[Caraviello]: Do you need the doctor?
[Unidentified]: Good evening.
[Caraviello]: Medford City Council meeting of April 24th, 2018. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Vice President Dello Russo. Present. Councilor Falco. Present. Councilor Knight. Present. Councilor Lungo-Koehn. Present. Councilor Moniz. Present. Councilor Scarpelli. Present. President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Present. Please rise and salute the flag. Aye. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Knight]: Motion by Councilor Knight to suspend the rules. Councilor Knight. Mr. President, I ask to suspend the rules to take paper 18327 from the table. Loan order $3,466,567 for the Medford Public Library. Eligible for third reading today, April 24th, 2018.
[Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Nate. To take the paper for a third reading. Seconded by Councilor Falco. Mr. Clerk. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Vice President Dello Russo. Yes. Councilor Falco?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor McPherson?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Motz? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Vice Mayor Caprio?
[Caraviello]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative, motion passes. Thank you. Motion. While we're on the suspension, Councilor Dello Russo?
[Dello Russo]: This is paper tabled, budget transfer, $54,000 regarding the amendment to Chapter 66, 18, 341. This is paper 342. I think we received a favorable answer. I'd like to take this off the table and move approval prior to the third reading.
[Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Dello Russo, seconded by by Councilor Knight. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, the paper was tabled at my request. I sought a copy of the memorandum of understanding between the parties to show that a certain position had been, in fact, negotiated out of the union. The administration sent that paper to me that evening when I made the motion. I actually had it in my email when I got home that night. It did, in fact, show that the position was appropriately negotiated out of the union as such. I have no further objection.
[Marks]: Mr. President, did we all get a copy of that?
[Caraviello]: Should've got a copy of it.
[Marks]: Was it this week's package? Yes.
[Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Dello Russo, seconded by Councilor Knight, all those in favor. Roll call has been requested, is required, excuse me. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Vice President Dello Russo?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Caput? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Lungo-Koehnan? Yes. Councilor Locks?
[Marks]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Caraviello?
[Caraviello]: Yes. Assembly affirmative, none in the negative. Motion passes. Motion for regular business, Mr. President. Motion by Councilor Dello Russo to revert back to regular business. Motions, orders, and resolutions 18383 offered by President Caraviello be it resolved that the Medford City Council commends and congratulates John Costas is being named a Citizen of the Year. John Veneziano is the incoming President of the Chamber of Commerce. And a thank you to outgoing President Tina Caruso. Mr. Costas is in the audience today. If we could give him a hand. Thank you, John, and congratulations. Motion approved by Councilor Dello Russo. All those in favor?
[Knight]: Mr. President, may I? Councilor Knight. As a member of the Chamber of Commerce, maybe you can share with us when they're going to be having the ceremony to unveil a new citizen of the year's name in the lobby of City Hall.
[Caraviello]: You'll have to talk to the CODI chairman, which would be Mr. Kamara. Mr. Kamara. Oh, the fraternal.
[Knight]: The head of the fraternal organization. That's the fraternal organization. Okay, excellent.
[Caraviello]: Wendell Jones-Clarkson starts getting calls from Dominic for his checks. Congratulations. He's joining the fraternal organization. He may want out. So hopefully in the near future, John's name will be inscribed on the wall in the hallway down there. Thank you.
[Knight]: Forever and ever. Congratulations, John.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Justice Jervis. 18-375. Petition for a convictional license by Emerald Owies, 11 Wallachia Lane, Watertown. Massachusetts for Amori Pizza and Kitchen, 509A High Street, Medford, Mass. Councilor Scarpelli is the Chairman of Licensing. Is the petitioner present? Please come to the rail, please. Mr. Chairman, how did you find the paperwork?
[Scarpelli]: Mr. President, I found the paperwork in order. I just, if I can, Your hours of operations, if you could just tell us.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be Monday, Tuesday, 11 to 9. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
[Caraviello]: Hold on. I'll be back. I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. Proposing for us, hour's going to be Monday, Tuesday, 11 to 9. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 11 to 10. Sunday closed.
[Scarpelli]: OK. And there'll be due delivery? 11 to 10. And you'll be delivering? Yes, we'll be delivering. OK, yeah. Are there delivery plans?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[Scarpelli]: So, Mr. President, I see everything is signed off and in order. I wish the gentleman at the podium much luck with him and his family and his endeavor here in Medford. Thank you.
