Confirmation of Appointments and Personnel Matters Committee - Regular Meeting

So welcome everyone. Welcome everyone. I call this meeting to order. This is the committee's confirmation of appointment and personnel matters. It's Monday, July 6, 2026 at 6 p.m. Pursuant to Chapter 2 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, or other comprehensive record of this proceeding as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

This is roll call, Councilor McLaughlin. Here. Councilor Hart.

Here.

Councilor Link.

Here.

Councilor Ewing Campin. Here. And Councilor Bauer. Present. Mr. Chair, all members are present. We have a quorum.

Wonderful. Thank you. So we will lay in our item one, you know, on the table to take it at the end for approval, which is, you know, the minutes, you know, of the last meeting. And then before we proceed, I think IGH want us to take some item out of order, I guess. Let me just, so clerk, a few items by the file number, Dr. Noggins, can you just read the items you want? I see blue, black. Peter will read any item that you want me to take out of order. He will read it and then we'll take it out of order. I can't. I don't know. I cannot understand this text. Just read the items that you want to be taken and then Peter will... We'll call them out, please.

Good evening, Mr. Chair. Amanda Najib-Williams, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. I believe the first item out of order, thank you, Chair, for your willingness to do that, would be agenda item number three, file number 260655. Perfect.

Okay. Peter, would you read that, please?

Gender 3, 260, excuse me, 0655, requesting the confirmation of the appointment of Taylor Perkins to the Fair Housing Commission.

Amazing. And just... I'm not gonna assume that my committee members and so forth. So barring any objection from the committee members, I hope it's okay that we took this item out of order. Thank you, thank you. I don't wanna, you know. So is there anybody here to introduce the member?

Through you, Chair. I'm Lisa Davidson, the Director of Housing, and I'd like to introduce Taylor Perkins, First candidate being recommended for the appointment is Taylor. He is being recommended because through his professional experience as a professor at the Boston College and has an associate's director of the Concord Center for Real Estate, excuse me, Urban Planning, he demonstrated deep knowledge of fair housing policy and its intersection with the overall overall housing landscape in Somerville and throughout Massachusetts. In his interview, he also demonstrated enthusiasm for teaching Each an experience that could lend itself to the commission's goals of expanding education around fair housing in Somerville, noting in particular that he would like to expand outreach to some of those immigrant and student communities who are often least likely to know and experience their fair housing rights. This candidate is our first choice because his knowledge, experience, enthusiasm, for deeper engagement, connecting with the community members through fair housing resources aligns with the commission's mission and can push forward the ways in which they strive to meet it.

Wow. Thank you, Director Davidson. Is Taylor Pickens here?

Yes, I am, Counselor. Or Mr. Chairman, excuse me.

Thank you.

Honored to be here.

Thank you, Virginia, and thank you for your willingness to volunteer on this board. Part of this meeting is just to even acknowledge your presence and appreciate you. You get to meet your fellow counselors, and then we can always chat. I guess, do you have anything to say to members of this body before I ask just one letter?

Of course. No, I'm honored to be here and a resident of Somerville, live on Heath Street, single dad to a four-year-old daughter, and just really looking for an opportunity to help make our community stronger.

Wonderful. Thank you. Wow. You always just reinforce my ability to just want to see these faces and the people, you know, like always willing to help, you know, move the city forward. I guess just, you know, one question for the fun of it is just to say, you know, like... Like, how would you ensure that all residents know their housing rights? You know, this is just us also educating one another and kind of like educating kind of members of this body in terms of like your approach.

Yeah, you know, I think, and I want to acknowledge that there's been a lot of good work done by the commission up until now, and I'm really excited to build on that. I think one of the things that we talked a lot through the interview process that was exciting about, and I'll be honest, I'm sometimes a little apprehensive, but I think it's the truth, is like a little bit more outreach and sort of like social media, alternate media like that. And I think also... trying to create sort of force multipliers and sort of looking for champions in the community, really going deep with them on sort of like what are their rights and helping to sort of equip them to talk to their friends and neighbors because ultimately it's like we're There's a lot of stigma around housing. Right. And so people often aren't just raising their hand and saying like, hey, I'm facing eviction and or a lot of what you see is like, oh, this landlord said, you know, the apartment's not taken or something like that. And so, you know, I'd love it if in a year there's a larger group of people in Somerville who would say, wait, actually, you know, that sounds like that's, you know, your rights are being violated and here's how you can do something about that.

Wow. Thank you, Professor. Even myself, I've experienced my own share of housing issues. I remember when we were you know, like expecting a baby, you call, you know, there's availability and then they realize that, oh, you know, you're expecting, it's not delayed. And so it's just like these issues are real, you know, and we're just grateful that, you know, there are people out there really willing to put their thumb on the scale to kind of like keep... keep the city moving and keeping, you know, like the landlords and the residents accountable to each other. So no, I think I'm good. Maybe members of the committee have any questions to ask you, because this is like, usually we just do this for formality. Councillor Ewen Campin.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll just say this at the top of the meeting. I'm totally blown away by this candidate, but also we have a lot of candidates on tonight's agenda. I've reviewed all of their materials. I'm incredibly impressed by all of them. I'm incredibly thankful to all of them for stepping up to serve the city. I don't have any additional questions for this candidate or others tonight, but I just wanted to state for the record once how impressed I am, how thankful I am for their service, and I'm looking forward to supporting everyone on tonight's agenda. Amazing.

Thank you, Councillor Ewen Campion. I'm right there with you, 120%. Any other members of this body have any questions for Councillor Hart?

Sure. Well, I'll take the opportunity to echo Councillor Ewan Campin's sentiments. Really appreciate you stepping forward, Dr. Perkins, and I'm super impressed by your qualifications for this and your dedication to Somerville. So thank you. And likewise to everybody who's coming forward this evening. Really appreciate it.

