2025 Mayoral Debate by Somerville Media Center

Good evening, everyone. I'm Joe Lynch, President of the Somerville Media Center Board of Directors. Welcome to the 2025 Somerville Municipal Election Debates. These candidates will appear on the November 4th general election ballot. The debates are being brought to you by the Somerville Media Center and the Somerville Beacon with generous support from the Somerville Theater and the Crystal Ballroom Organizations. Our sincere thanks to Ian Judge and his colleagues for their community spirit and partnership with us. Tonight, we hope to provide to you insight regarding your choices for mayor with very lively debate. Perhaps you'll go away with some clear answers to questions like, what makes this candidate different from their opponent? How will they govern? Will they prove to be true to their campaign promises? And will they listen to me and my concerns? Will they have, will they make hard and timely decisions for the benefit of all? Have I met them? Do I like them? And most importantly, will they continue to serve pizza at community meetings? Our moderator for the mayoral debate is Ben Orenstein. A resident of Somerville, Ben currently resides in the Magoon Square District. He is a, yeah. He is a tech entrepreneur and the founder of the online site, the Somerville Beacon. Our moderator has spent many hours watching almost all of the recordings of the town hall forums and community meetings, reading the Q&As from each candidate and the questionnaires from various local groups. He has also solicited questions from the general public in preparation for tonight. The moderator has not shared the questions with anyone before tonight. And I mean anyone. I should know I've asked them. Let's sit back. Let's get comfortable, pay attention, take notes if you have to. Although I have it on very good authority from the executive director of the Media Center, Sean Eiffel, that tonight's recording will be available by 5 p.m. tomorrow. Let's also remember one thing. Let's be respectful of each other. That's what all of us should expect from each other. This is the Candidates' Night. Some of you may have already cast your early mail-in ballot, and the remainder will have your say on or before November 4th. My friends, please welcome the 2025 City of Somerville mayoral candidates and their debate moderator, Ben Orenstein.

Good evening everyone and welcome to the mayoral portion of this debate. My name is Ben Orenstein and I'm honored to be moderating tonight's conversation. Thank you to the Somerville Media Center for co-hosting this event and thank you to all of you for being here and participating actively in self-government. Tonight you will hear from Jake Wilson and Willie Burnley Jr., both of whom have served our city as city councilors at large and are now asking for your vote to become Somerville's next mayor. Tonight's debate will start with two-minute opening statements, first from Councillor Wilson and then from Councillor Burnley. Then we'll move into our main Q&A segment with approximately eight questions sourced from our community and edited by me. For each question, the candidates will have 90 seconds to answer. After that, each candidate may choose to offer a 30-second rebuttal if they wish. If a candidate does not use their rebuttal time, If a candidate does use their rebuttal time, I will ask them to respond directly to what was just said and not introduce new material. The speaking order will alternate with each question, so both candidates have equal opportunity to speak first and last. After our main Q&A, we will do something slightly different, a rapid-fire round where I will ask yes-no questions, and the candidates will respond by holding up signs that you've seen rather than speaking. We will end with two-minute closing statements. This time, Councillor Burnley will go first, and Councillor Wilson will go last. To our candidates, gentlemen, thank you for putting yourselves forward for this difficult job, and thank you for rising to the challenge of a live debate. What you're doing tonight is not easy, but it does matter. Councillor Wilson, your opening statement, please.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Ben. Thank you to the Media Centre. Thank you to Somerville Beacon. And thank you everyone here for coming out, for showing an interest in this. I'm really excited to be here. I'm really proud of the campaign that we've built here over the last 10 months. Since December 16th, we've been doing the work. We've been out there talking to people, going to events, listening, sharing our vision for how to take the city forward. We're coming in here tonight with a lot of momentum. You've probably seen that we've racked up a lot of endorsements from electeds, a lot on the labor side, and in the past week from the Boston Globe and the Somerville Dems. I'm really happy to be on the stage here with someone who I respect a lot, someone I consider a friend since our first conversation about what we're potentially getting into here. At that time, we committed to run a positive, issue-focused race, and I feel like we've done that so far, and I'm excited to see that continue tonight and going forward. This is a pivotal moment in our city. We're facing crises on a number of fronts, affordability, safe streets, city services in decline, rodents, homelessness, substance abuse disorder. We need a mayor who's able to lead and manage effectively. Good operations are an absolute requirement to make sure that we can realize our policy objectives. Both of us have some lofty goals. We need the staffing and the operation in place to get those done. We have to be able to collaborate in order to see the change that we want. I'll be a mayor who's going to be able to implement my policy plans and get results for Somerville. I'm excited to be here, eager to talk about a number of big issues that I expect are going to come up, and I welcome the questions. So let's jump in.

