City Council

All right, good evening everyone. It is Thursday October 8th this is a meeting of the Somerville City Council I'm calling this meeting to order my name is Lance Davis presiding I use he him pronouns Note that video and audio recording of this meeting is being recorded and may be shown live on local government access channels and the City of Somerville website, and will be made available for future review. Will the clerk please call the roll?

This is roll call. Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Here.

Counciler Link? Here Councilor Scott? Present Councilor Clingan?

Present

Sait, here. Councilor Wheeler?

Here.

Council Hardt? Here Councilor McLaughlin? Here Councillor Mbah? Present Councilor Davis?

Here With all councillors present we have quorum All right thank you uh pursuant to our rule 32 let it be known that the city council Salutes the flag of the United States of America and let us recall our oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth to the best of our abilities and understanding. We begin our meetings with a moment of silence. Are there counselors wishing to say a few words in remembrance of anyone this evening? Councilor McLaughlin?

Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to remember Teresa Hussey of Rush Street, lifelong Somerville resident, multi-generation Somervill resident, former employee of the city of Somervile, just all around great person, mother, grandmother I went to high school with a son, played football with him. Her daughter also served in the military in the U.S. Army and she's very proud of her grandson that she helped raise as well. Just a really great person, very genuine person. Very honest and direct. And took a lot of pride in her work. I would place orders as a counselor all the time and she'd see me on the street and she's like Matt I took care of those five orders for you Thank you. Councilor Scott?

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for my colleague from Ward 1 for bringing this moment. Teresa Ossie was an incredible individual very well known in Somerville but for anybody who didn't know her really just exemplified the strength that I associate with Somerville. She's one of the few people I know to sue the city twice and win while working for the city. When I talk about how nobody knows their blocks better than the people who live on it, I'm talking about Teresa Hussey. you know when I talk about the generational knowledge that we lose out of water and sewer when the people have been working on it for so long go away I remember in the first month that I got elected she told me about a couple water valves over on Beacon Street she's like they're not busted yet but they will be you mark my words and within a year they were she knew this city top to bottom inside now

You know, her son at the funeral said that if she liked you, you absolutely knew it. And if she didn't like you, she absolutely knew that too. and I know she gave our director a sewer an earful on more than one occasion. And frankly, probably a lot of us who sit around this horseshoe Thank you for joining us. and she will be fondly remembered by me and I'm sure many, many others in the city. Thank you.

Let's have that one come from the entire council please unless there is any objection. Any others? Councilor Clingan?

Mr. President, thank you this evening I ask that we hold a moment of silence in memory of Keith Michael Mannix who passed away suddenly at the age of 49 shortly after relocating to Colorado. Keith was raised here in Somerville, he graduated Somervill High School and played hockey for the Highlanders. He had a lasting impact on everybody who had the privilege of knowing him. Keith was the kind of person you could always count on, generous, fiercely loyal and always ready to lend a helping hand. He was the ultimate go-to guy. He also had a great sense of humor, loved having a good time and lived life to the fullest. He was a proud Somerville native, a passionate Boston sports fan and an avid lover of cars, the outdoors and his beloved dogs Lucy and Lola.

Keith leaves behind his parents, Nancy and Kevin Mannix, his sister Kelly Mannix of Winthrop, her loving, sorry, his loving partner Gabriella Lombardi and her family in Denver, and his beloved niece Caitlin DeMederos and her fiance Jose Barbosa. To whom Keith was a devoted uncle and father figure. He also leaves behind many aunts, uncles, cousins, and countless friends who loved him dearly. So I went to high school with Keith. I had the...I was lucky enough to call him a friend Even though he was a Lincoln Park kid, and I was a Winter Hill kid. But he was one of those guys that could cross any boundary and make friends with anybody. That's just the type of person that he was. He was one of the biggest, hardest people I've ever known. And Keith's life was cut far too short but the kindness, laughter and lasting memories he leaves behind will not be forgotten. I want to extend my deepest condolences Keith's friends, family and everyone grieving his loss. Everyone who knew and loved him. Thank you.

All right, would everyone in the chamber please rise however you are able for a moment of silence. Thank you. Madam Clerk, next item.

Agenda item 1.3, approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of August 27th, 2026.

Seeing no discussion that item is approved. Next, Councilor Ewen-Campen would like to take up items 2.1, 2.3 and 2.2 together and then along with those items also together out of order item 4.9 and 7.10 any objection all right seeing no objection we'll waive the rules and take up those five items together madam clerk would you read those in please

Agenda item 2.1, a citation by Councilor Ewen-Campen and Councilor Davis commending Nancy Paz for her work with Latino families in the community Agenda Item 2.2, a citation by Councilor Ewen-Campen and Councilor Davis commending Alejandra Benuelos for her work with Latino families in the community Agenda Item 2.3, a citation by Councilor Ewen-Campen and Councilor Davis commending Maritza Perdoma for her work with Latino families in the community Agenda Item 4.9, a resolution by Councilor Ewen-Campen and Councillor Davis recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month and the contributions of Somerville's Hispanic, Latin American, and Caribbean communities. and agenda item 7.10, a communication from the mayor proclaiming that September 15th through October 15th, 2026 to be Latin American Caribbean Heritage Month.

Ewen-Campen. Mr. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank to all of my colleagues at the Mayor's Office for all the collaboration on this. We are so happy to have a resolution tonight and a proclamation recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month, also known as Latin American and Caribbean Heritage Month. And to a part of that, and there are events going on in the city this month to recognize, to celebrate the amazing Latin American community here in Somerville So we have a resolution. We have a proclamation, but we thought that the best way to celebrate this month would be to uplift several really extraordinary members of our community who we are here with tonight who are very active members of Padres Latinos. And so I just want to mention while I was preparing my remarks, Padres Latino sent me little descriptions of these three amazing people And, you know, normally I would take what they sent me and then I would put it in my own voice and I would shorten it. And I just loved what they send me so much.

So basically I'm going to read you word for word what Padres Latino wrote about these amazing people. So we're going to take these one after the other, and we're gonna give them an opportunity to speak if they'd like. First up is Nancy Paz. So Nancy is originally from Columbia. She moved to Somerville two-and-a-half years ago with her husband and their two children, and in a remarkably short time She has become one of the most trusted and recognizable voices connecting Latino families with information, resources, opportunities, and one another. Nancy serves as The Padre Latino's WhatsApp chat coordinator This is a role that has become an essential bridge between local organizations, community partners, service providers and more than 350 Somerville families. So if an organization has an event a job opportunity, community resource deadline announcement anything that needs to reach Latino families Nancy is often the person that they contact. And her talent is taking complicated information and making it accessible.

She receives long emails, flyers, announcements filled with information and she transforms them into short, clear WhatsApp messages that families can understand quickly. She uses simple welcoming language makes sure the most important information is easy to find and thanks to her work Families have learned that sometimes all they need to do is click a button to access an opportunity or resource. More than 350 families trust the information Nancy shares. They know that when Nancy posts something, it is because she believes it may be useful to them. Nancy is also a strong advocate for children and families particularly when it comes to access to out of school time programming. She consistently reminds community leaders and partners that families need more resources and funding for programs that keep children engaged, supported, connected outside of regular school hours. She is also an entrepreneur and a graduate of the NIBEL program. She has developed a small food business specializing in Colombian empanadas, which she brings to community events and local markets whenever she has the opportunity.

And if you have attended a Padres Latinos event and enjoy delicious empanadas, there is a very good chance that Nancy made them. Through her communication, entrepreneurship, advocacy, food and relationships Nancy Paz reminds us that building community is often about making people feel seen informed welcome and trusted. Somerville is stronger because Nancy is here Nancy please. I'm sorry, I am excited.

Good evening. My name is Nancy Paz. I'm from Colombia. For the past two years, I have volunteered with Padres Latinos in communication. It's an honor to do this work Thank you to the Somerville City. To the Somerville City Council for your continuous support for our immigrant community, thank you. I'm sorry, my English is good. My Spanish is better. Sí, quiero decir algo en mi idioma.

Agradezco mucho a ustedes y estoy muy emocionada de estar aquí, de conocerlos esta noche. Gracias a todos los que aquí nos están acompañando A mi esposo, mi hija, mi hijo. Muchas gracias a todas las personas que están aquí. Amo la ciudad de Somerville porque ha sido todo para mí. Gracias.

Hello, I'm the interpreter. Hi, I would like to say something in my native language. Thank you everyone for being here I love the city of Somerville. Thank you for the recognition, thank you to my husband, my daughter and my son Thank you for this appreciation. I really love the city of Somerville, so thank you so much.

Next up, we have Alejandra Banuelos. Alejandra serves as the project manager for Padres Latinos Events. She plays an essential role in planning and coordinating programs and activities that bring Latino families together. Her ability to organize, connect people, and turn ideas into meaningful community programs has made her an invaluable part of the Padres Latinos community. Originally from Mexico, Alejandra earned a degree in nutritional sciences and moved to Somerville six years ago with her son Gadiel. Since arriving in the United States she has built a life defined by perseverance, professional growth, community service and a deep commitment to helping others feel that they belong. She also coordinates the wellness program at Connection Church, which operates throughout the year and provides opportunities for community members to care for their physical and emotional well-being. The program offers activities such as Zumba classes, healing sessions, creating welcoming spaces where families can exercise connect support one another and build community.

In addition to her work with Padres Latinos and the wellness program, Alejandra works in the Somerville Public Schools as a paraprofessional at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School where she brings the same dedication and compassion to supporting students and families. Through her leadership, advocacy and service Alejandra has helped make Somerville a more connected inclusive and welcoming community. Her story is one of resilience growth and service and a powerful example of what Latino residents contribute to this city that they proudly call home. Alejandra's journey reflects remarkable professional and personal growth in only six years in Somerville, She has built a career, learned English, continued her education and professional development, become a community leader and dedicated herself to creating opportunities for others. Her journey is also a reminder of the contributions that immigrant residents make every day in schools, workplaces, community organizations, families and neighborhoods throughout Somerville. Congratulations Alejandra!

Good evening, everyone. I'm deeply grateful to honor to receive this recognition. Sorry.

My name knowledge for my work in the community means a great deal to me. As a single mom, we sometimes limit ourselves because we think we are not capable.

But this recognition serves as a powerful reminder that I'm strong, resilient and capable of overcoming any challenge. Padre Latinos has taught me the importance of perseverance and showed me that I'm never alone. I sincerely appreciate the wonderful support from Padres Latinos provide to me and my son who is here present. I'm so proud to help my community and to continue making the difference. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the mayor, the city council members and everyone present for your dedicated service to our community. Thank you again for this honor and for believing in our work, thank you.

And next we have award three resident Maritza Perdomo, originally from El Salvador where she earned a bachelor's degree in law and she has been a proud resident of Somerville since 2007. Maritza grew up in a low-income family and understands firsthand the sacrifices that immigrant families make to create better opportunities for their children. Her parents immigrated to the United States several years before she did, hoping to provide Maritza and her siblings with access to a better education and a brighter future. In 2007, Marica moved to Somerville where she has built a life centered around family, hard work, entrepreneurship and community service. Today, Maritza owns and operates her own business where she provides tax preparation, notarization, translation and other services to residents and families in Somerville. Through her work, she continuously encourages people to move forward, pursue opportunities and achieve their goals. Moritz's commitment to the community extends beyond her professional work.

As an active member of Padres Latino, she has become a valuable resource for many local families She regularly shares important information and updates including information related to temporary protected status, TPS, and other issues affecting immigrant families. And she is always willing to answer questions, share resources, and help families connect with additional assistance when needed Maritza is also dedicated to celebrating and preserving the cultural traditions in our community. She plays an important role in coordinating the annual traditional dress parade during Hispanic Heritage Month For folks who weren't present at the growing center, my five-year old snuck into the costume contest in his soccer uniform and came in dead last. And I was very proud. Helping bring families together and celebrate the diverse cultures and traditions that make Somerville such a vibrant community. For Maritza, serving others is also a way of honoring the sacrifices that her parents made for her and her siblings

Her personal experience as an immigrant, professional, entrepreneur and community member allows her to understand many of the challenges families face. Her story is an example of how education hard work perseverance and community service can transform Not only one person's life, but also the lives of the people around them. Her dedication, compassion and commitment to helping others make her an inspiration to many families in our community. Congratulations Maritza!

Good evening members of the city's council, special guests and everyone here tonight. Again, my name is Maritza Perdomo Mejia. I am from El Salvador. I live here in Somerville for about 19 years. I have two daughters who attend an Argentinian school I am a volunteer of Padres Latinos. It is a true honor to be here to accept this recognition on behalf of Padre Latinos and our community. The Hispanic community is more than a culture. We bring our tradition, our language, our values and our dreams. And every day we contribute to making this city stronger More diverse and more vibrant.

Members of the city's council, thank you for opening your doors to our community, for listening to our voice and for giving us the opportunity to participate and be part of this beautiful city. Thank you so much!

Mr. President, I ask for a brief recess so we can take some celebratory photos. We will stand in recess for photos.

We have a quorum present. So Madam Clerk, items 2.1, 2.2, 2 .3 and 4.9 are approved 710 is placed on file and I should note that we are served tonight by our Assistant City Clerk Madeleine Tellier because Clerk Henderson is receiving an award, the Catalyst for Democracy Award from MassVote. So she has a very excellent excuse to miss the meeting today so we congratulate her on that. All right. The next item out of order, let's go to item 4.15. That's okay? If there's no objection, we'll waive the rules and take up item 415 out of

Agenda Item 415, a resolution by Councilor Davis and Councilor Ewen-Campen in support of Head Start and Early Head Start in the vital role their programs play in the City of Somerville.

