Regular City Council Meeting

Good evening, everyone. It's 530 with a quorum being present I wanted to call tonight September 14th, 2026 regular meeting of the Cambridge City Council to order. The first order of business is a roll call of members present.

Councilor Al-Zubi? Present. Vice Mayor Azeem? Present Councilor Flaherty? McGovern, Nolan, Simmons, Sobrinho-Wheeler, Zusy, Mayor Siddiqui, and you have nine members recorded as present.

Please join me if you can in the pledge of allegiance and then pause for a moment of silence.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Per Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, adopted by the Massachusetts General Court and approved by the Governor, the City is authorized to use remote participation at meetings of the Cambridge City Council. In addition to having members of the Council participate remotely, we've set up Zoom teleconference for public comment. You can also view the meeting via the City's Open Meeting Portal or on the City Cable Channel 22. To speak during public comment, you must sign up at www.cambridgema.gov slash public comment You can also email written comments for the record to the city clerk at cityclerk at cambridgema dot gov We welcome your participation folks usually can sign up until 5 30 p.m please note that the city of Cambridge audio and video records this meeting and makes it available to the public for future viewing in addition third parties may also be audio and recording this meeting We will move on to announcements. Are there any announcements from the body? Yes, Councilor Nolan

Thank you. We'll be talking about this later, but the announcement is that at the next regular meeting of the City Council, which is September 28th, there will be a really important tax rate hearing and I know that many people in the city didn't get notice of it in... Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilor Nolan. We have Councilor Simmons and then Councilor Zusy.

Thank you Madam Mayor. Less of an announcement more of a gratitude. This weekend we had two festivals that went extraordinarily well One was the Cosmos Endymion. Councilor Flaherty was there. It was well attended, it was very nice 101 years of celebrating so I just wanted to acknowledge that out loud. We also had the Caribbean Carnival Another wonderful event in the rain. I hear the rain makes things grow. I'm not any taller, but I did get wet Thank you. Councilor Zusy?

Thank you Mayor Siddiqui. I just wanted to announce that this weekend we have open studios between 12 and 6 across the city. You'll be able to go into people's homes, see their art And also there's Danahy Park Family Day. So I'm looking forward to both of those events. There's also a meeting on Thursday night, the 17th at 6 p.m. about the bike lanes on Outer Huron. So that will be by Zoom only at 6 p.m. Thank you.

Any other announcements? I have a quick one. September is Meet Your Neighbor Month, and so on September 26th, my office with the Cambridge Port Neighborhood Association and some neighborhood partners were hosting a Cambridge Cat Tour and Meowfest. So if you have a cat and you'd like to show your cat, please register. You have until the end of this week. and then Meowfest will be right after the tour. The tour starts at 2, meeting at Dana Park. And then Meow Fest will be after the We would love to see you. Councilor Flaherty has already signed up, so really appreciate it. So those are it for the announcements. We'll move to public comment. Public comment may be made in accordance with Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 30A. Section 20G and City Council Rules 23D and 37. Once you finish speaking, the next speaker will be called.

Individuals are not permitted to allocate the remainder of their time to other speakers. Please state your name and address for the record on the item. On the agenda that you're speaking on. Right now we have 21 speakers who have signed up. Each speaker will have two minutes.

Our first speaker is Lauren Chua followed by Ani Adavi. Lauren, you have two minutes. Please go ahead. Lauren if we can turn the mic on just press the button and you'll see a green light.

Thank you. My name is Lauren Chua, I am at 565 Summerville Ave in Somerville. I'm employed at MIT as a graduate student and I'm speaking to policy order three in favor. Thank you, Cambridge City Councilors and Cambridge residents for being here today. As president of UE Local 256 the MIT Graduate Student Union that represents the 3,000 graduate workers who teach and do research at MIT. I am deeply concerned about the future of MIT and the future higher education and that future that MIT seems to be choosing from their actions at the bargaining table with us. I fear what the future of 3,000 graduate workers in Cambridge looks like without a fair contract quickly set in pace this fall. When we started negotiating with MIT in April, our members united around the vision of an MIT that was a fair and secure work environment. That workers would be protected especially those most vulnerable

and then MIT would commit both financially and in policy to its researchers and teachers in the face of funding cuts and broader uncertainty in higher education, attacks on international workers, the LGBTQ plus community members and more. Instead, MIT has come to the bargaining table with concessionary proposals regarding our union, our healthcare. And instead, MIT is also refused to commit to international worker protections. We, as the graduate workers who make MIT run, want to settle a fair and just contract when that meets the moment. We cannot have a contract with concessions. We can not have a contact without strong international worker protections. And we cannot have contracts that weaken our union security and we certainly can't have one with healthcare, the burdens of that cost onto workers. So we are calling on MIT to stop taking advantage of the Trump administration's policies and heinous attacks on higher education immigrants and working people as a whole and to rather work with its graduate students, to look after the needs of students workers faculty and staff on campus not the whims of a billionaire administration.

Thank you for considering this policy order and I hope you approve it thank you

Thank you. Our next speaker is Ani Adavi, followed by Baltasar Dennis, then Benjamin Velez. Ani, you have one minute, sorry two minutes.

Hello my name's Ani Adavi. I'm a Cambridge resident and a fifth-year PhD student in the materials science department at MIT. I'm also the recording secretary of the MIT grad student union. And I'd also like to speak in favor of policy order three, So our first union contract which expired earlier this year really secured historic protections for grad workers at MIT since its ratification in 2023. from real recourse for harassment and discrimination to codified health and safety standards to dental insurance. Grad workers gained rights and protections that they'd been denied in some cases for decades. And the reason we've actually been able to enforce all of those hard-fought protections is because we won a union shop agreement, which means grad workers covered by the contract contribute dues to enforce it. Now we're negotiating for our second contract under the Second Trump Administration, which has attacked unions and workers' rights from the outset

And in these uncertain times, instead of working with the grad students who help make MIT run, the MIT administration has taken the opportunity to threaten cuts to our previous contract as you've heard. including the critical union shop agreement that underlies the strength of our Union. We know what happens to unions and unionized workers when they lose their union shop, because that's the norm in right-to-work states. Right-to work laws which are rooted in the shameful legacy of Jim Crow are the same laws that MIT has cited as an example to follow. and if MIT succeeds in undercutting the security of a 3,000 member union other employers will take note and seek to replicate their success. So that's why your intervention to call on MIT to reverse these cuts to union shop and to settle a fair contract will have critical implications not only for our contract fight, but for labor standards across Cambridge and perhaps across the country. And that's why I urge the council to pass this policy order. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Baltasar Diniz, followed by Benjamin Velez. Baltasars you have two minutes please go ahead.

Hi everyone my name's Baltazar I'm a resident at 92 A Gore Street in East Cambridge I'm also an international graduate worker at MIT coming from Portugal. I came to Cambridge three years ago, and I felt very welcomed like thousands of other grad workers in the area. However, since the times are different We all remember very vividly Rumeysa Ozturk being taken from our streets a couple years ago, and we know how he felt the days and weeks after. walking out of the house was different, coming home from work at night was different. Cambridge felt different. Naturally when we came into this bargaining cycle we had as one of our main priorities enshrining stronger protections for international workers So that all international workers have real guarantees that we can rely on. We hoped and expected that this would be a topic of greater alignment with MIT, who should have a shared concern to protect its international community at this time. We were surprised to be disappointed. In particular, we propose strict rules for sharing data with the government requiring legal procedures to be followed.

We proposed remote appointment rules that would allow Thank you very much. And we asked MIT not to cooperate with ICE on campus and to have protocols for that eventuality. To all of these, MIT not only rejected our proposals but also offered no meaningful counters leading us to rely on their promises alone. but how can we if they are unwilling to codify those promises in our contract? This has also been the process of deteriorating conditions for internationals with the changes in duration of stay rule and changes to the curricular practical training rules that has made it impossible for us to pursue internships. So I urge the Council to approve the policy order, and I thank you for your time.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Benjamin Velez followed by Kristen Prevost, then Suzanne Blier. Benjamin, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hello, my name is Benjamin Velez. I live right here in Central at 50 Magazine Street and I am speaking in favor of policy order number three calling on MIT to settle a fair contract with its graduate workers When people think of folks in their 20s and 30s, their healthcare needs is not what immediately comes to mind. But I can't stress enough both as a biologist and as someone who lives with a bunch of doctors that preventative health is crucial and is very much on the front of mind of MIT grad students. Thank you for joining us. But even knowing all of that, MIT has decided to prioritize its own bottom line over the long-term health of its workers. On May 11th, MIT proposed language to unilaterally make our health coverage worse whenever they want Further, on July 21st, they confirmed they are seeking the power to remove guaranteed benefits we already have. This is the same institution whose endowment grew by 11.4% to $27.4 billion last year. The same institution that paid its former president $1.8 million last year even though they are no longer president.

and then also further paid their top five administrators a combined total of $13.7 million combined the same institution also bought $3 million worth of AI cameras last year Moving the cost of healthcare onto its workers is what MIT has chosen. But that means we have to start choosing between options like suffering through chronic health problems and paying rent. These are not abstract issues. According to MIT's own cost of living calculator, we currently make only 76% of the living wage for Boston and Cambridge. This puts us under tremendous financial strain, especially if our health care costs go up. Quality healthcare is a priority for every MIT grad worker, especially for those who are directly affected. So to understand a little bit of that I wanna talk a little about I want to urge you guys to vote for these things, especially if one of the richest universities on the planet can't hold a standard of ensuring the folks that are healthy enough to do their job who can. Please help us hold them accountable by calling on them to agree to our reasonable proposals. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Kristen Prevost followed by Suzanne Blier, then Ansel Garcia-Langley. Kristen, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hello everyone, my name is Christian Prevost. I live at 7 Lawrence Street here in Cambridge. I'm here tonight to speak in support of policy order number two. I'm a clinical social worker at Boston Medical Center and a member of the Platelet Disorder Support Association, for which I run a support group for patients and caregivers in New England. I also have immune thrombocytopenia or ITP. ITP is a rare autoimmune bleeding disorder in which the body mistakenly destroys its own platelets, the cells that clot our blood. As a result people with ITP can experience significant bruising and prolonged or spontaneous bleeding But the physical symptoms are really only one part of what it means to live with this disease. For many of us, ITP is marked by fear, uncertainty and isolation which is why awareness matters so much. I was diagnosed with ITP here in Cambridge two years ago and I feel incredibly proud and lucky to call this city home. I was fortunate to have access to excellent healthcare that allowed me to receive a swift diagnosis before I had a serious bleeding event.

Importantly, Cambridge is also home to some of the biopharm companies working on the interventions that are changing what life with ITP can look like. The medical innovation happening here has given patients like me options, hope and in many ways pieces of our lives back. When we request to light City Hall Purple, we want to recognize the people in Cambridge and around the world who are living quietly with this rare disease. But we're also recognizing the people and change this experience for us. For a condition that can feel so invisible and isolating, seeing the heart of our city illuminated in purple on September 25th would send a powerful message. I respectfully ask the Council to support this policy order and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Suzanne Blier, followed by Ansel Garcia-Langley. Suzanne, you have the floor if you can unmute yourself. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Suzanne Blier, Five Fuller Place. And I'm going to speak to a couple of things tonight. One is I do support MIT staff and would hope that MIT would also build more housing for its undergraduate and graduate students as critical To MIT itself and to the City of Cambridge. Secondly, I really support whatever you can do with permits or otherwise to help local businesses My family were local business owners in Burlington, Vermont. And the struggles that these groups are facing is critical and this might include even permitting Thank you for joining us.

Finally, I support the city move against a Trump administration vis-a-vis the preservation of key parts of our universe including We're losing potentially very, very important Native American and other places. I think it's very important also. I mean we all know about what's happening with the White House Finding ways that we as a city can support the broader group of interests against the Trump administration on this issue and others is important. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Ansel Garcia-Langley, followed by Suvina Sreenalayam. Ansel, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi. My name is Ancel Garcia- Langley Okay, and I'm here today in support of policy order three. I want to add to what my fellow workers have already shared by talking about what our union means to me in practice. As a department chief steward, I have had the privilege of helping my fellow grad workers navigate conflicts related to the work we do at MIT We come to MIT because we care deeply about our research and teaching. My own work is on systems designed to protect coastal communities from increasingly severe storms in the climate crisis. I have been incredibly lucky to work in an amazing lab with a fantastic advisor, but not everyone gets so lucky. Through my work as a steward, I have seen firsthand what can happen when grad workers are unjustly kicked from their research positions which is why protections like Just Cause are so fundamental. Grad workers should not have to rely on luck or having a good relationship with an individual supervisor to know that they will be treated fairly. Our contract gives workers rights, a process and someone standing beside them when they need support. but there's an irony in my standing here today.

I'm currently funded through a fellowship, although I do the same grad research work along the same colleagues and help other grad workers exercise their contractual rights As a fellow, I do not have access to many of those same protections myself due to MIT's fellow exclusion. Our union is fighting to include fellows like me in these protections but MIT has vehemently refused to even discuss our inclusion. Whether a grad worker has basic workplace protections should not depend on the source of their funding. I urge the Council to pass Policy Order 3 and stand with us in demanding a fair contract that protects all grad workers. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Savina Sreenalem, followed by Valerie Bonds, then Daniel Shen. Savina, two minutes.

My name is Suvina Srinileam. My address is 64 Willow Street in Cambridge. I'm the vice president of the MIT Graduate Student Union, and I'm speaking in favor of Policy Order 3. According to MIT's own living wage calculator, graduate workers earn 75% of the living wage in Cambridge That means that many of us that work at MIT cannot afford to live in the city without making sacrifices on other aspects of our lives, our savings, our future, our health. This is accompanied by ever-increasing housing costs, even in MIT's own graduate student housing, which has increased an average of 4% every year for the past three years. Our union has proposed raises that match the cost of living, additional support for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, fully funded dependent healthcare coverage and for this to be covered by MIT's considerable endowment. Thank you. and 2.5% the year after, which would be an effective pay cut in comparison to the rate of inflation.

Beyond that, MIT has also proposed striking our no reduction in pay clause, which will allow MIT to unilaterally reduce all stipends to the general minimum as actual pay cuts MIT has rejected all additional proposals, arguing that our proposals would compromise the stability of their $27 billion endowment. Our proposals would only be 0.6% of MIT's total operating budget. We are calling on MIT to support its graduate workers, the basis of MIT teaching and research enterprise and the reason why MIT is the respected, successful institution that it is today. Graduate workers also deserve to be able to live in Cambridge in the city that we all work. That is why I urge the City Council to approve this policy order. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Valerie Bonds followed by Daniel Shen, then Zamyra Johnson. Valerie, you have the floor. You have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. and I support the unions. We know how important unions are in protecting the rights of employees. I was a little bit surprised to hear that some chemicals that are being tested at MIT exposed their workers and I'm wondering what our city is doing to protect its members, its community members from any of these chemical researches that are taking place at MIT. I certainly support turning lights on purple and I support the Control of fireworks in certain parts of our city.

Any illegal fireworks that are exposing any area of our City, not just Area 4 but other areas of our community where illegal fireworks are taking place. I also want to take this time to say happy birthday to Carolyn Hunter, a recognized contributor to our school committee. A superior educator at Cambridge Regional Latin High School and a well-known advocate for civil rights, women's rights, and community rights for Cambridge. It took me a while. I really didn't see anything on the agenda regarding housing, public safety or education or senior health but i do thank the city council for this opportunity

Thank you. Our next speaker is Daniel Shen followed by Zamyra Johnson, then Rachel Plummer. We are at speaker number 10 for those who are waiting. Daniel two minutes please go ahead.

