[Justin Tseng]: you Okay, I told her that she emailed me and then I called her. I was like, she asked me if we could do something else. She was like, never mind. And you put me on the agenda. So I was like, yeah, sure.
[Unidentified]: Check my wanted.
[Zac Bears]: We're just waiting for the microphone.
[Unidentified]: I'm seated. Justin, could you help Kevin? Could you help Kevin? OK. This will be for whoever's at the director.
[Zac Bears]: Yeah, we're gonna start the meeting. We're gonna take the role. I'm gonna read the resolution, and then we'll turn it over to you all. City Council 10th regular meeting may 27 2025 is called to order Mr. Clerk, please call the role.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Council Callahan. I see Council President calls. Councils are Council Leming, Councilor Scarpelli Council saying, President Bears present seven present none absent please rise to salute the floor.
[Zac Bears]: Announcements, accolades, remembrances, reports, and records. 25-089 offered by Councilor Tseng. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council congratulate the Medford High School Orchestra and the Medford Middle School String Ensemble on winning gold medals at the prestigious Massachusetts Instrumental and Chorus Conductors Association Concert Festival. Be it further resolved that the Medford City Council offer commendations to the Medford High School Orchestra and invite them to perform at this meeting. The further resolve of the member city council made the public to the school committees June 9 meeting where the Medford middle school string ensemble will perform and receive commendations Councilor Tseng.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you, President Bears. I'll be very brief, briefer than I was planning on, because I'm the, you know, our students have been waiting for a while to perform for us and the music will speak for them for itself. Art is such a vital part of who we are as a Medford community. It was a vital part of my childhood growing up and being part of the high school orchestra was a foundational memory of my high school experience. I know that these kids have worked so hard and they deserve this gold medal so much. And I'm just so happy that we're able to hear from them today. Before I turn it over to them, I should also note that the school committee will be honoring the middle school string ensemble at their June 9th meeting as well. So they'll get their accommodations there. With all that being said, I'll hand it over to the orchestra.
[Sophia Chang]: Thank you Medford Council for arranging this event to recognize our students hard work and achievement. I'm just very, very proud of the achievement. I felt very connected to my students. And thank you all administrators and especially parents for your support, for your continued unwavering support. I'm greatly grateful. So they will perform a selection from the MICA program without conductor. Finale from St. Paul's Suite. Enjoy it.
[Unidentified]: uh
[Sophia Chang]: Ask them how they stay together. They listen with their eyes and they hear with, they watch with their ears. Thank you. It's such a, it's very enjoyable to work with the students. And thank you, thank you for your beautiful playing.
[Zac Bears]: All right. Thank you so much. We'd love to hear more. I'm going to introduce Councilor Tseng up here to read off the student names and folks can come through. We'll come down here and we'll shake everyone's hand as they come through and then we'll take a photo with you. But do you have more music first? Is there any more music to be played or? Is that the only song? Okay. I don't want to put you on the spot. Everyone just looks very ready. Councilor Tseng.
[Justin Tseng]: Thanks. Thank you, President Bears. We on the city council have prepared certificates, commendations for you guys. I will read out everyone's names and we'll hand them out to you guys after. But yeah, thank you for that wonderful playing. I know all of us are very moved here on the city council when we get the honor of having you here. So from violin one, And in our high school string orchestra, we have Lincoln Bell, Justin Cho, Maggie Fowler, Samuel Keith, Mary Schmidt. In violin two, we have Nikki Chow, Safran Jacobs, Eliana Lam, Kyle Tam, Vasiramirez Alvarez, Jayden Ville. In violin, or viola, we have Mai Hughes, Leanne Lam, William Malone, in Kiana Tran. And in cello, we have the Maya Aman, Owen Barzak-Kroll, Kira Huynh, Wesley Kwong, Karina Lewis, Caleb Strauss, Christina Joselagi, Jaden Wu. And in double bass, we have Kelvin Lee and August Velasco. Thank you all for your beautiful playing. Thank you all for your hard work for our city, for making us so proud of you. And congratulations on this huge award. Please come up and receive your awards and we'll get a picture of everyone together too. Yeah, feel free to fill in the middle space.
[Unidentified]: If you come through this way, we'll all gather here and try to take a photo of you. Yeah. I'm sorry.
[Jeremy Martin]: Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Thank you, everyone. Justin.
[Zac Bears]: You need these. Oh, you're gonna have to chase it. All right, thank you everyone. Much appreciated. All right, on the motion of Councilor Tseng to approve seconded by seconded by Councilor Collins. Mr. Clerk, please call the role.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Council, Council Kelly.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Vice President Collins. Councilor Kelly. Yes.
[Zac Bears]: Councilor Tseng, President Bears yes have the affirmative, none of the negative emotion passes. The motion of Council, I'm going to take the paper under suspension, seconded by Councilor Tseng, let's please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Council Kelly. Yes. Vice President Collins Council is our council lemon Council Scarpelli Council saying present bears.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, I mean from the negative emotion passes so we'll take 25092, and 25-039. 25092 offered under suspension by Council Leming, resolution for the City of Medford to commemorate those who gave their lives in service to their country this Memorial Day, whereas Medford is home to many veterans and as well as their families and descendants who dutifully served their country throughout its history, whereas Medford is honored to be the final resting place of many men and women who gave their lives in military conflicts, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and Operation Enduring Freedom. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council commemorate Memorial Day to honor our veterans and all those who support them. Councilor Leming.
[Matt Leming]: Thank you, Council President. So, folks may have noticed that I've been absent for the past two weeks from City Council meetings. I was over in Virginia on reserve orders and I was happy to come back to Medford's annual Memorial Day celebration in the Oak Grove Cemetery yesterday. And that is always one of my favorite events that I get to partake in in this job, because going there and seeing the folks who show up, it's not only the veterans who come, but it is the descendants of the veterans. It is the people who have veterans and their families. A lower portion of the population these days tends to serve in the military because we don't have as many large scale wars like World War II. But what I did see is, you know, a guy came up to me and he just told me a story about how his uncle and father both left their welding jobs to join the Marines in World War II. And it mattered a lot to him. He just talked to me about it for a couple of minutes. And after I spoke, another woman came up to me and she said that her grandfather had been responsible for a lot of the, sorry, no, her father had been responsible for a lot of the statues in the Oak Grove Cemetery. He was a sculptor and he was also a veteran as well. And it was clear just how much that history meant to all the folks in Medford. And it's, I had much better words for this yesterday, I feel like, but just speaking off the cuff about it, it's always an honor to partake in, to partake in those, in those events. And I always, I just always love to have opportunities to remember the history of the country and the way that we send masses off, many of whom don't make it back. But it's also an honor to remember the accomplishments that we've had on those masses. America gained its independence on the lives of service members. It was on the lives of service members that we ended slavery. was on those lives that we and many of our allied nations defeated the Axis powers during World War II. And they continue to serve. So I just like to take this opportunity to have this body do its own very small part in commemorating their lives and I'd like to thank everybody for, like to thank everybody for listening to me. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Leming. Councilor Tseng and then Councilor Lazzaro.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you. I wanted to thank Councilor Leming for putting this on the agenda and to thank him for his really meaningful words yesterday. It's important that our residents see ourselves reflected in the things that we celebrate as a city and the things that we recognize as a city. So many Medford residents have given their lives and, you know, even put their lives on the line for our country, for the ideals that we hold together, for freedom, for justice for all. for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and these really, I think, unifying values that, as a country, I think we need to take a deep look at and embrace. And as our veteran service director said yesterday in her wonderful remarks at the ceremony too, it's time to remember those who gave their life for their conscience, for serving a country with those ideals. And I found that very meaningful. So I wanted to thank, again, thank you, Councilor Leming for putting this on the agenda and thank our Veteran Services Department for all they do day in, day out for residents.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Lazzaro.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I also wanted to thank Councilor, Leming for bringing this up and for speaking yesterday I was traveling this weekend so I couldn't attend the ceremony but I'm glad there's an opportunity to commemorate Memorial Day at this meeting, I was actually spending the weekend with an active duty. member of the military, she's in the army. She had a really tough childhood and is now an infectious disease PhD, serving in the army and protecting our country right now. Something Councilor Leming and I talked about this weekend was that the military in the United States provides a lot of people with some things you wouldn't necessarily expect, which is economic mobility and a pathway to improve your station in a way that is still challenging for a lot of people. And that is something that it provided for my grandfather when he served in World War II. And then because of the GI Bill, he was able to buy a triple-decker in Worcester and raise a family there. Even though he was a mailman for the rest of his life. So he was a really a government worker, all the whole time. But nobody in my family. was killed in action. But when I first met my husband, we've been married for 15 years, this was quite a while ago. He, one of his friends from college, they were orientation leaders together and he was in the ROTC and immediately joined the military and was deployed to Afghanistan. And like a couple of weeks after I met my husband, he went to this kid, this child, he was like 24, he was killed in Afghanistan. and he was at his funeral. And we talk about him a lot, especially around Memorial Day and how hard that must have been for his family, but how dedicated he was to serving his country. And I think it's really important that we continue to remember him and remember the sacrifices that are made and what the sacrifices are made for. And I really appreciate Councilor Leming bringing this forward and reminding us. So thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears Thank you, Councilor Leming for bringing this forward and thank you for representing the city council at the Memorial Day event. Yesterday, I'm very grateful for holidays on the calendars like these which give us a reason to collectively, remember and celebrate the veterans in our lives and remember those who have passed away. I think it's evident most people have. You know, some people have military experience they are themselves veterans most people have a veteran in their family or amongst their circle of loved ones, and it strikes me that. It's so important to have these opportunities to collectively reflect on what that means and to be prompted to think about what remembering means when we're remembering people that we love who have passed away because they're members of the armed forces. Or just to try to reflect on what that means for those people who do have a veteran experience, something that we should do, not just once a year. but all the time as veterans can't help but do. For myself, my two grandfathers both served in World War II, and I know they had experiences so traumatic that they never spoke about them for the rest of their lives. I think about that so often. I think that Memorial Day is an important reminder of what we owe to veterans and people who have sacrificed for various reasons. What they continue to sacrifice and the lived experiences and memories that they don't reflect on once a year, they reflect on all the time. And I'm grateful to be in a city where we think about what that means for us for the other 364 days of the year, and how we can uplift life in our community for people who come from that background and people who have served and sacrificed in every ways, and especially in this. most total way. So thank you for putting this resolution forward. I am glad that we as a community are observing Memorial Day on the day I'm glad that we talked about it. The Tuesday after, I'm really grateful to have a veteran services director who is doing such ambitious work on behalf of veterans in our community. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Mr. President Collins Yes, thank you, Councilmember for putting this resolution forward. and for representing the council and thank you to our veteran services office and the mayor and her team and all of the volunteers from post 45 and everyone else who makes what happened yesterday. Kevin, I could, the band, I could go on and on and on. That event doesn't happen without a lot of people. And, you know, in my family, I mean, I have a cousin right now who's in the Air Force, but really the when I think about the sacrifice that people make. In my family, those sacrifices were in the World Wars, in World War I and World War II. And I think often on Memorial Day about Gettysburg Address. And I'm also very much drawn in this moment to Why we asked people to make sacrifices and what were they sacrificing their lives for. And, you know, Franklin Roosevelt speech in 1940 before the war about. building the arsenal of democracy to fight fascism stands with me in a very strong way. It has for a long time, but especially now, so many people gave their lives to fight fascism and far right extremism and genocide and these things that are just inhuman. We need to honor that memory. So thank you for putting this resolution on on the motion of Council I mean to approve second by Councilor Collins was to please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes. Vice President Collins console is our council lemon Councilors Scarpelli counter saying President Bears, yes, the affirmative, negative, the motion passes.
