Public Health and Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

Alright. I now declare this meeting of the public health and safety committee in order. Please note that pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025, this meeting of the city council will be conducted via remote participation. We'll post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the city of some of our website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, please call the roll.

This is roll call. Councilor Penida Neufeld.

Here.

Councilor Davis. Councilor McLaughlin. Here. Mister chair, two members are present, one are absent. We have one.

Mister chair, I'm sorry. Mister clerk, can you resend the link to councilor Davis? He said that his current link isn't working. Oh, looks like he joined us.

There he is. And councilor Davis, you're here for roll call?

Here.

Thank you. All members are present, mister chair. Okay.

Very good. Let's let's see. Let's just take things up in order. We I'd like to take item number five out of order after items one and two. Seeing no discussion on that, that item will be taken out of order. But let's read the first item.

Approval of the minutes of the public health public safety committee meeting of 03/19/2025.

Alright. I'd like to move for approval. Any discussion? Seeing none, please call the roll on approval.

On approval of the minutes, councilor Penida Neufeld?

Yes.

Councilor Davis? Yes. Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Mister chair, all members have voted to approve. Those minutes are approved.

Before we get started, liaison, Harry, you had a comment?

Yes. Just for the clerk, currently, this is a finance committee agenda. I know that meeting is also happening right now. I just wanted to flag that.

Thank you very much for that. This is not the correct agenda.

Oh, yes. See, I can't see it, so you're gonna have to Okay. I was I I Give me a minute.

I upload my own copy, I so wasn't looking at it either.

Okay. Let me get in here. This thing is giving me all kinds of trouble tonight.

And there are no minutes to approve, so that vote was

No. There are. There are. You have public help. Public health.

You're right. There we are. Perfect.

Yeah. I have a paper agenda in front of me. Yeah.

I have the same.

Okay. Get rid of that. Okay. There we go.

Okay. So we just approved the minutes. Could you read item number five, please?

Item five. That the director of health and human services and the chief of police consider installing emergency call boxes in key city locations, including Davis Square.

Alright. I believe this is your item. Councilor Pineda Neufeld, did you wanna start with this?

Sure. We can we can I don't know if folks are okay with this, but we can probably do this in conjunction with number two because there's an update about this in number two? So maybe we read both items, if that's okay, mister chair, and take them both up.

Okay. Seeing no discussion. Please read item number two as well.

Item two is a resolution that the administration update this council on the report and recommendations of the Davis Square Public Safety Working Group.

Alright. Council opinionated Newfaldo.

Sure. I think I'll probably hand this over to the chief in a moment. I'll just share that councilor Davis and I have been meeting with, a group of of of stakeholders, range from city staff to community partners to, to representatives from both Ward 6 And 7 since November 2024 frequently. I wanna say once once twice a once or twice a month to pull together this attached document that walks through kind of a a set of recommendations coming out of last summer's kind of public health and public safety challenges around Davis Square, knowing that we're entering the warmer months and wanting to be more proactive and and thoughtful and strategic about how we approach this summer. So I don't know, councilor Davis, if you wanna add anything to that, but I thought I would pass it over to chief Benford to walk us through those recommendations.

Yeah. Mister chair, if I

could. Councilor Davis.

Thank you. And through you, thank you to the good councilor from Ward 7. As she stated, this, working group, small group has been meeting. This is, I think it's important to know that this the idea originated from chief Benson in in in a in person meeting we had in 7 Hills Park towards, you know, early fall and late summer, early fall time frame last year, you know, in response to some of the the challenges that we were seeing, that folks were facing, and that, you know, we're raising concerns among some some residents. And I I just wanna say that, you know, I I I wanna name the stakeholders because I think it's important folks to hear, you know, who was involved.

You know, this was the the chief directly, personally, as well as the mayor's chief of staff, representatives from health and human services, representatives from the Somerville Homeless Coalition, and I wanna also thank them for hosting several times in their space as well. We had representatives from the business community and then a handful of of residents primarily and and good concept from what's happened. Correct me if I'm wrong. My recollection is that these were pretty much folks who sort of put their hand that's hands up initially while in the park that evening, you know, and then sort of were were identified after that. I think there was a a real range of sort of initial viewpoints representative represented in this group, which was important to me when, you know, when we went into it.

And and I'm just speaking for myself. I assume it was important to everyone else as well. Clearly, that that was rep you know, that was reflected in in the makeup of the group. You know? And the the the challenge or the the task the the goal was to, you know, have a discussion about the the circumstances in and around primarily Seven Hills Park last summer and, you know, really explore how we as a city responded, how we as a community responded, how we as a city responded, including the police department and the administration, and and, you know, how we how we felt we could we could do something differently in the future.

And so the the document that and I do I I do think we should pull up the document if we can, if the clerk has access to that. This is the latest draft, the the the very, very current draft. There there's it it it is and will I expect remain a living document, but this is this is a result of input from all of those stakeholders throughout various means. And I wanna really thank the folks who did do a lot of the administrative work in in in, you know, putting words to page on on this document because, you know, it as you'll see, it it really we we're calling it a shared community expectations document. You know, it really does reflect sort of a summary of of the scenario and, you know, kind of both high level and specific things that we we expect to you know, what ways that we expect to proceed going forward.

I am hopeful that, you know, last summer will have been an anomaly. Certainly, the situation that we that that we had, you know, where there are a number of folks, many of whom didn't have a a place to sleep at night with a roof over their heads, many of whom did you know, were using substances. We we learned from the police that arrests were made for actual, you know, sales and and dealing of of illegal substances. And I've said it before, but I think it's really important to reiterate that none of that was unique to Somerville. It was it was simply the first time in in recent memory we'd seen activity of that level in nature in this park, in this area.

