Legislative Affairs Meeting 09-22-25

All right, this is the Everett City Council Committee of Legislative Affairs and Elections. Monday, September 22nd, 2025. We're at 6 p.m. I have Council Van Campen, Council Marchese, Council Rogers, and Council Martins. We have four members present. We do have a quorum.

Four members present. Will you have a quorum? Please join me in saluting the flag. Just one announcement. Councilor Smith is going to be slightly late for our meeting this evening, because I understand.

All right. First item is an order by Councilor Martins, Smith, Garcia, Van Campen, and Marchese. An order recommending the acceptance of Mass Journal Law 59, Section 5-0, Good Land Law Tax Exemption. So, President Martins?

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good evening. So this is a tax incentive that was approved by the legislature in 2023 where municipalities can opt in to be able to provide landlords renting below market a tax incentive. And this requires a two-step process. Step one is what we have in front of us today, which is just opting in to accept tax. It's accepting the statute to opt in to be able to provide this tax incentive. And then the second step would be to work together where we can define the affordability guidelines, what we want from those landlords, the documentation required, and that we can work with planning between ourselves and the assessor's office. So in front of us again, just for your... favorable recommendation, I am offering just the acceptance, just opting in to provide the incentive.

Any discussion?

Council Member Casey. Yes, I support this 100%, and that's why I would put my name on it. This may affect me some, because I'm a below... landlord, below rental landlord. So it could affect me. So I don't know if it's a conflict for me or whatever. But it's just a good piece that I really don't care because I would hope to stay below. And I would also benefit from this. But at least I could provide some kind of housing for people. I've had tenants for 20 years. I really don't want to see them go. So I will be supporting this either way.

And I do think we all are well aware of the affordable housing crisis that we have. So this is one way to work as a city council, as a community to address that. So it is a good piece. Any other discussion? Councilman Marchese.

And also the amount of money, I'm sure when we set the standard, there's still going to be a substantial amount just to pay for what's going on and for the investments that people are making in the city of Everett. So whether that we can establish neighborhoods and people stay in here, I'd like to see it to be in a transient neighborhood like it's become. So I think it's a good piece. Council President Martins.

And Mr. Chair, just as an update, so this was passed unanimously by the Boston City Council in February, and they passed, just like us, just the opt-in, and they're currently working on the details. So we're kind of following the same track, and I have also heard from residents some other requirements that we could add, such as taking good care of the property and different things. So we also welcome feedback from the people so we can really craft something that really honors good landlords and it's good for the tenants.

Okay, any other discussion? Council Rogers.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My only question is, is there any incentive for people that are renting to veterans written in this?

There could be. We'll look at what Boston's doing, I'm sure. You know, I'm sorry. It shouldn't be cross-debating. I'm sorry. It's okay.

Well, this is pretty much, so we will decide what is the, and through you, Mr. Chair, what is the rental amount and the percentage of affordability, and if landlords are found to be renting, meeting those guidelines, then perhaps we could also include veterans as part of that as well.

Okay, any other discussion on this piece? Hearing none, what is your pleasure?

It would be favorable action, but where do we refer this?

Refer to the regular meeting, but it'll be the next meeting. Next meeting. Which is, and then by the next meeting, I'll refresh everybody's agendas, because I did have the paperwork to offset the first time that I sent it to committee, but I know it's been a few times. We had the recess and the whole thing, so I'll send the paperwork to the body as well.

Okay, so motion is made and seconded to refer this out with a favorable recommendation to the City Council, and this will be on the October 6th agenda.

14th.

14th agenda, okay. I'm losing track of my days. The October 14th agenda, all in favor? Aye. Close the ayes have it. Okay, clerk, read the next order, please.

Item number two is an order of my counselor, Stephanie Monson's president, to not approve the appointment of Betty Martinelli to the council and agent for a term of two years, expiring September 1st, 2027.

Could we take items two, three, four? Yes. And collectively? Motion is made.

Second to take items two, three, and four collectively. All in favor? Aye. Close the eyes to have it. Mr. Clerk, could you read items three and four as well?

Item three is in order to confirm the appointment of Noreen Feeney to the council and agent for a term of two years expiring September 1st, 2027. Item number four, in order to confirm the appointment of Patricia Albano to the council and agent for a term of two years expiring September 1st, 2027 as well.

Motion has been made and seconded for favorable action on these three appointments. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. You have favorably recommended these appointments to, is that this evening's meeting?

Yes.

Okay, to this evening's meeting of the City Council. Clerk, read the next order, item five.

Item number five. This is an order of my counsel, Stephanie Martins, as president. An order we recommend in the consideration of amendment City Council Rule 7.1-C. Agenda item, submission deadline.

Council president Martins's chair mr. Chairman this item was added through me at the request of our Council staff and I would like to invite mr. Flood to speak on it So we can amend our rules that currently allow us to submit agenda items by 5 p.m. On Wednesdays, but I think we were having some delays receiving items and our staff is asking to adjust the time so they have more time to work on the agenda and

Okay, motion is made in second to invite mr. Flood to join us all in favor. All right Guys have it. Mr. Flood has been invited to appear Nice to see you.

Mr. Flood a long time Any questions I can answer I'll go off into my own spiel.

