[Falco]: Okay, let's see, we got seven o'clock, we got seven o'clock. The 19th regular meeting of the Medford City Council will now come to order. Clerk Carnaby, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears? Present. Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Present. Councilor Marks? Present. Councilor Morell? Present. Councilor Scarpelli? Present. President Falco?
[Falco]: Present. All seven members are present. At this point in time, I'd ask everyone to please rise to salute the flag. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
[Unidentified]: And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: Vote to suspend the rules, Mr. President.
[Falco]: I just have to read the message from the governor. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, general law chapter 38, section 18 in the governor's March 15, 2020 order imposing strict limitation 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 the 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. On the motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by Vice President Caraviello to suspend the rules. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Excuse me. Councilor Bears? Yes. Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Here. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco?
[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero negative. The rules are suspended. Councilor Knight?
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm hoping to take paper 20398 out of order, Mr. President. It's a request for a transfer of $855,000 from our leak detection accounts to some special projects related to water sewer.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. Communications from the Mayor, 20-398, to the Honorable President and members of the Metro City Council, City Hall, Metro Massachusetts, 02155. Dear Mr. President and city councilors, I respectfully request and recommend that your honorable body reprograms Surplus proceeds in the amount of $855,000 for the leak detection system project to the following capital projects. Hydraulic study, drainage system design and pipelining, $460,000. Water meters project, $175,000. Hydrants project, $70,000. Reading devices project, $150,000. DPW Commissioner Brian Karens and Finance Director Aleesha Nunley, Benjamin, are present to answer any of the Council's questions regarding this matter. Sincerely, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Mayor. Let's see, we have Aleesha Nunley with us. I'm going to unmute her, and we have Brian Karens. Brian, would you like to talk about the project a little bit?
[uVH2naDKUEE_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, and members of the Council. The paper that the Mayor has forwarded to you for your consideration is for water-related maintenance issues, as I would call it, within DPW. As you're well aware, DPW manages and maintains the domestic water service for the entire city. In addition, okay, the domestic sewage. as well. And just to give you a snapshot, as far as water is concerned in the domestic water service, we have 144 miles of pipe underground that we have to maintain. In addition to that, 119 miles is for sewer mains. That has nothing to do with the stormwater. This is just what services the commercial properties and also the residential properties. The first paper, though, has to do with drainage is Bowen Avenue. Bowen Avenue is between Main Street and Mystic Avenue, and there's been for several years now an ongoing issue with flooding, particularly when we have heavy rains. Now, we've been out there numerous times with the internal forces to make sure the lines are clear and everything else. And basically that neighborhood, starting with Bowen, we feel is a capacity problem. And what we would like to do, subject to your approval, is to get a company in and to actually do a study of the stormwater system in that entire neighborhood. Keep in mind, all of the stormwater for the city, the entire seven miles, It all goes into the Mystic River in some way, shape or form. In addition to that, coming through our city is Winchester, Stoneham, Malden, Somerville. So it just further compounds it. Now, Somerville would be coming down in that general area, in addition to the waters that we have gone through ourselves. And what we want to do is try to figure out exactly what is actually needed in that neighbourhood, starting with Bowen, to try to alleviate the flooding that's taking place there that is damaging people's lawns, driveways and everything else. The second request that you have okay, is, and I'll just sandwich it together, is for water meters and the reading devices. Now the reading devices are the heads of water meters. And what we keep in mind, the metering system for the city was installed in 2005-2006 for all the residential and all of the commercial meters in the city. DPW manages and monitors usage and consumption for anybody who has water and sewer services in the city. The actual number of metres, and they vary in size, five-eighths inch to an inch is your standard size for homes, and they go up to 10 inches in diameter, which would be for large commercial properties like the hotel and all that. We manage 14,875 meters in the city. And what's happening is over time, they're showing their will. And what's happening is a lot of them are starting to lose their accuracy as far as what the actual consumption is. By either replacing heads or replacing the meters in their entirety, That way you would give a true, accurate figure, but not only the customer, but also the city, to properly build what people are actually using. The last request is for hydrants. Again, DPW manages, maintains, and repairs and replaces the hydrants in the city. We have over 1,300 hydrants that we have to maintain. And again, over time, they show their age and their wear. And, you know, sometimes we can rebuild them by replacing the shafts or the stems internally. Other times they're just worn out and deteriorated due to age and everything. So this is just a continuation, a yearly as far as replacing so many hydrants within the city to make sure that we have adequate water for fire suppression in the event the need arises.
[Falco]: Thank you, Commissioner Kearns. We have a number of questions from the council. We'll start off with Councilor Marks. Councilor Marks.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. And I want to thank Alicia and Mr. Kerens for being on the call tonight. These are all, in my opinion, very worthy projects. Anyone that's been on the council for a number of years knows Bowen Ave in that area has been a real concern for flooding over many years. When there's heavy rains, you better take your canoe out to traverse some of those streets. That's how bad it gets. That's no exaggeration. And the homeowners have been putting up with this for a number of years. And I hope this study leads to improvements to drainage and other infrastructure improvements in that particular area. The water meters. My question, I was on the council when we voted for water meters back in 2005. So I remember the nightmare prior to 2005 when we had a system that we used to estimate probably half the city. And as you know, when you get an estimated bill, it's not a true rendering of what you use for water. And you can imagine people paying bills for consumption that they didn't use. So it was a nightmare. There were a lot of abatements going on at the time. And it was just a real bad time for the city. Brian, what is the life expectancy of the current meters that were put in 2005?
[uVH2naDKUEE_SPEAKER_02]: They start to lose their calibration, I'd call it. After about 11 years, once they start reaching 11 years old and beyond that, all right, the calibration goes down, and goes down to where it could benefit us, but it also could benefit the consumer. And you really can't get a true accurate picture. And then eventually, all right, they end up, they just stop working. And that's when you have to get into, you know, estimating a bill for somebody by, you know, replacing either the heads, if they want, or the entire meters themselves, Mike. That way we can stay on top of it and give everybody, you know, a true accurate bill each month.
[Marks]: Right. This may not, this may be a question for Ron in the water department, but I'm going to ask it anyways. What, what percent right now are we estimating, if any?
[uVH2naDKUEE_SPEAKER_02]: As far as the numbers of businesses or residents that are out there as far as estimate, I'd have to get you that actual number, Mike. There are people out there, but you're not talking hundreds and hundreds, but there are people out there that we're giving estimated bills to.
[Marks]: Okay. And the plan for this money is not to start going around and systematically replace everyone's meter, which they're now 15 years old. It's just to have them. So if a meter does start to malfunction, you're going to have the ability to replace the head or replace the entire meter.
[uVH2naDKUEE_SPEAKER_02]: Actually both, Mike. It's obviously to keep some on the shelf if you would. but we also do have meters out there that their accuracy is just beyond approach that if the money was approved and we did acquire these, we'd replace them right away. Right.
[Marks]: So, uh, Mr. President, if I could, uh, just, um, uh, amend this if I could, or, uh, have a request to the city administration that we get an update on, uh, the, uh, re-metering. We're 15 years into a life expectancy of roughly 10 to 11 years. And we definitely don't want to go back to the days where we were estimating half our city. It created a lot of problems. There were residents that were over and underpaying. There were residents that were getting catch up bills. If councilors remember of two, three, four, $5,000, a catch up bill that the city finally figured out that the resident wasn't paying enough over the last several years. And we definitely don't want to go back to that period of time. So I would ask that we look at the remediary of the city, Mr. President, which is a larger endeavor, but I think something we should be proactive about. And my last question to Mr. Cairns is, I think all these particular uses, hydrant and so forth, are great. I have to put in a plug for catch basins. I still see, Brian, I don't have to tell you this, I don't preach it to the choir, there are still hundreds of catch basins around the city that are sunken in and pose a danger to residents and also are not serving as the function that they're supposed to, to cut off rain, runoff water, because they're sunk in and they're not doing their purpose. They're not capturing this water and cutting it out to the Mystic River. So I need to put a plug in for some additional funding for catch basin maintenance, repair, and replacement, as well as this paper, Mr. President. So I would offer those two suggestions that the administration report back on a meter replacement plan, and also what the plan is for repairing or replacing our catch basins that currently exist are ones that are broken and caving in throughout the community.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. Clerk Hurtubise, do you have the wording to the amendments?
