City Council 02/03/2026

Okay, welcome 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, United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed, 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 They proved 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

and the home of the brave.

Okay, roll call.

Bregman, Mr. Marries, trying to log in virtually. Councilor Bilotta?

Here.

Councilor Economou? Here. Councilor Fresolo? King, Councilor Mitra, Councilor Ojeda, Councilor Rivera, Councilor Rosen, Councilor Toomey, everybody.

Here. Five A's with approval of the minutes of the January 20th meeting. Ms. Carson-Berman on. Those in favor? Opposed? So ordered. Okay, we have public participation. The person may speak for no more than two minutes. I am appearing on the agenda. Mr. Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think we also have Councilor Bergman who joined virtually.

Yep, present, thank you.

Rule 39, items of public interest at every meeting of the city council on the public participation portion of the agenda. The chair shall recognize any person seeking such recognition for the purpose of addressing the council and any eligible item on the agenda for the meeting both in person and remotely. Any person who wishes to speak on more than one agenda item shall combine the testimony to one appearance at the microphone. and the time for speaking, Sean, I see two minutes for any one speaker, 30 minutes for all speakers. Rule four, petitions. On the first occasion that a petition appeared before the city council agenda, Brian petition may address the council for no more than three minutes on the subject of their petition. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, your name is to your residence.

Fred, Nathan, Worcester. We're going to start off with 8A and 8B dealing with the MBTA. Worcester is the second largest city and basically all in New England. And we still get a slap in the face. There should be more trains. In fact, there should even be trains going down to Rhode Island. out of Worcester. You shouldn't have to go to Boston to go to Rhode Island. That does not compute. And anyone who thinks it does is living in the sand. 9A. I don't know why it wasn't turned into housing a long time ago at the old St. Vincent Hospital out of nursing dorms. Thank you, John. That's a very good thing that you proposed here about the housing.

I mean, we keep on hearing about housing, but really, what does the city do? Sometime I'm going to come in here with something that's going to blow the lid off of everything. When I say it, people are going to look like, this doesn't exist. Well, I'm not going to say it right now because I don't want to give it away. and I'd just like to remind people here that 11A, this is February now so which means it is Black History Month so act accordingly.

Thank you.

What's your name, sir? I see your residence.

Hello, my name is Abby Mortillero, she, her, Worcester resident, District 4. So I'm going to start off with 11A, Black History Month, because February is, always has been, and always will be, Black History Month. And I think it is, you know, important that the city of Worcester recognize that. Okay. Next item. Thank you. 19A, Rain Control. I think rain control is important for a city. 19C, Center for Food Justice and Urban Agriculture. I support that.

19D, Office of Housing Stability, I support that. and finally, 19G, DOJ report. Now, one week from today, history is gonna take place. Ethel, Aziz, and Ashley Spring are going to be going on trial for this whole crime of serving their community. I'm here every week asking for that Civilian Review Board. I'm here every week and what side of history are you on? I want to ask that question. because we need to know, you know, what side of history are you on? I know what side of history I'm on, right?

Okay. Thank you.

Did your name and see your residence and item number?

Diane Frittoni, Worcester resident, District 2. I'm here in support of two items, 9G and 9T. Regarding 9G, cameras at Morgan Landing, Shore Park, and Indian Lake Beach were already included in the 2014 master plans for those parks. More than a decade has passed, and because the full renovations are expensive, we've been told repeatedly that the improvements have to wait until the entire plan can be enacted. In the meantime, the problems haven't waited. Illicit activity, illegal dumping, and maintenance challenges to these parks have all continued. Installing cameras now is a manageable, high-impact step that doesn't require us to wait for multi-million dollar renovations. Cameras deter unwanted activity and help the police determine the level of response needed to address a complaint. Cameras would also help the Parks Department track real usage patterns, identify when trash pickup is needed, and quickly detect and respond to illegal dumping.

This allows the city to deploy staff more efficiently and keep these parks clean, safe, and welcoming. Item 9T, I support identifying locations for rain gardens and retention basins around Lake Quinsigamond and Indian Lake. These are low cost, environmentally effective tools that when properly maintained improve water quality by capturing stormwater runoff before it enters the lakes. They can help reduce algal blooms, ease the burden of stormwater on the burden of stormwater infrastructure, and enhance the overall health and usability of two of Worcester's most important recreational bodies of water. Together items 9G and 9T offer practical, affordable actions the city can take to improve safety, operational efficiency and environmental resilience without waiting for larger projects that may take years, possibly decades to happen. And it is my hope that you would support these items and not lose them in committee forever, never to return. Thank you.

Thank you.

Andrew Marsh, 212 May Street, Worcester. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I rise to give cautious support to agenda items 8A and 8B. As someone who does not drive anymore, I rely heavily on public transit to navigate the city and external municipalities. As such, I wholeheartedly approve of both establishing a working group to advocate for additional infrastructure and Service Improvements, as well as more comprehensive data to support these investments. At least that's how I feel on paper. I am, however, reminded of how this administration tends to discourage volunteerism through not allowing those with the most passion and energy for improving the city to actually be in a position to do so. One need only look at the human rights and cable commissions as evidence of that. I also can't help but recall a number of prominent councilors were less than ecstatic about the WRRB's report in favor of establishing a civilian review board for the police department.

Yet now we consider an agenda item seeking to support them when they collect public transit data. What I'm getting at is that Worcester has a tendency to provide lip service to shared goals, but rarely uses them for anything more than sound bites and tweets. or is it Zietz? I'm not sure what the lingo is anymore. What we need is a full commitment from the city council and administration, not just to say you support these goals, but to actually put your money where your mouth is. If this council is not willing to make that commitment, then why? These orders you debate tonight are unfounded, unsubstantiated balderdash of the highest order. I yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you.

Idelahazard, City of Worcester. I'd like to speak on 11A. I'd like to thank Councilor King and the City of Worcester. What I want to say is, We've come a long way. And I don't want to go backwards. But I'm quite frightened these days because The Ku Klux Klan has been given free speech and they have been growing. across the country and in this city. And there is an undercurrent movement in this city and not too many people feel it unless you're a person of color. and if you're a person of color, believe me, you feel it.

And it's not above board, but they make sure you feel it. and it starts from the top down, from Trump. And all kinds of people have joined the Klan. and our prior city manager gave our police department permission to join. When I went on the police department, they wanted to know, are you a member of this group, that group? And the Ku Klux Klan was a no-no. It's scary. I don't know what we're going to do, but that mega movement is not good for this country.

I don't know who or what or how we're gonna hold, what kind of leader we're gonna have to keep the DEI growing. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Joseph Petty and Council. My name is Drexler Asasi, representing Vernon Hill as the district. One agenda that I wanted to recognize is 16X. I believe that it is important that we recognize that traffic is pretty dangerous and also can be considered a concern when it comes to students crossing the streets. In addition to that, also safety must be a priority for pedestrians. With the city of Worcester being a mobile city for transportation, I believe that there is not a highlighted when it comes to pedestrian safety. In addition, on Lincoln Street, it is one of the most dangerous streets in the city of Worcester, mainly because there has been numerous amount of accidents. numerous amounts of individuals who are trying to cross the street nearly being hit by cars and also not being able to cross safely.

I believe that one thing that would be really important and effective would be to have a heightened police presence or at least police presence that is recognizing and also being able to for traffic safely for pedestrians across the street, along with students who are trying to go onto the bus and so forth. Then that's my conclusion.

Thank you.

Hello, Councilors and the Mayor and the City Manager. I'm talking tonight on, to start out with 10B and 10C. very important for our schools. These were adopted March 26, 2024. what happened to the report that was coming back on that. That's my main topic tonight is that I was here last week everything was done, if you're doing the people's work for the city, yet the meeting only lasted less than an hour. what type of work are you doing? You're just passing things to committee and asking for reports. This, tonight's, Agenda. Almost every single item, you're asking for an update, or update for information they never got back, or reports.

that we don't seem to come back. We need to know when these reports, and there was a motion in the last, how the city manager, and I know he's very busy, keeps track of what reports he has to come back with his department. We need that done right away. The second thing I have is the Civil Review Board. I know I say it every year, but when are you guys gonna actually take a vote? Grow a set, take a vote, yes or no. The Post Commission has come in favor of the Civil Review Board. So you say, okay, we already have something there. The Post Commission is in favor of Civil Review Board. So is the Commission on, it just went out of my mind, but, have voted five to one for the Civil Review Board. We need it done.

Mr. Mayor, when you were running, you were gonna bring up with the city manager, you made a statement to bring it up

Thank you, thank you.

And I haven't heard anything yet. We don't need a report. There's already a report there. Thank you, appreciate it. To go by.

Thank you.

Well, okay. Thank you. But when are you gonna get something done? Yep, thank you. That's what I'm saying. You guys.

Thank you, appreciate it.

Please, do it.

The next speaker please. Good evening Mayor, City Council.

My name is Robin Kennedy. I'm a proud Worcester resident and State Senator for the First Worcester District. As a resident, I want to wish you all a happy Black History Month and want to support item 11a for the city to officially recognize Black History Month. But I'm here tonight to speak in favor of items 10B and 10C and to give a legislative update on what's happening around strategizing to increase funding and a better funding model for the Massachusetts School Building Authority. This session I filed Senate Bill 390, which is an act establishing a commission to study the Massachusetts School Building Authority. I think we all know that the current structure of the School Building Authority despite the efforts by the board itself, is not adequately funding to meet the needs of our schools, not only here in the city, but across the Commonwealth. In addition, we have to consider in this century how we're funding our schools and what we're allowed to fund through the school building authority funding.

I'm happy to report that my bill was included with a very similar bill, which is Senate Bill 403, which was filed by the Senate Chair of the Education Committee which is called an act establishing a special committee to review the adequacy and equity of the Massachusetts school building program. Everything that was included in my bill including membership of the committee as well as the specific charge of the committee is also included in this bill which expands the scope of the commission. and so I just want to quickly run through, probably run out of time so I'll have to send it in to you.

Motion to suspend the rules, Mr. Chairman. Okay, go ahead.

to include, so the commission would be charged with studying the capacity of the MSBA to meet the needs of current and future projects. the existing grant formula and potential modifications, construction cost reimbursement rate relative to actual cost, and other policies that impact eligible project cost reimbursement, how our incentive percentage points are calculated for municipalities that qualify for 80% reimbursement, reimbursement policies for regional technical and vocational schools, reimbursement policies to help the Commonwealth achieve its environmental and emission reduction goals, reimbursement policies that support healthy school facilities. whether the authority should be authorized to spend money on equipment or be limited to funding for education structures. We know it's something that we wanna be able to look at as we build new schools here in Worcester.

whether the MSBA should add incentives for vocational ed spaces, strategies for addressing facility needs of educational collaboratives, any other issues affecting the ability of all students to attend school in high quality, accessible, safe, healthy, and green school buildings. The bill that my bill was added into includes staffing for the commission. It expands. My commission had 13 members. the one that's now moving forward has 23 members but I want to note a specific representative from a gateway city so the opportunity for a city like Worcester to be at the table as we review what the structure looks like. I won't go into all the membership to save time, but I'm pleased to report now that this bill is in the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which hopefully can get to the Senate floor soon for debate and passage. so now would be a wonderful time to have our communities including the City of Worcester offer testimony to the Committee on Senate Ways and Means in support of the importance of having this commission.

As we know, there's a lot of gaps that we need to fill, and having this commission will help us understand the totality of the need statewide and what we need to consider in restructuring the MSBA funding mechanism. Thank you so much. Thank you for bringing this item forward and I look forward to continuing partnership with the city as we try to replace the buildings that we have in need. So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Sue Mailman, City of Worcester. I'm here on a couple of items. I'll start with the MSBA items, 10B and 10C. I have an item on the City Council calendar the school committee calendar, I'm sorry, for this Thursday about MSBA and potentially being able to fund a track and you may or may not know that we lost an indoor track at South when South was rebuilt and we weren't able to do it. because MSBA decided no more funding of indoor tracks. I think we should make a case for a city our size with the number of kids that we have, track and field, and also the region. The region doesn't have that much. Our kids go to Northbridge for different track meets. That's a little bit of ways away. I gotta believe we're big enough to be able to support that.

MSBA made the decision in 2018 to change the funding formulas to not allow it and I think it's nonsense and I'd like you guys to join the school committee to say to join the school committee to say Let's be able to talk about some of these things. So if I get a chance to go down and speak in public testimony, I will be talking about an indoor track because Newton has one, but we don't have one at all in Worcester in any of our schools. The other item I wanted to say something about was the charter review. Thank you, Gary, for putting this on. And then actually the mayor has an item about home rule petitions. And for the life of me, why we cannot get our districts matched. We could do that with a home rule petition. We don't have to wait for a charter rule to do that, but it is a very confusing item that our school, that our residents don't understand when they're voting and I think it's a shame that we didn't deal with it.

and the last one is 19G. It's Black History Month. Let's get a Civilian Review Board now. Thank you.

Thank you. Does your name say your residence and item number?

How you doing? I'm Mark Gentile. I'm Ward 5. I'm a member of the Democratic Award Committee. There's something a little bit off key, but...

It's gonna be on the agenda, do you have it on?

Well, we're dealing with Black History Month, we're dealing with a lot of things on there, so we can deal with some stuff. I see it up there. Okay, just an issue similar to this about two or three years ago in the council and you guys moved on it right away, God bless you. My friend here wants to talk to you. Right, there's some things here that are public health issues in our city that is really significant, right? And you guys have to be made aware of it, and I'm gonna be talking to you more about it in person.

Okay.

Okay, Alex.

Well, it's gonna be on the agenda.

Okay.

Alex, it's gonna be on the agenda.

Okay, my name is Alex Melendez, and when I turned 18, right, I don't know how to say this, I'm really nervous.

No, go ahead.

Well, there's a huge crisis in Worcester. I don't know if you know. It's the homeless crisis, right? I don't know if you knew, but 35% of all homeless people in Worcester are kids who age out of DCF like me. And a lot of us have no place to go because we don't want to work with DCF. We have a lot of trauma with it. and it's hard for us to find, you know, it's hard for us to find a place to go. And right now I have friends who have been staying in cars and shelters and whatnot. All right. My point is I'm asking this council to support Senate Bill 161 that will give Kids in DCF who age out of DCF $1,000 monthly stipend so that they will not be homeless once they turn 18 like me.

Thank you.

Good job. Thank you.

Just as a little addendum to that, right?

Yeah, there's a 19D. Yep, go ahead.

Okay, just a little addendum to that. If it wasn't for the, you know, God bless the Worcester Police, that kid would have froze to death in the street. We took him in. As you know, I took in a lot of kids and stuff like that. He was out in the street and there's a whole bunch of them, hundreds of them, sleeping in abandoned cars. Right? They age out of a program, right? And they just dump them on the street. Okay. And that's something I'm gonna be talking to a lot of you about in person. I know this is probably not the proper venue for that. Thank you. But I wanted to bring it to everyone's attention. Okay?

Appreciate it.

Okay, we have two people on, three people online.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to start with Glenn Pape first. We have the resident now. Yes.

One second. I wanna talk about 9K, yes, charter review. I support city charter review. Governance should be examined periodically. However, what's mostly holding us back isn't the charter, it's execution, starting right here in this chamber. Charter review is no substitute for the council setting smart goals. take public tracking of report requests. The council has raised the issue but has not yet required and set standards of action to get it done. It's February and the council has not yet started providing specific measurable goals to guide the manager in developing the fiscal year 27 budget.

Not even for the comprehensive zoning overhaul on which affordable housing, walkable neighborhoods, and economic growth depend. for 11 years, 11 years now, Councilors have talked about expanding bulk waste drop-off access, but the Council hasn't made a motion requiring it with specific outcomes. Under Plan E, the council's job is to set goals and the city manager executes. If the council doesn't set clear, measurable goals, then no new city charter is gonna save us. As Glenda the Good Witch and the Wizard of Oz said, you've always had the power, my dear. You've had it all along. It's time the Council uses the powers it has. Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, the next speaker is Natalie Gibson. I'm unmuting the resident now.

Hi, excuse me, may I ask that you go to the next person? I literally just walked in my door from at work.

Okay, we'll come back to you.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, the next speaker is Tom. Do you want to meet the resident now?

Good evening, can you hear me?

