Good evening, everyone.

I am Ben Wheeler, he, him pronouns, counselor at large, and finance committee chair.

It is 6.04 p.m.

And I'd like to call to order the Tuesday, March 24th, 2026 meeting of the Finance Committee of the Whole of the Summerville City Council.

Tonight's meeting is a committee of the whole with all 11 counselors participating.

Pursuant to chapter two of the Acts of 2025.

This is correct to read, right?

Thank you.

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

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

We are joined by Clerk Delaney Fisher Cassial.

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

This is roll call.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Here.

Councillor Link.

Here.

Councilor Mbaugh.

Counselor Klingon.

Present.

Councillor Strazo, present.

Counselor Said.

Here.

Counselor Davis.

Here.

Counselor Hart.

Here.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Here.

Counselor Scott.

President.

Chair Wheeler.

Here.

All right, with that, we do have quorum.

Thank you.

We will be taking up our 18 item agenda in the order posted.

We'll start with some items that were referred to the finance committee and then move on to the budget priorities meeting, which is why we have all 11 counselors present or will.

Since we have the full council as part of the finance committee this evening, any counselor may participate in our discussions and deliberations.

As a general note, if I pronounce your name wrong or get your title wrong or use the wrong pronouns for you, please do not hesitate to interrupt me.

I want to get it right.

Okay.

Item one.

Item one, ID 26-0375, approval of the March 10th, 2026 minutes.

Any discussion on this item?

Seeing none, that item is laid on the table to recommend approval in a single roll call vote later in the meeting.

Grant and gift acceptances.

Item two, ID 26 0325, a $15,000 transfer for veteran services grant match account.

Requesting approval to establish a grant match account with a $15,000 transfer from the Department of Veterans Services Grounds maintenance account to the Department of Veteran Services Special Items Account for the Massachusetts General Court and State Historical Records Advisory Board Grant Match Requirement.

I believe we have Director of Veteran Services Jerome Thomas and perhaps also Health and Human Services Finance Manager Anut Malik.

Director Thomas or Manager Malik, are you on the call?

Yes, I am.

Oh wonderful.

Could you please tell us about this request?

Yes, so this is a uh continuation.

So we made a request uh at the last finance meeting that was approved and granted for the uh Shrab grant um for the digitized digitization of our memorials and monuments throughout the city.

Um this piece of it here is is is the um the match piece that's just basically coming from our ground budget and just trying to have that deposited along with the uh grant that was already approved.

Thank you.

Um sorry, Manager Malik.

Anything to add to that?

Uh thanks.

And just to to reiterate what you said, Director Thomas, um, this is the uh the need to set up an account because the veterans uh department did not have an account for for this, or we would have already done this along with the the previous grant uh item.

Is that correct?

Um sorry, yes, that's correct.

Um discussion on this item, counselors.

Motion to approve.

Motion to approve.

Um, if there's no more discussion, uh this item is laid on the table to recommend approval in the single roll call vote later in the meeting.

Item three, ID 26-0202.

Requesting approval to appropriate $75,000 from the bike share stabilization fund for installation and startup costs of a blue bike station at the 16 to 20 Medford Street Development site.

I believe we have Director of Transportation and Infrastructure Brad Rossin, and or Director of Finance and Administration for OSPCD Alan Inassio.

Uh either director would you like to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair Wheeler.

Uh, through you, the chair.

This is another uh blue bike station that is being donated by uh a development team.

This is from the developers of the 1620 Medford site uh Medford Development Site uh right behind City Hall.

Uh this is a standard station along with uh this is a sponsorship donation, so it's a little bit slightly uh higher donation than the the standard single station um donation, but it also covers uh an additional amount for uh what is calculated to be the state of good repair throughout the lifetime of the station.

Thank you, Director Inacio.

And uh just to clarify for anybody watching at home, um Director Inacio, am I right on understanding?

$75,000 was donated to our stabilization fund, and now the city is spending $75,000 because it is the city who's contracted to actually purchase blue bikes.

And correct, yeah.

Thank you, correct.

Through you uh Chair Wheeler, the the funds were previously donated.

Um we are now in a position where we are ready to make the purchase.

The city owns the blue bikes contract, and we also own the equipment.

Um so therefore the purchases must run through the city.

Thank you, Director.

Any discussion or questions from the committee?

Okay, seeing no objection to that item, it is laid on the table to recommend approval in the single roll call vote later.

Thank you, Director.

Item four, ID 26 0163, a 400, sorry, requesting the appropriation of 430,965 from the unreserved fund balance, free cash to the special education reserve fund.

Uh I believe we have Director of Finance Edward Bean and or Somerville Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Robert Beretta.

Director Bean or Officer Beretta, could you please tell us about this appropriation?

My understanding is that the uh council and school committee have a uh voted the acceptance of a special education reserve fund.

This appropriation is actually school department uh special ed money, 430,965, because the Department of Revenue was late in distributing quota for fiscal 2024 special education circuit breaker funds to the cities.

It was actually uh received on July 2nd, 2024, which is fiscal year 2025.

So unfortunately, that money closed to unreserved fund balance or free cash.

So basically, this is the amount of money that should have gone to the school department had it been distributed timely by the Department of Revenue.

So this is an appropriation into this new special education reserve fund for the purpose of funding special education, not a district tuition or special ed transportation costs.

Yeah, it's just a building.

Thank you, Director.

Um, sorry, please, uh Officer Baretta.

Sorry, just to build on what Ed said there.

Um I think it also represents just a great partnership between you know the collaborative relationship that we have between the city and the schools.

You know, we were able to sort of identify these dollars as you know, uh having like uh like Ed said, having not been properly dispersed by the state.

And we were able to sort of repurpose them for this special ed stabilization fund, which was fantastic to have given the volatility and special ed costs that have you know been experienced around the state.

So we're thrilled, and um we think it's a real win for uh for the city and also for our students.

Thank you, Officer Baretta.

Uh just to ask a clarifying question.

So this was money that had been intended to be earmarked for special education, but the for these accounting reasons it effectively lost its earmark, and we're essentially restoring that earmark so this money will be specifically used for special education and not other purposes.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Thank you very much.

Any discussion on this item committee?

Counselor Link.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Through you um, just uh quick question.

Uh so is the idea as part of the idea now that if um if this were to happen again in the future, we would have this as kind of a buffer, or um is there other um are there other ideas about how we would use this money?

I think that you know the sort of general purpose of this is to address unexpected or unplanned costs.

So you know, we're we try to have a very you know careful and exacting approach to budgeting for our special ed costs for future years.

Um and you can experience you know volatility in that um beyond what we have you know been able to budget and plan for.

So for example, things like out of district tuitions if a student were to move into the district and require you know a private placement out of district, those costs can range upwards of 130,000, 140,000 per student.

Can be difficult to you know absorb those costs in an appropriated budget in one year.

Um we also have students who are you know newly identified throughout the course of the year and may require additional services, medical services, other services that we might have to contract out for.

Um, and sometimes you know those expenses can grow and get very costly.

So this stabilization fund would require um uh I believe a vote of the school committee uh in order to approve disbursement of funds to address that those volatile costs.

