Finance Committee

Ben Wheeler 6.03 p.m. I would like to call to order the Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 meeting of the Finance Committee of the Somerville City Council. This meeting of a City Council Committee will be conducted via remote participation following Chapter 2 of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Acts of 2025. 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. We are joined today by Clerk Delaney Fisher-Cassiol. Clerk, could you please call the roll to establish quorum?

Absolutely. This is roll call. Councilor Link. Sure. Councilor Strezo.

Present.

Hardt, Here, Councilor Scott, Present, Chair Wheeler, Present. All right with that we do have all members present so we have quorum.

All right, wonderful. We will be taking up our seven item agenda in the order posted. And also to everyone in the meeting, as a general note, if I pronounce your name wrong or get your title wrong or use the wrong pronouns for you, please do not hesitate to interrupt me. I want to get it right. Okay. Point of order. Clerk Fisher-Cassiol, do you read the item? Do I sort of say next item?

Honestly, it is kind of up to the chair's discretion. I will say generally in committee meetings, the chair does read out the items.

Okay.

I'm happy to do that. All right. Item 1, ID 251881, approval of minutes. This is the approval of minutes of the Finance Committee meeting of December 9th, 2025. Is there any discussion of these minutes? Okay, that item is laid on the table to recommend approval with a single vote for multiple items at the end of tonight's meeting. Grant and Gift Acceptances. This will be Item 2, ID 25-1801, Municipal Road Safety Grant. This is the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $65,000 grant with no new match required from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to the Police Department for the Municipal Road Safety Program. We have Director Emily Wisdom and Lieutenant Michael Holland from Somerville Police Department.

Director Wisdom and Lieutenant Holland, could you please tell us about this request?

Good evening. Thank you, Chair. So the This particular grant is the municipal road safety traffic grant. We've applied for this grant in the amount of $65,000 to augment the city's traffic safety budget. records indicate I've only been here about a year so records indicate that the city has received this grant consistently for it looks like the past decade so this grant is nothing new to anyone Maybe a few of you on this committee might be a little bit new to the finance, so I will do a little bit of a breakdown. The documents with the application... and some of the scope of work are attached in Legistar. So the grant is broken down into four components. The community awareness and education materials for $8,112. Safety items in the amount of $5,642.

Overtime for traffic safety enforcement from about April to September $33,930. and overtime for pedestrian and bicycle enforcement from January to May. And again, there's a small period in August and September as well. The total of that overtime request was $17,316. Over the years, the Somerville Police Department has received feedback regarding the pedestrian and bicycle enforcement campaigns. Campaign is a term that the grants use. We don't typically call them campaigns but that is how you will see the documentation from the state in the backup. So the feedback that we've gotten has been carefully considered over the years and has helped to guide how the pedestrian and bicycle enforcement How that grant is implemented and used.

As a result of the feedback, pedestrian and bicycle safety activities have shifted to emphasize and include safety education rather than solely focusing on enforcement. These education efforts take place often in non-enforcement settings such as along the community path, allowing for distribution of safety materials and protective gear that's purchased through the grant. A large portion of the pedestrian and bicycle overtime is utilized for the distribution of these safety items and the educational materials and however it does not mean that there is no bicycle enforcement activity taking place But the SPD really prioritizes the education piece so that we can teach safety and have as much materials and safety items out there as possible.

I also have Lieutenant Holland here from the Traffic Unit who could help answer any more specific questions related to policy if anybody has any.

I'm seeing a hand from Councillor Link. Councillor Link.

Yeah, through the chair. I just want to confirm. So having heard this explanation and also having read through the documents it doesn't look like we're talking about having any specific campaigns about like stopping Cyclists going through pedestrian signals, crossing through intersections of pedestrian signals. Is that correct?

I'm going to refer to Lieutenant Holland on specific to traffic policy, but there's nothing in specifically in the grant materials that

I don't think guide that yeah through the chair I guess I would I would love to know that we're not doing that I guess I'll just say more opaquely um the uh Yeah, in the past I've seen enforcement in places where it seems unsafe oftentimes to be in the flow of traffic and more safe to wait for pedestrians to go and then to proceed. and I would love to make sure that we're not going to be trying to push people towards a less safe practice.

Thank you.

So, excuse me, I can answer. The grant is focused on pedestrian and bicycle safety. It's not routine bicycle activities. So while they're out there doing... The enforcement and education, you know, there may be a time where they do stop somebody who's going through a red light like that. If they deem it unsafe because they're out there, they have to, you know... Dressett, but it's not specifically going to target that or look for those activities.

Fantastic. Thank you.

Scott.

