City Council 08/19/2025

Okay, I'd just like to welcome everybody to the Worcester City Council meeting. If you can, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and the Star-Spangled Banner. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, undivided,

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? At the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes and bright stars Through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched Were so gallantly streaming And the rocket's red glare The bombs bursting in air Gave proof through the night That our flag was still there O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

Can you please remain standing for a moment of silence for Police Chief Gary Jem, who is a dedicated public servant, Police Officer Matt Holman, and of course our community activist, Bill Coleman.

Thank you.

Yes.

Yes, Police Officer Matt Ullman was a Air Patrol Officer, correct.

Okay.

Okay, Councilor Toomey's holding 12-9B, a five department item under privilege. Then we'll go approval of the minutes that the City Councilor C. Worcester hereby approves the minutes of the City Councilor, I'm sorry, we should do a roll call. Roll call. Councilor Bergman. Here.

Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj. Here. Councilor King. Here. Councilor Mero-Carlson. Here. Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda. Here. Councilor Pacillo. Here. Councilor Russell. Here. Councilor Toomey. Here. And Mayor Petty.

Here. 5A, that the City Councilor Cielusa hereby approves the minutes of City Council meeting of July 24, 2025, roll call.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Colorio. Yes. Councilor Haxhiaj. Yes. Councilor King. Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen. Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo? Yes. Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. Mayor Petty?

Yes. Okay. Public participation, we forgot this one. I know some people here speak on 9D, which is sidewalk free service on Havilland Street. It should have had three speed humps in there, so I think that'll be amended by Councilor Bergman when we get to that.

Let me do that now, Mr. Chairman.

Okay.

There was a typographical or a clerical error. 90 should, in addition to what it already says, include further Councilor Jenny Pacillo and Councilor Morrissey-Bergman on behalf of Paula Rosenblum at all requests speed hump plan associated with Haviland Street be amended to include three speed humps with as equal distance from each other as possible. Thank you.

As amended, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo? Yes. Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. And Mayor Petty?

Yes. Okay, we have public participation. A person may speak for no more than two minutes and any other appearing on the agenda. So we just need names, city of residence, Mr. Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I also wanted to read the public participation rule. At every meeting of the City Council under public participation portion of the agenda, the Chair shall recognize any person seeking such recognition for the purpose of addressing the Council on any eligible item on the agenda. For the meeting, any person who wishes to speak more than on one agenda item shall combine their testimony to all items to one appearance at the microphone. And the time for speaking shall not exceed two minutes for any one speaker or 30 minutes for all speakers.

So if you want to come up to the microphone, there's your name, see your residence, and the item number you're speaking on, or the subject matter.

To the Chair, Dave Dick, 39, Thorndike Road. The question is about the... City Council, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland,

I think that's an order by Councilor Pacillo, but I think, no? A national grid? We can call you tomorrow.

It was not, we had almond butter, so it came in the mail.

Oh, you received a notice? Yes. Okay, so we'll get back to you tomorrow on that.

Okay.

It's not on the council calendar tonight.

Okay.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Councilor Pacillo, you'll take care of that tomorrow? Okay, thank you. Mr. Dick, were you talking about Beverly Road or Thorndike? Thorndike you said? Okay, sorry, Thorndike. Okay, next is your name, city residence, and item number.

My name is Jessica Saxon. I'm from Washington, D.C., and this is regarding 25C. I need to provide public notice. This is in accordance with USC rules of civil procedure as well as Rule 17 and Rule 20 from the United States Supreme Court. The Constitution for the United States is the overarching requirement that every state must follow. I trust that all of you here would agree with that. States are not able to enact their own alternative legislation and substitute that for the guarantees of the Constitution. That would mean that your state laws are more powerful than the Constitution. That would be simply unlawful. Clause 1 to Amendment 5 states that no person should be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment or indictment by a grand jury.

Can I just ask you what item you have?

You don't mind stopping my time?

Mr. Cork.

Okay.

25C. We don't have a 25C. I apologize.

It's 25C.

We might have changed the number, maybe.

At least on the agenda item that you guys had out there, recommended adoption for finance regarding the police department. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you so much.

What's that? It's on the finance item, Mr. Cork.

Mr. Chairman, just to clarify, my understanding is the participant is stating 25C on the manager's item, which is a transfer from the fiscal year 25, cost center, police department, ordinary maintenance, is that correct?

Yes, that's correct, sir.

Okay, go ahead. Okay, we can continue with your time.

Thank you so much. Clause 1 of Amendment 5 to the United States Constitution says that no person should be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment or indictment by a grand jury. However, the state of Massachusetts, unfortunately, has enacted an alternative legislation that permits your prosecuting attorneys and your police officers to charge by way of information as opposed to indictment as required by law that is unconstitutional. And emolument violation is when you pay public officials to break the law. The first area that reinforces this in the Constitution is Article 1, Section 10. That's where it says that no state shall create or enforce any law that shall impair the obligation of contract. So police officers, your prosecutors, your judges, they're all under a contract. That's the contract to perform based on their oath or affirmation that they took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. So when a state enacts a law that directs their agents to disobey that law, which is the Constitution of the United States, that would be a violation of Article 1, Section 10. The other area is the 14th Amendment that states no person, I'm sorry, that states no state shall create or enforce any law that shall bridge the privileges and immunities of United States citizens. I'm here to provide notice that you cannot continue to pay public officials to commit crimes. You cannot support that.

Thank you. Our next speaker.

Name, seat of residence and item number.

My name is Tanner Wood-Downing, and I'm a civil rights advocate and litigator from Washington, D.C. So, Ms. Saxon, to provide a little bit of a lead-in, I need to provide a little bit of clarification to all of you. This is the exact same item, number 25. So, if your police officers are going out and relying upon an inferior state statute that permits them to charge a person improperly in violation of the Constitution of the United States, they're committing a crime. It's called deprivation of rights under Colorado Law. It's Title 18, Subsection 242. So, I have approximately 32,000 criminal affidavits on behalf of victims. Point of order, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, point of order. Reclaim time. Excuse me, 128 you got, what's that?

Point of order. If this is about the item that they're referencing, I don't see where it is.

It's on the finance item?

Yeah, I see the item, but what's that got to do with what these folks are talking about? I would be happy to explain.

Okay, we'll give you a few minutes, because I'm a little lost here too, so.

Can I explain outside of my presentation, Your Honor?

No, just go ahead. Go ahead, we'll continue.

Mr. Chair, I'm gonna start the clock again.

So the first crime that these affidavits identify is deprivation of rights under color of rights, Title 18, Subsection 242. What that statute says is that any person who, under the color of any state statute, ordinance, custom, or regulation, deprives any person of any rights secured by the Constitution commits that crime. The second crime that these affidavits identify is Title 18, Subsection 241, which is conspiracy to deprive of rights. That states when two or more persons conspire with the purpose of depriving any person of any rights secured by the Constitution commits that crime. Now, the laws of criminal conspiracy state that any person who, having knowledge of any of the wrongs conspired to be done and who have the power to prevent or aid in the prevention of a commission of the same, neglects or refuses to do so, may be joined in the action. So upon having been provided this notice that you guys are paying for law enforcement to go out and commit an unconstitutional act, I would ask you guys to please step up, discharge the duties of your office, fulfill the obligation promise that you made to the people of the state of Massachusetts, and let's choose to protect, defend, and preserve the Constitution for the United States. Now I know that you're going to go to your attorney. You're going to ask your attorney whether or not what I'm saying is true. That attorney's going to point you to a case from 1884 called Hurtado v. California from the United States Supreme Court. And before you guys choose to rely upon that as the foundation, I want to remind each and every single one of you that the Constitution of the United States of America is the foundation, not a judge-made ruling. The Supreme Court of the United States has no constituted authority to be able to alter, amend, or destroy any of the provisions or guarantees of the Constitution. That must be done by an authentic act of people in accordance with the special amending procedure of Article V. And if you don't mind, I will explain

How this applies. We're good, thank you. So are you representing yourself here or are you representing a serve?

We have 32 affidavits on behalf of victims here in the state of Massachusetts that have been charged improperly. We're trying to avoid having to convert those from affidavits into criminal complaints. So we're asking you to please correct these unlawful acts. I have noticed I need to give to the record.

Okay, thank you.

Where would you like me to give the record, sir?

The next speaker.

Len Zeloskas, I'm from Worcester. I'm here to talk about suggestions to make the speed bumps more palatable and stop signs. Like for instance, I go over Beechmont Road almost every day and there's essentially seven stops So you go through six of them. There's four speed bumps and a stop sign. And then at the end of either way you go, there's a stop sign. So that's six intrusions. And so there's no notice. Like if I know that there's speed bumps on a road, I try not to go that way. Now they just put some speed bumps down on Flag Street near the school. And so I just go the other way. It did the same thing when they put speed bumps down by Park Avenue, by Elm Park. I can't think of the name of the road right now, but when they put speed bumps there, people just went to the next couple of roads up. The other problem with them is I didn't have notice. I was going down the street and boom. And thank God I have a Toyota truck. And so my car didn't get wiped out like it has before. And the other thing is that I'm... Just out of curiosity, is there any kind of data that shows what the impact of these speed bumps are on a vehicle per mile, say 10 miles, or 15, or 20, or 25? I don't know if you guys ever saw any kind of data that shows the impact of this on these cars. Because the big issue is, for me at least, I've seen a lot of poor people, including my kids, who they drive over this car, I mean drive over the speed bump, and the speed bump basically loosens their rusted parts and they drop off their cars. And so they're doing damage to people's cars.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Wayne.

Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Is our next speaker your name and see your residence?

Can you hear me? There we go. Good evening, Sean Brennan, 145 Front Street. I'm here to speak on behalf of 15E. I'm a lifelong Worcester resident. If none of you recognize me, I'm an architect, I'm a dad, I'm a business owner. I spent more than the last 15 years working on projects to strengthen our city and communities across central Massachusetts. Worcester is my home, and I'm proud to be supporting the Claremont Tiny Home Project. I've taken on the support of this project pro bono because I believe deeply in its mission and its potential impact. We are facing a crisis that touches our neighbors, parents, and grandparents, senior homelessness. Between 2018 and 2020, senior homelessness in Worcester rose nearly 29%. and nationally older adults represent almost half of the homeless population. This is not just a statistic. It's people in our neighborhoods who deserve dignity and stability. The Claremont Street Project delivers safe, permanent and cost-effective housing that is appropriately scaled so it does not have an adverse effect on the neighborhood. These modular ADA accessible units will provide stable home for seniors. Each unit costs significantly less than the conventional low-income housing approaches and can be ready in six months. Both fiscally responsive and compassionate, a real solution we can replicate. The project also has ties into the broader housing challenges Worcester faces. The Harvard Joint Center on Housing Studies projects Massachusetts will need 220,000 new homes by 2035. The Gateway City's housing monitor put out by Secretary Augusta's office says Worcester rents went up almost 40% in just four years. outpacing incomes and pushing seniors on fixed incomes into crisis. The Claremont Street project is exactly the kind of small-scale neighborhood housing that we call missing middle housing that Worcester once built and now urgently needs. Together we can show that Worcester invests in not only buildings but in the dignity and future of all its people. Thank you for the time today.

Thank you. Our next speaker.

All right, hi guys, I know you remember me.

Is your name City of Residence, an item number?

You don't remember? I'm kidding. Mario from Miami, the person that applied to 400 jobs, six included, for the city as your intern. To make $15 an hour, I did apply. I applied to work in the garage. I applied to be a clerk.

Do you have an item number on the calendar?

No response. However, I did get a job. After you guys made the city the sanctuary city for transgender, then I got fired from a job

Okay, this isn't the proper venue for that.

No, I'm speaking as it relates to 15E, so now we have to stop the time over. Okay, I'm sorry. You interrupted me. I'll give you a few more seconds, go ahead. No, we have to go from the top, because now we're conversing as it relates to what? Go ahead. We're not gonna start.

We can start again if she wants.

There we go, thank you. So as it relates to 15E, which speaks about the tiny home, correct? So after not getting the jobs that I wanted, it took me probably two to three months to get the jobs. After getting the job, I got fired for obvious reasons. Now that case is being litigated right now for obvious reasons. So that again led me to not have a job, to then now having a job. As soon as I got the job, I tore my MCL. I got kicked off of mass hire within a week or two of having that job. Now my paycheck for the first month, They took out almost $700. So now I'm not covered on the mass. I am paying for my visits to the doctor. And that's hindering me from being able to afford the $1,800 one bedroom houses here. So now I don't have a place. I don't want to keep going in a cycle of not having a job or anywhere to live. So as it relates to 15E, how is it that a place that's deemed to be a sanctuary city for single transgender women like me, making it Easy for us to having a job and to have a sustainable life to be able to work and live without having any government assistance. Because how are we supposed to pay for almost $2,000 one-bedroom houses? So it's kind of like an oxymoron that we're providing free buses to the residents that live here that does not have a job. And the ones that do have a job is getting taken $700 out of their paycheck and having their health care cut. So how are we supposed to be able to put together the money to help to fund our pockets to pay for these tiny homes? Passing so many of the infrastructures, they say that they're like awarding those to women with kids. Majority of the people that I've met here on the low-income housing, they do not work. They get subsidized. So as a working person with a bachelor's in construction project management that understands how economy work, it's an oxymoron to have free public transportation to attract people with low income that are not working to overpopulate and saturate the city for people

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Wonderful. Good evening, Councilors. My name is Debbie Hall. I'm a Worcester resident and the founder of Worcester Black History Project. I'm here tonight to speak in strong support of item 9E, the request to designate the section of Winfield Street from Park Avenue to Mason Street as Bethany Vini Way. Bethany Vini was a remarkable woman whose life and legacy deserves to be recognized and honored in the city she once called home. Born into slavery in Virginia in 1812, she endured unimaginable hardship, but she never gave up her pursuit of freedom and dignity. She eventually purchased her own freedom and that of her son, and in 1858, they made Worcester their home. Here in Worcester, she became an active member of the African American community and a respected resident of the Laurel Clayton neighborhood. Her 1889 autobiography, The Narrative of Bethany Vaney, A Slave Woman, is one of the few firsthand accounts of slavery written by a woman. It stands as a vital historical document and an inspiring testament to resilience, faith, and hope. Naming a street in her honor, especially in the neighborhood where she lived, would not only celebrate her contributions to Worcester, but also affirm this city's commitment to remembering the stories of those whose voices have too often been left out of our public spaces. Bethany Beeney's life is part of Worcester's history, and honoring her in this way gives our community an opportunity to learn, reflect, and take pride in the richness and diversity of our past. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Idella Hazard, 15C, Perot of Khrystian King, requesting the Human Services increase social services regarding the and more social workers and clinical outreach staff. I also think that it's time again that we look into sheltering for the winter and hopefully once again we can open up the registry of motor vehicle on Main Street for them which also brings me to Mayor Joseph Petty's requesting the city manager to update looking into the tiny homes again. That was a concern I think like six years ago and I guess they did a couple. And then to 15H per Councilor George Russell request the city manager once again consider and Councilor McFarland. We end up doing spring cleaning, fall cleaning, buying new furniture, and we have to get rid of the old, and we have to take it someplace. It adds up, and we need some place to take it. And we do pay taxes, so it makes sense for us to be able to take it to the city dump. And it should be free of charge. It would be a great benefit to city residents. Thank you.

Thank you. Senator?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Manager, members of the Council, Robin Kennedy, Worcester resident. I'm here to also speak on 15E, request the City Manager provide City Council with an update concerning tidying home projects in the city, including such a project on Claremont Street, As was noted, elder homelessness is the fastest growing segment of the unhoused population. Here in Worcester, homelessness amongst people 65 plus grew by 29% between 2018 and 2022. This is a city crisis, but I'm here tonight because I also know that it requires a state response, and I'm here to stand in partnership with the city in addressing this crisis. Tiny Home Model, similar to the project anticipated for Claremont Street, provides the opportunity for an innovative solution and the type of city, state, and philanthropic partnership we need to address this challenge. The modular homes are safe, accessible, and tailored to seniors' needs, single level, ADA accessible, equipped with safety features. The project provides independence, dignity, and a community and green supportive environment. and Tiny Homes can be produced more efficiently and cost effectively. Units can be ready in six months at less than 25% the cost of traditional affordable housing. In partnership with United Way, Worcester Community Housing Resources, Open Sky Community Services, supportive services including case management, health coordination, life skills training, mental health support are also going to be provided. The state is already a partner with DPH funding, mass DPH funding. We are also working with the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to secure vouchers and additional support. We look forward to continuing to partner as the state in supporting the city, both to get the report from the city manager, but hopefully to also continue with projects such as this. Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Chandler.

Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm here tonight to endorse Mayor Petty's agenda item number 15E, which looks at new and different approaches to dealing with homelessness. As city councilors, you are closer to your constituents and thus to this problem than any other governmental unit or agency. You know that in Worcester, homelessness has been on the rise. You know that it impacts so many other aspects of life. And you know that like so many other cities and towns in the US, we've been fighting a losing battle. and you know that according to data from the Central Mass Housing Alliance, while homelessness has increased over all age groups, the most notable rise has been within the senior population of 65 and over. Good people have been struggling with this difficult problem as long as I can remember. As a state senator, I chaired the Housing and Urban Development Committee in the legislature for four years and accomplished very little other than personal frustration. Yet while the task force, in Worcester's five year strategic plan, there is special focus on reducing homelessness. In Worcester, yet while the task force identified a need for 103 units of permanent supportive housing, to date there are only four completed units available for the chronically homeless in Worcester. The process to create affordable housing has been slowed by factors such as zoning regulations, funding capacity, and the pandemic. It has also been complicated by the reality that Worcester has one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in the country. And while much housing is being built, most of it is very expensive market rate housing. Mayor Petty's agenda item speaks to a new and different approach to dealing with homelessness. The tiny homes approach is an innovative collaboration between United Way of Central Mass and a host of community partners. Worcester Community Housing Resources is the owner of the property and Open Sky Community Service will be the service provider for the project. Both are well known in this community providing services to a range of ages and abilities. The critical innovation here is a modular home designer builder now based in Worcester who has the technology and the know-how to construct as a demonstration project four 624 square feet individual housing units City Council, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, They can be combined in different orientations to fit particular sites and do not require the use of large transport trucks, cranes, road closures, utility line drops, and other costs incurred for more traditional construction. These savings are important, as is the ability to connect with and other supports and services for this vulnerable senior homeless population. The potential of this collaborative approach is really exciting. Our vision is that as a community, we use these four tiny homes to prove The efficacy of the process. To date, we have architects, lawyers, engineers, builders, funders, social workers, and others in the community. Can you wrap it up too? I have two more lines, two more lines. Oh, thank you. who are enthusiastically donating their time and expertise. It is our belief that we can make a major dent in chronic homelessness if we can be open to a new approach to an old problem. We have learned in other sectors that if you keep applying the same solutions to the same problems, you get the same results. I think it's time for Worcester to try another approach.

Thank you.

