City Council - Regular Meeting

Meeting Medford City Council, April 7th, 2026 is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the role. Councelor Callahan. Council Lemming. Council me. Councelor Scott Pell. Council Sing. Vice President Lazaro is absent. President Beers

present. Six present, one absent. Please rise to salute the flag. Councelor Lazaro notified me that she's not feeling well and is not able to attend tonight's meeting. Announcements, accolades, remembrances, reports, and records. 26067 offered by myself, President Bears. Resolution congratulating library director Barbara Kerr on her retirement. Be it resolved by the Medford City Council that we congratulate Barbara Ker on her retirement as director of the Medford Public Library and thank her for over 40 years of public service to the city of Medford. So pretty self-explanatory resolution in some ways, but I don't think there's any short way to describe the impact that Barbara Kerr has had on our community. Barbara has been at the Metro Public Library for decades. She is instrumental in receiving the making sure that we received the uh state library commissioners award to build the new Medford Public Library and then also for the past now almost 5 years to um open that library to fund that library to bring in uh additional funding from the members of the community and foundations to support programs at the library and the library is more than ever just at the heart of our community. So, Barbara has done so much for our city. Um, she has been an amazing public servant and she is having a retirement party this Friday at the library at 3:00. So, I hope that folks can attend and we're going to get this resolution, assuming you all pass it. And I'll tell her who's responsible if we don't um pass this citation and get it on some paper and I'll bring it down and share it with her at her party on Friday. Um she's just been such an important figure here in our community and we're so thankful for her decades of service. Councelor Singh.

Um I mean I think Coun uh President Bears you you really I think stated well the the number of big projects that she's worked on for our city that families in Medford that kids in Medford that residents of all ages seniors and those who need internet access have you know really benefited from. Barbara's been there for longer than I've been alive. Um her impact on the library is something that you see day in and day out. I remember when the library was running on uh you know um running on twine and she kept it together. Um she was instrumental in shephering in our new library. Um she is the godmother of the Medford Public Library. Um and we our community will be forever um in debt to her service. Um, I, you know, I I'm really deeply grateful that not only does she have the, you know, has she had the energy to keep up a really complicated library system that we have here at Medford, she's gone up and um, up and above in reaching out to us as counselors when it came to advocating for the library budget, when it came to keeping us updated um, and tying us um, linking us to the board of trustees to make sure that every one of us knew what was going on at the library um on a month-to-month basis. And because of that hard work that she puts in after hours, um our library is now a stellar shining star in our community. So, um the impact is huge. There are huge shoes to fill, but um I think all of us here in Medford can be really deeply grateful to um Barbara's service for to our city. Thank you, Councelor Sang. Councelor Scarpelli. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Council Sang. I uh I won't uh

touch on much more than what council Sang said, but I want to talk about the barber who um that people don't see today in a big beautiful fancy library that has all the bells and whistles. I want to talk about the barber that was there when the roofs were leaking and she was running around with buckets to make sure she can keep the library open or the person that that needed to be reached because we needed community space and Barbara will be the only person that would be uh helping our community make sure people could be heard. I think that Barbara's done so much that people don't understand. I know it's it's easy for some people to sit back and say, "Well, did she get a paycheck every Friday?" Well, good for her. But um Bob is the type of person that goes be above and beyond any paycheck. And um that's why I make the request that this council, Mr. President, finds a way that we do something right uh before it's time. I've seen too many great people of Medford that have given their lives to Medford and then when they move on, we then decide that we should name something after them and there's they're not there to celebrate it. I think it's time that we find a little corner of our new library that would have a plaque that has Barbara Kerr's name on it so everybody knows the impact that she's made. I mean, you know, I mean, our our names are on the uh a few of our names are on that that wall and it's not Barbara Kurs, but I tell you what, Barbara Kerr has gone beyond anything we've done and our names are on that building. So, it's a little embarrassing for someone like myself that has a name on a building uh to memorialize it, but someone like Barbara Kerr that's actually put the blood, the sweat, and the tears. And uh hopefully, you know, her name will live on far longer than uh we'll be here. So, uh if we can, Mr. President, I would make the request that

we add uh the the possibility of going through the process and finding a room or a meeting space that has Barbara Kerr's name on it. So again, uh thank you, Mr. President, and uh for indulging me. So thanks and thank you Barbara for everything you've done. So thanks. Thank you, councelor Scarpelli. on the motion to approve by councelor Sang as amended by councelor Scarpelli to reach out to the library trustees and request that we uh name may find a place to in that library to name after director kerr seconded by councelor scarpelli I'll go to the podium cast name and address for record three minutes

cast any questions she met I just wanted to say that she's been there quite a while and she's like a like an anchor she's she's been really nice she's done a great Uh, she's not here tonight, is she? She's not here tonight. Yeah, she didn't come last year when you had an award for her either. I don't think she's probably living in Newton someplace in a nice place. But anyways, um, I wanted to ask her, I held off from last year, I was hoping to find it this year, that, uh, since the New York Post is the oldest continuous run newspaper in the USA. How come can she make a last command in order to order it for the Method Public Library? They don't have it. Thank you.

We thought she'd done everything right.

On the motion of councelor Sang as amended by councelor Scarpelli and seconded by councelor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Opposed. The motion passes. Records. The records of the meeting of March 24th, 2026 were passed to Vice President Lazaro. Uh Vice President Lazaro is absent. Is there a motion to table? On the motion to table by councelor Lemming, seconded by councelor Sang. All those in favor opposed. The motion passes. Records of the special joint meeting of March 31st, 2026 were passed to councelor Lemming. Councelor Leming, how do you find those records? I found the records in order and move to approve. On the motion of councelor Lemming to approve, seconded by.

Seconded by councelor Mlain. All those in favor? Opposed? The motion passes. Reports of committee 26028, 26029, 26053, and 26065 offered by President Baris committee the whole April 1st, 2026 report to follow. This was a meeting where we discussed the snow removal efforts of the city and also we went into executive session to discuss a number of litigation matters. Is there a motion? The motion approved by councelor Sang, seconded by councelor Callahan. All those in favor?

