City Council

Good evening, everyone. It is Thursday, February 12th. This is a meeting with City Council. My name is Lance Davis, presiding. I use he, him pronouns. Please note that audio 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. Would the clerk please call the roll?

This is roll call. Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Here.

Councilor Link?

Here.

Councilor Scott?

Present.

Councilor Clingan?

Present.

Councilor Strezo? Present. Councilor Sait? Here. Wheeler, here, Councilor Hardt, here, Councilor McLaughlin, here, Councilor Mbah, present, Councilor Davis, here, with all Councilors present we have quorum.

Thank you. All right. Pursuant to our Rule 32, let it be known that this City 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 any councillors wishing to say a few words about members of our community tonight? Councillor Ba.

Thank you, Mr. President. I ask that we take a moment of silence to honor the life of our friend and neighbor, George Shorts. was a principal activist and a dedicated community builder who believed deeply in justice, compassion, and the power of people coming together. Her commitment to our community and her willingness to stand up For what is right leaves a legacy. As we pause, let us remember her life, honor her values, and hold her loved ones, especially her husband, Richard Short, in our community and also in our hearts. and secondly I also ask that we take a moment of silence to honor the life of Dave Krohn, the father of our community member Julie Krohn. Dave's life is reflected in the love, values, and strength he passed on, and his legacy lives through his family and all those he touched. As we pause...

We hold Julie and her loved ones in our thoughts and we offer our deepest sympathy during this time of loss. Thank you. Councilor Hardt.

Thank you. I would like to remember Connie Moniz. Connie passed away on January 24th. She was pre-deceased by her son, Allen, and her daughter, Lee, who was the mother of former Ward 5 City Councilor Courtney O'Keefe. Connie was born in Somerville and grew up on Powder House Boulevard. She lived in Somerville for periods throughout her life and taught music at St. Anne's Elementary School. She was an accomplished singer and piano player, and she will be greatly missed. I'd like to hold all her family in our thoughts, especially former Councilor O'Keefe.

Thank you. Councilor Clingan, and then Councilor Shozo.

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, I have a number of moments of silence this evening. If you all just bear with me. It's kind of a tough time of the year. It seems a number of Long time Somerville natives have passed away, actually just on February 8th. The first one being Kevin Murphy. Kevin Murphy, he lives in Arlington. He was a Somerville native, born and raised in Somerville. He was one of eight children born to the late Betty Davenport and Timothy Murphy. He was exceptionally bright, earning himself a full scholarship to Tufts University, where he ultimately decided college wasn't for him. He was a hard worker. Kevin stepped into many roles in his time as a taxi driver, parts courier, and among his favorites, he worked part-time at the pub in Ball Square. On the other side of the bar. I think that's a joke. His cherished role through being the beloved husband of 38 years to Kathleen, Kathy, Cody, Murphy.

with whom he raised their family in Arlington and devoted father of Kyle Murphy, Kayla Murphy, and her fiance, Gianna Dorado, Kara Murphy, all of Arlington. He was a dear brother of Dennis Murphy and wife Roseanne, Timothy, also known as Pat Murphy, all of Somerville. Thomas Murphy and his wife Kathy of Florida, John Murphy and his wife Carrie of Arlington, Eileen Murphy, Moral and her husband Bruce of Cape Cod, Maureen Arsenault and her husband Mark of Medford, Michael Murphy of Somerville, uncle to many loved nieces and nephews. So I'll just end with Kevin was loved and respected by the world at large. He touched countless lives leaving behind many dear friends in and out of Somerville, Kevin. could often be found at the pub enjoying a few cold Budweisers, queuing up songs on touch tunes, reading the paper, and trying his luck at Kino.

Outside the city he enjoyed spending time at the place he loved, Long Island, Maine, and most importantly his family. Next, I would like us to remember this evening, keeping our thoughts and prayers, Donna Fasio. Donna Marie Fasio passed away on February 8th. Donna was a proud and lifelong resident of Somerville. She passed away On Sunday the 8th, following a hard fought battle against cancer, she was 65 years old. She was the daughter of Lucy Tartaglia Fazio and the late Vincent Fazio. She was a graduate of Somerville High School and in her early years worked at Raytheon and she was a waitress at many popular establishments like the S&S in Cambridge, Bocelli's Restaurant in Medford. Donna was one of a kind. She had a feisty spark and a heart of gold. She always made an entrance and lit up a room, always meeting new friends wherever she went. She was the life of the party. Donna loves spending time at the beach.

Revere, Nahant, Hampton, Cape Cod. In addition to her mom Lucy, she is survived by her brother Vincent Fazio and his son, Vincent Little Vinny Fazio. and her sister Sheila Flaherty and many cousins and cherished friends. And then next I would like us to remember Patrick Barry who passed away on February 8th. Pat Barry was a lifelong resident of Somerville. He passed away peacefully at home on Sunday the 8th. He was 70 years old. He was born in Boston raised in Somerville. Patrick was the beloved son of the late Francis J. and Francis L. Ross-Barry. Patrick's greatest joy was spending time with his family, especially his grandchildren, watching them grow, achieve and accomplish their goals filled him with pride and happiness. Family truly meant everything to him. He loved sports, baseball, football. He had a special passion for softball.

And he also enjoyed testing his luck betting horses. He was also a proud and devoted... Grehandog Tutank, whom he adored. He was the beloved father of Patrick Barry and his fiancee, Heidi Donovan, Dawn Barry, and Kristen Cabral. Devoted Grandfather of Jacqueline Barry, Michaela Barry, Caitlin Cabral, and Alex Cabral Cherished Brother of Linda Mealy and her husband Joe Thomas Barry and his wife Dolly, Michael Barry, Philip Barry, Paul Barry and his wife Sue, Dave Barry and the late Susan Foster, and Mark Barry. He's also lovingly survived by many nieces and nephews. and many people in this room probably elsewhere know the Barry family. You know his brother Tom works for the City of Somerville DPW. I grew up with his son Patrick who I keep in my thoughts and prayers this evening. and all of the Barry family and friends. Well, thank you.

Second to last, we have Stephen Hardy passed away recently. Stephen Hardy of Somerville passed away on the 5th. He was the beloved son of the late Alfred and Claire Hardy, loving father of Karen Lee, I'm sorry, of California, Caitlin Hardy of Somerville, devoted brother of Alfred. Dianne, Raynor, Claire Whalen, Patricia Benoit, Colleen Corey, Thomas Hardy, and the late Donna Hardy, James Hardy, John Hardy, Barbara Nichols, and Timothy Hardy also survived by his loving aunts, uncles, and nieces. Stephen was born and raised and educated in Somerville. He worked many years as a master plumber for the city of Somerville, and he was the proud owner of Hardy Plumbing. Three-time past president and long-time member of the Somerville City Club, Stephen was a life A long time men's and women's softball coach where he won multiple championships.

He was an avid Boston sports fan and loved being close to the beach. He will be missed by all. And on Steven, I'll just say I know him, most of these folks I know, and I know Steve pretty well. His daughter played softball with my daughter. And he was just a really great guy. Just a heart of gold. I can't say enough nice things about Steve. He will be missed by everybody who knew him. He was definitely a larger than life character. And then finally, George Mazio of Florida, formerly of Somerville, passed away peacefully surrounded by family. George was born and raised in Somerville's Winter Hill neighborhood where he attended St. Ann's and Somerville High School. A roofer by trade, he was known for his strong work ethic and pride in his craft. George cherished his family and valued time spent together.

George was pre-deceased by his parents Joseph and Joanne Garner, both Mazio, and his beloved twin brother John Mazio. He is survived by his siblings Tara Mazio-Jackson and her husband Bobby. and Joseph Mazio and his wife Robin, his nieces Sadie and Tatum, and his nephew Joseph, and many loving aunts, uncles, and friends who will miss them dearly. So I just ask that you keep all of these folks and their families in our thoughts and prayers this evening and honor them with a moment of silence. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Clingan. Councilor Strezo?

I want to honor and remember Patricia Kalanon. who served in Somerville and brought Somerville to where we are today. She was an alderman at large, an active PTA member, She joined Somerville's Mayor Michael Capuano's administration, retired as a purchasing agent for the city. She spent her summers in Cape Natick and Maine. Her greatest joy was being a grandmother. She shared her love of the beach with her grandchildren, spending countless days with them and enjoying the sand and surf in both Florida and Maine. May your memory be for a blessing.

Thank you for those. Would everyone in the chambers please stand as you are able and recognize a moment of silence for the aforementioned individuals. Thank you. Alright, next item, Madam Clerk.

That brings us to agenda item 1.3, approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of January 8th, 2026.

Seeing no objection, that item is approved. Next item.

Next item is a citation by Councillor Davis commending Dan Moore on the auspicious occasion of his retirement after 12 years of distinguished service in the Communications and Community Engagement Department.

We have someone here to speak to this item? Thank you. Please just introduce yourself for the record and go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. President. My name is Gabriela Portillo-Perez. I'm the Deputy Director of Constituent Services. Unfortunately, Dan isn't able to be here with us tonight, but I do have some remarks on his behalf I'd like to read. Mr. President, members of the City Council, and guests, thank you. I am profoundly grateful for this citation and for this moment. I really wish I could be here to see you all in person and accept this honor personally. Instead, I'm currently at physical therapy, likely having my quadriceps folded into an origami crane. So, thank you for allowing me to be here in spirit. When I started my career at City Hall, I was immediately inspired by the long and dedicated service of folks like Anna Ciccarello, George Wood, John Long, and Nick Salerno. They set a standard for what it means to serve Somerville, and I've spent the last 12 years trying to live to that example. It's not common these days for people to stay with one employer for very long.

Before finding my place at City Hall, the longest I'd ever held a position was three years. I think that turnover happens because it's incredibly rare to find work that is deeply rewarding and even rarer to find an employer that truly reciprocates loyalty. The City of Somerville is that special exception. I was dealt with a tough hand with my health but I was privileged to have a director who pulled out every stop to accommodate me so that I could keep working as long as possible. And when my MS progressed to the point where it was simply no longer possible to continue, My team, Therese Frazier, Matthew Filion, and Colin Bell, stepped up to the breach to fill the void. I even had colleagues from my department and others offering to donate their own sick time to me. That support made it easy to want to stay. My love for the City of Somerville and the people who live, work, play, and raise families here will be with me for life. I am eager to see how this administration, the City Council, and our departments rise to meet the challenges facing our city.

I'll leave you with one final thought. As you continue the great work for the city, please remember to clear your browser cache, enable two factor authentication, and never click a link that promises you a free gift card. Thank you so much, Dan Moore.

Gary Herring.

Let me read the citation into the record, and then I'll bring it over there, okay? Be it hereby known that the... The Somerville City Council and the Mayor offer their sincerest commendations to Dan Moore on the auspicious occasion of his retirement after 12 years of distinguished service to the City. His legacy includes spearheading a revamp of the website, bridging the gap between residents and online resources, and delivering creative problem solving with the highest quality web service to all. Offered this 12th day of February, 2026.

Mr. President, can I say a word while you walk that over? I know we have a long agenda. I just want to briefly say my third or fourth year as a counselor. I worked with Dan, but we were putting together Constituent of Ant and it involved a lot of updating the website and making various forms that the public could use and it was genuinely like awe-inspiring how good Dan was at his job. It was one of the most Seamless, just perfect kind of professional. I just totally, I think about it all the time for a model of how good someone can be at their job and how helpful someone can be. And I'm sure that everyone who interacted with Dan had that same experience. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for that. All right. A quick housekeeping note. So we have, I think, was it at the last meeting we had zero? Public hearings. Well, I definitely jinxed us. This entire page and a few extra on the next page. So we've got a lot of public hearings. After the public hearings, we're going to hear a few items out of order. We'll first take up the item 6A, which is the Committee on Appointments and Personnel Matters report. Then item 4.11, then 7.15. We will then go into executive session for hopefully not too long. and that will be related after executive session the related item is 713 we'll take that up and then following that item 7.22 for immediate consideration and then we'll start the meeting All right, so with that, Madam Clerk, would you please read the next item?

3.1 a grant of location Comcast applying for a grant of location to install a total of 133 feet of conduit in Highland Avenue from existing manhole 44 over 164 to a point of pickup at 393 Highland Avenue

All right, I hereby declare this public hearing open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Is that somebody online? No one online?

Robert Rugman, Utility Coordinator for Comcast I'm just here to get a grid to location for that 133 feet from an existing manhole on Highland Ave to service 393 Highland Ave.

Okay, thank you. Anyone else here to speak on the item? No hands on line? All right, I declare that the public hearing to be closed. Is there any discussion? All right, seeing none, that item is approved. Next item. Thank you.

Item 3.2, a grant of location from Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 640 feet of conduit in Broadway from existing manhole 1798 to existing manhole 24058 next to 167 Broadway.

Alright, I declare this public hearing open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Do we have a resource wrap? Okay. I'm pausing here because we usually have an Eversource rep online to speak to these items. No one here. All right, let's lay this item on the table. Next item.

Item 3.3, a grant of location from Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 54 feet of conduit in Benton Road from utility pole 79 over 1 to a point of pickup at 2 Benton Road.

We laid item 3.2 on the table, so implicit that I didn't close the public hearing, but suspended the public hearing while it's laid on the table. We'll call it that. On 3.3, on this item, I now declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on this item? See none. I think this is going to be a common theme here. So we will adjourn the, or I guess temporarily close the public hearing. We'll lay that item on the table. The reason I'm doing this is because I want to see if we can get a representative here from Eversource to speak to any of these, if there's any questions. Councilor Scott?

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm texting with Jackie Duffy right now. She's doing Arlington City Council.

Okay. Shall we lay all of the Eversource items on the table then? Which is the remainder is... 3.2 through 3.13. Any objection to doing that? I'd prefer to have, even if it's for Ms. Duffy, just to repeat the item, and sometimes she has information on it.

Mr. Chair, I'd move to lay these items on the table and pick them back up either later tonight or next week. But I would also request, if there are any members of the public here, give them a chance.

