[Fred Dello Russo]: The Substance Abuse Coordinator shall report to the Board of Health Director and be responsible for developing and administering a unified substance abuse prevention program in Medford. The focus shall be on prevention, intervention services, health policy development, community outreach, and other functions to meet the needs of the community. The coordinator shall also work with local health care providers to gather disseminate information on available substance abuse treatment services and resources in the local area. The coordinator shall have a master's degree and be a certified addiction Councilor with three to five years experience in counseling services. Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Thank you, Mr. President. The past couple of years, There has been an increase of substance abuse overdoses and other issues throughout our community. I'd like to have the city solicitor draft an ordinance, putting it into the personnel ordinance section of our local ordinances so that come budget time or come time to do the community development block grant funding, which is going to be in the next month or so, I'm sure we'll be having our portion, that there's an actual ordinance in place, and if the mayor doesn't see fit to sign off on this ordinance, as we all know, a two-thirds vote of this council would be able to override it anyway, if it's something that we all seem serious about, which I'm sure we are based upon the talk around here for the last few weeks. So I'd like to actually make this an ordinance, and if the mayor signs it, great. I'm sure he will take a hard look at it and if he sees it, that it's a good expenditure. The language that I got for this is based upon the language of all the different surrounding communities that do have a part-time coordinator in their area. Most of the cities I looked at had a minimum of 20 hours per week, but I figured where we have the long day Wednesday, if you could have someone here three days a week. And as far as the experience, that would be up to the administration. But I just think you need someone that really has experience in the field, and it has to be an appointment that's made with due diligence. But that's certainly up to the administration. So I'd like to do this by way of ordinance, so that if the mayor doesn't see fit to do it, he can leave it unfunded in his budget. But that will tell us where he really stands on the issue, if there is an ordinance change in the personnel charts. And this is a great starting point for our discussions tomorrow night. If we want to, I'd like to get the ball rolling with budgets coming up for the ordinance change. But if people want to talk about this further tomorrow night, I would refer this. But if people want to vote on this this evening, we can do it this evening too. But I would say time is of the essence, just where budget's starting to roll around and community development block grants. But certainly by putting it off one night for further discussion, I'm not opposed to that at all.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Council.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President De La Russa. I just want to thank Councilor Camuso for at least thinking about different options. I mean, it's good to go to other communities and figure out what other communities are doing. If I could ask you a question, which communities did you look at? Do you know which ones?
[Paul Camuso]: Boston's doing something right now. Bill Ricka has one in place, as well as Woburn is talking about it right now. And if you follow the Northwest Weekly, it's something in the Boston Globe on Sundays. It's something that most, I shouldn't say most, that would be speaking out of turn, but a lot of the cities and towns around here are doing similar things, but Billerica really is the leading one around here, and that's former Mayor John Curran out of Woburn, who's in the process, if not, they either just hired the person, or are in the process of hiring them right now.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. I would suggest we refer to committee only because we are meeting tomorrow, 6 PM. We have our health director, which is obviously possibly going to be administering that type of employment. We have, I think Penny Bruce will be coming tomorrow from Team Medford and her staff. We'll have a whole host of department heads that can There's a number of issues. I know we're going to meet for an hour and a half, two hours tomorrow. And I think that's just kind of going to scratch the surface on prevention, helping families who are struggling with this, helping addicts. I mean, we're going to need a lot of time to figure out the problem and how to resolve it. And I'm sure there's going to be many steps of resolving the many issues that go along with addiction and the problems we're facing with overdoses. So I would, I think this is definitely one thing we need to discuss as what, something we can do as a community. And I'd like to hear from, you know, our health director and team Medford to see what they have in place, what they need, and you know, if this is something that will work for Medford.
[Robert Penta]: Thank you, Madam Vice President. Counsel Penta. I think the idea was a good idea, but I think I'll take you up on the second part of the suggestion. Councilor. Um, I think, um, what's necessary here is to, um, see what comes out of tomorrow night's meeting, just see what we have. And then look at the ordinances that might be out there. You know, the governor has an opiate program that he's embroiling on a statewide basis. And maybe, once again, looking at making contact with him. But since seeing that resolution on there, there's a lady you might want to add to your list. And her name is Joanne Peterson. And she's the founder and the executive director of Learn to Cope, Inc. It's Learn to Cope, Inc. And they have been pretty active on all of this. Also, I was contacted by parishioners at St. Joseph Parish for anyone who right now is embroiled with some type of an addiction in your family, or the addiction yourself being the individual, that on every Friday at 11 o'clock in the lower chapel of the church. They have an addiction program that runs anywhere from 11 to 12 o'clock on, and it's open to the public for anyone, no matter what. It doesn't make any difference what you are. They're there to help anyone for solace or for whatever it might be. That's ongoing. And if you want to check them out, that's adoration24sj.comcast.net. Speaking with some of the folks in the governor's opiate program, and they're taking this, as you know, very seriously. This is his number two priority when he came on. And I think we can get a wealth of information not only from them. I think to put the ordinance together, right now it just might be just a spec premature because the direction that you'd want the ordinance to go in, is it going to be basically a conduit? Is it going to be a person that's actually going to be able to resolve the problem or not? It could be a two-pronged approach. And I like the idea that we're taking the first step forward, I think maybe after a couple of meetings, once you see what's on the table, I think you can have a better idea of making the audience become more forceful. So I would support that. But again, once again, that lady is very helpful as far as this goes. Thank you, Councilor Penta.
[Adam Knight]: Councilor Knight. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilor Camuso, for filing this resolution. I always think it's a good idea when it's time to put your money where your mouth is, And I think this is a perfect example of that. If we are going to take the issue of addiction in our community seriously, I think we need to dedicate a revenue stream to that. Mr. President, we've had a lot of discussions over the past couple of weeks about putting a line item in the budget, about inviting certain individuals down here to provide us with their expertise. And I think this is a great start to the discussion, Mr. President. I think right now we have the unique opportunity because we have certain services that are lacking to really tailor programming to figure out what's exactly going to work in our community. Not what's going to work next door across the street or up on Beacon Hill, but what's going to work here for Medford, Mr. President. I too would support further discussion of this matter in the subcommittee process. However, I feel as though it's a great idea, and as soon as we shape this thing to reflect what our wants, needs, and desires are here in the city of Medford, and what exactly it is going to take to assist those that are struggling, you know, I'll be supporting this wholeheartedly, Mr. President. I think it's a great idea, and I commend Councilor Camuso for putting his money where his mouth is. Thank you.
[Michael Marks]: Councilor Knight, Councilor Marks. Thank you, Mr. President, and I would like to thank Councilor Camuso for his continued efforts on this issue. I think it would be helpful, as Councilor Knight just mentioned, about knowing the revenue stream, and maybe we should do our own homework to find out what exactly, and I don't know if you've already found out, but what a position of this would cost. I think that'd be helpful in making a decision, at least going forward and asking the mayor to look into it. And also, I know there are a number of initiatives currently taking place within our community that's on a tri-city level, that deals with sting operations when people are serving underage, you know, people in the community in different establishments, kids buying cigarettes that are underage. And that operation has been a tri-city with Method, Everett, and Malden. And maybe we can look at combining efforts when it comes to this substance abuse coordinator. and see what other surrounding communities are doing, and it might be worthwhile to take a program and create something that currently exists on a different level, but maybe expand it to the other communities as well. So I would just offer that as a suggestion, but this is definitely a worthwhile initiative and something that's, at least from my initial discussions in the community, is warranted at this point.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. So, on the motion of Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Thank you very much to all my council colleagues. I think it's great to send this to subcommittee. Just a couple of points that I'd just like to add to this. This isn't specific to the large opiate addiction that we currently have in our community. This is also for treatment, people that may be suffering from using other substances that may be drugs, So it's more of a substance abuse coordinator for all substances. That's the first thing. The second thing is, the mayor always saw fit that it was a very important position in our community when his friend Mr. Averbrook had the job of Medford Saving Lives director. Unfortunately, due to the untiming passing of Ben, who was very well respected in this community, that job has not been filled in some years. This may be an opportunity where the person that does this job can also encompass the Medford Saving Lives program, which has been left unfilled by the mayor for several years now. And then last but not least, one thing that I know that is a huge thing when it comes to substance abuse, it's the beds out there. It's for treatment. We all know Long Island just closed due to the bridge situation. Mayor Walsh had to take that out of service. But the biggest thing, I think, if this comes forward, Well, not the biggest thing, because it's a unified approach with all the different areas, treatment, education, prevention, and intervention services, but an open dialogue between the community and the area hospitals to find out what resources are available on a given day, because all too often, someone's ready to make that step to go into a detox center or a hospital, and unless they're dual diagnosis with a psychiatric problem as well as a substance abuse problem, they just aren't the beds out there. exact right time where they say, oh yes, come on over to McLean Hospital, come on over here, come to Whittier Pavilion, whatever hospital it may be. But an ongoing dialogue between the local hospitals and the city so that you know and you have a count of what resources are available at that time. The second thing is the continuum of care right now at the Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Hallmark Health. They're doing a pilot program right now under a grant. I'm sure most of us are aware of it. where they're actually, they're focusing on back pain. When someone comes in with back pain, and back pain is one of those things that you really can't diagnose, but when someone comes in and they're in severe pain, they're in severe pain. But Hallmark's approach in their continuum of care at this point, and they're studying it in a trial moving forward, they're given a maximum of three days worth of painkillers, and then they have to follow up with their primary care or a specialist. So Hallmark Health is definitely in the forefront. I think we're going to hear a little bit more from Middlesex District Attorney Marion Ryan soon on this issue. I can't speak for her, but I think that she's acknowledged that this is a huge problem in this area. And I think they'll be focused around here a little bit in the near future. And the other thing is too, and I'll discuss this tomorrow night, the Narcan, which we all know is the substance for, it's actually for opiates. But I think that's something that we should work. Whatever it may be, if it's through contract negotiations, whether it's through, whatever the avenues are, we should look to make sure that our professionals have access to that. And if it means contract negotiations and doing it, then so be it. But this is all stuff we can talk about tomorrow night. But I just want to reiterate, I thank my council colleagues for taking this very, very serious. I think we're all on the same page. We realize that alcohol and other substances is a part of this community, that we want to be there and help people out when they've surrendered to this awful disease.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor. So on the motion to send this to the Committee of the Whole tomorrow night by Councilor Camuso, seconded by Vice President Lungo-Koehn, Councilor Caraviello. Thank you, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: Again, I want to thank my colleague for bringing this up to a head. I hope that we could vote on this tomorrow night. I hate to see something like this languishing committee for week after week before we get anything done. I don't think there's anybody that's sitting in the back of this rail here that hasn't had someone that they know, whether it be family or friends, that's been touched by some type of addiction. I know I have. I can't speak for others. I don't know if we've reached out to McLean Hospital, they're right down the street in Belmont. If partners are serious about coming into the community, that might be part of their little help to this community in getting that done. But again, I would hope that we can talk about this tomorrow night, and I hope tomorrow night's discussion is fruitful. And we actually accomplished something other than sitting around just telling stories about how bad people are. I, I, I want, I want tomorrow night to be a full working meeting that maybe some results will come out of. Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Whether you want to put this as a B paper or not. Um, when Councilor Camuso mentioned NACON, I believe that that was brought up at the last time we met here. And I believe that there's already been a niche, a first meeting that's taken place between fire EMTs and police folks on this matter. So could we get an update just where is the city of Medford on this issue of NACON and are they going to provide it for the, Police, fire, and emergency services here in the city. Not cam, not cam. I think that will be part of our committee. Well, I want to make this a separate paper because if this is already something that's ongoing in the works, I think we should be apprised of it. All three of them, emergency responders, fire police, and EMTs.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So for the big paper by Councilor Patu, you have that, Mr. Clerk. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, if I may be so bold to ask, several weeks back, we did request some information from our first responders here in the community, providing us with some data relative to the number of overdoses that have occurred in 2013, 2014, and year to date, related to opiates. And I haven't seen any of that come across my desk yet, Mr. President. I was wondering if you might have seen it.
