[Morell]: The 31st regular meeting of the Medford City Council October 11 2022 is called to order Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Announcements, accolades, remembrances, reports and records. Records, the records of the meeting of September 27th, 2022 were passed to Councilor Caraviello. Councilor Caraviello, how did you find them? On the motion of Councilor Caraviello is seconded by Vice President Bears. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Reports of committees 22-503, September 27, 2022 subcommittee on housing report to follow. That is the chair of Councilor Collins. Councilor Collins, you have a report from that meeting.
[Collins]: This was the meeting about the draft housing stability notification ordinance on which we'll be meeting again. Motion for approval.
[Morell]: on the motion of Councilor Collins to approve seconded by Councilor Knight, all those in favor. All those opposed motion passes to do dash through one and two dash four to one September 28 committee of the whole report to follow this was a meeting with the parking director on a number of updates and parking issues that are being serious the new parking department in the city on the motion of Councilor nicer approved the committee report second by bears all those in favor. All those opposed motion passes 22-297 October 4 2022 subcommittee on climate sustainability and transportation report to follow. This was a meeting of the subcommittee to hear from PDS director Alicia Hunt and go through the climate action and adaptation report to see a number of measures that the council could take under consideration. Do I have a motion? Motion approved. On a motion of vice president bears to approve second by second. Councilor Tseng all those in favor. All those opposed motion passes. 22-496, October 5th, 2022, committee of the whole report to follow. This was, remind me.
[Bears]: Draft comprehensive plan.
[Morell]: This was the meeting on the draft comprehensive plan on the motion of Councilor Knight to approve, second by. Second. Vice-President Bears, all those in favor. Aye. All those opposed, motion passes.
[Tseng]: Madam President.
[Morell]: Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Motion to take paper 2245, 452 out of, 542, sorry, out of order. We have a few people in the audience here to speak on the paper.
[Morell]: On the motion of Councilor Tseng to take out paper 22542, which is communications from the election manager, correct?
[Tseng]: That's what I'm seeking?
[Morell]: A motion of Councilor Tseng, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-542, a communication from the elections manager. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, William and Frances Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth, warrant for a 2022 state election. Good evening. Would anyone like to wave the reading in favor of a brief synopsis from the elections office on the motion of Councilor Tseng for a brief synopsis from the elections office in lieu of reading the paper. Second, my Councilor probably yellow. All those in favor. I always oppose motion passes. Name and address the record, please.
[Elections Manager]: Hi, I'm Melissa Ripley. I live at 27 being terrorist in Melrose. Thank you for having me, letting me come in here today. Very excited to be here as the elections manager. Today before you, I would like to ask you to approve the warrant for the 2020 state election, which is November 8th. The elect, the paperwork in your packet shows the words and precincts that are available for the voters this year. It also gives a synopsis of all the things that will be on the ballot.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. Just to confirm a couple of things, I think most folks by now are familiar that there's going to be four ballot questions statewide, which we'll be considering, but I also noticed that there were two ballot questions here that are non-binding that are local ballot questions, questions five and six. I just wanted to confirm that questions five and six will be on the ballot in Uh, are they in every district or they're not in every district? Could you tell us?
[Elections Manager]: They're only in two districts.
[Bears]: Could you say which ones there?
[Elections Manager]: Sure. Let me just pull it open here so I can show you. Sure. Okay. Question five. This question is not binding. It is in Ward one precinct one and two Ward two precinct one and two Ward three precinct one and two. Ward 4, Precinct 1, and Precinct 2.
[Hurtubise]: Is this just the State Reps District? Which one? The 34th? This looks like all of them.
[Elections Manager]: So number 5 is all. Number 6 is limited to the wards and precincts. So as you can see, the different wards and precincts are a little different.
[Bears]: So that would be in the Barber District and the Donato District?
[Unidentified]: Correct.
[Bears]: OK, so question 6 is just not on the ballot in the Garbally District.
[Unidentified]: correct.
[Bears]: Got it. And then could you just let if you have it available, let folks know when early voting is going to be available and where it will be available.
[Elections Manager]: Sure. We're still working on the early voting, but the early voting is required by the state to be October 2nd through November 4th. It is likely the early voting will be here on the weekends. We are required to do six hours each weekend day for early voting. So probably 8 32 30 on both Saturdays and Sundays. The last day to register to vote will be October 29th. The office will be open until five o'clock for people to register to vote. However, early voting will only be 8 32 30 that day. During the week, early voting is available during regular business hours of City Hall.
[Bears]: Great. And then my last question is on mail balloting. I know it's a little different for the general versus the primary. So for the general, if I'm correct, and correct me if I'm wrong, ballots will be accepted as long as they're postmarked by Election Day.
[Elections Manager]: Yes, they will be as they will be accepted as long as they're postmarked by Election Day, and they need to be here within a certain time timeframe after the election, so we can allow for counting.
[Hurtubise]: Great. Thank you.
[Elections Manager]: Thank you.
[Tseng]: Second, Councilor.
[Elections Manager]: That's what I was just saying.
[Tseng]: Just to clarify, by Election Day, does that include Election Day for the viewers who are watching?
[Elections Manager]: Yes, so it needs to be postmarked by the election day. And if it's not a mail-in ballot, it needs to be here by 8 p.m. Otherwise, we have a couple of days after, so we can count those ballots and receive them.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you for the discussion from councilors. On that motion to approve from Councilor Knight, I second it by vicers and bears. Yes. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you both.
[Bears]: Senate President motion to revert to the regular order of business.
[Morell]: On the motion of Vice President Bears to revert to the regular order of business as seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-521 offered by Vice President Bears. Be it resolved by the Medford City Council that we celebrate Italian Heritage Month this October and recognize the massive contributions Italian and Italian American people have made to Medford, our country and the world, as well as the rich cultural diversity, history, and vibrancy our city owes to the Italian American community.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. I think the resolution is relatively self-explanatory, but this is Italian Heritage Month, and it's obviously a time to celebrate the contributions of Italian and Italian-American people to our city here in Medford. As we know, Medford for a long time has had a vibrant Italian community, a place for immigrants from Italy to come here, and then for many generations to raise families, and we can see the impact in our business community, government, culture, everywhere in our city. And I think it's a great time to recognize Italian Heritage Month. So I would motion to approve and to join with Councilor Tseng's paper 22-525. Thank you, President Bears.
[Morell]: Going to Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Thank you, I would second that motion, first of all. In prepping for tonight, I thought of a conversation I had with one of my college mentors, who was a proud Italian American, and he knows Taiwanese culture really well, so my family background. And we had a long talk about the values that we share in common, which are family, community, hard work, amongst other values. And in Medford, we're extremely fortunate for the rich involvement of Italian Americans in building our city from, as Vice President Bears has stated, from teaching to public safety, work like plumbing and healthcare, public service and beyond. I just wanted to say I really appreciate that here in Medford I grew up learning about Italian culture, learning the language, learning about Italian foods, and being able to do my little diorama of Galileo's project, which is something I've come to realize outside of Medford is not such a common experience. And I think Medford's past and present proves that these values, family, community, public service, hard work, they are fundamental to who we are as a city, and that the contributions of this community, of the Italian American community, have really shaped who we are, and that they prove that this is larger than any one person. It's really about our community as a whole. So thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Any further discussion from the Council?
[Knight]: Councilor Knight. I do believe, oh, it must be about a year and a half ago now, this council passed a measure and we sent it to the administration and shocker, never got a response. But what we asked for was the administration to analyze the feasibility of creating an Italian-American cultural district in South Medford to commemorate the contributions of many of our Italian-American residents here. When you think about people like Ernesto Martini, Alfredo Russo, and the likes, people that really made a big difference in this community over time. We've asked the administration to look into that. Year and a half might have gone by now, and we still haven't received anything from it, from the administration. So I know it's only been a year and a half, and it's usually about three years before we get something back from the administration. But I'm hoping that maybe we can put a reminder into the administration as maybe a B paper or as an amendment to this paper. I'm asking for an update from the administration on the feasibility of creating an Italian American cultural district as passed by the council previously.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. President, I just want to thank my two councillors for putting this on there. I'm very proud to be an Italian member of this community. Both of my parents are Italian American, my grandparents are. And again, I'm glad we're going to recognize the all the things that Italian Americans have done in this community over the years. So I stand with Councilor Knight. I mean, I think I was a co-sponsor of that with him, to have something to recognize the Italian community, but as we see, nothing ever came of it. But I just want to thank my two councilors for putting it on there. Took a little bit of heat from the public, because the two Italian guys didn't put it on.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Any further discussion from the council?
[Scarpelli]: Thank you. Thank you for my fellow counsel putting this forward as a first generation American who has a very deep and proud tradition of our Italian culture. I appreciate bringing this forward, but I will tell you to say that the Italian American community isn't is still a little unhappy in our community, not because of a name change of a school, but because of the discussions of not following through with really celebrating an Italian American and making sure that our community wasn't forgotten. It's something that I appreciate my colleagues bringing this resolution forward so we can mention it again. I appreciate Councilor Knight and Councilor Caraviello for that initiative they did put through a year and a half ago. But again, I guess if it's not forefront in the news, it's really not a true issue in this community. So it's disheartening for Councilor Caraviello person like myself that parents came to this country from Italy to make make their their roots to settle their roots and look at follow the American dream. And and Medford has done that for sure for my family. We're very fortunate that my mom and dad have now passed on but left us. We leave them at the thanks of everything they've done for us and how they taught us to work hard and really have pride in who we are. And I think that, I just hope this community and this administration follows through what they're saying and what we talked about just a few short years ago, because it seems like it's a culture that is easily forgotten where one time the Italian culture and the Irish culture in this community built it for what it is today. Why so many people love this great city. So thank you.
[Tseng]: Um, I just, I just wanted to thank Councilor Knight for the bee papers. Um, that's that's an issue. That's an initiative that I, I would support. Um, I actually, about two years ago, I was in San Diego, which has its little, little Italy. I'm sure President Morello is familiar. I was actually very touched by, they had signs on the roads, on lampposts, talking about different Italian-Americans and their contributions to both San Diego and to the country. And it'd be very nice if we could have something like that here in Medford, celebrating the contributions of Italian-Americans to our community. Perhaps something even more local, more Medford-based, since we have such a rich Italian-American history here. Um, but again, I support that idea.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng any further discussion from the council. Mr. Yeah, it's a big paper. I just see Mr. Castagnetti is rare to go. Name and address for record, please.
[Castagnetti]: Andrew Castagnetti, Christian Street Method Mass. I want to thank the council for bringing celebrating the Italian Heritage Month. And I appreciate that. In my opinion, I might be a bit biased, but Italy, the Italian people's probably the greatest contributors to the world worldwide. And they'll live in worldwide too. From the depression days when they had to get out of the country because they couldn't feed themselves. A few examples of their great leaders would be Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Ferdinand, Galileo, Marconi. It goes on and on. Miracle versus Gucci and we're named after that as the Americas. Thank you, Councilor. And Italian cuisine, as a matter of fact, where my folks come from, I'm not first generation, I'm half generation. I was born in Cambridge. I didn't speak English until I started kindergarten. I spoke another Italian dialect, one of thousands with all the mountains from the Alps down to the boot heel. The first gastronomical university in all of Europe was in Bologna, Italy, which is near Venice and Milano. And to a lot of us, Italo-Americans, the greatest of them all was the most courageous explorer of all time. Cristoforo Colombo, who said that the world was not flat, he would not fall off it, and he would get to the other side, but he was blocked by a couple of continents in the central, which became America. Imagine the courage on this guy, the stones, saying the world was wrong. And unfortunately, the King of Italy did not back him, or else it would have been all Italians in Central America. So Queen Isabella gave him the Nina Pinto and Santa Maria, and so be it. However, it's most unfortunate, and it saddens a lot of we residents that the Christopher Columbus School was delisted, the name was taken away. And mind you, that was done during the so-called Corona 19 pandemic when the world was shut down and we could not even attend the meetings live in person, mind you. I would have loved to have that opportunity to say a few syllables. I don't know why they took his name down to this day and destroyed statues. It makes me ill to think of that, the disrespect. They're saying that he's bad, he's a bad man, but no one's shown me any document that he was convicted of any crime and therefore was a felon. I don't see it. All I hear is rumors. I mean, can all our politicians that were elected, can they truthfully say that they're not felons? Here, next door, Austin, Washington, D.C.? Again, I thank you, Councilors, for bringing up Italian Heritage Month, but I wish Columbus was back on the school. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. Gassig-Knight. So we will take the B paper first. So the B paper from Councilor Knight to get an update from the administration on the proposed or the idea of Italian heritage district in the city of Medford, correct? Cultural district. Okay, on the proposed Italian American cultural district. seconded by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. On the main paper that was joined with 22-525, just seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-525 offered by Vice President Bears. Be it so resolved by the Medford City Council that we send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of former State Senator Salvatore Albano On his passing, Senator Albano was a great public servant for Medford, representing the second Middlesex district and passing major legislation to fund the public education, improve community health, and support seniors struggling with the cost of prescription drugs, among many other accomplishments. Be it for the resolve that we dedicate this meeting in honor of Senator Albano. Vice President Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. Sal Bono was a state senator for several years, representing the second Middlesex District, which is followed by Senator Shannon who we recognize on an annual basis thanks to Councilor Knight and Senator Jalen, who currently serves in the seat. While he was a senator, prior to that, he was an alderman in Somerville, involved deeply in the Somerville community activism around building highways and preventing highway construction, improving schools, and building community in Somerville, then went on to win a sticker campaign, a write-in sticker campaign to serve as senator for several years, worked on major legislation, as noted here, around funding public education, supporting seniors, improving community health, and generally bringing his experience as a family man, businessman, and community activist for the benefit of everyone in this district. He passed away a few days ago, and his wake was yesterday, and there's going to be a memorial service next year. I encourage folks to take a look at Senator Jalen's Facebook page, where she issued a much longer memoriam kind of history and memorial statement. But he served our community well, and I think it behooves us to honor him and send our condolences to his family and friends. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Vice President Bears. Any further discussion from the council? So on the motion of vices and bears as seconded by Councilor Knight, all those in favor. All those opposed, motion passes. Do you want a moment of silence or just we'll dedicate the meeting? Okay, please rise for a moment of silence. 22-523 offered by Councilor Caraviello. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council offer congratulations to Sergeant Barbara D. Cristofaro for being promoted as the first woman sergeant of the Medford Police Department. Councilor Caraviello.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you, Madam President. Congratulations, Barbara, on a great achievement today that held up many years.
[Caraviello]: And I'm proud to say she's the first woman sergeant on our police force. So thank you for the chief for promoting her. And again, Thank you, Barbara, your friend, and congratulations on your appointment.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Councilor Naik.
