Watertown City Council (Wednesday November 12, 2025)

Water. Clerk, please call. I'm sorry. This meeting is being broadcast and recorded by Watertown Cable Access. It is a hybrid meeting. The Zoom information is on the city website as well as a phone number and an email. I'm going to ask the clerk to please call the roll.

Ration.

He won't be with us this evening.

Bays, Feltner, Gannon, Gardner, Izzo, Palomba, Piccirilli, Sideris, Watertown, Councilor Bays, Feltner, Gannon, Gardner, Izzo, Palomba, Piccirilli, Sideris, Watertown, Councilor

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, Thank you. Before I get to public forum, I just want to state at the beginning, and I will state it a little later on, The item on the agenda talking about discussion and potential action on the middle school will not be taken up this evening. the manager has received some information today early this morning that could affect some decisions that are being made with that site, so we're gonna table that. I'm telling people that up front. I did send a notice to the city council this morning because it is very pertinent information that we would,

the manager would need to take a look at and see if that has any effect on this discussion. So that will be taken up at a later date. Public forum, any member of the public here or at home wishes to be heard? and one person here, Eileen Ryan. Please stand up, state your name for the record.

Good evening. My name is Eileen Ryan. I live at 48 Pearl Street. I am a member of the Solid Waste and Recycling Advisory Committee. I'm also the leader of Beyond Plastics, Greater Boston. And I am here to express my support of the skip the stuff ordinance, which will reduce the amount of single-use plastic cutlery, condiment packets, and plastic straws that are automatically offered to people when they get takeout food. This ordinance is very popular. It saves restaurants money. Already several cities and towns in Massachusetts have passed such an ordinance including the other three members of our Chamber of Commerce which are Wellesley, Newton, and Needham. In addition, Brookline and Hudson have also passed an ordinance like this, skip the stuff, as well as several major cities around the country. So New York City, Washington DC, Denver, Colorado, Chicago, Illinois, and the state of California and the state of Washington.

This is a great way, a simple way to put a slight dent in the plastic pollution crisis that we are all experiencing. Plastic is in our bodies. It is affecting our health in every way, shape, and form. And I just want to say how much I support this ordinance and again it is, oh, one more thing was that New Jersey has passed several of these ordinances and they did a study, Clean Water Action in New Jersey did a study proving that in the restaurants that participated that they reduced the amount of single use plastic cutlery and straws and condiment packets that they picked out that were no longer offered were reduced by 75 to 95%. So thank you for listening, and I hope you'll all support the skip the stuff ordinance.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the public, either here or at home, that wishes to speak? Seeing none, I close the public hearing and move on to the next item which is the examination of minutes. Can I get a motion on the minutes of October 28th?

Mr. President, I make a motion that we adopt the minutes of October 28th as written.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. The next item is President's Report. The only item I have this evening is before we adjourn, I'm going to be asking for a moment of silence for Councilor Erasian's father who passed away this past week. So before we ask for a motion to adjourn, we will be standing for a moment of silence in due respect. Thank you. Next item is public hearings. and 6A is a public hearing and vote on a petition from NSTAR doing business as Eversource for a grant of location in Cross Street, westerly from Pole 38-1, approximately 60 feet north of Pleasant Street, to install approximately 12 feet of conduit. This work is proposed to provide electrical service to 210 Cross Street. And I'm going to recognize

the representative. Welcome and please identify yourself. You are allowed to speak.

Hi, how are you tonight? I'm sorry, I didn't unmute myself. Jacqueline Duffy, Eversource Energy. We'd like to install approximately 12 feet of conduit and cross street to provide electric service to two cross streets.

This is a public hearing. Is there any member of the public either here or at home that wishes to be heard? Seeing none, I close the public hearing and ask for a motion from the council.

Mr. President, I make a motion that we approve the petition for the grant of location for the underground conduit to service 2-10 Cross Street.

Is there a second? Second.

Discussion?

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Next item is a public hearing and vote on a petition from NSTAR doing business as Eversource for a grant of location in Alden Road, westerly from poles 178-3, approximately 256 feet south of Belmont Street, to install approximately 14 feet of two two-inch PVC conduit. This work is proposed to provide electrical service to 23 Alden Road. please go ahead and state your case.

Good evening, Jacqueline Duffy, Eversource Energy. We'd like to install 14 feet of conduit in Alden Road to provide electric service to 23 Alden Road.

This is also a public hearing. If there's any member of the public here at home wish to be heard, please raise your hand. Seeing none, I close the public hearing and ask for a motion from the City Council.

Mr. President, I make a motion that we approve the petition for Eversource to install a grantable location for underground conduit to provide service to 23 Alden Road. Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion? Councilor Feltner.

Thank you. I just was questioning if this is increasing the service at 23 Alden Road and the second part is will any existing wires come down then around that? area for that property?

They're relocating the existing overhead service to Underground. So yes, the overhead wires will come down.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Any other questions? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The next is a public hearing and vote on a petition from Enstar doing business as Eversource for a grant of location in Mount Auburn Street Northerly from Pole 9890, approximately 120 feet west of Cottage Street, to install approximately 14 feet of conduit. This work is proposed to provide electrical service to 780-784 Mount Auburn Street. Again, please present your case.

