City Council - Regular Meeting

Yes. Heat. It's like we are going the same place. How are you? This is it. What was it?

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you. This is my Heat. Heat. I just like to say

I can't for now. money. Excuse me. Heat. Heat. So happy to see you. March 21st, 2026 LOL City Council meeting come to order. The prayer. Dear God, today as this session opens, we pray that your presence will be before us and everyone who serves in the decision-making process of our city. We pray for direction which will lead our city to be strong and unified. May we continue the legacy of our founders. May we be granted this day the wisdom to

make decisions which will be for the good of our city. We also pray for your special blessing on all those who are working to transform our city and make it a better place to live and work. Amen. Pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Mr. Clerk. Council Dakota. here. Mayor Gia here. Council Guran here. Council Leang here. Council Mcdana here. Council Mercia here. Council N here. Council Robinson

here. Council Rock. Council Scott here. Council Chow here. 11 present. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Any moment of silences?

Seeing none, we'll move on to mayor's business to 2.1 communications remote zoom participation. A motion to accept accept and place on file by councelor Dakota seconded by councelor Jan. Three city clerk 3.1 minutes of the city council regular meeting March 24th for acceptance motion to accept and place on file by council seconded by councelor Mcdana. Four city council motions 4.1 council noon requests the city manager in recognition of the importance of transparency in the Massachusetts open meeting law ensure all supporting backup materials associated with each item that appear on the agendas of the more than dozen city boards commissions and advisory committees are available online for public viewing. said backup materials along with the meeting agenda should be submitted to the clerk's office for posting prior to the date in the date of affforementioned board commission or advisory committee meeting to ensure no individual needs to submit a public records request to the city to gain access to said backup materials. Seconded by councelor Dakota councel noon

thank you Mr. Mayor I'm not so much concerned Mr. familiar with the um the land board or most of the board because they do have the agenda. they do have their minute. I know that there's some you know advisory committees and or task forces that this board this council past and present see important of it see it as a platform for residents to voice their concern and share their idea you know and and and and that's important because uh uh to have the that advisory committee and or task force you know post the agenda uh if they have it on as policies as say every other month post that agenda and then and then post it with the the minute with the clerk so that people know that the meeting taking place you know we as a council past and present see a need for it to have to hear from the the resident and and and and their concern and that uh to ensure that our city policies and service responsive to those community voice and community needs. So that's why I stress that important because I'm not sure how many of these advisory committee and or uh uh uh task force have regular meet or put the agenda up for people to see. Thank you.

Thank you councelor Newton. Councelor Joan.

Uh thank you Mr. Mayor. Um the rules subcommittee was recently tasked with discussing policies for the various boards and commissions. Uh and I think that we both need that it might be wise and uh if it's okay with council noon that we um propose to add this task to that um activity. Um we are going to look at uh the the various policies that apply not only to city council but to the other boards and I think understand the practical implications of those and whether you know all of the rules um need to apply to all of them. I think balancing uh the important communication and transparency which we all value but also making sure that they are practical is um important. So I would make that kind of motion if uh councelor non is comfortable with

I would I would second to councelor motion by councel juran seconded by councel non to send this motion to the ele the elections and rules rules. Yeah. All in favor signify by saying I. Any oppose? So ordered. Councelor Chow.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh this is a good motion uh to have transparency and a lot of um engagement by the community. Um just a quick question through you, Mr. Mayor, to the clerk. Um just concerned about um you know, I know that in the past a lot of people requesting the public records uh from your office. Um I don't know if you know from top of your head in the past year um do you know how many public records request your office received? Thank you.

Not many council. Usually the they're housed through the law department has a records request thing. I haven't got many um u specific requests for documents. The minutes are online. The agendas are 100 pages and packages. So the information is there on that on that end. I haven't got many um requests for uh information.

Thank you councel Chow. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 4.2 to council noon request the city manager provide the city council with a report concerning the number of service requests received by 311 over the 90 days related to repairing potholes in the city. Said report should also include how many of those service requests have been addressed, how many are outstanding and how long it took to complete the work associated with each request. Seconded by council mercia councel.

Uh thank you Mr. Mayor. So we know that uh DPW and Canters is through you um you have done a lot of pothole. I know that this winters is a lot of pothole and you've done a great job and DPW especially. I just want to report on that. That's all it is. That's all I'm asking is that there's a lot of pothole people expected should be expected that there's some is not being done uh right away but at some point we'll finish that and that's that's all I want to know that. Thank you. Thank you, Council Noon. City Manager Golden.

Uh, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, and three to the council. Uh, council, thank you very much for this. We want to encourage everybody to ensure that they do use 311. I'd seen two of the crews out there today, uh, the pothole crews, um, and of the I believe it's 14 members of DPW. They're doing one heck of a job trying to keep up with it. So, please, once again, um, sign it to 311. Please report it and, uh, hold everybody accountable on that. Thank you. Thank you for this, and we look forward to bringing the report. Thank you, Councelor Newon. Councelor Robinson. Thank you. Um through you, Mr. Mayor to city manager. How many hot boxes do we have that go out on on a fully staffed day? Manager Golden.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Through to the council. On a fully staffed day, we have three boxes uh that go out. I believe we have four, but one is down. Uh but there was no there'd be no way we would be able to fill four. But typically on any given day, we're probably definitely going to have two. We're dealing with the tree crew as well. I think there's a a report in here talking about what DPW has uh I think it was council Scott that was talking about uh street cleanings and things of that nature but um more or less two and sometimes three

and thank you very much for that and and so the listening public is is aware I mean uh two crews going out a day that's pretty much minimum of 4 ton of hot top going out a day and and I mean that's pretty significant that is a good amount thank you for your patience it's going to take some time to get to everything. Um, it it is a labor of love and in some instances when you get rain like this today, you you fill a hole and and that hole you filled is reopened again. So, I mean, it is chasing your tail kind of, but they are addressing that and I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Council Robinson. Manager Golden.

Uh, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Threw you to the council. uh council is, you know, I think that um as far as DPW potholes, we're doing a much better job, but it really it has to go uh um I have to say this, it's because of all of the the horizontal construction money that this council and the previous councils have pushed forward to make sure that this has happened. Uh council Durant had put forth a motion which I think we answered two weeks ago which talked about that. So, um I can't encourage uh people enough to use utilize 311. Uh the system is changing. I think it is getting better and if it is stubborn, if there's a stubborn pothole out there, please don't hesitate to call us directly, myself and Mr. Mashado. Uh, but we try to keep up on this and we're trying to uh change the way business is being done. So, thank you all.

Council Robinson, thank you. Um, I I just like to add I've had constituents reach out explaining and send me screenshots of they try to report something on 311 and the the return message comes back something like uh unable to complete at this time. I talked to MIS and basically if you log out of your account and log back in a lot of times that clears up whatever the gym is. Thank you councelor Robinson. Council Mcdana.

There we go. Sorry. Oh, sorry. My mic was dead and then I got too loud. Um, my question is, Mr. Mayor, threw you to the city manager. I know last meeting uh you had talked about uh some forthcoming upgrades. I I believe it was last meeting, some forthcoming tech upgrades on the website with some more transparent information available to us and members of the public. Um, in looking at how other cities use 311, it does look like these dashboards, I think partially with the information that councelor Nune is looking for on potholes, but then kind of more broadly with 311 requests. Is that something is that kind of a dashboard publicly available request tracker so that you don't just see your own requests, but you can kind of see the aggregate number of requests? Is that something that's manager Golden?

Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor, and three to the council. Yes, council. We're hoping for April 14th, which is uh couple of Tuesdays from now to have that update. That would be incredible. I want to No, no, that was cross my fingers on that. Uh we are looking for April 14th to hit that uh hit that milestone uh the end of the quarter and we believe we'd be able to do that. I've been meeting with the 311 folks and they're really uh this is this 311 piece of information as the previous council knows and for this council's edification and for the residents this is really going to be an opportunity for us to really uh hold every everything accountable. Uh so I'm going to say April 14th and I'm I hope we hit that mark.

That is great news. Uh, and the reason I ask is largely because this this motion and and I think it's a good motion what it's looking for, but also in thinking future looking and what you had said last week, I think that that will be great information to have kind of freely available for the public and hopefully it reduces how many times we ask for that information as well. So, thank you. Thank you, Council Mcdana. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 4.3 Council Noon requests the city manager work with the appropriate department to present an itemized report on year-to-date chargeback expenditures for the LOL public schools. Seconded by councel Scott Councel Mr. Mayor motion speaker.

There's a registered speaker. I'm sorry, Council Noon. There's a registered speaker. That's fine, too. Monica Lunberg on the train coming back from the state house advocating for She's not here. Go on to the next. No other ones. There's no So, there's no registered speakers. So, the motion speaks for itself. Motion speaks for Wow. Councelor Nun. All those in favor signify by saying I. So ordered. Council Scott. Thank you. Um just a quick question on this uh through you to the city manager. Um when do we have we've been working on a new net school spending a memorandum of agreement with the uh school committee at this time?

I I know there's supposed to be communication like monthly I think or quarterly or something over this. Manager Golden. Uh thank you very much Mr. May uh Mr. Mayor 3 to the council. Yes, consulate. We sent them a revisedou in January and we're waiting for it to get back, but I've talked to the superintendent about it. I hope to have that completed uh before July 1. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Scott. 4.4 Council Noon requests the city manager work with the appropriate department to report on the progress thus far in rehabbing the old Jindach school building and any updates on the timeline of it being ready for use. Seconded by councelor Robinson. Councelor Non.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. This is uh came from a few resident reaching out and want to get an update as to what where we at. I remember a couple meetings ago maybe you Mr. Manager to say that uh the whole up basically the elevator. Uh so um you know if you could you know at some point with the report tell us where we at the elevator and what I'll recite the elevator. That's all. Thanks councelor Dakota.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. uh maybe shed a little bit of light uh from our last joint facility uh subcommittee that uh superintendent Skinner had mentioned that they should be online fully online by the beginning of the school year of 2728 and it was mostly because of the elevator as well but there was some additional work to be done thank you thank you councelor Dakota all in favor signify by saying I any opposed so ordered 4.5 council Robertson and request the city manager have the proper department level and adjust the backboards at St. Louis Park and ensure all nets are in good order. Seconded by council MCI council Robinson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I spoke to Assistant Manager Mashado on this. Uh, the work's already been completed, so I don't even need a motion response back on this one. Um, they worked fast on this one and I appreciate it. But, um, since it's springtime, I hope you can just put the bug in in DPW's ear while they're out and about at all the park locations. I mean, now would be the time to change netting or or anything that's needed before we get complaints because the kids are itching to get out there. So, thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Robinson. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So, ordered. Motion by Council Rock to suspend the rules to take 6.4 Four out of order seconded by councelor noon.

6.4 vote authorizing city manage execute land disposition agreement with Wexford Development LLC. Wave full reading and second reading by title. vote authorizing the city manager to execute a land disposition agreement with the Wexford Development LLC relative to the development of possible 15 within the city of L Hamilton Canal Innovation District. Do we have any register? No registered speakers. There are no registered speakers. Anybody? Mr. Manager.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, and through to the council. Um, ladies and gentlemen, today is an exciting day in regards to what is uh happening over at the Hamilton Canal Innovation District. Uh, I want to say thank you very much uh to all of the counselors for your time. Last week we've had uh it was pretty late night for all of us where we're discussing what is happening over at Lot 15. Uh, and it's exciting day for the and an opportunity here for the city of LOL working with professionals uh from Draper and Wexford and of course our friends at UMass LOL. Uh what we're announcing tonight or what we're looking to move forward is a 75,000 uh square foot research and development building um with uh theou that was put forth by this council or by this administration to the council in May of 2025. You can see what's before us. But I do have uh if the if the council is would allow, I'd like to have uh the uh chancellor uh Julie Chen come up and address the uh the crowd to speak to what is happening and the link proposal and the excitement that we have going at the Hamilton Canal Innovation District. Uh it's been 20 plus years uh in the making. So if it's okay with the council, uh is that

Chancellor Chen? Thank you, Miss Man.