Council Burnley. Thank you, Ben. Thank you to the Media Center and also to the Crystal Ballroom for hosting us tonight. And hello, Somerville. Hi, my name is Willie Burnley, Jr. I am a renter living in on Winter Hill near Magoon Square. You're at large city councilor and I am running to be your next mayor because I believe that we have the collective expertise in this community and the collective passion in making this place a home for everyone. And we that because of that, we can make Somerville more affordable, accessible and accountable to everybody. This is not just an election like any other. And frankly, I'm not a candidate like any other. I know that for some people, I don't look like the typical mayoral candidate. And I'm not the pick of the political establishment. But these are not typical times that we live in. Our democracy is under attack from the federal level all the way down to the local level. And most of our neighbors are struggling just to stay in their homes. This is not the time to pick a new mayor who's going to tweak around the edges or who's going to offer incremental change while our neighbors are going through crisis. We need someone who is going to fundamentally challenge a status quo that is not working for working people. And I believe that I have the lived and professional experience to do that. Over the next hour, we're going to answer some questions. Many of you in the crowd will probably be using that opportunity to try to figure out what makes these two guys different here. Joe asked the question earlier, and I'm going to try to give you a really quick split screen of that. In 2021, when both of us ran for city council, we both took a number of pledges.

Councilor, I'm afraid that's time.

Okay, there you go. Well, I'll get to it soon.

Yeah, plenty of time to talk a little bit more. Let's start with our first question. This is on housing. First, Councilor Wilson, please. In 2019, Somerville declared legally a rental housing emergency due to a lack of supply. It was voted 10-1 in the council, signed into law by the mayor, and it remains in effect today, but average rents have risen since then. How will you use your office to increase housing production and end the emergency shortage?

Yeah, thanks for that question. And since then, we've also seen the Green Line come into Somerville. So it's a real opportunity here with a number of new transit stations in the city, and I think that's key. We need to be taking advantage of the land around those transit stations and aggressively upzoning there to make sure that we're able to add that density where people are looking for it, which is right there at the transit stations. Yeah, it's a clear opportunity. And I serve on the Land Use Committee, and I'm excited that right now we are doing exactly that. We're taking up in meetings right now, up zoning around Gilman Square, looking to make Gilman Square happen. That's an opportunity of an area that... It's not really on the map at this point. And we want to make sure that with that T station coming in, that we're able to put the kind of development in there, mixed-use development, dense buildings, lots of housing in there, and make sure that we're able to meet that. I look at the development set to break ground at the former Star Market site, 299 Broadway. I serve on the Winter Hill Civic Advisory Committee. I know the tools that we use to unlock a really good development going in there that's going to be way north of the minimum 20%. We need to use those same tools elsewhere in the city where we're building the kind of housing we need because we're never going to reach our goals of 20% affordable citywide if each project we do is just that minimum 20%. So between that, and I'm running out of time here, but I'll throw a shout out for social housing as well. It's worked really well in other cities such as Vienna. We need to figure out how to do that here in Somerville.

Thank you.

