Remarks by Kristen Strezo
31 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
That's a very good question, Mr. President.
If you want to, we can discuss it with the minutes and send it back to committee. I'm perfectly fine with that. That was, yes, the last item on the agenda that we talked about it in, but that was, so we were not talking about the Ralph and Jenny Center On that agenda item, we were talking about the St. James Church in Ward 7. And it came out that AA was meeting with Ralph and Jenny and that St. James was a consideration of one of the possible rehoming locations, et cetera. That's how it came out. But we can sever the item when we get to the meeting minutes and send it back to committee. I am…
Mr. President, it's October now. I know. I think, I don't know.
And may I also read the next agenda item alongside this? We can take this up together.
You are welcome. I'm keeping you awake at 15 to 10. You're welcome. And for emphasis, I did very much want 4.11 to be placed on our agenda item as written, as specific as that, because If the urinal was such an issue for so long at the Winter Hill School that it eventually had a nickname, then it has been a problem for a long time and neglected for a long time, and we should be addressing that. So this item, or these two items... came originally from a public testimony at a school committee several weeks ago. And I heard possibly the best public testimony I ever heard in all of our years of…
We had our regular... Committee on Wednesday, September 30, 2026. It was at 6 p.m. and it was hybrid, so in person and virtual. We had all three members in attendance. We discussed and approved the one-year action plan for the community development block grant, which is a regular annual action plan that we we talk about in It was interesting to see the updates and the dialogue was definitely flowing. We will have to, I will be asking to sever the items because as you can tell, there were two agenda items on this that were virtually identical. So I'll come back to that before I ask for…
Okay, thank you. And then the second item, 260870, I am asking to move for approval of that one.
Well, Summerville Community Corporation recently had the executive director, Gonzalo Puglio, resign and move on. And I think we definitely had to issue a citation and honor him because he took SEC through a very difficult time. difficult time. He became the executive director just as the pandemic started with SEC. And when SEC was in a really scary time, financial time, aside from what was going on around us with the pandemic, but also there was a lot of debt with Somerville Community Corporation that the nonprofit had to get out of. And was also a new counselor at that time and as we were…
So here to present tonight is councilor as Vice chair of the legislative matters committee. I have two meeting minutes to present. The first is Tuesday, September 8th of 2026. And this meeting was held remotely. We had public hearings that were taken up including unbody worn cameras and The and a and we discussed the Davis Square Neighborhood Council submitting comments that in And then we had another public hearing on the proposed Ethical Procurement Ordinance. We had residents speaking for and against on that, and more Davis Square Neighborhood Council communication, which has been worked…
Yes, I'd like to have this one moved to, yeah, I was going to take it collectively, but sure. No, no, let's do one at a time. Okay, absolutely.
back at it, and so this meeting was also virtual. We discussed the Davis Square neighborhood recognition. There was a lot of conversation about this, and I'm going to read the meeting minutes on this specific one, just to highlight. So, Councilor Scott, the chair, noted that the Union Square neighborhood council had raised concern regarding the language governing the formation and structure of the Davis Square Neighborhood Council bylaws. The Councilor Davis, who is the ward councilor, reviewed the attachment, discussed and talked in depth about the ordinance and allows for membership by…
I know that this came from SAS, Somerville, part of the recommendations with SAS which has done incredible work and have a great relationship with members of SAS and I'm proud of the work they've done here in the city and the suggestions they offer and as I mentioned today to one of the members. I love talking with TAS because I always gain new insight that, and more ideas that I think about and as I go about our community. This, you okay? Okay. This specific, idea I have my concerns with and I have told SAS that and the implementation is concerning as it definitely can pummel some of our…
Mr. President, does this mean that you are going to have your own part of yard sale? I missed that. Mr. President, does this mean that you will also be partaking in the yard sale?
hoping to have a conversation about to rectify that and so I'd like to send to traffic and parking please did you want to speak on this or council Link oh thank you mr president no I'm hoping we can come to a solution on this I know it's a tricky little microcosm of of an area, but I'm hoping some kind of outside-of-the-box solution can come of it somewhere. I am not willing to give up on that we can't yet.
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…
Hey, Mr. President, am I signed on to that as well? Because I signed on the first time.
Yeah, I should have already been signed on to it.
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.
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…
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…
Thank you. I'm happy to sign on to this. I wanted to thank Councillor Hart for putting this forward. expand the conversation because poverty is often silent and so is hunger. Hunger is often silent and many people don't really know what's in our neighbors cupboards at home or refrigerators are at home or not. Just some quick statistics with what's going on in SNAP and the new federal regulations and the complications and the new recent convoluted process aside from the staffing issues statewide but federally. how complicated things have become where undocumented residents are no longer…
to speak to this resolution sure happy to co-sponsor this why do you raise some and why this is important that we are talking about this and that I'm really imploring everyone to stand in support and solidarity and also to spread the word, how important it is. According to 32BJSEIU, For security officers, 15% full-time security officers and 30% of local airport workers surveyed report being uninsured. 16% of security officers report taking on medical debt in the last five years, and 19% of airport workers report skipping meals or cutting back on groceries. So with that, I want to lift up and…
Thank you, Mr. President. So, some thoughts on this. Tufts is that a letter by the union was sent to Tufts and the current proposal that Tufts is proposing is not sufficient. including that last time I checked, and I'm sure you'll update us if anything has changed, but I think it's the same with the information I have, that Tufts is proposing that the following unsettling highlights be included in the new contract, a mere $0.64 by average salary increase in the new contract, and Tufts has rejected a request to reduce the monthly health care premiums for members, and Tufts is proposing…
Mr. President, can we have a 10-minute break?
And then can we go right in? Thank you. Madam Clerk.