Remarks by Ben Wheeler
63 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 3
I'm sorry, clerk. I can interrupt you because I move to waive the readings and refer to the finance committee this item, 7.1, as well as 7.4, 7.6, and 7.8.
All right, okay council wheeler on this item Apologize I was just trying to to hear what my colleague said. I
Thank you, Mr. President, and through you. Thanks so much for this presentation. I really appreciate it. I very much appreciate the context of these different reports and the Council in 2020 and Justice Somerville and looking at this breakdown of sort of topic by topic, what these different sources and voices have said. I was really glad to see the point at the end about systemic policy review and practice analysis. I think what I hear the public asking for overall, not just for Summerville Police Department, but for all parts of the city government, is continued improvement. And an oversight…
Yes, please, Mr. President. I would like to take item 8.1 out of order.
Thank you, Mr. President. So I'm familiar with this idea, thanks to the Several Alliance for Safe Streets. It has been implemented successfully in other cities, and the core idea is simple. Where there is varied use of a public resource, like parking curb space by longer and shorter vehicles, but we charge the same, we're being a little unfair. And if we can, we should try to adjust. We currently have a one-size-fits-all approach to residential parking permits, meaning parking, say, a 13-foot long, 2,500-pound Chevy Aveo costs the same as parking a 22-foot long, 8,000-pound Ford F450. People…
Quick point of order, Mr. President. Sorry, did I miss 3.1? Did that happen?
Councilor Wheeler. Thank you, Mr. President. So a few months ago, a group of residents near Magoon Square fed up with the many rats in their neighborhood, asked city staff to walk their street with them. Public Health Director Colin Ziegler helped identify a serious problem with some commercial dumpsters that were nearby and were providing food for rats to eat on a daily basis. And following up on that, I learned that these dumpsters were not licensed. And this is something that's new to me, realizing that we have an ordinance that says all commercial dumpsters must be licensed and registered…
Thank you, Mr. President. So towing vehicles from public property is done by the police department and generally in rear cases. We don't have an established procedure by which other departments, particularly the parking department, can request that a vehicle be towed, even if they observe that that vehicle is parked in a location that poses a problem for public safety, such as a fire lane. This came up because some residents in Ward 3 reached out to Councilor Ewan Campin and also to me about a recurring problem on a very narrow street where vehicles have sometimes parked in the fire lane and…
Maybe it's not necessary to send that to committee, unless anybody...
Thank you, Mr. President, through you. So with regard to 4.10, the right turn on red signs, just a note that.
Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that was one of the ones that was taken up.
Thank you, Mr. President. It's my understanding that a few years ago, shortly after the Cambridge City Council voted to ban right turns on red, the city of Somerville conducted an evaluation of many intersections and considering where would it make sense to have signs saying not to turn on red, and found that many were good candidates for that signage. And I think since then, a lot of those signs have been rolled out. I don't know if we've received an update since then on how that progress has been going, and I'd just be curious, as part of this visit from the Director of Mobility, to ask…
Councilor Wheeler. Thank you, Mr. President. Through you. The Finance Committee met on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026 via remote participation with all members present, and with the help of Clerk of Committees Delaney Fisher-Cassiol, we took up a 10-item agenda. We approved an appropriation of $350,000 from the City's Immigrant Legal Services Stabilization Fund for legal services for immigrants and asylum seekers seeking permanent residency. This was a specific budget ask for much of the City Council in the spring. Money was put aside in this purpose-specific stabilization fund, and now it…
Mr. President, I move to waive the readings and refer to the Finance Committee the following items. 7.2, 7.4, 7.5, 7.7, 7.8, 7.12, 7.13, and 7.15.
And then, Mr. President, I also move to take up 7.9, 7.10, and 7.11 together. I assume they need to be read.
Mr. President, I move to approve these items. $2,500 is not a small amount in anybody's personal budget. In the scheme of the city's budget, I think it's small enough that it justifies just approving this tonight.
Yes, that was in my list earlier of the ones that were waived and referred to finance.
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.
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…
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…
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.
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.
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.
Mr. President, I move to approve this item due to its objectively small size.