Confirmation of Appointments and Personnel Matters Committee - Regular Meeting

Just give it one moment to there we go.

Welcome, everyone. I'm the vice chair of this committee, and we're having technical issues. So we're gonna promote counselor Imbah, who's the chair of the committee, to be a panelist, and then he can actually start the meeting properly.

Thank you, mister vice chair. I have sent through that permission. Just wait for it to kick in. There we are.

Wow. My god. Miss, not even sure where to start when you enter a meeting where, you know, everybody is there waiting for you. I think I apologize for my late entrance. So who's the clerk? Is it is it Mike?

Good evening, mister chair. Yes.

Okay. Let me just see. I think yeah. I think let's just roll it. You know? We will figure this thing out as we get along. I don't know what happened, you know, with my I did not get the link. I got the link. My computer doesn't charge. So let's let's roll. Let's roll. Hit hit that button.

Mister Chitherew, yep. We are live.

Okay. Are we live?

Mister Chathuyu, yes. We are.

You just read in the beginning of the meeting.

Oh, thank you, mister vice chair. I appreciate that. Good evening, everybody. I called this meeting to order. This is the council's committee on confirmation of appointments and personal matters is Monday, March 30 at 06:32PM. Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025, this meeting of the city council committee will be conducted via remote participation. We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript and other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City Of Somerville website and local cable access government channel. Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Absolutely. Councilor McLaughlin. Councilor Hart?

Here.

Councilor Link? Councilor Ewen Camping? Here. Chairman Bah?

Present.

With four present and one absent, we have you have a quorum.

Thank you, Clark. I think we will proceed. What's the next item on the agenda? I think the first one is the approval of the minutes, you know, of the previous meeting. We will lay that item, on the table to take it at the end for approval.

And before we proceed, I think there's a couple of, it's like one item or so that we need to take it out of order, I'm not sure which I think the chief administrative officer mentioned we'll probably have to take item item five out of order. Is it's, is Jessica Smith in the audience?

Yes. I am. Let me get to a more convenient location real quick.

Amazing. Hi, Jessica. So, mister Pleb, would you read that item?

Absolutely. Item five referred for recommendation by councilor Davis that this city council appoints Jessica Smith to the public financing of campaigns committee.

Amazing. Hi, Jessica. How's the baby doing?

Hi. He's good. He's, he's in the other room with my friend.

So that's

why I I had to run.

Yeah. No. No. We'll be quick. We'll be quick. No. But so good to have you. You know? I think we are excited. You've been a a valuable community member. I guess, you know, the the importance of you showing up here is just so we can do our due diligence. You know, I think you you'll be a stellar, you know, representative on that committee. I guess one question I have for you, you know, just for the sake of, you know, helping the audience and the public, you know, in your stellar role that you're gonna be playing. How would Somerville's let me see. Let me change that question.

Okay. And so how would Somerville's public finances system? How do you see, you know, when yeah. How would you how would you ensure that transparency and accountability in the use of public funds, you know, with your role on that, you know, on such a

Yeah. Good question. I so, I mean so one of the reasons that I talked to a couple of different counselors about maybe being on this commission is that I've helped a couple of different candidates, one or two of which are current sitting, city councilors, like, become councilors. I've run their budget. In one case, I was a treasurer.

So I'm pretty familiar with, like, what it takes financially for, you know, a campaign to win in Summerville, both at large and award campaign for for council at least. And I'm also pretty familiar with the what the reporting requirements are for OCPF for for campaign funds. So yeah. I mean, I think I'm I'm sort of, like, generally supportive of the idea of, like, providing some money for people to run their campaign. I mean, there is a big barrier to entry, that, like, the working members of our community, many of them probably couldn't afford some of the basic startup costs to, like, do a campaign.

So I think it's really reasonable to, like, investigate what we could do with public money to, like, make that barrier to entry, like, lower for people, make the process more inclusive. I think that's a really good question is, like, should we impose any additional, like, sort of transparency requirements above and beyond what OCPF requires?

And I don't know. I haven't

really thought very carefully about that. I know that it's, like, already kind of onerous to be a treasurer and, like, make sure that all of the boxes are checked. So I don't know that I off the bat, I think adding things is is good, but I do know that those funds would be subject to all of the same scrutiny as any donated campaign funds or self self funding from a candidate. So, yeah, I think that's the standard.