[Knight]: Mr. Owes, congratulations. First of all, I grew up in the neighborhood and I was a frequent patron of Jimmy's. They have a great steak and cheese. I hope you keep the recipe. However, there's been a lot of concern, especially in the West Medford neighborhood, about local businesses on Wednesdays closing early so that kids that get out of school on early release day don't have a place to go, really, and it's creating a situation. I have an understanding that you're going to be open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Wednesdays? Yes. Okay. And you have no problem with the student kids in the neighborhood coming into the school? No problem. Great. That's awesome. I really appreciate that. Thank you very much. Congratulations, sir. Thank you. Move approval of the question, Mr. President. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Want some oxygen? You want some? On the motion by Councilor Scarpelli. Seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Congratulations. Welcome to Medford. Communications from the Mayor. 13382, dear President Caraviello and members of the Medford City Council, I respectfully request that the City Council approve the following list of food trucks for the events that are scheduled for coming months. West Medford Open Studios, Circle the Square, Medford Farmers Market, Hoops and Hopes, Medford Diversity Festival, Students of the Fells, Methodist and Mystic River celebrations.
[Knight]: Councilor Knight. Mr. President, it's common course for this council to approve food trucks. Councilor Marks has explained in the past the difficulty it is sometimes in securing a food truck for a date like this and without having a date in advance. So it's very important that we take a look at this and take the appropriate steps to ensure that these food trucks are approved. With that being said, Mr. President, I certainly have no problem approving these. And I think that it's about time we revisit whether or not we should establish an ordinance on such. So with that being said, Mr. President, I move for approval on the paper.
[Marks]: Councilor Marks. Thank you, Mr. President. I have no problem approving this. However, the event at Circle the Square, it mentions various locations. And I, as one member of the council, would want to make sure that whatever is being done is not placed in front of an already existing food establishment. And would ask that the paper be amended to have the administration provide locations for this particular event, Mr. President.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you. Councilor Scott Belli. Thank you, Mr. President. I think Councilor Marks will bring that forward. I missed that. Again, I think that Councilor Knight's right. We might need to look at something more permanent. But again, I think the biggest sticking point was when it was affecting food trucks that were affecting our brick and mortar businesses. So I, too, would second that resolve from my colleague. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Knights, second and by?
[Scarpelli]: Second.
[Caraviello]: By Councilor Scott Pell. All those in favor?
[Caraviello]: As amended by Councilor Marks. Motion passes. Motion to take papers in the hands of the clerk, offered by Councilor Falco, be it resolved that the Medford City Council send its sincere condolences to the family of Hugh McIsaac on his recent passing. Councilor Falco.
[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. McIsaac was a resident of Method for many years, and he recently passed away. And just thoughts and prayers to the family. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Would I like to rise for a moment of silence, please? Offered by Councilor Scarpelli, be it resolved that the City Administration, being Director of DPW, report back to this Council to see if we could add decorative banners, barrels, I'm sorry, barrels throughout our streets. Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Councilor. President Caraviello, I apologize for the chicken scratch. This is, I've received many phone calls and emails over the last few weeks about the lack of community barrels placed throughout our main streets and roads. And what's happening, especially in front of most of our convenience stores that sell lottery tickets and such, what's happening when people are exiting those businesses that people don't find, uh, can't find a place to discard those from what I've been told. And they throw them down and they blow down the side streets and end up in front of a neighbor's houses. And, um, I took a tour down cherry street, um, just yesterday. And, uh, that street from what the residents sent me pictures that, uh, he would come home at night, uh, sweep the front of his house, leave for work, come back, send me the picture of the next day with the same type of litter, cigarette packs, wrappers, candy wrappers, and then mostly just scratch tickets and such. So I think that what we're seeing is even if you go through, traverse through our business districts, you don't see as many barrels, especially decorative barrels, that could be placed around our community. So I'd ask the city administration, the DPW director, to maybe give us a price and see if they can give us what we can do to place these most needed barrels throughout our community so we can look at it when it comes to budget time, or is that something we can look at for the city administration for our complete streets as we move forward with that? So again, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
[Knight]: Councilor Knight. Yes, Mr. President. I think this is a very fitting resolution, considering we just celebrated Earth Day just a couple of days ago. I think we've all gotten some correspondence from individuals in the community expressing concern about the cleanliness of our streets as well. With that being said, Mr. President, I support this resolution wholeheartedly, especially because Councilor Schiappelli is actually asking the administration to come up with a price, what it's going to cost, what the impact. I'd like to amend the paper and ask that for every barrel that we install, that we look at, we also look at installing one of the solar-powered recycling receptacles that we see at our parks, Mr. President. And I'd ask that this be added as either an amendment or a B paper, whichever the sponsor of the resolution prefers, so that we can get prices for that as well, and then how we can move forward on the issue.
