2025 Councilor At Large Debate by Somerville Media Center

So let me put it this way. I am so pleased to see everybody here on this kind of rainy night. But good evening, everyone. I'm Joe Lynch, president of the Somerville Media Center Board of Directors. Welcome to the 2025 Somerville Municipal Election Debates for the Mayoral and Councilor-at-Large candidates. These candidates will appear on the November 4th general election ballot. The debates are being brought to you by the Somerville Media Center and the Somerville Beacon, with generous support from the Somerville Theatre and the Crystal Ballroom Organizations. Our sincere thanks to Ian Judge and his colleagues for their community spirit and partnership with us. Tonight, we hope to provide to you insight regarding your choices for mayor and councilor at large with lively debate. Perhaps you'll go away with some clear answers to questions like, what makes this candidate different from their opponent? How will they govern? Will they prove to be true to their campaign promises? And will they listen to me and my concerns? Will they make hard and timely decisions for the benefit of all? Have I met them? Do I like them? And most importantly, will they continue to serve pizza at community meetings? Moderating the counselor at large debate is Keri Rodrigues. Some of you may recognize Kerry as a longtime former Somerville resident, former chair of the Somerville Democratic City Committee, a labor organizer, and the current president of the over one million member National Parents Union. In her capacity as president of the organization, Kerry has appeared on many national news outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and many local New England media outlets. Our moderator for the mayoral debate is Ben Orenstein. He's a resident of Somerville. Ben currently resides in the Magoon Square District. He's a tech entrepreneur and the founder of the online site, the Somerville Beacon. These moderators have spent many hours watching almost all the recordings of the town hall forums, community meetings, reading the candidate Q&As and questionnaires from various local groups, and soliciting questions from the general public in preparation for tonight. The moderators have not shared the questions with anyone before tonight's event. And I mean anyone, and I should know because I've asked them both. So let's sit back, get comfortable, pay attention, take notes if you have to, although I have it from a very good source, the executive director of the Somerville Media Center, that the replay of tonight's event will be posted no later than 5 p.m. tomorrow. I implore you, let's be respectful. That's what we all should expect from each other. This is the candidates' night. Some of you may have already cast your early mail-in ballot, and the remainder will have your say on or before November 4th. My friends, and I'm going to ask my friend Mr. Wheeler if you could do the curtains for us, please. Please welcome the 2025 City of Somerville candidates for Counselor-at-Large and their debate moderator, Keri Rodrigues.

Good evening. I'm Keri Rodrigues. Welcome to the Somerville At-Large City Council Candidates Debate presented by the Somerville Media Center and the Somerville Beacon. Thank you to everyone here in the room and everyone watching at home. Here's how tonight will run. Opening statements, a main Q&A, two head-to-head exchanges, a rapid response round, and closing statements. We have strict time limits and a visible countdown clock. So no interruptions, please. No props beyond the ones that I will be giving all of you. Surprise. And please, audience, hold applause until the end. Joining us tonight in today's random opening order, please listen for your candidate and feel free to applaud. Holly Simione. Ben Wheeler, Kristen Strezo, Jack Perenick, Will Mbah, Marianne Walles, John Link, and Scott Istvan. OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS ARE 30 SECONDS EACH. THE MAIN Q&A HAS FOUR QUESTIONS AND EACH ANSWER IS GOING TO BE 45 SECONDS IN LENGTH. UP TO TWO REBUTTALS TOTAL PER QUESTION AT 30 SECONDS EACH. IN OUR HEAD-TO-HEAD, EACH OF THE TOPICS GETS TWO-MINUTE ANSWERS WITH ONE-MINUTE REBUTTALS AND OUR RAPID RESPONSE WILL BE A QUICK YES OR NO OR A ONE-WORD PROMPT AND YOU WILL BE GIVEN A PROMPT to show us your yes or no. Moderator rulings on timing and decorum will be final. So we're gonna begin with our opening statements. Please focus on citywide issues and how you will serve on the council. And we have a pre-drawn order. So we are going to begin with John Link.

Hi, I'm John Link, Somerville public school parent, former educator and software engineer, and longtime advocate for housing and safe streets. I made my home Somerville, and I'm running to make it a place where everyone can afford to live and stay and get around safely. I'm here to fight displacement and push for better support for our public schools, and I bring practical problem solving and a sincere commitment to equity and community. Thank you.

Next will be Kristen Strezo.

Thank you, SMC, for holding this forum and to our audience tonight. So I'm Councillor Kristen Strezo. I'm one of your at-large city councillors. I'm running for re-election this term, fourth term this year. I'm a single mom of two in the Somerville schools. I live in affordable housing and I work every day to ensure that everyone who wants to live in Somerville can stay here. I fight to expand for affordable housing, for union labor, for our small businesses, for seniors' right to age in place, and to ensure that everyone knows they're valued here. I have my work and my record as my testimony. I show up and I get things done, and I'm asking for your vote this year.

Thank you. Next, Scott Istvan.

Hello. I'm Scott Istvan. I am a coder, comedian, former bartender, and candidate for city councilor at large. I use he, him pronouns, and I live in East Somerville. A lot of wonderful people up here tonight, and so I just want to stake my claim right now is my first thing to do as city councilor is going to be take a deep dive and overhaul our permitting process so that it works for individuals and small businesses so that they can get a footing here in the city and stay here in the city. I also support walking, transit, biking, and building more housing. Thank you.

Right on time. Jack Perenick.

Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jack Perenick. This year I'm asking for your support to be one of your new counselors at large. For the last four years, I've led a nonprofit that's helped engage youth in politics and government in Massachusetts and pushed for statewide action on affordable housing. I've been involved in our community in many ways. most recently helping craft the city's latest green space master plan, helping get pollinators and native plants into parks and playgrounds across the city. I'm asking for your support because I think I'll bring a clear and measured view of how we achieve on our community shared goals and use the enormous power of our municipal government.

Marianne Walles.

Good evening, my name's Marianne Walles and I'm one of the candidates for At-Large. I'm a lifelong resident of Somerville, a union leader and a social worker. My goal for being an at-large counselor is to really address our city's substance abuse and mental health issues, and also to increase worker rights. Because I know also that we need affordable jobs, good paying jobs to have affordable housing to keep our workforce here.