Jacqueline Duffy, Eversource Energy, would like to install approximately 14 feet of conduit on Mount Auburn Street to provide electric service to 784 Mount Auburn Street.

Thank you. This is also a public hearing. If there's any member here or at home wishes to speak, please raise your hand. Seeing none, I close the public hearing and ask for a motion from the City Council.

Mr. President, I make a motion that we approve the petition for Eversource's Petition for a grant location for underground conduit to provide service to 780, 784 Mount Auburn Street.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you.

Have a nice Thanksgiving, everybody.

You too. Next item on the agenda is a public hearing and vote on a proposed loan order that the sum of $2,200,000 is appropriated to pay the cost of construction and oversight of roadway, sidewalk, and utility reconstruction of Fifth Ave. As more fully described in the city's fiscal year 2025 through 2029, Capital Improvement Program. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mr. President. Before he denies the request to borrow $2.2 million for construction and oversight for roadway, sidewalk, and utility reconstruction work on Fifth Avenue, approximately 550 feet in length. This is consistent with the Long Streets and Connectors program. While Fifth is not a particularly long street, it is a very important connector. and in discussion with the Public Works Subcommittee recommendation a year ago in November 26, 2024, Council approved Long Streets and Connectors program with Riverside Street being next on the list but 5th Ave was ahead of it on the list and we've been running a little bit behind in that process so consistent with CIP recommendation number 27 to proceed with the construction of Fifth Ave. We want to move forward with Fifth Ave at Riverside, I believe is in line right behind it. So we are looking to move forward with this $2.2 million of borrowing. This includes a pretty substantial pedestrian and cycle infrastructure on the side of Fifth Ave.

It's going to make connections between California Street and Watertown Street quite a bit safer. It actually makes connections for our staff moving often between City Hall and the Parker Building safer by doing this work and doing traffic calming work consistent with the Complete Streets Policy on the street. Mr. Brady's here, happy to answer any additional questions and we look forward to moving forward with this. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. This is a public hearing, so if there's any member of the public either here or at home that wishes to be heard on this loan order. Seeing none, I close the public hearing and ask for a motion from the City Council.

Mr. President, I make a motion that we approve the loan order for $2.2 million for reconstructing Fifth Avenue.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion? Councilor Feltner.

Thank you. I'm just wondering if the DPW director knows yet how many households maybe have requested that their water service be upgraded at this point?

Thank you, Councilor, for your question. I do not have that specific information on hand, but I can get that to you tomorrow.

Okay, great. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Are there any other comments or questions? Roll call, please.

Bays, Feltner, Gannon, Gardner, Izzo, Palomba, Piccirilli, Sideris, Watertown, Councilor

Next item is a public hearing and vote on a proposed order allocating the property tax levy among and between property classes for fiscal year 2026. Mr. Manager.

Thank you Mr. President. Before I turn this over to the City Auditor who can, City Assessor, I'm sorry. Before I turn it over to Earl over here who is going to be able to provide a detailed presentation on the tax classification hearing I just wanted to note that as presented in the preliminary budget overview we are continuing to work within the confines of prop two and a half as we set our levy limits there has been a little bit of an adjustment in terms of residential property values going up at a time when commercial property values are not necessarily going up so that does sometimes adjust where the tax levy falls. Fiscal year 26 is the last year that we have our tax split home rule petition that we are working to extend permanently. that allows us to shift to the full cap. So that's been very important to us to be able to do that full shift.

The information in setting the tax rate is consistent with the budget amendment that was presented before the council with the increased new growth number that I presented at the early October meeting. if you've been following along particularly carefully you might have noticed that we actually didn't vote to approve that particular amendment yet but that budget amendment will be before you the next time the council meets which President, and I can share a little bit more information about when that is, and it'll all interconnect with the way and the circumstances under which this we estimated the tax rate based upon the classification vote plus that budget amendment. So I will turn it over to the assessor to take it from here.

Just try clicking on one. Try clicking on the first slide. Try clicking on the first slide. Or double clicking on the first slide. Click on slideshow.

You want me to click out and click back in? Let me click out and click back in.

Nothing on my screen. It's projecting the wrong thing. Try that. Sometimes it does this. It projects the wrong screen. The slideshow goes on the other screen.

I think I know.

Should I try?

Sure. Drag it on over.

I have to be able to see it there down the lower right corner

Perfect. Welcome to the fiscal year 2026 classification hearing. I have nothing on my screen. So we'll see how well rehearsed this is. Classification. Massachusetts law allows cities and towns to classify properties to use and they allow municipalities to split the tax rate. There's 114 municipalities that split the tax rate in there's 351 cities and towns. Watertown has been one of those communities that have split the tax rate right along. Watertown.