[Dello Russo]: Constantin Rousseau. Just as a comment, Mr. President, some years, over 25 years ago, one of my former confreres had graduated from the Sorbonne in France, and the treasurer of the college went to his graduation and noticed that the city of Paris used a special cast-iron public trash barrel. He somehow contacted the director of the DPW of the city of Paris, or the director or commissioner de sanitaire, found out where those cast iron barrels were made. He ordered them and put them all over the college campus. 25 years later, undented and only with a second coat of paint, they still function very well. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: We do, the cast iron barrels that we do have, the Secretary of the Prime Minister is in town, so perhaps we can check with him.
[Falco]: Councilor Falco. Thank you, Mr. President. I thank Councilor Scarpelli for bringing this forward. This is a major issue throughout our city. I've received many emails as well with regard to colonialism in the city, and we should be making sure that, you know, people are keeping it clean, but also giving them the opportunity to actually throw things away, you know, have barrels thrown on streets with trash cans. As I wait for the bus every day on Salem Street, there are trash cans, you know, all the way down Salem Street. But I don't think that this is true for all of our major thoroughfares throughout the streets. So if we could get a list from the DPW as to what streets actually have public trash cans or public barrels, because it'd be interesting to see. I mean, I don't, I know they, They go down Salem Street, but I don't think, as far as I know, that they are down most of our thoroughfares throughout the city. So if we could get a listing from the DPW department as to where they are located, I'd greatly appreciate it. I think it's a great resolution. I think it's something that we should be doing. We should have, especially if you take a look at bus stops, you know, people are always on the bus stop, you know, they're eating, they're getting ready to go, you know, get on the bus, whatnot. So we should be giving them somewhere where they can throw out their trash. So, thank you.
[Marks]: Councilor Marks. Thank you, Mr. President. I do want to thank the Method Community Coalition and the Chamber of Commerce. They held a cleanup day this past Saturday in many of our business districts, and they did a tremendous job. I believe we all received an email regarding trash from one woman that her and her daughter were out, and she noticed a lot of cigarette butts. So I would say that, in addition to a trash barrel, that the city also look at putting cigarette receptacles where people can place a cigarette in, Mr. President, because you don't want them throwing them in a trash barrel that could cause a fire. So I would ask that, Mr. President. The second thing is that I believe much of the debris we see around is because the fact that this community only sweeps our streets twice a year. It's inadequate for the number of businesses that we have, the number of vehicular cars that are cut through this community, that may dump trash. And I believe that we have to impact and put together a full-fledged street sweeping program, which would sweep our streets more than twice a year, and also our neighborhoods, which much of this debris, as Councilor Scarpelli mentioned, I can tell you firsthand, living off the Felsway, that every day, indeed, I'm out there picking up trash that blows up the street. And you come out the next day, and it's more trash that's out there. And it ranges from Dunkin' Donuts to plastic bags to newspapers, you name it. Some of the stuff you see out there is pretty amazing. A second thing, Mr. President, and I don't want to seem critical, but waste management. If you happen to see when they dump the barrels, it's pretty amazing how much trash gets left behind. When it picks up, the arm picks up, it dumps the thing in there, and then you see paper fly out here and there. And it may not seem like a lot in front of your house, but times that by 30,000 households, And it's a fair number of trash that's somehow escaping from the truck and not getting in there. Some of it's due to barrels that are over strewn with trash, and the lids aren't closed properly, which was supposed to be a mandate in order to dump your trash. The lid had to be shut when the program first started. Now they seem to be very liberal in taking the trash, Mr. President. That's the second reason, I believe, you see additional trash. So it's the lack of street sweeping in this community. It's also the waste management pickup, which I believe could be done more efficiently and effectively. And the third point, Mr. President, and I had this discussion with the gentleman that called up regarding the trash along the sidewalks when he walks his pet. The dog's trying to eat stuff constantly that's left outside on the sidewalks. And, you know, we require by ordinance that people shovel in front of their home, even though it's a city sidewalk, that you take ownership and pride and you shovel in front of your home. And if you don't, you potentially could get a ticket. And someday we may need to expand that to also sweeping in front of your home and taking care of the public sidewalk in front of your home when it comes to cleanliness, Mr. President. I