[Hurtubise]: I have the first one. I'm still working on the second one.
[Falco]: So after we get the wording, we have Councilor Bears, then Vice President Caraviello, then Councilor Knight.
[Hurtubise]: So we're just going to wait. Let me read back what I have. The first amendment is a request to the city administration that the council get an update on the remetering of the city. Is that correct, Councilor Marks? That's correct. And then the second one is requesting an update on the plan for repairing or replacing catch basins throughout the city.
[Marks]: Excellent. Thank you.
[Hurtubise]: OK, great.
[Falco]: That's good. Thank you, Councilor Marks. Thank you, Clerk Arnabes. Let's see. We have Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. I'm really glad to see you, Director Nunley, Benjamin, and Brian. Thank you for being here. Brian, I just had one question. People in the Bowen Ave area are talking all the time about the flooding. It's a huge issue for them, quality of life issue. And I was just wondering how far will this get us in getting to a solution to that?
[uVH2naDKUEE_SPEAKER_02]: Okay, okay, I apologize, Councilor. I got cut off, I'm actually using the clerk's computer as we speak. As far as the examination, the design, and the recommendations would take us basically the immediate streets, including We're going to start with Boeing and branch out. Between the institutional knowledge of several of our engineers, as well as the highway maintenance people, we feel we know how far we have to go. So we've done our homework as best we can. But again, till you start getting underground and start hammering all of the lines that are already in existence, you know, we're just giving our best guess right here.
[Bears]: Got it. And so this would you think you have the design and all of that would this actually get us to fixing it or is this just analyzing and figuring out how to fix it?
[uVH2naDKUEE_SPEAKER_02]: Probably both. Again, you know, we We're just right now, again, assuming the pocket problems in that area until we actually get a company in and closely examine not only the condition, but also the size of the existing storm drain pipes. and just where they connect into and from and where they go out. It's really just our best guess. We clearly know that there is waters that are coming in from Somerville heading into that direction. How much of that is compounding the problem, again, until we can, we don't know for sure.
[Bears]: you. Got it. Well, I thank you for taking it up because the residents in that area. It's a major major issue for them. Um. And then I just had a question for Alicia. Um And. You know, I think you might have to unmute. Um so I guess my question is just, you know. I think this is these are really important projects. But do everything we can to avoid cuts. Is there any way that putting the funds towards these projects, which I agree are really important, could impact, are we putting money into this and this money maybe could be used later to maintain existing services or is this completely separate?
[Nunley-Benjamin]: So it's a great question. Actually, these capital costs were cut out of the enterprise fund budget and brought before your honorable body to be reprogrammed out of an existing project that's not gonna be utilized, therefore saving money on the enterprise side. So that's the way we were kind of trying to negate some of the overages that we're seeing that's happening. We're trying to plug some deficits that we know are going to occur. So I am in the process of meeting with the Water and Sewer Commission, looking at the rates for next year. Haven't done that yet. We're in the planning phase of that and working on the budget.
[Bears]: Awesome. Thank you. I appreciate it.
[Falco]: Thank you, Alicia. Thank you, Councilor Bears. Vice President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Alicia, good to have you back. Thank you, Councilor. Mr. President, Councilor Marks brought up an important point about all the storm drains that are failing in the city. And again, I was going to bring that to the attention also. But we also have a lot of manhole covers that are sinking. I think some may belong to the MWRA, gas companies. I think there's a multitude of them that belong to different companies. Am I correct, Mr. Kearns?
[uVH2naDKUEE_SPEAKER_02]: You're absolutely right, Mr. Vice President. You know, the gas company, the electric company, in some cases, iCable, as well as, you know, Medford covers as well. Again, you know, the arterial system is aging and has been aging. And over time, between the severe winters and heavy truck traffic, you know, we just We just really can't keep up with repairing what is ours. What is not ours, if we take notice of it, we'll report it to the owner, whether it be one of the utility companies. We request them to get out there as quickly as they can to repair their cupboards, but there's hundreds out there that need attention, Councilor.
[Caraviello]: And that was my question, I was seeing that right now where traffic is on probably on the minimal side, if we can maybe get some of those companies to get out here and fix their stuff while the traffic is still on the slow side. And my next question is, this is coming out of the water and sewer enterprise account, what is the balance left in that?
[Nunley-Benjamin]: I believe it's about $6 million. This project that you're taking the money from the fund these projects right now has a $900,000 balance and we're programming 855 of it. Okay.
[Caraviello]: And one last question. If we if Alicia I know a lot of times it seems to be a question over where the money that's in the Water and Soil Enterprise account comes from. Would it be possible for the Water and Soil Commission to provide the Council with a breakdown on where those funds come from in the next few weeks?
[Nunley-Benjamin]: You'd have to ask the Water and Soil Commission, they're their own separate body, but you could send me a request and I could give you a breakdown of the if you send it to the mayor's office.
[Caraviello]: Mr. President, if you could make this part in a form of a motion to request that the city council be provided a breakdown to where the funds from the Water and Sewer Commission come from. Second.
[Falco]: Do I make that as an amendment to the paper?
[Caraviello]: Yes, if you want to do that, yes.
[Falco]: Does Clerk Hurtubise have that or?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I got it.
[Falco]: Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Vice President Caraviello. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I will be supporting this paper this evening. It's always good to see shovels in the ground and work getting done. I'm sure that this expenditure is part of the mayor's capital plan. And I'd like to offer an amendment to the paper as well. I'm asking that the mayor provide us with a copy of her capital plan.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Okay.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. Um, just a quick question. Sorry if I missed this, Alicia, you referenced that this is coming from a program that's no longer going on. What program is that? The leak detection system. Okay, thank you.
[Falco]: Any other questions from the councilors? Okay, on the motion. Wait for the clerk to get here. On the main motion.
[Caraviello]: Second, Mr. President.
[Falco]: Okay, so, Clerk Herterich, you have all the amendments, right?
[Hurtubise]: I have all the amendments. They're all part of the main paper. I didn't hear anything get called as a B paper, so you can take one vote.
[Falco]: Okay, perfect. So on the motion of, let's see, was it Councilor Marks to approve the paper? Okay, seconded by Vice President Caraviello as amended by Councilor Marks. Vice President Caraviello, Councilor Knight. Did he get everyone?
[Hurtubise]: Yeah, Councilor Marks had two amendments.
[Falco]: Okay, as further amended by Councilor Marks. Clerk Hervey, 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 negative, the motion passes. Thank you, Brian, Karen. Thank you, Alicia, Natalie, Benjamin. Thank you, councilors. Good to see you tonight. Thank you.
[uVH2naDKUEE_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, councilors. Be safe out there.
[Falco]: Thank you, you too. Be safe and healthy. Thank you very much for being here tonight. Good to see you both. Thank you, take care. Bye. Motion to revert back.
[Marks]: Excuse me?
[Falco]: Motion to revert back. I motion to Council Mark, seconded by Vice President Caraviello to revert back to the regular order of business. Please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Knight.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Morell. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Falco.
[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative is zero on the negative. We will now revert back to the regular order of business. Do we have a representative from national group with us tonight?
[Hurtubise]: I'm going to scroll down. Yes. I just unmuted him.
