Quincy City Council: September 8, 2026

We're going to call the Tuesday, September 8th City Council meeting to order.

Ash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Riley

Ryan, Councilor Yuan, President Mahoney.

We could all stand for a moment of silence? And if we could turn and pledge allegiance to the flag.

Pledge allegiance to The Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands Justice Straub.

That's not my line, by the way.

Madam Clerk, could you repeat the open meeting law? Pursuant to the Open Meeting Law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made, whether perceived or unperceived by those present and deemed acknowledged impermissible. Thank you.

So the first item on the agenda is going to be open forum, and if you could just bear with me I'm going to reintroduce open forum and how it will work for the remaining meetings When you come forward tonight to speak I'm going to be asking for you to state your name, your address and the city for the record. City residents will be allowed to speak first after city residents if there's time allowing We will be able to have people from outside the city. Each speaker will have three minutes. Under the Council's rule, open forum begins with a 20 minute period. If additional time is needed, a member of the council may move to extend open forum if any extension will require a vote of the City Council. Open Forum may be extended by that vote, by 10 minutes per allotment. But in no event will it exceed 45 minutes so we can complete the remainder of the Council's working agenda. We will recognize Quincy residents first, if time remains. After, outside residents who want to speak will be heard.

We will open the forum to others at that point. We will also ask that several speakers that are making the same point for considering this to keep your comments as concise as possible. You are certainly entitled to make your own comments, but shortening repetitive remarks will help give as many people as possible an opportunity to be heard. If we reach the end of the allotted time before everyone has had the opportunity to speak, we apologize. Open forum is attended for primarily to give the constituents of the city an opportunity to address their council and we will do our best to hear from as many people as possible within the time available. I also want to be clear about the three minutes Speaking Limit. When your time expires, you'll be advised that your time has concluded and you'd be asked to wrap it up. If you continue speaking the microphone will be turned off if you continue after that and you've been directed to stop or otherwise disrupt the meeting, you may be asked to leave.

These rules will be applied consistently regardless of the viewpoint being expressed and we thank you all for your cooperation and now we will begin open forum. Is this which one's first? Okay, Hank Dondero.

Thank you, honey.

Hank Dondeiro, 65-minute ad bonnet. It's an amazing night tonight. This place is G-Impact, a lot of different new faces. Hadn't seen them before I wonder where they're from. I would like to acknowledge first of all that Friday September 11th, 25 years ago on that day, 2,977 souls were lost through a terrorist act. Ever vigilant, ever vigilant. Ever vigilant folks. That's what it takes, ever vigilance. Not passing up the opportunity to stand down but stand for what's right and what's American I would like to address a couple of things. First of all, book was written in 1973 by Robert Ringer, Winning Through Intimidation. Now what does this mean? It's something very simple.

If you're intimidated, your being posed is weak. If you are not being intimidated, if you're the intimidator then appear to be strong. And we have a lot of that going on in the city right now, a lot verbal and nonverbal intimidation that takes place with city employees, fire, police. City workers, DPW etc. It certainly doesn't belong in the city at least a city I've lived in all my life but it's taking place now Should it continue? No of course not But will anything be done about it? I certainly hope so. It's really important to be addressed by the city council and start playing games with it, and you folks know who it is that's doing it. I won't mention any names.

The second thing is a term called useful idiots, Who are useful idiots? Well, they're naive or credulous persons who can be manipulated or exploited to advance a cause or political agenda. Seeing a lot of useful idiots posing on Reddit without their real names. If they want to step forward and be addressed properly, it would be a worthwhile effort. But again, it's a game, and you're losing it, and it's going to take place. Right here. Right here, folks. Right Here. Adios. Thank you Hank

Next we have Marie Brucker. Marie, can you state your address and your city?

Marie Rucker, 17 Darrow Street. And you said city right? I live in Quincy. But I come here today and a lot of new people I've never met. And I'd like to talk about the ALPRs, the flock safety cameras that are being installed in Quincy Most of my issue with these ALPRs is not QPD's issues themselves. In fact, I have great respect for their current restrictions that they put on them but it is more the vendor himself that causes most of the issues. In fact, I read their presentation in the addendum for this, for the meeting They said they talked about how have that they have strong authentication for their access like 2FA and Strong Passwords, but most of the issues with these do not come from passwords or anything like that. It is security failures from the vendor

I have a document right here, there's CVE 2025-59403. There is no password needed to take care of a lot of these. there's access of them on the internet without even any authentication, things like that. Sorry if I'm a little bit new to this y'all please bear with me. but I'm really concerned about the usage, the potential risks legally that City of Quincy takes on by expanding these and not as well with a recent lawsuit from Commonwealth v. McCarthy, the MA Supreme Judicial Court ruled that while limited ALPR usage is legal, widespread tracking of a person's life as a search requiring a warrant and we are operating 50 of these cameras, this density risks being construed as a unconstitutional search which could cause expensive legal trouble for the city.

There's also a wide rest of these that I've got right here, and I'd really hope we could join the 30 plus cities nationwide that are restricting our usage on these. I personally recommend that we codify the current QPD restrictions that they have on the usage into law. and I appreciate their restrictions on those such as capping data retention, not sharing the data nationwide and restricting them to extremely violent and intense crimes. That's pretty much all I have to say. Thank you very much.

Nina West is next. I do notice that there's a lot of flock on the list here tonight, and we want to invite you all up if we are hearing repeats, if we could just move it along so more people will have a chance. So Nina West. Thanks, Nina.

Nina West, 200 Pauls Boulevard. I want to thank you for providing this forum for residents to speak so freely. Before the Chief presents his Executive Summary, Data Privacy Compliance Review I want to point out some things that are important that it doesn't address. Page 4 states, and I'm quoting directly that the department opted out of nationwide data sharing until the vendor implements enhanced access controls that allow the city to fully restrict access to its ALPR network. and I want us to sit with that word until. It means those controls don't exist yet. There is currently some level of access to Quincy's data that the city cannot fully restrict. that the document doesn't tell us whose. Not whether it's flock employees, the Boston Regional Intelligence Center that connects to Homeland Security and the federal government, or third party AI systems running on the back end.

It also doesn't mention that Flock updated its terms and conditions in February of this year. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, those changes remove the flat prohibition on FLOC selling customer data and granted FLOCs are perpetual licensed to use that data even after the contract ends. none of that appears in tonight's data privacy compliance review. Now Mountain View, California, Sheboygan, Wisconsin and closer to home Bellingham Mass all had assurances by flock that the company could be trusted with their data. And each one of those municipalities was wrong I've included articles about these examples in the email I sent you all earlier today. In each case, the problem wasn't what the police department chose to do. It was what Flock quietly did in the background Now switching vendors isn't the answer either.

The ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, National Public Radio have all said this month that data governance problems follows a contract not the company name. and we need to discuss whether any ALPR program as currently governed meets Quincy's standards. Now, I came to this research expecting that better oversight would be the answer and the more I've learned, the less certain I am I ask the council to hold a full public hearing on the city's ALPR program and invite experts and professionals in the technology, legal, and civil liberties fields to speak and consider every alternative including a ban on ALPRs as a reasonable choice. Thank you.

Paulo Correa. Could you state your name and address and city?

Paulo Correia, 49 Holmes Street, Quincy.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council Members. Automatic license plate reader systems scan thousands of plates without warrants or suspicion creating digital records of where people have been. This violates the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches. our founders understood that government surveillance of movement is a hallmark of tyranny. Courts across the country from California to New Jersey have recognized this, warrantless ALPR data collection treats all citizens as suspects first and assumes guilt by location. Data shows that ALPR effectiveness in solving serious crimes is minimal. These systems generate enormous numbers of false leads, wasting police resources. In some jurisdictions, hit rates for actual stolen vehicles or wanted suspects are under 1%. Our officers are stretched thin already.

They should be focused on real leads, not chasing down innocent people whose plates were scanned by error-prone ALPRs This technology enables mission creep. Once normalized, it expands. AOPR data has been sold to private companies accessed by bad actors and misused by officers. would you rather have your children be stalked by jealous exes than having reasonable barriers to unconstitutional searches? Your location history shouldn't be a searchable database. This chills freedoms, people avoid lawful activities knowing movement is tracked I'd rather not have any ALPRs at all, but at the very least we must require judicial warrants before ALPR searches. protect the data that is collected.

This approach respects constitutional limits while allowing targeted, accountable policing when there's actual probable cause. No less a founding father than Benjamin Franklin said, those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Trust and safety come from constitutional policing. I urge you to protect both, thank you.

Arianna Brazal. Not sure I'm pronouncing your name correctly, sorry.

Good evening. as a proud resident of this wonderful city. Can I just? Oh, sorry. So you have to name, address and city, sorry 10 Marymount Road. Okay perfect thank you I'm deeply concerned about our right to privacy and our shared right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in our own city of presidents. after reviewing block records from the Quincy PD along with their presentation accompanying today's council meeting agenda, I'm left with these questions and comments. Why are there so many 50 in total ALPR cameras in the city? why are there so many ALPRs necessary? How does the QPD intend to prevent the abuse by law enforcement of the data made available by ALPRS For instance, the QPD's intelligence-led policing approach stipulates that ALPRs can identify patterns, connections and investigative leads. Which leads me to wonder what recourse do we have as Quincy residents

Should our private information be not only stored but saved, categorized and inappropriately searched under the guise of identifying patterns? The safeguards and accountability measures of QPD have provided Lee much to be desired, as one can envision many instances in which members of the QPD can argue a search is related to an ongoing case when it is not. This has already occurred in other Massachusetts jurisdictions. In New Bedford, for example it's been reported this week that two police officers were misusing ALPRs. One of them concocted an elaborate account of their flock and other records searches as being related to a narcotics investigation, when they were using these databases to secure information on a former romantic partner and their new partner. The QPD is allowed to save ALPR data for up to 30 days locally.

Why does the QPD allow for ALPR vendors to retain our data for 120 days? Quincy residents have found their personal information unilaterally provided by the QPD to a third party vendor. Therefore, the Q PD has the obligation to refine and amend their contracts with these vendors to prevent the protracted retention of our data. Thank you.

Next up is Isaac Colenz. I'm not sure if I'm saying that name correctly,

My name is Isaac Collins and I live at 77 Beach Street. I am a vocal opponent of flock cameras and other ALPR devices as somebody who fled oppressive laws in the deep south. But, I cannot read my own handwriting, I'm so sorry. I am here to tell you the story of a man named Assad Zahir who lived in Kentucky He was convicted for tracking his ex-girlfriend 2,048 times from January to May of this year with more than 200 searches under a restraining order. This happened only two weeks ago when he got arrested, allowing for unknowable amounts of searches in that time. I am deeply opposed to ALPRs in all of Massachusetts, but at the very least I'm a strong proponent of both

regulations and monitoring of exactly where they are, as I'm sure many women in Massachusetts are. As this has already occurred at least twice in Massachusetts.

Next up is Howard Chen.

My name's Howard Chen, I live on 11 Willett Street. I'm also against any flock and ALPR cameras. One of the main things is because of the violation of the Fourth Amendment, how bad actors tend to not have a warrant and just search for things anyway. The other thing about the flock cameras is that it's not just license plate readers, they build a database and they basically take all information about you including your face, your voice, and your behavior create a profile on you put it into a national database that, let's just say is a little too easy to access for bad actors. For most recent examples stocking axes, or just general inappropriate searching of people.