Hi, my name's Daniel Shen. I live at 20 Cornelius Way over in Kendall. I'm also the chief steward for the MIT Graduate Student Union and also a graduate student worker at MIT. I am speaking to policy order three We've been in negotiations with MIT since May of this year, and several key issues remain on things like benefits and protections. and our workplace rights, but I specifically wanted to use this time to speak to our union shop as previous speaker Ani also spoke too. So I've been at MIT for a while and I organized with hundreds of workers five years ago to form our union in an election. We won that vote two-to-one, there were over 1,700 grad workers voted yes to form our union, and we subsequently were able to win a song contract. But one of the things that MIT held out then during that first set of contract negotiations as they are now is this question of union shop. to reiterate, union shop is the fundamental principle that everyone in the union benefits from the contract and the fact there is a union. And so everyone chips in to support the fact that we have a functioning organization that can defend our workplace rights and our democracy

This is in contrast to places with an open shop where dues payment is entirely voluntary and unions are subsequently much weaker for that. It's really frustrating, frankly, that MIT keeps making us relitigate this question every three years when our contract is up for renegotiation. And it's really undemocratic and frankly aligned with some of the and many others. Thank you very much. and research assistants at MIT. And I look forward to the city council supporting our contract campaign, and I look for seeing each and every one of you on the picket line if it comes down to it and we have to go on strike. Finally, happy birthday Joe, our financial secretary for our union and shout out as well to SEIU32BJ who represents the facilities workers at MIT who are also negotiating for a fair contract.

Thank you. Our next speaker is... Zamyra or Zamiria? I'm apologies if I'm mispronouncing Johnson.

Please go ahead, you have two minutes. Zamira Johnson, I'm at 27 Ellery Street just a couple blocks from here and I'm a third year PhD student and grad worker at MIT I'm speaking in support of Policy Order 3. Building on the wonderful points that my coworkers have made, us as grad workers come to MIT and move to Cambridge to do exemplary research and to contribute to the culture of education and advancement that Cambridge as a city is connected to And I don't think any of us have come here to become labor lawyers. But in the last year and over the entire history of our union, MIT as an administration has gone out of their way to take away our rights and make it even more expensive and unhealthy to be a grad student at MIT and then they tried to punish us and disrespect us for asking for respect and consideration as the people who make MIT what it is. And I just want to convey plainly how much effort every grad worker here has put in to go through the bargaining process and how little respect and consideration MIT has given us. And MIT wants to use our status as students to take advantage of Cambridge residents,

I want to convey plainly how critical it is that Cambridge community members who care about workers' rights and quality of life in our city take every action they can to demonstrate visible solidarity with MIT GSU. Because if MIT has their way with taking our rights away, it will spread to every other major research institution in Cambridge. And our unions are endeavoring to take the tangible action to fight against this injustice and I hope that City Council makes the moves to stand with us.

Thank you, our next speaker is Rachel Plummer followed by Marilee Meyer then Tina Alou. Rachel two minutes please go ahead

Thank you, my name is Rachel Plummer. I'm a resident at 10 Wendell Street and I'm the Associate Director at Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee or CEOC I'm testifying today in support of Policy Order 12 and the City Manager's Agenda Item Number 2. At CEOC, we've seen firsthand the detrimental effects of federal changes to the SNAP program. Expanded work requirements, limits to immigrant eligibility, more paperwork and a greater share of costs dumped onto states have caused many residents to lose their SNAP benefits. Since July of last year, SNAP participation has declined 15% in Cambridge. Most of those people are still eligible for SNAP but just could not break through the red tape and paperwork burden Unfortunately, many of these same changes are going into effect for MassHealth in the coming months. For the first time residents will have to comply with complicated work requirements in order to keep their health insurance

New immigration status restrictions will also be in place. Across the state, 200,000 residents are expected to lose their mass health coverage. In partnership with the city and the Cambridge Community Foundation, we are standing up a coalition of community partners that will be mobilized to respond to this crisis to keep as many people on SNAP and MassHealth as possible. We hope you'll consider the city manager agenda item number two, requesting funding for this initiative. And on policy order 12, we ask the City Council to urge the Healy-Driscoll administration to hire additional caseworkers at DTA. Not only have the federal changes I mentioned made maintaining SNAP benefits much more challenging, but the understaffing at DTA has made getting in touch with the agency near impossible. Only 30% of calls on a given day get through to DTA. So please support policy order number 12. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Marilee Meyer, followed by Tina Alou, then Elaine DeRosa. Marilee, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

I'm Marilyn Meyer, 10 Dana Street. And I too would like to wish Carolyn Hunter a happy birthday. Please support the National Historic Preservation Act which is being dismantled to allow Trump's vanity products Thank you for joining us today. Multi-era, multicultural stories reminding Americans where they came from and how patterns grew in this 250th year. Those include Native American, African-American and even a Smithsonian. It is terrifying how fast the president is ignoring protocol and national guidelines Our national identity without respect, compromise or nuance.

not supporting the basic guardrails as tantamount to being tone deaf in its implications. That you don't mind the damage of the reflecting pool, the destruction of the east wing, the arch blocking the Lincoln Memorial without permits, fraud permission or view. That you don't mind gilded statues, the rose garden replaced by a terrace without checking with the caretakers. Washington DC is a travesty Please educate the tone deaf. Support the Preservation Act. Once landmarks are gone, they're gone for good. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Tina Alou followed by Elaine DeRosa, then Hannah Muller-Sick. Tina, you have two minutes.

Good evening. My name is Tina Alou, and I live at 113 1⁄2 Pleasant Street. I'm testifying tonight as executive director of CEOC to speak on a few items. First on city manager agenda number two regarding the federal changes to SNAP and MassHealth. We know that many people have already lost their SNAP benefits because of confusion over requirements Fear of applying or renewing due to immigration status and the almost impossible task of getting through to DTA. This will continue to be the case going forward unless we implement a large-scale education and awareness campaign along with accessible hands on assistance to help people overcome the barriers. Additionally, changes to MassHealth focused on immigration status and new work requirements starting in January will be another blow to so many vulnerable residents.

COC has been working on these issues for a while, but it's too large an endeavor to provide the necessary support alone. When the City Manager reached out to offer city resources and the Cambridge Community Foundation joined in, we knew that we could conduct the kind of effort necessary to leave no one behind. Last Tuesday, we convened a meeting where over 30 community-based organizations and city department staff came forward to ask what they could do. There was an incredible sense of partnership and commitment to fight back And support our neighbors who are struggling To put food on their tables and keep their health insurance It will take resources for staffing materials to do this And we ask you to support that I'd also like you to please vote to accept the CPA Committee's recommendation to keep the funding formula at 80% for affordable housing.

And lastly, ask that you support policy order number 12 to encourage Governor Healey to prioritize the hiring of additional DTA workers so that the logjam of calls and requests can be processed in a timely fashion.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Hannah Malarsik, followed by Vainis Patel then Christopher Kassa. Hannah? Elaine DeRosa, followed by Hannah.

My name is Elaine DeRosa. I live at Fort Pleasant Place. I'm speaking to two of the city manager's items. As a member of the Community Preservation Act Committee, I urge you to support the CPA recommendation to maintain its affordable funding formula at 80% affordable housing, 10% historic preservation and 10% open space. This year, the CPA staff again conducted extensive comprehensive outreach and received many recommendations from the community. We heard from community organizations and individuals on the overwhelming recommendations and comments were to maintain the affordable housing at 80%. The CPA committee also heard from individuals and organizations proposals for historic preservation in open space which are included in the recommendation that are presented in tonight's report. And they represent a comprehensive citywide programming, which I think you'll find interesting.

The other item I want to join with CEOC is the chair of the Cambridge Housing Authority Board to urge the support for the city manager's recommendation on the $500,000 for the coordinated citywide response. to the new federal changes whose sole goal is to create burdens and confuse and discourage eligible people from applying for services that they require. This will be an incredible benefit to the residents of the Cambridge Housing Authority as it will be to everyone throughout the city. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Hannah Malarsik, followed by Vinice Patel, then Christopher Kassa.

Hi, I'm Hannah Milarczyk. I'm a graduate worker at MIT and I've been a resident of Cambridge for eight or nine years now most recently at 26 Porter Road in Porter Square. I am here to speak in favor of policy order number three I was at MIT before we had a first union contract, and when we won an excellent first contract it absolutely transformed the lives of all students at MIT. Students are healthier, happier, safer and significantly better off financially in a city with very high cost of living as we all know. Now, three years later, we're negotiating our second contract. And since day one it's been clear that MIT wants to take this away from us. Every month this summer, MIT has only offered us two 2-hour long sessions of bargaining each month. And MIT has made it clear to us that they don't want a contract. They don't respect our workers and our choice to stay unionized workers.

As we have seen with our union siblings, SEIU 32BJ representing the facilities workers on campus. MIT has chosen to claim its inability to support workers and students because of the funding cuts and pressures on their multi-billion dollar endowment. MIT wants to take away our union shop, replacing it with an open shop This would slash the size of our union and slash the amount of unionized workers living and working in the city of Cambridge. When we first won our union shop three years ago, it set a precedent across the city, the state, and if we lose union shop, it will similarly set a precedent that will weaken unions here and everywhere. Many of the workers in Cambridge are MIT graduate students. Many of them are graduate workers at other places, and many of them or unionized workers in general. And I hope you help us fight for all of them today. Thank you. and happy birthday, Joe.

And happy early birthday, Lauren.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Finis Patel followed by Christopher Kassa then Kenneth Reeves. Linus has not joined. We will go to Chris Casa. Chris Casa, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Good evening, everyone. First, I want to wish a happy birthday to Carolyn Hunter. Even though I haven't met her, I really respect her work and advocacy. as the apartheid movement and also her work in the schools. What I'm speaking tonight about city manager's agenda item related to the decrease in traffic citations over the last decade, and specifically how it relates to our work to make it safer for people to walk and bike in Cambridge. Much of the city's work Thank you so much for joining us. When those are finished, they can still be obstructed by dangerous drivers who are either going into them or blocking them. And that work really needs to be enforced.

We need to make sure that people are staying at these facilities and that they're respecting the rules of the road to make Part of the work that I do in the group is I read a lot of the emails that we get. And we routinely receive emails about people who have had frightening post calls They often involve a loved one, a partner, a child that they were biking with. It is just really distressing to receive those. We've had residents write to us saying they've seen dangerous behavior happen in front of a police officer and that the police officer didn't respond. And they're really upset about it. And of course, the hardest messages come from people whose lives have been changed by a serious crash either breathing community or people who have lost loved ones I just wanted to kind of take this back to the specific city manager's report.

There's a 57% decrease in the citations. And what that means is we have to really figure out how to actually get this back on track and enforce the rules to make sure that people are safe out there.

Thank you, our next speaker is Kenneth Reeves followed by Heather Hoffman and Sam Rodriguez.

Good evening. Ken Reeves, 340 Harvard Street president of the Cambridge NAACP as well as Taxpayer. My comments tonight are relative to zoning and zoning amendment wherever they appear in your agenda. There is great concern that the multifamily zoning which has passed throughout the city is having outcomes that were not anticipated. Many of us thought Well, it's bad but maybe they'll build it behind the house. We didn't think you were going to tear down the house and give us a whole new village. And so urban renewal was not as effective as this ordinance that we have at the moment, so there is a great desire for review

and for addressing the outcomes before they destroy us completely. I can be dramatic, but this is not Funny drama, this is real drama because we are impacting the basic realities of our city in the name Affordable Housing, but we don't know who this affordable housing is going to. But we do know that we're destroying what we have. And so I just would implore all of the councillors to understand there are impacts to zoning that our wonderful Community Development Department tends not Let the counselors know that once you let certain cats out the bag, it's all over. And we're feeling that we're in a situation where there is not the greatest awareness of this.

The other thing on behalf of the NAACP, you know, the Cambridge census of African Americans has been going down year by year. And the negative impact of this zoning on the African American community is extraordinary. So thank you for your, this opportunity to say a few words. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Heather Hoffman, and our final speaker will be Sam Rodriguez. Heather, you have the floor. You have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hello, Heather Hoffman, 213 Hurley Street. Let me agree with the preceding speaker and also with a few other people What Marilyn Meyer said about the National Historic Preservation Act, what Rachel Plummer said about SNAP and MassHealth. It is incredibly important for people to be able to get through the day like having food, a different thing that's on the The agenda saying we can't do it has to do with whether people can pee. I will give the foundry as an example of a place that is full of gender neutral bathrooms that seem to work. I would like to say huzzah about Paula Crane.

You've all heard me say how much respect I have for the city clerk's office and I am concerned that you couldn't get anybody else to be interested in running such a fine office but I'm very glad that Ms. Crane is willing to do it. With respect to the CPA in general, Like the choices for historic preservation in open space, I'm kind of amazed that they're even in Cambridge so often. They aren't especially open space. So good on that and with respect to A couple of things talking about belonging and community. Meet your neighbor month, and such. I hope that you will think about, and this is very much

in line with all of the stuff and the litigation that you continue to tout about treating people with respect. City Council can do better. Thank you.

Thank you. Apologies, we have three more speakers. Our next speaker will be Sam Rodriguez followed by James Williamson then Dan Totten. Sam, you have two minutes please go ahead

Good evening. My name is Samuel Gomes Rodriguez, Jr., employee of Northeast Security at Northeastern University and member of 32BJ SEIU. My fellow workers and I are currently bargaining a contract to make it known that we wish to be treated not as tools but as human beings. We are here to make it known that we are demanding of our bosses the basic human right of healthcare and the dignity of receiving an increased livable wage. Almost every major city within the United States in which our unions are based have already received health care fully paid for by the bosses and increased wages. Why are we dead last to receive these basic human rights? Do we not work as hard as our security comrades across the nation? Do not all have families we wish to love and care for?

Do we not all have our own health to worry about in order to continue to work hard, to care for our clients and to continue love and take care of our families? The answer is yes. Yes we do. Thank you for watching. We say no more to having to choose between either to pay for bills, rent, groceries or medication. We say No More To Living Without Healthcare We say no more to living without healthcare because it is cheaper to live with chronic pain. We say no more to living without healthcare because it is cheaper to live with severe mental illness.

We say no more and we ask will you stand in solidarity with us and help us fight for our rights and our dignity by voting for Policy Order 1. Thank you. Sam, that's time.

Thank you so much. You can send us the remainder if you have any.

Our next speaker is James Williamson followed by Dan Totten. James, you have the floor. You have two minutes. Please go ahead. We can hear you.

Thank you. I'm James Williams and I live in North Cambridge. First of all, on the policy order I think it is that's proposing to elect the mayor. I really wish you all would get serious about shifting power and and consider electing the city manager. At least do the thought experiment, why don't we elect a city manager? The whole charter reform The process was, I believe, rigged to avoid a serious step toward shifting power toward the people in the city. So we remain with the city manager. How about we elect a city manager? Think about it. The other thing, the main thing I wanted to speak to other than that is the citations issue.

The real problem as far as I'm concerned and I'm out in the city all the time is the lack of enforcement of rules for bicyclists. This is an outrageous situation in this city. Just outside an elderly disabled building in North Cambridge where I live, There is an intersection with a dedicated pedestrian phase. It's opposite Churchill Ave in North Cambridge on North Mass Ave. I have never once seen a bicyclist ever stop at that red light When it's in the pedestrian phase, just a half block from an elderly disabled building with like 198 units. Are you kidding me? There is zero enforcement and there's nothing in the data that really makes it possible for us to understand what's going on with enforcement of rules hire some more police officers.

The budget keeps going up, but the enforcement doesn't. Thank you.

Thank you. Our final speaker will be Dan Totten. Dan, you have two minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi, my name is Dan Toten and I live at 54 Bishop Allen Drive First of all, on behalf of your UFCW siblings at Lamplighter, I want to wish both 32BJ and the MIT GSU the best of luck in your struggles. Please let us know if there's any solidarity asks and you know where to find us if you ever need a beer. I want to speak tonight mostly on the question of electing essentially rigged. It was a waste of the time of the people who served on that committee because all of their suggestions were thrown in the trash unceremoniously by most of this council. and I appreciate the people who did not vote that way, but that's what happened. And now we're only coming back and starting to explore some of those ideas like the sortition that were explored in that Thank you very much.

and a lot of us feel very strongly that we should be able to elect the executive branch, including some of you. But there's this other trap. The trap is that he could move to an elected ceremonial mayor I'll refer to it as which would basically just mean that the voters get to vote for the council president. No offense, Madam Mayor but that's effectively what you are and I think that's a waste of everybody. We're going to let you make a ceremonial choice that won't actually impact the decisions about when a homeless shelter closes or when we don't fund. Preschool. And that's all the executive who is unelected and not accountable to the voters. So I ask you tonight, don't waste the residents of the city of Cambridge's time. Ask questions of the Collins Center but don't switch an elected ceremonial mayor.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. That is all that we're signed up to speak.

to close public comment. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Public comment is now closed. Madam Mayor. Yes, Councilor Simmons.

