Here Why, good evening, everybody.

Welcome to this meeting of the City of Somerville's City Council Committee on Legislative Matters.

I'm JT Scott, your host and chair for the evening, award two counselor, and pursuant to chapter two of the Acts of 2025.

This meeting is being conducted via remote participation, and we will be uh posting the recording to all city channels shortly after the conclusion of the meeting.

Uh as such, we will go ahead and start this meeting off with a roll call to establish a quorum uh led by our esteemed clerk Latelier.

Ms.

Roll call, Counselor Davis.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Present.

Counselor Young Campen.

Here.

Counselor Streso.

Present.

Counselor Scott.

Present.

For counselors present.

We have quorum.

Delightful.

Thank you.

We have a brief agenda tonight, which hopefully we will uh go through in good time.

And uh it starts with the approval of the minutes of the legislative matters meeting of February 17th, 2026.

Uh is there any comment on those minutes?

Seeing none, I'll go ahead and lay those uh lay those minutes on the table for approval with a single roll call vote at the conclusion of the meeting.

Then we will go on to the first substantive item that is the mayor's request 260161, requesting the acceptance of mass general laws chapter 40, section 13A to establish a special education reserve fund.

All right.

Uh this is a pretty straightforward uh pretty straightforward item attached to the item is a record of the December 15th school committee meeting uh and a copy of the general law in question, uh, which simply says we are going to establish a we are allowed by state law to establish a reserve fund uh to pay without appropriation for unanticipated or unbudgeted costs of special education and recovery high school programs, or for out-of-state out of district tuition or transportation.

So uh to that end, I guess who do we have here to uh address this from the school side.

Hi, good evening, everybody.

Uh my name is Dr.

Bretta.

I am the uh interim chief financial officer of the district.

Uh happy to talk with y'all a little bit of tonight about um the rationale behind establishing the special ed reserve fund.

Um want to start by saying I think this represents like a really awesome partnership uh between the city and the schools and just evidence of our continued collaboration in trying to support uh you know the work generally of the district, but particularly of our most needy students.

Um, what we're really trying to do here is um basically some risk management, right?

This is not a savings account.

Uh, this is uh some very prudent long-term planning that we've engaged in, knowing that special education costs can change quickly uh from year to year and even during the year because of out of district placements, because of the related transportation costs for that, and even for required services for individual students.

So this stabilization fund would help us address some of those unexpected costs related to uh providing those services without disrupting uh, you know, the general budget for that year uh and you know, potentially endangering the general education program that we have.

Excuse me.

Um similarly, it helps protect our special education students.

You know, our special education students uh are often our most needy students.

We want to make sure that we have funds set aside to serve them, to provide them with the uh education that they're legally entitled to when uh you know uh new students might enroll in the district, or we might have a better placement, a more appropriate placement for a student.

Um, I think finally it it's really designed to increase transparency and and public trust.

We don't ever want to absorb costs in a you know, unpredictable costs in a way that's hard for the public to sort of keep track of.

So I think having a dedicated fund uh sends the signal to everybody that we're planning for, you know, known both unknown and unknown financial risks.

All right, thank you for that very much, uh Director Beretta.

And uh I sounds like a great idea to me for those who are looking for more detail of the conversations that happen in committee.

Uh, they start at the end of page 11 of those minutes that are attached to the agenda item and go through about halfway down page 13.

I see a couple questions from colleagues here.

So we'll start with Councilor Streso and then go on to Mba and you encampment.

Counselor Streso, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, let's start with happy to see this and hear all about this.

Um, we'll be uh catching up, but for those who uh maybe new to this, uh and and first time hearing about this.

Um what is the process for distributing the funds and uh and also who is in charge of distributing the funds?

Uh yeah.

Yes, through the chair.

That's a great question, uh, Councilperson Streso.

Um, I think Ed Bean, if he were here tonight, would have um a little bit more uh expertise in explaining some of that.

My understanding is that uh and disbursement of these funds requires approval not only of the school committee but also of city council.

So this cannot just be tapped into without following proper procedures.

Uh but I think Ed would be able to speak much more explicitly to the exact steps.

But I do know when we were talking about this initially that it does uh we were looking at statutes that other districts and municipalities have used, and we adopted a similar one.

