City Council

Things are a mess here. All right, here we go. Calling this meeting to order. Please note that audio and video of this meeting is being recorded and may be shown live on local access government channels and on the City of Somerville website and will be available for future review. Will the clerk please call the roll?

This is roll call. Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Here.

Link, here. Councilor Scott, present. Councilor Clingan, present. Councilor Strezo, present. Councilor Sait, here. Councilor Wheeler, here. Councilor Hardt, here. Councilor McLaughlin, here. Councilor Mbah, here.

Powell.

Present.

Councilor Davis.

Here.

With all 12 Councilors present, we have quorum.

All right, thank you. Pursuant to our Rule 32, let it be known that this Council salutes the flag of the United States of America, and let us recall our oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth to the best of our abilities and understanding. We begin our meetings with a moment of silence. Are there Councillors wishing to say a few words about members of our community this evening? Councillor Ewen-Campen.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to ask us to remember Barbara McEachern, who passed away on March 2nd at the age of 72. This is a particularly personal one for me because Barbara is my next door neighbor and there's some debate in the family of whether it was for the last 20 years or 40 years Barbara has been cared for at home by her devoted sister Pauline. So they're a very big part of our lives, the street's life, my kids' life, all the kids on the street. And I just want to read a little bit from the family's obituary that they wrote for Barbara. Barbara was known for her big smile, sharp wit, and enthusiastic presence, always up for the party since she preferred blue dresses, big earrings, bright lipstick, and longed to wear fancy shoes. Since Barbara had a live-in stylist in her sister Pauline, she was enviably fashionable, adding her own special sparkle to the room at holidays and family gatherings.

Halloween was an especially favorite time because she loved handing out candy and enjoying the neighborhood kids and their costumes. Barbara loved her television shows and never tired of watching the Golden Girls, the Love Boat, or MASH, enjoying the familiar characters and timeless humor. She also loved feel-good movies and musicals from The Sound of Music to Mamma Mia! And she liked it best when you had time to spend watching it with her and enjoy some laughs together. She also spent the last 30 years at the day program at Metro Boston and had a large community there. And so I'd ask that we keep the McEachern family in our thoughts this evening.

Any others? McLaughlin. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to remember Daniel Matthews. He was a former Somerville firefighter, former Marine Corps veteran. Born in Arlington in 1935, he's the son of Peter and Molly Young-Matthews. He loved his family and friends and was always looking for a reason to laugh. who would always be there to help people out in their time of need and enjoyed fishing, kayaking, skiing and snowboarding. Just thinking of him and the firefighters in this community today.

Scott. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like us to keep in our minds two groups of people that have been on my mind recently. In the last six months, over 20 of our neighbors have died in ICE captivity. and there is no reason that this should have been the deadliest year in prisons run by our government detaining people that have no business being detained. I'd also like us to keep in our hearts tonight the well over 100 schoolchildren at the Shajarad Tayyaba School in Iran that in the opening moments of yet another illegal conflict Um... being pressed by our country, our government, died in Tomahawk Missile Strike on their school.

And then the dozens of responders who were there attempting to help who were killed in the second strike. that followed on just 20 minutes after so I would ask that we keep the lives of all those lost and all those who are in increased danger due to the Horrific actions of our government as we work tonight to do better. Thank you.

Okay, would everyone in the chamber please rise as you are able for a moment of silence for the aforementioned individuals. Thank you. Madam Clerk, first item.

Agenda item 1.3, approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of February 12th, 2026.

Seeing no discussion, that item is approved.

Wieler, and Councilor Clingan commending the Kendall Wanderers Football Club on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.

Wheeler. Through the chair, I am proud to present this citation along with a colleague from Ward 4 and the council and the mayor. I'll read the citation text aloud. Citation. Be it hereby known to all that the Somerville City Council and the Mayor offer their sincerest commendations to Kendall Wanderers Football Club on the happy occasion of its 50th anniversary. The City Council and Mayor celebrate the club as one of the oldest amateur soccer clubs in Massachusetts and recognizes its impact as an athletic and social outlet for residents. Now, I know Kendall Square is in Cambridge, but there are a large number of people over the years who have participated in Kendall Wanderers FC who have lived in Somerville or do live in Somerville. This is a part of our community, one of the many things that weaves us together as a cultural Unity.

I'm proud to have in attendance Jonathan Kilpatrick of Kendall Wanderers FC, and I would like to present this citation.

Mayor Wilson is asked to say a few words about the football club.

Thanks, Mr. President. Y'all know I wasn't going to let a soccer moment go without saying something. Thanks for letting me have the opportunity. For those who don't know, Wanderers is a not uncommon thing to have in the title of a football club over in the UK and in Ireland. It comes historically for clubs that haven't had a home ground, right? There's a famous club that had no home stadium. They played every game away from home. Won a lot of fans with that approach. The name has lived on. It's particularly poignant here for a club that has played such a big role for immigrants, particularly from Ireland who've come over, have found a home, have found community. It can feel, in the immigrant experience, like a wanderer, and this has provided that connective tissue. I know so many folks from Somerville who have been part of this club over the years.

That's why we are putting this in for a club that, yes, is based in Cambridge. But I'm really, really grateful to you all for joining and recognizing such an amazing achievement for a club that's done so much for so many people here in the area. Thanks. Okay, next item.

Agenda item 3.1, a grant of location. Comcast applying for a grant of location to install 20 feet of conduit in Allen Street from utility pole 3 to a point of pickup at 1317 Allen Street.

All right, and now declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone in the chambers here to speak on the item? Sir, please step forward, introduce yourself.

Robert Rugman, I'm the utility coordinator for Comcast. The project is just pole number three on Allen Street across approximately 20 feet, two foot deep trench. to service a new project going on to that property.

Okay. Is there anyone else here to speak on the item? If you're online, please use the raise hand function. All right, seeing no one, I declare the public hearing to be closed. Is there any discussion? No? All right, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.2, Daigle Electrical applying for a grant of location to install 57 feet of conduit and one new charging station in the City Hall concourse from the War Memorial to a point of pickup at the proposed electrical vehicle charging station.

and not declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Anyone online? All right. I now declare the public hearing to be closed. The item appears to be pretty self-explanatory. Any discussion? Questions? No. All right. I see no objection. That item is approved.

Agenda item 3.3, Eversource applying for a grant of location to relocate existing utility pole 60 over 40 four feet northerly of its current location near 3 Chester Avenue.

And now to declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Jackie Duffy.

Hi, good evening. Eversource would like to relocate pole 64 over zero. This work is necessary for the MBTA Safety Department, the City of Somerville Fire Department, are very interested in relocating the pole as it is very difficult for fire trucks to make the turn onto Chester Avenue.

Okay, is there anyone else here to speak on the item? All right, I now declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? I see none. That item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.4, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install 164 feet of conduit in one new manhole in Grant Street from an existing manhole 1900 to a point of pickup at 299 Broadway.

I declare the public hearing open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duffy would like to install 164 feet of conduit in a new manhole on Grand Street divide electric service to a new 114 unit multi-family building and four retail spaces at 299 Broadway which is the old star market

All right, anyone else here to speak on the item? All right, seeing none, I declare the public hearing closed. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.5, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install 82 feet of conduit in MacArthur Street from utility pole 122 over 2 to a point of pickup at 17 MacArthur Street.

I declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duffy, Eversource, would like to install 82 feet of conduit to MacArthur Street to provide electric service to 17 MacArthur Street.

Okay. Anyone else here to speak on the item? I see none. I declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.6, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install 64 feet of conduit in Stone Avenue from existing manhole 14068 to a point of pickup at 11 Stone Avenue.

Now I declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duffy Eversource would like to install 64 feet of conduit at Stone Avenue. This is to provide electric service for the City of Somerville at electric vehicle charging stations on Stone Avenue at Union Square.

Okay, anyone else here to speak on the item? Okay, seeing none, I declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? Seeing none, that item's approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.7, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install six feet of conduit in Chandler Street from utility pole 227 over 6 to a point of pickup at 53 Chandler Street.

I now declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie yeah I lost you sorry it went blank I would like to install six feet of conduit on Chandler Street and this is to provide elective service for 51 Chandler Street which is right next door to 53 Chandler Street And just a point of interest, I ran into John Long today when I was out there.

Good old John. Lucky you.

I know, I was so happy.

Is there anyone else here to speak on the item? Okay, I declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.8, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install six feet of conduit in Lyne Street from utility pole 211 over 7 to a point of pickup at 62 Lyne Street.

I declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

I would like to install six feet of conduit in Lyme Street. This is to provide electric service to a new construction at 60 Lyme Street.

Okay, anyone else here to speak on the item? Okay, I declare the public hearing to be closed.

Any discussion? Councilor Scott? Thank you, Mr. President, and hello, Jackie Duffy. Seeing John Long always makes me smile, too. 60 Line Street.

You sound very good.

is very close to 56 Line Street, poll number 211-6. Poll number 211-6 has been on our city's list of doubled polls. and the list to be removed by Eversource for over three years now, sir. So I would request that this be conditioned to wait on the completion of that work that is long overdue. And if we need to do some extra work to make sure we get the conditions right, I'm happy to send this to committee.

Okay, so that item is, any other discussion? All right, seeing none, we will refer that item to licenses and permits.

And through you, Mr. President, can we hear from Jackie Duffy about how she'll be following up on this?

I can go back to the division and see who's on the poll. I don't know anything about this one. I know there's another double poll that we're working on on Ivaloo. 2 of them as a matter of fact that we're waiting for other utilities to come off of so I don't know who is left on this poll I can send someone out there tomorrow if we can get this approved tonight with the stipulation that we can get this done

I appreciate that the work's happening on Ivaloo Street, Mr. President. This one has had the status of cable TV next to go for over three years now. I don't think that's still the case, but... Why don't we just hold on to this for two weeks and we'll get a status update on it.

So are we going to send it to license and committee?

Yes. Okay. Any other discussion? All right. That is referred to license and permits. Next item.

Agenda item 3.9. Eversource applying for a grant of location to install five feet of conduit in Heath Street from utility pole 165 over 13 to a point of pickup at 16 Edgar Avenue.

And I now declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Yeah, you definitely have to see what's going on. Heath Street to 116 Heath Street.

Did you say 116 Heath Street? Was that the end?

I'm sorry, it's 91 for us. I don't, wait. It was 16.

Okay. Thank you. Anyone else here to speak on the item? Hardt. Okay, I declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? Council Hardt?

I just have a question about a concern really that in that area, which is right around the Healy School, there has been a tremendous amount of construction and road blockages and there's a lot going on there right now. So I just wonder if we could send this to committee as well to figure out timing to coordinate.

Any other discussion? All right. Seeing none, that item would be referred to license and purpose. Thank you. Thank you. We have one more grant application. Without objection, we'll take item 5.1 out of order. I see no objection. Madam Clerk, would you read 5.1?

5.1 Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 75 feet of conduit in Prospect Street from utility pole 291 over 12 to a point of pickup at 91 Prospect Street.

