City Council - Regular Meeting

We will upload any missing parts after. Thank you. Our first speaker is Joe Adeletta, followed by Catherine Beattie, then Regis Shields. Joe has not joined us. We will go to Catherine. Catherine, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.

Can you hear me? Excellent. Hi, my name is Catherine Beatty. I live on 155 Harvey Street in North Cambridge. I'm speaking today about policy order number two, or 154 it's also listed as. I'm also one of the co-founders of the Peabody Rock Bike Bus that has been in operation since 2022. And our bike bus utilizes quiet neighborhood streets, many one ways to snake through the neighborhood to get to school. While the route to school is relatively stress-free, the route home is the opposite. Due to the configuration of one-way streets and heavy commuter traffic, there are no good options for people traveling north of Rindge, especially during the evening rush hour. The narrow streets of Rindge and Cedar are clogged with cards, itching to make it through the next light cycle and onto Route 2, which creates a hostile, chaotic, and dangerous environment for anyone traveling in the area on foot or bike. Quieter neighborhood streets such as Sargent, Reed, and Dudley could be designated as neighbor ways with signage and road markings to allow contraflow bicycle travel as Somerville has done on numerous streets such as Hancock Street close to Porter Square. This would create a quiet, safe route for people traveling on bicycles to get home without the stress and danger of traveling on range or cedar from 4 to 7 p.m. The second issue I'd like to highlight is the high-speed cut-through traffic, especially on Harvey Street. Commuters and cars are using Harvey to bypass traffic backup on Renge and can zoom to the light on Clifton to cut ahead of the lineup. Harvey has no race crossings, stop signs, or speed bumps to slow down vehicles. I myself have been on numerous occasions subject to aggressive tailgating, excessive speeds, and other hostile behavior while traveling by bicycle down Harvey Street, which is designated as a low-speed, low-volume street in Cambridge's bicycle city plan. Now, with the additional cycling traffic diverted to Harvey Street because of the linear path closure, this is the time to install traffic calming measures on Harvey Street. Please support policy order number 154. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Regis Shields, followed by Brendan Hickey. Regis, three minutes. Please go ahead.

Can you hear me? Great. My name is Rita Shields. I live at 173 Hancock Street. I'm speaking on agenda item 6.2 in support of Patty Nolan's request for rule suspension and the revocation of the curb cut permission at 177 Hancock Street. I would like to correct a few misconceptions raised by members of the city council last week concerning this issue. One, the fact that the council no longer wants to be involved in curb cut decisions is not relevant to this issue. In March, it was your responsibility and you approved it on erroneous information, and today it continues to be your responsibility to set a wrong to right. Two, some members of the council last week made assumptions that abutters disapproving the curb cut were not direct abutters. In fact, this is false. Nine of the 10 no votes directly abut the property, and two of the three yes votes aren't even on Hancock Street. Three, during the discussion, some council members made comments that the curb cut concerns are a who likes who neighborhood disagreement. This is not the case. This is a developer. We do not know the developer. They are improving the property, the structure on the property, complete renovation. We are delighted. We take issue with the curb cut, not the property. And we take issue with the curb cut because of safety issues, because of neighborhood issues, and because of parking issues. But we do take issue with the process, the curb cut process, which the developer either intentionally or negligently did not submit the disapproval votes. four the discussion on monday expressed concern that the curb cut was already done while this is true there has been absolutely no improvement to the driveway or the sidewalk and the developer would have needed to make a temporary curb cut to just do the improvements to the building or they would have had to shut hancock street down the curb cut the The curb cut is used for their trucks and materials, et cetera. And I sent you pictures through an email. Once again, I'd like to stress that your vote tonight goes beyond this curb cut. It speaks to the integrity of the city council process, and importantly, how much you value the voices of neighbors and the citizens you represent. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Brendan Hickey, followed by Lily Halstead, then Liz Byron. Brendan, three minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi there. Brendan Hickey, 54 Concord Ave. I'm speaking on PO1. So when the council and school committee are discussing changing economic conditions, I hope that they include a discussion of waste, fraud, and abuse. I'm concerned that the school committee chair signed a $40,000 no-bid contract without spending authority. Under Massachusetts state law, spending authority is vested in the school committee as a body, not in any individual member unless expressly delegated. The school committee wasn't informed of this expenditure. They didn't discuss it. They didn't vote on it. Finally, it appears to be a case of split procurement to circumvent bidding rules. The $40,000 contract came after three competitive bids were rejected. One was about $34,000, one was $35,000, another one was somewhere in the area of $90,000. They awarded the contract at $9,950, $50 under the $10,000 procurement requirement to avoid bidding. After that no-bid contract was awarded, a second no-bid contract for $40,000 was awarded to the same vendor. In the interest of maintaining the public trust, we're all owed an explanation of what happened. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Lily Havstad, followed by Liz Byron, then Darren Buck. Lily, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.

Hi, good evening. Can you hear me? We can. Thank you. I'm Lily Halfstead at 32 Granville Road number 2 commenting on item P01. I'm here to urge you tonight to hold a joint budget roundtable on November 10th. The need for this meeting has become urgent following the recent cambridge day report about the hiring of the equity process to lead the superintendent search a fifty thousand dollar sole search console source contract that was not news not just to the public but even to some school committee members the situation raises serious concerns about transparency fiscal oversight and governance the contract costs far more than was budgeted and the firm reportedly had no prior experience conducting superintendent searches A budget running roundtable is the right next step for three reasons. One, transparency. The public deserves a full accounting of how this contract was approved and how it fits into the school committee's limited discretionary budget, which is now overdrawn. Accountability, the debacle reveals problematic and unclear roles between the mayor, city manager, and school committee in approving the sole source contract. A budget round table allows for a clear conversation about who is responsible for what in budget approvals, procurement oversight, and governance. Establishing this clarity is vital before more dollars are spent. Restoring trust. Holding this meeting openly and promptly shows that the city and district leaders take these concerns seriously and are committed to responsible, equitable spending. Parents and teachers and residents are asking, how did we get here? They want to know how the contract was approved, how it fits into the overall budget, and what safeguards exist to prevent another situation like this in the future. A public roundtable gives us the space to show that you're listening and you're accountable. and you need to make sure that you're going to include the public in the roundtable. Plan for future contingencies is the last thing I'm going to say about why you need to do this. You need to plan for future contingencies. Superintendent searches are infrequent, we would hope, too frequent in our district, and they're expensive. So let's use this moment to ask what budget line items, reserves, or contingency plans exist for such searches? How will future processes be budgeted, planned and communicated? A round table is gonna be a good venue for that discussion. The budget ultimately is an expression of our values as a city and as a school district, how we spend and how we govern that spending. speaks to what we are prioritizing, students, teachers, equity, community trust. When a major expense like this for such a major endeavor of hiring our new district leader to go so poorly, it really undermines public trust. And I cannot emphasize that enough. It's around the district.

Lily, sorry, we lost you for a moment there. If you can unmute, yep, there you go.

Okay, so in closing, I strongly encourage you to set the November 10th date, publish the agenda now, invite the public, provide relevant financial documents, and allow sufficient time for questions and engagement. This will send a strong message. Cambridge is committed to accountable spending, equitable resource allocation, and trust in our public institutions. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Liz Byron, followed by Darren Buck, then Nicholas Fernandez. Liz has not joined us. We will go to Darren Buck, followed by Nicholas Fernandez, then Dan Totten. Darren, you have three minutes.

Hello, I'm Darren Buck. I live at 44 McGowan Street. I'm speaking in support of PO number two, policy order 154 that would direct the city to examine how to fulfill the promises made in the Cambridge Bicycle Network vision to implement neighbor way treatments on several of our North Cambridge local streets. As a parent of a Peabody Elementary student living north of the trail, we walk and bike to and from school most days. Most Peabody students who live north of the trail but south of Mass Ab aren't eligible for bus service and relied on that trail and these streets to help us navigate those trips. Even before the closure, safe bike routes on the local street network from school are not practical due to the one-way street directionality and the planned Cambridge Cycling Ordinance changes to our section of Mass Ave seem to be years away. Detours for the trail closure implemented by the city do nothing to calm traffic, nor do they do anything to address the existing north-south connectivity issues across Ridge. This PO would at least give us some possibilities for better, more connected local streets with low impact on drivers that would provide options besides trying to navigate Mass Ave or Ridge Ave with elementary school kids. I know that staff is pretty busy, too busy to engage on this, and I'm sorry that we're seemingly always having to take up your time at council. I don't have a solution to that except to sincerely offer my help. Understanding why certain routes are unsuitable FOR WALKING AND BICYCLING WITH KIDS CAN BE COMPLEX AS ARE THE EASY LOW IMPACT FIXES THAT WE SHOULD CONSIDER. IF EITHER CITY COUNCILORS OR STAFF WOULD LIKE TO MEET IN THE AREA TO DISCUSS, BE VERY HAPPY TO HOST A SITE VISIT. I'D LIKE TO THANK COUNCILMEMBER Sobrinho-Wheeler FOR INTRODUCING THIS P.O. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.

THANK YOU. OUR NEXT SPEAKER IS NICHOLAS FERNANDEZ FOLLOWED BY DAN TAUTEN THEN REBECCA LESTER. Nicholas, you have three minutes. Please go ahead. Nicholas, you need to unmute yourself.

Yeah. Oh, sorry about that. There you go. Yeah. Hi, I'm Nicholas Fernandez. I live at 18 George Street in North Cambridge. And before that, me and my wife lived at One Whittemore. So we have an older kid, a nine-year-old, who's now in fourth grade at Peabody, and a younger daughter who used to go to Cedar Daycare, right on Cedar and Ridge. And we... We walk and bike our kids to school. Our younger daughter now goes to Tobin, so our route's a little bit different. And along with some of the previous speakers, we've been participating in the bike bus with our kids for years. We love it. But yeah, as Catherine was mentioning earlier, And they're just now. The bike bus is great, but the routes on the way back can be difficult because they're, you know, the one-way streets and this kind of thing. Also, traffic is really bad on Ridge and Cedar. People will pass you. I've even had, like, a... police officer one time yell at me and my older kid Felix because we were biking on the road like we're supposed to and I was like and he's like back on the sidewalk and I'm like okay well you're supposed to be able to bike on the road um and uh so yeah so basically it'd be great especially with the the um you know construction going on the linear trail uh if there would be more traffic calming and sort of neighbor ways built and better daylighting and this kind of thing um and uh and then also just to you know use this opportunity to call a little bit of attention to um Cedar and Ringe because that intersection is really bad and it's sort of ironic because it's right there. There's a daycare there. There's two schools nearby, PYD and Banneker. And the intersection is really treacherous for kids to cross. I mean, there's a crossing guard, but honestly, there's so many commuters that just run stop signs and... or like, you know, behave very dangerously, especially on the way back. So yeah, just in support of a policy or two and a policy order 154. Yeah, that's about it. Just thanks for your time and give my time.

Our next speaker is Dan Totten, followed by Rebecca Lester, then Elizabeth Hudson. Dan.

