Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good evening, everyone. I'm Jake Wilson. He, him pronouns, councilor large and your finance committee chair. It's 06:04PM, and I'd to call to order the Tuesday, 10/21/2025 meeting of the finance committee of the Central City Council. First, it's my pleasure to read you these words and let us do this here on Zoom. Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025, this meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio video recording and a comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City Of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, could you please call the roll to establish quorum?

Yep. This is roll call. Councilor Mbach?

Present.

Councilor Burnley? Councilor Klingen? Present. Was that councilor Burnley?

That was councilor Burnley. Present. Yes.

Councilor Scott?

Chair Wilson.

Present.

Alright. With that, we have four, so we do have quorum.

Alright. Thank you all for bearing with us. There's a lot going on tonight around the city. So we have colleagues, participating from from the streets tonight, so I'm here for that. Folks, we're gonna be taking up, our 10 on agenda 10 item agenda, easy for me to say, in the order posted with one exception. We're gonna take item four after item two. So, let's start with our minutes. ID number 25Dash1570. Approval of the minutes of the finance committee meeting of 10/07/2025. On the minutes, any discussion?

Seeing none, the items laid on the table will recommend approval with a single vote at the end of tonight's meeting. It's gonna take us to our second agenda item, ID number 25Dash1543. The mayor requested approval to appropriate a $147,724.07 from the COVID nineteen stabilization fund for the twenty twenty six warming center. I see we have, director Karen Carroll from health and human services with us. Other folks are on camera. Were you are you speaking on this item as well, including our director of emergency management, Bill Fisher? And and, HHS, are you deputy director, Anoop Malik?

Through the chair of finance.

Finance. Manager. Yep.

Alright. Please tell us about this request.

Happy to. I'll start through the chair. Thank you. We are here requesting, and my colleagues can chime in if there are questions. We are requesting that funds be allocated for the twenty twenty six warming center as is appropriated based on the following, that the total cost of running the city's warming center is 571,773 and 68¢, which is an increase from last year due to additional beds needed as well as increases in operational costs, including inflation, external contracting needs, and personnel.

HHS plans to use $424,049.61 of state grant funds to cover the operational costs of the warming center for fourteen weeks from January 4 to 04/12/2026. HHS is requesting this council to approve the first five weeks, 12/01/2025 to 01/04/2026, of operational costs plus the cost of the external security firm hired by the city for a total amount of $1.47 $7.24 $0.07. And the funds need to be allocated in October in order to meet a starting deadline of December 1. I'll take any questions or concerns from the committee.

Alright. Thank you for that, director. Colleagues, discussion. I guess while while we're waiting for that, just to be clear, just to reiterate this, we're we're appropriating a 147 about a 148,000, from a stabilization fund for our portion of this. The state, we found some state grants that are kicking in. I think you said 424,000. Is that correct, director?

Okay. Is correct to the

chair. Alright.

Two different grants from the state, but pieced together for purposes that we can use for this warming center.

Okay. Alright. I appreciate that that explanation. Any no discussion from from colleagues on this one? Could you repeat the dates that the center expects to be open again, please, director?

Sure. Through the chair, we're hoping to open the center on 12/01/2025 and leave it open until 08/12/2026, nineteen weeks of operation.

April 12. April 12 or August 12?

Through the chair, April 12. So this is just the winter warming Right. Emergency warming center.

Sorry. You you had said August, and I and I thought, wait. Oops.

I'm sorry.

Just wanted to clarify. I figured you meant April. I know. It is and there's a lot going on. I just wanted to clarify that for the public.

You are correct. Thank you for the clarification.

Okay. Excellent. Alright. I have not seen any discussion here, from colleagues. So I'll just say thanks for making this happen.

This is a really important thing we do now annually in the city, and, I I appreciate the work that goes into this. So thanks for getting getting those funds to, offset a large a large chunk of the cost from the state. And, with that, we're gonna lay this item on the table to recommend approval with that single vote at the end of the meeting. That is gonna bring us to our fourth agenda item, ID number 25Dash1520. The mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $500,000 grant with no new match required from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to the Office of Sustainability Environment for six no cost electric vehicle charging station installations.

We have director Christine Blaise from the office of sustainability and environment with us. Director, please tell us about this.

Through you. Thank you so much. So director Blaise, office of sustainability and environment. So the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Mass CEC is gifting the city through their on street charging solutions program. Six no cost on street electric vehicle supply equipment or or or what will be translated into as six brand new dual port level two publicly accessible charging stations and essentially nearly double the number of publicly accessible ports that are available to the public to charge in in the across the city.