[Falco]: Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Notice of a public hearing. Let's see, hearings, legal notice 20-365, petition for a grant of location, National Grid, North Andover, Massachusetts, underground electric conduits, sustaining and protecting fixtures, Medford, Massachusetts, city clerk's office. We're hereby notified that by order of the Medford City Council, public hearing will be given via Zoom at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020. on a petition of National Grid Incorporated for permission to construct a line of underground electric conduits including the necessary sustaining and protecting features under and across the public way herein after named said underground conduits to be located substantially in accordance with the plan marked Summit Road Metro Massachusetts and filed in the office of the city clerk. Whereas it prays that after due notice in hearing as provided by law, it be granted a location for and permission to excavate the public highways and to run and maintain underground electric conduits together with such sustaining and protecting fixtures as it may find necessary for the transmission of electricity and underground conduits to be located substantially in accordance with the plan marked Summit Road, Medford. and available for inspection in the Office of the City Clerk, Medford, Massachusetts, Medford City Hall, room 10385, George P. Hassett Drive, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155. The following are the streets and highways referred to, plan number 29568331, Summit Road, National Grid to install at the intersection of Summit Road and continuing approximately five feet in the northeast direction. install one to three-inch conduit off existing pole P1752 approximately five feet towards 19 Summit Road, location approximately as shown on plan filed in the office of the city clerk. This was approved by the city engineer with the following conditions. The engineering division recommends that this grant be a grant of location be approved with the following conditions. Number one, The grant of location, GOL, is limited to the five feet of duck bank as described in the GOL document as follows. Install one to three inch conduit of existing pole P1752 approximately five feet towards 19 Summit Road. Number two, before starting work the contractor shall notify dig safe and shall obtain all applicable permits from the engineering division. The project must obtain a street opening permit pursuant to section 74-141 of the city ordinances prior to commencing work. Number three, no other utility structures, conduits, duct banks, pipes, or any other appurtenances are adversely impacted. National Grid shall ensure that all sewer, water, and drain lines are marked prior to the excavation. Any disturbed concrete sidewalk panels shall be replaced in kind Asphalt must be replaced with asphalt, concrete with concrete. Number four, the sidewalk and street restoration shall be done in consultation with the engineering division and per the requirements of the approved street opening permit. Number five, all expansion joint shall be placed between the new concrete sidewalk panel and the existing driveway. approved by the Superintendent of Wires. It's called 781393-2425 for any accommodations to indoor aids. Adam L. Hurtubise, City Clerk. Plans can be viewed in the City Clerk's office, 781393-2425. At this point in time, I would declare the public hearing open. Open to those in favor of the petition. If we could please have your name and address for the record, please.
[opOzyZvPRK0_SPEAKER_06]: Sure. My name is Socrates Perez, uh, address 70 Medford street, um, in Medford. No worries.
[Falco]: And you are in favor of the petition.
[opOzyZvPRK0_SPEAKER_06]: Yes, I am. It's just basically for a, for a secondary service going into the house. And I think some, some, some of them. Okay. I'm sorry. Can you repeat that again? Yes, it's just for a secondary service for their underground service going to 19 summit road.
[Falco]: Okay. Thank you very much. You are in favor of the, uh, the project. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Let's see anyone else in favor, uh, that would like to speak. Anyone else in favor? Okay. Seeing and hearing none. I declare this portion of the hearing closed. Anyone in opposition of the petition? Anyone in opposition? Okay, hearing and seeing none, I declare this portion of the hearing closed. Let's see. Let's see, so are there any questions from the council?
[Caraviello]: Motion for approval, Mr. President.
[Falco]: Second.
[Caraviello]: Second.
[Falco]: We have a motion on Vice President Caraviello to approve, seconded by, is it Councilor Knight?
[SPEAKER_06]: I'll share that can have it, Mr. President, not a problem. Seconded by Councilor Knight.
[Unidentified]: Clerk Cernovich, 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 in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The paper is approved. Thank you.
[opOzyZvPRK0_SPEAKER_06]: Thank you.
[Falco]: Have a good night.
[opOzyZvPRK0_SPEAKER_06]: You too. Congratulations.
[Falco]: Motions, orders, and resolutions, 20-371 offered by Council and I. Being resolved, the Medford City Council congratulate Dorothy and Frank Zizzo on a momentous celebration of their 40th wedding anniversary. Council and I.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I'd just like to take a brief opportunity to wish Frank and Dorothy a very happy 40th anniversary. I'd ask my council colleagues to join me in doing such. Frank and Dorothy have been fixtures down at La Conte Skating Rink for 25-30 years, working with Mephidu Paki. They're also great neighbors up there in the Hillside area on Benham Street, Mr. President. Very recently, Frankie battled cancer very publicly. And right now he has a clean bill of health and he's doing very well. And he and his wife were able to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. And here's to 40 more. So I'd ask my council colleagues to support this resolution.
[Falco]: Great news and congratulations to the CISOs. On the motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by? Second, Mr. President. Seconded by Vice President Caraviello. Clerk Urbis, 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 negative. The motion passes. Congratulations to Dorothy and Frank Cizzo. 20-390 offered by Councilor Knight. Be it resolved that the City Finance Director assign any remaining funds to the legislative salary account 010-101-5202 purchase of service and videographer to the Council's special fund designated for zoning consultant services when presenting the end of year transfers. Councilor Knight.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I had the opportunity to speak with the finance director earlier in the month, and it's been brought to my attention that we will have a surplus of funds in our videographer's account. And we're looking at bringing on a zoning consultant, and the price of that zoning consultant was a little bit more than we had been allotted in the past. This is an effort for us to identify funding avenues to complete the contract. It's been brought to my attention through a correspondence from the city clerk that we have found funding to fully fund the $47,500 for our zoning consultant. But I'd ask that this request stand, Mr. President, so that if there are any contingency fees or contingency expenses that are related to the implementation of our zoning consultant, we have some flexibility and some funds available. I'd ask my council colleagues to support the resolution. Second, Mr. President.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilman. Any other questions? Any questions from the public? Any emails? Clerk Hurtubise, Councilor Morell.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. It's just a question for Adam. The reason for the extra funds, I guess, is there like because lack of use for hours or do we know the reason?
[Knight]: I do believe we had budgeted for two videographers. One of our videographers took ill and has since resigned from the position or has left from the position. And we had some budgeted funds in the account for that purpose. It was a personnel related expense.
[Falco]: Okay, thank you. Okay, on the motion of console night seconded by console appears clock her to be.
[Hurtubise]: Also bears. Yes, Vice President carry yellow. Yes. That's a night. Yeah. That's a marks. Yes, that's a morale. Yes, that's a Scarpelli. Yes, rather than Falco.
[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero negative, the motion passes. 20-391 offered by Council on 8. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council extends its deep and sincere condolences to the family of Michael Meehan on his recent passing. Council on 8.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Mike Meehan was a neighborhood kid from down here in West Medford, a place that we like to be called. And I recently passed away. uh... michael was a product of a public schools that he was also a lot of the founding members of the uh... boston people want uh... face book page which has gained some popularity over the past several months with the president dot and uh... michael was just went to rest of this past weekend and uh... there was quite a celebration of life for him down at that point that back uh... where uh... individuals related to that because we've got together and uh... did a one bite smash of pizza in honor of Mike Meehan. But Mike was a gentleman that touched a lot of lives. He was someone that's been taken from us far too soon, Mr. President. And I just like to offer my condolences to his family and ask that my council colleagues do the same.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. At this point, I ask if we could all please rise for a brief moment of silence.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. On the motion of Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Scarpelli, Clerk Hertovich, please call the roll. Councilor Bears? Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco?