Opposed? The motion passes. Hearings 26068. Petition for a grant of location national grid 3960 Mystic Valley Parkway. Petition for grant of location national grid north Andover. Petition for a joint own poll at 3960 Mystic Valley Parkway National Grid Plan number J311792277. Medford, Massachusetts City Clerk's Office. You're hereby notified that by order of the Medford City Council, the city council will hold a public hearing in the Howard F. Walden Chambers at Medford City Hall 85 George P has a drive Medford via Zoom on Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 at 7 p.m. a link to be posted no later than Friday, April 3rd, 2026 on a petition by Massachusetts Electrical Company, DBA National Grid for permission to install a joint owned pole at 3960 Mystic Valley Parkway. Following are the recommendations from the engineering division. The grant of location is limited to one joint owned utility pole located within the cement concrete sidewalk 3960 Mystic Valley Parkway on Commercial Street and labeled P6671 relocated as depicted on the sketch. The grant of location is conditioned on the removal of two existing joint own poles currently in the middle Commercial Street right ofway and labeled P6671 to be removed as depicted on the sketch and also the midspan pole P1974 that is no longer in use within 6 months of this approval. Before starting work, the contractor shall notify DigSafe and obtain all opable permits, including a public right of way occupancy permit pursuant to section 74141 of the city ordinances prior to commencing work. No other utility structures uh ordinances are adversely impacted. National grid shall ensure that all sewer, water, and drain lines are marked prior to any excavation. Placement of the joint owned utility pole must be provide at least 36-in clearance of accessible travel path around the structure in accordance with ADA regulations and city standards. and the placement of the joint own pole must be no closer than 6 in from the back of granite curb. The cement concrete sidewalk restoration shall be done at the time of installation and in consultation with the engineering division per the requirements of an approved pro permit. Any concrete sidewalk damage during this work must be replaced in kind and cleanly cut at the

control joints. Temporary patching using concrete pavement will not be permitted. Call 781-3932425 for any accommodations and aids signed. Richard Lisio Jr. acting city clerk. All right. Do we have a representative from National Grid here to great if you could come to the podium and present and then we'll have discussion and I believe we have the city engineer with us on Zoom as well.

Name and address for the record, please. Uh Cameron Hansel, National Grid. Um, so we're National Grid is petitioning to relocate pole 6671 approximately uh 20 ft north on Commercial Street. Uh the pole uh there's electric line that comes off the pole on the side and feeds a pole line that goes into 4,000 Mystic Valley Parkway. And uh the pole the pole line needs to be shifted uh in order to for clearance away from a new building at 4,000 Mystic Valley Parkway.

All right. Are there any questions for members of the council? Councelor Scarelli. Thank you, Mr. President. I I know we've had some questions in the past, but I see uh that the uh city engineer, just to follow up with him, that he approves this process, and it looks like the same questions that I had were outlined um in the engineers's uh requests and recommendations. And as long as they're all followed, I would move approve with the word of the city engineer. City Engineer Warella, is there anything you'd like to add about your recommendations?

I have nothing to add at the time. I'm here just for questions. Thank you. Great. I move approval on the motion of councelor Scarpelli to approve with the recommendations of the engineering division. Seconded by seconded by councelor Sang. All right. We'll open the public hearing to people for against or otherwise interested in speaking on this matter. Public hearing is open. Are you in favor of this petition? Yes.

All right. Is there anyone else here who'd like to speak about this petition about the joint own poll on Mystic Valley Parkway and Commercial Street? Seeing none in the chamber. If you're interested on Zoom, please raise your hand on Zoom. Seeing none, I'm declaring the public hearing closed. Any further discussion by members of the council? Seeing none on the motion, Mr. Clerk, please call the role. Councelor Callahan, yes. Council Lemming, yes. Council Mallet, yes. Council Scottelli, yes. Council Sang, yes.

Vice President Lazaro is absent. President Pierce, yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. The motion passes. Thank you.

Thank you. Petitions, presentations, and similar papers. 26069. Petition for a common vixular license. Cilantro's Mexican Grill Medford LLC. This is a certified common vicular vicular license is granted to Cilantro's Mexican Grill Medford LLC. DBA Silantro's Mexican Grill Medford. Location 495 Riverside A Medford, Massachusetts in City of Medford. hours of operation Monday through Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. So 10:00 a.m. to midnight and we have a request as part of this four extended hours uh for 10:00 a.m. to midnight. Uh the explanation is that our type of fast food business lends itself to a busy working customer and late night crowds whether that be people working the third shift or just people out and about. As we did in our research on Feelsway Plaza and the surrounding neighborhoods, we observed that it retains vibrant activity into the night. Most of the restaurants here cater to that late night crowd by staying open later. Panda Express midnight. Raisin Canes midnight. Wing Stop 1:00 a.m. Dave's Hot Chicken Midnight. And we figured we could try to capture some of that business. Do we have a representative from Cilantro's Mexican Grill? Wonderful. You can come to the podium and I'll turn it over to Councelor Scarpelli.

Good evening. Good evening. Thank you. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. President. I know that we say uh we have our our rules 11:00, but uh we've given the approval for 12:00 for that area. Um I just want to make sure that it's it's okay to this usually is a special permit request after. So, um without legal representation, we've reviewed the process and it's it's shifted. It's not a special permit. It's a a request license request for extended hours. And we do have that on the So, we have both documents. And I Yeah,

I the only reason why I just wanted to say just to make sure that legally we're doing the the right thing without a city solicitor again is pretty difficult. It's not not your fault, but uh I just wanted to make sure that I would be I would might be a little bit standoffish if it was in a neighborhood that doesn't have the hours of operation that are in place with the competitors. But um I can see that if I can though, the map says 495. What location you moving into? Is it Smashburg is moving? Is it correct? So that you're take just taking the place of Smashburgs. Yes.

All right. So I I I everything is in order, Mr. President. I know that um um again what we've done in the past is a 30 60 90 day review when it comes to hours of operation that that late. And I would stick with just offer that without any restrictions moving forward just to make sure that we get to revisit to make sure that everybody's doing what they're supposed to do and what they promised and and then after that we're ready to go. So I wouldn't want to hinder it. So other than that, I move approval, Mr. President.

Great. So um and just for you guys what that means, we have a motion to approve the license with 30 60 90day review on the extended hours. So that means if there's any complaints about the extended hours, we'll hear from our building department or police department and then we might have another conversation with you guys. Um but you know, we don't expect that, but it's just something we want to double check whenever we're doing the extended hours. Um is there um anything? Well, first any other questions for members of the council? All right. We want to give you an opportunity to our audience. We never know quite how big it is, but it's some people if you want to share about your business and what your guys plans are for the business.

Sure. Uh my name is Sean McBride. This is Victor Ortega. Uh we've got 20 25 years experience in the restaurant business behind us. Um we're new to the area, but we have a business in SUS and it's been doing pretty well. Um and uh the people of Medford, at least at city hall, have been very receptive and we're grateful for that. Um yeah, we you know, quality colleialists, that's important to us. And um as far as the review 3090, does that mean you start at 30? Yeah, if we get reports, if we have 10 complaints of loud parties at midnight, you know, within 30 days, we might have a a meeting and then 60 days we'll check again, 90 days, we'll check again. And we're guessing that and that'll be after you open. So, um, you know, we're guessing if at those three stages we haven't,

you know, heard any complaints, then it's probably fine. And if if not, then we'll have a conversation and see what you guys are planning to do. But my hopes are that, you know, we we haven't had to do that very much. We've had it a couple of times in the last few years. So, but usually um you know seems like you guys have a clear understanding of your business plan and how your customers and you aren't planning to you know have any sort of midnight raves at the restaurants. No like the cilantro reputation of big parties. So yeah, it should be fine. This is just a process that we go through just to make sure our we protect our neighbors in cases. Of course. Very understandable.

