AI-generated transcript of Medford, MA City Council - June 28, 2016 (Unofficially provided by MT)

[Fred Dello Russo]: The 25th regular meeting of the Medford City Council will come to order. Mr. Clerk, welcome back and please call the roll.

[Clerk]: Is anybody here? Councilor Caraviello? Councilor Falco? Present. Councilor Knight? Vice President Leno of Kern? Present. Councilor Marks? Present. Councilor Scarpelli? President Dello Russo. Present.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Six members present, one nearly absent or absent. Please join us in rising to salute the flag of the United States of America. 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. Commendations. Tonight we have with us present the Medford high school crew team silver medal winners at the state championship. This was offered by Councilor Marks, and we're welcome to have with us coaches and members of the crew team to receive their commendations. And at this time, I invite Councilor Marks up to share those commendations with these fine young men.

[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. It's my honor tonight to offer these council accommodations to the Medford High row team for the full boys squad. This is the fourth year in a row that they have won the GBL title. are JV4. They qualified for the New England Interscholastic Rowing Championship, and they finished 16th among all the prep, Catholic, and public schools from New England. Another big accomplishment. So I want to recognize, I know there's at least two on the team that are with us tonight, I was just talking to some of the rowing team members, and they mentioned a funny story that took place this year at one of the row meets. There was a race between Somerville and Method, which always gets a little heated. And Method pulled out and beat Somerville. And after the race, the Somerville team came over and said, you only beat us because we had one of our novice in the boats. And that's the only reason why you beat us. So Method being the community it is, said, get your JV, get your whole JV team, we'll meet you down on the river, and we'll race again without your novice. Sure enough, the race took place. And gentlemen, who won the race? Method won again. I thought that was a great story. And one other thing, too, you can always tell when the Rowe team walks in because they have the Popeye forearms, right? And they're all in great shape. I tell everyone, you want to get in great shape, Rowe. The only one that's not in great shape is the Coxswain. Where is he? Where's the Coxswain? He's not in bad shape. He's not in bad shape. The Coxswain is very similar to the city council. You have the council president that box out the orders, and you have the rowers that do all the work on the side. So it's very similar, just so you know. You may have a future someday in city politics. But at this point, I'd like to recognize the novice four boat members who were the silver member medalists for this year. and they did our community very proud. I will read them. I know there's only one or two here tonight, but I will read them. It says, the Medford City Council takes pleasure in awarding this council accommodation to Nathan Piera, Medford High School varsity rowing team, in recognition of winning a Novice Four Boat Civil Medal at the State Rowing Championship. We have Sebastian Tringali. He's at camp. Good for him. Giandotto Pintone.

[SPEAKER_08]: Congratulations. Great job.

[Michael Marks]: Dylan Bambino.

[SPEAKER_08]: On vacation, where we all should be.

[Michael Marks]: Isaac.

[Unidentified]: Congratulations. Thank you. Good job.

[Michael Marks]: Edward McCormick, the coach. Come on up, Ed. You know, we don't have a team without a good coach. And I'll tell you, Edward has done yeoman's work, no pun, on putting together a program that really reflects our community and really reflects a program that is up and coming. And we went from a community that was not known for rowing at all to being a program that's recognized statewide. And that's partly due to students and their competitive nature and their dedication, but also due to the coach. So coach, do you have a few words you'd like to say? Thank you. Thank you, coach.

[SPEAKER_04]: The only story I'd like to say is the reason why we're here is because Isaac, or Coxon, actually his equipment broke in the first 100 meters of the race. The rules are that if there's a legitimate break of equipment, you can stop the race as a freshman. He was smart enough to do that. His steering cables had broken, and he realized that he wasn't going to make it down the race course, and he stopped the race. The referees realized it was a legal stop. They called me so I could repair the boat, and they went back up and raced the race. And that's why we have the silver medal, because of a very, very smart ninth grader from Medford High.

[Michael Marks]: And we also have the assistant coach, who is Chris Dello Russo. And I want to thank him personally for his efforts on behalf of the students.

[SPEAKER_08]: Congratulations. Let's get a photo. We're just going to vote.

[George Scarpelli]: Come on, circle around, guys.

[Fred Dello Russo]: 16-571 offered by Councilor Marks be resolved that the do not enter in one-way signs on Newburn Ave be made larger or fixed at a reasonable eyesight level over the past two weeks. Cars are going up Newburn rather than down and causing a public safety issue. Councilor Marks.

[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I was contacted by a few residents that are seeing cars come up the one-way. They believe it's because of the one-way and do not enter signs being at a much higher than eye level uh, view and also the size of the sign. So I ask that this be sent to the traffic commission for, uh, their review and eventual approval.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Mr. President, on the motion approved by Councilor Marks, all those in favor, all those opposed motion carries offered by vice-president low current 16-five 72 offered by a vice-president long current be resolved that, uh, in all future board of appeals hearings, notices are sent to all people within 300 feet radius of the requesting property. Madam Vice President.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. I'd just like a roll call vote on this. It's come to my attention, especially since the Locust Street approval of 11 variances, that in past projects, the full 300 feet radius residents have not been notified accordingly. I think spot notification has taken place on some instances, and I think for transparent purposes and to be informative to the neighborhood or wherever is going to be possibly affected that all residents within 300 feet radius of the proposed property get notified of any Board of Appeal hearing or, you know, request for a variance. I think it's extremely important that we do that and we keep it to the 300 feet and not pick and choose who we send notifications to. So I'd ask for a roll call vote. And we request that the Board of Appeals adhere to this.

[Fred Dello Russo]: I'm under the impression that this is a matter of law. It's done with a certified, under pains of perjury, certification from the assessor of the location of all houses, and that they mailed, and that it's three weeks notified in public publication. Councilor Knight.

[Adam Knight]: Yes, Mr. President. I'd ask how this resolution differs from the actual standard that's in place currently.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I've got complaints that the full 300 feet have not been notified, and I think that's extremely important. And if that is not taking place, I'm asking the City Council support that it does.

[Fred Dello Russo]: I have no information that it's not. Citizen wishes to speak.

[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. Thank you very much for bringing this up. The people that abutted Locust Street didn't receive letters when they put up the smaller buildings. But nobody complained because those buildings weren't as large as the complex that's going down in 61. And also, the 61 Locust Street, they were not notified, not even the abutters, not even the physical abutters were not notified. They did not receive a letter. So just to put that out there that there may be a falling through the cracks issue here. So thank you very much.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Absolutely. Thank you, Jean. And I also got a complaint about a few streets. One of them was Prescott Street back about a year ago. That's two instances right there and another two that I probably got calls on. So I think it's important that we take a stand and that we ask for notification, um, with regards to a 300 feet radius.

[Fred Dello Russo]: And I think that's the law and our legal expert in house, uh, our city solicitor wishes to address us.

[Mark Rumley]: Good evening, Mr. President. My name is Mark Romley. I'm the city solicitor. I reside at 50 Woodrow Avenue in Medford. And the council's resolution, you can always do more than what the law requires, but I wanted to make one thing very clear, and that's under Chapter 40A, what's required for notice, and the, as you said, the names and addresses of the people who are entitled to notice are certified by the assessor's office, and then they go out from the clerk of the Board of Appeals. What is required is that notice go out to all abutters and abutters to the abutters. That's under Chapter 40A. What is being suggested in this resolution is that from now on the city of Medford go beyond that to all of the people who live within the ambit of the 300 feet of the proposal. You can always do more, but I didn't want anybody to, uh, listening to this discussion to feel that somebody has been short changed under the law. The law was complied with, although it was not, and it was not necessary to get every abutter within the 300 feet, the abutters, And abutters to the abutters, as funny as that may sound, is what is legally required under Chapter 48. But if the city wants to go further than that and require more notice, there's nothing wrong with that.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion for approval by Vice President Lungo-Koehn, please call the roll.

[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, if the city solicitor has a moment to answer this question, the resolution says notice is sent to all people within a 300-foot radius. It's my understanding that presently with the term of butter, it's property owner versus a renter or a person that would be living.

[Mark Rumley]: Yes, the list is always compiled on the basis of property owner. That's right.

[Adam Knight]: Because it's from the assessor's database of taxpayers.

[Mark Rumley]: Right, because sometimes a tenant, especially in a residential property, they could change and there's no need for a tenant who is leasing a property or even a tenant at will. The assessor's office would not necessarily have that data. The notice under the law goes to the owner of the property. And which makes sense, by the way, because the owner has full title interest in the property. And if the particular project would be something that would impede their property rights, they should know. A tenant may be somebody who's going to be there for a few months and really couldn't care if they're living next to a nuclear reactor.

[Adam Knight]: Thank you, Mr. Solicitor. Mr. President, I'd like to amend the paper to strike the word all people and replace with all property owners.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Motion that the paper be amended to strike all people, to replace it with all property owners.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Roll call, please.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Citizen wishes to speak.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Oh, sorry.

[Fred Dello Russo]: The chair recognizes the esteemed citizen of East Medford. Please state your name and address for the record.

[Andrew Castagnetti]: Thank you, Council President Dello Russo, Andrew Kasten, Eddie Cushman, Street Medford, Massachusetts. I was thinking out loud, out of the box, City Solicitor Rumley mentioned that we could maybe change, the way I understood, the parameters of 300 feet to make it further for notices. And Brianna brought up some good points that I had missed some of them earlier, because I came in a little late. If one wants to change, if it's possible, I presume, first of all, Chapter 48 is a state law. And if you want to change it, maybe 300 feet, or 500 feet, or 1,000 feet would not be sufficient, especially when depending on the city or town, when you have a development of 300 or 500 or 6,000 units, depending on the population, the locale, I mean, 300 feet would be a butters and a butters, a butters possibly. However, if it's a large unit for that city or town, it might affect five square miles or at least one and a half square miles. Thank you.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. On the motion for approval by Councilor Lungo-Koehn as amended by Councilor Knight, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[SPEAKER_19]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Seven in the affirmative.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Motion passes.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: 16-573 offered by Vice President Lungo-Koehn.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Be it resolved that the city administration provide the city council with an update on what is being done on the city side regarding the low-flying noise from airplanes in our community. Is that the noise from low-flying airplanes? Madam Vice President.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President De La Ruzo. With regards to what's been going on, I know we've probably all got complaints. We've received a number of complaints, especially from the North Method. area in the Heights with regards to low-flying planes, the noise, the disturbances, a lot of it happening between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., disrupting people's ability to enjoy their home with their windows open or to sit out on their porch or patio and be able to even have a conversation. I live in the Heights, so I've obviously noticed that. And then I went down to a couple of places where I've received the complaints, one being Shardanav, and you could not have a conversation. Every five minutes, low-flying planes. And I know when you report — and I've — multiple complaints have — I've received, so I think it's definitely time for an update to see what the new administration is doing. I know — I believe somebody's been appointed to the Massport Advisory Commission, but if we could get an update on who that is. and see what has been done, if they're actually attending meetings, and any update with regards to this issue. I know if a resident, I have a few complaints that were called in to Massachusetts Port Authority Noise Abatement Office, and they do respond to the complaints, but a lot of the responses are that they're, you know, it's obviously runway 33L, and they're following FAA standard operating procedure. So I just want to make sure somebody from Medford is representing our concerns and bringing our questions and seeing if something can be done to change what is going on. Because I don't think the standard operating procedure is working for the city of Medford. And I know it's only during certain months, depending on which way the wind's flying. But if we could get an update with regards to who's been appointed to the Massport Advisory Commission and what is being done from our administration to try to alleviate some of this disturbance and obviously, this is a breach of your quiet enjoyment when you're trying to have dinner outside or enjoy your home. I think- On the motion for approval by Vice President Largo-Curran, Councilor Knight.

[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. This is an issue that I think we're all rather familiar with. We've all been experiencing the noise in one fashion or another. I honestly have made several inquiries into this, and it's a very interesting situation, Mr. President. Up until very recently, the flight patterns that were being used were based on the same technology that was used during World War II. I spoke with a gentleman by the name of Stephen Bolognese. He's an attorney, and he's one of the premier aviation experts here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And he explained to me that the way that planes used to fly was through a beacon system, and it was the same technology that was used in World War II. In the late 1990s, the federal government adopted a push towards using GPS-monitored flying control systems, Mr. President. And the reason they did that is because about 80 percent of the airspace wasn't being utilized under the post-World War II process. So I think that this is going to get worse before it gets better. But the mayor has taken affirmative steps and steps that I'm very pleased with. She's appointed attorney Leonard Gleona to the Massport Advisory Council to represent the city of Medford, Mr. President. And in my conversations with Mr. Gleona, he's already informed me that he's been to at least two meetings over there at Massport. And he's also been in contact with our state delegation to ask for some assistance where they have some funding responsibilities with the Massachusetts Port Authority. So with that being said, I certainly appreciate the work that Mr. Glaman has done. I think he's a great choice for the job and he's more than capable of helping the city of Medford address this issue and this concern. I support the resolution that the councilor has put forward and I look forward to hearing Mr. Glaman's response.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Mr. Glaman is a great and competent attorney and a great advocate for our community. Chair recognizes Councilor Falco.

[John Falco]: Thank you, Mr. President. I also support this resolution 100%. I have received a number of calls over the past couple of weeks throughout the city. Down on Park Street over in West Medford, I've received calls as well. I live in the Heights as well, and I just walk out into my backyard, and there's a plane flying over. And they're flying low, and it's like every minute and a half, they're flying over the house. And it's just, it is continuous. So it's definitely a major problem that impacts almost every neighborhood in this city. And it's really a- We're fine in South Medford. That's not what I hear. But I mean, from what I hear, they're coming right over. I was at Harvard Street, I think. But it's an issue that affects every neighborhood in the city. And it really impacts the quality of life. So it's definitely something I support. I know there is a noise hotline that people can call. And Massport does keep track of the people that do call. So I think it's important that people call. 561-3333, and it's staffed by Massport employees. And it's definitely something that I think the more people that call, the better. I think it lets the people at Massport know that this is something that impacts our quality of life. And I just wanted to just say that in support of this resolution, and hopefully we can do something to reduce the flights that cross over our city. Thank you.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor. Chair recognizes Councilor Marks.

[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Councilor Longo for putting this on. This has been an issue for many years, and unfortunately this city has done very little in regards to trying to rectify the issue that residents are having. If you look at the complaints, as Councilor Falco just mentioned, and I went on their website and looked up May, that was the last available, there were 174 complaints issued by residents of Method, and that's in 2016. And if you look in 2015, there were 101. So that's almost a 75% increase in complaints year over year, which leads me to believe that there's more flights over this community. And when you look at the statistics, and I know there's a group of Method residents that are organized in this community, and moving forward, on a way to help alleviate some of the concerns we have as residents. They mentioned runway 33L, and that's the departures that are leaving Logan Airport. This year, compared to last year, there was an additional 500 flights on runway 33L, which directly flies over this community. And that is a major concern. I realize win patents, and there's a number of circumstances that would alter air flight. But in my opinion, Mr. President, this community is bearing a brunt of the noise. And to take it one step further, if you go on their website, they have — Massport has a whole mitigation site, and they brag about giving out millions of dollars in soundproofing And they list the communities and what they've done replacing windows and other soundproofing initiatives in homes, schools, churches, you name it. And the city of Medford has one noise detector in the city. I believe it may be in the Morrison Park area. And in my opinion, a city seven square miles to have one noise detector really is not an adequate capturing of uh, the noise that we're experiencing throughout the neighborhoods, North Medford, South Medford, West Medford, uh, Wellington, uh, the hillside. Um, and I would ask if my council colleague doesn't mind that we request through Massport that they, uh, add at least another three or four of these, uh, noise, uh, units, uh, that measures the decibel, uh, sound levels. And according to, I guess, federal FAA rules, that there's a certain decibel level that's allowed. And in that area, we may be under the decibel level, according to Massport. But I would venture to say, if more of these monitors were put in other sections, and I would ask that they be put in every neighborhood in this community, one in every neighborhood, Mr. President, that we'll find a difference of what Massport's reporting compared to what our residents are experiencing. And so I would ask, if my colleague Councilor Longo doesn't mind, that we request that Massport locate these noise decibel, I don't know what they refer to exactly, equipment in the North Mefford neighborhood, the South Mefford neighborhood, the Wellington neighborhood, the Hillside neighborhood, and I believe there is one in the East Mefford, area, but I may stand to be corrected on that, but that it encompassed all the neighborhoods, Mr. President, and I ask that that be part of the report. And I look forward to some more dialogue with Massport. We may not be a direct abutter, but we certainly experience these flights coming in that are trying to land in Logan Airport, making very low turnarounds in our community, waiting for runways to open up. and so forth, Mr. President.

