential services that they needed.

So in your package, you should have the after action completed report.

I'm gonna do just a quick overview briefing of it.

Uh obviously at the end, I will answer any questions as needed.

So the program interview overview is the warming center operated between December 9th, 2024 and April 13th, 2025, from the hours of 5 p.m.

to 8 a.m.

in the morning.

Over that time period, repeat guests, it served 3,692 safe overnight stays, again with Neil's hygiene supplies, uh supply other supplies like socks, transportation, referrals, and critical uh support services.

The uh data collection process, we collected feedback, uh solicited at multiple points uh via in-person conversations and observations uh of the clients.

We also conducted client surveys on site with the health and urban services community health workers assisting gathering that data.

We also conducted surveys online of area residents, especially focusing on the residents that are in the area of the warming center at the Cummings of the former Cummings School.

The center staff completed feedback surveys as well uh through handwritten surveys, and we conducted at least one open public listening session at the Somerville High School.

As part of this process, we collected a significant amount of data, and I definitely want to extend a sincere appreciation to the Somerstap Mayor's Office of Innovation and Analytics for their expertise and out invaluable assistance in drafting and compiling this after action survey data.

Uh their skills and data analysis and thorough collaborations played a critical role in capturingful feedback to inform and and and future operations so we can make these necessary improvements.

I will say there's a lot of data here and looking at this data.

I saw a lot of things that even I couldn't break down and understand specifically the why and how we came to this.

So for the specifics of the data and the data analysis, because I'm not a data analysis person.

You can uh email data at Summerville MA.gov or request uh a summer uh summer uh data person to one of these meetings, summer stated, I wanted to say, to one of these meetings to explain it at that point, but again, I don't I wouldn't feel comfortable going into the specifics of the data analysis, but I will talk about what they found.

So going into that, the clients told us that they felt welcome, respected, safe, and praised.

Uh the staff uh for creating a dignified judgment-free environment.

The center provided uh stability during moments of crisis, whether they were coping with mental health challenges, recovering from trauma, or simply trying to make it through a cold night.

Transportation, staff kindness, and access to information were rated exceptionally high.

Some concerns that were expressed were concerns about the long outdoor wait times, often in freezing temperatures as clients lined up for hours before opening because they feared that they might not have a bed that the center might fill up.

The outside security presence was inconsistent during the intake, and both clients and nearby residents, we heard this in multiple settings, whether it was surveys or uh the open listening session, uh, felt this created unnecessary tension and risk.

And so this is one of the areas we looked at very closely.

The key findings, overall impact, the program was widely viewed as essential and life threatening during these winter months, and strong community support and appreciation for the city's commitment to the vulnerable residents was expressed.

Of the feedback data, high satisfaction, 65% plus across most service categories, with transportation provided at the highest percentage of 94% satisfied.

The guests expressed that they appreciated again those warm uh meals, the safe place to be and respectful treatment.

The primary uh client concerns were again with those long lines, uh, and due to fear of being turned away.

Now, I wanted to note here that no one was turned away.

The uh the vendor that works at the warming center did everything they could to bring people in as long as it was safe to do so under capacity and give them a spot to be.

And when they couldn't do that, they contacted an area warming center and provided transportation to that warming center.

That actually played into one of the analysis we did later in this survey for one of the decisions we were looking at that we kind of changed our mind.

Cleanliness issues and inconsistent blanket availability did come up a couple of times.

There was some issues with laundering that they didn't have blankets a couple nights, and they noted that.

They also noted that they wanted more multilingual staff.

There were some communications issues from within the center, and so we looked at that and uh requested for the longer hours, additional days, and increased capacity.

They wanted the center to run longer, they wanted the hours to be longer, and of course they wanted to have increased capacity.

Some of the residents' feedback themes, overall satisfaction among uh nearby residents with 51% that were said they were satisfied or very satisfied.

Residents expressed they were supportive of the city's effort to provide the shelter.

One overall arching theme I found was that even when people were giving criticism to the program, they were very strongly in support of the efforts that were moving forward and the work we were doing for these folks.

Uh primary concerns from residents, the long waiting times, which caused noise, tension, visible hardship, clients without shoes, uh standing in the snow without jackets, lack of clear information on how residents could help.

There was a strong effort again to help, and there was some communications gaps that were identified in how to provide that help.

Uh confusion and dissatisfaction with the private security presence or lack of presence.

Many were unaware that security even existed.

And then we're talking, when I want to be very clear, we're talking about the outside security vendor, not the inside.

There's two different vendors that was brought to this center.

The center staff requested stronger supervision and guidance, especially overnight, better communication, community awareness of staff parking.

Apparently, they got some some parking tickets, uh, clear standards for security overnight.

Strengths across all the objectives we looked at was a warm, safe environment with meals and supplies, low barrier for entry, supporting individuals regardless of how they came to the shelter or how they came to the warming center.

Effective partnerships with uh HHS, housing families, Somerville Homeless Coalition for service referrals, because these weren't just given a place to stay in food, they were also given opportunities to get services and be connected with those necessary services.

Some overall areas for improvement.

The capacity was a big one.

You know, having enough capacity to make sure that people didn't feel they had an anxiety, they had to wake, they had to line up four and five hours before it opened.

From that, the recommendations were to expand the space, look at renovating the area.

There was two large rooms in that space.

We were using one of them.

Uh create clear communications for a donation process.

With that, we actually identified that the best way to do that, and this was going to some of our experts in the field, the HHS, the Health and Human Services, as well as the Somerville Homeless Coalition, was to donate directly to the vendor, uh, housing families, which in all the communications, including the website and the flyers, they have a website to donate there.

But also, although it does make sense to donate to the vendors, we have a organization within Somerville that helps the homeless population, the homeless coalition.

So I encourage residents to also, if they want to help this population, they can help it directly by donating to the homeless coalition through the homeless coalition's website.

Let's see.

Again, security prison was not always visible.

When we look at the survey data, high percentage of people didn't even realize we had a security officer outside.

Residents and clients reported increased concerns about their safety and lack of oversight because of that non-presence.

So the recommendations from that was to have a uniformed, consistent security presence during the lineup formation.

Coordination with the Somerville Police Department for directed patrols on the outside just to do engagement and clear performance expectations of the security vendor contract.

And I'm really excited to say that we identified through the bid process, but with very clear requirements for what we were looking for.

And those included experience working with unhoused populations with a preference for unhoused populations in Somerville.

We're able to identify a vendor that actually is the vendor that provides the security for the engagement center for the Somerville Homeless Coalition.

And we were able to procure that vendor for the warming center.

And this vendor had enough forethought on their own before they started to take the staff member that they were going to assign to the warming center and have them go down to the engagement center and train with the officer that was working at the Somerville Homeless Coalition Engagement Center and the Somerville Homeless Coalition staff to understand this population, how to best engage with them.

Because at the end of the day, we don't need a strong security presence.

What we need is someone that understands this population and can work with them and be present and do those activities.

And I think I really think we found that this year.

Imagine waiting in line thinking I'm not going to have a bed and a warm place to stay.

So I can understand that anxiety, or at least I can understand where they're coming from.

The accessibility, the language access.

This was brought up to the vendor and very strongly expressed, but also our services available through the Somerville Office of Immigrant Affairs was offered.

The vendor hire more people if you can.

That our language meets the Somerville community.

But also, if you can't, look towards having a vendor to do this interpretation services.

But if you can't, we will offer our interpretation services through telephonic translation and interpretation that you can use.

And that was offered as well.

Let's see.

Americans with disabilities had a big part of the renovations down there.

So the bathrooms were great for what they were meant for, but they were tiny.

They didn't allow for handicap or ADA accessibility, not the doorway access and not the room.

They couldn't turn around if they were in there with no wheelchair, as well as the entrance.

I don't know what they were thinking when they built this, but it almost looked more like a playground than an entrance.

But it they went through and they did all the work.

They leveled out the front entrance, so now it can go right in if you have a wheelchair or you need accessibility, and the bathrooms are being renovated.

One side is done and being utilized while the other side is just finishing up now.

And so now all of the bathroom facilities are ADA accessible, all the hallways, everything you know was assessed, as well as the entrance.

And that's why we had that trailer on the playground last year, is because they we weren't accessible, so we want to make sure that they're accessible, so we use the trailer to get that work done.