Yep, go ahead. Please state your name, city of residence, and the item you're calling on.

Tom, City Worcester, War II, and it's 19A, 19D, 19G. On 19D, obviously support. We obviously all want people that are facing a housing crisis, housing issues to be housed. The problem I have is there's two cases, Valenti v. Shinseki and Alliance v. City, that are directly relevant to this. They have to do with the fraudulent misuse of housing funds. The problem at hand is you can create an entity that oversees housing. The problem is that's not good enough. There has to be enforcement. and specifically in the form of independent enforcement with strong subpoena power. And I haven't seen that in any of the attachment documents. And so to effectively aid like the gentleman that was before you and pled his heart out. And I 100% believe and support his cause and the plight of many others who are in the same situation.

You can't just have this type of authority without any real enforcement teeth. And I highly doubt the city is going to do it. And so what I would hope Residents start looking into and start petitioning in state law for an independent OIG that has an independent budget that cannot be altered and has strong subpoena power and authority over these city entities that are governing things like housing fund disbursement because what's going to happen is like those two cases I cited, you're going to have public officials that are using that money and effectively laundering it into nonprofits that are lining the pockets of middlemen, service nonprofits, and not actually going to the people that need it. The city does have, in fact, such funds. The problem is the people who need it are not getting them. and right now all across America we're seeing public officials misuse these funds and so that's the proper way in my opinion that this needs to be addressed an independent YG with strong subpoena power

to go and actually hold these public officials accountable and make sure that people that need the money actually get it. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Do you want to say something?

My name is Stanley Chaludek. I'm a proud Worcesterite. I wanted to talk about 9Q. specifically over by the Friendly House on Wall Street. It's a food pantry. Bitty Basketball is back. All the snow is usually part of the even side. But all along Thorn Street, the snow is on the odd side down by The Friendly House, and on the sidewalk is Powell High. So the poor people that have to go down there, to use the food bank. And I see them go by my house all the time to get their food and busy basketball. The people,

are trying to park next to the family house, but they're going into residential spots that everybody's shoveled out. I was just hoping that the city might Be able to help me out with that before we have a serious accident. The children and the parents, they need to gain access to the Fresno House. You're familiar with what I'm talking about, right? Yes. Can you help me with that, please? Yes. I would appreciate it. Okay. Thank you so much.

Right? Okay. Hopefully tonight you'll see something there. Okay. Our next online speaker.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Our last speaker is Natalie Gibson. Do I unmute the resident now? Do I say your name instead of your residence?

Natalie Gibson, City of Worcester District 5. So I'm calling on a number of things, 9H. I'm not going to read them out just to try to If this isn't feasible, then DPW supervisors should be out and about checking and then rechecking when multiple complaints or requests are needed for street treatment.

Nope, no.

Oh, yeah, sorry about that. They need to treat their streets like their own and as if their family is using it. Let's see, 9K. Let's see. What are we waiting for in order to... in order for the city to propose that was about the plan E. Okay, yes. What is the city waiting for? The city is not prospering under the current management style. 9L. The building could offer, thank you Gary Rosen for putting this on here, the Stearns Tavern Stern, could be utilized so much more than it currently is by the Seven Hills Foundation. 9M include the 311 app. When you receive this information, what are you going to do with it as a council? Because we already have a lot of this information.

9Q, Inspector, Oh, inspectors need to enforce instead of waiting for residents to report violations. I see a lot of that going on. They're expecting a lot of the residents in the city to report a lot to them. 9B, wasn't this... You have 10 seconds. Yep, former GI. I would like to utilize Andrew's reserved time. Wasn't this what former Councilor GI was working on? and lastly 9Z. This has been asked multiple times before. Private pickups without cautious power should not be on route.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay. Okay.

Back to the agenda.

We have petitions, 7A to 7E, refer to traffic and parking, roll call. Yes.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Bilotta.

Yes.

Councilor Economou. Yes. Councilor Fresolo. Yes. Councilor King. Yes. Councilor Mitra. Rivera, yes, Councilor Rosen, yes, Councilor Toomey, yes, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, 888H, motions to adopt, roll call.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. Councilor Bilotta.

Yes.

Councilor Economou. Yes. Councilor Fresolo. Yes. Councilor King. Yes. Councilor Mitra. Yes. Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Rivera. Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey.

Yes.

Mayor Petty.

Yes, we are on 9A. Request the City Manager to request the Chief Development Officer to provide counsel with an update concerning the former St. Vincent's Hospital and Nursing Dormitory being developed and converted into affordable housing for senior citizens. Councilor Fresolo?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, through you to the administration. The St. Vincent's School of Nursing has been vacant for over three decades, probably close to 40 years, and We all know that the senior center is abutting that property. It would make for a great opportunity to have senior housing there. And when our current city manager, was first appointed. He went around to each of the districts and had an open mic. And I went there at that time and asked him to pursue senior housing there.

I know that we have a potential developer who's interested in the property and I'd like an update to see how far along it is and what type of chances we have in fulfilling Senior Housing at the former St. Vincent School of Nursing. So I'm hoping the manager could update us. if possible, thank you.

Okay, thank you, that's a good report. Are we gonna do it now or do you wanna report?

I'd like the general public to hear something tonight. Okay. As far as where we stand on it, thank you.

Through the Chips of the Council, yes, you are correct. We actually have been working. Previously, we had submitted, previous administration had submitted RFPs to try to get bidders for development. We were actually able to get a developer, Rogerson Communities, I believe. Most recently is the most recent developer who won the award. They're actually proposing 105 units of senior housing at the senior. about 45 or so units are gonna be located in the current building itself, the current structure. That structure, it's tied and connected to the senior center. and then they are gonna build a building right next door. It used to be the Anderson building. They're gonna build about 60 or so units there as well. So right now they're going through the due diligence process. It's actually going through The process is pretty timely. They're doing a good job through it.

They're going after some additional incentives at the state level for tax credits as well. They're a renowned kind of developer, not only in the Boston, Massachusetts area. So we're excited for that development that's making some headways in the city. So we'd be happy to provide a more comprehensive report. but we're really excited because this is finally we get to see some movement in that senior building it has some good bones and to bring senior housing it truly complements what the senior center has been able to do for so many years in an area

Just quickly, I appreciate that update and I look forward to the continuance of going forth with that and I'm More than happy to play a role in any way I can to help see that through. So thank you again.

Thank you. There's a manager roll call.

Councilor Bergman?

Yes.

Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Fresolo? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mitra. Yes. Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Rivera. Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes.

Yes. Next item is 9B, request the Manager request the Commissioner of Transportation and Mobility organize a discussion with the appropriate representatives of the MassDOT to discuss the feasibility of providing cars driving west on Route 20 the ability to turn onto Millbury Street. Councilor Fusolo.

Through you, Mr. Chairman, out campaigning in and around the Granite Street area. One cut through to Walmart from people who are coming from Route 20 is Granite Street to Cliff Street and on to Moby Street and to the development at the plaza where the Walmart in Worcester is. and it is quite busy to say the least. People go through there continuously seven days a week. and it was brought to my attention which I'm well aware of because of the 146 connector that brought Walmart and and of course the mall at Blackstone to us that without the road it would have never been there.

And there is maybe a quarter of a mile from Granite Street on the right hand side going west on 20. A Milbury Street comes out to Route 20 and meets 20 there. And the people on Milbury Street can take a right going west on Route 20. Unfortunately, MassDOT at the time never allowed a right-hand turn onto Moby Street, which would take people right into the same area of the Walmart Plaza. At the time I was in the legislature, I was very involved in securing the funding for the Route 146 Mass Pike Interchange and I have to say at the time I was against not allowing traffic to take the right hand turn there but Again, engineers from DOT know better than we do, I guess.

And that's why I couldn't disagree more. And I'm bringing this to our administration, hoping that we can have a discussion with MassDOT and those responsible to change that to allow traffic to use that road and hopefully alleviate some of the cut through traffic that now exists going from Granite to Cliff to Moby Street. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Okay, I'll send that to the manager, roll call.

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to sign on.

As amended. We'll sign on, as amended, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Concer Economou. Yes. Concer Fresolo.

Yes.

Concer King. Yes. Concer Mitra. Yes. Concer Ojeda. Yes. Concer Rivera. Yes. Concer Rosen. Yes. Concer Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes, 9C, request the City Manager, request the Police Chief to provide the Council an updated report concerning the voluntary accreditation process in which the Police Department is undertaken with the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Committee, which requires written directives and procedures that meet Over 325 up on your stand, set by MPAC, with the external review to follow. Councilor Toomey.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is certainly part of the Chief's plan to continue to ensure that we're staying on top of policies, regulations, as that said in the order. there are 325 operational standards that need to be reviewed by MPAC and they work with the police department to ensure compliance and I think it's very important that I note that Boston, Cambridge, and Springfield have not done so yet. I missed whether or not Fall River did. But I think it's really important. Lowell did. But it's very important that a city of our size have this. and make sure that we are upholding the professional standards that we need to have as one more. or more tools, so I look forward to the report from the chief. He's already started working on it, so I'd like to see where we are on it.

Okay, so send that to the manager local.

Mr. Chairman, can I sign on to that as well? Okay, that's amended. Thank you.

Brueggemann. Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes. 9D, request the City Manager to request Commissioner Pak's Public Works install the missing stop sign of the intersection of Salisbury Street and Marlin Street as soon as possible, Councilor Economou.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Pretty much as it reads, it must have been knocked over either during plow operations or during an accident. It's at a critical intersection, as you know, right at Moreland Salisbury.

Thank you. OK. To the manager, roll call. Bergeman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, and Mayor Petty. Yes.

Of course we need to review the feasibility of increasing the amount of money allocated to each district for the purposes of conducting street and sidewalk resurfacing. So feasibility review should include whether any grant opportunities exist for such purpose as well as the potential to use percentage of free cash, new growth, and tax revenue to help fund the increase. Councilor Rivera.

Yeah, I'd just like to mention that this is to go in a direction of it seems like we're going backwards. Every time we take care of two or three streets, we seem to be adding like five. But when I was filing this petition, I ended up learning that the city manager had allocated more money to the districts as well. So I want to hear from the administration a little bit about this petition please, this order.

Mr. Manager.

Yeah, to the Chair, to the Council. Last budget cycle, we had heard from district councilors as well. I remember Council George Russell asking that we increase the budget allocated for street resurfacing for the districts. And so we went back and we analyzed the budget and we also looked at the pavement management program and that gave us the ability to double in terms of the amount for streets for the districts. And then we also looked at the list. We have like a four year backlog and we then address that four year backlog of sidewalks for the districts and then we also increase that for the council. Moving forward, budgets moving forward, the district councils will have more money for sidewalks and for streets resurfacing as we start to move forward. But we tried to also address some of the backlog we had with sidewalks. We had roughly a four-year backlog on that.

through the chair to the administration. Is this an increase that we're going to see yearly or that we'll keep progressing in that direction, kind of help out?

Yeah, to the chair, to the council, this is an increase that you're going to see continuously. It's not, it wasn't just a one time. We adjusted the budget and increasing it in that allocation year over year.

And the last question to the chair of the administration on this item is, I also know, is there any possible grants or stuff to, I know the free cash and stuff you guys worked with already, but just to help on, Because I know there's an allocation of certain streets that they can pick, but then after that list, you're done. And sometimes some streets, you can only fix maybe one big street that, you know what I'm saying?

Mr. Manager?

Yeah, councilors have the ability to select neighborhood sidelines. The city administration working collective with the council we select the main arterials based on the analysis. But the sidelines, the district councils have the ability to suggest through petitions, through residents, et cetera, the challenge becomes is we have a close to 500 miles of road and so addressing that on an annual basis or resurfacing it's not something that Again, we're trying to address that to the pavement management. So not every street is gonna require to be resurfaced. Some streets we may do some chip steel, some streets we may do some, some preservation work. So it's not specifically resurfacing. The dollars that we increase specifically for the districts are strictly only for resurfacing.

and that all then comes back to capacity of not only the department but also contractors and having the number of contractors be able to take care of as many streets as we could on a yearly basis. So yeah, there are streets that are kind of there in terms of the pending list. Some of them are subject because there's in a year or two we're going to do some water or sewer infrastructure so we got to put it on hold there's other situations that happened but again our efforts to try to increase that number for the districts but also include a pavement management program that we introduced A few months back to the council, that is going to give us a better strategy in addressing our neighborhood roads moving forward.

Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Economou, what purpose do you rise?

If I could add a friendly amendment to that, please, Mr. Chairman and Councilor Rivera. On that increase, I'd like to know if it's a net gain in dollars. or if it's just covering the added cost that has accumulated to do the work. I think that would be important to know if that's okay with the Councilor.

Okay, so send that to Manager, Councilor. King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a point of clarification on this item. Through the chair to the administration, and I certainly appreciate the order, Currently, how are we looking at the needs of each individual district in terms of have priority in number of necessary initiations of street operations. And the reason I ask for that question, Mr. Chairman, is we have, okay, we have one, two, three, four, five. You get a certain amount for each district. but in addition to that, the needs differ, right? The needs differ. So if you could speak a little bit to that so that I can understand whether or not this goes far enough, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Mayor.

Through you, Chair, to the Council. So when we established the Department of Transportation and Mobility, one of the efforts that we took was to try to do an overall analysis of our current PCI, which is a payment condition index. that gives us the ability to know what's the index of every street in our current city. We know that. So we try to provide our suggestions to the district councilors, but the district councilors and their efforts of neighborhood meetings, petitions that come to the floor, petitions that the district council put forward or residents put forward.

Why at large councils?

and at large counselors on behalf of residents. All those things come before DTM and DPW. And what they do is they provide a list of all the streets that have been petitioned and have been approved by council. If a street hasn't been petitioned and hasn't been approved, it's not going to get on that list. And so once it gets on that list, there's a PCI index that's associated with every street. And then the councilors and with our administration gets to prioritize what are those streets. We recommend with the lowest PCI should be first. But the councilors have also the ability for discretion in terms of what those streets are going to be resurfaced.

Thank you. So just from my understanding, again, through the chair, So if it's not reported by petition, by order, by a district councilor, it's not going on the list, correct?

Mr. Manager?

Or 311, is 311 included as well?

Just because you submitted on 311 does not mean that it has to be petitioned because the public has to go to a public works committee. It has to go to a process for that to be adopted. It then goes to the list for us to be able to include that. for resurfacing. That's only for the side roads, sidelines in neighborhoods. The main arterials, that is an administration with council decision. but the sidelines, every district councilor has the ability to influence the decision of those selected streets, only the ones that have been petitioned and has been approved by the council.

and so through the chair, nothing, there's no evaluation of the 311 reports pertaining to this. That sticks, I guess is the question I'm asking.

So they play a role in our decision of recommendations. To recommend. To recommend, hey, we're receiving X amount of complaints. The PCI index is 55. we recommend that this should be one of the priorities. But that then would be at the discretion of the council.

Thank you very much.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Okay, I'll send that to the manager as amended. Roll call.

Bergeman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, Petty.

Yes. In questioning me to install an addition of Wilbur and Trafford Opticals in the Titanic Square area. Councilor Rivera?

Pretty much as a reason, just because I know there's a stretch of 10 of those wood bins on Chandler Street area, just like within a half a mile radius. Some of them not even being used. And if they can move some of those to like, by the Dance Studio on the Rice Bakery on Pleasant Street, on Chandler Street by Duggan Donuts, by the bus stop at the corner of Mill and Chandler, to name a few, because there's none in the Tacna Square area. Thank you.

Thank you. To the manager, roll call.

Yes. Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Fresolo? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mitra? Yes. Yes. Councilor Rivera. Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty. Yes.

Now in January, request the City Manager to consider installing cameras in the Morgan Landing, Shore Park, and Indian Lake Park Beach in the effort to deter illegal I mean illicit activity, Councilor Mitra.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To chair to the city manager, this was found out when I was attending a neighborhood meeting. As you also heard, the neighborhood meeting The organizer was also here, Diane, who also spoke about it. I was given the understanding that in those parks, there are a lot of illegal activities go on, such as Diane mentioned. Probably Illegal Parking and many unhoused people come in there. So they think that it would be safety of the neighborhood. It would be a good idea to install the the cameras in there so at least these things could be controlled and detected so that's the request that was made by the neighborhood groups and I'm just represented to see that It is active. It is done because they have failed to get it done in the past.