Uh Chair, this sounds like a great way of making a bad thing good.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions from committee members?

All right, seeing none, that item is laid on the table to recommend approval.

Thank you, Director and Officer.

Okay.

Uh the remaining items before we move on to the budget priorities section of the meeting are all community preservation act appropriations.

Unless there's any objection, uh, we'll take these five items up together.

I'm going to read them now.

Item five, ID 26-0300, requesting the appropriation of 100,766 from the Community Preservation Act Fund Historic Preservation Reserve to the Somerville Museum to conserve artifacts in its collection.

Item six, ID 26-0299, requesting the appropriation of $200,000 from the Community Preservation Act Fund Open Space Reserve to the Open Space Land Acquisition Fund.

Item 7, ID 26-0298, requesting the appropriation of $1,167,395 from the Community Preservation Act Fund Community Housing Reserve to the Affordable Housing Trust.

Item 8, ID 26-0297, requesting the appropriation of $399,255 from the Community Preservation Act undesignated fund balance to the CPA fund community housing reserve.

And item nine, ID 26-0323, requesting the appropriation of $50,000 from the Community Preservation Act budgeted reserve to the housing authority for improvements to the open space at the Mystic River and View Developments.

Thank you through the chair.

So we laid them out this way because there's a particular accounting order that they have to go into, but basically mid-year after the tax recap is done is when we kind of finalize all the tax receipts that came in for the prior fiscal year.

And so we have to true up since the CPC has a preset allocated percentage that goes to the housing trust.

Um those orders are to maintain the 55% pre-voted allocation that goes to the housing trust from the CPC.

And this year there's a particularly large um true up.

That's because we were not able to allocate the full uh CPA surcharge that was voted in and took effect July 1st.

We were because of Mass General Law, we were not able to uh appropriate that until the tax recap was complete.

So now those final numbers are in.

We've done our all our calculations and now we are seeking your approval to move these funds to the trust.

Thank you, Director.

Any questions or comments from the committee about these items?

Seeing none, these items are laid on the table to recommend approval in a roll call vote now.

Clerk, uh, could you please uh read the item IDs uh that we will be voting to recommend approval?

Items one through nine.

All right, on recommending approval of items one, two, three, four, and then five through nine together.

Mr.

Chair.

Could the clerk reflect that I'm recused from uh item four?

Uh thank you.

Um yes, let the record reflect that.

It says recused from item four.

Mr.

Chair, I'm also recruiting item four.

And so is Councillor Klingon.

Um Clerk, does it make sense to proceed with a single roll call vote without these two counselors voting, or would it make sense to do a single roll call vote and a separate one item for what you're saying?

Not trying to complicate things.

Okay.

Yeah, two separate votes, one vote on item four, and then a separate vote on all the other items together.

Got it.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

So on items one, two, three, and five through nine together, recommending approval.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Link.

Yes.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Yes.

Counselor Klingon?

Yes.

Counselor Strazo.

Oh.

Counselor Sae?

Yes.

Counselor Davis.

Yes.

Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Yes.

Counselor Scott?

Yes.

Chair Wheeler.

Yes.

All right.

With that, that is all but one present and in favor.

All right.

And now on item number four, recommending approval, um, noting that counselors Davis and Klingon are recused.

Counselor Ewan Campan.

Yes.

Counselor.

Whoa.

Okay, let's try that again.

Counselor Link?

Yes.

Counselor Mbaugh?

Yes.

Counselor Klingon?

Counselor Straso?

Counselor Said?

Yes.

Counselor Davis?

Counselor Hart?

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin?

Yes.

Counselor Scott?

Yes.

Chair Wheeler.

Yes.

All right, with that says all present members voting in favor.

Thank you, Clerk.

Okay.

We will take up items 10 through 18 together so as to facilitate our overall discussion of the council's budget priorities.

In this budget priorities meeting, it's not my intention as chair to generate new resolutions or to vote on these items.

Instead, I intend for us to focus on first hearing each counselor speak on their priorities and then discussing three more specific topics.

Proposed new or expanded spending items, areas to prioritize maintaining funding, and areas to possibly cut.

So the idea is for there to be four opportunities to go around.

One to speak on each counselor's priorities.

Then to specifically discuss newer expanded spending items, then to discuss items to prioritize maintaining funding, and finally areas to possibly cut.

Any questions about that plan, please, Counselor Strezzo?

Yes.

So and also we are facing a now five and a half million dollar shortfall.

So money is going to be a lot tighter than it has been in previous years.

And that's going to matter.

So I don't want to confuse residents that anything that there is a budget presented as of yet, because we may get emails saying, hey, can I take a look at the budget?

And I also have concerns with the fact that we have several counselors now on the council that have never been through a budget cycle before.

So I do have my concerns that we don't have a presented budget yet.

And we're discussing items that we want to shred or not when we don't even know what's being presented.

So I I and I also worry about staff time and how this affects and impacts staff time of what are essentially hypothetical thoughts and feelings on what we want to do with a budget without having an actual budget presented to us will do, and also to the fact, and I want to make this clear to constituents that it's the mayor's office that has the ability to add or subtract.

We can mean like they present the budget.

And I don't want to mislead any of our residents that we um that we can just create departments or whatnot.

So we have to be really clear on that.

That uh ultimately, of course, uh the budget cycle is a tussle, but we also have to be knowledgeable of what the city council's role actually is.

So make sure that's that's out there.

Counselor Klingon.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um through you.

Um I I hear the concerns of the my colleague at large.

Um I you know, I just want to thank you for getting this out early enough with regards to the um our uh priorities since the budget hasn't been released yet, it would hopefully signal to the administration where our heads are.

Um so I I think it's you know, it's a good exercise and and kind of uh in a good faith effort, hopefully the administration will hear where we're uh what we're what we're aiming towards.

As far as speaking on sort of deprioritizing, I'll use that as out of the word cut, like if you're saying certain areas that we're sort of looking that as a counselor I might be looking at deprioritize.

I probably won't be speaking on anything like that.

I I you know I I can't I I I would love to hope that we can have a fully funded budget uh as is and not have to make any uh uh cuts, but I do understand that there are budget issues and possible shortfalls.

So um, but I'm happy to I I uh I mean I'm easy anyway, I only put in one priority, it's the same one I put in last year.

Uh so I'm happy when we get to that to speak on that.

But overall, I think that um, you know, I I I think it's I'm okay with signaling to the administration what our priorities are as a body.

Thank you.

Okay.

Counselors, uh, I encourage you to be mindful of time.

And to that end, uh I will give a polite signal when two minutes of speaking have passed and then three and so on, um, just as a helpful reminder so that we can try to keep the total number of go-rounds uh from from getting too late tonight.

Also, I must recuse myself from any discussion of the overall funding for the racial and social justice department or for their teen program specifically, since my child participates in and is paid a stipend through that program.

So I'll ask that any discussion of either of those a items, uh, it would be helpful to me if discussion of those items could happen now, either maintaining funding, reducing or expanding funding for either of those.

Uh if there is any, I'll step down and invite Counselor Scott to chair the meeting until that discussion is over.

Vice Chair Scott, I should say.

Uh so counselors, does anyone wish to speak about the overall funding for the racial and social justice department or for their teen program.