If you could just share with the public what the proposed change is, what are we changing the deadline to?

Okay, currently the deadline for the agenda is 5 o'clock. Normally on Wednesdays it changes if there's a holiday or something before the council meeting. Clerk Cornelio has been on me for a while to get this changed because... He doesn't think that we should be staying all hours of the night to do this. It took him a while to get me to realize that he wanted me to do the right thing. The two meetings that we had this summer and then coming back, still getting the bulk of the items on the agenda. in the last day before the deadline. Some stuff right up to five o'clock at night. And then we have to do some work on the agenda before it can go out. Typically that's at least a couple hours. But I didn't get out of here for the August 11th meeting until after 10 o'clock. And the last meeting on September 9th, I got out of here at quarter to 10. So we just try to get all that stuff done because Mr. Mangan likes to come in first thing in the morning and start pumping out agendas to get out to you folks on time. So he's not very patient with me. He just wants everything to be ready. And I have no problem making sure that things are ready. But it's just that, you know, we don't get any, according to the legislative code, we're not entitled to comp time. So I'm doing this on my own.

So are we changing it to Tuesday at 5?

No, it's being changed to Wednesday at noon.

Wednesday at noon Wednesday at 2 o'clock noon noon 12 o'clock So Wednesday and noon and then the agenda will still come out on Thursday Normally will come out on Thursday You'll notice for the September 8th meeting.

We actually put things out On Wednesday night A couple reasons for that. Mr. Mangan had some other commitments on Thursday morning, and also we were getting a new copy of printer in the back room, so we wanted to make sure it was done and out of the way before that happened. The thing is, Mr. Mangan and I are flexible. We would like to get everything by noon on Wednesday, but if something comes up, And you let us know before noon on Wednesday. We'll gladly work with anybody on that. We make accommodations. We've made them for counselors. We've made them for the administration. And we're still happy to do that. And like I said, we're not looking to pump out agendas at 12.01. We're going to start to do our work. And if we know that something's coming, we won't do something, then we're going to have to go back and redo it. There will be occasions that we probably put out stuff on on Wednesdays Just like I said, we had a situation that the last meeting where we did that If we had like a snow event that we knew that was coming.

We'd probably try and get stuff out on Wednesday So mr. Chair at the council staff Request would like to put this before the body to see if they agree with that change to move it to Wednesday at 2 in the noon favorable action

So motion is made and second for a favorable action. Any other discussion from Mr. Flood on this item? Council Rogers.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My only question would be is if there is some debate about the time from the whole body, what would be your ideal? If you had to settle, would it be two?

Probably no later than two. Okay, thank you. But I prefer a noon. Perfect, thanks. Like I said- We want people, if you have a problem, we want to be contacted by noon so that we know what we can do and make adjustments accordingly. Great, thank you for the info. Thank you.

Okay, motion is made and seconded for favorable action on item number five. All in favor? Aye. Opposed, the ayes have it. You're referred to item five with a favorable recommendation to the City Council. Clerk, read the next order, item six, please.

Number six order up by council Stephanie minds as president ought to recommend a consideration of men to City Council 20 so that not all Not civil service appointment orders are automatically referred to committee So mr. Chair, this was also president Barnes.

This is also submitted as a suggestion from our legislative Consultant I personally want the appointments to all go to committee, but there's a technicality that mr Flood is going to explain that this ordinance is doing so mr Flood if you could explain what the City Council rule The best example of this is the three appointments you had tonight there was no I don't see any reason why Those needed to come to committee that

They're not controversial. They're not going to happen. What you're doing is creating paperwork for Mr. Burley. But... I mean, I tried to put some language together of some suggestions. I don't care if we want to do something totally different than what I've written. But it's just, it doesn't make sense to send everything to committee. So I tried to come up with a set of rules that there will be certain baseline stuff that's all going to go to committee.

So what the ordinance is doing, according to the work that you did here, was that it gives the body the ability to not have to waive the rule to be able to present?

That's correct. Right now, I think one of the reasons you send in everything in the committee is because the rule says you're going to send it to committee. And it's not good practice always to suspend the rule.

So I guess the proposal takes away the need to suspend the rule should we choose not to send something to committee.

That's all I understand, but it still gives the city council by majority vote the ability to refer anything to committee. It just takes away the mandatory requirement to send it to committee. Correct.

You know, I tried to come up, I mean, planning boards, zoning board of appeals, license commission, board of election commissioners, board of assessors, all department heads, first time a paid appointment gets made, all of those will just automatically go to committee. And your staff will do the tough work for you. We'll sort that out and, you know, we go through and try and work on your agenda ahead of time so that you know where things are going, so. We'll work with you. If we're unsure of something, we'll contact the administration and get the answer there.

Motion to excuse our guest excuse mr. Flood Mr. Flood, thank you for appearing. It's always nice to see you motion to refer to the body of Motions made is there a second on that motion second motion has been made in seconded to refer item six to the City Council With a favor recommendation to the City Council Are there any in opposition hearing none motion is passed mr. Clerk there any other items for business Hearing none.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion is made and seconded to adjourn. All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned. Nice job. Nice job, everyone.

Inspirational.