[Unidentified]: Recording in process.
[Zac Bears]: City Council 12th regular meeting June 24 2025 is called to order Mr. Clerk, please call the roll Council Callahan is absent.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Vice President Collins. Council Elizarro present. Council Leming. Councilor Scarpelli.
[Zac Bears]: Councilor Tseng, President Bears, present six present one absent the meeting is called to order please rise to salute the flag.
[George Scarpelli]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[Zac Bears]: Announcements, accolades, remembrances, reports and records. 25-100 offered by Councilor Scarpelli and President Bears. Whereas the Medford City Council has learned with deep sadness of the passing of Richard Caraviello, a proud lifelong resident of Medford who passed away June 3rd, 2025 at the age of 93. And whereas Richard Caraviello was a devoted son of the late Salvatore and Maria Contrada Caraviello and a beloved husband to the late Angela Moscoe Caraviello, and the late Mildred Tarifo, and whereas Richard honorably served his country in the United States Army during the Korean War, and has continued to serve his community as the longtime proprietor of Salvi Sportwear, a business known for quality women's clothing and family values. And whereas Richard was a devoted father to Richard Caraviello and his wife, Carol, a proud grandfather to Richard and his wife, Lisa, Lauren and her husband, Joey Mangello, and Nicole and her husband, Stephen Gaudet, and a cherished great-grandfather to Gianna, Joey, Richie, Nicholas, Juliana, Isabella, James, and Michael. And whereas Richard was a dear brother of the late Fred, Salvatore, Junie, Frank, Smokey, Tina, Clara, and Armand Caraviello, and is lovingly remembered by many nieces and nephews, extended family members, and friends. and whereas Richard Caraviello will be remembered as a man of deep faith, strong family values, humble service, and unwavering pride in his Medford roots, now therefore be it resolved that the Medford City Council extends its sincerest condolences to the Caraviello family and expresses its heartfelt appreciation for the life, service, and legacy of Richard Caraviello, and be it further resolved that this resolution be spread upon the records of the Medford City Council and a suitably engrossed copy be presented to the Caraviello family as a lasting expression of sympathy and gratitude. Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you. I appreciate the reading and joining me in this remembrance. Mr. Caraviello, again, when we talk about legacies here in Medford and what families have done to build Medford to the city that we all love. And Mr. Caraviello was one of those founders. And you could see that in the man he raised in our former city council, President Richard Caraviello. And if you know Richard, if you know Rick, you know what type of work ethic he has. And even as a retired city councilor, how hard he works for the residents of Medford to this day. And every time we talked, Rick would talk about the work ethic instilled in him by his dad. And you see that throughout his family. And most importantly, you really see the true dedication of family love and passion and really someone that we know that Mr. Caraviello fought very hard. He spent many years in assisted living, and it was very difficult at the end, but he's in a better place today, and we send the Caraviello family our condolences. So thank you for allowing this motion to be put forth, Mr. President. Thank you. Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: I just want to thank my colleagues for putting this resolution forward and join with you in extending my deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the entire Caraviello family.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Vice President Collins. I served with Rick for four years and I know how much he devoted to this city and also to his family and that he was doing both at a difficult moment. And so I know that this loss is very significant for him and his large family and for all the people in this community who knew Richard Caraviello. And I wanna send my condolences once again to Rick and Carol and his entire family. on the loss of their data. On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Vice President Collins to approve. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins? Councilor Lazzaro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. The motion passes. You can please rise for a moment of silence. 25-101 offered by Councilor Scarpelli. Be it resolved that the City Council thank and congratulate Karen Breen on her retirement after 25 years as a school nurse at multiple Medford schools, but most recently the McGlynn Elementary and Middle School. Karen has taken care of so many of our children with love and compassion over these years, and we recognize and salute you for your dedication. Enjoy your retirement. Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: Mr. President, Karen's a former colleague of mine when I was when I was teaching at the McGlynn, she was an amazing individual, I think that what you realize right away is the importance of a school nurse. I think people forget nurses in general are so important. And I think that, you know, I've seen it firsthand where nurses meant more than the doctors in our health issues that we've had in our family. So we saw firsthand Karen's compassion and her ability to calm so many youngsters down with so many different health issues, and she was just an amazing person. I will tell you the scariest day of my life is when I ran downstairs to her office because I thought I was having a stroke, and my lip was drooling, and I said, Karen, I think I'm having a stroke. She slapped me in the top of the head and told me to leave. She thought I was joking. Stop being a joker, George. And thank God it was Bell's palsy. I had a Bell's palsy attack, but Karen was the person you went to. made you feel comfortable, and she did so much. And I know that she was a nurse for a long time in different facilities, but she decided to become a school nurse to be closer to her family. And now that she'll be a grandma soon, I know she'll have plenty of time to take care of that amazing grandchild. So wishing her much luck and happiness in retirement. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you. Well, I was a student at the time that Councilor Scarpelli was a teacher and nurse breeding was at the McGlynn. And I just have very fond memories of my early days in school as a kindergartner, as a first grader, second grader going and seeing nurse breeding there. be it something as simple as checking for lice or something, you know, the days where I needed a bit more care. Nurse screen was always there for us. And I think Councilor Scarpelli is absolutely right that for many families, including families that grew up quite poorly fine, the school nurse is your kind of access point to staying healthy. Nurses like Nurse Breen are just so important in making sure that all of our families here in Medford get the treatment that they need, and all our kids get the treatment that they need. So I thank Karen for her service, and I congratulate her on her retirement.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. We'll go three for three. Nurse Breen was also my school nurse at some point, although I can't actually remember which school. And in addition to congratulating her on retirement, I want to thank her and her family for giving her and her service to the city of Medford for all this time. And I hope that she gets to enjoy her retirement with them as well. Is there a motion? On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve, seconded by. Seconded by Vice President Collins. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Calhoun is absent. Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng?
[Zac Bears]: Yes.
[Noel Velez]: Yes.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, 60 affirmative, one absent, the motion passes. Records, the records of the meeting of June 10th, 2025 were passed to Councilor Callahan. Vice President Collins, I understand you've reviewed them in Councilor Callahan's absence.
[Kit Collins]: Yes, I motion for approval.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion to approve the records by Vice President Collins, seconded by seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Shane, can you check the volume levels? And sorry, we're going to be fighting with the AC, which also it's pretty hot in here, but we're going to do our best.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent, the motion passes. Reports of committees, 24-033 offered by Vice President Collins. Planning and Permitting Committee, July 27th, 2025, sorry, July 11th, 20, June 11th, 2025. Report to follow, Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. I believe this was our 28th meeting in the Planning and Permitting Committee on the zoning topic. At this meeting, we referred out the other corridors zoning proposal. Its next step will be to go through the public hearings process with the Community Development Board. We also briefly touched on the parking and transportation development, transportation demand management topic, which will be further discussed in the Planning and Permitting Committee. Motion to approve.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion to approve by Vice President Collins, seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Little-Zarro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng?
[Zac Bears]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Bears?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. Motion passes. Hearings, 25036 petition to amend a special permit 282 Mystic Ave. Do we have a representative of Clear Channel or the owners of 282 Mystic Ave with us tonight, either in person or on Zoom? Seeing none and seeing as how we have not received the legal opinion we requested from the city legal department, I'm going to reopen the public hearing to continue to a date certain. Public hearing is open. Is there a motion to continue? On the motion to continue by Vice President Collins to our July 15th meeting. Thank you. Seconded by Councilor Leming. Any further discussion by members of the Council? Seeing none. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng?
[Zac Bears]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Pearson?
[Zac Bears]: Yes, 16 affirmative, 1 absent. Motion passes. Public hearing is closed and continued until July 15th. 25-044 public hearing proposed amendments to the Medford zoning ordinance chapter 94 residential districts to be continued to a date certain. This is the residential district proposal currently under review by the community development board. The community development board has put out a schedule where they will be considering this amendment over the next several months. And we'll be taking a vote on this amendment in October. And I encourage residents to engage with the community development board through this process to make your feelings known about the residential district's zoning proposal. I'm gonna reopen the public hearing so we can move to continue to a date certain. Public hearing is open, Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. I move to continue to the October 21st regular meeting.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion of Vice President Collins to continue to the October 21st, 2025 regular meeting, seconded by. seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng?
[Zac Bears]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Ferris?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. The motion passes. Public hearing is continued to Tuesday, October 21st, 2025. Petitions, presentations, and similar papers, 2409, sorry, 25, 25097, petition for a class two slash four auto license, Asbury, BMB, LLC, DBA, Herb Chambers, certified pre-owned Medford. Legal Notice, City of Medford. Pursuant to Medford City Ordinance, Chapter 14, Article 6, Section 14-462, Asbury BMB LLC, DBA Herb Chambers Certified Pre-Owned Medford, located at 60 Mystic Avenue, Medford, Massachusetts, 02155, hereby provides notice of its intent to apply for a Class 2 dealer and Class 4 repair license in Medford, Massachusetts. The subject property is presently owned by Herb Chambers, 1172 Inc., DBA Herb Chambers, BMW of Medford, and is already authorized to operate as an automobile dealer and repair shop by the local authorities. The subject property is being sold to the applicant, Asbury B&B LLC, DBA, Herb Chambers, certified pre-owned Medford. These license applications will go before the city council for a public hearing on June 24th, 2025, 7 p.m. at Medford City Hall, second floor, Howard Alden Memorial Chambers, 85 George Behasa Drive, Medford, MA, 02155. For any further questions, please feel free to contact the city clerk's office at 781-393 2425. Welcome. I'm going to go to Councilor Scarpelli, and then we'll go to you for presentation. Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: Mr. President, I've seen all the documentation seems to be in order with all the departments. Everybody has seemed to line up. It looks like it just is a simple transfer, just out of name. It's still the same owners, but if you can just explain a little bit more in depth.
[Zac Bears]: One second.
[SPEAKER_18]: Owner.
[Zac Bears]: Could you provide your name and address?
[SPEAKER_18]: Yes, Devon Bodie. I'm counsel for Asbury Automotive Group.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_18]: What we're asking for here tonight is just a transfer of ownership. The dealership at 60 Mystic Avenue is currently owned by Herb Chambers, and Asbury Automotive, which is Asbury B&B LLC, will be purchasing the dealership in the coming weeks. And we're asking for the transfer of the class 2 and class 4 licenses so that the dealerships can continue operating as they have been in the normal course and everyone can stay employed. For all intents and purposes, nothing will change at the dealerships. Even the DBA is staying the same. It will continue to be operating under the chamber's name.
[George Scarpelli]: Again, Mr. President, I see everything in order. I yield to my colleagues for any questions they have.
[Zac Bears]: Any further questions from members of the council about this paper and petition? Just one for me. Sure. You said it's going to be operating under the same name. Is it going to be operating, is Herb Chambers still going to be operating the facility?
[SPEAKER_18]: No, Mr. Chambers is selling this dealership.
[Zac Bears]: Okay. All right. Do you have any knowledge if that's part of a larger, we have several properties that he owns in the city, is that sort of a new strategy or?
[SPEAKER_18]: This is part of quite a big transaction that's happening throughout the state. He's selling 48 of his dealerships. They're all going to stay under the Chamber's name. But if you're referring to the new construction, yeah, perhaps, yeah, since that's being built, that's not technically up for a license application right now. but it's my understanding that part of the future deal or that's not currently part of this deal. So there's a possibility that we may be back before the board for a license there as well, but I can't speak to that at this moment.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_18]: Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: I'm gonna open the public hearing to anyone who'd like to speak in favor in opposition or otherwise speak on this paper. Public hearing is open. Are you in favor? Yes. Yes. So anyone else who'd like to speak on this petition, please come to the podium in the chamber or raise your hand on Zoom. Seeing none, I'm declaring the public hearing closed. Is there a motion?
[George Scarpelli]: Mr. President, I see everything is in order. Move to approve.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve, seconded by. Seconded by Vice President Collins. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro.
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming. Yes. Yes. President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, 60 affirmative one absent the motion passes. 25 099 petition for a class one slash four auto license ma g retail holding CJ dr mlc DBA McGovern Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram of Medford. Legal Notice City of Medford, pursuant to Medford Ordinance Chapter 14, Article 6, Section 14-462, MAG Retail Holdings, CJDRM, LLC, McGovern, CJDR, Boston, 29 Mystic Ave, hereby provides notice of intent to apply for a Class 1 dealer license in Medford, Massachusetts. The subject property is presently owned by Graba Realty Trust, 29 Mystic Avenue, Medford MA 02155, and is already authorized to operate as an automobile dealer by the local authorities. The subject property is being sold to the applicant, MAG Real Estate Holdings, Medford LLC, MAG Retail Holdings, CJDRM, LLC, McGovern, CJDR, Boston will be the tenant. These license applications will go before the Medford City Council for a public hearing on June 24, 2025, 7 p.m. at Medford City Hall, second floor, Howard Alden Memorial Chambers, 85 George P. Hassett Drive, Medford, MA 02155. applicant mag retail holding CJDRM LLC, McGovern CJDR of Boston. If there are any questions, please read out to the Medford City Clerk's Office at 781-393-2425. Do we have a representative? Great. I'm going to go to Councilor Scarpelli and then we'll come to you. Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: This breaks my heart to see Rob is leaving us. I know that they've been a long standing company that has done so much for our community. So it's sad to see them go, but I also noticed that the McGovern group is pretty well known and pretty respected as well. So again, I see everything in order, Mr. President. All the documents are, everything is, All the I's are dotted, T's are crossed, so I yell to my colleagues if they have any questions before moving approval.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. If you'd like to give the first presentation, we'll move to the front.
[SPEAKER_21]: My name's John Kennedy. I'm the vice president of operations for McGovern Automotive Group. Uh, we do currently have 23 locations in Massachusetts. Uh, and, uh, like you said, uh, the gravel family, uh, certainly did not, uh, sell to somebody who they, uh, took lightly. Um, so we, we are proud of that fact and we are looking forward to coming into the city and, uh, helping the community. And, uh, we're always a big part of the community when we come in. That's good to hear.
[Zac Bears]: Great, thank you. Do we have any questions from members of the council? Seeing none from members of the council, I do have just a question or two. Can you apply with fewer acronyms next time? I'm sorry? Your name has a lot of acronyms in it.
[SPEAKER_21]: Yes, it's McGovern Automotive Group, so MAG. Sorry, it's OK. We're getting feedback here. It's the heat. So it's McGovern Automotive Group. And I do want to just clarify, we did our DBA, we did want to have as McGovern CJDR, that's Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram of Boston, instead of Medford. I know that we did apply for that. And we just find that with our marketing, it casts a wider net. That's all.
[Zac Bears]: OK. And in terms of the ownership, it says that there's a different the properties being sold to one company and then there's a tenant, could you explain that a relationship.
[SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, we just we just we separate them we separate the real estate is in the business itself as well. So, It's, we actually, we have a couple different properties going on so we're trying to make it so that this moves as smoothly as possible just moving into the, the local building but we're also looking at some other properties for some storage facilities.
[Zac Bears]: Okay, in Medford in Medford Yes. Okay. I would just note. Certainly in that area, we have a new zoning, the Mystic Avenue corridor district, and we're trying to shift away from auto-related uses in the area. Understood.
[SPEAKER_21]: We've seen that already.
[Zac Bears]: Okay. And is the Grava family group selling all of their properties?
[SPEAKER_21]: As far as I know, yes, they are.
[Zac Bears]: Great, thank you. I'm gonna open the public hearing to anyone in favor in opposition or who would otherwise like to comment on this license. Public hearing is open. Are you in favor? Are you in favor of the license?
[SPEAKER_21]: Of course I am.
[Zac Bears]: Great. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak either in person or on Zoom? In person, please feel free to approach the podium. On Zoom, please raise your hand. Seeing none, I'm declaring the public hearing closed. Is there a motion? I have a motion to approve by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Vice President Collins. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng?
[Zac Bears]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Paris?
[Zac Bears]: Yes, six in the affirmative, one absent, the motion passes. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you, Councilor.
[Zac Bears]: Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. Do we have, I was going to make a motion, but do we have the petitioner present for the Common Vic license?
[Zac Bears]: Sorry?
[Kit Collins]: I was going to make a motion, but do we have the petitioner present for the Common Vic license before I do so?
[Zac Bears]: Oh, sorry about that. Thank you. 25-102, petition for amendment to a common victor's license, Raising Cane's Restaurants, LLC. Let me find this in the packet real quick. I know we have representatives here. To the Honorable City Council, Councilors, The undersigned respectfully request an amendment to our operating hours for our common vixlers license 5am to 7am Monday, 11pm to 12am. And these are the amended, I'm assuming you're not going to be closed from 7am to 11pm. So these are the additions. Okay, so you'd be open until midnight. Every night, and you would be open from five to 7am. And the brief explanation the petitioners are seeking to extend the morning hours of operation to 5am solely for the purpose of accepting deliveries of product and supplies to avoid congestion associated with deliveries during normal business hours of the plaza and the restaurant. In addition, the petitioners requesting an extension of the evening hours of operation from 11pm to 12am. The requested extension of hours of operation is consistent with the hours of operation of similarly situated restaurants, both within the Fellsway Plaza and the surrounding area. Business name, Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers. Business address, 519 Riverside Avenue, Manfred, Massachusetts, 02155. And we have the signature, Kathleen A. Desmond, Esquire, attorney for Raising Cane's Restaurants, LLC. So I will go to Councilor Scarpelli, and then we'll hear from you, Kathleen. Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. I say everything's in order. I know that we've have been there are neighboring restaurants that we've now extended their evenings to, uh, different times. So to be consistent, I would be in favor of what your recommendations would be. I think that if I can, Mr. President, the only amendment I would make is that we do, at least for the 1st 30 days and 60 days, we get a response back to as as I know that you're very close to some neighbors and having that early morning delivery. I would just wanna make sure that it's not affecting the neighborhood. So I would move to that when we get there, Mr. President, but I would put it on a 30 and 60 day review just to make sure that we're not affecting the residents in that neighborhood. But other than that, again, we see everything in order. So I yield to the podium.
[Zac Bears]: Great, thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. And just so everyone knows, Councilor Scarpelli is the chair of the Subcommittee on Licensing, Permitting and Signs.
[George Scarpelli]: No, I'm just the most important person.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you very much.
