Housing and Community Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Thank

you. I think we might have to do that a la. Simple plug to the summer series. I'll do it. I'm raised about this one. Movies presented. But they do five, four, three, two, one. Okay. Right. Anyway, welcome to the committee of housing and community development.

I am city councilor of Archer, and today is Monday, 06/30/2025. It is 06:06 06:06PM. We are in person in City Hall, and we are remote. And 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, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible at the meeting on the city of San Diego website and local cable access government channels.

Claire, can you please call the roll? Yep. This is roll call. Councilor Davis. Councilor Young Camping. Here. First Rosa. With two here, we do have four. Thank you. The first item on the agenda is to approve the minutes of 03/04/2025.

And if we may, please put lay that on the table and approve them. Next item on the agenda is order two five zero one three three that the director of housing stability update this council on recent changes to condominium conversion and tenant protection laws as a result of the 2024 housing bond bill and how Sumner Building strengthened its protections. Where to spend this item, we have the director of office of housing office of housing, stability, director Ellen Schachter. Welcome.

Thank you so much, chair, and to the committee. Really happy to be talking about the issue of condominium conversion. I am just gonna say this whole thing is a little bit complicated, so I'm gonna do my best to keep it really quick and to make it as clear as I can. So in the 2024 in the housing bond bill, a series of policy changes went into effect. And one of the policy changes that went into effect is that under state law, in the past, before December 2024, there was authorization for cities and towns to control condominiums and condominium conversions and evictions, but only for buildings only for buildings that had four or more units.

So that was the state law throughout the Commonwealth. Somerville, though, had its own law, and its own law dated back the relevant part to 1985. So while the Affordable Homes Act changed what the entire state can do, In this regard, nothing changed in the city of Somerville, and I'll just explain briefly why. Prior to this whole time since the nineteen eighties, Somerville has been regulating two, three, four, every size building. So that new power that other municipalities had, we already had because because of our 1985 legislative authorization from the state house.

And so there are, though, you know, two good things I wanna point out. So what that means is we already have been doing what everyone else got permission to do, but I wanted to say two really positive things, I think, nonetheless. One, just so you know, we still go further than the state law allows. The state law says that you can now regulate two and three family buildings that are not owner occupied. The city of Summerville, under its legislation, regulates all two and three families regardless of whether or not they are owner or they or they are business owned or whatever it may be.

So we still go further than is allowed under state law under our 1985 jurisdiction. But the second thing I just wanted to say, because it's really so exciting, is that it is estimated that there will be an additional 287,200 units that are regulated throughout the state. And this is not something that each city or town has to pass on its own. It just is. So this is a really big change.

It's it says right here, I'm gonna say three times the number of buildings are now regulated than in the past, and nearly double the number of units that are protected. So while I have to tell you that under this particular change, there isn't anything that Somerville can do to expand its its, its powers. There's gonna be a separate meeting tomorrow night for legislative affairs to talk about other issues about strengthening the condo ordinance. But based on this provision, we're already doing the maximum of what we're allowed to do. So no additional changes there, but really positive overall for the state.

Fabulous. I'm happy to open the floor up for discussion. Counseling and camping, do you have any thoughts or, questions?

The burden of being the best. What can I say? The state is finally starting to catch up. No. Through you, madam chair, I'm happy that, there are proposed revisions that are gonna be before legislative matters. I look forward to taking those up, and I I this is a helpful update, so I appreciate it.

I I thought I'm excited to hear this and look. You again to all you've done for us effective for this as well. You've been an advocacy advocate for this since start. And I had a quick question that's related in its own way, but I think relates to this item. Is is there any has it ever been explored with the condo conversion what we ordinance and what we do here in in Somerville with extra protections to are we able to legally ever allow Somerville residents a practice when an when a unit comes on to the end of the market.

In opposed to, like, a global corporation coming in, a lot of things we all hear is how competitive the market can be. I know I know that things are slowing, but we've heard in that many residents in despair, someone may come, bump down 30 k over Mhmm. And can't compete with the global corporation. I know we have done everything we can to really slow down and slow down the flip selling and flipping, of course. But are there has it ever been explored to be able to have a sum of the preference of a resident preference with purchasing of units that come on the market, or is that beyond regulation and in a legal gray area?

And then that's a totally, like, rogue question that totally not able to even hypothesize on or or find it on, I will absolutely.

Thank you, through the chair. I mean, I think I could do my best to to answer that. In the context of condominium conversions, remember that all tenants are gonna have that right of first purchase before anybody else on the outside can can purchase. So that right is kind of built into the condominium conversion regulation process. Other than that, I think it is absolutely something we can do where we're giving an owner something in exchange.

