Finance Committee

So do you believe in Jesus Christ now, sir?

Thank you for watching.

Good evening, everyone. I am Ben Wheeler, he, him pronouns, counselor at large, and finance committee chair. It is 6.04 PM. and I'd like to call to order the Tuesday March 24th, 2026 meeting of the Finance Committee of the Whole of the Somerville City Council. Tonight's meeting is a committee of the whole with all 11 counselors participating. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, This is correct to read, right? Thank you. This meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio recording, audio-video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. We are joined by Clerk Delaney Fisher-Cassiol. Clerk, could you please call the roll to establish quorum?

This is roll call. Councilor Ewen-Campen.

Here.

Councilor Link.

Here.

Councilor Mbah. Councilor Clingan.

Present.

Councilor Strezo.

Present.

Councilor Sait.

Present.

Here. Councilor Davis. Here. Councilor Hardt. Here. Councilor McLaughlin.

Here.

Scott, Chair Wheeler.

Here.

All right. With that, we do have quorum.

Thank you. We will be taking up our 18-item agenda in the order posted. We'll start with some items that were referred to the Finance Committee and then move on to the Budget Priorities Meeting, which is why we have all 11 councillors present, or will. Since we have the full council as part of the Finance Committee this evening, any councillor may participate in our discussions and deliberations. As a general note, if I pronounce your name wrong, or get your title wrong, or use the wrong pronouns for you, please do not hesitate to interrupt me. I want to get it right. Okay, item one. Clerk, I was going to proceed the way that I often do in finance meetings and read the item, great. Item 1, ID 26-0375, approval of the March 10th, 2026 minutes. Any discussion on this item? Seeing none, that item is laid on the table to recommend approval in a single roll call vote later in the meeting.

Grant and gift acceptances. Item 2, ID 26-0325, a $15,000 transfer for Veterans Services grant match account. requesting approval to establish a grant match account with a $15,000 transfer from the Department of Veterans Services grounds maintenance account to the Department of Veterans Services special items account for the Massachusetts General Court and State Historical Records Advisory Board grant match requirement. I believe we have Director of Veterans Services Jerome Thomas and perhaps also Health and Human Services Finance Manager Anup Malik. Director Thomas or Manager Malik, are you on the call? Yes, I am. Wonderful. Could you please tell us about this request?

Yes, so this is a continuation. So we made a request at the last finance meeting that was approved and granted for the Schrab Grant for the digitization of our memorials and monuments throughout the city. This piece of it here is the The match piece that's just basically coming from our grounds budget and just trying to have that deposited along with the grant that was already approved.

Thank you. Sorry. Manager Malik, anything to add to that? Thanks. And just to reiterate what you said, Director Thomas, this is the need to set up an account because the Veterans Department did not have an account for this. or we would have already done this along with the previous grant item. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Okay. Any discussion on this item, councillors? Motion to approve. Motion to approve. If there's no more discussion this item is laid on the table to recommend approval and the single roll call vote later in the meeting. Item 3, ID 26-0202, requesting approval to appropriate $75,000 from the Bike Share Stabilization Fund for installation and startup costs

of a Blue Bike Station at the 16 to 20 Medford Street development site. I believe we have Director of Transportation and Infrastructure, Brad Rawson, and or Director of Finance and Administration for OSPCD, Alan Inacio.

either director would you like to speak on this item thank you chair Wheeler through you the chair this is another The Blue Bike Station that is being donated by a development team. This is from the developers of the 1620 Medford development site. Right behind City Hall. This is a standard station along with this is a sponsorship donation so It's a little bit slightly higher donation than the standard single station donation, but it also covers an additional amount for what is calculated to be the state of good repair throughout the lifetime of the station.

Thank you, Director Ignacio. And just to clarify for anybody watching at home, Director Ignacio, am I right in understanding $75,000 was donated to our stabilization fund and now the city is spending $75,000 because it is the city who's contracted to actually purchase blue bikes and

correct yeah thank you correct through you uh chair wheeler the the funds were previously donated um we are now in a position where we are ready to make the purchase The City owns the Blue Bikes contract and we also own the equipment, so therefore the purchases must run through the City.

Thank you, Director. Any discussion or questions from the Committee? Okay, seeing no objection to that item, it is laid on the table to recommend approval and the single roll call vote later. Thank you, Director. Item 4, ID 26-0163, requesting the appropriation of $430,965 from the unreserved fund balance, free cash, to the special education reserve fund. I believe we have Director of Finance Edward Bean and or Somerville Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Robert Barretta. Director Bean or Officer Barretta, could you please tell us about this appropriation?

My understanding is that the council and school committee have voted the acceptance of a special education reserve fund. This appropriation is actually school department special ed money $430,965 because the Department of Revenue was late in distributing Quarter 4 fiscal 2024 special education circuit breaker funds to the cities. It was actually received on July 2nd, 2024, which is fiscal year 2025. So unfortunately, that money closed to unreserved fund balance or free cash. So basically, this is the amount of money that should have gone to the school department had it been distributed timely by the Department of Revenue. So this is an appropriation into this new special education reserve fund for the purpose of funding special education out of district tuition or special ed transportation costs.

Thank you, Director.

Sorry, please, Officer Barretta.

Sorry, just to build on what Ed said there. I think it also represents just a great partnership between the collaborative relationship that we have between the city and the schools. We were able to sort of identify these dollars as We were able to sort of repurpose them for this special ed stabilization fund, which was fantastic to have given the volatility and special ed costs that have you know been experienced around the state so we're thrilled and we think it's a real win for for the city and also for our students

Thank you, Officer Beretta. Just to ask a clarifying question, so this was money that had been intended to be earmarked for special education, but For these accounting reasons it effectively lost its earmark and we're essentially restoring that earmark so this money will be specifically used for special education and not other purposes. Is that correct? That is correct. Thank you very much. Any discussion on this item, committee? Councilor Link.

Thank you, Chair. Just a quick question. So is part of the idea now that if If this were to happen again in the future, we would have this as kind of a buffer, or are there other ideas about how we would use this money?

I think that the sort of general purpose of this is to address unexpected or unplanned costs. We try to have a very careful and exacting approach to budgeting for our special ed costs for future years. and you can experience you know volatility in that beyond what we have you know been able to budget and plan for so for example things like out of district tuitions if a student were to move into the district and require a private placement out of district, those costs can range upwards of $130,000, $140,000 per student. Can be difficult to absorb those costs in an appropriated budget in one year. We also have students who are newly identified throughout the course of the year and may require additional services, medical services, other services that we might have to contract out for. and sometimes you know those expenses can can grow and get very costly so the stabilization fund would require

I believe a vote of the school committee in order to approve disbursement of funds to address those volatile costs.

