AI-generated transcript of City Council 05-26-20

[Falco]: The 18th regular meeting of the Bedford City Council will now come to order. Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Present. Vice President Caraviello. Present. Councilor Knight. Present. Councilor Marks. Present. Councilor Morell. Present. Councilor Scarpelli. Present. President Falco.

[Falco]: Present. All Senate members are present. At this point in time, I'd ask everyone to please rise to smoke the flag.

[Unidentified]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[Falco]: Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020 order, suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, general law chapter 38, section 18, and the Governor's March 15th, 2020 order, imposing strict limitations on the number of people that may gather in one place. This meeting in the Medford City Council will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible. Specific information and the general guidelines for remote participation by members of the public and or parties with a right and or requirement to attend this meeting can be found on the City of Medford website at www.medfordma.org. For this meeting, members of the public who wish to listen or watch the meeting may do so by accessing the meeting link contained herein. No in-person attendance or members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. In the event that we are unable to do so, despite best efforts, we will post on the City of Medford or Medford Community Media website an audio or video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting.

[SPEAKER_10]: Motions, orders, and resolutions.

[Falco]: Is that Councilor Knight? Councilor Knight, would you like to suspend the rules? Seconded by? Second. Seconded by?

[Hurtubise]: Vice President Caraviello, please come roll. This is to suspend the rules. Councilor Bears? Yes. Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Councilor Knight? You just said yes. Okay, Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco?

[Falco]: Yes, sending affirmative, zero to the negative. The rules are suspended. Councilor Knight?

[SPEAKER_10]: Councilor Knight?

[SPEAKER_03]: Mr. President, I didn't hear what he said.

[Caraviello]: I think he knows what we're talking about. I think I understand what he's talking about, Mr. President. I invited Veterans Committee Chairman Mike Durham this evening. I don't know if he is on the call. Mr. Clerk, is Mike Durham here? He is on the call, yes. To say a few words, seeing that we had no ceremony for Memorial Day, just say a couple of words about our

[Falco]: memorial day and and the deceased veterans Yes, so we have a Michael Durham with us the director of the Office of Veterans Services.

[Unidentified]: Mr. Durham There you go, mr. Jeremy, you're on

[k3Xg1illaRI_SPEAKER_11]: Thank you. Good evening, Councilors. I did prepare a little bit of a speech. It'll just take a moment. Thank you for inviting me tonight. Thank you for inviting me to say a couple words tonight to reflect on Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a day for displaying our nation's colors in accordance with General Logan's Order No. Our flag is a symbol of our nation, our ideals, and our identity. In the military, the flag is all these things, as well as a symbolic representation of those who have gone before us to secure our way of life. When I see the fields of flags at Oak Grove and across our city, the faces of those from my unit that we lost. And those who made the ultimate sacrifice and generations before my own so that we may live in peace and freedom. Thank you to those service members for what they have done for us. Your sacrifice and memory live on in our hearts. There are over 8,000 veterans buried at Oak Grove, including three Medal of Honor recipients. I want to thank DPW, the Cemetery Department, and the American Legion Post 45, and the dozens of citizen volunteers who marked the graves and monuments across the city this year. Also want to thank the building department for illuminating city hall gold from March 22 to March 25 in order, and honor gold star families, families, families, families, special special. Sorry I'm getting some. A special thank you to assistant superintendent Peter cushing for helping me distribute the Memorial Day history and door decorating challenge video to all families and school systems. And submit for community media from helping me make multiple videos from Memorial Day. Lastly, thank you to the city council for your continued support of veterans and gold star families, not just on holidays, but throughout the year. I'm looking forward to integrating these new methods of commemorating Memorial Day permanently next year. In addition to returning to our traditional ceremony. Thank you once again for inviting me to reflect on Memorial Day during this council meeting. and for keeping our fallen service members and their surviving families in your hearts.

[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. Durham. We thank you for being here tonight. We thank you for our service to our city and for your service to our nation. So we thank you and now recognize the Vice President of the Council, Councilor Caraviello.

[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mike, thank you very much for coming. I miss the ceremony that we normally have on Memorial Day there. And I want to thank you for all the work that you've done since coming on here. And Mr. President, if we could hold tonight's meeting in memory of the 8,000 men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the city of Medford in the form of a motion. Absolutely. We can do that.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Mr. President.

[Falco]: So on the motion of Councilor Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Knight, that we dedicate this meeting in honor of the 8,000 veterans that are buried at Oak Grove Cemetery here in our city of Medford. On that motion, Councilor Bears.

[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Mike, for your speech and especially for your service. I was lucky enough for many years as a member of the Medford High School band to be a part of our traditional Memorial Day remembrance. And I'm very disappointed that we weren't able to do that this year and I wasn't able to be there as a city councilor. But I do know that in addition to the flags, there were door decorations and memoriam, just so much from people all across the city, really making this as best as possible. a memorial day to remember, even though we can't be together. So thank you for everything you've been doing, Mike, and thanks to everybody else.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Peers. Councilor Haynes.

[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Michael, I thank you for all the work that you do. You're excellent in addition to the city's administration when it comes especially to the emergency services. I'm on the day-to-day operations that we have here in the community as well. And Michael Beachy highlighted the fact that we had a lot of community participation, a lot of community flags at Oak Grove. And I think it's important that we give a shout out to our friends over at the American Legion, 45, Richie Martin, Michael McDevitt, Eliza Boyd, and the crew that organized the flag distribution program this season.

[Falco]: Thank you guys, all right. On the motion by Vice President Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Knight, Clerk Cunabese, can you please call the roll?

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears?

[Unidentified]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Marks? Councilor Marks, I didn't hear you.

[Unidentified]: Muted.

[Falco]: Councilor Marks?

[Hurtubise]: Mentality was awful. I'll skip. There we go. Councilor Morell. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli.

[Falco]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: President Falco.

[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero negative. The motion passes. And the motion of Councilor Caraviello is seconded by Councilor Knight to revert back to the regular order of business. Clerk Carnaby, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Knight. Yes. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Morell.

[Falco]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Falco.

[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero negative, the motion passes. Motions, orders, and resolutions 230-271 offered by Councilor Knight. being resolved at the Medford City Council, congratulate Dorothy and Frank Zizzo on the momentous celebration of the 40th wedding anniversary. Councilor Layton.

[Knight]: Councilor Layton. Yes, Mr. President, please bear with me as I'm going through some technical difficulties. May I make a motion to table this until I can call in the evolution on the phone, Mr. President?

[Falco]: On the, yes, on the motion of Councilor Knight to table this. Second. Second by Vice President Caraviello, Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello.

[SPEAKER_19]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight. Yes. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Morell. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli.

[Falco]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: President Falco.

[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero negative, the motion passes. And the item, the matter is tabled. Table. 20-372, offered by Council on 9th. I think Council on 9th, is he still with us? Okay. Be resolved that the Medford City Council recognize the contributions and commitment to the betterment of the community of Medford, D.P. The betterment of the community of the Medford DPW in celebration of National Public Works Week held between May 17th and May 23rd, 2020. Councilor Knight.

[Knight]: Yes, Mr. President. It's National DPW, National Public Works Week. The public works have been essential employees since the government shutdown that have been providing great services to the community. So I'd like to, move to recognize their work and their commitment to our city and ask my council colleagues for their support as I move for approval.

[Falco]: Thank you Councilor Knight. On motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by? Second. Vice President Caraviello? Vice President Caraviello?

[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Councilor Knight for putting this forward. I mean, talk about a group of people who are probably one of the hottest working group in the city of Medford. is our DPW, greatly understaffed, but they're out there. Many of them work seven days a week for the city of Medford. And again, this small thing is so insignificant into the amount of work that these people put in day after day in our community. And again, I want to thank them for all the hard work they do. say for every day of the week, not just Monday to Friday. Most of these men and women are seven day a week people here. And that's it, you get the water department guys out there, those cold nights in the winter. There's not enough that can be said about our DPW crew. So I wanna thank them for all their hard work.

[Falco]: Thank you, Vice President Caraviello. Councilor Morell.

[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I wanna thank Councilor Knight for putting this forth and echo my council colleagues. As a new Councilor, you get pretty familiar with the DPW very quickly, and I was fortunate enough to take a tour throughout the whole yard with Brian and Steve, and they took me around, and I got to meet everyone and see the people that are super responsive, who are out there responding to residents, either going through us or going directly, and they are an instrumental part of this city, and so much of what the city is could not be possible without them. So I really wanna echo the thanks for their service. Thank you, Councilor Morell. Councilor Marks.

[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I do want to echo the sentiments of my colleagues. You know, it's almost like the Wizard of Oz that, you know, the department is severely understaffed and there are very few people behind the curtain. But let me tell you, they get the job done on a daily basis. And from the leader, Brian Cairns on down, they do a tremendous work on behalf of the residents of this community. We're very attentive in addressing issues and as Councilor Caraviello mentioned, you know, they're out there in the cold nights and the hot days doing what it takes to keep our city moving forward. And I just want to thank them all personally.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. Councilor Bears.

[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. I echo everything that my colleagues have said. And Brian has been fantastic as well. But I want to give a special thanks to the folks at DPW who are also down at the cemetery right now. As we all know, there's been a significant growth in people dying, and I think that's really difficult work, and they've been making it happen. So in addition to the whole DPW, I just want to recognize them in a very difficult time doing very difficult work.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. Councilor Scarpelli?

[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Councilor Powell. Again, I support and reiterate what my fellow colleagues have said. But remember, again, we're talking about during the best times that we've seen economically. Our DPW has functioned on the most deplorable number of staff, one being the civil service and renegotiating and reworking that system. But the community should know, no matter what the city has given them, they've come out and done the best that they could do for what we have in Medford. So we really appreciate all their hard work and understand that times are gonna get tougher soon. And we appreciate everything they've done for us. It's been yeoman's work for sure, so thank you.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Vice President Caraviello, did you have another comment? No comment, Mr. President. Okay, thank you. Before I ask the clerk to call the roll, if I may add, or echo the sentiments of my colleagues as well, our ITVW is always out there. They're working hard. They are civilly understaffed, but they always get the job done. We appreciate all their hard work. I think Councilor Bears had a very good point. Up at the cemetery now, I think that experiencing up to six burials a day, that is a really high number. And I know they're always working, they're always working hard, and we appreciate all their hard work and all their efforts. So on the motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by Vice President Caraviello, Clark-Curtabese, would you please call the roll?

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears?

[Unidentified]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco?

[Falco]: Yes, seven the affirmative, zero the negative, the motion passes. 2-0-373, offered by Vice President Caraviello, be it resolved that the Meckon City Council extend its congratulations to Mae Mockerbeck on the celebration of her 90th birthday, Vice President Caraviello.

[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, if I were to start talking about Mae Mockerbeck and her contributions throughout the community, we'd be here until midnight. May's commitment to the city of Medford has been unwavering. Whether she was a Mustang Hall of Fame, great athlete in her day, worked with the Chevalier, worked with the Cachet, you name it, May Markenbrink has been a part of anything that goes on in this community. And like I said, she's turned 90 and she acts like she's 50. She's out there, I mean, listen, she's out there walking. She's probably in better shape than me, Mr. President. But again, I want to say, like I said, there's not enough words that you can say for Mae Markenbrink for her years with the dedication to this community. And I just want to say happy birthday to Mae. And it's a shame that we can't really have a true celebration for you. So Mae, happy birthday and see you on your 100th.

[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Vice President Caraviello. Councilor Scarpelli. Thank you, Mr. President, and I thank Councilor Caraviello for bringing this forward. To my Hall of Fame sister, Mae Magelbeck, I appreciate everything she's done for our community, and it's great for our new councils. If you ever meet Mae, she's going to tell you exactly what what is what's best for our community. And it's totally out of total respect and honor and love of our community. So I think she's one of the true gems of our community and a pillar of our community. So I wish her a happy birthday. I know that when we do bring May up, she brings a glow whether it's one of the awards she's received in the past, the council. So it's kind of sad that we're not with May, because we would have invited her up, I'm sure. But she really makes you feel great and understands why you want to work so hard for the city of Medford, because people like May wake up every day that have nothing, has nothing in the game, and making sure that she's volunteering and doing what is the best for our city. It's remarkable. So happy birthday, my friend, and many more. Thank you. Thank you Councilor Scarpelli, Councilor Marks.