Oh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Good evening. Lieutenant Holland, it's been a minute. It's good to see you again. Mr. Chair, I'm old enough to remember this grant coming up in previous years and having this routinely be a conversation. That we unfortunately have to continue having because state money continues being used to... For lack of a better word, do stakeouts at intersections to give bicyclists warnings and tickets. Thank you very much. When I look at this, in the application, I see on... Page 10, 11, and 12 especially, it talks about how there are four separate campaigns, I believe, listed here.

All of which cite that they are non-enforcement campaigns, although it does say, for example, at the bottom of page 10, it talks about Pedestrian Bicyclist Enforcement Campaign. And then a little bit later on page 12, It talks about encounters in a non-enforcement capacity. So I guess through you, Mr. Chair, to Lieutenant Holland. Could you maybe help folks understand how the department is differentiating between enforcement and non-enforcement activities on this grant?

So for the... Enforcement is for pedestrian and bicycle safety. So they'll be doing, it's mostly focused on the crosswalk. Issues for pedestrians crossing the street and for the bicycle portion, it's for motor vehicles that are violating those rules like the hooking rule, dooring, blocking bike lanes. Those are the things we're going to be focusing on for the enforcement for... The non-enforcement, it's all about education. We have safety things to give out, lighted straps for bicycles, helmets for... them to pass out in educational brochures and just educating them public as we interact with them as to the rules of the road and how to be safe.

All right. Thank you for that. Mr. Chair, I'll be honest with you. I've heard from a lot of people in the cyclist community who aren't thrilled with the language, not just the language, but the pairing of language that's been used by the department and justifications with this grant in the past. and then the behavior of the department once the funds are actually being put out there to have folks on overtime standing at intersections. It is heartening To hear this focus, but I am... I'm anticipating some very difficult conversations with constituents if and when I get phone calls this year saying, hey, I got flagged down and given a ticket again at an intersection for doing an Idaho stop.

I guess what kind of, are there any commitments being made by the SPD about the use of this over time?

So as far as citations go, I have the numbers given to me from our statistics. guy at the station and in 2024 there were 7,924 citations issued. 243 of those were bicycle offenses. In 2025, there were 6,101 citations issued, with 147 being to bicycles. If you do percentages, it's about 2.5% and 3%. So our enforcement on bicycles is not much at all. As far as we go across the city and what we do enforcement on, it's over 95% for motor vehicles. I understand the bike community feels targeted but if you look at the numbers it's weird not like 147 last year citations were issued to bicyclists it's not that many over the whole year

I appreciate that clarification. I guess I'm a little bit confused because when I look at the internal data on page five of this application, the number of citations only seems to add up to... I think I just heard a much higher number for 2024.

Can you help me understand that? Interject.

I mean, Mr. Chair, it's your meeting.

Sorry, I just wanted to ask Lieutenant Holland to just repeat, I wrote down the 2025 numbers you said, but the numbers before that were those 2024 numbers?

Yes, so if these are incorrect, I apologize. I don't know what's on that form, but this is what I was given in the last few meetings we've had. Specifically tonight, 2024 we issued 7,924 citations and there were 8,935 violations on those citations. Some of them had multiple violations. 25 was 6,101 with a total of 6,900 overall violations. And for the bicycles, there was 243 in 2024. and 257 violations so a few of those had multiple violations and then in 2025 we had 147 citations issued with 156 violations.

Thank you, I appreciate that. Sorry, back to you, Councilor Scott.

Yeah, no, thank you, Mr. Chair. It actually kind of prompts the next question there, which is, you know, if we're putting on a grant application that in 2024 we put out... Less than 4,000 citations and here we're hearing a much higher number. Is that all traffic citations? Or is this including tickets we wrote for people leaving their trash cans out? I'm trying to understand.

I think the numbers on the form here are specifically to the grant data from these years, and I'm just giving you overall numbers for the whole year from the entire police department.

Okay, so when you say there were X many citations and only 2% went to bicyclists, that also includes citations that don't have anything to do with traffic?

No, no, no. We don't issue anything besides those. This is not counting city ordinance violations or anything like that. This is specifically motor vehicle citations.

Wow, I continue to be a little bit confused as a discrepancy. Is there some more detail? Can you send us that report of citations so that we can maybe... Take a look at that and understand better this discrepancy because I can only see the numbers that are in front of us right now, Lieutenant, of course.

Right, and I believe the numbers here are the citations that were issued during the grant enforcement only that you have on your screen.

Ooh.

And the numbers that I gave you were overall for the entire department for the year, for those years.