don't think it's a bad idea. I think it shows a sense of pride and a sense of ownership, you know, and a lot of people do it anyways. But, you know, I think this would go a long way to putting our best foot forward as a community. When people drive through, which many thousands of people do, they see a city that's clean and taken care of and not a city that's littered with debris, which I hate to say is currently happening right now in our community. Mr. President, so those would be my suggestions. Thank you. Councilor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Caraviello. I too have gotten a few emails with regards to the neighborhoods and litter lingering on our streets. I know, I think it may have came about because the Chamber of Commerce and Medford Community Coalition did do the cleanups this weekend, which went very well, by the way. I know I saw Councilor Caraviello there at Haines Square cleaning up, and every square had people, a lot of people there. But one of the suggestions was, because it was so good this weekend, you had DPW involved as well and they gave out, I think Modern Hardware gave out brooms and everybody sweeping the streets and pushing all the, a lot of cigarette butts in front of, especially in front of a couple of those restaurants, but sweeping all the trash into the streets and then we had DPW on board who said they would come by later at night and sweep the streets. I think maybe that would be a good suggestion I don't know who could organize it, maybe the administration through the mayor's office, but have a community citywide cleanup where people would register their street as part of the community cleanup, especially those ones near the business districts, hopefully get the businesses involved to just sweep everything into the streets and then have the DPW on board to come and clean the street at night, I think it would go a long way. It's almost like a spring street cleanup. I think it's something that could be organized pretty quickly, and I think it would go a very long way. We don't have the staff to go through every single street and clean up the sidewalks, and if we could organize something where our trucks could come out an extra time to certain streets that are willing to participate, I really think it would go a long way, and I know a lot of residents who would see their neighbors people out, maybe get an organiser from each street to get notification of something like that. I really think that's something that needs to be done because you have a lot of trash on some of our streets that aren't main thoroughfares that need to be cleaned, all over the sidewalks. It needs to get done one way or another and there are people out there requesting, you know, having us request this type of organisation of such a clean-up and I think it's definitely something I would take part in and I think it would go, definitely help out the neighbourhoods.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you. Councilor Scarpelli. Again, thanks for everybody. I appreciate everybody's input. And I think that it's important that we as a city council really focus on making sure that the taxpayers get what they deserve when they pay their taxes. And that's basic necessities and making sure that our streets are cleaned. I think that's one of the frustrations of the neighbor that I talked to is that he's out there every single night And he's sweeping in front of his house every single night. But if we're not doing what we need to do as an administration, then that's a problem. So I think it's important that we get the prices for the barrels and the solar-powered barrels and also the cigarette dispensaries. But I also like the idea that we look at a formalized program of street sweeping. And I think that's something we need to look at as a budgetary item when it comes, comes up this, uh, the spring. So, uh, thank you again. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: And being out there and said, you know, with council long ago, um, I think what you saw with the squares that have a package stores is you see the nip bottles, little plastic nip bottles are really rampant throughout, throughout the city. And because that's, That's a big part of these small package stores is they're selling the little nips and people just leave them everywhere. So again, if that's where we could place some barrels near those things, that might help out a little bit more. Council Member O'Keefe.
[Lungo-Koehn]: And you notice just in front of the few restaurants that you know are open late in Haines Square, they're just a lot of cigarette butts. The parking lots were, we did a big cleanup of the Haines Square parking lot. I think we filled like 20 bags of just leaves and trash. but this is, no matter what it is, even dunking donuts lids, they were kind of all over with the straws and the cups. I mean, this is trickling, like Councilor Scarpelli said, this is trickling into the neighborhoods where people are just walking around and throwing litter into our neighborhoods. So I think between the trash barrels and maybe a community citywide cleanup, and with the help of our DPW, like they did over the weekend, you can't go wrong.
[Caraviello]: Councilor Knight. Move approval of the question, Mr. President. On the motion by Councilor Scarpelli. Do you want to speak in this matter?