[George Scarpelli]: Uh Kathy.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Good evening, President Bears. Vice President Collins City Councilors Kathleen a Desmond of 335 Main Street Stonehenge. I'm here today with Julie Dreier, area leader of the Medford, uh, location and Sarah Holmes is also on zoom. The property development manager with raising canes. Um the petition before you request is indicated both an extension the hours of operation in the morning and the to 11 p.m. We're not seeking to extend it from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. The extension is only a window in the morning from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. for purposes of facilitating delivery of product to the restaurant prior to the normal business hours. Under the terms of the current ordinance, deliveries aren't permitted prior to 7 a.m. due in part to the loading restrictions set forth in the special permit that requires a smaller truck to accommodate the designated loading area and in part based on the distribution routes in the greater Boston area associated with the smaller trucks. Deliveries over the course of the last 10 months have been arriving between 10.30 and 12 p.m. when the restaurant is open. This has created a significant disruption to the operation of the restaurant as it's open at that time and it distracts from the staff's attention to customer service and also preparing food at a busy time of the day, one of their busier times of the day. Typically, in this instance, in terms of disruption to the neighborhood, deliveries are made once per day by that truck, so there'll only be one truck coming in with deliveries, and those deliveries are made five days out of seven days of the week. The truck is a smaller truck than a typical semi, which is 55 to 56 feet long. This is roughly 33 to 36 feet long. It's like one of the double FedEx trucks, so it's a much smaller truck. In addition, at the time we were before you on the special permit, you had requested at that time that we'd make every effort to have our trucks come in through Commercial Street rather than to come out onto Felsway. And speaking with my client, it's my understanding that that is in fact the case and that that is what has been occurring. If approved, my client is more than happy also to to a condition that agrees that the trucks won't idle during delivery and those those trucks will be shut off. It would really be helpful and make the whole process disruptive if they were able to have this five to seven window just for purposes of delivery. The second request is to extend the evening hours of operation by one hour to 12am. I understand that there are some restaurants who have moved to one. We may be back at some point in order to do that. I think at this point, they'd like to try out how the 12 a.m. works for them. As Councilor Schiappelli has indicated, Dave's Hot Chicken, Wingstop, and the Panda Beer along with Wendy's are all open at least until 12 a.m., sometimes much longer. And the failure to be on par with competition puts my client at a somewhat disadvantage. In closing, I'd just like to state that we believe that Raising Cane's has been well-received by the Medford community. We worked closely with the Medford Police Department Traffic Unit and the City Traffic Engineer prior to the grand opening to ensure that the traffic associated but the opening was handled successfully, and I think we did do that. My client has also undertaken improvements in connection with the project that facilitates the overall pedestrian access to the plaza, namely the signalized driveway at Route 28 and the Felsway, and also improvements made to the plaza's entrance on Riverside Ave. They've also been involved in the community within the last 10 months, providing donations of lemonade to the public schools, teacher appreciation swag, public library, they were involved in the book-sharing initiative, bookmarking initiative, participated in the Polar Plunge, the Dave McGilvery Finish Strong Phrase, and recently the 8th grade celebration of their moving on ceremonies. So, you know, Raising Canes does want to work with Medford and be of value to the community, and we'd ask that you approve the two changes. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Desmond. Do we have any questions for the petitioner? Seeing none, I just had one question. You mentioned that a condition on trucks not idling would be amenable to the applicant? Yes. Great, so if someone could move that along with the 30-60 day, okay. All right, seeing no further discussion, members of the council, and we have a motion from Councilor Scarpelli to approve with a 30, 60 day review of any complaints about deliveries and a condition that the trucks will not idle, delivery trucks will not idle. Does anyone from the public who would like to speak on this matter, either in person or on Zoom, you can come to the podium or raise your hand on Zoom. Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, when you're ready, please call the roll. Oh, sorry about that. We have a second from Councilor Leming.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan. He's absent. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro.
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, 60 affirmative when I have some emotion passes.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Thank you very much.
[Zac Bears]: Vice President Collins. Sorry.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. Um, after paper 25-093, I would motion to suspend the rules and take communications from the mayor.
[Zac Bears]: The motion is to spend the rules to paper 25-093 and communications from the mayor by Vice President Collins. Second. Second of my councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro.
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. Councilor Tseng.
[Zac Bears]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Paris.
[Zac Bears]: affirmative what happens in the motion passes two five zero nine three resolution to address issues on Quincy street. It resolved that the city council discuss issues on Quincy street in particular the rat infestation, street paving, stop signs at the intersection of Quincy street and Osgoode street. Uh Councilor Tseng and I know we do have Ann Driscoll here and this has been uh tabled a couple times so um just wanted to move on that. Councilor Tseng and then we'll go to the podium.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you, um, because, um, uh, and, and, and is aware that we have a limit on, um, public participation speaking time, we've coordinated so I can give you a fuller update about what's happening on Quincy Street. And then I can give an update about what I've learned so far, and then Anne can give an update about how things are going from her end. So essentially, Anne reached out to me, letting me know that on Quincy Street, there are a few problems that in summary, you've read out, Mr. President. The first big one is a very big rat infestation, one that is at least a city hired inspector from Yankee Pest in the fall let us know, let residents know, was of a very, very big size. I think the numbers disputed, but it's what we had heard, what residents had heard in the fall was possibly 1,000 to 3,000 rats. um in three kind of large nests identified um one um is on a property that's currently on sale um there are two off north street behind um Clever Green Cleaners and Stevenson's Construction. And there are incidents of rats jumping out of closed trash cans, running through yards, being run over on the street. And the neighborhood has been quite proactive in preventing rats. Neighbors have been making sure that no pets are being fed outside, that pets are being cleaned up after, that there aren't any birdhouses in use, that the burrows are being stuffed with steel wool, vinegar, and ammonia, and that all shrubbery on the private property is trimmed. But with the note that there is some overgrowth behind the cleaners that might need addressing. Um, that's the rat issue. And from what I understand and can give us an update as well, I understand that a few weeks ago, there were some inspectors from Yankee Pest who went, who gave a different number, a different estimate of the number of rats who were there, but did say that there are rat problems. Director O'Connor let me know that, that there are some residents who were contacted about boroughs being observed who didn't call the city back for follow-up treatment or inspection, and that The inspector from Yankee Pests, who did recently visit the neighborhood, met with the owners of Stevenson's Construction and Clever Green Cleaners. They both gave them permission to inspect the property and that both properties are free from rats at this time. But from the rear of Clever Green Cleaners, the inspector could see rat burrows in two abundant residential properties. The inspector did take note of evidence of rats in residential properties, including rat burrows, rat damaged lattice under porches, damaged trash cans, and rat droppings. But in the inspector's professional opinion, they don't have thousands of rats there. They did observe that the residents have been doing well as far as they can in terms of um, putting out rat bait, acting responsibly, doing their own rat control, um, but that, um, there might be some, um, some things that we can do as a city moving forward. Um, the inspector also noted that some of the rat burrows that he observed were from the rear of the dry cleaners under the wood, uh, pallets in the residential backyard and that, um, We can't, as a city, we can't service these areas with carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide unless the residents move some of their stored items. And so their recommendations is that we work either as a city council, the board of health, or as a city to reach out to everyone in the neighborhood and coordinate rat inspections and services from Yankee Pest. And that they would keep knocking on doors while they're there to see if they can do any inspections while they're in the neighborhood. And they would help us put together a list of what might need to be done to control the rats. but essentially think that if we can do a neighborhood meeting, maybe work with the board of health to do that, that would be helpful. So that's the rat issue. On the next two issues, I don't have as many updates, but I will say the commissioner, DPW commissioner did get back to me and say that he's putting these on the repair lists for the summer. So the first problem is that the street has from Quincy Street from where Osgoode meets Quincy to the end of the Somerville line has been patched, but the patching is coming up. And a lot of the patches are tossing tar onto the streets and sidewalks as well. One of the patches is seven feet by five feet, and there are nine of them in a 12-house radius. And so the street needs a more thorough repaving, and the DPW commissioner is aware. There are a lot of streets in Medford at this time that need similar work, but he's told me that he's put this on the list. Um, and the last concern that Mr. school brought up to me, um, was that there is a dangerous intersection with the need for two more stop signs at the junction of Quincy and Osgood. Um, as a lot of folks who are accessing Boston Ave and Mystic Valley Parkway speed down the street. Um, and there have been incidents where, um, moms who are putting their kids in car seats and people who are being picked up and dropped off after school on that corner have almost been hit. And so I have reached out to members of the Traffic Commission about this, but I have not heard back on this yet.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. I'm going to go to Anne at the podium. Anne, I think Councilor Tseng talked about a lot, but we have a three-minute limit, so I'm going to give you your full three minutes, and then you can have an additional minute after that. unless some but we have to let someone else speak for us if they want to, and then you can come back for another minute. Right.
[SPEAKER_23]: I mean, I'm Andrews go 77 Quincy Street, and I'd like to thank Councilman saying, for his help in this matter we've had contact several times. The inspector did indeed come to the street, and I saw he was taking pictures of my husband's bird houses. They are not bird feeders. And actually, they're not occupied at this very moment. So I'd have to say they're not much of a danger. But there are no bird feeders on this street. We have done everything we can in the neighborhood with the rats. And they are an ever-present danger to our safety, with people screaming and 90-year-old women screaming as one jumped out. I brought copies of what I was going to say, but the councilman has already said it very well. And so I'm going to leave 11 copies over there for everybody to read all the incidents we've had and some pictures of what's going on in the street. I also like show and tell. So I brought a piece of the tar that's been spewing up on the sidewalks. So child or walking their dogs, we have a lot of dog walkers in our neighborhood. they could be hurt by this stuff. It's been so many patches, it's ridiculous. It's beyond patching. And the stop signs are really a necessity because we are almost in a direct line from Tufts University. Tesla to Osgoode is a little jog, and then straight down to North Street. So people trying to get on Mr. Gav or to Boston Ave, they just, it's like the Indiana Speedway. So with that, Councilman Tseng did, he stole all my material. So thank you for listening. I'll just put my stuff over there.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Anne. And as a neighbor, I'm on Auburn Street, I know. I'm right at the house at the bottom of the hill on North Street. So, you know, I don't know how people are going 45, 50 miles an hour and making that turn, but they are. So I'm really hoping we'll get some more safety and speed improvements in the area. Thanks. Is there anyone else would like to speak on this item from the public, either in person or on Zoom? Feel free to come to the podium in person or raise your hand on Zoom. Thank you. Name and address for the record, please. And you'll have three minutes.
[SPEAKER_44]: Anne Castner Williams, 79 Capon Street. I just want to thank Ms. Driscoll for raising these issues. I can speak as a dog walker. I've also noticed the issue of tar being everywhere. I do have to look out for my dog's safety. And I'm also just as concerned about the amount of speeding on Quincy Street. I live at the intersection of Quincy and Capon. That is our main dog route. And everything that Mr. Oskol says is a concern of mine. I didn't know that this was being raised here. But I do think that the addition of those two stop signs and significant attention to that road would make a big difference in the community. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you so much. Any further discussion on this resolution by members of the public or by councillors? Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears I just want to thank and again for bringing these issues forward to the council and for working with Councilor Tseng on these issues on your street unfortunately we do know they're certainly not isolated to this part of Medford this term we have been seeking to. work with the administration to accelerate some of the road and control measures that are within our jurisdiction and I think as you spoke to and as Councilor Tseng spoke to, to really get at the root of the problem requires that holistic approach. So I think a neighborhood meeting is a really important step in this process. I know that the road and control issue is not the only thing that you're dealing with, But it's certainly where we've been working with the mayor's office with the Board of Health quite collaboratively especially last year to try to update our rodent control ordinance to update our wildlife feeding ordinance overgrowth ordinance, and really just to show up for education efforts because when there are dilapidated properties residents who don't know how big of an issue, trash on residential properties can be that can really accumulate to a street wide problem so I wanted to thank my colleague and thank the resident for working on this. And I hope that certainly by the end of the term we can have those three ordinances update to give our to the city administration more latitude to deal with the pest issues all across Medford. Thank you, I motion to approve.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Vice President Collins on the motion approved by Vice President Collins seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro. Yes. Councilor Leming. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng.
[Zac Bears]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent, the motion passes. Thank you. Communications from the mayor 25106 appropriation of free cash submitted by brand new brand new current use of free cash to your president bears and city councilors are special request and recommend that your honorable body approved the appropriation of free cash the amount of $8,022,021.80 on the following items, $8,000,000 to the Capital Stabilization Fund, given the decades-long backlog of capital improvements needed by the city of Medford, partially outlined below, and $22,021.80 for washers, dryers and appurtenances, and a stove for the Fire Department. A balance of free cash before this vote is $20,023,923.94. As our honorable body knows, there is a long list of needs by the city, including but not limited to the below matters for which we'll be starting the complete review and planning this summer. The numbers shown are estimates and this list does not include water and sewer infrastructure work that lies ahead. $200 million street and sidewalk repair backlog, $15 million for Freedom Way, $4 million for Oak Grove design and construction, $3 million for equipment and vehicles, $3 million for accounting software, $1.5 million for City Hall ADA bathroom renovations, $1 million for Hagner Center, $125,000 for dive equipment, an unknown amount for City Hall HVAC costs, which, as we're all experiencing now, is much needed. respectfully submitted Brianna Lingo, current mayor. I saw the chief of, there's the chief of staff. If there's anything you'd like to add, then we'll go to discussion.
[Nina Nazarian]: Good evening, President Bears and members of the council. Nothing specific to add. This is effectively a continuation from our discussion at the June 10th meeting. And I'm happy to answer any questions.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Do we have any questions from members of the council?
[George Scarpelli]: Councilor Scarpelli. Today, Madam Chief of Staff, was $22 million in free cash? Is that $20 million? $20 million, yes. And then we're asking for eight to be distributed?
[Ellen Epstein]: Yes, set aside.
[George Scarpelli]: So we'll use the $12 million. So that falls in line to keep our bond rating where it needs to be and enough free cash in case of any emergency that's needed, right?
[Nina Nazarian]: Yes, through you, President Bears, I think that's a reasonable way to describe it. The bond rating companies are looking for a decent amount in free cash. And so that allows us to carry over that amount and also place some funding aside so that we can go through the process of distributing it for capital needs on an as-needed basis.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Lazzaro.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. Chief of Staff Nazarian, can you explain to me the process for going through the prioritization of the rest of the items as listed? I'm sure it won't be the rest of the items, but you mentioned through the summer, if you could just tell me what that process might look like.
[Nina Nazarian]: Thank you, Councilor Lazzaro. Through you, President Bears, I don't think there's a very quick and clear answer that I can provide. It would include meetings between myself, the mayor, our finance director, any department heads that we need to incorporate. You know, frankly, we're presently very the budget process. Um. Busy with a number of issues. Thankfully the this council has approved the budget, so that's not one of the items on the agenda right now. Necessarily we do want to follow through with the. Government finance officials. Association budget book for a third budget award, hopefully, so that will be something that will be doing over the summer, but it's not quite nearly as The other issues that are taking a considerable amount of time is litigation in front of the city right now, which is being defended. So I figured I'd mention that right now. I hope that answers your question. I should have some better information as the summer really unfolds at this point, and we begin those meetings and those processes.
[Emily Lazzaro]: President Bears, if I may?
[Zac Bears]: You have the floor.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I just wanted to, as important as I think it may be to continue working on a budget book, I think that prioritizing, putting additional amounts of free cash into further helping the city invest in its our department beyond appliances, I think, would be something I would encourage the administration to look into with greater urgency and haste. I've been talking, I feel like I've been asking for the dive equipment in a little bit of an annoying way. And I'm kind of OK with that, I guess. But I think that we have the capacity to invest in that and appliances at the same time, perhaps, because it's not a huge amount of money. think that even if there was one person that was saved from drowning by a dive team over the course of 10 years, it would have been worth $125,000. And that delaying it isn't necessary or something that I would think is pertinent or useful for the city of Medford. I'm putting that out there for now. I would also say that listing two times now over the last two meetings how many items we need to spend money on for the benefit of the city council and for the public while useful is highlighting that some of these items are a few tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and some of these items are hundreds of millions of dollars. So it really puts into stark contrast which items we're capable of paying for now and which items we are not capable of paying for now. My understanding is best practice is to have five to 7% of your annual budget in cash reserves. $20 million is not five to 7% of our annual budget. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Vice President Collins. Oh, there you go.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. Thank you for being here. I just wanted to, for the benefit of the public, and since we're talking about this again, wanted to restate something that was brought up at our last meeting about free cash appropriations, kind of to piggyback off of what Councilor Lazzaro was just saying. For myself, I think, and I know this is in the queue of projects that the administration is planning to work on over the summer, I think it would be very, very useful to see at least a prioritization plan that deals with these kind of separate tiers of spending projects separately, like Councilor Lazzaro was saying, we know there are some projects that are very, very impactful, that are small dollars compared to some of these multi, multi-million dollar capital expenses. I don't know for myself and apparently I'm not the only council and I know that they're members of the public saying, if this is, you know, point 5% of our operating budget or very very small percent of what we ought to have in cash reserves, what is the justification for not spending it especially if it's something that would be. materially useful to the residents in the short term. So I understand we don't have that information today, but as we continue to talk more about this over the summer and hopefully look at a more discreet plan by the end of the summer, I'll be really, I just want to restate, I'll be really eager to see that plan for essentially, what are we going to see the plan for the appropriations and do that prioritization and filtering action through all of these plans, we know all the stuff that we plan to spend money on, I think people and myself, at least very eager to see what is the justification for what we're holding back on. And for those smaller things that are easier to spend on and get in motion, what is the justification for pulling the trigger this year, next year in two years in five years? Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Chief of Staff Nazarian.
[Nina Nazarian]: Just to comment broadly and briefly on Councilor Lazzaro's comments and Councilor Collins' comments. I think largely we're discussing some of the things we discussed at the June 10th meeting. And I wanna just tell the council that the comments are heard and the comments are taken back and we will be working on this. I don't disagree largely that we have a stark contrast as Councilor Lazzaro stated in terms of You know, some of our smaller amounts, some of our maybe maybe medium sized amounts and some of the things that are just so large that they're so difficult to fund and complete and require you know multi year planning. I don't want anyone to be under the impression that the budget book is is taking a priority over this I was just simply mentioning that we're on the significant downhill slope of the FYI 26 budget, and it's just a process and and that process is one for transparency, as the council knows government finance officials, association rates communities who submit their budget books for purposes of transparency. The city won the budget award in two years, one was last year and one was a number of years ago, and it's important that we continue those things because we want to continue having a transparent budget. Those are my only comments, and I hear the council's comments. I won't dive into each of them specifically. I need to stop using that word, but I do want you all to know that I hear you and we are working on it. It is just a little bit more complicated than it sometimes seems on the surface.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Madam Chief of Staff. Any further discussion by members of the Council? Seeing none, is there a motion? The motion to approve by Vice President Collins, seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Leming. Move to public comment. We'll take public comment in person or on Zoom on this item for, we'll go, each person will have three minutes. If you'd like to comment on this item, you can come to the podium if you're in the chamber, or you can raise your hand on Zoom and we'll alternate between in-person and Zoom. Seeing no hands on Zoom and one person at the podium, name and address for the record, please, and you'll have three minutes.