And yeah that's all I have for now.

So we have time for one more before we'll have to have a vote of the council, and that's gonna be Max Field Caprese. I'm not sure if that's the right thing.

Hello, my name is Maxfield Capron and I live at 118 Greenleaf. Thank you all for having me here and having everyone else here. And I strongly oppose the flock camera systems, ALPRs and whatnot but I do not oppose the enforcement, the policing that we use for and that in regards to AOPRs. So I've been a resident of Quincy Ward 1 for some time now, and I've seen the wonderful things that this city is capable of. When I came to the city, I felt welcomed and safe. but when I learned of the existence of the installation of LPRs by Flock and other companies such as Axon, I grew nervous about the surveillance of innocent residents such as myself and everyone else in our community. These cameras, while being advertised as just simple ALPRs have been the subject of numerous privacy and security issues within just the past few years.

These privacy concerns have led over 214 cities and towns nationwide, many right here in Massachusetts. to not renew their contracts and remove the cameras with 90 of those cancellations coming in August of just this year, just August alone. Despite this, the company flock has ignored these concerns and continue to collect data and install even more cameras even after administrative actions were taken to disable them. For example, Cambridge Massachusetts ordered its cameras deactivated in October, and Flock continued to install cameras afterwards anyway. A breach of trust that led the city to terminate its contract later that month They claim that ALPRs only take still images and store them for 30 days, but this limit can be overwritten per their contract at any time. And if no limit is explicitly stated it will remain in their database for a year or more.

Their services create heat maps of traffic, build profiles of citizens, tracks how often they pass by locations and learns their habits through AI software that has been layered into this system since 2022. despite their claims that this kind of data is not created. This information, while initially advertised as being shared and not shared or sold to third parties has since been proven false as ICE and third party advertisers have had access to these databases spanning the nation. while cities have had control over whether or not they can share their local database with federal networks, it shows a lack of trust on their word. Most of these features were enabled without approval after the contract had been signed, or even that the knowledge that these features existed in the first place. With all this information, I want to ensure that my statements are properly cited. So we have organized some packets to share with all of you if you are interested

and I just want you all to consider whether or not these flock cameras and other cameras by Axon are working in the best interest of Quincy residents, or working in their own best interests. Thank you.

I want to recognize that Councilor Ryan has joined. And if we could, I'm going to be looking for my counselors to make a motion to either extend or have to extend this past the 20 minutes. We're at 20 minutes now, so. Councilor McKee?

Sorry, just one second. And I don't mind.

Okay, that's okay. So I move to take a vote on whether to extend the open forum for 10 minutes.

Do we have a motion to extend? Hubley. Do you want to speak on it?

through you and I guess to you. How many more speakers do we have registered just to get a sense?

On this list, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. 10, 11, 12. And I don't know if there's any more on the back but they're all flock related and I do want to mention to everybody here tonight that we will be having a presentation from Chief Kennedy and later in the evening, Councilor Yuen is introducing something that will go into oversight. And we will have a public hearing specifically for FLOC which we'll be asking you all to come back to as well for that. So if you don't get to speak tonight there's plenty of other opportunities but I just wanted to mention that as well

Sure. Then I'd be happy to second an additional block and then...

Okay, so for 10 more minutes we'll continue? Okay, Councilor Yuan?

Thank you, Madam President. I think if people already made an effort to all the way come here to give speech we should give them the opportunity to express their concerns and I also think this issue is not due to be discussed. You can see how serious concerns the people have, so I do think we should give them the opportunity later everyone who want to speak today.

Ash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Riley, Ryan, Yuan. President Mahoney. Yes. Nine members.

So next up is Kylie Slater

Kylie Slater, 12 Main Street. So yes I'm basically saying the same as everybody else but this is really if there's anybody who thinks that ALPRs are useful or helpful in any way. You should know and care about the fact that hyper surveillance harms everybody, even if you are perhaps white and not an immigrant, and have a roof over your head. You should also care about people other than yourself who this will affect more vulnerable populations face the brunt of these technologies. And it feels like every day we are being nudged more and more to accept the unacceptable, and so let it become commonplace and inevitable. And therefore not worth paying attention to like climate change genocide AI data centers being built everywhere including our water in our air

None of this is good for a healthy society, none of this normal or natural and you may think ALPRs are harmless and nothing to worry about but our Federal and local governments will make note of what we allowed to let slide and keep pushing until we can no longer push back. Thank you.

Next up is Ethan King.

Ethan, 95 West Quantum Street thank you City Council for your time tonight. You know, I wanna speak about the Quincy PD's current policies that they will be presenting on tonight and the compliance review published in the amended agenda. As everyone knows here, obviously FLAC has become a pariah across the nation as it's made its business model to embed itself in local municipalities and just lie to law enforcement city governments and the American people. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin there is a case of an officer using flock safety cameras to stalk their ex-partner over 200 times they made searches on their partner. The City of Milwaukee put the officer on leave and added further restrictions to who can use the cameras as well as limiting it to seven day retention. After that, there was another case of a Milwaukee officer using the cameras. This time it was the investigator looking into the first officer that was caught.

Both of these, important note is both of these cases were not caught because of internal audits. They were caught because the residents were using a third-party site called Have I Been Flocked? And they found through FIOA requests that they had been searched. This was not because of internal audits. After this, the city of Milwaukee added even more restrictions and promised to do even more audits after which just two weeks ago they found two additional officers are currently being investigated for using flock against the policy. So clearly these restrictions are just not working in Milwaukee. and then there's also the city of Sheboygan. They have the same 30-day retention as the City of Quincy, The Sheboygan was offered by the Flock Company to buy five years worth of their data. This is not in their contract.

They had 30 day retention, but this data was being scrubbed retained by flocked, scrubbed of their identifiers for up to five years and then being sold back to the city and also to third party companies So even if the police officers are saying that there's only 30 days, Flock is just lying. Floch treats our legitimate privacy concerns and these clear violations of their contract as nothing more than PR issues to be spun and lied through. Many of these new policies have already been rolled out elsewhere, and have failed elsewhere This meeting tonight and the presentation is not addressing our concerns. It's window dressing. The legislation has clearly not caught up to this technology, and until the legislation does catch up these cameras should be banned in the city of Quincy, not just Flock. All ALPR cameras should be banned until further legislation is created. Thank you.

Zachary, Christopher. name and address please.

Hi, Zachary Christopher 67 Montclair Ave Quincy Massachusetts Ward 3, Walter Hubley. Love you. Doing a great job. Same with the rest of the council. Great work. Of course, I'm here to speak on flock cameras and a lot's already been said but don't worry. I've got something different. So we've all seen Terminator right? You know Skynet, right? It started as a net of AI surveillance cameras and a push for automated robotics. So the question right now that we're all here to discuss is, hey, do you guys think we should build Skynet? I remember watching that movie Please Don't Build Skynets.

I just think it would be really cool if we did though. And this is bigger than just Flock, because there's also Ring cameras owned by Amazon every private business has their own public facing security cameras on CCTV systems. There's traffic cameras owned by municipalities. There's satellites taking images all the time, Google Maps taking images of every street on the planet. This is a... full coordinated net of mass surveillance. And that could be taken over by certain bad actors, like a guy on YouTube

who discovered dozens of security flaws in flock cameras. His name is Ben Jordan, about an hour of content on the topic details a bunch of hardware software and firmware hacks to completely take over the cameras, both online and in person. Don't do that. That's a crime. and other tidings of woe from the dangerous corners of the internet such as Instagram Reels, where there have been inconspicuous tutorials on the fastest and quietest way to cut through aluminum pipes. Again, that's a crime and nobody should do it you should be aware of the surveillance net around you. And two good resources if you're concerned about privacy in a net of surveillance

look into maps.dfloc.org or the cctv.massachusettspiratesparty.org map these take from open street maps and they map surveillance in the entire world So you're out of time. Thank you.

Andrew Carleen, Andrew Carlean is next.

Andrew Carline, 63 Brook Road. Good evening, Councilors. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and for the extended time. Like many others I'm here to talk about our city's contract with FLOC safety I'll try to not be repetitive if possible, but I have no reason to doubt the good intentions of Quincy Police. I think Chief Kennedy has fostered a level of professionalism and responsiveness on the part of the department that is truly admirable. I'm sure this contract was signed with the best of intentions, with the goal of keeping our community safe That being said, it's your job as our elected officials to keep the big picture in mind. To weigh the trade-offs inherent in any such deployment and to strike a balance between security and the right to privacy that is the very basis for all of our rights as Americans.

the degree to which one trusts Quincy PD to use this technology responsibly is largely irrelevant. As has been said by others tonight, Flock's business model depends on these cameras being tied into a national network accessible by myriad organizations that are not beholden to Quincy taxpayers. Flock has a long documented history of misleading police departments about who can access their data and for what reason. Our city doesn't exist in a bubble of our own provincial concerns, It exists in an era in which the federal government is using whatever tools it can to brutalize immigrant families, criminalized political opposition and harm protesters in our street. It's in an era in which red state law enforcement agencies are utilizing tools like Flock to track women seeking reproductive health care across state lines.

I believe the people of Quincy deserve a say in whether our city wants to be a collaborator in the authoritarian project being facilitated by big technology oligarchs. It was mentioned earlier, but according to Secure Justice 90 communities across the US canceled their contracts with Flock last month alone. That is three cities and towns per day I think we should be interested in why. I know in other countries they have struck a different balance between safety and privacy in China, or even the UK. People are used to a level of surveillance that we're not used to here. But I'm an American and I am not comfortable with being habituated to my government spying on me. Thank you again for the time.

Joanne Collins is next.

Good evening, Joanne Collins 88 Hillside Ave. I'm gonna just dance around this because I'm not going to repeat what's already been said I do object to the flock ALPR systems. I want to first be very clear that my objection is not, as Andrew said because I do not trust or support our Quincy police officers Strong rules protect residents and officers for allegations of misuse. Quincy appears to have the largest or one of the largest concentrations of automatic license plate readers of any municipality in Massachusetts. The city currently has more cameras than Boston, Weymouth, Lowell, Braintree, Worcester and more. Yesterday, I visited the Quincy Mass Police Department's transparency portal page. It said it was updated yesterday and it states data owned by Quincy mass police department is never sold to third parties.

The distinction I'd like to make between never sold and never shared, is an important one. Flock expressively allows law enforcement officers to share access with other police agencies, individuals regionally statewide and depending on the agency settings nationwide. I've heard the argument, if you're not doing anything wrong and you have nothing to hide then why do you care? However privacy isn't about having something to hide. it's about limiting the government's power to know where innocent people go, whom they associate with and what they do. They can track whether you visit a doctor or therapist office your religious institution, political meetings or protests a reproductive clinic or addiction treatment facility for example. The other common argument is that flock cameras help fight crime. Cameras do not prevent crime, they can only provide information after a crime has been committed.