Chair this sounds like a great way of making a bad thing good. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions from committee members? All right, seeing none, that item is laid on the table to recommend approval. Thank you, director and officer. Okay, the remaining items before we move on to the budget priorities section of the meeting are all Community Preservation Act appropriations. Unless there's any objection we'll take these five items up together. I'm going to read them now. Item 5, ID 26-0300, requesting the appropriation of $100,766 from the Community Preservation Act Fund Historic Preservation Reserve to the Somerville Museum to conserve artifacts in its collection

Item 6, ID 26-0299, requesting the appropriation of $200,000 from the Community Preservation Act Fund Open Space Reserve to the Open Space Land Acquisition Fund. Item 7, ID 26-0298, requesting the appropriation of $1,167,395 from the Community Preservation Act Fund Community Housing Reserve to the Affordable Housing Trust. Item 8, ID 26-0297, requesting the appropriation of $399,255, from the Community Preservation Act Undesignated Fund Balance to the CPA Fund Community Housing Reserve, and Item 9, ID 26-0323, requesting the appropriation of $50,000 from the Community Preservation Act budgeted reserve

to the Housing Authority for improvements to the open space at the Mystic River and View developments. I believe we have Director of Finance and Administration, Ellen Inacio, who spoke earlier and perhaps also Community Preservation Act Manager Roberta Cameron, Director Inacio, or Manager Cameron, would either of you like to speak to these items?

Thank you through the chair. CPA manager Roberta Cameron was not able to make it tonight. The Mystic View open space improvements and the Somerville Museum are all projects from this year's funding round that were applied for and approved by the CPC along with the Open Space Acquisition Fund which was an application by the PSOF department public Public Open Space and Urban Forestry. The adjustment amounts are part of our annual mid-year adjustments. We laid them out this way because there's a particular accounting order that they have to go into but basically mid-year after the tax recap is done is when we kind of finalize all the tax receipts that came in for the prior fiscal year and so we have to true up

Since the CPC has a preset allocated percentage that goes to the housing trust, those orders are to maintain the 55% pre-voted allocation that goes to The Housing Trust from the CPC. And this year there was a particularly large true up. That's because we were not able to allocate the full CPA surcharge. That was voted in and took effect July 1st. We were, because of Mass General Law, we were not able to appropriate that until the tax recap was complete. So now those final numbers are in. We've done all our calculations and Now we are seeking your approval to move these funds to the trust.

Thank you, Director. Any questions or comments from the committee about these items? Seeing none, these items are laid on the table to recommend approval in a roll call vote now. Clerk, could you please read the item IDs that we will be voting to recommend approval? Items one through nine.

Alright, on recommending approval of items 1, 2, 3, 4, and then 5, 3, 9 together.

Mr. Chair, could the clerk reflect that I'm recused from item four?

Thank you. Yes, let the record reflect that this is recused from item four. Mr. Chair, I'm also recused from item four. And so is Councillor Clingan. Clerk, does it make sense to proceed with a single roll call vote without these two councillors voting or would it make sense to do a single roll call vote and a separate one on item four? Not trying to complicate things. Okay. Who votes? Yeah. Two separate votes. One vote on item four. And then a separate vote on all the other items together. Got it. Okay. Thank you.

All right, so on items 1, 2, 3, and 5 through 9 together, recommending approval. Councilor Ewen-Campen.

Yes.

Link, Yes, Councilor Mbah, Yes, Councilor Clingan, Yes, Councilor Strezo, Yes, Councilor Davis, Yes, Councilor Hardt, Yes, Councilor McLaughlin, Scott, Chair Wheeler. All right, with that, that is all but one present and in favor. All right. And now on item number four, recommending approval, noting that Councilors Davis and Clingan are recused. Councilor Ewen-Campen.

Yes.

Councilor... Whoa. Let's try that again. Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Mbah? Yes. Councilor Clingan? Yes. Councilor Strezo?

Yes.

Davis, Heart, McLaughlin, Scott, Wheeler. All present members voting in favor.

Thank you, clerk. Okay, we will take up items 10 through 18 together so as to facilitate our overall discussion of the council's budget priorities. In this budget priorities meeting, it's not my intention as chair to generate new resolutions or to vote on these items. Instead, I intend for us to focus on first hearing each counselor speak on their priorities, and then discussing three more specific topics, proposed new or expanded spending items, areas to prioritize maintaining funding, and areas to possibly cut. So the idea is for there to be four opportunities to go around. One, to speak on each counselor's priorities. Then, to specifically discuss new or expanded spending items.

then to discuss items to prioritize maintaining funding and finally areas to possibly cut. Any questions about that plan? Please, Councillor Strezo.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I have some concerns about this as the budget by the mayor's administration. I don't want our constituents to get confused or Have the false understanding that the budget already has been presented. So... And also, we are facing a now $5.5 million shortfall, so money is going to be a lot tighter than it has been in previous years. and that's going to matter so I don't want to confuse residents that anything that there is a budget presented as of yet because we may get emails saying hey can I take a look at the budget I also have concerns with the fact that we have several councillors now on the council that have never been through a budget cycle before.

So I do have my concerns that we don't have a presented budget yet. and we're discussing items that we want to shred or not when we don't even know what's being presented so I and I also worry about staff time and how this affects and impacts staff time of what are essentially hypothetical thoughts and feelings on what we want to do with the budget without having an actual budget presented to us will do and also to the fact and I want to make this clear to constituents that It's the mayor's office that has the ability to add or subtract. Meaning like, they present the budget. And I don't want to mislead any of our residents at that. That we can just create departments or whatnot. So we have to be really clear on that. That ultimately, of course, the budget cycle is a tussle. But we also have to be knowledgeable of what the city council's role actually is.

So I want to make sure that's out there.

Clingan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through you, I hear the concerns of my colleague at large. I just want to thank you for getting this out early enough with regards to Our priorities, since the budget hasn't been released yet, it would hopefully signal to the administration where our heads are. So I think it's a good exercise in kind of In a good faith effort, hopefully the administration will hear what we're aiming towards. As far as speaking on sort of deprioritizing, I'll use that instead of the word cut, like if you're saying... I probably won't be speaking on anything like that. I would love to hope that we can have a fully funded budget as is and not have to make any

Cuts, but I do understand that there are budget issues and possible shortfalls. But I'm happy to... I mean I'm easy anyway I only put in one priority it's the same one I put in last year so I'm happy when we get to that to speak on that but overall I think that you know I think it's I'm okay with Signaling to the administration what our priorities are as a body.

