Public Health and Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

Now declare this meeting of public health and public safety open. Please note that pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025, this meeting of the city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings on the City Of Summit website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, can you please call the roll?

And this is roll call. Councilor Scott?

Present.

Councilor Klingen?

Present.

Councilor McLaughlin? Here. With all councilors present, we have quorum.

Okay. And we also have special guest. Council president Lance Davis is here with us. Can we let's see. We'll start with the first item.

Agenda item one twenty five dash one one zero nine. Approval of the minutes of the public health and public safety committee meeting of 06/09/2025. Councilor Scott?

Yes.

I'll move to approve. Yep.

Councilor Clayton?

Yes.

Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Those are accepted.

Alright. And, clerk, could you please with the consent of the rest of the committee, I'd like to take up any items around Davis Square and homelessness issues in the community. Could you please read those items out?

Yes. And that is agenda item two twenty five dash one five six three that the administration provide data on needles found in and around Davis Square outside of the designated receptacle box, including a breakdown by specific location and used versus unused. Agenda item three twenty five dash one five six two, that the administration discussed with this council whether there is a need to create additional alternative locations for people to store their belongings. Agenda number four twenty five dash one five six one, that the administration discussed with this council the process for removing abandoned items from public spaces. And is number five included in this? Sorry. Just to confirm.

Yes.

Okay. And agenda number five twenty five dash one three five three that the administration direct all relevant departments, including health and human services, to appear before the city council to discuss an update on current unhoused outreach efforts.

Okay. So some of these items are from me from a long time ago. A lot of them are from council of Davis from recently. Council of Davis, did you wanna start, or would you like us to lead with a response from the city?

No, mister chair. I'm happy to, to leave it to you and committee. I'll I'll, you know, raise my hand if I'd like to to weigh in. We just love to I'm just here to here to hear the responses.

Okay. Thank you very much. Liaison Hutter, would you like to start?

Absolutely. Mister chair, thanks so much for the opportunity. We have submitted a memo along with a data sheet, a spreadsheet of data on all of the needles and on our sharps and related paraphernalia collected by ISD. So that speaks to the first item. The memo on the screen now is sort of a summary of that information. If you would like to take all the items together, we can do that. Or if you wanna take them one by one, we can start here.

If we could just do a overview because I think a lot of them are interconnected, and then we can, ask questions as we see fit.

Great. And so, unfortunately, we don't have staff available tonight unexpectedly to speak to this item, but we do have staff for the remaining three items. And I'll leave it to them to give sort of their introductory remarks on the item. So the next two around, the belongings and abandoned items, we have Nikki Spencer who can give, some information.

Alright. Chief of staff Spencer, would you like to I'd like to recognize you.

Thank you. Through the chair, Nikki Spencer, chief of staff, she, her, hers. I believe this item is asking whether or not we need to create additional alternative locations for people to store their belongings. Thank you for the question. The short answer is yes, and there there is a need.

And we've also been meeting across departments to attempt to develop solutions. So here here is a bit of the longer answer. Currently, there are few opportunities for unhoused residents to store belongings in Summerville. Our partners at the Summerville Homeless Coalition offer lockers on a limited basis in their daytime engagement center that clients can access, and DPW has provided a small container to store items when they need to be removed on an urgent basis by city departments. This is not an attendant attended or accessible option, however, and that requires when we do store things in this container, we have to coordinate with outreach workers and SHT to reunite belongings with their owner.

Sometimes in a pinch, other departments have pitched in to store bulkier items as well. We are approaching this issue in two ways. In the short term, we need a larger storage solution for bulkier belongings that don't fit our current container at the city. DPW has been working with HHS to brainstorm potential options and sites. Again, this is a short term solution that doesn't provide regular access, but it does allow us to store larger survival items.

So we're not making the perfect enemy good. We need a larger option as soon as possible. That being said, we also need a longer term solution. So with the input of our colleagues at SHC, we have been researching better models for belonging storage. In other cities, there are models where unhoused residents have regular access to storage lockers for safe storage of their belongings. These programs, however, can be very work intensive. So we are looking at different models. Many of them do ultimately contract out the service to a local nonprofit. So what goes into a successful sort of storage or locker program? One is that we need to find sufficient space in facilities, which I know this this council is very aware are tight in our city.

Any necessary staffing to supervise the facility. So some models are open twenty four seven. Others are open a few days a week. Either way, they need to be some some type of supervision and oversight with staffing. There need to be clear expectations of what can and cannot be stored. Management of any safety items or hazards in belongings. So for example, perishable food, pests, sharps, things that need to be managed before they are stored. And then finally, policies on unclaimed property or belongings. What happens when somebody does not come back for their belongings? So our understanding from SHE, from other partners, and other models that we're looking at, it takes a lot of intentional work to do this well.

It is it's not an easy lift, but we're doing the research to determine some options for moving forward. So, again, not in a long term We're not at that long term solution yet, but that's not stopping us from doing something in the short term to at least give us some more flexibility.

Mister chair, you're muted.

