City Council - Regular Meeting

Thing's a mess here. Alright. Here we go. Calling this meeting to order. Recording process. That audio and video of this meeting is being recorded and may be shown live on local, access government channels and on the city of Somerville website and will be available for future review. Will the clerk please call the roll?

This is roll call. Councilor Ewing Kampen?

Here.

Councilor Link?

Here.

Councilor Scott?

Present.

Councilor Klingon?

Present.

Councilor Strezzo? Present. Councilor Saeed? Here. Councillor Wheeler? Here. Councillor Hart? Here. Councillor McLaughlin? Here. Councillor Mbaugh?

Present.

Councillor Davis? Here. With all 12 councillors present, have quorum.

Alright. Thank you. Pursuant to our rule 32, let it be known that this 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 the council ors wishing to say a few words about members of our community this evening? Council Ewen Kappen.

Thank you, mister president. I'd like to ask us to remember Barbara McEachern who passed away on March 2 at the age of 72. This is a particularly personal one for me because Barbara's my next door neighbor and there's some debate in the family of whether it was for the last twenty years or forty years Barbara has been cared for at home by her devoted sister Pauline. So they're a very big part of our lives, the street's life, my kid's life, all the kids on the street.

And I just want to read

a little bit from the family's obituary that they wrote for Barbara. Barbara was known for her big smile, sharp wit, and enthusiastic presence, always up for the party since she preferred blue dresses, big earrings, bright lipstick, and longed to wear fancy shoes. Since Barbara had a live in stylist in her sister Pauline, she was enviably fashionable, adding her own special sparkle to the room at holidays and family gatherings. Halloween was an especially favorite time because she loved handing out candy and enjoying the neighborhood kids in their costumes. Barbara loved her television shows and never tired of watching Girls, The Love Boat or MASH, enjoying the familiar characters and timeless humor.

She also loved feel good movies and musicals from The Sound of Music to Mamma Mia, and she liked it best when you had time to spend watching it with her and enjoy some laughs together. She also spent the last thirty years at the day program at Metro Boston and had a large community there. And so I'd ask that we keep the McEachern family in our thoughts this evening.

Any others? Councilor McLaughlin.

Thank you mister president. I'd like to remember Daniel Matthews. He was a former summer firefighter, former marine corps veteran, born in Arlington in 1935. He's the son of Peter and Young Mathews. He loved his family and friends and was always looking for a reason to laugh. He would always be there to help people out in their time of need and enjoyed fishing, kayaking, skiing, and snowboarding. Just thinking of him and the firefighters in this community today.

Councilor Scott.

Thank you, mister president. I'd like us to keep in our minds two groups of people that have been on my mind recently. In the last six months, over 20, of our neighbors have died in ICE captivity. And there is no reason that this should have been the deadliest year in prisons run by our government, detaining people that have no business being detained. I'd also like us to keep in our hearts tonight the well over 100 school children at the school in Iran that in the opening moments of yet another illegal conflict being pressed by our country, our government, died in Tomahawk missile strike on their school.

And then the dozens of responders who were there attempting to help who were killed in the second strike that followed on just twenty minutes after. So I would ask that we keep the lives of all those lost and all those who are in increased danger due to the horrific actions of our of our government as we work tonight to do better. Thank you.

Okay. Would everyone in the chamber please rise as you are able for a moment of silence for the aforementioned of individuals. Thank you. You. Madam Clerk, first item.

Agenda item 1.3, approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of 02/12/2026.

Seeing no discussion. That item is approved.

Agenda item 2.1, a citation by councilor Wheeler and councilor Klingon commending the Kendall Wanderers football club on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary.

Councilor Wheeler. Through the chair, I am proud to present this citation along with a colleague from Ward 4 and the council and the mayor. I'll read the citation text aloud. Citation. Be it hereby known to all that the Summerville City Council and the mayor offer their sincerest commendations to Kendall Wanderers Football Club on the happy occasion of its fiftieth anniversary.

The city council and mayor celebrate the club as one of the oldest amateur soccer clubs in Massachusetts and recognizes its impact as an athletic and social outlet for residents. Now, know Kendall Square is in Cambridge, but there are a large number of people over the years who have participated in Kendall Wanderers FC who have lived in Summerville or do live in Summerville. This is a part of our community, one of the many things that weaves us together as a cultural unity. I'm proud to have in attendance Jonathan Kilpatrick of Kendall Wanderers FC, and I would like to present this citation.

Mayor Wilson is asked to say a few words about the football club.

Thanks, mister Brinley. Y'all y'all know I wasn't gonna let a a soccer moment go without saying some thanks for thanks for letting me have the opportunity. For those who don't know, Wanderers is a not uncommon thing to have in the title of a football club over in in The UK Ireland. It comes historically for clubs that haven't had a home ground. Right? There's a famous famous club that had no home state. They played every game away from home. Won a lot of fans with approach. The name has lived on. It's particularly poignant here for a club that has played such a big role for immigrants, particularly from Ireland who've come over, have found a home, have found community.

You know, it it can feel, you know, in the immigrant experience, you know, like like a wanderer, and this is this has provided that connective tissue. And it's just I know so many folks from Somerville who've been part of this club over the years. That's why we are putting this in for a club that, yes, is based in Cambridge. But I'm really, really grateful to you all for joining in recognizing such an amazing achievement for a club that's done so much for so many people here in the area. Thanks.

Item.

Agenda item 3.1, a grant of vocation. Comcast applying for a grant of vocation to install 20 feet of conduit in Allen Street from utility Pole 3 to a point of pickup at 1317 Allen Street.

Alright. And now I declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone in the chambers here to speak on the item? Sir, please step forward and introduce yourself.

Robert Rugman. I'm the utility coordinator for Comcast.

Great.

The project is just Pole Number 3 On Allen Street across at approximately 20 feet, two foot deep trench to service a new project going on to that property.

Okay. Is there anyone else here to speak on the item? If you're online please use the raise hand function. Alright. Seeing no one. Declare the public hearing to be closed. Is there any discussion? Nope. Alright. That item's approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.2, Daigle Electrical applying for a grant of location to install 57 feet of conduit and one new charging station in the City Hall Concourse from the War Memorial to a point of pickup at the proposed electrical vehicle charging station.

And now I declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone to speak on the item? Anyone online? Alright. I now declare the public hearing to be closed. The item appears to be pretty self explanatory. Any discussion? Questions? No? Alright. Seeing no objection, that item is approved.

Agenda item 3.3, Eversource applying for a grant of location to relocate existing utility poles 60 Over 44 feet norther ly of its current location near 3 Chester Avenue.

Now that I declare the public hearing to be open, is there anyone here to speak on the item? Jackie Duffy.

Jackie Good evening. I'm source would like to relocate Pole 64 Over zero. This work is necessary for the MBTA safety department. The city of Summerville fire department are very interested in relocating the pole as it is very difficult for fire trucks to make the turn onto Chester Avenue.

Okay. Is there anyone else here to speak on the item? Alright. I now declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? I see none. That item's approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.4, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install 164 feet of conduit in one new manhole in Grant Street from an existing manhole 1,900 to a point of pickup at 299 Broadway.

I declare the public hearing open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duffy would like to install a 164 feet of conduit in a new manhole on Grand Street, divide electric service to a new 114 unit multi family building and four retail spaces at 299 Broadway, which is the Old Star Market.

Anyone else here to speak on the item? Alright. Seeing none, I declare the public hearing closed. Any discussion? Alright. Seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.5. Eversource applying for a grant of luticcation to install 82 feet of conduit in MacArthur Street from Utility Pole 122 Over two to appoint a pickup at 17 Mac Arthur Street.

I declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duffy, Eversource would like to install 82 feet of conduit in Mac Arthur Street to provide electric service to 17 Mac Arthur Street.

Okay. Anyone else here to speak on the item? Seeing none, declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? Alright. Seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.6. Eversource applying for a grant of location to install 64 feet of conduit in Stone Avenue from existing manhole one four zero six eight to a point of pickup at 11 Stone Avenue.

Now I declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duffy, Eversource would like to install 64 feet of conduit at Stone Avenue. This is to provide electric service for the city of Summerville at electric vehicle charging stations on Stone Avenue at Union Square.

Okay. Anyone else here to speak on the item? Okay. Seeing none, I declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? Seeing none, that item's approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.7, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install six feet of conduit in Chandler Street from utility pole two twenty seven over six to a point of pickup at 53 Chandler Street.

I now declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Jackie?

Yep, I lost you. Sorry. It went blank. We'd like to install six feet conduit on Chandler Street, and this is to provide electric service to 51 Chandler Street, which is right next door to 53 Chandler Street. And just a point of interest, ran into John Long today when I was out there. Good old John.

Lucky you.

I know. I was so happy.

Is there anyone else here to speak on the item? Okay. I declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? Alright. Seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 3.8, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install six feet of conduit in Line Street from utility pole 211 Over 7 to a point of pickup at 62 Line St.

I declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Oh, Jackie Daffy Ebersource. Sorry. I would like to install six feet of conduit in Lyne St. This is to provide electric service to a new construction at 60 Line Street.

Okay. Anyone else here to speak on the item? Okay. I declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? Councilor Scott.

Thank you, mister president, and hello Jackie Duffy. Seeing John Long always makes me smile too. 60 Line Street

Sound very good.

Is very close to 56 Line Street, poll number two one one dash six. Poll number 211Dash6 has been on our city's list of doubled polls and list to be removed by Eversource for over three years now, sir. So I would request that this be conditioned to wait on the completion of that work that is long overdue. And if we need to do some extra work to make sure we get the conditions right, I'm happy to send this to committee.

Okay. So that item is Any other discussion? Alright. Seeing none, we will refer that item to licenses and permits.

And through you, Mr. President, can we hear from Jackie Duffy about how she'll be following up on this?

I can go back to the division and see about who's on the poll. I don't know anything about this one. I know there's another devil poll that we're working on on Iowaloo, two of them, as a matter of fact, that we're waiting for other utilities to come off of. So I don't know who is left on this poll. I can send someone out there tomorrow if we can get this approved tonight with the stipulation that we can get this done.

I appreciate that the work's happening on Ivalu Street. Mr. President, this one has had the status of cable TV next to go for over three years now. I don't think that's still the case but why don't we just hold on to this for two weeks and we'll get a status update on it.

So are we going to send it to licensing committee?

Yes. Okay. Any other discussion? Alright. That is referred to licensing permits. Next item.

Agenda item 3.9, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install five feet of conduit in Heath Street from Utility Pole 165 Over 13 to appoint a pickup at 16 Edgar Avenue.

And I now declare the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie deputy of Soleswood Street, feet of conduit on Heath Street to put an electric service to 116 Heath Street.

Did you say 116 Heath Street? Was that the end?

I'm sorry, it's 91 for us. I don't, wait. It was 16 Eaker.

116 Eaker, okay. Any Thank you. Anyone else here to speak on the item? Okay. Declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? Councillor Hart?

