Finance Committee

All right, good evening everyone. I'm Jake Wilson, he, him pronouns, concert large, and your finance committee chair. It's six o'clock on the dot, and I'd like to call to order the Monday, November 10th, 2025 meeting of the finance committee of the Somerville City Council. First, I get to read the magic words that let us do this all here on Zoom. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, this meeting of a City Council Committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio-video recording and a comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, could you please call the roll to establish quorum?

All right, this is roll call. Councilor Mbah.

Present.

Councilor Burnley, Councilor Clingan, Councilor Scott, Chair Wilson. All right with that we have four here so we do have quorum.

And Councilor Burnley let us know that he will be joining us here shortly. All right, folks, we're going to be taking up our seven-item agenda in the order posted tonight. I'm going to start with the first item, the minutes, ID number 25-1612, approval of the minutes of the Finance Committee meeting of October 21st, 2025. On the minutes, any discussion? Seeing none, the item is laid on the table to recommend approval with a single vote at the end of tonight's meeting. We don't have Director Raish with us for our second agenda item, so we're going to keep in committee ID number 25-1451, Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management, conveying the draft Combined Sewer Overflow Plan. Hopefully Director Raish can join us for a subsequent Finance Committee meeting. So to bring us to our third agenda item, ID number 25-1585, the mayor requesting approval to pay prior invoices totaling $23,109.33 using available funds in various Department of Public Works accounts for various services. We have DPW Commissioner Jill Lathan with us. Commissioner, please tell us about this request.

Jill Lathan, Good evening, committee. Thank you for joining me. I'm Jill Latham, Commissioner of DPW. So we have just a few prior invoices. We have the Primo Brands, which is the $575.34. This is basically because this company kind of sold ownership, and so we closed out that PO, and they've changed ownerships, and we had some outstanding invoices that we need to pay for that. The next one is the impact fire alarm invoices. We have contacted this company several times throughout the year to get their last bills before the end of the year closing. They were unresponsive. And then, of course, as soon as we closed out their PO, they decided to respond to our multiple emails saying that they had a bill for us. and then this last one is direct energy which is 18,827.17 cents so anytime we have these utility bills or gas bills um it's always going to be kind of we have to do our best those bills kind of come in we do our best to estimate when we can close out that vo um Every year, utilities and gas are always going to kind of come in late because it's either over-projected or under-projected. So this is a prior year invoice that we need to pay for that. Utility bills are always going to be kind of in flux because it's a variable cost that we do our best to estimate at the end of the year, carry out as much as we can, and then we get invoices and trying to continue to clean up and catch up on them. So that is where we are for those two items.

All right, thanks for that, Commissioner. Any discussion by the committee? I think not to speak on behalf of the committee. I'll just say for me personally, I appreciated that explanation. That's what we always ask with prior invoices. What happened? Why did it happen? What are we looking to do to try to keep it from happening again? I appreciate that explanation. So not seeing any discussion, we're going to lay this one on the table. We recommend approval here at the end of the meeting. Thanks, Commissioner. Going to take us to our fourth agenda item, ID number 25-1584, the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $3,000 grant with no new match required from the Somerville Cambridge Elder Services to the Council on Aging for Senior Transportation. We have IC Director Ashley Spelliotis from the Council on Aging with us. Director, please explain this request.

Sure. Good evening, everyone. Like Councilor Wilson said, Ashley Spelliotis from the Council on Aging. This is a yearly grant that we receive from Somerville Cambridge Elder Services. It's part of Title III funding for direct transportation. And we use this small grant for emergency transportation needs directly to the Council on Aging. So that's rides for seniors to visit with our social workers if they are experiencing food insecurity to come here for emergency food. or sometimes if there is no other way to receive services here, we will use this grant for those services.

Thanks, Director. You're welcome. While I wait and see if colleagues have any questions, I'll just ask, so just to clarify, this is totally separate from any Taxi to Health or any of the senior taxi programs, right?

Exactly, yep. The taxi program right now, the senior taxi program is to get people to places, so to the grocery store, pharmacy, farmer's market, food pantries, or routine medical appointments. But this grant is solely used to get people to the senior center.

All right. I appreciate that explanation. Colleagues, we have any other questions on this one? Mr. Chair. Yes, Councilor Mbah. Excellent use of funds. Agreed. Here, here. Anything else on this one, colleagues? Okay. We're going to lay this one on the table to recommend approval. Director, thanks for coming and hanging out with us tonight.