Yeah. Yeah. No. Excellent. Excellent. I will maybe, you know, let my colleagues again you know, when when you when you have a stellar candidate, you gotta you gotta get stellar questions as well. So, councilor, you and Kampen?

Thank you very much, mister chair. Through you, thank you so much, Jessica, for stepping up to this role. I'm really excited that this was in the charter. I'm excited for this work to get started. I'm very impressed by the answer, and I move to recommend approval.

Absolutely. There's a motion on the table. Councilor, and company, I probably would have you know, like, maybe if it's okay with you, let's see if other colleagues you know, if they don't if they probably have some questions, we wanna give them also the floor to, you know, the so thank you, councilor Yuncombe. So it looks like we would table the councilor's questions. So councilor Hart?

Oh, I was just gonna say I am in support, and I really appreciate Jessica stepping up, and I'm excited for this as well.

Amazing. So we will just I will just integrate that as deliberation on the motion. So, councilor councilor, you and Kami, your motion is still in order. So I think we will move to, you know, barring any objection. Jessica Smith, you are approved. Thank you for being here, and we appreciate your time.

Thanks, guys. Bye bye.

Bye. So it's I think that's, like, the only item that we're supposed to take out of order. Mister Clegg, can we return to regular order of business?

Mister chair, yes through you. Did you wanna take a roll call on the last item? Oh,

sure. If if that's the will of the clip, I thought we will yep. Okay. Let's do a roll call.

My understanding is that it does need a roll call vote.

Okay. Absolutely.

McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Hart?

Yes.

Councilor Link? Councilor Ewen Campin? Yes. Chair Mbaugh?

Yes, please.

With four in favor, that is recommended to be approved.

Excellent. Next item is the clerk.

The next item is item two, referred for recommendation, requesting confirmation of the promotion of Ashley Cat Catato to the position of police sergeant. I hope I said that correctly.

Wow. Thank you. Yeah. Chief, would you you know, you have the floor. Introduce to all those strangers.

Sure. Thank you.

I know I know I know those two officers, the chief. I mean, do your job.

Absolutely, sir. Thank you very much, mister chair. And I wanna thank, obviously, the other, committee members here this evening, my city colleagues as well as, the two candidates, being presented, this evening. Detective Ashley Catado has been a member of the SPD, for fifteen plus years and has given us fifteen years of dedicated service to our department and city. She currently serves as a detective in our special investigations unit, which is under the umbrella of our of our criminal investigations division.

She's been in this role for the past three years. Detective Katado, holds a bachelor's degree and several master's degrees, that she brings, to the table, and, what she uses to complement her stellar service, to our community. She is a passionate advocate for mental health counseling. Her stacks and extensive investigative experience combined with her advanced academic background reflects a strong commitment to both public safety and the well-being of the community she serves. Mr.

Chair, I humbly enthusiastically present her before this committee. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention before this committee as we are welcoming in the equitable community to really recognize the significance of the work that both of these candidates have put in and taking the last promotional exam. They answered the clarion call and with Detective Cotato's appointment that represents a 100% increase in female candidates at the supervisory ranks. So it's a proud day and I humbly present her for presentation to this committee for confirmation of appointments. And lastly, share that there is nothing in her professional portfolio that will prevent her from satisfactory confirmation.

Thank you, chief. Appreciate the time. Detective Cataldo, welcome to the committee. And do you have anything you wanna say to the committee member before we, you know, extend our rounds of questioning?

No. Thank you. I'm happy to be here and very excited, and thank you, chief, for the introduction.

Wonderful. You know, I'm also happy to see your your candidates. When I saw the names, I'm like, this. I know I recognize these two, you know, like, female officers, and I'm like, wow. The chief is actually, you know, doing a great job of, like, making sure that the police force, it's dynamic and also the representative as well. So detective Katado, I guess the question I have, honestly, it's it's about like, how would you ensure that your work as a sergeant advances equitable policing practices in Somerville, particularly in building trust with historically marginalized communities?

