[Morell]: 13th regular meeting March 29 2022 of the Medford City Council is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice President Bears president, Councilor Caraviello, Councilor Collins, President Council night, Councilor Kelly, Councilor Tseng President, President Morell, President seven present zero absent the meeting is called to order.
[Morell]: Motions, orders, and resolutions. 22 on the motion of Councilor Knight to suspend the rule seconded by, for the purpose of.
[Hurtubise]: They don't need me to repeat that.
[Morell]: Seconded by Vice President Bears. Mr. Clerk, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion passes. So is paper 22-. Which paper? It's 293. Communications from the mayor, 22-293. Request for expenditure from law department claims over $1,000. Account number 010-151-5762. To President Nicole Morell and honorable members of the Medford City Council, from Breanna Lungo-Koehn mayor. Claimant, Scarlett Bartlett. Date of incident, November 8th, 2020. Date of trial, not applicable. Amount of request, $5,000. Claimant's attorney, not applicable. Description of the alleged claim. The claimant, Scarlett Bartlett, seeks reimbursement of an insurance deductible as a result of sewer damage to her property on Hastings Lane in Metro Massachusetts. The case was settled prior to trial. The necessary release has been obtained from the claimant. Breakdown to amount released is medical cost zero, loss wages zero, property damage $5,000, others zero, and total settlement of $5,000. Motion of approval. On the motion to approve seconded by Councilor Knight. Any discussion. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice President Bears.
[Morell]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Morell]: Yes.
[Knight]: I'd be happy to take Mr. Delfano's appointment as well. However, I was a little concerned about that appropriation. I've listened to Councilor Caraviellola now for the past five weeks, every morning at breakfast, talk about how he's been trying to get that released from the city solicitors office. So I'm glad to see it go.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you.
[Morell]: On the motion of Vice President Bears to take up 22-286 out of order, all those second by- Second. Councilor Caraviellola, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. To the Honorable President and members of Medford City Council, Medford Mass License Commission appointment that we did get this paper last week, it was tabled, I will read it once more. Dear President Morell and members of the City Council, I respectfully request and recommend that your Honorable body confirm the appointment of Robert Delafano, 46, you have the License Commission for a term to expire June 1st, 2028. Robert will be present via Zoom and a copy of Robert's Resume Appointment Letter are attached. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Sincerely, Bernadette O'Connor, Mayor. We did last week, in addition to the motion to table this, we had a discussion that Mr. Delifano did not need to attend, and we were hoping, or we asked a member of the administration to speak about the appointment so that we could consider it. Vice President Berry.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. Is who from the administration is here to speak? I guess my question is not actually on the appointment of the licensing commission, but the reason it was tabled was to discuss whether appointments were made to, or were going to be made to the board of registrars. I'm seeing that there are not appointments here on our agenda, so that no permanent appointments have been suggested, but are there, basically, is there someone from the administration who could speak to what's happening with appointments to the boards of registrars?
[Hurtubise]: I am not seeing anyone on the call. I see Alicia Hunt, but she's not out. She should be there for that.
[Bears]: Well, I think I was, I'd just like to know whether appointments have been made. I don't know if, there's no one on the call who can answer that question.
[Morell]: I don't see anyone from the administration on the call other than Director Hoffman would not be able to speak to that, I guess.
[Caraviello]: Okay.
[Morell]: I have a motion on the floor.
[Hurtubise]: Motion to approve Mr. Delfano's appointment. Second. Oh, Nina's here.
[Morell]: We were just taking up the paper on Mr. Delapano's appointment as well as speaking about council members.
[Bears]: Yes, I was just wondering if we could get an update from the administration on appointments to the boards of registrars of voters for the board of registrars of voters.
[Nina Nazarian]: Good evening, Madam President, members of the Council. The Mayor has made three temporary appointments at this time. There are steps that need to be taken to ensure that the appointment process is in order before it comes to the City Council. That's the short answer.
[Bears]: Great, thank you. I would second Councilor Knights motion to approve Mr. Delafano's appointment.
[Morell]: On the motion of Councilor Knights, seconded by Vice President Bears to approve the appointment of Mr. Delafano to the License Commission. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Morell]: motion passes motions orders and resolutions 22-291 offered by councillor night be it so resolved that the medford city council review the administration's response to paper 2006 establishing a beautification committee tonight yes madam president thank you very much um way back in 2000 paper 20-006 so this paper was actually uh
[Knight]: One of the first papers that was heard in the first meeting last term. And we requested that the city solicitor's office draft us a draft ordinance to establish a beautification committee. And after 30 months, we've gotten this great document here. It's like the Magna Carta. It's a page and a half long. And on it, it establishes the criteria for us to establish a beautification committee here in the city of Medford. And the purpose is to act as an advisory committee to the city and city departments to address issues that the regular citizen cares about, that regular people are concerned about, the lack of delivery of quality city services here in our community. The curb appeal in this community now is worse than it's ever been. I've lived in this community my whole life, and I've never, ever, ever seen it look worse. I've never seen it look worse. Our roads are in tough shape. Our sidewalks are in tough shape. There's stumps everywhere. State-owned properties are in disrepair. State-owned properties are sloppy. I think a beautification committee can help us. I think a beautification committee can help us direct where we want to see our efforts go. I think a beautification committee can help us raise awareness on issues. So the mayor's office and the mayor's lawyer has provided us with a draft of this ordinance. I think it needs a little bit of work. I'd obviously be happy to refer it to the rules and ordinance subcommittee for us to properly vet. I'm looking at this document here. It went from an advisory beautification committee established by the city council to the mayor's beautification committee that she's going to be able to appoint and remove members that are free. Well, it's not necessarily what I was looking for. But I think with the leadership of Chairman bears and that subcommittee will be able to come up with a document that everybody would be able to. So with that being said, I'd make the motion to refer the paper to the subcommittee.
[Morell]: On the motion of Councilor Nietzsche to refer the paper to the rules and ordinances subcommittee, seconded by Vice President Bears. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Well, it doesn't matter, that works.
[Hurtubise]: It does not matter for that person.
[Morell]: All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-292 offered by Councilor Starpelli. Be it so resolved, the City Council commend the Recreation Department for their outstanding work with our teen offerings this past fall and winter. Be it further resolved that we schedule a meeting with the recreation team at a subcommittee to discuss possible future growth dealing with programs and facilities. Councilor Starpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Madam President. I wanted to take this time because I was getting some feedback from a bunch of teens that know, I was with my daughter and their friends and we were talking about recreation. And what I found amazing is that when you hear the bad things in Medford, it resonates. But when you hear good things, kind of falls in deaf ears. So when you hear what our recreation department's doing, probably our most neediest, most vulnerable community members, you're looking at teens that really don't have a place to go here in Medford, where other communities have bowling alleys or rec centers or boys and girls clubs where they can always have a safe place to just pop in the The recreation department at the old high school at the recreation facility, um, has been housing a free team night where kids could just come in and drop, drop in, and they were consistently housing between 70 and 100 teens. We never heard of an issue. We never heard the police say that the teens are out of control. We have seldom heard of any issues of teens walking the streets of Medford and hanging in places they shouldn't because we gave them an opportunity, something as simple as the gymnasium and the classrooms at the Chevalier and the gymnasium. It's paying such great dividends. And to think that something that small has made such a huge impact. Looking and sending this to subcommittee, which I chair and sitting down with the director and right away, I heard from the library staff that wants to get involved, knowing that we have a state of the art library and there's possibilities to do programming for teens with the library and looking at future facilities. The HECMA Center has come back up and talked of discussions now that there's hope that there's an arts center in our community elsewhere that we can focus on a facility that abuts a playground and it's on a bus route that our kids can find a safe haven to go any day of the week. But again, having a location in the middle of Medford Square that our kids and what we've seen is our most neediest kids. Um, our Children that have either single parent or both parents have to work to survive and have nowhere to go and having that location in the middle of method square and giving them that that safe area to traverse to. I think it's so important. So I'm so excited that this is the some of the vision that we looked at years ago when We had our committee to put this together to see if it was viable. And one of the things we talked about is sustainability. And we talked about recreation funding itself. And what you're seeing with the new, we've hired now a new recreation coordinator, and that person is focused on adult programming. And what you're seeing is, no wavering in adult program fees, the numbers are through the roof, the money is coming in and it's offsetting other youth programs that really need it. So this is exactly the vision that started years ago. And I think it's time that we look into the possibilities of moving it forward and having another location, a standalone location, would be an amazing opportunity for our youth and all of us here in Medford. So I appreciate you listening to me. And again, I congratulate our recreation director, Kevin Bailey, and his staff who are doing an amazing, amazing job. I'm fortunate to be the program developer in a recreation department where I have eight full time program coordinators, a facilities director, a full time administrative assistant and a director. And we have over when during the summer is over 100 part time staff and about 70 of those staff members that are funded by a mass summer jobs program money that's allocated directly to help our teams work through the summer that would allow us to do great things for the kids in the community that I work in. Well, this is the path that method deserves. And I think that we have the means we have the ability to do some great things in the next year. And I'm hoping with the subcommittee, the input from our neighbors and our, um, our, our teams, especially because when you listen to your children, the truth is the truth comes out and then you can't, you can't hide from it. So it's so important to hear and see the results of what the team night has met on a Friday and Saturday night and the number of kids that have participated. So, um, Thank you for the time and I motion that we have a subcommittee to discuss possible future growth dealing with the recreation program and facilities and hope to have someone from the city administration there, also our director and any of his staff that would like to come and any other city entity that we feel that could really work in collaboration with this group. So, the library being one that we've already reached out to. So, thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Any further discussion? On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Tseng to send a paper to the Recreation and Youth Affairs Subcommittee. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-294, offered by Vice President Beyers. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council accepts the provisions of Mass General Law, Chapter 51, Section 16A, to create a Board of Election Commissioners, which shall have all the powers, rights, duties, and liabilities of Board of Registrars of Voters, and with respect to elections, of city and town clerks, either under general or special law, and which shall be the lawful successor of said registrars, and with respect to elections, said clerk.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. We've been discussing this since, I believe, our first meeting of this, uh, year, and this would, as we've discussed in committee of the whole and in prior meetings, establish a board of election commissioners as a way to modernize and improve the way that elections are conducted in our community to meet the needs of our times with the sheer amount of work that's happening with elections. We've discussed this extensively I'm happy to summarize again, but it's basically in what you just read. This would be the council adopting the provisions of Massachusetts general law chapter 51 section 16A to create a board of election commissioners. The current board of registrars would become the board of election commissioners. And then, as we just discussed tonight, the mayor would come to us to make permanent appointments to set board of election commissioners. when when it is established. Um, so, uh, that's basically the intent of this ordinance. The elections would be run by this board of election commissioners that would no longer be combined with the office of the city clerk.