[Fred Dello Russo]: I haven't received any communique case, but we'll hopefully be updated. And maybe they were holding the presentation. uh, for tomorrow night. Excellent. Thanks. So, uh, on the B paper offered by a Councilor Penta that the, um, uh, department heads, the particularly the fire chief, police chief and representatives from, uh, Armstrong ambulance, uh, update the council or on, uh, their deliberations regarding the use of Narcan. Mr. President has been requested.
[Adam Knight]: I just, it's my understanding that the EMTs and Armstrong Ambulance do carry the NACA. But in terms of public safety officials at this point in time, I don't believe they do. I believe they're in ongoing contract negotiations and discussions thereof. But that can be clarified. But as far as Armstrong Ambulance, I'm certain that they are carrying NACA. Very good. So Mr. Clerk, would you like to roll?
[Paul Camuso]: Mr. President. Councilor Camuso. Can we also ask the same question if Councilor Penta's okay to ask the DA's office and the state police? Because we have a lot of areas in this community. that are patrolled by the state police, and I know we have had overdoses up at Mystic Lakes, up at the Sheepfold, and different areas. So that may be additional numbers that we're not necessarily looking at, because they don't necessarily all the time call EMS, as you know. People refuse it, then they get arrested. As amended by Councilor Camuso.
[Clerk]: All set? Councilor Camuso? Yes. Councilor Caviolo? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Vice President Lungo-Koehn. Yes. Councilor Marks. Yes. Councilor Penta. Yes. President Dello Russo.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes. Seven in favor. None absent. B paper passes. And on the main motion of Councilor Camuso, offered for approval by Councilor Camuso, seconded by Vice President Lungo-Koehn. A roll call as well to send this to Committee of the Whole. No roll call requested. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. 15-096 offered by Councilor Camuso. Be resolved that the Mayor, Michael J. McGlynn, put together a mentoring program to pair youngsters in Medford with caring adults who are committed, reliable, and responsible to help young people in our community succeed. Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Thank you, Mr. President. The last few months, last weeks, we've been focused on other areas that we just discussed and other things that have been important in this community. I think long overdue, the city actually having a mentoring program where you can work with Rotary, Kiwanis, private business, city hall employees, city employees, just regular volunteers, people that are willing to spend some time and be a mentor. As we all know, there's a lot of broken families in our community. People coming from single parent families, kids. And if we can start with kids that are about seven, eight years old and mentor them right through. I know Boston has a program that Mayor Walsh just initiated. And I believe he's looking for 1,000 mentors with a big handful of them being Boston City employees. But if we can do it on a smaller scale in Medford, maybe start with 50 people, I think that that's a goal. But it's up to the mayor to put this in place. And I don't see any reason why we can't with the size of our city and the committed people we have throughout this community. The mayor made phone calls asking people for donations just last week. Maybe he can pick up the phone and call the same people and see if they're interested in getting a mentoring program off the ground. And I, as one member of the city council, and I'm sure all of us are, would be more than willing to help him any way we can.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So. Thank you, council. Council Penta. I'm this one. Were you?
[Richard Caraviello]: No, I didn't hit my button.
[Fred Dello Russo]: My apologies, Councilor Carfiello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, as many of you know, I belong to the Mecca Kiwanis, and we have a program for the kids that starts out with the Builder's Club, the circle game. I think Councilor Marksley's son has been involved with this in the past, and we start out right in the elementary schools with these kids. And they learn responsibility, they elect their own little board and president, they have their own membership. And we have one, and just recently, we have developed Circle K Club with Northeastern University has joined our club in Medford to help mentor the Medford children. So we have a program at the high school, at the Andrews, at the McGlynn, and at St. Joseph's. The only school we don't have a program in at the age is St. Raphael's. So again, anybody wants to get interested in our Builders Club, Kwan and Scott, please let me know. I'll be happy to have anyone be my guest on Monday night, and you can be involved and talk about it and see how the kids do get involved.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor. The Kwan and Scott always get it done. That's correct. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you, Mr. President. This is a good resolution. I'm reading it, and I think that it could work. both ways I think inversely we could pair adults with youngsters who are willing to give back to the community to assist those maybe that are widowed at home that have problems maybe with some home repair, shoveling, mowing the lawn, that type of stuff, or other activities of daily living, Mr. President, whether it's helping pay the bills, that type of thing. I do have a concern that if in fact the city does institute a program that it might take away from some of the non-profit organizations in the community that are already doing this kind of work, Mr. President. So I'd ask that you know if in fact the mayor was going to put together a mentoring program that he'd draw the people in to his office right now for some advice, for some direction, for some deliberation as to what works, what doesn't work, and what we can do to pool our efforts together to ensure that the program would touch as many lives as it possibly can. If the Kiwanis have their Builders Club and it's, you know, working to make a mentoring program, pairing individuals, children with adults to mentor, we don't want to break that bond and we don't want to set back the good work that that club has done. So I'd ask that if the administration were in fact going to take this suggestion seriously, that they brought all the stakeholders to the table, Mr. President, to talk about best practices and to figure out ways that we're not pulling away from each other.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's all too often we see in the community, for example, if youth baseball and youth softball are having a fundraiser, they're going and they're asking the same people for the same stuff. And they're actually competing against each other to accomplish the same goal. So my only concern would be that the work that we do here as a city isn't detrimental to that, that other organizations have already done in the past. Thank you, Councilor.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good. Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. I think it's a great idea. It reminds me of big brother, big sister. I took part in that for a few years before I had children. It goes a long way for the kids, and there are many kids in our community that do need it. So I thank Councilor Camuso for bringing this up. I'd love to see how Boston is planning to lay this out and and try to implement it in Medford. And I agree with the rest of my colleagues. There is a lot to it, I'm sure, to liability and a number of other things that would go with a mentoring program. But it's something that would go a long way. So I'd ask the mayor whether we ask him to implement it or to look into what Boston's doing or to look into supplementing or helping out what the Qantas does, whether that's financial or
[Richard Caraviello]: But we have so many organizations in the city that could all come together in one unilateral thing, Mr. President. And I'm sure we'd all be happy.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, if the mayor can work together, I mean, with the chamber, Kiwanis, Rotary, and we could all do something. The more children we can help, the better. And I have children in the public schools, and there are a lot of kids who need a mentor, so I think this is a great idea. with mentors, it's just one thing, one other person in their lives from coaches to parents to teachers that help kids stay on the right path, stay away from drugs, stay into sports and art and music and do the right thing school-wise and when they're out of school. So I think it's a great idea.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Madam Vice President. Councilor Marks. Thank you, Mr. President. Just as everyone was talking, you know, it's great that I think we want the mayor to implement something, and that's great. But we as a council could implement our own program. And I think it would be a great idea to have youngsters of this community take part in local government by inviting them up to the meetings. You can mentor your own student, invite them behind the reeling, let them listen to debate, let them add dialogue. And this could be a great way of involving kids throughout the community. And it's something that we have direct control over. And it doesn't have to be limited to youngsters. We can invite business owners behind the railing to sit down. Every councilor can invite someone. And I think it's a great way of opening up government, Mr. President. And you're right, the school committee, back some years ago, we used to invite people behind the railing. And you would be a sponsor for someone. and that person would be able to ask questions of the chair, other members, and it was a real informative way of involving the community, getting input, and as we always hear, even from Jean who speaks at the podium and other people that come before the podium, that you look out in the audience and you might see at any given time four or five people in a city of 58,000 people. What better way? So I would ask that as a council, And in particular, you, Mr. President, that we allow maybe one meeting a month to be a sponsor, invite people behind the railing, one person per council. You don't have to invite someone if you don't like and open the meeting up to allow someone else. And I realize they're not elected and their vote is not going to carry weight as a vote on the council. But I think it would be a great experience for many youngsters in our community. And open that up, like I said, to business owners, to seniors, whoever we want to invite, Mr. President. And I think it's a win-win situation. So, I would look to your leadership, Mr. President, in putting something to that forward. And it's something we can do and not rely on the mayor to act upon, because the mayor may never get around. Although I think this is a worthy program, Councilor Camuso, he may never get around to offering a mentoring program in the community.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. Worthy recommendation. Councilor Camuso?
[Paul Camuso]: No, not for now.