We're giving them potentially, we're giving them a variance, or we're giving them we're giving inclusionary zoning, all of those. Or even I know the city of Boston has has a a specific tenant selection plan that it uses in the city of Boston to sort of help tenant selection. So I think there are things we can do for properties that we regulate. And we typically are trying to do the most that we can do, but I do think that's an open ended question about whether there are any circumstances where there are any properties that the city gives any money to that we might be able to have a little bit stronger preference for some people residents or other or other kinds of protections. You have to be very careful because there are anti discrimination laws and there are fair housing laws, and we certainly couldn't impose something, I think, just randomly with the Somerville residency preference.

I will note, though, research that was done by the housing division a while back has enabled us to have a Summerville residency preference for, for example, our inclusionary programs and our 100 homes programs. Because when we looked at the data, we were able to clearly establish that having a residency preference did not, did not provide a disadvantage for marginalized communities in the city city of Summerville since so many of those units were going to people of color and people of low income. So where we can do it, I think there's an argument that it doesn't violate their housing rules. But just as a sort of random thing in the market and housing sales in general, I don't know of anything that that you could do to prioritize sales to Somerville residents.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So with that, I'm happy to, close this item, and thank you very much for for coming. I I think you're also speaking on the senate item. Mhmm. So with that, we'll we'll mark that item closed. And next one is order 250134 that the director of housing housing stability update his council on efforts to raise awareness for eviction ceiling assistance in light of recent state legislation enabling the ceiling of evictions. Here to speak on the item again is director Ellen Chaptor of.

Thank you so much for the chair. This is a really exciting thing to talk about. We've been working in this city on eviction record ceiling for the last six years at least on the steering committee of a statewide coalition. And finally, something did get passed, which is really exciting that happened in the also in the Affordable Homes Act that we discussed just recently, which was sort of omnibus housing legislation with a lot of different pieces. And I was just gonna take two seconds for those, if anybody who doesn't know, to just describe the eviction record sealing process who can get for their record seal, just two minutes, and then to tell you what we have done to advertise advertise that.

But I did just want people to know, for example, because when people hear eviction record sealing, we wanna make sure that people understand some eviction records can be sealed in some circumstances. This does isn't a categorical anybody who has any eviction pending can seal their records. And I did just wanna know for the record that the reason why eviction sealing is so important is because more and more, landlord screening companies are doing tenant selection for new landlords. And so often, if there is something, if somebody's name is on the eviction database, no matter what the reason is, why they were there, even if they won their case, even if it was a there it was somebody with the same name in their case, people can get excluded. And it's really, really important just like the if you remember the criminal justice movement that really came forward and said, you know, people shouldn't forever never be able to get second chances.

And so what this bill does is it allows for tenants to petition the court to evict if they have any no fault evictions. So you didn't do anything wrong, but your landlord is evicting you. Let's say they wanna sell their building or they wanna raise the rent a lot higher than you can afford to pay, something like that. Any case in which the case was dismissed. Up until now, it didn't matter at all.

These are available records. So now you can you can no fault evictions if there's any dismissal, if the tenant won their case. In the case of nonpayment, which is the vast majority of cases that are pending in Summerville District Court or in the Eastern Housing Court, you can immediately get it sealed if you have paid off the full amount of the judgment that the court made. So if the court said you owe $2,000 and you pay that amount, you then have to go to court and get something called the satisfaction of judgment, which just is just a piece of paper saying, yes. We agree this was paid off.

And then you would have the right to seal that record immediately upon payment of those monies. If you don't pay because you have been unable to, if four years have passed since the nonpayment eviction and there has not been another eviction action, you can petition the court to seal that record. But what you will have to do is show the court that you have some kind of financial hardship that has made it that has made it so that you were unable to pay the full amount of that judgment. So people could still go in and seal, but it's not automatic. There's something that you have to show in order to get that that petition sealed.

Similarly, with the false eviction, and I think we know false evictions are the kind of things you had unauthorized occupants. You left too many. Your housekeeping wasn't good enough. Whatever it may be, after seven years, you can go in to seal a record again if there's been no intervening eviction. So this really just says we give you that second chance when you've shown through your own behavior that you have been able to comply with your lease and or gotten treatment or gotten services that you needed. And so this behavior is not likely to repeat if you were to go into another unit. So that's the substance, more or less. There's more to this, but of who can what this is really about and who can seal evictions. So I wanted to talk to you about the outreach we've done. This bill is this law has been in effect since May 5.

I'm really excited. Somerville and Cambridge came together to have a regional response around eviction defense. And so far, we've done six workshops. And the things that we've done for those workshops, each agency sent out letters to different groups. So this was my office, CAS, Cambridge And Somerville Legal Services, De Novo Legal Services, and the Multi Service Center and Housing Liaison in Cambridge.

And so we all send out letters. Our office sent out a little bit of over a 100 letters to clients who had had addiction during the time that they were with us that looked like there might be a chance for ceiling. We sent those out. All the agencies did, and we conducted the six workshops, which were wonderful. We decided we weren't gonna screen for what city or town people came from to have low threshold barriers.

