[Fred Dello Russo]: The 23rd meeting of the Medford City Council will come to order. Mr. Clark, please call the roll.
[Clerk]: Councilor Camuso? Present. Councilor Caraviello? Present. Councilor Knight? Present. Vice President Lungo-Koehn? Present. Councilor Marks? Present. Councilor Peter? Present. President De La Ruza?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Present. With seven present and none absent, please rise and salute the flag. I, on behalf 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. We have council commendations tonight. They were all offered by Councilor Knight. So we invite the councilor up here to make the presentations.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much, and thank you very much to the Medford High School GBL champion girls lacrosse team for being here this evening. You've had a wonderful season. You've made us very proud. And because of that, I put a resolution forward, along with Council President Dello Russo, recognizing you for your great achievement of winning the GBL crown. So with that being said, I'd like to ask Coach Galusi to come up here and join me, as well as the team, and we'll pass out some citations. Thank you. It's very fitting to have Coach Galussi up here, because when I was a young kid playing Park League, he taught me everything that I knew about lacrosse. It's an honor and a privilege, Coach, to have you up here with me this evening. And I'd like to take an opportunity to read this citation into the record. The Medford City Council takes pleasure in awarding this council commendation to Adrian Perrazzo, captain, Medford High School varsity girls lacrosse team, in recognition of winning the Greater Boston League title and a berth in the MIA Division I North State Tournament. Hannah Gallop, one of our captains, not here this evening. Next on the list would be Nicole Mortel, another captain. Brianna Burke, captain.
[SPEAKER_25]: Daughter of former budget director Stephanie Muccini-Burke.
[4up_cmlg7RM_SPEAKER_10]: Just a quick word, too, about the four captains. They were all selected to play in the Gannis all-star lacrosse game, which is going to take place Thursday at 1230. So that's a big recognition. At the Manning Bowl, it's a statewide all-star game. So it's a big deal for them.
[Adam Knight]: Congratulations, girls. Carolyn Daly.
[SPEAKER_14]: Nope. They'll all get them at the banquet. Nope.
[SPEAKER_25]: Yes. Jill McCarthy.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thanks for coming.
[SPEAKER_22]: Congratulations. Patricia McLean. Kylie Mahoney.
[Adam Knight]: No. Coach said all his team's at home studying for finals right now, so they're not able to make it this evening.
[SPEAKER_22]: Caroline Cronin. Last but not least.
[Adam Knight]: I'd like to offer the microphone to Coach Galusi for a few kind words.
[4up_cmlg7RM_SPEAKER_10]: Just real quick, I want to thank the council for recognizing the girls. Like Mr. Knight said, they had a great season. We started the year at two and nine, and then we had to win eight of our last nine games to even qualify for the tournament, which we did on our very last game. We were losing the whole game. We came back to even qualify to get in the tournament. So for us to even make it this year was quite an accomplishment. It didn't go the way we wanted it to in the tournament, seventh consecutive GBL, seventh consecutive tournament bird, so I'm proud of these girls. Thank you all for having us.
[Adam Knight]: We also have joining us this evening the Medford High School Mustangs girls softball team who had an unbelievable year this year. They were one game away from the state finals, I believe. With that being said, I'd like to ask Coach Dempsey to join me up here this evening.
[SPEAKER_25]: Coach Dempsey's Division 1 North Coach of the Year, Boston Globe.
[Adam Knight]: The ceiling ain't gonna fall down.
[SPEAKER_25]: Former Citizen of the Year here.
[nF3vsK9QOYk_SPEAKER_30]: Former Medford Citizen of the Year. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Thank you. Thank you. Well, Coach, thank you very much for joining me this evening and thank you to the team. I'd like to ask the team to step up and we'll have an opportunity to present you with your citations. The citation reads, the Medford City Council takes pleasure in awarding this council commendation to the Medford High School Varsity Girls Softball team in recognition of winning the Greater Boston League Championship with a 5-1 record, an overall record of 16-8, winning the second annual Crystal Campbell Tournament, and a playoff berth in the MIA Division I North Varsity Girls Softball playoffs for the 2015 season. The first person we're going to honor this evening is Hannah O'Leary.
[SPEAKER_25]: Julia Kearney Ashley Eisner Boston Globe and Boston Herald-Bostolastic.
[SPEAKER_22]: Congratulations.
[SPEAKER_25]: Katrina Rashi.
[Adam Knight]: Amber Harbison.
[SPEAKER_25]: I'd like to turn the stage over to
[nF3vsK9QOYk_SPEAKER_30]: Mr. Dempsey, a few kind words on behalf of the team. Yes. First of all, I'd like to thank the city council for having our team here and honoring us as well as the lacrosse team. Um, we did have an unbelievable season. The kids were incredible. Most of them aren't here tonight cause they have ball games and I was hoping for a thunderstorm so they all could come, but they had the other commitment. Uh, just a couple of things I want to mention and we, we had five, Greater Boston League All-Stars with the Greater Boston League MVP, Ashley Eisner. I'd also like to recognize Brianna Napoleone, Hannah O'Leary, Bailey Flynn, Julia Carney, as Greater Boston League All-Stars. And Ashley, for the third year in a row, has been the Greater Boston League MVP, as well as, like Mr. Knight just mentioned, held in Boston Globe, All Scholastic, which will be coming out, I believe, this week. We had a lot of help. These kids are unbelievable, and it's easy cozy kids that like to work. Thank you very much.
[Adam Knight]: And I think that concludes the presentations for this evening. We also have some recognition for the boys lacrosse team, who were the GBL champions as well, and the boys baseball team, who were the GBL champions. But I don't believe that anybody was able to attend from either one of those teams this evening. So thank you very much to the girls softball team and the girls lacrosse team. Congratulations on a wonderful season. You've made us all proud. Thank you very much for being here this evening. And thank you very much. Oh, we do have some of the lacrosse team here. Liam, come on up.
[SPEAKER_22]: You're the only one? I think we have to make him MVP and what else? Come on up here, Liam.
[Adam Knight]: Congratulations. As the sole representative of the Medford High School boys lacrosse team and GBL champions, we have Liam Cullinane here. I'd like to thank him for being here as well, and I'd like to take an opportunity to read his citation into the record. The Medford City Council takes pleasure in awarding this council commendation to Liam Cullinane, Medford High School varsity boys lacrosse player, in recognition of winning the Greater Boston League title and a berth in the MIAA Division I State North Tournament. Liam, congratulations. On behalf of Bob,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we had a great season, had a few bumps and bruises, but we made the tourney, and overall had a great season. Great. Congratulations, guys.
[Unidentified]: Thank you very much.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Good job. That does it. Mr. President, thank you very much. Thank you, Councilor, for your solicitude towards our student-athletes. Chair recognizes Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Yes, if we could take item 15557 offered by Councilor Caraviello under suspension. 1555. Item number one, five, five, five, seven.
[Fred Dello Russo]: It's on our desk offered under suspension. Uh, 15, uh, five, five, seven offered by Councilor care of yellow, uh, be resolved that the Medford city council have police chief building inspector code enforcement and board of health investigate the several massage parlors operating in our community, Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, I don't know if people have noticed, but over the weekend, a third massage parlor has opened up right in the heart of Method Square, which is right next to the pawn shop that's already have people in the square unhappy with. Mr. President, we have one operating on Central Avenue, which is right beside a residential home in a park where children play. We have another one operating on Main Street, which is in a residential neighborhood. And then now we have this one, which is right in the center of our city. It's a square that we're trying to rebuild and do over, and this is what's coming into it. Mr. President, also, I mean, these three establishments, they advertise on a daily basis, and the adult sections, the back page, and Craigslist. So they're obviously not doing the normal therapeutic massage services. They're doing things that we know that they shouldn't be doing there. And they were here a couple of years ago, and the chief pretty much rid the community of them. But now they seem to be coming back in. You let one, two, and they're all back. I mean, this is not a problem that's immune to our community. It happens in a lot of other communities. They come in, they operate for two or three months, and then they're gone again once the enforcement officers start getting them. But, you know, if you look at the one just that's in the square, it's obviously in violation of some of our codes. And I'd like to have a response from all the departments for next week's meeting so we can discuss this again. And I know there'll be more members of the community that would like to discuss this. So if we could send that along to the proper departments, Mr. President, it would be greatly appreciated.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good, Councilor. So on the motion of Councilor Caraviello to refer the paper to the department heads, Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much, and thank you, Councilor Caraviello, for putting this matter forward this evening. I, too, got an email on this same topic, and I did some research, and it seems to me that Massage therapy parlors are not under the scope and purview of the local authority. They fall under that of the state. So the department of professional licensure has a licensing branch that would be responsible for the oversight of massage parlors. And it's my understanding based upon conversations that I've had with the code enforcement officer that they have reported this facility into the state for investigation and assurance with compliance, Mr. President. I just wanted the council to be aware that it's outside of local control and the local authority. It really lies within the state. And it's my understanding also that the proposed use of the location in Medford Square is a personal services use. It was a former barber shop, and now it's a massage parlor, which falls in the same use. So it's a conforming use. So that's one of the reasons why the business was able to open there. It's a conforming use. No special permit was necessary or needed. But with that being said, I think that the appropriate place to send the question would be to the State's Division of Professional Licensure as opposed to local authorities because they don't have any oversight.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good. Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Including or concurring with the remarks of Councilor Knight, I think what we need is a report back from our city solicitor that basically addresses the fact that it's a concern here within our community. And since it's an allowable or appearing to be an allowable use according to our zoning, I think what needs to be addressed is maybe addressing the licensure division back in Boston and indicating to them that something like this should come under the authority of the local legislative body rather than a state agency because the effect of the granting of this particular license does affect the community, whether it's abutting a residential, commercial, or what have you. And with that being said, I would ask that if this is what the case needs to be, that our city solicitor provide to us the legalese in writing to support either a recommendation, I don't know, I think it would be a home rule petition, it might be just a waiver of rules and regulations that the Division of Licensure might have at the present time to support local communities, whether they want it or they won't want it, because unfortunately there is no public hearing, there is no public commentary on this, Councilor Knight just alluded to, they could go anywhere they want because the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is allowing this to their license or division. So I'm going to move that as an amendment to the resolution to find out just where we can go with this.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of Councilor Caraviello, as amended by Councilor Penta, Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. President, Councilor Knight is right. You know, there's this minimal that the city can do because, you know, they don't have to have a license, but they are in violation at the moment of the sign ordinance because 100% of their window It's taken up. It's blocked from view. And again, if the police are in there and putting pressure on them, it keeps their customers away. And once their customers go away, they go away. Because you've noticed other communities, they've been here before. They come for two or three months, and then they'll be gone. So I think if the police put a little pressure on them and the other authorities put a little pressure on them, they'll see that we mean business in this community, and we're not going to stand for that type of business here. Like I say, because if you see where they're advertising, they're not advertising things that I want in my community.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Councilor Caraviello. And I think if the councilors remember, we did receive an opinion that sent the matter to the DPL from the city solicitor. some years ago. Constable Alongo-Kern.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. I, too, received the emails. I actually shot off one of the complaints to the chief of police because this is such a problem. We were well aware it was state regulated. We had a committee of the whole meetings on this two years ago when it was a real issue. But I believe that our city, I think Councilor Dello Russo and Councilor Caraviello is correct by having our officials involved in this. Not only can they put pressure on the state, but it was the police in the community of Medford that completely eliminated one of the shops. I believe they were investigating for months and months a number of the pilers, and we did create an end to the problem. Now, all of a sudden, they're back, so I just think we need to not only ask our city officials to do what they can do and put pressure on the state, and then also figure out if there's a way we can, we had a meeting on it already, it didn't seem like Karen Rose was able to get that done with regards to requiring the permits to come through the city of Medford, but obviously if she can maybe look into that again, I think that would give us the extra oomph we need to really work on it. It's a disgrace when our residents are emailing us and asking questions and just appalled at, you know, what's going on and what's being advertised in our community. We have children and teenagers who frequent the square, you know, especially during the summer months. And that's just something I don't, I wouldn't want my children walking by and being witnessed to. So I think every council is correct. And I think we just need to put pressure on, you know, everybody we can to make sure this is investigated and give the police the tools to make sure that we can do what we can to rid them of our community, from our community.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Madam Vice President. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, yes, thank you. I believe it was Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2006 that was passed that created this board that would govern massage therapy parlors. And the principal function of that piece of legislation was to actually take local control away from local boards of health so that they could be consistent and across the board policy. from community to community, city to city, town to town. I think that it's a bad piece of legislation. It was a bad bill. You know, we can't take away the control of our local Board of Health. They're doing an exceptional job in ensuring our safety and our protection and well-being. And I think that's one of the primary flaws. It's actually with the legislation that was passed, Mr. President. And I think that going forward, this council might want to sit down and meet with our delegation to see maybe if there's something we can do to change that.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of Councilor Caraviello, as amended by Councilor Penta, Councilor Marks.