Thank you, Mr. President. I also want to note we have an item on our agenda later that is a public comment related to all of the Eversource items. It's file 260259. So whenever we take these back up the table, I just want to take that up also. Thank you, Councilor Hardt.

I was just going to ask if there were any members of the public yeah so let's let me ask this is a bit we'll take up items 3.4 through 3.13 Together, briefly, these are all grant applications for Eversource. Is there anyone in the room or online here to speak to any of these items? if so if you're online please use the raise hand function okay a couple here so so so we don't make you all wait let's take up those items can you let me know which which item it is sir 3.12. So let's take up item 3.12 out of order. Madam Clerk, would you read that item for us, please?

Agenda item 3.10 excuse me 3.12 a grant of location Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 452 feet of conduit and one new manhole three two five 61 in Summer Street from utility pole 325 over 28 to three points of pickup at 156, 157, and 162 Summer Street.

All right, I declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Sir, please approach and introduce yourself for the record.

Okay, good to know.

Thank you. I'm the landlord for 156-158 Summer Street. Unfortunately... Could you state your name, please? Sure. It's Kevin Foley. Thank you. The name of our company is Locatelli Properties. Unfortunately, Eversource isn't here, but we've been working with the city and Eversource for several weeks. This is an emergency situation. We have a tight site. We need to get this put in place to meet requirements for both our insurance company and our mortgage company. So I think it's very straightforward.

Okay, thank you. I understand that we do have an Eversource representative here with us now online. Emily Sweeney, you should be able to unmute yourself. Sorry, did I get the name wrong? Emmy McSweeney, I was very close, I apologize. Emmy, are you able to unmute yourself on your end? I love technology. Is there any reason that Emmy would not be able to mute themselves and would be under our control?

All right, while we try to get Emmy available to speak with us, let's lay this item on the table and go to the, I saw that another hand in the room for someone here to speak an item. Which item is it? 3.8. So let's lay 3.12 on the table and take up item 3.8. Madam Clerk, would you please read that into the record?

3.8 of grant of location from Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 62 feet of conduit in Ivaloo Street from Utility Pole 179 over 5 to a point of pickup at 38 Ivaloo. Aivalou Street.

All right. I now declare the public hearing to be open on that item. Is there anyone here to speak on the record? Please step forward and introduce yourself.

Chris Duan from 26 Aivalou. I would just ask that the utility company take into consideration I believe it was only two blocks long. We have not less than three doubled poles and multiple lines that are laying against the few remaining trees that we have. I would ask that fixing those be a condition of proving this.

Okay, is there anyone else here to speak on the item? presumably Emmy McSweeney, who we still can't get able to speak. Scott.

Thank you, Mr. President. To be honest with you, I'm not sure exactly how to frame those conditions, so what I would request is to send this item to committee. So that the License and Permits Committee can work with Eversource to ensure proper conditioning on it. So that they can take up our master list of double polls, which is an item that I don't want lost as we transition to a new L&P chair. Thank you, sir.

All right. So we'll leave that laid on the table for the moment to see if we can get... Is there anyone else here to speak on any of the public hearings, any of the grants of location? In the chambers, online, raise your hand if so. Scott. All right, seeing none, let's leave the remainder of the items. Mr. Chair. Yeah, Councilor Scott.

There are two more that I would request that we do send to committee as well. Go ahead. That would be item number 3.4 regarding the 10 Oak Street and item 3.11, the 91 Prospect Street location grants. Those are both owned by the same I'd like to have a moment in committee to take a look at that. Thank you.

All right, so I think I'm now I'm inclined as I think about 3.8. I think if these are going to go to committee, there's no reason to lay on the table. So if there's no objection or discussion, we will send item 3.4, 3.8, and 3.11 to licenses and permits. And then the remainder of 3.1 through 3.13 lay on the table in hopes that we can hear from our Eversource reps and otherwise, you know, as Unless there's any other objections, we'll move forward on those tonight. But we will lay those on the table. So that's going to bring us to our first out of order item then, Madam Clerk.

Mr. President, I think 3.1, we did have the hearing, didn't we?

Oh, did I start with 3.2? Yeah, yeah, sorry. So 3.1, that item is approved. Did I not say that?

That brings us to agenda item 6.A, 6.A1, Committee Report. Report of the Committee on Confirmation of Appointments and Personnel Matters, meeting on February 2nd, 2026.

Councilor Mbah. Thank you, Mr. President. The committee met on February 2nd, and the committee members voted to recommend approval of the city's chief administrative officer, new parks and recreation director, and For the position of Chief Administrative Officer, the Mayor has chosen Kimberly Wells. who has served as a city clerk for the past five years. Her skills of organizations and interpersonal relations are well known to city council members and she is highly respected. She has already established relationship with all the city agencies and the committee members expressed our expectation and that she will be an effective manager and strategist. For the police department, the committee voted to recommend the approval of two senior officers who have been promoted from their ranks.

Lieutenant Diogo de Oliveira, who has been with the department for 20 years. will be promoted to captain. He will head the community policing program under which the department is developing the techniques of co-policing. That is response to emergencies with teams of both law enforcement officers and social service professionals. We believe that Officer de Oliveira is well prepared for this work. Giving his past record of working on community programs and his multiple skill set in language. Similarly, Sergeant Sami Missoudi, a 13-year Somerville officer, will be promoted to lieutenant. He, too, is multilingual and has worked closely with several community groups, teen and immigrant families.

For the position of Parks and Recreation Director, the Mayor has proposed an experienced Parks Agency Director who will come to Somerville from Hartford, Connecticut. He will be new to Somerville. He brings rich experience from past work with children and youth sports and recreation programming, as well as with the administrative agency and financial management. Finally, the Committee had a useful discussion about the procedures and standards of evaluation that should apply to the hiring of any support staff for the City Council, as provided in the new City Charter. This will be an ongoing conversation that we will have with the new city clerk. I ask that the committee report be accepted as submitted, Mr. President.

Is there any discussion on the report? All right, seeing none, that item is approved, and that brings us to some promotions. Folks, come on up and take the oath. Anyone who wants to take pictures, please feel free. This is your chamber. Come on right up, right inside here, anywhere you want to go. Get a good angle. Don't hesitate. If you want, feel free to come in the middle of the horseshoe too, if you want to get a better angle for pictures. Yeah, absolutely, anywhere you want to go.

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And I should have noted before, after we're done with these, we will take a recess so that you all can take some pictures in here and have lots of space for all the pictures you want after we get through the next one.

We will take a brief recess to finish these pictures. And like I said, we can take a much more in the front here if you want.

Alright folks, come on back. Let's get back to work.

Are you able to hear me now?

Hello?

Are you able to hear me? I tried calling in.

All right, I call this meeting back to order. We have a quorum. We are going to go back. My understanding is we now have the Eversource representative available to speak. So let's go back to item 3.2, reopen that hearing. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Can you hear me now?

Emmy McSweeney?

Yes, I tried calling in because the computer was a problem.

We can hear you. Thank you so much. Sorry about the technical glitch. Go right ahead.

Thank you, Lord, and I apologize. That was stressful. Okay, so I'm ready here.

Actually, Madam Clerk, can you read that one back in just a wee?

Item 3.2, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 640 feet of conduit in Broadway from existing manhole 1798 to existing manhole 2-4-0-5-8 next to 1-6-7 Broadway.

All right. Amy McSweeney from Eversource on the item. Emma, are you still there?

It's been a hard night. Can you hear me? There you are. Am I back? Go ahead. This is Nick. No, it's to provide service to a 114 unit dwelling building as well as four retail spaces.

Okay, thank you. Is there anyone else here to speak on the item? If you're online, please use the raise the hand function. All right, seeing none, I declare the public hearing closed. Any discussion on the item? Councilor Ewen-Campen.

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you to the representative of Eversource. So the council received a public comment relevant to all of these, and I just want to briefly describe it, if that's okay. So this resident reached out to Somerville's local 311 system about a street light that's out of service at 35 Holland Street. And the response he got from the city was, We believe the underground feeds were destroyed during the road work. We have multiple calls into Eversource in regard to many different underground electrical services being cut during road construction, and they do not respond. There's nothing we can do. We're not allowed to work in the manholes. That's the end of the quote.

So we're hearing from residents. Let me just interject there. We're probably doing this a little backwards. Let's read that item into the record. Sure. So that we can take it up and we'll take it up together with each of the following ones.

Agenda item 10.7 public communication from Christopher Bland submitting comments re items 26-0175 through 26- 0186 and 26-0187 Eversource applying for grants of location.

Back to you, Councilor Ewen-Campen. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. So look, no one here on the council wants to delay important electrical work that needs to get done, and obviously this is not Your fault. But this is completely unacceptable, right? That the city is putting in multiple calls to Eversource saying you have cut electrical equipment. And then apparently we're not getting a response according to the city. So what I'm asking is a commitment from you that you'll work with your colleagues at Eversource to make sure that this particular light of 35 Holland Street and others that you hear about from the city will be repaired.

It definitely will. I will talk to Eddie tomorrow first thing when I get there. And it's his crews that go out there and I'll have him fix it. Send someone out.

great thanks and a number of these items are going to committee so if we don't get a follow-up we can talk about it then too thank you

Thank you, Councilor Campen. Councilor Chazzo, did you have something else?

Not on this item, but...

Okay, let me know when you're in. So we have another hand up, so I will reopen the public hearing. Is it on... What's the name? Kelly-Ann, is it on this item relating to 167 Broadway?

So hi, I'm Kellyanne Correa. I'm from Eversource. I actually work with Emmy. And I just want to speak on... The remarks that the calls made into the 311 system, the 35 Holland, etc. We do have standing meetings with the city DPW and city engineer, um, weekly or bi-weekly on these I'm not always in attendance on those hearings so this is actually the first I heard of this that there are several complaints in but um I just want to assure you we've certainly address that directly with the city and work with you to get these resolved as soon as possible.

Thank you, Mr. President, through you. Thank you. Any other discussion on the Item 3, Part 2 or 10.7? No? Okay. Do we want to send that one to sustainability infrastructure for follow-up? No? The comments. Comments? Yes, please. All right, let's send 10.7 to sustainability infrastructure for follow-up on that. And... Yeah, is there any other discussion? Anyone else? Okay, so that public hearing is now closed. So 10.7 will be placed in the file with a copy to Sustainability Infrastructure 3.2. With no further discussion, that item is approved. All right, next item.

Mr. President, can I also, we have some members of the audience here to speak on 4.16 as well.

Okay, let's get through the grants application.

Absolutely, but I'm asking to be put that in the hopper of the taken out of order. 4.16.

Next item.

Agenda item 3.3, a grant of location from Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 54 feet of conduit in Benton Road from utility pole 79 over 1 to a point of pickup at 2 Benton Road.

All right, reopen this public hearing. We have anyone to speak on this item?

Yes, it's Emmy again. Okay, go ahead. This is to provide service to number two Benton Road and it will be going northerly from pole 79 over 1 approximately 115 feet north of Summer Street. We'll install approximately 54 feet of conduit to service them.

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

Agenda item 3.5, grant of location from Eversource, applying for a grant of location to install a total of 28 feet of conduit in Gilman Street from utility pole 142 over 3 to a point of pickup at 13 Gilman Street.

All right, to clear this public hearing open, is there anyone here to speak on the item?

All right, so I am here to speak on this item, and this is to provide a service to one of your constituents, to provide elective service to the house.

Okay. Any other, anyone else here to speak on this item? No? Okay, seeing none, I'll declare the public hearing closed. Is there any discussion? All right, seeing none, that item is approved. All right, next item.

Agenda item 3.6, a grant of location from Aversor supplying for a grant of location to install a total of 10.5 feet of conduit in Hudson Street from utility pole 202 over 4 to a point of pickup at 17 Hudson Street.

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

Yes, Emmy McSweeney, and this is the same. We will be providing service to the location at 17 Hudson Street to power that post.

All right, is there anyone else here to speak on the item? As a reminder, if you're online, use the raise hand function. All right, seeing no one, then the item is approved. Sorry, public hearing is closed. Any discussion? No? All right, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.7, a grant of location from Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 35 feet of conduit in Belmont Street from utility pole 27 over 9 to a point of pickup at 37 Belmont Street.

All right, reopen the public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

yes Emmy is here to speak on the item and we will be installing conduit on Benton Street to provide service to 37 number 37. all right very good anyone else here to speak on the item

All right, seeing none, the public hearing is closed. Is there any discussion? No? No? Okay, then that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.9, a grant of location from Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 12 feet of conduit in White Street from utility pole 648 over 2 to a point of pickup at 44 White Street.

All right, and now to clear the public hearing open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Amy McSweeney?

A resource? And this is to provide service to 44 White Street. to power their house.

Okay. Anyone else here to speak on the item? No. All right. Seeing none, I declare the public hearing closed. Is there any discussion? No. All right. The item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.10, a grant of location from Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of two feet of conduit in Franklin Avenue from utility pole 133 over 5 to a point of pickup at 60 Franklin Street.

All right, I now declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Emmy McSweeney.

All right, so Emmy McSweeney from Eversource, and we are installing conduit to provide service to 60 Franklin Street.

Anyone else here to speak on the item? No, all right, I declare the public hearing closed. Is there any discussion? I see none, that item is approved. Next item.

Item 3.12, a grant of location from Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 452 feet of conduit and one new manhole 32561 in Summer Street from utility pole 325 over 28 to three points of pickup at 156, 157, and 162 Summer Street.

All right, and now to clear the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Yes, Emmy McSweeney again. This is to provide service, resident service along Summer Street. This one was discussed, I believe, because the manhole had to be relocated because there was a bike lane in the that was installed. So everyone agreed to install the manhole in the sidewalk.

Okay, thank you for that. Anyone else here to speak on the item?

Just so it wouldn't impede anyone. Kelly has her hand raised.

I see Kellyanne Correa with your hand raised. Do you want to speak on this item?

Yeah, hi. Just quickly some clarification for the council.

Just for the record on this item, you represent Eversource, correct?

Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I'm the supervisor for rights and permits for Eversource. Just some clarification on this item. A portion of this conduit in the manhole had been approved on a grant of location back in, I believe, March of this... and nothing has been installed yet. We actually have additional conduit coming from this same manhole. But since the time the grant was originally approved, the bike lane had been kind of revitalized, repaired, installed, whatever. But it's actually a raised bike lane now. The manhole could not go where the grant originally approved it. So the city had asked us to move the manhole out into the roadway, which was fine for this petition. That wasn't going to work either. It was too close to the gas line and over the sewer line. So we did meet with DPW. We agreed to put the manhole on the sidewalk.

But for the sake of clarification, we're including the conduit for this petition plus the conduit and the manhole that were previously approved. This is the new design. So we just want to grant for this the whole scope of all this work. So it all goes installed. and everyone's on the same page as to where everything is. Okay, thank you. Does that make sense?

Anyone else here to speak on the item? I see none. I declare the public hearing closed. Is there any discussion? So I have a question actually just in terms of putting a manhole cover on a sidewalk. Can you speak to what measures are taken to ensure that that doesn't impact accessibility for folks for whom a manhole in the sidewalk might be an issue?

Yeah, it's a pretty standard installation. The covers of the manhole are flush with the sidewalk so it does meet ADA requirements. It doesn't impede any pedestrian access or use of the sidewalk there.

Okay, thank you for that. Any further discussion? Councilor Link?

Yeah, through you, Mr. President. I'm just curious how long the sidewalk would remain. I'm assuming that it's going to be, parts of it will be demolished and impassable. So I'm just curious how quickly that's going to be made whole again.

So I'm not sure the time frame they asked for the whole scope of the job. What would happen is they would install the manhole first because they need somewhere to connect all the conduit. So I'm going to say... about a week in the sidewalk area if I had to pick it'll be like a rolling work zone so they'll they'll work at the manhole area and then they'll do the conduit in pieces or sections they're not going to enclose like the entire scope of that 400 feet for the whole duration of work out there Any kind of pedestrian traffic that meets the sidewalk will just kind of be rerouted around the area. We always have police details and then any type of Road work we're doing there'll be at least one lane of travel remain open at all times and again police detail to direct traffic through the work zones.

It'll be more than a week total for the total 400 feet, but the sidewalk area with the original installation, I would say a couple of days later. Not being the construction person, so to the best of my knowledge.

All right. Mr. President, thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, okay, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.13, a grant of location from Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 40 feet of conduit in Leland Street from utility pole 201 over 3 to a point of pickup at 321 Washington Street.

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

Yes, this is Emmy McSweeney. We are installing the 40 feet of conduit to service 321 Washington Street.

Okay, anyone else here to speak on the item? Okay, seeing none, I'll declare the public hearing closed. Any discussion? Councilor Scott? It's a Ward 2 item, but I'll let it go. Thank you. All right, seeing no further discussion, then that item is approved.

Thank you.

All right, that will take us back to our out-of-order items, right? And I think we had one more request for an out-of-order item that's 416.

Yes, Mr. President, I jumped the gun on that. I do want that taken out of order. I have my mic on. It's on. I jumped the gun between the public hearings so whoopsie I thought we were complete with that but yes if we could put it before the executive session let's keep the order that we planned but we'll do that one before the executive thank you okay

So then that brings us to, I believe it was item 411 is the next one?

Agenda item 411, a resolution by Councilor Hardt, Councilor Ewen-Campen, and Councilor McLaughlin supporting the Fourth Amendment rights provided in the Constitution of the United States.

Councilor Hardt?

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, would you mind reading the resolution, please?

Thank you.

Whereas the City of Somerville has historically pursued equity and safety for all residents and whereas the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees a right against unreasonable searches and seizures, including warrantless searches or seizures by means of warrants issued without probable cause, and whereas federal law enforcement agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement have recently engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional warrantless workplace searches which have disrupted small businesses, dining establishments, construction sites, factories, transit hubs, and courts in many cities. and whereas the threat of unconstitutional seizure by federal law enforcement officers is preventing a growing number of households from safely engaging in public life including pursuing education, healthcare, and employment and whereas these warrantless workplace raids Excuse me.

Whereas families and individuals who are black, indigenous, Hispanic, and people of color with citizenship or legal status are also being unconstitutionally targeted, harassed, and arrested by federal law enforcement officers under the guise of immigration enforcement. and whereas the warrantless workplace raids are conducted in a discriminatory fashion that harms lawfully present and authorized workers such as holders of temporary protected status, TPS, despite having legal authorization to work in the United States, These individuals are subjected to intimidation, detention, and disruption based on their appearance or perceived immigration status and whereas the city can help to serve as an example for local businesses and can advocate for the rights of all residents and can discourage overreach by federal law enforcement in our community,

now therefore be it resolved that the Somerville City Council request that this city of Somerville affirm its commitment and excuse me I've just lost my place Affirm its commitment and continue to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, inclusive of the Fourth Amendment, and that the Mayor work to provide training to City staff to effectuate this, and be it further resolved that the City provide information and resources on the Fourth Amendment rights of residences and local businesses and be it further resolved that the Somerville City Council encourages residents and employees of local businesses to educate themselves

and share information about their Fourth Amendment rights and be it further resolved that the Somerville City Council encourages businesses to take steps to protect the rights of employees against unlawful search and seizure including by posting signage on identified private spaces within the business and signage outside of the business acknowledging their rights, the rights of their workers, and the rights of their patrons in accordance with the Constitution of the United States of America.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I also want to thank my colleagues from Wards 1 and 3 for collaborating with me on this and I also appreciate working with the Mayor's Office and Office of Immigrant Affairs. I wanted to bring this resolution forward because we're seeing Somerville losing part of what makes it such a special and vibrant place. We're seeing small businesses have to close and seeing people afraid to go to work or gather with their neighbors. So I think it's important that we as a city, the city council, business owners, community members, affirm the importance of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, and specifically the Fourth Amendment, and that we all educate ourselves about what our rights are. The Fourth Amendment says that the government can't intrude into your private property or seize people or property unless they have a warrant. To get a warrant, the government must have a reasonable belief that a crime has been or is about to be committed. and the warrant must specifically describe the place to be searched and the person or property to be seized.

In other words, law enforcement agencies must follow well-defined procedures to ensure that individuals rights are not violated. This amendment has been the foundation of our personal privacy and security for over 200 years. I've heard many stories from community members about the importance of these rights, and I want to sponsor a couple of people to speak to this. But first, I want to read a statement from a small business owner in Somerville. And recognizing the risks that immigrants are facing right now, it will be anonymous. This is the quote. I have been in this country for 31 years, and the Fourth Amendment has never been more important. Knowing our rights as business owners and making sure our employees know theirs is one way we can create a safer working place for everyone. including our customers. Most of our employees and customers are immigrants and it's important to us that everyone knows that they are safe and welcomed in our business.

That is why we have participated in small business Know Your Rights training and it gives us the tools we need to operate in this changing world. at the end of the quote. Thank you. All right, now I'd like to sponsor a couple of speakers if they could come forward. Yesenia Alfaro, Jack Kinsla, and David Gibbs.

Hardt would like to sponsor the aforementioned speakers. Seeing no objection, go right ahead please. When you speak, just introduce yourself, your name for the record please.

Good evening everybody. Good evening, Chairman and members of the committee. It is really Warming my heart to hear such a great, you know, Resolution, but let me start because I'm going to start crying here now. My name is Yesenia Alfaro and I'm from the City of Chelsea speaking today on behalf of the United Food and Commercial Local 1445. I and the business agents represent the vast majority of the workers that are working in the industry of the laundries that are for the most part clean the clothes for our hospitals in the city and for many hotels. I represent over 600 workers of these industrial laundry facilities

for some of you have already supported me and have met those members in face-to-face by walking to those at those locations i just wanted to speak strongly in favor of the four amendment uh resolution 26-0245. Both of you here, some of you have heard on the resolution that many of these workers have already achieved, whether the citizenship, have green cards, Have some TPS and other people from different processes such as asylums or petitions through their family members. So I'm here today in this In this aspect, because of these plans, we have seen already issues with the I-9 audit and put a lot of our members

Some fear that I bring them the fear to even come to work even though they have documentation status. The fear is there regardless of the status. Many of these people Have fully family members that vary status. When this issue arise, we have been able to discuss the situation and find solutions with our employers that allow With our employers that does not allow immigration officials to enter unless they have a judicial warrant looking for a specific person. We fully understand that no employer or city officials can get in the way of enforcement action in such cases.

But it makes a lot of sense that employers should refuse to voluntarily allow the agents when it comes to have a journey reason To suspect there is someone at the facility who they should be looking for. You are taking an action on this sensitive matter and I'm from the City of Chelsea and the City of Chelsea has also been impacted and I will applaud anything that you are doing here for our citizens. I always feel Welcome to the city of Somerville. I did reside in the city of Somerville for five years, which I enjoyed. And I enjoyed the fire department that was next to my house at that time on Highland Street. I do enjoy coming to work and representing my members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President, councillors. My name is Jack Kensla. I live in Boston, but I'm the political director for UFCW Local 1445. So like Yesenia mentioned, we have over 600 members working at the two laundries in Somerville. And then we also have members working at the two stop and shops and a cannabis dispensary In Davis Square. So over 800 members in total working in the city of Somerville. As she mentioned, we have We've experienced firsthand the fear and stress that these actions bring into our shops when there's even a report that ice might be nearby. We've seen reports from all over the country about how careless ICE can be when it comes to verifying who it is that they're picking up so that a lot of people with valid employment statuses or even US citizens are whisked away to the other side of the country in less than 24 hours. They're racially profiling and assuming the worst of anyone that they come into contact with.

So we're proud that Somerville is considering to take this stand like a lot of other communities in the greater Boston area. We believe it's important to do so to ensure that immigration agents follow due process and know who they're looking for. When they begin enforcement actions, business owners have the right to demand to see a judicial warrant and to refuse entry if there isn't one. And if they care about the workers, they should insist on doing so every single time. We've put language that kind of makes that same demand of business owners in a lot of our contracts that we have throughout the area. and a lot of times the companies do agree not to voluntarily allow officers into the facility when they don't have a warrant signed by a judge who decides that there is probable cause to enter.

We think that the city passing an ordinance like this really sends a strong message to the local businesses in the city that city officials will stand by them and they don't have to kind of act on their own Be more out on a limb. The Constitution of the United States doesn't limit itself to protecting the rights of citizens, but to all people who reside here. The climate of fear as we're all aware is very serious right now and people who've lived here for years and done everything the right way are being punished because they don't look like Americans. The fear leads to more opportunities for bad business owners to exploit workers in the forms of wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and mistreatment because

Threatened workers don't want to have their names on government documents if they were to go through the Attorney General's office to report such things. And from the experiences from some of the stuff that we see on a daily basis, Yesenia and I, we know that that level of fear creates a lower bar for everyone and allows more of that exploitation. and so that's why we think it's really important to be here tonight speaking for our members who might not feel as confident to speak for themselves We see that this has an impact on all workers, whether they're citizens or non-citizens, immigrants or native-born. So we encourage you to pass this resolution, and we thank you for taking the time to consider it tonight.

Good evening, friends. I think I know everyone here. My name is David Gibbs. I live at 9 Linden Place here in Somerville, and I'm the executive director of the Community Action Agency of Somerville. Had the honor to serve in that role for a little over 11 years now. I'm here to speak strongly in favor of this resolution. I want to give you a little flavor of how the current ICE enforcement actions have impacted our work. Clark, and the clients that we serve who, as you know, are among the lowest income and most vulnerable people in the city. The major impact is in Head Start. We've seen impacts in our organizing program and our housing work. We've had a number of clients who were working with our housing advocates who suddenly were not there anymore. We have had to begin offering lift rides to organizing meetings for people who are afraid to leave their homes.

But in Head Start, we've really seen the impact. Since the inauguration of the current administration, we have lost three families directly who have been picked up and deported. and I would say we have lost roughly 20 families who have simply disappeared. They were enrolled in Head Start and then they stopped coming and with no explanation. What they had in common of course is that they all probably were first generation immigrants. In one way or another, we don't know, we don't ask, we don't keep records on that, but it's pretty clear what was going on. We have done a lot of training of our staff. We have signs up at all of our Head Start centers and at our offices in Union Square saying that this is a private space and you can't come in without permission. That feels awful.

For us to have to put up a sign that said, you can't come in here. Cass has never been that way for its entire existence, right? But now we have signs. I've personally worked with every single one of our teachers and staff members to help them understand what their rights are and what they should do in the event of an ICE action. That being said, and I will be brief here, ICE isn't following the rules. We know this and I can tell my teachers all I want ask them to show you a warrant. That's not going to really help if they break down the door. So I would urge in addition to passing this resolution, which I wholeheartedly support, that the city consider what it really means to support families and businesses in these circumstances.

I'll let you decide what that means I would have had the Minneapolis Police Department arrest the officers that shot those people on the spot that's one way to do it Anyway, that's all I've got to say. Thank you. Thank you.

Councillor Hardt, anything further?

Nothing further. Thank you.

Okay. Councillor McLaughlin and then Councillor Ewen-Campen as the named sponsors, and then we'll go...

Thank you, Mr. President, through you. Thank you, Councilor Hardt, for including me on this. We've had a number of Know Your Rights campaigns in the city, but I really wanted to sign on to this one because it specifically mentions the Fourth Amendment. It reminds us exactly what rights we're talking about here. The Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights was made because a king decided that we didn't have these rights. have the rights to be secure in our papers, to be protected from unlawful searches, from having troops quartered in our homes. I hope we don't get to that point. and it is very clear that the constitution is under attack and that's why this is more important than just protecting the immigrant community which is immensely important to us But this is about protecting everyone in this country and protecting the values that this country was founded on. So even if I've heard

I had an article in the Globe recently, I hope everyone reads it, about the role of ICE in the community. But I saw a lot of comments, some from people I know, who said, why don't you just comply? If you have a problem with these shootings, people being killed by ICE, why don't you just cooperate? Because if you just cooperated, this wouldn't be happening. And this is why we just can't comply and cooperate. Because even if we were cowardly enough, To turn our backs on the immigrant community, we'd be turning our backs on the Constitution and the rights that protect all of us. And that's why we can't back down. and that's why Somerville is not going to back down because we're not going to back off from the Constitution of the United States that protects everyone in this country regardless of the documentation status. So I'm happy to support this and I thank you for bringing it up and I hope everyone keeps this in mind when you're on the streets that you do have rights in this country.