[Adam Knight]: Councilor Knight? Mr. President, tomorrow there will be a Rules Committee meeting. And I don't want to be so bold as to suggest that Councilor Marks may be willing to put a B paper forward and refer that to the Rules Committee. And we can get the ball rolling on the mentoring program right now. And we're meeting tomorrow at 4.30. So moved. Well, no, I mean, we can set up the parameters. We can set up the parameters of the program in the rules committee, report it out to the committee of the whole for a vote, and then we can, we can start it up before this legislative session is over. Great.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of, uh, Councilor, uh, Camuso amended by Councilor Marks. Yes. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. 15-098 offered by Councilor Penta. Be it resolved that an update on last week's proposed, nope, 15-097 offered by Councilor Penta. Be it resolved that the Comcast contract be discussed.
[Robert Penta]: Councilor Penta. Mr. President and council colleagues, but more importantly, our subscribers within our community, we're dealing with the end of a 10 year contract that Comcast has had here with the city of Medford. And as everyone knows for the past few months, if not for the past, a couple of years in particular, this Medford City Council has been actively requesting more information, not only on Comcast, but also as it relates to our public access channels here in the city of Medford as to what's been going on. Most recently, and it's kind of like disturbing, there have been accounts coming out of the courthouses and all across the Commonwealth, but as it relates to public access channels. For example, there was a judge regarding the Saugus Community Cable Television. It was now put a stop order against the Saugus Community Cable Television because of their refusal to allow the local board of selectmen to discuss certain aspects of public access and telecasting over there. The Attorney General's Office, just this past week, is now suing the Lynn Community Access Channel. And they're alleging that these defendants abused their positions of power and were responsible for the misappropriation of charitable funds from this non-profit, said Attorney General Healy. Actions such as the ones alleged here cause financial harm to the charity and its mission and undermine the public's trust. We hope that through this action we can recover the money rightfully owed back to the charity, which is the non-profit, which happens to be the public access. We have here in the city of Medford, dating back to, I believe, July of last year, a multiple request of the Medford's TV3 public access channel who supposedly filed a resolution of dissolution just past September. But it was our city solicitor who, at that point in time, sent us a huge packet of information demanding certain documents to be coming forward from the people who were managing the public access channel. And he gave them a time deadline for which they did not respond. I believe also, too, our city solicitor indicated that, I think it was either July or August of this past year, that, in fact, that if they did not respond, that he would pursue other legal avenues. I don't know what those avenues have been. I don't know if any of those avenues have taken place. But we are now here in March of this year. I've just received on my desk here right now tonight, I think we all did, a letter dated December 18, 2014, delivered to the Honorable Michael J. McGlynn from Thomas Kelly, director from Xfinity. Last paragraph, sentence in the last paragraph, please. We believe this renewal proposal substantially meets the community cable related needs while taking into account the cost to individual subscribers in accordance with section 626 B and C of the cable. Best part, the city has an obligation under the formal renewal process to either accept or deny Comcast proposal within four months or no later than April 18th. We, this has been in city hall since December 18th. This is now March 17th, with less than a month and a day to go. And we're just finding this out now. The mayor, I believe, has a responsibility, as he did some 10 years ago, to have a public hearing allowing ratepayers, citizens, anybody who are proponents or opponents to the renewal of the contract. We have asked, I believe intimately, over the past few months, when is this contract renewal public hearing going to take place. We received no responses on it. If you go to page 26, and this is just a quick perusal to this thing, on the top it says, in the event that the issuing authority or other PEG access user elects not to fully program its channels with original PEG access programming, the licensee may reclaim any unused time on those channels. Now, I don't know where we're going with all of that, but that tells me that if the mayor of this community refuses or so chooses not to engage public access anymore in this community, that in fact, Comcast can take over that Channel 3 and do whatever it wants, and the city would not be able to get monies that they have in the past on public access. Looking at this real quick, I could be wrong, but I think that's the way it reads. Also, and more importantly, why would we even want to engage in another 10-year contract? Look what's happened with our rubbish contract. We're engaged with them for 10 years. We just got embroiled with a ridiculous 10-year kiosk program here in the city, you know, a meter program. And now we're looking at a renewal to a public acts strike that to a cable contract for 10 years. But the difference on this cable contract from the last one is this. The technology has become so advanced out there right now that we really don't know within the next 10 years if new technology can supersede that for which Comcast is giving to us. My advice would be, and since the mayor is obviously not having his public hearing, I have no idea why. He has got one month and one day to pull this off, which is a period of time to get intelligent people down here to talk about this. But rather than go forward with a 10-year contract, I would probably make a recommendation that we have a three-year contract, with a two-year contract possible for renewal, at that point in time, just to see where we're going with all of this. It makes no sense to say, yes, we're going forward for 10 years, when you're not having a public meeting and a public forum, for which I believe—I'm not—don't hold me to it, but I believe that that was part of the licensing. and the relicensing process. And, you know, unfortunately, just getting this tonight and trying to peruse it, I mean, that's one part of it. The other part of it is we haven't still gotten any accounting of monies allegedly not found or misappropriated or what have you. We haven't gotten a full accounting of the inventory that was down there, if it's been sold, if it's been used or what have you. And here we are engaging ourselves, if this be the case, with a potential 10-year contract, and then looking at surrounding cities and towns where not only the attorney general has stepped in, but you also have it with Lynn. You have it in Saugus. You have it in Bolton. And you have it in Rehoboth, where the guy got eight years, eight years in jail for misappropriating funds. You have problems with Wincambe and Winchester. These are things that are just surrounding us. And we're living right in the middle of all of this right now. And we can't get answers to satisfy what we have, never mind going forward. So I look at this as a three-pronged approach. Number one. We have no public hearing for which I think we should have. Number two, we still don't even have anything resolved as TV3 and the city of Medford. Accountability not only from inventory, accountability from records and for tax filings, for bank accounts and who's on them and who's allowed to them. And also, getting involved with a 10-year contract that's right around the corner, I don't think it would serve the rate payers of this community well. I think it would serve them a lot better if they had an opportunity to maybe have a three-year contract with a two-year renewal, if that be the case, to see where we're going. The state and the art of technology is so advanced today that who knows where we're going to be able to be at that point in time. And if we get locked into something that we can't get out of, it might cost subscribers more money in the years 7, 8, 9, and 10, or 6, or whatever it might be, than what they could possibly get with a more advanced contract. It shocks me how this city just runs itself with these 10-year contracts. And nobody is looking for a 10-year contract other than Comcast and the mayor of this community who is allowing this to go forward without even having a public hearing to have any kind of a discussion on it. Some two weeks, I think it was two weeks ago this past Monday, going two and a half weeks ago, I spoke with the attorney. He was representing the city of Medford on their public access information and legalese stuff, whatever it was. He told me as of two, two and a half weeks ago, He has had absolutely no contact with the City of Medford on its renewal with Comcast. So I don't know where we're going with this. I don't think anyone behind this reel knows where we're going with this. But I really think that we need to send a message to the mayor and behalf of the subscribers that something needs to stop on the tracks and we don't need another 10-year contract. I think we need to have a real look and see, a public hearing, and have some open and public discussion.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Caraviello. Thank you, Mr. President. You know, I'm going on my fourth year on this council here, and out of the four years here, only a couple of months, my first term, there was a little bit of a TV station, and that was it. And then it was gone after that. I thought we had a vote for anything for 10 years on another contract, is that correct? I thought 10 years had to be voted on by us. I thought, right, am I correct, anything over three years is supposed to be voted on by us, or five years? Three years, okay, well, 10. And the other thing is, why are we voting for three years? We haven't done anything for the last three years and we're gonna vote for another three years to sit around and do nothing? I mean, from what I understand is they haven't had any suitors that are looking to take over the station here. Again, all these little things here, there's nothing happening here. And I don't understand why, at $350,000, You can't hire somebody—I mean, why can't we go out and hire a private company? Never mind a volunteer company. I mean, there has to be a company you can hire that'll go out there and run a station privately. I'm sure there's companies out there that do this. I mean, it doesn't have to be a volunteer thing. I mean, volunteers could come in and do the thing. But as far as running an actual station, there must be companies that do this as an actual business.
[Robert Penta]: In the second paragraph, it says that the city is getting $350,000. I believe the prior contract, the city got $450,000. Rick? So we're going down $75,000 on what they're going to give us. They're looking for another 10-year contract, and we don't even know what the hell we're getting.
[Richard Caraviello]: Even if you vote for 3 years, we're going to vote for 3 years of continuing to do nothing? I mean, what happens after April 18th? Are we done? Is the contract done and it never comes back again if it doesn't get signed? I think we need answers before we can vote on anything again. Councilor Pender's right, 10 more years is ridiculous until we have some type of answers to know where we're going with this thing. And like I said, from what I understand, there's no one out there that's looking to take this over. And I say, I don't understand why we can't go out there and solicit or find someone that wants to run a TV station for a profit. and let the volunteers come in and do their volunteer work after. Mr. President, I'd like to have an answer whether we have to vote on a 10-year acceptance. I mean, if we had to vote on the meters, why don't we have to vote for it for this? Trash contract, everything else.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of Councilor Caraviello that the city solicitor report back to the city council rather whether or not we need to ratify or approve the 10-year contract with our friends at Xfinity.
[Richard Caraviello]: And for an update on where we are, then that would go to the the purchasing agent where we are with the process
[Fred Dello Russo]: for asking someone to be involved with the process of community cable vision. Point of clarification, Councilor Penter. I'm sorry. Do I got you?
[Robert Penta]: Rick, I think the question that you're really wanting to ask, by what law are we required to sign to approve a 10-year contract? That, I think, needs to be the question rather than— Let me say, because what happens after April 18th?
[Richard Caraviello]: If the contract's not signed, does the contract go away and never comes back again? They say, I hate to spend 10 more years of doing nothing and just taking the people's money. Thank you, Councilors.