Ah, okay. So this is, this will be the uptick in citations that were offered as a result of this grant. specifically we could trace back to the overtime for enforcement activity okay so in that in that lens we can say this basically this grant would increase by 50 percent the traffic enforcement activity that's happening in the city

All right.

Okay. Thank you. I wanted to make sure I understood. All right. Well, Mr. Chair, I guess my only thought here is that I voted against this grant in the past when it was tied to quotas for stops because we know that protection stops are A scourge and an unfortunate one that continues to be used. I voted against it when it had quotas for the amount of stops that would need to be made in the streets and I voted against it when it had specific bicycle enforcement provisions in there. I'm inclined to have hope that we are reaching a new day here with this grant and with our new administration. So with the assurances that are in here for non-enforcement activities I am tempted to give it a shot this year, Mr.

Chair, but with the clear understanding that I know that our constituents are not confused about when public money goes to, let's say, activities that they don't feel makes them safer in their cycling and pedestrian activities. I think I'm willing to give this one a shot this year, Mr. Chair, but I will be keeping my eye on it and I'm sure my constituents and neighbors will not be quiet about it. Thank you for your patience and let me ask a few clarifying questions here. Thank you.

Absolutely. Happy to have your contribution, Councilor Scott. Councilor Link.

I just do want to call. We mentioned through the chair that we've talked a bit about enforcement through citation, but there's also enforcement through warnings. and those I think even though they might not bring a financial penalty they still have the same Action, you know, of discouraging people from doing things that sometimes that I guess frequently are things we don't want them to do. But in the one situation that I talked about where if there's a I think I think of for example um the uh what is it so um uh prospect and Webster that intersection where it's a fully signalized stop I wouldn't want to see if people are letting pedestrians go first I would not want to see you know

So it doesn't sound like that's what we're going to do, but I just want to say that part out loud as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Link. Any other contributions from other members of the committee? I have a question or two I wanted to ask as well to Director Wisdom and Lieutenant Holland. I had a chance to speak with Director Wisdom earlier to ask some questions. Ben, learning a little bit more about this item and watching the discussion from last year, one of the things I wanted to ask about that I didn't have a chance... to look into before was the safety supplies. First of all, I'm just curious, the bicycling safety supplies, what kinds of supplies have those been? And do you anticipate those being and I'm just curious to ask more about the supplies for last year's grant. Were those handed out and when were those handed out?

So I will say, Mr. Chair, that the person who handed out the supplies last year, he's currently out on leave. And so I can't ask him exactly when they were handed out. But they have to be purchased by March and handed out during the campaigns. So I could probably find some historical data and submit it to you in a memo following this meeting for that information. on exactly when those those items were distributed but we intend to distribute similar items this year I know that I think it's mentioned in the grant application what the items are. I have that there will be helmets. There will be some bracelets that I'm told I think light up that we've purchased over the last two years. Give me just one second here. I have that.

So yes, the safety pamphlets. Let's see. It's in the goals. One second.

I'm so sorry. No problem. And I don't mean to make you peruse the application process. I'm more curious about the practicality of handing those out, if that's something that the department finds easy to staff, to find officers who want to Sure.

I'll tell you, the guys would much rather hand the stuff out and be out there writing tickets and doing enforcement. So those assignments get scooped up right away. and last year I believe they were doing them on the community path for the bikes and they were out there with... Helmets and light up bracelets and some lights for bicycles and if they saw people who didn't have them and they had all safety pamphlets as well. and they would interact with them give them give them what they had hand them out to people and then also the Some officers had them in their cruisers during their regular shift, so if they saw a child riding without a helmet or they needed some light, they would get them what they needed.

and through the chair, just to follow up on Lieutenant Holland, I just wanted to confirm that we are purchasing 750 safety pamphlets 660 pieces of bike safety equipment that include 500 lighted safety bracelets 60 bicycle helmets and 100 bicycle light sets

Thank you. And then I wanted to ask one more question with apologies to other people who are waiting about enforcement of dangerous driving. One thing that has been brought up to me by multiple residents in different parts of the city is that there are intersections where drivers frequently run red lights. For example, one intersection that's been cited to me specifically is McGrath and Pearl. But I'm sure people who do more studying our traffic patterns could name others. I'm curious the overall approach that the department is taking to the driver safety enforcement component of this because I know there are many people in this city who feel like you don't have to wait very long to see dangerous driving and sometimes it can be confusing to know why

We see that happen so many times and less frequently see a driver pulled over.

So the locations will be selected through our past citation data where most Citations were issued of violations seen through complaints we received through the city and from the constituents. We have several different ways of getting notified of problem areas and then through crash data that we have and then we also allow the officers to give their input of what they see when they're out there. So if there's any specific areas you'd like to see enforced, feel free to let us know and we'll add them to our Locations.