But there is an article in the globe just this weekend about the the challenges that communities are facing. It was it was that article primarily focused around Brockton, but it named a whole host of other cities that that were, you know, very similar challenges are are are are coming up. There's a variety of reasons for this, from the pandemic to increased housing costs to, just the way our system is set up. I will note that, a Ward 6 resident who is an expert in this area was quoted, extensively, in in that article. But if you didn't know she lived in Somerville, you you you you wouldn't have known that because Somerville was never mentioned in this extensive article that talked about this problem.

And I I I I say that just to reiterate that, you know, this is nothing unique to Summerville. Everyone is you know, just about every community is facing some level of of dealing with these challenges because of the way our system is set up and the way that we allow people to just be left to their own devices and and don't provide this in my opinion, don't provide the the level of support that we should on a federal and state level. And, you know, individual municipalities are are left to to try and do the best they can to help people out and to maintain a community that where everyone everyone feels safe and is safe and has has the resources they need. So a bit of a of a long winded intro there, but, you know, these are to me, it's really important to keep those filters in mind when when you're looking at this. You know, this is this is nothing unique to this community, unfortunately.

But I do think we have excellent folks that knew and I will specifically call out chief Benford coming into this situation. He was not here last summer. So if if if if nothing else, certainly, that is is different. That is a change, and I'm I'm optimistic and really grateful for the attention that he's put into this. I'm optimistic that we will have what I think everyone will find to be a more appropriate way of of of addressing some of these challenges if and when they arise again as we get into warmer months. So with that, mister chair, I will, I'll stop stop yammering on, and I would love to hear from the chief.

Alright. Thank you. Before I recognize the chief, mister Clerk, I see Karen Carroll from Health and Human Services and Hannah O'Halloran from the Homeless Coalition in the attendees section. Could we upgrade them to panelists, if they're here for this or other items? And I'll turn it over to the chief.

Chief Benford, are you there? I see you present and muted.

And, mister chair, while we're getting the chief, mic'd up here, could we, whatever needs to happen to get that the attachment on the screen so folks, the public can follow along as well, please?

Can we get that, mister Clark?

Was that not showing?

He wants the attachment to the memo about the Davis Square. Correct, counsel Davis?

Yeah. I I believe it's

A six page document? Is that not on the screen now?

That that sounds right. Yeah.

Have it now.

There we go.

It's okay.

And she's been for the other.

I just saw him turn on his video, and he was in the meeting twice. Let me confirm with him if he's having any tech difficulties.

Okay. Does health and human services have anything they wanna add on this? I know if we have the other item you might be here for.

I'm driving this.

There you are. Oh, there it goes. Chief.

Mister k, are you there?

Yeah. We can hear you.

My sincere apologies. I was working hard. I am at home battling limited Wi Fi capabilities with Peppa Pig and my daughter and her tablet. So my sincere apologies. My camera wasn't working.

As long as it's not Blipy, please proceed.

Peppa Pig comes first, chief Benford. It's Rachel on the next room, so solidarity.

Got it. Well, thank you. I I I do hope the the the the cameras work. And I I wanna stop by, you know, through you, mister chair. Thank you as well as the committee members as well as community members of the city colleagues, and stakeholders that worked with us, that are on this call.

I heard you mention, that Hannah O'Holland and some of the homes coalition is with us. The director over at HHS is with us. Karen, really appreciate all the work. And I'd be remiss, really, in not really call you know, calling out counselors, Judy Prenade and Nelson Bloemfelt as well as Lance Davis for a couple of reasons. One, we had some very difficult conversations with the community that were necessary to hear their concerns, and push us in this direction.

But secondly, their willingness to step forward. One of the big pieces of this process was to ensure that it was community driven. I was very clear, and I think everyone shared, in similar values, and not wanting to dictate to the community, but wanted to hear from them, and wanted to ensure that this process was organic. So I I do thank, the two councilors for helping us, and helping the community to identify their representatives, to help drive the discussion. I greatly appreciate it.

I also wanna very specifically just mention, through the conversations, councilor Davis helped to frame it up. There were some difficult conversations, and they were not always agreements, but we agreed that we would respect, opinions, and respect discussion at the table and work towards compromise. But there were a couple of areas, in there that the counselors are respectfully to the roles that they play, and wanting to ensure that we were as transparent and as informative as we possibly could could be, in producing, this, close to, close to being our final draft. And specifically, our counselor Davis, you know, consistently talked about the enforcement, in in in in the posture of SPD for certain types of crimes, things that we were able to speak to and have a conversation throughout. Happy to answer questions about that should they come up.

And, councilor Pineda Neufeld, again, particularly in the introduction as well as throughout the document, asking for a level of clarity on, start times and end dates, and partners, to the work that we were doing, and a host of other areas to help frame up the work. So, again, I a nod to them as well as all of my other colleagues for working with us. Last thing I I I do wanna mention is I do wanna call out a few other folks. Councilor Davis mentioned a number of different stakeholders that worked with us. One group in particular, and this is really a nod to the to the homeless coalition, in really helping us to identify some individuals that have that have lived experience in the unhoused community to help us think when we got into that space, to help us think through their lens and providing some critical information to help inform some of the tenants that went into this plan.

