Confirmation of Appointments and Personnel Matters Committee - Regular Meeting

Hello, everybody. Welcome to tonight's meeting of the city of Summerville's legislative matters committee. I am your chair tonight. That's Ward 2 city councilor JT Scott. Monday, October 20 here at 06:00 on the dot, soon to chapter two of the acts of 2025.

This council committee meeting, is being conducted via remote participation, and the video will be posted up to the city of Somerville's website shortly after the conclusion of the meeting. We do have a very short agenda tonight of just one substantive item and a short council attendance here, just a quorum because several of our members are have another obligation tonight, for a candidate forum. So, if we could just go ahead let's go ahead and take a role to establish a quorum, if you don't mind, madam clerk.

Alright. This is roll call. Councilor Strazo. Councilor Mbaugh. Councilor Jungkampen.

Here.

Councilor Davis.

Here.

Chair Scott. Here.

Alright. With that, we do have three here, so we have quorum.

Wonderful. Glad to hear it. So we have the, approval of the minutes of our last meeting on September 30. Does anybody have any comment on those minutes before we accept them? Alright.

Well, then hearing none, we'll go ahead and lay those minutes on the table, for acceptance with a single vote at the end of the meeting and move on to our only substantive item this, this evening. This is returning from our last agenda, from our last meeting. This is item number two here, twenty five one four zero seven, requesting approval of a home rule petition to raise sound business practices and written, quote, contract thresholds under mass general law 30 b. So there have been some good discussion last time and, some drafting that happened in between meetings to provide us with a new red line version, which has been attached, as a handout for this meeting. So it won't be in the individual item if you're looking at Legistar, but it will be, attached to this particular meeting's agenda.

I see the clerk has already put this up on screen, and it was emailed to committee members earlier this week. So, hopefully, everybody's had a chance to go over it. Would somebody from the administration like to, just give a brief overview of what changes were made in response to committee concerns and, anything else that we need to be aware of that might not jump out at first glance? Alright. I mean, nobody has anything to say about it. Suppose, director. Oh, okay. Please hasten me.

I'm happy to speak to this. I didn't know if my colleagues in IGA wanted to, but, I'm happy to speak to these items, chair Scott.

Okay. Well, I'm looks like liaison Radasi is, bowed out. So go for it, director Allen. Always a pleasure to see you.

Likewise. So, thank you again to this committee on legislative matters for the opportunity to discuss this, proposal for a home rule petition. Taking into consideration our discussion, from September 30, We, the city solicitor, the, yes, the, intergovernmental affairs, representative, Yasmeen Radassi, and, myself put together these updates that you see here in red font. We wanted to clarify what Summerville's specific role would be if we were not, going to be certifying directly through a program, and we change the language to be by virtue of a certification process approved by Somerville. So this would enable give us the flexibility to look at, for example, a certification from another state or an agency other than the supplier diversity office of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the city of Boston.

And then to make things even more clear, addressing some of the city clerk's concerns, only such certified businesses, comma, customarily providing the supplier service that we're looking for for a particular procurement process shall be eligible. So we would you wouldn't only be certified, but you need to be conducting business in the field where we're seeking a quote. Kind of stating the obvious, but I think stating the obvious clearly is always a good idea. Further on in section two and please, Chair Scott, tell me if you'd like me to pause in discussion, or would you like me to go through all the changes first?

No. I'm happy to let you go through it. And, you know, I appreciate it. I'm sure if my colleagues have questions, they can jump in with a hand raise and, or we can just wait for the end. So go keep going. You're doing great.

Okay. In section two, there's a clarification I made. This was not discussed on September 30. It's a nuance that we procurement professionals like to make it very clear, where the threshold where do you actually cross the line? It's like when you're on or which side of the Equator are you on?

In this case, we had omitted the specifying that the sound business threshold would go up to and include $20,000. So this next band of sort of threshold value would be anything greater than 20,000 up to what is currently the, the micro, purchase threshold, which is $250,000 by the operational services division. Yes. The small procurement threshold. It's called different things.

So I just clarified in an amount greater than 20,000, to be very clear there for those of us who will be implementing this petition. Shall it pass? Moving on a couple of lines later, we have the exact same language you saw above in the sound business practices item, which was section one by virtue of a certification process approved by Somerville. Only such certified businesses shall be eligible. And then moving further through the document, let's see if there's anything else. That was it.

Alright. Well, I know, myself and I I know I was ready to vote last time, but I wanted to give time to get these language changes in. Councilor Davis, I know you had had some thoughts on this earlier. Do you have any thoughts tonight? Oh, before I go, I see sorry. Liaison Radasi, do you have anything else to add?

Thank you, mister chair. I just wanted to flag I noticed a typo in my red line that I sent in the first section. Just wanted to flag by virtue. It says a of certify it should be by virtue of a certify I just noticed it now. I'm sorry. I just wanted to flag.

Alright. I'm sure we can fix that as a scrivener's error. Alright. Councilor Yuncamp and councilor Davis, do you have any thoughts or feedback on this now?

Yeah. Thank you, mister chair. I just wanna say thanks for, for addressing this. And this is something that I had I can't remember who raised initially, but I know I'd I'd weighed in as you as you noted in the last meeting. This looks like it provides some good clarification to me, and I I'd be ready to move forward.

Wonderful. As am I. Any other discussion from members of the

I was gonna say, if there is no other discussion, I'll be happy to, move to approve or recommend approval.

Oh, I love recommending approval. Alright. Well, in that case, I before we go on, act on that motion, I see analyst Salisbury. Did you have any further thoughts?

Mister chair, just a procedural note. I do want to note that you will need to accept the amended version before you before recommending its approval. That is all. That's right.

That's correct. Alright. So, the first motion that would be in order would be to substitute, substitute the, red line, except the red line amendments that are are contained in the handout before us. So I will move to adopt that red line version or the the changes specified in red line version before us. I believe that motion is in order. So, madam clerk, if we could just pass the, or, take a roll call vote on accepting these changes.

Alright. On the motion to accept the amendments. Councilor Strazo. Councilor Mbaugh. Oh, is that councilor Strazo? No. Alright. Councilor Strazo. Councilor Mbaugh. Councilor Jungkampin?

Yes.

Councilor Davis?

Yes.

Chair Scott?

Yes.

Alright. With that, those amendments are accepted.

Alright. That's excellent. I think that might have been, future councilor Hot chiming in there. I don't know. That's the bear, actually. The bear? Yes. Nina bear. Oh, alright. Well, then on that then, now we have a vote to recommend approval of the of the home rule petition as amended. Let's councilor Davis moves to accept, move to recommend approval on that. And then I suggest we take up, along with that, the approval of the minutes and a motion to adjourn so we can take care of all of our business at one time.

Perfect. Very efficient. Alright. On the minutes, item number two and adjournment. Councilor Strazo, councilor Mbaugh, Councilor Ewen Kempen?

Yes.

Councilor Davis?

Yes.

Chair Scott?

Yes.

Alright. With that, we are adjourned, and those are recommended for approval.

Alright. Thank you, everybody, for the time. Thank you to city staff for showing up tonight and especially for the work y'all did in the intervening two weeks to get this ready to rock and roll. I appreciate it, and I hope everybody enjoys the rest of their evening after this, ten minute, interview. Good night, y'all.