Thank you.

Okay.

Councilors, I encourage you to be mindful of time. And to that end, I will give a polite signal When two minutes of speaking have passed and then three and so on, just as a helpful reminder so that we can try to keep the total number of go-rounds from getting too late tonight. Also, I must recuse myself from any discussion of the overall funding for the Racial and Social Justice Department or for their teen program specifically, since my child participates in and is paid a stipend through that program. So I'll ask that any discussion of either of those items, it would be helpful to me if discussion of those items could happen now, either maintaining funding, reducing or expanding funding for either of those items. If there is any, I'll step down and invite Councilor Scott to chair the meeting until that discussion is over. Vice Chair Scott, I should say.

So, Councillors, does anyone wish to speak about the overall funding for the Racial and Social Justice Department or for their teen program? Thank you. If this area of funding does come up in anyone's remarks, that's okay. I'll just at that point recuse myself from the discussion at that time and return once the discussion is over. Okay, let's begin. So, Councillors, I first invite you to make any remarks you'd like to make about your overall budget priorities. As your budget memos are on file and publicly available, you may choose to have your document speak for itself, or you may discuss it and elaborate on it as you prefer. We can proceed in any order. Councilor Clingan? Oh, when you're done.

I'll go first. Go for it. Thank you, Mr. Chair, through you. So as I said, I only put one priority as really to emphasize that. I know my colleagues will have lots of other great Priorities that I'll be happy to sign on to and support. But for me, this kind of goes back a ways to a street in my ward, Stickney Street, which was in really bad shape for a number of years. And we have a paving program. I like to say this on record, too, for the folks, that we have a paving program which is essentially a scoring program for each street in the city and that we came to that in the name of fairness because you know way back in the olden days Maybe an alderman, they were called then, could get a street paved of somebody they were trying to get their support or something. Whatever the case may be,

and other administrations in the future came to the conclusion that we should do this paving program which essentially scores each street based on its condition but also its How frequent vehicles travel down. It's sort of like how prominent it is if it's a main road. Obviously, main roads are going to be prioritized over some little side street that a lot of people don't go down. And then you get a score. In those conversations I've had through the years, I've been told that the amount of money we budget covers roughly 1% of the roads each year get Dunn. So it's on a cycle. And we have a certain number of miles of road. And so 1% of that is essentially what ends up getting paved.

It may have increased a little bit since we started doing the pave down the middle technique, which was instead of going curb to curb, we were able to stretch out our budget on the asphalt that we were using. So that's all to say, simply, I've asked that we increase the budget to where we could Pave 2% of the streets this budget cycle and hopefully moving forward. I think that's a huge quality of life issue that I think goes overlooked It can mess up people's cars to where that costs them repairs. So not only are they paying excise tax already, but now they're upset because they've gotten a flat tire or their shocks are... Whatever have gone. So that is it for me. Increase the spending to where we are able to Repave, 2% of the streets, roughly 2% of all roads in Somerville per construction season.

Thank you.

Councilor Ewen-Campen.

Thank you. I want to talk about the Racial and Social Justice Department and specifically the teen program. Just kidding. I could show that was a joke. That's a joke. I feel like for the last couple of years when we've had this meeting, I've had the same preamble, which is this is looking like a very tough year. And for the last several years, it's specifically because the President of the United States flying the economy into the side of the mountain and attacking states and cities that disagree with him politically and it is just beyond the pale disgusting. and it's blowing a hole in budgets across the country including ours and it's horrifying. It doesn't need to be this way. It's a choice being made by the President of the United States. So with that said, another thing that I'm bringing to this year's discussion is we have a new administration that was just elected by Somerville. This is their first budget. I remember the first budget of the Valentine administration. It's a way for an administration to

Make a statement about what their values are going to be. So I'm not approaching this year as in any kind of, I want to see this, this, this, this, this, this, this, or else. That's not my approach any year and specifically not this. I think a new administration deserves latitude to propose the budget that they want to see. But that said, the priorities that I have are the same, honestly, that I have every year. I think of this kind of economic situation So this is things like funding for housing stability, making sure that the streets are safe so kids can get to school, people can get to the grocery store. A priority of the council for a long time has been increasing funding for out of school time capacity. This is just a basic need that families have in our city. Made a lot of progress and there's still obviously work to be done. Specifically, making sure that we have support for all of the immigrants rights programs that the city works on.

Those are extremely high priorities. And then as award counselor, the Gilman Square Activation. This is something Councilor Clingan and I and all of our colleagues talk about all the time. We have this beautiful city-owned lot that is It's a huge opportunity and I would love for us to finally take a bite. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe Councilor McLaughlin has his hand raised.

Thank you Mr. Chair. I apologize for not being there but I have parenting duties today and my son's distracted so I figured I'd jump the line. Just a few requests. Every year, probably for about six years now, I've been requesting an air filtration pilot program to supply houses close to I-93 and McGrath Highway with air filtration systems that would I'm making that request again. I believe the city has a pilot in mind that has just not been acted upon. I'm hoping that happens. I'm asking for an additional $100,000 in immigration legal aid. As I understand, the legal aid we're providing is always meeting its cap. and there's just always more of a need for that, especially now more than ever. I would like to see an increase in immigration aid.

I'd like to see the East Somerville Library get prioritized. I understand there's some plans for libraries in the future, potentially even a new library, or repairing the central library. The East Somerville Library is one of our only community spaces, and it's very small. There's opportunity to build something bigger there. I'd like to see the Kensington Connector finally be completed. I'm not even sure if this needs money at this point, but it's just something I've been harping on for several years and I'd like to see that complete this year. and then finally fully acknowledge and I'm taking other people's idea on this but in the past we've talked about municipal snow shoveling for sidewalks. And in my studies on social housing, I devised in my mind an idea of social snow shoveling.