Yep. Thank you. Thank you. And guys, you know, moving forward, this is going to change. It's like a revised protocol for confirmation of appointment, which is going to be on the agenda of the city council. So, so we can all, we're on the same page, you know, yeah, no, this is for me. It's just. The fact that we're all here is just easier for me to see Dr. Perkins and just to say thank you as well. I think we are on the same page. This is our move to recommend approval. Lisa, you have another person, right? For Fair Housing?

Yes, Chair.

Could you do the introduction for us? Sure.

Sure. The next candidate being recommended for appointment is Callie Masters. She's being recommended because she has professional experience working with and lobbying for fair housing organizations, including Mass Fair Housing Center and South Coast Fair Housing. on her public policy priorities. She demonstrates specific knowledge of fair housing law and the intersections between affordability and fair housing law to protect access to housing, focusing on the impact on immigrant families. In her interview, she mentioned connecting with lawmakers to expand awareness around fair housing and reaching young people who often don't know their rights or how to navigate the housing systems. This aligns with the commission's goal to increase outreach and expand the groups they are reaching. This candidate is our first choice because her knowledge of fair housing experience with fair housing organizations and thoughtful approach to outreach aligns with the commission's mission and can add to the ways in which they strive to meet it.

Mr. Clerk, sorry, just a technical note, just so the clerk knows, your note-taking is being broadcast on the screen. The minute-taking. Oh, thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. And clerk, this is also like, so we're going to move to like, this is item number six. because we just want to check off those boxes. And then after that, we'll bring everybody else, you know, with the same agenda. They will read all that and then everybody's going to come on the screen. So Carly, welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, everyone. It's great to be with you all today. Just to quickly introduce myself, Callie Masters. I've been a Somerville resident for six years and a renter for six years in Somerville, living in Ward 3. And I'm really grateful to the Fair Housing Commission who's recommended me for this position. And I'm happy to answer any additional questions that you all might have.

Thank you, Karen Masters. I guess you can tell my colleagues don't have any questions, but the fact that I compared you guys to be here, I got to ask that my one question, you know, like how would you ensure that, you know, all residents know their rights in Somerville?

Yes, absolutely. As Taylor said as well, a lot of our conversations during the interview process focused on specific communities that could be tapped for additional outreach and education. And as Lisa stated too, my work and my day job is doing government affairs work, which is encompassed with nonprofit clients that I work with, including two of the state's four fair housing agencies. And in talking with those folks in particular in their public policy agenda, so much of the work that they do is focused focused around who has access to the right resources to know what their rights are. So as someone who was a renter in Somerville during my college days, I identified particularly the student population who is likely vulnerable, maybe folks moving in from out of state like I did, who don't know the full slate of Somerville's fair housing, of Massachusetts's fair housing laws and the rights that they have available to them here. So I've thought about ways that we can leverage social media, meeting people where they're at, going to college campuses, councils on aging for folks with disabilities and aren't aware of their rights to have handrails installed in their apartments so that they aren't unhoused. And as Lisa also alluded to, the folks that I work with every day are up on Beacon Hill. So I think that there is a real opportunity to engage with state lawmakers and their staff to make sure that they're able to adequately help residents in our city when they reach out to their constituent services director in our state senators, the representatives office to ensure that they have the resources to direct them to their rights and the folks who can help avail them of those.

It's recommended to be approved unless any member have any question for Carly. I think that was excellent above and beyond. So Dr. Davidson, do you have any other candidate before us?

I do not, well, we have Shaniqua here to do a trust, an affordable housing trust member.

And as IGH, you want us to take that also out of order, Amanda?

Through you, Mr. Chair, yes, that's correct. That is the item that we discuss next. It is agenda item number five.

Okay, Peter, take it away.

Item number five. requesting the confirmation of the appointment of Jurek Moultrie-Weathers to the Affordable Housing Trust.

Okay. So we're here to introduce. Shanique, are you the one to introduce the candidate?

Yes.

Okay. Take it away, please.

Sure. To you, Mr. Chair, Shanique Waroka, Affordable Housing Trust liaison. Good evening, Chair and members of the committee. Before I introduce the candidate, I'd like to let the committee know that Ms. Jaret Moultrie-Weathers who's being recommended for the city resident representative seat was unable to attend this evening due to an unexpected family emergency. She asked that I extend her sincere apologies and shared that if the committee feel it will be helpful, she would welcome the opportunity to appear before you at a future meeting. Now, given the timing, however, I respectfully ask that the committee still consider her appointment this evening. The Affordable Housing Trust is authorized for nine members, but we currently only have six active trustees. The three opening seats that we do have are consists of two nonprofit representative and one city representative, which we are here for tonight. Two current trustees have indicated that they are prepared to step down, but they have graciously agreed to remain temporarily until the vacancies are filled so that the trust can continue meeting foreign requirements. We also have the two non-profit representative vacancies. Now, while we had hoped to bring those appointments before the committee prior to council recess, we did have some scheduling constraints that prevented us from doing so. So we anticipate bringing those recommendations forward at a future meeting. So filling these seats is particularly important as the trust anticipates bringing forward several funding requests and other matters that requires formal votes over the next few months that's forthcoming. Staff interviewed the finalists for the city resident representative seat, which is a position reserved for Somerville residents who is considered income eligible for state and or federal housing programs. Following the interview process, staff ultimately recommended Ms. Moultrie-Weathers for appointment to the mayor. Ms. Moultrie-Weathers has many years of experience advocating on behalf of Somerville residents through organizations including Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services, Greater Boston Legal Services, the Massachusetts Advocates, for Children and the City's Anti-Displacement Task Force. During the interview, she spoke about both her professional experience supporting tenants and her own lived experience navigating housing affordability in the city. She emphasized the importance of ensuring that affordable housing decisions remain connected to the experiences of the residents most affected by them. Staff believe that those experiences combined with her commitment to tenant advocacy and community engagement will bring an important resident perspective that truly complements the existing expertise represented on the trust that we currently have today. So with that said, I'd be happy to answer any questions the committee may have.

Thank you, Director. Is it Director Rupa?

