All right.

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

It is Tuesday, April 28th at 6 p.m.

I'm the chair of this evening, Ward 2 Counselor JT Scott.

And we are live and in person here in City Hall.

Thank you to my colleagues.

And we are joined by a number of city staff to help us answer the questions.

We will be conducting this meeting also via remote participation.

Two of our colleagues are logged in online.

And a copy of this recording will be posted shortly after the conclusion of the meeting.

This is roll call.

Counselor Davis.

Here.

Counselor Mbaugh.

Present.

Councilor Young Campin.

Here.

Councilor Shrezo.

Present.

Counselor Scott.

Present.

With all counselors present, we have quorum.

All right.

Thank you very much.

So we have first the committee minutes from approval minutes of our last meeting on March 17th.

Seeing no comment on those meetings meeting minutes, we'll go ahead and lay them on the table for approval in a single vote later on tonight.

This evening we have uh three substantive items before us.

Um and then a series of public communications uh that were submitted to the city council uh related to each of those.

Uh just for reference this evening, my intention is to go in the order we have listed on the agenda.

And uh I will just give a little bit of framing for what each one of these things is and what our uh responsibilities as a council committee are relating to them, and then uh move into an introduction from the administration and then discussion by counselors.

Uh it is my hope this evening to wrap it up by eight o'clock.

Um, but if we need to go to 8 30, I guess we could.

So with that said, uh we'll go ahead and take up item uh item number two on the agenda that's 260302 conveying uh the 2025 surveillance technology annual report.

Now this is a document that uh includes uh an update on all of the surveillance technology that has been previously approved by the city council.

Uh it is a report that's required by our surveillance technology ordinance.

And uh our procedure this evening, according to ordinance 10-66, is that um first the city has to provide the surveillance technology annual report, and that has to include any new agreements made in the past 12 months for any surveillance data sharing or obviously any new technologies that were uh adopted.

Uh having provided that, it is our role this evening uh to hold this meeting.

It's required to happen before May 31st to review that star uh and then subsequently we will release a report that includes a summary of all surveillance tech requests this year and whether or not we approve them.

Uh the council must determine whether the benefits to the community outweigh the financial and operational costs and whether reasonable safeguards exist according to the ordinance.

Now if the council has concerns or does not find um that the benefits outweigh the financial and up and operational costs.

Uh the council may recommend modifications to the mayor.

Uh and the uh council may also request a report back from the mayor about uh what is being done to address those concerns.

Um that said, uh if we do wish to eliminate the use of an accepted technology, uh, we would have to pass an ordinance specifically prohibiting it.

And uh and presumably if that was if that was not supported by the mayor, if it was supported by the mayor, the mayor could simply remove it from the surveillance technology uh report.

But uh if that removal was opposed by the mayor, it would then need to be passed um to survive a veto.

So with a supermajority.

So with that said, uh, we did receive this star in advance, uh, and we have all had time to review it.

Before we get into counselor questions, I would like to invite somebody from the administration to come up and give a brief introduction to it and uh any comments that the administration may have.

Yes, we hasn't read I see, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, uh, for the record, Yasmin Rodasi Legislative Liaison with the mayor's office.

Um I don't really have much prepared in the way of introductory remarks.

Uh we're happy to keep partnering with the city council and submitting these annual reports each year.

Um and we're here to answer any questions.

Uh I know uh we're joined by members of the Somerville Police Department since a large number of the reports in the annual report document are related to the police department, and I'm here to take notes um and relay back any information to the other departments that also have reports included in the document.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Well, I know I certainly have some questions, uh, but I would rather than firing off from the chair, I'm looking to my colleagues to see if anybody has any questions or concerns about the annual report.

Check in online too.

Uh Counselor Ewan Campen, I see you first.