That's it. Thank you very much.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tim Garvin. I represent the United Way. I am humbled to speak after Senator Kennedy and Senate President Emeritus Chandler. I will be very quick. I was on the phone at about 10 of 6 with a friend of mine who works for a federal legislator who works in a different city than here, and I told him what I was doing, and he said, you know, that's the difference between my city and Worcester. In my city, we complain about the issue, and in Worcester, you get to work and you make it happen, and you create creative solutions. This is literally creating from hope to home. You've heard it's efficient. We've put up $100,000. We have another $500,000 that have been raised. Four tiny homes for under a million dollars. They are presentable. They are beautiful. Thank you, Sean Brennan. They are going to be built here and they will be built quickly. We invite you to the grand opening, we hope, in early October. Thank you very much. I'm giving a minute back to whomever is next.

Thank you.

Hello. My name is Kiara Munns, and I'm a District 2 resident. I'm here in support of adoption of 15C, 15D, 15O, and the housing production plan item 18A, why I wrote this. I'm thankful to Councilors Mero-Carlson, Pacillo, and Toomey for moving the plan to council. Thank you. Worcester is in desperate need of more housing supply. Without supply, we don't have affordability, and our neighbors pay the cost. I'm a downtown renter. I see the skyrocketing property costs reflected in our homeless population. I want to emphasize, the highest correlator to homelessness in this country is not poverty. It's not mental illness. It's not unemployment. It is housing cost. If the poor and mentally ill can afford housing, they no longer struggle on our streets. To help them bounce back, I support 15C from Councilor King for expanding our Health and Human Services Department. But the strongest long-term solution to our homelessness crisis is 18A, the Housing Production Plan, where we can encourage many small developers, like the tiny homes people, to build more housing to make our communities more affordable. I do not believe we can rely solely on big developers to bring down costs with luxury housing. We can barely trust them to build what they said they would. As a downtown resident, I'm constantly frustrated by the Notre Dame lot. Thus, I am in support of 15D, a report for requiring green spaces for underdeveloped lots. These lots should serve our community instead of sitting vacant for years. Thank you, Mayor Petty, for the idea. In line with the values of the housing production plan, I am finally in support of 15-0 from Councilor Haxhiaj. I believe protecting tree shade like that at the Notre Dame lot will make streets more livable and eliminating parking minimums will encourage construction of that valuable housing stock we need. We must make it easy for small developers to build inflil housing in neighborhoods that can support even the most basic walkability. I hope my comments portray my gratitude to the wide range of Councillors with their parts to play in making this city more accessible and livable. Let's make this city fuller and more affordable than it is today. Adopt 18A, 15C, 15D, and 15O.

Thank you. Thank you. Should names see a residence item number?

Hello, my name is Natalie Turner. I only need a minute. And I am speaking on, under Orders Number 14, I'm speaking on 14B, the order for Councilor Etel Hadjiyeh about the request for a review of the Beaverbrook softball field, permit holders for usage in the sound systems, and all of the complaints by the Park Ave. residents. I am a lifelong resident of Worcester. I am the eighth generation here in this city. I am a Nipmuc tribal member as well. So my roots stretch back to thousands of years before the city was even here. And it is very disappointing that I live in an area where I grew up and to see it decline so badly and be neglected. The Beaverbrook Park area was once a, you know, Place everybody loved to go and nowadays it's not that way anymore. There is constant alcohol drinking from this particular league. There is sound from 9 a.m. till 9, 10 o'clock at night when we as residents have to call the police. After a while, most of these people in that area have stopped calling the police because there's been no response from the city council. There's been no response from the city manager's office. And when I say that, please, city manager Batista, it's not directed at you. and City Manager, it's at the institution of city managers before you. I did put in a petition in April, April 15th of 2023, which this body did hear and agree that the sound ordinance should be reviewed. And to this date, it still has not been reviewed and neither has a committee been formed that the city manager did put in for that order. And thank you very much.

Is your name city residents and item number?

Good evening. My name is Sabrina Deasy. I'm a property owner in District 3. I'm here today to speak about item 10S, a safety concern affecting my property, myself, and my tenants. The business next door at 84 Blackstone River Road has installed a sign directly onto the sidewalk. The sign obstructs the view from my driveway, making it nearly impossible to safely exit without pulling out into the lane of oncoming traffic. As you can imagine, this creates a daily hazard, not just for me, but for my tenants and anyone visiting the property. When the business owner first purchased the property, he was cooperative and agreed to move the sign. However, since then, not only has the business's sign been placed back onto the sidewalk, but he has begun parking vehicles on the sidewalk as well, further blocking visibility. These actions have made an already dangerous situation worse. I've made multiple attempts to resolve this directly and respectfully but the issue persists. I'm asking the council to intervene and help enforce sidewalk regulations that protect public safety and ensure fair use of shared space. No resident should have to risk an accident just to leave their driveway. I appreciate your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Hello, Amanda Shearstone, 36 Knox Street. I'm talking on behalf of 13A, the allowance of chickens in Worcester. I have said before, there's already a dozen of families that have chickens in Worcester, and it seems like there's minimal complaints. With inflation and costs going up, having one or two flocks in your neighborhood would actually help reduce a lot of waste. I'd encourage everyone who's voting this year to know where city councilors stand on the allowance of chickens as it is a voting year and I know that this is about requesting a creation of a task force which I have been trying to help with for years and I am here with my expertise of whatever I can do with that task force. I would be happy to join it. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Paula Rosenbloom. I live at 19 Haviland Street in Worcester. I'm here to speak on behalf of Item 9D. As I said, as a resident of Haviland Street, in the beginning of June, we received notice that there were going to be speed bumps installed on our street. on two speed bumps, one located near number seven and the other near 17. If you're familiar with our street, it's a cut-through street. It's got quite an incline. People are speeding at excessive speed. There are people who come down there at 50 miles an hour sometimes. It's quite absurd. But our concern when I saw this notice and spoke to my neighbors who also signed the petition, we have 27 of us who signed the petition, that we really need consideration for three speed bumps placed in intervals that will slow down the traffic. and so I did contact Steve Rall, the Commissioner of Transportation and Mobility but I unfortunately didn't get a chance to speak to him and that's why I sought some assistance from Councilor Bergman to submit the petition for consideration and then also the other Thank you. Thank you, everybody.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Dan Didi, 223 June Street. I am here to speak in my 1 minute and 53 seconds remaining on item 10J, as in June Street. Without getting into a great deal of detail, there has been a problem on June Street, as there have been across the city with speed. And one comment that I've heard this evening in the time that I've been here is speed, speed bumps, and what have you. So we have to tackle that. This is not the time or the place I am here to just present this and I'm recommending speed bumps however however I'm also recommending or asking for the opportunity to present to subcommittee of which this will probably be referred to subcommittee and then together together to address the issue on June Street and how that resolution whatever it may be will also address issues of speed across the city I look forward to my discussions with subcommittee and I did that in a minute and just about a minute. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee.

Thank you, you had three. Is your name, so your residence and item number?

Yes, Fred Nathan Worcester. So item six, which has a 6A about keeping the city clean. When you have a city that's dirty, it's kind of the same kind of concept of broken windows. More windows get broken. If there's a lot of trash in the city, more trash gets dumped in the city streets. As far as the item about conflict of interest of the city councilors, I'm going to just assume, and I know they always say don't assume anything, but I would think every one of these councilors here owns their own place. So if you ever try to have a conflict of interest, Who's going to vote if no one on the Councilor King take a vote? Just a little thought in my mind. I don't know what it's all about, but number 18 in the finance, 18C. What do they need to borrow money for the DCU? What's going on over there? And... 24B, $88,000 for damage to a vehicle that's no fault. What did they do, total it? And 15E, anything that can be done to, because let's face it, there is a lot of homelessness. In case no one knows, There are 3,000 homeless people in Worcester County.

Thank you. Okay, with that, we'll go on. Anybody else?

Hello. My name is Jacqueline Weber. I'm a resident of 11 Catherine Street. I wanted to speak in support of 20Y, which is about the restrictions of parking on Catherine Street in front of the home I live in. The traffic down Catherine, as many others have voted or mentioned, is very fast. People speed quite frequently. and having parking in the block that I live in, it's the block from, I'm sorry, the first block of Catherine down to Adcare. When you have people parked in that area, The oncoming traffic end up taking up more than half of their lane, and it really creates a safety issue. It also, for me, as the only driver at this residence, pulling out of my driveway is incredibly dangerous and very difficult. I've nearly been hit more times than I could tell you. and even when I'm walking through the area, the crossing walk is obstructed a lot of the times by people parking there and people are unable to see you when you're crossing. So I just wanted to come today and communicate my support of that issue. So thank you.

Thank you.

We'll start with the online callers. First one is David Webb. Please state your name and city of residence and the item you're calling on.

Yes, my name is David Webb. I'd like to note that police and... Mr. Webb, you're breaking out. As anyone who's confused, tell you that there are thousands of dollars and Lowe. This item varies in parts. If this council understood the data, you would know it doesn't actually have safety. Mr. Webb, we're having a hard time hearing you. The meetings should not be this morning. 12b, I'm strongly against the Councilor Maddox's manager giving no problem at all to the city solicitor. 12c, I'm more concerned about developer husbands or when an entire professional fine tower winds than if the council orders from the building manager. There's a lot of conflict of interest to discuss. 14-A feels like a silly waste of time, but 14-H, I, J, K, and L, and 15-A-B, yes, leaks, stop poisoning the leaks, and maybe start actually taking care of them. 14-M, congratulations Worcester, you somehow made the website worse and harder to use, almost like you're trying to create a metaphor for the administration. 14U, maybe our police department would have been diligent too if it wasn't known for being evidence-planting rapists who cover up for themselves. Requiring legal evidence from TC, and we've got a notice at the top. 15C, thank you, Councilor King, for pointing out that Worcester's current cash release plan isn't working. that we get a new plan, not just more funding for the so-called quality of life trashers. While tiny home plans from three election cycles ago will help, your city needs actual long-term solutions and actual resources, as well as to stop actively making the problems worse. Thanks.

Thank you. The last next caller in the user is Natalie Gibson. I'm going to try to meet the resident now. Please say your name and city residence.

Natalie Gibson, Worcester, Mass. Can you please do me a favor and let me know when my time is about to expire because I don't hear a tone on my end. Thank you. 8A, thank you to the administration for the communication on the streets and sidewalks. The progress of that. I'm wondering if it would be able to, if you guys would be able to put it on the website so that the residents can refer to it. 9E, I do agree that Winterford Street from Park Ave to Madison Street should be given the honorary name of Bethany Varney Way. Tensey, Curb extensions on both corners of the intersection of Mason and Chandler Street. I agree with this because that is one of many long stretches between traffic lights to cross. I know that DTM was talking about moving one of those crosswalks anyway because it's in a precarious position. 10G, no. Also, I am speaking on my own thing as well. 10G, no parking anytime sign removal on Glenny Street. I hope this isn't at the corner where the gym is located because it is already hard to see vehicles when you're around in the corner, which has vehicles parked on both sides. So that is a dangerous corner. 10Q crosswalks between 335, 337, and 338 Park Ave. I am opposed to that because we're expecting a pedestrian to hopefully cross four lanes of traffic unscathed.

You have 20 seconds remaining.

Thank you. 10U, I'm talking about repainting the... the double yellow lines on Mill Street because it's not there and also 10V repainting, sorry, that was the white line. The double yellow line is 10V and that is on Cove Street. We've been waiting for it since November of last year. That is also a very dangerous U-turn, hairpin turn. Can you tie this up? Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, the last speaker is Alina Bluto. Please say your name and city of residence.

Hi, my name is Alina Bluto and I'm a resident of Worcester. I'd like to speak on 6A for keeping Worcester clean. I just wanted to raise concerns that I have a four-year-old son. I have brought him to two different parks in Worcester, one fairly new, Coal Mine Brook and There have been many hypodermic needles, glass crack pipes, empty baggies. This is not only at Coal Mine Brook, this is another park in Worcester. off of Elm Street. Just yesterday, I brought him to the countdown to kindergarten at the Polar Park on the sidewalk directly across from the park, walking to the event, three needles, two crack pipes, one switchblade knife open on the sidewalk. And so I'm just wondering, I guess I just wanted to state my concern that I don't feel that myself and my son should have to leave public, like this is a playground, multiple playgrounds that due to the homeless population and the substance use disorders that they suffer, this is a space designated for children. I don't think that it's fair or right that we have to leave because there's paraphernalia all over the place in spaces that are designated to children. Again, bringing him to a city event for the public schools yesterday. I just think it's out of control and I'm hoping that the city can do something about it. And that's all I have, thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we're gonna end that. We're gonna go back to the agenda. We get hearings and orders 7A and 7B. Motion is to open the hearing, roll call.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj. Yes. Councilor King.

Yes.

Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes, so motion is to the opposition of Beverly Road and Harrison Street for condo locations, Councilor Pacillo.

I know Mr. Dick wants information on the one for, oh no, that's Beverly, never mind.

I think he wants Beverly Road. He said Thorndike.

It's Thorndike. Yeah, I'm sorry. They're right next to each other.

I know.

Is it Thorndike?

Three chairs of the council. So basically, I spoke to the resident. We notified the butters of Beverly, including Thorndike. That's why I was here tonight. I provided him the communication that we received from National Grid. I think he was looking for the timeline of the work being done. So I can touch base with him because I do know him. He lives on my street.

Thank you so much.

So anybody in opposition to these items? Seeing none, the motion is to close the hearing and to approve 7A and 7B roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Yes. Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Yes. Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo? Yes. Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes, okay, 8A, Iowa City Council, County and Mayoral Council, as Chair of the City Council Standing Committee of Economic Development, in accordance with Rule 33 of the Rules of the City Council, request Council suspend its rules as August 19th, 2025, meaning to take up the report of the Planning Board upon the petition of Joshua Lee Smith on behalf of the Wolf Farms LLC, request to amend the zoning map of the City of Worcester, as referenced in Article 3, Section 2 of the City of Worcester Zoning Ordinance, by changing zoning designation of the properties identified below from their current zoning designations are Residence Single Family RS7 to a Residence Limited RL7 as shown on the map attached here too. The properties include the properties known and numbered as 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 40, 42, and 44. Maldon Street, 1-6 Maldon Terrace, 1-3-5-7, 8-9-11, 12-14, 15-16-17, and 18 Reynolds Street, and 8-85, 9-15, 9-19, 9-21, and 9-23 West Boylston Street, represented by the petitioner and referred to the State and Community Economic Development on item 15A on the June 10th, 25 City Council agenda, along with related items pending before the committee. The first motion is to suspend the rules and adopt on the roll call. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman?

Yes.

Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo? Yes. Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. And Mayor Petty?

Yes. Okay, next motion on this is to advertise the proposed ordinance. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Yes. Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. 9, I'm sorry, 8B, in accordance with Rule 33C of the Rules of City Council, request City Council suspend its rules on August 19, 2025 meeting to take up an item not reasonably anticipated that the City Council or the City of Worcester does hereby convene an executive session at its August 19, 2025 meeting for the purpose of discussing litigation strategy with respect to the case of the town of Holden versus the Department of Conservation and Recreation and another pending in Superior Court for the county of Worcester case number 23P-794 as having such a discussion in open session would be detrimental to the city's negotiating position. The City Council will not reconvene in open session as we'll take this at the end of the meeting. Roll call.

Mr. Mayor, maybe we can take the roll call at the end of the meeting.

Okay.

Because then you won't come back. So we'll just postpone to the end of the meeting.

So we'll come back and remind me. Okay, petitions. We have several petitions. So we have part one, which is 9A to 9Z. We have Petitions Part 2, which is 10A to 10Z, which is referred to traffic and parking. And the previous one was referred to Public Works. And also 9A was referred to Public Works and Parks. And so that's 9B. We have Petitions Part 3, referred to traffic and parking. For 9, 11A, 11B, referred to the Law Department. 11C, Senate hearing for September 9th, 2025, 630 for a condo location on Herman Street. And 11D, for a condo location at Harrison Street. And 11E, condo location at Winfield Street. Take those collectively on the roll call. Councilor Russell?

Mr. Chairman, 10S, can we send that to the Traffic and Mobility Department, to the administration, please?

Okay, that's 10S.

Yeah, just looks more administrative. 84 Blackstone River Road. Instead of waiting for here, yeah.

Okay, we'll send that to the Department of Transportation and Mobility. Take that circle. Yes, Mayor.

Can you give me?

Oh, I thought I heard somebody, okay. Yeah, that was me. Oh, I'm sorry, Councilor Ojeda.

Yeah, just on 10Q, I was hoping to, you know, maybe amend it or add to it some way to add the flashing light, the beacon light. It's the flashing beacon lights at the crosswalk. Someone did mention earlier the distance someone has to cross. I drive down Park Path pretty often and you know, I think we do need some beacon lights if we're gonna go forward with the crosswalk. So I just wanna try to put that in there as well.

Okay, so we'll take 10Q as amended and 10C send that to, I'm sorry, 10S send that to mobility and transportation and take these collectively on a roll call, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. So we have communications of the city manager. The first is appointments, 12.1 A through E. A is communication to the manager recommending the appointment of Shepard Allen to the Trust Funds Commission. Second one is recommendation of appointment of Michael Murphy to the Worcester Ballpark Commission. Third one is recommending appointment of Christian Roberts to the Elder Affairs Commission. D is the recommend the appointment of Erin McElhody and attending the term of expirations of Cassandra, I think it's Tortisi, Chris Melchati, and Angelique Webster to the Worcester Arts Council. In communication, CMU has recommended the appointment of Daniel McAuliffe to the Commission of Preservation of Historic Artifacts, Relics, and Military Memorials. So motions, I want to thank them for their service. And this motion is a file, roll call.

Yes. Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj. Yes. Councilor King. Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. The next item up is communication and manned recommending of the appointments of Kelly Broeschel and Sarah Garrys to the Citizens Advisory Committee and Councilor McEvoy. I recommend the appointment of Joseph McEvoy to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board of Trustees. Motion is confirmed with a roll call. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo? Yes. Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. Mayor Petty?

Yes. We are on 3A, City Manager recommending adoption of proposal, fiscal year 26 salary ordinance amendment, motions recommend the advertised proposed ordinance, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes. Next item is communication team manager recommending the adoption of a corrected zoning map amendment for 18 Mountain Street East. Recommend an advertised proposed ordinance, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, next item is communication team manager, transferring information, communication of the quality report on Keep Worcester clean and clean city initiatives. Motion to refer the public works. Mr. Chairman. By doing so, Councilor Russell, Councilor Pacillo.

Could we also take 15G and 15H too, same conversation?

With those audits?

My audits dealing with the drop-off center and the same issue.

Hang on. 15. I love the new number system we have here.

15, I think it was. It's hard to follow because

I know.

Our numbers are not in order. We go from 27 to 13 on page 18. I don't know how that works. Okay. 15, what was it again? The brothers at St. John's would scold me if I did that.

Okay, what was it again, Councilor?

15G and H, I believe. Okay. On page 25.

25, 15, okay. Go ahead, Councilor.