Thank you for the question. So as the chief stated, I've been here for fifteen years. I have a strong, connection to Somerville. My parents immigrated here from Portugal when they were younger. They raised me here. They raised my sister here. I raised my son here for the first few years of his life. So I have a very deep connection to this community, especially to the immigrant community because I come from an immigrant family. My sister and I were first generation to go to college. And because of our parents' hard work and dedication and love for us, we've been able to come so far in our careers, and I'm blessed.

So I know what it's like to grow up in that type of family, in a immigrant family. And I see Somerville as an extension of my family. I have family here still. I have friends here. I have dedicated my life basically to the city, spent two and a half years as an auxiliary police officer before I got sworn. So I am dedicated to this community, and I treat everyone that I interact with as as how I would wanna treat someone, how I would want a family member of mine to be treated by the police.

Excellent. I think, you know, one thing, you know, I always think about is just the the makeup of our city. And so, when I see the kind of officers that are being presented before the council, it's like, this is the future of policing. So I'll leave it there. I usually have a lot of questions as, you know, detective Catado, but I think, you've hit the the keynotes, you know, for me. Councilor Yuen Kampen.

Thank you, mister chair. Through you, thank you, detective, for your service to Somerville for being here tonight. Through the chair, would you mind just telling us what how are you thinking about this new role? Or is there kind of a philosophy that you're bringing to to, you know, this new degree of supervisory, authority?

So words I like to live by is be the change you wanna see in the world, and I wanna be part of this department in making it better. I wanna be able to be there for the officers to support them and to advocate for them as well as for this community. So for me, it is an honor to be able to accept this position. It's bittersweet because I will be leaving my position as a detective in SIU, but this gives me a chance to have a louder voice and to be more involved with helping this department grow to be the best that I can be and to help officers be the best officers they can to serve this community.

Thank you very much. Through the share, I appreciate that. I look forward to you serving in this new role. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, counsel. And Kempen. Any other question for my colleagues? So, I don't see any. So, detective Catado, were were you told that there will be an executive session for this?

I told it was a possibility. Yes.

Okay. It's not a possibility. There's there will there will be an executive session. And so and, hopefully you know? Yeah.

And during the executive session, you have the right, you know, to represent yourself. You have the right to, you know, come I mean, it's just a custom, so, like, I don't wanna, you know, just kinda we'll talk about it, you know, much later. So at this point, we'll do it, you know together, so I think we've probably gotten everything that we need for public session and so we will table your session, and then we will we will now move on to the next candidate. And then after that, we will now invoke as an executive session where I would actually talk about why we are getting into that space, and then we'll come back, and they will take the vote. Does that sound good?

Sounds great. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. May may the record reflect that councilor Link has joined the committee? Welcome, councilor Link.

Apologies, chair. I was in the the Davis Square Neighborhood Council meeting, and I got wrapped up in it.

No. Don't worry.

Sorry.

So so, Cliff, what's the next item, please?

Mister chair, the next item is item three. Refer for recommendation, requesting confirmation of the promotion of Courtney Reese to the position of police sergeant.

Chief Benford, take it away.

Thank you so much, mister chair. Again, special thanks, to you as well as the other committee members, city colleagues, as well as, candidate, detective Courtney Reese. Detective Reese has been with Somerville Police Department and has faithfully served this department for the past eleven years. She is currently assigned to our property assigned as a property crime detective, again, under the umbrella of our criminal investigations division. She's been in this role for the past two and a half years.

Detective Reese holds a bachelor's degree in psychology, as well as a master's degree in criminal justice. Again, using her academic foundation, as well as her life experience, She brings a wealth of knowledge to her role and has served as a real beacon of encouragement in our department and faithfully and professionally carrying out her duties. Again, I highlight the tremendous work by detective Reese as I did with detective Cotato and performing at the highest levels on this most recent exam. And again, with her confirmation this evening, she too will represent an additional 100% increase, bringing a total, of 200% increase in little under a year, with female candidates serving at the rank of a supervisor. Again, as I close out my comments, sir, she does not have anything in her professional portfolio that will prohibit her successful confirmation this evening.

I present to you as well as the full committee detective Courtney Reese for, for confirmation to the rank of sergeant.

Thank you, chief. Wow. Well, chief, you've been hyping all these candidates, but, you know, I think that's your job anyways. So, detective Rees, welcome.

Thank you, chair.

