[Fred Dello Russo]: The fourth regular meeting of the Medford City Council will come to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Present. Five present, two absent,
[Fred Dello Russo]: Please rise to salute the flag. 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. Just for the knowledge of those here present, both Councilors who are present tonight called to inform me of their absence. Councilor Caraviello has a family medical emergency, and Councilor Camuso is feeling ill. So, item number 15, 025, offered by Councilor Penta, be it resolved that pursuant to Council Resolution 14472 of May 20th, 2014, presented by the Mayor, allowing him to negotiate up to a 10-year parking contract is passed and voted upon by the City Council, inclusive of Councilor Penta's amendment, exactly stating that the Council meet before the signing so that we have a complete understanding, so as amended, that having the mayor, whoever the vendor might be, to present themselves before the Council before the finalization of the contract, unquote. The Council voted 7-0, approval as amended. and since many Medford business owners and Medford citizenry never had an open public opportunity for input, discussions, concerns on this implementation, option alternatives, and since the council never met pursuant to council resolution 14472 as amended before the finalization of the contract, therefore now to clarify any individual councilor or city council position, Be it further resolved that the Medford City Council take an official position as to whether they support Mayor McGlynn's October 17, 2014 signed contract for a pay to park kiosk revenue enhancement program with the Republic Company from Tennessee. Councilor Penta?
[Robert Penta]: Mr. President, This has really been a tough week, as we all know, between the snow and everything else.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor, if I could, we have two council members absent, and this item is rather important. I'm wondering that it would be best for us to table it before we have any discussion on it or vote on it, since it is a rather grave subject under whose orderliness, for our consideration, I have doubts. So I'd appreciate it if you'd lay it on the table for a week, so that. Well, I was leaning to that.
[Robert Penta]: I was just making a preemptory comment.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you.
[Robert Penta]: I see the chief here tonight. Chief, is he here? Yeah. Okay. No, um, I have no, uh, chief, uh, this is my resolution. As you know, that it's on the agenda for this evening, but in no way do I want that to interfere with any comments that you might be having as it relates to the paid a parking program. So, okay. All right. So with that being said, um, I have no problem laying it on the table. You want to wait for Councilor Caraviello, because I really don't know when Councilor Camus is coming back, how serious he is, sick or what.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We'll lay it on the table for the rest of the meeting. Until we have all seven councilors present. So on motion of Councilor Penta that this item be tabled. All those in favor? All those opposed? Item's tabled. 15-027. Councilor Lungo-Koehn for suspension of the rules. Councilor?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I take paper 15-026.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Paper 15-026. Is this the... Request for expenditure from law department claims over $1,000. On the motion for suspension to take item out of order on Councilor Lungo-Koehn. All those in favour? All those opposed? Item number 15-026. Request for expenditure from law department claims over $1,000. Number 10-151-5762 to the President and members of the Honorable Medford City Council, January 23rd, 2015. From Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, claimant name Nancy J. Avalone versus City of Medford. Date of accident, November 7th, 2014. Date of settlement, January 23rd, 2015. Date of trial result, not applicable. Amount of request, $5,000. Claimant's attorney, Santo J. Aruma, Esquire. Description of alleged claim. The claimant, Nancy J. Avalone, 9 Seaborne Place, Lexington, Mass., 02420, seeks compensation for injuries suffered as a result of a sidewalk defect, namely a sinkhole located on Governor's Avenue near the corner of High Street and Medford, Massachusetts. Her injury occurred on November 7, 2014. As a result of her fall, she sustained a fracture of her right lateral tibia plateau, requiring hospitalization. She received immediate emergency treatment at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, as well as physical therapy at Newton Wellesley Hospital. Her medical bills were in excess of $7,747. The necessary releases have been obtained from the claimant. The alleged defect was repaired after the accident. Breakdown of the amount requested, medical costs, $7,000. $747.75, lost wages zero, property damage zero, others zero. Total settlement of $5,000, representative from the office of the city solicitor is here. Chair awaits a motion.
[Adam Knight]: Move for approval, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Knight for approval, where this is a matter of this amount of money, we require a roll call vote. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Before the roll is called, Councilor Marks.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, this particular area where the injury occurred is a high-traveled area. It's the corner of High Street and Governor's Ave. So I would ask that DPW be on notification if they're not already about this particular sinkhole and that something immediately be done at that site.
[Fred Dello Russo]: If I could, do you have any information for us on that matter? Mr. President, if I may.
[Adam Knight]: Councilor Knight. At the bottom of the paper submitted by the Mayor's Office, The alleged defect has been repaired after the accident pursuant to the paper that's before us. It doesn't give the date though. Okay. Do you have the date? It looks like the date of accident was 11, 7, 14.
[Fred Dello Russo]: And it looks like the alleged defect was repaired after the accident. That's what the paper says. We'll allow the assistant solicitor of the city to answer the question.
[k3Xg1illaRI_SPEAKER_15]: Thank you, Mr. President. Kimberly Scanlon, assistant city solicitor, 75 Ashcroft road. And to answer your question, Councilor, I, believe it was after a week after, excuse me, a week later, um, after November 7th when the incident occurred. I can, however, if it would please the council, um, check and get an exact date and get back to you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: If you would just send that to the council.
[k3Xg1illaRI_SPEAKER_15]: Sure.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of approval by Councilor Knight, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Mr. President. Uh, Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Another question. Um, um, I'm trying to get the visualization. Is this on the side of the street where Colleen's is on? Is that the hole? The hole that was there?
[k3Xg1illaRI_SPEAKER_15]: Yes.
[Robert Penta]: OK. If I remember correctly, too, on that particular hole that continuously started to sink, it was getting larger and larger. And the unfortunate part about it, I know some business merchants had called up until it almost actually caved in. And that's the place some months earlier, many months earlier, I believe the MWRA was there as they were addressing a water leak on that particular part of the street. I believe, on a connection, and it was filled in. And I think on this one here, I think, if I remember correctly, it's where the sinkhole is going next to the curb, but it was right by the curb, and it just kept sinking, and it kept going in and in and in. So maybe the better issue is you can get back to us when it was done, but just how fragile is that particular? A lot of work has been done in that area over there. And maybe if we can get just an update from DPW, if we can add to the resolution.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We'll add that as an amendment, Councilor.
[Robert Penta]: Yeah, to check that into the fragility. Is that such a word? Yeah, I think it's fragility.
[k3Xg1illaRI_SPEAKER_15]: That is a word, Councilor, yes. I know.
[Robert Penta]: The fragility of the ground and the land in that particular area. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Long-Beaucourt.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, President Dello Russo. Just on a B paper, if we could also discuss with the Department of Public Works the sinkhole in front of Anthony's Liquor. It was brought to my attention this week. There's a sinkhole and people are backing up. It's, I believe, around the sewer, sewer caps. So if we could send that to the, I'm gonna email Department of Public Works tomorrow, but if we could also send a paper to them, ask them to go check it out before somebody gets hurt.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor. As amended by Councilor Lungo-Koehn. On the motion, main motion of approval by Councilor Knight. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Camuso, Councilor Caraviello, Councilor Knight. Vice President Lungo-Koehn. Yes. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Penta. Yes. President Dello Russo.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes. The vote of five in the affirmative, two absent. The motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: I like to, um, can we just move the consideration of the paper we laid in the table? I just like to bring that up. I want to do something different with it on the paper.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion for reconsideration for the tabled paper. Right. Uh, 15 Oh, 25, 15 Oh, 25. Uh, for the motion of reconsideration, all those in favor. Any opposed?
[Robert Penta]: Mr. President, I'm going to, I'd like to move that the paper be withdrawn. And what I'll do is I'll just introduce it next week as a separate resolution on the motion that this paper be withdrawn by a Councilor Penta.
[Fred Dello Russo]: All those in favor. All those opposed. The paper 15-025 is withdrawn. Item number 15-027 offered by Councilor Penta, be it resolved that pursuant to citizen and council concerns over the recently enacted tiered water and sewer rate billing, be it acknowledged that on behalf of our Medford water and sewer rate payers, a thank you be extended to the Water and Sewer Commission and staff for their review and adjusted rate structure, allowing for a fairer tiered system rate billing. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Mr. President, we all know that when this new implementation took place, going to a tiered rate system, there was some pushback as it relates to the tier 1, 2, and 3 setup that originally started off at 0 to 800 cubic feet, 801 cubic feet to 1,600 cubic feet, and then from 1,600 cubic feet and up. And there was a lot of concern that was, I believe, expressed here at the council meeting, and also, likewise expressed, I think, to the Water and Sewer Rate Commissioners. But through their staff, led by Ron Baker, who was in charge, and he is, I believe, he's the operations supervisor over this, the request was made not only by the council, but to the commission that maybe we should just look at on a percentage basis, just where are we going on this tiered rate system because, in essence, it did turn out to be a water rate increase for certain members. Most recently, at the last Water and Sewer Commission, there was an adjustment that did take place. I had made the suggestion that we should look at the first billing that goes out and just see how many people fall within that 0 to 800. Because at that point in time when they did it, it was an estimation of the same thing with tier 2 and the same thing with tier 3. They've now gone into a revised tier system, which now puts you into the tier 1 system up to the first 1,000 cubic feet. And tier 2 goes from 1,000 to 2,000, and tier 3 goes from 2,000 and up, which is a significant, not large, but it's a significant increase as it relates to giving homeowners an opportunity to receive a benefit as it relates to the increase. So if I understand that chart correctly here, the billing cycle as it will go onto this new rate system will be as follows. I believe you're getting to an approximate amount 76% from 66 to 76% of the single-family homes. Condos will go from 82 to 90%. And these are keeping the people in the 0 to 1,000 mark. The two-family will go from 76 to 85. The three-families will go from 79% to 87. And the four-family will go from 68. And that basically stayed the same at 68%. Taking all this into consideration, What it represents financially to the city is the following amount total. It's a savings of $69,230 and overall condos overall in the city will save approximately $39,363. Single families will come up to $21,881. Two families will come up to $6,888. And the three families, there's a saving of $1,096 total overall. With that being said, the opportunity is now increased for more savings. I believe, if I understand all of this correctly, that once you get to that zero to 1,000 mark, you go to 1,001, you'll only be charged a difference between 1,000 and 1,001 if you fall into that second tier system. And it would be the same argument going forward for the one to the two and the two and the two and the top. I want to thank Mr. Baker in particular and his working crew the board for recognizing the fact that we need a little bit more equity in this water and sewer rate structure, since in fact it's an $8.5 million surplus sitting over there, and since in fact the mayor has yet to present anything to us that talks about a water and sewer street construction or water and sewer improvements in this community, and as the law writes itself, it basically says it either has to go to that type of a component, a water and sewer street reconstruction or water and sewer reconstruction, or the money has to go back to the rate payers. So I would hope that this is probably somewhat of a first step at looking at where we're going with this excess money that we have. Also, with the tiered system that the council on numerous occasions has spoken to about, and now we'll have an opportunity to see it by increasing from 800 to 1,000 and from 1,600 to 2,000, the max on both, that's 200 cubic feet in the water, it's 400 cubic feet Tier 2, which is the commercial rate, and above that, it's everyone else that uses it. It's a high volume group and density. I think it's a good start. And once we get those adjustments recalculated, we'll have a better idea as to where we're going. But as it stands right now, I believe this will take effect. If I understand this, it's the next billing cycle, not the one that we just had. I believe it's the next billing cycle. So with that being said, I just thought They should be noticed out, and taxpayers should be aware of it, and people who did it should be recognized.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you for your efforts in this matter, Councilor. Sir, do you wish to speak on this matter? Yes, sir. Please state your name and address for the record.
[Robert Cappucci]: Robert Capucci, 71 Evans Street. Thank you, President Dello Russo. I'm a little bit confused because this council voted when the budget was being passed to amend the budget by some $600,000. That amendment was passed, but then His Honor the mayor vetoed it, but he signed the amended budget. So how does that $600,000 figure into this tiered water rate? Can I answer that?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Penter, if you could, yes.
[Robert Penta]: I believe that's a separate issue as it relates to how the Water and Sewer Commission has now gotten into it. We did not have a tiered rate system at that point in time. The tiered rate system I believe came in October, November of this past year. As a result of that, and because of the pushback and the concerns from rate payers and taxpayers, their initial tier one, two, and three systems had somewhat of a concern with people as to the charges. So listening to not only the council, council members and taxpayers, they bumped it up to zero to 1,000 instead of zero to 800. And the 1,000 now goes to one to 2,000 and 2,000 plus coming up to be the max. There are representative percentages as it relates to your water bill that's coming forward, how and what the mayor is going to do relative to the 600,000 that the council cut out. We still haven't seen that and have no idea. And you know, as we know, each and every year for the last four years, there's been a million dollar surplus or thereabouts sitting in a, and that's how we get in our free cash. So, so maybe that's how it's just going to Peter itself out at the end of the year. I don't know.
[Robert Cappucci]: Well, if I may, I specifically returned to this podium and I asked the direct question, does this amendment mean, at the time, the MWRA wanted to raise our rates by 10%, but then after this whole debate and passing of the amendment for the $600,000 to come out, I returned and I asked specifically, and I believe it was the Honorable Michael Marks who said the answer to my question, which was, Does this mean that nobody in Medford will see a water rate increase? And the answer was directly given to me, yes. Now you're saying that under this tiered rate, some people are actually and some businesses are actually going to see somewhat of an increase?
[Robert Penta]: Let's go.
[Adam Knight]: Point of information, Councilor Knight. Mr. Capuccia, I think when you have to look at the tiered rate system, you'll see that everybody that falls under tier one will be paying generally the same rate that they were paying last year. It's a conservation measure. So it's really based on consumption. So if you conserve your water usage, you won't see an increase if you stay within that tier. However, if you bump up out of that tier, you will see an increase. But it's a conservation measure. It's not necessarily a budgetary item. I think that the reason that the tiered rate system is going into place more so is for environmental concerns and for conservation issues. And I think to control the increases that we're going to see in the future from the MWRA based on our consumption.
[Unidentified]: point of further clarification.
[Adam Knight]: Point of further clarification, Councilor, Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Maybe Councilor Penta is going to say that, but once you bump into that second tier, you're only going to pay the additional cost for the amount of usage that goes from the first tier to the second tier. So you won't necessarily get bumped up on your whole water usage. It will just be for the additional. And that's the same thing for the third tier. So if you have a pool, you fill the pool with the third tier, you're going to pay that extra, that extra fee.
[Fred Dello Russo]: I want to get back. Are you satisfied with your response?