So splitting the tax rate between the residential class and the commercial industrial personal property class, also known as the CIP. I'll be using the word CIP as we go forward. As you know, Watertown adopted Chapter 200 of the Acts of 1988, which allows us to split up to 1.75% from the residential class to the commercial class. and that's provided that we meet certain conditions. residential taxpayers must pay the greater of either 50% of the full and fair cash value or the lowest residential percentage. A couple years back we ran into that problem hitting that lowest residential percentage with the increase in commercial properties. City Council.

passed a resolution to go to the legislature to get a home rule petition, which we had passed, which was passed and signed by the governor, which allows us to shift up to the 175 provided the residential class pays a minimum of 50% as the manager indicated for fiscal year 24, 25, and 26. We are in the last year of that and hopefully we will get a permanent resolution shortly. what I want to tell the council is if we do shift 100 the maximum we can which is 1.75 this year we would be shifting $37,039,146 from the commercial class onto the residential class. All right. So we're going to need some pieces of information to get there.

First off, for 2026, the total property value was $13 billion. and some. Residential value was 9.4 billion, which is up from 9.1 billion. It's also an eye test. and the CIP value was down slightly. The commercial industrial personal property value was down slightly. The life science market, as you know, has some softness to it. Office market has some softness to it. we still had some buildings that had a couple of lease up discounts removed and we had some buildings that actually went down in value.

so that puts us about 72% for the residential portion of the city as far as value goes and 22% for the commercial industrial personal property. New Grove, fiscal year 2026. We came in at three. million, $530,622, which is fairly respectable, but it's down from where we've been. We've had terrific new growth for several years. Our three-year average is 7.7%. 4 or 5 million dollars. and it's funny because when I load the new growth into the Department of Revenue screen, they have it built with warnings and they came up and said, your new growth is less than 50% of your three-year average. Are you sure you want to put this in? I wasn't sure I wanted to put it in, but I knew that was the number.

So that's where we're at. going into next year just the multi-family market we had about a hundred and so forth. So we have $400,000 in new growth. Our big project here is 104 Main Street. Next year, that multifamily market will be $400,000 or $500,000 in new growth. The single family condominium market is strong. The commercial market is not. The industrial market is going to, there's nothing coming online. there may be a lease up discount here and there that may come off, but we're basically, a lot of it's gonna get pulled from the residential value next year. So that 3.530622, we need to go into the levy for fiscal year 26. calculating the levy. Last year's levy, $168,575,918.

We're going to add 2.5% to that for Proposition 2.5. We're going to add in the new growth. and we're going to come up with our budget of $176,329,38 I believe. We need those numbers because we want to calculate a single tax rate to start with. Calculating a single tax rate levy divided by the total assessed value, which we just saw, gives us $13.45. So here are your shift options. Actually, you can shift anywhere from one even, no shift, up to 1.75. We did this in 10 increments and 5 increments once we hit 150. As you can see, if you don't shift at all, The residential class is going to pay $126 million.

The commercial class is going to pay $49 million. and you will have the same percentages as I just indicated. 72% of the share is gonna go to the residential class. 28% is going to the commercial class. Those are the options all the way through. One point of you'll notice the residential rate on a single rate would be $17.24 the commercial rate would be $13.45 and that is because the residential exemption you build into the class. So you're excluding a whole lot of value for all the folks that have the residential exemption So you're basing what you're going to raise on that lesser amount. And that's why you would have a tax rate higher for the residential class than you would for the commercial class if you decided not to split the rate at all.

We'll go all the way down to 1.75. This is the maximum you can split. We projected a tax rate of $12.21 for the residential class and $23.53 for the commercial class. They're paying just about even. The residential class pays a little bit more just because the residential values went up this year. but you get that $37 million figure of what you would save from the residential levy putting on it to the commercial levy. So this is, city manager alluded to this earlier, I just wanted to put this in perspective, the shift of 1.75 versus 1.5.

if we did not have the legislation which this council filed the resolution for and got the legislature to enact with Watertown's reps and senator shifting 1.75 you will save the average taxpayer $3,640. If you only were able to shift 1.5, you would save about $2,427, which leaves you a difference of $1,213. So that's the additional amount we are saving the average taxpayer by being allowed to shift to the 1.75. For informational purposes, we're glad we're able to ship the 1.75, and we hope to be able to continue to do that. Community comparisons.

One of the things is real estate taxes don't happen in a vacuum. All the communities are affected typically around us. It's good to compare Watertown with your neighboring communities to see if there's anything askew or anything that someone's doing better or someone's not doing better and see a benchmark for how the city's doing. this is for fiscal year 2025 because fiscal year 2026 we don't have the rates yet we don't have the rate for Watertown and we don't have the rates for any of the other communities but as you can see Watertown when we were able to get to the 1.75 shift we dropped down, we're the second lowest of the neighboring communities as far as a tax burden for the average residential property with the residential exemption.

last year was $6,886 for the average residential value with the residential exemption and by far that is the only one who's beating us out is Waltham and we're going to have a tough time ever overtaking them. um, If we take a quick look back at the average residential values and the taxes for those, I have included 2026, the projections, The average bill with a residential exemption this year is going to be approximately $7,363. That is up from the $6,886 by just under 7%. But if you take a look at that, and I'm going to show you one further slide.

Three years ago, we were at 7307, which was prior to getting the special legislation. So in that three year time frame from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2026 now, that's about a $50 difference, $56 difference. and even if you go back to 2016 where we had an average tax bill of $5,666. you are about $1,700 higher. over, this is actually over 11 years. So that is not a bad place to be. It's under 170 bucks a year and it's under 3% a year. which leads me to my next slide, which was omitted from your packet.