[Knight]: Madam President, thank you very much and thank you to Councilor Caraviello for putting this on. I've known Barbara DeCristofaro for as long as I can remember growing up in the same neighborhood. Friendly with her father, Jerry, for a number of years. He was a great guy. It's glad it's great to see Barbara pursue this promotional opportunity to be appointed by the administration to position sergeant. And I think it's important that you know the brass and our police department is reflective of the population that we serve. So with that being said, I'm hoping that I reach out director will take steps to encourage minority and female police officers to take these promotional exams. for Barbara to be promoted the first female sergeant in the city of Medford in the year 2022 is kind of showing that our internal recruitment is lacking. And we have many talented police officers that are here in this community that would help make the brass in our police department reflective of the population that we have here. But we have to encourage those individuals to apply for the civil service exams. We need to provide them with the tools necessary to study for the civil service exams so that they'll be in a position for being one of the first.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor. Any further discussion from the Council? On the motion of Councilor Caraviello is seconded by second Councilor Tseng all those in favor. I suppose motion passes. Congratulations, Sergeant DeCruz. 22-524 be it so resolved the Medford City Council recognize walk, bike and roll to school day celebrated this year on October 12. That's Wednesday, October 12, and reaffirm our commitment to making routes to school safer and more accessible for all methods of transportation. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Morell. I'm excited for the chance for this council to recognize and for the community to celebrate Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day. This celebration is a project of a coalition across Massachusetts. Tomorrow, I have the opportunity to take part in a bike to school caravan, which I'm very excited for. But I think that these celebrations are, you know, really take on more meaning when they're tied to action and a commitment to policy. So I think it's great that we're recognizing the folks that do already take advantage of multimodal ways of getting to school and doing so safely and encouraging that as part of an active lifestyle for our school-age community. And at the same time, I think that it reflects the responsibility that city administration has on this body has to making sure that we're putting forth. Policies in the programs as with as much urgency and speed as we can to make sure that our infrastructure. our ability to, our shared ability to get to school, to work, to wherever safely through all modes of transportation, increased cycling infrastructure, protected bike lanes being just one piece of that project and making sure that we're allocating the city resources to actually live and protect that vision, not just celebrate it. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Collins. Vice-President Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor Collins, for putting this forward. I know that Safer to School and Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day has been a major initiative of a lot of parents and volunteer activists in the community who have organized the day. And I just want to acknowledge all their efforts as well as say that we've been focused on the, you know, we've implemented now two Safer to School programs. We've received grants from the state to implement it. It's a real priority. and I think it would go really well with the city taking on a Vision Zero plan to prevent injuries and fatalities on our streets, which is really essential. It's very important to me personally, and I think important to anyone really anyone who's ever been on a street and knows that the dangers that folks face. So we've put forward a couple of resolutions around a vision zero plan. Also haven't received a response to those resolutions. So just want to, seems like we've got some Councilors down here. Thank you. But you know, I would really like to see a response from the administration around a Vision Zero approach. There's federal grant money available to implement Vision Zero. And I think that would go along with the spirit of this resolution. So thank you, Councilor Collins. And I second the motion to approve.
[Morell]: Any further discussion from the council?
[Knight]: Madam President, as part of this paper just like an update from the city administration is Council beers mentioned, we had a $1 million grant project that was funded for the safe routes to school, and that created a bike lane from maybe halfway up the hill on high street to the work school, but part of that project also reconfigured the intersection at Wilbur Street high street. And since that time, property, personal residents that have bought including flooding, drainage issues and the like. We've seen McKay construction out there at least six times since this project was supposed to be completed. So I'd just like to get an update from the administration as to what the status of the drainage issue is on the corner of Woobin and High Street and how much money the city's expended since the completion of the $1 million grant project and remedying the design defects and on property damage claims since this project's been completed.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Council Member for bringing it up. I've been involved with that project since it started. If anyone's driven by, notice it got dug up again for the third time. Put back, and then if you talk to the city engineer and the company, they're telling you that they don't think this is going to work anyways. I don't even know why they dug it up again, did it? But I urge the engineer not to sign off on this until the It's proven that it's going to work. And the other issue is the neighbors be made whole. They've got lawsuits, and they're just pretty much being ignored by either the state or the contractor, which isn't fair to them. They're spending money on legal claims that they shouldn't have had to do. And when you talk to the guys there, they'll tell you that the pump-out comes out too far because it diverts the water into their house instead of away from the house. I'd like to, I know the project is done again. I don't know what the final outcome, but I've, I've urged the engineer not to sign off on this until sometime find out if it actually works because they're doubting that it's going to even work.
[Morell]: I do just want to add, I want to thank Councilor Collins for bringing this forward as someone who bike commutes to work whenever I can, I mean it's it's terrifying as an adult to ride on the streets. It doesn't have to be that way. So I think programs like this, I mean infrastructure is really what we need, but programs like this go a long way, especially just announcing at a council meeting letting people to know, you know, pay extra attention to Martin's going to be a lot of kids, a lot of families on the roads. doing what they have every right to do, taking their bikes, walking, rolling, whatever they can do to get to school. So on the motion of Councilor Collins, as seconded by vice chairs and bears, all those in favor. Oh, sorry, as amended by Councilor Knight, seconded by vice chair and bears, all those in favor. All those opposed, motion passes. So 22-526 offered by Councilor Tseng, be it so resolved that the city council recognize October as domestic abuse awareness month, Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Thank you, President Morell. October is Domestic Abuse Awareness Month. Domestic abuse is a issue that unfortunately touches a lot of residents in the city, in the state, around the world. And I think it's important for us to be able to speak more openly about it as a society and to talk about the effects of domestic abuse, to talk about trauma, and to talk about mental health. Um, I was fortunate enough to be, um, at a, um, event with the Metro Police Department and Portal to Hope with Councilor Caraviello, where we learned a lot about how, um, trauma, we can use trauma to inform the work that we do in the workplace and as elected officials in our policies, which, um, really starts by listening and understanding. this is, of course, a very serious issue, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to bring some light to it on the council.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilor Tang, for putting this on. Like the Councilor said, himself and myself, we attended the Puddle of Hope conference at the police station, and I want to thank the Chief being proactive in this, and people don't know, Puerto Rico has an office in the building to help women that need it. I've been involved with Debbie Fallon and this group since its inception some years ago, and she does a great job with the program. And it's a shame that, you know, when we were there that day, you know, they get up there and they recognize that have passed this year, Justin read a few names, I read a bunch of names, most of all of us read names, people who died senselessly from domestic abuse. In fact, talk about today, I happened to go to the police station for something else and there was a young woman in there and she was filling out for something and she was crying and during that And before she left, I says, you know, I says, I hate to let you know that I overheard what you're talking about. I said, do you know that Port of Life has an office in this building? So I didn't know. And I gave her the card and said, oh, thank you for the help. And so just, you know, just a shame that, you know, see this young woman, you know, just fairly recently married, saying they're crying at the police station looking for help. And again, it's just a shame that this goes on in our country. And there's so many reasons for it. Like I said, like Councilor Tang said, you know, they had a psychologist and they spoke about all the things that women have to go through and how they have to hide from their husband. And it's just a shame that this even goes on in a civilized country. And again, I thank my council for putting this on and shout out to Debbie Fallon who started this bulldog program many years ago. I'm proud to be a partner with them in that program, so good. Thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Any further discussion from the Council? On a motion of Councilor Tseng, seconded by... Councilor Caraviello, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. The next one is for me. I will read unless anyone is opposed. Great. 22-527 offered by President Morell, whereas Godfrey de Corso Chevalier, born on March 7th, 1889, grew up on Bradshaw Street and Summit Road in the city, whereas as a 1906 graduate of Medford High School, he was a standout student athlete and leader, whereas he was a graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1910, whereas on October 1st, 1910 he single handedly rescued 16 sailors from drowning in New York's Hudson River after the barge they were riding overturned in high winds, whereas he was appointed naval air pilot number seven in November 1915 and would go on to train notable aviators Richard Byrd and Wilmer Stultz, whereas he committed the first naval aeronautical detachment to reach France during World War One at Dunkirk Maintaining the station despite constant enemy bombing, he later was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. Whereas in 1922, he was attached to the USS Langley, which would become the Navy's first aircraft carrier in connection with fitting her out. Whereas on October 26th, 1922, he flew plane number 606 and Air Marine 39B onto the Langley as it was underway off Cape Henry, Virginia, marking the first American landing on a moving aircraft carrier. Whereas on November 14th, 1922, He died at the Norfolk Virginia Naval Hospital as a result of injuries sustained in an airplane crash during flying maneuvers two days earlier, whereas the city of Medford dedicated the new Chevalier Auditorium in his honor on March 7, 1940, on what would have been his 51st birthday. Be it so resolved that the Medford City Council recognize the contributions of Godfrey Chevalier, dedicate this meeting to him, and ask that the administration proclaim October 26 as Godfrey Chevalier Day in the city of Medford. I think this paper speaks to for itself and all the contributions, Mr. Shabali has made to the country, as well as being a Medford native son. And this came through from Ken Krause, who's the treasurer at the friends of the Chevalier and Gene Mack, Jim, and I would seek a motion for approval.
[Knight]: Can you just explain what the significance of October 26th is?
[Morell]: I believe as October 26th being the date that he flew the plane, landing onto the, the first American landing onto a moving aircraft carrier. I think there's a number of dates we could choose from, and that was the date requested by the friend of the Toralea.
[Bears]: Okay, perfect, thank you.
[Morell]: Vice President Bears.
[Bears]: Madam President, thank you. If we could just amend it to say that he was born on March 7th, 1889. Otherwise, he was a incredibly talented seven-year-old.
[Morell]: Thank you for captioning that, Vice President Bears. Any further discussion from the council? So on the motion of councilor Knight to move approval as amended. Second by Councilor Tseng all those in favor. All right. All those opposed. Motion passes.
[Bears]: Madam president.
[Morell]: Vice-president Bears.
[Bears]: Motion to suspend the rules to take paper 22-532 as well as our public participation papers.
[Morell]: On the motion of vice-president Bears to take paper to suspend the rules take paper 22-532 as well as our public participation papers as second by Councilor Tseng all those in favor.
[Unidentified]: All right.
[Morell]: All those opposed. Motion passes. 22-532 offered by vice was embarrassed be as a result by the Metro City Council, the city request that the August a bush slash Budweiser facility on 440 Riverside Avenue provide significant additional mitigation to residents on Sydney Street to address the impact of noise light and traffic on local families.
[Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. It's come to my attention that residents on Sydney Street are facing some difficulties with the facility Budweiser facility, both temporary and permanent. There's some temporary changes that have moved a lot of idling trucks and things right into people's basically right across the fence from their backyard. You got folks looking, you know, whether intentionally or unintentionally, you know, you're looking right into people's houses. There's a lot of noise, a lot of, you know, just negative impacts on the residents of Sydney Street. And then also some long-term mitigation would be welcome. Basically all that the facility has said that they would do is they'll put up a, you know, kind of something on the fence, a solid barrier, which really isn't enough to mitigate the noise and, you know, other impacts of that. So I do know that we have some residents here who are interested in speaking on it, and hopefully we can communicate with the facility to get a little bit more support for those residents.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Vice President Bears. Name and address for the record, please. Hello, my name's Nadia Puriforia. I live at 42 Sydney Street. Good evening, City Council, and thank you, Zach Bears, for the invite. So I've lived there since 2005, and basically, it's right behind my house, and there's not been many issues. We've just dealt with light noises through the years, and they've been pretty good neighbors. But just as of this past summer, we have a pool right in the backyard, and they are apparently working in the parking lot. but they move their trucks like literally behind our backyard and I have five young girls I have a swimming pool and there's men out there at their lunch breaks and they're parked like along the fence and now since they're doing work in the parking lot they put their actual trucks like right along our fence and it's day and night you get the trucks unloading it's a loud bang it could be two in the morning Um, in the back of the trucks, you can see cases of beer that's just right there visible. Like it's just, uh, beyond being, um, an ugly eyesore. It's the noise, the lights go right into my girl's bedroom. And last summer they, um, I did speak with the mayor and she called them because originally there was a lot of trees, but the trees were dead. So they cut them down. And they said they'll put this like cloth sheet up and it basically lasted a couple months fell down. And I did speak with the mayor again over the summer and she said she would contact them and they put up a little cloth sheet. It's just literally behind my house and it doesn't do anything. There's still people coming out for lunch breaks. It doesn't do anything with the noise and also the pollution, the trucks are like literally running nonstop. So I was hoping for the house next to mine has like pine trees behind her house and you really can't see the trucks, you can't see the light, it helps with the noise. I did bring pictures along if anyone wants to see them, but we're hoping either for a wall or something more permanent, because this really isn't helping things. And it's once again, like I said, the privacy, the noise, Um, I'm just, I don't know who's in that parking lot. So, and I have seven children, so there's a lot of, um, my friend, their friends coming over and stuff. So I was just hoping for something to happen. Thank you. I don't know if I leave these.
[Morell]: Yeah, we can. Yeah. Okay. Do you want to come to Carlyle?
[Bears]: Our city messenger is out tonight. So he would normally grab it.
[Knight]: Yeah. Madam President, the city clerk be so kind as to investigate report back to the council as to whether or not BJ says any special permits extended our permit. So like, I think one way that we may be able to address this is by bringing them in and saying this is an issue that's going on in the community and you have a permit. and we don't like what you're doing, so we're gonna take a look at your permit and see if we can put some restrictions on it to safeguard the neighborhood. This has been an ongoing issue since I got on the council, between Budweiser and BJ's, you know what I mean? Tough neighbors, you know, large employers in this community, valuable neighbors, you know, bring some good to the community, no doubt. But you have to live there, I don't, right? And you know, I know where you live, I know where your house is. It's not a little tiny little street, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not exactly- It used to be a once peaceful, now I just, you know, I don't even wanna go in my backyard anymore.
[Knight]: Well, when it's warm, if you don't wanna go and use your pool, I will. And I don't care about those crummy old men over there with their beer. I'll watch them and they watch me. No, I think that the best bet would be to see if we can call the brass in for BJ. We've tried this before. I mean, ultimately, I don't think it's gonna help situations that we are right now in the middle of litigation with BJs because we didn't want them to put a gas station in. So there's a lot of moving parts going on with that location, but I think that the special permit might be the best way to attack it.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, and thank you, Mr. Pierre, for coming out and let us know. Again, my recommendation, if we can have our code enforcement officer there on a daily basis, because money talks. So every time we see a violation, we should be taking these violations. And if it happens three, four times a day, then they should be taken three, four times a day. Like Councilor Knight said, it's getting frustrating for us that when you talk, try to have a conversation or work together with these bigger companies, falls on deaf ears and it's frustrating. So I think if we can make a recommendation that we ask a code enforcement officer to make, you know, two trips a day and, you know, really have a pipeline that Mr. Purifori can call them directly, and when you see and hear a violation, that we call them right away and they come right over. I've had issues with something as simple as a construction project going on in Fulton Street that we had neighbors, trucks were parking on the sidewalk, kids were trying to walk to school, so we set it up that The constituents that saw something, they called me, I called the code enforcement. After the fourth ticket, there hasn't been a truck parked on Fulton Street on the sidewalk. So I think that if this is how you have to do it, this is how we have to do it. It's frustrating, but it's the only way that I see it. We've asked him to come in to talk to him, his partners. And between BJ's and Budweiser, there really hasn't been much of a partnership. So if we can do that, that'd be something that I would recommend. So thank you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. I think to that point, it's more than five minutes of idling is, you know, it's against state law. So it's not even Medford, it's state.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. I was going to bring that up, but under federal law, anything more than five minutes is a violation of the admissions there. Were you there when we had that walkthrough? Like, like before five years ago we did, we had agreed to hold me right on the property there. We walked through and I know a little bit of something got done I know it wasn't done to the satisfaction that we right but I'm Scott was right. I think we need to find out. what laws they're violating, and yeah, cite it in the park book, and that seems to be the only language they recognize. And if we need to have another committee of the whole meeting down there in person, so be it. Just to let them know that we are serious about that. And it's not fair that they park all those trucks there all the time. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: how it's the trucks, but they said it's because- Are they doing what, working the parking lot out there? Supposedly, and they said the trucks will go back to the original area and their cars will come back, but I'm still concerned because they're out there in their lunch breaks and they put their chairs against our fence and it just- Yeah, so that's not fair. Yeah.
