Confirmation of Appointments and Personnel Matters Committee - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone. I call this meeting to order. This is the meeting, the council meeting on confirmation of appointments and personal matters. It's Monday, February 2 at 6PM twenty twenty six. Post one to chapter two of the acts of 2025, this meeting of the city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We'll post an audio recording, audio video recording in transcript and other comprehensive record of this proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. Clerk Putir, would you please call the roll?

Yes. Councilor McLaughlin. Councilor Hart. Councilor Link.

Present.

Counselor Ewan Camping. Here. Chairman Bah. Present. We have a quorum with two absent.

Thank you. Well, I see even our honorable mayor is in attendance today. So I guess what we will what will happen is we will proceed by laying item number one, which is the minute of the previous, you know, committee meeting. We'll pick it up at the end for approval with other items. And next, before oh.

Counselor McLaughlin.

Hello?

Yeah. Are you okay? Oh, oh,

I'm here. I just wanted to be marked for attendance.

Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Clint. Would you you know, my counselor McLaughlin present, please?

So noted. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes. So, yeah, I was saying that we're gonna lay the first item to pick it up by the end. And, so what will happen is before we, you know, proceed, I just have this general, you know, high level overview again of confirmation of appointments, you know, that before I want to make sure that we actually, you know, provide this overview because the city charges city charter guys are worked this evening with respect to confirmation of appointments and promotions. So under the revised charter, the City Council's authority to confirm or reject appointments is clearer, broader and more structured than under the prior charter and the charter now explicitly covers department, heads, members of boards and commissions, police, fire employees, city attorney, and the chief administrative officer.

I'm I'm no. I'm I'm not done yet. Thank you, Chris. Sorry about that. So the charter also establishes standards for review.

Appointments and promotions are to be evaluated based on fitness demonstrated by examination, past performance and other evidence of competence and suitability and candidate must have the experience, training and education necessary to perform the duties of the position. In addition, the council is directed not to unreasonably reject or withhold approval of an appointment and in the event of a rejection, the charter requires written explanation particularly for police and fire promotions where review must adhere to applicable merit principles including civil service law. And then the revised charter further imposes defined timelines for City Council action, establishes higher thresholds to reject certain senior appointments and reinforces the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. So our role is to serve as a meaningful check through the confirmation, not to engage in executive management. And I also just want to be clear that I consulted with the city attorney regarding the appropriate scope of our discussion tonight.

So I will ask committee members as we proceed to keep questions focused on the duties of the position, professional qualification, and job related experience when we are in open sessions. Any questions involving confidential personnel information such as performance history, evaluations, or other protected matters should be reserved for executive session consistent with the open meeting law and applicable civil service requirement. Do members of the committee have any questions before we proceed? Thank you. See, appreciate that.

Seems like it's gonna be a quick, fast moving. So barring any any any members of the council, I got a request from the administration to take an item out of order. Me make sure. Clerk, did were you apprised with that item as well? Trying to have, like, double screens here, but I think it's yes. Yasmin.

Thank you, mister chair. For the record, Yasmin Hodasi, legislative liaison with the mayor's office. I I would like to request to take item six out of order so that the mayor can join the school committee meeting later this evening.

Absolutely. Thank you. If no members of the committee have an issue, I will move to take item six. Mayor's request referred, requesting confirmation of of the appointment of Kimberly Wells as chief administrative officer. And I see our honorable mayor here as well. You know, good to see mister mayor, and I see Claire Wells. It's somewhere in the audience. So take take it away, mister mayor.

Thank you, mister chair, for the recognition and for taking this item out of order for the reason you heard earlier. Through you to the honorable confirmation of appointments and personnel matters committee members, I'd like to introduce Kimberly Wells as my appointee for chief administrative officer. You all know Ms. Wells from her work with this body as the city clerk of Somerville for the past five years. From my work as a member of your body in the previous four years, I am utterly convinced as well as has the exact set of skills we're looking for in our chief administrative officer.

Her background in municipal government administration and organization is absolutely first rate, and she has an incredibly sharp mind. I've personally spent countless hours nerding out on municipal government structure and operations with her. So for all these reasons, I'm delighted to appoint her as the city's next CAO, and I ask that you all confirm her appointment. I thank you all for the consideration of this request, and I'm happy to answer any and all questions from the committee.

Thank you, miss Mayor. I'll let the record indicate that councilor Hart has joined us. Welcome, councilor Hart.

Thank you.

So, Club Wells, are you there?

I am indeed, mister chair. Thank you.

Of course. Good to see you. I just you know, before I even give you the floor to speak, I wanna say, you know, thank you on behalf of our committee for your dedicated service to our city and the professionalism, care, and steadfastness you've brought to the city clerk's office. Now your work has made a lasting impact on our operations and on those of us who had the pleasure of working with you.

Thank you, mister chair.

Thank you. Do you have any, you know, insight for the new oh, councilor, and company has to sign up. I'm sorry, councilor. I didn't see you.

Oh, that that's fine, mister chair. No. If if if Kim wants to say a few words, that's fine. Otherwise, I I'm I just have my comment.

So, Clairwise, do you wanna provide some insight with because we have some new counselors here, you know, before we you know? So do do you have anything? Otherwise, I we can I can just pass it up to to the good counselor, but I think it will be nice for the newest counselors who don't haven't had a privilege of, like, being with you for all these years will be it will be nice to hear from you?

Mister chair, thank you for the opportunity through you to the committee. As much as I am going to very deeply miss serving as your city clerk, I am enthusiastic about taking on this challenge in the role of your chief administrative officer and really working to build this position into a true operational arm of the city, working cross departmentally with all of my colleagues and as well with you all on the city council to really get at the systems that underlie our city government and help us function in the most efficient and effective way possible so that we can do all the cool things we wanna do as the city of Somerville and really live out our values. And I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you. Councilor Yuenkampo, you have the floor. I see your

Thank you, Jer. Through you, you know, I think the the the purpose, as you mentioned in the charter, of of this oversight step is for us to make sure the candidate is professionally qualified, suitable for the role. You know, obviously, having worked really, really closely with, with Kim as city clerk for years, assistant city clerk before that. I served as president. So I in that capacity, worked really, really closely with her. I've just been totally blown away throughout every every professional interaction we've ever had. Someone with just absolute integrity, paragon of public servant. I have total confidence. I have no questions. Ready to vote. Thank you.

Thank you, councilor. It's it's appreciate those sentiments. I think I share that's why I I mentioned my introductory remarks just so that we all set the standard. So, you know, open it up to maybe my colleague, but maybe before I do that, you know, maybe one question that I have, you know, for the clerk, as you can tell, there's a lot of accolades for you. I started with one.

Thank you for your service. I guess, you know, one thing, you know, it'll be helpful for me to understand is that so the city clerk's role, you know, is fundamentally about process, integrity, neutrality, and compliance, why the chief administrative officer must exercise broad executive judgment, make trade trade offs across departments. You know? I guess no. No. Again, I'm talking. When I'm having yes. Okay. Later, Grace. Again, can you close the door?