[Paul Camuso]: Councilor Camuso. I would just, as we're looking at this, I think we have to be very realistic. We heard it loud and clear over the past five years, people wanted Verizon, people wanted the opportunity to go out and choose which cable provider that they would like to subscribe to. And so, I actually support the renewal of the contract, just based upon giving people the opportunity to make a on what provider they would like. I don't see any reason why, though, they can't open this up at this point to other vendors that may be interested and not just exclusively Verizon and Comcast or Xfinity. But like I said, this is something this city council called for for years. Competition, competition, competition. And if this doesn't get renewed, I would think that competition is now by the wayside in the city of Medford. I don't know that to be 100% true, It sort of makes sense just based upon the contract not being renewed. At some point, Comcast would no longer be available to be subscribed to. So, I just think we've got to think about that because we were very adamant. Councilor Marks, do you remember how many years it was? Councilor Carr was on the Council when we were trying to get Verizon in here. It's been that long ago. So, competition is good for the consumer.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. I'd like to amend the paper with the B paper, Mr. President. And the B paper would read that the Mayor and the City Council President work together to appoint a member of the City Council to be a member of the negotiating team in the upcoming contract renewals.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor. Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. I, too, agree that the contract needs to be renewed, I think what we all probably have an issue with, or, you know, especially those who spoke very adamantly against what TV3 was doing in this community, is certain portions of the contract. We still don't have answers with regards to a new TV3 station, and I know it's already been said, we don't have answers to the filings that were supposed to be done with the Secretary of State from the board. We have issue with how things were run at TV3, you know, Lynn Saugus, other communities are getting investigated, possibly prosecuted, certain people within the TV arena, yet a judge came into Medford, listened to two days' worth of testimony, declared that TV3, the board, should be reported to the attorney general's office, yet nothing ever happened. So we seem to never get anywhere with regards to what should have taken place, why it didn't take place, and why it's still not taking place. I feel like we get the runaround, and nobody's doing what they needed to do at TV3. So I think this contract needs to be tweaked, and we need to get some answers before we agree to put any money into peg access. We're putting money into—we're taking ratepayers' money, a portion, which is 5 percent, of the licensee's gross annual revenues and put it towards PEG access. Well, what are we getting for our money? We have money that is being tied up for a TV station in this city that is not being used. So, I mean, whether we put somebody from the council to help the mayor negotiate or we discuss it further on the floor, we need some answers. When are we going to implement a TV station? Why don't we have any answers with regards to what the board of directors were supposed to file with the Secretary of State's office? It was supposed to be done months ago, from what I understand. And, you know, July? Yeah. Months and months ago. And that's unfortunate. You know, but hopefully this council speaking out, just like we spoke out about competition between providers, just like we spoke out about the elimination of TV3 and what was going on down there. We have to keep speaking out, and hopefully we'll be able to get somewhere, get a new TV3 access station, run smoothly and professionally, as well as negotiate this contract. The mayor has a month. This is the first I've heard of it. So we have a month to let the mayor know what we want to see, what information we need, and hopefully, especially if the administration needs our approval, hopefully some things are renegotiated so it's in the best interest of the taxpayer. and the ratepayer.
[Paul Camuso]: Yes, I'd also like Director Burke, if I can make a motion, to provide us with the last four consecutive fiscal years of franchise fees that came into this community as a result of a 1987 vote or 88 vote of the Medford City Council. There's nothing that says we have to keep that in place. Members of this Medford City Council if we wanted to can do away with the franchise fee on the monthly bill. Now we have to be obvious, we obviously have to be aware that there are many good programs that are funded through it, teachers in the school system and things of that nature. But I'd like to see four years worth of franchise fees and then we can take a serious look at if it's something that we want to continue as a practice here in the city of Medford.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: just on that Councilor Camuso's four years of franchise fees, if we could just also get a breakdown of what has been spent out of that account for the last four years, and then we'll know better what is being funded so that if we want to reduce it from 350 to 200 just to fund what we're doing now, then we know what the accurate amount should be.
[Paul Camuso]: And I think this is this is playing into the whole picture. We asked for the transfers last week. We're actually holding in on the budget now to see where there could be some savings, where in the past we haven't asked for some of this empirical data. Thank you, Councilman. Sorry.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. The floor goes to Councilman Marks.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. And this dialogue is extremely helpful. So what I would say is with the last contract that the mayor signed with Comcast, that contract called for yearly increases to every ratepayer of this community with no relief in sight. I haven't spoken to one person in this community that said that their cable rates are going down. So there's been steady increases in cable rates over the last ten years. Why would you want to give out another 10-year contract? Wouldn't it be more prudent to have both Verizon and Comcast on a short leash, having them worry about whether or not the city's going to renew the contract? And that way, in my opinion, they'll be more competitive with the rates, and they'll be more willing not to raise rates because they know the contract's going to be up in two or three years. This 10-year contract does nothing for the ratepayers of this community. It may be easy for the mayor to sign a 10-year contract and take that off his plate so he doesn't have to revisit that for another 10 years, but it does nothing for you or I as a ratepayer, Mr. President. It does nothing to lower rates. It does nothing to improve programming, as we've seen with local access for the last three and a half years in this community, and in my opinion, It would suit every ratepayer in this community if they were part of the negotiations. And I realize the mayor is the sole negotiating authority, but why not put together, as Councilor Knight mentioned, member of the council, maybe a member of the business community, you know, a senior member of the community, someone, you know, a family member, someone that has a family in the community, a host of different people in the community to sit on this committee and negotiate it, Mr. President. You know, it just, to me, you know, it's the quick fix to getting a contract out of the way. And as I mentioned, rates have not gone down. So my past experience in this community, is that rates go up every year, unchecked. And the thought is, well, if you don't want to go with us, go with Verizon. And you go to Verizon, their rates are no better than Comcast, to be quite honest with you. They're in cahoots with each other. So the service may differ a little bit. But when it truly comes to the leverage we have as a community, it's bargaining the contract and standing up for the residents of this community and stating right within the contract, for the first four years, we do not want a rate crease, no rate crease at all. That would be part of a contract that I was signed, Mr. President, if I was in charge. That would be on behalf of the beleaguered taxpayer and ratepayer in this community. And to leave it open-ended and give a 10-year contract, you just might as well give them a blank check, because that's what's going to happen. The minute that's signed, the rates are going to continue to go up. All of a sudden, the programming they were offering, that's how they squeeze you. They give you a certain tier you're in, and all of a sudden, the four major channels that you used to watch in that tier are no longer part of that tier. You've got to move up to the next tier, which is another $39.50 a month. And they squeeze you and continually squeeze you in that manner. And, you know, I would hope that the mayor doesn't consider doing this alone, the contract negotiations. And I would hope that he looks for a much shorter contract so we can keep this company on a short leash and hold them accountable, Mr. President, for raising rates and doing away with programming and not offering local cable access. because they should be the ones, Mr. President. They're the ones collecting our franchise fee. The local cable access should be going to the mayor and saying, Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, we're collecting money from every rate payer in the community saying that we're going to provide access, and we haven't done that for four years, Mr. President. As a business owner, I feel incumbent to raise this to you, Mr. Mayor, and say maybe we should not be collecting these franchise fees. until you get your house in order and provide local cable access. So there are a lot of issues with this, and I look forward to, in particular, Councilor Knight's resolution to see if we could have a seat on this as part of this negotiation, and also to include other residents of this community, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Marks. Sir, please state your name and address for the record. Good evening.
[Joe Viglione]: Joseph Villione, 59 Garfield Avenue, Medford, Massachusetts. Thank you very much, City Council, for discussing this very, very important point. Councilor Caraviello brought up the suitors. The problem there is that the mayor has these stringent rules for the next access station that he didn't enforce with the previous station. So there is a major player that is seriously considering coming in here and making a pitch. I heard Councilor Camuso say Winchester. The sad thing about Winchester is a lot of the great board members, really good people, fled. I've been in discussion. I had a 30-minute conversation with Richard Howard. He called me in, and I met with him. And there were problems over there now because the good people, the people that were keeping it, public access, are gone. Now they shut the doors to outside people. They had people from other communities. They want to be Winchester only. For them to come to Medford would be ludicrous, because I have some inside information, and I know that they want to make it Winchester, Winchester, Winchester. It would only benefit the old board of directors. And they've been on the board for 10 years, on two of them, and five years, one. It's just like TV3. So now that has changed. Now, Councilor Penta has made a very good point about the new technology. It might be apples and oranges, but I was talking to one of the major chains, retail chains for DVDs. He said that sales have fallen off the cliff, Redbox and Netflix have taken over. Now they saw it coming, but he said to me, we didn't see it coming this quick. And he just discarded 10,000 CDs and DVDs titles. He said, guardians of the galaxy is not going to sell in our store. Very important because the technology has changed now. One of the local businessmen told me that he put that box you can buy, and you can get Hulu and Netflix. Instead of having cable, he got so upset with it all, his son installed the box, and now they're using that. Go to Micro Center on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Google has a $2,000 TV. It is huge. It is for internet television. It's the wave of the future. And I sat in on many WinCam board meetings, and one of the great board members that left He kept saying, it's going to be five years, it might be three years, it's coming. This new technology is a wave. It isn't, oh, four, five, seven years off. No, it's more like two years off. So a 10-year deal is insanity. Now, what do I know? I've only been doing this for close to 40 years. I've been studying it. I spent thousands of hours on this issue, as this city council well knows. The mayor is making it very, very difficult for a suitor to come in. be it Wincambe, be it the other suitor that I'm aware of, they very much want to come in here. They're a great, great enterprise. And Mayor McGlynn happens to have a lot of respect for them, so I hope that that suitor does come in because they would get my vote and I would fight for them. No, no, Winchester's gone. The good board members are gone. So the old cronies have taken over, much like Frank and the gang at our old station. It's now an old crony station over there and it's only for the for the people on the board using it. Now, Mayor McGlynn doesn't want anyone on the staff of the board making their own television shows. Okay, that's pure access TV, sure, but every other station has people on the board