Thank you.

If this area of funding does come up in anyone's remarks, that's okay.

I'll just at that point recuse myself from the discussion at that time and return once the discussion is over.

Um, let's begin.

So, counselors, I first invite you to make any remarks you'd like to make about your overall budget priorities.

As your budget memos are on file and publicly available, you may choose to have your document speak for itself.

Or you may discuss it and elaborate on it as you prefer.

Um we can proceed in any order.

Counselor Klingon?

Uh when you're done, I'll just go first.

Go for it.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Through you.

So as I said, I only put one uh priority, I was really to emphasize that.

I know my colleagues will have lots of other um great uh priorities uh that I'll be happy to to sign on to and support.

But for me, uh this kind of goes back a ways to um a s a street of my wards, Sickney Street, which was in really bad shape uh for a number of years.

And you know, we have a paving program.

Uh I like to say this on record too for the folks that we have a paving program which is essentially a scoring program for each street in the city.

Um, and that we came to that uh in the name of fairness because you know, way back in the olden days, uh maybe an alderman they were called then could get a street paved of somebody they were trying to get their support or something.

Whatever whatever the case may be, um other administrations in the future came to the real to the uh conclusion that we should do this paving program, which essentially scores each street based on its condition, but also it's sort of uh how frequent vehicles travel down it's sort of like how prominent it is if it's a main road, obviously main roads are gonna be prioritized over some little side street that a lot of people don't go down, and then you get a score.

Um so in those conversations I've had through the years, I've been told that um we budget uh uh the amount of money we budget covers roughly like one percent of the roads each year get done.

So it's on a cycle, so um, and I think we have a certain number of miles of road, and and so one percent of that is essentially what ends up getting paved.

It may have increased a little bit since we started doing the pave down the middle technique, which was instead of going curb to curb, uh, we were able to stretch out our budget on the asphalt that we were using.

Um, my so that's all to say simply I've asked that we increase the budget to where we could pave two percent of the streets um this budget cycle, and hopefully moving forward.

Um, I think that you know that's a huge quality of life issue that I think goes overlooked.

People um, you know, it can mess up people's cars, uh, to where that cost them repairs.

So not only are they paying excise tax already, but now they're upset because they've gotten a flat tire or or or else or you know, their their um shocks or whatever have gone.

So uh that is it for me.

Um increase the the spending to where we are able to repave two percent of the streets, roughly two percent of all roads in Somerville per construction season.

Thank you.

Councillor Ewan Campen.

Uh thank you.

I want to talk about the racial and social justice department and specifically the teen program.

Um just kidding.

Uh record show that was a joke.

That's a joke.

Um I I feel like for the last couple years when we've had this meeting, I've had the same preamble, which is this is looking like a very tough year, and for the last several years, it's specifically because the president of the United States is flying the economy into the side of a mountain and uh attacking states and cities that disagree with him politically, and it is just beyond the pale, disgusting.

Um, and it's blowing a hole in budgets across the country, including ours, and it's horrifying.

Um it doesn't need to be this way.

It's it's a choice um being made by the president of the United States.

Um so with that said, uh, another thing that I'm bringing to this year's discussion is we have a new administration that was just elected by Somerville.

This is their first budget.

Um I remember the first budget of the Ballantine administration.

It's kind of it's a way for administration to make a statement about what their values are gonna be.

Um so I I'm not approaching this year as in any kind of I want to see this, this, this, this, this, this, this, or else.

That that is, I mean, that's not my approach any year, and specifically not this.

I think you know, a new administration deserves latitude to propose the budget that they want to see.

Um, but that said, you know, the priorities that I have are the same, honestly, that I have every year, um, with some level of specificity in my memo, but it really has to do with I think of this kind of economic situation as like protecting the core of our society, right?

So this is things like funding for housing stability, making sure that the streets are safe so the kids can get to school, people can get to the grocery store.

Um a priority of the council for a long time has been increasing funding for out-of-school time capacity.

This is just a basic, you know, need that families have in our city, made a lot of progress, and there's still obviously work to be done.

Um specifically making sure that we have support for all of the immigrants' rights programs um that the city works on.

Those are extremely high priorities.

And then as award counselor, the Gilman Square activation.

This is something Councillor Klingon and I and all of our colleagues talk about all the time.

We have this beautiful city-owned um lot that is sitting vacant for many years.

It's a huge opportunity, and I would love for us to finally uh take a bite.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh I believe Councillor McLaughlin has his hand raised.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I apologize for not being there, but I have parenting duties today, and my son's distracted, so I figured I'd jump the line.

Um just a few requests.

Every year, probably for about six years now.

I've been requesting an air filtration pilot program uh to supply houses close to I-93 and McGrath Highway with air filtration systems that would have been proven to help people's respiratory conditions along these areas that have fine particle air pollution.

I'm making that request again.

I believe the city has a pilot in in mind that has just not been acted upon.

I'm hoping that happens.

I'm asking for an additional 100,000 in immigration legal aid, as I understand uh the legal aid we're providing is uh always meeting its cap.

And there's just always more of a need for that, especially now more than ever.

I would like to see an increase in immigration aid.

I'd like to see the East Summerable Library get prioritized.

I understand there's some plans for libraries uh in the future, potentially even a new library, or repairing the central library.

The East Summer Library is one of our only community spaces, and it's very small.

Uh there's an opportunity to build something bigger there to contribute more money there.

I think that'd be great.

I'd like to see the Kensington Connector finally be completed.

Uh, I'm not even sure if this needs money at this point, but it's just something I've been harping on for several years, and I'd like to see that complete this year.

And then finally, uh fully acknowledged I'm taking other people's idea on this.

Um, but in the past, we've talked about municipal uh snow shoveling for sidewalks.

And in my studies on social housing, I've devised in my mind an idea of social snow shoveling.

And what I'd like the city to explore is purchasing one snowplow device on one of these big plows that can hit a sidewalk specifically.

Get one of those with one staff person, finance it, uh, make it free or low cost for seniors and people with disabilities, and have the rest of the community invest money into it.

They can purchase this service from the city.

It's just an idea I have that I wanted to put out there.

I've talked to a few people about it.

I think it's a way that we can do uh citywide or at least a large amount of city sidewalk shoveling without breaking the bank and making sure that the people who need it most are prioritized.

That's all I have.

I I will add that I do not plan on uh making reference to any cuts or things that I'd like to see uh reduced in the city.

I found in the past that even making these cuts are controversial, so I don't want to scare departments and uh get people worried and um make them think I'm gonna make a cut that I may not make in the future.

I have my priorities, and I think that that speaks enough, and I'm hoping the city recognizes those priorities.

Thank you.

Councilor Imbar, Councillor Link, and then Councillor Said.

Thank you, Chair.

Um I just want to, you know, thank you for organizing this meeting and for the opportunity to discuss this.

It just seems to me like every year, like most of everybody's budget, I read them is very rich, very thorough.

It's like, and so sometimes I see like things that I had submitted multiple years.

And so like you just keep changing.