I just have a question about a concern really that in that area which is right around the Healy School, there has been a tremendous amount of construction and road blockages and there's a lot going on there right now. And so I just wonder if we could send this to committee as well to figure out timing with the to coordinate.

Any other discussion? Alright. Seeing none, that item will be referred to license and purpose.

Thank you.

Thank you. We have one more granted location. This is we're taking without objection, we'll take item five dot one out of order. See no objection. Madam clerk, retrieve five dot one.

Five point one Eversource applying for a grant of location to install a total of 75 feet of conduit in Prospect Street from utility pole 291 over 12 to a point of pickup at 91 Prospect Street.

Just so folks understand, this was an item that was in a long list of grants of location that we had a couple meetings back, and we had some tentacle issues. And it appears that I sent this off to committee without doing a public hearing, so my bad. So we're doing a public hearing tonight. So I now declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item?

Jackie Duffy, Eversource would like to install 75 feet of conduit in Prospect Street. Divide electric service to 91 Prospect Street.

All right. Anyone else here to speak on the item? Any discussion?

Thank you Mr. President. This is one of those two that was for a project that does not exist. So I would ask that we send this to committee until we can find out what's going on. Thank you.

All right. Back to committee. This one goes very well. Now, at least we've had our public hearing on it.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Duffy. Alright. So, we have a few other items that we want to take out of order this evening unless there's any objection. Let find my list. So we will take items seven one six and then items four dot nine and four dot 11 together. And then four one nine, and then we have an executive session seven dot one. Alright. So seeing no objection, could we go to item seven dot one six, please?

Agenda item 7.16, a mayor's communication proclaiming 2026 to be the year of the neighbor.

Mister mayor.

Thanks, mister president. Folks, I promise I'm not trying to take over y'all's meetings. I I bring this to you in a spirit of hope and to to get your buy in on this as well. As a saying, I keep hearing it at at mayor's events that good mayors borrow, great mayor great mayors steal ideas, not money. This is an idea that a colleague of mine at the Bloomberg Kennedy new mayors program came up with in Omaha, Nebraska, and I loved it.

I I it's it really speaks to something I think we need to be coming together on as a community right now with the threats that we are facing here in Summerville. It it recognizes a thing that I picked up on the first time that I visited Summerville. In in 2001, I was living Brighton. I remember coming up out of the the subway in Davis Square and thinking what is this amazing place? And and it was subsequent trips to Summerville, it it really just drove home the idea to which this is this is a neighborhood.

It was a neighborhood feel with neighbors who care about each other, who look out for each other, a sense of community. And we need that right now. I attended a meeting in in Davis Square earlier this week that featured speakers being heckled by their neighbors and community members who disagreed with them. And it did not resemble a neighborhood meeting. I thought it looked more like a WWF event.

And that really saddened me. Because we should never lose sight of the fact that ultimately we are neighbors, we are hopefully friends, we are community members together, and we might disagree on things. We're gonna disagree on things, but we have to be able to listen to our our our friend, our neighbor say something that we disagree with without feeling the need to to start yelling at them when they're when they have the microphone. And so, we were planning on doing this before that. That just drove home the need for this.

We wanna come up with not just words, but but tangible actions. I paid attention for four years on this body. Things like neighborhood cleanups. We're bringing those back. We know those were missed. We love a neighborhood cleanup in this city. Right? It's a chance to come together as a community, show pride in our city, bring it back. I know councilor McLaughlin, I'll credit with with just going going rogue and doing some community cleanups. You want the city stop doing that.

Those are coming back. And we're gonna be looking for more more ways to connect, more creative ways to connect, things like we're looking at a at a best shovel block contest for next winter. Right? To recognize the people who come together and and just make this city better. So I'm asking for your for your buy in on this as a council. I do the same to the school committee. Would love to see us speak with with with one one voice as a government and say, this is a year where we're gonna remember the things that bind us together. We're gonna come together. We're gonna stand alongside the people who truly need that protection right now. And when when we disagree, we're not going to lose sight of that fact.

So, asking for your buy in on this and thanks for letting me talk about this. Happy to answer any questions too if anyone has questions about this.

Thank you. I saw Councilor Strazo. Councilor Scott.

Why, thank you Mr. President. Through you to Mayor Wilson. Yes, I think this is great and much needed. And yeah, I think we've been in a few rooms where community members are willing to try to demonize others for differences of opinions.

So let's try to transcend that right. With that, on topic, I please ask you to look into my budget requests and hoping, on topic, that that also includes some chairs over there in the in an on city hall concourse so we can connect and talk and have a cup of coffee. All of us as a community and agree and disagree and really find simple ways. The neighbor ways program, I put that in the budget, think I did this year. I took it out, it's like it's not going to happen, but I put it back in I think where we can do street design for cheap, like $2,000 and maybe find ways to connect with our neighbors.

Yeah, we have to find low cost ways and simple ways to connect with each other and find out that we have more in common than we don't because quite frankly, as a community we have to remain strong and find reasons to help each other out because those that want to tear us down as a community are relying on that dissonance and we cannot have that.

Mister president, I don't want to stray too far off the the topic in front of us, I'll just say we are looking to make city hall a nexus of community and of neighbors able to come together. And yes, big fan of neighbor ways.

Councilor Scott?

No. You good? Alright. Councilor Baugh.

No. Thank you, mister president. To the honorable mayor, I I support this idea. I will chat with you later on about, like, the mechanics because all about how to implement something like this. I'm happy to have that conversation with you behind this. Thank you.

Councilor Saeed?

Thank you, mister president. Through you, to Mayor Wilson, thank you for bringing this forward. I am very thrilled to see something like this, an opportune just giving neighbors an opportunity more opportunities to get together. We already have so many amazing events in our community where people get together, but this is the way I'm interpreting this. This is these are opportunities for people who live on the same block to get together in the same ward, in the same neighborhood.

I think more than ever, it's important for neighbors to get to know each other, for parents to connect, for this intergenerational, you know, type do intergenerational type of activities. So I'm really excited to see, you know, what we can come up with together as a community. And I would just end this by saying that of all places, they chose this place to live in, And it's for all these reasons because we're already an amazing community. So this will just, you know, make us give us the opportunity to get together, to celebrate things, to get to know each other instead of getting together just in as you when you started speaking in, moments of crisis when we disagree on things. So thank you.

Mayor Wilson.

Councilor Clayton. Thank you, mister president. Through you to the mayor. Any cool idea? Does this day have a theme song? But seriously, I like the spirit of this. Know, oftentimes, you know, growing up in the city, know, people tend to keep to themselves until you have like child and you maybe like on the park circuit or if you get a dog you end up talking to your neighbors more. Maybe this will be that impetus for connection with neighbors just by putting in a little more effort and not getting freaked out when somebody says hi to you on the street. But good idea, mayor. Thank you.

Councilor Strasso, something else?

Thank you. One more thought. Bummed our mister president through YouTube, mayor Wilson. I'm excited to bring back the neighborhood cleanup because it's important. We had Comcast sponsoring that and he's no longer here. He left Comcast representative, which is a major bummer. But if we can save some cash and have a corporate sponsor that does help us with this or find ways to help us get out of this $6,000,000 pitfall we're going less of money we're gonna have this year in the budget. That would be cool. Thank you.

Mr. President happy to report we are actively pursuing corporate sponsorship of those community cleanups. Alright.

Very good. Seeing no further discussion, that item is placed on file. Thank you. Next out of order item. That's actually gonna take items four dot nine and four through four dot 11 together. Yes? Okay. Madam Clerk, if you could read those items.

Brings us to agenda item 4.9, an order by councilor Ewencampin that the director of inspectional services discuss with this council how to ensure that temporary dumpster permits do not conflict with handicapped parking spaces or that temporary handicapped parking spaces are relocated for the duration of the dumpster permit and four ten a resolution by councilor Ewen Campan that the commissioner of public works discussed with this council how to ensure that handicapped parking spaces are not used for snow storage and are cleared at the same time as other spaces. And four dot 11, a resolution by councilor Ewen Campin that the commissioner of public works discussed with this council how to ensure that accessible sidewalk ramps are cleared following snowstorms and ensure that three eleven reports on this issue are promptly responded to.

Alright, Councillor Link and Strezo and Saite would like to sign on. Councillor Yuncabin, Councillor Scott Schaller.

Thank you Mr. President. So these are three items related to access for people with disabilities. Two of them were issues that really became urgent during the snowstorm recently, but I'm gonna start with the first one which is not snow related. It has to do with the placement of dumpsters. So there is a construction site right now on Bow Street and the construction dumpster is it's just in a handicapped spot. And it certainly does not appear that there's like an alternate handicapped spot that was moved for the duration of the dumpster or anything like that. So this is really kind of a technical question of when dumpster permits are being reviewed by inspectional services. Are they reviewed for whether they're going in a handicap spot? And if not, how do we get that to happen?

I mean this is obviously a solvable problem, but it needs to be solved. And then the other two issues do have to do with snow plowing. So I heard from the chair of our Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Holly Semioni, who's here tonight, that there were a lot of locations of around around the the city city and and I I don't don't think think it's it's gonna gonna come as a surprise that there were issues with accessibility, but these really stood out to me. There were issues where snow was actively piled up by plows into like the one or two handicapped spots in the corner of a parking lot, which means that the rest of the spots get plowed and the one handicapped spot not only doesn't get plowed but is like a mountain of snow for weeks, just completely unacceptable. And the the last order has to do with an issue I know many of us have heard about, have been fielding complaints complaints, and many of us have been working on for years, including my colleague Councillor Klingon.

This has to do with clearing ADA ramps on sidewalks at the corners. The way it's supposed to work is that people who live there are supposed to clear them when possible. If not, if they don't get cleared, we want them we want people to be able to report them to 311 and have them get cleared that way. I've just heard too many reports this storm that that that wasn't happening even after requests were going in. So I I put in this item. And so I wanted to sponsor Holly Simioni to speak on these items. She has just been doing a bang up job documenting these issues and, of course, leading on these in the commission. But I thought it would be helpful for to hear directly at the council as well.

Okay, thank you. Let's see. I also had Councilor Scott and Councilor Hart and Bob would like to sign on. I'll sign on as well. Councilor Ewenkampen and councilor Klingen, councilor Hall, council would like to sign on. Councilor Ewenkampen would like to sponsor Hollis Emioni to speak. Seeing no objection, Ms. Emioni. Go ahead.

Thank you, President Davis. Thank you very much, councilor Unkampin. My name is Holly Simioni. I live in Ward 4. I serve as the chair of the disability commission.

I'm here as a resident and as a former parent of a child who used a wheelchair in our city for eighteen years and met many obstacles. And the issue and and I really appreciate you bringing these forward. We haven't had a snow storm like this in a long time, but we live in New England. It's it it happens, and I think that it's an opportunity to look at the process and people understanding where you cannot put snow in the city, you cannot pilot excuse me, you cannot plow an entire city parking lot, make it nice and clean, and put it into the HP spots because they're on the corners. And I I also understand the perspective of a person who's riding in a plow, they have to move it to the corner.