Thanks. I'm really happy to hear about that kind of multi-pronged information-based approach, which I'm sure gives you better information about where to go than Strezo. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Here I am. Hello. Yeah, here's my menu, Mr. Chair, through you too, Lieutenant. Um, Holland, how about this? I see, um, I see, we're going to just go right at it because yes, I have seen a lot of just blips of one week. of Traffic Enforcement are just monitoring and then not. On Broadway, the bus lanes are infrequently monitored and people's speed Consistently through them much because it's supposed to be a bus bike lane so that is incredibly dangerous and also when we talk about cyclists and pedestrians hopefully never meeting Yes, absolutely. We don't want cyclists to go through citations.

However, there's also the actuality of numerous residents feeling very vulnerable in pedestrian crosswalks. because they are sometimes cyclists do speed through and either dodge them in pedestrian crosswalks when the pedestrians have the right of way and with that I've heard consistently that sometimes like with older residents they don't have the ability to just quickly dodge A cyclist that's going around them in an intersection with traffic. So that is very much a real concern. Yeah, I don't want cyclists to have citations. But there are some, it is not a broad stroke of 100% blanket statement that that doesn't happen. We have to bring that into acknowledgement.

and yeah most cyclists are just fine but that does happen another issue I am bringing forward that consistently has to be addressed and I will be bringing it up this year is the intersection on Vinyl and Highland Avenue because cars should not be driving into that pedestrian crosswalk. And consistently, the city has not addressed the fact despite the fact there are two no-turn left signs from the high school exit drop-off area to the crosswalk. So putting that out there, you asked for my menu items and there they are. And yes.

You just explained the Vinyl and Highland one again? I'm just writing it down.

Vinyl and Highland right in front of Somerville High School. right two years to get a a crossing guard and blessedly he's now there and there every day and I'm so happy to hear him I'm his biggest fan he doesn't even know me and then also but we still have cars that drive consistently into that crosswalk where we have teen's and pedestrians and parents walking their toddlers to the daycare and teachers walking into the high school. Cars directly turn into the path of the pedestrian crosswalk, and they're not supposed to be turning left there anytime, but I see it consistently happening day after day after day.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councillor Hardt.

Thank you. I just wanted to, if I can add in one other situation here in Ward 7. Through you, Chair, to Lieutenant Holland. In front of the fire station in Teal Square is an area where people often do not stop at the red light and putting the crossing guards in danger. And I've heard from families walking their kids to school that it's a very dangerous intersection so be awesome to get more enforcement of that intersection. Thank you.

So if there's no other counselors with comments or questions, the sense that I'm getting is that though the committee has some concerns about... Thank you so much for joining us today. The community's concerns about making sure that any bicycle related kind of handling from the department is really focused on the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians and not on a sort of Arbitrary feeling enforcement of rules that bicyclists may be, strictly speaking, sometimes violating, such as the Idaho stop, which isn't

and many more. I do want to mention I have also seen a cyclist pulled over for going through a red light at a T-intersection where there was no cars or pedestrians in the way. That cyclist was then let go with a warning. But as Councilor Link pointed out, even being pulled over and detained and given a warning Can be deeply inconvenient and a frightening experience, and especially in the environment where there are people Fearful of what being in the system could mean for immigration status, for example. I just want to emphasize the importance of being incredibly cautious with that to our representatives from the police department.

Thank you, we understand

Thank you so much. So with that said, the sense that I'm getting is that the committee would like to also lay this item on the table to be approved in a vote at the end of the meeting.

Mr. Chair, move to approve.

Thank you. Point of order. I'm not sure if that's something that then gets a second and a roll call, Clerk Fisher. I'll second it, just in case. Thank you. Councillor Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. According to the rules of the City Council, motions made in the committee don't require a second. However, once the motion is made, it is an item before us, so we can discuss the motion. It could be withdrawn. It could be laid on the table still for a vote at the end of the meeting, or you can take a roll call right now if you'd like.

Okay. I appreciate the motion to approve. Why don't we take a roll call on this item right now if that's okay with the rest of the council. Okay. Thank you.

Yep, on item number two, ID 25-1801 on recommending approval. Kensor Link.

Yes.

Kensor Strezo.

Yes.

Kensor Hardt. Yes. Scott. Yes. Chair Wheeler.

Yes.

All right, with that, that is all votes in the affirmative.

Thank you so much. Okay. Clerk, so with appreciation to our police guests. Oh yeah, okay, great. I was going to make sure you know you should feel free Thank you so much, Cher.

Have a good evening.