[Fred Dello Russo]: So I will make that as a formal motion. On the motion for approval by Vice President Lungo-Koehn, as amended by Councilor Marks, chair recognizes Vice President Lungo-Koehn.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. If we can further amend it to ask Attorney Lenny Gliona to come to our July meeting, if he's available. The city's representative to the Massport Authority. And so that Yep, so that he could update us with regards to the communications he's had with the state delegation and what's being done. That'll be extremely helpful.

[Fred Dello Russo]: As amended by Councilors Mark and herself, Chair recognizes Councilor Caraviello.

[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. So I think we've all heard the same complaints, but you know, the honest truth is the next three years, it's going to be 11 more airlines coming into Boston. at Logan Airport, not counting the growth of the existing airlines. So it's a problem that's only going to get worse. And I think what people don't realize is you have flights taking off as late as 1.30 a.m. now. We never had that before. And they're coming in as early as 4.30 a.m. So, again, let's say it's a problem that's only going to get worse, not better, and it's best that we get on it now as before these airlines start coming in.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion for approval by Vice President Lungo-Koehn, as amended by Councilors Mox and Vice President Lungo-Koehn, the Chair recognizes, yet again, the esteemed citizen from East Medford.

[Andrew Castagnetti]: You're very kind, Council President. I have two points of hopeful common sense. I've noticed, it seems, when the planes are flying low and overhead, it's a west wind or a south wind. And I presume the airlines want to save fuel, as in U.S. dollars. And it seems like their path is down Riverside Avenue or in front of the Dalai Lama's temple, Central Avenue, heading west. Okay. That being one. The second point is, I believe this runway is no It's not even 10 years old thereabouts. And if I recollect correctly, all the cities and towns on this proposed flight path before they built the runway was invited to speak to Massport about this before construction. And I believe that would have been, and hopefully people did go from Medford community to make their points and concerns known. And regardless, I'm not sure how much weight we could carry unless we had good old Tip O'Neill to block it. I wish her luck, because it bothers me and Riverside Ave, and it bothers my friend Getschy Tenley at the temple.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Good evening, ma'am. Please state your name and address for the record.

[Cheryl Rodriguez]: Hi, I'm Cheryl Rodriguez. I live at 281 Park Street. So it's Logan Airport, Medford. It started really getting bad about two years ago. My daughter's eight now at six years old. She started projectile vomiting in the middle of the night from being woken up by the planes. It took two years of going to specialists and now she's on daily medication because of the sleep interruption causing migraines and vomiting, which they attribute to the planes flying less than 5,000 feet over my house. I don't think the sacrifice is worth it to save them fuel. I think they need to fly higher. My mother-in-law lives in East Boston. You can walk to the airport from her house. She comes to my house and says, I can't believe it's this loud here. You know, Medford needs to stand up and tell them to stop because other towns have stood up and they've been able to get the planes to fly higher. There's no reason for them to be under 5,000 feet in Medford. I don't care what the winds look like.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Good evening, sir. Please state your name and address for the record.

[A7FOhb4GQOs_SPEAKER_06]: Sure. Luke Pryzner, 140 Forest Street. And I want to thank the council for this measure. I think it's a pretty serious problem. It's a relatively new problem. It's about three years old. I'll echo a lot of things that were said by councillors, and I kind of welcome the ideas. I think this kind of dialogue kind of moves the issue forward a little bit. Yeah, so prior to 2012, so in 2012, the FAA had a Modernization Act, and it was called the Next Gen Modernization Act. It's legislation, and it led to the adoption of precision navigation technology. So this big policy measure was rolled out in various phases. And Boston Logan is one of the 30 core airports in the United States. So the 30 core airports began upgrading and adopting new procedures and activating new techniques that were now facilitated by modern equipment. I won't get into all the technical details, but there's a lot of them. And this problem's been studied by community groups. There's two significant ones. There's the Boston West Fair Skies group, which represents Medford, Belmont, Cambridge, Somerville. They're very active. And there's a second group, which is Boston Fair Skies, and that's primarily kind of the South Shore, specifically Milton. Milton's been kind of the most vocal community. If you look at the complaints, I mean, Milton complaints are in the thousands. And they get the double whammy because they get the arrivals and the departures. So anyway, so the community groups are, they're mobilized and pretty active. We use technology. We actually have an ADSP receiver, so we know where all the aircraft are. We kind of follow their tracks and, you know, we can say exactly what the flight path is and analyze the data to see whether or not they're flying too low. In many cases, they don't, but the procedure, which they're following, doesn't call for them to be at 5,000 feet. It calls for them to climb at a certain rate. It's 500 feet per nautical mile. We're about six nautical miles from the airport, so if you do the math, they're about three, three and a half thousand feet up. So it's real loud. I mentioned the hotline. The hotline's one way to voice your displeasure. The other way that I find easier is the online form. So you have to kind of, you know, fill out the form, tell them who you are, and then you can go online and, you know, quickly file a complaint if you need to. So the online form is pretty important. Before I guess I wrap up, there's so much that we could really talk about. But before I wrap up, prior to 2012, we basically had the same number of airplanes. The number is increasing, and it's going to increase. And when they finish the terminal E modernization, they're going to be bringing on the biggest airplane in the world, the A380. And that's an intercontinental wide body. It's a big jet. And it's going to be flying those Atlantic routes. So it's going to be taken off at 1030. And so you're going to have real big planes. You already have real big planes, but you're going to have the biggest plane in the world operating on a Logan. And that's only going to add to it. So yeah, we're going to see more aircraft. You know, if you were just to kind of look at it on balance, you know, prior to 2012, you had basically the same number of airplanes. But because they flew kind of via the beacon system, they would fly to air traffic control towers, basically, and then get redirected to their next tower. And so they'd fly from radar to radar, basically. They had a lot of leeway in what path they could take. And so if you look at the tracks prior to 2013, May of 2013, They're kind of all over the place. Spaghetti is pretty spread out. And so 400 planes, but they're spread out, so the noise is shared, and you don't really have a lot of complaints. And if you look at the complaint data, go prior to May 2013, and not even Milton's complaint. But after 2013, when the RNAV points came into force, so the RNAV is a navigation point, and the RNAV point for 33L is actually over Medford. That's where we get all of it. So every airplane that takes off from the 33L, and on a day where you get a northwest, a north, or a west wind, they're operating on a 33L. And it's going to be, I think, the worst. If you look at the sort of the complaint history, it starts getting bad in August, and then that continues until about November, and then there's a big drop-off, and it's hardly anything in the winter. And then it kind of builds up again. So it's pretty cyclical, and from time to time you'll get the northwest wind in the spring, and so you'll get a lot of noise in March, but it won't be over the course of the entire month. So anyway, prior to 2013, Everybody's kind of, it's the Wild West sort of thing, you know, they're all spread out. But after 2013, the RNF point comes in, and it gets real tight. So you get the same number of airplanes, or maybe a few more, but they're all hitting the same spot in the sky. And so now you're getting, you know, residents, hundreds of residents in Medford, Belmont, Cambridge, who see an airplane that's maybe 3,000 feet above their house, you know, every minute and a half, two minutes. And so that's, you know, that's the kind of like the funneling effect of this RNAV point. So anyway, to close, the online form, you know, if you want to voice a complaint, probably the quickest way to do it. And the FAA is not done with NextGen, and now they're going through this feedback period, and they're analyzing metropolises. and looking at alterations they can make. And so San Francisco is getting some changes. This is a big national problem. It's not like a Medford problem. It's a national problem. And the FAA is working on it, as far as they'll lead you to believe. And Logan is going to be studied next. So if you want it to change, one of the pieces of data they look at are complaints. And number of callers, not just number of complaints, because again, in Milton, they have like 4,000 complaints. But some of those people are filing hundreds of complaints, clearly, if you just do the math. So it's complaints, but it's also number of callers. If you don't like it, file the complaint, because they are going to look at the data. And there is a process to kind of remediate. And that's ongoing. So that's all I have to say. And I want to say thanks for bringing this up, because it is a public concern. It's a quality of life issue. And it certainly affects everyone that lives in Medford, and especially I think in this area, because they fly right over McNally. Thanks a lot.

[Michael Marks]: groups that you refer to.

[A7FOhb4GQOs_SPEAKER_06]: I didn't catch the Boston... Oh, the first is... The one that's kind of local to us would be Boston West Fair Skies.

[Michael Marks]: West Fair Skies?

[A7FOhb4GQOs_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, they're all separate words and they have a nice webpage, a lot of sort of visualizations of data that's been collected. It's informative. So I'd recommend seeing that one. And the other one that kind of caters to the southern communities, I think is Boston Fair Skies.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you very much on the motion for approval as amended all those in favor all those 16-5 74 communications from the mayor to the president and members of the honorable method City Council from Mayor Stephanie M Burke re amendment to chapter 26 entitled education of the revised ordinances of the city of Medford pertaining to accountability of universities and colleges. Dear Mr. President and members of the Medford City Council, I respectfully request and recommend that your honorable body approve the following amendment to chapter 26 of the revised ordinance of the city of Medford. This amendment will assist the city to better address the myriad of issues that arrive when students live off campus. Specifically, it provides a mechanism through which post-secondary schools within the city will collect and maintain records of their locally residing off campus student population. This will assist the city to better provide security and regulatory enforcement services for the off campus student population and to the residents of the city in general. The full text of the proposed amendment follows. Sincerely yours, signature on file, Stephanie M. Burke, Mayor. Somebody please stop me from reading this. An ordinance amending chapter 26 entitled education of the revi- On the motion of Councilor Knight that I stop reading and invite the city solicitor up to read to us a synopsis of the full text.

[Mark Rumley]: I'll do my best. All right, the synopsis is that this would be an amendment which would go into the ordinances under the section of the ordinances that deals with education. The reason that that was chosen is that it really wouldn't fit well into zoning, and there's only one other chapter in education, so this one seemed to fit. The first section, which is 2641, is definitional, lays out the definition of campus, city, directory, school, and student. And the purpose of this is that. students on campuses at universities and colleges. Some live on campus and some live off campus. And it would be good, without disclosing the identity of those who live off campus, to maintain records of those who live off campus locally. And then we get to the meat of it, which says that every school in any part of the city shall collect and maintain a directory of names, addresses, et cetera, of undergraduate, graduate, full and part-time students with their graduation dates, telephone numbers, and roles at the school. In addition to collect and maintain a list of properties currently owned, leased, rented, or operated for use as student residences. And the addresses, telephone numbers collected for these purposes would reflect where the student actually resides locally and what telephone number the student can be reached at for a period of time that they reside in the city. And then the school would be required to maintain a directory of this information. And no less than twice a year, the school would collect the required directory information, and no later than 30 days following the first day of each semester. And any school on a quarterly system shall collect the data itself no later than 30 days following the first day of the first quarter of each academic year. I'm sorry to have gone through the timeframe so quickly. But I just wanted to give you, it can be read just as easily as said. And then upon collection of all of the information, the directory shall be organized and maintained by the school so that the information is accessible and understandable to any authorized school official. And the school shall be responsible for publicizing to their students The limitations on the city zoning ordinance, which limits occupancy to not more than three unrelated adults. And then there's a footnote, which has the lodging house definition from our ordinances. Then, section 2644. has the substance of the report and the statistics that have to be compiled. There's a time frame in the first paragraph. The information in the report shall be compiled by the school within 45 calendar days at the beginning of each semester or quarter. And the report shall include, but not be limited to, the total number of students enrolled at the school as of the date of the collection of the information. total number of students enrolled at the school who reside on the campus, total number of students enrolled at the school who reside off-campus, and an anonymous breakdown of the number of students enrolled at the school as of the data collection of the directory information that reside off-campus of the school organized by address and unit number, including zip code, student status, that is, whether undergraduate, graduate, part-time, or full-time, expected graduation date, et cetera, and whether or not the property is owned, leased, rented, or operated by the school, the home of a family member, or other private housing. Then a complete list of the addresses of all properties currently owned, leased, or rented, operated by the school at which students are housed. And then there's more time frames involved here. Every school shall forward within 45 calendar days at the beginning of the semester or quarter. That information that is gathered in the report required by the section to the city clerk who shall forward the report to the mayor of the city and the superintendent of the Office of Inspectional Services. In our case, that would be the building commissioner. That probably should say building commissioner. I think that would be clear. I beg the indulgence of the council if this is going to be favorably looked at to say the office of the building commissioner. The clerk shall also docket the report and include in the docket the agenda of the next at the next occurring meeting of the city council. The failure or the refusal of the school to forward the report shall be noncompliance with the provisions of these sections. And if they do, then under the next section, which probably should be 2645, so I asked for another amendment on that. And that 7155 came from another place, which I can explain. Here are the penalties if they fail to comply. There's a non-criminal disposition. And if necessary, the city can consider each offense a separate and distinct offense. And there's nothing which precludes the city from instituting any other remedies to abate violations of this ordinance. So there's a couple of amendments that are necessary to clean that up, just eyeballing the, or reviewing the data in the proposed ordinance.

[Adam Knight]: Mr. President. Mr. President, a motion to amend the paper before us in the second to last paragraph and the second to last sentence. We'd like to strike the word superintendent of the office of inspectional services and replace that with the building inspector. We also have, uh, an amendment that I'd like to propose. Mr. President, uh, it would read section point, uh, section seven dash one, five, five violations. I'd like to strike section seven dash one, five, five, and replace that with two six dash four or five. Mr. President, as amended by councilor night, Mr. President, this is an excellent measure that's brought forward by the mayor. Um, this is a piece of legislation that mirrors that, uh, that was being discussed in the subcommittee of zoning and ordinances. that came off the heels of a council resolution that was passed to establish what would be called a university accountability ordinance. In reading the language in this document here, It mirrors the language of the City of Boston's University Accountability Ordinance as well as that of the City of Somerville. It seems to have worked in those communities rather well, Mr. President. In my review of the matter, you know, it's virtually identical to those two other pieces of legislations in neighboring communities with the exception of some housekeeping matters that would make it reflective for Medford as opposed to Boston or Somerville or any other community for that matter. But this is a measure that I wholeheartedly support, 110%, Mr. President. I'd move for approval on it, and I'd ask that the body here support this measure and that the vote be taken by a call of the yeas and nays.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good. The motion for approval as amended by Councilor Knight. Yet another shining example of the city's administration responding to the request of the council. Vice President Lungo-Koehnly.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. I just want to second the motion for approval. This is something that we began talking about right after John Bavuso got on board, I believe, eight years ago. And it's something that, you know, never came to fruition. So I want to thank the administration and the mayor's office for pushing this forward. I think it's definitely something that is going to be very helpful to not only our police department, but fire department, as well as our code enforcement officer, who When we started talking about it, I believe there was an issue, a few residents were here with regards to, I think, complaints about a couple of parties at the end of the year, and they got out of hand, and they were just, I don't know, I can't recall it exactly, it was about, like I said, probably about eight years ago, so this is something that definitely will help the city of Medford, and I appreciate the administration moving it forward.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Chair recognizes Councilor Marks. Thank you, Madam Vice President.

[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. And, you know, I had the opportunity to read over the proposed ordinance, and I think it has a lot of merit. However, you know, we are the legislative body in this community. This is two and a half pages of city ordinance. And even though it may mirror Boston and Somerville, I think it needs to be vetted out within our community, you know, This is a great way of enforcing occupancy restrictions, which is the restriction that we have no more than three unrelated people living in a dwelling. And I think this would go a long way in assisting the concerns we have with that. However, if you look at the city of Boston, their code enforcement department doesn't consist of two people. If you look at the city of Somerville, Their code enforcement department doesn't consist of two people. So, you know, I think we have to vet this out. I think we have to make it realistic for our community. The one concern I do have is that when we do get the names, I'm sorry, not the names, strike that, not the names. When we do get the addresses eventually from the educational institutions in our community, That puts this city on notice. So if we get 80 different addresses saying, you know, there's six people living at each address, we're on notice as a community. And go off a bit, something happens in one of those apartments, and the city of Medford doesn't reach out and do their due diligence on that, that may be a concern. And I'm just saying, I think we have to vet this out, maybe even look at language that states, once we receive the reports from the educational institutions, that the city method is required to act on anything that is in direct conflict with the enforcement restrictions within our community that currently exist. They have to act within 30 days or whatever it might be. to just put this through, you know, without any vetting process. I think this belongs in the ad hoc education subcommittee. Let them vet it out. Let them take a look at it.

[Adam Knight]: I believe the paper is already lying in the zoning and ordinance subcommittee right now, and we did have one meeting on it previously, just in terms of procedural history of the paper.