Just you come and you sign up for this day, you come in, and we will help you seal your record or let you know if it's not sealable. So we just have concluded the last of those six workshops. I wanted to tell you some of the other things that we have done. We ended up filing 17, petitions in our three Summerville workshops that we were here. One of the courts, interestingly, has done a lot of automatic sealing. The other court is setting hearings. And there's discretion with the court in terms of whether or not they're gonna have those here, like, hearings or they're just going to, on the papers, seal the record. So those are the 17 cases that we are trying to seal. Of those, four have been sealed. The others are still pending.

Again, it was one court. It's something different than another court. We sent eviction record information alert to our 800 person email list. We included it in our newsletter. And in the next newsletter that's coming out soon, I did a whole article summarizing this.

It is it has gone up in our social media feeds. We have we are in the process of incorporating it. All of you know under the housing stability notification act, tenants have to be given certain documents of the inception of their tenancy and if they're being evicted. So we are in the process of revising those documents to include eviction record ceiling information, so it will be in there. And we also have done multiple presentations to provider groups and tenant groups around Somerville and to many Somerville related Cambridge and Somerville service providers.

And last, our staff is now all trained. So anybody that needs help going forward, sealing their eviction regardless of whether they have another need from our office, our office is able and willing to assist them. And the very last thing I'll say, because I think this is so unique and I'm really impressed by the trial court's actions in this, is that there's a really easy walk through system that they made to be simple to do pro se where it just asks you questions, and then it fills that petition out for you. And it tells you if you need to provide service to the landlord, and it tells you any other steps you need to do. So, actually, what's really encouraging is that as long as somebody has some familiarity with computer savvy, they're gonna have to know their case numbers.

But for the most part, it's really easy for people to do themselves, and we are available to help if there are any issues that come up after this. So we're trying to take advantage of this change in the law and do everything we can to get the word out there. And please, all of you, please share. If you do happen to have any people that are in your district that need help with sealing, we'd be happy to help. So that's it.

Thank thank you. Doctor, you wish to speak on this. You do not have to speak on every item, but, I, of course, I said it your will. However, this is you you do, and I miss your hand.

Thank you, madam chair. Through you. No. No questions. Just a huge thank you to to the director and everyone who has been working to get the word out about this. It's really, really good news.

Thank you. I think that's it. And, yes, that sounds very good. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Alright. With this, I'd like to announce this item that we sleep. And we will move on to order 250247. But the director of economic development report on the economic impact to small businesses in Somerville as a result, federal immigration policy changes. We're gonna speak on our item.

We have our deputy director of economic development. And, yes, if you have the floor. And if I may, I'm still here. I'm just stepping. I'm I'm here. I'm up to. Okay.

Well, thank you, madam chair.

Thank you.

Real pleasure to be here to speak on this item. One of the things that I would probably start off by saying is by work clarification. I'm deputy director of economic development, not director, so not ready for my promotion just yet. But it it is it's a great pleasure to be here. This is an item that is of great interest to our division, and I know, obviously, to the council that is being brought up.

And there has been an opportunity to share some information before on this. What I will say, first of all, is that the economic development division does not necessarily track economic data on our businesses per se. We we we would rely on a division like Sommerstat to provide support on economic data and research on on that kind of information. It's my understanding that some of that information has been drafted and pulled together. And well, not at my full disposal here right now.

I can certainly commit to bringing more of that together. It's my understanding that, for example, one of the points of information is on local sales tax data. And sales tax data being tracked over a certain period of time will give an indication as to whether sales are going up or down. Now whether that is a result of economic situations or circumstances remains to be seen, but that is one way of tracking an impact. So working with Somerset, we can certainly provide that information as follow-up to you.

What I would like to say is that at least anecdotally, members of the economic development division work very closely with our small businesses in a number of of significant ways through a lot of face to face contact. And we are aware of strong concerns on the part of our our business owners or that they're livelihood, obviously, for the health and safety of their workers. And one of the things we try to do in collaboration with our sister agencies like SOIA, like our special services, like our licensing department is provide information and and access to some of the ways in which those businesses can be supported. I would like to, if you don't mind, maybe speak to some of the ways in which we have done that in the last several months. And in stepping back and talking through that, will mention that we're in a we're in a bit of an inflection point now as an organization, as a division.

Prior to and during the COVID season, there are there are a number of resources, one of which was ARPA, which provided a a stability to provide financial support in many ways. I I I highlighted both of things. Following that and and in this last fiscal year in the midst of this last fiscal year, we were the recipients economic development division for the city of Somerville. We were the recipients of an urban agenda grant of approximately a $100,000, which I'll outline some of the impacts there. I mentioned those two financial resources because they are over the last, I would say, year and a half.

Our implementation of and supporting the facilitation of those resources to businesses was one of the main ways we were able to provide support. With the decrease in those funding sources, as as we all know, our representative, And the urban agenda grant is ended this fiscal year. One of our goals in the coming fiscal year with limited financial resources is to step up our efforts to do a couple of things. Number one, enhance our ability to communicate with businesses on technical assistance issues. Number two, to further our reach with what I'll call our sister agencies to provide the best guidance on best practices.