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank my Councilor colleague for putting this on the agenda. This is a very important issue, but I think the larger issue here that we have to look at, it's great to have the Chief of Police go down and do what he can do or the building commissioner. But we also have to look at new investment, attracting new businesses into our business districts. And we've failed as a community for the past 25 years in revitalizing our business districts. And what we're seeing right now is you're seeing best sellers. You're seeing Forest Street, the art place that was on Forest Street. You're seeing Ward's gifts. You're seeing a number of decent, long-established businesses in this community moving out, Mr. President. And what we're getting in is pawn shops, massage parlors, because there's no clear direction in this community. This administration, this Office of Community Development, has done nothing to improve the business districts, not just in Medford Square, but all five business districts throughout our community. And now we're seeing the repercussions of a lax government that doesn't care what moves in. You know why they're coming in? Look at the open spaces. Go around the square, look at the open fronts. Go to Davis Square, see if you can get a front. a storefront for cheap money in Davis Square. It's on the street. It can't be had. It can't be had. You know why? Because they've revitalized their business districts. They're attracting businesses that are growing. They're creating a neighborhood of businesses. And that currently does not exist within our city. And now we're seeing the results, Mr. President. And, you know, I support having the police go down there and the closing up and so forth and the investigations and so forth. But let's look at the root cause. Nothing has been done by this Office of Community Development in the past five years to attract new investments into our business districts. Nothing at all. And we've spoke about it time and time again. You know, it's not the field of dreams. If you build it, they'll come. We haven't built anything in this community. We have an area where pedestrians can't walk in a safe manner around our business districts. They're afraid to cross High Street and Main Street. You have poor lighting in the square. You have filthy, dirty streets, Mr. President. If you go down there any time, you'll see the trash strewn throughout the area. You know, it just, in my opinion, is a true lack of leadership. And, you know, it's unfortunate, but now we're seeing what takes place. These seedy establishments find the areas they can infiltrate, and that's what's happening now. Let's look at an area that's not well lit. Aha, Medford Square. Perfect. Let's take a look at this, Mr. President. And let's just not react, because we're going to get establishments like this come in and out of our community. Let's build a sense of community. Let's build strong business districts that won't allow these type of establishments to move in, Mr. President. Let's have a communication with the landlords, Mr. President. Let's have a game plan here. We have no game plan in this community, and it's unfortunate. And I hope not only this massage parlor, but also the pawn shop. And I wish all businesses well, but I've walked by that pawn shop a million times. I've never seen anyone in it. And I see a shelf that has a chainsaw. I don't know the last time anyone behind this railings looked for a chainsaw, but it's possible people are looking for them out there. But I don't see what type of business they're doing in there, Mr. President. And it's unfortunate you as a business owner should be out there fighting for businesses and not just to reap the benefits where you are currently on Main Street, but to have your success citywide, Mr. President. And so I would ask that this paper be forwarded to the Office of Community Development to see what their long-range plan is. I mean, it's already been 25 years, so maybe they have a 50-year plan. I'm not sure, but I think we should be asking what the long-range plan is in this community to attract new businesses and to make our business district something we can be proud of, something that after seven o'clock they don't roll the sidewalks up and it's dark with no personnel. That may work in your business, Mr. President, you know, but it's not working across the city and we need to invite new business, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Caraviello as amended, Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: I'm glad Councilman Marks brought this up because the interesting component about this is when we had a conversation about this a few months back, I introduced the offering as what they did and I don't have my notes with me right now, so I apologize. But in Florida, they had a particular community where their downtown areas were exactly as Councilman Marks was alluding to. And what they did is they made offerings to the owners of the property either with tax incentives or employment incentives or community-based incentives. which would have allowed the owner of the property, whoever he rented out to, to get one of these benefits for the purposes of coming in. And what they did is they sort of like took a particular street, and what they just did, from A to B to C to D. Now about three weeks ago, I went and I heard the lady who works for the community of Lowell, and she is not the community office director, but she is the director, I believe, cultural resources. And what they did is they took street by street. And what they did, as Councilor Marks alluded to, they've alluded, they went from one street to the next street and just jumped. And they just piggybacked all the way around to an entire portion of the town. Where now, it doesn't happen overnight, but you need to have a beginning. And that's what the beginning is. It's unfortunate that this administration does not realize that, didn't take advantage of it. We've talked about revitalizing Medford Square three times in the past 20 years, and it hasn't happened. But what needs to happen is the business people. And this is a true test now for the Chamber of Commerce to come to life and say, hey, you know, we want good businesses to be here in Medford Square. We want to be a working partner here with the city of Medford. And if this is the issue tonight, and it really brings it to head, then so be it. And I think you're right, Councilor Marks. I just think this is the time. The people really need to know, you know, what their government is doing. You know, what is the forecast? What is the plan? you know, what's the open window and the fresh air going to be all about as it relates to where we're going. So I support, I support your thoughts and I can assure you that that would be in my plan. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Councilor. Councilor.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. One more thing, you know, councilor marks mentioned about rolling the sidewalks up at seven o'clock. I don't know if anyone's been to that part of the street, but the streets are already rolled up in that part of the square because of the constant bus traffic is, There's a rolling street there that people are tripping over and cars have a hard time maneuvering. And that's also because there's no care for that part of the square. So again, that will be something else I'd like to have looked into, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion, ma'am, please state your name and address for the record.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street, and both Mr. Caraviello and Mr. Marks are absolutely right. It's a complex problem, and it gives a bad name to actual massage parlors. They're actually fronts for prostitution rings. I have personal knowledge, and don't laugh. I actually met some women that are in these rings a couple of years ago, and it's not just Medford. It's Somerville. It's Boston. It's all over. It's Malden. It's everywhere, and it's organized. and people are running these women. It's $80 if you get a massage, and it's $160 if you have a transaction. It's that simple. So it gives massage parlors a bad name, number one. Number two, it's multifaceted, and we need to deal with it. You can deal with it, Mr. Caraviello. All you got to do is put cameras in front of all these stores and put the names of the Johns after they come out. And if you catch them, just put their name in the paper. You'll stop the customers from coming. But again, like Mr. Mark said, it'll only have another one six months later come in and fill that gap, because the gap is there to be filled. And unfortunately, and I'm all for mom and pops, but if Medford Square cannot sustain a mom and pop because they can't compete, then we need to bring in chain stores, chain businesses that are bigger and can handle the kind of prices that Medford has now. It's not a small town anymore. If that's what we have to do, And we also, for the business community, we need to think one step higher than what we have. So if we have a Chamber of Commerce, we need to have them meet with Boston's Chamber of Commerce. We need to start stepping it up one notch and see what ideas they have. Why is Boston doing so good? We need a mentorship program for businesses in this city. And that's how you'll really fill that hole so that nobody else will backfill it. And again, this is a multifaceted issue, and I feel for these women. They're sober and they're clean. They're organized. They're well-dressed. But they're being abused, mentally and emotionally. So thank you very much.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. On the motion by Councilor Caraviello, as amended, all those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. Councilor Penta?
[Robert Penta]: Can we take 15552? Because I told some business people we would be addressing that. within the first hour.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Motion by Councilor Penta while we're under suspension to take 15-552. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? 15-552 offered by Councilor Penta. Resolved that the 5 High Street building be discussed. Councilor?
[Robert Penta]: If anybody were to go to Medford Square and just look at the 5 High Street building that's there now, they've had scaffolding and staging there for well over in excess of three months. It's an absolute disgrace. It's an eyesore. It's a public health and it's a public safety issue. This is what I don't understand. How long does it take for something like that to stay there before it causes a real harm and a real problem to the people within this community? The owner of the property should be held accountable. It's been like that for three months. There's no work. There has been no work that's been done other than putting up the scaffolding. And nobody knows what the reason is. It surrounds the entire building. If surrounding the entire building and the parapet has a problem, well, there's no work that's been done on it. I just think it's unfair to every other business person that does what they're supposed to do in the square. We just had a conversation out tonight of putting a massage parlor on Riverside Avenue. And that's as bad as looking at a parapet because, again, it serves no particular purpose. It offers no intrinsic value to the community of Medford. It absolutely is an eyesight. And, as I said, it's a public safety, health, and a building department issue. I've seen people walk underneath that. I saw it today — yesterday, when I was walking, a lady with a baby carriage. And she had to move her baby carriage out from under because, unfortunately, the other lady who was walking down was in a walker. And, you know, so that was nice of her to do that, but there should have been no reason for her to do that because she had to go out underneath it and then bring herself back in. So I'm asking, Mr. President, that our building department find out who that owner is immediately. and find out what the reason is. And if no work is being done there, then take that scaffolding down because it's serving absolutely no purpose at all. And it's just absolutely making Medford Square look exactly what people are saying it is. It's a no man's land town. It offers nothing. It shows you nothing. And I don't want that to be an example of what we're offering in Medford Square. Roll call vote and have that vote to the building commissioner.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Penter that this be a roll call and support call of the roll, please.
[Clerk]: Councilor Camuso. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes. The vote of the seven in the affirmative motion passes.
[Paul Camuso]: Councilor Camuso while we're under suspension, I'd like to move paper 15 four six zero off the table on the motion of a consulate Camuso to accept paper 15
[Fred Dello Russo]: 15-460 out of committee of the whole. 15-460 was the budget presented to the council on May 8th, 2015. It had been tabled. It had been taken off the table, sent into committee of the whole for discussion. We've had extensive discussions on it. And now we have before us the budget director to make the presentation. Madam budget director.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Mr. President. First, I'd like to say that on behalf of the mayor, I am moving to amend this paper to change certain of the lines. The budget for OCD slash boards to be reduced from 181 666 to 175 666 for personnel. Ordinary expenses remain the same and the total for OCD boards would be $249,247. The Hormel Commission personnel was inadvertently included in that budget when it should have been in the DPW. So I do the opposite amendment. Increase the non-enterprise division for public works. to $2,000,902,147 from $2,000,896,747. Expenses remain the same. Total budget for public works, non-enterprise division, $9,000,286,483. In addition, the mayor is increasing the library personnel budget to $1,000,003,157 from $798,157 and the expenses from $313,066 to $359,391 for a total for the library of $1,362,548, which brings the total budget for the city to $33 million $336,324 for personnel. $69,365,121 for expenses. For a total of $102,701,445. The school budget remains the same at $52,933,000. For a grand total of $155,634,445.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So that is the budget that's presented to us.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Motion for approval on the motion, uh, of councilor Camuso for approval. Councilor Caraviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mr. President, I'd like to amend that motion of approval, uh, with the provision that, uh, all the councilor's questions that were not answered this evening be answered before by next week's meeting.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So that, uh, the motion of approval is conditioned upon, uh, receiving the answers for all understanding papers, from department heads that were requested from the council and committee for the assessment of their operations. By next week. By next week. On that amendment, Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Councilor Dello Russo. I have comments with regards to the actual budget, but I think one of the main issues is that we do not have all the answers to our questions. I know there are There was five department heads that were not able to answer the questions we had asked. We've had multiple, multiple Committee of the Whole meetings. We've gone hours discussing and asking questions and trying to dissect and figure out answers. Most department heads have been great. School department, which we met with last night at 5.30 to about 8 p.m., did come in and give us and all our answers, but we didn't actually get those until tonight at 5.30. So as of right now, we have our school budget book, we have our budget book, and we got this tonight to review. I know most Councilors were trying to read, trying to ask questions, trying to get a grip on what we have, you know, the job that we have at hand. I myself was able to read through probably a tenth, maybe an eighth of what was given to me tonight, I don't feel comfortable going forward without reading the rest. I mean, I didn't even look at the audits that were provided to us, which I thank Louise for, and a number of others. I don't even know what some of these documents are, so I would like one more week to review it. I know that pushes us into the last Tuesday of the month, but I think that's only fair to the job that we have at hand and the job we have to do for the taxpayers. I know, like I said, now we have four departments that haven't answered our questions, and there are questions that need to be answered with regards to income, revenue. We have the treasure collector wasn't able to get to us yet, get our answers yet, and that's important information, and this is the only way we can hold those questions hold those department heads to the fire to actually answer the questions in a timely manner, which, you know, it's been great so far, but there's just a job that we need to continue to do, and I need to spend a few more hours on this myself. So I would move to table.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Is a motion for approval on the floor? Motion to table is undebatable. On the motion of Vice President Lungo-Koehn to table, roll call has been requested by Councilor Camuso. Mr. Kerlark, please call the roll. To table.
[Clerk]: Councilor Camuso? Councilor Caraviello? No. Councilor Knight? No. Vice President Lungo-Koehn?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Monk?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Councilor Penta? Yes. President Dello Russo?
