Legislative Matters Committee

Good evening, everybody. Welcome to this meeting of the City of Somerville's City Council Committee on Legislative Matters. I'm J.T. Scott, your host and chair for the evening. and Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, this meeting is being conducted via remote participation and we will be posting the recording to all city channels shortly after the conclusion of the meeting. As such, we will go ahead and start this meeting off with a roll call to establish a quorum led by our esteemed Clerk Letelier.

This is roll call, Councilor Davis. Mbah, present, Councilor Ewen-Campen, here, Councilor Strezo, present, Councilor Scott, present, four Councilors present, we have quorum.

Delightful. Thank you. We have a brief agenda tonight, which hopefully we will go through in good time. And it starts with the approval of the minutes of the Legislative Matters Meeting of February 17th, 2026. Is there any comment on those minutes? I'm seeing none. I'll go ahead and lay those minutes on the table for approval with a single roll call vote at the conclusion of the meeting. Then we will go on to the first substantive item, that is the Mayor's Request 260161, requesting the acceptance of Mass General Laws Chapter 40, Section 13a to establish a special education reserve fund. All right. This is a pretty straightforward

Pretty straightforward item attached to the item is a record of the December 15th school committee meeting and a copy of the general law in question. which simply says we are going to establish a we are allowed by state law to establish a reserve fund to pay without appropriation for unanticipated or unbudgeted costs of special education and recovery high school programs or for out-of-state out-of-district tuition or transportation. So to that end, I guess, who do we have here to address this from the school side?

Hi, good evening, everybody. My name is Dr. Breda. I am the interim chief financial officer of the district. Happy to talk with you all a little bit tonight about the rationale behind establishing the Special Ed Reserve Fund. I want to start by saying I think this represents a really awesome partnership between the city and the schools and just evidence of our continued collaboration in trying to support the work generally of the district, but particularly of our most needy students. What we're really trying to do here is basically some risk management, right? This is not a savings account. This is some very prudent long-term planning that we've engaged in. Knowing that special education costs can change quickly from year to year and even during the year because of out of district placements, because of the related transportation costs for that, and even for required services for individual students.

So this stabilization fund would help us address some of those unexpected costs related to providing those services without disrupting the general budget for that year. and potentially endangering the general education program that we have. Excuse me. Similarly, it helps protect our special education students. Our special education students are often our most needy students we want to make sure that we have funds set aside to serve them to provide them with the education that they're legally entitled to when you know New students might enroll in the district or we might have a better placement a more appropriate placement for a student. And, you know, I think finally it's really designed to increase transparency and public trust. We don't ever want to absorb costs in a, you know, unpredictable costs in a way that's hard for the public to sort of keep track of. So I think having a dedicated fund.

Sends the signal to everybody that we're planning for both known and unknown financial risks.

All right. Thank you for that very much, Director Beretta. Sounds like a great idea to me. For those who are looking for more detail of the conversations that happen in committee, they start at the end of page 11 of those minutes that are attached to the agenda item and go through about halfway down page 13. I see a couple questions from colleagues here, so we'll start with Councilor Strezo and then go on to Mbah and Ewen-Campen. Councilor Strezo, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let's start with happy to see this and hear all about this. And yes, we'll be catching up. But for those who may be new to this. and first time hearing about this. What is the process for distributing the funds and also who is in charge of distributing the funds? Yeah.

Yes, through the chair. That's a great question, Councilperson Strezo. I think Ed Bean, if he were here tonight, would have a little bit more expertise in explaining some of that. My understanding is that a disbursement of these funds requires Approval not only of the school committee but also of city council so this cannot just be tapped into without following proper procedures. but I think Ed would be able to speak much more explicitly to the exact steps but I do know when we were talking about this initially that it does We were looking at statutes that other districts and municipalities have used and we adopted a similar one. The process does require multiple levels of approval to disperse the funds.

And Councilor Strezo, just to let you know, the second paragraph of 13A indicates the funds shall only be distributed for the reserve funds after a majority vote of the school committee and a majority vote of the city council.

Thank you so much. Alongside that, could these funds be used for legal fees for the special ed department or the school district?

I think legal fees in terms of Such as like we were engaged in a lawsuit and we had like a lawsuit sort of. I think if that's what you're referring to, the answer is no. I think we've outlined, I think in the statute, like some explicit reasons that we could use this. and it's generally related to providing direct services to students so you know covering the cost of like any kind of lawsuit for for lack of services or compensatory you know dollars I don't think would be an appropriate use of this

I'll hop back in line, Mr. Chair. And also, is there a deadline for approval on this? Or, Mr. Chair, through you to... Mr. Beretta, when are you looking to activate this, but also when, yeah, is there a timeline on when this has to be approved?