Thank you. Do we have any questions or comments from the committee? Or councilor Davis? Councilor Davis? Come on.

Thank you, mister chair.

Oh, there it goes.

Thank you, mister chair, thank you, Spencer, for that answer. So it's on it not surprisingly, good to hear that you all are are very, you know, conscious and aware of this and have already done a lot of thought into how we can improve this situation. I I think I'm I'm mostly I don't think I have any follow ups in on this on the more space for storage point, because other than just to say, let's keep trying to figure that out. The reason you know, one of the reasons why I raised this I mean, obviously, this is a as as you said, this is a significant issue for folks who, you know, who don't have otherwise have a place to to store their stuff or sleep at night. But it also you know, I I really wanted to to sort of start to have the conversation in the context of, you know, is there a way in in in in looking for a better way that we can all coexist?

Community members who are in difficult situations, don't have other facilities and community members who are coming through the square and open spaces, and wanting to use them as public parks. We know there's been a lot of tension, a lot of friction in in the past year plus, and and I I appreciate the administration's, you know, approach. Generally, part of the conversation of what you know, is there a way to, with recognizing the humanity of everybody involved, move large items out of significant public spaces without it being a, you know, without going to the line of of a zero tolerance policy or, or a sweep or anything like that sort of really inhumane, approaches that we've seen elsewhere in the the the state of the country. So thank you for that. That just I just wanted you to put that context out there.

Obviously, we're not we're not there with yet with a way to take a different approach, but I hope we will be I hope the administration will continue on that. And to the extent that it requires cooperation with the council to, like, to help identify and and approve spaces, then, you know, or or funding for it. I think it's it's it's gonna be the reality for some time in our in our country and in our community. And so it's something we're gonna have to figure out a way to address differently than we are now, I guess, while still maintaining our values overall in the approach. I do want, mister chair, if I could.

Can I ask about the item specific to the policy? I think it's fifteen sixty one. And and I'll stop if if, miss Spencer or or mister chair, you intended to take that separately, and I'll I'll wait for that conversation. But I wanted

to We can read that. Can you go ahead to counsel Davis, and we'll have them read that item?

Yeah. I just let me just give you the context there. I I think I spoke about this a little bit in at this at the council level. But, the intent here is that, again, just let's start with with fact finding. Right? Let's start with understanding kinda where we are then continue the conversation as to, is there something that we could do differently? This came up because people raised to me, as well as councilor Strezza, we were having a conversation about it, that there, at times, are items in public places, particularly in Davis Square, around the the the porta potty in Seven Hills specifically. I've seen this come up several times, which is is there because I originally asked for it years ago. So I'm still very grateful that we have that that that option for folks. I'm grateful that the administration has increased the cleaning of it.

There does seem to be, on occasion, what appears to be abandoned abandoned items around it. And I heard through very hearsay to the nth degree. Okay? So take it with a grain of salt. But that that that there was you know, it it it couldn't be moved without a you know, the the mayor herself giving approval to move stuff like that.

Like so if that's the policy, okay. Then we'll we'll we'll I just want let's start. Let's understand what what is the policy because there's clearly a difference between, the the active belongings of people that might include, you know, papers, medicines, any whatever. Their personal belongings that are important to them and, you know, soaking wet, seemingly discarded four days plus items around, the porta potties as as as one example. So where, you know, where does the what is our policy for for that that end of the spectrum?

And if it's the same, okay, then we can have that conversation, sort of figure out if there's an adjustment to make. That's the reason I phrase it that was just to first ask, you know, is that true? Do we need an act of the mayor to pick up a the, you know, abandoned soaking wet article of clothing or four, and whatever else might be around it or not?

On that, anyone from the city?

Through the chair, would you prefer if I sort of speak to the the item in general? And I think I can get to to counselor Davis' question as part of it. Yeah. I I think this is Okay. Thank you. So so through the chair, thanks for the question, counselor Davis, and and for everybody who's been asking sort of similar questions about abandoned items. And I think we're talking really about abandoned personal items or or things that are unattended. We don't quite know if they're abandoned or not. So this is a really sensitive topic for both unhoused and housed neighbors. I know a bunch of us were at a meeting in Davis earlier this month when we talked about this.

So we're really trying to approach this with best practices, and these come from the executive office of housing and livable communities, service providers, national organizations. I'm trying to channel director Carroll who couldn't be here tonight, but we are constantly looking at sort of the best practices in the field. And we're trying to achieve balance with the concerns of other folks who use these spaces. So if you'll indulge me, and maybe this is where the the question about where the mayor comes in, I'm very proud of the work that we've done over the past four years to evolve our protocols about unattended personal items. When mayor Ballantyne first came into office, we found that sometimes the first instinct was to just remove things right away, and we know from a lot of public health research there can be really dire consequences for in house people when personal items are discarded.

So I do want to start off by thanking HHS and DPW in particular for their teamwork in evolving this approach. I had a long conversation with a DPW worker, like, a month or two ago about how much work he puts in in attention when he finds something and where he he tries to look around and and all of the things that he does. And that's that just it feels light years beyond where we were when we started HHS, DPW, but also ISD, SPD, SFD, emergency management three one one. There are a lot of people who have kinda come around these protocols and worked on them. But it has been a a priority of the administration to find the balance here and understand what the best practices look like.

