City Council - Regular Meeting

all right good evening everyone I call this meeting to order this is a meeting of the City Council it is Thursday September 10th my name is Lance Davis I use he him pronouns presiding over the council this evening first off welcome everyone who may have strolled up here from Civic Day we are thrilled to be the the the headline event of Civic Day for the first year ever. Sadly, all of our costumes and our backup dancers got stuck in traffic, so we won't have a big song and dance opening number for you, but maybe we'll work on that for next year. But welcome. I'm glad that folks are here to watc

All right, thank you. Pursuant to our Rule 32, let it be known that the City Council salutes the flag of the United States of America, and let us recall our oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth to the best of our abilities and understanding. We begin our meetings with a moment of silence. Are there any members wishing to recognize members of the community this evening? Councilor Ba, go ahead.

1:34 – 2:37•WMWilfred N. Mbah

Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to ask for a moment of silence in honor of a beloved community member who we lost last week, Vijendra Kumar Prahan, who lives on Bradley Street. was a pillar of New England's Nepali-American community and an embodiment of the American dream. A native of Trishuli, Nepal, he moved here as a young man, working jobs such as taxi driver, cook, and most recently mechanic for the Cambridge Housing Authority. In his spare time, he worked to celebrate and bring together the Nepali community. He was the president of the NIWA organization of New England, which works

Thank you. Any others? Councillor Scherzo? Councillor Kling would like to sign on to that one. Councillor Scherzo?

2:46 – 3:46•KSKristen Strezo

Like a moment of silence for Mary Bedard of Somerville. She passed away on Thursday, August 27th. And she was the cherished daughter of the late Edwin and Marian Davidson. Prior to her retirement, she worked at Burlington Coat Factory as a store clerk. She loved to read, especially romance novels. listening to music and watching movies. She was the devoted mother of Roger and his wife Adelaide and Raymond of Somerville. She was the adored grandmother of Derek and his wife Taylor and Robert, Sean, Nicholas, and Shane. And the loving great grandmother to Jackson and Lena. She was the dear sister

Thank you. Any others? All right, would everyone in the chamber please rise however you are able for a moment of silence for the aforementioned individuals. Thank you. Madam Clerk, first item.

Council Unkampen moves for approval. Any discussion? Seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Councilman McLaughlin would like to suspend the rules to take up item 7.20 together with that item. If there's no objections. Seeing none, would you please read 7.20? Yes.

All right, thank you. Councillor McLaughlin.

Thank you, Mr. President. Yes, a number of activists in the community approached me to talk about mitotonic dystrophy, which is a genetic multi-system disorder that's caused progressive muscle weakness in individuals. It's impacted by about 1 in 2,100 people. and I want to take the moment to recognize the struggle of this and the residents who care about this issue. I do believe the mayor was going to speak. Oh, there he is. The mayor, I'd like to give him a moment to speak, but then I'd also like to sponsor a speaker as well after that.

All right, very well. Councilor McLaughlin would like to sponsor the mayor to speak. Seeing no objection, Mr. Mayor, please approach.

Thank you. Any discussion? Councilor Young-Kappen?

Council would like to sign on any other discussion council McLaughlin back to you I would at some point like to pause for a photo but I know there's another another event item with speakers so if you want to proceed to the next one if not I would like to pause for a photo at some point I think now would be a good time for a photo let's take a brief recess so we can take some pictures and then we'll come right back to business

all right I'll call this meeting back to order I can see that a quorum is present quick housekeeping note so you saw we took a couple items out of order already I'll give you the sort of the rundown for the rest of our out of order items we will unless it's an objection I'd like to take up item 719 next we'll then go back to the regular order we're going to take up a few items And then after that, I'd like to take up 7.21. That is an item related to civilian oversight. It's the first introduction to the council, sort of a high-level presentation, two or three slides, let's put it. My intent th

Thank you. Thank you, Director. Mr. Mayor, any discussion? All right, seeing none, item 4.1 is approved. Item 7.9 is placed on file. Very good, thank you. That brings us back to the regular order of business. Madam Clerk, next item.

Councilor Klingin. Thank you, Mr. President. If the clerk would please read the resolution into the record.