And what I'd like the city to explore is purchasing one snowplow device One of these big plows that can hit a sidewalk specifically. Get one of those with one staff person, finance it, Make it free or low cost for seniors and people with disabilities and have the rest of the community invest money into it. They can purchase this service from the city. It's just an idea I have that I wanted to put out there. I've talked to a few people about it. I think it's a way that we can do citywide or at least a large amount of city sidewalk shoveling without breaking the bank and making sure that the people who need it most are prioritized. That's all I have. I will add that I do not plan on making reference to any cuts or things that I'd like to see reduced in the city. I found in the past that I don't want to scare departments and get people worried and

Make them think I'm gonna make a cut that I may not make in the future. I have my priorities and I think that that speaks enough and I'm hoping the city recognizes those priorities. Thank you.

Mbah, Councilor Link, and then Councilor Sait.

Thank you, Chair. I just want to thank you for organizing this meeting and for the opportunity to discuss this. It just seems to me like every year, Most of everybody's budget, I read them, is very rich, very thorough. And so sometimes I see things that I had submitted multiple years, And so it just keeps changing. But at the same time, when I was reflecting about the fact that this budget is defined with revenue constraint, I just thought we should actually have a strategic prioritization to make sure that we protect the most essential needs of our residents. Why maintaining long-term stability of the city? So one of the things at the very high level that I mentioned was also like the immigrant services because that's like the main...

McLaughlin mentioned like more funding for legal services you know housing social support services to protect the rights and well-being of our immigrant communities Ensuring programs are fully resourced and accessible. That is like the core piece that I think even though That should not be like a level funded, you know, like department. That is where we should, if we need to make headwinds, you know, invest resources, that is... For me, that's where we should do it. And then for core services, of course, we must make sure that we preserve the quality and reliability of essential services. including schools, public safety, public health and infrastructure through careful assessment and allocation of resources. That should actually continue. And then one of the things also that I highlighted was the prioritization of and financing decisions for the winter here.

You and I were all yesterday at Portico. So it's really that reconstruction and other critical school infrastructure you know like recognizing that these are urgent and non you know deferrable investment we cannot continue to defer those So that is, for me, is key. And then, of course, the good councilor from what Trey mentioned, housing stability, that is also big. Overdevelopment subsidy, I think we should kind of shift Maybe the focus of like the resources should be directed towards like assist and direct assistance, you know, for renters and homeowners facing Displacement rather than kind of like concentrating limited funds this year on high cost affordable housing development subsidies.

We can look at it either way, but you want to make sure that it has a direct impact as we are trying to have as we are trying to navigate this resource-constrained environment. And just to conclude by saying that, like you mentioned, this year requires that we make it thoughtful and sometimes difficult choices. So making sure again that we prioritize essential services, protecting vulnerable residents, and aligning our investment with long-term sustainability. So we can navigate this period of constraint while continuing to uphold our commitment to equity, fiscal responsibility, and community well-being. I think that I'll wrap it up there. Thank you for the opportunity.

Link. Thank you, Chair. So I want to begin by acknowledging the lean year we have ahead of us. $5.9 million was the last I heard for the shortfall. There's so much I would like us to do, but I know that we need to ensure that we are able to provide these core essential services to our residents that I've heard many of my colleagues here talk about. Everything I'm bringing to this conversation comes directly from residents here, either at the doors, at events, public hearings, conversations on the street. and you know I think people have showed up and told not just me but all of us what they need and you know I take that very seriously. So what I've heard consistently is, you know, we're in a housing crisis and people are scared about if they can stay in their homes. So they want stronger eviction protection, tenant support, investment in permanent affordable housing. before we lose more of it.

People want their kids in well-funded schools and parents to feel supported. They want robust special education services, safe routes to get there to the schools. and they want to be able to walk and bike around the city without feeling like they're risking their lives or breaking a hip on cracked sidewalks and dangerous intersections. So they also want their immigrant neighbors to be protected and to make sure language access is real and that when the city says that everyone belongs here, we're showing it by our actions. We also want to keep our climate commitments even as federal support evaporates by investing in building decarbonization and pursuing every state grant because we know there's no federal ones left.

that we can get our hands on and finally you know we want to make sure that arts and culture are still funded because Somerville the idea I've heard before you know Somerville is a bedroom community and it's never felt right to me There are cheaper towns to sleep in. People are here because of a passion and creativity that this community brings. So these are the priorities that I think make Somerville a place that people want to stay in and fight to stay here. and I think that we can honor them even in a constrained budget but it's going to require being very intentional about where we put our dollars and I look forward to getting into more of the specifics with that as we continue the conversation. Thank you. Sait.

Thank you. Through the chair, given the tough financial situation, we find ourselves again this year. Similar to last year, I tried to focus on the core issues and on the issues I'm working on in my work. I briefly list my budget priorities. Continued funding for the Office of Immigrant Affairs, funding to support staff and expand the important services, translation and interpretation services, legal services, and Know Your Rights campaigns, continued funding for flexible rental assistance and legal assistance, Citywide food waste collection and food waste collection in schools Funding to establish an alternative emergency response program to respond to non-criminal calls Funding for community path improvements such as improved signage.

Continued funding for safe streets, funding to launch the Hav and Av community process, expand the safety stick program, and expand the list of the intersection reconstruction projects. Continued funding for food security programs. Continued funding for public education. I urge the mayor to work with the school committee to secure funds for all the school programs and expand the out-of-school programming. Funding to conduct a study of Somerville school building decarbonization. A study that will create a 10-year comprehensive plan for decarbonization of building systems. and improvement of building envelope performance, funding to develop a swing space plan for some of the public schools, Funding for staffing and programming to activate the high school as a youth center plus a space for family engagement outside of school hours.

and finally funding to repair the armory roof. As the owner of the armory building, the city must repair the leaking roof. I look forward to working with the mayor and my colleagues on this year or next year's budget. Thank you.

Councillor Davis and then Councillor Hardt.

Thank you Mr. Chair and through to my colleagues. Thank you for all of your very thoughtful budget memos. I think this process is I know that it's valuable to the administration, right? Credit to the Ballantyne administration for first asking us to provide these prior to submitting a budget. Credit to the Wilson administration for also sitting down and meeting with just about all of us so far. I was told there's a few left that they're looking to schedule, I think those conversations are equally as important. I know at least mine was, and so we discussed a lot of these issues. And also they're valuable for us going, oh gosh, I forgot to put that one on there, because there's some great things that I read I was reading through here and I'm sure others probably had the same, maybe not, had the same feeling like oh yeah, that's definitely a priority too.

