City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. I hereby call this meeting to order.

Recording in progress.

Today is, what is today? Thursday, June 25th. This is a meeting of the City Council. I am Lance Davis presiding. I use he, him pronouns. Please note that video and audio of this meeting is being recorded and may be shown live on local access government channels and the City of Somerville website and will be available for future review. Would the clerk please call the roll?

This is roll call. Councilor Ewing Campin. Here. Councilor Link. Here. Councilor Scott. Present. Councilor Klingin. Present. Councilor Strezzo. Present. Councilor Saeed. Here. Councilor Wheeler. Here. Councilor Hart. Here. Councilor McLaughlin. Here. Councilor Mba.

Present.

And Councilor Davis. Here. With 11 members present, we have quorum.

All right, thank you, Madam Clerk. Pursuant to our Rule 32, let it be known that the City 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 there Councillors wishing to say a few words about members of our community tonight? Councillor Said.

um i would like us to remember eleanor blue known as ellie she's a lifelong resident of somerville she passed away peacefully at her home on tuesday june 16 2026 she was 92 years old She was born and raised and educated in Somerville. Ellie was the beloved daughter of the late Michael and Josephine Bowe, a woman of deep faith. Ellie was dedicated an active member of St. Anne Parish in Somerville, where she generously volunteered countless hours of her time. She also taught Sunday school. As the Title I coordinator for the City of Somerville, Ellie played a significant role in the development and growth of the department, helping to create opportunities and resources that benefited countless students and families throughout the city. Even after her retirement, Ellie's passion for education and helping children never faded. She became affectionately known throughout Somerville as the story lady, traveling to local schools and sharing her love of reading with young students. Her impact on the community was so profound that a parent resource room at the Michael Capuano School was named in her honor, a lasting tribute to the difference she made in the lives of so many families. Ali was a dedicated member of her community, giving generously of her time to support local schools throughout many years of involvement with the PTA. She served on the committee that created the beloved Dinner Dance fundraiser, which continues to benefit students and families. Ellie was also a committed civic participant serving as a voting member of the Ward 5 Democratic Committee, where she helped elect officers and take part in selecting the chair of the Summit of the Democratic City Committee. Her kindness and wavering faith, dedication to her community, and unconditional love for her family will be remembered.

Thank you, Councillor Saeed. Councillor Clarence? Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, I ask that we keep former Somerville resident in our thoughts and prayers this evening. Daniel, Danny Ryan of Stoneham, formerly of Somerville, passed away unexpectedly on June 4th of this year. He was 77. Danny was the youngest of 11 children, born to Robert and Jesse Ryan. He proudly served his country in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Following his honorable service, he was a hard worker who spent many years at Anheuser-Busch, Teamsters, Local 122, right there out of Medford. Danny's family meant everything to him. He and his beloved wife, Pat Barrett, who was her maiden name, were together for 40 years. They were true best friends and built a full life together, full of laughter, good times, and great memories. He was known for his unmistakable laugh and sense of humor. Danny always was a bright spot in the room. He read the newspaper every day. He was the devoted father to Daniel Ryan Jr. and wife Lisa. He's also survived by many loving nieces and nephews. Danny held a special place in his heart for Riley, Leah, Max, and Maggie, who affectionately knew him as Pappy. He was pre-deceased by his siblings, Marion, Asinas, June, Bilyeu, Alice Chartier, Mildred Barton, Robert Ryan Jr., Doris Brown, Barbara Bowers, David Ryan, Roseanne Duggan, and Betty Demers. And Mr. President, I have one more moment of silence this evening. This was not a Somerville resident, but a strong Somerville connection through the Miller family, who I'm also connected to through marriage. Many of the Millers that just moved out of, they sold the house on Grandview not too long ago. And this was a cherished member of my in-laws family. Alicia Miller was 35 of Wilmington. She passed away unexpectedly along with her unborn son Spencer Paul Miller on June 12th at Lahey Hospital at Medical Center in Burlington. She was born August 10, 1990, in Newton, Massachusetts. Alicia was the cherished daughter of Michael and Patricia Halpin. She was raised and educated in Rentham. Alicia's dedication and professionalism and exceptional work ethic led her to a successful career in the hospitality industry. Throughout her career, she held several positions before proudly accepting the role as Associate Director of Sales at the Liberty Hotel in Boston. Her natural ability to connect with people coupled with her professionalism, extensive industry knowledge, and outstanding customer service skills earn her the respect and admiration of colleagues, clients, and friends alike. From the moment she entered the world, Alicia possessed joyful spirit and touched everyone around her. She was known for her positivity, warmth, and infectious smile. Alicia treasured the countless memories she made with family and friends, especially the summers spent with loved ones at Conway Lake in Conway, New Hampshire. And I'll just say that on October 15th, Alicia married her sweetheart, Robert A. Miller. Together they built a beautiful life in Wilmington, a community she quickly embraced. where she formed many treasured friendships. Alicia also lovingly embraced her role as mother to Mason Miller, a role which she cherished with all her heart. Together, Alicia, Robert, and Mason created a loving family filled with laughter, joy, and unforgettable memories. She'll be remembered for an extraordinary kindness compassion and generosity Alicia was the beloved wife of Robert a Miller jr. Devoted mother to Mason Miller and Spencer Miller all of Wilmington She was the cherished daughter of Michael and Patricia treasured sister of Michael Halpin, his partner, Marissa Aries of Rentham, and Kelsey Frias and her husband, Nolan of Norton. And she was a special auntie of Gavin Frias and Harvey Frias, who were also the beloved godson. And she was the dear daughter-in-law of Robert Miller Sr. and Linda Pangaro, and the late Patricia Miller and sister-in-law of the late Nicole Miller. Alicia is also survived by a large, loving, extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, and countless friends. And I just ask that you keep Danny, Alicia, and her unborn son, Spencer, Paul Miller, in our thoughts and prayers this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Clayton.

All right. Would everyone in the chambers please rise however you are able, and we'll have a moment of silence for the aforementioned individuals.

thank you madam clerk next item item number 1.3 approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of may 28 2026. i'd say no objection that item is approved next item item number 1.4 approval of the minutes of the special meeting of june 4 2026.

Seeing no objection, that item is approved. Unless there's any objection, Councilor McLaughlin would like to take item 10.1 out of order. Seeing no objection, Madam Clerk, would you read that item?

Yes. Item 10.1 by Councilor McLaughlin, commending Regina Bertholdt on the auspicious occasion of her retirement.

Councillor McLaughlin.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'll have Regina come up here. Regina's been a big part of the Somerville school community and the immigrant community for many years, just doing great things, looking out for people who need our help in this community. She's very well known as just a great personality and great person, and a lot of people, a very humble person who is never looking to take credit for any work, but she's done tremendous work to help so many young people and people in need in this community. She's going to be missed in her retirement, but I will not miss you because you're going to be in my neighborhood. You're a constituent and a resident. I've been at Regina's home many times, knocking doors, talking to her, talking to her mother. Really indispensable member of the community, and I really think even after retirement, I'm sure you're going to continue to help people and be a great part of this community, and I just wanted to take this moment and thank you for decades of service for this community and appreciate you right now. Thank you.

Oh, thank you. I've been crying the whole month of June. I do have a few remarks, if you allow me. First, my job was... was always supported by my mom, who unfortunately now lives in Brazil, but who support me as a single mom. So I could go to work. I raised an incredible daughter, human being, thanks to the support my mother gave to us. and the values and culture that I bring in as a granddaughter of immigrants in Brazil who settled and me being the only one in my family who inherited this immigrant spirit and left the country. My work here started in the 90s at Summerville Hospital and then at Summerville Public Schools when we opened the Parent Information Center, now the Enrollment Office. And that work started, and I wanna thank Sarah Davila and Naomi Davidson for their guidance and confidence in me. They knew more. what I could be in the future than I knew myself. They were the catalysts of Somerville's family and community engagement, which has been transformative to the city. I also want to extend my gratitude to current and former school superintendents I had the privilege of working under, current and former school committee members, their leadership and guidance, helped pave the way for the work we accomplish every day. To the incredible Summerview Family Learning Collaborative Team, currently under Ruth Santos' leadership, every single day I'm inspired by their dedication, energy, and the passion they bring to work. I thank them for showing up for our community, especially when we live in fear, for supporting one another and for making our workplace feel like a family. My gratitude also to current and former mayors, current and former city council. Your leadership provides the vital support our programs need to thrive and your belief in our mission truly allow us to create lasting change in this community. The strengthening of our work relationships with city departments such as OHS, Summer Promise, HHS, SOIA, Emergency Management, Among others, our work impacts lives every day, but by working together, we transform them. School-age homelessness intervention and prevention and housing stabilization will most likely lower students' chances to experience chronic homelessness in the future instead setting them up for success, and that's the work we've developed in this past four years. I have to personally thank Alan Schachter and the OHS Housing Warriors team. I would be remiss if I don't mention the devastation, the devastating decision of the Supreme Court decision today that will impact thousands and thousands and thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants on TPS who are here documented while contributing to our economy. Despite of today's messages, we are all welcome here. That is a call to action from the state, and I invite you all to join so everyone's voice can be heard. I'm not sure how to reverse a decision like this, but I'm not sure in times like this that we might achieve and be possible to reach decisions that are unprecedented. So grateful for the collaboration with organizations such as Connection Church, Padres Latinos, East Somerville Main Streets, the nonprofit collaborative Neighbors Helping Neighbors. You all transformed East Somerville into a hub where the proverb, it takes a village, is lived through every day, instilling in everyone the sense of belonging. In challenging times, we need to lift each other up and reach far to others. Now I have news for you, I'm not going anywhere. I'm a proud Somerville resident and as such, and I have to say that my work was always around making sure Somerville welcomed everybody from all walks of life and backgrounds. I am not going anywhere, and as a proud resident and in face of so many challenges, how can one stop? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Regina.

Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank, you know, my colleague for submitting this citation. Regina, I really appreciate you and all the work you've done for our community. One thing, you know, about Regina that I know, I met her several years, I had no idea what she does and I always see her and it was, that is just how humble she is. At some point I had to like really ask somebody like, Where is this lady? I see her in all these meetings. And then realizing that, you know, and then fast forward, I had to, you know, meet with superintendent's keeper, you know, to ask about the challenges that I've been hearing about the immigrant community. And then she said, oh, talk to Regina. I said, oh, and then when we met, then I realized that, oh, this is the same person I've been seeing in all these spaces. You know, you're like the window to the city for the immigrant community. And when you say, you know, all are welcome here, this is you exemplify that. So thank you for your service to this community.