They can't leave it in the middle of the street. But there needs to be a discussion that involves how are we training people to understand where those spots are and also who is responsible for them. And I can tell you the law says the city's responsible because they are an accessibility feature. Doesn't matter if they're in a public parking lot, a city owned parking lot, or on a street. Not only do they have to be clean, but the aisles of front front, back, and the sidewalk next to them because you can't get your wheelchair lift out.

You can't also get out into a snow pile. So this isn't to criticize anything or anyone. I can't imagine what it was like for the hours and days that DPW and other workers worked in whiteout conditions, in darkness, clearing our roads and streets, but it is an opportunity to take a look back and see what we did and how do we fix it before we have more snow. So I was really asking for the commission to have a seat at the table and be able to talk these things through. Same goes for curb cuts and sidewalks.

I would like to add one thing though. When typically when you have streets intersect the curb cuts at the top of the street, we have moved to a model where we're pushing them for for further down. And residents who don't understand where the actual curb opening is for someone to cross are are hey. Here's a great example. Here's two side streets is the curb cut.

Instead of having the crosswalk here, we're moving them here. People are shoveling here, and we are pushing the snow here in blocking the access aisle. So I've had friends in wheelchairs, people in strollers who can't get their kids to school, can't get around the city. And it's not just here, but I just feel we have an opportunity to resolve this.

Okay. Thank you. Councillor Encamp, anything further?

Mr. President, I'd ask that these please go to committee for discussion.

Hold that thought. I saw Councillor Clegan and then Councillor Strassel.

Thank you Mr. President. Through you, I just want to thank the good councilor from Ward 3 for bringing these forward and working with the commission. As mentioned, this is something that I've been working with especially with regards to the pedestrian curb cutouts and who is responsible for those. We're failing out people with disabilities here in the city.

And you know we talk about wheelchairs but I've seen things where can you imagine being blind and having a white cane and having to try to traverse the city through those those curb cuts which what they rely on. Otherwise I've heard of people having to walk in the middle of the street essentially. It's extremely dangerous. So I think we can do better. I've been talking to the administration this, about a snow corps, different ideas of ways we can really just tackle this if it's too much of a burden to put on the residents because I do recognize that piles of mounds of snow are pushed from by the plows. So we need to figure something out, we need to keep our pedestrians safe and certainly our most vulnerable pedestrians of people with disabilities. Thank you.

Councillor Streza.

Thank you Mr. President. I'm glad that that councilor Yunkampin mentioned the intentions to put it to send it to committee because I did want to know and and and as it is heading in, is a few questions for the administration as they prepare to address this item in committee. First off, know that city hired contractors to help with snow removal this year, so where

where in

the process do contractors lie in in that and what repercussions do we have to to address with them and their service to the city? Of course, priority is to have the work done in house. And then also right. I'm astounded to hear about the dumpster the on Bow Street. How is that even possible?

How did that that even get approved and why is it still there? So how do we get it removed and are there finding techniques that that we can implement in addition to that to when we talk about snow removal? What what levers do we have? Thank you.

Any further discussion? Councilor Scott.

Thank you Mr. President. I'm very grateful to my colleague for Ward 3 for bringing this up, especially the third item as it related to curb cuts. Some of you all might have gotten some emails from neighbors and I'm sure I've told this story least once in public where even when the neighborhood comes together to actually get those curb cuts cleared, even when the city does a good job making sure the snow does not get piled up onto those sidewalks, sometimes they're just bad actors like the contractor at 121 Prospect Street that went to dig out all their parking spaces and used their bobcat to just dump it into all of the cleared curb cuts on Houghton, Oak, And Bolton Streets and Prospect, Prospect, which led to a lot of folks having some consternation and some strong feelings about why the city would do this to them, why the city doesn't care about them. To the credit of Inspection Services and DPW, they went to a lot of links to try to figure out what went wrong there.

Fortunately, we have video of the contractor doing this. But I look forward to conversation in committee and I really look forward to being able to point my constituents and neighbors to that conversation so that we can highlight both the good work the city is doing and the better work we will do in the future. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Alright. So, given the city staff that it would be appropriate to address these, we'll send these to sustainability and infrastructure so we can take them all up with other related items. Alright. So, those are referred approved with a copy to sustainability infrastructure. Alright. Next out of order item is four dot 19.

Four nineteen, a resolution by councilor McLaughlin and councilor Klingon in support of senate bill two nine seven five, an act protecting access to justice.

Councilor McLaughlin.

Thank you, mister president. I just wanna uplift this piece of legislation. Don't need to tell our state delegation to support it because they all already support it. But I always wanna give, especially on issues like this, a local's perspective as someone who grew up in the city and knows a lot of people who are on the other end of immigration issues in this country. I wanna read something I read on Reddit recently.

I'm gonna avoid the name, but it's a public comment someone made about her partner who was detained by ICE while at a courthouse. She's had her husband they've been living in The United States for about ten years. Recently, her partner was scheduled for a court appointment related for a traffic citation that required him to appear. When he arrived at the courthouse, he was detained before he could even appear before the judge. This has been a very difficult time for the family.

They have a young daughter who is a US citizen and needs special care. And now they're facing legal expenses while also losing income. And this, I just wanna bring this up because I believe that people should be able to go to court and face justice. I believe people who are the victims of crime should be able to testify in court and get justice. And what's happening in this country is we're undermining the right of due process. So, some people may look and say this person was not supposed to be in this country, therefore they should get deported. It's like, let a court decide that. This person showed up to face justice. He did something wrong. He showed up to face justice and is now being punished unjustly for it.

And it's just an example of something that happens all over this country. There's two people in the audience who can speak even more to this. State Senator Lydia Edwards and State Rep Christine Barber who are both sponsoring this bill. And I just want to point this out and just say this is really common sense to me and I hope it's common sense to the commonwealth. I'd like to sponsor both speakers.

Okay. Councilor Buffin would like to sponsor state senator Edwards and state representative Barber. Any objection in that order? Whatever works. Senator Edwards, why don't you step forward and we'll take it from there.

Good evening. I'm Lydia Edwards. I'm state senator representing the 3rd Suffolk. First of all, I think this is the first time I've had the honor to testify in front of this body. I know several of you as individuals have come before my former body of the Boston City Council, and I thank you for being active and seeing our collective fight for justice as beyond city borders.

When you came to testify there, was about either student rights, it was about rights with with regards to cannabis, and so what I feel and what I'm trying to convey is thank you and I look forward to working with you. Thank you for the support and for bringing forth this resolution. In 2025, there were about 465 people arrested at courthouses courthouses by ICE. That's more than one a day in about 46 different courthouses. And how courthouses respond to them are different depending on the resources that they have.

Smaller courthouses are combined with larger ones in one building. You have family court, you have small claims court all in one building with criminal court. And so, what is happening is there's different ways in which people are approaching court or they're not bothering to go at I believe a lot like Councillor McLaughlin said, people should have not only the right to go to court, but as essential foundation to our democracy is due process. The ability to defend yourself, the ability to also bring forth complaints against individuals. What you will find with this bill in this moment is that the convergence of the prosecutors, as well as the defense counsel, and the courts are all agreeing with that very basic foundation, that due process, which has nothing to do with your immigration status.

And still, we have ICE, which has, by the way, this isn't a new thing, has come into courthouses and many cases they did so after people were driving without a driver's license, and thank goodness to some of the leadership here, we were able to get driver's licenses for all. But they're not uncommon. This particular administration has been particularly cruel about how they're approaching people going to court. They're using a civil arrest, and I want to make that very clear to people who are concerned about this. Why can't we arrest people in court?

They get found guilty in court. They're arresting them on a civil matter. They are interrupting interrupting criminal trials, taking the witness off the stand, taking the defendant in the middle of the trial who could be found guilty by the way, and will not be serving any time because he is now with ICE. They are in the middle they're preventing preventing victims of domestic violence, children, people from coming forward. It's disgusting.

It does not make us safer, and it again is violative of our basic fundamental rights. Now, what this is proposing to do is essentially say, we read the constitution in this Commonwealth and under the tenth amendment, we have the right to say whether we will or will not comply with ICE or work with them. Our state courts, our courts are our business and how people have access to them will be determined by our constitution and our understanding of due process and human dignity. The protect our courts act does several things. One, while currently you only need an administrative warrant, that's somebody when DHS can file a little piece of paper saying here's your warrant to go get counsel McGoughlin as a batting as an example.

They walk in the courts and our courts comply with that. This raises that standard. It doesn't prevent them from going into court, but it does require that they have a judicial warrant. A judge must sign this. You must be pursuing someone so important that a judge has said you got to go get them now.

And, it not only protects them while they're in the courthouse, it prevents arrests on the courthouse grounds, and goes further than any version of the court's protections that we have pending right now, and says it also protects people going to court on their way to court, as well as on their way home from court. That's how expansive this is. And by the way, it's completely constitutional. Thank goodness in New York they have a great attorney general like we do here. They have the protect our courts act that was challenged by the Trump administration with the same provisions that I just described.

It was found to be constitutional by the second circuit. So, we're on good case law. Mine goes a little bit further, it also helps family members. It isn't just the person who is required to come to court, it's a supportive spouse, it's their advocate, it's somebody with them, a witness in the hallway. You want any of them, you better have a judicial warrant.

More over, it also assures that if you are coming into the court as law enforcement I law enforcement agent, you better say who you are, why you're there, present the warrant for who you're trying to pursue, and also you, according to my bill, and hopefully what you support, you will not be wearing a mask. This prevents anybody from wearing a mask in the courthouse unless it's for health reasons, COVID. And, finally, this has the enforcement component component of the Attorney General for individual issues as well as to defend the Commonwealth. Essentially, and for me, this is this is deeply personal because it was the courthouse that I represent and go to in East Boston that was on the news where a man was drug out. His shirt was removed from him, his shoes were removed and he was screaming in the hallway or in the alleyway where they drug him in to the ICE vehicle.

That same alleyway shared by a head start class so the children could hear him screaming and many people in the neighborhood could as well. It is a horrific time that we're in. It is a sometimes surreal moment and it's moments like this where we reach out to our municipal partners and say, please stand up and stand with us. Please talk about how this is impactful to you because your voices do matter to your local law enforcement who we will need to be supporting these bills. This matters.

And, I'm greatly, greatly appreciative to be this is the first municipality, the first city that would be standing for this particular bill. And, I'm grateful for the opportunity to answer any of your questions and also to present and to speak to you today. Today. Thank you.

Thank you. Questions for the senator first and then okay. Councilor Strazo.

Thank you, mister president. Through you to senator Edwards, thank you for this. Thank you for your care compassion and just action.

How long, providing that this gets passed and moved, can this be implementable? Immediately. And once it's passed it would be all the protections. We do give it to the courts to implement and come up with any regulations so that they can go from the SJC all the way down, but it would be immediate.

Thank you. And one more question, if I may. Ms. Resonant, Senator Edwards, is this to keep our municipalities and our municipal spaces safe as well? No.

This this is just for our courts. I will say happily the governor has an executive order for all state properties and she has a sensitive areas component of her set of bills which includes hospitals, medical centers, daycares, houses of worship, and courthouses that will all require judicial warrants for them to go on that property.