Thank you, chief.

Is there anything you wanna share with the community? Good to see you.

Good to see you too. I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you all very much. I'm very excited for this opportunity.

Nice. We are also excited for you. I also have you know, you're also, like, a known face I've seen around. And, oh my gosh, like, when I was looking at your resume, I'm like, wow. Like, I can't it's like, there's some stuff that I I wish that in fact, probably asked you offline, what is this one? What is that one? But I guess, you know, as a sergeant, how would you mentor junior officers and foster a culture of continuous learning, accountability, and professionalism within your unit?

I think it's thank you for the question. I think it's one, to me, it's very important to lead by example. So I think going out there and setting a good example, I think now it's so important. One of my big things is community policing, breaking down those barriers. So I'd like come these newer officers to get out of their cruisers, walk around, meet the people that, you know, work and reside in in the area, you know, that they patrol.

And that's something that I had started, you know, kind of from the beginning when I when I first got there, and you become this familiar face. And I think that helps, you know, produce legitimacy. It it produces trust. Like you say, you may not know me on a personal level, but it's that familiarity, that familiar face, and I think that's very important. On the other hand, you need to hold people accountable, and that's why we have policies and procedures, taking people under your wing, making sure so you mentioned my resume. I love to take training. I like to be very well versed in many different areas. In some of the newer officers, I send them my resume and say, take this training. Take that training. Because I think being so well versed just makes you a better officer.

You know? So those are some of the things that I would do.

Excellent. I like all what I'm hearing for sure. Any other question for my committee members? Counselor, and Campen?

Thank you, mister chair. Through you, thank you very much for being here and for your service. Are how do you feel about taking on this level of supervision? Are there aspects of it that you're concerned about, excited about? Just talk to us about that a little.

Thank you for the question. I'm definitely excited. This is a great opportunity to, you know, kind of, like detective Catato said, you know, help shape the direction of the department. Like from my teenage years on, I've had different roles where I've been, you know, a role a role model, a mentor, an instructor in in various just areas of my life, and it's something that I think is very important as a supervisor to kind of mentor new new officers. Policing is changing, and we need to change with the times.

And I think that that's something that's gonna be very helpful in, you know, getting some of these newer officers out of the academy, taking them out of my wing, showing them the way that we do things now. You know, not these stories from twenty years ago, but showing them, you know, Somerville and who we are and what the community wants to see from us. So I'm very excited about it. I don't really have any reservations. I'm just ready to go out there and try and make a difference.

Mister chair, through you. Thank you very much for that answer. I appreciate it, and happy to support you tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you, councilor. Any other question from committee members? I don't see any. Okay. At this point, we will, you know, move, you know, to table this and then, you know, invoke executive session, you know, because first one to marginal law chapter 38 section 21, you know, the council will enter the executive session to discuss confidential personnel matters related to the candidate's promotion, including professional competence and disciplinary history as allowed under you know open meeting law so any vote will be taken in in open session so mister clerk I guess do we have the links for the executive session?

Mister chair, that link has been circulated to panelists in advance of this meeting.

Yes. So because why I'm asking is because my computer that this link is sent to is dead. So the computer doesn't charge. So if you can forward that link to committee members, send it to me to ordermanbargmail dot com. And then but take why that take a vote to enter into executive session?

Mister chair, one quick second. Could you repeat that email address one more time so I can send that invite out to you?

Sure. So Alderman, a l d e r m a n, then my last name, m b a h at g mail dot com.

Thank you for that.

Thank you.

Thank you, mister chair. That invitation has been sent to your Gmail account on on Yes.

Roll call, please. Yes. Chief Benford, do you have any question?

Yes, mister chair. I just wanna make sure for executive session, that both candidates, that my colleagues in either IGA or HR has their numbers to, communicate with them when to join the session because I believe they have two separate sessions. I see the director's hands up as well.

Okay, Director Nagin.

Mr. Chair, good evening. To Chief Benfer's point, yes, I do have the numbers for both candidates, and I will text them respectively as to who should go in first and second, based on the direction of the chair.

Excellent. Clerk, can you call the role for executive session, please?

Absolutely. On executive session, council McLaughlin. Councilor Hart?

Yes.

