City Council - Regular Meeting

Let's start this off with the pledge. Councillor Lucas.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Great, thank you. Some of our regular housekeeping items, please be aware that we're both being audio and video recorded. Do we have, I can't imagine we have councillors that are remote. Correct, we're all here. We're all looking very dapper for our photos this evening. Anyone who's got laptops or iPhones rolling in the room, please make sure you're on mute so we can avoid feedback. Let's see, I don't think I need to read the note about the photo, except for Cyrus, who didn't seem to be able to join us tonight. Let's see, so the next guy here. We have our annual financial forecast meeting. I think we are gonna mention this a couple of times. That is set for Monday, October the 5th, and we are gonna start early that night. We just have to figure out the exact time. At this point, I would probably put it on your calendars for seven o'clock start. The annual CIP hearing is going to follow that on October the 19th, probably the same start time, around 7 o'clock, because there's a lot going on there. Tax classification hearing, also Monday, November the 16th. We will be reminding folks of this several times, so... Everybody will have it clear in your calendars. I assume that one will be an early start because generally there's a fair amount of Q&A there. Please let Drew or myself know if there are any challenges on those dates or anything going on that we need to be made aware of, because those are pretty important nights for the council. So thank you for that. We also have three items on second call tonight that I'll talk to when we get to second call. And then right after first call everyone should have a brief I think I think I saw what to survey question that we'll talk to right after first column before we get to second And with that I'd like to jump into first call items councillor Kelly for land use Thank You mr. President

The Land Use Committee report starts in your book on page 185. We met on September 15th and we had such a productive meeting, unbelievable. The first item, we quickly approved a request to withdraw without prejudice for item 207-26, which was at 2 Rose Street. uh we moved on to other items which were 225-26 which was a request to allow a four-story building with 48 feet in height and associated dimensional parking waivers at 74 needham street that was approved eight to nothing number 280-26 which was a request to exceed facade ratio at 40 birdine road was also approved eight to nothing Number 281-26, a request to exceed facade ratio at 29 Pierpont Road was approved eight to nothing. And number 282-26, a request to allow two parking stalls within the front setback at 45 Ware Road was also approved eight to nothing. It was one of our quickest, most productive, easy meetings of the term. Mr. President, I would like to request a public hearing date, please.

Yep, please proceed.

I'd like to set a public hearing on September 29th for item 304-26, a request to allow a combination of retaining walls exceeding four feet in height at 696 Dedham Street. And that concludes my report.

Great. Thank you. For zoning and planning, Councilor Baker.

Thank you, Mr. President. The report begins on page 187. The items on that page, however, were held. So the action items to report are on page 188, and they are 269.26, the reappointment of Susan Lunen to the Conservation Commission, approved 7-0, reappointment of Catherine Cade to the Conservation Commission, approved 7-0, appointment of Kevin Mendick to the Conservation Commission, not reappointment, and that was approved 6-0. And I also want to mention that item 290.26 was held relating to A discussion of data about demolition of homes and their replacements. Thank you. My colleagues have pointed out I missed one on the Friar page. Page, let me, the reported item at 268.26, reappointment of Jeffrey Zabel to the Conservation Commission. My apologies. Thank you. And I just want to mention that in 29026, Councillor Wright, the Vice Chair, did a significant amount of work to generate that data, and I just think it's been attached to the report, and I commend it to the members of the Council to look at. Thank you.

Thank you. Programs and Services. Councillor Krinsman.

Thank you, Mr. President. The report begins on page 188. Programs and Services Committee met on September 9th. Item 211-26, this was requesting an ordinance amendment to Chapter 3 regarding animals and fowl, was approved by a vote of 6-0. Item 217-26, the resolution in support of Medicare for All from Massachusetts was voted no action necessary by a vote of 6-0. And item 265-26, authorization to purchase 492 Waltham Street, was approved by a vote of 6-0. Just to quickly mention, tomorrow night, Programs and Services will continue its review of the city charter, and we'll be taking up the article that deals with the city council, and we'll be talking about the structure of the city council for those interested in that conversation. With that, I move the report. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, sir. For Public Safety and Transportation, Councillor Lucas.

Thank you, Mr. President. The report begins on page 189. The Public Safety and Transportation Committee met on Tuesday, excuse me, Wednesday, September 9th. Item 62-26, that's the parking ban that was held. But I have one item to report, item 274-26. Farid Isaviev requesting a new public auto license. We voted no action necessary, six to zero. And that concludes the report. One announcement, PS&T is meeting tomorrow next door at special start time, 6.30. Thank you.

Thank you. For Public Facilities, Councillor Kalis. Thank you, Mr. President. Councillor Kalis.