Councilman Campin. Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, I just want to say a quick couple words. I was just remembering how we first met, which was my very first year on the council, my first month or two. A city councilor in Brazil was assassinated. someone who's elected at the same time as us a woman named marielle franco and we put in a resolution it was just a really kind of traumatic horrible event and i reached out to you and dr natalicia tracy to see if you would come speak And without hesitation, you did. And your words were so powerful that night. And getting to know you over this last decade, I mean, I really think of you as a saint, honestly, your work with the immigrant community, the homeless community here. the the supreme court decisions today it's hard to find words for it it's so racist it's so horrific but knowing that there are people like you in every community in this country that is what gives people like me faith so thank you for the work and thank you for not going anywhere we're going to need you

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, I just want to thank Regina for her work in the schools. As somebody who, before going into office, like a lot of the work that we did around addiction recovery and prevention, the schools are somewhat of a black box. Things are very siloed, and I don't know who came up with Regina's position, but I know that she took it and she ran with it to the point where when you think of the school department on a spectrum of these different silos, Regina just crossed all the boundaries and brought things together and got things done, and that's really difficult to do in the school system. That's why your position was so special and unique, and I've seen you, I know I've met your, who's gonna be your predecessor, or your successor, and I think you've passed along those tools, so I know that we're in good hands, and it's just, you turn this position, there's what they thought the position was gonna be and then there's what you made it. And that's something that only comes with a serious amount of compassion and empathy and just love for this community. So that's really what you've done with your role at the school, through the school department and how it, because If you wanna know what's going on in a city, figure out what's going on with the kids. Adults, they're working, they're very hard to reach, people are private, but when there's a need, and you can see that in the schools and with the children, you are able to connect those dots and get to those parents and get people to the services. and the things that they needed and that's invaluable. We wouldn't be able to do that if you didn't take that position and run with it the way you did. So thank you so much, I really appreciate it.

Mayor Wilson has requested to speak on this item. If there's no objection. Seeing none, Mr. Mayor.

Thanks, Mr. President. It seems sad that we're here talking about what should be a very festive occasion here on the day when the Supreme Court issued its latest staggeringly terrible decision. I'm going to look at it as, in a way, it's actually a little fitting because we're talking about someone here who did the work, did it for so long, and did it in the face of a hostile federal administration. I can't thank Regina enough for everything she did for the city. Councillor Cliggins stole one of my talking points about crossing the divide between schools and city. me anyone who anyone who's involved knows what she did so what do you say to someone uh who spent so much of her life doing such an incredible amount of aggregate good for this city if there's someone out there who's done more aggregate good for somerville i'd like to hear about that person because wow uh what do you say to someone who who did so much to close that gap between our stated ideals as a welcoming community and a community that actually welcomed people and made them feel like part of the city and looked out for them. What do you say? I'll channel my Ward 4 school community member, Andre Green. You say thank you. So thank you.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Berry. Anyone take some pictures? All right. We'll take a brief recess so we can take pictures. All right, I will call this meeting back to order. I can see that we have a quorum present. Thank you, folks. So we're going to go into our grants of location next, but just a little heads up. After item 4.1, we will take a few items out of order. We'll jump to 4.4. We will then take up the Finance Committee reports, which will then lead us into the budget. There are then the items in Section 7, as well as a few of the supplementals that have to do with approving moving money places and spending it and whatnot. We'll then take up a communication from the mayor, and then we have an executive session. The idea is to get, hopefully, all the stuff that other than staff are here for, including staff, I guess, so that we don't have to make folks sit here and wait while we're in executive session. So that's my goal. So if you're here for something that I didn't mention, one of the other items, please let one of our assistant clerks know or... Maddie's raising her hand in the back here. I'm trying to look for Director Najeeb Williams. Director Najeeb Williams, can you raise your hand too? Our Director of IGA. Let someone know and we'll try and make sure we get you to take up the item so you don't have to sit around and wait. I don't think it's going to be a particularly long executive session, but I don't like the idea of leaving people sitting here waiting while we leave the room. Until we get to that point, though, let's continue with the regular order. Madam Clerk, next item.

Next item is 3.1, Eversource applying for a grant of location to install 107 feet of conduit in Mount Vernon Street from Utility Pole 159-7 to a point of pickup at 46 Mount Vernon Street.

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

Yes, Mr. President, we have Ms. Jacqueline Duffy.

Jackie Duffy, go ahead.

Good evening, Jackie Duffy, Eversource.

We'd like to install 107 feet of conduit in Mount Vernon Street to provide electricity to 46 Mount Vernon Street.

Okay, thank you. Is there anyone else here to speak on the item? If you're online and would like to speak on the item, use the raise hand function.

No one?

All right, not seeing anyone on that, I will declare the public hearing to be closed. Is there any discussion, questions? No? All right, seeing none, then that item is approved. Next item.

Thank you. Have a nice night. Next item is 3.2, Verizon New England applying for a grant of location to install 159 feet of conduit in Main Street from manhole 44 slash 320A to a point of pickup at a proposed new handhold next to 5 Main Street.

All right. And now to clear the public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Sir, please introduce yourself for the record.

First name, Alexander Lassie Marrero, M-A-R-R-E-R-O. 17 Cross Street, Mount Laurel, Massachusetts. Pike Telecom, Bryson contractor. Bryson is petitioning to place one new conduit from existing manhole 328 to an existing sill site located at the intersection of Broadway and Main.

Okay, thank you. Is there anyone else here to speak on the item? Anyone online? You can use the raise hand function if there's anyone.

I am seeing no one, Mr. President.

All right. Thank you. So seeing no further, no one else here to speak on the item, I'll declare the public hearing to be closed. Any discussion? Any questions? All right. Seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Next item is 3.3, Verizon New England applying for a grant of location to install 88 feet of conduit in Bow Street and Warren Avenue from manhole 44 slash J3A to a point of pickup at a proposed new handhold next to 41 Union Street.

Okay, and I'll declare this public hearing open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Sir, go ahead.

Alexander, Pike Telecom. President is requesting to place one new four-inch on the existing manhole 33A to a new shared handle located at the intersection of Bull Street and 1F.

Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else here to speak on the item? Anyone online?

I'm seeing no one, Mr. President.

No one? All right. I declare the public hearing closed. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Next item, 3.4, Verizon New England applying for a grant of location to install 164 feet of conduit in Somerville Avenue and Craigie Street from utility pole 82 slash 1 to a point of pickup at an existing handhold next to 680 Somerville Avenue.

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

Alexander Pitell, comrade, sends his request in a place common from existing pole one to an existing handle located at the intersection of Somerville Ave and Craigie Street. Okay, thank you.

Anyone else here to speak on the item? Anyone online? Use the raise hand function.

I'm seeing no one, Mr. President.

All right, then I'll declare that public hearing to be closed as well. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, that item's approved. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, next item, Madam Clerk.

Next item is 4.4. 4.1? 4.1, I'm sorry. By Councillor Link and Councillor Hart, that Chapter 3, Articles 8, Division 1 of the Code of Ordinance be amended as detailed within.

That's our link. Thank you, Mr President, through you. So I'll be honest, I did not have this ordinance in mind when I when I ran to be a city councillor. So what happened was actually a big counselor unit camp and reached out to me and let me know that there was a former city staffer who is passionate about animals who was looking for a partner and. reached and then we took it from there. Actually, I'll start with what this ordinance doesn't do. What this ordinance doesn't do is ban pet adoptions of any kind or it doesn't ban licensed breeders, which comes through an entirely different mechanism. What this does though, our last pet store that sells pets closed sometime towards the end of last year. What this does is it makes it so that we will not have another pet store, so that exotic birds won't be trapped and transported to Somerville to be sold and maybe not make it very long. Most statistically die, I think, within the first year. It'll make it so that fish can't be taken from the coral reefs where they're more likely to die in transit than ever, much more likely to die in transit than they are to make it here. And it'll keep breeder, the puppy mills and the kitten mills from selling animals to pet stores where they're treated inhumanely, usually for a very long time. That's the goal and the reason that we've got this ordinance. I don't know if...

i guess i'll stop there for a minute i would like to sponsor uh someone um once counselor hart has a chance okay very well that's fine counselor hart sure thank you so much mr president um and thank you to my colleague um at large for bringing this forward and um and and also bringing me in on it um it's it's just the i It's something that I feel like we can do locally to stop all of the problems that Councillor Link just enumerated, and I'm happy to sign on. Thank you.

Any further discussion from folks who haven't spoken on the item yet?

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Councillor Link, for this. I fully support it. I guess when I was reading it, I wasn't sure what I was trying to figure out, what the previous ordinance said, because you're trying to amend something, you know, like if you wanted to strike something, remove something, but this seems like a brand-new ordinance. I wasn't sure, like, you know, if we would have to produce the O-1 alongside this in legislative matters so we can compare and contrast what is how we want to change, you know. Does that make sense?

Sounds like a good discussion that we can have when this goes to legislative matters. Sure. Any other discussion? All right.

Councillor Link, back to you. Thank you, Mr. Risen. Through you, I would like to sponsor Bethany Dissolt from the MSPCA.

Councillor Link would like to sponsor Bethany Dissolt. Any objections? Seeing none. All right. Please step forward. Please state your name for the record and go right ahead.

Hi everyone, good evening. My name is Bethany DeZult and I'm here on behalf of MSPCA ANGEL to urge your support for amending Chapter 3, Article 8 to prohibit the sale of animals in pet stores. So at a first glance, an animal in a pet store window can seem really cute and maybe fluffy, you want to take it home, and maybe harmless, but behind many of these animals is a very cruel breeding industry that prioritizes profit over animal welfare. And commercial breeding facilities that you have actually brought up, they are commonly referred to as mills. So puppy mills, kitten mills, but there are bird mills. Almost every animal you can think of is coming from one of these mills. And these animals are often kept in overcrowded, inhumane conditions where they often have inadequate veterinary care, exercise, and socialization. While responsible shelters and organizations work every day to find homes for animals in need, these pet stores continue to create demand for animals bred solely for sale and for profit. Now, consumers frequently purchase these animals without knowing their origin and where they're actually coming from, and many families then later face significant veterinary expenses and heartbreak due to behavioral issues and hereditary illnesses. So now 17 Massachusetts municipalities have enacted ordinances prohibiting the sale of certain animals in pet stores unless they partner with a shelter or a rescue. Now these laws do not prevent anyone from owning a pet or going to a breeder to get an animal. The proposed ordinance does not propose to regulate home breeders or individuals who are selling animals in a non-retail setting. And then, importantly, especially on tonight, this ordinance does not come to any cost of the City of Somerville, which has to be music to your ears, especially when you discuss the budget. Communities across Massachusetts that have adopted similar measures have not incurred additional municipal expenses. And then also as Councillor Link has stated, Somerville is in a unique position to take this proactive step because there are currently no animal selling pet stores within the city of Somerville. So on behalf of the MSPCA, thank you so much for having me tonight and I urge you to support this ordinance and thank you for your time, consideration and for protecting

uh the animals in somerville and consumers thank you councillor clayton thank you mr president thank you my colleagues for bringing us forward i'd like to sign on um and you know looking for i'm not on legislative matters so i won't but looking forward to those discussions i did have one question um and i'm sure this has been researched as far as Well, first of all, like puppies, cats, I mean, absolutely on board. All animals. I don't really think that we should be displaying, you know, even fish. But I am curious about Target. Do they have a pet section? Like, does this cover, like, even say, like, betta fish and the little plastic things?

Yeah, so yes, that would. Target does not sell.

They don't have a pet store section anymore? No. Great. So we are at zero? Absolutely zero? Correct. Okay. Thank you.