Just so folks understand, this was an item that was in a long list of grants of location that we had a couple meetings back, and we had some technical issues, and it appears that I sent this off to committee without doing a public hearing, so my bad. So we're doing a public hearing tonight. So I now declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duffy, Eversource, would like to install 75 Peter Conduit and Prospect Street to provide electric service to 91 Prospect Street.

All right, anyone else here to speak on the item? Any discussion?

Scott. Thank you, Mr. President. This is one of those two that was for a project that does not exist. So I would ask that we send this to committee until we can find out what's going on. Thank you. All right.

Back to committee. This one goes very well. Now at least we've had our public hearing on it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Duffy. All right, so we have a few other items that we want to take out of order this evening, unless there's any objection. I'm going to find my list. So we will take items 716 and then items 4.9 and 4.11 together and then 419 and then we have an executive session 7.1. All right, so seeing no objection, could we go to item 7.16, please?

Agenda item 7.16, a mayor's communication proclaiming 2026 to be the year of the neighbor.

Mr. Mayor.

Thanks, Mr. President. Folks, I promise I'm not trying to take over y'all's meetings. I bring this to you in a spirit of hoping to get your buy-in on this as well. There's a saying I keep hearing at mayor's events that good mayors borrow, great mayors steal. Ideas, not money. This is an idea that a colleague of mine at the Bloomberg Kennedy New Mayors Program came up with in Omaha, Nebraska, and I loved it. It really speaks to something that we need to be coming together on as a community right now with the threats that we are facing here in Somerville. It recognizes... A thing that I picked up on the first time that I visited Somerville in 2001, I was living in Brighton. I remember coming up out of the subway in Davis Square and thinking, what is this amazing place? And it was...

Subsequent trips to Somerville, it really just drove home the idea to which this is a neighborhood. It was a neighborhood feel with neighbors who care about each other, who look out for each other, a sense of community. and we need that right now. I attended a meeting in Davis Square earlier this week that Featured speakers being heckled by their neighbors and community members who disagreed with them. And it did not resemble a neighborhood meeting. I thought it looked more like a WWF event. And that really saddened me because We should never lose sight of the fact that ultimately we are neighbors, we are hopefully friends, we are community members together, and we might disagree on things. We're going to disagree on things.

But we have to be able to listen to our friend, our neighbor, say something that we disagree with without feeling the need to start yelling at them when they have the microphone. And so... We were planning on doing this before that. That just drove home the need for this. We want to come up with not just words but tangible actions. I paid attention for four years on this body. Things like... We know those were missed. We love a neighborhood cleanup in this city, right? It's a chance to come together as a community, show pride in our city, bring it back. I know Councilor McLaughlin, I'll credit with Just going rogue and doing some community cleanups. When the city stopped doing that. Those are coming back. And we're going to be looking for more ways to connect, more creative ways to connect. Things like we're looking at a best shovel block contest for next winter, right?

To recognize the people who come together and just make this city better. I'm asking for your buy-in on this as a council. I'll do the same to the school committee. We'd love to see us speak with one voice as a government and say, This is a year where we're going to remember the things that bind us together. We're going to come together. We're going to stand alongside the people who truly need that protection right now. And when we disagree... We're not going to lose sight of that fact. So asking for your buy-in on this, and thanks for letting me talk about this. Happy to answer any questions, too, if anyone has questions about this. Thank you. I saw Councilor Strezo, Councilor Scott.

Why, thank you, Mr. President, to you too. Mayor Wilson, yes, I think this is great. And... Much needed and yeah, I think we've been in a few rooms where community members are willing to try to demonize others for differences of opinions. So let's try to transcend that, right? With that on topic, I please ask you to look into my budget requests and hoping on topic that that also includes Some chairs over there and an on-city hall concourse so we can connect and talk and have a cup of coffee. All of us as a community and agree and disagree and really find simple ways and the Neighbor Ways Program. I put that in the budget I think I did this year. I took it out. It's like it's not going to happen.

but I put it back in I think where we can do street design for cheap like two thousand dollars and maybe Find ways to connect with our neighbors. Yeah, we have to find low-cost ways and simple ways to connect with each other and find out that we have more in common than we don't because, quite frankly, As a community, we have to remain strong and find reasons to help each other out because those that want to tear us down as a community are relying on that dissonance and we cannot have that.

Mr. President, I don't want to stray too far off the topic in front of us, but I'll just say we are looking to make City Hall a nexus of community and of neighbors able to come together. And yes, a big fan of neighbor ways. Councilor Scott? You good?

All right, Councilor Mbah. Thank you, Mr. President. To the Honorable Mayor, I support this idea. I will chat with you later on about the mechanics because it's all about how to implement something like this. I'm happy to have that conversation with you behind the scenes. Thank you. Sait.

Thank you, Mr. President, through you. To Mayor Wilson, thank you for bringing this forward. I am very thrilled to see something like this, an opportunity, just given the neighbors and more opportunities to get together. We already have so many amazing events in our community where people get together. But this is the way I'm interpreting this. These are opportunities for people who live on the same block to get together, in the same ward, in the same neighborhood. I think more than ever it's important for neighbors to get to know each other, for parents to connect, for this intergenerational I'm really excited to see what we can come up with together as a community and I would just

and this by saying that of all places I chose this place to live in and it's for all these reasons because we're already an amazing community so this will just you know make us uh give us the opportunity to get together to celebrate things to get to know each other instead of getting together just in as you when you started speaking in like Thank you, Mayor Wilson.

Clayton. Thank you, Mr. President. Through you to the mayor, like any cool idea, does this day have a theme song? But seriously, I like the spirit of this. Oftentimes, growing up in this city, People tend to keep to themselves until you have like a child and you may be like on the park circuit or if you get a dog you end up talking to your neighbors more. Maybe this will be that impetus for connection with neighbors just by putting in a little more effort and not getting freaked out when somebody says hi to you on the street. But good idea, Mayor. Thank you. Strezo, something else?

Thank you. One more thought. Mr. President, through you too, Mayor Wilson. I'm excited to bring back the neighborhood cleanup because it's important. We had Comcast sponsoring that, and he's no longer here. He left the Comcast representative, which is a major bummer. But if we can save some cash, and have a corporate sponsor that does help us with this or find ways to help us get out of this six million dollar pitfall we're going less of money we're going to have this year in the budget That would be cool. Thank you.

Mayor Wilson? Mr. President, happy to report we are actively pursuing corporate sponsorship of those community cleanups.

All right, very good. Seeing no further discussion, that item is placed on file. Thank you. Next out of order item. That's actually going to take items 4.9 through 4.11 together. Yes? Okay. Madam Clerk, if you could read those items.

Brings us to agenda item 4.9, an order by Councilor Ewen-Campen that the Director of Inspectional Services discuss with this council how to ensure that temporary dumpster permits do not conflict with handicapped parking spaces or that temporary handicapped parking spaces are relocated for the duration of the dumpster permit. and 410, a resolution by Councillor Ewen-Campen that the Commissioner of Public Works discuss with this Council how to ensure that handicapped parking spaces are not used for snow storage and are cleared at the same time as other spaces. And 4.11, a resolution by Councilor Ewen-Campen that the Commissioner of Public Works discuss with this council how to ensure that accessible sidewalk ramps are cleared following snowstorms and ensure that 311 reports on this issue are promptly responded to.

All right. I saw Councilor Link and Strezo and Sait would like to sign on. Councilor Ewen-Campen? Councilor Scott?

Thank you, Mr. President. So these are three items related to access for people with disabilities. Two of them were issues that really became urgent during the snowstorm recently. But I'm going to start with the first one, which is not snow-related. And it has to do with the placement of dumpsters. So there is a construction site right now on Bow Street. and the construction dumpster is just in a handicapped spot. And it certainly does not appear that there's like an alternate handicapped spot that was moved for the duration of the dumpster or anything like that. So this is really kind of a technical question of when dumpster permits are being reviewed by inspectional services. Are they reviewed for whether they're going in a handicapped spot? How do we get that to happen? I mean, this is obviously a solvable problem, but it needs to be solved. And then the other two issues do have to do with snow plowing. So I heard from the chair of our Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Holly Simeoni, who's here tonight,

that there were a lot of locations around the city and I don't think it's going to come as a surprise that there were issues with accessibility but these really stood out to me. There were issues where snow was actively piled up by plows into like the one or two handicapped spots in the corner of a parking lot. which means that the rest of the spots get plowed and the one handicap spot not only doesn't get plowed but is like a mountain of snow for weeks. Just completely unacceptable. And the last order has to do with an issue I know many of us have heard about, have been fielding complaints, and many of us have been working on for years, including my colleague, Councilor Clingan. This has to do with clearing ADA ramps on sidewalks at the corners. The way it's supposed to work is that people who live there are supposed to clear them when possible. If not, if they don't get cleared, We want people to be able to report them to 311 and have them get cleared that way. I've just heard too many reports this storm that that wasn't happening even after requests were going in, so I put in this item.

And so I wanted to sponsor Holly Simione to speak on these items. She has just been doing a bang-up job documenting these issues and, of course, leading on these in the commission. But I thought it would be helpful for us to hear directly at the council as well.

Okay, thank you. Let's see. I also had Councillor, in addition to Councillor Scott, Councillor Hardt and Mbah would like to sign on. I'll sign on as well. Councillor Ewen-Campen and Councillor Clingan, the whole council would like to sign on. Ewen-Campen would like to sponsor Holly Simione to speak. Seeing no objection, Ms. Simeone, go ahead.

Thank you, President Davis. Thank you very much, Councilor Ewen-Campen. My name is Holly Simione. I live in Ward 4. I serve as the chair of the Disability Commission. I'm here as a resident. and as a former parent of a child who used a wheelchair in our city for 18 years and met many obstacles and the issue and I really appreciate you bringing these forward. We haven't had a snowstorm like this in a long time, but we live in New England. It happens, and I think that it's an opportunity to look at the process and people understanding where you cannot You cannot put snow in the city. You cannot pilot, excuse me, you cannot plow an entire city parking lot. Make it nice and clean and put it into the HP spots because they're on the corners.

And I also understand the perspective of a person whose They have to move it to the corner. They can't leave it in the middle of the street. But there needs to be a discussion that involves how are we training people to understand where those spots are. and also who is responsible for them. And I can tell you the law says the city's responsible because they are an accessibility feature. Doesn't matter if they're in a public parking lot, a city-owned parking lot, or on a street. Not only do they have to be clean, but the aisles are front, back, and the sidewalk next to them because you can't get your wheelchair lift out. You can't also get out into a snow pile. So this isn't to criticize anything or anyone. I can't imagine what it was like for the hours and days that DPW and other workers worked

In whiteout conditions, in darkness, clearing our roads and streets, but it is an opportunity to take a look back and see what we did and how do we fix it before we have more snow. So I was really asking for the commission to have a seat at the table and be able to talk these things through. Same goes for curb cuts and sidewalks. I would like to add one thing though. Typically, when you have streets intersect, The curb cuts at the top of the street. We have moved to a model where we're pushing them further down. And residents who don't understand where the actual curb opening is for someone to cross or hey here's a great example here's two side streets is the curb cut instead of having the crosswalk here we're moving them here people are shoveling here

and we are pushing the snow here in blocking the access aisles. So I've had friends in wheelchairs, people in strollers who can't get their kids to school, Can't Get Around the City. And it's not just here, but I just feel we have an opportunity to resolve this.