Counselor? Thank you. As a renter in this race and someone who, like my colleague in 2021, agreed to not take money from for-profit developers, I think this is one of our most critical issues. And it's something I've been very consistent on since I was elected. I have passed laws that expand tenants' rights for residents. I've helped enforce broker fees at the state level so that renters don't have to pay thousands of dollars for a broker they never hired. And I've also pass zoning changes that actually bring down the cost of housing construction by removing unnecessary mandates for those developers. These are real actionable steps toward the overarching fight of our lives, which is to make Somerville a home for everyone. But there is more that a mayor can do, and we need someone who is bold and willing to make tough decisions in order to get there. I'm the only candidate who's said that In my first term, I will establish an Office of Social Housing to create permanently affordable housing on municipal land. We were just talking about Gilman Square. There is a shack that is blighted right behind the old Mad Oyster Arts Building. It is a municipal building. The biggest lot in that area is a municipal lot. It takes the city's leadership, and we need a mayor who's going to step up on that front. I am going to do that. I have the honor to earn your votes tonight. Thank you. Would you like a rebuttal? All good. Okay. I would just, no, do I get a rebuttal? How does that work?

I don't know if you can rebut yourself. Why not? It's not just 30 seconds more to speak, but it's intended to be a response to the thing you just heard from your colleague. So let's move on to the next question. We keep it moving. This next question is about the city budget. Revenue from new construction has dropped 49% in two years here. Property taxes are constrained by Proposition 2 1⁄2, and ARPA funds are exhausted. Healthcare costs just had record increases, and we have also massively increased spending on schools. Imagine that next year requires you to cut 10% of the city budget, which would be about $35 million. What specifically gets cut first? Please name departments, programs, or positions. Councillor Burnley, you're first this time.

Thank you. I think this question actually looks at this in a very wrong way, frankly. And I'll say that this is not the moment where we need to be ushering local austerity when we have a federal government that is trying to weaponize our grants to force our community to cooperate with ICE and that's trying to withhold funding from sanctuary cities. The money is there. We absolutely have the money in this state in order to unleash the potential of Somerville. I mean, we just fought a few years ago for a millionaire's tax that at the state level has been undermined time and time again by giveaways to the ultra wealthy, by raising the cap on the state tax, by a capital gains cut for the ultra wealthy. I will be an advocate at the state and federal level to make sure that Somerville is getting the funding that we need for programs like Head Start that serves low-income students and children in this city, for programs like my Office of Social Housing, which we can fund using the 3% community impact fee on Airbnbs that I fought for as part of the Creative Displacement Task Force. The money is there. It takes the political will to actually use it. And that's the kind of clear focus commitment I'm willing to give. Thank you.

Yeah, appreciate this question. From having chaired the Finance Committee all four years on the council, I'm all too familiar with the city budget. Yeah, we're facing a really tough fiscal situation potentially here this summer between possible loss of $19.5 million in federal funds as well as just the slowdown that was mentioned. There will be some tough choices to be made. I don't view it as eliminating departments or slashing departments. I think it has to be looked at operationally in terms of To give an example, in the FY24 budget, there was a move to add a number of sort of middle management, deputy director, finance analyst jobs, and maybe we find a way to consolidate some of that if we do end up needing to do a reduction in headcount. Hopefully that can be avoided. We do have rainy day funds. We have them for a reason. Between the loss of federal funding and the economic situation, you ask yourself, is this one of those rainy day situations where we do need to tap into some of those stabilization funds? But yeah, I'm reluctant to mention any specific positions. I don't want anyone coming away from this thinking that their position is under threat. There will be tough decisions that have to be made. I'm unafraid to make those tough decisions and make sure that the budget we come out with here in FY27 is going to be a budget that reflects our values.

Thank you. Would you like a rebuttal, sir?

no thank you okay that's great we speedy uh counselor wilson will start with you this time um if you were limited to accomplishing only one thing in your first term what would you choose i just get one uh i'm not i won't limit it to uh opening the mayor's office door and unlocking it that's an easy one uh i will say uh biggest thing for me that would that we want to focus on is staffing up, making sure that we are at a level in terms of vacancies that actually allows us to accomplish our policy goals. Because if you don't have the staff to do it, good luck. You can have the most ambitious goals out there. You can even have very realistic goals and you're not going to achieve them if you don't have the staff working for the city to go do that work. And we've had a huge vacancy rate in the last budget. DPW, for example, one in five jobs is vacant in DPW. 40% of the grounds division is vacant. When people ask me, you know, why do we struggle to maintain our squares and our parks? You know, why is there trash? Grounds division with 40% vacancies, they're working six day weeks. They're out there covering for two or three colleagues. We have to make sure that we are staffed up. That starts with really good recruitment and retention. The average person in some role doesn't realize how understaffed we are from knocking the number of doors that I've knocked coming up on 10,000. i can't tell you how many times people are shocked to hear about those vacancy numbers we have to make sure people know that their city is hiring and we have to make sure somerville is an employer of choice in the region and people want to come work for this city again and then we have to do that hiring can i go okay thank you um i agree