[Nick Giurleo]: Good evening, Mr. Alejo, Forty Robinson Road. So for members of the public who might not be following, this letter from the mayor is requesting an appropriation of $8 million from our free cash balance, so over-budgeted taxpayer dollars, from a balance total of over $20 million for capital improvements. And as the letter indicates, this includes street and sidewalk improvements, Oak Grove Cemetery repairs, equipment and vehicles. If you recall, during the campaign to override Proposition 2 1⁄2 and raise our taxes, money was requested to fund the Department of Public Works. I'll quote from the ballot question that was approved, quote, general operations of the Department of Public Works, in parentheses, 500,000, including but not limited to additional staff for road and sidewalk infrastructure repairs. That was question seven. You also have to recall that supporters of the yes vote, including some members of this council repeatedly dismissed that we could use free cash as a substitute for raising taxes but you have to look and see what's happening here. We're using $8 million in free cash, that's what this comes down to, or at least putting it aside in a separate fund for that purpose. So I just as rhetorically you know why, given the amount of free cash that we had. that the people of our city were told raising taxes for $500,000 DPW money was necessary, and that we did suffer apocalyptic funding shortages if we didn't do it. So this isn't the first time though, that since the election, the free cash has been used to meet city funding needs. At a actually recent meeting I spoke at, the mayor requested 5 million from our free cash for HVAC repairs for the schools, another about 200,000 for security upgrades across the public schools as well. And that was approved by this council. So I view this in addition to what I discussed previously as just yet another vindication of that free cash argument. I think it's unfortunate taxpayers have to suffer as a result. So we can only hope that voters aren't misled again. And what I think is a likely event, we see another override on the ballot. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Just wanted to clarify on that. The funding from question seven was used to hire permanent staff in the DPW. And these funds, these funds aren't, as you noted, aren't being appropriated to any specific project. They're being placed in the stabilization fund. under the archaic ways of our state law, money placed in the stabilization fund can be appropriated at any time. But free cash balance, which is essentially just a different reserve account, can only be appropriated after a free cash balance is certified by the State Department of Revenue. And that generally happens in March. So we wouldn't be able to access the funds until that. So for several months, if it stayed in free cash, but in the stabilization fund, if the administration comes up with the free cash plan or makes an appropriation request, we can consider that at any time during the fiscal year. So it's about putting our reserve funds in a place where they can be used instead of in the free cash account where they can't be used until the next certification next spring. So if it isn't moved, it means that the funds are not able to be used for the next nine months, even if there's a priority to use them. And yeah, I mean, We have massive needs. That was part of the discussion in the override campaign last year, but the road and sidewalk funding under question seven was used to hire staff who will be working for the city. And that's an ongoing expense and therefore requires ongoing funding. These dollars, what we've appropriated this year and what's potentially being proposed in the future would be for one time expenses. So that's the difference. I'll go to the podium. Since I see no hands on Zoom, name and address for the record, please.
[Nate Merritt]: You have three minutes. Nate Merritt, 373 Riverside Ave. Question for you through the chair, just for clarification. The $22,000 for washers, dryers, and appurtenances and a stove, I heard a Councilor mention they were appliances, but are those for uniforms, or are those for gear washers and dryers, which are a completely different piece of equipment? You don't mix bloody clothes with turnout gear. So just for the public's knowledge.
[Zac Bears]: I do believe we have the fire chief who's raised his hand so I will take the fire chief on zoom. Chief Evans.
[Todd Evans]: Hi, thank you for your question. I appreciate that. So those are washer and dryers for the individuals that are working at the time to wash uniforms that have been soiled in the course of doing their duties at work. You know getting anything possibly on the uniforms from carcinogens to blood or anything like that, that they don't want to be taking home to their families. So they can wash those particular clothing, uh, in those washes and dryers at the stations.
[Zac Bears]: Yep. Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: We're asking for a regular washing machines for the stations, correct? It's not, it's not for the turnout gear. I think you're confusing us chief.
[Todd Evans]: That is correct. It's not turnout gear. It's the, it's the uniforms that they wear regularly in the station. Otherwise from, you know, uh, the turnout gear is for fighting fires itself. And the uniform is just going to medical calls and, and every other type of call that they go out throughout the day.
[Nate Merritt]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying. Only in that just for general public who isn't in the fire service doesn't necessarily understand that, hey, these guys are just trying to wash their clothes. Why are we spending 22 grand? It's because of what the chief said. So my other question, and it relates to a different ask of the mayor, but to my predecessor's point, there's an ask to transfer $267,000 from the DPW and highway budget to other parts of the salary. But yet when you total up all the line items, but yet we're saying that we have shovel, you know, like needs now for DPW. So I guess I question like, what is going on that half the override ask is now asking to be transferred to different areas of the budget.
[Zac Bears]: So that's the next paper. So we'll take it up on the next paper. I have Councilor Leming, then Councilor Scarpelli, Councilor Leming.
[Matt Leming]: Yeah, I'm gonna just repeat a lot of points, sorry. There's a lot of people here that are trying to talk about a couple of other papers we have, and I feel like we've gone over the civics lesson a few dozen times in council by now, but I'm just gonna repeat the point. Free cash is used for one-time expenses, capital projects, which is what is on this paper. The override, believe we're talking about question seven, which put $500,000 a year to the DPW that is used for ongoing expenses. You can't dip into free cash to pay staff because those are year to year costs. Now every city has usually between usually over budgets by about three to 5%. And then that is then put into free cash, which then can then collect over time so that we can then put that amount into things like sidewalks, HVAC systems, one-time capital projects. The override didn't go towards that. That's going towards hiring three in-house road repair crew members. I feel like there's probably a lot of folks in this room who haven't heard us have this same conversation literally dozens of times by now, but I just want to clarify that that's what's going on here. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: to the constituents that spoke or anybody else that's here, your time is respected. So if any time you come to that podium, the time isn't wasted. We understand there's other things on the agenda, but what you say is just as important as anybody else here. So whether we have to say it 30 times or under times, that's your podium. So feel free to do that. And I think that the question keeps coming about because of the confusion, Mr. President, that we had. And I don't want to make this any longer than it has to be. But if we can ask the chief of staff, really, for the clarity with what happened during the budget meeting. Just so you know, the mayor did speak, but before the mayor, Tim McGibbon mentioned that the DPW directed mentioned that we are not looking at a specific identified sidewalk and road repair team. What we're doing is we're spreading that that money from the override to 20% for different departments to maintain the street services. So I think the confusion comes in if we can have a report that the override in that question said $500,000 for street repair and sidewalk. I think the mayor made mention of it that evening as well, that we were creating a team, we were training them, making sure they have the right equipment. And that's what people thought we were doing. We thought we were having a separate sidewalk and pothole crew. So I think that's where the confusion comes in. So if my colleague is offended, I think that might clarify some issues if we can have a report maybe at our next meeting in a few weeks, just to understand where that is. Because that's why it keeps coming back up. I think people are confused that you know, myself included. So thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. And I just want to note, and I'll go to the chief of staff, but I don't, but what Commissioner McGivern said was there was a 20% increase in the budget staffing for the highway department. And then the appropriation that we approved in November, it was specifically to hire the highway crew. And what he said was, that because of this increase we will be able to have a crew using the new equipment that has been purchased as well out four days a week instead of two days per week so we would not be outsourcing sidewalk. That is what he said and I've talked to him about it about six times but I'll let the Chief of Staff continue on that.
[Nina Nazarian]: I do think there has been some confusion on this matter. I specifically recall the 20% that the DPW commissioner mentioned to refer to a 20% increase in production, essentially putting a new crew out on the street, three individuals, and that is what we are doing. So I wanna be very clear about that. And I'd further clarify to just say, and I can distribute this information if it's helpful, at some point when we came before this council to have further appropriations in FY25 approved by this council, that $500,000 was broken out into very distinct categories. If the council will recall, it discussed personnel, and that was for three members to be hired. So the DPW crew, specifically the highway department crew, expanded by three full-time equivalents. In other words, three 40-hour-a-week employees. and it also included health insurance. It also included capital because, you know, there is the obvious that when we hire a new crew, we're going to need new vehicles to go along with that crew to make it fully functional. So again, if that information is needed, I'm happy to distribute it again to the council. I'm sure it's in the council's packet. If someone wants to look back, I just, I think it was in the fall, October, November.
[George Scarpelli]: like I thank you just very simple just for the next meeting if we could just get a breakdown with I know the spreader with the spreader was was purchased that we were training we're hiring three new people they were that's what the that's what the impression that a lot of people had so if we could just get a breakdown that we have that crew in the next meeting when that crew will start when they'll be trained and have we use that spreader to make to do that thank you
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak in public participation who hasn't yet spoken? Seeing none, I will go to Mr. Merritt. You have another minute. Name and address for the record, please.
[Nate Merritt]: Nate Merritt, 373 Riverside Ave. I'm sorry I didn't accept the civics lesson. So I find your comments very condescending, and I'm just trying to understand because at face value, and I'm sure I'm not alone, The fact that there's a listing of $200 million in this paper for street and sidewalk backlog, yet a transfer of $267,000 from another paper, where if you take both them together you go, why am I shifting money from one budget if there's nothing to work on? But at the other side of the cheek, you say, well we have all this stuff to get work done. So that was my question. It wasn't specific to the override. It just happens to also coincide with half the cost of the override. But it's really because the fact that in a line item here in this paper is $200 million for street and sidewalk backlog. So that's why it was related to this one. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Any further discussion on the motion? There's a motion to approve. Any further discussion on the motion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins? Councilor Lazzaro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: No.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? No. Councilor Scarpelli? No. Councilor Tseng?
[Zac Bears]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Bearsar?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Form the affirmative, two in the negative, one absent. The motion passes. 25107 fiscal year 2025 year-end transfer submitted by Mayor Brian Olingo Kern. Dear President Perez and members of the members of the City Council, I respectfully and recommend that Your Honorable Boot Potty approve the following end of year transfer for fiscal 25, $500 legislative expenses to legislative salaries. $15,000 finance salaries to finance expenses. $40,000 assessor salaries to finance expenses. Negotiated salaries, 186,000 to workers' compensation, 186,000. Negotiated salaries, 225,000 to workers' compensation, 225,000. Police salaries, 78,000 to election salaries, 78,000. DPW highway expenses, 2,000 to elections expenses, 2,000. Police salaries, 175,000 to fire salaries, 175,000. DPW highway expenses 40,000 the fire expenses 40,000. Police salaries, 10,000. The PDS salaries, 10,000. DPW highway expenses, 175,000. To parking expenses, 175,000. Parks, DPW, 60,000. To electrical expenses, 60,000. DPW highway to facilities expenses, 10,000. DPW highway to building expenses, 40,000. Legal salaries to legal expenses, 115,000. Treasury salaries to human resources salaries, 20,000. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Sincerely, Brandon O'Kern, Mayor. Madam Chief of Staff, I'll recognize you and I also know we have Finance Director Dickinson as well. So if you'd like him to speak, let me know and I will ask him to unmute.
[Nina Nazarian]: Thank you very much, President Bears. As the council knows, every year it's customary in cities and towns for there to be transfers for the fiscal year end. It's when one budget requires more funding than another budget was anticipated to require, and it's a common practice. It's one that I've seen in every community I've worked in, and I'm happy to answer any questions on any specific lines that the council would like information on.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you just to the point could you explain how there was a $500,000 allocation for the fiscal year for DPW, but then because of the union contract positions had to be made available within the union. So all of that had to happen. And then the positions, the three new positions have been advertised, but for most of this year, they were empty. Is that the explanation for why funds are being transferred from that budget?
[Nina Nazarian]: So I think there are two distinct issues. I think you're absolutely correct, President Bears, that because of the override funding, and because of the union contract, in order for the city to actually hire these positions that it set out and outlined in the document I described earlier, we are required to internally post those positions amongst DPW employees. They have the first dibs at those positions. So if somebody is in a, let's say, a lower ranking position and wants to seek a promotion, can actually apply and has a first cut at that. before the position is publicly advertised, that's a requirement under the collective bargaining agreement and one we have a legal obligation to maintain. In that process, there's typically a domino effect. Just as if there is a vacancy in the department, the positions posted internally, because that vacancy may be a position that's greater than positions other members of the department hold, then there's almost always a domino effect, unless the position is, let's say, the lowest paid position in the department. An internal employee applies for the position. If they're qualified and if a variety of factors that put them into the proper place allows the city to award a position to them, we will. And that's exactly what happened with these three positions for the override. the positions were posted, the internal candidates applied. Usually there's a lot of internal applicants, which is excellent. Internal applicants applied, we then hired from within, which then meant that there was vacancies in the positions in which those individuals left, which also can have further domino effects on the department because then those individuals may be taking positions where there are individuals who are lower than them. I think you all get the picture. But I don't believe that that really is directly related to the funding here as it relates to the DPW expenses. Largely, I think the Sometimes the easiest way to say this is that some of our larger departments tend to be the departments that sometimes might have additional funding left over in them. For instance, where we have this scenario where we are hiring from within and then there's vacancies, that vacancy is what I like to call a float. A float is essentially available dollars in the budget because we didn't have the position filled or it was taking time to go through a filling procedure. I don't know if that directly answers the question. It was a little hard to hear the question from my angle, but I'm happy to get any clarification.
[Zac Bears]: That's fine. I just wanted to go through the process of filling those positions. Do we have questions from the Council on the transfers? Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: I think that this goes hands in hands with the Chief of Staff. I think that one question that I had related to free cash, but Then with the transfer, I know that last year we used excess funds from 2025 budget. We replenished free cash, I believe it was $9 million. Are we using any monies to replenish to go back into free cash this time around?
[Nina Nazarian]: President Bears through you to Councilor Scarpelli. I mean, that's a question I can't fully answer at this time, but undoubtedly the answer is going to be yes. It's not that we're attempting to replenish anything. It's because best practices and municipal government are such that we are required, as you know, to present a balanced budget to this council, which in order to maintain a balanced budget throughout the year, best practices in municipal budgeting require that we actually budgeted conservatively so we, you know, our, our finance director who's on the line who is welcome to chime in on any of this. He's responsible to go through a process to do estimates on a number of different things and by the way that it works. The ability to look back is actually basically two years back. So when we're building the FY 26 budget as an example, we're actually looking back to 24 actuals. We don't have 25 actuals yet because 25 hasn't closed. And so to get back to your specific question, Councilor Scarapelli, we don't, in fact, know exactly where FY 25 is going to close at and what those numbers will look like. We'll know that better once we get closer to the middle of the summer and we're starting to close the books. But again, I defer to our finance director if he has further commentary.
[George Scarpelli]: And just a follow-up with that. I know my colleagues like to say that using free cash for operating costs is a no-go, and we understand that. It's true that free cash comes from unfilled positions as well, correct? That comes from operation costs as well. So I think that's where another time that people get really confused when some councils start banging their head and start saying that you can't use operating costs to pay free cash to pay operating costs. But for that one time at the time, the objective was since we're putting free cash from unfunded salaries or unfilled positions that that was that's being used I think that was that's a clarifying point not nothing to answer but that's just a clarifying point that as we see now and you're looking at different salary pieces being being shifted um you could see when that happens and I appreciate the answer that we won't know the 25 until some time but at least we know that that we because I know that people get nervous even at $12 million, you know where I stand with that. I think that's plenty, especially with those two factors, which is the bond rating. But I also want to make sure that if there is some more free cash coming to fill that need, that we can be able to spend it on capital needs as well. So thank you.
[Nina Nazarian]: Sure, thank you, and I'm not sure you're looking for this comment, but I'll, President Bears, through you, if I may, you know, it's not just, I think, the members of the council who say that, it's myself as well. As an individual who's been trained municipally, who's been working in this field for the last, I don't know, close to 18 years now, I can tell you that that's also a best practice. Bond rating agencies do not like to see municipalities use one-time funds to fund operating costs. It's just a matter of fact. And I just say that because it's just something that's come up over and over again. And frankly, Medford was, I don't, yeah, I won't go into the long history, but we are out of that place and we don't want to get back to that place. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Any further comments or questions by members of the council on this paper? Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: I have no further questions or comments at this time. Pending further concerns from my Councilors and public comment, I would motion for approval.
[Zac Bears]: I have a motion to approve by Vice President Collins, seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Leming. Seeing no further discussion by members of the Council, are there any members of the public who would like to comment on this paper? Please come to the podium or raise your hand on Zoom. Thank you. Name and address for the record, please. And you'll have three minutes.
[Goldstein]: Hi, thanks. Sam Goldstein, 29 Martin Street. Just as we're talking about pre-cash, there's a pretty major housing crisis going on. I think it's driving a lot of what the council's been doing this year and in past years. And I would even say it's really animating a lot of municipal politics all across the country, if you look at New York City. I, you know, I just wanted to get up and say that I, you know, I would like to see the city take a little more, you know, active approach and addressing that, and particularly things like funding, you know, exploring funding the affordable housing trust fund and using you know, these reserves to jumpstart this process. I think that, you know, there's an opportunity here to take a more active approach on that. And it's something I wanted to speak on and, you know, ask at least in the future for the city to consider. Thank you. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Any further public comment on this item? Seeing none, on the motion. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? No. Councilor Tseng? President Bears?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Five in the affirmative, one in the negative, one absent. The motion passes. 25108 submitted by Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, establishing transfer funds to Medford Public Schools Special Purpose Override Stabilization Fund. We've discussed this at several meetings. On November 5, Question 8 was approved for fiscal 25 Medford Public Schools in the amount of $4 million. Based on the outcome of negotiations with union partners, when negotiated payments will be due, The schools anticipate having a balance at the end of fiscal 25. We are requesting to segregate that balance in a special account to ensure the full amount of the override for fiscal 25 is available to MPS for contractual requirements in future years. The special account will be used solely for school purposes as outlined in question 8. In particular, Chapter 40, Section 5B of the General Law stipulates that cities and towns and districts may create one or more stabilization funds and appropriate any amount to the funds. Creation of a special purpose stabilization fund requires a two-thirds vote, and appropriation of monies into and out of the fund requires a majority vote. By taking this action, we will have a source of funding available to supplement the Medford Public Schools annual operating budget in the upcoming fiscal year and future fiscal years. We did receive a presentation from Noelle and Jerry from the finance department as well as the interim superintendent Suzanne Galusi at a previous meeting talking about the plan to use these funds over the next 3 years for the contractual obligations of the Medford public schools. I know the chief of staff was just working on making sure we got the legal language correct, and that's why it's on the agenda tonight instead of at our last meeting. So, you know, we've had quite a bit of discussion on this, but I am happy to hear from the chief of staff or our school department team who is here on Zoom before we move forward. Do you have any comments, Madam Chief of Staff?
[Nina Nazarian]: Thank you, President Bears. I don't have much to add. As you, as the council probably knows and has seen, we try to really incorporate as much into the papers as possible so the council has the information up front. So I certainly defer to the team who knows the details best.
[Zac Bears]: Great. And just to confirm, this is creating the special purpose override stabilization fund and transferring the sum of $2,185,000 from the balance remaining in the fiscal 25 Medford Public Schools budget. If the school team, I'm going to recognize our school department CFO. Noelle, go ahead.