Thank you. Thank you. Mayor, city uh city manager Golden, city councilors, community leaders, it's always a pleasure to be before you today and this is an exciting time as the city manager said uh I've come before you uh a couple times now to talk about the LOL innovation network corridor the link project and a as we've said the last time I came I talked about some of the things that we've been doing in our existing buildings but today we're talking about in partnership with Wexford and Draper the a brand new building that will be in the Hamilton Canal Innovation District and it is part of the broader link ecosystem that we've talked about this idea about bringing companies with good jobs with opportunities for certainly our students at UMass LOL for the students at Middle Sex Community College and for the community. And so I just want to make a few comments before handing it over uh to Mike Dard at Wexford. But the main thing is one this could not have been done without your partnership, without the partnership of the city manager, without the partnership of the city council, without the partnership of the state uh leadership, the governor, lieutenant governor, as you have heard, have committed significant dollars, $25 million to this project, $75 million to the broader link project. That is what makes projects like this happen in a gateway city. So, we're thankful for all the partnerships. We look forward to continuing to roll out exciting announcements. But without further ado, I further ado, I want to hand it over to my partner Mike Dumbert from Wexford who'll tell you more about this specific project. Thank you very much.

All right. Uh, Chancellor Chen, thank you. Um, f thank you first uh to everyone here, the mayor, uh, city manager, all the members of council, city staff, community leaders, uh, of course our friends at UMass Level, uh, and at Draper here. Um, this really is a very exciting moment for us. We we appreciate the the opportunity to be here uh, tonight and to be talking about this exciting impact project. Um, quick introductions here. Uh, Mike Deard. I'm vice president of development with Wexford. We are the developer and owner of the impact building. Uh, this building will be 100% leased to Draper as our tenant. And I'm joined up here by Stephanie and Jack with Draper. If you guys want to just introduce yourselves.

Hi everyone. I'm Stephanie Valerio. I'm the program manager for the Draper Impact Center.

Jack Shower, Draper Council. Thanks. Um, so again, this really is an exciting milestone for the project uh to be executing the the land contract with the city. Uh, it's also a very exciting moment for Leel. As as Chancellor Chen said in her comments, this this building and Draper's partnership uh really represents a major step forward in the link initiative and everything that link is trying to do in level here. Uh so on behalf of Waxert and Draper, we're very proud to be a piece of bringing this link vision to life. Um we have been working very closely with the city for probably well over a year, probably close to 18 months. Um going all the way back to uh the originalou site selection, organizing a lot of due diligence on the site, working through the land contract negotiations. Uh and just wanted to acknowledge all the efforts from everyone uh partnership, all of the support to date to get us to this point. Um we've worked particularly closely to make sure that this project uh physically really aligns with the goals of the Hamilton Canal District master plan um which really called for this parcel 15 to be developed with really a high impact commercial development like this. We have just a few slides here. We're going to run through just some design updates, uh, a some information on Draper and the program in the building, and then a timeline, and we can take any questions if that would be appropriate, too. Um, so here's the project site with the arrow in the middle. This is again lot 15 in the Hamilton Canal District. This is really smack in the center of kind of the geographic area of the link here. Um, and very approximate to all of the other stuff, exciting things that are happening. It's part of Lincoln and it's part of Level. Um site plan just to orient everyone. This is the Hamilton Canal District

Parking garage to the right here. National Park Service Visitor Center just to the top of the page here. So roughly rectangular site. The building footprint takes up most of the site. There is the entrance on the bottom the front uh by the canal side. There is a loading dock that is an enclosed loading dock on the rear. And then there is an access drive um around the site which maintains that access and visitor drop off and pick up from the National Park Service building. Um early rendering from across the the canal. Just to note, we are through schematic design of the project. So the exterior um etc will continue to be designed and um refined as we go through. But just to give an idea of the aesthetic of the building, this is a two-story building with a mechanical penthouse. you can see on the roof, uh about 75,000 square feet. We've really tried to mix in, um a lot of brick and glass, um but certainly a lot of brick to play into the kind of historic character and context of the neighborhood. Um you can see some terracotta inset panels there. Um again, just to play with this facade and make it a more interesting facade here. Um and with that I will turn it over to Stephanie.

Thank you. Hi everyone. Nice to meet you all. Uh so the impact center we are a integrated micro electronics production and advanced chip technology center. So impact center uh we are looking at smallcale production of secure micro electronics. We have a kind of flow diagram up on the screen that walks you through very high level understanding of like what does our production look like. So, when you're thinking about production, it may sound kind of large and noisy and possibly dirty. That's not what we're doing at this facility. Small scale, diverse customer set. Um, and it's very quiet, low, not dirty. Sorry, that's what I'm trying to say. Uh, but quiet facility overall. Everything's kind of inhouse production wise, small scale. Uh, but looking to have that type of skill set available here in LOL serving multiple of Japer's customers spanning the US military, aerospace, and our government. Um, and then looking to create roughly about 150 new highly skilled jobs for the area through the center.

Thanks.

All right, so next steps timeline. Here we are, end of March. We just wrapped up our schematic design for the project. Um, excited to be here tonight to uh to be entering into the contract for the land, which is a big milestone for the project. We are path forward final design building permit financial closing October time frame mobilizing for construction shortly thereafter in November um substantial completion construction completion probably mid mid 28 and then there's some time post construction completion with Draper's equipment install startup validation so we'll have people in the seats probably in the latter half of 28 delivering in the beginning part of 28 with those 150 highly skilled professionals in the building at the end of 28. And with that um we can take questions. Motion to adopt by Councel Robinson, seconded by Councel Rook. Any questions? Council Durant.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um the uh aesthetics of the building as described looked very nice. Um I think it would be helpful. You said though it's not finalized yet. Um the glass and all looks again really good. I think it would be important that we end up with a building that does fit the neighborhood that doesn't look like just a box with no windows and doesn't have a large fence around it. So, I want to get a sense of like those possibilities.

Great. Yeah, we we have on our schedule a set of some design review meetings. So, we'd be happy to coordinate that and and get feedback to make sure that the aesthetic fits the appropriate context.

Thank you, Council Dan. Council Robinson, thank you. Um, I just like to say welcome and thank you very much for uh choosing LOL and partnering with everybody involved. Um, I think this is something that the city's been looking for for quite some time. Um, good paying skilled jobs coming into our community. It's desperately needed and I think that's going to be the lifeblood of of this HCID. So again, thank you for choosing LOL and greatly appreciate it. Thank you, Council Robinson. Council Mercia.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. through you to uh Draper. The best part of this whole thing, jobs. You're creating 150 jobs to people that uh will be highly uh thrilled about getting a job. So, this is a good thing and you made the place look so beautiful. I'm very very happy. Welcome aboard. Thank you so much. Thank you, Council Mia. Councelor Mcdana.

Thank you, uh, Mr. Mayor. And I can I can read the room. So, welcome. I I do I I I have a couple of questions and I'm going to I'm going to go to the the shortest version of them, Mr. Mayor, through you to Wessix and Draper. My only concern, well, I have a couple of concerns, but my biggest my biggest um neighborhood concern with this project is that over the last 20 years, while while there has been a master plan for HCID, we've seen a a real development of housing kind of all around the perimeter of of where your project is going to go, including remaining parcels in HCID. And one of the questions that I have and that I have heard from people in that neighborhood is, you know, when we're looking at even a small scale manufacturing facility, what is kind of ballpark? I'm not saying, you know, predict the future and tell me in 15 years how many deliveries a day we're getting, but is this is this a potential like, you know, semi-truckss in and out all day? Is this is this people hear manufacturing, they get nervous. So like what's the what's the heavy vehicle load look like? Yeah, completely understand that and I thought of that as well. Like if I lived in the area, how would I feel about having a production facility come in, right? Um, and it's not something we're going to have constant semi-truckss. I honestly based on what we've seen semi-truckss delivery of equipment. So like when we're standing up in 2028, as Mike alluded to, semi-truckss obviously to bring in large production equipment at that point, but throughout no, maybe once a month, every other month we're seeing a semi-truck. Are we seeing things like a FedEx truck and a UPS truck every other day? Yes, that type of deliveries will be there. But at like a large, do we need to worry about the noise that the bigger trucks are generating and any other pollutants? No, that's not a common basis for us.

Okay. And I would just add to I think I mentioned this in the presentation, but the loading dock is an enclosed dock. So there's the door goes up, the truck pulls in, the door goes down. Perfect. So you're not loading and unloading from the street to mitigate some of that disruption.

Perfect. I mean that that was the the largest question. The the only other one on on the kind of people hear manufacturing and they get nervous. Um is I understand loosely small scale high-tech manufacturing 150 highskilled jobs all sounds very good. There is just a concern about kind of you noise and pollution after the buildout like what what is is this a quiet box? Right. Is that okay? Yeah, definitely a quiet box. Um, honestly, I even So, we do this current production in in uh sorry, in Cambridge as well. When I'm walking down the hallway where the production is happening, I can't hear it in the hallway. Okay.

So, I don't think we're going to be hearing it from the roadside either or any of the residential units behind it should not be affected from it. Okay. Thank you. And then and then this last one, actually last one, I promise it. How is you guys are also there's a I don't want to call it a premier development but there is another Draper development going in as part of link somewhere else right okay and are these are they related at I know you guys are a huge company that does a lot of different hats so are these related at all or

yes they're they're connected in that we serve a constellation of of customers um each one with a set of exquisite smallcale micro electronics onshore to the US for secure production. And so our diverse

terribly sorry speaking to the man not to the crowd. Um so our um our programmatic support is interlocked through a diverse range of customers. And so yes, at its core, Stephanie's program, the the electronic systems section of of Draper will govern all of this work might be funible between these facilities, but the scale, the demand for our skill set, what we bring to national security, to critical infrastructure, to the defense sector, to space exploration, the demand for that is palpable. And so we need your it's it's a two-way street with these jobs. We are craving skilled labor and so that connection bringing those professionals on board is benefiting us equally with benefiting the community.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Mcdana. Council Chow.

Thank you Mr. mayor and um I think a congratulations to the chancellor and UMass link team are in order and um I know you've been working very very hard along with the city manager administration and uh thank you three for coming to speak tonight uh very very meaningful um very short notice we only took a vote on this last week and here you all speaking from the entire council and the city and I thank the the Hamilton Innovation District uh we've been waiting for a project like to happen um and thank you for saying all the things that you know you're working to make sure it fits the profile of the city floor, the neighborhoods and uh the UMass uh schools education system that's very very meaningful. Um I can't wait for the project to happen. I think Draper you deal with cyber security and space if you can solve those problems. I think you can solve maintenance problem uh in in the city of L. Um just a quick question uh just I'm excited about the things that happen and there's a similar project that happened in the city of L. I won't say because the council will speak more on that um the rising cost of material and so forth could somehow delay a project and I think in the clause that was present to us this um thing called the uh the tariff force majour clause that could increase uh material cost or could hold things back. Um how realistic is that that could impact your plan your development plan and going forward? Um, do you think that'll be an issue based on your current analysis?

Um, look, we no one has a crystal ball to predict what could happen in the world that could influence, you know, major material cost increases. We've certainly seen major price increases the last several years. Um, but we we are working with a professional construction manager. we've Wexford has worked with a number of places before um and these folks on the estimating side they are they are experts in to the best that one can trying to predict cost escalation between now and when we're you know procuring all this material. The good news is we're looking at closing and breaking ground this fall. it'd be a little more of a question if we were looking a year or two or three out. So, I think we have a better sense of handle on costs between now and then um than if we were looking a few more years out. But that's all part of the the construction the construction manager firm and getting, you know, providing us with the cost estimate, any escalations, any macro impacts that could be factored into those prices. What if so? Um, you're pretty comfortable. I'm sure you do that at one year, two years out. Um, by the time it's rolling, let's say 2027, your estimation right now, it's it's to go with the project.

Yeah, the construction will be starting this year, right? So, for the cost of the the fit out, we would we would have cost certainty, you know, at that point in time. Thank you, Council Chow. Council Yang. Uh thank you Mr. Mayor.

Um I have a few question but at the same time um councelor McDonald already said a lot of the stuff's already trafficked uh quality of life for the neighbors. um these low noise, does it really um affects the let's say the neighbors across the street, would they hear or would they um impact it in in any way?

No. Honest. And I'm assuming for like from a noise pollution standpoint, no. As I mentioned before, even when I'm in Cambridge and walking down the hallways, like I don't hear the equipment operating from the room that it's in to the hallway that I'm in. And if I'm feet away from it at that point, I don't expect anyone across the street to be impacted by it either. Okay. Is there any kind of health concern I should be aware often regarding for staff also for the uh people around the area of the building?

No, not for those. I mean, even within the facility, if there were ever any concerns, um, there's always proper procedures in place to make sure that we're handling equipment improperly, whatever items are being in use, there's always a SOP, standard operating procedure about how do we work within the space if those types of hazards were there, but nothing that's foreseen. And these also 150 jobs and highly specialized is um do you know if there's a percentage of these staff are locals and also if they're not let's say is there any cross trainining between UMass low to see whether our local residents within the city can get the job there.