I understand that law enforcement needs effective tools to investigate crimes and protect the public but that does not mean we should surrender our freedoms or give the government unlimited surveillance authority in the name of public safety. Warrantless searches of people or their homes, indiscriminate phone tracking and many other intrusive practices could also provide law enforcement with useful information. But our constitutional protections intentionally place limits on the government's investigative powers Those limits exist for a reason. Flock isn't watching only criminals, it's watching all of us. Another contention is the cameras are in public. There's no expectation of privacy on a public street. Seeing one car on one street is a different thing from creating a searchable history of someone's movements, I appreciate your time and listening to my concerns. Thank you.

Elizabeth Dietrich?

Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm Elizabeth Dietrich, and I'm at 95 West Guantan. Like so many of the others here, I am here to voice my objections to the use of flock cameras by the City of Quincy like and the previous speaker. I've also heard the common talking point that in favor of the cameras, that if you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. But in addition to concerns about government surveillance, I also worry about private citizens and Flock employees who could potentially be watching those feeds and misusing that data. To be clear, I am not criticizing the Quincy PD and their use of ALPRs to date but the fact remains that flock data is incredibly insecure and has already been misused by many bad actors. For instance, there have already been more than a dozen cases across America of corrupt police officers using the cameras to stalk women. Flock's own employees have reportedly pulled up the feeds of kids' gymnastics classes as part of demonstrations of their systems.

It's kind of creepy, I think that they had those feeds on file in the first place and the cameras themselves are easy to hack. As prior speakers have mentioned, you can go on YouTube and watch people doing it. Analysts have found dozens of flock feeds that are being streamed unsecured on the internet. And this is just the malfeasance that we know about, the stuff that has made the news. Who knows who could really be watching Quincy residents either now or in the future? We already live in a surveillance society. Our every click on the internet is tracked, our purchasing information is sold to marketers and our phones are logged by every cell tower that they ping as I pass by. Quincy PD already has so, so many tools at their disposal for solving crimes I trust that they can get by without ALPRs. please don't force Quincy residents to be tracked by Flock or any of the other companies that offer similar services.

Many of the other speakers have made excellent points about asks for what could be done about this. So rather than repeating them, I'd like to specifically ask that the city adopt a written plate reader policy and ban audio sensors on the cameras at a minimum, and ideally enact a ban on all contracts and installations of new ALPRs. Thank you.

Emily Johnson. Emily Johnson? Sorry.

Hello. For the record, I'm Emily Johnson. I live on 118 Greenleaf Street, Quincy obviously and rather than repeating the speakers that came prior to me I just want to say thank you for the opportunity for all of us to be able to speak here and do our civic duty of sharing what we believe. As someone who is newer to Quincy, who has been here for only a few years. I moved up here from Virginia and moved up her for opportunity With that being said, I carry my background with me and that background being a daughter of a former police officer. So I understand the PD's and I understand and deeply respect the officers. However, something that I did grow up as a big

a big talking point in my childhood was the importance of safety and the importance not being tracked, the fear of surveillance. As I heard from my father growing up, who was a detective and did a lot of various things through the police field. I grew to be wary and always questioned things and by having a mass surveillance, constantly watching and not having the correct bills in place. I fear my surveillance and I fear the surveillance of all of my other residents of Quincy. So, I'm just here to say that As somebody who has not been here for quite very much time, I came here for opportunity in my career and My life, my 20s and I want to be able to do so without having fear of surveillance. Thank you.

So we have Brendan Morak. Brendan?

How's it going, everyone? My name is Brendan. I just moved to Ward 3 living in Wollaston now.

Could you provide your address? I'm so sorry.

39 Park Street. Thank you. Personally, lived in Quincy for a while now, grew up around the South Shore group on the North Shore family and the South shore I love these areas. My hometown on the North Shore also is getting criticized for these cameras. That's also a town that I just can't afford to live in, I was fortunate enough to be able to kind of find a place down here in proximity to my family. And, you know, I have a lovely girlfriend and we've made kind of a life here together and I would like to make a life here. I know this is a different kind of angle than everyone else has taken, but you know, I'd like to raise a family here ideally. I think it's a beautiful city with a lot of diversity a lot of strengths, a history of hardworking people.

And despite being 20 something that I hear oh so often we don't work hard enough. I like to think of myself as a hard worker and to think that not only is it a technology that I don't particularly want to raise kids around, but it's also something that, you know, it kind of hurts to know that I'm paying for it. It's not the greatest feeling but... You know, I would seriously like people to consider the angle the concerns of the next generation. I think a lot of us speaking tonight have been on the younger side, but I also think we have some people who are already established and I think that it's a broad swath a large percentage of people in this city, in this state, in country are really worried. I'd like to see some change certainly so thank you.

Ewan Nelson.

Ewan?

Hi, I'm Elin Nelson. I live at 28 Village Drive in Quincy. Thank you, Quincy City Council for this public comment session for residents to express themselves freely. I also am speaking on the ALPRs. Very concerned about cameras that passively track and record all of my movements, my daughter's movements, everyone's movements in Quincy and not just vehicles tied to criminal investigations, but everyday private residents going about their lives. I found the flock camera near my house that tracks my daily movements, which is very creepy. Saw it on the way here and It's mass surveillance. I can't imagine anyone would want to be in a mass surveillance society. Many towns in Massachusetts have already ended their contracts

not just Cambridge but Abington, Attleboro, Auburn, Ayr Bellingham, Dartmouth Douglas East Bridgewater almost two dozen towns have terminated their contracts, and over privacy and constitutional concerns that everyone's spoken about. And I ask our Quincy City Council and Mayor Koch to cancel any and all current and future AOPR contracts, including flock safety. Remove the existing flock surveillance cameras and please protect the privacy of our residents. Thank you.

So we're at the second, so we have about one two three four five six seven eight more people left. We need another vote to extend it a little bit longer. I'm still on summer break.

So, I would like to make a motion to extend it and I actually think because this is the first time when we're taking a vote we've sort of This council is the first council that allowed open forum before there was no opportunity to speak. So we're kind of learning as we go I think that Moving forward, I would like us to have more public hearings about specific topics like Flock so that we can then really keep the open forum session to 20 minutes. We can get more of our agendas done. But this time, since it's the first time we're really kind of doing and doing the thing where we take votes. I would like us to be able to hear from everyone so I make a motion to extend

DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Riley.

Ryan, Councilor Yuan, President Mahoney. Nine members.

All right so moving on we have Diego Pugis I'm not sure if i'm saying your name correctly thank you if you could just state your name and address.

All right, I'm Diego Alejandro, 11 Willett Street. I'm gonna keep this pretty short because there are a lot of people in here with quite a few opinions tonight. These cameras were sold to QPD with the intention of public safety. That's not something I'm opposed to because Quincy sets a pretty high standard in the state that already tops the charts. That's something we really should be proud of. The problem is FLOC does not care about our standards, We've already seen the headlines and we heard it tonight. About a month ago, the Grass Valley Police Department ended their flock camera contract A few hours ago, it came out that Flock reinstalled the cameras without permission then turned around and blamed the city for it. They said they took them down too quickly. In February, they gave themselves the right to sell your every move and then Flock revealed that they can turn any camera into a flock camera by just installing some software. That's pretty concerning because someone earlier tonight said that in Florida and Georgia, their employees were watching kids in gymnasiums. Now we don't know if they've done it here largely because Flock is about as transparent as that wall behind you.

If you walk down that way, there are two Flock cameras right next to the Quincy Stop and Shop HQ. There's one around at just about every school and park in Quincy The middle school down there has one about 500 feet right next to the Taco Bell. I understand that QPD wants to keep us safe, but Flock AI tells other police departments that innocent people are violent criminals Some of our residents, and I assume some people on QPD are veterans. They went and fought for our freedoms. The Flox CEO says he wants us to compromise on our freedoms This doesn't sound like a company that wants us safe or free The city government has a pretty important job to do. But part of that is to protect our constitutional rights, even if it means we can't implement technologies that sound great on paper but in practice are abused. The founders understood this 200 years ago. There's a reason they wrote the Fourth Amendment, and there is a reason that Ben Franklin said when you abandon freedom to achieve security, you lose both and deserve neither.

We are the city of presidents. It's on our motto. Quincy Adams walked our streets. We should take a page out of their book, because this is about more than the cameras that exist. This technology is dangerous. It is un-American. and I hope that our city can consider whether Flock's promises of security are worth compromising on our freedoms. Good night.

Next up is Bill Zamzo.

Good evening, I didn't think you'd make it down to me. We're gonna have a change of subject. Can I come before you with an appending Dyer financial problem concerns. The problem? Funding the Mayor's fiscal year 2027 budget. I reviewed the numbers and so found ugly, serious ugly. I also found a further troubling footnote buried at the bottom of page 21 in the City's official statement dated July 14, 2026 Standard & Poor's Ban Bond Rating Report. The footnote, arguably a due diligence disclosure states that the city expects to use majority if not all of this amount for the purposes of the 2027 budget. The reference amount is the city's $24 million in untapped property tax levy.

Tapping all of the levy would give rise to a roughly $600 property tax increase on the median assessed value of property residents, on top of the typical several hundred dollar annual property tax increases with the end result have conservatively projected 9% to 10.5% increase in residential property tax bills come 2027. Such an increase would be on the order of twice most other communities, increases in 2027, as well as at least close to the largest property tax bite in the commonwealth on a duly weighted assessed value basis. Granted there are some variables not to mention some unknowns however footnote that's hand-in-glove with my pro form account calculations. Also note that taking down the untapped levy pose is further ugly. For starters, the city's reserves would be taken down to a fifth of recommended best practices and city guidelines. Tapping all the level you would also leave the City of Quincy

Hard upon its Prop 2.5 spending limits and taxing limits come 2028, as well as for years to come. as such slightly serious cuts to local services, perhaps a call for Prop 2 1⁄2 override. As well as all but surely another cut the city's credit rating to one that would be among the lowest and the Municipality of the Commonwealth are likely. Accordingly, I call upon the Council to press the administration on the record as soon as possible on how it plans to fund its 2027 budget come tax rate setting time in December so that local owners can provide for what is looking to be a record-breaking property tax increase in 2028. That and how the administration plans to both set, and then fund city budgets going forward. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Brian Hurley.

Hello, I'm Brian Hurly from 44 Summer Street. Mine is also about flock, but luckily I've crossed off large chunks. So hopefully it'll be quick. I like to think I'm a very technical person. I work as a systems engineer deploying different servers and systems at my job I also have a passion for cybersecurity and one of the systems that I administer is partially a facial recognition system. So I personally don't quite care for the ALPR systems, but I'm trying to avoid my personal bits. So I'm just going to talk about the things that I would generally consider if I was thinking about deploying it at my job. you can go up to most of those cameras, push the button on the back of them a few times. They'll open up a little wifi access point that you can connect to. You type in a command and you have full admin access on the device.

they also set up a demo website any one of us we could just right click on it view the source code there's an API key on there you can use that to then connect to a lot of production environments similar to our own. Also, a lot of security researchers who have worked with them basically said that they didn't really respond that well to them and they tried to have them sign NDAs so that way, they couldn't share the information that they found. A lot of people say that's generally not a good thing to do because that makes it hard to have a thriving secure environment I would like for us to cancel contracts and remove those. Thank you.

