AI-generated transcript of City Council 09-09-25

[Todd Evans]: Test one, two.

[Zac Bears]: Test, test. Good, Shane. Medford City Council, 15th regular meeting, September 9th, 2025 is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro. Councilor Leming? Present. Councilor Scapelli? Present. Councilor Tseng? Present. President Pierce?

[Zac Bears]: Present. Six present, one absent. Please rise to salute the flag. 25-137 announcements, accolades, remembrances, reports, and records. 25-137 offered by Councilor Lazzaro and President Bears. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council acknowledge and celebrate National Recovery Month. Councilor Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to recognize National Recovery Month, September's National Recovery Month. August 31 was International Overdose Awareness Day and we were able to, I was able to attend a vigil here at City Hall in remembrance of people whose lives were lost in overdoses. And it was a really sad, but really touching event. We lost 14 lives in Medford due to opioid use disorder this year. The event had purple flags placed outside to remember the people who have passed away from overdoses in the past 10 years. And this month is, rather than a memorial, it's a celebration of recovery, and it reminds people that recovery is possible. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to actually introduce a couple of our city employees whose roles in the city are to help connect residents to recovery resources. The first is, and I'd like to bring them up as I introduce them, Chris Suma. is our recovery coach in Medford and Chris's role is to help guide residents through recovery. And the other is Jason Stone, who is our social worker in the city. Sorry, I wrote down Jason's job title, but I've lost it in my notes. He can tell you. Jason also connects people to resources, all the social services resources that we have access to here. So I'd love to give you two an opportunity to talk about what recovery resources residents can access in City Hall.

[SPEAKER_03]: So yes, Jason stone social services coordinator here at City Hall. In terms of the resources that are available, I think the easiest way for folks to access anything is to really just reach out and call Chris and I, Chris is here with us two days a week but as he will no doubt tell you his phone is always on. I'm here every day. A lot of my work here isn't necessarily substance use related, but prior to coming to work for municipal government, I spent 20 years working in the substance use disorder treatment field. So that's always been sort of my passion. We try to do a lot for families. We get a lot of phone calls from families, reaching out, looking for help for loved ones. And between Chris and I, we have contacts most everywhere across the Commonwealth. at outpatient facilities, intensive outpatient, PHP programs, detoxes, sober houses. We also have a recovery group that Chris can tell you more about. I should probably just let Chris tell you the rest because this is like, this is his life's work.

[SPEAKER_02]: How are you doing? I'm Chris, I am the recovery coach. So a little about me, I have obviously lived experience, which is why I'm in this role. My job is when I deal with people, I relate with them, they relate with me. It makes transitioning into recovery much easier if somebody has done it and can show you the way. With that being said, we work with different organizations throughout the area, the bridge in Malden, we work very closely with Malden. North Suffolk Community Services, we work very closely with them. different recovery events and stuff like that. We're always attending, we're always pushing people to go. We run a recovery group, I apologize. We run a recovery group every Wednesday at City Hall from 4.30 to 5.30. Anybody can attend. We provide a meal and it's just an opportunity to socialize, get involved in recovery and just see that there is a way out. One of the things that I just want to make clear to everybody is, this is not just for the people that are out there. This also goes for everybody sitting in this room. If anybody's dealing with any issues, please come and find me and let's talk. If it's your friends, if it's your family, doesn't matter. This disease does not discriminate. And please reach out. Like I said, I'm here Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but as Jason said, chances are if you call me on a Sunday at three in the morning, I'm going to answer because you never know when that crisis is going to happen. And I want to be there. So thank you for letting me come and share. I really appreciate it guys.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you guys. Councilor Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you so much for being here. I, when I met Chris for the first time at the vigil, we exchanged cards and he texted me that day and his message had many exclamation points. He's very passionate. City employees. So I really appreciate him coming and joining the team. And I think that's really true that I think if you texted Chris at three in the morning, he would get right back to you. Another thing I wanted to mention is September 24th, Medford City Hall will be hosting an event, recovery event. It's 5.30 p.m. until 7 p.m. It involves speakers from the recovery community, a live music performance, The mayor will be making a special announcement. There's going to be a hope and remembrance luminary display and then a post-program community tables, a food truck, DJ and music and wellness activities. So everybody's invited to that as well.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Vice President Collins.

[Kit Collins]: Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Lazzaro for putting this on the agenda and I want to thank you too specifically for the work that you do here in our city. I love the idea of not just recognizing but celebrating National Recovery Month, obviously recovery is incredibly difficult, incredibly challenging. Every experience is different for everybody, but I have so much respect to those who commit to going through it and those who commit to helping others up that ladder as well. So it's not a thing to take lightly, but it is a thing to take joy in and to really say to all of our many, many friends and families and neighbors who have direct experience or experience of somebody in their community going through that to say, we see you, we celebrate you. Not to say it's not hard, but it can be joyful too. So thank you very much.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. And I just want to thank you guys. I completely agree. I think talking about recovery is something to celebrate, something to be proud of, something that the community can join in with and help people with is the way to think about it. Fights any stigma and brings it around too. We want our community members to thrive and be healthy and stay here with us. So I'm really thank you for your work. On the motion to council is Lazzaro, seconded by, seconded by Councilor Callahan. We have everyone so I can voice vote. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Records, records of the meeting of August 5th were passed to Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Scarpelli, how did you find those records?

[George Scarpelli]: Records, Council President.

[Zac Bears]: On the motion to table by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by, seconded by Councilor Collins. All those in favor? Opposed? The motion passes. Refer to committee for further discussion. So this section is to refer to committee for further discussion. So I'm going to read them and then I'm going to take it as a motion from the proponent to send it to committee and we'll take a vote on it. Refer to committee for further discussion to 5138 offered by Council as our own Councilor Tseng, whereas there have been numerous immigration and customs enforcement raids in Medford over the past several months disrupting the peace in Medford and ripping apart families, and whereas it is clear that the metric community shows up to care for its neighbors when they are in need. Be it resolved that the Medford City Council hold a meeting in the Committee on Public Health and Community Safety to discuss methods to protect dependents of Medford residents who have been abducted and or deported by Federal Immigration Enforcement Officers. Be it further resolved that the Committee discuss issuing Freedom of Information Act requests to ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement upon receiving knowledge of the arrest and detention of any Medford resident. On the motion of Councilor Tseng to refer to the public health and community safety committee seconded by seconded by council is our Mister clerk please call the all those in favor. Opposed motion passes. Whereas the federal government has been summarily cutting important social services like Medicare and Medicaid, Section 8 of the Housing Voucher Program, amid record homelessness and food assistance for hungry families, be it resolved that the Medford City Council hold a meeting in the Committee on Public Health and Community Safety to discuss methods whereby the city can protect vulnerable residents and residents can access other services via local and state nonprofit sources to get the help they need. be it further resolved that members of the Health Department be invited to that meeting. On the motion of Councilor Lazzaro to send to the Committee on Public Health and Community Safety, seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Leming. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. Hearings 25130, petition for a grant of location, National Grid. North Andover, Massachusetts, proposed installation of new gas main between 136 and 190 Boston Ave. National grid plan WL 1491849. We were hereby notified by the order of the Medford City Council that the Medford City Council will hold a public hearing in the Howard F. Alden Chambers at Medford City Hall, 85 George P. Hassett Drive, Medford, and via Zoom on Tuesday, September 9th at 7 p.m., a link to be posted no later than Friday, September 5th, on a petition by Massachusetts electrical company DBA National Grid for permission to install a new gas main, including necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures, located at 136-190 Boston Ave, wherefore it requests that after due notice and hearing as provided by law, it be granted a grant of location permit for a new gas main on Boston Ave, together with such sustaining and protecting fixtures as it may find necessary for the transmission of gas, in accordance with plan WO-149-1849, originally dated July 14th, 2025, and received and filed in the Office of the City Clerk on August 21st, 2025, and available for inspection in the Office of the City Clerk, Medford City Hall, Room 103, 85 George P. Hassett Drive, Medford. The following are the streets and highways referred to in plan W0149-1849, 136 to 190 Boston Ave. National grid to install new gas main is depicted on the plan. The engineering recommends that this grant of location be approved with the following conditions. One, the grant of location is limited to approximately 125 feet of dual eight-inch gas main with the southernmost sidewalk across Boston Avenue Bridge depicted on the plan. Before starting the work the contractor shall notify dig safe and obtain all applicable permits from the engineering division. The project must obtain a trench permit, pursuant to section 74141 of the city ordinances prior to commencing work. No other utility structures conduits duck banks pipes or any other appurtenances are adversely impacted National Grid shall ensure that all sewer water and drain lines are marked for any excavation. Project site must be swept after installation or daily and shall be kept free of debris for the duration of installation. At least 72 hours prior to the start of the project, National Grid must coordinate about our communications with the Director of Communications and submit any required information that may be requested to effectively inform the public. Approved, City Engineer. Signed, City Clerk. All right, do we have a representative from National Grid? We do. If you could describe the project and then we'll ask any questions and then we'll open the public hearing.

[Diana Cuddy]: Hi, good evening. My name is Diana Cuddy, National Grid 170 Data Drive, Waltham, Massachusetts. I'm here tonight to request a rental location for a gas main replacement project on the Boston Avenue Bridge. It's starting around 136, 138 Boston Avenue and extending over the bridge into Somerville where the project continues.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Do we have any questions from members of the council? Seeing none, I will declare the public hearing open. As part of this public hearing, if you could say if you're in favor, in opposition, or otherwise, and members of the public are welcome to speak.

[Diana Cuddy]: I'm in favor of this project.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Is there anyone either in person or on Zoom who would like to speak regarding this project? If you're in person, you can come to the podium. If you're on Zoom, you can raise your hand on Zoom. Seeing none, I'm declaring the public hearing closed. Is there a motion? On the motion approved by Councilor Leming, seconded by? Seconded by Councilor Callahan. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro. Councilor Leming. Councilor Scapelli. Councilor Tseng. President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, I have the affirmative, none the negative, the motion passes.

[Diana Cuddy]: Thank you very much.

[Zac Bears]: Thanks, Diana. All right. Petitions, presentations, and similar papers. Petition for a common vixen license, CB Scoops. Do we have CB Scoops here present? Great. If you could tell us a little bit about your application, and then we'll turn it over to Councilor Scarpelli.

[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you for having me here Council tonight. My name is Steve Caciola, I'm applying for the Common Vix down at CB Scoots in West Medbridge Square. Ginny Roach ran it for about 16 years, and she reached out to me like she was looking to retire. And I don't know if you guys have heard the rumors, but yes, I own Socks Ice Cream. I bought that in 2016, so she thought I'd be the perfect candidate to continue the legacy. So I jumped right on it. She's a great woman. She had a great thing down there. And I plan on keeping everything the same. Everyone's asking if I'm putting socks ice cream in there. I will be keeping the Richardson's. Everyone is a little iffy about that. If anything, I'll get an additional freezer to serve the socks. But besides that, it'll be the same thing. It'll be noon to 10 p.m. And then during the winter, it'll be 9 p.m. Yeah. And yeah, just want to keep the square the same. It's wicked cute down there. I'm from Saugus. We have Cliftondale and it's not really the same. Like you guys have like an actual functioning economy there. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's so cute. I love it. The other stores around me have already welcomed me in. Amici's, New Hong Kong Express, Lucy's across the street, the bookstore and Snappy Patty's. They all seem like wonderful establishments. So any questions for me about the ice cream industry?

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. I see everything's in order. The only thing I don't see is the special line for city councilors.

[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, okay. Oh, definitely.

[George Scarpelli]: That's the back door. Is that against the law? That's against the law. I see everything in order. I move forward for approval, Mr. President.

[SPEAKER_04]: All right. Thank you, Council. Any other questions? Councilor Lemke.

[Matt Leming]: What's your favorite flavor?

[SPEAKER_04]: Mine? Mocha chip, definitely. Coffee and chocolate all day.

[Matt Leming]: I don't know if I could support this. No, I'm kidding.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Right. On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve seconded by seconded by Vice President Collins. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Thank you. Vice President Collins, Councilor Lazzaro, Councilor Leming, Councilor Scarpelli, Councilor Tseng. President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes. Second the affirmative, then the negative. The motion passes. Thanks. Good luck. 2-5-1-3-1, petition for amendment to common victors license, extended hours, Great American Beer Hall. Do we have a proponent? Yes, we do. Give me one second to find your paperwork in here.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah.

[Zac Bears]: That I knew. All right, looks like the request is for 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day. Brief explanation, early morning coffee, late night pizza. And with that, I'll turn it over to you guys to explain what you're looking for. Brian Zarather, 142 Mystic Ave, Great American Beer Hall.

[SPEAKER_06]: John Shea, 142 Mystic Ave, Great American Beer Hall.

[Zac Bears]: So actually, recently this week, we've come to an agreement with Nassau Donuts to move them from Somerville to the Great American Beer Hall. So early morning coffee, yeah, donuts, it's gonna be pretty cool. So that's the 7 a.m. request, which I couldn't be more excited for. Gonna start to build out pretty much immediately on the coffee stuff, and so it's gonna be a pretty cool, fun concept. Late night, it's we're really losing this crowd to Somerville and Everett. And so there's the 2am licenses available over there. And, you know, We've been open a year and we made 1000 mistakes and we've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. And so I know the noise complaints from our neighbors, we've taken very seriously. We've got rid of the outside DJs, we're now shutting the garage door, doing everything that we can to mitigate that.

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, recently we had something called the sunset session and we sold tickets to it and it was going to have an outdoor DJ and we actually canceled the event and refunded all the tickets that was back in July. So we're trying to take steps moving forward to make sure we're like more respectful to our neighbors. We've also hung signs on the door stating like, please be respectful, please park in the parking lot, that kind of stuff. And now we also close the door at 9pm on the garage and we shut off the outdoor speakers at 9 p.m. and we just started doing that about a week and a half ago.

[Zac Bears]: Lastly, we're a year in and we've been approached by Nextdoor to do a hotel that we're talking to, apartments across the street. And all of this really started with the Great American Beer Hall, like opening up on Mystic Ave and we're finally seeing some development opportunities at our abutting properties. So I know we can't please everyone, But I think the greater good of Medford, this is, this is really important for us. Thanks. We'll go to members of the council and then we'll go to public comment. Councilor Scarpelli, then Councilor Lazzaro.