But I'm I'm really thankful that I get to work and live in a city where, you know, down to our DPW workers, to to other folks who are who are on the front lines that we're all thinking about this. So thanks for indulging me. But at at the very basic level, our process is something along the lines of, you know, when we receive a complaint or maybe a city worker out in the field finds unattended personal belongings, the first step that we do is triage. So the first step, do they represent a safety issue? So are there biohazards or other safety hazards associated with belongings?

So rotting perishables, sharps, fire starters, weapons, soiled belongings, or belongings that are dangerous because they're ruined or present that hazard. So some of the things that we've discussed around the porta potty, some of those things do need to be cleaned up. And other times, SHC and our other providers will say, you know, please don't throw out that wet blanket. It can be dried. Right?

So there's there's some conversation that happens there, absolutely. But for the most part, if it is unsafe to be there, if it presents a hazard in and of itself, we remove it right away. Do they there's also not just, like, what is the item, but, like, where is it located and how many are there? So if there's so much or the volume is is blocking egress or exit, SFD, ISD, they're gonna be the first ones to say, no. This needs to move.

And then finally, are they located in a sensitive location? So schoolyards, playgrounds, we move that right away. I think I talked earlier this month about the fact that we found items next to some heavy equipment, and that was not safe for an unhoused individual to be there, and so we moved it. And so we removed those things immediately. Some of that does need to be discarded or properly handled, but we store belongings that we can keep.

And then we do the process of trying to identify somebody, reuniting with that person, giving them support. If an item does not represent a biohazard, the next thing that we need to determine is does it belong to someone still, or is it truly abandoned? And so that begins sort of a process of understanding where it is, working with SHT, Andy and her team, talking to other folks. Is this something that's been out for two weeks and nobody's coming back for it? Is this something that does belong to someone and they just went on a bathroom break?

Right? And so that's a a process that takes a little bit of time to figure out. And so somebody might see something on the street or, like, it's been sitting there for a day or two, but we are in the process of figuring out, you know, is this truly unattended or or sorry. Is it truly abandoned, can we discard it? Or is it, you know, somebody's coming back for this? This has been an evolving process. This used to be a little bit simpler, a little bit of an easier conversation between our departments, but the volume and the complexity of the belongings that we're encountering in Davis Square and elsewhere, they're changing. Right? And I think everybody can see that. So we convened all of these departments over the past year, especially throughout the summer and into the fall.

We're still talking to fine tune and adjust this response. And every time we meet, we discover sort of new things that we need to think about for these protocols. And that can be storage, like I just discussed. It can be worker safety while handling these items or going through it to try to find things and belongings. We've been discussing the best way to route work orders through 311, so every time we kind of make a little bit more process and other questions come up. But we've made a lot of good progress, and we're continuing to refine this and train our different departments in this protocol. So definitely still a living process, and I can understand that someone seeing something on the ground may not understand that there's a lot of, work going on behind the scenes to try to figure out what's happening here.

Thank you. Any comment there, council Davis, or anyone?

Yeah. Thank you, mister chair. So thank you for that. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity, mister chair. So I just I appreciate that, miss Spencer.

Thank you. So that just when I when I have constituents come to me with pictures of items that appear to be, you know, soiled, damaged. Otherwise, if if the the the distinction that I already say is that if it if it if it constitutes a biohazard or other a safety hazard in in in some way, then it absolutely can and should be removed by the city. And if they're seeing that not happen, then document it, let us know, and we'll figure out why that was the case and look into if there's something else going on. But, that's that that's the clear that that's if I provide that clear response, that would be accurate. Yes? Through you, mister chair.

Chair. I I think that's accurate, counselor, and I also think it's important. You know, we just put it in three one one. It does sort of kick off this process in conversation. Even if we know about it already, it's it's helpful for us to to just keep it on our radar. And it also kicks off you know, this is both a conversation about somebody's belongings, but also getting them services. So Andy and our community health workers, other folks that we partner with, like SHC, other service providers, This is another opportunity for us to engage with someone. So, yes, please file three one one. Please please let us know. And know that we are following up. And if it's still out there, if we haven't snatched it up, it's because there's a little bit of a conversation happening there.

Thank you.

Councilor Scott.

Thank you, mister chair. I also just wanted to, thank chief staff Spencer here for that that answer and really wanna appreciate that the work of the Somerville homeless coalition is centered in these discussions because they're the ones who know who the folks are in the park probably better than anybody else, and can help get those questions answered faster than anybody else could, just rummaging through and trying to find identifying information in there. So I really appreciate that we are relying on our community partners there in that front and hopefully giving them all the support they need in terms of funding and resources to continue to be a valued partner in that work. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments on this item? I do have a question myself. And councilor Davis, you may be the one to answer this if anyone from the city doesn't know. What what's going on with that really nice old church that we own?

