AI-generated transcript of City Council Committee of the Whole 03-24-26

[Unidentified]: Test, test.

[Zac Bears]: Medford City Council, Committee of the Whole, March 24th, 2026 is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan. Councilor Leming. Present. Councilor Mullain. Present. Councilor Scarpelli.

[Zac Bears]: He may be present. Is that you, George?

[Rich Eliseo]: It is. OK. Councilor Tseng. Present. Vice President Lazzaro. Present. And President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: present, seven present, none absent. The meeting is called to order. Action and discussion items 26-061 offered by President Bears. Annual budget process for fiscal year 27, city council recommendations to the mayor. Be it resolved by the Medford city council that based on the budget ordinance and discussions with the administration, the city council and city administration will follow the following budget schedule for the fiscal year 2027 city budget. That's a typo. By March 11th, 2026, city councilors submit individual budget recommendations for consideration and committee of the whole. Tuesday, March 24th, 2026 at 6 p.m. City council committee of the whole meeting to discuss council budget recommendations. 7 p.m. regular meeting to submit collective recommendation to the mayor. April 8th, 2025 at 6 p.m. joint meeting of the city council and school committee to receive a financial update and discuss the fiscal 27 budget process. From April 15th to May 15th, city council will hold preliminary budget meetings with department heads. And by Friday, May 31st, the mayor will submit the comprehensive budget proposal to the city council. and there's a draft schedule for preliminary budget meetings on April 15th, April 21st, April 28th, April 29th, May 5th, May 6th, and May 12th. We likely will not use, there might be one more date on there, and May 13th. We likely will not use all of those dates, but they are available and we'll kind of try to schedule with the departments and hopefully whittle that down a little bit. I know that councilors submitted a number of recommendations. So I want to go around and let people talk about what they recommended. Councilor Scarpelli has sent something as well. It didn't make it into the packet. So I can read that or recognize him during the go around and then we should talk about our collective recommendations, and I kind of have collated some of it. I'm gonna go over what we recommended last year, what ended up getting funded and what didn't, and then we can make amendments to our recommendations. I think some of them, at least in my mind, are continuing from last year. So with that, I will recognize members of the council. Whoever wants to go first. Council Vice President Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I'll go first. I'll break the seal. I have only a few recommendations for this year myself. I'm eager to see what is brought forward by each of the departments this year will have. meetings with each of the department heads like we did last year. Hopefully not all at the end. But the things that I wanted to bring forward were a few things that were mostly holdovers from last year that didn't get funded. I learned just today that one of the items that I brought forward in my priority is likely unnecessary because they are already in process interviewing or at least in the process of collecting resumes, I need to verify exactly where they are in the process, but collecting resumes for the traffic engineer position, which has been open for quite a while, a couple years, and that was very exciting to hear about, but that was one of my priorities. I wanted to verify that it's, always going to be a priority for me to fully fund the Medford Public Schools to the fullest extent that each of their department heads within Medford Public Schools has requested. That's always something that is a very high priority and as we continue our ongoing conversations we had a very long and very important Medford Comprehensive High School Building Committee meeting last night where we whittled down the choices of the designs, the preliminary designs from 29 to, I think it got down to like six or seven, I don't know, it was 11 o'clock. But long meeting talking about that last night. But as we discuss the possibilities for the new high school that will be getting built down the line in the next few years, we not lose sight of making sure that we're fully funding our school budgets and paying close attention to the operating, sustaining the highest level of educational funding that we can and making sure that we're taking care of the kids that are in school right now. And I wanted to make sure also that we took another look at the part-time librarians at the beautiful Medford Public Library. Last year we did not do the increase in their hourly wage per the request of the library board. And I think we should look at that again. It's not a large budget item but we require that those employees have a master's degree and I think we pay them something like $19 an hour and something really really low. And I think they should have they should be paid an amount of money commensurate with their experience and their education. and the work that they're doing and how important it is. And it also, it's important to retain good people at the library so they don't get drawn away to other libraries and surrounding communities. So those are my priorities. There are some other things in other departments that I think are also critically important, but I didn't happen to highlight them. But my colleagues have highlighted them. I think those are also important and I appreciate that we've brought all these issues forward and I look forward to supporting many of those as well. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you Vice President Lazzaro. Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: Thank you, Council President Bears. So, some of my budget items are pretty simple. I submitted four main ones. The first is funding for a dive team for the Medford Fire Department. Councilor Tseng and I met with some members of local 1032, and I understand that there is bit of a disagreement on the necessity for this between the between the union and the chief but the most I do it's my understanding that most folks still feel that a dive team and training for a dive team is very necessary within the within the fire department so I would like to advocate that that be that be fully Funded, um, I imagine that some of the initial equipment would be a free cash allocation instead of a continuing budget item, but. Some budget for continued year to year trainings would be appropriate. Um, additional positions within the clerk's office, so the clerk's office is fairly understaffed right now. We have, um, we are. uh, this, uh, this council is interviewing, uh, candidates. I'm not really involved in that process, but I, I am aware that we need to, um, have additional positions in order to not only do not only handle the day to day workloads in the clerk's office, but also, to handle some of the longer term projects like the very large backlog of uncodified ordinances, particularly since we don't exactly have the support of a city solicitor at this point to help out with that. The two remaining ones have to do with additional planning positions within the Office of Planning, Development and Sustainability, as well as engineering. One of them sort of echoes what Council Vice President Lazzaro brought up about the need for an additional traffic engineer. I understand there are additional engineering positions that have been open. for a long time and even if we do manage to hire one of those then turnover and retention is always an issue so I would like some input from both Owen and Tim on this one but I would like to float the idea of taking a lot of these sort of forever open positions that we continue to budget for every year and consolidating them into a smaller number of positions with higher pay so that we can attract and retain more candidates and not have ourselves be continually understaffed and budgeting for positions that we either can't hire for or can't keep candidates for in the first place. And the, I think that this last one, I'm not quite going in order but the need for an additional traffic or transportation planner in the Office of Planning Development and Sustainability. Or if that would be if that could also if some of these could be handled by the traffic engineers being hired, but the bicycle advisory commission did reach out to me a few a few weeks ago about just getting support for. Implementing the, uh, bicycle infrastructure master plan, and they do, I believe they do need extra staff positions to sort of help see that through advise them. Um, and so on, and we do need extra. We also do need extra, um, additional expertise within focused on traffic and, um. transportation especially as we go through this rezoning process because obviously parking and traffic in general is a pretty substantial pretty substantial discussion item moving forward. That's all I got. Thank you very much for listening.