[Zac Bears]: fiscal year 2026 budget submission submitted by Mayor Brando current. May 22 2025 to the Honorable President members of the Medford City Council fiscal year 26 budget submissions dear President Bears and the members of the City Council, pursuant to Massachusetts general law chapter 44 section 32, I respectfully request and recommend the city council approve the proposed fiscal year 2026 general fund budget and water and sewer enterprise fund budget the total submitted appropriation for all departments including schools over the board for both the general fund and enterprise fund. is $235,093,352. For the general fund, we have the assessing department $644,812, legislative $307,359, executive $690,388, finance $880,135, Treasury 780,059 Law 525,228 Information Technology 360,257 City Clerk 408,686 Elections 385,466 Licensing Commission $5,800. Conservation Commission $7,500. Planning Development and Sustainability $917,163. Community Development Board $10,100. Zoning Board of Appeals $12,500. Historic District Commission $5,000. Historical Commission $35,000. Medford Community Media $215,061. Hormel Commission $5,400. Bicycle Commission, 1500. Building Department, 1,057,806. Electrical Department, 752,094. Facilities Department, 2,098,129. Police Department, 15,177,397. Traffic Supervisors, 370,500. Traffic Commission $30,500. Fire Department $15,802,494. Civil Defense $9,840. Parking Enforcement $1,059,740. Recreation Department $641,373. Medford Public Library $2,231,939. Department of Public Works Highway Division $13,949,161. Department of Public Works Cemetery Division $1,071,342. Department of Public Works Parks Division $964,765. Department of Public Works Engineering Division $719,082. Department of Public Works Forestry Division $624,615. Department of Health, $955,579. Council on Aging, $210,057. Department of Human Resources, $320,493. Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, $129,911. Department of Veterans Services, $448,716. Contractual agreements $1,000,575,000 workers compensation insurance $928,000 health insurance three health and other insurance $31,105,000. pensions $16,767,540 bonds and interest $5,060,178 education Medford public schools $85,490,000 for a total general fund proposed budget of $205,748,665. And to meet these appropriations, the sum of $205,200,573.76 to be raised and appropriated from the fiscal year 2026 tax levy and other general revenues of the city, and that $105,300 be transferred from the sale of cemetery lots, $257,756.40 be transferred from the cemetery perpetual care funds, and $185,034.84 be transferred from casino mitigation funds. Further, we have the Enterprise Fund, Water and Sewer Enterprise Budget, $26,996,930. Water and Sewer Bonds and Interests, $2,336,757. Further, that $29,333,687 be funded by anticipated revenue of the Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. We're gonna let go current mayor. We'll hear from the mayor in just a moment. And just to give introduction to the process, we did hear from some of our departments earlier tonight, as well as the Metro Public Schools. We have had six preliminary budget meetings going over all of our departments. The council issued a series of recommendations to the mayor last month after our first preliminary budget meetings. And what will happen from here is we will take consideration of the budget. likely not finally voting at this meeting, but voting at a future meeting. There will be some other associated papers for budgeted transfers and other items. And once we complete our process, then the school committee will take back up their budget based on the allocation finally voted here by the city council. And with that, I'll introduce the mayor, Breanna Lugo-Kirk.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, President Bears and city council. Before I begin, I just want to let you know Councilor Leming and got an email today about how wonderful your remarks were yesterday so I figured I'd let you know that publicly. And thank you for all the team. Good evening and thank you President Bears and Councilors for allowing me some time to speak to you about the fiscal year 26 budget. Also, thank you for meeting with each department over the last several weeks to review each budget individually. Before I begin, I must take this opportunity to thank everybody who contributed to completing this budget and delivering it to your honorable body by the newly established deadline per the budget ordinance that you established. Compiling this comprehensive breakdown of the city's financial outlook took countless hours of preparation, debate, and insight from our department heads and our budget team, led by finance director Bob Dickinson, our former assistant finance director and budget director Courtney Cordello, and my team in the mayor's office, led by Chief of Staff Nina Nazarian, who is here with me tonight. I also want to give credit to our Communications Director Steve Smearty and Communications Specialist Emma Tombley for putting in so many hours of work on the nitty gritty aspects of the budget book that tend to get overlooked. Their work is invaluable, and will hopefully lead us to a third Distinguished Budget Award from the Government Finance Officers Association, after having received the award again last year for our fiscal year 25 budget. It's a recognition we all, including this Council, I'm sure are extremely proud of. Though sadly, this is the last budget that Courtney works on with us. She is moving on to another position, but was gracious enough to stay on on a limited basis to assist with completing the compilation of this budget and allow time for our new assistance finance director to get acclimated to the role. Thank you, Courtney, for all your hard work. You will be missed. We enter fiscal year 26 in a somewhat familiar yet also much more secure position than previous budget cycles. Due to years of sound fiscal management coupled with newly injected revenue from the successful override votes last November, we're able to maintain our levels of service across our departments and also make targeted investments in key areas. That's not to say compiling and navigating this budget has been easy or without its hard decisions. It only means that for the first time in a while, we are not in need of right-sizing the budget with federal dollars or cash reserves. This is partially due to the support the community has shown for the two ballot questions voted on this past fall. Despite our community approving two proposed Proposition 2.5 ballot questions last fall, I want to make clear that we are not managing our finances as though we suddenly have a windfall and can spend as freely as some of our more affluent neighboring cities. Instead, we are still bound by our tax revenue and are making targeted investments that will have the most long-term impact without over leveraging our operating budget. One key investment is in our engineering department, which is carrying an extremely high workload, with infrastructure maintenance increasing by roughly 400%. To help alleviate this burden, we had to have to hire a new position to the team that will assist with managing capital improvement projects on and under our streets and sidewalks. This is just the beginning of a multi-year plan to decrease the backlog of much needed upgrades throughout the city. The upgrades will consist of water main upgrades in low pressure areas, street and sidewalk work, lead line removals in our environmental justice designated areas, removal of sewer inflow and infiltration and localized drainage improvement in flood prone areas. There's hundreds of millions of dollars worth of work needed, so it is imperative we have a staff to manage it all next year in the years to come. Our streets are highly traveled both by cars and pedestrians, which is why improving safety measures for all modes of transportation is also extremely important. In collaboration with MassDOT, we've advanced plans to reconstruct high crash intersections along Main Street, specifically where it intersects with South Street, Mystic Valley Parkway, Route 16 ramps, and Mystic Avenue. This project will reduce vehicle speeds while also improving ADA-compliant sidewalks and curb ramps, and add separate and buffered bike lanes, all in an effort to enhance accessibility and deliver a safer travel experience. In addition to the work done on the city side, the fiscal year 26 budget reflects a strategic investment in education is funding focuses on maintaining staffing levels and evaluating needs across the backdrop of an extension to the instructional day. Additionally, we're addressing critical infrastructure needs. With the city council support the school committee has advanced repairs for the Andrews and McGlynn schools, targeting malfunctioning HVAC systems, as well as security and it upgrades throughout our entire district. These efforts are part of a broader initiative to ensure safe and conducive learning environments for our students. The school budget is almost always the most difficult one to develop, as there are several critical needs throughout our educational system, like the ones I just mentioned. But there are also significant challenges like the rise in costs that require not only hard decisions but comprehensive financial planning by both the school administration, city council, school committee and city hall. The Medford public school fiscal year 26 budget reflects a significant increase over of over $9.5 million supported by state aid, equating to an over 12.6% rise compared to fiscal year 25. This increase is primarily driven by heightened expenses and special education, particularly in transportation and tuition, which have substantial rate hikes. The district anticipates a $557,000 increase to transportation costs due to a new special education transportation contract. Both the schools in the city are also facing a significant rise in operational expenses. Healthcare costs for city employees are projected to increase by 10% again this year, potentially consuming revenue from new growth of approximately $2.5 million and forcing us to reevaluate investments in programming and services. This is not unique to Medford. Healthcare costs are rising across the country, but it certainly is a challenge that we must overcome in the upcoming fiscal year. Despite budget constraints, we are still making incredible progress across so many areas that are driving our growth. We are making significant investment in several core city systems, maintaining as much service as possible and providing a sustainable roadmap for future big ticket expenditures like a new Medford High School. We're continuing to make more substantial investments in our library and increasing its budget by nearly 5% with the support of state aid. Our continued commitment to prioritizing the needs of our library has allowed everyone in our community to gain more access to the resources and programs that our fabulous library offers. As I said, the workload at the fleet, the feet of our team in the engineering department is immense. And that undoubtedly overlaps with the work being done by our staff in the Department of Public Works. We're increasing the DPW's budget by nearly $1.2 million, which will help keep up with increased costs and services, as well as give us more flexibility as we continue to address stump removal, tree pruning and repair, as well as updates to our aging water infrastructure and improvements in accessibility and pedestrian mobility in our squares and green spaces. In addition to investing in our public infrastructure, we're also been working to enhance and upgrade many of our public spaces for the community to utilize and enjoy. Gillis Park is one of many that opened last year. Carr Park phase two renovation is being worked on with the dog park already open for the public to enjoy. We're wrapping up a project at Morrison Park to upgrade the fencing and dugouts. Logan Park is getting a facelift with a new pathway, natural play area and a tree sculpture. I thank the team in our Office of Planning, Development and Sustainability, along with the staff at Medford Recreation for working so diligently on all these projects and many more. With so many wonderful upgrades to our public spaces, it's important that we ensure our team and recreation are properly equipped and staffed appropriately. To ensure this, we are adding a part-time office manager to offset some of the duties from our full-time staff to allow them to focus on expanding our programming including our inclusive programming and developing more accessible youth and young adult activities. This past year, we also unveiled our newly universal accessible schoolyard at the McGlynn School. The playground goes above Federal American with Disabilities Act accessibility standards and was designed and built with input from stakeholders well-versed in accessibility play structures. We're continuing to work towards goals laid out in our Climate Action and Adaptation Plan and are committed to making sustainable practices more accessible for our residents. To add to this endeavor, we have partnered with Garbage to Garden to launch a free municipal curbside composting program for eligible residents. Now, nearly a year into the launch, the program is widely accessible and convenient, making it easy for residents to participate in creating a greener, more sustainable future. To date we have nearly 6700 active participants enrolled and are well positioned to hit our goal of 10,000 signups by the end of fiscal year 26. I'm grateful to our team in the Office of Prevention and Outreach and the Board of Health for once again receiving a municipal vulnerability preparedness grant. of $750,000 to fund our exemplary Medford Connects program. This program was designed to help connect our most vulnerable residents to essential city resources and funds a wide variety of programs and events throughout the city, including our amazing multilingual and multicultural community engagement team. Our MVP project has been such a success that is the model that the state uses for other cities to repeat. Building off the work and guidance of our MedFedConnects team, our nearly $1 million grant from the federal government to transform the Hagener Center into a municipal vulnerability preparedness site, as well as a facility for after school programming, is moving forward full steam ahead. Our team is compiling the materials needed to submit to HUD and working with Congresswoman Clark's office to ensure this project is completed. While emergency preparedness is an essential sector of our work and prevention and outreach. There are many in our community who need resources and mental health supports right now. That's where a social worker and recovery team comes in and works in tandem with our connectors and liaisons to direct those in need with resources and programs that can get them the assistance they need to thrive. Our electrify Medford program is up and running making gains throughout the community strengthening support specifically for underrepresented and underserved residents interested in decarbonizing their homes and vehicles through energy efficiency, solar and electrification of heating, water heating appliances and electric vehicles. The team has been out walking the streets to raise awareness for the program is in set in setting up coaching sessions to help people navigate their heating and cooling needs. As part of our commitment to residents we are always looking for ways to expand diversity equity inclusion throughout our city and create an environment of belonging for the entire community. DEI has been working with human resources to update best practices for recruiting, interviewing, and hiring. Due to this work, the city has been able to recruit, hire, and retain highly qualified, diverse candidates for a variety of city positions. This team also hosts trainings and other professional development opportunities to ensure employees have the tools they need to uphold our values and mission, something