I believe there is I don't Yeah I'm still newer to the project. I'm learning quite a bit. Yeah, I I'll speak to the Yes. Um our our intent is to obviously as was said try to provide Draper with the skilled workforce that they need and it is a range of certainly at the higher end but also it's a production facility. So there are there are opportunities for skilled technical technician staff as well as um manufacturing engineer those types of things. So, we will be working very closely with Draper and also with Middle Sex Community College to fill the range of needs that they would have uh in the new facility. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Leang. Council Scott. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I would just like to thank you for choosing to come to LOL. I think this is incredible partnership. I think 150 jobs is just a wonderful asset for the city. Um we were just recently named one of the best places to live. Um, I think that further this further adds to that. Um, it's a partnership, a great partnership. UMass Low, the talent pool that's there, um, the affordability of the city and I just look forward to a great partnership. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Scott. Councelor Dakota.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I can remember when Chancellor Chen brought us all in for aformational center at at UMass LOL and it's it's just great to see that her her vision has has come to a uh a beginning and I'm a fruition and I think this is for the years to come and what the link project is going to bring. I don't think anybody will recognize LOL in five to six more years. It's going to be outstanding and uh kudos to Wexford and Draper. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Dakota. Councelor Nun,

thank you. I guess I'm not the last person. Well, I mean, you know, I remember when um Chancellor Chant and the governors and everyone else was, you know, at UMass Low talking about Draper, Draper to anchor development and the link project. He was so excited because we are looking at thousand of permanent job and thousand of you know construction job and not only thinking about that but also a student that graduated from UMass low now now got don't have to leave low they can stay here with new housing it is awesome not me I didn't do that um so now now drapers you know Now, now Draper's talking about about a year ago, we are talking about, you know, Draper is going to come to the H the Hampton Canal District in the B district. Like, that's awesome because we've been building more housing, but not the the the this kind of this kind of scientific and and and and this kind of development and this kind of development. That's what we needed for the city. A new revenue to help offset a resident with tax increase. That's an awesome thing. This is another 150 new uh uh you know employee. I I can I can I cannot say I'm looking forward to decade from now. You know, we're going to be great. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Moon. Thank you all for coming out tonight and uh Chancellor Chen, thank you for all of your talks in between all of this because it saved me from a lot of questions and a lot of us here tonight. So, um with that roll call, Mr. Clerk. Council Dakota. Yes. Mayor Gia. Yes. Council Duran. Yes. Council Leang. Yes. Council Mcdana. Yes. Council Meria. Yes. Council Non. Yes. Council Robinson. Yes. Council Rock. Yes. Council Scott. Yes. Council Chow. Yes. Leven. Mr. Mayor.

Well, we're under Robinson. Well, we're under suspension. Can uh and make the motion to take motion response C out of order, please. Motion by council Robinson to take motion response C out of order, seconded by councel Ror. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Motion response C. Christian Hill Apple Orchard. Do we have any registered speakers, Mr. Cler? No. Council Robinson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Item I'd also like to make a motion. to suspend the rules and allow a speaker to address the council in regarding this motion. You got a lot of suspensions. Yep.

Suspension by councelor Robinson, seconded by councelor Mcdana. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. City Manager, members of the council. My name is John Moose. I live at 105 Beacon Street. I'm here tonight to talk about the status of the project at the apple orchard. Uh I fortunately moved to Lel in 2004. So I guess I'm the new kid in town. Uh I uh grew up in Manhattan. I went to school in Worcester, went to law school in Boston and lived in Cambridge for 30 years where at in that capacity I served on the Mid Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District Commission for 18 years. Uh I served as chair of that commission for 12 years. And as many of you know, real estate development in Cambridge is nothing short of a contact sport. Uh we had many very large projects involving Cambridge Hospital, uh the Cambridge Public Library, uh the Government Kaful Center on both sides of Cambridge Street by uh Memorial Hall, and the commission was able to deal with projects along the lines of the apple orchard. in I think a much more systematic and functional way than what has appeared has happened so far. Uh I appeared before the planning board when uh after the project was deemed a project as of as of right which I understand was somewhat contested uh that there was an initial determination that the project was situated on wetlands and then I guess it was overruled by the state uh and I don't think there was an appeal of that taken in the superior court by the city of ll and I guess that's just excuse the pun water under the bridge at this tonight. Um, but right now we have a very concerning situation. Anybody who goes to Christian Hill and sees the site of the apple orchard, it literally looks like a bomb went off.

It's terrible. And I think councelor Robinson showed this body the amount of water which comes off on Christian Street. Uh, and the status of the the project is really quite uncertain. They have built three houses, two of which are really just in the initial stages after being framed. Um, and the first house has been marketed on Redfin. It's on the market for 900,000. Um, they did say it was under contract and no, it's no longer under contract. So, right now we have a hill that looks like a bomb site with three properties which look like they may not sell in the foreseeable future. And I think there's real concern as to whether or not the developer may not have the funds to continue the project. And I think this body should look at that potential problem as a longstanding mess for the people of Christian Hill. Uh what used to be an orchard where there were deers and squirrels and birds and open air is now literally a bomb site. Um how to go forward? I think one option is to refer this back to the planning board to get a status from the developer in terms of what the development scheme looks like now. whether or not there is sufficient funding to go forward. And if there is uncertainty, I think the planning board would be within its power to request security to be posted by the developer to ensure that the site could be developed at least in a less um upsetting appearance. I think the landscaping and the trees because they took down 60 trees in that site in Cambridge that would have been grounds for capital punishment quite

frankly but we have a growing season upon us and I don't think it would make sense to lose this growing season uh and the developer should be uh compelled to plant the 63 trees that the approval mandates and to do ground cover to prevent further erosion and water going into the streets of of Christian Hill. Um, and I also think that there's another very potentially disturbing part of this project. The developer apparently is now offering 14 of the 17 lots for sale in bulk for $4 million. So, what's going to happen? Assuming we have 14 different buyers of these lots, are we gonna have 14 different developers responding to the approval process of the planning board? I think that would be the the height of dysfunction. So, I think the planning board needs to review this to see how they're going forward, what the status of the project is, and whether or not the developer has the means to do what the approval process has allowed him to do. Thank you. Thank you, Council Robinson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I can't thank m Mr. Moose enough. Um, again, we're all well aware that this was a unique situation. Approval not required, overturned. I have a couple questions though. Um, I I think some excellent points were raised um through you, Mr. Mayor, to the manager. Um, number one, do do we currently have the most recent information on the status of this project from the developer? Is as far as we're aware, is the initial plan that's gone through the process thus far still in play or has there been any kind of changes that the city's been made aware on this? Manager Goolan.

Uh, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor through the council. Council, there have been no changes at this time. Thank you. Um, second question is through you to the city manager. Frequency of sight plan inspections for storm water runoff best practice mandates that were kind implemented in the report. I mean the silt socks and and all the other barriers. Have we been checking to ensure that I mean we got some pretty good downpours today? I don't know if those mitigation efforts are in place and and are we currently keeping an eye on that? Manager Golden.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, through to the council uh council to double check. I'll I can check this evening when I drive back. But I do know that one of our inspectors has been over there and I would I would take the uh you know the response by the gentleman, but I'll make sure that DDS is on top of that when it comes to silk fences, etc. Uh but I can literally check that this evening. Thank you very much. Um, was there an appeal or or what would be the statute of limitations on an appeal for something like that? Major Golden. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Through the council council, I'll have to get that from the planning board, but I think the appeal was 20 is 21 days, but I don't want to There is an appeal process that probably has run out at this point.

Okay. But I can get you the answer. I can get the entire council the answer by tomorrow if that's okay. on the appeal process.

Thank you. Um something that I think stands out in this report as well, one of the last lines in this all work was permitted or by right. No policy is in place to prevent clearing on private property outside of wetland. I think that what that says to me is I think um this this council has some work to do. We need to to dig in and brainstorm and work with planning, zoning, DPD, law department, and any other entity that that can help us institute a policy. Um, if if a developer purchases a tenacre parcel or whatever this is that's untouched, doesn't have the resources at the time of approving for this and they have to phase it, shouldn't we have policy that travels with that phased project? So, if I'm doing three three homes on a fifth of this this total lot size, I should only be allowed to clear what I have the means to construct. So, if I go belly up after that fifth is constructed, at least the remaining four-fifths is is still undisturbed. helps with all the things that we're talking here. I think as well as I think it makes a more appealing resell if that's the the avenue that ends up going. Um I I would love some guidance on this this maybe I don't know the best way you take this back and come back after speaking to some of your departments about what would you recommend our course of action to develop some policy around this and again I agree with the speaker. I think the planning board needs to weigh back in on this project and see where are we currently look for information from the developer that currently owns the parcel. But in the meantime, we I think

it's it's like yesterday, we need to figure out a path forward to cover policy that governs clearcutting an entire parcel like this and ensuring that they have the means to develop what they say they want to do at the onset.

Manager Golden. Uh thank you very much, Mr. May through to the council. U for clarification for the residents at home. I know that um our planning board did push back on this and that's this was overruled by the state. So, uh, councelor, if you could give me a little bit of time, I'll reach out to our DDS, uh, of course, work working with the assistant city manager to find out, um, what can be done by a municipality without stepping on the the ability, I suppose, for the state to overrule us, which they did in this matter. Um, the clear cutting as a neighbor up in that area, uh, the mobilization is always that one issue we hear from. So, if you could give me a week, um I can probably get back to you in regards to what um our planning department our planning department is going to say, not necessarily the planning board as to what if anything that the city the city could or any municipality could implement that wouldn't run a foul of the state's ability to over overrule. So, if that if that makes if that makes sense for the council, we'll we'll take a look at this uh and and see if there's something that we can indeed put uh put together for the future. If that I hope that makes sense of what we're trying to accomplish here, but um I want to make it clear to the residents that I believe our boards did the right thing and we were overruled by the by the Commonwealth.

Thank you, Manager Golden. Council Robinson. Thank you, Mr. Manager. I appreciate it. And um I will obviously I think uh my colleague just had a great uh suggestion. I will accept this motion response. Um and I'll be filing something next week to expand on because what happened here should be a a a valuable lesson to all of us and and I think we really need to wrap our head around how do we prevent something like this happening anywhere in our city ever again. So greatly appreciated and thank you. I look forward to working with you. If you had a tree committee with bylaws, you wouldn't have had that problem. Councelor Scott,

thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I was actually going to mention the tree committee, so that was an appropriate comment. Um, and really, I was just what policies could we have in place that could have stopped this from happening, I guess, would be the question. Um, there's also mentioned in here that they required a landscape plant uh landscape plan planting of 60 new trees and an erosion control plan, whatever. Um, is there a phased in timeline like that? That is supposed to happen within was there stipulations from the planning department about a manual timeline on those? Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Through the council council, we'll find all that information out if indeed. I mean, you know,

to council Robinson's point, um, the clear cutting, the mobilization, it's understood. But if this project is not going to be completed, uh, once again, I drive by it every single day, so I see it. um accept give me a little bit more time and and if maybe uh Council Robinson, Council Scott, we can come back with another motion, but we can we can figure this out as to what the planning board once again, which is an independent board. And I want to be clear between uh the planning board, I think they did the right thing. They did. Yeah. At least in my opinion, it was just overruled by by the Commonwealth. So, what can we actually do

to uh facilitate a change in the future if if there's anything we can do at all? And that's more of a legal question I think uh I think for us to try to dig into. And then my other question was just around um the inspections that come with development afterwards as he was me mentioning the storm water. Do we have a set, you know, time that we go out and double check these? I I mean I I hate to bring up Markley again, but you know, with the back fence that never got finished and planning kind of said that that lingered on and on and on, like who who kind of takes the lead in making sure that they're doing what they are required to through the planning board? Assistant City Manager Mashado.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, the building inspectors do a lot of the inspections. No occupancy permit will be issued until everything is signed off by all the departments, storm water, all that. They they check all that before the occupancy uh permit is issued. Okay. And what's happening on the site, they check what's happening. They'll do um scheduled inspections based on where they're at in the project. Okay. Thank you. We also I'm sorry uh one more thing. We have May Bond who is the board enforcement agent who will enforce all the decisions that are made by the planning board and make sure that everything that's on the planning board has requested that that's being followed too.