[Falco]: Yes, seven affirmative, zero the negative, the motion passes. 2-0-392, offered by Councilor Marks. Excuse me. Be it resolved that the Methodist Massport Community Advisory Committee representatives, Peter Houck and Luke Krasner, update the city council on the recent federal aviation commitment to study runway changes as identified in the MIT study. Councilor Marks.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. This is great news. Finally, I think we see some positive results from many thousands of complaints filed by Medford residents regarding airplane noise that started back in 2013. when Massport implemented a flight patent that unfairly and disproportionately pushed and exposed Method residents to noise from runway 33L. And that's been a bone of contention, not just with the city of Medford, but many surrounding communities. And it was over the last couple of years that I believe Medford took some great steps under the leadership of former Mayor Burke. There was efforts to join with surrounding communities, of which we joined with Arlington, Somerville, Belmont, Watertown, requesting the FAA study, the changes that were identified in the MIT study that was commissioned. And I know under the leadership now of current mayor, Lungo-Koehn, we are seeing results, Mr. President. The FAA recently said that they will look at the MIT study. And it'll take about two to three months. And they will make recommendations based on the study of the MIT, and they are committed to looking and making changes on behalf of the city of Medford. I personally want to thank Mr. President again, because I've been around, I remember the days that we didn't have a representative that sat on this advisory commission. So when they were making decisions back in 2013, and even prior to that, Method was not at the table to stand up and say, wait a minute, you're using Method as a dumping ground. And I'm proud to say, Mr. President, I raised the red flag and I got a copy of the minutes back some eight years ago, and I showed the general public how we had no one representing our city. And I have to say it was Mayor McGlynn at the time, chose to put two representatives on the board. It was Peter Houck and Luke Presner, and they've done yeoman's work. in representing our community. If you've ever been to one of their presentations, they are extremely knowledgeable. I have people from surrounding communities that would like to steal them and say, how can we get them to represent our community? That's how great they are. I would only ask, Mr. President, that we be kept up to date on this June meeting that's going to take place with Massport Community Advisory Committee members, as well as the FAA. and that they appear at a future council meeting to give us an update to what direction we are going to move in as a community and if any resources or other things are needed that they'd be able to present that to the council, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Marks. Vice President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I'll echo Councilor Marks' uh, support of, of Luke and Peter, again, uh, they've done a tremendous amount of work, uh, uh, since they've, uh, come on board. Um, I think this is also a good time to have the meeting where, uh, the plane travel is at a minimum right at the moment. So, uh, uh, I think they can make some strides, uh, with that going forward because anything now, uh, will be adding on. So they'll know, uh, what kind of traffic will be moving up coming in the next, you know, six, seven, eight months as the airline industry tries to ramp up again, get going. So I think now, you know, it's a good time to get a handle on this, where the plane travels, I mean, the plane travels at a minimum.
[Falco]: Thank you, Vice President Caraviello.
[Morell]: Councilor Morell. Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I want to thank Councilor Marks for bringing this forward and also echo the laudatory remarks on Peter and Luke. They're really phenomenal and are always there to answer questions. And also echo Vice President Caraviello, where right now plane travel is down. So we're getting a bit of a reprieve, but now is really the time where we have to keep advancing this because as Councilor Marks pointed out, Medford has been taking advantage of in the past and we don't wanna let up right now. And I do have concerns. This is something we need to raise right now as well, because I have concerns that there has been stuff coming out of the FAA of smaller airports having less flights going to them, but where do those flights go instead? Do they come into Boston instead? And do they go right over our Medford residents, you know, as an onslaught instead. So I'm thankful for Councilor Marks bringing this up and that this is moving forward. And hopefully we continue to work towards a resolution that can really make stuff more equitable for the residents in the area. So thank you.
[Falco]: Thank you Councilor Morell. Councilor Peters.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. You know, I want to echo what my colleagues have said and also echo really thank Peter and Luke for everything they've been doing. This issue is really important now. You know, we've had a little bit of a reprieve. Air travel is down. But everyone is spending all their time at home now. So people are trying to work from home under this noise. I mean, it's just it's not doable for a lot of folks. And I know it's been a real stress for people. So I hope we can get their update. And then I know I'm on some email lists with folks who've been working on this. There's a meeting next week. of the Massport Community Advisory Council. I think it's Massport Community Advisory Committee, CAC, where they're going to be discussing some options that Councilor Mark's referring to. I believe it's June 11th. And I know that some residents have requested that local officials try to be on that meeting if they can. Of course, it's a Zoom digital meeting. So that's just, I just wanted to put that out there as well.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Pearce. Okay, any other questions from the Council? Council Member Marks, thank you for bringing this forward. This is an absolutely very important issue, and we'll definitely schedule some time with Peter and Luke, who are absolutely the most knowledgeable people I know about this issue. So it's always great to listen to them and get an update. So thank you for bringing this forward. Clerk Hurtubise, do you have any emails from the public on this, and is there any public participation on this matter?
[Hurtubise]: Mr. President, there are no emails on this topic. There are actually no emails on any agenda topic this evening.
[Falco]: Okay, perfect. Thank you. On the motion of Councilor Mark, seconded by Vice President Caraviello, 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, I'm the affirmative, zero on the negative, the motion passes. 2-0-393 offered by Vice President Caraviello. Whereas the city of Medford has appealed the decision that was granted in favor of the petitioner of the 40B project at 4000 Mystic Valley Parkway, be it resolved that the Medford City Council receive answers to the following questions from the city administration. Number one, what is the cost of the appeal and where will these funds come from? Number two, If the city of Medford is unsuccessful in its appeal, what is the next step? Number three, seeing that the state has ruled in favor of this petitioner, is it likely that the state will use the same formula and rule in favor of the other two petitioners? Will the city also be appealing these decisions? Next question, what is the plan to address affordable housing crisis as described by the mayor of the city of Medford if we deny these three 40B projects? The last question is, what is the plan to reach our affordable housing threshold in order to stop 40B projects that continue coming to Medford? Vice President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, this is going to be a question coming down the line for the next year or so with the proliferation of 40B projects coming into the city of Medford until we reach our threshold. I was able to watch the meeting a couple of weeks ago. when the decision came in in favor of the petitioner at 4000 Mystic Valley Parkway. And one of the big questions was, the formula that's used between the city of Medford number and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts number, along with the private petitioner's numbers, we were off about 70 points, which is a huge discrepancy. So that's somewhat of a concern to me. The Board of Appeals has appealed that decision to the next level. How are we funding this appeal, Mr. President, is my first question. Is this going to cost us money if we hire a separate attorney to do this appeal? And second, we have two more petitioners right behind this one here, one being on the Felsway, where the box factory is, and another one being on Mystic Avenue. So I know this first project doesn't get us to our limit and maybe the next two will. Seeing that these are uh, I mean, is the city gonna deny those because I don't see the state using a different formula to uh, They're on on those two, uh applicants any different than they did on the first one so, uh, uh, are we going to appeal all those or are we going to maybe try to negotiate a a uh, some type of settlement with these, uh people to get up to our uh, our our thresholds because uh again uh in a long uh with the new census coming out our threshold may go higher so that's something we have to keep an eye out for um but do we have any other you know does the administration have a plan to uh for affordable housing i mean uh Right now, this is the only avenue that we currently have for affordable housing in the city of Medford. I don't see the federal government coming forward and building any housing projects similar to what they did on Willis Avenue or Riverside Avenue. So again, on the other side of this, these three projects, if the city were to embrace them, uh in these uh difficult times would probably generate just in building fees mr president uh over two million dollars which uh uh would wipe out our deficit that the the building department is currently facing uh with the building premise and along with putting some boots on the ground people working in the city of medford so um again this is a this is a discussion we have to have going forward to how do we get to our thresholds without allowing these projects to come forward? So I'll leave that up to my other Councilors for discussion.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Thank you, Vice President Caraviello. Councilor Layton. Hang on, Councilor Layton, you need one minute. There you go.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I appreciate it. And I appreciate Councilor Caraviello for bringing this issue up. It's my understanding that 100% of the units in the 40B proposal would go towards our 10% affordability quota, even though I believe that the number of units in the actual development would be about 25 to 30% affordable. So it's my understanding, Mr. President, because these 40 P projects to bring some affordable housing into the community that the entire development discounted towards that 10% quota. So that's something that we need to take a long hard look at, Mr. President, and quite frankly, you know, I think it's time to negotiate. It's time to call these developers in and sit down with them and work towards coming up with a friendly 40B project that's going to be something that can benefit the community and something that can give us some sort of community impact benefits, Mr. President. So when I look at it, you know, we just lost the safe harbor fight and we've pretty much lost all leverage in negotiation. So now the question comes is, you know, if we're going to get a 40B project, do we want a 40B that's friendly or do we want a 40B that's going to run us over? Are we going to fight them every step of the way? Are we going to bring them to the table and sit down and work with them? And I think that we need to call these developers into the room, Mr. President, and sit down with them and bring them to the table and talk about what concerns we have as a community and what direction we'd like to see them going. I can't thank Councilor Caraviello enough for bringing this issue up. I'd like to amend the paper just to ask if these services are services that are covered under the $60,000 retainer that we've given KP Law, or if they are covered as a la carte services. So I would support the council's resolve this evening and thank you for bringing it forward.