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you very much. And first of all, great opportunity, I'm sure. You're seeing some great events, and I appreciate you taking the opportunity to choose Medford. But the truth of the matter is, there are a bunch of people behind you that are very, very upset. And the complaints that I've gotten from the noise, the conversations of moving speakers, eliminating speakers, It really fell on deaf ears. It sounds like I mean I have video after video people send me after after night saying they stand on their on their porch and you can hear the music and You know, I've talked to our team here at Metro City Hall, and they've said that they've reached out to you and you've making some moves. But to be honest with you, I'm a person that really has to prove it. And as much as we don't want to see you lose any business to Somerville, I think that for one Councilor, I'm a little, little leery to push anything forward when The hours that you have now are really affecting the quality of life and neighbors. And I know you said that quite, you just said, quote unquote, can't make everybody happy. These people you want to make happy, they're your neighbors. So I think that's very important. I think it's very important. So, you know, I'm, I appreciate you wanted to move forward with the business, but I'm going to be very honest with one Councilor until I see the proof. I can't support this because I have talked to the neighbors. I've been there. I've seen the videos. I've watched them multiple, multiple times. And, um, and I think I mean, maybe a year and a year ago I came in, I think I spoke to you and I said something we can do. And I know you said you were trying, but, um, we still haven't seen enough. And to move forward to two o'clock in the morning now, every night, you're asking for every night at two in the morning. That's something that this council really has to look at. I understand the entertainment world. Well, you put in for every night, so I'm reading it. And I know for the entertainment, we know Thursday, Friday, Saturday is very important. But when you talk to a resident and they see this and they're like, hold on, they wanna do this on nights that we have to go to work. And what we have to endure in that neighborhood. And we have just so you know this I'm just telling you know what people approach me about, you know, and you can be, you can be defensive I understand that because it is your business your livelihood, but I just want you to understand this is what I've been hearing as a city council this is what I've been seeing from what they've sent me. What you're hearing is the quality of life is really been an impact. And listen, I've talked to residents said, listen, I understand, but there are some nights we have to, it is a business. It is a business district. It's zoned that way. We have to understand that, you know, even, even the situation with the parking, people taking my parking spot in front of my house. I understand that that's nothing you have control of. Cause I know if you wanted it, you'd want more parking spots too in your location. But unfortunately, um, there are some gives and takes. And for right now, and I know that until the residents behind you come up and say, you know what, it's fine. We've met with them. Have you met with the neighbors? Have you recently met with the neighbors?

[Zac Bears]: I'm available.

[George Scarpelli]: So you have, so that's what I'm saying. So you hear asking for something, but the biggest concerns were that the neighbors that are really affected, I mean, whether they go to sleep at night, whether they have to put sound machines in the house because of the base. I mean, these are things that I'm just sharing what they're saying. So out of full transparency, I have been working with those neighbors. I've listened to them and out of all due respect until I see something different, I can't support this. So thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thank you. We'll go to some other councilors, but if you want to go first, you guys, if you want to say anything about what you've been doing or answering the councilor's questions. We can wait to the end. Okay. go to Councilor Lazzaro, then Councilor Collins.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you for being here. I think the 7 a.m. is a no brainer. That sounds great. I have gotten a lot of emails about noise disturbances from residents. I haven't heard anything about the Great American Beer Hall. It's possible that people sometimes reach out to Councilors they already know, but I've gotten noise complaints from folks about Wendy's at Wellington, from folks about the MBTA train station. I have not heard about the beer hall. It does not mean that it isn't happening. But that being said, If you are responsive to noise complaints, and you're following the, if you're, if you're responsive to what's happening, and if there's follow up, I think that for me, it's reasonable for a large establishment to stay open late as long as people are still attending an event or they're still there. I think Medford has a history of, because of our regulations, having to ask people to leave And it's not good business and people are losing money. And I wouldn't want to ask businesses to continue to do that when it's illogical and when people are then leaving or not coming at all. So I am in favor of this, as long as you can continue to be responsive to neighbors to the best of your ability. When I do get emails from people about noise complaints, I usually follow up with either, depending on who is causing the noise, if it's work or businesses, it'll be the health department or the police department that enforces that stuff. But you can always also talk to the business owners. And there are fines if there's multiple violations. I don't know if it's gone that far with you. We've had that issue with Wendy's and their trash pickup that they've broken it a couple of times, then the trash company has to pay a fine. And then eventually they can be charged with not being able to do business in Medford anymore. I mean, that's the sort of chain of events. And if that's not occurring, I think then you're probably okay. So I would just say thanks for bringing this forward. I think that we as a council have responsibility to our business owners to allow you to do business the way that it is logical. So thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you Councilor Lazzaro, Council Vice President Collins.

[Kit Collins]: Thank you. Thank you for being here. I think obviously there's a balance to be had here between being reasonably responsive to complaints and requests and noise concerns. All of us here live in residences. We know how upsetting it is when it's loud and you're trying to work, you're trying to sleep. And we have to balance that with letting a commercial district be a commercial district. I know that going from 11 p.m. every night to 2 a.m. every night in one fell swoop is a pretty big swing. I think that there's a balance to be struck here. I would make a motion to amend this proposal to 7 a.m. through 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 7 a.m. through midnight Sunday through Wednesday, and to put a 30-, 60-, and 90-day review on that.

[Zac Bears]: Are you guys already 1 a.m.? Yes. They're already 1 a.m.

[Kit Collins]: Oh, sorry. Uh, never mind. Your hours online were different. Maybe I didn't see it here. Um, in that case, I would support extending the two a.m. closure to Thursday through Saturday and leaving the other days the week as is.

[Zac Bears]: All right. So the motion is to amend to, uh, 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and 1 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday. Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I guess I could have said it that way. All right. Do we have any other comments from Councilors? All right. Yes, on Sundays, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, it would be 7 AM to 1 AM. And then on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, it would be 7 AM to 2 AM.

[3EjMDeUU8A8_SPEAKER_07]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_06]: What time do we close Monday? 11.

[Zac Bears]: So what are your current hours versus what's your license?

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, so our license is longer, but Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we usually close around at the latest 11 right now. OK. So.

[Zac Bears]: Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: Yeah, I was just a question for all. Do you think, I mean, do you think that the 2 a.m. to 1 a.m. difference from what Council Vice President Collins just suggested would make a very big difference for y'all? Like, do you think that that would be an acceptable compromise in your eyes?

[SPEAKER_06]: What was the question again, sir?

[Matt Leming]: Do you think that moving the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday hours from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m. would be an acceptable compromise in your eyes? Okay. Yeah, I don't like to hear residents coming in and talking about noise complaints that they didn't get a response to. I don't like to hear that. What I also don't like to hear about is a company putting a big investment into Medford in a place that we're really trying to do business development and then having it fail because the city council wasn't willing to be flexible and work with businesses. So this is, I think that this is a, this is a balancing act. Um, I want to see businesses that decide to invest in our community do well. And I want to do everything that we can within reason to support that effort, because it is very important for the future of the city. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We will go to

[Anna Callahan]: So I just have a frank question for you guys. Do you think that staying open until two, you would be able to be pretty successful if you were not having the loud music on the, you know, like if an event ended, you know, if like a music event or something ended at one, but then you stayed open until two o'clock, like, can it be quieter? I know that we can't like write that into the, the rules here we kind of binary but do you think that you'd be more successful if you know and would you basically sort of commit to making every effort to keep the noise down after one o'clock yes absolutely absolutely yeah yeah like no one's outside everything's off outside the lights are off so everyone's inside that would make me feel more comfortable um if like you're aware that That is an issue and making your best at like people can have as good a time as they want to indoors without the you know music layering and all that stuff. Thank you.

[Justin Tseng]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. Thank you. First of all, thank you for doing business in Medford. I think the Great American Beer Hall has brought a lot of change to our city, which is good. I think residents are really excited and really grateful for having it in Medford and for all the work that you guys are doing here. I think residents will be very excited about Nassau Donuts moving in and excited for more late night pizza, to be honest. Um, I uh I had a similar question to Councilor Collins, and I'm grateful for your answer. I guess my remaining question, this is, you know, as Councilor Leming said, it is a balancing act. We have to hear, you know, the residents who aren't happy and act on it. We also have to stand up for the residents who do wanna see this in Medford as well, but also to help businesses out. And I wanna know if this 1 a.m. change, you guys said it was adequate, How does that affect the competitiveness with neighboring communities? Is this a good enough of a step in the right direction?

[SPEAKER_06]: Well, going to 2am on the weekends will be a big help because we lose a lot of our crowd around 10pm 1030 to places like the burn on core the harp in Boston, and they come to us first they might order pizza and then they leave, because they want to stay out later, and those an incident recently where there's a wedding party and they are staying at the row hotel. And they called us to see if they could send two buses with the party guests after the wedding to the Bayer Hall. They called at 1130. And we told them, well, yeah, but right now we have a 1230 last call. So they ended up taking them elsewhere that 2am. So it definitely impacts us pretty, like significantly. Yeah, you could definitely pull like bigger parties and stuff like that. The other good thing is the nighttime people tend to come by way of Uber. There are still a lot of people that drive, but we have way less of a parking problem at night than we do during the day.

[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And is that something that you mostly see on Thursday, Friday, Saturdays?

[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, mostly Friday and Saturday, like Thursday nights. I mean, we get a good crowd, but they typically die off earlier. And part of the reason why is a lot of the younger crowd goes to the Baron in Somerville. Like we've gone there, we've seen it. So we're just trying to get some of that crowd to come to us because they're actually leaving to go there.

[Justin Tseng]: Right. So we don't want that.

[SPEAKER_06]: And they charge a cover there. We don't. So they're paying money to go elsewhere.

[Justin Tseng]: So thank you. Fair enough. Thank you for that answer for, you know, teaching a little bit about what you guys are seeing about on your side as well.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Councilor Tseng Councilor Callahan.

[Anna Callahan]: Thanks, just a little follow up. I'm hoping and kind of assuming that we're going to have a 30, 60, 90 day follow up to this change so we can check in with residents and make sure that it's working out. And then also wanted to say that you guys are going to have some stiff competition with Donuts with a Difference, which makes amazing donuts. So we'll see how, as a donut person, I'm excited to do a comparison. Awesome. Perfect.

[Zac Bears]: All right, do you have any more questions for the petitioner? Seeing none, we'll go to public participation. Is there anyone else who would like to speak on this issue, either in person or on Zoom? If you'd like to speak in person, you can come to the podium. If you'd like to speak on Zoom, you can raise your hand and we'll come back to you guys. Thanks, you can come to the podium. Hi, name and address for the record, and you'll have three minutes.

[SPEAKER_23]: Yeah, Carol O'Brien, 49 Hancock Street. method was that on behalf of myself, my family and the numerous residents who have generously signed the petition. Thank you. and we are writing to formally address the ongoing issues of loud music disturbances originated from events at the Great American Beer Hall, particularly on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, often lasts till 12 o'clock a.m. After long work days, many of us look forward to quiet evenings to rest, and unfortunately, beginning as early as 9 p.m., the music stops. It disrupts us, intrusive and deeply unsettling to the peaceful atmosphere our neighborhood has long enjoyed. During the initial community zoom meeting, when asked if music would be part of the great American events on Brian's author confirmed there would be live music yes there would be. However, he assured the community, you will not hear the music. and emphasize it be contained inside the venue with all doors and windows closed. What was not disclosed was the use of outside speakers, now I think there is eight of them, DJs and amplified sound that now frequently spills into the neighborhood. The community was led to believe there would be minimal, if any, disruption. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. Despite requests to turn speakers inward and reduce the volume, those concerns have gone unaddressed. The loud music, especially the deep basses from the DJ sets, has become a source of stress and frustration. Many residents have resorted to using earplugs, sound machines, raising their TV volumes, turning on their ACs, and even installing triple pane windows in an effort to reclaim some peace in their homes. While we understand the Great American Beer Hall operates as a business, our community should not have to suffer the consequences of accessible noise. We were here first. The Great American Beer Hall should make reasonable accommodation for the community, not the other way around. Therefore, we respectfully request that all outdoor music be shut down at 9 p.m. With any remaining performances moved indoors and fully, fully contained, so they are no longer audible to the surrounding neighborhood. Brian's after once said method is a loving community. We asked him in the great American beer hall to reflect that love by being considerate of the very community that welcome them. We had, there was an event, a private event that happened, and it lasted till one o'clock in the morning. And there was DJs, and by 1.30, quarter of two, there were groups of people walking down, and parking is another issue, walking down our streets, White Street, Hancock Street, Willis Ave, loud. One lady came across Hancock to Willis Ave, beeping the horn, beep, beep, beep, let off the alarm. The owner came out and said, you know, what are you doing a small children and woke up the neighborhood. The next day, I neighbor Joe was picking up solar cups, all over the trash that they, they left. I spoke to a lot of the, you know, a lot of the residents and they, they don't. hear how long the beer hall is open till it's the music that is just too loud. I mean, we look on the menu and say, Oh, this is to 12 o'clock I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna be able to sleep this you know I mean it's just too loud and especially with the vibration of the DJ with the bang bang bang bang bang you hear it. Some one resident said he has beats, and with the beats in his ears he can still hear the vibration, bang bang bang all the way, and it's the music, it's just too loud. We're 100 yards away from this Brea Hall. I wish that the Brea Hall was turned the other way with the, you know, the garden would be facing the highway. You know, but it's not, and it's just very, you know, it's too loud for us, and we want to live a nice quiet, you know, come home, and especially we want to relax, and you hear this, you know, and you just, it's very unsettling.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I spoke with our economic development director. And I think he had some thoughts on the on the music specifically. So I do see his hand. But before I go to him, is there anyone else who wants to speak on this? He was here or on zoom if anyone else would like to come to the podium and talk about this, their experience or, or raise your hand on zoom before I go to our economic development director.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, how you doing, Matt?

[Zac Bears]: Yeah, name and address for the record, please.