So I would highly recommend to look into it and please make this happen. Thank you.

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

Burgman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, Petty.

Yes, 9H, request the manager to request the Commissioner of Public Works to provide counsel with a report concerning the feasibility of snow-powered drivers using a phone application to report Mitchell. Vehicles illegally parked during winter parking bans in an effort to educate vehicle owners of the proper locations to park during such winter weather events. Councilor Mitra.

Thank you again Mr. Chair, to you too Mr. Manager. This is just a request to see if this could be possible because we know that during the snow that we had in the past week Many cars were illegally parked while the plowers were going and they couldn't clean the roads because the cars were parked on the curbside and many homes had very difficulties in seeing that their roads were not cleaned properly. and it's requested that if those flowers could have a device or an app in their camera that they could probably take the and so on. So we wanted to take a picture of the car and pass it on to the city quickly so that the car or it could be given a notice to them saying that it's illegal parking and you need to park properly. So it's an education at the same time. So safety at the same time is also keeping the inner neighborhood clean in the proper way.

So as a request of feasibility, if that could be done, requesting the public works department to explore the possibility of having in their flowers, cell phone, or maybe they have an iPad where they can just quickly take a picture of those parks which are parked illegally and report it to the city right away. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to sign on, please.

As amended.

Thank you. Okay, roll call.

Councilor Bergman. and Mayor Petty.

Yes. Questing the Committee on Public Health and Human Services hold one or more public hearings far in advance of next winter in an effort to help the city identify and secure a sufficient number of safe and secure emergency shelter locations that serve the needs of the and House population during the winter of 26-27. Councilor Rosen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as we all know, every Late fall, early winter, city is always looking for emergency shelter facilities. to house the homeless and it's difficult at times to find the right spots and certainly the right number of spots. We're fortunate that we have a shelter this winter over on Oriel Drive. and we have again the MLK Center and we have Smock on Queen Street. and thank goodness, the last couple of days, what St. John's Food for the Poor is doing, they've opened a new shelter, I believe sheltering 60 Folks, every night, I think they had a meeting Friday and they were open Saturday. So just amazing work that they do there. and continue to do.

Thank goodness we have this shelter because we really haven't had enough to serve the needs of all the homeless folks and the numbers seem to increase winter after winter and I can't imagine Tonight, anyone sleeping outside, you could be in a tent, you could be in a sleeping bag, I just can't imagine. And we know for the last six, seven weeks, every day here in the city of Worcester, especially every night. It's been so cold, so treacherous. So how can anyone brave that weather and sleep outside? So I'm suggesting that the Public Health Committee, Councilor King, Councilor Toomey and I, We take a look early on March, April, start looking and talking to folks here in the city. Where will our shelters be next year? I hope the St. John's Food for the Poor shelter does well this winter and they do bring it back.

but I think that the committee starting early can maybe come up with some adequate facilities for us to use for the homeless. So thank you to my colleagues, thank you Mr. Chairman.

I rise for clarification. I just wanted to let folks know that they are looking for volunteers and people to cook and things like that. It's on their Facebook page under St. John's Food for the Poor. They do have a link called Sign Up Genius. a lot of the shifts have been covered except for the overnight shifts and they're looking for people so we can certainly make sure that folks know what that link is and they definitely need help I want to sign on to this as well Thank you.

Councilor Bilotta.

Yes, Senior Chair, I'd like to sign on as well. I attended the emergency meeting that they had last Friday, and Officer Lovely was there. It was great to meet the staff, Father Madden. It's really critical, the work that they're doing, and would love to sign on to this, so thank you.

Sure.

Okay, so is the matter to sign on? Councilor Hayter, so the whole council wants to sign on?

Councilor Rivera?

I just want clarification. I was just understanding also that The city manager is going to be providing us with like a master plan on the homeless situation.

Correct.

Okay. Okay.

And this is a friendly amendment to real quick, like Councilor Toomey was saying, we should focus on how to get people to volunteer and trained to do this. So that's one of the issues there. One of the challenges they have right now because it's every night, we have so much cold weather. Okay, so everybody wants to sign on, so as amended, roll call.

Councilbergman? Yes. Council Bilotta? Yes. Council Economou? Yes. Council Fresolo? Yes. Council King? Yes. Council Mitra? Yes. Council Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Rivera? Yes. Councilor Rosen?

Yes.

Councilor Toomey? Yes. And Mayor Petty?

Yes. Request the Standing Committee on Public Health and Human Services to review the CD's efforts to determine why they have and Square Miles, Census Track, Mejada, Downtown Worcester, Boynton-by-Lincoln Square to the north, Shrewsbury Street to the east, Maine South to the south, and Crowns Hill to the west has the highest rate of stroke and dementia. In Massachusetts, for residents 65, and all the who are on Medicare. Councilor Rosen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is United States Census Track 7317. It's designated by national standards, I believe. it includes City Hall, right where we are. It includes the DCU Center. It includes the Hanover Theater. the Worcester Police Department, the Worcester Public Library, Coney Island Hot Dogs, and several other places, but there's some that are very recognizable to all of us. and I'm suggesting that since this small census tract, 209,000 residents in the city, 3,700 of them live in this small census tract. Not a lot. one third of those residents are below the poverty line. but this deals with those who are 65 and older.

More than half of those 3,700 residents are older than 65 but they too live below the poverty line. So the question is, do we just ignore this and say, well someone, some census tract in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has to have these highest figures and it's this one. I don't think that's a good way to deal with it. I think we should take a look at the folks who live in this small census tract which includes all those facilities that I mentioned. and we would turn this over to Councilor King, Councilor Toomey, Gary Rosen, your Public Health Committee will be the sleuths will invite people in and we'll try to find out why is this census tract so different than those in Boston, those in Springfield, and those in New Bedford. There's gotta be something here

that gives the folks, the residents in this area, these seniors over 65, and it's 53% are seniors in that census tract, and they're below the poverty line. What is causing them to have a greater incidence of strokes and Dementia than anywhere else, any other census tract in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We don't lead the country, but we do lead Massachusetts and it's not a good lead to have. We don't wanna, have folks in that area. And I don't know what's causing it. There's a lot of possible reasons. Obviously poverty, education. We talked recently about how difficult it is for people to find primary care. physicians, so that's possible. A lot of folks who, when they get older, they assume that their memory is going to go, that

When they start suffering from dementia, they assume that, oh, it's because I'm getting older and I have to put up with this. That's not the case at all, but a lot of folks don't realize maybe it's time to see the doctor and maybe a lot can be done to help you if you really are suffering from this issue. So I refer this to the Public Health Committee and as I said the three of us will be the sleuths on this and we'll see what we can come up with and report back hopefully to the council later on this year. Thank you Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. I'll send that to the committee.

Roll call.

King, for clarification.

Just a clarification here. Is this asking for a report to be sent to committee? So, okay. That's why I'm asking for clarification. All right, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Okay, roll call.

Brueggemann, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, Petty.

Yes, and we are on 9K, request to stand in command of legislative operations, public hearing to determine the feasibility and advisability. of the State Council initiating and or supporting efforts to review the current modified plan E City Charter that was implemented in 1987 and amended in 2022. Councilor Rosen.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. As we all know Mr. Chairman, this has been discussed at length throughout the Worcester community for years, for years. It's been almost 40 years since we did come up with the charter that we have now. And five of us, five of the city council are sitting in these seats tonight because that charter was changed back in 1987 after a few years of deliberation by a charter commission, city council and so on, the folks in Worcester voted it, and we came up with not only at large councils, but this new Mix of six of us at large and the other five district councils. and I'm not suggesting tonight, I'm not gonna make one suggestion tonight of any change in this charter. We've all talked about it during this past campaign and previous campaigns.

We've heard people, different agencies, different individuals ask us, are you in favor of charter change? And I'm not even using the word change, if you read this carefully. I'm looking at charter review. It's been almost 40 years. Are we going to do this every 40 years? Maybe we're not going to. Maybe it's going to be every 100 years because I don't know where this is going to go. But I think it's time. Back in the late 80s, When I taught at Dougherty High at the time, when this was done, this new charter came forward, I was also running the internship program at Doherty High, and I had a student, one of my senior students, 60 of them, who were doing internships all through the community, he said, I want to do something in politics and government. So we set them up in the late 80s down here at City Hall with the new Charter Commission that was working on the charter.

he worked with them he couldn't vote on it he wasn't part of the commission but he came to all their meetings right in the chambers here and he came up with all of his ideas too and some of them were talked about by the Charter Commission later on that same student grew up of course and he became a member of the Worcester School Committee and later on he grew a little older and he became the Mayor of Worcester. That student of mine who worked on the last charter and that was Joe O'Brien. He was interested then and I know he's still interested now. there's nothing to be afraid of when you just take a look at the charter. Just review it. I would like to see another charter commission and there is a group out there, a very good group, well run, respected group that's looking at 16, 17,000 signatures

so we can go on the ballot and people can vote for a charter commission and that charter commission will start looking at the charter. Nearly everyone on this city council during the years, whether you're on the council or not, you thought that maybe something should be added to this charter. It needs a change because I'm thinking of this and the charter doesn't respond. It doesn't cover it. So there's a lot of things that can be considered. Maybe a commission will say, this is the greatest chatas in sliced bread. Don't have to make any changes. I don't think that will happen. that certainly is a possibility. So I would just like this to go to our Municipal Operations Committee, Dr. Mitra, the Chair. I'm a member and I believe Moe Bergeman is the third member of that committee. Let us have a public hearing where people can come down and speak in favor of Charter Review someday or against it. Maybe some people say, no, it's only been 40 years.

Let's wait another 40. that's what they might say, I do not know. But I know it's finally time to start talking about it. No one on the city council has to be afraid of this order of reviewing the charter. Do you have to be afraid of charter change? I don't know. I don't know what the changes, if any, might be. So let's start moving forward. It's been talked about for years. Let's work together as a city council. Let's work with any groups out there. I don't know, maybe the laws department Mr. Chairman could answer this tonight, or maybe the city clerk. Can a charter commission be appointed, I don't know by who, but can it be appointed that way you might not need 17,000 signatures. I know the CPA, this council was able to get it on the ballot without signatures, but that's a whole different deal, I understand. But maybe through the chair, the clerk,

is it possible to appoint a charter commission where you can appoint seven or eight, nine people from different walks of life who could really contribute? It's not a political process.

Through you, Chair, to the council. So my understanding is, I think I've brought a report in the past and the solicitor as well. You have to start an initiative petition process, which we started about two years ago with a group and we actually provided them the charter commission papers to petition them to change the charter. But the way it works is that from my understanding is We provide the papers to the residents. The residents can collect that 15% of the signatures. In the same time we put a, does the city of Worcester want to change its charter, the members of the charter commission are also running on the same election. So I don't know if there's a process that I'm not aware of that the solicitor is, but my understanding is it has to start from the resident's initiative petitions. in order for the charter commission to be on the ballot as well as the charter change to be on the ballot. It cannot be initiated by the body of the city council.

Okay and that's fine with me. I just think getting maybe 17, 16, 17,000 signatures is not easy for a group of our residents. So it certainly is going to take some effort on their part. If that's the only way it can be done, so be it. in the future just coming from the city council that we're interested in reviewing our charter. When the public hears that and says, well, the council at least wants to review the charter, even though we can't initiate it, although I'm still not sure that a Charter Commission couldn't be set up by City Council, the Mayor. The Mayor has ad hoc committee ability that could be considered perhaps an ad hoc committee. I don't know for sure, but however it can be done, I think it's time to do it. So I hope we can support this tonight. Let's send it to our MO committee. Let's have public hearings about it and see if it's going anywhere after that.

I do support charter review. I think several on this council during the campaign even stated they support charter review. here's our chance right now. Don't be afraid of it. Let's do it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Councilor King, followed by Councilor Economou. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Through the Chair, to the Clerk, I know we've had this in committee when I was in Municipal Operations it was in Mo Bergman's committee as well if you could speak a little bit to the report that you provided I don't recall what the name of it was

Chair, to the council. Actually, the report is still on committee. It was brought back. My report was filed, my understanding is, but the solicitor's report is in committee as well. and I don't know if the solicitor has a copy of the report if she can kind of give you guys an overview tonight if you like but my understanding is based on the solicitor's report was that the residents can initiate it with 15 percent of the voters at the last municipal election. You have to have 15% of those certified signatures certified by the Board of Election Commissioners. And then that gets the question is, should the city of Worcester change its charter? at the same time, the charter commission members can run in the same election, which will be technically at a local election. And they also have to collect signatures that to be on the ballot. So it's a similar process how you would get your name for the city council or a school committee on the ballot. The same process would be for the charter commission.

and through the chair to whomever, what's the other process if there is one that does not include a commission?

through the charge to the council. Mind you saying there's other options, but does not require, does not trigger a charter review commission. Correct. Special acts, which I think this council has voted numerous times. we did that through the school committee redistricting option because of the you know the the with a settlement we had with the plaintiffs There is other options where it comes to special acts. There is other amendments you can do to the charter, but I don't believe there's amendments that can happen to the election process or the form of government through those special acts.

Thank you to the chair, to the administration. We can just have the solicitor speak on that, any other processes or avenues as relates to charter change. outside of the commission. I just want to make sure that the public as this moves forward has an understanding. I know we've been over this before the last couple of terms. We're doing it again. I just want to make sure folks are informed through the chair.

Through the Chair to the Councilor, there are four ways that you can change a charter and those each way depends on what you're trying to change. If you want to change the composition of the council, the form of government, the terms of any of the councillors or the Mayor or the Manager. You have to do it through a charter commission, which is by vote. There's other options, like the Clerk said, which are special acts or after a public hearing at the Council, but those cannot affect the composition of the form of government.

And through the chair to the administration, when we were talking about aligning the school committee districts with the council districts given that the school committee districts I think it's A through F or something and we have five require a change in the composition of this body. Can you just clarify again what that would have to look like for a process to achieve that?

Madam Sousa?

through the chair to the councilor. So if it was a change in composition of the city council, that would be initiated by 15% of the voters. then once the Charter Commission was created they would review and propose that form or that structural change and then it would get adopted by the people.

Thank you. And through the chair to the administration, does the council have the ability to put a ballot question on related to this? A non-binding, anything?

Through the Chair, there have been previous non-binding ballot questions, yes. Yes.

All right, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Okay, Council Economou?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd just like to sign on to the item, please.

Okay, Councilor Mitra, public comment, sign on.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Through the Chair to Councilor Rosen, thank you very much for putting this order here. I'm just kind of wondering is this just the time that prompts you that it is time for us to review because you're not giving any reasoning you're just saying that it's time for us to do that I just want to know is there Any number of years that we have that we should review the charter after 20 years or 10 years? Is there any rule? I just want a clarification that or just randomly we think that it's time for us to review.

I think it says time, and Councilor Rosen, he's asking for clarification.

Real quickly, it was time 10 years ago, it was time 20 years ago. When it goes, if it does go to your committee, that I'm on with Councilor Bergman-Chope, We could talk about that too. We could have that discussion that maybe every 10 years we should take a look at the charter, review the charter. But certainly every 40 years, is not often enough.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And there is no, you asked, there is no rule, say we have to, some cities and towns do have it in their charter that it should be reviewed with X number of years.

Thank you very much because I think either there is a time or there is a reason to review so I was just trying to find out that What's the purpose that we want to review it? But if it's been long enough that we should now look at it, I think perfectly fine. I'll definitely be looking at it when it comes to my committee.

Thanks. So everybody wants to sign on as amended to roll call.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes. Request that you may provide council with an update concerning the utilization level of the relocated, renovated, historic Stearns Tavern. built in 1812, having housed a tavern with a prominent stagecoach stop, furniture shop, a carpet store, and a succession of banks. Sturmstown was saved and restored through a partnership among the City, Preservation Worcester, the Seven Hills Foundation, and many private donors of money, materials, and labor. Council Rosen and Council Rivera.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, one thing I'm very proud of when I was the beautiful District 5 City Councilor several years ago, was the changes we made around the Coast Beach and Coast Park down the street a little ways. And we brought the Stearns Tavern over, which was the Bank of America, brought it over from Park Avenue around the corner. to its present location at Coes Park. And a lot of organizations participated in that move. and so many people gave money, donated time. Seven Hills was a great partner. Preservation, Worcester, the City Parks Department, the City of Worcester, the City Council was so supportive of me. So everyone was involved. It was a great project and you drive down Mill Street to Park Avenue, you see that beautiful Building, how we restored it. It's great.