Rather than stepping down and talking about this myself I'll defer to my co-sponsors, Councilor

Thank you, President Davis. Thank you for your leadership on this. I'll be brief because we have here tonight the director of the Community Action Agency of Somerville, one of the major organizations that enacts the Head Start programs here in Somervile. Head Start is a federally funded program that provides early childhood education, health care, nutrition and other supports to low-income families, other vulnerable families from birth through the age of five. Here in Massachusetts, we're talking about 100,000 families. In Somerville the program is administered through the Community Action Agency of Somervill which has about 115 children in their classrooms, and also through the Riverside Community Care who work with people from pregnancy through early childcare in their homes. This has been in place in this country since 1965. It has been a fundamental part of the commitment that this country makes to ensure a basic standard of living for anyone in this and the current president of the United States is now working overtime to try to weaken and undermine, and ultimately destroy this program.

When you think about the most powerful people in the world, the wealthiest people in and literally some of the most vulnerable young children in our society. It is hard to find a word for this except evil. They're going about this in a very devious way, which is to quote unquote relax the standards for Head Start programs, which basically means lower the standards to the floor so that teachers get paid less, class sizes increase, more kids become ineligible. There has been a public comment period on this federal change that ends tomorrow, October 9th is my understanding. I know many people in our community have submitted comments opposing this so we are filing this here tonight Mr. President to put Somerville City Council firmly on the record in support of Head Start and committing to doing everything that we can in our power to ensure that this program continues serving everyone who needs it. And I'd like to sponsor David Gibbs, unless you have something you'd like

Thank you, Councillor Ewen-Campen. Now, Councilor Ewen Campen would like to sponsor David Gibbs. Seeing no objection, Mr Gibbs please approach.

Thank you all. My name is David Gibbs. I'm the executive director of CAS and I live at 9 Linden Place here in Somerville, and I'm fighting a cold hence the mask so I'll stay away from y'all. And I'm going to keep this brief Ben laid out very nicely the situation we find ourselves in. It is inconceivable to me that a government that has supported Head Start for 60 years straight should now want to demolish it, take away one of the foundational programs that support low-income families and their children in this country. But I think it's important to note that they told us they would do this. In Project 2025, it says deregulate Head Start and eventually defund it. Just laid it out right there.

And so I think it's incumbent on us to pay attention to what is in that document and to what these folks say they're going to do because they are trying My staff have been amazing through all of this. They are very aware that this is happening. Not a single one of them has come to me and said I need to find another job, not a single This program just isn't good anymore. It's not supported anymore. I'm going to go do something else. Our families aren't leaving either. They are sticking with the program, and I'm sure they'll continue to do so as long as we are here. We've been here for 45 years in Somerville, and God willing we'll be here for another 45 or more. So that's all I have to say. I thank you for your attention and thank you

I think the whole council would like to sign on. Any discussion? Okay, thank you Mr. Gibbs. So that item is approved and now Councilor Hardt would like to request to waive the rules to take item 4.13 out of order seeing no objection. Madam Clerk would you read 4. 13?

Agenda item 413, a resolution by Councilor Hardt and Councilor Ewen-Campen urging Governor Healey to end the Massachusetts Department of Corrections 287G agreement.

Thank you so much. Clerk, would you mind reading it into the record?

Yes, one moment Whereas the Massachusetts Department of Correction, an executive agency under the authority of the Governor of Massachusetts has participated in the federal 287G program since 2007. and whereas this program results in Massachusetts residents who have served their full prison sentences and met all requirements of our judicial system being released into the custody of immigration and customs enforcement Ice, and ICE detention has reached historic levels in 2026 with more than 73,000 people currently being held in detention facilities across the country. And whereas ICE and the Department of Homeland Security

More broadly, have a well-documented practice of denying people in their custody basic rights to due process, medical care, and adequate food and water as guaranteed under the 5th, 8th, and 14th Amendments to United States Constitution. and whereas ICE and DHS claim the right to detain almost all non-citizens and suspected non-ciitizens indefinitely without the right a hearing, and routinely defy court orders requiring that detained individuals be given a hearing or even released and whereas ICE and DHS routinely and rapidly transport detained individuals out of state to regions of the country where courts have been more solicitous of the agency's claims Often thousands of miles away from their families and attorneys, further frustrating their rights to due process And whereas when ICE and DHS determine that an individual is subject to a final order of deportation

The agencies refuse to publish or disclose, even to an individual's family or attorney, where or even whether that individual is in custody. and whereas on January 29th, 2026 Governor Maura Healey signed executive order number 650 prohibiting all future 287G agreements unless there is a specific and certified public safety risk or need. And whereas on August 5th, 2026 Governor Healey signed Chapter 163 of the Acts of 2026, the Protect Act which expanded rights and protections for immigrants in Massachusetts including banning all future 287 agreements. And whereas Governor Healey is the only member of the Democratic Governors Association to maintain an active 287G agreement with ICE and DHS. And whereas the city of Somerville has declared itself a welcoming city and prohibited Somervill Police Department cooperation without, with ICE now therefore be it resolved

that the Somerville City Council urges Governor Healy to end the Department of Correction 287G agreement immediately and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be sent to Governor Healey and the Somerville State Delegation.

Thank you so much. So, as the resolution said this year has we've seen the highest level nationally of people being detained by ICE and being held in ICE Detention, and unfortunately in August we reached the highest level ever recorded of people being detained by ICE. So even though what the administration is doing, what DHS is doing through ICE is really this campaign of terror. Even though it's not making front page news All the time anymore, it is still happening and the levels are increasing. So I feel so grateful that we live in a City and a state where so much work has been done.

All of the welcoming ordinances that we have here in the city, as the state which some of which were mentioned in the resolution including the Protect Act which has a lot of wonderful protections and a lot ways that we can push back on this assault by the federal government. But we still have here in Massachusetts this 287G agreement. So a 287 G is a federal program that and many other localities and states can opt into. And this is specifically about the 287G agreement that the Massachusetts Department of Correction has with ICE, A cooperation where people being released from prison go directly into ICE custody. So a few, a couple of months ago actually a Ward 7 resident

Christy LaSalle, who's here this evening contacted me because she was very concerned about this agreement. and listening to her stories, which you will hear more really opened my eyes to the details and the depth of what was happening Ewen-Campen has a chance to speak. I'd like to sponsor Christy to speak as well. Thank you.

Ewen-Campen.

Mr. President, through you I'd just like to associate myself with everything that the good councillor just said. I'd very much like to hear from Ms. LaSalle as well.

Councillor Hardt would like to sponsor Mrs. La Salle to speak. Seeing no objection please step forward.

Good evening. As you heard, my name is Christy LaSalle. I'm a resident of Ward 7 and also a lawyer. And I've had the opportunity to have a really wonderful dialogue with Councilors Hardt and Ewen Campen About 287G and its unintended consequences. And the counselors have asked me to speak tonight. The thing you should know from the outset, before January I had never practiced immigration law. I practiced civil litigation But I work for a law firm that's based in Minneapolis. So when Operation Metro Surge began and when local immigration support groups were swamped, every lawyer of conscience became an immigration lawyer overnight. I've seen firsthand the evolution of ICE's policies and tactics, and how they have evolved to exploit 287 agreements. 287g agreement with the department of correction requires the facilities to hand over incarcerated non-citizens upon the completion of their sentence but

whatever benefits that might have and however much we should applaud the Protect Act's ban on localities maintaining these agreements. The state's agreement continues to create real risks for our community because of the way that ICE leverages the agreement and how Department of Homeland Security interprets and executes the immigration laws that they enforce. So if you'll let me get a little bit wonky about it. One of those laws is the Lake and Riley Act, which says that any non-citizen arrested, indicted or convicted of a certain crime of violence is not entitled to a bond hearing. They don't have the right to go before court and say, I should not be detained. That includes people who are arrested but released without charges, people who were tried and found not guilty All of these individuals are subject to indefinite detention without due process under Lake and Riley, and I've seen that happen over and over again.

Now, since the 287-G agreement that the Commonwealth holds applies only to the Department of Corrections which houses those convicted, those aren't the exact concerns I'm speaking about tonight. It carries an even crueler consequence. Imagine someone who is wrongfully convicted and exonerated. Under the 287G agreement, that person would have to be handed over to ICE upon their exoneration for redetention and deportation. That's not the only way that 287 helps ICE deprive non-citizens of their due process rights. Recently, as you heard in the resolution, ICE has begun to refuse to disclose Where they are detaining individuals who are subject to final orders of deportation. That means their families, who are waiting for them to come home from prison, don't know where they are. It means their lawyers don't and this is a deliberate tactic meant to speed up and multiply the number of deportations that ICE effectuates.

The only thing that keeps mass deportation at bay, is the writ of habeas corpus. And the only way you can file a writ of Habeas Corpus is if you know where your client is. If I don't know where my client is being held, I cannot file a claim on their behalf to maintain their constitutional rights. Now, that applies to anyone who has a final order of deportation. But the thing to understand is most people who have been incarcerated will have a final That's because ICE will schedule an immigration hearing while they're detained. And when they don't show up, they will order them removable in absentia which means they have no right to speak on their behalf and they lose their appeal rights. So when you put all that together, ICE has adopted a policy of in absentia rulings followed by detention, relocation and secrecy in order to facilitate mass deportations. The Commonwealth should be playing no role in a scheme like that to deprive our community members of due process.

And remember, unless everyone has due process, nobody has due-process. That's not just a chant that you hear at No Kings. That is the reality. As ProPublica reported this week, there have been American citizens who were deported to other countries in cases of mistaken identity just because they share the same last name and year of birth as a non-citizen with a deportation order Those individuals had proof of citizenship but were not allowed to go before a judge to show it. Our community is richer and more vibrant because of its diversity, because of our non-citizen neighbors, coworkers, and friends and the fact that Massachusetts is the only democratically led state in the country to have an active 287G agreement with ICE is a stain on what we stand for. I want to thank Councilors Hardt, Ewen-Campen for sponsoring this resolution and all of you for your time and consideration. Thank you.

Thank you Councillor Scott would like to sign on, Councillor Link I think the whole council would like sign on any discussion? Councillor Wheeler

Sorry, didn't go on. I want to recognize first that the climate that we're in is infuriating, deeply painful and deeply unjust No one should have to live in fear. And in all the complexities of our normal criminal justice system, people should not bear the added burden of being found not guilty and released or released after serving their assigned time just to additionally face arrest and possible deportation by the government. This year there was work at the State House on passing the Protect Act. And I'm deeply grateful for the Protect act and its protections, however partial and deeply grateful to the State House's Black and Latino Caucus for working on it. One thing that I learned, and was surprised to learn in following the PROTECT Act and learning about the work on the PRотect Act

was that in the course of meeting with a variety of different groups of immigrants representing immigrants, the Black and Latino Caucus reports having heard a bunch of disagreement on the question of the state's 287G agreements. and many more. There is a real importance for us in discussing issues this complex, issues with these deep and profound effects on people. to make sure that we are We are listening and we are approaching the subject ready to hear whatever it is that the people most effective have to say. Some of the people, as reported by Black Latino Caucus Chair Representative Andy Vargas

Some of the people that the Black and Latino Caucus reports meeting with felt that we should absolutely end this 287G agreement. Other people they met with felt that on balance as horrible as these agreements and the current setup that the state has with Department of Homeland Security is, That as bad as that is, it would be worse in the current environment to end that agreement. I don't pretend to know all of these nuances and ultimately I feel like I come down on the side of not wanting to continue an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security. and I appreciate my colleague's sponsorship.

My experience learning about this felt like a strong reminder that as the federal government tries to turn the screws on cities that try to be welcoming to immigrant communities, And as they punish immigrant communities, the policy questions are going to be thorny and complex. And we are going to have to remember to stay curious and humble, and be ready to hear what we don't expect to hear. That's what I'm sort of surprised to find with this and I appreciate everyone's attention to trying to get these things right. Thank you

Thank you. That item is approved. Madam Clerk, let's go back to the regular order before we take up any additional out-of-order items and do our public hearings and grants applications please.

Agenda item 3.1, a grant of location from Comcast applying for a granted location to install 187 feet of conduit in Sycamore Street and Broadway and one new sidewalk vault from the existing Comcast manhole at the intersection of Sycamore Street and Broadway passing through the proposed sidewalk vault continuing to points a pickup at 382 Broadway and 386 Broadway.

I now declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Dave Flewellen, online. Give us a minute to get all the unmuting done. There you go. Mr. Flan, go right ahead.

Okay, thank you. Is there anyone else here to speak on the item? If you're online, you can use the raise hand. Function at the bottom of your screen. Not seeing anyone, all right then I declare the public hearing closed any questions or discussion? Councilor Link

Thank you, Mr. President. So I was taking a quick look at some of these and this one stood out to me because It looks like the work that's going to happen where they're going to be cutting is on the schematic it doesn't show it but there is actually a curb cut for crosswalk right there. So I'm just curious if that's been taken into account, the fact that we need to have a curb cut fixed and all the work that might entail.

Mr. Fleming, can you speak to how the work will interface with a curb cut?

Yes, that curb cut would be going back to the original condition for the suite opening permit

Mr. President, just by restored back to condition means that it'll be cement again or that it's going to be cement with asphalt trip hazard right in the middle?

and then we will return to replace the concrete.

Mr. President, if you can just tell me one more time how long will it be

Mr. Flanagan, can you speak a little bit just to the required process of that sort of two-step replacement?

The temporary house will actually have been recording me with the cement truck.

Do you want to ask about the time interval? Yeah, I think so.

Is it going to be a patch for a week, a month, a year?

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank my colleague at large for flagging this. I believe this is part of a crosswalk which is a route to school for the kids going on the Healy School so I really would urge The utility to take swift action and making sure we restore this 100% as our kids do rely on that crosswalk to get to school.

Thank you Thank you any further discussion All right. Seeing none, then this item is approved. Next item?

Mr. Chair. Councilor Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to be recused from this one as I appear on the list of abutters on page seven. Very good. Councilor Scott is recused.