I think that we absolutely need to be filling our vacancies. But if I had to put it in a word, I would say implementation. Somerville has a lot of great plans. Somerville residents are experts in so many different fields from architecture to urban planning to environmental science. But we actually need to put those plans into motion. Part of that is hiring, of course. Part of that is prioritization. And part of that is making sure that our workers actually feel welcomed in this city. We've had multiple contracts negotiations in the last few years, and each one of them has been very painful for our staff. I've tried as a counselor to always support our local unions. When we got a request from the Somerville Municipal Employees Union, which is the same group of people that Councilor Wilson was just talking about, the groundskeepers, DPW, ISD. They asked us to take a hard vote to freeze the mayor's executive staff salary increase so that they could have a stronger negotiating hand. I worked with that union and I voted in favor of it. My colleague did not. I actually want to be a mayor who makes the workers feel like their lives have dignity and that they can afford to live in the community that they serve. Rebuttal? I'll take that.

Yeah, referring to that vote that was taken, there was an approach that a colleague brought. I had an alternative approach. I spoke to union leadership about it. They were OK with whatever came out of that. Unfortunately, some chaos was introduced right in between there. If you go watch the video, you see I go to make my cut after the initial cut failed. And a colleague jumped in with a very different cut of the CAO position that honestly was not really, it impacted the numbers that we could have done with that, and then the council ended up voting to cut the CAO position, so. That's time.

Yeah.

Thank you. Would you like to respond? Yes, just really briefly, it is not my impression that the union was fine with whatever. The union came to us specifically with a demand to say, use your leverage as a city councilor to support the workers of this city. We want to make sure that the mayor knows that if we don't get a raise, her people shouldn't get a raise either. I said I think that is reasonable, I think that is fair, and I'm always going to support workers when it comes to making sure that our city can function and that they have dignity. We had a difference of opinion.

Thank you. This next question will start with Councillor Burnley. Mayor Ballantyne received only 23% of the vote in the preliminary election, which is rare for an incumbent mayor in Massachusetts. What is the single biggest policy decision from the Ballantyne administration that you would reverse, and what would you do instead?

Again, implementation. I used to have these lawn signs, some of you in this room might have them, that said, fewer studies, more action. And when I talk to people about their frustration with city government in recent years, it has been about the fact that it has felt like we've been in a limbo since Joe. Not that Joe, the other Joe. We absolutely should be leading the way. We're Somerville. We are one of the most progressive communities in the state, bar none. We should have leadership that actually acts on those values. That's what I've done on the city council, passing more laws than any other of my colleagues, expanding tenants' rights, expanding rights for workers. taking on fights that counselors can't even take on directly, trying to use ARPA funding to abolish medical debt, as I mentioned before, successfully helping in forced broker fees across the states, cutting inequitable permitting fees for small businesses that now have saved thousands of dollars because they had one counselor in the last four years who said, let me actually look at what we're charging our small businesses and see if we can make it more profitable. fair for them as compared to Boston and Cambridge or Medford these are the actions that I wish the mayor had taken as a counselor I tried to take up as much of them as I could but if I am able to be elected mayor I will certainly have the resources and staffing to do more thank you counselor

Yeah, it's a really good question. When do we get asked a lot? In a race where people struggle, when there were three of us, people struggled to sort of differentiate policy-wise. And it was pointed out many times, on policy, there was often a lot of overlap. The distinctions were really oftentimes on approach, on priority, and on style a lot of times. And that's similar to what my colleague just said. I'm trying to think of a single policy. Obviously, there were policies we disagreed with, but in terms of something that we'd flip, honestly, the biggest thing is just going to be where the focus is, with a focus on making decisions. That's been a real source of frustration for people. It's one of the reasons why we're going to have a new mayor come January. Approachability. making sure that people know that their mayor is out there, wants to talk to them, wants to hear from them, is open to that feedback, and cares about hearing what people are going through, what business owners are going through, what workers in the city are going through. and wanting to make sure that the people feel heard and listened to, because when the people don't feel heard, they're going to make themselves feel heard, and you're generally not going to like how that goes. And that's what happened on September 16th, was the voters of Somerville made themselves heard about the approach the mayor had taken to the position, and here we are.