Ewen-Campen, and then Strezo and Mbah.

Thank you, Mr. President, and through you, thank you to Councillor Hardt for your leadership on this and to our labor leaders, Director Gibbs for being here. I sometimes hear from residents Feeling like what's the point of knowing our rights given that we have a federal government that is so kind of disgustingly ignoring our rights, you know, kind of a cynicism around that. and I really really want to disagree with that. I understand that feeling where it comes from but I really don't think that that is the path we want to go down. I think it is incredibly important to know your rights, to inform your neighbors and businesses about their rights. Not only because we often hear about the most high profile situations gone awry, many other situations are in fact deescalated and stopped because people didn't know their rights. and also in the moment documenting, stating, recording that rights are being violated.

I think all of us can think of a million examples now of how powerful those moments actually have been. you know for the legal process but also for the for the public process to understand that basic core constitutional rights are being violated So I think a lot of us have supported Know Your Rights campaigns largely focused on residents. I'm really grateful for the emphasis on increasing those trainings to local businesses because of what we've seen about these workplace raids. In just such blatant contradiction to the premise of law and order in this country. So thank you again, Councillor Hardt, and thank you to everyone for being here tonight.

Thank you. Councillor Schozo?

Thank you, I wish to co-sponsor this resolution and I of course stand in support with this and also I do feel an intense need of course to expand our I am requesting that this be sent to Housing and Community Development and Economic Development. I do want Economic Development. Be considering and how this is continuously impacting our small businesses in Somerville and to help collaborate with us on a plan. and Active Steps. We are not helpless and we cannot watch helpless. As this keeps happening in our community and we must stand with our neighbors. There's no exception to that.

So that's what I'm requesting this be sent there. We need to keep talking about this.

Okay, Councilor Mbah. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Councilor Hardt for your leadership on this, and to my colleagues, also thanks Dave and the labor leaders, it takes courage to keep talking about this, you know? Especially just as an immigrant myself, it's... Really touches me a lot when I see this thing happening all the time and I've really wonder like what is like What is it that we should be doing that will actually have a lot of impact? Because this is still happening. McLaughlin said we know your right and everything. Just standing up for the Constitution and our neighbors.

I'm not sure what else we should be doing because we deserve to live and walk without fear. If you kind of like rate a workplace, it's really a constitutional violation that destabilizes families, small businesses, and then it also chills, brings chills on people. I know I've been intimidated a few times, you know, the past year, getting calls about, oh, what is, you know, the federal government is going to come attack all the Sanctuary Cities, or public officials that don't cooperate. I'm not sure what that means. And for us to continue to say these things, say these words, and say Somerville We will still have these constitutional protections here. It all matters.

Our local economy and community safety matters. And that will not normalize unlawful overreach. you know in our city this is something that will continue to pound on and David could mention something about like what is I think we need to find a way to engage our local law inform enforcement officers Not a community member. We cannot continue to put community members at odds with federal agents if they don't Observe and respect these protocols and laws we put in place. We have law enforcement officers in the city that should engage with them and our community members. We need to create that structure that will actually, you know, tell our law enforcement if they see somebody, you know, with masks, you cannot identify them, they need to be arrested, not community members.

We need our local law enforcement, they need to do more than just, you know, stay and say we are not engaging because this is how, you know, community members become vulnerable year in year out time and time and again. So I think just to your question, we need to actually empower our local law enforcement officers to arrest anybody that they deem suspicious. They will be protected. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. President, through you. Thank you, my colleagues. I'd like to sign on to this. I mean, of course, I'd like to sign on. One of the things, just in doing some research with regards to the way that ICE is twisting these administrative warrants, the irony here is that those type of warrants, administrative warrants, were sort of Granted and used as a tool for government agencies like OSHA and other places to go into slaughterhouses and meatpacking factories to make sure that safety compliance was being had. and now but it was never meant to do what they're doing now and so they're twisting these things and it's being fought out in the courts but like while the courts are battling people are being taken from our community So we need to stand together and wholeheartedly reject any type of entry to a workplace These warrants are not valid if they have one, and most times they probably don't.

We have to protect our residents by whatever means necessary. In the sense that, you know, standing together as a community, as was said even by the good representative from 1445, you know, obviously you can't stop them from busting beyond a door, but We can certainly send a strong message to businesses that we will support them in protecting their workers and hope that they will Make sure that everybody knows their rights and make sure that they know that they have rights. So thank you for putting this forward and happy to support.

Okay, before we go back to Councilor Hardt, Councilor Scott, Councilor Link, Councilor Mbah, myself, I'd like to sign on. Councilor Hardt.

Just briefly I wanted to mention and appreciate Mayor Wilson because the the executive order does include education and Support for the Fourth Amendment, in particular with businesses. So I really see this as complimentary and as a way to gather more Attention and Community Support and spread the word even further, but I definitely didn't want to not acknowledge that I really appreciate that that was in the executive order.

Sait would like to sign on. Do you want to speak to it as well? Councilor Sait, go ahead, and Councilor Wheeler would like to sign on.

Through you Mr. President, I just want to take a moment to thank Councilor Hardt for putting this resolution forward. Binwin-Campen and Councilor McLaughlin for co-sponsoring this resolution and for the labor leaders and Mr. Gibbs for speaking tonight for Sharing simply what their members, their clients are going through in these times. I think we're hearing about it, but hearing it from people who are working everyday with them is important. I really support this resolution. I really like that there's emphasis on what small businesses can do. It might feel Not much, but in my world at least I'm hearing from small businesses constantly. What can we do all together, not just some

of Immigrant-Owned Small Businesses, every single business posting this, working with the city to know what the rights are. would help here as a first step. So thank you for including that and for reminding us that we have rights and it's important to fight for those rights in these times. Thank you.

Thank you. I saw Mayor Wilson back there dutifully raise his hand. Would you like to say a few words? I'm happy to recognize you if so. And I appreciate your quietly raised hand.

Yeah, Mr. President, thank you for the recognition. I want to thank you all for bringing this forward, for the support of it. Happy report. It does align very nicely with the executive order that was signed and issued on Friday. If you have specific questions about the implementation, of the commitments made the obligations placed on the city with that executive order I would urge you to please reach out to the department or division head in question and have that conversation with them thanks Thank you.

Okay, seeing no discussion, then we will, that is approved with a copy to HECD. All right, so then the next item we said out of order is 715. Is that, I got that right? All right, excellent. Next item, Madam Clerk.

Agenda item 715, a request of the mayor requesting the appropriation of $167,168 from the salary contingency account to various departmental personnel services accounts to fund a collective bargaining agreement with the Somerville Municipal Employees Union, Union D.

We have Attorney Sergue here from the Law Department. Can you please just state your name for the record and go right ahead?

Good evening, Council. Matt Sergue, Labor Council for the City of Somerville. We're here tonight asking for immediate approval of an MOA covering fiscal years 23 to fiscal years 25 for Unit D of the Somerville Municipal Employees Union. This contract brings much needed updates to the wages for this group. It's a residual group of employees including some higher level staff and some specialized positions. It brings Needed improvements to wages, market adjustment in fiscal year 25, similar to the Unit B contract. Really great enhancements to the vacation benefit and vacation schedule, accelerating the rate at which employees are able to A crew vacation time and expanding the paid family and medical leave benefit that the city has offered to this group of employees and a bunch of other goodies that I'm happy to answer questions about if any of the council has questions.

Thanks for watching!

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm fully supportive of this. I'm really excited to get this done tonight. But before we do so, I would like to sponsor Mr. the distinguished Ed Halloran to say a few words about the contracts that

Scott would like to sponsor Ed Halloran. Seeing no objection, Mr. Halloran, right ahead.

Hello, everyone. My name is Ed Halloran. I have been the president of the Seminole Mission Employees Union for 19 years. That's a long time to be doing anything, you know? But obviously either they like me or they can't find anybody else to do this job. It's one or the other. I like to think that they like me. But this is a specialized unit. And we do have... ISD, Chief Inspectors, Recreation. Although it's a smaller unit, it's incredibly important. So I want to thank the previous administration, this administration, for all the hard work that they've done on this contract. and a year ago we just did the Unit B contract and that was about 240 people so we have about 300 people in the union and believe it or not once this is resolved we'll still be without a contract. because we are behind.

All four units, A, B, C, and D, well, C is the school nurses, but the A, the B, and the D will be without a contract, but I've been assured The city is going to be working with us on those to get those finally caught up. And that would be refreshing for us to see that. But I'm just asking you guys to help us out and take care of us. We're going to keep the city running like we always do. The snow, I know it's difficult. The DPW is doing all they can. They're going to be out there tonight on Beacon Street and Washington Street, cleaning up some of the areas out there. So I'm proud to work with them. I've been working with the city for 33 years, so obviously I like what I'm doing. And I'm still doing it. And I thank all you guys, really, for... For doing what you do. Appreciate it. There's been difficult times, and I realize that. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? So the administration did convey to me a hope that the council would take this up this evening. Move to approve, sir. Move to approve. Any discussion on the motion? Do we need a roll call for that one? No. All right. Seeing no objection, then, that is approved. All right, and so we will now take up, if there's no objection, we'll take up item 4.16.

Link. Agenda 416, a resolution by Councilor Link that the Director of Human Resources review the hiring for crossing guards, ensuring that the process and requirements are right size and not unnecessarily burdensome such that they deter qualified candidates.

Councilor Link. Thank you, yes. So having been a long appreciator of city council meetings, I've heard about the problems with hiring crossing guards. and I also talked to some some people who actually tried to get a job as crossing guards and I heard that there's some maybe There could maybe be some work right-sizing what it takes to become a crossing guard, especially for our non-native speakers. So I'd love to hear from HR. on how we can improve that and also maybe hear about our time to hire, application drop-off points, and what non-essential requirements we could potentially remove or reduce. Thank you.

Thank you. Before we go to other members, do you want to have a discussion in committee or do you want to follow up directly?

So I'd ask for it to be sent to confirmations and appointments. That's what I was thinking. Okay. Councilor Chazelle.

Thank you, and I'd like to thank Councilor Link for carrying on a lot of work that I've put forward in the years, and always happy to have a further discussion. I'm interested in putting in an order before on this or see where we've gone in over the past years and years and years that we've talked about this in Housing and Community Development and House School Committee as well. Always happy to have a conversation and catch you up on where we've been, the past and fails. And with that, I think that this is still important. We're still there. And so I would like to have a crossing guard speak on behalf of that with Miss Maggie Joseph from Ward 7 who wished and request to speak on this.

Streza would like to sponsor Mandy Joseph.

And I'd love to co-sponsor this too. I'd love to co-sponsor this too.

Very well. I see no objection. Please step forward and state your name for the record and go right ahead.

Hi, my name is Maggie Joseph. I am a crossing guard on West Somerville. I am talking on behalf of all those crossing guards, so regarding like We need more supplies and we need better gloves. So the gloves we have, it's like when we're on the streets or after five minutes and it's like freezing cold, you know, so that glove is not good. If you guys can provide us like with more gloves and also like you know like we on the streets so we are make sure the kids are safe and also we need to be safe also. I just like when it's snow I know I understand that I drove my car to look all those spots where's the crossing guard If it's clean and stuff like that, we need to make sure it's clean for us and to cost the kids for safety and also like if we can get more money.

Thank you. That's it.

Okay, thank you. Councilor Strezo.

And on this point, I think that that can always be a factor to consider as to why recruitment becomes difficult as well, and happy to have that further conversation sent forward to the committee.

Very good. Any further discussion? Councilor Mbah? Thank you, Mr. President, and to thank you to my colleague. You know, I'd like to sign on. That's my VIP there. Maggie, it's so good to see you, and she's one of the best CrossFit guys we have in the city, and we're lucky to have her out in West. Thank you for your service.

Okay, seeing no discussion, then that item is approved with a copy to Capham. Confirmation of appointments and personal matters for those following along at home. All right, next item is we're going to go into executive session, correct? All right, so let's see. Please read that item.

Agenda item 7.1, a request of the mayor requesting that this council convene in an executive session to discuss the matter of Joseph A. Sater, trustee of Highland Avenue Realty Trust versus City of Somerville.

Point of order, Mr. President. Point of order, just briefly. As someone who did not know what executive session meant when I was first watching council meetings, It might be helpful to just define what that is for anyone watching who might be about to be confused.

Absolutely. Always happy to welcome a little explanation. We have a member of the Law Department here. Would you mind providing that explanation for us since your expertise is more appropriate than mine?

Council President, thank you. Through you, since I'm here, yes. So executive session is a reason under Mass General Laws Chapter 30A for which a public body may go into a closed-door deliberation. There's approximately 12 or 13 enumerated reasons for which a public body may go into closed doors to have a deliberation usually related to the nature, always related to the nature of the conversation and some type of proprietary or discussion that warrants a closed-door discussion. So there is a procedure under 30A that requires the purpose be stated in the agenda, be stated beforehand, and the body note whether it will reconvene an open session. And that's what we're doing today.

I'm also here that the law department has reviewed the purpose for which this executive session has been called and has determined it is appropriate to enter executive session under section 21, subsection A3 of chapter 38.

Good, very well. We will return to open session following executive session. Do we need a roll call in here? Yeah, okay. So roll call to go into executive session.

So roll call to enter into executive session. Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Yes.

Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Scott?

Yes.

Councilor Clingan?

Yes.

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

Yes.

Councilor Hardt? Yes. McLaughlin, yes, Councilor Mbah, yes, Councilor Davis, yes. That is approved.

All right, as I said, we will return to open session following executive session. Thank you.

All right, we'll call this meeting back to order. No votes were taken in executive session other than the vote to exit executive session. That item was approved. And now the next item out of order relates to the topic Madam Clerk, could you read item 713, please? Oh, call the roll back, right, sorry.

and roll call to re-establish quorum after executive session. Councilor Ewen-Campen.