Councilor Link? Yes. Councilor Ewan Campan? Yes. Chair Mbaugh?

Yes.

This committee is in recess for an executive session. Excellent.

Mister clerk, are you there?

Mister Chair, yes, I am.

Wonderful. So, yeah, would you please, you know, call the roll?

Sure. To return to regular session, councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Hart?

Yes.

Councilor Blank? Yes. Councilor Ewan Campan?

Yes.

Chairman Bah?

Present.

We are resumed.

Wonderful. So no no no vote were taken in executive session. We are back in open session. I just wanted to come back to the two items that we have before us. The first was requesting mister Claire, can you bring that stuff down again? Like, I I'm trying to juggle. Yep. Wonderful. Requesting the, you know, confirmation of the appointment of Ashley Catado to the position of police sergeant. You know? So I moved to recommend approval. Any any conversation? And seeing none, mister chair, can you please call the roll?

Yes, mister chair. Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Hart?

Yes.

Councilor Link? Yes. Councilor Yuan Camping? Yes. Chair Mbaugh?

Yes, please.

This is recommended to be approved.

Excellent. No no no no applause right now, detective Cataro, because we will the next council meeting, that's when it will become official. But thank you for your time. And so the next one is requesting the confirmation of the promotion of Courtney Reiss to the position of police sergeant. And at this point, you know, barring any objection, the chair move for approval. Mister chair, could you please call the roll?

Yes, mister chair. Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Hart? Yes. Councilor Link? Yes. Councilor Yuan Kempen? Yes. Chairman Bah?

Yes, please.

This is recommended to be approved.

Thank you. Thank you, chief, and thank you to our newest promotion of our offices.

Thank you very much, mister chair. I greatly appreciate it, and I appreciate the work of the committee. Thank you.

Thank you, and I apologize for all this. I can't believe I caught up with this chaos with my computer being dead here. Like, no. The computer is not even it's all gone, but yet I wasn't sure, but it's good to just roll. So the next item, mister Clerk.

Item four, requesting confirmation of the appointment of James Plotkin as municipal hearing officer.

Oh, yes. Mister James, good to see you.

Good to see you, mister chair. Counselors, thank you for having me in.

Of course. We missed you last time. So chief administrative officer, would you please introduce us, you know, to mister mister James.

Yes. Mister chair, thank you so much. Kimberly Weld, city clerk here to introduce our municipal hearing officer, Jim Plotkin. Counselors, you may be aware that the municipal hearing officer is in sort of a strange space for a a city government position where it reports to the city attorney, but it works most closely with the city clerk. And it, in fact, is designed to to hear appeals of non criminal ticket violations.

So this position does not work with traffic and parking. It is not about police tickets. It is exclusively about the non criminal tickets that are issued throughout the city, most typically for things like trash or snow or overgrowth and that type of thing. So if you've had a chance to look at the resume attached to the item, you will notice that James Placken comes to us with a great deal of experience as a hearing officer, and so we were very excited to be able to put this this appointment forward before you, and I will happily turn it over to the committee for any questions that you might have of the candidate.

Thank you, Clive Wells and slash COO. Good to have you, mister. Do you have any, you know, things to say to committee member before we start with questioning?

No. Nothing directly to the members, but, I would say that I've come to this position with, I well, I've been a hearing officer in some way or another since, 2001, and, I've always enjoyed this work. I treat everyone fairly, and, everyone gets a a fair fair treatment. I'm also very cognizant of the fact that often people come to these types of hearings, and it's their first and maybe only opportunity to have some kind of interaction with governments. So they need to be treated with respect, compassion, and and and understanding because they can be very nervous, or concerned about this type of ticket.

Wow. Thank you. Thank you, mister Pluck. And I think Yeah, you give me some some comfort there because it's like, especially when you are trying to interpret interpret municipal codes, you know, it can be a little ambiguous. So I guess when you're dealing with regulation, so how would you approach ensuring impartiality and consistency in your decision, especially when handling cases that may involve vulnerable populations or conflicting accounts?

Well, the the accounts will conflict if the, the respondent is appearing and arguing against the ticket. So that's the conflict. The inspector has issued the ticket. The respondent is arguing in some way, a defense. The defense may be an admission, requesting requesting some type of mitigation for maybe a hardship case. And I I always try to be as compassionate as possible while understanding that the code is the code and they have to be, the the code has to be treated fairly just like the people do?