Mr. Scherzer would like to sign on as well? Councilor Baha? Any further discussion? Councilor Sait would like to sign on? Any further discussion?

Really quick, while we have our expert here, and through you to our speaker, thank you very much for being here, for your advocacy as well. Proud to sign on, and this is important, and we want to make sure that animals who cannot speak for themselves, that we are defending and protecting them. Would this since we because yes, it was going through the inventory or in our head in our stores And yes, currently we do not have anyone so with this ordinance of past prohibit any box stores that for instance do sell birds or Better betta fish or fish or turtles or etc from from actually being able to Open a store here.

Correct. Yes, it would prohibit any new stores from coming in and selling these animals. I

Councillor Klingon, back to you. One last quick comment, Mr. President. Just for you for the public watching, it may seem really cool to take home an exotic pet, but we've seen so many times where it wreaks havoc, where people release these into waterways, whether it be a frog or a type of snake, that it just can wreak havoc to the natural ecosystem of an area when somebody can't rehome one of these creatures and critters. So again, I just think it's, you know, we have, we can, you know, If you can't travel, we have virtual reality. I mean, you can see these animals in one way or another than keeping them trapped in your home. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion?

All right. Seeing none, that item is referred to the Committee on Legislative Matters. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

All right. If there's no objection, then we will take up item 4.4 next. Seeing no objection, Madam Clerk.

Item number 4.4 by Councillor Strezzo, that the Director of Parks and Recreation discuss the cost barriers and equity constraints that prevent low-income residents and local youth from assessing Somerville programs such as public skate time at Veterans Memorial Rink on early school dismissal days.

Councillor Strezzo.

Thank you. To speak on this item, I would like to sponsor Annette McKee, a Somerville resident. And before I sponsor, I really quickly want to speak on this item. So we have been talking about how to as I mentioned this week, how to make sure that spaces and accessibility for kids and just anybody have the spaces, the community spaces, and that there are no cost barriers. And some of the issues that we've seen is being reported to us is that, for instance, currently at the Skate ice rink after school gets out on Wednesday, to actually rent skates if you were a kid that got out of school early and wanted to go skate with your friends. The cost barriers are potential. If you do not have your skates with you, ice skates, you wouldn't want to rent skates. You have to rent skates, but then you also have to, to get onto the ice rink, you have to pay to get onto the ice rink. And per child, as I recall, was $15. at least $10 to $15 for that one ICE session. If anybody really wanted to do this every week, of course, times four, et cetera, that adds up quick. And from what I have heard, there have been kids that have been turned away because of cost barriers, from the inability to be able to skate. So very much welcoming the conversation on this. uh in committee and i would like to send this to hcde when we're done having the discussion and are you speaking this morning and with that i would like to sponsor my speaker council stress would like to sponsor annette mckee seen any scene is there any objection all right see none uh miss key please introduce yourself for the record go right ahead yeah thank you

yeah my name is annette mckee i'm a resident of somerville um thank you for sponsoring me counselor strezzo i've spoken at city council meetings in the past i've advocated for girls hockey i'm working with a broad grassroots coalition in somerville that includes parents Summerville Youth Hockey Association, the Rec Department, public schools, and Councillor Strezzo to increase opportunities and to lower barriers for girls to learn and play hockey so that eventually Summerville will have enough girls to field its own girls ice hockey team at Summerville High. I've also advocated for the city to restore Founders Rink as a seasonal ice rink, which it originally was built as. And I'm here today to talk about something a little different. A couple of weeks ago, I was at a rink in Bedford, and I was chatting with a couple of the rink guys there who were cleaning the glass at one of the rinks, and I was complimenting them on how well they were taking care of the rink. And we began comparing the rink favorably to rinks in the surrounding areas in much worse shape, like Saugus, Haverhill. And one of them said something along the lines of, well, if you're looking for good ice, have you ever skated in Somerville? I was like, I'm from Somerville and I've been on Somerville ice countless times. He was referring to Veterans Ice Rink, the standard size state-owned DCR main ice rink that's currently managed by FMC. And I bring this up because I think we forget that we have a wonderful resource in our community. In the landscape of ice rinks across the greater Boston area, Veterans is well-built, well maintained and actually pretty centrally located. Now state owned rinks are required to offer the public regular ice skating recreation opportunities. During the school year on weekdays, public skate is usually offered in the early afternoon while school age kids are still in class, except on half day Wednesdays. I think that half-day Wednesdays are a terrific time for Somerville public school kids to enjoy public skate with their friends, to practice skating, even to learn how to skate, to get exercise, get off their phones. What we have to bear in mind is that FMC is a for-profit company. It charges $5 entry fee. If rental skates are needed, it's an additional $10. That's $15 a kid. If you have two kids, that's $30. With three kids, $45. And that's just to enjoy one session of public skate. And I'm not saying that FMC is charging unfairly. Their fees are more or less the same across all the other rinks that they manage. What I am saying is that for many families, especially low-income families, that cost is significant. And this is just for recreation, for public skate at a public taxpayer-funded rink. I asked FMC recently what the participation numbers were like during the school year at public skate on half-day Wednesdays, expecting there to be a spike in participation. And I was told there were more people, but on average by five skaters. Five skaters. It could be that some of the public schools just aren't aware of that public skate opportunity, in which case we can do a better job at getting the word out. It could also be a function of cost. High costs contribute to underutilized resources. So I know this topic is not like a weighty matter, like affordable housing or public safety, but it is a small and important way to give folks access to a strong resource. It's about giving the community opportunities for a full range of recreation. And I think it's a small but important way to help our community and to help our kids thrive. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, Mr. Speaker, do they currently have any program? You go to other cities, whether it be a pool or whatever, for residents of the city where it's housed, they usually have some sort of program or membership. Does FMC currently have any? Not that I'm aware of. Specifically for some little kids? No. Okay. Yeah, I mean, that just seems really unfair. Like I said, anywhere you go, there's like aquatic facilities and there's always a discount for the residents of that particular city. I know when it was empty, when I was a kid, I used to take the bus all the way from Clarendon Hill down to the rink and it was 50 cents and it was like Friday nights and it was packed and there was tons of kids skating. The idea of a private entity running a state facility and not at least giving some sort of break to the host community's kids, especially in the economic justice community, Completely wrong to me and I would like hopefully the city would try to broker some sort of deal Moving forward, you know Whether it's a membership for the winter season or something along those lines. There's got to be some way to at least kind of Address that high cost of like you said three kids $45. I mean that just seems outrageous To me. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Councillor Streisand, for bringing this forward. I would like to sign on. Thank you, Annette, for your continuous advocacy for equitable use of resources. I appreciate that.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Annette. Where did you go? I will ask that you never raise the specter of that rink in Saugus in my presence again because I need a tetanus shot every time I even think about it. That's a whole other issue. And thank you for pointing out what a lovely facility we do have. I'll note former home of the long-departed professional women's team the Boston Blades at one time. I think they might have won the championship that year while they played here in Somerville. Another thing I remember about that rink is that the City of Somerville used to run it. And among the many things of which I'm disappointed about related to the transition of that contract from the City to FMC is that I used to take my kids there all the time. And I've said this at this horseshoe before in defending the investment that the city was making into that recreational facility that we had for the community. It was amazing going to public skates in the afternoon. It was full of kids. And back then, I don't know what the actual official policy was, but I can tell you i never paid a dollar to go to public skating and i don't and i know kids were able to rent skates without paying anything i don't know if that was actually the city's policy or just a wink and a nod but either way it was absolutely the right way to do it and it's the way it should be done and it's really disappointing that when as that as that contract was transferred especially at the at a time when we the city had some leverage because founders rink was part of those conversations that we just failed to make that one demand that we keep this facility available to kids without them having to pay $15 a piece just to go skate around for a bit. So I completely agree with this. Sign on. It's no news. I've talked about this a lot, so I'll shut up. As we look to bring founders back online, and I know it's not the best year to be thinking about new investments because we just don't have a lot of money. We don't have any extra money right now. I would love to see the city running both of those rinks again. I think that's the way it should be. I think we should have the Somerville High School logo back on the center ice, not the FMC logo, and our kids should be able to go there and use it as the fantastic recreational facility that it is. So thank you for your advocacy. Keep it up, and let me know how I can help.

Thanks. If any of my colleagues want to talk first, I'm happy to entertain that.

Any other discussion?

Last thoughts on this before we send this off to committee. Typically, the average school Wednesday, from what we have heard, 10 to 30 kids in middle school are turned away on Wednesday afternoon.

so again then that's the skate rentals and the on ice counseling did you want to speak to this or just sign on like a counseling would like to sign on um because her heart would say the whole council would like to sign on um mr may i see i see you raising your hand right there um if there's no objection i'll recognize the mayor to speak on this item mr mayor

Thanks, Mr. President. I really appreciate the advocacy on this. My older daughter loved going there on Wednesdays after those early release days. And I did hear stories where there were friends who couldn't shell out the cost of admission plus the skate rental. So this is something I actually, last year, spoke to State Rep Erica Eiderhoven about. Could we get something figured out here, given that it is a state facility? Got some good news. We're pursuing an RFP for the ice sheet of founders, and we are in a unique position to put into that RFP things that could result in a very good outcome here on this. But I appreciate the advocacy around this. We are on the same page.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right, Councilor Schiazzi, you mentioned that, and I wish I'd written it down at the time, because I think you got the name of your committee wrong, because I wrote it down ahead of time. Housing, Equity, and Community Development.

So had that right. Check the tapes. Mr. President, we're almost to July. Sorry? We're almost to July. I'm still stumbling over.

I wrote it down. I'm getting it right. Anyways, Councilor Strezzel, we would like to move this one. So this will be approved with a copy sent to Housing, Equity, and Community Development. Thank you, Councilor Strezzel. All right. So that is going to take us to our list of... the next out of order items so we will take up um the all of the financial if there's no objection we'll take up all the finance committee um reports um i'll note that as the chair of finance is uh dealing a little bit of a of a sore throat um the vice chair is gonna gonna read the the minutes and thank you counselor scott for uh for doing the account thank you chair for preparing those so well so the vice president vice chair can step in So that would be items 6A through 6F. We'll do those one at a time. I'll note that one of these, as the Vice Chair noted to me here at the beginning of the meeting, one of these actually doesn't, the entirety of the meeting didn't have anything to do with the budget per se, but for the sake of just keeping all the conversations together, we're going to do them in order and we'll go from there. So I see no objection. Madam Clerk, next item, item 6A.

Thank you. Item 68.1, committee report, report of the Committee on Finance meeting on June 9, 2026. 6.B1, report of the Committee on Finance meeting on June 10, 2026. 6.C1, report of the Committee on Finance meeting on June 15, 2026. 6.D1, reporting on the Committee on Finance meeting on June 16, 2023. Item 6.1. Sorry, 6F1. E is next. There we go. Committee report, report of the Committee on Finance meeting as a committee of the whole on June 23, 2026. Did you say E?

Did I miss that?

Oh, no, did I miss? There we go. 6E, report of the Committee on Finance meeting on June 17, 2026.