Here.

Councilor Link.

Here.

Councilor Scott.

Present.

Councilor Clingan.

Present.

Councilor Strezo. Here. Sait, here. Councilor Wheeler, here. Councilor Hardt, here. Councilor McLaughlin, here. Councilor Mbah, present. Councilor Davis, here. With all 11 Councilors present, we have quorum, yes. Agenda item 7.1. approved, and we are on to agenda item 713, a request of the mayor requesting the appropriation of $3.5 million from the unreserved fund balance free cash to the law department judgments and settlements account to fund the settlement of Joseph A. Sater, trustee of Highland Armory Realty Trust versus City of Somerville.

All right, any discussion? See none. Don't need a roll call on that, right? All right. Then that item is approved.

Next item is agenda item 7.22, a request of the mayor requesting approval of a transfer of $30,000 from the Health and Human Services salaries account to the professional and Technical Services account to fund increased costs associated with the FY2026 Warming Center.

I see Director Carroll is here. Do you want to speak to this item? Are you just here for questions?

Mr. President, I can speak to it.

Do us a favor, state your name for the record just so that everyone knew. Oh, do you want... State your name and title just for the record so that the folks watching at home know who you are.

I'm Karen Carroll, the Director of Health and Human Services. You, she, her pronouns. Thank you for having me here tonight. I am requesting The transfer of $30,000 from our lag salary funds personnel to our P&T line to further support the warming center. We've had higher than anticipated in budgeted activity and numbers there through this very cold winter. which is good to have this place for folks can go but we have run into some budget issues around food Tate, Transportation to and from the Warming Center. And we've also extended the security to have the coverage in the morning as well. So the external security just to assist with people moving to and from and leaving the shelter. The other thing that's built into that 30,000 is some extra

Shifts that we were able to have our housing families do some additional hours for the extremely cold days. So there was a Monday and a few mornings, at least keeping something open until our libraries are open. So that's kind of the gist of what that $30,000 is our expected budget or anticipated shortfall for these increased costs through till mid-April when the center closes.

Ewen-Campen.

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, I just wanted to thank all the staff who have been working on it. I know that these are responsive both to obviously issues of people who use the center, the really cold days, and also neighbors who have raised a number of issues. So I'm thankful and very supportive of this.

I go past the warming center regularly. I see that it's being used well, and I'm just so thankful that we have it.

Thank you, Mr. President. Again, thank you for your work for the city and approve.

All right. Councilor Mbah moves for approval. Any discussion on the motion? Councilor Wheeler?

Hi, I'm just curious about is this particular money available in the salary account because of understaffing or is it sort of a routine thing to have?

This is a relatively small amount compared to our overall salary budget. We have a couple of vacancies. We have a position that left on January 1. We don't have a lot of vacancies at the moment this year. But we do have a couple of things that are currently still unfilled. We're in the process of hiring a navigator position. So we have a few positions that have been unfilled for a little bit while we go through that process. So it's our salary lag funds, unspent salary.

Thank you, and thanks for your leadership and stewardship of the Warming Center.

All right, very well. Any further discussion on the motion? All right, seeing none, that item is approved. Shall we start the meeting? Thank you, Director. All right, that takes us back to our regular order of business. Madam Clerk, next item.

And that brings us to Agenda Item 4.1, an order by Councilor Mbah that the Chief of Police provide this Council with data on pedestrian and bicycle Calist, Enforcement Activities in the City.

Councilor Mbah. Self-explanatory, Mr. President. I think this came out of the finance report where there was like some Funding, that was, you know, that went into enforcement, but I wanted to ensure that, you know, the methodology was, you know, it's fair. So, and then the rest we can wait. Okay.

Scott would like to sign on any discussion all right that item is approved

Agenda item 4.2, a resolution by Councilor Mbah that the Chief of Police annually review pedestrian and bicyclist enforcement data to identify disparities in enforcement patterns across demographic or neighborhood lines and submit this data to this City Council.

Barty, you want to speak on that, too? It's also, yes, self-explanatory, and it actually builds off of the first. Very well.

Councilor Scott and Link would like to sign on. All right, seeing no further discussion, that I'd miss... Yep, Councilor Link as well, sign on. Yep. All right, that item is approved.

Next item is agenda item 4.3, a communication by Councilor Mbah conveying a report of the Job Creation and Retention Trust Fund.

Councilor Mbah. Thank you, Mr. President. I'll be brief. It's January 29 meeting. in the job creation retention trust review financial update discussed the withdrawal of one of its grantee and outlying priorities for 2026. So they trusted closed calendar year 2025 with 2.5 million in uncommitted reserves, including the final $500 for linkage payment from 74 Middlesex Avenue. and no additional linkage revenue is anticipated in the near term. Further details are available in the attach. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Councilor Beyer. Any discussion? Councilor Wheeler.

Mbah, I just wanted to highlight something from the report that caught my eye, the mention of job opportunities such as with biotech companies including transmedics. and the potential for students and other residents of Somerville to train to work in those companies that's an exciting prospect thank you

Thank you, Councilor Wheeler. You know, I think I've been trying to, like, constrain this report. I see a lot of people looking at me whenever I'm giving this report. I try to be as comprehensive as possible. That's why I now put it attached there. So that I don't have to, I don't have the most beautiful voice so people can read the attach. So just save that time. Thank you.

Excellent. Always good to highlight a few key nuggets in there. Any further discussion? I see none.

Item 4.4, a communication by Councilor Mbah conveying the year-end report of the Affordable Housing Trust.

Thank you again, Mr. President. In this year-end report to the city council, I provide my final update as council representative to the Affordable Housing Trust. outlining the trust financial status and the production outcomes while highlighting two emerging concerns requiring council oversight. Declining revenue growth and sharply escalating development costs. From 2015 to 2025, the Trust leveraged CPA funds, zoning linkage payments, and federal CDGB grants and Home Grants, and periodic city transfer to support the creation of an average of 20 to 25 affordable units annually, in addition to inclusionary units generated through zoning. However, With commercial linkage revenues slowing, potential federal funding uncertainty, and per unit subsidy needs rising from historic levels of between $150,000 to $250,000 to $300,000

Between 300,000 and 600,000 or more in recent projects, the Trustee's current $5 million annual funding level may yield significant fewer units in the coming years. Further details including revenue tables and projected data is available in the attache. I'll let this report be accepted and submitted. Thank you.

Any discussion? All right, seeing none, that is placed on file.

Next item. Item 4.5, a resolution by Councilor Sait that the Commissioner of Public Works remove snow from dead-end streets, private ways, and alleyways in a timely manner.

Sait.

Through you, Mr. President.

First, let me thank DPW for all the hard work plowing the huge amounts of snow. The last snowstorm we had was a major one. We haven't had one like that in years. It was followed by below freezing temperatures for days, plowing all that snow and ice was very challenging, especially for a city with limited snow farms. So again, I'm grateful for all the DPW staff. I personally, as the World Five Councilor, reached out to the DPW Interim Commissioner. Eric Weisman. Almost every single day for like a week after that snowstorm my phone was ringing texts I'm sure my colleagues were experiencing the same thing.

Mostly constituents who live on dead-end streets, alleyways, and private ways. The DPW interim commissioner was very responsive and he sent his staff every time to the location it brought up to his attention so I'm very grateful for that. I just want to say put this forward because I heard from so many world five constituents who live on dead end streets alleyways and private ways many of them are seniors and many of them shared that this is the first time in years that their streets were not plowed After a snowstorm for days, you know, and some were told it is the city is not required to do it and they it was the first time they were hearing of that um so again

Yeah, this created an unsafe situation. Some of them were worried there would be an emergency and an ambulance wouldn't be able to get to them. The intent of this order is to request that we think about the way we approached the last snow storm, the plowing of that snow, and ensure that we are reviewing our practices. Especially when we have a major snowstorm like that and making sure that all residents are safe to go to work, to the doctor's appointments, and they're not trapped for days. Also, if any of our practices have changed, that we communicate that to our constituents.

you know the city is no longer plowing certain streets that we communicate that so that people can plan accordingly so yeah that's the intent of this resolution

Scott, and then Councilor Link. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, my colleague from Ward 5, for bringing this up. It feels like every few years we go through some major change and the policy, whether it's formal or informal, gets mixed up. I know we had some new guys on the cruise this year. and sometimes it's just as simple as the same guy's been plowing the same route for so many years and always make sure to tuck into You know get Mrs. Smith's house on Lander Street, right? But that said I think it's always a great idea to have a conversation There are always new folks coming into the city as well as not just as employees but as residents. So having a nice policy discussion and committee about this might be a great way to ensure that everybody's on the same page as we enter a new administration and presumably a new commissioner soon all right thank you sir

Link. Thank you, Mr. President, through you. Thank you to my colleague, number five. And I just want to say, I'm really appreciative because prior to the storm I had called out that we needed to make sure we had clear communication with the residents about what's happening so I'm really hoping that regardless of what discussions may turn up in terms of what our policy is that we're just really communicating them very clearly to our constituents well in advance so that they know you know how they're supposed to be able to deal with these things because they do as My five colleagues said they are very important things. You know, people getting out of their houses and to doctor's appointments and walking down the street to get milk shouldn't be treacherous. Thank you.

State.

Yeah. Mr. President, I do want to send it to committee. I'm just trying to think what the right committee. I'm sorry?

I think Councilor Scott read my mind, as often happens, and suggested maybe sustainability infrastructure, sort of where public works and public utilities would have been the best to sound good.

All right.

Councilor Mbah would like to sign on. Councilor Wheeler?

Thank you. I also wanted to appreciate my colleague from Ward 5. One note amidst all this very useful and topical information, the private ways in particular. I've had a couple residents ask me questions in recent days about rules for private ways and even whether or not their street was a private way. I think it's not as clear to everybody who lives on a private way, partially as evidenced by one of the public comments, item 9.29 tonight, what exactly it means to live on a private way, how that's different. Whether you should expect a private way to be plowed by the city so that emergency vehicles can have access. and I did a little quick looking on the city's website and I had trouble finding a centralized place with information about our private ways. So I just wanted to flag that as something that we might take a look at at some point.

Okay. I saw, and I think, Councilor, you alluded to this, I saw what I found to be a really good explanation of sort of, and I'm looking towards the administration here, of sort of the What happened? Why things worked the way they did? I can't recall if it was a social media posting or response to an email, but if I could request that... Do you want to speak to that, Mr. Witten? No. I just was going to ask that maybe if the administration could submit that to follow this item in the committee because I thought it would be a great jumping off point. Mr. Mayor, go ahead.

Mr. President, it's funny you mention that. I actually was just remarking to legislative liaison Radassi that the DPW commissioner did produce a really good statement on this. I can't remember if we... Posted externally. It became sort of the meat of what we did put out, yes, on social media. If people want to go into this in depth in committee, obviously there is that option. In a nutshell, this was the first major snow event we had since switching to a new snow contractor. There was a plan that DPW believed was sufficient, found out. Not the case. Happy to report the DPW commissioner is delightfully committed to process refinement to acknowledging when we do fall short as a city. I didn't even have to ask for that.

That was proactively produced for us and I thought that was amazing and I'm really proud of DPW for being willing to do that introspection and admit when we do fall short for the record. We do continue to plow and salt private ways as a courtesy to those who live on private ways. It's not an obligation. There's a measure that could be opted into at the state level. Somerville's never done that. Instead, we just do that as a courtesy. and for public safety purposes. For those who live on private ways, the plan is to keep doing that. We feel pretty confident that the adjustments made after that big storm will allow us to do that successfully and I want to thank DPW and especially DPW Commissioner Wiseman for being all over this.

All right, two responses to that. First, delightfully committed to process refinement needs to be on a t-shirt. and Liaison Redazzi. Could I make the request then to have that communication sent to follow up on this item just because, as I said, it's a great starting point for the discussion in committee. Kind of runs through a lot of questions. Good. All right, then seeing no further discussion, that item is approved with a copy to sustainability and infrastructure. Next item.

Next item is 4.6, a zoning amendment by Councillor Strezo amending sections 2.1.1 and 3.1.12 of the zoning ordinances regarding accessory dwelling units.

Strezo.

Thank you.

I am very excited to present this to you colleagues. And also, Madam Clerk, can we please put this on the screen? Of course, this is going to be sent to committee, but I just want to give you a quick thought of why this is here. So this is a zoning amendment. to ADUs that I'm proposing. I have worked with city staff, housing advocates here, and I thank them very, very much for their diligence and thoughtfulness and patience to get to this point. So I am presenting this as I can't wait to just have this conversation with you and I've been so excited to just show you guys this. I've been so excited. Really quick where we go before it heads off to land use.

So the first section in the glossary, I thought it was useful that we made it User Ready, that it has newbie readability. Because the city uses the term backyard cottages when we talk about accessory dwelling units. They don't really reference, it's not really referenced as ADUs often. And while the state says ADU and we say backyard cottages, I thought that consistency or further description would really be useful. I want to say that This draft of course aims to catalyze conversation with you, but it's really going to be useful and it really can modernize and expand and really do a lot of good for affordable housing and housing accessibility.

The amendment primarily purposes updates to the building setback and amassing tables, I'm going to talk about that in a second, to allow greater flexibility The use of modulated construction and consideration of pre-existing structures such as carports. It aims to lower regulatory barriers to production while acknowledging that there's an opportunity to explore additional policy levels. This is exciting. 3.1 neighborhood residents of the Backyard Cottage to avoid the conflict of residents We cut some items out to consider pre-existing structures like carports and the concept of building above them, which is very exciting. And on page three and four.

is where, and you'll see in the renovation of preexisting structures. But there are, so we, what's modified is that, like for instance, main massing. There's a modification of size and depth because a lot of Somerville backyards are rectangle shaped. They're not a typical square. and really being cognizant of the fact that we have unique land here in Somerville. We should be addressing that and we should be empowering our residents to really take the concept of affordable housing and ADU production to really happen. E, I like this, is two stories now, not 1.5 previously. That allows... More flexibility. And you're going to see Samantha Carr talk about this when it heads to land use. That's really exciting.