Okay, take care. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Clerk. In regard to items three and four, I note they're tightly related. Would you please read them into the record together so they can be taken up in a single discussion? Or, sorry, you said I read those into the record, so I'll deviate from my script. Why don't I read those into the record? They are Item 3, ID 260054, the Housing Bridge Pilot for Seniors. And Item 4, ID 260053... Also the Housing Bridge Pilot for Seniors, a continuation with just a different distinct grant. So for the first, the mayor's requesting approval to accept and expend a $20,000 grant with no new match required from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to the Office of Housing Stability for the Housing Bridge Pilot Program for Seniors.

For the second item, the Mayor is requesting approval to accept and expand a $200,000 grant with no new match required from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to the Office of Housing Stability for the continuation of the Short-Term Housing Bridge Pilot Program. We have Director of Housing Stability Ellen Schachter here. Director Schachter, could you please tell us about these grants?

I absolutely can. Thank you, Chair. So this is a program which started in FY 2025. It is a pilot program. I think some of you have heard me talk about this, but for a statewide effort, we're trying to get passed through the statehouse. which essentially funds housing for seniors for a very temporary period of time between the time in which they are no longer able to pay rent until they are able to access permanent affordable housing. and our legislative effort is to get this to happen statewide. I think some of you may know that older adults are the fastest growing group of the homeless. Homelessness went up 13% for older adults between 2023 and 2024. And I think 39% of the lowest income renters in the Commonwealth are seniors. So for all of these reasons, we really tried to focus on this group.

and have done this with this pilot program. What we do essentially is that we get referrals from five different agencies that work with seniors including my own organization. We look at folks that have priority for housing, meaning they will be housed sometime within maybe six months to 18 months. And then it's a program of rental assistance and we also help. Thank you for joining us. Last year, through funding from the state, we had $100,000 in funding and through the program at that time, we were able to assist eight older adult households, all of whom either remained in their home or have now transitioned into permanent affordable housing. This year for this grant, which actually runs from July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026, so we're halfway through the grant cycle. We did get slightly more than doubling of the grant.

The two grants represent two parts of the program. The first grant, which you can see for a $20,000 match, goes directly to the administrative costs of the grant. and the second grant which you see is $200,000 goes essentially primarily to rental assistance for older adults. Last year we've already now started taking some new folks on in this year and we will continue to do so provided that these grants are approved and one thing I will say I know a number of you have heard about the problem of of financing for um budget sorry of funding for permanent supportive housing we are now Accepting five older adults on the permanent supportive housing who are losing that subsidy and they're going to be transitioning into our program. So it's really important to us.

The program is a great program and it's really important that we have very good statistics because we are using them daily to try to have this program expanded statewide. And thank you to Senator Jalen, who we know will not be here in the next session, but for really providing a lot of leadership on this issue and helping us to get this funding for the pilot program.

Thank you so much, Director Schachter. I'm sorry, Councilor Strezo, I see a hand from Yasmin Radassi, Intergovernmental Affairs. Yasmin, would you... Please speak. I'm just not sure if there's a point of order.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to add to Director Schachter's excellent description. I just wanted to clarify that Both these grants are part of the FY26 state local earmarks, so they were set aside for local earmarks by our state delegation as part of the FY26 state budget process. That's all I wanted to add. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Strezo, I saw your hand first before.

Super. First in line. Thank you very much. Poll position. Mr. Chair, through you too, Director Schacker, welcome. Hi, it's nice to see you in another committee. Happy 2026. Director Schacker, Just a few questions on this. Are these households, are they single member households or are they two members? What are you seeing? What is the trend of this? Or is there no...

Through the chair, yes, there's some data around this. So far last year with the first eight participants we had in the program, six were single adults, one was an adult couple. and one was a single adult with a disabled adult child. So we are able to go beyond just the single adult families to those that have head of households that are seniors obviously the more people there are the more expensive usually the housing is so the more of the budget that gets taken up with larger households but those are all things that we consider as we're making selections for who will participate in the program. But we're really happy that we could go beyond, we could assist in a variety of types of household configurations.

Thank you, Director Schachter. Mr. Chair, through you Are these Somerville residents or are, I saw that Cass is referring as well, or there's a partnership with that. Are these all Somerville residents or are they residents throughout the Commonwealth that are seeking any place and land in Somerville?

Thank you through the chair. That's a great question. These are all Somerville residents primarily. And just so you know, the sources, some of the other sources of referrals come from protective services offices at Somerville Cambridge Elder Services. through the Council on Aging in Somerville, through OHS, CAS, and the Somerville Homeless Coalition and Legal Services. So those are the entities that we've been doing outreach to to get, you know, to have people placed within the program. and I was especially pleased to be able to place some of the people in the Protective Services Program because for anybody who doesn't know that's the protective services programs where people basically file concerns for seniors that they are at risk and in some kind of danger and so this is a way to Stabilize some of those folks that are identified as having the highest risk in their current situation, typically the highest risk of being displaced or homelessness.