Yeah. Yeah. any anything you want to share about the menu or um things that you're bringing to Medford that that folks might be interested in? Yeah. Well, I'll quickly say in Sus 9, so we initially only went to 10 p.m. When we came here, we saw the that plaza and we said, "Wow, there's a lot of activity. Um, so we figured we'd try for midnight, see what happens." Getting all those people right after Planet Fitness. Yeah. Well, yeah, the gym helps, the supermarket helps. Uh, and you know, there's a lot of people that work second shift, third shift. Yeah. Um, yeah, we get a a very mixed crowd. We um, as far as the menu, we try to keep prices reasonable, but we don't skimp on quality.

Um, minimal, if hardly any, frozen food. Everything's fresh, brought in every couple of days. Um, we even have the kitchen preparing right behind the line where we present it. um burritos, tacos, quesadillas, all the famous stuff. Um um but again, quality is number one and um yeah, we try to keep the portions reasonable. We'll never skimp on that. And the prices are, you know, 112, right around that range. So for almost every item. Yeah. Great. Well, thank you both. Council Leing.

So, my uh my parents visited Medford uh Medford last week and they're very picky eaters and we were uh we're driving around and uh you know, right as we were driving back towards my apartment, my mom pointed out the window and she said, "Hey, we could eat at Cilantro." She saw it and then then I looked closer and it said, "Opening soon." I was like, "Sorry, mom. It's it's not open yet." So, I'm very glad to see that we're making uh we're making progress here in this uh in this uh very council meeting uh towards uh towards fixing that situation and hopefully we'll I'll be able to uh eat there with her the next time uh the next time they visit town. So, uh

welcome to the neighborhood and uh hope just uh looking forward to trying some of your vegetarian options. Plenty. Thank you. Plenty of them. Thank you. Awesome. Great. On the motion of councelor Scarpelli. Oh. Uh to approve. Seconded by councelor saying. All right. We have any public participation on this matter? Sure. It's at the old smash burger next to the Panera Bread. Yeah. Yeah. Between Panera and Pend Express they call. Great. All right. Anyone else from the public who'd like to speak on this? Seeing none on the motion, Mr. Cler, please call the role. Councelor Callahan,

yes. Council Leming, yes. Councelor Main, yes. Councelor Scott Pell, yes. Councelor Singh, yes. Vice President Charles absent. President Beers, yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. The motion passes. Best of luck. Thank you. Appreciate you all. Thanks you guys. Thank you all. Hope to see you soon. Yes. Council Lemming first. You want to do On the motion of councelor Leming to take paper 26070 out of order. Seconded by. Seconded by councelor Scarpelli. All those in favor?

Opposed. The motion passes. 26070. Resolution to invite the residents of Brooks Park to discuss their experiences with rats. Whereas the tenant association of the Brooks Park apartments have been living with a rat infestation since they first form in March 2024 with residents experiencing frequent sightings of rats behind the building in the parking lot. hearing rats living in the dumpster when throwing away trash. Rats on the fire escape outside windows, rat holes along the front of the building, rats in the basement and laundry room, and rats in the city part across city park across the building. And whereas the tenant association sent a request to Charles Gate Property Management requesting simple fixes to the heightened levels of ratification as detailed in the attached letter from December 2025. Notably, replacement of inadequate and unused dumpsters with new ones that close tightly, including those with a locked lid and side door. removal of unused dumpers such as the one that is sealed shut, more frequent trash collection, professional exterminator services plugging rat holes in front of the building, and collaborating with the city in eradicating rats from the park. Whereas Charles Gate has not taken adequate steps to meet these requests since the letter was sent in December. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the residents of Brooks Park Apartments and Char and Charles Gate be invited as well as representatives from the board of health be invited to the city council to speak about their experiences on the matter. Councelor Lem. Thank you, Council President Bears. Uh, and thank you to the residents of Brooks Park Apartments who have uh come to the city council meeting to speak. Uh, have a small presentation uh here. It's mostly just pictures that I took of the last uh uh two or three times I've gone to meet with the residents of Brooks Park Apartments. Uh, would I be able to uh going to send a request to share All right.

Yeah. I think we got this right here. Okay. So, these are these are a couple So, I've gone Okay. So, a little bit of background. Uh Brooks Park Apartments was purchased by Charles Gate uh property managers a couple years ago and they've purchased a few properties around the city and have developed um bit of a bit of a reputation for being unresponsive to uh to residents claims. I did invite them to this meeting um and they said that they didn't have uh adequate notice to attend which I think is fair. Um but uh so it it should be noted that when I when I did reach out to them, they they did respond to me. Also in this agenda is a letter that the residents of Brooks Park sent to Charles Gates listing uh a couple of uh a couple of requests that they had for fixing for fixing the situation. But essentially, uh the residents of Brooks Park have been living very cons have been living pretty consistently with rat infestations. residents have noted that they're in the that they're frequently in the dumpsters. They see them on the fire escapes all the time. They see them in the basement under the building. Um, and there's a couple uh and the board of health is long on this. They've been doing what they can to amend the situation, but at the end of the day, this is the sit this is a case of a landlord that needs to do a couple of very simple things to fix this situation and they they they simply uh uh have not been putting the investment in these properties that they need to. So pictured here are the four the four dumpsters that they that uh they have in the building. Again, these are dumpsters that are frequently um that are frequently overflowing with trash. Many of them have rats underneath them. One of the dumpsters, the dumpsters in the middle has been just permanently sealed off uh when I visited there there in December 2025 and it was still sealed

when I visited there last week. Nobody really know like it seems to be an operational dumpster, but the landlord decided to uh seal it off. The dumpsters are also way too small for this apartment complex. This picture here on the left is one that was taken by Dan, one of the residents of Brooks Park when uh during uh during and he said that this is a fairly normal state of affairs for the trash to be overflowing uh to this degree. The picture on the right is a picture that I took uh during our tour of the apartment complex last week. Uh and you could see visualized here. I know it's a little bit dark, but a dead rat hanging out from underneath uh one of the dumpsters. So, it's not really it's it's not really that hard to find physical evidence of this uh um of this infest infestation that these residents have been dealing with. When I toured in uh when I toured the apartment complex in uh December of last year, um we the residents typically hold meetings in their laundry room uh in the basement, which has its own odor to it. You know, it's a place where rats very frequently uh where rats are very frequently found. Um it smells like urine, as you can see. There's there's plent there's a corner that's just covered in rat droppings. Um the property owners have since cleaned that particular part up, but within the basement there's and the building in general, there's many holes um that rats use to uh get in and out of the building. Um a lot of them a lot of them go to the park in front of it and then they seek out the building just for uh to get some form of shelter. Um outside as well in some of these photos there the hedges in front have a lot of rat holes which you could see in the top center photo. Um and there's also you know just during that tour