So it's the possibility of the 12-foot ceiling. It would be a full ceiling, a six-foot ceiling, 12-foot ceiling. We can play with that and really unlock a lot of restrictions. Before I send this off, I'll make sure that I didn't miss anything because I've been dying to tell you guys this so long. I think I've pretty much covered it all. So I'm asking to send it to land use and so excited to hear the conversation on it.

All right, very good. Any questions for the discussion? All right, that is referred to land use. Next item.

Brings us to agenda item 4.7, a resolution by Councilor Ewen-Campen and Councilor Link that the Director of Parks and Recreation discuss with this council options to create year-round indoor programming for kids and families. Ewen-Campen.

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to Councilor Link for partnering on this. So we have an amazing rec department. One thing that I hear regularly from parents, especially families with young kids, A lot of the towns around here have indoor rec activities, like a family night on a Friday at the high school gym, something like that. Especially during the winter months kids are cooped up. You know, I start getting these emails every year I'm obviously not the first counselor to raise this issue. I'm not the first A person who works for the city to think about this, obviously. But we have a new rec director. We have a new mayor. We have a new administration. So I thought that we should have this conversation. It came up a little bit when we were talking with our new rec director, who mentioned that It's an issue of space, largely. But I would just like to see if we can crack this nut with a little bit of political will. So I'd ask that this go to housing community development and equity, please.

Thank you, Councillor Link. Yeah, so just through you, Mr. President, thanks so much to Councillor Ewen-Campen for As a parent of young children, I get to hear lots of other parents of young children talk about What is bothering them? And this is for sure has been something that I hear about regularly. And I think the opportunities for enrichment and for affordability, being able to like It would be easier in the city and have these spaces. It would just be really wonderful if we could figure this out. Bauer would like to sign on.

I would as well. Councilor Strezo.

Thanks. I'd like to sign on this as well. This is something that, yes, has has importance and residents have expressed consistently and I hope that we really can address this. This very much ties into the work we're doing in HCDE as well. and the director of HHS is still here, ties into what was discussed in, we'll get to that in a second, about how families feel overstressed out and not accounted for and this was discussed in the federal I studied on a couple of years ago and how we could improve the lives of families and especially families with small children or families that aren't considered. This is a great opportunity to talk and actually enact this, so let's take it in there.

All right, very well. Councilor Ewen-Campen, I thought when you were making the list of things we have, I was expecting also here several school buildings with gymnasiums and an ice rink. Just noting. All right. Thank you very much. That is approved. Councilor Sait would like to sign on as well. And a copy is sent to HECD. Next item.

Agenda item 4.8, a resolution by Councillor Ewen-Campen that the Commissioner of Public Works discuss with this council whether the sidewalk snow clearing pilot worked as intended this year or whether there are other strategies to improve pedestrian mobility following a large snowstorm.

Ewen-Campen. Thank you, Mr. President. We just had a little bit of a discussion about snow clearing. This is particularly about a sidewalk Clearing pilot program that we created several years ago after years of advocacy. We were able to launch this program to help for sidewalk clearance, specifically on the length of Broadway, the length of School Street. So the thing that happened though is after we created this pilot program, it really didn't snow in a serious way for several years. So we really didn't get to kick the tires on this policy, see if it actually works, made a difference in anybody's life. But now we have, right? We're at the tail end of this extremely difficult snowstorm. So I was really just hoping to have a conversation. I haven't seen this after action report that was mentioned from our DPW. I don't know if it's included in that. I would not be surprised to hear that it worked really well or that it was a total failure.

I really don't know what the answer is. And this is not a pointing fingers thing. We're going to dedicate the resources that we can to sidewalk clearance. What's the best way to do that? Should we be focusing only on bus stops as fast as possible, or should we be focusing on certain parts of the city? School Access. I don't know. I don't know. But I'd love to have that conversation and understand whether this approach actually worked and helped anybody. So I'd ask that this go to whatever we call public works now.

Wheeler. Any discussion? Councilor Wheeler?

Thank you. Through the chair, I appreciate this item very much. I'm also curious. I'd like to mention, in connection with this item, The question that I hear brought up a lot, which is with a relatively small staff, we have some teams and some departments in the city that are doing a tremendous amount with a relatively small number of people. And with a large number of streets and buildings in the city, how do we leverage our efforts in order to be ensuring that sidewalks are cleared throughout the city say or ensuring that that different kinds of requirements are being followed One of the tools that I know the city has experimented with in different ways is keeping track of where there have been recurrent problems in the past and focusing efforts on those areas until they're consistently being handled right.

So I'm curious in this and other situations if that approach is something we can use to help make the standards across the city be better. Thank you.

Link, I see Liaison Radazzi. Go ahead, Liaison Radazzi, why don't you, if you have something to add to that conversation, then we'll go to Councilor Link.

Thank you, Mr. President. For the record, Yasmin Erdasi, Legislative Liaison. I just wanted to put a plug in because Councillor Wheeler mentioned the teen shoveling program. In case Councillors don't know, and I did recently communicate this to Councillor Hardt as well, There is a program that's run through COA and HHS to connect teens with senior households in the city. They match them together and these students are actually compensated for clearing sidewalks and driveways for seniors. So just wanted to encourage counselors to let their residents know about this opportunity. If you have any extra questions or any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to HHS or COA.

Thank you. Good reminder. Thank you. Councillor Link and Councillor Click. Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I just I guess wanted to maybe just put like a little underscore on what Councillor Wheeler was saying that, you know, it is so, so important that we can I heard that our commission for people with disabilities was not able to meet Clingan.

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, happy to have this discussion. infrastructure and sustainability. So School Street is the pilot street program, which is Councilor Ewen-Campen's award and my award. I haven't heard any Good news or bad news out of it lately? No, I mean like the first year it was like, you know, some people were getting hit with tickets. I think now everybody is, I think it, From my perspective, I think it may be working, but we'll have to wait and see. Maybe I just haven't heard any complaints, but there have been tickets. To the larger discussion about the teen program and so on, I think there's lots of discussion to be had separately from this particular one. I have some ideas around the teen shoveling program. So hopefully as we all kind of de-

Debrief, whatever you want to say, from this past storm and hopefully this past Wednesday. We're still in it, but that will maybe come out with some new ideas. Okay.

All right, seeing no further discussion, that item is approved with a copy to sustainability and infrastructure. Next item.

Next item is 4.9, a resolution by Councilor Ewen-Campen that the Commissioner of Public Works discuss with this Council lessons learned from the recent large snowfall about resources and policies needed to improve snow clearance, including MBTA bus stops, business district sidewalks and parking, Privateways and Dead Ends, Accessible Ramps and Bike Lanes.

Councilor Ewen Campen. Thank you, Mr. President. I think this is largely redundant with the conversation we just had around Councilor Sait's order. I would just say, in addition to a lot of calls I got on dead ends and private ways, I also got a lot of calls about The timeline that it was going to take to get snow removal from business districts, specific bus stops that weren't cleared, and it's very clear that the administration has been working nonstop To address those issues and to kind of make policy changes. So this is not meant to suggest they're not. It's just meant to create one more way that we can communicate to the public kind of what those policies are and that we're working on this. So I just ask that this follow. Sait, and the resolution from Councilor Sait as well.

Councilor Clingan. Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I would ask that when we do bring to have this discussion and committee that I think a lot of what we're hearing about is clarification on what the actual rules are. In past years, when it came to sort of in my earlier years at the council, when it came to bus stops, There was confusion as to whether or not the MBTA was supposed to send people out. I think it's technically similarly to... You know, honestly, fire hydrants aren't a requirement, but they're certainly an ask. But... pedestrian crossing ramps if you have bought one of those so I'd like to get clarification on who actually owns the the the work of clearing a bus stop who doesn't things of that nature that we can kind of nail down in a public discussion so we can all be on the same page moving forward

All right, thank you. So that item is approved with a copy to Sustainability and Infrastructure. It will be part of the upcoming episode, Snow Talk. Next item.

Agenda item 4.10, a resolution by Councilor Ewen-Campen and Councilor Hardt that the administration increase publicity of the Senior Tax Deferral Program, which allows qualifying homeowners over 65 years of age to spend their income on living expenses

Hardt, rather than tax payments.

Thank you so much. So the Senior Tax Deferral Program allows qualifying seniors to delay paying all or part of their taxes. And this frees up resources for living expenses. So Somerville has already done a really great job of expanding eligibility and adopting the lowest possible interest rate. The deferred taxes and interest don't have to be paid until the property is transferred to heirs or others. So recently Senator Jalen has been working on making this program even more accessible and she's also brought it to the attention of brought to attention the fact that the program is not really being widely used. Last year there were only four people in Somerville who took advantage of the tax deferral. and I've had constituents reach out to me about this as well. So I know there are many more people who could benefit and so I'd love for

The Council on Aging and the assessor's office or others in the administration to work on getting the word out about it better. I think it would be a great use of reverse 3-1-1 call to residents 65 and older and I encourage those of us on the council as well to get the word out to our constituents who might be eligible.

Campen, nothing to add? Thank you, Mr. President. Councilor Hardt described it all perfectly. I would just say that Senator Jalen, who has been really kind of beating the drum on the importance of this program, and has also recently passed a bill in the Senate that is now awaiting passage in the House to expand the program to lower the eligibility rules. She has pointed out that Winchester kind of stands out as a community that has something like three times as many people taking advantage of it. So it is possible. for the word to spread and to dispel misunderstandings about how the program works. It was Senator Jalen's explanation to me that they do a lot of just active outreach basically to you know with every tax bill there's a little notice about it things like that so the more we can do the better and obviously announcing it at 9 38 on a Thursday night on a Cable is the best way to get the word out. But second to that, you know, sending mail.

Councilor Wheeler would like to sign on. Councilor Mbah would like to sign on. All right. Do we want that to go to committee to follow up or is that, I mean, it's a request. Okay. So that item is approved. Next item.

Hardt. Agenda item 4.12, a communication by Councilor Hardt conveying a report of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Councilor Hardt.

Thank you. Okay, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund met today, earlier this evening. We voted in Nick Pittman as the new managing trustee, discussed the process of filling open seats on the trust and what new trustee orientation is needed, discussed a request from CAS for a new contract, for unspent funds for a past allocation, and reviewed the process for evaluating applications for fiscal year 26 housing assistance RFPs, and decided on that process, which will conclude in April.

Thank you. Any discussion on the report? All right. Seeing none, that item is placed on file. Next item.

Agenda item 4.13, a resolution by Councillor Clingan that the Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development discuss with this council the homeowner improvement program and the role of the city in disputes between homeowners and city approved contractors.

Councillor Clingan. Thank you, Mr. President, through you. So I just want to have a discussion. I don't purport to know a ton about this particular program. Just sort of what I understand it is is that a homeowner can sort of apply for a like a loan from the city and They get like CBGD grants, but then they also use from a list of a preferred list of contractors to do this work. That gets contracted out. So they pick from a specific list. So really the reason why I, again, obviously clearly don't understand and many more. Thank you very much.

was having many issues with the particular contractor they used. The contractor ended up going out of business and the work is still, the problems with the work that occurred are still outstanding and unresolved. So, you know, I think the person is looking to the city for some resolution and so that just to me it begs the question of what would our role be in that situation as this is a This is a great program. I think it's worked out many times for people successfully. This is just one story I'm hearing about this, although maybe it's not even used that often. That's another thing that could come out of the discussion is How often are people taking advantage of this particular the HIP program? So I'd like this to go to I won't be on the committee, but housing and community development and equity. Is that the actual term? Housing, equity, and community development. Yeah, I don't want to say it wrong.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but I would like this to go to the committee and I will be happy to tune into that discussion. I'm told that I got the name wrong, sorry. Yeah, I just don't want people to feel burnt by the city and then there'd be no resolution and then, you know, when... I think it's important that we figure out what we do in those situations or what the city's role should be. Whether or not this program is working the way it is currently. Thank you. Okay, Councilor Strezo.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. President, through you to Councilor Clingan. I'm glad you're bringing this forward because, you know, and I'll sign on it to a chair. Because recently I had a conversation with seniors that were trying to find who to trust with contractors and There was a list that I heard from, like with Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services, of course that's a separate entity, but that this has existed in a similar Incarnation in the past and I think it's very important I don't know where Angie's list is these days or how people get contractors but there's definitely a need for it and additionally Is this a federal program or is this a state-run program that you heard about? What is this?

So it's on the city website. It's a city program. It's the home improvement program. It's to help provide safe, sustainable, and affordable housing. This is for low and moderate income residents. The program focuses on building code and healthy and safety-related repairs. But the way it's carried out is that we We make a loan to the homeowner at which I believe they pay back either at the time of sale or again I don't profess to know everything about this. I want to learn more and also just make sure that the approved list of contractors what we do in a situation like that where if they up and go out of business or something like that you can find it's all online it's a cb uh It's a block grant, CDBG block grant.

Thank you to Council Clean. So you said it's a City of Somerville creation? Correct. Okay, got it. Okay, thank you.

Was that a hand? No, okay. Alright, so I see no further discussion. That item is approved with a copy to Housing, Community Development, and Equity.

Agenda item 4.14, an order by Councilor Link that the Director of Racial and Social Justice provide an update to this Council on the status of the Police-Civilian Oversight Committee.

Councilor Link. Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. So I think we can all agree transparency and oversight of all of our public bodies is really important. and I think now more than ever making sure that there is accountability taken seriously and residents feel like they can they can trust a system It's just so, so important. So I'm just asking for a status report, you know, what's been implemented so far, what's still pending, and what's the timeline for completion on this? Oh, and I'd ask that this go to public health and public safety, please. Okay. Any discussion? Councilor Wheeler?

Through the chair, I commend my fellow councilor at large for this item. I want to point out that working towards a civilian oversight committee was one of the recommendations of the 2023 Somerville Police Department Staffing and Operations Analysis Report, often referred to as the Police Staffing Study. This is a report focused on helping ensure that the residents of the city have policing that's professional, timely, effective, and appropriate to the circumstances, something that all of us and our police department I think it's crucial that we not let this report and other reports like it that have a ton of value for us sink into irrelevance. We should keep them in mind and act on them. Thank you.