And we'll hold you there. Will Mbah.

Thank you, Carrie. Hello, everybody. My name is Will Mbah. I am privileged to serve as the vice president of the Somerville City Council. As somebody who came to this country with little and find, you know, my calling in public service, I know firsthand how building strong community looks like through solidarity, compassion, and fairness. So I know exactly how we can measure our city's progress is how we treat the most vulnerable. I'm grateful to be here with you all.

All right, we're going to move to our main Q&A section. Oh, I'm so sorry. Go ahead. I'm so sorry. Why don't you go ahead. Ben Wheeler.

Hi, I'm Ben Wheeler. I'm a parent, an educator, and a problem solver. I care deeply about housing affordability, safer streets, and support for working families. I'm running because I believe wisdom never comes from one person. It comes from what we build together. And Somerville's full of people with a lot of knowledge and valuable experience that we really need to make the most use of all together as a city. Thank you.

And Holly. Holly Simione.

Thank you. My name is Holly Simione. I'm also a lifelong resident and proud graduate of Somerville High School and parent of two daughters. I'm running for city council because not only do we need more women representing us on our council, but we also need people with diverse backgrounds. And as an advocate for people with disabilities and those who are marginalized in our community i bring a very different perspective to the council i'm already doing the work now as part of being the chair of the disability commission and my work at the state level follows right through with that thank you thank you so excited to get to the main q a i'm jumping the guns

All right, now we are in the main Q&A. Each answer is going to be 45 seconds in length. Rebuttals are available, just two per question, 30 seconds each on the rebuttal. And the rebuttal must respond to something that we just heard and pertain to the question. So please be specific and concrete. Question number one, why you and what sets you apart? There are eight of you running citywide. In plain terms, why you? What makes you different from the rest and how will that difference show up in your work on the council? And we want you to be specific. Give one example from your record or name a decision that you would make differently than the others. So we're gonna start on this end and move right across. So go ahead.

Great. Well, as I said in my opener, there's a lot of folks up here. We all have lots of great ideas, and I'm thrilled to be with everyone here. But my number one focus as a former small business owner is to tackle our permitting. I've heard lots of stories from folks, neighbors just like you, when I'm out knocking doors, about they've tried to add a room to their house. They've tried to make accessibility modifications and keep running into bureaucratic walls that mean that, in many cases, they can't stay here in Somerville. Also, like I said, as a small business owner, I've looked into our permitting process. I found that I wasn't going to be able to expand my business here, and I've also heard from other businesses how our permitting really negatively impacts small businesses here in Somerville. So that's my number one focus in this campaign.

Right on time.

Yeah, so I'm an educator or a former educator and a Somerville public school parent. I've got two kids in the public schools and I have been for many years now working really hard to make sure that as a community advocate that we have safe streets and annoying everyone that I can about it, whether it's the sidewalks. or the potholes or the bike lanes. And I've been making sure that we've got housing. I volunteer with the Somerville Community Land Trust to try to bring more affordable housing. The reason that I do that and the reason that these things are so important to me is I come from a working class family and I want to make sure that Somerville remains a place where working class families can live. And I want to make sure that as we're doing this, we're going to keep developing as a city, but we want to make sure that we don't leave behind people. And I guess that's my time.

Thank you.

I have my own mic. Thank you for the question. I'm an incumbent, so I have been doing the work, and my leadership is pretty clear. I have a track record that I can look back. My leadership is boldness, inclusivity rooted in hope, so I'll be delighted to work with any or the notable colleague that I have here, but I'm just grateful that I have a track record that I can look back. I'm running for a fourth term on the city council, so it's a testament to my work. And I also had a top vote getter in the primary, which is also a testament to my work. So thank you for giving me the opportunity.

Jack.

Thank you very much. I think one of the things I really love about Somerville politics is you're going to hear a lot of agreement on the stage tonight. I've tried to make my campaign all about how we deliver on our community's goals and what specific mechanisms we have here at the local government. You're going to hear the word affordability a lot tonight. One of the commitments I've made is that I'll work to eliminate the special permit requirements so that we can build housing and mixed-use buildings in mid-rise districts by right. That'll eliminate hundreds of thousands of dollars of cost and actually make it easier for people to live in this city. And I've really focused on, you know, we talk about safe streets. I'm talking about how we can design an intersection safety plan so we can focus on the areas that still see some of the highest incidence of accidents in our city. But I think that the details matter, and we're really lucky that we have so much agreement here. But I'm looking forward tonight to getting the details that I've been laying out as part of my campaign. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm already doing the work, and I think that makes me a very different candidate. I'm doing that in my role as the chair of the Disability Commission, already working with our city council, and I've done in the past at the state level for six years running the DD Council. That means I've already decided on what laws we're gonna work on, what changes to existing legislator, and I understand how to partner. And that's really what we need to do in this time that we're facing with our with the climate, with what our budget is going to be, the changes that we're facing, is understanding how do we partner with the right people to make sure that we can deliver the services that our community still needs.

Kristen?

Thank you. So I'm in my third term of office and running for my fourth, and I have a proven track record of getting things done and advocating for you, and I love it. It is a joy of my life to serve you. It's an honor. And I'm a single mom of two kids in the Somerville Public Schools, and I actually live in affordable housing. So while we talk about affordable housing and all this, I understand the lived experience of this. I understand what the recertification process is. Zoning and permitting isn't going to get us out of this crisis. It's a tool, but we have numerous tools that we can use on this. And I'm the chair of the Housing and Community Development Committee. I understand this. Aside from that, residents tell me vulnerable stories about their lives, and I like helping them fix their problems. I've done a lot for our community, and I love serving you. And I want to continue on that work.

You have your...

Hi, I have a proven track record of being able to pass an ordinance. I work with the city council around payment in lieu of taxes. I've also moved that work to the state level and work collaboratively with other municipalities to move the legislation at the state level. Payment in lieu of taxes goes after large, wealthy institutions that don't pay taxes and have come up working with other residents about a clear plan of benefits to the community. And in this time where we know services are being cut, those kinds of avenues are more important than ever so that we need to be thinking about different alternatives of how we can serve our residents and how to best get them their services.

Thank you.