So we're we're really excited about it. We're thrilled to be a part of the program. The gift is in the amount of about 500 of of five up to $500,000 to do this work. We used our electric vehicle sighting strategy that was developed through an inter part interdepartmental team, within the past couple years. And we also conducted lots of public engagement to ask the community and our businesses where they would like to see charging stations and where they would be most advantageous.

So we landed on these six high impact sites. And if if all goes well, we will commence construction on them early next spring, and then they, you know, should be operational hopefully by, you know, mid mid next year. And, we'll be on our way towards, our climate forward goals of decarbonizing our, electric or our vehicle supply.

Thanks for that, director. While I wait for colleagues to chime in with any discussion they they might have, I had a couple questions. Well, first of all, it looks like these are going to be similar to what we have. I know there's one at on Evergreen Ave at the Winter Hill School already, curbside, stations. These are all six to be the the same style of curbside charging stations?

Through you, mister chair. Yes. Yes.

One question I had was, have we talked to traffic and parking at all about what happens when you know, should a vehicle needed to park the opposite direction, of of of traffic typically to to make the charging cable reach. Have we talked about any policy on that?

Through you, mister Harry. Yes. Yes. We have, we are in contact with traffic and parking trying to figure out some solutions there and, have been evaluating the different sort of station models too to see if there's longer cords, that are available and and trying to figure out the best place to cite these. That was a conversation as part of this too.

Okay. I was gonna ask the clerk to pull. I could just read this, the locations. There's one in Teal Square, one in Prospect Hill Park, one in Ball Square, another a second one coming to that Evergreen Ave Winter Hill School site, Hudson Street at at Labyrinth, and one in Union Square on Stone Ave. So good to see more EV chargers coming to the city. Any discussion from the committee? Mister chair? Councilor Mabaugh.

Yeah. Thank you, doctor Bliss, for for this. You know? I mean, I mean, in full support. I guess so did you send a memo before prior to this meeting? Is that for the locations of this this chatting. Yes.

Oh, sorry. I think I'm I'm I apologize. I think there was a delay through you, mister Cherry. Yes. Yes. We did, send a memo, and, we attached, I I believe, a contract to the agenda item as well.

The the memo reference was attached to the item in LEGISTR when it was submitted, actually. So Mhmm.

Okay. When when was that submitted?

Well, it was

I believe that

was sent to committee the previous I think the previous regular meeting we had two Thursdays ago.

Okay. Yep. And yeah. So I'll say this

is a practice sorry. Go ahead, counselor.

No. No. No. It's okay. I just wanted to first I mean, I guess, I'm I'm good. I would I would look at it. Do we know, like do we have does the city have statistics about how many electric vehicles are now in the city?

Through you, mister chair. The state actually has a an inventory through their motor vehicles, and there's we're, we're actually pretty on target for our commercial vehicle electrification goal. I think we have a little bit of ways to go for our passenger vehicle goals, but they do, publicly post information, and we do, you know, assess it periodically.

So so thank thank you, doctor. So and the purpose I asked is that so is there a trend of increase in electric vehicles?

Through you, mister chair. Yes. Yes. We are seeing, an increase in in, in electric vehicles. I can certainly get the latest, numbers for you if if that's of interest after the meeting.

But, yeah, we are we are seeing an increased trend. We are, you know, getting requests from the public too for more electric vehicle charging stations, and we we do understand, you know, kind of the chicken and the egg, question that always comes about with electric vehicles, which is, you know you know, do you install the station first, or do you wait until the demand comes? And I think what we've been you know, what we sort of learned, it's it's a little bit of both, and we wanna make sure that we can meet the the growing demand in the city and that we can encourage you know, have the resources available and continue to grow them and improve on our services so that folks are encouraged to switch to electric vehicles.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, mister chair. Yes. I found the the documents online. Yeah. I must say, yeah, if you can send me those additional supplementary information, it will enhance my understanding of, like, how we are evolving and the trend. You know? Thank you. I'm all set, sir.

Alright. Any other discussion? I'll just say I'll I'll commend the director for attaching that memo to the original item. It's it's nice to have that when the item is submitted so we, you know, we have plenty of time to review that.

Yeah.

Alright. I'm not seeing any further discussion on this, so we're gonna mark, we're gonna lay this one the table to recommend approval. Director, thank you for coming and spending some time with us.

Thank you.

We're gonna jump back to agenda item three now, ID number 25Dash1538. The mayor requesting approval to appropriate $56,215.42 from the bike share stabilization fund for installation and startup costs of a blue bike station at the 495 Columbia Street development site. I see we have director Alan Inasio from the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development. Director Inasio.