[SPEAKER_01]: Matthew Anders, White Street, 14 White Street. So yeah, so I've lived in the area for a couple of years now. I love the Medford transformation, what's happened downtown, the Irish bar, you know, the pizza restaurant, all that stuff. Very excited for the Great American Beer Hall. I actually go, I used to go quite a lot. I love the live music, had lots of pizzas there. I mean, there were a lot of people. So for me, it's like what happened was one night I was, I get very, like I need to have a sleep. I literally could hear the bass coming into my bedroom. I live on like the fourth floor in a brand new build with like insulation that's up to code. It's a very, very deep insulation. That's the bass. My career happens to be in audio visual. I fit out a lot of offices and we put a lot of acoustic panels into the places to actually absorb the sound. So I think one of the key issues is acoustic paneling in the place to absorb some noise, so the noise doesn't travel out. So obviously to do that, you mentioned earlier about these 30, 60, 90 days reviews. I would like to see what is the decimal rating if you're down the road and you actually take decimal ratings at certain times. Is that an acceptable rating? You have a state law that has certain ratings. This would not pass. So I think, like people have said here, the key is not the amount of time it's open to. If it's open till 2 AM and they fix the acoustic problem, everyone's going to be very, very happy and there's going to be no concerns. And you'll find that the neighbors will probably start going there. So right now it's fixing the sounds. I don't believe it's the outdoor speakers myself, because they're small sounds. It tends to be the louder bass noise. And it tends to be on the Fridays when we have the DJs, not so much when it's the live bands as well. So I think looking into that, having an understanding, having someone that attends with a professional audio visual background that can make recommendations before these hours are approved, I believe will actually help. And yeah, like I said, I'm happy to go back. If I start sleeping normally, I'll be their first customer back. So yeah. That's it.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you very much. Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak on this matter? Sure. Go to the podium, name and address for the record. You have three minutes.

[Micah Kesselman]: Sure, yeah. Micah Kesselman, 499 Main Street. I did not come here expecting to talk about this. But I do want to note that I am our representative on the Massport Logan relationship committee. And one of the things we deal with a lot is airplane noise complaints. And we do a lot of educational stuff on the deleterious effects of noise, of high noise levels on residents, especially at night. So if your establishment is getting like this amount of complaints about it, like this is a big deal and it actually has negative health outcomes potentially on the local residents. It is something to really take seriously, I think. I what I think might be a good compromise is if they would agree to sort of heightened fines if there is a noise complaint that is filed and the cops show up and actually assess that there is noise during this sort of trial period. so that they can basically put their money where their mouth is and that they actually are trying to address this issue that can actually have pretty negative health outcomes for people who are experiencing it and who are sensitive to it. So that's just sort of my thoughts on this. I am not super forward, like I have not heard, had issues with the noise, but I'm also like five blocks or more away from the beer hall, but it is nice to have a business like that there. So I would like to see it not, screw it up and make it viable, so.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. All right, I'm gonna go to our economic development director. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna go to the economic development director on Zoom. Sal, if you could just let us know what your thoughts are and if you could talk about some of the restrictions on live music that we talked about, or music in general.

[Sal Di Stefano]: Absolutely. Mr. President, can you hear me?

[Zac Bears]: Yes. Great. Thank you. But we can hear you.

[Sal Di Stefano]: Great. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. on behalf of Great American Beer Halls petition. What I do want to say is I hear everybody loud and clear about the need to be a good neighbor and to take measures to reduce noise. What I do have to say is that When I did receive a complaint recently regarding a live event, I immediately contacted John and Brian, and they took action immediately. They took responsibility. I saw an email that went out from their general manager to employees, and one of the things that they voluntarily agreed to was to stop outdoor music at 9 p.m. and to shut all the doors and including the big garage door that's at the building to keep the noise inside. Also, at our request, they did alert patrons via signage and verbally asking them to be respectful of neighbors as they exit the premises. Um, so they took those immediate actions. Um, I, I definitely understand where, uh, Councilor scar Polly is coming from, um, needing to see the proof. What I can do, what I can say is from every conversation I had, um, they have learned from their mistakes. They want to be a good neighbor. Um, and on the, for economic development, we want to be good to businesses. We want, meant for it to be known as a place that will support our small businesses and we also want to be competitive. It's not fair to our businesses if people could just cross the municipal lines and go to our neighboring communities and enjoy beverages later just because we aren't taking action. We're not modernizing our We lost you at modernizing. Sorry, could you hear me Councilor? Your service isn't great. We lost you after the word modernizing. So sorry, I'm in a bad patch driving my son home from a soccer game in West Roxbury. I apologize. Bottom line is that I hope we can find a compromise here and support this petition. And I thank everybody for their consideration.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thanks. All right. Go to Vice President Collins and then Councilor Leming. I have a few questions myself.

[Kit Collins]: Sure. Thank you. I just wanted to note that it sounds like at every step, Great American Beer Hall has tried to be responsive to specific suggestions and solutions that have been proposed to the business, and I do want to note that, and that gives me a feeling of optimism that if we kind of collaboratively reorient toward solutions that maybe, you know, I think the effort is there. What we need to do now is make sure that the You know, the noise amelioration is really we're using the strategies that work the best. I heard it's heartening to know that we have an actual AV engineer in the community I'm sure he's not the only one. Maybe a next step here is to take a look at what are the interventions that are really making a difference what are the ones that seem like they should make a difference but because of sound waves. They're not having the effect that they should. Um, I've been to, uh, many a, you know, brewery style event hall myself that is just incredibly loud because of how the walls are and how echoey it is. So it seems like there's, um, ground here that we haven't tread on yet that might be having a bigger effect, um, than what's already been tried. So maybe we can, I think if there's a strong commitment and review period that we can try the things that seem like they'll have a better success rate, maybe we can have the extended hours with decreased complaints at the same time.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, go to Councilor Leming then Councilor Callahan. Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: Yeah, this is definitely one of those things where I would take the review period, very seriously, but it does, it does sound like, you know, adding, adding more noise wouldn't necessarily help out the business, because that's not what people were asking for by what you told by the anecdote that you just said but extending the hours and doing something about the noise would overall help out both the businesses and the neighbors. So I do see this as kind of two different things, and I don't really see it that we need to, you know, I mean, punish a business for having some growing pains with the neighboring community, which does sound like it had a detrimental effect on Um, you know, I don't want to, um. Many of the neighbors. But if we can just, you know, be responsive to that sort of sort of work with them compromise. Um I don't I mean, City Council can drag its feet. So I think that if we were to wait another. Six months, um, to approve these hours, um, with, uh, Uh, and with the on business. So to me, in my mind, the best solution is to have the review period, have it very carefully see if the effects of the very loud noise are still there. And if the neighbors still notice it, but at the same time help out the businesses that are opening up nearby so that they don't all go over to the burn and we can start stealing business from Somerville. Hopefully, but no, I'd like to thank both you as well as the residents from the neighborhood for coming over and telling their story. And hopefully, you know, you'll be able to get the money for maybe a sound engineer to improve the acoustics of the place, like, you know, have some of those like foam panels on the side so that it doesn't quite go out into the community as much. But so thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Callahan.

[Anna Callahan]: Thank you. I hope that you hear that I certainly and many members of the councilors really want you to be successful and want to approve these hours. I think for me personally, I want to see improvements on the neighbor's experience before increasing the hours. I think that's just how I feel personally. So I don't think I'm gonna vote in favor of these hours right now. I am not a sound engineer, but I really took to the comments saying that, you know, maybe hiring somebody for some small consulting to really dig deep into how you can ameliorate those issues and working with the neighbors. And I would love to see you come back if this does not pass. And because I want you to be successful and

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, just one second. All right, we'll go back to you guys. If you wanna talk about maybe additional mitigation, you might be willing to consider around the sound. You know, I was in there with you guys when it was a shell, and then I was in there right after you had opened. And, you know, it's a big space. And I mean, we're really glad that it's been a successful business. But one thing I will say, I have noticed when I've been in there is it's a big space, and there's a lot of noise bouncing around. So it doesn't surprise me that we've had some of the noise, maybe, you know, that that building's maybe not capturing all of it. So I was wondering if maybe you could talk a little bit more about that. The garage door is our biggest issue. So when the garage door is shut, it's like night and day. You can't hear outside. When the door is open and we have the DJ or the band up back, it just flows down and it goes into the street. The key for us is getting that door closed at 9pm every night, which we were not doing. So it was a learning curve, something that we talked to with Sal, and we came back and said, hey, we got to get this door shut. And that's the only way that we're going to mitigate the noise going down the street. And how long have you been close to that? Like a week and a half. A week and a half.

[Unidentified]: Yeah, right.

[Zac Bears]: If you don't mind, I do and I normally wouldn't do this to just someone who spoke in public comment, but to our friend who is the sound person. Have you noticed a difference. Since the garage doors been closed. Last Friday. If you could come, could you come to the podium? Sorry, I gotta, if we're gonna say more than a thumbs up or a thumbs down, we gotta hear your name.

[SPEAKER_12]: I'm Joe shelves and I live on White Street and it's gotten better in the past week or two, the noise better. But you know, again, the noise continues, not only their hours, which is, I understand that we want their business to succeed. No question about that because I want my life to succeed also. So all the people that go there late, they come out of there, half in a bag, and they come out of there yelling and screaming with their mugs and cups and everything else, and they drop it on the street. Well, on my street, at the end of the street, which meets Willis, the trash was there for a week, and it's beer bottles, it's all kinds of crap. I have to pick it up. I like to keep my street clean, because I think that reflects the neighborhood. But you know, I walked around the neighborhood actually this past weekend, horrible. I've been there for almost 40 years. This is the worst. I couldn't believe what I saw in the streets. I'm not saying they're neat. I have to admit to that, because I don't see as much on their side. But I think it's the neighborhood in that area that it's gotten worse and worse. So I think something needs to be done about cleaning it up. I used to see trucks coming around once a month sweeping the streets. I don't see anybody. If I don't sweep my street, it sits there. Unfair, I'm a taxpayer, they pay taxes, and I don't know if you guys live in a neighborhood, so if you don't, you don't know what goes on there. I do, almost 40 years. It used to be beautiful, not now. Again, I want them to succeed. I respect them and I hope they respect me and they respect the neighborhood, but that's not the right way, all right?

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, I appreciate it. So it sounds like it might be somewhat better. But, you know, it's only been doing it, you've only had one, one DJ night since then, it sounds like so, you know, a lot of sample sites to go on here. You know, I had spoken with our economic development director, I think, if we put the condition of no outdoor music and closing the door at 9pm, 9pm, and also would recommend maybe a little bit of a different look, 30 days, 90 days and 180 days. So that would be October 9th, December 9th and March 9th. If we get the noise complaints, any noise complaints or code complaints. So to folks, if you're hearing noise or if you are seeing something in the neighborhood, send that to the code enforcement team. They will send that information to us. And then we would be able to review those complaints at each of those junctures. And if we have to go back to the 1 a.m. time, if we're seeing a significant impact, That would be a way that we could take in the complaints that residents in the neighborhood are sending if there continue to be issues. Maybe we come back and have another conversation at one of those points about additional sound stuff or some some changes that you guys have been thinking about and we can continue the conversation. But I think those would be conditions that we could we could see if this works. And if it doesn't work, we could talk about more solutions. Absolutely. Okay. Would someone just amend to include those conditions? Thank you, Councilor Sanders. So we have a motion by Vice President Collins to approve as amended to 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday to Saturday with the conditions of no outdoor music and closing the large door at 9 p.m. and then a 30 day, 90 day and 180 day review to request that the building department and code enforcement send complaints that they receive about this to the council so that we can, if we have to consider reverting back to the earlier hours. Councilor Scarpelli.

[George Scarpelli]: Because I just want to dispel some rumors or whatever was said a lot of people saying people leaving your establishment with alcohol that we know that doesn't happen I know that that's not your style, I know that you're very, so I think that we, you know, I know that this. If you could just elaborate a little bit that because I think people might be getting a little more concerned now that hold on one second, they're letting them leave without call. I know that doesn't happen. So if you can just help with that.

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, so we have security at night. And we have essentially the main entrance open and you can exit by the patio as well to leave. And we have security at both doors. So they're definitely not letting people walk outside with like liquor or anything. They won't even let you leave with like a water cup at night. So I don't know where all the trash is coming from. I will say this probably been sometimes people are walking to our establishment and they're like pre-gaming on the way there. And I think they tend to throw trash, knock them alive, but it's definitely not leaving our establishment going out.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thank you. And what do you guys do in regards to trash, like in the immediate vicinity of your, you know, if you see something on the sidewalk? Yeah, yeah, we have, we have someone there five days a week picking up trash in the morning at our site, so we keep it very clean, that's really important. Does that extend to like missing out maybe across the street? Yeah, I do the, I do 134, 151, and 142. Okay. All right. Do we have any more questions from members of the council? Or do we need the motion read back? Seeing none, on the motion by Vice President Collins to approve as amended with conditions, seconded by Councilor Leming, and again, this would be 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. They cannot have outdoor music and have to close the large door. They call it the garage door. I said it's a large door. at 9 PM, and then we're going to receive complaints in 30 days, 90 days, and 180 days, any complaints that are sent to our building department and code enforcement. And if we receive a significant number of complaints, we'll come back and review, pulling those later hours back. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan? No. Vice President Collins? Yes. Councilor Lazzaro? Yes. Councilor Leming? Councilor Scarpelli, Councilor Tseng, President Beyers.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, five in the affirmative, two in the negative, the motion passes. 25132, petition for a common mixtures license, Locolito. Do we have Locolito in person or on the line? All right, there he is. The great coffee shop mystery of Medford is here to tell us what his plans are. Alvaro, how you doing? Good, thanks. Good to see you. Good to see you. So when am I buying coffee at Localito?

[3EjMDeUU8A8_SPEAKER_07]: Hopefully soon.

[Zac Bears]: All right, tell us a little bit more about your application.

[3EjMDeUU8A8_SPEAKER_07]: Well, it's just we're trying to do a neighborhood coffee where you can get breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's the idea. So I would love to speak more, but it's basically that just a neighborhood where people can gather in and enjoy a good coffee.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Do we have any questions for the applicant, Councilor Scarpelli?

[George Scarpelli]: I don't know if my colleagues have any questions. I know 6 to 11 is the time and this is something that's needed and we appreciate your trust in moving here to the City of Medford. extending all these opportunities, so thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah, we're all excited. Somebody said on Reddit, they said, if you mention that they post on their social media, it'll be another month before they open, so.

[3EjMDeUU8A8_SPEAKER_07]: We got the coffee, the espresso machine today installed, so first of the rest of the equipment and pretty much.

[Zac Bears]: People are excited, it's almost fall, it's warm drink season, you know. Hopefully we can deliver. I'll stop badgering you, Councilor Tseng.

[Justin Tseng]: I just wanted to thank you for coming before the council today. We're so excited for this business. I think it's something that Medford Square is so missing. You've been such an amazing patron in Medford and in guiding our development as a city as well. You're really a team player. The caffeine addict in me is really excited for this. So I'm wishing you the best of luck.