[Fred Dello Russo]: No. The vote of four in the negative, three in the affirmative. The motion fails. Motion on the floor for approval. Councilor Camuso. Councilor Marks.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. And as Councilor Wango Kern so eloquently stated, that this body spent countless hours over the last several weeks to meet with department heads, to go through line item by line item the city budget, which if you look at the list of responsibilities a member of the council has, approving the city budget has to be number one on the list. And I take that job very seriously, Mr. President. as I've done for the last several years. And when this body asked questions of department heads, and many of them have responded. The superintendent is here tonight, and he gave us a thorough response. He actually met with us last night and had a prepared response for this evening, which was a very quick turnaround, and we thank him for that. However, there still is a number of outstanding questions And I, as one member, did not spend countless hours sitting in a meeting to ask questions and get answers, not on my behalf, but on behalf of every taxpayer in this city that pays a tax bill, and to not get my questions answered, Mr. President. And whether it's my question or any other councilor's questions, we should all be united under one front. And we should be saying, we're not going to move forward until we get our questions answered. What message does that send to the administration, to the budget director? Not including the current budget director, because she was kind of presented this budget. What message does that send to these department heads and to the administration? We'll meet with them. We'll let them ask questions. But guess what? They're going to vote on the budget. They're going to vote on the budget. Don't worry about it. For instance, Mr. President, when Council on Aging was present in the room, and many members behind this reeling thanked the director for the job she's doing, and some of us asked the director, what could you use in your program across the street in the senior center? And it was mentioned, it was my resolution, asking about programming, and the director stated that The only programming money that she gets to run the many, many events that our seniors take advantage of across the street, the ones around election time that we all attend to make sure we're there. We asked, what can we do? And the program director said, you know what? Programming is always at the top of the list. The seniors love it. maybe some more outreach, and we offered a resolve to the budget to allocate $5,000, earmarked $5,000, to senior programming in the senior center. And it was supported wholeheartedly by the council. The response we got back from the administration, surprise, surprise, we'll take it under advisement. Now, the mayor, when he received 300 emails regarding the library not receiving its accreditation, somehow found $250,000 like it fell out of the sky. He said that there was a project being done in the community and we're going to reap the revenue from the project. But he was able to locate a quarter of a million dollars, Mr. President, through that asset. But, you know, this to me was a small request. It was something to recognize the seniors in our community. And it was to let the administration know, like we did last year with the library bathroom, we allocated $10,000 to the library bathroom so they could do some repairs to the deplorable condition of the bathrooms in the library. A few years back, we had a separate line item put in for the Method Arts Council, a first ever in this city's history to create a line item budget to support the arts. And now we're asking What can we do for our seniors to add some programming in the senior center? So that's one issue, Mr. President. A vote here tonight for this budget flies in the face, Mr. President, of everything we said in that room a couple of weeks ago or a week ago about supporting programming for the seniors. Now, all of a sudden, you know, I heard members say, I'm not going to hold up a budget for that. Well, I didn't hear that the other night when the director was in there. But now we're not going to hold up a program for that. I'm willing to hold up a program for that, Mr. President. And I'm willing to hold up a budget, like I've done in the past, based on my beliefs, Mr. President. A couple of other issues. This was brought up, I believe, Council Vice President Lungo-Koehn. We asked if we can get a report back on the condition of all the repairs that were done in the firehouses. We all know that we bonded several million dollars to repair. firehouses throughout our community. We wanted an update from the OPM manager, Mr. Buckley, regarding the condition. We're getting phone calls and e-mails from firefighters saying that the work that was just done, tile floors are already coming up. I don't know about you, Mr. President, if I just paid thousands of dollars to do a tile floor in my kitchen, I wouldn't be shrugging that off saying, ah, it's not a big deal. I'd be concerned, Mr. President. And I think we all should be concerned behind this reeling that we get an answer on this. So, that's another one that we're waiting for an answer on. Point of information, Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Council President De La Ruzo. Sorry to interrupt you, Councilor Marks, but I just think that one is so important because if we do not, you know, really push for that answer, we're going to lose our time frame with regards to the warranty that is given to the city of one year on the $2 million that the taxpayers paid to improve those fire stations. Right now, not all the work was done correctly. We have an OPM who I believe is retiring. Who is going to oversee that? And we only have until December. That on top of the fact that we have the DPW yard, which we spent almost over $14 million on, and we have a one-year warranty on that. So we have questions with regards to who's going to oversee and make sure that that work was done correctly. If we lose that opportunity, if we wait until that warranty is done and over, what are we going to ask the taxpayer two, three years from now for more money to fix the repairs that could have been covered by warranty? We don't have those answers, and that's one of the ones that has stuck out for me within the last three weeks. I feel like it's $16-plus million on the taxpayer's behalf that we need to fight for answers for. Thank you.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Marks. I thank my colleague for adding that. That's a very valid point. A few more, Mr. President. Offered by Council Penta, that the Treasurer supply a complete accounting of all revolving accounts. We know how important it is to get up-to-date information on revolving accounts within this community. Offered by Vice President Lungo-Koehn, the Treasurer supply all income from Hormel, Tufts, Wrights Pond. in the pool. Offered by Council of Penta Auditor Auditor supply any shortfalls in water and sewer projections offered by myself. The Water and Sewer Commission provide the council with water consumption for the last three years on school and municipal buildings. These four have been unanswered to date, Mr. President, and I'm sure they're going to take time to put together, but they have been unanswered. Several more, offered by Councilor Caraviello that investigate how the square can be brightened up with better lighting. That was offered to the head of wires in our community. Offered by Councilor Penta that National Grid address the lack of lighting at the Winthrop Street Rotary. Offered by Councilor Marks that we get a complete cost usage analysis per street light. We found out in that meeting, Mr. President, that we pay a set fee no matter if our streetlights are on or off. So you can imagine a city this size if we have, you know, 700 or 800 streetlights that are out. We're still paying a cost for a streetlight that's out. That's very important, because you know who's paying that? Every taxpayer in this community. And if that was at your business or at your home, and you were paying for a light that wasn't working, it's one thing if the light's out and you're not paying for it. You say, I'm not paying for it. but to pay for something that you're not getting use of, and also to address the issues that we have throughout our community with areas that are darkened, that's a concern that needs to be addressed. And that's another question that was not answered within the budget. And we were trying to go through all the papers we received from the administration and the questions. I may have skipped over a few, but there were a number of issues that still present with this budget. And I'm not sure how anyone that wants to be financially responsible and be mindful of the taxpayer in this community can support a budget that doesn't represent the questions that were asked, Mr. President, by this legislative body. I would say the most important role of this legislative body is the approving of the budget. And in my opinion, to try to move forward, I realize, you know, there's only a week. We have next Tuesday, and we get a call for an emergency meeting. You as the council president, you know the rules and regulations. You can call for an emergency meeting at any time. So if we wanted to discuss this Friday, I'm available. Saturday, I'm available. Sunday, I'm available. And I'm sure every other member behind this reel is available. So I don't want to hear that there's not enough time and we have to do this on behalf being financially responsible to put out a budget. So, you know, that's a lot of hoss. You know what? And so I would ask, Mr. President, that we take a step back. Let's take a step back. Let's get these questions answered. And I'm not against. There's a lot of good things. As the superintendent said, there's a lot of positive things happening on the school side that are reflective in this budget. On the city side, there's a lot of new hirings. We hired someone. for the opiate crisis we have in the community to oversee that. In our community, there's a lot of positive things happening. But that's not just rush through a budget for the sake of rushing it through. We've spent countless hours going through this. Let's wait for the answers. And then at the appropriate time, we'll take a vote one way or another. But that's wait. This is not the appropriate time I would submit to you, Mr. President. Thank you.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: Mr. President, if I may just address two of the questions or points that were made. The first one with respect to the Council on Aging that was responded to by the mayor that he would take it under advisement. And now I can't remember whether I was here last week or the week before, but I believe I was here. Was it the week before on transfers? The Council on Aging had not fully expended its expense budget, and that was one of the lines. that had a surplus from which we were transferring out of. And I just want to remind the council of that. The second thing is regarding the one-year warranty. The fire stations I have requested that I get a list of any items at the fire stations that may not be working properly. The fire station project was closed last December, so the renovations were accepted by the city. And this is the warranty period for any item that might need further either repairs or one of the common issues are temperature controls need to be adjusted during the course of the year. And I have requested that a list of any issues at any of the fire stations be provided with me. I would not hope that we would let a one-year warranty period pass without addressing the issues. The DPW, we have not
[Fred Dello Russo]: Point of clarification, Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. Thank you, President Dello Russo. I understand what you're saying, Louise. But one issue that was brought up with regards to the one-year warranty is we asked the chief himself, who is inspecting these? Who is trying to get this work repaired? And he said, well, that's on me. So that's the issue. So I understand you asked somebody to do it, but who did you ask? Because it's unacceptable to ask the fire chief, who has all his was preparing a budget the last probably few weeks who has personnel issues and issues galore, I'm sure, has a full-time job to go in and say whether or not a floor was done incorrectly. We have no idea if somebody's going to be hired, if the OPM is going to stay on board. That's what we need to know. I need to know that the mayor's office is going to, whether it's hire or appoint the proper personnel to go in and inspect each one of these jobs make sure it's done right, and hold the contractors responsible, because that should not be the fire chief's job. And we haven't got that answer. We just haven't. It's $2 million that, whether it's half the work that was done wrong or a quarter or, you know, 10 percent, that's hundreds of thousands of dollars. We have a floor that's completely broken, A.C. that does not work in one fire station. There was a whole host list of issues, because not only did we have the fire chief there, but we also had you know, the head of the union there with his people. So they're speaking out. And it's something that needs to be fixed. We need to make sure that $2 million was done, all the jobs were done accordingly. And if we have this six-month warranty, we need to take advantage of that. Because if the fire chief comes back and says he needs a new floor two years from now, whether I'm on the council or any of us are on the council, I'm going to lose it. I will lose it for the taxpayer's behalf. I will lose it. It's just not fair. It's not right. And that's something that we need to know who's going to go into that fire station, who's going to go into the DPW yard, and make sure things are done correctly. So you're asking for the personnel is the question? I think my question is, is somebody from the building department, are we going to hire a new OPM, who is going to do it, and when? We have six months left with the fire station. little less than one year for the DPW yard, which is millions and millions of dollars of work. And I just don't want to have to pay for any of that work all over again, two, three, four, five years down the road. I mean, taxes go up every year. I always ask that we don't tax to the max. It never happens. I can never get the four votes. But we at least, if we're still going to tax the max, then we at least, and we're going to go out to bond for these projects, we at least owe the taxpayer. the word to say that we've gone out, we've reviewed all the work, it's done to the liking, we have A, B, C, and D out back to the contractor asking them to fix the floor, the air conditioning, everything that's done wrong, we want it fixed and we want it fixed before the warranty's up.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Consola. And I think the budget director has gotten the point. Yes?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: I have.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Point of information, Councilor Garaviello.
[Richard Caraviello]: Thank you, Mr. President. You know, um, a lot of these, a lot of council members concerns and they're not necessarily budget concerns, but, uh, it's because we don't have a clerk of the works that oversees these things. And that's something that's been needed in this community for a long time.
[Fred Dello Russo]: And we asked that as part of that.
[Richard Caraviello]: I know we did ask for that, but again, that's, that's been, that's part of the problem. That's it's not Louisa's fault. It's not the, but it's an administration, uh, fault. We don't have that precedent. Thank you. Ms. Miller.
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: I know. I just want to clarify again. The construction project had a project manager. The project manager oversaw the project. There was a closeout. There was a punch list before closeout of the project. So we're not talking about whether or not the project product was acceptable to the city, because the city did accept it. All we're talking about are the issues that arise after construction ends. that may need to be addressed during the one-year warranty period, which we just did, by the way, recently with the science lab. We had our one-year warranty walkthrough. That project is closed out, and any outstanding issues have been closed out.
[Robert Penta]: Councilor Penta. Louise, we just went through a couple of weeks ago a transfer at the end of the year budget of over a million dollars. And you just got through saying a few minutes ago that there was some surplus money that was left in the senior account. I believe it's $5,000. Is that what you were looking for? Now, why would the mayor have to go back and say he would take it under advisement when we're talking about $5,000? It's a surplus. Why is this even being brought up, point number one, as a discussion? I don't understand it. Because again, to transfer a million dollars at the end of the year, It isn't just this year. I mean, this is new to you. This is your first year here in the city of Medford, but this seems to have been a generic issue each and every year transfer of all this money of all this money. And for the first time this year, the department heads have been really been honest and maybe they're coming out of their shell to tell us how they really feel. Now you've been there to hear it and you will see it. And I asked you on every one of the department heads to tell us your wishlist. This is what this council has asked for. a wish list of each department head before we get the budget so we could understand it. And some of them said they never met, and some of them said they did meet. And you were honest enough to say in a couple of them, you met with them on the day of the budget hearing. And you were also honest enough when the question was asked of you, the way the budget was presented, would you present the budget in the same fashion? And your answer was no. And I appreciate that. So taking that and putting that all together and listening to two department heads in particular, engineer, and the library. Both of them had made requests, very simple requests. Let's take the engineering office. Four people using one phone, a desk that all they want upstairs so they could work on it, file cabinets, and an integrated technology system to the computer, a $30,000 hit, and they were told no. And when the question was asked in the engineering department, Did you ever present that to the budget director? Not you, the former budget director. She said yes. And she said how many times? Four years in a row. And she just happened to have two of those years with her. And she was told by the then budget director, no, you could not put it in. When the gentleman who was the library director was asked the same question on his wish list, he said for the last four years he had been making this presentation to the budget director. And she told him, no, you cannot put it in. Now, he's a little bit different than her, because he doesn't like confrontation. And he'll probably tow the line, because he knows that the mayor is his boss. But I'll compliment the engineer, because she did turn around. And she was a little bit upset, because you can't run an office with four people using one phone, not have a file cabinet that's acceptable to hold the documents, a working station, and to have some type of computer. Now, I think when Mr. Moki was here, and he's in charge of the building department, he had asked for something, again, I think it was $30,000, $40,000, and that's to integrate the entire system so people could jump onto it for the purposes of reviewing it. These are the working instruments that these department heads need. And when you turn around and try to explain to the taxpayer, you have $6.5 million in surplus, and we have $7.5 million, $7.5 million in our water and sewer enterprise account because we're trying to stay financially stable. Well, I'm going to lead into the report, the 2014 report ending by our outside consultant that says the following. The city does not have a formal investment policy that limits investment maturities as a means of managing its exposure to fair value losses arising from increasing interest rates. Now, we hear all around here that this city is so well maintained in its bond rating and what it goes out to do. Now, here's an outside auditing company and says we have no formal investment policy to protect us in that particular area. So who are we to believe? The city administration or the outside consultant, Melanson and Heath, who does the audit in that particular part? I don't know. We've asked for an update on the parking tickets from Republic in the abatements that have come forward. We still haven't gotten that. We haven't gotten a report back of whether, in fact, there is going to be a water and sewer rate increase. We got a report back from the Water and Sewer Commission indicating the amount of usage that's gone up and the amount of usage in their wastewater treatment that's gone up. We still don't have anything that's definitive that's going to tell us that are we going to get an increase or not. Let's go to the fire stations that both Councilor Marks and Councilor Lungo-Koehn has alluded to. $2 million is not chump change. $2 million represents the taxpayers' money being put into buildings to make sure that firefighters in the respective houses that they're in have what they need. On that particular night, when I believe the gentleman who was the president of the firefighters was here, he indicated he had a difference of opinion with the chief. And that's OK, having a difference of opinion. But the difference of opinion should not have been had there before the council, because if we had this wish list to discuss it, we'd have this opportunity. I don't think the question asked by Councilor Lungo-Koehn, should get anybody upset, because that's just good project management. And since we don't have a clerk of the works, who's going to be the project manager on any of these jobs or all of these jobs once the things go wrong? We built a new fire station in South Medford, and I think the building didn't even make it through its first year when they had leaks and air conditioning and heating problems. And that's a multimillion-dollar building, not a $2 million building. So my colleagues are right making these questions and asking these questions. Because why should we as the tax, strike that, why should we as representatives of the taxpayers have to come back at a later date to say we got a bond for this and we have to bond for that, or we have to pay for this and pay for that, when in fact we really shouldn't have to. You know, we just got through building a new public works building, a brand new public works building for approximately $14 million. And the reason why the old building fell apart is because the city had no maintenance program for any of its buildings. The reason why the library got itself in so much trouble is because, A, the library director was denied what he needed for money. And number two, how could you take for six years in a row and get a waiver to your certification with the state, which is approximately $225,000 per year? A waiver is only good for maybe one, two years max. And we were really running the string on that one there. And then to turn around and say, we found the money in some kind of a construction development, and we're going to generate that $225,000. That is bull in plain English. When you're sitting on reserves, cash reserves, that are the taxpayers' money of this community, and you can't put a legitimate budget out, line item by line item, that identifies the actual cost of needs, the required cost of needs, that's not a true budget. And I don't think to some degree that this budget that's presented, and it's not your budget that you presented. I know that. I know you walked into this position late on, and I believe when you were asked the question and you answered it honestly, You would not be presenting this type of a budget. It would include the wish list. It would include cost and expenditures, actuals, and it would have everything broken down. We shouldn't have to ask now for these things. We shouldn't have to ask for revolving accounts for expenditures and revenue. That should just come automatically. And boards and commissions, that should have all been presented to us during this budget. Not, well, maybe next year we'll have a representative from each board. It shouldn't work that way. This is the only time of the year when the taxpayers of this community can actually see their tax dollars at work. And for us to be put into a position tonight to vote on something with multiple questions still to be answered is wrong and it's unfair. I'll ask you, Councilor Caraviello, with all due respect, if you would withdraw your vote and allow this to sit on the table for a week so we can answer these questions. And then that way, I think we could all be on the same page and we can let our votes fall the way they may be. because I think it's just unfair right now, with so many questions that are still lingering, to have a vote with these still outstanding. So I ask you, with all due respect.