So you gotta look at the screen. This is the only slide that happened to. What I did this year was I took a look at the community comparison, but I did it by a 10 year increment. So on the first column, We have all the municipalities, but on the second column, you have what the taxes were in fiscal year 16. Then you have it followed by what the taxes are for fiscal year 25 for the average residential value. You've got the tax dollar difference. for those 10 years, followed by the percentage difference for those 10 years, and then followed by what the divided number is per year for those 10 years and the difference in percentage for those 10 years.

as you notice Watertown is pretty much in the same place as far as the community comparison goes, but the difference between fiscal year 16 and fiscal year 25 We went from 5,666 to 6,886, which was last year's. That is $1,220 difference. That is $122 per year. that is a 2.15% increase. you said to me in fiscal year 16 for $122 a year you will have two new elementary schools and a brand new renovated third elementary school and a new high school and a paid off pension system. I would doubt you, but this has been done and overall the taxes here are a very good deal. So we'll pass that along.

And that'll be available tomorrow because that slide was omitted from the presentation. that really sort of covers where the values are and what the split options are. The second part of this is a residential exemption. Watertown has had the residential exemption for 35 plus years. The residential exemption is a reduction of a fixed assessment amount off the average residential value. to qualify it must be, you must own and occupy your house at your domicile, which means this is your home. when you leave and you say I'm coming home, this is where you're coming to. You vote there, you pay your taxes there, you have your excise tax there, that's what qualifies you. The exemption is the same fixed amount for everyone and the residential exemption is revenue neutral as I previously indicated.

with the investor class paying those, the larger residential apartment buildings are really the ones who are picking up the majority of the tab on that. The Board of Assessors has always weighed in on the residential exemption. It used to, because we didn't max it out until last year, so there was always consideration of raising it. We went to the max last year. the Board of Assessors is not going to recommend any different. We're recommending maintaining the max this year. and all likelihood Ford, unless something really strange happens. The value exclusion for this year would be $324,715, which would equate to a tax savings of about $3,965.

In summary, last year's average residential assessment was 907,035. This year, 927,756, about a 2.2% increase. tax rate's gonna be up. Last year's was 1168, this year's is gonna be 1221 provided the council adopts a residential exemption with the 35% maximum exclusion. and Schiff's 1.75. That is how it's laid out. That's how we get to the average residential tax bill with the exemption, which would be 7,363. And again, we just take a look at where the values have gone. Commercial industrial personal property is down like 17 million, it's pretty even, but the residential class has been strong throughout.

So we're up approximately $250 million on that. which leads us to our final recommendations, which would be the council adopt the maximum shift allowed by law, which is the 1.75, and the council accept the provisions of Chapter 59, Section 5C, approving the residential exemption and 35% value exclusion from the average residential property value. I'll take any questions you have.

thank you very much this is also a public hearing so if there's any member of the public either here at home wishes to speak please raise your hand Seeing none, close the public hearing and ask for a motion from the City Council.

Mr. President, I think we should have two motions. The first motion would be to adopt the maximum shift, commercial shift allowed by law, which is 175%.

Is there a second?

Second.

Discussion? Feltner.

So just clarifying, we can go ahead and vote on that even though we don't know about the home rule petition.

This is just for this year.

Okay. Thank you.

this is the last year we're allowed to do it under the current circumstances.

And to clarify, thank you.

And just clarification, Mr. President. Yes. Each vote, do we have a discussion on each vote or do we make the motion? Yes, yes.

Okay. So this is the first one.

Okay, and we can have a discussion on this before we...

Yes. Okay, wonderful. We need discussion on this. So I have, go ahead.

Okay, thank you. Earl, thank you for the presentation. I'm working for a state agency that monitors city and town finances. Watertown is well regarded from statewide and both from the state and the envy of our peers. You mentioned a figure that we had a new growth number of 3.5 million or so. What is the actual percentage of the levy? What does that equate to? We have 2.5% automatic. for Prop 2 1⁄2.

So the overall increase from last year to this year is overall is like 4.59%.

Okay, so it's roughly 2.2 percent, which are strong numbers in perception of a down economy, so that's extremely commendable. and so with that in mind I know you recommend well I guess the 35% can wait to our next motion.

That's the next item.

Yep, and so I just want to commend you and your efforts and the city finance team in general for getting us these numbers and also, it's not just the finance team, it's the economic, Community Development Agency that seeks out and attracts new businesses which provide our new growth.

I couldn't do it without Steve Magoon.

And something could be commended and celebrated, so I thank you for that. You're welcome.

Any other comments? Roll call, please.

Garner.

Yes.

Councilor Izzo. Yes. Councilor Palomba. Yes. Councilor Piccirilli. Yes. Councilor Bays. Yes. Councilor Feltner. Yes. Councilor Gannon. Yes. President Sideris.

Yes, thank you. The next motion, please.

I, Mr. President, make a motion that we adopt provisions Chapter 59, Section 5C, approving residential exemption of 35%.

Second.