Huh?

Is that your title director?

Oh, no, that's Lisa.

Anyway, no, but no, thank you. I guess, you know, it's fine. You know, it's like, you know, approved, you know, recommended to be approved. Again, this advisory, you know, like, but for me, my goal is just being to, you know, appreciation. But in the future, we will just, I will need to meet them offline just so that at least people know they are reps. It's just helpful because they've told me that they want to get to, you know, so this is not, nobody's interview or appointment is in jeopardy. It's just, it's nice to acknowledge, you know, that, you know, thank you. It's our volunteers. So we don't have, they don't exercise any binding for us. So thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you. Somebody has a question. Counselor, you're incumbent.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, just to be clear, the The Affordable Housing Trust Fund takes very important binding votes on funding. But I'm completely in support of Ms. Moultrie-Weathers. I've had the great opportunity to meet her over the years. Excited that she's stepped up. No problem whatsoever that she wasn't able to make it tonight. And very much looking forward to her serving. I think this is, I know, Councilor Mba, myself, and many others have served on this when we're as councilors. And the trust does really, really valuable, important work for the city. So we're very thankful that she's stepping up to do this.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. So I guess are we done with, should we not, you know, Dr. Davidson, I think, I think, you know, we don't have any item for you, correct?

That's correct, Chair.

Okay, wonderful. So we'll now move on. Is IGH also fine, you know, that we return back to our business order?

Through you, Mr. Chair, yes. Through you, Mr. Chair, yes.

The next item is 13. So, Peter, I guess what will happen is all the items for the Climate Action Commission, like those ones, you know, we'll just have, you know, like Director Nuta introduced all these wonderful folks that are doing work behind the scenes to us. And then we can do the normal ritual of appreciation. If everybody has a chance to ask one or two questions, that's fine. So Peter, can you, I think we'll probably, Clark, do you think we can wave those readings or do you want, it's like, can you read them?

Why don't I just do one general with all of the names? Okay. Amazing. Yep. Thank you.

Yes.

Okay. So climate action would be, this is going to be agenda items seven through 19. Yes. And the candidates would be Alexis Washburn, Corey Donoghue, Courtney Koslow, Kenzie Ballard, Zara Ati, Lauren Gunther, Ritika Phillips, Paxty Martinez, Larry Yu, Monty Allen, Sierra Mall, Agava Kalia, and Rio Hunter Black.

Amazing. Amazing. Director Nutter. Introduce all these fine people. For some reason, I also just didn't have a question for them too. Just one night, so I know this is climate, like everybody's talking about climate, so there's no way they're gonna come before us, and then I don't ask my climate questions. So, Director Noorat, can you just introduce us?

Uh, yes, thank you to you to you chair. I'm, I'm glad that everyone's talking about climate. It's really important. My name is Steve another. I'm the chief of the officer for the city of Somerville here. So, thank you all for your time tonight. And for consideration, the climate action commission appointees. I, I'm going to give it a short overview here and then turn it over to Kate bossing him and our department to if that's if that works for you. I just want to share that this group is incredibly exceptional. I'm definitely going to call them exceptional. They're a multi-generational blend of deep technical expertise, grassroots community trust, and proven advocacy leadership that's, I think, uniquely tailored to Somerville's needs. And that's really the two things that we need to accomplish our climate goals. We received 49 applications for 13 slots on the Climate Action Commission, which it was incredibly challenging to go through the determination process. I would have rather had a commission of 49 people if I had my choice. So I just want to give thanks to everyone who applied. The people before you range from lifelong and newer residents, youth leaders, retirees, new parents, multilingual immigrants, and to professional careers in energy regulation, architects, affordable housing developers. These candidates are already doing stuff in climate in the city, including serving on previous commissions, school decarbonization campaigns, and doing environmental justice projects. And just to put this in context, the Climate Action Commission is really a broader ecosystem of our community actors that we're working to engage and uplift. They're doing youth, so it connects with our youth climate clubs, our climate ambassador program, and then, of course, the thousands that connect and amplify the work of our division to reach our 77 climate action goals. So, and this is also for those who didn't know, this is a reiteration of a previous commission. Then there's been more than a year at least of work to figure out what this new commission is going to be. So we're basically building a whole new commission from scratch here tonight. So I'm going to introduce Kate Bossingham, who is our environmental policy manager and staff liaison to the commission.

Thank you, Stephen, for that wonderful introduction. So, Kate.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kate Bossingham, Environmental Policy Manager. I'm the staff liaison for the Climate Action Commission, or the CAC. I will say this briefly because I think Stephen covered some of the material I was going to mention, but just to give some context for the CAC, it was created in April 2025 through a new ordinance, and it's an evolution of the longstanding CAC. Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change, the CEUCC, which was created back in 2001. The new CAC ordinance expands the scope and also the membership, so it'll be a larger body than the CEUCC was. And per the authorizing ordinance, the CAC serves the following functions. It is to address and reverse both the climate and environmental crises through community and local government operations with the goal of creating a healthier, safer, and more equitable Somerville community, to advise the mayor and municipal staff, and to mobilize Somerville residents and stakeholders by educating the public through outreach and engagement. So I'm excited to be here tonight and for this committee to learn more about the candidates for the Climate Action Commission. I'm available to answer any questions about the CAC that you may have. Thank you.

Nice. I can't even see those candidates on the screen. Where's Lara? Where's Courtney? Where's all these folks? I think there's a way that the screen was kind of like structured so we can see all these amazing folks. I have like a general question for everybody. Not like specifically. It's But I'll be happy to hear from each one. There's not even a lot of one. But again, these are people that I know, a bunch of them. But Stephen, I will be happy to hear from each one what they think that some of you should be focusing on in the next two years. I don't want to have all these 10-year goals, 2040, just two years in terms of climate. And they just kind of like give us that, you know, say, I don't want to put anybody's mouth, but that's, that's the way that we can actually enjoy this introduction with each other. And then I can just thank them. It's not like this is, there's no formality here.