[Caraviello]: Yeah, I think they're right. I think the only way to hit them is in the park book. And I say we have the court of course, McDonald, go down there and let them know about what's going on down there. Even the violation of the federal admission standards.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, those are definitely running through the night. Five minutes is five minutes is definitely longer than five minutes.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Vice Chair Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you to my fellow councillors. I think we have a lot of great options. I think we'll reach out to them and see if we can get something. If they respond to us at any sort of time, maybe we can get some mitigation done right away. Excuse me. And if not, we'll look at, things are just falling from the sky today. We'll look at the special permit and the fines. And I think Councilor Morell and Councilor Carpio's point about idling is a major point as well. So we'll see what we can do.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then do I just appear by email or?
[Hurtubise]: I'll keep you in the loop on anything that we hear back.
[Knight]: I think it is important to point out, though, that this is really a function of the administration. I remember when Mike McGlynn was the mayor, he'd get in his car and drive down there and say, I want to meet with the general manager. He wouldn't pick up the phone and call him. He'd say, this is what I want done, and go down there to meet with them. If you're not getting that type of service, you're not getting that type of service, and we'll do all that we can. But ultimately, this is an enforcement issue, not a legislative issue. So the administration has to buy into this. And if the administration wants to see it stop, then they have to send their people down there. They have to send code enforcement down there and they have to hold VJs accountable. This council can't do that. We can call them to the meetings and we can try to work on the permits that fall under our purview. But when it comes to the day-to-day operations of the community and code enforcement, that's a department that falls under the building commissioner. for an administrative branch and executive branch department, the mayor has to get them down there. And we can ask until we're blue in the face. But if a track record of asking is any indication as to what the administration is going to do, this is going to go on a file like this big right here.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Knight]: And we're not going to we're not going to hear back because that's historically what's happened. We've talked about it all day today in our previous meetings as well. We had a subcommittee meeting today to talk about two pieces of draft ordinances that we've asked for. The first one was offered in 2019. It was a two-sentence draft ordinance that needed review. The administration didn't get back to us. us. The second item was offered in 2020 was a little bit more involved but again the administration still hasn't responded to us. So these are items that this council is asking for for us to create legislation in this community, and we're not getting any, any cooperation. So my advice to you would be also to be sure to stay on the administration and let them know your level of dissatisfaction, because they're really the only ones that can solve this We're ready to fight with you. Thank you. I appreciate it. And use as much authority and power that we have. However, that scope and authority is limited under the purview of our responsibilities.
[SPEAKER_04]: Because we want to stay in our homes. Right. Exactly.
[Knight]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a great quiet street.
[Knight]: It's a great quiet street. It is. Only one way in.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yep.
[Morell]: Well, thank you for everything. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Knight. So on any further discussion from the council on the motion of vices and bears as amended by Councilor Knight and Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor?
[Bears]: Aye.
[Morell]: All those opposed? The motion passes. Thank you, Mrs. Perlman. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Have a great night.
[Morell]: Yes. Yep. We have, we have two papers that were submitted beforehand and then we'll open it. I know there's some other folks. as well. So we'll go to the papers and the agenda and then we'll go to other folks here as well. So just making sure so public participation just making sure I'm starting at the right place. So to the Honorable City Council the undersigned respectfully pray parking meters in front of my house on 135 High Street and also in front of St. Joe's School and Church petitioner signature Rita Bartholomew 135 High Street is Rita, Rita, please come up. and then we already have your name and address for the record, so go right ahead.
[KttEmL8hj40_SPEAKER_01]: Okay, well, I just want to say, first of all, thank you to Councilman Caraviello for addressing the issue as promptly as he did, and the rest of the council. I was really quite upset to go out on a Saturday morning and see that I had parking meter pole in front of my house. I don't think that they belong in front of private residents. I don't think that they belong in front of a church or a school. for me personally, if the meter is there and I have to park in front of my house, I have to run out all day long and feed a meter. If my family members want to visit me, they're going to have to do the same thing. So I was really upset that the city would do something like that. And I'm just hoping that, you know, once you all revisit it, that I won't see a meter in front of my house, but I do want to thank you and for, you know, doing whatever you just did and worked your magic so that the meter was not put in. So thank you very much.
[Morell]: Thank you, Ms. Bartholomew. Councilor Caraviello then Councilor Knight.
[Caraviello]: I think, I think someone else wants to speak.
[Morell]: Oh, okay. On the same, on the, do you want me to go to the next parking paper or Councilor Knight?
[Knight]: So Rita, does this mean you're not going to go to the celebration on the completion of the Medford square meter project ice cream truck that the mayor wants to do? I agree with you, and I know Councilor Carvialo and I had spoke on this, and Ricky was telling me how involved he was in working with Faye and the administration to get those taken out. It seems like the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing a lot of time. Thank you, Madam President.
[Morell]: There's someone else on that paper, Councilor Carvialo?
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Madam President. Mr. Bartolomeo called me on Saturday, and in all honesty, I didn't notice the polls were up. She called me and told me, I went by her house and looked, kind of astounded that they went down as far as they did, uh, blocking school. And I was even more shocked when I saw it was going to be four in front of St. Joseph's church. You know, so, uh, listen, you want to put meters in that's fine, but don't put them in front of people's houses. And especially you don't put them in front of houses of worship. I never, I mean, we do have some scruples in this community. I hope to do that. And, um, and, um, I got a call from the church eight o'clock Sunday morning. I got a call from the school Monday morning, and I think I notified all the Councilors on Sunday that this was happening to stop planning on getting calls. And when I sent the message to the mayor, the mayor told me she wasn't aware of the parking meters going in that far. Um, at which point, you know, I told her that the gentleman was out there putting heads on the meters then. And within an hour, she said that, um, they, uh, they finally had called someone to the department. They stopped and they took the heads out. But, um, and they did continue to put them on. But, uh, driving today, I noticed that the polls are still on Boynton Road. Boynton Road is a residential street. put meters on residential streets. I don't know what this department is thinking anymore. Tonight, there's going to be an approved have a party to celebrate this great achievement that we've done here. I just don't understand it anymore.
[Knight]: Thank you.
[Morell]: Any further comments on this paper?
[Knight]: Yes, Madam President, I just think it's important to point out that, you know, Back in FY21, when we looked at the $6 million structural deficit that we had, and then again in FY22, when we looked at the $12 million structural deficit that we have in FY23, When we look at the old $700 million or so dollar structural deficit that we have, one of the things that I made very clear during the budget discussions was that we're not going to use the parking program to generate revenues and fill our budget shortfalls. And I feel like that's what's happening, right? We're expanding the park. Now, three weeks, three weeks in a row, four weeks in a row, four meetings in a row. We've had talk about parking right talk about parking talk about failures in the parking department, ticketing people but not supposed to get tickets going down the wrong street and giving everybody on the same street a ticket. Now the expansion of meters into residential neighborhoods the expansion of meters in front of churches and places of worship and schools and funeral homes. All right, it seems to me like we're trying to use this parking program to generate revenue. to address the structural shortfall.
[Scarpelli]: Point of information, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe the conversation we had with the administration was a new growth was 1.8 million and 1.2 was directly from fees and fines of, so I think it's public. I think that from what we were told back in those meetings that this is a process to raise revenue for our community, which is disheartening to me, right?
[Knight]: I'm sorry. And, you know, the packing program when first initiated and first implemented was to turn over spots in the business districts and to enforce residential packing in neighborhoods that were budding public transportation areas. that's expanded now into ninjas jumping out of trees and giving you tickets on if you're facing the wrong way if you don't have an inspection sticker if you have an expired sticker on your license plate uh you know it's it's getting it's getting a little out of hand yet um we get the residents on brook street that have been never-ending problem that's not going to be rectified anytime soon um parking still comes and gives them tickets um there's really no And there's been no dynamic amendment of any of these policy decisions that have been made to satisfy any of our constituency. And it just seems to me like the reoccurring theme, if you agree, it's great, we'll hug. If you disagree, it's gonna fall on deaf ears and no one's gonna talk to you.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Mayne. So moving on to our second petition for public participation, The Honorable City Council, Councilors, the undersigned respectfully pray for. I would like to talk about the residential parking issues caused on Marion Street with no more residential window stickers being issued, no visitor permits in the windows, out of state plates, and no tickets being issued for any violations to discourage repeated behavior. How are residents to know who is and is not supposed to be parking on the street without resident decals, petition signature, and T. Campbell, 75 Marion Street. And again, we have your name and address for the record, so please go ahead.
[SPEAKER_21]: That would be me, Ann Campbell, 75 Marion Street. And I have an addendum to the previous statement because I work at St. Joseph's School. So I have a little aside to that last issue. Last spring, I had called the mayor's office and requested a trash barrel be put at the bus stop right in front of St. Joseph's School. because people that get on the bus right in front of our door can't bring food or drinks on the bus. So the mayor's office said, oh, well, you'll have to call the DPW to request a trash barrel, which I did. I called the DPW and I said, we need a trash barrel at the bus stop. And they said, oh, well, I'm sorry. You can't have a trash barrel at St. Joseph school. You're too far outside the square. We can't do a trash pickup there. So we're too far outside the square to get a trash barrel, but we're not too far outside the square to generate tax revenue with a meter. So that kind of confounded us when we had the meters installed there. So that was just kind of an aside that was a little bit insulting to us last week, but I'll let that one go. So anyway, my issue was residential. I live on Marion Street, which I have for 57 years. We became a residential permit parking street three years ago. We recently have had a major uptick in people parking on the street without permits. So I watched the council meeting two weeks ago and Faye Morrison was not able to stay. So I couldn't ask the question then, but she made a comment that residential stickers for the windshields are no longer being used, which I was not aware of. And she also said that there's no intention to bring those stickers back, which I also did not know about. Well, how are we supposed to know who is and who is not supposed to be parking on our street? You don't know if you don't see the decal in the window. Well, she said, the enforcement scans the parking license plates. Well, there is no enforcement because I don't see any tickets on any cars on the street. And I haven't in months and months. There was the other day for the first time and I can't tell you how long. Now, when we had Park Medford, I could send an email and they always responded. They always came down if you sent an email. I didn't even know who to address things to. So I went on the website and I found George Bernoski's name. and I found a telephone number. So I called the phone number listed on the website and it said, one phone number said, we'll call you back as soon as possible. I got no response back from that phone number. So I called the other phone number which said, we'll get back to you within 24 to 48 hours. That was on September 22nd. I still have not received a phone call back from parking department. Then I decided to write an email to George Barnosky on September 24th. I still have not received a response back from George Barnosky to my email. So I'm getting no response back to my questions.
[Knight]: I'm pretty sure George Bernoski is like the media repairman. I think his title is like supervisor of media repair or something like that. I don't think he has any type of function that has to do with the supervision or the issuance of tickets. I think he's more of a a meter fixer, oversees the meter repair program. If it's my recollection, I remember when the mayor put out one of her many emails about her new hires that she classified.
[SPEAKER_21]: There were two names listed on the website for the traffic and parking. So he was the one I addressed it to. He didn't answer back. And there's also a permitted street listing. Marion Street isn't listed as a permitted street, and we've been permitted for three years. So possibly that's why we're not getting any enforcement. I don't know. How often do they update the website? I have no idea, but we're not getting enforcement. We have lots of cars that I don't think belong there because none of the neighbors recognize them. We have no decals in the windows, so we couldn't report them if we wanted to. What are the neighbors supposed to do? I don't know. But there's no intention to bring the decals back. How are you supposed to know who's supposed to park on a street where the neighbors pay for the decals, pay for the permits to park there, but anybody can park there and they don't have to pay.
[Hurtubise]: So I'm just a little confused by it all. So I'm just looking for some assistance for myself.
[SPEAKER_21]: I don't even have to get the decal because I have off the street parking for myself, for my tenants and for the neighbors across the street that don't even have driveway. I let them park in my yard on street sweeping days. but not everybody has that luxury. But because I'm the one that requested the permit parking in the first place, I go and I get the stickers. But it's not working anymore. It used to work, but it doesn't work anymore. Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you. Thank you for coming out. But I sense your frustration. since our last meeting, talking about traffic and parking since we had the director on for a half hour to answer questions. We've had about 30 phone calls and emails. People have called me. One thing we've recommended that maybe we stop, we reset, we educate both the enforcement officers and the community. I think that that's what a responsible community does when you're unveiling such a huge, impactful scenario like traffic enforcement. Um, to say that we don't need the sticker anymore. These are questions we had to ask, too, and we were cut short, too. We didn't realize I know that Councilor Morell did. President Morell did a great job even getting the director here just for, you know, a half hour. And we were told what before the meeting that she was leaving at seven. And after her 30-minute presentation of a presentation she sent us, and then listening to just a few people, there's so many questions still need to be answered. This is frustrating for everyone, yourself, us, because we don't know what to tell you. That's what the sad piece is. And I don't blame the traffic enforcement officers that they hired, because it's not their fault either. You know, when you have three people on the road in the city that met with size and they added all of these residential streets and sidewalks and streets and roadways and said, okay, now let's police those areas. It's impossible to get to Marion street in a daily basis, let alone a weekly basis. So maybe it is wrong. Maybe they don't have it. We had a resident come up and tell us that they ticketed 40 tickets on one street. And when they asked the question of what problem was, They gave them the wrong street. They weren't even on their street. They named a street that has a car wash on it and that's it. So that just tells you the frustration. And I know I get a phone call from a resident said that they were actually, they were enlightened that the enforcement officer came down the street and gave warnings. We asked, instead of giving the ticket, why don't you just give a warning so they can, the residents can be proactive and correct the situation. And the director, I believe the director said what, that the dogs would attack them if they get out of the car and gave a warning. I guess that dogs are very scared of tickets, just like us. So they won't attack with the tickets, but with the warning, they won't. The resident called me, said he had a conversation with the gentleman that came out and said, well, the director said that she was not going to give warnings. And they said, that's not true. And we were all in the meeting saying, I'm a little confused because the dog doesn't know how to wag the tail. So it's getting frustrating. So, and again, I will call, I would love to call another meeting, a Committee of the Whole meeting where we bring city administration, a traffic enforcement director back out in front of us to answer some of these questions that still have yet to be answered. And, you know, the situation at St. Joe's, if it wasn't for Ricky's phone call and reaching out and getting everybody involved, they'd be meters there. and people be getting ticket and towed. So there's a lot of questions still have to be answered. There's a lot of concerns in this community about a traffic program. So I apologize. I wish I had an answer for you. My recommendation again would be to, review, do an audit of all of these concerns that we have with our residents, with the director and her team, to see what we can do to mitigate any future concerns. Because I can't imagine how bad this is going to be once we have to park on one side of the street or the other. And how are they going to enforce this? It's going to be a real scary winter. You know, this is just a prelude to what we're seeing. So again, I wish we could do more. We feel your frustration. But again, all we can do is, you know, maybe ask for another meeting with the director, because it seems to be that that's the only person that can answer our questions.
[SPEAKER_21]: And a half an hour wasn't enough.
[Scarpelli]: No, it wasn't. I agree. And we told them that. And Council President worked her tail off just to make sure that she was here. So it floored us when we heard that we have a half hour and there were 30 people waiting to talk about some, you know, just to get an answer, just like you did. So. And unfortunately, you're here today to express that question. And we can't really give you the answer that good or bad, because at least we can have closure if there was someone that could give us something. And I don't have much faith you get that phone call, by the way. I apologize for that.
[Hurtubise]: No, I noticed that.
[Scarpelli]: But I would really try to call the communications department, the mayor's office, chief of staff, and ask their guidance on who you should call, because you've obviously tried the numbers that were there. So that would be my recommendation. All right. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you for listening.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Going to Councilor Kalas and Vice Mayor Bears.