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

[Anna Callahan]: Thank you. I have three things on my list. None of them will be a surprise. The first one is about home sharing. Really the things on my list are all things that if we can manage to put a little bit in our budget, it will save the city money. So this is why I put them on. I think that they are really important in a cash strapped city like ours. So home sharing is one really with just a part time of a single staff member, we can do the research to get this program up and running. And that will touch so many benefits for a very, very small amount of money. The second one is about properly funding our urban tree management plan. And then the third one, which is very similar, but it is just making sure to remove obstacles and fund the small amounts of money necessary to allow volunteers to plant trees, which will save the city a lot of money and allow us to make efforts to maintain our tree canopy. that we have and to re-green some of the most barren streets in the city of Medford. I do want to point out a couple of other things that I didn't make it into my memo. One is just the... The assessing department was in Councilor Tsengs that we need to have someone, the funding in the assessing department to be able to properly estimate our residential exemption. We have had two years now that the vote comes up in December as it is supposed to come up and we're told that we're not allowed to vote yes. And that is not an acceptable situation for our city. We need to be able to make a vote on it, whether we approve or disapprove. but I think there are enough councilors interested in it that we need to take that seriously. So that needs to be funded. And then the other one is that there, I believe it is in the charter that the city council gets a legislative aid. It used to be, I don't know, called the City Messenger, that position has not been filled now for a year and a half. And I don't actually know whether it is currently in the budget for that position to be filled, but that position should be funded. It's in the charter, it needs to be in the budget. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Callahan. Councilor Scarpelli?