Thank you, mister Blaken. I guess, no, you have a ton of experience. You see, I'm just kinda, like, asking those questions because it it's a pretty you know, like, you remember that I even mentioned in the beginning just how, you know, the courts, you know, can be and the all these regulations that we have, you know, if they are ambiguous, it's not it's not like nothing is it's straightforward, you know, be able to, like, get. But I guess, no, I think you will do an an an excellent job. Thank you. You know? The positive the touch to.

Thank you. Through you. Thank you very much for being with here with us. I think it's it's very helpful for me to to hear you speak on this and to get to ask you a couple questions. You know, I think similarly to what you described, oftentimes, city councilors are the the first person that, you know, a member of the public speaks to, and, you know, it's often first impression really matters.

And I guess I'm just wondering if you could speak a little bit when I I I imagine, maybe this isn't the case, that you occasionally get people who are angry, you know, feel like they've been mistreated. And I wonder if you can speak to how you approach those interactions, you know, how to, how you, you know, maintain professionalism in those situations where people, you know, feel like they've they're on the they've been wronged.

Sure. I you know, I've also had, many years back, some pastoral training and have been taught how to mirror people's language. When people are angry, they wanna know that they've been heard. That's the most important thing. And time and time again over the course of the career, I found that as long as you give the people an opportunity to express their frustration, express their disappointment, explain themselves, then they're usually appreciative of that even if the result doesn't go the way they had hoped.

So, again, I I really try to treat people with respect, let them speak, answer any questions that they might have, especially in an environment like this where no one is represented by an attorney or some other kind of legal representative. They're all pro se, and, some of them are coming to this, where English is a second language for them, so it can be a bit challenging. So we have to slow it down. We have to tone it down and give them an opportunity to really express themselves, and I think that's very important.

Through the chair, thank you for that. I I very much appreciate it. And you mentioned, people for whom English isn't their first language. How does your office handle those situations?

Well, there are I I haven't had that occasion here yet. I've had three months worth of doing these cases solo without Bill Roach helping out. He and I worked together briefly in December. But since then, I haven't had the need to get any kind of language services, but there have been occasions over the course of my career where someone needed a a language assistance, and there has always been a method by which we can get them that kind of service, whether it's a language line or it's a personal interpreter or someone from the family. Whatever is necessary that complies and comports with the regulations and statutes so that we make sure that it's a fair opportunity for the hearing.

So that's where that's happened. I've done a lot of, work, in New York. I used to practice in New York City, where, you know, there were probably a 100 different languages that were occasionally that we had to pull up on LanguageLine. Here, it's not as robust, a a background of various languages, but we do see Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and various other languages that, you know, have occasionally in my other jobs been useful to have available in terms of an interpreter. And so when that happens, we slow it down even more and make sure that the interpreter understands what's going on and the respondent understands what's going on through the interpreter.

Excellent. Mister Chair, I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you for those answers. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, councilor Duncampin, and thank you, mister Pluckin, for those responses. Councilor Link, you have the floor.

Thank you, mister Chair. Mine is less of a question and more of a, I guess, a comment just based on what we just heard right there. I would just ask that, you get in touch with Soya, the the, officer of immigrant affairs, and I think it's Meredith it's Meredith, Gamble who, was able to give the the city council, some guidance on all the different services, the translation services and and whatnot that we we have so that you're you're ready to roll when that does happen.

Thank you for that. And I would also note that I've been working very intimately with Janine Paliaro in the clerk's office, and she's been fantastic helping me all along the way, guiding me, and really whipping me into shape. Fantastic.

Thank you, mister Chur.

Excellent. Thank you. Let's see. I might have to call out counselor Hart because I see you haven't it's like everybody's just here. No. I mean, you don't have to say a word. Like, do you have any any question, counselor Hart? No. I don't see. Okay. Yes? I'm all set as well. Okay. Okay. Because I I don't see you know, like, when they when you see people in a box and then you everybody's spoken, you just wanna make sure that nobody was left out.

So at this point, thank you Mr. Plotkin, I don't see any issue with your confirmation. Think barring any objection from my colleagues, move for approval. Mister Clerk?