Rebuttal, sir? Certainly. On the topic of voters feeling heard, our election is not the only election or vote on the ballot. There's at-large races that are going on, as the folks in this room know. There are also a number of ballot initiatives that are coming up. One of the things that I mentioned and have fought for is the right for voters who actually have a say on question three about divestment. My colleague has said, if that question passes, he will not implement it. I will. I think you listen to people and then you act. Councilor Wilson?

On the subject of ballot questions, I'll take the opportunity to stump for question one. That is the new charter for the city. So much work has gone into that. Five years of work. First from the Charter Review Committee in the community with some elected representation, and then the City Council for years, eventually working with the mayor. State House approved it. Governor Healy signed it. It's now before the voters. I'm urging everyone to vote yes on question one to make sure we get a good, modern charter that the city deserves.

Just a quick reminder, I urge you to resist the temptation to introduce new topics in the rebuttals. Try to keep the rebuttal responding to the last thing that was said, if possible. Thank you. Let's begin with Councillor Wilson. There is significant frustration in Somerville right now about the current state of Davis Square and Seven Hills Park. Many residents feel these areas are no longer safe as they are frequented by people who are homeless, struggling with addiction issues or mentally ill. Do you agree there is a problem in those areas that must be resolved? If so, how will you use the powers of the mayorship to address them?

Yeah, I appreciate you asking about this. This is a huge issue in the community and I think has been a factor in the campaign in terms of what happened on September 16th as well. Oftentimes people conflate homelessness and substance abuse disorder. These are separate but sometimes intersecting issues. When we look at what's happening in Davis, we see these dual crises playing out. We need plans to deal with both of them. I like the framing that we have to come at this from looking at it as both with compassion and with accountability, making sure that we never lose our humanity and realize these are people dealing with just an absolutely hellish situation, while at the same time making sure that we're clear that there's a baseline level of conduct that we're going to accept in the community from people who are housed and people who are unhoused. And it's okay to have expectations of people. It's good, in fact. In terms of what we do about it, we've got to make sure that we have short-term solutions in place. That includes opening the shelter that should have been opened a year ago that's been relocated and expanded in Davis Square. Medium-term, we have to build more permanent supportive housing. That's a roof over someone's head with the wraparound services to give them a chance to succeed. Long term, we have to make sure we get Long Island back reopened. It's been 10 years since that bridge was declared unsafe and closed, and we've really felt the impact of that. I'm going to collaborate with our regional partners in other cities to make sure that we're addressing a regional crisis with regional solutions.

Councillor? Thank you. Yes, of course there's a problem. And for the folks who are sleeping on our streets, for the folks who find needles on the ground, there is a public safety and a public health crisis unfolding. Now, the city has the opportunity to move with more urgency on this front, and that's certainly what I would do as mayor, both with short-term and long-term solutions. I believe there's financial authorities that the city has not used to their maximum potential in order to – serve these residents, including the fact that Somerville, as a city, we have zero beds for these folks. As a city ourselves, we have zero beds. Cambridge has about 60. We can do more as a community in order to serve these folks, to get them off the streets. And we can do more than just have shelter beds. We can have transitional and supportive housing. This is something I'm very passionate about. What I would not do is say that we're gonna sweep away people's property and take it away from them because we know the dangers that that presents to all those individuals. My colleague, again, on August 1st, in one of his newsletters, kept himself open to removing people's property, to doing sweeps. I'm not in favor of sweeps. I don't think they help. I don't think they're going to solve this crisis. I think that we need to approach this from a public health and public safety standpoint and ensure that people are not forced to live on the streets. Would you like to respond?

I'm good.

Okay.

