[Morell]: of the Medford City Council, May 9th, 2023 is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice-President Pierce. Present. Councilor Caraviello. Present. Councilor Collins.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: Present.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight. Councilor Tseng. Present. President O'Rourke.
[Morell]: Present. 7 present, 0 absent. Please rise and salute the flag.
[Hurtubise]: 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.
[Morell]: See ya. Announcements, accolades, remembrances, reports, and records. 23-288 offered by Councilor Knight, whereas April 5th, 2023 commemorates the 18th anniversary of the passing of the late State Senator Charles E. Shannon Jr., who represented Medford with integrity and compassion in the state legislature from 1990 to 2005. Be it so resolved, the Medford City Council hold a moment of silence in his honor, and be it further resolved that the evening's Medford City Council meeting be dedicated to his memory. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Madam President, thank you very much. And this is a resolution that I've been fortunate enough to put forward each year since my election. Charlie Sheeran was a great mentor to me. The first big boy job I had when I was in college was working as an intern in the senator's office and that turned into what seems to be a lifetime in politics now. But I couldn't have done it without the guidance and leadership of Charlie Sheeran. And Charlie represented the city of Medford with great pride and great diligence, Madam President, he served as our state senator from 1990 to 2005 when he passed as a result of battle with cancer. Charlie was a US Army veteran. He was a retired police officer, and he was a career public servant. When we look around the city of Medford, we see some of the things that remind us of the work that Charlie did, and we look around the second Middlesex district we see some of the things that Charlie did. Shannon Beach for example is named after Senator Shannon, in honor of all the work that he's done in restoring Route 16 in the Mystic Valley Parkway. So when I think back to my time with Senator Shannon and what was going on in his office during the time that I worked there, I talk about things like marriage equality, we talk about health care for all, we talk about the Green Line extension, these are great things, great issues that really made a difference in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and in the residents in this community's life. So I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work and learn from Charlie. Another item that we're going to talk about I'm sure down the line will be and the roof of La Conte skating rink was fallen in, it was Senator Shannon who was able to secure the funds to be sure that La Conte skating rink was repaired, refurbished, and maintained so that we can still enjoy it to this day. So Madam President, it's with a heavy heart that I offer this resolution once again, but it's something that I feel is necessary to be sure that we in this community don't forget somebody that did so much for us. So I ask my council colleagues in joining me in supporting this resolution.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. Charlie Shannon was both a friend to my family and a mentor to me. Probably one of the reasons I'm sitting here tonight is because he taught me government is about people. And as Councilor Knight mentioned, my first encounter with Senator Shannon was when I was president of the Hockey Association and the MDC was going to condemn the rink. And when I couldn't get anybody to help me, I never knew Senator Shannon. I went to him, and he was able to secure the funding to keep the building open. That's why we have a skating rink today if it wasn't for him. But he was a good man, came from a good family. He did a lot for this community. And if he didn't get sick, maybe he'd still be around as our senator. But I just wanted to say, my son worked for him for many years, along with Councilor Knight. And yeah. Yeah, so let's say a lot of people, a lot of people that worked in his office went on to bigger things. So I think it's a good thing. And if we could dedicate this meeting in his memory, it'd be appreciated.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Please rise for a moment of silence. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll on the motion of Councilor Knight seconded by Councilor Caraviello, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Morell]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Morell]: Yes. On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Yes, seven in front of us during the negative motion passes reports of committees. 23-073 April 26 2023 committee the whole capital improvement plan presentation. So this was an update from the one of the consultants from the Collins Center on the capital improvement plan and the work they've been doing with this city. Do I have a motion? Motion to join all committee reports and approve on the motion of vice president bears to join all committee reports and approve second by Councilor Tseng Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Bears]: And I can, while he's writing it up, just say that the May 3rd Subcommittee on Ordinances and Rules was on the Waste Hauler Ordinance, which we reported out to Committee of the Whole and Body Shops and Auto Repair Facilities. We started looking at the ordinances around making sure that there's safety on those, so.
[Morell]: Thank you, Vice-President Bears.
[Hurtubise]: Vice-President Bears. Yes. Councilor Krugman. Yes. Councilor Collins.
[Morell]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight.
[Morell]: Yes, six in the infirm is here in the negative one absent motion passes hearings to 3.09 to legal notice to the clerk's office notice of a public hearing. The Medford City Council will hold a public hearing in the Howard F Alden chambers at Medford City Hall 85 George P Hassett Drive Medford and via zoom on Tuesday, May 9 2023 at 7pm. A link to be posted no later than Friday, May 5 2023 on a petition from Bank of America and a 3850 Mystic Valley Parkway Medford Mass 02155 for a special permit for use to allow a drive through ATM in accordance with Medford zoning ordinance chapter 94 to operate a drive through ATM use at 3850 Mystic Valley Parkway Medford 02155 and site being located in industrial zoning district as follows use as a drive through ATM petition and plans may be seen in the office of the city clerk, room 103, Medford City Hall, Medford Mass. Call 781-393-2425 for any accommodations, aids. The city of Medford is an EEOAA 504 employer. By order of the city council, sign Adam L. Hurtubise, city clerk, advertised in the Medford Transcript and Somerville Journal, April 20th and April 27th, 2023. Do we have the petitioner either in person or on Zoom that can give us a brief overview of the paper before us?
[Bill Lucas]: I am here.
[Morell]: Please give us a brief overview.
[Bill Lucas]: Bill Lucas with bowler engineering. Briefly, I just wanted to back up to the history of the project. We received a permit refusal from the building commissioner on January 12 2023. The permit refusal noted proposed drive-through window for a bank use in a commercial 2C-2 zoning district, which then requires a special permit from section F-4, table use of regulations, item number F-4. Again, we've also received a negative determination from the Conservation Commission on March 15th for the same project, and we have then made application with the City Council on March 22nd, 2023 for the special permit that you're hearing this evening. If I can, I will share my screen quickly and give you a little bit of a presentation in terms of where the project is located and a little bit of background for it itself. Hopefully everybody can see that on screen right now where it says Bank of America 3850 Mystic Valley. Great. Moving forward, the overall property is, again, 3850 Mystic Valley Parkway, which is the Meadow Glen Shopping Center, which I've depicted here in a purple-ish hue around the perimeter of the overall property and then what we're showing on that lower left-hand corner in yellow is the actual project site for the Bank of America itself. That is on the northern end of the site in a portion of just the parking lot. There's no existing buildings in that location as it exists today. A little bit of a zoomed-in location of that project site itself. On the upper right-hand corner is the existing marshals. You can see the parking out front of that, and then you can see in yellow again the portion of that parking lot where we're proposing the Bank of America, which is pretty much under-parked at this point in time. A brief survey just in case we have any technical questions I can come back to that but really the meat of this is the site plan which you have before you now, which represents the proposed Bank of America, which is approximately 5400 square feet in area that is that rectangular grayish box in the middle of the plan itself, we're proposing two-way vehicular traffic around three sides of it, that being the top, bottom, and the right hand from your viewpoint, and on the left-hand side in that gray asphalt area, what we're showing is that is the drive-through use itself. There's two lanes there, both one-way traffic flow, so one would be for that drive-through use and the other is a bypass lane if you did not want to participate in going through that drive-through. that is the project in itself. I do have, you know, some architectural renderings of the building here so you can get an idea of what that looks like. But otherwise, I can just open it up to questions at this time.
[Morell]: Thank you. We do have some questions from the councillors. Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Bill. Thank you for the presentation. I know that there's not much parking in front of Bank of America as it is. I know that the traffic study showed that there's no traffic issues or concerns, but how many automobiles would the lanes allow for the drive through? Because I thought my first impression would be around the back of the building, but being on the side of the building with the lack of, you have handicapped parking in front, I just don't want to hinder any lines that would hinder any parking for handicap accessibility.
[Bill Lucas]: Great. just to give you a little bit of a hopefully you can see my hand circling that's where the ATM is from that point to the rear of the site as you wrap around to the back of the building itself it is there is no parking immediately adjacent to that so we are looking at upwards of eight vehicles that can be queued from that point back to before you then conflict with any of the proposed or existing parking that's on the site itself.
[Scarpelli]: Okay, I know what the problem is that the printing doesn't show I was I looked at it reverse so I apologize. Okay, I don't see it being a problem. So thank you.
[Morell]: Oh, good. Any other questions from the council before I open public hearing? Okay, as this is a public hearing, we will open it up to anyone who would like to speak in favor of this paper. Is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of this paper? Bill, you would be among those people. Would you, are you in favor of this paper?
[Hurtubise]: Yes.
[Morell]: Great, thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this paper, either on Zoom or in person? Seeing none, this portion of the public hearing is closed. Is there anyone who would like to speak against this paper, either in person or on Zoom? Seeing none portion of the public hearing is closed.
[Scarpelli]: Do I have a motion from the council, I would motion to approve. The only thing I would ask my colleagues I know that when we do special permits we asked for maybe a 90 day review. I think that it's just protocol that we've to approve and support this paper. I see everything is in order. I don't see the biggest thing in that area is traffic concerns. We don't see any traffic issues. And so I would think to improve and then again, visit any concerns if there's any issues in 90 days for a full review for full approval.
[Morell]: Thank you. And do you want to include the six day comment period or would you like to waive that?
[Scarpelli]: I'd like to waive it if we can.
[Morell]: So we have a motion of process for Kelly to approve waiving the six day comment period, and add a 90 day review to that seconded by Councilor Carmelo. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll when you are ready.
[Morell]: Yes, six in the affirmative, zero in the negative, one absent, the motion passes.
[Bill Lucas]: Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Bill. Have a good evening.
[Bears]: Madam President.
[Morell]: Vice President Bears.
[Bears]: Motion to suspend the rules to take paper 23-303, 23-290, 23- Hang on, hang on, hang on. Sure. All right. 23-303.
[Morell]: and in the order you're saying?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Morell]: All right. So 23-303. Aye. And then? Aye. Aye. And 21-301.
[Bears]: Second.
[Morell]: On the motion of Vice President Bears to take those papers, spend the rules and take those papers out of order, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Morell]: Yes, six in the affirmative, zero in the negative. One absent, motion passes. We will suspend the rules, take those papers out of order. 23-303, to Honorable President and members of the Medford City Council regarding food truck permitting. Dear President Morell and members of the City Council, on behalf of the below entity, I respectfully submit to the Medford City Council the following request for a food truck permit in the city of Medford. In addition to the City Council approval, vendors are required to adhere to health department food safety requirements. One Tufts University dates times May 31 2023 1245pm to 2pm location 51 Winthrop Street event employee appreciation event about the event Dylan and Pete's ice cream truck would be present for an employee appreciation event. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Sincerely, Breanna Lungo-Koehn mayor. Motion of Councilor Caraviello to approve second by Councilor Knight. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion passes going to 23-two nine zero.
[Morell]: petitions, presentations, and similar papers. 23-290 petition for a common butler's license by Charlene V. Von Anne, 265 Market Street, Brockton, Massachusetts. 02301 for Quench Juice Cafe at 430 Salem Street, Medford, Mass. Do we have the petitioner here or on Zoom to tell us about this paper before us? Is there anyone here from, yep, please come up to the podium and just tell us about what you're seeking. Yes, yep, for Crunch Cafe, yes. Yep, just right up to the mic.
[Scarpelli]: You don't have to be nervous. You don't have to be nervous.
[Hurtubise]: So we- And are you Charlene?
[Morell]: Yes. Okay, great. So yeah, just tell us a little bit about the business.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: We are serving fresh food, juice, and smoothies.
[Morell]: Great, thank you. I'll go to our licensing chair, Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Welcome. How many employees will be working in the business?
[Lisa Defabritiis]: Two or three.
[Scarpelli]: Is it family only? Yes, I mean- Okay, I see. I see all the paperwork is in order. And before I move approval, I know maybe some other councils have some questions but for one one council we appreciate when families come in and start neighborhood businesses like yours and I think it'll be a huge benefit and a little competition on Salem Street. for the juice, the juice wars. I know as if a bulb had just opened up, so it's exciting. So we welcome that. So I would move approval with any questions of our colleagues.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Any further discussion from the council? So on the motion of Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Knight to approve. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Collins? Yes.
[Morell]: Yes, seven the affirmative zero and the negative the motion passes. Congratulations. You're all set. You're all set with us. You don't have to stay unless you want to. 23-291 petition for a common butler's license by Jeff Wetzel, 11 Butler Street, Medford Mass 02155 and Ian McGregor, 2A Fuller Street Court, Lynn Mass 01905 for Deep Cuts LLC, doing business as Deep Cuts Deli and Brewery at 21 Main Street, Medford Mass 02155. Come up and just give us your names and tell us a little bit about what's before us.
