AI-generated transcript of Mayor Stephanie M. Burke Press Conference June 14,2017

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for this press conference. We wanted to give some updates about our community so that everybody's aware of what's going on in the city of Medford. I am lucky enough to be here this morning. We have President Caraviello, we have Councilor Knight, Councilor Scarpelli, and Councilor Dello Russo. So thank you all for joining us today. We have with us as well many department heads and members of the press. First off, we're in budget season right now. As people may realize, it's night four of budget hearings. And this year we were really proud to deliver a budget that was full of additional services being offered to the community. First being a recreation, full-time recreation department. So we're really thrilled. We've had a study group that has been working on this since well before January. And they came through with many recommendations and a survey to determine what do the people of Medford want from us. So we came up with a plan. We have a lot of people that have supported it and they're really eager to see this budget go through so that we can start the hiring process to have a full-time rec director, an assistant director, as well as people working to staff the rec department. Councilor Scarpelli was integral to the whole process. He spearheaded the group that had the meeting weekly. George, if you'd like to say a few words about it, we'd be more than happy to have you come up.

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Madam Mayor. First of all, through the initiatives of our Mayor and then-Councilor, President Fred Dello Russo gave me the opportunity to be appointed to the focus group of recreation and to put together a wonderful group of constituents and stakeholders in our community that wanted to see a full-time recreation program come to fruition. After weeks of meetings and different initiatives that came through and thoughts and ideas through the survey process, we put together an unbelievable program. The summer pilot program is just a piece of what our community will see this fall and this winter, and it's so exciting. Again, I can't thank the mayor's office enough to give our community something that's been screaming for for years and all I can say is please reach out to our website and start registering for those programs and share some ideas and I can't wait to see what the future brings.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: We do have a summer break program here, our guide for city recreation so please pick up a copy at the library, city hall, throughout the city and get online and sign up for some of these amazing classes that are being offered. Thank you so much. Secondly, I just actually left Tufts University for an opioid conference and we're proud to be supportive of the efforts in trying to fight this addiction that's out there. With that being said, we are appointing in the budget, we've asked for a recovery coach to be put into our budget. We think it's really important for someone to be on the ground, really meeting with the people on a regular basis, and coming up with solutions to this problem, this epidemic. So with that, I also have initiated a position in the budget for that, so we're really eager to see this budget take off on July 1st, so that we can augment services to our community. the library. It's probably the most beloved asset in our community. And not only have we met the state guidelines for funding, but we've augmented those funding recommendations to the City Council. So we're about $100,000 over what is required of us, but with that we are increasing one more position so that we can have a media technology specialist at the library to help all of the people in Medford, from youth to senior citizens, so that they can have access to some of the latest and greatest opportunities online, with media, as well as on tape, and the various opportunities to have books on your phone and whatnot. So we're really thrilled about that, and we've also increased the library's part-time budget so that we can have additional staff on hand to help the citizens of Medford. Lastly, we have increased, we've offered a traffic engineer position. If you watched any of the city council meetings over the last six months to a year, You'll see that there's been a cry out for a traffic engineer on staff that can address some of the development that's going on as well as development in other communities, specifically the Malden Hospital site. So we're really proud, based upon this collaboration that we've formed, very strong collaboration, that we have put a traffic engineer in the engineering department for the upcoming budget cycle. So we're really thrilled about that. And our police department. Chief Sacco, I've been involved in this budget, barring the year when I took a little hiatus, for the last seven years and each and every year Chief Sacco has asked for crime scene technologists, and an information technologist. So we're really thrilled that we have put those positions into his police budget for this upcoming year. And that just augments the services that are offered. It allows our police officers to be out in the streets and doing the job that they're tasked to do while someone else can pick up the load and perform all of those technical jobs that are mandated in police departments of today. So we're really eager about that as well. Lastly, our school department in the budget is about $2.1 million over last year. Some of it is in negotiated salaries, but also we know there's a need in our schools. We still call them the new schools. But they were in 2001, they were dedicated, and there's a need for increased maintenance. And we've met with parents, we've met with school boards, you know, PTOs, and all of them have come out and said, we need more maintenance money, we need to be able to keep the school's spick and span. and address some of the smaller things that are so very important for the children of our community as well as the parents that peruse our schools. So we're increasing the budget line for maintenance in our schools by $200,000 strictly for supplies and repairs and also we're hoping to get a position on that as well. So we're really thrilled with this budget. We think it's very comprehensive. We feel that we've listened to the needs, the issues that have been raised at city council meetings. and from our department heads, so we really feel like we're addressing the needs of our community through these various outlets. So thank you very much for your support, thank you for the budget hearings, and for bringing good ideas. Like I've said before, good ideas come from anyone, anywhere, and we're open to them. So keep on keeping on, bring them up to us and we certainly will evaluate them and move forward to the best we can within budgetary constraints. Secondly, it's come up in the council as well, Mr. Gabb and our zoning. As many may realize, our zoning really hasn't been updated since we did the station landing project. That was our mixed-use zoning that we developed for that particular Wellington area. We think it's a good zoning, write-up of zoning. However, it doesn't always fit into other areas of the city. So I'm really proud to announce that we are receiving $40,000 to conduct a zoning review of Mystic Avenue. $10,000 of that is through MAPC with the DLTA grant, as well as $30,000 from the Mass Housing Trust. So we're really thrilled with that, and I think Ms. Councilor Knight would like to come up and say a few words about zoning. He's a member of the Zoning Committee, along with Councilor Dello Russo and Councilor Fatlow-Chiazat.