[Robert Penta]: Thank you. You're right about the increase. I believe it was a 10% or 11% increase. That represented the $600,000 in the budget. And I believe that the four members of the council who voted to eliminate that out of the budget was because of the fact that we had an $8.5 million surplus. And because we had $8.5 million surplus, why should we be going out and taxing on that particular part? This here is something, apparently, that goes back, I believe, to April or May of 2014, when they first had a discussion on a rate system. I think it was Councilman Marks who originally brought up the issue on the more you use, the more you pay in commercial vendors. And I think this goes back to the former city engineer, who supposedly was in charge of whatever he was in charge of. I don't know. But to get to this point here, it's a combination of not only conservation, but I think it's also a slow way of maybe addressing any increase that might be taking place in the future. But this also has a component with the EPA, the federal EPA coming in here looking at a conservation method as it relates to water usage. And they have this broken down, what they think per person, whatever it might be. Of course, the argument to that is if you have two or three or four kids in the family, that's all down the drain anyway. But that's neither here nor there. So this is a beginning. This isn't a do all, be all. It's a beginning to not only do the conservation, but once again, we see what the numbers and other numbers come in. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't work, then we're going to have to look at it again. But it's better than going up with the rates and the cost. It's coming down to all four categories. Single family, condo, two family, and three family. Four families all stayed the same.
[Robert Cappucci]: Thank you very much, councillors. And just one final point. with all the snow that we have and we still have the water pipes cracked, when all this starts melting in the spring with spring rains and this all starts pouring out in the Boston Harbor, I would just respectfully request that this body send a letter to the state level and let them know about our water pipe conditions and not, you know, to calculate it as raw sewage, as I heard it been said in the past.
[Fred Dello Russo]: If it goes in the storm drains, then it won't be.
[Robert Cappucci]: Right. Well, with new Governor Baker facing an even larger budget deficit than which was once perceived in cuts coming that are going to be coming very soon, I just want to request that we let the state know about our water pipe problem here and try to keep as much money in Medford for our infrastructure, police, education, and whatnot. But thank you all so very much for those great answers. Thank you.
[Robert Penta]: Thank you, Honorable. Continue on that further? I was going to do that. That's my last point. So you just brought it up. So I want to thank you for that. I think, from what I understand from my involvement with Mass Municipal Association, cities and towns are now getting together just as it relates to that particular point. So maybe at the outset, and I don't know how to begin this, but maybe at the outset, maybe it should be City of Medford writes something to our state legislation or maybe to the MWRA and ask them for them to set up some type of a system, maybe during certain months of the year, knowing where there's a lot of snowfall, that a lot of that water may go down the drain. Because they can tell you the increase, the amount of the increase of the water flow. It's obvious that some kind of a consideration is given or some kind of credit is given or whatever it might be, because it doesn't happen all the time. It's only at this time of the year.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So thank you for bringing it up. Thank you, council. Thank you. On the motion of council, Pinto for approval. All those in favor? All those opposed, the motion passes. Motion to suspend the rules by Councilor Knight. I'd like to take paper number 15032 out of order, please. Motion of Councilor Knight for suspension of rules. All those in favor? All those opposed? It was suspended. Take one item out of order. Item number 15-032, petition for common vigilance license by Juksing Stafo, 172 Spring Street, Medford Mass for Classic Cafe, 174 Spring Street, Medford. We turn it over to Councilor Knight for recommendation. Would the petitioner please step forward to the podium and state your name and address for the record. Councilor Marks also has the paper.
[Adam Knight]: Carvey. I yield the floor, Mr. President, to the chairman of the committee. I didn't see him walk in.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I reviewed the papers, and I do find them in order. A couple of quick questions. What type of food are you going to be serving there? Mostly breakfast and lunch. Breakfast and lunch? Yes. And so just morning and afternoon hours? Yes. And I assume, by the address, you're going to be living in the house that's attached to it? Yes. OK. Everything seems in order. I have a motion for approval.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion for approval, uh, Councilor Caraviellol, Councilor Marks, did you wish to speak on this? All those in favor? All those opposed? License granted. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you guys. Good luck. On the motion of, uh, Councilor Knight to revert to the regular order of business. All those in favor? All those opposed? Item number 15-028 offered by Councilor Knight. Be it resolved, uh, the Office of Community Development Building Department and Zoning Board examine rezoning options at the site of the Meadow Glen Mall and the site of the former Shaw's Supermarket for the purpose of integrating mixed-use development at these locations and report back to the council their findings and recommendations. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I think when you take a look at these two parcels that are in question, the Meadow Glen Mall and the site of the former Shaw's Supermarket that's vacant right now, We have two large parcels of land, and with the appropriate zoning, I feel as though we may be able to generate a mixed-use development of some sort. Now, I think that it's important to note that we could reclassify this area as a mixed-use zoning area, however. Maybe the use of an overlay district, maybe something that's more appropriate. So that's why I asked that the Office of Community Development, the Building Department, and the Zoning Board take a look at the options that are available there and present with us recommendations. You know, when I drive down Route 16 and I think about the pending construction that's going to happen, I think about stations landing, I think about Assembly Row, I think about the Meadow Glen Mall that we drive past so that we can get to those places. And I think with a little bit of effort and a little bit of hard work, Mr. President, I think we might be able to come up with a zoning recommendation for that area. that will result in a great turnaround. I think that, you know, when you look at Locust Street and you look at Meadow Glen Mall and you look at the Shaw site, you know, you can have a great vision there of mixed-use development with small commercial, light industrial. There's a number of housing that's going on there. And I think that it's important also to think about the zoning overlay district because we have existing businesses that are there that we don't want to displace, Mr. President. So I bring this resolution forward seeking the guidance and input of these three departments. I've had a number of conversations with our Director of Community Development, I feel as though it does a wonderful job, Mr. President. And in my conversations with her, you know, we've kicked around a number of different ideas, but I think this is something that's going to take the community as a whole to really come up with and see what their vision is and see what they want to live with, Mr. President. So, you know, I'd like to see a little bit of deliberation on this. a little bit of participation and civic involvement from the residents in the community to paint a picture and come up with some sort of development or some sort of vision that they have for the area for mixed-use development, Mr. President. So I'd ask that my colleagues support this resolution and await the findings of the Building Department, Office of Community Development, and Zoning Board, should they be willing to support this.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you for your foresight and your vision in this matter. On the motion of Councilor Knight for approval, all those in favor? All those opposed? Mr. Clerk, if we could mark Councilors Caravielloli and Camuso present. Mr. President.
[Paul Camuso]: Councilor Camuso, I'm glad you're feeling well. Thank you. I'd just like to say I'm glad I came down this evening with 101 temperature, but with the wisecrack that Councilor Penta wanted to say about me being sick. So I just wanted to come down. You weren't sure when I was coming back and all this. Yeah. Yes, there was. We'll put the paper on hold for Councilor Caraviello, but we don't know when Councilor Camuso's coming back. Thank you, Mr. President. You're just such a wonderful person. Thank you, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Camuso. Item number 15-029, offered by Councilor Knight. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council congratulate John McGonigal on his receipt of the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association's Assistant Coach of the Year Award. Be it further resolved that the Medford City Council congratulate Lonnie Hilson Sr. on his receipt of the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association's Community Service Award. Be it further resolved that these individuals be invited to appear before the Medford City Council to receive official commendation recognizing their achievement, Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Just two short weeks ago, Mr. McGonigal, our assistant coach of the Medford High School Mustang Boys Baseball Team, was presented with the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year Award. This is a very prestigious award, and I don't think it should go without recognition. Simultaneously, at the same event, a longtime South Medford Little League volunteer, Lonnie Hilson Sr., was given the baseball the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association Community Service Award for his over 50 years of community involvement and donating of his time, Mr. President. So I think it's only justified that we recognize these two individuals for their commitment to the city of Medford and to the betterment of student athletes here in the community.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. And if I might add from the chair, especially Mr. Hilson has earned a very special place in the hearts of so many of us from South Medford because he was an integral part of so many of our growing up and our involvement in the community. So this is a wonderful, wonderful honor for both of them. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: I'd like to echo your comments, Councilor, Mr. President. Monty Hilson, well recognized within the boys baseball organizations, especially, you know, with the younger children. And I just think it's a fine recognition for long years of service.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Absolutely. On the motion of Councilor Knight for approval, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. 15-040 offered by Councilor Penta. Be it resolved that a message of congratulations be sent to Metric Police Lieutenant Michael Goulding upon his being selected the new police chief for the town of Weston. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Mr. President, Lieutenant Goulding, Michael Goulding is a fine young man. He's had many wonderful years here in the Method Police Department. And I know our chief who's here right now tonight is sorry to see him go, but I think he's, happy to know he's been able to be elevated to a like comparison to him being a chief of another nice community. And I just think it's nice to recognize one of our own achieving this type of a station in their life. And last night, the town of Western Board of Selectmen voted him in unanimously. So I just think it would be a proper, just to make a public recognition.
[Fred Dello Russo]: That's awesome. And he's a good, good man.
[Adam Knight]: Yes. Councilor Knight. Mr. President, Chief Sacco is here. I think it might be appropriate for Chief Sacco to say a few words on behalf of Mr. Goulding. If you could.
[Leo Sacco]: Good evening, everyone. My name is Leo Sacco, police chief here in the city of Medford. I live at 227 Elm Street in Medford. And you're absolutely right. He's a great guy, very deserving of the job. Tremendous loss for the city of Medford, for the police department, and a tremendous loss for me. He's always been right there for me with questions and answers. And give him a task and it gets done. great person, a strong leader. He will do a great job in Western, absolutely a great job in Western. And it's been a very grueling process. Uh, there were some somewhere around 85 candidates that were selected to go through the process and for him to rise to the top. I think it's a great credit to him, his family and to the city of Medford because this is where he began in 1988. So 27 years later, He's gonna become the chief of police in the town of Westman great opportunity and very well-deserved his whole career He prepared himself for this. So it's it's nice that he was recognized and he went up against a Number of chiefs who had applied for that job that wanted to move from the community that they are in and he he won he did very well in the assessment centers and his interviews and his background speaks for itself, impeccable. Great family man, great family here at Medford, his own family, the children that he's raising along with his wife. It's a happy time, it's a sad time. I'm very happy for him advancing, but it will be a tremendous loss for the Medford Police Department, for the city of Medford. But we're all very happy for him.
[Fred Dello Russo]: He had a great mentor too.
[Paul Camuso]: I don't know about that. Thank you. I'd just like to congratulate the Lieutenant. You know, he's not only well respected in our community, like the Chief said, but throughout this whole area, whether it's the NMLAC unit, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, just very, very well respected. And I'm very, very happy to see him moving on, but at the same time, sad because he's such an instrumental part of our police department. I'd also just like to ask the Chief, I don't want to make it a B paper because this is all about Mike, But Chief, do you anticipate to fill the void with him? Because I know we're down to bare bones with patrol officers. I want to make sure that there is a corral ladder and that the job is filled.
[Leo Sacco]: We hope to fill a lieutenant's rank. I don't know if we'll ever be able to fill the void. Oh, we know that. We're hoping to fill the position. That's what I'm asking. I'm sorry. That's, that's the goal is an outstanding, there's an existing list right now for lieutenants. Uh, I'm hoping that we can fill that. I know that a Lieutenant Goulding will be leaving early in March for the town of Western. So when the vacancy is real, then we'll request the list.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you very much. Thank you, chief. Thank you. Counsel Camuso. Thank you. Councilor Penta for that, uh, that wonderful, uh, resolution and on the motion of Councilor Penta for approval. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion passes. Item number 15-030, be it resolved, offered by Councilor Caraviello, be it resolved that the city look into installing a flashing light and repaint the crosswalk at Le Conte Rink in the matter of public safety. Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, I received several calls from parents at Le Conte Rink. A, you know, they're talking about the lighting coming out of the rink is poor. But when you're crossing the street there, the crosswalk has either been washed here or either been worn away. But there's no flashing light. You've got to remember, you've got people going to the condos and the apartments now. There's no flashing light to tell people that this kid's coming out of there. So if the mayor or whoever's in charge can look into maybe putting a flashing sign there. And I didn't have it on here, but if you look into putting a light outside the rink, because it is dark out there, and repainting the sidewalk.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you for looking into that, Councilor. Could you just amend that, Mr. Clerk, that exterior lighting also be added at the rink site for the matter of public safety? On the motion of Councilor Caraviello, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Carries. 15-030 offered by Councilor Caraviello. Be it resolved that the City Council discuss the ongoing problem at 56 Boynton Road and what can be done to address the problem. Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. President, can I ask that this be tabled until next week? I know some people had come here to speak on this tonight and when they thought I wasn't coming. If we could table this until next week, I'd appreciate it.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Caraviello, that item number 15-031 be tabled. All those in favor? All those opposed? Item is tabled. 15-035 offered by Councilor Caraviello. Be it resolved that the council request from Hallmark Health an update on the proposed merger with Partners Health in light of the current statements made by Attorney General Mara Healy. Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you again, Mr. President. Mr. President, I put this in before the announcement was made by the court against the merger with Partners. If possible, if the council could request someone from partners to come here to address us and over what the next step is and what their plans are. Someone from partners? Either partners or Hallmark or both. Yes. That is an integral project. Then I, for what I understand, Mr. Sack resigned today, is retiring today.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So, and he's the president of Hallmark Health. Yes.
[Richard Caraviello]: So I say, if, so if, if, if we could get some direction on where this, um, this is going with all the action over the last, uh, last week, basically, cause this is, this is, you know, the hospital is, is a strong part of this community. And, um, I think we need to know where it's going.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes, because their concern, their whole concern around this was the future solvency of the hospital. So, Mr. Clerk, if you could amend that, uh, that a representative of Hallmark Health address the council and update them on their next steps, uh, given, uh, that the, uh, courts have, uh, uh, ordered that, uh, uh, the efforts be, uh, ceased. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Um, thank you. Uh, I thank Councilor Caraviello. Uh, we had a discussion on this earlier this week as it relates to this. Uh, I, I think it would be equally as important to have somebody here from, uh, Maura Haley's office as well. This was a 48 page decision. And I think it would be, you know, this council's been on top of this since day one. We've involved ourselves. We've had health partners, folks here. We had Mr. Sachs here a couple of times, whether he agreed or disagreed, what his comments were. At least they were there. There was a public, two public forums. But the key is not because of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital or the Melrose Lakeville Hospital. The key to this whole story is the one down the South Shore. And that was the telling sign. I have some of the documents that she has issued, Maura Healy, but I think it would be important to have somebody here because I believe that there are other options available to the Lawrence Memorial Hospital. It may not be as great as what Partners was going to offer, but I think something like that needs to be addressed. Also, the fact that not only did Mr. Sack retire when we were told that he was going to continue on and be in charge of the Melrose-Wakefield, no matter what happened to this situation here, So I think there needs to be some information, Rick, on why he retired so suddenly, you know, and you would hope it's not a million dollar balloon payout because they didn't get their way. I mean, and who's going to be left holding the bag here is going to be all the patients and the doctors and the nurses that don't have an opportunity to go to that hospital or won't have an opportunity to go to that hospital. And as we saw the amount of money that's being infused into the Melrose Wakefield Hospital, it's a pittance compared to what's taking place over here at the Lawrence Memorial. So, unfortunately, I think we're at the tail end of the stick on this one here. But putting that aside, I think the other part of the story is I respectfully request that somebody from Maura Healey's office be here. And I think to have them all here at the same time to explain it would make a lot — would make sense.