Ben? Hi. I think something you're seeing up here tonight and that you see in several politics in general is that we have a really great baseline of decency and human goodness here. And that's something that we shouldn't take for granted. We're seeing nationally how much that's something we can't just assume. I'm expecting that in every council term, there's going to be a lot of importance of saying, you know, once we're at this place of aligned intention, what's the quality of the work? What's the depth of the work that we're doing to move from good to great, to really refine our ideas and our proposals so that our processes are really working for everyone? And I think that involves a lot of reaching out to community organizations, other cities like Somerville, and mustering every resource available.

Thank you, Ben. All right, let's talk about permits and predictability. Permitting shot clock, clear numbers and clear delivery. Permitting delays hit homeowners, small businesses, and bigger projects. Give the exact numbers you'll look back for, example, days to first plan review, small residential versus large commercial, reinspection, how many business days, and which minor jobs get over-the-counter approvals. How could you deliver on these targets? Is it added staff, fee changes, third party peer review, longer inspection hours, tech upgrades to the e-permitting portal? And if possible, pick three stats that you would be willing to publish every month so that the public can see progress. Ben, let's start with you.

Well, I think for starters, we do need more staff. I think we need case managers who can really be dedicated to being responsible for moving given permit applications forward. And connected with that, I think we should be publishing the aging that all permit applications are experiencing and also publicly say what stage those are in. Everyone should be able to see if there are common snags that are happening. And we know about them when we're talking about policy, but the public should be able to see them as well. I think we also need to have occupancy permits that allow for quick approval on a temporary basis for a wide variety of businesses. So I'd want to start by listening to learn which stats are actually most useful to businesses and these offices.

Mariam?

So one of the biggest complaints I've heard about is about how long it takes to get a permit for someone to do a home improvement, including putting in new windows that are more energy efficient. I think we need to make changes to our permitting process so those small repairs are not taking three, four, six a year down the road. We want our apartments to be safe and energy efficient, then we need to find a path for that to happen. The other part is I think we need to do I agree we need to have an aging system. And we also need to hire more inspectors because what I'm hearing is it's always the delay because there's such a shortage of inspectors. So we really need to staff that department.

Kristen? Thank you. So permitting a 45-second response is very difficult to answer. So happy to follow up with that in another conversation. But a lot of it, first off, ISD has had staffing issues. We are currently writing without a ISD director. So that's one issue that we face. And a lot of time, people that apply for permits, they don't know what direction to go. We do need more clear communication for those applying. And I've made that clear to directors and the administration that that is an ongoing issue. We've also, as counselors, have currently, every single budget cycle, increased the ISD staffing. But that needs to continue. And what's working, what isn't? It's a constant dialogue. And I'm out of time, but it's a lot of work and a lot of interest.

I don't want to. Oh, Holly? Everybody has their own microphone.

It's confusing. The last time we had a share. Forgive us. We're learning. There's been a lot of forums, guys. We don't mind sharing, do we? As far as permitting delays, I had a resident reach out to me recently after a fire that had happened in our neighborhood where I live in Ward 4. And they were concerned because a very historical home had been taken down before they finished the process of having it reviewed if it was actually historical. So that took me down the process of looking at that. And what was very concerning was that when we actually issued the notice that it was significantly historical and put a 180 day hold on it, they had already demolished three quarters, three sides of the building were gone. And it still sits there. So I would say definitely improvements in software, that's my background, more staff, better training, and certainly more clarity in the process. Jack.

Yeah, I want to start from a place of acknowledging that our permit system doesn't work and what the effect of that is. It's more expensive for people to stay in their homes, harder for seniors to modify their buildings to age in place, and it makes it more expensive for every renter and homeowner who wants to enter the market. The biggest thing that we can do, and I want to look at other communities that have combined permit types so that you pull a single function permit. The big example I give of this is heat pumps. And the city of Somerville can require three permits. In Cambridge, Medford, it's just one. Combining those permits together, reducing the overall workload of what ISD has to work with is a critical part of doing more with the staff that we have. We also have to expand our capacity. That means taking more out of the permit process, making things like building housing in our mixed-use districts, building dormers on houses, and making ADUs legal by right. Taking those out of the process, spending the real time on the things that are close calls is an important step.

Yeah, thank you, Carrie. And I agree with my, you know, counselor at large that the ISD is on the staff. And it's always been that way. I don't understand why. And so Even somebody that has like even just a simple tech to even remodel is like an issue. I think, you know, we need to like streamline these processes and actually allow like return to rezone by right for like just small, like just... Normal homeowners should be able to do some of this, and they don't have to go through all this huddle to be able to remodel their porch or increase maybe the height of certain space in their apartment, because we need to incentivize them. And then for large development, that's when we need to come down and actually follow the normal due process, but we need to streamline the permitting process.

And we'll hold you there.

Thank you.

Yeah, so thanks. I would agree that there's definitely a shortage, obviously. I mean, there's no question about that. And in terms of data, I think I would agree with Ben and say we do need more data. And we have some data, but it's old and it's really hard to actually look at it. It's in SummerStat. Improving that is going to let us know where to focus our energy. And if we don't focus our energy in the right places, we're just going to be spinning our wheels and not actually solving the problems. I think a lot about, I knocked on the door. In Ward 1, there's a three-family modular home going up. And I talked to the person next door who has subdivided that land and is building that modular home. And she talked to me about how convoluted the process was to subdivide. And it took a lot longer and a lot more money. And this is just one person. So we see that story repeating.

Great. So let's talk about stats. And I want to shout out our wonderful Summer Stats program in here because it is great that Somerville has such a great statistics program that we can make data-driven decisions. So things that I'd be looking at are time between submission to approval and also the time between submission and first review. Those are two main things that we want to work on making sure those decline, right? I agree with Jack. We need to group like permits together. There's no reason you should go through three different processes for one project. The other thing that we can do that we're not doing is automatic notice for meetings that have to happen, like a butters meetings, right? If there's going to be a butters meeting, when that permit is submitted, we should be able to automatically notify a butters. Clear objective requirements and all permitting is another thing, and everything else, citizen serves a whole other can of worms.