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Council President Bez. I appreciate everybody's hard work and input. I think that some of the low hanging fruit that we talked about that I read in the packet, I think that Important initiatives, I think the method family network, I know that my colleagues have put that forward and we know that they're losing some vital funding and making sure that the method family network is is fully funded is is 1 of my 1 of the initiatives that I'll piggyback with my colleagues. Another 1. That that I really is focusing on as we talked about the waste that we've seen, especially with the mayor's use of KP law is making sure that we're funding our city solicitor's office. And if it's to the point where we're not. We're not attracting candidates because we aren't. Bringing that level of pay to what's what's enticing. I think that we should really entertain that because when we talk about wasted money, there's a lot that we're seeing that we're not being able to control out of our own city building and outsourcing and if not outsourcing. just easily settling on lawsuits because we don't have representation. Then the other piece is the piece that this council truly can't work fully in complying it because we don't have the avenue to a city solicitor as needed in most every community in the Commonwealth. The other to piggyback for what we talked about, I think that my ask in the assessor's office not only goes in hand in hand with Council saying has put forth, but also Councilor Kallion just reiterated, but also the fact that I know that. I've been in discussions and looking into the process of making sure that we have that the office fully staffed and that we have avenues in place as we move forward with the new high school. Last night's meeting was very interesting, is very important. I'm very excited. I think that we're in the right, we're on the right path. I know that school committee member chair Jenny Graham is doing a great job moving things along. and getting the information out. But we also know that the unknown will hit many families, especially our most vulnerable. So I want to make sure that we have that office funded so we can find avenues to support our most vulnerable members of our community, especially as we move forward to a debt exclusion for a high school that we definitely need. And the third initiative that I'll put forward is something that we talked about last year, and we will talk about it later on. In the city council in our city council meeting of a resolution and is really funding and looking to fund the inclusionary specialist and that position was asked for a year ago and we really haven't gotten. much information back from administration and residents have asked because as our residents our special needs residents that are aged out of the high school program find themselves with truly no support within the city for housing or job placement or as was put by one parent just having a place where they can connect with the City of Medford and the City of Medford connect them. So our special needs community feels like they're part of our community. So I think those are my initiatives and I appreciate your time, Mr. President. And again, I apologize for getting that out today. I really thought I sent that out last week while I was away with my daughter, and I apologize for missing last week to all my friends out there. Family does come first, and my daughter was playing in a tournament for her college team, and my wife and I went out to support her. So, and again, today I'm off with the Massachusetts Conference of Recreation, Parks and Recreation, so that's why I'm not there personally again, so I apologize for that. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli, and we'll be sure to include your recommendations. You know, basically, I'll try to come up with a collective recommendation, but also we'll include every Councilor's individual recommendations in our communication to the Mayor and her administration. Thank you. You got it. We'll go to Councilor Millane and then Councilor Tseng. Councilor Millane.

[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. So I basically, when I was looking at this, tried to put it in three different types of categories. And for me, this is a lot of what I heard when I was speaking with constituents, when I was reviewing some of the past budgets and when some of the different departments had for some of their fiscal year goals. So the first area is obviously looking at the city's infrastructure and providing any kind of funding support for increased funding for our roads and sidewalks and pothole repair and improving signage and crosswalks, as well as trying to provide extra support, especially as we've had these huge snowstorms that came through and being able to provide more funding to DPW around addressing some of the snow removal and plowing needs. I was also looking at increasing some of our city services and I know some of my other fellow Councilors have mentioned some of these areas as well, but certainly the library I think serves as such a great hub. So much outreach, community outreach happens there as well and being able to provide them the support they need both for librarian salaries as well as providing some of the additional support for the great outreach that they're doing as well. I'm looking for more continued investments for our arts and culture programming, looking at the Affordable Housing Trust and any other ways that we can look at providing funding and support around affordable housing solutions in Medford, more outreach efforts and supports for our seniors, and really looking at additional type of budgetary support around mental health services and providing additional trained staff and clinicians in there. And the last piece of it, probably one of the most important, is the support of our children and families. So certainly meeting what the school committee needs for the Medford Public Schools and echoing some of my other Councilors as well around addressing any of the funding gaps for the Medford Family Network. So again, I think some of these echo a lot of the areas that my other fellow Councilors have mentioned, and I look forward to continued conversations around the potential of pushing some of these funding priorities forward. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Malauulu. Councilor Tseng.

