Newton City Council - January 20, 2026

As we're all getting to our seats here. Thanks, everyone. We are here for regularly scheduled city council meeting. A couple of quick orders of business, but we'll get to that right after we do the Pledge of Allegiance. Councilor Lucas, if you could lead us, please.

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

Great, thank you for that. Currently, I just have to say we are being audio and video recorded. As of right now, I don't see any councilors online. But I don't have to read out all the folks who are in the room, just those who might show up online. Is that accurate? We now have one councilor online. We have Councilor Silber online. And with that said, You'll have to kind of just give me a couple moments of reprieve every now and again because I'm bound to miss one or two of these tricks up here. at least the first time out, but we'll start with first call. We have one item on second call this evening, but I'd like to start with land use. Councilor Kelley.

Thank you, Mr. President. The Land Use Committee report starts on page nine. We met on Tuesday, January 6th. and the one item that we approved, others were held was number 13-26, which was a request to amend a special Permit at 14 Elliott Street, and that was approved 8 to nothing, although I think we're going to be looking at the wording for that tonight. Is that correct, Mr. President?

It's my understanding we only have one item on second.

Okay. In any case, we approve that eight to zero. That's the end of that report, but I would like to request a public hearing.

Please proceed.

I'd like to set a public hearing for item 58-26, which can be found on page 15. I'd like to have that set for January 27th.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Zoning and Planning, Councilor Baker.

Thank you, Mr. President. The Zoning and Planning Committee report can be found on page 10 and 11 of the report stocket. I have one item to report. request for ordinance amendments to change oversight of the Economic Development Commission and for discussion on transition of the city's economic development functions and staff to the mayor's office. that was approved eight to zero. I also have two items I'd like to request suspension of the rules to allow them to be late filed. They're found on page 18 and 19. One is item 5926, presentation to discussion and report of the Newton Housing Priorities Task Force. and the second is 5726, request for discussion and ordinance amendments to mention two-dimensional controls aligning use and zoning. and those will need a three quarters vote at the point of you get suspension.

Great, thank you. Councilor Baker needs a suspension of the rules for late filed items. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Great, thank you. Back to me, right? Great. For programs and services, Councilor Krintzman.

Thank you, Mr. President. Programs and Services Committee met on Wednesday, January 7th. Report begins on page 11. Item 32-26, this was a reorganization plan to create a new arts and culture department. That item was approved unanimously at seven to zero. In item 25-26, the appointment of Merrill Kessler as the Director of Newton's Arts and Culture Department was unanimously approved by a vote of 8-0. With that, I would move the report.

Great, thank you. For PS&T, Public Safety and Transportation, Councilor Lucas.

Thank you, Mr. President. The report begins at the bottom of page 11. The Public Safety and Transportation Committee met on Wednesday, January 7th. We took up some auto licenses. Item 18-26, requesting renewal of public auto license was approved 8-0. Item 37-26 Class 2 Auto Dealers License approved 8-0 Item 36-26 Class 2 Auto Dealers License also approved 8-0 Item 38-26, Class 2 Auto Dealers License approved 8-0. Item 39-26, Class 2 Auto Dealers License approved 8-0. and 19-26 class one auto dealer's license also approved 8-0 and I move the report. Thank you.

Great, thank you. Finance Committee, Councilor Grossman.

Thank you, Mr. President. The only item I have to report to you is on second call.

Great. Thank you. And for real property reuse, Councilor Malakie. Thank you, Mr. President. There is no report. Fantastic. Thank you.

Canary Port Outpost Facilities.

Apparently, I wanted to skip that. Thank you, Vice President Kalis.

The report begins on the bottom of page 12. The Public Facilities Committee met on Wednesday, January 7th. and Item 12-26, Eversource Petition for Grantification of Rumpert Avenue, and that was held, and that concludes the report.

Great, thank you, sir. All right.

and so on.

Can we take a roll call vote, please?

Councilor Albright. Aye. Councilor Baker. Aye. Councilor Bixby.

Aye.

Councilor Block. Aye. Councilor Charm. Aye. Councilor Dahmubed. Aye. Councilor Farrell. Aye. Councilor Getz.

Aye.

Councilor Golden. Gordon, Councilor Greenberg. Aye Councilor Grossman Aye Councilor Irish Aye Councilor Kalis Aye Councilor Kelley Aye Councilor Krintzman Aye Councilor Leary Aye Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Usually goes last.

The volume's off.

You're in the wrong place. Councilor Roach. Aye. Councilor Silber. Aye. Councilor Wright.

Aye.

President Oliver. Aye. On this motion, the ayes are 23. Mr.