and on the staff using it. So, he's telling a new provider to come in and play by new rules that he didn't enforce for the old gang. Now, Councilor Caraviello had another good point, too, about Access TV, and it just slipped my mind, but it was a great point. It'll come back to me. And, Brianna, you brought up a really good point about something, and I think a Cable Advisory Commission is what we really need here, because every city and town has a Cable Advisory Commission. Where's Medford's? Now, Bob Skerry is the last standing guy on it. I put a public records request in to that Cable Advisory Commission. No answer. So I went to the Secretary of State's office and they called the guy up and said, are you going to answer this? And he goes, I resign. So he quit from the Cable Advisory Commission in Medford because I asked him if it's active. Can you believe this? A deceased resident of Medford was on the Mayor's Cable Advisory Commission for five years. Okay? How disrespectful to that man's family that his name was used for five years on the city website, and I've got it documented in my emails, and I can pull up all the emails in the years that the mayor did this to this family. Unbelievable. So then there were two guys left, Bob Skerry and another fellow. His name escapes me. His brother writes for the Medford Mercury, the sports page, if anyone can remember the name there. But Bob Skerry's a really nice guy. He has a good heart. He wants access. He said, Joe, The cable advisory committee is missing from the city webpage. He goes, I think it's gone. This is a member of the advisory committee telling me he thinks it's gone. You do the math. Now, you people probably weren't aware of this Xfinity letter I handed out today. In November, I received a public records request response from the city solicitor who told me they had no correspondence from Comcast. A ten-year deal and there's no correspondence? So I put it in again. Didn't get a response until today. when he said, you can go to the mayor's office or the clerk's office, city solicitor. Thank you very much, city solicitor. I appreciate the info. Now, I went down at Finn's office this morning, and I found it, and I said, Clerk Finn, when did this come in? He didn't know. I do see that Comcast CC'd him on December 18th, but there was no timestamp, as Clerk Finn graciously told me, no timestamp on it. So now I put these requests in. There's only four months. City Council didn't know. Obviously, the public didn't know because the public access proponent didn't know and couldn't get a straight answer out of the mayor. The mayor said at a Comcast public hearing he wants transparency. Your Honor, that's not transparency. That's ducking. And when you say transparency, you're a good politician, because you're saying one thing out of one end of your mouth, but you're doing another. And we're tired of it. I'm tired of it, because I would rather be doing my productions. I would rather be doing my business work, which really needs my help, instead of writing letters every day, because I'm the only one really on the outside of this City Council out there fighting every day for this issue. It is vitally important. You cannot have an election and have a mayor thwarting public access and all you councilors are at a disadvantage. because he's got the name, he's got the personal videographer paid for with government access money, 75 grand for the mayor's personal videographer, and 45 grand for his personal publicist. So all due respect, Councilor Camuso, I believe, when you said that it's going to a good cause. No, the public access money for the government channel is going for people who are the mayor's publicist and the mayor's personal videographer, leaving school time right in this room. I've been there, I've seen them, they're not teaching school, they're videotaping the mayor on our dime. You aren't getting that. Michael Marx isn't on TV when the mayor's on TV getting a glitzy ad from Comcast for Maiden Medford, and he appears with the TV3 people he's supposed to be overseeing. Talk about a conflict. So, you know, Councilor Knight, Councilor Penty, you don't get these glitzy ads. So you're second-class citizens. The mayor is the king, and he's taking advantage of my access fee, which this month, as you see, I gave you a copy of it, $1.64. 12 months, $13.92. OK? A year? It's like $139.20. 10 years? What is it? You got it. And you multiply that times 1,000 people and 10,000 people and 20,000 people. It's a lot of money, to quote Richard Gere from Primal Fear. That's a lot of money. I'm tired of coming up here at the council. I would rather be on TV interviewing my favorite people, be it Vincent Pugliosi with Consul of Camoso, which was a good show. He was great on it. Thank you. It's very, very important for this community to get their act together. 57,000 people here and they're getting mushed. They're getting mushed. The restrictions the mayor imposes on the next access station, it's gonna scare a lot of good people away. We need to have a Cable Advisory Committee. I ask, I request of this city council, all seven of you, to reinstate a Cable Advisory Commission. And you're right, have a councilor on it. Have a school committee person on it. Get Bob Skerry back. He knows the landscape. Do it. Please do it. I got a lot more to say on this. Thank you very much for your time.
[Paul Camuso]: The peg access is what pays for the school committee and the city council as well. And we all know as we traverse this community, how many people watch these meetings. And a portion of it is funded. And so once again, I think Councilor Alango-Kern has a great idea, seeing exactly how much of it is paying for Monday nights and Tuesday nights and how much is getting paid elsewhere. But TV3 or whatever the public access station is one portion of it. The PEG stands for public education and government. We still have a government channel and we have an education component. Right now, the P for public access is missing, but there still is two other channels that are funded through that.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Knight, inadvertent button tapping there, Councilor. I'm sorry? I have nothing to say. Hit the button. Thank you, Councilor. Ma'am, please state your name and address for the record.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I want to thank Mr. Penta for bringing this very important issue up. This city, I want to keep it simple, deserves a community access station. It's that simple. And I'm glad that you brought up the 10-year, Mr. Caraviello, the 10-year contract. Thank you. That's a great idea. Maybe 5 years or whatever, but 10 years is a stretch. And yes, we should have to approve it as a body because all the other contracts are over 3 years. Excellent point. And I want to thank Mr. Knight for his suggestion of putting a person from this council to help the negotiation. I think that's wonderful, especially given the past history with this station. The mayor messed it up the last time. It was his ball. He screwed it up. And I don't want to beat that bloody. But I want to recall that the mayor did hire a little – he put together a three-person committee, which in my mind was skewed or not necessarily qualified. We had a priest, which was a very nice guy. He's honest. But what does he know about cable access? We had a person with conflict of interest who gets paid by the PEG monies, and we had another person who was a nice guy, but he wasn't anybody that really represented the community at large. It was a very narrow focus for that committee that he put together. That said, he had those recommendations in his hands, okay, and you know what he did with them? He put them in the desk drawer, and he didn't pay any attention to them. That's what he did. But he does say that he's going to use the money through the school system, through the voc system, which I'm happy to see that, first of all, again, the bad behavior's gone. Thank God for that. The negative uses of the TV station are gone. Thank you for that, and thank you, Joe, for all your work on that. But we still don't see a station today, and we need to see one. We're paying that money, and I think the reason why Mayim McGlynn is doing his dance again is because he's going to wait until the last day of the contract He got the letter December 18th. He's going to wait until April 17th or April 16th. He's going to hold his meeting and he's not going to want to publicize it because he knows it's going to be a complaint session. If you really told the people, the parents out there, that their kids weren't having their hockey games on TV and everything else, that they're being denied the history, the arts. If they really heard all of that and they really, it penetrated in their soul that they've been denied this, they'd be at that meeting and they'd be saying, what have you done? But they, I don't know, for whatever, because we don't have a good media system, they don't really hear that. And they would show up. And we are being denied. Every day that we don't have a station, we're being denied. a historical log of everything that happens in the city, all of the events, the plays that could be being recorded at the auditorium, and he showed up there. I was going to say, you know, the arts community could get on this and do something with it. We do have an arts community, and as far as I can see from all the other communities, the arts people are the ones that run these stations locally, or at least have a huge plug in the system of these systems. We have an arts community. The mayor showed up for the 75th anniversary of the Chevalier, and he gave the Chevalier people a plaque for their 75th anniversary. He showed up for that, so he knows the arts people. It's not like he doesn't know them. He doesn't want to invite them in on the process. He hasn't. Because if he did, they would love that. That's what they do. They live for the arts. They're musicians. They paint. They're creative. That's what they do. They love it. And if he reached out to them, he doesn't want to reach out to them. Because he really wants to keep it in a tight little niche for himself so that he can control the media. Again, I hope that the mayor opens up his mind. and lets this city become a thriving city. Thank you.
[Paul Camuso]: Thank you, Mr. President. I can see where this is going. I would anticipate that the mayor is going to say that where this is a renewal, he doesn't need the Medford City Council, as Councilor Caraviello pointed out in his wise wisdom. He doesn't need the City Council to give him the approval. So, I think at this point, we should go and temporarily, for the next 60 days, rescind the original vote that was taken under, I believe it had to be under City Manager Galoni at the time. Because this is technically a renewal, it's not a new contract. So, if we rescind the original vote where the council gave approval... No, no, but it's been a renewal, a renewal, a renewal. The original vote that gave the city administration the green light to move forward of a plus three year contract. I think this city council should take a vote to temporarily rescind it so that he cannot go and sign this tomorrow morning while we're waiting for the city clerk to do his due diligence and pull the original paper. Does it make sense? Because this is a renewal and the administration is going to come back and say, I don't need your consent. You gave it to me on the original contract. Do you see what I'm saying? Where if that vote's rescinded, he can only negotiate a maximum of three years. And it, it sounds to me by listening to the council colleague, my council colleagues, no one's really comfortable with a 10-year deal at this point. So then.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So then if we.
[Paul Camuso]: Are we authorized to rescind something that old? We can rescind anything. Cause he's, he, whatever vote he's banking on saying that he has the authority to do it, that should be rescinded by this council temporarily for 60 days. until we find out where it's going. So, is that in the form of a motion, Councilor? That is in the form of a motion.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you.
[Paul Camuso]: So, on the motion... Well, at least until... At least rescind it until April 15th, is it?
[Robert Penta]: Just rescind the renewal period until such time... No, we can't rescind the renewal.
[Paul Camuso]: The only thing we can rescind is the original vote giving him the authority to go over three-year contract. But I agree with that, but I'm afraid tomorrow morning he'll sign this contract knowing that the council's looking for that. Well, if he thinks he can't get his 10-year deal... Can we rescind it for seven days? Rescind it for seven days? Will you support rescinding it for seven days? the original authority for the mayor to negotiate over three years. But Ed Finn just told me it's still in effect.
[Robert Penta]: Point of information, Councilor Penta. To you, Councilor Camuso, I hear what you want to do, and it sounds like it's a good idea, but this is a renewal, and I don't have anything in front of me that says that a renewal becomes automatic by the mayor, because if that's the case, what are we even discussing anything? That's number one. Also, in one of the pages that we were received here, you know, there's a whole list of what the peg access provider needs to do. It's different than the original contract, or it's an addendum to the original contract. So that in and of itself talks about being different. Mr. Clerk, not to put you on the hot seat, but the only thing that disturbs me with this whole thing is it says CC here, City Clerk. Do you ever remember getting this, December 18th?