But at the same time, when I was reflecting about like the fact that we have like we uh this budget is defined with like revenue constraints, and you know, I just thought, you know, uh we should actually have a strategic prior prioritization, you know, to make sure that we protect the most sensational needs of our residents while maintaining long-term stability of the city.

So one of the things at the very high level that I mentioned was also like the immigrant services, because that's like the main target of you know, attention.

So, like Councillor McLaughlin mentioned, like more funding for legal services, you know, housing, social support services to protect the rights and well-being of our immigrant communities, ensuring programs are fully resourced and accessible.

That is like the core, you know, a piece that I think, even though uh that should not be like a level funded, you know, like department, that is where we should, if we need to make headwinds, you know, invest resources.

That is for me, that's like where we should do it.

And then for core services, of course, we must make make sure that we preserve the quality and reliability of essential services, you know, including schools, public safety, public health and infrastructure, true careful assessment and allocational resources.

That should actually continue.

And then one of the things also that I highlighted was the prioritization of you know, and financing decision for the winter here.

You know, like you and I were all yes yesterday at Portugal.

So it's really that reconstruction and other critical school infrastructure, you know, re like recognizing that this are urgent and non-you know, deferable investment.

We cannot continue to defer those.

So that is for me ski.

And then, of course, like the good counselor from what tri mentioned housing stability.

That is also big, you know, over development subsidy.

I think we should kind of like shift maybe uh the focus of like the resources should be directed towards like assistance, direct assistance, you know, for renters and homeowners facing displacement rather than kind of like concentrating limited funds this year, you know, uh on high cost affordable housing development subsidies.

That's like, you know, we can look at it either way, but it's like you want to make sure that it has like direct impact, you know, as we are trying to, you know, like uh have uh uh as we are trying to navigate like this resource constrained environment.

But and just to conclude by saying that like you mentioned this year requires that we make it thoughtful and sometimes difficult choices, you know.

So making sure again that we prioritize extension services, protecting vulnerable residents, and aligning our investment with long-term sustainability so we can navigate this period of constraint while continuing to uphold our commitment to equity, fiscal responsibility, and community well-being.

That's uh, you know, I think that's our wrap it up there.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Counselor Link.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, so I want to begin by acknowledging the linear we have ahead of us.

5.9 million was the last uh I heard for the shortfall.

Um there's so much I would like us to do, but uh I know that we need to ensure that we are able to provide these core essential services to our our residents that I've I've heard many of our uh my colleagues here talk about.

Uh so everything I'm bringing uh to this conversation comes directly uh from residents here, uh either the at the doors, at events, public hearings, conversations on the street.

Um, and you know, I think people have showed up and told not just me, but all of us what they need.

Um, and uh, you know, I take that very seriously.

Um so what I've heard consistently is you know, we're in a housing crisis, um, and people are scared about if they can stay in their homes.

Um, so they want stronger eviction protection, tenant support, uh investment in permanent affordable housing uh before we lose more of it.

Uh people want their kids in well-funded schools, uh, and parents to feel supported.

Uh they want robust special education services, safe routes to get there to the schools.

Uh, and uh, you know, they want to be able to walk and bike around the city without feeling like they're risking their lives or breaking a hip on uh cracked sidewalks and dangerous intersections.

Um so they also want their immigrant neighbors um to be protected and to make sure language access is real and that uh you know when the city says that everyone belongs here, we're showing it and by our actions.

Uh you know, we also want to keep our climate commitments, even as federal supportive operates, um, by you know, investing in building decarbonization and pursuing every state grant, because we know there's no federal ones left, um, that we can get our hands on.

Uh and finally, you know, we want to make sure that arts and culture are still funded.

Um, because Somerville, the idea uh I've heard before you know that Somerville is a bedroom community, and it's never felt right to me.

Um, there are cheaper towns to sleep in.

Uh people are here because of a passion um and and creativity that this community brings.

So these are the priorities that I think make um Somerville uh a place that people want to stay in and fight to stay here.

Uh and I think that we can honor them even in a constrained budget.

Um, but it's gonna require being very intentional uh about where we put our dollars.

Um, and I look forward to getting into more of the specifics with that um as we continue the conversation.

Thank you.

Counselor Said.

Um Thank you through the chair.

Um, given the tough financial situation, we find ourselves again this year.

Similar to last year, I tried to focus on the core issues and on the issues I'm working on in my word uh word five.

Uh briefly list my budget priorities.

Uh continued funding for the Office of Immigrant Affairs, funding for to support staff and expand the important services, translation and interpretation services, legal services, and know your rights campaigns, continued funding for flexible rental assistance and legal assistance, citywide food waste collection and food waste collection in schools, funding to establish an alternative emergency response program to respond to non-criminal calls, funding for community path improvements, such as improved signage, continued funding for safe streets, funding to launch the having the app community process, expand the safety stick program and expand the list of the intersection reconstruction projects, continued funding for food security programs, continued funding for public education.

Urge the mayor to work with the school committee to secure funds for all the school programs and expand the out-of-school programming.

Funding to conduct a study of some of his school building decarbonization.

A study that will create a 10-year comprehensive plan for decarbonization of building systems, an improvement of building envelope performance.

Funding to develop a swing swing space plan for some of the public schools.

Funding for staffing and programming to activate the high school as a youth center, plus a space for family engagement outside of school hours.

And uh finally funding to repair the armory roof.

As the owner of the armory building, the city must repair the leaking roof.

It's budget.

Thank you.

Counselor Davis and then Councillor Hart.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um and through to my colleagues, thank you for all of your very thoughtful um you know budget memos.

I think this process is it's really valuable to um I mean I I know that it's valuable to the administration, right?

The uh credit to the Ballantine administration for first asking us to provide these um prior to to submitting a budget.

Um credit to the Wilson administration for also sitting down and meeting with um just about all of us so far.

I think there's a uh I told there's a few left that they're they're looking to schedule, but um I think those conversations are are you know equally as important.

Um I know at least mine was, and so you know we we had a we discussed a lot of these issues.

Um and also they're valuable for us going, oh gosh, I forgot to put that one on there because there's some great things that I read when I was writing through here that read it through, and I'm sure others probably had the same, maybe not, um, had the same the feeling like, oh yeah, that that's definitely a priority too.

So as I've said every year, um, and I you know it was a year or two ago when when um the our our you know the folks that that actually are uh in the in the weeds in the mud of putting the the budget together um acknowledge like look they read all of these right and they they recognize that all of these priorities are important um and and and that's why I I thank you, Mr.

Chair, for continuing this sort of format of an opportunity to discuss them all um without maybe you know trying to prioritize you know which are the most whichever the the the folks in the administration are reading these um and they've heard from us directly.

So I say that sort of as a way to color um you know all of my the priorities that are in here for those who follow along there uh they will look familiar, most of them.

Um but I wanted to flag a couple key you know nuances and changes I you know um given what we've discussed uh what you know what other members have have have noted, we are it's a very tough year this year.

Um and so um you'll see the word retain uh in my priorities, and that's intentional.

Um there are some places where I kept increases, some places where I kept retain.

I probably got it wrong a few times, just probably as I said, a few others I I should have remembered to put in here to either recrease uh increase or or retain as well.

Um but uh you know I I I put I present all of this sort of in in that in that context.