I thank you, chair Wilson. As you read the item, this is another privately funded bike station in the 495 Columbia Street development project. It's a 19, 19 dock, 11 bike, state well, we will be purchasing 11 bikes. It's a 19 dock station, with a solar power kiosk, and there is also a memo attached explaining, breaking up the costs and, the the specs of the of the dock.

Oh, we love an attached memo. Thank you for that too. And and, clerk, I'll just note counselor Scott has joined us. I believe counselor Scott joined around 06:10PM.

Yes. I have that noted. Thank you.

Alright. Colleagues, discussion.

Chair Wilson?

Councilor Navarro.

You know, I'm always a fan of director. But, again, I'm just curious to know if is the is the building, you know, are there tenants yet in that building?

The

through the chair, the economic development team is is working closely on all of the large scale commercial vacancy and and tenancy issues, I can certainly reach out to them and and get back to you, but I'm I'm not a 100% certain as of this time.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chen.

Absolutely. Any other discussion on this? I think the committee says, yes to Blue Bikes. Okay. We're gonna lay this one on table to recommend approval. Director, thank you so much for talking us through this. It's gonna bring us to a pair of prior invoices. I'm inclined to take these up together. I see we have Linda Duong from, Parks and Rec. Hello? Do you mind taking these up together? Is that okay with you?

Yep. That's perfectly fine.

Alright. We're gonna take up, clerk items five and six together. That's ID number 25Dash1504. They may request approval to pay prior invoices totaling $13,084.20 using available funds in the parks and recreation department recreation supplies account for pool chemicals. And ID number 25Dash1508, they may request an approval to pay prior invoices totaling $1,533.75 using available funds in the parks and recreation department recreation supplies account for pool chemicals. Please tell us about, these two requests.

These are two invoices that are being used for pool chemicals that were mainly chlorine that are used to maintain Dilboy Pool during the summer and also the Denise Smithers pool. These invoices were for orders that were placed in June, but because of turnover within the pool manager position, the invoices weren't received until September, which is why they weren't be able to be paid during fiscal twenty five. Alright.

Colleagues, any questions, comments on these two requests? Alright. I don't see anything. So we are going to, ladies two on the table to recommend approval. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Moving right along. We're up to a couple of funds and accounts items, agenda items seven and eight. Director Nassau, you wanna take these up separately or together? You're muted, unfortunately.

Oh, I'm sorry. I have no strong preference. Feel free to read them both, and I I can take questions on either one.

Take them up. We'll take them up together. Clerk Brand, take up agenda item seven and eight together. ID number 25Dash1557. The mayor requesting approval, to create the brick bottom, infrastructure stabilization fund and accept the payment to the fund of $763,814.81 from off-site infrastructure and other contributions outlined in the Brick Bottom District project development covenants for the purpose of funding public infrastructure projects that mitigate the impact of large scale development in the Brick Bottom District.

And ID number 25Dash1559, the mayor requested approval to create the Boynton Yards infrastructure stabilization fund and accept the payment to the fund of $384,025 from off-site infrastructure and other contributions outlined in the Boynton Yards District project development covenants for the purpose of funding public infrastructure projects that mitigate the impact of large scale development in the Boynton Yards District. Alright. Director Ignacio, you wanna tackle one or both of these together?

Thank you. Through the chair, tried to explain as much of it as, we could in the item, but, you know, finally, after many, many years, many of our larger development projects are hitting the stages of their their projects and their covenant agreements where their phase of where they are in construction or completion is triggering the certain payout certain payout times and and and triggers for off-site infrastructure payments, and that's that's why we are creating these funds. They are meant to be spent primarily in the adjacent vicinity of the development, and they are mainly for, as we mentioned, our our infrastructure. These will mostly be engineering, mobility, open space, type projects.

Alright. I appreciate that that explanation. Colleagues, questions, discussion? Mister chair? Council Mubaugh.

Yeah. No. This is this is what I I can say. Government really working. You know?

Remember when I this is along the lines of my request for looking at this stabilization funds, consolidating funds, and repurposing it. And I guess I'm really excited that this is actually happening. And one of the things I was curious is to know is because I have the sheet here with all the different accounts, but I wasn't sure exactly, you know, like, which from which account which account was closed. You know? Like, how I think how like, for what reason it was created and just to make sure that we are actually, like, following, like, an explanation for those accounts.

