AI-generated transcript of City Council Resident Services And Public Engagement Committee 09-24-24

[Leming]: the Medford Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee. We have two items on the agenda. One is the resolution to publish a City Council newsletter. The other is a resolution to create a residence guide to City Council procedures and processes. So I am just going to go ahead and share my screen as to the draft that we came up with. First, I apologize, I wasn't able to get this particular draft out during, wasn't able to get this particular draft out to folks before yesterday, but We do have a version here now. This was drafted by Anna and I also did some edits. This version of the newsletter is essentially meant to, I'm just gonna see if there's a cleaner way to sort of zoom in on this. Okay, so this version of the newsletter covers the July to September 2024 period because we essentially skipped this over the summer because we only had two regular meetings during that month. And otherwise, this just sort of, this just covers the different pieces of committee work that were done. Throws in the commemorations as well. So if, So essentially, just going over very briefly, July 23rd, the condolences to the family of MPS teacher Robin Irving, September 10th, to family of Frank Zizzo, September 10th, recognized September's National Recovery Month, and then celebrate the importance of the Chevalier Theatre and Gene Mack Gym on the 17th. The general business goes over The newly created stabilization fund September 10th covers the whole petition to the. state house, as well as the approval of the wildlife feeding ordinances. A couple of other financial things that were also done on September 10th, the electrical vehicle charging revolving fund and the refunding loan order, essentially to get better rates on some city bonds. September 17th also, approved late night hours for Panda Express. And on July 23rd, this details how we chose to not move forward with a second independent audit of the city, since we already had an independent audit every year, as noted during the meeting in July. And just some of the individual committees are only just starting to meet again. So the governance committee, I noted here how It hasn't met, but it did receive a referral from a regular meeting to start considering charter reforms. The Charter Study Committee wraps up its work. So that's just a mechanism, essentially, to start discussing that process. Planning and permitting committee did meet over the summer and this just goes over some of the activity that we've been doing for INS Associates and the planning department and the public health and community safety committee worked on the wildlife feeding ordinance. Noticing a typo here just now. I do think, uh, Emily, uh, Councilor Lazzaro.

[Lazzaro]: I know we're casual in the committee meetings, but, um, the, uh, one comment about the public health and community safety committee, um, the, I appreciate the ordinance will allow the city to step in if and only if there's a problem that neighbors are complaining about, uh, For example, it specifically allows people to have bird feeders. I'm not sure, so, and maybe I'm too close to this discussion since I was leading all of the meetings and I feel like the wildlife feeding ordinance is something that, because I discussed it at great length, I feel like I would want to say more than this, but I don't want the newsletter to be overrun with our back and forth discussions of the Wildlife Feeding Ordinance, but I think I would wanna say the purpose of the ordinance is to avoid, I think we can be more direct about what it was about, which was that it was like, in that committee, we drafted and thoroughly discussed the Wildlife Feeding Ordinance. Um, which, you know, can you just tell me verbatim what, uh, yeah, I think I'm just thinking about like what, what it should say, and I'm not ready for it to be verbatim just yet, but I'd like to hear sort of your thoughts as I say them. Um, I think I would just want to say that the point of it was to, um, make sure that folks are not feeding wild animals intentionally aside from birds using bird feeders. And I think you can say that in one sentence. And it would be something that you could, what's the word I'm looking for? Something that you could enforce, that's the word. This ordinance would be something that you could enforce only if there are complaints about a nuisance. Something that would be enforced only if there were complaints about a nuisance. I guess I'm just I'm trying to simplify and be like a little bit more specific. Yes. Yes. Yes. And then I think we can cut. And then I think you can cut from And then I think you can say it allows people to have bird feeders.

[Leming]: Councilor Callahan.

[Callahan]: Thanks. It might be nice to say something like the city council is taking the issue of rodents in our city seriously. Like start off with sort of the purpose of the wildlife feeding ordinance.

[Leming]: Are you recommending to start off this whole paragraph by saying the city is working very hard to address the rodent problem?

[Callahan]: Yes, exactly. And the Wildlife Feeding Ordinance is one of our tools. I think that just helps people to kind of understand, like, if I just see the Wildlife Feeding Ordinance, I don't really know what that is. But like, if it's like, we're taking rodents seriously, and this is one of our tools for doing it.

