City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

regarding the financial year 27 budget. The purpose of this meeting is simply to procedurally receive this filing by referring it to committee. Any action, debate or vote on this docket would take place at the regularly scheduled council meeting on June 24th. Viewers can watch the council meeting live on YouTube at boston.gov backslice city-council-tv. In accordance with Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, modifying certain requirements of the open law meeting and relieving public bodies of certain requirements, including the requirement that public bodies conduct its meetings in a public place that is open and physically accessible to the public, the City Council will be conducting this meeting remotely. This enables the City Council to carry out its responsibilities while ensuring public access to its deliberations through adequate alternative means. Mr Clerk, will you please call the roll to ascertain the presence of a quorum.

madam clerk we are dealing with a slight technical issue with the clerk um give us about um 30 seconds 30 seconds okay we win council president i'm not sure if this is appropriate to ask a question or do we need to do a roll call i just i just i need a some clarification before we adjourn, because I know sometimes we just go ahead and adjourn and then we don't get to speak. So I just want to have a question.

We'll do the roll call first. Thank you.

I have my hand up also for a question. Mr. Is everyone hearing that beeping? Or is it just on my end? Mr. Good morning, Mr.

Uh, will you please call the role to us within the presence of forum?

Council of Braden here. Council of Braden here. Here.

Council of the pot is here as well. Yes.

Council of Durkin. Council of Fitzgerald here. That's Fitzgerald here. Council Flynn. Yeah. Council Flynn here. Council Lujan?

Here.

Council Lujan here. Council Mejia?

Here.

Council Mejia here. Councilor Murphy?

Here.

Councilor Murphy here. Council DePenn? Here. Council DePenn here. Council President? Council Santana? Here. Council Santana here. Council Weber? Here. Council Weber here. And Council Orrall? A quorum is probably me, Clark.

Please Mr. track, could you please record the concert here?

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. I've been informed by the clerk that the forum is present. Mr. Clerk, would you please give amendment of the attendance, Councillor Durkan's here.

Yes.

Now onto the first order of business, which is the approval of the minutes from the meeting of June 10th, 2026. Pursuant to the open meeting law, a roll call vote is required. Mr. Clerk, will you please take a roll call vote to approve the minutes from the previous meeting?

Excuse me, both Councillor Meagher and I, point of order, asked to ask a question before this happened.

As soon as the roll call.

Pardon me. Point of order.

Councillor Murphy, what's your point of order?

I just want clarity. If the mayor had just approved our veto-proof amended budget that we sent over last week, we would have canceled this meeting. I'm sorry, no, that's not... I didn't finish my question.

Sorry, that's not a point of order. That's not a point of order.

No, so I have my question now.

No, I was before you.

So my question is what changes were made, and I do believe we have a right to speak to them. So, Clerk, if you could advise, we could talk about the changes so we're all very aware.

we only got these about we're not making any vote we're not we're not doing anything today we're not discussing the mayor's we don't have to accept it if there's no we're not we're not accepting it we are receiving it and sending it to committee we're not accepting it there's no discussion of it until the next meeting you've got the docket we're just putting a number on the docket and we're sending it to committee

Okay, so it's my turn now?

What we're doing. When there's no vote. Yes, I'm done, Council Member. Okay, okay. Thank you, Council Member. The only votes we're taking is, the only votes we're taking, the only voice votes we're taking is to ascertain the quorum and to vote to adjourn the meeting, et cetera. But there's no votes this morning. My turn. Thank you. My turn.

I hope that's clear. Yeah, thank you. So my question is a little bit different. And I'm just curious about process. If I heard you correctly, you have just said that we're not going to be taking any votes until next week's meeting and that there will be no deliberation in this meeting as it relates to communication that we just received. Yeah. As is usual with the . Could I please finish my thought? Thank you. That, I just need to understand what is at, what are the next steps. So normally, under normal circumstances, when we function differently, we are able to deliberate and to talk. So you're gonna put it in the Chair Ways and Means Committee. And I'm going to assume that between now and the 24th, there's going to be a requirement, or at least a mandate, the council is able to deliberate and discuss prior to June 24th, right? Because you just did say that we were not gonna be taking any, we're not gonna be talking about this until June 24th. And if that is true, that for me is a cause for concern. I just need you to clarify that we will be deliberating whatever written communication we just received at 941 this morning from the administration.

We received the docket this morning so that we could, we received it, we send it to committee and the next time we get to discuss this will be next week's council meeting on the 20th.

No, it can't because there has to be a process. The chair weighs the means if there's anything that we need to deliberate out of procedure, we reserve the right as a body to react and reflect and review and discuss as a body The charter is written. We can't just take what is sent to us and then bring it back on a vote on June 24th. If that's the case, unless she approves everything and the seal, you know, like everything's done and we don't have to deliberate, then that's fine. But if there are any changes or any discussions, then I'm going to respectfully request that there is a space and time for us to be able to do just that.