This begins on page 190. We last met on 9926, first item 247-26, requesting a discussion and straw vote on the Bullo's Pond project. This is actually approved, four yeses, one no, two abstentions, one absent. um 273-26 is on second call 278-26 request for a discussion with the mayor concerning staffing for the division of climate and energy was held and 283-26 was a eversource petition for grant allocation of moody street was approved eight zero and that concludes the report thank you thank you for finance councillor grossman

Thank you, Mr. President. Before I begin my report, just a correction for our clerk on page 189, item 265-26, which is listed as referred to the programs and services and finance committees, and I will report this out in a second, but on the finance approved line down here, it says Councilor Kelly not voting on 9-14-2026, but Councilor Kelly is not on the committee. So if we could just remove that. I'm going to go on to page 191, which is where the finance report begins. The committee met on September 14th, 2026. The first item is on second call. Item 262-26, His Honor the Mayor requesting authorization to accept and expend a grant of $23,040 from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency Emergency Management Preparedness Grant was approved six to zero. Item 263-26, His Honor the Mayor requesting authorization for full and final settlement of case number 217268 was approved six to zero. Item 264-26 authorization to transfer $623,130.15 in excess debt exclusion bond proceeds was approved 7-0. Item 265-26 authorization to purchase 492 Waltham Street was approved 7-0. Item 299-26 requesting authorization to enter into a contract greater than three years was approved seven to zero. And item 303-26, authorization for $11,500 for a legal settlement was approved six to zero. With that, I move the report.

Great, thank you. We'll have the record modified for the one item you just called out as well. For real property reuse, Councilor Malachy.

Thank you, Mr. President. There is no report.

Fabulous. Can we get a roll call vote, please?

Councilor Albright.

Aye.

Councilor Baker. Aye. Councilor Bixby. Aye. Councilor Block.

Aye.

Councilor Charm. Aye. Councilor Damabud. Aye. Councilor Farrell. Aye. Councilor Betz.

Aye.

Councilor Golden. Aye. Councilor Gordon.

Aye.

Councilor Greenberg.

Aye.

Councilor Grossman. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. On the first call motion, the ayes are 23. One councillor is absent. Motion carries.

Great. Thank you. Councillor Farrell, did you want to talk about the survey that we've all got on our desks?

Thank you, President. This is very short. I left a document on everyone's desk called a totally unsophisticated survey. I shared it with Councillor Krintzman, the Chairman of Programs and Services beforehand. As you know, we're about, as he mentioned, and you know, we're about to begin discussions on the size and structure of the Council. And I thought this is an interesting point of information, if you are willing to just No one will know who you are. Just put on the bottom of it how many hours you think you spend officially and unofficially on the work of the city council. And the reason I asked to do this is because I forgot to say what to do with the piece of paper. If you would hand it back to me or to Mr. Willison, that would be appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. All right, we've got three items on second call.

just intend to go down them in the order which I think we all have in front of us.

The first item, 273.26 for public facilities. Chair Kalis, I believe that you have an item to walk us through.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Anytime you're ready.

Yeah. 273-26, request to revoke the two-foot rule regarding gas company non-emergency grants of location. Councillor Leary, Roach, Damo, Badmalachie, Albright and Bixby requesting the Newton City Council require all requests by the gas company for non-emergency street openings for gas infrastructure to come before the City Council for grant of location approval. This decision revokes the previous observation by DPW of the two-foot rule which enabled issuing DPW street opening permits without grants of location. DPW street opening permits for the gas infrastructure shall be available on the city website. So we approved this 8-0. We met in committee twice and discussed this and felt good about it until we recently got a letter from Amy Smith, who is at National Grid, who detailed a variety of her concerns and things that she thinks should be discussed within committee. So I reached back out to her. and she's actually gonna attend the meeting tomorrow, and what I'd like to do is send this back to committee, so I'm looking for a motion to do that, actually.

Great, and that motion needs a second. We have a second. All those in favor, well, before I jump to that, any discussion on that motion? All right, seeing no, oh, I'm sorry, Councilor Silver.

I'm just curious if the letter is going to be shared of the concerns or if it already has been shared. I'd love to take a look.

Yeah, we can share it with the committee and we can share it broadly.

Great. Thank you.

All set fantastic we're going to try and do this by you know just on a on a voice vote here, you know, and if we need to we'll go to a roll call vote, but all those in favor please say aye. All those opposed. Fantastic I think that's unanimous. Thank you, Sir. Next item is 261-26, authorization to transfer $600 for a disability pride event. Councilor Grossman.