Mr. Chairman, first of all, I want to congratulate the administration, the manager, the commissioner of public works on this initiative and this push for the clean cities. Basically, it's something that we, on and off, have talked about for a long time. I'm very happy to see some of the initiatives that are put in place, some of the things that many of us on the Council floor have talked about before, and that the administration, the previous administration has talked about, even tried to do previously, but kind of got off track. And I'm really happy that the administration has moved forward with this, you know, all hands on deck, full court press. I was disappointed, to be honest, Mr. Chairman, to find out that the drop-off center was still, was booked up so fast. I think the manager told me today it was probably the 10th or something like that of the month and all the appointments were taken. So I'm just asking through my two orders here that I'm joined with many of my colleagues, I think five of my colleagues signed on to this item also and I welcome them to This is something that I've talked about for probably the last 10 years. And I think it's a great, great idea and that's why it's so popular. That's why those slots filled up so much. But I really think that the administration needs to take a closer look at why the drop-off center is open by appointment. And even a closer look of why it's open only a couple days a week for that drop-off of those slots that are available. And I think that maybe even we need to go outside the box and think that if we for some reason as a community, as a city, can't handle it there, Maybe we should be coming up with alternative plans because it's pretty clear that folks want a place to bring their bulk waste items. And the recycle center, you can go in there and drop recycling off. You can go in there without an appointment and pick up yard mulch or whatever. and I just would encourage the administration to take another close, close look at getting access to the community there. One of the most frustrating things for me over the years is the District 3 Councilor is fielding complaints about dumping, especially dumping on Granite Street, only a couple blocks away. You know, if somebody goes to the gate there and they're told, sorry, you don't have an appointment and they're sent on their way, especially if they don't have a line. I know they've had a busy few days there lately, it's it's really not acceptable and i i would encourage the administration to take this whole thing one further and for the people that are making appointments in the month of august since the city made that that offer of a free drop-off let's honor it in september at least as that people have called and put appointments in for september because august was filled up in 10 days well let's honor it in september in september you know mr chairman one of the things uh years ago under the previous administration I asked for a report to say how much money was being generated in fees. And at that time, the fees were only $30,000 thereabouts, give or take a couple of thousand. And that was when we were charging $10 and $15 for most items. This administration is taking the initiative to lower those costs down to like $5 an item on a regular basis. So I'll bet you that I'm not going to bother the administration with a report again, but I'll bet you it's not much more than that $30,000. If it is, I'd be really surprised. So we're collecting $30,000, but we're paying staff to do that. Why are we doing that? Why don't we just make it free for residents to go in there without an appointment, get rid of their stuff, do the right thing, and give them a place to do the right thing? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. So we'll send those to the City Manager, and I'm sorry, probably to Councilor King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly support this. I know Councilor Russell and I had this discussion last week as well. These are things that this body has been pushing for in this administration and past administrations, Mr. Chairman. I just want to concur that, you know, when, what happened? Oh, you want to let them go? OK. I forgot what I was saying now. But basically, when you have reports from folks in the neighborhood, and myself have also experienced it, people pulling in, you don't have an appointment, they won't allow you in, yet it's completely vacant. There's nobody using Ballot Street. and, you know, trying to figure that out I think will go a long way. We know that, as the Councilor mentioned, the bulk waste drop-off should be open, additional dates. We do this seasonally. We increase the hours and things of that nature. We're really serious about it. We'll do what this body has requested. All the numerous amount of requests that we've had over the past many years should be implemented immediately. I know today one of the initiatives that I had put forward was to try to work with some of the local community centers, Friendly House, Green Island, et cetera, to make sure that we can also do our part by trying to help out at least a little bit with yellow trash bags for folks who are financially challenged. Through the chair to the administration, can you give an update on what's going on with that particular approach through the chair? Mr. Mayor?

Yeah, through the Chair to the Council, we, you know, that's something that I know this body in conversations had requested, and there was a discussion in this floor, so we were able to fulfill that through the leadership of Commissioner Westerling. We were able to drop off some of those items today to those agencies.

And through the Chair to the Administration, what do you seek to accomplish in doing that?

I think one of the things that we wanted to do is to try to see if we can offer some assistance to some of our residents, especially in those particular agencies that oftentimes come in for services or are limited in resources. Most of those agencies have supported the city in rental assistance programs and food insecurity programs, et cetera. and so we wanted to provide some assistance to them through this one-time initiative and see how that would work and we noticed today that it was well received by some of our agencies in terms of these yellow trash bags.

Thank you and you know I hope to get a report back on the request here to do away with the appointments related to bulk waste drop-off. As mentioned, someone may have to try to figure out a way to keep those particular items at their home, in their vehicle, sometimes for weeks because they can't get back. County, and Councilor McFarland. Councilor McFarland. Councilor McFarland. Councilor McFarland. Councilor McFarland. prior city council orders and recommendations related to how we're managing the trash. There are some great, great ideas from this body over the past few years that have not been recognized. And I think that rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, we should really look at what this council has unanimously supported over the years. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Councilor Pasol.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to agree with my colleagues that having an appointment for the bulk waste site can be really cumbersome. And ultimately, when people just throw their mattress on Granite Street, it's going to end up at the dump anyway. But additionally, I do want to say this report, the Keep Worcester Clean report, is great. The data in it is awesome. And I want to thank the City Manager's Office, Commissioner Westerling, Quality of Life, and all the departments and you know just let them know that throughout District 1 I have seen a difference because of their work so they did a lot of work on Lincoln Street that's appreciated throughout the district and it really does make a difference and residents are noticing it so thank you guys.

Council Member Carlson.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, thank you. So not too long ago, back in June, I believe it was, when I had said that Worcester was pretty dirty. And I just want to say to the administration how much I appreciate them working on a really aggressive, clean Worcester. And I really want the manager and his team and all those involved to understand that the people in the city of Worcester have really seen a difference that you're making. and I know that we're on a mission for a month. I hope that after this month that we don't just stop and not continue to do the cleaning of this city. Mr. Manager, as I spoke to you the other day and we talked about the Belmont Street area and the Grafton Street area along with Lincoln Street, Vernon Hill, the Providence Street area, which those are all areas that, quite honestly, My colleague, Councilor Russell, has talked about over and over and over again, but I do think it's important for you to know that the constituents are recognizing what you've done so far in this city. I do think that to Councilor Russell's point about the bulk drop-off, certainly those appointments filled up, so we definitely need to do and Councilor McFarland. Councilor McFarland. Councilor McFarland. Councilor McFarland. Councilor McFarland. Councilor McFarland. Councilor McFarland. I have one request that when the mayor and myself did the walk in the canal district and there were several departments there there is a trash receptacle that's been there forever nobody knows who it belongs to and I did drive by there today to notice that that trash receptacle is still there and still not emptied and I'm not quite sure and nobody from any of the departments could identify who owns that particular trash receptacle but again just really want to say how much I appreciate all the work that all the departments have done and appreciate Thank you for all your efforts in taking this really serious about, you know, the looks of the city and, you know, everybody saying that the city is dirty. Well, now people are calling and saying that the city looks much cleaner. We obviously have a lot more work to do, but thank you for all your efforts.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to give a shout out to the Department of Public Works. I called Commissioner Westling. We went for a ride around the city. And we scoped the different areas. And right when I had the conversation with the commissioner, he said yes. And the entire team said yes. And let's get to work right away. So I just want to give a kudos to them for going to work. This effort is not just, it was a one-time effort to try to We've been able to deal with a lot of the logs and a lot of the complaints and stuff that we've been trying to work at. The good thing is we've been able to hire a number of DBW employees that's increased the employment of the employees, the number of employees who has helped us to get out there. But we've been, you know, we've been working hard. There's going to be new efforts that are going to be a part of this. But I do want to also want to go back to some of the elements in the report that talk about the Zero Waste Master Plan. and so there's been a lot of conversation on this floor about the drop-off center and many other ideas that we want to take in consideration but we want to look at it holistically and so the zero waste master plan will look at that they will look at the drop-off centers the times the fees the structures that were there so that hopefully we can come out with a plan to better address this situation because we I do acknowledge that issue that we have in the drop-off center and this is something that my 12 years of working here I've heard about it consistently So we're going to try to address that to the Zero Waste Master Plan and try to see if we can come up with some ideas to address on the long term. But again, I just want to be thankful for the Council, but also just thank the Commissioner and the entire team because it's not just DPW. Parks has played a role in this. Department of Sustainability and Resiliency, Quarterly of Life, even the Police Department. I mean, it's been the Inspectional Services, an interdepartmental effort to really help to clean the city in the months of August so that we can then be at a good cadence over the rest of the year and implement all the programs that we want to get done. So thank you.

Thank you. Okay, I'd just like to thank DPW. I was in the middle of one of those dust storms out there on Harrison Street, and I've seen five to 10 vehicles cleaning up a whole neighborhood, so thank you very much. So we will send, along with orders, we're gonna send six A's. First of all, six A's are gonna go to Public Works, 15G and 15H from Councilor Russell. We'll go to the city manager, along with any orders. I'm sorry, roll call.

Councilor Bergman.

Yes.

Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj. Yes. Councilor King. Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda.

Yes.

Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey.

Yes.

Mayor Petty.

Yes. I'll get it up on the roll call. Communications team manager requesting adoption of the Greenhill Golf Course maintenance contract in excess of three years and the option to renew said contract for up to three one-year extensions. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes, I can manage to see a manager transmitting information communication rather than request to provide counsel with a report concerning outreach done by the Greenhill Golf Course staff to invite and encourage Worcester public school students to learn and play golf at the course. We can, thank you, we can file that or we can send it to Parks?

Yeah, we can send it to Parks.

Okay, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, communication with the city manager, transferring information, communication with the street and sidewalk construction progress report for July 2025, send that to Public Works, roll call. Councilor Bergman? I'm sorry, prior to doing so, Councilor Mero-Carlson?

I just want to say how much I appreciate this report that we finally have this as city councillors to see what's happening in terms of the progress for the streets and sidewalks so I want to say thank you to the Department of Transportation and Mobility and I'm sure along with DBW and

City Council, City Council, City Council, City Council, City Council.

Yes. Okay. We are on 9A, Communications Team, Managers Transmitting Information and Communication of the PFAS and Free Gear Acquired by the Five Department. This is under the Public Safety.

Yes.

Roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj?

Yes.

Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson?

Yes.

Councilor Nguyen? Councilor Ojeda? Councilor Pacillo.

Yes.

Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey.

Yes.

And Mayor Petty. Yes.

Mr. Chairman, just point of clarification, could you repeat again who held 9B? I missed that at the beginning.

9B is held under privilege by Councilor Toomey. Okay, thanks. Okay, Police Department, Communication of the City Manager, Transmitting Information, Communication of the Police Party Camera Report. Who said that? The Public Safety, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

We are on 12A, communication with the city manager, requesting review and approval of the amendment to the municipality's organizational ordinances, modifying the department of public works and parks, creating the parks, cemetery, and recreation department, and relocating the design and selection board to the department of administration and finance, and restructuring of the five department. Roll call. Oh no, I'm sorry, I'm gonna send that to the legislative operations committee for a hearing. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes, communication with the City Manager, requesting review and approving the enclosed reorganization ordinance amendment regarding the law department. Also send that to MO also. Roll call. Councilor Bergman?

Yes.

Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo? Yes. Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey?

Yes.

Mayor Petty?

Yes. Communication with the City Manager, Transmitting Information, Communication Relative to the Conflict of Interest Law and Council Participation in Housing and Rent Control Matters. I'm going to send that to MO. What's that, Councilor Bergman?

I'm happy to take an M.O., but... We can file it, too, if you'd like. I'd like to address it, though.

Okay, Councilor Bergman.

I don't know if any of my other colleagues would, but this one's a real head-scratcher, because if you put this... If this gets implemented, which, since it comes from the State Ethics Commission, it's an opinion that we have to follow. I just want the public to be aware. that not only anybody that owns property, rental property, but anybody who's direct family member, which means a spouse, significant other possibly, parent, child, brother or sister, is going to be recused from weighing in on these decisions, which in essence on a number of decisions that will come before this council, some of which are pending. My prediction will be there won't ever be a quorum to discuss these issues. So I don't know if the State Ethics Commission has considered that. I don't know how other municipalities are able to and Councilor McFarland. I don't want to decide on issues when this is in play. But in essence, it's really handcuffing the City Council from doing its business. And for those that say that people that own property shouldn't be allowed to weigh in on these decisions, you know, you can have that opinion. But at the end of the day, it's not just people on the Council that own property. It's their immediate family members. And I can look around this room and I don't We're going to come down close to not having a quorum and plenty of these items are going to get frozen in time and we're not going to be able to address them as a council body. So I know the law department's working with the state ethics committee or commission, I should say, to try to see if there's this is the final decision and if there are any alternatives but for those who who think they've accomplished something by saying you own property you shouldn't be able to make decisions involving property in the City of Worcester you have accomplished something you've now stopped us from making it having any discussion and making any decisions on these items thank you Mr. Chairman

Thank you, we can get, maybe get a report on the quorum issue. I think there is a ruling out there from state ethics regarding quorums and what the government body can do. Regarding if you don't have a quorum, I think there's an exception, but maybe we can get that in the form of a report. So we'll take this, we'll send it up to Councilor Toomey.

Mr. Mayor, if I recall, I think I've heard the rule of necessity be used in the past for votes for certain things if there were conflicts. Could we look into that as well? Okay. Thank you.

So motion to send this to MO. Oh, can you wait? Madam Solicitor, if you have the answer, we're gonna have to get your report.

Through the Chair, so the rule of necessity only applies if the vote or the act is required by law. This was something that I did bring up to the State Ethics Commission and it would not apply here. Okay. At least in the order before you, because it's not required by law. All right, thank you.

Okay, so send that to MO. All those in favor? I'm sorry, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes. Okay.

And then I meant to say to the auditor that Councilor King has held 16A. So if the auditor is here, I'm sure he's in his office, you can go home if you want to. So it's held under privilege. Okay. Okay, we are on 18A, communication of the manager, transferring information, communication of the fiscal 2025 financial update as of May 31st, 2025, and 18B, as of June 30th, 2025, both items collectively referred to MO, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. Mayor Petty.

Yes. Communications Team Manager, Transformation and Information and Communications of the DCU Special Tax District Borrowing. You said that the MO also? Roll call.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Colorio. Councilor Haxhiaj. Yes. Councilor King. Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen. Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo? Yes. Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. Mayor Petty?

Yes. We have finance items. We have 1223A through E, 1224A through E, and 1225A through G. All set, we can adopt those on the roll call. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes.

Okay, we have Chairman's Orders 13A and 13B. The motion is to adopt. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes, 14A, request the City Manager conduct a review of the mail services used by the City to ensure the amount of time it takes for mail to arrive to the destination is reduced. Councilor Toomey.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Very briefly, I was at a meeting whereby a number of residents had not received A notice that had been sent out in more than adequate time. Some had received the notice that day. And so I think it was time. I know that we use a new contract for mail service, and I think that we need to review that to make sure that we're getting the best time for the getting things out to people. So we could just make sure we check on that.

Okay, we'll send that to the manager. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Okay, request the City Manager to request the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation to review the Beaver Brook softball field permit, hold its usage of sound systems and all complaints by Park Ave's residents and related to sound pollution. Councilor Hajiaj?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just an amendment. There should be Parker Street residents. I would really like the city manager and the commissioner of parks to review this as soon as possible. I get calls from the residents on that street almost every Sunday, and it's a reoccurring issue. It is causing a lot of issues. I don't want the league to not have an opportunity to share why this is happening, but the residents deserve peace and quiet. And if they're using alcohol and they don't have a license for that, which they don't, they should immediately cease and desist doing that. It's taking police time away from other issues in the city as well. I've talked to Captain McKiernan many times in our neighborhood meetings, would really like for this to be prioritized, Mr. Manager. Thanks.

Mr. Mayor. Councilor Ojeda.

Thank you. I guess this question would be through the administration or anyone else that can help answer the question. Do we know, through the chair, do we know if anyone has spoken to anyone that runs the league? Has anyone gone over there and speak to people there? This is a league that's been going on for many, many, many years. It's probably an extension of the Roberto Clemente League that's been and I'm pretty sure if someone's able to have a conversation with them, understand what those concerns are and the issues, I'm pretty sure there'll be more than understanding if the conversation hasn't been had. If it's been had, then I understand we need to move forward and make sure we take care of the people that live there. But again, it's a league that's been going on for years. And like Councilor Haxhiaj said, we don't want to disrupt the league, but at the same time, there are people that live there. So just wanted to know if anyone knows if there's been a conversation with whoever's running the league and what's come of that.

Excuse me, if you don't mind, if I could just address.

No, I'm sorry.

Could I ask for suspension of the rules so that she can address the question?

Are we talking about the noise on this thing? Yes. Do we need a roll call? Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes, just one second. Councilor Ojeda, are you finished, or do you have a question?

Yeah, no, the question was if anyone has been spoken to that runs the league, but I think the resident.

Okay.

Go ahead, what's your name and say your residence?

Natalie Turner, the city of Worcester. Just really quick, for most of you who don't really know me very well, I'm kind of not a person that's out here. I am actually a parks commissioner. I do sit on the commission and we have brought them before the commission, both this year and last year, and it has been addressed and it does not stop. And the fact that it's been 15 years that this league has been doing this, and City Manager Patista. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilor King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know here we are again on this particular issue. I just want to hear from the administration or if Parks is on. I think I saw Rob earlier. What has the response been of the Parks stewards? And, you know, I'd like just a little bit of feedback from the city side to the chair.

Mr. Manager.

Yeah, to the Chair, to the Councilor.

Sorry, Park Security, sorry.

To the Chair, to the Councilor, my understanding is that Park Security has tried to address this a number of times, but like the resident has stated, there's been a number of times this has continued in court. This has been brought forward before the Parks Commission. There's been some violations, et cetera. We're going to have to take a different approach to this matter. So based on this particular order and my one-on-ones with the Councilor, this was brought to me. And so I'm going to be addressing this with the Parks Commissioner and trying to find other ways that not only support the resident and the residents in that neighborhood, but also find a solution for that baseball League as well. It's a good league. I understand of that league and the work that they've been doing, but I understand that they also need to behave in a manner that is conducive to the neighborhood. So we're going to find a way. I'm going to work with the commissioner and come back to this body with an update on that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Okay. Okay, so we'll send it out to the manager. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda

Yes. Councilor Pacillo? Yes.

Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey?

Yes.

And Mayor Petty? Yes. Next item is 14C, request the City Manager to request the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation to provide the City Council with a report concerning whether any steps have been taken to create a master plan for Bronco Park. Federal request the City Manager to request the Commissioner of Parks and Rec begin the process of creating a master plan for Bronco Park. If such plan does not exist, Councilor Mero-Carlson?

As it reads.

Okay, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. In question, the manager requests that Commissioner Parks and Recs provide a city council report concerning whether any steps have been taken to create a master plan for Poet Hill. Further request the manager request Parks and Recs begin the process of creating a master plan for Poet Hill if such a plan does not yet exist. Councilor Mero-Carlson.

As it reads.

Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes. Next item is requesting the man to provide counsel with an update concerning efforts made to rename Holland Rink Park to Jack the Short Foley Park in honor of the basketball legend Jack Foley. Councilor Bergman, Councilor Pacillo.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are members of Mr. Foley's family here, particularly John Sullivan, who's a nephew-in-law and his children, great-nephews. This is an item that was brought forward by Councilor Rose several years ago, and There hasn't been any follow-up, so I wanted to follow up on that. In my own research, I discovered that there was an article that loosely ties that field with a naming program that existed in 1995, giving some naming rights to some of that area to Martin O'Malley, who was also an outstanding athlete and basketball player. So there needs to be some follow-up as to What parts of Holland Rink are available for additional naming purposes? I don't want to step on the toes of the O'Malley family if in fact they had any rights to any naming but I think we can do something for the Foley family as well and perhaps one part of the park, the basketball courts, could be named for one and the park itself could be named for the other. I did do some research on the name Holland and that there was a person by that name but I don't think there's any ongoing obligation that whole area morphed into a park through some unusual sets of circumstances which I don't need to get into tonight so we would like to try to get something moving on this I think there's ample opportunity to make everybody happy I don't know what legal course was taken for any naming rights for anybody else but certainly the Foley family would like to see some effort made that some part of the park to be named after Jack the Shot Foley so I'm looking forward to report back from the manager I did speak briefly Mr. Antonelli and he's willing to look into it further so perhaps by the next time we come back we can have a follow-up report and ultimately perhaps it could be sent to the appropriate committee try to get something accomplished in 2025. thank you Mr. Chairman

Thank you.

So we'll send that, Councilor Pacillo, what's that? Okay, so we'll send that to the manager, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson?

Yes.

Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. Will custody manager provide counsel with a report regarding the planning and implementation schedule for sidewalks on the upper portion of Bronco Street? Councilor King. Yes.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj. Yes. Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo.

Yes.

Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. Question manager requests the Commissioner of Transportation Mobility conduct a traffic study in the vicinity of 21 Ellsworth Street to determine ways the city can curb dangerous speeding concerns in the area. Councilor Ojeda.

Town Clerk, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. The question, may I provide counsel through cost analysis of the chemical treatments needed in Indian Lake that targets excessive growth of Laudia, the native plant species? Do you want me to do all these together, or?

Mr. Chairman, yeah, if we could just take, I think it's H through L. It's K-L. H through L? H-M-E-C. I got H. I-J-K-L.

Okay, yep. Okay. All the requests to be managed by Council with a report detailing the treatment schedule for Indian Lake and all lakes under the lakes and ponds management throughout the city. And requests to be managed by Council with a study that determines the best treatments for lakes and ponds across the city. And I request the Standing Committee, is this okay, to...

Okay, okay.

Innovation and technology representatives from the Department of Conservation Recreation to attend the meeting to discuss best practices for treating cities, lakes, and ponds. And request city manager provide counsel through a study determining the environmental impact of fertilizer being washed down into the Indian Lake. What's that, 15 A and B, too?

What is that?

15A and B. Let's move space and maybe those are different. Yes. Those two? Okay. Yep. Custody Manager by Council with the required report concerning the quality of these booth space management, said the report should outline treatment planning timelines and options that are defined for such booth space. And with the required report specifically regarding the review of the 2425 Indian Lake management, said the report should include information concerning nutrient loading and lake aging strategies, lake conditions, related adjustments, and the health of the ecosystem.

Councilor King. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This came out of A bunch of note taken on my phone during some of the community meetings over there led by Councilor Carlson, attended by himself, Mayor Petty, addressing the issues over Indian Lake. As Chairman of Urban Technologies and Environment, I'd like to get this into committee for sort of a tri-annual review and we just want all bases covered. I will say that there's a lot of work that's occurred over the last few weeks and months to address some of the issues on Indian Lake. But I would like, you know, we do have the annual report on our blue spaces that come and are in committee. But I think really what I'm looking for, again, is having all this information so that we can on a tri-annual basis take a look at this and have some city council oversight in support of the councilor of that area, in support of all the councilors that have folks that frequent that water body as well as the other water bodies that we have some challenges with, Mr. Chairman. So that's sort of the spirit of this. And looking forward to seeing how we manage all that. A lot of these questions have been answered. There's still more work to be done. I just want to turn it over to the administration. They can kind of give an update to folks that have not been able to attend such meetings. I know one of the things they're looking for is improved communication. That happens, and we've had the different treatments and management plans. They're really looking for a way to provide additional oversight. So through the chair to the administration, if there could just be a quick response to these items through the chair. Mr. Mayor.

Yeah, to the council, anytime that we can work with the councils, the residents to provide further information. I know that this has been a topic in Indian Lake. We've had some challenges there. We're constantly always reviewing Lake Winsigamond as well, Coles Pond. We've also had some challenges as well. So we'd be happy to kind of work with the council to provide any further updates to the residents as well.

Yeah, maybe at more frequent intervals. That would be helpful. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Quinn. Councilor Mero-Carlson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And as my colleague stated, there's been several meetings over there at Indian Lake. And Indian Lake is very different than Lake Quinsigamond. And Indian Lake is very different than Coase Pond. Mr. Chairman, Indian Lake, Sears Island, which I represented since I've been elected. The other part on Holden Street, when the district was redistricted, that also became D2. So that piece along Holden Street and Shore Drive, I just want people to be clear of what's happening at Indian Lake. Indian Lake and what's happened because four years ago we as a city made a decision to put in the Allium docens station. Prior to that being put in, Indian Lake lots of times was not open because there was all kinds of issues over there with the different bacterias. At that time, Beth Proko was the president of the Indian Lake Watershed Association. And Beth Proko spent every day of her life working on Indian Lake. Beth Proko, every day she spent working on Indian Lake. Beth Proko made a decision a couple of years ago to give up the presidency of the Indian Lake Watershed Association. And we've also transitioned from Jackie Burmeister over to Katie. In those transitions, we as a city, quite honestly, and I've spoken to the manager about this, The communication just hadn't been what it had been during the Beth Proko days and the Jackie Burmeister. And now you have new individuals who are head of the Indian Lake Watershed Association along with we have Katie now who is working on lakes and ponds. So yes, the communication needs to be better. and yes most of this information over the last three months of meeting with the neighbors but again the neighbors called for these meetings called for these meetings because of the property damage to their properties. not just their docks but there are people over there who have walls and their walls had been destroyed and we as a city made a decision in the last two years and it's only the last two years not to draw down that lake and those are that obviously created a real issue for us as a city and a real issue for those who live on the lake so we recognized that in the meetings that we had with John O'Dell was there, Katie was there, and the mayor, along with Councilor Toomey, Councilor Bergman, and Councilor King. but again I think you know that these items are great and we need to do whatever we can do but I also think that it's extremely important to know the history and to also know the reason for these meetings because I know that there's a couple of folks who want to sort of derail this into something different. Again, this is about the people who live on the lake who had damages to their properties. And we want to make sure as a city that that is not happening. And we did, I mean, I didn't get the opportunity to talk to Katie today to see if ComCom agreed to the three-foot drawdown because that's what this is really all about. This is about the drawdown on Indian Lake. We have drawn down that lake for the last, that people can tell me, the longest individual who spoke about this is in the vicinity of 31 years. The city does not even have a lot of these records going back. Mr. Odell tried to get as much as he possibly could for us in terms of the records, in terms of what the cost is for us treating Indian Lake. I will say this to you is for all that's happened on Indian Lake this year, in terms of the bacteria in that lake, It's been, believe it or not, it's been minimal this year because of the treatments that we've put in there this year. So I just want to say thank you to the administration for John O'Dell and Katie and certainly to the mayor being there at all of the meetings that have taken place over there. And yes, of course, it would be good to get a report back, but I don't want any of my colleagues to confuse Indian Lake with any other lake that's in the city because Indian Lake is unique in of itself. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mayor Petty.

I'll be quick. I just want to thank Councilor Mero-Carlson for acquiring Indian Lake and really the recovery effort to the lake. I've never seen, well, the lake was in pretty rough shape with the, like Councilor Mero-Carlson said at the meeting last night, we worry more about non-invasive, invasive, and this was a non-invasive, I guess weed, lack of a better term. that invaded that lake, which helps keep the lake clean. and it worked for a while and all of a sudden it just overgrew and took over the lake. And I want to thank Catherine Liming who coordinates the lakes for us. I think she did a good job responding to this. And it went pretty quickly. This can happen overnight. Katie could be there on a Monday and Friday. She would only do it once every two weeks. You could have a disaster on that lake. So we learned a lot about that, the drawdowns. It's very complicated in the sense, if you draw down the lake, you might get more invasive species that you don't want. So that's why I got to join. I'm trying to think to join Odell, too, what he's done there, too, in really communicating really well on this issue. Because if you draw it down too low, you could get non-invasive species. You have a bigger problem than you have now. so it's a balancing act and I understand the frustration of the people there because they want to use that lake and it was pretty hot weather they couldn't use it or they couldn't boat on it and swim in it at one particular time then we were in about the bacteria the other night how it should be at 10,000 instead of 25,000 and that's why they treated the lakes to keep it low because once it gets to 70,000 you'd have to close the lake and uh So I just want to thank, and we did a couple tours on the lake with some of the people there, and I just want to thank the whole people that live in that lake for really working with us and understanding this. And I understand their frustrations and their anger, and we'll see. Get a report. Yeah, I didn't get to report on Comcom either last night. We'll see what that is on lowering the lake. So thank you.

Councilor King for a second time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Just wanted to reiterate again, there has been some work done, but there was a tremendous amount of frustrations that I recorded on my phone during that meeting. And there's a number of things that I'm looking to get back through all of these orders. And just for some clarification, these are not additional orders, but some of the information that I'd like to see is how we're going to be improving communication and signage for treatments given concerns about inadequate signs during the herbicide treatment. A cost analysis of recent management efforts versus the traditional drawdown approaches. I know that part of adjusting the drawdown depths annually, which my understanding will be starting with around 1.5 feet this winter, is to a degree based on how effective that may actually be in terms of do we need to draw it out even more. and you know monitoring and accelerating what they had called I think they called a project to restore so like a report back on what exactly that's going to be from the city watershed planning that's supposed to address nutrient sources throughout the entire watershed and also You know, I think part of the questions I had was around what the state's responsibility in this. There was a comment at the last meeting about earmarks for this particular body of water. I have had conversations with Senator Kennedy, who's the elected representative, one of the elected representatives in that area, and I know that that has not been a requested earmark by the administration or the Office of the Mayor in the past year or so, or the past few years, so I really have requested that you take a look at that and work with the administration and the leadership of the council on that particular issue, and perhaps there's some Support we can get, but through the chair to the administration, if you could just share with the public exactly the responsibilities of that body of water, state, local, et cetera, through the chair. I don't know if someone's on the phone, but if I could help with that.

Mr. Mayor, sure.

Yeah, three chairs of the council. I don't have a definitive answer, but I know that all bodies of water, we work with DCR and our administration and our team and DSR, Department of Sustainability and Resiliency. So there's a joint effort always to try to provide as much service as we can in those bodies of water. But we can be provided rapport as part of your report.

Sure. Part of this, you know, and again, this is just based on some of the notations I was taking on my phone. In addition to that, trying to balance the long-term ecosystem's health while keeping folks informed. And the Project Restore that I had mentioned is also very, very, very important. So we'd like to get... some of those things. Again, I'm very encouraged by Senator Kennedy's openness and willingness to seek earmarks at the appropriate time upon the request of the city. So also again, this isn't to do anything other than to get this into committee in support of the folks, not just that live there, but also the folks that use those bodies of water. One of the major concerns was safety of folks who were swimming there. as well, and again, appreciate the work that's been done, but we obviously have to keep eye on this, and we can do that through committee as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Councilor King has asked us to suspend the rules, to go back to nine, I'm sorry, for a second time, Councilor Mero-Carlson.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, from what I understand is the vote took place last night with ComCom and they did vote yes on the one and a half foot up to three feet, which is great news for the folks who live on the lake. The other question, Mr. Chairman, that I have through you to the administration, These folks that live on the lake need to rebuild some of their walls along with their docks. So obviously for them to do that, they have to go through ComCom. And for the amount of folks who are going to need to do that, can we, I'm asking for us to work together to work with the folks on Indian Lake to make sure that there is a timeframe and we're working with them to get their properties back up to acceptable limits, levels, whatever. I'm not quite sure, but that's really what came out of last night is that people are concerned that once they do the drawdown and they now have to reach out to ComCom, the time frame is so shot with the drawdown and then the refill. Can they get all that work done? Just as a thank you.

Thank you, so we'll take 14H, 14L, 15A, and 15B, all of the orders. You know, roll call, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Councilor Ojeda? Councilor Pacillo? Yes. Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. Mayor Petty?

Yes. Councilor King has asked that we suspend the rules, go back to 9E on the petitions. We got in the name and rights of Bethany Vaney Way, Councilor Tauhaiji also is on this order, so motion to suspend the rules, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Councilor King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In response to the street naming behalf of Bethany Vini, her family, what's the black history project that we have for Bonetta. You know, I just wanted to just briefly speak about the impact of slave narratives, Mr. Chairman. We know that Bethany Vini, who was called, was not only of African descent, but also of Blackfoot heritage. that her narrative really highlights historical connections between Native Americans and enslaved Africans. She was born into slavery. She had her family split apart, sold away. And she was very resilient. And her slave narrative provides a most powerfully accurate voice of her history, of this country's history, and of black history, Mr. Chairman. It's a story of perseverance. When she established herself here in the city of Worcester, she became a force. in the black community. She ended up purchasing and freeing 16 family members that she brought back here to the city of Worcester. She lived to the age of 103. She could not read or write. She dictated her story and her narrative. and she lived at 21 Tuff Street, which is now 33 Winfield Street, Mr. Chairman. And there were many, many broken promises of freedom that were made to her. And although she was separated from her family, her journey to freedom was due to her unwavering perseverance. And I really look forward to this going to committee. Again, thank you to all the family and folks who are part of this. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we will send that to the PACs and Public Works Committee. Public Works.

Roll call. Just Public Works, right?

Public Works Committee, yeah. I said PACs by accident. Okay, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

We are on 14M. Councilor Pacillo, request City Manager request Chief Information Officer to provide Council with a report concerning functions and services that were gained and lost on the City's website because of transitioning the website to a new system. Councilor Pacillo.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we spoke about the website interface, I believe during budget, and originally we were told it was kind of a placeholder for a new website, and it's still the same, and I feel as though the functionality is challenging. Residents have reached out to me. They're not able to find city council agendas. It's challenging. for them to find things in the clerk's office or pay their bills. I also use the website frequently for information and it really is, it's become kind of difficult. So just a few examples. If you were to search speed hump under agenda, past agendas or pending agendas, they give you different results than if you search speed humps. Agenda items need to be downloaded. So the budget needs to be downloaded. You can't just click on it previously. You could click on it, it would go to a link and you could see everything. It's not like that anymore. For the agendas, I noticed that they don't give a time right when it's posted. So to see that time, you have to click on agendas, view meetings, click public notice, then download it to see what time the agenda was posted. And I just really feel like In this day and age, the website should be very simple and user-friendly and transparent and accessible. Another few things I've noticed is when you go to pending agendas, or if you were to type in Jenny Pacillo, Clark Street, all of my agenda items are dated at 4-10-25. So anything we've put in on the council floor that all says it's been done in April 2025, unless, again, you click on it, you download it, and then you can see the actual date. Another thing, I was trying to find the WRTA Advisory Board to look at past meetings, because I have another item on, and the boards and commissions only go back to 2021. and for the WRT Advisory Board, there's only one agenda and that's for their upcoming August meeting. So nothing previous. So, you know, I would have gone through, I would have actually, I roll the footage a lot in old meetings just to get a better idea. You cannot do that. So through the chair to the city manager, who runs the website and is this something that could be fixed relatively easily in-house?

To do the shit to the council, a lot of your examples I need to understand to know if it can be done easily or not. The website is our IT department. We have two individuals who are experts in managing and content creation and also they do the back end of the website. I think what you're alluding to there is a new software is called One Meeting that there's a correlation or there's an integration issue perhaps between the One Meeting and the webpage itself of the website. And so that's probably something that we need to look into. So I need to understand better what the issues are, but that's something that I would work with our IT department.

Thank you so much. I was just using the website a lot this weekend to prepare for today. And then just looking at the fact that you can't see boards and commissions past 2021, and including you can't see the time when the agendas are posted easily, which I think that should be very accessible to the public, through the chair to the clerk, has this new software impacted your office?

Mr. Clerk? Through the Chairs of the Council, so I think based on what you stated earlier, there's two things that are happening here. There's the one meeting portion, which is the agenda management portion of the City Council and Boards and Commissions. And there's also the functionalities of the website itself. So the functionality of the website itself is we've lost a lot of the abilities to connect to our homegrown Citrix apps. So I think one of the issues we're running into with residents is we used to allow searching capabilities right on the clerk page. So if you're looking for a vital record, if it was a birth or if a death or a marriage, you can go back to as far as 75, sometimes even farther, if we had a digital record of that marriage or vital record. That is no longer the case. There is a loss of connection between the website and my Citrix apps. So right now, there is no capability for vital records to be searched anymore within the clerk webpage. So that's one piece. The second piece is the one meeting piece that we're still working with our vendor. As I communicated to you in July, there is no communication between the old council program and the website, which is the new release in July. So that's why we're in one meeting, because that's not supported anymore. So there's two things happening. There's the one meeting piece, which is still in the works. The vendor is still trying to put a lot of the data in, but I can provide your report at the next meeting with some of the issues we see.

Yeah, thank you so much. That would be great because I think, you know, for myself and I'm sure a lot of people go back through previous agendas just to make sure you understand what's happening and to get an idea of an issue. So thank you so much.

Thank you. So I'll send that to the manager. Councilor Mero-Carlson.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Also with these agendas that we've been receiving since then, since the new system has come into place, You know, obviously the numbers don't line up because of the way that this new system is. And there is nothing here identifying what's a city manager's item versus what's a council item. And I for one would love to know is I shouldn't have to look all over to figure out that it's a city manager's item. versus a council item. So I do think that the system needs some tweaks, if you will. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I just want to add to the sentiment that I think the clerk's office shares quite a bit. This new system, it's called Granicus, is a system that many municipalities across the nation have used. Supposedly is the top of the line when it comes to agenda management. One of the challenges according to this company and us is that we've historically always had a city manager agenda and a city council agenda. And the city manager, I don't see what the clerk's office is posting in their agenda, and then they also don't see what I'm posting on my agenda until it's all finalized and all combined. even though there's speculation that we control all of that. We don't see that at the end, right? And so that's important because, and that's been important and has been in place in our homegrown system. But many systems across the nation don't do that. It's the clerk's office control the entire agenda and the city manager or administration of that municipality provides it to the city clerk. there's been a lot of hiccups a lot of challenges in the systems and integrations and trying to get all the information into this we're having conversations like daily trying to get this company to really make changes uh to the system um the clerk's office has been very good about keeping track of all the things the challenges that they're dealing with the extra work and all that stuff so Nico provided a report like you've all asked but um There's a lot of work here. We're trying to see if it can work, because we're trying to bring better transparency, more flexibility in terms of this calendar. But also, the reality is the homegrown system that we have, the code is completely breaking apart. It was built in-house. The people that built it are long gone. And so we need to find a way out of this. We've put our efforts into the system, but we know we still have a long ways out based on the challenges that we're having with this current system.

Okay, Councilor Toomey.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a little bit different, but it's still on the website. I noticed that you used to be able to go in and look up deaths, and I haven't been able to find that. Is that not part of the system anymore?