[Clerk]: We get a book from the county. Things get processed in the book. So I'm not always aware of what gets put in the book. as part of the book. So did I see it? No. Could it have been put there? Yes. You know, so I'm not aware of the timeframe, as I said, unless I timestamped it, you know what I mean? That it came in, but anybody from my staff could have came in there and updated the proposal book, which is a letter. And that's probably what happened. So I don't know. The chair is in doubt of whether or not we can do this.
[Robert Penta]: Let me finish my comment, please.
[Fred Dello Russo]: You made a point of intervention.
[Robert Penta]: So wait a minute. It goes to the same point. So we heard the clerk say that. But if this has been sitting there since December 18th, because it definitely went to the mayor, and it did go by UPS, and somebody upstairs in his office, and now we're a month and a day away from the four months. Something's going on because there's no public hearing being held or anything.
[Fred Dello Russo]: This document has been introduced into the council by means that aren't a usual means of introducing a document. So, uh, I have, I'm not clear of what the document is and I think that documents are introduced into the city council for discussion should follow the normal means of doing so.
[Robert Penta]: Well, point of clarification, Mr. President, the city clerk is aware of it. He just got through explaining to you how and why it got there. It's a document that CCs the council. It's addressed to the mayor. It's regarding a renewal process for which we're talking about. So this is a very important issue.
[Paul Camuso]: The council council president, mr. Councilor Camuso has the floor. I'm going to, uh, I'm going to withdraw that original motion. I'm going to make a motion that the city solicitor advises this council on the original paper and respectfully ask the mayor not to sign the contract. until the city solicitor's opinion is back before the Medford City Council. And if he goes forward and signs it, full well knowing that the council at this point, just speaking, and I'm not so sure if I'm far against the 10-year contract, but it sounds like several members are, are not far going out, but at least if he signs it between now and then, where we had since December 18th to now, and we're asking for seven days, I think that would be unfair for him to do that at this point.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So your motion as a C paper is to ask the city solicitor for an opinion.
[Paul Camuso]: On, on the, to, um, and the city clerk to furnish this council with the original vote that gave the mayor the authority not to negotiate with Comcast. Well, it could be Comcast or the authority to negotiation with a cable service provider for over 10 years. And it has to be, broader for all cable companies, because the mayor did not need a vote of the city council to give a 10-year contract to Verizon.
[Robert Penta]: Now, wait a minute.
[Fred Dello Russo]: And Verizon is running neck and neck with this. The mayor is the contracting authority of the city. So if we could ask for that.
[Paul Camuso]: With that, on the motion of council, Camuso has a seat paper. And also for him not to sign it, respectfully ask him not to sign it within the next seven days, because he knows there is concerns amongst the members of this city council.
[Fred Dello Russo]: With the council respectfully requesting that the mayor not enter into the contract for seven days.
[Robert Penta]: Also, can we amend that for it?
[Fred Dello Russo]: So Councilor Camuso, Councilor Caraviello has the floor next.
[Robert Penta]: Can I move to Councilor, I want to amend his paper. Councilor Camuso.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Caraviello has the floor. I'll yield to Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Councilor Camuso, on your paper, can we amend that one step further as it relates to, you want the city solicitor, likewise to report back. But at the same time, remember, Comcast used to be Time Warner, and before Time Warner was another one. So we have an interloping of three different cable providers here in the city during that period of time. And I think when you change from A to B, that's going to cut the thing to Time Warner. Also, I'd like to amend it to ask the question, when and if the public hearing is going to take place on this renewal? So amended by Councilor Penta.
[Paul Camuso]: And we're on a seat paper on this. Easy. This is your paper. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I think that Councilor Camuso's revised amendment to the paper is the right course of action. I didn't feel too comfortable moving forward without first having an opportunity to review the initial and original vote that authorized the mayor to enter into a contract with a cable service provider for a period of time over three years. And getting the city solicitor's opinion is also something that I would have liked to have in my hand before I actually made a vote as to whether or not we would allow the mayor to move forward. So with that being said, Mr. President, I certainly think that after the debate and the deliberation that we've had here at this point in time, we have a paper that we can all support and I'd like to move for approval. Very good.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on approval of the C paper offered by Councilor Camuso as amended, all those in favor, Roll call vote has been requested on the C paper. Clerk, please read the C paper back to the body.
[Clerk]: Are these all part of Council Penter's? Council Penter didn't even have a motion. He had a call for discussion. No amendments to his paper, not necessarily B's, C's, and D's. Well, amendments to his paper. But you have the floor. It's your resolution. The resolution was for discussion. The resolution didn't have a resolution. So we're amending your paper, all these things.
[Fred Dello Russo]: The A paper, the only resolution we had come out was first, there was no word resolution made or may be resolved until Vice President Lungo-Koehn spoke. That was it. No, B was my paper. B was Councilor Knights. So the A, there was no resolution offered by Councilor Penta.
[Clerk]: They're all amendments off the main paper. That's what I'm just saying. Thank you. That's all they are.
[Adam Knight]: Can we do one roll call vote on the whole paper?
[Fred Dello Russo]: There was a call to make them separate papers, so we're going to vote on them separately. So on the C paper, Mr. Councilor, Mr. On the motion of Councilor Penta that all three papers be reunited as one, seconded by Councilor Garaviello. All those in favor? For the uniting of the three papers. For the uniting of the three resolutions, the three separate papers, please call the roll, Councilor Mr. Finn.
[Clerk]: Councilor Camuso? Yes. Councilor Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Vice President Long and Kern? Yes. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Penta? Yes. President De La Russa? Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the vote of seven in the affirmative, none negative, that motion passes. On the main motion, then, as united, roll call vote has been requested.
[Adam Knight]: On the motion, Councilor Penta. I wouldn't have voted to put the papers together. We're going to continue to debate on the topic, Mr. President.
[Robert Penta]: Well, I'm sorry.
[Adam Knight]: You don't want to debate the topic.
[Robert Penta]: Move to rescind, Mr. President. Last vote. He can move to rescind all he wants.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Rescind the last vote. Councilor, we've called for a vote on this. Pardon me? So we've called for a vote.
[Robert Penta]: So you're going to tell me I can't speak on the motion now?
[Fred Dello Russo]: You've never done that before. Is this one of your new rules? Move to rescind, Mr. President. Motion to rescind by Councilor Knight. I move for reconsideration. We're open for reconsideration, Councilor Knight. Reconsideration of what?
[Adam Knight]: Of the vote to put all the papers, to unite the papers, Mr. President. I voted to unite the papers because I felt as though we had an agreement here amongst the members of this council that this is something that we can all support. As such, if we're all going to support it, we can stop debate and we can support the measure and we can move forward on it. If in fact, we're going to merge all the papers together and then continue debate on it and then start adding to it again, I have concerns about that. I'd like to keep my paper separate.
[Robert Penta]: Well, you didn't even let me finish the reason why I just said before that. No, no, no. He's so quick. He thinks he can read my mind. Let him take his vote. I'm not out after you at all.
[Adam Knight]: I'm not out after you at all. What I want to do is I want to preserve my paper, and I don't know what's going to come up. I don't know what's going to come up.
[Fred Dello Russo]: There's a motion to rescind on the floor. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Rescinding? Rescinding.
[Clerk]: Councilor Camuso?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Caraviello? No. Councilor Knight? Yes. Vice President Long and Kern? No. Councilor Marks? No. Councilor Penta? No. President Dello Russo? Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: The vote of three in the affirmative, four negative. Motion fails. Councilor Penta on the motion for approval. Move approval. Motion to.
[Robert Penta]: No, listen, no, because he thought he was so smart. He knew what he was going to do.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Nothing about being smart. It had more to do about me preserving my interests and less about me being smart. United Peace.
[Clerk]: Councilor Camuso. Yes. Councilor Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Vice President Long and Kern. Yes. Councilor Marks.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Penta. Yes. President Dello Russo.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes, with the vote of seven, the affirmative, none negative, the measure passes. 15-098 offered by Councilor Penta, be it resolved that an update to last week's proposed citizen street recovery program be discussed.
[Robert Penta]: Councilor Penta. Since last week, I received, I think it was 14 phone calls from folks who thought this was a good idea. I believe that they have spoken to some folks in the highway department who also thought it was a good idea, which would be helpful to them. Subsequent to last week, and I want to thank our city clerk, Mr. Finn, he sent me in a direction that brought me to a town in Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, that engaged in something quite similar, not exactly the same, but quite similar as it relates to groups of citizens getting together within the community, finding storefronts, vacant spots, spots that need to be rehabilitated, going to the landowners and to the city and working out deals as it relates to, once again, bringing their streets back to life. This whole idea of the street recovery program includes curbing, the lights, paneled sidewalks, and parts of the city and parts of the sections of the business districts that are just not getting any life at all. It's a master plan that I believe should work hand in hand with the new Department of Public Works building that we're having built for $15 million. Also, at the same time, it's, I won't call it an adjunct, but it runs itself similar to the Mass Department of Public Transportation on their new Mass Highway Street Identifying Program, where I think they're up to over 300 folks who either sent in pitches or sent in locations where there are potholes on the major highways here of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. So I think it's a catch that we can take advantage of. Like I said, it's something that seems to be getting good response. On another issue, liking to this, in downtown Medford Square, in the heart of your business district, you have five lights out within, five street lights out, in the major part of your downtown area, and they've been out for almost three to four weeks. I mean, you're not gonna have people come in, I don't know what the mayor can't see on a daily basis, but when you let your street lights out, you're losing visibility, number one, but you're presenting a public safety matter. And this is something that it's inherent in this whole idea of the Street Recovery Program. And bringing it up for the 14th time, I will bring it up, and that's the parking lot behind St. Joseph's Church on Route 16. No lights, a definite public safety problem, and it doesn't offer anything for the people of this community after five o'clock at night when it gets dark. Now it's a little bit lighter, but all winter long, and as I explained before, we had a couple of incidences over the year where there was a drug deal that went on in one situation, another lady got afraid to go to her car because there were people in the parking lot, and still nothing has taken place. We've been told by the city that they're responsible for it for the five years that they have the contract. I believe the contract is up. I don't know what's going on after that, but again, it's a public safety issue. But I just want to bring attention to the fact that again, I want to thank Mr. Finn. Uh, you sent me in a direction that sent me in a further direction, uh, which has been very helpful. I'll just continue to bring on more and more information. And I would hope that the mayor takes advantage of this and jumps on board with this because the citizen road recovery program, you can go down any street in the city. every major pothole that's taking place. And Department of Public Works folks, I mean, they can't see every pothole because it's obvious, there's a lot of them. But the people of this community, there's 57, 58,000 of you, you could be the eyes and ears of every street, every corner, every sidewalk, every light, every manhole cover, whatever it might be out there. It would make a great inventory to start with for the Department of Public Works to go forward and take back and rejuvenate these city streets and sidewalks that are just in desperate need of repair. So I just wanted to, bring that to the attention of the council. Well, that's part of it. The other thing is the mayor going to respond back on this, because if he's not going to do it, I think it's another issue that the council needs to address.