[Richard Caraviello]: Again, I mean, it was just my vote? I mean, was I the only vote that? Vote was four to three. But there was four other people who voted. Pardon me? Mr. President?
[Paul Camuso]: Councilor Camuso. I'm not going to speak for Councilor Caraviello, but to specifically ask one councilor to change their vote. I mean, I just, no one's asking me to change my vote or other people that may have voted on the other side. Take the vote and see where it goes. It won't fail because you're voting for it tonight.
[Richard Caraviello]: It's okay. Why can't you wait till next week?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Ms. Miller, do you have anything to add? There's a motion on the table. There's a motion on the floor for approval by Councilor Camuso. A couple of citizens want to speak, but before we do that, Ms. Miller, do you have anything to add to any of the comments that have been made thus?
[X_nYXZZ4ChY_SPEAKER_04]: I would just make a general comment that indeed, you know, we will make our best effort to answer all of the outstanding questions and that to the extent that there are questions that are not budget related. I would be happy to discuss all of those items further with the council.
[Michael Ruggiero]: My name is Michael Leggero. I live on 18 Pembroke Street. It is disturbing the rate and speed at which this budget has moved through these chambers. I've seen all of the members of this council work a number of weeks to try to figure it out, but it's been so compressed to try to get things through. To vote on this budget and hope that answers come on the back end is literally putting the cart before the horse. If the answer is literally, oh, we'll work and look into it, the budget is fine. That's an answer. It doesn't have to be a proper answer or an answer that satisfies everyone here. Let's look at our two possibilities. What happens if we don't pass this budget tonight and we look at it next week or we come to an emergency meeting? Medford's not going to fall apart in flames. There are no creditors like those Capital One commercials where the Vikings come off the mountains. It's going to be fine. We're going to survive it for a couple of days. What's the other option? What's the other possibility that this budget is passed? and these answers aren't come about. The fire station falls apart. Lights still don't exist on Medford Square. Our views, our city begins to crumble. I urge you, do not do the easy thing on passing this budget and hoping answers come down the road. Make sure that answers come about now. Thank you.
[Richard Caraviello]: Some of the questions asked are not budget-related. I mean, so that's, you know, not every question that's asked affects the bottom line of the budget. A budget is a moral document. I know what a budget is.
[Michael Ruggiero]: I know what a budget is.
[Richard Caraviello]: Direct our questions through the chair. I know what a budget is, and you know our role, what this council can do with this budget.
[Michael Ruggiero]: A budget, if money is being allocated to something, and it's not being used properly, The budget is the proper place to discuss those issues. That's what a budget is for. If I spend $100, if I give my wife $1,000 to spend on groceries for the next three weeks, and she comes back only with ice cream.
[Richard Caraviello]: Point of information, Councilor Schiaffiello. The budget they represented is not an actual budget. It's a budget summary. So it's very hard to vote on a budget that gives us minimal information in general.
[Michael Ruggiero]: Well, don't vote on a budget if you don't have the answers to these basic questions.
[Richard Caraviello]: I'll never have the answers because, again, that's not what the budget director before Ms. Miller provided us. This is my fourth time in the budget, and the budget hasn't improved not one bit because it's not presented to us in a proper fashion. And that's the main part of the problem here.
[Michael Ruggiero]: With all due respect, Councilor, to have a resolution that you'll approve the budget in hope that answers will come.
[Richard Caraviello]: The resolution is conditional.
[Michael Ruggiero]: The budget passes on the condition of the responses. What answer would satisfy you if it's, we're working on it?
[Richard Caraviello]: No, that's not an answer. That's not an answer we're working on. Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Camuso. The question before us is for approval. On the motion for approval by Councilor Camuso, as amended by Councilor Caraviello. I think there's other people that want to speak here.
[Sorrell]: Doctor, please state your name and address for the record. John Straw, 20 Metcalf Street. Mr. President, thank you for listening to me, but I'm going to be short and sweet, but I want to resolve this once and for all. The budget as proposed by the mayor, as it has been for 27 years, will be passed as it is proposed. The budget is for $156 million, and this council will pass $156 million. That is exactly correct. And what I want to say is whether this council votes for the budget or does not vote for the budget, it will take effect. It always has. And it always will. That is the law we operate under a charter. And the charter says that when the mayor proposes a budget, he does not need the approval of the city council. These Councilors who say yes, pass the budget. Either way, the budget will pass. Wait and see. Thank you, John.
[6YHU7Hws2SA_SPEAKER_20]: Please state your name and address for the record. Yes, good evening. Mark Crowley, 59 Boynton Road. I simply would just find it unbelievable that if there are, in fact, questions that can be answered within a week, I simply have to ask, what is the rush? If these things can be answered and we appropriately can do the due diligence that is necessary to get these questions answered, let's defer, and let's move it on to another week. You know, I work by trade as a director of finance for a $300 million software company. I'm responsible for putting budgets together. I take careful consideration. I meet with department heads, much like how you folks have been doing over the past several weeks. I do not give that a green light until all questions have been answered. I am a steward for the shareholders' money, much like how the city council is a steward for the taxpayers' money. Now, I'm sure there's not a resident in this town that wouldn't get into a contract or sign a contract with an individual or a contractor to do their kitchen without asking some appropriate questions. That's a significant investment that a lot of homeowners will do. But you know what? Instead of $50,000, we're using, I think it was $155,032, or whatever the number was there. I think the taxpayers are entitled to the same level of due diligence as we would do ourselves in our own homes. So as it's been noted, the single most important responsibility this council has is to approve the budget of this city. to approve the hard-earned dollars, to ensure that those dollars are being spent in the most effective and responsible manner. It's a critical check and balance. You know, we talk a lot about the power that this mayor has. He's a strong mayor. Well, the one check and balance that the city council can truly impart is approval of that budget. And if that means taking another week to get some answers, questions, by God, get those answers. Why? What's the rush? I simply ask, what is the intent? Why are we trying to rush it through? What are we trying to hide? Let's take the time. Let's do the due diligence. Get the questions answered. So again, you've invested significant time. You know, we've seen what happens when budgets or, more importantly, legislation gets passed, when legislators say, gosh, you know, I didn't have time to read it. Or, you know what, they admit that, you know, I didn't fully understand it. We have collectively understood that we do have the time, we do have the opportunity to read and get some simple questions. Maybe we want all the questions are budget-related, but if there's just one question that's budget-related, well, let's spend that extra week and get that question answered. We'll come back next Tuesday. We'll come back next Saturday night. Come on to my house. We'll have a barbecue. You can improve the budget at my backyard. We can't. You've got that house across the street. That's true. I'm going to get that one knocked down. So anyways, please, just do the taxpayers a favor. Don't forget favors. Do what you're asked, what you're voted to do, and take the time and be responsible and get the questions asked and come back next week and come back with an intelligent answer and approval to this budget. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Good evening. Welcome. Please state your name and address for the record, Senator.
[Robert Cappucci]: Thank you, Mr. President. I'm Robert Cappucci of 71 Evans Street. Just a few questions. What department heads failed to give answers to the questions that you asked?
[Fred Dello Russo]: If I could, from the chair, explain to you that that has been announced in the remarks of some of the councillors. Point of information. Point of information, Councilor
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. Now, some of these answers are complex, and it will take some time. And we met with department heads. We started three and a half weeks ago, and we actually just met with departments last week. So I don't know. I'm not putting blame on anybody. We just haven't got the answers. But we have some electrical questions out there. The treasurer, chief of police, the OPM, which is the operation manager for all the bigger projects that have been done. And then I believe we still have some water and sewer questions left out, because there is a, we have concern there's a deficit in the water and sewer account of almost a million dollars.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you for your point of information, Madam Vice President.
[Robert Cappucci]: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much, Councilor Lungo-Koehn, for your proposal to table this until next week. I want to thank all the other residents that came before and spoke. I also want to thank Councilors Pinto and Marks for their comments. It's odd to me that city councilors will bring up other issues such as the massage parlors or other things that are going wrong in this city based upon the administration's willingness or not to get a certain thing done. And then the one power that the city council truly has You're not going to have the political will to rise up and make a stand with that and speak on behalf of the voters that put you in office. It's literally beyond my comprehension that you won't do this. November 3rd is Election Day, and elections have consequences. Thank you very much.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Good evening. Welcome. Please state your name and address for the record.
[Joe Viglione]: Good evening. My name is Joseph Villione. I live at 59 Garfield Avenue in Medford. I want to also thank all the wonderful speakers, Dr. Starella, man of integrity, Bob Capucci, Mark Crowley, Mr. Ruggiero. Couldn't say a bit of myself, so I'll keep it very short and sweet. Excuses are irresponsible from one of the most expensive city councils in the Commonwealth. Now's the time for Councilor Caraviello to show some strength for his constituents. The election is 132 days away. We will vote based on how you councilors do the people's business.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Camuso for approval. Roll call vote. Roll call vote has been requested. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. This paper has been tabled already. Section 22 cannot be invoked, Madam Vice President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: This is the revised. Point of information, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: It's an amended paper.
[Paul Camuso]: It's a revised. Mr. President, challenge the chair and take a vote.
[SPEAKER_30]: This is not a new paper.
[Paul Camuso]: This has happened many times in the past.
[Robert Penta]: Louise Miller, could you please come to the podium, please? Did you or did you not give us a revised budget this evening, dollar amounts? It's revised, correct? It's not the original one that was submitted.
[Paul Camuso]: Point of information, Mr. President. Is that correct? Point of information, Councilor Camuso. If we just go back to the beginning of this meeting, the paper that I took off of the council calendar was the one from the committee and not the new paper that is on the council agenda that I'm sure later on, if this is acted upon, will be received and placed on file or withdrawn like it has in the past. I'm not speaking for the administration, but is that the intent?
[Robert Penta]: Madam Louise, well, the word says revised right up above. Revised means it's different.
[Fred Dello Russo]: It's a different paper. It's a different paper. And we're not discussing the other paper right now. We're discussing paper 15 460 has been called up.
[Richard Caraviello]: Councilor Caraviello. In light of everyone and to make everyone happy, I will resume my vote here so we can table for next week. And I hate to agree with Mr. Starello, but Mr. Starello is right. We're going to come back next week and we're going to vote on the same thing. There was nothing to clap about. Mr. Starello was right with his statement. Point of clarification.
[Robert Penta]: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Point of Mr. Starello is wrong. Cause the, if you look at the department of local services rules that just were re promulgated in May of 2015, a local city council or a town council has to vote approval on a budget. And as a matter of fact, the new rulings, if the city council wants to add to a budget that has not been included in the budget, this time you can add to the budget. So I think, I think everybody started.
[Richard Caraviello]: There was a motion on the floor for approval.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Section 22 was invoked incorrectly because the paper was brought before us, was tabled previously, and the paper before us was one that was brought off the floor and out of the Committee of the Whole. Councilor Camuso has a paper before us for approval. Councilor, do you wish to move this paper? Yes. No, he can't do that until after this paper is ruled upon. This paper has to be acted upon. That's at a different time of the meeting. So on the motion of Councilor Camuso for approval, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[SPEAKER_30]: Mr. President, it seems to me members of this council are talking like they're legal experts. I mean, since when is Councilor Camuso the city solicitant?
[Paul Camuso]: No, I know the rules, Councilor. That's why I was voted president. You haven't been the president since you've been here.
[Michael Marks]: Since when is he the city solicitant, Mr. President?
[Fred Dello Russo]: We have a motion for approval before us. We'll act on it.
[SPEAKER_30]: The Council of Caraviello will call for reconsideration. But that's not the vote we're on right now.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We're on a motion right now. So we have an action before us that needs to be acted upon. And what action is that, Mr. President? For approval of the budget 15-460 before us.
[Robert Penta]: It can't be because you have a revised document that she just talked about. Why would you vote on an old one when you have a revised one?
[Fred Dello Russo]: rule the meeting. We have a motion for approval on paper 15 for 60 as amended. Move section 22. You cannot, that the paper was tabled and already and taken off the table and sent into committee.
[Robert Penta]: Mrs. Milner-Lewis just indicated that she presented a revised document here this evening. How can you vote on something that's been revised?
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Parliamentary procedure aside, I think that the budget before us is a good budget. The budget before us provides with a number of technology changes at Medford High School and at Medford Public Schools. It moves away from standardized test teaching and towards whole person teaching, as Superintendent Belson said. It establishes a new full-time code enforcement officer that this council fought for for a year and a half, two years. It establishes a substance abuse coordinator's position that this council's been looking for for a year and a half, Mr. President. It also funds the facilities manager at our school buildings, a facilities manager who's actually put in a preventative maintenance plan at our schools.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I just have to say that none of that is going to change in one week.
[Adam Knight]: And, Mr. President, I don't think some of the questions that we asked about capital projects that aren't related to the budget are going to change the actual bottom line of the budget either. I think that what's important for us to do is to take a look at this budget and to determine whether or not it's a good budget or not. And I think it is a good budget. And looking at it, I think one of the biggest things is that it saves the library. It saves the library. It gives a quarter of a million dollars increase in funding to the library to keep the library certified, meets state certification standards. The council has asked for several things. We've gotten several things that are put into this budget. I think it's a good budget, Mr. President, and I move approval.