[Lazzaro]: I would fully concur with that.

[Leming]: What about overgrowth ordinance?

[Lazzaro]: The overgrowth ordinance, we just are beginning. Well, we did begin discussing that. Actually, and that was this month. Wait, did we begin discussing that? We talked about it. Did we refer it to committee? I'm all turned around now. Yes, we did discuss that. We did discuss that this month. Right. Overgrowth, and that's also rodent related.

[Leming]: Okay. I mean, they were sort of mixed into that one committee meeting, but I don't know.

[6XRDVyVUfUQ_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, you're here. Oh, were you saying that outside?

[Leming]: There's a lot of traffic today.

[Lazzaro]: Yeah, so on that note, yeah, we can add in the overgrowth in that case because we did just talk about that as well. And that really encompasses how much intentionality there is in that committee and in the council overall in the partnership with the Board of Health.

[Leming]: Can you look up the, wait, what was the date of this committee meeting again? That's Tuesday, September 17th. I mean, I think we did work on both of that committee meeting. I believe if my memory serves right, so I could just say that.

[Lazzaro]: And then begin the discussion of overgrowth. Yeah. The agenda's there, yeah. Make doubly sure. It does begin to blend together sometimes. But I think in that meeting we had two items. Oh, it was an update to the rodent control. So we had, right, because the wildlife feeding had already been approved and it was in first reading at the regular meeting. So this was two additional ordinances that we were addressing to further hone the rodent control measures in the city. So maybe we have two bullet points under public health and community safety and they're all rodent related.

[Leming]: Yeah, my memory is like... Okay, what was the, I'm just gonna go to another tab here. And I was 17. All right. And then we have the one in August. All right. That was, that was the August 13th. All right. Councilor Callahan.

[Callahan]: So I just want to update that next sentence a little bit. The purpose of this ordinance is to ensure that residents do not intentionally feed wildlife. I don't think that's quite right. I think it's more like do not feed unwanted wildlife. I mean, it's really the purpose is to make sure that, you know, people aren't accidentally providing food for pests. But I don't know exactly how to phrase that. I mean, I don't think anybody's intentionally feeding rodents, right? That's not a thing.

[Lazzaro]: It's more like... And we don't have to spend forever on this, but... Maybe we can take that whole thing out of it. Maybe we don't need an intentionality. Yeah, we did, we put the purpose at the top, so we can, yeah. Yeah, I think that's enough.

[Leming]: Councilor Tseng.

[Tseng]: Oh, I just wanted to note, I had a comment after we finished talking about rodents.

[Leming]: Sorry, can you speak up?

[Tseng]: I just wanted to note that I have a comment after we talked about rodents.

[Leming]: My brain's blinking a little bit here. What is a good way to summarize all the discussions on the overgrowth and rodent control ordinances? Those are, to be honest, those are kind of like mixing together at this point for me, between the wildlife feeding and the overgrowth and rodent control. I mean, the crossed out stuff isn't going to be... This actually... This will ensure that residents don't feed on wildlife and only allow the city to step in if there is news. In a sense, it will help us reduce our issues with rats and other unwanted animals. Additionally, I'm just going to say, Okay. And then again, I'm going, once I actually format this, I'm just going to blow it up with links to the actual drafts of the ordinances themselves, which is half the purpose of this thing to begin with. Okay. It's a bit of a bit of a long paragraph, but it basically summarizes that the public health and community safety committee is trying to work on the rodent issue. OK. Justin, how close are you to City Hall?

[Tseng]: Very close. But I did have one note about the charter review part. I just wanted to just simplify the language a little bit and explain what it was. So I would say instead of just charter reform, I would probably say work on reviewing the city charter. And then we could have one sentence explaining what the city charter is. I mean, the way I think about it and the way that the law professors teach it is like it's a mini constitution for the city. I don't know if there's a better way to put it.

[Leming]: Trying to think of, I could just say mini constitution, but this is analogous to a constitution.

[Tseng]: Analogous might be too much of a word, or too big of a word, too complex.

[Leming]: Anna might have an idea.

[Tseng]: I'm currently outside the building. I'll be up in one minute.