[Morell]: Any further discussion?
[Knight]: Madam President, as we all know, elections have changed a lot over recent years with early voting, with the adoption of technology, and so forth. So I think this is a good measure. It's a way that we can move into the 21st century. I support the council's initiative, and I think that it's something that will help us all in the long run. So it's something that I support a lot of, and I'll be happy to vote for it this evening.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. Further discussion? Motion for approval. on the motion of Councilor Collins, seconded by Councilor Caraviello to approve the paper. Would this be a roll call vote? Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice President Bears. Yes. Councilor Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Collins. Yes. Councilor Knight.
[Morell]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli.
[Morell]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Tseng. Yes. President Morell.
[Morell]: Yes. Seven in favor, zero in the negative, the motion passes. Next paper is for me. I'm happy to read from the chair unless any councilors object. Sorry, the next paper is my paper. I'm happy to read from the chair unless any councilors object to my doing so. 22-295 offered by President Morell, be it so resolved that the Medford City Council invite the Chief Assessor for an overview of the residential exemption process available to municipalities through Massachusetts General Law Chapter 59, Section 5C, to inform any future consideration. I introduced this paper because, as happens at the end of the year, we're asked to set a tax rate, and this always comes up. We discussed in this last session just the opportunity to have Chief Assessor Bordeaux come before us to explain the process, just so we understand the process, because when this comes to us at the end of the year, there's really no time to make a decision. We have to go with the current status quo. So this would just at least allow us to open the conversation. People could ask questions, residents could ask questions and see where we might wanna go the next time this comes up. Any discussion from councilors? I know Mr. Castagnetti would love to speak. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Just briefly, thank you for putting this before us. I think, you know, So far in my short tenure, it seems like sometimes financial questions have to be considered with haste. I think to the extent that we can not do that, it's a good thing. So I love the idea of getting ahead of this and having an overview before we have to make such a decision. And I'll look forward to hearing from Chief Assessor Rideau about this in the future.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. And also just to my point, the hope would be to have this as a committee of the whole, if anyone wants to make that motion. So moved. Second. Mr. Castagnetti, if you'd like to speak. Name and address for the record, please.
[Castagnetti]: Andrew Castagnetti, East Medford. Good evening, Honorable City Councilors. I want to thank you, Councilor, President Morell. I actually want to commend you for putting this on tonight's discussion with the Mass General Law 59-5C with the real estate tax assessor. Is she here?
[Morell]: No, the hope was to- I couldn't understand you earlier. The hope was to send this to a committee of the whole so that we can have enough, we can continue the discussion in a larger format.
[Castagnetti]: And after the committee of the whole, where is it gonna go?
[Morell]: It would be up for the standard vote when the tax rate comes before us, but this would just be able to open the conversation so we can address questions and Councilors could see how maybe they'd like to move forward the next time this question comes before us in December usually.
[Castagnetti]: Okay, in that case, I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to make the committee of the whole if it exists in the future. So basically, I wrote this up real quick for tonight. I'm a little nervous, so please bear with me. This law, the Mass General Law, Chapter 59, Section 5C, was started in 1998, for your information, 24 years ago. Imagine even our state politicians had the compassion to pass this law to help lower the real estate tax for owner-occupied homeowners. But only, it's only if you, the mayor, and the council adopt this law at the full 35% exemption. Do you councils have, have you all, any of you, have you read the law in full? Okay, hearing none and seeing you not, thank you, Council President. These cities have adopted this law and are saving their own occupied homeowners tons of real estate tax monies. That's Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Cambridge, Somerville, and all of Boston. Even Senator Kerry gets it. 28 Lewisburg Square, if that in fact is correct address according to the IRS. And I believe these cities are still in none have dropped out, which tells me the majority must be quite happy with this program. Therefore, I strongly suggest that we, you, in the mirror, also adopt Mass General Law, Chapter 59, Section 5C, here in Medford, at the full 35% exemption. I want to thank you for listening and bringing this up more than six months prior to setting the tax rate in December, as I asked you to do. And I want to commend you again for bringing it up eight months prior Are there any questions or comments while I'm here?
[Bears]: Just thank you, Mr. Cassidy, and I hope we'll see you at the meeting when we discuss this.
[Castagnetti]: I hope to be able to make it. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. Castagnetti. Any further discussion? Name and address for the record.
[Deyeso]: Thank you, Chairman. Sharon India so Mass Avenue circuit road in Medford. I was speaking to my friend, Mr. Castagnetti during the years about pertinent issues such as this, because I do have to admit, I don't keep track of every single thing that transpires in the city and we all appreciate your time. in efforts. During the last 10 years I would say I'm really getting pushing the age now. We very, very hear the consideration of the taxpayer in this conversations that do come up. I'm sad, but true. And I, we know progress happens we know change happens we need, we know we needed some new buildings here we needed repairs there. But I really think with the rise of inflation at this point, and also transience and different community needs that added income would actually be an incentive for homeowners to either beautify their homes expand their homes. do renovations to their homes, inviting other new people to move to the community, not just because it might be give them a tax credit perk, but they may want to become involved in other things in the community and we could see some growth at that point. So it's just another consideration, especially during a hurting time of inflation. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. Any further discussion? On the motion of Councilor Knight to send the paper to hold a future committee of the whole on the topic seconded by Vice President Bears and Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-297 offered by Councilor Tseng. Be it resolved that the Subcommittee on Climate Sustainability and Transportation invite the Director of Planning, Development and Sustainability and or representatives from the Office of Planning, Development and Sustainability to discuss the finalization and execution of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan and identify items for the City Council to act on. Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Thank you, President Merle, um, as we all know we are facing a climate emergency, not only in our city but this is this is a problem that affects every single one of us. You know, our city council recognizes this. I believe that every single person here has worked diligently to make sure that we are advancing climate policy in the city. And I think this resolution is very much in line with the values of all of us here today. This is really about starting the conversation and making sure that we have something tangible to act on and that residents in the city have an idea of what the city is doing to combat the climate emergency. We, you know, I think a lot of residents don't know that we have a climate action and adaptation plan. And a lot of residents are waiting for us to speak more and provide a public forum so that they can learn more about what our city is doing. And I think this resolution does just that.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Vice President Bears.
[Bears]: I'm gonna thank Councilor Saint for bringing this forward. I think this is a great way to turn plans and papers and documents into real action. And I think that's what this council's here to do. You know, it's great to have a plan on file and it's even better to actually be digging in and figuring out exactly what we can do. So I support this wholeheartedly, second your motions and look forward to the discussion.
[Morell]: Thank you, Vice President Bears. Any further discussion? on the motion of Councilor Tseng, seconded by Vice President Bears to send this paper to the Subcommittee on Climate Sustainability and Transportation. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-298 offered by Councilor Tseng and Councilor Collins, be it resolved that the Medford City Council ask the city administration to present its current best practices, progress, and plans on developing diverse talent and increasing diversity in hiring for higher level positions at a future city council meeting. Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Thank you, President Morell. This, again, this is a resolution about starting a conversation and increasing transparency in the city when it comes to our stated goals and how we achieve them. I've received some emails and some calls from constituents who want to know more about what exactly our city is doing with regards to hiring. And, you know, this issue is one that our city, I think, is taking seriously. And I think residents want to want to see that we are taking this seriously. This is a comp we all know that this is a complex issue it's not one that can be solved overnight. But by focusing on what our city's currently working on. It gives us a way to, and by focusing on the talent pipeline. We it gives us as a city council a chance to figure out more about our city's policies and It gives us a chance to look at how we can tackle this issue over a longer period of time. And it again helps us set goals and turn it helps us turn plans into action which I think is what residents are wanting from our city government.