[Noel Velez]: Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. Noah, as we brought up earlier, you know, we had our presentation brought in approximately about a month ago. Just understanding that these funds are specifically for certain unions we're negotiating with. We're glad to say we're almost landing our plane with the para union, which is one of the other unions. that the stabilization funds would be used regarding their new schedules that we're implementing over at all the schools. Also, any other stipends that may be involved with this and their pay raises coming in with this new contract that they're hopefully reviewing at the moment.
[Zac Bears]: Great. Thank you, Director Velez. I'm going to go to Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. Thank you to the MPS team and Chief of Staff again for presenting. So just to put this in really simple language, the purpose of this establishment and transfer is to make sure that the funds raised through Question 8 remain protected for use by Bedford Public Schools. I believe I have that correct. I would motion to approve.
[Zac Bears]: I'll motion Vice President Collins to approve, seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Leming. Any further discussion by members of the Council? Seeing none, is there anyone from the public who'd like to comment on this item, either in person or on Zoom? You can come to the podium in person or raise your hand on Zoom. That's a good point. We need to take two votes on this. One to approve and establish the fund, and then one to make the transfer. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. So we have a motion to establish the fund from vice-president Collins, seconded by councilor Leming. Seeing no public comment, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice-president Collins. Councilor Lazzaro.
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, finding the affirmative, one of the negative, one absent, the motion passes and the fund is established. Do we have a motion to transfer the balance of $2,185,000 from the fiscal 25 Medford Public Schools budget to the fund? On the motion of Vice President Collins, seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Kelly is absent. Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? No. Councilor Tseng? President Bears?
[Zac Bears]: Yes, I'm affirmative, one of the negative, one absent. The motion passes. Reverting to the regular order of business, 25-103 offered by Vice President Collins, proposed amendments to the Menford Zoning Ordinance, other quarters, districts, for referral to the Community Development Board. Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: President Bears, I motion to table to our next regular meeting.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion to table to our next regular meeting on July 15th by Vice President Collins, seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Calderon.
[Zac Bears]: It's not referred to table to table to July 15th.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Council County is absent. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro.
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: That's a lemon. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng Yes.
[Zac Bears]: to Vice President Collins for the next two resolutions.
[Kit Collins]: 24-104-25-104 offered by President Bears's resolution in opposition to Scarametti versus United States Supreme Court decision. Whereas the recent scrutiny versus United States majority opinion by the United States Supreme Court enables and protects unjust laws that discriminate against transgender people in the United States, and whereas the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution obviously prevents federal, state, and local governments from passing laws or taking actions that violate the Equal Protection Clause, Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Medford City Council that we strongly oppose the Scrimidi versus United States decision. Be it further resolved that we call on our state government to pass the strongest possible protections for transgender people and protect their inalienable right to medical care. President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. I think the resolution really speaks for itself. We've seen yet another horrific decision from the United States Supreme Court to strip rights away from our neighbors and our friends and allow right-wing extremists to define the scope of what it means to get health care, regardless of what the medical establishment and doctors and nurses, nevermind what an individual person and their doctor determine is best for them. I think this is a disgraceful statement. I know there are a lot of people in this community who are afraid when we see these actions and decisions and laws being implemented. And I am grateful both for our local gender affirming care ordinance protections as well as our state law protections that Massachusetts is not a state that is going down this path, but with this Supreme Court, and with all of the states and all of the people in those states who are so horribly impacted. believe it's essential that we stand in solidarity with them and in just basic statement about the fact that an equal protection clause in our 14th Amendment means equal protection for everyone, regardless of what this court majority seems to think. That's why I put forward this resolution and why I asked for my colleagues' support. I move approval.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. I will go to Councilor Lazzaro on Zoom.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I'd be happy to second President Bears's motion and I appreciate him bringing this forward. When Councilor Tseng and I were working on the gender affirming care portion of the reproductive health care and gender affirming care ordinance, We were told that we shouldn't do it because it could make us a target of the Trump administration, it goes against the executive order about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and avoiding Things that might make Medford come under fire. We were also told that nobody had ever come to the DEI office asking for these sort of protections before. Off the top of my head, I can think of six people who live in Medford that I know personally who are trans and just because they haven't come to City Hall to directly ask for protections doesn't mean that we shouldn't offer them doesn't mean that they might not appreciate a show of solidarity and a resolution like this saying that we as your local government do not support and do not stand for this kind of measure as part of your government I think is meaningful for people and I think we need to continue to make these statements during this time in America. I think it's one of the few things that keeps Medford residents feeling safe. And that's one of our duties is to do what we can to keep our Medford residents feeling a little bit safer. So I'm happy to support this resolution. I think that anything that we can do in the face of a justice and unreasonable decisions being made by our government, we should do it. So I appreciate President Bears bringing this forward. Thank you very much. I second the motion. Thank you.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, Councilor Lazzaro. We'll go to Councilor Tseng and then Councilor Scarpelli.
[Justin Tseng]: Thank you. I think councillors are at present very well, so I don't want to be too repetitive. But I think this underscores how serious of a moment it is in our country and the turning point we've arrived at in terms of protecting basic rights of dignity and free expression and one's ability to live as oneself and identify. and to just be happy in life. And, you know, I encourage those of you to read the actual opinion and the dissent, and especially the dissent that came out from the Supreme Court decision, because I think you'll find, I think, most of most reasonable minds will find that the majority opinion in this decision was yet another classic example of Chief Justice John Roberts gaslighting us into thinking that This law is not what it is, even though the law itself says very point blank that this is about sex, and sex is a protected class in our country, which should be a protected class in our country. I think the dissent does a very good job at pointing out the mental gymnastics that the majority uses to deprive so many residents and so many citizens of our country of basic equal protection rights.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, Councilor. We'll go to Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Council President, for bringing this forward. I think that anytime we talk about our residents that feel that there's fear and unjust and any feeling of not being supported, I think it's important, especially when we talk about our transgender community. I've had many conversations with my transgender friends and understanding the fears that they they fail every day and I think that bringing any resolution through that we can support as a council to make our residents feel that this council can support their initiatives and making sure that they feel safe I think is important. So I would concur with my colleagues and move forward in your support. Thank you.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. We have a motion to approve on the floor by President Bears, seconded by Councilor Lazzaro. Is there any public participation on this item? You may line up behind the podium or raise your hand on Zoom and we will alternate. We will start at the podium and then go to Zoom. All speakers will be asked to state their name and address for the record and all will have three minutes. Please go ahead. Oh, sorry, I gotta unmute you. Oh, sorry, Ellen. There we go.
[Ellen Epstein]: Okay. Ellen Epstein, 15 Grove Street at Medford. And I just want to thank the council for once again, taking to heart what is happening at the national level, taking it seriously, and taking what power you have to stand up as a Medford community and resist. Thank you, and I hope that this passes unanimously. Thank you.
[nzT0OcLHmhc_SPEAKER_20]: Seeing no hands on Zoom, please go ahead. Name and address for the record. Jessica Nussbaum, One Hammond Place. I just want to thank President Bears and the council for considering this. As I read the scrimmage decision, which I have read, I had tears in my eyes as a queer non-binary person. I have been feeling increasingly unsafe in our country. And I feel very fortunate to live in Massachusetts and in Medford, where I see that my city government sees me, cares about me, wants me to be safe. and productive just like any other member of society, so thank you for that. Thank you for your comments.
[Kit Collins]: Please go ahead, name and address for the record.
[Micah Kesselman]: Micah Kesselman, 499 Main Street. I just want to first off say thank you for bringing this resolution forward. I think this is a great resolution. I also want to point out that in the intervening time since this went up on the agenda, our enlightened Supreme Court. In a 6-3 decision, I enabled the complete circumvention of due process and deporting detained people illegally detained people to third countries that they may or may not have anything to do with the fact. So I would just add that if possible to include that disastrous calamitous Supreme Court decision in this resolution of opposition and vocal discussed at an increasingly lawless, untethered, and unbound by reason, compassion, or basic legalities that our federal administration is becoming.
[Kit Collins]: Thanks. Thank you very much. We're going to speak before we proceed.
[Zac Bears]: Thanks. No, the next one. Sorry. It's fine. He's going to look it up and come back later.
[Kit Collins]: Great. We're going to see a hand raise on Zoom. We're going to go to Zoom, and then we'll resume at the podium. I'm going to ask you to unmute. Please state your name and address for the record.
[Penelope Taylor]: Hi, Penny Taylor 29 Martin Street, along with my dog and we both support this and are very grateful to the city council for taking this up and passing it unanimously. Thank you.
[Kit Collins]: Great. Thank you very much. We'll go back to the podium name and address for the record, please.
[Nick Giurleo]: Thank you, Nick Giurleo, 40 Robinson Road. So it's very tempting for me to comment tonight on the substance of the case, but I won't. And I think there's a reason for that. And the reason is I personally believe that this holding of the United States Supreme Court doesn't have much to do with what this council is tasked with doing. So obviously SCOTUS rulings are binding on Medford, just like any municipality in the country, but this resolution really isn't about the applicability of the law as it might affect Medford and its people. To me, it seems more like a political statement, essentially, we don't like the outcome and that's fine. You don't have to like the outcome. But I'm just wondering, you know how the legal rationale right and it is pretty technical. It's talking about scrutiny, which is a very complicated legal concept, you know how that has anything to do and of course is about a law in the state of Tennessee, you know how that has anything to do with what the city council is supposed to be doing, you know, and to my knowledge, none of you are licensed attorneys and I don't see any indication this our new city solicitor contributed to this resolution in any way. And I just want to point out also that, you know, our city is facing a series of significant very local issues at the moment, like the zoning, as well as affordability, and really a host of other things. We had a talk tonight about a rat problem, right? These are very local Medford issues. And it's okay, right? You might think, you know, access to gender affirming healthcare is a local enough issue. And I probably don't disagree with that. But I think just practically speaking, if you look at just how the Massachusetts legislators composed at the moment, I don't think there's any chance it's going to pass a law banning access to gender affirming health care. So it doesn't seem like what we're talking about today is super consequential. So respectfully, I'm just going to put it out there. I don't think this is worth our time. I think there's other things we should be addressing before we worry about national political issues. Thank you.
[Kit Collins]: We will go back to Zoom. Dennis, I'm going to ask you to unmute. Please state your name and address for the record. You will have three minutes.
[Denis Dettling Kalthofer]: OK. Hi. Dennis Dettling-Calto for 120 North Street, Medford, Massachusetts. I just want to say, add my voice to that I am in favor of this resolution. I think it's important at this time in our country's history to take a stand. Thank you.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, Dennis. We will go back to the podium. Name and address for the record, please.
[Jennifer Yanko]: Jennifer Yanko, excuse me, 16 Monument Street. I wanna thank President Bears for bringing this forward and the council for considering it. I feel that this is very important. It's not that we have more important issues. Defending and protecting our residents is of primary importance and I very much support this and I'm very proud that you've brought it forward. Thank you.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you very much. Seeing no hands on Zoom, you'll have one additional minute, Micah.
[Micah Kesselman]: So the case is DHS versus DVD, yes. And I'll also just really quickly add respectfully to this, counsel, that you are surely aware that regardless of the decision of the Supreme Court, many attorneys from across the nation have actually chimed in about the quality and legalities of this decision and are not in any way in agreement. And many of these attorneys are very experienced and know from firms that don't put up billboards by highways. So they know what they're talking about. And I think that it's okay to make statements about policy that will eventually impact us locally, such as this, we have transgender residents, we have immigrants in our community. All of these decisions coming down from SCOTUS need to get public pushback. So I just want to go on the record and thank you guys for bringing this forward.
[Kit Collins]: Name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, my name is Madi. Address is 161 South Street in Jamaica Plain, but I work in the city of Medford. I just wanted to reiterate, thank you again to President Bears. As an employee of the city of Medford, but I am also just speaking for myself personally, I work with a lot of youth in the city and many of them are trans or gender nonconforming. And so this will have a, you know, whatever happens will have a trickle down effect. So this will affect youth in many years to come. And so for the city of Medford to make a statement is incredibly important. And I see so many young people every day. And I work very closely with them. And it is especially young queer youth and young trans youth and yeah, for the city to make the statement to stand behind them, especially when there are things like the signage in the church down the street on Salem Street, for them to have the city standing behind them is a really important thing. So thank you again.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you. All right, we'll go to Councilor Leming and then President Bears.
[Matt Leming]: Thank you. I fully support this resolution. I'd just like to comment. Sometimes, as many folks here have been witnessing for the first hour and a half of this meeting, we discuss very dry topics that are nonetheless very important. to the to the city, transfer of funds, talk about zoning, but resolutions like these are also important because people want to know where their elected officials, where their city stands, and the morale of the city is important. Now having people feel safe is very important and so It is possible that sometimes you might be in a position where you can overdo symbolic gestures. I don't think that this is one of those cases. It is important for people to know what their government thinks, even in certain cases where they might not necessarily have direct power over those issues, because it does affect people's relationships with their government. So I would like to make that point.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, Councilor. We'll go back to President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Madam President. I was going to make largely a similar point. I think the idea that there is a mutual exclusivity to this Council dealing with local, quote unquote, local issues versus quote unquote, not local issues is a false equivalence. It's not real. And anyone who's been sitting here for the last 2 hours knows that we've spent about 2 hours talking about stabilization funds and school override funds and potholes and, you know, it's not the most fun stuff, but it's what we do. And this is important too. So to do both doesn't come at the expense of either. And as Councilor Leming noted, not only is it a symbolic gesture per se, but it's a statement of values, and it's a reaffirmation of belonging. And that's important. And it doesn't come at the expense of our ability to do anything else that we do. I know way too much about potholes. Thank you, Madam President. And I would just amend to include also the Department of Homeland Security at all versus DVD at all decision. And I will. And I'll make sure that that amendment goes by email. That's the decision that allows the deportation to third countries. So it's a rough week from the Supreme Court so far, and I'm expecting more.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you. I do see we have one more hand on public participation. Do you mind if we I'll go to Councilor Scarpelli first and then we'll.
[George Scarpelli]: If we could sever if we can. Thank you.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you. We have one more hand for public participation on Zoom. Eileen, I'm going to ask you to unmute. Name and address for the record, please. You'll have three minutes.
[Ilene Lerner]: Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, please go ahead. Okay. I just want to thank all of the people on the council who voted for this. I think it's terribly important.
[Kit Collins]: I am the... Eileen, I think we're getting a ringtone, but we're not hearing your voice.
[Ilene Lerner]: Hello, can I speak now?
[Kit Collins]: Yes, we've been hearing you, please proceed.
[Ilene Lerner]: Okay. I am the great grandmother of a trans child. And so this issue, you know, is a personal one to me. And I know what my grandson and his wife are going through at this time in history. They're very frightened for their child. And so am I. And for all the people like her. And I'm just really proud of all of you for taking this up. And I also think that the issues we care about and the values that we have should come from the local level, going up to the state level, and then to the federal level, rather than, you know, stuff coming down from them. It should be a reflection of what the majority of people in this country want. And I truly believe the majority of people in the country and in Medford want people to have human rights and health rights and no matter how they identify, you know, that's their business. So again, thank you very much. And thank you for allowing me to speak.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, Eileen. Thank you to Maya. Oh, do we have one more for public participation? All right. Name and address for the record, please. You'll have three minutes, Andy.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Castagnetti, East Medford, Massachusetts. This is the first I've heard of the Supreme Court ruling. Thank you for enlightening me. I wish everyone peace and happiness. Again, being a Woodstock graduate, as you know. But we have some important issues out in the streets, like the potholes. I wish that was more of a priority. But on the idea of this ruling, I want to say, God, Jesus, help us all, please.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you for your comments. And I'd say if you're feeling like you're missing out on pothole and pest conversation, I'd invite you to watch the recording of the first two hours of tonight's meeting. Thank you for your comments.
[Zac Bears]: I'm gonna withdraw the B paper. I'm going to submit a resolution for our July meeting after the completion of the term to review the remainder of the decisions that the Supreme Court may make, and then we can put forward a resolution that speaks fully to their impact.
[Kit Collins]: All right. So noted. Thank you. The B paper was withdrawn. We'll go to Councilor Scarpelli.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you. I appreciate that. I haven't read that. I know when you put this forth and I have a chance to read it through, I thought it was very important. So thank you.
[Kit Collins]: Great. Thank you, Councilors. And before we get to the voting, I'd just like to join in thanking President Bears for putting this on our agenda tonight for our consideration. It should go without saying, but it often does not, that trans people have always existed, will always exist. It is a, I think in one Councilor's opinion, one of the proudest achievements of this national project that we have been able to create the equal rights protection under the federal law. And it is one of the greatest injuries probably of our lifetimes that we will see that being eroded. And I think when we start making decisions that standing up for our neighbors, equal rights under the law is not worth a few minutes of our time. That is when we begin to lose our humanity. Thank you to all for their discussion tonight. On the motion by President Bears and seconded by Councilor Lazzaro to approve. Mr. Clerk, when you're ready, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Councilor Lazzaro?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Bears? Yes. Vice President Collins?