Okay. Thank you. Councilor McCabe, anything further?

No, Mr. President. I'd ask that these please go to committee for discussion.

Hold that thought. I saw Councillor Clingan and then Councillor Strezo.

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, I just want to thank the good Councillor from Ward 3 for bringing these forward and working with the Commission. As mentioned, this is something that I've been Working especially with regards to the pedestrian curb cutouts and who is responsible for those. We're failing our people with disabilities here in the city. and you know we talk about wheelchairs but I've seen things where can you imagine being blind and having a white cane and having to try to traverse the city Through those curb cuts, which is what they rely on. Otherwise, I've heard of people having to walk in the middle of the street essentially It's extremely dangerous, so I think we can do better. I've been talking to the administration about this, about a snow core, different ideas of ways we can really just tackle this if it's too much of a burden to put on the residents, because I do recognize that Strezo.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm glad that Councilor Ewen-Campen mentioned the intentions to send it to committee because I did. I want to know, and as it is heading in, a few questions for the administration as they prepare to address this item in committee. First off, we know that the city hired contractors to help with snow removal this year, so... Where in the process do contractors lie in that and what repercussions do we have to address with them and their service to the city? Of course, the priority is to have the work done in-house. And then also, right.

I'm astounded to hear about the dumpster on Bow Street. How is that even possible? How did that even get approved? And why is it still there? How do we get it removed and are there finding techniques that we can implement in addition to when we talk about snow removal? What levers do we have? Thank you.

Scott. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm very grateful to my colleague for Ward 3 for bringing this up, especially the third item as it related to curb cuts. Some of you all might have gotten some emails from neighbors, and I'm sure I've told this story at least once in public. Where even when the neighborhood comes together to actually get those curb cuts cleared, even when the city does a good job making sure the snow does not get piled up onto those sidewalks, Sometimes there's just bad actors like the contractor at 121 Prospect Street that went to dig out all their parking spaces and used their bobcat to just dump it into all of the cleared curb cuts on Houghton, Oak. and Bolton Streets and Prospect, which led to a lot of folks having some consternation and some strong feelings about why the city would do this to them, why the city doesn't care about them. To the credit of inspection services and DPW, they went to a lot of lengths to try to figure out what went wrong there.

Fortunately, we have video of the contractor doing this. But I look forward to the conversation and committee and I really look forward to being able to appoint my constituents and neighbors. Any further discussion?

All right, so given the city staff that it would be appropriate to address these, we'll send these to sustainability and infrastructure so we can take them all up with other related items. All right, so those are approved with a copy to sustainability infrastructure. All right, next out of order item is 4.19.

419, a resolution by Councillor McLaughlin and Councillor Clingan in support of Senate Bill 2975, an act protecting access to justice.

McLaughlin. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to uplift this piece of legislation. I don't need to tell our state delegation to support it because they all already support it. But I always want to give, especially on issues like this, a locals perspective as someone who grew up in the city and knows a lot of people who are on the other end of immigration issues in this country. I want to read something I read on Reddit recently. I'm going to avoid the name but it's a public comment someone made about her partner who was detained by ICE while at a courthouse. She's had a husband. They've been living in the United States for about 10 years. Recently, her partner was scheduled for a court appointment related for a traffic citation. that required him to appear. When he arrived at the courthouse, he was detained before he could even appear before the judge. This has been a very difficult time for the family. They have a young daughter who is a US citizen and needs special care.

and now they're facing legal expenses while also losing income. And this, I just want to bring this up because I believe that people should be able to go to court and face justice. I believe people who are the victims of crime should be able to testify in court and get justice. and what's happening in this country is we're undermining the right of due process so some people may look and say this person was not supposed to be in this country therefore they should get deported it's like let a court decide that this person showed up To face justice. He did something wrong. He showed up to face justice and is now being punished unjustly for it. And it's just an example of something that happens all over this country. There's two people in the audience who can speak even more to this, State Senator Lydia Edwards and State Rep. Christine Barber, who are both sponsoring this bill. And I just want to point this out and just say this is really common sense to me, and I hope it's common sense to the Commonwealth. I'd like to sponsor both speakers.

McLaughlin would like to sponsor State Senator Edwards and State Representative Barber. Any objection in that order? Senator Edwards, why don't you step forward and we'll take it from there.

Good evening. I'm Lydia Edwards. I'm State Senator representing the Third Suffolk. First of all, I think this is the first time I've had the honor to testify in front of this body. I know several of you as individuals have come before my former body of the Boston City Council and I thank you for being active and seeing our collective fight for justice as beyond city borders. When you came to testify there, it was about either student rights, it was about rights with regards to cannabis, and so what I feel and what I'm trying to convey is thank you, and I look forward to working with you. Thank you for the support and for bringing forth this resolution. In 2025, there were about 465 people arrested at courthouses by ICE. That's more than one a day in about 46 different courthouses and how courthouses respond to them are different depending on the resources that they have. Smaller courthouses are combined with larger ones in one building.

You have family court, you have small claims court all in one building with criminal court. And so what is happening is there's different ways in which people are approaching court or they're not bothering to go at all. I believe a lot like Councilor McLaughlin said, people should have not only the right to go to court, but as essential foundation to our democracy is due process. The ability to defend yourself, the ability to also bring forth complaints against individuals. What you will find with this bill in this moment is that the convergence of the prosecutors as well as the defense counsel and the courts are all agreeing with that very basic foundation, that due process. has nothing to do with your immigration status. and still we have ICE which has, by the way, this isn't a new thing, ICE has come into courthouses and many cases they did so after people were driving without a driver's license and thank goodness to some of the leadership here.

We were able to get driver's licenses for all. But they're not uncommon. This particular administration has been particularly cruel about how they're approaching people going to court. They're using a civil arrest and I want to make that very clear to people who are concerned about this. Why can't we arrest people in court? They get found guilty in court. They're arresting them on a civil matter. They are interrupting criminal trials, taking the witness off the stand, taking the defendant in the middle of the trial, who could be found guilty, by the way, and will not be serving any time. because he is now with ICE. They are in the middle, they're preventing victims of domestic violence, children, people from coming forward. It's disgusting. It does not make us safer. and it again is violative of our basic fundamental rights.

Now, what this is proposing to do is essentially say we read the Constitution in this Commonwealth and under the 10th Amendment We have the right to say whether we will or will not comply with ICE or work with them. Our state courts, our courts, are our business. and how people have access to them will be determined by our Constitution and our understanding of due process and human dignity. The Protect Our Courts Act does several things. While currently, you only need an administrative warrant. That's somebody when DHS can file a little piece of paper saying here's your warrant to go get Councilor McLaughlin as an example. They walk in the courts and our courts comply with that. This raises that standard. It doesn't prevent them from going into court, but it does require that they have a judicial warrant. A judge must sign this.

You must be pursuing someone so important that a judge has said you've got to go get them now. And it not only protects them while they're in the courthouse, it prevents arrests on the courthouse grounds and goes further than any version of the court's protections that we have pending right now and says it also protects people going to court. on their way to court as well as on their way home from court. That's how expansive this is. And by the way, it's completely constitutional. Thank goodness in New York they have a great attorney general like we do here. They have the Protect Our Courts Act that was challenged by the Trump administration with the same provisions that I just described. It was found to be constitutional by the Second Circuit. So we're on good case law. Mine goes a little bit further. It also helps family members. It isn't just the person who is required to come to court. It's a supportive spouse. It's their advocate. It's somebody with them, a witness in the hallway. You want any of them? You better have a judicial warrant.

Moreover, it also assures that if you are coming into the court as a law enforcement agent, you better say who you are, Why you're there. Present the warrant for who you're trying to pursue. And also, you, according to my bill, and hopefully what you support, you will not be wearing a mask. This prevents anybody from wearing a mask in the courthouse unless it's for health reasons, COVID. and finally this has the enforcement component of the Attorney General for individual issues as well as to defend the Commonwealth. Essentially, and for me, this is deeply personal because it was the courthouse that I represent and go to in East Boston that was on the news where a man was drug out. Shirt was removed from him, his shoes were removed, and he was screaming in the hallway, or in the alleyway where they drug him in to the ICE vehicle.

That same alleyway is shared by a Head Start class, so the children could hear him screaming, and many people in the neighborhood could as well. It is a horrific time that we're in. It is a sometimes surreal moment. And it's moments like this where we reach out to our municipal partners and say please stand up and stand with us. Please talk about how this is impactful to you because your voices do matter to your local law enforcement who we will need to be supporting these bills. This matters. And I'm greatly, greatly appreciative to be, this is the first municipality, first city that would be standing for this particular bill. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to answer any of your questions and also to present and to speak to you today. Thank you.

Thank you. Questions for the senator first? Okay. Councilor Strezo?

Thank you, Mr. President, through you to Senator Edwards. Thank you for this. Thank you for your care and compassion and just action. How long, providing that this gets passed and moved, can this be implementable?

Immediately. And once it's passed, it would be all the protections. We do give it to the courts to implement and come up with any regulations so that they can go from the SJC all the way down, but it would be immediate.

Thank you. And one more question, if I may, Mr. President, Senator Edwards. Is this to keep our municipalities and our municipal spaces safe as well?

No, this is just for our courts. I will say happily the governor has an executive order for all state properties and she has a sensitive areas component of her set of bills which includes hospitals, medical centers, daycares, houses of worship, and courthouses that will all require judicial warrants for them to go on that property.

Okay. Thank you. Clingan. Just one quick question along the same lines as Councilor Strezo. When is this due to sort of be deliberated on? And so when can we expect to hear if it moves forward?

We are looking forward at the Judiciary Committee and having a hearing either at the end of this month or at the beginning of April. So we look forward and of course you'll be invited to submit testimony. I did want to give a shout out to the Black and Latino Caucus, of which I'm a member, who also had incredible hearing and moments. Some of you were there and testified in support. Smith. Specifically on the Protect Act, which has a component of the judiciary protections as well. Just know that the fact that the The House, the Senate are all moving. It's not in separate directions. It's a very rare moment where we all agree something needs to be done. It's just a matter of how urgent and how big we're going to get it done. But it's an exciting moment.

Thank you. Representative Byron.

Thank you.

Thank you President Davis and the Council for taking up this resolution. I'm Christine Barber, State Rep for the 34th Middlesex District. Thank you for indulging me to speak here tonight. So I'm co-sponsor of Senate 2975, which Senator Ebridge just talked about. And I really want to thank the Senator for her leadership on this bill and putting this bill together. So quickly after the trauma that we have seen across the country and in our communities. So access to courts is not a privilege, it is the cornerstone of our democracy. Last year there were Our count is 600 ICE arrests in Massachusetts courthouses, which is a three-fold increase. I was just at a local domestic violence organization yesterday where we were talking about survivors of domestic violence who are not seeking protective orders because they are scared to go into court. This is real and it's happening in our community.