[Robert Penta]: That's the case. I am not going to put myself in this type of a position. It's absolutely ridiculous.
[Paul Camuso]: Mr. President, you know, week after week, it's the same people that get up here on every single issue, and they should be able to. This is the People's Forum, and they bring their... There has been not one person, other than the library group, that came up here on this budget. On this budget. This is a budget that's adding several key components that this city council's pushed for over the years. They're working on a dog park right now. They're working on the substance abuse. Coordinator is in this budget. Code enforcement officer is in this budget. The superintendent of schools is adding adjustment Councilors. We haven't seen adjustment Councilors in how long, Mr. Superintendent? Quite a long period of time.
[Michael Marks]: Not one person behind this reel did I hear tonight say this was not a good budget. All we asked for merely was to get our questions answered. So that's... Can I finish? That's a red herring talking about the library. That money is going to be in the budget for next week. All these positions, that money is going to be in the budget. All we want is our questions answered. And to stifle those questions, or to say because no one — well, Mr. President — It's a point of information. Yeah, and other colleagues have had a long point of information, too. If I could finish my point, Mr. President. Please do. Thank you, Mr. President. And to say because no one came up to the real, or no one came to the Committee of the Whole meeting that we had, that everyone's content with this, and we should move approval, is a ridiculous argument, Mr. President. And that's all I need to say on that. Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Mr. President, if I can just finish. Mr. President, I move the reconsideration of the vote to table. On the motion of Councilor Caraviello to move reconsideration on the motion to table. Mr. Clerk, all those in favor? No. The chair is in doubt. Mr. Clerk, call the roll for the motion to move reconsideration.
[Clerk]: For the motion to move reconsideration.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes. Yes. No, on the vote of four in the affirmative, three in the negative, the motion carries. So on the motion to table, which was originally by. Motion to table was by Vice President Lungo-Koehn. Roll call vote has been requested.
[Clerk]: Yes.
[Michael Marks]: Yes.
[Clerk]: Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: No. And the vote of four in the affirmative, three in the negative, paper 15-460 is tabled. On the motion of Councilor Caraviello to revert back to the regular order of business, all those in favor? It was opposed 15-542 under hearings. Location of poles, attachment of fixtures, and underground conduits. Medford, Massachusetts, City Clerk's Office. You are hereby notified that by order of the Medford City Council, a public hearing will be given at the Howard F. Alden Memorial Auditorium, 85 George P. Hassett Drive, City Hall, Medford, Massachusetts, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23, 2015, on a petition by National Grid of North Andover in Verizon in New England for permission to locate poles, wires, and fixtures, including the necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures along and across the public way. Boston Avenue, National Grid to install one SO pole and relocate one JO pole. National Grid to install 325 feet plus or minus of 6 to 5 inch primary duct.
[Michael Marks]: Motion to waive the remainder of the reading and just give a brief synopsis, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Marks to read the tedious reading, the approval by the engineer to put this, fix these fixtures across the public way located at Boston Avenue. 451 Boston Avenue. And you are who, sir?
[SPEAKER_05]: My name is John Gannon with O'Connor Constructors. I'm the construction manager. I'm here in place for National Grid. Very good.
[Fred Dello Russo]: They're on emergency duty tonight. So with the public hearing now open, we ask all those in favor of this to come forward. A representative of National Grid?
[SPEAKER_05]: No, they're on emergency storm duty tonight, so I volunteered to stand in for them.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Do we have another utility company present at this program too? Not for this subject. No. Very good. So you're in favor?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good. Anybody in opposition? Anybody in opposition to this matter? Hearing and seeing none, I declare that portion of the meeting closed and open up the paper to Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Sir, could you identify yourself again?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes. My name is John Gannon. I work for O'Connor Constructors. We're a construction manager building a project for Tufts University on Boston Avenue. And there's three changes that need to be done in the city sidewalk by National Grid in order for us to build our project.
[Robert Penta]: So you're here on behalf of Tufts University. You're not here on behalf of the project.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm here on behalf of Tufts University, that's correct. Normally National Grid would come to this meeting, but they're on emergency duty tonight. So instead of having nobody show, Tufts decided to send their construction manager instead of someone from National Grid.
[Robert Penta]: I think in all fairness to the project, and I can appreciate you being here, but you're not the applicant.
[SPEAKER_05]: National Grid is the applicant. I do have the ability to answer questions about the proposal, though.
[Robert Penta]: Go ahead. Well, I just don't know if you could even pass on this because he's not the legitimate applicant.
[SPEAKER_05]: I can explain what we're asking to do. Yeah, go ahead. We're going to build a new construction project on Boston Avenue. And that requires, typically any construction project requires temporary power. And in order to get enough temporary power, they have to add a temporary power pole in the sidewalk. That at the end of the project, approximately 16 months from now, will be removed. And it's all on Tufts property, so we're not affecting any neighbors. Another element is there's an existing utility pole that's in the way of the new service drive to the new building that we're building. That needs to be moved over 35 feet. And once again, that's not affecting any of Tufts neighbors. It's on their own sidewalk. Well, it's on your sidewalk in front of their property. And in order to power the new facility, we have to put in several hundred feet of duct bank underneath the city's sidewalk. And it's in our contract, the construction manager's contract, to completely replace that sidewalk once that duct bank is installed.
[Robert Penta]: There's a line in here that says National Grid will inform the city of any newly installed duct bank that it determines in the future will not be used. as the 105-foot length of duct bank that extends from the building service to the pole. So the building service to the pole, you're going to have to go over a public sidewalk.
[SPEAKER_05]: All the work is under a public sidewalk. That's why it's in the petition, excuse me.
[Robert Penta]: Usually when we get something like this, Madam Chairperson, we get some kind of response back from our city engineer.
[SPEAKER_05]: I believe that's been approved by the city engineer. Pardon me? I believe it's been approved by the city engineer and the wiring inspector.
[Robert Penta]: It says approved superintendent-wise, but it doesn't say city engineer.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm looking here on page two. Approved. City engineer, upon review of this petition in the engineering department, based on the engineer's review, the board can proceed forthwith.
[SPEAKER_30]: Chief engineer? One, two, three, four.
[Robert Penta]: So that's what you people call our city engineer chief engineer?
[SPEAKER_05]: I believe it's Cassandra. I believe is the primary.
[Robert Penta]: Yeah. That's it is. Okay. All right. I just want to make sure, like I said, you're not the applicant, so if you fill in it, I am.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's the best we can do. Okay. All right. National grid on a night like this, nobody could show up. No problem.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Does this project have any relation to the easement project that we granted for the construction of the new science labs? We granted a permanent underground easement recently for the construction of the new science labs. Is this project related to that?
[SPEAKER_05]: This is not. That is the Science and Engineering Center, which is down the street from us.
[Adam Knight]: Okay, no relation whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_05]: No, it's a different project completely.
[Adam Knight]: Okay, thank you. Madam President, I move for approval.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay.
[Adam Knight]: I'll close the public hearing, I guess. We'd have to open it up to anybody in opposition.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I'm not sure if we closed the public hearing.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm obviously in favor.
[Adam Knight]: Did we already close the public hearing? I don't think we did. No, I don't think we did either. I don't think we did either, but I started asking questions when the public hearing was open.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you for speaking in favor. Anybody else in favor of the project? Anybody else in favor? We'll close that portion of the public hearing. Anybody in opposition? Anybody in opposition? Hearing and seeing none, close that portion of the public hearing. Councilor Knight, will you move for approval?
[Adam Knight]: Move for approval, Madam President.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Paper 15542.
[Adam Knight]: Location of the poll attachment.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Councilor Knight. All those in favor? All those opposed? Paper passes. Paper 15-543, Grants of Location. Medford, Massachusetts City Clerk's Office, you are hereby notified that by order of the City Council, a public hearing will be given at the Howard F. Alden Memorial Auditorium Motion to waive the reading. All those in favor? All those opposed? National grid needs permission to construct locations of mains for the transmission and distribution of gas on Sargent Street, and they want to extend the gas main 150 feet plastic in Sargent Street to serve number 73 Sargent Street. This was approved by the city engineer based on her review. All those in favor? All those in favor? Please come forward. Just name and address for the record.
[SPEAKER_27]: Robert Gould, 7 Fall Street, Malden.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Anybody else in favor? Hearing and seeing none, I close that portion of the hearing. Anybody in opposition to paper 15-543? Anybody in opposition? Hearing and seeing none, close that portion of the public hearing. Open it up to the chair. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Madam President, thank you very much. Can you tell me... When the project is going to start, once this matter is approved, how long after the approval?
[SPEAKER_27]: We're just waiting to get approval. And paperwork's been all approved by the company. And this customer has been waiting for over a year to have this gas main extended to provide service to his house.
[Adam Knight]: This is a residential fixture that you're going to be switching out?
[SPEAKER_27]: We're going to extend the gas main in the street 147 feet in order to reach the resident and provide service to the house.
[Adam Knight]: And your hours of construction work are going to be performed? 7 to 3.30.
[SPEAKER_27]: 7 to 3.30 normal hours.
[Adam Knight]: Normal working hours, yes. Madam President, it's delivering gas to a residential home. They've been waiting over a year for the project to make its way through approval design construction phases. So I think they've waited long enough. Let's eat their house. I move for approval.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Councilor Knight. Councilor Penta?
[Robert Penta]: Quick question. What did you say? Is it 121 feet?
[SPEAKER_27]: 147 feet from the end of the existing main to reach the house that's looking for the gas service.
[Robert Penta]: And that's on the street.
[SPEAKER_27]: Correct.
[Robert Penta]: And how do you intend to repair the street once you dig it up?
[SPEAKER_27]: Uh, put back asphalt, um, in the, the trench that we dig.
[Robert Penta]: Is this in the middle of the street to the left?
[SPEAKER_27]: 14 feet off the backside of sidewalk to this. So it's pretty much in the gutter.
[Robert Penta]: Okay. Well, if that's the case, um, You realize that the city is implementing — going to be implementing a new policy that, six months after that trench, that — you know, the street better be the way it's supposed to be. Because many times, when you folks go out there, whoever your contractors are, you know, it sinks.
[SPEAKER_27]: The trench — The President. We try not to.
[Robert Penta]: Huh?
[SPEAKER_27]: We try not to.
[Robert Penta]: Well, you try not to, but drive around the city right now and go look at all the trenches you've dug up. Move approval with that — with that condition now, Madam President, that the city — review this subject matter upon completion, six months upon completion.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: City reviews subject matter upon six months completion. Motion for approval. Council Marks.
[Michael Marks]: Roughly how long do you anticipate the work?
[SPEAKER_27]: With no weather delays or anything, it should probably be maybe a week to two weeks. It shouldn't be a big job.
[Michael Marks]: And when will it primarily be done? Is it during the day or night? During the day, yes. During the day?
[SPEAKER_27]: During the day. 7-3-30. 7-3-30? Yes. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Motion for approval by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Camuso. Did I hear that? Seconded by Councilor Camuso. All those in favor? All those opposed? Paper. As amended, paper passes. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you very much. Thank you. What do you want to do next? What's this one?
[Sharon Deyeso]: Do you want to come speak on that?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: move for suspension of the rules by Councilor Penter to allow residents to speak.
[Sharon Deyeso]: My name is Sharon Diesso. I live at 130 Circuit Road in Medford. I'm here on a brief topic that is actually related in one way to the last time I was here a few weeks ago. It's not a sidewalk this time, it's a street. And the same day I was looking into this, I happened to bump into Councilman Caraviello, excuse me, I have a very bad cold. And he, I was going to look into something, I don't know if it came to fruition because he had to leave the meeting. About a year ago, while walking through Medford Square, an older woman alighted from the sidewalk after getting on a bus, off a bus, and nearly tumbled forward. And I thought maybe it was my eyesight the second time, I was walking through the square and noticed, you know, because I had had retina surgery a while ago, and I said, maybe it's my eyes. And I said, what's going on? Because it's hard to see the black hardtop. There were rivets from Papageno's all the way down to the CVS, past the donut shop, and on the opposite side of the street. I'm not an engineer, but I would assume this would be caused from the buses, the heat of the buses and the constant weight of the buses moving through the square. So during the year, another woman I also saw almost took a tumble because you were light from the sidewalk thinking that you're going to go this far, but take a walk one day. And you know, I don't walk that often myself in that area, but I've gone a few times now and happened to mention it to Councilman Caraviello, and he said, you know, I thought I noticed that, too. It's a real concern. It looks like an ocean. They're like this, almost to the middle of the street. So on an appointment near one of the shops on Salem Street one day, I happened to notice the same thing getting out of my car to go over to the hardware store, Dunkin' Donuts, hardware store being one of my seems to be a good errand every single week. Something's always going wrong in the house. So I'm saying this can't be happening again. Don't say anything to the council people. They're going to think you're out of your mind. So I asked a couple of shop owners if this had been an apparent problem, and they said, you have no idea. People have almost fallen coming out of our stores. Look at it. It goes all the way down to the car yards. So it's from that Hubcap shop all the way down past Tony Giglio's shop, almost to the car bounds. Take a walk, go look at them. I think it's a real point for public safety. But the good point is, I really think that the T is responsible for this. So it may not have to cost, you know, a big review of including something in the public works or the highway department budget. So I'm just asking as a favor, if some people could really give us some serious pictures, go investigate it, and find out what's going on. Hopefully the T, I think, is largely responsible for this, or trucks pulling up with heavy weight in front of stores. Thank you for your time. Have a safe 4th of July if I don't see you. OK.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you very much for coming up tonight, Sharon. It's always a pleasure to see you.
[Sharon Deyeso]: Thank you. You too. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of Vice President Lungo-Koehn to follow through on the matter, to have City solicitor see if there's a liability issue. On the motion to take papers 1 5 5 5 3 and 1 5 5 5 4 out of order so on the motion of councillor night all those in favor all those opposed 15 5 5 3 petition for reversal of sign denial by Jeffrey Sarah of Batten brothers for Panera Bread 499 Riverside Avenue, Medford Mass, OCD, application 2015-12, sign number 1, sign number 2, sign number 3, application 2015-11C, application 2015-18, excessive number of signs, application 2015-11F, excessive number of signs, application 2015 signs 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10, excessive number of signs. Can you say that again? Sir. Tell us about your excessive signs.