The the process does require multiple levels of approval to disperse the funds.

And uh Council Strezzo, just uh let you know the second paragraph of 13A indicates the funds shall only be distributed for the reserve funds after a majority vote of the school committee and a majority of vote of the city council.

Thank you so much.

Uh alongside that uh will these could these funds be used um for legal fees for the for the special department or the school district?

Um I think legal fees in terms of such as like uh we were engaged in a lawsuit and you know, we had like a lawsuit sort of I I think if the if that's what you're referring to, the answer is is no.

I think we've we've outlined, I think in the statute like some uh explicit reasons that we could use this.

Um and it's generally related into providing direct services to students.

So, you know, uh covering the cost of like uh any kind of lawsuit for for lack of services or compensatory, you know, dollars, I don't think would be an appropriate use of this.

I'll hop back in in line, uh, Mr.

Chair, and also is there a deadline for approval on this or um uh Mr.

Chair through you to uh Mr.

Beretta.

When um when are you looking to activate this, but also when um yeah, uh is there a a timeline on when this has to be approved.

A great question.

Uh there is no urgency in terms of like we have a desperate need for these dollars right now to address any acute issue.

Um we were just looking at this as a great opportunity, you know.

And I work with Ed and uh finance team over there regularly, and we had identified you know a potential source of unused funds from the prior year for the district.

Um and just you know, for long-term planning.

So there's really no urgency to address an acute need.

You know, all of the budget reporting that we've done this year suggests we're well in line to uh to address any any costs.

Uh Mr.

Chair, I'm gonna let my colleagues hop ahead, but I will be back in line uh after they're done.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Counselor.

Councilor Mbai, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chairman Scott.

Uh Director Beretta is always good to see a fellow classmate on the other side of the table.

Likewise.

It's uh thank you for for the work you do for the school.

Um, I guess this is you know, like uh Chairman Scott said, this is pretty, you know, um, stand out and and it's pretty straightforward requests.

But I guess one of the curiosity I've always had is like the methodology to assess like this patient needs in the various uh uh uh district.

Like I've never really wrapped my head around that because it's always like this a little uh when sometimes you talk to your family, they always have like different experiences, you know.

And this is just me just kill us in terms of like the kind of the kind of assessment that goes into like the whole process.

But other than that, you know, I think I just I'm as excited just to see you like coming before us.

I'm like, wow, this guy, you know, I can't believe I will want to squeeze his eyeball here for my first time to, you know, there's that excitement, and then there's also that curiosity about like the process behind the assessment.

Thank you so much for the question, uh, Councilor Mbaugh.

Uh you're referring specifically to the like how we assess students with special needs.

Yeah, so you know, as the chief financial officer, like special needs is not my area of expertise, but I am a former principal, so I do know a little bit about this, and I work closely with our uh director of special education, um Ildefonso Ariano, who's fantastic.

He would be best able to speak, you know, to um to how we kind of uh, you know, create our our specialized services for students with special needs.

But you know, generally um what we're doing is uh, you know, we have a kind of a process where we we try to address uh any kind of deficits that students might have, like through interventions early on.

We track data, we try to make sure that you know we're we're seeing whether or not students are making progress.

And then if we see after we've tried some interventions that students are not making progress, we generally make a referral for you know, so uh for some uh psychological testing for you know special education services.

Um exactly how the programming is is put together and like how IEPs are written.

It's certainly different here in Somerville than you know from where I came in Philadelphia.

So I think Director Ariano would be best poised to uh you know to speak on the specifics of that.

But you know, again, as a relative newcomer to Somerville and having worked in education for 20 years, seems to me like we actually have a really great staffing model to service our students with special needs.

And um, you know, we're fairly well resourced.

I think the goal of this fund is just to make sure that uh any unexpected costs wouldn't detract from that, you know, planned work that we have year uh every year with our students.

Yeah, excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman Squad I'm also set.

All right, thank you.

Uh Councilor Ewan Camp and you have four thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'm fully in support of this and ready to move forward.

Uh the question I had I was just reviewing the minutes from the school committee recommendation on this, and I wanted to make sure I understand it sounded like one of the issues is when the city does put aside money for this purpose and it is not spent, then it flows back to the general fund.

