[Morell]: 30th regular meeting of the Medford City Council, September 27, 2022 is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Vice President Bears. Present. Councilor Caraviello. Present. Councilor Collins.
[Morell]: Present.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight. Present. Councilor Scarpelli. Present. Councilor Tseng.
[Morell]: Present.
[Hurtubise]: President Morell.
[Morell]: Present. Seven present, zero absent. Please rise to salute the flag. Announcements, accolades, remembrances, reports, and records. Records, the records of the meeting of September 13th, 2022 were passed to Vice President Bears. Vice President Bears, how did you find them?
[Bears]: Madam President, I found the records in order and I move approval.
[Morell]: On the motion of Vice President Bears, seconded by? Second. Councilor Tseng, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Reports of the committee, it's 20-680, September 14th, 2022, committee of the whole report to follow. This was a meeting on our housing production plan, I believe, that is on the agenda tonight. For a full vote. Do I have? a motion on the, do you want to take all the committee papers at once? Great. 2-0, 0-2-0 and 16-604, September 20th, 2022. We need a whole report to follow. This was on the food trucks and we reviewed a draft from 2016 and made some suggestions to move forward. And 19-070, September 21st, 2022, committee of the whole report to follow. This was on the proposed tree ordinance. Again, we made a few motions to move forward and send this to the subcommittee on sustainability and transportation.
[Bears]: Motion to approve all reports of committees.
[Morell]: The motion of Vice President Bears to approve all reports of committees as seconded by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-505, offered by Councilor Caraviello. Be it so resolved, would you like to combine names? Yes. 22-505 and 22-506, offered by Councilor Caraviello and offered by Rites and Affairs. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council send its deepest and sincere condolences to the family of former Medford City Councilor Bill Carr on his recent passing. Bill, along with being a Medford City Councilor, was a teacher and coach for the Medford Public Schools until his retirement. His presence and dedication to our community will be missed. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Um, again, I think my resolution speaks for itself. I did admit that Mr. Carr was also a veteran. He served this country. Um, I think, uh, I had Mr. Carr in Lincoln Junior High as a teacher. He was a basketball coach. I mean, he's a guy that, uh, him and his family have dedicated themselves to the city of Medford. Um, he was here as a Councilor for a bit. I don't know if anybody remembers what Mr. Carr is saying was during his election. Nothing changes if nothing changes. And that was his slogan. That's what cut him off way back in those days. But he was a good man and a good family. And his presence in our community. And as Councilor Scott plays many times, another icon. has passed away that won't be replaced. And Madam President, if I could ask if this meeting be held in his honor.
[Morell]: of course, thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Vice President Bears.
[Bears]: I will be brief, but Mr. Carr definitely held a towering presence in the community, and I've been more than lucky to serve on boards with his children and also go to Medford Public Schools with his grandchildren, and I will leave it at that. He will certainly be missed.
[Morell]: Thank you, Vice President Bears. Councilor Caraviello. Councilor interjecting.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you. I know that when I saw this, I got a phone call from Bill Jr. that Mr. Carr has passed. And I know how the family had worked to bless him with the wishes that he live and die like he lived. And he was just an amazing person. He battled. He taught his family how to live and how to live for their community. From South Medford where the Carr family started, to West Medford and Hillside coaching Little League, to the classrooms at Medford High School and the guidance Councilor office at Medford High, Mr. Carr touched a lot of people's lives in a very positive way. And again, I've been saying this for the years that I've been on the city council. We're seeing too many Method legends pass on, and not enough people picking up the torch where people like Mr. Carr have left off. What he did do is he did teach his children to give back to the community. And we know both Bill and Doug have given their lives to Medford, and they're always behind the scenes. You never see them a lot like Mr. Carr. you know, a true Mustang, a true legend, a BC, a love of Boston College, and a person that would be missed. I know that tomorrow's his wake and Thursday's his send off, and I'm sure we'll see a lot of grateful people for knowing Mr. Carr and his family, and someone that will be missed. So my condolences to the family, and If you have a minute, read his obituary, and it speaks volumes. And maybe, maybe if a constituent reads that and says, geez, let me pick up just a little bit of what Mr. Carr has done for our community, you can make such impacts. And that's what he's done. So bless him. And thank you, Madam President.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Pelli. Thank you for the discussion from the council. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Madam President, thank you very much. Bill Carr was a great Mustang. pillar of the community, father and grandfather, teacher, coach, community activist, good elk, a member of Post 45, American Legion, veteran, served his country and this community well, some that I have fond memories of that will sadly be missed. It's all too often that we're up here celebrating people and the achievements and contributions that they make to our community after their passage. And this is one of those instances where I think we should have taken an opportunity to look at the contributions that Mr. Carr had made to this community and maybe had the chance to honour him while he was still with us because he is someone that certainly has made a difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of families in this community.
[Morell]: Thank you Councilor Knight. Any further discussion from the Council? Briefly, I didn't have the pleasure of knowing Mr. Carr, but I have worked with and interacted with his sons, and if his family's dedication to the city is any indication, it's truly a great loss for the city, and he will be sorely missed, and I send my condolences to his family. So on the motion of Councilor Caraviello and Vice-President Bears, seconded by- Second. Councilor Tseng, all those in favor?
[Hurtubise]: Aye.
[Morell]: Opposed? Motion passes. Please rise for a moment of silence. 22-508 offered by Councilor Tseng. Be it resolved that the City Council recognize and celebrate Hispanic American Heritage Month. Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Thank you. This month, starting from September 15th to October 15th is Hispanic American Heritage Month, which is a a heritage fund that has been recognized for decades. I wanted to take a moment out of our council agenda to thank the members of the Hispanic American community here in Medford for the contributions to our community, to our business, to our livelihoods, and to celebrate their culture and their worth in our city, especially as as we're seeing at a national level, oftentimes things like this, things like identity and roots have been used as political toys. I wanna make sure that in Medford, we affirm that Hispanic Americans are welcome, and not only are they welcome, we celebrate their community here.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Any further discussion? On the motion of Councilor Tseng, seconded by Vice-Mayor Bears. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-509. Offered by Councilor Collins. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council recognize the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and wish a happy and healthy new year and an extremely fast two-fold observed. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Morell. This speaks for itself. Rosh Hashanah began on Sunday night this year. To all my fellow Jews, I just want to say Shanah Tovah to everybody. Hope the year ahead is a sweet one. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. Any further discussion? On the motion of Councilor Collins, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion passes. 22-510. be it resolved that the Medford City Council remind all artists and art organizations living or working in Medford that the deadline to apply for the local cultural council program grants through the Medford Arts Council is October 15, 2022. Funding is available for projects that serve the Medford public at large or specific Medford audiences, such as children or seniors. More information can be found at bit.ly slash NAC grants. Be it further resolved that the Medford City Council remind all artists and art organizations living or working in Medford that the deadline to apply for the Cultural Sector Recovery Grants through the Mass Cultural Council is September 28 for organizations and November 1 for individuals. Grants of $5,000 per individual, artists, and grants beginning at $5,000 per cultural organization are available. More information can be found at massculturalcouncil.org slash blog slash apply dash four dash cultural dash sector dash recovery dash grants. Councilor.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Morell, and thank you very much for reading those URLs. My apologies. It's my hope that maybe some of the folks tuning into the meeting or reading the agendas might recognize themselves in the eligible groups and follow those links to state support of their work. Thank you for reading them out loud. I just wanted to flag these two opportunities for fellow members of the Medford Arts community, individuals and organizations alike. The local cultural council program is annual. It happens every year. It's a wonderful local program wherein our Medford Arts Council members of our own community get to dole out state resources to support the arts in Medford, for Medford, by Medford artists, and the cultural sector recovery grants is new this year. It was part of the state's COVID response. That's a way for both individuals and arts organizations to get a little much needed stimulus in that sector to support the work of the creative industry as we come out of the pandemic. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. Any further discussion? Vice President Bears?
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. I just want to thank Councilor Collins for putting this forward I think we've really seen the benefits of the local grants coming through the Medford Arts Council and we've seen them all across our city. Just amazing projects that have brightened sides of buildings and different properties, as well as, you know, a supported important I think really just want to drive home the point that you made that arts and culture has been one of the slowest recovering areas of industry coming out of the pandemic. My family has personal involvement in that, and really any way that we can support arts and culture, because we know it's so essential to vibrant economic development, vibrant community and cultural centers here in the community, we should encourage. So thank you for putting this forward, and I'd second your motion.
[Morell]: On the motion, Councilor Collins, seconded by Vice President Bears. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? The motion passes. 22-511, offered by Councilor Collins. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council remind residents that the Board of Health is hosting a COVID-19 Bivalent Booster Clinic on Wednesday, September 28th at the Council on Aging. Appointments are available from 3 to 7 p.m. and walk-ins are available from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. only. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Morell. I just wanted to help signal boost this latest offering from the Board of Health now that the bivalent boosters are available, you know, as we're heading into the fall months, you know, I think it's especially important for everybody to consider getting the new booster now that it's available so we can keep, you know, all of our community members as safe as possible should they choose to make that choice. And I also want to thank the Board of Health as they continue to roll out these booster clinics as they've been doing all throughout the past two and a half years, you know, really big expansion of what their work is in the community. It's so important and it's so appreciated. Thank you.