[Kit Collins]: Yes. Six in favor, one absent, none opposed. The resolution passes. Paper 25-105 offered by President Bears, values aligned local investments ordinance. Chapter two, administration. Article 4, Officers and Employees, Division 5, City Treasurer and Collector. Section 2-696, Purpose and Intent. The city of Medford will strive to invest its funds in ways that promote the well being of our communities and our environment, favoring investment of its funds and entities that support the needs of peacetime in daily life and meet the goals and meet the city's goals of conducting local government in an accountable, transparent, innovative, stable, ethical, representative and responsible way. This ordinance shall be known as the values aligned local investment ordinance. Section two dash Thank you. Section 2-697 prohibiting certain local investments. No public funds under the care and custody of the treasurer collector of the city shall be invested or remain invested in the stock securities or other obligations of any company which derives more than 15% of its revenue from the combustion, distribution, extraction, manufacture or sale of fossil fuels, which shall include coal, oil and gas or fossil fuel products. B, no public funds under the care and custody of the treasurer collector of the city shall be invested or remain invested in the stock securities or other obligations of any company which derives more than 15% of its revenue from the operation, maintenance, servicing, or supply of jails, prisons, or detention facilities. C. No public funds under the care and custody of the treasurer-collector of the city, as specified in section 2-682, shall be invested or remain invested in the stock, securities, or other obligations of any company which derives any of its revenue from the manufacture or sale of weapons of any kind, including defense contractors. D. No public funds under the care and custody of the treasurer-collector of the city, as specified in section 2-682, shall be invested or remain invested in the stocks, securities, or other obligations of any company or entity that is directly, knowingly, and over time contributing to severe violations of human rights and international humanitarian law as determined by international legal and humanities bodies, including the United Nations, including but not limited to war crimes, crimes against humanity, apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and illegal occupation. E, this section shall not apply to public funds under the custody of the retirement system when application would result in a violation of the city's fiduciary responsibilities to its pensioners and beneficiaries. Section 2-698, effective date of prohibition of certain local investments. Upon enactment of this ordinance, the treasurer collector of the city shall review the investment portfolio of the city and identify any investments that may be deemed to violate the provisions established in this ordinance. The treasurer collector shall divest public funds under their care from investments defined in section 2-697 no later than December 31st, 2025. Section 2-699, disposition of proceeds of sales required by prohibition of certain local investments. Any proceeds of the sales required under this subsection shall be invested as much as reasonably possible in institutions or companies which invest or conduct business or operations in the city or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts so long as such use is consistent with sound and prudent investment policy, subject to the provisions of Mass General Law, Chapter 44, Sections 54 and 55, and the Prudent Investor Act, Mass General Law, Chapter 203C. Section 2-700, report on local investment. Upon achieving compliance with Section 2-696, the treasurer-collector shall submit a report within 120 days to the Medford City Council regarding the status of investments affected by Section 2-697. The treasurer-collector shall review all investments annually and submit a report on an annual basis regarding the status of investments affected by Section 2-697. Sections 2-701 through 2-720 are reserved. I'll go to President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Madam President, and thank you to my fellow Councilors for your consideration tonight of the proposed Values Aligned Local Investments Ordinance. First, I want to ground this conversation in our shared humanity and shared values. When so many people at higher levels of government are pushing for war and private gain, it's our duty in local government to stand up for peace and the public good. It is irresponsible to invest our local public money in industries that profit from violence, harm, and inhumane treatment of human beings, whether that's the fossil fuel industry, weapons manufacturers, for-profit private prison operators, or companies complicit in human rights violations in far too many countries and against far too many people, especially children. This ordinance is grounded in common sense, shared values of peace, justice, and compassion for our fellow human beings. In this moment of warmongering, fearmongering, and rising right-wing extremism coming from the very top levels of our federal government and from so many other governments and dangerous groups around the world, it's more important than ever that we take a comprehensive approach to ensuring that, whenever possible under the law, our public dollars are invested in ways that contribute to the public good, not major forms of harm. While the financial impact may be limited, we are sending a strong message that Medford stands for peace and safety and against war and violence, both here at home and around the world. Second, I want to thank the city administration for communicating with me about this ordinance over the last several months and for the legal review and comments by the city's legal counsel that have been incorporated into this draft. The ordinance structure is very similar to the existing Boston ordinance. It would require city officials to review our city's investments to see if any funds are currently invested in these industries and make that information public. Then investments would be sold and when allowed by state law, it would be a priority to reinvest these funds in supportive efforts that directly benefit our local Medford or Massachusetts communities and businesses. Given state law and the current position of our state pension board, this ordinance would not apply to our city's retirement funds. This ordinance proposes conditions on investments in a number of harmful industries, including private prisons, fossil fuels, weapons manufacturing, and those contributing to severe violations of inalienable human rights like war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. This ordinance does not target or highlight any nation or conflict or company. That's intentional. It would apply to all instances of human rights violations across the world based on international humanitarian law and the work of international legal institutions that uphold international law. I'm confident that our city staff will apply this ordinance to all violators equally and without any fear or favor. As part of my work to draft this ordinance, I reached out to the city administration and Medford Retirement System for their comments. I did receive legal review and I invite city and retirement system staff to share any other questions or concerns about the ordinance before any future action by the city council for final passage and ordainment of this ordinance at third reading at a future council meeting. I look forward to further conversations and meetings with our city staff on this topic as I have offered in my messages over the past several months. Finally, I wanna thank Medford residents who have reached out to share their support or their concerns about this ordinance by email and those who are present tonight to speak during public comment. I look forward to more public input, scrutiny and discussion, and I'm happy to engage with anyone who has an interest in or concerns about this ordinance by email or scheduling a conversation. I've been heartened by the capacity of our Medford community to work through tough issues with respect and civility. While I know that not everyone agrees with this ordinance, I'm confident that we can have a powerful discussion tonight that voices real disagreements, holds space for real concerns that residents may have, and stays grounded in our shared values. Peace, justice, compassion, and staunch opposition to all forms of hate against our neighbors and all violent acts against our fellow human beings. In this moment of rising war, hate, violence, and death, Stoked by our federal government and right-wing extremists across the world, it is essential that communities stand up to oppose the use of our public funds to perpetuate violence and harm. This ordinance helps to fulfill that duty and imperative. Thank you again for your consideration, and I motion to approve for first reading.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. We'll go first to comments from councilors, and then we will take public participation. Councilor Scarpelli, go ahead.
[George Scarpelli]: Thank you. Did the Chief of Staff leave? Because I wanted to get some information. Is she on Zoom? Because I appreciate Councilor Villes. I know we talked today. I think that When we move forward with an ordinance, I made sure that I've talked to both our city solicitor. I've spoken with the director of retirement, Judy Johnson, who's not here. She's at a conference. Who's our city treasurer. I did reach out to the mayor's office. I think that to put an ordinance through, I think we have to be careful to make sure that we're making sure that we're doing what's right for our community. in the sense where we've done our due diligence and sitting at the table and crafting an ordinance that everybody feels comfortable about. And I understand where you're coming from. I think we talked about that today, but I think that as not having a sit down yet with the retirement board and the retirement director. I know they're having a conversation with him. Although it said that we want to stay away from the pension, the comments that he used was that it'll definitely, no matter what we put in, the pension will definitely be affected indirectly with what we're asking the treasurer to do. And the treasurer, at another point, is cannot affect what's happening in the retirement section, so in the pension section. So there's some strife there that when I talked to the city solicitor that I know KP Law has mentioned that there was some redline changes to your first request for their input. I haven't heard or seen anything to understand that, neither has any other department. I also, the chairperson from the trust fund, our trust fund here in Medford, they haven't been part of any conversation. And that too plays a big deal in what we're doing here. And this resolution or this ordinance will definitely affect their situation. So I think we have so many issues. I think it would be prudent that we would just take a step back call for a committee of the whole meeting with everybody involved and then put forth a plan that will work if so sees fit. I think that right now, I know that'll be important to see what the city side says with the administration and what we can do to craft that. But I don't think as a council, I know you've done a lot of work, but I haven't been involved in a true discussion of what this is to be. Honestly, I didn't realize we had a gentleman come up today and said, I'm here to stand with Palestine. Now, geez, I didn't really understand that this was a Palestinian-Israel issue until we're setting up tents outside. So I think that we understand But this has now turned into something bigger than it is and understanding it more in depth will help at least this Councilor who speaks for many different people that reached out to me that are a little confused about this ordinance and how it truly will affect us. I know your intent and your intent is well adjusted, I'm sure it is, but I do think we haven't done a due diligence to even move forward with any sort of a vote because Again, just like we've talked about in other situations that we've talked about. I don't think we've put all the stakeholders in a room so we can discuss and understand the consequences, or even if we have the bandwidth to ask our city treasurer to look at this and see if they can even manage this process. It might be something that we look at, you know, bringing in an outside party that can look at this process where we're asking to pick that we can. You know, bring different, um, entities out of our, um. Uh you know our investments and say we can we do this? Can we do that? So I think it will be important to see what the city says. Councilor Bears a. I know we talked early today, but I think it's important that for this Councilor for the questions I received. I think it's important that we slow this down. We have a meeting is more structured with more understanding what's being asked. So I appreciate it, thank you.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. We'll go back to President Bears.
[Zac Bears]: I thought the Chief of Staff, if the Chief of Staff wants to answer any Councilor Scarpelli's questions first.
[Kit Collins]: Chief of Staff, I'll unmute you if there's anything you want to offer.
[Nina Nazarian]: Thank you, President Collins and members of the council. I think I can just report at this point on the actions that we've taken upon receiving a copy of this ordinance in early May, that I've learned that there's at least two buckets, possibly three, that we need to dive more deeply into. The retirement area, which has been mentioned, the commissioners of trust funds, and possibly other investments on the city side, which don't, have a board or committee associated with it. I think that's an important distinction that I'm really learning in real time here because as you know, I think Councilor Scarapelli mentioned, the treasurer collector is actually concerned and has specifically asked how this ordinance would affect their work, considering that they are the custodian, if you will, for the retirement board, and they are also the custodian under the commissioners of trust funds work, but they don't actually have the authority to make the decisions. Those decisions get made by those boards and the custodian essentially is the shepherd to make sure that those things are followed through with for a lack of better terms. And so I really feel like we need a little bit more time to consider those aspects. and make sure that we don't put our treasurer collector in a position where they're perhaps in violation of an ordinance. That's something that has been raised by both the retirement, um, uh, executive director and the chair of the commissioners of trust funds, as well as a question to me by our treasurer collector. Um, so I, I, I think it would be prudent to have additional time. And, uh, I think that that's the majority of my comments. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. And I appreciate the Chief of Staff and Councilor Scarpelli for raising those points. I do want to note two things. First, there is an incredibly similar ordinance in structure and form in Boston that has been implemented under the existing state law. And the redline changes from KP law were incorporated into this draft. I want to note just on the timeline, I submitted this to the chief of staff and to Council on April 4th. I received with a note that I was intending to put this forward in April, late April or early May. That certainly would have given us the time for the meetings that Councilor Scarpelli is talking about. I received a response on April 7th that we're reviewing, I think April 19th that we're still reviewing, and then we got back comments the first week in May. With those comments, I then communicated with the Chief of Staff. my willingness to meet with the treasurer collector, with her, with any boards and commissions that were relevant. I also communicated directly to the chair of the retirement system. I didn't hear back from the chair of the retirement system and I You know, the Chief of Staff was working on setting up a meeting, a meeting was scheduled and then unscheduled and you know suddenly it's two months later. And at that point, I just think there's a fundamental question of doing things the right way and at the right pace. And, you know, I don't question that there may be language changes from a legal perspective. I'm sure we're going to hear from folks tonight that they would like to see language changes from other perspectives. Passage out of first reading does not preclude that. What it does do is it lights a fire under all of us to actually get the work done. So when I ask for the passage for first reading, that means now there's a clock that we have to keep to make those changes, to have those meetings and to get the work done. And given my experience over the last several months, just with the pace of this process, I feel like that's necessary at this time. So that's why I'm proposing it and that's why I'll be moving on it. Thank you.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. Are there any additional comments from councillors? I know there are a lot of people who would like, members of the public who would like to speak on this paper tonight. All right, seeing none. Oh, sorry, Councilor Scarpelli, I didn't see your mic turn on.
[George Scarpelli]: I know people have been standing here all evening, but I think that, I know that you want to get that clock started, President Villes, but I think we need to move, we need to move slower. So I'm going to invoke my right for, chapter uh mass general law chapter 43 section 22 to delay any further discussions for uh till our next meeting i think it's important that um after listening to the chief of staff talking to the the um the um parties involved that might have contradicted what you just said. So I'd rather not move forward until we have our questions answered before we listen to anybody and waste anybody else's time this evening. So I invoke that right of section 22 and end all debate.
[Zac Bears]: Public participation under suspension.
[Kit Collins]: on the motion to take public participation under suspension by President Bearsar, seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. President Bears?
[Zac Bears]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Lazzaro? Yes. Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. President Collins?
[Kit Collins]: Yes. Six in favor, one absent, none opposed. Motion passes.
[Zac Bears]: All right, so what that means is we're not going to be taking action tonight. The action will be postponed to a future date, but we have motion to take the public participation section of the meeting to allow the people who are here to say their piece, technically you can say Whatever you want about anything, I have a feeling I understand what the people here are going to be talking about. Each person will have three minutes, and I will take alternating from in person and on zoom. Name and address for the record please.
[SPEAKER_48]: My name is Claire Sheridan I live in Medford at 190 High Street apartment 110. I urge the city of Medford to divest from corporations that promote the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction chemical and biological weapons, as well as explosive incendiaries and poison gases. And I'll throw in fossil fuels and private prisons for good measure. Some of them you know well, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, L3Harris, Boeing, RTX Corporation, the list goes on and on. They are war profiteers and you know it. I am weary of my tax money going to these companies with no say from me. Massachusetts was the first state in the U.S. to divest from South Africa. Let Medford be the first city in Massachusetts to do the right thing and divest from these corporations. And yes, Massachusetts does have a responsible investment act that is currently before the state legislature. And by the way, the city of Portland, Maine divested, so you might as well look at them for some model. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: We'll go to Dennis on Zoom. Dennis, name and address for the record, please. You'll have three minutes.
[Denis Dettling Kalthofer]: Okay, hi. So, yes, my name is Dennis Detling Kalthofer and I live at 120 North Street in Medford. So, I think this is a very important resolution. I deeply believe that we should do all we can, personally and as a city, to invest our savings and efforts into enterprises that benefit people on the planet and not into those which contribute to environmental destruction, human rights abuses, or genocide. And I think it's very, this is a lot, there's a lot at stake right now with the attack on Iran and other things that are going on, the shift in the budget to military priorities, I think that it's important that we put our money where our mouth is in terms of our investments when the majority of Americans oppose these sorts of actions. I've read the proposed ordinance, and I think that it's similar to an ordinance, a shorter one and simpler one, that Northampton has passed. I don't see why we can't overcome any legal technicalities and pass it as soon as possible. And I also think that in addition, we should create a separate home rule petition to Massachusetts to do similar divestment from retirement funds for the city. I understand why this was excluded in this particular ordinance. because that way it doesn't go contrary to state law. But I think that in addition, we should have this home rule petition to allow us to divest retirement funds as well. And that's it. So please consider passing this as soon as possible.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Name and address for the record at the podium and you'll have three minutes.
[nzT0OcLHmhc_SPEAKER_20]: Thank you, President Bears and the council. I am Rabbi Jessica Delera Nussbaum, a Medford homeowner and the rabbi of the only synagogue in our city, Temple Shalom of 475 Winthrop Street. Some of you may also know me as a regular warden of our polling places here in Medford and a frequent speaker and attendee of municipal ceremonies since I was raised with a strong sense of civic responsibility and a mandate to show up in support of the orderly, egalitarian functioning of our government at every level. Due to my respect for the diversity of views in my own synagogue community, I almost never make public comment on partisan politics in my role as a rabbi, however I feel compelled to do so today. I was awakened early this morning to cries of alarm from several of my congregants regarding this ordinance on tonight's agenda. In particular, despite the careful veneer of neutrality on paper, They were outraged that in anti-Israel circles, it was being promoted openly as a tool of the boycott, divest, and sanctions movement against Israel and as a test case for pushing through similar measures throughout Massachusetts. An email forwarded to me proclaimed this as important BDS news. encouraging people to show up so that Medford would be the first city in the state to make it easier for other municipalities. And it's also said, do not share on social media in red capital letters. If everything were above board here, why shouldn't their supporters proudly declare themselves? My congregants alarm stemmed just as much from this attempt to keep this ordinance and its intended impact under the radar as from the comment content itself. I did not know that this was happening. I had not heard from any of my contacts at City Hall that this was under consideration. The fact in and of itself has stoked fear and outrage among my congregants who are still repairing their trust in this city council after the last minute poisoned rewording of the previous resolution about the Gaza war last year. At that time, I told Vice President Collins that I was strongly against the city council wading into international diplomacy at all. It's an issue on which you have no legitimate involvement or leverage. That was simply not the purview of municipal government. This is divisive. You want people to feel safe and cared for. The Jewish community does not feel that. You'll hear from other people behind me speaking as Jews It is not a universal feeling, but I am here to tell you that many, many Jews feel like they are being thrown under the bus by an ordinance like this that pretends to be neutral, when in reality it is full of problems, logistical problems. Who gets to decide what rules and which classifications a company will have in terms of does it or does it not support human rights violations? And leaving the name of Israel off doesn't do it because you have sketched the worst accusations that have been leveled against Israel by its detractors at a time that the Jewish community, many of us have family, friends, colleagues, spiritual, and yes, financial ties to Israel. We do not feel safe when it's being treated in this manner. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We'll go to Zoom. Name and address for the record, please. You'll have three minutes.
[Penelope Taylor]: Great, thank you. Penny Taylor, 29 Martin Street. I wanted to first thank President Bears and the whole city council for taking this up and for dedicated and inspiring organizers for getting it to this point. I support this ordinance. I don't want our money invested in weapons manufacturers or other companies that are complicit with and profiting off harming and killing people directly with a side effect of really polluting and harming our global environment through toxic materials and processes. I feel like this is extra relevant on this extremely hot day, the kind of environmental impact of so many of these companies, including weapons manufacturers. I do think this is an urgent issue. And as others have pointed out, there are models. It sounds like Northampton and Portland, Maine had caught my eye. So I feel like municipal government to government, you can check in with them and see what's working and not and make sure it works for you. I also just, me personally, I am a public employee at a place that I am not proud of its investments. And I would be really happy if the city council where I work would take this up seriously and have serious conversations about what it means to be complicit and have our money invested in these types of companies. So thank you for bringing it up and I'll yield my time.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We'll go to the podium. Name and address for the record, please, and you'll have three minutes.
[Nick Giurleo]: Good evening again, Nick Giurleo, 40 Robinson Road. So I'll just devote my time to just putting some questions on the record that hopefully the council will be able to answer. So the first question is, what is the city invested in currently? And where can a member of the public get that information? I ask that because part of this ordinance is not just about investing, it's also about divesting. So I think it's important to know what we're invested in currently. The other question would be is just regarding subsection D of section 2 dash 697 so that's the part about no investment. of city funds and entities that severely violate human rights. I think it's a great idea, but I'm a little concerned about the vagueness. My question regarding this is who determines what a severe human rights violation is? The ordinance does reference international legal community, but what entity in the city is going to determine what the international community has to say about that? Is it the treasurer? Is it the council, the law department? Do we have anybody competent to do that at the local level? It seems not something that anybody in local government really would have knowledge about. So those are the questions I put out there. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. There's no hands on Zoom, so we'll stay at the podium. Name and address for the record, please. You have three minutes.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi, my name is Anna Meyer. I live at 6 Douglas Road in Medford, Massachusetts. I teach US history, and I really appreciate the ability to every year look at the course of US history. And I think that fundamentally, we have to understand that our economy was started by stealing land, by exploiting labor. And it's only then been shaped by continued ecological extraction. and the industry of war. It blows my mind every year. The US economy spent more money on World War II than it had in the previous however many years of its history combined and then doubled. This country is built on war. And I think it's really easy to feel hopeless about that as our president starts wars with that congressional approval. I think that so often so much feels out of our control. And I am so grateful. for working on this ordinance, because I think that it is a moment of calling back local control and saying that there is local money in Medford that are invested in corporations, specifically there's money invested in Lockheed Martin and Chevron that are doing harm in the world. And I think this is a moment of imagining what an economy is like and what a community is like when our money is invested where our values are. Specifically, I want to talk about immigration. I also work as an advocate for immigrants in Massachusetts. I want to call specific attention to the section of this ordinance. That would mean that Med for Money is not investing in detention centers. I'm specifically concerned about the students, college students, High school students are being kidnapped off the street and increasingly brought to for profit detention centers, where they're kept without due process where they're kept without access to the medical needs that they have they're being legitimately discriminated against. And I think that it would really. And I would also just name like specifically in Medford like people are kidnapped off the street last weekend and taken to an ice jail. in Burlington where we know people are being kept on floors, they're sleeping there, given Mylar blankets or eating crackers for dinner. This is not where we want Medford's money to be invested in. And I appreciate people have already raised concerns tonight about the logistics of this ordinance. And I appreciate that I cannot speak to all of the specifics of that. But I think even though it's complicated, there's really good work that needs to be done. And I would urge city councilors to take it on as an act of good faith that it is worth this work to be doing, especially as a way of inspiring other cities and towns of looking carefully at their investments and making sure that they're invested in the things that stand for those city's values. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Let's stay at the podium. Name and address for the record, please. You have three minutes.