I'd like to move suspension of the rules to bring forward policy orders one... and three in deference to the individuals that are here with the lengthy of items in the city manager's agenda. It may be quite late before we get there, so I wanted to suspend the rules, bring those items forward, vote them, allow these people to go home.

So, Councilor Simmons is moving to suspend the rules to take Policy Orders 1 and 3 right now. So on suspension, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. We are in suspension, so we'll move on to policy word number one. This is that the City Council supports 32 BJSEAU security officers and Logan Airport Service workers. This was filed by Councillor Simmons, Council Member Government, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Councillor Simmons you have the floor.

Thank you Madam Mayor I bring this for my colleagues to do what we usually do which is important, which is saying to Logan Airport we want people to be treated fairly. Thank you very much. This evening, and I think what they said in public comment tells the story. People are choosing whether they should have medicine or pay the rent Buy things for their children or pay the rent. No one should have to in a city and working for local airport, not that I'm going to be dissing on Logan Airport tonight. But just to bring that forward, no one should be begging for scraps or working three jobs to make ends meet. And so I'm hoping first of all let me thank my colleagues Councilor McGovern and Councilor Sibirian-Wheeler for signing on.

We have to vote our values, and our values are that people should be paid a fair wage. I hope my colleagues will support this policy order. With that, I'll yield the floor to my co-makers or whatever you choose to do, Madam Mayor, but I'm hoping that people will vote for this.

Councilor McGovern, we'll go to you as the co-sponsor.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Through you, I just echo the comments made by Councillor Simmons. Really on both of these orders, I know only number one is in front of us But it's interesting. We have some items on the agenda tonight about SNAP, right? And we do a lot of work here. I've done a lot Thank you very much. Whether it's our security workers at our universities as well as at Logan or our graduate students, it's important that we remember that these are valuable people in our community and they deserve The same opportunities as everyone else, and so I'm proud to support both of these orders. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

There's one before us right now, so just speak to that one first. Yes, Councilor Sbrino-Wheeler?

I would echo the other two sponsors and say it should not be this hard for working people, and airport workers should be able to afford to live in Cambridge and our surrounding communities. So I hope we can move forward with this.

Councilor Al-Zubi?

I'd love to be added as a co-sponsor.

Anyone else who would like to speak? Councilor Nolan. Thanks, I'm sure when we get to the next one living wage says it all. Healthcare for All says it all. Love to be added, and we absolutely have to set a standard for the country that this is something we stand behind for all workers.

We can go ahead and add Councilor Al-Zubi and Councilor Nolan to the policy order. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those against, say no. The ayes have it. Those counselors have been added. We can go ahead and if there's no objection, definitely support the order. Thank you, Councilor Simmons and the co-sponsors for bringing this forward. We'll go ahead All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Policy rule number one as amended is adopted. We'll go to policy rule number... This is at the City Council's support, the UE256 graduate workers at MIT and their efforts to secure A Fair Contract. This was filed by Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Councilor McGovern, Vice Mayor Zeeam and Councilor Al-Zubi. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler I'll go to you first as the main sponsor

Just briefly, because I think the folks in public comment said it much better than I could and wasn't planning on blowing this myself. I think these are basic worker protections, especially at a time when immigrant workers are under attack. And I hope MIT can agree to these contract negotiations with these workers and how we can move forward this evening.

Simmons.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. First of all to Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, McGovern, Azeem and Al Zubi thank you for offering this policy order again it speaks to our values as a city years ago Back in the Dark Ages, as my children often say, we voted to have a living wage and we should demand support and stand by any organization, particularly unionized employees, to be paid fairly. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I was actually going to say something very similar, Councilor Simmons, that

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Would anyone else like to be added? Yes, Councilor Nolan.

Yeah, same thing before. I mean it all goes down to living wage health care people have an inability to live with respect and dignity and not have to make choices between as has been pointed out often students are the ones in this city using our food banks because they need that. So, yes, we'd love to be added and I fully support that.

Go ahead and add Councilor Simmons and Councilor Nolan to posture number three. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Councilor Thank you to the co-sponsors and thank you to everyone who came for public comment. We'll go ahead and adopt this policy order as amended. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Policy number three is adopted. We will now go back to the submission of the record. Five sets of minutes from the regular city council meeting on March 2nd, the regular City Council meeting on And then the regular meeting held on May 18th on a motion by Councilor Nolan to adopt these minutes and place them on file. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those against say no. The ayes have it. Those reports have been accepted and placed on file. We now move on to reconsideration Councilor Nolan has filed reconsideration for the policy order 2026-140, which is that the city manager being hereby is requested to work with the city solicitor and a licensed commission to draft and submit. A home rule petition to authorize one additional Section 15 all-alcoholic beverages license not to be drunk on the premises. Councilor Nolan, I will recognize you now.

Thank you. I think it would make sense to suspend the rules to pull forward communication from other city officers number four which is about my memo about reconsideration.

So, Councilor Nolan moves suspension to bring forward a communication report from other city officers. Number four, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. That's afforded with us with the reconsideration request. Councilor

Thank you. I won't read the entire memo, but I am asking us to reconsider the vote as explained in the communication memo since after the vote which I did support all of us had spent several months I did hear some concern in the community about the vote and thought I should dig a little deeper into the proposal, so I spent some time the last few weeks. I did file for reconsideration. Some time the last few weeks reaching out to city staff and some local business owners To understand the impact of this proposed ad hoc legislative strategy for alcohol licensing Look, in full disclosure, I don't think we should have any caps on what the state allows us to have. We don't have any for on-premises. I just felt that city staff have additional context for this vote on both the process and how to consider this issue holistically, which could be important for the council to hear. I recognize that we were very pressed for time at the summer meeting when this vote initially took place.

We had not done our usual practice of discussing the context, gathering input from most affected stakeholders so I do hope we consider this issue with additional context and expertise The issues and questions to consider include the specifics of In speaking with business associations, local small business owners and other stakeholders I heard their potential consequences for the vote that made me uncomfortable supported as is. One of the key issues is that we would be handing a license worth at least several hundred thousand dollars to an individual who already has a malt wine license. and as we considered this idea without having told all the small business owners across the city that we were doing that I spoke with two owners who have all alcohol licenses who paid more than $300,000 for them and when I asked without One direct quote was,

That seems unfair when I had to pay several hundred thousand dollars. So, I think other small business owners didn't know that they could ask the council for this license or couldn't Thank you very much. and before we do this for one person, it seems to be good governance Boston had petitioned the state to allow for more than 200 on-premises licenses, which they did for equity. I'm not sure if they included off-premases. And so I would support Cambridge considering how to distribute any new licenses that we are granted equitably. So that's why I filed this. There's a little bit more detail in the memo, but I yield to Mayor Siddiqui.

Thank you, Councilor Nolan. Reconsider the matter, you would vote yes. If you wouldn't like to consider the matter you'd vote no. If it gets reconsidered then we can have that opportunity to ask Thank you. Just before on the reconsideration vote.

So I also had some conversations. I spoke to Attorney Sullivan, who's representing the petitioner. He's going through this situation in another community and they went forward asked for, I think he said four sort of general licenses to do this exact thing. Not for specific businesses but for general licenses and the House already said no to that They said we need to know specifically who is getting these licenses. We're not just going to give you a blanket so I'm not going to vote for reconsideration. I would like to move forward with this business, this particular business. We're looking for a way to sort of lift the cap in general and look at if there are other businesses in Cambridge that also want to do this. when we go to the state.

And so, we should do that and we should have that conversation but I don't want to hold up this particular business that's in some dire straits right now. So, I agree with we should be doing this at some point but I will vote no on reconsideration on this particular issue

Councilor Zubino-Wheeler.

Thanks, Madam Mayor. Through you, I was going to ask the city manager and law department about this. Frankly, I think... Agree with the Bullard point of getting rid of the caps. And then on this specifically, if the law department feels like it needs more time to review this and we should pull it back, I'm happy to pull it Fine with it to go ahead as well. So I'm curious what city staff has to say here.

So solicitors coming up?

Good evening through you, Madam Mayor. So staff doesn't really have an opinion on the policy side of this. It's Thank you very much. Chair of the License Commission, Nicole Murady-Ferrer, who is on the Zoom if there are any questions for her or if she wants to jump in. You know, her and I... can give some factual information to the council that might help in your consideration. Happy to provide written response if the Council wishes to some of the questions that Councillor Nolan raised in her communication, if the

I think I said this when there were a couple of questions, when this was before the council before. It might... Thank you. I would have suggested, and I still might, that an option would be a petition along the lines of what Councilor McGovern referenced from another community where the Thank you very much. Thank you.

Perhaps that was missing from this other community, but happy to look into that. So I think I answered your question. If there are more questions let me know.

The question I have is if there's a legal question about this that needs more research. It sounds like you're saying... We have the legal understanding it's more of a policy question about if we're doing one business or multiple businesses.

Yes, through you Madam Mayor and just to be clear There's no legal reason you can't move this home rule petition forward or some other type of ask of the legislature, so it is more of a policy consideration for the council.

Thank you. That doesn't make this easier, unfortunately. But I am down to move forward with this for one business, down to moving forward with it four businesses. Like Councilor McGovern and Nolan both agreed on, this cap doesn't makes any sense at all. So down to moved forward with that for all businesses In which case, I think I'm going to vote no on reconsideration. Happy to do a broader one if there are other businesses. For other businesses we can do a separate thing. We can do home rule petition to lift the cap entirely Al-Zubi, and then Councilor Zusy.

Yeah, through you Madam Chair. So I'm curious to Councilor McGovern's point on submitting just for multiple licenses but it getting rejected from the state legislature. Thank you very much.

When you say asking for something like that, do you mean a petition to expand the number of licenses generally? I don't know. I was aware of some legislative action. in communities like the Boston with on-premises to expand the number allowed. And like I said, I think I said public interest but the correct term is public need. You do have to show the legislature there's a public need for granting additional licenses in the community so perhaps that petition that Councilor McGovern referred to didn't... Legislators' eyes satisfy that requirement of public need. So I'm happy to look more into that and compare that Home Rule petition and the action the legislature took, and speak with Attorney Sullivan And to be able to do that would...

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Through you, Madam Mayor, if reconsideration passes there that would give the opportunity for potentially a revised policy order that asks more generally for information about other options and the likelihood that those other options might be successful?

This is definitely an interesting situation. I'm open to reconsideration, but definitely would want more context on what Councilor McGovern raised and Councilor Nolan because I think they both bring up very valid points. but largely the main points around the quotas and all that I'd also support. So, all yield.

Councilor Zusy?

Thank you, Mayor Siddiqui. I think we should reconsider this. I Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I think it would be just the beginning of lots of requests for full alcohol licenses. So I think itís a good idea to pull back, reconsider and rethink this decision. Thank you. Vice Mayor Azeem.

Thank you. I feel like I'm missing something and curious to hear from my colleagues in that my understanding is, like, you know, I think a lot of us would support removing the liquor license limit. The Statehouse is not interested in doing that, right? The State House, if we sent like hey can we get 20 more right the state house in other municipalities broadly in general has not shown interest in doing that. And so what we have as a case here is like one person wants one for one specific case and they have made a strong case that's important for them to continue their business. So I think that if we reconsider this and don't do this, That business gets hurt. And does anyone else benefit? I'm not sure. You could argue that we should open it wide and try to get six more people who also wanted to send specific petitions to us. but that seems like a long extended process and we can do that anyways afterwards.

The State House does not give us the option of hey, can you get 10 more that we will equitably distribute? That doesn't seem to be a realistic option unless I'm missing something Ideally, there would be a lot better ways to do this. But given my understanding of it, I feel like this is the best out of the options that we have. So I'll leave it there, but I'm not sure if anyone has any feedback.

Does anyone have anything else to say? I guess I had two quick questions and then we can go ahead. Commissioner on the Zoom. I'm just curious around how often you all hear from people about getting all alcohol licenses?

Thank you, through you Madam Mayor. That's a difficult question to answer because it really depends. Sometimes in the year we can get two phone calls Do you have any licenses available or sometimes it can be more often? I can tell you that right after the council considered this, we got one phone call from another business asking if there were any all alcohol available. I think they just kind of heard through their grapevine that there was an all alcohol happening. So it's really hard to say. We get inquiries, but I don't know that I can tell you that we get a lot of inquiries. But I think also people know that there's a limit and a quota.

Thanks, Commissioner. To the city solicitor, I was wondering what your opinion was on the circumstances beyond control of the licensee line in the home rule.

Madam Mayor, so attached to the policy order that is now up for reconsideration there is a Sample home rule petition that was attached. The policy order, as you will recall, asked for staff... to work on preparing a home rule petition. So you all, the council left open the possibility that we might have suggested changes to the proposed home rule petition, but looking at what was attached and is proposed. It makes reference to the fact that this site, 336 Rinjav, is under construction with just a start right now. And so the business... Thank you.

Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much. Reconsideration doesn't pass and we come back to the council with a home rule petition. that we propose for the council to vote on and send to the legislature. I would have some suggestions to that section four to clarify that language and tighten it up a little bit as to why What are circumstances beyond the licensee's control that would allow them to transfer the license to a different location?

Okay, so just for the sake of moving the conversation forward I'll say that you know I do think I will vote to reconsider because I do have some questions and there are some unintended consequences Maybe consequences here. With that said, I don't know if you City Solicitor. Regardless, you'll be coming back to us with your opinions on this home rule and so I think there will be another time to discuss before we actually approve something. Correct.

Yes, because the policy order ordered that the manager work with the solicitor and the license commission to draft and submit a home rule petition so the vote was that the council took on this policy order wasn't actually to forward a home rule petition to the legislature, so we will be back in order to allow the council to do that.

Okay, thank you so much. So why don't we go ahead? We've heard from everyone who wanted to be heard on Councilor Nolan's motion and so a yes vote would be to reconsider and no vote would not to.

Councilor Al-Zubi Yes. Vice Mayor Azeem? No. No. Councilor Flaherty? No, Councilor McGovern? No Counselor Nolan?

Yes.

Yes. Counselor Simmons? No No. Counselors Sobrinho-Wheeler? No Yes, Mayor Siddiqui? Yes. Yes, and you have four members recorded in the affirmative and five recorded in

Reconsideration fails, so we will then now go ahead to placing the communication and reports from other city officers number four on file as well. So all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no, the ayes have it. That communication and report from other city officers is placed on file. Mayor Siddiqui? Yes, Councillor Nolan.

I'm just not sure, do we have to also separately move to place the reconsideration itself on file?

I think we're okay. So we now move on to the city manager's agenda. Pleasure of the City Council. Mayor Siddiqui. I have Councilor Nolan and then Councilor Al-Zubi. Thank you.

Number 11, number 18... and I'll see if, I assume someone else will pull a couple others. If not, come back to me. Oh, and number 24 and 25.

We can go to Councilor Al-Zubi and then Councilor Sieniewicz-Wheeler and then Vice Mayor.

I'll pull two in 20.

2 and 20. So, so far just for the record we've pulled two. I'll pull number three for the CPA appropriations. We've pulled number 11 18, 20, 24 and 25. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler?

Number 19.

Number 19, Vice Mayor? 19? And Councilor Nolan, you pulled number 18, right? Yes. Anyone else? Councilor McGovern. Twelve. Pleasure of the City Council. So just for the record, before we move to the roll call on the balance on a motion by Councilor Simmons, we've just pulled two. 3, 11, 12, 18, 19, 20, 24 and 25. So we'll go ahead on Councilor Simmons' motion to do a roll call on the balance of the city manager agenda items.