[Michael Marks]: Right, so the paper came from the mayor's office, not from the subcommittee.

[Adam Knight]: I file the resolution, I attach language. The same concerns that you raised that night, that you're raising tonight were raised that night. The matter was sent to subcommittee. The subcommittee met on two or three occasions at this point in time to take up this paper as well as other papers. We discussed the paper not in its full length or entirety. The language that was submitted by the administration mirrored the exact language that I was looking at when I was putting it together. as the sponsor of the resolution and the proposed ordinance change. So I can understand where you're coming from, and I'm sure you can understand where I'm coming from, and I'm very happy to see the language be pretty much virtually the exact same language that I was proposing at the subcommittee level. However, I feel as though this is a great measure, Councilor. I don't want to stop you further. I just wanted to give you procedural history as to where we were and where it came from. But I put a measure forward. voted to put it into subcommittee to draft something. Something was drafted. The vetting process was ongoing. The paper was never reported out of committee in the interim. The administration has put an identical paper forward.

[Michael Marks]: Okay. So I can appreciate that, but that came from the administration and that's fine. They're, they're able to submit a request for a ordinances anytime. And they've done that in the past. Uh, the committee that council might is, uh, talking about the subcommittee, that paper is still before the subcommittee. It seems like it was partially vetted out, never reported out. So that's not the paper that's currently before us. This paper is from the administration. So if the council wants to go on record. without vetting out ordinances, which is one of our main responsibilities, then so be it. It's not going to have my stamp of approval on it, because as I just mentioned, there's some concerns within the language that I have that may not be concerns in Somerville and Boston, who have an ample code enforcement department. We all know in this community, we don't. And so for those reasons, Mr. President, I couldn't support it unless it's fully vetted out in subcommittee, and I would recommend that this be sent to the ad hoc education committee where the good attorney mentioned that he found the appropriate place within our ordinances under the education section of it. So, that would be my recommendation, you know, to have it fully vetted out where it is the jurisdiction of this council to enact ordinances.

[Fred Dello Russo]: We have a motion for approval and yours, Councilor, is contradictory to that motion. So on the motion for approval, was that an amendment to the motion?

[Michael Marks]: Well, if he wants, we'll take a vote on that. I'm voting against it. So if it dies, it dies. And I'd rather see it not die. I'd rather see it go to a subcommittee. I'm supportive of this. I'm supportive of this, Mr. President, but I think it has to be vetted out. I think we have to do our homework and not just get a two and a half page ordinance from the mayor's office and report it out. We just got this language Friday. So if my council colleagues feel comfortable with language without looking at it, I'm sure Congress doesn't do it that way. I'm sure the state legislature doesn't do it that way, but if the city council wants to do it that way, then so be it.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Uh, the, uh, if we could allow the solicitor to, uh, Perhaps she has some information.

[Mark Rumley]: Please, just briefly. I'm sure Congress doesn't do things that way because we've all seen how they operate. But wherever it goes, wherever it came from, however legislatively it's handled, as long as it's moved forward, I think that's the most important thing. Because when the question comes up, where did it come from? Did it come from a subcommittee? Did it come from the mayor? Did it come from Boston? Did it come from another city in town? Obviously, this is the mayor's proposal tonight. And wherever it came from, it came from concern. I don't want to wax on about something, but I have to say this right now at this juncture. Having been in the law department for 32 years, I've seen a lot of different things. And some things that are very hard and some things that are heinous. And you may recall, because some of the Councilors were around then, I think, but the Harris Road fire. about 14 years ago, 15 years ago, where a college student at Tufts died in the fire. And it was a place that was, as many times it occurs, it was a place that was being rented to too many students. And so after that, we tried to enact an ordinance which would have dealt with home inspections of three or more so that we could make sure that if there were going to be these absentee landlords that were going to stuff students in there, we could try to get at it early. And the objections that came forth from the landlord lobbyist group, state group that came here into these chambers and fought against that. And I don't think any of the councilors were here then who are wrong now. And that measure was defeated. Having been through that experience, having spoken to that young girl's family, and also having the city of Medford entered suit against that homeowner who rented that out to recover at least our response time to police and fire. And I wish that we had never been able to do that. I wish that the girl had never had this happen to her, that her life wasn't cut short. Wherever this goes from here tonight, that's your business. But the basis and the foundation of this ordinance is concerned. And it isn't just concern to stop college parties. It's a concern to make sure that youngsters who live off campus are safe. So wherever you send it, send it. And I know, I have no doubt that every one of you Councilors have the same concerns that I do. So where it goes is less important than it gets moved forward. And no one would ever be against appropriate view and review in depth of any ordinance. I don't take any exception to that. And I wasn't the author of this. The reason that there were those two errors on there was I wanted to get it done and I overlooked those numbers at the end. But wherever you send it, as long as it's moving forward, that we're doing something positive, then I feel better. And I think that it's a tribute to this council to address the same concerns that came up when that young college student's life was shortened in that fire at Harris Road 14 years ago.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Knight.

[Adam Knight]: My concern is that it does keep moving forward, Mr. President. I think Councilor Lungo said it best. It's been eight years in the making. We've had no proposed legislation that's been before the body. Now we do. I took a shot at it. I put some proposed legislation together. I sent it into our subcommittee for review and for vetting. I'd be willing to withdraw my motion.

[Michael Marks]: Just if I could, and I respect the fact that you took a shot at it. The only shot that the administration did was to copy an ordinance from Somerville. I mean, it doesn't take much of a shot to do that.

[Adam Knight]: Let me finish what I was going to say.

[Michael Marks]: I know, but I'm just saying. So to have it vetted out, I don't think is a big concern to vet this out. And I'm not saying it is, Councilor.

[Adam Knight]: What I'm saying is this, what I'm saying is I'd be happy to withdraw my motion, but whereas the zoning and ordinance subcommittee has already met on it, I think it would make sense that it would remain in that subcommittee.

[Michael Marks]: That's all. If they were unable to, get this moving forward, then maybe it deserves another subcommittee. And that's no reflection on the members, but maybe it deserves another subcommittee.

[Adam Knight]: safe access to medicinal marijuana facilities.

[Michael Marks]: And you guys are still busy with that. Yes, we are. Right. So maybe another subcommittee may be a good idea.

[Adam Knight]: Maybe you guys are maybe overworked and underpaid.

[Michael Marks]: I would respectfully ask that it be sent to the ad hoc education committee where that's where it falls within the city ordinance, Mr. President. And I appreciate my calling. I'm not trying to hold this up. I think this is a good idea, but it needs to be vetted.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Do you still have your motion? to send it, no, for approval to my first reading.

[Adam Knight]: I have a motion for approval on the floor, Mr. President. I have no problem withdrawing that motion. If somebody else wants it to go forward, then they can make the motion. But I made the motion right out of the gate because it was something that I feel passionate about that I think it's a piece of legislation.

[Michael Marks]: I made a motion. I made a motion to send it to the subcommittee.

[Adam Knight]: Right. I made the motion right when I spoke, and I spoke first. So I'm saying I made the motion right out of the gate. I'll withdraw my motion and let everybody else say what they think about it. I have no problem with that.

[Fred Dello Russo]: So the chair has the motion of council night withdrawn. And the motion on the floor is the motion of Councilor Marks to send it to the Zoning and Ordinance Subcommittee Council. The ad hoc committee of education, which I think was created by Councilor Dello Russo, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, thank you. So on the motion of Councilor Marks, Mr. Citizen, please. Please state your name and address.

[Andrew Castagnetti]: Thank you, Mr. Castaneri, Cushing Street, 02155. Um, this ordinance, I haven't had a chance to read it in total. It seems that applies to any present campus or any future new campus that may establish here. Notes one five five. Also it reads campus means any real property owned by a school. So my question is, does this ordinance, include Walnut Hill properties or any other entity that buys housing, real estate in Medford for any method college or any entity in the future under the guise of under the wing of any local university. That's very important. I would think to have your language set and contract if you pass this and studying is a lot better than making a possible mistake.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Worthy notion for consideration. So on the motion for this ordinance draft to be sent to the committee, the Ad Hoc Committee for Education, all those in favor? Chair recognizes Councilor Caraviello. I'm sorry.

[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. When this goes to the committee, I would request that a representative from Tufts University be invited to that meeting also, seeing that this is pretty much pertinent to them.

[Fred Dello Russo]: The chairman of the committee is Councilor Falco, supported by Vice President Longo-Curran and Councilor Scarpelli. So on the motion as amended, Councilor Knight?

[Michael Marks]: No, that's it. That's all set. Councilor Marks? Just if I could, Mr. Castagnetti, you asked a great question. And if you look at section 26-44, It applies to property owned, leased, rented, or operated by the school, the home of a family member, or other private housing. So in my opinion, it applies to everyone. So I think it's covered within this current ordinance. And maybe the city solicitor.

[v8c6yqLwu5E_SPEAKER_17]: Oh, no, no.

[Fred Dello Russo]: The motion for approval. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. Chair recognizes Councilor Knight for suspension of the rules to take a paper off the table. Councilor Knight.

[Adam Knight]: Which paper are we taking off the table, Mr. President? I think maybe the budget might be a good one to take up off the table at this point in time.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes, 16-533, Mr. Councilor. 16-533, the FY 2017 Municipal and School Budget. to take the school budget off the table. All those in favor? Councilor? Offered by Councilor Knight, be resolved that the administration take the proper measures to increase the number of no heavy trucking signs along Golden Ave. Councilor Knight.

[Adam Knight]: Yes, Mr. President. Before we walked into our meeting this afternoon at 7 p.m., there was a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting going on. And one of the items in discussion was the development of a property on Golden Ave. The Zoning Board of Appeals has purview on that. However, there were some individuals that resided on Golden Ave that did have some concerns about the increase in volume of heavy trucking up their street. Golden Ave is a notorious cut through street. I think we've all seen people take a right-hand turn on Mystic Ave from Harvard and then their shop left at Enterprise Towing up Golden Ave and then they keep going all the way up. And I think for those who didn't know the shortcut, I just told them. how to do it, but ultimately, Mr. President, the road's seeing a large amount of increase in traffic, especially in heavy trucks. Heavy trucking is prohibited on the street, so I'm asking that the administration take the appropriate steps.

[Fred Dello Russo]: The motion is approved by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. Offered by Councilor Knight, be it resolved that the administration provide an update on the status of the requested painting and installation of a crosswalk between King Avenue and Cedar Road, Councilor Knight, and Forest Street.

[Adam Knight]: Yes, Mr. President, upon the grand opening of McNally Park, I put a resolution in requesting that a crosswalk be erected so that residents who would like to walk to the park would be able to cross safely because the nearest crosswalk is either at the foot of Forrest and Salem or at Governors Lawrence and Forrest, Mr. President, so this would make it closer to the park.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of approval, all those in favor? Motion carries off it by Council Caraviello be resolved that the Metro City Council request that the DPW repair the pothole on the corner of Evans and Central.

[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Caraviello. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, I was informed by a resident this evening that some of the potholes on Evans Street have been fixed, but there was one remaining. If the DPW can go out there and fill the one last hole, we'd appreciate it, Mr. President.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On motion approved by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? All those opposed? Carries. Offered by Councilors Caraviello, Scarpelli, and Dello Russo. Be it resolved that the Manhattan City Council request that Winthrop Street resurfacing from Playstead Road to Lawrence be discussed. Councilor Caraviello.

[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, again, I think we've all received the same email in regards to Winthrop Street. And most of that street has been repaved. That is the only section left of the street that has not been paved. The hillside part has been, all the other parts of the circle have been. If we could request that the administration look at to possibly resurfacing that section from Placestead Road down to Lawrence Road, it would be appreciated, Mr. President. Let's get it done.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion for approval by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor?

[Michael Marks]: Councilor Marks? I don't want to be the shark at the pool party, but Eversource will be digging that street up, as we all know, in 2017, from Winchester all the way down Winthrop Street, the whole length of Winthrop Street. To Somerville. Correct. They're going to be digging a trench, and then they're going to be digging 10-foot manholes every certain distance. And I did respond back to the resident, who I know well, and I explained that situation, that it doesn't make sense to resurface that large of an area where it's going to be dug up in maybe eight months from now. And I explained that some of the issues that they were having was regarding heavy trucking and some of the gullies and so forth on that end of Winthrop Street because of the construction of new homes down there. And I think that's a better recommendation at this particular point to have the engineering department go out, check the road from the Winchester line all the way up to Lawrence Road and see what recommendations they have of temporary fixes, Mr. President, before we can have, because that road's going to be resurfaced 100% after that work is done in 2017 from Eversource, that's installing an electricity line. So that would be my recommendation. I mean, I'll support either one, but I don't think that road's going to be resurfaced.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion for approval as amended by Councilor Marks, all those in favor? All those opposed, the motion carries. Offered by Councilor Caraviello, be it resolved that the Medford City Council request that the electrical department replace the broken lights at the War Memorial Park. Currently, four lights on the ground are not working.

[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Caraviello. Thank you, Mr. President. A couple of veterans approached me in the last couple of days in regards to the lights being out. They're the ones that are on the ground, and I think I may have requested this a couple of months ago also. But now there are four lights out, so if they could be changed, it would be greatly appreciated. The veterans would appreciate it.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion approved by Councilor Caraviello, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. Offered by President Dello Russo, be it resolved that the Medford City Council commit and congratulate Jeopardy Champion and Medford resident Lori McDougall on her great success on the nationally syndicated game show. She is the sister of sustainability officer and board of appeals clerk Dennis McDougall on the motion of approval by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes. Offered by Councilor Marks, be it resolved that long-time Method residents, David and June Klein, be recognized for celebrating their 61st wedding anniversary. Councilor Marks, happy anniversary.

[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. You couldn't meet a nicer couple, David and June Klein, are long-time Method residents. They raised three great children in this community. And I asked David, when I saw him the other day, what is the secret to a happy marriage of 61 years? And the words of wisdom that came from my friend was, it's a work in progress. And I think, you know, I think he's correct with that. You know, he said it's ongoing. Every day you have to work at it. And if there are any indication of what life's all about. I'm proud to know both of them. So I want to wish them a happy 61st wedding anniversary and many, many more to come.

[Fred Dello Russo]: The motion approved by Councilor Marks. All those in favor? All those opposed? Happy anniversary at Molto Sanos. Offered by Councilor Marks, be it resolved that the street sweeping on main roads be discussed, whereas residents who reside on the main roads have no way to park their car due to resident permit parking on many side streets, Councilor Marks.

[Michael Marks]: I'll be brief, Mr. President, but back some 10 years ago, the city of Medford implemented a pilot program where sweeping on main roads would be more frequently done than in the neighborhoods. I'm sad to report that the pilot program is still in effect 10 years later and that residents in this community that live on a main road and have to move their car And unfortunately, like in Salt Method on Main Street and a number of areas, Boston Ave have nowhere to put their car because all the surrounding streets are resident permit parking, and they're not eligible for a resident permit parking sticker. Just recently, if you went down Boston Ave at 430 in the morning, it was lined with orange tickets of residents' cars, Mr. President. And residents have nowhere to move their car. And I would ask that either a subcommittee or the Traffic Commission. The Chief has been telling us they're working on city-wide parking permits, but it's been about two years now that I've been hearing that, and I think something needs to be done to alleviate the concerns of those residents on main streets in this community, and I just want to move that forward, Mr. President.

[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion, Councilman Marks, let this go to the Public Works Subcommittee, which you sit on. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. 16-575, under suspension offered by Council and IP, resolved that the administration provide an update on the status of the retaining wall at Morgan and Gaston, that the Council appropriated free cash funds To make structurally sound, Councilor Knight.

[Adam Knight]: Yes, Mr. President. In early 2015, this council appropriated about $1.4 million in what was called the Community Improvement Initiative, and included in that was some funds to make structurally sound a retaining wall that had collapsed on a private residence between Gaston and Morgan Street, Mr. President. And there was some discussion about whether or not the property would be leaned if this construction work took place, and there was some confirmation that the property would be I'd ask the administration for an update, as I've gotten a number of inquiries from neighbours and residents about the property, concerned about the structure and about the safety thereof.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion approved by Councilor Knight, all those in favour? All those opposed? Councilor Marks.