Does anyone know? Is it it's basically still city property, but we're not using it for anything?

Mister chair?

Yes. Councilor Davis.

So good question. And and in fact, as the chief staff was was speaking, my head also went to that because we it is a space that we have used it for storage in the past. It is my understanding from the last time I I spoke with director Reish is that it it it may still be used for some storage of materials. I'm actually not can't recall what what what the current status is, but it was at one point certainly, and there was a there was a certificate of occupancy that was issued for that specific purpose a while back, and that was the reason some folks had sort of flagged it come up. As far as the future of that, it actually just came up with the Davis Square Neighborhood Council meeting this past week, and they have a committee of the they call the White Church Committee.

So, hopefully, we'll we'll we'll be able to get that conversation jump started in the near future to to figure out what to do with it. Whatever happens, it'll include a a large community space with access to the library. But for now, that building is perhaps used for some storage. And and like I said, it's definitely as part of the conversation, potentially, a space if that's still an option temporarily at least. But long term, the building itself is is not it's not viable. It will need to be replaced.

Yeah. Well, that that was my question is if if we're looking for storage in Davis Square, that's what just one option that came to mind. Just wanna toss that out in case no one thought about it. And it'd be nice in the future if it would actually have human beings in it as well. Counselor director Spencer.

Through the chair, I I think we'll be looking at all options, and we're we're weighing all of them. It does need to be we we have historically storage items in that building. They are not ones that we are regularly using or or constantly accessing is my understanding. So we just need to evaluate how easy it is to to be able to come in and out of the space to to regularly access it. Even if our unhoused residents are not accessing a facility, our staff need to be able to get to it, HHS, other folks. So that's that's one of the things that we're looking at.

Thank you. Alright. Let me just try and pull up my agenda here. Okay. Councilor Davis, are you satisfied with this item? Can we mark this work complete?

I am, mister chair. Thank you, and thank you for indulging me. Thank you to the chief of staff as well.

And how about the other items? We're talking about let's see. Outreach efforts. I I guess we could talk more about that in a second, but I'm looking for the disposed needles. Are you satisfied with those answers?

Yeah. I think I've missed the chair. Thank you. I I wanna dig into the to the the data a little bit more in the response that's there, but I can certainly follow-up with administration. If we have additional questions, we'd put another a new item in.

Thank you. Any further questions or comments from the committee? Sorry. I can't I'm trying to find my agenda because this agenda is too small for me to read. Let's see.

Clark, could you just mark there we go. Thank you. So let's see. So item three will mark work complete. Item four will mark work complete. Item five, I we we have another item similar to this, so I think we can mark that work complete unless anybody had questions on that item. Alright. So we'll mark that work complete. And those were the three. Right, Clark? Are there any other items I'm missing?

And item two. We just took up items two through five together.

Okay. We'll do item two as well. I'll mark a work complete. So next item.

Mister chair, we do also have Andy Benvenuto here to talk about item five, which is around updated outreach efforts. But if the council is satisfied and doesn't need additional information, we're happy to

I would

hate to waste his time. That.

I I would I would love to give Andy an opportunity to speak. Thank you for flagging that.

Hi. Thank you through the chair. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about, what our team is doing. So my name is Andy Benvenuto. I use she, her pronouns. I'm the community health worker manager for the city. So we have a team of four community health workers plus myself. Two are generalist CHWs. One is geared more towards harm reduction, and then the other is our regional position that works more in a clinical setting, but all four are involved in our street outreach. I have some data.

Just in the months of September and October alone, the team has calculated a 150 plus total client encounters, which includes not necessarily individual humans, but, the number of encounters that they've had. And so an encounter can encapsulate working on SNAP applications, working on MassHealth applications, any sort of referral to either any other city departments or community based organizations, as well as if we've given them any sort of supplies. So the supplies can include anywhere from winter gear now that we're getting into the colder months, hats, underwear, socks, hand warmers, feet warmers, gloves, as well as food. So we hand out nonperishable food items, as well as water bottles, as well as harm reduction supplies, which can include test strips, CPR, barriers, and naloxone or otherwise known as Narcan. So just to also give an overview of what our outreach schedule looks like, we do outreach a minimum of three days a week.

Two of those three days, we are always in the Davis Square area, which encapsulates, like, Statue Park, 7 Hills, all the way up the community path towards Life Alive, and any of the surrounding areas, in Davis Square in general, as well as, East Summerville. So Foss Park, Chucky Harris Park, all along Broadway, even over near the Stop and Shop over there. Also working with our community based organizations such as Connexion and the clients that they frequently see. We also the way that we inform our schedule is three ways. So first is not to be duplicative of other outreach teams that exist in the city, such as the Somerville Homeless Coalition and their outreach team.