And that's one of the things that's trying to be corrected now, right?

Is so that if money is appropriated for this, it stays for this and doesn't have to kind of roll back and be re-budgeted every single time.

Can you just through the chair?

Is that about right?

Did I understand that correctly?

Uh that's a great question, Counselor Young Camp.

And again, I think Ed Bean would probably be the best person to sort of talk on that.

But I can tell you uh I think generally what you're saying is is right.

Like the idea here is uh, you know, the school the school department gets an appropriated amount every year.

Anything that does that we don't uh expend does flow back to the city, you know, often gets booked in in as free cash.

The idea here was to establish a fund that would exist in perpetuity, so it wouldn't be subject to annual appropriations.

And you know, again, fairly, I don't want to say fairly common, but you know, certainly other districts and municipalities have established this because those year-to-year fluctuations in special ed costs can again take away from the appropriated amounts and you know what we were expecting to expend in a or invest in a particular area.

Mr.

Sherid, through you, uh thank you for that.

I I see that uh Liaison Rodacity also has her hand up if it's on this.

I'm happy to do that.

I would also point out that this is uh functionally a special reserve that's built.

Uh the statute does say it cannot exceed 2% of the annual net school spending of the district, but it would allow for a durable uh pool of money that could be there for the fluctuations as pointed out for say a surprising number of out of district placements that need to happen in a given year.

Um Lea Zan Radasi, you get further on this.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um Ed Bean wasn't allowed, um, wasn't able to join for tonight, but he did send us over some talking points for us.

So just to address um through you to Councilor U and Camp, he uh shared a talking point saying funds can be used in future fiscal years and carryover, allowing districts to manage unpredictable high cost student placements without needing immediate new appropriations.

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense to me.

Uh I appreciate all the work that the school committee and school department put into this, and I'm I'm ready to go, Mr.

Jarrett.

Thank you.

As am I?

Sounds like as usual, Ed Bean said it uh better than I could.

All right.

Uh Councilor Stressel, you said you wanted a second bite at the apple.

Are you all set or do you still want one?

Certainly do.

Um, yeah, I I am bummed that we do not have uh director bean here today.

So it is is nice to have uh Mr.

Virata here.

So it has uh through you, Mr.

Chair, to uh Mr.

Veretta.

Uh what um I know this is getting becoming uh this is established, and yes, this is great.

Um I support this.

I think it's important as well.

Um what uh outreach has been done through the to the um special needs families in the district and special educators in the district on this um coming and have you approach CPAC.

Can you please elaborate on that?

Yeah, that's a great question, Councillor Streso.

Um to be honest, I can't talk specifically to outreach that's been done regarding this.

I do believe we uh brought this up at uh one of our CPAC meetings.

Um I do know that Director Ariano had a um a special education specific budget presentation last Wednesday to uh several stakeholders.

Um I think like I've had a couple of meetings with uh individual members of the CPAC, and I think this has come up and you know, I think generally the uh rationale that I've given is like much of what I've said here tonight, which is like you know, we have an amount every year that's appropriated for uh our students with special needs, and you know, sometimes costs can fluctuate, and we never want to interrupt the services that we already have planned in any given fiscal year to address additional needs.

And um, you know, I think anecdotally the reception that we've that I've gotten from I can't speak for others, but the reception I've gotten from stakeholders uh, you know, in our in our special needs uh community has been very positive and very warm.

You know, I think folks are just generally happy that we are paying a lot of attention to the you know to the needs of our uh of that community and you know, trying as much as possible to uh increase the stability of services there.

Okay, uh thank you, Mr.

Chair, through you to Mr.

Breta.

Um I had one more question.

Um, yes.

Uh so once if uh and if a vote is approved and it goes to the council and then is approved.

Uh what are the immediate first next steps uh to this, establishing this?

Um on the legislative side, I'm uh I'm not I'm not no um no, just on the district side.

Uh to yes, to elaborate.

Uh uh what what does uh immediate implementation look like with this?

Uh what once and if it's approved, so once it is approved through the council, et cetera, and then it's I assume pumped it back to uh the school committee.

Uh where what what happens with uh SPFs and this after that happens.

Uh might I take this one?

Please.