So, again, a nod to all the persons, and entities that the, good council named out, but also, mentioning those individuals. This process, really, built on a couple of, really high arching, themes. One, as we mentioned, we wanted this to be community driven, and we wanted it to be organic. We wanted to recognize that we had tremendous academic and professional experience at the table. But we also want to make sure that this process was layperson enough so that the average community member that had different experiences could feel comfortable in the conversation, and we could really hear and be informed by them.

So it really was, you know, you wanted it to be an organic process, and it really centered on four basic steps. And it was one, first, to identify, stakeholders, that would work, do the work, to come up and arrive at a plan. Secondly, it was to work through and identify issues. The third step would have been to develop the plan, and that's really what occupied, the lion's share of our time, in coming up with this document. You can see, through its iteration and it being a living document that it's still taking a little bit of time to get there, as well and the last step would have been to implement on the plan.

As we talk about, the the plan, in this document that is really close to, being in this final form, at least as we implement, I really wanna give a specific nod, to Jay. Jay was extremely, extremely helpful in taking on, multiple tasks, wordsmithing, typing, scheduling. He answered the call and, quite frankly, some days where I had some scheduling conflicts and and and couldn't help to organize and continue the meetings. Both him and Nikki stepped up. So a real nod to Jay who had some other commitments and couldn't be here tonight.

I wanna just really jump really quick and just start through the document, and I'm gonna, at a really high level, hit on some things so I can ensure that we have some time for q and a should they come up. But just starting with the with the introduction, the plan really focuses on the Davis Square and surrounding spaces to include 7 Hills Park, Statue Park, Ennie Park, well as the, community bike path. As councilor Panaye Neufeld talked about, in in her comments, we really started, with this work, back in November following a series of community meetings, and just prior to that, the meeting that, councilor Davis talked about, out in 7, 7 Hills Park. We want to ensure that Davis Square remains a welcoming space, that is safe and inclusive for all. And that's that's difficult.

It's not easy around how do we remain inclusives in the right message to all of our stakeholders while also promoting safety. So again, a nod to individuals and persons compromising to reach a plan that we think, really speaks to, the value set, of our community. Jumping down to our crime and public safety, big three four big areas of the plan that we ultimately ended up bucketing our issues of concern into. Looking very specifically at drug activity, both selling and public usage, we wanted to make sure that our plan was balanced, and we wanted to ensure that we knew that as we talk about distribution, as we're talking about sell selling selling narcotics, there's zero tolerance, for that. And for individuals that engage in that space, we will take enforcement action.

Conversely, when we talk about substance use disorder treatment and education, we're really looking at individuals that are struggling with the throngs of addiction around how do we use our influence to our official capacity to be able to support those individuals. Again, through this through this, you know, the shared expectations, public drug use, public drinking, they're not acceptable. But we also recognize the personal challenge and the extreme difficulty it is to rid yourself of those addictions. So we recognize that part of that balanced approach has to include alternative approaches to include treatment and education. Going over to page two, as we talked about this being driven by the community, I wanted to just, you know, very specifically focus on a couple of bullets where we talk about SPD undertaking law enforcement steps consistent with standard procedures and best practice.

Again, we're always I always, you know, when we talk about enforcement, it's not an easy, thing when, someone's attempting to avoid you, while you're attempting to, locate them and hold them accountable. But nonetheless, we do that, always, through, promoting, and held in personal rights and constitutional rights are at the highest regard doing that. But we will take enforcement action, in that space, and it will not be tolerated. And, again, illegal substance abuse, may result in intervention by SPD, and we focus on a response. And in our conversations, we talk about response.

What does that mean? It could be a police officer that comes. It could be a representative of the Summerville homeless coalition. It could be a representative of HHS. It could be a community member. It could be our faith based community. So we focused on response, and really talking about that balance, and what we need to truly solve what we, you know, what we deem and know is a social issue. Moving on to violence and, public disturbances. Physical violence, is never acceptable. We had to investigate a number of different, violent crimes.

Fortunately, we were able to investigate and, and, make arrest and hold individual individuals accountable to the court system, but it's never acceptable. Solicitation, public intoxication, and decent exposure, these are all behaviors that are unacceptable per, this document, in this agreement that we're enter into entering into socially. Conflict resolution and de escalation strategies will be used, used appropriately by SPD. Our officers probably do that every day. But, again, we wanted to codify this here to make sure that the community know and individuals that have the opportunity to witness this document know that we're not just living it verbally, but it is something that's codified when we expect to be part of our ethos as we go about doing our work.

We talked about, community members calling 911. We understand and greatly appreciate the passion that our community has, but we also know that some persons call 311 when they should be calling 911 or persons that don't call 911 at all because they don't wanna bring attention to individuals that are in this space. And quite frankly, we even talked with some individuals that had just really developed, you know, you know, an in deference to the violence, and things that they saw in the square. So we wanna encourage people to call 911. We will respond.

It helps us track, calls for service, but it also alerts us, in instances where things are occurring and we can't be there. We also talked about noise considerations. We talked about our, you know, our care providers in the area, particularly our day cares that provide services in the area around the describe you know, how loud music and verbal altercations have been become disruptive in the space and have led to this feeling of fear in the space. So we're expecting individuals to respect loud music. We're expecting individuals to carry themselves in a an appropriate way, for community shared space.

Community members are encouraged to call 911, to report instances of, unreasonable noise to services, for appropriate intervention, by SPD. Should we get the call, we will respond. I spoke a little bit about our balanced enforcement, and and then very specifically bullet number one, a community centered approach will, be taken to ensure equitable enforcement of the law. And we wanna ensure that we focus on that word equitable. You know, as difficult as it may sound, we talked about individual individuals that may be, in engaging in distribution, in illegal behavior.

