[SPEAKER_04]: So I believe that Councilor Tseng is going to be joining us from in just a little bit. But we do have quorum now, so I think we can get a request permission to record on this computer.
[SPEAKER_05]: I actually have Councilor Tseng standing about three feet away from me, so he's technically present right now.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, well, go ahead and do the roll call. My pleasure.
[SPEAKER_05]: All right. Councilor Callahan. Present. Councilor Lazzaro. Present. Councilor Strackelly. Present.
[SPEAKER_04]: I believe he's absent.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't see Councilor Scarpelli. Okay. Councilor Tseng, I see right behind me. I'm trying to log on. Chair Leming. Present.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to stand here until I log on.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sorry, just for full clarifications for the record, this meeting is starting half an hour late because the previous planning and permitting committee meeting went over. I'm sorry to say that because of open meeting law. I'm streaming this meeting from the clerk's office because we're trying to troubleshoot a YouTube live stream, which is not on so well so far, but it's a work in progress. And we are, and Councilor Tseng is also right up here as well. So we are going to start by discussing paper 24-351, resolution to allow the director of veteran services to offer housing incentives to veteran renters. Essentially, this would edit the division Sorry, this would edit the city's ordinances to give the director of veteran services additional authority to offer a cash incentive to landlords to. rent out to qualified veterans. It's a program that she approached the city council with and I understand that some of my fellow Councilors have questions about it. So I'll leave it to Ms. Shaw who's present right now to go ahead and explain the idea behind the program and the problems that it is addressing and then hear from my, hear any questions from my fellow Councilors. I can't hear you.
[SPEAKER_05]: See if I can get her as a co-host and then we'll alleviate that. Then she'll have to ask to unmute every time.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I'm not saying that she's muted. It could be an audio input situation. If you could check your speaker in there. Francis?
[SPEAKER_01]: Derek, just short if needed, just pop into my office and jump on. And then that way. No, we still can't hear you.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I'll come over. I'll go. No, no, no, no. Now we can't. Now we can't. All right. Go ahead. So thank you for having me again. This kind of a middle of the road class of veterans, not necessarily income, and certainly not our veterans that are not struggling at all. But the people that are looking for a place to live, can afford it, or if they're using VASH, but they're struggling to find landlords that will rent to them. There is a stigma associated with veterans that they're not good tenants. They cause problems. A lot of us do have SD, which a lot of people just put on that burden. And so we have a lot of veterans that are looking for places to live. And I'm hoping that what this, will do, will incentivize landlords to take a chance on these veterans. A lot of them have guaranteed income because they have VA disabilities that, you know, you can't, whether they lose their job or not, that money will always be there. But I'm hoping that this $500 a year stipend will help just encourage landlords to take that chance on a veteran. The money would come from our cash aid account and would be payable. write them a check they would the veteran or the landlord would have to become a vendor to the city so that we could write them that check and you know the logistics are things that you know i'm certainly open to suggestions of course we would have to make sure you know my office would validate the fact that they are a veteran we would check to make sure that you know if that they left the service under honorable conditions. We couldn't do background checks, but we could certainly verify the military status. And going from there, you know, I would happily renew that every year as long as they were willing to run to a veteran. I want to start small with just doing four pairings of a landlord and a veteran just to see how it goes to see the how many veterans and how many landlords are willing to work with us on this. Hopefully in the future, we can expand it to a lot more than that. But right now, I think it's smart to start small and see how we can grow.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Any questions from my fellow Councilors?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, ma'am.
[SPEAKER_08]: Um, yes, so the sounds great. Is there anything that you would need from us for authorization to do this? Or is it is it a city program that you would be able to implement? I guess I'm the attachment that we have in the packet. is about your position, but not about the program that you're describing. Is it a program that exists elsewhere or not really?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is like an idea. It is not part of any thing having to do with Medford. There are other communities in the country that are doing it, but this is a first for Medford.