[Morell]: On the motion of Councilor Collins, seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favour? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-512 offered by Councilor Collins. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council commend and thank Medford City staff and Medford Transit riders for their patience and flexibility during the Orange Line shutdown, and in particular recognize the Medford DPW Engineering Division for their hard work in coordinating with the MBTA during this challenging and unprecedented time. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Morell. I had the opportunity to talk with our Director of Traffic and Transportation, Todd Blake, at some point during the past month on a totally unrelated project, and he was telling me about how the MBTA shutdown has just magnified the workload that him and his colleagues have to already take on. you know, adding a huge layer onto their already very large workload. Now that the orange line is running again, I hope that they're able to turn more of their attentions onto their already full plates and extend, you know, ask my Councilors to join me in extending our gratitude for their hard work during this really turbulent, deeply unprecedented time in our interactions with the MBTA. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. Any further discussion? On the motion of Councilor Collins, as seconded by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Motions, orders, and resolutions. 22-513 offered by President Morell and Councilor Tseng. Be it resolved that the administration provide an update on work done to address the noise complaints related to monogram foods and overnight operations. Be it further resolved that the administration provide any findings related to the special permit for extended hours of use for the building. Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Thank you, President Morell. This is in regards to an issue brought up to us via email and by a constituent last meeting about overnight noise at Monogram Foods affecting quality of life for their neighbors. I received an email from the administration stating that the refrigerated delivery trucks that have been parked overnight in their lot will now be required to park across the street in the old Crunch Fitness space. Monogram Foods is posting signs and will monitor the situation and the deliveries will come from third parties. The deliveries currently come from third parties, so that's a consideration of how they have to manage the situation. They're also looking into screening some of the rooftop mechanical units, although that has certain costs of money. This situation is from what I've learned is slightly complex. I know the city might be doing more research about that. I don't know if you have more news about it, President Morell, but this is the most recent update that I have received.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Yeah, I have that same update that the mayor sent around. It is, I do see them referencing the cost of the screening units as a consideration, considering the rather hefty tax breaks the city allowed them, I would hope that they could find the money to pay for such units to protect the neighbors in the area. I think particularly because as this came before the council, we had multiple meetings of questions and impact on the neighborhood was was a large one for us. So I would hope that this is something that is addressed quickly. I know you'll keep on it, I'll keep on it, but you know, promises are good. So let's see these things put into action, see how far we can go. So we stop detrimentally impacting the neighbors in that area. Is there anyone else, any further discussion on the council from this paper or any members of the public who would like to speak on this paper? Seeing none, so on the motion of Councilor Tseng seconded by Councilor Caraviello, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Anyone have any issue with me continuing for the resolution I have next? I'll go ahead. Seeing none, 22-514, offered by President Morell, be it resolved that the city council meet in committee of the whole to review and propose updates to the city's outdoor dining ordinance. So this was something that was actually raised to me by our city's economic development director, Victor Schrader. Just something that we could look at now that this was absolutely transformed temporarily in the early years of the pandemic. And I think it's something that we've seen the benefit to the community. So just taking an ordinance that has existed for a number of years, giving it fresh eyes and looking at it in the situation that we find ourselves in today. And just knowing the increased interest for folks to wanna partake in outdoor dining and also the equity and parity issues that lie there as well. So I would just move for approval and to schedule a future committee to hold. I can't move approval. I'd request someone to do it. So do you have a comment or?
[Hurtubise]: I'll just second.
[Morell]: So on the motion of Councilor Scarpelli is seconded by Vice President Bears. All those in favor?
[Hurtubise]: Aye.
[Morell]: All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-515. Offered by Councilor Caraviello. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council be provided an update on the status of the reopening of the IT department at City Hall, including who is managing that department, at what cost, and whether our system is safe from hackers. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: And something I've asked about in the past, and I see, I think, somebody, the last employee we had at that department is no longer there now. So my concern is, who's managing this department for us? We're a good-sized city, and do we have a private company doing it? There's nobody in there. And are we safe from hackers? right now. So I don't know what our status is, but I think we need some kind of update on who's running the department. And if there is an outside company, at what cost is this being done?
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Vice Chair Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor Caraviello, for putting this on the agenda. you know, in addition to what you said, you know, who is implementing the recommendations that came out of the cyber security analysis that we were told was such a dire issue as well. So, I mean, that goes right to your point. But, you know, we were told we have a serious cyber security problem. And as far as I can tell, there's nobody in that office at all. The website was down for a few hours earlier this week, which is a persistent problem. Earlier this year, the website was down for days and weeks at a time, which is not good when folks are looking for essential information and services from the city. And not to drive home a point that I drive home a little too much, maybe, but not only is there no one working in that office, we don't have any sort of idea what the capital plan is to invest in information technology and technology services across the city. The more that I learn on a weekly and monthly basis about the fact that we're purchasing an email contact system, but we're buying multiple accounts. So one department may collect contact information and another department may collect contact information. And when they email folks, you know, updates from the city, not everybody on both those lists gets the information. It's just, you know, really basic coordination problems that could go a long way to solving a major problem that we have in the community, which is community outreach issues and community education issues about initiatives that are going on in the city. We spoke about it recently about outreach on, I think maybe solid waste task force or something else, but the fact that these systems aren't integrated is a huge problem. We don't have an idea or an amount of money of capital that's gonna be invested in this, and now we don't have any staff that are managing it at all. So I'll leave it there, but thank you for bringing this up, and I hope that we can start doing better.
[Morell]: Any further discussion.
[Knight]: I find this very troubling. So we have an IT department with no IT director or assistant IT director. We have a law department with no solicitor or assistant city solicitor. We have an assessor's department, no assessor or assistant city assessor.
[Unidentified]: We have a building department. There's no building commissioner. We have an elections office.
[Knight]: I'm not sure if we have an elections coordinator or not. I've heard various mumblings throughout the community that the moment that Ms. Gale was taken from her office, they had somebody filling her shoes with a higher salary.
[Unidentified]: I'm not sure what's going on in this community, but it sounds like it's falling apart. nine months without a budget director. We got to stop the bleeding somewhere, somewhere. And we're going to have a great conversation about the failures of our parking department. City is in human resource crisis mode right now.
[Knight]: Human resource crisis. I thank the gentleman for putting the resolution on. the agenda this evening to raise awareness of the issues that are going on here in this community.
[Unidentified]: It's sad. This isn't normal. This isn't normal. This doesn't happen in other communities. We used to hold our head up high. Medford was the city of firsts. Now we can't even get people to apply for jobs in this community.
[Knight]: The first community to sign up for the school building assistance program to get a 90% reimbursement on our schools. The first community to get a transit-based smart growth development in this state of Massachusetts mentioned. Where are our firsts? What are our firsts now? The council has some firsts.
[Unidentified]: The first council to pass a recodified zoning ordinance. I'm at a loss.
[Knight]: It's very frustrating to come here week in and week out and make recommendations on how we can improve the way that we deliver the most basic of city services and have it fall on deaf ears.
[Unidentified]: Right now, we have an IT department. This network could fail tomorrow.
[Knight]: From the sounds of it, as Councilor Bears said, there was a serious problem going on there that had to result in the termination of an employee. That position was never filled. So were these problems ever remedied? What is going on?
[Unidentified]: What is going on here in Metcalfe? Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor Knight. Any further discussion from the Council? Members of the public who would like to speak on this?