Thank you.

It's going to take us to another Another grant acceptance. Our fifth agenda item, ID number 25-1600. The mayor requests your approval to accept and expend a $1,110,000 grant with no new match required from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development and Police Department for the development of the Union Square Plaza and Streetscape Phase 1. All right, we have Finance Director Alan Anasio from OSP CD with us. Director Anasio, you want to explain this one, please?

Sure, thank you through the chair, as I believe was in the body of the council item. This is a minor typo correction, a clerical correction. This originally went before you, I believe, a few weeks ago, or late summer, early fall. The original order was missing $10,000, so we have replaced the entire order in hopes that you will re-approve it with the additional $10,000 corrected.

All right, thank you for that. Colleagues, discussion.

Mr. Chair. Councilor Mbah. You know, with Director Inesio again, you know, it's always like it's hard to reject any of his projects. But I guess I'm curious as to most of these projects are always around, you know, like mitigation, You know, for like the impact of the casino around East Somerville Assembly Square and all or not, you know, I-93. So, I'm like just a little bit of curiosity. I'm wondering like, you know, if there are any new study or findings that have been made to show that the casino impacts are reaching Union Square now, Director Inasso?

Remember the chair, I don't know that there's a direct study that would analyze that specific question. I would turn to the mobility department and the PSOF department who are working on the larger project that this is gonna help fund the design for. I know that that development is, You know, relatively short distance away and kind of leads right into Washington Street, which leads to a little interchange connector. So proximity wise, it's not that significantly much further. And there is expected to be a Thank you. I think I almost said Chairman Scott.

Well, I think I actually said Chairman Scott now because I'm talking to the chairs, actually mayor-elect. So Chairman Scott. I'm not recognizing you as in like a chair, to the chair. I think Chairman Scott has something to say. Thank you.

All right. Vice Chair Scott, you've got the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor-elect. No, I just, I said my piece on this when it was before us last time. You know, I mostly just, Disappointed to see so much of this going to police overtime as opposed to the design and implementation of the Union Square Streetscape Plan, but happy to, as we did last time, approve this one with the typo changes. Move to approve, sir.

All right. With no other discussions seen from colleagues, we're going to lay this on the table to recommend approval. Director Anasi, I think you're sticking around for another one, though, I believe, right?

Yes, I have a couple of colleagues, but I'm happy to kick it off. Absolutely.

All right. Well, while they jump on camera, we're going to go to our next agenda item. That's our sixth one. ID number 25-1560. The mayor requested approval to create the Community Benefit Stabilization Fund and accept a payment to the fund of $3,946,742.98 from the community benefit contributions outlined in project development covenants. So we have the aforementioned Director Inasio, and I believe we have our Director of Finance Ed Bean as well. There he is. Whoever wants to tell us about it, take it away.

Thank you through the chair. I guess I'll kick it off since I'm on camera. This is continuing our efforts to clean up and make sure we have all our appropriate stabilization funds in good order. These again, as I came before you a couple of weeks ago on a couple of the infrastructure stabilization funds, a lot of our larger development districts, transformative districts are having their large-scale projects reach a point where that they've been triggering a lot of these payments um many several years ago when union square was the first one sort of uh coming up uh we created a union square stabilization uh fund which we as is in accordance with the the union square uh development covenant um and so for lack of a better um place these have been kind of sitting there, the most recent ones. And so now it's time to, per the official community benefits ordinance, move them to their proper generalized community benefits stabilization fund for all of the other master plan projects that are now triggering these payments. So with that, we ask for acceptance of this community benefits stabilization fund and any additional questions you may have.

All right, thanks for that, Director. We got a queue here. Councilor Clingan is first up, followed by Councilor Mbah, and then Councilor Scott. Councilor Clingan?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, through you. So, and I think I heard you say that this is for mostly master plan covenants, because I just think about some of the stabilization funds that are very sort of area-specific. I always talk about the and many more. Thank you.

Thank you. and a unique stabilization fund solely dedicated to serve that zoning condition and that zoning or planning board approval. These are for the larger projects that have either master development covenants or think your assembly squares, your Boynton Yards, your US2s, those larger transformative district projects.