another dead rat that uh that we found there. So for for these residents it's gotten pretty bag. It's an older building. I believe it was built in the in the uh in the 1920s and so there is a there's a lot of work that that needs to be done on it. But the point is with this situation, it's gotten it's gotten pretty bad and there's a couple of very low investment uh there there's a couple of very lowcost options that the landlords can undertake in order to fix this situation. Namely, just getting um getting more dumpsters, getting uh uh getting more frequent trash pickup, making sure that the trash receptacles that they have can be sealed. And unfortunately, we've kind of come to a situation where they've been um not responsive enough to these claims over the last couple months that I thought it was necessary to bring this up at a city council meeting and hopefully put some public pressure on them. Last week, uh the res the tenant association organized a tour in which uh uh a member of a staff a sanitarian from the Medford Board of Health also attended. That's Deanna Earl uh pictured right here. uh as well as many members of the Brooks Park Tenant Association. They walked uh myself and Diana around, just showed everybody sort of what the situation was. Uh Dan uh pictured here, kind of took everybody around, told folks where he usually saw the rats hiding. Uh so this is this is definitely a case where um uh you know, the city the city knows what's going on. They're trying to do uh what they can. The park in front is public property and the board of health has uh uh you know done its part, but we do need to get a more substantial response from Charles Gate uh and encourage them to uh uh uh put more put more of an investment in this property and help these residents out who've been

living with uh the presence of uh rats for uh a very long period of time. Um, but I've put a little bit too much uh a little bit too much time talking. I feel like I would be pleased if some of the residents uh who've uh taken time out of their evening to uh uh uh to attend the city council meeting would uh would be free to uh uh say a few words. And uh by all means, please the floor is yours. Thank you.

Thanks you guys. um really glad to have you here and if you could just give us your name and your address when you speak, let us know um you know who you are and we really want to hear your story. Um and we're grateful uh to all of you guys for organizing councelor Lemming for working with you and engaging the city on this. So thank you for being here and also apologies we never run on time so I apologize uh for that. Um but again thank you for being here. Name and address please. appreciate to all of you for having us speak and to counselor living in particular for your support. Uh my name is Steve Meechum and I'm with the Housing Justice Alliance. Uh we work with tenant associations in many communities, inner suburbs including Medford. Uh and one of those is the Brooks Park Tenant Association. We came here actually two uh years ago seeking support for our efforts to get a collective bargaining agreement. And just so you know, we we won that partly due to your support. So, the things that you do make a difference. Um, but we we hel we held that uh uh walking tour that councelor Lemie referred to last week and we've been just trying to fight this rat situation. I'm going to let our folks here talk about it. Um, but even for me, I've been to a countless meetings in the in the laundry room in the back of the building and I've learned don't walk back there unless you have a flashlight and I'm ready to make noise because there's a lot of rats. So, thank you for having us and I'll let these guys introduce themselves.

Thank you.

Um, good evening. I am Julia Forester and I have lived at Brooks Park in Medford for almost 24 years. I live in building 8, apartment 19. I am here this evening to discuss the rat population and to share with you how it is affecting my life. They do not pay rent like we do. I go outside to empty the trash. One hears them in the dumpsters. Click, click. They run up the roof covering the boiler and run down the fire escape. One sees them in the back running from one garage to another and under the cars. In the common areas such as the basement where the laundry facilities and storage areas are, they are seen and smelled. Pu. They can also be seen in the front of Brooks Park behind the hedges, darting out of their burrowed holes and running across the road to the park. I am scared to go out at night and I won't leave without my flashlight. They are getting bigger and fatter and there are more and more of them. Again, they do not pay rent. I have alerted Charles Gate and sent photos several times. They do have someone who comes around and does something. One sees the huge black boxes everywhere, but these guys are still here and nothing has changed. Charles Gate needs to be put on notice. We need new dumpsters with tight lits so the rats won't get in the into the trash. Thank you for attention to this serious matter.

Thank you.

My name is Christopher Ramos. I live at 10 Brooks Park, apartment number 12. I'll try to keep this quick. Um I pretty much I'm in and out of the apartment quite a bit and rats are literally running past my feet. Um the picture that um counselor showed of the rat hanging out of the dumpster, that rat has actually been there for a few months now. Um I remember when I first saw it, and I should have took a picture when I first saw it, but I thought it would have been morbid, so I didn't do it. Um, but when we took the tour, like I literally saw the rotting corpse still hanging there and nothing's been done about it and it's just really disgusting. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi. Uh, my name is Matthew Bonvalire. I live at 16 Brooks Park. Uh, this actually technically isn't even the building in question. Um, uh, my landlord is actually a totally separate landlord. I don't quite have the same issues. Um, so this problem isn't necessarily my problem as it's their problem, but it's slowly becoming that and it certainly affects my day-to-day life. Um, I've lived here for four years now in Medford. Um, you know, you see rats around the city, it's a city, you're going to see rats. Um, but this past fall into winter especially, it's been bad. Just as they described, you see them darting under cars, uh, broad daylight. Um, don't take the trash out at night. We have a totally different dumpster. They're probably 200 yards away. Um, totally different spot. Um, but you still don't take the trash out at night around there. Um, but still, even with all that, up until last week when we had our meeting, I didn't realize just how bad of an infestation it was. As you saw from some of the pictures, we were actually outside. It was still light out. And when we were standing there in that um in that little driveway, I saw two live rats. Um, not, you know, not the dead ones that we also just talked about. Um, so there's a dozen people standing outside. It's still light out and we got rats darting around. That's that's definitely an infestation, not just a little problem. If someone in my building were to leave a door or window open too long, now all of a sudden now this this is as much as my problem as it is theirs. Um, you know, I really hope you can help us come to a conclusion here. Um, because I certainly have seen things take off in in the negative direction um this past year. Um, and I just really appreciate your time to listen to us today and hopefully we can come to an agreement and just improve the situation in the city as a whole. Thank you. Thank you. Um, anything else you guys would like to add at this time?

At this time, I don't think. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Thank you for voicing this and then we're going to Thank you, council.

Yeah, we're going to talk about it a bit more. Um, councelor Lemming, could you give us a kind of some thoughts on uh how the visit went and what the health department thinks they may be able to do? Well, so the the health department Well, so the visit went I mean it was it was a a nice way to engage the community. It definitely it definitely reflected that uh uh it's a concern for most of the residents there. It's one of the uh primary focuses of the tenants union right now. Um my impre my impression is that uh Charles Gate they I mean they're they're trying to put as little investment in these properties as they can. They did send me a list of uh repairs that they have done. It's mostly been uh things like painting the hallways which is uh you know which is which is nice. Um but when it comes to things like capital projects or what residents are largely uh requesting which is uh you know repair things like repairs to the holes in the building uh or getting a new dumpster that actually seals shut those requests have largely uh largely so far fallen on uh fallen on deaf ears. Um the health department a lot of their job sort of revolves around trying to work with the landlord just the same uh just the uh just the same as uh as the tenants association is trying to do. So encouraging the landlord to actually put these investments in the properties uh in the properties themselves. Um so so yeah I so I would I would say the the interaction I mean the interaction itself with the residents overall went uh overall went uh uh very very positive positively. Uh and I think that the city has really done really

done its part in sort of addressing addressing some of these problems. We really just need to keep up pressure on the uh uh pressure on the landlords themselves and kind of show them that this is not an acceptable uh way of doing business, which again, Charles Gate, we've we've seen we've seen stuff like this happen with happen with them before. Um the uh and they spend a lot of money on to buy to buy this they spend a lot of money to buy this property. um they spent a lot of money to buy other apartment complexes around Medford. So clearly they want they want the properties there. Um I know that the planning department when Brooks Park was first being sold off um there was an affordable housing developer that wanted that was also bidding for the property and they just got outputed by Charles Gate. So there is capital being put into this. It's just not actually being put into the to the maintenance itself. So yeah, a lot of a lot of this really just reduces to uh sort of naming and shaming uh landlords who choose to not make the uh repairs that uh uh they need to be making.