[Unidentified]: Thank you, Councilor. Clerk Herlovich, do you have the amendment?
[Hurtubise]: Yes, I've got the amendment. Are these services covered under the $60,000 KP law agreement, or are they considered a la carte services?
[Falco]: You are correct.
[Caraviello]: Vice President Caraviello. Thank you, Mr. President. One thing I didn't mention that the last three projects that came on board in the city of Medford, which is River's Edge, Modera, and the other River's Edge have generated close to $3 million in taxes. for our city, which is a far cry more than we were getting for those properties in the state that they were. And like I said, these three projects would probably generate three to four million. So again, we're not looking at just today, Mr. President, we're looking at going down the line for the financial stability of our city. Like I said, right now, we're in tough times, and like I said, just the zoning—I mean, excuse me, just the building fees are a tremendous amount of money. Even if any of these projects were to start today, we wouldn't see any money on these probably till the next two years. And again, like I say, the problem that we have today with our budget isn't going to be going away anytime soon. So again, we have to look toward the future and generating more money for the city because unfortunately, we are a business and we do need to make money to keep on going.
[Falco]: Thank you, Vice President Caraviello, Council of Marks.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Councilor Caraviello for bringing this up. He brings a lot of valid points up regarding much-needed affordable housing, which I think we all can agree upon, additional revenue from building permits and so forth, which I think we all agree upon. I think the one issue, Mr. President, we do have to look at is that the fact that this law has been around for five decades. And if you look at the statistics, 80% of the communities in Massachusetts fall below the 10% threshold. So even though this law has been out there for five decades, it's done very little to add affordable housing. And I agree with my colleagues, I agree with Councilor Knight said, I think a friendly 40B is something we should be looking at as a community. I also think there are housing production plans that, within the last two years, 150 cities and towns have taken advantage of, which is a way of creating a blueprint in a community that allows you to move forward on these larger projects that have affordability components. And those are less contentious. They're good ways of moving forward with developers and suiting the needs of a community, but also not rolling over either, Mr. President. Because, you know, if we talk about fairness, let's face it, these particular projects, a thousand units are within a square mile of each other. They're not spread around the community, Mr. President. I could just tell you, Mr. President, in my neighborhood alone, they've added hundreds, if not thousands of units in the last year and a half in one neighborhood, Mr. President. So I think when we have to take a look at this, and maybe when we start looking at zoning, this will be an issue we do take a look at, Mr. President. But we have to make sure that if we're going to create these projects, especially these larger projects, that they're created fairly and evenly distributed around the community, Mr. President. I think that's vital. And those are things that I think we have to look at. So I don't fault the administration for standing up on behalf of the community and saying, these are mitigating factors we're going to be looking for. These are things that we want to safeguard neighborhoods. These are issues that we're concerned about. I don't fault them for that. But I would like to see a collaborative effort when the developers do come in so we can work on this and not waste money with attorneys. Because the only one that gains are the attorneys making money. And so I'd like to see a collaborative effort. when this happens, and I'd like to see a little more thought, Mr. President, to make sure that these projects are equally dispersed. Why should one neighborhood experience thousands of more traffic trips and thousands of more cars on the street while other neighborhoods don't see anything at all, Mr. President? So, you know, if we're going to stand up and talk about fairness, we have to have the discussion, although it may be painful because people don't want to talk about it, Mr. President, but it's something that we need to discuss as a council. And I thank my colleagues for bringing this up. Thank you, Councilor Marks. Councilor Peers.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. And, you know, I have a couple of comments, but I just want to say, and no personal at all question to you, Councilor Caraviello, but I agree we need to keep revenue coming in, but we are not a business in the normal sense. Our demand goes up when times are bad. It's not a time when we can... pull back, you know, it's very different. Um, so I just wanted to put that out there and again, nothing to you directly, Mr. Vice president.
[Caraviello]: It's just, we do need to generate money every year.
[Bears]: No.
[Caraviello]: And I hear that, you know, we can, we can call it whatever we want, but we do money funds have to be, you know, the tax dollars only raise X amount of dollars. So, uh, you know, new growth is, is a big, a big part of our budget every year.
[Bears]: No, and I agree with that 100%. So my comment substantively, it's just the word business. I hear it in government people, it's just a personal thing. I understand. But on the substance, I tend to agree. I agree we have an affordable housing crisis. We need to do more. And for me, I tend to agree with what everyone has said, because we do need the growth. We do need to maintain revenue. But one thing about the 40B process is it removes some of our leverage in exactly that question. So, you know, I, I agree. We need these projects. We need more affordable housing, but 40 B gives us less power to negotiate with the developers. So if we can do these projects in a different way, that's always something I'm in favor of. Obviously these applications are in it's comprehensive permit. It's 40 B. So the cards kind of left the barn on, on, on these projects, but going forward, You know, we have more leverage to negotiate better agreements and bring more revenue in and meet community needs if we're doing these projects outside of 40B. So that's just my view on it.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Peers. Any other questions or comments from the council?
[Caraviello]: Nope, Vice President Caraviello. Thank you, Mr. President. Councilor Markson is right and Councilor Nunez is right. If we're gonna fight, We're not going to have any leverage with these people that are coming. So I say, you know, the administration sit down, negotiate with them. Maybe we can collect some taxes a little before the time is due. Again, right now, there's a lot of options that are on the table. And they say, if we're going to fight everything, then we'll have no leverage. to ever do anything. So I hope the administration is listening and sits down with these groups, and hopefully we'll reach that threshold and we'll move on. But let's say, again, we have very few avenues for affordable housing in this area.
[Falco]: Thank you, Vice President Caraviello. Any other questions from the council? Any other questions from the public?
[Unidentified]: Will.
[Navarre]: Hi there, William Navarre, 108 Medford Street, apartment 1B. And I just think this is another great opportunity for me to talk about the two issues I talk about almost every time. And that is that we could get more housing if we repeal the parking minimums, first of all, because right now what we're doing is we're mandating that a large portion of our city needs to be parking lots. And those don't pay much taxes and they don't create much value. One way you could tell they're not creating value is if they're empty, which they often are. The other thing is the land value taxation. We're talking about we're gonna develop and that's going to bring in more revenue. We say this development will be good. There'll be more housing for our residents, maybe more jobs for our residents. And then in the same breath, we say, this'll be good because it'll bring in revenue because we'll basically assess a fine on that good thing they did. Well, I gotta say, why is the person who owns land that's not being used very well paying that same amount? You have land in the city of Medford that's not really being used for very much. It's not being used for housing. It's being used for parking lots that are half used near Wellington Circle, for example. Very expensive land near an Orange Line station. You think how many people in this country would love to have such good access to transit? There's a parking lot there. I didn't write a script, so that's kind of the reason I'm rambling a bit. But my basic point is that it's not smart. It's obviously not your thing. This is the way taxation has been done since before the United States was founded. But it's not wise to hope that people do good things for your city. and then tax them when they do those good things, like provide housing, and reduce their taxes when they do bad things. When you put in blight, you get a discount on your taxes. When you put in a nice building, your taxes go up. We only have so much land, and if somebody wants to put in some blight and reduce the tax base, that doesn't seem like a very sustainable system.