As I've said every year, and it was a year or two ago when the folks that actually are in the weeds, in the mud of putting the budget together, Acknowledge, look, they read all of these, right? And they recognize that all of these priorities are important. And that's why I thank you, Mr. Chair, for continuing this sort of format of an opportunity to discuss them all without maybe trying to Prioritarians, you know, which are the most, whichever. The folks in the administration are reading these and they've heard from us directly. I say that sort of as a way to color all of the priorities that are in here. For those who follow along, they will look familiar, most of them. But I wanted to flag a couple key nuances and changes. Given what we've discussed, what other members have noted, it's a very tough year this year. You'll see the word retain in my priorities, and that's intentional.

There are some places where I kept increase. There are some places where I kept retain. I probably got it wrong a few times. There's probably, as I said, a few others I should have remembered to put in here to either increase or retain as well. I present all of this in that context. Like some of my colleagues, I'm not inclined to speak to where I think cuts should happen right now. I'm excited to see the new administration's budget. As you noted, it reflects priorities. And if we want to have a conversation about reallocation of funds, we certainly can do that in June. That's the time and place for that. I wouldn't begrudge anyone the opportunity to suggest cuts here if they so choose, but that's not where I'm going. But I do want to flag a couple of things just As I say every year, most of the ward counselors, or probably I think all, are going to have ward-specific priorities, right?

And that's why I think doing it this way is important, because I wouldn't expect I hope some of you would if we were doing that. But the Davis Square neighborhood plan is an absolute priority, and that needs to happen. Otherwise, two other things. Some of my colleagues have talked about affordable housing. I changed my priority a few years ago to supportive housing because I think that's a lower hanging fruit. I really would like to see that continue. I added something this year to or I can't remember if I added it but I flagged it this year because increasing funding to support our community partners might be a way that we can and many more.

You know, push to our community partners to still fulfill those priorities for our community members. I think that might be a way to kind of get through these tough times. I'll stop there. They're all important. I know that the budget folks will read them all as they will with all of yours too. And I'd co-sign on everything I've heard so far, which is why I love listening to all y'all. Thank you. Hardt.

Thank you, Chair Wheeler, and thank you, colleagues. I agree with what Councilor Davis just said. It's really great to hear everyone's priorities, and I You know, have similar priorities. And I would direct everyone to my submitted budget memo for more lengthy explanation. But I did just want to highlight a couple of key things. Tonight. And first, as some of my other colleagues mentioned, providing core resident services and infrastructure is I also want to appreciate leadership and staff that have gotten Somerville to the triple A bond rating for the past four years and I'd love us to maintain that.

But we know that the tightening financial situation that we're in is due to these larger contexts at the federal level and the economy where these things are also impacting residents on a personal level. And so I think that there's a few things that we need to pay particular attention to or focus in priority areas to help us all get through this as a united Somerville. One is the, as many people have already mentioned, housing support and investing in the Office of Housing Stability, including things like flexible rental assistance, the municipal voucher program, and the older adult Bridge Program. It's far more effective to spend dollars to keep people in their homes than it is to address

I think that is a smart way to spend our money I also echo that we need to invest in collaborations to build more deeply affordable housing for the long term, including directing resources to the early action Acquisition Fund if we're able to. Second, we know that the attack on immigrants is having devastating consequences for so many people, including here in Somerville. and that the Somerville Office of Immigrant Affairs is doing excellent work. But the need is far outpacing the capability at this point because

I've been told that the demand for interpretation and translation has quadrupled over the past couple of years and now at the federal level they are dismantling language access programs So it makes it all the more important that we as a city are committed to language access and interpretation and translation. Right now, through a partnership with Greater Boston Legal Services, the city is providing access to legal counsel for some immigrants. But again, the need for that is far greater than the capacity. So if we are able to find additional money for an additional $100,000, Greater Boston Legal Services could hire a paralegal dedicated to Somerville that would greatly increase the capacity and the number of cases that They are able to take on.

And as we've all seen the stories in the news, having access to legal counsel for an immigrant who's facing deportation or who's been Illegally detained, you know, is really makes a dramatic difference in a family. So I would support that. Third, Somerville's children, youth, and families obviously should be a top priority in the budget. That includes our schools, programming for young children, after school, summer programming, vocational technical training, and also school-based food access programs. So last year we saw the federal government abandon its responsibility to Food Security Benefits for Families and Children. And Somerville stepped up with $300,000 from community benefit funds and that allowed some key programs to continue but I would propose given you know that we're still facing these

and many more. Thank you. Thank you. The school-based markets and carrot cards allowing families access to choosing their own food and access to I do have some other Ward 7 specific items. there's more in the budget memo I just wanted to call out the senior taxi program in ward 7 we have the part of the city that's farthest away from the t and we also have a lot of seniors who live at that far western edge I think and and throughout the city I think the senior taxi program is a really important program so I wanted to highlight that thank you

Strezo.

Pardon me, Mr. Chair. Councilor Scott, do you want to do rock, paper, scissors? Come on. Oh, he gave it to me. Alright, well I guess I'll go next. Thank you. And then, I think that's almost all of us. Yeah. I love the ideas and Quite frankly, I think we have to be really grateful for the moment that we're pretty much on the same page. We're not really trying to convince anyone that affordability is important or that food security is important. And that's a moment of gratitude, so I am very... I really want to acknowledge that. Similar to that, I did want to talk, I'll keep it simple with the teen spaces and whatnot, but do want to put a plug in for Founders Rink to be open. funded and ready to go including the teen the girls intramural hockey

and a program for that to be implemented and funded. So I have a section on teens and kids and out of school time and for our youngest constituents as well spaces so their parents can take them places as well within the city. When we talk about community spaces, something as simple as patio furniture in City Hall Concourse so we can really have a chance to connect with each other and sit and possibly have lunch. Just give me a few minutes and then I'll finish up. So also to support some requests that we're supporting our small businesses. and that our crossing guards have weather sturdy clothing and expanded budget for that.

So these are recommendations from our constituents. That we are funding to implement the recommendations of the Massachusetts Anti-Semitism Commission recommendations. We find ways and funding to initiate implicit bias trainings. And this is a... New idea that I'd really like to emphasize here in City Hall. And that would be for two work pods that are quiet and closed here in Somerville while we're all twiddling our thumbs and waiting for the 1895 building next door to be open. which isn't going to happen anytime soon, that we can have quiet work pods that City Hall employees can have a second to talk with constituents in privacy. Because we've all seen the shuffling for space in here. Absolute sustaining Office of Housing Stability support, going into the details of municipal flex funding, legal services.

and Community Partners, and a resubmission of introducing low-income or first-generational path to homeownership that is specifically tailored to Somerville. With the implementation of funding within five years, that's a resubmit. And we are making progress with our Somerville Office of Immigrant Affairs, and so I am asking for sustaining that increasing, if possible, to fit the needs. I also am resubmitting the senior advocate liaison position within the executive branch, opening up a position, and if it has to start at part-time as a pilot, so be it. But this would not be within the Council of Aging. This would be a separate entity that is helping and supporting and advocating for our senior population. That's huge. And it's a personal request that constituents have brought forward that they want $300 for t-shirts for the Council on Aging Board.