[Leming]: City Charters, the Charters. I should say finalizes. City Charters, the Governor. All right, Councilor Tseng has just entered the room. Alright, I like things in lists of three but I'm having trouble thinking of something besides this as an example of what the charter covers. Cool.

[SPEAKER_07]: see that law school has been treating you well okay this should definitely go before because

[Tseng]: and begins its work, to begin its work by reviewing the city charter. Something about, I wanted to put in something about just like the, we're just gonna start by looking at the timeline and like big picture approaches to the city charter. What? Just to reassure some members of the Charter Study Committee that we value their input as well, and that we're going to wait for their final product, too. To the members of the committee, I mean, I mean, it could be extraneous.

[Leming]: Yeah, that this is, I mean, it was, I think, I think this is work on the charter is probably going to be covered pretty extensively in future newsletters. And this is really meant, I mean, really all that happened is that's fair. Now we there was a resolution that was referred directly to committee.

[Tseng]: Yeah. Then, you know, I, I did see a member of the charter study committee on zoom. So I hope that she helps relay the message that we're not trying to step on anyone's toes here and that we're trying to, um, well, this can be open to public comment as well.

[Leming]: Yeah.

[Tseng]: It's just that there is going to be inherently some overlap in terms of like, because we'll, I don't know who's on the committee. It sounds like it'll overcomplicate it. Yeah. to do this work, rather than, you know, if anybody, like, because this is for people who really don't know much about government, but it works just to help people understand things. And if they see that there's a charter structure that is not out there, that maybe you just rubber stamp with them, or that's their job, you know, but to make it clear that, like, the next So I think that that's clear in the words begin its work. I think I, let's just not overcomplicate it then. Let's just keep it as is.

[Leming]: Okay. I was thinking maybe finalize this recommendations or finalize its drafts.

[SPEAKER_07]: I think that's good. Nope. All right.

[Leming]: Um, clarify Councilor, is Councilor Scarpelli here? Okay. Um, I'm going to go ahead. And, um, is there any other parts of the newsletter that folks would like to comment on? I think that we need to go over. Okay. In that case, is there any public, is there any public participation in this matter? There's nobody currently in the chamber, but there are some folks on Zoom. So if you'd like to offer input onto this current draft of the under this current draft of the newsletter, feel free. In that case, do we have a motion on the floor? Motion approves it for publication. I have a motion to approve for publication by Councilor Tseng. Second. Seconded by Councilor Lazzaro. I did see iPhone on Zoom, but I'm not seeing it anymore. So I don't think Councilor Scarpelli is on Zoom. So we can just do a voice vote. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. We'll get this formatted and hold on. did have a note from Zoom reminding members to turn their mics on when they talk just so that it can be, just so that everybody can hear them that's listening in and for the recording. Okay. Now, 24-370 offered by Councilor Tseng, a resolution to create a residence guide to City Council's procedures and processes. So I have the draft that Councilor Tseng shared. And again, apologies that this is not, this was not in the initial agenda, but folks put in some work over the weekend. And if that is, all right, seems to be good. Councilor Tseng.

[Tseng]: Thank you. This is what I put together given the comments from Councilors at our last meeting about what they would like to see on the residence guide. I think I've included, I went back to watch the meeting. I think I've included everything. Now there is a lot of text on it. And so if cutting text is something we want to do, I'm very open to it as well. But I wanted to put everything that we had talked about on this first. I know we spent a little bit of time at that last meeting about having something that prints on black and white as well. This should print well on black and white. But this is also visually appreciable. I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but I also think it's visually appealing enough for digital publication. I'd be happy to hear any comments. I can also make adjustments right now and send on my computer and then send it over to the chair and the clerk after we make edits as a committee.

[Leming]: Just one that comes to mind. It says that we pass resolutions right there. I think, or sorry, we pass ordinances right there. I think that some, the use of the word resolution is also, would also be good just to kind of include right there. Like we pass resolutions, then an explanation of what that is, ordinances, and zoning regulations.

[Tseng]: Yeah, I've actually gone back and forth on that one since I define ordinances up there. And I didn't know whether we should define resolutions up there as well. Because there is a definition for resolution at the bottom of the commonly used terms table. I'd be happy to put it on if we don't think we have to define it. It's just a long definition. It could make sense just to write it on top as well.