that will be enhanced and continued through fiscal year 26. Our DEI office has also made a concerted effort to equip many events with ASL interpreters, enabling those in our community who use sign language to better engage with city services and programming. On the development side, our plan to revitalize and activate Medford Square near Clippership Drive has taken a major step forward. We have selected development company transcom real estate as a partner in the city's project to transform three underdeveloped undeveloped city on lots behind city hall into a combination of mixed use retail and residential with ample parking for our seniors and Chevalier theater. The project as proposed will combine the creation of market rate and affordable housing anchored with a 13,500 square foot grocery store, all in the context of a village square environment that prioritizes the pedestrian experience with beautiful public art and landscaping. This proposal dynamically addresses the city's multifaceted objectives outlined in the RFP. creating a vibrant new community hub in Medford Square that is consistent with the objectives in the city's comprehensive plan. We will make further adjustments and improvements to this proposal, as well as negotiate a final land lease agreement over the next several months. And the final agreement will be presented to the city council for consideration and approval. With the activation of the square underway, the next logical step is to expand our pedestrian paths along the Mystic River waterfront. The Clipper Ship Connector is opening this summer, according to the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and will create a path that connects over 10 miles of continuous greenways along the waterfront. In 2025, we continue to embrace public art as a means to enrich our community spaces, foster local identity, and engage residents across generations. A series of mural projects and public art initiatives have been launched throughout the city, reflecting Medford's commitment to creativity, inclusivity, and civic pride. In the past year, we've also seen our art scene flourish with over 2,500 cultural events, more than double the amount six years ago. In fiscal year 25 we saw the opening of one of the most anticipated restaurants and event spaces, with the unveiling of the great American beer hall, the 17,000 square foot space is already a destination for our region, and is has contributed heavily to expanding our commercial tax base. While focusing on our commercial development is critically important to both our growth and expanding our tax base. We are also deeply, deeply focusing on working to help solve the housing crisis that is afflicting, not just Medford but the greater Boston region, the Commonwealth in the country. We are actively addressing housing affordability, along with the council's help through a multifaceted strategy that combines funding mechanisms, the city council zoning reforms and development initiatives to expand access to affordable housing. Through successful negotiation, we gain leverage with our 40 B developers to bring more community benefits to the planning process, like better pedestrian accessibility, reduction of potential traffic congestion, more open space, more access to public transportation, and more affordable housing units with a priority for Medford residents. We're making a concerted effort to care for and support our sizable veteran population through a number of comprehensive programs and projects. As we all know, housing is at a premium and especially challenging to afford for our veterans, many of whom rely on financial assistance from a host of government agencies. That's why I'm proud of the work being done by the City Council, the Veterans Service Office, and for the successful passage of the Landlord Incentive Program. This initiative offers landlords up to $750 annually for renting to qualified Medford veterans. Administered in collaboration with the nonprofit housing families, the program seeks to reduce barriers veterans face in securing housing, such as credit challenges or income discrimination. By encouraging landlords to provide stable housing options, it's our hope that we're able to facilitate successful reintegration of veterans into civilian life in our community. And as I'm sure you all know, this was a brief overview, I will stop soon, of all the work we all have done over the past year and the investments we've made that will help build on the vision we share and the work that we'll continue to do into fiscal year 26. Everything we do, of course, is not linked to one department or a handful of staff, but felt across our entire workforce and undoubtedly linked to all the work you do here in the chamber. Our city is at its best when we collaborate and lean on one another for insight advice and constructive criticism. I'm proud of everything we've accomplished together and I look forward to our continued partnership and teamwork. Thank you for allowing me the time. I know I'm always lengthy but thank you for allowing me the time and I'm here to Nina Nazarian chief of staff and I are here to answer any questions you may have of myself.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Mayor, do we have questions for the mayor on the budget submission. Councilor Leming.
[Matt Leming]: This is something that, full disclosure, I already brought up to Nina before the meeting, but we have been working with a number of parents on this exact issue, so I would like to have some public discussion on it. I'll also acknowledge that I was absent from the meeting that this council had with Kevin Bailey. But so I do very much appreciate the addition of the office manager position part-time for 20, I believe 27,500 to the Medford rec department. The concern I had, especially working with the parents who really do want to see, who really do want to see afterschool programs for their kids. And I'd also like to Thank Councilor Scarpelli as well for his, for his work on on this is that we, the, the impression I got was that an additional full time therapeutic recreation specialist would really help out. in actually making these programs a reality just in the sense that they did need that is my impression that Kevin really did need more staffing in order to do that with the ambition being that it would that they would end up founding a more regional program and collaboration with. Malden and Somerville as well. And my fear is that although the office manager is a big addition because it takes a lot of work off of Kevin's hands that they might need more staffing to make that a reality. So I'd appreciate any conversation about that as well as just future plans for how those parents could be served in the future.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sure, sure. Thank you for the question console let me thank you all for advocating for additional staffing and recreation I know the city school committee is also working on enhancements in the school department. And I think we're definitely glad the parents did come speak to the council. I was lucky to be joined by Councilor Scarpelli and Chief of Staff Nina Nazarian with a few parents last week to for me to better understand the needs, because I saw it as more need for more teen program. inclusive programming. And then I also see it as the age range that is aging out of high school so you know that 2122 to 25 year olds that also need support and inclusive programming so what we are doing is adding the office, we're doing a few things. First, I think Somerville Malden and Medford for working together you see these collaborations throughout the state and they do work. So Medford I know Kevin is big with aquatics Danny has his specialties. And so being able to work with Medford Somerville and Malden, we should be able to have a full range of offerings for our young adults 13 through 25 plus. We also are implementing that part time office managers to free up the three full time staff we do have that actually create and administer the programming. And I think that will alleviate a lot of the nitty gritty work that is done on the computer, hours and hours a day, so that they can offer and create ways to create more programming. I'm also hearing from the parents like yourselves that they do hope that, and I didn't really hear it till last week, I thought it was more REC, but I think they're looking for somebody in the city to kind of oversee all inclusive programming, like find out what's going on in the library, what's going on in REC, what's going on at our senior center. So there's one central person that's kind of overseeing it and make sure we're offering needs from zero to our seniors. So what we have, what I'm going to do is I sent an email to a whole list of staff members, our DEI office, our connectors program, we do have a connector, her name's June. She's a connector for our seniors and persons with disabilities. So I'm going to kind of bring that team together and try to make sure that somebody takes the lead and whether it's June or somebody in DEI, just to make sure we have some oversight over every department and make sure we're offering as much as we possibly can along with the partnership with Malden and Somerville. So I think we do have some staffing that we can tap into, some monthly coordinated meetings that aren't happening now between departments, and we can make sure we're accomplishing those goals for the parents that have reached out to all of us. So yes, I mean, you see the budget. We're taking in a few, remaining positions in different ways, like 10% here or there for different positions. in planning, but our budget we were able to increase by 1.5 plus the new library position that we're using, you know, work conveniently with Barbara and do a new children's librarian, but there really isn't room in the budget to add five, 10, 15 positions. So we're do our best to listen to all department heads, figure out what the needs are. And I think we're gonna make great progress with that additional 0.5 and the current city staff and the partnership. for all of our residents that need more inclusive programming. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Really appreciate your presentation. And just want to thank you and your staff, Chief of Staff Nazarian, Finance Director Bob Dickinson, and everybody else who I know worked really hard to put this together. And thank you for the ongoing collaboration with the budget ordinance. It is really great to get a budget proposal with a really comfortable amount of time to continue to absorb and digest and discuss everything that goes along with it so that's been a really wonderful evolution to get to participate in over the past few years. Thank you very much for your partnership on that.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you for creating the budget ordinance I think it's given us a tie like almost a timeline so it's helped us collaborate but it's also been helpful on our side to really come a long way.
[Unidentified]: We have.
[Kit Collins]: Yeah, I think it helps all of us when we have a structure that we can mutually rely on and predict. And I think that's a great example of the collaboration that you were talking about in your closing remarks. I think residents love good TV, but I think residents love more to see different branches of government collaborating. Good things happen we collaborate, even when it's hard it's so much better than we do when we do think the creation of the stabilization funds last year and the passage of question seven and eight are just wonderful evidence of that and it's great to see those bearing fruit in this year's budget proposal. In regards to the budget proposal that you've introduced us to tonight I think we're off to a really good start. This is an operating budget that does not significant really sorry significantly rely on one time funding, which, you know, we've all been through the past few fiscal years together. And that is a really refreshing thing to respond to. That's a product of a lot of hard work by a lot of people in City Hall on your team and a lot of people on this council, and the hard work of everybody who campaigned for the overrides and the willingness of the majority of Medford voters to say yes to investing in our schools and our shared infrastructure. The passage of questions seven and eight directly allowed us to fund new positions within the DPW and to balance the school's budget, meaning that we do not have to balance this on forced district-wide personnel cuts, which I'm gonna say a couple of times this evening, because I'm just so happy about it. It's really great. And we have a little bit further to go on the school's budget, as we know from the presentation earlier, but it's great to see that number become more and more approachable. For me, as we collaboratively put ARPA and ESSER further and further into the rear view, I think all of us we want to see Medford operate sustainably we want to see it emerge from austerity bunch budgeting. We want to fund our infrastructure and our services the way that residents deserve. We want to begin to make bolder and bolder strides on our capital needs and sustainably add capacity to our operating budgets at the same time. So given the hard work and the very genuine progress that we have made on stabilizing the operating budget in the last fiscal year. I think that now is a really important opportunity to emphasize the capital investments side. In the past several years we have seen the city's free cash reserves amass and we've done great work together in allocating that in really intentional specific ways into our various stabilization funds. I think that now is the time to go even further and we've talked about this we talked about this collaboratively with the financial task force. And I think that a really exciting and really important accompaniment to the passage of the fiscal 26 budget proposal this year will be. a specific plan for allocating much of the remainder of our free cash reserves into our various stabilization accounts of which we have several, due to the passage of a couple more that we collaborated on last year for myself as one Councilor won't speak for other Councilors even though I know a lot of us feel the same way it is a really happy occasion to get to translate that ever annoying and confusing term free cash into being able to say, we are investing this amount of money in this fund because we use it for this purpose and be able to speak to the questions and the concerns that residents bring to all of us around and say, we know We hear you, it's been in the capital improvement plan and we are making this allocation for that purpose. I know this is something that you and your team and working hard on curious if you could speak a little bit more to how that is shaping up the timeline of that submissions that we can make sure these two things go hand in hand this year.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sure, sure. Yeah, we actually have a big whiteboard on the probably 25 to 30 papers we have to get before you in June between your two meetings, sorry. But some of those papers are capital expenses. I think there's a project or two for the schools. I know there's the nexus study that the councils in the Affordable Housing Trust has been asking for. So we're going to put that paper before you. We're also going to replenish the stabilization accounts. And I think what we'll end up seeing left on this, I'd like to call it a reserve fund, a rainy day emergency fund. We'll probably have about 10 to 12 left. So we will have a full updated pre-cash plan. My office did one right around the October timeframe, 2024. We'll have an updated chart for you along with all these papers before you in June. Great. Thank you. You're welcome.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Mayor. And we can talk about which ones are for the 10th and which ones are for the 24th. So, yes, we don't make you do them all in two weeks. Councilor Lazzaro and then Councilor Tseng.