Thank You Next up is Aaron Cooper Aaron Cooper. Okay, we're gonna move on. I don't see anybody moving. Christiana Kohler?

Christina. I'm sorry, Christine. No, all good. Hi, Christina Kohler, 64 Glendale here in Quincy. So I don't have a prepared statement like so many of the wonderful speakers beforehand. I am just an Concerned mom of a toddler whose bedtime I'm missing who ran out right before dinner being like, I feel very strongly that I need to come and say something here because I do not want to be raising my family in a mass surveillance state and that's what we're setting up here in Quincy. And that's growing exponentially here, we have seen the way this goes in other municipalities cited so many wonderful examples that I will not come to repeat to all of you, but just to summarize what freaks me out about this so much and what I've heard other folks say here. I think that we know from what we've seen that restrictions and audits internally don't work in having the impact. And we can have almost everybody internally here at QPD and so forth.

those just don't accomplish the outcomes that we need. There is no way to restrict yourself into having the outcomes you need on this huge unfettered access inordinate amount of data. We know that Flock is insecure and it's getting all over the place. The information as many folks have cited, that flock says a secure is just not and can be accessed by Way too many people. We should not be leaning into that. This is not something that, like I'm a tech worker as well. I'm software engineer. This isn't something that I would ever bring into my home. And I think we also know that flock is so clearly out for themselves. They are not out for us the same way that our public institutions are. We should not be relying upon them to be accomplishing what we want from this, they are, like so many big tech companies out there. They're going to be selling their data to anybody who is going to buy it. They are going to doing as much nonsense behind the scenes as we have seen time and time again with them changing contracts adding new features, not sharing this information.

they're going to be doing and are doing whatever they can possibly get away with, to just make the most out of our money. Even though we are paying them money in the contract, the thing that we are actually selling them is our personal information. The video of me and my child walking down the street ask you to please not sell that to them, and please not have us be the product that they are making money off of in all of their other behind closed doors contracts that they've been going into. and doing with our data behind the nice public face of, oh we're here to work with public institutions like this. That's not where they are ultimately making their money that's not what their product ultimately is so I'd ask you to please cancel the contracts thank you.

Elizabeth Bedrick. Oh, you already spoke?

Okay.

You were listed twice. Helen Shriner.

Oh sorry. Are you Elizabeth? Yes, I am. OK. All right. So it's Elizabeth Boudry, 949 Hancock Street in Quincy. I'm going to keep it really, really short. Thanks for allowing us to speak, City Council. I know many of you ran on platforms of transparency and standing up to power. And so I ask you to ask hard questions of Flock and Quincy Pudi as we move forward on this I think Christina covered a lot of the points I wanted to make about Flock being a tech company that makes money off of us. We've all gotten really used to tech companies, just keeping our data and making money off of it. It's convenient! but I think more and more of us are realizing that maybe there's like a price to that convenience, and maybe we don't wanna live with that anymore. And we would at least push back on it so thank you, that's all.

Thank you, Helen. Good evening. My name is Helen Shiner. I live at 23 Copley Street in Quincy. I think we've heard from a lot of people their discomfort with Flock and maybe some of the other companies. I think that we have also heard a lot about people talking about living under a mass surveillance state. question that I'd like to pose to you. For those of you that have lived in Quincy the last few years, you may remember a woman that was abducted at Wollaston train station. The woman was raped and she was held for a protracted period of time if we had had something like this in place, would that have helped to end that woman's suffering a little bit earlier? Would it have aided the police and finding the perpetrator any quicker Some of the other things that we look at are silver alerts, so our parents and grandparents with Alzheimer's that need to be brought back home safely in a more timely manner. Abductions, amber alerts. These are some of the things that

and while I understand Flock may not be the company, there is benefit. And I ask you to think about some of those things. I ask that you think about that woman that was held for days and raped. If we could have gotten to her quicker, if the police could've gotten to here quicker is there a benefit to that? Now, you know I've known Chief Kennedy for a number of years in his role as the police officer and now as the chief. I have the utmost confidence in his efforts to restrict this as much as he can. And I think most of you know that he's also an attorney. I think we have so have to have some faith in the people that are leading this and they're telling us that we need some of these tools. And again, I fully understand Flock may not be the company This may not be the right technology, but you have to think about... I've heard people talking about, I don't want to be filmed walking my child. I feel like I'm being monitored So if we find the right technology that's protected and that information is not mass distributed, there is benefit.

And I ask you to keep the people that have suffered because they couldn't be helped in a quick timeframe. Thank you.

This will be our last speaker for this evening. It's Susanna Woodford

Good evening, council members. My name is Susanna Woodford. I live at 27 Tabor Street in Quincy. I moved to Quincy from Florida five years ago next month and October of 2021. First I lived in Williston, now I live near the BJs. When I left Florida, I sought freedom in Massachusetts hoping I could outrun the policies of the very same Floridian politicians who are now destroying our country. I was a special education teacher in Florida when I had to make the decision to uproot my entire life because my school district was becoming unsafe for me, a queer disabled person to work in. However, due to the 50 and growing number of ALPRs in our city I am feeling more and more unsafe. I'm a domestic violence survivor. I escaped two years ago. The data shows that ALPRs are frequently used by abusers to find their escaped partners. I fear for myself and other survivors who, by leaving their house to do anything could be stalked by their abusers.

I urge you council please remove all of the flock cameras, cease the contracts and never install them or anything like them again. Make Quincy safe for those of us who need a safe haven and in doing so make Quincy save for everyone thank you

So at this point, we're going to close the open forum. But I do want to remind everybody who is here in regards to FLOC tonight, we will be having a public forum and we will want you to come back and restate some of the things we had because it's really the record that we needed on but we do have it from this evening as well. so I thank everybody for coming out. I apologize if there was anybody who did not get to speak, we are trying to make sure we can get our work done at the same time so thank you for that. All right, we're gonna move on to item number two. which is review of the open meeting law complaints regarding the June 22nd, 2026 meeting. So at this point everybody should have in your packets there was two complaints that were sent to the council I'm gonna start by saying There are two complaints. The first one is a complaint filed by Ms. Leah DeGloria concerning a June 22nd oversight committee meeting and special council meeting. The second is a complaint filed by Mr. James Perkins concerning Councilor Hubley, an alleged communication regarding pending legislation.

We're gonna take them up separately so we're going to start with Leah DeGloria's complaint to the council. so Madam Clerk and members of the council. The first complaint before us this evening is Mr. Gloria's regarding the June 22nd, 2026 oversight committee meeting and special counsel meeting. I want to begin by making it clear the Council takes all open meeting law seriously. We have reviewed the complaint, the meeting sequence, the minutes, contemporaneous reporting and the record of what occurred that evening The complaint states that Ms. DeGloria was asked to leave during the oversight committee meeting and that she was denied access to the 7 o'clock special city council meeting The complaint also alleges lack of warning, denial of access viewpoint discrimination and interference with her right to observe public proceedings. The council's review tonight is focused on whether the open meeting law was violated the meeting timeline is important.

The minutes show that the oversight committee meeting began at 6 p.m in the Great Hall with Chairman Jacobs presiding, the committee was addressing and Aging Departments head the theft and the federal charges along with related oversight questions. The minutes show that the Oversight Committee was recessed at 6.49 p.m. After that, the Rules Committee met briefly and the Special City Council meeting opened at 7.03 p. m., and was recess at 7 o 4 p. that timing matters. The special city council meeting was not an ongoing full council meeting at that point, it was opened the roll call was called, the open meeting law was read and it was recessed almost immediately in the body returned to the oversight work committee. The Oversight Committee later adjourned at about 8.31 p.m. The special council meeting was not reopened for substantive council business until 9.54 p. m that evening

Based on that record, I do not believe the meeting sequence supports the claim that Mr. Gloria was removed from the oversight committee and immediately excluded from ongoing special city council meeting. The special city Council meeting had opened briefly and recessed almost immediately. The Council also reviewed the conditions in the Chamber that evening. The circumstances were difficult, disorderly, fast-moving. Contemporist reporting described the meeting as tense and stated that the purchasing agent and any spectator was ordered to leave amid disruptions, chaotic exchanges with counselors. The record also reflects that the disruption involved more than one person. The meeting minutes note that the purchasing department after what was described as an outburst directed at Councilors and the Chairman, Jacobs later commented on that conduct. The Patriot-Ledger reported that Mr. Gloria could be heard

from the audience criticizing Council President and Chairman Jacobs, ordered both Ms. Logan and Mr. Gloria to leave the premise with Mr.Gloria shouting expletives as she departed The Council understands that microphones were turned off during the portions of the disruption and that not all statements from the audience were captured in the meeting, audio or police report. That is part of why it is important to look at the full record including the minutes, the sequence of the meeting and in the accounts of the meetings. The Open Meeting Law protects the public's right to attend and observe meetings, public bodies. The Council recognizes and respects that right At the same time, the open meeting law does not prevent the chair or presiding officer from maintaining order. Enforcing meeting rules are addressing conduct that disrupts an orderly conduct of a meeting. Massachusetts law states that if after a clear warning from the chair a person continues to disrupt, the Chair may order the person to withdraw.

In ordinary circumstances, that is the preferred practice is to provide a clear warning before any person is removed from a public meeting when circumstances are allowed. However, that evening the room was not moving in a good direction The Chair was attempting to regain control of the meeting so that public business could continue. Mr. Gloria was asked to lead as part of that effort to restore order, not because of her viewpoint or the substance of anything she said. The Council is also seeking clarification regarding the physical boundaries of the council chamber, the purpose of the meeting management and the public access. The Council's understanding has been that the Chamber includes not only the main floor but also the balcony up above and the area immediately adjacent to the glass doors on the second floor. We want that to be clarified so expectations are clear for members and the public, council leadership staff and public safety personnel going forward

After the June 22nd meeting, it became clear that council committee chairs staff public safety personnel should have a more consistent procedure on how warnings removals and public access issues are handled during meetings. That is why prior to tonight's council meeting I met with the committee chairs, with Police Chief Kennedy and supervisors to review and tighten procedures for responding to disorderly and Unruly or Disruptive Conduct from the public meetings. The purpose of that meeting was to make sure everyone is on the same page going forward. This is not an admission that the Open Meeting Law violation occurred, it's a recognition that we should improve our process to protect both the public access and the orderly conduct of public meetings. This response is not based on anyone's viewpoint or the subject matter of the discussion, it is based on the meeting record, sequences of events the conditions in the chamber and the council's obligation to conduct business in an orderly manner.

For these purposes, I do not believe this record supports the finding of councils violating the open meeting law. and at this point I'd like to open it up to anybody's questions. and if there's no questions then I'm going to ask that we move to have a motion. And I'm gonna read the motion, I just need somebody to say they moved the motion. I move that Quincy City Council find that no violation of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law occurred with respect to the complaint filed by Ms. Leah DeGloria concerning the June 22, 2026 Oversight Committee meeting and the Special Counsel meeting. And the Council authorized that the President, Councilman, because that would be me, to issue a written response to the Attorney General's Office of Open Government on behalf Riley, so do I have a second? Second by Councilor Yuan. Can we have a roll call vote for that?