[Collins]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng for your initiative and putting this on the agenda tonight. Like Councilor Tseng mentioned, this was in response to direct constituent outreach that I think both of us and possibly others received on this issue. Again, of constituents just saying, this is an issue we care about. We've seen demonstrated attention to this from the administration. We've seen commitment to this from the administration of getting to a place of better representativeness and parity in the people that make up our city administration at all levels. and looking for an update on how exactly is that playing out? What are we doing specifically? What's working? What are other strategies that we can pursue to continue, to use your word, creating that pipeline of getting representative diverse talent into city positions from the rich variety of backgrounds that exist in Medford. I think it's critically important and I'm really looking forward to an update on the strategies city is pursuing to put that into action. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. Any further discussion?
[Scarpelli]: Madam President, thank you, Councilor Collins and Councilor Tseng for bringing this forward. I think that this is something we've been talking about, right? It's, you know, put our money where our mouth is. And now that we have a new diversity director in place and meeting with that individual, I know that especially when we talk about education, and you see the diverse student body we have now and making sure that we are focusing on making sure that we have a diverse teacher population. So such a diverse community has representation. I think that's so important and making sure that we have qualified diverse candidates involved. I think it's it's something that we need to see that ball get started. And these are the dialogues that start that.
[Morell]: So I thank you for bringing this forward.
[Bears]: Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Tseng Councilor Collins and Councilor Scarpelli. Uh, I completely agree with everything you've all said, and I just want to add to the point. Um, you know, it'll be great to hear from the administration. You know, obviously they have the authority to iron fire. They run the departments. They do all of that. But I just want to shout out that this council has also been, I think, doing our work with our proposal around paid family medical leave for city and school employees was discussing the sickly bank and $15 minimum wage which I'm hoping will get on the schedule soon as well. And now that we have the city has hired a finance director that was the prerequisite that the administration said we'd be happy to discuss paid family medical leave once we have a finance director on board now we have that. Obviously, that's not directly related to this. I'd love to hear what the administration's doing, but I also just want to point out that I think this council is taking strong steps forward to try to do this work as well. So thank you for putting this forward. Of course, I will support it.
[Morell]: Thank you, Vice President Bears. Any further discussion? On the motion of Councilor Tseng and Councilor Collins, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-296 to the Honorable President and members of the Medford City Council. Regarding transfer of appropriation, dear President Morell and city councilors, I respectfully request and recommend that your honorable body approve the following transfer in accordance with Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 44, Section 33B. From the police department personnel, amount of $45,000 to the parking department personnel, amount of $45,000. These funds would be used to hire the following additional staff for the remainder of the fiscal year to ensure equity and consistency in parking enforcement, sufficient operational support on meter repair, and timely customer service resolution. Parking control specialist, two. Repair, one. Parking clerk, part-time, one. In accordance with the above reference statute, attached is written approval of the amount of the transfer by the police chief. Parking director, Faye Morrison, will be available to answer your questions. Respectfully submitted, Brianna Longo-Kirk. It's going to read the communication from the chief to me we're going to learn from the chief of police jack Buckley do present morale and city councilors regarding the transfer of police department personnel line funds. I hereby approve and recommend the amount of $45,000 be transferred from the police department personnel budget to the parking department personnel budget to support the staffing needs of the parking department for the remainder of the fiscal year. This transfer will not affect wages for any staff in my department, it will however support the cooperative work that is done between the two departments, which is critical to the police department, as well as the city.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Thank you. I have a question. What is the difference between a parking control specialist and a parking clerk?
[Faye Morrison]: The clerk does the office work, the appeals work, and answers the phones. The specialists are the people out in the street writing the ticket.
[Caraviello]: So we already have three parking clerks already, correct?
[Faye Morrison]: No. We have two and a half parking clerks. Two and a half. Do we need another one? What happens is one person, the half person comes in in the morning. We need the other person to come in in the afternoon. Yes, we do.
[Caraviello]: Okay, and so how many people are actually ticketing now. Right now.
[Faye Morrison]: Yes, three, three.
[Caraviello]: I'd rather see people out in the street, ticketing versus people in the office.
[Faye Morrison]: I'm sorry city council, they're two different they're apples and oranges. If we're out ticketing in the street, and people are calling the office asking about those tickets someone needs to be there to answer the phone and process the appeals and process the payments at the window. It's a very busy office.
[Caraviello]: I can say we started yesterday and the phones have already started ringing and a little disappointed that we haven't reached out to the business areas who haven't had parking in the past, and now that are going to have parking restrictions.
[Faye Morrison]: I say you know I think I spoke to you about this in person but, and the department has been up and running since the 10th of January, that the priority is to get it up and running. The businesses have called me and been very appreciative of the fact that there's no enforcement happening. I'd like to make sure we have enough. These numbers aren't new. I asked for a minimum amount of staff. Unfortunately, the money put aside wasn't enough that was done way before I started here. So now that the reality is here, that's why you're saying the adjustment.
[Caraviello]: Again, you know, this council hasn't seen the plan or anything. Are we looking to do a bond issued by meters going forward or what do we have we repaired the, the kiosks that are there.
[Faye Morrison]: With all due respect city council you're not in a position right now to talk about future purchases right now in a position where you are in the position but your department is not in the position to do that at this time. Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: So again, I had concerns with the first vote, and I don't believe I supported it. And I think that a lot of questions came about and still have. I know you're saying it's been up and running for a few months, but I'm getting copies of residents that come and get permits, and they're getting permits handwritten.
[Faye Morrison]: actually common practice, actually they're not getting permits, they're getting visitor passes that are that were handwritten. The permits are not necessary to display that's why we're not expending a lot of funds on them.
[Scarpelli]: So the visitors permits as well.
[Faye Morrison]: The visitors permits, they have to come in and prove their location. And then we put their address on them.
[Scarpelli]: Yes, when they come to the office, we take a hint we take a document with our seal, traffic parking seal, and we handwrite.
[Faye Morrison]: And that is exactly what Park Medford was doing. That's terrible, whether it's Park Medford or- Then this body would have to discuss raising the fees for those permits because we can only do what we can afford to do. I'm here to get money for staff.
[Scarpelli]: So again, this is my problem. Without seeing a plan, without understanding or vetting that plan and not understanding it and getting it started and now asking for more money, I can't support that. I still don't understand. There hasn't been a community discussion. The community hasn't understood what's going on with our traffic and parking. Maybe the people that are invested, they're involved, but this is everyone in our community, and we have questions, and the questions haven't been answered. I know that Councilor Caraviello is getting the same phone calls I got. Um, we're not being in a point to answer. Look, ask those questions. I don't know how we can approve, um, money's going forward if we can't ask questions. So, um, I'm gonna decide here to answer your questions.
[Faye Morrison]: If you have one, ask it.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you, ma'am.
[Morell]: Thank you. That's right.
[Faye Morrison]: Okay, it'll bring us up to five. Thank you. Thank you.
[Morell]: Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you President Morell. And thank you Director Morrison for being here. Thank you for having me. You know, to me just looking at this appropriation request that's coming from the mayor's office just strictly what's before us today. We have a note of approval. from Chief Buckley. I think it's helpful to hear how he puts it. Transferring these funds will alleviate some of the work that's on his staff to do parking enforcement. We know we need enforcement. We know it's a lot of work to get a brand new apartment up and running. So, of course, there's more conversations to be had as the parking department continues to get up and running, but I would motion for approval so that your department can do the work it needs to do to move forward.
[Morell]: Thank you for the discussion. Second, President for me.
[Knight]: And by way of history, how are you, by the way, good to see you. It's good to see you as well. Don't take it personal. I never did. In June of 21, we passed the budget, and that budget was $250,000 to hire a director and three control specialists. June of 21. In December of 21, the mayor came before us with a paper, 21631, which was a request to enter into a contract to lease vehicles for a period that exceeds the three year maximum duration as outlined in the general laws. And also for us to create some employee classifications in our compensation adjustment factor ordinance. And during that presentation, it was discussed that the department was going to be moving in a direction where they wouldn't be working with one director in three offices anymore, that they wanted to create several positions. One would be a specialist that would run in the $47,000 to $53,000 range. One would be a full person that would run in the $49,000 to $55,000 range. One would be a repair person in that same range and a lead repair person at $53,000 to $67,000 per year. And at that time that would have brought the whole department up to I believe nine with the director's position correct.
[Unidentified]: Correct.
[Faye Morrison]: And now that was for specialists nice saying that with this appropriation we now have five specialists, or are we, we were always meant to have five specialists, three repair people, and we were supposed to have one clerk, but the reality after the office opened is that one clerk could not handle the window. the unbelievable volume of phone calls we get at least if I when I come in tomorrow morning to my office, there'll be 200 phone calls sitting in my phone alone, let alone the clerks, the repair for a person and the meter for persons. So we need, so, well, no, I don't get the big bucks to answer every phone call, but I'm supposed to be trying to help get this department up and running. I can't do more than 50 things at a time. So we now have a second clerk in to just handle the financial intake and answer the phones. And we have assistant from a part-time clerk to return some of those 200 phone calls every morning.