And number three, to be a convener in one of the primary areas of support that we've learned is needed, and that is facilitating or easing the process of things like permitting, like licensing. One of the things we we learned from our conversations with our small business owners is that as they look to expand, as they look to grow, as they look to start, as we all know, Sunbelt has a wonderful entrepreneurial spirit, they will say to us, hey. It's kinda kinda you know, we love the support we give, but it's a little bit kinda difficult to kinda get things done around here. And that's due no fault of anyone's. It's it's a matter of processes that need to be coalesced.

One of the things we are making as a primary goal for FY '26 is to in the in the face of limited financial resources, being being that convener and that facilitator of, for lack of better of saying it, streamlining which resources to make it easier for folks to understand how to get through the process. Now that is, and that's the kind of thing that I would say here and now, we would love to be able to go back to this body on a regular basis to provide updates on how that's going and to I

would love that. We're starting together. Good. Love the conversation.

Great. When we look forward to make no. That's not that's thank you for that. And so we look forward to to really, what I'll say is as a division, we want to lean into our role as a convener in that way and to work with our sister agents to make these things happen. So with that, I'll I'll just highlight a couple of the ways in which we have been able to work and provide resources, financial and otherwise.

The first I'll mention is not a financial resource, but it it is a, what I'll call, a technical assistance resources resource. We work with the Massachusetts Area Planning Council this year to create a, I believe, first ever leasing handbook. And that got it's a guide that is for entrepreneurs, business owners, etcetera, to learn the best ways possible to access a lease, manage a lease, maintain a lease. That document is in multiple languages, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole, and it has been it's been going like hotfix. I actually was hoping to bring one down for you, but they've they've been so popular that I couldn't bring one.

But I will forward you one online. It's a it's a great resources that that can be utilized. The other item two items that I'll mention are, again, with the ARPA funding, we were able to put forward two grants with great success, a vitality grant, which provided which provided supports for bricks and mortar, as well as a business enrichment program, which allowed us to be able to offer technical assistance. And, for example, a total of $576,117 was given to 30 brick and mortar businesses in the in the span of January 24 through January 2024 through August. In the business enrichment program, we were able to give out an amount of $1,300,000 in technical technical assistance dollars.

And what that meant is that those dollars were enabled businesses to access ways to learn about financing, ways to learn about planning, ways to learn about operations, ways to learn about marketing, and the cost of it. Finally, the urban agenda grant, which we received through the Commonwealth this year, enabled us to facilitate the creation of workshops and one on one when desired consulting opportunities for small businesses to learn about marketing, to learn about food safety. We have the ability to provide stipends to 17 home based childcare providers of about $353,150 dollars each, which enabled them to not only have a class and learn about the operations and the issues of licensing, etcetera, but also to provide some support for the operations that they do. The next thing I'll I'll speak to is also something that has been mentioned in the in the in the in the context of supporting small businesses, and that is, I'll use the term marketing. And we really feel that the what we hear through our conversations with business owners in the various districts that we visit, But also in in in conversations is that there is a desire for us to us being a division to utilize our platform, if you will, to enable businesses to be better known.

And there's a a a a balancing act that we have to that we have to negotiate or manage there in that we as a public entity cannot promote a particular business. But what we can do is utilize our platform to promote what it means to do business in Somerville, what it means to do business in a district of Somerville. So one of the things we as you you've you've probably heard, we several months ago, did a an initiative called it takes it takes all shapes to make a square. What we wanna do now, we've brought on a part time, intern to help us take that initiative to the next level. And the one, item that is in this person's purview is is to help us come up with a social media policy that enables us to very clearly and succinctly articulate the ways that we can use our platforms to promote business in Somerville.

And we we hope to our goal is to come out of that process not only with a better social media presence for Somerville and businesses in Somerville and the district in Somerville, but also a more clear way to, without crossing any legal lines, support businesses in that marketing effort. So we're really excited about the prospect of having someone on on on board who's got the skill set, the sort of, what I'll call the savvy and the technical ability to really think about that and help us come up with a policy that enables us to implement that moving forward. The last thing I'll mention, business support for businesses is the fact that is part of being a convener is our ability to create partnerships. Given the fact that there's limited financial resources nowadays and we're moving forward, I love the phrase that you used a little earlier, kind of stuff, sort of in we're stronger together. And so one of the things we've been thinking a lot about and which we will do as part of our FY '26 goals is look at ways to strengthen the partnerships at at our disposal.

And one of the partnerships we're looking to utilize and have utilized now is with the chamber of commerce. We have a fantastic well, my words, partner in in the new executive director. And one of the things we're able to do this year is for the first time ever, I believe, have participation of Somerville businesses in taste of Somerville. We had upwards of 35 new businesses, local minority homes, who were part of this, really, what I'll call festival of what it means to have, you know, good food in Somerville, who had never been part of this before. They were able to participate with a with a lower cost fee to them.