And it's been in the hands, the management of Seven Hills. And I assume they're doing a pretty good job. at a couple of neighborhood meetings, Mill Street neighborhood and Columbus Park, they both meet at the Stearns Tavern. It's come up a few times that it seems to be underutilized. It's a beautiful building. It holds maybe three dozen people, so it's not huge. but should there be more things going on in that building since the state, the city, I think we get some federal money too, a lot of money and effort and so many private donations were poured into that move and that building. So should it be serving the public to a greater degree? I don't know the answer to that. but I hope maybe the city manager and his team can take a look at the usage of Stearns Tavern and let us know, let the public know, let the neighborhood know, is it something that should be utilized more or is it Close to maximum usage. I don't think it's close, but let's find out. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Councilor Rivera? He did a good job. Okay. We'll send that to the Manager, roll call.

Councilor Bergman? Bergman.

Yes.

Councilor Bilotta?

Yes.

Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Fresolo?

Yes.

Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mitra? Yes. Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Rivera? Yes. Councilor Rosen? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. Mayor Petty?

Yes. 9M requests the manager to request the Commissioner of Emergency Communications and Management to provide counsel with a report detailing all 311 calls, emails received regarding the need to address snow plowing issues for the same street from July 1st, 2024. Bergman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think some of my colleagues may have experienced the same type of constituent inquiries that I've received over the last and a number of years and they go something like this. It's the same streets over and over again, at least it seems that way, that have issues with either snowplow operations or ice treatment or sanding or salting. So by virtue of this order, what I'm trying to do as I'm trying to determine over the last couple years, are there repetitive problems on certain streets in the city? I hope not. I sense there are from the constituent inquiries I get. And I say that because, and I've said this before, we have three chances to do it right. We have the snowplow operators, we have the inspectors, and then we have the supervisors. So it would be incredibly frustrating

for me and all of us I think to find out that certain streets for year after year are not being done well despite the significant levels of oversight. that exist. So I really got to insist on getting this report back and you know I know sometimes reports get lost or there's other priorities and I'm not saying this is a top priority but before the budget discussions this spring about funding for snow operations and other things. I'm going to insist on having this report back because if there's nothing that I take more seriously is the fact that Snow Operations is the equivalent of public safety. And if certain streets aren't being done well, that's the problem. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Councilor Ojeda, what purpose do you rise?

Classification. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just as through the chair to the administration, just a quick question. Is there somewhere where we can actually view these 311 calls? Mr. Manager they didn't hear back or they can't figure out where it's going so if you could just help me out with that.

Mr. Manager?

Yeah, through the chair to the council. If you're submitting any requests through 311, you are able to see that through 311. So you can see all the requests that are there. And they're provided in the mapping or any kind of kind of listing. It's all under the app. If it's coming through a counselor, if it's an email to a counselor or a text message to a counselor, and then that's getting relayed to the administration through an email or text, Most often than that, that's not being registered by 311. That's just being dealt with separately and trying to just mobilize folks to get over there. The best way to do it is to try to utilize the app. I know that sometimes there has been challenges and there's been concerns in terms of calls being closed and the work not being done. and that stuff that we're trying to address internally in terms of our operations and our processes.

But the more we're able to see in 311, the better we have the data to be able to report out based on this report, the request of this report. but that's typically right now the best way for residents to see the requests and things that are coming is the 311 app or you know the website which is 311 website.

Thank you. Through the Chair, when you say see the requests, the resident can only see their requests or they'll be able to see multiple requests throughout?

Through the Chair, they can see all the requests. So right now, if you log into the 311 app, you can see all the requests that have been submitted citywide. Thank you.

No, I just wanted clarification. Hopefully some people are watching this. Like I said, my phone was being blown up on social media. You know, Mainsop got hit pretty bad, and they continue. saying, you know, District 4, District 4, you know, the Councilor, and I assured them that 311 was working at the time, so to the Chair, once again to the City Manager, was it down at any point in time throughout this snowstorm?

Mr. Manager?

through the Council. 311 has not been done. There has been no issues. I think sometimes what happens, there has been situations where a resident might have submitted a request. and that request might have been closed, but the work never been done. And the resident might have initiated another request or tried to ask the counselor or others as to, hey, I submitted a request, but it hasn't been done. I just want to follow up on it. but there has been no issues or no concerns or anything of that nature related to the app that app has been working completely fine the entire time and has been extremely accessible to people a lot of the requests you know right now we have active we've you know there's over 39,000 requests have been submitted and dealt with and there's constantly requests that are either active right now or pending or being closed etc and

and that's one way to engage the customer service center and the call center that's dealing with all these requests that are coming to 311.

Thank you, City Manager. You know, one of the things that is important is to know that The app is working. Obviously, we got hit with almost two feet of snow, or maybe more, whatever it may be. but that the app is working and that we tried out and we're doing our best, right? We're still out there in the streets. Obviously there's still much more work to be done. But I think that's probably one of the main issues, and I appreciate Councilor Bergman putting this on, is that's one of the main issues, so we can show more transparency between the city and our residents on what their issues are and how we're addressing them. Again, thank you. I think it's important to continue to let residents know that this is important. This is an opportunity that they can go online and actually see these orders being put up and how they're being addressed. So thank you.

Okay, Councilor Rivera wants to sign on, okay.

So we'll send that as amended, roll call.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty. Yes.

Okay.

I don't know if people mind that we have the artist sitting there. There's a couple items on. Yeah, you wanna do that? Okay, we are on 12A, Trismarie Information and Communication, relative to the amount of funds at the Worcester Retirement Point Invest in Global Infrastructure Partner and subsidiary, Singletary Aviation. Follow that, Senator of the Committee. We can file all those in a roll call. Councilor Bergman?

Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Sorry, through you, Chair, I have a question.

On that one?

Yes.

I'm sorry about that.

That's okay.

Okay, Councilor Bilotta?

One question to the Chair of the Administration. How long is the retirement system going to be in this limited partnership with global infrastructure partners?

Mr. Reiter? Mr. Stearns?

Private investments can last 10 to 15 years or even longer. We're about six years in with this investment.

Is it scheduled to be 10 years or 15 years or does it vary as time goes on?

It does vary. We have, similar to private equities, we may have some investments that last up to 30 years as they sell off assets at an opportune time. They look to improve by a company and improve its efficiencies and increase its value and they may sell it. Infrastructure is a little bit different. They may do that but they also may keep it for Cashflow purposes of the operating of the infrastructure whether it's like pipelines, toll roads, or airports or in this case and FBO, a fixed base operator who services private airlines and charters. So there's not a fixed termination date on this investment.

So saying that it's a long-term partnership, it seems like it's that in theory or is it because I am just curious if and when the city or the the system could consider Devesting from Global Infrastructure, I know. Or if there would be any consideration that considering that signature aviation is a subsidiary of it, considering that what signature aviation, the role that they are playing in the ice crackdown across this country that is no doubt going to be coming to Worcester. So just curious about that. If there could be any consideration in the future on this, or is that, I'm sure that might just have to come up for the council again.

Mr. Stearns.

I think over time that consideration will come up. As a private investment, it's considered a liquid asset. There's not a market out there to sell it. Usually if we did try to sell it, our advisor tells us we would Realize a loss if we cancel it. It's a limited partnership. We're limited partners. The general partner is GIP for Part of Global Infrastructures Partners, and then the ones who makes the management decisions in terms of which investments to go to. So in this particular fund, there were about a dozen or more investments, and this Signature Aviation was one of those. Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, roll call. Yes. Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta?

Yes.

Councilor Economou?

Yes.

Councilor Fresolo?

Yes.

Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mitra? Yes. Councilor Ojeda?

Yes.

Councilor Rivera? Yes. Councilor Rosen? Yes. Councilor Toomey?

Yes.

Yes. Transmitting the city's annual comprehensive financial report for the year ended June 30th, 2025. It's prepared by the Arts Department in order by the certified public accounts firm of the Clifton, Lawson, and Allen. Send that to M.O. Roll call.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, Petty.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Stearns.

Okay.

We are on 9N. Request the manager provide counsel to report listing all permitted festivals in 2025. That includes the permit fees paid by each applicant. Were there any funds are currently owed? Councilor Bergman.

As there is.

Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

and Mayor Petty. Yes, request that we're on O. Request the manager to reach out to the appropriate representatives from National Grid to provide City Council's report concerning how commercial electrical upgrades cost calculated. Councilor Bergman.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Some of my colleagues may have run into a similar situation where a constituent, usually it's a commercial business owner, contacts us with really disparate estimates from National Grid on what it's going to cost to upgrade the electrical system to accomplish whatever the commercial business is seeking to accomplish. When I've looked into it, doesn't seem to be any set Price because I know a number of times the businesses have significantly negotiated the estimates downwards but at the same time there needs to be something More stable for the business community to go by. And I'm not getting the answer. I think it would be best if the city manager were willing to. reach out to National Grid and see if they have a certain list of prices to do certain things, upgrades or if it's just all negotiable. I think it's important to know that either way. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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

Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Fresolo? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mitra.

Yes.

Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Rivera. Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes.

Yes. Okay, we are on P. Request manager in honor of our nation's 250th anniversary as a permanent gift to the city's residents consider funding Bergman, finding funding sources for the commission of a statute of historic reading of the Declaration of Independence by Isaiah Thomas to be placed at the proper location in front of City Hall. Councilor Bergman.

I could get a little, just a little backdrop, and I'll do it quickly, Mr. Chairman. Many individuals who live in Worcester aren't even aware of the historic significance and the marker that was put at the location where Isaiah Thomas did the first reading on July 14th, 1776 of the Declaration of Independence, not only in Massachusetts, So certainly before Boston, but probably in all of New England. And there's a little monument, maybe 18 inches by 18 inches in front of City Hall where the reading took place. Unfortunately, that monument doesn't do justice to the importance of the act for several reasons. First of all, For the wintertime, it's covered by snow and ice, so you really wouldn't see it. And second of all, even in the better weather, you'd have to be walking with your head down to really recognize it. We have the nations anniversary coming up. I think it's time that we properly recognize the significance of what that represents.

I can't recall the last time a municipal monument went up. Not a private monument, but a municipal monument went up. And sure, we could spend money on fireworks and other things, but I'm not saying we shouldn't. But I think it would be a great lasting gift to future generations of Worcester. And I'm not suggesting it come from taxpayers. That's why I worded it the way I did. for funding sources, perhaps individuals, corporations, and nonprofits like colleges. And we find a way to put together a life-size figure of Isaiah Thomas actually reading the Declaration of Independence as opposed to what we have now which again I think is part of the problem we've had in the past in Worcester is that we ignore our historical significance when we should be doing what other cities like Boston does and making sure everybody knows about it by properly creating monuments like that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Councilor Conway, what purpose do you rise?

I'd just like to sign onto it, please, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

I'd like to sign on as well, please. You'll have to sign. Okay, as amended. Thank you.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, and Mayor Petty. Yes. Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Rivera. Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey.

Yes. And Mayor Petty. Yes. of Public Works, provide counsel with a report as to whether there are any time restrictions for snow removal on commercial properties, especially when they abut or are close to residential properties. Councilor Economou, Rivera, Bergman, Mitra, and Fresolo.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This came to my attention obviously this past storm where there was a lot of contractors out picking up snow from parking lots here and there. And I just want to know if there was any guidance or any guidelines that we have detailed. In this one situation, they were picking up snow till 5am in the morning, which all you're hearing all night long is the constant beeping of the trucks and what have you. So if there is some guidance, if we can get that guidance and possibly share it just so people and contractors are aware of the protocol. Thank you.

Berkman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, and Mayor Petty.

Yes, requesting Manager Mann, Superintendent of Public Works. and work together to take any steps needed to make sure that the sidewalks and streets around Gordish School of Science and Technology located on 14 Richard Streets are thoroughly cleared after snowstorm and that traffic safety measures are implemented to make the drop off and the pickup of safe for students, parents, and school staff. Councilor Rosen, Economou, King, and Rivera.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Guardian School, science and technology and discovery. What a great school, great program. A lot of the neighborhood kids go there. They love the school. and it's just a great school system for the city of Worcester and our Worcester public schools. and during the storm and after the storm, had a couple of days off, I guess the students in Worcester, and the school itself does a pretty good job. They do a good job, I'm gonna compliment them tonight, good job on the school property, it's the surrounding families and residents and owners of the homes who weren't and haven't done such a good job. you know I brought up go out in school because I've got a long and a very good email from a parent who has a student at the school I guess in a special program there and she's Remarkably, she notices all that's going on and she noticed how many students were walking in the street and how dangerous it is.

We know in the morning around all our elementary schools, the drop off can be dangerous. even when it's nice weather and they're on the sidewalks but here students had to walk in the street not due to any fault of the school but the surrounding facilities and residences and the owners of those buildings just failed to do the right shoveling and allow the students to take the path on the sidewalks. and I know that we eventually charge maybe $75, we fine them if they don't shovel but through the chair to the city manager, Mr. Manager, do we ever maybe like we do it sometimes in the summer when they don't cut their lawn and it's about four feet high and they The neighbors complained, do we ever shovel the walk and bill the owner? I would have us shovel the walk, some company, shovel the walk for us. and I would bill the owner and I'd also fine the owner too. I'd do both.

But I don't think we can just fine them 75 bucks and have the sidewalk still snow covered and the students walking dangerously out in the street. That doesn't seem to be a solution. on this it's the guarded school you know if you can talk to the superintendent just make sure I'm probably it's all elementary schools you have the same type of request but on that do we ever shovel the walk for them and then bill them thank you Mr. Chairman Mr.

Manager

GARRETT. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. and part of the work is not only do we cite them for the unshuffled sidewalk, we then send a contractor, clear the sidewalk, and then we send them the bill of the contractor and if they don't then address that or pay the bill then the property is leaned. So there's protocols in place for us to be able to do that.

Is that a $75 fine every day or every week or just once?

through the chair to the council. It's once, and then we go in when we then get the contract to clear the property, then that bill gets sent to the property owner as well. Often, sometimes, property owners pay it, and that's when they react to say, oh, I didn't do what I was supposed to do. And there's some property owners who sometimes neglect it, and then that's when we move forward and leave the property because they haven't paid the bills.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Senator, the manager. I'm sorry, Councilor Ojeda.

Thank you. Just a few questions to the chair to the well, first of all, I definitely want to state that through traffic and parking, We were able to agree on installing the flashing beacon intersection in that area, including the crosswalk. I think that's important to mention because we want to make sure there's some signage as well. in that area because when they do snowplow, a lot of the intersections are getting built up. You got four, five, six feet of snow. So just to make sure that we address that as well, that at those intersections, we're not going too high. It's hard for the kids to cross. Five feet of snow, you're not going to see a kid crossing the street. My question is several questions to the city manager through the chair. How has finding property owners gone in that area or just just in the city in general is that something that's pretty common with the snow I mean do

do you see when you find them that we don't go back and find them again or we consistently find them snowstorm after snowstorm or year to year, right? Last year we didn't get much snow, but year to year, can you just answer that for me?

Mr.

Manager? through the chairs of the council, there are some properties that are habitual and not following the rules. So they were constantly following through enforcement. There are properties who quickly, there's a situation where they perhaps were on vacation and they forgot. and they took care of the fine, but they just forgot to do it that season or that particular stone storm. So it's kind of case by case, but that's something that again, as part of this order, we will evaluate and bring back some kind of information on that.

OK, thank you. And another question. I'm trying to figure out how do I go about as a city councilor that's in my district. I work at the school right across on the backside of it. But I travel there all the time. The school does a really good job on removing snow, like Councilor Rosen mentioned, that is an issue going up and down in those neighborhoods. But is there a possible way to create some type of signage or letters to people in those neighborhoods to remind them when snow does come down, it is their responsibility. I don't mind sending messages as a counselor to them, but is that something that you've already put in play?