[Caraviello]: One information, Mr. President, Information Vice President Caraviello. To the Commissioner of the Borough of Christian, we're not reducing the tax base, we're increasing the tax base. So I mean, the property on 4000 Mystic Valley Parkway, when that building is up, we'll be paying close to $1 million a year in taxes. We're not collecting nearly that amount from that property right now. And I don't know what the value of the other properties are, but I know we won't be collecting that type of funding from the building that's there. But when a full-fledged building is up there, that number is going to be close to $1 million, similar to Modera, which pays like $1.3 million in taxes.
[Navarre]: Yeah, I agree with that. I think the 40B programs could under the existing taxation scheme be a great thing because you will get something built and they'll pay taxes on it. I think that we sometimes talk about the free market as if it's an evil thing. And that's because we, that's because there's various, there's good reasons for that. But if you had a taxation scheme, I think, where you don't tax the buildings and you only tax the land, people who are under utilizing the land would be a lot more tempted to build something productive on it, something that's a blessing to the community, something that provides housing. What do you say when you want to run for office? You say, I want to provide more housing and I'm going to provide more jobs. And then you get in and you, everybody's done this again past 400 years. You get in and what do you say? Well we're gonna have taxes on housing and jobs. Well it seems to me that it's working backwards because uh you get less of what you tax. And that's the way we do it in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. That's what we do in at least, depending on how you count, 47 out of the 50 states. That's how we do it in most countries in the world. But I think it's silly and we should do it better.
[Falco]: Thank you. Any other comments? Questions? Move to questions. Yeah, I believe Councilor Bears, you had your hand up. Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Just that, you know, I tend to agree with Mr. Navarre that our tax code is ridiculous. And there's a lot of ways we could make it better. And I hope that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts gives us the power to do it.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. On the motion of Councilor, Vice President Caraviello, seconded by... Second. Seconded by Councilor Scarpelli, Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: As amended by Councilor Knight, I believe.
[Falco]: Yes, as amended by Councilor Knight, my apologies.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Knight. Here. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Morell.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Falco.
[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative, zero in the negative, the motion passes. 20-394 offered by Council and I, be it resolved that the Medford City Council publish a schedule of pre-budget and regular budget meetings for the purpose of establishing the fiscal year 21 city budget Council and I. What do you think, Johnny? Sounds good to me. Just to give you an update. I, so we received a memo from the mayor on, I believe it was Friday, saying that she was going to present the budget to us on the 16th, Tuesday the 16th. I called the chief of staff to ask him when we will be receiving our budget books. He did not have a definitive answer for me. He said things are still in flux. So he was thinking that we would probably get them 15th to the 16th, which I thought was really tight, because I, you know, we need my eyes, we need some time to review the budget, especially before the mayor is going to be presenting the budget. So we're not voting on it that night. But still I would like, I know myself, I like my budget book in advance so we can ask some good questions. So I'm gonna touch base with him next week about this very issue that you're asking me about. And we can probably even talk about it maybe on Thursday night when we meet regarding the budget with Tony Roselli and members of the city's finance team. So Councilor-
[SPEAKER_06]: Motion to table till next week, Mr. President. Motion to table till next week. You're going to have some more information, then we'll be able to set up a schedule. That's fine.
[Falco]: Sounds good. Perfect. On the motion of Councilor Knight to table. Second. Second by Vice President Caraviello. Clerk Bernanke, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: This is the table until next week, so I'll put it back on the agenda. Thank you. Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Knight. Yeah, Council marks. Yes, Council Morell. Yes, that's a scapelli. Yes, doesn't falcon.
[Falco]: Yes, 70 affirmative zero negative. The motion passes in the paper has been tabled. 20-395 offered by Councilor Bears and Councilor Morell, whereas many food pickup and delivery apps and websites charge exorbitant fees and commissions that hurt our local restaurants, and whereas these fees may endanger the ability of local restaurants to survive this economic crisis. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Medford City Council expresses its support for HD, 5-0-5-4, an act relative to restaurant delivery commissions during the COVID-19 state of emergency. Be it further resolved that the City Clerk forward a copy of this resolution to the Medford Legislative Delegation, as well as House Speaker DeLeo, Senate President Spilka, and Governor Baker. Councilor Bears with Councilor Morell.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. I'll take this one first. And, you know, When the app, when web 2.0 and apps and all that stuff started coming and said, you know, we're going to get rid of the middleman between you and everything else. And in reality, what it's done is it's actually created middlemen and Grubhub and Uber Eats and DoorDash are the perfect example. 15 years ago, you want a pizza delivered, you called the restaurant, they delivered your pizza. Now you're paying an app 30% to get that pizza. So, um, you know, it's kind of ridiculous. I think we need to do something to rein it in. It's especially tough right now when you have all takeout or delivery. You don't have the in-service dining. Demand is so down for restaurants. So that's the intent of putting this forward. I spoke to Representative Donato over the weekend, and he said that the House has put this into a bill for statewide. So what this bill would have done is let us, locals, communities, decide on this. The House has actually said, we're going to cap it at 15% statewide. So they are moving that bill forward. It hasn't moved through the Senate yet, so I think it's still worth us sending this resolution up in support of this concept. But I am encouraged that the State House is planning to do a statewide bill capping these fees at 15%, which should really help out the restaurants who have been, in a sense, getting exploited by these apps.
[Morell]: Thank you, Councilor Bears. Councilor Morell. Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I mean, Councilor Bears, really said it all. But this is just to help our local restaurants that are struggling to survive right now. And as the resolution says, this is can really be the difference between life or death for these local businesses and the way some of these third party apps work. Sometimes businesses restaurants actually lose money on individual orders, because of the way the rate fee is structured. And these are restaurants, a lot of them that do have, you know, you call their phone number, you can put in an order, but people are just so I think this is just something that I ask our Councilors to show support for our local restaurants and again to this concept as it is kind of like many things in this time. It is moving and shifting and our legislators are taking it up. But just to express the support for our local businesses and the movement of this at the state level.
[Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Again, you know, thank you, Councilor Dez and Councilor Morell for looking into this. I too had a conversation with Representative Donato just about this very same issue and I'm so glad to see that the representatives so focused on making sure that the businesses on our main streets can survive because that's what it's about. It's about our downtowns. It's about Main Street, Mr. President. You know, these third party apps don't do anything, but actually take away from the profits of these businesses that are investing in our community. You know, when we sit down and, uh, we have a community event, the first people to step up, uh, CB scoops, uh, a meat cheese pizza, um, you know, uh, Roswell's pizza places like that. It's a minute that anybody picks up the phone and call us. There's other people running there to give us donations. I mean, God, Marty Murphy, when Marty Murphy was in business, I think he gave away more food than he sold. And these third-party apps, Mr. President, they really take away from that intimacy, number one, in the community. But number two, they're taking away from the hard-earned the hard-earned spoils that should go to these businesses that have been so committed to making sure that our community is doing well. So with that being said, Mr. President, I'd like to put a B paper forward requesting that our Chamber of Commerce investigate maybe a Medford app that chronicles all the food in the community that does delivery services and maybe provide an online platform for them to be able to have people audit through, it'll cut out the middleman. So that's just a suggestion, Mr. President, that maybe our Chamber of Commerce can take a look at, but I certainly thank my council colleagues for bringing this resolution forward, and I support it wholeheartedly. And I'd also like to thank Representative Donato once again for his leadership delivering for Main Street and Methodist.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. Clerk, do you have the wording of the B paper?