Alexis Washburn- I can start since i'm first on the agenda, but hi everyone i'm Alexis washburn I live in Ward seven. Alexis Washburn- And i've been a somerville resident for four years now, I was previously on the former Commission, the Commission on energy use and climate change and happy to be. Alexis Washburn- joining the new climate action Commission, I think one thing that i'm excited about working in climate for my job. But also getting to be in the space and volunteer here is just seeing some of the really cool pilots that we do here in Somerville. Like I've been really excited about the composting pilot that we've been doing in East Somerville and hopefully seeing that expand to other parts of the city. Certainly what we've done when it comes to composting. community choice energy and negotiating better rates for more clean energy for the city of Somerville. I think that's really exciting. And it always makes me proud to say that I live in Somerville because other folks wish that they had those things. So I think if we can certainly continue to lead by example, I think other communities will also follow, which is really exciting.

Thank you, Alexi. Corey.

To you, Mr. Chair, Cory Donahue is actually unable to make it to the meeting tonight.

Approved, approved.

Great. To you, Chair, if I could request, we had a couple of people with conflicts, if I could push them to the top of the line, if that's all right.

Yes, yes.

So, Ritika Phillip, I think, is on.

Yep, I'm here. Hello, lovely to meet all of you. I'm a resident of Davis Square, a new resident to Somerville, but very excited to be here. And my interest or the area I'd like to focus on over the next two years with Somerville is the school decarbonization efforts, but also the education around sustainability. I spent a year as a chief of staff for an education nonprofit, which was specifically focused on intercultural education around sustainability. So we worked on a baseline of things like energy usage, water usage, but also thinking about things like food systems, travel to and from school. So I know that Somerville has already done a lot in terms of thinking about the leases, for example, on the fleet, but I'm very excited to work with the commission and then all the kind of relevant stakeholders on where the schools are going and how we can help them get there faster.

Amazing. Thank you, Latika, and thank you for your time and your service.

Thank you.

Kit, yes, take it away. Who's next?

To Mr. Chair, Monty Allen.

Okay. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, and through you to the members of the committee, and thank you for your time tonight. I'm Monty Allen. I don't know any of you well. I recognize some of you. So I wonder if I could have just a bit of time to tell you about myself. Of course. My family and I lived in Belmont for a number of years and we moved to Somerville 10 years ago. I'm familiar with working in the context of municipal government. Because while living in Belmont, I was elected as a town meeting member and actually reelected a number of times as a town meeting member from one of the precincts in Belmont. But when we moved to Somerville, the thing that really just captured my imagination and just sparked my interest was the fact that Somerville at that time has just evolved. publicly committing to carbon neutrality and now even carbon negativity by 2050. And it's just, this is what our society needs to do. And here's Somerville doing it and making a public commitment to it. And I got very jazzed about that. So I'm delighted to have the opportunity to help advance that objective. I, my career, the last 15 years of my career, I worked with CARE, the International Development and Poverty Alleviation Organization. And as a high level fundraiser, I raised a ton of money for a number of things that were climate related. But I think actually in the end, my greatest contribution to CARE was persuading CARE to pay attention to climate change as a primary driver of global poverty. So I was able, as part of CARE's delegation, to attend COP20 in Lima, Peru. It was a real highlight for me. And one of the things that became apparent at that COP gathering was the fact that the whole phenomenon of climate-induced human migration wasn't even on the agenda for discussion. And it's a huge phenomenon. And if you think it's big now, you wait. So anyway, Kier worked together with one of the UN ministries to conduct a study on climate-induced human migration and raised the money for that study. And let's see, what else should I tell you about? Well, one of the things that I'm currently involved in is the decarbonization effort of the Unitarian Church in Belmont. I'm reconnected with that. And actually, this is something that I sparked. And now it is a progress that is moving along at a really fast pace. What will happen is that there will be a geothermal connection at the Belmont Unitarian Church. And being a part of the working group of six members of the congregation to advance that is very consuming, but incredibly satisfying. And so it's one of the things that I'm very glad to be part of. I wanted to say another thing about Somerville's commitment to carbon neutrality. One of the things that I really admired about the approach Somerville was taking to this was to start it by conducting a study to determine where are the greenhouse gases actually coming from. And one of the primary findings was that two-thirds of the greenhouse gases are coming from the existing building stock. in Somerville. And so obviously a primary question is how does, what can the city do to persuade building owners to make the investments that will be required to bring the buildings that they own to carbon neutrality? That just seemed to me like the biggest question confronting this whole initiative. And so with Larry Yu as a thought partner, we took a deep dive into trying to address that question. And after many conversations and compiled our findings into a report that I developed that offered some suggestions for what Somerville could do in order to persuade building owners to retrofit their buildings. So that's very much in line with my interest in serving on the commission. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. And I'm delighted to have this chance to introduce myself to you all.

Thank you. Thank you. I feel like, thank you, Montana. Now, even in shows that I've already submitted my revised protocol for confirmation of appointment, I might have to do some amendments just to still have to see you guys. It's so nice to kind of like hear, get this connection, get this face time and see, you know, the remarkable people that, you know, are volunteering, stepping up to make a difference. Councillor Link, is this your, you know, like, I know you had somebody that was at City Hall. Was it Monte Allen? Yes, yes, it was. We should have even brought him on the horseshoe to kind of like give a whole, you know, editorial about what the mission is all about. Because, you know, no, thank you so much for stepping up and just for joining the city in this capacity. Thank you. So happy to have you. And, you know, apologies for the mixer when you came to City Hall. I just didn't want to select you out and just say, hey, you know, and also just approving everybody without even knowing. Look at just how refreshing it is. Personally, I can speak for myself. I just love to see and thank the people helping the city in this capacity. So thank you. Escape.

Hi to you, Mr. Chair, if I could request that Babaka Kalia be able to speak next. Of course.

