Public Health and Public Safety Committee

Now to declare this meeting of Public Health and Public Safety open. Please note that pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, this meeting of the City Council Committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio recording, audio-video recording, transcript, and other comprehensive record of these proceedings on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, can you please call the roll?

And this is roll call. Councillor Scott?

Present.

Councillor Clingan?

Present.

Councillor McLaughlin?

Here.

With all counselors present, we have quorum.

Okay, and we also have special guest. Council President Lance Davis is here with us. Can we, let's see, we'll start with the first item.

Agenda item 125-1109, approval of the minutes of the Public Health and Public Safety Committee meeting of June 9th, 2025. Counselor Scott?

Yes. I'll move to approve, yep.

Counselor Clayton?

Yes. Yes.

Those are accepted.

All right. And clerk, could you please, uh, with the consent of the rest of the committee, I'd like to take up any items around Davis square and homelessness issues in the community. Uh, could you please read those items out?

Yes. And that is agenda item 2 25 dash 1 5 6 3, that the administration provide data on needles found In and around Davis square outside of the designated receptacle box, including a breakdown by specific location and used versus unused. agenda item 325 dash 1562 that the administration discussed with this Council, whether there is a need to create additional alternative locations for people to store their belongings. agenda number 425 dash 1561 that the administration discussed with this Council, the process for removing abandoned items from public spaces. And it's number five included in this. Sorry, just to confirm.

Yes.

Okay. And agenda number 525-1353 that the administration direct all relevant departments, including health and human services to appear before the city council to discuss an update on current unhoused outreach efforts.

Okay, so some of these items are from me from a long time ago. A lot of them are from Council of Davis from recently. Council of Davis, did you want to start or would you like us to lead with a response from the city?

No, Mr. Chair, I'm happy to leave it to you and committee. I'll raise my hand if I'd like to weigh in, but just love to hear the responses.

Okay, thank you very much. Liaison Hunter, would you like to start?

Absolutely. Mr. Chair, thanks so much for the opportunity. We have submitted a memo along with a spreadsheet of data on all of the needles or sharps and related paraphernalia collected by ISD. So that speaks to the first item. The memo on the screen now is sort of a summary of that information. If you would like to take all the items together, we can do that. Or if you want to take them one by one, we can start here.

If we could just do an overview, because I think a lot of them are interconnected, and then we can ask questions as we see fit.

Great. And so unfortunately, we don't have staff available tonight unexpectedly to speak to this item, but we do have staff for the remaining three items, and I'll leave it to them to give sort of their introductory remarks on the item. So the next two around their belongings and abandoned items, we have Nikki Spencer who can give and some information.

All right, Chief of Staff Spencer, would you like to? I'd like to recognize you.

Thank you. Through the Chair, Nikki Spencer, Chief of Staff, she, her, hers. I believe this item is asking whether or not we need to create additional alternative locations for people to store their belongings. Thank you for the question. The short answer is yes, and there is a need. And we've also been meeting across departments to attempt to develop solutions. So here is a bit of the longer answer. Currently, there are few opportunities for unhoused residents to store belongings in Somerville. Our partners at the Somerville Homeless Coalition offer lockers on a limited basis in their daytime engagement center that clients can access. And DPW has provided a small container to store items when they need to be removed on an urgent basis by city departments. This is not an attended or accessible option, however. And that requires, when we do store things in this container, we have to coordinate with outreach workers and SHC to reunite belongings with their owner. Sometimes in a pinch, other departments have pitched in to store bulkier items as well. We are approaching this issue in two ways. In the short term, we need a larger storage solution for bulkier belongings that don't fit our current container at the city. DPW has been working with HHS to brainstorm potential options and sites. Again, this is a short-term solution that doesn't provide regular access, but it does allow us to store larger survival items. So we're not making the perfect enemy of the good. We need a larger option as soon as possible. That being said, we also need a longer-term solution. So with the input of our colleagues at SHC, we have been researching better models for belonging storage. In other cities, there are models where unhoused residents have regular access to storage lockers for safe storage of their belongings. These programs, however, can be very work intensive. So we are looking at different models. Many of them do ultimately contract out the service to a local nonprofit. So what goes into a successful storage or locker program? One is that we need to find sufficient space and facilities, which I know this council is very aware are tight in our city. Any necessary staffing to supervise the facility. So some models are open 24-7, others are open a few days a week. Either way, they need to be some type of supervision and oversight with staffing. There need to be clear expectations of what can and cannot be stored. Management of any safety items or hazards in belongings. So, for example, perishable food, pests, sharps, things that need to be managed before they are stored. And then finally, policies on unclaimed property or belongings. What happens when somebody does not come back for their belongings? So our understanding from SHC, from other partners and other models that we're looking at, It takes a lot of intentional work to do this well. It's not an easy lift, but we're doing the research to determine some options for moving forward. So again, not in a long-term, sorry, we're not at that long-term solution yet, but that's not stopping us from doing something in the short term to at least give us some more flexibility.