[Justin Tseng]: Thank you. As usual, my memo is quite lengthy, but I like to take this moment to reflect on what we've been asking as a city council and what residents have been asking city council and city government to do over the last calendar, over the last 365 days. When I think of this moment, I think it's important to note that our city does face a lot of challenges. I think councilors have alluded to it today. For a long time, this city council has talked about underfunding of city services that's gone back decades, underinvestment in the city. But we've also, as a city, made huge strides forward in terms of making record investments in schools and in public works. And it's time to keep that momentum up. We know that there are more challenges facing us now than before. There are federal cuts, there are tariffs, there's a war abroad that our taxpayer dollars are going up to. And so it's important for us to be really clear about our asks for city government to make investments like Councilor Callahan noted that will reap great dividends for the city. And so the first kind of bucket that I've been thinking about this question in is, how do we make our city government work better? And so I've talked to residents about establishing a grant writer or a grant manager position. This is something that goes back years and is an ask I make of the city every year. Within certain departments, that capacity has opened up, but we could do so much more if we write more grants, if we get more money into City Hall. Related to that, I think we should start thinking about building modern capacity inside City Hall. Things like better data tracking, better online services, stronger project management so we can actually move major projects forward more efficiently. And that's not necessarily a full ask for this year, but it's something, it's a direction I think we should be heading and it's a conversation I think this council and the office across the hall from us should be having. And that ties into the need that Councilor Callaghan mentioned for assessment department staffing to implement a residential exemption. As policy makers, we decide we deserve to have the chance to actually make a policy decision on an issue, not to be told when time comes that we can't vote a certain way because of the limitations within City Hall. And the residential tax exemption We've heard arguments in favor and opposed, but it is something that the public wants us to genuinely discuss. The next kind of big bucket that I've been thinking about is the basics. How do we do, how do we keep investing in safe and reliable infrastructure? And as always, this means increasing support for DPW, for engineering facilities. We've made progress, but there's still a backlog and residents do still feel it, whether it's in potholes or unclear markings or unsafe crossings. This is something that we hear from residents coming up to city council meetings all the time. And so I do want to highlight a few things in particular. A lot of this is actually carryovers from previous years. between us from myself and from other Councilors as well. So implementing the bicycle advisory commission's recommendations, with that the traffic engineer position that we were talking about that I know Council Vice President Lazzaro gave us an update about. Making sure we have the staffing to keep up with restriping and signal timing and repairs. And making sure we have the materials and equipment to do that work as well. I also do want to emphasize snow and sidewalk plowing, as Councilor Mullane did. We've seen over the last few months how important investing in it is. And I think sometimes because we don't have the harshest winter, it's not always on our radar. And because budget season comes in the spring after those storms are gone, it's We don't always have those conversations on the city council about what types of equipment we need to modernize our snow fleet in the city and to make lives easier for residents who are just trying to get to work or trying to get back home. And we talked at the last city council general meeting about the urban forest management plan. That's something I know councillors are very excited for. We should start preparing for that because, you know, it's too easy for a plan to just be words on a piece of paper kind of shoved into a corner. We need to actually make sure we're executing it as a city. And so I'd like to see in this budget clear steps forward about how we're actually going to implement that plan. On public safety, Councilor Leming already noted it, but I wanted to highlight the proposal for a fire department dive team that this comes from conversations with the fire union and, you know, we are a city with significant waterways that people actively use. We've had tragedies before and having the capacity to respond to those emergencies is a real gap that we can choose to address as a city. And at the same time, through these conversations, it's become, you know, A point that was made really clear to us was that our fire stations themselves still need continued repair and investment. And as we build operational capacity, we can't lose sight of those longer term capital needs as well. Another major theme in my memo is that, is making sure our city truly does work for everyone. And through conversations with residents, especially residents with disabilities and their families, we have identified clear gaps in access to city programs. It's not a new discussion. We had this discussion last year during our iteration of this meeting. And that's why I would support funding for the same asks as last year. Therapeutic recreation specialist, recreation office manager, and as Councilor Scarpelli so eloquently talked about before, an inclusion specialist for the city too. I think these are positions that really make a difference in whether people can actually participate in community life here in Medford. I think various Councilors have noted the need to stabilize funding for the Medford Family Network. My understanding from talking to them is that they are going to be talking with the mayor early next month, that they've had discussions with the director of finance and with the school superintendent. But they would appreciate our support as a council moving forward as well. And of course, some of my asks remain the same. like maintaining funding for the Communities on Program, that's I think it's a real jewel that Medford has. And particularly in this moment when we're seeing an attack on immigrant rights, it's a really important connection we have to marginalized folks in the city who don't always feel safe accessing city services or who just aren't really always in the loop about city services. And that includes ways that they can save money and contribute to helping the environment here in the city as well. One thing I didn't put in this category that I think is an ask I've made from this chair before is investing in restroom facilities for public parks. That's something I would like to add to this list because it's something that, it's just about accessibility, it's about inclusion in the city. You can't control when you need to use a restroom and For so many people, that's a worry when they go to our parks, when their kids go to the parks to play. And it's also costing community leagues a lot of money. For example, for folks who are playing softball in the city, they're paying for portable potties to be put at each park during their practices. And that costs them thousands of dollars as well. And that's something that I think city government should take the responsibility of standing up to pay. And the very last thing I wanted to talk about is just the civic fabric of our city. This is where things like local arts funding comes in. We know that there's demand. Over 60% of proposals of art, public art proposals went unfunded last cycle, and that's from Medford artists. And a relatively modest investment can support programming that brings people together and activates our public spaces as well. And in order to facilitate and coordinate that work, reestablishing a cultural affairs position would be really helpful. I think there are also small, small ways that we can increase placemaking in our city. Municipalities around us have been piloting really small grants, $25,000, $50,000, some even smaller. Some are just grants of $5,000 to basically throw neighborhood events, invest in community gardens and murals. These sources of funding really give residents a hand in shaping their surroundings. And so I'll close with this. I think a big thing that I've been pondering, I've pondered over a long time, but I think especially recently, is that folks really, I think nationally and internationally, feel like They're losing the ability to write their own stories, to have a say in their government, especially with, you know, certain political actors acting the way that they do. But Medford has a chance to be better, and Medford has a chance to give folks a hand in writing that story. And so the investments we make, Our focus, I think, and I think I've generally been focused on increasing the stability in people's lives, making sure that they feel safe and stable calling Medford home, and that they have a role in their community that they live in. And my last kind of general suggestion, this isn't a budget suggestion, but like the years past, I think it'd be helpful to put out a public budget input form as well to get resident feedback directly about what they want to see in this year's budget. And one last note, I noted this in the very beginning of the memo, which is why it slipped my mind. But as always, public school funding is the reason why I got into this in the first place. It's, I think, a major, major issue for parents and for residents who aren't parents in Medford. And I think committing to the school committee's full ask will be really, really important in making sure that we are investing in our future. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng. All right. Great job, everybody. I didn't write any, so I'm the one who didn't turn in my homework this time. I certainly have some priorities, and I will, you know, draft up our collective recommendations, but I did take a look at what everybody sent, and I do have kind of an updated document for this year, somewhat based on the document that we sent last year that kind of, we boiled our stuff down to five, six, kind of ongoing expenditures and some one-time projects. So I'm just gonna do a quick summary of where we landed there. So in the one-time expenditures, we had called for nexus studies for inclusionary zoning, linkage fees, and transportation demand management. And we also asked for one-time funds for the planning to update our city's financial software. And as folks know, we did meet on, I believe on both of those. Certainly in the financial software, we had a meeting and that is moving forward. So that is a budget recommendation that we put forward and had been putting forward for years that is moving ahead. I think that's gonna be a huge improvement for our city team and for the public being able to better understand more quickly and easily the places that the city's funds are going to and what programs they're supporting. In terms of the studies, the linkage fee study is certainly going forward. I need to confer with planning and sustainability to understand if that study that is ongoing can inform also updates for inclusionary zoning and transportation demand management. I think our understanding last year was that a single economic impact study could support all three of those. Of course, those are hugely important for affordable housing, as well as ensuring that we're having the proper development impact and linkage fees revenue coming into the city for new developments. And then we had our ongoing expenses. The number one, and it seems to me from everybody's documents, that's the number one this year as well, is maintaining level service funding for our Medford public schools and our city departments. So meeting the school committee's budget requests, the library trustees request, and keeping our city departments funded at the current service levels that they're funded at. Last year, we mentioned specifically community liaisons, translation services, road and control, and grant-funded positions in planning, development, sustainability, and health. I think all of that came up again. And I also saw in Councilor Malayne's, specifically around mental health services being another kind of call-out item that was, I think those were the things that we perceived to be at risk in the last budget. So, That seems to be number one. It seems to me that that's gonna stay probably as number one in every budget recommendation this council ever sends to any mayor as don't cut our city employees and the public services that our city relies on. And then we had a few of new ongoing expenditures. So increasing funding for the assessing department to implement our residential exemption. That seems to be continuing to be a major priority for us. It's certainly as we move towards significant debt exclusion to fund a new Medford High School project that becomes even more important than ever. And I noticed that Councilor Scarpelli's recommendation also had staff support for also our seniors and those who are most vulnerable around taxation. And I think that would fall in here if we're having the staff and the assessing department to do residential exemption, process those applications, also them being able to support seniors, veterans, people with disabilities and others who need to access the other tax exemptions that are available seems to be something that can be pretty easily included there. Our last year we had increasing funding for DPW engineering and facilities for tree repair, safety, tree planting and capital improvement. That's back here again. I've made some adjustments to kind of highlight the urban tree management plan and allowing volunteers to plant trees called out by, you know, Councilors Tseng and Callaghan and Mullane, snow removal. And I put my own two cents in there, which is, you know, making sure they have, the city has resources for that. And we had our first big winter in a few years, and I think folks would have liked to see some adjustments and I know that there were some hard procurement issues and there weren't as many people who were available, contractors available to plow snow this year. So I understand some of the difficulties that our DPW had. But I also would like to see us move forward on the plan that we did. I worked on with Councilor Marks five years ago on priority sidewalk and bus stop clearance, which I think is a huge issue. We've received many communications during the storms about folks who regularly you know, no matter who they are, age, ability, couldn't get to the bus or get down the street. That was a huge issue, the storm, so I'd really like to see some of that move forward as well, or at least come back into the conversation. We had, again, the therapeutic recreation specialist, inclusion specialist, office manager, so those were in there last year and still need to move ahead. We had dive team, which came up again, and then we had several items that weren't included. In the last budget, several of them were things that just one Councilor brought up, and we are going to attach everybody's recommendations, so those will go to the mayor. But there were four that came up multiple times from multiple Councilors, and that was library staff and part-time librarian pay, the Medford Family Network funding gap, I'm including City Messenger and Council Assistant. I'll get to that in a minute because I do have kind of an update on that. And arts and culture organizations and funding support for arts and culture organizations. So those seem to be the four new items. And Councilor Scarpelli also mentioned the city solicitor position. We did get the increased funding in the budget. We had a solicitor for six months, we don't have a solicitor anymore, is that a funding issue or another issue I think is really, I think that's a discussion that we all need to have and that maybe people watching at home need to have. But that maybe is something we want to include again. So I just wanted to go over that. And on the city messenger slash council assistant, Councilor Mullane has been working on that and I have been working on that, Rich and I. and Vice President Lazzaro, we updated our budget to include funding for that at I think 19 hour, 18 and a half, 19 hour position at a relatively good rate of pay that might make more than all of us. So that is something that we put into the legislative budget to, submit to the mayor, we'd be hearing that back from the two of us as the department heads on that during that process. I don't think we know yet if We haven't received like the communication on, we haven't gotten back the comments yet on that one. Councilor Mulane also has worked up based on some drafts that the acting clerk and former clerk developed the job description, the updated job description for this role. Councilor Mulane has worked on that and is trying to schedule a meeting with the administration. So I'm really hoping we can finally get that important position filled. and supporting the council and supporting our acting clerk and clerk's team. That's my monologue. I have some suggestions for how we want to move forward, but I think there's also maybe some folks either on Zoom or here who might want to speak to recommendations they might like to see the council make so we could hear from folks. My plan essentially is to to update this document and include keeping many of the items that we had as priorities last year that are priorities again. And then I'm trying to my best to incorporate those four new items that multiple Councilors had identified, specifically the arts and culture funding, the library staff and part-time librarian pay, and the Medford Family Network funding gap, and then to submit that to the administration as our recommendations for this year. overall plan and we can decide after we hear from members of the public, whether we want to essentially have me write this up and send it out and then we can review it on an upcoming agenda or if we want me to draft it, come back for comments and then send it out. I'd like to get it out sooner than later, but if we wanna, if we wanna do this in two weeks or figure out if we can get a committee of the whole or something scheduled between now and our next regular meeting just for a last look or even maybe something through the clerk like people can send their comments back, something like that, then I think those are all viable paths. So any questions on anything that I just said before we go to members of the public who would wanna speak on the council's budget recommendations for the fiscal 27 city budget? All right, seeing none, are there any folks either on Zoom or here in the chambers who'd like to speak about the City Council's budget recommendations? Great. We can line up at the podium or raise your hand on Zoom. Name and address for the record, please.