[Michael Marks]: If we could get a report of the vote of the Council on that. I remember the issue, but I don't remember taking a vote on that. But I may be forgetful on that. But I'd like to see the vote of the Council on that. I have a problem with putting any type of city money on personal property in the community, and so I'd like to see that vote, Mr. President, also.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion for approval by Councilor Knight, as amended by Councilor Marks, all those in favour? All those opposed? The motion carries. Now back to the removal from the table offered by Councilor Knight, 16-533, the 2017 fiscal year budget. municipal and school. It was tabled on June 7th at $162,100,545. We received in that time an amendation to that based upon council input and school committee input. It is now amended and come off the table at $162,108. $162,108,545, a net $8,000 change. That reflects changes both on the school side and changes on the city side, most in particularly the granting of monies to the council at the council's request to undertake legal action. So we have before us the amended budget dated June 15, 2016, and councillors all received it on their tables last week at the total of $162,108,545. That breaks down to $107,775,545 city, $54,333,000 school. that I mentioned earlier. Chair awaits a motion.

[Adam Knight]: Councilor Knight. I'd like to ask the Director of Finance to come up and give a brief overview of the budget and what it entails. The Mayor's budget statement might be sufficient.

[Fred Dello Russo]: We have with us Anne Baker, the Director of Finance for the city, who participated in the preparation of the budget, and she'll give us a brief overview.

[SPEAKER_20]: Well, as you know, we've all gone through every line of the budget, and there's been a lot of proposals, a couple of changes that were made to give the council some legal funds in their budget of approximately $20,000. And it was $33,000 put into the bottom line of the school budget, and I believe the intended The purpose of that is for additional kindergarten needs, and I believe that was a recommendation of the council. The proposed budget is a 4.3% increase from last year, and includes a 2.6% increase in the public school spending. And $2.5 million from increases in fixed costs such as health insurance is $1.35 million. Pension costs is $444,000. Trash recycling is an increase of $449,000, and debt is $245,000. An additional $500,000 is attributed to the MWRA assessments for water and sewer. If these fixed costs are excluded, the increase is only 2.2%. So those fixed costs are really pretty much out of control of the city. I don't know if you want to help out, you want to go do it anymore? We've added a halftime position for information technology to assist in moving the city to office 365. Uh, we fill all the vacant positions in the department of public works, including augmenting the tree warden from a part time to a full time position, uh, maintaining current police staffing levels with the addition of funding to begin the process of transferring over to civilian dispatch officers. This, in fact, will augment the police services with 10 additional officers that served in dispatch that will now be serving as police officers. Not that they didn't serve as police officers before, but they would be patrol officers. Increase the current fire staffing levels by one firefighter. Increase in personnel costs are reflective of settlement of the collective bargaining agreement in 2016 for a contract that expired in 2013 that was recently just settled. The impact from the three fiscal years of the wage increases that are seen in the fiscal 17 budget is a three-year agreement. We're appointing a part-time custodian to the Chevalier Commission budget. That's a new position. We're committed to funding the requirements of the State Library Commission to ensure that we'll maintain the grant from the state for the library funding. Restructuring of the building department to incorporate the weights and measures inspector into that department. An increase in the school budget of 1.4 million. The city's budget is supported by the following revenue sources as every year. Real and personal property taxes of 104 million. Local receipts of $16 million, of which you've received the detail of the local receipts in your packets, which includes hotel and meals tax and cable fees. Enterprise revenues from the water and sewer of $24 million, which supports the enterprise operations and those costs in the budget that support fixed costs for those employees in the enterprise budget. Building assistance reimbursements of 3.2 million that we received from the Mass State Building Commission for the schools that we built in 2001 and 2000, that's 3.2 million. And net local aid from the state house budget one, which I don't believe is passed yet, but in there for us is 15.6 million. And the local aid is expected to be about $300,000 greater than last year. Do you have any further questions?

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. And may I point out that the city council has been meeting on this budget since Monday, June 6th. We've met several times each week and on Saturdays. Um, and we've, uh, sent dozens upon dozens upon dozens of papers, questions and requests to various heads in the mayor's office for answers. And, uh, we've, uh, received answers, uh, and great detail, uh, to the council. And we've also had ample opportunity to have discussions on this budget. We've had discussions with department heads on this budget and other matters. And we've had frequent discussions in repartee with various members of the administration and their designees.

[Adam Knight]: So now the budget's before us. Councilor Knight, you still have the floor. Mr. President, I think it might be nice if we extend the same opportunity to the superintendent to give us a brief rundown of his budget as well.

[Fred Dello Russo]: I'm sure the opportunity to discuss the budget by the superintendent to the budget that was reviewed by the council and reviewed designed and approved by the school committee.

[Roy Belson]: Mr. Superintendent, welcome tonight. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the council. It was before you last week, and I went over the budget in detail with you. You did ask for some additional information. I believe it was forwarded to you over the weekend, if not sooner. And I'm not sure what specifically you want to talk about, but if there's something specific, I'd be happy to talk.

[Adam Knight]: I'm more or less Mr. Belson. I figured it might be good to just give a brief breakdown of the highlights in the budget for those of us that are here for the first time. I certainly can appreciate the work that you do. It's quite a voluminous document.

[Roy Belson]: So as Director of Finance and Administration pointed out, the proposed budget was $54,333,000. It's an increase over FY 2016 of $1.4 the overall projected appropriated budget represents a 2.6 increase from last year, and the budget is buttressed by 2.1 of generated revenue. When the generated revenue is included, the actual projected budgetary expense will be 56,443,392, or a 3.2% increase over FY 2016. Also, as we've indicated, various aid allocations and grants from federal, state, non-profit groups, corporate sources, and the like are factored in. We are concerned that the state budget is under some duress right now, because there are funds that come to the school directly from the state, and it's hard to know what the conference committee is going to do. There are some funds that could be vulnerable, especially since the governor has indicated that the projected shortfall going forward is greater than was originally anticipated, by about $200,000 more than was previously anticipated. We provide sufficient resources to enable us to meet the requirements of state and federal mandates that are in place. Undoubtedly, there are a number of contingencies that happen every year that we have to make adjustments for. Fiscal 2016 saw the successful negotiations of virtually every contract in the school department. There is one contract out there, but we believe that will close sometime over the next two weeks. That's with the Carpenters. There are only three members of that particular group. But all the funding that we need is accounted for in that budget proposal and budget that was approved by the Medford School Committee on June 20th. We're working with the mayor, as you know, and you've asked for some of these things on capital planning. You asked for a listing. I gave you a listing. I also gave you a short-term listing of things that we thought might happen sooner or would like to happen sooner. Obviously, it has to be factored into the total cities approach. to capital planning, and we look forward to working with the mayor. We've talked about a number of things. Overall enrollments in the schools remain pretty stable. Class sizes are very, very good. The actual distributions by school will vary somewhat as people come and go during the summer months. The vocational enrollment is definitively up, and there are a number of new offerings that we think are terrific offerings, and our young people are flocking to them. Minute Man allocation has been sharply reduced over the last several years. Three years ago it was a million dollars. It's now down to about 400, and it will be less than that going forward. We do anticipate some increase in ELL students, students who don't speak English as a first language. We have some retirements. I've indicated that some of that will come and go. And when we gave you the budget, it was 16 known retirements. There may be a couple more that come in over the summer because people are talking to us, but I can't tell you who they are at this point because they haven't made up their mind. There were approximately 11 faculty members when we gave you this budget originally who were not going to be rehired. I think we made some decisions to rehire at least two of those that were previously on the list to not be rehired. There may be a couple more that we bring back. Sometimes we put people on a list like that as to give us more time. The state law requires that when we have a non-professional status teacher, we have to notify them by June 15th if we believe that we may not rehire them. That's not true for other kinds of positions, but it is true for teachers. So we sometimes put some extra people on that list just to be sure that we've covered the bases. Elementary supplies have increased. All supplies across the district have increased. I think I did tell you that Envision was in its last year of payment. It's about $82,000. And after that, we'll be able to take that amount and use it in other areas. We did tell you a little bit about our desire not to ask parents to provide substantial amounts of supplies and materials that the school department believes we provide quite a bit. and that we should be able to cover their needs without asking parents to do much more than a handful of things that they would use at home for the youngster coming home, paper, pencils, pens, rulers, things of that type that might be necessary. The science budget included 10,000 funding for additional elementary science kits. The Journey's English language program has already been paid for. The ELL budget has 6,000 more in it. There's also additional $2,000 for translation services. And we've added 1.5 positions to that area to accommodate the incoming people. The special ed department will add an adjustment Councilor to that level. There will be 16 adjustment psychologists and four behavioral specialists going forward. But we've added a fifth behaviorist as part of the discussions with the school committee in their last hearing. And it's also included in what I've sent to you. We've eliminated one administrative position, the clinical coordinator's position. We've added a librarian to the middle school, so each school will have access to a full-time librarian. Not full-time, but they'll share a librarian plus some para help. We've added a math coach to the elementary schools. We've added three full-time kindergarten aides to the Roberts Elementary. And I believe that's the limit on that. The vocational school will be adding four teachers to support expanded programs, engineering, robotics, business technology, multimedia program, computer, and business. Hospitality program is envisioned. It may happen with some additional dollars that come from the outside. The vocational budget is $10,000 more for instructional supplies, an additional $23,000 to support needed equipment. And they also get $65,000 of Perkins federal funds that we think will be good. They'll also, as I indicate, save some money in the tuition to Minuteman. The English department has added $2,000 for textbooks and also e-readers. It will also help to support a program that helps youngsters in transition. The mathematics department will be adopting a new high school textbook program with an annual payment of $36,000 each for three years. Additional math upgrades will follow over the next two years as the Envision payment is done this year. The department will also be doing some work with school computer science programs and share some teaching time. The science department has $10,000 increase to fund the elementary engineering program. I indicated that before. The social studies department maintains a strong textbook account of $20,000. That will help them with their advanced placement European textbooks and with other books that are part of their overall program, including a global scholars program. They did add 14 classroom sets of new eighth grade US history textbooks this past year. The foreign language department has an increase of $11,200 to support the acquisition of new Spanish textbooks and to support the Latin program that has been reinstituted. The physical education department, health education, will receive 9,000 more in place of classroom supplies and equipment system wide. That came from a decrease in the need to fund the Michigan model, which has already been purchased. That's the health education model that we use in conjunction with our substance abuse prevention program. The Fine Arts Department will stay consistent when 9,600 was added to support programs. We did talk about the band program. We're working on a paper that we will bring to you to sell off some old musical instruments and deposit that in a gift account that will require your approval. so that we can then reinvest that in the music department going forward. The library and media instructional technology has been increased by $14,900. It's on top of last year's $70,000 increase, which we put in the budget for instructional supplies to ensure that our technology is properly able to go forward. There are several grants that fund these things as well. We have some money in Block 03 for technology infrastructure. The Health Services Department provides a nursing service to our schools and contributes greatly to our efforts to support social emotional issues and substance abuse prevention. The staff also assists with SPED medical issues that are part of IEPs and 504 plans. The small increase in the budget to cover contractual professional development and summer coverage. I told you that the Department of Public Health gave us a $15,000 grant to coordinate with outside agencies. It's an innovative grant. Not many in the Commonwealth at this point in time. Hopefully, we can do something really good with it. The Department of Public Health also pays for at least the majority of at least one other nursing physician. The guidance department added an additional Councilor to staff last year, but they're getting $800 more to help them with their supplies, materials, and professional development. We will continue to pay for the PSAT program, which enables youngsters to take that version of the SAT at the early stages, because many kids can't afford that. The middle school budget will see an increase in student activities lines by 2,000 per school. We will be filling the assistant principal position at the Andrews, which was vacated by the retirement of Miriam Morata. We will be filling the assistant principal position at the Brooks, which was initiated by the leaving of Kevin Andrews as a principal and the promotion of Suzanne Galussi to the position of principal. We've increased funding to sustain a third late bus at the middle schools. Parents and others like that, they feel that kids need more time to stay after school. Medford High School will see a $12,500 increase in non-salary lines to accurately reflect actual expenditures. The high school student activities block will increase by 10,000. There's a lot of activities going in by the high school. You see it all the time. The kids are always coming up with new things. They're really doing a great job. The athletic department salary account reflects the actual cost of coaches. and the trainer's full salary. Each year we weigh information, the cost of contracted services, officials, bosses, things of that that sometimes drive the cost up. We're also moving, as we've told you, into the Northeast Conference, effective this spring, so that the GBL will merge in. The details will flow out in the next little while. We talked about a user's fee, but we kind of decided at the last minute we weren't going to do that. We would eat that and try to find other ways to raise money. Security budget reflects the increase in personnel covering our buildings. The Raptor technology system is picked up in our technology budget. We've paid for most of it now, which is supplies and materials. At this point, we also have some money for camera repairs, but the bulk of camera upgrades will be in capital. Our operation and maintenance budget reflects a salary increase for custodial and maintenance staffs. We go out to bid for the cleaning service, projecting a 10% increase. Our heating and utilities are expected to remain pretty much the same. We're adding about $50,000 to the supply budget. You asked for a breakout, we provided that to you in the weekend distribution to you. And I indicated major capital repairs would be coming through a different source. Regular large vehicle pupil transportation is $120,000 higher than last year. We're in the second year of a contract. We think we can reduce some of that. We hope to be able to reduce some of that by using a smaller bus to take youngsters to Minuteman 1 and also to possibly use our new Transfinder route development system possibly to even consolidate and maybe even drop off a bus. We want to be careful before I say that because obviously I don't want the time to increase for youngsters and travel. Vocational transportation fund of Block 17 may see some reimbursement from the state. I'm wary about that. It's 1.7 million statewide for non-resident transportation. That's probably a very ripe area to be cut in the state budget and conference committee. We hope it doesn't. Special education transportation is up 50,000 from last year, reflecting the cost of small vehicles. And homeless transportation is also up 50,000. This was identified as an unfunded mandate originally, But the state has not funded it at the level that it truly needs. And there are more and more homeless families that we serve every year. I've talked to you about the public information officer. I believe it's a valuable add to us. I think that the position is well worth what we put into it. And I believe that we've already seen some significant payback. So we believe we've provided for many of the priorities identified by our professionals in the school committee. We all realize no budget provides for everything, and no budget does everything that everyone wants. A lot of things are aspirational. And I want to thank my staff and the people that work with me for putting this together, because I believe they've done yeoman's work in making sure that the school budget is a good document. And the school committee, I believe, put a lot of time in. They've had several pre-budget hearings, as you know what we're talking about. They met right through the year, talking with department heads, getting their feedback. And then they met in June. twice to go over their priorities and to make final decisions. So, Mr. President, I think that gives you a little bit to start with, and I'll be happy to take any questions.

[Fred Dello Russo]: The President Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. I'm told that you signed up for some more time with the school department, and we're very grateful to your good work, your leadership in the community, and for having been not just an administrator, but a classroom teacher, showing people the way, and we're very grateful to you for all your kind work.

[Roy Belson]: I appreciate it.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Councilor Knight, I believe you still have the floor.

[Adam Knight]: I'd like to echo your sentiments, Mr. President. I think Mr. Belson and his team did a wonderful job putting this budget together. It's a strong school department budget. I feel as though they've done a great job meeting all state and federal mandates, maintaining small class sizes of 20 students or less, expanding vocational opportunities in engineering and robotics. business, technology, biotech, the environment, emergency response, ems, Mr. President, cooperative education opportunities have expanded. We're going to see a multimedia program up there. We've seen the opportunity to integrate medford high school students and medford vocational high school, vocational technical high school students in the same programming, which is something that wasn't in place before with that brick wall that was between the two schools that no one could climb over has been broken down, Mr. President, and we're seeing students that are exploring opportunities that they didn't have in the past. We look at the budget. It also funds a new reading and literacy program, a new mathematics program at the elementary level, expands after school programs, and it actually allows for the creation of new before school programs. We have three full-time elementary aides that are going to be coming in at the Roberts, and we still maintain a whole student focus, which is something that I think is very important. Mr. President, this, you know, budget in the school side makes a commitment to technology, and we've also seen school security improvements, increases in personnel and equipment there, which is something that this council's certainly expressed concern over. So I'd like to thank Superintendent Belson for his work and that of the school committee as well on this document. I think it's a well-prepared document and I feel as though it's something I'm comfortable supporting today.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Chair recognizes Vice President Lago-Curran.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. Auditor Ann Baker, you mentioned the kindergarten aides. Since the last time we met a week ago, You said that, has there been an addition to that?

[SPEAKER_20]: The original, this amended budget was increased on the school side by $33,000. And I was told that the intention of that money that was supposed to go to a kidney guy needs Mr. Belson to be able to answer that. But that's what I was- So that's 11 still? I know nothing about it.

[Roy Belson]: I know nothing about it. If it's been done through the city's administration, I'll take the money obviously. But the school committee does not know about it as far as I know.