And that continues working.

And finally, the community partnership.

The residents want to help, so we wanted to make sure we identify those way that they can help.

And again, that's through those donation websites that they can uh so the first one is the housing families, so that would be housing families.org slash donate.

And then the second one for the homeless coalition would be Somerville Homeless Coalition.org slash giving.

And this is available on our website, the uh warming center website for the city.

There's a frequently asked questions that says, How do I donate?

and all the information's there.

Uh, one of the other concerns was cleanliness and facility management, the blanket shortage, we brought that up, as well as cleanliness.

So we require the vendor to provide uh have access to daily logs for cleanliness, cleaning, and for laundering, and have those available for inspection at any time from HHS, from my department, OAM, and from inspectional services division.

So they're gonna keep the daily logs to make sure that these things are being done and that these people have a clean and and and uh environment where they have the blankets and the pillows, they they you know would obviously is the entire point of what we're doing.

Uh another report was smoking in the bathrooms.

That we kind of dealt with that initially through the year last year.

One of the things we did was we put smoke detectors in the bathroom.

The recommendations this year from this after action report is to do a couple of things.

One have very clear rules and regulations that are expressed from the staff from the beginning, so the clients understand what's expected when it comes to not smoking the bathrooms.

Also provide clear signage at the bathrooms that say no smoking in the bathrooms.

And finally, again, having those smoke detectors in the bathroom for safety reasons, but also to deter this type of activity because it's not safe to do so.

So you know, in closing, a lot of work went into this uh after action report.

Uh we invested a significant amount of time in the effort development report because our goal was to strengthen what is already an excellent warming center program.

This work reflects our dual commitment.

When we came to this this project, as well as this after action report, our goal is to ensure that compassionate dependable service for the clients who rely on the center for safety, warmth, and especially needs are met during the winter extreme cold, but also maintaining a quiet, safe and respectful environment for the very residents who almost overwhelmingly support this initiative.

We want to try to accomplish both.

And so we're always going to have work to do, but that's what we're trying to accomplish.

So I'll take any questions.

Councilor Burnley.

Through the chair.

Having being I'm old enough to remember the first warming center that the city put on at the armory, uh, and and frankly, how many issues came about uh when that happened?

From security issues to lack of communication with the armory tenants to uh all sorts of things.

Uh and I've seen year by year how the city has improved, first from moving to the uh to the Cummings, and then this year with this report, especially uh for contrast at after the first uh year of the warming center, I remember the city putting out this really like glossy positive like praise like, yeah, we did it.

It was great.

Uh and I remember talking to the folks who actually work at the armory and them having the exact opposite experience of what was described.

Um I that is all to say.

I appreciate so much how thorough this report is, particularly the uh improvement plan.

Uh I was just scanning through uh as you were speaking, and it it really does go into depth about without getting into particulars, uh, the various different issues, areas of strength.

Um the one thing that I would note uh and it perhaps say it's uh suggestion either for an update or next time this happens is um similar to the the last item that we were discussing, communication is really critical around this, both for the clients of this uh service, but also for the community at large.

Uh and one of the departments I did not see uh referenced as uh as a department that would need to be included in the improvement is the comms department or IGA.

And I really think that particularly for the public who wants to help, again, reaching out to counselors and making sure that they know hey, these are the resources, can you blast this out?

Uh I think that that would be uh in an improvement uh moving forward and perhaps a program that could be centralized because various departments have many things that they uh would like the public to know that the council is uh potentially a vehicle to uh help get to them.

Uh so I would just as you're trying to make sure that these uh issues are being resolved, and I I can see that there's a lot of thoughtfulness in the um let's just make sure that the council is brought in and that uh they can help disseminate this information throughout the community so that services and uh items can be provided.

The chair, thank you.

Council Schaeffer.

Ms.

President, uh through you to our director.

Um had a question about how what is the pro protocol for residents who are uh how to okay let's go back a little bit.

So we have some residents or some unhoused individuals sleeping inside the Gilman Square area on Medford Street.

Residents are concerned.

It's under 26 degrees tonight.

Uh when the warming center was not open a couple days ago, it was definitely under freezing below freezing.

Uh I called in and it's kind of at the the will of the person sleeping in the park to go or not.

So what is the protocol now that the warming center is open?

If you get reports of that, what happens?

So through the chair.

So a couple, it's multi-layered.

So the some of the whole homeless coalition, through their efforts, they they go out and they they make sure people know about that and connect the people with the services.

There's always transportation available if they request it and they they want to come to the to the warming center, as well as the health and human services community workers will go out and speak with these folks and offer it.

In addition to that, the uh first responders are are told and they they know that they can the police can go around if they see something or if something gets reported like you did through 31311 or through 911, and someone goes out to check on someone, they inform them of the warming center and highly encourage them to go, and then transportation is provided either through the police officer or the transportation.

So that's the basically the the best way we do that.

Again, it you're right.

They have to want to go, but they're highly encouraged to go, and we're hoping that our reputation continues to grow to the point because honestly, I think sometimes they they they come or don't come based on trust.

And it's difficult these days.

I mean, all amazing people doing amazing things, but we're still the government.

And sometimes that gets uh, you know, people don't necessarily trust that.

And um, we're trying to to bridge that gap and show that, and I think we're doing a good job.

This body, and you know, especially that.

But I think that's sometimes where it is.

But it's always offered and it's part of that protocol.

Uh Mr.

President, through you to the director.

Yes.

Uh in my experience, it seems like every effort is is being taken.

Uh, so it's definitely not like a uh uh uh an upset uh situation, but it it's scary.

This is uh from what I've uh the conversation I was had with the Somerville Homeless Coalition about the the unhoused uh camping out in the Gilman Square uh park.

Uh they said you will talk to them again.

Cool, but it's also 20 degrees outside, and those are conditions to freeze to death or eventually very much cause bodily harm to themselves.

So that that does scare me that we may have a death one day.

Yeah.

Um through the share, just to answer that question.

I'm with you 100%.

The problem comes where, and I can't answer this question because I I believe it's a legal question.

There is that threshold, but what is it?

And and and you know, yeah, so that's pretty much it.

Because I agree with you.

Count you and camping.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, through you, thank you very much for this report and particularly just for all the work that went into this over the last two years.

You know, as the ward counselor, I think it's safe to say um despite all the support, there was also a lot of pushback from some of the neighbors.

Um there were some tense meetings, and I'm really appreciative that the city um heard that feedback, listened to it, and also kept moving forward to keep all these people alive.

Um I reached out earlier today to some folks who live nearby.

Just I have gotten us zero emails since it opened on Monday.

Um usually a good sign, and I just said everything okay.

And they said, yeah, it's going great.

Um they did say one piece of feedback.

I guess one of the shades has been left open all night, so just for the privacy of guests, they said, you know, pass that along.

Um but you know, congratulations on all the work that went into this.

Um seeing it expanded has been great.

Thank you very much through the chair.

I appreciate the comments, and we we we share a common friend over there.

He's uh he honestly I I say that a little bit funny, but there's a there's a gentleman over there that is very good about reaching out in a very positive fashion and providing feedback, which has been extremely helpful.

Any further discussion?

All right, seeing none, that is placed on file.

Thank you, Director.

Thank you.

All right, shall we begin the meeting?

We shall indeed return to the regular order of business.

And item 4.1, an order by Councillor Streso that the director of housing report to this council the number of new housing units that have been approved for development year by year since the adoption of summer vision 2040.

And of those, how many are permanently affordable and how the department defines affordability?

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um I am asking that this be sent to housing and community development and uh that the we'll have a nice hearty conversation about it in there.

The uh copy of housing community development.

I will remind the good counselor as well as others that items that do not require an action will expire at the end of the year, so it'll have to be resubmitted.

Um, but certainly it can go there, it'll then be in the box on the list, and you can put it on your list for things to submit.

That's sure is right, Mr.

President.

Um, this was uh uh working with a constituent who wanted it in this agenda, this very special one, and I did bring that up.

But we will make a second.

Of what's gonna happen forward in January.

So that item is approved with a copy to housing community development.

Yep.

Item 4.2 was a communication by Councilor Mbaugh conveying a report of the affordable housing trust fund.

Council Ba.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh the trust met on November 13th to consider two requests for assistance to below market housing projects now being carried forward.