[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Vice President Caraviello for putting this on. 90 years young, May Makibrek, what an accomplishment. You know, I had the unique opportunity to serve on the Methodist Council, incorporated with May on the board. Talking about someone that's a plugger, a go-getter, never took no for an answer, and truly was unselfish when it came to never wanting the recognition, just wanting to get things done in the community. If it wasn't for May, you could safely say the Boys and Girls Club would not exist. If it wasn't for May, the Friends of Chevalier wouldn't be supporting the Chevalier Auditorium for the many, many years and all the improvements that were done to Chevalier. You know, May has been instrumental in this community and continues to be instrumental in this community. And I just want to personally congratulator and wish her another hundred years of community involvement in this community, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. And if I may also thank Councilor Caraviello for bringing this forward. May has been an unbelievable member of our community, always volunteering. Someone once used the term volunteer extraordinaire, and that's who she is. She is someone who's always volunteering, always giving back. It's someone who's always tells you what's on her mind, which is nice. but I just want to wish her a very, very happy birthday. Happy 90th birthday to Maymar Quebec, and best wishes to her. On the motion of Vice President Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Sara Coley, Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears? Yes. Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Falco.

[Falco]: Yes. 70 affirmative, zero in the negative. The motion passes. 20-374 offered by Councilor Marks. Be it resolved that the concerns on South Street in the intersection of South Street and Main Street be discussed. Councilor Marks.

[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I rise once again with my fellow colleagues to bring up the concern of public safety, in particular at the corner of Main Street and South Street and along the entirety of South Street. Last we spoke, Mr. President, I think it was a couple of months ago, we brought up this issue regarding some of the traffic calming initiatives that were pushed forward during a public meeting that hundreds of residents in the area attended, and of which many of the initiatives that were sent to the Traffic Commission have yet to be done, Mr. President, which is a little alarming. Also, Mr. President, within the last couple of months, and I have talked to Chief Buckley just recently, and I'm in the process of getting the traffic accidents in that particular area from the chief, an update. There has been several major traffic accidents on that particular corner in the last couple of months. So this is an issue that's not going away. It's existed for, I'd have to say since I've been on the council, So 20 years, Mr. President, we've been asking for some relief. As we all know, that section of the corner of Main and South is a state road, and they have jurisdiction over that particular piece of road that we are discussing. So what I did, Mr. President, I went through some of the studies that were initiated by this community since 2005. And I found it pretty interesting that each study that I looked at all spoke about the need for traffic calming and traffic improvements, safety improvements in the Method Square area. So this has been since 2005, over four reports that I could get my hands on, and I'm sure there were more, Mr. President, all spoke about initiatives that should be done in our community to improve traffic flow, pedestrian, bicycles, and in my opinion, very little has been acted upon. So the most recent report we have was December 2018, which was the Method Square Priority Roadway Improvement Study. And that was done by the Boston Regional Metropolitan Planning Organization. And that was commissioned in December, 2018. Uh, they came out with, uh, I don't know if it was a 40, 50 page report, uh, that talked about, uh, the method square surrounding area and ways to make improvements of which, um, I'd like to go through Mr. President, their recommendations. for the Medford Square area, and I'd like to isolate not on all their recommendations, but the intersection of South Street and Main Street, Mr. President. So I will get into that. The second report that was commissioned by the city was December 2017. So it was a year before the Medford Square Priority Roadway Improvement Plan. And that was the Medford Square Master Plan. And that was done by the Metro Area Planning Council. And that had an associated cost of $90,000. That also got into the improvements and traffic calming improvements that were needed in the Medford Square area. I am not going to get into that, Mr. President, because I think much of that is covered in the Medford Square priority roadway improvement. The report prior to that was in the fall of 2006. It was the Medford Square and Mystic River Reconnection, Revitalization, and Redevelopment Study. And that was done by MIT. And that talked about parking. It talked about improvements to the downtown area. It talked about revitalizing business. That encompassed a lot more than just roadways. However, the roadway in question, Salt Street and Main, was mentioned, Mr. President, and ways to improve that. That was back in 2006. And the last report I could find was the original Medford Square Master Plan, which was done by Sasaki in June of 2005. And that had an associated cost of a little over $100,000. And I don't have the cost of the other studies. So the two that I have, Mr. President, were close to $200,000 in studies with very little in the way of improvements to our roadways, which To me, Mr. President, is alarming when we have to talk about it year after year and know that as time goes by, accidents increase, pedestrian safety is at an all time dangerous rate in that particular area. And that should concern all of us. So December 2018, the Metropolitan Planning Organization conducted this study. As I mentioned, the study is part of the MPO series of ongoing studies that addresses safety, mobility, and access of the Boston region's priority roadways. This report identifies specific issues and concerns in Medford Square study area, presents an in-depth analysis of multiple transportation-related factors, and recommends potential short, long-term solutions to problems, including improvement alternatives. So the study goes on to talk about 2.4 total miles of needed improvements on our roadways at many different sections. I'm just going to focus, Mr. President, on the Main Street, Route 38 from Salem Street to Mystic Ave. And that calls into question, as we all know, the South Street and Main Street connection. So Mr. President, in 2000, 2013, and 2015, mass DOT data shows that the crash clusters that are present throughout the entire study area, which I just alluded to this five different major study areas. They were ranked in the top 5% of crash locations in the Boston region MPO area. So we have five locations in Medford that are in the top 5% of crash clusters. That speaks volumes, Mr. President, and that was indicated within this December 2018 report. It goes on to say, Mr. President, that the Main Street corridor from Craddock Bridge to Mystic Ave, whose two most concerning intersections are Main Street at Route 16 ramps and Main Street at Mystic Ave, which is the area that we're focusing on, Mr. President. The issues of concern I know we're all, some of us, this is old hat. But I think we've got to keep on revisiting this, Mr. President. I had a talk today with Christine Barber, our state representative, who assured me that there's transportation bond bill money that is for the purpose of putting signalization throughout the square, which was a major recommendation. I think there was an estimated cost, which I brought up several months back at, I want to say, $4 to $5 million, which sounds like overkill in my opinion, but that's what they came out with. But according to Representative Barber, that there is money in the transportation bond bill. It just has to be freed up. So, issues of concern, there is considerable traffic on Main Street during the a.m. and p.m. peak periods. Anyone crossing those streets realize, as Councilor Scarpelli mentioned, it's a game of chicken or frog. Frogger trying to cross those streets and even just trying to get out onto Main Street is you're taking your life in your hands. The intersection at Main Street Route 16 ramps is currently un-signalized with stop controls at Route 16 westbound off-ramp and South Street joined by Route 16 eastbound off-ramp. During peak traffic periods, the stop control approaches are extremely congested. The intersection of Main Street and Mystic Ave currently operates with flashing yellow on Main Street southbound and Mystic Ave flashing red on Main Street northbound during peak periods. Vehicles on Main Street northbound endure extensive delays and frequently force themselves into the intersection, what causes potential conflicts with prevailing traffic and sometimes gridlock. the intersection. These two intersections have a crash rate much higher than the district floor average of un-signalized sections. So it's ranked in the top 5% and it has a much higher average of crashes than other un-signalized intersections. With no traffic signals, with pedestrian phases, and under heavy traffic, pedestrians usually have a difficult time crossing the two intersections. Pedestrian crosswalk markings on Main Street are faded. That was 2018. They have since painted the crosswalks. There are no sufficient shoulders or clearly marked shared road bicycle accommodations on Main Street and Mystic Ave. So the report went on, Mr. President, and the reason why I bring this up is we don't have to recreate the wheel when it comes to what needs to be done. We have four commission reports by organizations that came in, did a thorough investigation, had community input, public hearings, and made recommendations. And here we are 15 years later, and we're no closer to addressing our concerns. But yet, accidents continue to happen. Very serious accidents, Mr. President. So the proposed short-term improvements, and I'll go over them briefly, regularly maintain the crosswalks. You would think that would be a no-brainer, but in our community, it's something that has to be revisited every year. You know, I asked for thermal plastic crosswalks, which don't need repainting every year. They last five years, they're slip resistant, they're highly reflective, and we still don't incorporate that as a common practice in our community. which it's a little more expensive, but the state uses them and every other large agency and city uses thermoplastic in the use of their pavement markings. Install stripe yield lines in both directions at the crosswalk on Main Street near the police station. Consider removing on-street parking in front of the police station and providing at least five foot shoulders on both sides of Main Street. Install striped sharrows at appropriate locations of both streets south of the intersection of Main Street and Mystic Ave. Support development on South Method Connector, a multi-use path on South Bank of the Mystic River that would connect the Mystic Greenway currently understudied by the City of Method and the Mystic River Watershed Association. long-term improvements. Both the intersection of Main Street at Route 16 ramps and Main Street at Mystic Ave should be signalized and reconstructed. Main Street at Route 16, in summary, this study proposes alternative 1A and 1B for the interchange, long-term improvements. 1A, signalize the two ramp intersections under one controller with three phase traffic operations and concurrent pedestrian phases. Now, Mr. President, I need to add that this does not talk about signalization all the way from Salem Street, which we were originally told by the state would run us anywhere from $3 to $5 million. This is far more of a centralized approach to alleviate the concerns we have on the Main Street, South Street area to Mystic Ave. Alternative B, signalize the two ramp intersections under one controller with four-phase traffic operations and concurrent pedestrian phases. So, Mr. President, I won't get into all the other improvements, but I do have them and I am going to list them, Mr. President. I would ask that as part of this report, the funding that MassDOT says is clearly available for this project. And I would ask any of my colleagues to go on to the FY, the 2018 Medford Square Priority Roadway Improvement Study. And they could see that for themselves that the state is saying funding is available for this particular project. So I don't know why we're in a quandary now, how we're going to pay for this and why we haven't moved forward on this project for at least the last two years since we received this report, Mr. President. So I would ask that through our traffic engineer and through our engineer that we find out about the funding. that DOT admits is available to the city of Medford for the Route 16, Mystic Ave portion of improvements that were mentioned within the Priority Roadway Improvement Study of 2018. I would also ask, Mr. President, once again, I think we did this six months ago, and I don't recall a response. Maybe my colleagues can correct me. but the council recommended during a public meeting with hundreds of residents from the South Street area, some simple low-lying fruit of stop signs, widening sidewalks, raised crosswalks, maybe even a pedestrian crossing light on South Street in general. And there may have been one or two improvements, but largely, Mr. President, many of the recommendations that were forwarded to the traffic commission have not been acted upon yet. And if there's a reason why I, as one member of the council, would like to know, if it's a financial reason, then we should have that discussion with the mayor and try to find out. We're going to be discussing budget shortly, what needs to be done to move these along. Uh, we asked for a meeting with our state delegation, uh, regarding, um, improvements to the state roadway, which is at the corner of Maine and, uh, and South street. Uh, I know we met with DOT sometime back. They really took a hotline stance on, uh, you know, more or less saying that they didn't have the funding to do the full signalization from Salem street on down to Mystic Ave. and put that outrageous cost estimate on getting that done. So I would ask once again, Mr. President, maybe we need a roundtable summit. Maybe we need to bring in someone higher up than the representatives we're seeing from DOT. Maybe we need the commissioner present, Mr. President. Maybe we need the lieutenant governor present. This is, to me, an all-time risk right now we face for our residents, for people driving, for people on bicycles, for pedestrians. And we can no longer sit around, Mr. President. I think we've all issued our concerns. We can no longer sit around and say, you know what, we're waiting for the state to act. I've said it before, many of the state roads in our community, and I feel this strongly, if the state doesn't want to act, we should step forward and act and worry about the ramifications after. Because these are roads in our community. And if the state doesn't want to act upon these or feels that it's too expensive, putting a cost on public safety and lives in our community, then we need to step forward, Mr. President, as a community. And we need to shake the tree. We need to yell from the highest mountain, whatever it's going to take, Mr. President, to get this done. And we also are locating a public safety building across the street. What message does that send to residents that may want to go to the public safety building, that may want to walk there? It sends a lousy message, Mr. President, that you're not welcome unless you drive there. It sends an awful message in our community. So as soon as I get the results, Mr. President, from the number of accidents at that location that Chief Buckley said they're working on, I will also present that to the council. I would ask in the form of a motion that the traffic engineer and our city engineer look at the 2018 report and find out why we have not solicited the funding according to what MassDOT said we're eligible, and also that They look into the traffic calming initiatives that were pushed forward by a unanimous vote of this council back many months ago, and where we stand with that, Mr. President. And I would respectfully ask you, Mr. President, that we set up a roundtable. with our state delegation, with higher ups from DOT, whoever we can get at the meeting, Mr. President, this is vital on behalf of our community. And I thank my colleagues for indulging me with that presentation.