Yeah, hi, my name is Dan Totten. I live at 54 Bishop Allen Drive. A couple things. First, I just want to express support for reconsidering this curb cut. Two reasons. One is that We do have a process, and it seems like the developer misrepresented the level of opposition that exists in the neighborhood, and if that's true, which I don't have proof, but I'm taking Councilor Nolan at her word that that's true, I think that's a serious breach of the process that needs to be looked at. I also, I think that curb cuts are, should be seen as a big decision. We should not hand them out like hotcakes, which is kind of our policy, because I think that they effectively represent they're privatizing the public right of way. And I think anytime that we privatize the public right of way, that should be a big decision. And so I know some of you would love to just give it as an administrative decision to staff or whatever, and I understand. But I think it's easy to chew gum and walk at the same time in this building. And I think that it should be a big deal to allow a curb cut. There might be some situations where it makes sense. but I don't think every private property owner should be entitled to effectively privatize a slice of the right-of-way for their own use. That has an impact on every resident of the city when they're using the right-of-way. But the main thing... I want to talk about tonight is the free cash. I notice that there's a certification of the free cash reserve on the agenda, and I recognize that that is a formality, obviously. I also notice that there are a number of items we're spending money on this week, right after last week when we were having all this conversation about, We're spending too much money and this and that. I know people who live in that condo building and I know it's been a very difficult situation for them. I appreciate why the city is spending $20 million to effectively bail them out. There is an argument that it's a public safety concern. However, it's really striking how quickly and uncontroversially we can find money for a situation like that. But when 2,000 low-income families are taken off of Cambridge Rise Up, we have to walk through all this red tape and all these things just to get them the support that they deserve when there's so much money sitting in the bank. It really kind of bothers me that the way that people in this chamber sometimes approach fiscal conservatism responsibility is to put all of the social service programs on the chopping block first, and then this other $20 million kind of just floats on by and just kind of happens. Right. And I'm not saying that we should deny the condo owners what they need in this situation. But I am arguing in favor of spending down our reserves more aggressively to support the people who are struggling. That's what a rainy day fund is. And that's what I hope we do in the future. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Rebecca Lester, followed by Elizabeth Hudson, then Nick Greenfield. Rebecca, you have three minutes.

Great. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

OK, thanks. Hi, I'm Rebecca Lester, William Street, Cambridge. I'm speaking to policy order 153 that the school that the city council can be in a joint roundtable with the school committee to discuss macroeconomic trends in Cambridge and the city's budget. The budget for Cambridge public schools consumes about 30 percent of the city of Cambridge's annual budget. The school committee is charged with the responsibility of developing that budget and being responsible stewards of the public's money to the end of serving the children of the city. I'm speaking today because I'm aware that the school committee's leadership appears to have subverted the competitive bidding process to hire a favored apparently contractor to conduct the search for the new superintendent of schools. The Cambridge Day recently published a well-researched article on this, clearly laying it all out in the timeline for anyone to see. And I urge those who haven't yet to review the details. Reading the article, it's difficult to come to any other conclusion than that school committee leadership intentionally attempted to mislead the public and circumvent the public bidding process that is required by law. In addition, school committee leadership appears to have violated what I understand as a requirement to have the full school committee approve budget items over $25,000. I find this alarming. I'm very thankful a member of the public submitted a records request so we know this. And it makes me wonder what else we don't know about. I hope that as the school committee and city council members here tonight think about the budgets, you start by taking a hard look at this. and make plans for a careful review and accounting of how funds are currently being used. Taxpayers and the students of the Cambridge public schools deserve that. I also hope that the public keeps this all in mind when they go to the polls to vote for school committee members on November 4th. Cambridge deserves public officials who at a minimum follow the law instead of appearing to think they are above it. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Elizabeth Hudson, followed by Nick Greenfield, then Luke Smith.

And Elizabeth, before you go, oh no, come up. Before you go, I know some folks have been speaking to the contract with the search firm, which is not on the agenda, but I asked the attorney because policy order number one, which is a meeting between, calling for a meeting between the school round table, between the school committee, and the city council to talk about economic issues. It is an appropriate topic. It is or is not? It is.

Hello, everybody. It's fun to be on this side. I'm Elizabeth Hudson. I live at 325 Harvard Street, and I'm here to speak to policy order one as well. As the vice mayor just mentioned, and as everybody knows, we're about to have a budget roundtable about discipline, and I know that's going to disappoint some people who want big new raises or new programs. In the current macro environment, we all know, and the city manager has been clear, that that's not going to happen. I know this because I've spent the past two years defending the committee and the city not for spending too much, but against those who demand that we do. And I can only keep doing that if we're spending wisely. So I was also, as a member of the school committee, alarmed to learn that we'd paid as an example, one exemplar, $40,000 to the search firm for the superintendent for things that were never discussed, let alone voted and approved by the school committee. Everybody knows that low-level grift like this exists, tens of thousands of dollars for things like equity slides, conferences with fancy pastries, or even a Mustang that we bought for our previous superintendents, and perhaps this is our time to be serious about it. These aren't big-ticket items. They won't pay for teacher raises or new permanent positions, but they make us look careless. None of them help kids learn or help teachers teach, so during the roundtable, please the to the city and to the city manager make it clear not only yeah not only to those who make vague demands forever more that the city budget is not never ending but also to clear to office holders that in order to hold the line here and to do so with a straight face we must also cut out the low level grift the five thousand dollars here the ten thousand dollars there the twenty thousand dollars there that makes it harder for us to make the really hard decisions thank you

Our next speaker is Nick Greenfield, followed by Luke Smith, then Heather Hoffman. Nick, you have three minutes, please go ahead.

Hello, my name is Nick Greenfield. I live at 12 Ellsworth Avenue in mid Cambridge. I sent an email to the city council earlier today, but I'm speaking briefly to correct a number of facts about the 177 Hancock Street curb cut and the recent communication comm 2025 number 134. My wife, Brynn Sanders, and I, we live on Ellsworth Avenue in mid Cambridge, a few blocks from Hancock Street. We are not professional developers. We purchased 177 Hancock Street last September to renovate what was a quite neglected historic building, I think everyone would say. We were approved for a curb cut in March, and we've since relied on that curb cut to continue investing in the renovation and rehabilitation of the building. And I think a revocation here would be quite frankly, would totally change the project. We'd probably stop work. I don't know what would happen next. So I want to highlight that it would be very serious. Now, we understand there are a number of concerns about letters and public comments from abutters, but I want to correct a number of facts. It's being alleged by Councillor Nolan and her communication, as well as by the prior commenter, that we somehow deliberately withheld information in our application, and that's not true. I hope that's a misunderstanding of the facts, but it is disappointing to me and my wife that this has apparently been discussed for the past four or five months and we've received no contact from anyone on the city council anyone on city staff nor any of the abutters and we sent our you know we sent a letter with our email and phone number um so it's not for a lack of effort um We, here's what happened. We closely followed the written and verbal guidance of inspectional services for this curb cut, which was quite a bit more complex than your standard case. We made multiple in-person visits and we followed up in writing. So on December 17th, we sent 64 pieces of certified mail to all the owners of record, the abutting properties, which includes two large buildings. We said, how long do we wait? ISD told us to wait two weeks. We waited 22 days. We submitted on January 8th everything that we had. We also submitted a statement about the notice and attempts that we made, which is that is the ISD process and what's required. Not here to defend the process per se, but we followed it to the letter and to the guidance of ISD. And then in December, you know, after we asked ISD in December what to do with late letters, we were told there's no process for additional late letters, either approvals or disapprovals. We asked that again in January. We didn't receive a reply. ISD marked the application as complete. We stopped trying to get approvals, considered the application submitted and complete. I've sent an email with a screenshot of all that.

Mr. Greenfield, that's your time. You can send the remainder of your comments to the city council and the city clerk via email. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Luke Smith followed by Heather Hoffman, then Jason Stonehouse. Luke, you have three minutes. Luke, we're not able to unmute you. You need to unmute yourself. You're unmuted. Oh, you just muted yourself again. We're going to come back to Luke. Our next speaker is Heather Hoffman, followed by Jason Stonehouse. Heather, you have three minutes. Please go ahead.

Hello. Heather Hoffman, 213 Hurley Street. With respect to the joint round table, I hope that discussing macroeconomics goes into real depth about how the city's finances work, what the pressures are, what the constraints are, how the law works, and all of that, because we need that. I know that we have people who can present that in a reasonably coherent manner. With respect to free cash, I'm always curious when I hear about mitigation because CDD told us many years ago that they don't keep track of that. They expect residents to do that. So I'm curious whether that's changed or whether these mitigation receipts are just essentially bribes to the city with no enforceable requirement that the developer do anything. With respect to the curb cuts, I've seen so many bang up jobs done by city agencies, not just this one, but also one on Spring Street where it took residents to point out to everybody because no one did their homework, including the city agencies, that the approvals were years out of date. So how's about everybody does their homework? And as Dan Totten said, the city council speaks this as the serious thing it is. You are giving part of the public way to a private party. And then with respect to linear parks, So I have come to the conclusion that linear park is being treated by the city as an opportunity for retribution against all of us who have done anything so foolish as to suggest that the city might not be the most perfect place that ever existed in the universe. Among other things, the city in writing to the court said that they were now treating anything under six inches as shrubbery that could be cleared without any and wouldn't violate the promise that they wouldn't be cutting down trees. So I'm just wondering, what are the things that they're planning that they are telling us are treats? Are they bigger than six inches or are they simply cutting down things and then replacing them with things that they consider shrubbery, are they still going to not pave over the roots of the trees as they already did? Are they not going to cut the roots of the trees? What's really going on and why should we trust you? Thank you.

We are gonna go back and try with Luke Smith once more. Luke, you have three minutes if you can unmute yourself. Luke, if you can please email your comment to citycouncil at cambridgema.gov. We're gonna go to Jason Stonehouse followed by Sunessa Shetler. Jason.

Good evening members of City Council. It's a pleasure to speak with you. My name is Jason Stonehouse, 28 Jackson Street in North Cambridge in the Racetrack neighborhood between Ringe and Harvey Street and the linear path which is being currently I would like to speak on behalf of Policy Order 154 to examine how to improve connectivity north of Rinjav so users can bypass Rinjav, Cedar Street, and consider neighborhood treatments. I've been living in the neighborhood now since 2008. Before that, lived just down on the other side of the tracks on Walden Street, and my myself, my spouse, my family, including now my sixth grader in Rock, regularly bicycle through the neighborhood. And it is a principle, it is our primary way of traveling through the neighborhood. I would like to make sure that we continue to prioritize ways to improve cycling safety. As I was heading out, and unfortunately I could not join in person tonight, I was walking along Rinjav and actually was passed by several cyclists riding on the sidewalk because Rinjav is such a dangerous road, including one cyclist who looked to be of preschool age. We need to do more to make sure that the youngest members of our community are able to safely navigate through the city, especially connecting between the northern triangle of North Cambridge on the north side of the Linear Park and the remainder of North Cambridge south of the Linear Park. It's vital that we have ways to address these low volume streets for or at least low volume relative to Mass Ave and Range Ave and find ways to better improve the safety. So I'd strongly ask that the City of Cambridge and the City Council support policy order 154. Thank you and I yield my time.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Sunisa Shetler. Sunisa, you have three minutes if you can unmute yourself. Yep, go ahead.

All right. My name is Vanessa Schettler. Thank you. I'm president of Harvey Street and concerned about the linear path renovations and a lack of signage that is clearly giving people confusion about where to go and how to navigate around. that North Cambridge section. Like the speaker before me, Jason, I am seeing more use of the sidewalks by small cyclists, young and old. It is a very busy set of streets we have here in North Cambridge along Harvey Street where I live and Renjab as well as Dudley Street. What we're seeing with the linear park renovation I think is just a lack of clear directing you know detour routes for cars would be much more clearly laid out and instead i'm seeing cyclists come to the intersection of cedar at mass ave and not have any idea where to go so i personally directed some people earlier to get onto harvey street and it just feels like the signage needs to be much improved there as this is day one i understand there could be you know, more signage and more clarity in the days to come. But as the project will be going on for months, we'll definitely need to improve that access. Dozens, hundreds of commuters are using it in the mornings and evenings to get from the Alewife area toward Davis Square. And it's just extremely confusing right now. We also have the Whittenmore Path walking pedestrian area that I've not addressed yet. And I'm not really sure how that signage can be improved as well. But I will say we're excited to have the linear park renovated and improved drainage, improved surface for better commuting and walking as well as cycling, but better signage needed for the detours. In the meantime, thank you for allowing me to speak. I'll yield the rest of my time.

Vice Mayor, that is all that we're signed up

All right, and we are past six o'clock on a motion by Councillor Wilson to close public comment, roll call. Councillor Azeem.

Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui.

Yes.

Yes, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes, Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes, Councillor Wilson.

Yes.

Yes, Councillor Zusy.

Yes.

Yes, Mayor Simmons is absent. You have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded in the negative. I'm sorry, is absent.