[3EjMDeUU8A8_SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. Thank you. It's another piece of the puzzle, I think, in order to make Medford Square more of a destination, if you want to call it. That is definitely just another piece. And then eventually another piece. And then you can create that sort of ecosystem where you can create more of a life in the squares. Hopefully it happens.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah, slowly but surely. Putting the puzzle together.

[3EjMDeUU8A8_SPEAKER_07]: It is. Certain pieces can help one to the other. And then all of a sudden, everything blends. There you have it. So we just, it's good. It's good to be here. You know, it's a third business in the square and then, you know, we, we very excited. And then the community is really supporting the business, each of them. So hopefully this one won't be any difference and we'll see. We're very excited too. So now we're getting close.

[Zac Bears]: Get my money at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

[3EjMDeUU8A8_SPEAKER_07]: You can go right after and get a coffee. And after, yeah.

[Zac Bears]: All right, I'll go to Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: No, I'd just like to say I'm very, very excited as well to see a coffee shop opening up in Medford Square. I lived in South Medford for five years and my Oasis Cafe was my go to place. Now I live pretty near Medford Square, but I don't I don't have like an oasis cafe that I can just waltz over to in the morning. So are you going to serve pumpkin spice lattes? Yeah. In the fall? You are?

[3EjMDeUU8A8_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.

[Matt Leming]: Yeah. OK. What kinds of pastries? No, no, I'm kidding.

[3EjMDeUU8A8_SPEAKER_07]: I think you will. When it's open, you see them. It's going to be OK. Very good.

[Matt Leming]: Yeah. All right. All right. That sounds solid. Sounds solid. Thank you. Thank you very much for coming out tonight. Thanks.

[Zac Bears]: It's our duty to try to get every secret we can. All right. On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli, unless Sal, do you wanna? I'll recognize the economic development director.

[Sal Di Stefano]: Great, thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to say that Alvaro is a great member of our business community. I hope we can support his request. And I'm another one that was badgering him since my first day at work of when he was gonna open. So I'm very excited. And I think if anybody has looked at what he's done in his other businesses, They know that he's invested a lot in the community, does a very good job and excited to see him open. So thank you for your consideration.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilor Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: This is very lighthearted, but my husband said this morning, Welcome to the city of Tenoch. We have a Medford. I thought that was very charming. We're very excited in my household for this next endeavor. So thank you.

[SPEAKER_20]: Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Great. On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve, seconded by, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan, Vice President Collins, Councilor Lazzaro, Councilor Lennon, Councilor Scapelli, Councilor Tseng, President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, I have the affirmative, none the negative, the motion passes. Good luck. Thank you, I hope see you all in that place. I was at Tacuba on the first day, so.

[3EjMDeUU8A8_SPEAKER_07]: I know, it's going well, so thanks for supporting the businesses.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you very much, good luck. All right, 25-133, petition for a common ventures license, Inspire Cafe. Do we have Inspire Cafe with us, either in person or on Zoom? I'm not seeing them here in person, I'm not seeing a hand on Zoom. Councilor Scarpelli, have you had a chance to review this? I know this is for... Oh, George, I forgot to unmute you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[George Scarpelli]: No, thank you, Council President because I think that I see everything is in order. I know the Inspire Cafe as inspirational as it is important to our community and so many people visit the library just to visit our friends and inspire. So I would, I know they're not here right now, Council President, but I seldom approve anything without the petitioner here, but I would hate to hold anything back, something, somebody who's tied up for any reason, but because I see everything is in order, Mr. President, so I would move forward with this.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. I'll go to Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: I just like to point out that the the zoom is a little bit weird tonight. It's apparently requiring a passcode. So it's possible if the petitioner wanted to appear on zoom that they might not have been able to get in. So if if anybody wants to try to contact or reach out to the petitioner to see if that could be the issue that could be a could be worthwhile. Although that being said, I would cafe in the public library. That sounds fine to me. I would second the motion.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Yeah, and we did re send that out. I think the link that got posted to the events calendar by the communications department didn't have that on it. So that might be the issue. If you are hearing from people directly, you know, the link on the city council's meeting portal is functioning as normal. On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve, seconded by Councilor Leming. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro. Councilor Leming. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng. President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, none in the negative, the motion passes. 25.134, petition for a common victor's license for sidebar. Do we have? Yes, we do. Wonderful. We knew there was one outstanding thing. We heard it got addressed. Yes. So I'll recognize you to tell us a little bit more about your business and then we'll go to Councilor Scarpelli.

[SPEAKER_26]: I'm Jenny McPherson, sidebar 97 Locust Street, Medford. I am looking to open the concession stand at La Conte Ice Rink. I'm nervous now that I'm up here. I'm sorry. I am hoping to provide classy concessions. I'm very excited also for Localito, don't get me wrong, but I'm hoping that you will come and see me over at La Conte for a cup of coffee as well. Some of your typical popcorn, hot dog, pretzel for game nights, but I'm also looking to do some healthy grab and go options, breakfast sandwiches. and good coffee. I'm a hockey parent, and I would love to have a good cup of coffee while I'm at the rink. I've been working with Medford Rec. They've been amazing. Kevin Bailey has been amazing, and I'm looking forward to working with all the other organizations that use the facility as well.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Thank you so much. Councilor Scarpelli.

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. I know there was one hiccup, and I'm so happy to hear this morning that it was corrected. And I know in my full-time position, I know how important that that position that you hold is for the families in Medford. I think that a lot of times people are running from one area to the other, and probably their only mail sometimes is just that at the concession stand. And to hear that you're having some healthy, healthy choices is very important. So I know that some most ranks now just they've reverted to candy machines and pre-made sandwiches, which is pretty sad, but I appreciate you taking the opportunity and the challenge to work out of our rank and hopefully you'll see us there as well. So I would, I see everything is in order now, Mr. President, I move approval.

[Zac Bears]: Great, I will go to Councilor Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you for being here. The Miss McPherson had some issues with some of the paperwork, there was a communication breakdown. between city departments also. Um, and I just wanted to mention that one of the projects I think we as the city of Medford can continue to improve on is making it clear for people who are trying to open businesses what the smoothest way to get paperwork in order is and that We have an economic development director, Sal Giuseppino, who can help sort of walk people through stuff people don't necessarily know. where he is or how he can do that. Jenny happens to know me because our kids have been in school and after school together for years. So when something happened that she didn't know that her fire inspection was not passed because nobody told her and it wasn't passed because the rink didn't have a certificate of being allowed to exist, though it does exist. And the rink is Medford Rec and the rink is owned by DCR. These are all pieces of paper that should be easily accessible to everyone. I don't think, nobody's in trouble. It just, it was like the fire approval didn't happen because the paperwork wasn't where it was supposed to be. And then nobody told Jenny that she didn't pass the fire inspection. And then it, like when she came to get the paperwork, it was not there. And then she emailed me, but you shouldn't have to have, you shouldn't have to know me because our kids went to school together to be able to open a business in Medford and not lose money because you can't go to city council and get your paperwork together. So I just think that we can find a way to make it possible for people who are not connected to, not that you shouldn't be able to open this, this is great. This is excellent, I want this to happen. We should find a way to make sure that everybody who wants to open a business in Medford can do that with a streamlined process. And I look forward to, I've talked with Sal about this, I look forward to working with him and helping everybody be able to do this kind of thing in a smoother way, in a simpler way. We've had a lot of great businesses come before us tonight, and this is like a wonderful reflection of all the people that want to open businesses in Medford we want people to come into Medford with their businesses with their people's money that we then turn into services for our residents that we need more of. So I'm really excited for this. I'm excited for the people that are hockey parents, which I'm not one because I told my kids they can't play because there's too many pads and there wasn't any coffee before, but now maybe. So thank you so much again. I think that we will be able to improve the process for the future and I'm glad that we got it sorted out, but it can be better. Thank you, again, thanks for bearing with everything.

[Zac Bears]: Thanks. So I believe we have a motion to approve by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Leming. Seeing no further questions, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan. Vice President Collins. Councilor Lazzaro. Councilor Leming. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Tseng.

[Zac Bears]: President Bears. Yes, I have the affirmative, none the negative, the motion passes. Good luck.

[SPEAKER_26]: Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: And have a good hockey season.

[SPEAKER_26]: Thank you very much.

[Zac Bears]: I'm gonna go to Councilor Collins.

[Kit Collins]: President Bears, I would motion to suspend the rules to take 25-141 and 25-142 out of order.

[Zac Bears]: On the motion to take papers 25-141 and 25-142. Seconded by? Seconded. Seconded by Councilor Leming. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. One second here. Paper 25141, Medford Affordable Housing Trust Fund Appointment, Teda DeRosa. Dear Ms. President, members of Medford City Council, recommendation of the Medford Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board of Trustees, I respectfully request and recommend that your honorable body approve the following candidates to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Medford Affordable Housing Trust Funds. Sincerely, Mayor Brantling O'Kirk. Hi guys.

[SPEAKER_28]: Hi.

[Zac Bears]: So if you want to introduce and talk about why you want to be on the board and then we'll take a vote.

[SPEAKER_28]: Yeah, I'll just briefly introduce Teta. My name is Catherine Buckingham. I'm the housing planner. I'm excited to have Teta DeRosa here today, the mayor's appointee for the Affordable Housing Trust. As Teta can explain in more detail, she grew up in Medford. She cares deeply about affordable housing and equity, and I think she would make an excellent addition to our board. So Teta, if you'd like to speak more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, how are you? I'm Teta DeRosa. I grew up in Medford. My family's been here since the early 50s and graduated from Medford High. And so I'm back here for the long haul and I am a real estate agent and I've also been a recipient of affordable housing in my younger years. So I know the benefits of it. So I when I seen the post that there was a vacancy. I immediately applied, because I think with my experience as a real estate agent, and formerly working with a development company in Boston, where we did affordable housing, we were responsible for leasing up some affordable home ownership, as well as affordable rentals, I do have some experience in that area. So, you know, knowing that I could be part of, you know, Medford's growth in affordable housing, that'd be great.

[Zac Bears]: great. Thank you so much. Congratulations on being recommended for appointment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: I don't see any issues, but, you know, I'm just one of the seven. I'll go to Councilor Lazzaro and then Councilor Lemme.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I think it's so critical that we have somebody interested in serving on the board with lived experience. I think that's really important. So I would motion to approve and thank you so much for being willing to do this work for us.

[Zac Bears]: Great, on the motion approved by Councilor Lazzaro, seconded by? Seconded by Councilor Tseng. We'll go to Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: I'd just like to thank you for applying for this role and congratulate you on being recommended for appointment. Thank you for coming to a city council meeting. I remember when I was first appointed to a board here, I had to sit here until something like 1am.

[Zac Bears]: It was budget night.

[Matt Leming]: I remember. Yeah, I remember, I remember. And, you know, I had to sit there cause sat through the whole thing, but I'm glad that we can get y'all, you and the next appointment to the CPC out of the way pretty quickly. And just wish you luck on your service to the Affordable Housing Trust. And I look forward to working with you. Thank you. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Great. On the motion by, who did I say it was by? Council is our seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes.

[Matt Leming]: Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you for your service to our city. 25142, submitted by Mayor Brianna Lago-Kern, Medford Community Preservation Committee appointment, Myisha Majumder, dear President Ferris and members of the Medford City Council, I respectfully request to recommend that your honorable body confirm the appointment of Myisha Majumder of Medford to the Community Preservation Committee for a term to expire September 10th, 2026. Myisha will be present during the meeting. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Sincerely, Brianna Lago-Kern, Mayor. Myisha, I see you on Zoom, so I'll unmute you. Congratulations on your recommendation for appointment. If you want to tell us a little bit about why you want to serve on the CPC and then we will go from there.

[SPEAKER_27]: Sure. I've had the honor of serving on the CPC the last year. I've really enjoyed my time looking to stay on, getting in right under the wire with my term expiring tomorrow. So hopefully I'm approved. Happy answering your questions as well.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Do we have any questions? Is there a motion on the motion to approve by Councilor Callahan? Seconded by Councilor Tseng. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. Congratulations and thank you so much for your service to the city.

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Councilor Scarpelli.

[George Scarpelli]: I know that we have our leadership team from the police department. I'm trying to find the resolution that

[Zac Bears]: I think they're here on 25 140 capital stabilization and water and capital stabilization appropriation requests.

[George Scarpelli]: Can we hear that please if we if that's yes.

[Zac Bears]: The motion of Councilor Scarpelli to take 25 140 seconded by Councilor Tseng all those in favor. Opposed motion passes. It's a bit of my bare brain legal current capital stabilization fund water and sewer capital stabilization fund appropriation requests. Dear president bears and city councilors, I respectfully request and recommend that your honorable body approves the appropriations of one capital stabilization fund and the amount of $2,346,101 and zero cents on the following items DPW $357,287 for a four wheel drive dump truck and sender with plow. $300,000 for design development of the seven-acre lawn cemetery expansion, $200,000 for stump removal, $180,000 for removal of displaced grave soil, $154,592 for a fleet tow truck, $100,158 for a three-quarter ton pickup truck with lift gate, $94,055 for a dump truck, $60,000 for field refurbishment, and $32,000 for a leaf vacuum and leaf box for a dump truck. I'm going to pause the reading there. We'll take them in order. We'll do DPW facilities, fire, general, police, and then we'll come back to water and sewer. So let's start with the DPW.

[Tim McGivern]: Good evening, everybody. Tim McGiven. We have our fleet director here as well. Yep. And fleet superintendent, Michael Wenzel. So it's pretty straightforward. There's a lot of things on here. So, you know, we can probably just go to questions. A lot of this stuff is routine. Except for a few notable things. The seven acre lawn cemetery expansion that's a design development project basically to take that from a conceptual cost estimate to a design that we would then have to figure out a way to fund. So that's pretty interesting. Happy to take questions on that. And if folks want to see more, I have a presentation as well. But it's up to you folks on that. Stump removal, pretty, pretty basic. We're going to try to remove another 40 or 50 stumps. So that's pretty straightforward. The displaced grave soil. As you know, we did more than this last year in this This should be basically it. This will be enough to clear that lawn. I call it lawn 13 for development into burial space. And then I'll note the fleet tow truck too that Mike can talk more about. That's a tool that we believe we need for the city. And he can tell you more about that. The field reimbursement, we're looking at field two at Tufts Park. It's a softball field. We've done a lot of work on baseball fields. We've done some work on the outsides of softball fields, for example. Hickey got some improvements. So we want to try to refurbish one field. And let's see. Anyway, those are the notable things. Everything else is pretty routine. And we have Mike here for questions as well.