Certainly um we can submit this to them um get a copy of the resolution and submit that uh you know via the channels that you have. Um, I guess more what I was going after, you know, obviously this, it seems to me that this is becoming a um, obviously it's a huge issue for the folks in the building. It's also a neighborhood issue as we heard. Um, is the health department prepared to issue warnings and citations for for anything or is that a next step that's possible? Um, I would, so I do wish that we had some representatives from the uh uh from the from the health department here. I know that they did uh they did uh go on the uh they one of them, the sanitarian did go on the tour. Um, but I would I would request that uh yeah, I I' I'd have to get information from Maryanne to see exactly to to see if anything right there currently. um uh uh would would require that they issue a warning or citation.

Great. Let me go to councelor Callahan. Yeah, my questions are are very similar. I just was curious what tools the health department and the building department have. Um, and maybe, um, if we don't have a good answer here in the room tonight, uh, I would make a motion to send this letter and our motion to both the health department and the building department and just ask what tools do they have to deal with these issues.

Great. So, we have the motion of councelor Lemming as amended by councelor Callahan and councelor Lemming. Um, so the motion amendment by councelor Lemming is to uh submit this to Charles Gate formally share the this approved resolution with Charles Kate and by councelor Callahan is to request from the health department and building department what the next steps are on warnings and citations to address this uh health issue. Councelor Sang.

Um, I just wanted to offer my sympathies for this really unfortunate, really gross situation for the folks living there. Um, I I can't imagine what it was what it's been like to live with that level of rodent infestation, rodent corpses, rodent um, waste around. It's certainly not a livable environment. Um, and I'm I'm sure that this council will um stand in support of the tenants union and those living there and in support of those living around the building because as I think other counselors um and members of the public have acknowledged already um this affects the neighbors as well. Um I'm glad to hear that our city departments are doing what we can. Um I think um I had similar questions as um President Bears and uh councelor Callahan. I you know if there's anything that the city can help with regards to um you know maybe setting the stage for a demand letter at some point um to compel the landlords into action um be it kind of through inspectional facts like establishing those facts. I think the city should look at those avenues. Um

yeah, I I have informally Sorry.

Yep. Uh I I I did have I did have informal conversations with with the health department about you know what can you do to prevent to prevent uh these infestations and most of the an answer that they gave they said it really reduced to sealing your trash and making sure that your trash doesn't get doesn't get around and just making sure that cleanliness is generally enforced. That's why I keep emphasizing the dumpster situation in this particular uh cont in this particular context. So if you if you if you actually go to the buildings like the dumpsters are very clearly too small and inadequate for the residents living there. And this is just a very simple fix of taking the old very broken dumpsters away and putting in one that rats can't chew through. Um, so you know, the health department, they very likely can put out citations, they can charge fines, but at the end of the day, it is on it's going to be on the landlord to either get bigger dumpsters or order more or have more frequent trash pickup.

Yeah, 100%. Um, I'm taking all of that was through the president, um, through the chair. Um I you know I think we should we should be exploring those options. But I'm sure as you mentioned the health department is um I I would also you know be I I think it's important to to tell the public and to tell landlords that in ma in the state of Massachusetts it's the landlord's responsibility to keep their resident spaces free from infestation which includes um rodent control and that is a responsibility of the landlord legally in in here. So, um, you know, I think whatever we can do to help the tenants union with that, if that ever, you know, if we ever come to that point, um, I think is is helpful. Of course, hopefully this will be resolved peacefully.

Yeah. In addition, section 6113 of the rodent control ordinance from 2021 requires permits for dumpsters and fees to be associated and integrated pest management plan. Um and that's for all dumpsters on residential or commercial property. So there's definitely a review mechanism and requirement um for the integrated pest management plan as well under the city ordinance. So um that was one of the earlier ordinances that I I worked on. So I know that that's an important thing and we have some amendments actually to that that we passed recently as well. I'm not I'll have to look that up separately. But um I think there's many tools that we can try to leverage here to make sure that the property owner is following our city ordinances and also um making sure that the property is you know at least on the dumpster side of things um that's a start. So, um,

council. Yeah. And I know that I know that know that, um, you know, council, this council has had issues publicized or let's see, codifying a lot of the ordinances and Maryanne only recently got the most updated copy or learned that the most updated copy of the rodent control ordinance had been had been ordained. So hopefully we do start to see the board of health implement some of those. That section's from 2021. So they they know about that. section I read. That one I got on Munich Code. Um, all right. So, we have the motion of Councelor Lemming, seconded by Second

Councelor Molain as amended by councelor Callahan. All right. Any further discussion members of the council? Seeing none, is there anyone from the public who'd like to speak in addition on this item? We have one person in the chamber. If there's anyone on Zoom, please raise your hand on Zoom. Uh name and address for the record, please. And you'll have three minutes.

Plet Vardivided, Central Lab, Medford. I'm not suggesting in any way that the council is dragging their feet on this, but I just want to point out something that how we really, really, really, really need to move fast on this. Um rats don't have a breeding season per se. They can breed all year round, but in the winter months it's much less. But March and April they start really really populating. Um one single female rat can produce 56 or more rats a year. They come into they the gestation is 18 to 22 days but the females can start reproducing 3 days after that at 25 days. So if you think say if we have a hundred rats and 50 of them are female and each one of those are going to produce 56 babies approximately your population is going to explode. So that's that's basically what I wanted to say is that again I'm not suggesting you're dragging your feet but you really need to move on this and if um the citation is the first step and then start finding because it's obvious that their landlord is not doing what needs to be done and all you need is one person to come down with something that a rat carried and what happens then. But thank you.

Thank you. Any further comments on this matter? I definitely agree we need to move on this quickly. All right, seeing none, um, thank you uh, for the Brooks Parks Tenant Association for everything you've been doing. Thanks for coming tonight, um, sharing your stories with us and we're going to keep pushing on Charles Gate and also seeing what other levers from the city we can use to address the rat issue that you're facing in your homes. So, thank you for being here. On the motion, all those in favor?