Councilor Ash? Yes. Jacobs, Councilor McKee. Riley, Councilor Ryan, Council Yuan, President Mahoney. Yes. Nine members. Excellent.

Moving on to the second open meeting law. This came from James Perkins in regards to Councillor Hubley. For the second complaint before us tonight, Mr. James Perkins regarding Councilor Walter Hubley alleged communications concerning pending legislation. The complaint alleges that during, I believe it was the same night, June 22nd. It was a good night, 2026 meeting Councilor Hubley referred to speaking to a former member of the Leominster City Council Hubley regarding an ordinance under consideration. The complaint identifies Councilor Huble as the person alleged to have committed the violation and concerns of discussion related 2026-031 repeal of annual raises for elected officials. The question before the council is whether that alleged communication constituted deliberation in violation of the open meeting law, The Open Meeting Law defines deliberation as communication between or among a quorum of the public body.

A public business within the jurisdiction, it does not prohibit every conversation our individual counselors may have with a non-member of the council. Based on the complaint and the records before us, there is no evidence that Councilor Hubley communicated with a quorum of the city Quincy City Council outside a post-a meeting. There's no evidence the person he allegedly spoke to was acting as an intermediary or conduit for communications among the Quincy City Council members. No evidence that members were polled, no evidence that consensus was sought or reached, no evidences that opinions of a quorum were exchanged outside of the public meeting. The communications allege that the complaint appeared to involve Councilors seeking a receipt seeking or receiving background information from a person outside of Quincy City Council and then referencing the information during a public meeting itself. That does not establish deliberation among a quorum of the city council. The Council also notes that the Councillors are permitted to gather information, speak with residents, speak subject matter contacts

and prepare for public meetings. What the open meeting law prohibits is a private deliberation among a quorum of the public body or serial communication used to accomplish the same results outside a posted meeting. Based on this complaint reviewed, I do not believe this complaint establishes a violation of the Open Meeting Law. So again, I'm looking for somebody to say so moved. I move that the City of Quincy Council file that no violation of Massachusetts Open Meeting law occurred with respect to the complaint filed by Mr. James Perkins concerning Councillor Walter Hubley and the alleged communication regarding pending legislation, and that the Council authorize me to issue a written response to the Attorney General's Division of Open Government. So moved by Councilor Riley, seconded by Council Jacobs. Roll call please.

Ash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Riley, Ryan, Yuan. President Mahoney, nine members. So now we're moving on to item number three. Update and overview of data privacy in compliance with the Quincy Police Department ALPR system.

Thank you very much. Welcome, Chief Kennedy.

Thank you, Councilor. Good evening, President Mahoney, members of the council and members of public. Thank for giving me the opportunity to come before you tonight to provide an update on the Quincy Police Department's use of automated license plate reader technology, or ALPR as it's commonly known. I want to begin by thanking the members of the Council and residents of Quincy and everyone who has taken the time to raise questions and concern about this technology. I have been listening. I've listened to the questions raised by members of the council, I've listen to members of public and I attended the recent Get The Flock Out Of Quincy event at the library. While I may not agree with every characterization of ALPR technology that I heard that evening I did hear legitimate concerns about privacy, data security government power and the protection of civil liberties. and I believe those concerns deserve to be taken seriously.

That's why as Chief of Police, I directed my command staff to conduct a comprehensive data privacy and compliance review of our ALPR system which was sent to each of you and is now posted on our department website. I didn't do that because I believe the system is inherently problematic or that we were using it inappropriately, I did it because I believed we should constantly be asking ourselves whether we can do things better. as a result of that review, we have taken additional steps to make Quincy's system even more restrictive. Quincy is now operating as a closed ALPR system, meaning that no outside law enforcement agency local state or federal has direct access to Quincy's cameras our network or our live camera feeds. Access to the Quincy ALPR network is limited to a small number of detectives, specially trained traffic investigators and supervisors.

and just to put things in perspective, out of the 237 Swan Quincy police officers only 47 have access to the system. I do not have access the system, I do no need access to this system We have also elected to opt out of nationwide ALPR data sharing while we evaluate additional safeguards. In addition, we maintain administrative controls authorization requirements and auditing of system use. These aren't just words in a policy these are restrictions we have put in place to govern how the technology is actually used and I think that distinction is important. I also want to clear up what I believe are some fundamental misunderstandings about ALPR technology. The Quincy Police Department does not use ALPR as a tool to watch the people of Quincy. It is not a surveillance tool, we do not use it to follow residents going about their daily lives We do not use it to monitor someone's activities because we're curious about where they go.

We do NOT use it build profiles on law-abiding citizens. ALPR is an investigative tool it's another tool available for our detectives when they're investigating a crime. When an investigator has a legitimate case and needs to determine whether a particular vehicle may have been associated with that crime, ALPR technology can potentially provide an investigative lead. and importantly, our searches are associated with case numbers. We use this technology incredibly sparingly. The fact that hundreds of thousands of plates may be captured by cameras does not mean that hundreds or thousands of people are being investigated Those are two very different things. The overwhelming majority of vehicles captured by our cameras are simply vehicles driving through Quincy as of this morning, during the past 30 days, our cameras captured over 704,000 license plates. However only 134 were actually searched and all plates searched

were for a legitimate investigative purpose. Put another way, of all the plates captured during the past 30 days 99.98% were never searched and will be deleted from the system within 30 days. I want to say something personally because I've heard a lot tonight about civil liberties. I am a strong supporter of civil liberties, I don't believe that the government should have unlimited power simply because technology makes something possible In fact, I think one of the most important responsibilities of a police chief is to understand that the power we have been giving by the public comes with an enormous obligation to use that power responsibly. Public trust is hard earned and easily lost this police department has spent decades building trust with our community and I assure you, I will not be the one to lose it. We do not live in a police state and I don't want to run a police department that operates like

Our offices respect the Constitution. We respect people's privacy, we respect civil liberties and I believe public safety and civil liberties are not mutually exclusive we can protect people's constitutional rights while also giving our officers the tools they need to investigate serious crimes. In fact, I believe we have an obligation to do both. But there is another side to this conversation. When we talk about ALPR, we understandably talk about privacy but I also think that we have to talk about the people who are victims of crime because there's another side to this discussion that sometimes gets lost. There is a victim, there is a survivor, there's a child who was missing, there was the family waiting for answers, does the person who was the victim of a violent crime and wants to know who did this to them. And as Chief of Police, I have a responsibility to those people too.

If we have a homicide, a sexual assault, a kidnapping an armed robbery, the serious hit-and-run or missing or endangered person I want my detectives to have every lawful investigative tool available to them. Not because we want more power, but because we Criminal Investigations, Time Matters. A tool that can give an investigator a lead in minutes instead of days or hours can make an enormous difference. It can help identify a suspect, establish a timeline, recover evidence corroborate information locate a vehicle in the case of a missing person, it can and has helped us bring them home. I also want to make something very clear. ALPR does not solve crimes. The cameras don't interview witnesses. They don't conduct interrogations, obtain search warrants establish probable cause or make arrests. My officers do that. ALPR is simply another tool in the toolbox.

The men and women of the Quincy Police Department are the ones who take the information, investigate it corroborate it develop probable cause and ultimately bring cases forward for prosecution. Technology doesn't replace good police work, it makes good police more efficient. This conversation comes down to a very simple principle. We should never use technology simply because we can, we only use it when there is a legitimate public safety purpose and we put reasonable safeguards around it to prevent misuse I will always listen to legitimate concerns about privacy. I will be willing to examine our policies and make our practices more restrictive when doing so makes sense, but I will also continue to advocate for the men and women of this department, and their ability to use lawful investigative tools to protect the people in this city.

because I don't believe protecting civil liberties requires us to leave our police officers with one hand tied behind their backs, and I also don't belief protecting public safety requires us sacrifice people's constitutional rights. We can and we do do both here in Quincy. At the end of the day this isn't about watching Quincy, it's about protecting Quincy. It's about helping a detective find the person responsible for a serious crime. It is about giving a victim an answer. It s about giving family hope. It Is about finding a missing child or vulnerable adult and it's about giving my officers another tool to do the job that I ask them to do every single day. I never want to stand in front of a victim, a survivor or family member and tell them that we could have done more to find the person who hurt them or to find a person they love. We just chose not to. That's not the police department that I want to lead. I wanted a problem that protects people, respects their rights, operates transparently

and uses technology responsibly. And I believe that's exactly what we're doing here in Quincy. Thank you again for allowing me to speak, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

So at this point, I'd like to open up to our counselors. But I do want to remind that we will be having this going into oversight as well for this presentation this evening. Does anybody like to ask any questions? Council UN.

Thank you, Madam President. So when I introduce that order, I want to give a public hearing so usually you need 10 days noticed on newspapers, so give people sufficient time to be aware of it and to prepare their questions. and I didn't know you will give a presentation until last Thursday. So, I request that you put the summary on the online, but that only lasts a week. So I don't know if people have time to read your summary and face questions. So I suggest we can save the Q&A section at the public hearing section. So by that time, people have time to digest your

presentation and raise further questions. And we will invite you come to the public hearing, answer people's questions. So... So I think maybe we can save a Q&A section at the public hearing, because immediately after presentation people probably haven't time to digest. and Duyin Research.

Certainly. So thank you very much, Sheikhani. I think what's happening is as we spoke earlier, we were all getting a lot of emails, phone calls. I believe you're getting the same thing and I do think it's important that we hear from the people tonight, and that we have a public hearing for people to come out and speak again. And then what we can do is we can come back and kind of work through some of the questions that people have and help if we need to tighten things up or potentially talk about and other options that we have. But I do think it's an important thing, just like you said tonight, you want to make sure you have the tools for your police department to be able to get what they need to be done. And we are respectful of people civil liberties but at the same time we have to make sure that we're empowering the people who are trying to protect us as well. I think this is a bigger picture throughout the whole country because of the tool itself, the technology itself and how it's being used by third parties, not necessarily how you're using it. So there's a lot to dive into.

I don't know if there's anybody else that has any questions at this point tonight but I think our best point might be to move on and have it at the oversight meeting.

Okay with you, Chief? If we submitted some questions in advance too.

Yeah that'd be fantastic.

Okay thank you.

I'm sorry, we're having a little sidebar up here. Okay so we're havin' a sidebar to make sure that we're gonna pass Ms. Yuen's, Councilor Yuen and others to put into oversight. And then that's what will be taken out. So when we put it into oversight, we'll publicize the public hearing, and then we'll have you back, and we'll send some questions ahead of time. In the meantime if there are any other questions people can continue to email us. Email Chief Kennedy, and I will try to make sure these questions are being answered. but I do thank you very much for your patience to stick around and talk to us about this, and for all the support that the Quincy Police has been for all of our residents. Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

Absolutely.

Yeah. Number four, 20260104 order regarding the city of Quincy's use of flock safety technology

So this is Councilor Yuen. Do you want to speak on it?

Thank you, Madam President. I want to talk about the reason we introduced this order to request a public hearing in the informational section about Quincy's use of blood. safety is because as we heard, people have a serious concerns about using of flock. City Council have received numerous communications from from resident. And we introduce this order is ask to give a public hearing, give people an opportunity to speak out their concerns and ask specific questions after the police chief gave the presentation. So,

Sorry, I do have a question but the police chief already... We're going to put it into committee so I think we're gonna have a chance.