Mr. Cork? Thank you, Chair, to the council. So my understanding is, as I stated earlier, the Citrix apps, which is apps that were designed with David Rushford in 1990, they used to connect. Yeah, so that was a long time ago. So basically we are using the same system. They're home-built systems that actually the vital records at the state level adopted and other cities have adopted from the city of Worcester because in the 90s we were able to innovate and design our own applications. So the dogs, I think the marriages, the births, and the deaths were connected directly from the website into our Citrix apps. That's no longer the case with the new website. So I think there's certain vital records we're still reviewing, which I can provide you in a report, what is available to the residents, but we are getting concerns from residents about our loss of capabilities to provide reports and before the transition what I think was some of the records were going back to the 70s because everything was in our Citrix apps which we have access by the way internally so we're kind of getting a lot of those public records requests now internally it's not like we've lost capabilities but we've lost the public capability of going on the website.

I think it was very helpful for people, especially for people looking for family and documentation and all that stuff. So if it could ever be brought back, it's something maybe you could take a look at. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Bergman.

I know we're I feel like we're piling on something that we all know needs work and I know we've got a lot on our agenda but something I've noticed as well that I now that I hear my colleagues speak on the topic I wanted to mention as well in the older system if you wanted to see how many properties for example were affected by a certain item you could go on to let's say West Boylston Street and once you type in West Boylston Street you get every address every owner and you could see and so on. And then you have to choose which property you're concerned about, whether it's a zoning issue. Otherwise, how many properties are affected by it? Now you have to choose between the address and the owner, and you have to put in each property separately. It's laborious, it's inefficient, and I don't know if we can fix the problems we have. I know this has been done with the best intentions, and I know some people will probably mumble under their breath when they hear me say what I'm about to say, but I'm going to say it in any event. Sometimes something new isn't always something better. I like the older system. I'm just going to say it. And it has nothing to do with my age. It has everything to do with the ease in which I could be able to manipulate it. Now it seems that it's even harder for people to manipulate the system. Maybe we can fix it. Maybe we can't. I'm just surprised that this is such a popular system. Chairman, I have to ask how much did this cost us?

and how long is the contract?

Through the chair to the council. So my understanding is because tech services is the one who pays for the software is roughly about $55,000 a year.

About 55. It's an annual subscription. It's an annual subscription. So once we're in it, we're in it, right?

So basically we've kind of entered in contract with this vendor probably about two years ago and they were supposed to have it built within I think eight to 12 months. So we're still building.

Okay. And what, through Mr. Chairman, to the manager, is there folks in your office that are actually working on this? Wasn't there a couple positions in the budget that were supposed to be like people working on the web?

Mr. Manager.

That were in your office, if I remember right?

Yeah, there's people that are working on the website. This is a different product outside of the website. This integrates with the website. Website and this product are two different things. But there are staff working with this product, with these vendors, on a day-to-day basis in the clerk's office to try to mitigate the issues.

So what, through you, Mr. Chair, so what did the website cost us, and how long is the term?

Is it something that we did in-house? No, the website you have to be in a platform to be able to do that. There has to be a, I can't think of the word, but there's a platform that manages websites, that controls the websites.

All right, but how much roughly was it?

It was quite a bit. And I don't have the number in my head in terms of what that is. We would have to come back with a report on that.

But it was a good amount. I'm sure it was. And Mike, Mr. Chairman, just on a simple level, Councilor Bergman always talks about his age. I'll throw my age in it too. But today I didn't remember if it was a 6.30 meeting, a 5.30 meeting, or a 6 o'clock meeting. So I went to the website, I forget, oh, City Council agenda and the notice will be right on the front page, couldn't find it. Did the search bar, couldn't find it. So I just gave up and sent the text message to Josh in the City Council office to ask what the time the meeting started. So it really is bad. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Okay, look forward to that report. Okay, so we'll send that to the manager, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes. Your request to see a manager explore the feasibility of incorporating environmental recommendation efforts for the American chestnut trees at Indian Lake Park, located at 149 West Poleson Drive, Councilor Mero-Carlson.

Roll call. Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes. Okay. Request City Manager, request Commissioner of Public Works and Parks, repaint the yellow line on Rexham Road, Councilor Pacillo,

As it reads.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo? Yes. Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey?

Yes.

Mayor Petty?

Yes. Quests that you manage and install additional trash receptacles on Lincoln Street and Boylston Street between Pasadena Parkway and Tacoma Street. Councilor Pacillo?

As it reads.

Yes. Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Colorio. Yes. Councilor Haxhiaj. Yes. Councilor King. Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen. Yes. Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. Request City Manager to request the Commission of Public Works and Parks to review the sidewalks on Neptune Road to make any immediately necessary safety repairs. Councilor Pacillo.

As it reads. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, I request that you manage the request of the Commissioner of Public Works and Parks to review the sidewalks on Haviland Street to make any immediately necessary safety repairs. Councilor Pacillo.

As it reads.

Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes. Request the City Manager organize a public meeting of the City of Elm Park to discuss the challenges, solutions, timelines, and funding sources to fully restore the water bodies at Elm Park. Councilor Bergman.

Mr. Chairman, I'll be brief on this. I appreciate the efforts of City Manager and the Parks Department, DPW, prior to the separation of the two bodies as well. But nevertheless, when you drive by Elm Park, although you see a lot of activity there, and I'm optimistic, and I know the issues there are being addressed, it's still kind of a sad state of affairs when you look at it. Got a brand new Darty, we got the arguably oldest Disposition of money used for public park in America by way of Elm Park. We've talked a lot about Worcester history tonight. And it just seems like year after year, we just don't get it done. Now we are making progress. And as I said when I started speaking a moment ago, I'm grateful. The Manager, Parks Department, DPW for the efforts that are being made. But I do think there's a lot of people in the neighborhood that have questions about how long is this going to take? What are the issues? Why isn't it being done quicker? What are the funding sources if this is going to get finished at all? So my suggestion to the Manager and basis for this order is to have a meeting. Perhaps we could do it at Dougherty High School. Perhaps it's at a better location if somebody can think of one. invite the neighbors and have the appropriate department heads there have a question and answer session as to what's going on the time frames of funding sources the challenges and everything else that this order mentions so that we can have you know some answers some of the answers may be that we don't have all the answers but at least address the questions so that the mystery of what's going on in the time frame and so on and so forth can be addressed I certainly think there'd be a lot of interest in it, and I think if we could do it this fall, it'd be a good time to do it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. So send that to the manager. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj? Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Councilor Young, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes. I request the Mayor to provide Council with a report detailing efforts to utilize naming opportunities of the Beaverbrook for Douglas J. Hinton Jr. to honor him in his lifetime commitment to the Little League in Worcester. Councilor Bergman, Councilor Ojeda.

I'm looking for an update, but as it reads, hopefully we'll get an update as soon as we can, Mr. Chairman.

Okay, Councilor Ojeda.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Okay, so send that to the manager. Councilor Russell.

Mr. Chairman, this was an item that was put forward on June 17th of 25, and the reason why I'm speaking on it is because I received a call or a communication from residents thinking it was a street naming, and it wasn't a street naming. and was sent to the manager and the item read back in June 17th, be it ordered that the city manager be and he is hereby requested to consider organizing an appropriate recognition of Douglas Hannum Jr. lifetime commitment to the Little League in Worcester to honor his passing. Such recognition could include the naming of an athletic field or a street naming. So it was sent there to the administration and it was never designated, never designated a street. So just so that there's clarity here, it's not a street naming. I'd be happy to entertain it on the committee, on the Public Works Committee if it was, but it's not. Just to be clear so the residents don't think that we're missing it at Public Works. Send the manager's hands now.

Okay, you want to send it to Public Works? No. Oh, no. No location. Okay, we'll send it to the manager.

Yeah. Mr. Chairman, can I just add one more thing to follow up with Councilor Russell? I don't think it's a question whether it is or isn't a street naming at the moment. I think it's a question of could it be or are there other alternatives? So while I agree and understand my colleague Councilor Russell's suggestion and or concern, it could well turn into a street naming. I think we need input from Parks Department, Manager's Office will certainly weigh in. But at the moment, it's the best course of action hasn't yet to be determined. So I don't want to also give the impression it may never be, it could very well be. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Vote for the manager, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj? Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes.

Mayor Petty. Yes. 14U, request the Mayor to provide, Police Chief of Fire, to provide City Council's report detailing the plans for the Worcester Police Department, Worcester Fire Department having retention, regarding retention and recruitment, Councilor Toomey.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On both departments, I've heard that it's getting more difficult to find qualified people that are applying and taking the exam. I know that both departments have been doing yeoman's work, especially in the area of recruiting minority candidates, and they've really been working very hard. As a matter of fact, we just had our most diverse police class sworn in just recently. What I'm concerned about is we have 440 sworn officers and officials right now. Currently, we have 50 that are out on IOD or military or leave, leaving 390 for our day-to-day complements. The two largest police classes, are eligible to retire this year or next year. The significant numbers of people that could retire are very great, number one. Number two, there has been a plethora of other cities and towns not only putting out ads for just recruiting, but putting out ads for lateral transfers with not only financial remuneration, but also in terms of salary, but also Quinnbill-type educational support, shift differentials, vacations. Sturbridge police offices range between 67 to 102,000 with shift differentials, three weeks vacation to Quinnbill. Bedford saying non-civil service. They've taken out of non-civil service. 71.6 to 98.7, Quinnbill education incentives, medical response pay, 2,000 a year EMT stipends, night differentials. Lester. right next door starting up to $98,000 plus base education incentive and stipends. Florida $2,500 signing bonus if you're a lateral transfer. Full Quinn benefits four to seven weeks vacation. Orleans school resource officer $70,000 to $110,000 plus other benefits. 78.5 plus benefits, including Quinn type benefits, Clinton educational incentives, Revere $5,000 signing bonus, 10 hour on, four off shifts, lateral starting at $87,000, night differentials and education. These are all local police departments that are recruiting are trained officers. I'm sorry, I didn't know if there was a question or something. Let's run in the meeting you can go ahead okay all right so with that being said I you know I'm very concerned about not only recruiting new offices but retaining those that we have so I would look forward to a report on both departments but I think it's extremely important that that we really take a look at this and take a look at what our competition is so that we can retain the highly qualified, highly trained individuals that we have in our police and fire departments. I don't have a list of fire departments that I'm recruiting, I'm sorry, but we need to retain our good people. Thank you.

Okay, we'll send that to the manager. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes. Question C, may I just consider operating and installing a welcome to Worcester-Homer state champions sign list in the years and names of local youth sports teams that have won state championships over the past 10 years and attached, and there's an example that's attached. Councilor Ojeda.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, yes. We drive through towns and we see other towns or states, Connecticut, you know, they'll have it. Other towns have it as well, I believe in Millbury. And we've done a lot. We've accomplished a lot in our schools. So I'm hoping to actually amend it to also say public and private schools, to include public and private schools. We've had several private schools in our city. Worcester Academy being one who not necessarily won a state championship, but they won their NAPSAC championship. So that's similar to the state championship. So I want to show some love and support to all our youth and the coaches and everybody that's involved and continue to show the greatness of our sports in our city. Thank you.

Thank you. Send that to the manager. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes. Okay, request to see Mayor Jermier work with the Governor's Office and State Delegation to reduce the private utility costs in anticipation of potential full rate hikes. Oh my God, so I got my bill last month.

What was it?

You don't want to know. OK, Councilor Pacillo.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is something that we've spoken about as a council frequently, and I always appreciate my colleagues' support and input. So last fall, the Department of Public Utilities, a three-person commission at the state level, approved rate hikes up to 30%. And we all saw those bills hit right around the holidays, right around Christmas. I got a $725 bill. I heard from a bunch of residents. Everyone's really upset. They came in. They spoke to the Public Works Committee. And that was fine. But going forward, looking at the coming fall and the coming winter, I would really like to have a conversation to just really advocate for the residents. These rate hikes are unacceptable in my opinion. It creates a huge burden on residents and Wister throughout the state. August 1st, 2025, both utilities have raised their basic service supply rates. So Eversource increased their supply rates from 13.24 cents per kilowatt to 14.88 cents, which is about eight to 10 per month for the average resident. National Grid also increased it about 5.5%, which is about $4 to $6 more per month for similar usage. I know these numbers seem small, but they're not, because they keep increasing our rates year after year whenever they get a chance. I talked about this before, I'm gonna say it again. These are billion dollar companies that seemingly adhere to no one and they come into our municipalities and they pinch residents on their bills. In 2024, Eversource reported profit over $800 million. Their CEO made $18.8 million in 2024. Last year in New England alone, National Grid made over $1 billion in profits. You know, I look at what they do on construction projects in the city, and I know I've spoken about this a lot, and my colleagues have as well. We have a request on from Councilor Carlson, which I appreciate, on the Shore Drive sidewalk. Why is it okay for these utilities to come in, dig up our roads? Residents don't know. We don't know what's happening. They put the roads back together. They're in horrible condition. I'm sure we all hear from people throughout the city talking about potholes, trenches. There's a trench on Calumet. They did sewer work last year. the trench is all sunken in. And this happens with the private utilities, and then the city has to chase them down to get these projects fixed. And I find it unacceptable, and I know it's not unique to Worcester, but I would like to request a report on the feasibility of adjusting private utility permitting fees in relation to any utility rate changes. So if Eversource wants to raise the rates 30%, I'm curious to see if the City of Worcester could increase their permitting fees by 30%. I just feel like we talk about this over and over again. Residents cannot afford to pay their bills. I certainly can't afford these bills. And I've said it before, my house is not warm in the winter, okay? We are wearing sweaters and blankets. It's not like we're being excessive with our utilities, but we all have to just kind of adhere to whatever they feel like doing. And I'm really, really tired of it. So thank you so much.

Okay, Councilor Carlson.

I rise to ask to sign on. I think that, you know, Councilor Pacillo in talking about, you know, what these utility companies have done, and quite frankly, I think we've all gotten the exorbitant bills. Mine just came today. I think the idea of maybe we should be looking at these utility companies and saying, and Councilor McFarland. I know that the percentage that they went up on our utility bills, maybe their permitting fees should go up by that same amount. So I want to say thank you to Councilor Pacillo for putting this on. But I also rise to say that I know that Mr. Mayor, had a conversation with the utility companies. And at the end of the day, the only person who has any say on the utility companies is the governor. We can talk about going to our state delegations, but truth be told, there's only one individual and the Commonwealth who has any say over what's taken place. And I think maybe it's time for another meeting with the utilities or with the governor because we've seen that, yes, the governor tried to get a reduction and there was a little bit of a reduction, but that was also met by a significant Council, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, In years past, they were able to get maybe a little extra because the bill was a little bit of extra money. And this year here, we know that these agencies don't have that money to give to people. So what is going to happen to a lot of the folks who Board of Trustees Meeting. I would ask for the Mayor and the City Manager I know that there is a larger group out there right now that's also working with the governor trying to reduce the cost. Thank you.

Okay, sign on. Councilor Russell, sign on.

Yeah, I'm gonna sign on, Mr. Chairman. I just wanna ask for a report too, if I may, from the administration. Number one, if it would be okay, if it would be legal for us to do a retaliatory increase, which is not a bad idea, in my opinion, but if it's illegal to do. And then the other thing is, Mr. Chairman, is that Councilor Pacillo talks about the, and the condition that the streets are left in from our utility companies. And she's absolutely right. It's an issue that we've all talked about countless hours on this Council floor. And our Commissioner of Public Works is here tonight. I don't want to put him on the spot, but I would ask for a report. What's going on with that? Because she made the remark, Councilor Pacillo I refer to when I say she, made the remark about, I'm sure it's in other communities. Well, I don't see it in other communities, to be honest with you. I drive through many of the suburban communities and I don't see streets in anywhere near the condition our streets are in. And so many times I've bugged the commissioner since he's come on, and his predecessors as well, about The whole process of these utility connections and the way they're sinking in. And it's something we need to address. And I think that what we should be doing is maybe looking not necessarily as a retaliatory increase, but we should be looking at charging these utility companies an awful lot more than whatever we're charging them. So I'd like to report, number one, how much are we charging them, number two, What's the ability to increase those costs to put that extra money toward repairing the damage that has been done by these utility companies? Thank you, Mr Chairman.

Thank you.

Okay, so we'll send that to the manager. Everybody wants to sign on, I meant everybody to sign on. All those in favor? As amended to the city manager, myself, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio? Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Pacillo?

Yes.

Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. Mayor Petty?

Yes. Okay. Question City Manager work with the WRTA Administrator to provide City Council report concerning any improvements made to the Worcester Regional Transit Authority in fiscal year 2025 as well as plans for future improvements. Councilor Pacillo?

As it reads.

Okay, we'll send that.

Roll call. Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Colorio. Yes. Councilor Haxhiaj. Yes. Councilor King. Yes, I'd like to sign on to that as well. Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes, anybody want to sign on as amended? Okay. Yes. Okay, we have... Request C.R. to provide counsel with a report detailing old data from the past 18 months between dispatch and the Worcester Police Department concerning the Maine South area in response to resident concerns. The report should include any relevant communications aimed at at improving operations while highlighting areas of consistent and timely responses. They actually include levels of response to calls as documented by the Worcester PD. Councilor King. Can we take 14Z concurrently? Sure. Question, may I invite Chief to conduct an internal audit of all MaineSouth 911 and non-emergency police calls from the past 18 months. Councilor King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to amend 14Z. to request Oh, no, we'll just leave. We'll take those concurrently. Mr. Chairman, this is coming out of a number of concerns. I've spoken with the district councilor who signed off on this as well. And really looking at measuring the concerns. So in our role as city councils, we're often approached by folks in the city with concerns about a number or a myriad of issues that occur within city limits, Mr. Chairman. and if we're not measuring it, we don't know how effective we are in the work that we do from any department. These particular concerns have come up time and again during the number of times I've attended neighborhood meetings and more than even that, hearing from folks that live there. So as an at-large counselor, there are times that you can't get out given the number of neighborhood meetings across the city. But that doesn't mean that you're not hearing from residents throughout the city and constituents during those same times. So when we're looking at data collection and analysis, it also obviously must include interpretation of that data. and so forth. Interpretation of that data is what gives meaning. It allows the auditor to draw conclusions and formulate recommendations. So we're not just looking for numbers, we're looking for data interpretations that will allow the formation of an auditor's opinion. We know that's a crucial aspect of auditing. I know from speaking with the District Councilor that there has been some Work that and communication information that just came to the neighborhood but would love also like to get some data for the subcommittee they can take a look at this well so when you hear from folks hey we're not getting the level of responsiveness we're not getting any response we're not getting When phone calls are made to 911 or what have you, folks are driving by and not engaging with folks who are reporting it. And it's all over the place. So for me, whether we measure, is that accurate? Can that be explained away? To what degree is this an issue? And that's why this particular order talks about that the report coming in should provide relevant communication aimed at improving operations while also highlighting and Councilor Coyne. I know that some years ago when I had filed for a similar audit regarding dispatch and 911 and responsiveness, we determined at that time that there was an issue with and the end of shift fulfilling of calls. And at the end of those shifts, those calls in some instances were being erased and they were starting over. At that time under the Augustus administration, one of the assistant city managers, Nicole Valentine, had looked into it and they revamped how they did business at the end of shifts. So the data was able to identify a gap in operations and Response. So really, you know, I'm looking for similar data. I'm sure when Councilor Ojeda speaks, he can speak to kind of the report of the latest meeting where it's my understanding that there were some concessions made to, you know, falling short in some instances. So look forward to getting this done quickly through the Office of the Auditor. Thank you. Thank you. and Councilor Hayden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, thank you, Councilor King, for bringing this forward. Yes, there's been a lot of work being done here at some of the meetings in the neighborhood. And I think one of the most important thing is what the chief has come out and stated when he was able to become chief was transparency. and understanding how things work and working alongside dispatch. There's been a lot of concerns with the time of calls from when a call is made to when an officer or someone shows up. Concerned about consistencies, inconsistency. Also, you know, trying to identify where the gaps are. So I don't think we were trying to use this as a I got you. It's more of, you know, what are some of these issues and how can we either rectify, what can we do to help with these gaps? You know, sometimes people feel as though they're not being treated properly. And maybe that just comes down to understanding that the person on the line has had several calls probably for the same issue. but again it's also you know trying to show respect to the people that are calling also it's also about understanding you know what is really going on what happens when you do call dispatch you know what takes place how much time is from dispatch and sent out to the local Rout Officer, and what is the time frame from there for them to show up. But also understanding certain calls have certain numbers based on the importance of the call. So it's again trying to show the people, our residents, that you know There's not a real big difference versus the same call from a different district compared to a certain district. It's just understanding what the process is and understanding that there's a higher call volume. And I'm not sure people realize between the hours of two and six, they may understand there's a higher call volume, but they don't understand what those call volumes are and how certain calls can escalate. So if it's just a normal disturbance, something small, It's not seen as important, but then it can escalate to something bigger. And understanding that that original call, say, was at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and then someone shows up because it escalated, but no one showed up for about 45 minutes to an hour, whatever it may be. But again, it was just an original, low-level call. And it's also being, like I said, being transparent with the residents and really getting this information out. There's residents that are afraid to show up to some of these meetings and we have to meet them where they're at, pushing for some more Zoom meetings at these neighborhood meetings to share this information. The chief was there at the last meeting that we had, dispatch was there. 311 was there as well. So they shared a lot of information that's important for our residents. But like I said, I appreciate what Councilor King has put forward for us to get a better understanding of what we can do and how we can support some of these calls that go out. And Really just show that we're here for them and support them. It's not an easy process. And I understand when those high call volumes come in, it's what do we do? So one of the conversations we had with the chief and I had asked them is, there's certain parts of the city that don't have those call volumes. What can we do? to get some more police officers in that area. If we know that this is the time between 2 and 6, what can we do to make sure that if phone calls are out, that police officers are there just to handle certain situations so they don't escalate? So again, I look forward to what comes from this and continue the work with all departments. Thank you.