[SPEAKER_04]: My name is Jason Berg. I am with the owner of the noodles and company and the Panera Bread. So I'll be part of all three of these. Jeff Sarah is with the sign company who applied on my behalf. In front of you, you have, you should have, We're talking about Panera first, correct? Yes, please. So how's this? See how good I am. OK. By right, we are allowed two building signs. And with the way the building, I think you're aware of the building that's going on Riverside Avenue in front of the stop and chop. the same conversation for the Panera and for the noodles. Obviously we're on both of the end caps and we would clearly have a sign on the front of the building. And then the question is, is where would the second or third sign go? And with the large development behind us, we wanted to have signage back there and as well as on the side. So people coming on Riverside Avenue either way. Below you'll see all the different signs that we have. With the drive-through signs, there's a menu panel. I mean, we're talking about excessive signs because there's a menu panel, there's a preview panel, there's directional signs to guide people through the parking lot so they go the correct way. So that's why I'm here.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Dello Russo. On the second board, I'm sorry, and we have it in our packet that you had given us, is the three signs lined up. Now, obviously, the middle one is the side, because you have the little drive-through window.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, that's correct.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Which one is the back? Which one is facing Riverside Ave, the top or the bottom? Can you just describe which location?
[SPEAKER_04]: I can tell you for on this one, the bottom is the front. OK, thank you. You could see with all the glass windows.
[Robert Penta]: Where does it face? I'm sorry? Where does it face?
[SPEAKER_04]: It faces Riverside Avenue.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Last question. I noticed you have the smaller signs. Do not enter. Thank you. I believe we put a requirement that there had to be a sign that says, do not queue beyond this point. Did we?
[Fred Dello Russo]: I'm sorry, could you repeat that, Madam Vice President?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Oh, that was a Panera. Ed, maybe through the city clerk, I don't know if you have the paper of their common victuals license. We put a recommendation or a requirement that they had to put some sort of sign with regards to not queuing beyond a certain point to block the egress.
[SPEAKER_04]: For the common vituals hearing that I was here for with the Panera, the only conversation was around the exhaust, exactly.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: There was conversation around the exhaust, yes, but I believe we had a paper in there requiring do not queue beyond this point.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Knight's good with the minutes. I don't believe that was it. I think it was drawn out in a way that it was impossible. The major issue we dealt with is the major issue that we dealt with on that was the issue of what was going on in Riverside Ave. And we had requested that the traffic commission put a blocks in that indicated one should not block the grid.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know when the landlord did come in front of you to have conversations, it has been redesigned since then to what it is currently.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I would just add, if we, I'm going to have to go pull the minutes. Talk about for the drive-through, because there was only a certain amount of cue spots. I remember specifically, you know, having a problem with it, but wanting to allow the drive-through. I just have a problem with them blocking the, there's going to be an entrance at the end of the drive-thru, blocking parking, blocking the entrance and exit. So we're specifically at 90% call requiring a sign that says do not queue beyond this point.
[Clerk]: If it's on the drive-thru, which is a special permit, that condition will show up if it's already on there.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, can we check that? We don't have that here?
[Clerk]: No, I mean, you'd have to go back to maybe the records. It's like December 9, 2015 is the record we're looking for. We don't have it, yeah.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: All right. I'll try to look for it, and then if anybody else has a comment.
[Clerk]: But if it's a, you can make the condition on the zoning, so if it's part of, I mean, the drive-through is a special permit, so if it shows that we'll be on there, the condition on this application, I'm not sure you can do it.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I don't know if anybody else has any questions. I'll yield for right now.
[Adam Knight]: I think I have the minutes, Mr. President.
[SPEAKER_04]: What freestanding center are you referring to? So there's a freestanding sign that's there currently for the entire development. That's existing. There is not another one that's going in. Unless we're looking at something.
[Michael Marks]: So what's this on board elevation here then? It says preview board elevation.
[SPEAKER_04]: OK, I'm sorry. OK, I see what you're talking about. That's part of the drive-through. So in the back of the building, there will be a menu board. So as you're coming through, as you're driving through as a guest, you're going to come to a clearance bar. Then there'll be a preview board. And then there'll be the menu board and a speaker canopy all together. And then you'll turn the corner to the drive-through. These are actually all on the site plan that you have previously approved behind the building.
[Michael Marks]: So what constitutes assignment? This would not be assigned. This is part of the bottom large letter.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it does have that on there. Specifically, I don't know. That's why we gave you everything. That's why we're just showing you everything here.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, I don't know if Council and I found it, but I was able to.
[Adam Knight]: We sent them in the back room to meet with the residents, if you recall. And then they came out, and they reached some sort of agreement. But I have not found it, to make the answer short.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, I know this gentleman's here for the signage, but the residents in the area, particularly in fourth street and on Riverside have very concerned with the dirt mounds at the location. Uh, the excavating has been done for quite some time and residents were told by a meeting they had in the neighborhood, I think it was last week or the prior week that, uh, that dirt was going to be counted off site. And now we're having a major storm tonight that's going to blow around a lot of dirt and debris. And what's taking so long to remove a giant mound of dirt?
[SPEAKER_04]: I have absolutely no idea. So I am not with the landlord. I am with the tenant fit out. So once the landlord develops the building, then we'll come in and do the fit out of the actual restaurant itself or the restaurants. I did speak with Mike Luongo of 4th Street yesterday. It had to be yesterday. I spoke with him yesterday, and he expressed his concern. Actually, I also spoke with Carol McLaughlin yesterday morning on St. James. She also expressed her concern, and I mentioned it in an email to the landowner, the developer.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, can we send a letter to the landlord developer and developer asking that the dirt, which has to be about 15 to 18 feet high, the length of the property, be removed.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Mr. Clerk, do you have that? The landlord received a letter from the city council requesting that the immediate removal from the wall of dirt that seems to be plaguing the neighborhood and is such a concern for the neighbors.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll also inform him this evening.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Please. How is our archival search proceeding?
[Adam Knight]: Not so hot. I'd move for approval, Mr. President, based on the contingency that if there are any restrictions on the permit, that they remain in effect when we approve the convict.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on that motion, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Next, we have 554. Petition for reversal of signed denial by Jeffrey Sauer of Batten Brothers for Noodles & Company, 491 Riverside Ave. Measured Mass. OCD application 2015-11-D. Only one secondary allowed.
[SPEAKER_04]: Mr. Noodle. Same story, different address, and minus a drive-thru. I really don't have anything different to say. I mean, it's the same story we would have. We're requesting three signs, the front, the rear, and on the side. I don't know if I mentioned before, but I did speak with Mike Luongo and Carol McLaughlin yesterday about this specifically, and I assured them that it's not something that there's going to be a light that's projecting into you. It's really just lighting up the sign. There's no projection, so it's just there.
[Fred Dello Russo]: And a lot of the signage is conformity with requirements of the franchisee meets a national standard for the brand.
[SPEAKER_04]: That is correct. Panera and noodles, that's exactly correct. It's actually smaller than the other one, it looks like. Councilman Marks, you had something.
[Michael Marks]: Well, I was just wondering, are you saying that both these companies require three primary signs?
[SPEAKER_04]: No, that's not what I'm saying. Maybe I'm not sure. What question I answered was, are these signs typical signage for the brands? That's what I heard you say, and that's what I was answering. As far as size, is that what you're asking?
[Michael Marks]: Well, I mean, you're requesting three signs. Yes. And if they're typical brand signs, that's one thing. But to state that there are three signs that would be required by any business or company, I don't understand that.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, that's not what I was intending to say.
[Fred Dello Russo]: And if I could interject here, that's not what I was indicating. Just that there was a standard of size as far as type and style. That is correct. It has to be reflective of the logo and meet a standard of the franchise holder. Correct. That is correct. So Panera has particular colors, but whatever they are, they can't be purple and yellow because that's not their brand. That's correct.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's correct.
[Adam Knight]: What are the hours the light's going to be on? They're going to be on from?
[SPEAKER_04]: The lights are going to be on from dusk till dawn.
[Adam Knight]: Dusk till dawn.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're on a photo cell. And I apologize, I neglected to mention this. On the Panera, going back to the Panera, there was one sign that is in your drawings and shown, but it wasn't specifically mentioned, is on the front of the building, there's a small drive-through oval. on the left side as you're facing the building. It's been everywhere. It just, for some reason, was not added as part of the signage. So I just want to be clear about that.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So the motion. Do we have a motion? Motion for approval from Councilor Camuso. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations on the sign. Thank you.
[Adam Knight]: Motion to revert back to regular order of business, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: On the motion of Councilor Knight to revert back to the regular order of business, 15-512, public hearing will be held in the City Council Chamber, Harvard F. Alton Memorial Auditorium, City Hall, 825 George P. Hassett Drive, Medford, Massachusetts, Tuesday evening, June 23rd, 2015 at 7 p.m. on a petition from Boston Bread, LLC, doing business as Panera for a special permit to amend its hours of operation in accordance with Metro Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 94, Section 94-145, to operate extended hours at its business at 499 Riverside Avenue, Mass., on said site being located in the C1, that's a commercial one, zoning district. Monday to Sunday, 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., petition and plan may be seen at the office of the City Clerk, Medford City Hall, Medford Mass, call 781-393-2425 for any accommodations, et cetera, et cetera. Edward Pufin, City Clerk. The public hearing, public hearing is now open to those in favor. of the extended business hours Monday to Sunday, 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. That's two hours prior to regular allowed business hours. Anybody in favor, please present yourself to the podium and state your name and address for the record. Sir.
[SPEAKER_04]: My name is Jason Berg, 45B Taylor Court, Streamwood, Illinois. Approximately two months ago, I met with... You're in favor. I am in favor.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good. Anybody else in favor? No. Anybody else in favor? Present yourself to the podium and make yourself known. Hearing and seeing none, I declare that portion of the meeting closed. Anybody in opposition to extended hours of operation at near bread on Riverside Avenue operating from five to seven? Anybody in opposition, please present yourself to the podium and make yourself known. Hearing and seeing none, I declare that portion of the meeting closed and open it up to the appropriate chairman of the appropriate committee, Councilor Penta.
[Robert Penta]: Mr. President, why do you want to be open at five o'clock?
[SPEAKER_04]: The traffic and— What traffic? Well, the business, I should say. The business will dictate—is what dictates that.
[Robert Penta]: Your other Panera stores don't open at this hour?
[SPEAKER_04]: We don't have many drive-thrus, and we believe that's what's going to drive this time. I shouldn't say that. We don't have that many drive-thrus in the Massachusetts area, and the ones that do are—we'd like to be open that early. Approximately two months ago, I met with Tony and Sandy's civil I'm going to get this one wrong, sorry, Civita Riali. Michael and Lorraine Luongo and Carol and John McLaughlin, and we spoke about this specifically. And among other things around liquor for the noodles and as well as packets.
[Robert Penta]: And what did they say about this?
[SPEAKER_04]: And they all were, they all said they would have no problem with this.
[Robert Penta]: Well, I got an email tonight from Mr. McLaughlin, and he's opposed to it. So I don't know where you're getting your information from.
[SPEAKER_04]: I sat right next to him. When was this? At the Bertucci's approximately two months ago.
[Robert Penta]: That's two months ago compared to now. You understand, as Councilor Marks just alluded to, that mound of dirt has caused a tremendous amount of problem. There's a lady who lives across the street.
[Paul Camuso]: Point of information, Councilor Camuso. The dirt was addressed by the due diligence of Councilor Marks already.
[Robert Penta]: The fact of the matter is that that mound of dirt has caused a tremendous amount of consternation over there, not only to the lady across the street, but it's found itself over the St. James road and fourth street. Um, and since all the neighbors are not in agreement of this, and I just can't understand why, you know, you don't have any drive-thrus, it's, it's, it's bad enough. It's going to be huge, major congestion over there. The neighbors, nobody's, nobody's going to get a benefit out of this except noodles. And you know, everyone else has to conform to regular hours of operation. I don't see any need right now yet for this, so I would not be voting for approval at this time for this.
[Paul Camuso]: Mr. President? Councilor Camuso. Well, I look at this a little bit differently than Councilor Penta. The need for this isn't just the business, it's the consumer. It's the consumer. If you go 10, 15 feet right next to this new development, you have Dunkin' Donuts that opens at 5 a.m., and they also have the business right behind it that is cooking all night long. So in today's day and age, I know the council has been here for a long time, drive-through is a fairly new thing but people actually drive right by Dunkin Donuts in other parts of the community to go to a drive-through similar to the bank I know more people that drive right by Brookline Bank down in Medford Square or in West Medford to go to the drive-through because they have children in the back seat. So just to be with today's day and age, I don't have any problem with this. I think it's good for the consumer. And quite honestly, if they don't have the demand and it's not the consumers that are using it, then they're going to push the hours back, I'm sure. So this is going to be consumer-driven. And this is why this is something that is a good, positive thing for economic development. This is not something that was around in the 70s or in the 80s, but today in 2015, This is something that people look for, and this is something that I think I do support, Mr. President. Very good. Councilor Knight.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Mr. President, I find the paperwork in order, and I move for approval. Second. A motion for approval, seconded by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Camuso. On that motion for approval, Vice President Lungo-Koehn.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President De La Ruzo. I'd like to put a review on this, if we could have, whether it be three or six. month review and a one-year review so that we have the right to obviously withdraw the permission to open 5-7, that way we can see how it's going, see what response we get from the neighbourhood, see if everything's going smoothly. I think I'd like to amend the paper as such.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good. So on the motion for approval by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Camuso, amended Vice President Ludlow-Kern to require a three or six-month review?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Six months and a 12-month review.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Six and a 12-month review on that. Can I ask what that means specifically? So that in six months, you're required to appear back before the council once you've opened and operated with the drive-through, and then the councillors will review the petition, And based upon any feedback we get from neighbors, consumers, et cetera, if there is any problems with this, the license permission to have the extended hours of operation will be withdrawn. And that will also be done in the subsequent six months. And then oftentimes within those periods of time, any issues can be resolved in that review. Or if a teen seems to be a chronic issue, then the Councilors may feel that it's not appropriate to have a drive-through from 5 to 7.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let me just say, which also may help this a little bit, so we have people there at 4 o'clock in the morning, whether we're open at 5 o'clock or not. If we're open at 5 o'clock or 7 o'clock, we're there at 4 o'clock preparing for the day. That's another big reason why we're open. We don't expect from 5 to 6 or 6 to 7 to be open. you know, all of a sudden an influx. It's the, you know, the big grocers are open 24 hours because they're there 24 hours and there's not a large increased cost to be open those hours. So it's, I don't think, I'm confident that when we come back in six months and come back in 12 months, you will have no complaints and it will be quick and painless.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We've not had any significant issue on any of the other operative drive-throughs. in the city that we've been made aware of. And we certainly don't want you to feel as though you're being put in a position here. But we are clear about one thing, and that's we're concerned for the neighbors. We're concerned about matters of traffic and for people's safety in the neighborhood. Councilor Marks.