Oh okay. And I want to briefly say People push back this flock technology is from wide political spectrum. It's not just liberal versus conservative issues Blue states, purple states, red states are all pushing back against the flock. So Texas governor just announced to stopped spending state money on flock surveillance cameras. And the Florida governor administered,

Governor's Administration and the Florida Department of Transportation ordered the physical removal of all automated license plate readers from State Highway. right of way within 30 days. And across the country, people have serious concern and pushback. So... I think when communities across the political spectrum are asking the same questions about privacy, data sharing accuracy and accountability we should take those questions seriously I also have two major concerns. First, the government did not inform people before deciding to use FLARC, the mass surveillance tool. Quincy started using Flock in 2020.

People were not informed. They found out on their own, then under public pressure the administration began updating some of its policies and after six years of using Flock, we are now giving people a presentation about it. Letting people know after the fact does not build trust Second, the government made the decision for people but not with people. We all understand there is a serious trade-off between privacy and security but instead of discussing with residents whether this is a trade-off they are willing to make, the government simply made the decision for them. Parents can make decisions for their young children, but American citizens are adults. They have a voice.

They deserve a say in decisions that affect their privacy and their freedom. How does the government know that people are willing to give this much privacy for this level of security? and as an immigrant who came from a country in the centralized government, I want to tell you liberty is precious. as John Adams said, liberty once lost is lost forever. Do you think John Adams will agree the government use mass surveillance to track people in his hometown, in whole country. My speech is stopped here. Thank you.

If we could, I need to make a motion just for passage and to refer it into committee. Do we have a motion? Motion by Richard Esch.

The question, so motion is to move this order to oversight committee then discuss which date for public hearing?

So we're going to make a motion to refer it to passage and to refer to committee. And then later in the evening, we will talk about the dates for that committee.

Okay, thank you. Just wanted to make sure, yeah.

We have a motion by Councilor Ash Rash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Riley.

Ryan, Councilor Yuan, President Mahoney. Yes. So that would be referred to oversight. Moving on to number five. 2026-1 05, order approval of location and lease of solar energy implementation on General McConville Way parking garages. So we're going to table that. We had got information from the administration that they want to table for this evening, so we're gonna put that on mute. Number six, 2026-106 Order Oversight of Public Works Enhancement Fund Chapter 92 active 2004.

Thank you, thank you President Mahoney. I'm bringing this item forward to supplement Council Order 2026-081 which is a resolve to audit the lease, deductions, expenses and payments by Corey Hill's associates brought by Councilor Ryan. This matter tonight is specifically on the City's use of those funds once received by the city. Chapter 92, Act of 2004 established that 50% allocated for DPW road and sidewalk projects, 10% to oversight of the Quarry Hills operation, and 40% to the city's general fund. This order was introduced on November 10, 2003 by then City Councilor now State Senator John Keenan. It was introduced after the city negotiated a new lease with Quarry Hills Associates for the operation of the Quarry Hill Recreation Complex Specifically, it sets reporting requirements to the City Council each year no later than March 1st.

What had been used in a prior year and what was planned from the city's pavement management plan for the coming year. That oversight has not been followed for what seems to be quite some time, if it ever was. Now that we have the city spending over $500,000 for a parking lot not an allowed use. This was a home rule petition which needed the approval of the state legislature to make it a law and yet it has not been followed So I will ask the City Solicitor, why hasn't this law been followed? And will you uphold this law now? I ask that we refer this to the Oversight Committee for further discussion along with the Quarry Hills audit and that no money be expended from this line until this matter is resolved and the law upheld.

Thank you. So do we have a motion to move it into passage and move it in to oversight? Yes, move into oversight please. Do we have a second for that? Second by Councilor Jacobs on the motion do we also did you also have a motion for no money I want to make sure we're doing this correctly

I am suggesting that no money should be spent from this line until this matter is resolved. This is a law that has not been followed. I would like to also make one more footnote here. The Home Rule petition granting Corey Hills a new lease has died at the State House. The matter was not voted out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee by July 31st, and therefore the current lease remains in effect under these 2003 terms.

If you're going to have it so we have a roll call vote for putting into committee and we'll come back on We'll start there. Okay. Council Yuan?

Thank you Madam President. I have some comment about this order. This order started with a simple concern, the administration planned to spend around 700 thousand to expand a parking lot for future indigenous culture center without informing the city council. Councilors found out about the project only after seeing the bid posted on the city's website, and when the administration held a community meeting about this project last Wednesday, the bidding process had already closed. So I want to ask, why hold a community meeting to ask residents for their opinions after the city has already put out the bid? Isn't this the same pattern as we just talked about with Flock? The government makes the decision first, then tells people afterward.

And quite often residents or even counselors find out about it on their own. That does not build trust. and going back to the issue of the fund, this fund 10% of Corey Hill's income goes into the oversight account. And how has the administration been spending this money? The administration hired a project manager to provide oversight and pays his $120,000 salary from this account. But look at the numbers. In fiscal year 2023, the account received 82,814.82. In fiscal Year 2024 is received. $87,009.04, fiscal year 2025 $84,620 and the fiscal year 2026 $90,000

514. So clearly a new revenue coming into this account is not enough to cover 120,000 salary. No wonder the accountant has a deficit of 174,089.77. So my question is where does the city get the money to cover the difference? Which account is paying for it? Where is the transparency? And is this really the best way to use this money? Why not create an oversight committee with residents, counselors and community members with relevant expertise.

Many people are willing to serve the city just as they volunteer on other boards without costing taxpayers another $120,000 a year. This is my comment. Is it a comment or question too? If Chief of Staff, Mr. Walker can answer the question.

I would like to keep it to a limit just because it's going into committee but I'd be happy to open it up.

Madam President, that was basically going to be my question. If we're litigating this evening or if we are putting this into committee has been the practice and advised by this body some of the numbers that have been raised in a couple of these comments I have not seen, I do not know at this point in time, we're happy to talk about that. It's certainly within the Council's purview to review these numbers. Certainly within the council's pur view to have a discussion about this and we're happy to come back with a full report on how that money has been spent over the years, and what good it has done for the community. But it's certainly up to this body how they want to litigate this but it does feel at times the administration gets asked to provide stuff in advance and then I'm being asked questions from numbers.

So again, I think what we're having here is that We're all in this situation with all due respect. Mr. Walker, a bid went out and money was being spent and we were quote unquote ear tags here. Free money was what was said it was. And it's not free money, it's part of the public works enhancement and that is supposed to be what was created in 2004, Acts of 2004 chapter 92. And it does state in that in that act in 2004 when it was passed, that the council will have a meeting every March to give us an update on that. I don't believe it ever happened in my six years that I was on the council back on the council this past spring, didn't happen then. There is a resolve I believe it's in either finance or oversight also for the audit of Granite Links and I think what's really happening here is the summer is a busy time. The city was moving ahead with some of these things, and it came as a surprise for many people.

Now, I think that what I'm hearing here, and I just want to clarify First, we had a resolve that we were putting it into oversight to talk about the Chapter 92 Public Works Enhancement Fund. But I'm also hearing a second piece so I just actually think we need to amend the language to say it's going into committee and then pending completion of the Oversight Committee's review of compliance with Chapter 92 of the Acts of 2004, no monies from the Public Works Enhancement Fund shall be expended, transferred, incumbent or committed or otherwise obligated for proposed Nickerson parking lot. Project. That's what I'm hearing from what I heard tonight, that's partly what I am hearing and it's because we haven't had a chance to have that meeting once that meeting, once we've had that meeting we can certainly debate the facts there but that $700,000 has been put aside for needs to come back here in oversight and be explained how the money has been used historically, and what the rules are around that. So I had a motion, I believe by Councilor Riley put it into oversight? Was that true?

Do we accept my friendly amendments?

I would gladly accept your family amendment.

I have it written down. It was seconded by Councilor Ryan and now in a roll call vote to put this into oversight.

Councilor Ash, Councilor DiBona, Council Hubley McKee, Councilor Riley, Council Ryan, Council Yuan, President Mahoney. Yes. Nine members. Okay moving on to item number seven. 2026-107, resolve requesting a comprehensive update on the municipal broadband project in consideration of a path forward in light of emerging private competition.

and I'm gonna turn this over to Councilor Hubley.

Thank you, Madam President. So yeah, I'm putting forth this resolution to get an update on the municipal broadband effort that the city started undertaking some number of years ago, maybe seven or so years ago. Having worked in the broadband industry it was like my first career that I was in for about 25 years working for all kinds of different fiber and coax-based broadband and wireless providers When I heard the city was embarking on this effort, I thought I was quite excited about it just both from a technology perspective and from a consumer perspective paying a lot of money for Comcast and the like. but over time, the marketplace has evolved. The environment has evolved and the original reason why the city started looking into doing this was the lack of competition and that's clearly what people wanted.

People get frustrated, you have an outage at your house, you can't work from home, you know, to get your kids' schoolwork turned in, it's very frustrating. It's become very utility-like So I think in light of the changing landscape of different competitors, it's worth revisiting where we are with this effort and to determine the most appropriate way to move forward. So I'm excited to dig into this and would love My colleagues support in approving this and referring it to the Municipal Tech Committee, which I'm going to give an early plug. I'd love to schedule.

Friedman?

Early plug, I'd love to schedule it. I'm just trying to get ahead of everyone else.

So we have Councilor Hubley who's referring 2026-107 for the comprehensive municipal broadband into Munitech, correct? Ash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Riley.

Yes. Council Ryan? Yes. Counsel Yuan? Yes President Mahoney? Yes Nine members Next is number 8, 2026-108, a resolved letter of support for enforcement of the 2024 ballot question one. And this is going to go over to Councilor Riley.

Thank you, President Mahoney. Yes I am bringing this resolve forward to to follow the lead of some other communities that have expressed concern that the ballot question number one from 2024, where overwhelmingly over 70% of the voters voted to support the state audit of the legislature. And since then, the House has put forth their own version of the bill or their own version of the solution, I guess. So I would like for this body to send a letter of support to the auditor and our state legislators and the governor expressing support for the bill as it was written I double-checked all of the Quincy voting records from that time and every single precinct voted nearly in the 70% range, in support of this question.

So I think we need to send a written statement of support for the auditor and her work that she's trying to do with this. Do we have then a motion?

A motion, please, to send the letter. Yes, thank you. Do I have a second? Councilor Jacobs has seconded it. On the motions, does anybody have any questions? Roll call vote.

Councilor Ash, Councilor DiBona, Council Hubley, Council Jacobs, Council McKee, Riley, yes. Council Ryan? Yes. Council Yuan? Yes President Mahoney? Yes Nine members Number nine, 2026109 resolution request the new Burrill Field Sport Court Hockey Rink be named in honor of David Andy Andrew DiBona.

Jacobs.