Opposed? The motion passes 25136 resolution to update inclusionary zoning for fractional affordable housing incentives. This is an update from a paper that we approved in December which uh referred the affordable housing fractional incentive to the affordable housing trust fund board uh for specific recommendations and we do have that back from the affordable housing trust fund board. We have our housing planner Katherine Buckingham here with us. We have a letter from I think we have Lisa and Davidson the chair of the affordable housing trust on Zoom as well. We did receive a letter back. Dear city councilors on behalf of the Medford affordable housing trust fund board. I'm writing to express enthusiastic support for an ordinance that would allow the city of Medford to accept fractional payments to be paid in lie of rounding up the number of affordable units created. This past fall, council leming presented resolution 25136 to the board supporting a fractional payment ordinance and calling on the affordable housing trust fund board to make recommendations on how to update this policy. In subsequent months, the board was given frequent updates from city staff members and provided feedback regarding specific language for this ordinance. The board unanimously voted to voice our approval of this ordinance as included below. This change has the potential to increase the amount of housing constructed by reducing the incentive for developers to limit the size of their developments in order to avoid rounding up the number of affordable units they're required to provide. Furthermore, the revenue from fractional payments would be a valuable funding source, the affordable housing trust fund, allowing future investment in supporting affordable housing in Medford. We respectfully request and encourage members of the city council to support this important initiative and thank you for your steadfast commitment to enhancing affordable housing opportunities in Medford Sinceri. Lisa Davidson, chair of the Medford affordable housing trust fund board. And the ordinance here is fractional payment suggested language. You know what? I'll let you handle it, Katherine, but I'll go to Matt first. Thank you. And thank you uh Katherine for uh coming out here to uh to and Lisa as well on Zoom for coming out here to present uh this to us. Um very pleased to see that the Affordable Housing Trust

uh got back with recommended language on the on uh on uh for fractional payments. just just so that folks sort of understand what this is from a more a more layman's perspective. I'm just going to try to understand I'm just going to try to explain the math behind what's going on here. Um, under Medford's current ordinances, you can build nine units by right and none of them have to be affordable. They don't have to be affordable under um the MGL definition of affordability. when you build when you get to 10 units when you get to that to that threshold um 10% of units have to be affordable. So if you build 10 units then one of them has to be affordable. The issue with that is that after 10 units like between I believe 10 and 20 uh 10% of what however many units you're building have to be affordable. And the issue with that is that if that becomes a fraction then you have to round up. So if you want to build 11 units uh then that means then 10% of 11 is 1.1 and you round up to two. So that means that BA essentially what this means is that we have a lot of nine-unit buildings in Medford and if you start and people are strongly disincentivized from building certain levels of units uh like certain numbers of units because uh you know you really don't want to build an 11 unit property because then you're required to build to make two of those affordable from 11 until I believe 20. Um the fra what the fractional payments does is it means that if you want to build 11 units then you don't have to build two affordable units. You have to build one affordable unit then you can take that 0.1 uh in fraction like fraction of a unit take the equivalent amount that would cost and then put it into uh the

affordable housing trust instead of building an additional affordable unit. What this does in effect is it allows us to get more units built and more money into the uh into the affordable housing trust, which is uh I'm sure a goal that everybody can agree um advances the uh goals of affordable housing. And there are different ways that municipalities have implemented these fractional incentives. And I'm glad to hear that the affordable housing trust has given us a proposal for uh for how to do that. And all with that, I'd would appreciate it if the chair would be able to turn it over to Katherine who's uh prepared a presentation on this. Planner Buckingham.

Yes. Hello. Thank you for having me. I do have a presentation which I believe I can share my screen on Zoom. Okay. So, I'll do that. And if anyone wants to confirm um if they can do that or see that. Sorry, we can see it. I want to go to slideshow mode. Yeah.

Let's see. Okay. Um Councelor Lemming actually did a lot of the work for me, so I'll kind of breeze through the parts he already explained, but um this is the current ordinance with respect to the inclusionary zoning that councelor Lemming spoke about. So up to nine units, there's no um regulation requiring building affordable units from 10 to 24. Then 10% of those have to be affordable. And um as you can see on the slides, 25 to 49 units have a 13% um limit for or requirement and 50 or more up to 15%. So that's just background. We're not going to change that. Um in 948.1.8 eight. This describes the requirements. Um, just only point number one is the only one we're referencing. It currently says fractional units where the number of here. I have to move my zoom sidebar to read all this. Where the required number of affordable units result in a fraction of a unit. The required number should be rounded up to the nearest whole number. That's what it says currently. Um the challenge as councelor Lemming described is it discourages development above certain thresholds. Um I kind of walked through exactly the example that he already gave so I'll skip that. Um so this is the proposed language. Um would it be helpful for me to read the whole thing for Okay, I'm just going to bring this over here. So replacing what it previously said for point number one, it now would say

it might be easier to explain it than to read it verbatim.

Okay. I mean it it it's basically exactly what councelor Lemmings said. It's just saying instead of rounding up, you now have an option. You can either a round up and build that extra unit or you can alternatively whatever fraction of the unit you need to build, you can just um there there's language in here about how you find that exact uh calculation, whatever that number is, and it's tied to EOHLC, which is the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. they have a metric in there um which we will use as our like reference point so that we don't have to update the language all the time. So whatever the value of one unit would be based on that you would say say it's 0.1 units then take 10% of that that amount could be then contributed into the affordable housing trust. So you could either build the you could round up or you could make that contribution to the trust. Um the benefit of that we see is that instead of the current situation where developers are disincentivized for building above certain thresholds now they could um instead of have to build a whole extra unit which could cost a lot of money if they're just making a payment of a fraction then they have more incentive to build more units. So the trust is getting money and more housing units are being built. Um does anyone want me to read through more of this language? I kind of talk the presentation I explain a bit more but

I think yeah

okay um so important clarification this would not be a payment in lie of an entire affordable unit so we're not saying if you're supposed to build 1.1 make a big payment equivalent to one unit and a tenth of a unit you have to build an entire unit this only applies to that additional fraction of the unit um so that and at any time jump in if you have questions. So the benefits as I mentioned more housing is created overall um increasing revenue for the affordable housing trust and then with that increased revenue the affordable housing trust will have more available funds to support the creation of affordable housing in the future. Um and here I'm kind of going through math similar to what we talked about before. So I don't think I need to go through all of it, but the end result being as we discussed, more units being built overall and also more revenue generated for the trust. And I only wanted to make that clarification because um Medford as a city in general, we tend to prioritize the building of units rather than generation of money. Other cities do offer pay in le for entire units. We have decided as a city we would rather build more units. However, this we feel like is a valuable tool because it's not replacing a whole entire unit that would be built. Hypothetically, it could be, but in practice, what happens is they're just not built. So, we find this to be a win-win. There are any questions? I'm happy to answer that.

Any questions for our housing planner? Um, so this is uh Oh, councelor Singh. Um, I don't have any huge questions. Um, the one the one question I have is are we going to track the success of the ordinance? I mean, I'm fully in support of it, but um, is there a way for us to track the fractional payments to um to the affordable housing trust? Yeah, absolutely. the treasurer and I work together in keeping track of all the payments going in and out and that would certainly be something that we would track.

Great. Thank you. Um thank you for your presentation for councelor Lemmings hard hard work and for the hard work on the behalf of your department and from from the affordable housing um uh trust committee. Um, I I think this is, you know, a win-win solution. As you said, it brings more revenue into the affordable housing trust fund, which um our city benefits from, and it also um I think patches up a a kind of unintended consequence of a of a good policy that we have. Um and so I think this is a pretty straightforward win for the city. Um and I am excited about it. Thank you.