[Knight]: Now, on February 8th, This council took up paper 21631 that was introduced by the mayor in December. We introduced week one of this term and the administration tabled that paper based upon a question for a sufficiency of the vote as to whether or not we wanted to create these positions. My concern wasn't So much about whether or not we want to create the positions, but it's whether or not we're creating these positions. That fashions compliance that's in compliance with the general laws. So on February 15th, this council took a vote on paper, two, two zero seven four. asking the city solicitor to give us an opinion as to whether or not the city of Medford is in compliance with general laws chapter 44 section 33a when it came to the creation of these positions and the funding thereof. That was February 15th. March 15th just passed. We're now coming up into April. We still haven't gotten an opinion from the solicitor's office as to whether or not these positions are created appropriately. We've already made an appropriation initially of $250,000 to fund this department. And we've already allowed the administration to enter into a long-term lease that exceeds the statutory requirements outlined by general laws. I think we've been very fair with the department. But the question still comes on. When we have a legal question, we're asking the mayor to give us an answer, the city solicitor to give us an answer so that we can have the guidance that we need so that we can live up to the oath that we all took to abide by the rules of the city council, the ordinances of this community, and the statutes established through the general laws. And that information still isn't forthcoming. I find it very difficult for me to take a money vote tonight. It has nothing to do with the program. It has nothing to do with what you're trying to accomplish or what direction we're trying to go in here. It has more to do with me being concerned that we're not spending appropriately, and that we're not complying with time-tested standards that past administrations have always complied with. And that's where I stand on this issue. I can see this transfer coming to us again at the end of the year as an end-of-the-year transfer, and it's something that most likely I'll have no problem supporting. But at this point in time this evening, based upon the history of these classifications, the lack of respect, the lack of response that the administration has given this council when it comes to seeking legal guidance, leaving us in a position to look like Mickey the Dutz. We couldn't do our jobs if we wanted to. Well, because we don't have the tools to do it. We don't have the tools to do it. And it seems to me the only way that the city administration seems to listen sometimes is when we talk about money. We talk about money, that's when they start to listen. Now, I'm supportive of a parking program. I think that we need to sit down and take a look at this because we can't be doing it drip by drip. 250,000 here, 45,000 here, a long-term lease here. I don't think that that's the way we should be doing it because we don't have any idea what our spending plan's really gonna look like. This council has voted in the past to have quarterly presentations by our CFO to tell us where we are in terms of revenues. We've asked for copies of the Warren articles on a monthly basis so that we can see where our money is being spent. We have to beg for it. We do not get it. We have to beg for it. Beg for it. I want to know where the money is being spent. When I say, yeah, I vote for this appropriation, I want to see that Warren article that shows that money going out. And we can't, we don't see it. We don't get it. We do not get it. So that reason, and that reason alone, I'm not going to be supporting this paper tonight. I can't confidently take this vote because I still haven't gotten a response from the city solicitor as to whether or not these positions are being created appropriately and whether or not we're in compliance with what we're supposed to be doing.
[Faye Morrison]: Sir, I don't make those decisions, you'd have to ask the treasurer, she decides how we process.
[Caraviello]: You're allowed to pay with a credit card online, but when people come to the window, they'd like to pay with a credit card.
[Faye Morrison]: Again, sir, that's not a decision that the parking director makes, so I can't answer that question, you need to have the treasurer before you.
[Caraviello]: Well, again, I think maybe that's something you should suggest to the treasurer.
[Scarpelli]: point of information. Point of information. The animosity is you have the director of the parking traffic and parking the other representative here to answer our questions. Okay, so the question isn't being nasty to say that this isn't this should ask the treasure. This is this is your city council asking the director to get word back from the treasurer what the common practices is so we can make a better decision for traffic and parking.
[Faye Morrison]: I didn't hear him ask that question and I wasn't trying to be disrespectful, but again, I just can't answer for the treasurer sir.
[Morell]: Do you have anything more.
[Nina Nazarian]: Oh, wait for her answer. Thank you, Councilor Caraviello, I, I just like to try to take a little bit of the, where we are down a little bit of a notch, recognizing Councilor Scarapelli's comments recognizing that. You know, we're, we're working in an environment where we have a number of challenges. Without going into the detail of the challenges that fame Morrison has overcome for the parking department. The city has not had a to directly answer your question car via President, Councilor Caraviello, the city has not taken credit card payments to date. So it is something that would have to be evaluated in person. It is something that would have to be evaluated on a larger scale with the treasurer collector's office, and I'm not saying for the whole city for at least the parking department.
[Caraviello]: I understand you know because those are bigger ticket. Those are bigger ticket items but most people that come they know they want to pay the ticket with the credit card. I've heard people, you know, I got to go from one window to the other window and come back with my receipt, and they're not happy with that either. Again, I'm not going to be competitive, but I want to know, you know, we're the ones that get the calls now. I'm the ones getting the calls. And I want to know what our plan is. I mean, you know, we've appropriated a large sum of money and with no plan of what we're going with it. I just want to know, you know, tell us what we're having. Tell us where we're going for the next three months. I don't want to be coming down in another three months asking for more money.
[Nina Nazarian]: President Morel, thank you. And Fay, I'm sure will jump in and correct me if I've gotten any of this wrong, but Just one last point on the credit card matter, and then I'm going to go... That credit card matter is just a minor thing.
[Caraviello]: Okay.
[Nina Nazarian]: I just want to mention that it's a little bit more complex. It's not something that... The treasurer-collector is the holder of all funds, so it would need to go through the treasurer-collector's office. There are also cybersecurity issues that we need to look into and mechanics that aren't necessarily an easy... Other cities do it. I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm just saying it's going to take a number of steps, but I don't want to belabor the point.
[Caraviello]: comments, but again I want to see a plan I want to I want to know where we're going with this, this pocket. So on that subject, at this point, why that they should be answering these questions, not you.
[Faye Morrison]: I'm sorry, what I'm sorry, what is the question.
[Caraviello]: I think the group would like to see some kind of plan and where, where this parking don't well listen we all voted in favor to have the parking department set up, we just want to know where we're going with it.
[Faye Morrison]: Well, right now, nothing has changed. It's the same service that was provided by Park Medford we're providing right now. Until we can, like you said, see how things are working, you need to understand that when I started, I had nothing. It took me months to get information, which I am still gathering because nothing was ever memorialized. So I'm really trying to create documentation to support what we're trying to do presently I will be glad to, when I have the time to give you a future plan, going down the road, but right now it's about maintaining what you have in the street. There was a lot, no repair work had been done for seven years, it appears. So I'm really trying to catch up and get things to function.
[Caraviello]: I understand that. But I just want to know where we're going forward. Is the plan to get rid of those kiosks? I mean, can you upgrade them?
[Faye Morrison]: No, you can't upgrade them they're too old, you'd have to replace them, and that can cost you just to replace Medford Square is $200,000. So that's not something that I know that I can do at this time. So I have to solve the problems and deal with what I have. So right now, what we have done in the last couple of weeks is do as much of the repair work as we could do. And then your modems were working at 2G instead of 4G. We've had to upgrade those. So there's a lot of just infrastructure work that needs to be evaluated and done.
[Caraviello]: Again, if you could provide this group with a plan of where we're going down for the next six months or the next year, that'd be great. Are we going to be coming forward for a bond issue to buy meters for the city? There has to be a little forward thinking here.
[Faye Morrison]: Not at this time. Right now, I'm just trying to get you where you should be in 2022. When I took over the system, you were at 2014. So now I'm just trying to get you up to 2022, so that it's operational, so that people aren't calling my office saying, button stick. This doesn't work. That doesn't work. It's really just basic trying to get you where you should be at this point.
[Caraviello]: I just haven't only been here since October I'm doing the best that I can with the resources that no one's saying no one's questioning your ability on this question, but we're just looking for some type of plan with where the parking program is going forward, because it's going to be budget time and the next. The next three months, the next two months, the budget is going to be coming out, and I want to know what we're going to be faced with. I mean, that's, that's our job is this is to watch the people running and I said, you know, we're the ones that get the phone calls. People screaming at me. I know you get them. I'll discuss other stuff with you tomorrow and stuff that I got today, people yelling at me. We'll discuss that privately.
[Faye Morrison]: Well that's the reason why that you need more clerks, when you know in my previous position I had one and a half clerks, a city twice the size, because of the customer service that's required that's why we've asked for more clerks. We can't we if we need if we want people want us to answer the phones and answer their questions, we need to have bodies there to do that. Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: I appreciate the comments you just made because this is what we're trying to get at, but instead you could feel tension as if we were against you or you were against us. You made some very clear concerned issues that we don't know about. So when we ask for a plan, the plan is so we can help disseminate the word to the people that call us. So when I get an email that shows me a handwritten is this is where our money is going with that traffic and parking, I wouldn't know, because we don't know the plan of what's going forward in our own city departments that you're here asking for money. So these are the concerns we have nothing negative I know, I know how hard you work, and I know how difficult it is. Believe me, I work in a city that has 30 PCOs and have eight clerks at the window. So I understand exactly how monumental this is. But unless we all understand where we're going and what plan we have or where we are today, these are the concerns we have from the people that call us. And listen, we know you're getting phone calls. It's inevitable because people say, I just try to call Faye. Well, really? So, and I understand that there's only one person but at the same time, there has to be a plan that we could follow that we're all in the same dialogue, and separate from that, do we have just to achieve a step. So we don't collect credit cards from any other department recreation permitting, we don't. We don't have that in place.
[Nina Nazarian]: I don't believe so. I mean, really, I will look I will look at it to double check for information. Yeah.
[Knight]: I pay for my child care at the public schools for credit card. I pay for all the recreation. Yeah, no, that's online.
[Faye Morrison]: You can go online and pay a ticket with a credit card online, right? Okay, you can go online and pay for your permits online, but there's no system for me. Right? I mean, that's the city.