Great question. There is no urgency in terms of like we have a desperate need for these dollars right now to address any acute issue. We were just looking at this as a great opportunity, you know, and I work with Ed and the finance team over there regularly and we had identified A potential source of unused funds from the prior year for the district and just for long-term planning. So there's really no urgency to address an acute need. All of the budget reporting that we've done this year suggests we're well in line to address any costs.

Mr. Chair, I'm going to let my colleagues hop ahead, but I will be back in line After they're done. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Mbah, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chairman Scott. Director Barrett, it's always good to see a fellow classmate on the other side of the table. Thank you for the work you do for the school. I guess this is, you know, like Chairman Scott said, this is pretty, you know... Standard and it's pretty straightforward request. But I guess one of the curiosity I've always had is like the methodology to assess like these patient needs in the various areas. District. I've never really wrapped my head around that because it's always like this. A lot of when sometimes you talk to a family they always have like different experiences you know and this is just me just curious in terms of like the kind of the the kind of assessment that goes into like the whole process but other than that

You know, I think I just, I'm just excited just to see you like coming for us. I'm like, wow, this guy, you know, I can't believe. I would want to squeeze his elbow here for my first time to you know there's that excitement and then there's also that curiosity about like the process behind the assessment

Thank you so much for the question, Councilor Mbah. You're referring specifically to how we assess students with special needs? Yeah. So, you know, as the chief financial officer, like special needs is not my area of expertise, but I am a former principal. So I do know a little bit about this and I work closely with our director of special education, Ildefonso Arellano, who's fantastic. He would be best able to speak to how we create our specialized services for students with special needs. Generally, what we're doing is you know we have a kind of a process where we we try to address any kind of deficits that students might have like through interventions early on we track data we try to make sure that you know we're seeing whether or not students are making progress

And then if we see after we've tried some interventions that students are not making progress, we generally make a referral for some psychological testing for special education services. exactly how the programming is is put together and like how IEPs are written it's certainly different here in Somerville than you know from where I came in Philadelphia so I think director Ariana would be best poised to uh you know to speak on the specifics of that but Again, as a relative newcomer to Somerville and having worked in education for 20 years, it seems to me like we actually have a really great staffing model to service our students with special needs. We're fairly well-resourced. I think the goal of this fund is just to make sure that any unexpected costs wouldn't detract from that planned work that we have year-round. Every year with our students.

Yeah, excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Scott Amoset.

All right. Thank you. Councilor Ewen-Campen, you have...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm fully in support of this and ready to move forward. The question I had, I was just reviewing the minutes from the school committee recommendation on this, and I wanted to make sure I understand It sounded like one of the issues is when the city does put aside money for this purpose and it is not spent, then it flows back to the general fund. And that's one of the things that's trying to be corrected now, right? Is so that if money is appropriated for this, it stays for this and doesn't have to kind of roll back and be re-budgeted every single time. Can you just through the chair, is that about right? Did I understand that correctly?

That's a great question, Councilor Ewen-Campen. Again, I think Ed Bean would probably be the best person to sort of talk on that. But I can tell you, I think generally what you're saying is The idea here is the school department gets an appropriated amount every year. Anything that we don't expend does flow back to the city, often gets booked as free cash. the idea here was to establish a fund that would exist in perpetuity so it wouldn't be subject to annual appropriations and you know again fairly I don't want to say fairly common but you know certainly other districts and municipalities have established this because Those year-to-year fluctuations in special ed costs can, again, take away from the appropriated amounts and what we were expecting to expend or invest in a particular area.

Mr. Sher, through you, thank you for that. I see that liaison Rodasti also has her hand up if it's on this.

I'm happy to do that. I would also point out that this is functionally a special reserve that's built. The statute does say it cannot exceed 2% of the annual net school spending of the district, but it would allow for a durable A pool of money that could be there for the fluctuations as pointed out for, say, a surprising number of out-of-district placements that need to happen in a given year. Liaison Radassi, you have further on this?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ed Bean wasn't able to join for tonight, but he did send over some talking points for us. So just to address through you to Councilor Ewen-Campen, He shared a talking point saying funds can be used in future fiscal years and carry over, allowing districts to manage unpredictable high cost student placements without needing immediate new appropriations.

Yeah, makes a lot of sense to me. I appreciate all the work that the school committee and school department put into this, and I'm ready to go, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, as am I. Sounds like, as usual, Ed Bean said it better than I could have. All right. Councilor Strezo, you said you wanted a second bite at the apple. Are you all set or do you still want one?