Okay. Thank you. Councillor Clegan.

Just one quick question along the same lines as Councillor Scherzo. When is this due to sort of be deliberated on? And so when can we expect to hear as if it moves forward?

We are looking forward at the judiciary committee and having a hearing either at the end of this month or at the April. So we look forward and of course you'll be invited to submit testimony. I did want to give a shout out to the Black and Latino Caucus of which I'm a member who also had incredible hearing and moments, some of you were there and testified in support, specifically on the PROTECT Act which has a component of the judiciary protections as well. Just know that the fact that the governor, the House, the Senate are all moving, it's not in separate directions. It's a very rare moment where we all agree something needs to be done, it's just a matter of how urgent and how big we're gonna get it done. But it's an exciting moment.

Thank you. Representative Barber.

Thank Thank you President Davis and the Council for taking up this resolution. I'm Christine Barber, state rep for the 34th Middlesex District. Thank you for indulging me to speak here tonight. So I'm cosponsor of senate two nine seven five, which senator Edwards just talked about, and I really wanna thank the senator for her leadership on this bill and putting this bill together so quickly after the trauma that we have seen across the country and in our communities. So access to courts is not a privilege.

It is the cornerstone of our democracy. Last year, there were our count is 600 ICE arrests in Massachusetts court houses, which is a threefold increase. I was just at a local domestic violence organization yesterday where we were talking about survivors of domestic violence who are not seeking protective orders because they are scared to go into court. This is real and it's happening in our community. Witnesses are afraid to testify and we're seeing this over and over right here at home.

So this bill, as you've heard, it is very focused and it is enforceable. So no civil arrest can happen at a courthouse without a judicial warrant, and law enforcement must identify themselves and state their purpose, which would be a huge step. The organizing around this bill is working. As the senator mentioned, the protect act, which was put together with the leadership of the black and Latino caucus, is moving forward in the house. And the protect act incorporates parts of this bill on keeping courthouses safe.

It also incorporates the Dignity Not Deportations bill which is a bill I filed and I'm grateful that this body passed a resolution already in support of and that bill stops local and state police from being deputized as ICE agents. We all know that progressive rhetoric is not enough to protect folks who are under attack in our communities. Progressive legislation is what we need. And passing this resolution tonight, this is the exact right moment to keep up this momentum. So this is what we need to make sure that we pass this in the legislature and that the governor signs this.

There's precedent for doing this. When I filed the Work and Family Mobility Act to make sure that immigrants could get driver's licenses regardless of their immigration status, it took a lot of coalition building across the whole state and many local city councils, school committees, and others stood with us and that is how we built momentum to get there and pass that bill. So I urge the council to pass this resolution and I hope that we can continue to work together to make sure that everyone is safe in their access to justice. Thank you.

Thank you. Any additional questions or discussion? Councillor Naylor would like to sign on? Councillor Yuncanppa signed on. Everybody wants to sign on. Here, here. And Councilor Klingon, another question?

Yeah, thank you Mr. President. Through you. Just on the item, as the co sponsor of this resolution, I just want to thank our delegation that has come up this evening and thank Councilor McLaughlin for being the lead sponsor on this. You know, this falls right in our in with our values as far as a welcoming city ordinance.

We have court Somerville District Court serves a huge population. I, which is in Councillor McLaughlin's ward, I live my ward starts across the street, I walk to the train station in the morning, I've seen ICE posted up in the parking lot of that courthouse many times. So we need to act now as a state to address this, and I'm I'm proud as was mentioned to be the first city who is supporting this locally here for the this particular senate bill. And thank the good senator for for being the lead sponsor on this. And just really proud to to to do things like this because this is the type of legislation that is really, really important to keep everybody safe.

And as was mentioned, witnesses or victims even, victims of crimes who who's you know, they can't even get their their due justice, their day in court to face their their attackers. So so yeah. Happy and proud to be a cosponsor of this and just thank everybody for their time.

Okay. Thank you, councilor Thank

you, Mr. President, and thank you, Repatha and Senator Edwards, for your leadership on this. I guess, first, it's fundamental. Like access to the court is a fundamental part of a fair and functioning democracy. And we've observed that time and time and again, the federal government has abused this. What they have been doing is still unconstitutional. Unconstitutional. It's unlawful. I'm really curious to know because some of us are also running for instance right now. But what if they keep violating this, what happens?

Like because they've been violating other stuff. I'm not sure. Like, they've never I've never heard about I've been prosecuted for violating our civil so I'm not sure. Like, what is, like what is how do we know that this is, like, something that is implementable? It's not just another, you know, bill that will be out there, but yet ICE still keeps doing what they're supposed to be doing. Can you can you can somebody tell me, like, is there something tangible that is proved that they've been prosecuted? I've not heard about one ICE agent that has been held accountable for all this stuff that they've been doing. So what makes us think that this is, like, they think now that they're gonna, you know, do something different?

I defer to the the author of the bill, but I would say this is enforceable by the attorney general. It's an important piece that she has oversight over this. Thank

you for the question. It's actually a very important one because what you have demonstrated or what you've asked about is something that a lot of people have asked about specific individual rights against individual ICE agents. The attorney general will likely represent the Commonwealth and pursue an injunction saying stop going into certain courthouses or stop going there. I will give credit to Senator Wills Will Brownsburger who has introduced a bill amending our 1983 civil rights statute, essentially allowing for individuals to sue anybody acting under the color of law, federally, locally, municipal at the municipal level, and sue them individually for damages. So, that's going to get we will need to have, I'm sure a huge conversation as many people see this as controversial and brushing up against some police reform activities that we've had with immunity.

However,

that

is a pending bill that is going to be heard in the judiciary committee. I can say that I'm the chair of judiciary committee. We will hear it. Then the also the actual enforcement against ICE, you

will

note DA Hayden did. The DAs have tried to hold ICE agents in contempt of court and unfortunately due to the federal laws and federalism, themselves and just didn't completely ignored it. So, we are working on it at the best that we can. At most, we're going to provide defenses and be able to get our people out of custody from ICE and we'll see what we can do on the individual level.

Thank you, senator Edouard, for your leadership on this. Again, this is just something we've been witnessing. They cracked open people's vehicles, homes, and stuff. This not unconstitutional, and yet nothing we've never seen in the eyes of them being arrested and prosecuted. So that's why I'm just like, we feel helpless. We can make all this noise, stand here, pontificate, write bills, and then ICE will still come and pick somebody in front of us. We just look. All we can do is take a camera, take a video, and find legal support for them. It's it's it's it's unbelievable. But thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion? Thank you both for being here. Really appreciate it. Seeing no further discussion, that item is approved. Next out of order item, madam clerk.

That brings us to agenda item 7.1, a request of the mayor requesting that this council convene in an executive session to receive an update on collective bargaining negotiations.

Alright. I see we have a representative for the law department here. Can you just speak to us as to whether this is an appropriate item for executive session?

Yes, Council President, through you, the law department has reviewed the statement on the agenda and the purpose of the executive session and approves this as to an appropriate use of executive session.

All right. Very well. Roll call to go in executive session, please.

Roll call to enter into executive session. Councillor Euncannon?

Yes.

Councillor Link?

Yes.

Councillor Scott? Councillor Klingen? Councillor Strezzo? Councillor Saeed? Yes. Councillor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councillor Hart? Yes. Councillor McLaughlin? Yes. Councillor Umbah?

Yes, please.

Councillor Davis?

Yes.

With eight councilors in favor, we can enter executive session.

Alright, Vera. Very well. We will return to open session once executive session is completed. Alright. I'll call this meeting back to order.

No votes were taken in executive session other than the vote to adjourn from executive session, leave executive session. So, we have two more items that we wanna take out of order. Sorry. We need a roll call to return. Right? This is the special even though I see that y'all are here. Roll call to make sure that we're all here.

Roll call to reestablish quorum. Councilor Yuncanpin?

Here.

Councilor Link?

Here.

Councilor Scott?

Present.

Councilor Klingen?

Present.

Councilor Schrezo? Present. Councilor Saeed? Here. Councilor Wheeler?

Here.

Councilor Hart? Here. Councilor McLaughlin?

Here.

Councilor Mbal? Here. Councilor Davis? Here. With all councilors present, we have quorum.

Alright. Unless there's any objection, we'll take up item four dot two six next.

And that brings us to agenda item four twenty six, a resolution by councilor Klingon recognizing March 2026 as national social work month.

And Councilor Klingon.

Can we read it?

Yes, please.

Okay. And the official text of the resolution, whereas individuals have entered the social work profession for generations out of a commitment to improving the welfare and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. And whereas the twenty twenty six social work month theme, social uplift, defend, transform, designated by the National Association of Social Workers highlights the essential role social workers play in strengthening communities, advocating for social justice, protecting vulnerable populations, and transforming systems to create a more equitable society, and whereas social workers serve in schools, hospitals, social service agencies, veteran centers, and government, helping people access critical services including mental health care, family support, and community resources, and whereas social workers are at the forefront forefront of addressing many of the nation's most pressing challenges including mental health care needs, substance use disorder treatment, and increasing economic and social division, and whereas the profession has long helped advance important social progress including strengthening worker protections, expanding health care access, and promoting equal rights and dignity for all people. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Somerville City Council hereby recognizes the contributions of social workers and declares the month of March 2026 as National Social Work Month and encourages all residents to join the National Association of Social Workers in celebrating and supporting the social work profession.

Hear hear. Councillor Clearing.

Thank you Mr. President. Before I bring up to just say a bit sponsor a few social workers that are here this evening to accept our resolution and our praise, I just want to say I apologize to them for the oversight of I didn't communicate properly. So I know it's this late hour, but nonetheless, this is really important. So I'm glad everybody they could stick around to be here for this.

So mister president, colleagues, I proudly speak today in support of this resolution recognizing March as National Social Worker Month. This year's theme set by the National Association of Social Workers is social workers uplift, defend, transform. And I can't think of three words that better capture the moment we are at right now. Social workers uplift people every day, helping families navigate schools, mental health systems, housing challenges, and the many complexities of modern life. They defend the dignity and well-being of some of our most vulnerable members of our community, and they work to transform systems so that people are treated with fairness, compassion, and humanity.

That work is especially important right now as many immigrant families across the country are facing deep uncertainty around immigration enforcement. In response, social workers here in our community have stepped up in powerful ways. They have been working alongside immigrant advocates to ensure that families families understand the importance of family safety plans, making sure parents have arrangements in place so their children are protected if something unexpected happens. They are also helping parents prepare the unthinkable caregiver authorization affidavit so that a trusted adult can pick the children up from school and care for them if needed, preventing those children from unnecessarily entering into the system. This work is quiet, often unseen, but profoundly important.

It reflects the very heart of our of the social work profession. Meeting people where they are, helping them navigate fear and uncertainty. Fear and uncertainty in ensuring that families remain supported and connected. To moments of national tension and uncertainty, social workers are often this sorry. In the moments of national tension and uncertainty, social workers are often the steady hands helping communities hold together.

