[Fred Dello Russo]: The 25th regular meeting of the Medford City Council will come to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Camuso. Yes. Councilor Caraviello. Present. Councilor Knight. Present. Vice President Lungo-Koehn.
[Unidentified]: Present.
[Clerk]: Councilor Marks. Present. Councilor Renta. Present. President Dello Russo.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Present. Five present, two absent. Please rise to salute the flag.
[Clerk]: Aye. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Chair recognizes Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Motion to take paper 15565. On the motion for the hearing 15-565, public hearing.
[Fred Dello Russo]: will be held by the Medford City Council in the Howard F. Baldwin Memorial Auditorium, City Hall, 85 George Piazza Drive, Medford, Massachusetts on Tuesday evening, July 21st, 2015 at 7 p.m. on petition from CTDJ Incorporated doing business as a carriage house for a special permit to amend the zoning ordinance in accordance with Medford Zoning Ordinance Chapter 94, Section 94-148, Table of Use Regulation, use 31 eating places other than a drive-in eating place to operate its business at 572 Boston Ave., Medford, Mass., on said site being located in an industrial one zoning district. Petitions and plans may be seen in the office of the city clerk, Medford City Hall, Medford, Mass., call 781-393-2425, et cetera, advertising Medford Daily Mercury, July 3rd and July 10th, offered by Medford city clerk, Edward P Finn. So we'll declare the portion of the meeting, uh, public hearing open and invite those who are in favor to present themselves and state.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_01]: So please, if I may, Mr. President, uh, members of the council, my name is Robert Abruzzi. I'm the attorney for the petitioner. And I'm here to voice my support very much in favor of this petition. If you would like, I would make a little presentation at this point.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We'll hear if anybody else is in favor to just declare it so before we close this portion of the public hearing and then have presentations. Anybody else in favor? Just present yourself. And please state your name and address for the record.
[SPEAKER_37]: My name is Frank Giloni from St. Clements Road. I direct the butter across from where the establishment's going. And I have signatures for the street of St. Clements, fully in favor, looking forward to this. We've all visited Davis Square. They do an outstanding job down there. We've all had their food. We're wishing they were here sooner, but we'll wait until they come for an evening like tonight. We could have sandwiches across the street instead of cooking.
[Fred Dello Russo]: If you want to know, those are in favor, and then we'll have presentations afterwards. Thank you, Mr. Maloney. Anybody else in favor? Please state your name and address for the record.
[Curtis Tuden]: Lee Chauncey Allen, 27 St. Clements. Also in favor.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good.
[Anthony D'Antonio]: Good evening. Anthony D'Antonio, 12 Yale Street. I'm also in favor of Dave's Fresh Pies. Thank you. Very good. Anybody else in favor?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Please present yourself as being in favor.
[Krause]: I'm Ken Kraus, 50 Mystic Street. I'm in favor. I'll just briefly say that I applaud what Tufts did to restore and preserve this building. I think it could have been easily taken down and turned into a few more parking spaces at much less expense. I won't have to come up again.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Anybody else in favor? Hearing and seeing none, I declare that portion of the meeting closed. Anybody in opposition to this? Anybody in opposition to this petition for zoning change? Hearing and seeing none, we declare that portion of the meeting closed and invite back up the representative of the petitioner to make his presentation. Thank you, Mr. President.
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_01]: So it's actually not a zoning change. It's a petition for a special permit of the city council, which is what is required for a restaurant or any sort of an eating place in an industrial zoning district. And, uh, the petition is, uh, as indicated, uh, CT and DJ, who are they? They're, uh, Christina, uh, Theophanis and David Jik, who are seated here. I'm going to ask them to stand at this point, just stand to be recognized. So for, More than 10 years now, they've together operated Dave's Fresh Pasta in Davis Square, and this will be operated by them as well, personally. And what they would propose to do is to put a restaurant that would serve, you know, coffee and pastries in the morning and lunch items such as sandwiches, and then in the evening be more of a full-service restaurant. I have some materials which I'd like to pass out. There's a little background material about the operators. There's a draft of a menu. And there are two renderings here for the outside space, the indoor space, and a plan of the indoor area. And I have two sets of those which you might be able to pass. So this is a portion of the building that Tufts recently rehabbed at the corner of Harvard Street and Boston Avenue. And as you move up Boston Avenue toward the main campus, there is a section of the building that's kind of a standalone section that's formerly known as the Carriage House. And that's where the proposed resident will go. It's a space of about 2,400 square feet. Right now it's nothing more than a shell. We need the permission on the zoning change before it goes any further. So we would, if the council is agreeable to granting the requested permit, we would then be coming back before you at a later time for a common victuals license, for some outdoor seating permission, and we would be going to the to the Liquor Licensing Commission for a liquor license. So, I don't know if the Councilors have any questions, but I'm pleased to answer them. Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. President De La Ruzo, what are we looking at for renovation time and grand opening?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_01]: David, what's your, what kind of build-out time are you thinking?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Why don't you come up and speak into the mic, so people can hear.
[SPEAKER_18]: My best guess would be about six to nine months after we get the permits.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Get the permits.
[SPEAKER_18]: The permits, exactly.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And what are the hours of operation? You're going to be looking for extra hours.
[SPEAKER_18]: We open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Probably open around 7 for breakfast. Don't anticipate being open late, thinking about a 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock closing for dinner. and not open on Sundays. Right now, Dave's is closed on Sundays, and our plan is to keep this closed on Sundays as well.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Madam Vice President. Councilor Knight. Mr. Gick.
[SPEAKER_30]: David. With the opening of the new Dave's provided that it's approved, how many jobs is that going to create?
[SPEAKER_18]: I had to guess, I would guess 20 to 25 employees.
[SPEAKER_30]: 20 to 25 employees, full-time, part-time?
[SPEAKER_18]: Yeah, mostly full-time. Mostly full-time? At Dave's, 90% of our employees are full-time.
[SPEAKER_30]: Excellent. Thank you very much.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Caffiello. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Dave and Chris for coming up here. I've been a long-time customer of yours. I welcome you coming to this community, and I thank Tufts for doing a great job on the building. So I hope you get it done shorter than your nine-month time. And please, next time you come, maybe bring a little chatouille tray for us to have samples. Let's say good luck, and let's say I can't wait for you to come. Let's say I think it's a well-deserved thing for the neighborhood.
[SPEAKER_18]: Appreciate that. Thank you so much.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Councilor.
[Robert Penta]: Councilor Penta. Two quick questions. In these charts that you have, you have outside seating. Correct. You're proposing, is that going to require a separate license? Yes. You'll be coming back again for that?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_01]: Yes. My understanding is that even though it's not public sidewalk, it's private property, a private area, my understanding is that the council still requires a separate permission on that.
[Robert Penta]: And is this just like an example of having four, or is that what it's going to be just for?
[4FrRjkCyMqA_SPEAKER_01]: No, that's just a... Yeah, that's just a render. But it would all be, none of this would be on public sidewalk. It would all be within the enclosed. If you look at the proposed plot plan, you'll see that there's a courtyard area between the main portion of the building and the, I have extra copies of those if you like. which Tufts is deemed to be open parking in the evening to anyone, patrons or anyone in the neighborhood. And during the daytime, there are 10 dedicated spaces that would be reserved for the restaurant. And there is plenty of parking along Boston Avenue as well.
[Robert Penta]: Well, your food is excellent. I've been there many times. And I just need to ask you this last question. On one of your pages here, you have a blueberry muffin. The best blueberry muffins came out of Jardin Marsh when they were in Boston. Are they as good? Tell the people.
[SPEAKER_18]: I'll let you judge that. Hopefully close.
[SPEAKER_29]: Move approval, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Move approval, Councilor Haynes.
[SPEAKER_29]: Papers are in order, Mr. President. I see no reason why we should stand in the way of this gentleman opening business.
[Fred Dello Russo]: A motion for approval by Councilor Penter. All those in favour? Aye. All in favour call a vote on this. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Five in the affirmative, none negative. The motion passes. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good luck. Move for suspension, Mr. President. On the motion of Councilman Knight for suspension. All those in favor? All those opposed? Suspension of the rules for what purpose?
[SPEAKER_29]: Take paper 15591 out of order. Communications from the mayor.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Motion of Councilman Knight to take 15591. Before us now, communication from the mayor to President Dello Russo and members of the city council, from Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, regarding loan order, capital improvements to city sewer system. City of Medford, Massachusetts loan order. Be it ordered that the sum of $2,120,000 be and hereby is appropriated to pay costs of making capital improvements to the city's sewer system, including the payment of all costs, incidental or related thereto, in that to meet this appropriation, the city treasurer, with the approval of the mayor, is authorized to borrow said sum and to issue bonds or notes of the city, therefore, in the aggregate principal amount of $2,120,000, under and pursuant to Chapter 44, Section 7, Chapter 1 of Massachusetts General Laws, as amended and supplemented, or pursuant to any other enabling authority. The treasurer is authorized to borrow all or any portion of the amount appropriated by this order through the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority Local Financial Assistance Program. Sincerely yours, Michael J. McGlynn, Mayor, signature on file. Before us to make a presentation, we have Louise Miller, the Director of Budget, Finance, Personnel, and Purchasing, and Cassandra Koudelikas, the Chief Engineer for the City of Medford. Welcome to you both.
[SPEAKER_36]: Thank you.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Please. I'm going to turn it over to Cassandra Kadulidis to describe what the project is. And all I want to say regarding the sum of money is that this is a grant, partial grant, 45% grant, 55% loan from the MWRA. The loan is at 0% interest, repayable over five years. And now I'll turn it to her to address the substance of what the work is that's going to be done.
[Robert Penta]: Quick question. That's one half. What's the percent on the remaining portion of the loan?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: The grant is a grant, so that would be 45%, $954,000, and the remainder is a 0% interest loan. Pardon me? What? The remainder of the $2.120 million. I'm sorry.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Good evening, everyone. Cassandra Cudelitas, 29 Crystal Street, Melrose. Before you is an application that we submitted to the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority to participate in their grant loan program for the removal of inflow and infiltration from the city's sewer systems. The project, there are five projects. One of them is quite small. It just allows us to hire an engineering summer intern for two years. at approximately $8,000 per year. So I'll go over. I'll spend most of the time on the four projects that we have listed. The first three are located in North Medford or Medford Heights. And the first one in that three is for ongoing sewer system rehabilitation. So we have issued a contract using unit prices and quantities. We put it out on the street, D'Alessandro Corporation bid on it, and we funded their first year of work, to which they've done about $200,000 worth of work already. So what we're asking for is for funding for years two and three. So that's continuing for them to go on and rehabilitate manholes, replace sewer pipe, line sewers, take care of spot repairs, anything and everything that we need that can remove or inflow and infiltration. And just to back up, the INI was identified in a study that was done first by Wright Pierce, published in 2011, in which they estimated about 2.5 million gallons per day is flowing due to some form of groundwater or inflow from stormwater events. So we're tackling that where we're not going to be able to get rid of every last gallon. It's cost effective to do so, but we're following DEP guidelines, which is to pursue about 50% of the I&I. So this project is the first one, and we're doing good work in accomplishing removal of this kind of water from our system, which is a savings to the rate payers.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. A question on that, Cassandra. You mentioned, did you mention the area on project number two?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: North Medford, so Medford Heights, bounded by Highland Avenue and 28, Route 28, primarily, and the Malden Line, and then 28 heading north.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So about how much was the distance in pipes that will be able to be replaced?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Well, we have, let me see. this contract. So this contract with Della Sandorna, this is just, we did a phase one limited sanitary sewer evaluation survey. We knew we needed to follow on and do another one, which is part of this package that we're applying for. But within the phase one, we are, for example, lining about 1,300 linear feet of sewer pipe at eight inch diameter. We're lining 12 inch diameter pipe at 400 linear feet. We're dealing with 20 sewer service connections that need to be replaced. We are doing spot repair for about 700 linear feet. We have manhole rehabilitation and manhole replacement. Just a roster of about 40 different payment items that are covered in this contract.
[Robert Penta]: Just a point of information, Mr. President. Is there any way that we can get a copy of this so you're not reading it, so we have this information ahead of time? We never got any of this. And two members of the council aren't even here tonight. You're asking for $2 million, and you're reading to us what we're supposed to be understanding now. So I think it would be more appropriate if we had copies of this to understand it. I mean, this is a lot to digest for you selling this, so, you know.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Yes, and I'm not intending you to take notes as I speak. It's an example of what it is that we're working on.
[Robert Penta]: But it would be interesting for us to know what we're going to be voting on. and have all the information. You have the information there. We don't have it here.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: So would you like me to have a photocopy made of this?
[Robert Penta]: Let's have copies of whatever you're talking about made available.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: So what we're having copied is a payment request from D'Alessandro. It's their second payment request, which lists all the pay items for the work that they're doing and their prices. So I'm going to move on while that is being prepared. to continue talking about North Medford. So the first part, once again, is to continue funding our sewer rehabilitation contract and its contractor. The second part is to disconnect some of the catch basins that are tied to the sewer system. There was a study that indicated about nine catch basins are currently connected to the sanitary sewer system, of which three of them are the most cost effective for removal. three locations, six catch bases. That's documented in the application and the areas of which they're located is documented in the application. What we would ask to do is that we could go forward with final design and bid documents and start work this fall to disconnect those catch bases. The third part of the work that would be happening in North Medford is to do the phase two study that I just mentioned. So the phase one limited study came up with roughly 2.5 million gallons per day of water that is in the system that shouldn't be due to groundwater, all kinds of other inflow and infiltration. Once again, we're not going to be able to get all of it out, but we can get a good portion of it. Second phase is to go back in and study more closely areas that were not studied. and to do things like night flow isolation. So that's when the sewer system is running at its least. No one's really using water in the dead of night. So we're trying to track the source of the infiltration so we could better target the repair work. The repair work can be done with Della Sandra, our current contractor, or we can issue another contract down the road.