[Fred Dello Russo]: The President. So amended by Councilor Penter that a representative from the Attorney General's office be present. Councilor Knight is next.
[Adam Knight]: Yes, Mr. President. I, too, agree with Councilor Penter in terms of We need to get a little bit better understanding as to where our new Attorney General is coming from in regard to her approach. And again, there's been litigation, ongoing litigation, so I think that it would make sense maybe for us to let the lawyers do the lawyering, provide us with some information, and let us make informed decisions thereafter, Mr. President. But I think at this point in time, the position of the Attorney General is very, very important to this body and to the community. In terms of Mr. Sachs and his retirement, I wish him the best. I hope that he goes on to have a great, great, great retirement and enjoy the sunny beaches of Florida or wherever it is he may end up. Yes, indeed. Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Yes, what the attorney didn't say is that this is not the Attorney General's office right now. This was a decision of the Suffolk Superior Court. The 48-page document that Councilor Penta refers to is a ruling of the court. So I think we should actually get that ruling first, have our city solicitor go over it. And quite honestly, in the press release from the Attorney General's office, it appeared that there might be some conversations going forward that Hallmark Health may be able to work out an arrangement, possibly, if it's set aside from the three hospitals. So I just think it's very, we have to be very clear. The Attorney General had made a comment, but her comments were prior to the decision of the Suffolk Superior Court Judge. So if we could get that and send it to our legal counsel to look over, because as Councilor Caraviello stated, This is something that's going to have a long-term detrimental effect on our community if that place was to shut down due to a merger not taking place. And that's jobs. That's a major piece of land in our community. So we have to be ahead of this, Mr. President. And if Hallmark Health, if Lawrence Memorial has to start negotiations with Beth Israel or someone else, then so be it. But we all know that the Leahy merged with Winchester most recently. So I think we have to worry about Lawrence Memorial Hospital and not so much the Hallmark Health on the South Shore, because the people in Melrose right now aren't concerned about Medford. So we have to urge Hallmark Health to look at any and all avenues to keep a hospital afloat here in our community. And as I said, whether it's Beth Israel, whether it's Tufts Medical Center, And the Brigham and Women's, as we know, has the affiliation with the South Shore Hospital. The Mass General, which is the other part of Partners, was doing the affiliation out here. And in their political structure, the Mass General is sort of the king, has a little bit more at the table, I would say, in the boardroom than the Brigham and Women's does. So we got to just make sure that Lawrence Memorial Hospital is looked at, excuse me, by Hallmark Health. for any and all options that are out there. I think, as a community, we can't just say that we back that merger. We have to see what other opportunities there are out there. So I'd like to get the city solicitor to look at the opinion and then ask Hallmark Health specifically if they have any plans for the Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Because quite honestly, I'm not concerned about Melrose. I'm not concerned about uh, South shore. And when you look at the elected officials that supported this merger and some that didn't, it appears it was all upon where programs were going within the hospital. The senators out of Lynn were against the merger because it would have affected the Lynn facility would have got programs that they may not have wanted that would have been moved from Melrose Wakefield and things of that nature. So I think we have to look at the piece of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital and not Hallmark Health as a whole.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Camuso. So on the main motion by Councilor Caraviello, amended by Councilors Caraviello, Penta, and Camuso. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Picking up on what Councilor Camuso just alluded to, the fact of the matter is that I believe it was Mara Healy, her position was integrated with a host of other hospitals, presidents and executives from other hospitals, who said that this competition would be devastating to them It would put partners in such a position that they would have some kind of a control that would take years and years and years to overcome. Also, there was no proven fact that the rates would go down as partners said that they would. And apparently, the documents that were submitted by these other executives from these other hospitals were enough to tantalize, let's put it this way, Maury Haley to the point of saying, hey, I'm not going to do it. But also, she did indicate that if this went through, she was going to sue the judge because of the decision that she made, and she felt as a result of that. Now, whether you agree or disagree with Maura Healy and why she's doing what she did, I don't think we can answer that. I think we'll have a better understanding when all the parties are here and they can tell us what their reasoning is and what their reasoning isn't going to be. I think Lawrence is the low man on the totem pole of all of this. There was the South Shore Hospital first, then it's the Melrose-Wakefield, and they're going to be taken care of, and it's us. But I believe that there is a game plan. I believe that there is a game plan. may not be as grandiose as they would have liked with partners coming on. In the 48-page decision that the judge wrote, she did say that there was a belief that the rising cost would be an estimated $50 million a year because of this merger. And because of this merger and the $50 million, and because of the opposition from other hospital executives and presidents, I believe that that probably weighed pretty heavily on making the judge make the decision or to judge making her decision after knowing what Maura Healey was going to do, if, in fact, she did pass it. So.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. Regarding the meeting that this council wants to hold with the Attorney General's office and also a representative from Lawrence Memorial Hospital or Hallmark Health, I would ask Alan McDonald, who I believe is second in command at Hallmark Health has appeared before this council a number of times, and I would ask that we invite him in particular. And also, we invite the mayor or someone from the administration to be present at this meeting, because the mayor has the same vested interest of the health of Moss Memorial Hospital. And I read some of the opinion, and from what I gather, One of the chief complaints was the fact that they believed if partners were to take over Hallmark Health, that partners would be able to control the rates. And we all know that right away, insurance companies, who is really the thousand-pound elephant in the room, it's not the hospitals, it's the insurance companies, they're the ones that are driving the conversation. And their fear is that if partners gain more of a control over the health industry in Massachusetts, that partners would be able to have more say at the table and increase rates and so forth. And I just think that, as I mentioned before, I actually work for Mass General. And in my opinion, implementing and bringing world-renowned physicians into a local hospital was a win-win for every resident in this community when you're talking about bringing top cardiac doctors into Lawrence Memorial Hospital, top primary care doctors, doctors across all specialties that would be coming and merging into Lawrence Memorial Hospital, as well as Melrose-Wakefield, was a win-win for Lawrence Memorial Hospital. And I'm very fearful of its future with this particular opinion and the ruling that was, as Councilor Camuso mentioned. And I think we should have a meeting sooner than later, Mr. President. Hallmark Health, where this is so recent, is probably not going to go on the record stating what their next step is, because I think it was asked by — I think it might have been Councilor Knight when Hallmark Health was up here and said, you know, this is plan A. Do you have a plan B? And Mr. — President Sack from Hallmark Health said, no, we just have a plan A. This is our plan. And where this is so recent, I'm not sure if they're going to share any information, I think it's incumbent upon us as a council and also the administration to push back and find out what's going on with the hospital because, in my opinion, from hearing from President Sack, I'm not sure how much Lawrence Memorial or Hallmark as an organization can sustain their operations and the capacity they're doing currently. And that worries me for urgent care in our community and things that many residents and seniors have become accustomed to may no longer be in their back doorstep. And that concerns me, Mr. President. So I would ask that, uh, this, uh, meeting, if not an emergency meeting, but something take place, uh, immediately, uh, regarding this.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Counsel Mark. So on the main motion of Councilor care of yellow amended by Councilor care of yellow, Councilor Penta, Councilor Camuso, and Councilor Martz. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes. Offered by Councilor Caraviello, 15-036, be it resolved the city, the council request the building department to provide the status of the property on Salem Street that was destroyed in a fire several years ago. Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you again, Mr. President. A couple of weeks ago, we were discussing in Squarehead And this came up about the building that was destroyed by a fire, what, maybe four, five, six years ago? And it's laid vacant for all this time, and it's a blight to that square. And I'd like to know what our building department is doing to either resolve it or, because I know there's a timeframe in which they have to rebuild something there. So I would like to get a, something back from the building department over what the status of that property is. And if there is no status, to have the solicitor look into either taking the property, because I think we have sort of a lien where the city can take the property, because it's a lot better than a condition. And I say, there's no reason why that property needs to be like that. Commercial property in the city is very desirable. And there's three, four, five stores there. that's striking down that whole square. So if the building department can have some kind of, or the city solicitor send us a report on what's happening with that property.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Caffarello. Councilor Camuso, did you want to speak on this?
[Q7cD9OP2TNA_SPEAKER_04]: No, sir.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Camuso. Councilor, Vice President Blanco-Curran.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. We did speak about this last week, and I can't remember if we motioned to send a request to the health department as well. to go in and check out the site and report back to the council, see if there's anything we can do through the health department. Because I agree with you, Councilor Caraviello, it is an eyesore. It is bringing down the neighborhood. But I also believe there's some health concerns that are going on, not only with that storefront, but I'm sure the whole block. Because I don't believe it's been cleaned up, and that is going to leak into the businesses to the right and left of that storefront. So I'd ask that Karen Rose from the health department to inspect and report back to the council, and that the proper steps are taken by the city to clean that up and move it forward. That landlord should have to clean that establishment up.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Lungo-Koehn. And that paper is amended by Councilor, Vice President Lungo-Koehn. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Are there any, maybe you should also refer this to the Office of Community Development to find out if there's any proposed that's being scheduled for that area. Councilor Knight just alluded to something for which we all agreed upon on Locust Street. And you know, maybe it's always a sad situation, but maybe because of this building, it could stop the redevelopment of that particular area as it relates to, you know, where they're going, storefront signs, designs, sidewalks, and a whole host of other businesses that are down there. So I'd like to refer that to the OCD office as well to see if they might have a review on this particular subject matter.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Council Penta to amend the paper to additionally refer it to the OCD office, Councilor Marks.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. And I actually brought up the Foodmaster, actually the old Foodmaster, now the Stop and Shop parking lot on Salem Street, and also mentioned this particular establishment that caught on fire well over two years ago. I believe it was called the Lucky Dragon, But needless to say, Mr. President, you know, I think it's probably appropriate time now to have a roundtable discussion on our downtown business districts, and that would include all five business districts. You know, we've been discussing and the mayor has been discussing the revitalization of our major business district, Medford Square, for the past 28 years. And if anything, there are more vacant storefronts now than existed when he took office. And, in my opinion, Mr. President, I don't see any activity being done in any of our business districts to make them more of a welcoming area to try to attract newer businesses into the community. Surrounding communities are offering tax incentives to local businesses and small businesses to attract them. They're trying to attract a variety of business So you just don't have, you know, all of one particular business or two different type of businesses. That makes it more attractive for people that want to come in and traverse the downtown business districts. A few months ago, I offered a resolution to look at the transportation shelter across from the CVS on Riverside Ave. We got a response back from the administration saying they'll take it under advisement. which is, in my opinion, unacceptable, Mr. President. That particular shelter definitely could be reused for another purpose in our community, whether it be for arts or whether it be for retail or whether it be an inviting place to attract people. When they did the square of the revitalization plan in the square many years back, One of the omissions that was mentioned in the report was the fact that there are no gathering areas in our downtown business district. And there's not a place where you can sit down and have a cup of coffee and relax in an outdoor setting. And that was one of the big downsides on our square. And there was discussion about widening our sidewalks, adding more benches, and doing a number of things in our business districts. And I saw that particular reuse of that transportation shelter, which is crumbling right now. The roof is in need of a roof. The gutters are missing. The paint's peeling off the side. It's really not being used at all right now. And the repurposing of that for another use could have an area where we could have people that would come and sit down and turn it into a vibrant area rather than something that's currently neglected. But it's long overdue in this community, Mr. President. We need to sit down with this administration. The mayor controls the Office of Community Development. And in my opinion, you know, I don't want to be critical of anyone in particular, but in my opinion, that department is sorely understaffed and is not serving the purpose of a community development office like I see happening in other communities. And it's about time, if we're interested in Revitalizing, Councilor Caraviello is interested in Salem Street. He brings up the Haines Square area. But we have to look at the hillside. We have to look at South Medford, West Medford, Medford Square. We have to look at every particular area, Mr. President, in the square. And we have to have a game plan. There is no, when we were talking about capital improvements a few years back, the one thing that was lacking was there was no vision. There was never a capital improvement plan established in this community. And we're seeing the same with our business districts. There is no plan to revitalize our squares. And, you know, we can refer back to the mayor's three proposals for revitalizing Method Square, but none of them have made it out of infancy. They're all still in the baby carriage, and they never make it any further than that. And every so often, people get upset and say, what's going on in our squares? I see all these vacancies. After 7 o'clock, the square's dead. And all you need to do is look around other communities and see what Wakefield's doing, see what Redding's doing, see what Stoneham's doing, see what downtown Woburn's doing in areas that before, you know, really weren't, you know, bustling. Now we're bustling. And here we are five minutes from Boston off of Major 93, and our square is dead, Mr. President. It really is a shame. And I know there's a group of residents that have organized around this issue. I'm hoping they step forward and bring this to light. But I don't think we can afford to sit around any longer and discuss a possible Peace Garden or a water taxi as the solve-all for Method Square. You know, once we bring in a water taxi, all of a sudden the square is going to be bustling. Or once the Peace Garden comes in, it's going to attract people into the square. I don't think that's going to be the case. This is not the field of dreams. If you build it, they'll come. In my opinion, the city's going to have to step forward, do some legwork in the issue. It's not going to just happen. We have three large parcels of land in our downtown business district. Any other community would die to have that, Mr. President. We own the property. We don't have to go in by eminent domain. We don't have to do anything. That's our property. We can revitalize that on our own. And these parcels have been sitting there vacant for years and years and years. I just don't know what it's going to take, Mr. President. And, you know, I'm sorry for being long-winded. But this business districts in the community is the lifeline. You know, we talk about different things that are the lifeline of a community. The downtown business districts are a lifeline. Your property value is directly related to how well the schools do, and also the business community. And right now, our business community is not doing well, Mr. President. It's not doing well, and we need to step up. And I'm hoping we can have, and I'd like to put it to a vote tonight, Mr. President, a roundtable discussion regarding the revitalization of all five business districts in our community with the administration, with the Office of Community Development, and with whoever else wants to sit down at the table, and with this council, Mr. President, and discuss the future of our business districts. So I put that in the form of a motion, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Amended by Councilor Markson, if I can just add from the chair. Councilor, that of the only two items that I did submit when we listed our priorities for the beginning of this elected term, one was for the police station and the second was for the economic redevelopment plan for the commercial districts. So you're right on target, Councilor. Point of information, Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Question. Do you want these for all in together or do you want to do them independently? Because each square is different to each other.