Yes, I'm introducing this tonight in memory of David DiBona. We call him Andy. I'm just going to read it in its entirety. It says, whereas David Andrew DiBona was a lifelong resident of Quincy and proud member of the Housenet community who dedicated his life to his family and his profession, and in the service of others. And whereas Dave was born, Quincy January 6th 1972, June 6th, 1972 sorry, and graduate from Quincy Vocational High School in 1991 Weerland Plumbing, a trade that would become his life's work. Whereas more than 25 years ago, Dave founded First Class Plumbing and Heating and became a respected master plumber known throughout our community for his honesty, integrity, professionalism, and commitment to quality workmanship.

and whereas Dave generously shared his knowledge, volunteering his time to teach at Quincy Votech, mentoring young people and entering the plumbing and trades and providing continuing education opportunities for his employees. and Dave's love for the Quincy, in particular House Neck inspired many years of dedicated community service including his leadership as president of the House Necks Community Council which I had the pleasure of serving with him on that for many, many years. whereas through his work with the Community Council, Dave devoted countless of hours to organizing neighborhood events. creating opportunities for residents and families to come together, the annual Hausner Charter Fest holding a particularly special place in his heart as well as the summer movie nights. and whereas Dave possessed a remarkable ability to make everyone he met feel welcome, valued and part of something larger than themselves. And whether they were a neighbor or friend, a fellow trades person or young person just began their career

even while courageously undergoing treatment for cancer, Dave continued to speak proudly and enthusiastically about Howell's Neck in the community events that meant so much to him. Whereas in recognition of his extraordinary service and dedication to House Neck and the City of Quincy, Davis presented a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2026. and above all else, Dave was devoted husband to his wife Terry and a loving father to his children Gianna and David and cherished son of my neighbors, David DiBona and Kathleen DiBonna. and a beloved brother to his sister Amy, and loyal friend to countless others. Dave passed away on July 27th, 2026 at the age of 54 following a courageous battle with cancer leaving behind a legacy of leadership, generosity, friendship and service that will continue to inspire the people of Housenach in the entire city of Quincy. The new sport court

the hockey rink at Brill Field will serve as a place where children, families, friends and neighbors can gather and play and strengthen the bonds of community reflecting those same values that guided Dave throughout his life. now therefore be resolved that the Quincy City Council respectfully requests that the new sport court hockey rink at Brill Field be formally named The David Andy DiBona Memorial Hockey Rink. in lasting recognition of his exceptional leadership, his many years of service to House Neck and the city of Quincy. And his lifelong commitment to bringing people together and be it further resolved that an appropriate permanent sign or a commemorative plaque bearing his name, be installed at the rink so that future generations can learn of Dave's contributions inspired by his example of community service. and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to Dave's wife, Terry, and his children Gianna and David

and his parents, David and Kathleen, and sister Amy as an expression of the City Council's deepest sympathy, gratitude, and enduring appreciation for a true community leader whose legacy will forever remain part of Ows Neck.

Thank you. So we'll need a motion, this is gonna go to the mayor's office to be referred to the parking rec, right? To be preferred to park and rec they'll be the ones that make the determination if you could make a motion to refer it to the Mayor's Office to pass on.

Yeah, so I'd make a Motion to refer this to the mayor's office so that way it can be put onto the Parks and Rec Board so they have this formally passed through the parks and rec board

Do we have a second on that? Second by Councilor Hubley. On the motion, anybody have any questions? Councilor

That was great. Yeah, just a few brief words. I don't even know where to begin on this one. Mr. DiBona was an incredible community builder. In fact it was the Housenet Community Council that I encountered, my wife Catherine and I encountered gosh back in 2010 maybe. That really inspired us to start the Wollaston Hill Neighborhood Association. In fact, we leaned on the team there quite heavily on how to form it. We essentially looked at what they were doing down in House Neck and said, we'd like what they're having That's actually how I put it. And Dave was just a common fixture and his dad, his whole family and so many things that happen down in Houseneck. And we've been volunteering, I think for every my wife and I, for every Charterfest since 2010-ish, I want to say, and always there. always there for everything and for everyone.

So I would fully support this recommendation to the Parks Board for this type of naming, just a great guy. Thank you.

Is anybody else on that? and DiBona.

Thank you, Madam President. I too knew Dave over the years they told him he had one to two years to live and he lived three. And, he was helping everybody up until the last days of his cancer Jacobs for bringing this forward. He is a very instrumental person in the community, all of Quincy. just to help other people. That's what Ollie was about, whether it be the Chowder Fest or stuff for the House Neck Community Council or anything he would do anything he could to help people so I think this will be a great memorial for him up at Brill Field, which is for the hockey rink there. Thank you.

Anybody else? So I just might take a point of privilege. Oh sorry. You can go right ahead.

Yeah, I just want to add a few more things that came to my mind. You know, one of the things Dave did every year was build an ice rink for kids to skate on so I think this would be a very good Memorial for him. Also, I just want to say as a member of the community being on the Community Council he had lots of great ideas changed a lot of things did a lot but one thing that I will never forget was during the snowstorms that we had, and the power was out in Marymount for almost 24 hours. We had no heat calls. he just went out and he didn't say, I'm going out at 5 a.m., I'm gonna leave at four and I'll hit those three people's houses on the way out of House Neck and we'll get their heat on one person who most of us know was having

pretty difficult problem, and he went back there over and over again until that problem was solved. So he was just a really great guy, a really good neighbor, a very great friend, and you know, he needs to be remembered So I'm hoping the Mayor's Office will pass this board and the Parks Board will pass it as well. Thank you.

So you stole my thunder. I've known Dave's family for quite some time, I can't put the exact date on it but I feel very honored to have known both his parents and his family. I've gotten to know them, and they are truly, and Councilor, I mean, Clerk Cuspo just said salt of the earth. They truly are. and when you think about this man had stage four cancer, and during the last winter of this past winter that we were going through he was out helping people that needed plumbing needs because their heat was off. And he put many people ahead of himself he put his family, his family is really the sole purpose why he was here. He's so proud of that and the only thing other than the Housenet Community Council as well as his family might have been his boat. So I'll never forget Bubbles Up. So, I too hope that this Gator Rink because for years they were putting it together themselves flooding the area down there piecing together a skating rink.

And now there's a beautiful rank down there for people to use and I would be so thrilled if I knew that was named after David, I didn't know him as Andy DiBona. And I'm sure the DiBono family would feel a little bit more Loved by their community if we were able to do that. So I'm just going to end there because they're very close friends of all of us. I think anybody that's ever gone to anything in Housenac would have to know a DiBona for that. Um, so we have a motion on the floor second. Do we need roll call vote?

DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Riley, Ryan, Yuan, Mahoney. Next is item number 10, 2026-110, a gift for $975 from various donors to Deer Camp.

Do I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve by Councilor DiBona, seconded by Councillor Jacobs with the note to be sent.

And we'll call vote. Councilor Ash, Councilor Dibona. Yes. Council Hubley Jacobs, Councilor McKee, Council Riley, Council Ryan, Council Yuan, President Mahoney. Yes Next, number 11-2026-111. Gift for $3,000 from various donors to DARE.

Motion by Councilor DiBona seconded by Council Jacobs Ash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Riley.

Ryan, Councilor Yuan, President Mahoney. Yes. Eight members. Next is number 12, 2026-112 gift for $10,000 from Copeland Family Foundation Inc. to Dare

DiBona, second by Councilor Jacobs. Please send a letter of thanks. Roll call vote.

Councilor Ash, Councilor DeBonna, Council Hubley, Council Jacobs, Council McKee, Riley, Councilor Ryan, Council Yuan, President Mahoney. Eight members. Number 13, 2026. 113 gift for $7500 from the Copeland Family Foundation Inc to the Quincy Animal Shelter.

DiBona, seconded by Councilor Jacobs. Roll call vote.

Councilor Ash, Councilor DiBonna? Yes. Council Hubley? Yes, Council Jacobs? Yes Council McKee? Yes Councillor Riley? Yes Yuen, President Mahoney. Yes. Eight members. Okay.

So we're moving on to the approval of previous minutes. We're going to be approving the minutes from 5-4, 2026 through 6-22, 2028. These are the combined council and committee meetings in the finance committee meeting so I have a motion to approve. Hubley. Motion approved by Councilor DiBona, seconded by Councillor Riley. All those in favor? Okay, any against? I didn't ask that. Nobody's against? Okay. Communications and reports from the Mayor and other city offices, city boards, clerks in traffic utilities.

Yes, I do have some traffic requests to refer to Ordinance Committee for Advertising. Ward 1, Councillor Jacobs had two stop signs on Rock Island Road northbound and southbound Intersecting with Byrd Street creating an all-way stop. Add two stop signs on State Street, eastbound and westbound intersecting with Palma Street creating a two way stop. And stop at Rock Island Road Northbound intersecting with C Street and out of handicap parking at 189 Taffer Road, number one. Ward 2, Councilor Ash at a handicap parking at 99 Chubbuck Street. Ward 4, Council Ryan at a handicapped parking at 19 Connell Street. Ward 6, Councilor Riley at Handicap Parking at Sixth Pier Street Number 2. We also have a utility request to refer to Public Works Committee

for Scheduling and Advertising, Utility Grant to Location, GoNet Speed to 29 Sogson Street in Chet Street.

Is that finished? So we have unfinished business and proceeding meetings. Nothing, moving on to reports of committee. Councilor Hubley?

All right, so this report is on behalf of Director Congeni, director of veteran services. So we thought that the timeframe between April 1st and June 30th was gonna be a little bit of a slower period of time There are actually 122 VA claims. Each claim requires significant staff support, including several office visits, follow-up calls, ongoing documentation. It's a time intensive nature so the Veterans Service Office Office has been working diligently for Chapter 115, Financial Assistance. The department currently administers for 118 eligible veterans and independents including medical only cases. State funded program supports low income veterans, surviving spouses and eligible dependent children

During this period of time, there were six new applications and eight cases that were closed due to eligibility relocation or their passing. For employment support services, there are currently three active employment plans. Participating veterans attend weekly meetings, provide job search documentation and submit regular updates The goal is to provide long-term self sufficiency and successful reintegration into the workforce. Under Burial Assistance and Grave Marker Submission, the department provides assistance during times of loss for burial benefits, grave markers. They submit 11 marker applications during that period of time. And let's see, I think that sums it up. So as you can hear veteran services even over the summertime and early summer months It's a very active office, and they're doing great work. So I just want to extend my thanks.

And this report is available on the website for anyone who's interested in more information.

Thank you very much, Councilor Hubley. And then we have reports of committees from ordinance. Councilor McKee. The one traffic?

Oh, do I have it here?

Thank you.

Okay, so motion to remove 2026-103 from Ordinance Committee and Pass it through the full Council. This is to add handicap parking at 15 Walker Street in Ward 6.

So we have a motion to remove it from

motion to remove it from the ordinance committee and discuss it and pass it in full council.

Do you have a second for that?

Councilor Riley, second. Do we need roll call vote? Roll call vote please. Ash, DiBona, Hubley, Jacobs, McKee, Riley, Ryan, Yuen, Councilor Yuan, President Mahoney. Yes.

So this is now to pass it. So motion to pass 2026103 to add handicap parking at 15 Walker Street in Ward 6.

Okay, so we have a motion to pass. Do you have a second? Anybody on the motion? Roll call vote.

Councilor Ash Yes Councilor DiBona Yes Council Hubley Yes Council Jacobs Yes Council McKee Yes Council Riley Ryan, Council Yuan, President Mohamed.