All right. So Councillor Scott, remind me, it's the last, 6F is the one where we have an item that will need to be severed then, correct?

That's right, Mr. President.

We can sever that first if you'd like. We could do that first. So let's do that. Go ahead.

Go ahead. That's item 6.F.2. That's 26-0950. Move to sever that item.

Councillor Scott moves to sever item 26-0950, which is 6F2 in your agenda. And just so folks understand, even though Councillor Scott explained this all to us earlier this week, this was the initial submission to the budget, which we have a supplemental item that we will take up immediately after this, updated version with a memo explaining the changes and such, so we'll get to that after all the meetings. So that item, seeing no objection, that item is severed. And now let's go.

That's right, placed before us right now, so we can dispose of that by placing the item on file.

Any objection to placing that item on file? All right, seeing none. All right, then let's go ahead. Back to the reports then that are now before us. Now back to the reports. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Finance Committee met for a combined 19 hours over the last three weeks in a series of six meetings. Let's see, about 16 and a half of those hours were on the budget review. There was a public hearing. There were three nights of departmental reviews. There was one cut night and there was one sneaky little meeting in the middle where we did the regular order of business for finance. I want to congratulate the chair, freshman chair of finance for navigating and arranging the process. There was thorough discussion on all the items and all the departments. Come cut night, there was no cuts proposed. and the only item that was active on has already been discharged so we have a series of items from there that are going to be that are discharged without recommendation as part of the report that will be before us after these reports are accepted and the only meeting in there that was not budget direct budget related was the meeting of the 16th which was a solid two and a half hours there was conversation about chapter 329 there was conversation about some union bargaining agreement settlements and a great deal of the I don't know, rather mundane work of just keeping the city moving and accepting grants and issuing grants for various public purposes. So with that, there are a whole lot of roll call votes we are going to need, Mr. President. My thanks to the clerks, to the city staff who... came and were with us every step of the way along those 23 hours. And of course to the committee members who prepared so diligently and served the city so well. With that, I would request that the very abbreviated report of these be accepted as submitted with a guide to anybody who would like to read the detailed minutes that were prepared by our excellent clerk or to read the very fine book reports that the chair of finance wrote about each one of these meetings as well.

Any discussion on any of the reports on any of those meetings? Okay, so the reports are accepted as submitted. That will bring us to some roll call votes that begin in 6D at, let's see, is it 6D.28, I believe? All right, go ahead, Madam Clerk. Okay. Read the item.

This is a vote on item 6.D.27, requesting approval to pay prior year... 27? Oh, I'm sorry, 28. This is a vote on 6.D.28, requesting the appropriation of $144,235 from the Opioid Recovery and Remediation Stabilization Fund to support various projects related to opioid initiatives.

All right, seeing no discussion, will you call the roll, please?

Councillor Ollenkampen. Yes. Councillor Link.

Yes.

Councillor Scott. Yes. Councillor Klingon. Yes. Councillor Strezzo. Yes. Councillor Saeed. Yes. Councillor Wheeler.

Yes.

Councillor Hart. Yes. Councillor McLaughlin. Councillor Umbau.

Yes.

Councillor Davis.

Yes.

Okay. we have 10 that motion passes all right thank you uh the next item that requires a roll call is 6d 31 would you read that item please yes 6031 requesting approval to repurpose and appropriate 45 000 from the covet 19 stabilization fund to continue the playworks program at the winter hill community school for the 2026 2027 school year

All right, seeing no discussion on that item, would you please call the roll?

Yes. Councillor Wynne-Campen?

Yes.

Councillor Link?

Yes.

Councillor Scott?

Yes.

Councillor Klingon?

Yes.

Councillor Scherzo? Yes. Councillor Saeed? Yes. Councillor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councillor Hart? Yes. Councillor McLaughlin? Yes. Councillor Umbau?

Yes.

Councillor Davis?

Yes.

With 10, that passes.

All right, thank you. Next item for a roll call. That might be it. Is that it? No, we must have something. Yes, I think it looks like the next one is in 6F, 6F16. Does that look right to you?

I believe 32. Do we do 32 already? Yep. It's actually 32. 6032. Did we miss one?

Yes. Did we not just do that one? All right, I jumped ahead of myself. You did. Go right ahead. My apologies.

Getting too excited. 6032, requesting the appropriation of $196,086 from the Salary and Wage Stabilization Fund to various departmental other lump sum payment accounts to fund a collective bargaining agreement with Somerville Municipal Employees Union Unit D.

Seeing no discussion on that item, I'd call the roll.

Councillor Ewing-Campin?

Yes.

Councillor Link?

Yes.

Councillor Scott? Yes. Councillor Klingin?

Yes.

Councillor Strezzo? Yes. Councillor Saeed? Yes. Councillor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councillor Hart? Yes. Councillor McLoughlin? Yes. Councillor Umbau?

Yes.

Councillor Davis?

Yes.

With 10, that passes. All right, thank you.

Now let's go to 6F16. All right.

The vote is on item 6F16, requesting approval to appropriate and transfer one million from the Community Benefit Stabilization Fund to the Housing Assistance Stabilization Fund for Housing Assistance.

All right, seeing no discussion on the item, would you please call the roll?

Councilor Ewing-Campin?

Yes.

Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Scott?

Yes.

Councilor Klingin?

Yes.

Councilor Scherzo? Yes. Councilor Saeed? Yes. Councilor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councilor Hart? Yes. Councilor McLaughlin? Councilor Umbau?

Mrs. Chair, I was wondering if we can make it two million. Yes.

Councilor Davis?

Yes.

With 10 members voting in the positive, it passes.

All right, thank you. And it looks like that was the last. Does that look right to you? That is correct. OK. All right, excellent. So that's going to be, where's my list here? Let's go back to, so we approved the reports. We took the roll calls on the items. So that takes us through 6F. The next item we will take out of order, unless there's any objection, is 10.2. Seeing no objection, Madam Clerk, would you please read that item?

Yes. Item 10.2, requesting the appropriation of 376,778,493 to fund the fiscal year 2027 general fund operating budget. Mr. Mayor, Director Mastroboni, do you want to speak to this item?

Thank you, Mr. President, Mike Mastromoni, budget director. You have attached to this item a very brief amended budget memo. In this case, brief is good. There's two adjustments to the final amended budget. The first is moving the summer jobs program to the correct organization from HHS Human Services to HHS Community Wellness. I put that in the wrong org. And then the second one is creating two new objects for the core division within public safety, one for paying holidays, one for paying overtime. Those were not in the original submission. That's a move of $3,900 from salary contingency to core. Net adjustments are zero across the board, just moving money from one organization to another. There are no other changes to the budget in the amended version.

I am. This is the budget. This is the annual operating budget for the next year. I said my piece on Tuesday in committee. I encourage folks to reference back to that. i know my colleagues of course remember but if any members of the public are curious ultimately i believe that we did an excellent job exercising our duty of oversight of how the city is spending its money allocating its resources the question for me as a counselor is whether or not this budget does the job meets the moment And unfortunately, in my opinion, it does not. I cannot countenance the amount of cuts that have come to general government employees. I cannot countenance the denial of the extra special education supports and interventionists the school committee has requested. And I certainly can't countenance that against the backdrop of yet more historic raises for the police department. So with that in mind, Mr. President, that's why I am voting no, because I do not believe that this budget meets the moment. But with that said, I believe it is time for a roll call vote, sir.

Not so fast.

Well, unless somebody else wants to speak on it.

Sure it is. seat right now. No one's in the driver's seat right now. Oh, there he is. I also wish to speak after Councillor Scott Nittany.

I'll say it. Councillor Stratham.

Thank you. Yes. As the school budget is enveloped in this item, as the total appropriation, before we head into it, because yes, I had concerns about the school committee Opinion of what the budget should be and what was presented as the school's budget for this year and I Really quickly no, I'm not gonna say that anymore. I'm gonna read a part of what one of our constituents Submitted to us as the council as comments on the choice to not include the school committee's recommendations of what they wanted for the budget and

I'm going to stop you there for a moment. If there's going to be discussion of the positions that the school committee voted separately, which is a vote that I did not participate in, then I'm going to ask that we have that now. If anyone else wants to talk about this after Council President, we can talk about this now, because I'm going to recuse myself, because those specific positions get close enough to a potential conflict of interest that I feel it's best from an ethics standpoint to recuse myself. So, Vice President.

Understood and respected, and we're driving there.

I've had lots of conversations with the law department about this, just for full transparency. The vote on the budget itself is massive. It's the entire budget of the city, and the potential hypothetical conflict of interest that I have is very small. But when we're talking about these specific things, it gets a little closer to me. So for my comfort, from an ethics standpoint, I will recuse myself from this discussion, but I've been advised that there's no conflict that would keep me from participating in the discussion on the budget itself and presiding and or voting on it. So let's talk about this now. If you want to, I'm out of here. Call me.

Save a few cookies for me, please, Mr. President. I like chocolate.

Mr. President, hopefully you don't miss the vote of the budget, so you have to come back here, Councillor Strezzel.