[Scarpelli]: So yeah, do it online. Yeah, but you can't come to window. Okay, that's
[Faye Morrison]: There's just nothing here for me to be able to accept that. And if folks come to our window with a check, they don't have to go across the hall to pay at the treasurer's office, but we can't keep cash in our room for the obvious reasons. So they have to cross the hall and pay cash.
[Nina Nazarian]: President Morales, if I may also. I mean, just without rehashing some of the things that have been discussed, but just to say that we were here a few months ago, Faye Morrison and I, discussing the parking department, the requests, as was mentioned this evening. We're happy to come back in a few months and talk further about plans and projections. Again, not to restate statements that have already been made, but it's really early on in the process where we're trying to develop and establish a procedure to ensure that we are, I mean, Faye, said it humbly to suggest that we're actually doing what Park Medford was doing, but I think we've gone above and beyond that. I believe we've produced a process where we have an equitable and planned effort to ensure consistency across the community, ensure that when we say we've done something, we've done it and there's no question about it. We have an accuracy standard that the department is working on a daily basis. Again, happy to come back in a few months. It's just really early on in the process. And Faye's been doing a lot of digging through information, still collecting information from departments where everything was decentralized previously. She's trying to bring that centralization into one place and be able to answer people's questions so that we can take on the next steps with regard to infrastructure or with regard to any, you know, whether it's digitizing our visitors passes, these are going to take a little bit of time for us to get to happy to come back in a few months, if, if the council will give us a little bit of time, and the staff, and I'm also happy to put a written report together about what has happened so far, so that you understand the monumental amount of work.
[Faye Morrison]: You know, developing an apartment of this type takes a year. So the fact that the city, with the support of the mayor and I have to say, with the support of the chief because this isn't the first time he's been helpful to this department. We've been able to move quickly, but there's still a lot of things, the unattractive work that happens behind the scenes. the contractual work, the command center work, the training of staff is no small feat. Those things all need to happen and that has been my focus to make sure that my staff has what they need to be successful because they are taking a lot of, unfortunately, there have been some incidents that have not been kind to them. And it is my concern about maintaining and retaining this staff, because no one wants to work at a job where they're being disrespected every day. And to some extent, our clerks struggled with that. And some of our parking control specialists are still struggling with how they're being treated out in the field. I have to deal with that too.
[Morell]: Thank you. Vice President Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. And I think it's been a helpful dialogue. I think you are seeing in your six months here that we live and work in a deeply underfunded city government. Tens of millions of dollars underfunded maybe more than that. And I think just, I think we've kind of moved beyond maybe some points of tension we were at earlier now that we've had the discussion that we've just had, but I think something that And maybe we should put this in the onboarding handbook or something. This council has traditionally, and in my opinion, to an extent, been relied on to serve as a constituent services department for the city, because we have one constituent affairs person. And, and then it's, you know, directors and you know you directors right it's like, I'll call Fay right that's what meant for residents are thinking in their head. That's the person who has the most time to answer 200 phone calls. And I think that's some of the reason why there's some tension here is because instead of having the fully built out city government that the residents of this community deserve, we take on the additional role of getting phone calls and getting complaints and fielding emails. And we're not here every day in this building, sitting in the parking department, knowing what's going on or sitting in the mayor's office, knowing what's going on. So that creates automatically whether it's parking or any other issue in the city. I think a point of tension for us where it's like, how do we get the information that we need to answer the questions that we're being asked? Because basically the city doesn't have enough people working for it to effectively answer the questions that the people are asking. So maybe that point would have been a better 20 minutes ago, but I think that's some of the tension here too, is just that, you know, we're all, all of us in the different roles that we play are asked to do an incredible amount of work because because we don't fund the city budget and don't have the resources necessary to adequately provide services to the people of our community. So, and I think that's going to be a point of tension every time any department comes before us for a budget right we've been asking and talking about a lawyer because we need an assistant city solicitor because we have one city solicitor right now and we can't get stuff back parking you need multiple clerks because you're getting 300 400 500 phone calls a day, and not to expound upon this any further but it's just a situation that I think puts us all in a difficult position sometimes so I just want to thank you for this conversation and for the work that you're doing. And, and we're gonna, at least I'm going to keep sounding that horn, as long as I sit here. Thank you.
[Faye Morrison]: I appreciate that. Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thanks. Thank you. Can you address Councilmates concerns.
[Nina Nazarian]: I'd be happy to. Go ahead, President Morell. Thank you. I believe, first and foremost, we have been in consultation with legal counsel on this very subject. We have consulted to ensure that our interpretation of Chapter 44, Section 33B is accurate. We've consulted with them on Chapter 44, Section 33A as it relates to the parking department as well. So I'm very confidently here to say that we're in good order as it relates to the parking department and the requests that were made in the past and the requests that are being made this evening. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. Vice President Bearsford, do that address.
[Knight]: Mine is on the same point. Are we going to be expecting to get a formal response to the council resolution that was sent to the mayor's office?
[Liza Maloney]: Absolutely.
[Bears]: Yeah, I mean, that just would be, you know, That doesn't be very helpful accounts tonight said to have a written opinion that states answers the question we asked around the calf changes that have been sitting on the agenda, so we can move on. Thank you.
[Tseng]: I think, I think, you know, actually, as some Councilors have noted tension but I think actually it was very important for us to express everything that we've been hearing from our constituents and to have this conversation with the city administration. And so I think we should do this conversation in a positive light as well. When I, I think I share many of my Councilor fellow Councilors. perhaps wishes for for you know, a general plan that we can kind of bring to the bring to our constituents and say this is, this is what the city's doing. But I think it's also important to note that this is early days for the parking department, it's this is to create a plan like that, to create a thoughtful plan like that does take time. And as soon as you know we as a council want this plan as soon as possible, but we also have to understand that. feasibility is a question here. And so I would love to take up the chief of staff on her offer to have a plan for us in the next few months. I think that would be very hopeful. When I look at a policy in front of us like this, I ask myself a few questions. I ask myself, what's the problem X and does policy Y address the problem X? Or is policy UI out of the black field? Does it not actually address the problem? The point is problem x to me is very important. And we've talked about a lot of the concerns that we've heard from our constituents. And and I would love, I would love for a city to address them and I would love for us as the city council to address them as well. But I think when it comes to the question for the policy in front of us today. We, we have to remember that the problem that we're facing is the income, the amount of calls that you're getting in your office, and the inability, just the impossibility of our city infrastructure to respond to to to respond to the customer service needs of our city. You know, there have been a lot of concerns brought up, and those are these are actually very legitimate very valid concerns, but they're not they're not directly tied to the question of in front of us right now. And I think we I just want us to. refocus and recenter and understand that, you know, this request is is a policy solution to a very specific problem that our city is facing and a very specific need that the parking department needs right now. I think it's important not to be distracted from that. I think it's also important to note that Chief Buckley did recommend this transferral and has said that this would actually support his department as well, which is actually very important. I think it is a very important point we need to make. Of course, you know, I've sat here, I've listened to everyone, and I think everyone actually makes very legitimate, very important points. I think there's a world where all these concerns and all of these arguments coexist and actually work together. But I think at the end of the day, we have to look at the question right in front of us, the policy right in front of us right now, and just refocus and understand, you know, this, this question of this funding is about the direct needs of a direct need in the parking department right now. And by addressing that need, we will make the lives of our residents better.
[Faye Morrison]: I think so. And to your issue about reporting to you, I can't wait to do that, but I've collected like a week and a half's worth of information. It's really not a lot of data for me to say to you, okay, now we can do this, this, and this, even from a financial point of view. I mean, I would like to, in a perfect world, Councilor, hope that my department wouldn't have to come to you for a lot of money to put in meters, that it would support itself in doing that. You know, I don't have much information from your old group, so I've got to rely on what I'm gathering, and I don't have enough data to give you that information now, but I'm happy to come back. I'm very proud of my department. I'm happy to come back and talk about it when I have the information to do so in a professional way.
[Scarpelli]: If I can. So the $45,000 would staff these remaining positions for the rest of this fiscal year is that we're looking for.
[Faye Morrison]: Yes, sir.
[Scarpelli]: Okay, and then the addition for these positions, do we have a figure for what that would look like. If that's in the budget for next year and additional.
[Faye Morrison]: Yes, sir, I prepared that for Tyler, and sent it to him a week ago.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. Um, fake, you know, I, it's, you're in a tough position and your people on the street are in tough positions. There's no, um, there's no easy way to be a bank and giving people tickets. I mean, there's no, no, but it's not just giving people tickets. And I know, and I know people are rude to them and, and, uh, I've seen it, you know, but, um, if you They've gotten a little combative. And again, it's not an easy job. It's not a welcoming thing. There's no really easy way of giving somebody a $25, $50 ticket. And no one's happy to take it either. So I said, I've got more of my, I've had my, I'm on the- I got more of my share of tickets.
[Faye Morrison]: New technology is concerning because people have never seen it before. And my folks are very sensitive to the fact that when they approach their cars to scan their plates, you know, people come out of their homes, they have questions. And in my opinion, they're answering them and they're being very polite about it.
[Caraviello]: And I've told people, you know, you haven't had anything. When are we gonna start doing night tagging, like for the permit parking at night, commercial parking?
[Faye Morrison]: As soon as I can hire the two additional parking control specialists.
[Caraviello]: So these two people that you're gonna hire, we'll be having like a night crew from like midnight to five?