I figured so. Through you, Mr. Chair, I figured so. I just wanted to get that clarification on record There's been a lot of interest in stabilization funds ever since my colleagues brought up, you know, having the list print sent to us. And so, but this is, like you said, basically for the community benefits agreement ordinance to service that.

Yeah, no further questions. All right, thanks for that. Councilor Mbah, then Councilor Scott.

Actually, Director Bean, did you have a- I just wanted to add on to that, Mr. Chairman, The enabling language here mirrors the community benefits ordinance. And so it's very broad-based. The receipts can fund human services, the arts, culture, and enrichment, sustainability, public health, preventing and mitigating commercial and residential displacement, housing, educational programs focused on science, technology, engineering, and other areas of community enrichment. So that mirrors exactly the language in the community benefits ordinance.

All right, thanks for that.

Councilor Mbah, you are up, and then Councilor Scott. Thank you, Chair. I guess I'm just curious as to, is this like from several developers? Like this is, or this is from like one developer? Like, can you, I'm sure Director Nashua spoke to it, but I want to get some clarification there. Through the chair, yes.

There currently right now is one very specific community benefit stabilization fund set up, which is the Union Square Community Benefit Stabilization. That is tied to a very specific set of community Community Benefits Payments mainly through the US2 and that has its own specific covenant and civic advisory committee at the time and so those payments we've been utilizing we've come before you for appropriations and now that these larger projects are triggering payments and we've made some collections you know per the larger General Community Benefits Ordinance, as Mr. Bean was saying, now we have to create a Somerville-wide or a more general broad-based Community Benefits Ordinance to accept all of the additional payments from the other development districts.

Yeah, I apologize, guys.

You still got a point?

Councilor Mbah, we can jump to Councilor Scott and come back to you. Give it a second. Councilor Scott, why don't we jump to you and we can come back to Councilor Mbah at a better moment.

Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Councilor Mbah was kind of starting down a bit of the path that I was curious about. Normally when we get a A big stabilization fund creation like this, we've got a little bit more idea where these funds are coming from. Is this one single large payment that's coming in? Is this a combination of multiple payments and a transfer from another stabilization fund? I guess what is the source of the 3.9 Change million dollars. Sure.

Through the chair, through the chair, it's both. It is we will be repurposing some of the funds that we've been holding in the Union Square Community Benefits Fund, which was a community benefits fund, which we receded into, but, you know, didn't necessarily fit the mandate to appropriate from because that was specific to the Union Square fund. Community Benefits Project that was also jointly run with the Civic Advisory Committee, which Mr. Gallaghani can explain more. And then there's also receipts that we've recently received that may have been in a pending or suspension account. And so now we need to formally create the general stabilization fund that, as Mr. Bean said, will follow the General Community Benefits Ordinance that has been passed. Okay, and they do come from multiple, they have come from multiple development district projects.

Okay, so just to make sure I've got this clean, we've been sticking checks from developers on community benefits payments into a desk drawer and this is just creating the proper folder for them to sit in to a certain extent.

through the chair of digital accounting system desk drawer, yes.

All right, thanks, I'm very analog and old. I also though, I guess the first part of what you said, said that the Union Square Community Benefit Stabilization Fund, which again is very constrained in terms of its uses, is sitting there and a certain chunk of this $3 million is coming from there and going into this new Community Benefits Stabilization Fund, is that correct?

Through the Chair, no. We've, for lack of a, for lack of a, what we're going, For the lack of the exercise we've been missing that we're going through tonight, to not leave checks in a drawer, we have been depositing them in the Union Square Community Benefits Fund as we work through developing the ordinance. And now we are ready to create the community benefits, the General Community Benefits Stabilization Fund.

Oh, wow. All right, Community Benefits Ordinance was a while ago. So you're saying that basically, as we've received payments, they've been parked in the Union Square Community Benefits Stabilization Fund? Correct. Okay, so do we know how much money went into the Union Square Community Benefits Stabilization Fund that was not from Union Square planned development area projects?

Through the chair, we do. That is the majority of, that is the balance we're putting before you now.