[Nate Merritt]: Oh, OK. There's no one on Zoom. Sorry. Nate Merritt, 373 Riverside Ave. Congratulations, City of Medford. You've once again astounded the community in how you can bring a highly divisive and polarizing resolution to the floor to divide your community. Congrats. I have several issues with this paper. In terms of the environment, oh, and I should preface, by the way, I do not like war. I do not like killing people. As an EMT, I've probably seen more of other people's blood on my hands to help them than I challenge anybody in this room. So that said, unfortunately, bad things happen. And there are people sometimes that try to do not so nice things. So we can demonize defense companies, of which there are several where people in your city go to work, and they don't go to work to try to go kill people, but maybe also to defend some of our uniformed service members. You have a city Councilor here who's in the Navy. Who makes the ship if he serves on or any of the equipment? And therefore, do you think that that city Councilor is also a person who is a warmonger? I would say there are plenty of good people in this city that make equipment to defend people like him and others. I come from a military family. So demonizing companies like MIT, Draper, Hanscom Air Force Base, which employs a lot of people here, General Electric, the wording in this, where it says any company that does any weapons manufacturing, I hate to tell you folks, this is reality, this isn't utopia. Same with a local company, if they're scrubbing toilets in a jail, therefore they derive their revenue from that. You're demonizing potential janitors or building maintenance folks that are just trying to make a living. In terms of the environment, Electricity right now, for the most part, that heats our homes, lets our fire trucks go down the street. There's no electric fire truck, folks. It ain't going to happen anytime soon. If we stopped all fossil fuels today, society would fall apart. That's a sad fact. So NVIDIA is one of the richest companies, right? Anybody who follows the stock market knows that NVIDIA stock is triple. Great investment. How good do you think all the servers that are powered by NVIDIA chips is for the environment, the electrical consumption, the processes to make those chips. I think you've opened up a Pandora's box. And there are plenty of good people in this city that work for companies and aren't necessarily warmongers. But now you've made it this city unfriendly for several companies and industries. And it doesn't surprise me that General Electric picked up and left. Because they probably saw this one coming down the road. And if that's in Boston, where they said they were going to have their headquarters, well, guess what? They make any of their revenue from manufacturer sale of weapons of any kind. They also make a lot of very good products that help people, including in health care. So I urge you to reconsider the language of this and stop dividing the city. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: name and address for record you have three.
[SPEAKER_01]: New to Massachusetts I came this far because I think it's so important really important that people here got a message. Hello for A4P community, Arlington for Palestine. We have important BDS news from our friends from Medford. So even though you might think this is neutral, everybody here, and you can see by the casillas here, this is about Israel. This is about Gaza, no matter how much they try to disguise it. One way that you could definitely tell is if you look at D, it's not saying that it's countries that do bad things determined by the United States. Nowhere here does it say it. It says international legal and humanitarian. Why? Because the UN has been known to be extremely anti-Israel. That's why they want the UN. Just to show you facts, in 2024, the United General Assembly from the UN had 17 resolutions against Israel, a country surrounded by seven huge Arab neighbors, which is the size of New Jersey. being attacked by Iran, by other huge places. Guess how many they had against North Korea, Iran, Russia, China, Sudan, all total six, okay? So nothing, and after October 7th, when October 6th, there was peace. October 7th came, did the UN condemn it? Has the UN condemned the use of the Palestinian, of Hamas, of human shields? No. But what do we have time and time again, the UN is going after Israel. This is why they want you to follow the UN guidelines. This is why they want you to follow international guidelines. The UN has vetoed 45 times resolutions against Israel. You've got to understand they're not neutral. They're not the wonderful UN that we had in fact. And all of these, the people who are for this are funded as JP other places are funded by people who have been linked to terrorist organizations you've got to understand, this is not neutral, this is anti Israel, they know it. We know it, I really wish that you understood how important this is, and the anti Israel stuff, it's not just anti Israel, as you know, from the people who were killed at the AJC, and that the Molotov cocktails that were that were thrown in Boulder where children were there. They are against Jews. So this is going to be seen not as something neutral, wonderful peace, but something against Jews. And the other thing, I can't believe there's a teacher here who's saying we shouldn't have fought World War II. Yes, it is lovely to want peace, but if Iran is building a nuclear bomb, or if not, if Hitler was going around to kill everybody and wasn't going to stop, do you really think we should not have fought against them?
[Zac Bears]: It's ridiculous. I don't think anyone is saying we shouldn't have fought World War II.
[SPEAKER_01]: Excuse me? She said we spend more money on World War II.
[Zac Bears]: That was a reference to the fact that war is intent and inherent in our economic development. I don't think it was. Please, thank you. I'm running this meeting. I don't think it was an intended statement to say that World War II was not a righteous war. And quite frankly, I got a number of messages today from fascists. So thank you. No, I'm saying that I received messages in my inbox. Thank you. No, guys, guys, don't engage. I'm just saying, if we're going to talk about World War II, we're going to talk about the full scope of the communications that elected officials receive in this country. And I don't think anyone in this country or in this city or in this world wants anyone to be subject to violence. That is the exact opposite intent that I put forward with this resolution. Thank you. I'm sorry. I was, I had, I received recently a death wish. Thank you. Name and address for the record you have three minutes. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_32]: My name is Josh Lee, I live at 347 Main Street, I obviously urge you to support this ordinance and to invest our public funds in ways that let us thrive and don't support destructive industries like weapons manufacturing prisons fossil fuels and the like. I just want to also say that disrespect of our time, our tax dollars and frankly like our collective humanity from Councilor Scarpelli is not lost on me, so the chair, or any of us, please direct the chair. We already invest our money in businesses that cause harm across the globe, we have already waded into global geopolitics by virtue of that investment. I volunteer my time, I am not funded, for the city as a member of its Energy and Environment Committee, which helps the city meet its goals set forth by the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. That plan says, quote, climate change is rooted in a system of economic growth that extracts value without accounting for the real environmental and social costs. This is a good ordinance, and I am proud that it recognizes the multiplicity of the social costs involved in all of these industries, not just from fossil fuels. That being said, divestment from fossil fuels is an essential aspect of this ordinance and of our jobs as environmental advocates here to encourage. We currently have funds that are invested in the world's largest corporate polluter in Chevron. They have contributed over 40 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere and will continue to do so as long as it is funded by funds like Medford's. I also want to note that this ordinance, as was noted several times, is specifically designed to not affect a much larger pool of investment dollars, the retirement fund of our public employees.
[Zac Bears]: Guys, let's not take the bait.
[SPEAKER_32]: Let's not have disputes in the hall. Please, let's just keep this civil. I myself am a municipal employee in our neighboring city of Somerville where over a decade ago, we as municipal employees voted to divest our retirement funds from fossil fuels that divestment has not yet happened over a decade later and is not able to happen due to conservative policy from the public employee of return retirement administration commission or para I urge you all to collaborate with the retirement board with Senator Jalen, with our representatives at the State House to give the freedom that this is proposing here, to give the agency and freedom to our public employees to divest their retirement funds from similarly destructive industries. So thank you, and I appreciate you voting for this.
[Zac Bears]: Before we continue, I'm gonna go to Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: You know, President Bears, I'm going to wait until the end of public participation. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We'll continue with public participation. There's no hands on Zoom. So we'll continue at the podium. Name and address for the record, please. You have three minutes.
[SPEAKER_10]: Hi, my name is Dina Alami. I'm at 3780 Mystic Valley Parkway. And I want to thank President Bears for bringing this ordinance forward. I was hoping to be here tonight to urge you all to vote in favor of this ordinance, not only because of the overwhelming moral and humanitarian reasons, but because as a Medford resident with family in Gaza, this issue is deeply personal to me. Let's be clear Medford currently has a 12 million currently has $12 million invested in accounts that include Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons manufacturer, the same company whose weapons have been used in clear violations of international human rights law. Lockheed Martin supplies Israel with fighter jets, which they have been using extensively to bomb Gaza. Those weapons have torn through my own family's life. I will give you a glimpse of how these weapons have affected my family. My pregnant cousin, Sahar, and her entire family were killed in a direct Israeli airstrike on their home. My cousin, seven-year-old daughter, Iman, was shot by an Israeli sniper while peeking out of her window and bled to death due to there being no safe passage to a hospital. My cousin's father, himself a doctor, was forced to amputate his own daughter's leg on their kitchen table after their home was struck by an Israeli bomb. This is the impact of these weapons being used to target and destroy hospitals And Israel has bombed all 36 hospitals in Gaza. My uncle has suffered multiple strokes and is not even taking a fourth of the medication needed to treat him due to the lack of access to proper health care. Every single one of my relatives has lost their home. One uncle displaced 17 times. This is not some distant conflict. This is what our country, sorry, our money, our tax dollars is funding. We all have a responsibility to say enough, enough violence, enough complicity, enough pretending this isn't our problem. Local governments do have a role in upholding human rights. And tonight, we did, you did have the power and the obligation to act. This is a meaningful step towards aligning our city's investments with our values. And I, too, would really prefer that my tax dollars went to fixing our potholes instead of bombing my family members. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We'll continue at the podium. Name and address for the record, please. You'll have three minutes.
[Micah Kesselman]: My name is Micah Kesselman. I live at 499 Main Street. I am going to make this comment not on behalf of myself, but on behalf of the New England Jewish Labor Bund, who fully support this going into effect. And then I will make a loop and make a small comment on my own behalf to respond to some of the issues that have come up. Anyway, I'm a resident of Medford for the better part of a decade now, and a member of the New England Jewish Labor Bund. I offer the following public statement in the context of both as a resident of our city and also as the stance of the New England Jewish Labor Bund on the topic of this ethical investment ordinance. This ordinance is directly aligned with two fundamental ethos of the book, the way kite and said the way kite translates to hereness and as a sort of concept of intentional presence, our home is where we are and is also not in a vacuum, our home should reflect the values we espouse and execute on. And it should operationalize these values internally and externally, because at the end of the day, Doikai is about the here and now, and also the there and then, where evil and injustice, cruelty and apathy, terror and misery are being performed upon one of our siblings and friends in humanity. They are being performed upon each and every one of us everywhere. Tzedek is another easily said word, but hard to define concept in actuality. There is a Klezmer Bundist song of Palestinian solidarity called Dumai that sings the demand, On the one hand, this translates to the popular slogan, without justice, without peace. But with a very slightly different pronunciation, on the other hand, refers to the root, tzedek. This is a deeply complex Hebrew root. Out of tzedek arises tzedek for justice, tzedakah for charity, tzedek for enlightened person. Tzedek is the gravitational center of justice, wisdom, mercy, compassion, righteousness, virtue. The greatest rabbis, all diaspora, placed tzedek and its formulations as the cornerstone mitzvah of all others. People should act first and foremost out of a basis of justice, compassion, mercy, care, and a community tethered to no other axiom would nevertheless emerge a just and good community. Moreover, civic across its range of formulations is necessary for peace anywhere. And a lack of peace somewhere must be treated as a lack of peace everywhere. This is not just a peace abroad and lands and among people suffering the clear yoke of oppression. There's also a question of peace here in our city, state, and country, where carceral profiteers leverage bigotry and terror to the terrible benefit of capital, where those with the most continue to deplete and ravage the habitability of our world simply to accumulate yet more than they could ever utilize in 100, 100 lifetimes, where the most successful and profitable companies are enterprises of murder, destruction, and misery, rather than building up the world around them. However, we are under no delusion that we can simply go and bring relief to the oppressed and justice to the oppressors with a social media post pithy statement and snap of our fingers.
[Zac Bears]: Micah.
[Micah Kesselman]: So often. I'm just going to have to ask you to hold off and come back around. There's like one, like half a paragraph. Two sentences and then we'll finish. Thank you. So often the demons we seek to banish are systemic and entrenched and this is a rare opportunity for a community to live up to and put into practice values of civic and dweikite just a little and through the labyrinthine mechanisms afforded to the many of us without direct and unbridled grip upon the levers of government control. We, the New England Jewish Labor Bund and myself, Micha Sholom Kesselman, who calls this city home, ask that this council and city make the decision to refuse allocations of our financial assets to forces of destruction, cruelty, oppression, and the reification of the darkest impulses of the human heart. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Seeing no hands on zoom, we'll continue at the podium. Name and address for the record and you'll have three minutes.
[SPEAKER_45]: Good evening. I live in three summit road. I'm testifying in support of the ordinance. I was born in Lebanon, and I hold a PhD in physics from Tufts University. I immigrated to Bedford in the 70s while Israel was bombing Lebanon. By now I have lived half my life in Bedford, a city which I love for its diversity and community. I do not want my chosen home to invest in companies which profit from weapons of mass destruction. My first understanding of Israel's violence was in 1958. In our living room, the village elders met to decide whether we should leave the village in fear of a civil war. An eight-year-old, I listened eagerly. Camille Chamon, the pro-Israel president of Lebanon, wanted to extend an illegal third term and asked President Eisenhower to help to defuse the opposition claiming they were coming in the room was my husband when your father and other Christian Palestinian families who fled Palestine at 48 and settled in our village. I still remember Munir's father refusing to leave the village, fearing he may never be able to come back to his home, just as he was forced out of Palestine. This memory of Palestinian determination stuck with me, even as Munir and I were later forced to flee Lebanon, first to Baghdad and then to Medford as young physics professors in the late 70s, as US and Israel stopped a sectarian civil war and attempted to eliminate the Palestinian national movement. In 1982, the Israeli army invaded Lebanon with the pretext of eliminating the PLO. Within four days, the Israelis marched into my village, halfway into Lebanon, very far from where the PLO were. They destroyed our village. 18 rockets fell in our house alone, just as we saw in Gaza and now Iran. People fleeing, taking little more than the clothes on their backs. My brothers scattered to different parts of the world. My uncle died during an Israeli bombing. My parents fled. My mother never saw her home again. My mother-in-law died alone. For months, we did not know whether members of our family were alive or dead. Today, even while the Israeli military burns entire families in their tents and targets starving civilians seeking aid in Gaza, Israel continues to bomb South Lebanon, displacing 1.4 million people out of 4.5 million people, killing children, parents, and grandparents, scorching the 1,000-year-old olive trees with illegal white phosphorus made in Alabama. Israel's F-35 fighter jets are also made by Lockheed Martin. Chevron is extracting the gas fields of the shore of Gaza that belongs to Palestine, to Gaza, while Israel steals Gaza's resources and starves and genocides an entire people. Our city of Medford invests in Lockheed Martin and Chevron. Our city should not invest in war and devastation. Medford needs to invest in a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_45]: I urge you to vote in support.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. No hands on zoom, we'll stay at the podium. Name and address for the record, please. You have three minutes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Cassandra Diaba, 32 Walnut. I wanted to thank President Bears for bringing this item to the table. I had written a lot about climate change, but I really just want to speak right now as a Jewish resident of Medford. My great grandparents were actually part of the labor wound in Lodz, Poland. But as a Jewish resident of Medford, I don't want my tax dollars enriching reference manufacturers. I don't want companies that are profiting off the genocide that Israel claims isn't happening and is perpetuating in my name without my consent. Our city has already passed a resolution in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza, which I also support and I really hope that the council can see that there are a variety of Jewish voices on this issue and some of us are very much in favor of this resolution. Thank you for your time.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We'll stay at the podium. Name and address for the record please.
[SPEAKER_38]: Hello, Takao Rivera, 75 4th Street. I'd like to thank President Bears for bringing the Local Investments Ordinance to this agenda today and for the opportunity to speak. I urge you all to support the Local Investments Ordinance from my standpoint, not only as an educator, as a concerned member of the community, but as a father. My wife and I moved here to Medford three years ago for our young son when he was just a baby, because we believed that this town would be a supportive and nurturing environment to raise a family. And I do believe that's true. We walk down the street in the strollers, kids clamoring to get ice cream at Colleen's, playing dress-up at the public library's fairy ball, story time in Medford Family Network, dancing along to the live music at the farmer's market on the Mystic River. This is a town where children thrive, where my son thrives. But over these years, we've seen catastrophe around the world intensify. When I see children maimed, slaughtered, orphaned in Gaza, I see my son. When I see young children incarcerated, rounded up, deported, children with Spanish surnames like mine, I see my son. When I see entire populations displaced, drowned, scorched, dispossessed by the climate change brought on by the fossil fuel industry, I see the looming future of my son. We live in an era of unprecedented communication that enables us to see apocalypses in the palms of our hands as we rock our infants to sleep. And we smile for them, let their little hands grip our fingers and let them know that everything is gonna be all okay when all indications vote otherwise. while soldiers write messages to Palestinian children on the Lockheed Martin missiles we're launching to them. While ICE continues to prowl our communities, stealing our neighbors and our students, while an entire carceral system deploys legal slavery in its Jim Crow 2.0 cheap labor, and here's the thing, As long as Medford continues to invest in fossil fuels, prisons, and weapons utilized in the ongoing genocide, then my tax dollars, all our tax dollars, are contributing to the incarceration, strangulation, and death of children who are not unlike mine. I am tired of raising a child while the taxes I pay kills another. We have the luxury to wait because it's not bombs over our heads. This is a city for families, for children. Let our investments reflect that. Thank you so much for your vision.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We'll stay at the podium. Name and address for the record, please. You have three minutes.
[SPEAKER_27]: My name is Will Sherwood. I live in 30 Woodside Road. I am a Medford resident. I am the chair of the Medford Energy and Environment Committee, and I'm a teacher that specializes in environmental education. And I'm in favor of divestment. I'm not here to speak on behalf of the Energy and Environment Committee. All of you received our email of unanimous support for this endeavor. Instead, I'm here to speak on behalf of my students. My students are aged eight to 12. We go up for the walks in the fells every day. These are the ones that I see every day frustrated and scared by severe weather that they see on the news, by the terrifying things that happen every day that they cannot control. These students cry and worry over heat waves like today, wildfire smoke from previous summers, the loss of wildflowers, wild birds, and insects. What they are feeling is frustration, is fear, it is sadness, it is grief. It is grief over a world they do not get a say in saving. We as adults, as parents, as educators, as voters, and as politicians have an obligation to our future generations to build something sustainable, to build something healthy, to build something kind. By investing our city funds in groups like Chevron and Lockheed Martin, which are destabilizing companies, we are betraying the trust that our students and our children have placed in us. There is absolutely no excuse to be funding these industries that explicitly and knowingly destabilize and destroy our planet. To do so is out of line with our stated climate action plan. Things that we've agreed to as a community is important to us. It runs directly counter to a sustainable and healthy world. By divesting from these industries, we are protecting not just our homes and our health, we are creating a future that benefits and safeguards Medford residents who will live here long after us. I strongly urge you, although you are deciding not to vote today, to be brave, to be bold, and to be kind, and vote in favor of divesting from these harmful companies. Thank you so much.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We'll stay at the podium. Name and address for the record, please. You have three minutes.