Okay. And are those loc Sorry, one more if you don't mind. the planning board requirements on the project are they recorded like in a central place that the you know public can see what the requirements are for that contract like that project assistant city manager Mashado they are recorded somewhere I don't know how someone watching from home would be be able to find that but I can I can get that answer out to you okay thank you

the sad part councelor Scott is they were told there was no water on the property and the neighbors had said there was and the state overruled them. So that's what the trees were actually drinking the water. So then when they got rid of the trees, now here's your water. Motion to accept and place on file by councelor Noon, seconded by councelor MCI. Now we'll go back to the motion portion of the agenda. 4.6 Six. Council Robinson, Council Mcdana, I request the city manager as well as our mayor convene a meeting of the gateway cities such as Lawrence, Mthuan, and Haveril to begin conversations around collaborative opportunities. No seconded needed. Councelor Robinson,

thank you very much. this began. I mean, when we went to the convention, um, we were fortunate to have some good conversations with the mayor of Haveril as well as some representatives from Lawrence. And all too often it appears LOL being the gateway city, the largest in the area, we're grouped in with a lot of smaller communities and towns that don't necessarily share similar challenges as we do being in an urban diverse community like low population 120,000 or so. A lot of times when we reach out to these partners, the conversation quickly turns into how can LOL do more? How can we put more of what our community doesn't want into your gateway city? It's it's unfortunate and and I think we've been saying for quite some time as we spoke about earlier, we have a lot of great things, positive things in the pipeline on the horizon that is coming to fruition. I think it only makes sense to begin conversations and have some serious discussions with likewise communities, Lawrence, Haveril, Mthuan. They face a lot of the similar challenges as we do um up and down 110. It it's we're seeing the same struggles and challenges from unhoused to providing food for food insecure to financial situations to housing situations to I mean the list goes on and we have a lot of similarities whereas some of the other communities we we have conversations with they still have twoacre minimum build rules. So that that goes to show you how different and and and it's just it's a different set of challenges for each community. I think initiating

these conversations between our communities, I think we can change that narrative in that that that room when we're having conversations to instead of how can LOL do more to how can we work together to be collaborative and address the challenges that we're all facing. And and I think that's what the key is. I don't think we've really had these discussions in depth with the with with these partners and as I mentioned speaking with these people down at the MMA conference, they seemed more than open to to engage and having this conversation. So I think this is a great opportunity to to begin that conversation and start looking for collaborative efforts. Thank you. Thank you, Council Robinson. Council Mcdana.

Thank you, uh, Mr. Mayor. Uh I agree with a a good amount of what my colleague has already said. I think that when we think about the kinds of challenges that LOL faces as well as the strengths that LOL has um I would agree that we have much more in common with other gateway cities in the Marramac Valley than we do with Westford. Um or Draet even. Um I I think in in thinking through um you know po postindustrial diversity with high immigrant populations with the kinds of problems that our schools face the kinds of problems uh trying to redevelop a downtown trying to balance public amenity working with limited amounts of space and historic challenges. I think that we we have potential partners in the region, but I I think as my colleague alluded to, we we've kind of been stuck in these conversations with Dunable. And I think this is the first step in starting to try to work not to deflect anything from the city of LOL, but but in trying to work in a in a collaborative way with other communities that are only about 15 to 20 minutes up the street and in very very similar positions to us. and and so I really look forward to hopefully this passing and then these conversations starting to take place.

Thank you, Mr. Mcdana. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. Motion to suspend the rules and combine 4.7 and 4.10 by councelor Dakota seconded by councelor Mcdana. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 4.7 Council Mcdana requests the city council send a letter to our state delegation, the state secretary of education, the commissioner of the department of elementary and secondary ed, and the governor expressing our strong opposition to the mandated change to large emissions for our vocational and technical high schools. 4.10 Z council Dakota requests the city manager forward a letter to Desi and the governor's office asking to reconsider the greater low technical high school new lottery policy. I'm going to recuse myself from voting or speaking on this just for the record. Council Mcdana, thank you. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I I understand that this this has happened over a a period of years and we're we're kind of at the end of the road on on next school year, but I I don't think that this is uh necessarily settled policy. I think there's a number of um there are a number of competing bills kind of sitting around at at the state house. Uh some of which would say please pause the lottery. some of which would cautify the lottery and make it not just a regulatory decision but a permanent law. Um and I and I think while I understand the need um in some school districts for a lottery I I'm a a vulc kid. I didn't go to greater law. I went to Essex Aggie um which is was a lot smaller. But I the amount of effort and

you know everything else that goes into getting into one of those schools is is it can be a lot, right? Like like you're going to school when you're sick for it, right? Which is I guess maybe why someone would say let's do a lottery and make it. But all that to say that some vocational technical schools have a problem with their admissions. But what the state has done is they have taken a a broad brush collective corrective action and applied it to every vote district in the state. Uh and when I look at at GTHS and I pulled up their their enrollment data from Desi before I even put this motion in, but without the lottery, they are reflective of the district. They they are a majority minority school. they 20% of the district of their students um are are uh Asian background, 34% Hispanic or Latino, uh 9% black or African-American, 31.7% white, and that's and then on the on the income side, cuz I know that that's also a piece high needs meaning they meet one or more qualifier, that's 57.4 versus state average of 55.4. You have a comparable number of English language learners and first language other than English. Um comparable number of low-income students. I I've heard from from parents even in my district who I I never would have thought that downtown l had a had a big contingent of uh glTS kids, but it turns out we do have at least four. Um and all four of them have reached out to me over the last two weeks to be upset about this. Um, that's really all I have to say. I'm I'm hoping that my colleagues will support these motions and I thank Councelor Dakota for the very similar motion.

Thank you, Council Mcdana. Councelor Dakota.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. as I'm sure my other colleagues have received uh numerous calls concerning this and obviously there's not much we can do for this year but find it quite perplexing that that we have to tell our middle school students that don't worry you don't need to get A's you don't have to have perfect attendance and don't worry about the behavior because there's probably a good chance you're going to get into that school I'm it it amazes me and I know the mayor received a phone call from a student who's actually crying on the phone and to tell that student that you don't have a chance because you're probably 200th on the waiting list. It it's just it's it's just sad that Desi had to go this way. Um I I'm I'm confused and I really think that we we really need to have our state legislators and to really pounce u really push on this that that to let Desi know that um it isn't right. Plain and simple. It's just not right. So, I hope um our letter finds a little runway, but I Mr. Manager, if you really push the the state legislatores legislators and the um senator as well, um we really need all the help we can get. This just isn't fair to our youth to do this to them. It really isn't. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Council Dakota. Councelor Direan.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I struggle with these motions. Um I understand that some students who wanted to get into the VOTE did not. Um I also did look at both the DESIE um information. I looked at the greater l voteex um uh school committee meetings and I understand the goal of DESIE is to make admissions to these schools more equitable across the board to allow students with a sincere interest in vocational training to have a chance to get into those schools. And whether this school or others um have a representative um student body, I think the goal is to make sure that it is a more representative student body of the communities that they serve just like LOL High School has. Um the the high the greater LOL vote or technical high school school committee implemented a weighted system which they were permitted to do to add more factors into the determination. So, it's not just a pure lottery. They are able to take into account um and give extra points for students for um you know, fewer unexcused absences, no suspensions, a demonstrated interest in vocational training, and every student who applied had to demonstrate awareness of career technical education by attending an open house or a tour or doing uh completing something online. um the um the school um so everybody who applied was a good student. Um of the four of the 848 students in LOL that applied 428 or just over 50% were accepted. The accepted LOL students received about 71% of the seats. Um, so

no matter what, somebody was going to be disappointed. And if their option is LOL High School, to me that's a great option. And we should not treat it like a second tier school. You know, every few days I learn about teachers who are doing amazing work there. We have the teacher of the year in Massachusetts at that school. And it's the kind of high school that I went to, a diverse, large, you know, inner city school. It offers a variety of programs. It's within walking distance of most of our or many of our students homes and it has classes ranging from, you know, remedial all the way through to AP and in this and honors and in this case early college. Um, I appreciate that no family, you know, wants to be disappointed from their first choice, but demand here is higher than supply. So, somebody will be disappointed. And the issue here is one of policy. Should we as the city council put our thumb on the scale to change the result for a few students to go to this school while others who did get in are not complaining to us? So we know the students whose parents have reached out who have said you know I wish my student had gotten in but the students who now were fortunate enough to get in are not complaining. So I think you know sort of saying that we are trying to change a policy thing when it's really the reaction of some families I think is something we have to take seriously and I I'm not sure this is what we should be doing. Thank you.

Thank you councel juran councel Robinson.

Thank you very much. I think this is another example. We we've talked about a couple of these issues earlier tonight. It's another example of the state intervening broadbrush policy change reform. Um we've seen it with the apple orchard. They overturned local land use board wetlands. It's not wetlands. ADUs, they removed any local option from the table with that. Yes. In God's backyard, there's another one that's working its way through the pipeline that would potentially remove local land use boards on that. Now, mind you, our local land use boards are made up of members of the community that would stand to be impacted as a result of these projects. This lottery system, it removes requirements. Universities are fined to have their own guidelines and requirements to enter into, and they're they're publicly funded. You have to get minimum SAT scores and and there's a lot of other criteria to even be accepted in. People excel. They remove guidelines and and they basically reward participation. That's all it is. If you participate, you apply, eh, we we'll pull your name out of a hat and let hopefully you'll get in. As far as the point of Low High School is not second to anything, Lowh High is is an incredible institution on its own right, but there's a major difference. vocational training or traditional training. And and traditional training, not everybody excels in a classroom, so to say. I I have plenty of friends growing up that if you threw a book in front of them and gave them 10 years to study, they probably couldn't pass that test. But you know what? Put a dismantled car with every part that goes on that car in a pile and they'll have that car running within 3 months. And and and that's the difference. if if this system that's been in place, I mean, you look at what

they've been turning out for students. It I it's far beyond just a trade school out there. They they've been students have been going to major universities. I believe they had a student graduate and go on to um Mass Maritime or or one of the navalmies or something large scale like that. It goes to show there was no break in this system. If it's don't if it's not broken, why attempt to fix it? Again, it goes back to the overreach from the state and it also goes back to the participation trophy mentality. And I think this is wrong as far as should our council be sending off a letter of support and asking our state delegation that's supposed to be allies of ours to send a letter to reconsider or do what they can within their power. Absolutely. Because again, LOL is been trying to define our own identity. The vocational school has done a complete 180 from the time when I went there to what it's currently been. I mean, these changes, if they're going to be implemented, those changes and suggested recommendations should come from within inside those walls. That's why they have their own committee. their own committee monitors a lot of this important data and and and they've been moving incrementally to expand to be able to take on more students because the desire and the need. So, I absolutely would support pressuring our state delegation as well as this council to send a letter in support because the one thing we're not mentioning here is this isn't something that was initiated by the vocational school committee. This was initiated by people that only step foot into that building to do an inspection or so. And I and I think that's wrong because by telling kids it's okay not to

have a set of requirements to apply for something, you're pretty much setting them up for failure. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Robinson. Council Chiao.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh first of all, congratulations to the great lowtech local high school, right? To be the the center the center of this um debate. Uh they must be doing a lot of a lot of right things. You're doing good things, quality things at at the school. Um I will support uh these two motions too. Um but I'm more interested in the content um of the B of the letter uh through you, Mr. Mayor, to the manager. Uh when you draft the letter, I wonder if you could share with the council first before you send it out. um to the delegations because it's really a way how how do you balance quality and um equity um you know our our city um as councelor Joan mentioned uh very diverse and um my colleagues on both side of the opinion um mentioned uh to both so I would like to see the letter more um datadriven um to see why they came up with their decisions that they make uh why is it out of the the local hands of the of the board at the vocational school. So if you include some data and ask them to explain uh the direction that they chose to do their we would appreciate it. Um but again um congratulation to the v school. I know the mayor can't say much but he's smiling up there. Um it it's a good thing what they do. It's a good thing everybody want to go in and there's a reason for that. Um it's about quality. So thank you.

Thank you councelor Chow. Councelor Scott.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. In an ideal world, there would be enough slots at the greater Louisville Tech and there there just isn't enough for vocational education. Um, I feel that hard work should mean something. If you work hard, then you should be able to to get in. I think in fifth grade, sixth grade, the students know at that point. They're they're explained um very early on what the criteria is as far as attendance, as far as good grades. Um, there's no surprises there. I think um if you know all things considered I I like I said I think hard work should mean something. I'm not sure that writing a letter is really going to do anything at this point in time. I mean they passed this back almost a year ago in 2025. I think that was probably the time to to put something forward. Um at this point in time I mean I will support the motion. I don't think it does any harm at all. But I'd possibly ex include something about expanding vocational opportunities um because that's really the step forward. I mean this is obviously in high demand from the students and that's really the direction that we need to go and perhaps the L public schools should be looking to go. Thank you.