I'm in a meeting. Thank you. So so, Clairworth, can you, you know, like, just kind of, like, you know, describe how you will approach, you know, that shift? You know, get kind of, like, this this is like a transition. Just kind of give maybe, like, a a little example of a time where you had to move from a strictly procedural role into making a strategic or operational decision, you know, with competitive priorities.

Thank you, mister chair. Yes. Happy to share more information on that. As you may know, the role of the city clerk in the city of Somerville in particular goes a bit beyond the ministerial tasks that you see in a town clerk's office or a smaller city clerk's office, perhaps. And really in support of the city council has taken on challenges that involve citywide initiatives.

Excuse me. The city clerk also does support some functions of the administration, specifically our city archives and our licensing operations in the city. So I already do have deep background in working with my colleagues across all city departments to move strategic initiatives forward. I also, from my background working at the Collin Center for Public Management, have about a decade worth of experience working with city governments throughout the Commonwealth on things like software implementation, like strategic planning, like document management, and a whole host of other operational functions. So I think all of those things combined make it so that I am really ready to take on this challenge working in the city as your CAO.

And I think that I've worked for the last four and a half years as city clerk to really build the relationships with colleagues in order to enable me to hit the ground running and to get started on all of the amazing things that we wanna do here in the city of Somerville.

Amazing. Thank you, Clairwells. And and and one last, you know, question that I have for you, and then I'll open up to our newest colleague if they have any, you know, insight. So as CEO, also, I think, you know, you'll be responsible for resolving conflicts, cannot be addressed at the departmental level, including level issues, interdepartmental disputes. Can you walk me, like say walk us maybe through how you will handle a situation where legal compliance, you know, and that kind of stuff. Like

Thank you, mister chair. Yes. I think you've really sort of targeted the functions of a few different individuals. Our city solicitor's office our city attorney's office, pardon me, really is the responsible body for legal compliance, and any advising of the mayor on legal issues would come from the city attorney. I am not an attorney, and so I would not ever report to make a legal recommendation or issue a legal opinion, but I certainly would work very closely with the city attorney and their team in order to bring the right information to the mayor in order to make decisions.

So that really would be the role of the CAO in a situation like that, would be to to be serve as the conduit, to get the necessary information, to synthesize it, to process it, to package it up, and to make sure that the mayor has what he needs in order to make the right decisions on behalf of the city. Thinking about labor issues, the CAO does serve on some bargaining committees and is involved in some negotiations at that level. But, really, the day to day management issues, staff management issues are the purview of the chief of staff. So there would not necessarily be a role for the CAO short of advising and certainly helping as I would with any issue that arose in the office in managing the the people on on a day to day basis.

Thank you, I think I'm all set for my question. You know, the committee members, Councilor Hart, take it away.

Sure. I just wanted to add that just having worked with you through you, mister chair, to Kim. Since November, I have utmost confidence in your leadership and, integrity and abilities, and I'm just super excited for the whole city of Summerville to get to benefit from you in this role. So

thank you.

Thank you, councilor Hart. And the member, you know, of the committee, can councilor Ling, Ika, any any last minute question before the motion is in order? Because

Mister chair, I do not have any any comment. I know that you can do an amazing job.

Mister chair, I have a I have a question.

Oh oh, sorry.

I don't I

don't see the hand emoji here. Thank you, miss. I'm also supremely confident in Kim's abilities. I'm very happy this position still exists. However, though, I do have a very real question.

Because this position was up for cut twice because of their dynamic between the council and the mayor's office. This is gonna be we we called it the second mayor or the what do we call the c the the city manager that's not a city manager sort of thing. So very real question, though, is as someone who has been the on the city council side for a long time and now you move into the executive side, how do you view that relationship? And what what how do you view your role in relation to the city council?

You're the chair. Thank you for the question. You are correct that I will be representing the administration now. And as it happens, the lead from the administration that I am taking is that the there is a real goal to build better relationships and work more closely and collaboratively with the city council, and I'm excited for that. There's a lot of things that mayor Wilson is looking to sort of put in place as process that I am excited about that make me want to take on this role, and that is one of them.

So I will reinforce that it still remains the role of the intergovernmental affairs director and liaison to work with you all on your initiatives on a day to day basis. But what I look forward to doing is really thinking about how we can bring city councilors to the table for some of the bigger, stickier, cross departmental problems to keep you in the loop about what's happening behind the scenes in the cities that you can better understand the trade offs that are happening and the decisions that have to be made, especially when it comes time to things like the budget and the capital investment plan. And so I think that just generally, the administration is really interested in building a collaborative relationship with the city council, and I'm excited to be part of that.

Final question. I have some side streets that need snow removed. Can you give me a hand with that?

We'll put a pin in the

a priority for me.

Yes, sir. Of order. So, I I think then if if there's no more question from the committee members, I think I make the motion to approve. Do we need a roll call clerk?

Mister chair, through you, yeah, yes. If you're yes. Okay. We do.

So can you call the role, please?

Yes. Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Hart? Yes. Councilor Link? Yes. Councilor Yuencampin? Yes. Chair Mumbaugh?

Yes, please.

With all in favor, this is recommended to be approved.

Thank you.

Through the chair.

Thank you all. Attention. Thank you. Likewise. Appreciate your work. So we will now maybe return back to the regular out of business. So which is requesting the the confirmation of the promotion of Sami Misode to the position of police captain. I see I think the chief I see chief Benford is here. I think I see the yep. I see SME is also in there. So, chief, which you know, the floor is yours.

Mister chair, thank you very much for the opportunity to present this dynamic candidate. I do wanna just, put forward a point of clarification of all the members and those in the attendance. If it is for the rank of captain, that is going to be, lieutenant Diogo de Oliveira. I just wanna ensure that that is the item that we're going to be addressing.

Wait. What are the what agenda am I looking

You you mentioned you mentioned captain, but you mentioned Samir Musaudi who is up for lieutenant. So I just whatever the order is

Oh, okay. No. No. My bad. My bad. Okay. So I was I went to the third item. Sorry, my apologies. Yes. So we will take item number two. Thank you for that, you know, clarification. So requesting the confirmation of the promotion of Diego de Oliveira to the position of police captain.

Dynamite, thank you Mr. Chair again and through you, I'd like to thank the members of the committee as well as my city colleagues and most certainly the candidate who's here this evening that is up for promotion. It it gives me great pleasure to present Lieutenant D'Oliveira to this committee and the broader city council assuming and presuming and working to get your support this evening to the rank of captain. Lieutenant De Oliveira, you know, really meets and checks many of the boxes that support and play to the value set of this city as a person of color. He will be entering our ranks as executive leadership and will help us in our efforts to ensure that we have a police force and a police administration that is diverse and represents our respective community.

So it gives me great pleasure to present Lieutenant De Oliveira to this committee. Lieutenant de Oliveira has been with the Summerville Police Department for twenty years and has dedicated his time in service to this community. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant in April 2015 and again to the rank of lieutenant in April 2016. Lieutenant Di Olivero holds a master's degree in criminal justice from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He is multilinguistic in no less than two languages and has been an integral part in our efforts to combat misrepresentations about our department and our community as it relates to supporting our immigrant community.