Mr. Chair, you're muted.

Thank you. Do we have any questions or comments from the committee? Or Council of Davis? Council of Davis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There it goes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Mr. Spencer, for that answer. Not surprisingly, good to hear that you all are very conscious and aware of this and have already done a lot of thought into this. how we can improve this situation. I don't think I have any follow ups on the more space for storage point. Because other than just to say, let's keep trying to figure that out. One of the reasons why I raised this, I mean, obviously, as you said, this is a significant issue for folks who otherwise have a place to store their stuff or sleep at night. But it also, I really wanted to start to have the conversation in the context of, you know, is there a way in looking for a better way that we can all coexist? Community members who are in difficult situations, don't have other facilities and community members who are coming through the square and open spaces and wanting to use them as public parks. We know there's been a lot of tension, a lot of friction in the past year plus. And I appreciate the administration's, you know, approach generally. part of the conversation of, you know, is there a way to, with recognizing the humanity of everybody involved, move large items out of significant public spaces without it being a, you know, without going to the line of a zero tolerance policy or a sweep or anything like that sort of really inhumane approaches that we've seen elsewhere in the state of the country. So thank you for that. I just want to put that context out there. Obviously, we're not there yet with a way to take a different approach, but I hope we will be, I hope the administration will continue on that and to the extent that it requires cooperation with the council to help identify and approve spaces or funding for it. I think it's going to be the reality for some time in our country and in our community. And so it's something we're going to have to figure out a way to address differently than we are now, I guess. while still maintaining our values overall in the approach. I do want, Mr. Chair, if I could, can I ask about the item specific to the policy? I think it's 1561. And I'll stop if Ms. Spencer or Mr. Chair, you intended to take that separately and I'll wait for that conversation.

We can read that. Go ahead, Council Davison. We'll have them read that item.

Yeah, let me just give you the context there. I think I spoke about this a little bit at the council level, but the intent here is that, again, just let's start with fact-finding, right? Let's start with understanding kind of where we are. And then continue the conversation as to, is there something that we could do differently? This came up because people raised to me, as well as Councilor Streza, we were having a conversation about it, that there at times are items in public places, particularly in Davis Square, around the port-a-potty in Seven Hills specifically. I've seen this come up several times, which is interesting. is there because I originally asked for it years ago. So I'm still very grateful that we have that option for folks. I'm grateful that the administration has increased the cleaning of it. There does seem to be on occasion what appears to be abandoned items around it. And I heard through very extenuating hearsay to the nth degree, okay, so take it with a grain of salt, that there was, you know, it couldn't be moved without a, you know, the mayor herself giving approval to move stuff like that. So, if that's the policy, okay. I just want to start, let's understand what is the policy, because there's clearly a difference between the active belongings of people that might include, you know, papers, medicines, any, whatever, their personal belongings that are important to them, and you know, soaking wet, seemingly discarded for days plus items around the porta potties as, as, as one example. So where, you know, where, where, where does the, what is our policy for that, that end of the spectrum? And if it's the same, okay, then we can have that conversation and sort of figure it out if there's an adjustment to make. That's the reason I phrased it. That was just to first ask, you know, is that true? Do we need an act of the mayor to pick up a, you know, abandoned property? PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Soak wet article clothing or four and and whatever else might be around it or not.

PB, Harmon Zuckerman, On that anyone from the city.