Thank you, Mr. President. So this is item 261-26, as the president mentioned, which was a request from the mayor to transfer $600 from the Handicapped Parking Fines Disability Commission account to a new Disability Pride event account to cover expenses associated with the Commission on Disability's Disability Pride event. So at the end of this, I'm going to ask for a motion to amend the $600 amount to the actual amount that was spent, which was $582.67. So this seems like much ado about a difference of $17.33, but I'm just going to take a minute to explain to you why it took quite a bit of time and committee to discuss this. So we were joined by one of our co-chairs, from the Committee on Disability, Ema Johnstotter, who explained to us that this event had taken place earlier in this calendar year, as I think most of us know, a certain amount of money was expended and it was paid out of the executive's account budget, which for de minimis amounts and something like this is, totally fine, with the expectation that a de minimis amount will be reimbursed later down the line. In terms past, we've gotten this docket item in advance of the Commission on Disabilities event so that we've talked in advance about what the expected budget is and allocated the money. In this case, the event happened first and they were coming to us for reimbursement. The reason the conversation got interesting is that Ms. John's daughter represented that they'd actually spent considerably less than the $600 that they were asking. And she indicated that that was okay with the Commission on Disability because they were under the impression that they could then use the remainder of the money for other needs for the rest of the fiscal year, whether that's an additional speaker or some more materials or what have you. And the committee started asking questions as to what amount they actually spent and how much money was left over. And what that led to was a realization that in fact, the way that this docket item was written and the way the accounts work, and depending on how a docket item is written and the accounts work, Either the unexpended money was going to drop to free cash at the end of the year, which would mean that it would leave the Commission on Disabilities control and go into the general pool of money for the city. or it would essentially be tied up in this specific account for the remainder of this fiscal year until the comptroller would close out the account at the end of the year and it would revert back to the Commission on Disability. Either way, neither one of those were the goal that the Commission on Disability was hoping to achieve. They were hoping to achieve some flexibility to be able to spend small amounts of their money on needs that come up. And in either case, this was either going to totally fly in the face of that and leaving their control entirely or be tied up. Now, in the end, what they estimated they spent was less than what they actually spent. So as I said, the actual amount they spent was $582.67. They thought they had spent less. Suffice to say, the resolution of this was that we would get the correct number here tonight so we weren't holding up any of their money. And it has spurred a conversation between our CFO and her team and the Commission on Disability about how to properly establish them account going forward that they can use for de minimis expenses as they come up. With that said, can I have a motion to amend this amount to $582.67?

No, it's before all of us at this point.

All right, I got a motion. I just need a second. Fantastic. Any conversation on that motion? Seeing none, we're going to try and do this as a voice vote as well. All those in favor, please say aye. Opposed? I'm hearing unanimous. All right, final item.

Well, we still have to vote on the main item. That was an amendment.

You are correct, sir. Thank you for that again. On the main item of 261-26, I think I can do this as a voice vote as well. All those in favor, please say aye. Opposed? I'm sensing unanimous vote there as well. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Now we're on to the third item. Item 250-26, CPC recommendation to appropriate $1.9 million for a grant to the Newton Affordable Housing Trust. I think you have this note as well. I am going to make a motion that this item be properly sent to the correct committee when this item was originally assigned to PF and finance that was in error, something that we didn't catch until far too late in the process. PF has heard and voted on the item, but according to city council rules, which I think are up on the board behind me, all CPC items are indeed meant to go to zoning and planning. So with that said, I'm going to make that motion to send it to the proper committee. I'll need a second. All right, I have a second here. Is there any conversation on that motion? Councilor Roach.

I would be interested to know what the planned scheduling of this is. Is this going to go to the bottom of the line? Is this going to be expedited?

I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

I couldn't hear it. So I'm curious to understand what the scheduling will be on this. Is this going to go to the bottom of the line, or will this be expedited? Question to the chair of ZAP through the president.

Sorry, Chair Baker.

Through the president, to me, This is new to me, so I have to look at the agenda. We do planning process. I think the agenda for next week is set. We've got several other things, but I would try and take it up in due course, but not. I can't say I would do it immediately because I have to just see whether the planning and the CPC people would be available and when they're available. So we normally do that planning meeting on Thursday of last week for the following week. So I have to just check with them. But I would expect to take it up reasonably soon. But I don't have a date for you. I'm not sure about that. But I would hope to within a reasonable period of time, because I assume we want to get this taken care of. I'm not interested in holding it up. I'd rather get it done. It's just not one I have on the calendar already. It came as a surprise.

All set? Thank you. Anyone else? Nope. All right. So we have a motion on the floor. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Opposed? fantastic i hear unanimous on that one as well thank you everyone we don't have to vote on that item because it's sent back to committee see what i did there all right we are all set with second call items do i have a motion motion to adjourn thank you everyone have i'm sorry oh second thank you very much everyone have a lovely night

Recording stopped.