[Michael Marks]: I'm not looking for a plan that's going to encompass all the business districts. What I want to do is start the dialogue with this roundtable discussion. And I don't think we can paint a picture of business. You're right. Every square is individual and has its own needs and wants. And I think we just need to start the discussion. And I agree with the President that an economic development plan is a great start, but it has to be started somewhere. and I don't see it being done on the administration side.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you, councillors. Councilor Knight. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much, Councilor Marks, for initiating a discussion on Medford Square. One of the things that you said was that, you know, the value of our homes is directly tied to the success of our schools and the success of our downtown business districts. And I think another thing that's important to point out is that the value of our homes is also tied to location, location, location, and we're in a great location. Medford Square is a great location. And as Councilor Mark said, you know, we have two parcels of land that are underdeveloped down there. We have great access to public transit in Medford Square, but we have no people there. And I think that it might make sense for us to maybe take a look at integrating some affordable housing or some moderate to low-income housing down in the area to actually put people in the square so that when these businesses do open and if we do get an economic development plan in place, and we start to generate new businesses, we actually have people that are going to go shop there. And they can do so by walking there. They can do so by riding their bikes there. They can do so by using alternative modes of transportation other than their vehicle, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. So on the paper offered by Councilor Caraviello as amended by Councilor Penter and Lungo-Koehn, I'm sorry, and Councilor Marks. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. We have Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Thank you. If I may, we like to move suspension of the rules before a gentleman that would like to address this honorable body.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Motion for suspension of the rules for the citizen to address the body on this one particular topic, which will be made known to us when he speaks. I think it's a condolence. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries.
[Robert Cappucci]: Sir, state your name and address for the record, please. Robert Cappucci of 71 Evans Street. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor Camuso. Today at the Immaculate Conception in Malden, I just want to ask maybe for a moment of silence if we could. There were almost 100 priests, at least a dozen bishops, His Eminence Cardinal Sean, and the pastor of St. Raphael's, Father Toomey, who gave the homily. for the passing of Father Richard Meem, who was the pastor at Immaculate Conception Malden. I also want to thank Council President Dello Russo for coming last night to his wake, and his Honor the Mayor, who both came, Michael McGlynn, to the wake and to the funeral services today. It was a real boost to the family to have those dignitaries from Medford come I am a member of the Immaculate Conception Parish, as are many people in Medford. So Father Meem had a very big impact on our community. As a Knight of Columbus there, Father Meem was constantly coming to the meetings. He was a man of true character. When Father Meem started succumbing to his illness at the beginning of last week on Monday, I actually saw Cardinal Sean at an assembly in Faneuil Hall two Sundays ago. And I said, Your Eminence, if you please would say a prayer for Father Meem. He's taken ill. And apparently, the prayer was answered with God calling him home to go on to be with God. But the next day, when it was clear that Father Meem was unfortunately going to pass, Cardinal Sean, this is just a testament to Father Meem's character. Cardinal Sean went to visit him to inform him. I mean, his whole family around him, the man saw all his friends. He knew people were very, very morose because a loving family member and a good friend was dying. Cardinal Sean informed him that his Holy Father, the Pope in Rome, had elevated Father Mime to Monsignor. And this is a true testament to his character, his response was, well, it's about time. And they all, I mean, here's a man who immediately relieves the morosity of the situation for his family and friends. And it was just such a wonderful homily today by Father Toomey of St. Raphael's. And if I could, I could please, I mean, a lot of folks in Medford would love probably to have just a brief moment of silence. And thank you so much, Councilor Camuso.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. And if I could, from the chair, say that Monsignor Meem was a wonderful, among all his other qualities, he was an outstanding preacher. He knew how to preach the word of God. We have two other condolences that we're going to mention.
[Robert Cappucci]: If I could just add to really quick that our own city solicitor, Mark Rumley, who's the deacon of our parish too, was also very comforting and inhaling at a time of serious grief. And I want to thank him for his outstanding leader as a spiritual leader in my parish and church. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Mr. Capucci. We also have two condolences in addition to this, two offered for the same person, one by Councilor Caraviello 15-037, be it resolved that the council offers sincere condolences to the family of Medford High School Red Sox and Yankee pitcher, Bill Monboquette on his recent passing, and also offered by Councilor Penta, 15-038, be it resolved that an expression of sympathy be extended to the family of Medford baseball great Bill Monboquette on his recent passing, and that all Medford sports teams and their players recognize the wonderful accomplishment that he accomplished at a time when playing for a professional major league baseball team and achieving his baseball statistics certainly made Medford proud. Do we want either of you to speak on this? Yes, Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: The recent passing of Bill Mumbo-Katt here in the city of Medford, I think really highlights the fact that he is somewhat of a baseball legend, probably. Medford has been blessed with many, many baseball players, but this gentleman did it at a time back in the early 50s when he was practicing with a fellow by the name of Gus Hennessey. And they would go down and play Stead Park continuously. And he would just pitch to them and pitch to them and pitch to them. And eventually, he finally made it. But he made it in a time and a period. Eddie Finn, you remember this. He made it in a time that there was only eight professional baseball teams in either seat. Now there's 32. But there was only eight American League teams, eight National League teams. And it was tough. And when he went into the minors, he just didn't come up right away. He had to earn his spot. And he has a very interesting baseball career. But one of his real major accomplishments, and I don't even think he realized it until it happened, they were playing against the Washington Senators on a particular night. And I believe he had struck out 17 baseball, 17 players. And the coach of the Washington Senators, his name was William McCauley, came up to him toward the end of the game. And somebody wants to talk to him. The president wants to talk to him. That's the terminology. The president wants to talk to him. And he thought it was the president of the baseball team or the president of the league and this and that. But it was Dwight Eisenhower. And Dwight Eisenhower was so impressed with him that he wanted a ball signed by him. And when the president asked him, where did you come from? And he says, Meffa. Meffa. And it was sort of like, and he says, why do all you people down there talk like that? I mean, what do you? And it was kind of like, it was a cool situation. But the night he threw his no-hitter in Chicago on August 1, 1962 against a veteran, a very good veteran pitcher, early win. That was a real highlight here in the city of Medford. No one had ever thrown a, no one ever came from Medford to throw it. And if I have my story correctly, I believe when he came back to Medford at that time, engine six drove him, picked him up and gave him somewhat of a mini parade here in the city of Medford, acknowledging the fact that who he was and how he was, you know, he was an all-star pitcher for the all-star teams for years. He played professional, he pitched professional baseball for 11 years between the Red Sox and the Yankees. And I guess his ending comment, which I happened to notice, and I'm glad that they printed it in the local press, he made the comment that he loved playing baseball so much that he would have played for nothing. And if people only would realize what that would mean to today's kids that are playing professional sports, okay? They're into the millions and millions of dollars. I believe when he was pitching, the year he threw the no-hitter, he was making $8,000, and I believe they offered him up to 12. the following year. And that's just craziness for money back then. And if you look at him today, what his statistics would have been and what he could have probably earned, it's probably just unfathomable. But it's baseball as it was then. That's what they paid. That's what it was all about. But I think it would be a great opportunity for the Medford sports kids to know that this fellow grew up here in the city of Medford. He worked this thing into the ground. He played it. He loved it. He used to come back and watch Medford High Baseball. He used to come back because of family members at Medford High School Hockey. He just really was a true gentleman to the sport. He wasn't flamboyant or anything like that. He was just a regular guy who just proved here in the city of Medford and any place else in this country, if you work hard enough at something that you want, it'd be great by today's standards. I mean, like I said, I had a whole list of 32 names of people who made professional sports through the minor leagues. But this guy made it in the majors. And he made it in such a way that nobody expected to happen. And he just made the city of Medford so proud to know that, you know, he could accomplish what he did for the city of Medford, for professional baseball, because he loved it. And like he said, he would have done it for nothing. And you know something? He probably did play for nothing, because that's how much he really loved the sport. And to his wife, Josephine, and the family, you know, you can be very proud of the fact that you had a great husband. who did the city of Medford proud, and you did him proud as well. So with that being said, Mr. President, I'd like to pass that on. Thank you, Mr. Councilor. Councilor Knight?
[Adam Knight]: Yes, Mr. President. I'd like to thank both Councilors Caraviello and Penta for bringing this resolution forward. I think it's important to point out for those of us at home who would like to maybe understand Mr. Mombo-Kett's story a little bit better, that it is memorialized down at Placed at Park, right behind home plate. There is a plaque down there that speaks about his achievements and his professional achievements, but also his personal achievements and what he's done in the community of Medford to improve our quality of life here and to improve the lives of young athletes in the city, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor Knight. Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. My dad was a good friend of Bill Maumbo-Katt. They grew up in the same neighborhood. In fact, I know this sounds corny, but the first baseball game I went to, my dad took me with tickets that Bill Maumbo-Katt had given him. And I got to go down on the field and meet him, you know, caught him on a graph ball. And, you know, I just wanted to say, you know, he was a good guy. I'd see him all the time down at Dickey's gas station, getting gas all the time. Always asked my dad all the time. And I'd like to wish the family well. Thank you.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I remember when they had the dedication down at Placed at Park some many years ago. That was the first time I met Bill Mumbo-Katt. And out of all the accolades, as Councilor Penter alluded to, no hitter and all-star league named and so forth, the one thing that stands out to me was his commitment to local youth. And he never looked for any fanfare, never looked for any recognition, but he'd always be at certain events, Mr. President. And, you know, And I think it meant a lot, even though the younger kids, you know, you hear the name and you could tell them who he was, you know, really could never appreciate that this man was, in his time, was someone that was really looked up to and someone that was at the top of his game, at the top of his sport, never had anything negative mentioned about him. In today's day and age, when you hear about sports players, there's always something mentioned after the name. And with Bill Mumbo, you never got that. As Councilor Penta mentioned and the other councilors, he was a stand-up gentleman, a family man, and again, gave so much back to a community that he loved so much. And I'll always remember him for being part of the local youth in this community.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. Next, offered by Councilor Penta, be it resolved that an expression of sympathy be extended to the family and friends of Stephen Brown, on his recent passing. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: He was a real personal friend of mine. I worked with him for many years. Unfortunately, he passed away. He has a wonderful family, Sharon, Sam, Sawyer. And this is a tough one, because sometimes when life pops up in front of you and things happen, you just sometimes you don't know what to say or how to react to it. He loved the outdoors. He was great with the kids. He was a coach. He was a great family man. But for whatever the reason that God decided to say, this is your time, so be it. But I would just like to let them know, and the Brown family, that their thoughts are at least with us. He was a good guy. He comes from a good family. His wife, Sharon, Sam Sawyer. I don't know what to say other than the fact that he was, you know, it was, it's one of these times in your life that something happens and you just can't explain it. And, um, but I'm not going to try to explain it right now. Other than the saying, I just wish the family well at this time. We all thank you.
[Paul Camuso]: Councilor Camuso. Thank you, Mr. President. And, uh, Steven was also a great personal friend of mine. Uh, just a great guy. And, uh, as we all know, his family goes back, uh, 50 years of public service. whether it was his dad, Frank, working for the Sheriff's Department back as a superintendent in the 1980s and the 70s, his mom, Roberta, who still works here part-time and does a fabulous job, his brother, Frank. He's also with the MBTA. Just a great, great, great family. And Stephen will be sorely missed around the baseball field and just around the community in general. Just always had a smile on his face, outstanding personality, and just a great family man. want to send my condolences as well.
[Robert Penta]: I apologize. He had three kids. I kept mentioning, I think I only said it too. It's Sam Sawyer and Sarah. It's Sarah, Sam and Sam. Wow. Sam, Sarah and Sawyer. I'm sorry.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Uh, we have two more condolences given to us, both, uh, uh, by councilor Camuso. Um, be it resolved that the Medford City Council send its sincere condolences to the family of former Medford Recreation Department director Frank Sonny Salido on his recent passing and also be it resolved that the Medford City Council send its condolences to the family of Gene Irwin who passed away recently. Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: If I may, many of us that enjoyed the Park League when we were kids as Councilor Lungo was champion for it for many, many years, When we were kids, the director, well, I'm a couple years older than Counsel Lungo, but the director when I was a kid growing up was Mr. Salido. Just a great guy, and then I'd often spend time with him after, later in life, I'd be visiting my dad's grave up at Oak Grove Cemetery, and Mrs. Salido was right across the way in the little island there. And he was always, always up there, as we all know, just a great guy. and another dedicated public servant here in our community that will be sorely missed. Mrs. Irwin. We all know Honorable Justice Irwin that passed away a few years ago. Another outstanding family here in our community. Ann Marie Callahan is still here in Medford with her loving husband, Brian. And just a great family. And she passed away this past week as well. So if we could just keep them in our thoughts and prayers and send them a condolence on behalf of the Medford City Council. If we could all stand for a moment of silence for all these people near and dear to Medford.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Quick announcement, if I can. I hope all the councilors got this. An invitation from the development group Regarding the former Malden Hospital property was extended to the Councilors. They've mailed and invited and have been working for some weeks now with the Medford Butters up there as well as the Malden Butters. This process is still in its infancy. There's no commitment yet on anything. They want to know what the community feels. And since the major portion of this, uh, is in Malden of this development and it will require, um, perhaps some amendments to Malden zoning, uh, regulations. Uh, that's why they're, they've been spending more time with Malden to see where it goes with them before they speak to Medford. With Medford, it's not as it seems this way right now, there's not going to be, much of any construction on Medford, there will be impact of course, but, uh, uh, the wooded area is going to be preserved, but they, uh, extend the invitation to the Councilors and the citizens, uh, so we can, uh, all be up to date. And when the time comes for us to have meetings, uh, should this process start to move further, then, uh, that, that opportunity will present itself and we'll be on the forefront of that, uh, as, uh, Councilors, protecting the interests of providers up there.