Zubi, Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor Azeem? Yes. Councilor Flaherty? Yes Councilor McGovern? Yes Yes. Counselor Nolan? Yes Counselor Simmons? Yes yes. Counselors Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes Yes, Mayor Siddiqui? Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

The balance of the City Manager Agenda items is adopted. We're going to City Manager agenda item number two. This is a communication transmitted from Ian Huang, City Manager of Relative and Appropriation in the amount of $500,000 from the Federal Grant Stabilization Fund to the Grant Fund Department of Human Services Programs Other Ordinary Maintenance Accounts To support a citywide response to federal changes affecting SNAP and MassHealth benefits under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Councilor Al-Zubi pulled it. And just a reminder to folks, you'll have the opportunity to ask two questions. and we can come back in the next round if you have more. Councilor Al-Zubi.

Cool, thank you Madam Mayor I do want to acknowledge that I'll be supporting this appropriation and want to thank the Community Foundation COC for building this out. I do also just want to highlight this for the public too because our own numbers are showing that SNAP enrollment is down 15%. Since the big beautiful bill and the city's own data is actually showing that most people aren't losing eligibility, it's 77% of DTA calls getting disconnected before anyone answers. It's 70% of denials being procedural and that's hopefully what some of This appropriation will help fund. I do want to note, though, some thoughts and a question to the city manager. This isn't the first time that we've drawn from the federal grant stabilization fund It said that in the report and I just want to recognize that this fund was also supposed to be there First, from the situation if it changed for our mixed status households and emergency housing vouchers.

And the last update from what I understand is we don't have a clear timeline on where the HUD litigation stands, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. So quick question through you to the city manager. Can we get a current running balance of that fund? What tonight's appropriation would leave and if the city is open to making sure we're able to support to continually financially support this fund, especially if we were to need it for help with emergency housing needs.

State Manager?

Through you, Mayor. Thank you for the questions, Councilor Al-Zubi. The current balance in the federal grant stabilization fund is $3.1 million and so Thank you for joining us. Thank you. We're continuing to have really good conversations about planning for both of those. As you all know, we're in litigation with HUD over the Continuum of Care program. Thank you very much.

that we are supporting folks who are housed. I think that's incredibly important. We've heard that from this city council and I think insofar as Thank you very much. We still have a number of years of this administration to go. If it were the case that we would need to come back and look at additional funding, I think that we'd be very open

Awesome. Thank you for that, and just want to acknowledge again that this fund is super crucial for so many different things, and I'm glad that we are taking the time to support this and want to make sure that the emergency housing needs are not left out all year long.

I'll just say that I'm really glad that we are doing this and all for the updates we've received over the summer as the impacts of one big pandemic. Beautiful Bill Act have continued to unfold. I'll just also quickly wanted express appreciation for the folks who were involved. That was CCCF and Christina Turner, Rachel Plummer, Tina from COC along with Many of the other nonprofit partners who've been deeply engaged in their work, I think they've been coordinating and their persistence really has been invaluable as residents face these Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much.

Not just on food insecurity, right? But across many issues. So I just wanted to say that. I know Councilor Zusy you had your hand up please go ahead

Thank you. I also will be supporting this, but I did have a couple of questions. One is has the $250,000 that we allocated earlier for SNAP benefits, has that been distributed?

Through you mayor, yes. It is all distributed.

Okay, that was easy. So what I'm wondering is so $500,000 is a lot for outreach and I really support or I like honor the work of the CEOC helping to manage this. But so with that $500,000 will they be adding a lot of staff? It just seems like everything funnels through CEOC. I guess one of the things I'm wondering is, do we need more money for food? Thank you very much. whether we need to be thinking about food as well?

Through you, Mayor. I think yes absolutely there is tremendous need in the Food Pantry Network for emergency relief Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you very much. If we were conservatively to project out another 15% decline, that's $6 million of SNAP funding that families in Cambridge don't have access to.

On the MassHealth side, we're looking at maybe $28 to $30 million worth of funding for medical care. And that translates into people not getting access to medical services or taking on direct medical debt. I think a lot of what we're looking at is $500,000 is an amount that we think will be very well leveraged compared to how much money in federal funds Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

There may be either additional caseworkers that we will need to hire or additional services that we want to offer. And so I don't think we have all of that $500,000 allocated but I think we thought this was a good starting point.

Sussi. Thank you, that's very helpful.

Anyone else before we move? Yes, Councilor Flaherty.

Well I think through you Madam Mayor that was actually my question, my follow-up question is $500,000 enough because it sounds like this money has outreached and Thank you for joining us. and correctly applying to make certain those federal dollars come back to Cambridge so we can alleviate that burden. Do we need more money is really my question.

Flaherty. I think we'll know more as we get this stood up and so I think Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you. I don't want to say that we know for sure that this is going to be enough, but I also would want to come back with more information later if we were gonna request additional funding.

Flaherty. Well, thank you and through you Madam Mayor I appreciate that and my only suggestion would be don't wait this is a precipitous drop and if there's federal dollars available for the City of Cambridge especially when we've Simmons.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. As we talk first of all through you to the city manager I really appreciate the hard work and the attention you've paid to making sure that we're meeting the needs of our citizens particularly while we have people and the federal government that seem to be hell-bent on making sure that people get less and less while they build in addition to the White House and some other ridiculous things. My question, though, as we do this and I certainly will support it. I mean, I think it just needs to be placed on file and have it right in front of me. One question I do have is. Going, kind of thinking back to the 25 and one thing is a 25 and 26 report we got from the rating agency standards and sports Fitch. I think I said that wrong. Fitch, Finch, whatever they call themselves. They had a line.

It wasn't more than a line about, you know, we're happy to give this AAA rate bond, AAA rating to the city and we know that AAA rating means that we can Thank you very much. I just want to say it out loud. Thank you very much. Because we have a, anyways, you understand that.

So I just want to raise that concern and can you talk us through how you are going to insulate us going forward because we're going to have at least two more Years of this, and I suspect this is not going to end. How do you insulate us so that we can continue to enjoy that AAA trip? I'm going to say it wrong, but you know what I'm trying to say. So we can continue to fund the needs that are being underfunded and undermined by the federal government.

Through you, Mayor. I think that's a great question, Councilor Simmons. I Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Where do we justify one investment versus all of the things that obviously we all want to do? And I think that's where, you know, where's the case why this expense or this initiative rises to the top?

And I think the broader, you know Thank you very much. But to your point, a lot of that is also going to be continuing to be responsible with all of our existing spending, finding efficiencies, finding ways for us to continue to deliver all the services and programs that we want to deliver. but also managing within our means. Councilor Simmons?

Through you Madam Mayor, very quickly please let the City Council know as soon as possible I know we're in the Thank you very much. Letting us know if it's going to have any impact on setting the rate. It's going Thank you very much. To the taxpayer to say, you know, these are the hard times. This is what we want to do.

This what we're going to need to do to soften the blow but also to inform us that it's coming so that we can be fully engaged and informed. I yield.

Thank you. Anyone else would like to say anything before we go ahead and do a roll call on the appropriation and placing the communication on file? Hearing none, we'll do the roll call.

Councilor Al-Zubi? Yes. Vice Mayor Azeem? Yes. Councilor Flaherty? Yes. Yes. Simmons, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Councilors Zusy, Mayor Siddiqui and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

The money has been appropriated and communication number two, the city manager's agenda, has been placed on file. We'll move on to city manager agenda item number three. This is a communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, city manager relative to the Community Preservation Act appropriations. We want to just thank all the work that goes... Thank you. So if you want to say a few words, you're welcome to. We have to take roll calls on four of these votes. There's multiple parts to each vote. And so I wanted to pull it for that reason and then also for you to say a few words.

Thank you through you, Madam Mayor. I do want to take just a quick moment to acknowledge the sudden and unexpected passing of a longtime CPA committee member, Kevin Foster. He was an active member of the committee since at least 2012 and he always pushed a group to think and operate with an eye towards equity and being a voice for those that aren't always represented or heard. And I just want to recognize his contributions to the committee and his work to really make the community a better place. He will be missed, but the positive impacts he had on the community I'm sure will last a very long time. I also want to thank the rest of the Community Preservation Act Committee for volunteering their time and work and effort over the last several months.

I want to acknowledge and thank Deputy Budget Director Daniel Liss from the Budget Office for coordinating this year's process as well as staff from the Housing Department, Historical Commission, Open Space Committee Thank you very much. Since 2002, more than $324 million has been allocated through this process. Property Tax Surcharge, and State Funds. And over several years we've been able to use some of the fund balance as well For FY27, we're recommending $23,750,000 in total. $19 million to the Affordable Housing Trust.

2,375,000 for historic preservation projects and 2,375,000 to open space projects. Excuse me. within those three categories at least 10% of CPA funds have to be allocated, so for years the city has maintained 80% for affordable housing and 10% for both historic preservation and open space. There's a lot of information as well in the book of project recommendations that was distributed to Council and Other than that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. We have staff also available to help answer questions about any particular projects that you have. But as you noted, Madam Mayor, there are a series of votes to take.

for each of the funding categories being state funds, local surcharge funds and from the fund balance. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Again, I'm aware that not only is this often seed money but it leverages other money so it's just amazing that Almost $260 million has gone into affordable housing since 2002, creating 3,015 units. And that is leveraged, $600 million. to build that affordable housing. And again, with historic preservation and open space projects, $32.3 million since 2002 has been invested Thank you for watching. Again and again, the city would put in like a half or a third or just even anything.

And the state was inspired to match the money or give more to take on the project. So I feel as though this is an incredible source of funding. I am personally very excited that the gift of the wind, this will make possible the restoration of the gift to the wind at the Porter Square MBTA station it'll help to preserve the Odd Fellows Hall facade restoration which I know is an expensive item but $500 towards that larger project and it will also help to fund another project close to my heart which is the ADA Accessibility of St. Augustine's Church in Cambridgeport with a grant of $250,000. and then you'll be fixing the belfry or the city will of City Hall. So I thank you for your leadership Taha Again, I will be supporting your recommendations.

Fabulous, fabulous work yielding amazing results for the city. Thank you. Councilor Simmons?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Through you to Mr. Jennings. I want to concur with my colleague, Councilor Zusy. In these difficult times that we can continue to do this is exemplary. I know it's not an easy task but I'm glad that we're able to do it I'm trying to read very quickly. I wanted to speak to St. Augustine's, but my colleague has done that. There were two other items. I'm going to see if I can find them very quickly that had to do with Thank you very much. What is that particular, what is it that you were speaking to? It's B1. Thank you.

Yes, your cemetery lodge stained glass windows, is that what you...

I'm sorry, I don't even know where the cemetery stained glass window is. And so I was just curious to... I'm happy to see it happen but I didn't know, I couldn't visualize Is it in the Cambridge Cemetery?

Through you, Mayor Siddiqui. On page 20 of the package, so it's on page 20 There is a write-up at the top that talks about the Gothic style building. So it's the little chapel, the historic chapel that's on... in Cambridge Cemetery, and then it's windows within that chapel. So it is not a chapel that's utilized but it is an amazing historic building. Charlie Sullivan probably knows more but there is a description of the project on page 20 of the report I'm sorry, but I didn't think it was that real.

Through you to whoever you are. Ms. Watkins. I saw that, but I said that can't be it because I don't know what the stained glass window is. You will when it's done. It'll be beautiful. See, that's very helpful. That's Thank you very much.

is the write-up of that one.

And then lastly, Whitefield. It says the requester was Open Space Committee. And Hoyt feels very important to the African-American community in particular, you heard former Mayor Ken Reeves talk about it. There's certain places that we kind of hold on and think of as our own with our numbers Diminishing or not, it's a place that we kind of gather because it holds a lot of history for a lot It's wonderful that we know, but it'd be important for the community to know as well.

Through you, Madam Mayor. I believe we have some representatives from the Open Space Committee on the line who can speak to this but there's A process hasn't begun for Hoyt Field just yet. We're working to build up funding for it, so I think it says in the description that total project cost is probably more than this or we anticipate future funding requests for this project. So, as we gear up for that process, trying to make sure we're lining up funding to support it.

Through you, Madam, very quickly. Through Director Jennings. So I understand that and I'm pleased. I'm just curious what it is. Not what it so much as the community is engaged in that conversation I think the Tarbell School is in there, which I was very happy about. But it's also important to the community, whatever the numbers are, to say this is what we're doing in the community that has a lot of history For the African American community in particular, the Caribbean, black Caribbean community. So it's just important for us to let people know that this is what we're doing and why we're Thank you, Madam Mayor Yield.

Thank you. Are there any other questions about the appropriations? Yes, Councilor Nolan and then Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler.

I think it's It's thanks. I know this is a lot of work, and when you actually review the number of projects involved in the range of the open space and the historic preservation it's clear that there's a really thoughtful Thank you very much. We can always be doing more, but these do seem to be ones that I think the city should take pride in. Just this summary note and then it's backed up as As has been said before, with much more detailed reports. So I'm encouraging folks who haven't looked at it to actually just look at the list of things we've done over the years and I really appreciate that this is a long haul and appreciate the work that the committee does

Zabena-Wheeler.

Thanks, Madam Mayor. I just want to note that this marks 25 years of Cambridge having the Community Preservation Act. Cambridge voters voted to adopt it in 2001. I appreciate this quarter century of funding for affordable housing and open space and historic preservation, and bringing these things together. And I appreciate the foresight of Cambridge residents 25 years ago willing to adopt that and to tax themselves more. The one on the ballot, to say should we all vote to increase our taxes ever so slightly so that we can fund affordable housing and preservation in open space? That same year, Boston voters rejected it and have in a number of other communities. There's still dozens of communities in Massachusetts that have not adopted the Community Preservation Act but I think it is just an important reminder Now when Cambridge residents are given the chance between keeping a little more for themselves or putting into a collective project for affordable housing, for community goals they choose to contribute and to build. And I think that's an important lesson for us on the council Flaherty.

And I'd just like to say a thank you through you, Madam Mayor, to the committee and especially for selecting the Gift of the Wind project. Sort of a sore spot in Porter Square for a little while, and I think everyone who's been there sees the decay. I think the selection of this as a project with the Community Preservation Act and to invest the money that we're investing in that is a... It's symbolic for the city of Cambridge that we're thinking of art and how people live their lives. People commute in Porter Square every day see this. Rather than lift people's spirits up recently, it's probably made people feel less each day when they see it and they say why aren't we doing something about this? And it's a beautiful magnificent piece of art.

and the fact that the committee has selected this and is going to expend the dollars and take the time in the effort to improve that simply to make A moment in everybody's life in Porter Square, a little bit better I think is an is an excellent example of what we should be doing as city leaders, so I congratulate you and I thank you very much for doing it because I enjoy looking at it when it's well done. So thank you

So I think we've heard from everyone who wanted to be heard. We have 10 roll call votes, so bear with me as I say them. So the first vote won A. This is so basically the full vote would be to allocate 80% of the FY2027 CPA local fund revenues. Al-Zubi.

Yes, Vice Mayor Azeem. Yes, Councilor Flaherty. Yes. Yes Counselor McGovern. Yes yes counselor Nolan. Yes counselor Simmons Yes, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes Yes Mayor Siddiqui? Yes And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative Madam Mayor?

Yes Just for clarification You actually only need to take the four votes as long as you read the contents under each vote. So we could take a roll call on just vote one, two Thank you very much.

Got it. So I'll just do... You're saying I can do them all together?

Yes, but as long as you just read through what is under each vote.

Okay, so... Thank you very much. which is $2,025,000 allocated to historical preservation as follows and I'll read all of this list right yeah Number one is $43,000 appropriated to the Cemetery Lodge stained glass windows. Number two, $200,000 appropriate to the City Hall Ball Fry Restoration. Number three, $40,000 appropriated to document conservation. Number four, $150,000 appropriate to the restoration of Gift of the Wind. Number five, half a million appropriated Hall Facade Restoration, which is at the Dance Complex. Number six, $650,000 appropriated to preservation grants.

Number seven, $100,000 appropriate to the Preservation Projects Administrator. $250,000 appropriated to St. Augustine's Church Accessibility Improvements. Number nine, $32,280 appropriated $59,720 to be reserved for future use. And then I'll go ahead we can go to vote roll call Thank you for joining us. 2 million, excuse me, and $25,000 allocated to open space as follows.