Mr. Chair, through you to Director Schechter, thank you for that. And that's exciting to hear this progress that we're really creating that safety net. Last question, and thanks for indulging me. This is a pilot. Is there any talk or commitment that this will be a permanent just safety net, no longer a pilot evolving into the next phase?

Thank you for that really important question too. Unfortunately, the state money that we get is earmarked. On an annual basis, it's currently in the form of a pilot. And as you heard from, you know, from legislative staff that it was done at the request of Senator Jalen. Also, I should add that the $20,000 administrative grant here was at the request of Representative Uterhoven so that also that she still remains so I think it really is subject to annual appropriation but what we are trying to do hopefully is to and I hope you know you guys will all be thinking about this as the budget proceeds but as part of our affordable housing as part of our flexible rental assistance through the affordable housing trust fund that we're hoping to get refunded beyond this year we would attempt if there isn't state funding we would attempt to set aside a portion of those funds to continue this program

The last thing we want to do is have this pilot looked up by the legislature to show us that this isn't working because we stopped funding people and they became homeless. So we're really trying to identify ways to make sure that folks in this program remain housed. When we got our first year of funding, we set aside six months prospectively of funding from this affordable housing, specific affordable housing trust fund rental assistance program. So that we could guarantee seniors at least six months beyond the funds that we knew we had available and we would try to do that again. Our hope is that either there would be another earmark next year or eventually that the program would go statewide and there would be a permanent access for these resources. Thank you.

Thank you for that and fingers crossed.

I'm going to move to Councilor Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have any questions. Obviously, this is a great use of the money, and I'm glad we're doing it. Hello, Director Schachter. I guess my only question is, I know that there's been a lot of chaos given the continuum of care grants, and obviously our federal funding situation is horrific right now. Is this one of the categories of service provision that normally might have been in some of those continuum of care grants is being impacted? Is this us backfilling that? Or I just want to understand how this fits into the overall funding picture.

Thank you for that, Councilor. That's a really good question. So what our understanding was that the five people, Somerville Homeless Coalition is anticipating even with The litigation that is pending to try to save some of the continuum of care funding that there is going to be a decrease of some kind in the amount of money that they have available for what they call for permanent supportive housing. So these five residents are people that they have concluded they could no longer provide Permanent Supportive Housing Resources too so they would have been displaced I think they are getting no fault notices to quit and so we are trying to keep them in place so so they keep them in place through this program until they can get into permanent hopefully public or subsidized housing in the city of Somerville. So right now I would say we are taking those that they have identified they will no longer be able to serve, keeping them in their house and making sure that they get permanent housing.

All right, well, I really appreciate that. And I think it's an important one for people to be aware of that these are people who are currently housed, who are being evicted from housing because of the loss of this, what's called the Continuum of Care Grant. We can probably go into that all night, Mr. Chair. We'll put that on a later agenda. So I just I think it's important for folks to understand how absolutely this is a diving catch being done by your office in the city of Somerville. and it's one that I know I wholeheartedly support and I feel confident most of my colleagues do as well. So thank you for coming with this and thank you as always for trying to find innovative ways to make sure our neighbors stay housed. Scott. Mr. Chair, I'm ready to support this whenever the rest of the committee is ready to move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Scott. Councilor Link, did you have questions or thoughts?

Scott took my question. but I guess I do I'll just since I'm speaking I'll just say through the chair thank you so much Director Shatner for all this great work and from you know I'm really excited to see this and get to support it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Link. Just a brief comment echoing what I've heard from the other members of the committee. I really appreciate, especially Director Schachter, you're talking about how your office works with so many community partners. Thank you so much for joining us. We're finding people who need this most. I really appreciate that work. I'm really happy to see... It's not that $100,000 or $120,000 is not... A significant amount of money, or sorry, $220,000 is not a significant amount of money. But in terms of the state budget, it's a relatively small amount of money. And if it can make a difference in a number of people's lives and help them have more stable years in these crucial years of their life.

I think our whole community really benefits. So thank you for that work.

Thank you.

Okay, it sounds like people are ready to move on. This item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. Thank you so much, Director Schachter. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Likewise. Okay, contracts and agreements. Item five is ID 260011, Spring Hill Sewer Separation, an extension of that contract. This is the mayor requesting approval of a time-only contract for three months with a new expiration date of March 31, 2026 for Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., for design services for the Spring Hill Sewer Separation Project. We have Director Brian Postlewaite from Engineering. Director Postlewaite, could you please walk us through this request?