[Paul Camuso]: Councilor Penta, Councilor Camuso. Thank you, Mr. President. If I just very briefly on this, I'm actually glad to see this development taking place. And the reason I say that is we have to make sure that the Medford's neighborhood is protected, but that hospital has always concerned me of a not so good development or facility taking place up there because it's actually in a Medford residential neighborhood. practically more than Malden. And to echo some of my sentiments from earlier when we were talking about the Lawrence Memorial Hospital and potentially having a vacant piece of property and something not so nice for a neighbourhood to come in, and by speaking with this gentleman for the past six months or so, the developer, in meeting with neighbours, I really believe that they're committed to making sure that this is done in a way that it's respectful of the Medford neighbourhood I know Councilor Marks put a paper on before, I believe it was you Councilor Marks, correct me if I'm wrong, to install some sort of a structure up there so it will not be a cut through. So this council has been proactive on this since it first started, but I also very much respect the development and where they do have to go in front of Malden before coming to Medford. It would be similar to us doing a development and the developer goes to Somerville before he has has the time to come before the Medford City Council or the Medford Zoning Board. So if the zoning and stuff isn't approved over there, then this is going nowhere. And it's basically moot on the Medford portion. And just for the viewing public, I know the neighbors were very concerned, and there's a great group of neighbors right up there on Lund Road and that whole surrounding area, that they legally have to be notified of any zoning changes even if it's across city lines, if they're within the boundaries of what's called for by law. I specifically checked that out during a neighborhood meeting up there with our city solicitor. So anyone that thinks that the zoning laws don't apply because it's on the other side of the town or city border, that is incorrect. And so we will have a seat at the table at the appropriate time. And Council President Dello Russo, I know you've been working on this. very hot as well as I was when I was sitting in your seat. So, look forward to upcoming meetings. And thank you for keeping us abreast and getting the developer at the table. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you for your reference previously to Councilor Camuso because it was what you started that I picked up. Councilor Penta wanted to speak on this?
[Robert Penta]: Yeah, during the last snowstorm, not this one, the first one, We're all snowbound in.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We're in a perpetual snowstorm for the next couple of weeks.
[Robert Penta]: Yeah, well, the first day of the first storm. Let's put it that way. I received a phone call from one of the president managing partners. And I had about a half hour conversation with him. He indicated to me that they are going to have five houses on the Medford side. There are going to be five houses. And with those five houses, I always said, I don't care what you're doing in Malden. I'm more concerned of what's going to happen here in Medford, its effect, and how this is going to play out. So he is concerned. He is aware of the fact. that there was a concern because of the five houses. So I don't think, again, from my conversation, my take was, I don't think there's been that much involvement between the city and him, other than the fact that they're having this meeting. Nothing is definitive, but at the same time, they are aware that these five houses, which are less than what the original amount was gonna be, I believe it was either, I think it was nine, I don't think the original number was. Seven, was it? Seven, so it's down to five, but there's. Right. So as a result of that, um, he is aware of the fact that Medford has a game, you know, a stake in this game and, and, uh, is that tomorrow night?
[Fred Dello Russo]: It's tomorrow night at 5 30. And, uh, what is the location of that? I can't BB school. All right. So it's, it's worth for the neighbors going, uh, they've all been invited, uh, those within the, uh, 300 mile range, whatever, 300 yards, 300 feet. And, uh, And we're warmly invited as well. And these people who, the developers are listening. So this isn't going to go far if they don't, if they don't feel welcome. So, so they mature about it. Thank you for all of that. We, Councilor Marksley, you wanted to speak on this?
[Michael Marks]: Just if I could, Mr. President, the last meeting that was held at the BB Junior High, the concerns I got from local residents was that The room was filled with 95% Malden residents and the few Method residents that took the time to go up, a lot of their issues were dismissed. And that is a concern of mine. And when I brought up the issue back, I believe it was two months ago, I asked that the city administration take a lead role in this on notification, which residents weren't notified of the first meeting, They found out through just some local talk. And secondly, Mr. President, this council voted unanimously to put some type of barrier or arm on the Medford side of Lund Road, where the entrance is. And I don't think we got a response back. I don't remember receiving a response back. I know the chief was in support of making sure that that wasn't open to access traffic. Emergency vehicle, yes. but not as a cut-through for access traffic. So, you know, I'd like to get a response back from the administration on that, Mr. President. And I also just read recently that the homes that were anticipated that were going to be on the Medford side are all gone now. There is no plans for homes on the Medford side at all. So, I think that's a little different than what Councilor Penta just mentioned. I know we had a conversation as that gentleman reached out to all of us, but I just recently read that Methodists not going to have any building at all on our side. And they were going to honor the buffer, the wooded buffer along the property lines. So I just want to make sure that the city administration, I know they're having a meeting tomorrow night, but I want to make sure that the city administration is well represented there because they're supposed to be representing the residents of this community. And 530 meeting might be tough for people to make it to. And we should know that there's someone fighting on our behalf, whether it's the community development director, the mayor himself, the building department, someone from the administration or several people should be there, Mr. President also. So I would have that as a, as part of this motion that, um, you know, I appreciate we were invited, but also the administration should be well represented.
[Fred Dello Russo]: There's no motion before us, but we will send a communicate, uh, to the city administration tomorrow morning, Mr. Clerk, uh, expressing to them our desire that they represent the interest of the city of Medford at this meeting.
[Michael Marks]: And the barrier that we already voted on.
[Fred Dello Russo]: And to remind them that we've voted on a barrier that is already there?
[Michael Marks]: There's a barrier on their property. There's a barrier on their property. Is it a cement barrier, Chief, or is it, I think it's a cement barrier that's over there, but we were talking about, they can easily remove that cement barrier and we didn't want the road to be used. They're not even building it. No, the barrier itself. That could be removed. They don't need approval from the City of Medford to remove their own barrier. And once that's removed, that remains an open access road. And we wanted to prohibit that from being an open access road by building our own barrier on our side.
[Fred Dello Russo]: If you would amend that notification on behalf of Councilor Marks.
[Leo Sacco]: No, I'm sorry. I, I'm not really aware of what is there right now for a barrier. I know it used to be a fence. I'm not sure what else they may have put in place recently, but I, I believe that what should be there as some sort of a fire gate, at least at a minimum that so emergency vehicles can access the property, but it should not be used as a through way or an alternate roadway in and out of that property. We've had nothing but nightmares in the past when it was open. And that neighborhood right now is totally congested with traffic morning and afternoon. So certainly nothing more than a, than a fire gate. Some of the, so the ones you see at the DCR reservations, something that the fire department and any EMTs, anyone else can get through there easily when needed.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes. I think that the possible developers of this possible development, uh, have the message loud and clear. of what the will of the neighbors is. Thank you. Thank you. We've got one more piece here, this tower piece, if we can. Just 15-033, petition by Paul DeMello, 7 Held Circle, Medford, Mass., to address the council on cell towers. Mr. DeMello, are you present?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: No, if I may.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: If I may, I actually met with Paul DeMello last week at city hall and recommended that he wanted to speak before the council. I recommended that he go to the city clerk and put it on the issues that he's having. I'm assuming he's not here because of the issue with the snow. So I'd just like to speak in his favor. I do live in the area as well. There is a cell tower right outside his home. He went to the building department. I think he went to probably two or three other locations within City Hall. Wasn't able to find any answers. He's just looking to see, and I agree with him, who owns the cell tower? Who's responsible for it? Who in the city of Medford oversees any work that's being done on it? There is a lot of work that was being done on the cell tower in January. I'm not sure if that's continued into February. But, you know, what type of insurance do they have? We would just like to know who has ownership of the tower. No, it has been there, but the work that they've been doing is after hours and early in the morning. And cell towers, you know, just always have issues and people always are concerned with what's going on, what's being put onto the cell tower, what's being added to the cell tower. So I too would like to know, you know, who's responsible for it, what type of work is being done. I sent an email to Paul Moki, our building commissioner, probably about eight days ago, nine days ago. haven't got a response back. So if we could send a request to Paul Mulkey, I believe the building department is where we'd get our answers. I just haven't been able to get the answers yet. So I just want to speak on Mr. DiMello's behalf, because he had true concern over what was taking place at the tower. And I, too, again, live in the area. And there are a lot of people that have questions with what's going on over there. So on the motion of Councilor Lungo-Koehn, that the building department report back to the council with regards to the cell tower next to Held Circle in Medford. Who is the owner of the cell tower? Does anybody in the building department have any, you know, oversight of what goes on, what type of work is being done at that tower? And if so, if we could get the answers, what work is being done? Is there insurance?
[Paul Camuso]: Mr. President? Councilor Camuso. Thank you. I dealt with this, with the family that the tower's in front of, and this was several years ago when they bought the house. They moved out here from the north end of Boston to held circle in particular, and I don't believe that's a regular cell tower. I think it may have something to do with mass port communications in Logan Airport, but certainly that has been there for the last 20 or 30 years from when we originally looked into it. So I agree with Councilor Lungo-Koehn to at least get an update, but unfortunately, It was something that's been there. I think it might have been there prior to the development of some of the houses up there. Because I know there would have been huge public outcry at the time to put that inside a residential neighborhood. We dealt with it with some of the billboards getting switched out down on Mystic Avenue. And that's stuff that you have to be cognizant of the fact when you buy your home. And I actually said that to the person in the family that I was dealing with at the time that moved out here from Boston. You can't buy your house next to a park and then say, hey, get rid of the park. I know I used to have that argument with my grandmother at Century Street all the time. Now my cousin Joey loves having the park there. So if we could get those answers, though, it would at least alleviate some of the questions and concerns. And there's no reason, like Councilor Lungo-Koehn said, the building department should be issuing permits for when they're doing work on it, no matter who it is. And there also should be emergency contact information on the fence that goes around it. Similar to the National Grid, you drive through Burlington, And they have those huge towers that are delivering electricity. And they all say, in case of emergency, call this phone number, blah, blah, blah. That's important for after-hours emergencies and things of that nature. So I support this 100%.
[Robert Penta]: Thank you, Councilor Camuso. Councilor Penta. Quick question on this. On this cell tower that's going up, this is the one with the red beacon on the top? It's not going up. I mean, it's up. Is this the one with the red beacon that goes off? Are there other towers that, I mean, sell things on there like AT&T and Verizon, they aren't attached to that? Because if that's the case, we don't even know if they're being assessed, and that's tax revenue. So maybe we can get a further report back from the building commission to find out if- As amended, if they're producing revenue?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yeah.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And the assessor's office too. Right. Who's paying? Maybe they'll have the answer for the ownership.
[Paul Camuso]: If I remember correctly, that was what it was. One person was the owner, and maybe Massport had some equipment on it, and Verizon, and this and that. So that's a good question.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Maybe if we could ask the assessor's office with regards to who's paying the taxes on the cell tower, on Held Circle, we can get some sort of answer as to what type of ownership and start there. And then I'll look into it. I'm just not sure why the building department hasn't answered Mr. DeMello's questions, nor returned my email. So I'm curious to find out why.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes. On the motion of vice president Lungo-Koehn as amended and the chief wishes to speak.
[Leo Sacco]: I'd like to, uh, to add to that if possible, when we find out who the owner is, you know, where it's probably the highest spot in the city of Medford, maybe there may be some, uh, uh, ability for public safety to have access to those towers as well. If, if they're capable of holding additional equipment, microwave dishes, et cetera. They've been there. I know, I believe Verizon may own one of them on Murray Street, and there's another one right behind the Glenridge. And I'm not sure if, I know at one time, Harvard University owned it, and then I think Channel 7 was on there. So they're pretty huge structures, and while we're at it, let's ask them if public safety could have access to it as well. We may never use it, but it'd be nice to know if we could have that opportunity.
[Fred Dello Russo]: And so moved by Councilor Lungo-Koehn, as recommended by the Chief. Mr. Citizen.
[Robert Cappucci]: Robert Capucci, 71 Evett Street. If I could just add a request, because Councilor Camuso brought up the towers in Burlington, if it is at all possible to find out from the safety department if this tower's given off any radiation, because a lot of those towers do, that could be another public safety concern.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. It's a serious public health concern for people. On the motion of approval by Vice President Lago-Curran as amended, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. We have a few papers in hand of the clerk. Did Councilor Penta ask for suspension to discuss allow the chief and the citizen to discuss, um, updating and updating the parking program, the parking, the snow, communication, uh, to, uh, the council president Dello Russo and members of the city council from mayor Michael J McGlynn, our parking program updates and responses to a number of the questions, uh, uh, given to us. Uh, and so, uh, perhaps if the, uh, council would like to speak on them briefly and then allow the chief to address the matters. And I know there's a local shopkeeper, too, who would like to speak. He's presented us with editions, which have been duly recorded by the clerk, to his petitions.
[Robert Penta]: I'd like to hear from the gentleman, the citizen first. Thank you. He's been waiting.
[Q7cD9OP2TNA_SPEAKER_04]: Good evening. Mr. President, I'm Jimmy Spirakis from Jimmy's Pizza. I guess I bring some more pages for a lot of the residents and customers. And they again, and they're on grid with these meters. Also, we find out Friday night we have a lot of problems with customers. We give 20, 25 minutes to pick up the notice. It was busy night. They know already, so people never stay coming in, they jump out, they come back. Actually, two customers, they argument a little bit with my son. He says, I place an order in 20 minutes. He says, no ready. I says, we have a lot of orders, you know, we have to wait a little bit. He says, yeah, but I got a car up there, I don't want to put the money there, so I want to get a ticket. So, you know, Becker Ford was already three customers, we have this discussion for a night. So, and again, Mr. Chief, they come and I appreciate. They come to see in a lunchtime, it was five minutes of 12. There was not even one customer in the store. It's been spent about 20 minutes. No one. Usually lunchtime, at least we have at least about 15, 20 hours. They're going out, all customers sitting. After you leave, a customer comes all the time for roast beef. He likes the roast beef. He reads the newspaper for 10 minutes. He says, Jimmy, put it to go, because I don't want to pay money with the mirror. He says, I've got to park my car someplace down the Grove Street. He says, I can eat my sandwich and read my newspaper. It's embarrassing. I want to say, I can give you a quarter, but it's not nice to say to the customer. I mean, it really, really affects this mirror. a lot, a lot of people. And again, I got a customer for Place de Rod. He works for a post office in Arlington. He said, Jimmy, we like your food, but why should I pay money, he says, to come here? I can go, he says, down the street, no meter down the street from you, or I can go in Arlington. I have, he says, two hours parking free. After two hours, he says, I just put a quarter, regular, those all meters. He says, I don't mind to do that after if I stay over two hours. But this is ridiculous, just I have to pay for ten minutes, I have to pay money. So anybody comes, if he goes next door to the bakery, they go to the tailor, it's over and over the same thing. So I don't have any decisions, anything yet, because we're coming every week, and I don't know what is gonna happen. And really, business is very, very slow. Very slow. I can bring my receipts, I can bring my revenues from six months ago. Of course, this time of the month, you know, it's always slow after the holidays, but not really that slow. People really, I mean, they don't want to pay the money. That's all I want to say. I don't know when we're going to make any decisions in the next couple of weeks. Thank you. I appreciate it.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you very much, Mr. Jimmy. You have the chief. Chief, do you want to add anything too? We've received a written report.