Madam Clerk?

Agenda item 3.2, a grant of location. Eversource applying for a grantive location to install 346 feet of conduit in Newton Street from the existing manhole 4115 passing through the existing manual 4123 to appoint a pickup at existing manhole 31223 next to 24 Webster Avenue.

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

Can you hear me?

We can.

Okay, I'm one of the abutters. I live at 3 Emerson Street. My name is Michael Katz. I Obviously, we need to get power to 24 Webster. There's not an issue there. I do have a couple of questions. When the utility is doing this work, are they also going to be doing the conduit etc. for 32 Webster? which they literally are passing as they go to Newton so that they don't have to rip up the street more than once. and create all the problems of that, of ripping up the street makes for us and the costs. So that's one question. When are they planning to do this?

And how long will it take and the third one is how will abutters get to their driveways, into their houses during this process?

Okay, thank you. Is there anyone else to speak on the item? Anyone from Eversource by any chance? Yeah. Ewen-Campen, did you want to speak?

After the public hearing.

Okay. Hearing none then I'll declare the public closed. Councilor Ewen Campen?

Thank you, Mr. President. As the nearest non-recused board counselor, I'll say if there are questions from the abutters and there's—I'd ask that this go to committee, please.

All right. No objection to that. I will refer this one to licenses and permits. Thank you. Next item?

Agenda item 3.3, a grant of location. Eversource applying for a grant to location to install 15 feet of conduit in Fellsway West Street from existing manhole 1897 to appoint a pickup at the demarcation line next to 49 Fells Way West

All right, I now declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Anyone online? If you're online, you can use the raise hand feature All right. Seeing none, I will declare the public hearing closed. Any discussion or preference on this item? Felsway West. Trying to figure out which ward councilor this would fall under. I thought so. Do you want to send this one to committee since we don't hear from anyone on it? Are you okay approving it tonight? I will note that typically when representatives from Eversource come they effectively just read what we have in front of us so that's typically this. We're not...

We're not missing out on information we usually would receive by there not being anyone here to speak from it, there being no other questions.

Yeah. I mean, rather than send it to the committee... But that's sad.

If no one's here to speak on it, we certainly could send it.

Rather than sending it to committee, can't we just lay it on the table or something for next meeting? We can do that as well.

We have someone here. All right, I'm going to reopen the public hearing so that we have someone online. Who is it? Emmy McSweeney, you would like to speak on this item? This is item 3.3, Fellsway West.

Can you hear me? This is Emmy McSweeney from Eversource. Yes, now we can hear you very well.

Okay.

So the second item, we respectfully request to withdraw this application this evening. I am covering this tonight and the what was submitted to you was a portion of this as DCR jurisdiction and a portion is Somerville. We inadvertently submitted the DCR petition, so we respectfully request that we withdraw it and resubmit it for next hearing.

All right. Well, we will keep you withdrawn once it's on the agenda but let's table that one until we make sure we get the correct procedural What's the word I'm looking for? Treatment. Handling. All right, very well then. So item 3.3 will lay on the table. Next item, Madam Clerk.

Agenda item 3 point 4, grant of location. from Eversource applying for a grant of location to install 266 feet of condo in School Street, from existing manhole 29855 passing through existing manholes 13425 and 13085 to a point of pickup at 93 Highland Avenue.

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

Yes, so it's Ebony McSweeney and we are requesting rental locations so we may place our permanent utilities in through those manholes that were listed on 93 Highland Avenue.

Okay, anyone else here to speak on the item? All right seeing none I declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? Any objections? No. All right, that item is approved. Emmy, before you go I just want to note that item 3.2 we set to committee because there were some questions from some abutters there so we'll take that up in committee and make sure that you have a notice when that's going to be on agenda okay?

Okay.

Thank you. So 3.4 is approved. All right, let's take item 3.3 off the table and the clerk informs me that we can withdraw it live here this evening at the request of the applicant so it shall be done consider withdrawn All right, very good. Now let's go back to our out-of-order items we got a few more exciting stuff we want to get to before we go through everything else in order If there's no objection, I'd like to waive the rules to take up item 8.3 out of order. Seeing no objection. Madam Clerk?

Agenda item 8.3 an officer's communication conveying the municipal special election calendar for 2026-2027 All right director Salerno

I see you are here this evening to introduce yourself formally for the record and let us know what we got in front of us here.

Good evening. Nicholas Salerno, Elections Director here to talk about the future special election for awards two and three. Now, we've been asked as an elections department to put a calendar together to run the elections for both wards. Unfortunately, we can't just do it at the convenience of people who want to run or the people in my office. We have to take it by statute and we have endeavored Pay close attention to every statute Pass charter, current charter and act accordingly. And the goal being to put together a special election in the shortest possible timeframe

What you have in front of you is exactly that endeavor. The earliest we can run by statute, the preliminary would be February 2nd. and we were, that's a Tuesday. And we were planning on once we go through all the steps that are required that we have to do between this Preliminary and the final election, general election. We were going to hold the election on Tuesday March 23rd but we couldn't do that because there's a religious holiday. So I just want you to know at the outset, that the earliest we can have the final election is the following day on a Wednesday March 24th

Now precedent has been set in the past for different days of the week other than Tuesday, so don't let that get anybody too nervous here. So having said that what you have and the special calendar proposal is the quickest dates that we could provide statutorily in following city charters Possible, February 2nd for the preliminary and March 24th for the general. and nomination papers. That's a little bit, we have more flexibility for everybody who wants to move quickly they will be available November 16th. That is my presentation with a smile.

All right, thank you Director Salerno. Any discussion? Any questions? All right, seeing none. Thank you.

Thank You all have a great evening.

You as well that item is placed on file Our next item out of order At the request of administration, so I'd like to waive the rules to take item 7.9 out of order if there's no objection. Seeing none, Madam Clerk?

7.9 a request of the mayor requesting approval to enter into a lease agreement with the Center for the Arts at the Armory To provide commercial art space at the Somerville armory building 191 Highland Avenue All right, go ahead

Through the president, my name is Josh McCorkle. I am the property and tenant relations manager for the city. And what you have before you here is a lease for approval for the armory. This is for the Center for the Arts of the Armory There was a previous set of leases that already came to this body to get approved. This one is lagging a little later just because we had some back and forth with Center for Arts at the Armory to make sure that we were both on the same page. They had some small changes they wanted to see in the lease, so we worked with them to get those changes made. They've been made. Center for Arts of the Armory is satisfied. They signed and so Now we're just looking for approval so that we can start on this lease period with them. And they're such an important tenant in the armory, obviously. So we're excited to continue the relationship with them!

Okay, thank you. And the request is if it's the will of the Council to approve this lease this evening, that's correct? Mm-hmm. Questions? Councillor Scott?

Thank you, Mr. President. I don't have any questions. I very much appreciate being provided with the lease so that I could review it before the meeting. Director Scherf of Arts of the Armory for providing the City Council with a letter giving us a heads up that the lease had been finalized and conveying their continued concerns. I'm grateful for the work of staff to try to get this thing buttoned up and put away in a satisfactory manner, and for being responsive to those concerns and making edits to lease. And it's my fervent wish that the city can manage to be a better landlord going forward. Thank you Councilor Sait

Mr. President, yeah so as you know I'm the world councilor so I've been following this for years at this point when it first got on the council January this was my the first order i put in a council order which is securing leases for the Armory tenants. Yeah, I'm very excited about this moment and want to thank administration and everyone who's worked on this and I am looking forward to this next chapter, and I'm really glad you're joining the team. And you will be the you know the connection right between you know, the city and all these tenants making sure you know you're there and you listening to all their concerns They've been waiting for this for a really long time. So I think everyone is really excited to start this new chapter. Thank you.

Further discussion? Councilor Link?

I just think, Mr. President, I just want to say that you know just today I was having a conversation with Councilor Ewen-Campen and a few others about how Arts at the Armory really kind of punches above their weight and I'm just so happy that we've got this locked in now or that were about to have it locked in. And you know, I really hope that we're gonna make sure that as we keep moving forward That we, the renewal processes are smooth. And I assume that now that we've got a wonderful person in there to look it over, we will have just that.

Councilor Mbah?

Thank you, Mr. President. Just to underscore my toast saying that we should never forget why we took that building. So it's been long overdue just to echo Councilor Scott's sentiment. My hope is that... You're going to preserve the artists that were there. That's it.

Thank you. All right, seeing no further discussion. Councilor Wheeler?

Thank you, Mr. President. Just very briefly I just wanted to appreciate this work, to appreciate the coming together in all of the legal negotiations of all the different parties involved in order to enable arts because that's ultimately what we're trying to do here and I hope In this work this year and in our work going forward, we really are holding on tightly to this idea that arts are not made to fit in legal contracts. and we have a system that requires them. We need to do everything by the book, but as much as possible if we can build approaches that welcome and support The flexible outpouring of creativity that we have in this city, I think we will all benefit. Thank you.

All right, seeing no further discussion, Councilor Sait moves for approval. That requires a roll call, I believe, Madam Clerk? All right, very good. Call the roll.

And roll call for approval on agenda item 7-9 to enter into a lease agreement with the Center for the Arts at the Armory. Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Yes.

Link, yes, Councilor Scott, yes. Councilor Clingan? Yes. Councilors Strezo? Yes

Yes.

Councilor Wheeler? Yes. Councillor Hartt? Yes Councilor McLaughlin? Yes Councillor Mbah? Yes, Councillor Davis? Yes The 11 councillors in favor that is approved.

All right very good thank you All right, next item out of order. This is another item at the request of the administration. I'd like to waive the rules to take up items 7.3 and 7.7 together and out of order seeing no objection then madam clerk would you read those two

7.3, a request of the mayor requesting the appropriation of $107,663 from the salary and wage stabilization fund to the Department of Public Works school custodian's other lump sum benefits account to fund a collective bargaining agreement with the service employees, International Union Chapter 3. School Custodians. And agenda item 7.7, a request of the mayor requesting the appropriation of $59,307 from the salary contingency salaries account DeVarius Department of Public Works School Custodians Personal Services Account to fund a collective bargaining agreement with the Service Employees International Union Chapter 3 school custodians.

All right, so we have the Chief Administrative Officer Wells here to speak on this I believe. Is that all right? Step right up.

Thank you so much Mr. President, Kimberly Wells Chief Administrative Officer through you um you'll see that there are two appropriations here both for the retroactive component of the fiscal 26 through 28 memorandum of agreement with the school custodians. The council, you may remember voted to fund this agreement back in July and for any municipal finance wonks who are at home listening I will share that it is split into two appropriations which is outside of the norm because the first item 7.3, I think that's the order they showed up in the agenda in is an appropriation from the Salary and Wage Stabilization Fund covering fiscal year 2026 dollars so stabilization funds I hope you all remember from the budget are the container that we can use for things that bridge fiscal years so we're taking sort of old money to pay for previously done things and then we're using the salary contingency account which is part of this year's operating budget to pay

meaning basically July through September.

Very good any questions? All right. Seeing none, thank you. So item 7.7 is approved and item 7 .3 requires a roll call for approval. Would you call the roll on that please Madam Clerk?

And this is roll call on agenda item 7.3, the appropriation of $107,636 from the state salary and wage stabilization fund. Ewen-Campen, Link, Scott, Clingan, Strezo, Sait, Wheeler, Hardt, McLaughlin. Mbah. Yes. Councilor Davis? Yes. With all 11 councillors in favor, that is approved.

All right, very good. Next item out of order and another request from the administration to take Item 7.2 out of And seeing no objection, Madam Clerk would you read 7.2?

Agenda Item 7.2, a request of the Mayor requesting the appropriation of $384,000 from the Salary and Wage Stabilization Fund to the Police Department Other Lump Sum Payment Account to fund a collective bargaining agreement with the Somerville Police Superior Officers Association

Is this possible?

Thank you, Mr. President. Kimberly Wells, Chief Administrative Officer. So this item is also an appropriation for a retroactive component of an MOA. This one for the FY25 element The MOA that was recently appropriated by the city council back in June for the superior officers.

Any discussion? Councilor Link and then Scott.

Thank you, Mr. President. A question. So not our last finance meeting but the one before that we had two grants come up For E911 and both of those we for one reason or another even though we knew we were applying for a grant We had to still ask for the money in the budget. We have the grant now and the Those grants were for $295,000 and $159,000 which seems like it would more than cover this. So I'm just curious why we need to Use wage stabilization funds when it looks like we have in our police operating budget the amount that we need.

Thank you for the question. So as I mentioned before, as we think about the purpose of stabilization funds it is really to set aside funding from in previous years for use for things that occurred in those years. So the idea is that we are using FY25 dollars to pay for time in FY25 and that the new money coming in will be allocated towards things that are happening in this budget and going forward. So if at the end of this fiscal year there's Let's call it extra. It would potentially be allocated back to a stabilization fund, the council would need to approve that. So really in the sort of municipal accounting rules We want to make sure that we're using the money for the specific purposes that it was designated when it was designed.

Thank you, Mr. President. Councilor Scott? Thank you Mr.President It is a very subtle thing, the difference between the stabilization fund and the salary contingency account. I just had one question, just to be perfectly clear about this. This is not a request to ratify a new contract agreement this is simply a funding appropriation to pay the prior year balance of an agreement that's already been reached correct Mr. President through you Councilor yes that is correct all right thank you Mr. Any further questions, discussion?

All right seeing none that also requires a roll call vote. Madam Clerk would you call the roll on approval?

This is a roll call for Agenda Item 7.2, requesting the appropriation of $384,000 from the Salary and Wage Stabilization Fund. Councillor Ewen-Campen?

Yes.

Councillor Link? Yes Councillor Scott? Yes Councilor Clingan? Strezo, yes. Councilor Sait?

Yes.