[Knight]: I second that as a motion, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilman Marks. Clerk Hurtubise, do you have the wording in the motion?

[Hurtubise]: Mr. President, I have the main motion is the discussion, is 20-374. I've got three amendments to it. Rather than go through them in excruciating detail, there's three amendments. The first one is to consult with the city engineer and traffic, ask the city engineer and the traffic engineer to report back on why funds were not solicited in the 2018 report.

[Marks]: The second one is to play. That was mentioned in the 2018 report as being available.

[Hurtubise]: I will clean this up a little bit more when I watch the video tomorrow. I appreciate that. And then the second part is for the city engineer and the traffic engineer to looking to the traffic improvements that were recommended by the council several months ago at that intersection. And then the third amendment was for the council to have a roundtable meeting with DOT, with the state delegation on the council, to discuss these issues.

[Marks]: So just a clarification on the second one. It was at the end. It was South Street and the intersection of South and Main. OK. We made a number of improvements requested on South Street itself. OK. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Clerk.

[Falco]: Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Marks. To that motion was made by Councilor Marks, who is seconded by Councilor Scarpelli. There are a number of Councilors that want to speak on this. So at this point, I recognize Councilor Scarpelli and then Councilor Knight. Councilor Scarpelli.

[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor Marks, for bringing this forward again. But I know we'll ask probably Mr. Rodriguez to speak in a minute. I know we had a recent conversation of the South Street concerns, and I've talked to the state delegations as well. They're waiting for the final number to come back to see how much it taking to pay for this. That's what I was told, to implement the lights. And that'll be the culmination of correcting that issue. But where we are today is something we've asked for. What I'm gonna do, I would like to make an amendment, if Councilor Marks allows me to, for putting an amendment to this resolution, that we look at the low-hanging fruit and implement these few initiatives, as well as hold a Committee of the Whole meeting with our traffic engineer, our chief of staff, and our police chief to talk about these simple concerns. One, the raised sidewalks to be implemented on South and Main. Yes. Councilor Scott. Can you slow down just a little bit so I can copy these all down? Yep. One is to implement the raised sidewalks. Crosswalks.

[Unidentified]: Sorry.

[Scarpelli]: Sorry. The raised sidewalks we asked for and were questioned because of the plowing situation. That was the only concern back when we made this ad months ago. raised sidewalk on Main Street and South Street. On that intersection- Sidewalk or crosswalk? Excuse me, crosswalk. Main Street and South Street, the intersection, and on Main Street and South Street going toward South Medford. on the opposite side of Main Street. It was the narrowing to one lane and adding the traffic posts that go along the side where they would eliminate the parking in front of the police station. That would be eliminated to one lane. So it slows the traffic down to that area. And then paint along that lane. making sure that it is visible, that that is closed, it's not an active lane anymore, and that we look into what is in the study with the police department because the discussion was a crosswalk in front of the police station, which they would implement what's called a rhino light, which is a crosswalking light to be added during the construction, and then it's a simple one-touch when you need to cross to stop that traffic so they can cross in a safe manner. So these initiatives are difficult. I appreciate Council Marks, but I want to commit you the whole if we can to go over these very simple, very cost-effective, initiatives that we've been screaming for, for years. I apologize that, you know, I know Mr. Rodriguez is new, but this is, it's so frustrating when, you know, as the chairperson of the transportation subcommittee, we've had meetings after meetings after meetings with everybody involved. And as the council, as the council elected by the city of Medford, We are asking for, this is simple, right now, in a week, to implement raised crosswalks to those two locations to slow traffic. to narrow the opposite lane to one lane with markings and their three-foot posts that are reflectors. These are simple initiatives that are going to calm that area down. I don't want to hear closing that and making that a right turn only. That's not going to work. We know the state delegates are working on the funding and the process to put traffic lights, signal lights there. We've heard that. We're still waiting. I know they're trying hard. I know there's money involved. But Council Marks put a very thorough timeline of history of this issue. And what I'm imploring to our administration is simple. These initiatives that I made as an amendment are very simple. And truly, the chief will say no, the traffic engineer might say no, whatever might come down. We as a council need to really push these simple initiatives because this is what was told to us. months ago with the state delegates and representatives from DOT that said this is low-hanging fruit that can be done. Period. So I'm actually disgusted right now that we're talking about it again. And I look myself in the mirror and question why I haven't demanded this like I am right now. So what I'm asking for is a Committee of the Whole meeting, if we can, as soon as possible, with the traffic engineers, city administration, DPW director, and our chief of police and traffic. to implement these simple, simple fixes for south of Maine to slow this down. So if I can, I hope I'm rambling. I'm a little, I'm a little motivated, but I hope a clerk her to bees has that. And I moved to make that as an amendment.

[Falco]: Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Knight.

[Knight]: Mr. President, I'd certainly second the amendment offered by Councilor Scarpelli. And I think it's safe to say that all members of the council have a concern about Southern Maine all members of the council are aware there have been long standing issues. And all members of the council have ideas about what approach to take to address it. I think Councilor Marks made some very great suggestions. I think Councilor Scarpelli's made great suggestions. So what I'm hearing is that we want to have a roundtable. with the players from the state administration for district four, as well as our state delegation. And also we want to have a committee of the whole meeting with the city administration and the decision makers at the city level. I think they have great ideas, Mr. President. And I'd ask that we move to consolidate all amendments to one amendment. So they require one roll call vote and we move forward on the issue.

[Falco]: Thank you. That's okay with me. Okay, okay. Councilor Bears. Councilor Bears, if I may really quick, the clerk has his hand up.

[Hurtubise]: I just want to make sure we have... I've got everything, councilors. If you're all amending the main paper, you don't have to take separate votes as long as you're considering all the amendments. If it's not a B paper, then it doesn't require a separate vote. So if all your amendments are to the main paper and they're not B papers, you don't have to take separate votes on any of this.

[Falco]: Correct. Councilor Bears.

[Bears]: Well, I'll throw an amendment onto the pile. I would just like to also, and I don't even know exactly how possible this is. So just something to keep in mind for the city administration, hopefully, since we're inviting the state delegation, that at any meeting, at such a meeting that the state delegation and the city administration provide an update on Any timelines for the release of bond bill funds? I think one thing we know is the legislature passes things, but they have to be authorized by the governor's office. And very often that never happens. So at least that's my experience with bond bills for public higher education. So that's just one of the issues with bonding. So I'd just like to see how those discussions, if there are any updates or if any of those discussions have been had. I spoke longer than the motion, is it clear?

[Hurtubise]: I've got it, Councilor.

[Bears]: Thank you.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Peers. Any questions from the Council? Councilor Scarpelli, I believe you mentioned the Chief of Staff before. Chief of Staff Rodriguez, do you know if there are any updates from the administration with regard to this issue? I know it's a well-known issue. Are there any updates with regard to this?

[Unidentified]: I'll unmute you, hang on. Sure. Thank you, Mr. President.

[Dave Rodrigues]: So I don't have any updates for you tonight, but I have been going back and forth with Tim McGivern over text during the conversation just so we can update, so we can prepare ourselves, update the council on things that we've done to date, recommendations that have come to us, and why we've acted on them or have not acted on them, and the reasons therefore. I'm happy to participate in any committees of the whole or any roundtables to talk through the issues and try to find solutions that will work. I think we're all aware that it is a problem and we're all aware that that solutions are there somewhere, but we need to find them and be able to find them as so they're equitable across the board, both financially as well as logistically. And we're happy to participate in that discussion moving forward. Thank you.

[Knight]: I think it's also important to point out, Mr. President, that at the present time, for the majority of the day, South Street remains closed as they do the Eversource underground construction project. And they've implemented some traffic calming measures while construction is going on before the road closure that would be very effective and very cost neutral, to say the least. So I think this is something that we can get done.

[Dave Rodrigues]: So initially, and that's a I'll just I'll just piggyback on customer nice point that prior to the ever source project and prior to the being pulled away on other issues. As of late, we did take some immediate steps and we kind of put them in short term medium term long term buckets. to talk about. A couple of the short-term issues that we were looking at, especially pertaining to South Street, was to narrow the street as much as we could by allowing parking on both sides. One of the problems that we were seeing is that the road was too wide, so folks were speeding down there. We've all seen the news reports of folks speeding because the roads are more empty. There's this perception that the more space people have, the faster they'll go. So we're looking to narrow those roads as much as we can by using natural barriers of parking. Using signage to direct more traffic away from South Street towards High Street, so folks can get to the square and get onto Route 16. Sending letters to MassDOT to allow trucking to proceed on that portion of Route 16, where trucking is now not allowed. And trying to divert as much traffic as we can. That's a good source point for us to be able to focus on. It's not necessarily managing the cars that are there, but getting less cars on that street. in terms of the Main Street and South Street intersections. We had a lot of conversations about what to do. We engaged with MassDOT and the state police about what their thoughts were and actions that they could take immediately, as well as engaging with the state delegation to talk about the signalization issues. Councilor Bears is dead right when it comes to the bond bill. It's great. It's awesome to have that stuff in there. We're blessed to have good advocacy at the state level to get as many projects in there. But given the current financial state of the state, I'd be very surprised to see the authorized money released by the administration, especially in the terms of the amount of dollars that we're talking about in terms of the long-term fix. There is the option of putting the money in the tip. which is run through the NPO. It's a great program, but it requires a lot of legwork on the city side. We started that legwork on the city side when the current public health crisis hit. Part of that is doing road counts. And unfortunately, some of the road counts are being deflated because there's just not enough people on the road. So we want to make sure we get accurate counts. and I can re-engage with the traffic engineer on this point, so we can give the best advice to the city and the council as to how best to proceed in light of the current crisis and how to get the best resources from the TIP and the NPO.

[Falco]: Thank you, Chief of Staff David Rodriguez. Any other questions from the council? Any community participation or emails, Clerk Hurtubise?

[Hurtubise]: Mr. President, there are no emails on this topic. Mr. Navarre, name and address for the record, please.

[Navarre]: William Navarre, 108 Medford Street, apartment 1B. And I just want to say that I think what this really comes down to is whether or not, sort of to paraphrase the late Mayor Menino, is the car king in the city of Medford. And you can't say that it's not when it's not safe to walk so close to Medford Square. I'm looking at a map right now. The amount of parking that's in Medford Square It's absolutely astonishing. If that's our 100% point in our city, it's absolutely astonishing how much. And that's not because it doesn't fall out of the sky. That's because it's not a safe place to walk a lot of people feel, I think. And that means that we have to have more parking. And that means there can't be as much development. It means we can't have as much affordable housing if we have to have all this parking. You look along Mystic Avenue right near there. It's all automobile uses. There are car dealerships there in a city. a city where it's one of the few communities in this country you can live a full life without a car. We have car dealerships there. And why is that? Well, I think it's because you can't quite live a full life without a car because we got little issues like this. So I'm really happy to see this addressed because I think only by making people feel safe using what we call alternative transportation, whereas I don't know if that's a great word, because Pete came first. But we call it alternative transportation. People don't feel comfortable using alternative transportation at intersections like this. So they say, we want more parking. We want more parking. And of course, parking doesn't pay much taxes. That affects the budget. That affects everything. I think it's all connected. And I think that anything we can do to make people less reliant on their cars It's going to make Medford a happier, healthier, more financially sustainable place. I'm very pleased to see you taking this up with urgency. Thank you.

[Falco]: Thank you, Mr. Navarre. On the motion of Councilor Marks, as amended by Councilor Scarpelli and Councilor Bears, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli, Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll. Also amended by Councilor Marks. I apologize, amended by Councilor Marks.

[SPEAKER_03]: And Councilor Bears.

[Hurtubise]: Yeah, we got Councilor Bears, we got Councilor Scarpelli. All right, here comes the roll call on this motion as amended. Councilor Bears?

[Bears]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco?

[Falco]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative, the motion passes. 20-375 offered by Council of Bears be resolved by the Medford City Council that the Community Preservation Committee and City Administration provide an update on the Rental Assistance Program and Free Legal Services Program for people facing housing insecurity due to the coronavirus emergency and economic crisis. Council of Bears.

[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. As we know, it's been several weeks now since we got this program up and running. I've been lucky enough to be working with Roberta and Danielle and several other folks from the CPC and the city just to check in and see how it's going, connect people to the program. With the level of unemployment and the significant economic issues that we're facing, I think it's really good that we set this program up. I will say that, you know, I expect sooner rather than later that the first installment of funds that we use will likely be used. I'm not going to speak to that directly. I think we have actually Roberta and Danielle here from the CPC who have more direct information. But the need is great. A lot of communities, especially surrounding communities, have put in even larger amounts of funds. I know that we're limited. But I'll just say it again, the need is great. So that's why I put this on the agenda, hoping to get an update. and also just for anyone watching to hear about this program.