[Emily Lazzaro]: My comment is a similar one. I just wanted to, again, thank you for the budget. Big, beautiful budget. I'm feeling a little loopy already. It's not even that late. I think it was the music. It was just really nice. The thing that I was really prioritizing when coming into this was public safety and hoping that we could allow the fire department after kind of a wonky sort of community relations moment to give a boost that would make everybody in the community, everybody in the fire department feel like we were reconnecting, we were moving forward in a way that was allowing the fire department to feel like they were able to be like really a cohesive, high morale, you know, a department with a leader that's really forward thinking and clear eyed about what needs to improve and how to do it. And sort of a first step in that direction was something that I talked with the chief about, which was the dive team. You and I talked about it. It's not in the budget, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to sort of talk about where there are avenues that we could, you know, access funds to pay for that. And there's an estimate that the chief has that is that the dive team would cost about $120,000. It's not entirely one time, but it really like, you know, it pays for dry suits, it pays for training. There are a few people that have started training on their own fully, like, you know, like started it with self funded because there was an incident in Medford, where a young man drowned and they couldn't, you know, we didn't have folks in our fighter department that had training, we didn't have the suits, we didn't have the boats, we didn't have like any of the equipment. And then after that, because we had to call in teams from that city, after that, a few people took it upon themselves to start, you know, a training program. So this estimate was for concluding the training, having a 12 person team, so that There would always be three people on rotation available at all times in a fire in like on staff, so it wouldn't be over time, it would just be always three people available to do to be on call and. the equipment. So $120,000, kind of one time, but it would be, you know, I think it's like 10 years down the line, you have to renew the suits, but it feels to me like that is something closer to one time than something that is in an operating budget on an ongoing basis. But I just wanted to, like, ask you what you think would be a way to access funds for something like that.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yep, thank you. Thank you for advocating and thank you for trying to help us help me and the chief, you know, build that relationship back we've made really good gains. We've had some great promotions recently so I'm chief Evans is off and running and doing, doing a really good job and I can tell the changes that are happening so appreciate you helping in any way you can as a Councilor. I think what we have what we're doing in June with the 25 papers or so. is my next step. And then I think I mentioned to a few of you that there is probably, you know, every other department is coming coming at us for to work on this capital improvement. We have 2 million in requests to be spent from the DPW. So what we're going to do, starting probably end of June into July is figuring out all those requests, including that one because we're taking it seriously. And not update fully our capital improvement plan. We have the call-in center come and do that, usually biannually, but we have to see where we're at, see what we have in the stabilization accounts, and make sure we're providing our departments with what they need. And that's included in my list. It's on my desk. I get free cash requests, I have papers for June, and then my July and August work. So I kind of take things in stages because we between my office and what all the work City Council's doing, I think we all have very, very full plate. So we're trying to take it one step at a time, but I'm glad we had that conversation and that's on my radar. So.
[Justin Tseng]: Great, thank you. Councilor Tseng. Thank you, Madam Mayor for coming and presenting this budget and being so thorough in your comments. I appreciate that crafting a budget is always tough. It requires making tough choices and saying yes and no to certain projects. I'm grateful, especially to the voters, but I'm grateful in general that this year we're in a better position than the previous years, certainly much smoother this year in my memory compared to previous years. And You know, I appreciate that we're truly making some historical, historic progress, especially in the schools, but, but, including investments in DPW and recovering what we've lost over, you know, decades of austerity. and making progress on that. Now, there's still a long way to go, and I think residents recognize that as well. We, as a city council, through the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee, put out a public feedback form with regards to what people were looking for from this budget. And through just the whole budget crafting process, we've received a lot of feedback. A lot of it is about infrastructure. and about improving roads, improving road safety for cyclists and pedestrians as well. And I think that's why in our city council budget recommendations, we included funding or requests for funding for an additional traffic engineer, for staff positions, for restriping, adjusting signal timing, patching potholes, and shrinking the repair backlog and also just more money to install and maintain road safety markings, signage and bike related equipment. I was wondering what progress we can expect to make this year with regards to those like infrastructure and traffic safety improvements, what we might not be able to get this year and how we can plan the budget for that going forward.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, I think one of the biggest things is the assistant traffic engineer and I may not have that title 100% perfectly, but I could be corrected corrected. It was held by somebody over a year ago and we have posted it twice. We just recently took that down and we're going to adjust it again. to try to fill that role that would be somebody under Todd and Owen and the engineering department for traffic related matters which are important to all of us I know I've seen you on the walks. And I know we have, you know, some. trouble spots that DCR, MassDOT are helping us with, but we need the in-house staff for the rest of our roads and the safety improvements that need to be made. We're progressively doing work on our streets and streets, but we could always use that second person. So Director Blake actually emailed me today to discuss the new job description. So we'll be meeting with him very soon. And I really hope to fill that position sometime over the summer. So that's, I think, I hope that answered part of your question I know the water sewer sidewalk, all the major projects like I said in my message 400% we are up on the work we are doing and the amount of engineers that we have. cannot handle that that amount of work so that is the one position that it wasn't even a, should we put this position and we, we had to to be able to maintain the projects that we have this construction season and that we have planned for next construction season and the construction seasons. After that, there's just between water and sewer work lead line replacement. streets sidewalks it's I think there's another something I'm missing but it's overwhelming it's hundreds of millions of dollars and it's it's overwhelming and we we are starting to message that we have an eight million dollar it's it's a loan but hopefully part of that will be a grant through the MWRA That 8 million will only touch 20% of our lead lines. So you're talking 50 million alone that needs to be spent on our lead lines to change them out throughout our entire community. And that takes personnel and we need that engineer. So, so we are making those investments we read your we read all of your requests, and we knew that was that was one of them streets and sidewalks we hear a lot, and on the management side, we're, we're working every day and I'm got a meeting scheduled you know just to make sure we're keeping up with see click fix and we're keeping up with managing our staff and things are getting done.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you. Obviously I think infrastructure is always an ongoing conversation so anything that you know what what goes through my mind is how can we plan long term to get those positions that we need and. Commissioner McIvern was here earlier today talking about how there's still positions in DPW, we need to fill. So I think a priority for this council now and going forward, especially, is about how can we make, how can we fill those positions, because it's so important to get the, you know, people in the office. I don't want to steal the thunder from Councilor Callaghan. I know she's been working on a volunteer tree planting program as well. And I was wondering what capacity we might have in this budget to get that off the ground.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I did meet with Councilor Callahan, it's been a little bit over a month and I loved her idea so I think, I think that too is on my list for capital. I think whatever additional money we want to meet our tree goals and now without being able to. invest ARPA funds into those additional trees that we need to plant. We've been doing consistently over 200 a year the last several years. I want to keep to that. So I would hope to have something before you over the summer to meet our tree goals.
[Justin Tseng]: Um, we also talked at our first committee the whole meeting about updating our financial software because we don't necessarily, the system that Medford uses is really archaic and it's, it's hard for people coming, you know, coming to Medford to work to use the system. It's also slowing down, you know, payments to workers and especially when we do retro, and that, you know, affects morale as well. I was wondering what we might be able to see in the upcoming year about getting us to a place where we maybe look at new options for software. I know Director Dickinson's kind of looked at options, it's a little pricey, but what can we expect in terms of long-term planning for something like that?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, I think, unfortunately, that was part of our free cash planning when we released that in October, and unfortunately the I think the money is the least of our worries, especially if the council wants to invest in it through a stabilization account or free cash. I think it's the staffing to implement something that takes two plus years. I'm not sure we have the capability to do everything that our finance team is doing and have somebody oversee that project currently. So next step would probably be to explore, and we've talked about it, be to explore whether it's a consultant or somebody to come on part-time to just fully manage implementing and changing over immunists. It's an endeavor that I know one or two cities that have done it and they'll just say how difficult it is, but I do know we need to get there.
[Justin Tseng]: Got it. That's a helpful answer. I think residents have also been asking about, protections for immigrants, especially at this time. And we have our non cooperation policy. But in we you know, I know, members of city staff are making various efforts to protect residents and inform you know, residents of what they're able to do. I was wondering what you could speak to in this budget about about protecting our immigrant neighbors?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sure, yes. I mean, that's top priority, especially what we've been seeing on the federal level. And we've been doing it. It's always screaming at the rooftops about it. No, but that's the connectors and liaisons. We have 12 people that speak a second language that are out in our community weekly meeting with residents from all over every neighborhood, our housing authorities, our senior center. They're out hosting events, and we are trying to build the trust. So if people have questions or concerns, we are giving them the right answers. We are passing out Know Your Rights cards. We also are having events. We had an immigration attorney speak last week. We also had an event for business owners so they know how to protect their staffs and themselves. So this stuff is happening. I also have a meeting with the Attorney General General's office, we meet bi weekly with the mayors and the Attorney General staff but I also have a meeting just set up just with myself and their two attorneys they actually booked it with me because I brought up, you know, how do I educate myself in knowing what we can and cannot do as a city what we should and shouldn't say and it would be really great to be able to provide the council in myself. information on what can and can't be done, because we want to do everything we can. I know we're bound by certain federal laws, but we still want to do, you know, we have a welcoming ordinance. I think everybody knows that we want to protect our innocent immigrant residents and that's, we have to do it.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you. And my last question, I promise. You mentioned the Hegner Centre for after school childcare, obviously a very important issue in our community, a really difficult one too, because it's not just about spending money, it's also about getting space and sorting out all the details. I was wondering, after the Hegner Centre, what can we do? Because as helpful as that's going to be, it won't solve all the childcare problems? Sure. And it's a regional problem as well. But I was wondering after that, what next steps are there as a city? What groundwork is being laid?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sure. Yes, I can actually, myself or I could have Dr. Galussi, superintendent of schools, send the presentation that we were given by Dr. Galussi, not yesterday, a week ago Monday. So she did a full presentation on all the work that her team including Megan Fidelicari, and I know one or two school committee members have been highly involved in, and they have a plan in place to increase afterschool programming within our schools. So it was very exciting to hear. There was a whole host of residents that were here to advocate, and they really just came up to the podium and said, thank you. So Dr. Galusi is taking that issue along with the school committee, especially several members that are I talk to a number of parents all the time. She's taking that issue as one of the biggest issues to solve, which I'm super excited about because I've been asking, can we just increase each school by 10 students a year? Can we set goals? And she has a plan to increase it quite a bit. I'm very excited about it. So we can send you that presentation because there's so much going on and everybody's trying to solve every problem here in the city between the school committee, school department. city and the council so we can get that to you.