Number two, $65,000 appropriated to expanding native Species at Hell's Half Acre and Tree Care along Memorial Drive 3. $1,433,000 appropriated to Hoyt Field 4. $30,000 appropriate to Site Improvements at the Lynch Family Skate Park. Number five, $400,000 appropriated to Wilder Lee Park. So we'll go ahead and do a roll call on BNC.

Councilor Al-Zubi? Yes. Vice Mayor Azeem? Yes, Council of Flaherty? McGovern, Nolan, Simmons, Sobrinho-Wheeler, Zusy, Mayor Siddiqui, and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

Great. So $20,250,000 have been appropriated for vote one. We'll move on to vote two which is the 2026 state matching funds so We have three roll calls here. Vote to A is 80% of FY2026 state match revenues In the form of $2,400,000 be allocated to affordable housing and appropriated to the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust. Vote 2B is 10% of FY2026 state match revenues in the form of $300,000 be allocated to historic preservation as follows. $50,000 appropriated to Black Cambridge Historical Collections. Number two, $250,000 appropriate to the Tarbell

School Facade Restoration at the Cambridge Community Center, and then vote to see which is 10% of the FY2026 state match revenues. The form of $300,000 be allocated to open space and appropriated to Wilder Lee Park. We'll go ahead and do a roll call.

Yes, Vice Mayor Azeem? Plarity, McGovern, Nolan, Simmons, Sobrinho-Wheeler, Zusy, Mayor Siddiqui.

Okay, 300 million in state matching funds have been adopted. We'll go to vote number three. So vote 3A is 80% of CPA fund balance, which is $400,000, is allocated to the Affordable Housing Trust and appropriated to the Cambridge Affordable Housing Vote 3B is 10% of the CPA fund balance, which is $50,000, is allocated to historical preservation as follows and appropriate a City Hall winter. Weatherization. Number vote 3C is 10% of CPA fund balance, which is $50,000, is allocated to open space and appropriated to Wilder Lee Park. We'll go ahead and do a roll call.

Councilor Al-Zubi. Yes, Vice Mayor Azeem. Yes, Councilor Flaherty. Yes. Yes Counselor McGovern? Yes. Counselor Nolan? Yes Counselors Simmons? Yes, yes. Counselors Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes yes. Yes. Mayor Siddiqui? Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

Half a million has been adopted as part of the CPA fund balance. We'll go to the final vote, which is number 4A. This is the motion to adopt the CPA for administration. This is $15,000 appropriate to administrative costs for community preservation coalition membership dues. We'll do a roll call please.

Councilor Al-Zubi? Yes. Vice Mayor Azeem? Yes Councilor Flaherty? McGovern, Nolan, Simmons, Sobrinho-Wheeler, Zusy, Mayor Siddiqui, and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

$15,000 has been adopted as part of the CPA fund balance. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against, they know the ayes have it. That communication is placed on file. Thank you. We're almost at 7.30, we are moving on to number 11 in the City Manager's agenda which is a communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager requesting that the City Council amend The City of Cambridge has authorized revolving fund ordinance to establish a new revolving fun for the renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction to serve the city's municipal energy use. Councilor Nolan, you have the floor.

Thank you. I'm really glad to see this ordinance change. It's just to remind folks we did do a virtual PPA, which is a power purchase agreement, Thank you very much. What the ordinance would allow us to do is set up the fund in order to receive A couple of questions are when would we expect to see revenue from them? I know that those...

Thank you.

The field is in process now, I believe. Is there a reason why we're behind on approving this and we actually need to use the emergency power we have to actually ordain it tonight? If an emergency exists, we are allowed to suspend our rules I believe if the city solicitor is still here. And I just don't know the timing of this. I know that we want to get this in place as soon as possible so I'm just curious Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I think it covered the month of July, possibly. What we're looking to do is since it's already in play basically get all the funds in the right place so we can take Thank you for joining us.

Some of which have already been appropriated for this fiscal year would then be the secondary source of payment. The second thing that we're doing also is, We have several on-site Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Selling the RECs in the local market for renewable energy certificates, and we received our first check for those as well. It just came in I think last week. Thank you for watching. Thank you very much.

for those SRECs, they're called, solar recs. So that's the reason that I would say is also we have the money coming in and we want to make sure that it's all available to spend it

Nolan.

Yeah, at some point we'll have a longer conversation because what that means is we cannot claim credit for that solar energy that we are generating here because we cannot double count it. If Last I looked at our report, we're only producing 6.5% of clean energy generation on-site so we are using this wind farm That's also funding, I thought that energy was also used for people like me who participate in the community aggregation program. So I think we just have to make clear that we are not double counting and and we are way, way behind as a city on our goal of onsite solar generation in the city based on our net-to-action plan. So I'm just wanting to make sure we understand all that but I'm happy to move this forward Director Cass.

I think the recommendation was to pass it to a second reading, correct? Yes. So it wasn't to try to ordain tonight but it was to

Okay, we're set.

We'll go to Councilor Zusy. So I support that and at some point want to understand the full implication of selling our recs.

Councilor Susi.

Thank you. I'll be supporting this as well. and two, you note that the expenditures will be used to support reduction programs as well as... Oh, well, you'll be using the expenditures to monitor but will it also be used to support greenhouse gas reduction projects? More about the revenues, more about the expenditures.

Sure, through you Mayor Siddiqui. So I actually don't have the specific figure of revenues right now. I'm sorry, what was your other question?

So you note that you're going to be using the money to support monitoring, but will it also help to support reducing projects that reduce greenhouse emissions?

Thank you very much. It's basically saying that every piece of electricity that the city uses for our lights, for streetlights, for park lights is now being considered renewable electricity. So it's fully offset the greenhouse gas emissions for those.

I think this is very complicated. Anyway, that's a good enough answer for now. Thank you.

Other questions on this? Hearing none, on a motion by Councilor Nolan to pass this revolving fund ordinance to establish Renewable Energy and Greenhouse Gas Reduction to Serve the City's Municipal Energy Use. To the second reading, we'll do a roll call.

Councilor Al-Zubi? Yes. Vice Mayor Azeem? Yes, Councilor Flaherty? Yes! Councilor McGovern? Yes Councilor Nolan? Simmons, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Zusy, Mayor Siddiqui, and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

That ordinance has been passed to a second reading. And we will go ahead and place that communication on file. All those in favor say aye. Hi, those against say no. The ayes have it. That communication is placed on file. We're going to city manager agenda item number 12. This is the communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, city manager relative to awaiting report item number 26-27. requesting that the city manager direct staff to examine whether the city can enact an ordinance requiring public buildings and places of public accommodation in Cambridge. With one or more single stall restrooms to have at least one single stall restroom with gender neutral signage. Councilor McGovern

Thank you Madam Mayor, through you. Thank you Madame Solicitor for the report. Not thrilled with the answer, but that's not on you. I know that I guess we can't require this in ordinance. But I was wondering if there was something – I know in the report it says that that ISD will talk with folks and make them aware that this is an option for them. Is there anything that we can do in between a requirement and just a, hey you might want to think about this? Is there best practice standard? I don't know. I think this is an important issue for the folks in the trans community and especially given the state of the country at this point to not feel either have to make that decision about which bathroom they enter and what the ramifications of that might be for them. So this wasn't...

This wasn't just a nice thing to do. I think this is really something important. So are there any other options at our disposal?

I think through you, Madam Mayor, and I'll start, Deputy Commissioner Lazzaro might have More to add, but we can't have a requirement in place so we can t have a regulation or an ordinance. There might be other ways though of getting the message out to contractors or developers, people who would be coming in with plans. to, you know, build these places of public accommodation such as, you and maybe it's something where we can partner with the LGBTQ plus commission as well as maybe the economic development division in CDD to try to get McGovern.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'd appreciate that if we could just maybe put our heads together and think about given the limitations what we can do legally with an ordinance. Any other questions on this matter?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and place City Manager Agenda item number 12 on file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no, the ayes have it. Item number 12 is placed on file We're going on to city manager agenda item number 18. This is a communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, city manager relative of the 2025 Transportation Demand Management Program report. Councilor Nolan, you pulled this?

Thank you. Yes, just had a couple of questions. I always appreciate this report to come before the council because it's something we've relied on over time Look at how it is that just our larger properties are dealing with this question of mode share and particularly with the goal of reducing single occupancy vehicles. As I read it, it seems that Well, there has been a reduction. It's kind of more steady state because the TDM properties have the transportation demand management properties which are the larger properties in the city did see have seen sometimes less single occupancy vehicle, but that is only because of remote work if I'm reading that correctly. So I think the couple questions I have is, how do we see with the future of this moving forward? How is it that we are...

blending our work on transit because that's clearly something that does increase and certainly the folks living in Cambridge are using that more than the folks who are just a workforce in Cambridge. And then separately from at the end there's Many charts about mode share for people and also where they park their vehicles in locations, and that is only for the TDM properties. There's a couple other places in the report resident surveys or a larger group of the Cambridge workforce and Cambridge residents, but not for that section of the report. Is that something that we've ever done or could expect to see in the future? If that makes sense as questions. And I apologize, I didn't send these earlier today. So I know you may not have the answers.

That's all right through you, Madam Mayor. I'm going to start with the second question first, if that's okay. I am not aware of a data source that we have that would allow us to look at parking locations for It's kind of unique that we have even this small window into where residents are parking.

When 80% are in a driveway, it means they're in the large driveway or in a garage. It means obviously that makes total sense only because TDM properties are large buildings.

Yes. Yeah, so they're generally parking in the onsite garage or the lots. The first question was about reduction in SOV rates over time and How they might be affected by moves to hybrid work and that sort of thing. Is that the right question?

And how we're doing to move forward on our... Yeah, so...

I think we're just starting to see kind of what the effects of hybrid work are going to be in the future on the mode share kind of split. People make decisions about where to live and work partly based on their transportation options, of course. And so when one of those options is working remotely that can have an effect on where people choose to live or work I think there's some sort of long-term effects that we're not able to see yet. The other thing to mention, I think is the net zero transfer or sorry It has a new name, the Zero Emission Transportation Plan, which is looking not just at PTDM properties but citywide and finding options for reducing SOV travel that actually work for people. So I think once that begins to be implemented, we'll maybe see more movement on the citywide numbers.

Nolan. Yeah, and obviously I look forward to continued progress on that citywide free affordable frequent reliable shuttle that goes across the city combining all of the shuttles from various players because i think that's something We've talked about, I know is being studied, I believe. Is that correct to move forward so we can get to a point where people will leave their cars at home only when they have other options that they view as viable? So those were the questions. Again, I was happy to see it and would love to probably send a few follow-up questions that we don't talk about here because I realize they may be more specific than is fair to ask here but thanks again for your work. It's a critical part of our We'll go to Councilor Zusy and then Councilor Flaherty.

Thank you, Mayor Siddiqui. So my big takeaway from this was most of all when people were asked what they needed to do if we wanted to encourage them Greener Transportation Modes. They said we need better, more frequent, more reliable and expanded buses and trains. So we've got to... continue to encourage Phil Eng to work with us, and I know we're working closely with the MBTA to continue to produce better systems here so that more people can rely on mass transit. I have a question for you, but I just wanted not to put you on the spot. But what were your biggest takeaways from this study?

Thank you. Through you, Madam Mayor. The big takeaways that I had from the study this year are the small decrease in remote work days from 24 to 25 and kind of small increases in driving alone and transit sort Zusy, I want to note that improving transit service seems to be one of the strongest strategies that we have for reducing driving alone. I think there is also in the resident survey some kind of evidence that that is actually helping. So after The track improvement program the MBTA completed in 2024, we saw a jump from 26% of resident work trips being used or being through transit to 31% this year, which is quite a big jump.

and I think probably reflects the better public transportation that we have available. One more small thing. I think it's really exciting that walking is the most popular mode for patrons of our local businesses, with about 48% of patrons arriving by walking.

I noticed that too. I found that really, really interesting and that makes sense to me too. Because I think mostly because it is so hard to park, I think people are going to local businesses and local restaurants. Thank you so much for having me. and how do we track city staff transportation patterns? Because, you know, we do have 2,000 employees so I think it's really... We love city staff but I think Many live outside of the city and we have to understand how they're getting to work and where they're parking so we can accommodate them. Thank you

Through you, Madam Mayor. Councilor Zuzi, thank you for the question. We have a couple city properties that are in the PTDM program. So some cities' employees are covered by PTDMs. Thank you so much for joining us. which is something that large employers are required to do. So we do track for all city employees how they get to work and I believe this coming year we will be starting that survey again, so we'll have new information.

Zuzi? Yeah, great. That's wonderful because I just think again it seems that about 40% of the people We have a lot of people driving and commuting. and again, it's just really important to make sure they can park somewhere because I think this will continue for some time until we have shared autonomous vehicles. and Better Mass Transit. It seems as though people will need a place to park. Thank you.

We will go next to Councilor Flaherty.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Through you. So I've got a question. I might have this wrong but I remember reading this and seeing that maybe there were 79 properties under the TDMP and 11 of them were not meeting their commitments, something like that. And so my question is what happens when a property doesn't meet its commitments?

Thank you for the question through you Madam Mayor. Our first attempt, at least whenever there's a compliance issue is to work collaboratively with the property owner to bring the property into Sometimes that looks like just helping them figure out how to implement the TDM measures that are already required by their PTDM plan or by their special permit. In some cases it means developing new TDM measures that will kind of expand the options that are available to folks who are traveling to that site. We do have some enforcement mechanisms through both the PTDM ordinance and through the special permit process, but we so far have always been able to work with the property owner in order to decrease the SOV rate over time. So we haven't had to use those.

Any other questions on this report before we move on?

Hearing none, go ahead and do a roll call on placing city manager agenda item number 18 on file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. City Manager Agenda Number 18 is placed on file. We'll move on to city manager agenda item number 19. This is a communication transmitted from Yan Wang, city manager relative to awaiting report item number 26-45 regarding review of decline in traffic enforcement This was filed by Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, and then I'll go to the Vice Mayor next. Councilor Sabina Wheeler.

Thanks, Madam Mayor. Through you, I just had a couple questions on this, and thanks for that report back. sort of overview of traffic enforcement trends here. The one question I had was, you know we don't have automated speed enforcement cameras yet or red light cameras yet because they haven't been authorized by the state legislature State government last year or the year before did authorize installation of cameras for school buses to catch drivers who illegally pass Halted school buses with their stop sign out. I think we passed a policy order around that kind of traffic enforcement So is that something that our school buses have adopted yet? Do you know and are there data trends around that?

To you, Madam Mayor. I don't believe I have any on that. Stand by.

Through you, Madame Mayor. I don't have the latest update on that. Some time ago, I did have a short conversation with folks at the school department Thank you very much. So that's something I can speak to the school department about and ask them to give you an update.

That would be great, thank you. And then the other question around traffic enforcement specifically around intersections where we've continued to see some of the most dangerous crashes including on city streets where we have seen people killed in the past couple years and A few weeks ago, it was on DCR controlled land but in Cambridge. MIT professor and cyclist killed at an intersection there So I just wanted to ask how the city prioritizes high-risk intersections, especially from a traffic enforcement perspective. I know we've been doing a lot of work around design and turn hardening around intersections but particularly from an enforcement perspective just how we prioritize enforcement around high speeds, failure to yield, running red lights, illegal right turns especially by larger vehicles trucks some of the most dangerous ones

sort of prioritize the most dangerous intersections and how we're using data around that to narrow in on the most dangers intersections where we see the most crashes or the most illegal And if there are more things we could do to be really honing in on those dangerous intersections.

Through you, Madam Mayor, I'm going to have my expert traffic lieutenant answer that question for you.