[Falco]: Okay, we have a couple of Councilors that want to speak. Vice President Caraviello.

[Caraviello]: Mr. President, I'll yield to Roberta Cameron and then I'll ask my question after I hear what she has to say.

[Falco]: Roberta, could you please have your name and address for the record? Thank you, Roberta Cameron, 12 North Street.

[Roberta Cameron]: And I'm here, and as well, I see Danielle Evans is here, who can also speak to this. We did receive a preliminary update from the organizations who are administering the emergency rental assistance programs that the Community Preservation Committee funded last month. It is premature. I'd actually like to let Danielle speak to our process of being able to actually have the funds running to the people who need it. But I did get an update from the organizations about the inquiries that they've received and the applications that they're currently in the pipeline to receive assistance from ABCD, we have. They've received so far 38 inquiries since this program was launched about three weeks ago, of which 27, they are currently working on processing applications. And nine applicants have completed the intake and are waiting on supporting documentation. Out of those nine applicants, eight are families. And the total amount that's been requested of these nine applicants is $45,829. I also asked them to let us know if they're seeing any barriers to participation in the program, just so that we could understand if there's a way that we could tweak this program or look at how we might be able to make future funding available. And the barriers that they've identified so far are landlords who don't wish to participate in the program. people who have had rental arrears prior to COVID-19, which make them ineligible, and also just specific circumstances around the housing units that make them ineligible. So Housing Families Inc so far has seven applications in the pipeline. All of their applicants are below 30% area median income. Two of these include households with children and one of those also has senior household members. One of them is in a public housing unit. Four are in small multifamily housing, which means very likely that they have independent landlords whose mortgages are being protected by helping the renter households. One small apartment building and one larger apartment complex. And a total of 7350 has been requested of their funding to date with requested amounts ranging from 650,000 to $2,000. And I also wanted to update that I'm working with Housing Medford, an advocacy group that has been trying to help share information with outreach to ensure that people know that these programs exist. We held a meeting last Thursday evening to provide information to the public about the emergency rental assistance programs and other housing resources that are available to Medford residents. We had the Office of Community Development, Medford Housing Authority in attendance. In addition to ABCD and the Metro Boston Housing Partnership, which is the entity that administers raft for Medford residents, that's another emergency rental assistance program. This information session can still be viewed on Medford Community Media. It was televised. It took place on Thursday, May 21st. And Housing Medford has also helped to facilitate outreach to Medford Senior Center, Medford Family Network, the Food Security Network, the Chamber of Commerce, Medford Public Schools, West Medford Community Center, in addition to other organizations in the community. And I know that OCD is also working to ensure that information about our housing resources is available in other languages. So with that, I'd love to ask Danielle to provide an update, any further details that I've left out. I think she needs to be unmuted.

[Falco]: Yeah, she looked like she's about to unmute herself. This is the, okay, there you go.

[Evans]: Thank you. Roberta, did you also mention that in addition to the calls that went straight to ABCD and HFI, that there were also about 22 calls directly to OCD for rental assistance. And I'm sorry, I've got someone knocking on my door. What was I saying? I'm not sure if all 22 of them have completed intakes with ABCD. Lorena from OCD is going to be following up with them to see how far along they are. But also for being able to get the money out the door, the grant agreement has been approved by the city solicitor and we just need the account set up by the finance department to be able to to get these signed off by the mayor. And I know there is a bit of a process with council papers making it through the various steps. But as of today, the accounts are not set up. I am hoping that can be rectified soon. So we can sign the agreement and get the funds out the door.

[Caraviello]: Councilor Caraviello, did you? Thank you, Mr. President. Roberto, thank you for answering some of the questions that I was going to ask. But it seems like the process needs to be streamlined a little more to make it easier for these people to get through this. I mean, from what I'm hearing from you and Danielle is everybody's wrapped up in paperwork. So is there anything being done to maybe streamline this so those who need it the most would be able to get it?

[Roberta Cameron]: One of the issues that some of the feedback that we've received from ABCD is that the applicants are not, or the people who are inquiring are not always clear on what the eligibility criteria are. In fact, they had people inquiring from Medford, Oregon. So first of all, understanding which Medford this is providing. emergency assistance for. So on that level, they've been receiving a lot more inquiries than they can actually process applications for. But we could ask whether there's anything that we can do on our end to make the application process be able to go more smoothly.

[Caraviello]: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.

[Morell]: Thank you, Vice President Kavyao. Councilor Morales. Thank you, Mr. President. Roberta, you mentioned that one of the reasons that people might not be getting through is that their landlord doesn't want to participate in the program. Could you just explain what that means?

[Roberta Cameron]: It may be that the landlord, because the program will require that the landlord, I believe, receive a tax statement stating that they received funding through this program and the landlord may not want to provide their social security number or their tax ID in order to be able to make that possible. I understand that that's sometimes a barrier for landlords. Okay, thank you.

[Marks]: Thank you. I'm sorry, Councilor Marks, did you have your hand up? I may have missed it, but Roberta, did you mention the range of requests for the nine applicants?

[Roberta Cameron]: They did not provide a range. They only gave the total.

[Marks]: So we don't know, you said 45,000 between nine applicants. So what's the most that someone can receive? Do we know that?

[Roberta Cameron]: 5,000. So actually the average is above what they've requested and they may be looking for other sources of funds to be able to help some of these households. So we don't have any details at the moment. This was actually a very last minute request to make of the organization. So they didn't have time to give us as much detailed information as they would have if we had given them a week to reply. So we may be able to go back and follow up with a more detailed report in, you know, the next time that we talk with you.

[Unidentified]: Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Knight.

[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I just ask that any type of update like this be given, be given to us in writing. I appreciate the presentation. However, I think it's important for us to have something like this in writing, especially where we've appropriated about 25% of the community preservation funds that we've allotted to the affordable housing bucket to this cause. You know, I think that the presentation from ABCD might be called for rather than members of the CPC. And looking at this, I'm getting a little uncomfortable with the level of involvement that the CPC has on the administration of the grant and the actual application that the grant recipient is having. I mean, we can administer it and monitor it, but I think it's getting very hands-on. And I don't know how comfortable I feel with that from the feedback that I'm getting and the way that I'm hearing that these are working out. But with that being said, Mr. President, I certainly appreciate the mission and the work that we're doing to address some of these community concerns. I just ask that any response to the resolution also be offered to the council in writing so that we can have a snapshot in time for when we ask for a future update later on.

[Falco]: Councilor, do you want this updated in writing? Is that?

[Knight]: That would be my intention, Mr. President. Yes, and I'd offer that in the form of a motion.

[Caraviello]: second the motion, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Okay. Any other questions from the council? Council appears.

[Bears]: I just want to again thank Roberta, Danielle, and also a lot of other folks, anyone who's been communicating about this, putting information out, letting friends and neighbors know that there are options from the city to help. The last thing we need right now is anyone losing their housing. And it's been really, um, I've been grateful to see how many people in Medford have stepped up and volunteered to help make things like this and also assistance to, you know, guidance for other help, um, available.

[Falco]: Thank you. Council of bears, uh, do you have the wording on the motion?

[Hurtubise]: I do, and again, I can clarify this a little bit when I go back and watch the video. But Councilor Knight wants written updates on this program in the response to the council on this resolution.

[Knight]: And if I may, Mr. President, this is a motion that I'll make on any paper that requests an update. You know, it's a council paper, the paper will be approved, the update should be received in writing as well as by way of the presentation or we should just get the update in writing, but it should definitely be in writing. So it's not something that's just particular and exclusive to this matter that's before us. I'll continue to ask for these updates in writing for other matters as well.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor. Clerk Cardavese, are you- I got it.

[Morell]: Okay, perfect.

[Falco]: Okay, any other questions from the council? Any emails coming, Clerk Cardavese, or any comments from the general public? There are none, Mr. President. Okay, hearing and seeing none. On the motion of Council Knight, seconded by- Seconded, Mr. President. Councilor Caraviello, Vice President Caraviello, Clerk Cardavese, please call the roll.

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: As amended.

[Hurtubise]: Correct, is it Councilor Behr's motion or Councilor Knight's motion? It's Councilor Behr's motion.

[Falco]: Is this an amendment, I apologize. Is this an amendment to the main motion Councilor Knight?

[SPEAKER_19]: Yes, sir.

[Falco]: Okay, so on the motion of Councilor Knight, as amended by Councilor, I'm sorry, on the motion of Councilor Bears, as amended by Councilor Knight and seconded by Vice President Caraviello.

[SPEAKER_03]: Who's on first?

[Hurtubise]: Please call the roll. Don't get me started on that one. I grew up in Cooperstown. I used to watch that one all day long. Here comes the roll call. Councilor Bears? Yes. Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Marks?

[Unidentified]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Morell?

[Unidentified]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco?

[Falco]: Yes. Seven affirmative, zero negative, the motion passes.

[Hurtubise]: Tuesday or 10th.

[Falco]: By the motion of Councilor Knight to suspend the rules, seconded by Vice President Caraviello, Clerk Burnaby, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Knight. Yes. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Morell. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Falco.

[Falco]: Yes, seven affirmative, zero on the negative. The motion passes and the rules are suspended. Councilor Knight.

[Knight]: Mr. President, it seems like we're on fire with the Community Preservation Commission. So I believe on our agenda this evening, we have a request for appropriation. So I'd ask that that paper be taken up out of order, whereas we have our representatives from the CPC before us on the previous matter.

[Falco]: Sounds good. Communications from the mayor, 20-379, May 20th, 2020. to the Honorable President and members of the Medford City Council, City Hall, Medford, Massachusetts here on 2155 regarding the Community Preservation Committee. Dear Mr. President and City Councilors, I respectfully request and recommend that your Honorable body approve the following following a recommendation of the Community Preservation Committee. Number one, requesting the appropriation of $30,000 from the CPA General Reserve to the Unitarian Universalist Church for the David Osgood House Historic Window Restoration Project. This project will be tracked in the Community Preservation Fund by category General Reserve. Sincerely, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Mayor. Let's see.

[Unidentified]: Roberta, did you wanna speak on this?

[Roberta Cameron]: Actually, I would like to defer to Doug Carr, another Community Preservation Committee member who has expertise on the subject of historic preservation.

[Falco]: Doug Carr, name and address for the record, please.

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: It's Doug Carr, 124 Boston Avenue in Medford. Thank you. I'm wearing two hats this evening, obviously from the Community Preservation Committee, but also the Medford Historic Commission. The CPC supported the original grant, which we thought was really important to move forward this historic building. And we put a condition on it to provide ADA access to the building so the public benefit would be clear. At the time it was voted on, the scope of the ADA work was really a conceptual diagram. And what happened during the course of figuring out the project in great detail was The cost for the ADA stuff ballooned dramatically. And so that's why we're coming back. We still feel that the accessibility is important. So I know that the number is a little high, but we feel it's really important for this project to move forward and that the accessibility part not be severed from the building restoration as a whole, which was the genesis of this grant application. I'm happy to support this increased dollar amount on behalf of the applicant. And if you have any questions in regards to the historic preservation side of things, please let me know. Thank you very much.

[Caraviello]: Motion approved, Mr. President.

[Falco]: A motion of Vice President Caraviello to approve, seconded by?

[Caraviello]: Second.

[Falco]: Councilor Bears, was that? Councilor Bears? Mr. President. Councilor Knight has a question.

[Unidentified]: Councilor Knight and Councilor Morell.

[Knight]: My question, Mr. President, was just that the second Councilor Caraviello's motion to move for approval. That's what these funds are for. It's a very worthy cause and it's something that we've supported in the past and it's something that I will continue to support in the future.

[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. Councilor Morell. Thank you, Mr. President. Doug, just a question. So is this the this amount is finalized, this is what you know that this will cost, or is there a chance you may have to come back for more?

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: I believe the applicant got an estimate and they built in some contingency to this number, so this number should be it. They've told us explicitly they will not be coming back for more.

[Falco]: Okay, great. Thank you.

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: You're welcome.

[Falco]: We have Councilor Caraviello, Vice President Caraviello, then Councilor Marks, Vice President Caraviello.

[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Doug, before we vote on this, I just had a quick question for you. The wall on Grove Street, the company did a great job on that. But I noticed that a section has fallen down and that end cap hasn't been finished yet. Will they be coming back there to get that finished?