Thank you so much. Good evening, Chair and counselors. My name is Babaka Kalia, and I'm a rising senior at Somerville High School, and I'm super excited to be here tonight. Just a little bit about me. I've been involved in a variety of climate initiatives, both on the local level and also the statewide level, and I specifically focus a lot on climate education. So, for example, over the past year, I was a Somerville Public Schools climate education intern and facilitator, and I worked very closely with the project innovation specialist of Somerville Public Schools, Jason Behrens, to bring a variety of climate education initiatives throughout our middle schools and also the high school as well. And then I also served as a co-chair of a subcommittee on the Governor's Youth Climate Change Council, where we write climate policy recommendations to Governor Keeley, which was really great. And I also focused on education there. And yeah, that's a little bit about the work I do. But looking ahead, I'm really excited to kind of bridge the gap between the city or what we're doing in the city and what we're doing within the schools, because I've definitely seen a bit of a disconnect and I would love to bridge that gap. and to really ensure that youth voices are really heard and to ensure that all young people see themselves represented in these spaces because of course our generation is not just the leaders of the future, but also the leaders of the present. So yeah, I'm excited to bring a youth voice to the table. Thank you.

Wonderful. Thank you. Happy to have you. And Kate, yes, can you?

Yes. What's next? Next is Sierra Moll on.

Hi, everyone. Hi, Mr. Chair and councillors and fellow Climate Action Committee folks. My name is Sierra Moll. I have lived in Somerville for the last five years. Three or four of them were near Ball Square, and I'm currently in Union Square. And right now, I work for the state of Massachusetts doing community engagement and outreach around clean energy, energy affordability, and energy justice. So I'm really excited to dive into those topics at the local level and support all of Somerville's great ongoing existing efforts there and help you know, expand access and participation in the Mass Save program, get some more Somerville homes with heat pumps and better insulation and building envelope ceiling, get people onto the aggregation of city and off of third party suppliers, things like that. And then also at a personal level, I just love to be outside and connecting with nature. So I'm excited to work on some of Somerville's efforts around pollinator gardens and reintroducing native plant species into our green spaces around here. So excited to meet you all and thanks for having me.

Thank you, Sierra. We all love to be outside, you know. So now I can see that face outside, I can say hi. If you see Councillor Ling, you can say like, hey, Councillor Ling, that's, you know, I saw you. So yeah, no, thank you for joining and for your time in helping the city. Kate, who's next?

Courtney Costell.

It's Courtney. Courtney needs no introduction. Can I introduce Courtney? Anyway, Courtney.

Hello, Chair and everybody on the council who's here today. I really appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve as a member now on the official Climate Action Commission. having been on the interim and the CEUCC for about three years now. As many of you know, I'm a long-term Somerville resident. I've been here 27 years. I'm an affordable housing developer working on large multi-family affordable housing, and I have a particular focus and passion on creating high-performance all-electric urban sequestering buildings, which have been happy to be able to successfully do. I am also very passionate about Somerville and really find myself coming to life and engaged when I'm not physically involved. And so I have most recently kind of harnessed that energy around school decarbonization. I'm a parent of a rising seventh grader at the Winter Hill Community Innovation School. I've been on the governing board since my daughter was in pre-K in 2018 and also serve on the Mass School Board Authority School Building Committee, but I really find being on all of those groups together help me have a more informed and be able to help to make change from a more informed place, and I'm really happy to be able to do that at a time where We're really kind of working as a city together to make some good, important, needed changes on our climate. So we appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you. Thank you, Courtney. And for anyone that hasn't yet seen the high-performance building, book an appointment with Courtney. You will see what that means in practice, because I have been there to see. So thank you.

My own care, Charles. Thank you. Thank you.

That was good. Thanks. I'd like to ask Kenzie Ballard. Yes, hello.

Hello.

Hi. Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for having me here. I am Kenzie. I have been a Somerville resident for about five years and now work as one of the co-directors at Groundwork Somerville, your local environmental justice organization. My, uh, what I get to do is I get to, um, teach youth how to be climate justice advocates in their community. And that is what, um, how I hope to support the climate action commission is by connect further connecting, um, the city with our youth perspectives and, um, some other things that our youth do is I collect local climate, um, data. So heat noise and air quality data. They our youth collect the data, visualize, interpret the data, and then provide recommendations to city partners to make land use changes for climate justice. I also plant and water trees. I'm on the Somerville Bike Kitchen staff, so I also do a lot of transportation advocacy work for climate-friendly transportation options. Yeah, that's me.

Thank you, Kenzie. So good to see you again. Good to see you, Will. When I saw your name, I was like, oh, what is it? You know how you know the first name? And I looked at the last name and I said, is this my Kenzie or this is somebody else? It doesn't matter. I will put a face behind the people doing the work. So thank you.

Yes.

Thank you all. Yes. I'd like to ask Lauren Gunther to speak next.

Hi, can you hear me? Yes, please. Oh, hi. I'm Lauren Gunter. I am a resident of Massachusetts. I mean, sorry, of Somerville since 2014. I have a son that attends Argonziano. He's going into sixth grade. And sorry, do you hear additional noise behind me? OK. OK. And I am director of sustainability in an architecture firm in Boston. I'm a trained architect and I really focus on energy codes. I'm also a part of the Department of Energy Resources. Stretch Code Advisory Committee, helping to really establish more flexible energy codes to really help our existing buildings and decarbonization. And I also have a background in Passive House. We work on many Passive House projects, high performance envelopes, all electric projects. net zero. So I bring that level of expertise and I'm just really excited to be here and honored to be part of this commission. And I also For the next two years, one of the topics that I love to see really brought to the forefront is resiliency. You know, with what we're seeing with our changing climate, with the heat over the last many years really rising in the summers and the cold temperatures, you know, we just saw how cold everything got in January and February. I really would love to see the education and outreach around environmental justice to really support the residents in this community in terms of how can they better prepare or how can they live in such a changing climate. So that's one of the things I really love to bring to the forefront.

Thank you, Lauren. We're happy to have you. Thank you.

Thank you.