Clerk, I think you could give Councilor Golden a chance to vote. He arrived.

Sorry, I didn't see Councilor Golden come in. Councilor Golden. Aye. On this vote, the ayes are 24. The...

Mays are zero. Great, thank you. So for second call, we have one item. This has been put on second call by Councilor Block. I'm gonna start with our Finance Committee Chair, Councilor Grossman.

Thank you, Mr. President. The Finance Committee met on Monday, January 12th, and the item that we took up was 24-26. our new mayor requesting authorization to transfer $300,000 to fund new positions in the mayor's office. The request was for $300,000 to go to the executive office full-time salaries for the purpose of funding two FTEs, as well as to fund the temporary overlap. in our hopes of hiring a new chief financial officer in anticipation of Ms. Lemieux retiring within six months' time. So the two new positions would be for the Chief Community Services Officer as well as the Chief of Staff and the departments that the request of transfer is coming from.

are $50,000 from two different line items related to elections in the city clerk's office, $100,000 from the Human Resources Department, and $100,000 from DPW. and I'll get into those in a second, but before I forget, I just wanna report out that the finance committee did approve this eight to zero. So specifically with respect to the departments that the request for funds is coming from, and our chief financial officer, Ms. Lemieux, explained that with respect to the two $50,000 line items from the elections department, that is available because our budget Thank you.

essentially wages that are specific to another election such as administering security, poll workers, those particular wages are not needed. With human resources that Thank you so much for joining us. such that if and when those vacancies are filled, there is plenty of money to fund them for the remainder of this fiscal year. And finally with our DPW, the street division, same thing, that's $100,000 for unfilled positions with no anticipation of those funds being needed between now and June 30th.

We heard from both Ms. Lemieux as well as COO Josh Morse about specifically the need for the Chief Community Services Officer position. Mr. Morse, as you may have seen in our packet, wrote a very thoughtful and I thought particularly insightful letter about his experiences in working for the city of Newton, I think for 18 years and about how in observing the work of COOs over his time, there's enough work for four human beings to do that job and that the COO being a singular person with management responsibility for essentially every department other than the financial services department and the public schools.

is really triple scheduled every hour of the day for meetings and commitments and not able to fulfill as many of the projects, deliverables, or really kind of move the ball forward in ways that we would want our COO to be able to do in overseeing the work of the city in interacting with the city council and most importantly interacting and being present with the public. The chief of staff position is similar in that regard. I think we've probably already seen how hands-on that position is. That's all right.

Sorry. I'm trying.

How communicative Ms. Hansen, who has been serving in that role since the new administration took office on January 1st, certainly in communicating and liaising with all of us. and the public and all of the wonderful staff members we have in the city. So that's the reason for the request. Again, the vote was eight to zero and I'm happy to answer any questions about other things that we discussed.

Fantastic, thank you. Councilor Block, you put us on second call here. Item is yours.

Thank you, Mr. President. I ask that this be placed on second call in the spirit of this body participating in the budget process in a somewhat different way than we have in the past. I don't suggest that we should oppose this matter. I think that deferring to the mayor regarding the staffing that he thinks he needs in order to run this city Thank you very much. annualizes at 600,000. And that seemed to me to be a lot for two full-time positions and an overlap with the CFO.

It doesn't mean this should be less than 300, but I thought that we should at least discuss that, be aware that that's what this proposal is. I think also that as a general matter at a high level, The organizational structure of the mayor's office is an important topic for the mayor to present, for us to consider. and I'd just like to put those two factors before this body while we consider this item. It seemed to me more important than the other items that we considered on first call. So those are my comments on this topic. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Leary.

I just wanted to thank Councillor Block for putting that on second call. I thought that the chair financed an excellent job explaining some of the details, which I think would be helpful. Very helpful for the public to hear as well. So I'm glad we had that little discussion. And I just want to say I'm feeling so positive about the staffing in the mayor's office, the talent there, people I've worked with before. and I think if we put a little more investment sometimes it can really pay off in the long run. So those are just my comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Albright.

Thank you, Mr. President. I made a comment the other night about the economic development folks that are moving into the Mayor's office. And I said, sometimes you have to spend money to make money. And I think that this falls into that same category. And certainly the mayor knows about the budget difficulties We've had in the past several years so that I feel confident that he must have taken all of that into account when he decided to put that staff in his office. and that he needs that to do better for the city of Newton. But I do have one question for the chair of finance through you, Mr. President. I'm wondering, it sounds weird to me that HR, has plenty of money to cover these two positions when and if they get funded. So where is all this lots of money coming from?