He has been a stalwart in helping us to navigate that very as we currently do to up until this day, that very difficult landscape. Lieutenant De Oliveira, if confirmed, will be supporting this department and our city as we build out our community policing command and helping us to reposition this department, particularly our community policing strategies for and into the twenty first century. So, mister chair, with that, I will pause there and again humbly bring to you with enthusiasm Lieutenant Diallo Vero for to presenting him to this committee for the rank of captain, sir.

Thank you, chief lieutenant Diallo Vero. Welcome. Do you have any, you know, introduction to members of this committee?

Mister Chit, thank you very much. Good good evening to you and the members of the committee. Thank you for your time, for this opportunity. Thank you, chief Banffer, for the kind words. I'm humbled by your words. As the chief said, I've been serving this community for twenty years, and I look forward to continue to serve the police department at this next level. And I'm glad to answer any questions you may have.

Oh, thank you so much. Thank you for your service, and thank you to the chief also for that generous introduction. I guess I have maybe I have two questions, but I can make it one. First, I'm really excited, you know, for your candidacy. So, like, how do you see this new role contributing to the department's mission, you know, accountability and service to our community?

Mister chair, thank you for the question. I think that accountability, within the department starts with authentic leadership, self awareness, leading by example, treating everybody fairly equal, understanding the needs of the department, understanding the the the current environment that we we find ourselves in where there's a need to regain that trust from the community, rebuild that legitimacy, and understanding that the officers that work under our command main main part in this in this, in this movement that this this objective to regain that trust for with the community. I think that we we have the responsibility as executive leaders to be a friend and a mentor to our officers, but also, do our job as supervisors, hold everybody accountable, monitor, mentor them, reiterate our our goals, our objectives, policy, procedures, regulation, make sure that they understand what is expected of them, work in collaboration with them. Right? I I have to understand that our officers are humans.

They're gonna make mistakes, but we also need to make sure that they understand what's required of them. I think that if we work in conjunction with them, we can get more out of them, make them better servants for the community. And it's it it will help everybody, not just the the department in general, but also the community when they have a police department that they know that holds their officers accountable, that has rules and regulations, policy and procedures in place, and is not afraid to make tough decisions when it's required.

Wow. Thank you. Thank you for that elaborate response. Appreciate it. Councilor Yu and Kampen.

Thank you, mister Scheher. And through you, thank you very much for being here. Thank you for your many years of service to the city. My questions are really kinda just more for my understanding. Am I correct? My memory is that there's three captains in this police department. Is that correct? Is that number right? Maybe that's the chief.

Sorry, counselor. My apologies. That that is correct. There are currently three captains, with this four, with this captain's position that will be filled that will constitute constitute a fourth, captain's position in the department.

Gotcha. And is it do do do the four different captains have kind of different purviews? Do they they work on different issues within the department? And and if so, you know, which one is, lieutenant Dellavera consider being considered for?

Sure. Thank you very much for the question. Yes. You're absolutely correct. Each captain commands a division with a very specific and distinct set of responsibilities.

So we have one captain that oversees our criminal investigations division. We have one captain that oversees our administrative services division. We have one captain that currently oversees our patrol division. Captain D'Oliveira, if confirmed, will oversee our community affairs division and he will be help he will be specifically charged with two primary roles. One, helping us to build community police and command And more importantly, as an executive level leader within the department, he will have the responsibility of ensuring that all of our initiatives that we embark upon across the department are in alignment with our values as stated and committed to our community policing op program.

Got it. Through you, mister Scheer. Thank you. That that that's very helpful and jogging my memory. And does that include the co response model, or is that under patrol?

Thank you very much, again for the question. Our co response model, that we are working to build out and pilot will fall under the community affairs, division that the good captain, would oversee. So, yes, we are looking to rethink that, reimagine that, and put that under the community affairs division.

Understood. Thank you, mister Chair. Through you, thank you. So I guess, I I really appreciated the answer that you just gave to to mister Chair, And I wonder if you could just speak a little more kind of on your vision philosophy for that coresponse model, in general. You know, this is something that the the public has had kind of a lot of interest in, and I'm interested to just hear your approach to it.

Litan de Rivet. Yes.

Thank you, councilor Yukampo. Through you, mister chair. Councilor, I, I believe that CoResponse is the future of policing. It it will provide partners and resources to better serve our community. And it's it's I see it as a very promising addition to the already great level of service we provide to our community.

I think that the best part of co response is that it provides follow-up care referrals that aim to prevent a need for further police response. We we find ourselves repeatedly going to the same addresses to handle the same, issues, and we've learned a long time ago that arrest is not always the solution. And having this co response, having clinicians and social workers that can work with these, individuals, these families, these addresses, sometimes it has the possibility of alleviating some of the work, for the patrol division and coming up with better solutions that would actually solve the problem that that person may be going through. And the Sonoma police already engaged, clinicians and social workers on a regular basis, via our core team, and our officers often opt for a medical hospital disposition as opposed to arrest as it is. And most officers today, they already practice de escalation as mandated by law and policy and procedure.

And I I I I think it's important to keep the police involved. Right? It I that's why it's I it's called co response. I think that the police officers in collaboration, in a partnership with the with the co response, with the clinicians and the social workers continue to training officers on CIT, helping them see, people's problems and situations from different lenses, from different perspective. It would not only make those officers better police officers for regular calls.

Right? Because not we don't always go to a call. No one's gonna be a mental health crisis or a psych emergency. Sometimes we respond to a regular call, and later we find out that it is that. So having that collaboration, that partnership with with social workers and clinicians will help make a police department better in general.

Through you, mister Sherwood. Thank you very much for that. I I really appreciate it. I mean, obviously, there's a whole separate kind of policy discussion that the council, the mayor, the community are are very invested in. But, know, from the perspective of considering your your appointment, I really appreciate that that perspective and the way you speak about it. I'm happy to yield to colleagues. Thank you.

Thank you, councilor.

Thank

thank you, councilor. Know, you answer most you you asked, you know, my last question, so I appreciate that. So I'm gonna defer to my colleagues. Any member of this body have any further question?

Yes. Thank you, mister chair. No one else has been mine.

No. I think Council, you and company, will you yield? So you've already spoken to councilor McLaughlin?

Of course.

Yeah. Councilor McLaughlin.

Alright. Thank you, mister chair. I'll throw you. So, you know, I've been on this committee for a few years. I don't always speak up and sing people's praises because I think probably people just wanna get to the appointment.

But I wanna say something about Diogo Diogo and Samir, as people who I've, really relied heavily on in the community, to address problems compassionately and to attend a lot of community meetings. You see them at everything. A lot of community events, they show up when, they really don't have to, and they're very welcoming and warm and presence in the community. And I'm very excited. I saw these appointments and thought, oh, this is a perfect leadership positions for people, to hopefully get the next generation on board with the style of policing we want in this community.