[Robert Penta]: They're talking to us for the first time about a $2 million project. We're just hearing about this, trying to understand it while you're talking. And with two members not being here, Mr. President, I just respectfully suggest that we just lay this on the table until we can get our information at hand for the purposes of understanding it. When was the grant applied for?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: When we applied for other grants in the past, such as water work, there was no more. in the package for the application than what you're getting here tonight for the sewer system work.
[Robert Penta]: But you're talking about what you're going to do.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: That same thing, the other projects.
[Robert Penta]: Yeah, and you're asking us to vote on this.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Which we have done in the past for the other two MWRA bills.
[Robert Penta]: But you're asking us to vote on it tonight. You've seen it, you've worked on it, and you know what it's about.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: If I may, through the chair.
[Fred Dello Russo]: I think first, if we could allow Miss Miller wanted to address us briefly.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Yes, if I could. So the application was just filed this past Friday. And in order to be reviewed by the MWRA, we must present to them all documents by before August 20th, which is when they meet. If we do not make the August 20th deadline, we will not receive funding for any work to be completed in this calendar year. The next round of applications will then be looked at three months later.
[Robert Penta]: which is November. But I'll finish Louise. We have a meeting I think is August 11th.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Robert Penta]: Okay. So we can lay this on the table, discuss it. And when August 11th comes, the council can vote on it.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: No, because this is a loan order. We require, as I understand it, three readings. And so tonight would have, would be the first reading. If we could advertise it, that would constitute the second reading that would make the August 11th meeting your third reading so that we could have all the documents in place. for the MWRA by their August 20th meeting.
[Robert Penta]: Is there any reason why we had to wait this long?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: We just submitted the application this past Friday.
[Robert Penta]: This past Friday? Yes. And you want us to vote on it tonight because it has to take three readings before August 20th. Is that what you're saying?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: That is what I'm saying, yes.
[Robert Penta]: And we have over $7.5 million in a surplus money in our water and sewer account. I have that. For which we wouldn't have to pay any interest on. There is no interest under this loan. Why are we rushing into this?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: We need to continue working on the projects that we talked about. So Della Sandra's contract for a year two starts in August 2015. Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. So I guess for Ms. Miller, can we take the one point $1 million out of our surplus to cover the city's portion on this project rather than go out to bond on it?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Well, we could, but there doesn't seem to be any reason to reduce the amount of the retained earnings if we can get a loan, have it at 0% interest, and maintain the retained earnings at the level that they are. in the sewer enterprise fund. There's no advantage to the city to do that.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: My last question is, I guess, from what I'm understanding, because I have the same kind of concern with regards to what we were given on Friday. It's just a request for the 2.1 million, and I'm struggling to take notes on the five different projects that's that the $2 million is going to go towards, it would have been nice to have had something in writing describing the projects.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: But the $5 million projects are in that application. The five projects are in there. I think they don't have this document. They don't have this document?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I never got it. I don't think they have that. I didn't get an application. That's just a large amount of money to vote on with no information before me. I don't know if my colleague... No. Did you get anything?
[SPEAKER_30]: I met with him beforehand to talk about this.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: To say that, you know, we don't need to take notes, I just think that's a disservice to us and the taxpayer. When I get a call tomorrow asking me from a concerned resident what I just voted on, and I have to say, oh, you know, my notes from last night, I mean, I should have been able to read something and be prepared to take a $2 million vote.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: I'm just kind of... No, that's not what I meant, that you don't have to take notes. I thought you had this document in front of you, and that you'd have read it already.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, no, I don't have any document to describe the $2 million. That's why I don't necessarily want to table this right now. I want to hear more, but I guess I'm just frustrated having to make a vote. Now, obviously, we need the three readings, and you have this application, and it's a good 0% interest. It's a grant, so it's just a lot to take in. at this moment. If you could just continue then so we can better understand the five projects.
[Adam Knight]: The way that I understand this and the way that I see this presented is we have a bond order in front of us for $2.12 million. We're going to get paid back 45 cents on every dollar that we invest and the bond that we're taking out on the other 55% is at 0%. So actually, we're taking out a bond for 1, 2 million, we're getting paid back almost half of that. And then over a five-year period of time, we get to pay back the bond at a 0% interest rate.
[Unidentified]: That's correct.
[Adam Knight]: And then the projects that we're working on here are to address system upgrades for our water and sewer system. And part of that includes infiltration and inflow as a phase two project.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Right, that's correct. These capital reinvestment in our sanitary sewer system of which we can easily spend tens of millions of dollars So it's starting a process. And we have a total of $3.16 million available to us under this particular program. And then they move on to a new program, which is a 75% grant, 25% loan. So as we go forward with projects that we can make these improvements, we're eligible for more grant money or a larger piece of grant money.
[Adam Knight]: So in essence, if we support this paper, what we can do is we can borrow 2.12 million bucks, get 45% of that money back, and then pay 0% interest on the money that's remaining over a five-year period?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: That is correct.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you very much. Thank you. And I think that you guys are doing a good job. I mean, there's not too many places where you're going to get 45% back on every dollar that you invest, 45 cents on every dollar back that you invest. So thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Councilor Caffiello?
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Did you say that we're gonna be doing manual covers and sewers repair?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Yes, just manhole, rebuilding manholes, new manholes, covers.
[Richard Caraviello]: Most of them are all sinking throughout the whole city. Yes. Along with the sewers.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Sewer manholes.
[Richard Caraviello]: Now, what phase of the project would that be in?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: It's throughout the three phases.
[Richard Caraviello]: Oh, the three phases. Yeah. And I agree with Councilor Knight, we're getting half the money back and borrowing at 0%. I think that makes good fiscal sense and I don't have any problem voting on the first reading this evening.
[Adam Knight]: Do you want to continue with a point? Councilor Knight. In terms of I&I and what the studies say, what exactly is, in a dollar figure, if you can, off the top of your head, what's the city actually spend on I&I issues here in the city of Medford? I mean, if we're looking at 2.5 million gallons per day, is that what I understood you say?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: That's what the flow meters are. They put meters in certain manholes, and they measure the flow. And they calculate that out. They extrapolate it. And they estimate that there's about 2.5 million gallons per day of additional water there.
[Adam Knight]: What would that translate to in terms of cost on a sewer? Do you have any idea?
[SPEAKER_29]: Just the implications.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Yes, Ms. Koulides and I were trying to figure that out. The total sewer charges are based upon percentages not just sewer flow, so it's not like water, where water, it's consumption, and you would get charged a rate for a particular number of gallons. But 13.3% of the total allocation of sewer is based up on the maximum wastewater flow. So if we can reduce the maximum wastewater flow, we're reducing the allocation of the overall sewer cost to the city of Medford. large part is 25% is average wastewater flow. So if we can also reduce the average wastewater flow, we're reducing the overall allocation to Medford. So the way the sewer rates work is MWRA works out the total number and then allocates it among the communities using a weighted formula. So we can try to work on a better number for your next meeting. And speak with MWRA so that we can try to get a better number. But we couldn't ourselves work out what that number would be.
[Adam Knight]: I just want to see what exactly is this investment that we're making of about a million dollars is actually going to save the rate payers on the back end. And it looks like it's going to be exponential if we're losing 2.5 million gallons per day through I&I. It looks like this is really an investment that's going to show us a return.
[Unidentified]: Sure.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good. I know a couple citizens want to address us. Ms. Martin was waiting patiently. We invite her up first. Please state your name and address for the record.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. While on the face of it, this project seems to be a needed improvement to the city of Medford. What concerns me is the expediency at which this project is presented. No information has been presented to the community. We don't really know which streets need to be digged up. We don't know necessarily, maybe more improvements would be necessary, maybe less. Without having adequate information presented to the public and to the council in advance, I would urge you to delay this issue. I understand that this issue needs to be brought up in some haste, but perhaps a committee of the whole meeting could be held where this issue could be reviewed in more detail. Please, this action represents a pattern of behavior by the city administration. Just do it quick. They don't really need to know. City Council doesn't need to know. The public doesn't need to know. And they'll rubber stamp it. Please, do not use your vote as a rubber stamp. Take time to consider $2.1 million. That's a lot of funding for this city. Don't rush the proposition. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Good evening.
[Anthony D'Antonio]: Please state your name and address for the record. Good evening. Anthony D'Antonio, 12 Yale street. Um, just a quick side note, the water enterprise fund, water and sewer enterprise fund was established for emergencies in the cities and to take care of old, old pipes and so on and so forth. Now, when that created was created, the recommended funding for level funding level for that was between two and $2.5 million. That meant that We'd have a substantial amount of money to take care of any and mostly all emergencies that had to do with water and sewer. So now we have, I believe it's over $6 million in there. I don't see the reason we need to take out a loan. And as far as not paying any interest on it, the loan becomes part of our debt service. Now who pays the debt service in the city is the taxpayers. So it's invisible when you put it on paper, but at the back end, it's the citizens who are paying increases in taxes to pay for this loan. We've got the money there. All you have to do is take it out of there. towards the project. The project is sorely needed, there's no doubt about it. And I can't see why we're not using the Water Enterprise Fund because that was the sole purpose that this was created for. Thank you.
[Sorrell]: Mr. President, John Cerullo, 20 Metcalf Street. Mr. President and councillors, The Water and Sewer Commission probably anticipated this, as they should have. That is their job, and that's the reason that the Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund was set up. So what they do is, on the advice, I assume, of the engineer, they decide this has to be done. They find out what it is, and they put that into their rates. That's why our rates are what they are, because they're supposed to pay for this as it comes along. I want to quote to you from the state law. This is chapter 41, section 69B, and it says here, if in any fiscal year there should be a net surplus, which is what we have, we have a surplus, remaining after providing for the four set charges, in other words, all the normal charges that the Water and Sewer Commission has, If there should be such a surplus, any such reimbursement in full, such surplus may be appropriated for such new construction, extraordinary maintenance, or repairs. That's what this is, repairs. As the water commission or selectmen authorized to act as such, with the approval of the town may determine upon. And in case a net surplus should remain after payment of such new construction, extraordinary maintenance or repairs, the water rates shall be reduced. The water rates should be reduced because we have a surplus. And here it is right in the law. And the city is not following the law. Said commissioners, all the selectmen authorized to act as such shall annually, as often as the town may require, render a report upon the condition of the works under their charge and an amount of their doings and an account of their doings, including an account of the receipts and expenditures. I don't know that the council gets this annual report from the Water and Sewer Commission, but here it is in the law. Now, this Water and Sewer Department is notorious for their past activities. They've been investigated. Some of you who've been here on the council previously may remember they've been investigated by an independent commission and that department was found lacking in many areas and it was an embarrassment to the city.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Having had time now to look at some of these notes that were passed to the council, Do any councillors have any further questions for either the engineer or the budget director? I may point out that this is the first step in a process that will take a couple weeks, and so we'll have ample time to conduct any investigations we need to for the benefit of our knowledge when making our deliberations on the final decision of this question. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: We asked for a copy of what you applied for. You gave us something dated September 16, 2014.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: That is a copy of the price sheet for the contractor who is the sewer system rehabilitation contractor.
[Robert Penta]: Who is the application? We asked for a copy of the application.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Mr. President, may I address two comments? I just want clarification on the debt service. Because it's a 0% interest loan, there is no debt service. It will not appear as debt service.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So there's no burden on the taxpayer?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Well, it has to be paid, but it is not debt service. And then the second item is I do have a preliminary report. on the water and sewer budgets this year. And if you recall, there were tiered rates that were implemented this year, so that the amount of billings is actually less than the expenses for each of those budgets. So we will be probably using retained earnings to balance the budget.
[Robert Penta]: What's the date on that? Today. So that's ending June 30th?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Yes, that is for the fiscal year.
[Robert Penta]: Can we get a copy of that also?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Yes, as soon as it's finalized. And this is part of the report that I told you I would be bringing you regarding the water and sewer rates and where we were with the water and sewer enterprise fund budgets.