[Joe Viglione]: Yes. Name and address of the record, please. Thank you very much, sir. Joe Villione, 59 Garfield Ave, Medford, Mass. I have gone with my camera up and down the streets and it is a disaster. Especially the nip bottles. The nip bottles, I think maybe over at Sheridan, they were just like piles of them. And it's like, Is there any self-respect in the community? I'm forever picking up litter that comes in from the street into my driveway. It's a perpetual, one neighbor would actually come over and pick it up for me with a, with a stick. He felt so badly that it just comes in from the wind. So we, as a community, we need to, you know, it speaks volumes because one last, very quickly, when you come off of 93 and go down Salem street, as councilor Dello Russo knows, they fly. You have people from all sorts of communities bypassing Route 16 because there were fewer lights on Salem and Route 60. They see the mess. And so we have all sorts of people from different cities and towns seeing our mess. It's just not good. Medford pride. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. The motion by Councilor Scarpelli. Seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor. Aye. Motion passes. Offered by Councilor Marks. Be it resolved that walking court be discussed. Councilor Marks.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I believe we all received an email from a resident that was concerned about the living conditions of her parents living at Walkland Court. I happen to make a call and talk to the executive director, Mr. Driscoll, regarding some of the concerns that were mentioned, which was cleanliness of the building and we did receive several photos which showed a building that was in dire need of a sweep and some 409 and some heavy duty cleaning. It was also mentioned that in this particular location There's been a concern with bed bugs in several of the units within Walkland Court, of which I was assured by the executive director that the exterminator that's been called out has been doing the proper number of treatments to eradicate the bed bugs, which I believe has to take at least a two to three week span and at least three treatments. And also the fact that when residents are told that their apartment will be exterminated, there should be a step-by-step process that they need to follow. in order to eradicate the bed bugs, because if you take your sheeting and other items, clothing, and put it in storage, which may be in the basement of that facility while they're treating your apartment, and then after it's done, reintroduce all the stuff that was in the apartment, that may be the cause of reintroducing the bed bugs over and over, and also the spread of bed bugs within a particular housing unit. So I'm confident now that The executive director, Mr. Driscoll, is on top of this, that the proper professionals were called out in order to take care of the concerns. There is a cleaning crew that will be going through all the buildings. Another issue, Mr. President, was the dumpsters. According to this particular woman that contacted the council, that at any given time this furniture and a number of items that are left outside of this little alleyway, which is where they housed their dumpster. And the executive director assured me that he will have it monitored. It's not under lock and key. In my opinion, you probably have people dumping that don't live in the particular area and know there's a dumpster there and dumping items off. And depending on what the item is, it could be attracting rodents and infestation and other concerns. So he assured me that they were going to keep a close eye on the dumpster and potentially look at some type of locking mechanism that's only available to residents, which to me makes sense. The last concern which I discussed with Mr. Driscoll was based on what this particular Method resident reached out and said that when residents bring concerns, they're fearful that their concerns may be used against them or they may be told, well, if you keep on bringing these things up, you know, you're going to have to find housing somewhere. And that's pretty devastating when you're talking elderly and disabled people which occupy these 144 units, Mr. President. And I made it known to the executive director that any such action by any employee will not be tolerated. And he agreed with me and said that he was going to have a discussion with his staff. So there is proper protocol according to federal and state statute out there for housing that would require when you file a grievance. So if you're living in a state or federal building, there's a whole policy you can follow to file a grievance. And it actually gets to the executive director level. And if you're not happy with the executive director, Then you can go to either federal or state court to resolve your issues. So there's a number of avenues, and by no means or at any time should anyone be a fear that there'll be retribution or something held against them for reporting an issue of concern, which may be cleanliness, rodents, whatever it might be, Mr. President. No one should be in fear of that. And I let that be known to the executive director. I'm hoping some changes are going to be made. That walk-in court is the only state development we have in this community now. The federal government back, I think it was two or three years ago, moved to purchase all the state housing within the Commonwealth, and I assume across the country, but I know in the Commonwealth. And for some reason, that walk-in court, they were not interested in. They purchased some of the other state housing we had in the community, but not walk-in court. And according to the director, he said it's no excuse, but they are sorely underfunded by the state. And, you know, he's paying special attention to this particular unit because of the lack of funding and the needs that are in that building, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Locren.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Caraviello. I want to thank Councilman Marks for bringing this up. I know Councilman Marks has been back and forth with a few residents who have family and walk in court and so have I. I know the mayor's office did reach out to Jeff as well and did some walkthroughs. And I know that the mice and the bedbugs, those issues are being worked on. One that I'm really concerned with is just, after looking at the pictures too, is just the cleanliness of the building. So I just want to reiterate that. I think it's something that you need to sweep the floors and dust the main areas of that building, or I think there's nine buildings in Walkland Court, they need to be done on at least a monthly basis. 18 units at Walkland Court, 144 apartments, I think they said earlier.
[Caraviello]: If you'd like to come to the rail and speak, that would be great. Name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_07]: Bob Salvato, 1A Rockland Court. The problem is bedbugs is not a problem. It's an infestation. And it keeps happening over and over and over again to the same apartments throughout the whole unit. There are no dumpsters there. There were barrels. It's like six barrels. And they're always overflowing by the day trash day comes. The place is a pigsty. You know, since Keith, our maintenance man, has been out injured, you know, there's been hardly, most days, there's hardly anybody there at all. The last couple of weeks, there's been a bunch of them there trying to get caught up with everything. You know, the place is a joke. The bed bug people, B&B, they're a joke. They never go into the basements. They spray the apartment that the problem is in, but they never go in the basement where the problem originates. You know, I had them, all right? They came into my apartment and inspected. Two weeks later, they told me, well, that day they told me, they inspected, they said, your house is clean. I said, yes, it is. Two weeks later, they made me, three days before Christmas, throw my couch out at $175 to me, my cost. Three days before Christmas, they said my couch was infestated. They came and they sprayed three times, all right? The problem seems to be corrected so far, but it's only a matter of time. I know people there that have had bedbugs three or four times, and these people are clean. The company's not doing the right job. Now, hire someone that does the right job. BNB is putting a Band-Aid on a major cut.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Mr. Ross. Thank you. Councilor Longo.