Mr. Manager?

to the council. We typically try to do that to all the advisements that we put out when our storm is coming, the winter ban, the clearing of the sidewalk. We try to keep that messaging consistently. There's no specific flyers that we're sending because it's not just this area. There's many areas across the city that are in the same situation. and so we try to use all the channels that we can and communicate it whether it's through the radio, the traditional media outlets, social media, any way that we can try to get even business community, neighborhood associations to try to communicate as possible that the responsibility is of the owners to be able to do that and they have 10 hours to clear the sidewalks. you know the other thing that we do as part of DPW we try to work with the school department to identify with the schools what are the priority schools that we need to address that oftentimes have more challenging concerns and we need to address those But again, this is something that we can evaluate in terms of our response as part of this order.

Thank you. And one last thing. I think probably one of the easiest way and more would be working with the schools. Every kid loves to bring stuff home to their parents. Here, read it. If there's letters that can be sent home, working with the schools, especially when we have these snow because then the resident actually receives it versus the building owner, the property owner, who probably doesn't live in the neighborhood and isn't doing a good job. At least we know the residents are receiving. I think that's the important case of making sure it gets in those homes versus it just gets sent to the property owner. So if we can find a way to connect with the with the Wichita Public Schools and getting this information out as well.

Mr. Manager.

This is an opportunity. I think it just sparked an idea in my mind, and that's something that we'll explore. It's potentially also the rental registry we can utilize. We have contacts, and we'd be able to provide information. and perhaps some guidance to the property owners itself that own these properties aside from the fact that I'll bring this to the superintendent and have some consideration about students carrying that. but I think more so the property owners and the Residential Registry can play a role in informing the property owners about that. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay. Yes. Councilor Bergman?

Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Fresolo? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mitra? Yes. Councilor Ojeda?

Yes.

and Mayor Petty. Yes. Councilor Rivera? Yes. Councilor Rosen? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. And Mayor Petty?

Yes. Request the manager to provide council with an update concerning our previous request for report detailing Bergman, Economou, Fresolo, Mitra, Rosen, Rivera, and Ojeda.

I think the number of people that signed on Mr. Chairman is indicative of the fact that Mr. Hannon deserves the respect that we're trying to give him by naming recognition. I have been in contact with members of his family and certainly strong friends of his. that have strong feelings about this. Little League season is almost upon us. It would be wonderful if we could put something together for the start of the Little League season. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Councilor Toomey.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I rise to ask that my name be added to this. I've been a very close friend of Doug and the Hannum family for over 35 years. I did not see this request. I certainly would have signed on. And I know that I've also had conversations with family members and friends and had spoken at length with the commissioner about a solution. So I think that everybody working together will come up with a, will have a great plan for it.

Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Hayden.

Yeah, just a quick question. I don't know who to send this to. I'm not sure. Any idea why this is taking a little while? I know I've seen some go through fairly quickly. I know we had some changes on how do we address these type of issues. Naming, street naming. Is it because it's going to the committee or has that changed? Can you just help me out with that? Mr.

Manager.

Yeah, through the Chairs and Councils. This also has the Parks Commission plays a role in the parks of naming, improvements, et cetera, even overseeing festivals, et cetera, et cetera. So they play a role in this. My understanding, I believe, is the commissioner has been working on this. So I don't think there's any hang up. I think it's just the actual Solution to it all, or the idea of what it is that wants to get done hasn't been presented yet. But I think there's been a lot of conversations, like Councilor Toomey alluded to, with the commissioner in terms of creating a plan to address this and the hope is to have that in the upcoming season.

Okay, I guess that and I'm glad you said I guess it's just just waiting to hear back seems to you know it'd be good if we yeah we're working on it or we have some ideas three ideas or whatever it may be and uh yeah I know that's it'd be tough for you to answer it's not even a question for you so I appreciate it but I think um Yeah, this gentleman played a major role in my life. And I think it's important that we make sure we do this and we do it right. And many other people throughout the city, a lot of people that I grew up with. He was a father figure, he was a coach, a mentor for a lot of us, and I hold him and his family dearly to my heart. So it's something I would love to see. Obviously, like Councilor Bergman said, the seasons are coming up, so I'm hoping we can do something soon. Thank you.

I'd like to sign on. Councilor Mitra.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Just a friendly amendment if Councilor Bergman is okay with it. I think Mr. Douglas Day-Hannon Jr. was also quite involved with the city's commissions, so I'd like to say that Bergman, to honor him for his lifetime commitment to Little League in Worcester and also for his dedicated service to the city of Worcester in many commissions as well.

Okay. Councilor Bergman?

No issue at all. Thank you, Councilor Mitra.

Thank you. So I think everybody wants to sign on. Councilor Zoll.

Quickly, Mr. Chairman. Doug will replace, if my memory serves me right, a legend in Paul X. Tivner. and I remember at the time big shoes to fill and what a smooth transition Doug took the Little League, I think it's District 4, and just kept the same service as Paul Tippin did as well. So I just want to put him in the same realm as Paul X. Tippin. Doug Hannum is a Worcesterite that definitely deserves this recognition. Thank you.

I think we all agree to that. He's a class act and did great for the city of Worcester. So we will send that to the manager as amended with everybody signed on and as amended by Dr. Mitra, I believe, yeah, roll call.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Yes. Mr. Rivera? Yes. Mr. Rosen? Yes. Mr. Toomey? Yes. Mayor Petty?

Yes. Question manager requests commissioners sustainability and resilience. identify stormwater runoff locations feasible for rain gardens and retention basins along Lakeland Sigmund and Indian Lake, Councilor Bilotta.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Had a great conversation today with the Department of Sustainability, Resilience, and learned that some of this is already happening. So it would be great to send this to committee to continue to have a conversation and provide more opportunity for the community to learn about what's going on and how Councilor, residents and neighbors can help mitigate some stormwater runoff and nutrient loading into the lake that really causes a lot of you know challenges with the lake and how residents could help with a more like holistic approach that the city is trying to pursue so thank you okay roll call

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Yes. Councilor Mitra. Yes. Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Councilor Rivera. Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey.

Yes.

Mayor Petty.

Yes, we have T.U. Request the manager to provide counsel with the report detailing the home rule petitions brought forth by the city manager, approved by the council over the last 10 years. So reports include the date each petition was filed, the status of the petitions, and whether they've been approved, denied, or still pending for the legislature.

Mayor Petty.

Thank you. And this is someone who we've sent petitions to the State Way Show all the time. We've had several. And what prompted this was I was asked about the H39 for police officers. I know some of these are hard to get through the legislature. sometimes the delegation can't do it because the legislature has other policies or procedures they're looking at but I think it was H-39 we also have the was taking it out of civil service in one of our groups. I think that's before the legislature. And also the institutional zoning, I think it's before the legislature. And anybody saw it, there was a good article in the Globe earlier this week on the institutional zoning and how helpful it is to Boston and Cambridge and the return on investment that Michelle Wu was getting. So that was on Monday's, I believe that was on Monday's, Sunday's paper. if people are interested. So I just want to get a report. We can send that to committee. Maybe we can figure out if these are never going to happen. We can eliminate them.

if we do a strategy with our state delegation and how we proceed forward and if that's the case. So just like to send that to the manager.

Okay, is there anyone else on this item? Okay, item NU. All those in favor, post-order. The roll call.

Bergman, yes, Councilor Bilotta, yes, Councilor Economou, yes, Councilor Fresolo, yes, Councilor Mitra, yes, Councilor Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, Petty, and Councilor King.

Yes. 9V, request city manager review the main south area development plan to implement improvements to its infrastructure to allow for greater walkability, stronger foot traffic, to support its businesses and it creates a healthy, more vibrant neighborhood. Mayor Petty.

Thank you, I think Councilor Ojeda should be on here too. We talked about this last year.

We'll amend that to include Councilor Ojeda.

Yeah, me and him talked about this last year and make this a priority. If you ever drive down that street, it's gonna be one of the busiest streets in Worcester between Chandler and up to May Street. and it's congested. We have a lot of businesses there. There's a lot of action. This would be a great investment if we focus on that here in the city. I think Councilor Ojeda can speak to that. and because he's worked hard and the previous councils have worked hard to really change that neighborhood and I think this will just bring it to another tier. We have a lot of people in that neighborhood who really care about it, who work hard every single day to make it a better place for everyone. And I think they deserve some investment there. whether it be the lights, the streets, the sidewalks, and just make it look better. Especially now we have that new condo business that's opening in there too. I think there's a lot of action going there. and there's a lot of private investment.

So I think with the city and the private, we can take that neighborhood to the next level.

Thank you. Luis Ojeda, District 4 Councilor.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Yeah, no, I appreciate the Mayor bringing this on. I think it's important to understand that, you know, Maine's office had a trying to find the word, a past perception. of what Maine South is, driving through whatever part of the city you are. District 4, when you think of District 4, everybody thinks District 4 is Maine South. It does consume a lot of resources and energy, but I believe it to be a beautiful space, an opportunity for us to grow. One thing I've said in many conversations with the city manager is,

you know when it's all said and done we can't leave Main Street the way we found it and Main South the way we found it so you know I want to say thank you to the city manager for the work he's been doing along we've been working together on making sure we address all of these issues a lot of the and the business in the neighborhood as well. But when it comes to the infrastructure, I do have a lot of questions on what does that mean to the city manager. I don't want it to just focus on, The typical lighting, sidewalks, streets, and signage. No problem. Like I was saying, I want the city manager to give me a good understanding of when we say infrastructure, what are we talking about? Because I may have some more questions after. So do you mind?

Through the Chair to the Councilor, over the past couple of years we've tried to submit, actually we submitted twice to the federal government for a raise grant that will help us to address Maine South's particularly from Chandler Street all the way down to like Webster Square. We wanted to address the entire corridor. And when we talk about addressing the corridor, it's not just simple infrastructure. It's some real infrastructure improvements, whether it's utility, Street scaping, sidewalks, lighting, street traffic lights, et cetera. everything all the way down the corridor, all the way down to Webster Square. So we want to be able to address that. We're going to start to put some efforts. Unfortunately, we've been denied at the federal level both times. to be able to move forward with this planning. It was about close to $2 million planning grant. And so we're gonna put forward some effort to start some work in the main south area.

This area needs some street improvement. It needs some sidewalk improvements. It needs some lighting improvements. I need some real attention and so we're going to put some effort. We've started some of that already with the Department of Transportation and Mobility. and DPW in coordinating their efforts and thinking through long term. But we're also going to start looking at that as part of the FY27 budget, because this is an area that is it has been of importance not only for myself, but also for many different departments, for many different elements that we've been looking at in terms of areas that we need to improve. We're doing some efforts on Massasoit. We're doing some efforts on, I believe, on Hamilton Street or Grafton area. So we're looking at multiple areas across the city, but this is one of the areas that we've been kind of prioritizing that we need to address.

OK, thank you. I also wanted to make sure that we include some of the basic stuff of understanding the issues that we that always continue to rise throughout the city but you know leaf removal like is that going to include a better job with leaf removal as far as notifying residents how would we do that would we use more social media in that area because I think that that also impacts the infrastructure when it comes to parking and things like that. Snow removal. Also, you know, a lot of the stuff that comes down to the turnaround time when there are calls to 301, calls to 911. you know a lot of things I'm discussing now things that come up in some of the neighborhood meetings and I want residents to know that you know this infrastructure will include some of this some of the should include these items because that helps for a better functioning of Maine South. Would this also include traffic flow?

I know at the intersection of May, Main, and Hammond, that's a really tight area. When schools get out, that's a tight area there. So I just want to know have you thought about traffic flow as well?

City Manager.

To the council, absolutely. And that's actually the main intersection that's going to be addressed as part of this effort because we have to work with MassDOT on that. This is a Route 9. This is a state kind of Corridor. So there's multiple partners that's going to be at play here. But that's actually the main intersection that needs to be addressed. It's a little wonky, so I understand the challenges there. I grew up in that area, right on Hollywood Street for a few years. So we definitely know that this is an area that needs attention. When you talk about information of leaf pick up or snow. That's not just improvements in Mesa. We need to do that across the entire city. And I think we talked about this system, the alert system that we're going to launch soon. Right now, we're in the midst of waiting on execution of that contract from the vendor. Once we get that contract executed, we'll be able to launch that. So that's going to improve the communication to residents. But residents need to sign up to that system.

So we encourage and we're going to encourage that in the neighborhood meetings for people to sign up. But that's going to be one way that's going to enhance our ability to engage and communicate with residents. There's a significant amount of work. I know that there's a previous order that we're actually currently actively working on that hopefully we'll bring to council where I believe yourself and, Councilor, King had brought forward related to an audit or some information related to the this past times in this area. I think just in a I can't think of the word either, but just on the surface level, this is the area that has the lowest in terms of actually the fastest this past time in terms of response because there's a lot of support to this area.

and so you know I know there's a stigma to Maine South and some people feel and believe that Maine South is not it's overlooked or people are not paying attention I do want to say that's incorrect we're heavily paying attention not only to Maine South but also and many quarters of the city. And I think the work that you and I have been working with the mayor and this council body is going to, again, eventually create some more opportunities for that area to see further infrastructure improvements.

Thank you. there's so much more right that goes on with like I said the infrastructure right it's not just changing a light bulb here or there but it's actually using the correct lighting but there's also issues that are going on at the street level right with the unsheltered Substance abuse, drug use, use of, you know, drug sales as well. So I want to make sure that residents understand that that's the full approach that I as a district counselor and work with the city manager and the mayor, is that the approach that we need to make sure we take? I want residents to know that, you know, Again, it's just not about making the sidewalks look nice or new streets and new signs. It's about addressing all those issues that they face the minute they open their door. For me, that includes you know, dealing with the infrastructure. I want people to feel safe. I want people to be able to come out and talk to each other, go down to the 311 Center, which is working really well. And again, I want to say thank you to that. I appreciate that.

But again, since we're going to be in those streets, up Main Street, is to make sure we can identify what are those issues that are going on that I'm speaking on now to continue to, again, doing over Main Street, new lights and everything like that. But then you continue to see the issues that are going on. That's those are the things I want to make sure we address as well. So and also, how do we support the businesses through the process? I think it's important for them to understand that. City Manager, to the City Manager, you mentioned that it's a state road. Is that correct? Can you explain what that really means as far as what we're allowed to do? on our street versus what the state has as far as, because again, I'm in meetings and they wanna know how come certain parts of the street or Main Street can't be done or haven't been done or similar to like what's gonna happen on Chandler Street.

where that's supposed to be a new redesign on Channel Street as well. So I just want clarification on so people, whoever's watching, or I can send this to them so they understand what, as a Councilor, when it comes to, say, the side streets and roads that I can address with our budget versus what you can do and what the state should be doing.

City Manager Bautista.

Yeah, that's up. It's a lot. Yeah, and it would involve a lot. Basically, the state has jurisdiction on infrastructure improvements on their roads. the city has the ability to play a role in design and informing what happens in those roles. but the state plays a role in infrastructure and funding of those areas because that's somewhat considered a state road or state route or state highway, et cetera. that happens, it's just like Belmont Street, right? State plays a big role in Belmont Street because it's also a state quarter. There's projects, for example, like Chandler Street that was a little bit nuanced because Chandler Street, in the area that they were trying to address on Chandler Street, it was listed as the highest accident or fatalities in the state.

And so we needed to address that area. I mean, we needed to address it quickly because we were seeing a lot of pedestrian accidents in that particular area. and so we needed to mobilize to find and that's been I think probably five if not six years in the making and it's still in the planning process to come with a full design on that effort because again a lot of these funding is not just state I mean city alone funding this project. Oftentimes we need federal dollars, and oftentimes we need state, and sometimes we need all three to be able to put these projects together. For example, The project that happened in front of City Hall here, Main Street, that happened a few years back, that, again, involved state resources, City Resources and Federal Resources. And that was an $11 million project just in about half a mile, if not quarter, three quarters of a mile or so. So again, all these projects take time.