Thank you. Our next question is about special education oversight, tools, timeline, and access. The Commonwealth has flagged outcomes for students with disabilities as a major issue in Somerville. The school committee sets policy, but the council controls money, buildings, and transparency. Over the next 12 months, what tools will you use? Public dashboards, quarterly hearings, performance-tied transfers, or an independent audit to move outcomes? And I'm going to encourage you all to be very specific around the next 12 months. Jack, let's start with you.

Absolutely, and this is an issue where the council has a huge role. We talk about limited funding for our school system here. The council's the revenue driver. If we can pull in new revenue, mostly by reforming what we allow existing land to be used here, we can fund some of these programs better and do much better by our students who are participating in special needs programs across the district. Our special education needs to be improved. Our biggest issue is that we're not abiding by a DAA. I've written at length to the CPAC about how we can improve on least restrictive learning environments for students, and importantly, how the council can use our power to condition funds for special education programs to make sure that the city is publishing results of these programs, that we are no longer designated by the Department of Secondary Education as needs improvement for this district. We're under a restriction right now by the state. We have to do better, and the council has to use its authority to condition those funds.

Holly?

As an actual parent of a child with special needs, I would like to say that there is no transparency in this process, and I've experienced extreme problems just getting my child placed. Transparency and independent audit needs to happen. We need to have someone else looking over what the process, how people are doing things, what the testing involves. I work in this daily now with families. And people, you hand someone a document that says parents' rights that's not translated and it's 40 pages long, do you really think they understand what that means? You need an advocate. And that's what I am.

Will.

Thank you, Keri, for that question. I think we need to be careful when we are talking about schools. You know, we have the school committee, and they are in charge of the schools. And sometimes the way I discover these issues is only through my neighbors, because I also have two kids in the public schools. That's how I find out, like, somebody's saying, oh, my kid has special needs. and nobody even, you know, I'm the only one who knows, and so I have to call the PTA, go to the principal, like literally like stepwise process to be able to get help. So which means that either they are under-resourced or under-funded, or it's just that they are not really paying attention to kids with special needs. So that is the way I see it, and so we need to kind of like, you know, fund our school to uncover the data, like the methodology that they are using to find out who has special needs and who doesn't. Thank you.

Thank you, Will. Kristen?

Thank you so much for this question. It's very incredibly important, something that's been not discussed for many years. First off, the special ed department and the special ed budget isn't enveloped in the school committee budget. All the city council has the ability to do is accept it or not accept it. Now, as city councilors, it would be helpful. Actually, I hope that we're pushing the school committee as well on this, because they're the ones that actually ask all the questions, including the council president who's on the school committee. We need to find individualized... presentations of the budget, which does not happen in the special ed department. There's also a trend of trying to remove kids from IEPs into 504s. That's a problem. Additionally, I had CPAC come to the council last month to discuss this. John?

Yeah, so CPAC put out a really great report about exactly where we're failing our students. But I've also talked to parents who told me that they didn't find out that their child was dyslexic until they brought them to a private school. And that, to me, is really telling of just how far back we are and how far forward we need to go. So we need to listen to CPAC. We need to make sure that we're getting money for paras to our schools, that we are actually asking CPAC or another independent organization to continue to look and hold us to what we're supposed to be doing.

So given the city council powers, I would want to see the money funded for an independent audit. Moving forward after the audit is done, would be working with the school committee to see where the funds need to be increased or decreased or whatever the recommendation says. But the key to this is working with the school committee in order to make sure that our special education students' needs are being met. Thank you.

Scott?

Some of the most heartbreaking stories that I've heard talking to folks out there are the parents of children whose needs are not being met by our school system. And for a city that places so much emphasis on having an educated populace, we're not living up to our ideals here. And I think we really need to emphasize that that is a budgetary priority within the city. I think if we're not doing education right... That's it, right? I think that needs to be a top budgetary priority for the city. I had another thought and I lost it, so I will wrap there.

Ben? Well, many of us know the state Education Department has designated our special ed handling as sharply in need of improvement. And that's a sobering judgment because they're making that judgment knowing that we're starting from a difficult place. We're having a lot of parents take students out of district, and that's an indication that we're not doing a good enough job here. one part of the answer is educator funding and this latest Somerville educators union contract improves on that especially with paraprofessionals that contract also provides for a pilot for an inclusion model in classrooms that i'm excited about i think we need a formal role for groups like cpac and parents and a lot of attention to this thanks thank you ben all right now let's turn to safety services in our business districts

So safety and care in our business districts, your playbook. Davis Union and other districts need safety and dignity for residents, businesses, and people in crisis. Share your care plus enforcement playbook. Number one, who leads? Outreach, public health, housing, police, DPW? What triggers enforcement versus continued engagement? what services come first low barrier shelter or day space treatment access bathrooms lighting and activation what does success look like time to shelter placement trends in calls for service storefront vacancy or pedestrian rider counts want to get you on the record in terms of what success around care plus enforcement would look to you as a city councilor so we'll start with ben

So safety means safety for everyone. That means people in crisis and those sharing public space. We need non-police responders, first of all, to be our first and second and third line of engagement with people who are experiencing crisis, experience addiction, experiencing homelessness, or who seem to be having mental health issues or need urgent attention, or in the extreme cases are being violent to themselves or other people. We need some long-term solutions that are really going to be part of this. Permanent supportive housing is a huge one. We need to open the College Ave shelter urgently. And I think success is going to be when people, all people, feel safe in our public spaces.

Thanks. Maria?

so first it's a complex issue but one of the things that i've seen is the social workers that work through the police department are very caring people so it's a combination we need to more social workers to help do the hands-on outreach to find supportive services whether they be mental health services housing or substance abuse treatment. The next thing we need to do with long-term goal is we really need to work with Mayor Wu, who has agreed to fund the opening of the Long Island Shelter. However, the mayor of Quincy has been blocking that because he's concerned about traffic. All of this mass and cass and then the influx of people moving to Cambridge, to Somerville, to Medford is because the Long Island Shelter was shut down. 10 years ago, and that's all we've seen. So those are where our long-term investments, we need to- Thank you, Marianne.

Sorry for that. Kristen.