Thank you, Mr. President. So we learned in the discussion that HR has actually had four vacancies for some time over the last number of months. That was news to me in the discussion. We're down to two. and Ms. Lemieux was optimistic that we would soon be down to one. But I think that cumulative amount of vacancy made her feel comfortable that $100,000 was easily accessible for this particular transfer. And I will say we did spend some time talking about that. Councilor Krintzman, I think, raised that. I think that was actually our first question of the evening. and we were expressing a lot of concern about vacancies in general, particularly in the HR department. I know I have had the privilege of working on several of our larger search committees to fill roles such as

our city clerk, our comptroller a few years ago, a number of different positions that I've had the privilege of working with Ms. Pizzi O'Brien. and have really been blown away by how hard she works and how much is on her plate. So undoubtedly. filling those vacancies is incredibly important. I'll also say that I expressed I don't know about misgiving, but I found it a little unfortunate that $100,000 was coming from the elections department, even though I understand we're not administering the election and the intent of that money is for temporary work that is needed to run an election. Yeah, I feel that in our clerk's office, resources have been desperately needed and, you know, in situations like that. I might've liked to see that money bolster other needs in the clerk's office but we don't get to make that call. The mayor gets to decide where to take it from.

I will also add that those of you who served on the last council may remember we had a preliminary discussion about this item because our mayor had made his intentions clear. in the late fall that this was coming. We had a docket item before finance on December 8th, where we talked in a lot of detail leading up to the turnover in administration. So, you know, we did have a chance to express some of our feedback then, which included, and I particularly repeated this this time, we know... We've had a lot of really contentious budget discussions over the last number of years, and especially with respect to the Newton Public Schools.

I made sure on both occasions to point out that should that type of discussion come back again, exhibit A that we would point to, that I would point to, would be that somehow we were able to find this money to increase positions in the administration. One other clarifying point, if I may, I know I've been going on a bit So I asked Ms. Lemieux to repeat this for me today because back in the December meeting, I had asked what the delta was going to be between the overall current executive office salaries and the new setup. The answer back in December was about $375,000. And today, Ms. Lemieux said on an annual basis, the increase is going to be $366,000.

So I think the money that we're seeing today is for part of each of these new positions, a fair amount for overlap, and then there is also $30,000 for Unpaid Vacation Time Ode to our outgoing CFO.

Fantastic. Thank you. You're all set? Great. Councilor Kelley.

Thank you again, Mr. President. I'd like to follow up or piggyback on something Councilor Grossman just referred to that I've been thinking about. The 50,000 and the 50,000 coming from the clerk's office for elections is something I think we should think about, even though I understand that they didn't spend that already this year on elections, it seems to me that we may possibly be having two special elections in the next year, depending on what happens with current and running for office or withdrawing or whatever. So I'm not sure I feel comfortable taking $100,000 out of elections that they may need Grossman.

Well, just to be clear, the money for this particular funding for elections only pertains to the period between now and June 30th. So that's news to me, but any special election we would be talking about, you know, it would have to be, that date would have to be set. by the mayor in conjunction with the clerk, and they would have to be able to administer an election by June 30.

That would be correct. And also, I don't foresee that happening in the next 90 days, but perhaps in the next fiscal year that may be the case. Anyone else on this item? Councilor Baker.

I'm supportive of the item and I think that this administration deserves the opportunity to do what it would like to do to make the government the of the City of Work. I will say that one of the things that I am sympathetic to is the idea that The resources available in these two positions and in the other roles in the office will enable the city to function more efficiently. I am concerned that We do run into line position challenges where people in the lower ranks have a lot to do and sometimes difficulty getting it done. This mayor has assured me that the idea of doing some ability to share responsibilities across the administration to make sure things get done is going to occur. Obviously, the details matter in this specific situation.

But I do think that it's important to give the mayor the tools in advance, but I also expect that there will be attention paid to making sure that the people at the lower end of the pyramid of the Thank you very much. I'm looking at this as a sort of beginning of a process and I hope to hear more about how those successes are going to be affected when we get to the budget.

Great, thank you, sir. Anyone else? All right, I'm assuming we can do this on a voice vote tonight. Yep, can I get a motion for a voice vote, please? Great, thank you. Just for the record, can I get a second, please? Great, thank you. So I think let's try a voice vote on this one. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Great, I believe that is a unanimous vote. I believe I heard Councilor Silber online with an aye vote as well.

I'll check with them. Hang on.

Now I just seem to have lost him.

Right there.

Councilor, do you wish to be heard on this vote?

To be on camera, but yes, that was an aye from me. Great, thank you. All right, so I believe we're all set. Great, can I get a motion?

Motion to adjourn.

Fantastic. Thanks, everyone. Have a lovely night.