Uh this is the authorization to adopt the mass general law to create the fund.

My understanding from the administration is that the next step would be uh an appropriation through the city council to deposit money into that fund so that it would be available to create the funding for it.

And then as it was needed, the appropriation would need to be approved by the school committee and the city council.

Uh so I would anticipate uh funding uh request to come in in our next meeting or two from the city council.

Perhaps Liaison Rodassi knows what the schedule is for that.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh yes, there actually already is an item for transfer to the fund.

Um it's sitting in finance committee.

Assuming that um the committee votes to approve this item tonight, then it will be on the agenda for next week's finance committee meeting so that we can in tandem approve the enabling legislation and then the transfer as well, assuming that is of course what the finance committee wants to do.

Yes, uh thank you.

My yes, my question is uh more uh how how and yeah, appreciate the the the response on that.

My question is more um the immediate implementation of once it once it is established, and then um will the general public be aware of it, will special needs families be made aware of it, will will special educ uh education educators be made aware of this.

Um and and additionally, um yeah, how how poised and prepared is uh the uh special department and the superintendent prepared to handle this.

Uh thank you for that question, Councillor Schezo.

Uh I think we're very well poised.

Um, you know, I think my immediate next step would be to um work with our chief communications officer to put together some communications.

Um this is really something to celebrate, you know, in our community.

And um, I think we also need to make sure that we have something explicitly on our website uh about the stabilization fund, uh, you know, outlining uh uh the exact uses for it and you know what it's intended to serve.

Um but our communications department does a fantastic job of getting that kind of information out.

So I think it's you know, once assuming this goes through all the appropriate channels and passes and uh gets appropriated to us, then you know, we have some rough drafts of communications that we would put out regarding it.

Mr.

Chair, I'm all set.

And thank you.

Thank you.

Uh through you to uh Mr.

Brada, thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, thank you.

Uh then I guess uh seeing no further discussion at the moment, I will uh make a motion to approve.

Uh looking for any discussion on that motion.

All right, seeing none, then we'll go ahead and lay that item on the table for a single vote for approval at the conclusion of the meeting.

Thank you very much, Director Baretta.

All right.

And let's see here, then we will move on to our next substantive item, uh, which is item 260145, uh, mayor's request requesting acceptance of mass general law, chapter 59, section five, clause 22J to authorize an increase in the exemption amount granted under chapter 59, section five, clauses 22, 22a, B, C, E, and F, which are uh also included in the uh item as a PDF uh citation from Ashton or Law.

I know we are joined by Assessor Golden, our chair golden of our board of assessors, uh, who has been very excited to see this happen.

And uh quite frankly, based on what I've heard of it, I'm excited to see it happen as well.

So apologize uh for the delay in getting it here, uh Chair Golden.

But uh please, if you'd like to lay it out for this one, uh, and then we will move on to the next one, which is uh further implement implementation of this, as I understand.

So uh go ahead, please introduce it for us.

Chairman Scott, can you hear me?

Of course, sir.

Through you, there's a little bit of a backstory here that I'd like to share.

Um during classification on November 25th, 2025.

At the conclusion of my presentation, I was approached by then counselor Wilson, who thought that it was due time to adopt the Heroes Act.

Um we had a board meeting on January 28th, and the board voted unanimously to accept um the Harrows Act.

Um, a little bit about the Harrows Act.

Um, basically, what it does is it's gonna bring the COLA or the cost of living to the veterans exemption, which is a number that is annually given to us from uh local assessment or the Department of Revenue.

So we have other exemptions that are subject to the COLA, but this is the first time that the Cola will be applied to the veterans exemption.

You're talking roughly about 90 um exemptions exist for veterans in the city.

Um the reason why it's twofold, 21 uh 22i and 22j, is because when you accept the new exemption, you have to also accept the up the double.

And the up the double is every exemption in the city.

Um up the double.

And that was voted May 2015 by the honorable council, so that a 400 exemption is an 800 exemption.

Um most, if not all cities and towns in the Commonwealth have accepted the up the double.

Um, Beverly being one of the last where I'm the chairman a year ago.

So it pretty much everyone is up the double on the exemptions now.

Um the Kohler is a nice addition to our veterans.

That is above and beyond the up the double.