So today, as we recognize social work month, I wanna thank the social workers of Somerville, some of which are at this horseshoe. Our own councilor McLaughlin is a social worker by by trade. In some role and across our region who continue to uplift families, defend humanity, dignity, and work every day to transform our systems for the better. So, you. With that, I'd like to sponsor to speak this evening, Mary Ann Walls and Cokina Fuller, who together across two different DCF offices represent I'm sorry, who work on behalf of thousands of children and families for the Department of Children and Families for the state. So, first I would like to sponsor Marianne Walls.

Councilor Klingon, like to sponsor Marianne Walls. See no objection. Go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Klingon, and thank you to the Somerville City Council for always being supportive of social workers and really helping us to help our families and always being accessible. We appreciate the support especially as councilor clean said. During these times, people are so traumatized. Children are traumatized not knowing if their parents are going to be home when they come home from school.

Parents concerned about their children. We've in some of what we've seen, the lack of access or inability to access substance abuse or mental health or even actual primary care health given the climate of our country. So, we appreciate the recognition and the support that you give not only social workers but our residents. Thank you.

No pressure.

If Kokina, if you'd like to just say a brief word, it's up

to you. Oppose you. No objection. Go right ahead if you have anything to say.

My sister Mary Anne in service has said it so eloquently. So, you so much.

Well, I'll say thank you both for your work and for being here and for your patience this evening. Any discussion? Other questions? Councillor Hart?

I just want to thank Councillor Klingen for bringing this forward and thank you both for coming. I think that there's no there's there's no way to overstate the importance of social workers and the work that you do. And it's incredibly under compensated and you know, I know that there's it's there's more work than can one person can do but really appreciate your work and really appreciate you for uplifting this month. Thank you.

Councilor Hart would like to sign on. I will as well. Councillor Wheeler, Saeed, the whole council is gonna sign on to this one. Councillor Wheeler, go ahead.

I wanted to extend the comments of my colleagues and appreciate you both and all social workers who work in Somerville and elsewhere. My mother worked for many years in Somerville as a social worker. She would be deeply upset with me if I didn't mention that tonight. She's still using her social work license in her eighties today. I've seen the life changing power that social workers can and I appreciate this chance to celebrate your work. Thank you.

Councilor Cleary. Mr. President, lastly I'll just say, and I know I always I really like to emphasize the fact that you know these are DCF social workers. The things they see, you know, would keep you up at night. It's a you know, I have an affinity for DCF social workers as my mother was a foster parent, but the but the term social worker captures such a wide breadth of work that's done in individuals. So, since Holly Simioni is in the chamber, I would like to recognize her as her work does fall under that work of social work with regards to helping families with children with disabilities. So, I say we give these three a round of applause and call it a night. Thank you.

Alright, thank you Councillor Klingon. Alright, one more item out of order. If there's no objection, we'll take the Finance Committee report up next.

Brings us to agenda item 6A1, a report of the committee on finance meeting on 03/10/2026.

Councilor Wheeler. Thank you, chair. The finance committee met on Tuesday, 03/10/2020 via remote participation with four members present, our Ward 2 colleague was sick, still is, and with the help of clerk Delaney Fisher Cascio and legislative liaison Yasmin Radasi. We took up a seven item agenda. We recommended approval of a 31,000 grant from the Mass Department of Environmental Protection for upgrades to the Franey Road Hazardous Household Waste Facility.

Department of Public Works staff explained that this will fund winterization and a new garage door with pedestrian cut out for better access. We discussed DPW's commitment to accessibility at the Franey Road facility and the need for residents to be able to communicate with staff while outside at street level and protected from the elements. We also recommended appropriating approximately $56,000 from the bike share stabilization fund for an 18 dock blue bike station at Boynton Union Connect. These funds were donated by the developer for the city to purchase equipment using contract. Three police department grants generated extended discussion.

First, we recommended an approximately $23,000 grant for youth violence prevention with an approximately $6,000 match from the city. The new captain of community relations is exploring programs like aquarium trips and basketball games alongside hot spot patrols and youth academies. There was concern regarding a requirement in the grant text that the police department submit daily crime data to the Greater Boston Fusion Center through the system known as either CopLink or Crime Tracer. And we received written confirmation that this data is not shared at the federal level though some questions about the risk around this sharing remained. Ultimately this item was recommended for approval by a split three to one vote.

We recommended approval for a $43,000 police software grant. Police Department staff explained that the gray key forensics tool is used to bypass smartphone passwords in crime investigations, but only by a small number of approved officers and only with a search warrant or explicit consent often from victims seeking to share evidence. Existing surveillance technology impact reports provided transparency regarding these legal and procedural safeguards. This grant also covers BlueVoice, a new large language model AI tool. We discussed how this might be used, what data would be uploaded to it, and how to ensure it's not used to leak personally identifiable information about Somerville residents nor to substitute AI decision making for human decision making.

Additionally, we recommended a $127,000 grant for special response team equipment and training including protective armor and cameras that are pole mountable and investigation specific and detailed in their own surveillance technology impact report. Addressing concerns regarding over militarization, police department staff emphasized that department policies ensure this tactical gear remains behind the scenes and only used to protect residents in high security incidents. Last item of our agenda was the economic development staff presenting OCTIF, a tax incremental financing policy managed from the state level to incentivize housing production. When the council sees a clear affordability benefit in a case of development, this tool allows us to waive a portion of future taxes on the added value that development will bring to a property. To be clear, this is not a tax cut or a city payment.

It's a time limited reduction of the increased taxes that development would normally generate. While the state sets minimum subsidy criteria to qualify, Somerville and the City Council in particular will maintain the power to demand deeper affordability on a project by project basis. This item was marked work completed. Chair, I ask that this committee report be accepted as submitted.

Alright. On the report. Councillor Scott.

Thank you Mr. President. I request that we could sever the three police related items. That's items on our agenda here six eighty two, six eighty three, and six eighty seven. I can give you the item numbers specifically if you like. Two million five hundred eight thousand four hundred ninety two million six hundred those items before the full council so that I can provide brief comment and get a roll call vote recorded.

Alright. Councilor Scott moves to sever items 6A2, 6A3, and 6A7 from the committee report. Discussion on the motion? We won't call it a seven. Alright. Any objection? Alright, seeing none those three items are severed from the report and are now before us. First we have the committee report before us. Any further discussion on the committee report? Okay, Seeing none, that is approved. And we have the three items Do we need a roll call vote on the other ones?

One item for

partial. Okay. Let's do a roll call vote on the other item from the committee report and then we'll take up the items that were severed.

And that puts agenda item six a six. A request of the mayor requesting approval to appropriate $56,339.46 from the bike share stabilization fund for installation and startup cost of a blue bike station at the Boykin Union Connect Transportation Management Association development site.

Any discussion? Alright. On the item.

Councilor Yuncanpin? Yes. Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Scott?

Yes.

Councilor Klingon?

Yes.

Councilor Schrezo? Yes. Councilor Saeed? Yes. Councilor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councilor Hart? Yes. Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Mbaugh?

Yes.

Councilor Davis? Yes. All councilors in favor, that is approved.

Alright. So that brings the three separate items before us to move those in separately? Yep. Councillor Scott, you'll take those up together?

Mr. President, that would be just fine.

You'll eventually want to do an individual roll call vote for each. Is that my That

would be fine or we could take all three up with a single roll call vote.

Let's discuss them together and then we'll take a vote separate. That right? Okay. Any objection to that? Alright. Madam Clerk, you would please read those three separate items into the record.

Agenda item 6A2, request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $127,000 grant with no new match required from the Boston office of emergency management to the police department for special response team equipment and training. Six a three, a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $43,000 grant with no new match required from the Boston office of emergency management to the police department for software. And six a seven, a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $22,800.08 grant that requires a match from the Metropolitan Mayor's Coalition Community Safety Initiative to the Police Department for Youth Violence Prevention.

Johnson, do you want to speak on any of the items?

Yes. Thank you, mister president. I'll go in reverse order here. And I apologize for the disruption here. Thank you to the chair for bringing this out of order.

As the hour is late and I am very ill, will spare my standard soaring over on these matters. But for members of the public who may be curious about this, one of these items, the 22,800 grant, known as the Shannon grant from the mayor's metropolitan Metro Mayor's Coalition, is always pitched as a grant to allow us to host a basketball tournament, and it's been happening for years. Every year, this council accepts that grant. But one of the terms of that grant is that we continue to participate in the system known as CopLink. The system known as CopLink is not one that is particular subject to discretion.

We are a full map community and have been since before I got elected, which means that every single encounter, that's every traffic citation, parking citation, every accident report, every complaint somebody calls in a noise complaint, the address, the names of the people present when an officer goes to check it out. Any information that the officer records goes into our system and then is directly pipelined into the CopLink system. Review of a presentation that was published back in 2017 reveals how CopLink use that information. It associates people with events. So if you are a, for example, minor child who happened to be present at a house where a or in an apartment building for example where there was a noise complaint and then later there was report of suspected drug deal.

Now all of a sudden that person is associated with each of those and becomes a person of interest interest that shows up when searched for possible possible not to call it a dragnet, but persons of interest to look into when investigating future incidents. Incidents. This is all very clear. It's in a presentation that was made by Mass State Police to explain how useful CopLink was. As such, I, as always, I don't believe I'm going to convince anybody in this chamber tonight but this is so my neighbors understand why it is that I believe we can find other money to run

a basketball

tournament. Next, I will briefly address the grant for $43,000 for software. One piece of this is very easily understood. That's the gray key software which is used to crack cell phones. There's been a lot of discussion about this, but, and I have grave concerns about it, but we do have surveillance technology impact reports and policies in place that supposedly govern how and when our law enforcement officers can just crack anybody's cell phone.

But more concerning to me is the inclusion of BlueVoice, which is an AI tool to be used by our police department to generate police reports and to assist our police officers in the field. Given the I don't want to go into too much detail about the horrific consequences, but let's well, suffice to say that I have grave concerns about the injection of AI into our systems, especially with the fact that facial recognition is already part of the CopLink system and allowing that to integrate even closer into a facial recognition system that you see here is, in my opinion, just a recipe for disaster. There's a story in the national media of a grandmother in Tennessee who was arrested and jailed for six months on suspicion of a financial fraud, a bank fraud in North Dakota. She had never been to North Dakota. She was just flagged by an AI system and lost her house as a result of being jailed for six months on this.

So I don't want to inject any more possibility for inadvertent harm for people coming into contact with our police department. And then finally, the $127,000 grant for special response team equipment and training. This is for the shields, for the helmets, for the batons, for the chemical weapons. This is I'm old enough to have been on the other end of that that from our Somerville Police Department. I'm old enough to remember my colleagues around this horseshoe talking about being pepper sprayed at protests by the Somerville Police Department.

I'm old enough to remember when we had the deputy chief of the police department on camera placing a Somerville resident in a headlock at a protest. We see across the nation, even when communities are steadfast in their commitment to supporting their neighbors. In Minneapolis, where the mayor, the governor, everybody up and down the chain says we are steadfast in supporting our neighbors and opposing ICE, it is the Minneapolis Police Department in that riot gear, not preventing ICE from kidnapping their neighbors, but instead preventing the neighbors from being able to help each other. In Burlington, Vermont, just I believe yesterday, it was the police department that kept the neighborhood at bay while ICE laid siege to a house. To a house which they eventually did break the door down searching for a person who was not there.