[Fred Dello Russo]: For the mayor to report back. The mayor to report back on the street recovery program. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. 15-099 offered by Councilor Penta. Be it resolved that the Craddock Bridge be discussed. Councilor?
[Robert Penta]: Mr. President, not since I believe, I think it was, I see somebody from the audience sitting over there. I think it was in either January or February last year when we met, is the last time we had any discussion on this issue of the Craddock Bridge. We've received no updates from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And now from what the reference, and I have a whole folder here, and from what I understand, and this is just scuttlebutt because I haven't gotten it from anybody, what was supposed to have been started last fall is not happening. was supposed to be starting this spring, and it's right here. It's not happening. And nobody has any idea when this Kratik Bridge is going to see any kind of resurrection or what have you. But taking that also into consideration, this idea that it would take over a year to remove or to move all the underground conduits that represent telephone lines, electricity, and everything, that's kind of hard to believe. Because when you speak to other engineers in other cities and towns, and you explain this to them, They just can't understand. I mean, with the technology that's out there today, why does it have to take a year? But not only that, this bridge has been there for well over 100 years. It's not sinking. So I guess the better question is, why do we have to get ourselves even involved? And it's now up to over a $13 million bridge as of last year. For maybe the bridge just needs a pavement, a reconstruction on the top portion of it, rather than going through this multi-million dollar extravaganza. The businesses in Medford Square cannot handle another setback and an opportunity to go forward. Bad enough, there's no reason for anyone to want to come to Medford Square at nighttime, other than two restaurants. Name it. There's no bookstore, that's gone. There's no movie theater. There's nothing there for the kids. There's no arts and crafts that are taking place. It's a professional office community in downtown Medford. And banks, and banks, excuse me. Banks, pizza parlors, and hairdressers. But they all close at nighttime. So, you know, we talk about rejuvenating Medford Square. Under this administration, he's talked about it three times, and three times, this is what you have. Stores that are continuously being empty, nothing that fosters good growth and good development, and there's absolutely no diversity in the type of businesses that are in Medford Square. And now we're still dealing with the bridge that have people still concerned that if the bridge goes in, what happens to their business, or how is it going to affect traffic, the public safety, and the bridge that's on the Route 9. You know, here's another thing. When you go to Medford Square on Main Street, the overpass there, the lights are all out. They're down to one light. There used to be six lights, and they're all out. You call up. It's not us. Call the city. The city says it's the state. The state says it's DCR. I don't know whose responsibility it is, but it's a public safety issue. And as this continues to go on, the Craddock Bridge seems to be the culprit, so to speak, because everything revolves around what's going to come out of the Craddock Bridge. All kinds of monies are supposedly tied into the Craddock Bridge. Mr. President, I think we need a response back from the Commonwealth of Mass, not from the mayor, not from any other politician, from the Commonwealth of Mass. It's on their agenda to do. We need to know, and I think all the businesses need to know, when they're coming into the city and they're going to begin business.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Pentland, the Department of Transportation informed the Medford City Council by way of update on the progress, start date, and status of the Pratt Bridge Replacement Program. Roll call has been requested. Mr. Clark, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Camuso? Yes. Councilor Caraviello? Yes. Councilor Knight? Yes. Vice President Lowell-Kern? Yes. Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Penta? Yes. President Dello Russo? Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: 7 in the affirmative, none negative, the motion carries. We have a couple of items of sympathy and a couple of items of congratulations. So on the motion of Councilor Penta to go under suspension to take 15-296. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. 15-296 offered by Councilor Penta. Be it resolved that the continuing citizen problems regarding the mayor's pay to park kiosks be shared, Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Mr. President, I guess it's now starting to escalate to the point that people are willing to acknowledge what's going on. Today, having an at length conversation with Medford Pediatrics and Medford Square. and with a three and a half page memo that was sent to me by the employees. And I have the names that they are acknowledged and are willing to have made public. These are people who come there with their children. These are senior citizens. This is the doctor that runs the place that's in charge. Excuse me, this is the nurse who's in charge. It's just an ongoing saga that just took place over the past couple of days, starting off with a senior citizen, A husband and a wife went there and they were just so upset as to how to handle the kiosk that they had to come into the office of Medford Pediatrics to get some help as it relates to that. Also, I believe somebody from Medford Pediatrics made a request to the mayor concerning some of the concerns that they had and they never got a response back from the mayor. Also, parents having to go back. We have a situation here where a lady came in with a stroller and with her kids, not realizing that the kiosks were there. We have pictures here that the kiosks were there. And recognizing that the kiosks were there, she had to go back out and she had to leave her kid. And while the kid was in the, as everybody knows, if you have a little child, especially at a young age, the kid was screaming and yelling. The kid didn't want the mother to leave. And unfortunately she winds up getting a ticket, not knowing that she had to go back out there and put the money into the kiosk. Then we have another situation where the people who put the change in didn't have an exchange, and they had no credit card. They always came paid by a check, not knowing that the kiosks were there. So having no money to put either change or whatever, they had to go, once again, ask the people in the method pediatrics if we could have some change to go out there for which they were gracious enough to do, but at the same time, unfortunately, once again, they got a ticket. And by the way, the gentleman in the little white car that goes into that pocket, and by all of these people, have been represented as being very rude to the people and their concerns. Also, today, I believe, mother's name is Kim Ruane, not accepting coins, and that was giving out the wrong receipts. So as she went in and put her money in, another lady came in, not realizing that she had to put the money in, and then she did put the money in, but the receipt was not the right receipt with the right registration for the right person.
[Adam Knight]: I'm just hoping that the Councilor can share with us the address and the location of Medford Pediatrics.
[Robert Penta]: Medford Pediatrics in Medford Square on the corner of Riverside Avenue where the city-owned parking lot is.
[Adam Knight]: Okay, that's Mystic Valley Pediatrics.
[Robert Penta]: Mystic Valley, I'm sorry, Mystic Valley Pediatrics. Okay, thank you. Okay? They were given the wrong receipts after they put in the right number. Then there was a lady who parked her car on, where is this one here? Okay, here was a car, she pulled up to the spot, and once she pulled up to the spot, she was going to get out of the car and to go to the kiosk. And the guy was giving her a ticket. Okay, and she said, I'm going to the kiosk to put the money in, and she got the ticket. And not only did she get the ticket, She put the money in the ticket, and she came back, and she says, look it here. He grabbed the receipt from her and gave her another ticket because there was no money. Because look it, that's the wrong registration on there. Because he probably thought, for whatever it might be, she was lying, or whatever it could be. So she winds up getting two tickets. And this seems to be symptomatic for three people. Then another lady in Mystic Valley Pediatrics went in after her, showed her receipt, and the receipt had her registration number on it. This is not making any sense at all. There's a dentist in Medford Square where a person went in to have some work done in the dentist shop. And while they're in the dentist shop, one of the ladies that were in there said, I have to leave. What do you mean? I was an employee. I have to leave. I have to go put money in the meter. It was just around lunchtime. I have to go put money in the meter. She goes out putting money in the meter, and she left the poor dentist in the shop with a lady sitting on the chair that she had to get another secretary to come in and help her out. Okay? This is not making any sense at all. It's a whole bunch of things. No, these people are coming forward, and what they're upset about is that they addressed this to the mayor's office with absolutely no response, and that's just plain rudeness, whether you agree to disagree to the whole nine yards. I just don't know. As we continue to go, and here's the pictures of the parking lot. against the wall where Mystic Valley Pediatric Center, you have these two kiosks, and you have people parked almost 250 feet away who are basically coming here maybe for the first time, not even knowing what's going on. We do have a sighting section. Again, another violation of the contract on page 11. It says, operators' vehicles, the rear of all vehicles shall have a sign warning of frequent vehicle stops. Here we are again this week with the location, same truck, same vehicle, in the square, and no sign on the back making stops. This is a clear violation of the contract. We've got it now three weeks in a row with pitches. I don't know what the mayor thinks that This is great that he thinks this Republic company from Tennessee is doing a wonderful job, but I don't think so. And if you're starting to get people like this from Mystic Valley Pediatrics willing to come forward and use their names and they're not afraid of it because they're upset and they're really PO'd that the mayor would be disrespectful not even to respond, that's starting to tell the story and it's starting to escalate throughout this entire community. And I would hope that anyone who has a concern about this keeps on bringing them in, keeps on expressing them. You know, how do you put your money into the machine, and how do you get the wrong number to come out? And I think it was a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday, somebody put money in the machine, and they got more money back than what they put in. So where's that meter at, you know? Well, you know something? Whether you're for it or against it, it's that one lady who wanted to do what she thought was the right thing to do—it's probably going on three weeks now—went to Medford Square, went to go put the money in the meter, fell on the bank, and got rushed to the emergency room in the Lawrence Memorial by ambulance because she didn't want to get the ticket. To me, that, to me, is the whole story. This is more than the whole story, but this is just symptomatic as to what's going on. Councilor Caraviello, you said 60 days. The 60 days, I believe, is up. Okay? I don't know where the report is, but I can tell you this. I know what I'm going to do once that 60 days comes in. So, apparently, they have no respect for the resolution of the Council ER request. This is now the 17th, and, you know, this isn't me talking. This is all information that can be backed up. I mean, it's there. What can I tell you? It's anti-business, and if this is what Mayor McGlynn wants, to tax the people to death with another bogus tax the people, beside everything else, that's a damn shame. Yeah, my resolution is that, number one, I would like to have Councilor Caraviello's resolution of the first 60 days reported back as to revenues, and I think also, I think they need to come back and reappear before us, Republic, As to what all these inconsistencies and these happenings, I mean, how are they going to address them?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Can we also add your litany that you gave us tonight to be forwarded to the Traffic Commission for action or answers?