Counciler Wheeler? Yes Councilor Hartt? Yes Councillor McLaughlin? Yes councilor Mbah? Yes councillor Davis? Yes all councillors in favor the item is approved

All right, thank you. One more in this category requesting the administration to take up item 7.5 out of order so I'll make that request to waive the rules and take up Item 7. 5 seeing no objection. Madam Clerk?

Agenda item 7.5, a request of the mayor requesting the appropriation of $308,504 from the salary contingency account to various departmental personal services accounts to fund a collective bargaining agreement with the Somerville Municipal Employees Union, Unit A. Ms. Wells?

Thank you Mr. President, Kimberly Wells Chief Administrative Officer this one is a bit more exciting only because it represents a new contract that we have signed with SMEU Unit A. So this is the request to appropriate the funds for the prospective component of the union's MOA for FY23 through FY25. So I'd be happy to share some of the details of this you may remember that recently, I think recently means last year but perhaps last year and the previous year, we in this case I mean the council approved the appropriations for units B and D And so this Unit A MOA is very consistent with both of those. It includes 3% cost-of-living increases for the fiscal years 23 and 24, It also includes a comprehensive market adjustment for fiscal year 2025, which was based on the city's wage study.

It includes an increase to vacation benefits and transition to a vacation accrual system It gives this group access to the PFML benefit that the city provides, creates a new sick leave bank for this unit. and also increases the longevity schedule, the clothing allowance and the car allowance. So the administration is really excited to complete really the trifecta of SMU MOAs with unit A rounding out B and D.

Thank you. Any discussion? Questions? No? All right, seeing none, that item is approved.

Agenda item 8.2, an officer's communication from the city council legislative and policy analysts conveying information on the upcoming periodic review of the code of ordinances

A thing that you will surely regret, Mr. President. I will give the clerk a moment to get the presentation up and I will my customary notice Public speaking is not my passion so I hope that you will forgive me as I spend most of my time staring at my notes and stumbling through them rather than making eye contact with any of you. for the Record, City Council's Legislative and Policy Analyst Brendan Salisbury. I've already thrown myself off by skipping several parts of my notes. I am here to present to you tonight on the 2027 Periodic Review of the Code of Ordinances, This is required by the 2025 revised city charter, which is something that is very exciting to me but is likely to put some of you to sleep. Hopefully not enough to cause quorum issues but we will see how things go. I do ask that you hold your questions to the end as i have already demonstrated now. I am very distractible much more so than other

Regular presenters, but my slide deck is much shorter. So we will get through this very quickly as long as I am allowed to stay focused Next slide please So what are we talking about here Section 8.5 of the 2025 Revised City Charter does require a review of the Code of Ordinances be conducted periodically, every 10 years specifically And that is similar to the required periodic review of The Charter and of multiple member bodies We are required to wait at least one year after the periodic review of the charter so that we don't work on both of those at the same time because I will quit. We are also required to incorporate opportunities for community input and to conduct this under Supervision of the City Attorney. The specific manner and timeline is to be set by ordinance, more on that in a bit. Next slide please.

So for a quick bit of history about our Code of Ordinances, several of you at this point have been treated to my endless frustration about the fact that the code has not been subject to a recodification since 1963. and a great many of our ordinances, the entirety of the readily available history for them is a small footnote that says code 1963. And that's it. This has led to a great number of people assuming that means all those ordinances were created in 1963, but unfortunately Many of them are decades older and it can get a little frustrating to do the historical research to determine exactly how much older. Because there is, unfortunately, little to no information about the recodification of 1963. Apparently they did not write things down in that year. Next slide please This brings us to why a review is a necessary process

Simply speaking, regular review helps us make sure that we are staying on top of how reality is playing out and gives us an opportunity to go back and identify what may not be working or what may no longer be necessary. It's pretty common to focus in on what you can add to the code of ordinances. That is natural. You have a two-year term, you have very little time. You're probably not interested in going back to look at why squirrels are something that you're not allowed to talk to in the park. That's where I come in. In order to keep the code of ordinances from getting goofy, it helps to have somebody who has a full sense of the context of the code I actually know and have gotten confessions from several of you that you have not read the Code of Ordinances in their entirety. Well, I have done that several times. The idea is for me, mostly, hopefully with some help because there's a lot of ordinances to go through and identify things like Fines for not singing the national anthem.

That's not a Somerville one, I was going to use it as test that is actually state law fun fact It's also worth saying here that the longer there is between the reviews the more difficult these reviews get Case in point it's been 63 years. So in order to keep these functional, we will be doing these every 10 years for as long as I am here. And I, speaking for the historical record, encourage whoever follows me to make sure to maintain this practice please. Next slide please. Now, as it has been over 63 years since the last review and we don't actually know what the scope of that review was. It would be impossible to get everything done that we need to do all at once so

After consulting with the City Attorney, the City Clerk and the City Council President this is a spoiler for what the ordinance is going to say The decision has been made to conduct this initial review on a slightly extended timeline and in two parts Recodification and Substantive Review. With this presentation I am covering recodification as noted by the title of the slide, Recodification. The goal there is to have a solid foundation for all of you to conduct a substantive review once that is completed. In the future, this level of work will hopefully not be necessary because we will be doing this routinely I will be doing this routinely, and I will know what I did last time. And I am also documenting every step of this process so that again the person who comes after me does not have to flail around and wonder what they were doing in 1963. I'm not bitter The first step is to pass an ordinance that is going to establish the manner of review and the date for submission of recommendations.

I am going to make the unusual request to have this council pass that tonight so that The next step is identification and removal of outdated provisions. We will cover this in the next slide followed by a unification of style which is everybody's favorite, reorganization of chapters and then submission of recommendations and city council deliberation. Next slide please. Identification and removal of outdated provisions. Some of you have taken my Civics Day quiz for the first two years that Civics day was running, and I did have a lot of fun testing your knowledge on the things that we have in the ordinance still. This is a small sampling of them. I don't know that there were a lot of horses in Somerville in 1963, so I am left wondering why we kept those provisions in when we last did the recodification, but suffice to say they will be coming out.

There are numerous provisions in fact that I feel confident saying were out of step with reality in 1963 and yet remained in force for the last 63 years. Things like prohibitions against frightening horses, allowing them to graze at large which is a serious problem that we need to address right now. Things like requirements that your Starbucks employee have a chest x-ray because of the consumption that is rampant in our community right now. Some of these are more obviously archaic than others. Some will require substantive review. My plan is to err on the side of caution To the extent that something requires a substantive and substantial policy discussion, it will be marked for substantive review later, and I will not be removing it. That being said, I also do not want to run into a situation where we are flagging more minimal substantive changes that we could have a very brief policy conversation about

and do away with or keep because the intent of the substantive review is to be much more holistic. Again, more on that in a little bit. Next slide please. Unification of style. I have examples for this one. This is following the removal of the outdated provisions because I don't want to waste my time unifying the style of provisions that I know are coming out If there are individual provisions that I think should come out and this council decides should stay in, I will unify the style then. But there's a lot. So, over the course of the last century inclusive unfortunately of the decade or two there has been no consistent style within the code of ordinances despite evolution and progression of language Certain deeply archaic drafting practices have remained in place. Thankfully, those have been largely eliminated by the drafting manual that this council accepted in 2025.

admittedly after some robust debate about the value of semicolons, Oxford commas and the phrase without limitation but not limited to. I did win that one. Credit where it is due though, these bad drafting practices have unfortunately continued into more recent times. I will not cite specific examples, but there is at least one example of an ordinance with no less than six different list formats. I know that that bores most of you, but it is a problem. I recognize that my obsession with format and style does maybe seem quirky at best to some of you, but I would like to point out that every single error, every potential misunderstanding at any level of government has the potential to ruin a person's day or life.

because this is law and so it is important that the people who are burdened by or granted responsibility or rights by the law can understand it. So, we all recognize that It's important to make our physical infrastructure accessible in a way so that people are not put at risk of injury. It is equally important that we make our legal infrastructure the same way, and every little bit of polish helps including the Oxford comma So, by applying a clear and consistent style to the code of ordinances we make the ordinances predictable and digestible. And in some cases significantly less wordy. There will be some minor substantive issues to address because as we work through this process of unification of style, we are going to find duplications and contradictions. That is included in my example coming up. Any substantive changes that are included as part of the unification of style will be clearly noted

The recommendations that I will talk about those in a bit, they will include a memorandum and a list of all of the substantive issues. If the council does determine though that it is more appropriate to have a more robust conversation about any of those substantive issues, they will be removed. They will not be included in the final recommendations and we'll be able to proceed from there. Next slide please. So this one and the next two slides are the smoking in parks ordinance. And this is an example of what unification of style can do. I've actually started using the edits to this, to show people what I actually do with my day today Nobody seems to understand what my job is among my friend group and this serves as a great example. I am happy to create a marked up version of this with comments that explain the changes you are about to see. Let me know if any of you are interested. Next slide please

Here it is with my favorite color. Some of you are flinching when you see this because you have submitted things to me that I have returned looking like this, and I do apologize for that. You may notice that all of the definitions are struck. That is because I do have a pathological hatred for defining terms in ordinance that makes the city council president shudder every time I bring it up, But every single definition within the Code of Ordinances is being reviewed to determine whether the term is ambiguous, vague or readily interpreted in a way that would not serve the purpose of the legislation and their use is unavoidable. If the definition does not meet both of those standards, it is either being eliminated or incorporated into the text of the ordinance as necessary. Every single one fails this test. Every single one of these fails this test. Most of them are just a copy paste of the Merriam-Webster definition

which means that it is a term in common use and cannot readily be interpreted vaguely. The definition of scheduled is actually nonsensical basically takes a term and completely redefines it in a way that makes it terribly confusing. and the definition of tobacco product is just a duplication of the FDA's definition if court needs to interpret this I have it on good authority from the law department they will go to Merriam-Webster first then possibly to the Oxford English Dictionary then to substantially similar regulatory authority and then maybe to Black's Law Dictionary if they're feeling particularly bored. Just to really drive home why this is a thing that has been stuck in my craw for awhile, we have no less than nine definitions of owner in the Code of Ordinances.

Person is defined six times, tenant three times and mayor because we are very confused about what that means twice. Duplication and contradiction are rampant I would like to get rid of them. Because, importantly there are terms of art and jargon that appear in the Code of Ordinances that do need to be defined. I looked at the Biotechnology ordinance which was one of the very first ordinances put in front of me by Councilor Ewen Campen when I started I think I immediately handed it back to him and said, I don't know what any of these words mean. So sometimes they do need to be defined. It's very important that we use definitions only when they are necessary so we are not generating confusion. Next slide please. This is its final form. I have taken an entire page and condensed it down to six bullet points. It says the exact same thing,

Now, if you look closely, you will spot one of those wonderful little substantive issues that needs to be addressed. Specifically, a person may not smoke within 50 feet of a person who is participating in or attending a licensed public event A person may also not smoke within 50 feet of a public park. So one of those doesn't need to be in there We'll talk about that when we actually get to my recommendations. But noodle on it for now. Next slide. This is actually included in the ordinance amendment that changed the smoking and parks ordinance to what it is now. I'd like you to look at that underlined text

and consider for a moment that we could have literally just after tetrahydrocannabinol, you know what THC said within 50 feet of or in a public park playground rest area etc It would have accomplished exactly the same thing with ten fewer words. And also would've put it all in the same place without having to reduplicate things. Again, I understand that this sounds weird and quirky I'm obsessed with it for a reason. Next slide please On to the reorganization of chapters. We have 15 chapters in The Code of Ordinances. One of them is three sections, four sentences and 126 words long.

Another one has 507 numbered sections, 300 of which are reserved and includes everything from the mayor's authority to hire secretaries to our welcoming community ordinance. Our Offenses and Miscellaneous Provisions chapter, which I would posit is a thing that should not exist in any code of ordinances includes everything from skinny dipping 2, sorry let me pull up the absolutely ridiculous ah yes skinny dipping drinking in public a ban on facial recognition technology would one of these things is not like the others and a ordinance in response to the 2007 Boston Moon Night Panic. Does anybody remember that? So, we do also have three sections in that miscellaneous provisions thing that says hey to the extent that we're allowed to enforce things under state law we're doing that. We have three different sections that say that exact thing. Point is

The structure of our ordinances has reached a point where it is incomprehensible. One can no longer look at the chapters and intuit what is contained within them. That is a problem because If I can't navigate it, and I have read the entire code of ordinances back to front more times than I'm going to admit, a random member of the public cannot be expected to. As a matter of fact, it is so bad that you cannot be given a section number and reliably identify where in the code of ordinances that section lies because we have sometimes a bunch of divisions under our chapter article structure. and those are not labeled very well either. So we are changing our numbering format, we are reorganizing the chapters and from now on when people get a section number it will say the chapter number, the article number and the section number

This also has the added benefit of we no longer need reserved sections because reserved sections are assigned apparently at random with anywhere from none to 70 reserved at the end of an article. in the fear that at some point a subsequent article will be added and we won't have enough sections available. We have one that is, I think 2309.1 through .15 because nobody reserved sections. We will not be dealing with that anymore. You'll have a numbering system that makes sense It's a wonder that they couldn't come up with it in 1963. Next slide, please. On to the submission of recommendations. As this slide says, I do not currently have a specific timeline for submissions because unfortunately I simply cannot tell you what I need to do until I get into this and really dig in.