Witnesses are afraid to testify and we're seeing this over and over right here at home. So this bill, as you've heard, it is very focused and it is enforceable. So no civil arrest can happen at a courthouse without a judicial warrant. And law enforcement must identify themselves and state their purpose, which would be a huge step. The organizing around this bill is working. As the Senator mentioned, the PROTECT Act, which was put together with the leadership of the Black and Latino Caucus, is moving forward in the House. And the Protect Act incorporates parts of this bill on keeping courthouses safe. It also incorporates the Dignity Not Deportations bill, which is a bill I filed, and I'm grateful that this body passed a resolution already in support of. And that bill stops local and state police from being deputized as ICE agents.

We all know that progressive rhetoric is not enough to protect folks who are under attack in our communities. Progressive legislation is what we need. And passing this resolution tonight, this is the exact right moment to keep up this momentum. So this is what we need to make sure that we pass this in the legislature and that the governor signs this. There's precedent for doing this. When I filed the Work and Family Mobility Act to make sure that immigrants could get driver's licenses regardless of their immigration status, it took a lot of coalition building across the whole state. and many local city councils, school committees and others stood with us and that is how we built momentum to get there and pass that bill. So I urge the council to pass this resolution and I hope that we can continue to work together to make sure that everyone is safe in their access to justice. Thank you.

Thank you. Any additional questions, discussion? Councilor Link would like to sign on. Councilor Ewen-Campen sign on. Everybody wants to sign on. Here, here. Councillor Clingan, another question?

Councillor Clingan Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. Through you, just on the item, as the co-sponsor of this resolution, I just want to thank our delegation that has come up this evening and thank Councillor McLaughlin for being the lead sponsor on this. This falls right with our values as far as our welcoming city ordinance. Somerville District Court serves a huge population. McLaughlin. My ward starts across the street. I walk to the train station in the morning. I've seen ice posted up in the parking lot of that courthouse many times. So we need to act now as a state to address this and I'm proud as was mentioned to be the first city who Is supporting this locally here for the this particular Senate bill and thank the good senator for for being the lead sponsor on this.

I'm just really proud to do things like this because this is the type of and many more. Get their due justice their day in court to face their attackers. So yeah, happy and proud to be a co-sponsor of this and just thank everybody for their time. Ba.

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Rebaba and Senator Edwards, for your leadership on this. So first it's fundamental like access to the court is a fundamental you know part of a fair and functioning democracy and we've observed that you know time and time and again the federal government has abused this What they have been doing is still unconstitutional. It's unlawful. I'm really curious to know because some of us are also running for state seat right now. If they keep violating this, what happens? Because they've been violating other stuff. I'm not sure. I've never heard about it. has been prosecuted for violating a civil law. So I'm not sure like what is like, how do we know that this is like something that is implementable, it's not just another, you know,

Bill that will be out there, but yet ISD keeps doing what they're supposed to be doing. Can somebody tell me, like, Is there something tangible that this proved that they've been prosecuted? I've not heard about one ICE agent that has been Heard accountable for all this stuff that they've been doing so what makes us think that this is like they think now that they're gonna you know do something different

I defer to the author of the bill, but I would say this is enforceable by the Attorney General. It's an important piece that she has oversight over this.

Thank you for the question it's actually a very important one because what you have demonstrated or what you've asked about is something that a lot of people have asked about specific individual rights against individual ICE agents. The Attorney General will likely represent the Commonwealth. I will give credit to Senator Will Brownsberger who has introduced a bill Amending our 1983 civil rights statute essentially allowing for individuals to sue anybody acting under the color of law, federally, locally, at the municipal level, and sue them individually for damages. So that's going to get, we will need to have I'm sure a huge conversation as many people see this as controversial and brushing up against some police reform. activities that we've had with immunity.

However, that is a pending bill that is going to be heard in the judiciary committee. I can say that. I'm the chair of the Judiciary Committee. We will hear it. Then also the actual enforcement against ICE. You will note DA Hayden did. The DAs have tried to hold ICE agents in contempt of court and unfortunately, due to the federal laws and federalism, They excused themselves and completely ignored it. So we are working on it at the best that we can. At most, we're going to provide defenses and be able to get our people out of custody from ICE, and we'll see what we can do on the individual level.

Thank you, Senator Edwards, for your leadership on this. Again, this is just something we witnessed. They cracked open people's vehicles, homes, and stuff. This is not unconstitutional, and yet nothing we've never seen in the eyes of even being arrested and prosecuted. So that's why I'm just like, we feel helpless. We can make all this noise. Stand here, pontificate, write bills, and then ICE will still come and pick somebody in front of us. We just look. All we can do is take a camera, take a video, and find legal support for them. It's unbelievable. But thank you.

Okay, thank you. Any further discussion? Thank you both for being here. Really appreciate it. Seeing no further discussion, that item is approved. Next out of order item, Madam Clerk.

That brings us to agenda item 7.1, a request of the mayor requesting that this council convene in an executive session to receive an update on collective bargaining negotiations.

I see we have a representative for the Law Department here. Can you speak to us as to whether this is an appropriate item for executive session?

Yes, Council President. Through you, the Law Department has reviewed the statement on the agenda and the purpose of the Scott,

Clingan? Councilor Strezo? Councilor Sait? Yes. Councilor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councilor Hardt? Yes. Councilor McLaughlin?

Yes.

Umbau, Yes, please. Councilor Davis. Yes. With eight councillors in favor, we can enter executive session.

All right, very well. We will return to open session once executive session is completed.

Thank you for watching!

All right, I'll call this meeting back to order. No votes were taken in executive session other than the vote to... adjourned from executive session, leave executive session. So we have two more items that we want to take out of order, sorry. We need a roll call to return. Right, this is the special, even though I can see that y'all are here. Roll call to make sure that we're all here.

to reestablish quorum. Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Here.

Councilor Link?

Here.

Councilor Scott?

Present.

Councilor Clingan?

Present.

Councilor Strezo? Present. Councilor Sait? Here. Councilor Wheeler?

Here.

Councilor Hardt? Here. Councilor McLaughlin?

Here.

Imbau, Councillor Davis. With all Councillors present we have quorum.

All right unless there's any objection we'll take up item 4.26 next.

And that brings us to agenda item 426, a resolution by Councillor Clingan recognizing March 2026 as National Social Work Month. Councillor Clingan. Can we read it?

Yes, please.

and the official text of the resolution, whereas individuals have entered the social work profession for generations out of a commitment to improving the welfare and well-being of individuals, families and communities. and whereas the 2026 social work month theme social workers uplift defend transform designated by the national association of social workers highlights the essential role social workers play in strengthening communities advocating for social justice, protecting vulnerable populations, and transforming systems to create a more equitable society. And whereas social workers serve in schools, hospitals, social service agencies, veteran centers, and government, Helping people access critical services including mental health care, family support, and community resources. And whereas social workers are at the forefront of addressing many of the nation's most pressing challenges including mental health care needs, Substance Use Disorder Treatment, and Increasing Economic and Social Division.

And whereas the profession has long helped advance important social progress, including strengthening worker protections, expanding health care access, and promoting equal rights and dignity for all people now therefore be it resolved that the Somerville City Council hereby recognizes the contributions of social workers and declares the month of March 2026 as National Social Work Month and encourages all residents to join the National Association of Social Workers in celebrating and supporting the social work profession.

Here, here.

Councillor Clingan.

Thank you, Mr. President. Before I bring up to just say, sponsor a few social workers that are here this evening to accept our resolution. and our praise I just want to say I apologize to them for the oversight of I didn't communicate properly so I know it's this late hour but Nonetheless, this is really important, so I'm glad everybody, they could stick around to be here for this. So Mr. President, colleagues, I proudly speak today in support of this resolution recognizing March as National Social Worker Month. This year's theme set by the National Association of Social Workers is Social Workers Uplift, Defend, Transform. And I can't think of three words that better capture the moment we are at right now. Social workers uplift people every day, helping families navigate schools, mental health systems, housing challenges, and the many complexities of modern life.

They defend the dignity and well-being of some of our most vulnerable members of our community, and they work to transform systems so that people are treated with fairness, compassion, and humanity. That work is especially important right now as many immigrant families across the country are facing deep uncertainty around immigration enforcement. In response, social workers here in our community have stepped up in powerful ways. They have been working alongside immigrant advocates to ensure that families understand the importance of family safety plans Making sure parents have arrangements in place so their children are protected if something unexpected happens. They are also helping parents prepare the unthinkable caregiver authorization affidavit so that a trusted adult can pick the children up from school and care for them if needed, preventing those children from unnecessarily entering into the system. This work is quiet, often unseen, but profoundly important.

It reflects the very heart of the social work profession, meeting people where they are, helping them navigate fear and uncertainty. Uh... In the moments of national tension and uncertainty, social workers are often the steady hands helping communities hold together. So today, as we recognize Social Work Month, I want to thank the social workers of Somerville, some of which are at this horseshoe. Our own Councillor McLaughlin is a social worker by trade. In Somerville and across our region who continue to uplift families, defend humanity, dignity, and work every day to transform our systems for the better. So thank you and with that I'd like to

Sponsor to speak this evening, Marian Walls and Kokina Fuller, who together across two different DCF offices represent, I'm sorry, who work on behalf of thousands of children and families. Clingan, Sponsor Marianne Walls, see no objection.

Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Clingan, and thank you to the Somerville City Council for always being supportive of social workers and really helping us to help our families and always being accessible. We appreciate the support, especially as Councilor Cleening said. During these times, people are so traumatized. Children are traumatized not knowing if their parents are going to be home when they come home from school. parents concerned about their children. In Somerville we've seen the lack of access or inability to access substance abuse or mental health or even actual primary care health given the climate of our country so we appreciate the recognition and the support that you give not only social workers but our residents thank you

No pressure. Coquina, if you'd like to just say a brief word, it's up to you. I see an objection. Go right ahead if you have anything to say.

My sister Marianne in service has said it so eloquently.

So thank you so much. I'll say thank you both for your work and for being here and for your patience this evening. Any discussion? Other questions? Councilor Hardt?

I just want to thank Councilor Clingan for bringing this forward and thank you both for coming. I think that There's no way to overstate the importance of social workers and the work that you do. And it's incredibly undercompensated. And I know that there's... There's more work than one person can do, but really appreciate your work and really appreciate you for uplifting this month. Thank you.

Hardt would like to sign on. I will as well. Wheeler, Sayid, the whole council is going to sign on to this one. Councilor Wheeler, go ahead.

I wanted to extend the comments of my colleagues and appreciate you both and all social workers who work in Somerville and elsewhere. My mother worked for many years in Somerville as a social worker. She would be deeply upset with me if I didn't mention that tonight. She's still using her social work license in her 80s today. I've seen the life-changing power that social workers can have, and I appreciate this chance to celebrate your work. Thank you.