So the department has a full-time traffic analyst that goes through all the crash reports that are taken in the city. And using that data, we break it down by street address intersection and also the devices involved in the collision as well. Because in this city, it's not just like you're saying, it could be pedestrian versus motor vehicle, motor vehicle. The combination of devices that could be in the city goes on. We then take that data and they can create maps for us. They're color-coded maps, wherever you see the dark red is basically where you see areas of most concern. It's consistently been the longest roadways. Mass Ave from Walden up to the Arlington Line, Inman Square area of Hampshire Street, Cambridge Street basically from 3rd Street down to Windsor Street, those such areas.

officers do enforcement in those what we call high accident areas and there's a 86 alpha called directed enforcement that they can call off on to show they're addressing those specific areas I know currently there's a lot of construction going on at Hampshire Iron Prospect, which is one of those areas. They're putting in the separated bike lane and that there are infrastructure changes along All those areas as well also have bike lanes on them, which is something we also address clearing out the cars and the bike lanes. But basically it's it is something that I know that the commissioner recently has had this traffic analyst prepare reports for her command staff meetings so that the higher-ups in the department can look, see what the trends are and then use them in patrol operations to use the resources of both patrol and the traffic unit to address these concerns.

Councilor Al-Zubi, anything else?

Thank you. That's helpful. I may have some follow-up questions offline, but I'll yield for now so my colleagues can ask questions.

Vice Mayor Azeem?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I had a question in your report It starts with 2021. And my thought was that, I know there was a dip in general driving and traffic during the COVID years and it's rebounded a little bit since then. I looked at the open data online And it's slightly different numbers, but I just thought I would ask before 2019 or 2019 and before that, I saw much higher numbers than even now. Does that match the story of what you guys have heard as well?

Through you, Madam Mayor. Yes. COVID-21, we did not receive any grant funding from OGR. Since then, 2022, we've received the Municipal Road Safety Grant which has allowed us additional funds to address public safety concerns That traffic analyst I just discussed found a high collision rate at Brattle and Sparks, that area there where Craigie Street is. And we utilized those funds to sign officers there to address the crash rate between bicyclists and motor vehicles in that area. But as far as the trend of the numbers go, yes, from 19 to 20 went down, 21 up a little bit, and then since then they've sort of gone up and plateaued

I was just wondering, what do you think is the rationale for why they're still lower than P2019 levels? I don't think that the police department, correct me if i'm wrong has dramatically different resources than it did in 2017-2018 so just wondering if you could go more into why you think that they're still Again, maybe the numbers on the open data portal are not exactly the same but I see almost double the number of what we have now citations per year.

Through you Madam Mayor it's a complicated answer Our data trends match those of the surrounding communities of law enforcement, and we are slightly better than most of them. The infrastructure changes in the city do appear to be working. The most complained about thing in the city but through our speed trailer data and the data at DOT we're not seeing speeding as much as people are complaining about it. And when we have people go out and address this, so part of it is the community interaction aspect of it. We'll send the officers down to run LiDAR. Neighbor will come out and say, hey, I'm the one that complained. This happened right over here on Clinton Street actually. and we sat there with them showing them the LIDAR, what the numbers were on there. And they were surprised at what their perception was and how fast it was going. We've also done this on Mass Ave as well. But ultimately why the numbers went down is

If we could pinpoint it to one thing, we could address it. But I think it's a number of things. And part of it is the way these infrastructure changes have gone. It's cut down on the ability to take risk such as running a red light because traffic's congested traffic calming wise The other thing is the city has done a good job with the way the roads are done. Going in a straight line is the easiest way to speed up. That's really... Waismer

I would say that's very helpful. If it's for those reasons, that's a compelling positive reason that the city is getting safer. Maybe not for this sort of conversation but just Thank you for joining us. and yet it seems to be like a national trend that citations dropped in 2019, 2020. They rose back a little bit but they're 10 or Thank you very much. But it feels like you guys have a different explanation. So I would just say perhaps at some point or another we can have a longer conversation about this, but this was very helpful. Thank you.

We have Councilor McGovern, and then Councilor Zusy, and

Thank you very much. But a couple of things I wanted to mention, and this is maybe not just for the police department but everybody up there. One of the complaints I hear a lot and I've witnessed this myself, unfortunately, I think that, you know, I know that the police can't be everywhere. Right? And we don't want police on every street corner, right? You guys are out doing Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

officers know that if they see a violation, they should enforce it. Because I think there's three main things we have to do as a city. We have to provide... Safe infrastructure. We have to provide enforcement and we have to Thank you very much. Road safety for everybody, right? Not just drivers but drivers are driving vehicles that can kill people. Thank you very much.

motivational kind of action or campaign. The other thing I was going to ask, I mentioned this and maybe this is for Brooke that Ms. McKenna that Not that I've ever done this, but if you double park on Boylston Street in Boston to let's just say let somebody run into your kid run into the Apple store. You're not there for more than four seconds before a A van from the Boston Traffic Department pulls up behind you with a little light on and a loudspeaker that says, move your car. We don't do that. At least I've never seen us do anything like that. Because the police can't be everywhere and have very important things to do, can we create some other way?

parking in bike lanes, double parking, clogging up the streets that you can't respond fast enough to give them a ticket. But is there some other thing that we can do to move those people along and make sure they're not doing that?

Three, Madam Mayor. Well I'm excited to talk about the fact that we actually are going to be introducing automated parking enforcement. You guys Thank you very much. In my department or by the police department, which are those shorter term violations like a bike lane or a double parking. So what we can do is we can identify those high incident locations Thank you very much. McGovern.

Thank you. And so, yeah, my time is up but I'll just – I do hope we also maybe at another time really talk about some kind of citywide campaign around rules of the road and just everybody taking a breath and being a little more considerate of one another. We have Councilor Zusy next, followed by Councilor Flaherty.

Thank you. Building on what Councilor McGovern was saying, I agree we need to – I feel like we're investing in safer crosswalks and safer bike lanes. But now we really need to, I think enforcement is absolutely essential and I was looking, one of my questions was in looking at the numbers of citations. My question was gonna be but I'm not going to use that question is whether it includes warnings. But then someone sent me the August 26 traffic citations for the Cambridge Police Department. So in August, cyclists, there were 53 citations but 49 were warnings Four were civil fines, and they collected $80. And then with cars, there were 266 citations, but 207 of those were warnings. 35 were civil fines.

24 Criminal, and we raised $3,265. So this just makes me think I think we need to be very clear. I think we should be giving more civil fines to ensure parking that people are following our rules and I'm sorry, I just lost this great memo. Here it is. Will the CPD create a program focused on dangerous turning speeds, failure to yield, red lights and illegal right turns, especially by larger vehicles? What support could CPD, what do they need to run it regularly at the highest risk intersections identified through crash data? So I just feel like what the Department of Transportation is doing is like you're doing a lot.

I really commend you for your work, but I feel like the other work and I know it seems like enforcement isn't as It's considered old school, but I actually feel as though it's relevant. I think if people know what they can do and what they cannot do and if we're clear, they are more likely to follow the rules. So in your report You know that there's a problem because of staffing shortage and you need more people in patrol operations and that you're hoping... to increase that, maybe to shift resources. So I just wanted to know more about Thank you very much. and two, how many people do you currently have in your patrol operations?

And how many more do you think you would need to actually enforce intersections and enforce traffic well?

I can start that to you, Madam Mayor. When we say that we're understaffed, it's more the number that we are supposed to be at we just can't seem to get at. Thank you for watching. and with this new alternative pathway of hiring, I think we're going to be able So in that sense, that's going to put us in a much better place to do more enforcement for sure. And those traffic questions I'm going to give to this guy.

When you discuss a program, are Zusy.

Yeah, I'm talking about targeted enforcement because again when you know the two times I've campaigned the most common refrain I heard was that people don't feel safe Thank you very much. It's the Wild West out there. So I think enforcement is really essential, and I know the police have over 220, 30, 40 staff. Can't more be put on patrolling?

supposed to have those numbers and I don't believe, I believe it's closer to possibly 200. I'm not sure what the staffing is but The dedicated enforcement campaign is something we'd absolutely be open to discussing or working on with the city council. So yes, we'd be open I guess very simply the answer is yes. This is something that, yes, we'd be open to.

But it's also – I have to say it's Pull people over. They do have discretion. I mean, we can't force them to write a money fine, but we can certainly have conversations around public safety campaigns where that would be part of it and that would

Thank you and I yield. We will go to Councilor Flaherty and then Councilor Nolan. Just a time check, it's 8-12 p.m. Councilor

But with the explosion and the anticipated explosion of the use of micromobility devices, you made a good point I think with the intersection of brattle and sparks. Thank you very much. This probably isn't a fair question for you right now, but conceptually, how as a city will we be able to do a robust enforcement program for all micromobility devices, all bicycles, all automobile. Every type of mode of transit. What would that require? Would it require a separate department for the registration of micro mobility devices? Is it

Is it so much of a lift that it's next to impossible or is it something we could plan for? As, you know, Councilor Zusy noted, as everybody knows, transportation at Cambridge is a real challenge.

Through you, Madam Mayor.

So there's a micro-mobility committee, I think it's called Alternative Travel. We changed its name. But I sit on it with DOT and with the Law Department, with the Disabilities Commission, and... We presented to the council as well, the current rules. We're still waiting on this new law to be signed in. So basically everything could change and then we have to figure out how we would do it. Currently, we are addressing... For the longest time in the city, it was motor vehicle versus bicyclist and their needs and wants. The e-scooters have united them. Everybody hates them. It's something that we're addressing in the business districts right now. And currently, according to that citation portal data, we are number one in the state in citing these e-scooters. So we are addressing these concerns Thank you for joining us.

Councilor all around the city, mainly the business districts. And with the students coming back we're going to see an increase in that as well.

Through you, Mayor. I think this is a great discussion. It's clear to me that when we're thinking about Especially safety, the enforcement coming from the police department is just one piece of a much bigger picture that I know we've got a lot of work on including Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Speed Humps, which I know as we're talking about speed is a big factor. And then some additional technology that we're thinking

If we can, this is kind of going beyond what's in the packet so I'll let you briefly chime in and then we have to move on. Through you Madam Mayor, very quickly.

We launched our Speed Hunt program last year and we are continuing that and looking for outside sources of funding to enhance that as well And then I know that we have already, or you have as the council showed your support for changes at the state level around automated enforcement for red light cameras and speed. For us, continuing to push on that is a really important element to enforcement because the more we can do Flaherty, Youssef.

I think it's a fair answer and we can move on. Thank you very much.

I would love to know the status of how soon we'll see the parking violation ticketing be able to be in place. Thank you very much. I'm sure the legal department got sick of hearing from me about this, so really glad. Do we know when that will actually be in place? Because I know you gave us a memo about how you're going to try a few different ones.

Three, Madam Mayor. We're deep in the planning of that and the next step will be coming for the surveillance ordinance approval shortly.

Thanks. Cousin on? Two more, a lot of the points have been answered Made. One question is that the memo talks about the data shows that for the last three years CPD has issued more citations than the surrounding municipalities. I don't expect the answer now, but it would be good to just get a follow-up to say how that was calculated and measured because... It would just be good to know how we compare since it sounds like we have the data and it should be done based on cars and workforce. You know, is it corrected for – it sounds

Thank you very much. The municipalities specifically with like Boston and State, they break it down by barracks and district even. So we can see what the... What citation information has been reported to the state, and that's what's on this portal. So that's where we got it from. As far as the size of the departments, that'd be something else we could look into as well. But ultimately, the numbers that have been discussed here tonight the same source we got those numbers from, from the surrounding community.

Great, yeah. It would just be good to know if they're corrected for population or for miles traveled or however it is because you want a baseline. You want to be comparing apples to apples so if we have that information great I don't want to create extra work. I do have, so thanks for that. And then the question is we've talked a lot about we know that the most dangerous, I know the intersections we've gone over some of the distracted driving but it's dealing with and proactively understanding how these large trucks throughout our city are how it is that we can do harm reduction and mitigation. So, do we have a sense of how we're working on that?

We are looking as part of our intersection safety program, we're looking at how to turn hardening at corners to do exactly that. To slow down how the turns are making and and very soon in the next month or so, you'll start to see at our higher crash locations wherever the geometry allows They're black and yellow. We call them bumblebees that are put out in a way that will significantly slow vehicles including larger vehicles as they're making turns so we're excited about that coming up shortly.

Councilor Nolan? Yep, thanks for all the work on this. I know we've kind of been peppering you with questions and we do want to understand how it is that we get to more safety. And I wanna echo what several of us have also said is the more we can get education out there for all users of the roads Thank you for joining us. Especially now with students back, we definitely see it. Many of the users do not understand that for instance they should not be going the wrong way in a bike lane Thank you, Councilor Nolan. Anything else on this?

Hearing none, thank you. We'll go ahead and place city manager agenda item number 19 on file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. City Manager Agenda Number 19 is placed on file. We'll move on to City Manager Agenda Item 20. This is a communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager, regarding welcoming city ordinance reporting from the Cambridge Police Department. Councilor Al Zubi, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. No question here. I just wanted to share a quick comment. Thank you for this report. It's definitely good one saw that there was zero Detainers, and Zero Warrants. So thank you for that. I do want to note one entry though. In July an ICE officer had called ahead of a home visit to confirm there had been no quote dangerous incidents at the address before going and I definitely can understand why that might call my get answered on reflex. But just want to acknowledge that it would be great for the department to treat that with the same mindfulness caution because we have agreed that we cannot cooperate with ICE and in some ways this is our operational assistance to ICE. That's all, thank you for the report, appreciate it.

Anyone else would like to comment on this? Hearing none, we'll go ahead and do a voice vote on placing city manager agenda number 19 on file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. City Manager Agenda Number 19 is placed on file. We'll move on to City Manager agenda number 24. This is a communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager regarding The Cambridge Preschool Program and the establishment of a task force charged with identifying policy solutions to expand support for families with young children. Councilor Nolan, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor Siddiqui. I think since the next communication number 25 is very similar, I'd like to suspend the rules just so we can anyone who wants to talk and discuss both at the same time.

Nolan is moving to suspend the rules to take these matters together. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. We have 25 as well before us, which is transmitted from Yi-An Huang, City Manager of Relative Appointments to the Joint Child Care Access Task Force. Councilor Nolan. Thank you.

I really wanted to make sure we understood the significance of this, and also first I want to start out thanking your office, Mayor Siddiqui, because I know this has taken a tremendous amount of of Time and Effort, but also energy and passion on the part of your office or a few different people. And also the city manager's office. If Cheryl is still here, probably it's kind of late. But it's certainly been a joint effort and I know our DCM Corzine was also here who has worked on this as well as the city manager This is a milestone that is occasioned by a couple years of work building on our efforts to increase child care access. Thank you.

One of the critically important things we can do for people across the city is to ensure that we have high quality, available, affordable child care for everyone. All of our kids, as young as we can go. Right now we're doing it for all four-year-olds. We have it for most three-year olds but not also the charge for this task force which I am really happy to be co-chairing with Councilor McGovern and also with Mayor Siddiqui leading us as well. I think the only question is, is there anything that the city wants to say as we launch this effort and how it McGovern, if you wanted to add to this because we've been working on this for quite a while and it really is incredibly exciting to think that we will be doing this and launching this.

Councilor McGoven do you want to say anything?

Yes, thank you Madam Mayor. Through you. Thank you Councilor Nolan. Yeah just to echo this is exciting it's you know this whole conversation around early childhood education has been so long and going on for so many years in the city and to think just within the last We're now moving to four-and-a-half-year-olds, all four-year olds and some three-and a half year olds being served Thank you very much. Nolan, and Patrick on your staff who have really been great at organizing this and pulling this together. So very exciting. It's good work. It is going to make a difference to a lot of people so I am very excited about

Thank you so much for joining us. We've been proud to lead I think on early childhood education Our preschool program is a great example of that commitment, as well as our other programs around extended day and summer care to families with the greatest financial need. Getting this task force together will provide us with a great opportunity Thank you very much. Thank you to all the staff who've been involved, City Manager and Dr. Olson and ACM Corzini.

So with that I'll pass it to you all to say any few words you'd like.

Sure, through you, Mayor. I'm very excited and thank you to the mayor, Councilor McGovern, Councilman Nolan, and the council for the broader prioritization of Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. and also decisions as we think about where to expand and how to build out a work plan for the coming years.