Okay, that's a small request, so please, they really want that. They do not want name tags, they want t-shirts. That menstrual products are to be supplied and free to the public in all city-owned buildings, including in City Hall, or perhaps even one menstrual product dispenser in any of the bathrooms inside City Hall. That we continue the fight against rats, that we are winning the war on rats, and that we continue our efforts to support that, and we do not. Luce. Any efforts on that? And then, of course, resubmission of the Neighbor Ways Program for street mural traffic calming measures. Just that.

Scott, Vice Chair Scott. Councilor, just fine, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate your focus this year on collecting communities' priorities and attempting to provide some actionable guidance to the mayor as he evaluates the various program improvement requests, Places where department heads want to expand their programs and is going to have to make some difficult choices. As I read through the memos provided by counselors this year, I'm struck as my colleague at large just said with how much we have in common and how absent quibbles regarding implementation or details there is broad agreement on what we need more of and frankly what we don't. I want to thank my colleague from Ward 4 for his characteristic brevity. I remember one ask a few years ago being Jesse's van and let's get some damn streets paved is another.

Very concise request, but of the other eight memos that were longer, I noted that all eight of them actually called for continued investment in housing with seven explicitly supporting specific Office of Housing Stability programs. Add me to the list, sir. I noted at least six councilors emphasizing safe streets and maintenance of the public way. Add me to that list. I noted at least six memos explicitly supporting the Somerville Office of Immigrant Affairs and support for our immigrant neighbors. 100% add me to that list. That was a big swing that got taken in prior administrations and I feel like we are better positioned as a community for the investments that were made there and there's there's room for improvement. I noted at least four memos explicitly supporting the expansion of out-of-school time options and several more that, while they didn't say OST, we're talking about more creation of free spaces for community engagement like Teens Center, Multigenerational Community Center, Founders Ring, Using Somerville High School After Hours.

Add me to the list. And finally, I do want to highlight and thank the three calls for an explicitly Non-police department oriented alternative emergency response, not co-response, not kinder and gentler cops with better training, but actually non-police based alternative emergency response, and I'd say add me to that list as well. You know, as I get into my personal asks, I went back and read my memos and speeches from this for the last several years, and I could just say ditto. But I will highlight a few things. Over and over again, though, as we go through these memos, the most granular requests besides the, you know, Ward 3, once Highland Ave. done, I want some things done in Union Square. Councilor Davis wants some things done in Davis Square. The thing they all have common is about showing up for our neighbors. Basic delivery of services to city residents.

The day-to-day business of operating the city. Some of the shortfalls that we've seen in these areas over time could be called management issues more than funding issues. Many of you are tired of hearing me talk every year about city departments that seem unable to spend the money that they've been allotted and falling short of their performance goals year after year. I'm hopeful the mayor will take those past trends into account because directing funds for a purpose does no one any good if that money sits unused at the end of the year. But for myself, in addition to all the things I've asked for for the last eight years now that continue to not be delivered, I will call and join my colleagues in the priorities that I went through before. I also want to call out one priority that continues to frustrate residents citywide, and that is the vacant properties ordinance. We passed this law back in 2019. It has never, not once, been enforced. There is no capacity to enforce it.

There is no plan to create capacity to enforce it that I've ever seen. It doesn't take an advanced policy wonk to look at the many vacant storefronts and say, why the heck doesn't that get filled? Why the heck doesn't somebody do something about that? Well, this council did back in 2019. But without the executive directing that that law be enforced and creating a mechanism to enforcement, the law is pointless. And Mr. Chair, I will say respectfully, That needs to change this year. I have more detailed notes for the next sections that we have getting into, but I appreciate the opportunity to present that kind of high level view of how I really appreciate everybody's thoughts and alignment this year. Thank you, sir.

Thank you all. I have prepared remarks as well. I'm going to deliver them in these next upcoming sections. First, moving on specifically to talking about new and expanded areas of funding. That's something that a number of you, perhaps most of you, touched on in your remarks so far. Would anyone like to add remarks about new areas of funding, new programs or expanded funding for existing programs? Scott.

All right. Well, I was going to wait for everybody to go around the horseshoe, but I think everybody already made their pitches. So I will take advantage of my extra two minutes, Mr. Chair, but I'll be brief. I know there's not much money to expand services. I do want to call out one program in particular which my good colleague from Board 7 mentioned in her opening which is the Immigrant Services Legal Fund. We've talked about this before. It directly hires lawyers through Greater Boston Legal Services to provide these rapid response, habeas petition filing and support for abducted neighbors. We keep them in Massachusetts. We get them out of incarceration, we get them back home, and it works. But that program is absolutely a capacity. An extra hundred grand, like she said, goes a long way. Make sure GBLS can hire the resources, make sure the resources are available. because that is time is critical and getting that kind of resources to folks in that moment of crisis when they've been abducted from the city

it's just absolutely vital so I appreciate that and I just wanted to highlight it again lift it up beyond that I mentioned earlier the vacant properties ordinance but I also want to highlight another priority that This council has supported for many years and even passed legislation to support, which is the rental registry program. For those who aren't aware, the rental registry would require landlords of all the tenant and all the rental units in the city to register those units with the city. And there have been various spins on this. Thank you. Thank you. which is engagement notification. When public notifications, you know, we have a city that's two-thirds rent-occupied. In my district, it's 80-plus percent.

And notifications about anything that happens in the city, public notice always goes to property owners. and that's the only people we know. Whereas having a rental registry would allow us to send those notices to folks who actually live here instead of just the property owners and landlords. The way we're doing it is exclusionary. to public participation. It's a barrier to engagement. As I try to clean up my aphorisms, I'll say it has created a fundamental lack of situational awareness and recon of how to get in touch with our constituents. We need to be able to communicate with our constituents as a city. So I am desperately hopeful that additional funding to ISD or whatever department is going to administer those two programs, the vacant property ordinance and the Rental Registry gets delivered. We already have these answers.