Clare. Mr. President, last thing I'll just say, and I know I always, I really like to emphasize the fact that, you know, these are DCF social workers. The things they see, you know, would keep you up at night. It's, you know, I have an affinity for DCF social workers as my mother was a foster parent. But the term social worker captures such a wide breadth of work that's done in individuals. So since Holly Simione is in the chamber, I would like to recognize her as her work does fall under that work of social work. with regards to helping families with children with disabilities. So I say we give these three a round of applause and call it a night. Thank you.

All right, thank you Councillor Clingan. All right, one more item out of order. If there's no objection, we'll take the Finance Committee report up next.

That brings us to agenda item 6A1, a report of the Committee on Finance meeting on March 10th, 2026. Councillor Wheeler.

Thank you, Chair. The Finance Committee met on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, via remote participation, with four members present. Our Ward 2 colleague was sick, still is. and with the help of Clerk Delaney Fisher-Cassiel and Legislative Liaison Yasmin Radasi, we took up a seven-item agenda. We recommended approval of a $31,000 grant from the Mass Department of Environmental Protection for upgrades to the Franey Road Hazardous Household Waste Facility. Department of Public Works staff explained that this will fund winterization and a new garage door with a pedestrian cutout for better access. We discussed DPW's commitment to accessibility of the Franny Road facility and the need for residents to be able to communicate with staff while outside at street level and protected from the elements. We also recommended appropriating approximately $56,000 from the Bike Share Stabilization Fund for an 18-dock blue bike station at Boynton Union Connect.

These funds were donated by the developer for the City to purchase equipment using our existing regional contract. Three police department grants generated extended discussion. First, we recommended an approximately $23,000 grant for youth violence prevention with an approximately $6,000 local match from the city. The new captain of Community Relations is exploring programs like aquarium trips and basketball games alongside hotspot patrols and youth academies. There was concern regarding a requirement in the grant text that the police department submit daily crime data to the Greater Boston Fusion Center through the system known as either CopLink or Crime Tracer. and we received written confirmation that this data is not shared at the federal level, though some questions about the risk around this sharing remained. Ultimately, this item was recommended for approval by a split three to one vote. We recommended approval for a $43,000 police software grant.

Police department staff explained that the gray key forensics tool is used to bypass smartphone passwords in crime investigations, but only by a small number of approved officers. and only with a search warrant or explicit consent often from victims seeking to share evidence. Existing surveillance technology impact reports provided transparency regarding these legal and procedural safeguards. This grant also covers Blue Voice, a new large language model AI tool. We discussed how this might be used, what data would be uploaded to it, and how to ensure it's not used to leak personally identifiable information about Somerville residents, nor to substitute AI decision making for human decision making. Additionally, we recommended a $127,000 grant for special response team equipment and training, including protective armor and cameras that are pole-mountable and investigation-specific, and detailed in their own surveillance technology impact report.

Addressing concerns regarding over-militarization, police department staff emphasized that department policies ensure this tactical gear remains behind the scenes and only used to protect residents in high security incidents. Last item of our agenda was the economic development staff presenting UCTF, a tax incremental financing policy managed from the state level to incentivize housing production. When the Council sees a clear affordability benefit in a case of development, this tool allows us to waive a portion of future taxes on the added value that development will bring to a property. To be clear, this is not a tax cut or a city payment. It's a time-limited reduction of the increased taxes that development would normally generate.

While the state sets minimum subsidy criteria to qualify, Somerville, and the City Council in particular, will maintain the power to demand deeper affordability on a project-by-project basis. This item was marked work completed. Chair, I ask that this committee report be accepted as submitted.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'd request that we sever the three police-related items. That's items on our agenda here, 6A2, 6A3, and 6A7. I can give you the item numbers specifically if you like. 250849, 260169, 260271. Simply to place those items before the full council so that I can provide brief comment and get a roll call vote recorded.

All right. Council Scott moves to several items 6A2, 6A3, and 6A7 from the committee report. Any discussion on the motion? All right, any objection? All right, seeing none, those three items are severed from the report and are now before us. First we have the committee report before us. Any further discussion on the committee report? Okay, seeing none, that is approved and we have the three items. Do we need a roll call vote on the other ones? Okay, let's do a roll call vote on the other item from the committee report and then we'll take up the items that were severed.

And that puts agenda item 6A6. A request of the Mayor requesting approval to appropriate $56,339.46 from the Bike Share Stabilization Fund for installation and startup cost of a blue bike station at the Boynton Union Connect Transportation Management Association development site.

Any discussion on the item?

Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Yes.

Councilor Link?

Yes.

Scott, Clingan, Strezo, Sait, Wheeler, Hardt, McLaughlin, Mbah, Davis. All councillors in favor? That is approved.

All right. So that brings the three separate items before us. Do we read those in separately? Yeah. Scott, you'll take this up together? Mr. President, that would be just fine. You'll eventually want to do an individual roll call vote for each? That would be fine, or we could take all three up with a single roll call vote. Let's discuss them together, and then we'll take a vote separate. Okay. Any objection to that? All right. So, yeah, Madam Clerk, if you would please read those three separate items into the record.

Agenda item 682, a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $127,000 grant with no new match required from the Boston Office of Emergency Management to the Police Department for Special Response Team Equipment and Training. 6 request of the Mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $43,000 grant with no new match required from the Boston Office of Emergency Management to the Police Department for Software and 6A7, a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $22,800.08 grant that requires a match from the Metropolitan Mayor's Coalition Community Safety Initiative to the Police Department for Youth Violence Prevention.

Scott, did you want to speak on any of the items? Yes, thank you, Mr. President. I'll go in reverse order here and I apologize for the disruption here. Thank you to the chair for bringing this out of order. As the hour is late and I am very ill, I will spare my standard soaring oration on these matters, but for members of the public who may be curious about this, One of these items, the $22,800 grant, known as the Shannon Grant, from the Metro Mayor's Coalition, is always pitched as a grant to allow us to host a basketball tournament and it's been happening for years and every year this council accepts that grant. But one of the terms of that grant is that we continue to participate in the system known as COPLINK.

The system known as COPLINK is not one that is particularly subject to discretion. We are a full map community and have been since before I got elected which means that every single encounter, that's every traffic citation, parking citation, Every accident report, every complaint, somebody calls in a noise complaint, the address, the names of the people present when an officer goes to check it out. Any information that the officer records goes into our system and then is directly pipelined into the CopLink system. Review of a presentation that was published back in 2017 reveals how Coplink uses that information. It associates people with events. So if you are a, for example, minor child who happened to be present at a house where

Or in an apartment building, for example, where there was a noise complaint. And then later there was a report of suspected drug deal. Now all of a sudden that person is associated with each of those and becomes a person of interest that shows up when searched for possible Not to call it a dragnet but persons of interest to look into when investigating future incidents. This is all very clear. It's in a presentation that was made by Mass State Police to explain how useful CopLink was. As such, as always, I don't believe I'm going to convince anybody in this chamber tonight, but this is so my neighbors understand why it is that I believe we could find other money to run a basketball tournament.

Next, I will briefly address The grant for $43,000 for software. One piece of this is very easily understood. That's the gray key software which is used to crack cell phones. There's been a lot of discussion about this. I have grave concerns about it, but we do have surveillance technology impact reports and policies in place that supposedly govern How and when our law enforcement officers can just crack anybody's cell phone. But more concerning to me is the inclusion of Blue Voice, which is an AI tool to be used by our police department to generate police reports and to assist our police officers in the field. Given the...

I don't want to go into too much detail about the horrific consequences, but suffice to say that I have grave concerns about the injection of AI into our systems, especially with the fact that Facial recognition is already part of the COPLINK system. and allowing that to integrate even closer into a facial recognition system that's used here is, in my opinion, just a recipe for disaster. There's a story in the national media of a grandmother in Tennessee who was arrested and jailed for six months on suspicion of a financial fraud, a bank fraud in North Dakota. She had never been to North Dakota. She was just flagged by an AI system and lost her house. as a result of being jailed for six months on this.

So I don't want to inject any more possibility for inadvertent harm for people coming into contact with our police department. And then finally, The $127,000 grant for special response team equipment and training. This is for the shields, for the helmets, for the batons, for the chemical weapons. This is... I'm old enough to have been on the other end of that from our Somerville Police Department. I'm old enough to remember my colleagues around this horseshoe talking about being pepper sprayed at protests by the Somerville Police Department. I'm old enough to remember when we had the deputy chief of the police department on camera placing a Somerville resident in a headlock at a protest.

We see across the nation, even when communities are steadfast in their commitment to supporting their neighbors. Minneapolis. Where the mayor, the governor, everybody up and down the chain says we are steadfast in supporting our neighbors and opposing ICE, it is the Minneapolis Police Department in that riot gear not preventing ICE. Thank you. Thank you. while ICE laid siege to a house, to a house which they eventually did break the door down searching for a person who was not there. They arrested three other people from that house and put them in detention.

and it was the Burlington Police Department with their special response team gear with their backs to ice facing down the members of their community. I can foresee a situation in the not too far distant future where it will be in our community and I, Mr. President, cannot vote to accept that money to pay for the weapons that will be pointed at me. So with that, I appreciate your forbearance. Again, I don't need this to necessarily be a full discussion from the council. I don't expect to change anybody's mind, but I do appreciate the opportunity. to say my piece and to get my vote in the negative on the record. Thank you.

I see that legislative...

I'll yield to her.

Thank you Mr. President. I just wanted to correct the record related to item 260169 with regards to Blue Voice. As was shared during the committee meeting, Chief generously reached out to the vendor Link, Blue Voice to get more details in response to a request from Councilor Link. It was shared with the full committee. and it basically says that it is a closed system that is literally just going to be used to book up our own ordinances and state laws. I don't want to try to paraphrase the whole I would encourage Councilors to take a look at that document. It will not be used to generate police reports.

Link. Hi, yes. So, through the president, thank you. Yes, I would encourage everyone to look at the answers which are now available through the legislature. You can see I have huge concerns about The use of AI, and especially the police use of AI, and if everything is as described, it is essentially just a search engine. which I'm I'm less concerned with but if it ever did become that there was public Personal Identifiable Information, PII, if anything like that was ever put into it, I would have a much, much, much different stance. And then I just want to also address, I think, what the good councillor from Ward 2 Coplink, which is also now known as Crime Tracer.

I remain very skeptical of that, and I do think that there is some concerns there in terms of, you know, and more. Just like when we put our data on the internet, you can't get it back. I don't know where that data goes. And while I... Have seen an email assuring us that the feds don't have access to it. I'm still not clear why that policy changed in 2023 and what Guardrails there are to ensure that it does not happen that we reverse that policy in 2026. So I am very worried about that one still. Thank you.

Other discussion?

McLaughlin, and Councilor Wheeler. Thank you, Mr. President. I hate to put our mayor on the spot, but when you show up to every council meeting, I'm going to have to ask a question. I was just curious about his position on all of this at the time. Mr. Mayor, care to address the question?

Mr. President, thank you. Through you too, Councillor McLaughlin. Yeah, we would not have put these forward if we did not feel that there was merit to these requests. We knew it would go through a rigorous examination by this council. and we trusted in the end result of that examination. We trust you all to do the work and determine whether this is something that you also are willing to get behind.