Through the chair, would you prefer if I sort of speak to the item in general? And I think I can get to Councillor Davis's question as part of it. Yeah, I think this is great. Okay, thank you. So through the chair, thanks for the question, Councillor Davis, and for everybody who's been asking sort of similar questions about abandoned items. And I think we're talking really about abandoned personal items or things that are unattended. We don't quite know if they're abandoned or not. So this is a really sensitive topic for both unhoused and house neighbors. I know a bunch of us were at a meeting in Davis earlier this month where I talked about this. So we're really trying to approach this with best practices. And these come from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, service providers, national organizations. I'm trying to channel Director Carroll who couldn't be here tonight, but we are constantly looking at sort of the best practices in the field. And we're trying to achieve balance with the concerns of other folks who use these spaces. So if you'll indulge me, and maybe this is where the question about where the mayor comes in. I'm very proud of the work that we've done over the past four years to evolve our protocols about unattended personal items. When Mayor Ballantyne first came into office, we found that sometimes the first instinct was to just remove things right away. And we know from a lot of public health research, there can be really dire consequences for unhoused people when personal items are discarded. So I do want to start off by thanking HHS and DPW in particular for their teamwork in evolving this approach. I had a long conversation with a DPW worker like a month or two ago about how much work he puts in attention when he finds something and where he tries to look around and And all of the things that he does. And that's that just it feels light years beyond where we were when we started HHS, DPW, but also ISD, SPD, SFD, Emergency Management 311. There are a lot of people who have kind of come around these protocols and worked on them. But it has been a priority of the administration to find the balance here and understand what the best practices look like. But I'm really thankful that I get to work and live in a city where, down to our DPW workers, to other folks who are on the front lines that we're all thinking about this. So thanks for indulging me. But at the very basic level, our process is something along the lines of, when we receive a complaint, Or maybe a city worker out in the field finds unattended personal belongings. The first step that we do is triage. So the first step, do they represent a safety issue? So are there biohazards or other safety hazards associated with belongings? So rotting perishables, sharps, fire starters, weapons? Soil belongings or belongings that are dangerous because they're ruined or present that hazard. So some of the things that we've discussed around the port-a-potty, some of those things do need to be cleaned up. And other times SHC and our other providers will say, you know, please don't throw out that wet blanket. It can be dried, right? So there's... There's some conversation that happens there, absolutely. But for the most part, if it is unsafe to be there, if it presents a hazard in and of itself, we remove it right away. There's also not just like, what is the item, but like, where is it located and how many are there? So if there's so much or the volume is blocking egress or exit, SFD, ISD, they're gonna be the first ones to say, no, this needs to move. And then finally, are they located in a sensitive location? So schoolyards, playgrounds, we move that right away. I think I talked earlier this month about the fact that we found items next to some heavy equipment, and that was not safe for an unhoused individual to be there. And so we moved it. And so we remove those things immediately. Some of that does need to be discarded or properly handled, but we store belongings that we can keep. And then we do the process of trying to identify somebody, reuniting with that person, giving them support. If an item does not represent a biohazard, the next thing that we need to determine is, does it belong to someone still or is it truly abandoned? And so that begins sort of a process of understanding where it is, working with SHC, Andy and her team, Talking to other folks, is this something that's been out for two weeks and nobody's coming back for it? Is this something that does belong to someone and they just went on a bathroom break, right? And so that's a process that takes a little bit of time to figure out. And so somebody might see something on the street where like it's been sitting there for a day or two, but we are in the process of figuring out. you know, is this truly unattended or, sorry, is it truly abandoned and can we discard it? Or is it, you know, somebody's coming back for this? This has been an evolving process. This used to be a little bit simpler, a little bit of an easier conversation between our departments, but the volume and the complexity of the belongings that we're encountering in Davis Square and elsewhere, they're changing, right? And I think everybody can see that. So we convened all of these departments over the past year, especially throughout the summer into the fall, we're still talking, to fine tune and adjust this response. And every time we meet, we discover sort of new things that we need to think about for these protocols. And that can be storage, like I just discussed. It can be worker safety while handling these items or going through it to try to find things and belongings. We've been discussing the best way to route work orders through 311. So every time we kind of make a little bit more process and other questions come up. But we've made a lot of good progress, and we're continuing to refine this and train our different departments in this protocol. So definitely still a living process, and I can understand that someone seeing something on the ground may not understand that there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes to try to figure out what's happening here.

Thank you. Any comment there, Councilor Davis, or anyone?

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So thank you for that. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity, Mr. Chair. So I just, I appreciate that, Mr. Spencer. Thank you. So that just. When I have constituents come to me with pictures of items that appear to be soiled, damaged, otherwise, the distinction that I already say is that if it constitutes a biohazard or a safety hazard in some way, then it absolutely can and should be removed by the city. And if they're seeing that not happen, then document it, let us know, and we'll figure out why that was the case and look into if there's something else going on. But that's the clear, if I provide that clear response, that would be accurate. Yes, through you, Mr. Chair.

Chair, I think that's accurate, Councillor, and I also think it's important. just put it in 311. It does sort of kick off this process in conversation. Even if we know about it already, it's helpful for us to just keep it on our radar. And it also kicks off, you know, this is both a conversation about somebody's belongings, but also getting them services. So Andy and our community health workers, other folks that we partner with, like SHC, other service providers, this is another opportunity for us to engage with someone. So Yes, please file 311. Please let us know and know that we are following up. And if it's still out there, if we haven't snatched it up, it's because there's a little bit of a conversation happening there.

Thank you.

Councilor Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also just wanted to thank Chief of Staff Spencer here for that answer and I really want to appreciate that the work of the Somerville Homeless Coalition is centered in these discussions because they're the ones who know who the folks are in the park probably better than anybody else and can help get those questions answered faster than anybody else could, just rummaging through and trying to find identifying information in there. So I really appreciate that we are relying on our community partners there in that front and hopefully giving them all the support they need in terms of funding and resources to continue to be a valued partner in that work.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on this item? I do have a question myself. And Councilor Davis, you may be the one to answer this if anyone from the city doesn't know. What's going on with that really nice old church that we own? Does anyone know? It's basically still city property, but we're not using it for anything?