[Michael Marks]: Thank you, Mr. President. You alluded to outdoor seating. Yes. Can you elaborate a little more on what the plans are?
[SPEAKER_04]: They're in my car, because it's not on tonight's agenda. But we have, for the Panera and for the noodles, we're trying to get on tonight's meeting, but we'll be in hopefully your next meeting or hearing for this. In the noodles, because there will be liquor, there is a, and I shouldn't say liquor, there's a beer and wine. There's no hard alcohol. But there is a gated patio that can only be entered in from the interior of the restaurant. There is a gate with an alarm on there. So if there's an emergency, people can leave. But the alarm will go off. So it's contained appropriately. There's approximately 16, I believe there's 16 seats in that, on the noodle side, ADA compliant pathways. and so on. The Panera is not gated, there is no alcohol, and it's, I can't tell you the number of seats, I don't know off the top of my head, but they're on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.
[Michael Marks]: On the sidewalk, so with the noodles, you have to enter the restaurant in order to get to the outdoor patio.
[SPEAKER_04]: That is correct, it's on the side of the building, it's on, well, on the side.
[Michael Marks]: Now, did that always exist? I don't ever recall outdoor seating when, this concept came up originally. Was that always part of the plan?
[SPEAKER_04]: I can't tell you what was presented to you originally. I don't know. It's always been in our plans. It's always been in our plans to the landlord. I can't tell you what, I don't know what they presented to you initially.
[Michael Marks]: And when you talk about noodles, the seating will be on a sidewalk that is around the perimeter of the building.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's on the side of the building, correct, on the Noodle side of the building. I don't know my north-south.
[Michael Marks]: I'm talking about Panera now.
[SPEAKER_04]: OK. Now, the Panera will be on the front of the building. And they're still, where they're located, it still maintains egress. So the tables that are on the closest to the drive lane have umbrellas, which have a 150-pound base. So the tables can't easily be moved. So that way, you're maintaining a walkway.
[Michael Marks]: And how wide is that seating area?
[SPEAKER_04]: Again, I'm sorry. I wasn't planning to talk about this, so I can't tell you specifically. But I can tell you that there's enough room for the tables and an appropriate code compliant walkway.
[Michael Marks]: So you plan on being back before us within the next week or so?
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know when we're on, we've been working with Sheila in your office, in the clerk's office, so I don't know when, shortly is what I'll be able to tell you.
[Michael Marks]: I'll reserve my question until I come back.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, and for your information, as you're working with the officials here in Medford regarding outdoor seating, I'm sure they'll be informing you on whatever zoning and or Board of Health issues there are that you'll need to be compliant with.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So we have a motion for approval by President Camuso, seconded by President Camuso, by Councilor Knight, with the review amended, Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Thank you, and you brought up a very good point regarding a lot of the other establishments that have extended hours. I would say the majority, well yes, at least two-thirds of this body, has supported extended hours and has been very economic development friendly when it comes to special permits, the majority of the Council. With that being said, I don't recall one coming back to us for a show cause hearing on a special permit. The only show cause hearing I can remember in recent times was the pawn shop up on Boston Avenue. So, I think this is a great economic development paper and I'd like to have a roll call vote on this. Very good.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We have Councilor Penta requesting to speak on this.
[Robert Penta]: Yeah, I'm just confused. I'm really concerned. You're telling me you met with the neighbors and they said, okay, and I'm getting emails from them and they're saying no. Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: I, I, myself and the operator of the noodles and the operator of the Panera that are going to be there full time met with this, the three couples that I mentioned. Um, I can't tell you the date off hand, but I can tell you it was at the Bertucci's. Uh, we met in the back room. We were there for approximately two hours. And my last statement to the three couples was, Is there anything that is going to come up that I should know about? I just want to make sure that I'm addressing every one of your concerns when it comes to conversations around a beer and wine license, regarding a patio, regarding opening early. And I didn't know about the signs at that point, so we didn't have that conversation.
[Paul Camuso]: Councilor Cluso. I think we're all aware of very, very nice people that live in the neighborhood. We all received the calls over the last few days. And no one works harder to keep their neighborhood a great positive area to live in than the gentlemen that were just spoken about. I am fully confident that with the reviews that they'll be happy. And if not at that time, then we'll look at it. But let's look back to when this was A&W, when it was a pretty lighted area, this particular parcel, and it was vacant for three, four, five years to the point where people were coming to this honorable body complaining about the weeds and everything else. So I just, I don't take lightly their phone calls and they're advocating for their neighborhood, but this is in the best interest of the city of Medford. And at some point within three or six or nine months down the road from the inception of it opening, if there's problems, we will deal with it appropriately.
[SPEAKER_04]: And these couples all have my contact information, as well as the operators of each concept's contact information. They've obviously reached out to me already when we talked about the signs. So they know they can reach out.
[Paul Camuso]: There's obviously a time lapse, too, from you meeting with them a couple months ago to them calling all the members of the council over this weekend. So there's a time lapse. And people do change. Sure. And get after them about the dirt.
[SPEAKER_04]: I will send them an email this evening. Please.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Penton. You all set?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Fred Dello Russo]: I'm sorry.
[Robert Penta]: I'm council angle. Kern brings up a good point and I'm, this has got me confused. All right, I'm going to tell you that they'll tell you one thing and I'm doing another. I have no problem. I'll vote for it, but I want to change it to a three month or six month in the year return three times within the year. So let's see. Okay. We'll just review it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Honestly, I'm, I'm not concerned.
[Robert Penta]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: I can tell you we're a, we are not a, we are not, a huge company or a family company.
[Robert Penta]: That's fair enough, but I'm just saying, you have to understand, you know, when you get phone calls from neighbors and you get emails and it's contrary to what you're telling them.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I'm not going to call them.
[Robert Penta]: So I don't know what happened from two months to now to have anyone change their mind if that's what they did. But I could go along with a three month, a six month and a year.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So as amended by Councilor Penta, to make it a three, six, and 12-month review. So on the motion for approval by Councilor Knight, as amended by Councilors Lungo-Koehn, and Penta, seconded by Camuso, we have a citizen who needs to talk. Let me not forget him. And we're going to let Councilor Marks talk. Just a quick question, Mr. President, if I could.
[Michael Marks]: The drive-thru. Yes. If I want to get one of your egg and cheese sandwiches in the morning, can I use the drive-thru? Yep. These are all pre-made, pre-prepared? Nope.
[SPEAKER_04]: No. It's interesting. I wasn't a believer until I saw it. So actually, the speed of service is extremely important, and it's actually faster when you go through a drive-through of a Panera than when you come into the inside. So without giving you a three-hour explanation, the short story is when you come into the restaurant, we could have four, five, or six cash registers, and they're all going to one preparation area. So you could have six orders at once coming to this preparation area. In the drive-through, you have one preparation area and one person taking the order. And when you're placing the order, turkey sandwich, whatever, egg and cheese, whatever, the person that makes the sandwiches has a headset and hears it. So they're starting to make it while you're talking about it.
[Michael Marks]: So you don't foresee any backup in that particular area if people come down and order sandwiches
[SPEAKER_04]: No, because everything is made fresh. So there is nothing pre-made. There is nothing frozen. No. Could we run out of bread? Sure. Could we run out of something? Absolutely. But to be a norm, absolutely not. It's all fresh, made every day.
[Michael Marks]: I'm not disputing whether it's fresh or not. I'm disputing how long it would take to get through your line if you ordered something other than a cup of coffee. No. Do you know what your average wait time is?
[SPEAKER_04]: Not this second. Not this second, but it's, it's, I don't know off the top of my head.
[Michael Marks]: Mr. President, the reason why I ask is, uh, you know, I don't want to name any particular establishments, but there's a drive through in Wellington that when you go through the drive through, they ask you to pull into the parking lot and be seated in a parking spot while they're making your food. And then they come out and, and deliver your food, which to me defeats the whole purpose of a drive-thru.
[SPEAKER_04]: So as our franchise, we have eight Panera Breads with drive-thrus currently. None of them have parking stalls, as you're, whatever you want to call them, pull ahead and wait. And I don't know a time that I've ever seen that occur.
[Michael Marks]: So you don't anticipate that at Panera?
[SPEAKER_04]: If we can't produce it quickly, we will be out of the drive-thru business. So with all due respect, it's really more of my concern than your concern.
[Michael Marks]: I don't want to wait in line either, so.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We have a motion for approval on the floor.
[Robert Cappucci]: As amended. Mr. Citizen, would you speak, please? Senator? Thank you, Mr. President. I'll be very brief. I'm Robert Capucci, 71 Evans Street. My concern is that with more traffic on the road, that somehow if you could expedite whatever projects you have in the works to fix the roads that are in dire need of repair and When drive-throughs have existed in this country for decades, and when one city councilor makes a personal attack on another city councilor's age, but he said it. It's an affront to every senior citizen.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you very much. Point of information, Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Just to clear the record. I stand by my comments, and I was talking about Councilor Penta's 30-plus years of service, and the drive-throughs are fairly new. He's been around here for 30 years.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you very much. Ma'am, please state your name and address for the record. Please state your name and address for the record.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I— Ms.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Martin.
[Jeanne Martin]: Okay. I am pro this business. I live in that area. I do take your concern about parking in the backup, but I'm really loving the idea of the Panera Bread. because it's a gathering place. It's a place, because I love the Wellington Circle Plaza, what it's turned into. I know I never comment well on our business districts, but that's one really nice one. They really did a beautiful job. What it is missing is a restaurant area where people can come together, gather, and eat. I love the Stop and Shop and all those places, and the sports store and Models and all of that. Fantastic. They do, on the other side of Wellington, have the burrito place and a couple of others. So this is a nice compliment to the burrito place, and I'm pro it. And I do remember when it was Happy Hattic, and it was a bustling place when it was Happy Hattic for a long time. But it did go, Happy Hattic went out, and then it was an empty spot for a long time. Back to the concern about traffic, and Mr. Marks always talks about this, traffic calming measures need to be thought through. This doesn't have anything to do with this gentleman here. When you come up to Wellington Circle, it's supposed to be technically one lane. We all know they stack three, and then the person takes the right. There's two lanes without a line down it. It's very dangerous. My cousin got in an accident. She had to pay for the accident because the insurance company said, well, it was one lane, and you were to the right of that, and you technically weren't. So it becomes an issue. So the backing up is definitely an issue, so I'm all for. also the three-month, six-month, or nine-month review. I have no problem with that because the backup of the cars can be a problem. But part of that is on the city. We need to make sure that the traffic pattern at that intersection is also squared away with proper markings, whatever you have to do. But I am definitely for this. This is a clean business. It's a gathering place. It's awesome. It's great for the city. It's great for Wellington. So, I know I always tear down the business districts, but this is a good one and it's not overdeveloped. Whoa, I said something positive about the businesses.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Hey. On the motion for approval by Councilor Knight, seconded by Councilor Camuso, as amended. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion passes. Congratulations.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. Can I ask one question?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Motions, orders and resolutions.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sorry. just about the three, six, nine, three, six, 12 months. Is that automatically going to be scheduled? Do I need to appear?
[Fred Dello Russo]: Yes, it's from your, uh, uh, Dave operation.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'll just work with the city clerk's office. Please do. Okay. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: 15 five 50 offered by council night. Be it resolved that the Medford city council extended steep and sincere condolences to the family of Paul Cavanaugh senior on his recent passing. And while we have this, we have another condolence offered by Councilor Penta that a moment of silence be offered for the passing of former Medford Police Detective John P. Brady. Councilor Knight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, thank you very much. Over the last couple of years, I've become very friendly with Paul Cavanaugh Jr. He recently lost his father. I was unable to make the services last week, however, I did want to extend my deep and sincere condolences to he and his family in their loss, Mr. President. And I'd ask my council colleagues to do the same.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Very good. I was negligent and forgot to mention also, but I offered by Councilor Caraviello, condolences to the family of Arlene O'Neill. Arlene is the mother of Ed O'Neill, City's solicitor, City Assessor. I'm sorry. Councilor Penta, Inspector Brady.
[Robert Penta]: Mr. Brady, he retired, I believe, as a lieutenant detective in the Medford Police Department. He served many years. He was a detective. And he served this community well. He worked with the FBI. He worked with the state police. He was well recognized for his duty as a Medford police officer in bringing good name and recognition to our community and to his family. His daughter was a former school committeeman, Hattie Brady. And to his wife, Mary, and to the rest of the family, I wish them a special, special notice.
[Paul Camuso]: Councilor Caraviello. Yes, Inspector Brady, very well respected in the Medford Police Department, but also throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in his rank as detective. He certainly made Medford proud, but he also did a lot after his retirement. He was doing private investigative work, and he was often called upon by law enforcement agencies, still, even in retirement. So I want to send our condolences to him and his family, and his son-in-law, Chris, who worked in this building for many, many years, up until about three or four months ago. Yes.