Certainly do. Yeah, I am bummed that we do not have Director Bean here. Today, though it is nice to have Mr. Burr out of here. So it has, through you, Mr. Chair, to Mr. Beretta, what, I know this is getting, becoming, this is established, and yes, this is great. I Support this. I think it's important as well. What outreach has been done to the special needs families in the district and special educators in the district on this coming and Have you approached CPAC? Can you please elaborate on that?

Yeah, that's a great question, Councilor Strezo. To be honest, I can't talk specifically Specifically to outreach that's been done regarding this, I do believe we brought this up at one of our CPAC meetings. And I do know that Director Arellano had a... A special education specific budget presentation last Wednesday to several stakeholders. I think like I've had a couple of meetings with individual members of the CPAC and I think this has come up and you know I think generally the the rationale that I've given is like much of what I've said here tonight which is like you know we have an amount every year that's appropriated for are students with special needs and you know sometimes costs can fluctuate and we never want to interrupt the services that we already have planned in any given fiscal year to address additional needs.

And, you know, I think anecdotally the reception that I've gotten from, I can't speak for others, but the reception I've gotten from stakeholders, you know, in our special needs community has been very positive and very warm. I think folks are just generally happy that we are paying a lot of attention to the needs of that community and trying as much as possible to increase the stability of services there.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair, through you too, Mr. Greta. I had one more question. Oh yes, so once if a vote is approved and it goes to the council and then is approved, what are the immediate first next steps to this, establishing this?

On the legislative side? I'm not... No. No, just on the district side?

Yes, to elaborate. What does immediate implementation look like with this? Once and if it's approved. So once it is approved through the council, et cetera, and then it's, I assume, pumped it back to the school committee. What happens with the SPFs and this after that happens?

Might I take this one? Please. This is the authorization to adopt the master neural law to create the fund. My understanding from the administration is that the next step would be an appropriation through the city council to deposit money into that fund so that it would be available to create the funding for it. and then as it was needed the appropriation would need to be approved by the school committee and the city council so I would anticipate funding Request to come in in our next meeting or two from the City Council. Perhaps Liaison Radassi knows what the schedule is for that. Liaison Radassi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there actually already is an item for transfer to the fund. It's sitting in Finance Committee. Assuming that If the committee votes to approve this item tonight, then it will be on the agenda for next week's finance committee meeting so that we can in tandem approve the enabling legislation and then the transfer as well, assuming that is, of course, what the finance committee wants to do.

Yes, thank you. Yes, my question is more how, and yeah, appreciate the response on that. My question is more the immediate implementation of once it is established and then Will the general public be aware of it? Will special needs families be made aware of it? Will special education educators be made aware of this? And additionally, Yeah, how poised and prepared is the special ed department and the superintendent prepared to handle this?

Thank you for that question, Councilor Schozo. I think we're very well poised. You know, I think my immediate next step would be to work with our Chief Communications Officer to put together some communications. This is really something to celebrate, you know, in our community. And I think we also need to make sure that we have something explicitly on our website about the stabilization fund, you know, outlining the exact uses for it and, you know, what it's intended to serve. but our communications department does a fantastic job of getting that kind of information out so I think it's you know once assuming this goes through all the appropriate channels and passes and gets appropriated to us then you know we have some Rough drafts of communications that we would put out regarding it.

Mr. Chair, I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you to Mr. Brada. Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, thank you. Then I guess seeing no further discussion at the moment, I will make a motion to approve. Looking for any discussion on that motion. All right, seeing none, then we'll go ahead and lay that item on the table for a single vote for approval at the conclusion of the meeting. Thank you very much, Director Barretta. All right, and let's see here. Then we will move on to our next substantive item. which is item 260145 mayor's request requesting acceptance of mass general law chapter 59 section 5 clause 22j To authorize an increase in the exemption amount granted under Chapter 59, Section 5, Clauses 22, 22a, b, c, e, and f, which are also included in the...

I know we are joined by Assessor Golden, Chair Golden of our Board of Assessors, who has been very excited to see this happen. and quite frankly based on what I've heard of it I'm excited to see it happen as well so apologize for the delay in getting it here Chair Golden but please if you'd like to lay it out for this one and then we will move on to the next one which is further implementation of this as I understand so go ahead please introduce it for us Chairman Scott can you hear me

Of course, sir. Through you, there's a little bit of a backstory here that I'd like to share. During classification on... November 25th, 2025, at the conclusion of my presentation, I was approached by then-Councillor Wilson, who thought that it was due time to adopt the HEROES Act. We had a board meeting on January 28th and the board voted unanimously to accept the Harrow's Act. A little bit about the Harrow's Act. Basically, what it does is it's going to bring the COLA or the cost of living to the veterans exemption, which is... A number that is annually given to us from local assessment of the Department of Revenue.