[Michael Marks]: Point of information, Councilor Marks. Mr. President, I'm not sure how something can happen in the school budget if the school committee didn't vote on it. So maybe Ms. Baker can give us a little more information where this came from.

[SPEAKER_20]: I just, it was the amended budget was submitted with an additional 33,000. That's what I was not part of the discussion. I was told that it was for the, for the bottom line, uh, in the school budget and that there was some talk that it would go to kindergarten. Okay.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So I think through the chair, I think there was an addition from the first, we got the first one, we got June 2nd to June 13th and then no, there has been no additional money since we met last week. When we were in committee of the whole last week, But Ann publicized that there was additional money for kindergarten aid, so it was a little confusing whether that was from the beginning of June or within this last week.

[Michael Marks]: The superintendent just told us it wasn't part of the budget that they approved. It was not. Correct. Right. So maybe Ms.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Baker was slightly mistaken because she wasn't present at the meeting, but she is aware of the bottom line and the dollar amount.

[Michael Marks]: Right. Well, the dollar amount includes an additional 33,000 according to this administration's representative that's up here tonight. So how does that take place, Mr. President?

[Fred Dello Russo]: Point of information, Councilor Scarpelli.

[George Scarpelli]: I'm looking at this as the $33,000 that was appropriated from the bottom line, then the increase to the Roberts that you said was increased, I believe, to add their kindergarten needs. That's what I believe.

[SPEAKER_20]: I was told it was $33,000 increase the school bottom line.

[George Scarpelli]: Correct. Okay. So, and I know the superintendent mentioned that there was an increase to the Roberts kindergarten aid positions to make that a full, um, number. I believe that's what it was.

[Roy Belson]: Can I ask just a point of clarification? Listen, I wasn't part of the budget discussion. As far as I know, it's $54,333,000. That's the budget. That's the budget the school committee approved.

[SPEAKER_20]: And that is the budget that's there. So maybe the original budget that was presented to you was mistaken.

[Adam Knight]: Point of information, Councilor Knight. I do believe we got our budget books before the school committee finished their deliberations. And we also had met prior to the completion of their deliberations. Is that not correct?

[Fred Dello Russo]: uh, we met afterwards, our final meetings last Tuesday, but we initially met, requested an addendum to the budget, what the specifics were of it. I don't remember, but I know there was a bottom line increase and that's reflected in the amended budget that was presented to the council last week. Thank you.

[A7FOhb4GQOs_SPEAKER_06]: Still doesn't answer the question.

[Fred Dello Russo]: So councilor Marks, if you have a question, what is it?

[Michael Marks]: I've already asked three times. I'll ask a fourth.

[Roy Belson]: The budget line that the school committee approved has not changed since the school committee approved it on the 20th. It's $54,333,000. So if something has been added to it, I have not seen anything added to that. And Ann is telling me that at this point in time, that's the number in front of you. That's the number in front of you. That's what the school committee approved. That's what I know we have. And I know of no addition outside of the three kindergarten aides to the Roberts. And I indicated in the letter that I sent to you in response to your query that that increase within the lines It would be taken from certain lines, it would be $23,775. That's the cost of that particular item, but it's not adding or changing the bottom line.

[Clerk]: Correct.

[SPEAKER_20]: So the amended budget that you're dealing with is the approved budget by the school committee, 54,333. Apparently, the first budget that was given to you must have been incorrect, because it only said 54,300,000 for the school instead of 54,333,000. That's why the amended budget was presented.

[Michael Marks]: So the first budget was incorrect?

[SPEAKER_20]: Apparently.

[Michael Marks]: Is there anyone from the administration that can answer that question?

[SPEAKER_20]: You have it there in front of you.

[Michael Marks]: Is there a budget person from the mayor's office here to present the $162 million budget?

[SPEAKER_20]: Right here.

[Michael Marks]: No, is there a budget person, not a paper, a person?

[SPEAKER_20]: I have to present the budget right here. It's $162,108,500. It was submitted to you by the mayor.

[Michael Marks]: So Anne, you drew the short stick and you're representing the administration on the budget tonight.

[SPEAKER_20]: Right.

[Michael Marks]: Okay. That's all I want to know. You're here representing the administration.

[Roy Belson]: Anything else?

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Uh, Madam Vice President.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah. I mean, if, unless we have more, anybody have more questions, I guess you have the floor. Um, with regards to the budget. Yeah. I'm just going to make my statement. I don't have any. With regards to the budget, I just want to go over some of the positives. Like you said, we met for probably 18, 20 hours, and we discussed every line item of the entire budget. Some of the positives that came from it are the senior work program. I think that is very positive. That was initiated in 2000, I believe. And we did get, the program was eliminated in 2008, so this year I'm very happy to see that 25 to 30 seniors will be hired to assist them with their, an abatement in their property taxes. That's definitely a benefit. Firefighters, we're adding 11, sending out 11 conditional offers. Hopefully get 11 new firefighters on July and August. I think it's great that we're hiring Our part-time tree warden to full-time, something that I think this council's asked for and that is in the budget. Ms. Tudin does an amazing job. She is very responsive and extremely on top of it, and I believe she already put in the 40 hours when she was part-time, so it's good to see her full-time. Library is fully funded to keep the state certification. That was a huge issue last year. The prior mayor came through with that, but this year it has been done. I think video streaming is something huge. People want transparency. They want to be able to view meetings, view not only council and school committee meetings, but they want to be able to view subcommittee meetings on a regular basis from their home, whether it be on TV or on the computer or out of the city. So that's definitely a positive. With regards to the Office of Community Development, I think adding the two positions is extremely important, especially, you know, what we've been going through the last few weeks. Going to civilian dispatches, I believe in January, from what the budget states, $200,000 is in that line item to hire civilian dispatchers. So that will relieve nine of our officers and put them back on the streets, and I think that's very important. Another positive is the Code Enforcement Office. There is a second position for code enforcement, and I think that's one of the main complaints we get, code enforcement violations. And I know John Bovuso has been pulled from that job a little bit, so it's great to have a second. It is tough to put together a budget of this size, and I don't envy the person that has to do it or the people that have to do it, but I just wanted to bring out some positives. A few things that, you know, I wish we could have saw is, number one, the, sorry, go back. It was a tough process, I think. Somebody actually, someone commented that it was kind of, I won't even go there, but it was a tough process meeting for 18 hours and having really nobody to answer our questions. We didn't have anybody from, I was thankful that the mayor spoke to us for the three to five minutes at the beginning of the first meeting, but to have nobody that could answer a question from the administration, to not have a budget director was very tough to handle, and I think we all, I'm sure, had some frustration with that, so I wanted to make that clear. Hopefully, the budget director that was hired can get right on top of it so that we can, as Council Falco has asked for, you know, updates on the budget. Happy with the amount of responses that we did get. I mean, piles of information, and it's information we will be able to take back to the tax and rate payers, which is great. Half of the other responses were a tough swallow. A good amount of the responses said that if we made a recommendation, if we asked for something, it was, I'm sorry, we're taxing already to the two and a half limit. or we're waiting for the capital plan. That's very frustrating, especially since we've asked for the capital plan for the last few months, and we're being told we're going to get it in the fall, we're going to get it in the fall. As of last night, we did ask, and there is a rough draft. We asked for it, and again, we're not being provided a capital plan. And I think the budget goes hand in hand with a capital plan. So it would have been nice to see a draft. I understand a draft is a draft. We might not have the actual figures, but we would know what 10, 20 projects we'd be putting money into as part of our capital plan. Are we looking down the road at going out to bond for $5 million in the next couple of years or $25 million? Are we going to do a new police station? Are we not? What money are we going to put towards our schools, maintenance, towards the city side? It would really have been helpful to be able to see that capital plan. I question a budget director being able to handle the procurement position too, but I think we definitely need to give that a chance. So hopefully that works out. When we met with the engineer, I'm very concerned with the fact that there's a lack of construction projects this construction season. We spoke and asked questions about Everett Street, Parris Street, Pinkert, Gorley, Dwyer, now Winthrop Street we're getting complaints about, and to have no capital construction plans. in such a important time, we only have until October to do our streets and roads over and to not really have any projects is disturbing. Whether it be lack of funding or lack of personnel in that office, I think that's something that definitely needs some more attention. The fire department at, say, Riverside Ave is the second busiest station in Medford. yet we have the mayor who supported a 490-unit complex in that area. That's something I have concern about. We do have the 11 offices, which is great, but I think we need to be able to step up enforcement. The zoning board, I believe, is meeting right now over a 200- or 300-unit complex behind Wendy's. Sorry, I'm boring you, Ed? Behind Wendy's, they're meeting right now, you know, the Locust Street project. So we definitely need some work to be done with regards to building in Medford and what we see, what is our vision with regards to just throwing up hundreds of apartment units and congesting our streets and roadways. With that being said, I'm just not happy. We have 24 boards and commissions in this city, 24, made up of multiple people, whether it be a three-person board up to a nine-person board. And the only board or commission that is getting a raise in this year's budget is the Zoning Board of Appeals. I don't find that fair. I find it ironic almost. But I think that definitely raised some concerns. With regards to the Board of Health, we're behind in inspections. We need to get up to date on that, whether we need to hire more in that office or we just need to get it together. The parking program, I know there are a number of minor changes to that. And one that I was not happy about was the $25 charge to seniors. If a senior citizen wants a pass, they have to pay $25 for the year. In some respects, if it's very well used, that's going to be, you know, obviously a great purchase. But I think that's something that we should have been able to give our money we're making from Republic Parking and the parking enforcement program. I feel like that's something we'd be able to give our seniors for free. Our police department is understaffed. We've had the robocall that went out this week, rash of robberies. You talk to officers and there's just talk about, you know, the overdoses and the situations we're facing and what they have to deal with. We have six cars on overnight. So if you have something going on in Wellington, you have four cars rushing to Wellington and you have two cars patrolling the rest of the community. I think it's time we add to our police force, you know, not just the four to cover retirements, but to beef it up a little bit. And I think that's something that, you know, I think we made that recommendation. It's, again, frustrating that all of our recommendations, nothing I think was put into this budget. Then to talk about the automobiles for the officers. If we are going to free up those nine people, we really need to look at replacing, and we talk about it all the time, figuring out a way to replace three automobiles at a time each year. I spoke about the capital plan. I would have liked to have seen that. I'm happy about this video streaming, but the number of complaints I get with regards to people watching these meetings, I think we need a new system. And I've asked for just a quote on that, and we weren't able to get one before tonight. We have no grant writer. We have no leak detection program that the Water and Sewer Commission approved probably about a year, almost a year ago now. With regards, I think I think others will comment on this, but the $400,000 that the city and the schools use for water, I think that should be in the city budget. I think you're just double taxing the rate payer. And with regards to just the simple request to get a speed limit monitoring sign, we have one, and ours is broken. It's probably the number one complaint I get with regards to speeding, and that removable sign does... It's definitely worth it, and we don't have one that's working. Ours has been broken for a long time, and we have no end in sight. Before I start talking about the schools, I want to fully disclose that I have a written disclosure in the city clerk's office. I actually sent an updated one in last night, slipped it under the door. My mother works for the school department, and so does my sister, so I want to make that full disclosure. I think with regards to the kindergarten aids that was brought up, one great thing that has happened to the schools is the security. There's been a huge change in security within the last four months, and I want to thank the school committee and superintendent for handling that. Now, every time you go into a school, you have to show your ID, the doors are locked, you have to get buzzed in, show your ID, wear a badge. It's definitely much, I feel much safer. I do it when I go into my child's school, and I do it when I go into the high school. I think that's definitely a positive. Paying for the Field of Dreams bond on the city side now, where it's always been on the school side, I didn't understand why that's happening, but that's something that the administration has decided wants to be done. Kindergarten aides, very, very happy that there are additional kindergarten aides and that we're putting them in full-time. I know that Roberts is where my children go, and there are going to be four full-time kindergarten aides, and I think that's wonderful. What I think is highly unfair is that there are five classrooms within the city at the three other elementary schools that are not going to have full-time kindergarten aides. And I think that's something that should have been looked at in depth. And I know at the Brooks School, the teachers did request full-time kindergarten aides, and I believe one or two were not given. With regards to school maintenance, I think we got a lengthy, lengthy report. on all the school maintenance we need to have done. Very detailed report based on each school, Curtis, McGlynn, Medford High, broken down. And we're talking millions of dollars in maintenance that these schools need. And I don't think that the $400,000 for a high school and all of our other elementary and middle schools is enough. I've been getting, even within the last week I've gotten I've emailed pictures of just broken lights, broken door. I've had it at three different schools. You have the people talking now. People are definitely contacting the city councilors and the school committee and not afraid to open up about their concerns. And I think maintenance is a huge, something we really need to tackle. I know the cleaning service that we do hire for Medford High, and I believe the McGlynn I was told they don't have enough trash bags. We're not giving them enough trash bags because we do provide the trash bags. No security after 3.30 on the weekends and expecting parents and coaches to patrol and secure our schools I think is unsafe. And I think that's definitely something that we should be adding to the budget. Last year I did vote for the budget a number of years in a row. And last year I did vote against the budget. in its entirety because I believe the schools are too top-heavy, and I know one administrative position has been eliminated this year. So that's obviously, I think my concern was valid last year, and I think it probably should be taken more seriously. And then we go hire a PR rep for 90,000, nothing against the actual person who took the job, but I think that kindergarten aides are far more important and maintenance and security are far more important, far more needed in the Medford Public Schools than a blog and an email that you get once a month. And that's just my personal opinion. Everybody can agree to disagree. But a lot of people in the community are pretty upset about it and have voiced their concerns. And just I feel like we could hire somebody with a stipend for whether that be $5,000 or $10,000 to do a blog and send out weekly emails. Lastly, there was a concern raised with regards to somebody, the head of speech living in Florida. It was brought to my attention by multiple people. And when I asked the question where in the budget this person was, because I know it's been the last two years, and this year it's kind of brought grave concern to people. I was yelled at by the superintendent with regards to, I believe, just not to answer my question, I was yelled at by the superintendent that there was a conflict and I shouldn't even be talking about it.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Madam Vice President, can we maybe just not use such an inflammatory term?

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Inflammatory? It's the truth. So I question what the right answer is with this vote for the budget. I see the positives. I see the negatives. I think it's very hard. I like to hear what my colleagues have to say. But I just wanted to voice my concerns and give my rundown. Thank you.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Citizen wishes to approach the podium. Doctor, please come forward, state your name and address for the record.

[Sorrell]: Thank you, Mr. President. My name is John Storella. I reside at 20 Metcalf Street in Medford. And I just want to begin by saying that, as you know, in the past, I've attended several budget sessions. And what I want to do is try to lend some clarification to the process, if I may. I know that the council, the city council itself, does not need my comments on this. They are all aware of the process. But the taxpaying public out there is a group that I'm really addressing these comments to, so they may understand the process. And I want to begin by saying that It is so, so sad, Mr. President, that the city council must repeat this ritual year after year after year, with no progress for the people. It serves only to raise their taxes. For those who don't know, Medford, the city of Medford, is really run by an oligarchy. The people want democracy. but they are not going to get it. How important is democracy? Democracy is everything. The council has heard the heads of the department tell it of their needs, and the council is also aware of the waste, fraud, and abuse in the budget, yet it will approve the budget with no changes. That is what the city council has done for the past 28 years and will do again for the 29th year. The city council will approve the 2017 budget as submitted by the mayor and the struggling people will be separated from more of their money. Let's try to understand the budget process for the taxpayers out there. According to our plan a charter, only the mayor can submit the budget of 56,000 people in Medford. Only one, the mayor can determine what goes into the annual budget. How is that for power? So anyway, uh, once submitted by the mayor, the budget can be approved only by you, the city council. The council has two other options. One, reduce a line item, or two, reject a line item. The council cannot reduce or reject a particular amount as specified in the expanded explanation. It can reduce or reject a line item amount as the line item was submitted by the mayor and the mayor and line pardon me, by the mayor and the mayor submitted each department as a line item. So a whole department must be reduced. No city council wants to do that. Last year's 2016 budget was $155 million. This year's 2017 budget is $162 million, an increase of four 4.5%. I want to be very precise about that. How do the mayor and the city council justify that? No one gets 4.5% these days. The whole United States economy grew by only 2%. A 10-year treasury bond yields only 1.6%. The Federal Reserve Bank has a rate of only one quarter of 1%. Now, why does this Medford government need 4.5% more in order to cope? And the people of Medford who are paying that 4.5% in taxes must exist on less. By serving the people, the council would be serving their constituents, their friends, their neighbors, their children, and their grandchildren. Of the $162 million in the budget, 80% of $130 million will be the cost of personnel compensation. The cost for each and every public employee on average is $93,000 annually. That 4.5% budget increase costs every man woman and child in Medford, $125 more annually. For household of four, that is $500 more in taxes. So the people in paying this money are expecting services. Now, what are the basic services that the people are paying for that we are not getting? sidewalk repairs, pothole repairs, tree trunk removal, pedestrian crosswalks painted, underground pipe repairs, reasonable parking costs, street sweeping. This is a great one. Public room sanitation, public bathroom, that is, public toilet sanitation, police staffing, library renovation, how about stopping, stopping the circumventing of proposition two and a half control of waste fraud and abuse and charter review. Now there's a great one charter reviews. We saw how that was shot down up on beacon Hill just two weeks ago. And there are rumors that the Politicians in Medford gave some aid to that result. Some of the subjects to be discussed by the people in a charter review are ward representation, term limits, larger city council, voter initiatives, voter recall, school committee chairman, city auditor appointed by the council. and many others. But our Medford City government does not really want charter review. So getting back to the beginning of my talk, how important is democracy? Democracy is everything. Thank you very much, Councilors.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Good evening. Please state your name and address for the record.