[Faye Morrison]: It's a rotating shift between all five of them, but it will allow me to have enough bodies to, yes, do the night shift, correct.
[Caraviello]: And they'll be doing the permit parking throughout?
[Faye Morrison]: That's correct.
[Caraviello]: How will you, again, I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, but have you come up with a policy for the private wage yet, which has been a sticking point for many, many years.
[Faye Morrison]: And no, I have not.
[Caraviello]: And again, people are people are already asking me from over by West Vector by by the ponds me by the lake. They're already getting ready for that, you know, July and August onslaught of cars parking. So the suggestion to you to and I know we've done this to the solicitor last year we were, I was out there with paying policemen. As you know, on a Saturday and Sunday when the people are mowed over by a rights bond or inundated with cars on the street. So I suggest, I know when, not this summer, but summer's coming quick. And I know Solicitor Scanlon has had some contact with us on that. And I know Arlington has a policy on private way parking, but again, come the summer, It's gonna be an issue on the Saturdays and Sundays, up by the lakes, up by Rice Pond, up by the fells. I mean, we block streets, we do the best we can, but people just don't, they just park. I mean, the police have been there and they just laugh at the police, because the police don't have the ability to tow them out of there, but there's gonna, let's say, Going forward, that's something that should be on your radar before the summer comes. Because as I say, I don't think you were here last summer when you get 200 cars parking on your street and you can't get into your driveway over by the recreational areas. Again, you should keep that on your radar going forward.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Morell. and thank my fellow councillors for all the discussion so far. I think this is really useful. And to me, it sort of reinforces how much of the need there is for a follow-up conversation so that, you know, to direct, to invite Director Morrison back at a convenient time so that we can, you know, I too have lots of questions about our upcoming parking enforcement, you know, as a South Metro resident, I have lots of questions from, my constituents, also my roommate about parking in South Medford, just joking, but actually, but you know, I want us to give you an opportunity to come prepared for that kind of a conversation. We can really explore parking writ large, you know, give you time to prepare for that conversation. We can really go deep and sort of get ahold of what's to come over the next three, six months. So, you know, I would, you know, perhaps offered as an amendment or a B paper to invite Director Morrison back maybe in a few months for a discussion about how things have been going, what to expect later in the year. Hopefully we can go over some of our questions. I'm sure there'll be, you know, even more of a list by that point. Hopefully we'll also go over some of the wins that the department parking department has seen by that time as well. But for the moment, you know, I just wanted to thank you for your time and going over, you know, the details of this proposal and know, a motion for us to take up the matter on the table, um, you know, and then reconvene to, uh, get what I'm sure will be a very comprehensive update, uh, in a few months.
[Faye Morrison]: Thank you.
[Knight]: Just one more question. Um, based on the staffing levels, what would the annual personnel cost be for the department?
[Faye Morrison]: It's, I can't quote that exactly off the top of my head but it'd be in the neighborhood of $680,000.
[Knight]: And at this staffing level, about how long do you think it would take before the department is self sufficient or self funding.
[Faye Morrison]: I can't answer that question until we have some months of collection, which you have not had because the machines have been in disrepair. So we will start collecting next week.
[Knight]: Okay, thank you very much.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Knight.
[Nina Nazarian]: President Morell, the only thing I'll add to that is we did pull numbers and data from Park Medford to figure out what the numbers look like back in 2018 and 2019 in terms of revenue. And we had numbers in the vicinity, if I remember correctly, of 1.5 and 1.6 million for the respective years, just as a point of data.
[Morell]: Thank you. Any further discussion? Thank you, Director Morrison. Thank you to your staff.
[Faye Morrison]: President Morell, if I could just say, regardless of how the vote goes, I want to publicly thank Chief Buckley because he has been, this is not the first time he's supported my department and financially today doing it again. I just want to publicly say to him, thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. We do have a bee paper from Councilor Collins. to invite Director Morrison for a future meeting and update. Does that have a second? Second by Councilor Tseng. And I do want to note that we'll take the B paper first and then the main paper does require a two thirds vote to approve per Massachusetts General Law for this type of transfer. We know when you're ready, Mr. Clerk. On the B paper from Councilor Collins, seconded by Councilor Tseng to invite Director Morrison to a future City Council meeting or a Committee of the Whole meeting for an update. For a future Committee of the Whole meeting, seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. On the main paper of a transfer of appropriation of $45,000 from police personnel to parking personnel. Motion by Councilor Collins to approve second by Vice President Bears. Again, this requires a two thirds vote for approval. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll when you're ready.
[Hurtubise]: Vice President Bears. Councilor Caraviello. Councilor Collins. Councilor Knight. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng yes. President role.
[Morell]: Yes. Five in the affirmative to the negative the motion passes, President Morell and City Council thank you for your support. Thank you Dr. Morrison. On to reports of committees. All those in favor.
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Morell]: Opposed. Motion passes 22-299 offered by Councilor Caraviello. City Council have the Director of Housing and Sustainability immediately intervene into the eviction of the residents at 22 to 26 Bradley Road within a 30 day notice. The notice affects 30 units, Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. Remember, this is something that was brought to my attention today. Residents of 2226 Bradley Road. were served with eviction notices, given them 30 days. I don't know if they were served properly. I mean, they were given emails telling them they have to be out. I mean, there's 30 units of apartments here. I don't know if there's any families living in there or what. I don't know if the law allows you to just go in there and give a 30 day notice. I mean, I don't know if these people, I want to understand a lot of these people attended at wills. And again, I don't think this is a fair thing to do to these people with a short notice I, as I talked to the Lucien earlier, I guess the building was sold recently for $100. to another group amongst themselves. So I don't know if they're just trying to get around, scoot around the laws with this, but I would hope that our historical commission gets involved in this problem too, because the civilians over, well over the time period, and again, they're over into other people, they're stopping other people's building and things like interior renovations, And I assume that when they evict these people, they're all going to be all these residents, these apartments are going to be renovated. So I would hope that the historical commission can do the same thing they're doing to the other homes that are waiting for permits for renovations inside, and I hope they're going to go inside and do the same thing with these with these people here.
[Knight]: I understand Councilor fabulous frustration with the circumstances in the situation, however I don't feel as though further. encouraging the Historical Commission to use their power to weaponize themselves against developers and our community is a good public.
[Caraviello]: And I get that, Councilor, and again, they should take notice of this here, but I think we have Alicia Hunt on the call this evening to maybe give these people some guidance on where they can get some legal help to see where they can go and how they can even stop this.
[Morell]: Thank you. That's really do have director on the line.
[Hunt]: Good afternoon. Sorry. Good evening, Councilors. Thank you very much. My staff was alerted to this this midday today that at least some residents had received letters from the management agency and we started to look into it this afternoon. Um, what we can tell you is that for at least some tenants, if they are tenants, if they are on month to month leases, then this is technically terminating a tenancy at will. And if the tenant does not move out by the date specified, then the landlord would need to start an eviction process. Technically, this isn't an eviction, it's being having their leases terminated. We as the city can't give the tenants legal advice, but we do pay. We provide funding to housing families to provide free legal housing legal services to residents who are income qualified. And I can provide that information and it's on our website. But there's a phone number 781 322-9119, extension 146. And there's an email address as well, probonolegalteamathousingfamilies.org. I'm aware that there are at least some residents who are on the Zoom about this. So I am posting this information in the chat on the Zoom for those people who are logged into that. and we can make it available. I can email it out to all the Councilors. I will tell you that we were able to do some research and find out who the actual owner is, because it's listed as only M-H-R-E-L-L-E.
[Morell]: Apologies, point of information, Councilor Knight, sorry to interrupt.
[Knight]: Would it be possible for Ms. Hunt's office to mail out these resources to the individuals that reside in that residence so that they, even in the mail, they've received notice to quit. We know that the whole entire unit, according to Councilor Caraviello, has received a notice to quit. Why can't our office just mail them all this information that we're talking about right now so that they'll get a copy of the pamphlet in the mail, they'll get a copy of housing families' contact information and all that? Ultimately, what are the odds of in a city of 60,000, The residents that 26 to 22, 22 to 26 Bradley wrote us in here right now, watching the council meeting, right down in the chat, what they're talking about. Probably very slim to none, right? If we really want to help them, why don't we reach out to them directly?
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilman Knight. Director Hunt, is that something that could be done?
[Hunt]: Yeah, Madam President, we are happy to do a mailing to that just that building. I will say that there is somebody on the zoom who has identified themselves as a tenant at the building interested in speaking. I did just want to share that we had identified so that in the city's records, the owner is listed as MHR e LLC. But we were able to actually figure out who the person is who owns the building. And we reached out to him this afternoon, and he informed our staff that he would be calling back with his lawyer tomorrow to have further discussion. We asked him for information like whether they had noticed the entire building or just some of them, whether they had intentionally allowed the leases to lapse. and he declined to provide us with any answers this afternoon, but his response was that he would call back with his lawyer tomorrow. You may take that as you will, which is part of why also I am encouraging the tenants to reach out to housing families for assistance on this. Are there others? Yeah, I was just gonna say, are there other specifics I could try and answer on that?
[Caraviello]: Do we know if there's any families with children that live in there?