[Zac Bears]: Do we have any questions on the DPW items in front of us? Councilor Callahan.

[Anna Callahan]: I'm just curious, how many stump removals do we normally do, like within our budget per year?

[Tim McGivern]: Let's see, it depends. For this type, which includes sidewalk, for this amount of money, we'll probably get about 45, maybe 50 stumps. maybe a little bit less, depending on the market.

[Anna Callahan]: Sure. No, I understood that you said it was being 40 and 50. But like, yeah, when we normally not asking for capital funds, like within our normal budget, like how many do we normally?

[Tim McGivern]: However many trees we take down, because we take down the stump too. And then we do additional, I don't have the number. on hand, but I can tell you what it is later on.

[Anna Callahan]: Okay, but my follow up question is about when these stumps are removed, and these are, I assume sidewalk trees?

[Tim McGivern]: Correct.

[Anna Callahan]: Predominantly?

[Tim McGivern]: Correct.

[Anna Callahan]: Great. Will the tree pits be left open?

[Tim McGivern]: Some of them, yes, they will remain, or we'll put them back is a better way to put it. We have new standards now for tree pits, so if it doesn't fit our new standards, we won't put it back. It just doesn't make any sense, usually, and the reason that the tree is dead to begin with is usually because the tree pit was done wrong.

[Anna Callahan]: Great, but those tree pits are not gonna be filled over with cement as part of this?

[Tim McGivern]: They may very well be, so for example- If there's the two small ones. Correct, if we do not wanna put a tree there again in the future. we will either, it'll be concrete, asphalt, or brick, although I don't think we have any brick in this particular contract.

[Anna Callahan]: And if I may ask, these places where there were trees, where there is now a planned non-replacement of the tree, that stuff is all gonna be in the final, the big, I'm missing the term, the tree, not the inventory, but the tree master plan that we're developing?

[Tim McGivern]: Yes, so in a general sense for sure. I don't think it gets drills down to the specifics on recommendations for a specific site, but they're going to be recommendations on how we plant streets, you know spacing between trees different canopy types and sizes. species, all that. Right now we have mostly Norway maples, and they're on their way out. And it's kind of lopsided. So, you know, we can replace those with more appropriate canopy trees based off of that report.

[Anna Callahan]: Great, tiny follow up question. Do you know if the tree report and the master plan will include information about which tree pits are currently too small for us to replace those trees? Because it sounds like, am I correct that that's the size of the tree pit is what, like, if it's too small, that's probably why the tree is dead. And then let's not keep that tree pit.

[Unidentified]: Correct.

[Anna Callahan]: There will be information in that sort of master plan about which of our tree pits are too small?

[Tim McGivern]: Yes, I'm cautious to say how much detail but we have a full inventory now with lots of data and that data is included the tree pit size, whether or not it's in a bird strip or in a two by two hole, things like that. So, and also whether or not the roots are bulging out the diameter of the tree to approximate its age. species, obviously, all of these things were collected in the inventory. So it may not say it in the report specifically what to do about it, but it's used for data to generally guide the master plan for our canopy.

[Anna Callahan]: Thank you so much.

[Tim McGivern]: You're welcome.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. On that point, Are there alternative non-cement, non-concrete, non-asphalt uses that we could use a tree pit for? Like, could we put smaller shrub-like plantings or flowers or something that's not a tree?

[Tim McGivern]: Yes.

[Zac Bears]: Okay.

[Tim McGivern]: And that's going to be part of... this master plan for urban forestry because you only have so much space in your street scape. And one of the things we're trying to look at is what do smaller and different shaped canopies and trees look like and how do they fit together and how do their root systems interact? So that's all part of it. Great.

[Zac Bears]: Now, are we going to pave over the tree pits that no longer fit our sizing and then we'll go back in the future and break that again or what are we going to do?

[Tim McGivern]: That could happen, but that's not that big of a deal. Yeah. So if, say, for example, we have a tree that's getting paved over and now it's concrete sidewalk, if later on we decide that we're going to put a tree in that strip somewhere and we're going to cut a tree pit in, that's not a big deal. We'll just cut it in and we'll do it right this time, is what I'm getting at. So engineering is even I don't know exactly if we've implemented any, but working on tree pit details for projects. So as we move forward, we'll get better at it.

[Zac Bears]: Is there any kind of intermediate solution, like a small garden instead of just going to... Yes.

[SPEAKER_20]: Okay.

[Zac Bears]: Yes.

[Tim McGivern]: I think we're thinking about that. And I know that when our tree warden selects species to plant, it's not a mono-species situation she's selecting. And now we have actually information that will guide us in what species we're selecting, where we're planting them, and how we're planting them, and how they're spaced apart on the road. So that's all gonna be new. I mean, we're used to seeing, you know, 30 feet tree, 30 feet tree, but the future is gonna be different. We can't do it that way. It doesn't work.

[Zac Bears]: Okay. Great. I'm gonna go to Councilor Tseng. And then I have a couple more questions on the cemetery, but I'll come back to Councilor Tseng.

[Justin Tseng]: I'll help you be the transition to the cemetery. But before that, I think it would be my preference if for the tree pits that seem like they could be good candidates for like filling in the green space that we don't jump to filling them with concrete. I know it's not too difficult to go back, but I think for the heat island, if I can just for time and resources, I think, you know more about this than I do, but it'd be my gut instinct to say that. we think should be maybe more careful about which ones we put the patch in first. I know there's some residents who weren't super happy in Hillside about some of the tree pits that were filled in there. My question about the cemetery is that for this expansion project, do you have an estimate of how many more spaces we would get from this acreage?

[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, approximately, it was in the couple of hundreds, 250, 260 additional bots. So, you know, and the numbers we're talking about are, you know, another 10 years or so, maybe 15 years of burial space. So those are the numbers that we're using in discussions, but we're at the concept phase right now. So the, you know, some of the estimates are 300,000 to continue design. to get us to construction documents. And then it could be like, you know, a few million dollars, three, maybe more, three and a half, to actually develop it and build it out, depending on the scope of work and the size of the project. And, you know, efficiencies, maybe we do something with NBELP, for example. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Does that estimate, the 10 to 15, include both the removal of the soil, you know, the the giant pile of dirt that's next to the lots right now in the back of, and the expansion, or is that just the expansion into the current conservation land? So the 300k would just be the seven acre design. Okay. Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[Zac Bears]: I meant more your 10 to 15 year estimate of lengthening the service on the cemetery. That would just be the seven acre expansion. Got it. Do you have cemetery questions. Okay. Okay, let's stick with the cemetery and then we'll come to the leaf vacuum. It's just like 30 things on here. I don't want to jump in.

[Tim McGivern]: I also have a short presentation that I could plug in on my computer if you want. It shows the concept plan itself and some of the estimate information, generally speaking the area. It's up to you guys though, like I said, how much time you want to spend on it.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah, I have a couple questions and then maybe we can go to the discussion. I also see we have the president of M-BELT here. I don't know if just listening or planning to say something. Just listening, okay. I'm also on the M-BELT board. We've talked about this a little bit. I've talked with my fellow board members about it. I have some concerns about the expansion. I guess my main question is if we could just talk about kind of the big picture here. Right now, when are we thinking that Oak Grove is going to no longer be able to have new folks buried there, which four to five years is the estimate that we're using right now. All right. And that includes the if we remove that soil pile is that add some time.

[Tim McGivern]: That doesn't include that, but that's also not a huge lawn, but that will buy us some time.

[Zac Bears]: Okay. And then if we were to, and then kind of this project that we're talking about, and maybe if folks have more questions about it, I've reviewed it pretty extensively, so if folks want to look more into it. this would be, you know, when the Brooks Estate, when all of that conservation negotiation happened in the 90s, there's essentially some land currently used for like some storage of materials and the stumps, dumping of stumps, that's on what I think most folks going into there would consider Kind of on the Brooks estate side of the access drive, but it's cemetery land and has some cemetery use this would be expanding the cemetery into that land so be kind of changing that from more of like the forested more conservation use to more like the cemetery use on the other side of the access drive. Is that fair fair.

[Tim McGivern]: The only clarification I would make is that it's not conservation land. It is a separate parcel. Yeah, so the boundary is pretty clear. Yeah, and I'm glad and Doug is nodding his head that correcting me. And you know we're really kicking off, this would really be kicking off a design and I think we're taking the collaborative approach. We have a concept plan that was used really to create an estimate and to create an idea of massing the site and how much road is it, you know, how many lawns is it, things like that. And we do need a service area, we do need a maintenance yard because right now, We don't have one. And I think that negatively impacts the whole area. So I think figuring out the best way to do that on this operational land is part of this project as well. Yeah. And there are restrictions to this property. the buffers, the way that the stones can be laid. So it's, and you know, one of the things that we've already talked about with the M-Belt is trying to work with the natural landscape a little bit more and try to retain connectivity with the pedestrian hiking paths that are through the parcel, kind of respecting that piece of it. But, you know, it is something that is, is that I would say we should try to continue to move forward as a city, just because we have this four to five year timeline. And right now everything is just on paper. As far as this project goes, it's the phase of figuring out how to get $3.4 million and actually build this thing is a different discussion. But this phase of a project is when you really do the due diligence and iron out design and really understand what it means and how to move it forward.

[Zac Bears]: I appreciate that. Yeah, I think along those lines, you know, I have some I appreciate what you know the collaborative approach and trying to adjust the design I think that's really important, I think, maybe even going further down the road and figure out how we can align. You know some of the funding that and belt has received the works of state land trust has received for the access drive. I think maybe turning this into a more collaborative project overall for the whole area. might be the way to go down the road here. Because I personally, you know, the concept design and where we've been at so far, you know, I personally have some concerns, you know, as a Councilor, as someone who just uses the area, as a Berks estate board member about the concept. It sounds like we're already talking about making some changes as we move through the design phase. But I think there are some real questions to be raised about, you know, if we're extending the life of the cemetery not very long, but making permanent changes to, you know, some of the one of the largest, certainly the largest city-owned green space, you know, in the city. How do we balance that? And if we can do it in a way that really enhances that space and makes it more accessible, you know, for both the Brooks Estate Land Trust and for the cemetery, you know, maybe there's a maintenance, maybe we do the maintenance yard and shed and But we can do that in a way where, you know, that can help with the new access drive. Those kinds of things, I think, are considerations that I would want to take into account. And I guess, saying all that, my question is, you know, do you think that those considerations and those collaborative conversations are something we're going to be able to incorporate in the design process that will be funded through this appropriation?

[Tim McGivern]: Yes, I think as long as all the interests are met, as far as why, why we're doing the project and of course yeah, there's no buildings really involved with this project, it's a landscape project. So, you know, it's grading some pavement, some preserving large trees. it's doing it doing it the right way and I will say that those questions that you have are really good questions and you should be asking those questions and I think the way the best way to get the answer to those questions is to continue down the design process and the collaboration process with our neighbors and see if there are some efficiencies with you know joining projects and looking at it more holistically I get that I would just keep in mind you know the these things tend to get drawn out if you continue to do that and pile on. But I think this is a situation where we can define this project pretty well. It's the road, it's some improvements up at the site, maybe some improvements to the conservation land, clean up work or whatever, and making some operational space for us because I think that was identified as an operational need for the city back when this fight was had.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I appreciate that. And I think more just what I'm saying is since we're starting the conversation tonight, this is kind of the, the first, the first appropriation on the design. Like I want to have the full scope of the conversation in front of us. You know, who knows if I'll be, be around for those conversations here or not, but I, you know, I would have a very hard time voting for an appropriation of three or $4 million for something that looks a lot like the concept that came out. I'd have a much, I think, and I think a lot of folks have a much. you know, I think it would be a better project and a better proposal if we were able to incorporate more of multiple uses, not just that this is not just a cemetery expansion, but this is about what does that part of the city, that city-owned land, whether it's M-Belt or the cemetery land, look like for the long-term future? Because it's a really significant investment. And I think if we're saying, well, it's $3.5 million to keep the cemetery going for eight or 10 more years, that's an argument, but we have a lot of competing interests for city resources. Maybe that's not an argument that wins the day. If it's we're going to spend five or $6 million to keep the cemetery going and keep, you know, really enhance access to this, you know, 50 acres of open space for the next 200 years, you know, that's a different kind of benefit, I think. So just want to have that framing around it. Absolutely. Yeah.

[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, and I would just also say that there are other opportunities for collaboration with the Oak Grove Cemetery. I think it's an incredibly valuable asset that this city has. Yeah. There are rules associated with cemetery land. So we would have to, you know, maintain those rules, obviously, when it comes to access and hours and things like that. But I think, you know, those could be respected in a collaborative process. And there's work in the historic part that needs to happen if anybody has been up there recently, we're trying to get the roads fixed up there, which is another large project. And then, you know, we're looking at two buildings that are falling apart that are historic that we need to preserve. And I believe you know there's some public obligation there to do that. So, you know, it's a property that I'm trying to give as much attention as I can, because I know it hasn't received a ton of attention over over the decades. So, and this is a part of it, you know, and I know that agreement and that argument was had back in the 90s, and then it's kind of just sat on the shelf. And now we're kind of at hour 11, it's 1158 in the cemetery world. What are we doing folks? So anyway, that's how I see it. But like your points are good. And I think that discussion actually, and I'm a resident, that discussion should be had. It should be ironed out. So we know what we're doing with both of those properties and how to interact with them.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. And I think maybe if nothing else, although I think we actually agree on a lot between the, works of state in the cemetery. I think the fact that both of those areas have gone under addressed and underserved for a really long time is a point of unity. Um, and you know, I think also points us in the direction of a solution in my opinion. So thank you for having that conversation. Absolutely. All right. Leaf vacuum. Councilors are Oh, Yep.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. Um, Is the LEAP vacuum, how is it powered?

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: It's got a lawnmower engine on it.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Okay, and it's attached to the truck?

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: It's actually on its own individual trailer. And it has a tube on it, and when he sucked the leaves up, it mulches them and puts them into the second part of that, which is the box. The box for a dump truck. The leaf box gets mounted on the back of a pickup truck.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Where is it operated?