[Robert Penta]: Louise, this is important information. It would be nice to get that ahead of time so we could review it.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Robert Penta]: Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. On that issue, what are we looking at for the shortfall?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: So the difference between billings versus expenses, the billings for sewer would be $12,227,527 with expenses of $13,200,000. So that's a million dollar difference between what was billed versus expenses. However, because we don't collect money exactly from July 1 to June 30. Some of the collections for fiscal 14 are being accrued in fiscal 15. So right now we're projecting a shortfall in sewer of approximately $734,000. Now water, the shortfall between Billings and expenditures is $314,977, but because of the way the collection of the rates and the invoices occurs, we're actually okay this year and have a surplus of $50,000. However, going forward, because we're billing at such a shortfall, we're going to be carrying over a billing shortfall into fiscal year 16. And again, this is, again, just the preliminary stuff. I want to have some information here in case you had questions regarding that. I just got that today. We haven't completely closed our fiscal year 15 books yet.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So approximately, you're estimating about $684,000 shortfall for 2014? Fiscal 15. Fiscal. That's right. Fiscal. Yeah. Now, with regards to the projects that, I think we're on We've been explained 1, 2, and part of 3. We have 4, 5 to go. Now, the application from September that was just handed out to us, is there anything in writing that would further describe these five projects? Which streets are going to be re-piped? Which manholes are going to be worked on? I hear the Fulton Heights, but where actually these repairs are going to go?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: There are a few locations where the work is specified, such as Gaston Street, for example. Sewer lining has been done last year. Locations such as Grant Avenue were taken care of. The specifications in the bid documents were not so much site-specific as item-specific. So we know that there are more degraded manholes than are in this contract, and it's designed to get started repairing them. The studies that would be done in the catch basin, I was talking to you about moving some of the catch basins that are connected to sewer systems. We have specific locations for them, and we have preliminary layouts for what the drain piping would look like to take the basin off the sanitary sewer system and to route it to a storm drain system. So that's been looked at. And then I was talking about a follow-on study, which once again would go out in specific areas. what they call catchment areas, they're alphabetized, area P, area M, and they get broken down into M1, M2, M3, and they focus on the ones that seem to be the most egregious, and that's a scope of work that's prepared to us by our consultant. They say we want to go to, say, for example, M3 and do some night flow isolations because we think that there might be a brook that is infiltrating into the sewer. We want to see, you know, through dye testing, they put dye in the water. and they track it to see where it goes. So there's, as I mentioned, more to do than we have money for at this point in time, so that we'll never run out of any spots. And we have, I'd say, 50% target locations, certain vented manhole covers we want to change out. The high school has a problem that we are working on with some of the drainage tying, you know, getting into the sanitary system.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: With regards to the consultant you had mentioned that goes out and categorizes, is that something that's already been done or is that something that's going to be paid for with the $2 million?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Both. Some of the work has been already done. We had a loan. We were living off a loan that was applied for and granted back in 2002. That's the last time the city has gone for this type of money. And so there was some funds remaining that have been spent down to do some of this work. This is my first I&I application in the eight years that I've been here. I've come before this body twice on the water side. And we'll be coming again to you in the fall to talk about water projects. This is the first one that's addressing sewer to this extent. And just to let you know, more globally, we are under an administrative order from the EPA, as I mentioned before. There are sanitary sewer overflows in both the Heights and in this other system, which is project number four, called system P. And we need to address those per EPA. So the Heights was picked because that has three sanitary sewer overflows. And system P, which has an overflow on Daly Road, that's the low point where all the water drains to, that has SSO problems in the past. Now you're familiar with the Winthrop Street drain project that was going on for what seemed like forever? That was intended to take some water out of the system and route it to the storm drains instead of ending up in the sewer as it sometimes did because catch basins would overflow. And it would go through these manholes that are not solid anymore. You know, there are cracks and leaks in the top frames and covers, and it would get into the sanitary sewer system.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So from the consultant that has already done some work, we have a list out there of which sewers, what work we need to do?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Right. They did something called smoke testing. So they pump smoke into the system, and they look to see where it comes up. If it comes up in anybody's downspout or comes up through the grass, that tells us there's a problem area, so they write all that down. They found sump pumps. People pump their sumps into the sanitary sewer. They know where some of those are. We want to look at a program. We haven't done anything yet with sump pumps, but we want to look at a program to address that with the residents in a way that's not punitive to the residents who are tied into it. So they have specific locations, but we're also writing this spec and this rehab contract to be open enough that if a sewer collapses somewhere, we can send them out to do it. We're not stuck saying, only going to do these five streets and nothing else. It gives us the ability to have something like a house doctor for sanitary sewer work.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So from that, the first consultant, I guess, what does the list look like? I mean, how many catch basins need to be fixed? I mean, what type of list are we looking at for, I'm assuming M3 is the worst, being the worst?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Well, I gave you M3 as an example of a location where they would go to. We have a report, and the report has categorized the work as immediate corrective action. On its condition, how fragile a pipe is, how many cracks are in the pipe, so those are immediate corrective actions. Then it drops down to priority one and then priority two. So I'd be happy to share the findings from the report that were done in 2011 and 2014 so that you know where they have listed And they have appendices and maps and shading, a lot of extensive background to the reports as documentation for what they did. But we're rounding it all up to this level so that we can say, we will assign the contractor to do these specific things. And they've done the $200,000 worth of work last year. 400 something thousand they can do this year and another 500 something thousand they can do the next year. And then we're going to study and more pinpoint more of the immediate corrective action items that we need to do so we're not spending money on lower priority work. We're going from the worst to the least worse, the least bad.
[Fred Dello Russo]: It's standard.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: It's generally standard work.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Just, I don't know if you're going to continue with the rest of the projects. I know we were only on number three of five, so I would just ask that that be completed before you take a vote.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Project four. I don't understand what was your request, ma'am?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Madam Vice President? Our city engineer was explaining the five projects that would be covered by the $2 million, so I'm just asking. We were on, I believe, number three. I still don't have a clear picture of where the $2 million will be spent. And if I could request to the chair that a written breakdown be provided to the council, you know, if and when this takes its first reading, that we get that before the third reading.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Perfect. That's something we can get right away, yes?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Yes, you can get that right away.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: So project four, so projects one, two, and three, all in North Medford, Medford Heights, connected to the three sanitary sewer overflows connected to our administrative order. Project four is called System P. System P is bounded by the Fells, Mystic Valley Parkway, It includes Winthrop Street, High Street, the area of Lawrence Estates. All of that water flows toward the pipe in Daly Road that discharges to the MWRA. That project involves a follow-on study, so a phase two study, just like North Medford, phase two study, and preparation of bid documents for a contract that can go out to take care of the immediate corrective action and the priority one projects that were identified in their phase one report. They had a phase one report that they did and gave to us in 2014. We paid for that money that was left over from previous borrowing for INI work.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Did that have anything to do with the stormwater project that was just paved over involving Winthrop Street and Mystic Valley Parkway to the Mystic River?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: They are related because when you had that flood, water got into the sewer system through every available crowds that it could. And there were backups in people's homes that were sewer related, not just storm water related. So I want to stress that that's managing storm water primarily. It doesn't really handle sewer. We have separate systems, at least in theory, not always in practice.
[Fred Dello Russo]: But what you're presenting tonight is sewer related.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Sewer related, yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Is there a final point that you need to make?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Project five. Project five I started out my presentation with is the engineering intern. So the authority will allow us to have a student summer intern to help with this work. And we are estimating $8,000 per season. for two years, so $16,000 total. And it allows, we've had Tufts University students who have come and helped us, they've learned valuable construction resident inspection experience that helped us with design projects.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Through the chair, how many students per, is it just for the summer or is it for the whole year?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: This is summer, and it would be one student per year. So it's 15 weeks at 35 hours a week. At the going rate for a civil engineering mid-progress student, it's about $15 an hour. So it's a slight roundup from that number.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Chair awaits a motion.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. President. Councilor Caraviello. Cassandra, where on here am I looking at the amount of manholes that are going to be repaired?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: If you look at item Item 19, 20, 21, 22 on this chart. That's a spreadsheet. It says estimate number one on the top of the page. Citywide sewer system improvements. You have a column on the left hand side with item numbers.
[Richard Caraviello]: So what was that number again?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Starting with 19 and going through 22. So in this contract, there are 13.
[Richard Caraviello]: So only 13 are going to get fixed?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: 13 of this kind of rehab removal. And 10 new manholes. And let's see, what else do they have here? That's about it for this contract.
[Richard Caraviello]: So which 19 are going to get done? Will we know that when you bring us the next paper?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: which specific manholes?
[Richard Caraviello]: I mean, almost every one in the city needs to be done.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Right.
[Richard Caraviello]: I mean, they're all sinking.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: And not everyone in the city is a sewer manhole, and not everyone in the city belongs to us. There are other people.
[Richard Caraviello]: I know, there are other people.
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: MWRA and other people have manholes, but.
[Richard Caraviello]: Why can't we take an inventory and let the MWRA come down and start fixing the ones?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: We do, and we also have in-house capability for manhole repairs as well. So these are jobs that are bigger than what the highway department can handle, because they're responsible for doing the simple fixes.
[Richard Caraviello]: I mean, the highway department, they can only do so much work. I mean, their tax, their manpower is taxed to the hill right now.
[Adam Knight]: Councilor Knight. Mr. President, I'm satisfied with the presentation. I'd ask for a move for approval on the paper.
[Fred Dello Russo]: A motion for approval by Councilor Knight. Second that, Mr. President. Seconded by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: If I may.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. I would ask for obviously more information for the third reading. But I also think we should be taking some portion of this $1.1 million out of our retained earnings. So I make a motion to take half of that money out of retained earnings. We have over $7 million we've taken from the rate payers. And I don't know how, I've asked in the past how high, Mayor's office wants that to get, but it's money that the taxpayers have already given to the city through the water and sewer rates, and I think we should be using some of that money.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion for approval as amended by Vice President Mungo-Curran.
[Robert Penta]: Wait a minute. You can't have the amendment and then vote for this because one offsets the other. Fine. So what do we do? Vote for the amendment first. So on the amendment, Sevid, do we need a roll call on that?
[Clerk]: So do we do it as a B paper? Yes. So as a B paper,
[Fred Dello Russo]: The amendment that, the B paper that apportioned what was the dollar amount you asked for, Madam Vice President?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I can use my calculator if you want an exact number. $583,000 would be half.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So that $583,000 be taken from the water sewer enterprise account to pay towards this project as a B paper. Madam?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Yes, Mr. President, if I may. If we do not request the $2.12 million, we will not get a 45% grant on amounts that are not requested. This is not based upon work that the city is doing. It's based upon the amount requested to the MWRA. I just want to clarify that.
[Robert Penta]: Well, if you're making the request for the money to do the work and you can come up with a figure that's less than what's needed and you're still accomplishing the job, what's the problem? This grant, I don't see anything in this application other than a date stating September of 2014. So with September of 2014 and with the figures that are in here, are you using the figures that are in here in 2015? I don't know.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: No, we're using both the contract that we have currently in existence as well as the projects that are planned to be done in the next two years.
[Robert Penta]: So you have anticipated projects to be done with a cost proposal, correct?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: That is correct.
[Robert Penta]: Where is that? That's another thing we didn't get.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Yes, that is one of the documents that we will make sure that you get with the breakdown.
[Robert Penta]: Well, you know, it's unfortunate, Louise, because you say we will make sure we're going to get them. You're asking us to vote for something, and you're asking us to tell us this is where it's going to be up to Project 5, and we have to ask the questions. Where are the documents? And you want us to vote on something. It's really not fair. It's not an intelligent way to make a presentation asking for $2 million. That's my position.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And through the chair, on top of that, I just don't know where to go with that either. We're left with no time to review because you need the vote tonight. Is that correct?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: That is correct. Or there will be no work that gets done during this construction season. Because the next time that the application is due is October 20th, they're usually due. Or the third week in October, with a review by the MWRA, the third week in November. So we'll be in the same position three months from now.
[Robert Penta]: Just a point of clarification. Yes. If we don't apply for that, we have over $7.5 million sitting in our own Water and Sewer Enterprise account that can accomplish the same thing. So why would you make anyone want to think that if we don't do this, we don't have the money to do this project, when we do have the money to do this project?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: If we do not apply, first of all, there is only retained earnings. as a fiscal year 15 that I'm showing for sewers, $4,376,000, and if we do not apply for the loan, we have to come up with the full $2.12 million, which is half of what is in retained earnings.
[Robert Penta]: And we already have it, with over $4 million in a combination of over 7 1⁄2 million with water and sewer. So since this is a sewer part project, I don't understand what the problem here is. Beside not getting the information timely like we should have, and having a committee of the whole ahead of time to discuss it and understand it and understanding what council along with current has just asked for taking 575 out of the retained earnings portion of it. I just don't understand it. I mean, how do you explain this to the taxpayers of this community that this is the way to do business? I don't understand this.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think you left us with a, in a predicament left me in a predicament because I just feel like this is a, a voted, should be taken because we're getting the 45%, but then a vote that really shouldn't be taken because we were given a piece of paper on Friday asking for a $2 million bond, you know, a $1.1 million bond. I think that's fiscally irresponsible for me to take a vote like that. We were given, you know, some sort of application and a brief outline of the five projects, This deserved an hour and a half subcommittee meeting to discuss it beforehand, or at least some paperwork on Friday so we had something to read and understand. I just assumed we were going to talk about it briefly and send it to committee, but now we're left tonight having to take a vote. And I think the city's in a predicament because you don't have the usual votes that you need. Very, very tough position for me. And I believe in what the two of you do. I just feel like, you know, we were given nothing, absolutely nothing.
[SPEAKER_21]: We have a motion on the floor for approval. So, lady, I'd like to speak. Mr. President, if I may. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: To the city engineer, is it safe to say that there is a need for infrastructure improvements to a water and sewer system?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Adam Knight]: Is it also safe to say that The plan that's in place right now that you're working with will be the plan that we work with going into the future?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Adam Knight]: Is it safe to say that if the construction and repairs of the system are put off that the inflow and infiltration will actually increase and continue to increase and continue to raise our sewage rate?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: Pipes continue to deteriorate.
[Adam Knight]: So not only will rates remain the same, they could probably potentially get worse in terms of inflow and infiltration?