[Jeff Wetzel]: I'm Ian McGregor. and I'm Jeff Wetzel. And we are opening a brew pub and restaurant over at 21 Main Street.
[Scarpelli]: I see everything is in order. I do know Jeff. People aren't familiar with Jeff's business. They've been a very reputable and upstanding business in West Medford Square with many people supporting him in that area. We're excited that he's moving to a location that's recently been closed. And as you know, when something closes in Method Square, we often hold our breaths to see how long they're gonna be open storefronts. Jeff and Ian have taken an opportunity to go in and you can see the work they've done already. Very vibrant yellow door out front and welcoming everybody in. We're so excited. But again, how many employees, John, would you be? have any questions or comments? Close to like 10 10. All right, great. And, uh. The hours of operations. Everything goes. You understand the hours operations are and in any extended permitting, just come back to us and get things rolling with that. But, um, again, it's another, um, new business that we should be
[Morell]: did you have something you want to add.
[Bears]: Just want to also quickly say I think it's just such an exciting venue coming to Medford Square, and really excited to see what you're going to do with the place and the images and photos and schedule that's already been released seems really great so I'm really looking forward to coming down and spending some time at your group of spend money to sit there but.
[Tseng]: I just wanted to add my voice to the choir. I live a 10 minute walk away, and my neighbors already very excited. We're all talking about it so I'm very much looking forward to it and hope to see you guys around.
[Caraviello]: Thank you for opening up again. It's good to see when something leaves that you guys step right up and fill that void because, you know, with the theater coming into season now, a lot of people for places to go and hopefully that'll be a good new destination. uh for you have you um talked to the theater about going on their website because they they usually advertise most businesses in square when people go on to look for tickets don't know that you're a new business there and open it and i have uh i have frequent in the u.s method store uh many times in the past so um are you going to expand the menu uh the bigger menu
[Ian McGregor]: We're going to try to bring in some smaller acts into our space as well. Congratulations and good luck. Thank you.
[Knight]: I'm just glad Madam President, to see that been so successful West Medford Square that they were able to expand and that they're not on the Alta Cuba opening schedule. Seems like they've made an announcement to go down there and things are moving relatively quickly so congratulations gentlemen I'm happy to support the paper.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Knight and I'm very I was very sad to see you guys leave West Medford I live over there and we very frequent sandwich patrons, but I'm glad you didn't go far. So looking forward to it. So we have a motion from Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Vice President Bears. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice President Bears. Yes. Councilor Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Collins. Yes. Councilor Knight. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. Councilor Sanders. Yes.
[Morell]: Yes, seven the affirmative zero and then I guess the motion passes. Congratulations.
[Jeff Wetzel]: Thank you. Excellent. Thanks, everybody.
[Morell]: All right. So now we're on to 21-301. Offered by President Morell. Executive session pursuant to general laws, chapter 30A, section 21, purpose three, pending litigation, Mario Centrella et al. versus BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. and City of Medford City Council, Middlesex Superior Court, CA 23-1044, to discuss strategy with respect to such litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the city council and the president so declares. We have a motion from Councilor Caraviello to go into executive sessions, seconded by Councilor Knight. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice-President Bears. Councilor Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Collins. Yes. Councilor Knight. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes.
[Morell]: Yes, five in the affirmative, two absent, we will be going into executive session. We will return to the regular meeting after we come out of the executive session. We're gonna go into 207. We do have Attorney Austin on Zoom and Councilor Collins on Zoom, so we will take them with us virtually. Yes, or we'll figure out a way that we're getting them both there.
[Hurtubise]: I do, yeah.
[Morell]: Attorney Austin, can we call you? Okay, great.
[Hurtubise]: So we'll take my computer and we'll go.
[Morell]: Okay, so for everyone here, we're going to go into the other room. We will be back. We will return to regular session as soon as we finish in there. someone else has to make a motion motion to reconvene in open session on the motion of ice and bears to reconvene open session seconded by Councilor Caraviello. Is Councilor Collins on the line? Okay. Yes. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Morell]: Yes, seven in favor, zero, negative motion passes. The meeting is reconvened in open session.
[Bears]: Motion to revert to the regular order of business.
[Morell]: On the motion of Vice President Bears to revert to regular order of business, seconded by Councilor Knight. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice President Bears. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Morell]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. on the second floor of Medford City Hall 85 George P has to drive Medford mass and via zoom a link to be posted no later than May 5 2023 the purpose of this public hearing will be to invite the general public and representatives of public service agencies to express comments regarding the city's community development block grant annual action plan for community development and planning. The action plan contains the proposed use of Community Development Block Grant funds for the program year which extends July 1 2023 through June 30 2024. The Office of Planning, Development and Sustainability will be requesting that the Medford City Council authorize Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, official representative of the City of Medford to submit the annual action plan for funds and all other assurances and certifications to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The city is receiving $1,423,649 in block grant funds. call 781-393-2480 for any accommodations aids TDD 781-393-2516 signed out of her to be a city clerk. We had a committee of the whole on this last two weeks ago, where we received presentations from the individual community service organization seeking funds and we Director Hunt from PDS led that and we have her on the call tonight as well. Before we go to Director Hunt, do we have any questions from the council?
[Hurtubise]: Sorry, yes.
[Morell]: Director Hunt, do you wanna give us a brief overview of the... I'm sorry, Councilor Knight. Is there anyone else? Does anyone need a further explanation or are we good with the presentation? Okay, so as this is a public hearing, we will open the first part of the hearing. Is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of this paper? I believe I'm not. Can you make me closer on you, Director Hunt?
[Hurtubise]: Thank you.
[Morell]: All right, Director Hunt going to you.
[Hunt]: Good evening, Madam President, thank you very much. As members of the council know, but I will share for the public, the city of Medford is an entitlement community with the Federal Community Development Block Grant Program. That is because we have population over 50,000, we automatically receive these HUD funds every year. It is a formula-based program. So the formula is based on our population size. We have already been notified of what our allocation is for the coming fiscal year is $1,423,649. This is the 49th year of the program this is the 49th year that the city of Medford has received this funding. I have submitted a plan, as we discussed usually the part of the plan that the council's most interested in is the funding of the public service agencies. But I will share that we also do other projects as well with this we do housing we do public infrastructure. We do physical improvements, we do economic development. and then we fund some planning administration costs as well with this funding.
[Morell]: We submit a five-year plan every year, and this is- Dr. Hunt, I did open for, are you in favor of the paper?
[Hunt]: Yes, sorry, I thought you would ask for the presentation.
[Morell]: No, I think actually the council is satisfied with the previous meeting, so I will just mark it. Thank you so much. Is there anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this paper? Seeing none, this portion of the hearing is closed. Is there anyone who would like to speak in opposition of this paper? Seeing none, this portion of the hearing is closed. Do I have a motion? On a motion of Councilor Knight to approve pending me seven, I think it's six days. The six day comment period seconded by Councilor Caraviello. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. And director, how does that fit in the timeline required of you by submission dates? That six day comment period?
[Hunt]: Yes, I have, I believe till next Monday to get this uploaded. I'll put all the filing in. Please, if there are any comments, make sure they get forwarded to me directly.
[Morell]: Great, thank you. So on a motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Caraviello. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice President Bears. Yes. Councilor Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Collins.
[Morell]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight. Yes. Councilor Stroud. Yes. Councilor Tseng. Yes. President Leopold.
[Morell]: Yes. Submitting the affirmative, zeroing the negative, motion passes. Thank you, Director Hunt. 22-514 offered by President Morell and referred from committee of the whole in ordinance amending chapter 14, article eight outdoor. On the motion of Councilor Knight to weigh the remainder of the reading, I have a brief synopsis from myself, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Yes.
[Morell]: I think he briefly stepped out. He looks like he's running back. Thank you. Yes, Savannah Furners, your negative motion passes to weigh the reading and give a synopsis. I'm pulling up the red line version, but in short, this is just a number of changes that were suggested by the council working in concert with PDS and our economic development director to streamline the process for having outdoor dining each year, things that include improved safety and appearance requirements as far as positioning on the sidewalk, having parklets on the sidewalk to make it a little bit, safer and more appealing and able for pedestrians to move through more easily in the space. Of course my great I have a motion from Councilor Knight to approve for first reading. Is there any other comments from the council or members of the public.
[Bears]: I'll just note that when we met in committee of the whole, there was basically the main change here between what we met on committee of the whole on and this is the inclusion of several items regarding insurance that Councilor Caraviello requested and that the building commissioner and the planning department included in the ordinance. So that is all addressed and I would second Councilor Knight's motion.
[Morell]: Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: Councilor Scarpellillo. Thank you, Madam President. And I know that one of the biggest concerns was making sure any of the outdoor dining areas are accessible for our handicapped and mothers with strollers. And I think that having the inspector in place and being the overseer is going to be the important piece to make sure that all of those areas are protected. So thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. Any other comments from the Council? Commissioner Fordy, did you want to add something?
[Bill Forte]: Yes, thank you, Madam President. So, the only thing I would recommend for the Council, respectfully, is to perhaps run, if this does get passed tonight, to run this in concurrency or to not enforce the provisions of this ordinance in full force until such time as the executive order has expired. Just recently, as you all may be aware, the state did extend the portion of the emergency order of the Chapter 53 Acts of 2020 to include outdoor dining. One of the reasons why this has been extended, I know from an inside, is that the requirements under the plumbing code are still being worked out. I think what they're trying to do is they're they're trying to exempt the plumbing code requirements from outdoor dining. Currently, that requirement is in place and it would have to be enforced if this ordinance were to pass and be enforced in full.
[Knight]: So I'm recommending that there be a delay in the executive order made by the state government supersede any local action.
[Bill Forte]: Um, I, I'm not exactly sure on that and I'm not clear. Um, I would, I would say that if, um, if there was a caveat and I would just, um, just, uh, read to you respectfully what I'm thinking about, um, here in draft, it would say, uh, this ordinance executive order chapter 53 acts of 2020 regarding extension of outdoor dining. will become enforceable upon expulsion of said order. Nothing shall limit the authority of the building commissioner to enforce and regulate portions of this ordinance for reasons of public safety. And so that's my recommended language only that way there. I'm not required to enforce these provisions because, again, without, without the mention of it, I think it's a little bit ambiguous. I honestly think that, you know, by having this in there, it just basically just cuts off a concurrency period, a person can comply with these provisions but again, my requirement to enforce these provisions will become effective upon the passing of this ordinance.
[Knight]: unless the executive order supersedes the local zoning ordinance, which in my- Well, it may, and that's why I said, that's why I mentioned in part.
[Bill Forte]: And so, you know, it's entirely up to you. I have the language in draft I was gonna send to Mr. Hurtubiseest upon, you know, consideration. But again, that's my only suggested language.
[Morell]: Thank you, Vice President Bears.
[Bears]: Mr. Thank you, Madam President, Mr. Commissioner, under section 14 dash 490 regulatory authority you have the authority to promulgate rules and regulations necessary to implement and enforce the article, my recommendation would be that once this passes third reading and assigned and is on muni code which could be a couple months from now at the very least. that you just take the language that you have and create a regulation to that effect. And then, you know, it's your discretion to enforce if you pass regulation that says we'll be going by the, you know, the governor's executive order until that point, I don't think you'll have any objection from this council. Okay, fair enough. Thank you. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. Any further discussion from the council? Mr. Navarre.
[Navarre]: William Navarre, 108 Medford Street, apartment 1B. I'll be brief because I already outlined my concerns in more detail at a committee of the whole meeting. But basically my suggestion is with regard to page 10, we got labeled number seven. Outdoor dining furniture must be locked or stored inside during non-business hours. I just think that, Depending on how that's interpreted, it could be rather limiting and unnecessarily so. I was actually just talking with, with somebody and maybe to make a concrete suggestion, it could be locked tied down or attached if the concern is that the is that the. items could be stolen or become projectiles or something. And that would allow a little bit more flexibility.
[Knight]: Mr. Just for explanation purposes from a historical standpoint, we have an issue like this that came up when Wendy's was looking for an outside dining facility and. what some of the concerns were was after hours when it's closed and no one's in the facility, people would be using the seats in the chairs to congregate late at night after 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock at night. So it was more of a nuisance value thing as opposed to becoming projectiles or what's it called, fodder for larceny.
[Navarre]: All right. Well, I think that that's a concern and I would hope that we could have 24 seven seating in the city without being afraid that it's going to cause a disturbance due to loitering and so on, especially on our major commercial streets and commercial squares. But I appreciate being heard out on that concern. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. Any other members of the public wish to speak? for discussion from the council. So we have a motion from Councilor Knight, seconded by Vice-President Bears to approve for first reading. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice-President Bears. Yes. Councilor Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Collins.