Thank you. There are no reconsiderations. We're going to move on to the city manager's agenda. Before we start pulling items, there is a late order filed by myself, Mayor Simmons, Councilor Siddiqui, and Councilor Wilson asking the manager for an update on SNAP. So on a motion by Councilor Wilson to move suspension of the rules to bring that late policy order forward so the manager can discuss it. On suspension, roll call.

Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes. Councilor Sabrina Whaler.

Yes.

Yes. Councilor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons is absent. You have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded as absent. Okay.

So that laid orders before us. We'll now move on to pulling other items as well. Councilor Toner.

Four, five, six, seven. Okay. Okay.

Councilor Nolan, I saw your hand out. Pleasure of the council. Okay, and then the late order, obviously, Mr. Manager. On the balance, roll call.

Councilor is... Councillor Zinn? Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui? Yes. Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councillor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons is absent. We have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded as absent.

All right. We now move on. Mr. Manager, why don't you do the delayed order first?

Sounds good. We're good to go. Through you, Vice Mayor, thank you for putting this on the agenda. There have been a number of new and unfortunate developments on how the government shutdown is going to affect SNAP benefits. Just before we get into SNAP, I wanted to provide a quick update since I know part of the conversation is a number of the other programs. WIC and Head Start do have available funds through November, is our understanding. In addition, the low-income heating and energy assistance program continues to be open and taking applications, but currently will only fund emergency situations given the limited funds that have been made available. However, the majority of disbursements for heating and energy assistance don't occur until later in November or early December. And so there's not as urgent a cash flow crisis and we feel okay about that program. The Department of Public Utilities has also put in place a moratorium for fuel shutoffs for low income residents. So the overall takeaway for these programs is that while we also have very significant concerns, there isn't a short term crisis facing us until later in November. To review the current state on SNAP, based on our most recent data from the state, Cambridge has 6,700 households and 10,000 people who benefit from SNAP. Nationally, the average benefit is about $187 per person, so this represents almost $2 million per month of federal food benefits into our community. The major announcements on SNAP that came out on Friday were, first, that the federal administration had decided that they will not tap the billions of dollars of contingency funding that's available, despite the USDA's September 30th memo on its shutdown plan that states that, quote, these multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year. Friday's announcement has also been reiterated in the last days with the USDA saying that the well has run dry. The second major announcement on Friday was that the governor and the state legislature have said that the state can't replace the about $212 million per month that Massachusetts residents receive in SNAP benefits. The result is that we are moving toward a November 1st cutoff of SNAP funding. There's still a lot of uncertainty, and I believe there's still potential for a number of different outcomes, including that SNAP funding might be restored by the federal administration before the November 1st deadline, or that there's a negotiated end to the government shutdown in early November as some of these impacts play out. But there is also the worst case scenario where a prolonged shutdown lasts for weeks longer into November. Similar to the state, I think as a city, we have to recognize that the total amount of SNAP funding received in Cambridge is more than we can possibly backfill. We cannot replace the resources of the federal government But there are some actions that we can take. We've been holding a number of conversations with our community partners and city staff that are working on food security. And I believe that given the uncertainty and scale of the challenge on November 1st, which is only less than a week away, the best course would be to look at existing food programs that could be easily scaled or increase resources to those existing programs. The time and effort to scale a new operation or program makes less sense given the uncertainty we're facing and the need to move toward implementation immediately. If this is something that the council would support, I'm happy to work with city leaders and staff who oversee food and benefits distribution and the community organizations we've been in touch with. We can put together some options for next week's city council meeting for discussion and have a proposal in terms of what we might be able to do. We'll also have greater certainty at that point whether there will be, in fact, a delay in November benefits. I mean, at that point, we'll be past November 1st. In conversations I've had, it's been hard not to draw parallels to the pandemic, just seeing an impending crisis and making decisions with a lot of uncertainty. But it has also been really sad to reflect on the support across levels of government where during the pandemic, even if we didn't agree on everything, there were resources being brought to bear to support everyone in our communities. This is a really different situation where it's the very federal government that we are all paying taxes into, which is now stripping away resources from those most in need. And so happy to have a little bit of discussion, but I think there are some smaller options where we won't be able to fill the full gap, but there may be some things that we can do.

Pleasure to the council. Councilor Toner.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just curious, just as we were coming in here, I heard something on NPR, an argument that Congress has actually already put the money aside. I don't know enough about the story, but I don't know if you know anything about that. And then secondly, whatever ideas you have, great, I'd be supportive. And also, if we could even just... communicate to the general public people are asking us what we can do and i think we as citizens of cambridge could be doing more to donate and support the work that's already happening in some of these non-profits so if we could somehow publish a list and make it more prevalent for people to be aware of thank you mr chair mr manager

uh through you vice mayor um yes i think i think the congressional appropriation is probably referencing there is contingency money that the usda holds for the snap program they have stated on friday that that contingency money can be only be tapped for things like natural disasters and not for something like a government shutdown i think it's a peculiar position for them to take given that in the USDA's shutdown plan that was previously released, that's still available on the web, but not on their official website, they explicitly called out that contingency fund as a possibility. And it's certainly been discussed in the past. So I think that's probably what's being referenced. It doesn't cover the full amount that the federal government would need to fund all of November, but it would probably cover like 70, 75% of it. I think absolutely for people who are looking to donate, there's a number of organizations in the city that are doing a lot of really great work on food security. There's the food pantries that are being run by a lot of our community organizations, including CEOC, Cambridge Community Center, Margaret Fuller House, East End House. Food for Free is also an organization that does a lot of work, both supporting those pantries and supporting distribution. And the state has organized the United Way across the Commonwealth to gather donations and then to funnel those two organizations that they support across the state to work on to sort of more quickly move money into the food system. So those are all great organizations, local organizations to work with. And certainly those are some of the conversations we're having about where the city may be able to find some programs that could more immediately reach those in need.

Councilor Nolan. Councilor Toner, you yield? Yes. Councilor Toner. Nolan, sorry.

Thanks. Thanks, my colleagues, for bringing this forward. We're hearing a lot about this. Through you, Chairman McGovern, to the city manager, you had indicated that if the council was interested in hearing about some options for next week, I think I'm pretty sure I can speak for everyone that we definitely would want that, and I'm sure the four folks who put forth this policy order were front and center. I really appreciate that. I'm glad it's here. I will say one of the things for us all to address given the enormity of this challenge, even for a city as well resourced as we are, it will be challenging to figure out how do we ensure that the most vulnerable in our community get word that it's available and how it is that we can help them because even within this scale there will be some who are far more vulnerable to this than others so if there's any way that we can work with our community partners to understand how we can do two things one make sure they're most vulnerable get it and also make sure they know that it's available that whatever we do we know there's some folks who may not be coming through the usual channels and who will will really benefit from this so i don't I think that's just a comment on when we hear this next week, but I appreciate it and hope that we can stand up and do something. But of course, we all hope that by then the federal government will do what it's supposed to do, which is provide for the health and welfare of this country. And it is shameful that this is even a question and that we're even having this discussion in a moment when people across this country are literally just afraid that not only is their paycheck gone, but their SNAP benefits are gone. I can't even express words enough for how it is that we're sitting in this country and this is a conversation.

Pleasure to counsel. Councilor Siddiqui.

Thank you. Just to follow up on what you said, City Manager, a few questions. Have you been in touch with our state delegation?

I've called Senator DiDomenico, who's on the Anti-Hunger Task Force. I think we're looking for time to connect. And yeah, I think we're looking for some, I think trying to make some of those connections and just understand what they're seeing, certainly from the state house level. It has been a pretty clear message that's been sent by both the governor and the Speaker of the House that the state is saying they can't really fill this void across the state. And I think that's sort of where they've been directing a lot of private donations into the United Way.

And then the numbers that you spoke of, you said it's about thinking about, it's about 2 million that's coming towards staff benefits. I guess a question would be one of the options are you looking at is you're supporting, are we looking to support these nonprofits with some money from our stabilization fund? Is that an idea? I mean, I think I recognize that, you know, you know, we can't indefinitely cover folks, but I think in the interim, you know, two million, you know, if it's a stopgap measure for now, I think as we wait and see what's happened, I think certainly it's really important to me and I think most of the council that people not, people have that support either through these organizations, whether we're doing some kind of Chelsea Eats model. There's a lot of things that have been done and tried that nonprofits can utilize, particularly COC and others. And I know many organizations are getting calls. So many seniors are worried. So many families are worried. And so I do think between now and... next week again worst case scenario right but being prepared and thinking of through what are the list of options that the council can you know weigh in on and and certainly push I'm in favor I think kind of understanding the city's role as a partner to these nonprofits like you know what I assumed that your team would be kind of orchestrating and being involved, but yeah, I think the big ask here is to play a role, and in as much as we can do, Because as Councillor Nolan and others have said, it's horrible that we're here. And now that we're here, I think we need to be able to respond as much as we can. And so I think thinking about what we've already done and what we can leverage from our stabilization fund and other sources, even if it's the stopgap measure. For now, I think it's important, especially if we don't have the state in this.

Councilor Wilson.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and through you to City Manager. Thank you for your response to this and for conversations that you're having so far. And just to echo the things that my colleagues have already said, just in regards to, I think, This area now, we're in a level of urgency, right, to really respond to. But I think, and I hate to harp on kind of where we were months ago when we were in conversation about being prepared for this moment, that we knew something was going to be coming up. We didn't know what, and we didn't know what the impact was going to be. And I just want to reflect on when we were moving to vote for Rise Up Cambridge to kind of have a successor program and really think about how we can be supporting families. And it was really, I want to say, met with some opposition and resistance in terms of how do we kind of implement this program and really think about how we support families on the ground. And if my memory serves me correct in terms of what I said was that there will be bigger outcomes later if we don't act and respond now. And while we are still days away from the first, we're still in that moment. And I think this is important and it's imperative on us to actually be more proactive versus reactive, even in these moments, because we are having families that are really worried about the uncertainty of what's going to happen on the first so while i appreciate the conversations that are happening i really want to see the proactiveness on what we're going to do to really make sure that families don't wake up on the first without a plan and an option so that something is moving throughout the course of this week and that you're keeping the council abreast to exactly how individuals can take advantage of an opportunity, granted understanding that there could be this uncertainty on Saturday morning when they wake up. So, you know, I think about those families who Saturday morning is kind of like their ritual. They go out, they go food shopping, all that stuff, because they also have an additional, some money in their SNAP. and if this Saturday morning they wake up and they don't have that who are they going to be able to turn to it's the first of the month bills are getting paid you also need to put food in your home to feed your kids how are we going to make sure that the 6700 families that you talked about across Cambridge who receive benefits that they know how to actually tap into services if the first comes and they're not able to receive. So if you could just speak to that, maybe just some of the processing that you're doing around how we're going to... I mean, I appreciate our nonprofits, but also recognize all 6,700 families do not tap into all of our nonprofits. And so we may not... we may there may be families that we will lose through the cracks or who may not get the information so um succinctly and i want to make sure that they are aware so what will you in the in our partners what will we be doing to make sure families know what to do mr manager

Through you, Vice Mayor. I mean, I think this is the really terrible reality that we're facing, where the scale of the federal funding that's disappearing means, I don't know how we can fill that need. You know, I think that we're talking about 10,000 individuals who are enrolled in a federal program that has actually like pretty strict eligibility requirements. And if we are to try and stand up a whole program that would mimic that, I mean, that's not feasible for us on this sort of a timeframe. It's not feasible in terms of the uncertainty of whether it will be needed, you know, like it will take, it would take weeks of planning in order to do something that comprehensive. I think what I'm trying to convey is it is not possible, especially when you think about what our state government is saying, they are saying with all the resources at the state level that they can't put together something to backfill this amount of gap we certainly can't do that at a city level even with the resources that we have but I don't think that means that we can't do anything and so I think some of what we are looking at is options for programs that we can put together quickly and and programs that we can take action on, but also recognize that in the uncertainty, if the shutdown goes on longer, we can maybe tap those programs even more. I think some of the challenge would be, for instance, if we tried to roll out some really huge program that took a lot of effort and was going to try to push out a lot of resources, and the government reopens on November 3rd. You know, I think I think some of this is just recognizing, look, there are absolutely long term needs that exist in our community that existed before the pandemic were exacerbated that continue to exist. I mean, the number of people who are in need when we look at the numbers today, pre-pandemic, we had about 6000 people in the city who were pretty stably on SNAP benefits, and it's only risen every year after the pandemic. So now we have 10000 people who are on SNAP benefits. And we're hearing more and more from a lot of the folks in our food pantries that they're seeing more families who are middle income, especially with rising food prices coming and saying that they can't put enough food on the table. So I think the need is so deep. I think there's both the short term response that we're trying to put together to at least acknowledge that there is a need that we can try to point people to. But even with some amount of additional resources that we put into, for instance, our food pantries, there's going to be more need than they can serve. So I just want to set realistic expectations to what we can do. And then longer term, I would sort of say as part of these broader conversations of the budget, As we understand more deeply, like what other federal programs are going to be cut, because I honestly think this is what's pretty depressing. This is just the beginning of what we're going to see in terms of this next federal budget and how many other resources are going to be pulled, whether that's money coming out of the state budget, money coming out of community organization budgets, money coming out of individuals like SNAP. We're going to have to make real decisions, both in terms of how we prioritize which needs we can try to address, which parts of our community we're gonna support, and also how we make that work fiscally, since we aren't gonna have the resources to fill in all of those gaps, and we're not getting any help from the federal government the way we did during the pandemic. So, you know, I would say I absolutely am with you in terms of the need and how we're going to try to figure this out. But I just want to set realistic expectations for, like, what we can actually achieve. Dr. Wilson?