First, the trust voted to stretch the repayment term from 40 years to 50 years for the visiting nursing senior housing at 259 Lower Street.

Second, the trust approved two requests from the Somerville Community Land Trust for its six unit residence at 12 Pleasant Street.

This historic house is being converted from renter to condo ownership by its tenants association.

So they reach a deal with the former owner to transfer the property to the Somerville Community Land Trust, which carry out reconstruction of the units and then transfer them back to the former tenants as owners.

The repurchase price will be fixed at levels of affordable housing for two units with 30 percent AMI income and three with 50 AMI.

The city funded actions have been taken to support 12 Pleasant Street.

Two years ago, the trust gave a loan of 2.5 million to the Somavia Community Land Trust to buy the land and building.

Now the loan has been rechanged into a grant with no repayment required.

The trust also has made an additional grant of 700,000 to the Somerville Community Land Trust to cover some costs of the reconstruction work.

So last year, you know, this summer view community land trust received a grant of $300,000 from the Community Preservation Act account to cover elements of rehab work that are specific to the historic preservation.

So the tr the trust again met today uh earlier today and took a vote approving a loan of 2.8 million to the Somerville Community Corporation, which will use the funds to acquire the vacant land at 176 to 182 Broadway.

This is the site of the former bakery and has been empty for almost 10 years.

So SEC will combine this land with adjacent four-story house, and it's already owned at 184 Broadway and will redevelop the whole property with the building of 56 units to be a hundred percent affordable.

I know the hour is late, but I ask that the report be accepted as submitted.

Council Stressler.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Do you, Councilor Mappah?

Yes, please.

So you're telling me that the Patsy's location is going to actually finally be leveled.

And I can't just drive past it or walk past it eight more times and have a reminiscence of all the cakes and pastries that no longer there's going to be something actually on the property now.

That is Council McLaughlin, care to take that one.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Christmas has come early.

Um this is something that's been in the works for a while, and I didn't know until tonight that it is final.

Uh yes, Patsy's Pastries, which has been abandoned for decade plus, uh, one of the first abandoned properties on my street since I took office, uh, is going to be 100% affordable housing, and I couldn't be happier.

And also, in addition, the four-story building next to it that I previously lived in and would roll out of bed and get pastries and pizza in uh that's going to be converted into more affordable housing.

Uh tenants are going to be protected there as well.

Uh this is a huge deal for me.

I'm very proud of it.

So thank you for bringing that up today.

And thank you to the city and the summer community corporation for making this happen.

And if I may, Mr.

President, one more thought on that.

Uh since we have uh no more Patsy's uh vacant building now.

Uh small request of the ward counselor board one to whoever keeps turning on the Louis sign ice cream sign to stop doing that because I keep getting tempted and thinking that something's happening, and it's just the neon sign and no more ice cream again.

Thank you.

All right, that item is placed on file.

Item 4.3 is the communication by Councilor Mbaugh conveying a report of the job creation and retention trust fund.

Councillor Bob.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

The trust met on October 27.

The commission held that was when we had an annual meeting.

Um in order to review the status of his workforce training, career counseling programs through the past year and look at his finances for the future.

Since he's begun operating in 2020, the trust has provided services to 1,000 1090 people, including several hundred and ninety in adult education, particularly English as a second language.

These six years of activity have cost 8.9 million dollars.

Money that was derived from the jobs linkage fees paid by developers, you know, of new labs, office, and commercial buildings.

During 2025, several of the contracts for job training and career counseling came to an end.

In particular, the post-secondary success program, which I hope it will continue at the high school, finished after three years.

It has helped 90 graduates to continue technica and community college training with ongoing counseling payment of the attuition and fees and a stipend for living expenses.

For 2026, the trust made new appropriations totaling 914,000 to continue the existing programs of adult technical training and job-related English learning.

The trust approved a new program of 400,000 to train walkers to qualify for city of some of the job vacancies.

This training will focus on building maintenance and DPW construction needs.

Look into the future.

So the trust now has uncommitted funds of just about two million dollars, which is which it plans to make available in small grants in order to keep its basic programs going.

So one possibility may be like what I suggested to review those stabilization funds and see how we can actually subsidize some of these programs.

Excuse me.

All right, thank you.

That is placed on file.

Next item.

Item 4.4 is an order by Councilor Ewan Campen that the director of mobility increase visibility at the intersection of school street and the community path by permanently installing a convex mirror on the fence.

Council Ewan Kevin.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um I do have a very short story that I need to tell about an anonymous constituent who did some very minor rule breaking.

Um this was when I was a brand new counselor.

I had an elderly constituent who reached out and asked me if she could have one of the bricks from the high school.

I will get around to why this is related.

Um and this was during the demolition, so there were piles of bricks lying around.

And I was a new counselor, so I very dutifully asked our legislative liaison colleagues how do I get a brick for this constituent?

And they told me, well, it's actually very complicated.

Um it needs to be declared surplus.

We know there weren't contaminants, but we need to kind of like officially verify that.

There needs to be a fair.

We want to do a raffle so that people can yada yada yada.

Um none of that stuff ever happened.

And then uh me and the constituent just grabbed a brick.

Um, and that was technically illegal, and I hope that I get away with it.

Um but I'm telling the story because it's happened again.

There has been some very slight rule breaking behavior that I think was the right thing to do, which is that some people have been putting up a convex mirror at this awful community path intersection where school street makes this right angle turn.

And this convex mirror, it just helps you see around the corner a little.

Um and it keeps getting taken down.

So these wonderful constituents, they put it up, it helps, and then it goes away.

We don't know why.

Um, in the past I've reached out to the city for convex mirrors in a few locations, and I've always been told they're not really approved for like for the city to really get behind, and I kind of understand the reasons, kind of don't.

I I just think this is one of those cases like the brick where can we do we just should just do it?

Like we it it's I ride that path every single day.

It really makes it safer.

If we could put it on in a way uh that it doesn't get stolen all the time, um let's just do it.

Counselor Scott.

Thank you.

Uh Ms.

President, I just want to lend my voice to this.

Uh there are multiple spots along Beacon Street, uh along Webster.

Uh I I put in the similar request for these combat mirrors uh over and over again.

So just uh put me on the plus one and make sure I'm next on the list when we finally get those.

I support your your quest, Counselor.

Counselor Straza would also like to sign on.

Councilor Baugh to sign on.

That item is approved.

Item 4.5 is an order by counselor Ewen Campin that the director of mobility install flashing watch for pedestrian signs on the community path where it intersects with the Gilman Square Station entrance, Walnut Street, Medford Street, Sycamore Street, School Street, and Central Street.

Council Wilson likes to sign on.

Council Union Captain.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Um as I've said many times, I bike on the community path every day.

Um and unfortunately, it's just there are there's really dangerous cyclist behavior on it.

It's very common.

Um there are signs that say stop that say yield to pedestrians.

Um they're quite small.

You really don't notice them unless you see them.

I just think at a few locations, it's been enough time now that I I really respect the city has done a lot of outreach and has started to look at safety improvements for the community path along these lines.

I think this should be kind of an urgent priority to just the same way we do for car speeding, which give some kind of visual visual stimulation to tell people slow down, people are crossing right here.

Councilor Burnley's Burnley State and Strasbo would like to sign on.

That item is approved.

Item 4.6 is an order by Council Ewan Campin that the Commissioner of Public Works install padding around the base of the metal street lamp at the base of the grass hill between City Hall and Revis Field to avoid potential injuries from sledding.

Mr.

President Campan.

Um I'd like to amend this to strike the last to avoid potential injuries from sledding, please.

Um just to say there's a hill right out city hall.

The city does not sanction sledding on it.

We do not sanction that officially.

And yet every single year, a lot of people sled on it.

Umfficially, it's an awesome place to sled.

Um there's a lamppost there that could be dangerous.

Um I think regardless of what we say, people are gonna sled on it.

And so we should put some padding around this lamppost just to just to uh end of sentence.

Item 4.7 is an order by counselor Davis that this council amend the rules of the city council related to committees.

Councilor Davis.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um so hopefully folks had a chance to take a look.

Um uh the entire the item contains the entire rules, but obviously the relevant point is where we list the committees.

Um as you'll see, so so this just for folks to understand that this is a result of um years of sort of thoughts that I've had um, as well as discussions with some colleagues, as well as a lot of work from our city clerk from our legislative and policy analyst, for both of whom I want to thank.