Sometimes the appropriate response is is arrest. That doesn't mean that we're still not here, to make services available to individuals, that wanna move in a direction, of living in appropriate, community based, value based, life in a community where they are an appropriate, member and contribute appropriately. But sometimes it we have to arrest individuals, you know, in that space. Other times, it's individuals as opposed to arrest. It's an alternative option of seeking services.

So the community is expected, to meet us in the middle with this as we share information through, efforts of, education, intervention, and connection of persons to services. The community is expected to treat the unhoused population with respect and common courtesy. These were some of the lessons that we learned from, again, at the FHA some of the homes coalition helped us in bringing individuals in. We were able to hear from them around some of the concerns that they shared around being filmed. Some of the, you know, concerns that they shared around feeling out of place.

There's no defense for any person that's going into a store and shoplifting, but it is also not fair to typecast and paint with a broad brush all persons that come in. So we're expecting and hoping that the business community and others will help meet us in the middle on that. We talked about, again, third bullet over on page three, three one one versus nine one one in appropriate, times in which you should be using both. To be very clear, when we're talking about, violence, it's 911. When we're talking about if you're moving through and you see something suspicious, it's 911.

If it's non emergency, it is quality of life, 311 may be appropriate. But again, if someone's being assaultive, if you're feeling unsafe and it's based on a set of circumstances primarily with someone who's an awful design, We want you to make that call and we're happy to come and we will come. When we talk about how we share information, we're gonna be reducing these documents hopefully to fly a form, in a way that we could they could be distributed by many of our partners. We've had conversations about using video message boards to display short messages on where to direct community members to get additional information. I've also if we're able to reduce it in an appropriate format, have agreed to make it available to police officers so that they can distribute to individuals as they go about their work and they engage with individuals.

Very quickly, moving on to community programming, big broad bullet area number three, community program and space utilization. It's important for it was important in the discussion and it's important practically that we don't look to just displace and push individuals because they will make their way into private property. They will make their way into backyards and things like that. And that's what we don't want. So we looked at all of our resources from public library, based on initiative, to services and programming, at the homeless coalition as well as the engagement center.

We talked about park hours and recreational services. And I just wanna pause here for a brief moment as it relates to park hours and recreational activities. 7 Hills Park, it is a park that is used for recreational space, but it's also a cut through for many community members that live along the path as well as moving into Cambridge and further deeply deeper into West Somerville. So it is right now I shared this out publicly a couple of days ago, a couple of weeks ago respectively that the law department as well as the pocket department is looking at creative language that we can put on signs that would provide offices with the rest of necessary tools that they need to public postings to be able to enforce any appropriate time constraints for use of the park, but also recognize persons that may be part passing through during the late hours to get home. So Nikki is looking into that, but, you know, hopefully, in short order, we'll hear a little more with regards to options that may come in that space.

There is also a discussion, and I I know that Bill and emergency management's gonna talk a little bit about call box. We talked a little bit about that. That is the discussion that's ongoing, and I would defer to emergency management to report out, a little further on that. Lastly, jumping over to, number four, diverse, and accessible services. This is extremely important.

It really ties into what councilor Davis mentioned earlier with regards to the range of different stakeholders that came to the table. We also want to make sure that not only did we bring different stakeholders to the table, but the range of services, that we often see with persons, that may, be, experienced in different difficulties to include, food insecurity. So we talked about food, food access, wraparound services, continued pathways to permanent housing, working with, the diversity of programs at HHS, needle collection and harm reduction, will continue. Outreach and support community call boxes that I just mentioned. It was extremely important, Michael, as well as Hannah talked about this really highlighting in this final document.

Really highlighting and focusing on the the capacity that we currently have. We wanna ensure that we have the capacity and don't set up false expectations about really driving down and and and really enhancing the level of services, that we have the capacity to offer, knowing that there's always an opportunity and we'll continue to work and endeavor to deepen our resources. But really focusing on the range of services that we do have available, to us, and really promoting them and ensuring that the community knows, how to access them so that, they are brought to bear so that they can benefit the individuals, many of the individuals that we are encountering. So, at a really high level thousand thousand per view, that is the document in the summary, form that we hope, to roll out in short order. There's, you know, and it's also posted online.

The, the city's account office worked very hard to reduce and summarize this so that it's available in your digital form on the city's website. And it really is a snapshot of the many, items that we spoke about here today. Lastly, I wanna close with what does this what does this mean as we move forward as a city, as we move forward as a community? It's extremely important when we talk about, from an STD standpoint, how do we create sustainable pathways to be able to continue the conversation to really focus on the three c's around partnership, problem solving, and prevention. And this opportunity gives us a pathway to sustainably engage with our community members throughout the year so that these in these issues don't fester and become larger issues.

So we're really looking to drill down on that. An additional iteration of our community policing that this department has proudly, you know, employed over years, but has recently been paused, is the next evolution we see is the neighborhood engagement teams. And they will be the officers that will work in partnership, with the community, to go out and do the work sustainably throughout the year. It was important that I led through example, which is why I really jumped in, with both feet to try and be helpful in this space to really lend a very clear message, from an SPD standpoint around the direction that we're moving, and what the expectation will be. I, counsel, have a good, chair is on with regards to Ward 1.