Thank you. So, wanted to read just a portion of one of our constituents that we all received, one of the letters and comments about the budget that was presented to us, because this, The letter really tugged at my heart. It was written by Sam Steiner, Somerville parent, resident, and disability advocate. I'm not gonna read the whole letter because it is many pages and should be. So Ms. Steiner said, earlier this year, Somerville Public Schools brought the Empowered School Solutions to conduct a special education and intervention service delivery review for grades K through eight. The report was prepared in March, 2026, based on site visits conducted in December. It states that Empowered was asked to gather data, observe, assess, and provide recommendations regarding special education and intervention service delivery. They reviewed, examined data, achieved outcomes, placement patterns, classroom observations, district documents, and input from educators, administrators, and families. It included 98 classroom snapshot observations across seven community schools. The report was presented to the school committee on May 18th, 2026. Two days later, the finance and facilities subcommittee of the whole voted to recommend added $645,000 to the district proposed budget for six positions. But with that, that was not what was presented with the budget on schools this year. But Ms. Steiner argues that students with disabilities, students who need reading and math intervention, multilingual learners, and students who are already struggling are among Somerville's most vulnerable residents. They cannot vote. Many cannot testify. Organized campaigns are explained in adult language what it means to be physically present in school, but not meaningfully accessing instruction. If all means all, then those students cannot be the ones left behind when the budget gets hard. The school committee's role is precisely to exercise independent judgment about what the schools need. And when the school committee added that $645,000, it was not ignoring district needs, it was responding to them. The district serves approximately 4,900 students. The report states that 19.7% of students receive special education services, 23.5% are English learners, 43.7% are low income, and 58% are high needs. In approximate terms, that means about 965 students receiving special education services, 1,150 English learners, 2,140 low-income students, and 2,840 high needs students. As of March 11, 2026, the district reported 917 K-8 students receiving special education services within district programs. The report states that despite strong inclusion rates, students with disabilities experience persistent and substantial academic gaps. On 2025 MCAS, the percentage of students with disabilities meeting or exceeding expectations remained in the single digit to low teens across most grades in math and ELA, with gaps between students with disabilities and all students ranging from approximately 16 to 32 percentage points. That is why fully funded is so misleading in this budget. Somerville can have high inclusion numbers and still fail to provide meaningful access. Meaningful inclusion requires staffing, co-teaching capacity, intervention, specialized instruction, planning time, and supports that allow students to actually access instruction. The school committee's added $645,000 was an attempt to move Somerville closer to supported inclusion. And that report goes on to express concerns from educators that some students may be slipping through the cracks when parents are not vocal. Special education staff similarly reported that compliance with service delivery minutes may take precedence over other considerations. The report describes students with varied skill levels being grouped based on scheduling needs, or where multiple service providers worked with a single student to fulfill service minutes, which sometimes affected instructional consistency. Parents reported that services may be delayed, students may have to show significant difficulty before additional supports are initiated, outside evaluations are not always fully considered, and service or placement decisions may be predetermined. those are not minor concerns they are warnings from educators and families inside the system the report also makes clear that this is not only a special education issue it is also an mtss or multi-tiered system of supports the general education system for identifying students who need academic behavioral or social-emotional support, and providing escalating levels of intervention before students fall further behind. The report describes the district's DCAP, or District Curriculum Accommodation Plan, as positioning MTSS as the primary vehicle for strengthening general education, preventing unnecessary special education referrals, and ensuring timely, data-driven interventions. That is why the school committees added Reading and Math Interventionists Matter district-wide. They support students without IEPs, students at risk, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities. This is not just special education. It is the system that helps students before needs become crisis. But the report also found that Somerville MTSS framework is well developed in documentation but implemented unevenly in practice with interventions not consistently matched to student need. A point the district's own May 18th presentation echoed. The report also stated that current reading and math interventions are not consistently used across schools and grades, and implementation is based upon those who have been trained in the systems. The report also stated that administrators expressed concern that in certain cases students who qualify for special education services may receive reading support that is less intensive and delivered by staff with less specialized training than the interventionists they previously received during the pre-referral phase for a reading specialist. The report's recommendations are concrete. And these are not cosmetic recommendations. They are about implementation capacity. The report's summary states that Somerville's greatest opportunity lies in strengthening instructional practices, MTSS framework, and opportunities for students with low incidence disabilities so that structures translate into cohesive systems resulting in stronger outcomes for students with disabilities. In other words, Somerville already has structures, but those structures are not yet translating into a coherent system that reliably produces stronger outcomes. The budget material shows the difference clearly. The mayor's proposed school budget is 122,456,384 million dollars. The school committee's approved amount is 123,101,384. Our children's needs are not extras. IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, makes available a free, appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities and ensures special education and related services. Section 504 also requires districts to provide a free, appropriate public education to qualified students with disabilities. When students are present in classrooms but not meaningfully accessing instruction, that is not a fully funded system. It is a system failing to meet a moral and legal obligation and raising serious civil rights concerns for our children. I'll stop there. But with that, I cannot support funding this budget. If we're still going forward with that gap, I will not be voting yes on the budget.

Thank you, Councillor Strezla. Any other person has any comment about the school budget? Do you have any question for the administration, Councillor Scherzo? Okay, can we call Councillor Davis now to come back? Oh, oh, Councillor Hart, sorry.

Through you, I just wanted to thank my colleague for raising up that report and this information that, you know, it does seem very clear that we are falling short and that these are basic needs and core services that are not being met. So I do feel that Definitely, I understand the constraints for this year, but I will certainly be looking next year to make sure that we have fully met these needs. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Hart.

Councillor Scott? Thank you. Since we're talking about it, I just wanted to be very clear that procedurally, the only thing the City Council can do to provide support for the school committee's request is to reject this budget, both by the law department's interpretation of the vote that this council took unanimously to accept the Chapter 329 of the Special Acts in 1987 last year being functionally vetoed by the mayor's refusal to sign it and by their reading of the charter language in 6-4, which would seem to indicate that the mayor has to bring the budget forward that the school committee has approved by a vote, they see it differently. And so as such, the only place where the city council is able to act to send this back and say it's not good enough, please meet this moment and meet this need is with a no vote to reject the budget. So that is the sum total of what we have available to us as options. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Councillor Scott. Any other comment on the schools? Seeing none, Councillor Davis, you're welcome back on stage.

Back to the stage. Is it time for my solo? Further discussion on the item for us? All right, seeing none, do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Councillor Yuenkampen moves to approve. Do a roll call on that.

Councillor Yuenkampen?

Yes.

Councillor Link? Yes. Councillor Scott?

No.

All right, Councillor Klingon?

Yes.

Councillor Schozo? No. Councilor Saeed? Yes. Councilor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councilor Hart? Yes. Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Umbau? Yes. Councilor Davis? Yes. With nine, that motion passes.

All right. Thank you very much. We're gonna go back to, there are items that are before us, and this was an oversight on my part. When I was looking at the finance committee meetings, there were so many of them that I misread what was happening to a few items. So there are a few items. First, well, actually, let's, first I was, took another look at item, at 6D, and I think we should, we need to do a roll call vote on 6D26. So that item would be, would just require the roll call vote having the, the report having been approved so it matter could you read that item so that the members remember what it is and then we can take a roll call vote on that and then we'll go to some other items 6f which are actually before us because they were discharged for that recommendation when we approved the committee report yes so 6026 first yes 6026 requesting approval to execute the fifth amendment to the lease agreement with dana family family services llc for the grove street parking lot through june 30 2027. Any discussion on that item? Roll call on that item, please.

Councillor Wynne-Campen?

Yes.

Councillor Link?

Yes.

Councillor Scott?

Yes.

Councillor Klingon?

Yes.

Councillor Strezzo? Yes. Councillor Saeed? Yes. Councillor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councillor Hart? Yes. Councillor McLaughlin? Yes. Councillor Umbau? Yes. Councillor Davis? Yes. 11. And then positive, it passes.

All right. Very good. All right. So now there are a number of items in 6F that were recommended by the committee to be discharged with no recommendation. So when we accepted that committee report, they were then discharged. So they are now before us. My oversight that I didn't remember that then we have to take one more step. which is to then approve those if that is the wish of the council. So there are a whole number of, as a reminder, those were recommended to be discharged without a recommendation in case there were some adjustments that were found this week that needed to be made overall and they wanted to be able to tweak those numbers a bit if need be. I'm told they're all good, so as they're presented here, those are the final numbers, so the council will need to approve those. We can go through one by one, if that is anybody's wish, or we can, let's at least identify which ones they were, for the record. Where's my pen? Here we go.

Yes, so the items that are recommended to be discharged is item 6D30. 6D, 6F3, 6F4, 6F5, 6F6, 6F7, 6F8, 6F9, 6F10, 6F11, 6F12, 6F13, 6F14, 6F15, and 6F17.

All right, any questions?

Councillor Scott. Thank you, Mr. President. It might be helpful just to give a brief summary of what this is. This is the appropriation to fund the water and sewer department, the various enterprise funds budgets that operate the Kennedy Pool in the fields. It is also sliding money that is left over from unspent in the water and sewer department this year into a stabilization fund that it can be used in future years. then a number of appropriations from free cash to various stabilization funds because again this is money left over unspent from the end of the year that is being socked away into various storage accounts in the amount of roughly ten million dollars of free cash appropriations there are also a few free cash subsidies to Well, there's subsidies being done for the Dillboy Enterprise and the Kennedy School Pool Enterprise because they are not self-supporting, self-sustaining entirely. So this is the supplement that we provide to keep them running and serving the public. So this is all housekeeping items, sir. And if we could take them up with a single roll call vote, I would be extremely grateful.

Thank you, Councillor Scott. Councillor Ewing-Kevitt. Thank you, Mr. President. I definitely want to take this as a single vote, but I just want to draw everyone's attention to 6F16. This is $1 million from the Community Benefit Stabilization Fund to Housing Assistance Stabilization. I want to thank Mayor Wilson, Director Schachter, everyone who is involved in advocating for this. This is money directly from the biggest developers in Somerville. that was demanded by this city that is now going to help people who need help paying their rent this is exactly what we've been fighting for for a really long time this is like not just a slogan this is really doing it so i just want to uh to lift up that very excited to vote for this here here and we're so excited about it we already took a roll call vote on that one so that's not on our list

Okay. The roll call was to approve that one. Yes, Council Wheeler.

Just 6D30. I think we don't want to take that one up. I think we want to put it on file. 6D30. Thank you.

30. Yeah, 6D30 is an appropriation for the fire station. I believe there is a supplemental item tonight which replaces that one. It's a do the president the council wheel and at 7.4 is the replacement item I

That's how I read it, too, just making sure we're all on the same page. All right, so the list that was read in remains accurate. Any other further questions or discussion?

Councillor Scott? So 6030 should be placed on file, Mr. President.

That will be before us. That remains before us. Right now, we have a motion to approve the items that were read in that are also before us.

That item was read in.

That was read in, Mr. President.

It was read in. I thought it was.

Okay. So I'm just asking to remove that from the read-in.

No, I put my mark on the wrong one. See, this is what happens when we have too many pieces of paper for us. All right, so for six, yes, thank you for catching that. So 6030, that one is superseded by, will be superseded conceptually by item 7.4. So we will place 6030 on file. The remainder of the list, that was read earlier from 6F that are now before us that were recommended without approval. The motion on the floor is to approve all of those items and see no further discussion. We don't need a roll call. So those items are all approved. All right, thank you for the housekeeping patience on all of that. Now to figure out where we are. Let's go back to the top. So we did 10.2, and that's going to bring us to those items in Section 7. 7.2 through 7.4, and then 7.6 through 7.15. We're going to hold 7.5 because it's unrelated and is actually related to the executive session, which we will do after a couple more items. So Madam Clerk, could you read? Do we want, let's see, do we need a roll call on these ones?

No, we don't need to.

Do you want to take these up together, or do you want to read them up? So let's... because because there's money attached let's read the items um so we'll take up 7.2 through 7.4 and 7.6 that's a lot to read do we want to wave the readings of these anyone anyone want to hear all of the items right out mr chair i moved away the readings i'm happy to provide a summary all right very good so 7.2 through 7.4 and 7.6 through 7.15 counselor scott you'd like to provide a summary

Yes, sir. This is the movement of various stabilization fund monies and free cash to meet certain purposes. One is the settlement for the purchase of the fire station over in Assembly Square, but there are other uses such as using money for the medical marijuana stabilization fund to fund a jail diversion clinician position. So this is using a stabilization fund to fund an ongoing employment position, and then a great deal of movement of leftover money from professional and technical services accounts from various engineering and infrastructure budgets into the facility renovation stabilization fund. So again, unspent money left over at the end of the year to be put in.

Any questions on those items? Any discussion? All right, seeing none, those items are, I wouldn't need to recall on any of those, I don't think, right? We do not. All right, those items are approved. The next item to take out of order is a supplemental item. Hold, please.

Mr. President, we need to take a roll call.

Bundled up together.

Mr. President. We will do a roll call, but we'll do it bundled up. That sounds like a great idea. Why didn't I think of that? All right. So this is a roll call on items 7.2 through 7.4 and 7.6 through 7.15, right? Yes. All right. Excellent. Let's do it that way. I like your way better. All righty. Did I get it wrong, Councillor Scott? As well as the 6F items. As well as the 6F items.

that we read in previously.