Discussion? Gannon.

Yeah, thank you. And also from my agency that we look at towns that seek to get a higher percentage of beyond the 35% number. for the residential exemption. Some go up to 40% and there's legislation even making up local option to bring it up to 50%. What are the pros and cons of raising up, essentially raising up the residential exemption would put more tax dollars into the pockets of resident homeowners and shift the burden to other taxpayers who don't live in town and don't own property, well, who don't reside here. So could you tell me the pros and cons of raising, going beyond the 35% minimum at the residential residential exemption amount.

certainly the pros are just what you just stated, giving a larger tax break to people who are domiciled here. The cons of that is it's, for a $4,000 residential exemption, you have incentivized a lot of people to mistreat the truth. And people who move, they do not tell you, they do not even change their forwarding address for their mail. So we spend a considerable amount of time tracking down folks who have rented, who have left, who have bought a house in Winchester, bought a house in Arlington. They're renting their condo. they're telling nobody. The tax bill is still going to that condo. You are in a constant state of investigation. So that's the only, that's the really downside of that.

The investigation has determined whether someone's actually domiciled?

Yes.

Yep. Yep. So that equates to a higher or correlates to a higher percentage of the residential exemption. There were more folks claiming domicile.

so actually probably would not matter that much if they're doing it at four grand, they're gonna really do it at five grand.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay.

Right.

Thank you. Any other questions? Again, thank you for your always informative presentation. It's not always good news. but I really appreciate the slide with the 10 year average of our comparison communities and I think that's an important piece of this. So again, thank you. And we have a motion and a second, roll call please.

Gardner, Izzo, Palomba, Piccirilli, Bays, Feltner, Gannon, Sideris.

Next item is number seven, which is motions, orders, and resolutions. And as I stated at the outset, the discussion on the potential action of middle school is tabled at this time. The next item is a resolution approving the acceptance of gifts of tangible personal property in the form of six picnic tables from Home Depot. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mr. President. This one is just as it sounds. Under Chapter 44, Section 53A and a half, it authorizes municipalities to accept gifts of tangible personal property with a vote of the City Council. The Director of Public Buildings has indicated that Home Depot has generously donated six picnic tables to the City of Watertown. We're placing two of them at the Parker building for use by employees and visitors there and the rest to be determined but want to have the council accept this generous gift today. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. Can I get a motion on the gift? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Committee reports. 8A is a Committee on Education and School System Matters report regarding its meeting on October 28th. Councilor Izzo.

Thank you, Mr. President. The Committee on Education and School System Matters convened on Tuesday, October 28th at 5.15 p.m. in the City Council Office. The purpose of the meeting was to conduct interviews with two candidates for reappointment for the Watertown Cable Access. Board of Directors, President Ware, myself, Emily Izzo, Chair, Nicole Gardner, Vice Chair, and John Rajan, Secretary. First up was Matthew McCarthy. He has a degree in communications and understands the importance of WCATV. He sees how much the school department uses WCATV and knows how vital it is not only to the students as well as the residents of Watertown. As he settles into this initial term on the board, he will provide a source of oversight as well as being a valuable resource during his time in the field as experience to help guide the board. Mr. McCarthy feels a couple things he would like to see improved is outreach to multilingual students and families as well as promoting the news coverage that WCATV provides.

Erasion made a motion to recommend the City Council approve the appointment of Matthew McCarthy to the Watertown Cable Access Board of Directors with a term expiring September 15th, 2028. The motion was seconded by Councilor Izzo and passed two to zero. Next up was David Stokes. Mr. Stokes will be entering his fourth term on the WCA TV board. He's been a valuable member and feels he will continue to bring his experience to not only the board but to the staff as well. He's watched staff that started at WCATV grow into their role and become well-trained, valuable employees. He's been working closely with the executive director on defining a proper budgeting process. Mr. Stokes believes this is vital as we are losing 10% of cable subscribers each quarter to streaming services. There is a serious need to find ways to generate income. As the subscribers go down, so do the fees we collect from Comcast. He's hopeful the outreach and the fundraising coordinator will be able to identify new revenue.

Action item, Councilor Erasian made a motion to recommend the City Council approve the reappointment of David Stokes to the Watertown Cable Access Board of Directors with a term expiring September 15th, 2028. The motion was seconded by Councilor Gardner and it passed three to zero. the meeting adjourned at 5.50 p.m. and the minutes were prepared by John Ration.

Thank you. Can I get a motion to accept the report? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. can I get a motion to approve the appointment of Matthew McCarthy and David Stokes to the Watertown Cable Access Board of Directors for terms expiring September 15, 2028? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Next item is the Committee on Rules and Ordinance Report regarding its meeting on October 7th. Councilor Gannon.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. So on October 7, 2005, at 6 p.m., the Committee on Rules and Ordinances met at the Mestrangelo Chamber with hybrid participation. present were myself as chair, John Amoresian as vice chair, and Lisa Feltner, secretary. Also present, Laurel Schwab, sustainability program manager, McGoon, Assistant City Manager for Community Development and Planning, Councilor Nagel-Gardner, and via Zoom, Councilor Bays, Dean Martino, and Greg Riemann of the Charles River Chamber of Commerce. The agenda was to discuss a draft ordinance relative to food and beverage single-use items. I called the meeting to order at 6.05 p.m. for the Department of Community and Development and Planning to present a report for a new ordinance that particularly focuses on reducing single-use plastic utensils per city council referral.