Thank you. Councillor Scott? No? Okay. I was just going to note for others who want to do a little more background before they watch the discussion of this, there also was a task force with I guess it was the Civilian Oversight Committee Task Force that put out recommendations in line with that. So excellent question to find out where do we stand on all that. Bob would like to sign on. Councilor Scott would like to sign on very well.

Mr. President, I just was reminded I had a warm memory of you and me and Councilor Mbah drafting the civilian oversight back in Was that 2020? That was six years ago.

Yes, two administrations passed. Yes. Well, there's always next year, sir. There's always tomorrow. Leah Zanardazzi, do you appreciate the podium there? Would you like to speak?

Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to let everyone know that our Public Safety for All project manager is preparing a presentation for everyone. I guess for a committee on the work that he's done so far and what the next steps are so just wanted to give a little preview of that hopefully coming in the next month or so

Excellent. Sounds good. We look forward to that. All right. So you know, further discussion then that is approved to the copy to public health, public safety.

Arizal Combs, excuse me, so sorry. Agenda item 4.15. Link, that this City Council commends the students at Somerville High School for their action and resolve in protesting ICE deportations in Somerville and across the nation.

Yeah, I just wanted to, through you, Mr. President, just wanted to really kind of give a big shout out to the Somerville High School students. I was there and saw them all walk out and I walked with them for a little ways in the freezing bitter cold and I was just so truly moved by the These young people who are taking time to make sure that their voices are heard and to speak their mind and make sure that they're exercising their rights. Generation of Engaged Youth.

Thank you. All right. Seeing no further discussion, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 4.17, a resolution by Councilor Link that the Director of Inspectional Services review the rules for short-term rentals and inform this Council what enforcement tools are available and how the City may take action against known violations.

Councilor Link. Yeah, it's purely information sharing. I would just like to know a bit more about this. So if we could send it to licenses and permits. I've heard from some neighbors that They maybe have Airbnbs in their neighborhood that are in violation, so I just would like to be able to tell them what the process is and what the sticking points are. Licenses and permits, please. Councilor Hardt.

I just wanted to thank I think it's not on, sorry, apologies. So I wanna thank my colleague, Councilor Link, for bringing this up. And actually on election night, After it was apparent that I was going to be the new Ward 7 counselor, I was contacted by a constituent about this very issue. So it was about the first issue I was contacted about. and it's very important it affects our housing supply and affordability and so it's something that I've been working on since November and I'm really glad that you are also bringing it up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I'd like to request a reconsideration of the committee assignment. ISD does not typically attend licenses and permits.

So we thank you for that. So we have had a number of conversations on this topic in legislative matters because they've all been related to the ordinance that regulates short-term rentals. I'm not sure that that necessarily is the best Thank you. Thank you. If that's the best place for the administration to have it, unless there's an objection, I don't have an objection because that was where we've had the conversation in the past. But, Councilor Lane, do you have a... I have no objection to moving there. I always want to be mindful of the efficiency of use of our administration staff. I'm so happy to keep it in a committee where they might have to show up for something else as well. So that will be approved with a copy to legislative matters.

Next item. Agenda item 4.18, a resolution by Councilor Link that the administration provide the committee on school building facilities and maintenance with regular updates on the MSBA process for the Winter Hill and Brown schools.

This is a resubmission of the prior statement. It is. Go ahead, Councilor Link.

I mean, the lead's right in there. I just like it to go. Go to the school buildings, facilities, and maintenance, please.

So what I was saying is that this is, in fact, this item had been in committee in the past, and as we're going to hear about shortly here, Our standard process is at the end of the year with the new council, items that are in committee, most or many items in the committee sort of vaporize. So this is a resubmission of that to have that standing. So thank you for that. See notice, oh, Councilor Mbah?

No, thank you, Mr. President. Just to say from the desk of William Barr to the desk of John Link, I want to sign on.

Councilor Barr would like to sign on. That item is approved with a copy to school building facilities and maintenance. Next item.

Next item is agenda item 4.19, a resolution by Councilor Wheeler, Councilor Link, Councilor Ewen-Campen, Councilor Hardt, and Councilor Davis. in support of House Bill 1588 and Senate Bill 1122, an act relative to immigration detention and collaboration agreements.

Wheeler. Thank you, Chair. Briefly, this is a pair of bills brought by Representatives Christine Barber and David Rogers and Senator Adam Gomez and joined in petition by Senator Pat Jalen, Representative Mike Connolly, and many others. It would clarify the distinct and separate roles of federal agencies on the one hand, and local law enforcement and local facilities on the other. Any discussion?

Councillor Stroud would like to sign on? Councillor Clingan? Alright, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 4.20, a resolution by Councilor Wheeler, Councilor Link, Councilor Ewen-Campen, Councilor Hardt, and Councilor Davis in support of proposed House bill, the Protect Act, an act promoting rule of law, oversight, trust, and equal constitutional treatment.

Willow. Thank you, Chair. This is a bill brought by Representatives Andres Vargas of Haverhill and Judith Garcia of Chelsea and joined in petition by Senator Pat Jalen, Representative Mike Connolly, Representative Christine Barber, and many others. It has a number of provisions, all which promote the equal treatment under the law of all residents of Massachusetts and clarify what information about residents should by law be kept private by our state and municipal governments. and what information under the law must be transparent. Thank you.

Any discussion? Councilor Clingan would like to sign on. Councilor Sait would like to sign on. Councilor McLaughlin? Councilor Strezo? Barr. I think we've got everybody at this point. All right. Seeing no discussion, that item is approved.

Agenda item 4.21, a communication by Councilor Wheeler in his capacity as chair of the Committee on Finance, conveying information on the FY27 budget review process.

Councilor Wheeler. Thank you, Chair. Councillors, please compose and submit a memo summarizing your budget priorities for fiscal year 2027. I am told on good faith that former counselor Charlotte Kelly wrote memos that are a model of clarity and focus and that our clerks and auditor staff would be happy to provide Kelly. Some examples from former Councilor Kelly for reference. The due date for these will be Monday, March 9th in about a month. And the current plan is to hold a meeting of the Committee of the on Tuesday, March 24th to assemble, discuss, and submit our priorities formally to the mayor. This is a new administration, as we know, and this budget process is still evolving, so I welcome your suggestions, and we'll make sure to inform you all when we learn more about the precise format of that March 24th meeting.

Note that you're getting about a month of notice, so supplemental items will not be accepted after this. You gotta get it in on time. I look forward to collaborating with all of you to push for spending priorities that reflect our values and our commitment to the city. Thank you. In discussion?

Councilor Strada?

To you too, Councilor Link. Please expand on your, is this your idea that supplemental items will not be?

Wheeler.

Can you expand on that? Is this your concept of an idea as chair of finance?

I didn't hear the point you wanted him to expand on. Could you just repeat that?

Yes.

Expand on the thought of a supplemental item, that supplemental items will not be continued past this date. Thank you.

through the chair I apologize I was sort of trying to make a bit of a joke but I'm okay I was just trying to state the you know the fact that we all understand which is that supplemental items are accepted when they cannot be foreseen and with a month of notice we have a lot of foresight so uh We won't be able to claim that we couldn't foresee needing to submit this memo on Tuesday or Wednesday of that week. Thank you.

All right. Seeing no further discussion, that item is placed on file.

Agenda item 5.1. Councilor Wheeler.

Thank you, Chair. I move to waive the reading of items 5.1 through 5.5 and refer them to the Finance Committee. All right. Seeing no objection, those items are referred to Finance.

And that brings us to agenda item 6B1, a committee report of the committee meeting of finance meeting on February 10th, 2026.

Back to you, Councilor Wheeler. Thank you, Chair. The Finance Committee met on Tuesday, February 10th, 2026, with all members present.

I don't want to step on any toes, but I'm just curious as to why the million dollars for the CPA money to the Kennedy I know that they're trying to get this out to bid and I know it sounds like it's somewhat time sensitive. Again, if you have thoughts on, you want it to go to committee?

As anybody through the chair, I'm seeing legislatively.

Let's let me let me get a hold of this one. So, Councilor Clingan would like to move for reconsideration of item 5.1, even though I guess we haven't taken action on that, we submitted it, but we're going to Unless anybody has any objections to bringing that back before the committee? Seeing none, item 5.1 is back before us. The time sensitivity on that. I see Liazwan Radazi approaching the lecture there. Would you like to address that, Liazwan?

Mr. President, yes, so these were laid on the table at the last council meeting while we ascertained with OSPCD divisions whether or not there was an urgency to act on these. All of the CPA appropriations are okay to wait until the Finance Committee meeting on the 24th for a full discussion, especially given that there are several new councillors on the Finance Committee. And as long as they are voted on, hopefully on the 26th, Thank you, Mr. President.

And again, I wasn't trying to step on the chair's toes. I just wanted to make sure that that wasn't being overlooked as something, because I know parents are really chomping at the bit. So that makes sense. Send away to the committee. Thank you. Very good.

And through the chair, I appreciate it being brought up. I think it's an important thing to make sure that we are not taking longer than we need to on something this important. Thank you.

All right, so item 5.1 will be referred to finance. Thank you. Next item, Madam Clerk. Oh, sorry, so now we're back. Yes, we were just about to start the Finance Committee report, which was read into the record, so go ahead, Councilor Wheeler.

Thank you, Chair. Okay, in this Finance Committee meeting, we took up a single-item agenda, which was the community budget hearing on the community's We heard from 24 residents who spoke, or in one case sang, to a wide range of issues. Simultaneous interpretation was provided by our excellent team with administrative help from clerks Madeleine Letellier and Delaney Fisher-Cassiol and I urge everyone to watch the video for the full public comments and to read the clerk's excellent minutes summary which breaks down residents comments in A major theme was transportation and roadway safety, with many residents emphasizing safer intersections, improved lighting, better crosswalk condition, and roadway repairs. There was also substantial input supporting continued investment in affordable housing and housing stability, as well as strong support for protecting immigrant communities, including funding for legal services and community support programs.

Residents also spoke about youth programming, recreation, and childcare, as well as offering perspectives on bringing public safety funding and emergency response more in line with the community's overall needs and values. with some referencing the aforementioned 2023 police staffing study. Additional comments emphasize support for arts and cultural funding, recreation and park improvements, composting programs, Worming Center Services, and Infrastructure Investments. There is an emphasis from a wide spectrum of residents on making sure our community is inclusive, welcoming, and safe for all. Some connected this to the question of implementation of the financial components of ballot question three, either to ask that city funds be withdrawn in accordance with that initiative, or to warn against any forms of implementation that might be discriminatory or take focus away from the community's needs.

A few comments pointed out how easy it is to assume that big financial decisions have already been made and how easy it is to accept that there's only a miniscule room to innovate or go against the grain. I take those comments as a challenge for us not to forget that we the people can dream big and make a slice of the world that we want to see right here. Overall, the hearing provided valuable input from residents across the community on how to prioritize our limited resources, and the committee appreciated the thoughtful engagement from everyone who participated. That item was marked work completed. Mr. Chair, I ask that this committee report be accepted as submitted.

On the committee report, any discussion? All right, seeing none, that is approved. Next item.

Next item is 6C1, a report of the Committee on Housing, Community Development, and Equity, meeting on January 28, 2026.

Hello, this is a report on the meeting of HCDE that happened Wednesday, January 28th at 6 p.m. All members were present, one in person, two virtual. And we had numerous directors of departments in the meeting room. It was cool. We had a good turnout of conversation. We had just a few agenda items. We discussed East Somerville Main Streets and East to support Somerville immigrant-owned businesses. We had Executive Director from East Somerville Main Streets, Lindsay Allen, there to present and talk about what she's experienced and the fact, by the way, that businesses that have been...

Screaming from the top of the mountain that there's a lot of loss of resources and business. that are gone. For instance, La Brassa, now gone, past tense. And that there has to be more support. We talked about... How, of course, with ARPA funds, there was more small business support because we had ARPA funds, and now we don't. So what exactly is the plan, or how are we going to... to address that going forward. How are we going to support our small business conversation? You see how earlier conversation ties right into what we're doing and what we're talking about. This is so vitally important and the conversation has to keep happening. We did have Director of Economic Development and Deputy Director present. They were talking about how they are taking initiatives and it's really great.

Like the Loyal to Local program and just really trying to push hard on Somerville Residents Tuesday Loyal to Local when you're going out to eat or when you are making decisions on gifts or, hey, for instance, Valentine's Day is coming up. How can you support a small business by yet cherishing the one you love? These are all options that we can take. And also East Somerville and Lane Streets, Shadow to Ward 1 also has a couple of cool initiatives that you should totally check out in the meantime to incentivize more East Somerville business support. And then we also talked about that U.S. Surgeon General Advisory on the Mental Health and Well-Being of Parents report that was put forward in the Biden administration. and what was vitally important with some really great information and how we could implement that here in Somerville. We had the Health and Human Services Director come and speak on that item and what has been

Dunn, and also the hearty dialogue on what we can do going forward. It's a conversation that I kept in committee. And then coming up... Hoping for the next agenda item to be brought forward in the future is talking about new housing, what's been approved year by year. and get some numbers on that construction and where we can go from there. I offer this report as submitted to you.

Okay, thank you. On the report. All right, that item is approved. Next item.

Next item is 6D1, a report of the Committee on Licenses and Permits, meeting on February 11, 2026.

Councilor Hardt.

Okay, thank you. We had a brief meeting of the Licenses and Permits Committee with all members present, and I appreciated Councilor Sait joining as well. We approved with conditions a grant of location on Warwick Street for Eversource and heard from the owner of a used car dealer applying for a new license due to change of ownership. That item was kept in committee to allow for adequate notice to be given for a public hearing at the next meeting. That's it.

All right. Any discussion on the report? I see none. That item is approved.

Agenda Item 6E1, a report of the Committee on Sustainability and Infrastructure meeting on February 9th, 2026.