Shared this with some community members that talked about some issues and concerns that was unique to their space and their respective neighborhood, and we hope to employ, the same process, over there, starting the conversation and drafting a similar document to help us address the needs that are very clear enough concern for that neighborhood. So, again, thank you to council McLaughlin who really took the call again, learned from some of my testimony around how the good counselors from Wartsbah six and seven really stepped up to help us identify community members. So, again, looking to continue this work, work with our community across the city, hopefully, as a new iteration and a new way in which we can problem solve and develop these action plans that are very specific to Native because in helping to drive down some of the the social dysfunction that leads to, crime and the feeling of, unsafe and feeling insecure. So thank you very much. I will pause there.

Sorry for being long winded, want to try and give as detailed and a high level overview, so that it benefited, those on the call. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you very much. Mister Clark, could you also promote Karen Carroll, who's in the attendees, list, promote her to panelist? Do counselors have questions, or would they like to hear from other, city folk before we proceed? I heard Hannah oh, Helen's name mentioned, so I'd love to get her perspective. I see you're in the audience. Hannah, thank you for coming. Do you have anything you'd like to add to this?

Thank you, miss Sherwin. No. I think chief Benford, did a great job, reviewing the process. And I think overall, it just was a great experience to have, you know, so many different people come together, whether it was neighbors or chief and and city department, city councilors to kind of all put our heads together, and take a step back, look at look at it from many different lenses, and and kinda figure out how we could just do our best work in the community. So I think chief Benford did a great job.

Alright. Thank you. How about director Carroll? Do you have anything to add?

Through the chair. No. I don't. I appreciate the summary that was given, and we have obviously been seeing drafts of this as we've worked through and talked about how, not only HHS and our team, but the other city departments can continue to to support the. So we appreciate the efforts, of this group, and, I think a lot. So thank you for the time tonight, the committee.

Alright. Thank you. Any questions or comments from the council? Council Davis.

Thank you, mister president. No actual, you know, questions or further discussion on this. I appreciate, chief Benford's detailed run through. And, you know, think it essentially covers I mean, having participated in the whole whole process, I'm in a position to not really have a whole lot of questions about it. But on that point, I I think I, you know, I would ask, given that we have president Nufeld here as as a member of this committee, you know, and, mister chair, I I think it might be appropriate to at least and I I assume you would anyways, but to, you know, certainly give other members of the council an opportunity to to to ask questions and weigh in.

And and to that end, to you the administration, on Thursday, if other counselors have questions or follow-up, it it might be it might be appropriate to have folks available. I'll I'll leave that to to you all to sort out to what extent we we do think that's necessary or who that might be, but I just wanted to raise that since two of the two of the three members of this committee that at least has constituted this evening were very much part of the process, it it you know, we we probably aren't gonna have a whole lot of questions, but other counselors might. And so that just something I might wanna anticipate. That's all.

Alright. Thank you. Consul Panayna Neufeld.

Thank you, mister chair. Through you to councilor Davis. Agreed. I think that's a that's a really good point. Probably other folks will wanna join in the discussion. A couple of things. One, I wanted to note and excuse me. I'm I'm getting over this something viral plague. One of the really active members of the community, Jay Nodoff, is here in the attendee list. So I just wanted to, like, give another quick shout out and say thank you so much for the amount of work that he put in as well, kind of shepherding this group along and and keeping people organized.

He's Ward 7 resident, but also my next door neighbor. So I just really wanna thank Jay for for being a real catalyst and conduit for this process. The other piece that I just wanted to make sure to highlight is that, you know, some of the questions and conversations we had acknowledged that there will be this is a living, breathing conversation and document. Right? That there might need to be opportunities for adjustment and for, you know, deeper discussion on on on sort of, you know, what's currently happening and what are we seeing in Davis Square and where do we go from here.

And I wanted to make sure for members of the public who may be seeing this now or in the future, that there is a weekly meeting that the members of city staff and our and and SHC and our community you know, key community partners attend that walks through, you know, kind of a lay of the land at Davis Square and and, you know, talks talks about where, you know, any any adjustments or recommendations on where we go from here. So in terms of keeping an eye on, you know, what what are the calls for service or what, you know, what are the three one one data points that we're seeing in Davis Square, 7 Hills Park, etcetera, There there are folks that are meeting weekly to discuss it. And I just wanted to make sure people knew that and understood that this is, you know, an ongoing conversation, ongoing work. This is really just an outcome of from a series of long discussions and conversations we all had as a community, and we wanted to make sure we kind of wrapped up those loose ends from last year. But knowing that there's, you know, a plan in place to make sure this is looked at weekly, I think, is a really important point for people to remember.

So, that's it for me. Similar to councilor Davis, I you know, we we've been deep working on this for so long that I don't have any questions about it, but looking forward to the discussion from others, if they do have questions.

Alright. Thank you. Chief Benford.

Just very briefly, mister chair, I I I just want to offer a nod to, mayor Ballantyne. Her her leadership was helpful in this regard, as it highlighted this as a priority for the city, and just a range of different city departments that are not mentioned here, that were brought to bear, and can be, used to assist. When we talk about, trash removal and things like that, public works, When we talk about some of the documents that we're gonna be producing, and pushing out, comms stepping up in that space, as well as well as a couple of other city departments are unnamed, but certainly part of the team. So I just want to just acknowledge that, that that that is helpful to have the mayoral support at that level, which helps to reinforce, that it is a community priority. So I just want to share that.