[Morell]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Neill. Yes. Councilor Stroud. Yes. Councilor Tseng. Yes. President Rhoads.
[Morell]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative, motion passes approved for first reading. 22-292 offered by President Morell and Vice President Bears be it so resolved the Medford City Council that we hold a committee of the whole meeting to discuss the council priorities and recommendations for the FY 24 city budget. The further result that can Councilors submit their interval individual ideas for budget recommendations to the city clerk by Friday, May 19. I have nothing to add to this, Vice Chair Behr. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
[Bears]: Nope, just that, you know, I think I'll add one thing, which is that I think we were hoping to maybe start these discussions earlier, but we are where we are at this point, given that, you know, doesn't look like we're gonna have any more information six weeks ago as we have today until essentially a budget is submitted to us. So we have to go forward just kind of with whatever the information we have is today on making recommendations to the administration about what we'd like to see in the budget.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you. Again, to the public, I know that I've talked to some people in the streets and some residents that want to point fingers at different members of this council for the reason why the budget process isn't moved forward. I will let you know that Council President Morell has worked diligently with the mayor's office to try to get a schedule for our upcoming budget meetings. If anybody's familiar with what happened last year, We actually didn't see a budget. We both came in and may I had to come in at one in the morning. to negotiate an agreement so we can get something passed. And I know that what I find a little nerve wracking right now is that they're having open dialogue with the school department and the school committee about a very dire situation that's been publicly spread that the mayor is looking to cut the education budget and look to let go of teachers. So that to me is frightening. And to the fact that no one from the city administration has even updated this council to let us know what is going on. This has been happening for over two to three weeks now. This issue is happening two to three weeks, and no one from the city administration has told us what's going on, either to calm everybody's nerves that there might be rumors or that what was sent out by the mayor's office to the school committee that we are having serious financial issues. And again, we wouldn't know because we still haven't seen, here we are, middle of May, we still haven't seen financial paperwork of what's going on in a day-to-day role here in the city. So I know that people, it's easy to say when you run to some people to say, oh no, this isn't the administration's fault. This isn't the mayor's fault. This is this group's fault. This is this person's fault. That's not true. Right now we have a president council president that stands independently and works with the administration to try to get a schedule, so we can be informed so we can make the rational decisions needed for our constituents that have fallen on deaf ears, we've called for meeting. over two months ago to talk about budget concerns directly with the school department that's dealing with something very serious, which was security issues that was brought forth that we needed to support our school district. Correct. And the Council President again worked diligently with the school committee, the word came back and said the mayor was looking for a date, and then it fell in the mayor's desk. So again, I know the sounds let's beat up the mayor, what this sounds like is logical information so everybody understands where we are today financially in the city, this council doesn't know. We don't know what's going on financially. All we hear is that there's a letter floating around with the school committee, and they've had multiple meetings to discuss issues and concerns that we're in dire fiscal issues that are gonna lay teachers off, that are going to cut the school budget. But again, here we are, May 9th, I believe, and we know nothing yet, zero. No conversations from financial director, no conversations from the chief of staff, no conversation from the mayor's office, no conversations from the mayor. And I wanna make this public because I'm getting tired of talking to members of this community that just wanna stick up for people that they believe in. Understand something. It's okay to look at an elected official and say they like them as people. I agree, I like a lot of people. But when you look at the positions that we're in, for instance, the mayor's position is the CEO of this community. That means they're in charge, they're the boss, they're the buck stops with them. And when we don't get information back, it's glaring that we don't have leadership that we need right now. Because I'm frustrated, I've said it a thousand times, I'm frustrated. And I'm frustrated for the fact that no one is telling us what's going on, and we don't know what's going to happen. And I'm going to guarantee you, we're going to sit here again on June 30th, and we're going to look at each other like dummies and say, what are we going to do now? And someone's going to come to the podium at one in the morning and say, I found $12 million again. I found it. And I'm going to give you what you need. And we vote on it. Yes, right. We wake up the next morning and what happens here we are 10 months later, we still don't have an attorney for the city. We still don't see a facilities person that's actually working for the city. We still don't have the things that we asked for. the financial documentation from the financial director that was given to us from the previous financial director with the same exact software. We don't, we can't get it from this council, this leadership. So again, Madam President, I apologize for going on, but I'm tired of people on the street blaming fellow city councilors and their party affiliation on why things aren't happening in the city. Things aren't happening in the city because of one person and one body, and that's the mayor's office. And believe me, it has nothing to do about liking the person personally, because I think she's a fabulous person. I've known her a long time. But as a leader of the city, I don't know why we're blinded and what's going on. The frustration is real. I'm a city councilor and I haven't talked to the mayor's office or the chief of staff in over a year. Thank you, Madam President.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. One of the big concerns I have is the $25 million in free cash. Where did that come from? I think we made a motion. We made a motion a couple of weeks ago and we haven't heard anything. That's a big concern over where that's come from. We've never had that kind of money in free cash ever in my 12 years in this council. So I'm still waiting for the answer on that, to figure out where that's going and how we can spend it, or if it's even a legitimate number.
[Knight]: Thank you, Councilor Knight, Madam President, thank you very much. And it's amazing here we are again. Now it was a baby. Well, 16 months ago, we passed this council in January, January 22. We passed a resolution asking that the mayor provide us very simple financial data, like Councilor Scott belly said the previous administrations, previous financial directors, but the same exact software were able to give us. All we want to know is where you're spending the money on a weekly basis. That's all. Then we said, not even weekly, monthly. Show us where you're spending the money on a monthly basis. Show us what account your money's coming out of and where it's going. The response we get from the chief of staff is, we don't have someone that has the time to redact that information. What needs to be redacted? The Transparency Administration, Madam President. Remember that? Community, unity, and transparency. I don't see any unity. I don't see any unity among the working people that work in this building, among the rank and file members of our DPW and fire department who have gone without a contract. I don't see any unity with the teachers who took a vote of no confidence in this administration and the school committee. I certainly don't see any transparency when, for 16 months, we've been asking for simple financial data. Follow the money. Where's the money going? And they won't let us look. They won't let us follow the money, Madam President. I think it's shameful. I think it's absolutely shameful. It's a smoke and mirrors game. So when I think back, and we're talking about the budget now, and I think back to that night, the last day of June, last year, and the mayor came up here and she all of a sudden, money was falling out of the sky all of a sudden. What was this council? It was $8 million deficit and then they found 4 million in the mayor's top drawer, right? Then they came in here and the council had some priorities that we needed funded, like an attorney. like an assistant city solicitor for the council and the mayor stood up there. And you know what the mayor said, I will hire an assistant city solicitor for the council. I will post the job in September. That was in June. We still don't have one. The job hasn't been posted. It's posted in February. That's right. And where did the mayor want to take the money to fund these positions? Can anybody remember? She wanted to take them out of the negotiated salaries account. The negotiated salaries account, the account where the administration puts money aside to provide cost of living adjustments for those same rank and file workers that she's beating on every day. We have a chief of staff that doesn't act like a liaison or a partner. We have a chief of staff that acts like a defense attorney. Refuse to answer questions, refuse to provide us with information, refuse to provide us with data. Now, when someone stands up before me, and we talk and we cut a deal, and they make a promise to me, and they don't fulfill that promise, I call them a liar. That's what I call them. And after all this time that's gone by, with no assistant city solicitor, with no phase two of the zoning review, I think it's safe to say the mayor's a liar. The mayor lied to this body to get what she needed, which was a budget, so that she wouldn't have to talk to us for another year. Because that's the fact of the matter, right? That's the writing on the wall. That's the rationale. If we were watching this TV show at home, that's what we'd see. The mayor came in here, she promised everybody everything. Sprinkles were flying from the sky. Everything was great. Two days later, she's down the Cape. Nobody hears from anybody. And now here we are, scheduling a meeting for May 19th to talk about the next budget, when we still haven't even gotten the things we were promised from the last one. Typical of this administration, Madam President. Typical of this administration. I want a mayor that leads. I want a mayor that administrates government. I don't want a social media influencer for a mayor in my city. And I feel like that's what we have. It's always lead with a press release. Go skating with the kids, go play rock, paper, scissors. But you can't drive down one street in the city. If you live on a private way and you call somebody to trim a tree and get a pothole fixed, good God, it's like you're asking for a miracle. It's like you're asking for a miracle. We've asked the DPW director about this private way issue and how we can have equity and parity among residents in this community. The administration closes their ears. They don't want to hear it. When we say we want to take some of these public private ways off the rules and put them as public ways, because that might help us get more chapter 90 funds because the city administration only appropriates $900,000 a year for road repairs, and that's money that's appropriated through our cherry sheet in Northridge City Coffers. The mayor does not match one penny, not one penny in road repairs in this community. So when we talk about priorities, I mean, the meeting's gonna be 24 hours long. But the number one priority that I have for this council in moving forward in the budget going forward is we hold the mayor accountable to her promises, to what she said she was going to give us. Because if she's going to lie to us, then she's going to lie to the people we represent, too. And we can no longer be a steward for the taxpayer in this community, because we're getting treated like mushrooms, getting thrown in the closet, in the dock, in the dirt, fed fertilizer in the way of press releases, Instagram posts, and Facebook posts. and expected to move forward and make informed decisions on behalf of the people that put us here. And then look in the mirror the next morning and say we're doing a good job. We're not doing a good job, Madam President. We're doing a terrible job. We're doing a terrible job in this community delivering services. I've never seen the city look worse. I've never seen the city look worse. It was a miracle today when I drove around the Winthrop Street Rotary, the Rotary which by the way, according to the contract on the Eversource project is supposed to be reconstructed, which hasn't been reconstructed and I mind you probably won't be reconstructed because it's too close to an election. You got to show some results somewhere. We've been holding all the results in the result bag, waiting for someone to run against us. And now we're going to pour them all out and show you all the good stuff we're doing. If we didn't have an opponent, if Consulate Gavreel didn't have the courage to run against his mayor. Council, budget priorities. My budget priority is an administrator that administers. A public administrator, not a social media influencer. Someone that keeps their promises. That's all. Not asking for much. Someone that comes to work, rolls their sleeves up, and does what they say they're gonna do, Madam President. Is that too much to ask for? Thank you very much.
[Morell]: Thank you. Councilor Tseng, Thank you.
[Tseng]: Um, I just wanted to say I think last year was my first year doing the budget on the council and I think, um, Councilor Colin and I Collins and I but also the rest of the city council did learn a lot in the process about what the best way to handle the budget is what questions to ask. What criticisms to love me, and I wanted to bring it back to this paper in particular, and focus on the text of it I think one of my biggest lessons from last time was that that committee the whole meeting we had on budget priorities was very very helpful in helping us get on the same page about what to negotiate for in the budget and. So I wanted to say that I'm very enthusiastic about this resolution in particular because I, I think that it was one of the most useful things we did last time. And I do, I encourage people watching and people at home. I know there's been a lot of posts on Facebook and social media about what people want to see from the budget, I encourage people to reach out to us before, before May 19, with what they want to see in the city budget. There's, there's a lot of mistrust with, you know, people, people not being heard not feeling like they're being heard, and I wanted to make sure that city councils, one place where they, what they want to see in the budget is is heard, and that we're negotiating for them as well. So, I wanted to support this paper and I'll second it as well.
[Morell]: I do just want to note that I was speaking with the mayor today and the hope is still to get us a budget by the end of the month. Let's see if that happens. Any further discussion on this.
[Knight]: Madam President, did you say which month was it this month or just a month, month of May, month of May. Thank you. So, Madam President, Councilor going to be a full budget.
[Morell]: I did. Yes, I did say we need a piece of paper.
[Caraviello]: I want to see a budget that I can take home and study it for a week. I don't want to be given the school budget on a Friday on a Friday night at 10 o'clock, and then have to vote on it on Tuesday.
[Morell]: Yeah, I did. I did make it clear we would not be meeting on anything piecemeal.