[Q7cD9OP2TNA_SPEAKER_04]: I've been here, and as I said, the emirates, of course, they want to increase their revenue for Syria. And business also increased their revenue, because also, if you notice, the mills tax, 7% in Medford. And 0.75 goes to the city. The mills tax, 6.25 goes to state. And $0.75 was, you know, so now also this is going to be, we're going to lose money also because if customers goes to Winchester and we're going to go to Arlington. So it's, I don't know, nobody managed this house.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you, Jimmy. Councilor Knight. Yeah, Mr. President, I think that Mr. Spiracus makes a great point. When you look at the money that we're bringing in on meals tax, that shows almost a direct correlation as to how well our businesses in downtown are doing. So I think it might make sense for us to get some numbers in terms of what we collected pre-parking enforcement so that we can have something to compare them to at a later time so we can have a benchmark as to what business was like before parking. Then maybe we can do a 90-day review. We already have one on file. We can take a look at a 90-day review and match those numbers up with the same time last year and see exactly what the impact is. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So be it resolved by a Councilor Knight that the, uh, city, uh, a treasurer's office, uh, informed the, uh, council regarding a corollary report, 2014, 2015, uh, to update us on, uh, tax revenue on meals tax, uh, income to the city of Medford. uh, does the chief wish to, uh, speak to the council? Uh, we were given a written report updating us, so I don't, uh, certainly don't expect you to read the report at us.
[Leo Sacco]: Thank you, Mr. President. And I would hope that you wouldn't. I will not be doing that. The only issue that I wanted to present to the council and let the public know that I did receive the official word from the city solicitor, Mark Rumley, that the traffic commission within its scope and powers and duties as a traffic commission does have the power to set the time limit on the, uh, on the kiosks and in the needed enforcement. So we will have it on our agenda next Tuesday, February 10th, 2 PM, uh, to change the times instead of seven P seven AM to 7 PM. change it from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. With that, we will have that on our agenda to be voted on.
[Robert Penta]: Thank you, Chief. Councilor Penta? Chief, with all due respect to that decision that was made, the contract that was written on September 10th and then executed on October 7th with only a change of one word, both explicitly have a time zone in there of 7 to 7. The RFP that went out was 7 to 7. The three bidders that came in were 7 to 7. That's a material change to the contract. I understand what you're saying.
[Leo Sacco]: I'm going on the word of the city solicitor that it's within our power to set that time limit.
[Robert Penta]: I would think in all fairness to the other bidders and the competitors that they probably should be advised now that the city of Medford is changing. Because I don't even know if the city is opening themselves up to a lawsuit here. Because I think if I was one of the other competitors, I'd be very concerned over this. An hour in the morning, an hour at night, six days a week, that's how many hours a week? It's 12 hours of enforcement. OK. That's 12 hours that they're losing. That's 48 hours a month. Four times, that's four months out of the week. And if they all had the same opportunity to bid the same way, OK. Making all these other changes, OK. I think you can live with that. But that's a material change. That's a huge change.
[Leo Sacco]: But it's within the power of the Traffic Commission to make that change. And they can do whatever they want. We don't need to notify the other bidders. They weren't told about additional parking that was provided on the streets that we ended up putting a commuter area on the upper end of Playstead Road. That wasn't part of the spec at the time.
[Robert Penta]: But that's not as much as the material.
[Leo Sacco]: All the eyes are on this program. If those other bidders at the time want to take the city to task or go against Republic for this, then let them go at it. But the program is moving forward. We've had a few slow weeks now with the snow. So really this month, last month, and this month really is not a good gauge. There hasn't been a lot of enforcement. Absolutely has not.
[Robert Penta]: Well, they were up there today.
[Leo Sacco]: They were not citing people. They were not citing people because the snow emergency is still in effect. They cannot cite. Then where are they out there from? They were shoveling some of the kiosks.
[Robert Penta]: You bring up a good point. I hope no city employee, is helping to shovel out any of those kiosks.
[Leo Sacco]: They are not, to the best of my knowledge. That is a private company, a municipal workers' union, and that is absolutely against their— Well, I can tell you, based on the magnitude of the snowfall and the amount of city workers that are involved in trying to clear the roads, they have absolutely no time to clear this kiosk. Absolutely no time.
[Robert Penta]: Chief, there's a couple of, Mr. President, there's a couple of things I think that the taxpayers should be aware of as to what took place. I don't see anything wrong with reading them off and letting the people know what's going on, Mr. President. So if you don't want to read them, then I will read them.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Chief seven minutes, uh, Councilor Panto.
[Robert Penta]: No, this is too important an issue. Don't start with the minute thing. We did. It's too important of an issue. The council recommendations regarding 15 Oh 22. It says meters must be shut off during non-enforcement time. The answer is that the meters will read no charge parking period after hours on Sundays and federal holidays. So they're going to change the meter to do that?
[Leo Sacco]: No, the meters are already programmed for that. Actually, the meter, the kiosk that we had at the police academy when we had our first meeting, we actually tried to use that meter after 7 PM. Or actually, it was after 8 PM when the meeting ended. And it wouldn't take any money. It was shut down because the time limit was seven. And it actually said, the words that are highlighted in that document, no charge parking period. That's exactly what came up on the screen.
[Robert Penta]: Next one, it indicates that a 10 minute grace period be granted at the end of a time period. The answer is that per Republic parking, there was generally a five minute grace period from the time the vehicle takes note of expiration to the issuance of a ticket. This is due to the driver having to park his vehicle and walk to the sighted vehicle and then put information for the ticket. Now, is this for kiosks or is this for signs?
[Leo Sacco]: It would probably be for all of it, the kiosks and the signs. Well, how would you know? The fact of the matter is they have to identify the violation first. And the person could have been a violator, could have already been in violation for 5 or 10 minutes at that point when they find it. Now, they can't park. park their vehicle and come back and do the whole street. They're not just picking out one individual vehicle. They're going to scan the whole street, then come back. So what we're told by Republicans is that there's basically a minimum of a five-minute built-in grace period without coming out and officially saying that there is a five-minute or a 10-minute or anything like that.
[Robert Penta]: Two points that we had spoken about before last time was having these kiosks in front of a residential apartment or a building. The one in West Medford, we had talked about putting it by the Brookline Bank, getting rid of the kiosks and putting a 30-minute sign period from here to corner and taking the one out in front of the apartment building.
[Leo Sacco]: The snow has put a delay on any of those right now, but that may be in the works as far as the one closest to the Brookline Bank, so it takes it a little further away from the apartment building.
[Robert Penta]: Right.
[Leo Sacco]: The one that's already in front of that home a little further up. That's going to go. That will be moved. That's bagged. That's not to be used. It will be moved.
[Robert Penta]: You also have it on High Street here in Medford, right opposite the library. There's a kiosk in front of the apartment building. Makes no sense. There's a kiosk in front of the apartment building.
[Leo Sacco]: You mean the condo's 100 high? Yeah.
[Robert Penta]: Right.
[Leo Sacco]: Well, they have a parking lot. The people who park on High Street usually are business people in the square or people visiting a doctor's office, so it's not I mean, that's a large condo complex that has a parking lot for its residents. It's in the middle of the business district. So I don't think there's a problem with the kiosk where it's placed there. Because then, for that matter, we wouldn't be able to put a kiosk or a meter or any place because we have apartments above further down on High Street, 22 and 30 High Street.
[Robert Penta]: So then you would be penalizing any doctor or any emergency control type of person or a visiting nurse or somebody who doesn't have an opportunity or right to park in the building down below, not knowing about it. So if they park in front of the building, they're going to get tagged and ticketed?
[Leo Sacco]: We already said, though, that most of the visiting nurses, they have a placard or something that they place on their dashboard. I don't see it as a problem. I think that's a good spot for it. There's a lot of activity at 92 High Street, the armory building, and 84 High Street, the one that looks like the armory building. That kiosk is for that. I mean, we have one in front of the library.
[Robert Penta]: I mean, you know, you don't want to hear the story about the library right now. No.
[Leo Sacco]: Well, you know, you know, I, I, I guess the problem I'm having with this is we really have not had an opportunity to test this. You know, we're throwing stones at something that just, we haven't had an opportunity to let it run. We have not been able to do any kind of true enforcement for any extended period of time. I mean, things are out there and we're saying before we even see how they're doing or what they're doing, we're saying, let's move. I'm saying, okay, they're there. Let's see what they do. And let's feel the complaints. And if they need to be moved, they'd be moved. But to move one from in front of 100 high street, you're talking a lot of parking spaces. You're mentioning to me about that. We're going to reduce the hours from seven to seven to eight to six. If we take the meters out of there, I'm not worried about them making money. Now we're in violation of a contract provision. How do you figure that? Because we're saying there's going to be so many spaces.
[Robert Penta]: How do you figure that?
[Leo Sacco]: Because we're going to say there's so many needed spaces.
[Robert Penta]: Yeah, but they should be done intelligently.
[Leo Sacco]: Well, it goes back to what I said. I mean, we have across the city, and we've spoken about West Medford Square, the apartments above one of the businesses there. I mean, the fact of the matter is, we have apartments above business blocks everywhere. How do you justify that? Kane Square, the same thing.
[Adam Knight]: I think it might make sense that we go through the actual changes that the Traffic Commission has made prior to, you know, going through each point and making critical commentary. You know, we're talking about locations of kiosks now. We went from, we're on to item C, 10-minute grace period at the end of paid time. Now we're talking about locations of kiosks. I think we're really kind of veering off course here. The purpose of the Chief to come up here was to tell us what changes were made since the last meeting. So why don't we let the Chief explain to us what the changes were made, and then after that, we can present our questions. But maybe we can let him get through it a little bit cleaner and easier for people to understand.
[Robert Penta]: Well, you want to talk for two minutes or 43 seconds from the chair? Number three, Mr. President, um, tickets issued on January 15th and 16th to be waived. The answer is the individual has a right to appeal any ticket according to the lawful procedures. Again, I think it's totally unfair, because we all know what happened on that particular day.
[Leo Sacco]: Are you telling me that a police officer in an unmarked car could not issue a citation because people didn't recognize it as a police car? This was the whole issue that you presented, because the parking enforcement vehicles had temporary Tennessee tags, and they didn't have the lettering on them.
[Robert Penta]: Right. They had nothing on there.
[Leo Sacco]: But when they step out of the vehicle, it says Republic Parking on their jacket, or it says Parking Ambassador on the back. And they can present a ticket. I mean, they can write it. They're authorized. They're authorized, just because it's an unmarked vehicle.
[Robert Penta]: These didn't have them on their chief.
[Leo Sacco]: No, but they had Republic Parking. So the person has the right, if they wish to, appeal the ticket and say that they feel as though they were issued it wrongfully.
[Michael Marks]: I thought when we discussed this originally, these were tickets issued for parking in front of a fire hydrant, parking in a handicapped spot, And I thought this council voted to say, we're not going to eliminate any tickets, uh, for that, for that period. I understand what the council is saying about the vehicle going around and the registration and the whole, a lot of other issues that were mentioned, but, but I thought we voted against saying to waive tickets on the 15th and 16th. So I'm not quite sure why this was even on there. I thought we removed this.
[Fred Dello Russo]: I thought we removed this. Thank you for your point of information. Councilor Marks point of information.
[Adam Knight]: Councilor Knight. As I remember it, Mr. President, Mr. Nash came up and Mr. Nash says that we'll said that we'd work to waive all the tickets issued on January 15th, 16th. Um, however, if it was a handicap violation, a bus stop or a fire hydrant, that was something that they weren't willing to entertain. However, any type of kiosk violation was my understanding was with it. They were willing to live, but however, any type of violation that would be, you know, a normal infraction that necessarily wouldn't be, a creature of the parking management program wouldn't be waived. You know, if you're parking in a bus stop or a fire hydrant or something like that. That was my understanding. And I think we all did agree that those tickets would not be waived in terms of handicap or a fire hydrant.
[Leo Sacco]: Mr. President, just to follow on that, Mr. Nash was advised after the meeting also, he does not have the power to waive any tickets at any time.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Mr. Chief. And number F. The floor goes back to Councilor Panta.
[Robert Penta]: Add orange to the ticket color coded in an envelope. Republic says that they'll add orange to the ticket, but they're not going to have an envelope because it's, quote, it's sound environmental practice not to put an envelope. And that's kind of odd.
[Leo Sacco]: But they are going to color code the ticket and make it look more official, because they did take the conversation that occurred here at the council meeting. about the ticket almost looking like a register receipt from a grocery store. So at least it will be an orange ticket.
[Robert Penta]: Then it says asked to change the word from officer on ticket. And they're not going to change it. They're keeping the word officer.
[Leo Sacco]: Oh, parking enforcement officer. So it's clear what they are. It's not patrol officer. It's not Sergeant, Lieutenant, or any of that.
[Robert Penta]: Then the next one on the next page is that reflective signs be placed on both sides of the kiosk. It says Republicans in the process of ordering additional all-weather signs to affix, blah, blah, blah. The next one, that the license plate reader technology be used for the police department. Purchase. Purchase. The answer from the city. As was mentioned at the city council meeting on January 20th, 2015, the council met with Republic earlier in the month regarding this. It is currently in the process. And as soon as more detailed information is available, you'll be provided with it. What does Republic have to do with this, with you people?
[Leo Sacco]: Well, with regard to that, it's just, you know, we're getting the specs on the system that they use. And we, whatever model we go with, we want to make sure that we're able to harness their technology and utilize it. We don't want to buy a system for like, there's a number of vendors out there for license plate readers, but sometimes you can't, the two different companies won't talk to each other. So we want to make sure we get the right information, but I can tell you that process is moving forward.
[Robert Penta]: Another,
[Adam Knight]: Point of information, Councilor Knight. I also believe Mr. Nash stated when he was here that they were going to assist the City of Medford getting them at a cheaper cost because they were using their purchase power that they have because they're a national company that does this across the country so they buy more of this type of equipment. Thank you, Councilor Knight.
[Robert Penta]: On that particular matter that Councilor Knight just brings up, Councilor Caraviello and myself had the opportunity to be at the MMA meeting and when there were five vendors there, as it relates to the model and make that we have here. And I believe it was the distribution company for Republic that we were dealing with. And we got the cheapest, lowest grade model of a parking meter. So I just thought I'd let you know.