[Robert Penta]: Yeah, I got no problem with that. And also the fact that you have a violation of the contract. The cars are still not properly identified, as the contract says it is. Also, I believe you have people that will call up and tell you that they're getting tickets for parking on permit streets that still haven't even been identified by Republic as being updated and corrected.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I think bringing Republic here is all well and good. However, Republic's job in the function that they're tasked with is to enforce the existing city ordinance. And I think that the scope and purview and directive that they're receiving is coming from the Traffic Commission. So we can bring Republic here all we want. Republic's still gonna do what they're gonna do. The Traffic Commission is the body that has the oversight and the control and the ability to direct them to do certain things. So I think that if we're gonna do anything, we should bring the Traffic Commission here because the Traffic Commission is the policymaking arm that's in charge of this parking program. They're the policymaking arm that makes these decisions. They're the policymaking arm that's reduced the parking hours from seven to seven 8 to 6, so they're the ones that can effectuate change. So I think that those are the people that really need to be here, Mr. President, would be the Traffic Commission. So the Traffic Commission is invited.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Thank you. I would ask Councilor Pente's resolutions, if we could send his papers to the Mayor too, because a few weeks ago at the Mayor's press conference, he publicly stated he hasn't got any phone calls on this. And I know that some of the businesses that he mentioned on TV, that were in favor of this, the best thing that's ever happened to Medford. It's got some people upset with those particular businesses for thinking that. So if we could ask the mayor to take a look at these complaints, because as of that press conference, his office has not received one complaint about it. The only things he heard was that this is great. And this, as the mayor said at his press conference, the record doesn't lie. That's exactly what he said at the press conference. And it was posted on medford.org. and several other things. This is when he, um, it was the same press conference that he talked about his new, um, ad hoc, um, substance abuse program. Um, as well as council Lungo-Koehn had a, had a request on the council resolution for the update on DPW equipment, uh, as sand and salt. And it's the press conference basically, basically talk to may have basically talked about everything that was on the council agenda. was the whole press conference. But, I mean, if he isn't getting any of these complaints, then I would ask people to call his office rather than Councilor Penter and the rest of the council, because we need to let him know what people are saying. There's obviously, his number must not be published or something, because all the calls seem to be coming to us.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. So, as amended by Councilor Camuso, For the motion of approval, all those in favor, oh, sir, you wanna speak, I apologize.
[jCO6jvvXtn0_SPEAKER_03]: Please state your name and address for the record. That's fine. My name's Nick Tomazook, I live at 29 Garfield Ave. You know, with all these inconsistencies with this company and all these problems, isn't there any way we can get the city solicitor to look over that contract to see if we can rescind it? There must be something in there. There is something in there to get rid of these guys. Initially, this wasn't what people were looking for in the city. All they were looking for was parking enforcement, not this monster that he brought in here. That's what it is. It's a monster. It's like a cancer, a disease that's preying on good and old people. And now they want to change these screens that we have to pay for? They want to change the signs we have to pay for? The kiosks, they have to be dug out by our people? And if they don't make enough money, they're going to punish the city? We got to pay them? What the heck's going on here? I thought I was living in Medford, Mass. USA, not in, you know, Nazi-ville somewhere. You know, I fought for this country, and now I'm getting punished for it by these maggots that want to build a better house down in Atlanta, Georgia, wherever the Christ they come from. EC? Tennessee or whatever. You know, why are we taking the money out of the city and we're sending it down there? The whole thing before about the parking was to keep the money in the city, not give them 95% and keep 5%. And if they don't make enough money, we've got to pay it. Just not, let's just get the city solicitor to look at this problem and get rid of this monster. And get rid of that guy across the hall with him. Send the boat down to Tennessee where the hell the water be live down there with the alligators and everybody else down there. All right, another problem about safety. We having a big problem. I took a dive the other day walking around a car that was blocking the sidewalk.
[Fred Dello Russo]: With all due respects, we are on the subject of the parking. Okay.
[jCO6jvvXtn0_SPEAKER_03]: Thank you very much. I'll come back to that later on if I may.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of approval by Councilor Penta, all those in favor. On the motion of Councilor Penta. Would you forward those litany of complaints to the clerk so that he can attach them to the report to the mayor? Point of information, Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Can we also ask that the city administration to provide with this data the amount of snow emergency days that were called since this program started? Yes. Because those particular days, there was no parking on the main streets, legally. But we have a snow emergency like no other community that I've ever seen where you just keep it on and on and on with no enforcement. But if we could just ask that question.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor. He wants a roll call. On the motion, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Camuso. Yes. Councilor Caraviello? Councilor Knight? Yes. Vice President Lungo-Koehn? Yes. Councilor Marks?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Penta? Yes. President Dello Russo? Yes. Seven in the affirmative, none negative. Motion carries.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We are going to take some papers that are in the hand of the clerk, offered by Councilor Knight, be it resolved that the Medford City Council congratulate the 2014-2015 the greater Boston league champion medford high school gymnastics team on another successful season. Be it further resolved that the team be invited to appear before the council to receive commendations for their achievement.
[Adam Knight]: Councilor Knight. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Recent conversation with athletic director Bobby Maloney who was very, very proud of the work of the 2014-2015 GBL champion gymnastics team. As such, Mr. President, I too feel sense of pride and sense of achievement. These are great kids that are good student-athletes that come in here and represent Medford to the highest degree. And I'd ask that this resolution be approved and that they be invited down to receive a citation.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of approval, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion passes, offered by Councilor Knight. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council congratulate the 2014-2015 Greater Boston League Champion Medford High School Boys Hockey Team on another successful season. Be it further resolved that the team be invited to receive Council accommodations on this achievement. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Yes, Mr. President, thank you very much. I believe the 2014-2015 GBL champs are back-to-back champs this year. And under the direction of Coach Bates, they've been really achieving at a high level. I'd like to commend the team, Mr. President, and ask them to come up here and accept a citation for their wonderful achievement. They, too, are great student athletes that represent Medford And, you know, I think that it's a real good thing to allow them to come up here and to be praised for the hard work that they do and for the way that they represent our community. On the motion of Councilor Knight for approval, all those in favor?
[Fred Dello Russo]: All those opposed? Motion carries. Offered by Councilor Knight, be it resolved that the Medford City Council congratulate the 2014-2015 Greater Boston League Champion Medford High School Girls Hockey Team on another successful season. Be it further resolved that the team be invited to receive council commendations on this achievement. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: I guess it was a good winter for Medford High School sports, Mr. President. Indeed. We have three GBL champions and the 2014-2015 girls hockey team was also able to win the championship this year, Mr. President. So, you know, they're a great team, great girls. They do a great job representing the city of Medford. They wear blue and white in their veins and they represent us well. So, again, I'd like to invite them down as well to receive council accommodation on their great achievement.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good on the motion of approval, all those in favor, all those opposed, motion passes. A number of condolences. 15-100 offered by Councilor Penta, be it resolved that an expression of sympathy be extended to the family of Anne McLaughlin upon her recent passing. Anne was a lady well known in the Wellington neighborhood for always being involved with her children in the neighborhood for which so many folks enjoyed. Anne is well remembered for her low and smile to all Also, 15-291 offered by Councilor Knight. Excuse me. Be it resolved that the City Council extend its deep and sincere condolences to the family of Anne McLaughlin on her recent passing. We'll also add on a couple more. Be it offered by Councilor Penta. Be it resolved that an expression of sympathy be extended to the family of Christine Cussey, former graduate of Medford High School and a city employee secretary. upon her passing. Upon retiring from the city, she became a tireless volunteer for charitable endeavors and was actively involved in fundraising for the St. Jude Children's Hospital while owning a jewelry store in York, Maine. 15-293 offered by Councilor Knight, be it resolved that the Medford City Council extend its deep and sincere condolences to the family of Thomas Gustafson, on his recent passing. And finally, offered by Councilor Marks, be it resolved that a moment of silence be held for longtime Medford resident Eileen Blake on her recent passing. So if we would, for all these people who have committed and connected to Medford, rise for a moment of silence, please. I apologize. I may have said Alan Blake. It's Eileen Blake. My sincere apologies. Records. Hopefully we'll have some resolution to our records conundrum. The tabled records of February 17, 2015 were passed to Councilor Mr. Councilor, how do you find those?
[Richard Caraviello]: My colleague, Councilor Knight, has made the recommendations for the corrections to the clerk.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So the corrected records are offered for approval, Councilor? Yes. All those in favor? All those opposed? Those corrected records are accepted. The tabled records of February 24th, 2015 were passed to Councilor Knight. Mr. Councilor, have you had the opportunity to find anything with those records.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I did find error in the records. I'm working with the individual, and we're trying to see if we can figure out exactly what it is the miscommunication is. So we're going to allow them to remain on the table.
[Fred Dello Russo]: All those in favor? All those opposed? Those remain tabled. The records of the March 10, 2015 were passed to Councilor Penta. Mr. Councilor, how did you find those records? I found them in the format that they're in, and I approved. Motion for approval for those records by Councilor Penta, Councilor Knight. Who wishes to speak on that motion?
[Adam Knight]: I'd actually like to make a brief announcement, Mr. President, if I may.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Well, then, we're going to approve those records. All those in favor? All those opposed? They are approved. Councilor Knight has an announcement for us all.
[Adam Knight]: We're having a Committee of the Whole meeting tomorrow evening.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes.
[Adam Knight]: At 6 p.m. in room 207 to address the issue of substance abuse in our community, Mr. President. This is a public meeting that's open to all, and I'd ask for those that have anything to contribute, add. or participate to come on down. It's going to be a good beginning. And also, Mr. President, there's a committee on the rules meeting at 4.30, prior to the subcommittee, the committee of the whole meeting. Will you be serving dinner at that meeting, Councilor? I'm thinking about it. I've got to talk to the clerk and see what he has on the menu. Thank you very much.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Gatorade. Gatorade. Thank you for those announcements. The temperature in this chamber is 59. On the motion of adjournment by Vice President Lundell-Curran.
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