[Caraviello]: Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. We have a motion on this paper. On the motion of Councilor Collins dropped off. So on the motion of Councilor Knight seconded by to approve seconded by Vice Mayor all those in favor. All those opposed motion passes. 23-293 offered by Councilor Knight. Whereas the motorcycle is a popular means of transportation for commuting as well as for touring and recreation. And whereas there is a growing need for cooperation among the drivers of automobiles and trucks, motorcyclists, bicyclists. and pedestrians who use our streets and highways to reduce accidents, injuries and fatalities and whereas it is critical for all Massachusetts citizens to increase their knowledge of the rules of the road, and the rights and responsibilities of all roadway users, and whereas over 900 motor vehicles are owned and operated by our fellow citizen bikers homeowners and residents of Medford and 10s of 1000 more visiting and touring our city from neighboring communities and whereas numerous departments and organizations are committed to making our streets and highways safe for all motor vehicle related transportation urging and reminding drivers to check twice save a life motorcycles are everywhere. Check twice when pulling out and backing out from park positions check twice and making left turns. Check twice when changing traffic lanes check twice for our fellow citizens bikers from Medford and visitors to our city. on motorcycles now therefore the city of council of the city of Medford, Massachusetts hereby join with the governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and all agencies and organizations proclaim this to be our motorcycle safety awareness period here in the city of Medford, and wish all who ride and enjoyable and safe writing season Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Madam President, thank you very much, and I would defer to Councilor Caraviello on this. He was a co-sponsor of this resolution, as he has been in the past, but I erroneously excluded him when I sent it to the City Clerk after speaking with friends from the Massachusetts Motorcycle Association. Yes, Madam President. Thank you, Mr. President, former Mr. President. As this resolution says, Madam President, there are hundreds, several hundred motorcycles registered in the city of Medford. Thousands upon thousands of motorcycles pass through our community daily with Route 93 cutting right through the middle of our city. And quite frankly, the condition of our roadways aren't great. So these are things that do lead to situations of accident. This is a resolution that I've been supporting now for a number of years. It's fitting. I first got involved with the Massachusetts Motorcycle Association when I was working for Senator Shannon, the first resolution we spoke of this evening. And through his office, I became very friendly with some of the individuals there that were working for a better Massachusetts when it came to rights and when it came to protections for motorcyclists. And one of the things that came out of this was motorcycle awareness period, Madam President, before us this evening. This is a paper that has been supported by the Governor and Lieutenant Governor. They've established the Massachusetts Motorcycle Awareness Period. And as the weather changes and we see more and more people taking their motorcycles out, it's just important for us to be aware and cognizant of the fact that these motor vehicles are going to be on the roadway. We're not used to seeing them so much in the bad weather, but the good weather's here before us now. It's a safety issue, Madam President, but it's also a sharing the road issue. So many of us are concerned about putting bike lanes in and bus lanes in, but we forget a little bit about those of us that drive motorized vehicles and those on the motorcycle are the most vulnerable when they're on the roadway. So with that being said, Madam President, I would like to ask my council colleagues to support the resolution and thank you all for indulging me with such a long piece of legislation.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor Knight, for bringing this forward again. Motorists on vehicles and cars, I'm on the road all day. You'll notice they're a lot more aggressive now than they've ever been. No one will let you in or anywhere. it's hard enough driving a car on roads, never mind driving a motorcycle or a bicycle. So I think people, especially, you know, we have many, many drivers now here because of our ride share services, our delivery services, all these companies that have sprouted up since the pandemic, and now driving around the city in troves, hundreds of thousands of more cars are now on the road than were ever here 10 years ago. So the motorcycles are in more danger now than they've ever been. So this is a good law and people should check twice to make sure they see the motorcycle or bicycle. So I support this program wholeheartedly.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Any further discussion from the council? I'm gonna go to Mr. Clerk.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you, Madam President. As you all know, I firmly believe the city clerk should be seen but not heard. But this is the one resolution that I try to speak on every year. I want to thank Councilor Knight again for putting this on. Almost 43 years ago, my father was killed in a motorcycle accident not far from this chamber. And it's something I'm still dealing with every day. And motorcycle safety should be a top priority for everybody who uses our roadways. And I just again wanted to thank you very much for putting this resolution on Council night.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. Clark. And if I could as well, I also speak my cousin nearly lost her life on 93 clipped by a driver who wasn't paying attention and now will live the rest of her life with a traumatic brain injury that says severely. impacted her life. So I thank Councilor Knight for bringing this forward and raising this issue and noting this period of awareness. So on the motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Tseng, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. to 3-294 offered by Councilor Tseng. Be it so resolved that the City Council ask the City Administration and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation about plans for Middlesex Ave and if there are plans to keep the new crosswalks. Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Thank you, President Morell. So for context, if you've driven down Middlesex, there are a bunch of sidewalk repairs going on and they've created a bunch of temporary crosswalks across Middlesex and That project wasn't very much communicated to us on the council or the public. And so, naturally questions come up on the DPW to get back to me on what the plans were exactly and they didn't send me a file so if anyone's interested, I can forward that essentially we're getting. We're keeping the same crosswalks. We're just getting improvements on the infrastructure on the curbs. We are getting at Middlesex and Riverside, I think we're getting lights, which is a good improvement for that area because it's always hard to cross. Lights for the crosswalk? For the crosswalk, yes. which it's hard to cross. Growing up there, cars are whizzing by super fast. And without lights, you don't know when you can cross and when it's smart to cross. And so that will be an improvement. The temporary crosswalks that are drawn between Riverside and 9th will not stay, though. But that's the update.
[Morell]: Thank you for that update. further discussion from the council.
[Knight]: I'm going to present for me. I think the council for bringing this up and as we talk about Middlesex have something comes to mind, you know, as the weather's changing. And as we see the nicer weather get out we see a lot of people like to do what go get their car washed right. And we've had a lot of problems with the car wash down there in Middlesex Avenue. So, on top of Councilor Tseng's resolution I'd just like to amend it to ask that the city administration. ensure that the police department performs directed patrols down in the area to ensure safe passage of vehicular traffic. In case that there is an emergency down there, we don't want to impact emergency response times with the traffic coming out of BJ's and the car wash. It's a nightmare down there. And it's a pretty popular place, Madam President. So it's one of those things where we're a victim of a local business's success. So we need to take appropriate steps to make sure that the neighborhood and the residents and the quality of life are protected in that area.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. Any further discussion? Vice-President Bears?
[Bears]: I think you can also apply the great axiom about, well, you can't fly a spacecraft to the sun. Well, we'll just go at night. Just go at night, Councilor.
[Morell]: On the motion of Councilor Tseng, as amended by Councilor Knight, seconded by by Susan bears all those in favor. All those opposed motion passes.
[Caraviello]: We'll just spend the rules for take public participation to put people sitting here a while.
[Morell]: On the motion of Councilor Caraviello to suspend the rules to take public participation seconded by Councilor Knight all those in favor. All those opposed motion passes going to public participation. Dear Claire Kurtabys, I'm requesting to be put on the Tuesday, May 9th, 2023 council agenda. I would like to speak about the sudden change on what services are provided to private ways in the city of Medford. If the homeowners of the home on private ways are not given the same services as public ways, then there should be a different tax rate for private ways. Lisa D. Fabritas, 32 Winford Way. Lisa, wanna come up and speak?
[Hurtubise]: Thank you.
[Morell]: I'm sorry. I was waiting for your mic to turn on. It's on now, though, so you're good. Thank you.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: I'm here on behalf of many, if not all residents living on Winford Way or on any private way in the city of Medford. For 19 years, I've been residing on Winford Way, during which time the city has maintained the streets and sidewalks, planting and removing trees, sidewalk repairs, snow plowing, and even street cleaning. However, I was told last week by Owen, the city engineer, that the city will no longer use public funds to maintain private ways. He told me the days of knowing someone or having family members who work in the city to take care of private ways are over. I told him that I don't know anyone and neither do I have or had any family members working in the city hall. I'd explained to Owen that I have emails dating back to 2021 from Aggie, the tree warden, and the mayor's office, confirming that the city would cut a root from a tree that was planted by the city 19 years ago, that has been pulling up the sidewalk and breaking a wall on my property for the past three years. Owen told me that they, the city and Aggie, had made a mistake and that the city will be following the rules for private ways going forward. He also told me he doesn't know who owns Winford Way, which is a private way, noting it could be every resident on the street or could be a few people. He suggested that I spend $500 to hire a real estate lawyer to find out. I told him that it's the city's responsibility to know this information and to have it on record. I then followed up with the current mayor who supported and concurred with Owen's comments. In summary, and before I start a petition from residents living on private ways to pursue legal avenues to resolve this, I would like to ask the council to approve a city ordinance confirming that all roads, streets, and private ways that are accessible to the public be equally maintained by the city since we are all paying the same taxes for these services. This will also avoid administrations from changing policies and practices in the future. If for any reason the city is unwilling to pass such an ordinance, then the tax rate for those living on private ways should be reduced since the burden of maintaining streets and sidewalks on private ways will be on the residents and not the city. As a last resort, what is the process to change a private way to a road or street so that all residents can have the same rights and services if we're going to pay the same taxes as everyone else?
[Morell]: Thank you. I know we did get our the council got a response from city engineer or tell which it basically says what he said to you. I can just pull out that part but it did say that I've explained that the Department of Public just so it's on the record. I know you already got this. I've explained that the Department of Public Works does not maintain trees or sidewalks on private property except in some extreme circumstances where maintenance of a public utility is warranted. Yeah. The city is working to update its website to include more information regarding private ways for residents. A list of private and public roads is available on the website for laws surrounding what is public and what is private the bulk of the laws chapter 40 but there is also sections under chapter 81 and 83. And I knew if utilities and sidewalks and then it goes into other sections I just wanted to Massachusetts general law so I just wanted to read what the council got from the engineer or tell but I will open it up to
[Scarpelli]: Okay. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Did, did you say that our engineer, did he put that in writing, or did he say that he called me on the phone when I spoke to that way he spoke he spoke to me Yes, those were his words.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: Yes. He called me because I had called and left a message to the mayor's office and I emailed and called and left a message regarding the situation of which I have copies of emails dating back two years ago about this. And yes, he called me back and those were his words that that you, the days of knowing, knowing somebody, or the know of knowing someone or knowing people who work in City Hall, getting things done on private ways are over, and they're going forward yes that we're going by the rules on that on that point, I think the days of
[Knight]: anything getting done in City of Oloroa the way that this administration has been running the city. And I thank you for bringing some of these issues up because they're issues that have been going on for a long time.
[Scarpelli]: Now the area you're talking about, is it posing a threat or will it pose a threat? for residents?
[Lisa Defabritiis]: Absolutely. Because this has been going on for over three years. I have pitches. I have emails dating back from then. And it's actually a bump. Again, this is a tree that the city planted. And my my issue with this is the city can't pick and choose who's in administration decide what they're going to do and what year they're going to do it all depends who's in office. And if you planted the trees that you're responsible to take care of it, you It was a city street when I said that to Owen he basically so I don't have no record that I says was not convenient.
[Scarpelli]: Well, of course he has a record for that.
[Morell]: But I think yeah, and this email says it was done. He has a record of being donated 30 plus years ago. But just okay, but that's not what he told me. Okay, yeah. So here's our issue.
[Scarpelli]: Yeah, our problem is we don't have a city solicitor that we could speak to because I find this a bother. I mean, it's dangerous. I mean, and we also talked this council's also talked about the because we have so many roads that are private, we lose a lot of money that that are directly assigned from the state and the federal government. because when they look at Medford, it looks like we have X amount of miles of road because we have so many miles of private ways. So I think that's something I believe we brought up in resolution to look into the process of taking back those roads and those streets for the fact that it would bring in more money to refurbish our communities, you know, dire need for the reconstruction redevelopment of those roads. that's something that you know, we can revisit as a council later on.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: But and I will add if I may, I don't mean to interrupt when I when the mayor called me as well. And and I and I explained everything that Bowen said and and she concurred and I raised those these points to her and I says about paying the same taxes, you know, it's not right. You provide the same services. And I says, Oh, we should be paying a different tax rate. And she says, Oh, We do know how many, how many private ways we have in the city, like another way implying it would be a revenue issue for the city. if we were to give if we were to do a tax reduction for those living on private ways, if the city is not going to provide the same services as those living on streets. So I know this.
[Scarpelli]: I know it's a law. We know that we know that that's the city's law, but which is that private ways what we can do what we can't do. You know, I have neighbors that live in a private way that pulled their money to resurface their whole street. So I know there are different rules and regulations, but I think when it comes to safety, I think that might supersede any issue or concern. That's why we've been told that. Yeah, we've been told that so I don't know what if it is exactly that.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: But that's the point of it all. I'm aware of what the law states about private ways. But you just can't pick and choose, even at Aggie know acknowledge this that it was a problem years back I have the emails printed out it was in the mail, but you can't all of a sudden decide you're not going to change it because of your changing your mind.
[Scarpelli]: What we're saying is this council is supporting the fact to look at changing all our private ways to public ways.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: That would be wonderful because we're all paying taxes and we all deserve the same services.
[Scarpelli]: And I think that for your issue right now, I think that we need to have, you know, somebody from DPW to go down and look at that, that area where you're talking about and to address safety issues. And if it's safety issues, I believe that supersedes any
[Lisa Defabritiis]: According to the Aggie in the city two years ago, it's and I even called the city, the sidewalk or the street department, they said it's on the list. It's been on the my, my sidewalk has been on the list for two years. And every year I have to call and say why isn't it been done.