Um it is based on my impressions um of after ten years of service.

Um it's based on um data uh uh in terms of the number of meetings of various committees had, the number of items that were in those committees.

Um it's based on both data and I guess observations in terms of um administrative uh folks in the administration uh who would show up who would you know would be uh come to uh appear before certain committees um and and also other certain committees to maybe there's an alignment there um in terms of issues.

Um for primarily for substantive reasons, but also for very serendipitous convenience.

Uh we ended up with 10 committees.

Um that happens to align with there being one committee for each member to chair, which I think is quite nice.

Um the uh as you like you'll see.

Um I suggesting that the school buildings facilities and maintenance committee become a regular committee.

We no longer have any special committees at the moment.

Of course, we can always have more in the future if we if we feel the need.

Um to be clear, um, under no interpretation um should should folks think that this means we're not going to talk about any of the things that were in committees that don't seem to be there anymore.

Um that is absolutely not the case.

Um the intent here is one of the observations that I've made over ten over my ten years here is that it's really bleeping hard to get committees scheduled, to get committee meetings scheduled.

Um it's also uh every time we do have committee meetings, it requires uh uh clerks, uh office staff, it requires IGA staff, it requires the counselors to to be able to be available, at least to make a quorum to show up.

Um so the idea here is to try and streamline the process to align substantive issues in committees that will have a broader reach, um a broader scope on issues that you know have similar that are of a similar nature that have uh the same tip tend to have the same administration uh folks in the administration to come in to speak to them.

Um for example, if there's no more rodent committee.

Um rodents uh any issues that relate to that will be taken up in public health and public safety.

That that committee is gonna meet once a month.

The idea is that that um legislative matters and land use will alternate um weeks as they have been.

Um cap them and uh licenses and permits will alternate as they have been generally.

Um obviously if there's not a need for uh meeting any given night, that's at the at the discretion of the chair.

And I should say scheduling any meeting is ultimately at the discretion of the chair.

That doesn't change.

Um the the and we'll provide a sort of a a proposed calendar of of committee uh meeting nights.

Um that is my hope is that will be followed, but it is absolutely at the discretion of the chair per our rules, so that doesn't change at all.

Um Mondays there will be a different committee that typically meets the first Monday, the second Monday, the third Monday, the fourth Monday.

You're already anticipating, well, there's gonna be some holidays in there, and that committee can't meet that month.

If you got to have a meeting that month, we'll work it out.

We'll figure it out, we'll we'll look at whether Capham doesn't mean need to meet, or maybe legislative matters doesn't meet, whatever the case may be.

We'll sort it out.

If we have to have two committee meetings on the same night, we can do that too if we have to.

So nothing will get dropped, nothing will get uh you know left behind here.

The idea is to make this um you know easier for easier administrative for uh council members to not have to chair multiple different committees to make it easier for for the staff, um the clerk staff and the administrative staff.

Um so I'll leave it there.

I think I hit all the key points I wanted to make here, but I'm happy to answer any questions um if anybody has any.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um very disappointed that President Davis is not taking the rodent situation seriously in the city.

Uh I've loved going to those separate meetings.

I support all these changes.

I think it's a good idea.

I remember when I was president, I consolidated a few committees.

You can really have a discussion about almost anything in any committee.

So the amount of committees we have is uh not as significant as the conversations being had in those committees.

So thank you for uh doing this work.

Mr.

President, if I may, just on that point, just just to because I and I appreciate the uh the humor, but uh the you know we will now have effectively a rodent committee meeting every single month.

So we can talk it's it's no longer the few times a year when that committee will meet.

Every month we're gonna have a all over there will be a committee meeting and we can talk about all the stuff.

Council Strezzo.

Thank you.

Um I wish uh through you, Mr.

President to uh Counselor Davis.

I wish I would have been consulted about some of these changes as well because my two committees are now condensed to one.

And I also don't like the title, but also there are residents that we have uh in this in the city that actually very much rely on the equity committee and have told me very specifically that they like the visibility of the naming of what it was because we can get into the history of the equity uh vulnerable population, seniors and veterans and um puppy dogs, or but all the long list of uh that title, but there was a there was a history behind that as well.

Um I wish I would have been included in this suggestion to perhaps give some feedback.

So I would like to talk about this before these are pushed forward and have a conversation about it.

Um and I feel like now it's just before us, and I anticipate that uh uh counselor Davis that you are expecting a vote on this tonight in the last council meeting before the end of the year.

Uh but would have loved to be included in the thoughts.

Counselor David wanted to respond.

I um I'm happy to.

Um it is my hope that there will be a vote tonight.

Certainly I'm here to have that discussion.

I think this is if there are the will of the uh commit the of the body that any of these names be something different.

I'm open to that.

We went with what I think what I felt was the best um representative of of the broader subject matters.

Um certainly share uh counselor Strazo's um uh uh view on the importance of having equity be centered is in one of our committees.

It is still very much um in the name.

Um and unless I'm completely misremembering that we've changed that.

Um so you know, again, the name of the committee, if y'all want to make it make an amendment on the floor, we can certainly do that.

Um but the uh the idea is that this will better serve our constituents to enable these these topics to be uh scheduled regularly, uh uh uh have commit the committee meet meetings that are scheduled regularly and have these topics brought up in a way that uh ensures that there will be a forum for that every month.

On that uh I don't it's not on it's not the sticking point of the name.

Um Mr.

President three to Councilor Davis.

It's not the sticking point on the name.

It's I mean, sure that's that's something and I I'll I'll move to amend the title.

But also I think there's a transparency involved in that as well, because we do have constituents that are looking at the titles of these committees and want to know a summary of what exactly it includes, because it is kind of vague.

And I I get what you're trying to do.

I I get that, but also I wish I would have been in any way consulted in the vision of that because it is gener very general right now.

And no, I do not want to be bogged down by 80,000 committee meetings.

I get that point.

At the same time, it would have nice to been consulted and maybe have some input to share and have a collaboration of a vision on that.

And so, yes, I would move to change the name to housing community uh equity and I don't know, vulnerable populations, perhaps uh vulnerable populations and police of or equity or both don't want to make a super long title, but I I think that the optics are useful.

SL Straza, is that a motion you're making or you're making it comment?

I I will put forward a motion to uh modify the name.

Um I am interested in colleagues' opinions because I I do want a name change, but I am happy to spitball ideas of what that exact title could look like.

I don't think community and equity is sufficient.

So colleagues, throw me some names.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, I support these changes as well.

Um I um actually I heard one of the um members of the public, uh, Ms.

Huff, um make a noise about the roading committee, and so I'll speak to that one specifically.

Um you know one of the problems like I'm I'm glad also that you brought up the rodent committee as the example because you know I remember seeing online one time uh someone was criticized when I was the chair of the rodent committee that it had only met like twice.

And so having these so many committees, but not being able to physically hold a meeting because we have these other big committees um that kind of take precedent, you know, like it's really hard.

When we pass around that, the public doesn't know what we pass around this calendar and you fill in and it's sometimes damn near impossible to get in uh one of the these meetings um since we have so many committees.

So I I think it makes us look like we're not doing the work, but in it but actually and with this, I wouldn't say that we'll be it's not a matter of being bogged down with more committee meetings.

If anything, we're gonna we'll have just the same amount and they'll be longer probably because there'll be more items going into these different these different committees, but nothing will be missed in terms of the work that we're doing and and the issues that we're addressing um uh with these changes.

So uh I'm happy to support them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I personally also support the consolidation.

Thank you, you know, President Council Davis for that.

I think it helps like streamlined like the process and really, you know, make us become more effective in our work.

So counselor, you encompassion.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Um I I also am a totally I am supportive of these um and I just briefly explain why.

I what wasn't consulted before I saw it on the agenda.

Um but having served as president, I very much uh sympathize with the problem trying to manage all the scheduling of these various committees.

Um and to the to the um point that my good colleague at large made, the two points.

Uh I'm not at all attached to the names.

I'm would be totally I don't think we need to solve that tonight.

I think the reason to do it tonight is so that the incoming president can assign people to committees and have them be the real committees that are gonna serve.

Um if we're able to do it tonight, great.

The the names.