[Justin Tseng]: Awesome. That'd be super helpful. Thank you for your time. Thank you for the council for entertaining my questions.
[Anna Callahan]: Thank you.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you. Councilor Callahan.
[Anna Callahan]: Thank you so much. And 1st, I just want to apologize for not being there in person. I am feeling pretty under the weather. Um, and in fact, I think I will probably drop off after this budget vote. Um, but, uh, but I also want to thank Councilor Tseng for, um, mentioning the tree planting the volunteer tree planting project and just give a tiny little update so that people understand and then ask 1 question. of the mayor as well, that the volunteer tree planting project is full steam ahead I have a team of dedicated volunteers who are working on it. We anticipate having our first pilot planting happened this fall, and we are working with trees Medford and you know, beginning to talk to folks in the administration. So I believe that that project is going to move forward. And Madam Mayor, I know that you had suggested when we met that the trees themselves, which is a relatively small part of the cost of planting trees, might come out of free cash when that happens. And I just wanted to see if that was still the plan.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes, that's what I mentioned, I think when Councilor Tseng ask the question that is I'm also on my list of free crap free cash requests, which we will be going through probably end of June into July so between the 25 papers we have to put before you in June that are kind of All we can handle right now, we're gonna continue to work through all the capital requests, all the requests in for funding, because there's something coming in from almost every department. We obviously need to make sure we're budgeting correctly and doing things in the proper years, but trees has been a huge goal of mine as well. So I thank you for taking this on. And I do plan on putting a paper before you, whether that's in June or July, to make sure we are reaching our tree planting goals.
[Anna Callahan]: Wonderful. I really appreciate that. And I'm also very, very excited to see the free cash and stabilization fund plans later this summer. Thank you so much. Thank you feel better.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thank you.
[George Scarpelli]: I'm going to shift in a different direction. I think that there's still a lot of pain in this community. And a lot has to go back from the beginning of the process of the override and how we got to this process and how people didn't feel like they were being listened to or being part of the solution to get involved. When you talk to the rank and file across the community, across all of our departments, You hear concerns that maybe what was mentioned in the schools, really, it's not hitting the schools they don't see much of a difference. When you see the streets and sidewalks. You don't see what was said I believe you said $500,000 would really um fix the pothole and sidewalk solutions and and it would help it would help it's not so as we're moving forward you're seeing these these issues that um have come up and we talk about funding issues and concerns something i've i've been bringing forward for years now the the cost of legal fees and seeing what's happening with our unions and the battles that are happening with lawsuits and arbitrations and hearings and not truly understanding and seeing the funding where our city's funds are being spent when you look at those situations. But I think the biggest piece is that I find alarming and it's great to hear that glowing reports, but when you see and hear Our residents really feel like they're not being listened to. I think it's important, whether it's the seniors talking about parking, I know you mentioned at the senior center and not feeling heard when it's with the new development that's coming in, or whether it's the override questions. that our residents were concerned about preparing them to take on such a hit when it came for increased taxes or with the charter questions that this council put forth and made some drastic changes to get it just put forth to the state. Or even now, I'm sure you're hearing with the concerns with the process and how we're working with the zoning and how people are scared that we're changing what Method looks like. So I think that there's a lot going on that I don't like. I've asked this council to vote on on a state audit to come in that this council will vote just to look at the processes of free cash and see what we were last year. And then meeting with the state auditors association and understanding the process through these professionals and understanding that a nine to $11 million free cash safety net for the city of Medford to maintain your bond rating and have enough money with the size and the budget that we have of our community that will be sustainable. And then you see $28 million of free cash. And now we're talking about all these different pockets that we're gonna be pooling, taking money out of, where free cash is budgeted money that this council voted on your request to move initiatives forward. And we see time after time, this huge surplus in free cash. And maybe it'll end, But we look at what's going on now. You're seeing under undermanned fire department. You're seeing undermanned funded DPW. You still have questions in the school department. You still have questions with streets and sidewalks. There are so many concerns that are happening. I know I'm the odd duck here bringing these concerns up. But these are concerns that we should look at and really re-evaluate and understand that someone needs to be listening to the residents of the city because this council is not doing it. And it falls on our mayor and our leader to do that. So I'm not too happy. There's too many gaps and too many concerns that haven't been answered to me when it comes to the budget. And I won't be supporting the budget, shockingly, I'm sure. But I just think that there are way too many people that aren't being listened to and I know the override is a is was a was a huge success for some but it was a very close vote and it really divided the community more than you think and a lot of people mostly our most vulnerable people in our community are feeling that pain today and they don't hear any resolutions, they don't see any resolve, they don't see an assistance to support them as they're making very difficult decisions in their lives today. So, again, I apologize that I, like my fellow colleagues, I'm not throwing roses at your feet and saying how wonderful this is, but, you know, my colleagues find it very difficult when you don't line up with what their philosophy or their views are. To me, I think sometimes things need to be said, even though it doesn't fit the narrative of seven. So, thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli.
[Zac Bears]: I just want to say one thing I for one don't think the mayor lines up with my ideology and views all that much but you know, we can still work together.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We do our best. Yeah, I guess I can address a few things I mean I have to, I have to stick up for the school override money. Member Graham and Member Ruseau negotiate the teacher contract. I believe, I think that's 2.5 million to extend the school day per year and they've done their job, and being part of the school committee I know very well that every dollar that we've spent on this override money has gone to exactly what we said it will go to. I know it's, I know there's people that are not happy with the override I know there's people that can't afford it. I, I understand that and I know who you're speaking for and you're who you're hearing from. But from a standpoint of where it's being spent, I can assure you it's being spent where we said it was going to be spent and it is positively affecting our students and our faculty. With regards to the DPW monies, we went through a process of That was 500,000. We needed more staffing we had to do the through the CBA we had to do internal postings first. I believe just recently, we have those three new crew members, and that's just recently. I never said that was going to fully fix our streets and sidewalks, it's not going to but to have another crew and have two crews out at the same time, especially around the time frame of Now until July until we get all the potholes fix until the next winter when they all get torn up, torn up again it's just a constant, constant issue but our dpw is is working hard and if they're not we are doing our best to manage. That's that. Okay, that's my. Okay. Pre cash we're at 23 million we just spent 5 million to offset 5 million of the $30 million bond we may use more, depending on where we are next year to offset that bond because the debt is going to be now 1.4 million we're going to have to pay back in the fiscal year 27 budget alone so we do between the financial task force and our outside audit we are making sure that we are doing right by the by the residents and Yes, that free cash will go down based on all the projects we have before us, Freedom Way alone just to repave it and do sidewalks soup to nuts is probably going to be $15 million, we have to do the new roofs at the Roberts Brooks and miss a tuck. That's going to be I think a few million each. I mean, and these are just projects that are continually coming up, we have to fix the heat in this building. We're going to have to use that. stabilization account next over the summer, it needs to be fixed because people need to work. So there's just project after project in a city that's built when it was built and facilities that were built when they were built. And now it's finally paying attention over the last several years of for facility maintenance. There's a lot of work to do a lot of spending we need to do, just like, just like I said if we're down to 23 and dpw has requested almost 2 million on machinery and equipment. That is just one department of the many that need equipment and capital expenses that we need to fund over the next several months. Our fire department, we're hiring 12. I know that you're aware, Chief Evans and the team must have told you. So we are gonna be much better staffed. Thankfully, we're going through that process. I guess that's it for comments on those, but I hear you. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Vice President Collins. I'm just going to go to Vice President Collins and I'll come back to you.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you. I want to keep the focus of our discussion on the operating budget proposal. And I don't want to rehash disagreements that we've had a billion times. But since this has come up a couple times tonight, I do think it's important to correct the record. Nobody ever said that $500,000 to the DPW is going to wave a magic wand and fix every road and sidewalk in Medford. We shouldn't pretend that that's what any department said, department head said last year. That's not the case. That money that the residents of Medford voted to invest in our DPW capacity is to bring more of the labor of continually fixing those roads and sidewalks in-house so we can have city employees doing the work of day in, day out, year in, year out, fixing our roads and sidewalks. It is misinformation to say that voters should have expected every road and sidewalk to be fixed because questions seven and eight were approved. That is a fact. That is what everybody has been saying since last summer. And I think that we should I think it is fine and good to have disagreements about what we are funding and how in the city, but I think that we're all better than having to rely on misinformation to do that part of the reason I am eager to see. a formal free cash allocation plan, or that you put it in different terms, it means the same thing, to go along with our budget proposal this year is because there's a lot of right answers for what we should be investing in. You said right now we have 23 million, $5 million to pay off the bond. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue, I'm pretty sure the best practice is for 3 to 5% of a municipality's budget to be available as cash reserves, which would put us, that would be right around $10 million for City of Medford. So by my arithmetic, that means if we commit $7 million more this cycle to the list of projects that we have that we know we need investing in, which total way more than $7 million. That will get us right back down to best practice, state best practice, and be able to say, all right, residents, we have a action plan for what we are investing in on what timetable. And that is good. That is just simply, you could say it's not good or bad. It's just what we do. It's what we should be doing. I just don't think that the conversation has to happen this way. And since I'm already picking a scab, I think it's useful to restate that the city is audited every single year by statute. And since I think we all are committed to the shared goal of fiscal prudence, I don't know why the residents of Medford would want us to spend money on an additional audit when we get one every single year as a matter of course. Thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I thank you, Council Collins I am in a way flattered if it's about free cash because as mayor you can't when you have too much free cash, then you're mismanaging funds if we go low, we don't have enough so I, we are doing our best we have a lot in the pipeline, we're going to probably get that down, you're right to about 12 million replenish our stabilization accounts and throughout the months ahead, do the capital needs that we need to do while trying to stay in balance and while not trying to overspend. So we are doing our best on the city side with the council support on or requests as well on the projects that are needed throughout our community. So I do like the feedback either way. I appreciate it. No, and I thank you for your time.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you. Again, I think that it's uncomfortable because it doesn't fit the dialogue for some of my colleagues. So it's easy to say the narrative that suits them. But again, they can go back and revisit all their Reddit sites and the comments they've made that said that $500,000 would fix their roads. So we can go on in that. So the other piece that I appreciate. The assessment says we need $200 million.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Our assessment, we need over 200 million to fix our roads and sidewalks, and we've been saying that for five years. So we use it.
[George Scarpelli]: Oh, the assessor and finance director. No, the assessment.
[Zac Bears]: The pavement management plan.