Sorry, don't mean to do it like this, but it's coming up right now in this meeting. I am just more curious about the stated concerns from our colleagues and how the city feels about those positions. I'm genuinely curious.

Mr. President, I don't want to get into a back and forth with councillors and arguing against claims they've made. I appreciate folks raising their concerns about it. I'm not going to say I'm not without concerns on a great many things. In the end, you're left balancing concerns versus potential benefits, and that's where I trust people to make up their own minds on it. Wheeler.

Thank you, Chair. I wanted to first of all appreciate the concerns that have been raised and acknowledge there's a limit to how much I know and understand about all the complexities of these systems. One thing that mattered to me in making my decision on the question of the The approximately $23,000 grant was that, to my knowledge, municipalities including Somerville Are already in an essentially unavoidable relationship of sharing certain kinds of data such as When people are booked for crimes in a broader way and that existing fact together with The written confirmation we were able to get, and I'd like to learn more about how reliable this is, but the confirmation that we were able to get

That this particular data is not going to be shared with the federal government. Those things together made a difference to me on that point. Thank you.

Clingan. Thank you, Mr. President. As stated by some, I feel like we could I think that ICE and other agencies probably have more than enough tools at their disposal I guess what I'm trying to say is, like was mentioned, as far as weighing the positive and the negative, you know, I have to go back to the Mystic housing and when the kids, like, you know, they really... They really look forward to these trips to the aquarium and different outings that they may never leave the housing development. In other words, and other circumstances and go to these different places. I hear concerns are raised. Again, I also share those concerns.

But what will we lose if we vote down this, you know, basically free money that has an impact in the community amongst the most vulnerable people? I mean, I certainly don't want to be responsible for bad things happening. I did listen to the meeting in real time the other night and the chief continued to reiterate that, you know, it's sort of in line with what the mayor is saying is that We are going for these grants. We are a welcoming city. We understand that they can't guarantee anything, but that's kind of how life is. There's no guarantee for a lot of things. So really I think to just take away this benefit in the name of fear, which may or may not be materialized, and I haven't really heard any specific

I like that you know how this could how this people believe that this will play out versus you know walking into the mystics and seeing the bus there taking these kids Strezo.

Thank you, Mr. President. Quick reiteration on the discussion that happened in the Finance Committee, and anyone can read the minutes on this. Again, this is a grant that is every year has been accepted and yes, it's for our most disenfranchised Children and Families in the community. So I'd like to remind our colleagues that they will be the ones impacted by this. I won't let our most vulnerable residents slip through the cracks based on hypotheticals. and what we've already seen is in weighing in the other side of that of actual proven assistance that it does provide to the community. The chief reiterated that that anything that the information is already public record has already is already out there.

that any concerns that the colleagues raised about that of data sharing and with the with the Appes, or the technology that was accepted. The sergeant detective that spoke on these items, may I remind our colleagues that these help assist with child molestation cases, with human trafficking cases and were instrumental in rape cases that Most specifically, with Uber drivers. And rape cases are notoriously difficult to prove. This data actually helps. Some of us have daughters in this room. Some of us have daughters heading to college soon.

and with human trafficking cases this can be useful so again all this information all this discussion has already been had i will be supporting this i have done my research and have I've been paying attention to what goes on in this city long enough to understand how this actually implements and is in our community and assists or can. I'm confident that this is a yes vote for me. And can we please move on?

Mr. President, please let the record reflect. I have three daughters. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. Just to be quick, I mean, just getting this conversation, I think $43,000 is a very small amount of money if we need to take kids to the aquarium. Hardt.

Just similar to the Councilor Mbah who just spoke, I would Since the Finance Committee on Tuesday and finding out more about CopLink, I no longer feel comfortable supporting that item, but I would urge the administration to find a way to put that money to continue the program in the budget.

Okay, back to Councilor Link. Thank you. Just, Mr. President, just one quick clarification before I finish up here. Just so that we're clear here, this isn't necessarily a hypothetical. Up until 2023, ICE actually had access, regular access, full access to this. So it's not something that maybe they would want. It's something that they definitely do want. I would say the the other thing here is that the email the assurances that we received from the emails that they just they don't have access it's not that they can't get the data It's not that there's no path for them to get that data that gets in there. It's just that they don't have direct access. And that is a very different thing than saying that they cannot get access. I want these kids to have this

I want this opportunity, I want this program to continue and like the good council from Ward 7, I would love to see our administration find other ways to fund it but I think that It's a bridge too far for me. Thank you. Any other discussion?

All right, let's do a separate roll call vote on each of the items in the order they appear in the agenda.

Okay.

If you could... Ms. Clingan? Before we vote, I just want to say that, you know, I... We can certainly set the table of fear and then vote something potentially good down. But we're basically saying that We're basically, you know, that our mayor, our chief, and some of our colleagues here, you know, are basically being derelict of duty and putting people in harm's way and, you know, If we're going to do this about all kinds of issues, whether it be any type of safety issues, I mean, this is certainly hot politically or whatever. In terms of those concerns, but I just think that we're in a... Well, I'm going to vote the way I'm going to vote, but I just want the record to show that the chief of police made it clear.

that while they can't guarantee things most of this is public record and I mean if it's an abundance of caution that people feel you know uncomfortable I would with the way the table's been set I mean certainly I would too and I'm sure the public watching is thinking you know that we must be completely irresponsible.

Thank you, Mr. President. On that, I think it's really devious and dubious to conflate a vote like this With colleagues trying to assume that, conflating that anyone that supports us is supporting us. That is totally out of line. and the mayor who spoke earlier on the whole concept of neighborhood and having healthy dialogues this is an opportunity for that of a healthy dialogue but to demonize a neighbor We're watching this live in real time over one opinion or another when we're all hopefully in good faith making decisions that are best for constituents of over 81,000. Let's hope that we are making decisions collectively in good faith. Thank you.

President, just one comment, please. Just before we vote, so I've been working for the last few months with Councilor Link, with the ACLU, on what we hope will be an ordinance to look at data sharing with the federal government. I'm going to support these. because I have in the past and because my understanding is you know voting this down doesn't get us out of cop length I don't think um it's a basketball game for the kids maybe I'm incorrect about that But I just wanted to explain that this is an issue I care a lot about, actively working on. This is not how I'm choosing to take a stand on that, but I don't begrudge folks who do.

We're going to recognize the mayor. I'll remind folks that our rules do limit folks to speaking twice on an item, so if you've already spoken twice, I'm not going to recognize you again. Just follow our rules so we can move along here.

Mayor Wilson, go ahead. Mr. President, thank you. I came up here to make the point similar to what Councilor Ewen-Campen just made. You can be very, very concerned about CopLink. How you vote on this will not have one iota To do with any change about CopLink. All you are doing is turning down money. It will not change anything about CopLink. Full stop. Hardt.

Actually, I would love more, through you, Mr. President, I would love more clarification on that because during the Finance Committee meeting, I asked if there were any other grants that required our participation in CopLink and Chief Benvert said no. So that led me to believe that other than this grant we could opt out. of Coplink, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Mr. Mayor, anyone from the administration, can you clarify the statement in response to Councilor Hardt's question?

Thanks, Mr. President. The relationship with Coplink has existed long before. Simply opting out and declining this grant will not change anything about that relationship.

Hardt, does that address your question?

Can I ask a follow-up question? So let's say that with the work that Councilor Link and Ewen-Campen are doing, you know, they decided that we shouldn't participate in CopLink, but we had this grant, so we had to continue it for that period of time. Is that a realistic scenario?

Question to Councilor Ewen-Campen? Sure, yes. Councilor Ewen-Campen, can you respond?

Mr. President, I don't know. The answer, you know, my interpretation of what we're hearing is that the administration is going to make a decision about whether to participate in CopLink on the merits in their mind. and it's not about whether this grant requires us to or not. My understanding of this administration in the last few from what has been represented to us is that they want to be a part of CopLink. That's how I've heard that.

You've heard the discussion? All right, go to roll call votes. Each one individually, please. Yes, let's reread them just so everyone's sure exactly which one they're voting on.

Okay, and on agenda item 6A2, a request of the mayor requesting your approval to accept and expend a $127,000 grant with no new match required from the Boston Office of Emergency Management to the Police Department for Special Response Team Equipment and Training. Councilor Ewen Campen?

Yes.

Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Scott?

No.

Councilor Clingan?

Yes.

Strezo, yes, Councilor Sait, yes, Councilor Wheeler, yes, Councilor Hardt, yes, Councilor McLaughlin, yes, Councilor Mbah, yes, Councilor Davis, yes. With 10 councillors in favor, that item is recommended to be approved. Going to agenda item 683, a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $43,000 grant with no new match required. from the Boston Office of Emergency Management to the Police Department for Software. Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Yes.

Councilor Scott? Excuse me, Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Scott? No. Lincoln, Yes, Councilor Strezo, Yes, Councilor Sait, Yes, Councilor Wheeler, Yes, Councilor Hardt, Yes, Councilor McLaughlin, Yes, Councilor Mbah, No, Davis. With nine councillors in favor, the item is recommended to be approved.

Thank you. Next item.

And agenda item 6A7, a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $22,800.08 Grant that requires a match from the Metropolitan Mayor's Coalition Community Safety Initiative to the Police Department for Youth Violence Prevention. Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Yes.

Councilor Link? No. Scott, no, Councilor Clingan, yes, Councilor Strezo, yes, Councilor Sait, no, Councilor Wheeler, yes, Councilor Hardt, no, Councilor McLaughlin, yes, Mbah.

No.

Councilor Davis. Yes. With six councillors in favor, that item is recommended to be approved.

All right. Thank you, everyone. Feel better, Council Scott. All right, thank you for that. All right, let's start the meeting. I'll remind all the committee chairs that it is 1015, and use your discretion in providing your reports when we get to those. Not that they're not in any way important, but there's lots of different ways folks can catch up on what happened. Next item, Adam Clark.

That brings us back to the order of business with agenda item 4.1.

Chair, I move to waive the readings of the councilor's budget priority memos, agenda items 4.1, 4.8, 4.12, 4.13, 4.15, 4.18, 4.22, 4.27, and 10.1 and place them on file with a copy sent to finance. We'll have the chance to discuss these at the Tuesday, March 24th meeting of the Committee of the Whole. On the motion, Councilor Streza?

Permission to... Present a four-minute, no, I'm sorry, four-hour presentation. I brought a PowerPoint on my budget request. I'm kidding. Not today. Not funny. Okay. Too soon.

Those items are placed on file with a copy to finance. Excited.

Agenda item 4.2, an order by Councillor Davis that rule 4 of the rules of the City Council be amended to update submission deadlines for agenda items consistent with the provisions of the open meeting law.

So just a quick clarification. I've teased this before. This is the rule change. And thank you to our legislative policy analyst for putting the correct words on the page to effectively have the supplemental agenda reflect what the law actually allows and not maybe what our practice has been over the past number of years. So if an item is not submitted in accordance with the rules, I guess we actually did, we gave you until Tuesday morning, we gave us all until Tuesday morning to submit items for that week's agenda for a regular Thursday meeting. Anything after that needs to either have been unanticipated or some timely aspect to it for it to go on the supplemental agenda. And Brendan's mouthing something else to shout it out. and sorry and yes both unanticipated and have some timely aspects to it. We'll take a look.