The only downside is that we'll lose two good people off the street. So my question for both candidates, through you to, officer to Oliveira is what are your thoughts about preparing the next generation for the expectations for some of those specific ones?

Thank you, Councilman McLaughlin. Through you, mister chair, I I my plan my vision for this position, Council, is to be very involved, hands on. I know that as an executive, you there's a lot of meetings. There's a lot of other things that are priority, but I I hope that I will have and I know I I will have the the chief support on this. I'll have the ability to get involved in as many and as much as I as I possibly can.

I I envision going to community events, meetings, try to get involved with the school again, council of agent, officer in immigrant affair, teen empowerment. These are things that I already do now as a lieutenant supervisor for the detective bureau. But, obviously, I have a a job, so I'm limited on how much time I'm able to do this. And, hopefully, now with this position, that will be my full time job. I I I I I can't can't wait.

I love to just ride my bicycle up and down the city, going to these meetings, having breakfast with the elderly, with the veterans, going to school. I I I really hope that I'm able to accomplish everything that I have envisioned for this position. And I think that that also speaks to the second part, of your question that is leading by example. Right? I think that if the officers, the young officers see that we have at the executive level, the chief the deputy chief captain getting involved with the community, collaborating with the community, reaching out to the community to obtain input and feedback on on problems, that they're going on in in in their community.

Right? Going to these festivals, to these meetings, just talking to people. Right? Shifting the focus from law enforcement only to customer service service providers. Right? Because that's that's what we are. We are a customer service provider. We provide the service, and we should be providing the service that the committee wants and needs be reactive. While it's great to be proactive police, we also wanna be reactive. We wanna find out from the community what's going on in their community and then see how we can best help them.

So I think it starts by leading by example. Right? So once the officers see that the work is coming from the top, I I believe that you you can have buy in, and you're able to influence officers in different ways. Right? Mentoring these officers. I've been mentoring these some of these young officers since I was a sergeant, as a sergeant, as a lieutenant. Now you see these officers coming up, stepping up to positions, some even positions of supervision. And now they understand. They know that this is not just something that came out of nowhere. They see that I as a as a patrol officer, as a sergeant, as a lieutenant, I've always tried to help, immigrant community using my language skills to reach out to that community that sometimes don't have a voice and don't feel comfortable talking with people.

Going to schools, doing some of these community going to the some of these community events. So they see that. They see that it's it's it's sincere and genuine. And I I believe that through that, through being a role model, leading by example, you were able to influence officers and get the buy in. And the hope is to, at some point, get everybody involved. Right? I think that in terms of increasing further increasing the morale of the department, getting officers out of their cruisers and more involved in the community, going to community events and all of these things, they they love doing this. We we have several events, events with the children, basketball games. There's so many other things that we do. Right?

The the counseling agent, veterans breakfast. Our officers love going through these things. If if if they could choose, I I guarantee you that they would choose to do this instead of their patrol function. Unfortunately, obviously, we can't have the whole department doing community policing exclusively, but the goal is to get more officers involved in the community so that they this becomes first nature to them.

So thank you.

Thank you. That's not my problem. Are you satisfied? I think I'm more satisfied than you that asked the question. So

Oh, I'm very satisfied. Thank you.

Yeah. No. And and thank you for even mention mentioning the fact that, yes, I see these two offices everywhere. That is for sure. This is and I think this is this is a huge addition to this city, you know, leadership that reflects the community. So thank you. Councilor Yuen Kampen.

Thank you, mister Cher. So with this being obviously the first time the committee is meeting, we've got new members. In the past, when we're looking at promotions within the police department, the the only way that members of the committee can review, like, disciplinary history. Right? We often get members questions of the public, like, how do you know that, you know, x y z officer hasn't committed some horrible act in the past?

Obviously, not speaking about the candidates tonight. And we say, well, we can go into executive session. We review their files, and we make sure. Alternatively, obviously, members of the committee could meet with the chief and the solicitor outside of a meeting and discuss this, but I just wonder, if you have come up with a strategy for how you'd like to proceed with these tonight. It's obviously up to the will of the committee and you, mister chair. So I just wanted to have that discussion.

Thank thank thank you, councilor Ewen Kampen. I was waiting, you know, to make sure that there are no further question, and then I will, you know, proceed, you know, by pursuant to, you know, marginal law chapter 30 a section, you know, to I spoke with the city attorney. We will this committee will enter into executive session to discuss confidential matters like you mentioned related, you know, to the candidates promotion, you know, including professional competence and just exactly how you mentioned. I spoke, you know, with the city attorney and the chief. You know, I think it's as a matter of best practice, we will you know, instead of delivering each person, including myself, to always have to go, you know, have this conversation, it will it it's it's it's it's it's it's which my my my my my role is to make it a custom.

We'll enter into executive session, discuss these matters, no vote will be taken, and just to also make it clear that this is just customary, this is not should not be a call for consent. So as if there's no if there's no further question, you know, I think we will enter into executive session.

On entering into an executive session and leaving the

Real quick real quick, mister chair. So I got a number of links for executive session. Is this all one executive session?

Oh, thank good question, councilor McLaughlin. So so to the members of the public, no no no no vote will be taken in executive session and to my committee, each candidate will have a separate we we we are entering executive session for just, you know, Captain D. Oliveira, and then after that, we're gonna exit executive session and they will now come now and take the roll call vote in in open session.

Is it is it listed as, officer D Oliveira?

I think the the clerk should be able to answer that question.

Mister chair, through you, there is one executive session link that we will use for each session.

Okay. Nice.

Multiple emails were sent just to make sure that they came to the top of your inbox.

Okay. Very good. Thank you.

Okay. Mister Clark, would you, you know, take a roll call for us to enter executive session, please?

Session on table.

Mister chair, through you, just a point of clarification. It might make sense from a logistical perspective to lay the items you would like to take up in executive session on the table, enter into an executive session on one occasion, and then return back to the regular meeting after all the items are taken up in executive session. Of course, we do defer to the discretion of the chair.

No, Cliff. But what happens is the current item we are debating in, this is the sole item we are taking into executive session. So we are not gonna it's already it's still we're not it's there's no it's already it's so we're not, laying into combat. Yes. I don't know.

It we have not we don't consider it as laying on the table because it's a whole act them that is actively we are still actively having a conversation about it. So we're just gonna go to executive session for this sole item number two, You know? And then after that, we will exit executive session, come back so we don't lay it on the table and then come back and then take it back on the off the table to discuss it. But I think councilor, and Kampan, do you wanna chime in?

Well, mister chair, in the past, we have done it the way you're describing, where we take up each one one at a time. It's really annoying to do. If if the clerk is saying that it it is technically and legally possible for us to go into executive session once and have the two sequential conversations after we've had our open session, that would be logistically great and avoid jump around. Obviously, it's up to you, mister Chair, but that if we're allowed to do that, that would be great instead of jumping back and forth multiple times.