Okay, we'll send out the City Manager, Councilor King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to be clear. You know, this is a request to enhance our responsiveness to residential concerns to public health and public safety. I'd like to amend this to include any co-responses and to what degree or to what percentage are we having a clinical co-response in this area to cause. I do not, I want to be clear, I'm not looking for an oversaturation of law enforcement in that area. What I am looking for is data. Data will drive us. What are we doing? How are we doing it? For too long, we've been asking police to be nurses. We've been asking them to be AAA, social workers, youth workers, etc. You know, we do have a and Ambassador Program there that does some things. We have a myriad of departments that are engaged. You heard 311 Dispatch, Quality of Life in those meetings, all of those things. But really, we need the data to drive us in terms of moving forward operationally as a city. And again, I'm not looking for oversaturation. And if we need to put more clinical components in, I know that we've revamped our clinical co-response model and I'm really looking to see the data. What are folks being called for? To what degrees responded? How often are there 45 minutes to an hour to no shows on calls? And let's see how we can come together and get better. Mr. Chairman, thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Russell.

Mr. Chairman, I'll support, as you said, sending it to the manager, and I'd like to even include some of the other, I'll just say the other urban neighborhoods, just if they are different or if it's something, whatever, without specifically naming off the neighborhoods. And Mr. Chairman, I just wonder if this, I think sending it to the manager is the right thing because I think before we can ask the auditor to look at anything, we need to ask the administration to give us that information first. Thank you.

Okay, so you wanted to amend this to include other district areas? Okay.

Mr. Chairman, again, I'm okay with that. I just, the reason I purposely wrote it that way is that there has been a reported heightened need in this particular area and I didn't want a city-wide assessment to delay or defer we don't want to miss something and then in that area given the reports that have come in we don't want to miss anything anywhere but this is where this acute concern has come from I really would like that prioritized I am open to The amendment, but I want to state publicly, we would like the main south area, given that that's where this originated from, that provided first in a cross, and I would amend it absolutely, that that should be cross-referenced with other areas of the city. So I would like the amendment to read that way. Councilor Russell is absolutely correct on that count. Thank you.

Okay, send those to the manager as amended. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes. I request the city manager to review the feasibility of enhancing the capability, the capacity of the Department of Health and Human Services as it relates to the city's responsiveness and the challenges of the unsheltered population in the city. Such strategies should include increased social workers, clinicians, and outreach, staffing, and consider reorganization plan versus a budget increase. Councilor King.

Mr. Chairman, we are at a crisis point here in the city as it relates to folks that are unsheltered, folks that are unhoused, folks that are suffering from the inability to afford living here, folks that are suffering from those financial challenges, mental health challenges, challenges with substance use and misuse. a confluence of factors that impact the varying levels of the unsheltered, situational, chronic, et cetera. That being said, and I brought this up during the budget time, and I brought this up for the past three or four budgets and really looking to expand the capacity of Health and Human Services. I know the last time I brought this forward, Commissioner Castile and the administration indicated that they didn't need the additional social worker positions I was suggesting or outreach positions that I was suggesting. Mr. Chairman, by the mere eye test, we need to do more. Now, we only have so much money in the pot. I'd like the city administration to look at vacancy factors, A pattern and percentage of vacancy factors that we have and what the financial significance of those are. I'd like the administration to take a look at perhaps reorganizing in a way where we can buff up and we can expand the capacities of HHFs. to respond to this crisis. We have the elderly folks where there's a significant uptick in their inability to afford to live here, to exist, to eat, to take care of themselves. The quality of life is diminishing. As referenced in the report, Seeds of Hope, regarding addressing senior homelessness that came before us previously. Those folks are looking to age with dignity, Mr. Chin. And HHS, Health and Human Services, is one of the lowest funded departments in the city of Worcester. And it's going to get better before it gets worse. We know this. I've been contacted by folks where I've filed orders asking for public restrooms. I like to make a motion that we get an update on those orders. Some time ago, when I brought forward the orders regarding the trash cans that we're now seeing across the city, and folks talking about, again, People defecating, relieving themselves in public spaces, us not being able to use public spaces. How do we share these spaces? We are not going to police our way out of this. For folks who want an immediate response, we know that back in the 80s, we deinstitutionalized. We are the United States of America. We're not Russia. We don't just take people and take them off the streets without discrimination and put them in facilities. Worcester State Hospital doesn't exist anymore. And in those facilities, there was inhumane treatment. That's why it went away. Human rights violations, civil rights violations. folks being, you know, chemically restrained, et cetera. We know that there's master of law section 35, section 12 that exists for folks who are harmed themselves or others or who have their substance use challenges such that they can be taken in. but it's changed and it's supposed to be community services, supposed to be community-based treatment and what happened is that funding never came. Now we haven't even talked about housing. We're just talking about services right now. We know that without the proper housing and we're moving that way but it's incremental. Without the proper housing, based on the hierarchy of needs, if you don't have housing, you don't have a stable place to be. that's your number one focus. The second is food, you gotta be able to eat. And then you wanna think about the other things and the other life challenges. Mr. Chairman, we have to have a strategy that the city manager reacts to in an urgent manner where we're increasing the capacity of that department. Yes, we need to contract as we have and work with our community partners. The mayor has a mental health task force. We have a housing plan. We have all of these things. What we don't have is more clinical supports in the moment. I've been out there with, The EMTs. I've been out there when police have responded and seen the challenges that they have as it relates to what's within their capability within the law and what's not. I've heard the concerns that residents have about people being picked up and Is that my time? People being picked up and arrested, and they're out the next day. And folks are furious. Well, I'm not about incarcerating the homeless. we have to figure something out but we do not have control over the state we don't have controls of federal funding or the state funding we don't have control about how much local aid what we do have is the ability to advocate for ourselves which I hope we continue to do moving forward in a more aggressive manner Mr. Chairman and in speaking with our state representatives and senators in our delegation. You know, there's talk around the state of $16 million in funding that may not be coming in due to cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, a federal political matter that has local implications. All politics are local. A federal political matter is going to impact the individuals in our community, Mr. Chairman. And we have to do this. I'm not looking for increasing taxes. I'm looking for and I'm challenging the city manager to find a way to enhance the capacity of Health and Human Services, our social workers, clinical and outreach staffing. We've done it before. I filed orders that resulted in the first social workers there, first outreach workers, additional social workers there. I filed the orders for the social workers at the library and we know the day treatment center is coming at some point. Finally, we got an affirmative for that. But in the interim, we have to pull up all stops with the small amounts of resources we have. Mr. Manager, I challenge you. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm just gonna send that to the manager. Roll call. Oh, Councilor Bergman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I read this, it really focuses on the unsheltered population, so I'm going to focus my remarks based on the words of the order itself. I know there was discussion about trash and other issues that may or may not be associated with these words, but I agree, you know, there's a strategy that's not working. The time I've been on the council, I haven't seen the unsheltered population get less. I've seen it get more. Where I disagree is I don't think we can either spend our way out of this or employ more people to get out of this. I think what we need to do is we need to look to our state delegation, and I think there's a rather simple formula. There's X number or percentage of people that are unsheltered in this in this state each community has to supply that percentage of units for that for their respective community or pull into a fund for other communities such as Worcester who are being asked to be financially responsible I don't see us spending away out of this. I know there's been a challenge given to the manager, but as I recall, the people in the Health and Human Services says we don't need more staff. I've asked people in these positions, what percentage of the population, the unsheltered population, do you see that aren't from Worcester? And the responses I've got over the last year are anywhere from 50% to 65%. These are people that work in those departments. I'm not going to mention them by name. They're not random people that I just search out to get an answer I want to hear. And that's fine. We should not help people that aren't from Worcester. But we've got to stop pretending that we can handle the responsibilities of all the towns around us by simply trying to spend our way out of it or employ more people out of it. It ain't going to happen. In the time I've been on the council, the unsheltered population has increased. The number of people that are unsheltered from around Worcester, not from Worcester, has increased. And yes, the strategy has failed. Not for lack of trying, but let's not go back to the same strategy and make it even more of an issue. Let's try to focus on what the state can do to try to get the communities around us to do their responsibility, which is to find housing for the folks that are from their community that have resources in the community by way of family members and Social Services that can help them instead of Worcester trying to pretend it could be a be-all and end-all to every problem that exists surrounding Worcester, including Worcester. I think we need to focus on trying to help those that are here whether they're from Worcester or not, but I think going forward we have to really draw the line between the reality that we don't have all the money in the world to fix all the problems in the world and we need to have the communities around us be responsible for their share of what's at stake here. And I don't minimize the summer heat, the winter cold, people die being unsheltered. I don't minimize that at all. But I sit here year after year, month after month, week after week, and I hear all these plans and how we're going to fix the problem. None of us are experts, and even the ones that are experts that we employ would tell you that the problem hasn't gotten better. So I'm of the old belief that if you repeat the same patent over and over again, if things aren't going to get better, why would they get better just by repeating the patent over and over again? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councilor Toomey.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It sounds like a broken record. I, for the past several years, have filed orders requesting we look into talking about getting some remuneration. And I just last, I believe it was the last meeting, I filed an order very similar to Boston's order requesting the exact same thing. that the cities and towns who people originate from, that they take some of the share of the burden on cities like Boston and Worcester. We have most of the people in the state and outside of the state. I've dealt with people that have come down from Maine that were put on a train. Oh, go to Worcester. We'll buy you a ticket. Go to Worcester. They'll take care of you. So it's great. We have resources. We want to help people. That's great. But just like the McKinney-Vento Act, when we have homeless children, the Federal Act says you shouldn't have to pay the entire burden. These kids are coming in here through no fault of their own. Temporarily, they go back to their home district, which we would pay for transportation to home district, or they stay in school here, and the host district sends a partial payment to the city of Worcester so that it's not that much of a burden on us. And I think that that's fair. I think that's equitable. And when actually the numbers that I've heard have been 70% of the people are not from Worcester in the community. So it's something that we all have talked about for a long time. I believe that the legislature needs to be addressing this, not only the legislature, but perhaps Congresswoman McGovern. Maybe it needs to be federal because our cities and towns are really being impacted. And I understand, like I talked to a police officer out in the Brookfields. They have absolutely no services whatsoever, none. They don't know what to do with people. And they know they need help. So they bring them here because we have services. And that's great, but there's also a greater burden. And so we're just asking that it be shared. And I think that it really needs to happen. We need to get some movement on this because it's not fair to the people who are unhoused, who have substance use disorder, who have mental health issues. It's not fair to them. It's not fair to our city to have all of this Without support systems, without the, I mean, the amount of housing that we would need is insurmountable at this point in time to be able to take care of everybody. And it just doesn't happen quick enough. I mean, we were talking about, we'll talk about the ADUs. I mean, I remember talking about that. We were going to do a tiny village with ADUs. Tiny Homes, and even that is costly. So I know tonight the Senator talked about it. I know the Mayor, and I signed on to his order with the Tiny Homes getting an update on that. But that's really important. I've been talking about that for years as a resource, as a possibility of being able to get more housing out there. But I digress. We really need to move forward on this. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor.

Councilor Hagiai.

Yeah, so first of all, I reject the notion and the framing of this issue as people are burdened or it's a game of whack-a-mole or any other phrases that people like to assign to people who are going through tremendous trauma in their lives. So we keep repeating these numbers, 50, 60, 70%. How exactly is this idea going to work that we're going to identify when somebody became homeless? Somebody could become homeless in our community. They travel. This is a very transient population. They go to Maine. They go to Boston. They come back here. So we're going to identify each person, ask for their personal history, where they became homeless, and then come up with these ideas that I'm not really sure are cemented in reality. When exactly has the legislature worked efficiently to come up with legislation like the one that Councilor Toomey has proposed to force other towns to pay a fair share. How are they going to identify if Etel Haxhiaj became homeless in Holden, or Councilor King, Khrystian King became homeless in Oxford, or Jenny Pacillo became homeless in Boston? First of all. And second of all, I have asked for a 12 to 18 month emergency plan to identify specific and goal measured, time specific Plans for how we're going to deal with the human condition, the human crisis that we're in right now. Mr. Manager, where are we with that plan? If I could ask you that question through the chair.

Mr. Manager.

Yeah, through the chair to the council. Right now, since the, there's a lot here that I wanna share because through my administration over the last two and a half, three years, whatever time frame you wanna come from when I started, This, I feel like almost, if not two, three times a week, I'm in a meeting discussing this exact same issue. There's a group of providers in the city, which include HHS, and myself, that I personally attend on a monthly basis, specifically to try to come up with a strategy, a comprehensive strategy to address this. There's a lot that's being communicated in there with the providers, providers that are on the grounds doing this work. and so right now we're in the works of establishing a new structure identifying a mission and vision of what we want to what are we trying to achieve as a city we're going to identify some goals and strategies around it and then we want to then present it to the council this is a comprehensive this is a very complex issue that impacts in so many different ways that that I would love to have an urgency to bring it to you in 12, I don't know, 12 weeks, six weeks, five weeks, four weeks, two weeks, but it's not that easy because there's so many different tentacles that this impacts that everybody needs to be in an alignment for this effort to work. And this is just the presentation of a plan and a strategy, because then we gotta figure out how to get funding to support this. The other element, too, is, and I know the Councilor, Councilor King, has also asked for many, many times for our office to increase social worker, et cetera. That has come to the table as part of our discussions, and we talked about that with the providers, and one of the challenges or concerns is that the city then becomes a competitor in trying to compete with the same people that have a limited number of and other social workers in this community, outreach workers in this community, people that are even going into the space. We're also having conversations of creating a pipeline because we're seeing a lack of outreach and case managers in these agencies to do the work because people are not choosing these careers for whatever reasons, right? And so there's a deficiency in terms of staffing that some of these agencies are dealing with. So we've had conversations about pipelines. Do we work QCC? Do we work with our high schools and create a pipeline and many more. We're trying to build a certification process that allows people to get into this space so that we can provide more case management. Right now it's almost a ratio of one to 50 when we talk about case management. It is one case manager to 50 individuals. So there's a plethora of issues and challenges that we're trying to deal with. So I guess the long story short, we're hoping that we can come soon to the council body with a strategy We've been at work for the past months in discussing this structure. We feel we're in a good place. Just last week, about a week and a half ago, we started to kind of refine some of the language and context in terms of how we want to or what are the things that we want to approach. But there's two elements of this that we want to identify. It's one, we want to do information sharing. We want to be able to share data and have the right data. And then two, we want system change, which requires policy, which require ways to think differently about changing of the system, not just simply implementing programs and hiring people. We want to be able to identify what are the changes that we need to implement. And so we're coming soon. I guess I can't give you an exact date, but we're hoping to do this soon. They understand there's an urgency. I have an urgency. We collectively have an urgency. But that doesn't stop us from doing the work on a day-to-day basis and being on the ground. You know, I've been very committed as a city manager in doing everything that I can to support the young house community from the overflow shelters to the resource center to funding social workers at the library. I mean, you name it. I mean, that all has happened under this two and a half, three years. We're not talking about five or ten years. All of this has happened in the last two or three years. And we're going to continue to stay at it, and we're going to work at it. But we don't want to do this in a way that's just, you know, reacting to a situation. We know we need to react, but we want to do it that's right and that's comprehensive and that's creating system change.

Thank you Mr. Manager. I look forward to that 12 to 18 month report and I've spoken to some of the providers on the ground and they too feel the same urgency especially not knowing what the Trump administration is going to do to the HUD funding that funds a lot of this program. Lastly I just want to mention something for clarity. While we can make blanket statements about communities that don't take care of their own I have specifically known that the town of Oxford, their police chief, their librarians have reached out to Worcester to learn from our model. They have a smaller number of unhoused folks. They are taking care of their own. And that's just an example of communities that are trying to replicate some of the things that we're doing here. I want to be careful with the public that we don't set expectations that aren't realistic. The state legislature, as of now, in the last 50 plus years that we have experienced the rise of homelessness, has not done a damn thing to force other communities to contribute to a fund, which I would love to see. And so that is not going to happen, period. What's going to happen is that it's going to be upon us on the cities and towns to take care of our own regardless of where they became homeless. I want to make sure that the public understands it is a very nuanced conversation to make blanket statements about 70%, 60% of people. I don't care where people became homeless. If they are in our city, they are our residents. doesn't matter where they become homeless. They are not a burden on us. They are human beings that need our support.