Okay, well, I just, I don't have a piece of paper in front of me, Deputy Director Inasio. I don't have any way to know where these funds are coming from or how much they are. And for that matter, how much of the Union Square Community Benefits Fund is going to be depleted from this, right? Because there's also been, you know, there have been various appropriations out of that fund and I mean I guess I don't want to be in the referee's seat saying how much of that gets credited versus the Union Square specific funds versus city-wide funds and all that I'm just trying to understand this transaction because it is a very large transaction here even if it's internal bookkeeping it's something that I feel like I need to understand so I guess maybe Director Bean or if you can help me Maybe read me out on this.

Yes. So there is a spreadsheet. So Director Inasio can supply a spreadsheet of a breakdown of all of these funds. Not all of the Union Square Stabilization Fund is going to this new one, a portion thereof. And I'm looking at it right now. I don't know if you can call it up, Alan, right now.

I can. I sent it to the AGA team just to go through the official channels, but I absolutely can pull it up. Give me one second. I don't know if you want to continue on with any other questions, but I can pull it up in short order.

I'll just add, anything that's pulled up, please, let's make sure that gets sent to the clerk to get entered into the record. Also, I want to acknowledge Councilor Burnley has joined us. So clerk, please note Councilor Burnley is present.

Got it. Thank you.

And then, Councilor Scott, did you, on this point, did you want to add anything before we toss? I want to give it back to Councilor Mbah.

I mean, this is kind of the big question, Mr. Chair. So, I might have follow-ups, but I'm happy to, yeah, honestly, you know, this is, I imagine it's going to be a lot to digest and a lot to parse. You know, so as much as I understand this is just a standard bookkeeping thing, I kind of do want to understand it before I vote for it. So maybe the right thing to do is to have this documentation sent my way, sent to the entire committee, and then perhaps Deputy Director Inascio and Director Bean and I can have a conversation in the coming week to figure out, to make sure I've got it all sorted.

And Councilor, there's always the option of discharging this one without a recommendation, so that if people want to sink their teeth into this one and go deep on it, they have that opportunity before Thursday night.

Yeah, that's one way to go. All right, I appreciate it. I'm going to let you, I'll come back for... We'll come back to you.

I wanted to throw it back to Councilor Mbah because he was, he did have the floor when we jumped away to you. I want to bring it back. We promised we would, and then we'll go back to you, Councilor Scott. Councilor Mbah.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, I don't have the most beautiful voice, but I'm glad that you're still giving it back to me. I think Chairman Scott, Councilor Scott was really Also touching to like the spaces where I was, I was getting at, because I, I know like, uh, Dr. Galagani and I, we were catching up briefly about other stuff. And then I kind of like asked about this, where it was coming from, where this money was coming from. And, uh, and because when I saw it I wasn't sure if you know if this was some free cash transfer from you know like last year or this year into next year but I guess even the fact that it's coming from developers and one of the The reason why I was asking all these other questions, whether it's like one developer or several developers, you know, whether it's for new project permits or certificate of occupancy or maybe linkage fees or conditional planning, like, because since I sit on the Job Creation and Retention Trust, I want to know, like, hey, you know, is this voluntary? You know, like, there are programs that have been vanishing in front of me. Thank you very much. You know, we want to make sure that this money is spent in this way to accomplish, you know, its purpose, a mitigation purpose for why it was created. Or if not, then we can now start to now meddle around to say, okay, there are things that we want to do, you know, with these funds. There are other needed programs that need to be funded and all or not. So I guess, but I wasn't sure if, If that is like within that purview, like if it's generic, we need to know if it's like specific, then okay, we need to know how specific it is, where it's coming from, and all that. That's where my curiosity is. If anybody can really like just help me frame that for me, I'll be super grateful.

Who wants that one? Director Inasio, Director Beam? Thank you, Director Bean or Director Galigani. Jump in whenever you'd like. I have the spreadsheet available to share, but if Director Bean or Director Galigani have anything to say in advance, I'm happy to do.

I'll take a first crack at that, and Ed can correct me when I go astray.

Can you identify yourself for our clerk, please?