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Yes, they will. I saw that as well, Councilor. The wall is, it's under warranty per contract, so they're not done yet. It's a groutless wall, meaning they're just stuck together as stones. There's no grout in that wall. That's the way those walls were built. And so we're gonna make sure that that piece that you're talking about, the little piece did break off. I think it's a very high quality wall. You've seen the improvement along Grove Street. Honestly, this is unrelated to this. This is the Brooks Estate, not to the, applicant before the council.

[Caraviello]: No, no, I just wanted to bring this up before, I know you're involved with that project. And again, the wall came out great. And as I say, I got nothing but compliments from many members of the community in regards to that. So I want to thank you.

[Unidentified]: Thank you. Thank you.

[Caraviello]: One more thing, Doug? Yes, sir. If you could wish your dad, former councillor Bill Carr, happy birthday. Oh, thank you, Councilor. I'm greatly appreciated. Yeah. He's a good man. I had him as a school teacher and a good friend too. You and many others in Medford. Thank you.

[Falco]: Birthday, Mr. Carr. Uh, let's see. We have Councilor Marks.

[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. Doug, can you point to anything in particular why the costs, uh, were so exorbitant compared to what was originally thought?

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: I think what happened was that the applicant didn't actually have a survey of the back of the property, a detailed survey showing the grades. When it came time to get from the door to the street and the sidewalk as required by ADA, it was a lot more complicated. It was a lot longer path. They had to do a lot more design. We thought it was just going to be a simple path, but it turned out to be much more complicated because it was a steeper change in grade. than what they had guessed, because they didn't have accurate information. That's quite common with historic properties that don't really have a great existing facilities. We had the same problem when we started with the Brooks Estate many years ago.

[Marks]: So has this passed through the historic commission in the city?

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: I believe the commission has signed off on the project. The design that they've come up with has been viewed by the commission, so they've approved it. There's no issues there.

[Marks]: So they have approved it?

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: I believe so, yes, they have.

[Marks]: If we could just get a notice on that, Mr. President, that this was approved. Is that typical of CPC funds? Is that a requirement before funds are doled out? Or how does it typically work?

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Well, I think Roberta can speak to this as well, but I think any property that's on the National Register and historic property in Medford would come before the commission with any changes. So we typically do that. And this property clearly qualified. It's been on the National Register for many decades.

[Marks]: Right, but I'm talking about in particular before the CPC grants money. Did you make sure if there's any type of sign off or approval that that's done prior to allocating money?

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Danielle, can you help me here on this one? I don't remember because the original grant was a while ago. What the sequence was, I know it came before the commission. I just don't remember where in the process it was. Councilor, could you unmute Mr. Daniela?

[Falco]: I'm trying to, it sometimes takes a few clicks, so. Thank you. Thank you.

[Evans]: Go ahead, Daniela. And also I should mention that the applicant, Susan Girard, is on the Zoom right now too, if anyone has questions for her directly. But one of the conditions of the grant was that it meet the National Secretary of the Interior Standards. That's right. That is the, before they start the work, and we don't even have a grant agreement executed with them yet. So this hasn't, nothing has started yet really. We just need sign off from the historical commission that it indeed does meet those standards.

[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: And we saw the original drawings of the house which shows the four elevations of the property with the windows and the new paint. I know that the revised design was presented before it was given to the commission. I thought it was at least a month ago. I'll provide you with the paperwork, Councilor Marks, anything you need to show the support of the commission.

[Unidentified]: Thank you.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. Any other questions from the council?

[Caraviello]: Motion for approval again, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Okay, Clerk Hurtubise, any emails, any comments from the general public?

[Hurtubise]: There are no emails and no comments from the general public, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Okay, on the motion of Vice President Caraviello, seconded by Councilor Bears. Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears? Yes. Vice President Caraviello?

[SPEAKER_19]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell?

[Falco]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco.

[Falco]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The motion passes.

[Knight]: Motion to revert back to the regular order of business.

[Falco]: Motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli to revert back to the regular order of business. Clerk Urnavis, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello.

[SPEAKER_19]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yes. Sorry, thought I was unmuted.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco?

[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero in the negative. The motion passes, and we will now revert to the regular order of business. 20-376 offered by Councilor Bears, be it resolved that the Medford City Council, I'm sorry, be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the city administration provide an update on any plans to protect public employee safety, including social distancing measures as Massachusetts implements the base reopening plan issued by Governor Baker. Councilor Bears.

[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I just put this on The agenda, I know that the last thing we need is any of our public employees, public safety, city hall, whatever it may be, being infected with coronavirus. So I just was wondering if the administration had an update on the efforts that we're making to make sure that all of our public employees can social distance and have protective equipment if they need it.

[Scarpelli]: Point of information, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor Bears. Point of information, Councilor Scarpelli. Thank you, Councilor Bears, but I believe the administration set out guidelines in an email, I believe tonight, if Clerk Hurtubise can correct me if I'm wrong, on a reopening plan and what steps they're taking for the safety of our city employees. So they can read it or it is an email. So thank you for putting that forward, Councilor Bears.

[Hurtubise]: I don't know if Councilor Scarpelli needs me to answer this question, but yes, we did receive an update from Mr. Rodriguez earlier this evening. And I did forward it to all your city emails and also to those of you who use personal emails. So you should all have it by now.

[Falco]: Thank you, Clerk Hurtubise.

[Bears]: Would the chief of staff mind just going through the highlights?

[Falco]: Chief of Staff Rodriguez, do you want to go through the highlights?

[Dave Rodrigues]: Sure thing. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor Beres. So earlier this evening, I did send along the operating procedure that institutes phase one of a reopening plan for City Hall. This fall is kind of in the same vein. as the guidance that was issued by the governor last week. We do want to try to work in concert with the guidance that's coming from the state administration as well as the Department of Public Health in this. So generally, the way that we developed the standard operating procedure was to develop guidelines that apply to all phases and all departments, make this be all inclusive, includes a self-certification for employees before they come to work. Simply saying that if they're sick or they don't feel well, they have to certify to their supervisor that they're not feeling that they're not feeling well, if they have any symptoms, that they are to stay home, that they haven't been in contact with anybody who's been positive, or they don't have anybody at home that has symptoms. It has cleaning guidelines. We try to be as thoughtful and all-encompassing and comprehensive as we could with this. in terms of the general guidelines that will apply to all phases going forward. Phase one will have, so as everyone is aware, we have been on a reduced staffing levels at City Hall for the last few months. We did have some positive cases inside the building and we wanted to be extra cautious, so we have been encouraging remote work to the greatest extent possible. As we do start a reopening plan, we do want to have this be a rolling effort and not just tell all employees and all folks, oh, guess what? On Monday, everybody has to come to work now. So we want to taper the staff up as much as we can. So phase one, all the guidelines will apply, and all the departments will abide by the most recent guidance issued by the state. City Hall and municipal buildings will remain closed to the general public. However, the Medford Public Library will reopen for remote fulfillment and pickup, but remain closed to the general public effective May 26th. In effect of next Monday, we'll taper up our staffing levels at City Hall and other municipal buildings to 25% of staff in each department, at least one person in every department. The department has been responsible for staffing those levels, as well as taking into account childcare needs, underlying health conditions, and other general guidelines that apply to all phases. That does not apply to the Department of Public Works, the Metro Police Department, and the Metro Fire Department, and the Metro Board of Health, who are all at full staffing levels throughout the crisis. We have also undertaken significant improvements at City Hall in the anticipation of rolling into a phase two. including screening in each office to have, so we did a tour, myself, Marianne O'Connor from the Board of Health, Brian Cairns from DPW, and Paul Moki from the Building Department, walked through each office and in effect hardened each office to make the employees feel more comfortable, first of all, but also keep them safe for when we do slide into what we're anticipating to be a phase two program. which we believe will include reopening the building to the general public by appointment only and allowing one member of the public in each office at all times and everyone else social distancing in the hallways. We're moving all the chairs in the hallways so that people can't congregate, but allow folks to be able to spread out as much as we can using crowd control stanchions, cough shields, Um, and also we're requiring all employees to wear a face mask if they can't social distance or they don't have their own office um to use Electronic media like zoom to have meetings. Uh, it is a little off-putting to have a meeting when everybody's in city hall But everybody's on zoom. It's a little weird. Uh, but it's something that we've we've started doing um all for all time, um for the for the time being We've also, as part of this, we've limited on-site inspections and installations that are done by each individual departments, the building department, the DPW, the Board of Health. We limit that to life safety matters or inspections or installations that you can use social distancing. and where interpersonal contact is limited, and that all the folks doing that are required to wear PPE as they do it. So we did this, this SOP was developed in consultation with Marianne O'Connor, as well as some other folks, and we just tried to be as thoughtful and thorough as we could. And in this initial phase one, and as we move to phase two, like they say at the state level, and we've adopted this policy as well, we're driven by data, not dates. We're going to use the guidance that we're receiving to try to reopen the building slowly and make sure that employees remain safe. Again, as part of the reopening plan, We did offer to city employees the ability to be tested through our partnership with Physicians One. So we're pleased to almost 200 employees were tested. Employees were given further guidance as well as what to do if they did test positive for the virus as well as antibodies. Some select individuals based upon medical criteria were tested for antibodies, what to do if you're positive for antibodies and what to do and how to notify everyone involved to keep everyone safe.

[Falco]: Thank you for the update. Councilor Knight.

[Knight]: I'm just curious, Mr. President, as to what the policy is. Say Janice in the clerk's office comes into the clerk's office and she has a fever. And now because she has a fever, I'm assuming that she'd be required to do a 14 day quarantine before she'd be allowed to return back to work. How is the administration going to approach situations like that where an individual is mandated to report these health concerns so that they don't spread the virus throughout the department, but they're not necessarily ill or sick? Is the administration going to do salary continuation, wage continuation, or are they going to require these employees to utilize earned time or sick time during these 14-day quarantine periods if in fact something does arise?

[Dave Rodrigues]: It's generally been the policy since the beginning of the COVID crisis that if folks are sent home or they're abiding by orders to remain home, that they do maintain salary continuation. If they're choosing to remain home of their own volition, then they use time. So it's kind of a case by case basis. And this has been worked out as a policy along with public safety as well as DPW. So that wage continuation, and if we're putting folks out, we'll own the time. But if they'd like to stay home out of their own feelings, then they should use their own time in that regard.

[Knight]: And this is the policy that's been applied for our essential workers, and it will be the policy that is applied and even handedly to the non-essential workers when they do the rollout to phase them back into work?

[Dave Rodrigues]: Correct.

[Knight]: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. Councilor Bears?

[Bears]: I just wanted to thank the Chief of Staff, both for the document and for the detailed explanation. I'm encouraged by it and I hope anyone watching is as well.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. On the motion of Councilor Bears, seconded by Vice President Caraviello, Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, Senator Falco.

[Falco]: Yes, seven the affirmative, zero the negative, the motion passes. 20-377 offered by Council of Mayors, be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the city administration provide an update on any guidance or other assistance available to local businesses and organizations if they have questions or concerns regarding the face reopening plan issued by Governor Baker. Council of Mayors.

[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. I think along the same lines here, just, you know, we have this plan for city hall. I know that there's guidance that's going out to our local businesses and orders as well. And I know that the mayor spoke about it at the Westminster Community Center over the weekend, the digital legislative forum.

[Unidentified]: So if the chief of staff would be so gracious to give us an update on that. Chief of staff Dave Rodriguez. You're on mute.

[Dave Rodrigues]: Thank you, Mr. President. I don't assume that I'm going to keep talking, so I usually mute myself after each hour. That's right.

[Falco]: When I click on mute, it seems to take like 20 seconds before it actually... Thank you, Mr. President.

[Dave Rodrigues]: Yeah, we were in... I know the mayor spoke about this at the West Medford legislative gathering over the weekend. We were also able to host a business info session last week, of which we tried to... We made every attempt to invite businesses to engage with the mayor, engage with the Board of Health, engage with the available resources with OCD. For us to answering any questions in real time. We did it via zoom. It was very well attended. We got some great questions And gave some great resources to the business community in terms of reopening It's not the governor's plans are not all inclusive. They're not there's a lot of wiggle room in these things and there's a lot of questions It's why you've seen these faqs Pop up on the on mass.gov through the covid updates. We're constantly updating ourselves in order to make sure that we're up to date and that we can give the best advice. We field calls and emails constantly from business owners trying to give advice and get their input so that we can, in turn, advocate for them at the state level. I know that the mayor has been in constant contact with state-level officials expressing the need to do certain things. and advocating on behalf of industries and restaurants and fitness clubs and personal care services and you name it, she's been pushing to try to open these things responsibly and effectively in a way that achieves a certain balance of having the economic need that's behind it, but also the public health need driving it as well. We can do both, and we're gonna make every effort to do that. So we're always available as a resource. That info session was designed as a first of many, so we can keep doing these as phases keep rolling out and information becomes more available. We're happy to do that, and we're happy to serve as a resource at all times. There's a ton of information on the Medford website about this. We've taken some steps to revamp the COVID page, just to have it be, there's a lot of information on there. that we've added in the last two months. It's a great resource for it, but email and phone calls, we're always happy to address those through OCD, through the mayor's office and through wherever. So we're happy to provide those resources. Thank you for the update. Councilor Bears.