[Lungo-Koehn]: No, I'm glad there's residents in the audience, because I feel like we're learning a lot from the residents who emailed us. And the mayor's office is being told something by the director, which is the information that I got today. And then we met with, I think, Council Member Matsui just walked in after this, but we met with Walkland Court and the director, who said, I think, tried to put our minds at ease with regards to the fact that they're working on things. And one thing I just reiterated is we need to get an update on this cleaning and how often it's going to be done because you saw the picture of the dead mouse and just the layer of dust. I mean, just the basics aren't getting done. So you can only imagine what's going on in the basement. And I don't know much about the B&B company, but I, the mayor's office did tell me about them today. They're the ones that spray for the bed bugs. So there, I think there's three or four stories that we need to kind of get into a room to try to figure this out so that we can alleviate the problems.
[SPEAKER_11]: Should we name and address of the record please?
[Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_11]: My name is Steven Glein senior and I'm a resident of Walkland court. Uh, I've been there since August. Uh, I'm a veteran, I'm senior citizen and I applied to met for housing. So I get in right away. Uh, I wanted to try to get into a federal building. but there's two or three year wait, and veterans have no priority at all. State run, we have number one priority. As far as the bedbugs go, I've been fortunate, I haven't had any. They've been in my building. And there's a lot of things that they're turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to. There's videos, all right, there was one apartment in building seven that was sprayed. So what they did is the people in the apartment took their clothes out and they put them in the trash. We have videos of people from that building going out in the trash and taking the clothes out and bringing them back in. And what they're doing is they're shipping them overseas. And I can't get in, I don't want to use any ethnic groups or this, that, or everything. But there's people that deliver barrels there 10, 12 times a month. And people are going, they're bringing furniture in, they're bringing everything in, and they're packing, and this is going out. I brought it up to Berlin. She's the, I guess, the rental agent for Walkland Court. And it don't seem like, you know, they shrug it off. You know, they all come up with excuses. Four o'clock one morning they were taking barrels out. And they're sly about it. Because when someone complains, they were going from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock, 8 o'clock at night. And one morning, four o'clock in the morning they took them out. And when it was reported to Berlin, she said the individual in that apartment was moving. And that was the only time they could take the barrels out. Well, the person's still there. And they've had 15, 20 barrels come out of that apartment in the last seven or eight months. And tomorrow, I guess, they're going to have a meeting at Walkland Court with Mr. Driscoll. And how it goes, nobody knows. And they kind of threaten you. I was making noise. I got a letter that I was making too much noise. I live on the second floor. And the place is not insulated. So someone downstairs, it's an elderly woman. And you know, when you walk, you hear. I'm not really making any excessive noise. But the letter they sent me, they're going to terminate me. And I have to go in for a hearing. And I had to bring a lawyer with me. I mean, I'm disabled, I'm, you know, I'm a veteran. Where do I go? Where do I go? I mean, this is fair. I fought for my country and I'm a senior citizen. I helped, you know, and the thing is, a lot of people here, the senior citizens, they built this country. And what are we getting for it? Absolutely nothing. And like I say, when you go to say something, they kind of brush it off. So I don't, you know. But like I say, fortunate enough, I haven't gotten any. I mean, tomorrow I got some solutions I could try to come up with, but whether they adhere to them or not, that's another thing. And I think what it is, a lot of these people there, they're elderly, and where are they going to go? You know? But I just want to clarify that I think they are turning a blind eye in the deaf ear to what's going on. And, you know, and no matter how much you complain about it or you say something, You know, like the bed bug thing. The woman turned around and says, well, it's the people you're sitting with. One has it, the bed bug jumps off to, you know, I'm 70 years old, I never even heard of bed bugs until I moved here. But yet, we have pictures of people taking trash out of an apartment that was just, you know, fumigated, and they're bringing it back up. So I think that is one of the major, And what they're doing is they're taking them clothes and they're putting them in barrels and they ship them overseas. So, you know. But thank you for listening to me. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Okay. Thank you. Councilor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Through the chair, yes, thank you. That is some of the information that Jeff, I believe, gave to Deanna from the mayor's office with regards to furniture being removed from units and then brought back in and some people's clothes being brought back in. So, I think we just The whole walk-in court needs some guidance and some special attention, and that's a good step with Jeff Driscoll going down to meet with, hopefully, residents and listening to them. Being threatened is something that I have heard recently, and I don't know if it was that Berlin. That sounds familiar, but I hope Jeff can get a handle on that as well. I know he's reporting back to the council with regards to the cleaning issues, but if he could also just keep the council apprised on how the meeting goes tomorrow and what I'm not sure what we can do, but besides speak out and try to make sure that these meetings are being had, I also would, I mean, they're Medford residents, so hopefully our administration can maybe be present at the meeting tomorrow. I think that would go a long way to have somebody there as, not necessarily a mediator, but somebody that could listen and speak out for our residents that live in those buildings, because they definitely need it. This is a number of people here tonight and a number of emails we've got as of recent with a number of pictures that say a thousand words. So, um, hopefully we're heading in the right direction and we keep on it.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Name and address of the record, please.