I also don't actually know how much help i'm going to get we do have two project assistants but if all of you decide to make more use of my services most of that is going to be going to the project assistance and they will not be able to help me because i need to work on this and they are fully capable of assisting you in most tasks which means they won't be able to assist me with this I will of course receive some help from the city attorney's office as i am doing this under the city attorneys supervision but again no guarantees on how much bandwidth they are going to have to help me with this and I don't want this to stretch 10 years so more info on this to come. Recommendations will be presented as a packet. As I noted before, there will be an explanatory memorandum laying out every single one of these changes and why I made them Some of that is going to be because the style guide says so. A redlined version of the entire Code of Ordinances containing all proposed changes

That's going to be really fun to work through in committee. A version of the code of ordinances with all changes accepted so that everybody can look through and find every single grammatical error that I have managed to make because I will be making some and a list of any substantive changes that need to be addressed. Again this list of substantive changes is not Definitive, if you look at one of those substantive changes and you say I would rather have a more robust conversation about this later we will table it. It will be taken out of the recommendations. It is my goal to make this as painless for you as possible, but this is going to be a lot to wade through. So wherever this ends up the members of that committee are going to need to do their homework there is going and a lot of talking to me, which is probably the most painful part of this in between committee meetings. Sorry, it's gotta be done.

Next slide please. Now, these are my suggestions for process. These are not... This is up to you. That being said, there are some things that we absolutely are required to do and I will make some strong recommendations on those. We are required provide an opportunity for public feedback and to incorporate that feedback My recommendation for that is to hold at least two public hearings, the first to solicit feedback on the structural and style changes, and the second to solicits suggestions for substantive review of existing ordinances. I don't recommend doing this at the full council level for a variety of reasons. I recommend that you maintain your practice of sending things like this to committee We will then be making necessary changes in the committee and then recommendations to the full city council. Again, this is going to be a slog I am sorry Next slide, please.

Last but not least a bit of a sneak preview about my plans such as they are at the moment for substantive review Mostly at this point, I am as I work through unification of style and reorganization going to be identifying ordinances that I have heard a lot of complaints about in the last five years of my being One of your staff. Things that I have heard frequent complaints about from either members of the council or complaints about, from members of public are immediately going to be a focus for review That does not mean that those are the only things I am going to focus on, it simply means that those things that I already know are pain points. And since the whole point of this is to address pain points, I might as well make my life easier by making a list of the ones that I know about. I will be reviewing these based on these five standards of good legislation that all of you have heard enough that you probably have nightmares about them.

The idea here being that if any ordinance utterly fails any one of these, it is going to be flagged for review. Once it is flagged for review, I will be coming back with recommendations and each one of those will be in a separate packet. I am not going to give you the entire code of ordinances redlined with my substantive edits. It is going to be Here's this specific ordinance with all of its sections. We can address this and give it its proper disposition, whatever that ends up being with whatever edits end up being in there separately from the rest of these things Now I want to note this is going to take a lot of time on the back end because this is gonna require a lot more interaction with city staff and community stakeholders. So this part, I will come back to talk about once we have Thank you for watching!

The administration has been busy and at least two of the ordinances that I had already flagged for substantive review are apparently under review by the administration, so stay tuned. And with that, for the next slide, happy to take your questions.

Councillor Hardt?

Thank you, Mr. President and through you to Anna Salisbury thank you so much this is a very informative and interesting presentation You just alluded to getting feedback from staff, but I was wondering if you could say a little bit more about the... You know, many, many city staff would have a relationship to these ordinances and how do you envision that process going in terms of getting feedback?

Through you, Mr. President, to Councilor Hardt. It depends, which is every lawyer's favorite answer I'm given to believe. It really does depend on the ordinance. As you say, a great number of city staff do have I'll say particular affinity and affection for certain components of the Code of Ordinances, some of which I may not share. That's fine. That's the way that it works. My role is just to make sure that the things that we have on the books are actually accomplishing the things we want to happen, and to the extent they're not The intent is not to look at a piece of legislation and say, I don't like this. We should get rid of it. The intent isn't performing the way that we would like it to We would like it to do better, so go to city staff and say hey I have some thoughts about this. Do you have some thought about this? Maybe you have pain points with this. Maybe this isn't exactly what you intended.

How can we work together to make this better?

Thank you.

Questions?

Councilor McLaughlin. I just need to point out you used a whole lot of words to say that we've got to get rid of more words in our code of ordinances.

Mr. President, through you to Councilor

nothing if not loquacious yes uh big undertaking thank you for this I do say on the positive I will say I hope that a revision of the ordinances will lead to the valid legitimate ordinances that we have that Don't always get enforced. Maybe it'll be more clear and easy to understand. We can get a vacant storefronts ordinance, for example, to be enforced or many other ordinances that we spend a lot of time working on that feel like they're going into an empty book or very full book apparently.

Mr. President, through you no spoilers but stay tuned Other questions?

Councilor Wheeler

Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to say I think everyone can hear loud and clear the passion for this work that came through from our legislative analyst and I just want to say I very much appreciate this precise pedantic passion. Thank you.

Mr. President, I have been accused of far worse than pet injury.

Got you, Link.

Thank you, Mr. President. I am a little worried that we're going to have horses running rampant roughshod over the city but I'll wait and see. No, I'm really excited to see. I had actually noticed many years ago all the horses. and you know I'm glad to see that we're gonna have some things that don't make sense out of there to make it a lot more digestible for People so that they can actually go through the ordinances and see what's what. And I guess I'm excited to see it. And as one counselor who's not on legislative matters, Excited and scared because I want to make sure that I'm also paying attention. And I guess I request that we make sure people, even if they're not going

in the committee that they're also still well aware of everything that's happening.

Mr. President, if I may just to respond that I will note that of course once an item has been discussed in committee there is no reason that a counselor could not put in a communication before the full body expressing a particular interest in a particular thing that has already been discussed before legislative matters and have that item sent to legislative matters for review by that committee other discussion

I will take the liberty of speaking from up here if I may just to echo the thanks as has been the case many, many times. I'm just sitting here thinking boy we got the right guy for this job. So sorry and glad that you are undertaking this task. And I just want to express my gratitude for the work you've already done, the work that you're going and express on behalf of myself at least full support and cooperation whatever you need at any point. I hope my colleagues, I'm sure my colleagues will do the same. The timing, as I understand of the recommendations. I know you said you didn't want to set any targets but we're talking calendar 27 right?

Yes, Mr. President, my apologies. As previously noted, easily distracted and I forgot to include something that is in my notes and I My goal, personally is pre-April for initial recommendations on recodification and restructuring. The more realistic My goal is probably pre-recess. That being said, I feel pretty confident that I can get it in pre recess and I will absolutely be letting you know if I am not going to hit that target

Okay, very well. And so what that translates to is then the council will be digesting the first phase of this process Either maybe during budget, during recess and or more materially probably in the fall given what our spring looks like and early summer it looks like.

Yes, Mr. President, in much the same way as I don't want to do the charter review and the code of ordinances review at the same time, I would certainly not ask this council to do budget and this at the

Well, sometimes we can walk and chew gum at the same time. That's why we have finance committee meetings more often now than we have. So we'll see how it all plays out. And I will say to whomever is serving as president next year, It would behoove the council to consider the right approach to this, whether that's in the committees as you sort of alluded to, whether it's in committees we currently have or creating a special committee. That'll be a decision to be made, I think, at the time based on what we all have in front of us and what are in various committees and what those dockets look like. So cross that bridge when we get to it.

I hear whether the memorandum is 10 pages or 30. That's what I'm hearing, Mr. President.

I'm thinking more in terms of how long the DACA and legislative matters happens to be whenever this comes down for whomever it is thinking about what makes the most sense. But I know that we will have, at that point hopefully, barring any catastrophes, have a full council back again and we'll get it all sorted and work it out. Ba.

Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to echo your sentiment to Dr. Salisbury. For all the work you've done, you always bring it a lot of passion. You have my full support behind this work. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank

All right. Thank you, Brandon. I see no further questions then. That item is placed on file and I'd like to waive the rules to take up item 8.1 if there's no objection. Madam Clerk would read 8.

Agenda item 8.1 an officer's communication from the city clerk submitting an amendment to chapter 1 of the code of ordinances to add a periodic review of the Code of Ordinances pursuant to the requirements of the City Charter

Thank you Mr. President, that's right I'm not done yet How many slides on this one? None, thankfully. I will simply note that due to something of an oversight in the last leg of our journey through the Production of a charter in 2025, I missed that we require an ordinance to conduct the review of ordinances. So that is what this is. As I said, I'm going to make the unusual request this evening that you enroll and ordain this tonight. I have been assured by the city attorney that I can without fear of repercussion I have also run this by the City Council President and the City Clerk, which will become important in a moment when we talk about the provisions of this.

Because of the rather unusual circumstances that we find ourselves in, where it has been 63 years since the last recodification and nobody is quite sure how to do this. We have kept the provisions of this relatively vague specifically Pursuant to Section 8.5 of the Charter, the City shall at least once every 10 years conduct a review of the Code of Ordinances in the manner deemed most appropriate by the City Attorney, City Clerk and City Council President beginning no later than January of the year following the periodic review of the charter required by section 8.4 of the Charter Recommendations for amendments shall be submitted no later than the last regular meeting of the City Council in December of the same year that the city began conducting its review. The city attorney, city clerk or their designee may at any time prior to the deadline for submitting the recommendations Make a written request for City Council approval to extend the deadline. The requester shall include in their request an expected timeline for submitting recommendations.

The purpose of this very simply is so that we can have some flexibility this first time and perhaps come back with some more Concrete language for a future ordinance, but for right now we simply don't know what we don't about what we need to do here. And we also don't how long it's going to take so I would rather not put us in any situation where Request an amendment to the ordinance to give me an extension of time to accomplish this work. I am very happy to answer any questions because, again, I am making a very unusual request here.

Scott.

Thank you, Mr. President. I've reviewed this and as much would tend to want to only include the discretion of the council president as the way to conduct this particular review. I don't have a problem with it as submitted and fine with having it approved tonight.

Councilor Link? Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Do we want to consider adding a definition section to this?

Mr. President, how about a purpose section?

As long as it includes without limitation Oxford commas and colons, semicolons.

No, Oxford commos are still in there.

We're just going to throw all of them in there just for fun. Any other discussion questions? Hardt. Seeing none, Councilor Hardt moves to approve this as an ordinance that is before us the first time we will it would require approval enrollment and ordainment so on Approval. I see no discussion. Madam Clerk? Roll call on approval. Oh, we don't need to prove it? Okay, very good. We'll take it. All right, so then seeing no objection to that as approved and then we need roll call on enrollment and ordainments. Let's start with enrollment please.

And on enrollment of agenda item 8.1 an amendment to chapter one of the code of ordinances to add a periodic review. Councilor Ewen-Campen? Link, Scott, Clingan, Strezo, Sait, Wheeler, Hardt, McLaughlin, Mbah. Davis. Yes. The 11 councillors in favor, that is enrolled.

That is now appropriate for ordainment, Madam Clerk.

And on ordainement, Councillor Ewen-Campen. Link, Scott, Clingan, Strezo, Sait, Wheeler, Hardt, McLaughlin, Mbah. Davis. Yes. Eleven councillors in favor, the item is ordained.

All right very good. Analyst Salisbury you have your ordinance. or at least as soon as the other. Shall we, Councilor Ewen-Campen would like to move to reconsider in the hopes that reconsideration fails? On reconsideration anyone want to change your votes? All right, seeing none. Reconsideration has failed. Now you have your ordinance. All right. Thank you again. All folks time to start the meeting. Madam Clerk, back to the regular order of business which I think takes us right to 4.1 is that right? All right let's go Actually, hold on. Would folks like a quick recess or have you all sort of taken care of things while we've been going here?

Two-minute recess.

Two minutes. Well, let's call it five and we'll be right back. So stand in recess for five minutes.

All right, I can do that. I call this meeting back to order. I don't have to ask. I can see that there is a quorum present. Madam Clerk, would you read the next item please?

Agenda Item 4.1, an ordinance by Councilor Sait that Section 12-111.1 of the Code of Ordinances be amended as detailed herein to protect private significant trees during construction.

Councilor

Thank you, Mr. President. First I would like to thank PSOF staff, our land use analyst Samantha, our policy analyst Brandon for working with me on this amendment I would also like to thank my constituent, Denise Provo whose experience helped bring this issue to my attention and staff's attention. It was a year-and-a-half ago or two years at this point If you have been to Denise's yard, you know that she has one of the biggest silver maple trees in the city. She's been taking care of the tree for decades. The whole neighborhood gets to enjoy the tree. The tree is over 150 years. It's massive. and it was impacted by construction that was happening on the abutting lot when a garage was demolished And prior to the garage being demolished, Denise hired an arborist. She worked with city staff.

Denise is a former She knows where to find the information, the ordinances, the state law, who's you know the staff to connect with. So she did all that hard work and let's just remember not all our constituents can do that. And they, well the arborist staff came up with a tree protection plan The other developer completely ignored when the demolition occurred. The tree is still alive, I think the roots were impacted but it's hard to tell right? Maybe, hopefully you know it's fine but we'll know that in a few years.

So again, the developer did not follow the plan and there was no way for staff to enforce the protection plan because we don't have specific language on that in our current ordinance. So after seeing this, they start paying more attention to this issue and realizing this is an issue that could impact any significant native tree on a private lot that abuts the construction site. And what I learned from this experience, from my constituents' experience is that one it's challenging for staff to protect native significant trees on abutting lots impacted by construction. and our ordinance does not include anything about that. Therefore a protection plan, and our staff work hard on coming up with the protection plan with an arborist they cannot be enforced

So this amendment will extend the tree protection to all those significant trees on private lots and I would like to send it to legislative matters, Mr. President.

Any other discussion? Got your link?

I just want to commend the Ward 5 Councilor on this one. It's like a very, it's the ideal kind of fix where it's very concise, goes in there, solves the problem. and you know I just also want to call it for anyone watching at home that's for this kind of situation too it wouldn't necessarily only be your recourse isn't only the city because having I'm certainly not a lawyer, but I've read enough of the tree law things where there's definitely other civil litigations. So if this ever does happen to you use every single tool that's available to you please. Batt.