We have policy outcomes. We already have the answers here. We just have to make them happen. And it doesn't cost that much. So finally, I also, as I do every year, say that the Arts Council, the libraries, and the Council on Aging are very small budgets. They're very tiny in terms of the overall cost of the city. but they are enormous in terms of the delivery of services, the value they provide to residents, direct service delivery to residents in the city and also in terms of economic value that they bring in. I understand that the Arts Council is in a great deal of flux at the moment. We all eagerly await the administration's plan for reorganization and reinvestment, but

It is not a stretch, I think, to say that this is a penny-pinching moment, and putting a few more dimes in those directions can have a real outsized impact. So that's where I urge the administration to consider expanding funding. Thank you, sir.

Hardt.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Scott, or through you to my colleague. I also just wanted to piggyback on Being able to enforce ordinances and the short-term rental ordinance is something that I know many people are concerned about. I did talk to Mayor Wilson about it and I know that There is movement towards being able to enforce that more robustly, but just wanted to call that out as something that I think we really need to do, and it will have a good impact on the city. Thank you.

Mbah. Thank you, Chair. Also, just a first shout out to my ward councillor for all your budget priorities. I could not agree more. You went right. Scott. Sometimes we propose these ideas and then they start it off. and then you don't have the capacity to follow this thing. This was something that I proposed many years ago. They even sent a press release. You know, and the city that they are starting this program gave me a shout out in the press release and then all of a sudden I can't even keep track of this stuff that, you know, so this is very important just to even hear that this is like...

For me, this is like a huge reminder that we can, you know, how do we, once we propose policy ideas, we need to find a way to track them and see the development and if there are gaps. We should be able to know what those gaps are and how we can step in and help move those things forward. So thank you. Councilor Slate.

Through you, Chair, I mentioned this in my budget priorities, but I want to say it again. Every year I have added this to my budget priorities. The funding to activate the high school As a youth center and a space for families to gather, I just want to say that more than ever, our community needs this. I know this because I was in the classroom and I was working with families for years here in the community. And in these times, Our immigrant neighbors would like to have a space where they can gather, gather with other people and feel that sense of belonging. Just two weeks ago, our mayor talked about the importance of

Coming up with activities that we can do and get to know our neighbors. And we already have a space where we can do this. All year long. In a few months, it's going to be very hard. It's going to be hard to be outside. So this is, again, a great opportunity. And we all know the mayor has I had this as a budget priority in previous years when he was a councilor, so I urge this administration to really find a way to do this. Davis just said if like if there's no funding to create new programs then let's use our community partners and let's offer this space to do this. So again, putting this out there and also why this right now is

A great time to do this. A lot of our non-English speaking families need this and I just can't, Their children right now have to be the ones doing the interpretation, the translation. There's like a lot of fear to just reach out like even to the city. So again, I urge this administration to take advantage of this space that we have. and if we cannot find the funding to hire staff to start a whole program then let's try and partner with with people who are doing this work, who know how to work with children with families English is not the first language necessarily. I know I'm repeating myself, but this one is really important to me.

I really hope this will be considered by the administration.

Vice Chair Scott, if you would take the podium so I can make comments.

Happy to be extra formal about it. I see the stopwatch up here. I will crack the whip very firmly, Chair. Please do.

Thank you so much to my colleagues. It's a wonderful thing to hear so many priorities I know are crucial for the community named. and the ones that I have are going to be largely echoes of things my colleagues have said, which is a good thing. So yes, this is a tight budget year. There are a few targeted investments that I think, as several colleagues have said, give us a lot of bang for the buck. They're high impact. Echoing Councilor Hardt, The programs that the Office of Housing Stability uses to help bridge short-term needs have an enormous payoff. They avoid a much larger cost and pain and disruption for people by providing a small amount of funds to help bridge short-term needs.

So there's the FLEX program with the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the municipal voucher program. If we took the funding which so far has been provisional and we made that an established essentially permanent recurring budget item, That would really help ensure more security in housing for our residents. Permanent supportive housing was also mentioned and that's an area where even a small amount of new permanent supportive housing can make a huge impact. on people's lives being able to move from the street to a stable environment where where services can help establish security in people's lives. We have a deep well of expertise in this city and our nonprofit community as well as our city staff and we should use that.

Expanding after school and preschool access, especially in areas where there are inequities between different parts of the city or different communities, has a big payoff. Small staffing investments could allow schools to stay open later, students to use facilities like gyms, and really have an outside benefits for families. I also want us to be taking the opportunity even if funding is tight to be using this opportunity using this year to explore some of the alternative approaches to public safety If we can be doing research, making progress on deciding on models, that's something that can put us in a good position to make investments. It also, another aspect of public safety related to that is smart traffic lights which are something that we have been

Those help pedestrians and cyclists get across intersections more quickly more safely and also help drivers alike And finally, some targeted staffing additions I think would fill real gaps. My colleague, Councillor Strezo, mentioned a senior liaison. to advocate for older residents' interests and needs, and a homeless services coordinator to centralize our response to homelessness. Finally, immigration legal representation funding would make a colossal difference. That's something again and again when we speak to people in the immigrant community in communities that have been fighting the disruption from the federal government they say that really really makes a difference.

Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Three minutes, 45 seconds, although I got to tell you, you had me on the first finally, and then you snuck in another finally. So great strategy. I can't wait to use that one.

I learned from the best. Thank you, Councillors. Next, I invite any Councillors to discuss areas to make sure we sustain our existing funding. Again, I know this is something that has already been present in a lot of your remarks, but if there are any areas that haven't been remarked upon to make sure do not avoid cuts in this tight budget environment. Councillor Ewen Campen.

I just I'll take this opportunity to say what a few colleagues have said which it's really really striking what a clear message the voters of Somerville sent by electing these people to kind of emphasize these priorities. I think if you fed our Priority memos into like a word cloud, that would be the things that need to be sustained and expanded as much as possible. I think they're really on point and in harmony with one another.

Thank you, councillors. Finally, we will discuss possible areas to deprioritize. I know that's something that is a more delicate subject. I'm curious if anyone has any comments to share.

Councilor Link. I'll take a crack at it, but I'm actually not going to suggest we cut anything. What I do hope we take a really We have a very close look at is where we're doing contracts, where we're doing consultants, and see where we can cut back there before we cut back on services. For our residents and where we can give people in our city and in our neighborhood, you know, good paying jobs.