[SPEAKER_08]: cool well it sounds really awesome to me i definitely think that there's a place for programs like this uh i i think that there are a lot of situations where people who are really on the very low end of um sort of the economic ladder will have a lot of services that are available and then there are people that don't require any services but there are people that are somehow in the middle that you sort of experience some difficulty they kind of Yes, ma'am. So this does sound like a program that would be really beneficial. And if there's a known issue, I'm I think that it's a great idea. I guess what I'm curious about is how we can, you know, facilitate the process and how we can make sure that it's, you know, something that is Legal, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_04]: I can speak to that a little bit. Sure. Yeah For the interruption. So I've had some communications of legal about this nothing. Um, nothing normal, but they um, uh, it was attorney austin. I have any email from her where she says she can in order to review the legal authority, in order to establish legal authority for this, you would have to, she could review the public purpose, municipal finance limitations under state law. So I think that what would need to come from this committee tonight is a motion to request that legal, essentially review these documents in order, and just get us a memo to say that, you know, this is okay under the public, under public purpose limitations. I looked at other parts of the municipal code, and I just I think that putting this squarely in the veteran services office just every all things considered is the most appropriate. The other 4 do seem to be just taken straight out of state law, but again. Like there's there's literally four authorities that are directly granted in there, but I really don't see think that there'll be much of an issue with just putting this and there is an additional one on the city side. I did have some discussions with. the city's chief of staff in this area and just over, you know, I think that her concerns were, you know, just operationalizing it, having it, you know, having these funds recur year to year. But I also think that those parts of it could probably be figured out sort of at the implementation level, whereas this is just mainly explicitly saying that the Director of Veterans Services has the authority to implement this sort of a program. So I don't think that every single bit of this would necessarily need to be defined in the ordinance other than this very small paragraph. So I hope that lends some clarity there. Councilor Callahan, did I see your hand raised? Okay. Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay, well, I would be happy to make that motion the motion to send this proposal to legal counsel so that we can, you know, facilitate this programs execution.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, on the motion of Councilor Lazzaro to send this to legal counsel to, I guess the specific wording should be to determine the, what would be a good word is, to send this to legal for review, probably the best way to phrase it, and keep the paper in committee, seconded by Councilor Callahan. Do we have any further discussion? Okay, clerk, when you're ready, please call the roll.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes. Councilor Lazzaro? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli is absent. Councilor Tseng? Councilor Tseng may be temporarily absent actually. You're just unmuted.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, sorry. The audio for me cut out for a second, for a minute.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_06]: Sure, let me say yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Is it says network bandwidth is low.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay. I can share that was in my office. He's a yes. Council yet Council saying is a yes. Yes. So, we have, we have four, we have four in favor, zero opposed and Councilor Scarpelli absent.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay. Okay. Thank you. You record Shaw. very much for attending. Now we are going to move on to 24-354 resolution to publish the City Council newsletter. The draft of the current newsletter, which was so kindly prepared by Councilor Lazzaro, that should be in everybody's agenda packet. I am just going to pull up the draft of it just so that we can prepare for any edits that may be necessary. Hold on. Okay, good. Okay. There was 1 suggestion that. Was taken that I took in just in the. Few days in between, so I think that there's still a little bit of. still a little bit of few details that need to be worked out in terms of who's distributing it. I know that the city clerk received an influx of emails after his email was put directly on the last newsletter. And I think that discussions about distribution by the city would still need to be discussed. But in the meantime, I put, hear a Bitly link, Bitly Medford City Council newsletter, which links to a Google form that both have access to. Essentially, this is just a very simple thing that people would be able to come up with people potentially would be able to just look at on their on their websites. It's just a suggestion by myself. But otherwise, if anybody else has any discussion on that or any suggestions, I'd be pleased to hear it. Councilor Calderon.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you. Would you mind sending, because I'm not sure if I have access to this document and with OML, but I probably shouldn't. But if you can, I would love to send the ability to sign up the sign up form to folks that I know. So if you can send that bitly link out, that would be great. And I did have one and only one comment. I love the newsletter. Thank you so much to Councilor Lazzaro for writing it up. And I enjoy the exclamation points and the this is very exciting. I think that's a lovely personal touch. I have one suggestion, which is that we do not say, we make statements like this is popular legislation in Medford and many residents spoke in favor of the resolution simply because, you know, it is my experience having talked to city councilors across the country and also looked at a lot of studies on, you know, what happens inside city council chambers and who emails and you know talks to their legislators and who is usually left out of that conversation that just because people appear at the city council chamber and make a statement does not mean that it is popular in the city. So I think we should not be stating as a city council, this is popular in the city, because I think it's not a fair statement for us to say. So I would just recommend that we don't make statements like that in the newsletter. I think people who disagree might be unhappy that we are making this as a blanket statement. That's just kind of overall, I think that we should probably refrain from using those kinds of commentary about popularity of stuff in the city of Medford.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks. So, uh, Councilor Nazaro.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sorry, just to quickly reply, um, uh, the only reason I put that in is because there were, um, there was like no opposition in the chambers to that particular piece of legislation, which was unique for our, which, you know, the Councilors know, uh, that is unique for our experience when we are presenting, um, a piece of legislation. So that seems sort of safe to me. But that is a super fair point. Councilor Callahan and I appreciate you bringing that up. So I definitely support us pulling that out. Um, I haven't thought about it that way. That's, that's definitely I would agree with that. Um, so yes, agreed.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, I was on mute. I would agree with Councilor Callaghan. Really, I like how personable this is. I think sometimes maybe we should refrain a little bit from, as much as possible, from personal commentary, or even if it's a council commentary on an issue, I think we need to walk the line. And I think what Councilor Callahan brought up is an example of that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Right. So I would, being a scientist and in favor of impartial, neutral language, I would also, now that I'm kind of saying it, and I should, full disclosure, just say that I have already reviewed this, but looking at it, it's kind of with eyes, like a big set of eyes. I would also favor just kind of getting, removing this part.