[SxgiOOMwDHY_SPEAKER_22]: My name is Christopher Donovan for Lorraine Road. I just want to thank that gentleman. That was a very powerful and heartfelt statement full of facts I think echoed by a lot of people in Medford. It came down tonight because I wanted to go to the zoning board of appeals to see how the process worked. I want to thank them for that very difficult job and the very thoughtful process they had of listening to both sides of so many issues I heard tonight. It's a difficult job and I heard a dozen different stories and I can't imagine how they side on either way, because it's very difficult. I'm very against the 61 Locust Street project, but that's a difficult job, and I applaud them for that job. I want to say thank you for some of the councilors who stepped up last night and helped with a little pool pass situation at Tufts Pool. Very small little thing, but a lot of you reached out and who I reached out to and responded admirably, and I thank you, and it was good results. Small little thing, but a lot of people realized little steps, so thank you all for that. And the thing I'm here for today to speak is the budget for the Medford High School band. I know it's a difficult position for budget right now. A lot of money, a lot of tension, a lot of different issues going on, but that band is just one of those things that we should kind of keep close to the heart, fund a little bit, support a little bit, champion it. It's the kids. We see drugs, problems, crime. That's a great little program. The budget gets cut. People don't think of it too much, but they show up at all our different events and they kind of give it their all. Keep them in mind. Thank you for your time.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, citizen. Good evening.

[Joe Viglione]: Please state your name and address for the record. Good evening, city council. My name is Joe Villione, 59 Garfield Avenue, Mass. And I'm kind of shocked that there's not a ton of people in here tonight for something as important as the budget. That's number one. I heard Mrs. Baker say something about public access funds allocated for something or other for the city. Every week it's amazing. I have this power, amazing power. So I'm wondering if the public access funds are being utilized by the city, why has it been two years since our city solicitor said he was investigating TV3? I want to know where those monies are. For this city budget, this room would be packed if we had access TV. It would be absolutely packed. We don't have access TV. We're hearing it's going to be at the school in October when there's a critical election coming up. I could install a TV station yesterday. It's so easy. You don't need to hook up to cable wires anymore. You can do it over the cellular phones. It is so simple. We are in the year 2016. This isn't 1984 anymore when you have to dig up the ground. So here we are, an important budget, but this city seems to love secrecy. It loves censorship. This city is all about censorship. And the People's Forum is the only place we have to go to speak. So, I would like to have specifics about what Mrs. Baker talked about. I'll put in a public records request to know where this public access money is going, because it is not going to public access. If the city wants to use access funds, it should give the citizens what they pay for. They pay for public access. They don't have public access. No one's in this room. There are nine people here and some city officials. That's disgraceful. This is a budget. This is the city of Medford, and I would like to see some city councils get proactive on this and really complain because it's been two years since we were assured by the city solicitor that he would look into it. He gave them two weeks, 20 days, two years have gone by, and the citizens are supposed to just take the slap in the face and walk away and be happy. It's not fair. We want to be treated fairly. We pay for something. We want that something. Thank you.

[SPEAKER_13]: Councilor Knight. Mr. President, it seems like everybody said what they have to say at this point in time, and unless I'm wrong, I'd like to make a motion to end all debate. I'll take a vote.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Knight to end all debate and take a vote. All those in favour? All those opposed? Is there a motion for approval of the budget?

[Adam Knight]: That requires a two-third roll call vote to end all debate, Mr. President. I'm sorry? Requires a two-third roll call vote to end all debate.

[Fred Dello Russo]: A roll call vote, two-thirds roll call vote.

[Adam Knight]: It requires a two-thirds, yes.

[Fred Dello Russo]: It does. So on that motion, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Councilor Marks.

[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, thank you. I actually have a few comments and I didn't know if someone else from the audience, I thought that you, which you were waiting for, for people from the audience to get up.

[Fred Dello Russo]: No, I was waiting for the councilors. We're discussing right now the two-thirds vote to end all debate. The motion is on the floor. You wish to address the council on the budget, sir?

[Andrew Castagnetti]: Yes. Actually, no, it's not on the budget. However, it's partially on the budget. I want to say, and this may shock you, However, I've been to a lot of these budget meetings that all you Councilors have been to in the last few months, it seems like. And I never realized how much work that you, lady and gentlemen, put in. It's astounding. So if I may, I'd like to commend you on all the hard work, and it's incredible. I really, I've never realized it was that intensive. I don't have the budget myself. I'm not privy or I just don't have it. So therefore, I didn't read it. Matter of fact, if I had it, I probably would have a hard time reading it because I have learning disabilities and a head injury, not to sound like Dr. Woods. However, I probably have a better chance of reading the Bible instead. But if it was in my power, I would automatically give all you Councilors a 50% pay increase on a yearly basis. I honestly would. Even though you might be, you might be, are you interested? You may be the second highest paid study Councilors in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts after or the third, or the fourth. Out of 351 communities, I'm sure you're in the top 5%, which would be the top 15. But actually, I would actually double your salaries if you would, this December, when you set the tax rate, as Brianna looks and smiles, give me what they have in Somerville, Everett, and Malden, the owner occupied 20% real estate tax savings. for the owner occupied. If you live in one house only, and the city will still get their levy of $104 million, they would not lose a dollar of tax. It would just be shifted to all others, multiple real estate owners, whether they're Lemire apartment buildings, Meadow Glen malls, Wegmans, or whatever that is. They would not lose a dime, but yet, Somerville, Everett, and Malden does this. And I won't even mention that Somerville gets 35% with a special exclusion permission, I should say, from the state. So I hope this December I would like to double your salary if we could just get the owner-occupied real estate tax exemption at the 20% under the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Chapter 56. Law Section 5C. I'll see you in December. However, if you're going to go on hiatus in the next few months, I wish you all a happy, safe summer. Thank you for listening.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, sir.

[Andrew Castagnetti]: Mr. President and councillors.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. On the motion of Councilor Knight to end all suspension, Mr. Clerk, call to discuss all- I withdraw.

[Adam Knight]: Councilor Marks has some comments that he'd like to add relative to the budget deliberation.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilman Marks, you have the floor. Welcome.

[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. We still have Anne Baker here. Anne, I have a question for you.

[Fred Dello Russo]: I'm sorry, Mr. Baker.

[Michael Marks]: Do I have to yell? I'm going to yell. Anne, is the proposed city budget on the city website? I do not know. You don't know? No. How is one supposed to know what's in the proposed budget? Other than the council, the 56,000 people that are out there, how are they supposed to know what's in the proposed budget? Let me ask if Mr. Palmino. He's the city solicitor. Is he the budget director? They said he's the city solicitor. Is he the budget director?

[Mark Rumley]: Is there some confusion, Councilor?

[Michael Marks]: I asked the budget director a question.

[Mark Rumley]: If I was the budget director, I thought perhaps you were confused.

[Michael Marks]: No, I'm not confused. Oh, I'm not so sure. I asked the woman that was up there if this was on the city website. No, you think you asked if the city solicitor was the budget director, if I'm not mistaken. We could rerun the tape. Because she asked for your opinion on this. This doesn't require a legal opinion.

[Mark Rumley]: No, but there's many things that don't require a legal opinion that end up that way.

[Michael Marks]: Thank you for your comments. You're welcome. I'm talking to Ian Baker now. Thank you.

[SPEAKER_20]: I do not know. I do not know if it was on, if it's on the website, as you know, the, the position of budget director was interrupted with the resignation of the budget director. So the budget process has been slightly disjointed as council Longo alluded to the before. So I do not know if it's on the website.

[Michael Marks]: It is not on the city website. Okay. So we have $162 million budget and the mayor brags about transparency. Under this administration, we're talking transparency and there's not one indication of this proposed budget anywhere on the city website.

[SPEAKER_20]: And it's like I said, it's been on the, it's been on the council agenda.

[Michael Marks]: I know we have the superintendent of schools here and I would ask the same question to the superintendent of schools is the proposed school budget on the school website. No, it is not. Thank you very much. So here we have the mayor bragging about transparency and open government in a proposed budget of $162 million. Residents have nowhere to find this document. Sure, they can come to a committee of the whole meeting up here, absolutely. They can come to one of the seven or eight meetings we had, but they can't go online and find the proposed budget.

[Fred Dello Russo]: I believe that this document, the amended budget, which we received, it was posted online amidst all the other articles we get on our agenda. And the original budget, which is $8,000 less than this, was certainly part of the agenda that we received on June 4th.

[Michael Marks]: If you can find that on the city website, I'd like to see you find that. So I'll get back to my comments.

[SPEAKER_20]: It's been on, it's been addressed, it was presented to the council on June, what was the first day it was presented to the council. So it's been on the agenda for several weeks sitting here, right? And I think the policy in the city has been that it goes on the website after it's approved.