Um if not, I think we can do that anytime, and I totally happy to to engage in that.

Um but I I will just say that not only do I think members of the public don't understand which committee does what, I don't when I was president, it was often not straightforward when an order would come in what committee it goes to.

I think it's it's legitimately confusing um which committee does what thing, and I think streamlining that and trying to clarify that will help a lot.

Um I don't think there's anything we can do that's gonna make an average person off the street immediately understand where how the city council works, but I think that this will help simplify things.

So thank you to Councillor Davis for bringing that.

I'm happy to vote on it tonight.

I want to make sure that everybody who hasn't had a chance to speak has spoken.

Counselor Wilson.

Yeah, thanks, Mr.

President.

I'm supportive of these changes.

Uh I have it on good authority that the next administration is going down to two positions in IGA.

This will make that much easier uh to to do that.

Um just in you know, I I hear our colleague at large's uh concerns about about names.

I would urge the council uh pass the overall, approve the overall uh reorganization of this.

Come if you want to come back to the name, the name can be resolved in the new in the new year, but this is uh it's important for now uh to get these committees restructured like this just for you know as you heard the the ability of the president to do committee assignments.

Thanks.

Counselor Davis?

Yeah, and just to reiterate through you to the good my good colleague at large, um there is probably five different versions of of the names, particularly of the of the committee that um I anticipate you'll continue to chair.

Um fully open to better ideas, no objection there at all.

Uh uh thank you, and uh I also I uh on some of our board counselors, I I would prefer that my concerns not be dismissed.

So I will put forward a motion because I do hear from constituents again.

I don't want my constituents to uh concerns about the the vagueness of committee meetings dismissed, and I don't want my concerns on this to be dismissed.

So I'm putting forward a motion to change the title of the uh the first committee to uh which formally housing and community development, may it rest in peace, to now be housing and community development and equity.

I will be fine with that.

I'm putting forward a motion to adjust that to modify that language to include to replace it with that.

Can you read it out so we can deliberate on that motion?

Yes, indeed.

The motion is to change the name of the community and equity committee to housing and community development and equity.

On that motion.

Councillor Davis.

Well, it's a good pick, but you knew where I was gonna pick up on this one.

Is it housing and community development and equity or housing, comma, community development and equity?

I'm sorry, I didn't catch that.

Can you repeat it?

Sorry.

Is it is it housing and community development and equity or housing, comma, community development and equity.

Uh through you, Mr.

President.

Yeah, council counselor strezo.

Mr.

President, uh through you.

Well, I don't like Oxford commas.

I have strong opinions about them.

Yeah, I heard I heard that gasp.

I will not accept that.

And then furthermore.

I will say housing, community development, and equity.

And um a committee by any other name wouldn't smell as sweet.

Anyway, any other presidents.

No comment.

On that motion.

Uh counselor you and come in.

Mr.

President, I I hate to belabor this.

That I don't believe that's what an Oxford comma is.

It's not sorry, it's I would support it.

Housing, comma, community development, and equity.

I don't think you should have two ands in a row.

I think that would be very odd.

Council Wilson.

Mr.

President, I'm sitting here holding a mug that says I am silently correcting your grammar.

Um we've got to put some comments.

We can't we can't.

English major.

English sorry, English major again, English major.

So Madame Clerk, can you read that motion again so we can take a vote and move on?

The motion is still on uh yes.

The motion on the floor is still to change the name of the community and equity committee to housing and community development and equity.

On that motion.

Uh you know what?

I'm looking pardon me.

Yeah, I just put the commas and we'll you're right.

Uh the two ends, fine, fine.

You're right.

I'm looking back and passed, I'm seeing, did we do comments last time?

I don't remember.

Yes.

Okay, fine.

Pardon me.

Pardon me, Mr.

President.

Three years, Councilor Wilson.

Fine.

You're right.

You and your mug are right.

Fine.

Housing, comma, community development.

On that motion.

Can you can you and equity?

The motion is to amend the rules to change the name of the community and equity committee to housing, community development, and equity.

Under motion, can you do a real quick?

You don't need a roll call.

Okay.

So that motion is approved.

Do we need a motion on the item?

For the discussion on the item as amended.

Motion to approve.

Seeing none, that item is approved.

Thank you.

No, that doesn't need a roll call.

Gol H you is.

Let's do a roll call.

On the motion to amend the rules of the city council related to committees as amended.

Councilor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campin.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Please, yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Aye.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Streso.

Yes.

Comments.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor Mbas.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, those rules have been amended.

Counselor.

Mr.

President will move for reconsideration.

Wilson moves to reconsideration in hopes that reconsideration fails.

Does anyone wish to change your vote?

Saying none, the reconsideration fails.

Thank you.

Bring us to the next item, which is item 5.1 in order by Councilor Streso.

That this city council discuss the safety of the Summer Street bike lane design around or near Putnam Street to Benton Road and how and if additional safety modifications can be made.

Councillor Streso.

Thank you.

Well, last city council meeting, he could not get into city council to speak on this item.

And this week he has a flu.

So I would ask that this be sent because a constituent wished to speak on this, and I think it was a good conversation to have.

Reincarnation of a committee that they should be sent to.

Mr.

President.

Because then it'll stay here, right?

So I'm gonna suggest uh Council Strazo that we lay that one on the table because that way it'll stay alive and it'll still be with us in January, and then we can deal with it then.

Sound good?

All right, that is laid on the table.

The next item then is item six B, a report of the committee on finance meeting on December 9th, 2025.

Counselor Wilson.

Mr.

President, uh the finance committee met on Tuesday, December 9th, with all five members present.

Uh the 99th and final finance committee meeting that I chaired.

Uh disappointed not hit the century mark.

Uh we took up a 22 item agenda over a one-hour and thirty-four-minute meeting.

Uh, in addition to the minutes uh from our November 19th meeting, we recommend that you approve tonight.

Everything in the minutes.

Uh please, colleagues, read the presentation uh from engineering that is attached to that meeting for a list of street paving projects.

Uh it is unfortunately not all of Ward 3.

Uh it is, however, the Ward 3 Counselor's street.

So uh that's an added bonus.

Uh also we're being gifted the Ralph and Jenny Center.

That's pretty cool.

Uh yep, the city is being gifted that.

Uh it's an exciting opportunity for us to show that we can learn lessons from the armory about being a landlord.

Uh but very exciting news for the city.

So uh want to make sure that I called people's attention to that.

Also, I want to thank publicly uh again in front of a larger audience here, the tough softball team, uh, for raising hundreds of dollars to fight food insecurity here in Somerville.

That's pretty cool as well.

Uh we then discussed and marked uh as work complete all the orders and resolutions that were in finance to ensure that we left nothing in committee.

Well, almost nothing.

We're gonna get to that in a second.

Um with that, I'll ask that you approve the committee report as submitted.

Any discussion on the committee report?

Seeing none of the report is approved as submitted.

That takes us to a few roll calls.

It does indeed, I believe five roll call votes, starting with item 25-1728, and the approval of a utility easement for N Star Electric Company at zero Windsor Place on the item.

Counselor Hart.

Yes, Counselor Wilson, yes, Counselor Ewan Campin.

Yes, Counselor Scott, yes, Counselor McLaughlin, yes, Counselor Burnley, aye counselor Said, yes, Counselor Streso, yes, Counselor Klingon, yes, Counselor and Boss, Counselor Davis, yes, with all counselors in favor, that item is approved.

And then we have before this council item 25-1732 requesting approval to appropriate six thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars from the medical excuse me, medicinal marijuana stabilization fund for additional duties related to the out-of-school time activities for fiscal year 2026 on the item, Counselor Hart, yes, Counselor Wilson, yes, Councilor Ewan Campin.

Yes.

Counselor Scott, yes, Counselor McLaughlin, Counselor Burnley, Counselor Said, yes, Counselor Strazzo, yes, Counselor Klingon, yes, Counselor Mboss, yes, Counselor Davis, with all counselors in favor, that item is approved.

Item $25-1737 is requesting approval to accept a gift of real property located at 17 Inner Belt Road from Ralph DeVito Jr.

and Abraham Trustee, RCD Foundation, the aforementioned Ralph and Jenny Center.

On the item, Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campan.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Counselor Saeed.

Yes.

Counselor Strazo.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is approved.