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: That particular one will be in the cemetery. In the cemetery. That's for the cemetery.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Only for use in the cemetery? Correct. Great. So we have an ordinance about leaf blowers and still, so the gas-powered leaf blowers are not allowed in residential areas in Medford and the gas-powered ones, the very loud ones. And just last week, I was in my own neighborhood half a block from my house driving home and I had to pull my car over and talk to a man who owns a landscaping company. and tell him that it was illegal, that he was using a gas-powered leaf blower. I just wanted to make sure we weren't gonna be having the city have, I think it's even in the ordinance that maybe that we can, but if this is inside the, just to be used inside the cemetery, I think it's fine. Those gas-powered sort of pieces of equipment can be very loud and chaotic.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: That's specifically allocated for the cemetery.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Got it. So just for cleaning up around those big spaces.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, for them to do leaf pickup on large piles, stuff like that. Got it. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Mike, are you going to talk about the fire pickup trucks or the police cruisers? Let's do that now, too, so we can get you out of here, too. Oh, OK. All right. We'll do the fire pickup trucks, $166,000 for two pickup trucks?

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: Yes.

[Zac Bears]: Great. We got the chief. We got you. What are we doing here?

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: We're purchasing two pickup trucks. One is actually replacing. a truck we just took out of service, the one that closed the boat, correct? Yeah, that was a 2001. Yeah, it's replacing a 2001 pickup truck that we just recently took out of service for repairs, that it's too far gone. And then the other one is going to be a command vehicle. It's going to be the backup to the command vehicle that's replacing a toddler.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Anything else you want to add, Chief Evans?

[Todd Evans]: Nope, Mike just pretty much hamming it out there.

[Zac Bears]: All right. Pretty simple. Great. And then maybe it looks like I think for police, we also only have the cruiser. So we'll take you guys. And if you want Mike to do the talking, that's your call, but.

[Barry Clemente]: Members of the council, good evening. Yeah, we would respectfully ask for 3-2026. police interceptor explorers, the hybrid engines. These would be used to replace some of the vehicles in our aging fleet. I emphasize aging. We have 2014 vehicles in our fleet right now with north of 140,000 miles on them. So I work with Mike every day. They do a great job. They keep us running basically. every day. We give them a lot of business, to say the least. But our plan is, right now, we have two patrol supervisor vehicles in the fleet, the 2018s. We'd like to replace them. And with the third one, we'd replace one of our 2014 vehicles. And over the years, we've had to decommission quite a few vehicles. I think we've done at least a half a dozen anyway. I think we lost five or six just in the past year. One got totaled, one got hit outside the police station and it was a total. And it hurts because that was a 2017 and with insurance and everything, we only got like $12,000. You can't do anything with $12,000. So we have some vehicles that definitely need a replacement and this will provide a big boost for the offices.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Do we have any questions on the fire and police vehicles from the council? Councilor Leming?

[Matt Leming]: So this is how much you're requesting three. If you had to give an estimate, how many would you say that you needed if you like had an ideal number? Like, do you think three would- I'd like to get more than three, but- How many more?

[Barry Clemente]: How many more? How many can you give me?

[Zac Bears]: Well, we can't give you any, but we just want to know.

[Barry Clemente]: I'd love to see four. One of the issues that we have, and I know that we talked before, and we hit the nail on the head with what we were talking about, and we learned. These vehicles aren't on the lot, so what happens is we have to order them, and that takes a long time. It really, really takes a long time.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: Especially since COVID.

[Barry Clemente]: Yeah, and it's just backlogged, and it's just... So we have to order these vehicles, and these vehicles themselves then have to be outfitted. It's not like buying a normal vehicle. We're talking about putting lights electronics, computers, decals, the blue lights, storage in the back, cages in the back. That takes a while. We had an order a couple of years ago. It took, I mean, we were giving the fire department a run, because I know it takes them a long time to get an engine. It took us over a year to get that cruiser on the road. We actually had to pull it from one of the places that we had it at and put it in a different location, because they couldn't fulfill the order. And this, this is something we have to be aware of, because we order these cars, let's say we order them tomorrow, we're not going to see them for a while. So in the meantime, we have this aging fleet getting older.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: And unfortunately, since COVID, all the, all the manufacturers, the vehicle manufacturers, they've changed the way they do things. I could call them up. tomorrow and say, order me three trucks. And they would show up in 10 to 12 weeks. Now the manufacturers require me, they have an order bank window. So I have to order everything I want in this two month time frame. And then the vehicles don't show up for like six, seven months. Then we have to send them to the upfitter, which usually takes two or three months more. So these particular vehicles, we will probably see those in May. uh, that's, that's a, that's a timeframe estimate to have them delivered May, June timeframe of next year, if they get approved tonight.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: So it just, unfortunately due to COVID, it just, it turned my world upside down.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: So, but they're, they're badly needed.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah, no, I mean, we hear you. The only thing I can do is give you less cruisers. Yeah, that's the only thing the council can do we can we can just cut, we can increase we can amend we can just cut or say no, or say yes. Hey, even then, right? So if we, I think having a conversation about getting on a schedule, especially given the scheduling concerns that are now an issue for you with the timeframe of ordering these things.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: I will say we've done pretty good the last couple of years with the mayor's office and everything. And it seems the way we're getting a schedule where we get X amount every single year and we can rotate the stock and it seems to be working out good right now.

[Zac Bears]: Great. That's helpful information I have too. All right, I'll go to Councilor Callahan, and then I got one more question for you, Mike. Councilor Callahan.

[Anna Callahan]: So I'm just curious. I note that we're replacing the fire truck from 2001. We're replacing the police cars from 2018. And one from 2014. Yes. I know I didn't own a car for 20 years, and then I bought a 20-year-old car. That was six years ago, and my car this summer, finally, 26-year-old car, finally died. So I bought a 15-year-old car. But I'm curious about, like, is this a thing that we will see, like, that the trucks are going to be, you know, 25 years before we replace them, but the cars are going to be seven years, the police cars are going to be seven years? Like, just looking at that sort of differential between, like, the age of the vehicles, clearly there are different kinds of vehicles.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: So what I try to do is I kind of have a master plan. Believe it or not, with the police and fire admin cars, I tried to do 10 years. The DPW vehicles, the average expected life is 15 years. Takes a lot of work to make them last that long, but we do our best. With the police vehicles, my estimate is seven to eight years. And by that time, they've They cost more to repair than they're worth. So those are the timelines that I use. Unfortunately, I've only been in this position six or seven years, and we're just getting this ramped up now. In the past, hold on to vehicles for 20, 25 years and, you know, duct tape and bubble gum just to get them to plow, you know? So, um, and that's where like that 2001 comes in. It was the top of the fleet and it got moved down and down and down. And then eventually it rendered useless.

[Anna Callahan]: So I guess I'm just, I'm just looking ahead thinking, are we going to need like the age of the fire trucks, are they all like way, and I know we've been through this before, but we're gonna need to be spending on fire trucks more because those are so much older.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: As the years goes on, we're gonna be needing to spend money, yes. So when it reaches a certain age, then we begin to stop the process of replacing it.

[Barry Clemente]: Those police cruises, a lot of them are going 24-7. Around the clock. Yeah, those things don't shut off. They're not shutting off, so their life expectancy's not as much, unfortunately.

[Todd Evans]: And when you're talking about the fire trucks themselves, those are now like five-year wait times. The fire trucks are now, it's about a year going through the process of speccing out the truck. And then four years from the date of signing the contract. So it's tough to actually start preparing for planning the new fire trucks because of these long wait times now that are going on.

[Zac Bears]: And we've done two or three engines and a ladder in the last five years. Does that sound about right?

[Todd Evans]: We just recently replaced our engine four because that one just happened to be on a lot somewhere that we were actually able to acquire because of a different department that couldn't fit in their station. So we were able to make that truck work luckily, and we grabbed that one right away. But we ordered a couple engines back in 23. we were told that those are gonna arrive here at the end of this year. And we were recently told that now those are gonna be bumped up to lucky October or November of next year, they told us now, so.

[Zac Bears]: Do we have any other questions on the vehicles in this appropriation? Mike, I just have one question for you. How are you guys doing down there in fleet staff wise with the volume of work that you guys have to do?

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: Staff wise, we're struggling. Yeah. We're getting by just for obviously I'm very shorthanded. Try and do the best we can with what we got. And I'm just waiting for applicants to be honest. But I got two guys down there and they're busting their butt. They're getting it done. So we're going into winter now. So it'll be a little bit more hectic, but getting the sand and all the snow equipment ready.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. When you say waiting for applicants, you got some open positions or I have two open positions right now.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: Yes. All right. So, but unfortunately it's, uh, I'm not getting any applicants. And it's kind of on the top of my radar.

[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, it's on the top of my radar, you know, and been in discussions with my boss's chief of staff and trying to figure out what to do and situation so backup plans. We're in a tough spot just because of the market for jobs with mechanics. So folks, you know, want to be a mechanic. in Medford Public Works, here's my plea, please come and apply. So anyway, it's a great place to work. We need mechanics, we are starting a program with the Vogue to get some young mechanics in there, but that's tough when we don't even have enough mentors to do that. And we're running around trying to service all these vehicles. So it's a tough spot. But we'll pull through and we're coming up with every idea we can come up with. When you say the market, you mean the compensation.

[Zac Bears]: Say again? When you say the market, you mean the compensation or? That's part of it.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: That's part of it. But the other part of it is, is everybody's looking for mechanics. So everybody's, I mean, I spoke to a friend of mine that is, is the shop manager for a dealership. I asked him, when are you paying the guys? And he said, whatever they want. So, I mean, it's just everybody, the entire industry is struggling for mechanics.

[Tim McGivern]: Yeah.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: So, okay.

[Tim McGivern]: But it's a good, solid job, and I encourage folks who are interested to reach out. Yeah. If nothing else, to help out Mike here.

[Zac Bears]: Absolutely.

[sVx7vl5ZjhU_SPEAKER_07]: Yes, yes, yes. My guy's keeping us afloat, and I really appreciate how hard they work.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. We really appreciate your team, too. I just wanted to... I can sense that you're working a little harder than you, you know, maybe a little overwork.

[Todd Evans]: Yeah, I can see it. It also adds to the cost of, you know, these guys are able to handle things in house. Right. No, and I know things and it's adding to cost. I have to send them out to other places now.

[Tim McGivern]: Yeah. I can't see all your fingernails from here, but I think I'm allowed to go into other departments and get mechanics. So any takers?

[Zac Bears]: All right.

[Barry Clemente]: Mike and his team do a great job. They keep the fire alive and they keep us alive too.

[Zac Bears]: I know.

[Barry Clemente]: And it's a daily thing. They've been amazing.

[Zac Bears]: I know how hard they work and, you know, Mike's usually, usually level-headed, but I could tell tonight he's been maybe a little overworked. All right. Thanks you guys. We're going to go to facilities and then we'll come to Owen for water sewer. Do we have Paul Riggi on Zoom for the facilities items? I see him, I just asked him to unmute. Hey, Paul, how you doing?

[Paul Righi]: I'm good, how are you, President Bears?

[Zac Bears]: Good, I'll read the items. I'll read the items real quick. We had 340,000 for ADA compliant renovations for two bathrooms on the first floor of City Hall, 79,200 for design work at the Hegner Center, 32,000 for fire department paving projects, and 30,000 for the replacement of the hot water heater at the police station.

[Paul Righi]: That is correct. Well, as all the councillors are aware, City Hall does not have any fully ADA compliant bathrooms. So this is to bring the men's and women's room on the first floor, which are currently the indicated as the staff only bathrooms up to be fully ADA compliant. My plan is that over the next several years we can renovate every bathroom at City Hall and by doing that we can make every bathroom fully ADA compliant. But we really do need ADA compliant bathrooms at City Hall and this project would complete that. The paving at the fire stations has been something in law long coming engine for driveway on the side of the building to the back of the building where most of the firefighters park has been in disrepair for several years, so I'm. working with the DPW to use their vendor to pave that area so it's not a hazard for our firefighters. The other part of that piece is at headquarters. There is a side parking area that was never paved This causes damage to the fire vehicles. So by paving this, we can have a safe place for fire vehicles to be able to park and to end the damage to those vehicles. The Heckner Center will be used as the city's resiliency center. We have a grant for that, but the grant did not include funding for the architectural development of that site. I've been working with the Board of Health and Department of Recreation to come up with a concept. Our architects team has that, and this is the cost to put those designs to paper for us. The police station, unfortunately, the hot water system for the showers in the men's and locker rooms has basically not worked since the building opened. There was work done during year one to get that system back up and running. It did, but sporadically. And since I've been here, the system probably has been down more than it's up. This would replace the system with a much more sensical system that would provide hot water in the showers for the police officers when they need it.

[Marie Izzo]: I think I hit everything, did I?

[Zac Bears]: Yep. Thank you, Paul. Do we have any questions on that from members of the council? All right. Seeing none, the only other item in the general capital stabilization fund was $16,500 for updates to the capital improvement plan. The chief of staff did tell me she wasn't going to be able to be here tonight to talk about that. Yeah. So we'll go to the Water Sewer Capital Stabilization. We have City Engineer Wartella here. We have $175,000 for additional costs relating to a sewer line rehab project and $60,000 for a sewer survey project related to inflow and infiltration. Owen, what's up with this?

[Owen Wartella]: We have been actively doing large sewer projects this year. We found some contaminated soils. We need to take care of it. So there are some overages there. And there are some other overages with we're doing extra lining and stuff like that. And then the $60,000 for the sewer survey is trying to keep up with all the new development that is occurring in our city. This sewer survey will get us ahead so that these developers can do I&I that's required for their projects. So instead of us doing that work, the developers are doing this work for us as required part of their development. And so they'll be doing probably close to a half a million gallons of mitigation in sewer inflow over the next couple of years, which the first step is to have a sewer survey.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Do we have any questions? Councilor Callahan?

[Anna Callahan]: Thanks. I would just love a super quick update on our, you know, 300 million year old sewer and water lines, if you can give in a minute or less.

[Owen Wartella]: This city's sewer and water is probably one of the oldest in the state, other than Boston. It is extremely old. It's over 100 years old. It was made with brick and clay and cast iron, and it's Because of its age, it's deteriorating pretty quickly. It's definitely well past its end of life. And we are trying to make sure that we stay ahead of it. And we've upped our sewer maintenance programs for the past couple years. We've been doing a lot more. And this project that we just finished, Sewer lining project basically lines the pipe and keeps the sewer in and the groundwater out.