Good evening, committee. Thank you, Chair Wheeler, for Letting us speak about this request, the long and the short of this is the Contract, the construction project at Spring Hill completed last year. Due to a few delays by the contractor in getting information to our consulting engineer, they were not able to provide us with the final documents for closeout, predominantly the ASBIL drawings. For the project and we wanted to extend the contract for a few months so that they had the time to prepare the as-built documents correctly and appropriately, which then will be shared with the city.

and we'll be able to update our records but due to the timing their contract ended at the end of the calendar year and we needed a few months to or they needed a few months to complete that effort This is work that Stantec was already contracted to do. They have the budget to do it. They just need the time to spend the money to finish their work.

Thank you, Director Postlewaite. Any comments or questions from the committee? Councilor Streza.

Sure. Thank you. First-time Finance Committee member, long-time fan. Ms. Chair, I throw you to Director Post to wait. So is this common that this sort of snag of... Three additional months would happen?

Through the chair, Councilor. Typically, we keep enough time in the contract to complete this amount of work. This has been a very long project with a lot of detours. We were hoping that we would be able to get it done. We didn't want to extend the contract prematurely, but here we are. We need to finish this component of it. have the money to do the work we just need the time because we're not allowed to spend money after the contract's officially over. Even if we have it in the budget. So it isn't typical, but it also isn't unusual to request for a time extension, especially a time extension with no change in budget.

Okay, Director, Mr. Chair, through you to Director, I'm going to hop back, let my colleagues hop ahead of me in line, and if I have further questions on this, I'm going to, I want to hear what they have to say on this. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Strezo. Councilor Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And this is just... Actually, I think maybe I was remiss. Welcome to everybody. I think everybody is brand new onto the finance committee here, except for me. So I got a full house as the... I suppose grizzled veteran. I will say that time only extensions like this are not wildly uncommon. If I had a dollar for every time we'd done a time only contract extension, Well, I'd probably have a significant percentage increase in my salary, but that's just because we get paid so little. No, but it's not entirely uncommon. And especially for these things where it's a time only extension, we're not putting any taxpayers on the hook. and it does occasionally provide a nice opportunity for folks to ask questions about just what's been going on with the project and where it's going next.

I like this particular wrinkle of municipal governance that says, hey, if we need to extend the contract, we have to come to the city council to explain what's going on. But in this case, it doesn't actually generate any concern for me. So thank you, Director Post, for being here tonight.

You're very welcome, Councilor Scott. Any questions or comments from anyone else? Oh, Councilor Strezo.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On that, through Councilor Scott, thank you for that. Much appreciated. Always love a little refresh button. and and yes very much appreciated and looking forward the fun going forward

Thank you, Councilor Strezo. I just wanted to add, let's keep separating those sewers. Thank you so much for your work on that, Director Postlewaite and your whole department. You're very welcome. Okay, that item is laid on the table to recommend approval. Thank you for joining us.

All right.

Have a good evening. You too. Thank you. Okay, item 6, ID 260088, the SMEU Unit B Memorandum of Agreement. This is the mayor requesting approval of a transfer of $103,421. From the salary contingency account to various departmental personal services accounts to fund a memorandum of agreement with the Somerville Municipal Employees Union Unit B. We have Matt Sirigu, Labor Counsel from the Law Department. Mr. Sirigu, first of all, please tell me, am I saying your name how you prefer it to be said?

Yeah, share through you. Yes, Sirigu. Yes, this is a very good text amongst the ones I've heard in my life. So yes, thank you for asking.

Mr. Sirigu, could you please explain this transfer request?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair, through you. So this is a follow-up to the Unit B, SMU Unit B contract we settled last year as part of that collective bargaining agreement, successor agreement. There was a provision impacting employees' vacation time and the new rules around accrual and a cap on the amount of vacation time employees can carry over from one year to the next. There was multiple interpretations of that language, you might say. And so we got together with the union and hammered out this MOA agreement. So that no employees would lose vacation time and there would be no disagreement going forward about how vacation time would be carried over. The goal being however that going forward employees will only carry over three weeks at most from one calendar year to the next, but acknowledging that there are some employees based on

A variety of circumstances, positions, COVID factors within and beyond their control that don't necessarily... have not historically used all the vacation time that they were eligible for so through this MOA we are paying out a lot of that vacation time for the employees with Exceptional with large vacation balances. Then there are some folks who you might say are in the middle who were given a couple of years to draw that time down. And then there's some folks who just generally based on tenure. The crew allotted time and were awarded two additional weeks of time this calendar year by the terms of that MOA. and so they're allowed to use additional more time than the contract would otherwise permit in calendar year 2026. The overall goal here is that no employee

Lose vacation time, but going forward there aren't people with large accumulations of vacation time as that's an accounting nightmare both for HR and the finance department.