Thanks again for the opportunity.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Seeing that, I'll just say that I'm I'm very happy to hear this report, someone who lives on the other side of town. But as is pointed out, this is not a uniquely solvable problem, but it sounds like we have some good unique solvable solutions to the problem. One of the things I've been talking about whenever I address issues like this is compassion and accountability, which is, you know, making sure people are being taken care of, the people who want help get help, but also letting people know that there are standards in the city that everyone has to abide by.

And that sounds like what we're doing, so I feel pretty good about it. And I don't have any questions because I think, chief, you really hit every point. So it was very thorough. Thank you very much. If there's no other discussion on these two items, I guess we mark them work complete. Any discussion on that? Seeing none, we'll mark them work complete. Next item.

Next item will be item 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?

Liaison Hutter.

Thank you, mister chair. I just wanted to ask if we, we previously read item five into the record on the call boxes, and we do have staff here if we wanted to discuss that item as well. Happy to do that. If there are no questions, it's great, but, wanted to just flag that they're here if there are questions on that call box item specifically.

Yeah. Councilor Davis?

Yeah. Thank you, mister chair. So on that, I I as the good council from Ward 7 had suggested, I I agreed with the idea of taking those up together because the call boxes was something specifically mentioned in the report. But if there's a specific update on that item, I'd certainly love to hear it. But, you know, otherwise, if it isn't an update, I don't have any other questions other than look forward to hearing about all of the, you know, suggestions in the report or in in the, the document that we just reviewed, if that makes sense.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you, chair, councilor Davis, because it did, get lost in the greater conversation. But, yeah, we didn't touch on the call boxes. Did liaison did you have anything to add to it or any city? Let's give the city staff a chance to respond to it, I guess.

Yeah. We have director Bill Fisher here from emergency management to speak on that, so I'll let him take it away.

Alright. Mister Fisher.

Good evening, chairman and through through the chair. So, not not a huge update, but I did wanna update you on the progress because this is an important piece of the overall initiative that the chief and the the rest of the folks here have already discussed. As you guys were aware that through several community meetings after the, resolution for the opioid distributors in 2021, one of the areas that was identified for a gap is, having accessible access to emergency services, particularly around late evenings, you know, when businesses are closing and and understanding that people may not have cell phones and that sort of thing. And so that was the guiding force in this project. Recently, emergency management has been kinda brought into this project a few months ago, and we've been working with several, departments collaboratively, the mayor's office, HHS, DPW, ISD, PD, FD, IT, as well as, OEM to try to figure out how to best facilitate this, procedure moving forward.

We even met with one of the potential, contractors to put in the call boxes if we can move forward on this just this afternoon. There are several, logistical issues that we are looking at that I'll just review, as an overview quickly. But some of the things we're looking at is is just the general call boxes and how they operate, you know, whether they're hardwired or they're on solar power, whether they're cellular or on radio. And one of the ones we're really looking at closely is that they some of them come with integrated camera systems. And, of course, we wanna be very sensitive in the fact that we're looking for, you know, equitable access to all.

We wanna make sure that anything we have operating on these call boxes would not, you know, be a a a wall or a barrier for someone to try to seek access. So we're making sure that it's in line with the city surveillance ordinance compliance as well as we wanna make sure everyone feels comfortable and safe if they're gonna access these. So we're working through those. Also including, you know, what kind of signage there are on the devices, if there is any photos being taken, that sort of thing. Even so far as when we view the call boxes today, the the standard model comes, you know, in a in a blue box with a blue light on it.

And we asked if there was any way we could modify that to a different color in a different color light because we don't want any, any thoughts of of you know, they're they're just calling for assistance, there's nothing else implied when they hit the button. The two locations that we're initially looking at based on an assessment including information from violent crimes around the January 2122, as well as data involving sharps disposal, DPW responses, parking mobility engineering, is the Davis Square area, of course, in the Statue Park, as well as a area at Cross Street East and Broadway, the two locations we're initially looking at to place these call boxes with the hope that if this, project works out the way it's intended, that we would come back to the council as well as the mayor's office and look towards maybe adding additional boxes if a need does arise. Again, we're looking at finances. We're looking at the feasibility of the projects in a lot of different areas. And so we hope in the next fiscal year to actually come back and and, put this project forward and get some of these call boxes out there so that these people, if they need them, can get the necessary help they need.

So with that, I will go back to the chip.

Alright. Thank you. Any questions or comments? CNN, I I have a question, Dan. This is, you know, just a curiosity question. Is, you know, we we live in a world where everyone has a cell phone. Why why is it important to have call boxes?

Through the chair, thank you for the question. I I I don't think it's fair to assume that everyone has a cell phone. I I I I think it's you know, especially with the guiding force of this project is we're trying to find those people that may not have a cell phone because of their current circumstance or for whatever reason their cell phone isn't operating. You know, maybe the battery's dead. It's malfunctioning, and we just wanna make sure that people have access to the help that they all deserve.

Okay. Thank you. And do you know, how often do the current call boxes get used? Do you have any idea about that?

I don't have any data on that at this point. No.

Okay. These are just curiosity questions. I figured I'd bring it up for conversation. So seeing now for the discussion, this item was already approved, or marked or complete. So we shall now move back to the other item. What was the last item we read, mister Clark?

Item three.

Item three. Okay. And this is, yes, this is the ISD item. Liaison, do we have an update on this?

Thank you, mister Chaired. There is a memo submitted, for this item on the this is the risk categorization. Right? Yes. It includes several attachments, that show, the risk categorization, structure that I think there are I'm not gonna misspeak.