That we read in previously and approved and now the view is that we do need a roll call on those? I don't think we do. Oh, okay. Throw them in there. All of the six F items that we approved previously, we will now throw in the roll call just so there's no question. Okay. That's a big list again. Is everyone comfortable unless it did not include D30? It was the items in 6F. Any questions as to what we're having a roll call on? Everybody clear? Clear as mud? Perfect. Madam Clerk.

All righty. Councillor Wynkampen.

Yes.

Councillor Link.

Yes.

Councillor Scott. Yes. Councillor Klingon.

Yes.

Councillor Scherzo. Yes. Councillor Saeed. Yes. Councillor Wheeler.

Yes.

Councillor Hart. Yes. Councillor McLaughlin. Yes. Councillor Umba.

Yes.

And Councillor Davis. Yes. 11, it passes.

All right, lest there be no question. And we have three more items that the administration requested to take out of order. Those are items 10.3, 10.4, and 10.5. Director Najeeb Williams, can you speak to the time sensitivity of these items? Or is there somebody else that could speak to that? Director, given that these are supplemental items, I always want to make sure that we put on the record, why we're taking them out this evening since they weren't on the agenda previously published. We had this conversation earlier.

Through you, Mr. Chair, Amanda Nash-Williams, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. We do have staff present to speak to items 10-3, 10-4, and just want to make sure. Yeah, 10-3 and 10-4. So for 10-3, I would request that Director of Veteran Services join us. And for 10-4, I believe we have Director Carroll from HHS.

All right, let's take those one at a time then. Madam Clerk, would you please read in 10.3.

Item 10.3, requesting the approval of a transfer of $76.96 from the Department of Veterans Services Professional and Technical Services account to the overtime account to cover an unexpected year-end deficit.

All right, thank you. Would you please introduce yourself for the record and then just start off with the reason that this was not able to be submitted for the regular agenda and why it is time sensitive. And then anything else you care to share, go right ahead.

Anup Malik, HHS Finance Manager. True, Chair, requesting the approval of a transfer of $76.96 from the Department of Veterans Services Professional Technical Services account to the overtime account in the Department of Veterans Services to cover an expected year and deficit. This stemmed from our colleague, Principal Clerk, who worked on May 25th during the Memorial Day Parade. and he worked six hours and we did not have enough budget in our overtime account historically, as always, so this deficit is to cover that and we would like to ask for immediate approval. to meet the 630 deadline for fiscal year 2026.

And this just arose this week following, I see Director Mastroboni nodding his head. The issue didn't come up in time for us to get the math all right and make sure what we needed, this is how it was explained to me earlier this week, so I'm not making this up, that it wasn't able to be submitted for the Monday deadline to get it on the initial agenda. That all correct? I'm just going by memory here, so I see lots of nodding heads in the room from lots of people in the administration, so we'll assume I got that right. So therefore, it's fairly appropriate for us to take up this evening. Any discussion, any questions? Do we need a roll call vote on that one? Do not. All right. Then that item is approved. Thank you. Would you please read item 10.4? Yes.

10.4, requesting approval to accept and expend a $14,974.64 grant with no match required from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to the Health and Human Services Department for local public health funding for FIFA 2026 World Cup community events.

Dr. Carroll.

Thank you. Through the chair, Karen Carroll, Director of Health and Human Services. This was a very late grant that was made available to us and our emergency management department. We quickly put in an application for public health supplies to be used at World Cup events for both the chamber and the city. So it's things like bug spray wipes, sunscreen, water, and hand hygiene sanitizer.

Sounds good. I see Councillor Bond giving it a thumbs up. And this is, in my conversation earlier this week, as with many things that seem to be associated with the Earth Chalice, as Director Oliveira likes to call it, lest we get sued by FIFA, all of this information and the licensing and the questions, everything's been very much in flux, right? And so the Chamber was hoping to get certain sponsorships in but there's crazy sponsorship rules and etc etc so they're doing a lot of the organizing we're stepping up to help make sure that people don't get exactly malaria or whatever else the bugs are carrying these days west now virus i guess around here triple e or a sunburn Any questions? All right, very good. Thank you, Director Carroll. So seeing no objection, then that item is approved. And so 10.5 will take up in the regular order of business then, is that correct? Okay. Very well then. So therefore, that brings us back to... That brings us back to 7.31, the communication from the mayor. Madam Clerk, would you read that in?

Okay. 7.31, conveying a request regarding body-worn cameras.

Mayor Wilson, do you care to speak to this item that you submitted? This communication that you communicated, that you provided to the council?

Thanks, Mr. President. Through you, The calendar gets weird over the summer, we all know that. After months and months of work on body-worn cameras by everyone around this horseshoe, nobody wants to see that go to waste. So we're here offering to help support the City Council bring this to a vote. If calling a special meeting can help, we're here for that. We're looking forward to working with you all on something we all know an overwhelming number of our constituents want to happen. Thanks. Any discussion on that item?

council scott thank you mr president uh so this is a communication requesting the discharge of various items from committee including items that uh we will be discussing on tuesday night in the legislative matters committee um i i'm comfortable allowing the process to continue to play out as the city council customarily functions sir thank you see no concert wheeler

Trying to use few words. This communication mentions scheduling the public hearing soon. When can that happen?

So, Council Wheeler, the citizen request for a hearing is in the Committee on Legislative Matters. That scheduling will be up to the Chair. As the Mayor noted, we are at the end of the fiscal year and approaching the Council's typical recess. This is a timing that we've all been very aware of and conscious in all of the discussions around this body-one camera issue that we're It was a very, very, very ambitious time frame. So my communication with the chair was, if there's a way to make it work without turning ourselves inside out, let's try. And if there's not, then there's not. And we won't. But it's ultimately up to the chair. Of course, if folks have views on timing, this would be an excellent time to present those, since it is. It is the substance of the matter for us, otherwise we place this on file. As the Chair noted, the STR and the technology specific use policy are on the agenda for an initial discussion on the 30th, and I anticipate we'll have a conversation then. All right, see no further discussion and that item is placed on file. And okay, here's where I think, yes. So we're now gonna go into executive session unless there's anybody here for an item that we haven't talked about yet that you would like us to take up now so you don't have to sit here and wait while we go into executive session. Councillor Link?

Mr. President, I know there's some people here, at least one person here, for some of the confirmations of appointments. Confirmation of appointments, okay.

I'm happy to... Also, Mr. President, can we please just... Councillor Streza? Yes, thank you. And then also put...

I'm having a hard time hearing you.

Oh, 4.5, please.

4.5, okay. As I've said before, one of the things I'm going to try and do in my role here is not make anyone sit in the chambers here while we all disappear if we can avoid it reasonably. So 4.5 and Councillor Link, what were the items that you wanted to take up? I know of specifically 7.27. 7.27. Okay. Let's take up 4.5 and then we'll go to 7.2.7 and decide what to do with that. If there's an objection then we'll take up item 4.5 out of order. Madam Clerk?

Okay. Item 4.5 by Councillor Strezzo, that the administration discuss the city's volunteer policy and its consistency among various city departments.

Councillor Strezzo.

Thank you.

So this has also come up that they're especially in the rec department where we have people that very much want to coach or assist in some way a sports program or something some program to do with rec but are barred because they We need to they need to be hired as employees and be paid in that even and there are some that Passionately just are like I don't need the money. I don't want the money. I just want to coach or help in some way and as we talk about budget crunch crunches if if certain departments are able to operate only on what kind of budget year by year we're getting and we're dismissing potential volunteers who just want to help the community then we have a huge uh inconsistency and also that there is speaking of inconsistencies that it's not Our volunteer program is not consistent across departments, as I have been asking around and checking in. So let's talk about it in committee and just want it sent to HCDE.

All right. All right. Thank you. So that will be approved with a copy to HCDE. That's it. All right, thank you. And Councillor Link, so there's, let's see, how many do we have here?

Mr. President, we could potentially take up all those.

That's what I'm just looking at, yeah. There's, at least for the Climate Action Commission, 7.18. all the way through 7.30. So let's take those all up together. Councilor Link, is there anyone that you want to sponsor to speak or anything or just some folks here to see what happens? I would assume on an appointment there wouldn't be a speaker. So these, because there's a number of folks here, these can go to committee. I confirmed with the chair that there is a committee meeting on schedule for July 1st, so it wouldn't be much of a delay unless there's a strong desire to just approve these this evening. It is a long list, and so if there's a strong feeling otherwise, the chair noted that he'd be happy to take these in committee and put them on the agenda for next week. Councillor Ewen Campion.

Mr. President, I'm not the chair of the committee. I would be more than happy to approve these tonight.

Councillor Bach. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you to Councillor Ewen Campion. I will prefer I go through the names. There's some new folks. I would like them all to show up at the confirmation of appointment. It will be a quick process so we can know who is what the people were sending to the stuff. I know some formidable folks like Larry Hugh. I would like to approve him tonight, but it's just I don't want to be selective, so I want all of them to go to confirmation of appointment.

Any discussion? Okay, then, so Councillor Bob moves to waive the ratings of items 716 through 730. Did I get that right, everybody? Nope, sorry, 717, nope, goodness gracious, 718. 718, these are just the Climate Action Commission ones, right? 718 through 730. Okay. to waive the readings and refer those to Confirmation of Appointments and Personnel Matters. All right, seeing no objection. Councillor Wheeler on that motion? Okay, seeing no objection, then those are so referred. Councillor Wheeler?

Mr. President, it might be wise for us to move for reconsideration of the financial items in addition so as to reduce the risk around timing at the end of the fiscal year.

That is traditionally something that we will do. Do you want to do that now? Do you have the list? All right. Tell you what, we're going to executive session shortly. While we're there, why don't you scribble some numbers on the paper, and we'll get to it when we come back. But thank you for the reminder of that. All right. Anything else that we want to do that folks are here for before we go into executive session? I don't think it's going to be a long executive session. At least that's my sense. You never know. It doesn't strike me as the type of thing that we would probably have a very lengthy conversation on, but you never know. All right, so then seeing nothing further, then Madam Clerk, if there's no objection, we'll take up item 7.1 out of order. And just to note, my intent then will be to take up 7.5 immediately following the executive session, at which point we'll start the meeting with the top of the agenda. So seeing no objection, Madam Clerk, would you read 7.1, please?

Yes, 7.1, requesting that this council convene an executive session to discuss item number 26-1109, a request for appropriation to the law department judgments and settlements account.

All right, thank you. And I see that we have a city attorney in the room. Attorney Amara, can you confirm that this item is appropriate for executive session? Yes, this item is appropriate for executive session. Attorney Amara said yes, this item is appropriate for executive session. So therefore, we will take a vote to go into executive session. Madam Clerk?

This is a vote to go in regular meeting and go into executive session. Councillor Ewing-Kampen?

Yes.

Councillor Link?

Yes.

Councillor Scott?

Yes.

Councillor Klingin?

Yes.