Most certainly. Tom Galigani, I'm the Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development. Thank you. We're talking about money, and Alan will show the spreadsheet at some point. About six different large development projects have contributed to this money. And each of these projects had project-specific covenants that articulated a whole series of voluntary contributions. We're just talking about one of the buckets of money, one of maybe up to four buckets with each of these six different projects. And typically, we use generally the same wording, but in each covenant, it might have been different, slightly different. But generally speaking, we're talking about instead of physical infrastructure, we're talking about social infrastructure. So all kinds of projects that could be described as community benefits. That would be job training or affordable housing or social service, supporting different social services. When I look at all six covenants, they generally talk about the same kinds of things. So to answer your question, what can we spend the money on? That's what we can spend the money on, those kinds of topic areas. We go into some detail in some of the covenants and other covenants, it's more general. In some covenants, we use different wording. We don't use the word community benefits because as these covenants evolved over time, we use different standards and different definitions. I'm just going to answer a question that was brought up before too and that basically all the money that has been paid to date for Union Square, the Union Square project specifically has been spent. And those have been allocated by the council on various different occasions. They've gone in either one of two places, contributions or funding programs run by SCC. Those are mainly job training programs or job readiness programs and contributions and checks sent to Union Square Main Streets for small business support in Union Square. and it's funny how it actually just works out the money that's come in all of it pretty much has been expended maybe I'm off by a you know a couple hundred couple thousand but it's basically been exhausted the Union Square money so far has been exhausted and has been sent to projects and programs that have benefited Union Square as as the Union Square development project continues and new buildings are built there'll be more money that comes in and at that point We'll make different decisions. We collectively as a community will make different decisions about how it gets spent. Hope that answers a couple different questions that I've heard and I apologize for showing up a little late. Traffic was a little hairier than I expected.

No, thanks for that. Councilor Mbah, you still have the floor. Anything else?

No, thank you. That's helpful. So now I know that I can squeeze some of that funds for my post-secondary education program. Thank you, Director Garagani. I appreciate that.

Director Anasa, did you want to add anything to that before I give it back to Councilor Scott here? I just wanted to say if it helps advance the conversation, I'm ready and able to screen share the document if I can do so without going through IGA. I'm not quite sure. I haven't been asked to screen share before, but I can if that's the protocol.

Yes. Clerk, could you allow Director Inasio to share his screen? And then we'll just ask to make sure that the document being shown here is entered into the record with this meeting.

Director Inasio, you should be able to just share your screen.

Great. Let me just find... And so you will see, I just want to point out, I did color code this. So the payments in green are the payments that are not attributable to US-2 and are being moved tonight. The payments in yellow are the payments we have already collected for the existing Union Square Civic Advisory Community Benefits Fund. And the two buckets at the bottom, as Mr. Gallaghani mentioned, are the essentially three buckets of previous appropriations we have made out of this fund. And also, as Mr. Director Gallaghani mentioned, There most likely is a slight variance between what was collected and what was appropriated, and that is mainly due to, at this point, just interest received on the stabilization fund.

Councilor Scott, I'm going to guess you're about to ask the question I might be about to ask about the yellow versus green and the totals.

I mean, I'm happy to let you take a swing, sir.

I'll ask one quick question that I promise I'll get back to you. So is it reasonable to say the ones in yellow roughly total the deduction totals there and the ones in green roughly total the revenue totals minus that amount?

The green totals, the green buckets total the amount that is before your appropriation tonight.

Yep.

Okay. Thanks. Councilor Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is why I was hoping to see this. Now, if I just do the math here, you're right. Those yellow ones add up to that roughly $1 million down at the bottom that have been deducted. So I appreciate that narrative from Director Gallaghani. But when you do $1 million, when you do 4.6 minus 1, that gets you to 3.6. And we are looking to transfer Well, closer to $4 million here. So I'm curious where the rest of the funds are coming from.

Again, I'd have to check the interest earned and anything in pending, but these are the developer payments we have received, the direct developer contributions we have received. They should equal 3.96.

Okay. So in that case, this is, and these are all, Revenues that were brought in and deposited in the Union Square Community Benefits Stabilization Fund. This transfer coming out, at least according to what we see in front of us, is actually, if it was possible to do so, would leave the Union Square Community Benefits Stabilization Fund at a negative balance of about $300K. So let's hope there was enough interest to cover that. But I can't see a way in which this doesn't zero out the existing Union Square Community Benefit Stabilization Fund.

No, that is correct. Almost everything that has been received as a developer contribution payment has been appropriated out for the three buckets outlined below.