Um, thanks. I, I, I get it right. Like, um, definitely this is definitely some tough times and we're not going to have all the answers or even the best answers. Um, and you know, we're also a city that in this, in today's agenda, we're talking about the reserves that we have remaining in our free cash and our rainy day fund, if you would. Um, and that we want to, you know, I'm going to speak for myself that I think it's imperative that we really think about how we're able to access our dollars, because again, we will have neighbors who are gonna be in need. So again, I respect that across the board, we're not gonna be able to, do this on a long-term scale, if you would, but I really think about what is the interim and really thinking about could we, again, we have several things on the agenda tonight that are tapping into free cash, and I think if we, all right, let me pause that thought, but if we were really prioritizing, I think we need to really set some priorities and make sure that our families are able to have what they need in order to thrive and put food on the table. The other thing that I want to just talk about and mention is just how we have a lot of school children. When we think about our families and my time on the school committee, Councilor Siddiqui, former mayor, we talked, we had the free food. program and making sure that families were fed during that time and especially during covet so really thinking about how do we ensure that families are able to tap into our breakfast program lunch programs so that there are nutritious meals that our families our young people and families if necessary are able to take advantage of. And I am curious if there's any possibility for any of those meals to be cut because of the federal dollars or kind of where that might be coming from. So through you, Vice Mayor, City Manager, if you could just speak to, do we know if through the program that we initiated, will any of those dollars be cut because maybe they're coming from the federal government? Mr. Manager.

Through you, Vice Mayor, the school lunch program, which is now free, I forget the total amount that the state allocated. I think it was on the order of, I should look it up before I just put out a number, but there were significant state budget allocations to make school lunches free across the Commonwealth. So those are state dollars, and I don't think they're affected by the federal funding cuts.

Thank you, so just to follow up that we want to make sure that our families know. I'm sure many of our families do, but just to remind and see if there's any way for additional food and services to be given to families that we know are in highest needs. Which I know that there's a lot of backpack programs and food pantries at schools and things like that. So we just want to make sure that as we're working with our partners across the board, from food to free to our food banks, pantries, that we're making sure that they're well stocked and that they have what they need and trying to do it in the most discreet and respectable way to definitely support and take heed to individuals like integrity and stuff like that. We don't want any young people to feel embarrassed during this time, but we recognize that there are several families that are in need and Food is critical to that. So with that, I said a lot. I yield. Thank you. Thank you.

Before I go to Councilor Zusy, I'm going to go back to Councilor Siddiqui because she asked a question and then I went right to Councilor Wilson and didn't give the manager a chance to respond. So Councilor Siddiqui, do you want to ask your question again?

Yeah, sure. I mean, I think the city manager's answer kind of got to some of it just now. But I think for me, it's just, you know, the what you come back with is, are we, you know, willing to commit funding to what's happening and what's happening and working with our basically our community partners. Um, and I see a, I see a source of money for that, a contract for services or, you know, I can imagine nonprofits are going to be, pantries will want more food. And then, you know, I think the easiest thing from what I've heard is, um, gift cards for SNAP benefits is, is, is what I've, um, seen. And so, um, I think my ask is just that we have those conversations with, we have a whole network here, food security initiative and non-profits part of it. And so I want us to play that role. So that was more of a, you know, I think I anticipate some of what you'll come back with is kind of thinking through the different options for us to consider.

Mr. Manager. Through you, Vice Mayor, that's right.

And I'll just say that tomorrow there is a rally at the State House that Mass Law Reform Institute is hosting on this issue and trying to build support and raise awareness on that advocacy. And there is a lot happening at the State House. It doesn't mean that they'll change what they're saying, but I think the more we can push, the better.

Thanks.

Thank you. Through you, Chair McGovern. Yeah, I think President Trump has created a false crisis with the hopes that the Democrats will cave with their health care demands. Anyway, I think though, proactively though, I think we should use the daily update to ask people to donate bags of food to local nonprofits. And anyway, I think working through the nonprofits is the way to go. And I think if the daily update goes to everyone, right? I think if people, I would certainly put together a bag or two of food and be happy to drop it off at the Cambridge Community Center, I'm sure. Most people would be happy to do that. It would be good for those centers to have that food sooner rather than later. So if this really does continue, if the SNAP benefits are terminated on Saturday, that there will be food at those centers for people to access. And then I just wanted, I think it's ironic that we're having this food scarcity issue during the harvest season. And there is this group called Farm Link, the Farm Link Project, which is absolutely amazing. Every fall, every year, farmers dump just tons and tons of food because there's no... need or market for it um anyway if we could access some of the that farm link harvest for cambridge that would be great too i look forward to your update and i thank you for um for your care concert sabrina wheel thanks mr chair through you um just briefly because my colleagues raised a number of the questions and comments that i had

I think there's sort of two roles the city has in pieces like this. The one is direct supports for people who need it, stepping in to fill the gap by the federal government. The other is this coordinator role of all of the people and organizations that are trying to provide support here, and I think they're really It could and has potential to be an outpouring of support from residents and also businesses, community groups that would want to support here. I think about when we had the family shelters open in Cambridge and we just had so many people offering to help those few dozen families we have there and we had Mara Penzac step in and be the person to handle those volunteer requests. I think this could potentially be even a bigger flood given both how many people would be affected given how much it's in the national consciousness, and given that it's literally people's neighbors who would be struggling to put food on their table. So I would just emphasize, in addition to the direct support the city can provide, that we're set up, have a point person to handle all those volunteer requests, all those support from local businesses to help direct people to the right place. I think the city could really serve as that sort of intermediary, putting folks who want to be helpful and help their neighbors through this crisis there. I yield back.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. I just had a few questions for the city manager, just on the basics. Do we have a sense of how we're planning to respond day to day as like a city? Like, I know this is mostly just a form to talk about it because it's very uncertain given the shutdown and everything, but I just was wondering where the current thought process is.

uh through you vice mayor i think in the short term we are focused on what may or may not happen with the government shutdown and if there are some pretty concrete actions that we can take i do think that as we look at what's happening over the coming months there's a more sustained effort of helping to find ways that we can support the community organizations that are on the front lines And I would say in particular, a lot of the work requirements and eligibility requirements that are rolling out for SNAP. So we haven't really heard that from HUD. It's a little bit unclear if the people who are meant to be doing that are currently being paid or at work right now, given that the government is shut down. But a lot of the estimates in terms of the number of people across the state who are going to lose eligibility as a result of those work requirements, I think the number is probably like 50,000 people. And so a lot of what I think we want to do is try and work with folks who are already interacting, whether that's through the schools or the housing authority or food pantries, to just make sure that if people are eligible, they stay eligible, that the right documentation is put in and that they get through whatever Byzantine requirements HUD is going to roll out and they stay on SNAP benefits. So I think that's like a medium to longer term issue. And then I think there is, just the broader resourcing question. I talked about how there's resources that are pulling out. I think some of the reports are that already the federal administration has pulled something like 100 million pounds of federal food aid out of the system. That's sort of nationally, but a lot of that is We don't necessarily see those dollars flow as directly, but a lot of where the food that ends up on the shelves in our food pantries come from are those federal distribution systems, and the amount is being decreased as part of the administration's new budget, which is crazy. So I think there are these longer term conversations about resourcing and food security that are more urgent now than they were six months ago when I don't think we knew exactly which areas the federal administration were going to come after. But it seems like food security may be one of those. Councilor Zing.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. So how much of this is a short term acute problem of government shutdown, there'll be a few weeks without food stamps being issued or the state getting its funding from the federal government for the next month versus like longer term, the budget would just shorten the number of people who are eligible for food stamps.

I think it's both. I think there's short-term, medium-term, long-term that we have to be paying attention to. And I think it'll be conversations that we'll have together and then also with our community organizations to try and set up the right ways to work together. And I think there will be budget conversations that we'll all have to have in terms of what level of support the city can provide. And I think that's got to be also in the context of all of our other priorities. You know, I think... I think this may not be the only area that we're going to see a lot of federal dollars come out. And so I think we'll have a better sense in the coming weeks and months.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. For the shutdown piece, I don't know if you would happen to know this, but, you know, assuming that the state does not get funds for like the month of November because of the shutdown, when the government does reopen, will we get those funds back?

Mr. Manager. uh through you vice mayor i mean my understanding was that when the government shuts down that the money comes back not to us i think it would be hard to recover that amount you know like if we were to put money out we're obviously not getting paid back but i think my understanding was that those dollars would get loaded onto the beneficiaries cards obviously it doesn't help if you had a three week or four week gap where you didn't have those resources But I also feel like I'm a little hesitant to say that that's entirely going to be the case given how much the rules have been changed and even the interpretation of the same rules has been changed by the federal administration. So there's a level of inconsistency that kind of makes it hard to predict what may or may not happen. Councilor Azeem.

Got it. That's helpful to know. I just wanted to get some of those details out. I think most of the suggestions have been made out with information from my colleagues. My only input is that, you know, it's very hard to plan around, especially the shutdown piece, because we don't know when it will end. But also... You know, I saw the $2 million a month metric, and it may not necessarily be that right if it's a week that's 500,000 which is still a large expense for the city and it's hard to start up a program and do all that. But just to say that, like, if it ends up being another week, another two weeks like hopefully that'll be a smaller more manageable.