There are multiple levels, as well as sample, letters that were sent to businesses twice. There was the initial and then there was the follow-up letting businesses know when this would take effect. And I can, you know, speak to a little bit, the memo communicates a lot of this, alignment or change to the to the risk categorization is to be in alignment with the FDA, code. As you see here, this is, like, sort of the structure that the the FDA has. This puts us in alignment more with that, and the, associated fee structure matches more with higher risks, require more time of our inspectional officers to make sure that they are you know, the food that is being offered or whatever business is being operated that is at a higher risk, that they are meeting all of those requirements, and so that fee matches the level of, review from our inspection officers.

Okay. Unfortunately, I'm not gonna be able to read it like this. I would say so this is one that, the reason I put this item in is because I've had questions from local businesses about, how this will impact them and maybe some unintentional consequences. And this is, this is ISD specific. Correct? This has nothing to do with economic development, anything like that?

Correct. And these are, the risk categorization fees were voted on by the board of health. So these are voted on by, the the board of health

Okay.

And and then enforced by ISE.

Would it be possible, because I I would like talk to to some of the businesses in the neighborhood, make sure they're aware of this as well. And would it be possible for a future meeting to have someone from ISD come and discuss this so we could just ask more detailed questions?

Absolutely. We can have, the appropriate staff from ISD come in the the next meeting if you'd like to discuss this further.

Okay. Thank you. And that might work better because I also have an item I'm submitting this week, which would be relative to local businesses. So rather than sit and read the six page memo right now and then field questions, I think I'd rather just hold off on this one if that's okay.

Not a problem. Mister Troy, will also say I apologize for those items getting too late. I had sent those on Friday, but Outlook forwarded me and left that in draft. So I really apologize for you not having those over the weekend. But, yes, absolutely. We can have staff come back, at the next meeting to discuss this further.

Okay. That works for me. As long as, the committee has no questions, I will leave this one in committee. And please read the next item.

Next item is item four that the director of inspectional services enforce section 11 dash one eleven of the code of ordinances. Registration and maintenance of vacant property in light of the recent collapse of three sixteen Summerville Avenue.

Okay. Liaison, do you have an update on this?

Thank you. I'll turn on my camera. Yes, mister chair. We also have a staff memo on this item, mostly explaining, the details of 316 Somerville Avenue, what happened there, and, the ways that and the incidents there, you know, are you know, enforcement of the, ordinance referenced here 11 dash, one one one, would not have changed the the outcome of those circumstances and then just elaborated a little bit more about the, what is required in the ordinance around maintenance for vacant properties, and how most of the those were all met by the property at 316 Somerville F.

Okay. Any questions on this? Questions or comments from the council? So on this one, this was in another committee, and then it got sent to us. And I understand the specific building, maybe the vacant properties ordinance wouldn't have helped.

But something I just wanna flag and not to get, you know, political on this, but there are a number of people running for office this year on vacant properties specifically. So it's really become it's not just some passive thing that, you know, people people are paying loose attention to. People are very actively paying attention to it. And I have a number of vacant properties in my ward. I know council of Penida Neufeld has been dealing with one very irksome vacant property in her ward.

And they're just everywhere. And, like, as far as I'm concerned, you know, I helped draft the language for the vacant properties ordinance, modeled it after Arlington. I just think it's not as big of a lift as people think it is or at least the way I would have it enforced. It's not as difficult as I I think people are making out to be. So I think this is I I I think I wanna mark this work complete because it's about a specific item, and it doesn't sound like there's any update on enforcement of the vacant properties ordinance. Correct?

That's correct, mister chair.

Yeah. So I don't wanna beat a dead horse, but I really do think it's in the city's best interest to start enforcing this, and to start taking faking property issues more seriously because people are very actively paying attention and the way things are going. I think it's a very serious issue right now, and next year, it will likely be even more serious. So any discussion from the council? Any comments from the committee? I'll mark this one work complete, and hope that ISD, with a lack of director, has some time to actually, start thinking about enforcing this for the future. So this item will be marked where complete.

The next item is item six, an order that the director of health and human services, the director of housing, and the director of housing stability update the city council regularly on progress towards addressing homelessness.

Alright. It looks like we lost director Carroll and Hannah Halloran. They probably assumed that we completed the conversation with the other items, and I feel like we kind of have unless the IGA's office had a separate update on this.

No, mister chair. There was a memo sent forward with some updates on some data and pulled information from both HHS, the office of housing stability, and the housing division, just giving updates on what has happened since essentially January. There's some data in there about our point in time count, which compares, at you know, in January, we do the count of the year to see who is, currently unsheltered. And so you can review those numbers. We wanted to write those things in writing so you have them to reference.

And happy to take any questions either after this meeting or, at the next one on any of that information. But, yes, we've obviously been continuing to do great work on how to respond to a variety of issues. We wrapped up our warming center this spring, and are working toward the after action report on that, as well as a bunch of other everyday stuff that our office of housing stability is doing to keep people from who are who are in emergency situations losing their housing to to keep them housed. Yeah.

Okay. Any questions or comments from the committee? I think we'll leave this one in committee for future discussion, but I was very satisfied with the, discussion at the beginning of this meeting. So I have no questions right now. I will leave this in committee. And then the next item.

Item seven is a resolution that the administration update this council on the status of the $528,218 received from the National Opioid Settlement Fund to combat drug addiction and any plans to utilize such funds.

Alright, liaison. How does an update on this?