Mr. Chair? Yes, Councilor Davis. So good question. And in fact, as the Chief of Staff was speaking, my head also went to that because it is a space that we have used it for storage in the past. It is my understanding from the last time I spoke with Director Raish is that it may still be used for some storage materials. I'm actually not, I can't recall what the current status is, but it was at one point certainly and there was a There was a certificate of occupancy that was issued for that specific purpose a while back. And that was the reason some folks had sort of flagged it come up. As far as the future of that, it actually just came up in the Davis Square Neighborhood Council meeting this past week. And they have a committee, a white church committee. So hopefully we'll be able to get that conversation jump started in the near future to figure out what to do with it. whatever happens it'll include a a large community space um with access to the library but for now that building is um perhaps used for some storage and like i said it's definitely as part of the conversation potentially a space if that's still an option temporarily at least um but long term the building itself is is not it's not viable it will need to be replaced yeah

Well, that was my question is if we're looking for storage in Davis Square, that's just one option that came to mind. Just want to toss that out in case no one thought about it. And it'd be nice in the future if it would actually have human beings in it as well. Counselor, Director Spencer.

Through the chair, I think we'll be looking at all options and we're weighing all of them. It does need to be, we have historically storage items in that building. They are not ones that we are regularly using or constantly accessing is my understanding. So we just need to evaluate how easy it is to be able to come in and out of the space to regularly access it. Even if our unhoused residents are not accessing a facility, our staff need to be able to get to it, HHS, other folks. So that's one of the things that we're looking at.

Thank you. All right, let me just... trying to pull up my agenda here. Okay, Councilor Davis, are you satisfied with this item? Can we mark this work complete?

I am, Mr. Chair. Thank you, and thank you for indulging me. Thank you to the Chief of Staff as well.

And how about the other items? We're talking about... Let's see. Outreach efforts. I guess we could talk more about that in a second, but I'm looking for the disposed needles. Are you satisfied with those answers?

Yeah, I think, Mr. Chair, thank you. I want to dig into the data a little bit more in the response that's there, but I can certainly follow up with the administration if we have additional questions. We can put another item in.

Thank you. Any further questions or comments from the committee? Sorry, I can't. I'm trying to find my agenda because this agenda is too small for me to read. Let's see. Clark, could you just mark? There we go. Thank you. So let's see. So item three will mark work complete. Item four will mark work complete. Item five, we have another item similar to this. So I think we can mark that work complete unless anybody had questions on that item. All right, so we'll mark that work complete. And those were the three, right, Clark? Are there any other items I'm missing?

And item two, we just took up items two through five together.

Okay, we'll do item two as well. I'll mark a work complete. So next item.

Mr. Chair, we do also have Andy Benvenuto here to talk about item five, which is around updated outreach efforts. But if the council is satisfied, it doesn't need additional information.

We're happy to. I would love to give Andy an opportunity to speak. Thank you for flagging that.

Hi, thank you. Through the chair, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about what our team is doing. So my name is Andy Benvenuto. I use she, her pronouns. I'm the community health worker manager for the city. So we have a team of four community health workers plus myself. Two are generalist CHWs. One is geared more towards harm reduction. And then the other is our regional position that works more in a clinical setting, but all four are involved in our street outreach. I have some data. Just in the months of September and October alone, the team has calculated 150 plus total client encounters, which includes not necessarily individual humans, but the number of encounters that they've had. And so an encounter can encapsulate working on SNAP applications, working on MassHealth applications, any sort of referral to either any other city departments or community-based organizations, as well as if we've given them any sort of supplies. So the supplies can include anywhere from winter gear, now that we're getting into the colder months, hats, underwear, socks, hand warmers, feet warmers, gloves, as well as food. So we hand out nonperishable food items, as well as water bottles, as well as harm reduction supplies, which can include test strips, CPR barriers, and naloxone, or otherwise known as Narcan. So just to also give an overview of what our outreach schedule looks like, we do outreach a minimum of three days a week. Two of those three days, we are always in the Davis Square area. which encapsulates like Statue Park, Seven Hills, all the way up the community path towards Life Alive and any of the surrounding areas in Davis Square in general, as well as East Somerville. So Foss Park, Chucky Harris Park, all along Broadway, even over near the Stop and Shop over there. Also working with our community-based organizations such as Conexione, and the clients that they frequently see. We also, the way that we inform our schedule is three ways. So first is not to be duplicitous of other outreach teams that exist in the city, such as the Somerville homeless coalition and their outreach team. Fenway Health also has a Somerville specific outreach team. So we try to stagger the times that we're in the community so that we're not duplicating these efforts, as well as the information that I get from the weekly huddles, which comes from other city leadership every Friday mornings surrounding the unhoused. So if I get any sort of indication from ISD or DPW or SOYA, that they have seen unhoused activity in a certain location, I'll inform my team, and we address those on Mondays. And as well as we now have a partnership with 311, where our team, we have a shared email, just chw at SomervilleMA.gov, where we'll get cue alerts directly from 311 regarding unhoused individuals, and we respond accordingly with that as well. Um, other than the physical services that we provide and the days that we're out in the community, I'd also like to highlight that the team has been really integral in establishing a sense of trust with this community. Um, what's really important is that not every single person that we come in contact with is, um, a native English speaker. So we've really bolstered our language capacity. Um, we have the language capacity of English. Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian, Creole, and Arabic on our team. So we're able to engage with a lot of different folks from different walks of life. We've been trying to navigate this different dynamic that we've noticed because there's been a lot of migration of different unhoused communities from different cities like Boston and Cambridge that are now becoming more prevalent in Somerville. And so the team has been really instrumental in navigating that changing dynamic and to make sure that there's a good relationship between the city and our unhoused residents. I'm outside of that I know that this was already sort of touched upon, but I also just wanted to speak specifically to what our team is doing regarding sharps so we've obviously heard the discussion around increase accessibility to. Sharps disposal containers, and so our team has really taken that in stride. So every time that we're out specifically in Davis Square, because that is where we see the highest concentration of sharps, we have personal sharps disposals that we hand out to folks that we also are giving to our library. And on that, we also developed a sticker that outlines where the public sharps disposal kiosks are in the square, as well as if you don't have access to that kiosk or if it's overflowing, what different alternative disposal options that you have and how to safely dispose of them. And we did like a be a good neighbor campaign, putting similar messaging like that around the city, around Davis Square as well. So that's a... brief quote unquote synopsis of the outreach that we're doing. But if anyone has any specific questions, I would be open to answering them. Thank you.