Councillor Burnley.

Hmm?

The city faces competing demands, building enough housing versus neighborhood character, bike infrastructure versus parking, services versus taxes. Please name one constituency that will be disappointed by your administration and why their disappointment is worth it.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. My friends in the development community will be disappointed. Some of them are here, actually, and we've been very friendly to each other. We've gotten drinks, we've talked, and they know I'm not going to accept their donations. The folks who are doing very well for themselves, who feel as though Somerville is fine and there's no real problems going on because they're in their own bubble, might be disappointed too because i do believe there there needs to be transformative change in order to ensure that the residents of this city who've made it this creative artistic compassionate place are able to actually stay in somerville you know the folks who donate to my campaign are renters are people who are on the brink of displacement They are asking themselves every single year whether they'll be able to stay here. I don't get many large donations. I'm on a stage with a moderator who donated to my opponent hundreds of dollars. And yet I'm here because I believe that we need to have a transparent discussion about the issues. And I'm gonna fight for the working people of this city to ensure that they actually can continue to call this place home and that we have economic diversity as well as cultural diversity in Somerville.

I'm gonna take a rebuttal there. Please. Please. That is true. And then I immediately asked him to refund it, which you did.

Confirmed?

Confirmed.

Thank you. Would you like to respond? Yeah. Your first answer, sorry, not a rebuttal.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A group that's going to be disappointed, I would say owners of surface parking lots will be disappointed. We have to do... Way better with our land. We're here in Davis Square. How many surface parking lots do we have around here? I can't think of a worse use of land. We're set to introduce a stormwater surcharge fee that is going to see those surface parking lots, especially if they're attached to a store, for example. Got bad news for Target. Your water bill's about to go way up. I think it's fair, though. When we're talking about the work we have to do to pay, to do right by our waterways and make sure they're not flooded with untreated or even raw sewage in some cases, these impervious surface parking lots are a huge contributor to that. And that's why I think it is entirely fair to ask these folks to pay a bigger share of the really expensive work required to fulfill our legal and moral obligations to keep sewage out of our waterways and modernize our sewer system. those things are expensive if your water and sewer bills have gone up it's because we're paying for that work and i think this is a very good way uh to ask the folks to shoulder the burden financially uh for for a problem that they're really contributing to more so than your average uh your average home in somerville rebuttal yeah um just to that point i totally agree with my colleague on that um and to the point about service parking lots and a storm water uh

for those folks who maintain those properties. We, as counselors, got that information after the city went through a years-long consultancy with an organization that we paid at least $100,000. And then they came back to us years later and said, oh, we can't do the thing that you asked us to do. Under my administration, less consultants. Dr. Rebuttal?

I know it's a rebuttal, but yeah, to Councillor Burnley's point, yeah, that was one of the more frustrating things on the council was hearing that there's ratepayer assistance coming. And it went on, you know, I think over a year of hearing this only to find out, oh, it's not allowed under mass general law. Yeah, that was, to the point about, you know, studies, that was a particularly frustrating study.

Councillor Wilson. Ballot question three asks, shall the mayor and all elected leaders be instructed to end city business and prohibit future investments and contracts with companies that engage in business sustaining Israel's apartheid, genocide, and illegal occupation of Palestine? How will you vote on this issue and why? And if adopted, what changes will occur in your administration?

Yeah, I mean, the ballot question came from the community, from folks who have seen what's happening over in Gaza and were compelled to go do something about it. It's the think globally, act locally approach. And, you know, we all see what's happening over there. It's an atrocity. And... I think it's commendable that people want to do something to impact that. And in particular, that they want to make sure that, I understand wanting to make sure tax dollars are not going to fund something like that. Where it gets tricky is what we can do under the law. You know, Chapter 30B is very prescriptive at the state level in terms of the public procurement process. I know there's been an interest also in then exploring on the divestment side. Chapter 30 would govern the boycott part of BDS. On the investment side, our neighbors in Medford recently passed an ordinance that takes sort of a broader ethical investment approach. Their mayor vetoed it, and their law department came in with an opinion that it was illegal and would lead to successful lawsuits against them as well. I understand people wanting to explore that. The timing of that, obviously, it would focus attention on Israel specifically, but the goal was a broader... broader divestment approach. These things might be best pursued at the state level. Given the fact that the central asks of this are not allowed under the law, I can't support it as written. I'm going to be voting no on it.