Absolutely. So as a city councilor who has taken on some of the work of a former colleague from Ward 7 to help with the Davis Square, a lot of what's going on in Davis Square, residents tell me they don't feel First off, let me elaborate that everyone has a right to be in our community. But what we all must abide by is community standards of everyone respecting everyone. That's important. So we also need an increase of cleaning in the area of porta-potties. I put in requests for that. We also need to listen to our business community and see what isn't working. And with our small businesses, we've had numerous conversations and have been listening, but also goals of action and bringing this forward. It's a lot of moving parts. Thank you.

I'd like to echo what Marianne said. Because we need to collaborate not just with what we need to do but with Quincy in Boston Because if we keep moving people from one area to the next they're just traveling and we're not serving them and we're not serving our community as As many of you may have heard at the mayor's Davis Square event we talked about safety and We do not arrest people because they're unhoused, because they don't have a place to live or a place to stay. But we can't force people to seek help. We don't have places right now where they can go if they would like that help. But we need to keep things safe, and only the mayor can decide how we police this, as much as a city councilor may feel a certain way.

No, I mean, I disagree. I think that the council's really failed right now to set up a policy for the city that allows us to unite public health and safety. And we're failing many of our residents, but particularly those who are most vulnerable in this crisis, because we're not connecting them to resources. And I want to be very honest that we don't have the capacity to fund the kind of resources that I would like to see. In the long term, we need to work towards federal and state investment in permanently supportive housing. Now we need to connect people to the tools and resources that are available. We have a community behavioral health center in Cambridge at CHA. We should have on request transportation there for residents who want help. We should take incarceration off the table and move to a drug court diversion program so that residents are never faced with the question of incarceration. They're connected to services and they're enabled to move towards long-term stability. My focus is on changing our city policy to move towards supporting residents for long-term success.

Do we have a rebuttal request?

Yes. 30 seconds. I'd like to elaborate that the city council doesn't have that ability to have control over that. That is in the mayor's office. And the job of the mayor is to work, the department directors work with the mayor, and the department directors listen to the mayor. And the city council has been working very hard We've all been working very hard to push the administration for collaboration and also communication and to work together. And we've been very frustrated we haven't had that chance. That lies in the mayor's office, not the city council.

Marianne?

I agree that it is the power of the mayor that sets up the policing, but also I want to talk about the funding and CHA. There are no placements for people that need mental health services or substance abuse services, never mind housing. The problem is there's not enough funding. There's not enough spaces. Those have been cut both at the state, federal, and sometimes local level. So until we... collaborate with other cities and towns to build a regional resource, then we are never going to have the ability to place them because then that's just moving the problem to CHA and Cambridge where they still have no placement.

Let's hold you there. Okay, Will, your chance to answer the question.

Thank you, Carrie, and thank you for that response. I was hoping that me, as an incumbent, I had to say I respectfully disagree with Jack to save my colleagues time over there. I think the way I see it is there's an incident that happened in Davis Square. A business owner was attacked. I think that was ridiculous, and I don't even think that anything happened. And then one time I was coming to Davis Square at a construction site. I saw like four cops at that construction site. But I came to Davis Square. There was nobody in Davis Square. So it's about reallocation of resources. And it lies in the mayor's office. Because there's no way, you know, we live in a community like this. We're operating like designed by disaster. It's when something happens, then they make a call, then somebody shows up.

Yeah, so I mean, I think some other people have already said pretty well here that we need permanent supportive housing. That is a long term solution, not a short term solution. We also need to have a separate response and non-emergency responders that are not part of the police department because that is just another part of the system. I also would respectfully say that drug courts are incarceration and who's available to the criteria for getting into a drug court is entirely I guess let's say it's subjective. What we need to do is make sure that we're taking care of people. We've got the Behavioral Health Network over here. We've got CHA. We've got partners that we can engage in. We've got some pressure that we need to put on to make sure we've got more shelters and more beds. I've got more to say, but I can't say it.

Great. I think wonderful points have been made, so I'm going to try not to repeat too many things, but I agree. I think case managers outside of the carceral system are very important. I think we need to be better partners with our nonprofit partners in this space as well. What I've heard is that Somerville is not great at paying its bills on time, so I'd like us to get better at that as well. Obviously, permanent supportive housing is a long-term goal, hard to do, expensive. But also, what does success look like was part of the question. And one of my campaign talking points is no more empty storefronts. We have a bunch of these vacant storefronts, and in two of them in my neighborhood, people have died. Having populated storefronts and having eyes on the street is crucial for the health of our community.

Thank you so much. Now we're going to move into the head-to-head questions. The first pairing is going to be Kristen Strezo and Ben Wheeler. The topic is affordable housing and development feasibility. Empty lab space is a reality, roughly 3 million square feet region wide. Should Somerville, A, hold out for life sciences, B, incentivize conversions to housing or other uses, or C, push interim uses like artists, nonprofits, or incubators? Name one zoning or code change you will champion in your first 90 days. Let's start with Kristin Strezo.

Okay. First, affordable housing isn't always coupled with the empty lab space because lab space is very specifically designed to hold labs and it's been a Quandary that the city has been facing a lot of this work is done through the economic development Department and we have been working I as chair of housing and community development and any big supporter of of course expanding affordable housing There's a complexity to this to where we are currently incentivizing the work is is in now and Please follow a couple of the meetings that are happening with city council. We are trying to work on this and see how we can get creative with these spaces. I would love to see us artist space and musician space in lab getting creative with this. Affordable housing may not be in an adequate placement for a lab designed building, but we absolutely must and should be finding ways to get creative with space. It's already in the works, and I'm very delighted to continue on that work.

I did want to reiterate the rules. Thank you so much, Kristen. These are two-minute responses, so if we could just set the clock. I think we had it back at 45 seconds. We went about a minute 30 according to the clock I have up here.

I kept in time.