Um like some of my colleagues, I also won't um I I'm not inclined to speak to where I think cuts should happen right now.

Um I'm excited to see the new administration's budget as as you noted, it it reflects priorities.

Um and if we want to have a conversation about reallocation of funds, that we certainly can do that uh in June.

That's the time and place for that.

Um not that it's uh you know, I I wouldn't begrudge anyone the opportunity to uh to suggest cuts here if they if they so choose, but um that's not where I'm uh going.

But I do want to flag a couple things, just uh uh as I say every year, I most of the ward counselors, or probably I think all are uh you know, are going to have ward-specific priorities, right?

And that's why I think doing it this way is important because I wouldn't expect uh 10 of you to sign on to my specific Davis Square ones.

I hope some of you might be, you know, would if we were doing that, but um the Davis Square neighborhood plan is an absolute priority um and and that needs to happen.

You know, otherwise uh two other things.

Some of my colleagues have talked about um affordable housing.

Um I I changed my priority a few years ago to supportive housing because I think that's a little sort of lower hanging fruit.

I think that's I I really would like to see that continue.

Um but also I added something this year um to or I can't remember if I added it, but I I I flagged it this year because increasing funding to support our community partners might be a way that we can maintain services without the the you know where they have scale and we don't, building out a new department, building out a new this capacity.

Maybe this isn't the year for that, but if we have a few extra dollars that we can um you know push to our community partners to to to still fulfill those priorities for our community members, I think that might be um might might be a way to kind of get through these tough times.

So um I'll stop there.

Um they're all important.

I know that the budget folks will read them all as they will with all of yours too, and and uh you know I I co-sign on everything I've heard so far, um, which is why I love listening to all y'all.

So thank you.

Counselor Hurt.

Thank you, Chair Wheeler.

Um, and thank you, colleagues.

I agree um with what counselor Davis just said.

It's uh it's really great to hear everyone's priorities, and I you know have have similar um priorities, and I would direct everyone to my um submitted budget memo for uh more lengthy explanation.

Um, but I did just want to highlight a couple of key things tonight.

Um, and first, um as some of my other colleagues mentioned, providing core resident services and infrastructure is the central core mission of the city, and of course we should remain committed to that.

I also want to appreciate uh leadership and staff that have gotten Somerville to the triple A bond rating for the past four years, um, and I'd love us to maintain that.

Um but we uh we know that the um tightening financial situation that we're in is due to these larger contexts at the federal level and the economy where um these things are also impacting residents on a personal level.

Um and so I think that there's uh a few things that we need to um pay particular attention to or focus in priority areas um to help help us all get through this as a as a united Somerville.

Um so one is the um, as many people have already mentioned housing support and investing in the Office of Housing Stability, including things like rec flexible rental assistance, the municipal voucher program, and the older adult bridge program.

Um it's far more effective to spend dollars to keep people in their homes than it is to address um you know needs once people have been have lost their housing.

Um so I think that that is a smart way to spend our money.

Um I I also agree with uh echo that we need to invest um in collaborations to build more deeply affordable housing for the long term, um directing resources to the early action acquisition fund, if we're able to.

Um second, we know that the attack on immigrants is having devastating consequences for so many people, including here in Somerville, and that the Somerville Office of Immigrant Affairs is doing excellent work.

Um but the need is far outpacing um the capability at this point because um I was I've been told that the off the demand for interpretation and translation has um quadrupled over the past couple of years, and now the at the federal level they are dismantling language access programs.

Um so it makes it all the more important that we as a city are committed to language access and interpretation and translation.

Um right now, through a partnership with Greater Boston Legal Services, um the city is providing access to legal counsel for some immigrants.

Um but again the the need for that is far greater than the capacity.

Um so if we are able to find additional money, I uh for an additional 100,000 dollars, um, Greater Boston Legal Services could hire a paralegal dedicated to Somerville, that would greatly increase the capacity and the number of cases that um they are able to take on.

And as we've all seen the stories in the news, uh having access to legal counsel for an immigrant who's facing um you know deportation or who's been uh illegally detained, you know, is really uh makes a dramatic difference in a family.

So um I would support that.

Um third, Somerville's children, youth, and families obviously should be a top priority um in the budget.

Um that includes our schools, programming for young children, after school, summer programming, vocational technical training, and also school-based food access programs.

Um so last year we saw the federal government abandon its responsibility to food security benefits for families and children.

Um and Somerville stepped up with um $300,000 from community benefit funds, um, and that allowed some key programs to continue.

Um, but I would propose, given you know that we're still facing these um situations that are putting families at risk um for food access, that we continue these programs um with partners like Food for Free, where um with just over a hundred thousand dollars, we can continue the school-based markets and carrot cards um, allowing families access to um choosing their own food and access to healthy, fresh food.

I do have some other Ward 7 specific items.

We have the part of the city that's farthest away from the T.

And we also have a lot of seniors who live at that far western edge.

And throughout the city, I think the senior taxi program is a really important program.

So I wanted to highlight that.

Thank you.

Councilor Straza.

Do you want to uh pardon me?

Uh Mr.

Chair to uh Councillor Scott, do you want to do rock paper scissors?

Come on.

Oh, he gave it to me.

All right.

Well, I guess I'll go next.

Um, thank you.

And then I think that's almost all of us.

Yeah.

Um I love the ideas.

And quite frankly, I think we have to be really grateful for the moment that we're pretty much on the same page.

We're not really trying to convince anyone that affordable affordability is important or that food security is important.

And that's a moment of gratitude.

So I am very I really want to acknowledge that.

Um, similar to that, I did want to talk.

I'll I'll keep it uh simple with the teen spaces and whatnot, but do want to put a plug-in for founders rink to be open funded and ready to go, including the teen um the girls uh intramural hockey um program for that to be implemented and funded.

Uh so I have a section on uh teens and kids and out-of-school time and for our youngest constituents as well, spaces so their parents can take them places as well within the city.

When we talk about community spaces, um, something as simple as patio furniture in city hall concourse, so we can really have a chance to connect with each other and sit and possibly have lunch.

That um just give me a few minutes and then I'll finish up.

Uh so to support our uh some requests that we're supporting our small businesses, and that uh our crossing guards have weather sturdy clothing and expanded budget for that.

So these are recommendations from our constituents that we are funding to implement the recommendations of the Massachusetts Anti-Semitism Commission recommendations that we find ways uh and funding to initiate implicit buy and trade pious trainings.

And this is a uh new idea that I'd really like to emphasize here in City Hall, and that would be for two work pods that are quiet and closed here in Somerville while we're all twiddling our thumbs and waiting for the 1895 building next door to be open, which isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Um, that we can have quiet work pods uh that that city hall employees can have a second to talk with constituents in privacy because we've all seen the shuffling for space in here.

Uh absolute sustaining Office of Housing Stability Support, uh going into the details of municipal flex funding, legal services, and community partners, and a uh a resubmission of uh introducing low-income and or first generational path to home ownership that is specifically tailored to Somerville with the implementation of funding within five years.

That's a resubmit.

And we are making progress with our Somerville Office of Immigrant Affairs, and so I am asking for sustaining that uh increasing if possible to fit the needs.