[Anna Callahan]: Just a little bit of Like, where are we on our ability to be able to make all these repairs? Like, we're still in the planning phase, right, of how we're going to make all these repairs?

[Owen Wartella]: No, we've got plans. Basically, we've gotten some studies where we have many sewer areas. And those areas we're targeting. And we've gone pretty much about halfway through that. But with the sewer survey, we're trying to let the developers do a lot of this work. uh, so that we can focus on other like water is basically lead lines is what we're focusing on right now. Okay, thanks. But I'm trying to do both at once. Yeah.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah, I think just the where Councilor Callahan is getting is we have tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to work on the water and sewer system. Yes. You know, there's big backlog.

[Owen Wartella]: There is a large backlog. We are still actively trying to tackle it. If you wanna add anything to this?

[Zac Bears]: I know it's an oversimplification, but let's say when you started making the plans to fix it, the backlog was 100%. Have we made it 10% of the way through it yet? No, no.

[Tim McGivern]: Okay, I'm 1%. I would say, maybe take one step back and look at it just a little bit differently. I think we're at these things are so long term, we're really still in the planning phase, really, and what that has to do is the rate that we are all paying for water. Because it's my opinion, I don't have really the math to back this up, but I think we could do the math and it would back it up, that we've been underrating ourselves for many decades when we should have been paying into our system, investing into our system. I don't think we've been doing that. And we're not alone. So we've been just letting it rot away and getting by with paying the minimum. But now, you know, now it's turning back on us because the leak rate is going up, the break rate is going up, the water quality rate is going down, and the population is going up. So we're just kind of at that point where we need to look at the rates and say, okay, are we gonna get, you know, $3 million bigger this year or $4 million bigger this year? So we've done that work, you know, and that's where The rates came from last year. It's where they're going to come from next year after that. And it ties directly into our capital plan that Owen works on. And that basically is a reflection of both that rate work and the physicality of the system, the rates, the pressures and the breaks, the water quality attributes, all of that. So you merge those two together, and you're in a situation where last year we didn't make a dent, but we're planning to make bigger dense and bigger dance as the years go by, and that's the pace we should really be at, because when we talk about it's failing it's deteriorating. Sure, we're getting like. a handful more of massive breaks per year. But we're talking on the scale of decades here. So that's why it's hard to even report out what percentage dent we're making in the work that we need to do. Hopefully that makes sense. We could keep throwing money at it all day and all year and still not be there. But if we do little increments at a time, by 2030, we'll be on the path to success.

[Zac Bears]: Got it. And to Owen's point, so you're making one point, Tim, which is that the rates were too low for too long. It's basically paying the minimum on your credit card. You're not actually addressing the issue. And it's built up over time.

[Tim McGivern]: Correct.

[Zac Bears]: But Owen also made the point that one of the main ways that we're trying to address it right now is like when new development comes in, getting them to make significant investments. Yes. So, you know, There's essentially two things we increase in the water rates, or, you know, when we're trying to bring this new growth and that's a main way that we're addressing this problem as well.

[Tim McGivern]: I guess so. But his point is in the realm of that's work that we already have to do. We're already obligated to do it. We've been working on it for decades, the II work. And then these projects means that we're going to meet those goals quicker. But that's not really going to affect the backlog of infrastructure work that we need to do. That's a different category, I guess is a good way to put it.

[Owen Wartella]: Sure. We still have old pipes, so we're still going to have to take care of the old infrastructure, but we have other means where we can have developers do it as well.

[Zac Bears]: So you're saying that, for example, when we see a large project, we're making the developers replace the infrastructure?

[Tim McGivern]: To what we can, and this particular rule says that if you add over 15,000 gallons of water to the system per day, then you have to give four times that of mitigation. So you seal that many leaks to make up four times 15,000 gallons. So you're at 60. That's a lot of leak patching. And that's what he's talking about. But we have to do that anyway. That's work that we're already doing and already obligated to do. It doesn't really make a dent on the backlog of work.

[Zac Bears]: But point being that if there were no new developments, then the ratepayers are paying for it entirely because we have to do it anyway.

[Tim McGivern]: Entirely, yes.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah.

[Owen Wartella]: All right. So over the, I'm thinking of like the top four large projects have about 600,000 gallons worth of mitigation they need to do. That's a lot, a lot, a lot.

[Tim McGivern]: And that will help improve our sewer rate because we pay for that water. It gets metered and we pay for it. So if we reduce that number, then that's good for everybody.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[Tim McGivern]: Thanks, you guys.

[Zac Bears]: Any further questions on this? Do we have a motion on the appropriation paper on the motion approved by Council, let me second by second by Councilman Lazzaro. All those in favor. Sorry actually, Mr. Clerk please call the roll. Thank you very much. Thanks.

[Marie Izzo]: Hold on.

[Zac Bears]: Is there anyone who wants to talk about this.

[Anna Callahan]: I just had a question about the capital improvement plan update. Do we know?

[Zac Bears]: We do not have, sorry, go ahead. There's no one here to talk about it.

[Anna Callahan]: There's no one here to talk about it, but still, do we know if that's like paying a consultant? Is that like, what is, we don't know what that's for?

[Zac Bears]: I'm not sure what it's for. Last time they did the capital improvement plan, it was Collins Center. So I would guess it's probably Collins Center to update it. Okay. But I didn't get that information.

[Unidentified]: Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: All right, not seeing anyone else on this paper. So Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan, Vice President Collins, Councilor Lazzaro, Councilor Leming, Councilor Scapelli, Councilor Tseng, President Boos.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, 70 affirmative, 90 negative, the motion passes. Thanks, you guys. I told folks that we'd do an executive session at 8.30, it's 9.15. Could somebody move to take that so we can move into executive session? On the motion of Councilor Tseng, seconded by Councilor Lazzaro, I'll take paper 25.144, and then I'll read it, and then we'll have to take a vote to go into executive session. So this is just on the motion to take it off the table. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. All right, paper 25144 litigation settlement request for executive session votes may be taken dear President Bears and members of the city council. I respectfully request and recommend your honorable body and enter Executive Session pursuant to General Law Chapter 30A Section 21A.3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation concerning the matter of Teamsters Local 25 and the City of Medford, AAA No. 01-24-007-8702. I also recommend that the Council's agenda state in the Executive Session Notice that votes may be taken. Attorney Steven Johnson from KP Law will be present to provide the council with guidance on this matter. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Sincerely, Brian Oliver and Mayor. I'm going to create a breakout room and we're going to go into room 207. Kevin, you're welcome to join us if you want. Give me one second there. And then we'll come back into open session to finish the rest of the agenda. On the motion to enter executive session by Councilor Lazzaro, seconded by Vice President Collins. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan, Vice President Collins, Councilor Lazzaro, Councilor Leming, Councilor Scapelli, Councilor Tseng, President Villescaz.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, seven in the affirmative, none in the negative. We're going into executive session. We'll return to open session. On the motion to reconvene an open session by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by. Seconded by Council Vice President Collins. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. All right, reverting to the regular order of business. We have 25103 offered by Vice President Collins, proposed amendments to the zoning ordinance, other corridors, districts. This was tabled from the August 5th meeting at the request of the Community Development Board. We still do not have an agreement between myself and the mayor to announce on the zoning project. So I would recommend that we table this until we know if we're gonna update the city's 60 year old broken zoning. Vice President Collins.

[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears that says a lot of what I was going to say, just for history state for clarity. This is on the agenda because it was tabled to the state. The last time I was on the agenda, and the circumstances surrounding the zoning project are largely the same, the zoning consultant the contract with the zoning consultant ended at the end of the previous fiscal year. We don't have a new one. In addition, I understand the CDB is working to fill a lot of spaces on the CDB right now so that they can resume meeting hold holding their public meetings and working through their queue of proposals which includes zoning and other things besides. I am eagerly awaiting an update from the mayor's office on when we can expect to see a renewed contract with the zoning consultant so that we can not only continue our zoning review which many Medford residents have invested hours and hours and hours of time into not to mention a lot of money over many years has gone into this, but that we can actually expand it more resources more communication more information and more opportunities for people to participate. So, with my motion to table, I hope that we can take it off the table within the next month or two.

[Zac Bears]: Motion of Vice President Collins to table, seconded by?

[Unidentified]: Second.

[Zac Bears]: Seconded by Councilor Lazzaro, all those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. 25.124, the Tree Committee Ordinance. Solicitor Foley has asked that we give a little more time for review on this. So is there a motion on the floor? On the motion to table by Councilor Callahan, seconded by? Seconded. Seconded by Councilor Leming, all those in favor? opposed motion passes 25-135 offered by Vice President Collins be a result or whereas the Fair Act would protect workers in Massachusetts. from harmful effects of proliferating AI by prohibiting employers from relying exclusively on AI decision-making systems to make employment-related decisions, by restricting the surveillance of workers and the collection, use, and sharing of surveillance data, by shoring up worker autonomy protections and protecting workers from reprisal for refusing or questioning the directives of AI-generated instructions. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Medford City Council expresses support of H-77 and S-35, an act fostering artificial intelligence responsibility, also known as the FAIR Act, We have further resolved the city clerk forward a copy of this resolution to the Medford legislative delegation, as well as to the chairs of the joint committee on advanced information technology, the internet and cyber security vice president Collins.

[Kit Collins]: Thank you, President Bears. I think the text kind of says it all I learned about this bill and because it has been endorsed by the AFL CIO, and there's significant union organizing going on in support of it this year. Just to be perfectly clear, though, I think it's pretty clear from the text of the resolution itself, my advocacy for this bill and I think that our collective advocacy for this bill, it is not about advocating for AI in the workplace, it is meant to shore up protections and backstops for workers, including workers in our community, people who live here, people who just come here to work. in a scenario where AI proliferating in the workplace that's already happening and it would be naive to think it's not going to continue to happen more in the future. If workers are going to be forced to deal with AI and indeed to see AI take over more of their daily life at work, I think we should at least be advocating that it be mandatory that humans are not taken out of those workflows entirely. In addition, there are already many documented harms to people in many contexts, including a work context, for the type of surveillance that AI technologies can do. I think that threatens the role of the worker in the workplace. I also think that's like a very, very real documented, clear and present threat to people and workers from a civil liberties and just basic safety standpoint. So this is, I think, just a really common sense piece of Massachusetts legislation that is aimed just at protecting the existing role of workers at their jobs and making sure that new technologies, when they're introduced, they augment the worker, they don't replace the worker, they don't make the worker any less safe. So I hope that my fellow councillors will join with me in sending a clear signal to our state delegation that their constituents want to see them standing up for a scenario in which AI maybe complements our lives and does not threaten them. Thank you. Motion for approval.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: I'd like to thank my colleague for bringing this forward. So I'm a, I'm an AI researcher. I agree with this. I mean, AI is one of those, uh, it's kind of a weird area where it will have, and is currently having a lot of, um, good potential effects, also a lot of harms within the economy. It's a very powerful new, I'd say, range of technologies. But essentially what happens with the private sector is that somebody jumps on an LLM, which is a very generally useful tool, and then they try to sort of exploit it to see how they could cut workers out or save on human resources and things like that. Usually the effect of doing that just ends up being not really that great. I think that one thing that the unions that are endorsing the FAIR Act are saying, for instance, is AI is having a hugely detrimental effect just in hiring these days, where you basically will have AI algorithms that are trying to look at and automatically parse through resumes. And then you also have people that sort of know how to leverage this technology, submitting their resumes, using some form of automation to as many companies as possible. And essentially what happens is workers just, instead of making an honest resume that shows their experiences. They just learn how to sort of like phrase things correctly or write their resume in such a way that it'll be picked up by a certain LLM. And when you have people that are submitting thousands upon thousands of resumes to thousands upon thousands of job openings, automatically it becomes impossible for HR people to actually look through them all one by one. And so the whole hiring market already has been really damaged by AI in some sectors. So that's just one instance of where it's being massively misused. And then some other employers also like to put out ghost listings, where they just try to collect as many resumes as possible to train their own AI modules without actually ever hiring anybody. So that's another trend that companies are doing. And it's having a very strange effect on the economy. So just to give folks a little bit more context into some of the thinking behind this act, but once again, I'm a glad that folks are my colleague is bringing it forward and bring some attention to this bill, and I support it. Thank you.

[Justin Tseng]: Thank you, Councilor say, I'll be really brief because I think Council let me get give a really good and thorough explanation of why this bill is important. But I just wanted to say, in talking to union leaders across the state, they had one message, and I thought that they put it really well. AI can be a useful tool, but it shouldn't be a replacement. And when it comes to things that are so important to the worker, so important to people's rights, and so important to general functioning of society, We need to be careful about how we use these technologies. Not that not to say that we should know should be completely closed off, but we need to be cautious with how we approach these things. And so I'm grateful for Vice President Collins for introducing this resolution so we can show our support for this really important bill that will affect Medford workers as well.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. On the motion of Councilor Collins to approve, seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Tseng. Is there any further discussion members of the Council? Any discussion members of the public? I thought there might be. Name and address for the record, please. You'll have three minutes.

[Micah Kesselman]: Sure. Yeah. My name is Micah Kesselman. I live at 499 Main Street. I will do a rare thing and preface this by saying that I am an attorney, I'm a lawyer. I am and director of IP at my current company. But before that, I was IP counsel focused on our AI businesses for one of the largest medtech company, medtech multinationals in the world. Before that, I worked at an AMLO 100 firm for a number of years specializing in, in ML-enabled technology, IP, and generally high-tech and advanced software law. And I say that just without having to go into a bunch of technical reasons, lend my support to passing this resolution. There are a lot of great uses for AI or for ML-enabled technologies. I, the hiring process in particular and I think if you talk to any employment attorney actually, they will say that. use AI in your hiring process. There are a litany of cases that have been settled by large employers who've used models that were not vetted sufficiently or with any degree of competency that have settled out of court for large sums of money because they were negligent or discriminatory. In practice, this is an ongoing issue with AI. So I do support this resolution. I also think this is a good opportunity to bring up though that I do, I would like to see the council, and I believe many of our residents would like to see the council sort of start tackling some of these forward looking issues related to the advanced technology that's starting to roll out at a faster and faster pace. You know, one of the technology centers that I worked in a lot of work on. was both drone automation technology, as well as IoT, or so-called Internet of Things tech. And then for a darker period, blockchain and DLT stuff, which is terrible, but that's not relevant. But for those other things, these are technologies that are becoming increasingly important to municipal infrastructures and they need to be accounted for when generating and drafting ordinances and putting into practice plans for infrastructure in ways that we can actually support a digital infrastructure throughout our entire community. A number of years ago, Verizon came in and there is a long process related to permitting them to install 5G towers. Our council at that time completely dropped the ball on getting anything back from them, unfortunately. However, That's water under the bridge, but looking forward, I do hope that this council will really take seriously any and every opportunity, however minute, to really look at ways that we can actually control how digital infrastructure is rolled out within our city, because it will happen regardless. Seeing the technology firsthand, I know it's gonna happen. So it's something we need to like really be proactive on. Thanks. Thanks, Micah.