[George Scarpelli]: Oh, I know. No, I know that, but what I'm saying is the assessor and finance director that weren't involved in the original override process. were they involved in assessing the roads and sidewalks and stuff? Was that private? Because that's what I'm a little confused. So I don't know, maybe it's late. I just, I look at the different dialogue that's being said with the requests to the audit. Maybe my colleagues, they tune me out, they don't listen, but the audit that's requested, the ones that we pay for every year as a city because it's mandated, That lines up as the audit, when I spoke with the auditors, state audits department, they explained that the lineup of what we do here is the audit of the money we spend, $10, we spend $10. The audit that we're requesting is saying, why are we not spending that money correctly? Why is it that every year we have an abundance in free cash? So it doesn't fit their dialogue, so I understand that it's an issue. But when you talk about the free cash and the capital needs that we need, that's usually done through capital improvement plan. That's usually done as a process where we work together in finding out these big projects. When you talk about Freedom Way, that shouldn't be done as an emergency basis. This didn't happen overnight. That's a capital project. That's a capital plan put in place by our office. We've been working on it. No, I understand that. But when you respond by saying, well, we're using that free cash to pay for that bond, Well, that's not used correctly. That money isn't used correctly. So again, we could keep beating this up, but this is my opinion that I'm sharing with you, that residents are sharing with me, because they seem that no one is listening. So thank you again.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. I mean, just for one person, And maybe we're just using different words. When we talk about how did we spend the money and did it go to the places we set it, but we're doing that every year. And that's, that's what the audit is right yes we talked about how should the city spend money, where should money be spent. Well, we have a conversation about that every two years and it's, we have it every year it's called the city budget and we have it every two years it's called an election. I mean, that's different, you know, people disagree with how the mayor's making decisions about, and I disagree with you often, and all of us do, how to spend money. Then you have to put someone else in the office to make different decisions I mean that's just say that's an audit that's not. That's I just think we're using different words to talk about what decision making is about. So that's just my opinion. And I appreciate that we are a little more clear on the differences of what we're talking about now. Is there anything else you'd like to add or the chief of staff.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: No, just thank you for your time President Bears and vice president Collins and the city council we appreciate we appreciate you allowing us to present and answer questions. And I think maybe June 10 but you'll let us know we have a few things to get you before then and hope that you vote in favor of this budget?
[Zac Bears]: Well, we're gonna go to any public participation. Well, first I need a motion. Is there a motion on the floor, Vice President Collins?
[Kit Collins]: I will motion to table the paper to June 10th.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion of Vice President Collins to table the paper to June 10th, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Is there any further discussion by members of the council? Seeing none, is there any discussion by members of the public either in person or on zoom about the city budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 income to the podium on in person or raise your hand on zoom. Seeing no further discussion on the motion of Vice President Collins to table the budget to June 10 seconded by Councilor Sagan. Mr. Clerk please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan.
[Zac Bears]: Actually looks like we've lost Councilor Callahan so all those in favor. Opposed. Motion passes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Scarpelli opposed.
[Zac Bears]: So the budget will be tabled to June 10th but we'll pick it up for further discussion. The regular order of business records the records of the meeting of May 13 2025 for past Councilor Scarpelli Councilor Scarpelli, how did you find those records. On the motion of Councilor Scott probably to approve the record seconded by seconded by Vice President Collins, all those in favor. Passes reports of committees 24-033 offered by Vice President Collins planning and permitting committee may 14 2025.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you President Bears at this most recent meeting of the planning and permitting committee. For the first time we reviewed a were, we need to find a better term for the quote unquote other quarters proposal, this is a proposal to apply a quarter zoning framework to several of the other corridors throughout the city, notably High Street from West Medford to the Arlington border, parts of Boston Avenue, the notably not the parts that are going to be included in the Tufts Institutional Zone, Harvard Avenue, Main Street, and the Broadway Corridor District to align it with Somerville Broadway District zoning. We also talked about the neighborhood neighborhood commercial nodes topic for the first time, we are going to be picking up both of these topics the other corridors and the neighborhood commercial nodes at the planning and permitting committee meeting tomorrow night, 6pm in the chambers and on zoom, as usual, motion to approve the motion of Councilor Collins to approve the committee report seconded by Council is our all is in favor.
[Zac Bears]: I oppose motion passes. 2-5-0-6-9 offered by Councilor Callahan, Public Works and Facilities Committee, May 20, 2025. Report to follow. This is a meeting on the Chevalier Theatre. Is there a motion on the floor? On the motion approved by Councilor Tseng, seconded by?
[Kit Collins]: Second.
[Zac Bears]: Seconded by Vice President Collins. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. 25-039 offered by President Bears committee of the whole May 2020 2025 report to follow this was one of our preliminary budget meetings we discussed the proposed budgets for several departments. Is there a motion on the motion to approve by Councilor Tseng seconded by seconded by Councilors are all those in favor. Opposed motion passes. 25 or three nine offered by President Bears can be the whole May 21 2025 report to follow. This was again another preliminary budget meeting we discussed the budgets for several departments, is there a motion, motion to approve by Councilor Collins seconded by Councilor Tseng all those in favor. Opposed motion passes hearings 25 or three six petition to amend the special permit to 82 mystic Avenue. This is the clear channel billboard. And they have once again asked for a continuance. So I'm going to reopen the public hearing. Public hearing is now open. Is there a motion? On the motion to continue to our next regular meeting by Vice President Collins, seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. Public hearing is closed until June 10th. PB, David Ensign — He, Him, His): hearings public hearings 25-044 public hearing proposed amendments the men for zoning ordinance chapter 94 residential districts, these, this is the residential districts. PB, David Ensign — He, Him, His.: : proposal. In the zoning updates project, the community development board has not yet reported out recommendations to the council. So we need to open the public hearing because it was duly noticed and submitted, but we do not have the recommendations from the community development board yet and their next public hearing on the residential districts proposal will be on June 4th. So I'm declaring the public hearing open. Is there a motion? On the motion to continue to the June 10th regular meeting by Vice President Collins, seconded by Councilor Tseng, all those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. That hearing is continued to June 10th. Petitions, presentations, and similar papers. 25070 petition for a grant of location, National Grid, Gas Main, Washington Street, Washington Place, Cross Street. And we have the proponent, a representative proponent, here to present on the grant of location. Diana, I think you have some of the worst luck with our long meetings of anyone, but welcome. Well, that's true. You did get to see the orchestra, and that's a rare gift. But you're always here on budget night for some reason. 25070, we have the grant of location. Let me just get it out in front of me. One second here. So, we have 25 070 petition for a grant of location, National Grid, North and Massachusetts proposed installation of a new gas main in Washington Street Washington place and cross street. You're hereby notified but by order them in for the city council at the city council will hold the public hearing and the Howard up all the chambers at Medford City Hall, 85 George B has to drive and via zoom on Tuesday May 27 at 7pm, a link to be posted no later than Friday May 23 2025 on a petition by the Massachusetts electrical company DBA National Grid for permission to install a new gas main including necessary standing and protecting fixtures, located at Washington Street Washington place and cross street. The following started the engineering division recommends the grant that this grant of location be approved with the following conditions. One, the grant location is limited to approximately 72 feet of 12 inch gas main as depicted on the plan to before starting work the contractor should notify dig safe dig safe and shall obtain all applicable permits from the engineering division. The project must obtain a trench permit pursuant to section 74 141 of the city ordinances prior to commencing work. Three no other utility structures conduits duck banks pipes or any other appurtenances are adversely impacted national grid shall assure ensure that all sewer water and drain lines are marked for any excavation for. The project site must be swept after installation or daily and shall be kept free of debris for the duration of the installation. Five, at least 72 hours prior to the start of the project, National Grid must coordinate and better communications with the Director of Communications and submit any required information that may be requested to effectively inform the public. Approved, City Engineer. So with that, we'll hear a presentation from the proponent and then I will open the public hearing And we also have the engineer on zoom, if you would like to add anything after we hear from the proponents so go ahead.
[Diana Cuddy]: Good evening my name is Diana Cuddy I'm a national grid 170 data drive, Walter, Massachusetts, and I'm here tonight to request a grand location for approximately 80 feet of 12 inch plastic gas mean to be installed at the end of Washington Street crossing cross street.
[Zac Bears]: Great. Engineer we're telling do you have anything you'd like to add.
[Owen Wartella]: Hi, thank you. I have nothing to add, just the recommendations that I put forward. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. All right, with that, I will open the public hearing to anyone. Well, actually, do councillors have any questions? Councilor Leming.
[Matt Leming]: Yeah, I live there. How noisy is it gonna be?
[Diana Cuddy]: a short section of new main, but there will be some replacement work. It's connecting to two separate systems to add a safety feature and redundancy to the overall system. Okay, great, thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Your neighborhood's getting safer. All right, well, if the councilors don't have any other questions, I will open the public hearing. public hearing is open. If there's anyone who'd like to speak in favor and opposition or otherwise on the project. You want to go first, Diana?
[Diana Cuddy]: I'm in favor of this project. Right.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Is there anyone else either in person or on zoom who would like to speak in the public hearing on this project? You can either come to the podium in person or raise your hand on zoom. Seeing none, I will declare the public hearing closed. Is there a motion? Councilor Scarpelli has made a motion to approve. Seconded by Councilor Lazzaro and that would be approved with the conditions. Approved with the conditions as defined by the city engineer. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice-President Collins. Yes. Councilor Lazzaro. Yes. Councilor Leming. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. Councilor Tseng. Yes. President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. The motion passes.
[Diana Cuddy]: Thank you very much.
[Zac Bears]: Great.
[Diana Cuddy]: We got one more, right? Oh, I don't. That's Electra. Oh, that's not you, okay.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, and have a great evening. Great. 25071, petition for a grant of location, National Grid 401, Boston Avenue. We have here. Petition for grant of location, National Grid, North Andover, Massachusetts, proposed relocation of five poles near 401 Boston Avenue. We're hereby notified that by order of the Medford City Council, the Medford City Council will hold a public hearing in the Howard F. Alton Chambers at Medford City Hall, 85 George P. Hassett Drive, Medford, and via Zoom on Tuesday, May 27th at 7 p.m. A link to be posted no later than Friday, May 23rd, 2025, on a petition by the Massachusetts Electrical Company, DBA National Grid, for permission to relocate five existing poles on 401 Boston Ave. The following five poles are referred to in Plan No. JO-31061167-401B to relocate the five poles. The Engineering Division recommends that this grant of location be approved with the following conditions. One, the grant of location is limited to relocating five joint-owned utility poles located within the cement concrete sidewalk near 401 Boston Avenue and labeled P3317. P3318, P3319, P3320, and P3321 as depicted on the sketch. Before starting work, the contractor shall notify DIGSAFE and obtain all applicable permits from the Engineering Division. The project must obtain a public right-of-way occupancy PRO permit pursuant to Section 74141 of the City Ordinances prior to commencing work. No other utility structures, conduits, duct banks, pipes, or any other appurtenances are adversely impacted. National grid shall ensure that all sewer water and drain lines are marked prior to any excavation. Four, placement of the joint owned utility hole must provide at least 36 inch clearance of accessible travel path around the structure in accordance with ADA regulations and city standards. Five, temporary sidewalk restoration shall be done at the time of installation and in consultation with the engineering division per the requirements of an approved PRO permit. Any asphalt sidewalk damage during this work must be replaced in kind and cleanly cut along the edges. Six, the project site must be swept after installation or daily and shall be kept free of debris for the duration of the installation. Seven, Boston Avenue is a heavily traveled roadway and requires a mandatory police detail to perform this work the engineering division recommends the applicant consult with Metro Police Department traffic sergeants prior to scheduling this work. Since work hours may be restricted to outside normal operations, eight. At least 72 hours before the prior to the start of the project National Grid must coordinate the butter communications with the Director of Communications and submit any required information that may be requested to effectively inform the public. Approved Steve Randazzo, Superintendent of Wires. Approved City Engineer Owen Wartella. Do we have a representative of National Grid here to speak to this project?