time period where we can really front load some benefits and then if it gets into the longer i think we're really getting to some really difficult times thank you that's all i yield thank you um just real quick i hope um yeah i mean i agree with everyone i can't believe we're you know we're sitting here talking about a a president who wants to starve people i mean this is where we are it's pretty scary and pathetic um mr manager i think Well, one thing I would just say, too, when we think about how do we notify people about what's available, let's remember that a lot of the SNAP benefits are also seniors, right? And they may not be getting the daily updates on their phones or whatnot, so we have to make sure we have a broad range of outreach working with our you know with the human services department or some of the senior buildings or whatnot to make sure we're you know we're connecting with with seniors as well um it sounds like i mean i guess i would say mr manager that You know, I agree that it's probably difficult for us at this point to roll out the infrastructure. I think it would be difficult to say, you know, we're gonna, I mean, I don't think we would have the ability to fill SNAP cards, right, because that's a federal thing. I don't think we would have access to even be able to do that, but even if we were going to, for lack of a better term, sort of cut checks to people, that's much more complicated than it may sound, and so it may make sense to obviously be working with the infrastructure that's already in place, but I do think, as you said, Mr. Manager, this isn't going to be the last time we're going to be in this situation so as maybe you know thinking about should something like this happen again whether it's you know food or housing vouchers or you know whatever um that we start to think about is there a way we can get start building that infrastructure if if that is indeed necessary and something we find that we have to do and i don't know what that looks like i'm just kind of you know thinking because I don't think this is gonna be the last time, right? That something like this is gonna happen. And then I would just say, so to me, I don't think that maybe $2 million a month is something that we could, do indefinitely, so I'm hoping this is not an indefinite problem, but thinking about, I do think as some others have said, that we need to put some, we may need to put some financial resources into solving this problem or tidying this over, so how we do that, I think, I can't imagine that this council wouldn't vote probably unanimously, but certainly a majority would vote to invest some money into making sure people have food on the table if this doesn't get solved before next week. So don't be afraid to bring that forward. Yeah, and with that, I mean, I just, again, can't, You know, can't believe we're here. And, you know, presidents are supposed to treat everyone equally, and this president is doing that. 30% of the people in South Florida are on SNAP, so his own people, he's starving them too. So it's just cruelty at its best. Councilor Wilson.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Through you, just one additional thing I wanted to just add to, you know, again to the conversation, not only just like what are the next steps, so we got this update, we know through you to the Mississippi City Manager, we kind of have a sense of where we are, but You know, I think more information is going to be needed before next Monday. Right. And so what does that, again, look like? Because we're talking about the first is this weekend. So I am curious about initially, like, what are the next steps, you know, outside of just more conversations? Like, what are some real tangible next steps that this city can actually do with in partnership with the partners that we have to ensure? again if all if all goes south on um on the first that families are going to be okay or taken to some degree taken care of right and i think again going back to our community in the city of cambridge we are a city that is supposed to be taking care of our neighbors especially our most vulnerable so what would that look like over these next several days mr manager

Through you, Vice Mayor, I think it's having conversations pretty quickly in the next day or two with potential partners on what a program would look like and then being able to stand it up. And I think we would come to the council to get the appropriation next Monday, and then it would have to be a plan that could be implemented I think within days. So the idea would probably be that we have a way to get benefits out to folks within a week. It's not very useful if we're putting together a program that we're going to announce on the 3rd and then say it'll be rolling out November 15th. I mean, I think I think I would say, and this is sort of gotten out of the political prediction business on like what we can expect. I do think November 1st is a pretty big cliff. And if a lot of these benefits do actually impact, I mean, SNAP is 42 million Americans. And even the states that are talking about doing small things, I mean, New Hampshire is talking about putting $2 million which remember, like in just Cambridge, $2 million is how much SNAP benefits cost. And so $2 million across the state of New Hampshire is nothing. It's a drop in the bucket. We also have a lot of the ACA Obamacare plans. I think the number that you had talked about, Vice Mayor, 30% of people in South Florida are on Obamacare plans. I mean, there's going to be tremendous hikes in premiums for that open enrollment period that opens on November 1st. So, I do think that there's going to be really tremendous pressure and a lot of people, tens of millions of people are going to be angry about what is happening and our government not working for us. And so, I think there's both a deep concern that when November 1st hits, that we're going to see a lot of these benefits disappear. I think the question of how long that will last is really uncertain. and it could be days, it could be weeks. I think we wanna be prepared for both and we want whatever option we decide to go with to also not be too far out ahead of what might occur. So I think those are some of the complexities you know i would say it would be you know it isn't feasible for us to say we're going to catch all 10 000 of the people that are going to be impacted by a potential snap cliff um and i think it is unfortunate i sort of like feel like the answer is going to be it's not good enough uh whatever we do because we can't ultimately fashion a solution to the federal government in a week. And I think we will try to find things that make sense in this gap that we can do and that we can at least have some level of resourcing that we're increasing in our system. But it's going to be hard to say because I think there are going to be people who are in need who we aren't going to be able to fully support.

I yield, thank you.

And I would reiterate, I think Councilor Serena Wheeler's recommendation is a really good one about having a point person, because we're all going to get calls and emails and being able to direct someone to say, here's the person that has all the information and here's who you need to contact, I think is a great idea. If there's nothing further, seeing none, we still have to adopt the late order, so on adoption, roll call.

Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern.

Yes.

Yes. Councilor Nolan. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui.

Yes.

Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Absent. You have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded as absent.

Thank you. We now move on to city manager agenda item number four, transmitting communication from Yi-An Huang, city manager, relative to the appropriation of $20 million from free cash to the general fund employee benefits department salary and wages account, which will replenish funds that were transferred out of the employee benefits department and subsequently used to fund expenses related to the demolition of 221 Mount Auburn Street. This was pulled by Councilor Toner. You have the floor.

Mr. Chair, I don't want to complicate things. Would it make life easier if I made a motion to suspend to take four, five, and six together, or do we have to have independent votes on those?

I believe we're going to have to have independent votes, but we could still pull them so you could talk about all of them together and vote separately. Yes, if I could make a motion to suspend so we can discuss them all together. Out of motion by Councillor Toner to suspend the rules to bring forward city manager agenda items four, five, six.

Four, five, and six.

Well, do we have to bring them all forward if we're going to bring them forward at the same time? Are you bringing four, five, and six?

Yes. Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes, Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes, Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes, Councillor Zusy. Yes, Mayor Simmons is absent. You have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded as absent.

Okay, so we can speak to four, five, and six, but I will call for separate roll call votes given that they're separate appropriations. Councillor Toner.

THANK YOU, MR. CHAIR. I JUST WANTED TO DO THAT SO WE COULD HAVE A FREE-FLOWING DISCUSSION SINCE THEY'RE ALL INTERACTIVE. BUT THE MAIN REASON I WANTED TO PULL IT ESPECIALLY BECAUSE IT'S SUCH A BIG TOPIC BUT ALSO TO DEAL WITH SOME STATEMENTS THAT WERE MADE IN PUBLIC COMMENT THAT THIS $20 MILLION UNDER NUMBER FOUR FROM FREE CASH TO THE GENERAL FUND THAT'S GOING, I KNOW WE HAD TO MAKE SOME TRANSACTIONS SO THAT THE CITY COULD PAY AND GET STARTED ON THE Thank you for the demolition on Mount Auburn Street, which is meant for the safety not only of the people in the community and that particular building, the safety of the surrounding area as well. And that was something that we all voted unanimously that we needed to do. But I just wanted to point out, despite what was said in public comment, we're going to recoup that money. So I don't want anybody at home thinking we're just giving $20 million away. We're paying to help the people in this community in need to deal with something that has to be done and to protect the surrounding houses around it. So I'm glad that we were able to do that, but to be honest with you, if we weren't gonna be repaid, I probably would have not voted to do that, but we will be repaid for that. And the only other thing I wanted to ask, which is a budget question, but it's a little off these three topics, but if it's okay. Believe it or not, I'm actually being asked by some people when they're getting their tax bills, and I'm sorry that I'm the one that made the motion to delay it for two weeks for discussion. And so the only question was, have the tax bills gone out? And the only other part of that is an interesting question. I have no idea. Are we losing any money in terms of accumulating interest by having delayed our sending out the tax bills? Through you, Mr. Chair.

Yeah, thank you for that question and through you, Mr. Chair. So our tax bills will be dated November 7th. It does take a little bit of time once we got the vote to do the calculations, run the process, send it to the folks who actually create the bills and mail them for us. They're due December 8th. Yes, I would say that there is an impact on our interest earnings by delaying the mailing of the tax bills, in this case by two weeks. in two ways number one we're not bringing in those revenues and indeed we had to sort of reach into some of our reserves to be able to continue to pay our ongoing bills so um you know hoping that next year as we go through this process our goal in the finance department is actually to try to get that tax vote to happen either the third or fourth week in September because from a financial perspective that's better for us and certainly when I can remember you know before I went to the school district it was the norm to set the tax rate before the end of September and so we're going to try to push forward and do that again next year.

Mayor Mrakas, Councillor, thank you, through you, I apologize, had I known that I may not have actually made that motion to to hold off for two weeks, but. Mayor Mrakas, Just wanted to clear that up and. Mayor Mrakas, Beyond that, if you wanted to speak to these for these three items about the transactions that are happening so that everybody at home understands.

I just had a point.

I believe through you that ACM Spinner said the bills would be out November 7th and due November 8th, and I want to make sure we are not just one day.

Thank you, through you, Chair. I misspoke. They're due December 8th. Thank you. And then through you, Chair, we'll speak to, we brought forward really three items today that impacts our certified free cash. So we received the information about a certified free cash number having gone through the state certification process a few weeks ago. And as promised, in July when we had, or August, I can't remember, in the summer when we had our two meetings with regard to both Riverview and our Vail Court settlement, at the time we sort of borrowed money from our health insurance budget to be able to, and transferred those to other budget areas so that we could pay those bills or start the process for THE DEMOLITION CONTRACTING PROCESS. AT THAT TIME WE SAID WHEN OUR FREE CASH WAS CERTIFIED IN THE FALL WE WOULD BE COMING BACK TO THE CITY COUNCIL TO HAVE FREE CASH TRANSFERS FROM OUR FREE CASH TO REPLENISH OUR EMPLOYEE BENEFITS BUDGET. SO THAT IS WHAT WE'RE DOING TONIGHT. JUST REPLENISHING FOR VOTES THAT WERE ALREADY TAKEN DURING THE SUMMER FOR EXPENDITURES. At the same time, we're also transferring out of the certified free cash the amounts that we received during fiscal year 25 that were mitigation funds. And so the law requires that when we first receive mitigation revenues, they come in as miscellaneous revenues and get credited to just as miscellaneous revenues in that year. They get certified to free cash, and in the next fiscal year, we then transfer them out of free cash into our mitigation stabilization fund, where at the time that we are ready to expend them for the purpose that they have been granted to the city, we then come back to the city council to transfer them from the mitigation fund to the specific purpose when we're ready to actually do those projects.

Councilor Tarr. I yield. Councilor Zusy.

Thank you, Chair McGovern. So just following up on that, so how much money do we have in the mitigation revenue stabilization fund and what sorts of things might we use that on? Do you have that with you? And that's through you, Chair McGovern?

Through you, Mr. Vice Mayor. We currently have about 37 million sitting in mitigation stabilization fund. That comes from a variety of different agreements through special permits and zoning requirements, conditions for special permits. for specific projects in a lot of cases. And so as Ms. Spinner mentioned, when those are ready to be spent, we come back to council to get approval for that. Councilor Zusy.

Yeah, so again, through you, Chair McGovern. So what sort of projects might those funds be used for?

Mr. Jennings. So there are some specific capital related projects, depending on which special permit it came in under for, as was mentioned, solar panels. There is a number of projects related to blue bikes and blue bike stations. There are some workforce developments. They're spelled out in the special permit agreements. And so when we come back to, you know, Council to actually appropriate those funds.

We will let you know what they're for But it's for a variety of different kind of specific items Yeah, thank you and then my other question life two other questions But one of them is so now we had a hundred and eighty four million in our not really free cash but Now with the Vail Court and Riverview, expenses will be down to like a 160 million. So my question is, what number should that be at? To keep our AAA bond rating to retain flexibility and making expenditures, where should we really sort of keep that number? And then I had one other question, which is, I was reading the Boston Globe article about the Riverview demolition, which will start now in early December. So do we have a sense for when that will end now? Two questions. Thank you.

Through you. Chair McGovern, I believe that Deputy City Manager Watkins, I think, is online tonight and can speak to the Riverview, so I'll quickly speak to the percentage or the amount of certified free cash. So we have a city financial policy of trying to ensure that our certified free cash amount, which is part of a larger amount of other reserves that we have, For example, the mitigation stabilization reserve, our health claims trust reserve, so we have a number of reserves. But specifically that certified free cash, which is technically our undesignated fund balance, so our most flexible funds. Our city policy is that we try to maintain that amount at 15% of our operating budget. And the date that we measure that from each year really is at the date that it is certified, typically in September, October of each year, and we measure that against the current year operating budget. So for the current year, our certified free cash is approximately 18 of our operating budget then that is before we do these transfers but as i say we just we measure this annually at this one point in time which is at the uh the time that it's certified yeah so you feel comfortable with us sort of remaining at 160 would you be nervous if it was 150 million Through you, Chair McGovern. Again, these funds, I think, are being prudent and careful when we expend them. I would say that the $20 million for Riverview, the Vail Court settlement, those were two items that were really essential for us to move forward on. And, you know, the fact that we had this level of balance in our free cash and we anticipated that it would be approximately in that range, I think was just one of the reasons why we do want to keep these type of balances so that we can respond to this type of expenditure.