[Morell]: On the motion of Councilor Caraviello, as seconded by... Second. Councilor Scarpelli, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-516 offered by Councilor Caraviello. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council have the Medford parking department stop giving tickets for a permit parking until all issues with the addresses are corrected. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. I'm tired of getting these phone calls from people about the tickets. I mean, whole streets are getting tagged. And I know we're having a meeting with them tomorrow, but I find it hard to believe that the old parking method went in there and changed everybody's address. I don't know. It doesn't sound like something anybody would ever do. This is something that's got to stop. I mean, you're giving 40, 50 tickets a night for streets that don't even exist. So the people of Wellington got tagged last week for Fulbright Street. There isn't a house on Fulbright Street in the same method. There's a car wash there. And we're giving tickets for that. Members, I'm going to make the motion that all tickets for Premier Parking cease tonight until this issue of the addresses with Premier Parking are addressed. These people can't get any tickets, they got to appeal, they got to come back and forth. I mean, it's utterly ridiculous. And I know we're talking about it tomorrow night, but this is something I wanted to get out there tonight.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviellol.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. I've received similar calls. You would think that if it's truly a database problem, which I have no reason to believe it's not a database problem, but even if it's a database problem, then you have an entire street. And you're enforcement, and you go down the street, and every single car you pass pings as being ticketed. That should raise a red flag, especially if you already know you have a database problem. It should be practice that goes out to the enforcement officers to say, hey, we have some issues. There's been a couple of streets when we've gone down for permits that all the data was messed up. If you hit 10 cars in a row on a street, double no hold off come back and we were going to check if it's a database problem I mean there's kind of a simple check here that you could implement where if you have an issue in your database and suddenly you're ticketing 20 cars on the street which you know is abnormal because it's just not what your normal practice is going to be. That should, you know, raise a red flag, say we're going to hold off, we're going to come back, we're going to make sure the data is right before we permit the street. The other thing I want to add is that I've also heard problems on the flip side of this issue. There's some areas of the city where residents fought, you know, got the petition signed, went there, got the permit parking on their street, have had enforcement for months or years where Now, because the coordination didn't happen at the top level, the Medford police can't go out and enforce permit parking because they've never been trained on the license plate parking system. And so it's not just on the side of people are getting tickets that they shouldn't be getting. There's also streets that are now filling back up that are permit streets with commuters parking their cars, getting out of the car, walking to the train, walking to the bus. that should be getting tickets and it can't happen because the coordination between the police department and the parking department by the people who supervise both of those departments never happened. So, you know, again, I'm not disputing your resolution. I'll vote for it. You know, at this point, as Councilor Knight said, we know they're not listening to us. So, but there's problems on both ends of this. I think there are obviously solutions that can correct both of those problems. At least on the on the issue of the police have been told now we're going to go train the police on the system. So that's great. But it's again, there's serious coordination problems across all departments of government that are creating really negative outcomes for people who live here. And it's a management issue. Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor Cabrera for bringing this forward. If you remember, the reason why years ago, when I was just a young man watching this council on TV, the biggest issues with parking in Medford is that you saw that people were using the streets, the side streets and main streets of Medford to park so they can hop on commuter buses and take parking for residents all day. And that was the biggest issue. Now it's turned into something that I believe, during the budget hearings, we talked about new growth. And I believe the majority of the new growth that is projected is coming from traffic and parking, if maybe someone correct me if I'm wrong, but from fines. And that's a terrible way to run your community, on the backs and the pocketbooks and the wallets of your constituents. We're seeing major issues with this parking plan, and it seems like, and we'll talk about this tomorrow with the department head, but it seems like this has turned into just a moneymaker for this community, and it's for the wrong reasons. My recommendation is gonna be the same as Councilor Caraviello. I have constituents call me about this issue in Wellington, where the whole street was tagged, and when people came up to fight it, they said, we'll fix it, you just have to bring up your registration. the constituents said to them, well, if you could see it in your computer and everybody on this street has gotten tickets because it says it's another street, why can't you change that? Because we have residents that are elderly, that find it difficult to get their way to city hall. They want them to come up with their registrations, sit in an office that isn't very friendly from what I gather, and ask them to change this because they made a mistake. I just don't understand the lack of preparation and the lack of transparency shared by this department and the lack of education that they haven't given our constituents. And again, I hate to harp on the communities that do it right, but whenever they implement any sort of change, it's something done 10 times. It's put out to the community so everybody in the community understands why these plans and these parking enforcement penalties are in place. So they're educated. I saw one of the biggest increases in fees and fines in a community where I work in that would have made you sick in this community. But the way they unveiled it and the way they educated their constituents, explained to them, do you enjoy your streets getting swept twice a week? Do you enjoy that we don't ask for any money for our school department, that we can give our teachers full benefits, that we can give them high salaries, that we can look at our paraprofessionals and pay $40,000? Where do you think that's coming from? It's coming from fees and fines, but it's understood by the constituents saying, well, if I made a mistake, and at least I know where that money's going. In our community, we don't know why we're getting ticketed, who's giving the tickets, do they understand how they're giving tickets, And then when someone has an issue, no one is actually talking to a person like a human being. I've had very calm residents come to me and say, Councilor Scarpelli, I've gone to the office, I've tried to peacefully just ask a question. I know it wasn't the wrong, but I just wanted to be educated. And the lack of professionalism in that office, where it was smug people, people looking you right in the eye, raising their arms over their heads and yawning in your face. I mean, this is customer service at its worst. And this is gonna be something that's gonna be shared tomorrow, but I've welcomed all those people that have contacted me, come to this meeting, share your thoughts. Because I think we need to put a, sometimes you need to stop everything and reassess so we can educate our constituents, educate the staff that's there. Because from what I gather, I'm looking at complaints through the union that they're not being treated right either. It's a mess. And it's disheartening that I know that, you know, constantly very somberly put where we are right now. And this is disheartening. This is disheartening. Now I'm glad we can celebrate a road race and I'm glad we can celebrate trick or treating around the square and that's all fine. And our constituents deserve that. We deserve it. Don't get me wrong, we deserve it. But that's not what runs the city. Right now, I'm afraid what the next year's budget's gonna be. We see the financial climate of this country right now. I'm petrified to see what we... We saw what we went through last year. And I think we need to reassess starting tomorrow evening with the Parking Enforcement Office and see where this council's going. I see, and I'll jump ahead and I apologize, Madam President, but I see resolutions that are coming in front of us tonight that changing of ordinance for great people that have done a lot of work for our community. But out of all due respect, I was one councilor. How can I vote on something tonight where we don't have any guidance from a city solicitor? We don't have any legal support from anybody in this community. whether the intentions of anything that's brought to us. is good or bad. We can't do anything about it. So this is very frustrating. I apologize, I digress, but it's been a very frustrating last few days, and I hope people show up tomorrow night and share their concerns, because I tell you what, the phone calls and the emails I've gotten, it's not even anything about just people being kind to each other, just showing respect to each other at a desk, and we can't even do that. So thank you, and thank you. I support Councilor Caraviello's resolution. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. Councilor say.
[Tseng]: Thank you. Um. I think Councilor Caraviello for putting this on the agenda. Um I've also gotten these calls and as as as Councilor Bears has put it, it is a bit ridiculous that you go on to a street notice that everything every car was registered to another street in Medford and It's not stop ticketing. I think it's a logical step, given where we are. We need to do a real evaluation of the database and evaluation of the problems. And we, as Councilor Beres has pointed out, we need better coordination with different departments as well to make sure that our enforcement is there. And enforcement is going to be an especially important issue as Greenline Extension opens up. scheduled for November, but as we go through the parking commission's report, old report about South Medford parking, as we respond to what will be resident complaints about parking violations in South Medford as those stops open, we need to make sure that our house is in order and we need to make sure that our parking department and our city is ready to take on those challenges. Another issue that has been brought to me, and I think Councilor Scarpelli touched on it, is the difficulty of rectifying one's own situation, having to drive to City Hall, having to sit in the parking office. I think we need to develop a process, this is my own opinion, where the parking department handles that autonomously and where it works easier for residents and we put less strain on them. And we need to be looking at how we do refunds as well and make sure that people aren't unjustly paying for parking tickets that they didn't deserve in the first place, which is potentially, and I'm sure is a problem.
[Knight]: Um, I think what we need to do is stop the bleeding. And councilor Caraviello is absolutely right. We need to stop issuing tickets for resident permit parking until mentioned or a mentioned parking department or whatever they go by these days can figure it out. Um, ultimately this is a department that never should have been absorbed by the city. You don't have the capacity to run a parking department. We're proving that daily. We went from having a vendor that wrote us a check. to a department that's come here before us now for over $800,000 in initial appropriations, and then another $200,000 or $300,000 in supplemental spending. We're still not getting any satisfaction.
[Caraviello]: What information, Councilor Knight? And another $500,000 for meters that came out of the ARPA funds.
[Knight]: Now, we talk about reports, and we talk about committees. Forget the reports, and forget the committees. It's time to use common sense. When we talked about taking parking enforcement and doing it in-house, a committee was put together. That committee came before this body. And we spoke to that committee, and we said, please talk to us about resident parking, resident parking enforcement.
[Unidentified]: And what did that committee say? Oh, we're not tasked to discuss that. But the recommendation was to take the parking in-house. How can we have a recommendation to do something without a full and complete assessment of what's going on?
[Knight]: When I say stop the bleeding, it's not just the tickets that are getting written. What about non-renewals to the registries? What about non-renewals for your license? What about non-renewals for your registration? Because of unpaid tickets that were issued unjustly that you can't get a remedy for here in City Hall.
[Unidentified]: We need to put the residents first in this regard.
[Knight]: That's what the parking program was established for, to put the residents first. And we're not doing that. When we looked at, as Councilor Scarpelli said, the history of parking enforcement in Medford and why this program came to fruition, it was to turn over spots in the business districts. That's what it was initially proposed for. It wasn't to go into the neighborhoods, to go down Sylvia Road, a dead end street, and give people tickets when they've been able to police themselves and have no parking complaints for 50 years. It doesn't make sense to me that the Metro parking department is driving down Wellington Road when Wellington Road hasn't complained about a parking issue in 25 years, but the residents of Goldsmith Ave have been going on C-Click fix for the last six months and asking for relief and no avail. It just doesn't make sense to me. We have problem areas that are being identified. through these tools and modules that the mayor has touted as being so effective in the delivery of city services. But then we're not using the data that we're collecting from these modules to make decisions.
[Unidentified]: There's no data-driven decision-making at all going on in this community. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor. Thank you, Councilor.
[Scarpelli]: Councilor Scarpelli. One thing I find problematic today I don't have it in front of me. Do we have someone from the city administration here representing the city anymore? Do we have someone? Is there someone on zoom that just just just to relay these messages to the mayor? Is it on that note?
[Knight]: I know that it's Hispanic Heritage Month. It's also today's national no excuse day. So I hope someone from the administration is on the call. Madam President, if they can bring that up. I do not see anyone.
[Morell]: I do know the interim chief of staff is unable to attend council meetings due to just prior just scheduling issues.
[Scarpelli]: So we so okay. So in essence, right now, we don't have any, any representation to discuss any concerns and issues from our community from from the mayor's office.
[SPEAKER_10]: I do not see one. In advance I can invite specific people.