We've been working with the federal government to apply for grants to give us some ability to start the planning process, but then those are efforts that we're gonna have to work with. with the state. Also, there is a process that MassDOT goes through. It's called the TIP projects. And they allocate a certain amount of funding for TIP projects. And CMRPC plays a role as our central Mass Regional I forgot the last, organization. They play a role in also identifying projects in the region and selecting those projects for improvements and for infrastructure improvements. It's a cumbersome process that takes many different kind of entities involved. So it's not simply, hey, we want to fix that street, let's go fix it. that we have more ability to do that when we're addressing kind of smaller arterioles.

like a Massasoit Road, for example, or when we're addressing neighborhood roads, it becomes a little bit more simple or more easier for us to be able to manage that effort and that work. But when you do a full reconstruction, of a road that impacts utilities, that impacts sidewalks, it impacts lighting, sometimes you have to move street poles. You have to impact the neighborhoods in terms of the lighting, the businesses. So it's more involved than simply just addressing a residential. So it's not for the lack of effort that we're not doing anything. It's just it requires significant amount of work to be able to put these projects together. and sometimes get millions and millions of dollars financed together to then be able to mobilize and contract the work. But there's some effort happening right now to start some designs, to start some movement on the city's behalf. And we're going to look at the FY27 budget to start some additional funding, at least on the planning efforts to begin the changes of infrastructure and energy.

Thank you, thank you. And I appreciate the work that's being done. You know, unfortunately there was a change in administration in Washington and that changed a lot of the things that we were hoping to get on Main Street. and I know in the meetings that a lot of residents were hoping. So again, I just say to the mayor, thank you so much. I know this is something that I've been working on since I took council and it's important to to continue doing the work even if we don't have that state funding in the meantime. So again, to the city manager, to the commissioner as well, I'll be reaching out with, again, concerns and issues and I appreciate the support of continue trying to get this work done until this project really gets going. So thank you again.

Thank you, Councilor Ojeda. Is there anyone else on this? I'm gonna add my name to it. Is anyone else gonna add their name to this before the roll call? Councilor Toomey, as amended, roll call.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey,

Kerr. Yes.

Mayor Petty. Yes. Vice Chair, Councilor Kerr.

Yes. Item 9W, request the city manager provide the city council with a report concerning how the city utilizes school district buildings, particularly properties like the Fanning Building to ensure they align with the evolving needs of the school district.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mayor Petty. And this is part of my, you know, as an inauguration speech. Mr. Chairman, you have an item on, too. So you realize the importance of this building and on fanning. And, uh... some of the previous superintendent that we've talked about for the last three years trying to come up with a plan because the evolving needs, as you know, Mr. Manager, meet on a regular basis with the superintendent when it comes to our buildings and our student enrollment. which is only going up and population has increased dramatically over the last 10 years here in the city of Worcester. And I know we're reviewing right now how we're going to reposition the districts in the future. making sure that the students are allocated fairly throughout the district. But this Fanning building has been always talked about in the last three years. I just want to make it a priority how we look at this. and how we're going to integrate it with the Worcester Public Schools and make sure that if we need to use it for a school building that we're able to do that.

because we are growing especially in the downtown area schools are getting full and we need more space so I think this would be the perfect part of that so I just like to send that to you Mr. Manager and you can work with the superintendent

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

You can roll call.

Okay, is there anyone else like to speak on this?

Oh, you should go off the roll call.

So that's Councilor Louis, Louie Ojeda, District 4 recusing himself, roll call.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, King, Mayor, Petty, Vice Chair, Councilor King.

I'll get this started anyway. 9X, request city manager, provides city council with a report detailing the maintenance costs the city is paying for the Worcester Auditorium, Seavers Street Building, and the former Registry of Motor Vehicles property. and the Denon Building. Said report should include associated development timelines and updates on any related RFPs associated with said properties filed by myself. King. Thank you Mr. Chairman. This particular item came about as I was pondering what in the world is going on with the Worcester Auditorium. we've been waiting for quite some time Jake Sanders who's formerly employed here at the City of Worcester has been a lead on that particular project in addition to that we had an item

I think it was last week where we appropriated an additional $200,000 from the maintenance costs of Seaver Street. We have, or the WRA I believe has acquired the Registry of Motor Vehicles property as I understand it. and, of course, we now also have the Denon Building. We're really looking for us to amend this with a report detailing monthly maintenance costs, not just for 2026 or 2025. I'd like to go back maybe five years. So that would be the amendment. Through the chair to the administration, can you speak a little bit to what is going on at Worcester Auditorium? Part of this isn't simply the maintenance costs. I'm also interested in you know the RFPs where are we at are we looking to to do anything different not just there but in other locations do we have an idea

and many other approximates, approximations of how much we're paying for these properties for maintenance. Thank you.

I don't have an idea right now, but that's something that we'd be able to put together as part of a report. The particular to the Worcester Auditorium, that's been vacant for probably 20 plus years the city's been fronting the bill and sustaining that building and trying to keep it up and running and to what its current form for the past 20 plus years. Whether it's fixing minor things, dealing with water leaks, making sure the building is secure, dealing with the roof. I mean, you name it, there's been a lot of efforts in trying to sustain this building. About five or so, seven years ago, the city contracted American Heritage Foundation to take on the lead to be the entity to come up with designs and idea. This is what they do. they did that with Faneuil Hall and other historical buildings.

They look at historical buildings, they provide a kind of design or some strategic path that the then municipality can then work to help to bring that into fruition. So they've been doing that. They've had some number of contract extensions with us to be able to continue moving forward on their current idea. The idea they're pursuing right now involves bringing that to its life by creating that an event venue. that provides about 3,000 to 5,000 event venue in the city. They've been working with many different partners, not only across the state, but across the nation in trying to find a solution for that. The hardest thing about that about that building is one is finding ownership who eventually would want to take ownership or does the city continue to to take ownership.

Similar like we do with the DCU, we own the DCU and we contract a company to operate the DCU. We own Polo Park and we lease the park to the team to pay the lease there. and operate that facility. Is that a possibility for the auditorium or is that a possibility that eventually the strategy is to sell to an operator that can operate that building and own the building as well? Part of the efforts is trying to put together a capital stack of financing to be able to bring that building back to life. We have a war memorial in that building that we have to preserve. and so that's one of the challenges. There's also a little theater in the back. So again, there's been a lot of conversation with multiple partners who have interested, who have either verbally shown their interest or have made some initial commitments The governor made a commitment to match some federal tax dollars that we would go after.

We would go where we have. have received some commitments of a $25 million federal tax dollars, historical tax dollars for this property. And then the state would match an additional $25 million. but that's not enough to be able to bring this building to life. It's a massive mammoth in the city, so we gotta address that. In addition to the other buildings that were listed here, The Registry of Motor Vehicles that was a state-owned building, MassDOT. What we did, we went to the state and asked the state to be able to provide that building to us to give us better leverage in putting that building out to bid for developers. The state tried to do that in getting residential developers as they were trying to dispose of of state-owned land for the purposes of housing. That's been one of the governor's priorities. And so we asked them, could you provide the building to us? give us the building and then we would work to get a right developer to develop that property.

And so that just happened in December when they transitioned that property to us where we would then work quickly in turning that property over and getting a developer that could take ownership of that property. So there's a number of things. Seavers Street, the city acquired that property as part of Becker's kind of disposition or Becker College. I was closing his doors. City acquired these two properties. There were some initial plans and ideas. when I came on I looked at overall the assessment and the needs of the city and identified that these are potential properties that we at this moment would not need and we could find other ways to be able to to offset this property and not continue to carry the cost of these buildings. When we saw many municipalities across the nation go into this remote environment, it reduced their actual building footprint.

So right now, you know, there's a lot of moving pieces for every single property, but I'd be happy to bring forward a report in terms of the status of where it's at and what are some of the costs associated with each property.

Thank you. And as we continue to assess the Mankiti group effort, As relates to the tie that went into subcommittee economic development, the Denon building is also part of this order, Mr. Chairman. I did watch the WRA meeting that was held regarding this project. that chairman and a number of the folks on the WRA were expressing concerns about us realizing and kind of achieving completion of that project. There were some discussions about the cost overruns. There was a negotiation that you could witness in committee. that was resolved.

And we know that there's been extensions. I'm aware of some of the many challenges with that particular property. but I do would like to just make sure that's included in this report Mr. Chairman to the administration if you could just speak and just let the public know that your efforts with regards to the Dunham Building, that was a significant undertaking for us and it's a significant project. We know that the nonprofits were housed there a number of them we know the situations as they were sort of like condos and the cost became too much and they've since I think Katie Kroc and those folks stepped up and met the need for the city So if you could speak to that before we move on on this matter, Mr. Chairman.

To the Chair, to the Councilor, you referenced the Denholm and you kind of gave a little bit of brief overview. Exactly what you said. There was a number of nonprofit organizations in the Denholm building and in his heyday was really the staple of downtown where people came and were able to shop there. And over the years, different vendors and different organizations and different entities have occupied that building. But it came to a situation where the building was just, it requires so much maintenance. The vaults underneath the building were in really tough shape. They would lose power. They had water leaks. I mean, you name it. who then become very tough for these agencies to sustain. Because as you know, when you're a condo association, the condo association becomes responsible.

and when you have all these nonprofits that are having challenges and trying to put financing together that will not only operate their day-to-day services to the residents and the community, it makes it even tougher to deal with such a building, this magnitude. So the city came in, and working with WBDC and Katie Kroc to try to provide some help and some relief so the city was able to find a way to to provide relief to these nonprofits, move them to the, and the city came in and acquired the property from the condo. They were able to decondoize the building so that the city can come in and step in and take acquisition of that property. The WRA played a role in that, which then allowed us now to then put an RFP out and get a developer. The developer right now is a Mankiti Group. and as you stated they've had some opportunities to do due diligence and go through that and most previously they requested an extension that was granted with some conditions on that extension.

But again, this is a property that has been a staple in this community and is a property that's going to require some significant amount of work to be able to address the needs of that building.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to amend this order to include any updates pertaining to the American Heritage efforts. regarding the Dental Building, and also to amend it to request the minutes be provided to the council regarding the WRA meeting that I referenced pertaining to the Denham building. you know I'd like to see that to come to the council I know it's there like we can go find it and then I like that to go to committee if that's the will of the mayor when it comes or the chair when it comes to this body and if that's the will of this body and I think the more information folks are watching, I'm not sure whose responsibility it is to bring that building down. Bergman. But I certainly think that the communication will go a long way for the city, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Solicitor. Now to Manager's amended roll call.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Okay, we are on 9Y, 9Y, request of the City Manager to provide counsel with a report relative to the safety audit occurring at the Fannie Building along with plans for future use, Councilor King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly appreciate Mayor Petty's prior order regarding the Fandon building. you know we know that there is a strategic facilities plan on the school side that at some point it's going to be the responsibility of this body to get engaged with on a number of different levels without getting into specifics. That being said, Our departments, code, inspectional services, fire, et cetera, they're part of assessing the health and overall safety of school facilities. Mr. Chairman, I brought this up previously. that particular building has not been safe. That particular building has had a number of issues with fire, with cold. It's had a number of issues over the years. I know firsthand from having someone there.

who was not able to mobilize on their own, who had a number of challenges, the issues with the Elevator, the fire plan, safety plan that was in place that was altered by the folks in the school because it would not have worked. the conditions there are extremely concerning. I also know from having conversations with the prior administration led by Ed Augustus along with principals and teachers and other folks at the Fannin Building and confirm with the prior superintendent that there was a commitment made to those folks that they would be going to Seaver Street, along with the archives of the Office of the Clerk, along with city departments.

and as the manager mentioned, he made an assessment of that particular building on Siva Street, which I do not agree with for the record and I've been on the record with that. and on Seaver Street, we weren't just paying maintenance. We were getting income. We were generating revenue. from rentals to I think Clark University and WPI perhaps. What's the state? I don't know. But local state colleges and universities. Then we had a period of time it was emptying. Great facilities, got library in there. We are special ed folks, et cetera. So there's an opportunity there to take a look. But that being said, what are the plans for the Fanning Building? How are we assessing its safety? Mr. Chairman, I'd like a report on that forthwith.

We have currently residents of the city in that building. through the chair to the administration. Do we have an idea of the last time that code or fire or anyone went through that building through the chair?

Mr. Manager?

Yeah, through the City Council. I don't have that direct answer right now in front of me, but I'd be able to bring that forward. I do want to say something that's important. This council body supported an allocation of funding to do a school survey of our municipal buildings, which includes schools and municipal buildings. That is a partnership and a relationship with the schools. that were doing this survey. And that is something that we should be putting out to bid soon or have put out to bid already. but that's going to look at the overall but in relation to an actual safety audit of this particular school I don't know when there has been any fire or inspectional services in the most recently so that'd be something I'd be able to bring forward

Yeah, thank you. I would ask that that be prioritized. I'd hate for something to go awry there and that harm be incurred to educators. to staff, to people, parents, or anyone coming in and out of that building, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. I think we'll send that to the manager.

Roll call.

Brueggemann?

Yes.

Councilor Bilotta?

Yes.

Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Fresolo? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mitra? Councilor Ojeda?

Yes.

Councilor Rivera? Yes. Councilor Rosen? Yes. Councilor Toomey? and Mayor Petty.

Yes, request the Mayor to provide Council with a report allowing the priority strategies and operations utilized during the snow events, including any updates to snow removal equipment usage, so report should King, also detail how streets are classified and prioritized during a major snow event, Councilor King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a very general report. There's been a number of similar items on our agenda over the past weeks and this particular new term with this particular body. We know I sat and I watched. the kudos that were handed out in the subcommittee of public works regarding I think it was last Tuesday regarding the snow removal. but I do have questions Mr. Chairman and while I understand that we have a committee dedicated to this but we also have folks that are continuing to contact us and I know over the years we've had questions and I've had questions and in this particular and so on. So I'm going to ask that I'm trying to get to, which will hopefully go to committee and there be vetted and some oversight. that we have an understanding of what the priorities are during these snow events, depending on what the nature is,

what the anticipation is, what the forecasts are, along with what our staffing realities are. As we've heard, a lot of folks giving kudos to to snowplow operators and other folks that are engaged in this inspection inspectors etc who are giving up their time for hours upon hours upon hours So yes, that's greatly appreciated. We've purchased new equipment over the years. We've purchased equipment to help us with the brining or whatever it's called, the pre-treating. that I don't know to what degree we're using it. And so as we have these conversations over the days and weeks about capacity, about the realities of our snow operations, I would like an understanding of How we're using what we've purchased. Again, I'm going to amend this to also call for a staffing analysis of this department, as I had in the past.

Because what I'm hearing on the floor, we don't have enough people. it piques my interest. How can we get them? What's the strategy? What's the retention look like there? Is there a way that we can sort of reassess and reorganize city government in a way that we're putting people in the right places to provide the best service provision. Again, the prioritizing of streets. I know we have a meeting coming up regarding Counselor's District. We have other meetings coming up. when you hear the folks that came here a few days ago talk about having to make the same call for 20 years. And I don't know if that's an exaggeration or if it's the truth, but that was what was testified to. The question becomes, how are we prioritizing How? What is the methodology? Is it just responding? I've talked to my colleagues who've reported

at the Commissioner, 311, the inspectors. Everyone's been very, very responsive to their concerns and their phone calls and citizens' and residents' phone calls. But it ends up with us chasing our tails in a circle. What is the strategy? I'd like to see it in black and white. so we can have an understanding of snow plow removal operations and where the needs are. and what the plan is. We've had a change in commissioners and what have you. But I got a report just yesterday, two days ago, say Tuesday. Yeah, I think Monday. On my particular street, still snow covered. And there was an accident with a city vehicle. with a gentleman who lives on the street that came and spoke to me because of the conditions on that street.

And while I've been to some other cities, they have similar challenges on the side streets. You know, this isn't unique. O'Connell.

Thank you Mr. Chairman for clarification too. I just wanna let my colleagues know, since I was sworn in, I've had discussions with Commissioner Wesseling, discussions with the City Manager and the Commissioner. And I think we'll see a report coming out shortly that'll outline exactly the process, exactly what goes down when our crews are called in, when SALT operations proceed, when we start snow plowing, all of that. I feel our team did a great job. They were out for 30 hours. They needed to get some sleep Monday night. They were back out Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all week last week cleaning up. As I've mentioned to the City Manager, I think one of the issues that's probably handcuffed us a bit has been the alert system. And I know, Mr.