I'd like to ask Paxty Martinez to speak next.

Hello, everyone. Hey, so nice to meet everybody. Finally put so many names together. My name is Paxty. I'm originally from the land of the sun, which is near Mexico and Texas, but I've lived in Somerville for a number of years now. I have my undergrad education in urban planning with a focus on democratic placemaking. My grad degree was at Harvard. I wrote a thesis about how New England could prepare for the changes that New England expects to see as a result of climate change. I'm an indigenous person. I pull a lot from the indigenous perspective on climate change that really informs a lot of my work. and I'm primarily interested in social infrastructure and systems and economics, so very much involved in solidarity economics and cooperatives and circular economics, so on and so forth. I believe that the road that got us here will not be the road that will get us out. Right now, I work for a nonprofit called Culture House, and my most exciting project is a bit silly, goofy, but still very meaningful. We are running in East Somerville specifically Imagine an ice cream truck, but it's an e-pedal cargo bike, and we give out water and electrolytes and ice and cooling materials and ice pops for kids. So if you see this loud, jangling, colorful, giant bike wagon around East Somerville, that's me giving supplies to East Somerville residents, so come say hi. Nice to meet everybody.

Thank you, Patsy. Thank you so much. I have to be honest, part of me was to have this like a five minute, you know, like closure, like, oh, you know, just they do the introduction and then they just thank everybody and they were like, okay, we don't need you guys. But the more I just hear is just the more I'm like, wow, this is like really very refreshing just to, you know, like know our own citizens, our own community members who are leaders, you know, champions in their own spaces that is like they have chosen to give their time to the city, you know, in that capacity. So thank you.

Director Nutter. I just was going to say I wasn't lying when I said that they were extraordinary. There's no...

Honestly, no. I wasn't saying that. Because usually, you know, we would normally not even have these folks in committee. But again, since I've seen some in different restaurants, in different places, they say, oh, well, you know, it's like seven days. You know, you guys approve. And then I'm like, oh, wow, thank you. But again, it would be nice. They even express that. It would be nice to have to know you know, some of us. And so that was my thinking, but I think in the future we'll kind of like figure out, you know, like the best pathway to say thank you also in this kind of, you know, way for, you know, so that people feel are not acknowledged. So thank you. So Kate, yeah, but that list is a long list, man. Wow. How far down?

We're getting there. If I could ask Larry Yu to speak next.

Okay, now I need to introduce Larry Yu.

All right. To you, Mr. Chair, and perhaps I'm going to be the letdown after Director Nutter just said everyone is extraordinary, so sorry about that. Also through you, Mr. Chair, it's a pleasure to see counselors whom I've met before and also a pleasure to meet new counselors whom I haven't met. So thank you for having me and thank you for your service. My name is Larry Yu. I have lived in Somerville in Ward 6 for 21 years now. I'm a homeowner in Davis Square. I have a day job working for a management consulting firm that works with nonprofits and philanthropies. I also am active in a number of community organizations centered around climate, but also doing some very adjacent work in other areas. So the Climate Coalition of Somerville, but also active through Green and Open Somerville and through Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets or through a number of other local organizations. I have served on the board of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network and currently serve on the board of the Charles River Watershed Association. And I've also been on the predecessor commission for this commission, the Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change since 2019. You specifically asked what I hope to bring or achieve in the next two years. I would say it is to listen to, engage with, and activate as many members of the Somerville community as possible to be a part of this culture of sustainability and climate action. Yeah, it's that simple, I think. Also, electrify everything. So thank you.

Thank you, Larry. I think you and Courtney, I've known you guys for over 10 years now. you know, and just seeing your work also in the Charles River watershed, you know, which I also serve as the board of advisor there. It's just remarkable. I just to see, you know, like the enormous infinite capacity that you have Larry to touch on in a way by the media, you're always there. So thank you Larry. And I'm glad that you said you haven't even met some of the counselors. So this is really also for me, it's very refreshing to continue the conversation. So I appreciate you. Thank you, Larry.

To you, Mr. Chair, I'd like to ask Zahra Otzi to speak next.

Hi, good evening, counselors. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. My name is Zara, and I'm also a rising senior at Somerville High School. And I'm going to talk about myself just a little bit. So I'm really a pretty like... Recent resident in Somerville, I moved in Somerville less than two years ago from Italy, and I really experienced how it was like to join a totally new community and how outreach was really important, especially for community, especially for people who can't speak for themselves, and because of language barriers and more. And so since I came, I really wanted to get involved in... and things that can make people more feel present, more in their community, so in their city. And when I just came last summer, I did the climate cohort for the mere summer jobs. And I really learned... how local government can create meaningful environment changes and for me that was a really important experience because for me it was like the first step that I made just to um to also like feel also more involved uh since I was also like a new resident and then uh recently in my school I started this um this climate club I started um I participated in this climate club where where we taught middle school students about climate change and that experience really showed me how youth and also kids can be also really involved and can also be really can really care about climate change and also like the solution that the things that they can do to make a change. And I'm also part of the books of hope where I also share my immigrant story through poetry. And yeah, so through this, through this, like this experience has shown me how important community engagement and the education are. And they're part a big part of my of why I'm excited to serve on the Climate Action Commission. Thank you. Thank you for having me here.

Oh, I was muted. Prego, Zara. Prego. We're so happy to have you.

To you, Mr. Chair, I'd like to ask if the phone number on the meeting is Rio Hunter Black?

Black?