[Scarpelli]: So maybe we could do this. Why don't we, why don't I make a motion that, okay, so what I'll do is we'll put a resolution in, I'll talk to the city clerk that will ask the residents to come up, the city engineer and a representative from the city that could come up and speak to safety issues. We can't speak on the law unless we, as a council, put something forth, which that might be something we look at, but I think right now in the urgency of this issue, that if it's a safety concern that we bring the people together in the resolution at an open meeting, so we can get to the bottom of this, because what I don't want to hear is God forbid tomorrow.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: We have a neighbor that walks down the street breaks an ankle, and you come back and say listen we told you so I do have it all right and I exactly that and I thank you for that, but on a larger scale I would hope the council considers a method for both the city and for the residents to be able to find a resolution so that
[Scarpelli]: the city, which to the benefit of the city that we're all streets and you get the revenue from the state, and we all get the same services and again there's a catch 22 we asked for this already, but because we don't have a city attorney that works with the council, we can't get the work done. So if we want it done, we have to hire KP law that works for the mayor. and give them thousands of dollars to come back and give us the mayor's response of what the answer is.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: Well, maybe the next administration can handle this. Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: Let's hope so.
[Morell]: And then just just quickly to build on Councilor Scarpelli's point, just because I live on a private way and I've asked this too, I'm sure you've asked similar is where I've been told that public safety, you know, why does my street get plowed if I live on a private way? And it's because it's a public safety thing. So I think some clarity on why is I mean, you know, it's not fair. It's not fair. Plowing is public safety, but trip and fall isn't so trying to understand where is the line being drawn? That's so we are just is dying.
[Bears]: We Councilor favor put a resolution on this. We met on it. October 25th of last year. I'd recommend watching it. I hate to be the bummer in the room because I don't agree that it's not fair, but it's not the city's choice. We're bound by state So I would really recommend watching the recording of our October 25th Subcommittee on Ordinances and Rules meeting. There's also a written transcript in our November 15th council records. Technically the city can, there is a process, the only process the state allows for a city to accept a private way as a public way is if the public way meets the standards of the state for a public way. But the residents would have to collectively pool and pay to upgrade the private way to meet those standards. before the city can legally accept the road as a public way. So that's kind of the catch-22. In terms of the public safety issue, we had the discussion on it. The city, because there is public access to the private way, the city voluntarily provides certain public safety service, but it is voluntary. The state of the city is technically under no legal obligation to provide them. The police department has also had a number of meetings that are recorded about parking issues on private ways. residents on private ways, as long as they have the agreement of all the butters and that's probably why he recommended looking at the real estate thing to see exactly who has the legal rights to the private way. If everyone agrees you can put up speed bumps stop signs whatever you want, and the city can't say yes or no to that because it's a private way, but a lot of our private ways don't have sewerage systems drainage systems. things of that nature, which are basic requirements under state law for acceptance of a private way as a public way. You know, I'm not going to justify the response that you got. I don't think it's right. I'm not going to say that it's a fair thing that the way that private ways are treated relative to public ways. but it goes beyond the city of Medford. One of the reasons we have a lot of folks on public ways waiting 2, 3, 5, 10 years on sidewalk lists as well, it's because we have $100 million backlog and we have a report that says we need to spend $10 million a year, we spend $1 million a year, and there's not $9 million to cut somewhere else to fund roads and sidewalks. I think if we had a large community conversation around private ways and we're willing to raise $50 million, $100 million to turn every private way up to code to bring it into a public way, That would be a path forward but there's no path forward that doesn't cost either the butters a significant amount of money or the community is significant amount of money. And that's the catch 22 or and so I do feel for you I think obviously if there's public safety issues the city should come out and try to address them but but state law says that the city doesn't actually have to and it's the responsibility of the private butters to handle.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: I hear you I've done my research and I'm well aware of everything you mentioned but I there are some discretionary elements in there that you, as you noted in your comments, yeah, that the city's there's a lot of discretionary decisions in there, and that's where I say depends on your administration, what they're going to do with the time who's in office. And as far as the city's lines, I mean, I think there's a resolution to all this. There's certainly ways to get it done. That's our job to do so I'm not going to sit here and speak for other but I think this impacts a lot of people in the city, because, as like the mayor said I don't know how many private ways there are but she implied that there are a significant amount of private ways which means there are a lot of residents who are very interested in this fact. Yeah, and everybody has to and drain lines so I'm sure there's a way to make these into public streets.
[Knight]: Thank you very much. So ultimately what I'm hearing is this ultimately started three years ago with a request to have a tree removed. actually a sidewalk.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: Yeah, the city plant, the city's planted that tree.
[Knight]: And then for three years at a time, you were told you're on the list.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: Yes. And I have emails.
[Knight]: And then you finally, actually, you finally came in touch with somebody in city hall and Owen that told you the truth after three years, right? Said, we're not going to do that. Right. They put you on the list and they kept telling you they're going to do it for three years. And they dragged you around for three years. And you finally found someone that told you the truth. All right, now, ultimately, an experienced public administrator, Madam President, to something like a sidewalk panel and a tree root to make a resident on the street that pays a lot of money in taxes very happy would be as an experienced public administrator, go to Eversource, and leverage your power with levers ever source to do some community mitigation, because that neighborhood has been under construction for the better part of five years. That's what an experienced public administrator would have done. And it wouldn't have had to elevate to this point where you're wasting your time coming up here to the city council because you've been making phone calls for years and years and doing emails for years and years and not getting a good response. an experienced public administrator, Madam President, would have reached out to their partners in government who are doing construction projects in the area and leverage that relationship to provide community and neighborhood mitigation. Something that I've been calling for for a very long time. Something that I've spoke to the DPW commissioner about at length on a number of occasions. So when I hear these stories and these reoccurring themes, in these issues that keep coming up and issues that we as a council have provided solutions for the administration, but the administration does not respond to us, does not give us the time of day, does not provide us with the tools, materials and equipment necessary to be successful in representing someone like Lisa. It's shameful, it really is. And that's the cycle that we're in right now. There are revenue issues, but ultimately what I'm hearing is I'm not gonna do it because I don't have to. Right, I'm not gonna do it because I don't have to. Well, for 28 years. someone did it, and no one made a big stink about it. The FBI didn't come in here and say, you can't be paving private ways, Mike McGlynn, that's against the rules. No one seemed to really mind too much when we were providing city services to the residents in the community. But it's when we see such a breakdown and degradation of the level of services that we provide, and when we're scrambling and trying to figure out how we're going to make it work, because we haven't invested the time, materials, energy, and effort, and we don't have the personnel, the qualified personnel, We haven't retained anybody with any institutional knowledge, and we haven't been able to track anybody. You get into a dire situation like this, where the ship is sinking, and now you have to make decisions and determinations like this, where you're pitting neighbor against neighbor and street against street. I'm pretty, I'm pretty sure most people don't know what a private way is and what a public way is. They know it's a green sign that they can turn down and take that street to get off of Winthrop Street to get the woman street if they want to, right, Wildwood Road, for example. So when I look at this and I hear these issues, I just find it very frustrating because a hands on public administrator, someone that wants to administer and manage would be able to address an issue like this. So I'm sorry for your frustration. I like your idea personally that you know the same level of services should be provided to any street in the city. And I, you know, I understand that there are certain rules we can the city can also opt out of the subdivision control bar if we want to, you know, but ultimately right now my hands are a little strong. in a couple of different aspects in a couple different ways. One of them is because we don't have a partner across the hall. Secondly, we don't have the financial ability to turn the street into a public way tomorrow, right so anything that takes place going to take a long period of time to happen. If in fact it is going to happen and from what I'm understanding the city is not willing to invest that money I think we as a council are. We as a consulate are willing to say, you know, this sidewalk panel should be picked up, this tree should be taken care of. Because if the tree falls down, what's going to happen? It's going to hit your house, right? And you're going to have a problem. If someone slips and falls in front of the house, who do they sue? Do they sue the city? Or do they sue you for the sidewalk panel?
[Lisa Defabritiis]: Well, if the tree was planted by the city and you caused it, I would be, say, the city. But again, there's a lot of discretion here. I mean, the law can state one thing, but as I spoke to the state already about this matter, and there's a lot of discretion at the city. The law says one thing, but the city can do whatever they choose at their discretion. So if I'm paying taxes the same as everybody else, I expect the same services as everyone else. And I think I don't think many residents who live on private ways are aware of these differences and what the law state. And I think if they are aware that they are not being treated the same and not being have the same same rights to the same services, I think you're going to hear a lot of loud voices.
[Knight]: What else you're going to see is a devaluation of your property. Because you have the that's the reason for that.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: We have to pay for our maintaining our streets. So that's an expense that now we have to incur and where will we get the money pay for I'm, I'm, I'm paying the city. doing it, then I'm not paying you that money for far right because I have to pay for it myself.
[Knight]: Right, right. So thank you for coming up and thank you. I certainly share some of your concerns and something I'm looking forward to working on.
[Morell]: Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you for coming down. I know you reach out to me. I live in a private way. And I challenge you to come down my street, and I know somebody, me, I can't even get my own street fixed. So I don't know when the rules changed, because in previous administrations, DPW always came down and they did whatever they had to do to compensate the neighbors. Back in the old days, they used to have a program where the city paid for half for the people of private ways city paid for half in the residents paid for half and most of the residents didn't mind doing it because they understood all those have gone. by the wayside. We talk about needing hundreds of millions of dollars in street repair. I guarantee you, if you went to most of the neighbors in the private ways, you said, would you be willing to pay half? And I think I paid, it was like eight or $900 and I had a nice street. I guarantee you, if you went to everybody on a private way and you asked them to do that, they would agree, and the city would have half the burden lifted on this. So these rules only changed when this administration came in. So they weren't rules before, but it says here on the Mass General Law that temporary repairs in private ways, the city may make temporary repairs in private ways, provided that A private way has been open for public use for more than five years. Winford Way's been there forever, as long as I can remember. So, for all I want to say, what he said there, should be ashamed of himself to even say that. He works for you, works for you, and the taxpayers of this community. And that answer was unacceptable in any way. I don't care if you worked in the private sector, that was an unacceptable answer. Government should be here to help us, help the people. No shouldn't exist in our book yet. I say, I don't know what to tell you on this. I brought this up, like Councilor Bears said some months ago, and they're just saying, we're not gonna do this anymore. I'm under the belief, I told you this personally, that If you're not going to get the same services that every other resident didn't get in the city gets, you should not be paying the same taxes. Okay, no reason why they can't come down there for it isn't that thousands of people are asking to fix things. He's like as Councilman mentioned. These are solutions that could be done without causing headaches, so I don't know what the problem is, and why the rules change on the dis administration.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor say, Thank you.
[Tseng]: I'll be brief, since I think you'll find that we're pretty unified on, you know, you should be getting the services that you're paying for. And, um, I mean, we have a problem with attitude in how we deliver city services. We have a problem funding and meeting the requirements to even stay level with the bad quality of the roads that are out there and sidewalks. I mean, I'm with Councilor care of yellow I mean we can't just face a problem say oh well we're going to put our hands up and give up, right, we need to be innovative with how we solve that problem, those problems. And, I mean, I was, I was going to say something like cancer caribou, we need to try to create a program to Educate people living on. Yeah. Um, I mean, even just letting you guys know how to turn a private way into a public way right that's information I'm sure you have to dig for that information and you have to ask a lot of people for that information, you know that that should just be clear on the city website or when you move into Medford as a homeowner. on a private way, you should have that information right in front of you. And we need to do better communication as a city to get to that point. And we need to be realistic about how we spend that money and how we find that money. We spend a lot of time on the council talking about smaller amounts, but something as big as fixing the sidewalks and the roads in our city, including the private ways, I mean, that's a huge dollar amount. We have to be honest about that and honest to say, we can't do it overnight, we can't do it tonight. But what's the plan? What's the plan to get there? How do we have that hard conversation about raising the funds that we need to get there in the first place? So I'm sorry for your situation. We should look at the discretion and try to find a solution for you. I mean, I'm totally with you.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: at this point, I'm not here necessarily for myself at this point, because after doing more exploration and looking into this matter, this has opened my eyes to realize to to see that this is a bigger problem, not just for myself, but for every person who lives on a private way, which comes to find out is a significant amount of residents in this city. So I don't think residents in the city realize what what the what the situation is, when you live on this and the implications of living on a private way.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: And I'm hoping to educate everybody here, who's listening, hopefully tonight, and have people speak up because if we're paying taxes for these service, we should get the same services as everyone else on the street or otherwise we deserve a different tax rate.