[fRTeqEogCEI_SPEAKER_39]: It's possible, and costs, next year's costs are always higher than this year's costs for repair.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Point of information, I agree 100% with our city engineer's answers to those questions, 100%. But I think it's our job as city councilors to know what we're voting on, know that there's a $2 million request to know what projects are being done, not the night of, but maybe a couple days beforehand, maybe a weekend beforehand, so that we can review, understand, and make an intelligent decision on a matter that is, you know, we're not talking about $200, we're talking about $2 million.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I don't disagree, and that's why I took out the time to sit down with Ms. Miller and talk to her about the project before the meeting tonight. You know I to take my responsibility very seriously and for two million bucks certainly questions I want to get answered and that's why I spoke with her about it before tonight So that I'd be in a position to intelligently speak about it and to move forward on the issue You know with that being said I think it's safe to say that our water and sewer infrastructure isn't going to improve any. The plan's not going to change. The plan that we have here is in place. The question comes down to whether or not this is the way we want to fund it or not. And when you look at making an investment of $2.12 million and getting back 45% of that money right off the bat, and then over a five-year period paying off the remainder at 0% interest, I think financially, this makes sense. I mean, you watch the Jordan's Furniture commercials. Everybody's running down there to buy a couch interest-free for five years, you know what I mean, hoping that the Red Sox hit the hole in the green monster. It makes sense, you know what I mean? An interest-free loan. Why take money out of the bank? Why take money out of our reserves when we can get an interest-free loan? We can use those reserves annually if we see it fit to pay down that bond or that loan at a zero percent. But ultimately, why take the money out of the bank right now and put it into one basket when we can have that money and use that to leverage other projects. And I think that's what we're doing. We're using this money in our water sewer enterprise account and our reserves to leverage projects. And we're continuing to leverage, use this money to leverage projects. We're using this leverage to get things done. Once the money's gone, the leverage is gone and the work stops. So I think that, you know, in terms of municipal finance, this makes good sense. And I support the paper as filed wholeheartedly.
[Robert Penta]: On that subject, when we talk about leverage, you're leveraging the taxpayers' money that have been sitting in a non-interest-paying account for many, many years. We're leveraging our ability to borrow. We're leveraging the money that the taxpayers have been paying that has accumulated approximately $7.5 million. This is a very important subject matter. Tonight, we had a Committee of the Whole meeting on the CPA, okay? It's a community preservation act. Now, if you want to compare that to the $2 million, I think the Community Preservation Act could have weighed it to August, and that could have been our Committee of the Whole meeting. This is a matter of the process and the priorities that take place here in this community, and this is too important of an issue. We have the money to spend for this. We have our reserves account of $4.5 million. I just don't think the process was presented properly. When you have to come to a meeting and ask for the information, and then they have to go and Xerox it during the course of the meeting and you still don't have all the locations. And as Councilor Caraviello just alluded to, with the 19 catch basins. We don't even know which catch basins there are. This is such an important issue that this council has been talking about for so many, many months. INI, leak detection, water and sewer construction, and street reconstruction. The Winthrop Street Rotary, we had many conversations over that. Committee of the Whole meeting's over that. And tonight we're asking for $2.1 million, quick, quick, quick, because the MWRA is saying that if we don't have this by August 20th, we're gonna lose our-
[Adam Knight]: You just said we were talking about it for 10 years. We've been talking about infiltration. We've been talking about inflow. We've been talking about it for 10 years. Now we have a paper in front of us that's actually going to give us results instead of rhetoric. It's going to give us results instead of rhetoric. We spend the money or we don't, Mr. President. I think that that's where we're at at this point in time. We need the full votes to get the paper to pass its first reading. We can debate this all day. I think we all agree that the water and sewer system needs upgrades. I think we all agree that the water and sewer system is deteriorating. I think we all agree that something needs to be done. The question is, how are we going to do it? How are we going to fund it? I think that the paper before us is a good way to fund it. That's why I support it. Other individuals don't feel that way. Why don't we put it to a vote?
[Robert Penta]: With all due respect to my colleague, Mr. President, he had his opportunity to speak and I'm going to have mine. And mine is very simply this. You know, you're talking about talking about it for 10 years. And each and every—for the last five to six years, you've had an accumulated—an accumulated net surplus that never went back to the rate payers in this community. There was a gentleman over here that just gave you a sighting section of the law that turned around and told you if there was a surplus at the end of the year and there was no ongoing projects—and I think the projects has to be within a 90-day startup period of time—that that surplus was supposed to go back to the rate payers of this community, so they don't have to pay a water and sewer rate increase in their bills. That's number one. The other part of this whole situation is the presentation, the process. What do we consider to be important here? On this particular night, we're talking about $2.5 million or $2.1 million. We have to ask for the information, and we still don't have all the information. I think it's wrong. We have access to our money and the retained earnings. I feel very comfortable in going there, and I feel very comfortable in knowing that the ratepayers' money will now be used for something rather than sitting there, as the administration says, the more we keep it in the air, it increases our bond rating. I'm not worried about bond rating anymore, because the taxpayers, their streets, their sidewalks, their sewer infrastructure is beyond repair. When you talk about first time in 10 years, well, where was the city 10 years ago? Okay? Where was the city 10 years ago? The city wasn't doing what it should have done 10 years ago. You've done all the parks over three times, but you let the streets, and you let the water, and the sewer, and the ironite deteriorate to the point that it is right now. No, I'm not going to vote for this tonight, because we do have the alternative, and the alternative is taking out of retained earnings. And when anyone has to come to that podium and try to force and compel a city council to vote for something because you're in a time squeeze and this council didn't even have enough between itself to figure out to call a meeting rather than wait for the August meeting or the July meeting because of the importance of this, shame on this council and shame on the leadership of this council because we should have been informed about this, had the meeting with the water and sewer people, the city engineer Louise Miller and everyone else concerned. To put our backs against the wall on something that we still don't know that's dated, and I don't care what anyone says, dated September 2014, still doesn't cut the mustard for me, and I am not going to take its first reading. I'm going to use the option that we have in our city revenue, in our city reserves, and the retained earnings of our water and soil.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Ma'am, if you wish to speak, please state your name and address for the record.
[Q7cD9OP2TNA_SPEAKER_02]: Joanne Haney, 123 Playstead Road. I have to agree with that. My water bill has skyrocketed. I am over $1,500 a year now. I do not have any water sprinklers. I do not water my lawn all the time. It has gone well beyond what it should be. And every single time you turn around, they've raised the rates. I think it's wrong, I think we have to think about it, and please don't approve this tonight. You have to really think about it. Thank you.
[Robert Penta]: B comes before 8-0? It's the amendment. She's amending the main motion.
[Fred Dello Russo]: The B paper, which was $500 and some odd thousand, is to be allocated from the retained earnings towards this project. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Musil, Councilor Caraviello? No. Councilor Banks?
[Fred Dello Russo]: No.
[Clerk]: Vice President Long-Term?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Marks? Yes. Councilor Pender? Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: No. The vote of three in the negative, two in the affirmative. The motion fails. On the main motion for approval by Councilor Knight, as seconded by Councilor Caraviello.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: If I may, through the Chair, Ms. Miller, if this is tabled until we get the information we need, where does that leave us, having to call a special meeting?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: We need a positive vote on the loan order before the MWRA meeting of August 20th.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And through the chair, Clerk Finn, can we take all three readings August 11th?
[Clerk]: No, in loan orders, you have to take two separate readings.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Two separate readings in the third? Three separate readings.
[Clerk]: Yeah, which would be first reading is at the meeting itself. Second is advertised.
[Robert Penta]: Louis, let me ask you this question.
[Clerk]: I love it.
[Robert Penta]: You're saying it has to take its readings. So if it takes its first read—if it takes its first reading and it's into its second before the third takes place in August, what's the problem? As long as it's taking its readings, it isn't like it's not taking its readings, it's taking its readings.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: I'm sorry, I don't understand the question.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Caraviello. Mr. President, why can't we take our first reading tonight and before the next meeting, have a council of the whole meeting to have all the papers presented to us before we take a second hearing that night? My sentiments exactly, Councilor.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Mr. President, I'm sorry, I was just told, We have to have a decision by the 17th for Bond Council.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: What did he say? What did he want you to say? Take the first. Get the information.
[Richard Caraviello]: Have a council hall meeting before the next meeting.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Can we have a hall next week or something? Or on the 11th.
[Robert Penta]: Yeah. Council meeting before the next meeting.
[Richard Caraviello]: Take the first meeting and start the process. If you don't like it, we can kill it. Take the first reading. We'll have a committee of the whole meeting before the next reading. At least the process has been started.
[Adam Knight]: You can call a subcommittee meeting. You're on business. You're on transportation. Motion for approval.
[Robert Penta]: Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Councilor Caraviello. Yes.
[Adam Knight]: Councilman. Yes. Vice President O'Connor.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Clerk]: No.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes. With the vote of four in the affirmative, uh, one negative, two absent the motion passes.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Mr. President, if I may, through the chair, just to call a committee, the whole meeting, whether it be August 11th at five 30, um, to discuss the paperwork that we're obviously hopefully going to get beforehand.
[SPEAKER_21]: We'll have one in the intervening weeks before the next meeting of the council. Mr. President, people out there with children, they'd like to speak. Council night. I know the suspension of the rules.
[Fred Dello Russo]: I have a paper in hand, uh, from the city solicitor, uh, to the city, uh, council and president from my family city solicitor regarding the Brooks estate caretakers matter. Dear Mr. President and members of the City Council, I respectfully request that I be given the opportunity to update you on the status of our discussions on the above-captioned matter. Since the matter is not finalized, this update should be given in Executive Session. Chair awaits a motion to go into Executive Session.
[Robert Penta]: Mr. President, I'd like to ask Mr. Rumley, if he wouldn't mind, there are a group of folks out here with some children. They would like to address the Council as it relates to the issue in their neighborhood. So rather than go into Executive Session, could you just wait to let them speak first? You mind? Sure. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Motion to table the matter in the hands of the president. In the motion of Councilor Knight, all those in favor? All those opposed?
[Robert Penta]: What is this mysterious matter, Councilor? There are residents out there that would like to speak on the matter. Are they on the agenda?
[Michael Ruggiero]: Do I have to call an agenda item, Mr. Councilor?
[Robert Penta]: No, you don't.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Come on. It's on the agenda. May you open up? Oh, this is a trick.
[Robert Penta]: So it isn't a trick.
[Michael Ruggiero]: 15-594. 15-594, yeah.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Penta to take item number 15-594 out of order. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Aye. Aye. Motions before us. 15-594 petition by Michael Ruggiero. 18 Pembroke Street, Medford, Mass., to address the Council on appointing a traffic engineer, either through MassDOT or contractually, to study congestion, speeding, and heavy trucking to alleviate problems of the residential streets.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Hello, Councilors. My name is Michael Leggero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. Thank you for taking this issue out of order to make sure that a number of families can speak. I'm going to speak briefly. A number of people want to talk about this issue. The first thing I want to address is what is a transportation engineer? Technically, the role that we're looking for is called transportation engineer. Traffic engineer would also be okay, but transportation engineer has a broader role. Really quickly, a transportation engineer has safety implications. They study and report unsafe road conditions, and they work with local police to report on speeding hotspots. They also work with police to identify potholes into roads. It has economic implications. Transportation engineers survey pedestrian flow in commercial areas, suggest improvements to help get more of our shoppers into our stores. And finally, they also help us alleviate traffic. They explore public transportation options, safe bike lanes, and they also help choose which routes to ship on. This would cost the city roughly $80,000 a year if you decide to hire someone full-time, but other options exist to also hire a traffic engineer contractually through MassDOT. or even to work with Tufts and have students study traffic patterns as well. Here are some possible suggestions of issues that could be worked on. First, we could consider streets that are now being used as cutoffs. A transportation engineer would perhaps suggest laying down speed bumps in those areas. They could also compile a searchable online list of street hazards, such as potholes, where residents could actually track road improvements. A number of residents I've talked to throughout the city of Medford, they have potholes in front of their house that have existed for years. If there was a transportation engineer with an online database, it would allow people to actually see where they are on their improvement. could also study the effects of Medford parking and offer solutions to us. And finally, they could spear line the Green Line expansion. We have a lot of options for this. I have a little handy visual if you want to check it out. I have a number of families that I'm going to invite to step up to speak about traffic issues on their streets. And you guys can come up now. Thank you so much for waiting.
[SPEAKER_08]: Councilman, uh, address for the record. Welcome. My name is William Oliver and I'm at 69 Arlington street, Medford mass. And I wanted to bring before you, um, an issue which I observed back in, I believe it was, uh, August of last year. Uh, my next, my neighbor's cat, uh, who live Rennell, uh, and I, don't know his last name, but he lives at 68 Arlington Street. His cat happened to be walking across the street about seven o'clock in the morning when a car came through at a very high rate of speed, hit the cat, killed it, went through the stop sign, and proceeded down the street. I know this because my neighbor at 65 Arlington Street was out in the middle of the street yelling for the car to stop. And the car did not stop. I observed a number of times after that where cars are coming through the intersection at a very high rate without stopping. And this is mainly commuters cutting over from Route 60 over to Route 16 based upon the traffic pattern which is in Arlington, which gets backed up over the Mystic River Bridge on Route 60. So I thought that was a concern, so I called the Medford Police, and the Medford Police basically said that they have a number of different streets and roads which are very hazardous due to early morning commute, and it's mainly the early morning commute versus the evening commute, which we see this behavior. So I wanted to bring this to your attention. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you.