No. Thank you, councilor. I just I asked the same question, and, IGH told me otherwise. So, liaison Radhasi, can you provide input to this conversation? I literally suggested that, and the IGA said it has to be, you know, one executive session per per candidate.

So that was my initial thinking just now you, counsel, you and Campen. So I will wanna hear what they what their thinking was when they said each candidate should appear, you know, for one one session, and then we come back and take another candidate. So, counselor Ling, would you wanna yield to IGH, and then I'll come back to you, please? Liaison or Dashi?

Through the chair. Yeah. It sounds like it's up to your discretion. What I was clarifying earlier is that the two police candidates should not be in the same executive session at the same time. So if it's easier for you, I can just hop back to the main session and let them know when it's the turn for the next person. That's that's the only thing I was saying.

Okay. No. I think that would be honestly, that will also be great for me. I didn't know that this was I just thought maybe, like, procedurally, you know, I you prefer the other way around. So okay. So we will lay this item on the table and then take the next police promotion, which is requesting, you know, the confirmation of Sami Misode to the position of police lieutenant. So chief, you have the floor.

Mister chair, through the chair, thank you very much again. And again, I'll acknowledge and thanking, the members of the committee as well as city colleagues as well as the candidate. It gives me great pleasure, to present to the committee for the rank of Lieutenant Sergeant Sammah Moussaudi. Sergeant Moussaudi is an integral part of the police department and very similar to Lieutenant Di Olivero. He is linguistically blessed and speaking multiple languages, which really helps us in our mandate and our very diverse city.

The good sergeant was promoted. He's been with the police department for thirteen years now. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 2023. He has a graduate, an advanced degree, in criminal justice from UMass Lowell, a bachelor's degree, in public affairs from Northeastern University. And as with, the good lieutenant, both of these candidates have served our country and our armed services for which we are extremely grateful.

For the rank of lieutenant, it's extremely important in knowing that, the the rank of lieutenant, is a central rank in being the buffer between frontline supervision and our sergeants and that conduit to executive level management. They often are the first line in pushing down mandates and policy decisions from the police administration down to the operational level and the supervisors. It's a critical position. Again, as I mentioned with the prior promotion, his promotion will speak to our commitment to diversity and reflecting our community and being a man of color going into this rank will help us in our value set in meeting our mandates around reflecting our community. We're extremely proud of what he brings to the table.

I appreciate the comments by Councillor McLaughlin around these two individuals and their commitment to our work. They have stepped forward in each and every instance, voluntarily taken on a difficult task, and we feel confident that they are going to be helpful stewards and extremely invaluable again in helping us meet our mandate in the twenty first century and moving our department forward on behalf of our city. So, mister chair, it gives me great pleasure, to present to you sergeant Samir Musaudi, being presented for the rank of lieutenant.

Thank you, chief. Sergeant Musaudi, you know, when I call you captain, it means I was speaking into existence, so I'm pretty sure you're gonna work hard for that new role. But, anyway, do you have anything to say to the members of this body before we begin our questioning?

Thank you, Thank you, chief for the introduction, and thanks to everybody here for the opportunity. As chief Brentford said, thirteen years with the police department, worked in patrol and in the compliance office in the last year, and I'm happy to answer any questions you can have.

Thank you, sergeant Sadi, and I appreciate your service to our community. I guess, you know, I will start by just asking, you know, what are some of the, you know, immediate because this is I'm so appreciative of, you know, your growth within the department. And what leadership, you know, transformation, like, do you see that is needed to be able to, like, you know, change, you know, how people think about policing in the twenty first century?

As a lieutenant of the ship commander, I'll be responsible for the entire ship, making sure that policies and procedures being followed, holding everybody accountable. Constant supervision will obviously, very important as as as a parent team where everything is being followed, but also changing the culture of the police department as a whole, Making sure that the escalate the escalation emphasized during local, something that we constantly do here at the police department, prioritizing services over arrests, and just make sure that all the policies and procedures will be followed.

Yeah. Thank you. And when my colleagues ask you a question, maybe maybe increase your voice a little bit to, like So the members of my colleague have any question. Councilor, you and Campen.

Thank you, mister Shared. Through you, thank you very much for for your service to the city and to the country. Sorry if I missed this. So you've been working in for the department overseeing a lot of internal compliance, I know. And I'm curious in in this new role following the promotion, will that continue?

No. I will most likely, go back to, patrol and, be working as a shift community.

Got it. And through the chair, can I ask, is that something that you were looking for? Is that something that, you know, in your career is important? And could you just speak about kind of what you're hoping to bring to that?

Yes. I would prefer to go back to patrol. Obviously, every time we get promoted, we wanna go back to patrol to, you know, learn again, learn the skills. And and being a compliance sergeant, I will bring back everything that I have learned here, as a compliance sergeant, bring it back to patrol all the policies that I've that I've, everything that I work on, you know, for the last year. And, maybe sometimes down the road again, come back to administrative role.

Through the chair. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Councilor, you and company. Any any other member of the committee have any question?

Yes, mister chair.

Absolutely, counselor McFarlane.

Thank you. Through you, same question that I previously asked. How do you picture your role in mentoring the next generation and preparing them to, be some of the officers?

Yes. Again, constant supervision, being out there with the police officers, prioritize services over, over arrests, using discretion when possible, and making sure that, everybody's a community police officer, that it's it's gonna be it's not a it's not an option. Everyone will participate in community police. And it also comes with the training since officers get from the minute they get here, through the FTO program, which where we, emphasize the importance of community policing and, you know, set clear expectations for them and just make sure that we coach them and guide them and provide them with the tools they need to be successful police officers and provide the best service for our community.

Thank you.

Thank you, my councilor McLaughlin. Any other members of the committee has any question? Seeing none. Then we will now, you know, enter executive session pursuant to, you know, marginal law chapter 38 section 21, you know, to discuss confidential personnel's matter related to, you know, the two candidates promotion, including professional competence and disciplinary history as allowed under marginal law. So any vote will occur in open session. So, Clerk, would you call the role to get into for us to go into executive session?

On recessing the regular session and entering into executive session, councilor McLaughlin. Yes. Councilor Hart.

Yes.

Councilor Link.

Yes.

Counselor Ewan Campen? Yes. Chairman Bah?

We are

recess, and we will be entering executive session, and I will be starting that meeting shortly.

Mister Cliff?

Mister chair. Just giving folks one

Absolutely.

Mr. Chair, through you, I do see we have everyone in the panel ist list. On resuming the regular session of this committee meeting, councilor McLaughlin.

Here.

Councilor Hart.

Here.

Councilor Link. Here. Councilor Yuan Kampen. Here. Chair Mbaugh.

Present.

The regular session of this meeting is resumed.

Thank you, mister Clark. Thank you, colleagues, and to members of the public. So we are back from executive session. No vote was taken. We are back to the regular session. At this point, you know, I think we've conducted our interview thoroughly. And at this point, I feel comfortable to make a motion as chair, you know, to recommend recommend a confirmation of Diego de Oliveira to the position of police captain. Mister chair, would you please call the roll?