Manager, I know that's coming forth as well soon. So we greatly appreciate that. But any way you look in the community, whether it's here, to the east, even Holden, expectations needed to be set. We haven't had a storm like this in years. And it's almost like putting your training wheels back on. So I look forward to that report. I think our crews did a great job. and I continue to think that once this comes forward, everybody will have a better understanding of process. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I just would like to make an amendment to this if there could be some information on how contractors are paid. what the process is. Because I've heard just through word of mouth that the past contractors have been paid months later. I don't know if that's true. or not. But it would be great to know that. And maybe that could help with recruitment. I don't know. But it is concerning. Because I mean, yes, this was a very large storm. it is challenging especially in my district in in the neighborhoods like Gage Street up on Shelby Street uh Hamilton Street where where parking's tight People don't always cooperate with moving their cars. That makes it even more difficult for DPW. But it definitely is frustrating. And I've had good conversations with the manager and Commissioner Westerling on this and appreciate all the effort. But yeah, it's definitely concerning. And I know a lot of residents remain concerned. So it'd be great to just have more information. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Fezzola.

Clarification on the amendment on staffing. I'd just like to ask if what I heard is true. Has the CDL requirement been removed on the trash pickers?

Mr. Manager?

For the drivers, they're required to have CDL if they're drivers, but the ones that are running in the back, it's not. So we've been able to kind of offset labor. there's a number of laborers that don't require CDL. And so I know that historically there was this conversation where just to get into DPW you needed a CDL. That's not true. We have a significant number of laborers and folks that have entered as laborers. We've put them in different positions like to run and pick up the trash and whatnot. And we actually now, the body actually supported the creation in supporting an effort to to start a CDL program in-house to be able to certify our individuals that want to get a CDL so they can have that opportunity as well.

Thank you. I appreciate that clarification because that was out there that you need a CDL license if you wanted to, you know, even apply for the trash picking. So I just wanted the general public to know that in case because I'm told we're short bodies this and we need people again this past week and unfortunately trash was not picked up on time on Saturday and they had to come out on Sunday. and it's due to the lack of manpower. So I appreciate their efforts and I look forward to hopefully hiring some more help. Thank you, Mr. Manager, appreciate it.

And thank you, Councilor Ojeda.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've got a question through you to Councilor King. Is this going to, or would you like it to include snow removal around the bus stops? On the way here, I think I haven't seen, there's many of them that just not plowed out. Is it on us as a city? I believe it's on WRTA. and also my other question to the to the city manager is, you know, what is that process if there is a process to do it? And then also the fire hydrants. There are many fire hydrants right now that are just full of snow, they're covered with snow. Can you just let me know who is actually responsible for those items?

Mr.

Manager. I'll answer very quickly the fire hydrants. Fire hydrants are the responsibility of the property owners that are, but the fire hydrants. just as they are to the sidewalk or crosswalk that they're abutting. So if the property has sidewalks, fire hydrants, and crosswalks, that property owner is responsible for clearing all of that.

So businesses and individuals, correct? that is correct property owners that are that are budding so it may not be a business but it's just a property owner itself yep and then as far as I know in some areas I've seen where there's a post to identify there's a fire hydrant here. I know in some areas throughout the district there hasn't been. Who puts those down? Is that on the resident to put, I think it's like a yellow post to identify? Can you just tell me who's responsible to?

Through the Chichester Council, I'm not sure on that. I would actually... Because a lot of them are, some of them are just, they get plowed in.

They don't realize it's there.

Yeah, I'm not 100% sure on that, but that's something we can bring back as part of the report. OK, no, that's fine. I think Councilor Toomey may have a minute.

Clarification I filed a couple of orders on this previously and the fights come to public safety and it's actually those polls are were deemed a safety issue and and so the fire department does not put those on if there are poles there those are put on by someone else so they're not because I suggested for the same reason we did make sure but not only So the other thing for clarification is, yes, the property owner that the hydrant or bus is responsible. But I just want to make a point that everybody who lives on that street is going to be impacted if there's a fire and that fire hydrant doesn't get It's cleaned out. So people should take turns and be a good neighbor. Thank you.

OK, so my question is, in the meantime, Right? We got fall free to snow over some fire hydrants. What are we doing to address those? And then the WRTA. I don't think I got an answer if it's on them to do it or we're doing it. And if they're not doing it, how are we making sure they get it done?

To the WRTA, I think as part of the WRTA, as part of your amendment to the report, we'd be happy to bring more detail in terms of responsibility regarding WRTA. In the meantime, I think using the app 311 residents or if you see a resident or neighbors that are in the area, they should actually take the initiative to clear it out because It's going to be pretty tough for our inspectors to be able to identify every single one across the entire city.

Again, just because I don't think I heard the answer just yet. I know it's through the report, but has there been any conversation? I guess I should have said that through the chair. to the WRTA regarding removal of snow right now because people are literally in the streets waiting for the bus.

Mr. Manager? I'm just not prepared to answer that question because I haven't had the conversation with the DPW to understand if that request had been made to the WCRT. Thank you.

Councilor? Thank you.

I just rise to add that maybe kindly add storm drains, that they should be shoveled out as well. because as the snow melts you need to have that clear and sometimes it blocks everything up and makes things worse as this as it goes and you can actually identify where the storm drains are just by looking on Google on your street Here's a storm drain here. We could do that. And I know that on our city website, we do have some information, too, where the hydrants are. We've talked about that before. Thank you.

Thank you. Council King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of comments on this. One is, and I appreciate all of the amendments. I'll accept them. If they want to make them a separate motion, I'm fine with that also. That being said, Mr. Chairman, just today conducting home visits in my role as a social worker Going to see families in our three-deckers on Rodney Street, Catherine Street, I was on Ames Street, Grafton Hill, Vernon Hill, Bell Hill. extremely difficult conditions today. Not yesterday, not today, from this past storm. So while I don't, by any stretch of the imagination, feel as though there wasn't Great effort put in by our employees and the folks that we contracted with.

I want to make it clear to folks who are asking for accountability and a reasonable return on their tax dollars that we didn't do good enough, Mr. Chairman. and I want to make that unequivocally clear. I know that the city manager for my conversations will make every effort to do better I know there's been proclamations that we're going to handle this past storm. The facts are at variance with that. assertion. That being said, it's why I'm asking about the prioritization. I understand the arterial ways. and the importance of that. I know that the city manager is working with the new commissioner. I know that city manager on the floor stated there was some differences of opinion, I'm assuming operationally, and I'm sure that's gonna get Ironed Out.

But I do not want to make the folks who have repeatedly contacted us in so many different ways under any sort of notion that I as their at large, Councilor, you know, do not understand where we fell short, Mr. Chairman. and we did in many ways. So this is something again every year But we have invested. We have increased the amount of money that we're paying for our contractors. We have purchased equipment. Mr. Chairman, through the chair to the administration, and this Councilor Economou just mentioned a potential incentive. And so my question is, when we're paying our contracted snowplow operators or sanding or whatever the case might be, Are they paid when they leave their house? Is that when the clock starts?

Or are they paid when they get to the job site that they're assigned to through the chair?

Mr. Manager? Mr. Chair, Councilor Maldonado says when they get to the site, they have to report it.

Mr. Chairman, I would recommend that we look at that as a incentive that they should be getting perhaps compensated when they leave They're home. I'll let Councilor Economou make that motion as it's his idea. If he doesn't make it, I'll make it. But I certainly think that anything that we can do to improve operations. There's always a cost associated. It might be minimal. Depends where they're coming from, right? They could be 80% from Worcester and 20% from West Brookfield. I don't know. But the numbers matter. So also taking a look at that over the past X amount of years, how much would that incur? Because that might be extremely helpful if you're taking An hour and a half to get here or whatever the case might be from a far away location. They can contract with someone else. Maybe they will.

So I will make that motion if it's not made by Councilor Economou.

Okay, so take that motion. And while off this motion, the amendments and the, oh, Mr. Manager.

I just wanna say something really quick. There's been a lot of orders since January 1st, when the new council body took place related to DPW. We've had two storms. One storm was very minimal, but it had a lot of ICE impact. And there was a lot of discussion here on that. And so there's a, believe it or not, two or three reports that also talked about kind of the deployment and the prioritization. All of those reports are coming in for next week. I've been working closely with the commissioner to try to get that through. and to provide as much detail as we can for the Councilor Pacillo we can have a fruitful conversation with the body next week here. So right now we're working to make sure that all those reports are ready to go by this Friday. It will be made available to the public and on Tuesday we can have a fruitful conversation.

Councilor Fusso. Just quickly, the commission will be here to answer questions. Thank you. Okay, roll call.

Councilor Bergman. Yes. And Bilotta. Yes. And Economou. Yes. And Fresolo. Yes. And King. And Mitra. Yes. And Ojeda. Yes. That's Rivera. Yes. That's Rosen. Yes. That's Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty.

Yes, request to manage request Commissioner of Transportation Mobility to provide counsel with a report detailing how the winter parking ban on Hamilton Street moving west in its approach towards Plantation Street can be improved in a way that would ensure there is enough parking for the businesses on the street. Said report should especially consider allowing for parking on one side of the street, Councilor Toomey.

I was contacted by a couple of business owners in the area and it really is an area that I think we could improve accessibility for. those small businesses that are on the other side of the street especially so I appreciate a report coming back discussing this and I don't think it's the only area in the city that that we Okay, thank you. Roll call.

Yes. Yes.

10B, request of manager by council to update concern and previously adopted request for a report concerning legislative actions occurring relative to seeking additional funding from the MSBA. Councilor King, do you want both of these together?

Yeah, you want to take them concurrently?

Yeah, request that the manager by council update concern previously adopted request in April 2nd, 2024 to engage in the city's elected officials. Another gateway city is facing similar challenges and strategize ways to increase funding. around the creation and maintenance of schools using MSBA and other state funds.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Our intersection and advocacy with our state legislators is part and parcel of what we do here on the city council. I know that there were some challenges understanding that in the last term. Hopefully folks will have a clear understanding of that as we move forward. We know there's intersection with funding. We heard tonight Senator Kennedy talk about a bill that she filed and the opportunities for a gateway city to be on the commission. We're exploring expanding the boundaries, expanding the fiscal support of Municipalities like the City of Worcester, Mr. Chairman. The first part of this order asked for a report regarding legislative actions the city had been taking, and the city meaning the side of the city manager regarding any additional funding because we know there are strict parameters

how much the 80 percent how often you know we're currently looking at Burncoat and Burncoat Middle but we have so many needs Mr. Chairman we know that the reasons that this is so important is that the opportunity to have good buildings, healthy buildings, good learning environments, improve student outcomes, that the modern classrooms with better air, better lighting, flexible spaces, boost learning and attendance, Mr. Chairman. Health and Safety, as I mentioned, allow us to fix hazards, the HVAC improvements, ADA accessibility is improved. The second order that calls for intersecting with other gateway cities. We are the second largest city in New England, the second largest city

in Massachusetts. It's imperative for us. This is just a mayor thing. It's not just a city manager thing. it's not just a city council thing we have an opportunity in this moment to advocate for state legislation as a body as a city manager as the mayor as our current Mayor Petty, the mayor of the second largest city. And I suggest that we do exactly that. We need to be present. either with written testimony, virtual testimony or in-person testimony as it relates to accessing and trying to expand this funding. We know that equity for gateway cities are challenging.

We want to make sure our students have comparable facilities and we also want to make sure that technical learning opportunities, vocational learning opportunities are increased via spaces and equipment so that the career pathways are enhanced even further. Local jobs become more of a reality. and apprenticeships throughout all trades for state funded, city funded, federally funded projects are a reality that the workforce is there, Mr. Chairman. There's a major economic impact here. Folks will want to move when there's new facilities. You look at what's been done already during our time on the council, many times on the council, the mayor's time on the council. We've done a number of schools. Burncoat's up next. But there's a number of needs.

Mr. Chairman, I know that there is a strategic plan that exists on the school side, that again, at some point, we will be asked to do things. Through the chair to the administration, What is your engagement, Benny, with the school side on their strategic planning for facilities through the chair? Mr. Manager?

Like I've mentioned previously in a previous order, the city and the schools were engaging in a survey to identify the priorities and the needs in the schools. Before this particular survey, the school had done their own assessments of the buildings and we and myself in previous Superintendent, spent about a year on a monthly basis meeting with her team and my team, identifying the needs, looking at census tract, looking at the growth of development in certain pockets of the city. and I think that's where the conversations of redistricting came, the conversations about investing in the buildings that need the investments and not moving investments to other buildings that don't need it. and so we were identifying the buildings that received some priority and then we talked about how do we finance this.

One of the biggest challenges that it comes to this is also the equation and the funding mechanism related to MSBA, right? They technically supposed to fund this 80-20, but they actually fund this 50%. we've advocated significantly to the state and MSBA as part of, for example, Doherty was an example where we advocated have been significant amount of time in discussions with the state legislature and what's Goldberg, what's her?

The Treasurer's Office.

The Treasurer's Office. To be able to provide additional funding for Doherty to offset some of the impacts and the overruns that we had there. So again, this is a significant amount of effort, but we spent quite a bit of time in discussions with the schools in trying to strategize what are their needs, how can we be able to provide those needs, That's why over the past three years, me being a city manager, we've given over $20 million of funding to the school department for infrastructure, whether it was ARPA dollars for ADA improvements, where there's dollars that we increase their capital allocation utilizing block grant dollars and part of that investment went to Roosevelt. creating a stabilization account to be able to offset some of the debt in the schools. So this means a significant amount of efforts on the administration with the council in trying to provide additional dollars to the schools. but that is something that's continuous and it still happens every single day and making sure that we are aligned in the priorities that happens for the schools.

Thank you. Thank you and kudos to the administration, the city manager for the work that they have done. These last couple of terms the council has asked a lot of you as it relates to, as you mentioned, accessing, identifying different dollars to move to support the schools. We know that there's always a deficit and that we should and could do more Mr. Chairman. As mentioned by the testimony of Senator Kennedy, the Mass School Building Authority's funding is underfunded. It not only fails to meet the needs of the students here in Worcester, it fails to meet the needs of the students across Massachusetts, Mr. Chairman. I would like A report back. regarding the Senate Bill 403 that's related to this.

I'd like, when it comes back, to go to the Education Committee that I chair so that we can have an engagement with the school side as well on how to best advocate for ourselves. As mentioned, there's an opportunity to provide testimony publicly at MSBA hearings. In addition to that, there's a 23-member commission, which I already mentioned, to study MSBA funding adequacy and equity, Mr. Chairman. We must be on that commission. We have to have a representative there. It is that important for our future. the manager Batista was referencing as relates to his meetings with the prior superintendent and potentially the current superintendent I had put on the council forum requested a projective analysis of Our housing production. Projective analysis of where these people are going to go. What's the impact on traffic?

What's the impact on infrastructure? What's the impact on the various departments? and that projective analysis is being partially done as you just heard. Mr. Chairman, this commission will examine grant formulas, reimbursement rates, incentives for vocational and green schools, and we could have representation that could testify to our need. This is timely. My question to the Charity Administration, this was requesting an update. from the city side on any intersection that they've had now with Senator Kennedy or others. I would like that report back. We do have municipal operations and legislative affairs for some of these matters. In that committee that used to be a separate committee, municipal operations, and I used to have legislative affairs, but there's certainly space. I, of course, would like to see some of this and the Education Committee.

Mr. Chairman, we do get sort changed. We get sort changed and I don't know what the impact will be moving forward as given the fear that we're having right now. With immigration, we know that the funding gets based on the number of students. I can tell you, some students aren't going to school any longer, Mr. Chairman. How's that gonna impact our bottom line? those realities will come to bear, Mr. Chairman. So I would like this, this isn't a big lift right here, 10B and 10C. I don't know what engagement has happened, with the delegation, but I'd like to learn about that. I think the closer we can work with them, the better it is for us as a city. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Councilor King.

Mayor Petty.