Thank you for that. Mr. President, colleagues, you may have seen on the news, you may have participated already. I was down there with the mayor a few days ago. I know a few colleagues have been down to the picket line, and there was a parade on Labor Day, which seems celebratory. The spirits are really high in the picket line, but let me be clear. This is a fight. We want these people to get back to work as soon as humanly possible. So I just want to tonight recognize these workers and say that I stand in strong support with the striking workers of Teamsters Local 25 and Unite Here Local 26 t

All right, Councillor Clingen, I would like to sponsor James Atkins and Freddy Sanchez. See no objection. Let's go ahead.

Councilor McLaughlin and then Councilor Link.

Thank you, Mr. President. I can see the Encore Casino from my house right in my backyard, so I think I live the closest to it, and I was trying to decide whether I was going to tell the story about me opposing the casino, but someone just mentioned it. I remember years ago, I went to Everett, and I was speaking against the casino for a number of reasons because I just thought it was there was a better location on the table at the time. When I spoke, there was this roar of cat hisses from the audience just basically disagreeing with me, respectfully disagreeing. Those voices were from labor. La

Thank you, Mr. President. I think the good counsel from Ward 1 hit the nail on the head. We are often promised to our community good paying jobs. The reason that we should put up with all the other pains of this casino, of a future stadium, good paying jobs, good paying jobs. If those aren't coming, yeah, what are we doing? So 100%, you know, we need to actually hold these employers' feet to the fire. And, yeah, thank you for saying it so well.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. Everything my colleagues have said is spot on and obviously all support. I'd love to sign on to this resolution as well, but the scale. Really gets to me. Mr. President, the scale of wealth accumulation is a problem that we have throughout our society. The operating profit, I mean, there was a $750 million number mentioned there in terms of revenue, but the operating profit of just this one property has been reported at $230 million a year. $230 million a year, even if you divided that up across every one of those 1,400 employees that they mentioned, that's over

37:05 – 37:28•WMWilfred N. Mbah

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, colleagues. Again, I want to sign on. Again, this is just simply about respect. you know, for the contribution of the workers that actually sustain this company. So I don't, and we will continue to stand with you. I think tomorrow I'll also join you on the PK line just to say we're not going anywhere. We'll continue to stand with you until you prevail. Thank you.

37:34 – 37:50•NSNaima Sait

Through you, Mr. President. First, I would like to thank Councillor Klingin for bringing this resolution forward. And, yeah, I want to say that your strike right now is incredibly inspiring. Keep up the fight. You will win. And we stand with you and we support you.

Thank you, Mr. President. Just echoing my colleague's sentiments, one thing I wanted to share that felt so inspiring to me, joining the picket line on Monday, was all of the workers from other unions, all the people from community organizations, all of the individuals, all the activists, all the people who came and showed up to stand in solidarity. There's something really exciting and inspiring happening there and a true sense of common purpose. I was honored just to experience that. It makes me confident that you're going to win. Thank you for being here, and God bless. Thank you.

Councilor Hart would like to sign on as well. All right, seeing no further discussion, thank you, folks, and that item is approved. And Councilor Kling, I would like to, if there's no objection, take up items 4.3 and 4.4 together, please, Madam Clerk. Yes. Seeing no objection. Before we get to that, let's take another quick brief recess for some pictures, and then we'll come right back after.

38:53•KSKristen Strezo

Hey, Mr. President, am I signed on to that as well? Because I signed on the first time.

If Councilor Schatz was not already, you should have signed on as well.

38:59•KSKristen Strezo

Yeah, I should have already been signed on to it.

All right, we'll stand and brief recess for pictures. All right, call this meeting back to order. I can see that a quorum is present. Madam Clerk, just for the record, would you read the full list of counselors who signed on? Because I know some folks signed on.

When this item was circulated earlier in the week. So let's just make sure we get that full list on the record.

All right, very good, thank you. That item is approved. And Councillor Scott, everybody. Now we have everybody. Very good. Councillor Klingon would like to take up items 4.3 and 4.4 together. Seeing no objection, we'll waive the rules to take up those items together. Madam Clerk, would you read those both into the record?