[Michael Marks]: After it's approved. That has been the practice. Thank you, Anna. Thank you for your comments. That's great for transparency. We're going to put the budget on after it's approved. That is great. That's a great comment to have. And let me just start off by saying, and my colleagues are entitled to their opinion, I've been on this council 14 years, and this is the worst budget process I've ever been through. The worst budget process in 14 years. We've had countless meetings, and we've been unable to ask questions at these meetings because the administration sent staff that were unable to answer budget questions. And I don't fault them. They're not budget people. And, you know, it was stated by a Councilor earlier that, you know, this was a great year. We had a ton of questions this year. We had a ton of questions because there was no one to answer questions from the administration over the last several weeks. That doesn't make for a good process. So that's my first comment, that the lack of transparency and the lack of this administration. You know, if the administration wanted to send a budget person, Mayor Burke was the budget person in this city for the last five years and created this budget. So if she wanted to send a budget person, she should have found herself at these particular meetings to answer questions. $162 million of taxpayer money that this council got some answers to, some half-hearted answers, and some that weren't answered at all, in my opinion. Second point I had is, yes, there's a lot of good things in this budget. Absolutely. I agree with the addition in the Office of Community Development, the two planning positions. I agree with some of the moves that were made in some of the various departments. I think we have a school budget that, in my opinion, looks fine. And I'll talk about the security like I did with the superintendent last week. And I hope he gives the same answers he gave last week, because I think people find it quite eye-opening. some of the responses that I received. But I'd like to go through, you know, we went through the highlights, and I'd like to go through some of the lowlights that, you know, were offered by members of this council, and things that we feel strongly about. And I asked this at one of the budget meetings. I said to the council directly, I said, who had impact in this budget? I looked around the table. I didn't see one nod, one hand go up, nothing. So when you say we bet for 18 to 20 hours, and this was a great process, I don't know where you're coming from. I don't know where you're coming from. A great process is having involvement, exchanging of ideas. That's a great process. Even the school department, after some of the deliberation, came back and added things to the school budget based on recommendations by members of the school committee. Did that happen with this body? Did anyone come and say, Hey, I know you offered this suggestion. Maybe we can't do this, but maybe we could do this. Nothing at all. Nothing at all. And I'm only speaking, maybe it happened to other members. It didn't happen with me. So I'd like to go through a few of the lowlights that I believe should have been included in this budget items that this council has worked on over the years. And we're going to lose progress because of the lack of funding on some of these items. And I'm not proud to say that, but it's going to happen and I'm going to lay out in detail and it's going to take some time, Mr. President. So, uh, grab your comfy seat and sit back because this is important. You know, it's one thing to mention it at a committee, the whole meeting in front of, uh, you know, some administrators. And it's another thing to let the general public know what's going on in this community. You know, For the past two years, this council initiated a line item in the budget. We were the ones that initiated a $15,000 line item in the budget for the arts. That was monumental in this community. It's never been done before to recognize method arts in this community. And that was done two years ago. And we went to the art community, and we said, you know what? This is not going to just be a gravy train. If you want additional funding in the budget, you're going to have to prove to us that it's worthy of the funding. You're going to have to show us community outreach. You're going to have to show us what programming was done with this money. And sure enough, the next year came about last year, and this council voted to add another $15,000, bringing it up to $30,000. Based on the input we received from the Method Arts Council, Mackie, and all the other artists group in this community that are involved, and putting so many good programs like the West Bedford Open Studios, Circle the Square, and the list goes on and on. You know, this year, Mr. President, I offered to continue the momentum we had, asking for another $15,000. Now it wasn't just to throw $15,000 at a group of artists in the community to please them. It was because they've shown us over years that they've been able to take this money and use it in outreach, in reaching out to the community, in setting up programs that impact thousands of Method residents, putting a face in this community. that was missed for so many years. And I want to go through some of the highlights that were presented to me by the arts community after I offered this. And I think it's telling, Mr. President, that some of the facts and figures that they presented us, that the money in the budget they like. The money in the budget does not fully fund what they're trying to do, does not even come remotely close. And without the money in the budget, there is no art program for all intents and purposes, because the state has been cutting the arts, as we all know, year after year. So for 2016, the Method Arts Council gave out $45,300 to 62 projects and field trips in this community. This represents an increase of $15,000 over 2015. Due to greater funding provided by the city of Medford, which is this city council, more projects were funded and an average grant amount increased by 35%. So we were able to increase the grants that we provide to these different groups in the community, an additional 35% to do what they do. We were also able to fund 11 of these proposals at 100%. The total amount requested by the community for 2016 was $93,321, which means that we were unable to meet even 50% of the demand despite our increased budget. So even with the increases we made the headway over the last two years, according to the numbers from the Method Arts Council, we were only able to meet less than 50% of what was asked for. Our available budget fell short of the total request by $48,000. An increased effort to attract new applicants and projects started to be seen in 2016. The greater visibility is due to the contribution of outreach and the City of Medford's investment. The Medford Arts Council was also selected, as this council knows, as the 2016 Cultural Council of the Year by the state, just the third council ever chosen for this honor. The citation specifically pointed to, among other things, our new level of partnership with the City of Medford, our regional leadership and public support for the arts. Then it also goes on to say, most of the city's allocations to the Medford Arts Council has gone to community grant programs. Some of the highlights in 2016, many of which we funded. with the budget request. A second year of highly successful multimedia cultural exchange at the Senior Center. This project caught the attention of the Mass Cultural Council, which was asked to nominate for an award. Unfortunately, we did not win, but we were nominated for an award. An innovative touch-guided quilt and sewing program for the blind and visually impaired, which is being piloted at the Senior Center with the intention to expand it to other communities. Stipends for musicians to play at the Methodist Farmer's Market. Artists shouldn't work for free, and they're right. If you go down to the Farmer's Market, there's music playing all the time, and it's an upbeat environment. Terrific new program at Chevalier Theater, including the onstage series that brings in new kids, kinds of brands, and new audiences to the venue. A collaboration between the Monkey House Dance Company and the Boys and Girls Club to introduce choreography, and movement to young kids. The Medford Calling Program, pairing prominent songwriters with aspiring musicians from Medford High School. We are artistically going to paint our crosswalks, which we'll use art to design and increase pedestrian safety and beautification on our streets. These are the things that were done in 2016 by the mayor funding, and I do say mayor funding, in $162 million budget, with the $30,000 budget that we implemented by this council back some two years ago. So we were looking to increase it to 45. The mayor turned that down, unfortunately. Chevalier Auditorium. You know, we have the budget for Chevalier Auditorium. And yes, there was a building custodian put in the budget for $24,749. That brings the total budget up to $91,749. There is not any money, I shouldn't say that, there is very little money for building improvements. There's building repairs, but building improvements. I talked to members of the Chevalier Commission, I talked to members of the Friends of Chevalier, and they were all interested. in presenting a marquee on the front of Chevalier, to give it a face, to give it a presence, to let people know that it exists, even people in this community to let it know it exists. For $20,000 to $30,000, I don't know if you remember about a year ago, there was a movie, a motion picture that was being filmed in the city, and they put an old marquee up on the Chevalier Theater. And I kept the picture of it because, really, it put a face on that building that was never seen before. There was neon on the sign and so forth, and it attracted you to the building. I asked in the budget this year for a $50,000 appropriation. Let's not forget, this is a city-owned building. This doesn't belong to Joe Smith, Paul Jones. This is a city-owned building that the city has lacked to support over the years. They'll be the first to say, every elected official, that's the economic engine in the city. I heard it over and over again at the debates from the mayor, from the council. That's the economic engine. And then when it comes time for the budget, the economic engine is running on air. Let me tell you. We're not like Lowell that puts money into funding their public auditorium and puts money into bringing in entertainers. You realize how expensive it is to bring in a top name entertainer? You might be talking 40 or 50 or 60,000 as a retainer. Chevalier doesn't have that money. We have to be committed to that particular building. And yes, there's been improvements made, but we're falling short of the mark when it comes to taking that building to the next level. And I'm very disappointed that the mayor refused to add a line item for building improvements in Chevalier. That's an 1,800 seat theater. It's the sixth largest theater in the Boston metropolitan area. Sixth largest. We have it right in our community. It's all volunteer civic commission that oversees it. And the city, in their wisdom, funds it for $91,000, which includes a $24,000 building custodian, which is needed. But that's not what's needed, Mr. President. If you want to look at another city-owned building that this city neglected, just take a look at Brooks Estates. Just take a ride up to Brooks Estates. Actually, you're better off walking, because the road is not adequate enough. It's really not safe toe drive up there. But that's another city old building that this community neglected for years, depending on volunteers to raise the money, and it's just not happening. My next one, Mr. President, we heard from Fire Chief Gilberti, and I'm glad Councilor Penta's here. because Council of Penta over the last several years push to have the feedback from the administrators involved in our process. For years we met with the administrators and we never received their wish list. And it was Council of Penta that said, we need to know your wish list. Even if it doesn't get implemented, as a council, we need to know what your priorities are and what you think is necessary for DPW, what's necessary for the schools, what's necessary for police and fire. We heard from Chief Gilberti. He's concerned about the internal fire alarms within our fire stations. Now these aren't the fire alarms that communicate back and forth, although those are outdated. These are the internal alarms like you or I would have in our home, a smoke detector, a hard wire detector. Many of them are 30 and 40 years old, according to Chief Gilberti. God forbid something were to happen in one of these buildings. And we knew that our fire station alarms are inadequate within each station. That's a major concern that should be addressed, and it's not addressed in this particular budget. You know, we heard from Police Chief Sacco. He requested six unmarked cars and six marked cars in the budget. Denied by the mayor. Now that may be part of some capital improvement plan that we have yet to see. We have yet to hear when it's going to come out. We don't know what's in it. That may be part of it. But in my opinion, As we've been stating for years, this council, there should be at least two to three cars in each year's budget, at a minimum. These cars are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and they have multiple drivers. Think about your car. You get out of it after work, it sits in the driveway for 12 hours. Someone doesn't get in it and drive it for another 12 hours and drive it a different way than you're driving, which is harmful to a car. These cars that we have right now are experiencing transmission problems. These cars we have right now are inadequate in the community. They spend much of their time being serviced. You know, you can't provide public, public safety is probably the most important issue that we provide for. You can't provide public safety with inadequate equipment. We already know the police department should be condemned. We determined that years ago. And now we have vehicles that the mayor's allowing our brave men and women drive around in that are inadequate. They really are. And it's not part of the budget. We also heard from the chief. He said, I'd like to have some civilians, roughly four civilians, to do some crime analysis, to do some IT work in the department. That could go a long way to advising people what's going on in this community, having some crime analysis available, crime analysis on the website. You know, I attended the West Method, as well as Councilor Caraviello, the West Method Crime Watch that they had several weeks back. And over and over again, we heard We would like a place where we can go and see crime statistics. We'd like to know what's not only happening in our neighborhood, but happening in other sections of the community. That currently doesn't exist in this community. The chief asked for that, which to me is a very reasonable request, and that was denied. The vehicles and the civilian positions was denied in the budget. You know, a small request that was something that I asked for. You know, I was approached by one of the poll workers. months and months back. And she said, you realize when we're at a poll, we could be there from 12 to 14 hours. She said, nothing against the police, but they're there and they get a box lunch. The workers that are checking people in, checking people out, working their 12 to 14 hours, get nothing, absolutely nothing. In a busy state and federal election, many of them can't even leave in a busy election. So we're asking them to sit in there for 12 to 14 hours. I put in a request to add $3,000 to the budget. A line item 5780 for $3,000 to pay for some lunches, box lunches. And we could do it, the city clerk could do it any way he like. He could provide pizza, box lunches, he can give people a stipend or whatever it might be to get something to eat. Whatever it could be, could be worked out administratively. That was denied by the mayor. Sorry, insufficient funds for the poll workers. You know, the school budget, and I'm glad to see the superintendent's still here. Several weeks back, I got a unanimous vote from this council. I brought up the issue that right now the school department and the city side do not pay for water and sewer. In my opinion, water and sewer is a utility. It's like gas, it's like electric, It's an operating expense. You can't run a high school in the boilers, in the bathrooms, and everything else, the pool, associated with the high school, without water and sewer. It's an operating expense. Some years back, the powers to be took it out of the budget. And they said, you know what? We're not going to include it in our budget anymore. We're going to put it under unaccounted for water. And what that is, every rate payer who already pays their bill is going to pay a little additional more to pay for what we call unaccounted for water. The only problem with that is the water on the school side and on the city side is accounted for. It's meted. It's about $400,000 combined from the city and the school side. And in my opinion, that should be a budget line item under the operating expenses. And it shouldn't fall on the backs of the rate payers. It should not fall on the backs of the rate payers. That's a way of taking money out of the budget, putting in other things in the budget that you feel are more of a priority. It might be a new PR person at 90-something thousand dollars. It might be whatever it might be. That's a way of shifting money around. And in my opinion, if we want a true budget, that should be within this. And that was a unanimous vote in this council, and it went to the mayor, and it did not find its way in this budget. Another thing that the mayor failed to act upon in this budget, or even come back and give a reasonable response why it couldn't be done. On the school budget again, we heard about security. Security went up 37%. People at home are saying, wow, we are secure. Security in the school department went up 37%. So I asked the superintendent of schools, I said, Mr. Superintendent, you hired building monitors in addition to the one security guard we have. I said, what happens at 3.30 when the school lets out? Is there any building monitors or security guards present at 3.30? He said, there is not a one. However, we do rely on custodians, administrators that still may be around the building to keep an eye out. So here we have a building that's open, unsecure, in my opinion, and open to the public after school lets out. That would be like saying any state building, go up to the state house and say, oh, they're out of session now. All security leave. There's no reps up here. Everyone can leave now. That's unheard of. That building should be secured. There should only be a few entrances that people can get in, and those entrances should be manned. And then when the building's locked down, there should still be a security person walking around a building that size. You know, a high school, a school, those are soft targets. And unfortunately in this city, they're even softer. You know, if we hired new building monitors, why put them on all the same time? Okay, come in at eight, leave at three. Why not stagger the times? It makes no sense. It makes no sense. You know, if something were to happen in our schools and we were to sit back and say, you know what, we were all aware that these buildings are not secured after hours, but they're open, but they're not secured. We would feel awful as a council and I'm sure the school committee would feel the same way. But just because an incident went by, we had the bomb scares and so forth, and now it's out of sight, out of mind, we can't say, you know what, oh, we're fine, we're fine. The threat is still there. However, the security's not. And I'm not happy with the answers I received from the superintendent of schools regarding the lack of security and the lack of secured buildings, in my opinion. I believe our buildings are overused currently right now, and I believe that should be looked at in addition. For the past three years, this council asked, when we get a budget, that if we could have an expenditure line item in the current fiscal year. So they show FY15, they show FY16, then you would have either an actual, like Councilor Felkel mentioned, or an expenditure to date. And then the budget, FY17. We've asked for three years. We were told by the former budget director, Louise Miller, that's doable. and it would have been done in this budget process. I asked right at the beginning. I wasn't trying to throw any, you know, hold anything off. I asked right at the beginning if that could be included. It's important to know when an account, coming from someone that does finance, when an account has a surplus or a deficit when you're setting a new budget. That's 101. It's important to know. and to sit back and not have that information, and then at the end of the year, receive a million dollars for transfers. 243,000 out of fire salaries. Guess what that was? We didn't hire firefighters. But that money will be transferred. We told you we were gonna hire firefighters. It sounded good last year. We all put it as a highlight. I'm sure the administration said, look at this highlight. But guess what? It wasn't funded. That money will be used for another appropriation, maybe to fund one of the mayor's other priorities that was underfunded. Who knows? But these are the games that go on year after year after year. And without a proper accounting in the budget, it's going to continue. Ann Baker did provide a list here. And Ann, if I had two years of time, I could probably match this up. with the budget line items, and I probably could do it. It would take me some time, but I probably could do it. However, the fiscal year ends Friday, and another broken promise by this administration. You know, I read an article, I don't know, a couple of months ago in the transcript, the mayor's first 100 days, and it said, priority one, enhancing communication. So I guess not sending a representative to our budget meetings is enhancing communication. I guess not getting responses that this council has requested is enhancing communication. I guess sending the finance person tonight, who by the way is going to be retiring in four weeks and congratulations, I wish you well in, you've done a lot of good for this community, as the budget person, I think does a disservice to not only this council, but to the community. And the mayor should have presented the budget, $162 million. This is her first budget. And as Councilwoman Lungo said, she spent three minutes with this council in the 20 hours we spent going over budget. Shame on Mayor Burke. Shame on her. You know, Mr. President, there are a lot of positive things in this budget. But as was stated by Dr. Streller and some of the other speakers, We can't go through the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome. It's the definition of insanity. And guess what, Mr. President, for those of us that ask questions, that paid attention, that care about the taxpayers' money in this community, it's important to us. And I, for one, am not going to put my stamp of approval on this budget. If the mayor had the smallest inkling of communication, she would have contacted this council. She would have sat down with the council and said, council, you know what, this is a city budget. I know it's my budget, I present it. What would you like in the budget? What do you think is necessary? Geez, you've been around for five years, you've been around 14 years, you've been around three years. What would you like? What do you think is needed in the budget? never happened. Shame on this mayor. Shame on this mayor. You know, and my colleagues are welcome to do what they want. I know some of my colleagues are new to the budget process, but to go through the same budget process year after year and have no impact at all as a council, and that's my opinion, no impact at all, is a disservice to every taxpayer in this community that expects us to do our job. We're a legislative body, and we set the city budget. You can count on one hand our function. Those are the two top. And to let the budget go by, as submitted by the mayor, fine, if that's your intent, fine. I, as one member of the council, refuse to do so. I'd rather bring the mayor to the table and say, Madam Mayor, why can't we? Why can't we do this? And if it's the levy limit problem that the mayor has, we reach the levy limit. I think that's the first I ever heard, reach the levy limit. Gee, McGlynn was here 30 years, I never heard that. But under this new mayor, response was we reached the levy limit. And my suggestion back to the mayor is, then maybe we should look at the stipends, the confidentiality stipends you give your staff people. How many people are hired when you get a job and you walk into the job and they say, okay, here's what you have to do. And then they say, on top of that, this is confidential information. We're going to pay you over and above your salary because you're dealing with confidential information. Doesn't happen. Doesn't happen in the private sector. That's party or job. So if there are people in the mayor's office that are handling confidential information, and there may be, and there's people in the assessor's office, and the people in the treasurer collector's office, and there's people in every department that are handling confidential information that aren't getting these stipends, they happen to be to just a few in the mayor's office. Maybe we could cut that portion out of the budget, and maybe we can add something for the arts, or maybe we can add something that we think would be a bigger bang for our buck, rather than padding someone's salary. Because that's all it is. Don't fool yourself. That's all it is. It's a padding of someone's salary. So, Mr. President, with that being said, I will not support the budget here tonight. I refuse to support it on the basis that The mayor refused to send anyone that can answer questions to our budget meeting. She made this budget, in my opinion, the worst budget process I've ever been through. She didn't look for any input from this council. She didn't look for any input from the community. She failed to put the budget or proposed budget on the city websites for open transparency and open government. Who cares after the fact? Mr. President, if you ran your funeral home like the mayor's run in this city, you'd be out of business right now. You shouldn't settle for any less because it's the city budget. You should hold it to the same standard, Mr. President, as you do for your funeral home. Over 30 minutes, consulate.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you very much. I'm not done yet, Mr. President. You are. The chair awaits a motion.

[v8c6yqLwu5E_SPEAKER_17]: Mr. President, I am not done yet. You didn't tell me what time I had. I am not done yet. I still have comments.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Is there a motion on the floor?

[v8c6yqLwu5E_SPEAKER_17]: I'd like to hear from the superintendent of school, Mr. President, who is here regarding the security. I'd like to hear his comments regarding why buildings aren't secure after school lights up.

[Roy Belson]: Mr. President, members of the council, I understand that Councilor Marks has legitimate concerns about security. and the like, but I want to offer a few thoughts, and hopefully, you know, maybe it'll help us understand each other, okay? Well, let's see what happens. Let's see what happens. You know, during the day, we have intensive security. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than most school systems. We have, and we, and you know, some of the events that happened this year obviously ramped up some of the things that we did, because people felt a need to do that. when the majority of youngsters are there in the school, and they're in concentrated areas, and they need that kind of coverage. So we have a lot going on. We have cameras. We have monitors. We have guards. We have resource officers. We have door locks in the systems. You know, we have ID systems now. We meet with CBJ every week to determine what's happening in the streets, so when it comes in Monday morning, we know what's going on, what happened over the weekend, We have constant contact with the police. We have constant contact with the DA's office, the courts. There's a lot going on that people don't see. We belong to NMLEC, which is a regional group that brings things in. But council raises the issue of what happens around 3.30 when things are over for the main part of the day. Maybe, just maybe, it would be nice to have all kinds of people there, but you've got to ask a couple questions. How functionally effective would it be? Not just cosmetic, how functionally effective would it be? I'm standing here right now, and there are probably a few people in this room who don't like me. I don't know if that's true, but I have the feeling that there's some people who don't really like me. My back is to the wall. There's no police officer guarding this council. There's no police officer at churches and synagogues. There's no police officer at the restaurants we go to, in the parks where the Little Leagues play. Point of information, Mr. President. Well, I don't know. I'm trying to give a point of information.

[Michael Marks]: You're trying to give an answer. You're great at circumlocution, Mr. Superintendent.

[Roy Belson]: No, I'm trying to give you an answer. I'm trying to point out to you.

[Michael Marks]: First of all, I didn't ask for a point of information, please. If you'll let me speak, I will. I didn't ask for a police officer. So that is your first error. I asked specifically about after hours, Mr. Superintendent, and you have no security and you have no secure building after hours. If you can address that, rather than going into these things about having police officers at every door, that is not what we stated. I'm trying to. Churches are one thing, Mr. President, but a school that houses thousands of our students deserves the right for security and the right to have a secured building.

[Roy Belson]: Not in the afternoon, not thousands in the building. You know, the parks where the kids play their sports. I don't see all kinds of people there. Obviously, it would be nice to have all kinds of people around who are doing that officially. But you talk about all the things that we want in these budgets. You talk about all the things that we would like to do and all the repairs we'd like to make. And I personally think that putting people in these roles is not giving us functional value. I think we can get the same return from people who are crime watchers, if you will, people who can pick up their phone or use their cell and call 911 if necessary. I don't think you need that kind of coverage. So we've talked about it. I'm listening to you. I hear you. Maybe there's something we can think about, but I don't think it's the kind of thing that we could do with fidelity around the schools in the afternoons. And I don't think that it's different than what we expect from our little leagues, from our youth programs, soccer programs. They're all over the city. Random acts of violence happen anywhere. So to think that the schools are more likely to have them in the afternoon than the parks where the kids play, or the churches where people go to, or the restaurants where people eat. I don't think that's real. And so, it's an exchange. But, you know, I'll think about it. Maybe there's some things we can do. But I don't think it's a just refusal to consider the issue. I think it's well thought through at this point in time. But maybe you don't agree with me. That's what I think is really the issue. We just don't agree on the subject.

[v8c6yqLwu5E_SPEAKER_17]: Mr. President.