[Scarpelli]: If we can, just because this is our second meeting now after the summer break and we have issues and concerns. it could be something that could be answered quickly through someone from the mayor's office and not having someone, I know that the chief of staff isn't here, but there should be someone here. They have a lot of people in that office, if I'm not mistaken, that could represent that office. So I'd actually put that in the form of a motion that if we can, that we request that someone from the city administration staff represents the city hall in our meetings to answer constituent services concerns or issues in a media basis. So I really appreciate it. I mean, considering only meet twice a month now, that I think it's important that we have someone here that it's, you know, I don't think we're scary anymore. I think we've all toned it down. I don't think we're bullying anybody anymore. I think we're in a good place. So if we can do that, Madam President, I appreciate it. And it's also chocolate milk. today is uh if you look at the it's uh it's a very important day forget about not only hispanic heritage month and it's also we have very it's we went over that this morning that's why i know that director said today's a very important day for chocolate milk believe it or not do you want to make that a beat paper please please that'd be great thank you i'm just sorry a point of information as well on that point um
[Bears]: I appreciate President Morell's deference to say, you know, we can always do better. I think that's the attitude we should be having in the community. We could, you know, we could ask. send it in, you know, we can send it in embossed and engraved and certified mail letter to have someone come to this meeting. But this leadership team has gone above and beyond when it comes to getting out a monthly schedule, getting it in front of all the department heads, putting out a regular meeting schedule. You know, I work with the clerk on this and President Morell on this on a weekly and monthly basis to say, hey, you know, something that we hadn't done before, here's a month's worth. We're going to get you four weeks notice on some of these meetings. We're going to try to get out to you. I know Councilor Collins and myself and other chairs of subcommittees have done equal work to get information in front of people, to talk not just to the solicitor, but directly to people at KP Law. I mean, you know, I just want to be very clear that it's not a lack of effort on our end as to why we're not seeing people show up here to be part of our deliberations. And given what we've experienced really since June, and even before that, obviously, but especially since June, It doesn't seem unintentional. And I just want to say that, you know, we're not, we haven't stopped any of the things that we do to reach out and invite people to participate in a collaborative way as part of this process. It's just that when we reach out our hand, no one grabs it. No one shows up and people don't collaborate. And sometimes when they do come, they tell us, hey, we can't, we're not, we're not going to collaborate. That's been some of the most frustrating piece of this for me. is hearing, well, that's not our charge, or that's not our duty, or, you know, the council's working on too many ordinances. It used to be only did one ordinance a year. That has been stuck in my head ever since it was said out loud four months ago. Nothing changes if nothing changes, right? And we're working on change.
[Morell]: Thank you, Vice President Bears, and thank you for that reminder of all the work we do. And then I have Councilor Collins, I'll go back to you. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Morell. I don't want to belabor this point because we're going to have the whole meeting devoted to parking tomorrow. But I just wanted to say in advance of that, you know, I know we've been fielding so many resident complaints about parking, and we've been hearing indeed from the parking department itself about the challenges that they're perceiving and working through. And I know that logical thing that anybody does is when there's a problem, you look, where did this come from? Who's responsible? Whose fault is this? And I know we're gonna be hearing it directly from the horse's mouth tomorrow, but I just wanna, I feel like we need to lay the foundation for that conversation with, was our parking department, you know, whether it was right or wrong to bring them in house this year when we did, were they set up to succeed or were they set up to fail? You know, because that decision was made before anybody got hired. That decision is unattached to anybody currently in that department. And I'm not saying that the department has done everything perfectly because we all know that's not true. We've gotten the phone calls about it, but I think it needs to undergird the conversation that we have with the people in that office directly. The context has to be, what did they know before their work began? What did they know about the scope of their work? What did they know about the Park Medford that was there before? Were they given the true and authentic lay of the land? Were they given the resources that they really needed to succeed? That's part of the equation too. I just want to put that out there.
[Morell]: Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Collins. Councilor Knight, then we'll go to public comment.
[Knight]: Madam President, I just, I do want to point out that these failures are really managerial failures. And, you know, when we talk about the human resource problems that we have there in our community and the human resource crisis that's going on here in Medford, In our packets this evening when we got here, we have charges, additional charges that were brought forward by local 25 who represent our parking enforcement officers. And it appears to me that the administration's not exactly treating them in the kind of fashion as well. Tracking devices and cameras, randomly changing our, randomly changing schedules from night to day and day to night. I mean, imagine having a family and having your schedule randomly changed. Next week you're working nights, sorry.
[Unidentified]: I wonder why the program isn't working. We need to invest in the people that are doing the work in order to make the program successful.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Nay. Any further discussion from the council? Discussion from members of the public, please. Name and address for the record, please.
[Anita Nagem]: This is a parking-related issue, not directly related to this enforcement. it would lead to that. I wanted to come and speak to you after the last Traffic Commission meeting. At that meeting, the Traffic Commission was voting on whether to make permit parking or extend permit parking around the new Green Line station all the way to Route 16. Initially, they were going to make it a quarter mile radius around the station, then it increased a little bit. Suddenly at the beginning of September, it was going to be all the way to Route 16. There was very little notice given. I live on Norton Avenue, which is an extremely small private way, which runs between North Street and Lyman Ave, close to Route 16, close to the Whole Foods. Our street is, when I say small, whenever I call the DPW about something, they say, oh, Norton Avenue. There's barely enough room on our street for people to park. There's no room for sidewalks. Whenever we have visitors, they have to park on either Lyman or North Street. Whenever anyone has any renovation work done or any kind of big truck needs to come on the street, at least half the residents have to park on either North Street or Lyman Ave. If there was a lot of snow, like the winter of 2015, or any snow that doesn't melt, some of us have to usually park there. When I asked the traffic commission about whether, or actually not the traffic commission, the city engineer about whether if they made permit parking in the area that people on Norton Ave would be able to get variances, he sent me a message back saying that the houses that abut North Street would be able to get variance and the rest of us may in italics be able to get one. The discussion at the meeting initially, the traffic commission meeting was about making permit parking, but having it street by street. As more and more public comments came in, they started discussing, well, maybe we could make it zone parking. And it was very vague and clearly it was not thought through very carefully. Not allowing residents of a street like Norton Avenue to get variances to park if this was all made permit parking would be devastating. It would also be devastating for the residents of Walkland Court. There is almost no parking there. I know a number of residents who depend on their vehicles to maintain their independence. Quite a few of them park on either North Street or Auburn, sometimes other streets. I've been in that area for 35 years. It has never been an issue. The way this situation is developing now, I mean, I have extreme concerns about whether this proposal will be implemented to make the entire area permit parking. It has been tabled for now. They're gonna wait until the Green Line station opens, but this is not a one size fits all solution. People really need to think about the consequences again, Norton have residents would either be trapped in their driveways or prevented from getting home if we could not park on adjacent streets as necessary. And I hope that the council will bring up this issue. There was no discussion with residents of my area before this proposal was put before the traffic commission. I know that a lot of streets have gotten together and gotten petitions together to have the streets made permit parking. None of that was done. It was just a vote. We got a message saying, we're voting on this at the next meeting. I really hope that the council will bring up this issue. Zone parking is the minimum that they would do. But if it is made zone parking, and they actually do vote on this and it goes through, residents of private ways, residents of places like Walkland Court need to be able to get variances to park. And there's really no other option for any of us, or the people on my street, people in Walkland Court. And I really hope that the council will press the Traffic Commission on this This is going to come up again for a vote. They're going to discuss it again, November, December, after the Green Line station opens. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[South]: Steven South 106 Damon Road, Medford. Also the secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 25 and coincidentally, we represent as one of our groups, the parking department. So I want to deal with facts. I often speak to you and give you packets of information because I want you to have the facts. So I want to give you some of those right now. Number one, that when this part department was created, I think the city put the cart before the horse. So in January, the city hired a bunch of employees before they even had meters and a plan on how to conduct a parking program within the city. Well, that being said, there was very little, if any, training for a lot of the employees. There was a high turnover. Several of the initial employees quit. They've hired new ones. Little to no training again. And if you look at the packet that I gave you, Councilor Knight was correct that there have been many unfair labor practices charges filed by the union on behalf of the employees. So I just want you to see the climate that they're working in. So some of the charges are as follows. Their schedules can change from day to day, from day to night. So if someone calls in sick, they say, Steve, we know your days, but tomorrow you're on nights and the next day you're on days and the next day you're on nights. They're severely short-staffed right now. So they're just bouncing people around. We filed another unfair labor practice charge with the state regarding a recent change that were made to their schedules, which as I know it, it's the first in the state And that's where the city unilaterally changed these workers' work schedule to a six-day schedule. That's just to get their 40 hours. They work eight hours Monday, eight hours Tuesday, eight hours Wednesday, eight hours Thursday, four hours on Friday, four hours on Saturday. So they have six days of work just to get their regular 40-hour shift. There's no overtime. And they get one day with their families on Sunday. They put body cameras, without negotiating with Local 25, they put body cameras on the employees, all the employees in this department. Did the police even have body cameras in there? I mean, certainly it's a mandatory subject of collective bargaining, and the city just forgot to talk to us about it, and unilaterally forced these workers to wear body cameras. The staff in the office. Again, the city unilaterally put up cameras in the office with audio and video without bargaining with the union. So the employees on the street have cameras and the employees in the office have cameras. The last point that I wanna make, and again, I know it's easy to, you guys are getting a lot of complaints, and I'm sure a lot of them are valid, but it's very easy to blame the low-level rank-and-file employees who, by the way, I talk to on a regular basis. they're working as directed. So I just want to point that out. And I know everybody's upset and people in the, in the chamber here are upset and people on zoom are upset and some of you are upset, right? I understand, but these employees, the parking control officers, the repair people, the clerical people, they're working as directed at the direction of the mayor and her administration, HR, chief staff, they're working as directed. So I just want to point that out. The employees are very low paid. They're lower paid than all the other communities, which we represent several of them. They're very low paid. They have very low benefits. We're in negotiations now, of course, like all the other units, the city's offering nothing. And it's a common theme throughout the city. So respectfully to all of you, Madam Chairman, Councilors, I just want to make sure that everyone sees the complete picture and that the rank and file, the low level people that are just trying to feed their families don't feel the brunt of this when it's managerial decisions that are driving these things. I thank you for your kind attention.