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you. So, colleagues, the impetus for these orders are, you know, somewhat obvious in the wording, but I just want to add a fine point on it. You know, we have a moratorium on – if a utility opens up a street that's been paved in the last five years, they need to – paved curb to curb at that point if they do open the street up, or they typically don't allow it, it has to be for emergency anyway. Oftentimes the street's six years old and the life may be 15 and at six years now they've made a trench down the middle of the street and now maybe two years after that

All right, thank you. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, those items are approved with a copy to sustainability and infrastructure. And then Councillor Klingon would like to waive the rules to take up items 4.5 and 4.6 together. Seeing no objection, Madam Clerk, would you please read those items?

Thank you, Mr. President. On these, again, I think colleagues probably know what I'm getting at for the public. I'm sure you probably have seen contractors will bid on a job. They'll tear up the street. They'll get real aggressive for, like, the first couple days. Then they just minimize staffing to, like, one person in a backhoe. And people say, what is going on? We haven't seen people down there for days. Now, again, this is why I don't profess to know everything in procurement. The reason why I have this conversation with procurement and with engineering is so people understand that they ma

Okay, thank you. Any other discussion? All right, seeing none, those two items are approved then with a copy to Sustainability Infrastructure Council cleaning. You want those to go to committee as well? Yeah. Okay. And S and I have had the same conversation together. Those could theoretically be a finance discussion, but I assume you'd want to keep the... Yeah, I'd like to keep it in public.

Yeah, I'd like to keep it in infrastructure because even though there's a procurement piece to it, it's really more about public works projects and bidding. So I can always kick it out after, but I think to start the conversation, we have it there.

All right, very good. So a copy of those will be sent to sustainability and infrastructure. All right, before we get to our next out of order, item 721, I just want to check, is there anyone in the room specifically here for another item that I haven't mentioned, any item other than 721? No, okay. If so, we would take that up out of order so you don't have to wait since we're gonna go into executive session pretty soon here, but hopefully not for long. All right, so Madam Clerk, let's take up item seven. If there's no objection, we'll suspend the rules to take item 7.21 out of order.

We have Manager Hellman here. Manager Hellman, would you please get us started on this, what I anticipate will be a very, we'll call it a long process, a long and thorough process with due diligence.

Thank you, Manager Hellman. And I will note, not in terms of deliberation, but just for the sake of completing the record, because I think it's important to recognize the council's role. If we go back to the first slide, please. In June of 2020, I submitted, or put together, together with Councillor Scott and submitted with Councillor Mbah, a resolution calling for a civilian oversight body, actually, I think it was a two-entity structure that we had at the time. I think we made the mistake of trying to lay out in that resolution a lot more detail than we probably were ready to. But that resol

Attorney Sergu, is this item appropriate for executive session? Could you please approach and give the council an opinion?

All right, very good. Council Bob moves to adjourn into executive session. Would you please call the roll?

Yes, and I think I misspoke. I'm not technically adjourning. We are simply going into executive session, and we will come back into open session at the conclusion of executive session.

Let's start with a roll call to establish a quorum coming out of the next session.

All right. No votes were taken in executive session other than the vote to adjourn out of executive session. I see Citizen Huff in the background. Are you here, Crystal, for a specific item, perhaps 6.7.3 and or whatever the corresponding I'm happy to take those out of order now if you're here just for those items. I don't want to keep you around. All right, so before we pick up item 721 off the table, if there's no objection, could we take up items? Help me out here. Counselor Link, it's 7.3. And then the corresponding administration submission is... Which one? Oh, right, of course. Sorry, so

Okay, just in terms of the procedure, given that 10.1 is on the supplemental item, that was sort of due to the Monday holiday and the sort of sequencing and getting that prepared, it just wasn't ready before the submission deadline, so we won't have a deliberation on that, but because it is a zoning ordinance amendment, it also very much overlaps or is sort of essentially the same subject matter as the other item there's just sort of maybe maybe some little differences in approach we will refer both of those items to land use with a copy to the planning board for a scheduled public hearing tha

Thank you Because I just I just would like to quickly just say thank you to the administration for for 7.3 which was properly Noticed so I just want to say yeah, thank you for that and it's really appreciated that that we're we're addressing this so quickly I really like it

Excellent, thank you for that. So stay tuned for good public hearing and robust committee discussion on those items. Now let's go back to, so we addressed 7.1. Let's take up item 7.21 off the table. This was the update on civilian oversight. We heard Manager Hillman present prior, when we first began discussing this item. I'm told that that sort of presentation will stand. Are there questions or comments or discussion? This is, as I said, this is sort of the opening of the public process to, well, I shouldn't say that. We have, as we just heard, there's been long and robust public processes in