I'm inclined to send this to Legislative Matters unless there's an objection, just so that we can make sure we're all clear and ask questions and have that on the record. Any discussion at the moment? Yes, Councilor Sait.

Yeah, Mr. President, I have a question. So we used to say Monday by midnight. So you just said Tuesday.

Correct.

So this is the change?

So this is the change. There's a balance between what the law requires. The law requires the presiding officer to put anything that can be anticipated up to 48 hours before the meeting on the agenda. The presiding officer is required to put that on the agenda. From a practical standpoint, we can't have something that We adopt rules establishing a deadline sometime prior to that so our clerk staff can actually create the agenda and publish it on time. The law department has advised that they believe that adopting rules that is sometime before 48 hours is an appropriate interpretation of that law. We may be proven otherwise. Someone may inform us that we need to adjust that. The intent here was to get a little bit closer to that. It's now 8.30 Tuesday morning, essentially the start of the business day Tuesday morning.

It gives us a little more time to get things in, but after that we want to, you know, this is essentially what we've been doing for the last several months since I took this role to not deliberate on things that weren't that we didn't tell the public about prior to Thursday. The idea of the open meeting law being folks should know what we're going to talk about so they can come in here or weigh in or whatever the case may be. So this aligns with that. It still does allow those exceptions pursuant to open meeting law. We've all been doing a really good job of that anyway, so hopefully this will not be a big change, but as I said, I do want to have the opportunity to discuss it in legislative matters just to make sure that Everyone's clear. There might be some nuances or wrinkles that we want to adjust, so we'll have that opportunity. Okay? All right. So that is referred to legislative matters. Next item.

Agenda item 4.3, an order by Councillor Davis that this City Council appoints Jessica Smith to the Public Financing of Companions Committee.

So the next three items are all appointments to the committees that were formed by the Charter. Madam Clerk, would you read the other two? The next two as well, four, five, and four, six.

Agenda item 4.4, an order by Councillor Davis that this City Council appoints James Leo Bedard to the Ranked Choice Voting Committee. Agenda item 4.5, an order by Councillor Davis that this City Council appoints Crystal Huff to the Ranked Choice Voting Committee. and Agenda Item 4.6, an order by Councillor Davis that the City Council appoints Derek Rice to the review of Multiple Member Bodies Committee.

So all of these departments are based on recommendations that you all provided to me, or some one of you provided each of these in some case. We can certainly send these to committee if there's a desire for a discussion. I'm seeing a little bit of nodding, so that's fine. Looking to the administration, is there any specific timing concerns if we were to send any of these to committee? We will refer each of these to confirmation of appointments for discussion. Seaton, Objection. Those are referred to confirmation appointments.

Agenda item 4.7, a communication by Councillor Davis in his capacity as president conveying this council's updated standing committee assignments and commission appointments for 2026.

These are just the council roles on those same commissions. So if you asked for something, I think I pretty much gave everybody what they asked for. There wasn't a whole lot of requests. So if I got it wrong in any way, let me know and we can always fix it. I look forward to seeing the output of all these committees. There's some pretty cool topics here. So thank you for those who stepped up to serve.

Agenda item 4.14, a resolution by Councillor Link in support of House Bill 965 and Senate Bill 2721, an act restricting the use of rodenticides in the environment.

Councillor Link. Thank you, Mr. President. So this is just a very simple bill that some constituents have brought to me. We've got raptors, we've got owls, let's make sure we don't, in the interest of time, let's make sure that we don't poison them. And that's basically what this comes down to.

Hardt would like to sign on, Councilor Ewen-Campen would like to sign on, I'd like to sign on as well, Councilor Strezo, Councilor Sait, Councilor Wheeler, Councilor Mbah. Did you want to make anything else on this item, Councilor Link? Councilor Clingan would like to sign on?

All right, and then, sorry, yes, one quick amendment was just to insert in the, what was it, the one, two, three, four, in the fourth clause F. Gars, parentheses, first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, and before S. Gars in the Commonwealth. This is a different sort of flavor of rodenticide.

Yes, yes, I omitted it by accident. All right, very well. So that motion is on the table to add that other type of rodenticide to the item on the amendment. Kevin.

Mr. President, I don't want to set a precedent that we have to fix typos. I think we should have typos in our stuff and be cool with that.

Well, we actually can fix typos without a vote, but I think in this case this is a substantive addition. Any further discussion on the amendment? Wheeler. All right, seeing none of that is approved, on the item before us, any discussion, Councilor Wheeler?

Just a quick note for anyone who's concerned about this. Completely preventing the use of a rodenticide. These statehouse bills do not seek to completely ban these rodenticides, but rather to provide clarity about limiting them to short-term uses and indoor uses. Thank you.

All right. Seeing no further discussion, that item is approved as amended. Next item.

That brings us to agenda item 4.16, an order by Councillor Hardt that the Commissioner of Public Works discuss with this council the policy of prohibiting parking on alternating sides of the street during a snow emergency and whether it is the best way to meet snow removal needs.

Hardt.

Thank you. I just will say briefly I had four constituents reach out to me with the same concern and I thought it merited discussion and in particular Constituent pointed out that with our changing climate we're having winters with no snow but then also the severity We're more likely to have these storms like we saw this winter with a high level of snow which really impacts Our snow policy is like how much snow we're getting, so I thought that merited discussion. So I'd love for that to go to sustainability and infrastructure to be part of that. There's some other items related to snow removal.

I'll tag that one on to snow talk. Councilor Klinger.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you to the councilor. I've already been told that we're gearing up for a big Big snow talk at the next sustainability infrastructure meeting so happy to get these right on the agenda then hopefully that'll put snow behind us officially for the year but I do want to say just on this particular item We've been there, and I'm not taking an opinion either way because I do hear what people are saying, especially since we're not really going all the way to the curb. For obvious, sort of, not obvious obvious reasons, but when you have two feet of snow on a, you know, a 10 foot wide area, you know, that gets pushed pretty high. So if we went back to the sort of no, and many more. Thank you.

It wouldn't take away parking on the opposite side of the street for as long as this does, too. So looking forward to this discussion, just to see where the DPW's heads are at, if they have that historical knowledge of why we switched to this. But yeah, happy to take this one.

Okay, any other discussion? All right, so that is approved with a copy to Sustainability and Infrastructure. Councilor Bayh, you wanted to move for reconsideration of an item?

Yes, Mr. President. At the request of the Chief Administrative Officer... At the request of the City Clerk. At the request of the City Clerk, I move to reconsider... These appointments that we sent to committee back. Which item? 4.3 through 4.7. No, no, 24.6 and move to approve.

Adam Kirk, would you like to address the council?

Thank you. Through the president, Kim Wells, city clerk, there is one of these items that does require some action in a shorter period of time than the others. And after confirming with the chair that it is unlikely that a committee will be able to be I have requested that that be addressed by the council this evening. We're on a different page. It's the one about multi-member body review committee. Given that that committee has a deadline of December, We aim to have it start meeting in April and so we would like to have the appointments in place in order for that convening to happen. This is item 4.6 that the City Council appoints Derek Rice to the review of multiple member bodies committee.

Bobb moves for reconsideration of item 4.6. Is there anyone who objects to reconsidering this item? All right, seeing no objection, that item is back before the body. Councilor Mbah, you wish to move to approve this item this evening? Yes, Mr. President. All right, any discussion on the item? All right, seeing none, that item is approved. Thank you. All right, back to where we left off. McClure. Next item.

Next item is 4.17, an order by Councillor Hardt that the Commissioner of Public Works discuss with this council the frequency of street sweeping throughout the period of April through November. Councillor Hardt.

Thank you. This was another item that came through a constituent wondering if we could not have the frequency of street sweeping throughout the summer months when it's not A particular need to clean the streets. In particular, they were thinking about the impact on parking and the difficulties, which we all know are real in the city. I'd love this to go to the Sustainability and Infrastructure Committee as well.

All right. Any discussion? Councilor McLaughlin? It's on this, Mr. President. So this has been discussed in the past, and I just want to be clear that if other people do want to see limited street sweeping, I will gladly accept all of it because streets get particularly dirty. I actually want more street sweeping it might be different in different neighborhoods but my streets as has been pointed out I organize my own community cleanups because there's a lot of trash out there

Perhaps there's an opportunity to be more nuanced in our timing and frequency, so it never hurts to have a conversation. Councilor Wheeler?

Thank you, Chair. I'm curious about the choice of which committee to refer this item to and the previous item. I'm not trying to reconsider that. But there is a traffic and parking committee. I happen to be on it, but that's neither here nor there. Seems to me like this is... Right up that alley, I'm not opposed to it going to sustainability and infrastructure. I'm just not sure if there's a history of thinking behind this.

Thank you Mr. President. Commissioner Weisman and DPW are frequent visitors to what was previously the Public Works Public Utilities Committee and is now Sustainability and Infrastructure and he generally does not attend traffic and parking.

Opportunity to get it in front of the right folks, maybe a little quicker. So that's the thinking. But good question. Thank you for asking. So seeing no further discussion, then this is approved with a copy to sustainability and infrastructure. Next item.

Agenda item 4.20, a resolution by Councillor Wheeler that the City Council calls on the Massachusetts Legislature and Governor to increase unrestricted general government aid by at least 6% in fiscal year 2027.

Thank you, Chair. The City of Somerville delivers essential services every day, yet state aid to municipalities like ours has not kept pace with the costs that cities and towns face. According to the Massachusetts Municipal Association, unrestricted general government aid, UGA for short, has only just returned to 2008 levels without adjusting for inflation. Restoring the state-local partnership requires sustained growth in this funding. A year-to-year increase of at least 6% to UGA would help rebuild that partnership and ensure communities like Somerville, can maintain core services without placing additional pressure on property taxpayers. Thank you, Chair.

All right, Councilor Clingan. Thank you, and thank you to the councilor at large. We've brought this up many years. When that state aid was cut down really low to almost nothing and how we've suffered from it, I don't pretend to know how all the money is spent up on Beacon Hill in terms of Like the millionaire's tax, for instance, I would think that would have been something that they could have kind of increased the percentage back to cities and towns. from that money there. So yeah, it'd be great to recoup, sort of get a higher percentage than we've been getting since, I forget what year it was, they cut the local aid. So thank you.

All right, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 4.21, a resolution by Councillor Wheeler that this City Council calls on the Massachusetts Legislature and Governor to fully fund the Student Opportunity Act and maintain the $150 per pupil minimum aid increase in fiscal year 2027. Councillor Wheeler.

Thank you, Chair. The Student Opportunity Act was a landmark commitment to ensure that Massachusetts schools have the resources that students need. As we reach the final year of its implementation, it's critical that the state follow through fully Maintaining a $150 per pupil minimum aid increase year over year will help every district keep pace with rising costs so we can continue investing in the success of all students. Thank you.

Link would like to sign on. Councilor Hardt would like to sign on. Any discussion? Councilor McLaughlin, Councilor Brown, the whole council. All right, that item is approved. Thank you. Next item.