They're also now members of the chamber. And what that means is that they they have access to that network. And as we all know, the chamber is very thriving. There are lots of wonderful businesses there. And so because of the ability for our staff to convene and work with them partner, that that new collaboration with the chamber is is existence that we we're meeting in a couple of weeks to talk about what we can do in in the coming years.

And as I talk about these these initiatives, I I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the staff who make these things happen. Kelly Laughlin, Patissi Teroria, and Adriana Fernandez in particular, who are our dream team of small business. And they they make these fantastic fantastic programs run, but I I would say also that a a a hallmark of their work is their ability to be beautifully relational. They really meet the business owners where they are. They really meet the employees where they are.

They really meet the partners where they are. They really meet our our fellow the heads of our sister agencies where they are. And so it's one of the reasons why our weekly off business office hours go so well because in those meetings, we have a representative from ISD. We have a political crisis, and we have a representative from the part departments that are engaged in that permitting process to help them stay scored, and that's because of the great work that our staff does. So with that, I will stop and happy to take any questions.

So I'm excited about the efforts. I I I know that, you know, like, economic development are always working hard. I know that. But I'm I'm grateful for the additional steps of Chamber of Commerce because they're their own entity. And that's, to your point, I have a sister organization, and their resources are a little different.

They're more we can provide and and bounce off each other. And in some cases, for some businesses, maybe exposure to some parts of the business community that they might not interact in. A lot of restaurants are always on the ground and very physical and back to moving. What a great way to network and connect and collaborate with I see. I think that.

It's fantastic. I did have a quick question, so I'm really excited to see where where that goes. But no. Hopefully, I'm seeing the problem with that. But just updates how how that the relationship's possible to that.

With that, has there been any discussion on some things I've heard from some small, small businesses is the issue of of getting tax IDs or being able to that that some really small business would like to work with Somerville and be a vendor, but don't know the processes or it's could definitely use help. And how does the city of Somerville because I know it's more than one department,

I imagine.

There's purchasing. I I know there's money. Yeah. But different departments. But this this economic development, there a possibility for health assistance with that, or have has it been thoughts or actions on that or etcetera? Open ended March

It's a it's a great great question, councilor, madam chair. The short answer is yes. There has been question has been asked. One of the things that has come out of our urban agenda grant work is that there were a series of operational workshops, how how to start a business being like a how do we the operation management business? And one of the components of that question I should say two stepping back. All of the workshops that were created with your agenda grant are actually now online. They were videotapes. They were on Zoom. So we so for folks who were not able to attend in our in our our archive, some of the some of those things are answered in those workshops. That's what we want.

Number two, I do think that the economic development as a division can play a role in helping bring folks to the table who can help answer those questions. Because I I'm sure you can imagine, particularly from the folks that you're hearing from, they may be afraid to approach the city writ large. Mhmm. Who to speak to. Who to speak to.

And so I think that is where we can play a role in making those connections. So one of the things I'd recommend outside here for this committee, and we can provide updates as need be, our regular small business office hours are Thursdays at four. They're they're by Zoom. We can accommodate also, in those Zoom, we can accommodate language needs. So if someone reaches out to us and has a language need, we can connect and and still talk, work with them in the language in which they have targets to do with.

So that's number one. And number two, again, reaching out to our economicdevelopment@Solomad.gov email. We have staff who monitor that regularly. So someone sent an email to us looking for questions like that. We can we can triage those without answers. So one of the things, again, going back to our goal for FY '26, limited financial resources. We wanna step up our game, so to speak, with regard to providing answers to questions and being a real resource about our part.

Yeah. Down to you and Kempen, do you have any questions or about, anything on that work with this item?

No, madam chair. Thank you. And through you, thank you very much for this information. This is a helpful update.

Okay. With that, I'm I'm happy to fill this item and talk this stuff and take and. So just really for the for the record, register name is

Dana, d a n a, Whiteside, w h I t e s I d e.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, I do really. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're numb I think I. Yeah. Is it okay for a few items later? Alright. You're welcome to stay at the table. Yes.

So our next item is the mayor's request, 251005. Our requesting approval of the '20 February twenty five twenty twenty six housing and urban development one year action plan for community development block grant, open investment partnership, emergency solution grant programs. You're done to speak on the agenda. Probably have would you mind giving the title of your position? I mean Yes.

Thank you, madam madam chair. Thank you for have made. Nope. It's all it's all good. Thank you, madam chair. Alan Ignacio, director of finance and community development for the office for OSPCD. Tonight with me is also Miranda Rubin, our program compliance officer, supporting our, HUD entitlement programs. Tonight's item is an annual item that comes before you every year. Unlike a regular grant, entitlement funds, we are not, you know, required to have the grant accepted. However, we do have to file an annual plan.