Yeah, thank you Mr. President just to echo Councilor Link. Thank you Councilor Sait I mean I know exactly that situation we Wailer,

Thank you, Mr. President. A rule of thumb I have heard from people who know a lot more about trees than I do is that tree roots are at least two times as wide as the tree branch canopy and so that means that excavation 20, 30 more feet away from a tree can cut into roots and risk killing it. And so you know Along with the real needs that we have for housing to be built, we really need sensible tree policies like this to work with development to protect our trees especially the grand old trees which as My colleague mentioned can be much older than anyone in this room. Thank you.

All right, that item is referred to legislative matters next item

Agenda Item 4.2, a resolution by Councilor Sait that the Director of Inspectional Services clarify the permitting process for heat pump systems

Sait.

Through you, Mr. President, this is another issue that was brought to attention by Ward 5 constituents We know that now with the Mass Save programs, we have more neighbors applying and benefiting to get heat pumps or insulation. and yeah with you know the summer's getting warmer um yeah we have We have just more applications with MassSave, therefore people also have to pull permits to get that work done. We know that program also had a huge cut recently and MassAve now works with just 15 contractors for installation. And then if you're doing heat pumps,

So making sure that we have a very clear permitting process is really important here. and yeah constituent shared you know an article that was wrote by Yeah, this non-profit in Cambridge where basically they were comparing the permitting process in Cambridge, Somerville and other neighboring cities and realizing that our permitting processes is very complicated. Thank you. has changed. So we met with ISD and staff are going to look into it, will review the permitting process, and we'll update this council in committee.

So we'd like to send this item, Mr. President, to Sustainability and Infrastructure. All right.

Councilor Mbah?

Yeah, thank you, Mr President. I would like to co-sign this. And yeah, also is a common I also hear from residents because we have these ambitious climate goals and yet We don't have a blueprint for residents to be able to implement, so this is part of that process. How do you make it easy for people to move to clean? That clean energy transition. People at residence are curious, they're eager to also adapt but sometimes they say there's no Thank you for watching. Making it easier for residents to be able to adopt a clean energy transition.

Councilor Link?

Thank you, Mr. President. Once again thank you to the Ward 5 Councilor for bringing this and on the note of My counselor at large just said, you know, I guess I'm curious to the administration if this might be A really good way to pilot some of the ideas where we've been talking about combining permits and bulk permitting. It's one small thing, and it might be a really easy way people hit those climate goals without having to go through some sort of onerous process and then we can maybe if with that successful bring that success to the rest of our permitting

Yeah, we'll just add one more thing Mr. President and someone who had heat pumps installed a few months ago you know working with contractors who are Hatchback contractors, you know a lot of them they're doing this one-man show and they do everything. They don't have administrative staff They certainly don't have the time to go through a website and look for documents. Some English is not necessarily your first language, So it's just like how do we make this process as easy as possible for homeowners but also for these contractors.

Okay, that item is approved with a copy to sustainability and infrastructure. Next item?

Agenda item 4.3, a resolution by Councilor Sait and Councilor Link that the Chief of Police provide an update to this council regarding the Municipal Road Safety Grant Program

Sait. Mr. President, so this is a grant that we apply for every year and before it comes before us again for approval usually the last one you approved in January of this year I would like to hear from SPD about the financial breakdown of how this grant was used, the areas of education, enforcement. And I think it's a good practice for us once a year to have an opportunity to discuss ways the community can best benefit from this grant by identifying their current needs. And yeah, improving our practices. I would like to send this to traffic and parking, Mr. President.

Okay, Councilor, do you want to speak on this?

Yeah, thank you again. I just keep saying thank you through you to our Ward 5 counselor. You know... As one of the members of the Finance Committee who approved this grant, I've not been totally happy with The reality of where the rubber meets the road, if we can mix in some transportation metaphors. You know, we are hearing just from community members once again that people are getting stopped in intersections crossing safely during a pedestrian cycle. We already know that if you're yielding to pedestrians properly, then it's the safest thing a person on a bike can do.

rather than staying in the intersection and, in fact, in many intersections now we specifically tell people on bikes that they should be crossing with signals. And we see that also and places like McGrath Highway. So I just really want to say if we're really truly focused on safe streets, then I think we should be focusing on the things that actually contribute to safe streets and I for one you know I'm gonna be looking really carefully you know watching this committee meeting because I want to hear why if I'm on the Finance Committee I should vote for this again because the way I feel right now I don't think I would.

Wheeler.

Thank you Mr. President I'd like to co-sponsor this item we apply for this grant every year as my colleagues have mentioned and As they have also mentioned, there's been real confusion and inconsistency in the past about what it is asking our city to do and what we want our city In 2024, I've seen some back and forth between the police department and the pedestrian transit advisory committee. There have been at least some understandings in the course of this grant over the years that in the hours dedicated For safety around cycling and pedestrian experience that the only thing the officers on the clock for that can do is enforce against cyclists and pedestrians.

Not against cars, even if those cars are observed exhibiting dangerous behavior towards cyclists and pedestrians. I don't think that's what really anybody in the city wants us to be doing with our approach to enforcement. I think we want a safety first orientation, we want everybody no matter what method they're using to be safe as they're traveling through the city and any dangerous behavior that really impinges on that safety should be a real focus I just want to share that i have spoken with our director of grants specifically about this grant I and some other colleagues are trying to make clear that we would really like the language that the city submits for this specific grant to change, to orient towards Whatever enforcement is necessary for the safety of all people who use our streets. Thank you.

Further discussion? Seeing none, that item is approved with a copy to traffic and parking. Next item.

Agenda Item 4.4, an ordinance by Councilor Link, Councilor Hardt and Councilor Ewen-Campen that the short term rental ordinance be amended as detailed within

Link. Thank you, Mr. President. This is kind of a continuation of the work that Councilor Hardt and I have started with Short-Term Rentals Ordinance, and have been helped by Councilor Ewen Campen who has some residents in his ward who had a pretty clear and well-defined case of how we could make just a small change to this ordinance, Actual Substantive Change. So it's become pretty clear that if we just did this one thing, with the good intentions of the ordinance, The definition of a place being your primary residence, that test was a little too weak.

and it meant that it was being subverted by some bad actors. So this is just one quick fix, and one of the easiest problems to solve but it just represents a start of what we're doing For me, the stakes of this short-term rental ordinance are pretty clear. As a city and as a state, we've got a well-acknowledged housing crisis. And having investors running boutique hotels throughout Somerville You know, it's with cutesy titles like Superhost on Airbnb where we can see that there is a A host that's got maybe four or five different full house rentals in Somerville, maybe Medford as well, maybe somewhere in New York City. It's clear that these are not the people that we have intended to allow to run an Airbnb in the city. So I want the people operating this to understand

updating this ordinance and we're coming after them. And we want the homes returned to the community so that we can have new neighbors that live here. Yeah, that's all I got to say about it.

Hardt, do you want to speak on this?

Sure. Thank you Mr. President. I just echo what my colleague at large just said and laid out the problem very well and I appreciate his crafting this specific ordinance to address this one thing. And like he said, we're going to keep working on it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm very grateful to my colleagues for leading on this. We learned last night at the Ward 3 community meeting the mayor let a lot of residents know that they're close to having a new piece of enforcement software that they are very excited about and we're all very excited The issue here, so what the ordinance says is you cannot rent out a whole apartment. You can't if you have another apartment in your building or you own an apartment somewhere in the city, you can't rent it as an Airbnb. Thank you for watching! hiring people to pretend to live in the units. And they're lying to ISD's faces about it. I mean, that's my opinion of what's going on. Part of the issue is that we lay out how you can prove that you live somewhere, and we were too lenient. It's very, very easy to fake it basically. We require a driver's license.

Apparently you can write your address on the back of a driver license and that counts if you just write it there. So for folks who are willing to do this, which there very clearly are I know in Ward 3 and you know based on the over a thousand listings in Somerville likely other places as well I think that this fix will put tools in ISD's hands that they need to be able to enforce this. So thank you all.

Thank you, but I really appreciate the intent. Even a friend that I just saw yesterday, she went to Greece. She was doing research there. So this is like people travel around, they do research for a couple of months. I think it's okay for them to kind of like... It's just normal that this is something they can use as a short-term renter. But that's their permanent residence, so I appreciate the thoughtfulness in it. Thank you, Councilor Ving.

All right, any further discussion? All right seeing none that is referred to legislative matters. Next item

Agenda Item 4.5, a resolution by Councilor Link, Councilor Ewen-Campen and Councilor Scott that the Director of Mobility add more secure bicycle parking at the Argenziano School.

Do you want to send it to the committee or just follow up? Yeah, just follow-up. That item is approved. Next item.

Agenda Item 4.6, a resolution by Councilor Link that the Commissioner of Public Works in consideration of children with sensory sensitivities utilize electric leaf blowers when doing maintenance on school grounds during school hours

I'll just say real quick, you know I think we've heard from constituents that our leaf blower ordinance is largely ignored. I'm not sure what the fix is there, but the reason that we made the ordinance is because We had acknowledged that these gas-powered leaf blowers create a tremendous amount of noise and air pollution and I'm just saying if we agree that that's a problem, we shouldn't be running gas-powered leaf blowers around schools during school hours. Person who is very well aware at this point as an Argent Zero parent of the AIM program that's come to the school. We've got sensory, like whisper quiet sensory bells I think that we should just follow that same principle and make sure in everything that we do around the school where possible We take that into account and try to make sure we're doing right by those kids.

Thank you. I'm reminded of a presenter we had a long, long time ago who mentioned that there was a whole list of ordinances he hears about a lot that seemed to be not doing what they were intended. Or in fact with the literal words of the ordinance say can and can't happen hypothetically speaking. Any further discussion? You want to follow up with this one committee or look for a response from the administration?

Yeah, if we could put that one in the school building facilities and maintenance committee.

School building facilities yeah I mean sure or it could go I don't have to go there since you chair that committee I'm happy to set it that way unless there's any objection all right so that's approved with a copy of the school buildings facilities and maintenance next item

Agenda item 4.7 a resolution by Councilor Link and Councilor McLaughlin in support of meeting spaces for Alcoholics Anonymous

No. Mr. President, so I'll just say I was a little surprised to learn that the Ralph and Jenny Center had been closed to the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. We learned that recently and you know I guess for me So in my family there is a history of substance use disorder and I know how important these meetings are for people's recovery so that they can maintain recovery. And I think that, you know... As a community, we say we want to see our community taken care of. We want to make sure that we're seeing fewer people who have these issues and we wanna make sure we see the community being taken care We need to follow through with that.

I think it's our responsibility to make sure if we happen to have a situation like this where we're taking over a property and there's something like this happening, We have to put our money where our mouth is and make sure that we're doing everything possible to make sure That we're not disrupting people's sobriety. It's hugely, hugely important I just cannot stress enough that we should not close the doors unless we are opening another. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. President. I too was surprised to hear that this happened because I spoke to the city about this several months ago and was led to believe that the AA program would not be moved until There was a suitable replacement space. So this is very frustrating to me as someone who also has had family members go through the AA program and actually recover using their program and as someone who represents this ward and the building that it's in, that is now owned by the city that we really don't have a stated plan for. I'm sure everyone here knows about 90 Washington Street. There's a lot of discussion about that, but there's a development happening in the Inner Belt Road area So now I'm very curious, one, what's going on with AA but what's gonna happen to this building in general? So I would like to discuss this further in the Public Health and Safety Committee.

Councilor Clingan?

Mr. President, thank you this is the first I'm learning of this group being evicted from this property It sounds like the ward council's been on it and it sounds like it's sort of being addressed by the city, but I can't for the life of me figure out why so early in the process with no plan at all. I'm thinking it's probably... DPW workers have to open and close it. But that's really unfortunate, that meeting has been going on for I don't even know how many years. And they've now been displaced and that is really, really upsetting. I don't know. I'm just learning this so that's, I hope we can figure something out find another place

McLaughlin.

So the issue is that the city now owns this building, which very similar to the armory it's like hooray we own this building now we can do something with it and now there's a number of liability issues that go with it with who owns the property, who gets to have a key for example. So there are issues that make it difficult to allow just random people to have access to this building but when I discussed this with the city it was understood that they would not be ending meetings until we found a replacement for them and it doesn't sound like that's happening so that's what's frustrating about this.

I see Dr. Najeeb Williams with a metaphorical hand up, I guess. Go ahead.

Good evening to the President, Amanda Najim-Williams, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Councilors thank you for your comments on this. Director Galigani actually spoke about this item most recently last week in HCDE committee The city is in control of the Ralph and Jenny Center now. My understanding is that there were three alcoholic anonymous groups that we're meeting various different times Previously, they had several different keys. Once the city had ownership of the space we needed to make sure that we understood who had keys and access at different times. My understanding as of right now is that two of the three groups have been re-homed essentially The last group is a group that meets on Sundays and it doesn't meet the spaces for where the other two are placed because it's at a place of worship. that has been looking for some revitalization in the community and being additional spots.

So just that third spot is outstanding right now It is a priority for us to find the space for folks to continue to meet, and I'm happy to provide more updates on that. But I did want to let folks know that those two groups have been rehomed right now.

Thank you. Any further discussion? If this one is, Councilor Strezo, the item that was, that Director Najee Williams mentioned that was discussed in HCD, is that, was that discharged from committee or is it still on committee? That's a very good question, Mr. President. I don't want to send the same issue to two separate committees.

If you want to, we can discuss it with the minutes and send it back to committee. I'm perfectly fine with that. That was, yes, the last item on the agenda that we talked about it in. So we were not talking about the Ralph and Jenny Center On that agenda item, we were talking about the St. James Church in Ward 7 and it came out that A.A. was meeting with Ralph and Jenny, and that St. James was a consideration of one of the possible rehoming Locations, etc. That's how it came out. But we can sever the item when we get to the meeting minutes and send it back to committee. I am fine with that. I'd love an update.