[Collins]: Thank you, President Merlin. Thank you, Ms. Campbell, for being here tonight and to the other residents that are speaking about their experiences with parking. The last time we spoke about this, Yeah, I know, I'm like, what instance was it? I made the comment, I think something along the lines of, you know, wondering because of the volume of complaints that we've been getting about residents' experience with parking and also complaints from within the parking department itself, from the rank and file and from the leadership wondering, was this department set up to succeed or was it set up to fail? And listening to, you know, the resident experience, you know, the new parking rules as they're filtering through the residence experience. It strikes me that, you know, something that my dad used to tell me about writing is, you know, you can't brainstorm and edit at the same time. You can't write and edit at the same time. And I know from conversations with director Morrison that there's, sorry, this whole circus going on over here. I'm a little distracted. I don't know what's going on.
[Morell]: And also, my advice was embarrassed. I'm rapidly losing my voice, so I apologize for continued distractions.
[Collins]: That's okay. You know, you can't write and edit at the same time. And I know that it's a huge mantle to spin up a whole new city department from nothing, you know, from a contractor that I think, you know, a lot of sources have said was mismanaging our parking system in the city beforehand. But it brings me back to that same question about was this department set up to succeed? Was it set up to fail? Is it even conceivable that a project of this scale could be started and refined and take back resident feedback and be guided and be modifying what it's doing all at the same time. And it seems like that isn't really happening based on what we're hearing from residents. And I know that, you know, it's our parking department staff that's executing the work on a daily basis. But, you know, we get very strong city communications about certain topics from our city administration. about certain types of events and certain types of updates and certain types of developments in the community. And, you know, I'm really upset about the adverse effects of the new parking program on residents when they've been burdened by this and when they felt unheard. But I'm also upset that the city administration isn't stepping up and taking more of the of the Brunton more the responsibility for directing this, um, in the way that I think it's their responsibility to do so. And so you know, we seem to have a great capacity for communicating about certain types of developments and certain types of updates in the city. And I think I think we're past due for seeing more of that capacity spread to the parking department, not just that it's more fair to the rank and file parking staff, the ones that are charged with just executing. the protocols, but also for the benefit of the residents who months later are still struggling to stay up to date with what's already been said about what we can expect. Why is this happening? When is it going to change? Is it going to change? Thank you.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Councilor Collins made a point, but was this program set up to fail? It probably was. You know, you open a department of this size, and the administration touted, what a great job did they get it up and running in such a short period of time. Well, it wasn't a great job getting done in a short period of time. The program needed more time to be refined and figured out what had to be done. Again, for the members who weren't here, when Park Metro came in, Park Metro came in at a bad time. They realized they made mistakes. They stopped. They took three, four more months and figured out what they were doing wrong, what was wrong, and they fixed it and rolled the program out again. This program doesn't want to admit that it's made any mistakes. And it's made many mistakes. One of the questions I wanted to ask last week was, When they were ticketing all the streets, all the cars on the streets with wrong addresses, what about all the people who just didn't have the time to appeal to them and they just say, hey, I'll pay the $25 because I don't have time to go to registry. I don't have the time to say, hey, maybe I was wrong and just pay the $25. Are any of those people getting their money back? No idea, no idea. And again, you know, like I said, calls are still coming in all over the place from all different parts of the city. And again, it's a program that was put out with a bum's rush and instead of the thought that it took to put the, especially with the meters. Well, it was a bit, at the end of the day, when it was all done, the answer that came back was, it was a miscommunication. another miscommunication. There's been a lot of miscommunications. Again, Councilor Scott is right. We made a motion a couple of weeks ago. Stop ticketing people until you figure out that we're doing it right. Let's get the program fixed. Don't keep going in a bad direction. Sheila's on Marion Street, which is a pretty crowded street. I grew up on William Street, which was the next street. Wait till the train station comes in over there. She's within walking distance of the ball street, of the ball square station. What do you think, people aren't gonna be parking in our neighborhood then? All over Winchester Street and all those surrounding streets? There's not even any talk about that when that station opens up, coming down the line. And nevermind about the station at Tufts. all those hillside streets are gonna be, and all those streets down in College Ave are gonna be people walking, parking the cars and walking. There's no talk about doing anything over there. So again, I think it's time that we stop, that this program stop and reassess and figure out what is doing wrong and let's figure it out and do it right.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. I mean, sorry. No, I still have. There's still another.
[Bears]: If I may, from the chair, just add a couple of things. One is that I can't remember when we filed. I filed it or we passed it, but we have requested that the traffic and parking decisions and rules and regulations actually be posted on the city website. They're currently not, which would be helpful. And then as pertains to these specific issues, if possible, Mr. Clerk, if you I think that maybe we'll get an answer since you haven't received a response. Maybe we will get one faster.
[Hurtubise]: But that's just something I was going to say before I came up to be the chair. President Morales.
[Morell]: I'll be brief because I don't really have a voice, but I also do just have concerns. I mean, things like putting in meter heads that need to be immediately removed, that costs money. What kind of money are we losing? I mean, these are costly mistakes. At a department that I understand needs a certain amount of funding to get up and running, but this is stuff that's easily avoided. So that just gives me great pause.
[Bears]: Any further discussion on this petition? Any other folks who'd like to speak public participation is open. Please come to the podium.
[Hurtubise]: Yeah.
[KttEmL8hj40_SPEAKER_01]: Read about how we won 35 High Street. The day that I put the meters and after I spoke to Mr. Caraviello, I called mayor's office. I called parking, um, talking director and, um, I went to Miss Morrison's office and someone from her office called and said that it was not the jurisdiction that I needed to call Chief Buckley, that it was traffic. So I called traffic and they weren't aware that there were any meters installed anywhere in the city. And they said that it was not the jurisdiction that it belonged back over to the parking. So I called parking back and told them, you know, you're probably going to get a lot of phone calls because You're telling people to go to traffic and traffic is telling them to come back to you. I called the mayor's office and I did get a response from her administrator that said that they weren't aware of the meters either. And my thing is somebody had to authorize it. Somebody had to sign an expenditure to pay for it. And nobody knows what's going on. And nobody wants to take ownership for it. And for myself with a meter in front of my house, it's awful. And it's also, I'm not thinking of selling my house, but if I were, who's gonna buy a house with a meter in front of it? I certainly wouldn't. So between the church and private residents and nobody knows what's going on and wants to take ownership for it, it's just crazy. So somebody had to sign to pay for people to come out, to put the poles in, to pay for the man that was out there ready to install the meters. I don't know. It just doesn't make sense.
[Bears]: Thank you. I can tell you for a fact that the mayor is the person who signed off on it because there was an ARPA expenditure that basically we're using federal ARPA funds to fund this meter project. And she's decided that the council has no involvement in how those funds are going to be expended. So if it was approved, it was approved by the mayor.
[KttEmL8hj40_SPEAKER_01]: And for us, parking is a big deal because High Street's a busy street. We have the library right next to us. We have the church across the street from us. We have to deal with snow emergency. So we have to get our cars off the street when there's a snow emergency. So technically we can park on Boynton, but even at that, we have two apartment buildings on High Street too. There's just way too many cars and not enough places to put them. So last winter, and I've lived in my house for 38 years, so I'm not new to the neighborhood. I've lived in Medford all my life. And so a couple of the snow storms, you know, we parked on Boynton, people were parked on both sides. No one got ticketed, nothing happened, even though there's just the parking on one side, but the parking is so very limited that people were parked there, so we parked there. Nothing happened. First snow storm, nothing happened. Second snow storm, Third snow emergency, everybody was parked on both sides and all of a sudden we go out in the morning, cars are towed, they're ticketed. There's just no consistency. You can do it one time and nothing happens. You do it the next time and your car's towed and you're ticketed. So I don't think anybody knows what's going on with our traffic and parking at this point. At least before you knew, okay, this year you park on that side, next year you park on another side. but you don't know what to do anymore. So that's my two cents. Thank you.
[Bears]: Thank you Sarita. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to get a cost on, what a cost to put in all those poles, those extra poles that weren't necessary, the cost of removing them, and we bought meter heads for all those extra poles. Where are all those meter heads now that aren't going on, that we're planning on going on? Are the poles going to be removed from Boynton Road? There's still meter poles on Boynton Road on both sides. Are those going to be taken out? How much did it cost that we put them in? How many extra meterheads did we buy that we were probably another 30 more meterheads that we probably didn't have to buy because we didn't need them all. So I'd like to make that in the form of a motion.
[Scarpelli]: could we do it as a resolution next week? We'll do it on the ice cream truck. We'll do it on the ice cream truck. There are other items on parking.
[Caraviello]: We'll hold it later, but that's a concern of mine, how much money we spent on all those extra meat heads, installing those poles and taking the poles out.
[Bears]: Ian. There's a couple more items on parking that we can attach it to later in the meeting. All right, those were the two public participation.
[Scarpelli]: We do have community participation. I have a source. I know we have a resident that wants to come up and speak.
[Bears]: Again, this is public participation on any topic if you could just have your name and address for the record please.
[Mark Chubbs]: Mark Chubbs, 356 Winthrop Street. I've owned the property there for over 40 years. I'm a lifetime resident of Medford. My family's been in Medford for over 150 years. Very proud to be a Medford resident. Thank you, City Council, for your time. My house is directly in front of the Eversource Movement to Everett project, which I supported a few years ago and I still support it. I came before the council a couple of years ago, and then first developer tried to push the project through. I'm recently retired from the utility construction industry. I firmly support infrastructure upgrades. Country needs it. Medford Police Department has been fantastic with traffic enforcement, directing traffic, helping us in and out of our driveways. McCourt Construction Company has done a fantastic job. When they leave their jobs Saturday night, there's not one stitch of trash on that road. My issue is, We've been annihilated with a rodent problem since that street was dug up. I put three calls into Eversource, have not received any phone calls back. I did not speak to McCourt. I felt that the chain of command would be to go to Eversource first. I spoke to some of the city councilors here and this is the direction I'm going in. But again, the Medford Police Department has been phenomenal with moving traffic. It's a very busy street. It's a very busy intersection. And the contractors have been very, very helpful, McCourt. just want to bring that to the attention of the city council that there isn't houses I've had to hire on. a pesticide company and we have traps everywhere. I have three small grandchildren, small pets, so I'm concerned. Thank you for your time.
[Bears]: Thank you for bringing that up. I know that there should be rodent control mitigation, so I'll go to Councilor Scarpelli on that.
[Scarpelli]: No, I think that that's whenever we're doing, we made sure, especially with the problems we've had with the rodents, that there should be some mitigation in the agreement. So unfortunately, we can't do it because of public participation, but we could do is file a resolution next week to have all the city departments, the health commissioner and our city engineer that oversees the project to look into making sure that there's some whatever's in place needs to be in place and then and shared with the council so we can get back to you and your neighbors so they they can know something's being done. So I again especially when you do we talked about this whenever the roads are being open we know that we're going to have uh a manifestation of rodents and that's why we made sure we put those uh those those uh plans in place to mitigate that so hopefully we can remedy that for you but thanks for coming up and sharing that Mr. Chubbs. Thank you.
[Bears]: Thank you Councilor Scarpelliio. President Morales.
[Morell]: Thank you Vice President Fares. Yeah and I was speaking with Mr. Chubbs earlier that I did reach out to the um director of the Board of Health because we this council did pass an updated ordinance related to pest management. And part of that does call for an integrated pest management plan from anyone doing large construction street opening projects and I would just, you know, at the next meeting I'd be curious to know from the director of the Board of Health programs like ever source that were negotiated, you know, seven years ago at this point. and this is a recent update to the ordinance, are they something that they automatically opt in or do they exist in this gray space because these projects were negotiated so far back? So just kind of saying it out loud, noting to myself when this comes up on the regular agenda. So thank you for coming out once more.
[Bears]: We don't have Larry tonight, but someone could write something up on paper and grab signatures. We can do it under suspension tonight. Sure. If you want, I'd ask Larry to pass it around.
[Scarpelli]: Larry? Well, wait a second. Maybe something will come out of the sky.
[Bears]: Yeah, I mean. So we can do it next week. All right, that's fine. That's fine. Okay, we can do it next week.
[Morell]: And I did already reach out to the director.
[Bears]: Right, we'll follow up. We'll put a resolution on it and we'll follow up. Okay.
[Scarpelli]: We're still under suspension.
[Bears]: We're still in public participation. Any further public participation from members in the chamber from residents in the chamber or anyone on zoom? Do we have any hands raised for public participation? Seeing none, any motions on the floor?
[Scarpelli]: I know I still have one on the on the suspension. Yeah, I know that we have our director here that under unfinished business 22-466 our loan order for water meters. I know it's up for its third reading. So if we can move that along.
[Bears]: So paper 22-466 loan order water meters. We pass this for first reading on September 13th. It went out for its second reading and the transcript advertised September 29th and it's eligible for third reading tonight, October 11th. This is the project to update all of the water meters.
[Scarpelli]: Second.
[Bears]: On councilor's motion to approve 22-466 for third reading, seconded by.
[Scarpelli]: Second.
[Bears]: Seconded by councilor Scarpelli.
[Hurtubise]: Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Morell]: Yes.
[Bears]: Yes, I'm in the affirmative, none in the negative. Motion passes and loan order is approved for third reading. Thank you. Any motions on the floor? We have anyone from National Grid? Yes. Motion of Councilor Knight to take paper 22-505. It's on a motion, we're under suspension, so. 22-505 legal notice petition for grant of location, National Grid, Inc. of North Andover, Massachusetts. You are hereby notified that by order of the... Great.
[Scarpelli]: We could motion that we have the petitioner give a brief synopsis.
[Bears]: Motion to waive the reading for a short synopsis by the petitioner of Councilor Scarapelli, seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favor?
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Bears]: Opposed? Motion passes. If you could recognize our representative from National Grid, Mr. Clerk.
[Cunningham#]: Good evening. My name is Diana Cuddy from National Grid 40 Sylvan Road, Waltham, Massachusetts. I'm here requesting a grant location for main replacement project due to water work by the city of Medford. We needed to relocate part of Medford, Walnut Street and Medford Street. So it's about 730 feet of pipe that will be relocated on Walnut Street and 690 feet of height that will be relocated on Metcalfe Street.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Council request that pavement restoration be done in a curb-to-curb fashion. Oh, sorry.
[Bears]: Hold on a minute. I have to open the public hearing before we open. Okay.
[Knight]: Well, I mean, it's a question.
[Bears]: I have to open the public hearing before we answer questions, sorry. Public hearing is now open. People in favor of the petition. Is there anyone here in favor of the petition? Please give your name and address for the record. That'll be you, Diana.
[Cunningham#]: Yes, I am Diana Cuddy, National Grid 40 Sylvan Road, Waltham, Massachusetts.
[Bears]: Anyone else here in favor of the petition? Seeing none, this portion of the hearing is closed.
[Hurtubise]: Anyone here in opposition to the petition? Seeing none, this portion of the hearing is closed.
[Bears]: Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: So it says that this is a, what, a replacement project? A relocation project? They're relocating the gas main on Walnut Street, why?
[Cunningham#]: We're getting out of the way so the city can come in and do some water work. They'll come in after we do our work and they will be repaving the streets.
[Bears]: She said that the city is doing water work. They're getting out of the way. So the city water main works.
[Knight]: You're off right now. Similar to the work necessary on Riverside Ave, sounds like. Well, you guys don't necessarily want to do this, but they have to do water works. Are you going to get out of the way?
[Cunningham#]: Yes, it's on Metcalfe Street and Walnut Street. It's approximately 730 feet on Walnut Street, from south to summer, and 690 feet on Metcalfe Street.