Thank you. Great. Thank you. Um, seeing no further questions from members of the council. Um, this is a zoning amendment, right? So, we need to refer this for 948.1.8. So, we need to refer this to the community development board. Um, so that's the motion tonight. We're not able to advance this. It needs to go through the zoning process. So, the motion would be to refer this to the community development board and they would schedule a public hearing and then we would have a public hearing and then then we'll have a final vote on it. Councelor Leming, is that a motion to refer to community development board? Uh, yes. I was I was also just to make sure, do we have to refer this to legal too?

Community development board. It'll go through that process. So, I moved on the motion to refer the proposed zoning amendment to the community development board by councelor Lemmings. Seconded by seconded by councelor Callahan. Any further discussion? Members of the council, could you stop sharing, Katherine? Thank you. Any discussion by members of the public on the referral to the community development board? Seeing none, Mr. Cler, please call the RO. Actually, I don't think we need a roll call on this. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Thanks, Catherine. Thank you.

All right. I would request that we table papers 26073 and 26058. I'm gonna schedule a special meeting next week for consideration. Is there a motion? On the motion of counselor saying seconded by seconded by councelor Callahan. All those in favor?

Opposed? The motion passes. 26065 offered by Mayor Brianna. Submitted by Mayor Brian Longo Kern. We do have an updated paper on this. This was the matters discussed in executive session last week. Let me just pull this up. April 7, 2026 litigation settlement. Dear President Bears and members of the city council, I respect the request and recommend your honorable body approve the following settlement amounts which were discussed in executive session on April 1st, 2026. Joseph P. Cardillo and Sun Inc. versus City of Medford 235,000. Datrinos Romero versus City of Medford $4,135.74 Plymouth Rock Insurance Assurance Corp. ASO Mike's Landscaping versus City of Medford 2,800. Commerce Insurance ASO Brian T. Giri versus City of Medford 5,000 Safety Insurance Co. ASO Joan Sero versus City of Menford 3,000. Electric Mutual Insurance versus City of Medford 4,000 Fargo at all vers 288510 and Convoy versus City of Medford 19,000. and thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Sincerely, Brandon Longer and Mayor. I know these were discussed in executive session. If there's anyone who wants to speak further on on these before we move ahead on them, um you know, these are our settlement amounts and my understanding is that the council I was actually unable to be present for that, but that the council did take votes to um advance these settlement amounts to the regular meeting for final approval. if there's anything else anyone would like to say on the matter. Um, this is on the litigation settlements from executive session last week.

I apologize. That's okay. No worries. George, I I saw I don't know what we have, but I apologize. I know we just started. So, it's just what I just read out the settlement amounts.

Thank you. for the Cardillo versus City Romero, the the various insurance ones, and then the Fargo versus City of Medford and Convoy versus City of Medford. So, I just read the settlement amounts. Um, I know that the council voted to advance these for approval after the executive session discussion. I believe from what I read that uh the council agreed that these were the best possible options given the situation. Um but beyond that I leave that up to you guys to share. Councelor Scarpelli.

Thank you Mr. President. And uh what could be shared and what can't is very difficult. So I think that uh what we heard is uh something that uh as a council I believe we we agreed to move forward with those uh recommendations. Um but again it leaves to uh this council to do our due diligence to look into uh questions that we'll have later about u you know the what's what's this costing our community where we accept what's offered I believe that night we listen to the uh the attorneys and listen to the cases and I believe um this council will move forward forward to approve those and move them forward. But I think we need to do our due diligence moving forward to get a better understanding of a cost breakdown of what uh not just the lawsuits are costing the city, but also what the litigation is costing us with these firms that are um that are uh that are being used to represent the city of Medford because um it's it's uh it's getting tiresome. Thank you, Mr. President, I would move move approval.

Thank you, councelor Scarpelli. Any further discussions by members of the council

on the motion of councelor Scarelli, seconded by councelor Singh. I just want to add, you know, some of these are items that we've dealt with as a council for years and are always going to happen. You know, insurance lawsuits relative to vehicle damage due to an accident or um you know, things like that. I think one of these items is around a contract where there was a disagreement on whether the vendor had provided the effective services or not and um wanting some of that to be repaired. A couple of these are on uh you know personnel matters um collective bargaining questions and you know are not the things that we are used to seeing as often certainly in my early tenure on the council as we have seen more recently. So um you know I accept that given the position that we are in these seem to be the best uh settlements that can be reached on these matters but I think there's a larger question as to you know whether or not we should have ended up in these situations in the first place and that's not so much speaking to these specific situations as in general. So I just wanted to give a little bit of context given the limits available to us um on these items and the settlement agreements. We have a motion from councelor Scarpelli to approve the settlement amounts seconded by councelor Sang. Mr. Clerk please call the role.

Councelor Callahan, Council Lemming, Council Maline, Councelor Scarelli, Council Sing, Vice President Zaro is absent. President Beers,

yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. The motion passes. Give me one moment here. All right. We have 26071 board and commission appointments and we have a number of them. We have conservation commission Jessica Walla elections commission. Uh that's the only appointment to the conservation commission. We have elections commission. Uh Henry Miller reappoint Democrat William O'Keefe Republican Mark Davidson Democrat Gino D Simone Republican uh garden commission Linda Arini and zoning board of appeals ZBA Mark Crowley. Um for the new folks we do have um their applications and our resumes. We received them in the packets. Um and just a note per the charter this is if a majority of the council objects to any one appointment then um they would not be appointed but if we do not object then they move ahead. Any discussion on these appointments specifically any motions to object or otherwise and looks like Jim maybe wants to speak to the elections commission. So um any counselors want to speak right now? Seeing none, our elections manager.

Thank you, uh, President Baris. Uh, James Blford, elections manager, uh, room 102 here at the city hall. Um, I just want to speak briefly on the election commission appointments. Um, my commission's uh, terms expired March 31st. Um, I need to be able to approve nomination papers. I need three signatures to do so. Um, so I would urgently uh request that the council please give me a commission uh so I can get their signatures on the on file and so I can approve uh nomination papers.

And Jim, just to clarify very quickly because I want to make sure we make the right votes. Does chapter 51 section 16A require our approval to confirm elections commissioners? Uh, I don't believe so. Um, but I I'm not an attorney. All right, let me double check that because these were submitted kind of under the now we're in this new thing where some ordinances and some laws require us to confirm people and now the charter requires us to not reject people. So, we need to figure out which one this is.

Um, I believe under MGL it does not. It's a it's an appointment by the mayor after a recommendation from the local committees, but Sorry, Justin.

Yeah, that's what I'm seeing. It looks like it says, and I think we did this the first time around. Subject to the approval of the board of alderman, the city manager, the selection one member. as the term of the several elections commission as far as that in the case of vacancy occurs and said board the mayor subject to the approval of the board of alderman city manager selectman. So yeah we do need to approve these so let's make sure we do it right. Um appreciate it.

All right so we'll need a couple of motions here. Um, first we'll need a motion to confirm the appointment of uh Henry Miller and William O'Keefe, Mark Davidson, and Gino D Simone to the elections commission. Councelor Lming.