[Richard Caraviello]: Point of information, Councilor Caraviello. What Councilor Pender said, we had the opportunity to see the company that actually sold the parking meters to Republic. And while we were there, they actually have, it's the same kiosk, with a different interface, with a white screen. Chief, it's a lot easier to see than the green one. And the gentleman there said it's not a big deal to change them. I don't know. I don't know if maybe we didn't ask for that. But like I said, if they were able to come in and change the screens to make that a white screen, make it for people to see a lot, lot easier.
[Leo Sacco]: All I can say is when we had the demos with the different vendors that came in, I don't know if this was even offered to us as an option. Pakion was the model that they brought in, and Pakion, the representative from Pakion, came here with the machine, and we got what he demonstrated to us.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah, but were we offered a different option of machine? The machine looks the same, Chief. Only thing is, the interface, it's a white interface. So when the people go in, I gotta be honest with you, I have a hard time seeing the screen, even in the daytime. This is a white color screen, and people can actually see it. I mean, it doesn't do anything different. And what Parkin also said, he said, that machine can do anything you want it to do. He said, there's no limits to what it can and can't do. And the Parkin guy said he'd be more than happy to come here, and let's see, If it's possible to change those interfaces, I'd rather see that than what we have.
[Leo Sacco]: Well, I'd be very disappointed if they sold us an outdated model.
[Richard Caraviello]: No, I'm not saying it's an outdated model. I don't think they said, well, hey, you can have this one or this one. Or maybe we just got the low budget item. I don't know.
[Leo Sacco]: All I know is when they came in and gave us the demo, packing on, the rep from packing on. What we have on the street is what was demonstrated to us.
[Richard Caraviello]: It's identical looking. Just the interface screen is white. It's a lot easier to see and use.
[Robert Penta]: I think the question was both asked by us, just the two of us. What other options? They asked it to us. Weren't you shown these other options? And the answer had to be no. And how are you supposed to answer that? We were only shown one machine and that was it.
[Leo Sacco]: We were shown one machine by then. There was another. But by that company, though. The company that showed their machine, there were a bunch of them. But the model we want was Pacquiao.
[Richard Caraviello]: Pacquiao says it's not that big of a deal to change the face.
[Leo Sacco]: Probably not a big deal to change. It's probably very costly.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Penta. Councilor Carfiello, you're off the floor.
[Richard Caraviello]: Well, I'd like to get a cost on, if there is a cost difference of changing that. I will bring the message back. The Pacquiao gentleman said he'd be more than happy to come here and speak. and explain the difference between the two screens. Thank you, Ken.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Also, are you all set, Councilor Cavillo? Yes, Mr. President. Vice President Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. Just a question about the permit parking. I know, again, we're in the middle of a week worth of storms, but people seem to be frustrated. with regards to lack of seeing these vehicles enforcing the permit parking, which some of our areas were really looking forward to.
[Leo Sacco]: Well, that's what we were hoping for. The 26th was going to be the day that it was going to begin. And that was the day we ended up with the blizzard. And we've been under snow cover since. They did do some enforcement over the weekend between the two storms on permit parking. But they didn't cover a lot of ground. And I know that there was one particular problem. And I'm not sure where it stemmed from, whether it was the information we gave them from the police department regarding a street that that portion of it is permit parking and another portion is not. So, uh, we've asked the people who were ticketed in the non permit portion to turn their tickets into us and we will do what needs to be done to avoid them out.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And on that note, so if somebody sees a car parked, in front of their home that it does not have a permit, it's been, you know, Saturday, it's on a Saturday or Sunday, and the office is not open, is there somebody that they can reach out to?
[Leo Sacco]: Because if they can call the police department on Saturday at least, and we can make contact with Republic to go to that location. The thing that we, that all our residents have to keep in mind and all the enforcement people have to keep in mind is the fact that during a declared snow emergency, We do not do permit parking enforcement. We, we have to wait for 24 hours after the emergency is lifted before we actually can do permit parking enforcement. You know, I hate being, I hate saying that the police can't do permit parking, but we are in a problem right now where we don't have physical stickers on the vehicles. It makes it very difficult for the police to do the permit parking enforcement. until we get the license plate readers or we can tie into the database that Republic has that we'll be able to tell if we go down Cherry Street, say, and be able to tell what vehicle is permitted and what vehicle isn't. So I'm just asking that they be a little patient with the police response for permit parking until we can get the technology working and we're able to spot the violators as easily as Republic would.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So going forward, once the snow's cleared and we're into spring, your officers will know that if they get a call on a Saturday, they'll know how to contact Republic to resolve some of these issues for the residents.
[Leo Sacco]: We're even talking about radio communications for them, so that's something that can just be broadcast out, so that we can reach them that easily to give them a radio and send them to a certain street.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Council Vice President Lago-Kern. Next in line is Councilor Knight. Actually, I think you put that on an error, Mr. President. You're all set. Councilor Marks.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I just have a question, chief. This council has asked on several occasions that we increase the free parking and we've offered suggestions the first 15 minutes free citywide up to 30 minutes free citywide. And the response back we got from the administration was, as a result of meetings with the business community, they provided two free 30-minute spots and also four single-head meters in each of the business districts. So the free spots would amount to 10 free spots citywide. So each of the five business districts would have two free spots. I agree with the, uh, limited hours of operation, changing it from seven to seven, uh, from seven to seven to eight to six. And that falls under your purview as a traffic commission. I would also say, uh, 30 minute free parking would also fall under the traffic commissions purview. Uh, would you agree with that chief?
[Leo Sacco]: Uh, that I have to look at, I have to speak with the city solicitor on that. I know that there were, certain locations throughout the city and the different business districts that it was already agreed upon that 30 minute free parking would be provided.
[Michael Marks]: Right. But if under, from what I hear, uh, as a rule of thumb, if we don't change the number of meted spots, we fall within the guidelines of the contract. This is from what I understand by, uh, adding a 30 minute free parking for the first 30 minutes. We're not changing the number of meted spots. And in my opinion, I'm not a legal counsel, but I would say that that would fall under the jurisdiction of the Traffic Commission. And from what I hear from business owners, we had Jimmy from West Medford come up. We've heard from a number of business owners, a number of residents that want to run into the store for two minutes and pick up a newspaper or something. This would solve a lot of issues, Chief, a lot, a lot of issues. And if it falls under your purview, I think it goes hand in hand with the limiting of the hours of operation also. And I think this is a necessity, Chief.
[Leo Sacco]: Well, I think, again, it's something I defer to the city solicitor for a ruling on it, because I'm not that familiar with the contract and the contract language between the city and Republic. So I want to make sure whatever we do, we're doing legally. We waited to get the ruling for the 8 to 6. I think at this point we could wait to see if there's a ruling that could allow either a 15 minute free or a 30 minute free. We just talked about that's 12 hours of enforcement we're cutting back. If you multiply that out as far as the free 30 minutes in every spot in the city, that would be substantially larger than the 12 hours of non-enforcement. So I don't want to totally just trash the contract.
[Michael Marks]: Well, I don't know at what point are we in violation of the contract if we make changes. I really don't understand. I don't think anyone behind this reeling totally understands.
[Leo Sacco]: Well, I think it gets back to the substantial and material changes and that probably would fall within substantial material change because then everyone could go to any place in the city and they'll still have the free parking for the first 30 minutes. And you know, a lot of the activity that's conducted in many of the businesses, probably falls within that guideline, the 30-minute rule.
[Michael Marks]: Right. But as you know, the whole reason that we implemented this was to move cars along. And providing a 15 or 30-minute grace period accomplishes such that. It still moves cars along. So I don't see that we'd be going back from what our mission was to move cars along in the business district. And if you're able to take two hours a day off of their enforcement, that's revenue that they could be generating, yet minusing two hours I don't see why 30 minutes would be any different.
[Leo Sacco]: I'm looking at that 7 a.m. I think that was a zero hour anyway. 7 to 8 a.m. I don't think was going to amount to much of anything.
[Michael Marks]: We don't have any statistics. We have no data yet.
[Leo Sacco]: But I'm just saying if you drive through this any of the business districts at 7 in the morning you see limited packing anyway. So it wasn't a heavy hit on that and it was a bigger hit probably from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. But even that probably wasn't as great. But if you talk the rest of the day. a free 30 minutes in every space, uh, that could be substantial.
[Michael Marks]: I think that's a sad commentary when you can say from seven to eight, there's no cars there anyways.
[Leo Sacco]: Well, it's limited.
[Michael Marks]: I mean, it's limited because it's unfortunate. It's limited because there's no magnets. Mr. President, I would ask then if we have to do this piecemeal, um, that, uh, we asked the city solicitor by a vote of this council, whether or not, uh, we could implement, either 15 or 30-minute free parking citywide, and if that's under the purview of the Traffic Commission. And once we get that response back, because the response we received back from the administration, it says no additional changes will be made at this time. That would lead me to believe that changes could be made. That would lead me to believe that changes could be made. And so I think maybe it's appropriate that we get a legal opinion from the city solicitor.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of Councilor Knight regarding the comparison from the tax collector with regards to revenue of meal tax from this time last year and this time now where we're under the new plan amended by Councilor Marks that the city solicitor render opinion to the council regarding 15
[Michael Marks]: or 30 minute free parking citywide that is, whether that falls under the purview of the traffic commission or if it's a contractual agreement that needs to be done.
[Fred Dello Russo]: And the clerk has that. And, uh, I'll subsequently or previously amended by Councilor coffee yellow for the asking for the cost of white screens. Councilor Marks, are you all set now? I am. Thank you. Thank you very much. Counsel Marks.
[Paul Camuso]: Next in queue is Councilor Camuso. Thank you, Mr. President. And before we go any further, I think we have to urge the mayor that from now on, on Tuesday nights, at least until April, to turn the heat on in this building. Because I was afraid that it was because I'm under the weather, but I've talked to several people in here. It's absolutely freezing in here right now. Councilor Lungo-Koehn tells me it's 63 degrees in here. So next week, we're going to have to bring our scarves and our winter hat to do the people's business. But with that being said, two things that I'd be interested to get an update on the current situation is one, a usage report they gave us a few weeks ago, which was good data, told us people seem to be participating within the confines of the laws and restrictions that are put in place by the Traffic Commission. And the second thing is I'd like to get an update, Chief, on the tokens. Jimmy's Pizza here, great in the community, as he says. People come in, they have to wait because he has a line out the door because he's given a good product. And people go there. Look at all the names on the petitions he gives us. Every single one of those people have been in there buying a sandwich. So keep up the good work, Jim. With that being said, though, I would like to have the tokens in place where Jimmy, as a businessman, could purchase the tokens instead of a quarter, $0.15 maybe for the tokens. And these businesses. Um, I know you're working on it.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yeah. Didn't say that. I think it was like 16 and a half cents. Um, and they would, they would color and they would code the color. So, uh, you'd know that tokens given on West Metro was staying in West Metro or would they be, they'd be used in other parts of the city. Exactly. But they said that that's a, they do that in other cities.
[Paul Camuso]: And it was a very doable plan. Excellent. And with that being said, um, that was my next question was, if and when this will be instituted. Because Jimmy right now, it would be a good tool for him. Like he said, it's embarrassing to say to someone, I'll give you a quarter so you can go pay the meter. But you know what? When the guy does come into Jimmy's shop or any other shop in the community and they say, hey, you're a good customer. Next time you come in here, the pocket's on me. And you give them one of these tokens. I mean, that goes far. Many businesses in this community I know are very, very much for that, whether it's a local barbershop, whether it's some of our bigger restaurants.
[Richard Caraviello]: Um, it's, it's just a, it's a good tool to, um, again, I don't know if we were told, but these machines are able to print out coupons for all these businesses. So Jimmy wants to say, Hey, you know, um, you know, get a free soda with every pizza, push the button here. When you, when people put in their 25 cents, you don't print out a coupon, uh, for whatever, whatever the, what the business wants to say. And it keeps it specific for that area.
[Leo Sacco]: During the presentations, we heard that, that that could be done.
[Richard Caraviello]: But that didn't come out during?
[Leo Sacco]: But I can tell you also that there's interest in the tokens. There's interest in that debit card type. And they're looking into whether they can embed the license plate number in there, so it makes it even easier. So there is interest in that, and Republic is researching all of it.
[Paul Camuso]: Some of these machines have been acting up to, to the point where it's been very customer friendly. You throw in a quarter, and you get two quarters back. It, uh, it happened to me today. And, uh, I know you put it right back though. Yes, of course I did. I put the quarter right back in. I drove to the, I drove to the office in South Medford and I gave it to them. Um, no, but, uh, um, I've been hearing that too, that some of them have been actually spitting quarters back out to the consumer. Somebody, um, somebody sent me an email joke and said, yeah, it's, it's probably wind casino that owns the, owns the things they're trying to get people in their casino. But with that being said, I'd just like to get an update on the tokens, because as Councilor Caraviello, we're all aware that they are coming, and they said it can be done. But deciding to do it and putting it into effect are two different things. And quite honestly, I think right now, this is a slow time of year anyway for all the businesses, especially restaurants. Right after Christmas, January, February, March, every restaurant I've talked to said this is typically their slow season. I think these would come in more handy now than in the end of the year, next year, November, when it's traditional busy time of year, Christmas season. So if we could just get an update on those two, the usage report, and when I say usage report, the same data that you provided us a few weeks ago with the amount of people that use the machine as well as the tickets that were issued. And last but not least on the tokens. Okay. Thanks chief.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. So on the motion of a Councilor, Adam Knight amended by Councilor Richard Caraviello, Councilor Michael marks, Councilor Paul Camuso, Councilor Penta chief.
[Robert Penta]: Um, on the last two matters here, uh, you're working on having a debit card allegedly that could correlate to the, uh, to the car, but they're unable to do that. And then the last one detailed maps to be developed to show, Spots are available by type of spot in a residential or in a commuter business district. Now, I got a couple of phone calls from people up on Quincy Street at resident parking.
[Leo Sacco]: Well, that's the street I was just mentioning when they did some permit parking. From Boston Avenue to Capon Street is permit parking. From Osgoode Street to the Sum of the Line is permit parking. But from Osgoode to Capon is not. And I know that it's on our documents. I checked that. But I'm not saying that they were at fault. But those tickets were issued improperly. And the one person that I've had an email from, I asked that she forward it to me because it was truly given in error. And we'll go through the process to void those up.
[Robert Penta]: So the three from that neighborhood all have the same issue then?