[Knight]: That's a lot. So is the restoration going to be done curb to curb, or is it going to be one of these six inch trenches out to the middle of a street that in six months is going to fall apart and turn this into 600 feet of potholes?
[Cunningham#]: So the city will come in after our work. we're as part of the project we're going to walk this site with the city engineer to do whatever short term patch, they're requiring when we get when we apply for the permit, and then the city will come in after us, dig the street back up again, right where we moved our pipe over so that they can do some water to see my notes as again, some water, water supply. work by the city method and then the city will go back and pay the street.
[Knight]: Does this have anything to do with the loan order that we just passed? No, no, right. We have it as a city engineer available.
[Hurtubise]: Mr. Clark, do you have anyone from the city engineer's office or from DPW on the phone?
[Bears]: Motion of Councilor at the table seconded by seconded by Councilor Starbelli. Motion to table is non-debatable. Ms.
[Knight]: Cuddy, this is no reflection on the job you're doing. It's more of a reflection on the information that the administration provides us when they put these papers on the agenda. So, you know, here we are this evening and we're, you know, expected to vote for seven football fields worth of ground getting torn up and we have nobody here from the city engineers restoration is going to look like. And I'm not comfortable going into a neighborhood and tearing up, you know, 700, 800 feet worth of street, turning the neighborhood upside down and then not knowing what the final product is going to be. So I apologize for having to sit through this meeting this evening, but I'm without further information from the administration. I'm not very comfortable proceeding in any other fashion.
[Bears]: On Councilor Knight's motion to table, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli, the motion is undebatable. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes to table. Is there a motion on the floor? Motion to revert to the regular order of business. Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. 22-528 offered by Councilor Knight. Being so resolved that the city administration met its criteria in the review for the issuance of permit applications requiring traffic commission approval by also including considerations related to on-street parking impact. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Quite frequently I get calls, especially surrounding some of these car repair facilities automobile repair facilities along Mr. Avenue, relative to the amount of footprint that vehicles take up. And also the parking of vehicles that they're servicing on public roads in public parking spots. So, one thing I've noticed is every time we get a permit. application before us that the traffic commission has to sign off saying that there'll be no traffic impact, but they failed to look at parking. They failed to look at the parking impact of this proposed business. So this proposed service might create. So what I'm asking is that the administration revamp the criteria in establishing these reviews to also take into consideration the parking impacts so that we have a better idea. We vote for something, what the parking impacts are as well as the traffic impacts. much to ask for. I think the administration could do a parking assessment or even maybe establish a certain criteria that would say the sex amount of parking spots per square feet. And that's it. Very similar to what we have in our zoning ordinance. But with that being said, Mr. President, what we're seeing, especially if you go down ST James Avenue and some of those streets off of Mystic Avenue, is that every single parking spot is taken up by vehicles all day long. Then six o'clock comes, the sidewalk rolls up and all those guys disappear. Then six o'clock in the morning, all those cars are back there again, but they're not people working. Those are cars that are being worked on. They're being moved in and out of garages and being put in the street and being put back in the garage. All right, well, it's a public way. Those parking spots are also necessary for other businesses to utilize. They should be turned over. I But ultimately, I think this is something that needs to be looked at, because it does certainly have an impact on, number one, public safety, and number two, our ability to turn over pockets and generate business for business owners and business storefronts in the downtown area.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President, I thank counsel for bringing this on. I've had many discussions with the chief about this. And the chief has assured me that he was going to take the role on this. Because of the amount of complaints that we're getting from all those businesses over there. Not only in that little area, but you know, you get on Columbia, Columbia Street there. People can't. Those are all backed up with cars from the place next to Grava. I think they had a permit for 12 cars and they got about 50 in there. And then in back of Grava is another body shop that just opened up. And they say, these places just keep coming over and over. And What's happening is their employees are parking there. Not only are they pulling the cars out of the garages, but the employees are parking there. And now there's going to be a cannabis delivery service over there coming in soon, which I think got approved last week. Though they've assured me that all their parking will be indoors, there'll be no cars on the street. I hope that's what they told me is true, and I'll take them for their word on that. And then you get all of the oil companies that go up and down that street. Have you ever driven down the street with your car? I'll tell you, there's going to be a day that comes and an oil truck is going to spring a leak. from hitting one of those bumps on that on on that street that that's that's in such disrepair. There's gonna be thousands of gallons of crude oil spilled on our streets. So I say I spoke with the chief many times on this. He's told me he's gonna take the lead, but I haven't seen any action from the chief on this. And thanks. Thank you for bringing this forward, because this is a problem for all the businesses in that neighborhood.
[Bears]: On the motion of Councilor Knights, seconded by Caraviello. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favour? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. 22-529 offered by Councilor Knight. Whereas the sewage infrastructure on Fulton Spring Road in front of pass numbers 129 to 132 is faulty, resulting in frequent sewage backups, be it so resolved that the Medford City Council request the Mayor direct the DPW to monitor this infrastructure and provide periodic cleaning of the sewage lines on a no less than bi-monthly basis to prevent further damage taxpayer residents until such time that the underground infrastructure repairs can be made. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. This is an ongoing situation up on Fulton Spring Road. If you know where Mr. Falco lives, look down the street about four or five houses and you'll see that there's a situation down there where The pitch of the underground infrastructure for sewage is not appropriate. And this goes back now, several years, one of the homeowners there reached out to the DPW had representatives from the water department come up and take a look at what was going on. The solution that the water department came up with at that time was, are you going to have to jack your house up eight inches. So the gentleman went, invested $200,000, jacked up his house eight inches, and the day that they pulled the bulldozers away, he had another sewage backup. The city engineer, DPW commissioner have been working on this. They've looked at it. What they've been able to determine is that in a quote, I believe things are all screwy under there would be the very technical term that was used, but the pipes, there's a water pipe that goes over sewer pipe that goes under a gas pipe. There's a big problem, but this homeowner spent a ton of dough at the direction about water and sewer department saying that if you jack your house up, you won't have to deal with this backflow issue. They spent the money, they jacked the house up and they're still dealing with the issue. The DPW commissioner is well aware of the situation and I've been assured that he's working on it. I actually met with the residential homeowner this evening before I came to this meeting this evening. I'd like to withdraw this matter at this point in time and give the DPW commissioner an opportunity to continue to do come up to a significant and satisfactory remedy for our bodies involved. So I will be withdrawing this at this time. But I did want to just give a preface as to what this was all about, because I'm sure that would raise a lot of curiosity based upon the language of the resolution.
[Bears]: Motion is withdrawn. Thank you, Councilor Knight. 22-530 offered by Councilor Caraviello being so resolved as the DPW Commissioner give a report on the status of the sidewalk repair and stump
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. This council voted $1,000,000 for sidewalks, another half a million dollars for stumps. The only people I've seen working on the sidewalks have been city employees and on the stumps. So I want to know where we are with this. Has the contract been bid out yet? we're into October, and November's next in a few weeks, the cold's gonna come in. Are we gonna be doing like we've done in the past, pouring concrete in the middle of December, so within six months it's coming up? Again, I just don't see the amount of people out there doing work on sidewalks and stumps for the money that we put out there. I wanna know, say, have these contracts even been bid out yet? So if we if we can get a report for the administration, be appreciated.
[Bears]: On the motion of Councilor Caraviello seconded by second Councilor Tseng all those in favor. Opposed. Motion passes to do this 531 offered by Councilor Caraviello be it so resolved that the Director of Energy and Sustainability update the Council and residents of the newly agreed aggregate electricity contract.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I think we have the Alicia Hunter on the line tonight to explain to let the residents know about this, about the aggregate contract that we've just sign that are renewed again. I don't know if you're following the news, they're talking that by December, electric bills are going to be skyrocketing, almost doubling of what they are from right now. So if Alicia can give us a little update on what kind of rate we've got, and I know it's been out there, but for the people who haven't seen it in the paper or whatever, if she can just give us a little brief synopsis of what's going on there.
[Bears]: Yes, Mr. Clerk, if you could recognize Director Hunt.
[Hunt]: Yes, good evening, councillors. Thank you very much. Thank you very much to Councilor Caraviello. As I'm starting, would you mind allowing me to share screen for a minute? I have a few images that to help the residents with this. So as people are very aware in Massachusetts right now, the utility rates, the electric rates are going up very high in Massachusetts. Several years ago, Medford passed community choice aggregation, which allows the city to negotiate for basically to go out to bid for an electricity rate on behalf of the residents. A lot of residents are in this program, but a lot of residents are not. And part of why I wanted to be here this evening is that we are, in fact, getting a lot of questions from residents about this in my office. And we're getting when we talk to people at Oktoberfest, they were very excited to hear that we had something we could do to help with this. And in fact, we are getting the senior centers also getting a lot of questions about this. Can you see the screen, the slide that I have up now? It looks like you can see that. So I wanted to share with the community. So this is Medford's program. There are a lot of numbers on here. Our rate is going up from where it has been. We've had one rate fixed in for three years. A lot of people were very astute and noticed that our rates were expiring in December, which was correct. We have a new contract that is for two years. The electricity market is so out of control that we couldn't get a good contract for three years, which is why our new contract is for two years. Everybody goes by default into this Medford local green, which will be 15.3 cents per kilowatt hour. If you look over on the far column, the national grid rate, that if you are on National Grid basic service, you're going to go up to 33.8 cents a kilowatt hour, which is why we're saying this winter, you don't want to be in National Grid's basic service. I will take a moment to just say there's an option through this to opt up to 100% local renewable energy. It's a little bit more. It's 18.9 cents a kilowatt hour. But again, that's a choice that you can opt up to that. A lot of people are calling and asking, how do they know if they're already in the program? If you look at your electricity bill, on the third page of the bill is a section here that's called supply services. And if you are in Medford's aggregation, it will look like this. It'll say Dynegy Medford aggregation, and it'll look like this. And then you are in it, you don't need to do anything. You'll see that your rate right now is 11.5 cents, it'll go up. This is actually the current 100% green rate. Sorry, I used 100% green bill as an example. If you look at your third page of your bill and it looks like this, supply services, national grid, basic service fixed. then you are in National Grid's default service, and you're going to go up to the 33 cents. And frankly, we recommend that you switch to something. And I'm only allowed to recommend things that we've gone out to bid for, so I can't recommend anybody else. If you come to this page, and it looks like this, but it doesn't say Dynegy, it says something else. It could say Constellation, or Direct Energy, or Clean Choice, or something. Then you should look at what your rate is, and you should see what your rate looks like, how does that compare to what the city's rate is going to be, and make a decision. If you have one of those other companies, you'll have a phone number here. We are talking to people who have good rates here, something in the 11, 12, 13 cents. That's great. We've also seen 25, 30 cents, 35 cents here. with those other companies. So if you don't wanna have to think about it, we'll manage it for you. It's your choice at this point to opt in or not. This is some information about how to enroll. There's a webpage medfordcea.com. And if you go to slash enroll, there's a phone number that you can call to enroll. 866-220-5696. Our consultants are Good Energy. They will be at the Medford Council on Aging again this week on Thursday, and you can call the Council of Aging and make an appointment. If they get too many people that it's too crowded, then we'll have them come back another week. This consultant will also be at the Harvester Energy Festival this weekend on Saturday from 12 to 3. If you bring your electric bill with you, he can help you look at it and help advise you on what program you're in. I just was asked by my staff that answers the phone to hit a couple of answers to questions that they're getting a lot. All residential households were automatically enrolled in the program several years ago with mailings before that announcement. And people could opt out, some people chose to, some people never realized that they were in the program. The main goal of this program is to provide price stability, so you're not impacted by these major fluctuations. You will continue to get your electricity from National Grid. You will get one bill. It'll be from National Grid. And like I said, it'll just have this section on it. This is on your regular utility bill. National Grid is still responsible for any power outages, any repairs, any issues with your electricity. Um, you can opt out or opt into our program at any time with no fee. The city has the contract, not the individuals. So you got, you can come and go as you please. Um, sorry, there are just so many things that people have been calling and asking our office about. The other one is that yes, it includes some local renewable energy. We buy that through Green Energy Consumer Alliance. And if you opt up to the 100%, a portion of that becomes tax deductible, the difference between what you would have paid and what you pay for the extra green. And Green Energy Consumer Alliance will send you a letter in January that you can use on your taxes for the tax deductible part of that. there is the option to opt down to the Medford Basic amount. And I'll just show you that it is 0.2, it's two tenths of a penny less to go with the Medford Basic that has no extra renewable energy in it. And I think those are, thank you. Are there any questions? Should I answer anything for the council?
[Bears]: Any questions by members of the council?
[Tseng]: I'm not a question. I just wanted to thank your office for working on this and tell everyone that to definitely take some time out of your evening to walk through and check your bill. I called my parents, and they were not on the aggregation. and just by that simple check, my parents are gonna save so much money in the next two years, and especially in a difficult economic time with higher prices, this is something that families can do to save some money and help our city as well. So thank you very much for this.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Any members of the public for public participation? come to the podium or go on Zoom. I see we have one on Zoom. Please give your name and address for the record, please.
[Matthew Page-Lieberman]: Yes, I just I want to speak to thank Director Hunt. Oh, sorry. My name is Matthew Papes Lieberman on 15 Canal Street. So yeah, I wanted to thank Director Hunt because I have, as far as this energy aggregation program we have, and there are many, many cities in the Commonwealth that don't have that. I used to attend these hearings, the joint hearings at the state house. And there are a lot of cities that have been on the waiting list and they're not getting the approval that Alicia's department or Director Hunt's department was able to get for us. I know that when I've had questions and I've been in that department, I've asked, I've always been helped. I've been in this city for over a decade, worked with a lot of different department heads. There've been quite a few different administrations. I've had many good experiences at City Hall, bad experiences at City Hall with some department heads. I think that there's a big narrative that we hear a lot about how everything's dysfunctional there and about how nobody's responsive. But in my experience, departments like Director Hunt's are ones that we could consider ourselves, I think, very, very fortunate to have. I really thank Director Hunt for that administration.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you, Matt.
[Bears]: Any further public comments?
[Hunt]: And thank you, Zach, Councilor Bears, and thank you, Matt, for the kind words. I do wanna just take one minute to just mention one other thing. No one from the city will go door to door selling electricity asking you to change your electric thing, your electric service or solar. We have heard that there is at least one solar company representing that they're partnering with the city. We do not have any partners with any solar companies at this time. um and there are no nobody is authorized to go door to door on behalf of the city at this time there are also a lot of mailings that show up in the mail there have been stuff on the web that is very deceptive that implies that there are special programs um in fact at my house today i got a flyer that said grant program limited The state has mandated a certain number of homes produce their own power and your neighborhood has been chosen for conversion. I can tell you definitively, this is a scam. Sorry, it's hard to see. I was gonna put it up. But there are a lot of mailings that are going around. A mailing from the city will have the city seal on it. And honestly, at this point, it'll probably do something like reference my name and my department in order to help residents recognize that this is a legitimate nailing because of the number of things that are going out that are deceptive. And I just want people to be forewarned about that. Thank you.
[Bears]: Director Hud, any further comments? On the motion of Councilor Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Tseng, to receive in place on file. To receive in place on file. Second. All those in favor. Opposed, motion passes. Next one was myself and President Morell, and then another one by myself. Do folks mind if I read it from here, or do you wanna? 22-533, offered by Vice President Bears and President Morell, be it so resolved by the Benford City Council that we meet in committee of the whole to discuss the scope of a contract for legal services to support ongoing work to update the city's zoning ordinance and a live set ordinance with the city's multiple active plans, including but not limited to the housing production plan, climate action and adaptation plan, open space plan, basically infrastructure master plan and draft comprehensive plan. The purpose of this resolution, we received funding at the last minute in the budget to continue our work with zoning consultants and we should meet to discuss the scope of that work and then potentially figure out what we need to do to bring in someone to assist us with the continued zoning work. Any comments, Councilor Tseng and then Councilor Collins.