That ends our reports of committee presentations of petitions memorials and remonstrances DiBona.

Thank you, Madam President. It's a heavy heart to Thomas Pecoraro just passed away this past week. Tom was born and raised in Quincy, a graduate of Quincy Trade School. He was a master plumber and served as the Chief of Plumbing and Gas Inspector for the City of Quincie Inspectional Services Department. If anyone knew him he was a phenomenal guy, very funny. He loved his job and cherished the many friendships he made throughout his 30 year career with the city He was full of life. He loved being near the ocean and summering at Whitehorse Beach. He also enjoyed lobstering, cooking, and entertaining. Most of all he cherished time spent with family friends especially his grandchildren devoted father of Thomas Becquerel Jr. and his wife Maria, Taylor Baggett and her husband Liam Loving grandfather of Marcy, Delilah and Alexander.

Cherished son of late Francis Fran and Mary W Dolly Pecoraro. Dear brother of Marsa Slager, and her husband James of Quincy in the late Marilyn Tversky, and surviving husband Ronald. much more loving uncle of James Slager and his wife Deborah, Tom Slager, and his Wife Dominica of Wellesley, and great-uncle of Bria Neva and Dean. former husband of Maria Pecoraro of Quincy, and Thomas loving surviving of a dear friend Amy as well extended family members friends and colleagues. If you can keep the Pecoraro family in your thoughts and prayers, wake and funeral just this past week. And it will be very dearly missed I can tell you that much. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilor DiBona. Any other? Councilor Ryan.

To you, Madam President. Now that the primary election is over I would respectfully request that City Clerk Nicole Crispo and her team if she could just provide us with a summary of the voter turnout by ward and precinct. And if there were any issues with the census, with people not being recorded as a registered voter and the signs. I know, I had asked before about more signs but if there is a lacking of employees that can help with the signs, I certainly would raise and help out with putting the signs out and collecting them. Thank you.

Are you asking that to be on the next agenda?

Yes, if that's possible, yes.

Just to do a report on the collection. Yeah.

Thank you. Council President and thank you for your questions, Councilor. The results are online so anyone can look at them. I can get you paper copies if you want, if that's something that you all want but they are online and it was a very successful election. I think we had minimal problems throughout the day, the inactive list is always a little bit of a challenge, but we've worked really hard to cut it down so that people aren't bogged down by it. and I think that, you know with the turnout that we had which was predicted in the rain but we had a great day and it was a big success.

One question. Do you compare the results from a prior election to see if there's an increase or decrease? You do? We do, absolutely. and so did you see an increase this election?

It was up a couple of percentage points, but it basically stays about the same. Okay.

All right. So because this isn't on the agenda and you're asking for it, I think we should probably just maybe a quick update at the next meeting.

Sure. And I will also get that map out to you of where the signs are throughout. That would be great. Thank you for working on it.

Hubley.

Yes, thank you Madam President. Just to let everyone know the Wollaston Hill Neighborhood Association of which I'm still a volunteer but is now headed up by Mr. Bob LaRocca who's doing an excellent job. They're having their, we are having are Saturdays in the Park events, which is every Saturday in September. Over the weekend we had a great group of people, two bands performing food and beverages available for sale so we're having events for the next three Saturdays down at Safford Park on Beale Street and go to wallastonhill.com to learn more specific information so we'd love to see everyone there and congratulations to the rest of the team that had a great event and I don't know the date yet for Jacobs, the Montclair-Walliston Neighborhood Association's Pumpkin Spice Festival which I was going to get today but I forgot to. But I'll update that next time.

Thank you.

Councilor Jacobs? Thank you, I just want to remind folks that on September 19th 2-6 the Housenet Community Council will be having the annual Chowderfest I hope to see everyone there. I think usually everybody is there looking around. I feel like I've seen everybody there. Chris, you coming? Very good. I hope you'll be there and, you know, I think it's the 25th year we're doing that? I can't remember but yeah so hope to see everybody there again it's September 19 from two to six.

Okay, anybody else? Oops, Council McKee, sorry.

Hi, so it made me really happy to see so many new faces in the audience of the council today. And I just want to let you all know anyone who's a resident of Quincy anywhere and any ward is invited to join something that I started this year called Resident Councils. So it's a way to kind of work together with other residents to talk about issues that you would like See changed in the city improved and it's really kind of policy based so if you go to bit.ly slash Quincy Councils, you can sign up to join there and then you'll get an invitation to join an online platform, Discord, to talk about things. I'm not on that. No one's on the council is on that but

you can talk with each other and then once a month we'll have an in-person meeting that I do help facilitate. Yeah, please continue your civic engagement. I really think that the community is stronger when we're all working together.

Thank you Councilor McKee So we're going to go back. I just want to make sure that we're staying on target. This was presentations or petitions, memorials and remonstrances. It's turned into a, I guess an advertisement. Councilor Yuan is this a remonstrance?

Cunnell.

Well, we want it to be either. It is or isn't. If it's an announcement for another event that's what we're doing so Councilor Yuan.

So thank you President Mahoney So I have a comment about the city's plan to build a culture center for, to honor Native Americans. So last Wednesday City held a community meeting From the national statistic, there are around 200 Native Americans living in Quincy. So I'm wondering, has the administration reached out to these Native Americans to let them know there is a plan to build a culture center for them, because it looks like the mayor only contacted with the chief of the Massachusetts tribal nonpartisan band.

And I did talk with the chief, and he told me there is no member of his tribe living in Quincy. So who are those 200 Native Americans living in Quincy? Has the city listened to their opinions about this project? should the city also have a community meeting with Native Americans living in Quincy specifically about this project to honor them? If they even don't know this, how can you say your respect them and want to honor them? So my question is, Yuan, it's a remonstrance you're making right now. So I think

if you really care about people, you should first connect to them and listen to them instead of just make a decision for them. So back is the same as that flock, don't make a decisions for people but to make decision with people. So that's my comment. Thank you.

Do we have any other remonstrances? Councilor Riley. Did you, councilor Riley?

Thank you, Madam President. I would like to take a moment to wish all the students, teachers and their parents returning to school tomorrow the very best for the coming school year. Schools need to be a safe place in order for learning to take place, and it is my hope that every student is spared the online bullying that has become so pervasive in this digital age. I'm not sure what brings out such hateful behavior or the desire to humiliate and intimidate one another, but I will say that I believe it starts at home. Children become what they see from the people they look up to. And I am truly appalled at what I am seeing from grown adults online, people who think their opinions are facts and spread utterly false information as truth. People who think it's okay to bring our families into their online cesspool Even more disappointing is the people who like and comment and share the lies, who spin a whole tale from absolutely nothing factual.

Who make outrageous assumptions and draw utterly false conclusions all for likes and clicks, in some sort of online validation. You are parents and grandparents shaping the next generation of human beings. I hope that they don't emulate your behavior as they return to their classrooms. What I believe is that these people have something missing in their sad existence, some void they need to fill. Maybe they are jealous, maybe they feel unloved or unfulfilled. Maybe they have some unresolved trauma but the behavior says far more about the bully than the bullied. I have pity for you. I remember when my son was messed with by an older kid in middle school. And when he confided in me about it, I wanted to go all mama bear on the school, the kid, his family But my son just said to me, Mom I heard his dad is in prison. It kind of explains why he's angry. He showed empathy and understanding from a young age that makes me proud.

and that's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to assume that whatever is going on with people who have nothing better to do than to try to tear me and my fellow councilors down, that they find peace and happiness in their lives We, the nine members of this council were duly elected by a majority of the voters. And I know that each Councillor works very hard to carry out their duties to the best of their ability I want to thank the people who reach out to me every day, stop me in the store at an event and say keep doing what you're doing. This is what we elected you to do. disagreeing with the administration or questioning decisions isn't disrespectful, it's necessary for a healthy democracy. and for those of you who profess your faith so loudly, I will remind you of this Sunday's second reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans. You shall love your neighbor as yourself Love does no evil to the neighbor, hence love is the fulfillment of law.

Thank you.

Anybody else from the Council? Okay, so I just want to take a moment to congratulate Al Grazioso who has retired as the DPW Commissioner and welcome Ed Grannon to his first council meeting tonight as the new DPW. I just couldn't not do that, Ed, because you sat there so nicely all night. And you're probably saying to your wife and your kids, I'll be home soon. I'm thinking when's it going to end? So welcome aboard. So thank you very much. And I wish Al and his family a great retirement with lots Health, Happiness and Stories to be Told. So moving on do we have any motions orders or resolutions? Excellent. Upcoming meetings, the next council meeting will be September 22nd. There is a PH utility at 630 and Munitech has already been put on there for 635? Okay. and the regular council meeting is at 730. Do we have any other committee?

Okay, Councilor Riley.

Yes. Sorry. Thank you. I would like to check availability for people will be able to attend a combined finance and oversight committee meeting. We have a lot of things that are on the agenda, more things that have been brought to the agendas for September 14th That is a Monday, and I'm proposing 630 so that we can try to get through as much as possible. But I need a quorum.

So we're going to have to check with the calendars for everybody. So I don't think the clerk can be here. She's saying that right now.

Sorry, Jen. I didn't check with you. I'm sorry. That's okay. I did check with... and Sue O'Connor. Well, I will work to find a date that works for everybody.

If we could work and if the Councillors can all be available to check their emails to see what availabilities are when the next dates are going to be, we'll have that up and updated Is there anybody else who wants to establish any meetings? MCKAY. I KNOW WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A PUBLIC HEARING ABOUT FLOCK AND

I believe if we want to notice it for the kind of typical two-week period, the first opportunity to have that would be October 5th. So I'm thinking that we could Schedule an oversight committee meeting for FLOC with the public hearing on October 5th.

Yeah, so one of the concerns I would say is that I believe because FLOC has brought so many incredible people out to talk to us about it that we might want to do it on an off night to a council meeting just because we can dedicate the whole evening for FLOCC be able to let people will talk and ask, come up for pros and against to be able to hear from people. So I would suggest that being on an off night to a council meeting.

Okay, so we'll schedule that offline. But then I guess I will schedule...I would like to schedule an ordinance committee meeting for October 5th instead to begin talking about the raises. And then we should also have a public hearing about suggested raises once we sort out a date, I'll work with you.

That's what changed just the last meeting. Okay, all right so that's gonna be on October 5th. Anybody else to schedule meetings? Councilor Yuan?

Thank you Madam President. Just to clarify, Councilor McKee asked have a public hearing about the pay raise at October 5th council meeting? Correct or just discuss

committee meeting to discuss the raises so I'd like to present some data and then I guess, I don't know if we'll have to work together on a... Do we want to do that on an off night as well or do we want a public hearing for that?

We can have a public meeting. I think what we should do is discuss offline exactly what we're doing, because I think this is just going to start to intertwine with things. So why don't we check in with Jen tomorrow? We can schedule these meetings and send out an email all public hearings will be, once they're decided when they'll be online and we'll be able to send out notifications in various different ways so people can see. So check the calendar everybody to find out what night you want to come for public hearings. Okay? Anybody else? All right. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourned by Councilor Riley, seconded by Councilors Baker. All those in favor? Thank you very much. Welcome back everybody.

Thank you.