I also um am resubmitting the senior uh advocate liaison position within the executive branch, opening up a position, and if it has to start at part-time as a pilot, so be it.

But this would not be within the council of aging.

This would be a separate entity that was helping and supporting and advocating for our our seniors, senior population.

That's huge.

And it's a personal request that uh constituents have brought forward that they want $300 for t-shirts for the council and aging board.

Okay, that's a small request, so please they really want that.

They do not want name tags, they want t-shirts.

Um that menstrual products are to be supplied and free to the public in all city-owned buildings, including in City Hall, or perhaps even one menstrual product dispenser in any of the bathrooms inside City Hall.

Uh that we continue the fight against uh rats, that we are winning the war on rats, and that we continue our efforts to support that and we do not lose any efforts on that.

And then, of course, uh resubmission of the neighborways program for street mural traffic calming measures.

Just that.

Um Councillor Scott.

Vice Chair Scott.

Uh councillor, just fine, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh I really appreciate your focus this year on uh collecting communities' priorities and attempting to provide some actionable guidance to the mayor as he evaluates the various uh program improvement requests, the places where department heads want to expand their programs and is gonna have to make some difficult choices.

Uh as I read through the memos provided by counselors this year, I'm struck uh as my colleague at large just said with how much we have in common and how absent quibbles regarding implementation or details.

There is broad agreement on what we need more of, and frankly, what we don't.

Uh uh I want to thank my colleague from Ward 4 for his characteristic brevity.

Uh I remember you want to ask a few years ago being Jesse's Van and uh let's get some damn streets paved is another very concise request.

But of the other eight memos that were longer, I noted that all eight of them actually called for continued investment in housing, with seven explicitly supporting specific Office of Housing Stability Programs.

Add me to the list, sir.

Uh I noted at least six counselors emphasizing safe streets and maintenance of the public way.

Add me to that list.

Uh noted at least six memos explicitly supporting the Summer Office of Immigrant Affairs and support for our immigrant neighbors.

100% add me to that list.

Uh that was a big swing that got taken in prior administrations, and uh I feel like we are better positioned as a community for the investments that were made there, and there's there's room for improvement.

Uh I noted at least four memos explicitly supporting the expansion of out-of-school time options and several more that while they didn't say OST, uh, we're talking about more creation of free spaces for community engagement, like Teen Center, multi-generational community center, fund founder's ring using summer of a high school after hours.

Add me to the list.

Uh and finally, I do want to highlight and thank the three calls uh for an explicitly uh non-police department oriented alternative emergency response, not co-response, not kinder and gentler cops with better training, but actually non-police-based uh alternative emergency response, and I'd say add me to that list as well.

You know, as I I get into my personal asks, I went back and read my memos and speeches uh from this for the last several years, and I could just say ditto.

But uh I will highlight a few things over and over again, though, as we go through these memos, uh the more most granular requests uh besides the you know, Ward 3 wants Highland Ave done.

I want some things done in Union Square, uh Counselor Davis wants some things done in Davis Square.

Uh the thing they all have common is about uh showing up for our neighbors.

Uh basic delivery of services to city residents, the day-to-day business of operating the city.

Uh some of the shortfalls that we've seen in these areas over time could be called uh management issues more than funding issues.

I've many of you are tired of hearing me talk every year about city departments that seem unable to spend the money that they've been allotted and falling short of their performance goals years after year.

Uh I'm hopeful the mayor will take those past trends into account because directing funds for a purpose does no one any good if that money sits unused at the end of the year.

Um for myself, uh, in addition to all the things I've asked for for the last eight years now that continue to not be delivered, uh I will call and join my colleagues in the priorities that I went through before.

I also want to call out one priority that continues to frustrate residents citywide, and that is the vacant properties ordinance.

Uh we passed this law back in 2019.

It has never, not once, been enforced.

There is no capacity to enforce it.

There is no plan to create capacity to enforce it that I've ever seen.

Uh it doesn't take an advanced policy walk to look at the many vacant storefronts and say, why the heck doesn't that get filled?

Why the heck doesn't somebody do something about that?

Well, this council did back in 2019.

But without the executive directing that that law be enforced and creating a mechanism to enforcement, the law is pointless.

And uh, Mr.

Chair, I will say respectfully, that needs to change this year.

Uh I have more detailed notes for the next sections that we have getting into, but I appreciate the uh the opportunity to present that kind of high-level view of how I uh really appreciate everybody's thoughts and alignment this year.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you all.

Um I have prepared remarks as well.

I'm going to deliver them in these next upcoming sections.

Um first moving on specifically to talking about new and expanded areas of funding.

That's something that a number of you, perhaps most of you uh touched on in your remarks so far.

Would anyone like to add remarks about new areas of funding, new programs or expanded uh funding for existing programs.

And Counselor Scott.

All right.

Well, I was gonna wait for everybody to go around the horseshoe, but I think everybody already made their pitches, so I will take advantage of my extra two minutes, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, but I'll be brief.

I know there's not much money to expand services.

I do want to call out one uh program in particular, which my good colleague from Ward 7 mentioned uh in her opening, which is the immigrant services legal fund.

We've talked about this before.

Uh it directly hires lawyers through Greater Boston Legal Services to provide these rapid response, habeas petition uh filing and support for abducted neighbors.

We keep them in Massachusetts, we get them out of incarceration, we get them back home and it works.

Um but that program is absolutely a capacity.

Uh an extra hundred grand, like uh like she said, goes a long way.

Make sure GBLS can hire the resources, make sure the resources are available, because that is time is critical, and getting that kind of resources to folks in that moment of crisis uh when they've been abducted from the city.

Um it's just absolutely vital.

So I appreciate that, and I just wanted to highlight it again, lift it up.

Uh beyond that, I I mentioned earlier the uh vacant properties ordinance, but I also uh want to um highlight another priority that this council has supported for many years and even passed legislation to support, which is the rental registry program.

For those who aren't aware, the rental registry would require landlords of all the tenant and all the rental units in the city uh to register those units with the city.

And there have been various spins on this.

Uh previous administrations have supported it from an environmental standpoint or a public health standpoint.

Um it's also a really important part of a problem that has vexed this council since before I got on it, uh, which is engagement and notification.

Uh when public notifications, you know, we have a city that's two-thirds renter occupied.

In my district, it's 80 plus percent.

Uh and notifications about anything that happens in the city.

Public notice always goes to property owners.

And that's the only people we know.

Uh whereas having a rental registry would allow us uh to send those notices to folks who actually live here instead of just the property owners and landlords.

The that the way we're doing it is exclusionary to public participation, it's a barrier to engagement.

Uh uh as I try to clean up my aphorisms, I'll say uh it's uh it it has created a fundamental lack of uh situational awareness and recon of how to get in touch with our constituents.

Uh we need to be able to communicate with our constituents uh uh as a city.

So uh I am desperately hopeful that uh additional funding to ISD or whatever department is going to administer those two programs, the vacant property ordinance and the uh rental registry uh gets delivered.

You know, it we we already have these answers.

We have policy outcomes desired, we have solid policy work developed and research on how to make them happen.

We already have the answers here.

We just have to make them happen.