Thank you so much. Counselors on the committee, anyone have questions or comments for Mr. Sirio? Okay, then with thanks for your coming, this item is laid on the table to recommend approval at the end of the meeting. And thank you for joining us and for your patience. Thank you very much. Okay, last item of the evening is item seven, community budget hearing logistics. So this is... Oh yeah, I forget how this is written in the agenda. Let me just make sure I'm reading it correctly.

Here Wheeler, I am not seeing a seventh item on the agenda.

Oh, that's interesting. The clerk's office sent an agenda with that seventh item on it. But maybe that was just sent via email and that was not officially updated. This item was going to be a discussion of the Community Budget Hearing. Now for open meeting law purposes, I do not want us to be discussing something that was not publicized. So I'm not sure if this falls under an area where there is an exception because this is purely a logistical matter and not Scott. Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chair. If you have a scheduling announcement to make or a plan you would like to communicate to the public and to members of the committee, you can do that. If you'd like to have a discussion about preferred methods for proceeding. That might be better to wait until you have a separate item.

Thank you.

But if you just have announcements to make, generally it's been accepted.

Thank you. Councilor Strezo, I saw you unmute.

Yeah, yes, thank you. Mr. Chair, can we move to approve the items before us and then go on to maybe announcements, any suggestions?

Thank you. I love that suggestion. Thank you. I think that's a great idea. I'm not quite sure. Clerk, what do I say in order to move that forward? Shall we take a roll call on the items on the table?

Yep, so that is the items that have been laid on the table to recommend approval. That is items number 1, 3, and 4 together, 5, and 6. Councilor Link? Yes. Councilor Strezo? Yes. Hardt. Yes. Councilor Scott. Yes, please. Chair Wheeler.

Yes.

All right, with that, that is all votes in the affirmative.

Thank you so much. So now we could move on to any announcements directed at the entire public. Does anyone have anything to announce before I discuss the community budget hearings or before I announce it? Thank you. Okay, so our committee will be hosting a community budget hearing on Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 at 6pm on that day. The community budget hearing is required by our new city charter. And in addition to it being required, I am very excited that we will be hosting it. The idea is to invite everyone from the Somerville community any resident in Somerville

to come and to speak directly to the Finance Committee as well as to everyone else watching and listening about Priorities that they would like to see valued and included in the budget for this next fiscal year. So we really encourage everyone to participate and anyone who is part of Community groups, networks, religious organizations, social organizations, parent groups, school groups. Please help get the word out. We would really like to invite as many people from all over Somerville and all the different ways that the city is diverse to come and to participate. It is going to be a virtual meeting and there is going to be live simultaneous translation in Spanish and Portuguese with additional languages available on request.

We'll be publicizing the Zoom link soon. If there's anyone who would like to request interpretation in an additional language besides Spanish and Portuguese, there's an email address that you can reach out to or you can call 311. We do need at least seven days advance notice before the event to arrange that interpretation. The email address is languageaccess, all one word, at Somervillema.gov. Language access at Somervillema.gov. Or you can call 311 to request an additional language. There will be Spanish and Portuguese no matter what. So if those are languages that anyone wants to make sure will be included. They're already definitely going to be included with live simultaneous translation. So I just wanted to encourage all the members of the committee

All the members of our community groups and our nonprofit partners and everyone in the city to help us really invite in as many people as possible. Someone does not need to be a registered voter to participate, just someone who calls Somerville home. So whoever you are, whatever your community and your needs, we want to hear what's most important to you. Thank you. Do any other members of the committee have anything to add on that announcement or any other announcement? Well, thank you so much, everyone. I appreciate everyone's participation and support, and I'm excited for this committee. That brings us to the end of tonight's agenda. Do I hear a motion to adjourn?

I guess we do not need seconds. Thank you again, Clark, for your support and for previously reading the agenda item numbers that were up for approval. I think that's everything. That's everything. And have a great night, everyone.

So we do need to do a roll call for adjournment.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We need to roll call for adjournment. Love it.

All right. On adjournment. Councilor Link.

Yes.

Councilor Strezo. Yes. Councilor Hardt. Yes. Councilor Scott.

Yes, please.

Chair Wheeler.

Yes.

All right. With that, it is 7.07 p.m. and we are adjourned.

Thanks, everyone. Have a great night. Thank you, everyone.