[Adam Knight]: Well, first of all, Madam Mayor, thank you very much. I appreciate your work and your efforts in being able to secure this grant. Zoning has been a topic of discussion during the last term, week in and week out, and it's very important that we take a long, hard look at our zoning here in the City of Medford to determine what direction a strong focus and a strong effort to look at maintaining sustainable parcels of commercial and industrial parcels to be sure that we can offset our residential tax burden as well as looking at developing some more infrastructure down on Mystic Avenue to allow us to grow. It's an untapped resource that's in the community. It's something that we've heard a lot of outcry about and it's something that I'm looking forward to working with the Mayor. and the residents of the community and the members of the council with. I'd really like to thank you for your efforts. Since Mayor Burke's election, we really have been partners in progress. We've done a great job working together, coming across the island, across the hall, and that's going to continue going forward. So thank you very much, Madam Mayor, for your efforts and your work. And thank you very much for having me this evening.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: There's no bigger supporter of job creation than the councillors that sit on the Zoning Subcommittee. So I thank you for all of your service. And we want to see commercial development as well. It's not just about housing. It's about commercial. bringing jobs to our city, which we feel strongly about. So that's one step in that direction, and we look forward to many more occurring that way. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Medford Square process that we've been undergoing. We're getting draft reports back now from MNPC. As you know, we did a $90,000 grant study that paid for all the services. They did a lot of outreach. We've had community meetings. We've had vision boards. and they're now ready to come back in with their recommendations for zoning for Medford Square. Actually, our zoning is okay for Medford Square, but what we have written into it is setbacks and lot lines, and that's what's deterring from development in Medford Square. So we're really eager to fine-tune and finesse the zoning of Medford Square, and we'll be working with the council on that as well. City Hall, we all know City Hall is under construction right now and we have a schedule of renovations. So basically the roof and the parapet will be done in the first week of July. They'll begin the council chamber work at the end of July, which we're really eager about. We want to get that room, it's the people's room, we want to get it up looking really fine and nice and we want it to be used by the people on an ongoing basis. It's a beautiful building, it will be turning 80 years old in September, and it was a fine time for us to do some improvements to this gorgeous building. Phase 3 is up front, which began in earnest at the beginning of May, and they're very much underway. We have some sketches, we have one sketch there and one behind. that show what it will look like, but it will be a much more friendlier, handicapped accessible facility. It certainly will be an open area where we can have summer concerts and community events like Circle the Square that's kicking off this Thursday, so make sure you come down to Medford Square. But we're really eager to get this project finished so that we can give her an 80th birthday party, hopefully beginning of October sometime. So stay tuned. There's another item that we kicked off last January. It was a senior work-off abatement process. We feel that our seniors should be brought into City Hall. We really want to collaborate with them. They bring so much to the table. And we have opened up a new round that will be beginning in July as well for the senior work-off abatement. Last year we had 35 seniors that came to work here. And they're able to work, earn about $1,500 that go against their tax bill. So it's a win-win for us. They pleasure us with their smiles each and every day, and they in turn get an abatement on their taxes. So we're really thrilled with the outcome from last year, and we're eager to get it off the ground again for this upcoming fiscal year. And we're getting applications, so please come into room 204. Fill out an application and we will find something that works for both sides so that we get the benefit of your history, your education, and your strengths in the city of Medford. And we in turn, we get greeters that welcome people. I think people feel really good when they walk into this building now because they're greeted with a smile and they're not walking around randomly trying to find an office. So we're really thrilled with the program and we look forward to its expansion in the upcoming fiscal year, 18. Summer Rec, we touched upon it a little bit. We do have the guide out, so please make sure you check it out. There's lots of opportunities for enrichment as well as just summer fun. We have our park program kicking off in the second week, third week of July. It'll be a six week program and it'll be moving throughout the city. So everyone will be coming to the park. So the kids will get to meet each other. So that when they do go to middle school, they have friends that they've already met through our summer youth program. We're really excited about that and it was part and parcel of Constance Scarpelli's as well as people on the rec committee that worked hard as well as activists from our office. Veterans Wall, moving right along. We are going to be dedicating it on June 25th on Emerald Park at 10am. We are collaborating with the Elks Club that does an annual Flag Day event. We thought it'd be a nice day to join forces and do something for our community. There's about 40 names that will be entered upon the wall at Honor Roll Park and we urge you to come on out and support those people that have fought for our freedoms, fought for our flag, and allow us to be here today to do what we do. And finally, something that I'm really saddened by, our illustrious Diane McLeod, our diversity director, is retiring. Actually, today is her final day of service in the city of Medford. She has been with us for 24 years. She, tears coming, don't make me cry. She has done so much for this community. She has worked so very hard with outreach and collaboration and conversations. Diane has really done it all. It's been a really tough, I know, a tough month for her to get to this point. She's been trying to tick and time, go over lists and make sure nothing falls through the cracks because this really has been her baby. She was our first diversity director and she's done a fantastic job. We're really proud to call her friend. We were proud to have her in the city of Medford and she brought her wealth and her knowledge to the city and she will be missed for sure. But in her last days, Diane was able to pull off a grant in the amount of $130,000. So Diane, take it away. The first time the Mass.