[Hunt]: I would say that... We do not have information on who lives in the property. We are aware that one person reached out, the one person who reached out through one of our local realtors to my office directly identified themselves as being on a section eight voucher. So we also reached out to the administrators of that voucher to find out if they might have special protections. And we advise that particular person to also reach out to the agency, their voucher is not through Medford, but through another housing authority to reach out to them directly for additional information or assistance as their situation could be different from tenants who are not on affordable housing vouchers.
[Caraviello]: If we have some people from that live in the building, that'd be great.
[Morell]: If we could have them, I'd appreciate that. Lisa Maloney, if you could list your name and address for the record, please.
[Liza Maloney]: Hi, everyone. Thank you for letting me speak. Lisa Maloney or Elizabeth Maloney. I'm a resident at 26 Bradley Road, and I'm in apartment 20. Go ahead. Thank you. Yeah, we were just notified a number of us. I'm guessing it's the majority of people just yesterday that we had 30 days to evacuate or be evicted or whatever it's called. And there is a family that lives right next to me. They have an eight year old son who's in the Medford school system. There are seniors, there are people I think someone mentioned on like section eight. And just in this climate as we come out of COVID to get this kind of cold email that you have 30 days. and then you have to leave was unbelievable. And we had been sick to our stomachs. In this housing environment, how are we supposed to find something in 30 days? This new owner has been pretty bad. Like we all knew that something was coming. Um, last year, they removed asbestos in the building, and we never saw any trucks from, like, a company actually doing it. And I even wonder if they pulled permits for it, to be quite honest with you. So it's been a lot of trouble for residents. And now to get, um, this notice that we're being kind of evicted or they're terminating this tenant at will and we have to leave in 30 days is very upsetting.
[Morell]: Thank you. Ms. Maloney, any further discussion or questions from councilors? Are there any other residents would like to speak? Or anyone, any other, anyone else would like to speak in the chambers?
[Liza Maloney]: So I think we would be interested to know what our rights are.
[Morell]: Thank you, we do, yeah, we do have one person who'd like to speak in the chambers as well. Name and address for the record, please.
[Catalo]: Kelly Catala, 4602 Street, Medford, Massachusetts. I'm also the broker owner of Realty One Group Cosmopolitan. And this morning, an elderly resident of this city who has worked in Medford Square for many, many years that most of you all know came in my office crying because she got this email. So a lot of this is not coming down to whether or not the property owner has the right or whether or not this is right. There was a time where we could call City Hall when a situation happened between a property owner and a tenant, and somebody from City Hall would call the property owner and just work it out. So he didn't serve notice correctly, and the lawyers can go battle that out, but telling the tenants, oh, go call a lawyer, well, telling everybody to lawyer up is not gonna solve this. We're not gonna be able to find anybody housing within 30 days. There's no housing, there's nothing for rent. There's nothing for sale. We are in crisis, where I think City Hall and the council can help everybody in the city is through advocacy. And I know Alicia said that, you know, they told them to call housing families for a lawyer. And you know, this or that. And I appreciate that she did make the phone call to the owner. And I'm hoping that somebody here from City Hall is going to sit this person down and try and work it out. I'm sure that he's just trying to, you know, move forward with his property rights. But maybe if somebody can kind of put it to him. in a nice way of us being able to go through this to be able to get people housing. It could take four to six months and everyone can all sit here and say my right, my right, my right, that's not going to solve the problem. We need negotiators. And, you know, I wonder is there, are the people in community development, are they trained as mediators? Because if they're not, maybe that's something that this council could fund is for those people to be trained as mediators so they can help people through it. This is not the first housing situation that we're having. We have elderly landlords that aren't getting rent from their tenants. I was told that there's money for that. I told them to call community development and they were told, no, no, there's no money for you only for the tenant. Well, the tenant's not calling back. They're trying to fix the problem. If there was somebody there trained as a mediator that would step in, we wouldn't need everybody calling lawyers. We'd be able to work through all this. We're in a tough situation as a community. It's not going to get any easier anytime soon. but hopefully the council and City Hall can help the residents of this city through advocacy and mediation.
[Morell]: Thank you.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. And I'm sure that this council would at least one as one Councilor would entertain proposals from the administration to fund housing stability purposes in the city as We have been asking for that for many years at this point, especially since the beginning of the pandemic, but even before that, my just one request would be, I'm kind of disturbed to hear that statement about asbestos, and that leads me to think that there may be other inspectional health and safety issues I question here. So I would just ask that the building commissioner and the code enforcement officers be included in this process going forward. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. I do see Director Hunt has her hand up.
[Hunt]: Madam President when we found out about the issues with the tenants today and spoke sorry I think there was some feedback when we heard when we found out about this situation today and dug into it a little bit we also looked into our online records for inspectional services and we were able to see that issue with asbestos, where our inspectors did go out and look into the situation. We can't see from the online system what the resolution or what they were told. but we can see that that is something that Medford inspectors looked at earlier this year, as well as a couple of issues with dumping couches and stuff on the sidewalks. Inspectional services reached out about those. I do know our building commissioner is out of the office this week, but we can certainly ask him if they have a history of this property, but he's not available this week. We also, just to respond, landlords can reach out, can apply to ABCD for funding if a tenant isn't paying their rent and isn't able to. And we have very recently advised landlords who have contacted our office about that. And Danielle Evans, our housing planner, is on the line and is interested in adding a few words to this.
[Morell]: Thank you, Director Hunt. housing planner, Daniel Evans.
[Evans]: Good evening, Daniel Evans, housing planner. I just wanted to add to Ms. Catalo's comment that when I did speak to the owner of this property at length today, and with the goal of trying to, you know, see if they would work with the tenants to extend some time No, we're not trained as mediators. So I would welcome, you know, if there's any trainings available, like maybe that's a good idea, Alicia. But yeah, we're not trained mediators. And that's why we, you know, have CBBG money that we provide to housing families, where they have, you know, staff attorneys to, you know, provide this pro bono legal assistance. But yes, regarding emergency rental assistance, I do direct landlords to apply on behalf of their tenants. Some of the programs you can do that. And there's also mortgage assistance through some programs, but nothing that the city locally provides.
[Morell]: Thank you, Danielle. And also, Director Hunt, just the resident's request, would it be possible to include in that mailing just tenants' rights
[Hunt]: We can see what we have. We have been advised by our lawyers that we as a city shouldn't be providing legal advice to tenants, which is why we asked them. That's why we pay a lawyer to give them advice because the city can't give them advice on legal matters. Even our legal staff is there to advise us, not members of the public. But we do have the flyer that we sent out last year, Danielle and I were just discussing, making that more widely available again. And we can send that along with some specific information on this. Um, the, we'll take a look at what, um, Somerville has put out because, uh, they have vetted a number of documents. We are aware that in Somerville, it was a residence group that sent out a tenants rights mailer. And I believe that in Medford, um, Medford housing has sent out, has done some tenants rights mailers, and it is a very different legal situation when it's the tenants advocacy group. that mails out those documents as opposed to the city mailing out those documents. And I just want to be careful as this council is very careful about stepping the line on legal matters, so are we. And so I just want to make sure that we vet everything, but I'd like to get something out to these tenants immediately, if at all possible, and not hang this up in our lawyers before we send something.
[Morell]: Ms.
[Knight]: Hunt, do you think you'll have to wait as long as we do for a legal response?
[Hunt]: I don't know, I have the ability to walk downstairs to the law office and see if anybody's sitting there, but we'll see.
[Knight]: This was the paper we took up tonight, but thank you, I appreciate your work.
[Morell]: Vice President Bears, did your previous comment, do you want that in amendment to this paper?
[Caraviello]: And you're right, I don't want to see us getting into legal arguments, but I also don't want to see people put up in street either. I mean, that's so, we're here to protect these people also. Again, I think we're gonna be in a tough time even without housing authority because they're gonna be starting renovations there and they're gonna be doing a floor at a time and they're gonna be hard pressed to find places to put the tenants that they're displacing while they're doing the renovations there. So I think if someone could reach out to maybe with the housing, maybe, for the people to have vouchers, let them know what is available and the surrounding cities that accept their vouchers. Again, like I said, I don't want anybody to be put on the street again. We're just coming off our pandemic where people were struggling and now to throw this at them, I think is a disgrace by the owner of the property.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Morell. And I want to thank Councilor Caraviello for putting this on the agenda. I heard about it from the councilor and just really second to hear about what's befalling these tenants. You know, obviously I think that, you know, broader matters of policy will be cold comfort to people dealing with something that they have to act on within 30 days, potentially. That's just a really horrible personal situation that I wouldn't wish upon anybody. But I think, you know, as points that were made by Vice President Bears and Ms. Catalo and others, you know, I think that this underscores the work that we urgently need to do as a council to make sure that our city is better insulated from phenomena like this when they happen. I mean, there's a possibility that this is or will turn out to be going forth legally. And I think that we have to consider that, you know, perhaps one of the best recourses that we can offer our constituents is a more robustly funded housing stability resources in-house, a mediator, better housing stability resources. I would love to see a whole office of housing stability, as I've said, since I launched my campaign. I think that we need that. because as noted, this housing scarcity crisis is not going anywhere anytime soon. We need to do what we can to increase affordable housing citywide. We need to do what we can from a policy standpoint to make it less catastrophic when things like this happen in the community. So again, that doesn't solve a problem happening right now, but I think that it really makes acute the work that we need to do this term. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Palacios. Any further discussion? Any other residents who would like to speak on the motion of Councilor Caraviello?