Fenway Health also has a Somerville specific outreach team. So we try to stagger the times that we're in the community so that we're not duplicating these efforts as well as the information that I get from the weekly huddles, which comes from other city leadership every Friday mornings surrounding the unhoused. So if I get any sort of indication from ISD or DPW or SOIA, that they have seen unhoused activity in a certain location, I'll inform my team, and we address those on Mondays. And as well as we now have a partnership with three one one where our team, we have a shared email, just chw@somervillema.gov, where we'll get queue alerts directly from 311 regarding unhoused individuals, and we respond accordingly with that as well. Other than the physical services that we provide in the days that we're out in the community, I'd also like to highlight that the team has been really integral in establishing a sense of trust with this community.

What's really important is that not every single person that we come in contact with is, a native English speaker, so we've really bolstered our language capacity. We have the language capacity of English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian, Creole, and Arabic on our team, so we're able to engage with a lot of different, folks from different walks of life. We also, have been really, we've been trying to navigate this different dynamic that we've noticed because there's been a lot of migration of different unhoused communities from different cities, like Boston and Cambridge that are now becoming more prevalent in Somerville. And so the team has been really instrumental in navigating that changing dynamic and to make sure that there's a good relationship between the city and our unhoused residents. Outside of that, I know that this was already sort of touched upon, but I also just wanted to speak specifically to what our team is doing regarding sharps.

So we've obviously heard the discussion around increased accessibility to sharps disposal containers, and so our team has really taken that in stride. So every time that we're out specifically in Davis Square because that is where we see the highest concentration of, sharps, we have personal, sharps disposals that we hand out to folks that we also are giving to our library. And on that, we also have developed a sticker that outlines where the public sharps disposal kiosks are in the Square as well as if you don't have access to that kiosk or if it's overflowing, what different alternative, disposal options that you have and how to safely dispose of them. And we did, like, a be a good neighbor campaign, putting similar messaging like that around the city, around Davis Square as well. So that's a brief, quote, unquote, synopsis of the outreach that we're doing.

But if anyone has any specific questions, I would be open to answering them. Thank you.

Thank you for joining us. This is your first time at the public health committee. Correct? Alright. And how long have you worked for the city?

I have been with the city since June 2023, and so this this division did not exist before I started. So we have truly built it from the ground up.

Oh, well, thank you for joining us. I think we're we're gonna need you to come back again because it's very informative. Any questions from the council? I guess I have a question just about the overlap that you mentioned. So it's you said you staggered how many days a week?

Yes. So it's it ranges between three to four days a week. The fourth day is like a flex day on Friday I mean, on Mondays where if we get an urgent request on Friday mornings, that's when the team will go out on Mondays. And then we also have a standing engagement event with the Somerville Homeless Coalition where we'll do actual street outreach in the square, and then we'll post up at the engagement center and do actual case assistance with clients there.

Okay. Do you think it does that equal out to seven days a week, or how like, who covers the other days?

Yes. Great question. So SHC and Fenway Health, are both the other two sort of big outreach teams that exist in the city. So across the three of us, we are definitely in across the city on outreach seven days a week.

Thank you. Council Scott?

Thank you, miss chair. I appreciate that. I loved all this information about outreach, and harm reduction, and I think this is a huge improvement over where we were two years ago. So thank you for all that. I just had a quick question about the harm reduction supplies, that go out there. Is that all obtained through, through OM lines in Health and Human Services? Are we obtaining supplies from the state clearinghouse? Or, just wanted to understand where our stockpiles for that came from.

Yes. That's a great question. So I believe, and I might have to defer to my superiors to answer this holistically. But I believe that this funding comes from our opioid abatement funds, as well as a line for supplies from our prevention office.

That's interesting. Last I checked, we hadn't spent any of our opioid abatement funds. So I guess I'll, mister chair, I'll follow-up, after the fact on this with, folks in finance, I suppose.

Has a comment? Yes.

Thank you, mister chair. Through you. I did wanna confirm there have been several requests to this committee, I'm sorry to the Finance Committee and the Council for spending of opioid funds, specifically for harm reduction supplies, and also our public health vending machines, and that are soon to be implemented. I have to check on that when the actual date goes. But yes there happened a few expenditures in the opioid settlement funds.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, mister chair. There there have been some very recent requests coming through finance, but it sounds like these supplies have been going out for a while. So I'll I'll follow-up offline. I appreciate it.

Alright. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Just a question for myself. I am curious. Like, what are you hearing in East Samoa these days? How are things going?

Yeah. That's a great question. So we have noticed just based on frequency of us going there that the best time to engage with folks is

in

the morning. That's usually when we see people congregating in our public spaces, and it has been quieter. We have definitely seen a lack or a decreased presence of folks due to some extenuating circumstances. I'll just say that. But, folks are very happy to engage with us. Like I said, we've established a great sense of trust with folks over there. So that's all, I guess, I can say. Thank you.

Okay. Oh, yeah. I well, I guess you answered it that it sounds like there's a decline in presence, but not a decline in the problem. Counsel of Klingon.

Thank you, mister Chae. Yeah. You made me think just with checking in on areas. It's not technically my ward, but it is an area of concern put on the well, it it's probably mine. These two individuals living or was seem to be spending evenings or a lot of time in the temporary pocket park on the home insight. I know I've talked to economic development, and, you know, we put in some three one ones and just inquired about what contact's been made with those individuals. I've actually talked to one

of the

individuals that that's down there, not at length, but under you know, I wasn't trying to intrude, but, you know, just some pleasantries. And just wondering if you if you were the one if you have gone down there, or do you know what the situation is with those you know?