Okay, so I think, Mr. Chair, the reason I was having a hard time understanding all this is because normally, because this is functionally a request of a transfer from the Union Square Community Benefit Stabilization Fund to the newly created Somerville Community Benefit Stabilization Fund in the amount of functionally its entire balance at the moment. And that would normally look like a request for exactly that. I was confused about the language here to create a fund and accept a payment to the fund as opposed to requesting the council's permission to transfer from one stabilization fund to another, which is I think the legal form this generally follows. So I think I've got that correct. Now, is that an accurate characterization, Deputy Director?

That is correct. We are requesting to open a new fund with payments we have received. It is sitting in an existing stabilization account, so I would defer to Director Bean as to the protocol or the council procedure on that.

Well, look, I don't think anybody's going to take us to court on it. I just want to understand what the mechanism here is. Director Bean, I'm sorry, you're muted.

It conforms with the ordinance. So the ordinance speaks of a one consolidated fund. So in accordance with the ordinance, we can reclassify and do that without any formal transfer per se. Huh.

that's so wait the ordinance overrides the state law requirement for the that's not the state law refers generally to transfers in the general fund okay all right well I just want to understand what the final result is here the final result is that there will be a new community benefits fund that's more broadly applicable in the city. And that if we had had that fund, that stabilization fund created a year ago, then these funds might have already been deposited in them as they went. Although I guess we've been collecting these as far back as 2019, it looks like. So, yeah, we would have needed to create this earlier, but presumably as these payments would come in, they would have gone to the general one. That's understandable. But the net result, once we're done with this bookkeeping adjustment, is that the Union Square Community Benefits Fund is going to be empty and unusable until the next scheduled payment from US-2 comes in, which is going to be based on their progress on their project. Is that right?

That is correct. Through the chair, that is correct.

All right. Well, thank you. I think that's going to be a source of some concern and discussion on the Union Square Neighborhood Council. I'll be sure to talk to them and loop them in on this. Mr. Chair, has a copy of this gone to the committee as well as to the clerks?

A copy of this document being shared here? That's a good question.

Through the chair, I will be shedding this document shortly with the committee.

All right. All right. Well, I appreciate that. And if I guess at some point, Mr. Chair, we could find out where the other $360,000 came from that's unaccounted for in this transfer.

I think that's a... I think it's the interest, $360,000. 47,000 interest. And I'll ask Mr. Ignacio to go back.

Is it possible that 4.6 million does not include, that it looks like it's included in that, but the interest income is in addition to the 4.6 million? That the sum there is up until the cell above it, not including the cell above it?

Yes, exactly. I have to go through the chair. I will go through review the actual spreadsheet, not the PDF version. There are a couple of different sources of interest or investment income, and I will provide a revised, I can provide a revised spreadsheet to IGA to share with you all. Absolutely.

Excellent. I think that would be helpful in unpacking some of the mystery here that remains. Colleagues, any more discussion on this?

Yeah, I mean, Mr. Chair, I just, I continue to not love having to do back the envelope math during a meeting like this. So might I ask that we keep this one in committee and I'm sure we're gonna have another finance committee before the end of our session, correct?

We will definitely have another finance. I'm just getting ready to plan that one in a couple of days, actually. So yes, we will.

All right. Then I think I'd like to make sure we get the math right and maybe we can just keep this in committee and hopefully it'll be a quick rubber stamp next time we come through.

Director Singh, did you have a comment on that particular plan or anything in general here?

Through the Chair, yes, I just wanted to share something on that particular point. The agenda for this Thursday City Council meeting has been posted, and you'll see that there are two requests that have been submitted by the administration to appropriate funds from this Community Benefits Stabilization Fund for a variety of food security initiatives. So if there are outstanding questions, It would be our request that we can have that you reach out to the administration so we can resolve those questions and answer anything on Thursday at the City Council meeting.

Councilor Scott, in light of that update and the urgency of the food security situation, how would you feel about discharging this without a recommendation and trying to do that work here, make sure everyone's in a good place by Thursday? Just, you know, in light of what we're up against here.

Yeah, you know, Mr. Chair, I'm never a fan of having the administration's emergency become a crisis on our part, but given that we're all trying to get food into our neighbors, I would, though, ask if perhaps Deputy Director Inacio or Director Bean can reach out to me, I guess tomorrow's a holiday, so on Wednesday to make sure we have a conversation about this. Absolutely. All right, thank you, sir.

All right, so colleagues, the plan here then is to actually let's take a vote on that then to discharge. I'll move to discharge without a recommendation. Clerk, could you please call the roll on that?