Like, maybe not now, but, again, I'm really I like the idea about, like, how what we are doing. And when we talk about infrastructure, I don't know. Is that is that maybe street sidewalk, you know, transportation. Like, infrastructure can be can mean, like, many different things, but just to make sure that we actually have, like, a whole clear purpose so that nobody comes again maybe a few years later and then take it and do something else, you know, and leave it up to interpretation. Does that make sense?

Thank you. Through the chair, I'll I'll do my best to try and answer that. So I understand the the question. These funds are slightly different than you may be understanding. So these aren't these aren't being repurposed from what are you know, some of our larger stabilization funds that can be other come from free cash appropriations, city council appropriations, or or, like, other sources.

These are payments that have either been recently received received not too long ago. We've just recently hit a trigger a a covenant trigger on one of our projects. These are brand new funds that are being set up. They are directly generated from specific development projects. And, the purpose, while broadly covering infrastructure, need to be, utilized or expanded relatively within the, adjacent development area.

That's why we're creating the brick bottom infrastructure fund, the Boynton Yards infrastructure fund. So these are net new net new funds not coming from any previous source, not being repurposed from an older stabilization fund. We are just now hitting the point in a lot of our development projects where their, covenant commitments are being triggered. And so

I see.

And so these payments are beginning to come in.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that clarification. Thanks, chair.

Thank you. Council Scott, not to put you on the spot, but as the ward counselor for both of these, any anything want to always recognize the ward counselor when we're talking about, two two big things like this in your ward.

No. I appreciate it. I think this is, just the right procedural way to handle these funds. I'm looking forward to how we how we get those put to use to make the neighborhood better.

Hear. Hear. Alright. I'm not seeing any further discussion on this, so we're gonna take these two and lay them on the table to recommend approval as well. Director Ignacio, if that was it for you tonight, thanks for being here with us. Thank you. Alright. We are now down to our ninth agenda item, ID number 25Dash1545. That is the mayor request approval with time only extension until 12/31/2028 for the contract with Bayer Blender Bell Architects and Planners for design services on the building master plan. Great document. I see we have director Reich from infrastructure and asset management with us. Director Reich.

Thank you, chair Wilson. Esteemed valued members of the finance committee. Richard Reich, director of infrastructure and asset management. Bayer blinder Bell, BBB, was the author of the building master plan. And while we haven't made, you know, significant headway on the recommendations of that plan, the buildings that BBB investigated as part of that plan have had a number of smaller projects associated with them.

Among them, the both phases of Winter Hill at Edgeley, the roof and clock tower at City Hall, the make safe and asset preservation of 1895. Their understanding of these buildings give them a great start on these projects, and their work is absolutely outstanding. They've done excellent work on the design and construction administration of all of those projects. We don't have a specific project, right now lined up for them, but we wanna keep the ability to tap them at a moment's notice to to do projects like that. So we wanna extend this contract for time only for another three years so that the next time something like an or city hall comes up, we can jump on it quickly.

Alright. Colleagues, discussion. I'll just say there's always next year. So not seeing any discussion here. So we're gonna lay this one on the table to recommend approval. We're gonna take up our final item on tonight's agenda. ID number 25Dash1546, the mayor requesting approval of a time only extension until 12/31/2028 for the contract with Klinefelter Northeast Incorporated for design service as a design services on the Morrison Avenue linear storage sewer project. And once again, director Rasch.

Thank you, chair. Last month, the council approved the funding for the next phase for final design and bidding on the Morrison Avenue Linear Storage Sewer Project. That's a, flood mitigation and infrastructure renewal project, as it sort of says along Morrison Avenue. Also, will allow us to retire an old and what we know is damaged pipe on the community path. That's a big risk for us.

Klinefelter did all the preliminary design for that project. We've been happy with their performance, and we've, successfully negotiated a scope and fee for them to continue on to the next phase for final design. And so we've already allocated the money for it. This is, the contract extension, that then allows us to continue that, relationship with Kleinfelder for this work.

Alright. Thanks for that explanation. Any discussion by the committee? Alright. I'll just say sounds good. We're gonna mark the we're gonna lay this one table to recommend approval for this one as well. Director, thank you for being here with us. That brings us to the end of tonight's agenda, and councilor Klingon moves to recommend approval of the items on the table and to adjourn. Could the clerk please read the agenda item numbers of the items up for recommendation to approve and call the roll on recommended approval of those items as well as adjournment?

Yep. On adjournment and items number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Councillor Mbaugh? Yes. Councillor Burnley?

Aye.

Councilor Klingen?

Yes.

Councilor Scott?

Yes.

Chair Wilson?

Yes, please.

Alright. That is all votes in favor, and it is 06:32PM.

Alright. Thanks, everyone. See you at City Hall.