Councilor McLaughlin you want to have this conversation about public health and public safety? I think it's appropriate on either committee. Can't be in two, that's the only issue. Why don't we approve the item tonight?

in Housing, and then I can take it up in Public Health. Does that make sense? Because I have a whole separate issue with the use of the building itself.

So we'll approve this item. We tentatively will have a copy to Public Health, Public Safety so long as we don't have the same items still in in HECD, whatever it is.

And we'll resolve that when we get... Mr. President, it's October now. I know. All right, very good.

So that is approved to the Copy of the Public Health and Public Safety. Next item, Madam Clerk.

Agenda Item 4.8, a resolution by Councilor Ewen-Campen that the Director of Planning submit a plain language explanation and fact sheet for each proposed zoning amendment to be attached directly to the corresponding zoning amendment item.

Councilor

Thank you, Mr. President. I've already discussed this with planning staff and they're all on board with it. You know zoning documents are very difficult to understand for counselors let alone the public. It's often like a list of Numbers and amending an existing thing that's 100 pages long. So I think it's really important. They're always explained at the public hearing, but we're asking people to come to a public hearing to share their views. They should have a chance before they come to actually understand what's being proposed. So, I'd like this to be approved please.

Councilor Hardt?

I'd like to sign on to this please. I really appreciate this straightforward and useful resolution. Thank you.

Link would like to sign on. All right, that item is approved. Did you want that? Is that code of committee? No? Okay. Next item.

Agenda item 4.10, a resolution by Councilor Strezo that the Commissioner of Public Works repair all broken and inoperable plumbing appliances and privacy treatments of the Winterhill Innovation School bathrooms and provide regular work timelines in writing detailing when work will be initiated to when work is anticipated to be fully completed.

And may I also read the next agenda item alongside this? We can take this up together.

Councilor Strezo would like to take Item 4.11 up together, seeing no objection. Madam Clerk?

Agenda Item 4.11, a resolution by Councilor Strezo that the Commissioner of Public Works immediately repair the urinal fixture otherwise known as The Blaster at the Winterhill Innovation School and present written updated work timelines on a regular basis until the urinal fixture is entirely repaired.

You're welcome.

You are welcome. I'm keeping you awake at 15 to 10. And for emphasis, I did very much want 4.11 to be placed on our agenda item as written, as specific as that because If the urinal was such an issue for so long at the Winter Hill School that... It eventually had a nickname, then it has been a problem for a long time and neglected for a came originally from a public testimony at school committee several weeks ago and

I heard possibly the best public testimony I ever heard in all of our years of public hearings. And the issue is that there have been numerous faulty, a lot of problems with, you know, the Winterhill bathrooms. That have been going on for numerous years, but don't take my word for it. I'm going to read to you the testimony that was put forward by Thomas, a fourth grader at the Winter Hill School. So I'm going to read you his words. He says, how would you feel if you had nowhere to go to the bathroom in private? The Winterhill students deserve better bathrooms. First, the toilet stalls are broken. Second, the urinals are also broken. The toilet stalls are broken.

There is only one boys' bathroom for the entire first and second floor, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade use it. We have been like this since I was in second grade. I'm in fourth grade. One stall is fine, two are missing doors and two can't lock. We have nowhere to poop in private. And lots of students use it, and we've been using it for a long time. A lot of students are affected and don't love it. But wait! The urinals are also broken. There are four urinals, one at the end of the row that is missing a privacy wall and one that jets toilet water and we call it the blaster. Nobody wants to be sprayed with toilet water This shows the urinals are in very bad shape. In conclusion, you should fix the bathrooms for Winter Hill.

Yeah, I then heard from some parents that Additionally, that the girls' bathroom on the first floor of the Winter Hill School still has a bunch of doors that don't lock. And that was as recent as back to school night not too long ago. This is a huge issue and I'm not entirely sure why it's gone on as long as it has, and why it continues to be a problem. And I want to commend our Ward 7 school committee member for his help when I reached out to him about these issues. So, I wanna give him credit for that as well. And I would like this to be sent to our buildings committee.

And I did include in this that, and I am very much asking Councilor Link, Mr. President through you to Councilor link We are getting work timelines on a regular basis until it's fixed and repaired and that you please hold it in committee until we have a work complete. And that includes... Hearing from parents, caregivers and children at Winter Hill that it is done. Thank you.

Okay, any discussion?

Mr. President, I would love to talk about the blaster until he's fixed.

All right, very good. Thank you. So those two items are approved with a copy to school buildings facilities and maintenance. Next item?

Agenda Item 412, a resolution by Councilor Wheeler and Councilor Clingan that the Director of Inspectional Services Division simplify and clarify the permitting process for small-scale residential repairs and alterations that do not change a building structure or use.

Thank you Mr. President so it's no secret that lots of small-scale internal carpentry and repairs in homes in the city are done under the table So I'm talking about replacing baseboard molding, hanging a new door that requires sanding and cutting the doorway, installing a new bathroom cabinet. But officially you are supposed to have a building permit for all these things. I know someone who hired a carpenter for a few hours for a small project where the city came by and shut down the work because he did not have a permit. So it's a real requirement. But if you go and try to do this the right way, and file for a building permit yourself there are so many obscure questions that are Nearly impossible for somebody outside the contracting world to know. If the construction type is IIB or IIIB or something else, if the alteration level is Level 1, Level 2, Level 3

I tried to file for a building permit recently, uh...for a small-scale project. I read the documentation that we provide folks and I gave up. I've spoken to friends who work in contracting and they don't all know what all of these terms mean. Now, I'm happy to say this is not news to our Inspectional Services Department. They have wanted to improve this for years. I know they are short staffed and they are in fact working now as part of a larger administrative effort that's specifically focused on improving the clarity and navigability of our permitting processes, and to reduce the paperwork necessary before people can get to the actual work. And I also appreciate some of my colleagues for bringing up other items that are very much in line with this, like related to the heat pump. One tool that I know we might be able to study and learn from is Boston's short form application for small-scale residential repairs and alterations that do not change the function of the building. I applaud this administration's effort, and ISD's work on this

which can lower the cost to do repairs and help our processes make sense for everyone. Thank you.

Councilor Lange would like to sign on for discussion? All right, seeing none that item is approved

Mr. President, would it make sense to refer it to licenses and permits? To follow up?

Certainly could. I think that's probably as good a place as any, I guess.

Or sustainability...

Well, housing community development. Housing H-2 with that one. Madam Chair, you want to take this on in licenses and permits? Give us something to talk about?

I'm happy to, just wondering about staff time. Because we don't usually in licenses and permits have staff come so if it's easier

Director Najim Williams, does the administration have a preference just in terms of staff that would need to address this and what committees they anticipate showing up in the next month or two? I know that's a... We want to make it easy for folks so they don't have to show up to too many different committees if they can.

And Mr. President, can you repeat that?

It's a question to Director Najee Williams. Councilor Whaley do you want to add something?

I just wanted to point out it would not necessarily need to be I understand that there's going to be work on this for some months. It would be nice to get an update at some point that makes sense for the administration along Maybe we could approve this today and put something in new.

Yeah, I was just going to suggest the other option would be to just approve this if the administration's working on it and then we have a... and Malstone down the road where they have something to share. We can put another item in or perhaps receive, you know, if there's I guess it probably would be approvals of the council for that sort of change but we could do that too if you want to let them work on a bit and the request here has been made. It's heard loud and clear, I see nodding from director Najee Williams so All right, let's do that. And then if you're in contact or any councils are in contact with administration on the improvements there when the time seems right to have that discussion, as you said, you can put another item in and we'll at that time figure out where is the best place to put it to have Excellent. All right, very good so that item is approved. Next item please.

Agenda Item 414 a resolution by Councillor Hardt expressing deep appreciation to the Somerville firefighters, firefighters from neighboring communities and and all first responders for ensuring the safe evacuation of every resident from the Teal Square fire and for successfully containing the fire to one side of the building.

All right, I see the whole council would like to sign on this one. Councilor Hardt?

Thank you, Mr. President. So last week I'm sure everyone is aware of the devastating fire that happened in Teal Square and My thoughts are still with the 43 residents who were displaced, but I'm so appreciative of the response by our firefighters. and all the first responders. I mean, it was just incredible that everybody was able to be evacuated without injuries although I understand some firefighters did sustain minor injuries and the so many city staff have been working so hard to you know from from the The time that they arrived on the scene that night until today have been working so hard. Our partners at Somerville Homeless Coalition have also been assisting,

So I just wanted to extend my appreciation to everyone who has been helping with this. I also wanted to express appreciation for the staff. An unusual situation. Usually it is not 43 residents and six businesses that are displaced all at the same time. and all having varying levels of need. So I know that it has been challenging to work through this, and there have been Wheeler, and I appreciate having some conversations with staff and also Councilor Wheeler about the process and communication in ways that could be improved going forward. They're thinking about that and continuing to strive for communicating as much as possible.

And I did also want to give an update because I want everybody to remember to support our local businesses in Teal Square. and so fortunately three of the businesses on the right side of the building have been able to reopen in their locations including Masala and residents have been able to go back to that side of the building. There was a very effective firewall In the building. And the laundromat, even though the actual existing laundromats is closed and will have to be totally rebuilt The owners are being able to operate down the street, a few doors down. So I hope that everyone will continue patronizing these businesses and support them through this challenging time. Thank you.

Thank you further discussion all right that item is placed on file next item All right, sorry. That item's approved. I've got my items mixed up here. My bad. That is approved. Thank you. Next item.

Agenda item 4.16, a communication by Councilor Davis in his capacity as president conveying this council's updated standing committee assignments and commission appointments for 2026 That item is placed on file Next item Agenda Item 6A1, a report of the Committee on Finance meeting October 6th, 2026. Councilor Wheeler

Thank you, Mr. President. The Finance Committee met on Tuesday, October 6th, 2026 via remote participation with four members present at the start and all five by the end and with the help of Assistant City Clerk Madeline Letellier. We took up a nine-item agenda. We approved a prior year invoice of approximately $10,000 for DeNovo which provides housing related legal services primarily to immigrant residents through the Office of Housing Stability. We also approved two transfers of leftover Community Preservation Act debt service money back into reserves, approximately $150,000 for community housing and approximately $23,000 historic preservation. In both cases, the city budgeted conservatively for debt payments. The actual cost came in lower and the remaining money can now go back towards future CPA projects. We approved an approximately $170,000 Urban Area Security Initiative grant for public address system upgrades at the Brown, Capuano and Edgerly school buildings.

Note that this money comes from the fiscal year 2024 Grant Cycle for UASI, and the committee has overall found the requirements attached to the grants for that year compatible with our values. The grant does allow the money to also be used for security cameras, but any such cameras added would still have to comply with Somerville's surveillance technology ordinance. The largest item of the night was an authorization to borrow approximately $2.1 million to finish purchasing two new trucks for the fire department, a new aerial ladder truck and a rescue truck. These trucks were already partially paid for with federal ARPA money, but nationwide manufacturing delays mean they won't be finished before the federal funds expire at the end of December. Rather than lose that money, the city is shifting the ARPA funding to another eligible project and using the funding lined up for that project instead for these trucks. These trucks are not replacing trucks that are too worn. Instead, they will allow the fire department to have trucks in reserve.

The fire department is also developing a longer term vehicle replacement plan that we expect to see with the capital improvement plan around November. We approved two State Department of Mental Health grants totaling approximately $360,000 for the police department's crisis intervention and jail and arrest diversion work. These are the full year grants. Earlier this year we approved smaller amounts, enough funding to cover the first quarter while the state finalized its contracts. Much of this money pays for staff salaries and benefits in the Public Safety Department's Community Outreach, Health & Recovery Program . Finally, we approved a time-only extension for a zoning consulting contract with no additional money needed so staff can finish work related to the city's upzoning feasibility work and five year zoning review. Chair I ask that this committee report be accepted as submitted

Any discussion on the report? All right, seeing none. The report is approved and that puts one item before us for a roll call vote. Madam Clerk, I believe that's 6A7? Correct.

Agenda Item 687, a request of the mayor requesting authorization to borrow $2,082,498 in a bond and to appropriate $2 million 82,498 dollars for the purchases of an aerial ladder truck and a rescue truck for the fire department. Councilor Ewen Campen Yes. Councilor Link? Yes. Councillor Scott? Councillor Clingan? Yes Councillor Strezo? Yes Yes. Councilor Wheeler? Yes. Councillor Hartt? Yes Councillor McLaughlin? Yes Councilor Mbah? Yes, Councilor Davis? Yes The ten councillors in favor that is approved.

All right very good thank you next item

Agenda item 6B1, a report of the Committee on Housing, Community Development and Equity meeting on September 30th, 2026. Councilor Strezo

We had our regular... Housing and Community Development and Equity Committee on Wednesday, September 30th to 2026. It was at 6 p.m., and it was hybrid so in person and virtual we had All three members in attendance. We discussed and approved the one-year action plan for the Community Development Block Grant, which is a regular annual Action plan that we talk about and it was interesting to see the updates. And the dialogue was definitely flowing, I will be asking to sever the items because as you can tell There were two agenda items on this that were virtually identical.