On item two, councilor McLaughlin. Yes. Councilor Hart.

Yes.

Councilor Link. Yes. Councilor Ewan Camping. Yes. Chairman Bah.

Yes.

This item is recommended to be approved.

Clerk Putea, did you hear I actually call you chair? Would you please call the role? I so I actually call you chair, you can you can take the position of the chair. Anyway, thank you. So the next item is also I still feel comfortable as chair, you know, to recommend, you know, the confirmation of the promotion of semi Saudi to the position of police lieutenant. Will you please call the roll, claire poutine?

Mister chair, on item three, council McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Hart.

Yes.

Councilor Link. Yes. Councilor Yuencampin. Yes. Chair Mbaugh.

Yes, please.

This item is recommended to be approved.

So congratulations. You know? And so it's not official until the next city council meeting. So and, yeah. So I appreciate your time, chief and colleagues. Thank you for your indulgence.

You, mister chair. Thank you, the committee members. Greatly appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you, mister chair. Thank you, committee members. Appreciate your trust and your support.

Of course. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your trust and confidence. Looking forward to continue to serve the city of Somerville and the residents, and appreciate the opportunity again. Thank you. Thank

you for your service. So we'll move to item number four, requesting the the confirmation of the appointment of James Ploughin as municipal hearing officer. Clair Wells? Oh, no. No. No. No. Chief oh, well, okay. Yes. Clair Wells. I cannot until the next council meeting before we can actually give you your official title. So, Clair Wells, take it away.

Thank you, mister chair. I am here in that capacity, so I'm going to use it anyway. Kim Wells, chief administrative officer, and I am here to introduce our municipal hearing officer, Jim Plotkin, who is not with us this evening. So I will actually leave it to you and the committee to determine if you would prefer to move forward with the introduction and take up the item. You are welcome to do that, of course, in the absence of the candidate, or if you would prefer that I save that, and we can lay the excuse me. Keep the item in committee until the next confirmation of appointments meeting.

I guess, you know, one question I will ask is why is the, you know, the the municipal here and the officer now here? Because when I met with the city attorney, this is also a very significant, you know, like, position. This this role, actually, you know, I was mostly interested to knowing. You know, I actually didn't know that it was actually in the law office because I was I was speaking to the city attorney today. I thought this was like a parking officer or ISD because it requires strict adherence to ordinances with fairness and public trust.

So it will be nice to just have somebody in that role, like, you know, come describe, you know, how they will apply some of this technicality. That is my opinion. I don't know why you know, I guess I would defer to you why the why the municipal union officer isn't here.

Mister chair, I don't have the answer to that question, but I certainly am happy to speak to the role. It is one that works actually most closely with the city clerk's office, although it does sit in the law department. So I do have a good understanding of the specifics of what the role requires. Although, of course, I am not, in fact, the candidate, so I can't speak to their their particular approach.

Okay. No. I think we'll I think, you know, we'll keep this in committee. It's good. If if it's before us, it is you know, it's just the custom that the person, you know, that we did not get any memo, no call, no show. We can see there and think, you know, if it's like so we'll keep if no member of you know, I will make I will recommend keeping this in committee. Yeah. Unless any member of this body thinks that it's okay to just move, you know, with without questioning. Councilor, you're in campaign. I saw councilor Lincoln. Councilor had already noted. But, anyway, I'll defer to my colleague. Yes. Take it away, councilor.

No. Mister chair, I I think that that's right. This is an important role, and, you know, I don't wanna vote for someone without information. I guess I just have a is there some time sensitivity that we need to be aware of?

Through the chair, no. There is not.

Okay. Thank you, mister

Thank you, councilor. I will also would have thought that if there's a time sensitivity, the individual will be will be here maybe fifteen minutes earlier, you know. So but I appreciate that, you know, line of questioning. So we will lay this we will keep this item back in committee. So we'll move to the next one, which is requesting the confirmation of the appointment of Omen Stramatin as director of Parks already. Did I pronounce that correct?

Yes. Yes. You're yes. You did. Thank you, mister Chair.

I actually I spoke with IGH. I learned how to pronounce it. So spoiler alert. So, Claire, would you please introduce the director?

Mister chair, thank you so much. Kim Wells, chief administrative officer, and I am here to enthusiastically introduce to you Ohemang Tremetang, who comes to us from the city of Hartford with a very deep background in recreation and in community services, most recently serving as the deputy director of recreation for the city of Hartford, but has been involved in a whole host of things throughout his career, including strategic planning, budgeting, capital improvements, grant funding, all of the things that we love to do on a day to day basis that keep our city running. So we are incredibly excited to have him on board leading our parks and recreation team. And with that, I will turn it over to the committee.

Thank you, chief administrative officer Wells. Thank you, director. Do you have any, you know, intro to the members of this body?

Through you, the chair. You know, it's a pleasure to be here. Like I like Kim has said before, I've been in recreation for a very long time. I've actually don't remember a summer where I have not had to run a summer camp. So, you know, it's it's the only field I've I've ever been in, the only field I've ever wanted to be in. I went to school for it. I got my MBA in rec in in then specialized in recreation as much as I could. So this is just a dream job for me, and I'm very happy I can be here and, you know, help support the community at Somerville.

Thank you. Thank you. I'm really also thrilled to see, you know, your your candidates Candidacy, your resume is very rich, rich background, like you mentioned. I guess I just have, like, one question. Maybe two, but let me just go with this one. Because, like, some of it has, like, limited recreational space, very high demands across neighborhoods, age groups, programs, you know. So how would you decide which programs, facilities, or capital investment get prioritized? And how would you ensure that these decisions, you know, are equitable and transparent to the public?

Thank you. And through you, the chair, you know, I really value the community service. I understand I'm not someone who's grown up in Summerville. I'm not someone who is not yet at least familiar with the, ins and outs of the locations and where our people or where the people really need the most help. So I'm really gonna rely on your help as, the committee's help first and foremost, and then my staff as well who've or majority of individuals who've grown up in Somerville.

I'm really gonna rely on your expertise and your knowledge there to help guide me through this process. In terms of the programming, you know, that's something that's a lot easier for me, you know, collaborating with other departments, collaborating with other nonprofits. It seems as though everyone has their own variation of recreation going along. It's just a matter of how we can put all of our all of our programming together to make it more efficient and more equitable and more accessible for everyone. So while the programming piece of it, it should not be a problem. It's just more so, you know, how can I get how can I reach those who really need to be reached?

Yeah. Just dramatic. You can see me nodding my head. I'm like, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. So thank you. Thank you for that response. Yeah. So, counselor Link, I don't know who put their hand up first, but, counselor Link, you haven't spoken. So, counselor, you can come in. Give me some some slack. Let me hear from counselor Link.

Counselor Yunkevin did did have his hand up before me, so I'm happy to defer. Oh.

No. No. No. I yield, please. Okay.