[6gZWVWRAa_8_SPEAKER_04]: Good evening. Welcome. Please state your name and address for the record. Good evening. My name is Ruth Youngblood and I live at 72 Arlington street. There's a lot of issues. Number one, we, I live right near Duggar park. Okay. And people come off of, 16 coming down, and there is a stop sign, four-way stop sign, going across between Arlington Street and Fairfield. People just drive by there, don't stop, are eased, and they go, shh. There is a guard, because there have been too many almost, almost. And there has to be something. to deter this traffic. I'm retired, and I look out the window at between 7.30 and 8 o'clock. They fly through there, even in the evening. And there's a lot of children now that are out, and they're playing in the playground. And God forbid, If any, I have a grandson and his friends. And there's two daycares and one French school at the community center, which is closed now for the summer. But the two daycares and all the children, and even people from Arlington, come over to play in that playground. But apparently people just don't care. Another point is that, at the Mystic River Road that meets Arlington Street. There should be a stop sign there. because it's Arlington Street, and it's Mystic River Road, and those people come down that path, that path, and they fly down there, and I have to look and stop, because I live on the Arlington Street, and when I get to that D, and I see people, they don't stop. And so far, so good, there has not been any accidents at all. But like William was saying, that there should be a speed bump. There should be something there, and especially for the kids. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_36]: Hi there. Kimmy Saradon, 61 Arlington Street. Got a lot of Arlington Street here tonight. You've probably heard from my house at your office as well as the city police and the state police with regards to some of the traffic problems in our neighborhood as well as with regards to the speeding boats on the Mystic River. There is quite commonly drag racing along Mystic Valley Parkway, which is granted a DCR street. It's a state of Massachusetts street, but that goes right through our Medford neighborhood. There's oftentimes Drag racing back there, there's people that will drive the wrong direction on that one-way street to cut through the neighborhood when they're coming off the two rotaries. There's also a lot of people that will stop back there and use the area for recreation behind our house. I'm actually sandwiched between Arlington Street and Mystic Valley, and you see a lot of bad behavior on both streets, especially during the traffic time. There's several suggestions that we've made. Speed bumps in the neighborhood, the rotary at 60 and High Street should be a much larger rotary, so it's an actual impediment to traffic just shooting right through there. I think I just said speed bumps through there, signs, some stop signs as well. And I think maybe even signs that are no turns into this neighborhood between certain hours during rush hour times so that traffic doesn't come through our neighborhood. We're a pretty tight-knit neighborhood over there on Arlington Street. We've got several daycares, as Sherry pointed out, and we've got a playground. There's tennis courts over there that are very active. They hold classes in the morning. There is the West Medford Community Center that also has classes throughout the day. There's a lot of children and families in that neighborhood, and there's a lot of people from other neighborhoods cutting through our neighborhood at a very high rate of speed. I understand there's traffic on 60, but alleviating that traffic, a traffic engineer could help look at ways to alleviate that traffic without using our neighborhood as a way to get through that.
[SPEAKER_06]: My name is Giuseppe De Simone. I live at 96 Alvarez Street. And this street, somebody's going to get killed one of these days. People go by the street 60, 70 miles an hour. They don't even stop at the red line on Willis Avenue. They just go through. Red light, yellow light, they don't care. Plus early in the night, days, radio, it's unbelievable. Three o'clock in the morning, full blast. I got two grandkids. They wake up and they can fall asleep all night long. Before the last election for the mayor, they put a sign, no truck allowed, all over Harvard Street. All right? Then there was two state troop cruises stop for two or three weeks there. They were warning everybody. After that, we don't even see police anymore there. The last years, all the sign, they took it off the city of Medford. I don't know why. and we've got to leave there. Now, trucks go by there 40, 50 miles an hour, early in the morning, night, day. You can't even get out to the driveway sometimes. You've got to wait at least 15, 20 minutes. Tonight, before I get out, I will wait 10 minutes before I get out to my driveway. And people, you tell them, you know, there's a little courtesy. They'll laugh at you. And we pay tax like everybody else. Something has got to be done before somebody get killed. I got two grandkids and something happened. I'm going to, I'm going to go after the city of Medford. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_35]: Hi, my name is Gina Nuzzo. Thank you. I'm on 133 Willis Ave in Medford. And actually, Giuseppe is one of my neighbors. And I also wanted to talk to you about the intersection of Harvard and Willis, which I'm sure you know it tends to be one of the high rate of accidents in the city of Medford. We have a lot of them. But beyond that, I wanted to introduce you to a term that all of our neighbors are very familiar with, and that's truck quakes. So instead of earthquakes, we have truck And that is caused by our homes actually vibrating, actually shaking the foundations. And I'm not talking small trucks. I'm talking 18-whalers just coming down the streets at all times. And our homes are physically shaking. I think beyond it just being a nuisance in terms of noise or whatever, there's a real safety and health concern that goes with it. For example, nobody opens their windows on the street anymore because of the exhaust. You just can't. You open the window, it's like, where's the fresh air? It's not there. The exhaust coming out of the trucks is significant. And then also, I think from a safety perspective, I mean, it's just a matter of time before a kid goes rolling out after a ball, or I think we've heard about trucks And accidents happening, you know, with more frequency, especially in the last couple of years, if it happens in a residential neighborhood, I think it can be catastrophic. So I really do hope that you consider it. As Giuseppe mentioned, there were signs that went up. I did follow up with the police in terms of why they came down, and they said that It wasn't easy to pull these trucks over. And I thought, well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that you can probably pull them over on Mystic Ave, right? Just kind of hide behind that. So, I mean, I do hope that you consider the traffic along that street. I know it's a main cut through, but perhaps we can alleviate some of the truck traffic. All right. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_34]: My name is Edward DeAngelo. I live on 8 Suffolk Street in Medford. I'm a relatively new resident. I also represent several other people with children that were here for a while but had to leave because of the timing. I'm a pediatrician. I'm very concerned about safety of children on my street. We are also a cut through, 293 people avoiding Winthrop Square by cutting through Suffolk. Obviously, there's a lot of individual stories and lots of cut-throughs and lots of bad traffic situations. But I think Mr. Ruggiero's issue is an important one, which is this traffic issue in a city the size of Medford has to be approached systematically and needs to be data-driven. You're hearing data now, but that's just only because we happen to be having a meeting. But there's probably lots of other places. So I would certainly support some kind of approach to bring on an expert who can analyze it systematically and apply appropriate metrics to evaluate for safety, traffic flow, and many other issues that are so important here. So I support this.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_34]: Good evening. Christopher DeVita, 67 West Street. I've spoken on occasion before this council about pedestrian safety issues. It's become an issue. Everywhere, as I think you are hearing now, I think you could probably pretty much have every single resident in Medford come up here and talk about how pedestrian safety and traffic problems here are just a little bit out of control now. I live on a street that's a one-way, but that doesn't prevent people going 40 miles per hour the wrong way down my street, because somehow going faster means you won't get caught. But I can tell you that I'm a city planner by trade, and I've worked with a lot of transportation engineers, and I support the creation of the position, but I have to say that if you just put the transportation engineer out there on his or her own without any backup and implementation monies, they're just gonna give you a lot of data, and unfortunately, data that we already know. So we have to have a holistic approach to this where we really support the creation of a proper traffic and engineering department here and put the monies behind it to change this behavior. And if it requires hiring more police to do enforcement, I think we should do that. And if that's the issue, I'm not really sure it is, but if it is the issue, then we should look at that. It's sort of about the how you know, what kind of city do we want to live in at this point? And, uh, as you can hear from everyone who's spoken, uh, it's not the one we currently have right now. Thank you.
[Sharon Wentworth]: Hi, my name is Sharon Wentworth. I live at 694 Winthrop street. I noticed a very big difference. I've been there a long time. The car start, the truck started four o'clock in the morning. Um, they're going down so fast that they're beeping behind you when you're following the speed. And then they go around you. There's a school and a park on that street, the high school, Victory Park. And what I really want to make, I'm not sure if you already know, is where Playstead meets and Winthrop Street, the buses sit there. You can't get out. You can't see. You got buses on Winthrop. You got buses on Playstead. You're coming up. You're trying to take a left. You can't get out. Somebody's going to get hit there. There's no light. There's a flashing light, but that's it. So I just wanted to make somebody aware of that. Thank you.
[AXh4iBqkQq0_SPEAKER_00]: Sure. My name's Jay Campbell. I live at 707 Fulton Street. I just want to bring up that I also agree that having a traffic engineer is a fantastic idea. I also think, though, that some people don't realize when they talk about what's going to happen, that thanks to Medved, the community agreement with the Wynn Resorts is actually already have 12 different intersections that they're planning on redoing, which includes Wellington Circle. But there's also where I live, Fulton Street and Fellsway, they're going to redo that. They're also going to redo Salem Street and Fells Way. And there's many spots, some of the places that people have talked about, they want someone to do something. It's already being in the works to get done. And the MEPA process is going right now with WIND. Once that gets approved, some of these things are going to happen, because based on the agreement, they're going to take place before the casino opens, before the resort opens. I think in addition to the issues that some people have with the traffic, it would also be nice to have a traffic engineer that can work with WIND to get these things done correctly and efficiently. as a city has already agreed to have this done and have Wynn pay for it. So I just want to bring that up as an additional point so people are aware of that fact, if they don't know already. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Good evening. Please state your name and address for the record. Welcome.
[SPEAKER_33]: Good evening. My name is Joan Lovett, and I live at 75 Arlington Street, and I am right across from the Tots Playground. Day after day, I see the cars coming down Mystic River Road, zoom, right through the stop sign. And I mean zoom. And this happens more than once, and it happens every day. Now, a police detail, that's just some time. We need something all the time. So I think you need a speed bump, just like Belmont has around their schools. Something like that could probably work. That's my suggestion. You're welcome.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Good evening. Please state your name and address for the record. Rick Giganti, 139 Harvard Street. Can you hit the button, please, there? There you go.
[IQQM4nQO9UA_SPEAKER_06]: Rick Giganti, 139 Harvard Street. Where do I start? Well, I guess we could start first by saying, The truck noise, that's coming up Harvard Street now is becoming more and more and more of an issue. We do realize that the work on Boston Ave has to be done, but the trucks are coming up, dump trucks are coming up like you cannot believe in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. That's one. The other thing is, is the speed now has increased dramatically. We have speed signs, 20 miles an hour. That just doesn't happen. The other thing is, I can sit on my front porch, which I don't, but I could sit and water the lawn or water the flowers in this little phone, and you can see all the people on the phone. Seventy percent out of every 10 cars, seven of them are on this phone, driving. And I know it's a law, and I know Medford can do something. I know the police can sit there, and they can probably do pretty good. Yeah, we have a detail. We've got to do this. We've got to do that. We bring in parking with this new parking ban thing that we have going on. But if we can just do some things to try to help the traffic. We have on Harvard Street, we also have a nursery right there alone. The kids are there. People are trying to get out of the driveway. can't get out of the driveway. It's impossible. I don't know where I can ask. I'm going to try to ask here. Where I live is right where the light is. I'm wondering to help not only emergency vehicles, but to have a stop here before my driveway so that the trucks, fire trucks, can make the corner to come down Harvard Street being a state road that it is. Instead of going all the way up to the red light, not only will it help for that, also in the winter, cars might be able to make it through the light if they get a rolling start from behind my house instead of at the corner. I don't know how to go about doing that. Maybe someone can inform me later, but something that I would like to think about and talk about and try to have that installed. Maybe that might cut some of the traffic to slow it down a little bit instead of trying to speed up through the red light. Don't know if it'll work. I know it's on Riverside Ave, but maybe that might help. Anything that could cut down some of the traffic. Yeah, that was a great talk. Two weeks before election, the street signs went up. No trucks, no trucks, no trucks. Stadies were there and everything, and it was working. It worked. Yeah, it worked. but we knew it wasn't gonna last, and it didn't. So anything that we can do to help, greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Citizen Castagnetti. Councilor Dela Cruz. Castagnetti, Andrew, Cushion Street, 02155. If I may, I'd like to commend Mr. Ruggiero for at least trying to improve the traffic, automobile, et cetera, situation in the city. It would be wonderful if there is some improvement, and I'm sure the citizens would appreciate it, and the general public. I commend them. Thank you.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Hi, my name is Michael Ruggiero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. This is just a small sampling of the people that could be helped by having a full-time traffic engineer study these issues. I urge you to please vote yes on this issue. Every single street I've walked down in Medford has these problems, from Spring Street to Harvard Street to Winthrop Street. Every single street I've walked down has these problems. Unfortunately, I'm just one guy. I wasn't able to spread enough of the word out to get more people here, but I think we have an excellent opportunity to alleviate some of these problems. Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much, and I'd like to thank the residents from the city for coming out here this evening and telling us about their concerns. I think it would be incumbent upon this council to make a recommendation to our Traffic Commission, Mr. President, and based on what I'm hearing, there are several items that I'd like to add to this paper by way of amendment. If the city clerk is ready, I think that we need to take a look at Utilizing the temporary speed bumps that we recently appropriated funding for through the community improvement initiative, Mr. President, along Arlington Street. I think that would be very important, and I think that would address some of the concerns. I also think it would be very important for our traffic commission to take a look at the feasibility of putting a stop sign at Arlington Street and Mr. Griveaux Road. And utilizing the speed boards that we have, Mr. President, by way of the police department at Willis Ave, Arlington Street, and West Street to control speeds, as well as Harvard Ave, Harvard Street, rather. And I also think that directed patrols for enforcement of violations, Mr. President, speed and truck routes along these roadways would be imperative. And lastly, I think that we need to request that the Traffic Commission revisit the issue of a truck ban a long habit, because I, too, travel that road quite frequently and see four trucks back up and block the intersection, and it's a waiting game. You just wait for the lights to change, wait for the lights to change. Individuals can't even get out of their driveway, Mr. President. I'd like to amend the paper by requesting that the Traffic Commission take these following steps.