[Benjamin Streim]: Thank you. Benjamin Chime, 76 Marion Street. Yeah, I'm speaking in favor of bringing forth this ordinance, hoping we can vote on this very soon. In February of last year, this council voted in favor of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, asking the government to use its full power to bring about an end to the war. It also mentioned, quote, the inalienable right of all people to live in peace, free from fear of harm and prejudice. It's now one and a half years later after that resolution, 20 months after the war started, there's still no ceasefire. And the more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza have not lived in peace for a single day since then. It's painful to realize that somehow we are able as a society to carry on with life where people are killed and starved every single day. And it's even more painful to look at that and understand that the only reason for this genocide, that this genocide has been allowed to continue for so long, is the unconditional support of this government. Both the previous and the current administration for Israel's war through the endless supply of weapons, political support, money. A lot of these weapons that are used to kill civilians are made here by American companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, produced in our backyards in Massachusetts and across the country, designed by researchers in places like MIT. And I think it's important to realize how life here and death in Gaza are connected, how our tax dollars finance this genocide, how our pension funds benefit from the profit companies make by destroying other people's lives. Divestment is one small but concrete and material step to resist the cycle. The city of Medford doesn't have a lot of money in investments accounts, and I think in the large scale of things, not significant amounts of money in general. And even if we divest Lockheed Martin, we'll probably not even notice the change. But it is one weird step, and it is one drop in the bucket. And if more and more cities and states and other institutions follow our steps, that will bring down the war industry eventually. Because all these companies care about is money, nothing else. And to some of the earlier comments, I'm sure it's complex. I'm sure there's legal concerns. I'm sure there's questions like, who makes these calls? What companies to divest from? But I think it's really the least we can do with this urgency. And I would encourage city staff and Councilors who have questions on this to really prioritize and think what we can do as little as it is to stop this genocide. So thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_22]: We'll stay at the podium. Name and address for the record, please. Hello, Evan Bell, 200 Winthrop Street. I'm here to speak in support of this ordinance. I'm here to talk mostly about fossil fuel divestment. These are campaigns that I've been a part of since 2012 when I was a student at Tufts, also as a resident, talking about the state funds. Those have not been super successful. This is a hard campaign. It requires a lot of work, but it is important. It remains a key tactic of the climate justice movement for over a decade now. Because there have been notable victories like New York State, the Ford Foundation, Harvard University, and many more cities, businesses, universities, it continues to be an important tactic because it reminds us to invest in the world we want to see, not a world of pollution and violence. We experienced climate change here in Medford and we suffer real heat waves like today. We also see it with worsening weather events and droughts in Massachusetts we've seen climate change wash away crops we've seen sea level rise impact our neighboring coastal communities. And those who have been impacted first and worst are the environmental justice communities and our neighbors, our friends who are incarcerated is an important one for today. These are people who have the greatest exposure to heat and the least ability to affect their environment. Climate change is an injustice exacerbator. It drives immigration as refugees flee their homes when they are no longer safe, when there are no options to work, the cost of living, of eating and getting around is too much. It impacts all injustice, sometimes literally lighting the fire under already stressed communities. I support this ordinance because we actively choose the world we want to live in as we choose to invest our money. We can continue to choose to invest in war, genocide, and fossil fuels and make it all worse, or we can choose to divest and invest instead in a better world. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Name and address for record, you have three minutes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hello, my name is Owen, I live in South Medford. Thank you, President Bears for bringing this to the agenda and members of the city council for giving us this opportunity to speak. I support item 25105 and I urge you to move it forward speedily even though you have chosen not to vote tonight. Medford should divest our tax dollars from corporations that are causing grave harm to human rights and the environment. I'm devastated by the genocide Israel has been perpetrating in Gaza and the fact that my Medford tax dollars are supporting weapons companies, enabling and profiting from this genocide. Last year, Medford City Council passed an important resolution in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza. We must back that ceasefire resolution with concrete action to divest from the weapons companies profiting from the ongoing genocide. I spoke today with a friend of mine who lives in Massachusetts who grew up in Gaza and still has the majority of his family living there. His parents, his three brothers, four sisters all live in Gaza. The houses of all of his aunts and uncles in Gaza on his mother's side have been completely destroyed by bombing. He estimates that 95% of his family members in Gaza have had their homes destroyed by Israeli bombing. His parents' home in Gaza was destroyed in 2009 and then rebuilt by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. That home now houses all of his displaced relatives from all over Gaza who have lost their homes since October 2023. My friend spoke of the unrelenting anxiety, fear, and displacement that his loved ones face in Gaza. This destruction and violence is funded by our Medford tax dollars being invested in companies like Lockheed Martin. According to tracking data from the American Friends Service Committee, Lockheed Martin is the world's largest weapons manufacturer and supplies Israel with F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has been using to bomb Gaza. Israel also uses the company's C-130 Hercules transport planes to support the ground invasion of Gaza and manufactures AGM-114 Hellfire missiles for Israel's Apache helicopters. Medford should immediately divest from fossil fuels, detention and prisons, weapons companies, and companies perpetrating human rights abuses. Fossil fuel companies are responsible for pollution and climate change negatively affecting us all. Prison and detention corporations are profiting off of caging our neighbors and immigrant communities. Weapons companies are profiting from killing children and families and destroying homes and neighborhoods. Medford is a community that values human and environmental wellbeing. We must ensure that our investments align with these values. Please move forward item 25-105 speedily. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Stay at the podium, name and address for the record please.
[Gaston Fiore]: Thank you, Mr. president got some fear 61 Stignero I oppose the so called values line local investments ordinance as written. I applaud the moral impulse behind aligning medford's investment with our values, yet good intentions must align with fiscal prudence and security. Section 2697C forces our treasurer to divest from any firm earning even $1 from national defense work. That sweeps in companies building weather satellites, cybersecurity tools, and body armor that protect our service members. A few lines later, section 2697E exempts the pension portfolio whenever divestment would harm risk-adjusted returns. The sponsors therefore seem to admit the policy will probably underperform, but they shield retirees while making ordinary taxpayers absorb the heat. If the screen violates fiduciary duty for pensioners, it violates the same duty to every resident who funds our streets, schools, and libraries. Strategically, the ban is reckless. Deterrence depends on an unrivaled military whose ships, jets, and humanitarian aid aircraft still run on high energy density fuels. Green hydrogen, the hope for substitute, is nascent. Only pilot plants of a few tons per day are online and costs are rising, not falling. Until scalable zero-carbon propulsion exists, divesting from firms that refine jet fuel or machine turbine blades does not advance peace or the climate. It merely cedes advantage to actors who do not share our values. Finally, defense equities diversify risk. They have low correlation with consumer sectors and often outperform during downturns, characteristics that stabilize city revenues. Selling them will not close a single factory. It will simply weaken our balance sheet. I urge you to vote no. Please commission an evidence-based study of realistic sustainability criteria instead of passing a measure that compromises both fiscal stewardship and national security. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Stay at the podium. Stay at the podium, name and address for the record. You have three minutes.
[Goldstein]: Hi, Sam Goldstein, 29 Martin Street. Thank you for bringing this forward, councillors. It is hard not to notice that I believe the temperature got up to 104, 105 today. We're experiencing, in a very literal, immediate sense, the impacts of capitalism and the climate crisis. And, you know, I appreciate what this is, this ordinance is trying to do. And, you know, I think we'll do. I think an earlier speaker had noted, you know, all the potential impacts of, you know, this ordinance and was listing off a bit of a litany of different companies that have, you know, committed war crimes or crimes against humanity. You know, we've talked a lot about Lockheed Martin, but even companies as mundane as Chiquita, you know, I think a few months ago was found, I think, maybe in a civil proceeding to have been funding a right-wing death squad. And, you know, this is, I think, you know, the reality we live in. And, you know, I appreciate the aims of, you know, of what this is trying to do. I am Jewish. I do want to say I find the conflation of Jewish identity in the state of Israel, as has been noted by some previous speakers, to be offensive. It's not something I support, the conflation between. And certainly, I don't think that it's certainly not fair that the state of Israel has killed tens of thousands of people, many of them children. And I think that to frame, to not allow reproach for these massacres that are occurring at food aid distribution sites that have been going on in both very technologically sophisticated and also simple and brutal ways, I find You know, the timing of that conversation, you know disturbing because I think it doesn't allow us to, you know, examine. You know what's going on, which is at the end of the day just a grossly disproportionate death toll in a war between. a country that is armed to the teeth with the most sophisticated weapons technology in human history against people who have had their health care and just basic civilian life-sustaining infrastructure annihilated. So I think it's important that we check that and we recognize that as well. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. So at the podium, name and address for the record, please. You have three minutes.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hi, I'm Debbie Schillkraut-Russell. I live on Woburn Street, and I'm actually speaking about a different topic. On Saturday morning, I just wanted in the record that on Saturday morning, several vehicles with ICE agents in them pulled someone over right in front of my house and detained them. We emailed you all about it, and I know Councilwoman Lazzaro was considering bringing it up later, but it's well past my bedtime. So I just wanted to have it on the record and have an opportunity to say that, you know, as much as I know about this issue on paper, when it's happening on your doorstep, it makes you realize, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do right now. And I think it made me realize it would be very helpful Or at least I became very curious what our local elected officials want residents to do if we witness this happening on our doorsteps. What does local law enforcement want us to do? Should I call the police? You hear stories about people impersonating ICE agents because they're often not wearing uniforms. There was a feeling of kind of paralysis, of what are we supposed to do in this situation? I will say that my husband contacted Luce, I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing their name correctly, and they were exceptionally helpful. They were able to identify the person who was taken and notify his family. So if anyone else sees this happen, I would recommend contacting them, but I just think it made me realize hearing from our elected officials and from law enforcement of their perspectives on what they recommend citizens do when we see this happen would be helpful.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. I'm gonna just pause there. We do have a resolution under suspension to consider on that topic later. We've had several meetings on the topic. I'm gonna quickly go to Councilor Lazzaro since she was mentioned and thank you for being here. And I think we're all deeply disturbed by what's been happening in this community and our targeting by federal agents. Councilor Lazzaro.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I appreciate the need to go to bed. I feel that also often I we Councilor, Vice President Collins and I do have a resolution under suspension, I would like to let this, this topic. finish before we discuss this, but I encourage anybody who does need to go home, this meeting will be, it's live streaming on YouTube right now. You'll be able to watch it after the fact. We'll talk about this at length, hopefully not too much at length, but we'll talk about this shortly. So thank you for being here. We are going to take it up. Thanks.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Lazzaro. Councilor Collins, are you good? All right, we'll go to the podium, or what do you want? Okay, great. We'll go back to, actually, I'm sorry, we do have a hand on Zoom. I'm gonna take the hand on Zoom, and then we'll come back to the podium. Lara Germanis, name and address for the record, please. You have three minutes.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. My name is Lara Germanis. I'm actually a Malden resident, but grew up for many years and lived in Medford. And I just wanted to intervene briefly as a physician and also as somebody who has been spending an extensive period of time both reading the humanitarian literature and working on other campaigns, studying other campaigns, which have involved divestment. Just a comment regarding some of the remarks that have been made earlier about this ordinance, which, you know, the language is quite circumspect. I'll say, you know, some of the language in Section 2697D, which specifies that public funds should not be invested in severe violations of human rights and international law as determined by international legal and humanitarian bodies. You know, that language regarding international legal and humanitarian bodies is, you know, is quite similar to language which has been recommended by international law. Humanitarian law professors for other divestment language. And, you know, while the word severe is not particularly specific, it is actually very consistent with precedent set by other divestment ordinances that have been pursued by institutions and local governments and that. This particular kind of language has been used in resolutions that have referred back to guidance that is offered by the American Friends Service Committee for organizations that are invested in war crimes. And there's a lot of lenience and latitude for the city council in the implementation of this ordinance to make sure that it does not change investments in ways that significantly harm taxpayers. But accusations that workers and companies are going to be harmed or that companies are offshoring work because of divestment, as opposed to because of opportunities to exploit workers in other countries, I find to be sort of in bad faith. And, you know, I think as evidenced this evening by the number of residents who have spoken out, you know, nobody's trying to hide anything. But if we are going to oppose war crimes, we must oppose them everywhere in the world. We should impose genocide in Sudan, in Palestine, and we should oppose human rights abuses when they occur on our own city streets with masked ICE agents using secret police tactics to detain people. and the inhumane conditions that people are experiencing in private prisons. And that's why it's really apt that these all go together in this divestment resolution. Thank you so much for your leadership. And I do wish that the council had the opportunity to pass it this evening.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Seeing no further hands on Zoom, I will go back to the podium. Name and address, please. You'll have three minutes.
[Kh7pOoZw_4E_SPEAKER_15]: David Sayers 19 Park Street, Medford. Thank you, President Bears I certainly appreciate the sentiment and the intent that you said this was put forth as, and I take you at your word that it's not like you had some ulterior motive when. When you put this forth, but it also seems very clear for many of the people that have spoken that the treasurer collector would be under enormous pressure to actually divest in one perhaps only one country Israel and the indigenous Jewish population that that lives there. It's nice to think that we could divest from a company or multiple companies and end war and weapons, but that simply isn't the case because our enemies don't buy weapons from those countries, they make their own. And so we need defensive weapons. In addition, how would you even go about accomplishing this ordinance. The parts in the thermostat over there are also the same parts that are used in weapons. I understand the air conditioning is not working very well right now, so maybe we don't think we need it, but I'm guessing we do. These international legal and vaguely humanitarian bonds list all sorts of companies, including Google and Microsoft Word that work with Israel and its military. Did you use Word to draft this? If so, you may have committed, you may have been supporting war crimes. It's very complicated and hard to do. And I'm not sure that the city should take it on. As individuals, obviously we can invest or divest from anything we'd like. In terms of fossil fuels, I'd love to say, yeah, we should be divesting from all these companies, investing in solar panels, but we buy the solar panels from countries that commit human rights violations. It's not so easy to say that we're going to live by a very specific set of values. And how are these values determined? Why are we not including states that support terrorism? Why are we not including companies that maybe don't support LGBTQ plus rights or women's rights? or freedom of religion or whatever the values are. How do we decide, how do you decide as a city council, what the collective values of the people you represent are? Some of these values I agree with, but not all of them. And obviously from people who've spoken, they disagree with me on what values are important or not. And like I said, as individuals, obviously we can do what we want, but as a city council trying to represent the entire city of Medford, it's not clear to me that this truly represents, though I understand its intent, but that this truly represents or will be used to represent the values of the population of Medford. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Do we have anyone who would like to speak who hasn't spoken on this topic? And Ellen, you did speak right at the beginning, right? Not on this one. All right, then we'll take Ellen, and then we'll go to anyone else who hasn't spoken yet. And then we'll come back around for one more minute for people who have already spoken, but Ellen, you have the floor name and address for the record please you have three minutes.
[Ellen Epstein]: Ellen Epstein 15 growth street, Jewish resident of Medford. I just want to say that any lack of safety that I feel as a Jewish person in this world right now is the result of the actions of the State of Israel and our own government, which has supported and enabled the actions of the State of Israel. I think it's unfortunate actually that that point of view is being brought into this discussion about clean investing. I was shocked to find out that city funds are invested in these companies and, you know, clean investment is not only possible, it's common and it does not necessarily mean lower returns. So, I really do hope that this resolution moves forward. I thank you, President Bears, for bringing it forward. That's it, thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. One second, we have somebody who hasn't spoken yet on Zoom. Meneer Jimenez, I'll recognize you, and you will have three minutes. Name and address for the record, please.
[Munir Jirmanus]: Ah, Munir Germanus. I cannot turn my video on for some reason, but I'll continue anyway. I'll be very brief. I appreciate the fact that this resolution, this proposal has been put forth, now that President Trump has directly involved our country in yet another unprovoked war. The stocks of our weapon manufacturers are soaring. I see this as an amazing ordinance that will divest Medford's fund from fossil fuels. from profit prisons and detention centers, weapon companies, military contractors, and many other things. I mean, our values matter. Today, some of the public funds that our city manages are invested in some of the world's largest weapons manufacturers. These companies are complicit in expanding these wars and are benefiting from them. And our government uses our tax dollars to support these wars. In the meantime, if you've heard the news, many of our congresspeople make illegal profits by manipulating the stock market, along with a leader who benefits every time he makes a declaration that plays havoc with the value of stocks and suits the purpose of insiders who benefit from them. Another example is businesses that are helping destroy communities through violence and incarceration. This is certainly to be avoided considering how many innocent people who are arrested by ICE are artificially held for longer periods of incarceration so the folks who run these detention centers can make more money doing so. I urgently ardently urge all members of the City Council to approve and support this ordinance that reflects our morals and our values. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We have one more person on Zoom who has not spoken yet on this item. Go to Eileen Lerner. Name and address for the record, please, and you will have three minutes.
[Ilene Lerner]: I'm Eileen Lerner, and I live at 3920 Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford. And I just want to say that somebody said this was a divisive proposal, but I see it as a unifying one. Let us all be together. Let us all have values of peace. And I mean, it's possible. It's possible. We know how to cure the environment. We know how to do a lot of things. But we seem to have been caught up in this repetitive, destructive syndrome. And I see this proposal as being you know, something new, at least, you know, a significant effort not to join the Lemings, not to, as they march off to the cliff and jump off. So I just want to thank all of you and urge you to vote for this proposal. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. All right, anyone in person or on Zoom who has not spoken, who would like to speak? We'll take you, Mr. Castagnetti. Name and address for the record, please. You'll have three minutes.
[Andrew Castagnetti]: Thank you, Councilor Villes. Thank you very much. Castagnetti, East Medford, Massachusetts. There you go again with national and international issues. but please do fix our potholes. Still, I really appreciate that. I'll agree, war is hell. Actually, war is worse than hell, because in hell, you expect to burn, so they say. But in war, you don't know what village is gonna be napalmed or bombed. So war is worse than hell. And normally, I'm for peace, as you should know by my record from 1969. But sometimes you need to use a big stick to stop us, for example, from speaking German or Japanese. Fossil pollution is not great, but you can't not snap your finger and get off the oil addiction. It's not feasible. I don't care how you vote because you really listened to my advice anyway. Shalom.
[Zac Bears]: All right. Is there anyone who has not spoken on this issue who would like to speak? Seeing no hands on Zoom and no one in person, we'll go back to the podium for one more minute each for anyone who has already spoken. Name and address for the record, please.