[c3JkoYgGg3s_SPEAKER_05]: Office on Disability had a municipal grant, an ADA grant, that was available for the first time. So after talking with Mayor Burke, I met with Director Heidi Riccio and with Roy Bellson and we sat down and talked about the vocational school. And as many of you know, or don't know, we've done a lot of work at the high school, piece by piece over the years, but not really to the vocational school. So there's several needs that we've outlined and the $130,000 will go for accessible hardware, accessible signage for all the rooms, There'll be a lift that will go into the automotive department. This grant was both for physical and programmatic access. There will be automatic doors, new doors, as well as automatic doors. And I just think it's an exciting grant, and there's going to be another one coming up for next year, so there's something else we can do there. But it's been great working here. I love this job.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Everyone in this building loves dining in as well. So of course when Diane announced that she would be leaving the great city of Medford for retirement and to spend time with her family and she has two weddings coming up with her two boys and I know she's a proud mama and she's really excited about those opportunities for her to continue and to have a golfer by the way. There's been a lot of calls I've received in my office, a lot from the Human Rights Commission, people have just been calling and saying What are you going to do? How are we going to do this? We need someone from Medford. We need someone that knows Medford. We need someone that shows diversity in every aspect of their life. So, and with those calls have come many recommendations, mainly for this one individual. And we're really thrilled to have him here with us today. His name is Mr. Neil Osborne. Neil, you can stand up. Neil has served on various commissions throughout the city from planning board to the human rights commission. He's chair of the NAACP, president of the NAACP. He is just a person that is out in the city. He knows the issues we're facing. I know that he will embrace all that we have to offer and to make our city, we have a great city here. We have a welcoming city here. And we know that Neil is going to add to that and really bring in everyone so that there's a comfort level. Everyone feels safe, especially in these times that we're dealing with right now on the federal level. So we're really thrilled. He's an attorney by trade. He's done a lot with personnel issues. And I'm sure Neil can elaborate a little bit more about his experience. And I'd like to welcome him to the City of Medford's department. To the department head.

[Osborne]: Thank you very much, Mayor Burke. When you tapped me on the shoulder and said, Neil, would you consider this position? I was like, oh my goodness. Can I still be of great service to the city of Medford? I look forward to joining your team. I look forward to serving the citizens of Medford in a deeper, more intimate way as being professional in City Hall. And Diane McLeod, I have known you for years. We have interacted so much. You will be greatly missed. I am thankful for the work that you've done for this city. You've built a foundation, and hopefully I can build upon that. So congratulations on your retirement, and I promise not to call during the day. I'll let you get off.

[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: I have complete faith in Neil's abilities. And like he said, we'll probably be calling Diane. We're going to give her the wedding time off. But probably come August, we're going to be tapping in. We know it's a big transition. We understand what transitions are all about. Come on now. We just took office a year and a half ago. So we know what it's like. And we know that Diane will be there, as she has been, there to support our administration. And you're going to be missed, my dear. Thank you. Definitely going to be missed. So with that, I will end this press conference. And stay tuned. In a couple of weeks, we'll have another one on some more updates. We have some more grants that we're waiting to get solidified and to make some big announcements. So stay tuned. And now we over and out. Thank you.

Stephanie Muccini Burke total time: 14.7 minutes total words: 674	George Scarpelli total time: 1.0 minutes total words: 73	Adam Knight total time: 1.0 minutes total words: 121