[Bears]: Just one quick follow-up, Dave. The mayor mentioned that businesses are going to be posting a checklist on the door. Could you just explain what that is?

[Dave Rodrigues]: So as part of so contrast that to when construction of resident essential construction was allowed, they had to submit a work safety plan that was approved by the city. Contrasting to that, because that would be untenable from an enforcement standpoint, what businesses have to do is they have to go through the checklist posted in a test that they're following that checklist. there and file on the attestation with us to make sure that they're saying, yep, we're abiding by the state guidelines when it comes to reopening. So hair salons have to do certain things. Pet groomers have to do other things. They have to check those boxes off, post that in their business, and attest to that to us. So Marianne O'Connor went through that in pretty good detail. throughout, and her team has been working to try to intake those attestations and find out who hasn't filed them so that we can make sure we can follow up. Enforcement is always going to be the biggest challenge with all of this. The state has passed all these guidelines, all these rules, all these things, and kind of kicked it to the locals to say, all right, you guys, you figure it out on how to make it work, and then make sure everybody's playing by the rules. So we've kind of, we've had to scramble a little bit in order to make sure we feel like we have a good handle on it in terms of enforcement and we're really focusing on education. So every, almost every piece that you see coming out of the comms office is just constantly reminding about this stuff all the time, because education is going to be our best tool.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears, thank you, Chief of Staff Rodriguez, Vice President Caraviello.

[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, I was able to be on the meeting last week with the mayor and many, many other businesses. And again, a lot of good questions were asked. And again, It's an ever-changing situation. And as Chief of Staff Rodriguez mentioned, it's a little difficult for us because the state threw the ball in our court now. And again, we're kind of limited with how we enforce this and with our limited powers that we have. So I think everyone is doing the best they can. trying to get this, get as many businesses open as possible. And again, the mayor's following the governor's lead on this, so there's only so much he can do. But I said there was a lot of good questions were asked, a lot of dialogue was was done last week and along with questions about the business fund that I served on the committee with to get out there. So things are moving in the right direction and maybe they're not moving as fast as we'd like them to be but you know, the administration is doing the best they can to follow the guidelines and guidance that's been given out to them. And I say, as things change, we'll change too.

[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Thank you, Vice President Caraviello. Councilor Perez.

[Bears]: Yeah, thank you, Dave. And thank you, Councilor Caraviello. I just want to say, I think, you know, enforcement, this is on us, right? This whole crisis is on us taking action together. And I think luckily we're in Medford where we know that people are gonna step up and follow the rules and keep everybody safe. So I'm just really glad you put this together and thanks for getting it out there and doing the outreach to make sure businesses are not only have the information, but know there's someone they can call if they have a question.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. Clerk Hurtubise, is there any emails or would anybody like to comment? Any public participation on this issue? Mr. President, there are no emails on this topic. Okay, seeing and hearing none on the motion of council appears seconded by second is present. Please call the roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative, the motion passes. 20-378 offered by Councilor Bears, be it resolved by the Bedford City Council that the city administration provide a written update to the council on any alterations or changes to the design and or construction materials for the new Bedford Public Library before the requested committee, the whole meeting on the library project. Councilor Bears.

[Bears]: Pretty self-explanatory. Vice President Caraviello brought up some stuff last week, and I'd love to see it on paper before we sit down and discuss it. So I move approval. Second.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. On the motion of Councilor Bears, seconded by Councilor Lennight. Actually, any emails, Clerk Hurtubise, or any participation from the public?

[Hurtubise]: There are no emails on this topic, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Okay, seeing and hearing none, on the motion of Councilor Bears, seconded by Councilor Lennight. Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears? Yes. Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell?

[Unidentified]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco?

[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero negative, the motion passes. Communications from the mayor. 20-380 to the honorable president and members of the Medford City Council. City Hall, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155, regarding local acceptance, small business property tax exemption. Dear Mr. President and members of the city council, I respectfully request and recommend that your honorable body take the following action relative to small business personal property taxes. I request that the city of Medford by vote of the Medford city council, accept the provisions of mass general laws, chapter 59, section five, 54 and exempt $10,000 of fair cash value on personal property accounts to be taxed beginning in fiscal year 2021, beginning on July 1st, 2020. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Respectfully submitted, Brianna Ongo, current mayor. Vice President Caraviello.

[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, is this motion relative to the COVID problem or it's just something that in general?

[Unidentified]: Chief of Staff Rodriguez, would you like to speak on this matter?

[Dave Rodrigues]: Thank you, Mr. President, and I am joined by Ellen Burdell, the chief assessor for the city. She can certainly go into details of the local acceptance of this act. This is not directly related, it's related, but it's not because of. So this is certainly something that we can do for small businesses in the city in order for just a little bit of relief. One of the things that we redirected all staff to do, Ellen specifically, is to say, let's look for little things that we can do in order to help small businesses the best we can that won't have a huge, that won't have a detrimental impact upon the city or from the management side from the city. So this is one of the things that Ellen brought to our attention right away and something that the mayor wanted to get before the council as soon as possible. So I'll defer to Ellen on any questions. regarding the details of the local acceptance and how that would mean, what it would mean for city finances and also these businesses.

[Falco]: Okay, at this point I'd recognize Ella Burdell.

[Ellen Brideau]: Certainly. Good evening, Councilors. So, as chief of staff mentioned, the mayor challenged us to come up with solutions, not only that would assist our small businesses but also for cost saving measures for the, for the city. So the small commercial exemption, or small personal property exemption. Although my department still has to gather and value, every account in the city. It's a, it is a cost savings to the treasurer collector's office, where they are not issuing bills. And we have bills as low as $1 20 for the year that they have to send out four times, it's just not cost effective for the postage the mailing, and the time and energy spent on these little tiny bills. So that really was what brought it to the forefront. The small commercial or small personal property accounts. In Medford we have 1000 accounts of estimated for personal property, 60% of those are under $10,000 in value. Yet it was only 1.1% of the total value of personal property for the whole city. So it's a big number of accounts, little tiny number of value. And it just makes sense to do it at this time. My board spending time doing $10 abatements because somebody moved out of town is not a good use of time.

[Caraviello]: Vice President Caraviello, did you have any further questions? Nope, that was a very good answer, thank you. Okay, we have Councilor Bears and Councilor Knight.

[Bears]: Councilor Bears. Sorry.

[Falco]: Please continue.

[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. Thanks, Ellen, that was a super helpful explanation. So is the number in here, there's just a typo in the notice, it's 10,000, the period's just in the wrong place, is that?

[Ellen Brideau]: That's correct. The maximum that a city could exempt from personal property is 10,000. Right.

[Bears]: And so and you said that, that, that the accounts under 10,000 are only 1% of the value of personal property. So 99% is in the accounts above 10,000.

[Ellen Brideau]: Yes, 1.1%. So yes, 99 sounds good. We're around numbers. Yeah. And, and that equates it's 600 of the 1000 accounts again, estimated wise that are in that under 10,000 range. These are your small businesses. These are your, your nail salons, your little restaurants. These are not your big grocery stores or other big accounts or hotels. These are small people that, you know, are little independent businesses.

[Bears]: So two questions. One, I think it wouldn't be good if I didn't ask this, what exactly are we taxing in terms of personal property for a hair salon, for example, what would that actually mean?

[Ellen Brideau]: In a hair salon, that means the chairs, the counters, those, yeah, all those things that go into a hairdressing salon. So you go in and you literally count how many chairs they have, how many stations, you know, the little counters in front of the stations, all of that is considered personal property. It's not anything that's not affixed to the commercial property itself. So anything that's a tenant fit up. basically. In a little restaurant, you're counting silverware, number of chairs, number of tables. Those are the things. It's little items that depreciate quickly, but they are taxed in the state of Massachusetts.

[Bears]: Got it. So I guess that's to my second question, which is, It sounds to me like there's a lot of time that goes into this relative to the return on your end. Do you have an estimate of how much tax revenue we would lose by doing this? And so that's my first part of the question.

[Ellen Brideau]: Yeah, so for tax revenue, we don't lose any because it's, again, we're exempting those. We still have to collect the same amount. Last year, if you looked at those accounts, It's about $43,000, but we still have to collect those taxes. It just gets redistributed through all the commercial accounts. Again, it's 43,000. If I added up those 600 accounts, what their total value was times last year's tax rate.

[Bears]: Basically, what you're saying is that that's a lot of work.

[Ellen Brideau]: You think we're probably spending more than 43,000 and time hours or, I would like to correct you on that Councilor bears is that I don't save any time or energy and work I still have to value those properties by law.

[Bears]: Okay.

[Ellen Brideau]: Okay, where we save funds is the sending out of a tax bill the man hours the postage, the paper, and then the time and energy spent explaining to someone why they have a $38 tax bill. That part gets eliminated. But by law, I still have to go out there and make sure I gather all that information and still value them. So I'm not saving my department work. But in the long run, it is saving. If you took 600 accounts times $0.55 in postage times, so little money. But the impact on a small commercial account could be pretty significant to them, you know, in the long run. So, got it.

[Bears]: Yeah, no, it sounds like a win win to me so thank you for the explanation and thanks for answering my questions.

[Knight]: Would properties who are in arrears of payments be eligible to participate.

[Ellen Brideau]: property so this is a new program beginning fiscal 21. So I would not be issuing bills to anyone in fiscal 21 but if they're in arrears or have not paid their tax bills prior, those bills are still due and can be collected on through the other mechanisms at the collector uses.

[Knight]: Let me rephrase the question I guess the question is, would an applicant be eligible to receive the exemption, if they have already hold the city if they already hold the city

[Ellen Brideau]: So it is no application process for this exemption. You just take any account that's in assessed value 10,000 or less, they just don't get a tax bill.

[Knight]: So that they could have a lot of bill they could always sue a bill, but they'll still get the prop personal property tax exemption through this.

[Ellen Brideau]: That's correct.

[Knight]: Okay. And it's safe to say that this is something that will have an effect on the FY 21 bottom line.

[Ellen Brideau]: the impact on the F 120 fiscal 21 bottom line is only a shift within the commercial class on taxes. So it's a minimal amount of shipping.

[Knight]: And it's similar to the same shift that we discussed when we were talking about the residential property tax exemption.

[Ellen Brideau]: It would be similar to that.

[Knight]: We still have to collect the same amount of money. It's just a matter of who's going to pay for it.

[Ellen Brideau]: That's correct.

[Knight]: And do you feel as though this might make sense for us to table this discussion where it is a financial issue that will have an impact on the FY 21 budget and wait until we actually have a copy of the FY 21 budget and start those debates before we start moving towards implementing exemptions? I mean, I'm looking at today's like 528. You know what I mean? June 1 is a few days away. We're way, way, way, way behind in the budget process. And last I heard, you know, we didn't know what our recap sheet was going to say. So I guess is it wise for us to move forward on an exemption at this time when we don't know what the total fiscal picture is for FY 21. We have our paid consultant that has given us a great forecast of worst case scenario. But it seems though the administration has not committed to producing a budget for us for this next fiscal year. So with that being said, if we're adopting abatements for FY 21 when we don't even know what course we're going to take in terms of a budget, whether it's a one-twelfth budget, a quarterly budget, or a 12-month budget, I think is concerning. Can you please talk a little bit about that?

[Ellen Brideau]: Oh, I certainly can talk quickly but I'd also probably disperse a chief of staff. Rodriguez. First off, if this does not cost this, this actually saves the city money in the terms of the postage and other items. There's no cost, nor is there any offset. to the city and revenue collected, all we're doing is exempting a small amount of personal property tax that is shifted to the other accounts. $43,000, it's not gonna move the tax rate. If all things were equal and we weren't in this position today, it wouldn't even move the tax rate a penny. it for those commercial accounts we're still going to collect the same amount of money so it doesn't have an impact on budget that I can see. Certainly I'll defer to Chief of Staff.