[Michael Marks]: Councilor Marks. You know, I realize within a budget you have to make decisions. But security is a decision that I'm not willing to let go. Security is just as important as the teacher in the classroom. And in my opinion, Mr. President, to say during the day, when the students are in there, that you have to check in, you have to show an ID, you have to sign in, you have to — and that process has been tightened up — you're right — recently, Mr. Superintendent. But then at 3, 330, I can walk in there with six duffel bags and not be questioned by anyone. And I can have access to anywhere in that large campus, as you know. That's the problem I have. Why would you take all the security that you just put on and put them on in the same time and leave the rest of the times open? Leave access to the building open. I don't buy the fact that we don't have security in our parks. I don't buy that. We have police on the streets, Mr. Superintendent. Our high school, as you know, when's the last time you had a bomb scare at one of our parks? But we've had several at Medford High School recently. Yes, we have. We've had several at Medford High School recently. And you relied on custodians to go around and look for devices. I don't know how that happens, but we relied on custodians. So this other pair of eyes you're talking about that are around the building, I don't see it. And I think that's ineffective. And I think even bringing that up, as Amir mentioned, that you're relying on that as a means of security, shows that you're really not in touch with what security should be and having a secured building.

[Roy Belson]: So I'm standing here. Is anyone protecting you right now? Is anyone protecting me? Is anyone protecting the citizens of this community right now standing here? Anyone could walk in and say anything. Anyone could walk in and do something. You know, we recognize we live in a society which has some violence to it. We recognize we live in a society where there's a lot of random acts of terror and activity. But you can't cover everything. You can't cover everything realistically. And putting a couple of people in the place is not going to be a functional value to us. We can get the same return. Let me finish the point.

[Michael Marks]: We can get the same return from people who are asked to look. I'll let him finish. But, you know, he keeps on saying, he throws out these, we can't cover everything. Who asked him to cover everything?

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor.

[Michael Marks]: You know, no one's asking you to cover everything, Mr. Superintendent. So, you know, come on now. No one's asking you to cover everything.

[Roy Belson]: We disagree on the functional value of that type of person in the situation. But if you want to continue the discussion, maybe the school committee can take it up. We can have a discussion, but it's going to require some money. It's going to require, what do you call it, an understanding of what they do and how they do it, and whether or not it's really going to give us value or whether or not it's cosmetic. So I'm just raising that for you. I don't think that in the best of all worlds, we wouldn't have everything we wanted. You've raised several things that we want. I want a lot of things that I couldn't put in this budget. There are people that ask me for things that I couldn't give them. okay, in this budget, or any budget. I've been doing it for a few years, and I recognize that there are times when you just can't do something. I don't think that we are neglectful in this situation. I do believe that when we cover the school day, we're doing what we need to do. But, okay, look, it's a discussion. And I appreciate the fact you care, but I also hope you appreciate the fact that we've thought about it. I haven't just dismissed it out of hand. I've thought about it, but I don't think it gives us functional value. Okay? Mr. President, if I could.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Councilor.

[Michael Marks]: The security of our children relies on secure building. And that is a functional value, to have a secure building. and to have a functional security after hours, too, when a building's open. That's what we have to rely on, Mr. President. And that's an important issue. And it shouldn't take a back seat. It really should take a back seat. You know, I wish there was all this dialogue when they hired a $90,000 PR person. Where was all this discussion putting a $90,000 PR person in the budget? Where was all this great debate saying, can we afford it or not? You know, so these are the issues that I don't buy when someone stands up and says, well, we have to make the tough decisions. You know, it seems to me those decisions are made, but they're made for political purpose. And the tough decision is not going with the political, but going with what's right to do and saying, I need security in this building. I need to make sure the doors are secured after hours. That's the right thing to do, Mr. President. And I'm not going to sit here, Mr. President, and state anything other than the fact that I believe there's a severe security shortfall. Thank you. At the high school. And this superintendent's on notice. So, he's on notice. And let me tell you, and this is not the first year I brought this up. So, when they say they'll have discussion, I've heard this year after year after year. There'll be discussion.

[Roy Belson]: Mr. President.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Counsel Max.

[Roy Belson]: I just want to comment on something that keeps coming up. You know, I've sat here and listened to everyone talk about the lack of communication, the lack of information, the lack of stuff that's going out to the public. I want to tell you, that public information officer has put an awful lot of stuff on the street. There's an awful lot of information in this community about the schools. More information than you've ever had before, and people are telling me that. And you know what? We can disagree on that, too. But the reality is, is that you talk about public information, they're getting it from the schools. They're getting it from the schools. You'll see the budget soon as you approve it. It'll go right up. just like it has every year. And if you want to change that, you just simply vote to have people put their proposed budgets up. That's all. But you never did that. All you did was ask, what do you call it, to put the money up.

[Michael Marks]: That was a perfect statement, the superintendent just said. Just like we have seen year after year. That's exactly what this government's all about. Thank you, counsel. Just as we've done it year after year. Thank you. Madam Vice President.

[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: While the superintendent was up there, I was going to bring up the same point. I think that having security after 3.30 and on weekends to protect 13, 14, 15, 16, 17-year-olds is much more important than a school blog. I was going to ask the opinion on that, because I believe maintenance and security is far more important than having a PR person.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Madam Vice President. Councilor Knight. Move the previous question, Mr. President. Question moved by Councilor Knight that all debate end. Mr. Clerk, call the roll. No. There's a motion on the floor. Mr. Clerk, call the roll. Mr. President, I withdraw the motion provided that we maintain the 10-minute rule. 10-minute rule is in application. Mr. Citizen, please state your name and address for the record.

[Robert Penta]: My name is Robert Pentez, Zero Summit Road, Medford, Mass. I'm a member of the Saugus body. You know, during this past campaign for the mayor's office, the term that the president and mayor used was partners in progress. And partners in progress doesn't seem to be the staple that took place during this particular budgetary season. As Councilor Lungo-Koehn has alluded to, if you only got three minutes of the mayor and the initial presentation of a budget, and then you had to fend for yourself after the fact. And I think one of the comments, and I don't know what councilor made it, that many, many questions were asked more this year than ever before. This probably is a result of the answers worth forthcoming. That's why you ask so many questions. But a few of the things that I'd like to highlight, and this particular budget starts going back to a year ago, when this former budget was being presented by Louise Miller. The question was asked of her twice, and it was by myself, when Mr. Scarpelli, Council Counsel Scott Scarpelli is sitting, would you present the budget in the same way it has been presented? And she said no. And we went through the idea of presenting the budget that had a wish list of a cost analysis of each and every department had bringing forth that for which they wanted. Now you didn't get it this year. And unfortunately, why? I don't know, because you have the same mayor who was the former budget director who relinquished that position to give it to Louise mill, who presented the budget, who indicated to you at that point in time that you would be getting hopefully a budget that would handle the request of the council that you didn't get. But I guess we're talking about old school and it just didn't come to fruition. So some of the things that I would be concerned about if I was still sitting on your side would be a new police station, something that you, Councilor De La Ruza, alluded to some three to four years ago as the number one priority of the Medford City Council, a brand new police station for the police officers of this city and for the safety and the concern of the citizens of this community. Absolutely no discussion about it. It was a bone of contention during this past campaign. President's administration says it would be a minimum of seven years out. And we all know right now what's going on in that police station. You know, it's rat infested. It has mold in it. It has police officers that are sick. And it just cannot accommodate the everyday needs of a modern society, a police department. You know, just a little real quick, when you talked about the box lunches for the workers on Election Day, it's interesting where the mayor found the money to have the mayor's office done completely over. But we can't find the money to take care, unfortunately, the people. who work on a daily basis, once a year or twice a year, depending on the primary and the final elections that take place. You know, I think it's a service, minimal as it might be, that they deserve something having. I haven't heard anybody talk about the fact that, I know there's approximately $20,000 in the budget that the mayor is required to put in, and she has to pay the entire cost of what you folks have hired an outside attorney to bring the 61 Locust Street issue to bear in hand, but nobody's talked about which has been on the council agenda for many years, of looking at a new fire station on Riverside Avenue and possibly looking at a satellite fire station that sits on the opposite side of Wellington Station, where the station landing is, where the new development of 200 more units are going up, which are right opposite the Wellington Station, plus the whole commercial industrial area over there. And I think that's something that really needs to be addressed, over and beyond the fact that if you look at your budget, In this year's budget, your fire department overtime money was there. But once again, on the annual basis, on the police department side, their overtime money wasn't there. It has to be transferred each and every year. Now that's a serious question to ask, because they range anywhere from $400,000 to $600,000 a year in overtime, where the fire department has their money in overtime built right in. Why that happens in the police department, I don't know. But if you want a true and accurate accounting of what overtime costs, or projected overtime costs, that money should be definitive right in there. Also, you built a new $14.1 million Department of Public Works building. It's understaffed, and you don't have the right equipment to do all the jobs that are necessary on a daily basis. Right now, you're dealing with an interim temporary supervisor, a director of the building over there. I just don't know where it's going. And a lot of this click it, fix it idea of what are being asked to be fixed, are being mocked off as being completed, and they haven't even been addressed, they haven't even been resolved. And why these things are being resolved through the Department of Public Works, I don't know. If somebody's making a mistake or it's an error, for whatever it might be. Also, you talked about, Councilman Marks, you also alluded to the fact that $400,000 from the water and sewer on the school department and the city side is basically borne by the taxpayers of this community. You know, it's an interesting analysis because many years ago, when we were talking about the new INI that was coming in, and we were doing High Street, and the MWRA was in here putting in new water lines, especially at the intersection of Governor's Avenue and High Street, there was a project cost in that particular area of quite a few dollars. I forget the exact amount, so I won't lead it to it. But part of the mitigation that took place as a result of that is they had to do High Street, I believe from Medford Square, a little bit past CVS, to do that street over as part of the mitigation for the cost of putting these two things in there, relining the street and making the connections right there. As a matter of fact, I think it was right out in front of Carlings where the sewer just fell into the ground. And I think a lady got hurt, and that was precipitous of what took place. But the $400,000 is just a drop in the bucket to the $8.5 million that's presently sitting and the water and sewer account, you know, and what major projects do you have lined up where those monies can be expended? I mean, I didn't hear it, I didn't see it. I think last week there was a conversation with some folks on looking at cities and, I mean, streets to be done, and I believe Evans Street was one of them that they were talking about, and I believe the comment was that we'll be getting to the water and sewer portion of it, but we probably won't get to the paving of it until next week. I just hope that this council is not getting buffaloed and to passing a budget that's not taking an understanding into what streets are going to be done. And then all of a sudden next year, in election year, all these streets decided to get done. And a major cost is going to come out. And maybe this is what this whole capital improvement program is going to be all about. I don't know. But it's not fair for the people who have been waiting year in and year out, waiting for their street to be done, waiting for their manholes on their street to be fixed, waiting for their sidewalks to be taken care of, waiting for their tree stumps to be removed. And the number that you were given a few weeks ago is absolutely wrong. There's many more than two to three to 400 tree stumps that are out there that need to be corrected and taken care of. You also, um, and in the last election, we talked about the CPA, whether you were for it or against it. And here you are in June, almost seven months later, and there's still no definitive program. There is still nothing out there to tell the people what that money is going to be used for and when it's going to be used. And if you look at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, they don't even know if they're going to be able to fund it this year, because they're behind on revenues and revenue projections that they had anticipated coming in. So the people of this community have to have an understanding. If you voted for the CPA for the 1.5%, I believe that's what they voted for, as the override on your taxes, over and beyond your taxes, which to me is an end run of Proposition 2.5, but that's nearly over there, you're still going to be funding the whole thing on your own. And you're not going to be getting that for which you thought the match was going to be from the state, because they just don't have the money. And unfortunately, you're stuck with it for five years. But I think I believe that it's in Councilor Knight's committee that you're working on, the ad hoc committee, and waiting to make a finality of where it's going to go. And hopefully, the recommendation will come out, and people will have an opportunity to discuss it, and you can get a feeling of where you're going to be going. There's been absolutely no upgrading. On the antiquated cable casting of this council chamber, what transmits over cable television, whether it be Comcast or Verizon. Verizon seems to have a better signal going out rather than Comcast. This building hasn't been touched for well over 30 years, and I would suggest that you do it. And then you have an excess of the cable access money, an excess of $550,000 just sitting there. And it's never been done, and it's never been done to be used to correct this particular building over here. There's a whole bunch of things that you folks have been getting into. One of the things I want to compliment the council on, and you took the bull by the horns for the last couple of weeks, is the Locust Street project. That's 61 Locust Street, 490 unit project on Locust Street. I compliment you publicly because it really is an issue that is disturbing to the neighborhood and it'll destroy the entire fabric, not only of the Wellington neighborhood, it has an immediate impact on the entire city of Medford, if in fact that were to come to fruition. Without going through all the particulars and all the facts that are relegated to it, I thank you for taking that position and voting seven to nothing. Very rare do you get seven to nothing vote on something like this, but you did the right thing on this particular- You have one minute, sir. Pardon me?

[Fred Dello Russo]: You have one minute.

[Robert Penta]: You did the right thing as it relates to this particular subject matter. I just want to conclude probably by saying that I would hope you have a new budget director coming on board. has been here for a long time. I happen to like Anne, and I think she does a good job, and I think she's a very honest person. But I think she was put in a very tough situation as it relates to presenting not only the budget before you folks, but before the Medford City Council and city government. So I thank you for your efforts, Anne. But more importantly, I would just hope this council gets its act together by demanding from this mayor that before any budget comes forward, before any capital improvement comes forward, she sits down with you personally, not an emissary, When in fact, she did have a representative who was supposed to be your council emissary. She's not here tonight. They're never here. Unfortunately, you have to do this on your own and vote on it on your own. So once again, I thank you for listening to my comments and at the same time. Thank you. I just want to thank you. Okay. Without calling you.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Knight. Move the previous question, Mr. President. Previous question by Councilor Knight was to end debate. Mr. Clerk, call the roll.

[SPEAKER_19]: Councilor Knight.

[Adam Knight]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_19]: Vice President Lungo-Koehn. Is it? Yes. Councilor Martins. No. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, one in the negative. The motion, six in the affirmative, one in the negative. The motion passes. Mr. President, motion to approve the paper before the body. Motion to approve the amended budget presented June 15, 2016 by Councilor Knight. Is there a second on the floor? Second by Councilor Caraviello. Mr. Clerk, call the roll.

[SPEAKER_19]: Councilor Caraviello, yes. Councilor Falco? Yes. Councilor Knight?

[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_19]: Vice President O'Karan? No. Councilor Motz? No. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. President Dello Russo?

[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes. With a vote of five in the affirmative, two in the negative, the budget is passed.

[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, motion to take paper 16568 off the table, please.

[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Knight to take paper 16568 off the table, year-end transfers.

[Adam Knight]: Is there a motion? Mr. President, it's my understanding that these transfers are required to be made so that there are no accounts in deficit or surplus at the end of the fiscal year, and it's required by municipal finance law, as presented by Ms. Baker last meeting. As such, I would move for approval.

[Fred Dello Russo]: Motion for approval of the council tonight. Mr. Clerk, call the roll. Seconded by Councilor Caraviello. Yes, the transfers. Yes, with the vote of six in the affirmative, one in the negative, the motion passes. The tabled records of the meeting of June 14th, 2016, pass to Councilor Marks. Mr. Councilor, how do you find those records? On the motion of Councilor Knight to table those records, all those in favor? All those opposed? Those records are tabled. The records of the meeting of June 21st, 2016 were passed To Councilor Scarpelli, Councilor, how did you find those records? To approve them. On that motion to accept those records and to approve them, all those in favour? All those opposed? The motion carries. The records of the first special meeting of the June 18, 2016 City Council were passed to Councilor Caraviello. Mr. Councilor, how did you find those very special records? Motion for approval by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? All those opposed? The motion carries. The records of the first emergency meeting on June 20th, 2016 of the Medford City Council were passed to Councilor Falco. Councilor, how did you find those urgent records? On the motion of Councilor Falco to accept those records and approve them. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion to adjourn by Councilor Falco. All those in favor? All those opposed? Happy summer.

Fred Dello Russo total time: 19.13 minutes total words: 1759	Michael Marks total time: 57.47 minutes total words: 6872	George Scarpelli total time: 0.45 minutes total words: 45	Breanna Lungo-Koehn total time: 22.29 minutes total words: 3113
Adam Knight total time: 10.23 minutes total words: 1114	John Falco total time: 1.55 minutes total words: 163	Richard Caraviello total time: 1.96 minutes total words: 186	Roy Belson total time: 22.28 minutes total words: 3362
Robert Penta total time: 10.24 minutes total words: 195