Yes. Thank you. Through the chair. So based on conversations that we've had, read the weekly huddles that we have on Friday mornings, SHC is the main point of contact with the folks over there.

Mhmm.

Okay. Alright. Thank you very As long as I know, you know, that there is a line of communication open, I mean, you know, my expectations are are just that. I mean, we can't you know, if somebody doesn't wanna take advantage of any options, you know, the the these people have personal choices to make. And so so as long as I know that, you know, we've been making contact and that and that those folks know how to find services when they're ready or able or willing, that's all. Thank you.

Yes. I believe they have been full full time clients or fully engaged with SHC for quite some time now.

Excellent. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further questions? Seeing none. Now we will close out item five. Market work complete, and we'll leave. We do have one other item related to this that I'll keep in committee. Thank you, miss Benvenuto. Is that right? Did I get it right? You can correct me.

Benvenuto. It means welcome in Italian.

Oh, yes. Benvenuto. Alright. Well, thank you very much, and we hope to have you back again.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Alright. Thank you. That item five will be marked work complete, and then we'll move on to item six.

Are we then sent

Great.

And that brings us to agenda item number 625Dash1340, that the director of emergency management and mayor and city councilors in real time when emergency events are occurring in the city such as fires or emergency evacuation.

Alright. Thank you. Do we have an update on this, Leah Zanhara?

Yes. Thank you, mister chair. I'm happy to share a brief update on this, which is that our current procedure is to notify when an emergency has happened, there is a series of folks who are notified, and IGA is a part of that chain in order to communicate to the ward counselor so that they are aware of an emergency happening in their in their ward. And we have heard feedback from the at large counselors in desire for more notification. We are working on sort of internal processes to make that smoother.

As you can imagine, in an emergency situation, it is difficult to have a lot of folks involved. So trying to streamline as much as possible and make sure the right folks know, and we're not adding more folks to an already chaotic situation. So we've heard that feedback, and we're gonna continue to work on that policy. We did this last a few incidents have occurred, and we've done our best. IGS and our best to make sure ward councils are also updated on events that are happening throughout the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions or comments? So I wanted to take this item off just because thinking about it. First of all, I I get updated by the, IJA's office whenever there's an emergency, and I appreciate that. You're never gonna be faster than Reddit.

I get everything I need off of Reddit, And I when I heard this, I chose not to say anything, but I was just thinking how unrealistic and unfair it would be to expect someone in emergency to call five people who are unrelated to that emergency to inform them of every step along the way. So unless there's any objections, I'd like to mark this work complete. Seeing no objections, the items marked work complete. Next item.

Brings us to agenda item number seven, ID 25 dash 1180 that the director of economic development and city clerk discussed with this council policies regarding outdoor seating and how the city may make it easier and less expensive for small businesses.

Alright. Do we have anyone to speak on this item? Looks like we have Michael Poetry here.

Thank you, mister Chair. We also have Richard Land Carney, director of economic development and Dana White,

Alright. Well, thank you all for coming. Who would like to start?

Michael, you want me to start it today?

There we go. Hello. We'll go. Alright.

Through the chair, Michael Potier, licensing operations manager, did wanna defer to a director if she wanted to speak first. So to respond to this agenda item, we kind of took it in two parts. The first request was, to provide some information on how we're making things easier for small businesses with regard to outdoor dining. We've already taken several very important steps here. The first started before I joined, the city.

The standardized initial application for folks who would like to apply for outdoor dining. We have some pretty detailed instructions for folks to know what kinds of materials they're going to need, what information they're going to need to provide, what sorts of inspections they're going to need, and that process, takes them. And once they're approved, it continues on their license moving forward. So it's a continuing addition to their license that would only need an amendment if they're just going to be changing their floor plan. The just this week, we've also actually implemented, a pretty rigorous adjustment to our renewal process to streamline the process.

We worked with our ISD building folks and our colleagues in fire to make that process even easier, and that includes people, licensees who have outdoor dining on their licenses. And, less related, but still, we're proud to report that we actually have 20% of our renewals in already within the first week, which is a market improvement over years past. We're very excited by that. The second part of the agenda item is requesting information on how we're making it less expensive for those same businesses. Based on the agenda item, department heads and staff from the city clerk's office and economic development, we did meet earlier this year to discuss cost.

Just as a kind of a point of information and a friendly reminder, the current fee structure is actually based on a pretty comprehensive public outreach initiative that took place in 2023 that was headed by the economic development department. At that time, the decision was made, again, based on public feedback that the fees would be set at that time and then reevaluated for fiscal year twenty seven. So when we discussed that earlier this year, we determined that that original decision made sense based on the changes that we had already made in the licensing part of the process. We determined that formal meetings and coordination on this very topic would begin in early twenty twenty six, which has a few benefits. First, it allows those changes to be any changes to be discussed directly, in consideration and in parallel with the annual budget review.