[SPEAKER_22]: This was a petition, so this will be the paper. It has a number. Thank you. Councilor Caput.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. As a person who lives on a cut-through street, I can understand why many of these people go through. Councilor Penta stopped by my house the other night, and he saw people just going through the stop sign, and they weren't even there. The City of Medford did asked the wing commission that Mr. Campbell talked about for $2 million a few weeks ago, which I'm the representative to the committee there, for traffic studies, and we were denied by the gaming commission the funds for the traffic studies and possibly even hiring an engineer. So I just wanted to let you know. There is some work going to be done, as Mr. Campbell said, but we did ask for the funding through that to helpfully alleviate the Traffic Studies and the Traffic Commissioner, but we were denied those funds by the Gaming Commission. They just said they are not available at this particular time.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Patu.
[Robert Penta]: One of the things that I heard here tonight was there is an inconsistency of traffic enforcement in this community. And some of the suggestions offered by Councilor Knight and as Councilor Caraviello just alluded to, these are things that definitely need to be addressed. One of the things that I would have a special interest in would be having a truck enforcement unit within our Method Police Department, because there are just so many trucks that are traveling through our community at high rates of speed that that's a serious concern that we have here right now. Unfortunately, this administration, you know, has not wished to delve into that. I can assure you, after January, it will be delved into. And as a result of that, we will make sure that public safety is looked upon seriously and not just as a temporary political fix, so to speak. The public safety of this community is the backbone of why people want to live here. In today's edition, I think it was in the Boston Globe, it said we're in the lowest third tier of people wanting to live here in the city of Medford. This is the latest report that just came out today. And as a result of, pardon me, lowest tier. You really want to know why you're living here in the city of Medford. Just because your real estate values are going up, is it because of the school system? Is it because of the streets? Is it because of your accessibility to 93? Is it your accessibility to public transportation? It certainly has nothing to do with your downtown environment, because there's nothing there. There's no economic development in these squares. They've been laying in abyss for such a long period of time. We really need to do an awful lot of work as to find out what our city's about and where it needs to go. You know, when you talk about Somerville and some of these issues, they've come a long way in a short period of time because everybody worked together. They put a collective effort together. Now, there's a gentleman sitting out there, and I don't want to embarrass him, but Mr. Chris DeVita. He said he was a city planner. He worked over there in Somerville where they had 12, 14 people at one time. City of Medford has one and a half people. This administration only kept one and a half people working full time in that office. That's a sad commentary to why we don't have development. We don't have development because there's nothing in this city to go out and develop because there's nobody out there being able to do it. And I'll just leave you with this last thought. It's public safety and streets and roads. But this all interconnects with each other. It interwines with each other. You know, your roads will take you from A to B and B to C and C to D. And that's very important. Your kids on the roads, bicycles, people traveling in the summertime. During the summertime, more speeding tickets are given up in the city of Medford because the motorcycle patrolmen are out there. I met with them last night and had a conversation about that. I think what needs to be done is to have you folks call the chief of police and ask him to put his motorcycle unit in particular areas because you folks know where the issues are. They try to do the best they can with what they have, but if they're being told where the issues might be, Let's see where that goes, and let's just see the response that comes from that. That's a beginning. That's a first step. And then, from there, you can take a step by saying, hey, you either were responded to, or you weren't responded to. That's the way we're going to fix these problems, one street, one day at a time. And if we all work together, it can take place, and it will get done. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: The President Thank you, Mr. President. Again, Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion that we send a letter to the Chief of Police asking him to call the state police and request that the dot truck team come to medford on occasion. I do see them on the parkway but if the dot team, they're out there everywhere, I see them all over the roads, come to medford and maybe on Salem street, high street, riverside avenue where all the trucks come, maybe on a rotating basis. If we could do that, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Knight, as amended by Councilor Caffiello. All those in favor? Roll call vote has been requested.
[Michael Ruggiero]: May I ask a quick question? On the paper now, is there a recommendation to hire a traffic engineer? So there is. Can we put it on the paper now? Because at the budget meeting I was there, and I don't recall that motion coming up. Oh, was it a different budget meeting?
[Robert Penta]: Well, does your resolution address that?
[Michael Ruggiero]: The traffic commission is not really solving these problems right now. I think there needs to be an individual that has control of these issues. Every single street I've walked down in Medford has these problems. There needs to be one individual who's ultimately responsible for these issues. Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Diller. So maybe we should have a committee meeting on this. I mean, you mentioned a few different options, whether it be Tufts students, an engineer. And then it was brought up, well, if we have an engineer, how will we actually fix the problems? Will we need to allocate more money to do so? So maybe just a roundtable discussion, ask Tufts to come to the meeting, ask city administration to maybe come in and give their two cents on something that's feasible. Because I definitely think it would be helpful to do, we need to do something, so. Subcommittee on public safety.
[Adam Knight]: Transportation.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Or transportation. I don't know if it's fair to many of the individuals that took time out of their schedule to attend a variety of different meetings. While I understand that there is this issue to you want to explore different options, I hope that we can understand that many people came out today about this issue. We don't have enough civil engineers on the Medford staff as Councilor Penta pointed out. Having someone that actually studied transportation here directly in Medford, I think, would alleviate many of these issues. You're right, Councilor. He would make recommendations, and these recommendations might actually cost more money. But these would be recommendations that would be needed throughout the city of Medford. They wouldn't be squandering.
[Adam Knight]: My concern is that between now and when we get a transportation engineer that we went through an operating budget that we didn't fund already, and we already had this discussion just a month ago, I'm not confident that the administration is going to act and hire a transportation engineer between now and January. And that means that if we make the resolution, hire a transportation engineer, none of these items get taken care of. We still need to look at whether or not MassDOT has the ability and power and the past practice of providing transportation engineers to the community. I did investigation on this. I spoke with several individuals at MassDOT today. My understanding is they don't. They have an office that works with project managers and works with transportation planners that are working on particular projects in regions. They have technical assistance that they use to provide certain technical assistance to people that are working on projects in communities. But I think that there are a lot of financing questions here, Mr. President. And, you know, I think that if we don't vet it properly, it's just going to be another paper that gets sent to the corner office and sits there and collects dust in the corner office. But if we keep the conversation alive and take ownership of it, as opposed to passing the buck across the hall, I think that we may be able to get better results. We want to talk about a transportation engineer. I think we should be doing that through a subcommittee process, bringing the appropriate parties to the table and building the momentum that's going to make it happen, as opposed to sending a paper across the hall and letting us sit there, Mr. President.
[Michael Ruggiero]: A very disappointing fact in our city that when a paper is sent to the executive office, it is just, as you say, collects dust. That's unacceptable.
[Adam Knight]: It is what it is, though. I mean, my concern is the people back here and whether or not they want these results on their streets. You know what I mean? I think that this is an approach that we can take where we can effectuate change immediately is all I'm saying, Mr. President.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, then you can have two papers as well.
[Adam Knight]: We could have five papers if we want. What I'm saying is in January, we discussed this very same topic in the subcommittee meetings, in the budget hearings. It wasn't included in the operating budget. The operating budget passed last meeting. Last meeting was the operating budget. Now, here we are, the meeting after the operating budget passed, saying, create a new position and add it to the operating budget. I'm saying, okay, that sounds like a good idea. Let's sit down and let's figure out how we're going to do that, as opposed to saying, hey, over there, put this in the operating budget. This is what we want. Let's figure out how we're going to do it, how we're going to fund it, what steps we need to take, where we can find funding for it, because I think it's a good idea. That's why I brought it up at the budget hearings when we were having the budget hearings, because a transportation planner is a good idea, and we need help. Number one, revitalizing our downtowns, and number two, alleviating traffic in our community. There's no question about that. But I think that in order for us to address issues of speed bumps and stop signs, that has to go to the traffic commission regardless of whether or not we have a traffic or transportation engineer on staff.
[AXh4iBqkQq0_SPEAKER_00]: I just want to clarify one thing. For the record again, I'm sorry. Jay Campbell, I live at 707 Fulton. Just to clarify one thing that you mentioned, which you're right about going to the gaming commission. The intersections I talked about are totally separate than the $2 million. So I just wanted to bring that up so that way everyone knows. No, I understand that. Yeah, in the 12, yeah.
[Fred Dello Russo]: That's all I want you to point out. So on the motion, all those in favour? All those opposed? Carries. introduce that paper as you go into executive session?
[Adam Knight]: Yes, Mr. President. I think maybe if there's anybody that has business before the body, we can take care of that. If there's any, you know, I think we have a traffic license. We have a brief presentation. I'll be happy to hold my resolutions until the end of the meeting. But if there are any other members of the general public that are here that want to, I know we have two taxi licenses and we also have three licenses?
[Fred Dello Russo]: We have three licenses and we have a presentation from the Energy Commission. Present yourself to the rail. On the motion of Councilor Caraviello to take the licenses, petitions, partesans. On Fish Business to take 15, 571, Cleaning and Dyeing License for Grace Cleaners. All those in favor? All those opposed? Would the representatives of Grace Cleaners please present themselves? Chair recognizes Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, I reviewed the papers from the last meeting, and they are in order. And I'm a customer of Grace Cleaners in West Medford, and I hope you'll continue to do the same good work that the Grace guys did. So motion for approval. A motion for approval by Councilor Caraviello.
[Fred Dello Russo]: All those in favor? All those opposed? 570, Mr. President. Motion carries. Congratulations. They're the same people, Mr. President, both of them. Thank you. 15, 570. Yes, the same people for both. Cleaning drive, dying license, new way cleaners. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, come back. Come back. 15, 570 for new way cleaners, so they have two cleaning places. Yes. You are the rep. Please state your name and address for the record.
[SPEAKER_00]: The new way? Your name and the. Oh, sorry. My name is Samuel Pa. And new way located in 471 High Street.
[Richard Caraviello]: Very good. Mr. President, I have reviewed the established papers also, and do find them in order.
[Fred Dello Russo]: A motion for approval by Councilor Caraviello. All those in favor? Congratulations. Thank you. 15, 593, the taxi operator's license. Mr. Louis Stangen, 71 Clifton Street, Malden, Mass, 02148, driving for Citywide Taxi. Councilor Caraviello? Thank you, Mr. President.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. President, I review this gentleman's papers and also find them in order. Where do you, do you know where the Citywide Taxi's office is? 40 Canal Street, Medford. Where is it? 40 Canal Street, Medford. 40 Canal Street, Medford. Mr. President, I review this gentleman's paperwork and find them in order also. On motion of Councilor Caravelle for approval, all those in favor?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Mr. Clerk, Councilor Penta wishes to be recorded as opposed. Because we do not have a taxi ordinance update. These are for drivers, not a taxi company. Very good. Congratulations on your approval, sir. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Drive safely. Two hands on the wheel, please. Thank you very much. On the motion to resort back to the regular order of business by Councilor Knight, all those in favor? All those opposed? 15584 and 15585. Offered by Councilor Caraviello, the first one. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council would like to allow the Medford Energy Committee to address the council about the upcoming Energy Festival to inform residents, businesses, and community organizations on the process of how the awards will be chosen for this year's event. And 585, offered by Councilor Knight, be it resolved that a representative from Medford's Energy Committee be recognized. regarding the Green Energy Awards and Harvest Your Energy Festival. Welcome.
[Curtis Tuden]: Please state your name and address for the record. Thank you, councillors. My name is Curtis Tudin. I live at 72 Bonner Ave, and I'm a member of the Medford Energy Committee. For anyone who doesn't know, that's a appointed group of local volunteers who are responsible for being involved with environmental and energy-related projects in the city. One of those projects is the Medford Green Awards. And in 2015, like in years past, we think it's very important for any community to recognize leaders who are especially responsible and go above and beyond in terms of environmental stewardship. The application forms to be eligible for the award just became available a few weeks ago. They can be picked up in the Office of Energy Environment here at City Hall, or you can more easily go to gogreenmedford.org, which is the committee's website, and find all the information there about the application as well as every other project that the committee is involved in. So I wanted to take this opportunity tonight to, one, make this project more publicized, and also to pass out the application forms to the Councilors themselves. It would be great for any of you to reach out to people that you find are exemplary environmental or energy-related residents, or maybe you yourselves feel like you deserve an award. We'd be happy to recognize you. And this all comes together on October 3rd at the annual, the 6th annual Harvest Your Energy Festival, which is held under the wind turbine at the McGlynn Elementary School. It's a, I'm sorry, McGlynn Middle School. It's a great event that happens every year. It's a collection of residents, businesses, and community groups that are basically innovators in the field that help make Medford a very green community, that help make us a leader, really, in the city in that respect. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. But really, residents, I just want to stress again that you can go greenmedford.org and just really recognize yourselves or recognize someone that you know that goes above and beyond in this respect.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you. Mr. President, thank you very much. And thank you, Mr. Tudin, for being here. I think if we all think back to a couple of weeks ago, we saw Curtis here wearing a different hat. It was a baseball hat. He's one of our coaches at the Medford High School baseball team, GBL champs. And one of his other functions that he does here is working on the Energy Commission, and he does great work. Curtis, I'd like to thank you for coming down here this evening. I appreciate your presentation. And I'd like you to maybe tell us a little bit about the Harvester Energy Fest and how fun it is, because last year I went down there and I think I bought more light bulbs than I knew what to do with by the time I got out of there. They had these energy efficient light bulbs at a great price.