Sustainability Program Manager, Laurel Schwab, shared a presentation, which is attached to these minutes, showing how a draft ordinance aligns with our Climate Action Plan DCBDP staff consulted model legislation including the nationwide skip the stuff campaign by waste reduction advocates and they reviewed some efforts and newly adopted policies and bylaws and ordinance by neighboring municipalities such as Newton, Needham and Wellesley. State legislators have also been working on bills to reduce plastic waste, including prohibiting a retailer from providing customer with disposable food serviceware unless requested by the customer, while allowing for self-service or, if requested, access to non-bundled single-use food serviceware not made from black plastic.

The discussion included questions about online ordering platforms use, availability, and potential additional costs, particularly for small, local, and beverage businesses. which are approximately 85 restaurants. Our health department enforcement goals and suggested levels of fines, approaches to educating the community, allowing discretion and enforcement in our exemptions with a quote, quiet warning, unquote period for successful compliance. asked for examples of suggested signage, flyers for locations to inform customers and employees about the Skip the Stuff campaign attached. what stakeholders had been contacted, including businesses at Arsenal Yards. A survey and its results, conducted by our economic development planner, Erin Rath, will be forwarded for the committee report attached.

Reducing single-use plastic items has been a topic in our region, but the staff will actively work with businesses so that these requirements won't be onerous for compliance. and they will be sensitive to current inventory overstock items and businesses purchasing strategies. The overall intention of the draft ordinance is to reduce the number of single use items. some dine-in restaurants have increased their online business given impacts of the pandemic and changes in consumer preferences but the committee feels we should be cautious about affecting small businesses that they may not have a dishwasher or that experience, a breakdown in equipment or staffing constraints. Restaurants and other communities have embraced the efforts because it has saved them money and been fairly easy to satisfy.

We continue deliberations to understand the implications of each section, including definitions in the proposed ordinance that prohibit non-plastic items such as napkins and wood chopsticks, and how they could impact casual restaurants that sometimes combine waitstaff and self-service operations. Discussion also focused on section B of section 117.05 restricted packaging. Mishwa clarified that Needham and Wellesley policies are narrow in scope and don't include restricted packaging at all. Mr. Riven shared concerns about items included in Section B with restricted packaging parameters that can lead to additional cost given limited alternative materials that food businesses feel are commercially viable.

He will email feedback based on his experiences in the regional chamber and include examples of community communication materials for Skip the Stuff, which are attached. I also read some language from the City of Newton's effort that is part of a larger sustainability ordinance and broader in scope concerning packaging materials. Ms. Schwab offered to reach out to Newton officials to learn about the results over the last year and the full implementation was expected on July 1st, 2024 for Newton. We don't want customers to blame businesses for materials that can easily leak or equate skip the stuff objectives with inferior customer service. It was decided that providing napkins feels like a common courtesy, so we agreed to strike napkins as an accessory item in Section 117.02 .

The committee acknowledged limits in recycling due to the size and or materials, although the small four ounce sauce cups aren't currently recycled regardless of color. The committee agreed to keep the prohibition on black plastic for all packaging given its ongoing association with health and environmental concerns. After reviewing the draft skip the stuff ordinance, which is attached, red line copy and marked up copy is attached along with a clean version to these minutes with motions by Councilor Zorajan and second by Councilor Feltner, the committee voted on amendments to section 117.02 definitions in D, full service food establishment, two to one with my dissent. and an H, single use food wear accessory, that vote was three to nothing. And in section 117.05, restricted packaging,

to vote was to strike entirely. That was a vote of three in the affirmative. And there's an action item. Oration made a motion, seconded by Councilor Feltner, to recommend the amended draft skip the staff ordinance with additional supporting materials from Department of Community Development planning staff. to City Council for consideration and adoption. That item was voted three to nothing. The meeting adjourned at 7.21 p.m. and I want to thank Lisa Feltner for compiling the minutes and the attachments and I should note that the attachments include the marked up draft skip the stuff ordinance and along with Department of Community Development Planning staff, Laurel Schwab's presentation with supporting materials, and there were emails from Barbara Ruskin and from the Charles River Chamber of Commerce with its supporting materials. Thank you.

Can I get a motion to accept the report? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The action item is this is going to be placed on a future agenda for a first reading and then a public hearing and action will be taken. So thank you. The next item is communications from the city manager and A is proposed changes to the current demolition delay ordinance. Mr. Manager.