Thank you councelor Scott. Councel Yang.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Um I was talking to councelor McDonald that uh in 1989 I used to travel between lowh high and uh to the woke because I used to have a lot of friends there and I agree with uh councelor Robinson's that uh I have a lot of friends some of them came out and still open barber shops uh mechanic and also um hairdressers and nurses that uh go there and uh e even So, this is sort of a little bit late, but I think uh we should remind them uh to let them know that if it's not broken, don't try to fix it. I think this uh uh I I support this wholeheartedly and uh it's a really um important motion. I think it's uh especially to remind them that what's happening at the world works and uh the state uh should not just uh you know put a hand in in into uh what's been a good thing uh for us.

Thank you. Council Leang, roll call. Councilor Dakota. Yes. May I get you? Council Jiren. No. Council Leang, yes. Council Mcdana, yes. Council Mercia, yes. Council Non, yes. Council Robinson, yes. Council Rock, yes. Yes. Council Scott, yes. Council Chow, yes.

Mr. Mayor, can we take uh can we have a suspension of rules to take 4.11, please? We have a registered speaker. Motion by councelor Dakota, seconded by councelor Marcia to take 4.1 out of order. All in favor signified by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 4.11. Council Dakota mayor get your request the city manager have the property department work with the Highlands neighborhood group and the monument committee to identify a location at Tyler Park and install a monument acknowledging Nancy and Bernie Judg's lifelong contributions to the Highlands neighborhood. Mr. Clerk, Robert Hunt.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Manager, and staff, and members of the city council. My name is Robert Hunt. I live at 48 Florence Avenue. I'm president of the Friends of Tyler Park and a member of the Highlands Neighborhood Association. Uh Nancy and Bernie's work with the Highlands Neighborhood Association, Friends of Tyler Park, and the Friends of L Council on Aging spans years of dedicated service and continue to this day. I cannot think of two more deserving people that should be recognized for their service. The acknowledgement is is welld deserved and overdue. My hope is that the monument decided upon is in keeping with the location and style of the historic homemstead design. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hunt. Councelor Dakota. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate Mr. Hunt taking all of my thunder here. So, um like like uh Bob just said, uh two of the most deserving people and the nicest people you've ever met on this planet. There's no doubt about it. And this is very deserving. Um Mr. Mayor, if you'd like to say a few words from the podium concerning this this since it was your motion at the beginning. I mean, you Bob said everything and and so did you. So, I I think that um there's no one who's more deserving. Council Rook.

Uh thank you, Mr. May. I do a roll call uh for this again, please. And uh just to acknowledge once again the um the work that uh that they have done um you know not only publicly but behind the scenes serving on boards um and and help that they have given the people uh should not go unnoticed. I'm glad that we taken the time to recognize them. Thank you. Thank you councel council merc.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. This is an excellent excellent motion. This is a husband and wife that has devoted their life to this city. Um, I'm just honored to support this because uh, Mr. Hunt did say everything that we probably all would want to say. And, you know, this is a great example of you don't have to be in the limelight or be on TV or be sitting in a city council chair. There are people in the community that give and give and dedicate their lives to make this a better city. And what better people than I can think of is like Ann Marie and Bob Paige. Uh Nancy and Bernie Judge. Wonderful, wonderful people. And it isn't just the Highlands that they take care of. Nancy Judge serves with me on the board of directors for the friends of the Council on Aging. She gives and gives of herself and her time over and over again. So, I'm honored to support this and thank you for making that motion.

Thank you, Council Mia Council Chow. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My colleague um say everything about Nancy and Bernie already. Uh we we love them and we um owe our gratitude to them for all they do for the neighborhood. Um I see this is a refile and uh a lot of things that Mr. Manager have done um you know move very very fast uh through you Mr. Mayor to the manager um what is the time frame for this look like? I I know you're you look at this you're concerned about this too. Um try to move as fast as possible. What does the time frame look like?

Man, uh thank you very much. Uh we'll have to speak with the monument committee about that. But I think Mr. Hunt may have some ideas and maybe we could help the monument committee choose. Well, the monument committee is their own committee, but maybe uh there could be an opportunity where we could um give them a couple of choices. So, uh but we are waiting on the monument committee. Thank you. Roll call. Council Dakota. Yes. Mayor Gia, yes. Council Jirean, yes. Council Leang, yes. Council Mcdana, yes. Council Murcia, yes. Council N. Yes.

Council Robinson. Coun Council Rock. Yes. Yes. Council Scott. Yes. Council. Yes. I don't know if you call me on that. Thank you. 4.9 Council Mcdana request rules and elections law subcommittee meet to discuss potential changes to the council rules to encourage public participation. Seconded by council councelor Mcdana 1.8 I did 4.8. Okay, we'll go back. We'll go back in a minute.

Okay. Sorry, I was waiting to make sure I was on the right one. Thank you. I can only be wrong so many times. Um me uh this motion largely speaks for itself. Uh, it also comes out, we've had a few hot button issues, which always I think calls attention to the maybe lack of awareness that some people have for rules here, but also what we could do better to make people aware of those rules. Um, kind of like signage on the podium. Um, and I think this just presents an opportunity for us to to look at the rules around public participation more broadly and just see if there's a a way to streamline this or or make it a little bit less painful for the public. So, thank you.

Thank you. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So, ordered. 4.8. Council Mcdana request the city manager work with the appropriate department to ensure parking regulations are clearly posted in that all signs, paint, and other indicators conform with existing ordinances. Seconded by councelor MCI. Council Mcdana.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Through you to Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, this motion comes out of uh in the last week actually I've had four experiences with people downtown. Uh, one one of them I was sitting in a restaurant, one of them I was walking home. Three of them I was walking home, one of them I was in a restaurant. Um, with a variation on one it's possible in a few spots on Marramac Street. Not that I'm looking for, you know, 500 passport signs, but there are locations downtown where you're it's very easy to park, especially if you're not from LOL. It's very easy to park and walk right into where you're going and never once pass any indication that you were supposed to pay. Um, you know, you don't see the passport sign. There's no meter there anymore. And so then you leave the rest, and this is what happened. Then you leave the restaurant. Person sees a ticket on this on the car. They go, "What do you I just drove into LOL. This person was I guess to do a weekly trip to LOL, but they hadn't come downtown yet. They had been mostly in the acre and in the lower highlands where they're not paying to park and so it was caught off guard. And then there was another one um there were a handful of handicap drop off signs. They say handicap drop off 15 minutes. A couple of them also have a bus stop attached to them. Uh at least two at least two of them have full parking spots painted on the ground. And so you have signage that says handicap spot. You also have competing signage that says the bus stop and then you have painted just a normal looking parking space. So people have been parking in those and I've seen I've seen tickets in that one spot range for the bus lane infraction for a 100 bucks to a handicap infraction for 300 bucks to being left alone because maybe it's also a parking spot. So I think just making sure it's clear so that people driving in know what they're I don't think anyone wants to break the law. So thank you.

Thank you Council Mcdana. Council Duran.

Uh, thank you, uh, Mr. Mayor. Um, I think, uh, and I don't know when our parking was sort of looked at holistically since the change to the kiosk parking system, but I do think there are lines that are unclear downtown. It's there is sort of a whole confusion of history, maybe is the best way to put it, about what's going on with parking downtown. And for people who've come who come frequently like I do, you figure it out or you take your best guess. But it is not consistent. And I think we at some point will need sort of just a full reook at what's painted where, what signs are where, maybe even what um you know where the handicap, the drop off, the 15-minute parking, etc. is because I think we have a lot of spaces that aren't necessarily used as fully as they could be as a result. And I know we're trying to get people into the garages and I think that's a good thing. And I I do think trying to remind people that we have the 30 minute free parking in the garages is helpful, but we um I think it's just a little confusing downtown.

Thank you. Uh, Council Scott, just just one quick comment, and I'm not really sure if it totally fits into this, but you're talking about the parking regulations being clearly posted. Um, the feedback that I've also received is about the the parking price for the garages to be more clearly posted. They said that they would have used the garages if they realized how affordable they were after the fact. And I've heard that from a few different people that they didn't know that they were so inexpensive. So, thank you. Thank you, Councelor Scott. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry, but I could suspend the rules one more time, please. For motion response B. You got the floor.

Suspension rules by councelor Dakota, seconded by councelor Robinson. What's the purpose? It's concerning the Campbell School. Motion response B for motion response B. 5.1. Motion response B, Campbell Drive. Councelor Dakota. Thank you. Um, I appreciate I know Mr. Biat's here in in the chambers. Um, I appreciate the report and I look forward to uh our meeting at the Bailey School this Thursday at 6:30. If anybody has any of my colleagues have any questions for Mr. Batty, he's here. Thank you.

Seeing no questions, motion to accept and place on file by councelor Chow, seconded by council Leang. Going back to the original portion of the agenda 4.12, mayor get you requests the city manager provide the city council with a report on how many fines have been issued to the l housing authority for trash violations, the amounts in the dates of the fines. Seconded by council, council mercia.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. I know that this is your motion and I know that you're frustrated with tra violators and it is annoying. There's no doubt about that. I know a little bit of history about the L housing authority from my involvement with them over the many years. But I just want to say without you getting upset at your motion because I know how you can be. But so I'm trying to be nice. I'm trying to I'm trying to do the best I can and I'm getting more deeper into it. But your motion seems to me to be a citywide problem. I know that you're targeting, but it should not be just about the LHA problem alone. It's more um it seems like you're just singling out that one agency. And I know that you probably saw it time and time again to that one place. I understand that. But if I might suggest that you'd amend the motion to include all the private and nonprofit agency landlords, if you could do that because I'm sure that this problem exists all over the place to have these landlords that could find this motion applies to everyone, include everybody, not just one entity. The LOL Housing Authority has 286 barrels uh taken out of 1,800 units. They pay the residential rate on 1,800 units and they have a crew that goes out each morning after their trash pickup uh looking at the overflows and they make notes and they contact the tenants

who violate whether they put a white plastic bag on top of a barrel when it should be a purple bag. So I I understand that and trash falls over. I understand that, too. I know one day the wind was so atrocious it knocked my barrel over and trash came out. If I had gone to work and not seen that, I would have been written up as well. But I happen to be there before I left and I picked it up. So, things like that happen, it's annoying. Um, so I just I just don't want to get you upset, but I would amend it to include all the nonprofits in uh the citywide, not just one entity, if you don't mind.

Vice Mayor Non, would you come up and take the Oh, here we go. Here we are. Mr. Mayor, council Murio doesn't mean it that way. So, I get it, baby. I did it. I I think just because somebody knows somebody doesn't mean the infractions are not there as we alluded to. But at the beginning, if we're going to throw, you know, when we walk around this city, there are people being fined through you, Mr. Vice Mayor, to manager Golden. Are there entities in the city who are being fined for trash violations?

Manager,

I know that because the person on the corner of my street gets fined and their barrel is open 3/4 of an inch and they're the people who are complaining. They're saying, "How come me when they drive by the housing authority and it's overflowing?" And the housing authority has a trash truck and we're being build more money to pick up the trash from someone who's getting money from the federal government to throw away their trash when others are getting it from the average income. They have to pull it out of their pocket to get rid of trash and then they have to put out purple bags and everything while they're paying for another group to get rid of their trash. So, am I picking on someone? I guess so. You can look it any way you want when you say things like that because certain people will call you. I met one of them in a supermarket and they feel the same way. And that's okay because when I drive here to go to the mayor's office, you see the barrels overflowing right out front. And every one of us drive by it. And am I saying that there there I'm guarantee you in the reports there are nonprofit places or low-income places that are being fined right across the street from the DPW. The house got fined multiple multiple times. You know who lives there? Lowinccome. Can you imagine? Eric's picking on low-income low housing people. But we we're okay with giving low-income people in the city tickets all throughout the city. But don't say it about certain groups because they're going to come back and they're going to call people. The bottom line is if we're going to enforce things and and I spoke to you about this, Mr. Manager, about the fines in the city and how we've given out a record number of them and uh Mr. Sullivan, we're going to have here very shortly to to do a presentation on this. But if we're giving it to average people who are paying the bills and people who uh living in low-income

housing, but maybe the renters is not the big low housing authority. Is it fair? Is it fair across the board that people are getting tickets and they're being charged through their rents in their low income? It should be fair across the board and we should hold everybody accountable to the trash that we have to pick up across the city. Through you, Mr. Vice Mayor, to uh the CFO. CFO. Go ahead, CFO Baldwin. Question for you. In the new trash ordinance that we're going through. If it is not owner occupied, what's the amount that they pay?