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, I know it's fun and personable, but. Councilor Lazzaro.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's totally fine. As the first not-Councilor-Leming person to write a newsletter, I was experimenting with how much of my own voice we were going to have be part of this. So I'm comfortable with removing any of the non-facts in here. And also, I guess this is something for us to discuss as a committee. How much of the newsletter is And now we don't weep. To also to articulate just a small bit of my background, I used to write literal humor pieces for the internet. So this is the least I could have possibly done. And it's still, I understand, too much. So that all being said, we can remove all of the anything that's anything but exactly what happened. That being said, I guess I do wonder, what is the newsletter besides a list of what happened? And I guess the answer is nothing. It is just a list of what happened. And it's because people don't know what happened. And that's what we're communicating. We're telling people what happened so that they know. So I do want people to be interested, but the point isn't for people to be entertained. It's just for people to be made aware of something. So, understood.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sorry, my internet connection is unstable, so I thought that you were finished when it was just a lag. Councilor Tseng, do you have anything further?
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, I meant to lower my hand, but now that you did call on me. I have some more specific lines to take out, or one specific line to take out, I think that's also in the commentary vein. I think regardless of our views on the success of certain city programs, I think we should be careful about talking about them that way. And so the line that's highlighted, I would prefer if we took it out just for neutrality. And because what? We don't know if we're expanding the BWC program, the body one standard program. I think there's a set plan for it. And I personally wouldn't necessarily call that an expansion or using it more widely, but I digress. I think similarly, there was a bullet point about the budget. budget ordinance earlier on in the document. I do actually think we can push that one. I think the one I meant was at the 30th, April 30th meeting, the final vote was taken to make the budget ordinance law. And if I think it would still be helpful if we provide one sentence about what that budget ordinance is. So it's essentially like the fact that it's creating a new and earlier budget schedule for the mayor. So I am seeing that there's actually a repeat line. It's not really a. I did notice that, and I think if there's a way to restructure it so that, I mean, I personally don't have a very specific suggestion, but to restructure a little bit. I think it's just when you read the budget ordinance bullet point, it's not entirely clear what it is, but then I guess there is context above. I don't know if the committee has any suggestions for that.
[SPEAKER_09]: I have a suggestion.
[SPEAKER_04]: Councilor Callahan.
[SPEAKER_09]: Can we just, at the April 30th meeting, the final vote was taken to make the budget ordinance law, make that the first bullet point. Even though it, you know, things may be slightly out of chronological order, nobody cares. I think people just need to understand what happened. So make that the first bullet point. At the end of that bullet point, have our one sentence about what it is, and then the next bullet can say, in anticipation, we met many times to hear a city department's budget proposals. Or in alignment with the budget ordinance, we met many times in committee of the whole to hear city department budgets.
[SPEAKER_06]: Alignment with the new budget ordinance, new budget ordinance law, I feel like that's.
[SPEAKER_09]: Redundant, yeah.
[SPEAKER_06]: The budget may come to, I think it comes to the law.
[SPEAKER_09]: To the law, and so the sentence at the end of that first bullet point can be something like, this new ordinance requires that the city council and public be more be involved earlier in the budgeting process. Is that fair? Do you want to say more than that?