They arrested three other people from that house and put them in detention. And it was the Burlington Police Department with their special response team gear. With their backs to ice facing down the members of their community. I can foresee a situation in the not too far distant future. Where it will be in our community and I, Mr President.

Cannot vote to accept that money to pay for the weapons that will be pointed at me. So with that, I appreciate your forbearance. Again, I don't need this to necessarily be a full discussion from the council. I don't expect to change anybody's mind, but I do appreciate the opportunity. To say my peace and to get my vote in the negative on the record. Thank you.

Council Link. I

I see that legislative like to defer

liaison Rizat Radazzi? I'll I'll yield to her. Farrell? Liaison Rizat Radazzi?

Thank you, mister president.

I just wanted to correct the record related to item twenty six zero one six nine with regards to Blue Voice. As was shared during the committee meeting, chief generously reached out to the vendor, blue blue voice sorry. I keep mixing it up with gray key. Blue Voice to get more details for actually in response to a a request from councilor Link. It was shared with the full committee, and it basically says that it is a closed system that is literally just going to be used to look up our own ordinances and state laws. I don't want to try to paraphrase the whole document that was shared, but I would encourage councillors to take a look at that document. It will not be used to generate police reports. Thank you.

Councillor Link.

Hi, yeah. Through the president, thank you. Yes, I would encourage everyone to look at the answers which are now available through the Legislature. You can see I have huge concerns about the use of AI and especially the the police use of AI. And if everything is as described, it is essentially just a search engine, which I'm I'm less concerned with.

But if it ever did become that there was public personal identifiable information, PII, anything like that was ever put into it, I would have a much much much different stance. And then I I just wanna also address I think what the the good counselor from War two did about CopLink, which is also now known as Crime Tracer. I have I remain very skeptical of of that, and do think that there is some concerns there in terms of you know it Just like when we put our data into the on on the Internet, you can't get it back. I don't know where that data goes. And while I have seen an email assuring us that it doesn't the feds don't have access to it, I'm still not clear why that policy changed in 2023 and what guardrails are to ensure that it does not happen that we reverse that policy in 2026.

So I am very worried about

that one still. You. Other discussion? Council Mobafel and council Wheeler.

Thank you, mister president. I hate to put our mayor on the spot, but when you show up to every council meeting, I'm gonna have to ask a question. I was just curious about his position on all of this at the time.

Mister mayor, care to address the question?

Mister president, thank you. Through you to councilor McLaughlin. Yeah. We would not have put these forward if we did not feel that there was merit to these requests. We knew it would go through a rigorous examination by this council and we trusted in the end result of that examination. We trust you all to do the work and determine whether this is something that you also are willing to get by.

Sorry. Don't don't mean to do it like this, but it's coming up right now in this meeting. I am just more curious about the stated concerns from our colleagues and how the city feels about those positions. I'm genuine genuinely curious.

Mister president, I don't wanna get into a back and forth with counselors and you know arguing arguing against claims they've made. I appreciate folks raising their concerns about it. You know, there's I'm not I'm not gonna say I'm not without concerns on on a great many things. In the end, you're left balancing concerns versus potential benefits. And, that's where I trust people to make up their own minds on it.

Okay. Councilor Wheeler.

Thank you chair. I wanted to first of all appreciate the concerns that have been raised and acknowledge there's a limit to how much I know and understand about all the complexities of these systems. One thing that that mattered to me in in making my decision on the the question of the '23 approximately $23,000 grant was that to my knowledge municipalities including Somerville are already in a an essentially unavoidable relationship of sharing certain kinds of data such as when people are booked for crimes in a in a broader way. And that existing fact together with the the written confirmation we were able to get. And I'd like to to learn more about how reliable this is.

But the the confirmation that we were able to get that this particular data is not going to be shared with the federal government. Those things together made a

difference to me on that point. Thank you. Councilor Quinn.

Thank you Mr. President. Through you. You know, yeah I mean as stated by some, I feel like we could sort of doomsday just about anything. You know you could come up with different scenarios.

I think that ICE and other agencies probably have more than enough tools at their disposal. I guess what I'm trying to say is like like like was mentioned, as far as weighing the positive and the negative, know, I have to go back to the mystics, mystic housing and and when the kids like you know, they really look forward to these trips to the aquarium and different outings that they may never you know leave the housing development in other circumstances and go to these different places. And so you know, I mean this is, you know, I hear concerns are raised. Again, I also share those concerns. But what is, what will we lose if we vote down this you know basically free money that has an impact in the community amongst the most vulnerable people.

I mean I certainly don't want to be responsible for bad things happening. I did listen to the meeting in real time the other night and it the chief continued to reiterate that you know and it's sort of in line with what the mayor is saying is that we are going for these grants. We are a welcoming city. We understand you know that they can't guarantee anything but that's kind of how life is. There's not, there's no guarantee for a lot of things.

So really I think to just take away this benefit in the name of you know fear, which may or may not be materialized. And I haven't really heard any specific scenarios or like that or you know how this could, how this people believe that this will play out versus you know walking into the Mystics and seeing the bus there taking these kids out of the city during the summer months to somewhere cool. So I will be supporting these grants as I have in the past. And that's it.

Councilor Strazel.

Thank you Mr. President. Quick reiteration on the discussion that happened in the finance committee, and anyone can read the minutes on this. Again, this is a grant that is every year has been accepted. And yes, it's for our most disenfranchised children and families in the community.

So I'd like to remind our colleagues that they will be the ones impacted by this. I won't let our most vulnerable residents slip through the cracks based on hypotheticals and what we've already seen is weighing on the other side of that of actual proven assistance that it does provide to the community. The chief reiterated that anything that the the information here is already public record has already is already out there that any concerns that the colleagues raised about that of data sharing and with the with the apps or the technology that was accepted, the sergeant detective that spoke on these items, may I remind our colleagues that these help assist with child molestation cases, with human trafficking cases, and were instrumental in in rape cases that most specifically with Uber drivers and was and and rape cases are notoriously notoriously difficult to prove. This data actually helps. Some of us have daughters in this room.

Some of us have daughters heading to college soon. And with human trafficking cases, this can be useful. So again, all this information, this discussion has already been had. I will be supporting this. I have done my research and have been paying attention to what goes on in the city long enough to understand how this actually implements and is in our community and and assists or can. I'm confident that that this is a yes vote for me. And can we please move on?

Mister president, please let the record reflect I have three daughters. Councilor Bah.

Thank you, mister president. Just to be quick, I mean, just getting this conversation, I think $43,000 is a very small amount of money. If we need to take kids to the aquarium, I will not rely on the, you know, Department of Homeland Security for the $3,000 to take the kids to the aquarium. So I will not be supporting this.

Councilor Hart.

Just similar to councilor Mabaugh who just spoke, I would since the finance committee on Tuesday and finding out more about CopLink, I no longer feel comfortable supporting that item and I, but I would urge the administration to find a way to put that money to continue the program in the budget.

Back to Councillor Mike.

Thank you. Mr. President, just one quick clarification before I finish up here. So just so that we're we're clear here, this isn't necessarily a hypothetical. Up until 2023, ICE actually had access, regular access, full access to this. So it's not something that maybe they would want. It's something that they definitely do want. I would say the the other thing here is that the email the the assurances that we received from the emails that they just they don't have access. It's not that they can't get the data. It's not that there's no path for them to get that data that gets in there.

It's just that they don't have direct access. And that is a very different thing than saying that they cannot get access. I want these kids to have this opportunity. I want this this this program to continue and like the the good council from Ward 7, I would love to see our administration find other ways to fund it. But I think that it's it's yeah. It's

it's a

bridge too far for me. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Alright. Let's take a separate roll call vote on each of the items in the order they appear on the agenda.

Okay. If

you you Miss Councilor Clegan?

Before we vote I just want to that, you know, I it's you know, we can certainly set the table of fear and then vote something potentially good down. But we're basically saying that we're basically, you know, that our mayor, our chief, and some of our colleagues here, you know, are are basically being derelict of duty and putting people in harm's way. And, you know, if we're gonna do this about all kinds of issues, whether it be any type of safety issues, I mean, is certainly, you know, hot politically whatever in terms of, you know, those concerns. But, you know, I just I just think that, you know, we're we're in a Well, I'm gonna vote the way I'm gonna vote. But I just I just wanna I want the record to show that, you know.

The chief of police made it clear that while they can't guarantee things, most of this is public record. And I I mean, if it's an abundance of caution that people feel, you know, uncomfortable, I would with the way the table's been set, I mean certainly I would too. I'm sure the public watching is thinking, you know, that we must be completely irresponsible.

Mr. Schrezepp.

Thank you, Mr. President, on that. I think it's really devious and dubious to conflate a vote like this with colleagues trying to assume that conflating that anyone that supports this is supporting ICE. That is totally out of line. And the mayor who spoke earlier concept of neighborhood and having healthy dialogues, this is an opportunity for that, of a healthy dialogue.

But to demonize a neighbor, or watching this live in real time over one opinion or another, when we're all hopefully in good faith making decisions that are best for constituents of over 81,000. Let's hope that we are making decisions collectively in good faith. Thank you.

Mr. President, just one comment. Just before we vote, so I've been working for the last few months with Councilor Link with the ACLU on what we hope will be an ordinance to look at data sharing with the federal government, specifically in law enforcement. I hope that we have something ready to submit soon. It's currently being the administration is taking a look to give us their feedback. I'm gonna support these because I have in the past and because my understanding is you know voting this down doesn't get us out of CopLink I don't think. It's a basketball game for the kids, maybe I'm incorrect about that. But I just wanted to explain that this is an issue I care a lot about. I'm actively working on. This is not how I'm choosing to take a stand on that.

But I, you know, don't begrudge folks who do.

We're recognize the mayor. I'll remind folks that our rules do limit folks to speaking twice on an item. So if you've already spoken twice, I'm not gonna recognize you again. Just follow our rules so we can move along here. Mayor Wilson, go ahead.

Mister president, thank you. I came up here to make the point similar to what councilor Yunkampin just made. You can be very very concerned about CopLink. How you vote on this will not have one iota to do with any change about CopLink. All you are doing is turning down money. It will not change anything about CopLink. Full stop.

Councilor Hart?

Actually, I would love more clear through you, mister president. I would love more clarification on that because during the finance committee meeting, I asked if there were any other grants that required our participation in cop link and chief Benford said no. That led me to believe that other than this grant we could opt out of CopaLink, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Mister mayor, anyone from the administration, can you clarify the statement in response to councilor Hart's question?

Thanks, mister president. The relationship with CopLink has existed long before. Simply opting out of the declining this grant will not change anything about that relationship.

Councillor Hart, does that address your question?

Can I ask a follow-up question? So, let's say that with the work that Councillor Lincoln Ewen Kempen are doing, you know, they decided that we shouldn't participate in CopLink. But we had this grant, we had to continue it for that period of time. Is that a realistic

scenario? Question to Councilor Yunkeppen? Sure.