Thank you so much. I yelled, oh, I guess Taha and then Deputy Watkins.

Mr. Chair, I just wanted to also add some context that during the fiscal year, we may see that balance go down even more as we use free cash for different items. But again, as Ms. Spinner mentioned, it's at a point in time that we're really measuring that, you know, ratio. So we may expect to replenish some free cash at the end of the year based on our expenditures and revenues. And so, you know, we really wanna look at that one point in time when it's certified.

Councilor Sussing.

Thank you. I'd just love to hear about Riverview if possible.

do you have a specific yeah through you vice mayor um so a couple updates on riverview so again i go back to um what counselor toner talked about and just really want to reiterate that you know the reason that the city is involved in the demolition is because of public health and public safety You know, the closest residents are 40 feet away from that building, so in extreme proximity. So we have a building that has, you know, potential structural issues with potential collapse. And so it is critical for the demolition to occur. And so that is really what drove our involvement in it. Over the last number of months, we've really prioritized getting the right consultant team on board, the right contractors on board. So we now have that full team on board and under contract. We had a large community meeting last Wednesday where I think we had close to 300 people participating and were able to give good updates. People were able to hear directly from the contractors that will be doing the work. to really understand how they will be approaching the work and also their experience with this kind of work in a very dense urban residential setting. People will start seeing mobilization on the site in the coming week. So the contractor will be mobilizing, bringing on trailer, setting up their fencing, and really getting ready to do the work. In about two weeks, the contractor will bring on the high-reach excavator that will be doing the actual demolition. That will take about two weeks to set up, and then demolition is scheduled to begin December 1st, and the contractor anticipates that that is estimated to take about four months to complete. So that would go through the end of March. And then there'd be about another month on site doing sort of final site cleanup. And so we would anticipate that the work would continue on site through, you know, on or about the end of April.

Councilor Susan.

Yeah. Thank you so much for that update. I wasn't able to attend that meeting. Thank you very much.

Councilor Wills.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor, and through you to Commissioner, sorry, Deputy City Manager Watkins. I just have a quick question, just to follow up on what you just said about the timeline. And in regards to the months, I mean, I recognize we're going into the winter, right? And so just thinking about the contingency of weather and stuff. So is there any challenge? I can assume that there would be, but can you just speak to kind of what that looks like on the ground, recognizing the work needs to happen now because we can't risk timing of like a delay into the spring but could you just talk about how weather may play into the the timeline of this project and if that would um again increase maybe the budget that we have thought that we have set for this project and the demolition piece to it deputy deputy city manager

Through you, Vice Mayor. So we've worked closely with the contractor. They have absolutely done this kind of work throughout the year round in Boston. So they are prepared to deal with winter conditions. It does mean they will be thinking about how they are prepping some of their equipment, particularly some of the misting equipment. So one of the key protocols for the demolition of this type of building is to keep the point of contact where we're actually doing the demolition wet so that you do not have dust and so that you're controlling that. And so they have, you know, this has been a big point of discussion with DEP as we've been reviewing with them the plan for the demolition to make sure that we have all the safety protocols set up before that demolition begins. So that is absolutely part of their protocols, looking at making sure that they can heat the equipment, that it's not freezing. So that is part of their preparations. You know, when we came to the council for the $20 million appropriation, we said that there was a fairly conservative amount given the uncertainties of the work. To date, we are still looking to be in really good shape in terms of that overall amount. And so we still have some decent contingencies in place, you know, for any kind of unexpected conditions that come up during demolition. So, again, at this point, we're not looking at any additional appropriations. This is really just the transfer that Claire Spinner spoke about in terms of shifting the funds around. But the overall amount, we're still looking in good conditions for that to be under that $20 million.

Councilor Wilson.

Thank you. And again, I think it's important for us to emphasize that piece around the conservativeness, but also the diligence, for us to be diligent around that dollar amount and making sure that we're below it and not going over it. I just think back to our firehouse situation, and I don't want us to be in that ballgame, right? Like where we're having, you know, coming back to the council and having some kind of conversation about a massive increase to the budget. So I appreciate the work that you all are doing. And I recognize again that this was critically important. It was urgent for us to be able to allocate those dollars. I'm happy that, again, we're a city that we can actually do things like that, but also recognizing, especially now where we're in, you know, where we have families that may be in need and don't, can't, you know, where SNAP benefits are possibly going to be not available to them, $20 million could be used in other ways too. So we just want to think about all of that. And again, how we have these conversations across the city about where we're able, how we're able to tap into money's, regarding some issues, but versus how we might be tapping into monies when it comes to other issues. And again, how do we center and value families across the board in the city of Cambridge? We can jump in to support families who own condos in one part of our city, but we can't jump in to help and save families who are our most vulnerable. So I just, I know it's not apples to apples or whatever, but I just need to name that because this is the conversation that we're having and especially where we're talking about funds and dollars. So thank you, IU.

Councilor Noem.

Thank you. I'll be brief. I do want to thank everyone who's dealt with this. I know it has absorbed throwing yet another job on top of people who had another job thrown on top of them because of the federal investigation. I will note I was very heartened. Sometimes we don't do enough communication already on the 221 Mount Auburn website. There's the presentation from October 22nd. THERE'S A VIDEO RECORDING OF THE MEETING FOR THOSE WHO WEREN'T ABLE TO BE THERE. I THINK IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT PEOPLE GET THIS INFORMATION. I DO HEAR COUNSEL WILSON'S CONCERNS AND I ALSO WANT TO REMIND US ALL THAT THERE'S A PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT WHICH IS WHY WE ARE HAVING TO DO THIS OVER FOUR MONTHS INSTEAD OF FRANKLY OVER THREE DAYS OF AN IMPLOSION AND IT'S BECAUSE OF THE DANGEROUS CONDITIONS THAT EXIST AT THAT BUILDING AND THE FACT THAT IT HAS ASBESTOS IN IT SO THAT WE CANNOT AND MAY NOT endanger anybody working in that building or being anywhere near that building we have to make sure that we are protecting the public health and that's that's part of what this is what what this entire project is about in six or eight months and i'm very grateful we're able to step up and do that thank you

Just real quickly, again, I just want to reiterate, and you know I am certainly more than willing to dip into free cash to support, whether it was the Transition Wellness Center or Rise Up, but again, we are getting paid this money back. And I think that's, again, if the vote was to bail out these condo owners with $20 million from free cash and we were not gonna get repaid, I may not have voted to do that, right, when we're not helping other people with free cash. i mean i don't know how long it's going to take to get this money back but this money is going to come back to the city and that's you know i think that that's different and i would assume that if it did go over budget which sadly most things do that we're also getting that money back right we're not going to cover the the city's not going to pay for any over overruns right that the condo owners will pay for those

THROUGH YOU. THROUGH YOU, VICE CHAIR. TWO POINTS I WOULD MAKE IS THE CITY GOT INVOLVED, I WOULD SAY NOT TO BAIL OUT THE CONDO OWNERS OF 221 MOUNT AUBURN STREET BUT REALLY TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY OF ALL the neighbors around that building, right? So again, I mentioned briefly that, you know, the building at 205 Mount Auburn Street, which has 16 units in it, is 40 feet away from this building. So, you know, if something happens with this building, they are physically at risk. And so, again, the emphasis for the city's involvement was about protecting public health and safety, again, of the adjacent residents as well as the public that's traveling on both mount auburn and spark streets which we have closed to you know to bikes pedestrians and through traffic since we became involved in this process so again i i just want to i think it's important just again to reiterate the the cities involved to protect public health and public safety um and yeah absolutely if the costs go over and we would need an additional appropriation That again would be added to the funds that we would seek from the individual owners of 221 Mount Auburn Street. They are going through, you know, their own legal process to determine the future of that property, anticipate selling it, and then the city would be sort of first in line when that property is sold. So we do not have a timeline for that. They are estimating, you know, it's at least a year from now for that process, but certainly they are not going to want to sit on that property either. And so once that property is sold, then the city would recoup our funds from that sale.

Do we know what that property is assessed at by any chance? If not, just curious. I want to make sure that obviously it's got to be more than $20 million or they wouldn't be able to cover

Yeah, when we talked about this earlier, they had gotten some initial numbers that were, I would say, significantly over the amount of money that we're talking about. So I think there was a significant range there. So I can't say that we could speak to the specific number, but all the numbers that they were looking at were substantially over the $20 million that we will have invested in this process.

Okay. Through you, maybe I would just add, I think to Deputy City Manager Watkins' point, I don't think we're worried that the underlying land and given what it's zoned for is at a sufficient level that the city will be hit back. I think, you know, to those who are saying that we're bailing out the condo owners, I think, you know, the reality is many, if not most of those condo owners are having a lot of, if not all of their equity essentially wiped out And so I don't think there's really any winners in this whole situation. That's been really, really tragic. And even though the city is stepping in and in a form, we are helping the condo owners because they were stuck. They didn't have the resources to actually take down the building safely. And we are stepping in to do that because there's such a risk to the neighborhood. But the reality is, I think we were saying that building was coming down one way or the other. and doing it safely and doing it soon was part of the public responsibility. And I think that is actually where having some of this reserve allows us to be able to front that money, do this work. And we have that capacity when I think a lot of other cities wouldn't have been able to do something like this. So I think it's an incredibly tough situation. I just don't want this to be framed as a situation where we've chosen to put resources that benefit a set of condo owners when we're choosing not to do other things. I think the reality here is that these condo owners are not really substantially better off. They're just not completely stuck as a result of the actions that we're taking.

So the clerk told me we can vote all three of these on one, but I don't know. I'm assuming if anybody, but if somebody wants to vote yes on four and no on five, we would do those separately. But if I hear no objection, we'll just do them all together. Okay, so on city manager agenda items four, five, and six, roll call.

Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern?

Yes.

Yes. Councilor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui? Yes. Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons is absent. You have eight members recorded in the affirmative and one recorded as absent.

Okay, we now move on to city manager agenda item number seven, a communication transmitted from Yi-An Huang, city manager, relative to policy order item number 2025, number 107, regarding a request to support an exploratory process, potentially including stakeholder engagement, legal and technical assessments, and community outreach to evaluate the creation of a business improvement district in Porter Square, pulled by Councilor Councilor Toner, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I just want to thank the Assistant City Manager Peters and Ms. Safari for the good news. And I'm very thankful that the state is going to be stepping up and providing us with the funds to do this project. I just have just some simple questions about the next steps. And it looks like... The MDI program will be in charge of putting out the request for proposals and approving. And I'm just curious what role the city will have in this process going forward and how long do you think it'll take for them to get moving?

Through you, Vice Mayor. Thank you for the question. Yeah, we're excited to bring some good news this evening. So we actually just heard this afternoon from the state. We have been connected with a consultant that actually, Ann Burke, she was a consultant actually for the Central Square bid. So that's someone with a lot of experience statewide and experience here in Cambridge with business associations and bids. So we have a kickoff meeting with our consultants in the next few weeks, and then we anticipate from that we'll start the community conversations. This funding, while it's through the state, must be completed by the end of the fiscal year. So that's the same as ours. So I'm assuming that we'll hopefully complete it no later than June 30th of 2026. But hopefully by Thanksgiving or before or after Thanksgiving, we'll start some conversations.

Great, thank you. I yield, Mr. Chair. Councilor Nolan.