Why don't we do this? Why don't we, why don't we, I see Councilor Scott raises his hand. We'll go around the room, and to the extent that we don't hit any of the things that were brought up, because to the extent things were brought up in executive session that are appropriate for open session, I want to make sure that they do get stated. So if we don't touch on my list here, then I'll flag it, and if we do, then we're good. So Councilor Scott, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. President. I think this is kind of an awkward discussion given that we started it and then went into executive session and then came back out of executive session. So it might be helpful just for the public to understand that we as a council, we as a community, have been demanding a civilian oversight function for a very long time the first council demands back in 2020 which were riding along with the community demands of justus Somerville and And with that said, all of this impacts a contract with employees that have a union. And we are not the ones who negotiate those contract

Council Scott, I got to save some of the stuff for when I sit down and talk, so I'll let you stop there if you'd like to. Other discussion?

I'll save some for your shared part of the brain, sir.

Very good. Other discussion? Councilor Link?

Thank you, Mr. President. I'll just say that I'm very glad to see this coming on the heels of body-worn cameras. This was something that I was very concerned about, as were several of my colleagues pointed this out. So it's really heartening to see that we are approaching this with sincerity. As some others have already said, it's really important that as we do this, it's more than theater. This body has to create true accountability, true transparency, and continue to speak more broadly at the moment. I'll just say that, you know, another part that's really top of mind for me is, you know, th

2:29:53 – 2:31:11•NSNaima Sait

Yeah, through you, Mr. President. First, also glad to see this on the agenda. I'm glad we're discussing this without any delays, as the mayor has promised back in June that we'll be discussing this right after we come back from recess. So really glad to see this. Yeah, I will say that. Yes, the community has been asking for civilian oversight for years now. A lot of work was done with the community, so let's make sure as we do in this process that we include all those recommendations and all the work that was done with the counselors. And in terms of some things that I would like to see, very

Okay. Council Bob, would you take the presidency for a moment?

2:31:19 – 2:33:12•WMWilfred N. Mbah

I thought you wanted me to share some light, Mr. President. Do you want to speak first? Yeah, no, just, I mean, just everything that Chairman Scott, you know, really, you know, emphasized because this is, I mean, we, I'm glad that this has actually become like the project for the administration this fall. This is something, you know, that was almost going to be a holdout, you know, for, the previous vote and accountability measures that we took, but it's taken us several years, but now it's been taken up and it is important that we actually see what is being presented. I mean, I don't need to,

Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to echo my colleagues in appreciation that we're starting this discussion right now, and I hope that we can keep moving very swiftly through each stage of the process of setting this up, because just to reiterate, From the discussion in past months of the body-worn cameras, we know that for them to be useful tools, that we have to have a meaningful civilian oversight body with significant power and responsibility and authority. So I appreciate all of the comments made by my colleagues so far. And I also really appreciate all of the work that's been done ov

Thank you. And manager Helman, you mentioned in the listed on the slides, the pre the primary reference documents. Are those at this stage? Or is there a plan to make those sort of? Is there is there is there a page on the on, you know, somewhere in the city website, whether that's the public safety for all sub page or anywhere to that first, we can attach them to agenda items, but it's not the easiest thing to find. So there's a clear way to get folks to them.

Thank you for that. I think to make it as direct a request as possible, if there's a... there's a reason other than just technical logistics which of course we'll understand we'll work through if there's a reason other than that to not you know put them right on that that sub page within the public safety for all site because I think that's where I'd go to look for them you know if I was and so that then if you could you bring that back to me if there's if there's any of the concerns of that yeah let me happy to have the conversation so I don't want to say like you know please do that but if t

Thank you, Mr. President. I want to echo what my colleagues have said. I think there's been a desire for a civilian oversight body that really works for a long time. In my mind, part of why it's so crucial is accountability is not anti-police. Accountability is pro-police. I want us as a city to work towards deep and true trust between community and police and a body like this with real power is crucial to that we use civilian oversight in tons of different contexts and it is a basis every day for our trust on the financial side of the City Council's powers we ask about every dollar being spen