All right, on item number six to discharge this without a recommendation. Councilor Mbah?

Yes.

Councilor Burnley?

Aye.

Councilor Clingan?

Yes.

Councilor Scott?

Yes, please.

Chair Wilson?

Yes.

All right, with that, that is all votes in favor.

All right, thanks for that. And those of you who were sticking around for that, thanks for coming and running us through that. Look forward to the explanation that we're asking for, those exact numbers of how we got to that point. It's going to bring us to our final agenda item tonight. Item number 25-1599, the Mayor requests approval to create a Housing Assistance Stabilization Fund under the provisions of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40, Section 5B. I see we still have Director Bean with us, and I think we have Director Ellen Schachter from Housing Stability as well. I see we have Director Gallaghani also. Who wants to tell us about this request?

I guess I'll start. Having conversations with Director Schechter, looking at long-term situations here. I think we're all agreed about the importance of this situation, housing assistance. It seems to me that the proper course of action would be to create a housing assistance stabilization fund and begin seeding that. There's no money being appropriated here tonight. Just want to get something on the books. And the need for that, I'm sure Director Schachter can speak on that and tell us why she thinks it's important. It's also, you know, I think it's important that the general fund closes out on June 30th. The housing stabilization is multi-year. So it's from an operational perspective. It's going to be a lot easier to execute contracts and no need to close out encumbrances at year end. Stabilization funds are also interest bearing. So when we get some money in there, we'll be earning interest that can be used. So, you know, I would turn it over to Director Schechter to talk a little bit about that.

Great. Thank you so much. And to the chair and other city council, I see Councilor Mbah has his hand up, but should I finish first, Councilor?

Yeah, please identify yourself for the clerk also.

Thank you.

I'll let you explain the item. Councilor Mbah is just in the queue.

Okay, thank you so much. So Ellen Schachter, Director of the Office of Housing Stability, and to the Chair and to the other Finance Committee members, really, I'm really, really glad that this issue is coming before you. As you all know, I have a number of programs that relate to either temporary rental assistance or ongoing rental assistance through our municipal voucher program. And a couple of things. Some of those programs have been funded through one-time appropriations of free cash or other things that have not all been funded each year through the general revenue. It's also extremely difficult to have Thank you for joining us. until a full appropriation, everything's worked out and we can do a new contract. So a stabilization fund at this point would do a couple of things. In particular, the two programs I am most concerned with are called our FLEX-SAHTF program and our municipal voucher program, each of which provide ongoing rental assistance for certain periods of time in order to keep people stably housed. So at this point, I am very pleased that I think the administration is going to be looking to see if there are any additional funds that could be put into these funds to ensure the longer term stability of these programs and also just to allow us to contract as needed over time and not have to wait until after the appropriations for each year in order to run these contracts. It's just very, very disruptive to rental assistance programs.

All right, thank you for that. Now, Councilor Mbah, you were first up.

Thank you, Chair. Good to see you, Director Schachter. You know, I appreciate that editorial. You know, you're always doing good work, and I cannot but, you know, emphasize, like, how nice it is. And when I looked at this, honestly, I'm mostly, like, I'll just throw a couple of things out there and then just help me piece it together because, yes, this is a new funding source for this program. But since I sit on the Affordable Housing Trust, you know, it appears to me, you know, to be, like, I think at this part of this, would it be, first, like, how would the money, Are they competing programs?

Through the chair, I think I understand the question, and I think it's a good one. If you would like me to help frame, and I think possibly Director Gallagher, Anasio or Finance Director Bean might

I just want to make sure that you know yeah if they you know like the source of the revenue you know how would it be managed could it be added to the affordable housing trust as a third category for his grants and programs or like you know they I think you get where I'm going like yes so please just kind of like differentiate these two for me and then and then bring it home