You did. You kept in time. So I just want to make sure that Ben gets his appropriate time and gets the right signal. Ben.

thanks um yes as counselor Strezo was pointing out a big part of the problem here is that this is these are not office buildings that could be repurposed that you know might need floor plan changes might need some light renovations the way these buildings are constructed um and there was a big article in the boston globe that i read which is most of my knowledge on the matter a lot of other people did too but the floors are reinforced the air circulation is unique there's all sorts of different things that really make it hard to use these buildings for anything except for lab and science purposes that at least need this kind of reinforced floor heavy Now, there are some other uses that are possible with that. One is light manufacturing. And I think we should make sure that, you know, building to building, area to area, that we're making our zoning be flexible for a range of different types of business uses. I think your option C, Kerry, of having temporary permits and temporary uses is also a really important one. We don't have enough artist space in this city. And even though this is not a permanent solution, I think we should definitely say, hey, if we don't think there's going to be a tenant in here for a year, say, let's allow an artist's group to sign a lease and use some of this space. Some of it can be workshop space and gallery space as well. So there's a few other possibilities that I've heard floated around, and I don't know what the appetite is for these right now, but we have so many universities in the area, and these are buildings that could be used as very rich educational resources for the next generation of people doing biotech. So many of these things go up and down in these rhythms, and we really mistimed this one. It's unfortunate, but I think there are things that we can do if we're willing to be flexible to get some good use for the city out of this space.

Now you will have available to you a 30-second rebuttal. Kristen?

And, thank you, and musician space. Oh, my gosh. I'm a musician. Do you know how hard it is to find practice space in a city? It's so hard. We should be pushing that as well. And I just want to say that. In a former lab space, yes. OK. That is all I would like to add.

Anything else, Ben?

I rebut Councillor Strezo by agreeing profoundly with that.

As a drummer, I'm going to say I'm being a favorite. Okay.

Can I bottle your drummer? That's amazing. Oh, my gosh.

You will follow up. Look at the unity happening here tonight. All right. Our next pairing is Will Mbah and John Link on the issue of public safety, streets, and small business vitality. John, you've cited research that good bike and transit design often helps retail, doesn't hurt it. We know that the public wants designs that work in real life. If we commit to a 12 month design, evaluate, adjust pilot on one corridor, which corridor would you nominate? And are there the what are the top three success signs that you would track, for example, storefront vacancy, average rents, foot traffic? What would trigger a tweak at 6, 12 or 24 months?

That's a great question. Thank you. Well, I mean, I think the place I want to see get attention the most isn't really a great example, but I would love to see Highland Ave much, much better. I mean, so we were promised by this time that all of Highland Ave would be redesigned, and our current mayor... put it in permanent, wait and see, get feedback. And that's one of the things I really want to be careful of, is there's a very easy way to just kind of say like, hey, let's get more feedback about this, but then we're never actually going to do it. And we want to make sure we don't get into this endless feedback loop. One of the places I guess we could look at, I think that's maybe a better one, is on Bow Street. in Union Square. So there's some ideas to have a kind of that section partially pedestrianized. I think that would be a really interesting thing to see where there would be more people there. Now what we have to work on is making sure that there's parking. So i am a huge proponent of safe streets and part of safe streets is safe streets for everybody so that means that the sidewalks aren't cobblestones like we have over here it means that we've got intersections that make sense and you can look at and pay attention to what's going on around you and we want to see how the businesses are doing so unfortunately there's not really A lot of the data that we get from, that we would want to see, we don't get. We have to rely on the businesses to get us the data. But we can look at, you know, what stores, how many vacancies there are in a square, what the turnover rate is, that kind of thing. And I think that's one really good way. I guess I'm out of time there. I'm just going to stop right there.

Will?

Thank you, Carrie. I think... I believe that we need to think through as we design this policy. First, I agree with whatever I think that John is saying because it all makes sense not that I know like the mechanics of it but just the optics of it you know makes sense but I think you know I'm a proponent of bike lanes you know just so you know I'm also a proponent of business driving so and those two can coexist you know the only thing you know that we need to do is whenever we are having a process together like say we are redesigning a street like Holland Street or Highland Ave or any street, you know, we need to publicly engage with the business community so that we know what their needs are, also listen to them and incorporate those needs, not just listen also for like just listening sake, you know, we predetermine decision already made, but listening to actually engage them and actually, you know, incorporate their needs into the decision process. So one of the things I've often heard is that these things are always made in a vacuum. And I also walk down the street, I will see, hear these things, I'm like, okay, there was a public process, did you see any notices? They say no, but I get, sometimes it's hard for me to be able to tell that this is just somebody, because there are people who actually just fight and it's progress. So I understand that I'm not naive to think that some people just don't want any of this thing to happen. So I always say, how many people come to your business? How do they come? Maybe I should bring somebody from the city to generate some data so we know how people come to your business so we can understand if it's really true what you're saying, that people come, they don't find any parking, so we can actually really try to allocate parking because we also don't want it to go out of business. So I'm a very pragmatic person the way I approach policy, because policy is nothing without people.

Thank you, Will. Next pairing is going to be Holly and Jack. Oh, I should stop. Is there any need for rebuttal?

maybe just one clarification yeah for sure I don't know if that works yeah I would say that it's we do need to you know have this like the data collection and making sure that that we're getting the best information possible because we We don't want to only look at what's happening for the businesses. We also want to look at what's happening for the people walking around in the streets. And we want to make sure that, you know, someone feels safe crossing, you know, four streets there. And that, you know, we're moving people around. And that means they can get there in an accessible spot. Sorry. Yeah, okay.

Will?

Absolutely, John. I mean, as a co-founder of Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets, I totally agree with your reporter. Thank you.

All right. Our next pairing is Holly and Jack. The topic is Permitting Post-Project Reviews in Curb Access. Name two concrete permitting targets you'll adopt. Think days to first review, reinspection within X business days, and then give one curb access standard you'll enforce during street redesigns. Is it loading, ADA, short-term pickup? And finally, how will you verify whether or not those promises have actually happened? And I'd like you to get very specific.

Can you repeat that just a little slower?

For sure. Name two concrete permitting targets that you will adopt, think days to first review, reinspection within X business days, then give one curb access standard that you want to enforce during street redesigns, loading, ADA, or short-term pickup. And finally, how will you verify whether these promises actually happen? And Holly, we'll begin with you.