The plan is, similarly a structured plan to most entitlement communities that receive these funds, do a similar filing every year. We were fortunate and relieved that this year, all three of our programs were relatively, level funded. CDBG at 2,477,825, and this funds the widest varieties of activities under the program. Home investment partnership was funded at 517,544, and focuses on housing activities and new housing development. And, ESG, which is emergency solutions grant, which focuses on homelessness prevention, and support services, was funded at 218,817.

Both the plan and public hearing presentation has been attached to the item. And with that, I'm happy to open it up to any questions anyone may have on the plan, the presentation, or the program.

Thank you, director. Well, first, I want to now now we are in real life. No more. No more who knows what future holds. What if you're interested in speaking on this question, what have you noticed from '25 to '26 from the 20% of last year's plan that is there anything that really stuck out besides that I don't know, residents or we may be interested in or selling?

Yeah. Absolutely. One item of note or I would say the most significant item of note from both last year's plan and the previous five year plan is that probably for the first time in twenty years, the city will be leveraging the full financing capabilities of the CDBG program, and we will be doing a section one zero eight borrowing, to provide approximately, $10,000,000 in financing for phase two of the Clarendon Hill project. It's great. It's, takes some borrowing pressure off the city general fund.

The only downside is it will cost the city of approximately $500,000 in, annual entitlement payment. But Clarendon's a much needed project that's gonna provide a ton of benefit for the city. So we're excited about being to being able to leverage our funds while we while we still have a healthy entitlement amount.

Thank you. Doctor, and Candid, do you have any, anything to add?

No, madam chair. I'm all set. Thank you. So

right now, I'm really fine and ready for this and sending on off to the larger council. Thank you very much for your time. You. Great. Thank

you for hearing you. Thank you.

No. Absolutely. Alright. Have a great rest of the night and also holiday season.

You as well. Thanks, Jared.

Thank you. Bye. Okay. You know what? Sure. Give me a second. I probably should have just been like no. I It's all good.

All good.

To to my credit, this was added, like, last minute. So had I played Tetris with the to where we bumped it with the departments, it would have looked

more No. It's totally completely fine.

So order 251200 that the director of economic development provide an update to this council on efforts to mitigate construction impacts on small businesses in the city, what resources are available to small business affected by construction, and what additional support can be made available. The following agenda item, the last one, the resolution behind this one is similar. And the reason I added it to the agenda for today was this was at parting city councilor, Judy, that this be added to tonight's agenda. I so very much apologize. This was rushed because not the intention.

I was always happy for, like, a a great party dialogue on it, But and we can always keep it in committee, but wanted to just honor her request and take and see where it goes. Sure. So deputy director, thank you again for being here.

It's my pleasure. It's great to great to always have time and and work with this committee. Likewise. This is this is something that's very important to our division, and we're we're very glad to have the opportunity to to address this. I'll start by saying that two things relates to what I was saying earlier in the presentation.

Funding resources are limited. So the ability for economic development to provide funding resources to businesses that are impacted by construction is slim to very little, unfortunately. That being said that being said, however, we are our partnership with our small businesses is really important to us. It's our it's our lifeblood. It's it's kind of what we're passionate about.

We also believe that where we can be most helpful and perhaps influential is in the ability to bring to the table those partners who also have a hand in looking at construction considerations. I I would I would separate them into two categories even though they're both related. The the category that one is those projects, those construction projects that are city led. And then the other category are those those those that are not city led. No. It's

not Pardon me if I may. The independent contractors, like Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. And so we have more control with those projects that are city led. We have perhaps less control with the projects that are not city led that are not city led. However, it it's our belief that we still have a role to play in both of those and that, again, part of our f y twenty six goals, related to what I was saying earlier, about being a really good convener and facilitating what I'll call intentional communication, intentional strategic communication.

There are projects, for example, that as our engineering division may have more involvement with than we would. But because small businesses are impacted, those businesses are gonna gonna come to us and say, hey. What's going on? So what we would want to do, and we've we've initiated this process, is begin conversations with our engineering department, for example, and our communications department even to say, are those areas of activity we need to be thinking about, and what are the ways in which we can be working together to communicate more effectively? That's certainly in the in the realm of projects that are within city control.

Now for those projects that are not within city control, that are not led by the city, third party as you mentioned, We're beginning that conversation to think about how we city can work with those third third party entities out of office. For example, Eversource. Yeah. That's an important entity. There's a lot of activities that is done at their at their initiation.

So we're we're wanting to look at how we can be better aligned and prepared for communication so that our residents, our business owners, these are my words now, are not cut by supplies. And so by way of this is not an update necessarily, but more a an an acknowledgement of this important issue. And I believe both our director, and I have a conversation about this, that it's the kind of thing that we want to make part of our regular review and provide some provide for opportunities. And I would also even say that we would we will look for input from this body to the extent that there's there's kind of amenability to that. Think there's an opportunity to to be strategic and hopefully more effective in our communication.