[Morell]: Thank you. We do have one person on Zoom. Would you like to go first, President Bears?
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. And Mr. South, thank you. I just want to be clear, and I think all of us were on the same page. should be at the management level, and it's a coordination problem when we're talking about these permits or these database things. If this has happened one time, why isn't the director or whoever it may be saying, we can't let this happen again, let's train our workers with the sufficient training to recognize this problem and not have it happen again. So I just wanted to add that to the record. I think we're all in agreement that there's coordination problems at the top levels that are causing serious issues.
[Morell]: Going to G to Stefano on Zoom and then we'll come back to you Mr. Mayor. G to Stefano, name and address for the record please. I just asked you to unmute.
[SPEAKER_13]: 31 Goldsmith Ave, Method Mass. And I sent out an email to the crew of you and I appreciate the replies I got back. And it's interesting, today I was at the parking department and I renewed my permits. and there's this thing that's called a parking permit portal. I got it up in front of me and it says from 6-28-2016 to 9-29-2022 that I lived on Granville Ave. I have never lived on Granville Ave. So now I understand what part of the problems are is yeah okay it truly is a database problem and maybe that's why we're not getting tickets. But The police department, if they run your license plate, they should be able to tell what street you're on. So I understand Councilor Caraviello not wanting to give tickets out for permit parking, and I'll accept that. But if a resident calls the police department non-emergency number, because vehicles are parked in front of your house 36 hours straight, I think the police should still be able to give out the tickets. until this problem is fixed. That's it.
[Morell]: Thank you. Could you actually repeat your name and address for the record, please? We just couldn't hear it.
[SPEAKER_13]: Gary DeStefano, D-E-S-T-E-F-A-N-O, 31 Goldsmith Ave.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Merritt]: and address for the record, please. State Merit 373 Riverside Ave in Medford. I live on a small, narrow street. Riverside Ave. It's not a side street.
[Unidentified]: Can you park on Riverside Ave if you're not in a driveway? The answer is no.
[Merritt]: So I think some, I appreciate what some of the Councilors have said tonight. I was watching this on TV. I had to come down because my kid didn't want to watch this on TV. He'd rather watch Paw Patrol. I don't blame him. I'm sure some of all of us would too. I think that there's a lot of, I'll call them corner cases that maybe where some of these blanket policies don't address, you know, if you live on Riverside Ave and you're having work done in your house and you can't pull into your driveway, and you don't have a permit and you come down to the parking office and they say, no, you can't have a permit to park on this side street. Really? No, because you don't live there. No, I don't. But if I actually want to go to work so I can pay my mortgage, pay my taxes, pay the salaries of the fine people working in that office, what am I supposed to do? So I think a lot of care and consideration needs to be taken before some blanket policies are put out. I really appreciate Councilor Knight, something that you brought up, which was, you know, what is the purpose of having parking? What's the scope? Is the intent to make money for the city? Or is it instead to keep people from say parking on Governor's Ave and kind of abusing the parking and preventing other people from coming into the city and shopping? It feels like the scope has been lost. If you wanna tax your citizens, tax it. If you're gonna have people pay, yeah. But at least come out and say it. But at least come out and say it. Because if you're having people pay to come shop and spend money in the city of Medford, and most of those people are your residents, then that's in effect a tax. If it's to keep people from say outside the city, you know, from parking and abusing and using the commuter access that we have, that's a different story. And there's different ways to address that. So the city of Arlington, town of Arlington, I think it's a town. Okay. Do they have a parking department enforcement and stickers? When I lived in Arlington, I didn't have a sticker and I was a resident. I could park on the side and all I had to do is like if I had an extenuating circumstances, you call Arlington PD and say, hi, I'd like to park my car on the street because they have no on street parking for the most part, right? They have a, the process is communication and otherwise, okay, we know that plate number. We're not going to ticket it. It works pretty good as far as I know. City of Cambridge, you can have a parking permit, you get a sticker and that sticker is, you know, it's a permanent resident sticker. and you can park anywhere in the city. Councilor Scarpelli, how does it work in Sutton-Merville where you work?
[Scarpelli]: Is it similar? It's expensive, but it's pretty well. I mean, they run their program, if you have a parking sticker, I believe it's increased now to $180 per car, but it's citywide and it's run pretty well.
[Merritt]: I mean, there's a lot of different ideas in here, and I think we need to find something that fits for Medford, but let's keep in mind the scope. If the scope is to raise revenue for the city, that's one thing. If the objective is different and it's to keep people from abusing streets and preventing people from coming outside the city to spend money in our city, which is, I think, what everyone wants, that's a whole different objective. So I appreciate y'all maybe keeping that in mind as we go forward and maybe trying to refocus the scope.
[Caraviello]: Thank you.
[Morell]: Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. I think I'm the only councilor that was here when the other parking program was started. And the scope was, as Councilor Scott Feldman I think said, was to stop the people from parking in the business areas and taking train going to Boston and taking the bus and doing all that. And it worked. And it did work and it did what its job was to open up spots in the business community. But what they didn't do was they weren't going into the neighborhoods and tagging people for these little tiki tac things. And I think that's where we've gone astray. And I can't speak for my other Councilors, I've only gotten two calls from businesses complaining about tagging in the business areas, where when Park Method first came in, the phone rang off the hook. But, oh, you know, you're tagging my customers and everything. But I say it's changed now. The only calls I got, I got a call from the Haines Square community, the business group that come down there, because they People were pulling up at the 30-minute signs, and the minute they pulled up, they were getting a ticket. And I actually videoed the guy one day, and I asked him, I says, why are you giving this person a ticket? She was here two minutes. Those are fake signs up there. Because as I say, it had been going on for weeks at a time. And I did bring that to the mayor. I don't know where it's going, but the calls from Haines Square were stopped. But as I say, all the calls we're getting now are from the neighborhoods. No more calls from the business community. And I say, I think we've lost our way on what we're trying to accomplish on this parking program now.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Going to Mr. Castagnetti on Zoom. Mr. Castagnetti, name and address for the record, please.
[Castagnetti]: Andrew Castagnetti, Cushing Street Method Mass. My gut feeling says we do have a major problem with the parking department um, I went through it firsthand to get my registration and new license renewed And a very very unfunny thing happened to me on the way to the forum the parking forum um Bottom line is I have too much information. You don't want to hear it all. However, it is my understanding that the problem lies supposedly with Park Method, the previous bounty hunter, as Penta would say. I don't know if that's true, but we're in a big mess. I guess Councilor X, what was his name? Mr. Caraviello would know, but he used to say, what we have here is a lack of proper communication. I don't know what's going on, but it is terrible. Good night.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. Mastigati.
[Anita Nagem]: Anita Nagum, 9 Norton AF. There's just one more thing I would like to add. The previous speaker touched on it. The permits that they are considering in the area of the Green Line station would be in effect 24 hours a day, six days a week. If the intent is to prevent people from parking and taking the T in, it would seem that maybe permit parking from eight to five would be sufficient. If the intent seems to be to raise revenue, by all means put it in 24 hours a day, six days a week. I'd like to point out to you that there are a lot of rental apartments in Hillside where tough students live. They move in and out frequently. any of them moving in, if this were implemented 24 hours a day, six days a week, would almost certainly be in violation as soon as they try to move in or out of their apartments. I mean, it does not seem that this has been thought through very carefully at all by the traffic commission. And I really strongly suspect that this is a revenue generator. It is not because of concerns in the neighborhood about spaces being taken up by outsiders coming in. That could change a little with the green line, but even if it does, the remedy cannot be worse than the problem which generated it.
[Morell]: Thank you. Any further discussion?
[Merritt]: Just one other point that I wanted to ask. Councilor Knight, I thought I heard you correctly, but I want to be sure. Did you say that $500,000 of ARPA funding was spent I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay, so we spent half a million dollars to buy parking meters for infrastructure. Instead of fixing roads, we bought parking meters. Okay. When people say generate revenue, that's great. But there's another side of the coin and that's the expense side. So the city's currently looking at a shortfall of at least depending on who's math, Councilor Bears, your math had somewhere around 12 million. Mayor says somewhere around 3 million. She said, she said eight. Excuse me, I'm sorry. She said eight, she only wanted to fix three. Eight, oh, okay, okay. I guess the point is that even if it's a revenue generator, and I'm sure the gentleman behind me might be disappointed what I'm about to say, I'm sorry, but if we're paying more salaries for a problem that doesn't exist versus if the cost is $0 from the city, if we don't enforce parking, right? We just went back to before, no enforcement. We're unfortunately probably not gonna pay those people working that office.
[Knight]: That's an expense. I will say this, that when we implemented the parking program initially, what we saw was an increase in the local meals tax. which showed that there was a problem, and that those spots weren't turning over. And with the enforcement, those spots did start to turn over. And then what we saw was actually enhanced growth and enhanced revenue in our business districts through the local meals tax, because those parking spots were turning over, those restaurants were selling more product, and in turn, we were getting more money.
[Merritt]: Okay, yeah, as long as it's not just a revenue side, but it's actually net revenue minus expenses, if that's the objective. And otherwise, if it's generating revenue, but it actually costs more to do the enforcement, even though you're generating revenue, that's not a good solution either. So I want to point out there's a difference between revenue and expenses.