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that's fine. The other thing here is, and this is a bit of Cher's editorial review, but when I'm formatting this, I'll include links to all of these, which is only accessible in the digital version, but still. Okay, I did want to address. So, if Councilor. Was Zara's point about. This being the individual so. I do feel like when we're starting out with this newsletter, it is best to err on the side of caution and humor could perhaps come in at a later time when it's sort of a more established thing. And I do think that having a positive spin on things is not a bad thing, especially when we're giving $250,000 to all these organizations in the community. having like phrasing that in a positive in a positive light is not a bad thing but when starting out it I think it is it is best to just kind of like present things as they're as they happen and then when we sort of see what this becomes we'll kind of like be more familiar like what we're able to and not able to do with it I don't know if that was a great perspective on that, but I don't, we don't necessarily have to like avoid any sort of humor whatsoever, but I do understand the reaction that we're starting at. Okay, Councilor Tseng.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, I was just gonna say that I agree with that take. I don't think that there's no place for it. I think in the future, when this becomes more established, I would agree that we can find a place for it. I think just in the beginning, hearing on the side of caution makes a lot of sense. Councilor Calderon.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you. I just did want to mention that I have to leave at 10 after, unfortunately. And I wanted to ask, I'm fine with the newsletter as it is. I don't know whether other folks are ready to vote on that, but I would ask that we That I can make a motion to disband the subcommittee on listening sessions today. Because I think, as we discussed earlier, that it does make the scheduling part very difficult for the listening sessions. So that would be my request that we'd be able to do that before eight.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, okay, so actually I do remember that we did talk about that and the recent subcommittee. Clerk, would you be able to comment on is that acceptable under open meeting law because listening sessions is not technically on this agenda.
[SPEAKER_09]: Oh, sorry, I thought that we were specifically going to do it at this meeting but maybe I was wrong.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know that was discussed, but this could be an oversight on my end.
[SPEAKER_05]: I would characterize that, Mr. Chairman, as a gray area. I do not think that is specifically prohibited simply because it has been on the agenda before. You would definitely be cleaner and safer by having it as an item on the agenda. But I don't know that that would be prohibited. Again, I'm not the authority on the opening law, but I think you could probably I'm not sure that it's expressly prohibited.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, okay. Councilor Tseng. I would just advise in that case that we err on the side of caution. I was going to say that I supported the motion. And for folks who may be tuning in, I don't think there are many folks tuning in right now, but for folks who are tuning in, we worked through a lot of logistical planning. when it came to the listening sessions at our subcommittee meeting, and having planned a lot of what we needed to do together out, disbanding it at this point makes more sense for scheduling, as Councilor Callahan said. With that being said, I would, with the clerk's advice, I would err on the side of caution. I think we have one listening session lined up for pretty soon, and we'll have more, Um, we'll have more in the future after we meet again in committee in this committee. Um, there might be one listening session that we schedule. I could be wrong, but we might have time for one more before this committee meets again, but I think it should be all right. Okay. Um, council Zara.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm sorry. My, my issue is about the newsletter. There's just a word that's misspelled acknowledgements in the, um, the line. It has an extra E, I think.
[SPEAKER_06]: Which, uh... There you go. On the top. I'm just checking if that's spelled right. Is it? Wait, am I... Is that it?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think so.
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe it's spelled correctly. I think it's just, uh... I think you're thinking judgment, which has no E.
[SPEAKER_05]: Or you know, you know, it's the same way. Oh, yeah. The British spelling puts an extra in both of them. Oh, you're right. You're right.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'd like to. Okay. So I think we hopefully we can get this done. deadline. No, no, no, no. That's that's okay. So do we have a motion on the floor to approve?
[SPEAKER_03]: What? Sorry, if I may, I have a question. Do we need a motion to allow you to add in links if we want to add in links to different ordinances?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, sure, we could do that motion as well.
[SPEAKER_09]: Councilor Callahan. Can I move that the chair can always add the links in? Any links that the chair deems necessary, the chair can always add those links that are relevant and necessary into the final document.
[SPEAKER_04]: I would second that. And can we add to that motion to approve the newsletter?
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes, to approve the newsletter.
[SPEAKER_04]: And to keep the paper.
[SPEAKER_09]: As amended, as edited.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yep. And keep the paper in committee.
[SPEAKER_09]: And keep the paper in committee. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Clerk, will you spell the roll? And I'll be ready.
[SPEAKER_05]: And who's the second? I'm sorry. Justin. I am. Thank you. Hang on a second. Here comes the roll call. Councilor Callahan? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli is absent, Councilor Tseng?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Chair Leming? Yes. Motion is passed. Do we have any other motions on the floor?
[SPEAKER_07]: Motion to adjourn.
[SPEAKER_04]: Second. Clerk, please call the roll. Are you ready?
[SPEAKER_05]: Councilor Callahan?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Councilor Lazzaro?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Councilor Scarpelli is absent, Councilor Tseng? Yes. Chair Lemo.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, meeting is adjourned.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you all very much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you all.