So thank you all, very excited about this getting started and I'll turn it over to Assistant City Manager Corzini.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, Madam Chair, through you. First I'd like to acknowledge Cheryl who I believe is online and Michelle Gottfried from our team. They've done tremendous work in this area, and one of the things I think it's most important for the council to know is that the focus on infants and toddlers didn't just sort of come out of Staff conversation in isolation from the community. This is an area upon reflection and conversation with community members and partners. that we clearly articulated a need. And so as we move into this work, we're super excited to be looking at opportunities to expand access through working on the critical issue that residents have sort of informed us on It is our goal and our intent to ensure that we continue the good work that Cambridge has done in terms of early education, expanding access to all families. I'm not sure if Shara was on or she wants to add a comment.

Dr. Olson?

Good evening, I don't have much to add other than to share the excitement that so many others have spoken about. The city's made such tremendous Commitments and Investments in the Cambridge Preschool Program. And we are serving many children and families through that program, but we know as others have mentioned this evening, families of infants and toddlers still struggle to find and afford high quality care. So I am incredibly excited to join many on this call and around your table to tackle this and to provide services to these families.

Great, thank you. We'll do a voice vote on the first communication. So that's communication number 24 to place that on file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. City Manager Agenda item number 24 is placed on file. For City Manager agenda item number 25, we will go ahead and do a roll call on approving the appointments and then placing...

Zubi, Anderson, Azeem, Cohen, Sieniewicz, Simmons, Sobrinho-Wheeler, Tan, Watkins, Simmons, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler, Zusy, Mayor Siddiqui, and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

We're done with the City Manager's agenda. We'll move on to policy orders. We've disposed of 1 and 3, Pleasure of the City Council.

Madam Mayor.

Councillor Simmons?

I've got to find the number, sorry. It's number... Four? No, it's seven.

Okay, so you're pulling number seven.

Yes, and... Number four, yes. Thank you.

And then I'll pull number nine and 11. Anyone else? Councilor Nolan?

Yeah, I just wanted to pull 10 and 12 just to be added so not long conversation.

10 and

I just want to clarify, Councilor Simmons you did pull number four right? She did.

So for the record, we've pulled number four. We've pulled seven. We pull number nine. We pulled number 10, 11 and 12. Okay? And we can go ahead and do a roll call on adopting items number 2, 5, 6, and 8.

Move the adoption. Councilor Al-Zubi. Yes, Vice Mayor Azeem. Yes. Councilor Flaherty? Yes. Yes, Councilor McGovern? Yes! Yes, Councillor Nolan? Yes Yes, councillor Simmons? Yes yes councillors Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes Yes, Mayor Siddiqui? Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

The bounds of the policy order is adopted. We'll go to policy number four. This is that the city managers requested to confer with the Cambridge Police Department and other relevant departments to develop a coordinated July 4th response plan. for the Cherry Street, Harvard Street and Fletcher Maynard Academy area to ensure that this spot not be utilized for the illegal use of fireworks. This was followed by Councilor Simmons and Councilor Flaherty. Councilor

Al-Zubi, and Sobrinho-Wheeler brought in an amendment earlier today. And I'll let them speak to their amendments, and then I'd like to hear from my colleagues, and Let me also yield to my colleague, Councilor Flaherty, if he wants to say something now.

Councilor Fleury?

Sure. Through you, Madam Mayor, I noticed the amendment too and having some difficulty understanding the rationale of the amendment because this is essentially a crowd control and a nuisance. function of the Cambridge Police Department, it's their visibility I think that is effective in these situations. So I'm having some difficulty understanding the rationale to eliminate them by amendment from the policy order. So I'm happy to hear what the rationale is, but

So these amendments are from Councilor Al-Zubi and Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Councilor Al-Zubi, do you want to go first?

Yeah, thank you. Through you, Madam Mayor, I do want to thank Councilor Simmons and Flaherty for filing this. and I do want to explore the opportunity for working towards exploring I just want to acknowledge that. The use of those fireworks should give us an opportunity to actually build those relationships, behavioral changes and I recognize that the police might come and go, and the fireworks might come in go. And I'd love to be able to create room for a shift in that behavior not necessarily solely being reactive I'll defer to Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler if he has anything he wants to add.

Zubino-Wheeler.

Yeah, so the questions from the sponsors and I would echo Councilor Al-Zubi for thinking about this issue and putting it in to the rationale for the amendments, I think it's pretty straightforward The activity here, fireworks is not violent. There's no suggestion that it's violent. and to go along with the city's approach of trying to address issues and behaviors that aren't violent. There's not a weapon involved here, there's not gun, to try to address that via the means of the community safety department, which is the department here. And also to the point about it eliminating the police department, it actually doesn't do that. kept the language from the original policy order that talks about other relevant departments, if there is a part here where the police department is relevant, they would be included under the other relevant departments. It's just suggesting that the lead in this be the community safety department since this is I think everybody agrees a nonviolent issue one of the whereases talks about the police responding and then

Activity starting up again when the police leave. It's sort of saying the approach right now isn't working, suggesting that because this is a nonviolent activity, the lead should be the community safety department if there is a part where the police should be involved you know other relevant departments can be involved including the fire department, including the police department but just that the lead department should be the community safety department. I'll get back

So these are the amendments before us. We will have to vote them up or down, and then there would be adoption of the PO. So discussion of the amendments

Zusy. I agree with Councilor Simmons and Flaherty. I think you're going to, I think the Community Safety Department in heart should be involved. It would be great that they would be involved I agree this isn't violent action, so Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler like I understand your where you're coming from but I think I think people will be more responsive if the police are present. So I think they need to be the lead department there working maybe in collaboration with this community safety department and HART.

Councilor, before we go back to Councilor Simmons, anyone else who'd like to speak? Councilor McGovern.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I think in the original order it says... Not just the Cambridge Police Department, but it does say other city departments as well of which the Community Safety Department would qualify for that in that area. I'm not sure they could necessarily... Thank you very much. With the police department, it's not always about...

I think we have police departments within the police More focused on community building and relationships. They may already have relationships with some of the folks who are involved in this, so I certainly don't... Thank you very much. I would not want to strike them from the ordinance. Thank you.

One thing I did want to say is that looking at this issue kind of the last few years, it's The departments that I think are the most involved are Cambridge firefighters, police officers, emergency medical staff, really Cambridge Emergency Communications. So they should... They're all... I know there's a blanket relevant departments section. You know, I think I agree that I think if we just listed all of them out to develop a coordinated July 4th response plan. I think that would get at some of, you know, Thank you for joining us.

If something were to happen, someone gets hurt, there's going to have to be a lot of all of these departments involved. I am totally fine with community safety department being listed, but I also do agree that we should probably list... actually, inherently what happens now is multiple apartments not just the Cambridge Police it's Simmons,

Can you speak into the mic? Yes. I was trying to send this to Naomi, just show it to her and I can send it along to my colleague so you can get an idea of what's happening So what's happening is every 4th of July around 10 o'clock, right after the little slower, honey, a little slower for people to act. What happens at 10 o clock after the regular fireworks Young people that are invited by the gentleman that lives at the corner of Cherry Street and Harvard for the last 10 years through Commissioner Haas, Commissioner Branville-Barr, Commissioner Elo and now with Commissioner Wells. They start at 10 o'clock at night firing off those fireworks and it goes to 2 in the morning. They are in the Fletcher Maynard Academy schoolyards.

So who knows? It's hard. So what happens is, because they don't clean up behind themselves, the DPW has to come down the day after. But what the hardship is, People that have young children, this is going on to 2 a.m. in the morning. So I'll call the police department because if you go down there, there's about 40 people on the street, 40 people. They don't live in the neighborhood. So just imagine, imagine for a moment listening to – thank you for bringing my phone back. Listening to that – I don't know if I can play it just so you can hear it. Oh, I stopped it. magnified ten times. Thank you.

I tried everything and we can't get done this time. They stopped. As soon as the police are gone, they start again. And this goes on until 2 a.m. in the morning. So I talked to the principal of the community and said, this is our property.

We want people

That's outrageous. And it doesn't happen anywhere else that I know of. Anyone shooting fireworks in your 2 a.m.? Anyone? 2 a.'m.? Someone shooting at 2 a., But it's loud. It's up the street from a number, I mean in my neighborhood we have five, I would say family related housing so I appreciate your thoughtfulness but it's not about Because it says that Cambridge, somebody should follow the lead. That's why I don't support it because it's not about leading a conversation about engaging community engagement. We've talked about it Thank you for watching.

Thank you. Thank you for joining us. So I respectfully appreciate your thoughtfulness. The neighborhood is just tired. And so I hear community safety, but for me what the community is saying why isn't the police doing something? So when they don't see that they think they're turning a Deaf Ear and a Blind Eye, and we know that is not the case.

Anyone who hasn't spoken on this matter would like to speak before I go back to Councilor Subbino-Wheeler? Seeing no one, Councilor

The amendment here is not about this which department we're saying the lead and the policy order says that the police department approach hasn't been working. We want more police departments, this is just saying let's Let's try something in addition to that, right? Let's also ask the community safety department. It's not saying don't involve the police whatsoever. If the policy order honestly had just said that the city manager work with relevant departments to work on this, like would have voted for this easily. I agree fireworks noise or loud noises are a bad issue whichever what I guess struggle with is saying the current approach with the police department response isn't working Let's Try That Again. I'm just asking, let's look at other things. Let's try something different here in addition to what we're doing right now. And so that's what the amendment is. It'd also be fine with an amendment that just says any relevant departments so that we can bring in other city staff.

saying, hey the current approach isn't working let's try the current approaches some more.

Does anyone else like to speak?

Yes I had Councilor Nolan next

Yeah, I agree this should be addressed. I mean it's in my neighborhood too. It depends but certainly- 2 in the morning? Yeah, particularly right near Danahy Park depending on where you are but clearly we need to do this. We need all hands in so I do think it makes sense to call out the community safety department because they should be included in it and other relevant departments as well. I think the key is to get us all on board to have everybody work on this. And I also note the fire department is one who is often involved as well because this could be something that would end up creating some issues that we need the fire departments expertise on.

Other questions or comments? I'll go back to Councilor Simmons one more time, and then I suggest we do a vote.

So a couple of things, Madam Mayor. In the 1, 2, 3... In the first order, it strikes Cambridge Police altogether. And then it says, confer with the Community Safety Department, I think that's CARE, and HARP, which is not a department of the city, but anyway. Cambridge Police Department It strikes them out again, and if the way I read it, it seems like you don't want the Cambridge Police Department. And I kind of know my community a little bit, and I think if they saw this convening and didn't see them, they would call it out. It just concerns me.

I think we've heard from everyone who wanted to be heard on this, so I suggest what we can do is do a roll call on adopting the amendments and then we'll go ahead and adopt the policy order. Depending on where the amendments go. Did you want to speak? Yes, Vice Mayor? What? Yes. Go ahead.

I was just going to say my opinion is that we're going to end up in the same place with or without these amendments. I think that the Community Safety Department and Cambridge PD should work together, and so I'll vote no on these amendments but only because I think they do the same thing. And if we wanted to list out all the departments later, I'd be supportive of that too. Thank you.

So Madam Mayor, I'm going to try to write this.

Okay, Councilor Simmons has exercised her charter right on policy order number four. We will go to policy order seven. This is to proclaim September 14th as Blessed Sacrament Drill Team and Color Guard Day in Cambridge. and asked that the City Council go on record celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Blessed Sacrament Drill Team and Color Guard in recognizing its artistic achievements, historical contributions, and nine decades. of commitment to empowering young people through discipline, teamwork, creativity and community. This was filed by Councilor Zusy and myself Simmons. Thank you very much, Mayor Siddiqui.

We should have looked at this much earlier as well. But I feel as though this is such a happy policy order because we're celebrating something wonderful. 90 years of this drill team performing, practicing. And so let me just share a little history. The Blessed Sacrament began this in 1936 with an all-female parish drill team. created to provide recreation, discipline, fellowship and performance opportunities for the girls from Cambridge Port. And then it became one of the strongest drill teams in all of greater Boston.

So they were known as a championship drill team in 1944, 45, 47, 48 and 49. And then... They became a regular finalist at the Winter Guard International World Championships. They won the independent world class championship in 1990. and earned numerous additional medalist and finalists placements over the following decades. So this really is an amazing drill team, It's still going strong. You know, Blessed Sacrament, the team moved from the Blessed Sacrement when the church turned into condos like a decade ago but they're still going strong and they are competing and practicing sometimes in Medford, sometimes in Lynn, sometimes Dorchester. Thank you so much for joining us.

And so I think the idea of celebrating them and proclaiming today as Blessed Sacrament, Drill Team and Color Guard Day in Cambridge. is a beautiful, beautiful thing. So I hope you'll join me in this.

Thank you.

First, I wanted to be added as a co-sponsor as a drill team mom. who rode on the bus lots of times and sat on very hard benches. But we beat Brookline a lot of times, and that was my proudest moment. My children went right through the ranks, starting with the little guys all the way to seniors. I had the holes in the walls to resemble all the rifles that – One was a rifle, one was a flag, and one was flag, rifle, saber. And they're not sharpened sabers so don't worry about that. But it did put a few holes in the ceiling, knocked out a few windows The permanent dens, I just stopped replacing it because why bother? Because they were going to keep practicing.

And it's so funny because even now we just recently the girls were together and they can't listen to music and have something in their hand without spinning it. Are we together on that? Once in Color Guard, always in Color Guards. But it was wonderful. They practiced Saturdays, Sundays. Thank you very much. One group, I don't remember where it was, got really cranky with Blessed Sack because we were just so good. If you're good, you're great. But it's wonderful and I am so pleased that the drill team is still going on. My daughter, two of my daughters keep talking about well maybe I'll come back but they haven't done it. So I'm just really proud that we're moving strong and moving forward. It's a wonderful thing for young women and men

Thank you for joining us. She probably never saw him, maybe that was okay. But he was just so committed to the whole process of Color Garden. Congratulations. I pray that this policy order will go forward. I'm sure it will be, and maybe sometime you'll come Demonstration of what Color Guard is. The ceilings are high enough, we probably won't knock out any light bulbs. So with that I yield the floor.

Thank you, Councillor Simmons. And a big congratulations to you all. We'll go ahead and add Councillor Simmons to the policy order. All those in favor say aye. Those against say no. Ayes have it. Councilor Simmons is added to the policy order. With that, hearing from no one else, we'll go ahead and adopt the policy All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Policy number seven as amended is adopted. Congratulations. We will now move on to policy order number nine. This is that the city managers requested to work with relevant departments, to develop a coordinated initiative to improve and streamline the permitting and licensing process for small businesses This was followed by myself, Vice Mayor Azeem, Councilor Nolan. I would love to entertain a motion to suspend the rules

Second communication from other city officers, which I submitted. And a motion by Councilor Nolan to suspend the rules. All those in favor say aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. That communication from other city's officers is before us. I just wanted to briefly say that we know permitting is a big area of city service delivery but isn't always the most straightforward process. Thank you very much. Development permitting process was really important, and I'm grateful that staff's put in a lot of hard work that went into that. Thank you.

Nolan, and Vice Mayor Azeem who joined in co-sponsoring this. I'm also excited to move this work forward because some of it's already started through our participation in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, which is more of what my communication speaks to. And for brief context, earlier this year I was invited to join a class of 46 mayors representing cities across 15 countries as part of the program's 10th cohort. And each participating city is asked to identify a specific problem to focus on and be selected small business permitting as one of our core challenges And so in the past few weeks, we've put together a core team along with a larger cross-departmental team to work on the issue. will be receiving programming support, coaching and resources to support this work from Bloomberg. And it's all aimed at taking a data-driven structured approach Thank you very much.

The effort continues in a coordinated way across city departments and we're looking forward to the progress we can all make together on this. So I'll yield to my co-sponsors, Councilor Nolan Zuzi.

Yeah, I want to thank you both for the communication from Bloomberg which really lays out the importance of this and also so many of us who do read The news at this level, there's lots of other news going on but the permitting is such a key part of cities across the country seeking to Thank you very much. Overdue and really, really important work that will be done both on the residential side now in the commercial side to do everything we can that we talk the talk of what we believe government can be, which is a place where people turn to for really efficient Thank you.

Thank you for your leadership on this and totally jazzed about the Bloomberg cities focusing on this for the city.