[Adam Hurtubise]: He's online. He's online. It's Antonio. Great. Welcome.
[Zac Bears]: If there's anything you want to add to talk about the project, thanks for being here through our meeting.
[Cam Hansel]: You said anything to add?
[Zac Bears]: Yeah, just if you want to describe the project. And if you could just speak into the microphone. Thank you. And provide your name and address.
[Cam Hansel]: Cam Hansel, National Grid. This job is basically just to move these five poles to the other side of Boston Ave. Because Tufts will be building new dorms and they will be too close to where the existing electric lines are.
[Zac Bears]: Great, we do have the engineer here. If you have anything you want to add on, you should be able to unmute.
[Owen Wartella]: No, this is basically for the construction purposes so that they can provide truck access to their site. So they will permanently remove and relocate them, the poles across the site. And that's it.
[George Scarpelli]: Great, I'll go to Councilor Scarpelli. Thank you, Mr. President. Again, I think it's, we know the answer, but question, when you say shared, it's not a double pole, it's one pole shared by multiple entities, correct? Yes. Okay, and how long is the project gonna last? That I don't know.
[Owen Wartella]: I have information on that. Basically, their project, National Grids project, will be completed within a week of approval, or a couple weeks of approval, maybe days. The project, the dormitory project, will last through September of 2027.
[George Scarpelli]: I appreciate that. My only question is that the residents that will be impacted by the construction, you know, just making sure I know we have 72 hours of notification and is that just done by, you know, just the butters or could we get something more extensive?
[Owen Wartella]: No, this is just the poles. This is just the joint poles. We're not talking about the dormitory. We're not talking about the building. This is just them relocating your utility pole. They're going to dig a hole and they're going to put a new pole in and then rehang some wires. So the disturbance for a pole relocation is very minimal to Albutters.
[George Scarpelli]: So the sidewalks won't be closed, driveways won't be impacted?
[Owen Wartella]: They currently have both sidewalks open and it should be relocated within a day. So this is like a day's worth of work.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you. Yep.
[Zac Bears]: Great, thank you, Councilor Scarpelli, thank you, Engineer Wirtala. Are there any other questions by members of the council? Seeing none, I'm going to open the public hearing. Public hearing is open to anyone who would like to speak in favor, in opposition, or otherwise register a comment of any kind on this project. If you would like to comment, register your support. National Grid support.
[Cam Hansel]: National Grid support.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. I see two folks here. I'll recognize Rocco DiRico. Rocco, just your name and address for the record, and if you could provide your comment.
[Rocco DiRico]: Thank you, President Bears, Rocco DiRico, 14 Capen Street, Medford, Tufts University, Office of Government and Community Relations. Appreciate the Council taking this up as the City Engineer explained. This is part of our dormitory project, which will add 664 on-campus beds for juniors and seniors. The other benefit of this project, aside from allowing us to proceed with the construction, is it's going to allow for new trees on both sides of Boston Avenue, as well as streetscape improvements and bike lanes on both sides of Boston Avenue. To answer Councilor Scarpelli's question, on this side of Boston Ave, there are no driveways and the the abutter is the MBTA train tracks. So this should not have an impact on the neighbors, but nonetheless we are meeting with the neighbors every month to go through construction concerns, answer their questions, and then we also send a newsletter out to our neighbors in the middle of the month to communicate further construction news. So we'll continue to do that as part of this particular project, which is just moving the poles, but also throughout the course of the larger project. So just here to voice my support for this grant of location, appreciate the time and a long night.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We'll go to Jeremy Martin. Jeremy, name and address for the record, and please register your comment on this grant of location.
[Jeremy Martin]: Thanks, President Bears. Jeremy Martin, 65, Burgadave. I'm here as a resident of the Hillside neighborhood to speak in favor of the petition. The relocation of this equipment, as Rob Go describes, helps to facilitate the improvements that are sorely needed along Boston Avenue in order to keep pace with the changes happening in our neighborhood. I appreciate Tufts' commitment that they've made to our community to help improve Boston Avenue. and I hope that that is matched with enthusiastic investment and action by the city as we go forward. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Jeremy. Is there any further comment on this item? Seeing none, I'm declaring this public hearing closed. On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve with the conditions of the city engineer, seconded by Councilor Lazzaro. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: That's Kelly is I'm sorry, it's absent. Vice President Collins. That's all those are Council Leming. Councilor Scarpelli counter saying present bears.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, 60 affirmative what happens the motion passes Thank you so much. Thanks for sharing with us. Fun way to spend a Tuesday night. Motions, orders, and resolutions. 25-075 offered by Councilor Leming, whereas veterans are often in need of food, transportation, and heat expenses, and whereas the good people of Medford may like to contribute to this cause, and whereas Medford area has provisions for allowing voluntary donations to the police and fire department on our excise tax bills. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Medford City Council that we adopt the provisions of Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 60, Section 3F, which allows municipalities to add a section for voluntary donations on excise tax bills that will go towards a fund for in need residents Councilor by me.
[Matt Leming]: Thank you. So this is a another request from our veteran services director who I think is doing a wonderful job supporting veterans in this community. Essentially, she wants to add a an option for residents to be able to donate if they choose to on their excise tax bills to a fund that would assist in need veterans. The requirement for doing so is that the city council vote to adopt this particular section of mass general law. I think it's a very worthwhile initiative. I don't want to belabor the point too much after all of our fine words about the veteran community earlier in the night and considering that we still have a lot to get to. But I think it's a very worthwhile resolution and I'd motion to approve.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion of Council I'm going to approve this adoption of Massachusetts general law chapter 60 section three F, second about second by Councilor Tseng, since this is an adoption of state law.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Council Callahan is absent.
[Zac Bears]: Vice President Collins Council is our council let me Councilor Scarpelli Councilor Tseng, President Bears, yes, six affirmative what happens the motion passes, 2005 086 offered by Vice President Collins proposed amendments to the Medford zoning ordinance accessory dwelling units for referral to the Community Development Board. This is reported out of the planning and permitting committee, and the procedural next step is for us to refer to Community Development Board. Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. Yes, to restate what you just said, people who have been paying attention to this process have heard me say this dozens of times before, every zoning proposal or zoning amendment goes from the planning and permitting committee reported out this body then statutorily must refer to the Community Development Board where there are public hearings on the proposal, and that is then submitted back to this body for a vote with recommendations if the Community Development Board so chooses so this is the stage where we refer this proposal to the Community Development Board they will hold Their public hearings the Community Development Board. This year has been great about taking the time that they need to ask the questions and get the comments in the context that they need to form their recommendations I'm sure that they will do this on the accessory dwellings accessory dwelling units proposed changes as well for folks who would like to educate themselves about these proposed changes before the CDP public hearing dates. There is a lot of information available on Medford ma.org slash zoning we have been discussing these proposed updates. Since March we held a public q amp a earlier this month. And this update encompasses both updates that are required of us and other communities due to a recent change in state law. As well as some proposed changes that go better outside the bounds of nearly what is required to be in compliance with the state housing law. So with that emotion to refer to the Community Development Board.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you on the motion of cancer cancer for Community Development Board seconded by seconded by Council is our Councilor Scarborough.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. It's come to my attention from multiple residents I know that reaching out and very concerned about some of the, the processes and how the ADU proposal has been. presented. One question was that the proposal went out in 430 and it wasn't written until 521. That's that was a concern that was brought to my attention by a resident and then multiple residents who feel again that this process is being rushed and and really that this council isn't hearing us hearing our residents and and when it is being heard and we do have meetings and zoning is put forth with some changes that this council will revert back and eliminate those requests from residents. So I can't support this moving forward. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. Thank you for that, Councilor Scarpelli. Appreciate the comments. I'll just go in reverse order. I do just want to take a little bit more time to explain what I said in introducing the zoning proposal I do think it's important to know that part of what's being referred out in this in these proposed updates to the accessory dwelling units proposal is required of us by state law. There's parts of it that are not required by state law but there are parts that very much are where the city would be opened up to liability if we were to fail to be in compliance with the new state law so I just want to make that clear. to my colleagues and to residents who were not a part of the extensive public process and putting this proposal together. To your other point and of course we've discussed this before and I think it's worth discussing. I know that there are some in the community. who have not been in favor of some of the recent zoning proposals that we have made or some of the recent votes that have gone forward on zoning proposals. Of course, every councilor's vote is their own. That being said, I think it is also, and we obviously, we will never achieve 100% consensus in the community on anything that is not a realistic standard to hold ourself to. It's not the standard that we are holding ourselves to. But I do really appreciate every resident who has been a part of this process on these various proposals over the last year. It is a challenging topic and I really welcome and appreciate the participation from residents, especially the residents who show up and say, I think you should change this and I'm not in favor because that is challenging and I really do appreciate that. But it is also true at the same time that we have had We have responded to calls for more opportunities for public participation in this process by adding a whole other step to our zoning review timeline one that is not typically followed we have added a lot of public opportunities for public participation, we have added a whole web page about the zoning process, the mass municipal association. wrote an article about our communications and outreach efforts because it was so unique to them for us to be going to such great lengths to publicize and message the work that we are doing this term. And to your other point about this this feeling of inevitability that the city council is just going to quote unquote reverse whatever the quote unquote community asks for and of course we shouldn't be speaking in monoliths here. The CDB refers back to recommendations to the city council, if it so chooses that has happened twice now, not just once we approved mystic Avenue quarter district zoning, as well as Salem Street quarter district zoning. I don't think that it's fair or productive to pretend that a vote is going to go the same way every single time, because the data doesn't bear that out. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thanks. Yeah, we adopted all of the CDB recommendations for Mr. Green score, the phase one changes and all but one CDB recommendation for the Salem Street neighborhood quarter district. On the motion, all those in favor. Opposed motion passes. 25-087 offered by Councilor Collins, 2024 Community Control Republic Surveillance Annual Report. One second here. Be it resolved that the City Council discuss and approve the 2024 Community Control Republic Surveillance Annual Report pursuant to Section 50 Article 3 Community Control Republic Surveillance Ordinance. One question I have here before we get started, Vice President Collins, is this also going to constitute approval of the LPR use policy that is included here? The license plate reader use policy was included in this packet from the parking department. Does approval of the annual report also constitute approval of the license plate reader policy? Okay. I might want us to take two votes. Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears, and thank you for flagging that. The community control over public surveillance ordinance was passed by the city council, and I believe February March of 2023. We have gone through this annual public report process. One time before in April of 2024. We reviewed the annual reporting of the one city agency that was registered as having surveillance technology at that time which was the Medford Police Department. That was a bit of an unusual public reporting. That was a bit of an unusual annual public report in that the only surveillance technology known and use in the city at that time was body worn cameras by the Medford Police Department which also per a negotiated contract carve out in the ordinance is not subject to the approval of a use policy which all other surveillance technology. in the city would be because sorry I should back up here for people who don't know the Community Control of Republic surveillance ordinance is an ordinance passed in 2023 that sets up a structure for the city council and residents of Medford to look together at surveillance technology that is approved to be used by any public entity in the city of Medford so this doesn't regulate ring cameras or nest cameras it's just surveillance technology that the city wants to use and make sure that we have a public process for saying, what are the pros, what are the cons, what are the costs. What are we hoping to get out of this and what are the potential risks that we can so that we can make sure we have that full conversation before the city council takes a vote. to approve a surveillance technology with the use policy or deny one or ask for modifications in order for the surveillance technology to be used. So last year we were just having a review of the use of body worn cameras by the Medford Police Department they hadn't been in effect for very long by that point. point so it was a pretty short report. This time the reporting looks a little bit different because we have a full year of experience and data on the Medford Police Department's use of body-worn cameras. They went over this with us in a committee of the whole or sorry a public health and community safety committee a few weeks ago and this is also the first time that our reporting includes use of surveillance technology by the Medford parking department. This surveillance technology automatic license plate readers was inadvertently already in use by the Medford parking department prior to their submission of an impact port and a use policy. However, in committee of the whole, we reviewed a draft impact report, we reviewed a draft use policy, the committee discussed it and reported it out and we are looking at a use policy tonight that includes a couple of small modifications that the council requested to the license plate reader use policy. So the documents included in this. So, the one of the requirements of the city council per the community control of the public surveillance ordinance is to hold these meetings annually to review the use of surveillance technology by city agencies and then to compile In this report, the findings, how many list them out here, the number of requests for approval, the number of times the city council approved requests for surveillance technology the number of times the city council requested modifications. The number of times that the city council. declined to approve a surveillance technology use policy and all annual surveillance reports and reporting that were submitted this year. So this compiles that. Again, this was a bit of another unusual year, but for a different reason in that we did not receive any requests for a new use of a new surveillance technology that would be, say, for example, if the parking department said, hey, there's this new hardware that we want to use, we want to introduce, we're gonna ask for permission. Before we use it that is how the process should go. This was more of a approval of a pre existing surveillance technology use. The City Council annual report compiles the impact report, or sorry, it compiles the Medford Police Department's annual reporting, it compiles the parking department's impact report and updated use policy. It also includes public comment that was submitted on the annual report by the Medford police department so this is a part of our public record now. That is one of the goals of the ordinance is to. maintain and add to a public record of surveillance technology in the city both those submitted by the agencies that are using it, and the city council's discussions and findings and takeaways from our, from what we discussed with these departments about their use of surveillance technology. With that, I would make a motion to approve the parking department's use policy for automatic license plate readers. I would also make a motion to approve the city council annual surveillance report, unless there is any questions or comments from my fellow councilors or members in public.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion to approve the B paper to approve the LPR policy, we'll take that first. Is there any further discussion on the approval of the license plate reader policy?