Thank you for joining us. This is your first time at the Public Health Committee, correct? All right. And how long have you worked for the city?

I have been with the city since June of 2023. And so this division did not exist before I started. So we have truly built it from the ground up.

Well, thank you for joining us. I think we're going to need you to come back again because it's very informative. Any questions from the council? I guess I have a question just about the overlap that you mentioned. So you said you staggered how many days a week?

Yes. So it's it ranges between three to four days a week. The fourth day is like a flex day on Friday. I mean, on Mondays, where if we get an urgent request on Friday mornings, that's when the team will go out on Mondays. And then we also have a standing engagement event with the Somerville Homeless Coalition, where we'll do actual street outreach in the square. And then we'll post up at the engagement center and do actual case assistance with clients there.

Do you think it does that equal out to seven days a week or like who covers the other days?

Yes, great question. So SHC and Fenway Health are both the other two sort of big outreach teams that exist in the city. So across the three of us, we are definitely in across the city on outreach seven days a week.

Thank you. Council Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. I loved all this information about outreach and harm reduction. And I think this is a huge improvement over where we were two years ago. So thank you for all that. I just had a quick question about the harm reduction supplies that go out there. Is that all obtained through... through OM lines in Health and Human Services? Are we obtaining supplies from the state clearinghouse? Or just wanted to understand where our stockpiles for that came from.

Yes, that's a great question. So I believe, and I might have to defer to my superiors to answer this holistically, but I believe that this funding comes from our opioid abatement funds, as well as a line for supplies from our prevention office.

That's interesting. Last I checked, we hadn't spent any of our opioid abatement funds. So I guess I'll, Mr. Chair, I'll follow up after the fact on this with folks in finance, I suppose.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Through you, I did want to confirm there have been several requests to this committee, I'm sorry, to the Finance Committee and the Council for spending of opioid funds specifically for harm reduction supplies and also our public health vending machines that are soon to be implemented. I have to check on that when the actual date goes. But yes, there have been a few expenditures in the opioid settlement funds.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. There have been some very recent requests coming through finance, but it sounds like these supplies have been going out for a while. So I'll follow up offline. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Just a question for myself. I am curious, like, what are you hearing in East Somerville these days? How are things going?

Yeah, that's a great question. So we have noticed just based on frequency of us going there that the best time to engage with folks is in the morning. That's usually when we see people congregating in our public spaces. And it has been quieter. We have definitely seen a lack or a decreased presence of folks. due to some extenuating circumstances. I'll just say that. But folks are very happy to engage with us. Like I said, we've established a great sense of trust with folks over there. So that's all I guess I can say. Thank you.

Okay. Well, I guess you answered it, that it sounds like there's a decline in presence, but not a decline in the problem.