So through the chair, thank you so much for being here. I'm I'm really excited to see, you know, a new face in our parks and rec. And I'm curious, you know, do you understanding that you're only just kind of getting a view of what's happening, do you see any low hanging fruit in terms of areas where the you know, we can maybe, improve services or or initiatives that you wanna start, or improve?

Thank you. And, through the chair, there there are a, lot of areas of improvement that we that I've been talking to my team about. We actually have a team meeting tomorrow to kinda hammer out what our goals and our objectives as a unit should be for the next year. I don't really wanna spoil any of those topics just yet, but there there has been a lot of conversation as, like, you know, in terms of location and where we do our programming and who is in those spaces of where we do the programming and how can we reach again, like I said before, how can we reach those who need to be reached, you know, with individuals without cell phones and Internet access? And we have language barriers. You know, how can we really diversify what we do and be able to really connect with those people who need us the most? You know? That's that's my biggest goal here. You know? The recreation is near and dear to my heart.

It should be, something that everyone has the ability to participate in. And it's just a matter of how do we have those people trust us first and foremost to come out to our programs, and then how can we properly provide them with the service that they need to to have a to have overall well-being their well-being.

Councilor Link, are you satisfied? Do you have any follow-up?

Yeah. I guess yes. I'm I I guess my I have one follow-up in that. Do you in envision, I guess, talking about access and equity? Mhmm. You know, I I know that, both personally and through what I've heard from other people, there you know, there's definitely, like, the the website, and, like, the the way that people are able to connect is is not ideal. So I'm I'm curious. Are are you aware of that? And, yeah, are you aware of that at this point? It's, like, maybe the bit.

Thank you for your question. Through the chair, I I understand MyRec isn't the most optimal solution for getting the message out to our constituents. However, there are very limited recreation based websites out there. I we that is one of the top touching points that me and my team have gone over. We are looking into, you know, to see if there's any additional changes, maybe something more modern or find different ways to communicate with just the community as a whole. So it's definitely on our to do list. I'm deaf that's something that we're a 100% looking into.

To the chair, thank you very much.

Thank you. Council Moline. Council, you and Kevin.

Thank you, mister Cher. I'm a yes. Definitely voting yet. Extremely excited to have you come into the city. Really, really impressed by by your background and your answers tonight. But I just wanna take this opportunity to, do some advocacy. I I have a five year old, so I'm around a lot of parents of five year old. And one thing I regularly hear is, especially compared to some of our neighboring cities, Summerville doesn't have a lot of kind of regularly scheduled indoor rec activities on weekends, on Friday nights, whatever. You are new to this role. I'm not asking for you to give me some brilliant answer tonight, but I do wanna kind of put this out as I think it's a a really high priority for a lot of families in the city. If you do have a response you wanna give, that's great. Otherwise, I'm happy to just kind of get on my soapbox.

Yeah. I do. Through you, the chair, you know, that's definitely another great point that we were me and my team are looking at. I have found out that, you know, facility space is very tight here, and we're gonna have to play nice in order to get more facility space and see if there's any additional options or alternative options. You know? Ultimately, when the weather is nicer, we can definitely incorporate more outdoor programming and make use of some of the natural resources that we have in the playgrounds. So whereas we might not have an immediate response for the wintertime, but that's definitely something we can look forward to in the spring and summer.

Thank you. Councilor, and Camby have any follow ups?

Just to say, I'm I'm sure that you do need to play nice, but you will have a lot of allies allies on the city council. Yeah. Appreciate it. You know? If it comes to when we don't have to play nice, just take that space for the kids. I'm all set.

Thank you, counsel. You and Kevin. You know? And so, director, so, Martin, the same I just didn't wanna you know, speaking from the person on the chair, I had to say my advocacy for afterward. But, yeah, this your department is a, you know, it's a very it's an integral part of city government because, you know, one thing you have to know, you know, just as a comment, the success of your department is dependent on multiple departments. So DPW, schools, you know, all this, you know, but so, you know, yes. And, like, the good counselor said, you know, we are here to support you, you know, like, succeed. So that is our job. And whatever you need, let us know.

Absolutely. Thank you, mister chair. Thank you, council. Thank you.

Any other question from this body? Seeing none.

Mister chair, I have

Oh, Council my council, gotta come off camera

because

I don't I don't

I know. Sorry. I I'm slow with the button present. Yes. Quick question through you. Well, first, a statement that, it's okay to not be from Somerville. No one is anymore. No one but me, of course. But you'll find, I'm sure, a lot of the same experiences, in your past work where, yes, there are times where the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and that doesn't mean that the wheel needs oil more than other people. So there will be a lot of demands from people to prioritize their events, their group.

And I'm not even gonna ask a question because I feel like you already know how to answer it, but just keep that in mind as counsel you and Cameron said is please just put the kids first always. A real question. Could you speak to your experience with pools? We have a number of pools in this area, and we wanna make sure that they're well maintained. We had an issue ongoing issue with a pool that we wanna make sure, continues to have the full use of all city members.

Thank you for your question. Through you, the chair, I do have, plenty of experience with, pools. I was formerly not currently, but I was formerly a certified pool operator. So I understand the mechanical processes of how a pool operates in terms of and also, you know, being able to balance the chemicals and making sure the the safety of the body of water is proper for our constituents. In terms of the actual maintenance of the pool, I understand that that is a gray area between recreation and DPW.

You know, we are primarily focused on the programming of the pools, whereas DPW does more of the heavy maintenance. We can do small repairs. But to my knowledge, I'm not sure the extent of the conditions of our pool just yet. So as long as it's nothing drastic or major where it's outside the scope of recreation's purview, you know, we'll we'll we're gonna try and stay on top of it as much as we can.

Wow. Thank thank you, counselor McLaughlin. Do you have any follow-up?

No. That's it. Thank you very much.

No. I just wanna say thank you also for asking that. You know, you guys are just speaking on my behalf because I can go on and on, you know, about the pools. And, yeah, again, as you can, director, you know, like, you can hear these questions. They are coming from parents. So just just bear that in mind. Like, so just for what for what is what? You know, I'm a parent. Counsel is a parent. Counsel parent. Counsel is a parent. So please prioritize families

because Absolutely.

We've we've come to realize that we are a minority voting block in the city. So please, you know, do not forget us.

Mister chair.

Yes, please.

If I may, I'm not do not prioritize the parents. Prioritize the kids. That's what I'm saying. Now, well, you said families. You said families, but oftentimes, it's the parents. The on the kids. That's all I'm saying.

Okay. Thank you, counselor McLaughlin. So, I will, you know, see no it's steady. I don't wanna, like, rush anybody. Like, I know, you know, our formidable counselor from whatsoever hasn't said anywhere. I don't wanna, like, you know, make a motion when you know, counselor Hart, you got any insight, any thoughts?

No. I really appreciate the discussion and all the questions. I'm trying to hold my questions because we'd be here all night.

But I know. Okay.

Really excited to meet you.

Thank you. Thank you. No. Seriously, even myself, I just flew in from out of state today, and I I my intention is not to, you know, to go past a certain you know, like, I'm I'm just gonna leave it there. So seeing no member, you know, mentioning any more question, I move, you know, to approve director, you know, Oman Stromartin as director of Parks and Recs.