[Krause]: Thank you. Ken Krause, 50 Mystic Street. First, I'd like to thank the council for the last several years, their efforts to engage this body in the process, which is something that wasn't the case before. And as a result of your engagement, that allows the public and residents and taxpayers to be engaged. So thank you. I think everything that's been presented I would support, so thank you for your thoughtful suggestions. There are two things I do want to specifically mention my support for, and that is the grant writer position and the reestablishment of the cultural affairs staff position. I've been the Friends of Chevalier Auditorium grants manager for about 10 years, so I've worked on writing and managing grants that we've applied for and also helped assemble the applications that the city has successfully got particularly for Chevalier Theater. The city does have staff people working on this, Laurel Siegel who primarily works on the CDGB grants and Michael Roberts who does a lot with federal grants and casino mitigation fund grants. They will tell you that much more help is needed on the grant writing and management process. It's a long one. Looking for opportunities, putting together the application, reporting requirements that staff has to do afterwards. It's a never-ending job. Just for an example, the Chevalier Commission is working now on potentially a grant application to modify some of the balcony seats. And it's going to be about a year long process going toward. potential application for the cultural facilities fund in December. So these are ongoing, long processes to assemble everything. Lots of times these are competitive grants, so you really need to have everything in order to make a strong case for your grant. And now, more than ever, with the financial challenges of the city, you know, no stone should be left unturned to look for grand opportunities and I think it'll pay off by having somebody in this position. On the cultural affairs position that we previously had several years ago, For about 10 years I managed the arts calendar for Cachet for Medford and the growth was very impressive over about 10 years. We went from initially about 400 events in the city in 2014 to about 2,400 last year. So I think that's a statement that the city, the community values the arts and cultural activities that are offered. as an asset to the quality of life here. Medford has become a destination also for arts and cultural events that it wasn't necessarily before. And so there's economic benefits to that. One of the things the arts and cultural liaison can do is improve the process. Right now, if somebody from the community or an artist wants to rent the Condon show, They have to go to the recreation department to make that application. If they're interested in using the high school or middle school theater, they go to the director of the community schools. If they want to look into using Cheballier Theater, they have to go through the mayor's office to get approval and then go to the management company. If they want to have a concert or an art exhibit in the parks, they have to go to the park commission to get a permit. So those may still be the avenues you have to take, but if there's a single initial point of contact, the arts and cultural liaison, it would help people get through that process and hopefully succeed and not be deterred because it's so complicated and so difficult to The other thing that came, one thing that came out of the arts summit that CACHE had in 2024 was it would really be helpful to have a volunteer opportunity clearinghouse in the arts and cultural area. I think one of the recommendations here alluded to that, but a place where people could find opportunities, both city boards and commissions, but also every nonprofit that I'm aware of in the city is looking for volunteers. So if you could have that in a single place where people that are new to the community where community organizations can post that information in a place that's widely visible, that would be helpful. We could also provide support for city events. We have a lot of fabulous events in our town that pretty much came about and are managed by volunteer residents, PorchFest, West Medford Open Studios, now going to be Medford Open Studios, Sarah Bradley Fulton Day, all these things are largely created and maintained by residents. If the city can get involved there and provide some more support, that will make them stronger and also make them more sustainable because, you know, volunteers come and go, residents come and go, and it's hard to maintain things just with volunteer efforts. So, again, thanks for the opportunity to be engaged in the process, and if there's anything that the Friends of Chevalier or other arts organizations can do to help support these recommendations, you know where to get in touch with us. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Great, thank you, Ken. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak on the council's budget recommendations for fiscal 27? All right, we have Susan Altman on Zoom. Susan, name and address for the record, please.