[Leming]: Councilor Cownie.

[Callahan]: I would lean toward, I agree with putting all three of those at the top because it is a thing that we do. And then I would put ordinances, the definition of ordinance down with the commonly used terms and keep it out of that one line. the top. Does that make sense?

[Tseng]: Yeah, that makes sense. Um I guess the only question then is, are we okay shrinking the font?

[Callahan]: Um well, I would remove motion the previous, I can't see it cuz it's covered by the.

[Tseng]: We do take captions. Um we do take motions to move. We we do move the previous question. Oh, sorry. We do move the we in in this session of the city council, we have moved the previous question quite a bit.

[Callahan]: I suspect that for people who are, you know, coming to their first city council meeting or something, that is not a thing they need to know. I would just take that one out because I don't think it's like super important to know that one motion. There's other stuff that we could put in there in terms of commonly used terms. I would rather see ordinance than that one. That's what I would do. I would remove that one and put in ordinance.

[Leming]: Councilor Lazzaro.

[Lazzaro]: Yes, I think what Councilor Tseng was suggesting is you could almost say passing resolutions, ordinances, and zoning regulations. That could be the first bullet, and then you could define all of those at the bottom in a little quick way. I do want to say, I kind of like that idea. I do want to say generally, and I was kind of alluding to this before the meeting began, but you all weren't privy to it. It was, I think the way we have to think about the way that we're communicating with the public via this committee and as individuals, and just because we're a thousand blossoms blooming in the city, everybody takes in information in such a wide variety of different ways. To me, this would be absolutely, I would be completely unable to comprehend this piece of paper. I understand what it is now because I've done this work, but because of the way my brain operates and because of how quickly my eyes would gloss over looking at it, I think it's really useful for somebody who finds it really interesting and can process information without being actively involved in it. And I think if we print it out and laminate it and put it on the walls, it'll be useful for the sort of people that are interested in receiving information in that way. And I think the way that we think about it should be like giving information in a wide variety of different ways to people. So I think I'm sort of, as a courtesy to everybody, have to remove myself from having this conversation because I'm like, I don't understand who would ever receive information in this way. I know somebody does. And I am not that person. I would need it to be like, on a bulletin board at like a children's section of a library. Like big words and like, what's an ordinance? Like a worm explains it to me as it crawls out of an apple. Like, it's so confusing. And Robert's rules took me a long time to figure out. And I think that's true for a lot of people, too. But this stuff is all super true. I couldn't believe you fit it all in a piece of paper. That's amazing. And it is, like, very applicable to the work that we do. So I kind of think that, like, this being, like, the most critical, most useful stuff that comes up every single time, almost, is amazing. And for the people that it's going to work for, it's going to work really well. I don't think we have to be super nitpicky about it, because again, like for the people that are going to read it, they're going to be like, wow, this is great. And if we put it up on the walls, and even I think also maybe having a few copies for people to hang on to, especially if it's a long meeting and they're waiting for their turn, and they can maybe hang on to eliminated copy and like look through it while they wait, that would be really useful too. But it does make me think like, What are the ways that we can present this in like bigger words, like easily accessible for people that maybe have a different like neuro-processing way of doing things, like maybe I do, a lot of people I know. So like that kind of thing would be an interesting thing to discuss as like a next step too. But thank you so much, Justin, or Councilor Tseng, for putting this together because it is super thorough and for what it is, really clear, I think.

[Leming]: just to follow up on that, there always is a balance that needs to be struck with these kinds of things. And I don't think that we can write, I don't think we can write anything down on a piece of paper that will work for every single person. What I think would happen is, matter what we end up approving in this committee, it'll go out and then people, some people will really help out. I think overall do very good, but people will also start to come to us with like problems with like, I had no idea what I was talking about here. And over time, we'll get real world feedback from that. So it could be a process whereby we could go back and update it later. So that's a way to say that I completely agree with everything that Councilor Lazzaro said. I am not opposed to releasing an imperfect product because I don't think that, I think that any discussions we have here we'll just end up becoming theoretical and the best feedback we'll get is if we release something and then people use it and then bring that to us over time so we could release a version two, you know, after a while. That's my thoughts on that. Councilor Callahan.