Thank you, Kerry. Thank you for repeating that. The most important thing is that we actually go back and inspect the work, which I frequently see all the non-compliant designs, the lack of ADA understanding. We don't actually follow what the laws are. And that to me takes more than an inspection. It takes a better design in the first place. And it starts with education. It starts with using the community and the commissions and boards and seniors who walk our streets and don't have a voice in the designs. As a person who used to push a child in a wheelchair and could never get around my neighborhood or get into a pool, and it's 22 years later and I still can't do that, I can tell you that the voices are not being heard. So what would I insist on? The ADA is a law. It's not nice to have. And the idea that when people ask for accessibility, whether that be accessibility in the streets or in our parks or in our leisure, don't continue to tell me that it costs more and it takes up too much space and therefore you don't value people who access our things differently. Try getting in a wheelchair and understanding what it's like or using a mobility device. 25% of the world's population, which includes Somerville, has some type of a disability. And it's not just a physical disability that means you need a different physical curb access. It can be a hidden disability.

Thank you. Jack?

Absolutely. I think first on the permitting piece, what I'll give is one of the most important things that Scott mentioned here. Time to first review is incredibly important because it shows us how long the backlog is. It also is the first series of engagement with the city, so that's really important. The other piece I want to look at is the abandonment rate. How many projects never happen because our permitting process is so backlogged that we're not even able to get into the construction period? And again, this matters not just for people who are dealing with applying for permits or working as contractors in the city. It matters for every person who wants to be able to afford living in this city when the process they don't see induces more costs there. I want to mention when we're talking about curb space, the ADA, it's a law. It's also a floor, not the ceiling. we should be aiming to go above what the legal requirements are to better serve the residents of the city i think one of the key ways that we can do that is looking at when we ask for a roadway redesign when we go through public process i want us to be able to look back at the data and see what the occupancy rate is for a lot of our our spaces that are designed to be acceptable what is the occupancy rate of other spaces how often are they illegally blocked How many tickets are we writing to make sure that we're making sure that those spaces are available? And also, how are we moving forward automated enforcement so that we can make sure that when our accessible spaces are blocked, we actually have some sort of accountability there and that the city is getting the important revenue that funds a lot of the important work that I know Holly's done on the commission. But making sure that we're counting for accessibility there is extremely important to me. And I want to make sure when we're doing curb designs, safe streets do mean safe streets for everyone. Meeting the ADA is the bar. We really need to look at what Somerville specific needs are and how we can best serve the people in this community.

Any rebuttal?

I think it's important that we actually have more training and we're managing and holding our employees accountable to completing that training and paying for it for them. Every person I've ever asked as to why something was designed or built a certain way or how they expected someone to actually navigate that, it's always been a pointing of the other person is responsible. We need to hold people accountable. And I think what we've lost over the years is that we have outsourced a lot of this work and we lose control that way. And if we have not enough inspectors, stop blaming HR. Why don't you look at the conditions of the job or the training available or the resources that they have? Don't just point to one place. Look at the entire area and why it affects them to do their job well.

I'll follow up only to say that I agree. And I think one of the most important things that the council can do is follow up on criteria for what exactly we want reported back to us. But also importantly, what's the standard of public reporting that we're going to give for projects to the public that's clear, that's accessible, that's written in plain language so that residents know what we're all doing and what the efforts of the city council have amounted to. And moreover, they can see when there is a failure and they need to look beyond You know, what we've codified into ordinance, what we're required to do, where the administration doesn't happen, we want to be able to look and be able to have a dialogue with the mayor's office about how we can improve enforcement because that's a critical part of living up to the expectations and requirements we put in law is ensuring that the executive administration happens there.

Our next matchup is going to be Marianne and Scott. The topic is going to be social services harm reduction and ADA access. Now, I know we have had some discussion about harm reduction, but we want to get very clear and take it from the regional discussion we had to city responsibility. What is the city's role in harm reduction and public health? Tell us what your specific funding priorities will be in the civil liberties guardrails that you're planning to uphold. And if you can, one specific ADA improvement that you will deliver in six months. And please give us two success indicators that we can hold you to to show us that it's working. So let's start with Mary Ann.

Harm reduction. So for years in Somerville, we've been talking about safe injection sites. I do agree with, we need to put that plan into place. We're talking about Davis Square and how people are injecting in front of children, out on the street. We need to have safe injection sites and combine that with a pathway to treatment. We don't want people dying on the streets and that's the reality if we don't do something more aggressive. We also need to put more needle disposals up because that is another hazard that we're not really looking at in a lot of areas. When it comes to ADA, what I see, I will thank Holly for this because she makes me look at every curb in the city of Somerville in a whole different way and sidewalk since we've known each other. We really need to focus on the dangers around our sidewalks. People walking, I've seen people fall and trip and smash their face. seniors have fallen, children. It's sad that our sidewalks are in such bad shape and our curbs are... inaccessible and crosswalks. Those are some of the road safety things that I see as a priority, especially around McGrath O'Brien Highway. There's no crossing guards. It's like holding your life in your hands, trying to cross any direction there. There are kids trying to get to school. We need to do better when we're talking about how we route our children down school. So Cross Street was a big example. Between the trucks trying to drive there, the parents trying to take their kids, whether walking or bike, and then parents who were trying to drop their kids off with cars. So one of the things I would like to see is a... staggered start although I'm not on the school committee but it's something to consider bringing up is a staggered start for places that are so hard hit with multiple different construction projects and schools and we'll hold you there okay Scott

So I mentioned before, I'd like to see the city hire case managers, social workers and things like that. I think, you know, we have a lot of nonprofit organizations and other folks doing work in that area. But I think it would be important to have the city have that staff as well outside of our police department so that. folks do not have any fear of interacting with these folks. And then those people are accountable to the city and to the voters, right? So that's priorities there. And ADA accessibility is huge. One of my biggest pet peeves is that our sidewalks are not wide enough. You cannot get by with any kind of mobility device. And that's not just wheelchairs, right? That is a walker. That's a stroller. That's a grocery cart. You can't get by on trash day because our sidewalks aren't wide enough. They're in awful condition. So I would love to see... better regulations about sidewalk widths uh and this is particularly a problem in residential areas i think we do a good job when we're rebuilding commercial areas as part of you know new developments we're doing a good job of building wider sidewalks as we rebuild streets we're doing a better job of wider sidewalks but we need to get better across the board to get our sidewalks in good safe condition um what else is i going to say about sidewalks um But, yes, I think that's – oh, snow removal. That's the other thing. Snow removal especially is a huge issue as well for accessibility and mobility across the city. And, you know, right now it does fall to individual homeowners, and I know we've tried various pilot programs in the past, but I would really like to make sure that snow removal is a priority for accessibility.