[Hurtubise]: I've got it, yes. Do you want to read it back, or are we good? Either way.
[Falco]: No, I just want to make sure you have it. Yeah, I got it. OK, perfect. OK, any other questions from the council? Oh, yes, Councilor Marks.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this up. It's my understanding that this would only apply during the COVID emergency. And once that's lifted, this would no longer apply. So I just want to make sure that's on record and my colleagues are aware of that. And secondly, Mr. President, what actually troubles me more than the exorbitant fees that they're charging, to be quite honest with you, is the fact that many of these small business owners have opted to offer discounts if you call them directly. And because Grubhub and DoorDash and Uber Eats has such a market power, that they're able to prevent the restaurants from offering their own incentive for people to call them directly. and at a discount. So they really have cornered the market, Mr. President, especially now with COVID and the need for delivery and so forth. And I think anything we can do to help the small business at least get through this timeframe, I think is warranted. So I will support this tonight, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor Marks. Councilor Bears.
[Bears]: Yeah, and to Councilor Marks' point, I think It's good to have this for the emergency, but we should maybe try to take this up again after and see if the Commonwealth might give the municipality some authority here to really look at this, because Councilor Marks is right. We're just sending millions of dollars a year out of the community through these apps down to Wall Street and Silicon Valley. So they don't need it, we need it.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Peters. Any other questions or comments regarding this from the Council?
[Unidentified]: Okay, Mr. Navarre.
[Navarre]: I just wanted to say, I support this. And I really think that if I had my way, and I think most of the councilors would agree, because Councilor Marks was going in this direction. I'd say there should just be no hidden fees. Customers should pay the fee unless the restaurant opts into something else. And then there's no cap, they could charge a million bucks if you want, and the customer has to pay it. There you go. And that's what I would do. And I think that that, I'd love to see that be sort of a demand, because sometimes I think at Beacon Hill, they like to do these little tweaks and stuff, but if you do this, you don't ever have to tweak it again. It'll just take care of itself.
[Falco]: Okay, thank you, Mr. Navarre. Okay, let's see. Okay, then it seems like there's no other questions. So on the B paper offered by Councilor Knight, seconded by. Thank you, Mr. President. Vice President Caraviello, Clerk Hurtubise, please call the roll. Clerk Hurtubise, you're muted for a minute.
[Hurtubise]: On the B paper, Councilor Bears? Yes. Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Here. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell?
[Falco]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Falco.
[Falco]: Yes. And the affirmative is zero and the negative. The motion to pass is on the main motion offered by Councilor Bears and Councilor Morell and seconded by. Second, Mr. President. Vice President Caraviello, Clerk Curnaby, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello.
[Caraviello]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight. Yes. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Morell. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco?
[Falco]: Yes, 70 in favor of zero in the negative, the motion passes. 20-396 offered by Council of Bears, be it resolved that the Medford City Council request that the city administration take any action possible to ensure that nonprofit daycare and social service organizations have access to small business relief funds being administered or advertised by the city of Medford Council of Bears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. So I think, I mean, the effects of this economic crisis and the pandemic are, you know, who knows what they're all going to be, but one of them has been already a real decimation of the childcare industry and our daycare industry. And it's really worrying for trying to go back to, you know, new normal or whatever we want to call it. When schools are open, people are back in work and we have a childcare industry that's in the state that it's in. I think we all received a message from some folks who are worried about their own daycare in this city. They've only been able to access some of the government programs and a significant portion of the funds, especially some of the funds that are coming down to municipalities are not able to go to a nonprofit organizations. So this resolution, one, I know that Tufts has a fund for nonprofits. They're issuing one time $1,000 grants. $10,000 is not going to get a daycare very far in terms of payroll and rent and all the things that come with it. So, whatever possible, I've spoken with some folks in the administration and I understand that the law is difficult, but whatever we can do to provide some assistance to our daycares and social service organizations that are really struggling right now, I think the city administration should look into that, you know, with extra attention.
[Falco]: Thank you, Councilor Bears, Vice President Cardinal.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. And I thank Councilor Bears for bringing this up. Being on the committee that's working on this, there have been some day kids that have applied for the funding for this. And there is, I don't think there are any nonprofits, but most of the small businesses in the community that have been affected have applied. The problem that we've seen already is we have more applicants than we have funds already. And if everybody takes the $10,000 that's out there, unless there's a second round of funding, they're going to have to say no to some people. But I want the Councilor Bezos to know there were some daycare centers that were on there and they have applied for the funding.
[Falco]: Thank you, Vice President Caraviello.
[Unidentified]: Any other questions or comments from the council? Second. Okay.
[Falco]: On the motion of Councilor Bears, seconded by Councilor Knight. Clerk Cunningham, 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. 2-0-397 offered by Councilor Morell. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council hold a moment of silence for the more than 100,000 Americans we have lost to coronavirus in to mark the June 1st National Day of Mourning and Lament. Councilor Morell.
[Morell]: Thank you, Mr. President. Um, so I had several community members reach out to me and I'm sure my fellow Councilors about this day of mourning, um, that was actually yesterday, uh, to mark the terrible loss of more than 100,000 American, I'm sorry, 100,000 Americans. So losses that have likely touched every single one of us, um, through our friends, our family, our colleagues and our community members. Um, it's worth noting that the coronavirus has been particularly deadly to already marginalized members of our communities. the elderly in care homes, communities of color, those living in poverty. And I just think we must take the time as we have in previous meetings to mourn those that we've lost and to make a promise to ourselves to do better by those communities that are facing disproportionate impacts of this virus and this disease.
[Unidentified]: Councilmember? Is that results from it?
[Morell]: I can see George moving. We lost you for about maybe 15 seconds, sorry. Okay, figures. But as I was saying, I'll pick up somewhere in the middle, but the... Are you guys frozen again?
[Bears]: Okay. No, we can hear you.
[Morell]: Okay, everyone stop moving, sorry. So the coronavirus has been particularly deadly to already marginalized members of our community, elderly in care homes, communities of color, those living in poverty. And I just ask that we take a moment, as we have a few weeks in a row, but now the cumulative number of those lost, just to mourn those that have been lost and especially make a promise to ourselves to do better by those communities that are facing disproportionate impacts of this disease, because they have to be in the front lines, because they live in crowded housing, because they live in polluted neighborhoods. And I do have I do know we have at least one community member here that wants to speak after any councilor members Want to add anything?
[Falco]: So I thank you all for considering this Thank You councilor Morell council appears Thank You.
[Bears]: Mr. President. Yeah, I mean The scope of this tragedy and the impact on the Medford community and our entire country. I Don't think we're we I don't think it's set in yet. We've lost a hundred thousand people across the country and We've lost over 100 people just in nursing homes here in Medford. And I think Councilor Morell's point, especially about who's been impacted and the communities that have been hit hardest, you know, this has been a difficult couple months and then the difficult couple weeks too. And, you know, communities of color, low income communities, environmental justice communities that have really been hurt by the coronavirus crisis are now also, you know, facing the emotional hurt and the and the real pain of these protests and the protests against the murders of black men. So I think this is a time of mourning. And I just, it's hard for me to even put into words what we're going through as a nation right now. And I'm just glad that we residents and people are taking the time to mourn. And I think we're going to have to talk about it more and more over the next few months and years.
[Falco]: Thank you, council members. Any other comments from the council? Okay, Council Member Earl, you mentioned that someone wanted to speak on this?