Thank you. counselor I will be voting yes I absolutely am so impressed and excited by all the energy from our residents around this question over 8,000 certified signatures have been given to the elections department over 11,000 were submitted that would be about that's more than one in eight people in this city I actually believe in democracy and I believe if the people of our community say that they want their tax dollars not to go or be invested in companies like, whether it's Caterpillar or a company that drops bombs, creates F-35s and drops bombs on schools in Gaza, I believe that they have the right to demand that of their leaders and that if it passes, their leaders should actually implement it. Medford gave us the model. We can absolutely do this. I know as a city councilor that city solicitors almost always kind of side with the mayor in whatever the mayor wants to actually happen. It is not a realistic argument to say, well, the city solicitor said we can't do it. We absolutely can do it. Other communities have done it, and we should actually be leading on this conversation as the first city in the state that passed a ceasefire resolution. It was hundreds of residents that came out demanding that, and it's thousands that are demanding this. Councilor Wilson, rebuttal?

I'm all good.

Okay. Councilor Burnley. Acknowledging that they perform a difficult job and we love all of our city employees, which city department has the largest gap between your ideal of it and its current performance? And what will you do about it in your first six months?

Yeah, that's a great question. And it's one I have a very specific answer for. And it's ISD, Inspectional Services. And it's not because... The folks in that department don't do an incredible job and try very hard to handle the litany of tasks before them, which include dealing with rats, which includes inspections for small businesses, which includes inspections for those major developments, which includes health, all these sorts of things. I think, frankly, they have a little bit too much on their plate. And currently, they're without a director. We absolutely need to bring in the right kind of leadership for that department in bring in someone who's going to be innovative about how we actually go through this. Because whether it's opening small businesses or making changes to your home, ISD is at the center of so many of the things that make our city go. And unfortunately, they've historically for many, many years been understaffed and had a lot on their plate. I would look to figure out if there's a better division of labor there, if we can bring in leadership that is going to think differently about how that department can perform. And frankly, I would try to make their job a little bit easier by streamlining permitting. And I know that one of our at-large candidates had the idea of a pop-up permit. I'd fight for that too so we can have more businesses in Somerville and less empty storefronts. Thank you. Counselor?

Councilor Burnley is 100% correct. Inspectional services is the department most in need of a dramatic change. When you talk to people, whether they're a homeowner, a business owner, just someone, anyone on the street, they're going to tell you about frustrations with inspectional services. Just today, I spent a significant amount of time listening to people just vent spleen about their frustrations with ISD. I got a lot of ideas on that front, starting with hiring a director who's going to buy into reforming what's going on there. The amount of energy spent on things like drywall screw inspections versus the kind of enforcement people want, enforcement that protects the health and safety of our city. It seems like we have priorities completely backwards. IN TERMS OF MAKING IT ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO GET SOLAR PANELS TURNED ON AND ACTIVATED ON YOUR ROOF OR TO ADD A BATHROOM OR A BEDROOM. YEAH, IT HAS TO START WITH ISD. AND I WILL SAY, I THINK WE NEED TO LOOK BEYOND CITIZEN SERVE AS A SOFTWARE PLATFORM. COUNSELOR BERNAL AND I GET TO EXPLORE THAT ON THE BACK END OF THAT AS COUNSELORS. AND THE STORIES ABOUT what people go through with trying to use citizen serve are just, they'll leave you so frustrated with the state of things. So I think, yes, it's about new leadership, it's about a culture change there, it's about new software for ISD that actually help people navigate this system and prompt them when something new is due.

Thank you.

Would you like a rebuttal?

Yes, in agreement, since my colleague was agreeing with me. I would just highlight as well for the work that ISD does, Oftentimes their work is prescribed by a onerous permitting process that the city controls. And frankly, the mayor has much more insight and control over than the council does. As a councilor, I've stepped into that role a little bit by changing some of the permitting fees to make it easier to open certain small businesses. As mayor, I will do a holistic change there. Response?