Councilor Ojeda.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And yeah, I appreciate what the city manager mentioned. Him and I have been in many conversations regarding this. And, you know, there are programs that help people you know get back uh get back home but those those it's not as easy as it seems so uh and that city manager says there's very many moving parts and what I appreciate is um you know him mentioning that we can't just react right away um because what happens is it creates gaps, it creates issues that we just didn't take the time to see. I mean, to understand that, you know, the lack of support due to staffing, I mean, one to 50 is, that's a huge number and that's really tough and that right there alone creates those gaps and that's where we'll lose out on, you know, making an impact. you know so so you know I support and I'm pretty sure the City Manager has been working hard like I said him and I have had conversations regarding this with unsheltered for for many individuals all individuals and I do look forward to seeing what he has planned, and I think it is tough because we see it on a daily basis. Councilor Bergman mentioned that the numbers have increased, and that's really tough to hear over the time. It's like, well, what have we done? And I know we've done a lot. Again, there's a lot of factors that go into it, and I appreciate, again, the city manager's approach of understanding that there's a lot of moving parts, and we have to make sure we try to cover all the bases. And we may not get all the bases covered, but at least we take a really good look at it and hit the ground running with this. So I appreciate it, and again, I look forward to continuing doing this work. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Ojeda. I'll set Councilor Bergman for a second time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to rise to speak on a few things that have been brought up. First of all, I particularly, when I spoke, never use the word burden. I use responsibility, and it is a responsibility, a financial responsibility for this community to be able to try to address the needs of the unsheltered population. The fact that the state legislature hasn't addressed it, well, I'm not willing to give up on the state legislature, I'd say, because they haven't done it. In the past, they're incapable of doing it in the future. The end of the day is the supply of housing for the unsheltered in this city will never, Council, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, do not provide for their community. And why I have to draw the line, and I don't want to have to draw the line on any human being, but lines do have to get drawn at times. That's the reality of what we do here. Other people may deny it, but that's the reality of what we do in our budget process and the decisions we make every single week. And the reason why I must draw the line is because we've talked about the elderly being homeless in the city of Worcester. and I don't want to have to tell somebody who was born in the city, who raised their kids in the city, who worked in the city, who retired in the city and cannot find housing that the housing we had available for them went to somebody from another town who just moved into Worcester. That to me is patently unfair and that's why unfortunately lines have to be drawn. We can't be all things to all people even though we wish we could be.

Okay, so I'm going to send that to the manager.

Councilor Bergman?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just for the public's purposes, I just want to be very clear. The assertion that this is a request to spend more money and spend our way out of it is patently false on its face. This order is very clear. This is a reorganization plan versus a budget increase. I talked about vacancy factors. I talked about shifting departmentally. Again, I stated in my statement, so this is for the press if they're paying attention, the folks if they're paying attention. That wasn't the ask. It also wasn't an ask that we don't continue to advocate with our state and federal partners. It's a reality check that we know the local aid we need isn't gonna come to the degree that we need it to. As I mentioned, they're tossing around the number of $16 billion short from Medicaid and Medicare in the state coffers, and we don't know the impact that's gonna have on the on the rest of the budget moving forward. We know it's going to be an impact on our nonprofits. We know that the housing situation, the unsheltered is going to get worse. And it's not just about housing stock. It's also about housing affordability for our elderly. It's not simply that there's not an option, a vacancy. It's also the affordability issue, which we need to do more about here in this city when it comes to stabilizing those Financial Challenges. So I want to be also clear this is a component of the strategy that the City Manager has embarked upon following the order of Councilor Haxhiaj asking for a comprehensive plan. This is a component. This is a component and it's very simple. Once again, ratios. You talk about competing with and creating pipelines. I participated in developing pipelines to mental health services long before these things got up and running in the city. I've been on the panels. I've encouraged people. I'm a part of that too, Mr. Manager. And what I'll say is this. Yes, there's gaps. but it's also very clear that we can't continue to do what we've always done. We'll get what we continue to get and that is this. What I've heard from folks, what I've heard from law enforcement that I've spoken to, I've heard from the fire department I've spoken to, they're also stretched thin with regards to responding to those sorts of calls. We need more hands on deck and I'm not looking to increase taxes because of this. I would like the feasibility of a reorganization plan versus a budget increase. I think we can do it. I really do. We look at our free cash we have every year. We look at the contingency fund. We look at, again, the vacancy factors. What can we do? And I don't think that's an unfair question to ask. I agree that folks do come here. We've talked on this Councilor B floor. I don't dismiss that fact that as the Councilor mentioned, we don't know, they're homeless here, they're homeless there, but we know there's more folks here at the end of the day. And there's a local aid component there. There's a local aid component from our state reps, from our state senators, from the governor, from the lieutenant governor, all of those things, A&F, everybody. And perhaps one day we'll get there. I'm not willing to give up, but as Councilor Haxhiaj mentioned, probably not likely to happen in these times. As Councilor Bergman mentioned, doesn't mean you gotta stop fighting for it. So I agree with all of those things, but we have to increase and expand our responsiveness. And if the fact of the matter is that we're going to pause that because of competition in the private sector with us in the public sector for social workers, outreach workers. We should really think about that. If that was the case, we wouldn't have the social workers we have now, the outreach workers we have now. There's possibility to do things a little more comprehensively. So I look forward to this going through as we take a look at this department. To not do so would be irresponsible, thank you.

Thank you, so we'll send that to the manager, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda?

Yes.

Councilor Pacillo?

Yes.

Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. Mayor Petty?

We have item 15D, the order of Mayor Joseph M. Petty requesting the city manager provide the city council with a report concerning the city's ability to require landscape green space plans for underdeveloped lots under ordinances and regulations associated with anti-blight. Further, request the city manager contact the owners of the former Notre Dame Church property as well as the Polar Park District properties regarding any implementation of such plan. Mayor Petty.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I was at a neighborhood meeting, I think it was the Elm Park neighborhood meeting, and this came up, and asking why can't we, you know, City Square, with a nice area, with a nice lawn there, and even had a concert there over the weekend. So, we have these empty lots, see if we, I don't know, we might have those regulations now, I wasn't aware of them, but if we don't, can we have these landowners similar that we did at Gateway City? Council, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, City Council, Council of the City, Council of the City, Council of the City, Council of the City, Council of the City, Those neighborhoods deserve to be treated with respect no matter where it is. And to make sure that the vision, that people can see that there's no blight in the city of Worcester. So anything we can do to make it positive would be welcome. I'm going to send that to the manager.

Okay, seeing no one else, we'll send this to the city manager. Roll call 15D.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Order 15E, the order of Mayor Joseph M. Petty and Councilor Kathleen Toomey, request city manager provide city council with an update concerning tiny home projects in the city, including such a project on Claremont Street. Mayor Petty. Thank you.

You know, this is, Councilor King brought this up in the last order, talking about the unsheltered. It's all related. It's such an emotional and complex issue. I think everybody here wants to do the right thing by the people who are unsheltered, who are down on their luck, might have some issues, but they deserve our respect and making sure they get the services that they need. There's no question about that. If you go out and you talk to people who are unsheltered on our streets, They're just people who will talk to you, who will cooperate with you if you ask them to. I know that a lot of people will move. There's an event on the lake, and Cole Park may have an event, and they'll leave and come back. And it's such a complex issue, and emotional, like I said, because if you go into one spot, you go into the green space, under the Green Street Bridge, and you force people, they're gonna go into another neighborhood, then they're gonna come back, and everybody's in the neighborhoods. There's no neighborhood that is not impacted by the unsheltered here in the city of Worcester. You could go and sometimes you don't see them, that they're in the woods. and which is a problem especially that quality life team does by the way a great job so I just want to say that they're out there on the streets maybe need more assistance that's something we'll wait for you to come back with your plan Mr. Manager but just so this ties into my order here from Councilor Toomey he's already been an advocate of tiny homes in the city of Worcester and on Claremont Street we had Senator Chandler come in, Senator Kennedy and talk about the seeds of hope he put the plan together which is a pretty good plan and if we could use the I support this 100%. And I know it's funding issues. That's what the other thing is. Every time we come up with great plans, it comes down to funding. And it's such a huge issue, whether it be Oriole Drive, whether it be the other tiny homes we're gonna do on Staff History at one time. And we have these good ideas, and this comes down to funding. and that's when things were good. And I don't know what, like I think Councilor Haxhiaj mentioned, you know, or Councilor King about the federal government and who knows what they're going to go with, what they're going to do over the next, with this HUD money that comes into the city of Worcester and the state of Massachusetts really. And so you have a real negative impact. But this talks about, you know, we've all talked about the new Unhoused people are the people 65 and older who are elderly. And they're living in their cars. They're being forced out of their house. They can't afford it anymore. And so it's just another addition, another challenge that we need to face here as the City of Worcester. And Mr. Manager, I know with your providers, there's a lot of good people in this city who want to do the right thing. But it's such a complex. It's not just the City of Worcester. You can read the paper about the City of Boston. from their struggles, and other cities across Massachusetts. But we do need to work together, I think as a state, in order to address these issues. But I think this whole project that which really came from people in the administration a little bit. It came from Dr. Castillo. Hello, Dr. Castillo. But anyways, and Harriet Chandler really was the driving force behind this, and I think she's really done her homework on this issue. I know there's a funding shortage on this, and hopefully that over a period of time she'll be able to close that gap if there's funding available, but all these people who are partners in the City of Worcester, Grace Engineering, Integrity Modular Design Construction, which is right here in the City of Worcester. People shouldn't forget that. We have a modular home manufacturer who could expand here if this takes off. They could actually expand their property and actually be a big supplier of modular homes here in the City of Worcester. the United Way, Tim Garvin, Guillermo Pagano, Worcester Community Housing Resources, Open Sky, and also, see if they have a plan about providing services, which is just as important as providing the housing. You need to provide good services if you're gonna provide this housing, and this project is well needed here in the city of Worcester, so I support this and ask my colleagues to support it also.

Thank you. Councilor Toomey, do you wanna speak on this?

Through you, Mr. Vice Chair, I think it's incredibly important that we continue this discussion and that we really try to find a solution, especially for those who are incredibly vulnerable, our elderly, as we've heard tonight. And so I rise in support. I signed on with this because I was seeing this issue happening in the future. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's a realistic solution. It's less costly. And so I do think that we can overcome the funding for this type of program. And hopefully we can move forward. Thank you.

Manager, Mr. Manager.

I just want to rise quickly this is an important project that the city has been involved in since the first actually the creation and idea came from our Dr. Castillo and then she partnered with Senator Chandler and then it just took off so I and I just want to give kudos to I also want to give kudos to the economic development department because they worked with Maddie because this was a property under the jurisdiction of the city manager we turned it over we put an RFP out there we put a process out there to get people to I want to thank WCHR for their proposal and being a partner and taking ownership and being a developer as part of this and also integrity. So again, this is a collective partnership. So this is extremely important. We're excited about it. First of its kind in the city. And we hope that this can be something, a solution, an innovative solution for the future. And yes, I do hope that in the near future we can come up with the funding gap. This is something that's extremely important. But then it's four units, right? You know, for less than a million dollars, you're talking about four units for our senior population. I do also want to give a shout out to that hasn't been talked about is John Odell's Sustainability Office, because they have been working to find ways to make sure that these properties are sustainable, have sustainable energy as part of the process. So again, it's a whole interdepartmental effort in supporting this with all the partners involved. So again, a true definition of partnership in our city. Thank you.

Okay. Item 15E, roll call, Mr. Clerk. Oh, sorry. Councilor Mero-Carlson, District 2.

Thank you. Just I'm curious to ask because I quite honestly don't know the answer to this obviously is with the CPA funds is there a possibility for any of that funding to be used for this particular project given that There's certainly a partnership with the, I know the United Way of Central Mass is giving some money and there is somebody else who's giving some money, forgive me for at this point forgetting who that is, but I just wonder is with our CPA funds, could we not use some of those funds to help fund this project? I think it would be a great idea.

Yeah, through you, Chair, to the Council, that's a possibility. The group or the entity now that owns the property, WCHR, would have to put an application forward in partnership with the coalition that's been doing this work. They would have to put an application forward before the CPA, for the CPA committee to disperse those dollars. They would also, they have also the ability to go to Affordable Housing Trust Fund, right, to seek some dollars from there as well. So there's two avenues. That's outside of my jurisdiction to make decisions on those funding. They would have to submit to those committees and then those committees allot those fundings. And so it all depends on the funding cycle in terms of what those committees are. And so that's something that it's available to them as well.

To the chair, to the manager, in terms of the funding cycle at this point with the CPA funds, Is that funding cycle still open? And if not, then when is the next funding cycle? Because again, we continue to come up with all these great ideas, but we always hit these challenges in terms of funding or other challenges that we meet. City Council, Councilor McFarland. When is the next opening for the both entities for them to apply?

Yeah, I don't have the accurate timeline in terms of when that's happened. I know that the CPA just recently funded and tonight you voted for that as part of they just initially just funded actually all of the dollars of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund have been already planned, because that was initially seeded by ARPA dollars, so that's been already planned. There's new monies came in from CPA to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, so now the Affordable Housing Trust Fund will have the opportunity to put this out as an RFP for people to submit to, but the number is limited now. It's much less than what we had initially. Correct. I don't know exactly when the Affordable Housing Trust Fund cycle will come in.

But I also understand that I'm sorry, through the chair to the manager. I also understand that the amount of monies that they're actually looking for for this tiny home project is not... Correct.

It's small. It's less than $300,000. Right. Yeah. And so I don't know exactly the affordable housing trust fund funding cycle. I know the CPA just ended, but that'd be something I can come back to the council just to, or just put it, or just, I can send it as an email to everybody so that everybody knows.

Yeah. If you, if you could do that, that, that would be great. I don't, I don't need any report. Just, it would be great if we were able to do that. Thank you.

Councilor at-large Morris Bergman.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the Chair to the City Manager, just a question I have on the project itself or the nature of this type of project, if there's an answer available, otherwise certainly amenable to report for a future meeting, but who determines who gets The opportunity to buy into the tiny homes. Is this a lottery? Is this based on some sort of income analysis? How is that determined?

It's not a purchase of them. It would be a rental. That's what I meant.

When I said buy-in, maybe it's a poor choice of work. Who's able to take advantage of being able to reside in one of them?

So it's a voucher program. So Woodstock Community Housing Resource, they're one of the CDCs in the city. And so they work closely with Central Mass Housing Alliance, who places individuals that are either homeless or in the homelessness population within their network. And so as long as they have the voucher, they go through a process where they get selected for these based on City Council, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland, Councilor McFarland,

Okay, if there's no one further, Mrs. Item, where do we go here? 15E, the order of Mayor Joseph M. Petty and Councilor Kathleen Toomey regarding the tiny home projects roll call.

The update on tiny home projects roll call. Councilor Bergman?

Yes. Councilor Colorio? Yes. Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen? Yes. Councilor Ojeda? Councilor Basilo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty, and Vice Chair, Councilor Kerr.

Yes. Item 15F, order of Mayor Joseph M. Petty requesting city manager create a contingency fund up to $500,000 to assist Community Preservation Act recipients who can demonstrate hardship to assist in cost reimbursement payments. Mayor Petty.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In answer to Councilor Mero-Carlson's question, I think the process opens up again September, October, hopefully distribution of funds will be December, January of next year, January of next year. But we issued the CPA funds, I think it was probably around $4 million, if I'm correct, yeah, a little bit over $4 million. And some, as any new program, we find out things, people don't understand the rules, state law when it comes to this. What we come to find out is that, I'm sure that Peter Dunn knew about it, because he was planning for this anyways, but some of the recipients didn't understand that they would have to prepay for their project, and this is a reimbursement. and some of these recipients don't have the money received, we'll say $100,000, maybe more than $100,000. They don't have the money in order to pay and get reimbursed. I talked to Peter Dunn, Chief Economic Development Officer, and he's been working hard on this with a, I won't name the organization, but a non-profit, hoping that they would be able to be a fund, like a bank, that they could pass through the money for no interest, the money would just be reimbursed. but that comes with, there's only so much money they have and maybe Mr. Manager can work with Peter Dunn, the non-profit, the CEO of Worcester to see if we can expand for more than $50,000 or somehow, how can you subdivide this and help somebody who can't, they might have a $150,000 project, they don't have the money, how can we help them? and whether it be they can do it in parts and working with some of the recipients, it's important because a lot of these CPA trust fund, the board there, they work pretty hard on this, give us some good recommendations. They just wanna make sure they can implement and people who receive this funding are able to afford it. And to be very clear, it's not like we're giving out more money, it's just trying to create a bank where you're holding the money, and then it comes back to you. So you pay it out, it comes right back to you once the reimbursement occurs. So something to look at, Mr. Manager. I just want to thank the whole city organization who put this together. It worked out pretty well. And I think we get another distribution coming up in six months, six or seven months and looking forward to that distribution too. It makes a difference here in the city of Worcester. So thank you.

Councilor, at large, Morris Bergman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I was much younger and applying to colleges, I remember I was a recipient of a fund. It was called the Reginald Washburn Scholarship Fund. It was through the notary. Sorry, not through the notary, but it was through an organization in Worcester, Rotarians. And there was an ask of you at the end when you I would ask that if you paid back your loan, if you would contribute something to the Rotarians as some sort of gratitude for getting the loan. So I have no issue with the Mayor's order, an item. I didn't fully understand myself that there would be an outlay of funds, but I do have an ask, and the ask would be, of those nonprofits that are gonna get a loan from the city, I would ask that, and if they own real estate, You asked them to consider contributing something voluntarily back towards the city as some sort of appreciation for getting an interest-free loan to an organization that doesn't pay taxes on their property. Not a requirement, just an ask. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

No, I'm just trying to figure out how to ask a question from the chair with this situation going on. It's fine, I'll ask later, I guess. Roll call, 15F.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Colorio. Yes. Councilor Haxhiaj.

Yes.

Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen. Yes. Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. Mayor Petty. Yes. Vice Chair, Councilor King.

Yes, we're going to 15 I, order of Mayor Joseph M. Petty, request city manager request police chief to consider providing increased traffic and speed enforcement at Newton Square Rotary. as it reads. As it reads.

Roll call, 59.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj. Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo.

Yes.

Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey.

Yes.

Mayor Petty. Yes. And Vice Chair, Councilor King.

Yes. Order of Candy Mero-Carlson, request city manager provide council with an update concerning draft language to implement an institutional zoning ordinance which would require institutions such as colleges, universities, and hospitals to file 10-year institutional master plans with the city.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. This is an order that I filed back in September. So I'm looking for an update from the administration on where are we at with this. And my understanding is there is something in the process. And so we I guess my question is through the chair to the manager. Is this an item that we could potentially see on September 9th?

Mr. Manager?

Through the Chief of the Council, yes. We've worked through it, and that's something that you can expect very shortly.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, send that to the manager, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson? Yes. Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda?

Yes.

Councilor Pacillo? Yes. Councilor Russell? Yes. Councilor Toomey?

Yes.

Mayor Petty?