Thank you, I am was very excited to see this on the agenda because, as you know, this, particularly with the two issues right there they're together but separate the porter square business association, but also the vacant storefronts is citywide correct. Through you, Vice Mayor, correct. Yeah, and those are both issues that we have really talked about needing and having some real attention paid to them because the vacant storefronts we've struggled with, we still see them. I did notice there's a couple storefronts now and they have big signs in the window for lease, which is a result of us changing and making sure that happens. I did want to also note and understand and confirm and hear something about the study that we'll explore, both the business association and the bid. It does make sense to me. I know that was part of the discussion. And some people have asked me, so what's the difference? And my understanding is having... known that there are business associations in the city and there are bids and they are pretty different entities because a business improvement district requires certain kinds of payments by property owners and it's much I think more stringent in how it operates and requirements so if you could discuss a little bit about how it is, will this study come back with a recommendation, or will it lay the groundwork to say, here's some ways why our business association might fit, and here's some ways that maybe it should be a bid, because my sense is I'm not sure bids ever get set up without having prior gone through a business association, but I'd be curious as to how that will play into this study.

uh through you vice mayor um so uh i'll just say broadly when it comes to business association but before bids it doesn't have to be that way um here in in central square that is the case um but not not always um but you're correct counselor that bids are structured financially differently than business associations Business associations primarily are, both are non-profits, but the business associations are usually based on membership dues of businesses who, you know, become members, whereas a bid is, you know, done through basically an additional fee. funding on top of tax taxes, the tax bill that the city provides. So there's a fee that they're, based on their tax bill or their assessment, and then that fee, the city then gives to the bid in that municipality. So I would think through this study, we will probably get, because there has been some interest from the community for a bid, an assessment of whether a bid is possible, but I think we'll get both. If you become a business association, this is what you can do. And if you want to be a bid, this is the process as well. Thankfully, the consultant we've been matched with is familiar with both. So I think we'll be able to get what we want out of this study.

Councilor Nolan.

Thank you. Can you explain the geographic range? This is Porter Square, but we have businesses going all the way up to the Arlington line, which most people would not say is Porter Square. How expansive may we and can we include them? Because I think we want to be as inclusive as possible in terms of ensuring that many of the small, particularly the small businesses, because that's more of what's along that part of the city as opposed to others. And then a further question is, This is geographically specific. It's a Porter Square, which makes sense. We have East Cambridge. We have Harvard Square. We have Central Square. And then we also have overarching business associations, Cambridge Local First, the chamber that covers the whole city. So will they be interviewed and part of the process to understand and make sure that we're reaching all of the businesses that might be involved?

um through you vice mayor um so while while the policy order did mention porter square when we applied for the state we actually thought of it as part of the the geographic area of the north mass app study so we are thinking of it from cambridge common the park all the way to maybe the Arlington line or nearby it. Bids under state guidelines must be, I believe, and don't fully quote me on this, but around 70 percent of commercial use. That'll maybe give the grounding of what the geographic space will look like, but we intended to be from that geographic area that I mentioned. In regards to bringing the business associations in, definitely we'll bring in especially the citywide ones that definitely focus in on that area of Mass Ave. As well as I know some of the neighborhood organizations have been active in small business recruitment and retention. So we'll try to bring everyone we can in.

Councilor Nolan.

Great, thank you again. I'm really excited this is starting. Kudos on getting the state grants on both of these projects so that we can move forward and also send more of the message about how we are working very hard to support our small businesses across the city. Thank you. I yield, Vice Mayor.

Councilor Zusy.

Through you, Chair McGovern, just a quick question. Again, well, first, I'm absolutely thrilled also, but the refundable tax credits to incentivize businesses, so what would that look like, $50,000 of dedicated refundable tax credits?

Thank you. Through you, Vice Mayor. So the way that this tax fund program works is that the municipality applies for the grant, which we've done and we've been awarded. And then the municipality works with businesses who go into a vacant storefront. The state defines a vacant storefront as anything that's been vacant for six months or more. And then we help that business claim the credits that they get through the state. So the city is not really involved with actually providing the tax credit. We just help the business owner apply to get that tax credit through their state taxes that they complete. So each municipality, once they're awarded to be a designated vacant storefront area, if you will, can get up to 50K. We are anticipating that we'll split the 50K between five locations that have been vacant for quite some time and give five businesses $10,000 of tax credits through the state.

Councilor Susie.

Yeah, anyway, so that's great. So in April, when they pay their taxes like we pay our taxes, they would just pay less because they'd have the tax credit. Anyway, that seems like a great incentive. Thank you. I hope it works.

Pleasure of the council. So the question comes on placing the matter on file. Roll call.

Councilor Azeem. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councilor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councilor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes, Councilor Toner. Yes. Yes, Councilor Wilson. Yes. Yes, Councilor Zusy. Yes. Yes, Mayor Simmons is absent. That's eight members voting yes.

We now move on to policy orders. Pleasure of the council. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler.

Sure, council number two.

Pleasure of the council. Seeing nothing else, on one and three, roll call.

Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councillor Nolan. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes, Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes, Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes, Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes, Mayor Simmons is absent. That's eight members voting yes.

Excuse me. That brings us back to policy order number two, that the city managers requested to confer with the Cambridge Department of Transportation and other relevant departments to examine how to improve connectivity north of Ridge Ave during the linear park reconstruction project. so that vulnerable road users can bypass ring jav and cedar street where possible this was filed by councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler councillor sadiki councillor nolan and myself councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler you have the floor thanks mr chair through you and thanks to the co-sponsors for signing on to this as well this policy order is about asking city staff to look at

improvements for pedestrians and cyclists during the time that Linear Park will be closed, which, you know, may be a bit longer than a year. How do we make sure that the surrounding streets that people are going to be on instead are safe and, you know, improve connection on those? People who were on walking or bicycling on Linear Park are now going to be either on, you know, the really high traffic streets like Cedar Ave or Ridge Street or on some of the the neighbor street neighborhood streets like harvey street or dudley where uh as we heard in public comment folks you know do fly by to avoid some of the the busier streets and go quite fast uh history cambridge had a thing on north cambridge recently and this neighborhood used to be a racetrack it is not a racetrack anymore and we want to make sure the streets uh are safer for folks uh during this period um there have been residents uh you're pushing for traffic calming in safer bike routes to school already um with linear park closed uh down for some time this is a great time to be putting some extra attention to that how do we do traffic calming how do we look at the neighbor ways treatments that somerville has done how do we expand on the city's great program on a speed hump pilot which is just rolling out this fall i've heard some really exciting um excited responses from residents who are glad that speed humps are coming to their streets like nearby on dover street and that may be something we want to think about here as well um so just asking city staff to to look into this and report back i had reached out to the the transportation department and they said um they would be happy to consider this um so hoping we can move forward with this tonight

you're back i have counselor toner uh thank you mr chair um so i'm i'm glad that uh my fellow counselors have brought it forward i just want to i want to say i support this and i'd actually like to be added to it but i hope that what we're talking about is speed humps better signage colorful sharrows etc to make it you know more manageable designated streets for to make it easier for cyclists and folks to get through i don't know if we can cure rinjav other than the you know, making it much brighter and, you know, make it much clearer to automobile traffic that, you know, people have rights and this is a shared street, et cetera. Speed humps, I mean, I've been saying all along, people keep telling me the most dangerous thing to cyclists is speed, and I've been asking for speed humps for quite some time. So I'm supportive of this. The only thing I want to just caution us is it is a very dense neighborhood. That's my neighborhood. I walk those streets all the time. AND THERE'S VERY LITTLE PARKING AS IS, SO I JUST HOPE THAT AS THE TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT LOOKS AT THIS, WE DON'T GO DOWN DISCUSSIONS ABOUT REMOVING PARKING ON SOME OF THESE STREETS. AND THEY ARE, YOU KNOW, YES, AS THE OCCASIONAL DRIVER THAT MAY BE GOING TOO QUICKLY AND HOPEFULLY SPEED HUMPS AND OTHER speed reducing mechanisms can be helpful. But I just also want to acknowledge that it's a very dense community where people already have difficulty finding a place to park. So as long as that's part of the factor, I'm all in and I'd like to be added to the policy order. Councillor Zusy.

I wanted to just confirm what Councilor Toner had said. I've heard from a couple residents, I think this is, I would think that the Department of Transportation would have already sort of had a plan for cyclists cycling through the neighborhood. But if they haven't had one, it's important that they do have one that includes traffic slowing measures I've heard from residents really concerned that parking will be removed from Reed Street apparently there's parking on both sides of the street but they're little houses with no driveways and there's a real concern that parking might be removed from Sargent Street which just has parking on one side of the street so I I think we'll want to keep parking, but have shared streets and traffic calming measures. And yeah, this needs to be sorted out. I support this. Thank you.

Councilor Wilson.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you to my colleagues for bringing this forward. I also just wanted to, I think just reiterate the need for the communications and making sure that we're at the level of community engagement around the changes are really high. I my mother lives in that area so I'm there several days a week and and just want to recognize that as we think about Dudley Clifton Harvey all those streets are just really it's a challenge and and I see that and I see that for the small children that are in the community that you know Parents want to let their children go out and play, but not on those streets, right? Because it could be really dangerous if the ball was to go out into the road or whatever the case is. So I definitely recognize that, and calming measures is going to be really important. But I think this is where we really need to over-communicate around what our plan is and truly engage with our neighbors about the use of our streets so that all parties can be involved. I also want to recognize that especially for a fringe avenue, Renjav is basically the on-ramp to Route 2. Many, I mean, daily when I am in that area, people are trying to get to Route 2 or they live in the community for sure, but they are trying to get through that street to get over to Route 2. So we really need to think about just in general how we are addressing Now we're adding this layer of Linnian Park being closed. It's already congested before. So we need to think about what are we going to be doing in place to help the neighbors more than anything else. Because it's going to be the neighbors in that community who are, it's going to take them even longer to get home, to maybe feed their kids or whatever they do. And it's going to get people even more frustrated, right? Because when you're sitting in traffic for a long, long time, you get frustrated, right? And so we need to just think about how we're giving everyone grace during this time of change and construction and all this stuff. But it is going to be... It's already not nice. So we have to be mindful of what the... I always use the word unintended consequences, but what the impact will be on the community as we're going through this process. The other thing that I just want to be mindful of is that, again, as we're talking to our neighbors, it's going to be really important that we You know, I've already seen that Dudley Street between Mass Ave and Cedar has already flipped the one way, right? It used to be a one way you could turn on to Dudley Street from Mass Ave. Now you no longer can. That has even impacted the restaurants, the stores right there at the corner, the Greek Corner or the Wonderful Mart. They are already being greatly impacted there. in a negative way because of that. And they weren't even aware that that was happening. So again, as we are doing things on these streets, let's talk to business owners, let's talk to the residents, let's talk about how this may impact their business, even for drop-offs and these are businesses. So as drop-offs have to happen for loading and unloading, they need to then inform folks too. And we're not doing a good job of informing our neighbors on what these impacts are going to look like and how and how they can be ahead of the game to inform people who are either coming to drop off goods to their stores or visiting and being a patron of their stores. So I just wanted to name that, like this whole process is gonna be really, really challenging and I think it's for the better good, right? Obviously when Linnian Park is all said and done, it's gonna be beautiful, it's gonna be great. And it's going to come at the expense of people needing to take more time, people needing to be slow on the roads, people needing to be mindful and careful of each other and of themselves and their neighbors because it's going to be very stressful and it's going to be really intense during this time. But again, thank you to my colleagues for putting the matter forward. Looking forward to supporting it. Thank you.

Before we go to the vote, Madam Clerk. Mayor Simmons.

Present.

Present. Okay. If there's nothing further, the first vote is to add Councillor Toner. Roll call.

Councilor Azeem? Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern?

Yes.

Yes. Councilor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui?

Yes.

Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

On adopting policy order number two as amended. Roll call.

Councilor Azeem?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern?

Yes.

Yes, Councilor Nolan? Yes. Yes, Councilor Siddiqui? Yes. Yes, Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes, Councilor Toner? Yes. Yes, Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes, Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes, Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes, and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

Okay, we now move on to the calendar unfinished business. There are four I'm sorry, three matters that are on the table that would need to be voted. I think we're leaving those all on. I do want to pull unfinished business item number four for ordination. And that is, an ordinance has been received from interim city clerk Paula M. Crane relative to the dangerous dog ordinance 6.08.010, passed to a second reading in council October 6th, 2025, eligible to be ordained on or after October 27th, 2025. So, Councilor Toner, move adoption to ordain.