On item five, councilor McLaughlin. Yes. Councilor Hart.

Yes.

Councilor Link.

Yes.

Councilor Yoon Camping. Yes. Chairman Bah.

Yes, please.

This item is recommended to be approved.

Wow. Since we we are going really fast, We we have our last item, you know, that the that is this by by you know, was sponsored by the by the chair that the city clerk implement the hiring practices, you know, detail within for for positions in the city council and city clerk's department. Chief administrative officer, the the owner you know, I know this is not but I also wanna thank the good chair for even, you know, like, respecting, you know, by keeping this economy. Thank you, councilor Yuencampin, because, usually, we have, like, a 100 things going on. I probably you know, when I when I saw that, I held my chest.

I said, thank you. You know? Even though I didn't call you to say thank you, I wanna officially appreciate you. So, chief administrative officer, can you speak to this?

Thank you, mister chair. Yes. Kim Wells speaking in my capacity as city clerk as this is directed to the city clerk regarding the city clerk and city council departments. So as you know, there are a number of components of this order, starting with some looking for some information about the about the hiring practices for these departments. So I want to start by sharing a little bit about how we go about doing that, which is that for all positions that have a component where they engage with the city council, the city council president names either themselves or a designee, sometimes more than one from the city council to serve as a part of that hiring panel.

So the city clerk works behind the scenes with the HR team in order to go through all of the resumes and figure out who the candidates are going to be that are put forward, but there is no instance where we've hired a position that works with the city council where there hasn't been at least one city councilor serving as part of that panel. And then, of course, as you know, many of them do come before you for confirmation, though certainly not all, depending on the level of the position. So I think that addresses some of sort of the first component of the order. Related to the request, I think, around having outside residents serve as part of the panel, that is not a recommended practice because so much of the hiring process is confidential. I think it's great when the one candidate who gets put forward can say, oh, everybody in the community loves me.

They signed off on my appointment. But what it does for all of the candidates who don't get selected is difficult. Whereas, when a panel is comprised of city staff and folks who are more professionally trained to be doing this work, we can we can really enforce that confidentiality a bit more. So I'll pause there to see if there are any questions before I sort of take the next piece in order.

Chief administrative officer, in fact, I wanna say, I appreciate you. You really regain my confidence to you're the chief administrative officer. I'm even happy for to have this conversation with the next city clerk, you know, and so I appreciate you. You've you've you've made my day to stay and to just even add, you know, have this conversation. I think, you know, not to belabor this my my colleagues, I just wanna say, you know, I think I'm grateful that you even started shedding light on this. I will wanna have this conversation, you know, with the next city clerk just to save us time and energy, but I appreciate you, chief administrative officer Wells.

Sure. Mister chair, thank you. I will say I don't envision that the process would change too much because we really do try to keep the process in line and consistent with the hiring practices throughout the city. We don't have specific rules that apply just for the city clerk's office, for example. So just if if I may briefly kind of touch upon some of the other elements of the order.

Absolutely. Where did we leave off? Thinking through the candidates that are put forward as finalists. So one of the things that we work with the HR team on, specifically our recruitment team, is to think about how we evaluate the resumes without actually knowing a lot of demographic data because we want, similarly, to not put forward people for specific demographic reasons. So it's difficult to say that we would include at least one qualified candidate of color because that means that we would have to be collecting that information and assessing people based on those demographics, and we prefer not to ask them.

And we don't wanna make assumptions based on what we read in particular resumes. So I do just wanna put that forward as something that the city as a whole considers a best practice is not collecting demographic data from every applicant, which ties in, in fact, to the last piece of the order about reporting on some of that information. Again, sort of concerns about collecting that information and transmitting it publicly, because I really do think that that would have a chilling effect on the candidates that apply if they were forced to to give their demographic information upfront even just to submit a resume to the city. So that is something that I want the council to really think a lot about before we would consider moving forward with any policies in that arena. But then, really, what I wanna say overall is that I hope that it's clear that both the city clerk and the city as a whole are really committed to equity in our hiring processes and to diversity in our workforce.

We really do go out of our way, especially on the front end where we're recruiting, to cast a wide net, to capture the largest pool of candidates that we possibly can, because that is a great way to build out diverse workforces when we know that we have a whole host of candidates who are qualified, then really it's gonna help us move forward in a much more effective and efficient way to hire candidates who really represent all manner of walks of life. And we think a lot about what goes into the interview processes, to developing interview questions, to how we prepare for interviews, to the format of those interviews, to who's asking certain questions in order to really make sure, like I said, that we are providing what we would consider a universally equitable hiring process. So that applies in the city clerk and city council departments, but truly, I think, universally across the city.

Thank you, CEO. I I guess, you know, I'm still doing some homework about Boston and Cambridge. So this usually, when I post something, I'm talking to various cities. You know? I haven't completed that work.

So and I don't wanna be labor you again on this, you know, so I just want you know, I appreciate, you know, like, all the input. I don't expect you to kind of, like, when I will have that data and then we can see compare and contrast what the city of Somerville is doing. We have like Boston, we have Cambridge, we have even our own little cities around so we can actually make an informed policy decision in which direction, you know, we should take to kinda, like, create the structure that I'm envisioning. Councillor Link.

Yeah. Thank you, chair. So I I would think through the chair to Kirk Wells. It is I'm just thinking back to our our lessons just recently about the differences between orders and resolutions. And I'm I'm curious. Is would this be and do does this council have the power to to make these orders, or is this a resolution?

Through the chair. Thank you, counselor, for that question. You may notice that this was submitted in 2025 based on the item number. If submitted today, it would in fact be a resolution. Resolution. The council does have some oversight as to how it hires for its own positions, though. So, certainly, the council and the council president has been involved in that decision making, but we would not want to implement an entirely different practice exclusively for the city council. I think that would be something that we would roundly caution against.

Thank you.

Thank you, councilor. Then councilor, you're in Camden.

I'll just say I'm very happy that we are in a place where we're having a discussion about the city council hiring people. That did not used to be the case, and it's a good problem to have. Having been on a hiring committee before some of this stuff was set up, I'm really, really, really glad that HR is very involved in the process. It's really legalistic and complicated to do it right. And I'm I'm glad that we are, you know, utilizing all the resources we have on the city council to make sure we're doing it right. So happy to continue this conversation in the future with our new city clerk

Exactly. Years in my life. We gotta save ourselves some time, councilor. That is so true. So but, again again, chief, appreciate you again staying back to address this, you know, this item. Thank you, for your input. So seeing no other item, we will keep this item in committee and then with the other one of the municipality officer. And then, mister Clark, can you take everything off and, you know, cancel a link, you know, move, you know, to adjoin.

So moved.

Mister chair, three of the items on the table, which in this case is item one and on adjournment. Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Hart?

Yes.

Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Ewen Camping?

Yes.

Chairman Bah?

Yes, please.

We are adjourned.

Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, everyone.