Hi, good evening. Hello, good evening. Hi. Thank you so much to all of the counselors and the fellow committee members for hosting this meeting, introducing yourselves. I feel really honored to get to be nominated for the commission and also for the chance to work with all of you. And also thank you for your patience. I know my connection today has been a little shoddy, so thank you for... bearing with me as my video is not turned on and I've been struggling to rejoin the meeting every couple of minutes. But yeah, my name is Rio. I just graduated from Tufts University this spring. I was a biology major and have been interested and dedicated to climate science and health science for the entirety of my undergraduate and high school education. I grew up in Somerville and I'm still living in Somerville, so I'm I'm really excited for the chance to apply that education and background in sort of the biological sciences to community outreach work with the commission. My primary goal with the commission for the next year appointment is to invest time and resources in collaborating between the city and local mutual aid organizations. When I was in high school, I founded the Somerville Youth Chapter of Sunrise, which is a climate activism organization that sought to promote teaching and more community education on climate justice and also promote climate resilience policy at the state and local level. And so I'm interested in engaging youth in the high schools and middle schools in similar types of efforts, specifically with a focus on promoting activism and advocacy in young people. And also I'm interested in mutual aid as it relates to community health. So as an EMT in the Boston and Somerville area, I'm excited to bridge the connection between city policy, city community members, and local hospitals like Cambridge Health Alliance, Melrose-Wakefield, Winchester Hospital, which all have their own climate resilience plans and could have more sharing of resources and information with the Somerville City, I think. Yeah, thank you so much for the introduction and for taking the time this evening. It's good to meet you all. Thank you. Bye.

Thank you, Rio. It's excellent. We appreciate your time and your service.

To you, Mr. Chair, I believe our last remaining candidate is the one candidate who can't join us tonight. If I could just give a brief overview of his candidacy since he can't be here tonight. So, Corey Donahue, who may be a familiar name to some of you. We selected Corey for his dedication to the community. He's very active on school building decarbonization. He's also been very involved in some of the Office of Sustainability and Environment's other community programs, the Climate Ambassador Program, which is a really popular program. program where community members learn about climate and do kind of a self-directed project in the community. And a lot of previous climate ambassadors find their way to the Climate Action Commission or other ways to stay involved with climate action here in Somerville. So we're really excited to have Corey as a member of the Climate Action Commission.

Amazing. Thank you, Kate. I guess, is this like the most active commission in the city? Because, you know, like I'm just curious because I've never like seen, I've never seen this and having like 49 applications for 13 spots, that's like, that's big. Like you guys are the, is it the most? Am I just assuming like, is it like, is there any other commission that has more capacity than this?

You, Mr. Chair, I'm not aware of the membership numbers of all the other commission members. I'm sure someone knows the answer to that question, but we were very proud of the number of applications that we received. And I think that was due to the outreach we did in our department, as well as the interim members of the Climate Action Commission also put in a lot of work making sure we had a diverse set of applications and had a really great group to choose from.

Thank you. And on behalf of this committee and most especially the city council, we want to, you know, thank you and Director Nuda for like all your leadership and bringing all these talented folks, you know, to serve the city. So as, you know, chair of this committee with a power based up on me, and move to approve all these candidates, you know, before this body, except, you know, any member of this body has any objection to that. Seeing none. Yep. So they are approved. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the time. And, you know, I really feel like this was also very funny. I almost wanted to, I thought this was going to be like a five minute. It's like, oh, wow. Nobody's in jeopardy. This is like just us acknowledging our talented folks. And it's so rewarding that actually we actually got to see that, you know, on display. So thank you. So we will continue with our business. If you guys, you can stay if you want to see how we make the sausage or you can leave, you know, but that is, but I think we are all set, you know, with you guys. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Oh, Dr. Noura. I just wanted to say thank you all for the time given to all of our volunteers. We built a team. Thank you.

Thank you. So clerk for solicit.

Yes. Where are we? We have two items left. Agenda number two and agenda number four.

Agenda number two. Okay, yeah. Number two, can you read that in the record?

Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. Yes. I just wanted to apologize, but I have to jump off to another meeting. I just want to make sure you have quorum.

Yeah. Yes, I have. Thank you, Council Member. I appreciate you joining. Thank you. Hello, Nora. So, clerk, could you read that item?

Yes. Item two. An order by Councilor Barr that the city clerk implement the hiring practices detailed within for positions in the city council and city clerk department.

Thank you, Clark. I think I have a communication, you know, I've discussed with the clerk. I think the clerk is currently in consultation with HR and then, you know, so we'll be back yet, you know, at a later time to, you know, once the clerk is ready to provide, you know, substantive information. So we'll keep this item in committee. Thank you, Clark Henderson. Okay, next item, Mr. Clark. The last one.

And yes, the last item is agenda number four. That the City Council appoints Rodrigo Badaro, Bea Gomez-Mukad, Marianne Walz, Martin Sanchez, Yesina Alfaro, and Marcy Goldstein-Gelb to the Wage Theft Advisory Committee.

So, I think the wisdom of the administration that is supposed to discuss this so that we can figure out next step. Is it a clerk that is supposed to introduce this candidate or I guess, or I can just take it on because this is coming. Mr. Chair, please.

were recommended by Counselor Davis. Well, he put in this referral for recommendation. Okay.

So I guess, yes, Clark Henderson, you want to say something before I?

Happy to do so. So these were put forth, as Peter has mentioned, from Counselor Davis. His expectations were that you all, this committee, would decide on their terms. I see. Correct. He left that up to you all to decide. But these are appointments coming from the council, not the mayor's office.

Amazing. Okay, thank you. So, colleagues, I think we have... one mission here, you know, we, because I was looking at this, the text of the ordinance prescribed for the advisory board for this confirmation of appointments, you know, again, as this is, it's about, it talked about the fact that there will be nine members, there's actually six. And then it's about, we have to stagger them. So it talked about This directly from the section 935, that a committee shall consist of nine members, the council, president or designee, and the mayor or designee shall serve by virtue of their office, blah, blah, blah. Four members shall be representative of unions. Two shall be representative of local nonprofit, and one shall be a member of local business organization. So that is, like, the main piece that we want to make sure that that alone, that structure, it is the people that have been presented are representative of this various group. And then the initial appointment shall be staggered with three members appointed for a term of one year, two members appointed for a term of two years, and two members appointed for a term of three years. So... So I guess I don't really have any preference. We can make that decision here. We can pick, you know, say two, like one year term for like maybe two union and one nonprofit. two year term for one union and one business just so that they all have different, they don't have to all expire at the same time and then three year term for maybe one union, one nonprofit. So I wanna hear what you guys think and then we can make that decision and then approve them. So I'm open, the floor is open for discussion.