[Curtis Tuden]: Yeah, that's one of the many great offers you can get. It's literally over $120 worth of light bulbs for about a $10. It comes in a really great package. I try to take advantage of that every single year and it's something that we commonly have. Really, it's a collection of businesses and groups and a lot of different educational groups in the city that are very environmentally oriented. And last year, I think we had over 100 tables and there were over 400 people who came down and participated in the event. It's hopefully going to be even bigger this year. We have a very busy September and October with a lot of city events going on. And this is just one of the many great themes. And the fact that it can happen underneath the wind turbine and really show off alternative energy and energy efficiency in the way the city is a leader. It's great that the City Council recognizes that, and I especially appreciate you and Councilman Caraviello for helping me get on the agenda for this evening. And really, the rest of your talks this evening were all very interesting, so thanks for that.
[SPEAKER_30]: Thank you for your work, Curtis.
[Richard Caraviello]: Chris, again, I want to thank you. Being a member of the Chamber of Commerce myself, we've been involved with these awards from day one, and I know how important they are, and I've been down to every one of these festivals. I hope — and every year, they keep — they continue to grow and get bigger. And I hope this year gets bigger than last year's.
[Curtis Tuden]: Yeah, there's a lot of inspiring individuals in this city, and it's important to recognize them because I think it just leads to more and more people being environmentally responsible. So, meetings like this are great. So, thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you. Motion to receive and place on file, Mr. President.
[Curtis Tuden]: Thank you very much.
[Adam Knight]: Thanks, Chris. Mr. President, is there any other matters before the —
[SPEAKER_30]: Are the people here to speak on?
[SPEAKER_29]: Michael Wongo around maybe? He's doing good. Hi. Yes. Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Council meeting, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion is reconvened, and in our meeting, in the executive session, the matter before us was received and placed on file. So now we return to the regular order of business. 15-586 offered by Councilor Knight. Be it resolved that the MBTA take the necessary steps to address cleanliness at the West Medford Commuter Rail Station, Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. About 97 days ago, I believe, I put a resolution on piggybacking on Councilor Caraviello's resolution of about 180 days before that and requesting that the West Medford Commuter Rail Station be beautified in terms of deweeding and the replacement of stanchions along High Street and some other items relative to overall cleanliness and upkeep. And to date, we have not seen these occur. I've placed a call into the Department of Transportation requesting their assistance on this matter. However, I ask that my council colleagues support this agenda item in order to have an official paper passed by this body for the MBTA to act on.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good. On the motion of Councilor Knight, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. 15-587 offered by Councilor Knight. Be it resolved that the OCD review the zoning at Wellington Plaza with intent to make recommendations that will promote mixed use transit-based development, and the creation of affordable housing, Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Over recent months, I've been driving down the corridor of Riverside Avenue, and every time I drive past the Wellington Plaza, I look at it, and I look at it as a potential for great growth, a potential for us to maybe make some zoning changes there and address some of the needs that we have in this community. It's a very large parcel of land right now. It's about two stories high. thinking I think that maybe we can go up a little bit, a couple of more stories, create some commercial space, potentially maybe some tech industry jobs or some office space that might be resulting in the knowledge-based economy, in the health sciences, Mr. President. But more importantly, I think that we also need to take a look at this opportunity to create affordable housing in our community, affordable housing that's transit-based, affordable housing that can help us reach our quota, because we are not there at this point in time. And based upon our conversations that we had in our committee of the whole this morning with the issue of the Community Preservation Act, I think there is an underlying concern that the lack of affordability in terms of housing in our community is forcing people out. And with that being said, there's a need. And I think that transit-based mixed-use development at a location like Wellington Plaza would do a number of things, Mr. President. First of all, it would increase our commercial tax base. would allow us to develop more businesses, which would, in turn, allow us to have a broader tax base. It would also allow us to address the need of affordable housing by creating units there for people that can live with low and moderate income with access to the T, so that they have the ability to get in and out of town, to go to jobs, go to work, have more opportunities than they would have if they weren't based in a development that's further away from transit. So, Mr. President, I ask my colleagues on the council to support this measure. It's not the first time I've brought an item like this up. I've discussed this also at the site of, you know, Locust Street, Meadowglen Mall, and Shaw's. But I think it's a good idea for us to really take a look at our zoning and to come up with a combined use model for us to really capitalize on the space that we have.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. I've had the opportunity to talk with some of these people from Boyd Plaza. I think going down the line, you're going to see that whole front of the property developed at some point. I know once they finish the three restaurants there, there's talk of them building on the other side of Century Bank with some more retail and other things. So I think going down the line, I think they will be looking for some more mixed use. And they were a little hesitant when we asked them about the question about housing. But I know that they do have more stuff planned going in there going forward. So I think these people who bought it are going to really do a good job there. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I certainly agree that growth is good. And we're looking at growth here in this area. We're seeing it. We're seeing facade improvements go on in the retail aspect. We're seeing restaurants come in. But the way I'm looking at this is a little bit broader. commercial space come in that brings us jobs that are good-paying jobs that pay $80,000, $90,000, $100,000 a year, jobs that are outside the realm of the food service industry, more in the knowledge-based economy, life sciences, and the actual future of where we see job growth in Massachusetts and in the region. So I can understand that they want to build this area out, and they want to put chain restaurants in there, and they want to put Panera and Smashburger, and that's all well and good, and those are projects that I support. However, on a larger scale, I think if we're looking at bringing jobs to the community and we're looking at really addressing several concerns about improving our tax base, putting money back into the circular flow of our economy, and having good jobs that provide good wages with good benefits, I think we need to look at it a little differently as opposed to retail. We really need to take a look at commercial and industry.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Knight. So on the motion of Councilor Knight, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Carries. 15-588 offered by Councilor Knight, be it resolved that the Medford City Council meet as a committee of the whole in September 2015, December 2015, March 2016 with the budget director to monitor the current fiscal year's operating budget and to prepare for the next fiscal year's operating budget. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you, Mr. President. Last meeting, we wrapped up our fiscal year's budget. We approved that budget, and it is now on the books. But there was a lot of debate, a lot of question, a lot of concern about being provided with information, being provided information late, about having questions that need to be answered. So in looking at the process as a whole, when I took a step back and said, how did this all go, I thought it might make sense for us to meet quarterly with the budget director to talk about what's going on in terms of actual expenditures out of our budget. and forecasted revenues that we're hoping are coming in, and then also what our needs and priorities are, and how we can better address some of the concerns that were raised through our last two proceedings, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good. So on the motion of approval by Councilor Knight, all those in favor? All those opposed? Carries. 15-596 offered by Councilor Penta, be it resolved that the location of 5 High Street and the unsightly scaffolding that surrounds the entire building and sidewalk location continues to present a safety and ugly appearance. And since the city administration has yet to require the building owner to take any corrective action, that an ordinance be established that addresses the problem.
[Robert Penta]: Councilor Penta. Mr. President, it's quite obvious that since this, uh, I believe since March of this year, that unsightly, um, issue is in front of us at high street in Medford. I just don't know why our city administration, is failing to take immediate action, corrective action on this particular. So with that being said, I would like to have the council consider, as soon as this fall comes into place, an ordinance that addresses a situation such as this. We have the lean and mean program. If somebody doesn't care for their property, you can go ahead and do it and charge them on this. This is a situation where I think the city can just go out there and do what needs to be done. I have no idea. I don't think anybody in this city knows what is wrong with the building, if anything at all, why that scaffolding is all around the building. And it's just, it's a detriment, a detriment to business, public safety and public health. So that being said, Mr. President, I would suggest, I'm going to suggest an offer for our September meeting and that we establish an ordinance that addresses situations such as this. Now, if it was an ongoing problem that just needed a delay in time, and work was ongoing. That's one thing, but absolutely no work is being done taking place. And as a result of that, that just absolutely detours from any kind of advancement in making Metro square look better than what it is right now. So I move on that motion, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you on that motion.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Caraviello. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Councilor. I think, uh, I was told by, uh, someone in the construction industry that scaffolding can only be up X amount of so many days before it has to be recertified again by the city. And I don't know if our building department is going down there within the time frame that the scaffolding is allowed to be up. I was told that once it's put up, you have so many weeks to keep it up there and to fix it and take it down. But it's supposed to be certified in a reasonable amount of time, especially when it's up there for that long time.
[Robert Penta]: I believe the way the issue runs itself is that if work is taking place, and it's ongoing, and it's continuing — The President I understand no work taking place. Mr. Sperling There is nothing. Zero. There's absolutely nothing taking place. As a matter of fact, the other day, for some reason or another, either kids did it or something else, there was a two-by-four plank that fell off the scaffolding. So I don't know how it got up there, whatever it did. But thankfully, nobody got hurt, and it fell down. So, with that being said — well, beside the audience, Mr. President — strike that. I forgot to say, I think we move immediately to have the building department take the appropriate legal action. and our legal department take the appropriate legal action against the landowner on this particular matter. Very good.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So as amended by Councilor Penta on the main motion, Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. And thank you, Councilor Penta, for once again raising this issue. I did a little investigating on the matter myself, and it's my understanding that a brick fell from the roof of the building as part of the parapet, I guess they call it. And that scaffolding is not up because they're doing work on the building. That scaffolding is up so no one gets conked on the head by a brick is what my understanding is. And I think that, you know, this is probably an appropriate situation for us to look into the clean it or lean it ordinance that we have in place. However, I'm going to be with Councilor Penta to run this one 100%. I don't care what we do, but we got to do something to get it fixed. And if it's a public safety issue and it's because bricks are falling down off the top of the building, that needs to be addressed immediately. In the interim, you know, I think we need to have a building department take a look at it to make sure that there are no public safety concerns that are generally endangering, passes by, pedestrians and cars and vehicles alike, Mr. President. So, Councilor Penta, thank you for bringing this resolution forward. I like the approach. You know, if there's nothing on the books, let's put something on the books. If there is something on the books, then tell us what it is and let's take care of it.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good, Councilor Knight. Good evening. Please state your name and address for the record.
[Joe Viglione]: Good evening, City Council. Joe Villione, 59 Garfield Ave. I apologize to the Council. I saw an article on the landlord there. I think it was Sunday's paper. So I will send it to the city council. I believe there may be some kind of issue, bankruptcy or something. Maybe the city can look towards taking over the building by eminent domain because the situation looked quite serious and that thing could stay up there forever if the guy is in, or the company is in some kind of trouble financially.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. So on the motion of Councilor Penta, As amended by Councilor Penta, the clerk has requested, I apologize, requested to call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Caruso, Councilor Caraviello. Yes. Councilor Knight. Yes. Vice President Lungo-Koehn. Yes. Councilor Marks, Councilor Penta. Yes. President Dello Russo.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes. With a vote of five in the affirmative and two absent, the motion carries. Congratulations. 15-598, offered by Councilor Caraviello. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council... Ooh, I apologize. 15-597, offered by Councilor Penta, be it resolved that upon citizens' request, an explanation be forwarded to the Council and citizens of Medford as to alleged complaints that the Mayor's kiosk parking program, run by the Republic Parking Company from Tennessee, did in fact issue tickets on the 4th of July.
[Robert Penta]: Mr. President, once again, these out-of-state bounty hunters did exactly what they did on Patriots Day. They were out there tagging. I had a long discussion with our chief of police on this. He wasn't very happy as to what they were doing. I guess most of these tickets, if not all of them, revolved themselves into neighborhood parking areas. And it's just not right. It's not right for the taxpayers of this community to be subject to this out-of-state company that the mayor decided to bring in. And just hustle the citizens of this community out of their money, especially on July 4th, one of the sacred holidays that we have in our country, other than Christmas and New Year's and Memorial Day. It's just wrong. And, you know, it's obvious that they're in here just for the money. They really don't care about what our community is all about. And it's just the wrong thing. And I would hope, Mr. President, that we can get the chief of police just to give us a report back. I know he said he was going to have a discussion with the Republic Parking Company about this. And as an aside to this whole thing, a lot of the folks that go to this Republic Parking Company cannot understand why they're not open on a Saturday. They're running it like a business, and they're tagging people in the business area, but they're not open on a Saturday for anybody to go in there and to resolve any of their problems. So a dual request here is to have the chief report back and also to make a request that Republic Park can be opened on a Saturday during regular business hours, Mr. President. Roll call vote.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Roll call vote has been required by Councilor Penta, requested by Councilor Penta on this matter as amended. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Robert Penta]: To report back. To report back, you know.
[Clerk]: Councilor Musil, Councilor Karygiannis. Yes. Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes. With a vote of five in the affirmative, two absent, the motion carries. 15-598 offered by Councilor Caraviello, be it resolved that the Medford City Council look into removing the old payphone stand in front of 29 High Street. Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Along with 29 High, there's one in front of Riverside Ave, several of them around the city. I don't know who owns them or who doesn't own them, but they're quite unsightly. The one at 29 High doesn't even have a top on it. Just, oh, there's a piece of metal. There's one in front of them at the co-op, and there's probably half a dozen. I'd like to see if we can maybe take them out. Again, I don't know who owns them or who doesn't own them. Maybe refer the paper to the electrical department. The electrical department, if they could take them out. They're quite unsightly, and I think they're a safety issue also.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good, so as amended by Councilor Caraviello, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion. 15-589 offered by Councilor Knight be resolved. The Medford City Council extend its deep and sincere condolences to the family of Salvatore DiMeo on his recent passing.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. And if Councilor Marks were here, I'm sure he'd be signed onto this resolution as well. Mr. DiMeo's son and I were very close friends, his daughter, and Councilor Marks are very close friends. With that being said, Mr. DiMeo, passed away recently, unexpectedly, after a short battle with cancer. And he was actually beating his cancer back and passed away from some complications very recently. However, it's my hope that this council will join me in extending its deepest and sincere condolences to the family on their loss. Mr. DiMaio was a great person, a great individual, a great family man. He's lived in Medford a very long time. He came here from Italy, settled in Medford, and has been here ever since. He's been a strong member of our community. He owns multiple properties in the neighborhood, and he's just an all-around great person, Mr. President, and he's going to be missed.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Good man. And if we could take 15590 together with this, also offered by Councilor Knight, be it resolved that the Medford City Council extend its deep and sincere condolences to the family of Marie Ruberti on her recent passing.