[George Scarpelli]: Councilor Scarpelli. I think that without having a conversation with the Chief, I will not support these initiatives. So thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. On the motion to approve the license plate reader report by Vice President Collins, seconded by Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: I just want to be clear that the Chief submitted the report that we're voting on.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. On the motion. All those in favor. Opposed motion passes on the main paper to approve the annual surveillance report is our motion. Motion approved by Vice President Collins seconded by Council is our all those in favor. Opposed motion passes 25-088 offered by Council is our resolution requiring monthly police chief report on ice activity in Medford Council is our.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you, we, this is something that residents. have requested. And earlier tonight, when we had representatives from the Medford Police Department here to talk about their budget, we spoke about this. For tonight, since Chief Buckley is not available, I would motion to table and also because what Officer Covino mentioned is that they're still discussing and compiling what sort of information they may have access to, and I would like to give them a little bit of time. So I would motion to table this resolution.
[Zac Bears]: I motion to table by Council is our second by Councilor Tseng the motion is a debatable all those in favor. Opposed. Motion passes and that is tabled. Communications from the mayor, 25085, appropriation of free cash, parking or kiosk replacement, and so remediation at 448 High Street. I neglected to mention this as part of the committee report. We did discuss this last Wednesday at our committee meeting, and we heard from our parking director and our city engineer on this. Councilor Collins. One second, just so I read it into the record. free cash dear President barriers and city councilors may 15 2025 I respect the request and recommend that your body approves following a free cash appropriation the amount of $150,859 and 89 cents. on the following, sorry, 98 cents on the following. $92,859.98 for replacement of the remaining Flowbird parking kiosks to IPS parking kiosks and 58,000 for the continuation of slow remediation services at 448 High Street. The balance of free cash before this vote is $22,311,303.11. Respectfully submitted, Brianna Lingo, current mayor. On the motion of Vice President Collins to approve the appropriation, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Is there any further discussion? seeing even the city engineer is shaking his head so he's he's all set. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Mr. Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins. That's a lemon. I'll just go Kelly.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, the affirmative. What happens to the motion passes, 25090 offered by memory and legal current. proposed wage adjustment for non-union personnel, dear president bears and members of the city council, I respectfully request and recommend the city council approve the following amendment to the revised ordinances chapter 66 entitled personnel, article two entitled reserve the city's classification and compensation plan formally included as article two section 66 dash 31 through 66 dash 40 by adopting the following changes. Non-union personnel effective July 1, 2025 increase the base salary of all non-union titles by 2%. Thank you for this kind of attention to this matter, thank you for your kind attention to this matter respectfully submitted Brianna Lego current mayor, Mr. Clark, could you make Dr. Cushing, and Director Crowley co host of this meeting, please. Dr. Cushing is not on this paper but the next paper. But Director Crowley is on this one so I want to make sure that she can speak to the paper.
[Lisa Crowley]: I am here. Yes.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, director Crowley, if you could make a presentation on this paper, anything you'd like to add.
[Lisa Crowley]: Thank you President Beas, through you to the council. This is just a, as you can see, a color adjustment to go along with the adjustments that we've made throughout the city through our union contracts to bring out non-union employees. up alongside those colors that are being given in July for our union representatives as well, our union employees, excuse me. So it's just to bring them online.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Director Crowley. Is there a motion? A motion to approve by Vice President Collins, seconded by Councilor Tseng, Councilor
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President, just to reiterate what I said earlier today. I will not support increasing non-union raises until our union contracts are ratified. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. On the motion to approve for first reading by Councilor Collins, seconded by Councilor Tseng, any further discussion? Seeing no further discussion by members of the council, no hands on Zoom, no one in the chamber. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Council Kelly has absent Vice President Collins console is our console Leming construct Kelly.
[Zac Bears]: Councilor Tseng President Bears, yes, five of the affirmative, one of the negative one absent the motion passes and this is ordained for first there's approved for first reading. 091 submitted by Mary brain on the curtain authorization of a five year contract for Rico USA copy machines and printers. Dear President Bears and members of the City Council, I respectfully request and recommend the City Council approve the following five-year contract with Ricoh USA Inc. for the lease of copy machines and a print technology solution in accordance with Massachusetts General Law Chapter 30b, Section 12, which requires City Council approval for a contract that exceeds three years. Please see the attached for an outline of the scope of the agreement for the School Department. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Respectfully submitted, Brianna Lovego Kern, Mayor. And I will recognize Dr. Cushing, our Assistant Superintendent of operations and innovation, is that right? Did I get it right?
[Peter Cushing]: And enrichment.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Anything you'd like to add on this?
[Peter Cushing]: So I just want to make the committee, the council aware that through some negotiation, right now we pay about $185,000 a year for our copying over 57 devices. 55 of those are on one bulk contract and two are kind of on random contracts. We're going to increase by 1 machine to 58 total, bring them all under the same contract and through some negotiations, we're going to reduce the annual costs down to 147000 dollars and by adding the paper cut. solution we hope to save another $10,000 so bring our annual costs from about $185,000 down to $138,000 or so while increasing one machine increasing the functionality Really in negotiating with many of our vendors, what I'm trying to do is drive as many dollars as possible towards student academics. So respectfully requested, the council approves this five-year lease, which we need to execute by June 1st.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Assistant Superintendent Cushing. Is there any further discussion or questions by members of the council for Dr. Cushing? Seeing none, is there a motion? on the motion to approve by Vice President Colin seconded by seconded by Councilor Tseng Mr. Clerk, please call the room.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Council Kelly has absent Vice President calls. Councils are Council lemon Councils compelling Council saying President Bears, yes.
[Zac Bears]: 561 absent the motion passes Thank you Dr. fishing. Move to public participation and for school that Councilor Tseng no that she is not available, is there a motion to postpone that paper to the next regular meeting on the motion of Councilors saying seconded by Councilors are all those in favor. Opposed motion passes. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak in public participation, either in person or on zoom. Sure, give me one second to get the timer going. Name and address for the record. You have three minutes.
[Micah Kesselman]: I attended tonight's session. I've just been super excited about lots of very cool budget stuff. And a really dope concert by our middle schoolers, which is really cool to see. But mainly to support Councilor Lazzaro's resolution that was unfortunately tabled, though I do understand the reasoning behind tabling it. However, with that said, I'd I'm still gonna make comments about it because I have a right to and you have to listen to them. So enjoy. I do think that it could benefit from an amendment that make have Buckley or have the chief of police present that report in person. The issue that I think that that would address and that I observed in part during the earlier committee of the whole meeting where the MPD came and gave a wonderful presentation was that there clearly is a sort of disconnect between the information that the MPD know or believe they know and what the residents of the city, no. So that would go a long way to sort of bridging that gap, I think, just to have that regular in-person presentation so that he could actually also come here and receive feedback directly from residents of the city. Because without that, they're just going to continue to live in this thicker and thicker bubble of nonsense and spout some of the totally incorrect things that they were saying during today's committee of the whole meeting. So that's my one recommendation. And I do think that I do urge you plead for urgency to provide more accountability from the MPD towards to the residents of the city because at the end of the day their job is to protect the city. That is their one job. Not to nitpick the mayor's speech earlier, but it isn't just to protect the so-called non-criminal citizens of the city. Everyone here has rights, no matter what their status is. And it's to protect everyone's rights, regardless of status, regardless if they are, even if they are criminals, they still need to be protected. Their rights need to be protected by the police, even as they're enforcing laws. So that's, I'm just gonna continue shouting to the ether until something happens with this. All right, thanks guys. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Good to go to Zoom. I have Mr. Castagnani on Zoom. Name and address for the record, you have three minutes.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Hello.
[Zac Bears]: Hi, Andy, you have three minutes. Name and address for the record, please.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Can you hear me? I have headphones on. Yes, we can hear you. Okay. Thank you, Councilor Bears. Thank you very much. I hope you all had a good Memorial Day yesterday, and I want to thank the veterans for all they did to try to keep our Democratic Republic alive for 250 years almost. But I want to thank them. They had a lot of courage. I have a question. Did I hear this evening that we have a city solicitor again?
[Zac Bears]: Yes, Mr. Cassidy. Kevin Foley has been hired to serve as the city solicitor.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Great. Same office as usual.
[Zac Bears]: The physical office, I guess it's the law department office on the second floor.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Is there anything else you'd like to comment on?
[Andrew Castagnetti]: No, thanks.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you so much, Andy. Have a good night.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: You too.
[Zac Bears]: Is there anyone else who would like to comment in public participation? Seeing no one at the podium and no hands on zoom. Is there a motion on the floor on the motion adjourned by Councilor Tseng seconded by Vice President Collins. All those in favor. Opposed motion passes, and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you.
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