[SPEAKER_10]: My name is John Campbell. I'm six G walkling court. I had an incident a couple of weeks ago. I was sprayed for bedbugs. They came twice. I cleaned my apartment out. I threw a bunch of things out. One of them happened to be a computer bag. in the computer bag were several dead bedbugs. I assumed they were dead. I threw them in a barrel. Within six hours, I'm walking down the hallway, and there's my computer bag sitting on a chair in the hall on the second landing with a few other articles that I threw in the barrel. I have a solution to that problem. I'm not throwing anything out anymore unless I cut it up, shred it up, or destroy it in some way, fashion, or form. So it's useless now. That's the way you have to handle this thing. The barrel situation goes on all the time. These big blue barrels, they're about five feet high. They're lugging them in and out of these buildings at least once, twice a month, three times a month. A truck comes and picks these things up. Berlin tells me that they're paying this freight company $180 to ship this stuff. If they can afford to pay $180 to ship these barrels, to wherever they're going. I don't know where they go. I don't care where they go. They should not be in Walkland Court. They shouldn't be storing things that they take out of the trash, things that they take out of collection bins for charity. I see this stuff coming into the building all the time. It's an ongoing problem. And from what I understand, there was a meeting with the director at one point And he said, we know what's going on. We can't do anything about it. Well, yes, there is something you can do about it. You can stop these barrels from coming into our building and destroying our life. It's very simple. Maybe it only takes a letter. Maybe it takes a warning. But they have to stop. It's just out of hand over there with the used clothes and the clothes coming out of the garbage. I'm the guy that took the video of a woman in the barrel taking these bug-infested clothes out of the barrel, putting them in a bag and bringing them back into a building. Why is this going on? I understand charity. I'm all for it. Send money. They need money. They don't need bugs. They need money. Send them cash. That's my piece.
[Caraviello]: On the motion by Councilor Marks. As amended, seconded by Councilor Locren.
[Lungo-Koehn]: If the amendments, I just want to make sure, I just want to amend it to make sure that, see if the mayor, somebody from the mayor's office could attend the meeting tomorrow morning, or tomorrow. At two o'clock at Walkland Court. So we have some representation for residents at Walkland Court. Good, yeah, it seems like it's time. And if we could get just an update from Mr. Driscoll with regards to, we asked in our committee the whole meeting for an update on any type of cleaning contract or results from any type of what he's doing to make sure that the properties are cleaned. And if we can also get an update with regards to any just policy changes, what's being done to prevent trash and garbage from being taken from the dumpsters into the property. There has to be a solution, whether it's a locked dumpster, different types of trash pickup, removing those garbage cans. If we could just get an update from Mr. Driscoll. I know he's been responsive to a number of us in the mayor's office. So we need to definitely, the city needs to definitely stay on top of him to make sure these issues are resolved. Thank you.
[Knight]: Tonight, Mr. President, I'd just like to further amend the paper and request that the members of the Medford Housing Authority Board be copied on anything that goes forward.
[SPEAKER_10]: They need 20 more barrels in Lockley Court. The barrels, every week they go out. I heard you talking about this earlier. The barrels are overflowing. You can't close the covers because there's this much above them. They need more barrels. I don't know if these have to be purchased by housing
[Caraviello]: Waste management.
[SPEAKER_10]: They need to supply more barrels. There's not enough barrels needed to take care of the residents.
[SPEAKER_14]: I just further amended the paper, Mr. President, asking that any correspondence that comes out of the council would also be sent to the Medford Housing Authority Commission.