[Knight]: And then okay so it doesn't have an impact on budget per se and I understand that does it, what's the anticipated cost savings for your department if implemented.

[Ellen Brideau]: Again, it would not be a cost savings to my department, it's going to be through a minimal $1,300 if you just calculating that the part of the postage that you would save. And I, you know, I don't know if I could put $1 amount on on the, the man hours that we spend answering the questions.

[Knight]: Yep. And in terms of your postage account, how is that looking right now at this point? juncture in the fiscal year, you maxed out in your postage do you have any money left in that account.

[Ellen Brideau]: Those are those are managed again through the collector's office and he uses a mailing company. Now he's just going to reduce the amount of mailing that go, I couldn't really comment on that Councilor.

[Knight]: I mean, ultimately, we want to take your money and put it towards our zoning consultant, if in fact, there's going to be a balance there. And this is going to save them money on postage. So that was my, my thought surrounding it.

[Ellen Brideau]: But I appreciate help.

[Knight]: Well, we only need 2800 more. So we're close. We're very close to self funding. So with that being said, I do appreciate it. It seems to me like this is something that's relatively de minimis. And you know, benign in terms of application. So, you know, I'd like to hear my other council colleagues have to say, but I'm indefinite on it.

[Marks]: Thank you Councilor Knight, Councilor Marks. Uh, thank you, Mr. President. Um, Ellen, if you could just reiterate, I think you mentioned it, but the $10,000, uh, amount is imposed by the state. Is that, is that what that was?

[Ellen Brideau]: That's correct. That's the maximum we could exempt from personal property. So I, um, when discussing it with the mayor and the chief of staff, we looked at a 5,000 and a 10,000. The difference between is so negligible. It's might as well go to the max at this point so that it's not something. It just makes it cleaner and easier.

[Marks]: Right, I agree. And you said there's roughly 1000 businesses that this would apply to?

[Ellen Brideau]: No, I have 1000 personal property accounts in the city today, 600 of them would qualify to not receive a tax bill.

[Marks]: 600 would qualify. Do you have any indication of how many, uh, of, uh, small businesses would be in the range from, uh, $10,001 to $20,000?

[Ellen Brideau]: I, I didn't even honestly research that because I, I stopped it at the 10. So.

[Unidentified]: So we don't have an idea of, uh, you know, not, not at the tip.

[Ellen Brideau]: Yeah.

[Marks]: Right. You know, the amount of money, it's really negligible for the amount of money. Um, uh, you know, it's really, in my opinion, not a savings to the business owners. I mean, you're talking very minimal. Um, but, uh, my, my only concern is it's minimal on the other end too, but someone that may have property value that's assessed at $10,050 is going to see an increase. And I don't know how many of those are out there, but it's minimal anyways. So is this something that we anticipate gonna happen every year, or is this a one-time thing we're looking at?

[Ellen Brideau]: It's a one-time adoption by the city. You don't visit it every year unless the state law changes and you could increase it, or if the city chooses to reduce it, but you don't visit this every year it's a one time upset acceptance.

[Marks]: But what I'm saying is, will the city administration come back next year and say we'd like to enact this small business exemption. Is that that's a possibility correct.

[Ellen Brideau]: No, once you adopt it today, if the city council chose to adopt it, it's done in perpetuity until you rescind it or change it.

[Marks]: Okay, okay. So this is every year now go moving forward.

[Ellen Brideau]: Correct.

[Marks]: And I okay. It's so minimal that I don't have a problem with it. But if you could get us the numbers, I'd be curious to see the other 400 businesses where they fall on personal property tax amounts.

[Ellen Brideau]: Well, the total personal property for the whole community.

[Marks]: Not the total. the dollar amount broken down by percentage. So are you able to tell us what range, how many businesses fall in between 10 to 20,000 or 10 to 50,000? I'd be curious to see what that results are from that. Is that something you can get? Certainly, yes. Okay, thank you.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. Councilor Knight.

[Knight]: I don't know if you know the answer to this, Madam Assessor, if this is something more appropriate for the solicitor. But if we passed a vote on this this evening, but it had a sunset clause that said that, you know, this vote will remain in effect only for the fiscal the current the future fiscal year and would have to be brought up again at a later date next year for further adoption. Is that something that we could do?

[Ellen Brideau]: I would defer that to the city solicitor. The way I read the law or my understanding is that you adopt it, you accept the provisions, and then if the city council chose to rescind that, you would have to bring it back to city council. But again, that would be a solicitor question to put that language in there.

[Falco]: Councilor Knight, any further questions?

[Knight]: That does it for me, sir.

[Falco]: Thank you. Any other questions from the council? Motion for approval, Mr. President. On the motion of Council Mark, seconded by- Second, Mr. President. Mr. President, can I be heard? Clerk Hurtubise, any emails?

[Hurtubise]: Mr. President, there are no emails on this topic.

[Falco]: Any participation from the public? Hearing and seeing none, on that motion, Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

[Falco]: Let's see, 20-381, to the Honorable President and members of the Medford City Council, City Hall, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155, regarding ordinance amendment zoning change. Dear Mr. President and members of the City Council, I respectfully request and recommend that your Honorable body approve the following amendment to the City of Medford zoning ordinance offered in accordance with the provisions of the revised ordinances of the City of Method and Mass General Lodge of the 3040A Section 5. Section 194-148 of the revised ordinances City of Method, Massachusetts is hereby amended as follows. Number one, table of use regulations in off-street parking and loading. table of use regulations for use 18 multiple dwellings not over three stories in height. Amend yes to SPC with footnote number three immediately following the word height to read as follows. A special permit shall require that 25% of the total gross floor area of the development contain non-residential uses permitted by right of which are authorized pursuant to a special permit in the underlying zoning district or where relevant overlying zoning district. For use 19, multiple dwelling, not over 75 feet or six stories in height, amended yes to SPC with footnote number three, immediately following the word height to read as follows. A special permit shall require that at least 25% of the gross floor area of the development contain a non-residential uses permit by right or which are authorized pursuant to a special permit in the underlying zoning district or where relevant overlying zoning district. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Respectfully submitted Breanna Lungo-Koehn mayor. Is there someone from the, actually Dave, oh, you got Councilor Knight.

[Knight]: Mr. President, I do believe at 6 p.m. this evening, we had a meeting concerning the city council's vote on what direction we were gonna go in relative to zoning reform. And the council has had a very public open and deliberate process relative to what direction we want to go in. And right now, I believe we're moving forward with the codification process. So with that being said, I think this council has spoken as to what the next steps are in terms of zoning reform. And I might ask that the administration withdraw the amendment that's before us this evening so that the council can move forward with the zoning consultant and the codification process.

[Caraviello]: Second that motion, Mr. President.

[Marks]: Mr. President, we have the Chief of Staff, if we can get a brief overview of what they're trying to put forth. Sure.

[Falco]: There is a motion on the floor from Councilor Knight, seconded by Vice President Caraviello. Chief of Staff Dave Rodriguez, if you could please explain this paper or just give us an overview.

[Dave Rodrigues]: Sure thing, Mr. President. And this is one of the low hanging fruit items that we've identified as we came into office and we started looking at the zoning ordinance as it is put into application. And of course, being mindful of the process that the council is undergoing. This is a tool that gives enormous flexibility and control back to the council when it comes to permitting of large-scale residential developments within the city. So this is something that would require these large-scale or large volume residential developments to have at least 25% non-residential use. That could be retail, it could be office space, it could be lab space, it could be something else that allows us to help diversify the stock of development that's coming in and also gives local control back to the city council.

[Knight]: If you look at the tables of use and you look at the language in the proposal, Mr. President, it says that there'll be a 20% commercial for gross floor space, but the allowable 25% is only subject to what's outlined in the table of use charts. And that would be items that don't include biotech. They don't include retail sales. Chief of Staff says that it includes research or biotech, it doesn't. Those are actually excluded in the zoning use chat for an apartment one district. So I just wanted to point that out that that's not accurate.

[Dave Rodrigues]: Well, if it's allowed in the underlying use district, then it would be allowed. And if I misspoke, I apologize. But if it's allowed in the underlying use district, then it would be allowed within the 25% special permit threshold. These items, these developments are allowed as right right now. but it would place them back into a special permit granted by the city council, giving the flexibility to the council to permit these individual developments and give us, as a city as a whole, the administration working in collaboration with the council. the city. It is generally designed to give us more flexibility and not have individual developments foisted upon the city outside of our control. This is one of the low-hanging fruit items we identified early. The mayor feels strongly about moving forward with this in order to give the city the biggest and loudest voice at the table as

[Knight]: I certainly have some concern, Mr. President. This paper says that any dwelling, any multiple unit dwelling over three stories, it's located in an apartment one, an apartment two, or an apartment three district. So if we look at the zoning map, Mr. President, here in the community, and we look at our apartment one and apartment two districts, because we don't have any apartment three districts, we'll see high street Riverside Ave, Washington Street, Salem Street, Winthrop Street, Boston Ave, Mystic Ave, the Wellington Mixed-Use District gets put into effect, Middlesex Ave, Fulton Street. This proposal says if you wanna build a multi-dwelling that's less than three stories, that you now have to have 25% commercial. So as I drive down Main Street and I look at a three-story, two-family home, somebody wants to knock that home down and build a new one, They're not going to be able to do that now. They're going to be required to have 25% commercial. And the council isn't going to be bound on the requirements of the special permit to say that they can't issue the special permit unless that 25% commercial is there. This proposal, I don't see how it makes any sense at all. In fact, looking at it, it seems to me as though it's a unilateral implementation of a use variance. We're looking at apartment one and apartment two districts, Mr. President. These are residentially zoned districts. And what we're doing is saying, in these residentially zoned districts, you are now required to have commercial use. So although it's an attempt and it's a noble attempt to increase the commercial tax base, it's not completing the task, Mr. President. This isn't how we do that. This isn't how we increase the commercial tax base by requiring residential property owners to become commercial landlords. That just doesn't make sense. You know, when we're looking at development and growth and increasing a commercial base, maybe we start looking at Locust Street. and Riverside Ave, and Route 16, and we look at the Malden River, and we look at all the open space that we have there along Route 16, and we look at the community path that we have on Route 16, and we look at the fact that we have housing already on Locust Street, we have housing already on Mystic Avenue, and we have a number of underutilized large parcels in between Locust Street and the Felsway. Maybe that's what we should be focusing our effort if we want to increase our commercial tax base. But for us to unilaterally impose this on residential property owners to turn them into commercial land brokers, I don't think it's fair or right. And I don't think it makes sense. Um, so if you can build an apartment building by right, that's three stories in an apartment, one district, like say off of Salem street on tainter street, which is an apartment, one district. Um, if someone has 6,000 square feet, they're eligible to build a two family home by right. It's three stories high. So now on tainter street, We're going to have a home that's now part home, 25% business. The business use that's allowed there. If we look at the use shot is very limiting. It's not restaurants and bakeries, Mr. President. It's daycares. It's let's see here. I got it written down right here somewhere. Um, it's daycares. It's, um, medical uses. It's nothing that, you know, brings, uh, sustainable jobs to the community. It's nothing that brings jobs to create a living wage. Um, it's private clubs are allowed by right. Um, but nothing, no consumer service industries whatsoever. You can't have a law office. You can't have a tax prep. You can't have a laundry mat. You can't have a convenience store. Um, I just think this is a misguided proposal from the start, Mr. President. Um, but whereas it is a zoning proposal, I'd be happy to send it to the Community Development Board and get their feedback on it. However, I feel as though the presentation that was made, it's not exactly an accurate reflection of what the paper does. And, you know, the allowed uses and special permit uses that are defined are really not conducive to any economic development strategy that would bring a living, a job to provide a living wage to the community.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. So there's a number of Councilors that want to speak on this. Councilor Knight, are you pulling back your original motion and offering a motion to send this to the CD board?

[Knight]: Actually, my original motion was asking that the administration withdraw the proposal based on the fact that the Council just one hour ago voted to move forward in a certain format and forum for codification of zoning as the first step in zoning reform. I think it's also important to point out, Mr. President, that, you know, I guess I have a few questions for the chief of staff on this as well. Were was there any consultants involved in putting together this plan?

[Dave Rodrigues]: Consultants planning consultants? No.

[Knight]: Okay. Was there any community input and putting together this plan?