[Collins]: Thank you. Thank you, President Burrell. Just in light of I think it's really helpful to get all these comments out in the open in light of the fact that we have a meeting on this tomorrow with city staff present. I just I just wanted to remind folks about that opportunity, and also to, you know, kind of bringing it back to the conversation on, you know where actual authority and. decision making power lies and where it doesn't lie. You know, I think it's really, really important that the council be sort of a filter through which we could hear what do people need from parking? What don't people need from parking? At the end of the day, the question of you know, do we have the capacity to think through parking policies, to contemplate parking policies like a commission did two years ago? Do we have the capacity to implement those? Those aren't decisions that this body makes. And I think we have to keep advocating for citywide capacity to not just think through those questions, but then to follow through on the findings. you know, I see that being a really important role of this council, our ability to take in these comments and use that to fuel our advocacy for, you know, a level of city capacity that can both ask the question and then act on the answers that it's given. And, you know, I just sort of wanted to end on that note, you know, in terms of my contribution to this conversation, knowing that we'll have a better format for this conversation tomorrow. with some of our parking department representatives here as well. Thank you. Mr. Paris.
[Bears]: Thank you. And just to, we actually got something in our packet tonight that the ARPA Medford Square parking meters was $218,000. So that's what, at least that's what the purchase order says. I don't know if there's other meters. That may have been the request and that may be, there may be other, Yeah, there may be other projects, but yeah, I mean, there's a purchase order that things were purchased, like 218,000 in ARPA has been spent on the parking meter. So I just, you know, maybe there's future expenses coming. Just to Councilor Collins' point, I think it's really right on. It's, you know, as of right now, as far as I can tell, when we're talking about net revenue for parking, we're actually worse off under this system than we were under the Park Medford system. Park Medford said, world raise up to like 1.6 you know we'll do up to 1.6 million and then we keep it and then we start giving you portions above that now they use that and I may not have all the numbers in my head exactly right but you know now as far as I can tell we are spending more than we're collecting, at least so far. And it's a new program and it's getting up to year and there's a lot of reasons why that may be true. But I think the point is well taken that Councilor Collins made that when we're talking about scope and goals and why are we making the decisions that we're making. A, that fundamentally lies with the mayor and B, there was a parking policy committee that was established and made a bunch of recommendations Almost two years ago now, the recommendations came out, and a lot of those recommendations didn't have follow through. And instead of having a comprehensive plan for South Medford and the Green Line extension, we have a last minute proposal at the Traffic Commission that's really negatively impacting folks. And instead of having a piece of this report that came to us tonight, it's for tomorrow, is talking about how when the director, and we were talking about being set up to succeed or set up to fail, even when the director came in, who I'm sure is gonna be the person that is here to answer our questions, that the administration is expecting to take the blame. The director puts in this report, when I started in October, 2021, I was shown an office and asked what it needed to be a good working space. To date, none of the major things have been done. So the office a year ago that she walked into before she was the parking director, when she said, here's what we need to make this a workplace that's going to work for the functioning of this department, for a year, the request that she's made, I assume to the mayor who runs this building, have gone unheeded. So, you know, we can point fingers, we can say, oh, it's the, you know, We can try to cast blame, but at the end of the day, the buck stops at one person in the city. There's one person who manages everyone else in the city. We don't have the authority to tell any department what to do. We can talk about things and try to hold people accountable and make suggestions. But that power, as I've now said in a couple meetings, lies with the mayor. That's what our city charter says. And unless, I mean, we can Monday morning quarterback anything, but that's where the decision making happened that brought us to this point. Thank you.
[Morell]: Any further discussion? So we do have a B paper before us from Councilor Scarapelli, who I can see in the hallway. So Councilor Scarapelli had the B paper to ask that the administration send a representative to our regular meetings, every regular meeting. Seconded by Councilor Collins. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. And on the main paper from Councilor Caraviello is seconded by? have ices and bears all those in favor. All those opposed motion passes to do dash 517 offered by Councilor Tseng the result of the city administration update the City Council on how chapter 180 of the acts of 2022 and act relative to equity in the cannabis industry in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision in the Haven Center Inc versus town of born might affect Medford Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Thank you, Madam President. The first item mentioned in here, the Marijuana Equity Act. That changes, what I've gathered from it is that it changes the role of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission with regards to host community agreements. It changes our city's or all municipalities' role in terms of certain certain updates when it comes to marijuana establishments, businesses, changes, how some of the more financial aspects as well. And so I don't have a full picture of what exactly those changes look like, but I do think it would be helpful for our council to get a better picture of what those effects might look like. And it's a similar story for the Supreme Judicial Court's decision, which basically we got a recommendation to review our zoning and normal ordinances. with regards to marijuana and with regards to making sure that the criteria in that court case serves as a basis for an update. for our own legislation, that's a lot of work for us to do. And none of us here are legal experts or zoning experts on these issues. And so we really do need specific help in order to understand these two big changes to cannabis in Massachusetts. And we need the specific help to understand if we as a council have particular work that we need to do in response to these changes.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Svang. Any further discussion? on Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Rural. I just wanted to say, I think this is a prudent and proactive measure. I thank Councilor Tseng for putting it forward.
[Morell]: Discussion. So on the motion of Councilor Tseng, seconded by Councilor, Vice President Bears. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Petitions, presentations and similar papers. Communications from the Mayor, City Officers and employees. 22-507 be electronic delivery to the Honorable President and members of the Medford City Council regarding food truck permitting. Dear President Morell and members of the City Council, on behalf of the below entity, I respectfully submit to the Medford City Council the following request for a food truck permit in the City of Medford. In addition to City Council approval, vendors are required to adhere to the Health Department food safety requirements. Bonnie food truck dates and time Sunday, October 16th, 2022 from 11am to 4pm location, Brooks Elementary School, Medford, Massachusetts event, Brooks Elementary PTO sponsored fall festival about the event on Sunday, October 16, 2022 from 11am to 4pm. We will be hosting a fall festival fundraiser that will raise money and provide a memorable day for our community. Additionally, we will showcase companies and organizations who are sponsoring our efforts. This will be our seventh annual fall festival and it is emerging as one of our most significant events, both for fundraising and community building. Our PTO raises money to provide enrichment activities for our students, support our teachers with supplies and enrichment kids and enhance curriculum, including art, music and educational field trips. Funding for these areas has been significantly reduced or cut out altogether at a district wide level. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Sincerely, Brianna Lungelkorn, Mayor. On the motion of Councilor Caraviello to approve.
[Bears]: I just appreciate that the Mayor acknowledged that funding has been cut significantly.
[Morell]: Yes, I do believe that was something that was transferred over, but thank you for pointing that out.
[Knight]: Well, every signature's on it, so.
[Morell]: Yep, fair point. On the motion of Councilor Caraviello to approve, seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor?
[Hurtubise]: Aye.
[Morell]: All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-518, the electronic delivery to President Nicole Morell and honorable members of the Medford City Council for Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and Alicia Hunt, Director of Planning, Development and Sustainability. Regarding 22-518, the Medford Housing Production Plan. Dear President Morell, thank you for the time and attention that has been paid for the Medford Housing Production Plan. As you are aware, this is a state recognized planning tool that under certain circumstances permits a municipality to influence the local- Madam President, motion to waive the remainder of the reading and move approval. On the motion of Councilor Knight to waive the remainder of reading and approval, seconded by... Madam President, roll call, please. Councilor Collins, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: I'm calling a roll because it's an official document going to the state.
[Unidentified]: comes to roll call. And this is to waive further reading and approve.
[Hurtubise]: Correct. Vice President Bears? Yes. Councilor Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Collins?
[Collins]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli?
[Morell]: Yes. I can't see him anymore. He had to take a phone call.
[Hurtubise]: OK. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Morell?
[Morell]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent, and zero in the negative. The motion passes. 22-519, communication from the chair of the CPC to President Nicole Morell and honorable members of the City Council, from Roberta Cameron, chair of the Community Preservation Committee. Motion to waive the reading of the Committee of the Whole. We do have Roberta Cameron with us tonight. Would anyone like to hear from her, or do we want to send this right to Committee of the Whole?
[Bears]: Can we get a short summary? Sure.
[Morell]: over to Cameron from CBC if you could just provide us a short summary of the document that you requested for us.
[Cameron]: Thank you very much. So the Community Preservation Plan Ordinance or Community Preservation Ordinance was adopted in 2017 before the Community Preservation Committee was appointed. And since then, we've had more experience about how the community preservation program operates. And based on that experience, we're recommending some changes, minor changes to the ordinance. Three items in particular. The first item is just to eliminate some, a procedure that's because it's unnecessary, because it would actually be preferable for us not to have Any procedure spelled out in our ordinance gives us more flexibility to be able to collaborate with the council and with stakeholders. And the other two are in order to simplify the process for appointing new members. One of them takes away a prohibition about members of other boards and committees that aren't the statutory boards and committees. serving on the CPC. The reason for that is because we might in the future have an affordable housing trust and might want to have a member of the affordable housing trust sit on the CPC. And there may be other boards and committees whose members would be valuable contributors to the CPC. And thirdly, we are eliminating some advertising requirements that were written into the ordinance, which have actually complicated our ability to recruit people to serve on the CPC. So we'd like to simplify that. So thank you for your consideration.
[Morell]: Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion from the councilors at this time? Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Morell, and thank you, Roberta, for being here tonight. It was helpful to have the recommended changes and the current ordinance language in front of us ahead of the meeting. Looking over it, it all looks very common sense to me. If it makes more sense to discuss it in detail on Committee of the Whole, I'm certainly happy to do that. Um, but you know, I appreciate the thoroughness, you know, getting a chance to see it at a time, and it looks like something I'd be happy to support. So looking forward to discussing it further.