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Uh, it's $600 for a non-owner occupied in the proposal that was put before the council. Is that whether they rent to low income or they don't? There is no current in the current proposal. Well, there is no language that would uh that would make that the case. Okay. So, currently in the the provisions that we have right now, Mr. CFO, in the provisions we currently have right now, how much does the low housing authority pay for each unit? Mr. W.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. We're we're currently auditing the the DPW charges. Uh I it is my opinion they should be paying the 425. Well, you said 600 for the others. 600 is the new rate. 425 is the current non paying the 425. It it does not appear that way.

Okay. So So they're already getting a gift, right? So let's be fair. So anybody who's not living in the housing, even though you're low income, you're paying one rate, but they're paying a different rate. And I get we work together. And that's what we're trying to say is if we're going to work together, let's have some common ground. Why should they get something for a discount amount that other people who are renting to low income don't get why is that fair? And they get federal funding for it, but they want to take on fights. So here's the fight. Here's the gloves. I wasn't going to say anything tonight. I was going to say motion speaks for itself. But with when you start going after people and you say I'm picking on people, I'm being unfairly treating people. Let's be fair across the board. There are low-income people in this city whose renters are paying twice as much, over twice as much is what the housing's getting the break. All we're asking for is close the tops, clean it up. We already had to go through the recycling piece where we can't put recycle bins over there because they contaminate all the recycling loads and we're paying crazy money. M

and then the decision was not to put the recycle bins there rather than say hey can we clean this up a little bit or it's a lost cause of cleaning up. I'm not truly picking on anybody. It's just can we please get the trash cleaned up and this did not come from me. It came from a resident who is tired of seeing this in their neighborhoods. Whether it's off of Lawrence Street, whether it's over here, whether it's other areas where they're picking up. And that's what the question comes down to. Can we please talk to the low housing authority? I'm sure there have been no fines issued if we just can please talk to them and have them clean up their area. Thank you, Councelor Mia.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. In my neighborhood, I have driven past different streets and I have seen overabundance of trash where the cover is lifted right up. And to me it it's it's not right. But I see overflow in in my neighborhood. And did you not say it should be fair across the board? That's strictly what I'm saying. It should be fair across the board. Whether it's the housing authority or it's in my neighborhood. And I'm certainly sure where I live in the area that I see, it's not housing, it's not low income, it's fair across the board. Let it not just be singling out the housing or signaling any any one entity. Fair across the board, whether it's Belvadier or the Highlands, and it's not a lower housing authority uh entity. Let me just say about the trash truck. Why should the Low Housing Authority use their trash truck to pick up trash that's overflowing from someone that is uh getting paying the housing is paying for for the city to to use to to pick up their barrel? Why should the trash truck pick up their barrel uh trash? just send a letter, which I'm sure they do. I've been told they they notify. There's people that go around and check out their own people and they send letters to the people. I don't think they should send a trash truck to pick up some somebody's barrel that is paying the

city to pick it up. So, let's be fair around the board across the whole city. That's all I'm saying. Councelor Scott,

thank you. Um, I just want to make sure I understand correctly. The the intent of the motion is basically insinuating that we aren't uh finding as a policy the LHA residents for their overflow versus what we are doing to other residents. So, I'd like to see the data I guess to show whether or not we have been finding them or not been finding them. Um, that's pretty easy to see whether or not this I don't know is it the policy of the city to not find low housing authority uh for their overflows. Um, we're paying they're paying for a closed barrel of trash just like everybody else. They're not paying for overflow. Um, and I'd also actually like to know what we're doing to make sure that our contractors not picking up overflowing barrels across the city. They should just be driving by. I'm sure it's part of the contract for them just to leave it behind and not take it if that's the the case. So,

thank you council Mr. Managers and then Mr. Mayor and then councelor um McDonald.

Oh, Mr. Mayor, go ahead. answering councelor Scott's thing is they do drive by certain people's property but others they do not and that's the fairness piece and the housing authority does have a trash truck to pick up theirs and the fairness pieces if we're going to charge other people a certain amount who are not owner occupied we should charge them the same amount because we want fairness that's all we're saying and the question comes down to do they get fined I don't know that answer I've already asked a couple times that answer I don't have that answer so somebody already knows the answer somewhere else. That's why they made the phone calls or you wouldn't make the phone calls because it's pretty simple. They know the answer is they haven't been fined or you wouldn't be upset about this. You'd say, "Yes, we've been fined." Okay, the answer is already in the public. And the question was from a resident who drives by who lives near one of these places where trash is all over their place. They get fined or they can't pick up their barrel. I spoke to the manager. He said there's an all-time high of fines given out by our recycling. And is that through you, Mr. Vice Mayor, to the manager? Is that true or not? Our conversation when I asked that question before I even filed this motion, did I not ask you that question? And you told me there was an all-time high.

That is correct. Mr. May three to the council. Uh that is correct. Over the past four years, we have uh ramped up. As everybody knows, this really comes back to a funding mechanism that hasn't kept up with the appropriate costs. And I don't have the because we'll be discussing this next week. Um the approximate cost about $9.9 million and the reason for the adjustment from 225 to 335 which is proposed to the council. um and the adjustment from $425 to $600 for what I would refer to as the absentee landlord who I'm looking at from the perspective of profit you know profit mechanism

which maybe the housing authority is not in that's the that's going to be the ask for next for next week we will have this discussion obviously next week as well but at that point uh if that is accepted it is our belief that at 100% collection of the of the fines and the fees etc ETA that we will have a solvent system. However, you'll hear me say this next week, we're at a collection rate of approximately 92%. So, we will be solvent by year two, which I think is it's it's going to be okay. Currently, right now, when I first got here four years ago, I believe that the uh

$3 million we were taking $3 million. So, our goal is to get as close as we can to zero dollars, similar to what we've been doing with um the parking enterprise fund. So, I know we'll be talking about this next week, but I'm glad to talk about it now as well. Go ahead.

Again, Mr. Vice Mayor, you know, we we talked about trash for a long time in this committee, and we talk about the contamination rate to the recycling. If it goes under a certain percentage, it triggers no cost, right? if it goes underneath that. And the only way we're getting closer to it is by taking barrels away from people to get to this place, which to me is counterproductive. But if we have to get to this place, we have to get to this place. But the interesting part is people can be mad at me all they want and say, "Eric's picking on this one or that one." A resident at a downtown neighborhood committee meeting asked me this question and sent the pictures. Council McDonald was there and I'm just bringing someone's voice out loud that is saying this and obviously it struck a nerve with somebody and it wasn't about striking a nerve with somebody. It was more so why are some people overfilling and it being picked up but if your covers open 4 in you're getting tagged and yours doesn't get picked up and through you to Mr. Mashado, assistant city manager Mashado, do we like pick certain sections and say we're not going to ticket or do trash ticketing to anybody? Do we do we do we do that? Maybe we do. Maybe councelor Mercy is right and we do do this to other people. I don't know that answer. Maybe it is Belvadier doesn't get ticketed. Could you

assistant city man? Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Uh, no, we don't do that. We try to cover all areas equally. So, say CBA or CTI, if they own a property, do we look at like a list and say we don't ticket them on the way by? Um, Mr. Manager, go ahead.

Uh, thank you very much, Miss May through the council. Some of those organizations may not have curbside barrels, but our inspectors don't um, for instance, have a list that they know that Tom Golden lives here. They don't have the they don't have that list. They're literally driving down the street on the day of, let's say, for instance, uh, Senable is Monday, um, Christian Hills Tuesday, and everybody else knows their dates. They're in those neighborhoods specifically on those days just driving up and down the streets looking basically. And to your point, which we'll have next week, uh, at one point in time, uh, we were 28% um, the contamination rate was extremely high four years ago, and we've been driving that contamination rate down. And part of it is because of of a financial penalty for people that do it. Uh when this happened in the beginning when we start we actually started hanging handing out warnings and and yours truly got a warning. All right. U somebody had put something in there and that's fine. But uh the warnings that came out um I think we did that and I I'll have to talk to Mr. Sullivan, but that was a couple of months of of getting people used to us uh understanding that the contamination rate was costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars. Uh and I I want to say uh thank you very much, Mr. Saintca, uh Miss Ms. Moses, Mr. Sullivan. They've been working at this to try to drive this rate down, and that's where we are today. But to answer the question, I our inspectors that go out, they don't know for the most part if Mr. Golden lives here, Mr. Mashado lives there, Mr. Baldwin or whomever. Uh they don't have a list like that. They just literally go down the street and look and repair carts while they can when they're in when they're in your particular neighborhood.

But I would say they know where the housing authority properties in some aspects. They may, you know, the the large complexes. The large complexes, Mr. Mayor, they wouldn't have barrels. They have six-yard dumpsters. Some of them, not all of them. It's a it's a

oper. But, you know, when we start looking at if we're going to separate, what about downtown? How come they don't get trash pickup? You know what I mean? If we're going to start giving big properties trash pickup, why are we not doing downtown also? And one's getting federal government money. So, now here we are, we're back playing, you know, everything in at the end of the day, all we're asking for is them to adhere to the trash collection properties like everyone else and try to clean up. And I do think I agree with councelor Mercia in the fact that I think that the body itself the management is trying to do that but it's just going un it's just being pushed off and we have to figure out a way how do we make it managed together so it works and it it's not working and if it isn't working because we're not finding then we need to start making sure we treat everybody equally whether it's the cost that they pay per resident like everybody else has to pay that's not owner occupied or we have to come up with some kind of back and forth that they have to do something about it and that that was the point to the whole thing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, you will get that report. Um, council uh McDonald, Council Chow and Council Durant. Go ahead. Council McDonald. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Vice Mayor, um,

I would start by quickly saying, not fully related to the motion, I would love to pay the city of LOL to pick up my trash. I I think most residents of my building would also like to pay you guys. I get it. Um I I would I agree a little bit with councelor Mercier and I'd like to build off something that councelor Scott said. Um I am interested to see what the finding look what what the fines look like for the l housing authority, but I would also be interested I as part of this response if it's okay with the mayor. Um, I would be interested in also seeing what the fines look like kind of in the rest of the city, maybe broken down by neighborhood or council district or or whatever. Um, and part of the reason I'm asking for that, I I hear councelor Mercier's comment about, you know, Belvadier fines, but I also know that in my neighborhood, right, and to the mayor's point, we have private trash pickup, and I think the assistant city the assistant city manager is very well acquainted with uh the fines that have been needed uh down there with with some private companies. And there are also some other private companies that have left trash barrels on the curb for about 4 months now. Um, and I think being able to see a comparison between the LOL Housing Authority singled out, right? Whether whether people are offended by that or not, I think they're a massive property owner. I think it's okay to take a look. Um, the LOL Housing Authority, but then also taking a look um in this report hopefully and just showing us what fines look like kind of maybe broken down by neighborhood, broken down by council district, just so we can get an idea of um I don't know who's good at throwing away trash. Right. Um, but so hope hopefully that's not super controversial. Thank you.

Thank you, Council McDonald. Council Jiren. Uh, thank Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Um, I was just looking at uh I think it's chapter 150, our schedule of fees just while we were talking so I could be up to speed on the trash fees. Um, and I don't notice what the fines are for trash done improperly. So, I maybe I just can't find it in here, but um it either means that there aren't fines or we don't know what the fines are, but it just raises the question that at least we should know what they are and they should probably be in this document. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I just don't want it buried in a report. I think that it's fair to ask, is this one place being fined or not? I don't care about I can certainly ask for all the other ones that Mr. Manager just said next week he's going to have someone here with a to say the presentation. I don't have a problem with that. The it's pretty evident the answer and it just comes down to can we please get this cleaned up and this is from residents. So thank you Mr. Manager.