[nMlCJNUIswQ_SPEAKER_18]: Hi, Susan Altman. Address is 201 Winthrop Street. I would like to echo everything that Ken Kraus just said. I don't need to repeat any of that, but everything he said was spot on. I also want to thank the council again for engaging us in this process, and particularly would like to call out councillors Tseng, Mullane, and Bayers for their support of arts and culture funding for the city. The one thing I do want to say is I want to echo what Ken mentioned about the economic importance of arts and culture in a city. And to point out that any expenditure that the city would make through funding a part-time or other arts and culture liaison position for the city could be easily paid for through a grants administrator position without doing a whole lot of work. It would pay for itself, I think, pretty easily and fairly quickly. So I would like to sort of reiterate the importance of that position and the fact that it's a pretty easy ask in terms of the budget. I think that that's, oh, and one point in favor of that from the city's point of view and from my point of view as the president of the board of the Arts Collaborative Medford is that city support goes an incredibly long way in applying for outside grant support and considering how much, how many granting opportunities have disappeared in the last year. It's really difficult going forward to get good grant money without the grantors seeing that the city supports what we are doing. And one of the primary ways in which the city can show that support is by making space in the budget for some kind of arts and culture support for the community. That's about it for me. Thank you very much for letting me speak.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Sue. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak on the city budget recommendations? Awesome. Name and address for the record, please, and you'll have three minutes. Good evening.