[Micah Kesselman]: I want to talk about the technicalities of this, but I also want to, I think it's really important to maybe convince some of my haverim about what, to show that this is, Zionist is not a Jewish thing and Jewish is not Zionist. This is a letter, dear Spector, translated from 1930 from a Jewish refugee to the United States. Do not think that your Zionist political positions are originally Jewish. Often you consider something long enough or you express something to yourself. You begin to believe it to be your own creation or some new form of thought. This is nonsense. Dusty and decomposed ideas are instead speaking for you. In this way, just as a Zionist sees the world and in one light, his countrymen see him as not much more than just another nationalist. Let's consider the latest clearest manifestation of nationalism, Hitlerism. Hundreds of thousands of young Germans are enthusiastic for Hitler, for Germany, and for Germaness, just as you and your friends are for the land of Israel and Jewishness. They believe their Germany to be surrounded by its enemies, England, France, Poland. God punish England, they cry. Their Germany has been pillaged and violated. go through a lot of it, but ask yourself, is Arabs out, not the very same slogan as a Jude and Rose. This is from 1930, before the Holocaust. Zionism is not Judaism. It's not the same thing. And equivocating it is anti-Semitic. Thank you, Micah.
[Zac Bears]: Maybe the rest of the record, you have one minute and about 30 seconds left for that. You'll have one minute. And since I let my go over by 30 seconds, I'll go within 30 seconds.
[nzT0OcLHmhc_SPEAKER_20]: My community is afraid of stochastic terrorism, where the repeated demonization of a particular people in our case, Jewish people, by extension through the state of Israel, which I agree my physical and safety also stems from the actions of a government that I do not support. And yet, The people who were murdered in DC, who were attacked in Boulder, were not asked for their position about Zionism, about Israel, about Palestine, about anything. They were murdered for being Jews, and we are afraid that that will happen to someone here in Medford. It's not a question of if, but it's when and where, and we deserve protection also, although the progressive community seems to have decided that we do not.
[Zac Bears]: Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: I'm not debating, I'm just taking a point of personal privilege. Thank you, President Bears. Thank you for indulging me to my fellow councillors. Well, I'm very moved by a lot of what I have heard tonight. And I am quite shocked by some of it. Certainly finding procedural reasons to stall on timely and urgently needed reforms is catching on as a trend in the city of Medford. I heard tonight that standing up against war crimes is divisive. I heard that the Jewish community is unilateral in its feelings on this topic and its feelings on Israel. I heard it implied that Jewish discomfort stands as more of a clear and present danger than genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. I have heard antisemitism and the protest of Israeli war crimes, once again, falsely conflated. I have heard that the United Nations, a crowning achievement of international cooperation is illegitimate because it is called a spade a spade in observing war crimes and genocide. I have heard, excuse me, I'm taking up points. I have heard wild mischaracterizations and deeply offensive language used to disparage the council's process on the ceasefire resolution last year. including what I would call outright lies about what was or communicated or not communicated to me, the resolution sponsor. People can feel free to call me out directly about that. I don't care. I am very proud of that resolution and very secure in my Jewish identity. I have heard voices decrying divestment as illegitimate because some of its proponents wear keffiyehs and have ties in Gaza. That makes me wonder, What about the opponents of divestment who are deeply embedded with Christian Zionism? Are they given reciprocal scrutiny and skepticism? Do we throw out that whole idea because of this association? I received hundreds of messages from people today associated with that identity. These are people who see me and my family as Jews as nothing more than pawns, entities that must be deported to the nation of Israel and, depending on their ideology, converted to Christianity so that so-called real Christians may experience the revelation and ascend with Jesus to heaven. People and Councilors are saying, or in some cases, heavily implying that this ordinance should be stalled or scrapped because it implicates Israel. As though Palestinian solidarity is invalidating. I'm taking a point of personal privilege. As if Palestinian solidarity is invalidating, that that opinion is cancerous. Apparently, our ability to be in alignment with our values to divest from things that we know are making us sick and making us unsafe and directly contradicting our values, our ability to take a vote tonight to be the community that we report to be has an obstacle, a fear of telling the truth when it comes to Israel. If you listen to President Bears' preamble, you will have heard that these procedural questions and these concerns about fiscal responsibility are the real quote unquote thin veil going on in this conversation. Thinly veiling that the real obstacle to divesting from fossil fuel infrastructure, private prisons, weapons manufacturing, and entities implicated in human rights violations is Zionism. I am once again disgusted that my identity is being used to justify remaining invested in nations that flout international law and wage genocide against populations deemed inconvenient that have been allowed to poison our environment for decades, and for for profit presence that lock up innocent and vulnerable people, quite possibly, including neighbors of our own community. As a Jew, I cannot make heads or tails of the argument that this goal of divesting from destructive entities is anti-Jewish in any way. It is deeply aligned with the Jewish values that I hold most dear, which is that tikkun olam, repairing the world, and solidarity with oppressed peoples, is my Jewish family's most foundational value, not blind fealty to any ethnostate. I look forward to discussing this matter again in the future with my colleagues and with the community, hopefully very soon, and to the chair, and through the chair, to all those who have been brave enough to support this progressive action, to those who speak in favor, to those who were brave enough to share any opinion on this matter, including those who disagree with me. I would like to say, Yashir Chalaf, may your strength persist and grow. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Councilor Scarpell. Thank you. I want to thank everyone for their input tonight. I know that a conversation about lack of neutrality, and support and opposition has been raised by everyone here. And I think what I'm about to say, I was about to say we'll probably please no one or at least displease everyone in some way. I want to be very clear, international law and international norms matter. While it may be impossible to find a standard that everyone can agree to, I firmly believe that the core values of our international order that World War II was fought to establish One, the right of all peoples to self-determination. Two, the integrity of internationally recognized borders of nations. Three, opposition to unilateral military action and the occupation of territory. Four, the inherent right of individuals to life and freedom must be the foundation of that standard. Any nation or company violates that standard, or quite frankly, any non-governmental, non-nation entity someone acting or a company supporting private efforts in any place. That must be the bar. And that is the standard I will continue to push for as this ordinance moves forward. No one is demonizing janitors or people who work every day just to survive here in Medford or abroad. When we say no kings, we say no to the billionaire CEOs, the 1% investors who profit most from the industry of death. As working people, our personal investments, if we have them, and our collective public investments, the investments of our communities, of our government, are our only method to influence the private market. I promise you that even if every city and town in Massachusetts chose not to invest in weapons manufacturers, the financial influence and capital flows of the military-industrial complex will remain well represented. What I didn't say in my introductory floor speech is that this issue is deeply personal to me. I know what it looks like to have friends and loved ones who are afraid for their safety and for their family's safety, both Jews and Palestinians, both in Palestine and Israel and right here at home. I'm not Jewish. I'm not Muslim. I'm not a Palestinian. I'm not Israeli. When I hear real concerns of anyone for their, excuse me, thank you. Councilor Scarpelli, you're out of order. Councilor Scarpelli, please. Councilor Scarpelli, please. Councilor Scarpelli, please. Can you please respect your fellow councilor, sir? You're not. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Scarpelli, we'll wait. We'll wait, sir. We'll wait, sir. We can wait for your tantrum to finish. Councilor Collins, please just, we'll wait for Councilor Scarpelli to respect the chair and the floor. Well, vote me out. Thank you. When I hear the real concerns of anyone in my community for their safety, I take it very seriously. What I cannot and will not accept is that it is polarizing or divisive to impose the investment of city funds and companies that violate international law and the basic standards of our liberal international order. I'm not anti-Israel. I'm not anti-Palestine. I'm not anti-defending democracy against legitimate threats. I support the right to free democratic states in Palestine and Israel. I am against the standard that says it is inherently anti-Israel or anti-Semitic to oppose the actions of the Netanyahu regime, or that it is anti-Chinese to support the actions of the Xi regime, or that it is anti-Hindu to support the actions of the Modi regime, or anti-Muslim that it is to support the actions of the bin Salman regime, or that it is anti-Korean to support the actions of the Kim regime, or that it is anti-Christian or anti-American to support the actions of the Trump regime. I am deeply concerned about the weaponization and accusations of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Christianism, anti-Hinduism, and other biases and hate to sifle free speech and legitimate opposition to the actions of governments. I fear that this undermines our efforts to identify and combat hate and hate crimes. And I especially fear that it condones or incites hate or hate crimes. I hold this fear for members of my family and my friends and my loved ones, some of whom are Jewish, some of whom are Muslim, some of whom are neither. I look forward to further discussions, and we may end up disagreeing at the end of those discussions. but I will also hold close the fears of people for their safety. I will work to address them while I also hold to my steadfast principle and commitment to international law that applies equally to all nations and all peoples. Consensus is never possible in a democracy. When we ask, how will we determine our shared values and what we stand for? The answer is simple, self-determination. by electing representatives to pass laws through the legislative process afforded to us by the Constitution of our country and our state, and replacing those elected officials when their actions do not reflect the will of the voters of their community. If this proposal or my values or my actions do not pass democratic or electoral muster, I will accept the result and I will be relieved that I live in a society where self-determination and freedom are at its foundation. Thank you. Is there a motion on the floor? We have an ordinance for third reading. Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Motion to take paper 25-090 off the table and approve for third reading.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion of Vice President Collins to take paper 25-090 off the table and approve for third reading, seconded by? Seconded. Seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Justin Tseng]: Could you give me one second, please?
[Zac Bears]: Sorry. I'll take your comment. We have a motion. We'll take your comment on the after we took the vote.
[Emily Lazzaro]: President Bears. Can I also remind you we have a we have a resolution under suspension to take up as well.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yep.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank
[Adam Hurtubise]: I think my Wi Fi cut out Can you clarify which vote this is for. This is to take off the table and improve for third reading paper 25090, an amendment to the compensation ordinance.
[Justin Tseng]: Got it.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, by the affirmative one of the negative one option option promotion passes I'll recognize Councilor say, um, no, I'm all right.
[Justin Tseng]: I just wanted to clarify which paper that was.
[Zac Bears]: All right, great. Then is there a motion by Council is our on the paper under suspension.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Yes, can we, sorry, how do I do this motion? I would just like to take up the paper 25-106.
[Zac Bears]: On the motion of Council Lazzaro to take paper, it's actually renumbered 25110 under suspension, seconded by. This is the motion by Vice President Collins and Council Lazzaro. Seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro.
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Leming. Yes. Councilor Scarpelli. Yes. Councilor Tseng. Councilor Tseng.
[Emily Lazzaro]: He's on mute.
[Justin Tseng]: Oh, sorry. I thought I remained unmuted. Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Bears.
[Justin Tseng]: Yes.
[Zac Bears]: Six in the affirmative, one absent, the motion passes. Be it resolved to paper 25110, be it resolved that the Medford Police Department provide an after action report to the city council by the end of day on Thursday, June 26th on the recent ice arrests in West Medford over the weekend and weekly after report on all ice activity in Medford going forward to be due end of day Thursdays. I recognize Councilor Lazzaro, then Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro.
[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I have offered a very similar paper before. And this is a reiteration of the same resolution, but with new information this Saturday. At about noon, or maybe just before that, I received an email from a resident in my neighborhood. About half a block from where I live, somebody was arrested by ICE. I found out about it because a resident let me know. And I just so happened to have a meeting scheduled with our provisional police chief, Paul Covino, on Monday. And I discussed this issue with him. I was meant to meet with him to talk about the things that Chief Buckley and I had been discussing and that were ongoing issues. with the roads and various other items, but we talked about this and Chief Covino and I had a really, really great conversation about, you know, the hesitation of the Medford Police Department to offer something of use for us and The point of this resolution is not to catch the Medford Police Department out. It's not to get them in trouble. It's not to say, like, we're catching you working with ICE. I believe very firmly that the Medford Police Department is following the ordinances that we have set forth, that the Medford Police Department frequently is not made aware by federal immigration's enforcement of the operations that take place in Medford. And I think that a report could say that. In this case, Chief Covino told me he was, I knew more about this arrest than he did because I was told by a resident who witnessed it. because she lives across the street. And the that could be that I would be happy to receive that as a report because it would share information with our residents. I think it would settle fears. I think it would release any misinformation that may have been circulating. And I think it would reveal that. In Medford, we have a clear partnership with our law enforcement agency and that we are working together to keep us safe. And I also wanted to say that I had a conversation last week with another resident who said that when they asked When they saw somebody monitoring a neighborhood in Medford and they believed them to be law enforcement and they weren't sure if they were Medford police or ICE officers, they went and they asked for ID. and they were Medford police. The Medford police officers very quickly said, oh, we're Medford police. Here's our IDs. And the person was like, oh, great, wonderful. This is not upsetting. This is not scary. This is not concerning. This is a person who is not hiding themselves. This is a person who works with us. This is somebody who is part of the fabric of our community and who is doing the best that they can to be integrated in the work that we're all doing to maintain public safety and transparency and openness. So that's the goal of this resolution as far as I'm concerned. In our current environment where somebody may not be as readily willing to offer an ID when somebody asks them for it. That is a dangerous thing, especially for people who may be a local elected official. Somebody impersonated a police officer and then used that to shoot a local elected official and her husband and her dog in Minnesota. That is illegal and terrifying. I talked to Chief Cabino about that, too. And he affirmed to me, by the way, that if you ask a law enforcement officer from any department for identification while they are engaged in law enforcement activity and they don't give it to you, that you should call 911 right away. So if anybody's wondering about that, that's what you should do. That's not exactly the point of this resolution, but it's related. So thank you. This is just, you know, this happened over the weekend. It was past the deadline. So we offered this under suspension and I will stop talking now. Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Vice President Collins.
[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. I want to thank Thank you, Councilor Lazzaro for co sponsoring this resolution with me. And thank you to the residents who reached out, not only to community networks about the ice arrest over the weekend, but also to city officials including myself and other city to make sure that we knew and to ask what more could be done to follow up on this abduction and to prevent future ones. I know Councilor Lazzaro shared a lot, and I appreciate the resident who spoke earlier who shared their experience and what they did in the aftermath of witnessing or hearing about a arrest in their neighborhood. We have, as President Bears mentioned earlier, we have had many discussions in many council meetings by this point on this topic of the presence of ICE in our community and whose responsibility it is to do what and what public safety means. In this time when the presence of law enforcement has a tenuous relationship to public safety, and what the responsibility of our local public safety is when federal law enforcement are conducting raids that are not related to, that are not convincingly related to public safety and do not meaningfully involve our local public safety officials. I have been very heartened to see the presence of the Loose Hotline and other community organizations like it proliferate throughout our community. and for folks who want to know who to call when they see, when they suspect or they hear a rumor about ICE in the community. I as one Councilor would recommend you to look up the loose hotline, explore their resources, get trained and be a part of that community network whose goals are to provide good information and spread good information and dispel rumors and spread preventative information about people's rights with immigration enforcement. At the same time, I am. again frustrated that community members have been put into, put into the position of having to be public safety officials when our local public safety officials should fulfill that role for us in every circumstance. And this resolution aims to be, we have brought up this idea with Medford Police Department before and we have heard some encouraging signs that this is something that they can do and something they're willing to do and I take that in good faith and I'm very heartened. That providing after reports of what happened and why when ice has been in the community is a place that we can start in providing the accountability and transparency and good communication from Medford Police Department to the city council and to more of the Medford community because this is I think what part of what the community is clamoring for. In this resolution, we're not asking Medford Police Department to spread the word whenever they hear that ICE is coming to town. We know that sometimes they get advance warning and sometimes they don't. This is just asking for them to be transparent with us and with the community about when ICE has been in the area and why and what they know about it. And like Councilor Lazzaro said, we know that sometimes the answers to those questions are going to be, we don't have a lot of information, fine, but let's make sure that there's a structure for being in regular communication about it. because certainly people in the community are seeing this happen. People are being affected by it. People are being arrested and detained and abducted. And this is scary. And this is not in line with our values. And this is a threat to our public safety. So I welcome collaboration with our public safety officials and at least trying to shed some light into this very scary, opaque and fascistic use of federal law enforcement in our community. Thank you. A motion to approve.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you on the motion approved by Vice President Collins seconded by second. We'll go to Councilor Leming.
[Matt Leming]: One thing I did just want to do with my with my time is that the arrest was actually recorded by one of the neighbors. And so I'm going to try to get a clip of this that doesn't get the guy's face too closely. But I do feel like these arrests are usually a little bit abstract, like people only just talk about them. And in this case, there was a couple of ICE agents who were arresting a pizza delivery driver, which I don't really think is that great of a use of anybody's time if they're trying to stop, they're trying to protect the community. But it's a little silly, but I do think that a picture is worth a thousand words. And this really scared the neighbors who were here earlier tonight, but had to leave when they wanted to talk about this. And I do just like to have people see a little bit of this see a little bit of the footage just so that it's not quite as abstract as it normally is when we're just talking about an arrest over the weekend. So thank you for listening. And I'm not going to, again, I'm not going to show the whole clip because I did realize that in some places it shows a close-up of his face and I decided I didn't really want to do that.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Leming. Any further discussion by members of the Council on this resolution? On the motion of Vice President Collins to approve, seconded by Councilor Lazzaro, is there any public participation on this resolution? Yes, name and address for the record, please. And you'll have three minutes.
[SPEAKER_06]: Adriana Zavala-Penziner, West Medford. I simply wanna say that I wasn't directly witness to this, but it was around the corner from me and I was on the text chat that conveyed that this was happening. And seeing this after having seen what happened to the Tufts University student, we should be terrified because the people who arrested this pizza delivery driver would not identify themselves. And one of them was wearing a flak jacket that said police, but it was not Medford police. So my approach will be to call 911 when I see this happen again. So this is happening all over the country and it's now happening in Medford. So we wanted people to be aware of it. Thank you very much.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Any further discussion by members of the public on this resolution? Seeing none, 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?
[Ilene Lerner]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Bears?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. The motion passes. Any motions on the floor? On the motion to adjourn by Vice President Collins, seconded by. Wait, second. Oh, what?
[Emily Lazzaro]: Sorry, no.
[Zac Bears]: Councilor Lazzaro, I recognize Councilor Lazzaro.
[SPEAKER_13]: Nope, nothing, nevermind, sorry.
[Zac Bears]: Okay, great. On the motion of Councilor Collins, seconded by Councilor Leming, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Councilor Callahan is absent. Vice-President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro? Yes. Councilor Leming? Councilor Scarpelli? Councilor Tseng?
[NqJnNNyD4Uw_SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: President Bears?
[Zac Bears]: Yes. Six in the affirmative, one absent. The motion passes and the meeting
|
total time: 55.6 minutes total words: 4135  |
total time: 15.74 minutes total words: 1109  |
total time: 23.1 minutes total words: 1294  |
total time: 9.86 minutes total words: 299  |
|
total time: 11.66 minutes total words: 520  |
total time: 5.04 minutes total words: 548  |
total time: 5.03 minutes total words: 271  |
total time: 3.87 minutes total words: 331  |