Uh thank you very much Mr. Mayor. through to the council. Um so council is I can get a list of vi list of the viol violators um and maybe even break it down by alphabetical or or and then just have a list so you can see that I want to caution like in some aspects you know and I'll say CTI or even low housing authority some of the traveling vouchers we don't know where these folks are so you know once again our our our inspectors wouldn't know this uh if it's a if it's an actual uh entity like one of the towers down the The tower itself doesn't they have sixyard dumpsters that is taken care of by the housing authority. The individual homes if I owned a four family and two folks had a CTI voucher we wouldn't know that. That wouldn't be that wouldn't be something we would know. Um, so even if you know next week when next week or the week after when we give you the the the rundown, the list of the violators who you know the people that are violating um we won't know whether that's a CTI voucher, whether that's just a person living there or whatever the case may be. We don't have that type of granular uh information. So um sure there are uh you know there are areas A Street, B Street, C Street we would know that once you saw it but once again uh because of the number of um um re uh CTI or low housing authority u profits nonprofits we don't necessarily know where they're where they are at all times. So hopefully that helps but I don't want you to think that you're going to be able to see a list. You'll see a list of addresses. That That would be it.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Mr. Mayor, you want to take the podium back or Oh, council Robinson. I thought we done on trash. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. Um, I just have a quick question through you to this, Mr. Manager. Um, so the the policy basically is any scheduled pickups that we hold the contract on, basically if the lids open, it's it's not getting picked up and they will be either warned or finded. Is that pretty much the the gist of it?

Uh, thank you, Miss May through the council. Yes. Now, once again, you know, not letting out any secrets here, it depends on what is happening in that particular day. Are the inspectors out on that particular day on pickup? So, could somebody get away from it? Sure they could. It's like speeding down the highway. No. No. And and I don't even mean on our inspectors and so if the truck drives up sees barrels open, they're not they're not grabbing them. They just drive off. Yeah. Well, once again, you're we're asking we have probably I think nine trucks or eight trucks in. That's up to the That's up to the But I'm saying that's supposed to be the policy standard, right? the standard would be but but normally our inspectors are out before the trucks get out. It's not that's not always true either. It just depends on the day

the situation

and to the to the residents if they're uh finding violations in a neighborhood or if they will they will make sure that they're in that neighborhood. So it is very possible if they're not finding violations. I mean I've actually seen them do their work. they actually go up to the barrel, lift the lid, take a look and find out what is in the barrel to make sure, especially on the recycling portion of it, um to make sure that um the u the dirty recycling isn't in there, you know. So, it it really depends on what is going on in that particular day. Well, I mean, it sounds like to me um hopefully maybe a a conversation is in order to reach out and just to confirm if if the barrels are not closable, choose not to uh water your lawn. I can guarantee that your bill is going to be less than your neighbor that does decide to water your lawn every single day. So, the utilization rates are really what we're after to drive down cost because we know one thing that people respond to costs and u I've known plenty of people that don't water their lawns anymore because, you know, water prices have gone up or so prices have gone up or have gotten second meters in their properties. This is a in in a in a an attempt to try to um uh to get the enterprise accounts to operate the way they're supposed to and and trash being the same

with the trash enterprise. Will there be an option for something like say councelor Mcdana mentioned his his association has a a contract. Will there be an option for an association like that to join in on the enterprise trash schedule that we're going to be rolling out? Manager Golden.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor through to the council. Uh it's possible. Not today. No. And I just want to be very clear. Um what we're trying to accomplish and you know, people will push back from the absentee landlord. We push these numbers. I know these numbers. That's the world I was in. The $600 piece. If a if a landlord wants to go get their own, they'll be back to the city very soon. It's very we're very very close to the dollar figure um on this. Trash by 2030, and you'll hear me say this next year, ne next next year, excuse me, next week. Um trash by 2030 will be a probably a major driver in municipal budgets. We've seen it happen in surrounding towns that single family homes are being charged 425. We're at the 335 number. if the council wishes to move in that direction. But the money that's going to be saved from our general fund, anyone that is paying uh from a from a condominium association or has their own private pickup will welcome this because the dollars that are being u the dollars previously being spent were out of tax money. So, we're just trying to get our enterprise funds to act appropriately uh and to try to uh fund them appropriately. And we can we're going to talk about this again next week. I can talk about it now, but I I have a funny feeling we'll be talking about it next week as well. But I welcome the questions, counselors, and if anybody has uh I've received plenty of emails and you guys know that we receive these and I've talked to a lot of people and people are starting to understand this is a user fee. user fee for water, user fee for wastewater, user fee for trash, and I sure hope there's not another bat in this room.

Thank you very much, Mr. Man. Thank you, Council Robinson. Council Mcdana.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to clarify. Uh I don't I don't want this getting buried in a in a big report either. Um I I am very curious in seeing what it looks like for the rest of the city. I would like I would like to see that I guess more at 10,000 ft than if it were to go that way. I more at 10,000 ft than kind of granular by address. I get that this request might be beyond the scope um on the LHA. I I was at the neighborhood meeting. I I also know people that I' I've spoken to people that live at North Common Village and they also are annoyed at how much, at least the people that I've spoken to, I'm sure some people aren't, but some people are, they're annoyed at the amount of trash that can suddenly accumulate on their street on trash day due to the overflowing barrels. So, I I think when we talk about uh fines for the LHA, I don't and I'm not I don't want to presume to put words in in the mayor's mouth or, you know, there'll be a post. Um, but thank you. Thank you. April fools, everybody. Um, is I think we're looking for the LHA properties that are using totes, right? Like I don't I don't really care about the fines at the dumpster properties right now. I'm I'm looking like I know North Common Village has totes. Um, I'm trying to think of who else has to the larger and not the one-off LHA properties either, but like the large kind of LHA neighborhoods, right? If you and so then we can see North Common Village say compared to you know any anywhere else in in the city and what the kind of I don't need to know you know it was Bob I just want to know kind of broad scope but thank you

thank you council Mcdana councel Scott

just one more quick comment on it sorry so with the parking I mean people are paying for their parking spaces in the garage and they're paying for their usage and with water other than the minimum fee people are paying for their water usage their metered usage. I think with this it's a little bit different because it's not so much pay as you throw. Um so we're kind of all paying the same amount. So I think you're going to see a lot of people when this goes to an enterprise fund really focus on things like people that aren't paying the fines or people that are, you know, I hear it all the time, they just put three extra trash bags on top of the barrel and they get it picked up anyways, you know. So I think you're going to see that more now as the rates get higher. People are going to start to look at other people and really want some strong enforcement in this. So, thank you.

That's exactly where it came from. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 4.13. Mayor Kitchier, Council Robinson request city auditor audit all funds spent on the senior center for lease contract dated October 5th, 2001 between the city bonds LLC and the city of LOL. Please include all expense charge to the CDBG accounts, city accounts, and the reason for the expenses. No seconded needed. Councelor Robinson. Motion speaks for itself.

Thank you, councelor Robinson. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 4.14. Mayor get your request. The city manager have the the proper department report on the conditions of the irrigation system at Alumni Field and any plans on future capital replacement. Seconded by councelor Mercia. Motion speaks for itself. 4.15 mayor get your request the city manager providing an update regarding establishing a tree commission. Seconded by councelor noon. Wow. I got councelor Mercia smiling. This is a good thing. Does anyone wish to speak on the motion? Council Robinson.

Thank you. Um again this is this is one of those motions that has come up time and time again. And I know it's going to take a lot of leg work initially. I think um some preliminary work has been done or was in the past. I think one of the gentlemen that spoke earlier tonight as as a speaker has a lot of experience and he's expressed interest of applying to be on a tree committee. And I I think this might be one of the mechanisms we're looking for to hold these kind of projects in line and provide the city and and our partners the means to go back and and replant once and and this isn't the first project the Appalachia. There's been many in in near past that uh would have benefited from a active fully established tree commission. So I I hope we can get this moving sooner rather than later. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Robinson. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 5.1. Motion responses. Motion response. A human resource demographic report. Council Yang.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um so I saw this report and uh and I think let me start with the observation of Mr. Osborne. He the workforce is predominantly male 68% and Caucasian 72.7%. Nearly half of employee reside in l that's 47% while a slight majority live outside the city that's 53%. Ethnic diversity is presented but limited with Hispanic 7.8% Asian 4.4% representing the largest minority groups and approximately 9.3% of employee opted not to disclose. I'm not going through a lot of um the data but um thank you so much for getting this information together and also it is sort of coincide with a lot of discussion we have today um tonight diversity fairness workforce development job fairness across the board and data etc. This is about our future. Um, and mostly I remember what my daughter told me. Daddy, you got to walk the talk. So they say politic is local. Invest in people of our own city, our neighbors. That's a start. DEI, EEOC or fairness employment cannot be just a posted statement but shall be a daily practice. And I'm not going through a lot of this stuff here, but um when the data came out, a lot of people was talking to me

and they said uh well did they apply? Maybe they did not qualify. Well, I it's sort of like I don't chase this rabbit hole anymore and these questions seem to be getting really old. Uh but this is about the future and I like to see more improvement of that and let's hope that the future can get be more inclusive of the people that we serve. And uh we talk a lot about our pride in our diversity, cultures, music, tradition. And my message to a lot of folks that uh coming to our city uh CBOS's other institution that's coming to low um when you sit at a meeting please look around your table. Do you have representation of the people you serve? This should be included in senior leadership and all management level. That's how we all can help sustain both human capital as well as financial capital in our city. And I truly um you know want to thanks Mr. Osborne and Mrs. City Manager for this. And I look forward to see you know a change in numbers and uh in upcoming years and moving forward because um again our city need more strongly diverse group in the workforce and uh I'm happy to see that uh tonight chancellor Chen also working on that as well with all the different entity they're coming to our city. So, uh,

thank you so much for this report and I hope to see more in the coming, uh, period. Thank you. Thank you, Council Leang. Councelor Non. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I thank you, um, Mr. Osborne for the report. Since Mr. Osborne here, I do have a number of question for Mr. Osborne. So, I would ask that this be sent to the personnel subcommittee because I have I have half a dozen question. So, that need to be answered. There may not be. This may not be the right place for tonight. U so motion to send this response to the human resource personnel subcommittee by councelor noon seconded by councelor McDonald councelor Chowo.

Uh thank you Mr. Mayor. Um it's uh it's a good idea to send this to the um person subcommittee agree. I I don't know if the manager would be to answer this. If not I can wait till the subcommittee meeting. Um good good statistics. Um I appreciate councelor Liam put this motion out and the report come back. Um I'm actually um uh pleased to see that under the ordinance employee um only um the the female employee uh uh well represented. So that's a very very good sign. Um but to the other uh statistics um uh again this is not a criticism. I'm just wondering um what you know how if their job openings at the city I'm just wondering what what efforts um have been made to reach out to different community to the diverse community um how are they posted um are there any efforts like that and think if

do you want to discuss this do you want to discuss this at the subcommittee meeting when it comes up there I think that that's probably the proper place to get all that if I don't know if they're prepared to get whatever you think is fine Mr. Mayor, if manager has something to say on it, fine. If not, do you want to because I just don't have the HR director, so I don't I don't know if that's okay with you, Council Chia. Um, Council Robinson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I just want to make a statement. I I I do have to say though, since I've been on the council until modern day, in some areas, I I I'm pleasantly surprised and happy to see um police and fire in particular. Our forces have changed and and they're starting very much so to reflect the community and and and I'm glad to see that. I mean, I'm seeing a variety of people that that are from the community in most times starting to take those kind of jobs as well and and seize the opportunity. And I know the PD in particular has been trying to do as much outreach, getting people prepared to take the civil service exams and and so I do want to say good job on that and we still have plenty of work to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Robbins. If there's no objections, I just would make like to make one comment from up here. Um, seeing none, Council Leang, um, a few years back before we started on the DEI position, there was a starting point that was given to us of how many I think we need that paper to be able to see where we were and where we are today. So, I think that that's something that should go to the the committee at the same time. And there's one other issue when when you start looking at city employees and representation, you have to remember there's longevity in here. So you just can't delete people's from their union positions and say we got to get rid of them because we're starting forward. So I guess the question is on the hieres what is the representation is a big piece from the last four years since the DEI was created. I I don't know that we're going to get to the place you want because you take people who are related to me. They've been here for 38 years. So they're in that formula. So there's a formula that's based and and it will be skewed by that, but I think the efforts have been there. So I I would ask the city managers to include some of those things in when it goes to the personnel subcommittee to council non if that's okay with you, council.

No, no, that that that that that's fine with me. Um in in other word I I I was happy to see that in in a way just because when I put up the motion uh it was like you know we have we do have a lot of family member who works here but at the same time if you look at the separation between those who are not local who in ter so therefore that's that's the sort of my balance in term in term of like you know a lot of thing involved taxes and everything else that we talk about. So yeah, that's not, you know, what I meant, but you know, in term of why why this is come about, it's more about, you know, our culture, our pride, about inclusion and all of that. Thank you, Council Leang. Motion to accept and place on file by council Duran, seconded by councelor Dakota. 5.1 motion response D. Space consolidation. Councelor Robinson.