[Tseng]: I wanted to thank you and President Morell for putting this on the agenda. This is some of the most exciting work that we are working on as a council and we'll have the chance, the opportunity to work on the council for the next few years. That legal money, we fought very, very hard for it on this council. We really stayed together and really aligned our priorities so we can get started on projects like this. And this is that very important step that we have to take on this council to meet our objectives as a community when it comes to all these different plans, when it comes to housing, when it comes to the environment, when it comes to zoning. And we've already seen all the fruits of our labor and the labor of Council's past when it comes to zoning and that major zoning recodification that we passed earlier this year. We see that new growth is slowly but surely coming to the Council because of that work that this Council and Council's past have done. And I feel optimistic about the work that we can do going forward.
[Collins]: Thank you. I was going to make many of the same points when we talked about this project several months ago. I like to say we're a community that's very rich in plans, and this is so exciting because this is the chance to actually take the vision and those plans, which a lot of our, you know, truly expert dedicated city staff have worked on, you know, preparing the menu of options with which we can guide our future and create the policies that will bind us towards actually manifesting that future in our community. So I appreciate you for bringing it forward. Looking forward to this meeting and a motion for approval after the comments of my fellow
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I think I think this is something that we should prioritize to get this a little more fast track than we already have. We've been sitting around with this. We've already done the phase one. We're almost quite almost into a year. That being done, and you've seen what we've done with it. I would like I would hope that we're able to bring back attorney because I'd hate to go with another attorney with a different mindset and maybe have to change directions. He was very good and by all accounts, he's probably the Dean of Zoning in the state of Massachusetts. So if we could prioritize it and bring him back so we can keep on with the same thought process that we've gone through right now.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Any further discussion?
[Caraviello]: Move approval.
[Bears]: The goal is to have this meeting on October 26th, so that would be in a couple of weeks. That's Godford Chevalier Day. It's Chevalier Day. Can't meet on Chevalier Day.
[Knight]: I mean, that's not a paid holiday. That is losing her touch.
[Bears]: On the motion of council night to approve seconded by second councillor Caraviello. Hello. All those in favor. Aye. Opposed motion passes.
[Knight]: Motion to suspend the rules.
[Bears]: Motion to suspend the rules. 22508-22540-22541 out of order. 508-540-541. Yes. On the motion councillor I'd like to take papers 22508-540-541 seconded by Councilor Tseng all those in favour. Opposed motion passes. 22-508 legal notice City Clerk's Office notice of a public hearing with different City Council the public hearing in the Howard F. Alton Memorial Chambers 85 George B. Hassett Drive Medford and via zoom on tuesday october 11 2022 at 7 p.m a link to be posted no later than friday october 7 2022 on a petition from flex drive services llc aka lift up lily jobson agent is petitioning for a special permit 616 fellsway operations and 80 station landing aka 15 presidents landing parking Medford MA 02155, FlexDrive, aka Lyft hub petitioning for a special permit to park rental vehicles at 616 Felsway in accordance with Medford Zoning Table A-H-3, motor vehicle related uses. Petition and plan may be seen in the office of the city clerk, Medford City Hall 85, George P. Hassett Drive, room 103, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155. Call 781-393-2501 for any accommodations and aids. City of Medford is an EEOAA 504 employer. By order of the Medford City Council, signed Adam L. Hurtubise, City Clerk, advertise the Medford transcript at Somerville Journal, September 29th and October 6th. Okay.
[Hurtubise]: Okay.
[Bears]: This is a special permit. public hearing is now open to those in favor of the petition. Is there anyone here in favor of the petition? We're going to unmute you. If you're on Zoom, please give your name and address for the record.
[SPEAKER_23]: Hello, my name is Christy Ortins. I am the director of development at Lyft and I'm located in San Francisco, California. and I'm here in favor of this project. We would like to be able, so we currently occupy a Lyft hub in 616 Felsway, and our goal is to be able to- We're just gonna pause right there.
[Bears]: We're gonna say that you're in favor, then we're gonna see if there's anyone in opposition, and then we'll come back to you to present the full petition.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you. Is there anyone else in favor of this petition? Seeing none, this portion of the hearing is closed. Is there anyone here in opposition to the petition? Please raise your hand on Zoom or come to the podium. My name's Larry Williams.
[SPEAKER_10]: We'll just come to the microphone. I'm not the Larry you were looking for before. Could you say that again, please? Larry Williams. What is the, what are we here for? Well, we're going to hear it in a minute. Oh no, but so I don't know if I'm opposed or in favor of it.
[Bears]: You're not sure if you are. Yeah, so. Okay. I'll let you know after. Okay. All right. Seeing none, this portion of the hearing is closed. We'll go to the petitioner for now to mispronounce for a presentation.
[Hurtubise]: We have to unmute again. All right. We can hear you.
[SPEAKER_23]: Okay, thank you. So, um, so the, we are here to request a special permit and a class two business certificate to allow automobile rental operations out of 616 Felsway 616 Felsway currently serves as list hub, which provides driver services for Lyft drivers, such as driver onboarding, technical support, there to provide really any, to have in-person interactions with drivers if they have any questions. With the special permit, we are looking to add the FlexDrive program, which is a vehicle rental program for Lyft drivers, and which would then be operating at this space, along with some auxiliary parking at 80 Station Landing. So I'm here to answer any questions that have to do with the operation, but it is an existing facility, and it's just adding the additional operation for vehicle rentals out of this space.
[Bears]: Thank you for the presentation. We're gonna go to the council. We'll go to Councilor Scarpelli, then Councilor Knight.
[Scarpelli]: Sure, obviously this is why it's a special permit request, but I, being that you're from San Francisco, you haven't seen or understand where 616 Felsway is, correct?
[SPEAKER_23]: I have been to the space.
[Scarpelli]: Okay, so it is an absolute nightmare of a location. And to add more traffic, this is why I get a little disappointed in the traffic impact reports, there's no traffic impact anticipated. Now we're looking to add 50 vehicles to this process?
[SPEAKER_23]: 50 vehicles would be to the auxiliary parking, but the FlexDrive program already operates in the market. This would be a relocation to this space.
[Scarpelli]: Right, so this is why I'm a little confused on why put 616. If that's the case, you said that the drivers have an opportunity to go to the 616 location for That is correct.
[SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, so currently drivers go to 616 to get any driver support to get on boarded. But what we're adding is drivers can now make an appointment to come to the location to pick up a vehicle for rentals. And something to note about our rental program is that the most drivers hold on to the vehicles for a long period of time. It's not like a traditional rental operations where you have somebody coming in for a weekend trip or a day trip, It's something that drivers hold on to the vehicles for quite some time. So it's not your traditional rental like in and out type of traffic due to the fact that drivers really do come in an appointment only and hold on to these vehicles for a long period of time.
[Scarpelli]: So, and then the other location, it's a hub where they're going to be parked in the parking lot or in the garage?
[SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, so the parking garage, it will just be auxiliary parking. Drivers will not be going into that space. That will only be employees that would be using that for overnight parking or vehicles that are being parked at the time.
[Scarpelli]: So all those automobiles that'll be parked in Medford are registered through Medford in Medford?
[Hurtubise]: I don't know if I know how to answer that question.
[Scarpelli]: Well, I mean, if we're parking 50 automobiles in our city, Medford accepts excise tax for automobiles that are parked and based in our community. Are those 50 cars based in going to pay excise tax in our community?
[SPEAKER_23]: I believe so because the operations are out of that space or out of the 616 Bellsway space.
[Scarpelli]: Do you have any more assurances than I believe so?
[SPEAKER_23]: No, I would have to get that confirmation. I apologize.
[Scarpelli]: So for many different reasons, one being that we don't have a city solicitor that if I had questions that I can call to ask the legal questions dealing with this and the fact that this is something first time I've heard of this, you're looking at two locations and 50 more automobiles that will be parked in. Is there a negotiation between you and the lift and the garage companies. Is there is there an agreement between them?
[SPEAKER_23]: Yes, between Flex Drive and the parking lot, we would be facing the 50 parking spaces.
[Scarpelli]: but we have an entity that's used for public parking now being used as a business entity. That's now going to be over, it's gonna be, because I'm a little confused. It's gonna be, they're gonna be there. So there'll be housed there. So you'll have drivers coming in and out, taking those vehicles out of that location. And, then we don't know if they're going to be registered in Medford where there'd be tax in Medford and truly don't understand the impact or I know the traffic engineer isn't online, correct?
[SPEAKER_23]: And sorry, I did just get clarification that we will be registering the vehicle taxes in city of Medford.
[Scarpelli]: We did get- Off of vehicles?
[SPEAKER_23]: That's correct. Anything that would be operating in this market.
[Scarpelli]: And then, you know, the traffic impact, I know that is one of the most densely populated areas that I know I traverse there every day. And to see that adding another 50 more vehicles at a time is something that I have questions with. So my personal opinion right now, until we get legal, I have, I get some legal questions that I need to ask, you know, an entity in the city that I can ask, which I don't, we don't have a solicitor. We don't have a city solicitor. So I guess I'll have to call the mayor's office to see who can answer some of these questions legally. I would recommend that we table this until we get further understanding of what this process is. So that would be my recommendation, Mr. President. That would be a motion to table.
[Knight]: Well, I'll delay that then if we have questions. So thank you. Mr. President, thank you very much. I'm somewhat familiar with flex car and flex hub. One of the questions I have is this rental car is this going to be a rental car that's used for when they say drivers, you know, I keep thinking picturing driver like a Lyft driver in the Lyft driver works for Lyft and then they rent the vehicle through Lyft to use to provide the Lyft service to consumers. Or is this where these are just going to be rental cars that The driver is me, and I want to rent the car and I can just go through flex lift to get the car. Can she explain clarify that for me please. Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the question so flex drive is a service for lift drivers so the lift drivers have to be on the platform. in order to get this service from us. So it is, and that's why I was stating it is by appointment only. So it's not your regular traffic that you would get from a normal rental like Hertz, where you're going in and out and you've got a bunch of different people. I mean, these are by appointment only and we have them scheduled. So traffic wise, we wouldn't see an increase in traffic because our appointments, whether you're coming in for a technical support on the app, let's say, right? Like somebody comes in, that's an appointment. And then 30 minutes later, we might have another appointment, which is for the FlexDrive program. So it's not increasing the amount of traffic that's coming into the space. It's just adding an additional service to that program.
[Knight]: So ultimately it's somewhat like we have a post office over here and the post office has trucks and the employees of the post office use the trucks. And this is the same thing, the employees of Lyft would use the Lyft, the FlexLyft vehicles to perform the functions. Now, that's assuming that they don't have cars, right? Are they going to be authorized to park vehicles there all day while they take these FlexCars out? Or are you saying that they're more long term than short term? So I just, I think part of the concern that we're hearing from my colleague is that it's heavily congested. heavily congested area. And because of that, there are some public safety concerns that coupled with the fact that there's some issues with the garage. The excise tax, I think, was a great question. That makes a lot of sense. The business is going to be here. The vehicle should be garaged here so the city can offset the damages to our infrastructure with the funds that we generate. But I certainly support the gentleman's motion to table the matter. In fact, we need to go back to the table a little bit closer to an understanding of what this program is. I personally have no problem with it. I think it makes sense. I would make some recommendations that, you know, the special permit go with the business and not with the address. Do a 90 day review. But as of right now, it doesn't feel as though I think Lift Hub has been a pretty good neighbor in this community. They've been pretty open with us when they came to this community. They let us know they were coming. They invited us to come down. They've always been visible and available to speak with anybody from government that has any concerns. So I certainly don't have an issue with their business model or the way they run their business, but the quality of life stuff and the neighborhood stuff do some of the entities that the larger businesses that are residential property. So that stuff needs to be put into consideration. So I would second gentleman's motion to table it. Should he reintroduce it in an effort for us to come to some common ground and see if we can figure this one out. Because I think Lyft is a good employer to have here.
[Bears]: Thank you, councilor. Councilor Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I don't think most people even know that that Lyft office even exists there. I think they've been there for probably close to five years now, if I'm not mistaken. I remember going up there when it first opened. So I'll disagree with my fellow councilors about the traffic impact over there. The amount of people they have there going there during the day is minimal. Most of their traffic have people going in there to going in there during those off hours of the day. So my only concern is, I'm happy to hear that all those cars are gonna be registered. So we get the excise tax. My only concern is where those 80 cars are gonna be parked when you drop your car off to pick up the lift car. So that's a question I have. Are those people gonna be allowed to park in that garage? Ma'am, would you know that?
[SPEAKER_23]: So they will not be most drivers come with it don't have a vehicle so they normally get dropped off or will be getting a lift ride to the facility. So there will be no parking driver parking or customer parking on site overnight parking.
[Caraviello]: So there will be no overnight parking. Correct. In that garage with these people.
[SPEAKER_23]: So just to clarify, no personal vehicle will be parked overnight in the parking garage.
[Caraviello]: There'll be no personal parking in that garage, correct?
[SPEAKER_23]: Yes.
[Caraviello]: And you're saying that all everyone that goes to pick up those 80 cars are being dropped off, correct?
[SPEAKER_23]: That's correct.
[Caraviello]: Okay, and again, I don't have a problem supporting the show. It does provide any more jobs for people with this new gig economy. I'm familiar with Uber has a problem with Hertz. It does the same thing. And that's where those guys get their cars from. So I don't have a problem supporting this as long as we're getting the excise taxes and those people are not parking their cars on any of our streets. And if they do leave their car, I would hope that they'll pay to park them in that garage there.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Councilor Caraviello and Councilor Unite have asked two of the questions I was gonna ask. I think it would help me to get a sense of how many cars, because there are gonna be cars that are going out, right? Being rented. How many cars do you envision being in those spaces at a given time? Just an average.
[SPEAKER_23]: In the auxiliary parking?
[Tseng]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_23]: Um, it's hard to say, but our goal is I mean, obviously, our goal is always to not have any vehicles in those parking spaces, because that means that we are at a high utilization rate. And again, being by appointment only, it's easy for us to keep our utilization rate down, because we are keeping track of who wants, you know, the next vehicle. So we don't usually have overstock a vehicle sitting there for somebody to be able to come up and take that vehicle. So I know that doesn't answer your question because it does fluctuate kind of depending on time of year. But I mean, if I had to throw a number out there, I would say somewhere on the range of maybe 20 to 30 vehicles in the parking garage. But again, that does fluctuate. And hopefully it would be at zero.
[Tseng]: Okay, thank you for the answer. I think one benefit that hasn't been talked about is that this would lower the need, like people's, Lyft drivers need to buy vehicles, which means that, you know, that's better for parking in general in the area, in the greater Boston area, better for the environment. But of course we have these other considerations that we have to think about as well.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Any further comments from members of the Council? I have a couple questions myself. Just so I get this right, is FlexDrive Services LLC owned by Lyft?
[SPEAKER_23]: It's a subsidiary.
[Bears]: Is it a wholly owned subsidiary? Yes, so my question here relates to the business model. You mentioned onboarding of drivers. Are drivers employees of Lyft or FlexDrive Services LLC?
[SPEAKER_23]: Can you repeat that question one more time?
[Bears]: Are the Lyft drivers you discussed, are they employees either of FlexDrive Services LLC or employees of Lyft as a corporation?
[SPEAKER_23]: They are... Well, they're not, they're on the platform. They're utilizing the platform.