Yes.

Councilor Yunkeppen, you care to respond?

Mr. President, I I don't know the answer. You know, my interpretation of what we're hearing is that the administration is gonna make a decision about whether to participate in CopLink on the merits in their mind. And it's not about whether this grant requires us to or not. My understanding of this administration in the last few from what has been represented to us, that they wanna be a part of CopLink. That's how I've heard that.

Any further discussion? No. Alright. Go to roll call votes. One individually, please. Yes. Let's reread them just so we're not everyone's sure exactly which one they're voting on.

Okay. And on agenda item six a two, a request of the mayor requesting your approval to accept and expend a $127,000 grant with no new match required from the Boston Office Office Of Emergency Management to the police department for special response Team Equipment and Training? Councillor Ewenkampin? Yes. Councillor Link?

Yes.

Councillor Scott?

No.

Councillor Klingon?

Yes.

Councillor Strazo? Yes. Councilor Saeed? Yes. Councilor Wheeler? Yes. Councilor Hart? Yes. Councilor Mabaughlin? Yes. Councilor Mabaugh?

Yes.

Councilor Davis? Yes. With 10 councilors in favor, the item is recommended to be approved. Going to agenda item six a three, a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $43,000 grant with no new match required from the Boston office of emergency Management to the Police Department for software. Councillor Ewenkampin?

Yes.

Councillor Scott? Excuse me, Councillor Link?

Yes.

Councillor Scott? No. Councillor Lincoln?

Yes.

Councillor Strazo? Yes. Councilor Sait? Yes. Councilor Wheeler? Yes. Councilor Hart? Yes. Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Mbaugh? No. Councilor Davis? Yes. With nine councilors in favor, the item is recommended to be approved.

Thank you. Next item.

An agenda item six a seven, a request of the mayor requesting approval to accept and expend a $22,800.08 grant that requires a match from the Metropolitan Mayor's Coalition Community Safety Initiative to the Police Department for Youth Violence Prevention. Councilor Ewenkampin? Yes. Councilor Link? No. Councilor Scott? Scott?

No.

Councilor Klingen?

Yes.

Councilor Schrezo? Yes. Councilor Saeed? No. Councilor Wheeler? Yes. Councilor Hart? No. Councilor McLaughlin?

Yes.

Councillor Mbaugh? No. Councillor Davis?

Yes.

With six councillors in favor, that item is recommended to be approved.

Alright, thank you everyone. Feel better, Councillor Scott. Alright. Thank you for that. Alright. Let's start the meeting. I'll remind all the committee chairs that it is 10:15 and use your discretion in providing the reports when we get to those. Not that they're not in any way important, but there's lots of different ways folks can catch up on what happened. Next item, Madam Clerk.

That brings us back to the order of business with agenda item 4.1.

Chair, I move to waive the readings of the councilor's budget priority memos, agenda items 4.1, 4.8, 4.12, 4.13, 4.15, 4.18, 4.22, 4.27, and 10.1, and place them on file with a copy sent to finance. We'll have the chance to discuss these at the Tuesday, March twenty fourth meeting of the Committee of the Whole.

On the motion, Council Schroeder? Permission to present a four minute no I'm sorry four hour presentation. Brought a PowerPoint on my budget request. Funny. Okay. Too soon.

Very well. You're welcome. Those items are placed on file with a copy to finance. Next item.

Agenda item 4.2 an order by councilor Davis that rule four of the rules of the city council be amended to update submission deadlines for agenda items consistent with the provisions of the open meeting law.

So just a quick clarification. I've teased this before. This is the rule change, and thank you to our legislative policy analyst for putting the correct words on the page, to effectively have the supplemental agenda reflect what the law actually allows and not maybe what our practice has been over the past number of years. So if an item is not submitted in accordance with the rules, I guess we actually did, we gave it till Tuesday morning, we gave us all till Tuesday morning to submit items for that week's agenda for a regular Thursday meeting. Anything after that needs to either have been unanticipated or some timely aspect to it for it to go on the supplemental agenda.

And Brendan's mouthing something else to shout it out. And. Sorry. And. Yes. Both unanticipated and have some timely aspects to it. So we'll take a look. We're gonna send this to I'm I'm inclined to send this to legislative matters unless there's an objection just so that we can make sure we're all clear and and ask ask questions and have that

on the

record. Any discussion at the moment? Yes. Councilor Saiyid?

Yeah. Mister president, I have a question. So, we used to say Monday by midnight. So, you just said Tuesday. Correct. So So, is the change?

So, this is the change. So, there's a balance between what the law requires. The law requires the presiding officer to put anything that is anticipated that can be anticipated up to forty eight hours before the meeting on the agenda. Presiding officer is required to put that on the agenda. From a practical standpoint, we can't have something at 06:59 and thirty seconds on Tuesday actually make it to the agenda.

So we adopt rules establishing a deadline sometime prior to that so our clerk staff staff can actually create the agenda and publish it on time. The law department has advised that they believe that's a that that adopting rules is an appropriate that is sometime sometime before forty eight hours is an appropriate interpretation of that law. And, you know, we may be proven otherwise. Some someone may inform us that we need to adjust that, but the intent here was to get a little bit closer to that. So, it's now 08:30 Tuesday morning, essentially the start of the business day Tuesday morning.

Gives us a little more time to get things in, but after that we wanna, you know, this is essentially what we've been doing for the last several months since I since I took this role to not deliberate on things that weren't that we didn't tell the public about prior to Thursday. Right? The idea of the open meeting law being folks should should know what we're gonna talk about so they can come in here or weigh in or whatever the case may be. So this aligns with that. It still does allow those exceptions pursuant to open meeting law.

And we've been doing a really good job of that anyway. So hopefully this will not be a big change. But as I said, I do wanna have the opportunity to discuss it in legislative matters just to make sure that everyone's clear. I mean there might be some nuances or wrinkles that we want to adjust so we'll have that opportunity. Okay? Alright. So, that is referred to legislative matters. Next item.

Agenda item 4.3, an order by Councillor Davis that the City Council appoints Jessica Smith to the public financing of Companions Committee.

So, the next three items are all appointments to the committees that were formed by the Charter. Madam Clerk, could you read the other two? The next two is about four five four five and four six.

Agenda m 4.4, an order by Councillor Davis that this city council appoints James Leo Bedard to the ranked choice voting committee. Agenda item 4.5, an order by Councillor Davis that this city council, appoints Crystal Huff to the ranked choice voting committee. And agenda item 4.6, an order by Councillor Davis that this city council appoints Derek Rice the review of multiple member bodies committee.

So, all of his departments based on recommendations that you all provided to me or some you, someone of you provided each of these in some case. We can certainly send these to committee if there's a desire for a discussion. I'm seeing a little bit of nodding, that's fine. Is there any looking to the administration, is there any specific timing concerns if we were to send any of these to committee? These commissions can start up in two weeks if that's necessary. Okay, getting thumbs up. Alright, so we will refer each of these to confirmation of appointments for discussion. Seeing no objection, those referred to confirmation appointments.

Agenda item 4.7, a communication by councilor Davis in his capacity as president conveying this council's updated standing committee assignments and commission appointments for 2026.

These are just the council roles on those commissions, so if you asked for something, I think I pretty much gave everybody what they asked for. There wasn't a whole lot of requests. If I got it wrong in any way, let me know and we can always fix it. I look forward to seeing the output of all these committees. There's some pretty cool topics here. So thank you for those who stepped up to serve. Next item. That's placed on file. Next item.

Agenda item 4.14, a resolution by councilor Link in support house bill nine six five and senate bill two seven two one, an act restricting the use of rodent rodent to sides in the environment.

Councilor Lincoln.

Thank you, mister president. So this is just a very simple bill that some constituents have brought to me. You know, we've got raptors, we've got owls, let's make sure we don't in the interest of time, let's make sure that we don't poison them. And that's that's basically what this comes down to.

Councillor Hart would like to sign on. Councillor Euncampan would like to sign on. I'd to sign on as well. Councillor Strezo, Councillor Sai, Councillor Wheeler, Councillor Bah. Did you wanna anything else on this item, councilor Link? Councilor Klingon would like to sign on? I'm serious. Councilor Klingon would like to sign on. Alright.

And then sorry. Yes. One quick amendment was just to insert in the what was it? The one two three four the in the fourth clause FGARS parentheses first generation anticoagulant rodenticides and before SGARS in the commonwealth.

This is a different sort of flavor of rodenticide as you

would like.

Not action. Alright. Very well. So that motion is on the table to add that other type of rodenticide to the item. Any on the on the amendment? Consent Kevin?

Mister president, I don't want to set a precedent that we have to fix typos. I think we should have typos in our stuff and be cool with that.

Well, we actually can fix typos without a vote. But I think in this case this a substantive addition. Any further discussion on the amendment? Alright. Seeing none, that is approved. On the item before us, any discussion? Council Wheeler?

Just a quick note for anyone who's concerned about this preventing the use of a rodenticide, these state house bills do not seek to completely ban these rodenticides, but rather to provide clarity about limiting them to short term uses and indoor uses. Thank you.

Alright. See no further discussion. That item is approved as amended. Next item.

That brings us to agenda item 4.16, an order by councilor Hart that the commissioner of public works discuss with this council the policy prohibiting parking on alternating sides of the street during a snow emergency and whether it is the best way to meet snow removal needs.

Councilor Hart.

Thank you. I just will say briefly I had four constituents reach out to me with the same concern, and I thought it merited discussion. And in particular, a constituent pointed out that with our changing climate, we're having winters with no snow, but then also the severity of snow when we get it, you know, is is much greater. So we're more likely to have these storms like we saw this winter with a high level of snow, which really impacts our snow policies, like how much snow we're getting. I thought that merited discussion.

So I'd love for that to go to sustainability and infrastructure to be part of that. There's some other items related to snow removal. We'll tag that one on

to snow talk. Councilor Cleaner?

Yeah, thank you. Thank you to councilor. I've already been told that yeah we're gearing up for a big big snow talk at the next sustainability infrastructure meeting. So happy to get these right on the agenda. Then hopefully that'll put snow behind us officially for the year.

But I do want to say just on this particular item, know, it's it's we've been there and I'm not taking an opinion either way because I do hear what people are saying especially since we're not really going all the way to the curb for obvious sort of not obvious obvious reasons, but when you have two feet of snow on a you know a 10 foot wide area, know that gets pushed pretty high. So if we went back to this sort of no odd side even side, it just buries the cars basically, but you know. So it's still a lot of work to do. It's no getting around that but but certainly it wouldn't take away parking on the opposite side of the street for as long as this does too. So looking forward to this discussion just to see where the DPW's heads are at if they have that historical knowledge or why we switched to this.

But yeah, happy to take this one.

Okay. Any other discussion? Alright. So that is approved with a copy to sustainability and infrastructure. Councilor Bahia, you wanted to move move for reconsideration of an item?

Yes, mister president. At the request of the chief administrative officer

Sir. Request of the city

clerk. I got the request of the city clerk. So I moved to reconsider this appointment that we we sent to committee back

Which item?