Council of Clingan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, you made me think just with checking in on areas. It's not technically my ward, but it is an area of concern right on the, well, it's partly mine. There's two individuals living or seem to be spending evenings or a lot of time in the temporary pocket park on the Holman site. I know I've talked to Economic Development, and we put in some 311s and just inquired about what contact's been made with those individuals. I've actually talked to one of the individuals that's down there. Not at length, but I wasn't trying to intrude, but just some pleasantries. And just wondering if you were the one, if you have gone down there, or do you know what the situation is with those individuals

Yes, thank you. Through the chair. So based on conversations that we've had, read the weekly huddles that we have on Friday mornings, SHC is the main point of contact with the folks over there.

Okay. All right. Thank you. As long as I know, you know that there is a lot of communication open. I mean, you know, my expectations are just that I mean, we can't, you know, if somebody doesn't want to take advantage of any options. People have personal choices to make. And so as long as I know that we've been making contact and that those folks know how to find services when they're ready or able or willing, that's all. Thank you.

Yes, I believe they have been full-time clients or fully engaged with SHC for quite some time now.

Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Any further questions? Seeing none, now we will close out item five, market work complete, and we'll leave. We do have one other item related to this that I'll keep in committee. Thank you, Ms. Benvenuto. Is that right? Did I get it right? You can correct me. Benvenuto.

It means welcome in Italian.

Oh, yes. Benvenuto. All right. Well, thank you very much, and we hope to have you back again.

Thank you for the opportunity.

All right, thank you. That item five will be marked work complete, and then we'll move on to item six.

And that brings us to agenda item number 625-1340, that the director of emergency management and mayor and city councilors in real time when emergency events are occurring in the city, such as fires or emergency evacuation.

All right, thank you. Do we have an update on this, liaison Hutter?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm happy to share a brief update on this. which is that our current procedure is to notify when an emergency has happened, there's a series of folks who are notified and IGA is a part of that chain in order to communicate to the ward counselor so that they are aware of an emergency happening in their ward. And we have heard feedback from the at-large counselors and desire for more notification. We are working on sort of internal processes to make that smoother. As you can imagine, in an emergency situation, it is difficult to have a lot of folks involved. So trying to streamline as much as possible and make sure the right folks know and we're not adding more folks to an already chaotic situation. So we've heard that feedback and we're going to continue to work on that policy. We did this last, a few incidents have occurred and we've done our best, IJ has done our best to make sure ward counselors are also updated on events that are happening throughout the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions or comments? So I wanted to take this item up just because thinking about it, first of all, I get updated by the IGA's office whenever there's an emergency, and I appreciate that. You're never going to be faster than Reddit. I get everything I need off of Reddit, and when I heard this, I chose not to say anything, but I was just thinking how unrealistic and unfair it would be to expect someone in an emergency to call five people who are unrelated to that emergency to inform them of every step along the way. So unless there's any objections, I'd like to mark this work complete. Seeing no objections, the item is marked work complete. Next item.

It brings us to agenda item number 7, ID 25-1180, that the Director of Economic Development and City Clerk discuss with this council policies regarding outdoor seating and how the city may make it easier and less expensive for small businesses.

All right. Do we have anyone to speak on this item? Looks like we have Michael Poultry here.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We also have Rachel Nancarney, Director of Economic Development, and Dana Whiteside, Deputy Director. All right.

Well, thank you all for coming. Who would like to start?

Michael, you want me to start, or should I?

There we go. Hello. All right, through the Chair, Michael Potier, Licensing Operations Manager, did want to defer to a director if she wanted to speak first. So to respond to this agenda item, we kind of took it in two parts. The first request was to provide some information on how we're making things easier for small businesses with regard to outdoor dining. We've already taken several very important steps here. The first started before I joined the city, the standardized initial application for folks who would like to apply for outdoor dining. We have some pretty detailed instructions for folks to know what kinds of materials they're going to need, what information they're going to need to provide, what sorts of inspections they're going to need. And that process takes them. And once they're approved, it continues on their license moving forward. So it's a continuing addition to their license that would only need an amendment if they're going to be changing their floor plan. Um, the just this week we've also actually implemented um a pretty rigorous uh adjustment to our renewal process to streamline the process we worked with our isd building folks and our colleagues in fire to make that process even easier and that includes people licensees who have outdoor dining on their licenses and um less related but still we're proud to report that we actually have 20 of our renewals in already within the first week which is a market improvement over Matt Yauk, Norcal PTAC, years past we're very excited by that the second part of the agenda item is requesting information on how we're making it less expensive for those same businesses. Matt Yauk, Norcal PTAC, Based on the agenda item department heads and staff from the city clerk's office and economic development, we did meet earlier this year to discuss cost. Just as a kind of point of information and a friendly reminder, the current fee structure is actually based on a pretty comprehensive public outreach initiative that took place in 2023 that was headed by the economic development department. At that time, the decision was made again based on public feedback that the fees would be set at that time and then reevaluated for fiscal year 27. so when we discussed that earlier this year we determined that that original decision made sense based on the changes that we had already made and the licensing part of the process we determined that forum meetings and coordination on this very topic would begin in early 2026 which has a few benefits first it allows those changes to be any changes to be discussed directly in consideration and in parallel with the annual budget review and also starting early next year will give the new administration an opportunity to actively participate in that process if they so choose. So that's my summary and I'll defer now to Rachel or Dana if you guys have anything.