Thank you Mr. President. There should be attached to the online packet and distributed by email to the council the memo and adjustments to the demolition delay ordinance. As you may recall, Mr. President, you requested at the January 26th City Council meeting that the Department of Community Development and Planning conduct a review of the demolition delay ordinance On April 8th, the administration submitted an eight-page memorandum with supporting documentation outlining 11 potential measures for consideration. that those 11 measures which are on page 8 of the attached April 8th memo of them items 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 were recommended amendments to the ordinance The other items were about applying for grants, doing neighborhood surveys, having an on-call consultant, some other regulatory items that weren't specific to the ordinance itself.

the committee met on May 7th and held a substantive discussion on the proposed measure it was agreed the administration should return with draft language including essentially within the draft language all of the proposed amendments in the April 8th for the committee to consider and review as written into the ordinance. Therefore, the document, the attached ordinance does incorporate changes identified and items 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 of the April 8th memo. The ordinance does one step beyond that though. It fully rewrites the document to be clearer and operate in a manner that will that reflects essentially in many ways what the committee already does and reflects it in a way that is more user friendly and understandable.

I've been involved in writing my share of demo ordinances a few too many times in my life at this point I think and took the chance working with the team to take a shot at reorganizing this in addition to incorporating those sections. so in the ordinance that's attached what we've done is we've done some reorganization we made a couple of other adjustments for instance adding a line to the purpose statement that's in the typical model ordinance under that circumstance, clarifying the definition of building, adding a number of The key part here was getting the specific requests for change in and doing it in a way that really walks the commission and a member of the public through the process of the determinations of significant building, preferably preserved building, and then whether or not a demo period should be included in, for example, as requested number eight.

It also establishes that the council may determine that a building may be demolished after completing conditions rather than waiting through a demo review period if they determined that instead of a delay they'd rather have photographic or architectural documentation. all of those things, all of these concepts that were discussed in the committee are incorporated into the draft that is with you and I look forward to a referral to discuss this more with the council committee in the forthcoming days.

Thank you, Mr. President.

There's economic development.

For zoning. It's economic development.

We'll send it to economic development and planning. I still, that's fine. We'll start there. We'll start there. Thank you.

Mr.

Manager, you can continue.

Thank you, Mr. President. I am seeking a resident to serve on the Residence Advisory Committee, which helps to recruit and evaluate candidates for the City's volunteer boards, commissions, and committees. This committee works with the City Manager to promote diversity in appointments, as specified in the charter, including diversity and gender identity, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, along with following a whole other bunch of processes to do recruitment and continue to broaden the recruitment efforts for the 25 plus boards and commissions that the manager appoints. This committee has been extremely helpful and successful to me in the way that they vet candidates and make some great recommendations to me to bring to the city council. in terms of where to work, in terms of appointments to boards and commissions. I will note that while the process of this election caused two members to resign,

one early on that has been replaced, and the other, Theo, who will be joining the council as a councillor in January. The work that they all did, the initial committee, including Theo and Tom, as well as the group the one replacement we've made so far and hopefully the one we will need to make in the near future has made this committee really helpful to me in the process of what I have done. Because the Residence Advisory Committee vets everyone else for me, this is the only committee where I get to interview all of the candidates who apply. who I want to review and consider for the committee. So it's quite a bit of work for me to do this, but I want to make sure I get this committee appointment right because it's so key to so many other things. to the council and members of the public. If you know folks who might be interested in joining the Residence Advisory Committee, this is a hardworking group. There is a lot to it, but I really do appreciate it.

the work they do and with thanks again to both Theo and Tom for all the work they have done in the time that they served on the committee and I now need to fill this one more vacancy and appreciate the opportunity to do so. I would like for a moment, Mr. President, if I may, to allow Mike Maselli to report the next item on the on the manager's report this week, which relates to the tree lighting that we do at the commander's mansion every year. So if it's okay. Welcome, Mr. Maselli.

Good evening, Council President Sideris, honorable members of the Watertown City Council and Watertown residents. For those that may not know me, my name is Mike Maselli. I am the forestry supervisor at the Department of Public Works, and I am the tree warden for the city. I would like to share some news regarding an Arbor Day celebration I'm planning for the city. In my corner of the world, I like to think that Arbor Day is every day. While Arbor Day celebrations typically take place in April, I thought a little bit of a different approach would be welcome this year. With that in mind, I am organizing the planting of a new tree at the Commander's Mansion that can be a focal point for seasonal celebrations and provide a welcoming space for residents to gather and further bring our community together. My hope is that this tree will grow to become a lasting symbol for our community and our commitment to climate and environmental stewardship. This tree is to be planted shortly and will be formally introduced to the community during the Merry Mingle at the Commander's Mansion December 6th, which will also serve as our Arbor Day celebration.

I would like to invite the council president and honorable members of the city council and Watertown residents of the tree lighting to celebrate this great step forward for the city. In light of this announcement, I will be providing our Arbor Day proclamation to be read into the record at the next city council meeting Tuesday, November 25th.

Thank you. Thank you very much for the news. Mr. Manager.

So thank you, Mr. President. We look forward to having a permanent planted tree to light every year rather than having to bring a cut tree because this will... will provide years of both holiday festivities and the sustainable benefit of another tree in Watertown. So thank you very much and thanks for your support on that. For the last announcement I have this evening, I want to start by noting that in the midst of our conversations about setting the tax rate this evening and we were talking about the work of all the people that go into building and maintaining a very stable and growing tax base that I think in addition to giving credit to our finance team for all the work they did, someone said we couldn't do it without Steve Magoon. So that's what makes this next announcement a little bit difficult for me.