[Morell]: Councilor, Vice Mayor Fares.
[Bears]: And Madam President, just given the relatively limited scope of the changes, I think it may be, we may even be able to do it to her. We'd add this with another meeting on the same night and get two things done at once.
[Morell]: I appreciate the scheduling recommendation. Any further discussion? So on the motion of Councilor Knight to refer to a committee of the whole as seconded by.
[Hurtubise]: Second.
[Morell]: Councilor Caraviello, all those in favor.
[Hurtubise]: Aye.
[Morell]: All those opposed. Motion passes. Moving on to.
[Caraviello]: Madam President. Councilor Caraviello. 22503, did we waive the three readings for the traffic supervisors? I don't recall that, yes.
[Morell]: The clerk does have an update on that.
[Hurtubise]: Did we wait three minutes? So Councilor Caraviello, we have an excellent question. On both the loan order for the water maintenance, which is 22503, it's an update on both of them. It's the same answer on both of them. For 22466 and 22 and also the traffic supervisors. you did waive future readings and then when bond counsel reached out to the treasurer and was putting together the loan documents, bond counsel informed the treasurer that process. Um. Any ordinate any city ordinance and any loan order is required to take three readings. Um unless it is advertised in full before the first reading, so, uh, it's going to have to take the normal three reading process and you will treat your votes from the last the next next week. I believe I believe it's the next meeting. Yeah.
[Caraviello]: Okay, so I just want to make sure I was I was I wasn't sure if that we did that. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you. So moving on to public participation. Anyone who would like to speak on any subject relevant to the City Council.
[Anita Nagem]: the MBTA's bus redesign proposal, which is still on the table. The revised draft is going to be released according to an article on boston.com by the end of October. I don't know if the City Council has sent any letters in, but I would strongly urge the City Council to weigh in. First, I saw last week that Mayor Rochelle Wu had just contacted the MBTA about the proposal with strong objections to changes on at least three of their routes. I've been in touch with Representative Sean Gargali from West Medford, who represents part of West Medford. He sent letters to the governor and to Steve Poftak, the head of the MBTA, general manager of the MBTA, urging them to delay a decision on this until after the election so that the new administration can weigh in. He urged, he mentioned that he is urging any other elected representatives to do the same. The public comment period did end July 31st, but Obviously since the local government is still weighing in, it is not too late and I would really urge the city council to weigh in. Every bus in Medford would either be rerouted or eliminated. I know in Hillside specifically, 96 would be rerouted away from most of Hillside, 94 would be rerouted to Burlington and reduced to the lowest frequency and the 80 would be eliminated. It would reduce service in Hillside and West Medford substantially. Many people in that area want access to the red line and Cambridge, not the access that they would be providing. And I really urge the city council to put in some comments quickly before this final draft is approved. is made public at the end of October. I don't know what the procedure will be, if there will be another public comment period or if the board will just vote on it, but please, please give some support. I believe we gave you copies of our 1600 signature petition from residents, but input from city government is invaluable.
[Morell]: Yes, thank you. And we have sent comments as a body and that we of course do once more and send individually as well.
[Bears]: I just want to, Mr. Clerk, can we confirm that they've received the comments that we sent them?
[Hurtubise]: I can reach out to them. I know that I sent that out to them, and I've had several conversations with them since. Thank you. If you'd like me to follow up again, I will. All right.
[Morell]: Please come up and name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hello and good evening. My name is Bruno Overstreet. I'm a student at Tufts University in Miller Hall. I do not know the exact address, my apologies, but I would like to say thank you so much for letting us and all the other Tufts students here in the back corner attend your City Council meeting. We are all members of a class at Tufts called Intro to American Politics taught by Professor Deborah Schulkraut. And we are here for an assignment, a civic activism essay. We were supposed to go out into the local community here in Boston to learn about our local community and engage. And we thought that joining a Medford City Council meeting would be an excellent way for us as students, a lot of us not from Boston, myself from Northern California, to get involved in the community. So on behalf of all the tough students here, we would like to say thank you. And thank you so much for all you do for the city of Medford.
[Morell]: Thank you for coming up, and thanks for coming out. Sorry, sometimes we have way more interesting ones. Sorry, this one was a little. We're a little subdued tonight.
[Bears]: If you've been here in June, you could have stayed till 2 a.m. But I just want to add two things. Thank you for coming out. If we're not letting you attend, it's a public meeting. Anyone can attend, and please register to vote.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you.
[South]: Good evening again. Steven South, 106 Damon Road. secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 25. I wanna talk about, you've heard some talk tonight about the state of the city and some of the things that are going on here. And I've heard several words on this side and a couple over here about, I heard the word crisis, I heard the word disaster, I heard unacceptable. And I just wanna talk first about all of the vacancies right here in this building, the most top level positions in the city, department heads and assistant department heads. And Councilor Knight talked about it briefly, but I wanna give just a little bit more of a description of what's going on. Vacant positions right now, chief assessor, assistant assessor, IT director who was terminated in January, The assistant IT director, who's also known as the network administrator, who was terminated last week while he's on workman's comp waiting for surgery. And I just want to point out that he was the only Muslim that works in city hall out of the many dozens of employees terminated. The elections coordinator who was terminated a few weeks ago after 30 years with the city. And the IT director that I mentioned earlier was, 24 years with the city. The assistant finance director who quit to go work for another community. The co-directors of the Consumer Advisory Commission and another employee in that department all quit at the same exact time. They all retired together. That department is dark. The assistant procurement officer, the assistant HR director, the building commissioner, the city solicitor and the assistant city solicitor, all top level positions within the city. And when Councilor Knight said this isn't happening in the other communities around here, I can verify that we represent all of the surrounding communities and this is only unique to Medford. So the question becomes why are all those positions vacant? And I certainly can tell you the wages and benefits are unacceptable. They're very, very, very low. I'll give you an example. The building commissioner, they've had it posted. They're trying to get even internal candidates to take the job. But the inspectors that work under the building commissioner make more than the building commissioner. So how would any of the inspectors who are qualified take that job and take a pay and benefit cut? Well, that's a union position now, the building commissioner. There's a serious lack of respect at City Hall, and the employees here live in fear. You see people walked in on a regular basis with two letters. It's quite a tactic. They walk in, they sit down, there's the people in front of them, there's two letters. One says, I resign, one says you're terminated. And they say, choose one. Today's your last day. I can name scores of employees that have walked into that. Talking about the wages, let's talk about this building. The department heads and assistant department heads in this building haven't had a raise in almost three years since January 1 of 2020. All of the clerical employees in this building and outside this building and other buildings that work for the city that just joined Local 25 yesterday, they haven't had a raise in almost four years. January will be four years since their last wage increase. So when I met with these employees yesterday, I actually, one of them was crying that she can't pay her bills, physically crying, hasn't had a raise in four years. The next question that comes up is with half the department heads and assistant department heads vacant in this building, who's running the city? Who's running the city? And the answer is it's contractors, it's consultants, it's KP Law. These are all for profit organizations that are running a large portion of this city. And I find it to be unacceptable. Something's got to change. Many in and out of City Hall are talking about the city going into state receivership. And I've asked that question at negotiations to the administration. They just sit there and look at me, no one will answer. But I will say this, that if this city is going into receivership, the council deserves to know, the residents deserve to know, the business owners deserve to know. And it shouldn't be something that we read about in the newspaper after it happens. If that's happening, we should know. And the last thing that I'll say is that I know that the wages aren't raising up in the city and the benefits aren't raising up and the city's asking all the workers, not to give them what they deserve, but asking them to give concessions, which is unacceptable. And the wages are not rising up, but the employees are. They're all rising up. They're all joining unions. on my hands and feet of who's not in a union in the city anymore. We've organized, I believe, five bargaining units just in the last 12 months. It's because people have had it. People are desperate. They can't take it anymore. Something has to give. I would encourage everybody in this room, in the chamber, respectfully, behind me, on Zoom, to contact the mayor's office and demand that the employees in the city be treated with dignity and respect, and that they receive a living wage and benefits. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you.
[South]: Mayor President.
[Caraviello]: Councilor Caraviello. I had a chance to read over what you gave us. I'm reading about the building commissioner. It says within the six months, the city has retained the building commissioner to perform bargaining. What is he bargaining for?
[South]: It's not bargaining, but performing our work. We represent the position of the building commissioner. But since it's been vacant, because the pay is so low, I believe the maximum pay is up to $109,000. The employees that work under that position make more than that. So no one's going to take that job. And the labor charge that we filed is, Now the city has has the building commissioner in Arlington coming over here doing some of the work of the building commissioner, but I believe it while while he's still building commission. Well, that's the problem. But what they're doing is they're saying, well, we can't pay him. because that would be double dipping. It would be a violation. So he's volunteering his time, which again, the city right now has many- Who's volunteering his time? The commissioner from Arlington, but just so everybody knows here, right now there's many open wage and hour federal lawsuits against the city of Medford. And that's just opening the door for another one because it is a violation of state and federal wage and hour laws to have someone volunteer to work for the city in that capacity. So it's just opening up the city to yet another lawsuit, but we have a whole bunch of them, so it probably doesn't matter.
[Caraviello]: So the town of Arlington has no problem with him working here in Metro while he's working in Arlington?
[South]: I don't know. I don't represent the building commissioner in Arlington.
[Caraviello]: I'm in this building two to three days a week, and I've never seen anybody in the building commissioner's office. I don't know when this guy works.
[South]: Well, he's coming here and signing pertinent documents and doing things that the inspectors are not allowed to do.