4.3 through 4.7. No. No. Through two four point six and move to approve

Madam clerk, would you like to address the council?

Thank you. Through the president Kimwell, city clerk, there is one of these items that does require some action in a shorter period of time than the others. After confirming with the chair that it is unlikely that a committee will be able to be scheduled in that time, I have requested that that be addressed by the council this evening.

And could let us know which item that is?

Yes. I don't have an agenda in front

of me. It

is. That is item oh, we're on a different page. It's the one about multi member body review committee. Given that that committee has a deadline of December, we we aim to have it start meeting in April and so we would like to have the appointments in place in order for that convening to happen. This is item 4.6 that the city council appoints Derek Rice to the review of multiple member bodies committee.

Alright, council Bob moves for reconsideration of item 4.6. Is there anyone who objects to reconsidering this item? Alright. Seeing no objection that item is back before the body. Councilor Bob, you wish to move to approve this item this evening?

Yes, mister president.

Alright. Any discussion on the item? Alright. Seeing none, that item is approved. Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. Back to where we left off. Madam clerk, next item.

Next item is 4.17, an order by Councillor Hart that the Commissioner of Public Works discuss with this council the frequency of street sweeping throughout the period of April through November.

Councillor Hart.

Thank you. This was another item that came through a constituent wondering, you know, if we could not have the frequency of street sweeping throughout the summer months when it's not a particular need to clean the streets. In particular they were thinking about the impact on parking and the difficulties which we all know are real in the city. So I'd love this to go to the sustainability and infrastructure committee as well.

Alright. Any discussion? Councilor McLaughlin?

Just on this, mister president. So this has been discussed in the past and I just want to be clear that if other people do want to see limited sweep street sweeping, I will gladly accept all of it because our streets get particularly dirty. So I I I actually want more street sweeping. It might be different in different neighborhoods but my streets As has been pointed out, I organize my own community cleanups because there's a lot of trash out there. Perhaps there's

an opportunity to be more nuanced in our in our timing and and frequency. Never hurts to have a conversation. Consent Wheeler?

Thank you chair. I'm curious about the choice of which committee to refer this item to and and the previous item, not trying to reconsider that. But there is a traffic and parking committee. I happen to be on it but that's neither here nor there. Seems to me like this is right up that alley. I'm not opposed to it going to sustainability and infrastructure. I'm just not sure if there's a history of thinking behind this.

Ezra Dazi.

Thank you Mr. President. Commissioner Weissman and DPW are frequent visitors to what was previously the public works public utilities committee and is now sustainable in infrastructure, and he generally does not attend traffic and parking. So just wanted to

Opportunity to get it in front of the folks, maybe a little quicker. That's the thinking. But good question. Thank you for asking. So seeing no further discussion then this is approved with a copy to sustainability and infrastructure. Next item.

Agenda item 4.2, a resolution by councilor Wheeler that the city council calls on the Massachusetts legislature and governor to increase unrestricted general government aid by at least 6% in fiscal year 2027.

Councilor Wheeler. Thank you, chair. The city of Somerville delivers essential services every day, yet state aid to municipalities like ours has not kept pace with the costs that cities and towns face. According to the Massachusetts Municipal Association, unrestricted general government aid, AGA for short, has only just returned to 2,008 levels without adjusting for inflation. Restoring the state local partnership requires sustained growth in this funding.

A year to year increase of at least 6% to AGA would help rebuild that partnership and ensure communities like Summerville can maintain core services without placing additional pressure on property taxpayers. Thank you, chair.

Alright. Councilor Kunin.

Thank you and thank you to the councilor at large. You know we've brought this up many years. You know when that state aid was cut down really low to almost nothing and you know how we've suffered from it. I don't pretend to know how all the money is spent up on Beacon Hill in terms of like the millionaires tax for instance. I would think that would be a, would have been something that they could have kind of increased the percentage back to cities and towns from that money there. So yeah, I mean it'd be great to recoup, sort of a higher percentage than we've been getting since, I forget what year it was, they cut the local aid. So thank you.

Alright. That item is approved. Next item.

Agenda item 4.21, a resolution by councilor Wheeler that this city council calls on the Massachusetts legislature and governor to fully fund the student opportunity act and maintain the $150 per pupil minimum aid increase in fiscal year twenty twenty seven.

Council Wheeler.

Thank you chair. The student opportunity act was a landmark commitment to ensure that Massachusetts schools have the resources that students need. As we reach the final year of its implementation, it's critical that the state follow through fully. Maintaining a 100, a $150 per pupil minimum aid increase year over year will help every district keep pace with rising costs so we can continue investing in the success of all students. Thank you.

Councillor Lindq would like to sign on. Councillor Hart would like to sign on. Any discussion? Councillor McLaughlin, Councillor Bah, the whole council. Alright that item is approved. Thank you. Next item.

Agenda item 4.23, a resolution by Councillor Klingen and Councillor Ewen Kampen that the administration create a publicly accessible dashboard tracking progress toward planning and development goals in Gilman Square.

You Mr. President, through you. We have a new administration now and you know the people down in Gilman Square are just as hungry as ever for progress. I know that the mayor has been focusing on this, so I will say that it is a priority. But in the in the sort of the spirit of the name and there is somewhat of a timeline laid out for activity down there.

And so I was just thinking that you know a dashboard you know on you know we have various city websites with specific projects if you will on those websites. And so I thought maybe a dashboard of some type would, know, provide visible accountable visible timelines with accountability. Sometimes, you know, we can say dates but then that's how the game of telephone works where then those get shifted but no one really knows. I think like it's good to kinda have that place where those though that that timeline is laid out in a very visible, tangible way. And I want to thank the councilor who I share the Gilman Square with, who I know also put in some budget priorities around that as we know we both know that this is still a major area for the residents down there, for all of us really.

Mean it's a great opportunity. I just hope that we can come up with some simple dashboard on a Gilman Square neighborhood plan website since we do have a Gilman Square neighborhood plan and whether we've deviated from it. Nonetheless, I think if we have a dashboard with milestones and dates and goals that would be really helpful to people. Kazuya Kappin?

I was arguing it should be a giant neon sign on the Homan site.

That is like a ticker. But

And mister president, I guess that can just go on file to the office of, I don't know, economic development or something.

Mister Bah. Thank you, mister president. I don't know if the good councilor from what for know how much Gilman Square is very close to my heart. You know, I was involved in the initial conversation for the formation of, you know, that neighborhood with Justin Mullen after Union Square Neighborhood Council was created. And so I'd like to sign on to anything, you know, that is Human Square related. Thank you.

Alright. Seeing no further discussion. The letter is approved. A copy to h is it h e h c d e?

I can never remember.

It's just one letter.

H c d e.

H c d

See how easy it rolls out. It's March now, Mr. President. Yes please. HCDE.

Agenda item 4.24, resolution by Councillor Klingon that the director of mobility evaluate opportunities for improved pedestrian safety at the intersection of Broadway and Main Street.

Councillor Clayton.

Thank you Mr. President. I'm just going to speak on this. I normally would just send this to traffic and parking. But I really can't emphasize enough the the amount of parents who walk kids to the Haley School in the morning time and just the level of danger that they describe to me and how how fearful they are.

I have met with the mayor of East Daniel that they're putting in a light further down near Fenwick, hopefully, but that intersection of Main Street and Broadway continues to extremely treacherous crossing. And so I'm just hoping that you know whoever Brad and the team or Brian in engineering can can kind of just take another look at it and evaluate and see what we can do to make it safer. I know this challenge is you know the light cycles they've tweaked those before but I think we could do maybe do a little more there. So I think they're creative enough that they can come up with something so send to traffic and parking.

Councilor Link.

Yeah Mr. President I just want say thank you. Safe Routes to Schools are hugely important. This actually used to Main Street's my old street, so I am intimately familiar with how terrible that intersection is, and I think this is awesome. Alright.

That has approved. The copy to traffic and parking, said? Yep. Next item.

Agenda item 4.25, a resolution by Councillor Klingon that the Director of Housing provide data on units produced through the city's inclusionary housing program, including length of occupancy, unit refusal by lottery winners, and other data to demonstrate the health of the program.

Thank you Mr. President. I know that's kind of a of a heavy lift you know I know in terms of staff and their time and stuff but I really think it's important we look at this. We hear a lot of I have personal antidotes about people who sort of pen out and do the math, they win a lottery and they get really excited and then you know in addition to the rent whether you know what are the percentage of AMI when they pencil in these like other you know the apartments are individually metered for water and sewer. You know different charges that the complexes are able to put on.

It just doesn't pan out, they just it's not it comes out they oftentimes refuse a unit. I've heard of multiple people just staying where they were just because of all those charges. You know and on top of that like maybe some people go in and then not really looking fully at all the charges and maybe they're leaving after a year. They're realizing that they actually can't afford it. Now we've maybe created more disruption. So I really just want to look at the health of this and our inclusionary housing 20% policy around how is it, how are people doing, know, The health of this program essentially. And again, it may take a while but I think it's something that we really should take a look at.

Okay. That item is approved. Councilman Link would like to sign on with a copy to HDD. Alright. Next item.

Next item is agenda item six b one, a report of the committee on housing community development and equity meeting on 03/04/2026.

Council Chazza.

I'm on. Come back please. I lost I misplaced my minutes. Thank you.

M6B on the table. Take up the next item.

Agenda item six c one, a report of the committee on licenses and permits meeting on 03/11/2026.

Councilor Hart.

Okay. We had a thirty minute meeting with three of us in attendance and addressing one item which you see was the grant of location on Ivalu Street. And we had a creative solution for conditioning that grant of location on Eversource doing a review of the safety of the lines and poles on the street and submitting a written report. And that was it. Thank you.

Any discussion on the report? Alright, seeing none, the report is accepted as submitted. Let's pick up item 6b off the table. The report of the Housing Community Development and Equity Committee. Councillor Thank

you. Thank you Mr. President. Yes. So, we met Wednesday, 03/04/2026, six p.

M. Hybrid, in person, and virtual. This was strictly one agenda item. It was a public hearing request via petition to discuss the actual item public communication that the city council hold a public hearing of the petition submitted by 52 registered voters regarding out of the blue community space at Arts in the Armory. Counselor Syed had to recuse herself, and so we had 11 members of the public to speak on this item.

Some were residents, some were artists, and it actually was a really they really painted a beautiful picture, pun intended, of just of just the importance of the gallery and what it meant to them in the community. So, no votes or decisions were taken on that. And I submit this committee report for your approval as is.

Alright. Any discussion on the report? Seeing none, the report is accepted as submitted and that puts item 26Dash0265 before us. That is just the petition for the hearing which did happen, so I'll place that on file. This is an objection. That item is placed on file. No, wait, not placed on file. Placed on file. Can't approve it. All right. That is placed on file. Next item.

Agenda item 7.2.

Chair, I move to waive the readings of agenda items 7.2 through 7.9 and refer them to the finance committee for recommendation.

Alright. Seeing no objection, those items are referred to finance. Next item madam clerk.