Councillor Ling. Mr. Chair, have we heard from any of these appointees what their own capacities are? I'm just curious. That might help guide us in terms of if someone's like, you know, I can do this for a year.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Good question, Councillor Ling. You know, but at this point, honestly, it's like... Yes, that's an excellent question, but we can, I mean, the fact that they've shown all this excitement, they can figure that out because you see like the commission that just came before us, they all know, like, you know, it's the same. It's like, they all have different terms. Like, and so they all know that already. So that's why we didn't even have to have that conversation, but this is like a brand new advisory board that is just formed. So it's like, I think, um, we will probably have to have that conversation maybe once those meetings start to happen. And there's a staff person, you know, because I'm like the council rep. So I don't know if I should be the one asking them, hey, like what term, like, cause I'm just also a representative, you know, the council representative. So yeah, I think it's an excellent question, but I think we can decide, you know, the cause of action and then they can now, take it from there and structure it as they evolve. Thank you. Councillor Ewen Campin.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So through you, just confirming with Clerk Henderson, there's no thought been put into this to this point. We should just randomly choose to get one year, to get two years, to get three years?

Through you, Mr. Chair, to Councillor Ewen Campin, that is correct. You all can also vote to approve them all and then they can decide afterwards their Um, there are terms, as long as they're aware that there are three need to be, you know, allocated to a certain amount of time, three to another set of time, et cetera. So if you all don't want to discuss necessarily their terms because you haven't connected with them individually to see what their capacities would be, then you all could also just vote, you know, recommend to approve what's submitted here. If that makes sense. I don't know if I'm making any sense.

You know, it makes sense. But I think, thank you, Clark Anderson. And to you, back to the Council of the UN Campaign, I think I touched base with one of the, you know, the folks that I've been working with closely, you know, Marcy, you know, Goldstein, prior to this meeting. And so they want us to make that determination. So it's just, I think it's easier for us to make that and give it back to them because they just want to stay out of the whole the whole thing so nobody says oh why is this one having one year why isn't so i'm also kind of like open in the good old days i would have had the names in the hat and then we just pick because there's no way like we're gonna there's no structure to say let's go determine that like how they're gonna pull that off like it's just but i'm open to like how we can just come up with this like our own methodology, our thought process to say, okay, this one takes two, this one take one, and then, you know, leave it there.

Okay, do I still have the floor, Mr. Chair? Oh, yes, yes, Councilor Ewing, I'm sorry. Thank you. Okay, so it sounds to me this should be completely random. The applicants don't want to make the decision themselves. We have a list of names in front of us, my reading of the ordinance. Uh, it's talking about seven. I believe there's six names before us tonight. I would recommend that we do the first two on the list for one year, the second two for two years, the second, the last two for three years and just be done with it. It's random. That's the equivalent of pulling him out of a hat. Makes sense to me.

Counselor Hart. Counselor, you and Kevin, thank you. Is that like a motion already in order or should we hear what Counselor Hart says?

But I love- I'm happy to hear what Counselor Hart has to say. That would be my motion whenever the conversation wraps up. I love it. I love it.

Counselor Hart.

Um, thank you chair. I was just going to ask for clarification on, you said at the beginning, there needs to be so many representatives, um, from you, you know, that could you repeat that part about how many representatives of each type of organization there need to be?

Yes. Uh, um, thank you. Council. I have that question. Yeah, it says, uh, So this is directly from the ordinance itself. Four members shall be representative of unions, two shall be representative of local nonprofit groups, and one shall be a member of local business organization.

OK, thank you. I was just in terms of thinking about how we stagger it, but I guess I think the motion, the idea that's not yet a motion makes sense to me. So, thank you.

Thank you. No, so there's a motion at the table, which I think is an excellent one. This is like, it's really like, I just like the way it is. And it's, no, I think, thank you, Councilor Ewing.

And Mr. Chair, if I may, so just to be clear, like very much hope that these folks just get reappointed if they want to keep serving. It's not like you can never serve again once you've served. This is just so that the reappointments don't happen all six at once. It's so that they're staggered. That's all. This is not to say people can't serve more than one term, right?

Yes.

Yes. Thank you for that clarification.

Thank you.

So I don't think- Yes, Mr. Chair, I would move that we recommend Rodrigo Badero and Bea Gomez-Moacad for a term of one year, Marianne Wallace and Martin Sanchez for a term of two years, and Yersina Alfaro and Marcy Goldstein-Gelb for a term of three years.

Mr. Clerk, did you get that motion? Yes, I did. Yeah, on that motion, do we need a roll call, Mr. Clerk?

uh well we can take everything up when we yeah yeah why don't we do that okay actually i don't think it yeah let's be safe on the motion council mclaughlin council hot yes council length yes Councilor Young-Campbell.

Yes.

Councilor Barr. Yes. Mr. Chair, four members have voted in favor, one is absent. The motion passes.

Thank you. Thank you, colleagues. Yeah, so I think we should have even just, we should have taken that motion, you know, and then taking item number one and also taking a motion to adjoin, you know, like at the same time so we can, because there's no further business before this committee. Correct, Mr. Clerk?

That's correct, but we're going to need to take the roll call on all the items on the agenda. Absolutely. It'll be the entire agenda items 1 through 19. Yep. Amazing. Yep.

With the motion to adjourn. We ready for that? Any committee member have any issues with this? None? Okay, so clerk.

On approval of items 1 through 19 on tonight's agenda and on adjournment, Councilor McLaughlin, Councilor Hart.

Yes.

Councilor Link. Yes. Councilor Young-Campin. Yes. Councilor Barr. Yes, please. Chair, four members have... approved those items and voted for adjournment. One is absent. We are adjourned. Thank you, colleagues. Thank you.