[SPEAKER_07]: My name is Matt Wilson. I live at 160 Playstead Road, and I really appreciate this hearing tonight and seeing all the challenges that you all face with limited resources and all the needs of the community. I just want to speak from a personal perspective from a relative newcomer to the city. I've lived here for about three years now and the one thing that has really welcomed me into the community and provided me opportunities to build community is the arts and creative community. It's a place where folks can go and meet. The Arts Collaborative Medford is a great third space that provides not only meeting space for the arts community, but a number of other groups work there. When you look at other cities across Massachusetts, more and more now, providing staff folks in City Hall to provide this and facilitate all the great work that the dozens of artists here in Medford are doing. So, to me it's a great investment to tap into the A real impressive creative community here in Medford which not only brings joy to a lot of folks but provides opportunity for community. So I appreciate the proposals of having a position here in City Hall and also increasing money to provide artists with small amounts of money to be able to do their work. So thanks for your consideration for that.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you so much. All right. This is about the city budget recommendations money.

[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.

[Zac Bears]: Okay. So we're in a 6 p.m. committee of the whole meeting. We have a regular meeting at 7 p.m., which is on, this is on like a specific topic we've been talking about since 6 p.m., but we'll have another meeting that's gonna start a little late. So that would be the regular meeting. If you were coming for the 7 o'clock meeting, you will have an opportunity to speak, and that's our full meeting. This is kind of a committee meeting on documents we've been talking about for about an hour. But you're welcome to speak now if you'd like. If you'd like. Yeah, sure. Just give your name and address for the record, please.