[Callahan]: Thank you. I don't think that what Councilor Lazzaro was saying was that this is going to be improved. I think that there are different people who understand things in different ways. And I completely agree. I think this is fantastic for what it is. I love the idea of laminated copies being in this room for people to just like maybe on every row, there's a copy and people can look at it. And I would love to offer to work with Councilor Lazzaro on the apples and worms version.

[Leming]: Councilor Tseng.

[Tseng]: Thank you. Yeah, no, I totally agree with what's been said. This is definitely not the most accessible form for everyone. It will work for some people. The way I viewed it is I was given a task to put all this information on one sheet of paper. But I would really love if we could think more about how else we can get this type of information out in a way that more people can digest as well. So yeah, no, I would love to talk about that as a council or committee. There are a few small tweaks that I've been making right now. I received a comment that Usually, you know, if folks attend in person, they can sign up with City Messenger. Unfortunately, our City Messenger is out. I think we, there's usually a signup sheet at the desk. That's something that we could still, we should still think about putting on this. Maybe the city clerk can give us his thoughts on that. And then there's some smaller edits. I've just added the YouTube channel on the, at the, the mention of the YouTube channel at the bottom. And then, um, I saw in the newsletter for the summer that there, um, that there is a bitly link for the city, city council newsletter sign up. So I've replaced the clerk's email with that link as well.

[Leming]: Council Lazzaro.

[Lazzaro]: I think it looks really good. Um, again, I really appreciate the work you've done, Councilor Tseng. I especially like how to participate that sort of outlines the ways that if you're in the chambers, if you're on Zoom, we've had people with a lot of confusion about how to participate on Zoom, the raise hand, the ask, I've asked you to unmute, like that kind of stuff. But yeah, just the, I think it's really good for where we're at right now. And I think we should move ahead and, you know, see if we can get it out in the room So I would motion to move that process forward however we can. If we need to get it approved by the full council, I would motion that we bring it to the full council.

[Leming]: Yeah, I think this would need to be referred to, I think a good way to form that motion would be to, Um move this for approval to the regular council subject to the edits that we've given to Councilor Tseng this session. Before we do that, I just wanted to ask, is there any public participation? I see we have some folks on Zoom who might want to offer input on this. Alright, I'm not seeing any raised hands. Oh, no. Oh, we have Eileen Learner on Zoom. Hold on a minute. Yep, I have to unmute.

[Lerner]: Hi, I'm Eileen Lerner from 9 Adams Circle in Medford. And I noticed that once again, we see that in order to participate in public comment, one has to stand online. And I wonder what happened to the idea of a signup sheet, because older people and disabled people may not be able to stand online and so may be deprived of the right to comment.

[Leming]: So I think, I believe that Councilor Tseng, we saw your comment in the chat and I believe Councilor Tseng just said that he would add something to the participation rules about the fact that we will have a sign up sheet and typically do. It's just our, we don't have a city messenger at the moment. So that might've been why this particular draft didn't include that.

[Lerner]: Yes, and it seems like if we do go to that, which seems much fairer, that we have to let people know that that's a possibility and that they need to sign up to speak.

[Leming]: Councilor Tseng? Okay, yep. Justin just said that he Justin just said that he added it. So the version that we refer to the regular council meeting will have will tell people explicitly that they can sign up to participate and don't have to wait in line.

[Lerner]: Okay, thank you very much.

[Leming]: Thank you, Eileen. We have a motion on the floor.

[Lazzaro]: Yes, the motion is to refer this paper, no. Refer the paper to the regular meeting subject to the edits that were discussed.

[Leming]: That were recommended at this meeting. Yes. Seconded by Councilor Callahan. Clerk, do you have that written down? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passed. All right. Do we have any other motions on the floor? Motion to adjourn.

[6XRDVyVUfUQ_SPEAKER_04]: Is there a second to that motion? Second.

[Leming]: All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Motion passed 3 to 1. Thank you, everybody. Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Leming total time: 18.64 minutes total words: 1773	Lazzaro total time: 9.14 minutes total words: 1408	Callahan total time: 2.42 minutes total words: 423	Tseng total time: 6.62 minutes total words: 971