[Michael Marks]: Councilor Marks? Yes. And also, Mr. President, before we take the moment of silence, A longtime Method resident, Dominic D'Ambrosio, recently passed away. If anyone knew Dominic, he'd be the first to help someone out. Him and his mother had a little shop on Little Prince Street in the North End for a number of years, and they used to be out there with the big green slush bucket and selling slush. And Dominic also worked for the city of Boston for a number of years under Mayor Ray Flynn. and was in charge of special events. And if you knew Dom, he was always one to open up his trunk and come out with all these little gadgets that he got over the years of running different events in the city of Boston. And he will be sorely missed, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So please join us in a moment of silence for these people connected to our community. 15551 offered by Councilor Penta, be it resolved that the city administration appropriate $75,000 from free cash to further use in fixing of potholes in our city streets. Councilor Penta.
[Paul Camuso]: Motion to table, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Councilor Penta. I get some questions answered for one week. Motion to table is undebatable.
[Robert Penta]: Roll call vote, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: I'm sorry? Section 22. Section 22.
[Paul Camuso]: I got to get questions answered.
[Fred Dello Russo]: 15555. Petition by Joseph Viglione, 59 Garfield Avenue, Medford, to address this Medford City Council on the immediate restoration of AXIS TV in an emergency measure for the election of 2015. Please state your name and address for the record, Mr. Viglione.
[Joe Viglione]: Thank you, Council President. Joe Viglione, 59 Garfield Avenue, Medford, Mass. 16 years ago tomorrow, As a member of TV3 Medford, I had borrowed a camera and taped my wonderful Nana on her 100th birthday. And my dad, who was her son-in-law, worked with the woman from the Somerville Journal. I videotaped. And Nana told her story of coming to America. She had a little broken English, which was charming, and so that's why dad would help out his mother-in-law. And we have this one-hour video, and it's just beautiful. And I also did a cooking show with Nana up in Woburn. And the cooking show was lovely because she'd bake her pizzellas and that's what public access is all about. But all seven of you Councilors, or six, and Mr. Caraviello, you all need public access TV. You all need it beyond cooking with grandma, the sports, the musicals at the Chevalier, and the wonderful things that Access can provide. Now, I spoke, I told Mayor McGlynn last week when I saw him, Your Honor, I can put this together in my sleep. And I saw Louise Miller. She's a wonderful woman. And I said to Louise, she's about 20 grand. We could have a little van. And here is my plan. We can have a van, a mobile van, to take political events and air them to Comcast Channel 3 and on Verizon. You can do it via cellular, so we do not need to have a station right now. The city can own the station temporarily. So the city can allow us to either put a temporary non-profit together or the city of Medford could authorize cable as other cities and towns have done. With a backpack, which costs approximately $7,000, we could go to the political events. And there have been so many new school committee members having political events. That should be taped. The woman from the Lions Club tonight. I know she would love to have her events taped. It's not happening in Medford, yet it happens in Somerville and everywhere. This is an emergency, and paying as much as we pay for each councilor, all seven of you should be really saying to the mayor, we know you're the issuing authority, but this is our issue. The constituents need this. The election season needs this. Now, the library, The library has a little bit of space, a temporary place at the library, and let's lend them some money. Mr. Council President, can I wait until the person's finished because the noise is kind of disrupting me? May I take a moment? May I take a moment because I'm being disturbed by one of the councilors. He's busy.
[Adam Knight]: The same topic's been discussed within the last 90 days. I'd like a ruling as to whether or not the paper's out of order.
[Joe Viglione]: Again, this is a critical time. This is an election. And Paul Donato, State Rep. Paul Donato. He's not here right now. I saw him here with Susan Crowley on Friday night with Mari Carroll, and I'll quote the great Rep. Donato who said, it is the most protected right. So if he wants to strip away my First Amendment rights as as was done to Robert Cappucci earlier tonight.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I'm pretty sure that the Constitution of the United States of America does not say that you can come to a meeting and speak about whatever you want whenever you want. No one's impeding this gentleman from his freedom of speech.
[Joe Viglione]: You can stand on the front stairs and scream all you want. If he's going to speak to the public, he should learn how to speak slowly and articulately.
[Adam Knight]: Mr. President, I made a motion to have the ruling on the paper.
[Joe Viglione]: I'm trying to get us access to TV, and this man voted for his own race and doesn't want to help the
[Fred Dello Russo]: Sir, we're politely asking you to complete your remarks by staying on subject, and we're allowing you to continue.
[Joe Viglione]: Thank you. And I would appreciate no one interrupting me. The Chevalier is reportedly wired for Comcast. Now, they might have to upgrade it. So the Chevalier, the library, these are important. And this is a very important reason why I'm speaking here tonight. July 3rd is when the contract with Comcast expires, which means, if the mayor signs it, we get a balloon payment of about $350,000 and, I believe, another $38,000 from Verizon. This is significant. This is significant, President de la Ruzo, and I appreciate you letting me speak on this because I don't think the public knows this balloon payment's happening. We can lend money to the Chevalier for air conditioning. We can lend money to the library to help them out, and we can help this political season. candidate out there, you call me up and I will try to help you get on television. I have a camera, my own camera. I bought it right off of eBay. I have a camera. I can go anywhere and no access station can tell me I can't be political because it's my camera. Call me. I will help you out.
[Paul Camuso]: Mr. President, as we're all gearing up for reelection, can we get this question answered as to the status of the station?
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of Councilor Camuso that the mayor report back to the city council on the status of the station. Councilor Penter.
[Robert Penta]: The question of June, July 3rd on the status of whether the mayor is going to sign a 10 year contract or not, unfortunately, um, I don't think should bode well with the rate payers here in this community. The mayor by design and choice did not pick a new director of public works. He's leaving that for the next mayor to come on board. in January of this year. That's just an 83,000, or strike that, it's about a $100,000 a year job. This is a 10-year, multi-year contract. This is a mega contract that this city will be signing with Comcast. And Comcast, as we all know, this probably has one of the worst reputations for public employment of their employees throughout the country. as they're being reviewed. And I think you can just find that out on their public service. But putting that aside and recognizing the fact that when the public hearing took place here regarding a public access cable in this community, I was the only one that represented, as an elected official, as any administrator, as the mayor, I was the only one that appeared here on behalf of the ratepayers. And city government should have been here on behalf of the ratepayers. They should have been on behalf here. And they weren't. And the sad part about this is whether you sign the 10-year contract or not, and you get that balloon payment, there's another $300,000 plus sitting downstairs as money that the mayor has held down here in escrow in the city's coffers. So this goes back to December of 2013. There's been no cable access here in the city of Medford. This is an election year. This will make two election cycles that the people have been denied an opportunity not only to see and hear their candidates. I don't care who you're for or who you're against. But that's what public access is about, plus any other community of interest. You have sports, you have arts, you have culture. There's a whole host of things that community access is all about. And this administration has intentionally denied that accessibility to take place here in this community. It is wrong. And I think what the gentleman at the podium was trying to say is, Mr. Mayor, you should just allow it, whether it's in a portable situation or make something temporary, whatever it might be. You know, we just went through a three-member committee who made a report. that came back and, you know, the mayor told him he wanted to come out in February, wanted to report by Memorial Day. Memorial Day has come and gone. We're almost into the July season here right now, and there is still nothing, whether you agree or disagree with the recommendations. And when the mayor wanted to put it up at the high school in the dead of night, where people would have to go there, where it would be dark and secluded, when the recommendation was to put it in an open downtown area, easily accessible to people, that's a shame. But I think it was Councilor Caraviello and I think it was Mr. Viglione who mentioned the ideas of possibly going to Shavia, which is equipped to do it, or to put it in the second floor, or have a complete renovation with the friends of the Miffin Public Library and looking at its future use. And that's what the discussion was about on the money that went back to the library that the mayor mysteriously found. This is what it's all about. This is what community needs. They need not only this community access, they need this interaction. They need this transparency. They need to know that their money is being spent. Who in their right mind would believe that $300,000 of their cable money is sitting downstairs in this building, not getting any use, not even having any program, not even having any public input, not even coming and speaking in behalf of the ratepayers for which he is the issuing authority on.
[Paul Camuso]: Point of information, Councilor Camuso. The city was represented by legal counsel at the hearing, who specifically, that's his job, representing the city in a contract with cable providers. So the city did have representation. And from my understanding, there wasn't many people that participated in it, unfortunately.
[Robert Penta]: Could you please repeat what you just said? Who was the city representative? The lawyer. The lawyer gets paid $330 an hour to be here, to listen, to hear the hearing. He wasn't representing the city. He was here to take the input of the people who were there at that meeting.
[Paul Camuso]: That's what his input was. The counsel is incorrect. He was here representing the city to get the input, to see what the people of Medford, that are cable rate payers, would like to see included in a successor agreement.
[Michael Marks]: Point of information, Councilor Miles. I'm just wondering when this lawyer was elected by the people of this community. No, no. You said he was represent.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Next time have a microphone on when you want.
[Robert Penta]: I believe the gentleman was employed by the mayor as he was 10 years ago when they had a public hearing here. And unbeknownst to anyone until the question was asked, the, the, um, the July 3rd date was as a result of two days ahead of time, the mayor having this conversation and asking for an extension to take place. When an ascertainment hearing took place at that meeting in May, and there was about 10 or 15 people here, but how do you have the hall filled with people when you have it at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and people are working? That's number one. When you have mostly senior citizens who came up here and dredged up here and to make the complaint about not only that, but having no senior citizen discount, not having an opportunity to have public access, not having an opportunity to have their money that's paid each and every month to go into a slush fund that's held downstairs, you might as well just give it back to the people. If they're not getting used of cable access and they're being charged for it, how do you take that money and account for it and tell the people you're getting public access when you're not getting it? That's not transparency. That's a shadow way of doing things. I'm going to keep it in secrecy. Well, what's the big secret here? Are we or are we not going to have public access? That's the bottom line. And the mayor has refused intentionally to answer that question. because he does not want public access on there. Whether it praises him or criticize him, he doesn't want it. The only thing he has is Channel 15 that he's used exclusively for himself, which is a high school educational channel that everyone else in this room is excluded from using. It's wrong.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you. Councilor Camuso.
[Paul Camuso]: Yes, I'm going to talk facts now. The facts are the city of Medford put out a bid. There was, I believe, one individual that put in a bid that currently doesn't have a corporation or a company. And it's, I'm assuming, still under review. The second piece of it is, we are getting a studio and it's going to be up at Medford High School. Up at Medford High School. Representative.
[Robert Penta]: Point of information. Point of information, Councilor Panta. Show us the document where that information is coming from. Because none of us in this room have a document that says a studio is going up there. And how is it going to be funded and when is it going to begin?
[Paul Camuso]: Mr. President, if I may continue talking facts, if I may continue talking facts, they did make an announcement with the director of the vocational school, Representative Donato, I believe Ann Marie Cunha was at the event, as well as Mayor McGlynn. Subsequent to that,
[Robert Penta]: picture that took place up there, that whole situation is now on hold. There's absolutely nothing going on at the vocational school or the high school where it's going to put that studio up there.
[Paul Camuso]: Mr. President, they are working on the area. I actually visited the area where they're putting it. And my question is, if we're going to have people go into that building, I want to make sure that they're corey cleared and taking precautions to protect our children. And they're actually putting out they're putting out They may possibly put a door leading directly into the studio so that they don't have to traverse the high school. So like I said, I just wanted to bring a couple facts to the table. And it's always good to ask the question, as I stated a little earlier. But also if we can get an update from Louise Miller on the one person that did put in for the bid. It's some entity. But I don't know much about the person or entity, so if we could get a report back on that. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of Councilor Camuso, as amended by Councilor Camuso.
[Joe Viglione]: Just one point of clarification, City Council President. Thank you so much. The facts are incorrect for Mr. Camuso. There is a business registered with the City of Medford called Community Media Medford, and it will become a corporation the minute the mayor gives the green light. And I have the money to make it a corporation instantly. Thank you.
[Paul Camuso]: Thank you, Mr. President. If I may, are you the person that put in the bid? I don't know. This is news to me.
[Fred Dello Russo]: We'll get a clarification from the mayor. So on the motion of council, Camuso for approval. All those in favor. Did you know he put in for the bid?
[Jeanne Martin]: Me neither. If this thing is going to take off, it needs community input. It needs a lot of community input. and the people need to come together because it is a resource. Forget all the politics. You can pressure the mayor. The people, not you folks, the people can put pressure on the mayor. Only if they band together, whether it be the arts community, the business community, a combination like I talked about, Cross Nova, and everybody getting together. They need a good, strong 15 to 20 bodies. with a lot of knowledge about nonprofits, a lot of knowledge about media, a lot of knowledge. It can't be just one person. It needs to be a body of people, about 15 to 20, very dedicated community people. And 15 to 20 people could change this whole conversation. If you got those people to show up at the mayor's office and said, we're ready, we want this to happen, it would happen. He wouldn't have a choice if you had 15 people. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Good evening. Please state your name and address for the record.
[acqgxK4yhEM_SPEAKER_16]: Mario Martin at 198 Harvard. Really briefly, I just want to say that the fact that we're here assembling and using the democratic process to ask the administration to discontinue defunding local access is, in my opinion, personally, pretty ridiculous. As a constitutional watchdog that I am, this is unconstitutional. Essentially, what's happening is my right to freedom of speech is basically being taken away. Everyone knows I'm running for public office. I need the ability to exercise my freedom to speak to my neighbors so I can get the message out to everybody. But let's just use logic for a second. Let's just say the media blackout isn't about the administration trying to handicap thoroughly good Medford citizens. Why else are we here? Why are we here? Why is this even an issue? Funding local access puts the word unity in community, and I'm in strong support of the immediate restoration of public access. Thank you.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So on the motion of Councilor Camuso for approval, all those in favor? All those opposed? The motion passes. 15556, communication from the mayor are revised on the motion of Councilor Camuso to table. All those in favor? All those opposed? Paper is tabled. The records of the last meeting of the Medford City Council were passed to Council on night, June 16, 2015. Councilor, your recommendation, please.
[Adam Knight]: It's with great happiness that I would recommend that the minutes of last week's meeting be approved, Mr. President.
[Fred Dello Russo]: and then on your motion for adjournment. I'll give you the motion for adjournment. Thank you, councillors.
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