[Dave Rodrigues]: Now this piece was designed to start the conversation. So although the goal that it was stated, and it's something that's certainly worthy of debate, how do we get to the position of diversifying the incoming developments and reintegrating commercial development into into our current stock is worthy of debate. It's worthy of talking to and how we get there is not as important as getting there. So the mayor feels very strongly about increasing that commercial tax base in order to maintain the ability for residents to age in place and for affordable housing to exist in a more diversified market. So we feel very strongly about starting this conversation. I don't have any expectation that this particular proposal is going to come out exactly the same way that it was proposed. We want to start the conversation if things need to be changed. We're willing to engage with the discussion on changing if we want to talk to experts. We can talk to experts We think the cd board should be involved. We think the council should be more on board We think that at the end of the day that this is something that's worthy of discussion and something that the mayor feels very strongly on moving forward with You it through this process in order to increase it in in light of the financial difficulties that we all are well aware of facing Increasing that commercial tax base is going to be able to read his digest being able to do so in a meaningful way as important

[Knight]: Yeah. So is there any briefing by the mayor or the OCD direct OCD director on the impact that this is going to have in writing on how it relates to the vision of growth in the community?

[Dave Rodrigues]: Or work yet? Not yet?

[Knight]: Yeah. And is there a zoning consultant that's provided any independent analysis and made this information available on the website prior to the introduction to the legislative proposal?

[Dave Rodrigues]: No, like I said, this was designed to be the start of the conversation, not the end.

[Knight]: Yeah, because the reason I ask these questions, Mr. President, is because if we go back to August 12, 2019, there's an opinion piece that says a detailed plan to approach Medford zoning written by the current mayor.

[Unidentified]: And this

[Knight]: Op Ed has 18 ideas to improve engagement and results in how our city changes. And this article starts off saying that before any type of measure like this would be made, there'd be a review of the zoning map after public input with consultants and a high degree of community input, where they will identify multi-use zones where local businesses would benefit from additional growth and development. It then goes on to say that any legislative proposal, which this is, would include a full briefing by the mayor and the OCD director on the impact with an explanation and writing on how it would relate to the vision of growth in the community. And further, it says it would require a zoning consultant to provide independent analysis and make this information available on the website. So apparently a lot's changed from August 12th, 2019 till today, Mr. President. However, I again reiterate that this is an item that's a zoning amendment. I have no problem forwarding it to the community development board as required by chapter 48, section five. However, when this thing comes back, there's no way in hell I could forget support this thing.

[Dave Rodrigues]: I'd just like a chance to respond if possible, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Chief of staff Rodriguez.

[Dave Rodrigues]: I think a lot of what Councilor Knight makes some very well taken points. I think that a lot of what was described and what he just referenced is a comprehensive plan. And that's certainly something that we plan on moving forward with in the new fiscal year, utilizing CDBG funds in order to do that. And exactly what you described is exactly what we're gonna be looking to do. The mayor was very clear at our inaugural that we were gonna spend FY20.

[SPEAKER_03]: This is a zoning amendment.

[Dave Rodrigues]: I'd like to just finish.

[Falco]: Yep, let's let's let's let's let Chief of Staff Rodriguez finish then. Chief of staff.

[Dave Rodrigues]: We're going to continue moving forward, and I'll be brief. We're going to move forward with a comprehensive plan in the new year utilizing CDBG funding to do that. And that is an engagement process from start to finish, one that we referenced with the council in the opening days of the administration, and one that there was a difference in opinion on how to move forward. So we're going to move forward on our own using the CD board along with the CD board to engage with the comprehensive plan.

[Knight]: Thank you. I missed that. Can you say how you're going to move forward again? What was that? The conference of plan.

[Dave Rodrigues]: On our own. Excuse me, I'd like a chance to respond, please.

[Falco]: Chief of staff Rodriguez, you said you were going to move ahead. I apologize.

[Dave Rodrigues]: We're going to move ahead with the conference of plan alongside the CD board as required by law. That's what we're going to do.

[Falco]: Thank you. Councilor, do you have any further questions?

[Knight]: Motion to refer to the community development board as required by chapter 48 section 5.

[Falco]: Okay, on the motion of council, I'd like to move to the CD board, seconded by?

[Caraviello]: Second, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Vice President Caraviello, we have a couple of questions. Let's see, we have Councilor Bears has his hand up, and then Councilor Morell. Councilor Bears, you go first.

[Bears]: You know, I don't presume to be an expert, but I definitely support the intent here of bringing more commercial in, more mixed use development, more control back to this council over major projects. This might not be the exact language, but I'd like to, I would vote to send this to community development board and see what they say. And I hope that some of the concepts here are things that we discussed during our zoning review.

[Morell]: Thank you. Councilor Bears, Councilor Morell. Thank you, Mr. President. I also, I see the intention behind this, but this feels overly broad to me in its current form. Like Councilor Knight, I do have some reluctance in pushing something like this forward. The body is moving forward in a holistic approach to zoning and recodification of our existing laws. But as I understand, other cities have similar ordinances focusing on ratios, but they often rely on overlay districts to apply something like this, which, you know, seems more something I'd be more in favor of. I would also hope that with zoning ideas like this to encourage more mixed use, that the administration also is exploring ways to support and encourage businesses looking for these spaces. Opening up a business and having a business that's supportive of the community in Medford is much more than just having a physical space for it. But nonetheless, I would also support the motion to hear from the city board on this. So thank you.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Morell. Let's see, Councilor Marks.

[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Chief of Staff Rodriguez. It's my understanding, Mr. President, this applies to large-scale projects. So I think anyone that's been on the Council for a number of years can recall the Locust Street project and how members of the Council, when we sat down with the developer, were urging, and I believe Council Vice President Caraviello did the same, we were urging them to add more retail space within the project itself. They were strictly looking to put residential. And we didn't wanna create these giant housing outlets that had no community feel to them. And so I think this is one way of attaching whatever's built. And I don't think this applies to small mom and pop, two or three family homes and so forth. This is large scale projects that they have some type of community feel to it. that, you know, for instance, when we looked at the revitalization of Medford Square, the projects that were sent to us had very little commercial retail space within them. It was all residential. So on the east side of Medford Square near City Hall, it kind of created just an area where there was housing and no reason to go, to be quite honest with you. And that was something that we were looking at as a council saying, you know what, we don't want these large scale projects taking place without that community feeling and without that community input. So I welcome this for anyone to think that because we started this process of recodifying that we shouldn't look at anything else for the next year should have their head examined. Because we should always be looking for low-lying fruit. We should always be looking to take advantage of ways that we may be able to push something forward, Mr. President, and not wait if it's something we can do easily, Mr. President. To me, this is something worth exploring. I think it merits, I will support sending it to the community development. As anyone knows that's familiar with this, this requires public hearings. So to say that there's no public hearings or public input won't take place is not correct, Mr. President. There will be ample time for public input, public hearings, business input, and that's the process that we follow. So I support this, Mr. President. you know, any way we can improve the process in our community. And I think this is one way of keeping our commercial base up. which we know once that dwindles, residential taxpayers are going to feel the burden. They're going to feel the heat on that, Mr. President. And it's up to us to make sure there's a good balance out there. And from what I'm seeing, between 40B projects and a number of other initiatives, that we seem to be losing a lot of our commercial base. And I, as one member of the council, I'm not going to allow that to happen, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Thank you guys so much. We have Vice President Caraviello's up next and Councilor Scarpelli.

[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. We just spent $47,000 to hire a zoning consultant, and now we're going ahead without him. The man is supposed to be the foremost authority in zoning. Why not get his opinion on this before we do this? And you want to talk about the 40B projects? That horse is already out of the barn, Mr. President. So anything we pass is exempt from those projects going forward. So let's say those are already in the pipeline and you can't change the rules for stuff that's already in the pipeline. Thank you, Vice President Caraviello. Councilor Scarpelli.

[Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. Again, I can appreciate the intent of this resolution and the zoning change. But again, I think that council bring up many good points that we need to vet out to get to a final destination. I think that looking at Council's night's point that you know, the the recodification and hiring the consultant now is a very important point But I also agree with Councilor Marks when it doesn't mean that we're going to stand still in the future Zoning questions, but at the same time I think there are enough questions there that are alarming to our neighborhoods and when you're talking about what? can and what can can't happen so I I like the idea to revert it to the board and then get some clarity on a couple of concerns that I have. So again, I thank all the parties involved. This is why this council is doing what we're doing. It's to vet our important issues. And as we can see, this council isn't sitting back. We're making huge strides and moving forward in what our thoughts and beliefs are to move our city forward. So thank you, Mr. President.

[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Scarapelli. Let's see here. Any other questions from the council? Any other comments? Okay, no. Clerk Arnabes, any emails come in or any questions from the general public?

[Hurtubise]: No emails on this.

[Falco]: Okay, seeing and hearing none. On the motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by Vice President Caraviello to send this paper to the CD board. Clerk Arnabes, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Just a quick clarification on this end. So Councilor Knight, you're withdrawing your original motion to ask the administration to withdraw the amendment and the new motion is to refer to the CD board, correct?

[Knight]: I would certainly be happy to reintroduce my motion to have the administration withdraw the amendment. However, it seems as though they weren't willing to do such based upon the presentation that they gave at the time. So I'll revert to the second motion that I did make, yes, to send it to the CD board.

[Hurtubise]: Okay, so we'll withdraw the first one and you're taking a vote on the second one? That's correct. Okay. And here comes the vote on that. Councilor Bears? Yes. Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Marks?

[Unidentified]: Yes.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco?

[Falco]: Yes. 70 affirmative, zero in the negative, the motion passes. This paper will now be forwarded to the CD board. So yeah, reports of committees one nine dash six five nine and two zero dash zero four two May 20th, 2020 committee of the whole report. Let's see, we met in committee the whole Wednesday, May 20th, 2020 at 6pm. This was before the discussion of the marijuana ordinance and we had a number of topics that we talked about and that was medical facilities, types of adult use licenses, priority for economic empowerment applicants, enforcement and sequencing of a host community agreement, special permits as well as the Cannabis Advisory Committee Ordinance. We actually had a very productive meeting. The ordinance did go back out to KP Law for further edits and that has come back to us. Everyone should have received a copy of the new updated ordinance, you would have received it at about probably 5.30 tonight, because that's when they got it to me. The clerk forwarded it out. Clerk, what time did you forwarded that? 530. Okay, I was around 536. So everyone should have a new copy in their email. We will meet again tomorrow night at 6pm. But to talk about the latest red line copy from my KP law and of course answer any questions. So on this committee report, is there a resolution?

[Caraviello]: Is there a motion to adopt the committee report, Mr. President? Quick question report.

[Falco]: on the motion to adopt the committee report by vice-president seconded by councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Knight.

[Knight]: It's my understanding. We do have a meeting on this tomorrow evening, Mr. President. And the scope of that meeting is just going to be on the zoning amendment portion of this document.

[Falco]: You are correct. It is to discuss the red line copy on the zoning ordinance.

[Knight]: Okay, and then we're gonna complete that task and then move on to the selection committee part. Excellent, thank you very much, I appreciate it.

[Falco]: No problem. On the motion by Vice President Caraviello to accept the committee report seconded by Councilor Scarpelli, Clerk Carter please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears? Yes. Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Falco.

[Falco]: Yes. 70 affirmative, zero in the negative, the motion passes. Let's see here. I believe the only thing we have left are the records. Records, the records were passed to But the records of the meeting of May 19th, 2020 were passed to Councilor Bears. Councilor Bears, how did you find those records?

[Bears]: Mr. President, I found the records immaculate.

[SPEAKER_10]: On the motion of Councilor Bears to- Second, Mr. President. Immaculate records. Second, Mr. President. Seconded by Vice President Caraviello- Just immaculate.

[Bears]: Exceptionally immaculate, Councilor Scott-

[Falco]: Please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears with humor. Yes. Vice president. Yes. That's a night. Yeah. That's a marks. Yes. That's a Morell. Yes. That's a Scarpelli. Yes. Yes.

[Falco]: The affirmative zero. The negative. The motion passes. Vice President Caraviello to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Councilor Bears. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Knight. Yes. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Morell. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Falco.

[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero on the negative. The motion passes. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you, good night. Stay safe and healthy. Have a good one. Thank you for your help.

Falco total time: 21.41 minutes total words: 3225	Caraviello total time: 6.95 minutes total words: 1145	Bears total time: 6.64 minutes total words: 1263	Knight total time: 16.31 minutes total words: 3171
Morell total time: 1.99 minutes total words: 383	Marks total time: 27.46 minutes total words: 3935	Scarpelli total time: 10.04 minutes total words: 1404