Item 25-1742 is the authorization to borrow $3 million, 826 dollars in a bond and appropriate the same amount for the fiscal year 2026 street resurfacing program.

On the item.

Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campin.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Aye.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Streso.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor.

That item is approved.

And item 25-1743 is requesting approval to appropriate three million dollars from the street reconstruction and resurfacing stabilization fund for the fiscal year 2026 street resurfacing program.

On the item, Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campan.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Brennley.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Strezzo.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is approved.

Counselor Wilson.

Mr.

President, um, I'm gonna move to discharge from committee two items that remain in finance uh due to an issue with the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.

Uh those are IDs number 25-1745 and 25-1746 in order to take those up tonight.

So Councilor Wilson, you move to uh request to waive the rules uh because our rules do prohibit uh discharge of an item that uh has not been in committee for 90 days, 60 days.

60.

Mr.

President, I believe 60.

Yes, I'll move as such to uh move to suspend the rules of the council on the grounds.

These are vital funds uh for immigrant legal services needed now more than ever.

And I also understand that there was maybe just a miscommunication as to why they weren't put on the agenda or something.

Mr.

President, I would never throw anyone under the bus.

There was some miscommunication something.

There was a miscommunication, that's all.

There are extenuating circumstances here that that uh support the suspension of the rules for this these particular items.

Um, those items are do we need to um to discharge them, you do not need a roll call, but then we will need a roll call on each of the items individually.

Okay, so those items are now before us.

Counselor Wilson, do you want to speak to the items at all or uh not really?

Uh I will read that to the recording.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Read the items in, and we'll see if anyone has any questions after that.

Item 25-1745 is requesting approval to appropriate $250,000 from the community benefits stabilization fund to the immigration legal services stabilization fund for legal services for immigrants and asylum seekers seeking permanent residency counselor Wilson?

Yeah, Ms.

President, I'll I'll just say uh we need these funds uh to deal with the nonsense happening uh in our city.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none on the item on the item, counselor Hart, yes, Counselor Wilson, yes, Councilor Ewan Campan, yes, Counselor Scott, yes, Counselor McLaughlin, Counselor Burnley, Counselor Saeed, yes, Counselor Streso, yes, Counselor Klingon, yes, Counselor and Boss, yes, Counselor Davis, yes, right, and then item 25-1746 is requesting approval to appropriate 250,000 dollars from the immigrant legal services stabilization fund for legal services for immigrants and asylum seekers seeking permanent residency on the item, counselor Hart.

Yes, Counselor Wilson, yes, counselor you and campen, yes, counselor Scott, yes, Counselor McLaughlin, yes, Counselor Burnley, Counselor Saeed, yes, Counselor Streso, yes, Counselor Clingen, yes, Counselor Mbaugh, yes, Counselor Davis, yes, with all counselor's in favor, those items are approved.

All right, can we take item 8.6 out of order, please?

See no objection.

Indeed.

Take item 8.6 out of order, and that is an officer's communication from the planning board conveying recommendations for items 25-1554, 1552, and 1539.

All right, that item is placed on file.

Uh next item.

And that brings us to the report of the committee on land use meeting on December 4th, 2025.

Council McLaughlin.

It is true that happened.

Uh four counselors were present.

Counselor Ewan Campan had a very important birthday party to attend.

Uh, we took up three items, uh, voted to approve three items.

One is just a change to day care use to enable more daycares.

Another was an ordinance for to make pre-submittal meetings optional for most permits to improve clarity and consistency.

That was also approved unanimously.

And then finally we had a uh citizens' communication from twelve registered voters requesting a zoning in the zoning map amendment change from MR4 to MR six at an address on Highland Av, uh, which is a currently an abandoned auto body shop that they're looking to make housing out of.

I believe someone will have an amendment for this to discuss, but that was passed with uh three out of five votes uh with counselor Davis of um recusing himself.

So I submit the committee report to be accepted.

On the report, Councilor Wilson?

Uh yeah, Mr.

President, I'll move to sever uh item six C three uh from that committee report with the intention of uh making an amendment to that item.

Uh any objection to uh severing that item?

Seeing none, that item is severed.

Uh on the remainder of the report.

See none, the report is approved.

That puts two items before us for enrollment and ordainment.

That is correct, Mr.

President.

The first of those is item 25-1552.

Got my things in order here, which is requesting ordainment of an amendment to several tables and section 9.1.1 of the zoning ordinance to permit home-based child daycare accessory uses and make corrections okay.

On enrollment, counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson, yes.

Council Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley?

Aye.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Strezzo.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is enrolled.

And on ordainment, Counselor Hart.

I'm sorry, could you clarify what?

I could indeed.

There are three parts to passing an ordinance, approval, which happened as part of the committee report, enrollment, and then ordainment, which is what finally codifies it into the ordinances.

And because of the way the rules of the city council are written, it does require two separate roll call votes.

It's a fun time for all.

Thank you.

Wait, on that point, we could have one vote by our own rules.

Yeah.

Um work on that one.

In this sec to we have this like just to do it all in one meeting, it tends to thirds to ordain.

So that's why, right?

Tech technically the rules say we're supposed to do this at a separate meeting, unless we want to ordain it at the same meeting that requires a two-thirds vote.

Therefore, that's why we do a roll call vote because that effectively gives us the two-thirds vote to ordain it at the same meeting.

That's the right rule.

We could talk about that.

We can talk about that in legislative matters.

We'll now talk about council rules.

But on ordainment, Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Strezzo.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is ordained.

Uh.

All right.

And then we have item 25-1554.

Ordainment of an amendment to several sections of the zoning ordinance to make pre-submittal meetings optional for most permits and to improve clarity and consistency.

On enrollment, counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campin.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Yes.

Counselor Strazzo.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor and Bah.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is enrolled.

Okay.

And on ordainment.

Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campin.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Strazzo.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor Mbah.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is ordained.

All right.

That leaves one item before us from the uh that was uh severed.

Um item recuse in this item, so I'll ask the vice president to take the chair.

On December, Madame Clerk.

Mr.

President, I'll I'll move to amend this item by striking, and 110 Willow Avenue MR4 to MR6.

Uh just to bring this in line with the planning board's recommendation.

Uh including this parcel definitely seems strange.

There were questions about this, as I recall when it was explained to us.

Uh after speaking to planning, uh, there's a lot of interest in this site.

Uh, and I think there should be a a much better process uh with more thought given to that specific site rather than just tacking it on uh to it to another up zoning.

Gentlemen, do you did you get the the amendment is to strike and 110 willow av MR4 to MR6?

I'm not motion, Councilor Ewan Campan.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um I'm supportive of this, and just to clarify, this is the is it ever source?

Right.

There's one of the it's it's irrelevant to what the proponent was actually bringing to the council.

They just kind of tacked on this other property and they respectfully had a kind of squishy explanation for why.

Um I've uh agree with this, and through you, I'll just ask you to discuss this with the planning department.

I know.

Just want to confirm that on the record.

Um I'm supportive of it.

Uh counselor Wilson.

Yeah, uh Mr.

President, uh on that point.

Um and the planning board confirmed they had subsequently spoken to EverSource about this.

So uh I think this is you know, from everything that I've observed, everything that uh all the conversation I've I've had, this is the best path forward.

Uh you know, in the interest of doing something better with that site.

Any other comment so should we just approve that so approved the amendment first?

So the amendment is approved without any objection.

And then you have to approve the item as amended.

So on the item.

On the item as amended.

On the item motion to approve if needed.

As amended.

As amended.

Yes, so the item is approved.

As amended.

And then on enrollment.

Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Counselor Burnley.

Aye.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Strazzo.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor and Boss.

Yes.

Counselor Davis is recused.

With 10 counselors in favor and one recused, that item is enrolled as amended.

And on ordainment, Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campin.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Counselor Burnley.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Strazzo.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor and Boss.

Yes.

And Counselor Davis is recused.

So with 10 counselors in favor and one recused, that item is ordained as amended.

Thank you.

And the next item then is item 6D, a report of the committee on legislative matters meeting on December 2nd, 2025.

Counselor Scott.

Oh, thank you, Mr.

President.

I will attempt to make this report as long as possible.

Let's see here.

We had a number, a pretty long agenda because we were trying to wrap things up here at the end of the year.

Several items were kept in committee and will be taken up in the new year.