Vice Chair Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, y'all know I'm not shy about proposing cuts. But that said, I get it, right? This is going to be a tight year. And as somebody who has been through times in my life where I didn't have two nickels to rub together to try to make a dime, I get it. But I also know that as somebody who has owned and operated my own business and had to take care of my coworkers and make sure that everybody gets paid and the lights stay on. Sometimes you do have to make important and difficult choices about where to prioritize where the money goes. And so I'm not shy about that. But I will say... that as my colleague pointed out, the word cloud had some pretty notable absences in it. And I think that you don't have to necessarily call them out to see where those gaps are. It's like looking at the negative space in a painting.

But I will also say that I want to lift up what my colleague at large just said, which is I have been talking about the waste conversation. and Cost that outsourcing so many of our city purposes has just inflicted on us. Aside from the atrophy of capability, and departments like DPW, like water, like sewer. We know that the way we're running those departments and run them for a decade is costing the city four times as much in those contract costs. We could make changes that actually increase the efficiency of the dollars that we spend in this city We can save those dimes when we need them right now to devote to some of these priorities simply by doing the right thing. And it's not a mystery. I also want to call out something that y'all have heard me complain about a fair amount as well. In the Ballantine administration, I remember there was one year in particular where I was struck that there were, I think,

All but three of them had Deputy Director, Manager, or Supervisor in the title. The explosion of middle management in this city since 2009 has been extraordinary. 15 minute litany I could go on. I've actually got the documentation of how much middle management has expanded in this city over the last 17 years. But we don't need to get into the details of it. What we can say is that these positions were created fairly recently. They were created in, let's say, an over-exuberance of a management strategy that decided that more supervision, Supervising was more important than actually delivering services. I'm excited about a new administration.

and frankly as much as it's a scary year for our budget and it's a scary year for all of our priorities and the things that we look at that the city does for our neighbors, I'm excited for the chance that the mayor has now to reevaluate and not simply let the status quo continue, but to truly reevaluate where in the city we've had those management issues where money allocated has not been spent and just rolls into free cash where in the city we have been having to budget more for overtime and for contract and consultants and where we can divert some of those funds to actually directly funding service delivery. And then as I said, maybe it's worth looking at that word cloud to see where the negative space is. So I'll leave it at that, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the opportunity. And I also really appreciate, I also wanted to call out particularly my colleague at large, Councilor Mbah,

for the very thoughtful section of his memo where he approached the concept of where we might be looking to evaluate some costs that could be cut. In a, I think a very general and thoughtful manner. So I wanted to highlight that. Thank you, sir.

Councilor Mbah. Thank you, Chair. As a point of privilege, since the good Councilor for World Two, you know, invoked me, I didn't want to take a crack at this stuff. But again, just at a very high level, It is important that we reassess, you know, during the pandemic many programs were created. You know, some activities, you know, to create like social cohesion and community, you know, stuff. So I, it's, we can re-evaluate those programs now that the upper funding it's, You know, phasing out if these are programs that are worth continuing or these are programs that are worth, you know, moving them into the general fund or it's worth just because we are talking about a tight budget so that is why I explained those things. So I appreciate Chairman Scott invoking my name and so I have to substantiate.

Thank you.

If no other councillors have comments, Vice Chair Scott, would you take the podium again?

The vice chair recognizes the courageous. Councilor Wheeler. Thank you, Chair.

So yes, it would be easy to avoid talking about cuts altogether. Given the reality of a shortfall this year, I think I feel the need to challenge myself to take my best attempt at some of these areas. Feeble and insufficient as it probably is while trying to stay humble about the limits of my certainty. Many cities, including Somerville, including Boston, have talked in the past and will talk in the future about police overtime. There's a lot of misconceptions about police overtime. I think it's very easy to take pot shots at it and to assume that it can be just waved away. It's not that simple. There's real practical needs that go into the ingredients for why cities find themselves running up a lot of overtime.

I think that taking a serious look at that together with the police department is something we should be making sure we're doing each year to make sure that Each area of the budget, the staffing and the funding that we pay for the staffing really makes sense. It may be that in some cases hiring additional people can actually either bring down the total amount of salary, in effect taking overtime into account, or it might raise it but make us be getting more service for the dollar. It's not nice to talk about service for the dollar in terms of anybody's job, but that's the kind of situation that we're looking at this year. So it may be that hiring more patrol officers, we're currently down about 10 from the target, could reduce the use of overtime.

and allow higher salaried officers who are sometimes currently being reassigned to patrol to move back to their specialties. Another area that my colleague mentioned is layers of management. I've worked in many organizations and seen a lot of different kinds of structures in terms of Many levels of manager, few levels of manager. I don't think there's one right answer, but I do think that it can be tempting to add and so on. There are more people above you to check in with before you can take action. I think it's something that we need to and every organization needs to be very careful about.

There's also, I feel like I have seen, not specifically in Somerville, but in many organizations, times when there are positions hired full time with a single focus. where maybe that focus could have been folded into duties that you know an existing role is doing or Instead of creating several new roles, a smaller number could be created. The danger there always is overburdening staff, and I know that we've all heard from departments where Staff say they're already doing several people's jobs. So this is not something that I'm saying is the right answer in every situation by any means. To get specific, An item I voted to approve recently was about hiring two full-time positions for youth substance abuse prevention. And that's a goal I support wholeheartedly, enthusiastically.

In retrospect, I'm not positive two full-time youth substance abuse prevention employees is the most effective use of resources. I'm not trying to single that out except to say there may be cases where we want to be Looking twice before we're creating new roles because once we have roles we really want to do right by city staff and make this a long term place for them to do their best work. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Anybody else? All right.

You got it back. Okay, any other comments on that discussion item or on budget priorities in general? Thank you, colleagues. Okay. Just catching up with my notes. Okay, I move for these budget memo items to be placed on file or to be marked work completed. And does that require a roll call vote? No. Okay, excellent. Well, that brings us to the end of tonight's agenda.

Do I hear a motion to adjourn? Link moves to adjourn seeing no objection we are adjourned or maybe we have to make a roll call vote okay sorry thank you thank you so close

All right, on adjournment. Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Yes.

Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Mbah? Yes. Councilor Clingan?

Yes.

Councilor Strezo? Sait, Davis, Hardt, McLaughlin, Scott, Wheeler. With that, that is all present votes in favor. 7.32 p.m.

Thank you. Have a good night.