The deputy director, thank you so much because oh, boy. Do I have thoughts?

I know.

I just hand you everything

that I'm

holding in my brain that I've been told or some of it. Yeah. If and and that I really appreciate just the bucketing of what what we can control, what we can control, but also third parties, you know, independent contractors versus city projects. I just and and and I I I hope that there is a a really feasible con concerted effort with the engineering department with with getting the words out. Some horror stories I've I've heard, and I may have even mentioned it in HCD, so an example of when construction happens.

And the business owners, like, in a brick and mortar, small, they they they're they have jackhammering going on. They didn't know that construction was happening that day. That is their day off. Now if they had a little bit of a warning, they could have maybe opened another day and instead of the day that they're coming, but they didn't know. They're there now.

They can't actually function and operate because there's the loud the noise is so loud, it's impossible to answer the phone or even hear customers that walk in. And the customers are deterred from walking in as well because they're going to walk down a different street and definitely not make a last minute stop in to go in because there's everything happening right there. And and then those projects can be ongoing for a month sometimes. Right? So those are examples I've heard.

I've heard examples of snow days, and this is a little different. But even just and this was fascinating to me too because it was not something I would have to consider. But how snow days impact small businesses. If if a snow day is cold and no one goes out and they can't park to make a splurge decision to get, something at a store or a restaurant or something, that one day can actually heavily impact their their their business for that month. And so those are those are a few examples that I hear, and just how distraught and just how totally helpless sometimes business owners feel in those situations, and I don't blame them.

And with third party venues, our vendors, our our communications utility contractors are just lovely. And my ongoing struggle to get the flyers from all the cable lines just respectfully in our community. That's an ongoing situation. So I know the

struggle of

control sometimes we have in our own community of of what third party vendors would thought with just that and this is where my my question comes with independent contractors like some of the the the contractors that that we hire and have contracts with and consider and choose when we put put out bids off of projects. Some we have worked with for decades, and I know. But for bad actors in the community, is there some kind of repercussion and a choice for which contractors we choose? An example I can give is a construction project. Actually, counselor, and and you're did you go to space?

How did you get up there so quickly? You what?

I'm not taking, questions at this time, but thank you.

Okay. Alright. That is that is fine. That is your choice. But, counselor, you had happened over over in your ward where I saw, and you may very much actually know, as a contractor in, Spring Hill, area where they're they were driving dump trucks very fast up wrong way streets, to get there that much faster.

And again and again and again and again. And so with the contractors we choose and or or do we have any power in the contracts? If and and I know this may be a different department in order to open ended question, but do we have the power, and do we wish to enact the power if we do have the power to to be choosy to ensure that the contractors we do choose, that they're respecting our community and our residents and and those small business owners too sometimes. I've heard really bad situations with some contractors where they were it definitely seems pretty targeted where they were belittling a a a a family when when they were they had a project restored to their home and where this contractor was leaving dust and debris and garbage and all kinds of things. And the relationship between the people who live next door and the contract happening, the contractors happening and and the work that was being done became antagonistic and became a living hell for that small family for what they had to endure.

And, it came the choice then for them to put their porta potty right outside their their child's bedroom. Sure. It might have been a very must have been you know, maybe it's funny for them to do that, but we have contractors that sometimes disrespect our residents. And we, as we as a city, come in come in pick and choose of that or or choose not to. So and with that, with small businesses with small businesses, can we make sure that they're considering our our businesses and our brick and mortar as well when they come into projects?

Or for instance, like I've seen in other communities with some communities, and this is not the same thing, but similar in Canada. But if if there's a water I'm sorry, street cleaning, there are some communities that put those yard signs up block by block. And, yes, okay, we have we have our signs up, but this construction is happening, and I know sometimes we do put flyers up and whatnot. But are we absolutely positive that the message is getting out? And how long is this project going to get, and how do small business owners have to pivot when this happens?

What does it look like for that? Is there some kind of potential master plan so you don't get those angry calls, angry emails, and angry Zoom calls on Thursdays? Or, you know, I I don't want that to end up I knew either. So just some open ended questions. Counselor Yuencamp and came back from space. Welcome back.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Madam chair, I just have a a couple of thoughts to add to this through you. I you my perspective has been really shaped by the Spring Hill construction that this it was a city project that is almost done, but has been, you know, three years of construction. And and directly before that was the Somerville Ave, most of which was in Ward 2, but obviously affected Union Square and my ward as well. And, you know, I wanna say, like, the the city has improved a lot in its outreach to small businesses and and to residents. But I do think that there were a lot of missed opportunities around really basic communication stuff, in my opinion.

So construction of that nature, you know, long term infrastructure, it is just going to be disruptive, period. There is nothing there's no kind of, like, sugarcoating it. But I was pretty startled by, like, the lack of what I thought was kind of baseline, like, large friendly looking signs that say businesses are open. Please continue to support. You know, that there were once the Somerville project was underway, there was kind of the informal, like, hashtag loyal to local and things like that.