[Caraviello]: And like I said, I know you can't work with two municipalities at the same time because that's double tipping. Geez, he must be a hell of a nice guy to work for nothing. I agree. Thank you.
[Bears]: Madam President, if I may. You know, a little more, whatever it is, three years ago or so, something that I noted was we were forming a lot of volunteer committees, a lot of volunteer task forces, a lot of volunteer beautification days, volunteer beautification projects. And I think at the time, I don't remember if it was in council or not, somebody noted that we have a lot of serious problems and it seems like the solution is to get someone to volunteer. I did not realize it was actually to the level of we have a volunteer building commissioner. I just can't believe that. I can't believe that.
[Knight]: Thank you, Mr. So maybe you could explain to us what the role of the building commissioner is in the community and what role the building commissioner plays because it's my understanding that any zoning question and the city goes to the building commission, and the building commission is the one that makes the determination as to how those zoning decisions are made in this community. And we all know what a crucial role zoning plays in our ability to generate new growth. And when we're sitting here, beating our chest after $49 million of deficit spending over the last three years, and no revenue generation plan, it might make sense for us to prioritize this position, because ultimately the building commissioner is someone that does help generate revenues through permits and fees, and through rulings on zoning, as well as oversight of the code enforcement office, which is something that we all have had talks and discussions about in the past. Thank you, Mary.
[Morell]: Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Does anyone else would like to speak for public participation?
[Ducey]: Mary Anna Ducey, 2 North Street. I just want to add a little bit more to what Anita said about the better bus program. the consultants said that they collected input from 20,000 people about the buses. We, between Medford and Somerville, turned into the T, 2,026 on the petitions. In addition to that, we posted notices at all the bus stops and many people called in or emailed in on their own. Because I've met a few people that said, oh no, I already emailed in. So of the 20,000 that they've collected, I estimate that the Medford community probably had maybe 15% of what they submitted are probably related to what the Medford community collected. So I think that they should pay attention to what Medford citizens want. We should strongly, strongly support our Medford buses the way they are. We should not change those buses. And I think of all the greater metropolitan area, if the Metro community can contribute 15% of the comments that they collected, I think that says something in and of itself. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Any further? I say, do I need to do that again?
[Morell]: Every different item you speak on, you have to give it again.
[Merritt]: Please, Nate Merritt, 373 Riverside Ave. Regarding receivership, Chelsea, is that the closest community that was involved in that recently? Chelsea, Lawrence, Springfield. So I'm gonna throw wacky idea out here. I'm looking at you, Zach. You're the money guy. You're the numbers guy. Okay. If we can't pay our bills, okay, you go into receivership, there's some sort of restructuring that happens, right? Usually when that happens with businesses at least, right? Some people, you know, people lose work, people get fired or laid off or so on and so forth because there's, usually there's a plan and part of that plan is painful. What if there's no more Medford? We take the East side and it goes to Somerville, right? And we take the West side and that goes to Arlington. or Winchester, and we just carve it up. Take the land, dissolve it. I'm against it. I'm not saying anyone's for it. No, no, no, no, no, no.
[Morell]: Yeah, I mean, just.
[Merritt]: Yeah, where I'm going with this is unfortunately, I just want people to be careful that as far as services.
[Scarpelli]: We're not going to succeed.
[Merritt]: I'm not suggesting we had, but it also might be out of your hands.
[Bears]: If I may, Madam President, Mr. Mayor, you know, when I hear today about receivership, it actually mostly doesn't, I mean, we have financial issues to be sure, and I don't want to downplay them at all. When I hear the conversation about state receivership or state input, it's not even a financial question. When I'm hearing it, it's actually about management and the functioning roles of government. It's not even, it's not just, oh, we have a 25% deficit. You know, it's not about being bankrupt. And again, I don't know. I actually haven't heard anything one way or the other, other than the word has been put out there and people have said it may be a possibility. Beyond that, I haven't seen a communication from the state. I haven't heard that the city has received anything. So, you know, I don't know any more facts than anyone else in this situation. But when I hear it brought up, it's actually a question of is the basic functioning of government being accomplished by the people currently running the city, not a question of the financial piece. Now, I may be, you know, again, I don't have a piece of information in front of me that explains what the conditions would be or why they would come in or what it may be. I'd certainly be interested in seeing something like that or hearing more details on it. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's I'm not hearing it as the city's bankrupt. So that's why they're coming in. I'm hearing it as you know, we have a labor problem and things aren't being released and we have volunteer building, you know, that's where that's the context I'm hearing. So I just want to put that out there. We certainly have challenges. We certainly have issues short term and long term around the budget, but that's not where I'm hearing any sort of state input in governance. I certainly, if I had evidence to the contrary, I would, I would share it.
[Morell]: And to be clear, we're not hearing it through any official channels. It's something that has just been brought up. So just for anyone watching, like I don't want people to get
[Knight]: And I guess all I'm challenging is that... I think it was brought up through an official channel. I think the gentleman asked the mayor, right to her face, in negotiations, and she asked the team, right, in negotiations, and they haven't answered the question.
[Morell]: Sure.
[Knight]: One way or the other.
[Morell]: And nothing's getting to us, but I guess to your point, something not getting to us doesn't necessarily mean it's not happening, so.
[Merritt]: I guess I would ask you this, because I know you do a lot of homework, Zach. There's other communities that have gone there. What's the trigger? and maybe we can be proactive and not dig ourselves into that spot.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Anita Nagem]: Anita Nagum, Nine North Nav. Just one comment on the reliance on volunteer labor. It's all well and good to have volunteers doing things, but the problem is that it results in no accountability. And I have seen the increased reliance on volunteers, and I really have strong concerns about lack of accountability. And I really think city employees or employees of the city should be responsible for many things. Volunteers have no accountability, and it leaves the citizens with no recourse.
[Morell]: Thank you. Councilor Knight and Councilor Caraviello.
[Knight]: And I agree with you 100%. I mean, ultimately, especially what we're seeing in the committee trend right now is I don't want to make a decision. So put a committee together and have them do it for me. Right? I don't want to make an unpopular decision. So I'm going to put a group of people together to make an unpopular decision and say, don't blame me. That's what they said to do. Right? It's a leadership issue, really, is what it is. It's a leadership issue.
[Morell]: Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you. I think Councilor Knight put it. Government by committee doesn't work. Anything by committee doesn't work. And so we have these people here. We have KP Law working for us that has no vested interest in this community. Well, they work for the city. They work for the city. They're negotiating for the city. They have no vested interest in this community. And now we have a building commissioner who's volunteering that has no vested interest in our community. That's, I mean, we've had people that have worked here, they've been department heads for many years, have lived here. They had a vested interest in what goes on in this community. This is where this, again, the volunteers, I'm telling you, I'm really baffled with this volunteer building commissioner. I really am.
[Unidentified]: Going to Eunice on Zoom, name and address for the record, please.
[Browne]: I'm sorry, Eunice Brown, 48 Greenleaf Ave. I'm changing the subject a little bit here regarding boards and commissions. I emailed all of you over the past week or so and sadly never got a reply, but we currently have sitting on the historical commission, a Malden resident. Um and I've brought this to the attention of the mayor and as I understand it and I was encouraged to see as I read the um uh new ordinance um that you sent to committee of the whole earlier that uh for the that there was going to be a residency requirement for that. Um as I understand it right now. Currently there is no residency requirement to sit on any of the Medford boards and commissions and the individual sitting on the historical commission from There is no law that says she can't sit there. So it'd be something that I would like to see addressed. The mayor has told me that the only way for that to be changed and for a residency requirement to be added would be through the city council.
[Morell]: That's not true. The mayor can absolutely remove people.
[Knight]: Point of information, Madam President?
[Morell]: Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Also, it's important to remember, Ms. Brown, that some of these committees and boards are statutory and when you not necessarily backed by ordinance but but enabled through state law and in the majority of those circumstances and situations a residency requirement is outlined for example of a malcommissioned Brooks Commission the Brooks the Brooks Bar and the like. So it's important to remember that there's also state statute that covers and dictates a lot of the stuff that our ordinances support.
[Browne]: So through the chair then, I don't know, we have maybe 20, 25 boards and commissions. So what you're saying then is that some of them inherently, because the statutory do require residency and some of them do not and if that's the case how does one find out which ones do require a residency requirement and then of the ones that do not how could that be who has the authority to change it to make sure that there is a residency requirement to sit on boards.
[Knight]: As the authority through a regulatory action to establish the protocols and criteria for which a member of a board of commission under her purview would be fit, residency can be one of those selective criteria that she uses.
[Browne]: Thank you.
[Scarpelli]: Point of information if I can. Another avenue would be to contact our city solicitor.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[Scarpelli]: Our city solicitor?
[SPEAKER_10]: Exactly. When we get one. When we get one.
[Bears]: Who is the perfect response to that question? Yeah, I mean, the other thing is that the charter gives the mayor near unilateral authority over boards and commissions. Yeah, I mean, we talk about making decisions or not making decisions, and it seems to be it's another one where there's just not a decision being made. by the person who could.
[Browne]: I guess I'm sorry to the chair. The reason I'm confused is that she's bouncing it over to you. You guys are bouncing it over to her. I'm confused.
[Morell]: We don't have appointing authority on that board. We don't have removal authority on that board. So I can assure you it's her and not us. Yes, there is the ability of the council to write an ordinance around it. But if this is something that bothers you and you want done tomorrow, the mayor can do that.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you.
[Morell]: On the motion of Councilor Knight to adjourn, seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favour? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Meeting is adjourned.
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