[Bears]: They're independent contractors.
[SPEAKER_23]: Independent contractor utilizing the platform.
[Bears]: Is there any guarantee that if a contractor, I mean, I just have some serious questions here. You're giving them the platform and you're renting them the car, but there's no guarantee they make the minimum wage. Is that correct?
[SPEAKER_23]: I can't really speak to that.
[Bears]: That's a yes or no question. It depends on how many hours they work. Give me a car and a job.
[Knight]: If they work the hours, they can make the money, right?
[Bears]: Okay, let me rephrase this. What happens if a Lyft driver rents the car, but is unable to make the payment for the rental for whatever reason, because the income isn't enough from the app?
[SPEAKER_23]: Well, the vehicle, just to clarify, so the vehicle can be used for also personal driving. So if somebody wants to utilize it you know, for obviously their own personal reasons, or if they want to utilize it to be on, you know, like, let's say a different food service provider, they can do that. So they can rent from us and be able to use the vehicle for any other uses.
[Bears]: What, you know, in terms of rental, do they pay a flat fee? Do they pay by the mile? Is it more competitive or less competitive than say, renting a car from Hertz?
[SPEAKER_23]: There are benefits. The more that the driver drives on the platform, there are benefits to the amount of hours that they're working on the platform.
[Bears]: But I guess my question is, if they rent from you, is it cheaper than if they just rent it from any old rental company?
[SPEAKER_23]: That is the goal. That is correct.
[Bears]: OK. Well, I'll just leave my questions there. I have, again, some serious qualms about this kind Um, any further comments by members of the council Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate the petitioner being before us tonight. I appreciate the motion to table as well. I think this is a matter I'd want to give some additional consideration to. I think that the point is well noted that this, um, company or its subsidiary already exists in Medford and there haven't been grave consequences noted that they've been a pretty good neighbor in the business community. But I think for myself, you know, it's hard for me as a representative to further enmesh, you know, the subcontractor based economy in our community, knowing that there's no way of regulating, you know, if these are competitive with living wages, if these are, you know, as good of jobs as our local residents really deserve. So that's not at all a reflection on the petitioner. here before us. I really appreciate the work you've put into this. It's something I want to give more thought to. I think it's the issue of, you know, the day-to-day, the traffic impact, the impact on this specific neighborhood. And in addition, you know, what type of businesses do we want to be making up our business ecosystem here in our community? Thank you.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Councilor Collins. Councilor Caraviello. Thank you, Mr. President. Let it be known that City of Bedford derives money from every ride share service that originates here. And I think if we look back, see how much money is, how many rides start here, it's a decent sum of money that we receive really doing nothing. I know Boston gets more than we do, but we do derive money from every ride share service that originates in the city of Medford.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. Any further comments?
[Knight]: I just have a couple of more questions to a friend of sunny California might not be sunny there anymore at 630. But what are the requirements to be a Lyft driver in Massachusetts, where you need a driver's license in a vehicle right.
[Hurtubise]: I apologize I was on mute.
[SPEAKER_23]: Okay, thank you. Yes, that is correct.
[Knight]: Okay, and if I have a driver's license, but I don't have a vehicle, can I be a Lyft driver?
[SPEAKER_23]: Yes, if you buy in on the program, if you you can rent a vehicle from us, and then yes. So it does give business to to individuals who are unfortunate don't have a vehicle. And this allows someone to be able to start earnings or start creating earnings based off of being able to rent a vehicle from us.
[Knight]: Excellent, excellent. So ultimately, this also gives people who don't have the driver's license, the opportunity to get a job and work.
[Hurtubise]: That's correct.
[Knight]: All right. Excellent. Thank you very much. I would again suggest so I there's no one else to speak.
[Scarpelli]: I think the important piece right now is very is twofold. The understanding of getting some questions answered and making sure this council at one point wasn't represented when there was a special permit requested by a legal team, and when we denied it for a reason that we couldn't, we were then sued. So the reason why I want to make sure that we don't do anything until we get the word from legal that one way or the other. So I know I appreciate the representative from Lyft. It's a lot of great questions. Councilor Caraviello brings up some great points. I understand the benefit for taxable revenue through the excise tax, but I just want to make sure there are some questions that I have legally on our end before.
[Bears]: My recommendation. May I take public participation? Sure. Take public participation. Please give your name and address for the record.
[Navarre]: William Navarre, 108 Medford Street, apartment 1B. I just had a question for the representative. If a driver participates in this program, does this lock the bid to use Lyft as a driver only and they're not allowed to use Uber, their own ride for hire business card or whatever? Are they required to be sort of exclusively with Lyft? Thanks.
[SPEAKER_23]: So to answer that question, it is not exclusive to Lyft. they can use it for personal or any other service that they would like.
[Scarpelli]: So my recommendation would be that now that I have these questions that I can, I would table for two weeks. And hopefully the city administration can have someone through the legal team just answer a question. I'll reach out to them tomorrow. So my recommendation right now I don't feel comfortable to go to a vote with this. So it has to table for two weeks.
[Bears]: Motion to table for two weeks by Councilor Scarpelli, pending legal review. Would you be comfortable amending that to request that legal counsel be present at our meeting in two weeks? If they could, that'd be great. Thank you. So on the motion to table for two weeks and request that legal counsel be present at our next meeting, seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes to table. Can we also make the same motion relative to paper 22-538? Yes. On the motion of Councilor Knight to table 22-538 for two weeks seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor. Opposed. Motion passes. What was our next one? 540. 22-540 to President Morell and honorable members of the Medford City Council. from mayor brand Lungo-Koehn re food truck permit for Medford Square meter project celebration date, October 5th, 2022 on behalf of the below entity, I respectfully submit the following requests for food truck permit in the city of Medford. In addition to city council approval vendors are required to adhere to health department food safety requirements. One Zach's ice cream truck, not mine. Date and time Thursday, October 20th, 2022, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. location, Medford city hall parking lot looks like the West Rear parking lot event celebration of the completion of the Medford Square meter project about the event on Thursday, October 20th, 2022. The parking department will host an event to celebrate the completion of the installation of new meters throughout Medford Square. Thank you for your attention. This matter sincerely.
[Knight]: I missed that. Can you say what this was for again?
[Bears]: It's about the event on Thursday, October 20th, 2022. The parking department will host an event to celebrate the completion of the installation of new meters throughout Medford Square.
[Knight]: to have an ice cream to celebrate Paca Minas. Councilor Newton. I'm just trying to figure this out because this sounds like the most tone deaf proposal I have ever witnessed by this administration to date. After the last four weeks, the last month and a half, six weeks. You tell me how many months we've been talking about parking and what's going on with parking and how terrible the program is and how many failures have been with this program. And we're going to have an ice cream social to celebrate these failures?
[Bears]: As I said, not my ice cream truck. I wish it were.
[Caraviello]: As crazy as I think this is, you want to know what makes it even crazier? We're using Zach's ice cream truck, which is out of Everett, which is out of Everett. I don't know why the Chamber of Commerce is down here saying, why aren't we using Colleen's? Why aren't we using CB Schools? These are the businesses that are in our community, that during the pandemic and everything, they stepped up, help people day in and day out. Every time an organization needs something, what do they go to? They go to Colleen's, they go to CB Schools. Hey, can you help us out with the gift certificate? Can you help us out with that? And here we are, I don't know who's paying Zach, Not you. I don't know who's paying Zach's Ice Cream to come here, but why aren't we using an ice cream company from our own city? We had Oktoberfest on Saturday. Who was out there with the big stand? Colleens. We had the Hoops of Dreams out there. Who was out there? CB Scoops, okay?
[Knight]: Ice Cream Social, Leprechaun Family Network.
[Caraviello]: Yeah, Leprechaun Family Network, the Ice Cream Social. do CB scoops. I've done ice cream socials. I don't understand why we're not, as crazy as I think this is, why we're not using a method company to do this. Shame on the shame of commerce for not being here tonight, saying something about this.
[Bears]: Given the expected attendance, they could have gone to a stop and shop. Councilor Scarpelli.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I appreciate my colleagues. I don't The intent for this format is to come through us to give a permit for a special event. And so far, special events for, for instance, the Harvest Fest, which we would support, the fundraiser for a school, And the biggest thing we talked about over and over again, and I think everybody, everybody, including, including the mayor who sat right here when I said a thousand times, if it affects brick and mortar businesses, we shouldn't support them. Okay. And there is, I don't, I still don't understand Okay, let's say the META program is a huge success. The city has rallied around it. Everybody is super excited. We're gonna celebrate this. There are gonna be hundreds of people here. Is there anybody here to tell us, is Zach's ice cream truck going to charge the individual? Is the city picking up the fee? Does anybody know that?
[Bears]: Mr. Clerk, do we have a representative of the administration?
[Hurtubise]: Yeah, why not? Present your ticket, get an ice cream. Is that what it says? Present your ticket, get an ice cream.
[Knight]: Oh, your parking ticket. I mean, listen, honestly, come on. Is Ashton Kutcher, where's Ashton Kutcher? Is he coming out? Are we being pumped right now, like seriously? Does this really happen? And this is what our government does?
[Bears]: I just wanted to be the vice president. I don't know what you're doing.
[Knight]: I mean, this is like the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life.
[Scarpelli]: Yeah, I know we're making light of this, but I'm gonna be honest with you. In all seriousness, this is disappointing. I know we're joking and laughing about it, but are you kidding me? I had teachers call me today because they're working to rule. Now that's not good for both ends. You have kids that are not gonna be given the services they need because teachers are that frustrated that they're not working to rule, so when 230 hits, they're home. And I understand that this is funny, but this is funny disgusting. Let's have an ice cream truck unveil, celebrate something we just talked about that's turning the city upside down. We've had nothing but complaints and anger. You know what, if the director will come here for four hours to discuss issues, I will vote on an ice cream truck to be parked right out here. As long as someone's right there answering the questions that I have to answer every night. I'm disgusted.
[Bears]: I apologize.
[Scarpelli]: This is something, I love this city. I love the city, but this is becoming a laughing stock. This is a joke asking for ice cream. So my vote to be no, I would deny this permit.
[Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Schell.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Collins, Councilor Smith.
[Collins]: Thank you very much. I was waffling back and forth on how to vote on this motion now that it's before us. And I had been thinking, just to speak candidly, I mentioned earlier, I think that, We're all acutely aware of the many problems with the parking department and the ways that that's manifested into the lives of our residents and business owners into the community. And I also think that some of the ways in which that flack has been levied upon the parking department to the exclusion of higher ups in the city administration is not quite fair. So I have been thinking, you know, why spread the grief around? I know from talking to staff in the parking department that as flawed and fraught as this parking meter repair project has been, you know, it was a lot of work to repair kiosks that had been broken and in disrepair because of Reef Republic for years. Why not let them, you know, why not say yes to something immaterial? However, the more I think about it, you know, everybody in the city works really hard. I think that everybody who works in City Hall deserves an ice cream social for their efforts. But I think that but please let me finish. Please let me finish. I think that if we're talking about giving staff what they're due for their hard work, what I'd really like to see for the parking department is a bargained contract, you know, the recognition of their union. I think that what these staff members deserve, because regardless of the outcome, we know that they're working hard. What they deserve is not an ice cream social. What they deserve is fair bargaining with this administration. You know, this is the chain of thought that's changed my mind. I don't want to keep more grief upon an embattled department, as flawed as it may be, but this isn't what they deserve. You know, parking is not what we deserve, but this isn't the reward that they deserve. What they deserve is fair working conditions, not a, a little pool party. Thank you.
[Bears]: Thank you.
[Tseng]: I think we might be used to things like this, you know, feeling like there is going to receive a rubber stamp approval. Moving on, I mean it's clear from the conversation tonight it's not but I do think it's important to go back to the reason why we have these special events and celebrations, which is that, you know, we want to unite the city and we want to bring vibrancy, but the problem is this. meter project is an embellished project that doesn't necessarily unite our community. And, you know, a simple celebration like this isn't necessarily going to improve vibrancy that much, unlike Oktoberfest, which this weekend brought together, I think, residents of all different backgrounds and gave families a place to go. My second concern with the project, or with the special events like this is that it's Panama and Kyrgyzstan, which is bread and circuses, you know, we buy by, you know, by having these celebrations, I think it's really easy to mask the problems that exist here in City Hall, the problems that exist with our policy. and the problems with how we treat workers. And, you know, I think it's really important that we use this platform and that we say, you know, we can't keep masking our problems with city celebrations and press releases. We need to actually tackle these really hard hitting issues head on to have that maturity of the leadership to do that.
[Bears]: It's great. Thank you. Councilor Tseng that was great. Hey, well, and I just want to say one thing that petition sincerely brand a local current mayor. This is submitted to us by the mayor. Either no thought went into it, or this is before us because they wanted us to have a fight where then the parking department's mad at us because we didn't throw them an ice cream party. You don't have to have a food truck to have an ice cream party. You don't, you know, if you want to have an internal celebration in your department for the work that you're doing, you don't have to come to this council to ask us for permission to do it. So either no thought went into it, or this isn't intentionally before us to make us have this conversation that we don't want to have. I mean, and I don't know which one's worse to be honest.
[Knight]: Or alternative, or alternatively, right? It's for, it's for, it's to create a pseudo, look that there is support for this field right program right so that you can put it in a press release like Justin said right so we have pictures but look at the pictures it was an ice cream social and everybody had a great time right anytime the going gets tough there's a ribbon cutting have we seen that trend anytime the going gets tough there's a ribbon cutting I'm just saying if the goal there's a lot of ways to go about it that don't require this process
[Bears]: And I don't disagree with what everyone else said.
[Caraviello]: At least use a local company. We have local vendors here who get hit up all the time for donations and everything. And here we are, you've got some money to spend and you're spending it outside of the city of Bedford. We don't even know that.
[Bears]: They might be charging the parking department to pay for ice cream.
[Caraviello]: Maybe Zach's Ice Cream is a hell of a nice guy.
[Bears]: He's going to do it for free. Well, no, I'm saying we don't know that they're not charging people to buy ice cream from the truck. And we don't know if this is for the employees, if this is for the city. 12 to 3. Who's around the 12 to 3? I'm just going to take it at this point. It seems like there's general consensus that we have no idea what's going on. Is there a motion on the floor? No one has any idea what's going on. Not to approve. Second. Motion to deny. Deny. by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favour? Opposed? Motion passes. 22-541, to President Morell and honourable members of the Medford City Council, from Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, re-food truck permit for Harvester Energy Festival, date October 5th, 2022, on behalf of the below entity. I respectfully submit the following requests for a food truck permit in the city of Medford. In addition to city council approval, vendors are required to adhere to health department food and safety requirements. One, work hard, eat good, food truck. Date and time, Saturday, October 15th, 2022, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Location, Riverbend Park behind McGlynn Middle School, Medford MA. Event, Harvester Energy Festival. On Saturday, October 15th, 2022, from 12 to 3 p.m., we'll be hosting the annual Harvester Energy Festival. This festival is, huh? You want me to finish reading it or?
[Scarpelli]: Councilor Scarpelli, if you could, I'm gonna waive the rest of the reading and go to Councilor Scarpelli. So thank you, Mr. Vice President. I think that this is what it's entitled for. This is what we do. It's a special event to bring the whole community together, to push an event or process that we need to really spread the word. And I would support this wholeheartedly, Mr. President. a method companies, correct?