NO DISCUSSION, ROLL CALL. COUNSELOR RAZEEM. YES. YES, VICE MAYOR MCGOVERN. YES. YES, COUNSELOR NOLAN. YES. YES, COUNSELOR SADIKI. YES. YES, COUNSELOR Sobrinho-Wheeler. YES. YES, COUNSELOR TONER. YES. YES, COUNSELOR WILSON. YES. YES, COUNSELOR ZUZI.

YES.

YES, MAYOR SIMMONS. YES. AND YOU HAVE NINE MEMBERS RECORDED IN THE AFFIRMATIVE.

OKAY. APPLICATIONS AND PETITIONS, THERE ARE NONE. COMMUNICATIONS, THERE ARE 18 ON A MOTION BY COUNSELOR WILSON TO PLACE ALL COMMUNICATIONS ON FILE. ROLL CALL. Councilor Azeem?

Yes. Yes. Vice-Mayor McGovern? Yes. Yes. Councilor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councilor Siddiqui?

Yes.

Yes. Councilor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councilor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councilor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councilor Zusy? Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

We move on to resolutions. Would anyone wish to pull one of the five resolutions? Mr. Chair, number one. Councilor Toner, number one. On two, three, four, and five, making unanimous upon adoption, roll call.

Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui.

Yes.

Yes, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes, Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes, Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes, Councillor Zusy.

Yes.

Yes, Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes, and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative. Yes.

We go back to resolution number one, offering condolences to the family of Kimberly Costanza, Councillor Toner.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just would like to be added. I actually went to grammar school with Ms. Costanza, and I'm very sorry to hear about her passing.

On a motion by Councillor Toner to be add, on an amendment by Councillor Toner to be added to the resolution, roll call.

Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern.

Yes.

Yes, Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes, Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes, Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes, Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes, Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes, and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

on adoption of the resolution as amended, making unanimous upon adoption, roll call.

Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes, Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui. Yes. Yes, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes, Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes, Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes, Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes, Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes, and you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

Okay, we now move on to committee reports. There are none. Communication and reports from other city officers. There are two.

Vice Mayor? It's on file.

Number two. We're going to place number one on file. Roll call.

Number two. Councilor Zinn.

Yes.

Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern? Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan? Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui? Yes. Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler? Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner? Yes. Yes. Councillor Wilson? Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy?

Yes.

Yes. Mayor Simmons? Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

Councillor Nolan pulled number two. A communication was received from Councillor Nolan transmitting a letter regarding revocation of a curb cut application previously granted. This was pulled by Councillor Nolan.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to start out by saying I am as tired as anyone about this curb cut and other curb cuts, and I really look forward to establishing a better policy that sets criteria for curb cuts with neighborhood and resident input. This process is confusing, can be challenging for the applicant, the nearby residents, and the community. I would love, I'm on the record, I have voted to have all curb cut decisions to be codified and changed. I know we're waiting for a follow up. We had a meeting on this. We'll be following up on this issue in government ops. I do want to note, Mr. Nick Greenfield spoke in public comment. My office did talk with him and emailed with him in March around this. This issue has been on the city agenda several times over the last six months, and I'm sorry that since Mr. Greenfield did not follow up, which is what several others did, I would have pointed him to the council agenda that it was on the council agenda several times. It was available to the public, but apparently he did not get that message, and I am sorry for that, that he did not know about it. It has been, as we know. We've all talked about it several times. And as Regis Shields noted in public comment, right now we may not like it, but it is our responsibility. There does need to be clear criteria for giving away a public good and public property, which becomes privatized as soon as a curb cut is approved. We also received, to remind us all, several emails this week in support of us reconsidering this and of us doing a better job from people who are very frustrated with how this application unfolded. Because in their sense, the trust of the city that they placed in us has been frayed by this. The city's website states, quote, the placement of curb cuts can have significant impacts on the safety and quality of life of the surrounding neighborhood, unquote. And that is why the final step in this review is us. Other city staff do an amazing job, but they review it for safety issues, engineering issues, historical issues. No one else in this process right now until we establish a better process, which we hope, and then we can have other people determine it as long as there's clear criteria of how this affects the neighborhood. So what happened here, documentation provided to the council was incomplete. It did not include several abutter letters. A number of abutters confirmed that their letters were not included in the packet. We, in researching it, found that was true. It ended up being very confusing for the city and the applicant and the neighbors how that happened. The system of applicants submitted documents provides a very problematic dynamic where one might only submit favorable responses. Now, according to the property owners, and I believe them in an email received just today, they said that they had some additional letters and they couldn't provide them to the city because the city said there was no way to include late responses. That was really unfortunate because that means they also feel that it's unfair and unfortunate from their perspective. And the neighbors didn't know that either, that they tried. So everyone felt like this was a challenge. The reason I kept bringing this up and to understand what we can do is if we vote on something on incomplete and wrong information, whatever it is, whether it's a curb cut or a special permit, we should know that and we should decide whether if it's wrong information, incomplete or even fraudulent, then we should understand what are the remedies if there are any. We got the legal memo from the city solicitor. And this is evidence in this issue broadly leading the council to take steps towards reforming the entire curb cut process because we realize this is flawed. So I do see this specific curb cut on Hancock Street as a mistake that should be rectified. I do want to note in this case, I'm hearing, I'm not sure there is a will on the council to do this, but if there was... THE WILL TO MOVE SUSPENSION AND THEN VOTE TO RECONSIDER. IT DOESN'T MEAN IT WOULD BE DONE. WHAT IT WOULD MEAN, AND I CONFIRMED THIS WITH THE CITY SOLICITOR EARLY TODAY, THAT IF THAT HAPPENED, IT WOULD NOT BE A REVOCATION. IT MEANS WE WOULD BE STARTING THE PROCESS FOR HEARING ON A POSSIBLE REVOCATION BECAUSE WE WOULD NEED TO HAVE A PUBLIC HEARING ON IT. A revocation is not what is being voted on. It would be a vote to reconsider, which would start a process. I'm not sure how we would go forward. Again, the memo that I wrote just lays out in detail for all of us how it is that this unfolded and what the specifics were about, as we heard in public comment, direct abutters who didn't know. So I just want to remind us all of that and then leave it over to you, turn it over to you, Chair McGovern, to move.

I have Councillor Toner and then Councillor Zien. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to say a couple of things, having read Mr. Greenfield's letter and his wife, I think Bryn Sanders. First of all, there was a lot of talk about developers, developers, developers. This is a couple who bought a house to restore it, and I think even from the testimony of the folks in the neighborhood, they're very happy that they're restoring the house and not turning it into some big development. So this is just a normal couple fixing up a house and we use the word developer as a buzzword to portray somebody being evil because they're doing something to a piece of property. I won't be voting to suspend the rules because I don't know why the council would want to go down this path because we're gonna have to sit back and review all the facts and make some decision about who's right, who's wrong. And from what I've read and what I've seen, there's no clear violation of misrepresentation of the facts. Mr. Greenfield sent out 64 letters, certified letters to the people in the community. For whatever reason, people didn't return them. Within the 22 days that he gave, he was told he only needed to wait two weeks before he filed, but he didn't get these responses until after the fact. He attempted to submit them, but was told that there's really no process of submitting late letters. We were also told last week by the deputy city manager Watkins, who's the former head of DPW, that yes, the policy is to ask for abutters to send in their comments and whether they approve or disapprove, but it is not a binding factor on whether this council provides approval for a curb cut or not. And in fact, this council over the many years has actually granted curb cuts even with abutter opposition. So I personally don't want to see us go down this path. I hope other councils will vote not to suspend the rules. And with that, I'll yield.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. I just wanted to say, I think that originally the information was that there was other abutters that were unhappy with this curb cut, and then that information was not disclosed. Since then, it seems that those abutters did not submit it within the timeframe, which completely changes the dynamics of the entire conversation if they did not submit it by the time the application was due and the homeowner here was requested to submit it. So in that case, I'm very confused about what the justification for revisiting this even is if like they were following the rules and said other information was added after the fact. So by default, unless a compelling point is made there, I will not be voting for suspending the rules.

Pleasure to counsel. Hearing none, so the question comes first on suspension. Roll call.

Councillor Azeem. No. No, Vice Mayor McGovern. No. No, Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes, Councillor Siddiqui.

No.

No, Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. No. No, Councillor Toner. No. No, Councillor Wilson.

No.

No, Councillor Zusy.

Yes.

Yes, Mayor Simmons.

No.

No, and you have two members recorded in the affirmative and seven recorded in the negative.

Suspension does not carry on placing the communication on file. Roll call. Councillor Azeem.

Yes.

Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui.

Yes.

Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

Okay, we now move on to late resolutions. Are there any? There are none. There are no late resolutions. We already took care of the late policy order. Are there any announcements, Councilor Wilson?

Yes, of course there are. So definitely want to make sure that everyone is aware about the literacy event that's happening here at City Hall next Saturday. I don't quite know the hours. I believe it's like 11 to 1.30, but... I don't know if anyone else knows it and can confirm it, but it will be here. And so there will be food and books and fun and play for children. I believe it's like birth to eight. So that's something exciting to participate in. Also, just wanted to send prayers and thoughts and well wishes to those in Jamaica. My family is there who are definitely going to be experiencing the... what's happening with Hurricane Melissa right now as it's reaching a category five hurricane and just make sure that the country, that folks are able to be safe and take care of themselves during this time. Outside of my family, my father, brother, nephews, all that stuff are there. I'm also thinking about my goats and my chickens who are there as well and really wanting to make sure that they are safe during this time.

THE WHOLE ISLAND BUT DEFINITELY THEY ARE GOING TO GET HIT HEAVY OVERNIGHT AND THROUGHOUT TOMORROW SO SEND PRAYERS THANK YOU THANK YOU ANY OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS CONSULTANT ZUZI UH CAMBRIDGESIDE HALF MARATHON IS SUNDAY THIS COMING SUNDAY UH I KNOW MY HUSBAND'S RUNNING IT UH IT'S IT'S A FUNDRAISER THANK YOU COUNCILOR NOLAN

Thank you. This Wednesday, 3 o'clock, 3 to 5, the Health and Environment Committee meeting is having a really important hearing, a public hearing to review and discuss energy planning in Cambridge, a critical topic that we have talked about. Eversource will be here, MIT, Harvard, the business associations. to talk about how it is that we are, our electrical grid, whether it has a capacity and how it will have the capacity, and we can contribute to that, expanding renewable energy production, thermal energy network planning, and other topics related to the electrification of the city. So again, that's the Health and Environment Committee meeting from 3 to 5 in the Sullivan Chamber right here. So I hope everyone is able to participate.

Mr. Chair?

Mayor Simmons.

There will be a Halloween... Trick or treat this Thursday. This Thursday from three to five. From three to five. Ring or shine. Bring your children. Lots of candy.

And what will you be dressing up as, Madam Mayor?

The mayor.

Okay. And then there's also Senior Center 30th Anniversary Party on Thursday from 1230 to three. Anything else?

Family literacy day is 10.30 to 2, Saturday, November 1st.

Okay. And I should say the ordinance committee meeting is on Thursday at 5.30? No, 3.30. 3.30. 5.30. Okay. At 5.30. Hold on. I'm going to just double check this because I think that they're... Is it 5.30? 5.30. yes yep yep it's at 5 30 and just to remind folks that's on the um the zoning proposal for uh northern mass ave and cambridge street this meeting is going to be a presentation and public comment only there will be no vote and there will be no council discussion so public comment brief presentation at the beginning and then public comment anything else hearing none Happy birthday. Nothing else. I have a motion by Councillor Toner to adjourn. Roll call.

Councillor Azeem. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor McGovern. Yes. Yes. Councillor Nolan. Yes. Yes. Councillor Siddiqui.

Yes.

Yes. Councillor Sobrinho-Wheeler. Yes. Yes. Councillor Toner. Yes. Yes. Councillor Wilson. Yes. Yes. Councillor Zusy. Yes. Yes. Mayor Simmons. Yes. Yes. And you have nine members recorded in the affirmative.

Thank you, everyone. Good night. We are adjourned.