Councillor Scherzo? Yes. Councillor Saeed? Yes. Councillor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councillor Hart? Yes. Councillor McLoughlin?

Yes.

Councillor Umbau?

Yes.

And Councillor Davis?

Yes.

All right. We have 11.

All right. Thank you. We will return to open session immediately following executive session.

Thank you.

All right, I will call this meeting back to order. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Councillor Ewing-Campen.

Here.

Councillor Link.

Present.

Councillor Scott.

Present.

Councillor Klingon.

Present.

Councillor Strezzo. Present. Councillor Saeed. Here. Councillor Wheeler.

Here.

Councillor Hart? Here. Councillor McLoughlin? Here. Councillor Umba?

Present.

And Councillor Davis?

Here.

11 members present.

All right. There were no votes taken in executive session other than the vote to adjourn from executive session. So that will now bring us to the final out of order item, which is 7.5. If there's no objection, Madam Clerk, would you please read item 7.5?

Item 7-5, requesting the appropriation of $120,000 from the unreserved fund balance to the judgments and settlements account to settle an employment case.

Any discussion? All right. Oh, is the counselor with that? No? Okay. We don't need a roll call on that. $150,000? Seeing no objection, then that item is approved. And that will take us back to the regular order of business. And Mr. President. Councillor Wheeler.

Could I move for reconsideration of all of the finance items?

Councillor Wheeler moves for reconsideration of all financial items acted upon this evening in hopes that reconsideration fails. Yes. All right, everyone understand? So if you want to reconsider any of the financial items, then say yes. If you wanna stick with all the votes we made, then say no. Then we would have to take it up again. All right, Madam Clerk.

On the motion on reconsideration of the finance items, Ewan Campin. Council link know. Council Scott. Council clean and no. Council says no. Council say no. Council really know how to hurt. No. That's what we're going to know. Council and no. Council Davis stop. 11. And the negative.

That's a reconsideration fails. Thank you council will. Where do we leave off then? 4.2, I believe. Does that sound right? Yes. All right. Excellent.

4.2 by Councillor Link and Councillor Ewing Kampen calling for traffic calming measures in the Prospect Hill neighborhood.

Councillor Link. Thank you, Mr. President. So I ran into one of my neighbors a little over a week ago while she was standing outside of the, just beside a scene of a car crash. I learned then that was actually her car crash. So a car was driving down Boston Street at which she said was a high rate of speed and slammed right into her stopped car. I'm relieved that none of the children or the grandparents inside were killed or seriously injured. But what followed from that was a series of kind of disturbing stories from other neighbors about close calls and crashes. This is a neighborhood that's seen a lot of and an increased number of cut-through traffic at increasing speeds. There's a popular park there. There's a playground and it draws people of all ages. Soon there'll be an open-air circus there, in fact, with Senator Jalen and her son. The neighbors have all gone around. They're very energized. They've been collecting signatures to get some traffic studies on pretty much every major street in that area. They just really want to make sure that this story doesn't end up repeating itself with a darker ending. So with that, I'll be submitting all of the many signatures to the proper place. But with that, I guess I'd like to hand it off to Council Member Gabbin.

Thank you, Mr. President. I think this particular accident has very much shaken the neighborhood. I will just say Prospect Hill, if you walk through there many times a day, you might think it's extremely calm and that traffic is not a big deal. At rush hour, it is a major cut-through area, especially for people coming off the McGrath, going down, and people go really fast, and there's a ton of kids. I would say the stuff that, in my opinion, really needs to happen is clear corners. you know a lot of these intersections it's just really dance with cars parked right up to the intersections um but i'm sure that there is more to do um prospect hill park actually had a bunch of traffic calming kind of built into it on monroe street but there's a lot of work to done so i'm really thankful to the neighbors for this advocacy and to counselor link for bringing this okay counselor bob would like to sign on any further discussion all right see none that item is approved next item

Excitement 4.3 by Councillor Link and Councillor Wheeler that the Director of the Office of Sustainability and Environment consider measures to reduce heat island effects on and around the grounds of the East Somerville Community School and the Edgerly School, including working on open spaces to add trees and green space.

Thank you. I'll start off by acknowledging that Council Wheeler would likely love to say some words on this, but cannot because of some laryngitis. So with that said, about a week ago, we all got an email from a teacher sharing their fourth grade class, work their fourth grade class had done. They were worried about how hot their school grounds had become. They called out things like heat islands and asking for shade for more trees and water fountains. This is some really wonderful student activism. I think that it's a really wonderful opportunity for the Office of Sustainability to engage with the students.

um and uh help improve the school um at the east uh and at the edge really okay council mclaughlin would like to sign on counselor clinton like to sign on counselor would like to sign on any discussion concert

No, this is, no, I just, I mean, I read the stuff. It's, thank you, Mr. President. It's really, I'm so glad that, you know, somebody, sometimes we get all these emails. It takes somebody to kind of like crystallize one and then, you know, put it forward. No, it's very remarkable and with real solutions about how to improve, you know, that neighborhood. So I'm glad, you know, to see it forward. Thank you.

I saw Councillor Estrezzo and Hart would like to sign on as well. Any further discussion? I see none. That item is approved.

Next item. Next item is 5.1, 26 registered voters requesting a zoning tax amendment to amend the zoning ordinances section. 3L.8C, 3L.9C, 3L.10C, 3L.3K, 3L.1.3, L.3.2, L.2.1, and 9, I'm sorry, 3.2.1.2M.

so many we really got to get a typeface that makes ones and l's differently because that's just not fair mr president can we take up item 8.4 the planning board recommendation on these as well uh scene objection madam clerk would you also read item 8.4

I'd like to waive the reading.

We'll waive the reading of 8.4. That is the planning board recommendation on this same item. Very well. So Councilman Campion moves to waive the reading of 8.4. Seeing no objection, that is approved. We'll take that up together with this item. Seeing no objection. So we have 5.1 and 8.4 before us. Councilman Campion, you want to remind us what we're doing here?

Thank you very much. The item that I waived the reading of is a Planning Board recommendation for a number of zoning amendments, including dormers. So colleagues, you may remember the Land Use Committee unanimously recommended an amended version of a zoning ordinance that we've been calling the Dormers Amendment, proposed by members of the public, unanimously supported by the Land Use Committee, has worked with the Planning Department for multiple years to develop this. I've been knocking doors and nobody knows what a dormer is. This was like the hottest topic for people who follow zoning really carefully, but for quote unquote normal people out there, They don't even know what a dormer is. Dormers, if your roof is shaped like this, dormers is when you put a little extra space on the top floor by bulging it out. That's what a dormer is. Currently, the zoning is incredibly restrictive. It makes it really, really hard to do. Members of the public recommended cutting a lot of the red tape to just make it easier to build dormers. And we fully supported that. And I'll just briefly talk about the three changes that we made to the public proposal. One is that the committee followed all of these actually were on recommendation compelling recommendation from planning staff a two-foot front setback so you have these dormers on the side of the house if you don't have a front setback honestly the house basically can become a cube right if you can have a dormer up on the third floor there's no more roof line Even setting it back two feet maintains the look of having a roof like this, but you can still have your dormers, but they're set two feet back. So the committee recommended that. We also recommended removing part of the amendment, which would say all of these buildings can just be three stories. So you no longer need to have a slanted roof. The issue with that is that it would moot the entire rest of the amendment because then regulations on dormers are moot because you can do whatever you want up to making a cube. So we thought if we do wanna do that, that's a longer conversation. and the last change we made is that we removed backyard cottages from this amendment so you can do whatever you want with dormers but on backyard cottages because that's an active area of discussion on the committee the community is very interested we did not want to allow the currently admittedly quite large backyard cottage to become significantly larger with these large dormers so with that this has been unanimously recommended and i hope that the council will agree

Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to say thank you to Councilor Unicampen and everyone on the Land Use Committee. And I just want to say there are actually, I mean, I have personally had a few friends and constituents reaching out asking about dormers. So it actually does have like a, you know, material impact on people. I think this is really great work, truly.

Further discussion? All right. Councilor Ewen Campin moves. So this is one we will need three votes, all roll call, to approve and roll and ordain. So Councilor Ewen Campin moves to approve the item. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll?

This is to approve item 5.1. Ewen Campin. Yes. Councilor Link. Yes. Councilor Scott.

Yes.

Councilor Klingon. Yes. Councilor Strezzo. Yes. Councilor Saeed. Yes. Councilor Wheeler. Yes. Councilor Hart. Yes. Councilor McLaughlin. Yes. Councilor Umbach. Yes. And Councilor Davis. Yes. Next is enrollment.

Councilor McCamp and Moose for enrollment. Madam Clerk.

Councilor Ewen Campin?

Yes.

Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Scott? Yes. Councilor Klingin?

Yes.

Councilor Scherzo? Yes. Councilor Saeed? Yes. Councilor Wheeler?

Yes.

Councilor Hart? Yes. Councilor McLoughlin? Yes. Councilor Umbau? Aye. Councilor Davis? Yes. Okay. Councilor Levin? Councilor Ewen Campin moves for ordainment. Councilor Ewen Campin? Yes. Councilor Link? Yes. Councilor Scott? Yes. Councilor Klingin? Yes. Councilor Scherzo? Yes. Councillor Saeed? Yes. Councillor Wheeler? Yes. Councillor Hart? Yes. Councillor McLaughlin? Yes. Councillor Umba?

Yes, please.

And Councillor Davis? Yes. All right, that is 11.

11 on each, so that item is ordained. Thank you, Councillor Unkampen, for walking us through that. All right. Next item, we get to skip ahead a bit here to the next committee report. Where is that, 6G, Madam Clerk? Does that look right? Yes, that is right. Excellent. Go read that one for us, please.

6G1, report of the Committee on Land Use meeting in joint session with the Planning Board on June 18, 2026. I'll see you in a minute.

Thank you, Mr. President. We had a public hearing on two items that I'll describe briefly. And I'll also just mention here, we mentioned in the meeting, there had been a zoning proposal submitted by property owners in Union Square, including from Dunkin Donuts all the way over to where Buck Young, the Korean restaurant is. They withdrew that for people who have been following that item was withdrawn. We had a public hearing on two items, one sponsored by Councilor Davis and colleagues to expand where homeless shelters can be permitted in the city. And the public comment period is open until next Friday. maybe two Fridays from now, three of me, I'll check. So for folks who would like to make public comments on this, please do so. And we also had a public hearing on the UCTF map, which includes Assembly Square and parts of East Broadway. For folks interested in the details, the minutes are comprehensive and the meeting was very short. You can review the video of that. I ask that the committee report be accepted.

Any discussion on the committee report? All right, seeing none, that item is accepted.

Madam Clerk, next item. 6H1, report of the Committee on License and Permits, meeting on June 24, 2026. Councilor Hart.

Thank you, Mr. President. We had a short meeting. The primary item that we took up and discussed was a grant of location from Eversource, which was to service new EV chargers being installed by the city on Hudson Street. And this had previously been decided. So this was just the grant of location. But it also offered an opportunity have full transparency about some of the concerns that have been raised by neighbors that were addressed by city staff by making some small changes to the design and plan and also clarifying, getting proper information of what is to be done. to be done um we also had two other grants of location that were held over from the last council meeting just to give the public an opportunity to comment there were no members nobody came to speak on those and so we approved those as well that's it all right any discussion on the report all right seeing none that report is accepted as submitted next item out of court

Next item is six I one report of the committee on traffic and parking meeting on June 22nd, 2026.