[SPEAKER_11]: Name and address of the record, please. Yes, Stephen Glantz, Walkman Court. I'd like to thank you very much for taking time to listen to us. Like I say, a lot of people are just scared. They're scared to voice their opinion. I don't care, to be honest with you. But really, to get someone that listens, and I voted for a lot of people here, and thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. On the motion by Councilor Marks, as amended by Councilor Knight, Councilor Lungo, and that's it. Seconded by Councilor Falco. All those in favor. Roll call vote has been requested by Councilor Marks. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: First, President Del Rosario. Yes. Councilor Falco. Yes. Councilor Knight. Yes. Councilor Kern. Yes. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Scott Kellogg. Yes. Yes. President Caprio.
[Caraviello]: Yes, seven in the affirmative and none in the negative. Motion passes. Records.
[Knight]: Councilor Nice. But one, eight, three, seven, six from the table, please. Which one? One, eight, three, seven, six.
[Caraviello]: One, eight, three, seven, six. Councilor Nice.
[Knight]: From a procedural standpoint, Mr. President last week, this council had a discussion on use variances and whether or not there was a vagueness surrounding the city's ability to apply use variances through their Zoning Board of Appeals. The same question was raised in August of 2016 and was answered by the city solicitor. As such, I made a resolution requesting that we adopt the city solicitor's opinion and direct the city clerk to make the appropriate changes to our codified ordinances, as it was the opinion of the city solicitor that this codification was done in error in 2001 and that use variances in the community of Medford were never precluded or barred. As such, Mr. President, we took a vote to table the matter. That vote failed. From a procedural standpoint, the matter was then section 22, which is a unilateral table. When the matter is unilaterally tabled and comes up the next week, this is next week, I'd move for approval on the request that the Medford City Council adopt the city solicitor's opinion, rendered in paper 16-589, and that we direct the city clerk to take the appropriate action to correct our codified ordinances. Councilor Lungo-Koehn.
[Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Caraviello. I think that we have a conflicting Committee of the Whole meeting coming up where we're going to discuss eliminating or potentially eliminating use variances. So I think this is something that should wait, but I understand the council wants to take a vote on it. I would just ask that it wait and we discuss it in Committee of the Whole. I think I asked that last week as well.
[Caraviello]: Just to correct the record.
[Knight]: We're going to have a committee of the whole to ask whether or not we should eliminate use variances, but ordinances say that use variances are already precluded. Councilor Lungo-Koehn asked a question as to how this could be. The city solicitor came back and told us that it was an error. Let's correct the error and then we can move forward. But now we're working with a document that's been edited.
[Caraviello]: Councilor Knight's motion is just to correct the error that's in the ordinances. Move approval.
[Marks]: As I stated last week, Mr. President, during this discussion, that I am all in favor of correcting the error. However, I do agree with my council colleague that we found out about this error well over two years ago. And I, as one member of the council, you know, am very supportive of doing away with the use variance. You know, so I'd rather pursue it in that avenue, and we will cover that by a vote of this council in doing so. You know, either way, it doesn't matter to me. It's kind of semantics. But, you know, I hope we meet sooner than later regarding moving some of these important issues, Mr. President, with all this development going on, that we need to move some of these important issues to safeguard our residents.
[Caraviello]: The Zoning Committee has been meeting on a regular basis. On the motion by Councilor Nath, seconded by Councilor Dello Russo, All those in favor. Aye. Roll call vote has been requested.
[Clerk]: Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. By the affirmative to the negative motion passes. The records. That's a Falco.
[Falco]: Just a couple of quick announcements. Saturday night, a night of 10,000 lights here at City Hall is a fundraiser for the Medford Family Network. Always a great event, so if you can make it. We will be there. Okay, perfect. Sounds good. And I was notified too that if you want to go see a free movie down at the Chevalier this Friday, April 27th at 7 p.m., an inconvenient sequel, Truth to Power, and that's being sponsored by the city of Medford. It's a free movie for anyone that's interested.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Councilor Falco. Records, the table records of March 27, 2018 were passed to Councilor Marks. Councilor Marks, have you examined those records?
[Marks]: Mr. President, believe it or not, I have not examined the records yet.
[Caraviello]: The records, yeah, I'm sorry, before we. The records of the meeting of April 17th, 2018 were passed to Councilor Falco. Councilor Falco, how did you find those records?
[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. I reviewed the records. They appear to be in order and I move approval.
[Caraviello]: Motion by Councilor Falco to accept the record, seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Aye. Councilor Scarpelli?
[Scarpelli]: If I could, I know that I forgot to do this, but if we can get the word to someone in the city to change the flag at Webster Park. I guess it's pretty tarnished and tattered, so.
[Caraviello]: Flag at Webster Park.
[Scarpelli]: If we can get that. McNally Park. Webster Street, McNally Park. Yes, please. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Motion for adjournments by Councilor Falco, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Motion passes. Meeting adjourned.
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