[Zac Bears]: Seeing no further comments, no further hands on Zoom, on the motion, all those in favor. motion passes 25 1, 3, 6, offer by Councilor Leming. Whereas Medford's current inclusionary zoning as defined under chapter 94 section 94.8.1.6 states that at least a certain percent of new units have to be affordable as defined under Mass General Law and are tiered as follows. 10 to 24 lots or units, 10% affordable units, 25 to 49 lots or units, 13% affordable units, 50 or more lots or units, 15% affordable units, and whereas Medford's current policy under 94.18 dictates that if the percentage were not a whole number, it needs to be rounded up, and whereas this creates huge incentives to build the discrete intervals, for instance, strongly incentivizing nine-unit properties but not 10, or strongly incentivizing 20-unit properties but not 21, and whereas other communities such as Watertown and Somerville have incentive plans that allow for fractional payments to the Affordable Housing Trust in lieu of affordable units. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City of Benford update its incentive structures to allow fractional payments. Be it further resolved that this paper be referred to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board for specific recommendations on how to update the above-referenced policies. Be it further resolved that this paper be referred to the Administration and Finance Committee for further discussion. Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: Thank you. I think that the text of this resolution really speaks for itself, but this is something that the planning department has long recognized is, and I'd say a flaw in Medford's current zoning codes and it's one that they think could be addressed sort of in a vacuum without needing to without it substantially affecting a whole lot of other parts of the code and I think it would also be a good it would also be good to get the affordable housing trust to offer feedback for to the city council if we are to update our fractional incentive policies so that they so that it could be a mechanism to actually fund the affordable housing trust but essentially essentially what this does is if you look at medford's current very simple inclusionary zoning that's it as it says in the text of the resolution they sort of have they have a policy where developers from a bird's eye view to simplify it, developers can build up to nine units market rate, but then the 10th unit has to be an affordable one. There's that like that 10th is a 10%. And what this does is it means that Medford has a lot of nine unit properties because suddenly adding on the 10th one would just be a massive Josh Triplett And so basically this and so essentially what this would do is it is instead of having these sort of discrete. intervals where suddenly between nine and 10, you suddenly get this jump from 0% affordable to 10% affordable, and then this sudden jump at the 24 to 25 number, it would sort of have it would you could actually change the policy so that you could make it so that instead of having these intervals you could actually like have the developer pay for part of an affordable unit in lieu of actually making in lieu of actually building a unit that is required to be affordable as it's defined under the state. So this would basically make it so that Medford doesn't have like so many 24 or so many nine unit properties and developers wouldn't have that weird discretized incentive and also be another mechanism to fund the Affordable Housing Trust. But I figured that it would be best left up to the policy wonks that are sitting on the AHT. in order to recommend the specifics of what this policy is because that can vary from town to town. So the recommendation for this is to send out a request to the AHT asking them to develop a recommendation for how to change this policy that could then be considered in the administration and finance committee where I would also motion to refer this paper to. Councilor Callahan.

[Anna Callahan]: Thanks. It's a tiny discrepancy. I wanted to make sure, um, in this third, whereas you say strongly incentivizing 20 unit properties, but not 21, I assume you mean 24 unit and not 25. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Um, if you want to go over it again, Councilor Leming, but I think this should go to planning and permitting, not to administration and finance, but go ahead.

[Matt Leming]: Yeah, my logic for that was that planning and permitting seemed to be pretty busy. But no, I'd accept that, that's fine. Got some time. Got some time available. Yeah, so motion to, I'll go ahead and amend it in motion to refer to the planning and permitting committee instead.

[Zac Bears]: On the motion of council, I'm going to refer to the planning and permitting committee seconded by. Seconded by Councilor Callahan. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. Communications from the Mayor. 24153 submitted by Mayor Brandon Lungo-Koehn. Approval of funding for lot apartment claim over 2,500. Judith Dean for $3,448.36. I'll go to Solicitor Foley. Welcome.

[SPEAKER_20]: Members of the City Council. My name is Kevin Foley. I'm the City Solicitor.

[Zac Bears]: This is the City Solicitor of the City of Medford.

[SPEAKER_20]: So here tonight, seeking approval for a claim over $2,500. And this is a claim that has been around for a while. It was here long before my time here and was recently brought to my attention by the claimant who has been nothing but polite and persistent. The city, from what I understand in reviewing the file on this, took responsibility for this claim. It has to do with a sewer backup into her home. I listened with interest to city engineer Owen Witella to talk about the water and sewer system. So this is an area where the sewer system failed, backed up into this claimant's home. And all she is seeking is her actual out-of-pocket costs. And I think it was promised to her some time ago that it was going to be brought before this council. And for whatever reason, for reasons that I don't know, it didn't happen. So I'm bringing it forward now on behalf of the mayor and ask for your approval.

[Zac Bears]: Great. I'll go to Councilor Collins and Councilor Scarapelli. Vice President Collins.

[Kit Collins]: Thank you for being with us tonight. I gotta say, I feel for the resident that this happened to. And applaud her for her persistence. It seems only fair that we try to expedite her being made whole at this juncture. I'd motion to approve.

[Zac Bears]: On the motion of Vice President Collins to approve, seconded by Councilor Callahan. Councilor Scarpellilli.

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President. Thanks Kevin for bringing this forward because this has been so frustrating. This has been going on so long, and I know that this resident endured some health. And this was approved through KP Law, and then it went through the main office where they didn't know who was doing what, and then it faded away. And I know that there's someone in your office that works her tail off, that tried everything she could to make sure this resident was taken care of. But I appreciate bringing this forward and finally getting it resolved. This is a long time coming. So again, thank you very much.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. On the motion of Vice President Collins. Seconded by Councilor Callahan. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callahan. Vice President Collins. Yes. Councilor Lazzaro. Yes. Councilor Lemmie. Councilor Scapelli. Yes. Councilor Tseng. Yes. Thank you very much.

[Zac Bears]: We'll see you next meeting. I don't think so. Stick it out, stick it out.

[SPEAKER_20]: Well, I thought that, are you taking any action on, because I was looking for a little bit more time on the Human Rights Commission. Is that being brought up tonight?

[Zac Bears]: No, not yet. So we'll have a little more time.

[SPEAKER_20]: I'm in the infancy of looking at that, but I will look at it.

[Zac Bears]: Great.

[SPEAKER_20]: Thank you very much for having me.

[Zac Bears]: I think we'll be out of here quickly. 24.5145 submitted by Mayor Brianna Lago-Kern. Request for a food truck permit. Request for a food truck permit for chicken and rice guys, September 25th, 2025. Councilor Collins, Councilor Scarpelli, please stop shouting over me. Said Councilor Collins, Councilor Scarpelli, please stop shouting over me. Dear President Beyers and members of the City Council, on behalf of the below entity, I respectfully submit to the Medford City Council the following request for a food truck permit in the city of Medford. In addition to council approval then there's a required to adhere to health department food and safety requirements business name chicken and rice guys, September 27 2025 12pm to 4pm cotton shell event mystic river celebration, and I'm reading it to read this part. Spend the afternoon at the Condon Shell at Medford's Biggest Arts Festival. Watch live performances, browse local artisan crafts, get to know local businesses and organizations, eat food, and take part in any number of fun activities for all ages, including a knuckle bones play area for kids. I don't know what that means, so you should go to the Mystic River Celebration to find it out. You want to? All right, Councilor Scarpelli.

[George Scarpelli]: Knuckle Bones is a for-profit recreation program that comes out and provides games and activities for residents. So. Amazing.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah, that's great. Enjoy. For the kids. Mystic River Celebration, September 27, 2025, noon to 4pm. Sincerely, Breanna Lungo-Koehnmayer. On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli to approve, seconded by Vice President Collins. All those in favor? Opposed motion passes public participation, Sharon DSO had to go, she's requested that we table this is there a motion to table the motion table by Councilor Scarpelli seconded by seconded by Councilor Lazzaro all those in favor. Opposed motion passes is there a motion on the floor on the motion to adjourn. Okay, yes. All right. Polar participation. Is there anyone else would like to speak on any topic for three minutes. We got one person name and address for the record. You have three minutes.

[Micah Kesselman]: I was going on zoom. It's you. Michael Kasselman, 499 Main Street. So the reason I came here tonight is I, something's brought to my attention this morning. I am sure many of you have already heard about it. So the New England Baptist Church, a group that has been a sort of scourge on one of the primary transit ways in our city for a while has come up with this new Fickhock nonsense. They have a giant sign that says everything I ever needed to learn about Islam I learned in five minutes on 9-11-2001. wildly beyond the pale. There not only is this just straight up offensive, I would argue that it is not actually protected speech. I think this tows the line well into incitement. Regardless, I don't think that there's anything that you can really do as a council, because that would be an enforcement action on the mayor's office. And I don't have expectations of her to do anything about that. What I would like to see though, is I do think that this council can look into putting together a referral packet to send to the IRS to perform an audit of their 501c3 taxes exempt status. They are a tax exempt organization. However, they can lose that status for doing things like committing using inciting language or things that, or making public statements that are generally against the public safety and good. It is a lot looser than the actual rules for a finding of incitement. This is really egregious though. Like I can't say how, I can't understand how egregious this is because there is a mosque less than 300 feet down the street It's a Bangladeshi mosque, but I don't think that they understand the differences anyway. But anyway, this is crazy. And I think a very good rule of thumb is whether or not this is an incitement of violence or begins to get into that line is if you are a measure if you are a mother in a hijab walking your child to the mosque and you walk by this sign, would this put you in a reasonable apprehension of fear for your personal safety and the safety of your child? I think it very much would. This is ridiculous. And there needs to be something done about it. Like I said, you can't force them to take it down. I recognize that. But I do think that going after the tax exempt status is something absolutely worth doing by this council and something that can be done by this council relatively easily too. So that's my public comment.

[Zac Bears]: You aced it. And I just want to say that, yeah, I think the messaging is horrific. It's certainly not the first instance of awful, hateful speech that we've seen on that message board. And residents have persistently stood up to say that it doesn't represent our community. But I understand your position. And I'm going to go quickly to Councilor Leming and then Vice President Collins. Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: Just a question. If you Do you know of any other precedent or specific instances of churches having their 513C status revoked for stuff like this? I remember the Westboro Baptist Church was in the news for a couple of years for doing stuff like this, but I never really looked into whether they got in trouble with the IRS.

[Micah Kesselman]: I so I did not preface this statement with I am a lawyer, because this is way outside of my practice area. I don't do most of that or tax law. So I don't have any sort of idea. I mean, I certainly know that organizations for people speech have been have lost their taxes and status like this. It's, you know, speak. incitement, specifically incitement, but also just generally stuff that like is in the vicinity of incitement is given as an example by the IRS itself as reasons to actually drop a tax exempt status for an organization. So clearly it's happened before, because it's used as like a specific example. But yeah, as far as like the case law around it, like that's not something that I know a lot about. But I will say that at the end of the day, There's a difference between a group of random arbitrary concerned residents putting together a referral, because anyone can refer anyone to the IRS for an audit. Arguably, I could go do it myself. But having it come from a municipality does give it additional weight. And then the IRS makes the ultimate determination. So it's not something that like, they're not like spending lawyers on or anything. They're spending money on lawyers or anything.

[Matt Leming]: I don't, I don't, I don't know why, why they do that. I mean, they have prime real estate and they put up out a number of inflammatory messages. They went to the pride fest, like the Medford's some, some Medford pride events and literally had a fellow out there with a megaphone shouting things across the street. It's sad. There's like a, when I went to college, there's this guy, I remember UNC Chapel Hill, he was called a pit preacher, and he just, this guy just used to come in the middle of campus and just say the most horrific things to college students. And it was just something that he just did all the time. He would quote the Bible while he was doing it. I think he did it to get people's attention, to get a rise out of them, to try to, you know, get attention. I don't know if that's the strategy, if that's what this church is going for. I think it is not a It's something that makes residents feel scared, and I wish they would stop doing it. But this does fall under. But yeah, that's all I'll say. It doesn't make me happy.

[Zac Bears]: Sorry, Micah. I'm going to go to Vice President Collins. Vice President Collins.

[Kit Collins]: Thank you. Just really quickly, I just wanted to say thank you for raising this like to the community and also to the council. I think it's true, even if this church has completely lost credibility with everybody who isn't a congregant, it is still important for the community and the city to loudly step up and say, wow, like, no, absolutely not. They've been pulling this stuff for years. This is probably the worst example of hate speech that I've seen from them or anywhere in Medford. But still, I think that we should do we can do what we can to condemn it because we should just, we should just always do that. So thank you again for putting this on our radar and be happy to work with you further to put something on a future city council agenda.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. We're just gonna we're gonna take it. I'm sorry, Micah. Thank you. I got to respect the rules of this. All right. Thank you for bringing that up. I think we're going to hear more about it. I am also hopeful that we will see some of the surrounding businesses and residents. You know, we saw the last time a few months ago when they had a sign, Modern Pastry, put up a sign right next to it, directly opposing it. That is another way to use speech to counteract speech like this. So there's a lot of different approaches that we could take. Is there a motion on the floor? Is there anyone else like to speak? Public participation either in person or on Zoom. All right, seeing none, is there a motion on the floor? On the motion adjourned by Vice President Collins, seconded by Councilor Lazzaro. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion passes and the meeting is adjourned.

Zac Bears total time: 56.42 minutes total words: 4389	Emily Lazzaro total time: 10.04 minutes total words: 692	Kit Collins total time: 7.37 minutes total words: 678	George Scarpelli total time: 7.15 minutes total words: 458
Matt Leming total time: 14.32 minutes total words: 896	Anna Callahan total time: 5.34 minutes total words: 512	Justin Tseng total time: 3.72 minutes total words: 357