But just driving through, I felt like there was really not a lot of kind of open, like, supportive signage basically, which, you know, granted, is that gonna make every small business owner happy and feel supported? No. But I do think it it it kind of it hurts certainly my ability to, like, stick up for the city in those moments. Having these small, really visible things, I think, actually does go a long way. I I can't guarantee that it goes a long way with bringing in people through the door when there's a huge construction project.

But just in, like, relationships between the the city and small businesses, I remember the the very first thing that happened with the Somerville ad project, there was, like, a giant one of those giant, like, highway signs out on Washington Street that said, like, construction about to start. Like, expect disruptions for the next three years. Something like that. It it it said, like, construction will be complete in 2022, and this was in 2019. And it was like it became a joke online. It was like, what? Like, this this is gonna be under construction for three years. And the business community in Union Square, like, BoMarket and all these small businesses were, like, terrified. Right? They were like, we we've had no communications about this.

This was starting in the winter. It was gonna be the Christmas season. And then after the fact, there was a lot of, like, really effective catch up, you know, from from from economic development and other departments. Then there started to be business meetings. We're just kind of talking through all the logistics.

You know? Again, it was one of these things where I felt like we were on the back foot just for a lot of that. And so as we, like, grow and build up our capacity and continue to take on these large projects, I I really hope that we are, like, investing in those meetings upfront and better signage. You know, the Somerville Museum, they were, like, asking me for the city for for signage when Central was closed just to say, like, businesses are still open. And it did eventually came come, but it took forever.

And, like, it clearly was not on hand as, like, something the city had that they could just put in place. And I I was surprised by that. So that's just my 2¢. I think, you know, these these projects, they're always gonna be difficult. Of course, I don't think that there's, like, a a way to make it perfect. But I think we would buy ourselves a lot of goodwill if we were kind of demonstrating to the public that we care about this and kind of, like, having a lot of outward facing support for the local businesses that are bearing the brunt of this stuff.

Agree. The new director, do you do you have any I'd be able to talk about this further. And I'd I'd love to keep the symptom of the and come back to it and and as the the months progress. And

Yeah. If you can comment.

Go ahead.

If I may, madam chair, I would say well and and and through you, thank you, councilor Joon Kampen. What strikes me in the examples you gave and the example that councilor Joon Kampen gave is there's an opportunity for us as a city to look at how we could be more strategic and and effective in our communications, whether we can whether we control a construction project or not. And and I I think that's the takeaway for me, and I I wonder if to your point about maybe keeping this in conversation, how we might look at how we answer those questions and, you know, seek input moving forward as to how we do that. And while, again, economic development may not be the sole responsible entity, we can still be a convener to help those conversations move forward. So Cool.

Yeah.

Alright. With that, I'd love to keep this item in committee. And this last resolution, I'm happy to just keep it in committee as well unless you I'll announce it, but spoiler alert, if if seeing how this was just added last to the agenda, I could just hold it Sure. There in the box, but we're not that's thoughts are they're just accumulating stuff, yeah, information, whatnot, but I can have a good conversation too. So this is resolution two five one one seven eight that the administration notified of Wood Square businesses of construction projects. Oh, okay.

What what I would say to that as well, I think I I like I I probably overused this word, but I I I do so intentionally, and I it's opportunity. And and to look at the this was raised for a reason. And so I think our our job, certainly not gonna do development as what I like to call a convener, is to do the work with our district departments to determine that and then come back with either recommendation or seek him seek him, etcetera. So to the extent that you feel it's appropriate to keep it here in committee as and even in the maybe part of parcel to the the the older item line, I'd be.

Great. I I would love to with the yes. And I I can see the the pipes over on the rooms were hungering down and and construction flaring up. So I think we'll have a lot of time to talk about it. But but wanna make sure that we have a really great conversation about it. Councilor Yuncampin, do have any thoughts on this before I, keep it in committee? Alright. Thumbs up. We ran out of, agenda items. So with that, we just do we have to vote on the minutes?

Or okay. We do. Also, very quickly, counselor Klingen is the third member now. I misspoke. It's not council data. So council Klingen, council Yoon Kimpin, and then is third. K. According to Ken. Is he here? No. He's had a neighbor with me. Yeah. But but, in general, he is he's our our newest member. Yes. Yep. Well, we'll have to throw a happy birthday. That's wonderful to hear. Okay. Great. Thank you. So we have three again.

Woo hoo.

The items, do we so should we vote? Or Let's do that. So counselor Klingen. Counsel, you and Kevin?

Yes.

Chairs to us? Yes. Alright. With that, the ayes do have it. So we are adjourning. It is 07:11PM, and those minutes are approved. Thank you. Holy crowbar. That was a quick meeting. I really was expecting us to be eight. I did not want to hold you here, Tony. But you reserved But I was like, yeah, with the extra agenda, I'm sure.