Thank you, Mr. President. The Traffic and Parking Committee met with all three members present. All items were marked as were completed. We discussed the request for additional signage on Whitfield Road. Director Winfred already had a sign installed there, which is exciting. It's like two days after the meeting. So there's an additional one-way sign there on the side that didn't have one. We also discussed the request to have Perkins Street added as like an urban neighbor way. Director Rossin stated that the street in East Somerville is already, that's like the plan for it. He explained that it will include two types of safety treatments separated by claims and traffic calm neighborhood routes. Director Rawson stated that the work on this street is planned in the coming years and explained that once a project is identified, the city follows a 12 to 18 month project development process to allow for community engagement. While there is not yet a specific project start date, he noted the completion is anticipated by 2030. Regarding traffic enforcement at Three Square, Somerville Police Traffic Unit noted that the requested location has been added to the traffic unit's patrol schedule with a particular focus on morning enforcement. We also discussed implementing colored lane markings for bus and bike lanes on Prospect Street. Director Ross has stated that the corridor is expected to become increasingly important with the implementation of the MBTA's bus network redesign, including changes to Route 47 that will strengthen connections between East Somerville, Union Square, Inman, et cetera. He added that the project also includes traffic signal improvements and is already underway. Regarding the request to add Durham and Henson Street to the list of crosswalks that require daylighting improvement, Director Rodson stated that staff have added this location to the city's evaluation list. In order with that, Director Winfred's team will work to ensure vehicles are not parking within 20 feet of the crosswalk and that fire lane markings may also be considered as part of the order. There was an order from me to install a speed bump on Vernon Street. Director Rauston stated that the city follows the prioritization process that begins with data collection, and staff have already gathered data on this street. But yeah, in the next month or two, we'll have more information on this. There was another request for a speed bump on Elmwood Street, and the process for data collection has already started. Although next steps have not yet been determined, the director stated that staff plan to review the data in July and hope to provide a public update in late summer. regarding the feasibility of implementing a raised intersection at the intersection of Columbus Ave, Prospect Hill Parkway, and Stone Ave, and report findings to the city council. The director also noted that staff will evaluate the area over the summer as part of a broader holistic review of conditions and potential improvements. With that, I ask that this community report be approved as submitted.

Any discussion on the committee report? All right. Seeing none, that item is approved. Next item is 716. Yes.

716. 716, requesting confirmation of the appointment of Jarrett Moultrie Weathers to the Affordable Housing Trust.

Councilor Ba.

One second, Mr. Chairman. What item number is that, Mr. President? Item 716. This is an appointment to the Affordable Housing- I moved to waive the reading of item 716 through- 16 and 17, Councilor Batt.

Are the two that are left for appointments. Oh, no. I mean, we already had waived. So we have 16, we have 716 before us now, and then we'll have items 717. Right now, 716, prefer to refer that one to committee, given that it's affordable housing trust. Seeing no objection, that item is referred to confirmation of appointments. Next item, Madam Clerk.

Next item is 717, requesting confirmation of the appointment of Cali masters to the Fair Housing Commission. Council Bob.

Confirmation of appointment. Seeing no objection, that item is referred to confirmation of appointments. Next item, Madam Clerk.

Okay.

8-1?

Yes, 8-1. 8-1, City Clerk requesting elimination of the Assistant City Clerk Vital Records and Licensing position. Sure. I'm happy to do so.

Would you give us an explanation what we're doing here?

Yes, so due to the budget constraints The position within the city's clerk office was eliminated to offset some of the costs It was reviewed by the previous city clerk and myself looking at all of the positions that would have the least detrimental impact on the city and as well as the operations of the city clerk and I came to the agreement that that was the best option to the best option to was to remove that position. I do want to reiterate that it was the position that was removed and not the person in that role. And so in order to officially complete that within the budget year, we would have to take a vote on this for immediate approval.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I'll give a little more color, or a little bit of a different take and a little more color. Essentially, what we have here is the mayor removing, much like the City Council can decide to remove dollars from a department's budget, but not actual positions, as we talked about at Nazim. In this case, effectively what happened was the mayor removed the dollars from the budget that happened to align with that position. It was then up to the City Council and the City Clerk. I asked the City Clerk her opinion, which you just heard, as to how to allocate the reduced dollars that were presented in the budget. So this is why this is before us, part one. Part two, why we actually have to take a vote is because there's maybe some question, but there's a statute that says the City Council can establish an Assistant City Clerk position. That vote did happen. And was it like in the 60s? I think pregnant was a long time ago Yeah earlier most likely was what our legislative policy analyst said and so in addition there were votes taken by this council when the two individuals that were put into assistant city clerk positions not that long ago. And so just to make sure there's no question as to the specifics or the legality of that sort of position, the decision was in consultation with the law office was to put this before the council to vote to remove that one position in accordance with the the least terrible way of dealing with the budget cuts that we all are having to live with. So that's why this is here from a procedural standpoint. Is there any discussion, questions? Anything else? No? All right. Madam, blah, blah, blah. Councillor Greenheart.

I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate the person that held this position and all of his work for the city and for the Licenses and Permits Committee in particular.

All right. Seeing no further discussion then, that item is approved. Next item.

Next item is 8.2, school committee chair conveying the fiscal year 2027 school department budget as approved by the school committee on June 8, 2026.

That item is placed on file. Next item.

Next item is 8.3, city attorney conveying an update regarding item number 26-1025. That item is placed on file.

Next item.

Next item is 8.5, director of parking conveying information regarding item number 26-1019.

That item is placed on file. Next item.

Item 8.6, city clerk conveying block party license issued.

There's a list here. There's block parties on it. If your street is on it, you should go to the block party because they're great. If your street isn't on it and you haven't had a block party, contact the clerk's office. Find out how you can have a block party. We make it really easy now, and they're wicked fun. That item is placed on file.

Next item is 9.1, renewing drain layer license.

Mr. President, I move to waive the readings of 9.1 to 9.6 and 9.8 through, apologies, one second, through 9.13 and approve those. All right.

Council Hart moves to weigh the readings of those items and approve them. Any objection? All right, seeing none, those items are approved. Next item.

Next item is 9.7, new extended operating hours license wings over Somerville, 519 Somerville Avenue for in-store takeout and delivery service until 2 a.m. Council Hart.

I would like to send this to the Licenses and Permits Committee for a public hearing, please.

All right. Any further discussion? All right, seeing none, that item is referred to Licenses and Permits.

Next item. Next item is 9.14, 18 individuals, including 17 residents, submitting comments regarding fiscal year 2027 budget items.

That item is placed on file.

Next item is 9.15, Jody Nemzer, Abrahams, and Lisa Schatz submitting comments regarding item number 26-1023, the Chapter 2, Article 8, Division 1 of the Code of Ordinance be amended as detailed within.

That item is placed on file. Councilor Scott, do you want to copy the legislative matters on that one? Sure. All right, we'll copy the legislative matters. Okay, sorry, that one's just placed on file. Next item.

Next item is 9.16, Nick Azarami submitting comments regarding item number 26-0327, a zoning text amendment to amend section 15.7.2.D, Zoning Board of Appeals Board of Rules.

Councilor Said.

This is regarding a previous item that was already placed on file. I just want to ask if we can send a copy to traffic and parking. It's item 8.5. Item 8.5. Let's see.

check of parking being information regarding the communication for the director parking on 26 dash 1, 0, 9, 1, yep, that was already placed a file of copies sent to traffic. Thank you can't say. All right back to the forest then which is 9, 16, which has been read in. Any discussion on that questions. Cancer you can't be a copy that one land use.

Yes, okay, so that was placed on file with a copy of land use next item next item is set 9.17 crystal huff and Tony Antonio submitting comments regarding one McGrath highway.

That was placed on file.

It's item is 9.18 Helen leverage submitting comments regarding body worn cameras.

It was placed on file.

Next item is 919, Michael Linotto submitting comments regarding item 26-0650, the draft combined sewer overflow plan.

Councilor Wright.

I just wanted to request a copy of that sent to sustainability and infrastructure, please.

All right. Councilor Clingan.

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, I was going to request that it gets into sustainability infrastructure. So as most of you know, the friends of the Alwyke Brook have been working diligently on sort of an alternative plan to the city CSO plan, and the public comment period, I think, goes till September, October. I had met with them and so what this is is a draft of their plan and they're going to come on Monday to the sustainability infrastructure committee meeting to give them a platform to go on record with their plan. So everybody tune in if you want to hear what these folks came up with. as an alternative to the city CSO plan, which is, again, still being deliberated on. That's all. Okay, any further discussion?

All right, so that item is placed on file with a copy sent to Sustainability and Infrastructure. Next item.

Next item is 10.5, Somerville Chamber of Commerce applying for a public event license for Somerville Watch Party on July 7 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

I made note of this earlier with a related item, but I'll repeat since that was a while ago now. In my conversations with the administration earlier this week, as with a lot of things related to the big fat soccer tournament, that we won't say because, you know, even though they couldn't sue us for saying this, we'll just... note that they make it really hard to do stuff. And there's hoops to jump through. And so this didn't get sort of, the plan here didn't come together early enough for this to be on the regular agenda. But it is something that has been talked about. And I know there's been discussions in, the concepts have been discussed in various places. And if anyone isn't aware of the FIFA World Cup happening right now, then God bless you. So that's why I'm allowing this one. And obviously, it's time sensitive because it relates to July 7. So that's why I'm allowing it to go forward. Any discussion? All right. Seeing none, that item is approved. Next item.

Next item is 10.6, Alex Thang Nguyen submitting comments regarding item number 26-0257, requesting a zoning map amendment to change the zoning districts of 2 and 9 Union Square 286, 290, and 298 Somerville Avenue from Commercial Core 5 to Mid-Rise 6.

Council Member Kemp, and that's the request that was withdrawn at the last meeting, is that right? Okay, so then we'll just place that item on file. Next item.

The next item is 10.7, Alex Pickard submitting comments regarding Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority red line closures.

I will note that I saw some communication from the administration on this one. The Red Line is, I guess, is going to be open during Artbeat, but it is scheduled to be busing during the NICE Festival. And so we're working, the administration is working on making that as minimally painful as possible to help that festival not be negatively impacted. And thank you to the administration for helping out with that as much as we can.

train's got to get fixed i guess so that item will be placed on file uh any addition any further items there are no further items any late items there are no lead items council link mr president uh just um i'm sorry for uh four two for item four two uh it was did what was the final disposition of that did i meant to have that sense of traffic and parking um item four two

let's see that in my notes say we approved that but you want to copy the traffic and parking yes please okay so for four two we'll send a copy of traffic and parking very well anything else it's only five past ten guys come on there's gotta be more we can talk about now all right uh there being no further business before the council council clinging moves to adjourn and we are adjourned good job everyone