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Manager Hillman and Attorney Sirigu and Mr. Mayor, for all your input so far on this. I'll try not to echo too much what my colleagues have already stated, but, you know, As Councillor Scott noted, the history of this issue goes back to 2020. That process, that council process, led to sort of a two-stage effort. One was looking at the state of civilian oversight across the country, and to be fair, Councillor Scott and I actually did that initially ourselves, had countless hours of conversations with folks from as far away as Oakland and as close as Cambridg

Any further discussion? Okay, so that item will be placed on file. As I said, we will look forward to a new submission and a more formal presentation from the administration, possibly at the next meeting. If we're not right there yet, we don't want to rush it, so then if it's at a subsequent meeting, then that's fine. Obviously, there's... There are timing considerations that are involved, but we do want to get this right. We do want to put the horse in front of the cart this time in terms of having a community process that results in a policy proposal, and then we take all the related steps t

Thank you, Mr. President. Give me just one sec to pull it up. The Finance Committee met on Thursday, September 3rd, 2026 via remote participation with all members present and with the help of Assistant City Clerk Madeline Letellier, we took up a 14-item agenda. We recommended an approval of an approximately $330,000 payment from Unifirst Corporation for soil cleanup along Tufts Street, along with creation of a stabilization fund to hold and spend those funds. The committee raised questions about the history of contamination at the site, whether nearby residents have been notified, possible exp

All right, Councilor Whelan, request that the report be accepted as submitted. Any discussion on the report? All right, seeing none, the report is accepted. I believe that leaves two items for roll call vote. Is that right, Madam Chair?

All right, very well, thank you. Next item.

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to the good Councillor from Ward 3 and the Chair for that. just want to draw the council's attention to to the point that the council more three made about the neighborhood residents because when I introduced this item I specifically called out that it had it had included allowing homeless shelters, which is a defined term, zoning in neighborhood residents by right, only requiring the meeting and the site plan review, but that I only did that so that we could have the conversation, because I wasn't sure exactly what the right approach was there. We did h

With that I ask the committee report be accepted can see a captain moves at the critical except this committed discussion on the report has gotten thank you on the motion for approval committee report... I just want to say thank you to the... Committee for engaging as you described in a very long and thoughtful conversation about these... I'm excited to see the active in place I think this is... Better than doing nothing And I look forward to more that we can do, hopefully between now and the end of the year. That said, I also just want to applaud the pushing forward on making it more possible

Thank You mr. President yeah just to echo the council for more to said I really appreciate the efforts on both of these items but I think that the tougher the tougher one is the is making sure that we've got shelters by right through a lot of the city and you know I think that the being able to see that that's something that, you know, we've got a welcoming communities ordinance where we want to be a welcoming community. This is part of being a welcoming community. And, you know, making sure that other, that organizations see that they're not going to have to fight tooth and nail with the chil

I guess if we're making speeches about committee reports, I'll weigh in. The UCTF is all in Ward 1, and I do want to just point out that one of the things I'm happy with is that I got East Broadway included in the UCTF zone. It was originally just going to be Assembly Row and a few spots on East Broadway. but I really wanted to make sure that was a priority, and I appreciate the city helping me out with that, because we've got a number of vacant lots on East Broadway. Majority, about 70% immigrant-owned businesses. We're trying to revitalize that area, make it a place to hang out and to be and

All right, seeing none, the committee report is approved. That puts two zoning amendments before us for enrollment and ordainment.

Thank you. Sorry. So that's not a zoning change. That's the approval of the act. That's why it only required one vote for my own. I'm on a roll here tonight.

All right. Very good. Good job, team. Next item, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. President. We met on Tuesday, September 8th, and we had an hour and a half-ish, hour and 45-minute meeting. In that, we discussed several things. covered several items related to custodians in schools, roading control, temperature control, and all of those were closed with deep appreciation to the DPW. We continued to monitor the safety improvements at the Argenziano since the Argenziano has taken on the AIM program. We also received an update on the Winterhill School where we discussed the site's ledge, how deep it was, what it was composed of, and if it would allow us to build

All right. Any discussion on the report? All right. Seeing none, that report is approved. Next item.