[Tseng]: I think we need to be really transparent about what, you know, what our policies are and everything. I think that's like the first step of the problem too, right? I mean, you might not agree with the mayor's, the administration's position on an issue and we might not agree either, but we shouldn't have to dig to find out what the position is either.
[Lisa Defabritiis]: We shouldn't have to make those- But you can't flip flop. You can't flip flop on years of doing things one way and then all of a sudden administration today decides to do it another. You can't be inconsistent on services that you provide.
[Tseng]: Yeah. And honestly, even if the mayor does that, right, it should be super transparent. All of us should know that there was a change in policy. And that way, you know, people living on private roads, private ways can come to City Hall and, you know, protest it or petition it or, you know, we should have that transparency in government. It's super important. So I I hope that you find a resolution to your thing. I mean, you're right. Much of Medford lives on private ways and we need to, I mean, it's an issue that we haven't talked about, frankly enough, but this city council has been pretty proactive on trying to find a solution.
[Morell]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa.
[Bears]: Just really quickly, like again, I think We all agree that this is a situation that the city doesn't benefit from it anyway, but I think the scale and scope is a little out of, you know, if we had if all the private ways in the city was became public ways, the state would send us like $400,000 more a year. We'd be able to plant like three trees fix for sidewalk panels I mean it's, it's, it's, that's the issue, you know state hasn't doubled hasn't hasn't increased chapter 90 in years, the city's not putting really any money, you know when we talk about paying for services quite frankly city property tax money mostly doesn't go to roads and sidewalks. mostly goes to everything else. The only thing that's really going to road and sidewalks is chapter 90, which comes from the state, which is tax money to state tax money, but is 10 times less than the amount that we should be spending on roads and sidewalk repairs. And I'm guessing now that I think about it more, that the road and sidewalk analysis is probably only for public ways. So the number there that's 130 million may well be 200 million if you add the 30% of the city that's private ways. You know, I think we brought up in that meeting with the DPW Commissioner, you know, look at our existing ordinance, what can it do? It pretty much goes to the extent of state law and says the city, you know, we, the City Council absolutely authorizes the city administration to, to fund the programs that Councilor Caraviello was talking about. We could strengthen that ordinance even more if the mayor doesn't appropriate money to that. doesn't, you know, we don't even have legal authority to move money around to make or fund that, which is another fight that we're fighting. And we're fighting about a capital needs assessment, so that we know the amount of needs so that we can say, okay, it is $200 million. If we did this amount each year, it would take us 12 years to get to a state of good repair for everybody. Or if it is 100 million to convert every private way to public ways, if we spent you know, 8 million a year, we'll get there in 15 years. And you know, those those are, that's what we need to do. But those are the answers that we don't even have, like, not only we know the problem, we know, we'd like to fix it. But the will to actually find the answer to the question, how much does it cost? And how much do we need to invest over what period of time to achieve our goal to fix the problem? We don't have that answer. And that's the answer we need. Then we can go to everybody in the city and say hey, we have this private ways problem, it'll cost $8 million a year, do we all think we should spend $8 million a year to fund that and we can actually have that kind of community conversation, but that's the real issue you know this council could pass the best ordinance in the world next week on this question, and it won't force any single hand to appropriate a single dime. to match private money to fix private ways. So until there's the willingness to like actually from the city administration side say okay, we fully acknowledge that we have this massive amount of capital need and operating need to effectively fund the city. and this is how much it would cost, and this is how much it would cost us to get there if we break it down over a long period of time, then this council is going to be passing ordinances that the mayor doesn't fund or enforce. And that's kind of the catch-22. Again, I hate to be like Debbie Downer over here, because I do think we should try to do something to fix the problem, but we don't even have the authority to move money around within the existing budget to fix one road, never mind 30% of the streets. So it's a difficult situation.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. It was Councilor Bears who brought up during the capital plan meeting that we're proposing projects. We don't even know what our capital assets are. How are we proposing a capital plan when we haven't figured out what our capital assets and what it is? So we know where to allocate money. We're just allocating money to things in the sky without even figuring out where they really need to go. That's the real problem. with this whole situation, yeah. Not knowing anything.
[Deyeso]: Good evening everyone, Sharon Diesso, Circuit Road in Mass Ave in Medford. Thank you for the time tonight. I had a related issue that has to do with safety on the roads. I do want to mention, Madam President, for one second, that I too live on a private way. One side of my house is on a private way and one side is on a public road. So there comes pros and cons when you buy the property. So I do sympathize with you in similar issues that do come up. I wanted to ask a question for a few of us who I'm friends with who they're raising the safety issue. We want to know the new status of the application of bike lanes. We heard that they are coming on Main Street in Medford and also Salem Street. We do have some problems with this. Number one, because we all agree, we hear it everywhere, it's even on ads on TV, exercise, exercise. you know, to lead to good health. We're all for bicycles. A lot of these bicyclists are very, very young. Some of them are older. They're choosing different modes of transportation to get to and from work. So it's important also just to do shopping and also just to get exercise. We are very, very opposed to the application of bike lanes on the street, like Main Street or a street like Salem Street. We understand that some parking spaces will be abolished. We also were trying to find room to even get by when cars are parked there during the day. businesses are going to lose meter spaces. Those are three issues, but the safety above all, we have no idea even when being cut off because some of these bicyclists, the great athletes, you don't mistake me, if they cut you off, et cetera, we have no way of identifying that driver. And the definition of it in the state is it is a vehicle. Bicycles are looked upon as vehicles. We're asking, is there a way that you can help us to promote registration plates, again, on the back of bikes? We used to do it when we were kids. Maybe Ricky would remember also. You had to get a plate for your bike. Every year I had to come down, pay my little $5 fee, and have a plate applied to the back of my bicycle. It was kind of cool. We used to walk each other down to City Hall to get them. Not only that, if somebody comes around a corner, we're not saying they're all bad. cycles, they're a bad motorist. And they just come and hit a baby carriage. It's coming around to go around the corner to get another bike lane. Who's liable? Do they have any way of personal insurance on themselves too? And if we are liable, Some of those bikes are very expensive. Like I said, they're beautiful. Some of them cost two and $3,000. There has to be a plan. We're very tired of the state and local governments going ahead and putting, spending money and putting the cart before the horse. So we've realized this is a very considerate application of you to direct us in the right way to find out the answers to these simple registration plates, yearly fee, and who is liable in the case of accidents with bicyclists. Also, on a personal note, I'd like to mention that during the last couple of months, many of us know these two individuals who did pass. I'd like to mention their names. One was an icon in Medford Square with his scaly cap and very active at St. Joseph Church, Anthony. Ranzino. He was very audible, very concerned about the city, and he passed with his returning cancer. We miss him very much at the convenience store in Modern Pastry. He was a great guy. Ricky probably knew who he was, and his family was a longtime member, too. The other person I'd like to mention was a classmate of mine, Ian Bosomato Esposito. She was a long time classmate of mine, wonderful woman. She was so special at MGH that the cardinal said her mass when she passed. She sadly went to lunch with a client, even at our age. She was a big administrator at Mass General Hospital and a very dear friend. She took a client. I think he was a big CEO of a company or something. That was her job to kind of lead them through their surgical path if they were visiting from out of town. And she took him to lunch and she passed out on the client lunch time. They had to rush her to the hospital and she didn't make it. She passed away. So thank you, Ann, for your years of service. And thank you, Tony, you. And I want to thank you and Anthony senior for your friendship in measure too many. Um so I await your response on the bicycling concerns. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you for that. For bike lanes. That would be the SAS. Those bike lanes that would be the traffic commission. They tend to run the exact same time as us, so we're usually catching up after the fact. Um. And then the registration I would assume is at the state level representative Garber Lee about that as well. I cycle to work. I stop all red lights. I do all the good things a lot of cyclists don't. So you know, I you know, a lot of cyclists are opposed to bad cyclists and bad drivers as well. So I just want to note that anyone else have anything that they know off the top of their head?
[Deyeso]: just excuse me for one more second. Thank you. Does anyone know the status of the application of the bike lines yet? Is there a date when they're going to be starting or anything like that? And I do have one or two business friends right on Main Street who said they can come down they can attest every single day when they walk out of their business. A motorist is coming out of Dunkin Donuts parking lot and either having an air collision with a bicyclist or something's happened to a bicyclist or So, they're cracking into a park car. So, it needs to be addressed so you're suggesting that I just go straight to the traffic commission is that what you're saying, yeah they have they said it early they have the power over those decisions and they would know.
[Morell]: I saw Councilor Cabrera raises hand I don't know.
[Caraviello]: If you drive around the city, you'll see the temporary markings for where these bike lanes are going down on Winthrop Street, South Street, Haines Square, so there are going to be some markings. How would I say this downfall with this, there's gonna be a lot of parking spots are going to be taken away, especially in the Haines square area, which is a business district. Now, now to be a lot less parking spots and they were before. So, I think when that project is done I think you're going to see them. coming down before us about that. But the president is right. The place to go would be either the traffic engineer, which is Todd Blake, or the traffic commission to make your concerns known.
[Deyeso]: Okay. And I thank you again for your time. We are not opposed to progress. We know things change. And we're very happy for people who want to gain exercise during the day and evenings. We also want to employ the fact that many of them, I've seen them in the daytime and in the evenings, and you probably share this experience. there's no blinker that's working properly on their bikes. So it's also, you know, for their safety. Also, thank you very much. Thank you.
[Morell]: Anyone else like to speak for public participation at this time? Bill Giglio, name and address for the record, please.
[Giglio]: Hi, Bill Giglio, Winter Street. I'm calling to voice my displeasure tonight about our about our city council vice president using our city hall chambers this Saturday on off hours to let his friend from New Jersey use the Medford city halls for his Boston book launch. This was a gross abuse of power, which should not be allowed. This is our tax dollars being misused. And as I stated, this is being billed as a Boston book launch and free to the public. I asked that this book launch event, That has nothing to do with Metro be canceled or be moved to a non city owned building. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak for public participation? Seeing none, we are under suspension.
[Bears]: that we can implement to address those things as a community. There will be a book discussion in the city council
[Morell]: Again, we are under suspension still. Someone send me somewhere. Would you like to go back to revert? Yeah, because I'm at the end of a number of items, but you have the votes. I believe we have a motion from President Bears to revert to the regular order of business. Motion of President Bears to revert to regular order of business, seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favor?
[Hurtubise]: Aye.
[Morell]: All those opposed? Motion passes. do three dash 295 I think is the right place offered by Councilor Tseng be it so resolved that the city council asked the city administration for updates on fixing the potholes by George Street and Main Street.
[Tseng]: Thank you, President morale I think this is a pretty straightforward paper, it's a heavily trafficked road. I happen to live close ish and so I see the cars going by all the time I walk by all the time they're in the middle of the road. And so they could be good to ask for updates about resurfacing.
[Morell]: Thank you. Any further discussion? The motion of Councilor Tseng, seconded by Vice-President Bears. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 23-296 offered by Councilor Tseng. DSO resolved that the City Council ask the City Administration for updates on fixing the potholes on Boston Ave between College Ave and Harvard Street. Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Again, I think this is a pretty straightforward paper. Very similar situation on Boston Ave between College and Harvard Street. Closer to this number one.
[Morell]: for the discussion on the motion of Councilor Tseng second by Vice President Bears all those in favor. All those opposed. Motion passes. You three dash 297 offered by Councilor Tseng be it so resolves the city council asked the city administration elections department and diversity, equity and inclusion department to identify, analyze and address the issues that may affect civic and political participation by immigrant communities in Medford Councilor Tseng, Thank you.