Thank you, Councilor Allen. Councilor Zusy?

Again, kudos to you. I just also feel like this is essential to our commercial viability So I'm thrilled that you'll be working on this as a project, and I look forward. Definitely we'll have progress. Thank you.

Great. I think everyone who wanted to speak has spoken, so we'll go ahead and do a roll call on adopting the order and placing the communication on file. All those in favor say aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Poster number nine is adopted and the communication from other city officers, number two is placed on file. We'll move on to policy rule number 10. This is that the City Council support protecting and strengthening Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. This was filed by Councillor Zusy and myself, and it was pulled by Councillor Nolan. Councillor Zusi, would you like to say anything?

Yeah, I'll just say a few things. Again, there are over 600 public, private, nonprofit and tribal governments, over 5 million Americans overall. that are challenging the Trump administration's efforts to weaken Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. So I hope you'll join us tonight in supporting this. We can't have the Trump administration trampling On our historic resources, demolishing the East Wing, building a ballroom, planning to paint the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, planning and now threatening to tear down the Kennedy Center, which may go bankrupt tomorrow. So we need to say no.

I hope you'll support us. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, I did pull it partly to be added but also it is just yet another one of these completely shocking ways that So much of what we hold dear is being shredded. And this section, which I really appreciate Councilor Zusy and the mayor for bringing this forward because I hadn't realized there was that specific section that was being eviscerated. I had known about many of the areas that make the news but there's so many other places across the country because this goes at natural parks as well as buildings, any historic. and the complete disregard for the tribal communities that worked really hard to preserve some of their spaces is We have to keep being shocked because otherwise it means we're just accepting what happens. And so that's how I see this, that we have to We are certainly aware that a council resolution from Cambridge Mass to this is not likely to have a huge impact, and yet it's really important we stand up. So thank you.

And Councilor Nolan, you want it to be added? Okay. So on the motion by Councilor will go ahead and adopt the policy order number 10 as amended. And on a voice vote, all those in favor say aye. I, those against say no. The ayes have it. The policy order number 10 as amended is adopted. We're going on to policy order 11. This is that the city Solicitor engaged the services of a suitable law firm in consultation with the city's chief people officer and with approval of the city solicitor to negotiate an employment contract with Paula M. Crane on behalf of the City Council. This was all by myself, Councillor McGovern, Councillor Simmons and Councillor Zusy. I want to start by thanking everyone involved Thank you so much for joining us.

We went through two search processes, and I think the order kind of speaks to that. But I think throughout it all, Clerk Paula Crane has been Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

There's a lot of dedication that's come from Clerk Crane and I think our recommendation would be to extend this next step toward formalizing her role and moving forward with contract negotiations. So, with that if my colleagues would like to say a few words they're welcome to. Flaherty.

Yes, I'd like to be added as a sponsor and I'd also like to say that we're a very lucky body to have Paula Crane as our clerk and I probably, you know as a newer member here didn't realize how lucky we all were but it became very apparent to me at our inauguration when she paraphrased Thank you very much. He was elected, the City on a Hill address. And she paraphrased that in her opening remarks in our inauguration. I was so impressed and astounded by the depth of her understanding and the solemnity with which she handled that entire process

and from that moment forward watching her work ethic, watching her commitment to each one of us individually, to this body collectively, to the city of Cambridge, to her job We are so fortunate to have her as our interim clerk, and to have the opportunity to have I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor and I enthusiastically support this policy order I just want to say thank you for all that she's done for me and for all of us and for the city of Cambridge as a clerk. So, that's all I have. Thank you very much Paula.

We have Councilor Nolan and then I'll go to Councilor Simmons.

I fully support this if it makes sense to add just to show how strongly I support it. Evidence here that we're being very clear and open about the fact that there were searches. I also want to thank, if I'm reading this, the four folks on this were the ones who served on the committee. A challenging thing to do and especially when you go through it and acknowledge that it ended up being much longer than you initially anticipated. So I want to thank people for that transparency because I think it's the way that we hopefully improve trust in local government, to acknowledge this. and also thank, of course, Interim Clerk Crane for agreeing to step up. I know we're a really fun but also feisty and sometimes pretty challenging bunch to work with. And I'm really glad that has been something

We will be seeing together and working together in the future because I know that you make us better for how we conduct business here. Thanks so much

Thank you, Madam Mayor, through you too, my colleagues. We offer this respectfully and with full enthusiasm and support. Two things I want to say very quickly. Clark Crane for doing this job. She stands on the shoulders of brilliant women and men, Margaret Drury, Donna Lopez, Anthony Wilson. Just stood up to do a job that we don't do and is very difficult. And Mrs. LeBlanc, her as well. This is not an easy job. It's the clerk does marriages, deaths. There's something else I'm missing. Births. Birth, marriages, death... keeps the record of the city and the record the city is extraordinary. It's wonderful that we hired an archivist just to start to collect some of the information that we have. I don't know how Paula does it. I think she's unflappable. I've never seen her angry.

She might go home and say a few curse words, but We're no easy group to work with, for sure. And so I am very grateful that she has stood in the gap to do this job, stands up to do When she has a sister that needs her support and she's been there to do that, and to make sure that we get our job done and get our work done. And that's no easy task. I want to first say thank you. Thank you for wanting to do it. I might have to get you therapy, but thank you for wanting to do it. to do this process of hiring someone, receiving the applications, making the appointments, arranging for the interviews, arringing for follow-up interviews. And then, you know, we did our very best.

I chaired the first one, Mayor Siddiqui the second one, and we put all our best efforts in. And you know why it failed? Because we had the best person all the time. So I... I wholeheartedly support Clerk Crane. I hope we don't make your job any more challenging than it needs to be, and I hope that we can get a 9-0 vote on this. I yield the floor.

We'll go to Councilor Al-Zubi and then Councilor McGovern.

Thank you. Through you, Madam Mayor, I would love to be added as a co-sponsor as well. I definitely have not had the privilege to get to know Clerk Crane as well as everybody else but If there's something that really has stuck out to me in the nine months I've been in this work is your kindness and your grounded reassurance. You're always around ready to help folks, and I know that there's so much more on your plate outside of all of that So I want to acknowledge that and thank you for being that grounded presence in this space. And so thank you as well to you, Naomi, because I know these processes aren't easy and I honestly couldn't have said it better than Councilor Simmons. So thank you.

We'll go to Councilman McGovern.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, through you. I know that when we are hiring for certain positions it's our due diligence to do these national searches and But sometimes the best person is sitting right under your nose. And I think that that is the case in this situation. I always tell this story, and this goes to Councilor Flaherty's point of your dedication. I've told this a million times, but it just such exemplifies who you are and what you do for this job. I remember we all, a couple years ago, all got an email on a Friday from a gentleman who said, I'm getting married tomorrow. I forgot to pick up my marriage certificate. My fiancé is going to kill me What do I do? And this was like 4 o'clock. We closed at 12.

I don't know, do you get that level of service in New York, Boston, Chicago? Thank you very much. We couldn't ask for a better person, and so I appreciate you as always. And looking forward to having you around for a little bit longer.

Councilor Zusy.

Welcome, Clerk Crane. And I hope you like the job.

Thank you. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler and then Vice Mayor Zee.

Thanks, similarly it'll be brief but yeah thank you for stepping up looking forward to continuing to work with you there's some parts of this position that are very public including these council meetings and the weddings and some that are more behind the scenes including the archiving and all of the The certificates that go out, but thank you for doing all of it and looking forward to continuing to have you around.

Well, I'm very excited about this. I was not part of the search process so I didn't know all the candidates although I've been part of prior search processes. I was almost nervous to ask Paula if she was going to apply because we'd be more lucky to have her than the other way around. It's a very hard job both dealing with us and our last minute policy orders and everything else. Thank you very much. Thank you for watching! was really, really helpful. And so I'm very excited. I feel like it's just an honor for you to be able to do this job and honestly just very excited that you were excited enough to do it more than anything else. So thank you.

I wanted to just acknowledge Melissa and Megan as well, who are in the audience. We're getting there to your topics. They were both on the search committee along with Matt Nelson and Valeska. I think that was all of everyone. and of course Naomi who helped with so much with both processes. So another shout out to Naomi as well. So with that, we'll go ahead and add the entire council to the PO. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it, so now we have an amended PO and we will go ahead and start the employment contract process and vote on the policy order as amended for number 11. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Policy order number 11 as amended is adopted.

to policy order number 12. This is that the city council urge the Healy-Driscoll administration and the Massachusetts General Court to prioritize the hiring of additional DTA caseworkers to ensure... Those eligible for SNAP are able to receive and maintain benefits and taking other steps needed to end the SNAP access crisis. This was followed by myself, Councilor Al-Zubi, Counciler McGovern, and Vice Mayor Azeem. I know Councilor Nolan, you pulled it. I'll go to you.

As I said, I pulled it to thank all of you for working on this. This is so critical. We heard earlier in the meeting about the need for exactly this type of action at the state level in order to address the severe need in the community, so I pulled Add my name to it in order to ensure that the weight of whatever that matters is there.

No, absolutely. What's happening is really unacceptable and I think we can't control every decision made at the federal level but we can control how we respond Thank you very much. We'll go ahead and add Councilor Nolan to the policy order on a voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Councilor All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Policy number 12 is adopted. We go to the calendar.

Meeting on August 3rd, Councilor McGovern.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Given the hour and the amount of time we've spent on this petition and the next one, I don't think there's much more to say. I don't know if anyone else has anything to say, but if not, I would like to move adoption.

McGovern moves to ordain the Cambridge Street Act of Youth Zoning Petition as amended and we'll go ahead and do a roll call.

Councilor Al-Zubi Yes, Vice Mayor Azeem? Yes. Yes, Councilor Flaherty? Yes Yes, Councillor McGovern? Yes Counselor Nolan? Yes Councilor Simmons? Yes, Counselor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes Yes, Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes, Mayor Siddiqui? Yes And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative

The Cambridge Street active use zoning petition as amended is ordained. We'll go to number two, which is the Massachusetts Avenue active use zoning petition. This was also passed through a second reading on August 3rd and it's eligible to be ordained McGovern.

Madam Mayor, same thing. I don't think there's much more to say. to ordain the Massachusetts Avenue active use zoning petition. As a man. Yeah, yes.

So we'll go ahead and do a roll call on that motion.

Councilor Al-Zubi? Yes. Vice Mayor Azeem? Yes, Councilor Flaherty?

Yes.

Yes. Yes, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes Mayor Siddiqui? Yes And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative

Massachusetts Avenue active use zoning petition has been, as amended, has been ordained. Okay.

Madam Mayor?

Yes, Councilor McGovern.

I know our favorite thing just to be sure. I'd like to move suspension of the rules to move reconsideration hoping the same cannot prevail. prevail on the previous two votes.

So on suspension, we'll do a voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. And then on the reconsideration, we will do a roll call. So a no vote will close the matter.

Councilor Al-Zubi? No. Vice Mayor Azeem? Flaherty, McGovern, Nolan, Simmons, Sobrinho-Wheeler, Zusy. No, Mayor Siddiqui? No.

Okay, so we've disposed of reconsideration. We move on to applications and petitions. Pleasure of the City Council. Councillor Nolan moves that we adopt all four applications. We'll go ahead and do a roll call.

Councilor Al-Zubi? Yes. Vice Mayor Azeem? Yes, Councilor Flaherty? Yes Yes, Councillor McGovern? Yes Councilor Nolan? Yes Yes, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler?

Yes.

Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes Mayor Siddiqui? Yes

All applications and petitions, all four of them have been adopted. We go on to communications. There are 52 communications. Councilor Simmons makes a motion to place all communications on file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no, the ayes have it. Those 52 communications are placed on file. We have eight resolutions. Pleasure of the City Council. I think Councilor Zusy, did you want to withdraw one?

Yeah. We need to withdraw number eight because we did a policy order.

Hearing none from no one else, we'll go ahead and adopt the balance of the resolutions on a motion by Councilor McGovern making them unanimous upon adoption. All those in favor say aye. I, those against say no. The ayes have it. The balance of the resolutions been adopted making them unanimous upon adoption We're at number eight, which was honoring the Blessed Sacrament drill team and color guard. We have a motion to withdraw from Councilor Zusy to withdraw the resolution because we... It came in as a policy order, so we don't need it before us. On the motion to withdraw, all those in favor say aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. That number eight has been taken care of. We'll go on to committee reports. We have five committee reports, pleasure of the City Council. Move to accept the reports and place them on file.

Five reports and place them on file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Those committee reports have been accepted and placed on file We do have one set of roundtable minutes from August 6th. We'll go ahead on a motion by Councillor Nolan to place these minutes on file. All those in favor say aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. We now move on to communications and reports from other city officers. We've actually disposed of two of them, and so pleasure of the... Councilor Nolan will pull number five. Anyone else on others?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and place the balance on file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. We'll go to number five, which is a communication from Councilors Nolan and Zubi regarding a proposed schedule for budget-related finance committee hearings. Nolan, you have a four.

Thank you, Mayor Siddiqui. Yes, Councilor Al-Zubi and I are submitting this and I pulled it just to remind all of us that We are starting the budget process for the next fiscal year, even though we just barely started this one. And the key date that we mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, the tax rate hearing, which will be presented at our next regular meeting on the 28th. Last year, if you remember, that was one that the community didn't have as much notice about. So this time we're making sure that the However, there's also several, while they're not specifically finance committee meetings, there will be several joint roundtable meetings that I know the Office of Mayor Siddiqui is working on that are important for us to ensure that we have Thank you. specify many of these earlier in understanding and input into the budget process.

So you have the memo before you that there will be several meetings in October, November. We also still have to determine the finance committee meeting to discuss city council budget priorities. Our expectation for that is we will, of course, be building on the work that we did already. We're not going to bring in radical changes since that would not be good governance. It would not Thank you. So I just wanted to make sure we all had that on our calendars, that they're pretty important meetings coming up in the fall. And I don't know if anyone else has questions or comments or wants to add to it.

Anyone would like to add? Hearing none, we'll go ahead on a voice vote on a motion by Councilor Nolan to place communication from other city officers. Number five on file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Number five has been placed on file. We now move on to late resolutions and late policy orders. We do have a few items, so that requires suspension of the rules Flaherty to suspend the rules to bring forward these late items. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. And there's a resolution for the Ringe Alumni Association's 128th Annual Reunion Dinner. Would like my colleagues who sponsor these say anything?

Just briefly, Madam Mayor. The annual reunion is coming upon us and we'll not have another meeting before it. So I was bringing that forward. As you know, the Ringe Alumni Association has been celebrating, acknowledging and lifting up their memberships, which is membership Those that attended RINJ and they've added Cambridge High in Latin as well. They'll be acknowledging a number of different people with Person of the Year Award and a number and I thought it was important a number of us, not all, but a number did attend Cambridge Public Schools. And so I thought is important that we acknowledge them in the work Folks that have come through the two schools or the three schools, Cambridge, Rindgen Latin, Cambridge High in Latin and Cambridge Rindjen Latin be appropriately acknowledged. I yield the floor on that. And then in terms of leukemia, leukemia...

Thank you very much. Thank you. making people feel noticed and seen as they go through this horrific disease I yield the floor

Thank you, Councilor Simmons for bringing both forward. We'll go ahead and do a voice on adopting both of the late resolutions. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. Those to late resolutions are adopted and they're unanimous upon adoption. We have this late policy order as well that the city manager is requested to direct the appropriate city staff to illuminate City Hall. in Teal on Sunday, September 20th or on another date in September most suitable for city staff in observance of ovarian cancer awareness month. This was filed by Councilor Flaherty. Councilor Simmons? Councilor

So this was a request by a company that's located here in Cambridge, Kendall Square. And they're a new company and it's an important issue. It touches every family. Simmons? No, I yield. You yield, yeah.

Thank you for bringing that forward. We'll go ahead on a motion by Councillor Flaherty to adopt the policy order. All those in favour say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. We're done with our late policy order and resolutions. We'll go ahead on a motion by Vice Mayor Azeem to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say no. The ayes have it. We are adjourned. Good night, everyone. It's 930. Not bad.