Thank you, mister chair. Yes. There was a memo on this as well because it has a lot of numbers. The broader review is, we are using some of these dollars on three main categories. One, I think just a few meetings ago, the director of HHS was before the council, for approval on funds, to use funds from the opioid abatement fund to purchase the public health vending machines.

That's one of the purchases we will be, making with these funds and the ongoing maintenance will also be under under these dollars. We also have a to supplement that work, a grant and a partnership with the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, NAPC. I'm sorry. The planning council, not a commission. So that's the one big bucket.

The second big bucket is our Sharps disposal kiosks. As you may be aware, there's one that has now been installed in the Davis Square area, and we have, another that is an indoor, Sharps kiosk that is located at the Somerville, homeless coalition's location. It's an indoor one. And we have purchased two additional kiosks, that will be installed next year. So those funds and their ongoing maintenance is also going to be paid for out of the, opioid abatement funds.

And then the last is, last bucket of spending is for our care coordination software. This there's a lot of, collaboration between, you know, regional providers and and our public health nurses and our CHWs, our, clinical health workers. So that software allows them to make good referrals and make sure people who are receiving care get to where they need to go next. So the software helps make sure those referrals, happen. And that is the other that's the third bucket of where funds from the opioid abatement, fund are being used, and we continue to look at that.

There are some restrictions on, you know, what kind of spending we can have out of those funds, but we are looking to utilize that for our ongoing work in harm reduction and the excellent work we anticipate coming out of our newly hired prevention specialists. So

yeah. Alright. Thank you. And, Claire, can we pull that memo up? That shouldn't be six pages long, so we can read it now. Just one. Perfect. Can you scroll up a little bit or scroll down?

That's fine.

Alright. That's good.

Right there is good? Yep.

Lee and I don't know how to you have any more up, information about these, this coordination software?

Is there a question particular? I'm happy to answer that. But

I guess what does it do?

Yes. That is a great question. So because there are multiple folks interacting with people who have needs, it ensures there's sort of like one software they're all using so that it's clear and can track, where someone has been referred and that referral goes over. It's in the same database. So there's not duplication of work and things will get lost in the system.

So that allows, our teams that work, within the city and also with our regional partners. I think I mentioned here Medford and Arlington, and there's a few, shared agreements we have across, you know, our municipal borders, and that helps ensure people are getting to their next step, and other, you know, challenges with lots to follow-up and just making sure we you know, those services folks are getting and they can get the care that they need.

Okay. And it's just between those three cities, or are they just us working together in terms of, you know, do do a lot of cities use this software?

That is a great question. I do not have the answer to how many other cities use this software. I know that this is something we've used, newer. I think we used in fiscal year '25, maybe also in '24, and we're looking to continue to use in fiscal '26. But I don't know what other municipalities utilize it, and I can get that information from you

Okay. For you. Yeah.

I'd be just curious about that. And then you you mentioned the the restrictions on how the money is spent. Can you tell me what some of those restrictions are?

Mister Sher, I can tell you a few of them, but I I know that I'm not the most well versed in all of those restrictions. Restrictions. But, the funds have to be linked to, responding to those who have been impacted or their families impacted by the opioid crisis. So there has to be, an angle of harm reduction or providing services to people who are currently or, experiencing, you know, a substance use disorder or, you know, supporting their families. So all of these, are in line with that, supporting folks who have, who are currently experiencing a substance use disorder and providing them harm reduction options.

I can get the specifics. I don't know if there's something, like, a quick handout, but if so, I can get that to the this committee so you have for reference.

Well, I'd say I'm mostly interested in, you know, and, you know, things like shops, kiosk, software. These things are important. My priority is always what's gonna keep people alive, what's gonna get them the resources directly. So I guess I'm interested in, are there any restrictions on, you know, direct services towards people? And I know we've used them for Narcan in the past.

We talked about the safe consumption site at one point, but I'm I'm just curious what we can't use this money for, and I'm just reading the the first item over again too. The health vending machines, that's important as well.

Directly.

To you.

I guess and I don't mean to be critical because I think these are things that we need to spend money on. But I do read, you know, it says a lot of things, and then it says, with individuals and families directly impacted by the opioid crisis. And it doesn't feel like it's, I don't know, as direct as I would hope. And I think one of the things we've often had, which is there's always a focus on prevention. We do a great job with prevention, and then we have aftercare as well.

And one of the things I've often talked about is the middle ground where people actually need treatment, and assistance. That's the hardest part. It's the most expensive part, and it's just the part that I bring up in times like this when I see, you know, we have money. It's being used for things that are important. But I would love to hear, you know, what we're doing in the direct service towards people. So maybe we can discuss that on another occasion unless there's an update on that now.

I can bring that back to the department and get any information we have about future plans, longer term plans, outside of just fiscal year twenty six, which is mostly to maintain, these services. I will also note the line in there about, individuals and families of those directly impacted by the opioid crisis. Those are the folks who were surveyed for the opioid abatement needs assessment, which is referenced there out of that assessment is where the funding machine came out of. But that specific focus groups for the opioid abatement needs assessment to get a sense from those most impacted what what they would like, to see in the community.

Okay. Great. Alright. Well, thank you very much. Any further questions or comments from the committee? I'll mark this one more complete, because we got the answers we needed. So thank you for that. Are there any other items before us, mister clerk?

That is it.

Any further discussion from the committee? Seeing none, councilor Pennedi Neufeld calls to adjourn.

Unadjournment. Councilor Pennedi Neufeld?

Yes.

Councilor Davis? Yes. And councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Mister chair, all members have voted to adjourn.

Alright. Thank you very much. Good night, everyone.