Yeah, I'm glad my colleague mentioned the hell that business owners go through trying to open a new business here, how long it takes, just the Byzantine process of trying to navigate that. We absolutely have to do something about that to bring it down from the average. We hear two years is how long it takes to open a business. We have to do way better than that. I'll just say earlier today I heard a story. Someone was looking to install a new garage door somewhere up in the North Shore, and they said, do I need a building permit for this? The answer was, only if you live in Somerville.

Okay, we're going to move on from the open Q&A to the yes and no segment. Do you both have your flags? Excellent. I bet you can guess what means yes and what means no. You might think this is the easier segment because you just have to hold up a sign, but I think as humans it is extremely tempting to want to explain yourself and your decision, and I'm ruthlessly crushing their response down to just holding up a sign. So this is hard, and I appreciate both of you being willing to do this and respectfully ask you to not speak during this segment. If police witness someone injecting illegal drugs in a public park, should they arrest that person? Should the city complete all 29 miles of protected bike lanes by 2030, even if it means significant parking loss for businesses? You first. Same time if you want. Great, we'll make it efficient. If rent control were made legal in Massachusetts, would you implement it in Somerville? Would you support an anti-camping ordinance for public areas? Do you support combining Winter Hill and Brown schools into a single new building? Do you support question two, increasing the mayor's term from two years to four years? Do you support automated traffic enforcement cameras for speeding and red light violations? Would you support a project like Copper Mill that seeks to add a 20 plus story building to Davis Square? Would you support increasing the pay for our city councillors to something commensurate with full-time work? Thank you. That's the end of that segment and now we go to closing statements. Councillor Burnley, you have two minutes and you go first.

Thank you. I'm incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity tonight to share my vision of a Somerville where everybody who has called this place home for decades or for even a few weeks can call home into the future. It's been my honor to serve as a city councilor for the last four years. I've had the ability to wake up every day and know that I can make a difference in someone's life. whether it's by helping them open up their storefront, by connecting them to city services, or simply by showing up and listening to their stories and making sure that the council is aware and fighting for change for everybody. But there's so much more that needs to be done. And the realm of the city council is limited in the extreme. As mayor, I will have the resources necessary from staffing to supports from my state and federal friends and colleagues, as someone who worked for Senators Elizabeth Warren and Markey, to bring in the kind of resources that we need in order to make Gilman Square a square, in order to have social housing and transformative policies at the local level. I know that we can do better. if we come together as a community and fight for those values that we all say that we believe in. But it's going to take having a leader who is committed, who is clear, and who's gonna have principled and pragmatic leadership in order to take us that step forward and ensure that Somerville is not just a place where the wealthy can only afford to live and thrive. It should be a place for all of us. And if you believe it should be a city for all of us, you should go to willieforsomerville.com and come join us while we knock doors, a phone bank, and talk to our neighbors. Thank you. Thank you.

Councilor?

Yeah, the questions that we heard tonight, they cover a lot of the things we've been talking about as we built this campaign. I'm laser focused on the issues impacting this city, and I have a clear roadmap for how we're going to get to the point of addressing them meaningfully with programs and services. This is going to be hard work. Being a mayor is not easy. It's long hours. It's a lot of tough decisions. I know how to do the work. I grew up on a farm. I roll up my sleeves. I do that work. Our campaign is the Somerville campaign. We're supported by massive numbers of Somervillians who volunteer and donate. I'm asking for your vote. I'm asking for your help. Come out. Knock doors with us. Make phone calls. Come stand at the polls on election day. I know about the issues that we've talked about tonight and during this campaign from being a counselor, but also from those conversations on all those doors and at community events. The thousands of people who I've talked to during the course of this campaign. People are excited about a new day in Somerville. I'm excited to be a mayor that leads this city forward. Someone needs a mayor to come in, point to a North Star goal, get the people who work for the city bought in and fired up to do that work to make people's lives better. I'm that candidate, I'm asking for your vote, and I can't wait to get to work for you as your mayor. Let's do this.

Excellent, and with that, I will declare this debate completed. Thank you for coming. Thank you.

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