You gave a great overview. Counselors, we're here. We're happy to answer any questions on the process that we went through in 2023, what we're thinking about for the upcoming year in terms of how we're going to do outreach and get back to this conversation again.

Thank you. Does anyone have any questions or comments? I have a few, I guess. I'm curious. I'll give you my reason first for why I introduced this order. I love outdoor seating, and I want to see more of it. I think we've done, especially during COVID, did a great job of... providing those services or allowing it to happen. And then after that, when we kind of returned to the regular order of business, I think a lot of businesses were surprised at the fees that they had to pay in order to do what they were previously allowed to do for free. And unfortunately, I have two businesses in my neighborhood that previously had really nice outdoor seating, and this year they just decided to not do it at all. So my first question, I guess, is how much revenue does outdoor seating in summer will generate annually? We'll say all outdoor seating annually.

Mr. Chair, through you, we did an early evaluation and the at least with regard to the use of public space itself, the annual revenue generated for this year, 2025, was around $105,000.

Okay. And by public space, you mean like a parking spot that might have had a meter in it or something like that?

Correct, Mr. Chair, through you. Yes, the amount of revenue raised based on the amount of public space that was used. So that would be the first 450 feet, I believe, is $3 per square foot. And then any square feet above that is $6 per square foot.

Okay. And could you remind me again, how did you come to that number?

Mr. Chair, the process we went through in 2023 involved multiple outreach meetings with the business community as well as with internal departments. We got to this number through a dance back and forth of all the different perspectives involved. We know that the actual cost to operate and make that space available to the public exceeds $6 a square foot. We know that bearing the true cost on an outdoor dining operator is not going to necessarily be the decision that we want to make for the city. But we know that there also does need to be some level. The conversation at the time was that there does need to be some level of buy-in from the restaurants that are participating in outdoor dining, that they're using public space to make profit. And so this was this back and forth that we went through. At the time, there was actually a course correction that was somewhat desired by the non-restaurant owners who were neighbors to restaurants. in many parts of the city. We had so much large outdoor dining that were developed specifically as a COVID response that there were some businesses who were looking for a little bit of a course correction and for folks to really take stock of what it truly takes to operate outdoor dining in the long haul. the number of parking spaces that they are taking off of the market for the rest of the businesses in that district, as well as the public space crunches that we're feeling. That does not happen on East Broadway, I will say. East Broadway is a little bit different. East Broadway, we have very, very, very generous sidewalks, a lot of space available. But this is a citywide policy. We landed on this fees in consultation with all of these different players. And again, it was said as a, we're going to start with this and we're going to come back to this conversation again in three years. And so that three years point will come up again this coming season.

This coming season. So yes, it is 2025. Time flies. I think what you said, director, was kind of what I was getting at is as I understand it is the amount of money that we would get for having a metered parking spot is way below the amount of money and fees that the business would pay for outdoor seating. Is that right?

If I may, in the pre-COVID era, you had to pay for the whole price of a meter that you were displacing. That was in the many thousands of dollars per year. What we were looking at with this fee, one of the features of this is that it is agnostic as to whether or not you are taking a piece of a parking space away, or if the city has already gone through the process of making a wide enough sidewalk to allow for outdoor dining to occur on the sidewalk. It's still public space. We have made different kinds of investments in that public space, whether we had previously had it, it was parking that is being displaced or general sidewalk space. That was a decision point that we made in this process to say we want a fee that is applicable across all public space that you are utilizing for generating profit from outdoor dining.

Thank you. So I think I'm happy to hear that we'll be coming up with some new solutions soon. Just to give my two cents on it in case it weighs on your decision making. I generally am a person who tries to preserve parking spaces for people when possible. I also like outdoor seating and most of these businesses that they're choosing to lose a parking space for themselves basically right in front of their business in order to have outdoor seating. So I have to think that it benefits them financially and they're not losing too much business from losing those parking spots. As you mentioned, East Somerville may be different than other neighborhoods. Maybe we can think about a regional or square or block uh plan so instead of it being citywide i understand you know for example davis square people want to park there and drive off uh with their food the door dash things like this e-summable i feel like i i the other part i guess i would say is you you mentioned the buy-in part which i i do understand that that if you give away something for free people don't maybe don't appreciate it as much so you need some buy-in but what concerns me is when they're just not going to buy in and they choose not to have the outdoor seating. And I could think of at least Gauchos, and I think La Braza had really nice outdoor seating, and they just chose to not do it at all. And I would really like to expand the outdoor seating, especially on East Broadway, and get that walkability. I would also think about maybe how much revenue it generates for the businesses and therefore the city for us to get that. I appreciate the update. I guess we'll wait until next year and see what the new plan is. But my two senses, I would like to take the outdoor seating over the revenue possibly, and hopefully we get more revenue as a result in the long run. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from the councilors? I directed your mind to because I have talked to a few businesses, if I relay this information to them, could I give you a call sometime and just talk about it if they have further questions I thank you, I will mark this item work complete. And the next item.