Yes. Okay. Order of Councilor Mero-Carlson, request the City Manager provide Council with a report concerning installation of sidewalks at the beach near Shore Park as the sidewalks are currently incomplete and posing a safety hazard.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, this sidewalk over here has been ripped up for The entire summer happened last year and we were told first there was they ripped up the sidewalk and left it then we were told once there was a question asked Council Pacillo and myself they said that there was a utility work that needed to be done there and we continue to go back to there's utility work that needs to be done there. Of which, quite honestly, Mr. Chairman and to the manager, at some point some of this stuff needs to become unacceptable. from these utility companies. At some point, we as a city need to hold them accountable. You have a swimming area over there. We have lifeguards over there. We have families going over there. And you have giant holes in the sidewalk because they made a decision. I guess we can't get to it because we never It feels like we never force them to fix what they've dug up and they just don't care about the safety issue. Yet, if one of our residents puts trash bags in the middle of the sidewalk or puts something out there, we go down there and we give them a fine. But wait, you just can't use the sidewalk and God forbid you have any mobility issues because you're never going to get there. And it's been sitting there and sitting there and sitting there and sitting there and it is extremely frustrating. and quite frankly I just don't get it that we can have a swimming area that people go to every single day and it's quite okay that we have a very unsafe area over there and you know it's over and over and over and over again with the utility companies. And Councilor Russell has had them into public works. And we have with previous commissioners had these folks in. But I am just going to tell you, they don't give a crap. They just don't. And when is it or what is it that we can do? Because obviously, we're not holding them accountable in any manner, shape or form. and how is it that they're not completing the job that we're not holding them accountable and how is it that there is not a fine for them not completing the job? So they can open up a city sidewalk and they can leave it there for, I don't know, seven months, nine months, 12 months, 15 months, who knows? It's only when we say something that we finally get them to fix it. Sorry for the rant. but not sorry.

Councilor Russell.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to support my colleague, Councilor Mero-Carlson on this item and it goes to what we've been talking about time after time after time. The city councilors in this room and out of this room shouldn't be the reporters of potholes on every time. If it's an unusual thing, great. But for, I mean, there was one on Sunderland Road where a utility connection, and I kept hitting it and hitting it. Finally, I have to get out of the car, take a picture of it. That's the only way it's gonna get fixed, is if we're doing it, if we're chasing them. And you know what? Mr. Chairman, there's nobody on this council floor that's been more supportive of the Public Works Department in my term, in my years on this council. And I know Councilor King gave me the look. I'm sure he's been equally supportive, and everybody has. But I've always been complimentary to the Public Works Department. But we're dropping the ball. The inspection, and I don't want to say the personal inspectors, but somewhere down the line we're not doing the job inspecting these. We're not holding the people that are digging up the streets, holding their feet to the fire. It's that simple. It shouldn't be, it shouldn't, you know, residents shouldn't have to hit a pothole 10, 15 times. Residents shouldn't have to trip on a sidewalk multiple times and call their city councilor to get it done. This is the job of the inspectors. And ultimately, Mr. Chairman, through unit manager, it's the responsibility of this administration to get that job done. And this job is not getting done in that category. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Councilor King.

I just wanna say something, because there's nuances to all of this. You had your moment, let me share my moment now to speak. There's nuances to all of this, right? An inspector may go and inspect the job, and three weeks later, two weeks later, a pothole creates. You can't blame the inspector because he didn't inspect the job. Something happened. We have over 500 miles in the city. You can't expect every DPW worker to see every single pothole, every single issue in the city. That's why we collectively, we collectively as residents, it is all of our responsibilities. You communicate to us and our job is to work and go get it done and then advocate for the residents and advocate for the council to these companies. But you can't assume that the employees of the department should be all eyes and ears on a 500 miles and sidewalks of the entire city at all times. That's impossible. All of us collectively, we work together, we share the issues, and my job is to work with the commissioner to go and get the job done. That's the way it works. You can't expect them to see and know everything because the inspectors, they inspect the work. But it may be a week later that it then creates again. We cannot assume that they're not doing that job.

Mr. Chairman, the last commissioner of public works put forward a policy about patches. put forward a policy about patches from the middle of the road to the curb that were supposed to be implemented. That hasn't been implemented. And Mr. Chairman, it is all of our responsibilities, and I've been very happy to accept my responsibilities as District Council for the last 14 years. and make no mistake about it, but when a truck goes down the street to fix a pothole and there's a pothole five feet away and they don't do it because it's not on their work schedule or they don't report it to the inspectors to go back after the utility companies if something is sunken, there's a problem with the system. There's a problem with the system, and we're in denial if that's not true. On Sunderland Road, I bugged the commissioner just last week about a specific pothole. He... got it done within a matter of hours. There were people there, went there, took care of it. It was a space just like Councilor Carlson is talking about on a sidewalk and a pothole out in the street where some work was done. I don't know if it was done by the water department or some utility company or whoever, but he got it done right away. But right from my desk to Councilor Bergman's desk, there's other multiple potholes that weren't done. at that time. Something is wrong with this system. And that's all I'll say. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Okay, Councilor King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to also support this particular item. It's refreshing to hear Councilor Russell and Councilor Bergman, Councilor Mero-Carlson. Never thought I'd hear the day that Councilor Russell didn't want to be a customer service representative, but I get it. I hear you. You know, it was interesting to hear also the talk about we collectively, and Councilor Russell hit the nail on the head with some of the things I've also been talking about in concert with him over the years regarding what is the expectation of other departments when they see something, be it someone dumping trucks. Sorry, or mattresses or potholes and sidewalks. I talked about this before that I'm sure there's some sort of a collective bargaining issue with requiring people to do this. I know that's my job, but is there an ask? And if there's an ask, is there any compliance? What does that look like? Because I've seen spaces and places where there's an abundance of issues pertaining to the cleanliness of the city, the roads, the sidewalks, the potholes, and you see city vehicles going by. What efforts are made, when you talked about all of us, Is there anything that the administration is doing on that end with regards to our workforce through the chair?

Mr. Mayor Drew?

Yeah, through the chair to the council. We constantly have conversations in making sure that every department works in unison and working collectively. There are challenges when it comes to collective bargaining, right? A certain individual that is specifically charged to do this type of work, we can ask that person to do this type of work. and we all know that in the part of the collective bargaining. And so, but we still ask. We ask them to at least pay attention, to keep an eye out, to inform each other, and they do. They do it all the time. Inspectional services sometimes see issues and they inform the DPW or the fire department or whatever it may be. That happens. So, but again there's a lot happening in the city it's a big city over 210,000 people now or maybe short of there's a lot of challenges and we know that we have to address them and we are working towards that but that work is happening.

Thank you and you know just as a way of a suggestion perhaps there's something that could be done with maybe incentivizing that sort of collaboration from the city side. Maybe it's a personal day extra for someone who, you know, kind of reports the most things that they're passing by. It makes me wonder also, you know, if that sort of approach would work. But certainly want to sign on to this and appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay, we'll sign out to the manager roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Oh. Commissioner?

Through the Chair, I'm happy that I'm here. To the Councilor's point about Shore Drive, I heard some great news today from Councilor Antonelli that the utility conflict has been resolved and he expects the contractor to remobilize within the next two weeks and the work will be completed by Halloween.

Thank you. Councilor Bergman?

Mr. Commissioner Westerling, to do some laps, but while he was up there, I had a question for him pertaining to some of the discussion we've just had. Council Russell's brought up an issue that I have had an interest in for a long time and have talked about it as well. and I know there was a different philosophy at least expressed by the former commissioner about what happens in situations where there's a work order for a pothole somebody goes out to fill the pothole and I think it's important for the public and for us as counselors particularly to understand through the chair to the commissioner are other potholes in the vicinity likely to get fixed if there's no work order or is the policy and City Council. Is that going to require that there be a work order in order for other potholes to be fixed? Because to me, it's a very important question as far as efficiency and city government that drives people mad.

Through the Chair, there's been a lot discussed this evening, but I'll focus on the Councilor's specific question. If we have a crew that goes out that's patching potholes on a certain street and they've got adequate materials in their truck, of course they're going to fix any potholes in that area. So that is a policy to be efficient and to take care of any potholes that are in the immediate area of your work zone.

So through the chair, it's kind of a maybe fallacy or maybe it's relying on the way things used to be that without a work order, if the pothole is in the vicinity of one that does have a work order and there's enough material that it's being filled. Is that accurate?

Through the chair, yes.

And just one last question, Mr. Chairman. Is that something that's a written policy that everybody that works there knows to do this? Or is it something you're counting on people to have common sense and do? Because the reason why I ask that is I'm not sure from what I hear from people that watch these potholes being fixed and everybody's telling me that that's what's happening.

Through the Chair, I'll take the worst example of pothole season, which is in the spring after the freeze-thaw cycles. We have multiple trucks that go out on multiple roads, and they are given an assignment of either a neighborhood or a list of streets where the most pothole complaints are. And that's their job, is to maximize their day, maximize the use of their materials, and maximize the number of potholes that are filled.

So I just want to follow up. I apologize. I did say that was my last question, but the commissioner's response compels me to ask at least one more, which is I understand through the chair of the commissioner that in the springtime you're asking DPW workers to go out and fill spot holes in particular neighborhoods. My question is a little different. My question is after the springtime. The summer, the fall, the winter, if it's possible to do it in warmer weather in the winter. If a 929-1300 is called, or 311 now, and somebody is told or given a work order for a pothole, let's say on West Boylston Street, How do the workers going out to fill that pothole know to bring enough material to fill other potholes in the vicinity because there likely are going to be other potholes? That's what I'm trying. I'm struggling not with what you're saying, with the reality on the street, which is does that actually happen and how do they know to do that?

So through the chair, if there is a work order, there isn't just one work order, there's a number of work orders, and they would maximize how much material they're grabbing in their vehicle. They would go out, and if they're filling one pothole on West Boylston Street in some of the general vicinity, then it's our expectation that they would fill those. West Boylston Street is a very lengthy road, so again, they'd be focused on where the work order was. They've got a number of work orders that they need to get to. So they're going to maximize the area that they're in. They wouldn't get to all their work orders if they started filling potholes down West Boylston Street. But in general, they're going to take care of the potholes that are in that area.

All right, thank you.

Council Pacillo?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have one more question for Mr. Westerling. And I do want to say a couple of things. 311 is great. And I report potholes all the time. And I've spoken with people on the street team who are out filling potholes. And they're wonderful. And they're great. And yesterday, I reported a missing valve cap on Calumet. And it's been fixed. And it's great. I'm so happy. And I also want to remind us that we're turning on each other when it's the private utilities who are doing this, and so we should stay focused on them. But through the chair to Commissioner Westerling, how many inspectors are there going out day to day looking at construction sites and Eversource work, national grid work?

Through the Chair, to your direct question, we have four inspectors who are inspecting approximately 2,500 utility permits per year. So at this point, we're around 2,000 permits that have been issued. We have four inspectors. We also have four inspectors who are going out and they're inspecting city work. If we are reconstructing a road, they're out there inspecting the work that's being done by those contractors doing approximately $20 million worth of work.

So through the chair to Commissioner Westerling, it's eight inspectors total or it's the same four inspectors that are doing all of this work?

Through the chair, there's eight total.

OK, so I guess through the chair to the city manager, my question would be, how could we better support the inspectors? Because it seems to me that's a really big workload. And I'm all about collectively reporting potholes and things like that, and I'm happy to do it. I don't mind being a customer service representative, but I just feel like it sounds as though these inspectors have an impossible task.

To the councilor, that is a question I think the commissioner would be more prepared to answer, understanding his staffing capacity. But again, that's something that we can always look at and take in consideration as part of the budget process.

Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Commissioner.

and Councilor McFarland. Through the Chair, if I could, I happen to be at a neighborhood meeting in Councilor Haxhiaj's neighborhood, and the same question was asked of why, as a taxpayer, should I be calling 311 with potholes? And to the City Manager's point, it takes all of us, four inspectors, eight inspectors, can't possibly see all the potholes across 500 miles of roadway. So we do appreciate when folks take advantage of the 311 system and call us so that we can We can address those issues.

Okay, Councilor Toomey.

Very quickly, a few years ago, I know I filed an order regarding there was some mechanism that you could put on the vehicles, the city vehicles underneath, and it would take pictures or some sort of geography, not geography, geometry, sorry, to determine whether or not they were driving over a pothole There's some new technology that's out there that can do that. Other cities and towns have used it. So not just the DPW vehicles, but all of our other city vehicles, you could put this on. If I recall, it was relatively inexpensive. So we have cars that are driving all over the 500 miles of roads and possibly could track that as well, if that's something that you could look into. Through you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Okay, so I'm gonna send that to the manager, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, request City Manager, request Commissioner of Transportation and Mobility to conduct an updated traffic study regarding the number of accidents that have occurred in the intersection of St. Nicholas Ave and Clark Street. Further request to have such a traffic study include information concerning the implementation of vulnerable road use of safety

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. After a brief conversation seconds ago with Councilor Pacillo, sounds like some of this work is ongoing. I know that the residence there that I spoke to about a week ago has significant concerns. A number of them did not who live in that intersection, right next to, abutting that intersection, were not aware of the implementation plan. So I'd ask that this go forward and that that be communicated to the public. Councilor Pacillo can perhaps talk about the work that she's done and what's going to actually happen at that intersection. Thank you, Mr. June.

Thank you, Councilor Pacillo.

Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you Councilor King for checking in on this. So basically I actually live right on Clark Street and I drive through this intersection constantly and this has been something in our Burncoat neighborhood meetings that's been an issue for years. Councilor Rose tried to work on it and didn't have much luck but over the past year I was able to work with Transportation Mobility. So I asked for a traffic study with safety improvements and speed coming measures back in May of 2024. Councilor Bergman requested a four-way stop at some point, which DTM was able to work with the state. I wish they were here. They could probably give us more details. But there will be a four-way stop at Clark and St. Nicholas. It meets the crash data. My understanding is MassDOT is paying for it, and that's why it's taking a little bit longer, but there will be the stop signs with the flashing lights on them, stop bars painted on the streets. So that should be happening this year through the chair of the city manager. Do you have any information on this?

You don't?

Chair to the council you've shared all of it now but yeah it should be happening within this year okay and then I thank you so much and additionally we do have three speed humps on St. Nicholas from Squantum down to Country Club Boulevard which Country Club Boulevard is also getting redone with safety measures and last month at the meeting I requested painted lane markings on St. Nicholas because the problem is St. Nicholas St. Nicholas is really wide People go way too fast. You have a school at the end of it. You've got the housing authority. You have neighborhoods, kids. Someone was in an accident earlier in the summer at St. Nicholas in Squantum, and it's incredibly dangerous. So I appreciate Councilor King's help, and I've been working on it for like a year and a half. So thank you.

Thank you. Good job, Councilor King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to amend this, striking the first part of this and just requesting that the implementation of the Safety Strategy Plan Timeline be provided, Mr. Chairman, and strike the rest. I can tell you that up and down that street just this past week, folks are significantly concerned and fearful of what's going to happen next. So we'd love to see that in writing. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

So as amended, so that's the manager roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes, request that the City Manager initiate a public service response regarding dog waste and cooling but not limited to creating an advisory discovery during dog waste disposal in the City of Stormdrains. Further request that said response also include installation of earth-friendly locations with compostable waste bags of all standing parks and dog parks of the City of Council King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Definitely appreciate this opportunity to speak on this. This has been brought to me by a number of very active residents who are reporting dog waste being disposed in the city's storm drains. Through the chair of the administration, are you aware of this concern? Has this been brought to anyone's attention? Mr. Manager.

Thank you. To the Chair, to the Councilor, not to myself directly. I don't know if the Commissioner has received any complaints, but that's something that we can definitely look into.

Okay. Further, in addition to sort of some educational work going on with dog owners and folks who don't own dogs, might care for dogs and other pets as well, that we have an advisory discouraging dog waste disposal in the city's storm drains. We know that we have challenges anyway. This just exacerbates that. So sort of a public service advisory that we can do through social media, through the spin team, I mean the city manager's communication team. And also as well as maybe working with folks who are getting dog permits and et cetera. Now the other portion of this is installation of earth-friendly and Councilor McFarland. We also have compostable waste bags at locations that become standard in our parks and in our dog parks as well. This is something that I brought forward previously. You know, that's really something that should be, that we should have in basically all of our parks. And as far as I know, we do not. So through the Charity Administration, do we know to what extent we do have those sort of receptacles Thank you.

Thank you.

what sort of, is there any sort of educational component, I'm gonna ask a question, if we can ensure that there's some sort of recurrent aspect to the dog permitting and other pets, you know, regarding waste as it relates to best practices to be used in the city and what have you, maybe there's something that can go out if there's not something already when they get permitted or they get reminded to renew their permits, et cetera. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Ojeda.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Councilor King. Yes, just real quick. I guess I was being a nosy councilor one day. They were cleaning the storm chains in the Bellevue Street area, and speaking to one of the gentlemen there and he mentioned that exactly the dog waste that's being picked up inside those catch basins that's really concerning because I don't think the residents really know where that storm drain water is going where it heads out where it flushes out to so hopefully some information can be sent out to the residents to understand where that Thank you, so I'll send that to the manager.

Roll call. Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. Mayor Petty.

Yes. Requesting the Mayor to request the Commissioner of Transportation and Mobility to review the installation of all stop signs and speed bumps in the city since January 1st, 2022 to ensure all locations are compliant with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and federal regulations and so with each of the placement and installation, Councilor Toomey.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I actually filed this on behalf of a constituent who had also contacted me, I think yesterday, and said that he gave me the wrong date. He's looking to go to 2020 instead of 22. They asked me to try to get this information. I told them I didn't think that the speed humps were an issue with any type of compliance or whatever, but he asked if I would do this and so on his behalf.

Okay, so send that to the manager, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Request City Manager to provide Council with an update concerning the drafting of Ordinances Relative to the Advancement of Two Wisdom Now Next recommendations concerning eliminating or reducing the parking requirements and reforming tree protection requirements for all developments. Councilor Haxhiaj?

As it reads.

Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. Mayor Petty.

Yes. Refer 17A, the Worcester Regional Research Bureau's report to public service and transportation roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

We have reported economic development. We have 18A, motions to accept and adopt and roll call. We have 18B, motions to accept. 18C, report the economic development. We'll do 18A and B for us, roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, 18C, 18D is in motions to place on file, roll call.

What is that?

18C and 18D. Okay. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes, 19A, the motion is accepted and adopted on the roll call. And 19B, the motion is to accept, Councilor Ojeda.

I just, I need to recuse myself from 19A.

Okay, we'll take them separately. So motion to accept and adopt a roll call on 19A. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Mr. Chairman.

Councilor Russell.

Why so?

Can we please note that Councilor Ojeda and Councilor Russell have recused themselves. Why are they recusing? Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda recused, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell recused, Councilor Toomey, Mayor Petty.

Yes. Okay, 19th's B, motions will accept roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

To be ordained, part one. Okay, we have 20A through 20Z, ordained on the roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. Mayor Petty. That's 21A to 21.

Is it K? K. A day in a roll call.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Colorio. Yes. Councilor Haxhiaj. Yes. Councilor King. Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson. Yes. Councilor Nguyen. Yes. Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. Trustee Mayers, consider providing counsel with a report concerning the expansion of Shannon CSI funding perimeters. Said report should include information that identifies how the changes in funding perimeters may impact youth crisis responsiveness, as well as update concerning the related selection committee member planning and selection process. As it reads. Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King, Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Pacillo, Councilor Russell, Councilor Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, we'll get back to 8B. According to the rule 33C of the list of city council, city council sends the rules as the August 19th, 2025 meeting to take up an item not reasonably anticipated. The city council of the city of Worcester does hereby convene an executive session City Council will not reconvene in open session. Roll call. Councilor Bergman, Councilor Colorio, Councilor Haxhiaj, Councilor King.

Yes. Councilor Mero-Carlson, Councilor Nguyen, Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Pacillo. Yes. Councilor Russell. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. Mayor Petty. Yes.