And also starting early next year, we'll give the new administration an opportunity to actively participate in that process if they so choose. So that's my summary, and I defer now to Rachel or Dana if you guys have

anything. I

think you gave a great overview. Counselors were here. We're happy to answer any questions on the process that we went through in 2023, what we're thinking about for the upcoming year in terms of how we're gonna do outreach and get back to this conversation again.

Thank you. Does anyone have any questions or comments? See, none. I I have a few, I guess. So I'm curious.

How so I'll give you my reason first for why I introduced this order. As I love outdoor seating, and I wanna see more of it. And I think we've done especially during COVID, did a great job of, providing those services or allowing it to happen. And then after that, when we kind of returned to the regular order of business, I think a lot of businesses were surprised at the the fees that they had to pay in order to do what they were previously allowed to do for free. And, unfortunately, I have two businesses in my neighborhood that previously had really nice outdoor seating, and this year, they just decided to not do it at all.

So my first question, I guess, is how much revenue does outdoor seating in summer will generate annually, we'll say. All all outdoor seating annually.

Mister chair, through you, we did an early evaluation and the at least with regard to the use of public space itself, the annual revenue generated for this year 2025 was around 105,000.

Okay. And, by public space, you mean, like, a parking spot that might have had a meter in it or something like that?

Correct, mister chair. Through you. Yes. The amount of revenue raised based on the amount of public space that was used. So that would be the first 450 feet, I believe, is $3 per square foot, and then any square feet above that are sick is $6 per square foot.

Okay. And could you remind me again how did you come to that, number?

Mister chair, we so going the process we went through in 2023 involved multiple outreach meetings with the business community as well as with internal departments. But we got to this number through a dance back and forth of all the different perspectives involved. We know that the actual cost to operate and make that space available to the public is exceeds $6 a square foot. We know that the true bearing the true cost on an outdoor dining operator is not going to necessarily be the decision that we wanna make for the city. But we know that there also does need to be some the conversation at the time was that there does need to be some level of buy in that from the restaurants that are participating in outdoor dining, but they're using public space to make profit.

And so this was this back and forth that we went through. At the time, there was actually a course correction that was somewhat desired by the non restaurant owners who were neighbors to restaurants in many parts of the city. We had so much large outdoor dynings that were were developed specifically as a COVID response that there were some businesses who were looking for a little bit of a course correction and for folks to really take stock of what it truly takes to operate outdoor dining in the long haul. The number of parking spaces that they are taking off of the market for the rest of the businesses in that district, as well as the public space crunches that we're we're feeling, That does not happen on East Broadway, I will say. East Broadway is a little bit different.

East Broadway, we have very, very, very generous sidewalks, a lot of space available. But this is a citywide policy. We landed on these fees in in consultation with all of these different players. And, again, it was said as a we're gonna start with this, and we're gonna come back to this conversation again in three years. And so that three years point will come up again this coming season.

This coming season. So, yes, it is 2025. Time flies. I think what you said, director, was kinda what I was getting at is as I understand it is the amount of money that we would get for having a meeting parking spot is way below the amount of money and fees that the business would pay for outdoor seating. Is that right?

In the if I may, in the pre COVID era, you had to pay for the whole price of a meter that you were disputing displacing. Yeah. That was in the many thousands of dollars per year. What we were looking at with this fee, one of the features of this is that it is agnostic as to whether or not you are taking a piece of a a parking spa parking space away or if the city has already gone through the process of making a wide enough sidewalk to allow for outdoor dining to occur on the sidewalk. It's still public space.

We have made different kinds of investments in that public space, whether we had previously had it it was parking that is being displaced or general sidewalk space. That was a a decision point that we made in this process to say we wanna see that is applicable across all public space that you are utilizing for generating profit from outdoor dining.

Thank you. So I think I'm happy to hear that we'll be coming up with some new solutions soon. Just to give my 2¢ on it in case it, weighs on your decision making. I generally am a person who tries to preserve parking spaces for people when possible. I also like outdoor seating, and most of these businesses that they're they're out they're choosing to lose a parking space for themselves, basically, right in front of their business in order to have outdoor seating.

So I have to think that it benefits them financially, and they're not losing too much business from losing those parking spots. As you mentioned, some of them may be different than other neighborhoods. Maybe we can think about a regional or square or block plan. So instead of it being citywide, I understand, you know, for example, Davis Square. People wanna park there and drive off with their food, the DoorDash, things like this.

Esubbable, I feel like I I the other part, I guess, I would say is you you mentioned the buy in part, which I I do understand that that if you give away something for free, people don't maybe don't appreciate it as much, so you need some buy in. But what concerns me is when they're just not gonna buy in, and they choose not to have the outdoor seating. And I could think of at least Gauchos, and I think La Brazza had really nice outdoor seating, and they just chose to not do it at all. And I would really like to expand the outdoor seating, especially on East Broadway and get that walkability. I would also think about maybe how much revenue it generates for the businesses and therefore the city for us to get that.