All right, one moment, why swap back to the agenda.

To suppress this came back up.

And that brings us to agenda item 825-0923, that the Director of Inspectional Services appear before this Council to discuss recent changes to business permitting in relation to risk categorization and the impact they may have on businesses.

Unfortunately, ISG is not here today, so we'll leave that in committee.

Okay, and that brings us to agenda item 9, which, Chair, remind me, this is the item you also said earlier that you would like to keep in committee.

Yeah, we'll leave that in committee as well.

Okay. And that brings us to the last agenda item, agenda item 1025-0064. The chief fire engineer and the commissioner of public works discuss with this council how to ensure fire department facilities are well maintained. And we do have a memo for that.

Okay. Liaison, did you have a comment?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Through you, just wanted to also mention the previous item also has a memo associated with it. It's an update on the similar format that was submitted in June, but just if there were any specific questions on that, I'm happy to take that back to the three directors that put together that memo as well.

You're talking about the last homelessness item?

Yes, there's like a, yes, there should be a memo from Director Karen Carroll, Director Lisa Davidson, and Director Ellen Schachter from, yes, that's the one.

Thank you. Thank you. I felt satisfied with the previous discussion unless other councilors had questions. So we'll keep that one in committee. And then the last item is firefighter maintenance. Is there any update on that?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we do have the memo that is being shown on the screen now with a, I'm happy to briefly summarize the two departments. fire department and dpw work together on that with excuse me a split of responsibilities as is outlined in the memo there's a list of the kinds of work that dpw does on those facilities and then the kind of work that the fire department staff do and unique to this fire department facilities are that they are staffed 24 7 given the nature of the work of the fire department so they're able to identify needs um pretty quickly and our, you know, channel that through our 311 process and that's how DPW responds to those tickets.

Thank you. Any questions or comments from the council? Council Scott.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, over the years I've heard complaints from some of our firefighters about the conditions in various firehouses. Uh, it sounds like conditions that have persisted for a very long time. Um, I, you know, I appreciate here that this, uh, this memo talks about how DGW is responsible for, uh, you know, general maintenance, including sheetrock repairs, uh, flooring tiles, things like that. Um, I, I guess, is there. Any tracking that we have in terms of number of 3-1-1 tickets for facility repairs and what the turnaround has been on those repairs that have been requested over the course of the last year or two?

Thank you, through the chair, if I may. Yes, I don't have that information tonight, but we do have a record for any tickets that are submitted via 311. We can pull a report of those. So I'm happy to gather that data on the number of 311 tickets and then the duration that they've been opened. There's usually a, there's a timestamp for when they're submitted and then when they get closed. So I can provide that information for the last year or two years, what's the timeframe you're hoping for that data?

Yeah.

You know what, honestly, I'm not doing a deep dive audit here on performance. And it is tough, right, because 411 tickets get closed frequently before anything actually happens to them. So I'm not sure if having the time to close on those tickets is necessarily the most helpful metric. It'd really be a more complicated question of, I guess, DPW buildings being able to say when they finally checked an item off of their to-do list. I ask only because I know it's easy to, you know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease and the problem that's right in front of you is the biggest problem. So I know that, you know, maybe I'm just hearing from a few people about the particular pet peeves in their firehouses. I'm just trying to understand that. what the scale of the problem is and what kind of the time scale is for turning around on these fixes. So I'm not giving you any direct homework in terms of giving me like a 311 output report, but I would be interested in a sense of how quickly, knowing how constrained our building department and DPW is, how quickly these issues get addressed once they're reported through 311. or through fire department management for that matter. I think that's all I have, Mr. Chair. I'm just trying to understand, again, the scope of the problem versus the anecdotes about it.

Is this something you'd like to keep in committee and perhaps we can get DPW to come and talk about it or would you like to explore that offline?

You know what, I can explore this offline and then depending on what comes out of those conversations, bring back a specifically targeted item to get attention focused on exactly the kind of answer we need.

Okay, that's great. Any other discussion on this item? We'll mark this item work complete.

We are at the end of our agenda.

Very nice. Do we have any roll call votes we need to take? I think we can roll call to adjourn.

Correct.

All right. Councillor Scott moves to adjourn. Let's call the roll.

And on adjournment, Councillor Scott?

Yes, please.

Councillor Clingan?

Yes.

Councillor McLaughlin?

Yes.

We are adjourned.

Good night, everyone. Thank you.