Yes. On approval, councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Hart?

Yes.

Councilor Link? Yes. Councilor Ewan Campen? Yes. Chairman Bah?

Yes.

Thank you. This item is recommended to be approved.

Thank you. Thank you, mister Plotkin, for your time, and we're happy to have you.

Thanks. I'm happy to be here. Thanks to you all, and thanks to miss Wells for the, the kind words at the beginning of this.

Amazing. So next item, mister Clerk.

Item six, that this city council appoints James Leo Bedard to the ranked choice voting committee.

Clair Wells, would you you know? And, Clair Wells, I apologize. You should have introduced Jessica Smith. But as you rightly said, we started this meeting in chaos, and so we are now back, you know, like, sailing through. So

Thank you, mister chair. No problem at all. This candidate is not able to be with us this evening. We are working to figure out if there is another time or if the candidate is going to be available for a future meeting. But what I will say here is as with the next item that you'll see before you, the ranked choice voting committee is a new committee that was formed out of the most recent city charter and something that I know several city councilors are interested in exploring. And so this is the start of forming that committee and beginning to get to work with the research and putting some recommendations before the council and the mayor as to how Somerville might be able to implement ranked choice voting.

Excellent. Thank you, Claire. Well oh, councilor Yu and Camden.

Oh, once you're done, mister chair. I I just have a a comment on these two.

Okay. Absolutely. No. I think I see, Krista Hoff is in the audience, so I just wanted, you know, like, the clerk to introduce Krista to us, and we can then take an action on the item that is, you know, before us. So, Teruels, would you like to introduce Crystal?

Thank you, mister chair. I'd be happy to. So your item seven before you, I don't wanna overstep, but to read that item, which is that the council appoint Crystal Huff to the ranked choice voting committee. I think most of the councilors will be familiar with Crystal as a regular attendee of city council meetings and someone who is deeply invested in city government in Somerville. That is not something we get from every one of our 80 plus thousand residents, and so we are deeply appreciative of it when we do get it.

I know this is also a topic that has been the subject of some academic study by the candidate, And I truly just cannot think of anyone more qualified to to serve the community in this way and to provide recommendations and to do deep research to to inform city council and the mayor in making the best decision possible. So with that, I happily introduce Crystal Huff as an appointee to the ranked choice voting committee.

Thank you, Claire. Well, did you notice when you were talking, I did this? Say, is is there is that that excitement? I almost said all rise, you know, but thank you, you know, Krista Hof, long time no see. Do you have anything to share with members of this body with the experience and thoughts you have for this new committee?

Hi, everyone. My name is Crystal Huff. My pronouns are theythem. I live in Ward 5. And I, in particular, did a project last last semester in solidarity economies on co governance, co democracy, and group decision making that included a workshop to help people, understand and, like, go through the steps of different options for making group decisions, at different levels, including ranked choice voting, approval voting, fist to five, and first past the post with the same decision so they could really see it and placed as this is how this is working.

And one of my thesis potential topics, we won't go into why I haven't narrowed that yet. One of my potential thesis topics is how do we as a community make decisions about who we are and what we care about and how can we shift our decision making. And so I've done some academic work in this area because of that. I'm happy to answer any questions.

You're muted, mister chair.

Oh, thank you. Thank you, councilor McGovern. I'm here. The first thing that came out from my mouth was, wow, for that intro. I guess just for the sake of the public and just the education piece, I think having you in this space will be huge.

As you know, you and I go way back. I guess the question I have is just about community engagement piece. How would you engage diverse communities, including those with language or accessibility barriers in this conversation about armed choice voting? Do you have any, like, thoughts? This is just me now out of curiosity, but I'm thrilled just that you know, to have you in this space.

Thank you for the compliments. I I think that, obviously, this will be a committee, and we will make a lot of decisions together about how to, make the work that we do be as accessible as possible and in different modalities and with different outreach mechanisms. And and, hopefully, each committee member will bring different experiences to the table to to leverage in those in those ways as well. Obviously, one of the one of the things that I do a lot of work on is and the community fridges, and I interact with different members of the community through those mutual aid groups. I also just think that some amount of work on this project in general in the city will involve a bunch of people gathering at different library branches and talking with their neighbors.