Thank you. Um, I'd first like to say thank you to um, Mr. Baldwin, Manager Golden, and uh, Superintendent Skinner. Um, I think this report here is is something that's uh, looks promising. It's it's I'm very excited to see if we can start making some smart consolidation decisions that uh potentially could benefit our taxpaying public and as well as employees throughout city and school department. Um I'm hopeful that this this all works out and um I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes. But thank you for the report.

Motion to accept and place on file by councelor Scott, seconded by councelor Rook 5.2formational reports. information report street sweeping. Mr. Manager,

thank you very much. Uh, Mr. Mayor, three to the council. Uh, council is I think this really speaks for itself and and um some of the challenges. I mean, obviously we have two new sweepers that we talk about, but in there uh what I think is important for the public uh at home to know that is that in the streets department we have 13 dedicated employees. So, let that sink in just for a second with 236 miles of roadway when we start to talk about this. Um, we really do want to try to continue to um clean the streets obviously and I have committed to this to council Scott. I can't even tell you how many times uh about this, but uh the street sweeping in the neighborhood is on page four, I believe. And it it makes sense to me. I'm hoping it makes sense to everybody else as to how this is accomplished from 9:00 a.m. to 2. Uh our street sweepers are now out, matter of fact, I was talking to one of them today uh to try to get that done and they they follow along with the pattern of trash uh when trash is done, they should be in that area. Now, it's also important to know of the 13 folks that if one of the machines goes down, we we do only have two in the city. If one of them goes goes down or there's a major problem and and one of the issues could be um tree limbs. So that is another issue that these 13 individuals work together. Uh there's a lot of other challenges throughout but on a perfect day, perfect weather, things are moving uh forward. What we tend to do is have two of those out into the community as uh I believe it is page four here in your packet and it shows how the city is broken down. U so hopefully this uh makes a point. Hopefully this everybody understands this and I'm ready for any questions that you may have.

Council Scott, thank you and thank you for this information response my motion. Um I did have a few questions. Um the timeline on the last page says October to March on the bottom. Is that Can you explain that a little bit, Mr. Mr. May? Uh Mr. manager. I think what they meant was March through October.

March to October. Okay, that's what I thought because up top it says in April they're going to one of my other motions was around an odd even pilot that had been approved for street sweeping that we didn't see happen but we had um approved them trying a pilot. I do appreciate in here that it talks about blocking off with no parking signs some of the streets that are more densely populated. I think that works just as well probably um as long as it's a large enough area. And I think of um uh was it Whipple or Eggwam Street or any of those streets that they went down and they literally you could see the street sweeper marks and it was just a a line down the center of the street which really did nothing at all because all of the trash was underneath all the vehicles and in the storm drains and everything. Um so I just feel like we're kind of spinning our wheels that way that we're not really doing the intention of it. But I do appreciate like I said the map. I I see like my trash day is Wednesday, it's Thursday as the street sweeping schedule makes total sense. Um I understand the constraints of our understaffed uh streets department. Um I do think this is very important and I think it, you know, makes the city, you know, more livable. Um so I appreciate the effort. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Scott. Council Robinson. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um throw you to Mr. Manager. So, this schedule that's on here, uh, is are we committed? Like, are we dedicated to the schedule? So, when residents are reaching out, is this something that they can expect to see? I mean, I know things do pop up in between, don't get me wrong, but for the most part with both both sweepers are running, we have the staffing at the time, this is what the residents can pretty much mark down on their calendar. Manager Golden.

Uh, yes. But to the residents that are listening, I want to be careful. you know, you have time off, you have uh water mane breaks, you have major tree limbs that are down throughout the city. That will throw this schedule into a tail spin immediately. But, you know, on on that perfect day, which, you know, quite frankly, we have a lot of really good days when the weather is fine and everything is okay and uh all of our our uh men and women are in that, you know, those folks are in and they're just doing their job. And we have a lot of those really good days that that happens. But when it goes wrong, as every counselor here knows because you get out text messages when there's a water main break or something like that or anything that pulls any one of those two, three, four, five folks over to another location. Um, but it's just trying to get the resources. Uh, Commissioner of St. Seir uh is is committed to this. However, I just want to say that, you know, however, if there is a major problem someplace else, um our streets, the men and women in the streets are the first to really to really go. And then the second, and this happens to our parks folks as well. When something else really big happens, our parks folks go. So, that will mess up any uh any system, any system that you could possibly put together unless we had more folks.

Thank you. And um so as a result of that and and we know life happens um with with this stuff, would it be possible to bake into this as we do with say um trash uh unfortunately trash is running a day behind schedule. Please, we we send out a blast and notify especially that area. That might be something. So, if on the second Tuesday of the month, residents are like, "The sweeper hasn't been here. Like, it it's a mess. I don't understand what's going on." Can is there a way to send out aformational blast saying, um, the sweepers behind schedule and and and give them a general ballpark of when they can anticipate to see the sweeper?

Manager Golden. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't want to It sounds simpler to do. Let me check into that. But I I don't mean to the specific residents, even if it's just a a communication that comes out of city hall saying um for residents anticipating the sweeper the second Tuesday. Um unfortunately they're running behind and we anticipate them getting out there within the next couple days just just so people have a clearer understanding saying they didn't forget me and this this program is over. You can talk to the commissioner to talk to comms about that.

Thank you. and and and it seems like it's popped up a few times today. Um 13 employees in the streets who were tasked with this. I don't know what the numbers look like in the parks. Um I think it just my own opinion from reading these reports. I think we have two options to start looking at moving forward. I think the first one is a consolidation between the streets and parks where you cross trainin all the employees so you have a little bit more flex room based on the priorities of the day set by the administration and the commissioner or second maybe we look to supplement our staff. I know some communities bring in contracted out sweeping only and they they come in it can be taken out of storm water management as a result because it is tied into your cso. So storm water can cover those expenditures and maybe you you bring in supplemental contractors to sweep say spring and fall per EPA standards to help alleviate the catch basins. Um I think you have a couple options on the table to start looking at moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you councel Robinson. Motion to accept and place on file by councel Ror seconded by councel noon. Mr. Mayor if all in favor signify by saying I opposed. So ordered. Councelor I I feel really bad for Mr. Sheen. Uh can I can we take um suspend the rules and take 8.1 out of order so this guy can go home?

Motion by council Mcdana to take 8.1 out of order. Seconded by councel Robinson. 8.1 ordinance is amend fee schedule body art licenses. Give first reading. Motion refer to public hearing on April 14th 2026 at 7 p.m. by councel Yang. Seconded by councelor Dakota. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Next, we're going into the votes. Yes. Could I make a motion to bundle 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and 6.5? Second.

Motion by council me to bundle 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and 6.5. Seconded by council noon. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 6.1 vote accept expend 750,000 community project fund grant. 6.2 vote accept gift of $10,000 from All People's Church. 6.3 vote authorized city manager enter license agreement with 43 Fletcher Street LLC. 6.5 vote transfer 350,000 workman's comp. Wave full reading and second reading by title. Motion to adopt by councelor Ror, seconded by councelor Mcdana. Roll call.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I wasn't seconding. I was I was raising my hand to speak. Oh, okay. Sorry. I I shoved off the gun. Yeah. Seconded by Councelor Scott. Yeah. Seconded by Council Scott. Council Mcdana. Um I I do want to just

I I understand it's a it's a bundled vote. I understand that there are things that were set in motion before I got here. Um, I have a really hard time I I will probably find a way to get over myself, but I I have a really hard time with the $750,000. I understand that it's it's a community project funding grant. I understand that this is coming from the feds. Um, I am confused why the city has to like the the UN my my question, I guess, is is can't the university apply for their own year mark? That that that really is at the core of my question. Manager Golden.

Uh, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Three of the council and council. This is one of those situations you and I have talked about with some of the newer councils. Uh, at this point in time when we applied for this money, the city of LOL owned Lashia Ballpark. Uh, Congresswoman Tran was very good at getting us $750,000. When we entered into a purchase and sale with UMass LOL to buy that, we had yet to receive that money to make that up. inside the purchase and sale. Of course, they knew about this. We transferred all of the money that we would be receiving from the um from the federal government to the university. So, that's uh typically uh the university does operate on their own uh with the exception of uh some of the some of the bridge stuff, Javanni, that we have to work with them and we're the actual sponsor for that. If that I hopefully that helps

McDonald. Yes, thank you. Um that was that addresses my concern. It also addresses the concern that I had heard from from some residents of like hey how come we're you know giving the obviously the money started with the feds but why are we getting the university this money when x y and z reason. So that actually that goes a long way. We couldn't even No, no, no, no. I don't I'm not even looking for that. It was kind of like I Thank you. that uh adds a lot of clarity. And then I think that's actually my only question. So thank you councelor Chiao.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Um I actually was going to thank uh Congwoman Lan for bringing the money 750,000 at that time as the manager mentioned um there's no way we could have afford to repair the ballpark. it was anywhere close to $40 million. And the mayor, you and I, um, I was the mayor at that time. We talked about bring the futures baseball league to to low. Um, you know, so a lot of things happening with the baseball league at that time to cut the funding to the the miners league and it really was the right thing to do because it was such a community asset. the Laji Park uh we couldn't just let go to waste or um UMass stepped up and Congresswoman Lord Dhan stepped in and really got the money as the manager mentioned um that money wasn't our request it it was the project that Congresswoman Lori that saw that there was a need and she brought the money and that's what we have now we have the futures league baseball the collegiate now it's because of this funding that um partnership between the city the federal and UMass so we want to Thank Congressman Lord Drahan for this.

The park looked amazing. I was there over the weekend to watch a baseball game and all the upper decking is repaired. So, it looked I don't know why I did. Yes. Councelor Robinson, um would it would it be possible you think at some point that the administration could maybe facilitate just a walk through since some improvements have been done over there and show the council cuz I mean I don't think many of us have been in there in quite some time. So to see any improvements, it'd be great. I plan on buying a ticket for golden. Did you just get that order? Um, councelor Jirean,

uh, I was just going to suggest that people buy tickets or buy season ticket packages, which we have done. Councelor Rook was indicating that to councelor Robinson off camera. Roll call. Councelor Dakota. Yes. Mayor Gia. Yes. Council Jiren, yes. Council Leang, yes. Council Mcdana, yes. Council Mercia, yes. Council Noon, yes. Council Robinson, yes. Council Rock, yes. Council Scott, yes. Council Chow, yes. 11 years.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Seven, order of the from the city manager. Order 7.1. Order, demolition of 48 Kinsman Street. Wave for reading and second reading by title. Order of demolition, 48 Kensman Street, L Mass. Motion to adopt. Motion to adopt by Councelor Non. Seconded by Councelor Cow. Roll call. Council Dakota. Yes. Mayor Gia. Yes. Council Jiren. Yes. Council Leang. Yes. Councilor Mcdana. Yes. Councilor Mercia. Yes. Council N. Yes. Councelor Robinson. Yes. Council Rock. Yes. Council Scott. Yes.

Council Chow. Yes.

Nine reports, subcommittee reports. Seeing none, we'll move on to 10. 10 petitions, 10.1 claims for property damage. Motion to refer to the law department for report and recommendation by councelor Duran, seconded by councel Leang. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 10.2 miscellaneous. Nona Javian request installation of a handicap parking sign at 119 Chapel Street. Motion to refer to the transportation engineer for a report and recommendation by council Mcdana. Seconded by councel Dakota. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 10.3 miscellaneous Clifford Whan request installation of a handicap parking sign at 32 Coven Street. Motion to refer to the transportation engineer for a report and recommendation by councelor Newton. Seconded by councelor Robinson. All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. 10.4. Boston gas request replacement of existing gas main on Fletcher Street from SuffK to Rock Street. Give first reading. Motion to refer to a public hearing on April 14th, 2026 at 7 p.m. by Councelor Scott, seconded by Councelor Cow. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. Any announcements? Councelor Dakota.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh through you to the city manager. Just wanted to uh say congratulations on a great night last Thursday night at the LOL Auditorium. A fantastic event. Um kudos to uh Senator Pana Giotakas. Mike Hunsler did a fantastic job. It was a great night for LOL. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Dakota. Any other announcements? Motion to adjourn by councelor Jirean, seconded by councel Yang. All those in favor signified by saying I. Any opposed? So ordered. Have a good day. You got it.