So we'll be discharging that without recommendation and I believe placing it on file because new language has been submitted by the clerk's office to accomplish uh what you're looking for as it pertains to commercial properties and uh uh buildings with commercial ground floor.

Uh the concern from the committee was about the burden of that landing on residential properties, but everybody can uh was able to have uh broad agreement that if you're operating a business in the city, you should be a good neighbor and clear your uh sidewalks, and that should not be too much of a burden for for businesses operating in the city.

Uh so that that will be up after uh approval of the report.

Uh there was also um an amendment to uh modify the appointment process for the community preservation committee.

That was a fairly minor adjustment that's gonna allow the the body to continue to function uh by allowing folks to serve out partial terms that they are appointed to.

There's a lot of turn turnover on these committees.

Uh there was uh a neonicotinoid, a uh pesticide basically requirement uh on purchasing that we had uh put into place several years ago, which had a sunset date uh that is coming up, and in order to ensure that we can continue to plant trees in the city uh for the next several years, uh we extended that sunset date to 2028.

And uh then there were uh a change to the rules of the city charter, just updating uh to match the the new charter that has been passed.

And then we reviewed several uh surveillance technology impact reports.

Uh some of them are being kept in committee because there were some edits requested by some members um who care very much about the words.

And uh one of them is being recommended to be approved.

Uh so with that I request that the committee report be accepted as submitted.

Well, but we don't need to separate because it doesn't have recommendation.

So we only need to send it out.

Okay, yeah.

Oh, I see.

Okay, yeah.

So uh counselor Scott, thank you for that clarification, Madam Clerk.

Yes, there's a little difference here because there's two items that have been uh items 8.1 and 8.2, which we'll take up after the committee report um that replace the uh item that uh the good chair noted about the snow removal and about the amendments to the rules.

However, the snow removal one is all set because it was uh no recommendations that'll be placed on file through approval of the report.

But um counselor Scott, you uh move to sever item 25-6 is that the one nope uh 25-1676 um and uh with intent that that be placed on file.

Do I have that correct?

I most certainly do, Mr.

Chair.

On that mouth, Councilor Klingon on the motion report itself after.

All right, let's let's get through the motion to sever the item.

So seeing no objection, that item is severed on the report, Councilor Klingon.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you to the good chair.

So we don't want the curb cuts, we don't want like curb cuts shoveled.

Uh we uh through the president, we absolutely do.

Uh and I I was personally supportive of it, but it was the will of the committee uh in order to move forward with something that would provide some relief for this winter season, uh that they were comfortable passing it with uh that restriction of it simply being two commercial properties, but I can let my colleagues discuss about that.

Um fortunately, this this was the this is what we could get passed.

Through you, Mr.

President.

I'm just curious.

I I I I feel like I put the language in there just to really make it clear, but I think it might even already be a ticketable offense uh as it is now.

Um so basically we're now just you know I don't know if we're ticketing for it, but I I believe based on the like we could be ticketing for it right now.

So I really wanted to emphasize to to people that they if they do live on a corner that that curb cut is their responsibility, like instead of just kind of making that L shape and going around and thinking somebody's gonna magically come and clear that curb cut, it now we're now sending the message like don't clear the curb cuts.

So I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I just thought that this was a way to um because everyone's always asking who's responsibility of the curb cuts.

Um I mean if if that's the will of the committee, that's fine.

Uh can I suggest Councillor Klingon that we um uh absolutely happy to allow the discussion.

Um the replacement item is eight dot one, so um what the the approval of the report will have no bearing on that item, so because that will be played that's uh that one was placed on file because there was no recommendation.

Um so why don't we uh continue on the report and then we can engage the substance discussion on 8.1?

Is that okay?

Any other counselor Burnley on the report?

Yeah, on the report, uh I can I speak to items that uh were left in committee on the report.

They were if they were on the agenda at this meeting, yes.

Okay.

Uh thank you through the chair.

Um I just want to uh thank uh counselor Scott for keeping certain certain items in committee.

Um in particular uh there was an ordinance that I proposed uh that it remains a committee uh regarding this city policy around having a specific paid leave practice for survivors.

Um councilor Burnley, I don't believe that item was on the agenda for this meeting.

Oh no.

Okay.

Well it is definitely still on committee.

Uh okay.

Well uh on on the committee report.

On the committee report, I will say thank you for leaving certain items in committee.

There are some really important ones.

Please take action on them next term.

That that gives me another opportunity to remind folks yet again because it's very confusing that items that are in committees with that uh for an action to be taken, so for we have uh for a recommendation, those will remain in committee.

If it's in committee for a discussion, then make a note of it and uh keep bring your list in January and send it back out if you it said send it back in as an item if you want it to go back into a committee um for 26.

Okay.

Any uh further discussion on the committee report, Mr.

Chair.

I will uh accept the homework assignment.

Thank you.

Very well, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

All right, so um seeing none of the committee report is approved.

That puts um the uh discharge item before us that will be placed on file.

And then can we take up item 8.1 out of order, please?

We can.

Mr.

President, might I suggest we enroll and ordain.

Yes, that's a better idea.

Thank you, Madam Clark.

Let's do that first.

So uh the next item before this council is item 25-1652 requesting ordainment of an amendment to section 2-309.9 and 2-309.10 of the code of ordinances to clarify term length and appointment process for the community preservation committee.

On enrollment.

Councilor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Counselor Burnley.

Aye.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Streso.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor and Boss.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is enrolled.

And on ordainment, Councilor Hart.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Aye.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Strezzo.

Yes.

Counselor Clingins.

Counselor and Baugh.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is ordained.

And then you have before you item 25-1714 requesting ordainment of an amendment to section 2 12-178 of the Code of Ordinances to remove the prohibition on sourcing neonicotinoid treated plants.

Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Neo-nicotinoid.

I know it can nicotine.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Aye.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Strazzo.

Yes.

Counselor Clings.

Counselor and Baugh.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is enrolled.

And on ordainment, Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Strazzo.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor and Boss.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is ordained.

And that will then, Mr.

President, take us to that next item you have suggested taking out of order, which is item 8.1, an officer's communication from the city clerk.

Submitting an amendment to section 12-8 of the code of ordinances to require owners of commercial properties to clear snow and ice from accessible curb cuts.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And just to be clear, if I may, that's the item the amendment in 8.1 includes the clarification that includes the the existing snow clearance ordinance and the addition and then the addition of the um the curb cuts as it applies to commercial properties.

And mixed use properties with the commercial on the ground floor, correct?

Okay, open it now to confirm that.

I can I can tell you that's the answer is yes.

Just so folks know what we're talking about here.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um through you, I just wanted to follow up on Counselor Klingon's question because this was like a very active conversation in the committee.

So the original proposal basically was to start ticketing basically if you live on a corner and you have curb cuts, ramps, whatever you want to call them, um that they need to be cleared.

And if if you don't clear those in addition to your sidewalk, you get a ticket.

And I think the concern of myself and and members of the committee um is that those can be really, really hard to keep clear because of snow plows.

So all of us want them to be cleared.

Also, all of us feel that the city needs to play a larger role in that, and we're worried about the first big snowstorm where there's 12 inches of ice on those corners and all of a sudden, you know, hundreds of residents are getting hit with big tickets.

Um, there's obviously a longer conversation to have about whether it's an enforcement issue, but I think you know, a majority of the committee was uncomfortable affirmatively saying we're ready to take that step right now for everyone who lives on a corner and you know potentially hit them with these big tickets for really quite an impossible job in after some storms, um kind of based on snow clouds, right?

So that was the concern.

Um but I think we all feel like it's an extremely serious issue.

Like you you can't have impassable sidewalks after storms.

So um it's something that we want to continue working on, and you know, I'll speak for myself.

We want to see more public resources on that.

Further discussion.

Counselor Bach, can you take the chair?

Counselor Davis.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, through you to the good counselor from Ward 4.

Um totally uh appreciate the the the comment and the concern.

Um I share it and as as the good counselor from Ward 3 noted um, you know uh I think we all agree that the the curb cuts need to be cleared.

Um the the law office to did provide some um references to to the state laws and guidance on this issue.

Um and my read is that is that you're probably right um the that our existing law should be interpreted as meaning that uh the sidewalk includes the curb cuts.

So point A.

Um but it was also clear that the obligation to to clear sidewalks and curb it which includes curb cuts it is the cities, um, but that can be delegated.