I'll say what I know and then would hope maybe that Finance Director Bean or Director Ignacio might be able to fill in. But what I understand is that currently right now we have funding that exists that sits in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund for both the MVP program and for the Flex SHTF program. I think the purpose of this stabilization fund is to Be able to look at other sources of revenue that might exist right now within the city, either from other stabilization funds, possibly at some point short-term rental dollars, to help us have funding for these programs to continue beyond this current fiscal year. Right now, the funds that we have in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, for example, for our Flex SHTF program, are most likely going to be expended by the end of this fiscal year. And since it hasn't been funded traditionally through general revenue appropriations, and these are multi-year contracts that we typically have, we're really trying to figure out how do we keep these programs funded? What sources of money might be available to help us to continue these programs? I'm not sure and would defer to the other directors. If we do put this money at some point when it's ready, would it then be transferred into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund? And my guess is it'd be yes, if the purpose of those funds is for our flex SAHTF or MVP, but it is also possible, for example, we have rental assistance contractors who are funded through the end of this fiscal year, no funding afterwards, it might be that some money comes out of the stabilization fund for that purpose as well. But I think at that, I will, Turn it over to Director Bean or Ignacio to add anything to that. Director Bean? That I might not be aware of.

Thanks, Director. Director Bean?

So as Director Schachter mentioned, if we remember, the city, with your help, administration adopted the community impact fee on short-term rentals back in the spring. So the law says that 35% of those monies must be dedicated to either affordable housing or infrastructure projects with a vote of the legislative body. So we would intend to come before you with a vote to dedicate 35% of those monies to this stabilization fund. The other area mentioned is repurposing of existing stabilization funds. So we're in the process of trying to work out the status of some of these dormant stabilization funds. And that's another possible source here to repurpose that and see this new stabilization fund. And then, of course, what we've listed in the enabling legislation is a number of other sources can be used to fund this. Stabilization Fund, be it grants or free cash or even developer mitigation. So, you know, the intent here is to get this on the books and we'll start finding some sources to appropriate into it.

And Chair, thank you, Dr. Bean and Dr. Tractor. So, I guess, are we going to create a new committee similar to the Affordable Housing Trust, you know, to manage this?

My understanding, I don't know, maybe Director Bean, I don't know if you want to answer. My understanding was a no, but that these funds would be going into programs that we are currently running to keep them funded.

This is another entity, yes. I mean, we don't want too much bureaucracy here either as well. We want Director Schecter to be able to spend that money, get it in there, and of course, you know, not disparaging the good work of the Affordable Housing Trustees here, but I think this is going to be reserved for Ellen's programs during the course of the fiscal year. We want to come right back to you, appropriate the money, and be able to use it.

Okay. No, I mean, like anything for Director Schachter. I just want, it's for like, again, so what are the expected sources for, you know, the revenues, you know, for this fund?

Well, as I suggested, I think we would come back to you on the community impact fee for short-term rentals. That's a start. We're certainly looking at repurposing some of these stabilization funds, not only the dormant ones, but I've also been talking to Mayor DeWilliams about the Racial and Social Justice Fund and maybe some monies there we can repurpose. We've done that already for affordable housing purposes. These are potential sources. We'll see how things go throughout the fiscal year with free cash. We'll see where we stand. There's some other issues which we'll talk to the new mayor about soon and plan some things out. So there's other potential sources as well.

Thank you, Chet. Thanks. I appreciate that. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll keep my snark to an absolute minimum. This is basically just a bookkeeping measure that will ensure that Director Schachter can keep delivering on the programs that she's offering that are awkward across annual budget cycles that don't line up. So I think this is a fine way to go about it. I think this is actually A much more transparent way for folks in the community to be able to tell just how much the city of Somerville is actually devoting towards housing stabilization. So I think this is a great tool. I think it's the right tool. I'm actually kind of just shocked we haven't done this earlier. But I appreciate it. The best time to make a process improvement is right when you notice it. So that's awesome. And I will take my top 10 list of responses to the rest of the discussion and hold that for the after committee meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ward 2, Councilor. Anything else on this, colleagues? All right. We're going to lay this one on the table to recommend approval as well. That brings us to the end of tonight's agenda. And thank you to staff for coming and walking us through all this tonight. Thank you so much. So at the end of the agenda here, Councilor Clingan moves to recommend approval of the items on the table and to adjourn. Could the clerk please read the agenda item numbers that are up for recommendation to approve and call the roll on recommend approval of those items and adjournment.

Yep, on adjournment and recommending approval for items 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7. Councilor Mbah.

Yes, please.

Councilor Burnley.

Aye.

Councilor Clingan.

Yes.

Councilor Scott.

Yes, please.

Chair Wilson.

Yes, please.

All right, that is all votes in favor, and it is 6.55 p.m.

All right, thanks, everyone. Have a great night.