[Tseng]: Um, this is in light of the election after election report we got last week. um from the um election commission um you know they're they're doing a lot of work but i think um an important thing going uh they're doing a lot of important work when it comes to reaching out to um populations of Medford communities in Medford that aren't registered to vote or vote at the rates that we see for other groups in Medford, and they do have the right to vote and participate in our politics. I think, and given that there's an election coming up this fall and so the city elections tend to be Um, elections were immigrant community. These don't participate as high as, um, they perhaps should. Um, it would be great for them to look at it. And I know the Elections Commission is close with, um, the diversity, the department as well. And so they can collaborate on it.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Further discussion? On the motion of Councilor Tseng, seconded by Vice President Bears. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. 23-298 offered by Councilor Tseng, whereas many residents of the City Council have expressed skepticism about the representativeness and IT security of Google Form responses. Be it so resolved that the City Council asks the City Administration to consider upgrading to professional community feedback and civic engagement software that is specifically designed for municipalities to receive greater amount of feedback, ensure that responses are more representative of the whole population, find points of consensus, and help residents understand policy decisions our city must make. Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: I very much appreciate the administration's attempts to get more feedback for programs and policies and how to spend money. But I think when we've had that ARPA presentation, different presentations, I know this came up with the dog park situation as well. Those of us in the council have brought up a lot of questions with if we should really be making decisions like rule forms, given that they are not representative of our city at all. They leave out, They leave out a lot of people who aren't online on using their computers all the time. And, you know, this kind of realm of getting community feedback and public participation, creating surveys, it's actually a very well developed realm in city governments and municipal software and technology. And I just wanted to put forward that we explore I'm getting some if we are going to use Google Forms and I think it is good to get public feedback and I'm a pulse on the public. We do it right. I think, I think. A bunch of neighboring cities have invested in such technology. And actually, the benefits of the technology are more than just getting feedback. There's a lot of public education that can go on with it, a lot of considering more nuanced viewpoints, a greater number of viewpoints, and finding consensus between very different viewpoints as well. Again, this is a very well-developed part of technology that I'd be happy to take advantage of. But again, this is just for us to explore it instead of just putting out a Google form out there and leaving us vulnerable to potential IT security questions and questions about whether that form is actually representative of the population's view.
[Morell]: Thank you. Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Madam President. I think Councilor I appreciate brings forward it. First of all, what's frightening is we don't have an IT department. That's the first thing. First thing is that we have someone that's working I believe per diem or on a contracted basis, but we don't have an IT department, which is frightening because we can't get the answers we need. And again, appreciate what you're saying, because people have also told me in situations that the city has gone out and asked for different feedback. We have a group of educated method residents that send their feedback And with those numbers, our city officials gather that information, which that's all they have. And they have to make the best decisions from that group. What we realized is that that group doesn't truly identify the true demographics of our community. I think if you would probably look at most of the surveys that go out, and that are replied to are really from one administrator that works her tail off to do the best she can to get the information to the people that are directly involved because they're interested with her. And it's no fault to her. She's doing the best she can. She's doing her position. But I look at the rest of the city saying that when we have issues like bike lanes, for instance, when things go out, who responds? the bicycle commission people in the bicycle world. Right. And that's what the demographic looks like what's being said. And it's no different than when you're trying to put a project in an area of low income. And when the people surveyed are the wealthy homeowners in that area that want that development or they could sell their homes for big money. And it just doesn't get to the people that really live in the community and have no other option but to live in that area. So I applaud this resolution and I think this is a huge problem when you look at a disparaging lack of true community involvement because we don't have the tools in place to get it out in, you know, maybe different languages or reaching different demographics or, again, so again, I rest with that. So thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Councilor Tseng, putting this on there, and Councilor Scarpelli also brought to the point. Not everybody has access to computers. In fact, a survey done by the library was one of the biggest things they had there was the amount of people that go there for computer access. I think it's time that every department and all these things. We need to start getting people back into meeting in the in the building, and then and have public meetings. Again, we look at every week, and we sit here and look at an empty room. All the time, you have meetings, we have a career. No one's here. Everyone's at home, as Council Scott probably mentioned, it's the same. group of people that are responding to the surveys and those other things. It's time we get back to meeting in City Hall or have public meetings where people meet in person. The Zoom is good and everything is fine, but there's no participation anymore. There's no face-to-face interaction with anybody. I mean, a lot of people don't like, I personally don't like going on Zoom meetings, because there's no interaction. Now, this is probably one of the bad things that come out of the COVID, was everybody now lives in another world, and not everybody has access to that other world of Zoom and computers. So though I applaud this, I think that the governments, not just here and everywhere, needs to start getting back into the building and having public meetings where there are people who can interact with each other.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Any further discussion? On the motion of counts, oh, sorry, do you see? Oh, no, okay, we just lost that hand. On the motion of counts, we're saying seconded by Vice President Bears. All those in favor? All those opposed? Well, come on, all those in favor? All right, all those opposed motion passes to 3-299 offer by Councilor Caraviello, be it so resolved that the Medford City Council have the new facilities manager look into the ventilation blower and the all the chambers. The sound from the fan makes it difficult for people with hearing disabilities to hear the conversation from the council, Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: This is one of the few nights that I'm able to hear. And I think for those of us who sit in this side of the room here, it's literally next to impossible to hear when that blow goes up. Right now, it didn't go out tonight because we have neither the air conditioning nor the heat on.
[Morell]: But like I say, it's a bear's turn to turn the fan off.
[Caraviello]: Yeah. I have a hearing disability, and I have hearing, I can't wear them in here because when that blower goes off, it just makes you go crazy. I assume we have a facilities manager. could be him for all we know. We have no idea who the person is or what he or she does. But it'd be nice if someone could look at this. And so the people at least in this side of the room can hear conversations with our other Councilors.
[Bears]: I have had a conversation with the new facilities but you better. I met him. Oh, he is looking at the space the lighting curtains, etc. I'm sure that if we put a resolution on and be happy to co sponsor with you he'd come down and talk to us. But he's probably gonna say is, I need money. And then, you know, we're back across the hall again. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: I say I would like him to come down and maybe, maybe offer a solution to so people with disabilities can hear. Again, there's no one, there's no one in the room, but in past days, we used to have to hand out little packs for the people with hearing disabilities. So I don't know if they even exist anymore.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: So what I'm understanding is that Councilor Beza has spoken with the facility manager. The facility manager says he has control over the room. We had residents in the community that had spoken with the mayor about the room, and the mayor said that the administration has nothing to do with the room. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on. This place is like Circus City. Thank you, Madam President.
[Morell]: I know it's not me. Mr. Navarre, is there any further discussion from the council?
[Navarre]: William Navar 108 Medford Street apartment, one B. I was just going to suggest that maybe you have the resolution to look into those headsets and so on that Councilor whoever yellow mentioned, there's been a few times when, you know, few people I know, usually senior citizens come here and they know I come here all the time and they say I can't hear a damn thing. And I say, well, there used to be over there. I saw people used to get these things. I don't know where they are now. Yeah, we don't know. So if we could just like look into that, and if they do, maybe just like, you know, have something. By law, they should be here. They should be. But also, there should be something letting people know about them, what the procedure is to get them, et cetera, because as of now, they aren't accessible. Maybe we haven't found them.
[Hurtubise]: All right, thank you.
[Morell]: Signs pretty small, but yeah. Okay, the signs near the door.
[Bears]: Come on, William, as Council and I would say you can't even cross.
[Navarre]: So I guess if we could just make that more clear to everybody, including the members of the council, how that works, so we can help different members of the community hear what's going on.
[Morell]: Yeah, I mean, if you can pass that along in the audience when people ask.
[Scarpelli]: We've been here for 18 years, I didn't realize we had a sign.
[Bears]: Any further discussion? I was just gonna move to- We have a vote on this. Oh, sorry. I was just going to move to place this under reports due deadlines and invite the facilities manager to a future meeting.
[Morell]: On the motion of Vice President Bears, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Sorry, Vice President Bears, I thought you wanted to move around.
[Bears]: Move around the agenda. Let's go, Celtics are losing, I'm bummed. It's over anyway, glad we missed it.
[Morell]: 23-300 offered by cancer Caraviello Oh, it's a result of the member city council have the administration look into complaints about residents and businesses putting mail for various departments into the mailboxes outside the hall, then not being delivered to the proper department sometimes causing residents to pay additional fees Council Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. Over the past probably two or three weeks, I've been receiving calls from residents and businesses who are saying that they're putting in their forms and applications for things, and people are paying their tax bills in those boxes outside the door. And some of them, they're saying that they're not getting to where they're supposed to be, and people are even having to pay late fees because of that. So I don't know who, who picks up the mail or is there a process on how that mail gets delivered? Mr. Clerk, maybe you would know.
[Hurtubise]: I believe each department has a key to their individual mailbox, and they check it. So do they go there every day and check it? I don't know the answer to that one.
[Caraviello]: Well, if we can find out who's responsible for getting the mail, and when the resident gets a late fee, because the bill has been sitting, their checks have been sitting in the box for three days, it's not fair to them, and the people in different departments are just refusing to waive them. So if that's something we can look into and find out what the process says to how that meal gets delivered.
[Morell]: Thank you for the discussion on the motion of council prevail and the clerk is going to look into it as well. Seconded by prices and bears all those in favor. 23-301 offered by Councilor Caraviello. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council be provided with an update by the Building Commissioner on the progress or lack thereof at 551 Winthrop Street. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Mayor President, is the Building Commissioner still on? He's not.
[Morell]: He was on earlier, but he did not stick around. I forgot we have this paper, so.
[Caraviello]: For those of us who traverse that area over by the high school, we call it the hole in the rock there, I think that project's been going on for eight years or longer.
[Morell]: Yeah, it started under McGlynn.
[Caraviello]: Yeah, so it's been going on forever. But Madam President, I got calls from people this week saying, you know, blasting is still continuing. They're not getting any notifications. But what I've learned over there is that has turned into a rock quarry. All they're doing is selling rock out of there. So are they paying taxes? I mean, they're operating a rock business out of that hole in the ground for the last four, five, six, seven years. So I want a report from the building commission. How long is that building permit gonna stay open for? Well, they don't even have a building permit. Well, they have some kind of permit. Those people, they're operating a rock quarry business because all they're doing is selling rock out of there. And that's not, what it was supposed to be. So if we can get some kind of report to the building commissioner, is that allowed for them to continue? And how long is that? Is their process going to stay open before there's actually going to be a house built there?
[Morell]: Yeah. I did talk with the developer when they started blasting again. Yeah, I live over there. I felt it. And I was pretty livid that you know, we had had this we had established this communication pathway to get these texts when we were going to get blasting we heard a blast. Apparently, the reason was for that was because they're using a different blasting company now. So the previous blasting company was who was sending texts. The new company didn't know that was a thing. So the developer actually I asked them to the developer, started personally sending texts to that list again and emails to that list again. I was told that, I already forgot, I think Monday was the last day of their blasting. I know they started blasting again because they hit some more rock they didn't anticipate. So I don't know if that's just going to happen again. It's funny thing about blasting out ledge, there tends to be more ledge underneath like it's not
[Caraviello]: That's a normal idea.
[Morell]: It shouldn't be a surprise.
[Caraviello]: The region built on ledge. Yeah, my house is on ledge. But Madam President, they're operating a rock white business over there. Yeah. That shouldn't be, is it allowed? Are we getting any taxes for all the rock that they've sold out of there?
[Bears]: City should be getting 20% of the rocks at least.
[Caraviello]: You need those rocks. If we can get a report from the building commissioner, it'd be appreciated.
[Morell]: Yeah, no, and I appreciate that. And they did say, the developer said they were hoping to start actually building in June. But again, I did hear from Director Hunt that they don't have a, they haven't, they don't have a building permit yet. So there's a few different things moving. So on the motion of Councilor, or any further discussion, just Councilor Caraviello and I are having a discussion. On the motion of Councilor Caraviello, as amended by Councilor Caraviello, seconded by Vice-President Bears. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. 23-302 offered by Councilor Caraviello. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council review and discuss a moratorium for zoning and development on Mystic Ave and other identified locations until the zoning process is complete. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you again, Madam President. I put forward this resolution with the intent of encouraging smart growth in Medford. What we're seeing is community around us maximizing their zoning, allowing for the best use of their main corridors, while we in Medford behind everyone else. The council has repeatedly asked the mayor and her administration for funding to complete the zoning processes that we started. So we can grow and grow smarter. We want our businesses to provide good paying jobs and investments in our community. And for this we'll bring new revenue streams to the city that we desperately need. If we continue on the way we are today, we will allow Medford to remain sedentary, continuing to invite used car lots, body shops that add little or no value to our city. I'm getting tired of the leftovers from other communities. I want to see Method be considered for investments the same way Somerville, Everett, and Maldonado. So, Madam President, I would make a motion that we send this to the Business and Economic Development Subcommittee for further discussion.
[Morell]: Thank you. Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: I totally agree with the sentiment of it. I think smart growth is super important. And to make sure that we're doing our developments right is, I think, very important. I mean, Mystic Ave, we all know, is super touchy as well. I happen to live close enough where, talking to my neighbors, there is a wide, wide range of opinions about what we should do there. My only concern is with the word moratorium. And just I just think it's maybe too blunt of an instrument of a word to put in. You said that it's less about the moratorium, more about the intent of it, which I support. I just wonder if you'd be amenable to... Maybe I shouldn't have put the word moratorium in there.
[Caraviello]: But the intent is we just can't let this continue to go on and just keep taking everybody's leftovers here. These businesses are being chased out of other communities because they're buying the property and putting up smart growth and WIC and all the crap is coming in.
[Tseng]: Right. I mean, it really underscores the need for us to do another round of rezoning as fast as we can.