So, and it doesn't cost that much.

So uh finally, I also, as I do every year, say that the Arts Council, the libraries, and the Council on Aging are very small budgets.

They're very tiny in terms of the overall cost of the city, but they are enormous in terms of the delivery of services, the value they provide to residents, direct service delivery to residents in the city, and also in terms of economic value that they bring in.

Uh economic activation, economic development.

Um I understand that the Arts Council is in a great deal of flux at the moment.

We all eagerly await the administration's plan for reorganization and reinvestment, but um it is not a stretch, I think, to say that this is a penny pinching moment, and putting a few more dimes in those directions uh can have a real outsized impact.

So that's that's where I urge the administration to consider expanding funding.

Thank you, sir.

Counselor Hart.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Counselor Scott.

Uh through you to to my colleague.

Um I also just wanted to piggyback on um being able to enforce ordinances and the short-term rental ordinance um is something that I know m many people are concerned about.

I did talk to Mayor Wilson about it, and I know that there is movement towards being able to enforce that more robustly.

Um, but just wanted to call that out as something that I'm I think we really need to do, and um it it will have a a good impact on the city.

Thank you.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Also just to first shout out to my what counselor for you know all the your budget, you know, uh priorities.

Uh I could not agree on more like you went like right into the weeds of like what we need to get done.

And Councillor Scott, like the rental registry, like sometimes we propose these ideas and then they start it off, and then you don't even you don't have the capacity to follow this thing.

This was like something that I proposed that many years ago, they even send a press release, you know, on the city that they are starting this program.

Give me a shout out in the press release, and then all of a sudden I can't even keep track of this in stuff that you know.

So this is very important just to even hear that.

This is like for me, this is like a huge reminder that we can, you know, how do we once we propose you know the policy ideas, we need to find a way to track them and see the development and if they are you know like gaps, we should be able to know what those gaps are and how we can you know step in and help you know move those things forward.

So thank you.

Counselor Said.

Uh through you, Chair.

I mentioned this in my budget priorities, but I want to say it again.

Um every year I have mentioned added this to my budget of priorities.

The funding to activate the high school um as a youth center and a space for families to gather.

I just like when I say that more than ever.

This is our community needs this.

Um I know this because I was in the classroom and it was working with families for years here in the community.

And in these times, um our immigrant neighbors would like to have a space where they can gather, gather with other people and feel that sense of belonging.

Just two weeks ago, our mayor talked about the importance of uh coming up with activities that we can do and get to know our neighbors, and we already have a space where we can do this all year long.

Um in a few months, it's gonna be very hard.

It's gonna be hard to be outside.

So this is again a great opportunity, and I know we all know like the mayor has um had this as a budget priority in previous years when he was a counselor, so I urge this administration to really find a way to do this.

Um counselor um uh Davis just said if like if there's no funding to create new programs, then let's use our community partners and let's offer this space to do this.

Um again putting this out there and uh also why these right now is a great time to do this.

Uh we a lot of our non-English speaking families uh need this.

Um I just can't like their children, you know, are right now um have to be the ones you know doing the interpretation, the translation.

Uh there's like a lot of fear to just reach out, like even to the city.

Um so again, I urge this administration to take advantage of this space that we have.

And if we cannot find the funding to hire staff to start a whole program, then let's try and partner with um with people who are doing this work, who know how to work with children with not includ with families um uh they don't speak um English is not the first language necessarily.

Uh so that's yeah, I'm I know I'm repeating myself, but this is this one is really important to me and really hope this will be considered by um the administration.

Uh Vice Chair Scott, if you would take the podium so I can make comments.

Happy to be extra formal about it.

Uh I see the stopwatch up here.

I will crack the whip very firmly, Chair.

Please do.

Uh through the chair.

Um thank you so much to my colleagues.

It's it's a wonderful thing to hear uh so many priorities I know are crucial for the community named.

And the ones that I have are going to be largely echoes of things my colleagues have said, which is a good thing.

Uh so yes, this is a tight budget year.

Uh there are a few targeted investments that I think uh, as several colleagues have said, uh, give us a lot of paying for the buck.

They're they're high impact.

Uh echoing counselor Hart, uh the programs that the Office of Housing Stability uses to help bridge short-term needs have an enormous payoff.

They avoid a much larger uh cost and and pain and disruption for people by providing a small amount of funds to help bridge short-term needs.

Uh so there's the uh the flex program uh with the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the Municipal Voucher Program.

If we took the funding, which so far has been provisional and we made that an established essentially permanent recurring budget item, that would really help uh ensure more security in housing for our residents.

Uh permanent supportive housing was also mentioned.

Uh and that's an area where even a small amount of new permanent supportive housing can make a huge impact on people's lives being able to move from the street to uh a stable environment where uh where services can help establish security in people's lives.

We have a deep well of expertise in the city and our nonprofit community as well as our city staff, and we should use that.

Expanding after school and preschool access uh, especially in areas where there are inequities between different parts of the city or different communities, uh has a big payoff.

Small staffing investments could allow schools to stay open later, students to use facilities like gyms, and really have an outside benefits for families.

Uh I also want us to be taking the opportunity, even if funding is tight, to be using this opportunity using this year to explore some of the alternative approaches to public safety.

And uh if we can be doing research, making progress on deciding on models, that's something that can put us in a good position to make investments.

Uh it also another aspect of public safety related to that is smart traffic lights, which are something that we have been exploring and and been using and can continue to use more.

Those help pedestrians and cyclists get across uh intersections more quickly, more safely, and also help drivers alike.

Uh and finally, some targeted staffing additions I think would feel real gaps.

Uh my colleague, Councilor Strezzo mentioned a senior liaison to advocate for older residents' interests and needs, uh, and a homeless services coordinator to centralize our response to homelessness.

Finally, immigration legal representation funding would make a colossal difference.

That's something again and again when we speak to people in the immigrant community in in communities that have been fighting the disruption from the federal government, uh, they say that really, really makes a difference.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh three minutes 45 seconds, although I gotta tell you, you had me on the first finally, and then you snuck in another finally.

So I great strategy.

I can't I can't wait to use that one.

I learned from the best.

Uh thank you, counselors.

Uh next, I invite any counselors to discuss areas to make sure we sustain our existing funding.

Again, I know this is something that has already been present in a lot of your remarks, but if there are any any areas that haven't been remarked upon uh to make sure do not avoid cuts in this tight budget environment.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Uh I just I'll take this opportunity to say what a few colleagues have said, which it's really, really striking what a clear message the voters of Somerville sent by electing these people to to kind of emphasize these priorities.

I think if you fed our priority memos into like a word cloud, that would be the things that need to be sustained and expanded as much as possible.

I I think they're they're really on point and in harmony with one another.

Thank you, counselors.

Finally, we will discuss possible areas to deprioritize.

I know that's something that is a more delicate subject.

I'm curious if anyone has any comments to share.

Counselor Link.

I'll take a crack at it, but I'm actually not going to suggest we cut anything.

Um what I do hope we take uh a really close look at is um where we're uh you know doing contracts, uh where we're doing consultants uh and see where we can cut back there um before we cut back on services for our our residents uh and where we can give people in our in our city and in our neighborhood uh you know good paying jobs.