Thank you, Councillor Mejia. But that does not answer my question. Yeah, I don't have the answer to that question at this moment. The time for debate, discussion and vote is next council meeting.

Madam President.

There's always time. Councillor Flynn, you have the floor.

Madam President, may I take one minute of the time, please?

Certainly.

Thank you, Madam President. I am concerned about how we go forward as a body knowing what happened last week. I do believe that the city council likely violated mass open meeting law. Madam Chair, I only asked for one meeting. I only asked for one meeting. I want to express my point. I do want to express my point respectfully. I'm here at City Hall. I do want to express my point that I believe last week that there was a potential open meeting law violation here at the City Council. I believe City Councillors were engaging in direct communication during the recess with staff from the Mayor. How do we move forward from that, Madam President?

Thank you. We have an event. We have a docket from the mayor at correspondence from the mayor that we are going to. Did you ignore his question? No, I am working on his question and please note 1 person at a time. The next steps in the process, we can talk about this after this meeting and talk to central staff. Any working session in between now and next week would be at the discretion of the chair and would have to be properly noticed. So I want everyone, you've only received this docket, I only received this docket this morning, so none of us have had a chance to look at it. So let's look at it, take it,

reflect on on the docket and uh then we'll take it from there okay thank you council president the problem is is that what we're having is trust issues here yeah excuse me council president i have my hand up just so to my colleagues we had holds for uh for working sessions uh next week Let's look at the letter. We can do a working session Monday or Tuesday to discuss, you know, as a body, I'm happy to host that as the Ways and Means Chair, but let's look, you know, let's look at the letter and we'll talk and I'm available to host a working session Monday or Tuesday and to go over the merits as a body. Okay.

Thank you, Mr. That clarifies things. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay.

Well, thank you for everyone's consideration to allow us to do our jobs here. So thank you, Council President Braden for allowing us to have this discourse and thank you Chair Weber for allowing us to have the opportunity to be in community with each other so that we can do the hard work if any, that is necessary. I will make sure that it will put it on my calendar and I look forward to participating in the process.

Thank you. Okay. Mr. Clerk, we are now on to the first order of business, which is the approval of the minutes from the meeting of June 10th, 2026. Pursuant to the open meeting law, a roll call vote is required. Mr. Clerk, would you please take a roll call vote to approve the minutes from the last meeting?

Councillor Braden.

Yes.

Councillor Braden, yes. Councillor Collado-Zapata.

Yes.

Councillor Collado-Zapata, yes. Councillor Culpepper. Yes, yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Council by pen, yes. Council Santana? Yes. Council Santana, yes. Council Weber? Yes. Council Weber, yes. And Council Worrell? Yes. Council Worrell, yes. The approval of minutes passes unanimously.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. The minutes of the June 10th meeting are approved. We're now on to communications from her honour, the mayor. Pursuant to our rules, communications are not open to discussion. Mr. Clerk, could you please read docket number 1222?

Docket number 1222, message received from the mayor, returning the annual appropriation and tax order for fiscal year 2027. Docket number 0733, passed by the City Council on June 10th, 2026. I am filing a modified annual appropriation and tax order.

Thank you. Docket 1222 will be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means. We're now on to an adjournment. The Council is scheduled to meet again in the Ionella Chamber on Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at 12 noon. Thank you to my colleagues, central staff, Mr. Clerk, Clerk's office. To adjourn today's meeting pursuant to open meeting law, we will conduct a roll call vote. Mr. Clerk, would you please conduct a roll call vote?

Councilor Braden, can we amend the attendance to reflect Councilor Worrell was present?

Yes, please amend the attendance. I think Worrell was present.

Thank you.

Madam President,

I've given you a promotion, Representative Culpepper. Councillor Culpepper, how are you this morning?

Good morning.

You have the floor.

Will we have a regular meeting next week where we can make presentation to bring? We're trying to bring in the Juneteenth group. We weren't able to last week or this week.

Yes.

Will we bring presentations in next week?

It's a regularly scheduled meeting, yes.

Okay. Thank you, Madam President.

Mr. Clerk, could you please take a roll call vote to adjourn the meeting?

Councillor Braden?

Yes.

Councillor Braden, yes. Councillor Colletta-Zapata? Yes. Councillor Colletta-Zapata, yes. Councillor Culpepper?

Yes.

Councillor Culpepper, yes. Councillor Durkan? Yes. Councillor Durkan, yes. Councillor Fitzgerald? Yes. Councillor Fitzgerald, yes. Councillor Flynn?

No.

Councillor Flynn, no. Councillor Louis-Jean? Yes, not solution. Yes, that's me here. Yeah, that's what we hear. Yes, Councilor Murphy. No, Councilor Murphy. No, Councilor Pippen. Yes, but then yes, Council Santana. Yes, not so Santana. Yes, Council Weber. Yes, Councilor Weber. Yes, and Councilor O. Yes, Councilor O. Yes, a German has received 11 votes in the affirmative and two in negative.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Thank you everyone. This council meeting is adjourned.