[Bears]: Thank you. Councilor Scarpelli, Councilor Collins. Is that a second or on the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve seconded by Councilor Collins. All those in favor. Opposed motion passes motion on the floor. Yes. We also have some folks here, maybe on a sign. So we'll do the traffic supervisor. Then we'll go to signs on the motion of Councilor Knight to take paper two, two dash five zero three off the table. seconded by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. 22-503 is personnel ordinance, a union contract with the traffic supervisors that has been agreed to by all parties. This was in city council September 13th, 2022 for first reading, advertised in the Metro transcript September 29th, 2022 for second reading and is eligible for third reading tonight. On the motion of Councilor Knight to approve for third reading, seconded by Councilor Collins. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you for bearing with me. This is to approve the contract for third reading to be ordained. Councilor Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Collins? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Morell is absent. Vice President Bears?
[Bears]: Yes, 16 affirmative, one absent. The motion passes for third reading, or the ordinance is passed to third reading. Paper 22-539, petition for a sign denial reversal, Needham Bank, 270 Mystic Avenue, Medford MA 02155. We have a petition before us for the reversal of a sign denial. It seems like we have some petitioners in front of us. If you could come to the podium and give us your name and address for the record, please, and give us a presentation.
[Scarpelli]: represent members of the City Council. My name is Richard Batten. I'm from Batten Brothers Sign Company and 893 Main Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts. And I'm representing Needham Bank Uh Needham Bank is in the process of moving from 400 Mystic Ave to a new building that well existing building, but a new office for them at 270 Mystic Ave, which is the intersection of Mystic Valley Parkway, Mystic Ave and Harvard Street. What we're requesting, well, what they're doing there is essentially building a new branch and renovating the building and giving it a much more modern, nicer appearance. They're gonna be doing a lot of renovations there. And they really feel like this is a very high profile location for them and very important to their business and hopefully to the city. Because of the... the nature of that intersection, what we're requesting is to have a primary, to have signs on four sides of the building. The signs that we're requesting are comprised of white individual letters with a maroon and white logo, which is their standard logo. The relative scope of the sign in relationship to the building is not overbearing or intrusive. The goal of the signs is to service, identification for people that are traveling. because the entrance to that branch, as you probably well know, is either from Mystic Ave or from the Parkway, and it's difficult for people coming from different directions to know what the branch is. In effect, if we only had one sign on that branch, or one primary sign and a small secondary sign, it would be somewhat invisible. The signs we're requesting are similar to their signs that have been previously approved for Rockland Trust and for Central Bank before. And as a matter of fact, I think Rockland Trust actually had two signs on one side of the building. Central Bank, prior to them, had signs on each side of the building. So we humbly request approval of our sign package.
[Bears]: Thank you. Councilor Caraviello and then Councilor Schell.
[Scarpelli]: There are no moving signs. We initially had thought of putting a pylon sign on the corner there, but we've decided against that. And the pylon sign had a message there, but we opted to go this direction instead of that direction, so no moving signs.
[Caraviello]: Where that is in somewhat of a little bit of a neighborhood, is there, we'll start
[Scarpelli]: say they'll probably be turned off somewhere around 11 p.m. usually we run them. Usually we run it on a time clock with a photo cell. So it would say that any time after like, let's say 7 a.m. that it gets dark out, it would turn on. But in every case at 11 p.m. it would be shut off. Great.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarborough. Thank you for being here tonight.
[Scarpelli]: I'm sure you had a few laughs, but this is what's difficult for me as the chairperson for signs on the subcommittee. I think that when I see something like this, I always made my first phone call to guess who? Paul Moki, our building I'm not with Paul retiring, and I know we were supposed to have a new director in place, but I haven't heard yet to ask some questions. Now, I would normally listen to Paul, and he would say, George, this is X, Y, and Z, and answer those questions, and it would be finished. So I'm battling right now because I don't see any... I don't see any digital signs that are moving. I don't see, you know, I know that so that the request is that we're adding more signs that are recommended and that the signs will be off at 11 o'clock. I think that's important now. Outside, do we have like, will you have around the parking lot enter signs or will there be anything that would distinguish people can understand that? I'm sure that there'll be directional signs, small directional signs. Okay, but it won't be anything that's illuminated or anything? No. Okay. And this is what's difficult. This is obviously a business that we want to support here in Medford. a very professional sign company that has done their due diligence, read through everything. It looks good to me. I would tend to support it, but again, this is my inner battle, is that not having a building commissioner where I can get any answer questions that I had and feel comfortable with my decision tonight. I don't know if I could vote for it. So this is why I yield to my council colleagues before I hear any other recommendations, but right now just I yield.
[Bears]: Thank you. We don't have anyone from the administration on. No. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. And Mr. Batten, thank you for being here. Another bank, Mr. Gav, shocker, right? Ultimately, you know, this is an example of wasted opportunity. This location was the site of a rather large scale proposal that would have created significant growth in this community, significant jobs in this community, and potentially significant housing in this community. But the administration decided to bring this corner into a different state. So with that being said, we're stuck with what we're stuck with. And I'm not saying that a bank is a bad thing, because a bank does bring us jobs, jobs that pay a living wage, jobs that provide health insurance, jobs that you can provide for a family with, right? So the next best alternative, right, is to bring jobs here that are going to be sustainable, that are going to be well paying enough where people can raise their We missed the boat with the development. The existing use is a bank. The proposed use is a bank. The existing signage is there. I don't think it hurts anybody. The signage that they look for doesn't seem to be too overly intrusive. It doesn't seem to be too obnoxious. It's illuminated. The illumination is going to shut off. there are no moving pieces it's not digital um you know i think that this you know is something that you know makes sense and just in the realm of fairness alone right i mean i don't want to see mr gab lit up like the las vegas strip you know what i mean um signs with movement i think would have created a problem um illuminated signs in the fashion that you've explained it i don't think it's going to create much of a problem um i'm happy to support this this evening um ultimately we know that um this application has been I would be happy to support this this evening. I ask that the special permit go with the business and not the address, and that we implement a 90-day review. And I would offer those in the forms of restrictions and move for approval on the paper. Second that motion, Mr. President. Yeah, that's a good one.
[Hurtubise]: Thank you.
[Bears]: It is not a special permit.
[Hurtubise]: It's a petition for sign-of-hour reversal. Oh, that's right. Oh, sure, good night.
[Knight]: No. We can still put the restrictions on it.
[Bears]: I just want to make sure the language is right. So motion that the 90 day review and that the sign, you know, sign with the business. Second. Councilor Collins. Okay. On the motion of Councilor Knights, seconded by Councilor Caraviello, as amended by Councilor Knights with restrictions. This is a motion to approve the petition for signs now reversal. Got a lot of affirmatives and negatives.
[Hurtubise]: Okay, on the petition to approve the reversal of the signed denial with conditions slash restrictions. Councilor Caraviello? Councilor Collins? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Morell is absent. Vice President Fares?
[Bears]: Yes, 16 affirmative, one absent. The petition for signed denial reversal is accepted.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you very much.
[Bears]: Thank you. Thanks for sticking around. Motion for any motions on the floor. Revert back to regular order. Motion by Councilor Collins to revert back to the regular order of business, seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Back to me. 22-534, offered by Vice President Bears. Be it so resolved by the Medford City Council that the Mayor, City Solicitor, and any other legal counsel report back to the City Council in executive session if necessary. regarding potential legal action against Reef Technology, Republic Parking Systems, Park Medford for breach of contract. Something we did learn in the parking meeting was that the parking director believes or seems to believe that there is a possibility that Park Medford, Reef Republic was in breach of their contract, but was advised by the city administration, the mayor and her legal counsel not to pursue a lawsuit to recoup our losses for that breach of contract. I would like to have that explanation given to us in more detail in executive session if necessary. Any discussion? Councilor Tsengre.
[Tseng]: Thank you, Vice President Bears for putting this on the agenda. This is something that we discussed lately in our last meeting with the parking department. You know, there's, we heard potentially that there was breach of contract and, you know, I mean, I think you've already explained it. I just want to make sure that the city administration really does take this item particularly seriously because you know, we as a city can't let things like this go on, you know, unaddressed. But you know, we also have other items that we've asked to be explained in executive session that we haven't had come back to us. And so I just wanted to mark my disappointment on that and hope that this item is different.
[Collins]: Thank you. I appreciate you putting this forward tonight. I'm glad to support it. And I think related to this, I want to note that I think on some of our previous meetings, if I seem oddly sympathetic to the parking department, when there's a lot of justifiable... I think there's been a lot of, um, angst going around because of you know how how that work is going so far. I think a lot of that is lodged in what I heard about the condition that the parking department was left in by reef technology at the outset of director Morrison's tenure in the city of Medford. Um from various people within that department. I have really very grave revenue that was who knows how amount and who knows how much of that actually ended up in the city of Medford protocols that seemed Um, just just deeply, deeply far from best practice. And that, you know, does trace back to our city's mount on a blind, both in terms of what we were being compensated when brief was doing this work. If it was fair, if we even have a yardstick for how close to fair it was, um, and how that contributed to the high mountain that we now have to climb to get to a good place with parking. Um, so I'm very interested in seeing this investigated. Thank you.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President.
[Caraviello]: I do support the intent of this. Where we don't have any hosts in, we don't have our own council. I hate to be throwing more good money after bad. And I agree with you. It warrants a conversation. See if there is a breach, but if, you know, If KP Law is going to charge us $100,000 to collect $50,000, I don't want to do it. I hear you. I hate to be wasting more money on something that's in the past. They did whatever they did. I don't know if they did a breach of contract, but before this goes any further, I would just I want to see some kind of indication that there is some kind of breach of contract or anything because I just don't want to spend another $100,000 chasing something we're not going to get.
[Bears]: And I hear you.
[Caraviello]: I mean, that's what I'm concerned about.
[Bears]: Director Morrison said at a minimum $150,000 was her estimate of the minimum of what damages they left us with. She went to apparently and I think she said it in the meeting to the mayor and KP law or to the chief of staff and KP law and said, I think we should go after them because $150,000 is not nothing. And then KP Law said, I believe the direct quote from Director Morrison was, it's not worth it. Not worth it to who? And that represents the fundamental conflict of KP Law. It may not be worth it at KP Law rates, but it's worth it to the city if we have a city solicitor. And that's part of what I'm getting at here. If we're saying it's not worth it, but that determination is being made because an outside lawyer is charging the city more than we would, you know, then that's not in the interest of the city. That's in the interest of, the bill for KP law and that means that we're not getting the legal representation that we need.
[Caraviello]: KP law is famous for padding the bill. That's their memo with other communities. I'm just saying, that's what my concern is. Uh, you know, if we had an in-house legal counsel could probably give you a pretty simple answer, but you know, to have them go out and charge us $500, $1,000 an hour to come back and say, you're not going to get anything. I just I just don't want to throw away that the city is throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars only on poor legal advice.
[Bears]: I would be happy to amend it to say that the mayor and city solicitor when hired.
[Caraviello]: Yeah, fine.
[Hurtubise]: I just don't want to give people already more money. Yeah.
[Knight]: Does anybody ever notice that anytime anything goes wrong in the parking department, it's always somebody else's fault and not the parking department's? Or is it just me picking that up?
[Bears]: When the person who's supposed to be responsible won't take responsibility, what do you, you know? And I'm just saying, the person who decided to do this this fast and then brought someone on it to give them the resources to do it, is the mayor, and then she puts them out here to take the heat for the decisions that the mayor made. And now I'm editorializing from the chair, which I will stop doing. On the motion on, is there a motion? Motion to approve as amended by Councilor Seconded by Councilor Caraviello.
[Hurtubise]: And here's the amendment if you need it.
[Bears]: All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. I'll give it to him. All right. 22-535 offered by Councilor Collins and Councilor Tseng. Councilor Collins.
[Collins]: I'm going to withdraw this motion. I think we better take it up closer to election day.
[Bears]: Withdrawn. 22-536 offered by Councilor Tseng. Be it so resolved that the City Council asks the City Administration to reach out to residents about the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides eligible households $30 per month off their internet bills. ACP eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop, computer, or tablet from participating providers. Councilor Tseng.
[Tseng]: Thank you, Vice President Bears. The Affordable Connectivity Program is something that was passed in the bipartisan infrastructure law, which could really help families in our community. The $30 per month off internet bills and $100 discount is something that means a lot to families, especially when electricity prices going up and there's inflation when it comes to everyday bills. The discount to purchase a laptop, computer, or tablet is also something that could help students who are more disadvantaged in our school system, help people find jobs, help people at work. And so I think this is a particularly valuable thing that our city should be reaching out to residents about, making sure that they qualify. And there's a whole list of people who qualify. One of the categories I can pull up out of my mind right now is if you're if you're receiving staff benefits but I think you know this Resolution also goes to show that we need a better outreach and better communications policy from the city government. And this is one of those situations where it'd be great to have a communications department. But perhaps in the meantime, we could have our community liaisons and Office of Outreach and Prevention take the lead as well as some other relevant city departments.
[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Councilor say any further comments point information kind of concepts, if you can explain this a little bit more detailed at that. So this would be. This would be $30 household per month for internet and bills. Yeah, this is coming through what what program is that it's a federal program. What is it, it's a federal program. Okay, okay. That's amazing, I didn't realize that.
[Tseng]: So that's... Yeah, I didn't know about it until I came across it on Twitter one day. And if you're not on Twitter, you might not find out.
[Scarpelli]: This should be something that, again, this is where you should be standing on top of mountains. Imagine parents understanding the difficulties they're having with Wi-Fi connections, because affordability, there's a process that we can do that on the federal side. It's disheartening but appreciate your hard work and finding that that's a, I would second your resolution.
[Bears]: And the motion of Councilor Tseng, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. I will not support the next one. No?
[Scarpelli]: Well, if we challenge it.
[Hurtubise]: This protects you from discrimination. I will not support anything that has to do with it.
[Bears]: 22-537 offered by Councilor Tseng whereas chapter 117 of the acts of 2022 entitled quote an act prohibiting discrimination based upon natural and protective hairstyles also referred to as the crown act which takes effect on october 24th 2022 prohibits discrimination against individuals in workplaces school associations and places of public accommodation based on quote traits that historically associated with race be it so resolved that the city council asked the city administration to review their equal employment opportunity and or anti discrimination policies as well as any other policies or codes that may limit or interfere with an employee's ability to wear natural and protective hairstyles update the council on review.
[Tseng]: Thank you vice president bears for reading all that. Um, this is a law that was passed by our state legislature and that's now law in our state. And it's going into effect pretty soon in about two weeks. Um, we need to make sure that we as a city are not in breach of this, um, you know, to save us legal trouble but also to make sure that everything is fair in our city. Again, this goes to show we need a city solicitor solicitor we need an assistant city solicitor we need people who can review our policies and make sure that that state law, we're not interfering with state law. And, yeah, and I would appreciate if the city administration will send us a report about and keep us updated about what's happening.
[Scarpelli]: Mr. President, I can. my colleague bringing this forward, I think that this, I believe, was a huge issue in the local school department that then left that school department in financial resolve because of that situation. So it's good to see if we bring that forward, making sure that our school superintendent and school department and the governing body there that makes decisions also are informed of this, this very important situation because we don't want to be viable. So, thank you. And we said I would second that.
[Bears]: Seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. One of the main reasons this law passed was due to the actions of Mystic Valley Regional. And we send millions of dollars over there right over to Mystic Valley Regional. Yep, that's it. Charter School. On the motion of Councilor Tseng seconded by Councilor Scarpelli all those in favor. I was opposed. Motion passes. Sorry, any further items I missed anything. Jump around so much and it's like so long.
[Scarpelli]: Motion to adjourn please.
[Bears]: Motion by Councilor Scarpelli to adjourn seconded by Councilor Tseng all those in favor. Opposed. Motion passes and the meeting is adjourned.
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