Madam Clerk, let's take up item 7.2. Counselor, you can, unless you have any objection, 7.2 through 7.7 together and waive the readings. These are all a series of zoning amendments with lots and lots of section numbers that no one really needs to listen to. They are available through any means that you are able to read the agenda. There's dozens of them. So if there's no objection, we'll waive the rules, waive the readings, take 7.2 through 7.7 together. We can have discussion and comment on those if there's any. I see Councilor Wheeler, do you wanna speak to any of the items?

Thank you, Mr. President. I was just curious to ask the administration, and I see IGA Director Najim Williams here, about the background of these, if these are coming out of the Department of Planning and Zoning's ongoing work, if different ones of these are in response to different items. Yeah, I'm just sort of curious about the provenance of this set of zoning amendments.

Director Najeeb Williams and or Chair Ewan Kampen, if either of you want to speak to that.

Or if there's even just a general, if there's any general uniform Providence, as you said are these directing the Jean Williams, anything, any context you can share with us?

I will add, just in terms of what these are, I read through. My read was that most, if not all, of these seem to relate to conversations I recall us having over the past period of time about various things. And it's like, OK, that must be the amendment that came out of that. Maybe not in all cases, but to some degree, that was the case. So that's sort of how I read them. And as as councillor and captain said we'll we will refer all of these to land use with a copy of the planning board for a whole bunch of public hearings and we'll get we'll get all the details but I will note for folks that e

Mr. President. Councilor Scott. Before we proceed, I know there is gonna be a lot of waving of the readings and referring to committee coming up here. I did wanna point out something that I think might have been an oversight in the agenda this evening. There is no committee report from the legislative matters meeting, which we held on Tuesday. So given that it was a meeting that had three public hearings generated its own set of minutes and also Had the action of approving a previous set of minutes that was amended I would ask that a committee report be generated and added to our next council

Thank you, Mr. President. So for items 7.8 through 7.15, I move to waive the readings of these items and refer them to the Finance Committee.

Any objection? Any discussion? All right. Reading of those items is waived, and they are all referred to Finance.

And I would like us to take up each of the next two items.

I move to, Mr. President, I move to approve this item due to its relatively small size.

Any discussion? Any questions? Do we need a roll call vote on these? I assume not, no, okay. All right, that item is approved. Next item.

Mr. President, I move to approve this item due to its objectively small size.

Any discussion? All right, that item is approved. Next item.

3:21:32•WMWilfred N. Mbah

I move to waive the reading of 7.22 through 7.26 and place on five. All right, any objection?

All right, those items, those are all appointments by the mayor to various boards, so folks can read those. Any objection, any discussion? All right, seeing none, those items are placed on file. Next item.

3:23:20 – 3:23:46•KSKristen Strezo

Director Williams. Thank you for this and I'm going to ask if the suggestions and information that I gave in the last council meeting was taken into consideration and how you the administration does intend to consider what was brought forward in those that conversation.

3:24:15 – 3:25:09•KSKristen Strezo

butters especially when we talked about the street harassment that was happening and I didn't feel like in the the the post last year talk about a discussion on the warming center I didn't feel like the what was reported of the street harassment of you know high school kids and younger girls was taken seriously or addressed amply and fine if the location is fine and again, nobody's challenging the fact that we need a warming center. We've all made that clear. However, again, some of our residents and some of our abutters are feeling uncomfortable about this. That at least an address or a consi

Council Link, then Ewan Campin, then Hart, then McLaughlin.

Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to point out that, you know, so one of the things that it clearly, that I think we all knew was that a big problem is capacity, that we're continuously over capacity and that the lines that are created because of people worrying about capacity are probably one of the big causes of many of the issues that abutters are facing. And I just want to point out that this isn't, we've talked about how Somerville's not a unique snowflake. This isn't new to shelters. This isn't new to shelters even in Somerville. So while I'm happy that we've identified this issue an

Councillor Yuen Kampen, then Hart, then McLaughlin.

So, Mr. President, I'd like this referred to the Public Health and Safety Committee, where I have a meeting scheduled for September 30th, 6.30 p.m. I would ask Director Nigel Williams to take into consideration everything said tonight and have prepared response from the city, and we can discuss it then.