So I appreciate the update. I guess we'll wait until next year and see what the new plan is, but I my 2¢ is I I would like to take the outdoor seating over the revenue possibly, and, hopefully, we get more revenue as a result in the long run. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from the councilors? And, Dorek, do you mind too? Because I have talked to a few businesses. If I relay this information to them, could I give you a call sometime and just talk about it if they have further questions? Alright. Thank you. We'll mark this item work complete.

And the next item.

Alright. One moment while I swap back to the agenda.

Sure. Surprised this came back up.

And that brings us to agenda item eight twenty five dash zero nine two three that the director of inspectional services appear before this council to discuss recent changes to business permitting in relation to risk categorization and the impact they may have on businesses?

Unfortunately, IST is not here today, so we'll leave that in committee.

Okay. And that brings us to agenda item nine, which, chair, remind me, this is the item you also said earlier that you would like to leave in committee.

Yeah. We'll leave that in committee as well.

Okay. And that brings us to the last agenda item, agenda item ten twenty five dash zero zero six four. The chief fire engineer and the commissioner of public works discuss with this council how to ensure fire department facilities are well maintained, and we do have a memo for them.

Okay. Lia Zanhata, did you have a comment?

Yes. Thank you, mister chair. After you, just wanted to also mention the previous item also has a memo associated with it. It's an update on the a similar format that was submitted in June. But just if there were any specific questions to that, I'm happy to take that back to the three directors that put together that memo as well.

You're talking about the last homelessness item? Or

Yes. There's, a yes. There should be a memo from director Karen Carroll, director, Lisa Davidson, and director Ellen Schachter from yes. That's the one.

Thank you. Thank you. I I felt satisfied with the previous discussion. That's how the council has had questions. So we'll keep that one in committee. And then the last item is firefighter maintenance. Is there any update on that?

Thank you, mister chair. Yes. We do have the memo that is being shown on the screen now with a I'm happy to briefly summarize the two departments. Fire department and DPW work together on that with, excuse me, a split of responsibilities as is outlined in the memo. There's a list of the kinds of work that DPW does on those facilities and then the kind of work that the fire department staff do. And unique to this fire department facilities are that they are staffed twenty four seven given the nature of the work of the fire department. So they're able to identify needs, pretty quickly and are, you know, channel that through our three one one process, and that's how DPW responds to those tickets.

Thank you. Any questions or comments from the council? Consul Scott.

Yeah. Thank you, mister chair. You know, over the years, I've heard complaints from some of our firefighters about the conditions in, various firehouses. It sounds like conditions that have persisted for a very long time. You know, I appreciate here that this this memo talks about how DPW is responsible for, you know, general maintenance, including sheetrock repairs, flooring tiles, things like that.

I I get is there any tracking that we have in terms of number of three one one tickets for facility repairs and what the turnaround has been on those on those on those repairs that have been requested over the course of the last year or two?

Thank you, through the chair, if I may. Yes. I don't have that information tonight, but we do have a record for any tickets that are submitted via 311. We can pull a report of those, so I'm happy to gather that data, on the number of three one one tickets and then the duration that they've been opened. There's usually a there's a time stamp for when they're submitted and then when they get closed. So I'm I can provide that information, for the last year or two year. What's the time frame you're hoping for that data?

You know what? Honestly, I'm not doing a a deep dive audit here on performance, and and it is tough, right, because four zero one tickets get closed frequently before anything actually happens to them. I'm not I'm not sure if having the close time to close on those tickets is necessarily the the most helpful metric. It it'd really be a more complicated question of, I guess, DPW buildings, being able to say when they finally checked an item off of their to do list. I I ask only because I know it's easy to you know, the squeaky wheel, gets the grease, and, the problem that's right in front of you is the biggest problem.

So I know that, you know, maybe I'm just hearing from, from a few people about the particular, pet peeves in their firehouses. So I'm just trying to understand what the scale, of the problem is and what the what the kind of the time scale is for turning around on these fixes. So I'm not I'm not giving you any, direct homework in terms of giving me, like, a three one one output report, But I would be interested, in a sense of how quickly knowing how constrained our building department and DBW is, how quickly these issues get addressed once they're reported through three one one or through, fire department management for that matter. I I think that's that's all I have, mister chair. I'm just trying to understand, again, the scope of the problem versus the anecdotes about it.

Is this something you'd like to keep in committee and perhaps we can get, DPW to come and talk about it, or would you like to, explore that offline?

You know what? I I can explore this offline, and then, depending on what comes out of those conversations, bring back a a specifically targeted, item to get get attention focused on exactly the kinda answer we need.

Okay. That's great. Any other discussion on this item? We'll mark this item work complete.

And we are at the end of our agenda.

Very nice. Do we have any roll call votes we need to take? I think we can just roll call to adjourn.

No. Correct.

Alright. Councilor Scott moves to adjourn. Let's call the roll.

And on adjournment, councilor Scott?

Yes, please.

Councilor Klingen? Yes. Councilor McLaughlin?

Yes.

We are adjourned.

Good night, everyone. Thank you.