[Leo Sacco]: Just appeal it to you? Just send it in. They don't have to go through an appeal process. That was the concern, whether they were going to have to go through a convoluted process. They were issued wrongfully. There's no getting around that. The records reflect that that section of the street is not permit parking. All they have to do is send them in to us. We'll void them out the proper way. So it's recorded as a void.
[Robert Penta]: But it also says that detailed maps are finalized and posted on Park Medford.
[Leo Sacco]: This would be the maps for the business districts, where the meters are, where the single head meters were. Well, the single head meters aren't out there yet, but it's on parkmedford.org.
[Robert Penta]: So resident parking maps are not on there yet?
[Leo Sacco]: No, but they're on the police department website. There is a list of permit parking streets, but there may be some streets that need to be added to it since, uh, since it was first posted. There may be some new streets, some additions, and we're going through the entire list of permit parking streets now to see what the various restrictions are because some streets are permit parking from seven to noon. Some streets are from 5pm to 8am. We want to make sure whatever we put out there is accurate information.
[Robert Penta]: But when you're doing these resident parking documents, maps or whatever they are.
[Leo Sacco]: They're not maps. The resident parking is strictly a list of streets. Streets. There's not a map.
[Robert Penta]: But some of the streets aren't all resident parking.
[Leo Sacco]: No, no, just the streets that are.
[Robert Penta]: So like you explained last week, um, Austin street, the number, it stops at a certain number. I mean, How are these people supposed to know?
[Leo Sacco]: The resident knows. I mean, if a resident lives on the street, they haven't seen it.
[Robert Penta]: Yeah, but how does Republic know?
[Leo Sacco]: They'll know because they have the list. There was an error made, I believe it was Saturday. It was either Friday or Saturday that that portion of Quincy Street was tagged improperly. Our records reflect that that portion of Quincy Street is not permit parking. I don't know what they were operating on, whether they got a document that just said Quincy Street. But there's no doubt that they were issued in error, and they'll be voided appropriately.
[Adam Knight]: Point of information, Counsel. Good night. It's my understanding, Chief, that when a ticket is issued, it's recorded in the latitude and longitude of the vehicle is recorded, correct? On their plate reader, yes. On their plate reader, right. So it would be safe to say that if, in fact, a citation is issued that's outside the realm of a permit parking street, that they'd be able to pull that information right up on their system and show where the vehicle was parked and whether or not it was within All's good in Capen or Austin between Prescott and high, but not Austin between high and Uber. Right. Thank you. They just need to have the actual information. If you don't have good information, you're not going to put out good stuff.
[Robert Penta]: One final thing. I'd like to, can we get a report back? You said the, um, the decision today by the city solicitor that you could change the hours.
[Leo Sacco]: Yes. Within the realm of- Is that a written document or was that verbal? There is a written document. I didn't get it. I didn't meet the city solicitor in time, but he verbally told me and it is in writing. So we'll have it. Could you get it? Could we get a copy of it? I'm sure you will.
[Robert Penta]: I'd like to have a copy of that, Mr. Clerk. A copy of-
[Leo Sacco]: And we will give you the minutes of the Traffic Commission meeting this Tuesday, February 10th, so that you'll have that as well. As you always do. Tuesday, February 10th. No more Wednesday meetings? No, we only do Tuesday for traffic commission. The Wednesday night meetings, tentatively one that's still on for tomorrow night, we may have to cancel due to the snow mounds and it may not be a safe thing to bring people out to. And we may need a bigger farm to do it in. So we may be looking to use the council chamber at some point. Yes, it is. Yale Street Corner and Harvard Street Corner at two o'clock.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you all. Uh, so on the motion of council and night amended by Councilors, uh, uh, Marks, Caraviello, uh, Penta and Camuso, uh, Councilor Marks. Yeah.
[Michael Marks]: I just got one last thing. A gentleman called me, a gentleman called me up chief on this brochure that was passed out. And he mentioned that when he tried to feed the machine, He said he believes the steps are backwards, Step 4 and 5. So he said he went, he put in his license plate number, and then Step 4 says, press the blue button to buy time. He's saying that you're supposed to press the green button, then put the money in, and then press the blue button. He said these steps aren't right.
[Leo Sacco]: I'd have to look at it again.
[Michael Marks]: Can you take a look at that, Chief?
[Fred Dello Russo]: We'll refer that to the Commissioner of Republic Parking.
[Michael Marks]: Complete transaction. Can you take a peek at that, Chief?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Point of clarification, Councilor Lungo-Koehn, and then we're going to take a vote on this.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Was it a certain machine, Councilor Marks? Was it a certain machine, like a certain location? Because when I fed it, I followed the steps and it worked fine. No, I followed the steps that are actually written on the kiosk.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. Three papers in the hand of the clerk offered by Councilor Camuso be it resolved that the Medford City Council thank St. Raphael's pastor, Father Kevin Toomey, for his outstanding service to the parishioners. Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. For those of the individuals that don't know, Father Kevin Toomey recently got notified of his reassignment. And this is a major, major blow to St. Raphael's Parish. St. Raphael's is a great parish community. Father Toomey has done an exemplary job down there, as we all know. He's been there for 15 or so years, and he is solely responsible for getting people to pledge support financially to build the new Paris Center, which cost around $6 million, Mr. President. And for that, the community and the parish is grateful. And we want to wish him well. And I think it's more than appropriate. He's around until June, until he goes to his new assignment. But I think we should get him down here just to acknowledge him. He was a stalwart supporter of putting up the crossing signs and the lights in front of St. Raphael's Parish for the children of the community, and just was always there for people. And I'm going to miss him, not only as my parish Pastor, but more importantly, as a friend. So if we can get him down here at a meeting to receive a congratulation note from the Medford City Council.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Camuso, all those in favor? Opposed? I inadvertently cut off two citizens who wish to spoke on the matter that has passed. If you wish to address us. Will you name and address for the record? Robert Cappucci of 70 Green.
[Robert Cappucci]: The matter is disposed of, as you know. Yes, Mr. President, thank you very much. Robert Capucci of 71 Evans Street. I didn't plan on speaking on this tonight, but a couple of points came up that I had to voice my concern about. With all due respect to the Chief of Police, who has been exhaustive in his energies on this kiosk program, he referred to concerns that people have and the questions that are coming up as throwing stones on something that we haven't even seen if it works yet, when on a issue brought up tonight by Councilor Penter, it clearly states, Medford citizenry never had an open public opportunity for input, discussions, concerns of the implementation. Is it throwing stones? And with all due respect, I have great respect for the Chief of Police. I just wish he would term it differently. Was it throwing stones for Jimmy's pizza? To come up here and address his concerns, was it throwing stones for the woman who talked about Playstead Road and what she has to do to get a permit? Was it throwing stones for the guy who owns the lock company? Was it throwing stones for all the other citizens and businesses that have come up here? And my second point is on the 30-minute parking amendment, a query posed by the Honourable Michael Marks. That's never going to happen. because that will get rid of all the money these folks are going to be collecting on this. I have seen for the last few weeks, going into months now, the great concerns. I mean, we're talking about making Medford more business friendly and improving our five business districts. Welcome to Medford with higher property tax rates, pay to park, the streets falling apart, an understaffed police force. I mean, there are. a lot more things this city could be doing and it's ultimately going to depend on the voters this year and to exercise that option in this contract to buy it out and get rid of it, please. It would be the best thing for the City of Medford. Thank you for your time.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Thank You mr. President, my name is Michael or Jiro. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. I have two questions. The first is With the license plate information that has been aggregated by Republic parking Is that information being sold to private people as a big data enterprise or what happens to that data? Does anyone know?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Say, sir, we've disposed of this already, so ask your second question, and then the police chief will address you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Oh, thank you. My second point is I've been volunteering at the senior center, and a number of seniors have expressed confusion over how to input you know, their license plate and pay for it. Maybe it would be helpful if someone from Republic Parking would go down there and give a lecture. Some of these individuals have trouble, you know, putting in emergency contact numbers into their phones. They're not particularly tech savvy.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thanks. Thank you. The chief will address both those questions as he's the expert on this.
[Leo Sacco]: I don't know if I'm the expert, but the second one first, I know that Mr. Nash is planning to do another meet and greet with the at the senior center, bringing a kiosk to the location so people can actually touch it, feel it, push the buttons and see how it works. So I don't know exactly when that's scheduled for, but I know it's sometime soon. With regard to the license plate reader, I am informed by Republic Parking that they save the data for eight hours. They do not sell it to anyone. If the vehicle, if they cite a vehicle, then they save it as a record. of the citation of the vehicle, and then it's disposed of after all the appeal process of the ticket is paid for. But just going down the street and gathering plates, at the end of the day, it's purged. The system is purged. But absolutely no information sold to anyone.
[Fred Dello Russo]: No mailing lists, nothing? No. Thank you very much, Chief. Thank you, sir, for those two helpful questions. Additional papers in the hand of the clerk, offered by Councilor Camuso, be it resolved that the Medical City Council to congratulate Medford City Council President Emeritus Robert Miyako and his wife Cheryl on the birth of their first grandchild, Willow Skye.
[Paul Camuso]: Councilor Camuso. Thank you, Mr. President. I would be remiss if I didn't congratulate Uncle Bob, as people often refer to him as. Him and his wife Cheryl are the proud grandparents of Willow Skye. And Willow Skye now has the proud parents, Dr. Marty Marin and beautiful Alexandra Mayako Marin. The baby was born. And baby and mom are doing great. They just came home a few days ago. And I just want to congratulate them.
[Fred Dello Russo]: And Alex looks beautiful.
[Paul Camuso]: Absolutely. Yes. So congratulations to Mr. President, his wife, and the entire family. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Seconded on the motion of Councilor Camuso, seconded by Vice President Longo-Curran, all those in favor? All those opposed? And lastly, in the hand of the clerk, a resolution by Councilor Knight. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council congratulate Sal and Josephine Marino and Billy and Paul Oganowski on the birth of their newest grandchild, Penelope.
[Adam Knight]: Yes, Mr. President, thank you very much. I'd like to congratulate Tiffany and Salvatore on the birth of their first child, as well as Josephine and Big Sal. and Paula and Billy on the birth of their new granddaughter. It's a very exciting time for these families and I just wanted to let them know that we're thinking of them during this time.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Motion of Councilor Knight. All those in favor? All those opposed? Councilor Marks.
[Joe Viglione]: Good evening. Joe Villione, 59 Garfield Ave. Thank you, City Council. This afternoon at one o'clock, Louise Miller had a meeting on public access TV here, and I believe it's room 205 down the hall, where they have the Human Rights Commission, and a wonderful woman, she has a pamphlet about the public access television operation, request for proposals. So I just wanted to alert the public that because of the snow, there was one person and myself there, And serendipitously, if that's how you say it, coincidentally, an executive director from one of the exit stations called while I was in the room, so Louise talked to him, and that was really great. So the word is getting out. She's going to reschedule the meeting tentatively. It is now Wednesday, February 18th. It should be up on the Medford Mass website. This Monday at the high school, at 2.30 p.m., the architects who are bidding on the public access station will be meeting, and it's open to the public. So if people want to see the new facility, Louise told me that anyone could go there. Now, this is very important because nine months from today, of course, is the election, 273 days away. What was a little discouraging was if the access station is granted to someone in April, As the other individual in the room said, we might not have it until September, and this election is critical. So what I would like our mayor to do is maybe see about opening the airwaves, and we discussed this, so that people can have some kind of access maybe with the high school Mr. Dempsey or Ms. Goldsberry, because they run the high school channel, maybe they can help get something organized so that we get all you candidates, anyone running, anyone out there that's running. I know that the attorney that runs the NAACP, Mystic Valley, I know he's already put on his Facebook that he's running. This is an excellent opportunity for he and other people running to let's get the ball rolling right now. It can be done.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Thank you, Citizen Filioni. The records were passed to Vice President Lungel-Kern for the meeting of January 20, 2015. Madam Vice President, how did you find those?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I found the records in order and move approval. I also want to announce a fundraiser that the Medford Family Network is having on Saturday at 12 p.m. at the McGlynn School. It's an ice cream social for all families. All families are welcome. Yes, I could not eat the ice cream if I thought of. But I just want to let everybody know about the fundraiser. I think it's $10 a person and goes to a great cause.
[Fred Dello Russo]: A very great cause. Thank you for that. On the motion of Vice President Langel-Curran for the approval of the minutes. All those in favour? All those opposed? Councilor Camut.
[Paul Camuso]: Yes, I know we did laugh about it a little earlier regarding the climate control in this building. I wouldn't expect any secretary, any public employee in this building or school or any municipal building to work in the temperatures that we've worked in the last two, a couple of council meetings. This is ridiculous. If there's a problem with the system in this room, then the mayor and or his designee can get it taken care of. In the summertime, it's stifling in here and it's freezing in here tonight. I think no one can argue with that. We have people that actually left the meeting because of the temperature in this room. It's... And you're ailing, but my feet are numb.
[Fred Dello Russo]: exactly.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: The last few council meetings, at least it's been 66, 67, and then it will gradually go down by 11 o'clock while we were still here. It got down to about 63 tonight. We came in, it was 64 and it's gradually going down. So, um, I can't feel my toes either. I think I can see my breath though, which is nice. So if we could move, if we could put it in writing to, I know, uh, From the building department, Fargo has been down during council meetings in the past to adjust the heat or the air conditioning. I agree. If this is happening during the day, it's unacceptable for the people that work in this building.
[Paul Camuso]: And just to follow up, a few weeks ago, Alicia Hunt was in here adjusting the temperature. And I believe they had it set to go off at like 9 o'clock. I don't remember a city council meeting in the history of the city of Medford for the past 30 years that hasn't gone till nine o'clock. So, uh, has gone, you know what I'm saying? Has gone, um, less than nine o'clock. It was about a, uh, six month range where some of the meetings were shorter. Um, but that was due just to the smaller agendas. This is, uh, this is absurd.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We just received a communique and it will be addressed, uh, first thing in the morning.
[Paul Camuso]: I say we don't, we, We shouldn't be meeting in this temperature. If it's again like this, really, we should postpone the meeting.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Councilor Pence has been patiently waiting for real quick.
[Robert Penta]: I'd like to send a, um, the council send some congratulations to, uh, not congratulations, some get well wishes to Rick Caraviello, his father, who unfortunately is in the hospital right now. And, uh, thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: I want to thank, um, the Western fire department and, uh, I'm sorry. I gave you lunch for the quick response to my dad and when he, when he passed out this afternoon and, and what's nothing. Okay. Best wishes to Mr. Cantrell.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Marksx.
[Richard Caraviello]: All set, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilors. On the motion of Vice President Lungo-Koehn for adjournment. All those in favour? All those opposed?
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