3:28:06 – 3:29:39•KSKristen Strezo

Let's come back to the conversation again and in disconnect, perhaps there was a disconnect of understanding from the ward three counselor. There's a lot of similarities and understanding that yes, there was a positive job overall with the Cummings School and the rollout of numerous years of the warming center there. So let's not conflate and misrepresent that we were all in agreement that there's a need for a warming center what the disconnect is and I would hope that anybody who is the father of daughters and the fact that residents that again No constituents stated that They wanted the warm

That's disrespectful. Colleagues, Councilor Schlesinger, you're not recognized. Councilor McCabin, let's keep all discussion on the item. I think that goes for several last comments. That's against the rules. Councilor Schlesinger, you're not recognized. This item is placed on file. It's a violation of the rules. It will apply to public health and public safety. Thank you. Next item, please.

If you haven't been to your block party or your neighboring street's block party, go. Look at this list, find a street nearby, check it out, especially this time of year, because this is when the apple cider donuts start showing up. Those are the best block party food. If you can't find a block party near you and you think your street hasn't had a block party, then contact the clerk's office and find out how to have your very own block party on the street here in the year of the neighbor and everything else that we've been declaring this year. What better way than getting together with your bl

If I could just tack on to that PSA there, Mr. President. Last meeting, we saw that there was in there a... batch by one resident of block parties this happens to be in my neighborhood and it's something called play streets and I would encourage if anyone else wants to like if you want it if anyone in the community is interested in this talk to me I can I hook you up with that person it's a really great opportunity to like just have community right the idea is that there's people having dinner kids playing in the street like we all romanticize that we had maybe as in our childhood and it's a r

Lest we romanticize what happened in some of our youth, let's just not have any firecrackers or eggs or anything. Just behave, please. Any other discussion? All right, seeing none, that item is placed on file. Next item. Councilor Hart.

Yes, thank you, Mr. President. I move to waive the readings of 9.1 to 9.10 and approve this evening.

All right, 9.1 through 9.10, we were at the readings. I will note there's some really fun stuff in here. As I mentioned, it is that time of year when we do lots of stuff in the city. So take a look at the list. Keep your eye on that city calendar and go enjoy some of these events for which we are issuing licenses. Any discussion, Councilor Wheeler?

Just on that note of some fun events, I wanted to highlight the theater production of Iphigenia in Nathan Tufts Park, a.k.a. Patterhouse Park, which is just a really cool event. It's free. Anybody can come. You do not need to get a ticket in advance. It's going to be each Saturday and Sunday for three weekends in a row, starting September 26th, going all the way through October 11th, 4 p.m. Really cool. Everyone should go.

Right here. All right, see no further discussion. Those items are all approved. Next item.

Councilman Kemp, do you want that in committee or should it be placed on file? Why don't we refer it to committee?

I'll note I had a conversation with the administration earlier this week after the deadline for submitting items for the agenda. I was told that these leases were not finalized in time to meet that, so that's why they're showing up on the supplemental. And they will begin before we will have an opportunity to send them to committee and then back again so that is why they are on the agenda this evening but we will refer them to finance so they will be duly noticed and folks can have an opportunity to weigh in in advance and so if anyone in the public does have any thoughts on these send them al

Yes. Any discussion? Seeing none, that item is approved.

Any discussion? Seeing none, that item is approved.

Will I move that we approve that? And the next one as well?

Councilor Hart moves to approve both of those items. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, those items approved.

That item is placed on file. Next item. Are there any late items? I think that's the end of the agenda. Are there any late items?

All right, very well. Thank you. That item is placed on file. Councillor Scott.

Mr. President, I also have a late item. Using exactly the same language as my colleague with the same timing, irrevocably resigning my position as Ward 2 City Councillor, effective December 31st, 2026. and also likewise request that you put in an order at the next meeting for a special election.

Yes, there we go. That has placed on file, and we will have a properly noticed item at the next meeting. Since these are late items that were not listed, we're going to refrain from having any deliberation on them, lest we trip over any rules and make anybody upset. However, you can say lots of things when I ask if there's any other late items.

3:37:31 – 3:37:49•WMWilfred N. Mbah

Mr. President, once the election is scheduled, I would like to know so I can know when to submit my resignation so that my successor can start immediately with the other newly elected.

I'm happy to have a conversation with you about how your succession works according to our charter.

I too have an announcement to make. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn.

Councillor McLaughlin moves to adjourn. Seeing no discussion, we are adjourned. Thank you, folks.