Councilor Clingan. Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, we have three members present, myself, Link was filling in for Councilor Scott, who had another meeting about Art Farm, and Councilor Hardt, who is the vice chair. Anyway, so all three of us were there. We started the meeting right at 6. We discussed a number of items. I'll just cover the warming center stuff that Councilor Ewen-Campen put in regarding extra litter pickups. Receptacle has been placed by the entrance of the warming center. They are now doing regular extra pickups of litter, cleaning out the area. And then lastly was with regards to Vehicle pickups, emergency or otherwise, using the Cummins School parking lot rather than Prescott Street.

Bill Fisher, the Emergency Management Director, was there. He reported that a recent resident meeting provided helpful context for this item. He explained that staff at the center have been parking along the street which limited access for residents. The rear lot which had previously been used for construction equipment is now available for staff parking. So that's helpful, but drop-offs and pickups with emergency responders will remain unchanged due to the ease of access and ADA parking will continue to be located near the front entrance. rather you know have an emergency vehicles park in the lot and then come all the way around the building to to assist somebody in an emergency He said that they'll just continue to use the Prescott Street, but for everything else, they're trying to use the parking lot as much as possible to relieve that pressure off residents. With that, I ask the report be accepted as submitted.

Any discussion on the report? All right, seeing none, that item is approved.

Next item is 7.2, a request of the mayor requesting acceptance of Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 59, Section 5, Clause 22I. to authorize an annual cost of living adjustment increase and exemption amount granted under Chapter 59, Section 5, Clauses 22, 22a, 22b, 22c, 22e, and 22f.

Wheeler. Thank you, Chair. I move to waive the readings and refer to the Finance Committee the following items. Let's hold off on that. One at a time?

Okay. We've got a few items here that I think we're probably going to send to a different committee.

Thank you.

Before us is 7.2. Any discussion on that? Seeing none, that's referred to legislative matters. Thank you. Next item.

Agenda Item 7.3, a request of the Mayor requesting acceptance of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 59, Section 5, Clause 22J to authorize an increase in the exemption amount granted under Chapter 59, Section 5, Clauses 22, 22A, 22B, 22C, 22E, and 22F.

That item is referred to Legislative Matters. Councilor Scott? So excited for this one. Indeed. Next item.

And Agenda Item 7.4, a request of the Mayor requesting the acceptance of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40, Section 13E to establish a special education reserve fund.

That item is referred to Legislative Matters. Councillor Wheeler.

Through the chair, I have a list of items that I was expecting to move to have the reading waived and referred. Steele, and so on. Thank you. I move to waive the Sorry, is it 7.4 that we're on or 7.5? Let's start with 7.5. 7.5. Thank you. I move to waive the readings and refer to the Finance Committee the items 7.5 to 7.12. 7.14, 7.16 to 7.21, and 7.23 to 7.32.

and Unit 32. Do we want to read after that? Do we want to read 33, 34, 35 in?

And then I plan to move to consider 7.33. Sorry.

No, no. We'll stick with the motion made. So to waive the reading of those items and send to finance, seeing no discussion, that is approved. Those are the... Wheeler. Those items are referred to finance. Item 7.33, Councilor Wheeler.

I move to consider 7.33 together with 7.34 to waive the readings and to and I move to approve them immediately.

All right. Any discussion on the motion? You should read them in because we're going to vote on them. So we'll read those in since I'm going to take a vote on it just so folks know what we're saying yes to. So we'll take those two up together though.

Yes. So agenda item 7.33, a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $100 donation from the Massachusetts Council on Aging to the Somerville Council on Aging for the Active Aging Kickoff Party and Agenda Item 7.34, a request of the Mayor requesting approval to pay prior year invoices totaling $149 using available funds in the Human Resources Professional and Technical Services Account for medical screening services.

Okay. Any discussion on those two items? Seeing none, those are approved. Next item.

Agenda item 7.35, a request of the mayor requesting approval for a settlement of a claim for $10,400 pursuant to section 2.124 of the code of ordinances.

Wheeler. Was the request to take this one up? Do you want to send that to committee?

No, I've moved to send this to committee.

Okay, very well. So that'll be referred to finance? Okay. Next item.

Yes, agenda item 8.1, an officer's communication from the chief assessor responding to item 26-0062, an order requesting an inventory of city-owned parcels.

If my colleagues don't object, I'd like to send this to Housing and Community Development. Serena. Again, it's a response, and I would like it sent to Housing and Community Development and Equity.

Liaison Rodassi, did you want to speak to this item?

Thank you, Mr. President. I've actually, through you, connected with Councilor Link on the item that he originally submitted, which is asking for an inventory of the parcels. So this is just a response presenting that information so that it's available to the public. So the hope was that that would be the response for that item.

I'm satisfied with that part of the response. There is, I think, Councilor, I'm sorry, Councilor, Leslie, Liaison, Rodati, and I are... Talked also about the second part coming later. So yeah, I'm happy with this response. Okay.

So seeing no further discussion, that item is placed on file and we can send a copy to Housing Community Development and Equity. Thank you. Sure. Next item.

And agenda item 8.2, an officer's communication from the director of economic development conveying the potential use of an urban center housing tax increment financing tool, ACTIV, to incentivize housing production.

All right, we will send this one to finance for, yeah, I think it's a finance tool, so I think that's where we've had those conversations in the past.

Mr. President, can you also, yeah, can you also, I... I want to hear from the director of OSPCD in housing on this as well, please.

Okay, so this item we're going to send to finance because it's a finance tool. We certainly can have a conversation at the council level as well, or if you want to submit a separate item, we can send that to you as a contributor. Subject matter conversation would be appropriate in that committee, but I think this item belongs in finance, unless there's objection.

I understand.

Just where we've had those conversations before.

Right, is it, so do you prefer that it be, so with it sent to finance do you prefer to send it as two agenda items or do a new one and send one to HCDE? Or do you prefer to send it to finance, have it discharged, and then send it back to HCD?

So the rules say we can only send an item to one committee. My question is to follow our precedent, which is to have this one happen in finance. It could come back and go to HCDE, or you certainly could next meeting submit another item to have that conversation on the...

I want to have a hard so is is Do we have anyone from the, I don't see OSPCD here, but we do have liaison.

Liaison Radazzi?

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, the intent of this is the Director of Economic Development would like to talk about UCTFs as a tool to incentivize housing production. The intent is that they They are hoping to come back to the council with an actual proposal, which is why it makes sense to send it to finance, since finance will be the one to consider the UCTF proposal when it does come through.

Said better than I was trying to say it. Thank you.

And if I may, this is the proposal that Director Galgani presented to the council in a different council last year, correct?

I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. to a different council?

Correct. Well, last year we had separate councillors, and now we have other councillors that replaced the councillors that were there last year.

Yes, I'm sorry.

I understand what you're saying. So the presentation, if I recall, if we're speaking on the same item, was a presentation based on what The city hired consultant, as I recall, was to eliminate the tax or tweak the tax incentives of affordable housing units. and Tyrwhitt and I do not think that the councillors presently here heard that presentation and if we're sending it into a committee for a discussion when they did not yet hear the presentation. I don't think that's fair justice to the actual whole deep conversation of what this simple housing tax Increment Financial Tool is aiming to do, and I don't think that's fair, and he is not here tonight to speak on that.

Okay, so this item before us is the Director of Economic Development. We need to present on the use of urban center housing tax increment financing tool, which is otherwise known as UCTF. That is a specific tool that is different than the The specific part of the proposal that you referenced. As the liaison noted, if the council is to move forward to approve an octave, that would be something that we would take up in finance. It's the opinion of the president that this item belongs in finance. If you wish to submit a different item requesting information from the administration, absolutely within your right to do so. But this item is specific to UCTFS, and that is an item that we discuss in finance.

Mr. President, it is not a separate idea. It is the similar thing that he was presenting last year. So let's be clear about that. Yes, sure. So I'll correct that. But we can send it to finance. But this is a deep conversation, and it's complex. and when it gets out of finance, again, some of these counselors that it'll be sent through in a finance report did not hear that full presentation at the end of last year. And you're entitled to hear that presentation and all that went into this.

So Councillor Strezo suggests that for new councillors take a look at that item which is recorded. I also note that all of the new councillors are on the Finance Committee so they certainly will hear this. This item is approved with a copy to finance. Placed on file, sorry, placed on file with a copy to finance. Thank you.

Agenda item 8.3, an officer's communication from the Fair Housing Commission conveying the FY 2024 annual report pursuant to section 17.7 of the code of ordinances.

Any discussion?

Sentence to Housing and Community Development and Equity.

That item is placed on file with a copy to HCDE. All right, Councillor Hardt.

Mr. President, I would like to waive the readings of 9.1 to 9.28. And do I make a motion to approve them tonight?

If you wish to, that would be appropriate. All right, Councilor Hardt moves to waive the ratings of 9.1 through 9.28. These are a number of licenses. and approve them this evening. Any discussion, any questions, any objection to doing so? All right, seeing none, those items are all approved.

Agenda item 9.29, a public communication from Anjana Sukumar submitting comments about Winter Hill.

That item is placed on file.

Agenda item 9.30, a public communication from McGrath Coalition Steering Committee submitting comments about McGrath Boulevard.

Councilor Willard. Through the chair, just briefly, I want to summarize a few key points of these comments. One is the recommendation that the target speed limit be 25 miles per hour, not 30 miles per hour. as part of the McGrath redesign. And two, that the crossing at Otis Street should have full signalization, a full traffic light. There's an observation that in the past there's been poor motorist compliance at Hawk Signals, that there are crossing routes that young people are taking to three school buildings. If this were a municipal road with a children's park and two schools within 1,000 feet of this intersection, it would likely be considered a 20 mile per hour slow zone with full signalization. Just wanted to highlight those elements of this. Thanks. Very good.

Councilor Link. Just to, to the president, just to underscore what Councilor Wheeler said, it's not just that there's three schools also, it's that our main preschool is right behind there. So I do think that it's so important. Okay, that item is placed on file.

Agenda item 9.31, a public communication from Crystal Huff and Amy Pollard, submitting comments about U.S. immigration and customs enforcement.

That item is placed on file.

Agenda item 10.1, a resolution by Councilor Link and Councilor Ewen-Campen that the City Council commends the Fire Department for its fast and professional emergency response to the recent fire at 26 Summer Street.

This one, Councilor Link reached out to me on this one. It wasn't submitted as a citation, but it's more or less like a citation, and our practice has been to allow those on the supplemental agenda. So, Councilor Link, speak to this.

Yeah, I just, so this happened to actually a friend of, this home was the home of a friend of my family's. and I'm just so very thankful for the our fire department and their their quick action and I wanted to take this as an opportunity to this was a for those of you don't know this happened in the middle of the night and the family that lived there wanted to underscore my phrase of the day. Please check the batteries in your smoke detectors. It definitely is the reason that they're still around. So that would be great. And also a big thumbs up to the Red Cross for helping them. Get some settled life. But yeah, the fire department, awesome. Okay.

So that item is approved.

Next item. Agenda item 10.2, a public communication from Union 2 Associates LLC requesting a zoning map amendment to change the zoning district of 2 and 9 Union Square 286, 290, and 298 Somerville Avenue from Commercial Core 5 to Mid-Rise 6.

All right, that is referred to land use. Oh, right, sorry, with a copy to the planning board.

Agenda item 10.3, a public communication from Coleraine Eslavik submitted comments regarding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

That item is placed on file.

Agenda item 10.4, a public communication from four residents submitting comments about the Israel boycott.

That item is placed on file.

Agenda item 10.5, a public communication from Elizabeth Schall submitting comments about snow removal.

That item is placed on file.

Agenda item 10.6 public communication from Noah Cohen Hughes and Crystal Huff submitting comments regarding agenda item 260114 fiscal year 2027 budget priorities.

That item is placed on file.

There are no other items.

Councillor Straza would like to reconsider item 4.6. No, no. So that we can make sure that we also send a copy of that to the planning board. What was it? 4-6. So that has been announced before us. No further discussion. That item that was referred to land use will also have a copy to the planning board. All right. Are there any late items?

Yes.

All right. There is. I know there is.

It is your item, Mr. President.

Breaking the law. All right. So there is a late item. Madam Clerk, would you read the item?

yes that this city council will hold a public hearing on the petition submitted by 52 registered voters regarding out of the blue community art space at arts at the armory pursuant to section 212 of the city charter

Okay, so just a bit of background so folks understand why I submitted this as a late item. It was brought to my attention just yesterday that this is, One of those items that I mentioned earlier at the end of the year, some items that are referred to committees for action stay in committees and some items that don't vaporize. And for whatever reason, this seems to be one of the ones that vaporized. We'll have to look into whether that was the right disposition or not, and we're going to have conversations about that process overall. While the actual submission doesn't request a public hearing, as I mentioned back in November when this was first submitted, the folks who submitted the petition said that's what they wanted, so we took it as that.

in the interest of trying to forward the will of our constituents. And along those same lines, our new charter does have a requirement for that we hold a public hearing within a certain period of time. which it seems like we probably have already missed. So in the interest of moving forward as quickly as possible, promising to do better next time and not have this process lead to something getting dropped, I'm submitting this late item so we can refer it to committee. The previous item was submitted to Housing Community Development and Equity or whatever it was called back then. So my proposal would be to send this to that committee again so that a public hearing can be scheduled following the requirements that are in our new charter and these folks can have their Time to speak. Any discussion or questions on that? Okay, so this item then is...

is referred to committee. When it goes to committee, the only action that we can take on it other than having the hearing is to place it on file, but we will need to recommend that action in committee. because we won't have taken an action on it tonight because it's a late item, so we try not to do that. Does that all make sense to everybody? Okay, a little inside procedure, open meeting law, et cetera, et cetera. I also will note I've been working with the assistance of our legislative and policy analyst on some rule changes to better clarify the supplemental process. make it a little bit less confusing and have a little bit more of a bright line. So stay tuned for that. I didn't get that in on time and so I didn't submit it because I want to follow the rules in the change to follow the rules, as it were. So that item is referred to HCDE. Are there any further late items?

There are no other items.

Very good. With that, Councillor Hardt moves to adjourn, and we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.