And no, I'm I'm good with that. that this is a I mean considering that we've received the applications and resumes are applicable I do see this as a uh uh good faith um effort by the administration to uh um uh to provide the council with as much information as they have when making these appointments. Just would like to bring up bring up the point though if we does the current charter says that for uh most of the multi-member bodies I believe we just we're just required to not reject them. Um but could my my question is could we just approve these anyway? Um and that could be that could in effect be the not rejection. I mean, the difference between not rejecting and an explicit approval just seems like a bit of a uh it it just seems like a bit of a I don't know, a scrivener's thing at this point. Like if we if we if we vote to approve these the applicants and clearly we're not rejecting them. Yeah, I think that's true. I just think we need to make sure that we're getting a clarity. I think we're, you know, as we don't still do not have a charter implementation process from the administration. Um, I just want to make sure that for things that by law, charter or ordinance, we need to confirm, we take separate votes specifically to confirm those appointments. Um, and I actually think the garden commission might be one, weirdly enough, on here, too. Um, so certainly like approving the other ones, but I want to make sure that I don't want I don't want this process. In the past, when we had to approve or reject nominations before the new charter went into effect, we received a letter indicating as such. We did not receive those letters for these appointments. So, I want to make sure that we're still getting them for the ones that require our confirmation in addition to kind of that lower level of information, the resumes or applications

for simply the ones that we don't have to reject if that makes sense.

Right. And council president to follow to follow up on that. If we un under the under the charter, and this could just be an implementation thing, if we vote here to not reject those appointments, does that mean that the moment that not reject vote happens, they're appointed or does it mean that that at the date of the appointment, 30 days after submission, they are then appointed? because it it it does it does seem like again if we just say a yes vote that could in effect be okay they're appointed then instead of having to wait 30 days for some we already voted to approve slashnot

I believe it's we have the right to reject within 30 days I don't think it waits for them to appoint necessarily but in this case it's I think it's different because it's this it's the state law so I I would say out of an abundance of caution uh approval would be yes appreciated Sure. Um, all right. So, you good? Yeah, I'm good. On the motion of councelor Sang, seconded by councelor Molain to confirm the nominations of Henry Miller, William O'Keefe, Mark Davidson, and Gino D Simone to the elections commission. Mr. Clerk, please call the role. Council Kelly, yes. Council Lemming, yes. Council me,

yes. Councelor Scarpelli, yes. Councel Singh, yes. Vice President Zaro absent. President Bears, yes. 16 affirmative, one absent. The motion passes. So, we've confirmed those. That vote reflects that we've voted to confirm those appointments. Um, I think you're f the language you've mentioned is fine. Councelor Leming for the other ones. If we want a motion to approve the nominations of the Jessica Walla to the conservation commission, Linda Arini to the garden commission and Mark Crowley to the zoning board of appeals. Is there a motion? Motion by councelor Scarpelli to approve those three. Seconded by seconded by councelor Sang. Mr. Clerk, please call the councelor.

Apologies. This could just this could be my bad. I'm I'm looking through the digital version of the agenda packet. I gave somebody else my copy. I'm not I'm seeing the resumes for who we for who we have here. But what sorry, what page is the actual list of of appointees in the agenda? I think the actual list didn't go into the agenda, just the resumes of the people. Is that would that create an OML issue? No, it's on here and the the people are named. Well, well, I mean the people the people who aren't named though. Everybody's named are Sorry. Could you could you read

Jessica Walla, Linda Arini, um, and Mark Crowley? Okay. Okay. Yep. Move to approve. On the motion, Mr. Cler, please call the RO. Councelor Callahan, Council Lemming, Councelor Malain, Council Scarpelli, Council Sing, yes, Vice President Zoro absent. President Beers, yes. 60 affirmative, one absent. The motion passes. Paper, where are we? 26072.

26072. Capital Stabilization Fund appropriation requests. Dear President Bears and members of the city council, I respect the request and recommend that your honorable body approves the following appropriation from the capital stabilization fund. 20 new pole pads and related expenses in the amount of $13,800. Elections manager James Blatford Blford will be in available for questions on the request. Capital stabilization fund currently has a balance of $9,96,851. Respectfully submitted to Greenville Kern on the motion to approve by councelor Scarpelli. Seconded by second seconded by councelor Sang. Mr. Clerk, please call the role. Councelor Callahan, yes. Council Lemming, Council Maline, yes. Councelor Scott Py, yes. Council Singh,

yes. Vice President Zaro absent. President Beerus, yes. 60 affirmative, one absent. The motion passes. We do have one more item on ready for third reading. Um the third reading on the face survey. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. On the motion to approve for third reading a proposed ordinance banning face surveillance technology by councelor Sang. Seconded by seconded by councelor Lming. Mr. Clerk, please call the RO.

Council, yes. Council Lemming, Council Meain, yes. Council Scarpelli, no. Councelor Singh. Yes. Vice President Zaros is absent. President Bears, yes. Five affirmative, one of the negative, one absent. The motion passes. Public participation. To participate outside of Zoom, please email risio at menford-ma.gov. Is there anyone who'd like to speak in public participation on any matter for three minutes either in the chambers or on Zoom. You can raise your hand on Zoom or come to the podium in the chambers. No takers tonight. Oh,

name and address for the record, please. You'll have three minutes.

Uh, Micah Customan, 499 Main Street. Um, this is not anything super important, but I do um want to remind the city council and the city as well in general that uh Mayday is coming up not too long from now. It is an international holiday uh celebration of the power of the people really and of labor and uh you know workers rights to be included and uh determine the scope and aspect and actions of their government. So, um I very much hope that uh the city will do something at least in recognition of this incredibly important holiday. Um or at a minimum just acknowledge it. Uh and that that that's about it. Thanks, guys.

Thank you, Micah. Seeing no one in the chamber. Oh, we got one more. We broke the dam. Name it and address for the record, please. You have three minutes.

Jennifer Yiko, 16 Monument Street. I've just been thinking about this ever since the rat discussion happened. I'm really um astounded that the city has no means of um dealing with this more directly. I mean, it aren't there nuisance laws? I think if my neighbors complained that my bees stung them, um, I would have to get rid of them. Um, it seems to me that having rats because you're negligent about, you know, the, um, dumpsters is a no-brainer. So, I'm just expressing my astonishment that there's no way to just say, you know, this is this doesn't work in Medford. We do have a dumpster permit with a fee and that requires a pest management plan. So I think there's very I think there actually is very clear ways for us to uh require them to have dumpsters that meet the permits and the fees. Um so I'm I'm hoping we'll explore that.

Yeah, I hope so because it sounds like a really the people that are living there are really suffering and everybody around them according to the report we had on rat reproduction will soon be suffering too. Yes. I mean, it seems to me like something that, you know, next week someone should go out and Okay, that's my I mean, I can't direct anyone to do anything. Only the mayor can, but um seems to me like it's a no-brainer as well. Yeah, I think it's a really high priority. Thanks. Thank you, Jennifer. All right. Is there a motion on the floor on the motion to adjourn by councelor Sang, seconded by, seconded by councelor Maline. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you.