I'm thinking, Mr. Chairman, I support both of these audits and the more, I don't know if Tim McGirthy would like the more funding, especially when you have to split it, but these are good audits and I just want to clarify and amend a little bit, but but they weren't maybe clarified so about two years ago the mayors got together I was on that committee I was led by the mayor of Lynn and we wrote a letter to the legislature and to the treasurer and the last one for additional funding. Then I think it was a year or two ago that Senator Moore on the accelerated repair program that he was able to get us made sure, because at that time they were maxing out the number of money, it was like 1.2 billion that they were gonna do for schools. He was able to put in the legislation, working with us and me, to make sure the Accelerated Repair Program went forward, that it stopped for a while. This is why Wright Square's getting done, and why, and East Middlewind, yes, East Middlewind is, and Belmont. The reason I need to say that is because

If we can get the funding for this, it's just, right now we're about 50-50, you know, 50 MSBA, 50 S, and since I became mayor, we've invested, counting Brunco, Brunco, and Juha, it's gonna be $1.3 billion in the schools and MSBA is probably 50% of that. So if we can get the funding up, so maybe it's supposed to be 80-20, but there's a lot of non-reimbursables. that the MSBA won't pay for. So all this has to be looked at, so an amendment would look at that. Also not just expanding the board, I was just mentioning, but also, they don't have enough engineers, I don't think MSBA, so we look at the people they employ to make sure they expand out to keep up. Because I think all the cities and towns want Investment in the Public Schools System. We're going to do well for it. I know we've had a good run working with the MSBA. I want to thank them, but I think we just

We have so many needs, as you said. We didn't give enough money to the schools since COVID. There were so many priorities that they had to do during COVID that we started to get behind on our buildings. And one thing on the Accelerated Repair Program, people should know this too, and this is a great program. We've done $100 million in the last several years in the Accelerated Repair Program. and those are windows, boilers, and roofs. Thank you. And that makes a difference. I told the story last week in the school committee, When I became mayor, I asked Brian Allen to give us all the schools that were built in the PCB timeframe. were 27 schools that were built in that time that potentially had PCBs, but they're not because of certain reasons you don't test. And we've done 20, Count and Bernko will be County of Wright Square.

There'll be 26 of those 27 buildings will be done because of the city council and the school committee. And people should know that. that we couldn't do without MSBA. This is why audits are so important that Councilor King has put forth is because we need to work together for the legislature. We've done it in the past. We've done it over the last two years. and we get funding back in 23, 24 when the mayor's put something together, looking for additional funding, also working with Senator Moore at that time for the Accelerated Repair Program. So these are good orders, and it's amended to include making sure that the funding shall also include additional employees at the MSBA to keep up if we're going to invest in this. because this is so, it transforms the city. When that Bronco and Bronco Middle is done, it's gonna transform the whole neighborhood and it's well deserved. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for filing these orders.

As amended, roll call. Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Fresolo?

Yes.

Councilor Mitra? Yes. Councilor Ojeda? Kerr, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, Petty, and Councilor Kerr.

Okay, we are on resolution that the City Council, the City Council of Seattle-Worcester does hereby recognize and support the observance of February 2026 as Black History Month that the City of Worcester does hereby King, affirm its commitment to honoring the history, culture, achievements, and ongoing contributions of Black Americans and encourage residents, institutions, and educational organizations to engage in meaningful learning, reflection, and celebration throughout the month and beyond, Councilor King.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's an honor to bring this resolution forward today. We know that this is a big commemoration for black history. While it's not the 100th year of Black History Month, it is the 100th year of Dr. Carter G. Woodson's vision, his vision to organize history, black history specifically that was overlooked. And he did that by organizing the first Negro History Week. This year's Black History Month theme is A Century of Black History Commemorations.

This year also happens to fall the same year that our nation commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a moment that did not include freedom. for enslaved people and whose absence of liberty still carries meaning for their descendants. Mr. Chairman, Carter G. Woodson's vision was bold and visionary at the time. His actions occurred when the history and contributions of black Americans were systemically excluded from the nation's narrative. February was the month that was selected, Mr. Chairman. It was later also selected in recognition of birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. That choice itself carries complexities and controversy.

While President Lincoln did, in fact, believe that slavery was morally wrong and supported the preservation of the Union, he was not an abolitionist in the modern sense. In an 1858 speech, Mr. Chairman, he stated his opposition to black people voting. he stated his opposition for black folks serving on juries. President Lincoln stated his opposition to black folks holding public office as I am doing right here tonight. He further stated his opposition to interracial marriage. Mr. Chairman, history is important. Yes. President Lincoln believed that black Americans had the right to improve their condition in society.

However, his own words make it clear that he did not view us as equal. it is important that we speak honestly and fully about historical figures, acknowledging both their actions and limitations. Dr. Woodson is widely regarded as the father of black history. He dedicated his life to ensuring that black history be studied, preserved, and respected. through the founding of the Association of the Study of African American Life and History alongside Jesse Moreland and through publications such as the Journal of Negro History. He made it unmistakably clear that the black history itself is not supplemental. It is foundational to understanding America itself. 50 years after Negro History Week began, President Ford formally recognized Black History Month in 1976.

and called upon all Americans to seize the opportunity to honor the too often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor. That call continues to resonate to this day. Today, as we reflect on the generations who struggled against racism, whose labor strengthened this nation economically, politically, culturally, scientifically, and morally. Here in Worcester, the legacy is not abstract. It lives in our streets, our institutions, our shared civic memory. our city proudly recognizes the profound contributions of black Americans and Africans who came here and our descendants vessel through the diaspora. people whose leadership, resilience, and achievements have helped shape Worcester's history and character.

from Major Taylor to Bethany Vini, from Professor Thomas Dalton to countless local trailblazers whose names may not always appear in textbooks. Worcester's history is rich and documented and alive. Mr. Chairman, that history is preserved and shared through initiatives such as the Black History Trail and the Worcester Black History Project. which highlight sites, stories, and individuals connected to local, state, and national movements for freedom, justice, and civil rights. Worcester has also served as a powerful platform for black thought. Activism in Oratory. Frederick Douglass spoke here in support of the abolitionist cause. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at Clark University. reinforcing Worcester's place in the national struggle for civil rights and racial justice.

These moments remind us that our city has long been a space where ideas about equality and human dignity were not only discussed, but demanded.

Thank you.

Institutions such as Mechanics Hall still stand as cultural landmarks reflecting this engagement, housing portraits and memorials honoring abolitionists, civil rights leaders, and figures central to black history. Worcester is also the home to Abby Kelly Foster, a nationally recognized abolitionist and women's rights advocate whose work alongside black leaders advanced the causes of emancipation, racial justice, and gender equality. Worcester has its history, Mr. Chairman. It's important to also acknowledge those folks who served in a public capacity here in Worcester. going back to the late 1800s, the first black male counselor, George Busbee, also Charles E. Scott, who last served in 1938, elected in 1936.

Stacey DuBois Luster was the first black woman elected in 1987. I filed in 2016. Filed shortly thereafter by District Councilor Sean Rose, Mr. Chairman. Our school committee, the history of those folks who were public servants from the black community. Betty Price, the first black to serve on the school committee. Followed shortly thereafter by Shirley Wright and Dr. Greta McNeil. Jermaine Johnson, first black male to serve on the school committee. and our first librarian-born school committee member, Gemma Camara. Mr. Chairman, representation matters. Black history calls on us to not only remember names, but to protect pathways, ensuring that future generations see public service as acceptable, welcoming, and responsive to all communities. Honoring black history in Worcester means honoring black leadership in Worcester, past, present, and future.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, at a time when efforts at the federal level seek to underfund, diminish, or erase the teaching of black history, through weakened educational mandates and the suppression of historical narratives is more important than ever for this city council, this local body, and for local governments to stand firm. Municipalities like the City of Worcester must affirm their commitment to historical truth, inclusive education, and the understanding that black history is essential to American history, not optional, not divisive, not negotiable. So tonight, we can come together and proudly recognize and support the observance of February 26th as Black History Month. And we affirm our commitment to honor the history, Culture, Achievements and Ongoing Contributions of Black Americans in the City of Worcester and Beyond.

We encourage our residents in this resolution, our schools, our cultural institutions, and our community organizations to engage in meaning, learning, to engage in meaningful learning, reflection, and celebration, not only during the month of February, but throughout the year. Because remembering history is not just about the past, it's about who we choose to be in the present, what we stand for in the future we are committing to building together. Mr. Chairman, this resolution is coming at a historical time. As mentioned, we're in the 100th year of celebrating this history.

and I look forward to this moving forward and sending it to the appropriate parties that are mentioned here that we are further resolved that the city affirms its commitment to honoring the contributions and culture of black Americans and encourages residents, institutions, educational organizations to do so as well. Mr. Chairman, thank you.

I think everybody wants to sign on, so through the resolution, roll call.

Burgman, yes, Bilotta, yes, Economou, yes, Fresolo, yes, King, yes, Mitra, yes, Ojeda, yes, Rivera. Yes. Councilor Rosen. Yes. Councilor Toomey. Yes. Mayor Petty.

Yes. We are 13A, transferring information from the city court for goals and objectives. Refer to MLO. Roll call.

Councillor Bergman? Councillor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta. Yes. Councilor Economou. Yes. Councilor Fresolo.

Yes.

Councilor King. Yes. Councilor Mitra. Yes. Councilor Ojeda. Yes. Mr. Rivera? Yes. Mr. Rosen? Yes. Mr. Toomey? Yes.

And Mayor Petty? Yes. 15A to 15E, motion is accepted to adopt. Roll call. Mayor, can we also take 14A? Oh, did I miss one? Okay, I'm sorry, 14A first. There's a motion to accept.

Mr. Mayor, I just had a question on 15D.

Yeah, we're going to 14A, we'll come back on the second panel. Okay.

Councilor Bergman?

Yes.

Councilor Bilotta?

Yes.

Councilor Economou?

Yes.

Councilor Basolo?

Yes.

Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mitra? Yes. Councilor Ojeda? Yes. Councilor Rivera? Yes. Councilor Rosen? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. Mayor Petty?

Yes. On 15, Councilor Ojeda?

Just a quick question to the committee where it says request the grass area in front of 292 Park Abbey removed and replaced with concrete. Is there something that they want to put there? Can anybody just give me an idea what's there? I know there's just grass there but the rest of the sidewalk has the rest of the street has that opportunity for sidewalk is there a particular reason why they want to just add concrete to that area we can get a report on that maybe

Hayter. Oh, we have to get a report on that.

Okay, I guess. Not really. I just just hope it's like you just give me a quick answer.

I'll get a report anyways. I don't, okay, we don't need a report.

So, just to provide some clarification, my understanding is this was heard in traffic, but it was not an item that Councilor Rivera had I think he heard it at the last meeting, but it was something that was previous to council.

This is Public Works. I think it's Public Works.

Oh, Public Works, I'm sorry. Yeah, Public Works.

We'll have someone call you tomorrow. Okay, thank you.

Okay, so we're going to do 15A to 15E, motion stuck in the top, 15F to 15, confused. Is that O? Motion is to accept. Roll call.

Bergman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, Ojeda, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, Mayor.

Yes, 16A to 16N, motions to advertise the proposed ordinances, roll call.

Councilor Bregman? Mayor Petty.

16-O to 16-S, motions accept and to adopt, plus 16-T to 16-Z, motions to accept. Both of those collected on a roll call, roll call.

Berkman, Bilotta, Economou, Fresolo, King, Yes. Mitra. Yes. Ojeda. Yes. Mr. Rivera. Yes. Mr. Rosen. Yes. Mr. Toomey. Yes. Mayor Petty.

Yes. 17A to 17C, motion to accept, roll call.

Dr. Bergman. Mayor Petty.

and the ordinances to be ordained, 18A to 18E.

Mr. Chairman, can I interrupt? Sure, Councilor Bergman. My apologies, on 18E, after it's voted on, can we do a motion for reconsideration? Sure.

Thank you. Roll call. Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Fresolo? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Mr. Mitra. Yes. Mr. Ojeda. Yes. Mr. Rivera. Yes. Mr. Rosen.

Yes.

Mr. Toomey. Yes. And Mayor Petty. Yes. AT&T motion. Bergman, Bilotto, Economou, Fresolo, King, Mitra, No. Ojeda? No. Rivera? No. Rosen? No. Toomey? No. Petty?

Yes, we are on table with items. Councilor Rivera?

Yeah, I just wanted to, 19C, procedure to clean it up.

Okay, 19C is the motion is to request the manager to consider and prioritize the America Rescue Plan Act funding for the IREC City, Worcester Capital Project, involving development of a new REC Worcester Headquarters and Center for Funding Justice in Urban Agriculture in the Worcester and Central Massachusetts. Bergman, and Councilor Croninger. In effort to support community food security as well as youth development employment, the motion is to take it off the table.

Roll call.

Yes.

That's Bilotta. Yes. That's Economou. Yes. Fresolo. Yes. That's King. Yes.

That's Mitra.

Yes. That's Ojeda. Yes. Mr. Rivera. Yes. Mr. Rosen. Yes. Mr. Toomey. Yes. Mayor Petty. Yes. Councilor.

So just basically we know that ARPA funds has been maxed out. City has no more ARPA funds. So I just want to file this.

Hold up, Mr. Chairman.

What's that, Mr.

Manager? Yeah, it's already been done. Yeah, okay. Okay, so the motion is to file? Yes. Okay.

Councilor King? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just through the chair to the administration, the ARPA funds. is there any money in the piggy bank?

No, we spend well.

That's all I wanna know. Is there anything left that hasn't been expended? What's the deal, you got a report coming? Yes.

Yeah, Tuesday we have a full ARPA update report. We spent over $100 million already has been gone out and spent. there's about I think maybe less than 30 million that is still contracted that needs to be spent by the end of 2026 but there's no there's no funding right now

that hasn't been expended.

We need everybody that has current active contracts to spend their money because we do not want to give a penny back to the federal government.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. you know I appreciate that taking this off the table I know that if there's any opportunities that arise by folks not being able to do whatever they can I think we're at a point now where that just goes back right like we can't Redirected, is that right, through the Chair?

Mr. Manager? Through the Chair, to the Council, if there's any potential funding or unexpensive balances for current contracts that perhaps an agency was not able to fulfill their entire contract and they have to give money back. There's gonna be a timeframe in the next coming months that we're gonna have to call everything back. because we're only going to have about six months or so. Let's say if I request them to be called back in the next couple of months, will have maybe six to seven months to spend the dollars. That is when we'll then have an assessment of do we have any monies that we are able to pull back that we can then give to current existing contracts. We can't do new contracts. So one of the things that this council body has supported is, for example, like rental assistance. At some efforts, we've been able to give rental assistance. We've been able to give for fuel assistance, et cetera.

So those are areas that we've had previous contracts and that is funding that can easily go back to the community, back to the residents hands.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, motion is to file. Councilor Ojeda, on this item.

Yeah, yeah, just a quick question. You know, this is dated back 2021. Do we know what is the update? I think the funding was for a capital project involving the development of the new RAC Worcester headquarters. Do we have an idea? where they're at with this project or if they're still going forward with it. I know there's some new development on that Jackson Street area.

Correct. They are moving forward with it. This is one of the projects that they need to spend their money. But we all know that a capital projects take time to build the design to go through the process But they are they have the funding and they are moving forward on that project.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much.

Councilor Bergman Yes. Councilor Bergman? Yes. Councilor Bilotta? Yes. Councilor Economou? Yes. Councilor Basolo? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mitra?

Yes.

Yes. Councilor Rivera? Yes. Councilor Rosen? Yes. Councilor Toomey? Yes. Mayor Petty? Yes.

Okay, we're under suspension. Anybody want to go under suspension? Roll call.

Well we have another roll call. Councilor Bergman? Yes.

Councilor Bilotta?

Yes.

Councilor Economou?

Yes.

Councilor Fresolo? Yes. Councilor King? Yes. Councilor Mitra? Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to say I had the honor of attending a Black History Month event with Worcester Public Schools today. And this is the shirt right here for folks. I told them I'd wear it. This is the Black Student Union. and we had representation from Doherty North, South, Burncoat, Abby Kelley Charter School. And their title of their event was Blackout, Mr. Chairman. All black, everything. And they have some great leadership over there. I'm not going to remember all the names, but Deshawn Belcher, Brian Cortez, et cetera. There was all sorts of folks there, hundreds of kids in the room. And they were very clear that they know that they are the current story of black history and the importance of telling their story so no one else can erase it.

It was just really good to see leadership in that role. They did the whole program, Mr. Chairman. You had Crocodile Music that came. But these young folks and the presidents of their associations the Vice Presidents and the Associate Presidents did a really, really, really good job. And it was an honor to be there. I just wanted to make sure I gave them a shout out as I said I would. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good job. Okay, so we have a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Roll call.

Councilor Bergman, that's Bilotta, that's Economou, that's Fresolo, that's King, that's Mitra, that's Ojeda, that's Rivera, that's Rosen, that's Toomey, that's Mayor Petty.

I'm a yes as well, I'm sorry