Steve Magoon, our Assistant City Manager for Community Development and Planning recently shared with me that after a long and very successful career in public service, he intends to retire from his position at the end of January. Steve shared the news with his staff and I wanted to make sure to share the news with all of you and with the public at this point so in the coming weeks I know we'll have a chance to celebrate Steve and his accomplishments in Watertown For tonight I just wanted to note that I greatly appreciate Steve's work over the many years in Watertown, most especially in the three years that he and I have had to work together, although I have known him as a colleague long before I knew him as an assistant city manager for me. and really appreciated everything he's done and all the work he's done guiding his team in some very successful endeavors here in Watertown. that I first got to watch from afar and then got to participate very deeply involved in over the course of the last three years, most significantly completing the last update of the comprehensive plan,

and working on the Watertown Square Plan and then serving with me as a member of my senior leadership team as an assistant city manager. I continue to appreciate his understanding of planning and of the Watertown community and can't help but note that he's a person in my team whose institutional knowledge has been very valuable to me over my time here, knowing the who, what, where of Watertown over the time that he has been here. While I will miss having him here as a part of my leadership team once he retires, I ask that you join me in congratulating Steve on his forthcoming retirement. and being that there's no way to talk about replacing someone like Steve, I will note that we will be posting the assistant city manager for community development and planning job in the coming days. Thank you. That is all I have this evening, Mr. President.

Thank you. We'll have a lot more to add to that later. Requests for information. Any requests for information? Councilor Gannon.

Yes, thank you. So this goes back a ways, but in fulfillment of our climate action plan of acquiring more open space. So the city owns a piece of property right next to the, facing North Beacon Street around the corner from Greeno Boulevard. And it abuts the new DCR improvements that lead to the trails that go into the former General Service Administration site, and it's also between the T.H. McVey property. So I was involved as a young junior attorney for the city of Watertown in a land encroachment issue. So there's been no use of the property whatsoever by Watertown and it would make a, where the DCR has a trail leading from the property into the the GSA site.

I'd like to see the parameters of the property so that we can have a future discussion as a city council what that property can be used for. So maybe that's in the Department of Community Development and Planning. There are legal records I worked on 30 plus years ago that acknowledge the existence of that parcel. I'd just like to know where the parcel is, how much space is, and potential for use of Green Space, or even parking that support the green space. So thank you.

Any other requests for information? Announcements? Any announcements? I have a couple of announcements. First of all, we're gonna have a special meeting next Tuesday evening. There are gonna be three items on the agenda. The first item will be a budget amendment that we had a first reading for recently. The second item will be a discussion of the administrative code that the manager submitted. There will be additional supporting documentation coming forward for that before the meeting. and this meeting will start at six o'clock here in the council chamber. And the third item is something that I wanted to bring forward for council consideration because I think it's, we all, listened to a lot of people last winter about the winter parking ban.

So I've had several conversations with the city manager about this issue and would like to bring for consideration a temporary modification just for this winter season because the manager is trying to finish up a parking study it's not going to be done in time our typical winter parking ban starts the Sunday evening after Thanksgiving and runs through March 15th. I had some discussions with the manager of trying to shorten that from potentially December 15th to March 1st. but then in consideration of we always give a certain period of time at Christmas time to remove it. And in this particular year, those kids in school are gonna have two weeks off. two full weeks.

So what I'm going to be putting on the agenda, a temporary modification of the winter parking ban to start on January 1st and end on March 1st. In addition to that, we're going to be discussing modification to the fines for snow emergency situations. if we have a snow emergency, particularly in this modified period, even if it's December 15th and we have a snow emergency, we can call a snow emergency but our parking fines are minimalistic and nobody seems to want to worry about the fine so they leave their car and we plow around them. So that's another consideration that we're going to be having is increasing the fine

but we're also going to be encouraging people to sign up for notifications to make sure they get emergency notifications for the snow emergency because that's an important piece of this modification. and I also, this gives us an opportunity, the final tax bill for calendar year 2025 goes out around December 30th, the 29th, 30th, or 31st, we will be able to put in that tax bill a notification for how to sign up what the modified what the potential modified parking ban would be and the new fines. So I think that we will be able to get that out. And I think this is not what everybody was asking for that night. But in speaking to the manager who spoke to the staff in the public works and police department,

they thought that until we get a real study completed that this was a step in the direction that helped a little bit so I'm looking for that will be on the agenda as well for discussion and potential action by the city council Public Forum. Any member of the public wish to be heard either here or at home, please raise your hand. Councilor Piccirilli has one that was emailed in.

So I received an email from Rita Colafella. It says, unfortunately, I cannot attend, but I want to give comments for public forum regarding the middle school. I strongly urge the council not to go forward with the building a new middle school at this time. The volatility being created by the current federal administration does not create much confidence. Many businesses and banks recognize this, and Watertown should exercise the same amount of prudence, if not more. I am not opposed to building a new school in five years or to even bringing the current one up to code so it is compliant with the ADA. Thank you.

Thank you. Can everyone please rise for a moment of silence in memory of Mr. John Erasion? Can I get a motion to adjourn? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you.