Remarks by Emily Hardt
32 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
Thank you so much, Mr. President. And I also want to thank my colleagues, Councilor Link and Councilor Mba for collaborating on this resolution, and thank the many residents and advocacy leaders, including those in the room who are working on this, and certainly helped me get a better understanding of this issue. And I also want to really appreciate Director Raish for generously sharing his time to answer our questions and dive into the complexities of this issue and problem. Second, I wanted to explain what we're talking about here because combined sewer overflows is not a household term…
I can just mention a couple of the changes that I remember one was changing some of the language just from citizens to civilians throughout and a couple of places Putting in a requirement of issuing reports based on You know data coming back to the council and civilian oversight body putting in there that civilian oversight body would be able to propose changes to the policies, things like that.
Thank you. So we had a meeting yesterday evening with two grants of location on the agenda. One we approved very quickly and one we had a lengthy discussion about because at the last meeting a abutter had come forward in the public hearing asking for consideration of combining work. And just to close the loop on that, I was able to connect with additional information today and find out there, unfortunately, we are not able, there's no possible way of accommodating the residence request. So recommend both of those to be approved.
Yes, I move to waive the readings of 9.1, 9.2, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, and approve.
And also waive the reading of 9.3 and send to licenses and permits, please.
Thank you so much. Clerk, would you mind reading it into the record?
Thank you so much. So as the resolution said, this year we've seen the highest level nationally of people being detained by ICE and being held in ICE detention. And unfortunately, in August, we reached the highest level ever recorded of people being detained by ICE. Even though what the administration is doing, what DHS is doing through ICE, is really this campaign of terror, even though it's not making front-page news all the time anymore, it is still happening and the levels are increasing. I feel so grateful that we live in a city and a state where so much work has been done. All of the…
Thank you, Mr. President, and through you to Alice Salisbury. Thank you so much. This is a very informative and interesting presentation. You just alluded to getting feedback from staff, but I was wondering if you could say a little bit more about the, because I imagine many, many, many city staff would have a relationship to these ordinances, and how do you envision that process going in terms of getting feedback?
Sure. Thank you, Mr. President. I just echo what my colleague at large just said and laid out the problem very well. And I appreciate his crafting this specific ordinance to address this one thing. And like you said, we're going to keep working on it. Thank you.
I'd like to sign on to this, please. I really appreciate this straightforward and useful resolution. Thank you.
Madam chair you want to take this on in licenses and permits give us something to talk about I'm happy to just wondering about you know staff time that because we don't usually in licenses and permits have staff come so if it's easier to
Thank you, Mr. President. So last week, I'm sure everyone is aware of the devastating fire that happened in Teal Square. And, you know, I've been my thoughts are, you know, still with the 43 residents who were displaced. And but I'm so appreciative of the response by our firefighters and and all the first responders, it was just incredible that everybody was able to be evacuated without injuries, although I understand that some firefighters did sustain minor injuries. So many city staff have been working so hard from the time that they arrived on the scene that night until today, have been…
Yes, I'd like to move to waive the readings of 9.1 through 9.3 and approve this evening and also just note the citywide fall cleanup on November 7th.
Thank you so much. I'm just curious, did you mention the number of the winter stipend? I'm curious.
Mr. President, so I understand that trucks cutting through on residential streets, you know, has been causing problems throughout the city. And this resolution does not attempt to solve that problem citywide. But there's this one particular intersection that is a very tight turn where trucks get stuck and create dangerous situations. So
Thank you. So the Licenses and Permits Committee met yesterday evening with all three members present. We had a short agenda with one public hearing for an application for new extended operating hours for license for Wings Over Somerville on Somerville Ave. This was for Friday and Saturday nights to stay open until 2 a.m. The committee unanimously recommended for this to be approved.
That's all right. Thank you, I move to waive the readings of 9.1 and 9.2 and approve this evening.
I move to waive the readings of 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4, and approve.
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…
Yes, thank you, Mr. President. I move to waive the readings of 9.1 to 9.10 and approve this evening.
Will I move that we approve that? And the next one as well?
Yes, thank you. I wanted to recognize the lives of the people who have died since our last city council meeting in July at the hands of or in connection with being detained by a US federal immigration agency. Because even when it's not in the headlines, ICE and other federal agencies are continuing to deny people access to adequate medical care, holding them in inhumane conditions, separating families, and detaining and deporting people without rights to due process. So I want to remember Edwin Giovanni Lopez Cornejo, 39 years old, who died in Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark, New…
I want to really appreciate here. So this is a ordinance banning the use of rodenticides on municipal property. And I really want to appreciate the work of Save Somerville Wildlife and all of the advocacy that they have done on this over the years. And then also appreciate Mayor Wilson and his action on this. And before we... I want to ask a member of Save Somerville Wildlife to come up and speak, but I'll just say that a lot of people are concerned about banning rodenticides, given that we have such a massive problem with rats in the city. And the fact is that the rodenticides do not work to…
Yes, I'd like to sponsor Morgan Penny from Save Somerville Wildlife.
Thank you so much, Mr. President. So in a moment, I want to invite up a speaker, a resident to speak on this issue. But first I want to just provide a little background on this resolution. And I also want to appreciate Director Lisa Robinson and City Staff Alisa Abel, who worked very hard on this and have been you know really advocating on this issue so what we're seeing in the case of SNAP as throughout other government services and all the things that we hold in common as public resources is that our government and our collective wealth is really being dismantled and undermined in order to…