So it'll be a little bit more money for every veteran beyond anyone that's already reached that $800 level.

Um the exemption a little bit about the exemption, just so the councils understand is um veterans have different um levels of disability.

They have to provide a letter at the assessor's office annually to how severe their disability is, and that really drives how much of an exemption is available to them.

Um we sadly have some that are 100%.

It's just um it's really what the VA gives them in a letter annually that drives that.

That's out of our control.

That is a letter that is shared with us, and then we apply the exemption.

So just a little bit of a backstory there that it is in place.

Um, we'll have the cola shortly.

Um, this would go into effect for fiscal year 27.

Um hopefully that's a good enough background for everybody.

But again, we were doing everything for our veterans prior, with the exception of roughly a 2% cola or what or whatever it may be.

It's not a number determined by us.

It's determined by the Department of Revenue.

All right, looking for questions from the committee.

I see Councilor Mbaugh.

Counselor Mbai, you have the floor.

You are muted, Councilor Ba.

Oh my god.

Sorry, Chairman's good.

I'm sorry.

And I want to I said thank you for the work you do for the city.

Appreciate seeing you.

It's been a while.

Um, and this is a this is a great program.

Uh um, I guess one thing I uh um I'm trying to understand just for curiosity is you know how many veterans, you know, or disease, you know, soldiers, families they are in the city.

And and if you had to like do like some simple math, you know, what would that tax revenue be?

You know, amount to that would take some time for me to do to determine that.

Um, I am aware of the 90 plus or minus that do receive the exemption currently.

Um total tax dwellers for those 90 would be a number I could get at very easily.

Um obviously that's confidential, but I could I could certainly tell you what the tax ramifications would be for those folks that receive that exemption.

Um without naming them.

Yeah, no, uh uh, yeah.

No, this is again, you know, it's just good, you know.

We see the value we're doing and quantify it.

You see what I mean?

So I do.

Yeah, no, it's just helpful in a data point.

But no, thank you.

Thank you, Chairman Scott.

All right, sounds good.

Uh, looking for any other questions from members of the committee.

All right, seeing none, then I will make a motion to approve uh this item.

Looking for uh any discussion on the motion.

All right, seeing none, then we'll go ahead and lay that item on the table for approval with a single roll call vote at the conclusion of the meeting.

And then that brings us to the final item on our agenda, which is item 260145, uh, which is requesting acceptance of mass general chapter 59, section five, clause 22j to authorize an increase in the exemption amount granted under chapter 59, section five, clauses 2222 A, B, C, E, N F.

Uh, so any further expansion uh to elaboration to put on this one, uh Chair Golden.

For you, Chairman Scott, it's just um really just the formal procedure when you add a new exemption that you apply the up the double to that exemption.

Um, that's what the J is signifying here, and we're on board with the honorable council to approve that.

I'm personally on board with it too.

Looking to my colleagues for any questions or comments on this item.

I see a thumbs up.

That's a good one.

Uh all right.

Well, then I will make a motion to approve said item and look to my colleagues for any discussion on that motion to approve.

All right, seeing no discussion on that, then uh why don't we go ahead and take up all three items that have been laid on the table or all four items, my apologies, including the approval of the minutes that have been laid on the table uh for approval, and we can take those up for a single roll call vote, along with uh a vote to adjourn, which I will move for.

Uh Clerk Latelier, if you wouldn't mind.

And on approval of agenda items one, two, three, and four and adjournment.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Yes, please.

Counselor Young Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Streso.

Yes.

Counselor Scott.

Yes, please.

With four counselors in favor, those items are approved and we are adjourned.

All right.

And I just want to uh relay as I'm sorry, I didn't at the start.

Uh, Councilor Davis is traveling tonight uh and was unable to join us.

Um would have needed to be recused from the first item, uh, but otherwise uh sorry couldn't make it with us tonight uh due to work travel, but uh we'll see us all very soon.

Uh so thank you, uh Chair Golden.

Uh thank you to director and thank you to all city staff who are tonight.

We'll call it a night here at 6:31 p.m.

Uh, thank you, everybody, and I'll see you shortly.

Happy St.

Patrick, Chairman Scott.

Happy St.

Patrick's to you as well, sir.