[Morell]: Yeah, I think Judy is in the audience. She reached out about this.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes. I am a retired chaplain, and as Councilor bears said sometimes these losses are hard to put into words and I'm conscious of how important ritual is for helping us all to cope with grief and loss. So I appreciate the council's I just want to say thank you to all of you for your receptivity and especially Councilor Beres and Councilor Morell for offering this opportunity as a community for us to remember who and what we've lost and to have some opportunity for community greeting. Thank you.
[Hurtubise]: Mr. President, somebody else wants to speak, I believe.
[Falco]: Oh, okay. Well, wait, I apologize.
[Hurtubise]: Let's see. Jess Sparrow had her hand raised.
[Unidentified]: Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I'm trying to unmute her.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, hi, I am sorry. I didn't have anything to say. I was just expressing my agreement with other things that were happening. I just did a thumbs up on the Zoom. I didn't mean to signal my intent to speak. Sorry about that, y'all.
[Falco]: No worries. Okay, at this point, would anybody else like to speak on this? Okay, seeing and hearing none, why don't we all rise for a brief moment of silence? Thank you. On the motion of Councilor Morell, seconded by Councilor Knight. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello.
[Falco]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Knight. Yes. Councilor Marks.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Morell.
[Falco]: Yes.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. President Falco.
[Falco]: Yes. And the affirmative, zero in the negative. The motion passes. report to committees, 19-287, May 26th, 2020. Committee of the whole report. Let's see. Purpose of the meeting was to discuss the scope of services for the proposed zoning consultants work on recodification. We had that meeting, let's see, May 26th. It was a good exchange. We talked about the scope of services regarding the zoning consultant. Let's see, we talked a little bit about the funding. Council and I moved to get a formal response from the administration on whether the money has been approved in what kind of exists. That passed in a roll call vote, seven, nothing. And we talked a little bit about that earlier tonight, but on the motion of Vice President Caraviello to approve the committee report, seconded by?
[Unidentified]: Second. Councilor Marks, Clerk Renees, please come to the roll. Councilor Bears? Yes. Vice President Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Councilor Knight? We'll skip Councilor Knight.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Morell? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Falco? Yes. And I'm just wondering if Councilor Knight's got his connection back.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, I'm sorry, I thought I was unmuted. Okay, thank you.
[Falco]: Seven in the affirmative, zero in the negative. The committee report passes. One nine dash six five nine and two zero dash zero four two. May 27th, 2020, committee of the whole report to follow, We met, let's see, last Wednesday the 27th at 6pm. The purpose of the meeting was to review and discuss the proposed marijuana ordinance. Let's see, we talked about the previous work that we have worked on in previous meetings and we, let's see, we Mr. Silverstein from KP Law highlighted items that still needed to be addressed. We discussed those items and we basically reconvene tonight to talk about the zoning maps. But we discussed a little bit about the zoning maps last week as well. Let's see on the motion to approve the committee report.
[Caraviello]: Make the motion Mr. President.
[Unidentified]: Mr. President. Seconded by? Councilor Marks?
[Marks]: No, Mr. President, if I could. Oh, yes. Mr. President, you know, this has been a long process, you know, and I think we're all proud, I think I speak for everyone, of the end results of many, many months and years of hard work. And I want to personally thank where this all started, which was the Zoning Subcommittee, and it was led by Vice President Caraviello with members Scarpelli and Knight. They did yeoman's work putting together a document that was really complex and a lot of moving parts. And I think we came out with a document that fits this city. This is not a cookie cutter document. This is unique to the city of Medford and how it applies. And I think it works well within our community. It allows establishments to come in. It allows them to flourish. And it also addresses the will of the general public, voted a majority to allow marijuana shops within the city of Medford. So I want to thank your leadership, Mr. President. I know this got a little contentious with some of the issues. You kept us on path, and I think we came out with a document that really I feel very comfortable with. And I just want to thank my colleagues.
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. Councilor Marks, if we could thank President Falco. He was on the committee, I think, for the first two years.
[Falco]: Yeah, the zoning committee's had a number of reiterations through the whole process. Councilor Marks, thank you very much. Appreciate it. And thank you, everyone. This really has been a team effort, but I really feel like we kind of really vetted everything and looked at everything. And I feel like the, you know, the finished product is going to be something that's really good. So I think, you know, we went through all the, like you mentioned earlier, Vice President Caraviello, it's been years and I think a lot of input went into it and a lot of time and effort and energy. And they thank everyone for their hard work on this. So, On the vote for the committee report on the motion of Vice President Caraviello, seconded by?
[Unidentified]: Second. Councilor Marks, Clerk Hurtubise, 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, 70 affirmative, zero the negative, the motion passes. Let's see, public participation, anybody? Anybody wanna speak or need to speak or? Okay.
[SPEAKER_06]: Motion to adjourn. Records.
[Falco]: Records. The records.
[Unidentified]: Excuse me?
[Bears]: Sorry, I said my favorite part.
[Falco]: Now, records in the meeting of May 26, 2020 were passed to Vice President Caraviello. Vice President Caraviello, how did you find those records?
[Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. After an exhausting review of the records, I find them in admirable condition. In motion for approval.
[Falco]: Okay, yes. Thank you, Vice President Caraviello. On that motion, seconded by Councilor Knight. Clerk Urnavis, 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 and the records are approved. Then the motion of Council and I to adjourn the meeting, seconded by?
[Bears]: Say again, Mr. President.
[Falco]: Seconded by Councilor Bears. Councilor Marks, did you?
[Marks]: Yes, before you call the roll, Before you call the roll, we have a very important meeting this Thursday. And maybe you want to reiterate that to the general public regarding the financial of our community. And we'll be meeting with our outside auditor. Maybe you want to let the general public know that.
[Falco]: Yes. So we have a meeting coming up this June 4th at 5.30 PM. That meeting is with, let's see, It's with Tony Roselli. He is the outside consultant. We're going to have, um, so the people that have been invited were the mayor of Longo current has been invited, uh, Dave Rodriguez, the chief of staff, superintendent, uh, Dr. Marice Edouard-Vincent, uh, assistant superintendent, Christine Patterson, chief of procurement, uh, shop con. finance director and auditor Aleesha Nunley-Benjamin, and the audit consultant Tony Roselli. The purpose of the meeting is to receive an update from the administration regarding the fiscal year 2020 city budget, the fiscal year 2021 city budget, and to get an update with regard to receipts for taxes, and to talk about pretty much any type of financial issue with regard to the budget. It's going to be a difficult budget upcoming. Uh, we will have a, uh, hopefully a pretty good discussion, uh, this Thursday, 5 30 PM.
[Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President.
[Falco]: Thank you. Council Marks council appears.
[Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President. Um, just to the clerk, just FYI that on the city website, if you go to the upcoming meetings link for this meeting, it says 7 PM on the website, not 5 30 PM. The agenda when you click the PDF is correct, but the website itself says 7 PM. So. We might just want to try to see if they can change that.
[Hurtubise]: We don't want people. I'll reach out to him. I'll reach out and take care of that. Thank you.
[Falco]: Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Bears for mentioning that. Okay. On the motion to adjourn by Councilor, I believe it was Councilor Knight, seconded by? Second. Vice President Caraviello, Councilor Kernan-Beers, please call the roll.
[Hurtubise]: Councilor Bears. Yes. Vice President Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Knight. He is still there. He's gone. Council marks. Yes, but not forgotten. He's there. We got we got a yes from Council marks and a yes from Council night Council Morell. Yes. Yes, President Falco.
[Falco]: Yes. 70 70 affirmative zero negative the meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone have a good night.
|
total time: 24.98 minutes total words: 3598  |
total time: 13.55 minutes total words: 2140  |
total time: 8.34 minutes total words: 1621  |
total time: 10.13 minutes total words: 1605  |
|
total time: 6.27 minutes total words: 1251  |
total time: 4.17 minutes total words: 776  |
||