Vice Chair Scott.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Well, y'all know I'm not shy about proposing cuts.

Uh but that said, uh I get it, right?

Well this is gonna be a tight year.

Uh and as somebody who has been through times in my life where I didn't have two nickels to rub together to try to make a dime, uh I get it.

Uh but I also know that as somebody who is uh owned and operated my own business and had to take care of my co-workers and make sure that everybody uh gets paid and the lights stay on.

Sometimes you do have to make important and difficult choices about where to prioritize where the money goes.

Uh and so I'm not I'm not shy about that.

But I will say that uh as uh as my colleague pointed out, the word cloud had some pretty notable absences in it.

And I think that you don't have to necessarily call them out to see where those gaps are.

It's like looking at the negative space in a painting.

Uh but I will also say that uh I want to lift up what my colleague at large just said, which is I have been talking about the waste uh and cost that outsourcing so many of our city purposes has had just inflicted on us.

Uh aside from the atrophy of capability in departments like DPW, like water, like sewer, we know that the way we're running those departments and run them for a decade is costing the city four times as much in those contractor costs.

We could make changes that actually increase the efficiency of the dollars that we spend in this city.

We can save those dimes when we need them right now to devote to some of these priorities uh simply by doing the right thing.

And it's not a mystery.

I also want to call out something that y'all have heard me complain about a fair amount as well.

In the Ballantine administration, I remember there was one year in particular where I was struck that there were I think 30, 27 new positions created that year in the budget, and all but three of them had director, deputy director, manager, or supervisor in the title.

The explosion of middle management in the city since 2009 has been extraordinary.

I've got a 15-minute litany I could go on.

I've actually got the documentation of how much middle management has expanded in the city over the last 17 years.

But we don't need to get into the details of it.

What we can say is that uh these positions were created fairly recently.

Um they were created in uh let's say an over-exuberance of a management strategy that uh decided that more supervision uh supervising was more important than actually delivering services.

Uh I'm excited about a new administration.

And uh frankly, as much as it's a scary year for a budget, and it's a scary year for all of our uh priorities and the things that we look at that the city does for for our neighbors, uh I'm excited for the chance to that the mayor has now to re-evaluate and not simply uh uh let the status quo continue, but to truly re-evaluate where in the city we've had those management issues where money allocated has not been spent and just rolls into free cash, where in the city we have been having to budget more for overtime and for contract and consultants and uh where we can divert some of those funds to actually directly funding service delivery.

And uh and then as I said, maybe it's worth looking at that word cloud to see where the negative space is.

So uh I'll leave it at that, Mr.

Chair.

I appreciate the opportunity, and I also uh really appreciate I also wanted to uh call out particularly uh my colleague at large, Councilor Mbaugh, uh, for the very thoughtful section of his memo uh where he uh approached the concept of where we might be looking to evaluate some some costs that could be cut uh in a I think a very general and thoughtful manner.

So I wanted to highlight that.

Thank you, sir.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Thank you, Chair, as a point of privilege since the good council of what too, you know, invoked me.

I didn't want to take a crack at this stuff.

But again, just at a very high level, um, it is important that we reassess, you know, what I during the pandemic, many programs we created, you know, some activities, you know, to create like social cohesion and community, you know, stuff.

So I it's we can re-evaluate those programs, not uh the APA funding it's you know, phasing out if there's a program that are worth continuing, or this is a program that I want, you know, uh uh moving them into the general forum, or it's what just because we are talking about a tight budget, so that is why I explained those things.

So I appreciate Chairman Scott invoking my name, and so I have to substantiate.

Thank you.

If no other counselors uh have comments, uh Vice Chair Scott, would you take the podium again?

Uh the vice chair recognizes the courageous counselor Wheeler.

Thank you, Chair.

Um so yes, it it would be easy to avoid talking about uh cuts altogether.

Given the reality of a shortfall this year, um I think I I feel the need to challenge myself to take my best attempt at some of these areas, feeble and insufficient as it probably is.

Uh well, trying to stay humble about the limits of my certainty.

So many cities, including Somerville, including Boston, um, have talked in the past and we'll talk in the future about police overtime.

Uh there's a lot of misconceptions about police overtime.

I think it's very easy to take pot shots at it and um and to assume that uh it can be just waved away.

It's not that simple.

Um there's uh real uh practical needs that that go into the the ingredients for why cities find themselves uh running up a lot of overtime.

Uh I think that taking a serious look at that together with the police department is something we should be making sure we're doing each year uh to make sure that each area of the budget uh the staffing and the funding that we pay for the staffing really makes sense.

It may be that in some cases uh hiring additional people can actually um either bring down the total amount of salary um in effect, taking overtime into account, uh, or it might raise it but make us be getting more service for the dollar.

Uh it's not nice to talk about sort of service for the dollar in terms of anybody's job, uh, but that's the kind of situation that we're looking at this year.

So it may be that hiring more patrol officers uh we're we're currently down about 10 from the target uh could reduce the use of overtime and allow higher salaried officers who are are sometimes currently being reassigned to patrol uh to move back to their specialties.

Another area that uh my colleague mentioned is uh layers of management.

I've worked in many organizations and seen a lot of different kinds of of structures uh in terms of many levels of manager, few levels of manager.

I don't think there's one right answer, but I do think that it can be tempting to add uh levels of management.

And what often happens, too often happens, is departments actually get less productive and less effective because there are more people above you to check in with before you can take action.

I think it's something that we need to, and and every organization needs to be very careful about.

And I know that we've all heard from departments where staff say they're already doing several people's jobs.

So this is not something that I'm saying is the right answer in every situation by any means.

To get specific, uh an item I voted to approve recently was about uh hiring two full-time positions for youth substance abuse prevention.

And that's a goal I support wholeheartedly, enthusiastically.

In retrospect, I'm not positive two full-time youth uh substance abuse prevention employees is the most effective use of resources.

And I'm not trying to single that out except to say there may be cases where um we want to be looking twice before we're creating new roles, because once we have roles, we really want to do right by city staff and make this a long-term place uh for them to do their best work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Anybody else?

All right.

You get it back.

LIV time wise.

Oh, wow, was it?

Okay, any other comments on that discussion item or on budget priorities in general.

Thank you, colleagues.

Uh okay.

Uh just catching up with my notes.

Okay.

Uh I move for these uh budget memo items to be placed on file uh or to be marked work completed.

And does that require a roll a roll call vote?

No.

Okay, excellent.

Well, that brings us to the end of tonight's agenda.

Do I hear a motion to adjourn?

Counselor Link moves to adjourn.

Seeing no objection, we are adjourned.

Or maybe we have to make a roll call vote.

Okay, sorry.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So close.

All right.

On adjournment.

Counselor Ewan Campen.

Yes.

Counselor Link.

Yes.

Councilor Baugh.

Counselor Klingon?

Yes.

Counselor Strazzo.

Counselor Sayyid?

Yes.

Counselor Davis?

Yes.

Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Counselor Scott?

Yes.

Chair Wheeler.

Yes.

All right, with that, that is all present votes in favor.

7.32 p.m.

Thank you.

Have a good night.