Agenda item 4.23, a resolution by Councilor Clingan and Councilor Ewen-Campen that the administration create a publicly accessible dashboard tracking progress toward planning and development goals in Gilman Square.

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, we have a new administration now, and the people down in Gilman Square are just as hungry as ever for progress. I know that the mayor has been focusing on this, so I will say that. It is a priority, but in the spirit of the name, and there is somewhat of a timeline laid out for activity down there, and so I was just thinking that, you know, I... A dashboard on We have various city websites with specific projects, if you will, on those websites. So I thought maybe a dashboard of some type would... Steele, and many more. Visible timelines with accountability is sometimes you know we can say dates but then that's how the game of telephone works where then those get shifted but no one really knows I think like it's good to kind of have that

and I want to thank the councilor who I share the Gilman Square with who I know also put in some Steele, and so on. So I hope that we can come up We have a dashboard on a Gilman Square neighborhood plan website, since we do have a Gilman Square neighborhood plan, and whether we've deviated from it, nonetheless, Dashboard with milestones and dates and goals that would be really helpful to people. Councilor Ewen-Campen?

I was arguing it should be a giant neon sign on the Homan site that has like a ticker.

Mr. President, I guess that can just go on file to the Office of Economic Development or something.

Thank you, Mr. President. I don't know if the good councilor from World 4 knows how much Gilman Square is very close to my heart. I was involved in the initial conversation for the formation of that neighborhood with Justin Mullin after Union Square Neighborhood Council was created. I'd like to sign on to anything, you know, that is Human Square related. Thank you. MR. All right.

Seeing no further discussion, the letter is approved. Copy to H-C-D-E. I can never remember.

It's just one letter. H-C-D-E. H-C-D-E. See how easy it is? H-C-D-E. It's March now, Mr. President. Please, H-C-D-E.

Agenda item 4.24, resolution by Councillor Clingan that the Director of Mobility evaluate opportunities for improved pedestrian safety at the intersection of Broadway and Main Street.

Clayton. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm just going to speak on this. I normally would just send this to traffic and parking, but I really can't emphasize enough the The amount of parents who walk kids to the Healy School in the morning time and just the level of danger that they describe to me and how fearful they are. I have met with them every day. I know that they're putting in a light further down near Fenwick hopefully but that intersection of Main Street and Broadway continues to be an extremely treacherous crossing and so I'm just hoping that you know whoever Brad and the team or Brian in engineering can kind of just take another look at it and evaluate and see what we can do to make it safer. I know this challenges the light cycles. They've tweaked those before, but I think we could maybe do a little more there. I think they're creative enough that they can come up with something.

Link.

Yeah, Mr. President, I just want to say thank you. Safe routes to schools are hugely important. This actually used to be Main Street's my old street. So I am intimately familiar with how terrible that intersection is, and I think this is awesome.

All right. That is approved to the copy to traffic and parking. Next item.

Agenda item 4.25, a resolution by Councillor Clingan that the director of housing provide data on units produced through the city's inclusionary housing program, including length of occupancy, unit refusal by lottery winners, and other data to demonstrate the health of the program.

Clingan. Thank you, Mr. President. I know that's kind of a heavy lift, you know, I know in terms of staff and their time and stuff, but I really think it's important we look at this. We hear a lot of, I have personal anecdotes about people who and so on. and Sewer, different charges that the complexes are able to put on. It just doesn't pan out. It comes out they oftentimes refuse a unit. I've heard of multiple people just staying where they were just because of all those charges so you know and on top of that like maybe some people go in and then not really looking fully at all the charges and and maybe they're leaving after a year they're realizing that they actually can't afford it now they're now we've maybe created more disruption

So I really just want to look at the health of this and our inclusionary housing 20% policy around how are people doing? the health of this program essentially and again it may take a while but i think it's something that we really should should take a look at okay that item is approved counseling would like to sign on and copy to hdd

Next item.

Next item is agenda item 6B1, a report of the Committee on Housing, Community Development, and Equity meeting on March 4th, 2026.

Councilor Strezo.

I'm on.

I'm back, please. I misplaced my minutes. Thank you.

Item 6B on the table. Take up the next item.

Agenda Item 6C1, a report of the Committee on Licenses and Permits meeting on March 11, 2026. Councillor Hardt.

Okay, we had a 30-minute meeting with three of us in attendance and addressing one item which you see was the grant of location on Ivaloo Street and we had a creative solution for Conditioning that grant of location on Eversource doing a review of the safety of the lines and poles on the street and submitting a written report. And that was it. It. Thank you.

All right. Any discussion on the report? All right. Seeing none, the report is accepted as submitted. Let's pick up item 6B off the table. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. Yes. So we met Wednesday, March 4th, 2026, 6 p.m., hybrid, in-person and virtual. This was strictly one agenda item. It was a public hearing request via petition. to discuss the actual item public communication that the city council hold a public hearing of the petition submitted by 52 registered voters regarding out of the blue community art space at Arts in the Armory. Said had to recuse herself. And so we had 11 members of the public to speak on this item.

And some were residents, some were artists, and it actually was a really, they really painted a beautiful picture, pun intended, of just... of just the importance of the gallery and what it meant to them and the community. So no votes or decisions were taken on that and I submit this committee report for your approval as is.

All right, any discussion on the report? Seeing none, the report is accepted as submitted and that puts item 26-0265 before us. That is just the petition for the hearing which did happen, so I'll place that on file unless there's any objection. That item is placed on file. No, wait, not placed on file. Placed on file. Can't approve it. All right, that is placed on file. Next item.

Agenda item 7.2.

Chair, I move to waive the readings of agenda items 7.2 through 7.9 and refer them to the Finance Committee for recommendation.

All right, seeing no objection, those items are referred to finance. Next item, Madam Clerk.

Agenda item 7.10, a request of the mayor requesting confirmation of the promotion of Courtney Reese to the position of police sergeant.

That item is referred to confirmation of appointments.

Agenda item 711, a request of the mayor requesting confirmation of the promotion of Ashley Catatio to the position of police sergeant.

That item is referred to confirmation of appointments.

Agenda item 7.12, a communication of the mayor conveying the appointment of Chris Duan to the review of multiple member bodies committee.

This is the same committee that needs to get working, so the administration would like us to take action on this this evening. Is there any discussion? Sorry, there seems to be some confusion. Leah Zambardazzi.

Thank you, Mr. President. It's just a mayor's communication. There's no action to be taken on it.

Okay. You okay? You all set with that, Councilor Bott?

I don't understand. I'm communicating with someone that is also wanting why it wasn't approved.

So this, if I could try and clarify, and I'm not sure what communication you got, but this is the mayor communicating his appointment to that same committee. So we just say thanks for letting us know.

Oh, okay. Thank you. Thanks for letting us know, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Next item.

Agenda item 7.13, a communication of the mayor conveying the 2025 surveillance technology annual report.

I'd like to refer that one to legislative matters, unless there's any objection.

Agenda item 714, a communication of the mayor conveying the 2026 Safe Streets Ordinance Annual Report.

Any discussion? All right, that item is placed on file. Do we want to send that one to committee?

Mr. President, the mobility team would love to discuss that in traffic and parking.

Absolutely. Sounds good. Traffic and parking or sustainability infrastructure? Okay, traffic and parking it is. That item is referred to traffic and parking. Next item.

Agenda item 715, a communication of the mayor conveying public safety for all findings and current initiatives.

Any discussion on that? Should we refer that one to public health and public safety? All right, let's do it. Next item.

Agenda item 8.1, an officer's communication from the city clerk conveying block party licenses issued.

Block parties. Even though there's so much snow, it's never too early to start thinking about block parties, especially This year, the year of the neighbor. So check out the block parties that are on the list, and if your block isn't there, contact the clerk's office and find out how to hold your very own block party, because they're awesome. Any discussion? That item is placed on file.

Agenda item 9.1.

Mr. President.

Councilor Hardt.

Okay, I would like to waive the readings of 9.1 through 9.8, but first I would like to... Point out that there's some exciting events to put on your calendar, including Greek Independence Day celebration, Nepali national flag raising, the Week of the Young Child celebration, the Mystic River Herring Run, and the Davis Square Farmer's Market starting up. I just wanted to highlight those events before we waive the readings.

Absolutely. Councilor Wheeler, on the items that are before us?

Chair, on the motion, just a brief comment on one of these items before it's waived. The Fred Berger Memorial 6K. I just wanted to mention I happened to know Fred Berger, who this race is named for, a close friend of my family. I'm really excited to see this race. He was somebody who was an ambassador for peace, goodwill, and generosity. And I'm excited that this is part of our community. Thank you. Fantastic, thank you.

I'll encourage folks to go out, participate in, cheer for, buy produce, all of these events. Those items are all, the reading is waived and those items are all approved.

Mr. President, I move to waive the readings of items 9-9 to 9-12 and refer them to land use with a copy of the planning board.

Those items are referred to land use with a copy of the planning board.

Next item. Agenda item 9.13, a public communication from Tufts University conveying its spring 2026 accountability report.

Councillor Hardt.

I just wanted to say briefly I wasn't aware of this report prior to this and so if other people are wondering what it's about in 2015 The Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance requiring Tufts to submit this each semester the addresses of students living off campus to help Somerville enforce occupancy limits So I just wanted to convey that.

Among other things, occupancy limits no longer exist, at least other than for the health code. Councilor McLaughlin?

Mr. President, I just love sharing history as the senior member of this council. Two predecessors ago, our former mayor and Ward 7 City Councilor made this happen to prevent overcrowding. Instead of having the no more than four rule that we decided to get rid of because it was unfair. Excellent, very well, thank you.

Councilor Strezo, yes.

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you to Council Hardt, thank you for going a little deeper than about that. and because we do have there there are supposed to be some a dorm process happening and Tufts I'm interested in bringing it for a committee if you would be and if it is okay we'd love to have you speak in that committee for the HCDE if Hardt, if you're okay sending it to committee. I always like, it's always good to be thorough. Yes, I would love to discuss it further, actually. Thank you. Let's go.

This item will be a copy referred to, to be placed on a file and a copy, right? Placed on a file with a copy to HCD.

Thank you.

Next item.

Agenda item 10.2, an order by Councillor Wheeler that this council review construction-related parking in the area of Oak Street and Bolton Street.

That will be laid on the table for next meeting. Or referred to traffic and parking. We can refer to traffic and parking, that's fine. Next item.

Agenda item 10.3 public communication from 62 individuals including 60 residents submitting comments about agenda item 26-0114 fiscal year 2027 budget priorities.

That item is placed on file.

Agenda item 10.4, a public communication from Louise Jones submitting comments about bike lanes.

That item is placed on file.

Agenda item 10.5, public communication from Courtney Pollack submitting comments about items 26-0055, 26-0156, and 26-0168 requests regarding public safety grants.

And that item is placed on file. That brings us to the end of the agenda. Are there any late items?

There are no further items before this body.

All right. With that, Councilor Ewen-Campen moves to adjourn. And we are adjourned. Good work, folks.