[SPEAKER_11]: My name is Leslie Fenton. My address is 9 Woodland Avenue. And I am here because I I'm really angry. I'm angry because this city is letting thousands of dollars go to waste. And I'll tell you why. I emailed you. You probably didn't even see it. There are illegal Airbnbs. There's one in my neighborhood. And I have all the paperwork proving that this woman owns five Airbnbs, and they are not She's claiming that they're residences. She doesn't live in any of them. And the big one is on King Avenue, she bought a house. She doesn't live there. She has a guy take care of it. He doesn't even live there. This is a huge problem in this city. There's over 300 Airbnbs, okay? I'm willing to bet that at least half of them are illegal. That's a big deal. That's thousands of dollars in fines a day. Now, in particular, this woman on King Avenue, I have her deed. She lives in Cambridge full time. And she homesteaded this place. It's completely commercial. So what she's avoiding are the taxes. The bed taxes, the commercial taxes, the bed taxes. She doesn't have any, there are fire regulations and there are, oh my God, a few other regulations that she is completely skirting. And she's skirting these on all her properties here. What can we do? Why can't the building department do something about it? I spoke with Mike Malerba, and he just gave me some fake legal jargon that says, oh, she can do this. No, she actually can't. I have proof. I even have her damn deed, and it's homesteaded. You can't homestead a commercial property. This really needs to get taken care of.

[Zac Bears]: I'm, A, thank you for bringing this to us. We passed an ordinance, but you've probably read, I'm guessing. It seems like you've done quite a bit of research on this.

[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, I've got pages of research.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. Printed. And our ordinance only allows folks to have a short-term rental, such as an Airbnb, for 90 days a year, and they have to otherwise live in the property. That's right. So if someone is violating that ordinance, then certainly the building department is able to enforce our city ordinance. I hear you. And so I haven't seen your email yet. I will look for it and I will work with you to get the information that you've collected and work with our building department to make sure that folks are enforcing the ordinances and that everyone is following them. So I can work with you on that.

[SPEAKER_11]: It needs to get worked on because it's thousands of dollars. And our taxes just went up like whoop. Am I wrong?

[Zac Bears]: I mean, a number of people have worked with us about short-term rentals in their neighborhoods when they see someone who's not following the rules. So we should definitely be able to work with you and help with that.

[SPEAKER_11]: It's not just my neighborhood. It's all over Medford.

[Zac Bears]: I hear you. So, you know.

[SPEAKER_11]: You know, what else they're doing is they're taking homes away from people who actually want to move here, live, and raise their kids.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah. That's one of the reasons that we passed. That's huge. That's one of the reasons that we passed that ordinance. So, you know, we have had enforcement successes. It sounds like that we haven't had that here. And you're right. We do need to make sure that everyone who's using Airbnb is following the rules that we have as a city for it.

[SPEAKER_11]: So. How can she have five? Tell me. Just answer this question for me.

[Zac Bears]: I mean. How do you know? I don't have the answer to that question but.

[SPEAKER_11]: I have the proof and I'm going to give it to you tonight.

[Zac Bears]: Great. I will, you know, we're going to wrap up this committee meeting and I think we're all happy to work with you to make sure this gets addressed.

[SPEAKER_11]: OK. So, can I give you my paperwork?

[Zac Bears]: Yes, you can. And it might be closest to you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak on the city's budget recommendations? All right. Do we have a motion on the budget recommendations to refer them to our regular meeting? I think we can actually make that decision at the next meeting. On the motion of Councilor Tseng to refer to our regular meeting seconded by Vice President Lazzaro, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan. Just roll call for the refer to the regular meeting. Councilor Leming. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

[Liz Mullane]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Yes. Yes.

[Unidentified]: I should need that. the paperweight. Yeah.

[Rich Eliseo]: You can ask away. Councilor Leming?

[Adam Hurtubise]: Are you recording any comments?

[Rich Eliseo]: Yes.

[Adam Hurtubise]: Go ahead.

[Unidentified]: Yeah, what's going on?

[Adam Hurtubise]: We're not hearing anything on Zoom.

[Unidentified]: Okay.

[Matt Leming]: Councilor Leming. I just heard you call my name. I'm not hearing anything on Zoom.

[Rich Eliseo]: So we have a motion to refer, a motion to enter executive session and adjourn from there. Councilor Campion has voted yes. Yes, yes. Okay. Councilor Maloney.

[Liz Mullane]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Scarpelli.

[Zac Bears]: He's gone. He's gone.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Tseng. Vice President Lazzaro. And President Bearson.

[Zac Bears]: Yes. Six affirmative, one absent.