Any rebuttal? Okay, we are over time. So we're going to end this with a lightning round of questions. And again, these questions that I'm asking all of you tonight are actually coming directly from the community. And there were so many of them to whittle them down was very difficult. So I'm going to ask each one of you to take one of these for our lightning round of questions because we want to get you on the record. Okay, I'm going to be reading seven prompts. Please show the thumbs up for yes, the thumbs down for no. And we're going to just ask you the question and then show your answer. Okay, number one, city-funded sidewalk snow removal pilot this winter, yes or no? Six-month look back after major street projects to check results and adjust, yes or no? Safe consumption sites, supporting exploring a Somerville site with regional partners, yes or no? I think we answered this question. Tiered linkage during downturns with an automatic sunset or trigger to restore the baseline, yes or no? Tiered linkage during down, so linkage to the percentage. To the percentage of property tax, should the linkage percentage be tiered toward, excuse me, during downturns, should we have the opportunity to turn it down with an automatic sunset or trigger to restore the baseline? OKAY, SO YES OR NO? SO SHOULD WE BE ABLE TO TURN DOWN THE COMMERCIAL PROPERTY TAX DURING ECONOMIC DOWNTURN OR SHOULD WE KEEP IT? OKAY, GREAT. GOT YOU ON THE RECORD. LOVE THAT. HYBRID BY DEFAULT FOR ALL PUBLIC MEETINGS WITH LIVE CAPTIONS AND MULTILINGUAL INTERPRETATION, YES OR NO? EVENING WEEKEND COMMUNITY SCHOOL USE OF SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL FOR AGES 14 TO 30, YES OR NO? After hours shared use parking MOUs for churches, universities, and municipal lots to support business districts, yes or no? After hours shared use parking MOUs with churches, universities, municipal lots to support business districts, yes or no? Sorry, we got a little jargony up here. My apologies. All right, we are at 7.05. I'm just looking for a signal from our folks if we can still move forward with the 30-second closings. Yes, great, love that answer. Okay, so we are going to close with 30-second statements in the, we are going to go through mixed order. Okay, we're gonna start with John Link.

All right, thank you so much everyone. Thank you for being here. I love this city. It's where I'm raising my family and it's where I want others to be able to stay. Somerville is a community of people who care so deeply about each other and I want a government that reflects that. I'll bring persistency, honesty, collaboration, and communication to the city council. I'd be proud to serve everyone, and I want to hear your stories and work for you. And I want to ask you for your vote on November 4th. Thank you.

Jack.

Thank you very much. It's been a privilege to be able to talk about some of these issues here tonight. I really want to ask for your vote because I think I bring a dedication to pursuing some of the policy goals that we all share for making our community more affordable, preserving artist spaces in this city, making sure that we put our public parks and buildings to maximum use, safe, accessible roads for all. I'm really proud to come among my supporters, former Congressman Tony Coelho, who helped write the Americans with Disabilities Act because we need to fulfill that obligation to people in the city. And I'm committed to being an advocate for you ardently delivering all of these comments, problems you have with the city, getting you a solution, and ensuring that you have a strong constituent service representative. And I ask for your vote. You can learn more at jackforsumrill.com. Thank you.

Kristen. Somerville, you deserve leaders who are responsive to you, working with you and for you. I have a proven track record of service to you. When you share your stories with me, I listen and I take action. You matter to me. You can count on me to be responsive and follow through on your concerns. I'm asking for your vote for city councilor at large in the general election on November 4th. Thank you. Ben.

I think one of Somerville's great strengths is our ability to learn from each other with all of the wisdom, the experience, and the energy in so many civic organizations. I think we question, we adapt, and we build on shared insight when we are all doing this the best we can together. I don't think leadership is about having all the answers. It's about creating space for real collaboration and following through with each other, really showing our responsibility to each other by seeing if the thing that we intended is actually happening and seeing how it's working. Thank you. I'd be honored to earn your vote.

Again, reiterating, number one priority is overhauling our permits. Also, walking, transit, biking, building more housing. Those are my top priorities as your city councilor at large. And I just want to take the rest of my time here to thank you, Carrie. I would like to thank the Somerville Media Center staff. I would like to thank the Somerville Theater and the Crystal Ballroom and our wonderful bar staff at the back and everyone who made this event possible and especially you, the attendees, for coming out tonight or watching this online afterwards for being so engaged in local politics and making Somerville the wonderful city it is. Thank you all so very much for being here.

Will.

Thank you, Kerry. Thank you, Scott, and to my notable colleagues for this engaging and to the public. I appreciate the time and effort. We've shown that local leadership can be bold, inclusive, and rooted in hope. But our work isn't done. So let's keep fighting for a fairer, stronger, and more united Somerville. So one that every voice matters, every family thrives, and this is where my vision lies. So if you share this vision, I humbly ask for your vote on Tuesday, November 4th. Thank you so much for the opportunity once again.

Marianne.

Thank you to everybody who came out and put a lot of effort into this event. I ask for your vote. I'm a lifelong resident of Somerville. I spent my entire life caring for people in Somerville in the Commonwealth. I have the skill to work at the city level. I've also worked collaboratively across the state. I have also worked at the state level to ensure that legislation gets passed. I also have written policies to make sure that they are equitable and inclusive because I know that the word order matters in what is written to make sure that everybody has a voice and a seat at the table. So I ask for your vote on November 4th. Thank you.

We need different. We keep doing things the same with the same voices. I'm a very different voice. I've also lived here a long time, but I've lived a very different life than most people. And there is no person who's been part of the council like me before. who represents the people who don't have voices and not only represents them, but wants to learn more about it and wants to look at it from a systematic approach. My years working in business, technology, advocacy, at the state, at the city now, and just really wanting to bring back neighbors. We shouldn't be, oh, we're out of time. I want to bring back neighbors. Thank you very much, Carrie.

Let's give a round of applause for our candidates. And on behalf of the Somerville Beacon and Somerville Media Center, we want to thank our candidates and everyone watching.

Good evening. Thank you.