So we have other exemptions that are subject to the COLA, but this is the first time that the COLA will be applied to the veterans exemption. You're talking roughly about 90 exemptions. Exemptions exist for veterans in the city. The reason why it's twofold, 22I and 22J is is because when you accept the new exemption you have to also accept the up the double and the up the double is every exemption in the city is up to double and that was voted May 2015 by the Honorable Council so that a $400 exemption is an $800 exemption. most if not all cities and towns in the commonwealth have accepted the up the double Beverly being one of the last where I'm the chairman a year ago

So pretty much everyone is up the double on the exemptions now. The Kohler is a nice addition to our veterans. That is above and beyond the up the double. So it'll be a little bit more money. for every veteran beyond anyone that's already reached that $800 level. The exemption, a little bit about the exemption just so the counselors understand is veterans have different levels of disability. They have to provide a letter at the assessor's office annually to how severe their disability is and that really drives how much of an exemption is available to them. We sadly have some that are 100%. It's just, it's really what the VA gives them in a letter annually that drives that. That's out of our control. That is a letter that is shared with us and then we apply the exemption.

So just a little bit of backstory there that it is in place. We'll have the COLA shortly. This would go into effect for fiscal year 27. Hopefully that's a good enough background for everybody. But again, we were doing everything for our veterans prior with the exception of roughly a 2% collar or whatever it may be. It's not a number determined by us. It's determined by the Department of Revenue.

All right. Looking for questions from the committee. I see Councilor Mbah. Councilor Mbah, you have the floor. You are muted, Councilor Mbah.

Oh, my God. Sorry, Chairman Scott. I'm sorry. Jeez, Director Gordon, I said thank you. For the work you do for the city, appreciate seeing you. It's been a while. And this is a great program. I guess one thing I am trying to understand just for curiosity is You know, how many veterans, you know, or deceased, you know, soldiers, families there are in the city? And if you had to, like, do, like, some simple math, you know, what would that tax revenue be, you know, amount to?

That would take some time for me to do to determine that. I am aware of the 90 plus or minus that do receive the exemption currently Total tax dollars for those 90 would be a number I could get at very easily. Obviously that's confidential, but I could certainly tell you what the tax ramifications would be for those folks that receive that exemption without naming them.

Yeah, no, this is, again, it's just good we see... Thank you Chairman Scott.

all right sounds good uh looking for any other questions from members of the committee all right seeing none then i will make a motion to approve This item looking for any discussion on the motion? All right, seeing none, then we'll go ahead and lay that item on the table for approval with a single roll call vote at the conclusion of the meeting. And then that brings us to the final item on our agenda, which is item 260145. which is requesting acceptance of Mass General Chapter 59 Section 5 Clause 22J to authorize an increase in the exemption amount granted under Chapter 59 Section 5 Clauses 22, 22A, B, C, E, and F. So any further expansion, elaboration to put on this one, Chair Golden?

Chairman Scott, it's just really just the formal procedure when you add a new exemption that you apply the up the double to that exemption. That's what the J signifying here and We're on board with the honorable counsel to approve that.

I'm personally on board with it too. Looking to my colleagues for any questions or comments on this item. I see a thumbs up. That's a good one. All right. Well, then I will make a motion to approve said item and look to my colleagues for any discussion on that motion to approve. All right, seeing no discussion on that, then why don't we go ahead and take up all three items that have been laid on the table, or all four items, my apologies, including the approval of the minutes that have been laid on the table. for approval and we can take those up for a single roll call vote along with a vote to adjourn which I will move for. Clerk Letellier if you wouldn't mind.

And on approval of agenda items 1, 2, 3, and 4 and adjournment, Councilor Mbah?

Yes, please.

Councilor Ewen-Campen?

Yes.

Strezo? Yes. Councillor Scott?

Yes, please.

With four councillors in favour, those items are approved and we are adjourned.

All right, and I just want to relay, sorry I didn't at the start, Councilor Davis is traveling tonight and was unable to join us, would have needed to be recused from the first item, but otherwise... Sorry you couldn't make it with us tonight due to work travel, but we'll see us all very soon. So thank you, Chair Golden. Thank you to the director. And thank you to all city staff who were here tonight. We'll call it a night here at 6.31 p.m. Thank you everybody and I will see you shortly.

Happy St. Patrick's, Chairman Scott. Happy St. Patrick's to you as well, sir.