[Caraviello]: We spent a lot of time zoning the codifying the rules. And we asked for the most important part was the actual zoning. And what are we a year and a half now we're still waiting for the funding so we can do the actual zoning.
[Tseng]: Um, I would just wonder if you'd be amenable to maybe instead of more I'm just I mean, I'd be happy to have a moratorium on tools for smart zoning, maybe something like that.
[Morell]: That's fine.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President and, you know, we Okay, I'll address the substance that I'll address the larger, the larger thing that we're working on my suggestions, just because I'm not on the subcommittee just to put it in your ear to those who are on the subcommittee. I'm pretty sure I'm not on the subcommittee. is a great way that we can maybe do this fast is look at the use table and say we're not going to allow these uses in C1 C2 and I districts anymore, like no new body shops no currently they're allowed by right right but we could we could adjust the use something we could do quickly in the zoning is just change the use table and say no. And then that would be an effective moratorium on the things we don't want to see. And then it would still allow people to go through plan development, or if they're by right uses that we do like to move forward on those so that would just be my suggestion, since I'm not just get my input in since I'm not on the subcommittee I think that would be a really easy way to quickly, instead of going through the real meat of the zoning ordinance just go to the use table say here are things that we don't want by right in these areas because we want to preserve these properties for potential better uses in the future. On the zoning, we did have I think a good discussion a couple weeks ago in April around the RFP and we had all of that going out to really start having interviews with the consulting teams that are going to apply for the RFP for zoning this summer and start kicking off the real zoning work in September. And the way that we wrote it is that, you know, it's not just we're going to spend two years on something and pass something at the end. It's that we're going to work on different issues and try to pass things as we move through the process. Some things may be bigger and take longer time. Some things may be low hanging fruit that we get at right away. So I am really hopeful that we will be able to engage on that quickly on the larger process. But I agree with the sentiment here. And I think there are certainly uses that are currently allowed by right that we don't need new new versions of on property that could eventually be used for much better things in the community. So I thank you for putting this forward.
[Scarpelli]: I think Council President, thank you. Councilor and Councilor Bears, but I think that appreciate Councilor Caraviello to bring this, this motion forward, because I think that what he's seeing, because he is a councilor that's been in the forefront of smart development. And I think that's what's key. I think that, you find developers going to Councilor Caraviello and talking to him because he has an open mind and he understands that to move the city forward, we have to look at the smart development. And I think that what scares me is you see businesses, big plans that have been put out for, I mean, we'll use CHA, the process that they were going to build at the site of Century Bank has now fallen through, I heard. And what that would leave us is, boy, wouldn't that be a great new car dealership added on that block? And by right, that's what we're allowing. So I understand Councilor Caraviello's aggression when he talks about a moratorium, and I appreciate the the fear of moratorium and the open-mindedness to say, okay, let's not look at that, but also look at, let's change that word, but also look at the dire need of making sure that, like Councilor Beo said, is understanding getting that process in place and looking at our zoning as we go looking right away I think that's a great idea that Councilor Caraviello can sit with your subcommittee and look at specific areas that we see right now are you know as well as anybody where they're ready to pounce and look at those rules and come back to a community the whole meeting that we all work together and look at those zones that we can we can make some changes right now because I understand what you're saying because I think the residents like Council saying said, they're a little nervous, because they haven't had opinions, the whole idea that we're excited about why it's why what we've talked about in very important meetings we talked about the zoning consultant coming in. The key is bringing in a team that's going to work with the community to set up meetings to get the ideas of every set every community separately, just like I remember working in Somerville 15 years ago, being part of the recreation department, sitting on this community meeting saying, this is what's gonna happen in Union Square. What's recreation gonna look like if we do this development in Union Square? And having the neighbor's input. So I'm excited about this process, but I appreciate Councilor Caraviello. This is, I think, a very important resolution for the fact that if we don't make a move soon or quickly, And obviously, we're not getting the support from the from the from the city and the administration. I'd like that we can put our minds together like Council be as Council saying, and look at some avenues. I applaud that moving over to a subcommittee and moving this forward so we can see some action right away. So we don't see this development that can come in and stick there for the next 100 years without any movement and probably suffocate that area. Because it is, you listen, they tell you about the gateway of your community. That's a gateway. Mystic Gap, for instance, is a gateway. The Century Bank area is the gateway. This is where you come in. That could be a perfect site for mixed-use area that we can really do some great things and bring in some real revenue to the city. But we don't hear anything. We don't see anything. All we see is failures because I get phone calls from people that were involved in that saying, hey, just a heads up, CHA is backing out. So I really appreciate Councilor Capiello bringing this forward, because this is probably one of the most important people pieces that people don't realize of the growth of this community moving forward when you talk about funding mechanisms, when you talk about lack of basic needs that we have. this is the new revenue that can help us fund that. So thank you, council, I appreciate that.
[Morell]: Thank you, councilor, I'm sorry, councilor, well, councilor, I don't know what councilor is saying just because you've spoken already on it.
[Knight]: Madam president, thank you very much. And, you know, as I'm reading this resolution, I'm thinking to myself that in effect, right now, we already have a moratorium on development. You know, we look around at the cities that are neighboring communities and we see what they're doing. And we see them passing Metro by. We've seen them passing by Everett, Malden, Somerville, Cambridge, Belmont, Waltham, Revere. The list goes on, the list goes on. Medford is no longer in the driver's seat. At one point in time, we were a community at first, and now we're a community that follows. So when I sit here and I think about, you know, how we can fix the process and change where we're at, it brings me back to the old saying, if you don't know what you stand for, you can't stand for anything. And, you know, we have a mayor here that runs on affordable housing. A mayor that says that her number one accomplishment was the inclusionary housing ordinance that I wrote. She runs on affordable housing, says that that's her number one success. Yet, when the reality is, there are three affordable housing developments in this community that she fights and takes it to litigation. So these are the things that I think Councilor Caraviello is talking about. It's a frustration because it's, don't look at what I'm doing, just look at what I'm saying. Because we don't have a leader, we don't have a public administrator or a municipal manager in the corner office. We have a social media influencer. That's what we have to do. Let's be honest. I mean, that's clear as day. That's clear as day. That's fact at this point. That's fact at this point. The city's falling apart. I'm going to go play rock, paper, scissors. I mean, come on. Enough's enough with this stuff. You know what I mean? Anytime something bad happens, there's a sign that says Maumau in front of City Hall and people are taking pictures. So when I talk about the direction that this community is going in, and I talk about what I think we need. The first thing we need is a municipal manager that knows what they stand for and where they stand. And then we need a vision for this community. And I don't think we have one of those either. So we can talk about all these consultants that come in and all the call-in center and this contract and this consultant that comes in to create a vision for you because you don't have one. Or we can take the reins of this process. Because for the last 18, 16 months, two years before that, we've been ignored. We haven't been given the tools to succeed. And it shows, because the city hasn't looked worse. The city hasn't looked worse. There's never been a partnership that's been this broken in this community in over four decades. And it shows, because the community looks awful. So I thank the council for taking the initiative to put a difficult topic to discuss on the agenda, but I thank him for knowing where he stands and what he stands for, because that's what this business is all about. All you have is your word in this business. That's the only thing that follows you around. In politics, the only thing you have is your word. If you're a person that keeps it, people keep you. If you're a person that doesn't keep it, the people get rid of it. The people aren't stupid. The people know what's going on in this community. And I thank the gentleman for bringing it up.
[Tseng]: I just wanted to get firm language for the city clerk on amending it. So instead of a moratorium, I guess we should say revisions to the use table and other tools for smart growth.
[Morell]: That's fine.
[Caraviello]: Oh, thank you. I'll just want a couple last thing go. It's unfortunate, though, one of the one of the good things to me I did was hire Victor Schrader as a, as a, as a director, and unfortunately, less than a year later, he's gone. So we're left rudderless again. And that's a big problem. And when you hear from developers, that's one of their concerns, that they started working with him, and where is he now? He's gone, working in another place. So we're spending money in courts. We'll take the Mill Creek project on $4,000 to $5,000. Three years in court when we knew we were going to lose on day one. We didn't get any more negotiations out of them than we would have got on day one. So that's three years of taxes that we've lost. That building should have been up and built today and people living in there now. You have to put the project on the Felsway with Davis Group. Another two to three years. No wonder why KP Law loves it here. They're just running that bill and it's running and running and running. And, you know, we got an estimate of $450,000. I don't know where that number came from. But we're fighting that group. Again, another group, negotiate what you can get. Housing could have been built there. We keep talking, but we don't have our housing. Even with those two projects, we're not even gonna hit our 10% affordable housing. Because now the one on Mystic Avenue pulled out. And we just lost a $243 million project on Boston Avenue that left town. Another $6 million in taxes. This is the reason we're behind the eight ball and everything. So again, something's got to be done. I know there's trying to hire a new economic development director. But by the time the person gets here, the ship is going to be sailed, and businesses are just going to continue to keep walking away.
[Knight]: Thank you. Thank you very much. I think it's important to point out also that this community needs at least, I'd say one and a quarter to one and a half percent of new growth annually just to sustain, just to sustain just to stay even. We need one and a quarter to one and a half percent of new growth each year, just to sustain. So when we talk about a project like the Boston Ab Project, it was going to bring an influx, an influx of money through taxation, through permitting, and more importantly, through the creation of jobs that pay a living wage, jobs that provide benefits for their employees, jobs that provide health insurance for their employees. Jobs are not a car dealership or a Dunkin' Donuts or a nail salon or a bank, which is, Medford's the capital of, I think, because, I mean, I think, what do we have, 27 Dunkin' Donuts in the city? There were 20, there were at least 20 Dunkin' Donuts in the city of Medford. That's our business model. That's our business model. But we have a property owner that comes before this council and asks us to support his project. He comes with representatives from the administration. We support the project, we give him the zoning. We carry him on our shoulders out of here like it's a big boom. He goes before the historical commission and they blow a $400 million project up over a garage that sits in the back of button train tracks that's fallen apart and decrepit. And their analysis, their analysis that they used was totally outside the scope of their authority in the ordinance. The historical commission is just one of many commissions that we have in this community, but it is out of control. Out of control. Well, it is. It comes back to smart growth and smart development. We can't grow and we can't develop smartly if our boards and commissions don't share a vision with the administration. And if the administration doesn't know where they stand or what they stand for, there's never going to be that shared vision. And that's where we are right now. That's what happens after three and a half years of no leadership. Thank you, Madam President.
[Morell]: Thank you. So on the motion of Councilor Caraviello as amended by Councilor Tseng, seconded by probably all those in favor to refer to subcommittee on business. Yeah, there's a cultural arts in there. Yeah, this is called, yeah, this is cultural arts and economic development. It'll get there. All right. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. 23-091, three cases from the mayor, resubmitted. A request for expenditure from law department claims over $1,000 account 010-151-5762 to April 25, 2023 to President Nicole Morell and honorable members of the Medford City Council. From Breanna Lungo-Koehn mayor. Claimant name, USAA Casualty Insurance Co., Constance White. Date of accident, March 8, 2018. Date of settlement, March 27, 2023. Date of trial result, not applicable. Amount of request. $3,450, claimant's attorney, clerk and Sinclair at Maffu's LLP, description of alleged claim. The claimant, casualty insurance, the claimant, USAA, claimant, casualty insurance company, Constance White seeks compensation for a claim paid to their insured for property damage suffered when a Medford firetruck struck the side of an insured vehicle full parked on Sturgeon Street in Medford, Mass. On or about March 8th, 2018, the necessary release has been obtained from the claimant. Breakdown of amount requested, medical cost zero, loss wages zero, property damage $3,450, other zero, total settlement $3,450. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Madam President, this was a paper that was before us previously, and the administration had submitted it erroneously. There were a number of typographical errors that we asked for clarification. It's come back clarified. Ms. White's been waiting five years for her money. I think it's time we give it to her. So I move approval.
[Morell]: On a motion, do you have something?
[Bears]: Yeah, I just want to say, you know, we should probably be receiving more than one of these every quarter. And this is the first one we've seen in a long time. And that's five years old. So that's it. I just, you know, there should be more of these coming through and they're not coming down from the law office. And one of the reasons is that we don't have a law office except for Janice who's working very hard. So thank you so much.
[Morell]: On the motion of Councilor Nayes, seconded by Vice President, Councilor Caraviello. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice President Villaraiga. Yes. Councilor Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Collins. Yes. Councilor Nays. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. Councilor Tseng? President Bears?.
[Morell]: Yes, six in the affirmative, zero in the negative, one absent, the motion passes. On the motion of Councilor Knight to adjourn, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor?
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Morell]: All those opposed? Motion passes, meeting is adjourned.
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