[Knight]: I doubt if any of them are reading that on them, Mr. Rick, I mean, ultimately she said that legal counsel said not to do that, right? So if we have a housing partner, that we're working with like ABCD or housing, you know what I mean? Maybe we let housing families, we let them do it and then we'll fund the mailing, something like that, you know what I mean? But it's a slippery slope, we got the middle of something like this, you know what I mean, from this level. So, you know, I think we should send them something, but if legal counsel's telling us not to, or they're not getting the opinion, let's have a report back to us with the next step side with the action plan that's from our office. Why are we dictating? You know, they're getting the legal advice. They're the ones that have the experts, the housing planner and the office. Why don't we have them report back to us in a 14 day period is what the next steps are.
[Morell]: Would you like to make that the amendment?
[Knight]: It's not my ponder that I'm just interrupting my good friend over here.
[Tseng]: That's fine. Just to clarify, since what Director Hunt said was that the city can send the resources in terms of like the organizations people can reach out to, we just can't give very like specific legal advice. So we can't do a know your rights document, but we can send a document with a phone number and email address.
[Morell]: You're all, we're all open.
[Hunt]: Yes, council president, sorry, we're both following this and we were looking at what our resources were. We have the, document that we sent out last year about housing, housing rights that says it's not exactly about housing rights. It says a landlord can evict you only a judge can. And it gives resources for free legal aid and rental assistance funds. The worst part is that there really isn't anything out there to help people find apartments. There are realtors who can help with it. And then for if you're qualified for affordable housing, We have mailing lists and there are lotteries and we can send out information about those lotteries. We'll continue to have them over the course of the year. We're aware of a couple of units here and there that are gonna be coming available, but they get lotteried. And that's over the course of a year. There's not real vacancy anywhere that we can just help people get into. So we'll try and send this out, but I think that The, the fastest thing we can tell people is that this is a notice to move out that an eviction process would start after that date, because it then only a judge can actually evict you, but that there are. Reasons why you might not want to go through the eviction process there are databases of who has been evicted and landlords can get access to that information. So it's perhaps. not great to wait for the judge to evict you even if that's otherwise you can stay. But this is sort of why we want them to work with housing families. Housing families does have mediators as well as lawyers to work with them. And like I said, we did speak to the owner today. He's the owner of Savage Properties and that's where he has this building listed. And he also seems to be the owner of the Atlas group that sent out the eviction or the notices today. So we're hoping that we'll be speaking further with him over the next couple of days to see if we can convince him to be more reasonable here. He has not applied for any building permits for this property as of right now.
[Liza Maloney]: Can everyone still hear me? Uh, sure. Uh, Melanie, go ahead. Oh, sure. Hi. Um, I didn't know if you could hear me still. Um, I tried reaching out to the management office to Atlas yesterday and no response, no call back. And I know I'm not the only one, so they don't seem to be returning our phone calls. And, uh, I know other people who, um, friends of mine who, when their buildings were being converted to condos, they were given the option to buy their unit. and that clearly isn't happening here. You know, we're getting the 30 day notice.
[Morell]: Thank you, Ms. Maloney. Thank you. Any further discussion? On the motion of Councilor Caraviello as amended by Councilor Knight, seconded by Vice President Bears. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Reports of committees. 20-573, March 23rd, 2022. Subcommittee on Public Works and Utilities report. I believe the chair of that is Vice President Bears. If you could give us a brief summary.
[Bears]: After three years. And I think six different members of the subcommittee, I wanna thank Councilor Tseng, Councilor Scarpelli, as well as Councilor Caraviello and former Councilors Falco and Marks, all of whom who have served on the subcommittee with me since early 2020 to work on the sewer removal ordinance. I'm happy to say that we reported out a version of the sewer removal ordinance, as well as a number of recommendations, policy recommendations to the city that are outside the purview of the council for consideration by this council and the committee of the whole meeting, hopefully soon. And I think the process has been exhaustive and extensive and that the product will be good for our community and good for all of the offices and officers of the city who are involved in snow removal. So I look forward to that committee of the whole soon and hopefully some additional reporting out and hopefully the adoption of said ordinance. Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: I'd be remiss to say the direct correlation with the addition of Councilor Tseng and myself in the passing of the movement of this. So I want to know all joking aside, this obviously was a very planned out and. long process by former Councilors and Councilor bears vice president bears to put a product that we can all look at and move forward with. I think that having all of the department heads involved that are directly involved in the constituents that shared their input I think was also amazing to watch for our first meeting. So I just wanted to pat on the back to Council Biaz and Councilor Falco and Marks that were part of that committee that started this. So thank you. Move approval.
[Morell]: On the motion of Vice President Bears to approve the report, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Public participation. We have Shelby Fioravanti, 111 North Street, for variance visitor passes and paving of our street. Thank you, Shelby, for bearing with us. You should get a box asking you to unmute if you'd like to speak.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hi, good evening. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Hi, I think my topics are more of a question and maybe just advice. So I live on 111 North Street, like I said. The street is just filled with horrible, horrible potholes, extremely deep. And, you know, like we talked about earlier in the meeting obviously just the look of Medford how that looks, and then just the damage it's doing to the cars. So I was just more curious if there was a plan for any type of paving of the roads, or if there's a way to put in a request to have that at least one pothole filled because it's, it's not just a normal pothole it's like a large break in the street.
[Morell]: Thank you, Shelby. I think Councilor Collins wants to speak on this.
[Collins]: Oh, I'm sorry to jump in, but I raised my hand because I was emailing with a constituent about this exact same type of frustrating issue just earlier today. Shelby, I'm so sorry for your frustration, but because of a similar concern that was brought up on a different street, have the opportunity to check in with our engineering department about this where we're at, you know, what's the plan where's the queue. And, you know, I certainly empathize with the frustration of looking out on a street that's full of potholes and saying when is this going to get attended to my curiosity was also you know when are we going to see an order of which you know streets are going to get addressed. um, got a helpful, if not satisfying response from our engineering department, which is just, you know, there's, there's a plan in place and due to, you know, systemic funding issues, it's going to be meted out over, um, a fairly long timetable. So I think this is perhaps something that it would be, you know, a service to many constituents on many roads throughout our city to just check in with the engineering department, maybe get a report back to give some constituents a sense of, you know, who's in the short term queue and, uh, you know, who's more in the midterm in terms of getting their streets addressed as to the question of how to get a single pothole filled. I'm curious whether councilors think that'd be more of a see quick fix issue that might be a shorter term solution that councilors, or sorry, that constituents can use to get a more one-off problem addressed.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. Vice President Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. Yeah, just to echo Councilor Collins, I think for a major break in the road that's just requires some sort of emergency patching to call DPW and mention that and ask, when are they coming out to fill this emergency hole? But in terms of the actual long-term plan for resurfacing streets and sidewalks in our community, there's over a $100 million backlog in the paving of streets and sidewalks in the city. And we currently don't, As far as I know the mayor's office does not has not released a plan for how to fund that backlog so that's certainly something that this council has been asking for and requesting. Ever since we received the report about the condition of roads and sidewalks in 2021 I believe, but it's definitely a severe issue, and it goes back to the issues of funding in our community, but in terms of the short term definitely. contact DPW. I'm sure many of us will also be in touch with DPW now that you've brought this before the council to see if we can get some emergency patching done on North Street. Thank you for coming before us tonight.
[Morell]: Thank you. And if I could, there is, you know, there is an assessment of different roads, but there is no plan to fund the fixing of those different roads. So we have an assessment of what shape our roads in which obviously many of us can see with our own eyes, but we do not have a plan to fund the necessary repairs.
[Knight]: I think Madam President, if I may, it's important to point out that consistently, the city administration's only committed the chapter 90 funds that are given to us from the state to be used for resurfacing projects, which are about about what $900,000. And if we look at when the last full road in this community was resurfaced, I think it's safe to say that it hasn't happened in more than 16 months, we had a full carpet car resurfacing of the roadway in this community. So the commitment's not there. The commitment has to be there as well. When this council said we need to have a long-term plan, we have a capital plan, and then we did a pavement assessment. Well, that just threw the capital plan right out the window because the pavement assessment comes with a bill of $100,000. Then we have a needs assessment at the high school that's going to the school building assistance program up in the state that's saying that we need another significant investment in another facility as well. It's all about prioritization of the funds and I've always been a strong advocate in holding our public utilities accountable, getting community benefits from them when we offer them the opportunity to stage their equipment on our roadways, mitigation and the like. So I think it's going to take some out of the box thinking as well. It's a creative thinking in order for us to address some of these issues because they're longstanding and they're not going anywhere. They're only getting worse. That's why I brought forward that issue that you referred to earlier in the evening. So I thank you very much.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Ike. Shelley, does that address your question? Do you have anything else you'd like to speak on? No, thank you very much. Thank you. Any further public participation? Seeing and hearing none, records. The records of the meeting of March 22nd, 2022 were passed to Councilor Caraviello. Councilor Caraviello, how did you find the records? On the motion of Councilor Caraviello to table the records for March 22nd, seconded by? Second. Vice President Bears, all those in favor?
[Bears]: Aye.
[Morell]: All those opposed? Motion passes, the records are tabled.
[Bears]: Second.
[Morell]: On the motion of Councilor, Councilor Knight, seconded by Vice President Bears to adjourn. All those in favor?
[Bears]: Aye.
[Morell]: All those opposed? Meeting is adjourned.
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