But we will we'll make a lot of those decisions as as a committee, I I firmly believe. That's certainly my intention.

Excellent. And, you know, one of the things, honestly, when this when this appointments came, I for me, like, I almost wanted to even approve them almost automatically, but again, this is useful, like for us to come here and, you know, people can express some of their desire, intentions through these conversations, you know, just so that you can see how once you leave from here, you start governing, you can think about what some of the committee members have shared about their thoughts and also hear from you members of the public and also watch and say, wow, These people, you know, this is the direction that they are taking. So thank you for that response. Councilor McLaughlin?

Thank you, chair. So, yeah, I'm very excited to have this committee move forward and to hopefully get ranked choice voting up to the state house as soon as possible for the whole new charter process. I don't have any questions. I would move to approve both candidates because these are the council president's appointments. I know them both, and I know they're gonna be committed to this position.

I wanted to add my 2¢ about ranked choice voting because I'm not gonna have any role in this committee at all. But I just wanna flag that, when the ranked choice voting was on the ballot a few years ago and it failed across the state but passed overwhelmingly in some of all. That ballot question excluded at large or multiple choice races. So something like the at large race where you can pick up to four candidates. That wouldn't be ranked choice voting under the ballot question, and I think that makes a lot of sense because we already have multiple choice.

You can pick up to four people. And I would think it would be great for ward counselors. I think it'd be great for mayor. And if we can apply to state that in a race myself, ranked choice voting would be very beneficial right now. But I just wanna put that out there, because I see the Cambridge system of multiple candidate ranked choice and the problems that that causes. So I proved that's my own personal preference that I just wanted to put there, just so I don't, like, meddle with the committee when the time comes. So I would move to approve, both of these positions.

Thank you, councilor McLaughlin. I appreciate that. Vote for me number one. Number one choice. Everybody is number one. But again, councilor McLaughlin, I think if it's okay with you, you can hold your motion since councilor Ling hasn't spoken. You know? It's so that we don't kinda like, usually, if everybody has spoken, I think we can move ahead with the motion. But at this point, would you mind reconsidering your motion? So wonderful. So councilor McLaughlin moved to reconsider his motion. So that motion is off the table. Councilor Ling?

Yes, sir. Sure. Thank you to councilor McLaughlin. I just wanted to say as the the council that's going to be on the ranked choice voting committee, I can't imagine a better partner, so I'm I'm really excited, to to see, Crystal, on on this team.

Excellent. Thank you, councilor Ling. And, councilor, and Campen, you also, you know, had something to say before we're gonna take councilor my grandson's motion to, you know, approve both, so which I'm also fine with. But councilor, and.

Oh, thank you, mister Scheher. I I was actually gonna say the exact same thing that if if any councilor has a problem with these appointees, first of all, I disagree. And second of all, it was your job to find somebody, and you didn't. So I no. I I happen to know both of these candidates and think very highly of them and think I'm I'm glad they're gonna be on the committee. I'm happy to support both of them tonight.

Same. Same. Thank you. So at this point, thank you, Krista. We are thrilled, as you can, you know, tell. So, we'll we'll move to approve board candidate. Mister Claire, can you please call the roll?

Yes. On items six and seven. Councilor McLaughlin? Yes. Councilor Hart? Yes. Councilor Link?

Yes.

Councilor Ewen Camping?

Yes.

Chairman Baa?

Yes, please.

Those items are recommended to be approved.

So at this point, you know, we take everything off the table. I think the only last thing that we did not approve was the, you know, the minutes of the previous meeting. We can take that, you know, do a roll call and then also, like, motion to adjoin. Mister Clerk?

Thank you, mister chair. On the motion excuse me. On the item on the table, council McLaughlin. Yes. Councilor Hart. Yes. Councilor Link. Yes. Councilor Yuan Kempen.

Yes.

Chairman Bah?

Yes, please.

The minutes are recommended to be accepted.

And we are adjourned. Thank you so much, Corey.

And mister chair, a vote on adjournment? Sure. Councilor McLaughlin?

Sure.

Councilor Hart. Yes. Councilor Link.

Sure.

Councilor Ewan Campen. Okay. Chairman Bah. Aye. This committee is adjourned.

Thank you, colleagues.