[Adam Knight]: Yes, again, Mr. President, thank you very much. And if Councilor Camuso were here this evening, he would be, I'm sure, assigned onto this resolution, as Marie's grandson, John, is very close friends with both of us. With that being said, Marie's children Giovanni and Nick still live in south Medford. Marie came over here from Tripoli by way of Italy some 70 plus years ago, Mr. President, and she recently passed away after a brief illness, and she too will sadly be missed. She was the stalwart of the family, the matriarch of the home, and she did a great job raising her children and her grandchildren, and she will be sadly missed, Mr. President. So I'd like to have the council join me in extending its deep and sincere condolences to the family.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We could rise for a moment of silence for these two citizens of Medford. Petitions, presentations, and similar matters. 15-595, petition by Mr. Joseph Figlioni, 5-9 Garfield Avenue, Medford, to address the council on a vote on lending monies from non-profits to the library.
[Joe Viglione]: Good evening, welcome. Good evening, City Council. Joe Villione, 59 Garfield Ave., Medford, Mass. Non-profits in any city, it's hard to get a grasp on how many there are, and I think we should have a directory of them. It will help the non-profits. It would help people understand a little better how they operate. Our library has wonderful rooms in the back, just as City Hall has rooms that are sometimes available to the public. It would be wonderful if nonprofits could utilize the library, have some board meetings there, especially ones that want to be public, say Pop Warner. I don't care if it's a gardening club or even something more high profile. But my point is this, that with all the nonprofits in the city, having a place to congregate, like the library, would be a nice way to have a little One hand washes the other. Maybe if they invested a little in the library, we talked about the TV station giving a loan to the library and having some space. I think if the non-profits congregated, if we had a little non-profit directory, we'd have a better understanding of this aspect of our community. And it would help us so that we don't run into problems as we ran into with West Medford Hillside Little League, Medford Community Cablevision, Pop Warner. having a little bit of transparency in a place where people could, like, hey, I might want to join that club. I know some of the councilors are part of some of the civic groups. That's on a whole other level. I'm talking about the nonprofits that do things for the community. It would be just nice to have a higher profile. And I would like to see the library get more use. And I know Councilor Caraviello had mentioned the library before, and I think it got me thinking about the library, and I thank him for having brought it up.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you very much, Mr. Viglione. On the motion of Councilor Knight to receive in place on file, all those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Finally, petitions, communications from the Mayor, 15592, to the Honorable President and members of the Medford City Council, City Hall, Medford Mass, 02155. Dear Mr. President and Councilors, I respectfully request and recommend that your Honorable body confirm the reappointment of Michael Luongo, who resides at 145 Fourth Street, to the Medford Housing Authority for a five-year term to expire April 8th, 2020. On the motion of approval by Councilor Penta, seconded by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? All those opposed? Mr. Luongo, who served a few years on that board, and who sent us his resume for consideration. Under suspension, Papers 15-599, offered by Councilor Penta, be it resolved that if, in fact, the mayor has signed a new contract with Comcast, that he furnish a copy to the city council. Councilor Penta. I'm sorry I was tongue-tied on that one.
[Robert Penta]: Unfortunately, the contract was signed on July 1st of this year. And we're just finding out about it tonight. We're just getting, because it was just scuttlebutt, and we're getting a copy of it here July 21st, 21 days, 20 days after the fact. It's just a shame that this contract, I have absolutely no idea, haven't had a chance to read it. When the public hearing took place this past May, neither the mayor nor anyone from the Medford City government appeared at that public hearing on behalf of the ratepayers. I was the only elected official there. There were 10 other residents from this community who spoke on their concerns. I don't even know if their concerns were even incorporated into this contract, for which I've yet to see. The fact that the mayor has signed a 10-year contract obligating Comcast customers for the next 10 years, when the terms right now are roughly running anywhere from three to five years with cable contracts with renewable options, it just doesn't make any sense. Since the mayor decided not to hire a new public works director, letting the new mayor come in in January of this year to make that determination, why would he do the same thing for this? Why would he obligate the community to a 10-year contract when he has failed to do what he needed to do regarding public access here in this community? We're sitting on over $330,000 in public access money. We've never received the financial reports from the old Channel 3 station. never received the minutes, never received the documents from the State Attorney General's office, never from the Secretary of State's office. We don't even know if Channel 3 has been dissolved or not, whether it's been accepted to be dissolved or whether it's legally dissolved. I have no idea. I will address further on, because I'm just getting this document here tonight on peg access, where it sits and where it fits in here in this particular document. But it's just a damn shame that The whole facade of hiring Mr. Peter Epstein from Boston, I believe he gets paid $325 an hour to sit before this community on, I believe, a Wednesday afternoon with 10 folks, including myself. We're here to testify, to give our reasons, and not knowing whether any of those reasons were addressed, whether a bona fide research, or even acknowledged to be part of the document that we have before us. So anyone who might be a rate payer out there, the only thing I can tell you is, unfortunately, this administration, this mayor, has tied up, once again, your cable contract for 10 years with Comcast, not knowing whether to be bad, good, or indifferent. And one of the requests were made that the issuing authority go to the legislative body, as they do in a lot of communities, and not to the executive authority. So that way, the public hearings would be able to take place. You'd be able to have an opportunity to talk about it and discuss it. And you'd have more of a reasonable interpretation and transparency as to what could be in your cable rate, in your cable bill. I don't know if this is going to cause you an increase. I don't know if the senior citizens are going to be addressed. I don't know if low-income people are going to be addressed. All these things were issues that were brought up at the public hearing this past May. So with that being said, Mr. President, again, it's another sad day for ratepayers in this community being saddled with a new 10-year contract. And this mayor is just riding off into the sunset, leaving this community without even knowing what the options might be. I mean, he signed it. He delivered it. This council wasn't apprised of it. The ratepayers weren't apprised of it. And now we're saddled with another 10-year contract. It doesn't speak well for government interpretation with the customer. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, a few weeks ago, there was something on one of our agendas about somebody winning the award for the station. Where did that ever go? I thought the mayor awarded the station to somebody or there was a winning bidder. There was a winning bidder for the station.
[Fred Dello Russo]: That issue was section 22 and never taken off by the sectioner.
[Richard Caraviello]: Oh, OK.
[SPEAKER_29]: Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, where the resolution before this body was to have the mayor provide us a copy of the contract if it has, in fact, been signed, and we, before us here, have a signed contract, I think that the request has been met and the paper can be received and placed on file. The gentleman, I'm sure, will do his due diligence and his research and take a look at this contract, and at a later date, I'm sure, bring a paper forward. I don't know if that's the way you want to handle it, Councilor, if you want to table the paper and then bring that back to life at a later date.
[Robert Penta]: The whole idea of having this was, it was scuttled, but at the time that I sent my resolution to be on the agenda for this week, and now knowing tonight when Mr. Finn turned around and said he had copies of it already prepared, and I'd seen the city solicitor early, and he had indicated, you know, if you want it electronically through email, but I'd rather have the hard copy. I'm glad we got it, but the sad, the disturbing part about this is, once again, You know, why would the mayor sign a 10-year contract? Mostly all the cities and towns are into three to five-year contracts. That's number one. And number two, having no input into this other than the make-believe dog and pony show that took place here in May. hiring an attorney to come in here and just elicit commentaries. You could hire our own city solicitor to come in to do it, or the assistant city solicitor. We don't even know if any of these things are incorporated in here. And the hour is what? 10 past 10. We just get this thing at approximately 10 o'clock tonight and to review it. So I would like to review it, bring it up at another time. Do you want to do it as a separate paper? Yeah, do it as a separate paper. We can receive this and place it on file. But the fact of the matter is, this does not bode well for cable TV subscribers who have Comcast, who's probably been rated one of the worst companies in the country to deal business with. And that's not from me. That's from the Wall Street people.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of council, I'll deny it to receive and place on file. Citizen wishes to speak. Good evening. Please state your name and address for the record.
[Joe Viglione]: Good evening. Joe Villione, 59 Garfield Ave, Medford, Mass. As people here can recall, I found the letter from Timothy Timothy over at Comcast that the mayor got in December. Timothy Kelly, thank you very much. It's just part of blues hammers when you're 61 years old, you know. But Tim Kelly at Comcast. I should know that name like the back of my hand. We didn't know about it. We were not apprised of it. Now, I did receive this Comcast contract on Friday. Janice Spencer, wonderful woman in the solicitor's office, gave me the pages I requested. I had put a public records request in. And on July 3rd, Mark Grumley wrote me. On the 17th, I went over to City Hall and got these papers. One thing that's very important in this contract, I have been studying section, this is page, not page seven. There is a part of the Comcast contract, which is article six, starting on page 18. It's very important, especially for this election. And I would like to take just a minute to read this. 6.8 censorship. Neither the licensee, which is Comcast, or the city and or its designees shall engage in any program censorship or any other control of the content of the peg access programming in the cable system except as otherwise required or permitted by applicable law. Now, what that means is if we have a TV show, it should be aired. And if the mayor doesn't have a peg channel, public, it should air on the high school or the government channel. I have a TV show called Visual Radio. Why can't we watch it? So the censorship clause is very important for every candidate out there and every voter in Medford. Every voter and every candidate, you go to Mark Rumley with the law and you say, Mr. Rumley, 6.0, 6.8 censorship, page 20. We don't want Jack Dempsey doing, you know, the videos for the candidates. couple of weeks before the election, we want a vibrant discussion. I've been talking about this issue for 12 long years in Medford. We're paying a lot of money. I believe when this contract was signed, a balloon payment triggered not only from Comcast, but additionally from Verizon. If you read the Verizon contract, which is in the city clerk's office, I think you will see there's a balloon payment from Verizon that goes simultaneous with this. Very, very important. So here we are. The mayor signed the contract. He didn't let us know about it. Didn't have his public hearing. Talk to the people. It's in our hand. There's a censorship issue here. The mayor had chose to be the issuing authority. I think the city council should be the issuing authority in Winchester. It's the selectmen, not the town manager. So that's a critical issue. Why did the mayor choose to be issuing authority? Why can't the council vote on this? censorship. We have an election. It's about 104 days away. We can put together a quick access station. I just told Louise Miller outside we can get a backpack. It can transmit on cellular lines and go right to Channel three. This can be done efficiently. I can do it in my sleep. As I told the mayor, I saw him a few weeks ago. I said, Your Honor, I could put it together in my sleep. Now, as for the award of the infrastructure at the high school station, yes, Mr. Payette was awarded the infrastructure and that's happening. And I just talked to Louise Miller and the mayor wants to put peg access at the high school. He has decided to have the high school oversee it. It's in the transcript this week. I think Alex can probably speak about it eloquently. Louise Miller told me, yes, the mayor has decided to put it at the high school. So there you go, people.
[Robert Penta]: Well, before we move to the question, if the gentleman at the podium is correct, once again, why do we have to hear this from a citizen if the mayor is already making a determination?
[SPEAKER_29]: Councilor Camuso brought this issue up two weeks ago, and it got sectioned. So I don't think we're hearing it from a citizen. I think we were going to hear it from one of our councillors, and then the matter got sectioned. It wasn't able to be brought to the table.
[Robert Penta]: I hear what you're saying. The fact of the matter is Councilor Camuso is not the mayor in this community. If the mayor is making a determination with the high school and the contractor, this council which has been asking week after week, month after month, to be apprised as to what's going on, and we have to hear it from citizens in the newspaper once again to read about it, that that's wrong. That's not transparency. That's not communication. That's the mayor once again just doing whatever he wants when he wants, and it's wrong. It's absolutely wrong. No, I want to report back. I want to report back from the mayor. If in fact that's true, what is the mayor intending to do with peg access up at the high school? Roll call vote on that.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Let me ask this question before. No.
[Robert Penta]: Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: The papers were passed. The records of the June 30th, 2015 meeting were passed to Councilor Marks. Where did you get three? Motion to table.
[Robert Penta]: Wait, wait, where did you get three? How did you count those votes again?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Three to two.
[SPEAKER_21]: You won. We won. You won? With two absences. It passed. It didn't fail.
[Clerk]: It passed.
[Robert Penta]: It passed. Three to two.
[Clerk]: You need four votes.
[Robert Penta]: How many people are here? You need a majority of those attending a meeting. It doesn't say the word minimum. It's a majority of those attending, I believe.
[Adam Knight]: Four members of the city council shall constitute a quorum. A committee of the whole meeting shall be postponed if a quorum is not present. The affirmative vote of a majority of all the members elected to the council shall be necessary for the passage. The affirmative vote of the majority of the members present shall be sufficient to adjourn any meeting of the council. So an affirmative vote of a majority of all the members elected shall be necessary for the passage of any order, ordinance, resolution, or vote. The affirmative vote to recess is by a majority of the members that are present. An affirmative vote to pass any matter before this body is by a group of all. So four is the magic number on the passage of any resolution or resolve or ordinance pursuant to our rules. So the motion fails. Fails.
[Fred Dello Russo]: The records. of the June 30th, 2015 meeting were passed to Councilor Martz. On the motion of Councilor, Vice President Languicurran to table them, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Passes. Motion to adjourn by Vice President Languicurran. Aye. All those in favor? Aye.
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