I'll come back to that before I ask for approval of this. We also discussed the resolution talking about the ADA coordinator position I had the chair of the Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Holly Simione come to speak on behalf. She wanted I presented a letter that was voted on and approved, and read before the committee discussing this position. And also it talked about concerns about the fact that they have no access to the reports of ADA accessibility concerns coming into the commission. Aboff,

They're concerned that the ADA information isn't getting to them. There still is a vacancy within the ADA position and so and a potential modification of what the actual position entails. I chose to keep this in committee to make sure that we are receiving updates on this. We also discussed, let's see. Oh yes, this was Councilor Hardt's Resolution discussing the spaces and accessible to us that are free for community use. There was a list, probably about 2020,

That was discussed or presented or potentially presented and with of all the available spaces that any constituent can sign up to use. Director Galgani came to speak on this item and said that there's a website in planning to happen with the full list. And I requested that we also, when that list does get presented because it is not yet live. When it is presented We have that constituents have the information on how to access these spaces aka meaning How they can sign up to reserve the space And so because it is not yet live, I kept this in committee as well and hoping to hear an update of this website as soon as possible. Until then we'll just keep it in committee. Last we talked about what

The St. James location over in Ward 7 space and how Alcoholics Anonymous came into the conversation with this, and now that Alcoholics Also possibly meeting there, one of the groups is meeting there. And by the way this church has the capacity for 80 50 and 15 Three different rooms of those capacities, which is pretty great. I'm hoping to get a tour soon. Would definitely like to see. Love it. So stay tuned on that and happy to pass that along as approved. I do want to move to place on file item 260688 and then move to place that one on file. Would you prefer this as two steps?

Can we take this all together? Sever them both, okay. So would you prefer then I can read the second item to sever? Okay and then so I'm asking to sever the first item of numbers I just read two six eight And sever the item to 60870. Now with these two items severed, I would like to, I move to place the first item that I read on file. Sorry, I did all of that without my microphone on. Do you wish to vote?

I'm sorry for people watching at home. Councilor Strezo moved to sever the two items that she mentioned. Those were severed because there was no objection. The council then approved the committee report as submitted, and now we have the two separate items before us.

Okay, thank you. And then the second item 260870 I am asking to move for approval of that one So let's take this one step at a time so

The first one at 260688 you want to have placed on file? Correct. All right, no objection that's placed a file and then 260870 we move to approve. Yes All right, so that item is before us for approval. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, that item as approved. Great, thank you. Next item.

Agenda item 6C1, a report of the Committee on Land Use meeting on October 1st, 2026.

Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Thank you, Mr. President. We had a joint public hearing with the planning board. We heard five items from the administration Details are in the committee report and in the video, but I'll just mention tonight I think the one that brought the most members of the public there that I think will be the most interest to the council. is the mayor's proposal for what to do about backyard cottages, ADUs. The presentation is an attempt to come into compliance with the state regulations and the reading of the state regulations that our city staff and legal team have done, I've no reason to doubt is that we cannot have Restrictions on a backyard cottage that are more restrictive than the principal building on that lot. So what that means is that if there's a triple decker,

According to the state regulations, we cannot prohibit an ADU from being three stories tall. They could be a three-story flat roof strut like a little mini triple decker behind the triple deacker and we can't say no to that like in any part of the city it's frankly bizarre I just I think it's extremely I thought it was a misunderstanding of the state law there is a The executive agency, the EOHLC, the Housing and Livable Communities that wrote these regulations. They have a website where you can look at frequently asked questions and they actually use this example as clarifying one of their questions you know what about on a lot with a triple decker and they say yeah that's right like we said that's what we mean you have to allow a three-story ADU So it's, in my opinion editorializing here, it's a pickle that we're in. It's a very strange situation

And I know our state delegation cares about this and is trying to get clarification on whether there is an appetite to revisit these regulations. There is actually currently an open comment period, FYI, where the executive agency is reviewing these. All to say, we're trying to figure this out. We can change the overall square footage of these buildings. So the state says you cannot go below 900 square feet. The mayor's proposal is currently 1750 square feet which I'll just say is a very large building, a three-story building that's 1,750. It's larger than my house as a backyard cottage. That would be a large building. So this is something that we're going to be dealing with, and I encourage everyone who's interested to look at the presentation attached to this item and do some thinking. I ask that this be accepted.

Any discussion on the report? Seeing none, that report is approved. Next item.

Agenda Item 61, a report of the Committee on Public Health and Public Safety meeting on September 30th, 2026.

Councilor McLaughlin. Thank you Mr. President we did meet. We met mostly to discuss The Warming Center That obviously took priority, so we weren't able to discuss that. I am going to schedule another meeting soon so that we can have a full discussion One item that did get discussion is that the Commission of Public Works invests in trash barrels with latches to address rodent issues. We discussed this issue, DPW is looking into it. They agree that it will be more expensive than a regular trash barrel but might be better off than having to replace chewed up barrels over and over again. They are looking into that and looking into the effectiveness of it as well. So that's all I got for today. I submit the committee report to be accepted.

All right. Council McLaughlin moves to approve the report as submitted. Any discussion? Seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda Item 6E1, a report of the School Building Facilities and Maintenance Committee meeting on October 6th, 2026.

Councilor Lake Thank you Mr. President and so the school building citizen maintenance committee met for just a tad under 50 minutes. We discussed, let's see, so we discussed With the commissioner of DPW and the director of PSOF, how to deal with snow. Kind of closing out an old item, so we've learned that the DPW has created a three-step process where step one is while this storm is happening or shortly thereafter Making sure that doors and ADA ramps are clear. And culminating with step three, which happens after the storm, and that's where we see the schoolyards and parking and whatnot being cleared. and then we kind of topped it off by talking a little bit about how it would be great if

We could find ways to use the snow as a means of play rather than a hindrance of play, but we also ultimately agreed that The conversation strayed to a place where it really belonged to the school and to the School Committee. Then discussed the Edgerly school building and the temperature control in the cafetorium. And the short version there is just that we're confident now that we've got that under control. DPW did a great job. and after that we talked a little bit about the whether or not the Changes made at the Argenziano School in preparation to welcome the AIM program were sufficient and everyone agreed, including finally hearing from the schools themselves that everything was a-okay.

And then we've also heard an update from Director Raish about the progress on the New Winterhill School. And that was essentially just that we're slowly but surely continuing our progress and we're We're going to be hearing on October 28th from the full board. And then finally, we heard again from Director Raish talking a little bit about the tiles on the high school. There's some of them that are attached, seem to be kind of like fascia almost there. There were some that were loose around windowsills. It's happened before. The company that did all the work, I believe their name was Sunrise? Yes, Sunrise.

have been very reactive and have jumped on this. The manufacturer, there was a lot of back-and-forth Save you all the details, just to say that Sunrise is now going ahead on their dime manufacturing brackets that will be attached around the windowsills. to ensure that these brackets that have failed will not cause any problems. So, that's everything we discussed and I ask this be submitted.

All right, Councilor Link asks that the report be accepted as submitted. Any discussions? Seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 6F1, a report of the Committee on Traffic and Parking meeting on October 5th, 2026.

Councilor Sait?

Through you Mr. President, Traffic and Parking Committee met with all three members present We discussed the Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee's public comment regarding the bus network redesign. The MBTA Board of Directors previously voted to endorse this system redesign, which included changes to Route 80 But the MBTA has more recently been committed to fine-tuning the proposal and being open to feedback. We discussed that Losing the 80 bus route would be a major loss for supporting the 115 Sycamore School. We learned that the Western Pearl Street reconstruction was planned with the assumption that Route 80 would continue. Director Rawson said that our regular meetings to the MBTA and the city will continue advocating on the issue

And he added that the MBTA has indicated that an update will come in the winter, likely after the new year. So all advocates, keep reaching out to the MBDA in the next few months. We discussed the no-turn on red at the intersection of Broadway and Cedar Street. We learned that staff are continuing to review intersections and install signage where needed, and we'll view this intersection as part of that process. The director noted that the city may need to conduct an assessment of the signal timing. This intersection is also part of the upcoming Broadway-McGoon construction project The city will start next summer. In the meantime, staff will pursue short-term remedies while also considering long-term improvements to make this intersection safer We also discussed making the intersection of Vernon Street and Partridge Ave safer.

We learned that staff have not yet completed their assessment of this area, but they can The director noted that staff are currently prioritizing higher volume streets, though he expects to have an update in the fall. Regarding calling for traffic calming measures in the Prospect Hill neighborhood, the director noted that there has been significant outreach from neighborhood residents. The Prospect Hills streets identified For review, we'll have data collected in October which will take a few months to process before the results are in. We received an update on the construction of the Lowell Street and School Street crosswalks facing the Green Line stations.

Brian Postaway, Engineering Director shared that there is an approved design. A raised crosswalk will be installed on Lowell Street At Lowell and Vernon streets, which will be added to improve safety while better accommodating the fire department. And this crosswalk will be constructed next summer. So actually we learned that the contract of the Broadway Magoon is the same one who will be doing this work. Regarding the school street crosswalk, the director noted that the community path is offset in this area creating a challenging right. or left turn for people trying to remain on the path and across the street. Part of the path is on the bridge, and part is off the bridge requiring the crosswalk to cross the edge of the bridge

which makes the design more complicated. Staff are considering an option that MassDOT has agreed to Although that option presents a challenge for the fire department, he noted that the Fire Department has been a good partner in working through this issue. There is not yet a final design but staff are continuing to work on it. and hopefully before the end of the year. Meet with MBTA before the end of the year. Staff hope to have final plans by mid-summer or fall and incorporate the work into the FY28 annual streets. And then regarding strategies for improving the safety of users on the community path, the director shared that newsletter just went out last week. They have published short-term measures to improve safety for all users.

They encourage the public to check them out on the Community Path voice page. And the director highlighted that one safety measure is already underway. It's the thermoplastic speed humps designed to slow faster moving wheeled vehicles. He noted that the path has a high volume of traffic and that one of the biggest challenges is faster moving users needing to make space for slower moving users. But yeah, we looked at the improvements. There will be better signage with visuals Yeah, and just signs that asking folks to slow down. Yeah, please check them out. Very exciting. And those are all happening this fall. With that I ask that this committee report be approved as submitted.

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

Agenda item 7.1, a request of the mayor requesting authorization to borrow $3,143,557 in a bond and to appropriate the same amount for additional costs of design, construction...

I'm sorry clerk. I can interrupt you because I move to waive the readings and refer to the Finance Committee This item 7.1 as well as 7.4, 7.6 and 7.8

All right, Councilor Wheeler moves to waive the rest of the rating of 7-1, all of 7.4, 7.6 and 7.8. And refer those items to finance. Yes.

Seeing no objection, those items are referred to finance Next item Agenda Item 711 A request of the Mayor requesting confirmation of the appointment of Christopher Gaeta to the Board of Assessors Councilor Buck

Confirmation of appointment.

That item is referred to confirmation appointments and personnel matters. Next item.

Agenda item 8.4, an officer's communication Fair Housing Commission conveying the fiscal year 2025 annual report pursuant to section 17-7 of the Code of Ordinances That item is placed on file with a copy to Housing Community Development and Equity

Next item.

Agenda item 8.5, an officer's communication. City clerk conveying block party licenses issued.

Still a great season for block parties. Check out the list, see if your street's on there. If your street is not on there and you haven't had a block party recently or even if you did have another one call the clerk's office find out how to do a block because they're wicked fun it's the year of the neighbor get together with your neighbors on your block That's all I got to say about block parties. That item is placed on file.

Agenda item 9.1.

Yes, I'd like to move to waive the readings of 9.139.3 and approve this evening and also just note the citywide fall cleanup on November 7th

November 7th, you all heard it here first. Or maybe not first but you heard it hear. I read it in an email. Maybe you read it somewhere else. But we're gonna clean up the city on November 7. Any discussion? All right seeing none those three items are approved.

Agenda item 9.4, public communication from Boynton Yards Land Company LLC and Windsor Place Owner LLC requesting a zoning text amendment to amend section 8412 EII.

That item is referred to land use.

Agenda Item 9.

Mr. President, if I could answer that? So just for that item, I just wanted to call out Where is it? Here we are. So Union Square Neighborhood Council has a CBA with them and also that any change here potentially changes the amount or not potentially does change the amount of aid space So when that item is taken up, I'd love it if people would keep those things into account.

Very good. And we need to send a copy of that to the planning board for public hearing as well?

I'm sorry, Councilor Link. It changes the what space?

Hold on, hold on. We're going to do this according to the rules. We need a copy of that one to plan it for it as well, right? Okay. Councilor Wheeler on this item.

I apologize, I was just trying to hear what my colleague said.

Mr. President, through you. So the ACE space which is the Arts and Creative Enterprises space so in this Boynton Yards overlay it's a percent This zoning amendment reduces the amount of residential space and the ACE space is a percentage of that, so therefore it would further reduce that.

Okay, so that is referred to land use with a copy of the planning board. Next item.

Agenda item 9.5, a public communication from Barbara Phillips submitting comments about the warming center.

That item is placed on file with a copy to Public Health and Public Safety. Next item.

Agenda Item 9.6, A public communication from Digital Fourth submitting comments about body-worn cameras.

That will be placed on the file with the copy to Legislative Matters. Next item.

Agenda item 10.1, a public event. Wilkes Productions Consultancy applying for a public-event license for Girk McGurk Back to School Cops and Cars Car Show on October 18th From 9.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m., rain date October 25th.

I believe this is an already rescheduled item because of the storm, if I'm remembering correctly. Any discussion on this one? All right, seeing none, Councilor Hardt moves to approve. All right and I see no discussion that item is approved

Agenda Item 10.2 A Public Event for the Arts Council Applying for a public event license for Summer Streets Monster Mash on October 18th from 10am to 7pm, rain date October 25th

Ewen-Campen moves to approve this one. Any discussion? Seeing none, that item is approved.

Agenda item 10.3 a public communication from the Commission for Persons with Disabilities submitting comments about agenda item 26-0825 that the administration submit a written report to this council regarding the timeline and process for staffing the Americans with Disabilities ADA coordinator role, and update this council on the plan to process ADA complaints and accessibility coordination when this position is vacant.

That item is placed on file.

Mr. President, I move to waive the readings of items 10.4 through 10.7 and send them to land use with a copy of the planning board please

Seeing no objection, we'll waive the rules to waive readings. Send those items to land use with copy to the planning board for each of the four.

There are no further items. Any late items?

All right, with that, Councilor Mbah moves to adjourn and we are adjourned. Thank you everyone