Um what a point that I made in the committee meeting is is is as uh the good counselor forward three noted.

Uh that this I I believe the city needs to be more involved in that process because it is um it is it it can be so difficult to you know clear a massive snowplow glacier.

Um the committee discussed and I think there was a when this was first discussed months ago, there was a thought about um and there was a question to the law department about whether we could apply this to just to begin with, we could apply this only to you know large large apartment buildings um rather than you know smaller um uh residential houses.

Um and the answer was yes, but um uh it was noted in the committee that there still might be a concern that that owners of a large apartment building might pass that obligation on to the onto the tenants, and we need to dig into that further.

So my take was that this is very much still an open conversation.

Um we need to we need to figure out uh uh a way to to strike a balance here between absolutely making sure that um our our sidewalks and public ways are passable for everyone, no matter um how they uh you know what what their mobility status is for those who are um for those of us who are uh temporal temporarily able-bodied and can climb over um you know that that might work, but for um uh for the rest of us it doesn't.

Um and so this was a suggestion to at the very least we can right now agree that if it's a commercial property, let's be clear and make sure they do it, and then let's come back to the conversation and and and dig deeper into how we can uh continue to address the problem.

So um I wanted to add that note that my take at least was that this is um this was a starting point, and we want to come back to this because I agree this is still not a satisfactory uh ultimate solution.

Any further discussion?

All right, seeing none.

Um we need approval enrollment and ordainment.

Right discussion?

No up to no further discussion, so that item is approved and on enrollment.

And on enrollment of an amendment to section 12-8 of the code of ordinances to require owners of commercial properties to clear snow and ice from accessible crowb cuts.

Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson, yes.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Scott, yes, Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Yes.

Counselor Strazzel.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor Mbaugh, yes, Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is enrolled.

And on ordainment, counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Council Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Aye.

Counselor Said.

Yes.

Counselor Strazzel.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is ordained.

All right.

Thank you.

Can we take up item 8.2 out of order?

See, no objection.

Item 8.2 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.

And just for clarification, for those who uh maybe not don't have it in front of us, this is the effectively the same item that was before the committee, just with some clarity on the a temporarily a temporary um replacement of the click, that's not even the right word.

Um we have the duties of the clerk uh when they could be delegated.

Um substantively it the intent is the same.

Um any discussion, any concerns, questions on that.

All right, seeing none, uh that item is approved.

It does need a roll call vote.

For approval.

Or because it's just a rule.

So we just need one roll call.

One roll call.

Brilliant.

Let's do that, please.

So on those amendments to the rules of the city council to align with the provisions of the city charter.

Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor Wilson.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Burnley.

Uh Counselor Saeed.

Yes.

Counselor Strazzow.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon.

Yes.

Counselor and Boss.

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

With all counselors in favor, that item is approved.

Next item.

And that brings us to item six E, a report of the committee on licenses and permits, a meeting on December 10th, 2025.

Counselor Burnley.

To the chair, finally.

Um we met last night for about approximately 50 minutes.

Uh all members of the committee were present.

Uh we took up three items that did not require a public hearing.

Um each item had representatives from either Comcast or Eversource as well as members of the public.

Uh each was a contested item, but we had a very cordial meeting uh in which compromises were made.

Uh communication was established uh between residents and utility companies, and one item was uh held in committee uh for further communication to establish what would be happening on Warwick Street.

And one item was uh held in committee uh for further communication to establish what would be happening on Warwick Street.

Uh with that, I'd like to submit the report as submitted.

On the report.

All right, that is approved.

Mr.

President, I just wanted to say thank you for the chair.

Uh, this was one of these was something that I had sent in the committee.

Uh, and it's just yeah, I don't think it gets said enough how much it means to residents to be able to say, hey, this sucks, and have people reach out and help.

So thank you, Councillor Burnley.

Next item.

Item 6F is a report of the committee on open space environment and energy meeting on December 3rd, 2025.

Councilor Part.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

This is the last time you hear the word open space, environment and energy.

So uh it will be uh sustainability and infrastructure.

So the committee on open space met last week, December 3rd.

Uh I will mostly focus on one key aspect of the report, which is around Greentown Lab.

But um so first, the director of public space and urban forestry presented two completed plans, the 10-year plan for open space and recreation, which focuses on opportunities and challenges in acquiring new public accessible open spaces and the pollinator action plan that details methods and strategies for creating sustainable and high quality green spaces.

And secondly, the committee received an update report from the director of uh economic development on the impact of Greentown Labs on cities' progress in clean energy sector.

This report was a timely look at how Greentown has been growing in importance for the past 10 years, but may now be impacted by the regional economic downturn and changes in federal policies, you know, on clean energy.

So we they with the committee appear to be optimistic that private investors and market demand for power from all sources will continue to support the research activities which Greentown members enterprises are developing.

The startup companies are involved in a wide range of technologies and in all areas of power supply, including work to make traditional fuel-generated power and operation of the grid cleaner and more efficient.

Some of you therefore can expect that Greentown will continue to generate new activity and keep the city as a leading center for energy research.

Since 2015, Greentown has assisted over 500 new firms to establish themselves.

These companies arrive at Greentown with three or four founding entrepreneurs and carry out their first stages of research and prototype formulation using the shared spaces and equipment that Greentown provides.

As their work progresses, more companies grew to 10 or 15 people, and they begin to need business support services like accounting, human resources, management and marketing, and all of which Greentown helps them to learn and acquire.

They bring in a steady flow of new investment capital, some of which is spent to cover payroll and buy supplies and services from locals, small businesses in the city.

One aspect of the Greentown experience of importance for the city is the way in which is graduate enterprises have made their relocation decisions.

What is anyway?

And actually, it was so timely that after that report, there was an article in the Boston Globe, because most of us were at Sublime when they opened.

So it it they have gotten ground for 150 million dollars.

It is seven million dollars in slashed by this Korean administration.

Just to say now, you know, through that process, it was so timely that we can see that most of this work is being impacted by this Koran administration.

So I wanna I I want to deliver you guys the the the it's it's lit, but it's a very uh uh rich uh report, and we'll continue to engage with Green Town La as we evolve.

So I asked that this committee report it accepted and submitted, Mr.

President.

All right, see no discussion.

That is item is approved.

Item 6G is a report of the special committee on rodent issues, a meeting on December 1st, 2025.

This committee meets so far.

I literally don't even know the chairs.

Counter Wilson.

Mr.

President, the rodent issues special committee met for the final time ever, apparently, on Monday, December 1st, with all three members present.

Over the course of a 37-minute meeting, we got the fourth quarter update presentation from the city staff, uh, which explained that we have eradicated rats in the city, which is why the committee doesn't need to meet anymore.

Uh no, it's uh this is it's important stuff.

You know, that's why we did this.

We wanted to just explain what we're doing about education enforcement, uh, mitigation, all that good stuff.

Uh, encourage people to watch it.

So uh with that, I ask that you approve the committee report as submitted.

For anyone who's tuning in just for that committee report because they care about the city's approach to the rodent problem.

Tune in next year to the public health and public safety committee where these issues will be discussed.

Council Burnley.

Thank you through the chair.

I just add in particular at this meeting.

We started with a an update about hormonal birth control for rats.

So we are trying innovative processes.

Uh check it out.

That some of the rats came in multiple times, we heard to get their birth control, which is certainly not a sentence I thought I would say when I ran for office.

Council Wilson.

Mr.

President, it's late, so I'll just say uh maybe next year we'll get an update on the the uh plan B for rats.

Next item.

That item is approved.

Item 6H is a report of the special committee on school building facilities and maintenance meeting on December 8th, 2025.

Council Clingen.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, we met all members of present.

We discussed a couple of items.

It's all on tape and in the minutes.

Uh I recommend you check it out, and I ask that this report be com uh uh accepted as submitted.

Seeing no discussion, that item is approved.

Item 7.1 is a request of the mayor requesting ordainment of an amendment to chapter 7 of the code of ordinances to establish a rental registry and energy disclosure.

Woohoo.

Boy, I've been waiting for this one.

That item is referred to legislative matters.

Uh yes.

Discussion?

No.

All right.

I'm just really thrilled.

You know, it's been yeah.

I was just checking my news today.

The last meeting we had was November of 2024.