AI-generated transcript of City Council Committee of the Whole 04-01-26

[Unidentified]: I'm going to give a minute for Commissioner McGivern and Vice President Lazzaro to arrive and then we'll get started.

[Marie Izzo]: Looks like Councilor Callahan's taking full advantage of the presidency.

[Zac Bears]: That's a fine seat. Just don't lean back.

[Anna Callahan]: I thought this was my meeting. But apparently, it's not.

[Zac Bears]: It got hijacked. It will be partially your meeting.

[Marie Izzo]: And Tim, I'm going to make a co-host as well, correct? Yes. Okay, everybody should be in now.

[Zac Bears]: All right, Medford City Council Committee of the Whole. April 1st, 2026 is called to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Callaghan.

[Anna Callahan]: Present.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Leming. Present. Councilor Malloy.

[Anna Callahan]: Present.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Scapelli. Present. Councilor Tseng.

[Zac Bears]: Present.

[Marie Izzo]: Vice President Lazzaro. Present.

[Zac Bears]: And President Pierce. Present. Seven present, none absent. The meeting is called to order. Thanks everyone for being here. Sorry, Councilor Callahan, but just adjusted the forum a little bit because we have a couple of other items to discuss, but I will. turn it over to you to discuss papers 26-028 offered by Councilor Scarpelli, the resolution requesting a report regarding the January 2026 snow response, and 26-029 offered by Councilors Malaine and Tseng on the resolution to evaluate city snow removal and improve service delivery, and we do have DPW Commissioner McGivern here as well, so I'll recognize you Councilor Callahan since this was originally going to be public works and facilities, and then you know you can you can handle this part of the meeting and then I'll take it over when we move to the other two items.

[Anna Callahan]: Thank you. Wonderful. So this is, while it is also a committee of the whole, this is the public works and facilities meeting of April 1st, 2026. And we have a couple of resolutions that are related to snow removal that happened this winter. I'm not gonna read the entire text of the resolution, but I will say that the first one, I think what I'll do is I'll mention both at the top before we get into discussion. But I know that the first one is about a report that I believe Commissioner McGivern will talk a little bit about. And the second one is more of a discussion. So the first one is 26-028. And essentially it asks for a written report detailing the city's response to the January 2026 snowstorm, including things like a total cost summary, the city equipment used, the contracted snow removal operators, ticketing and towing activity, operational challenges and findings. And next steps and ongoing snow removal efforts. So that's the first one, and I'll go ahead and just briefly mentioned the second one as well. The second one is a little bit more about just ensuring that we have a good plan going forward. And so it really is that the city council recognize that in coordination with state managed roadways and snow removal work that performance and timing of those operations can directly affect our residents. And that this committee conduct a post term evaluation of snow and ice removal, including an assessment of the service provision equity and accessibility staffing equipment and capacity constraints snow storage and disposal limitations. coordination with state managed roadways and crews, and communication with residents before, during, and after major snowstorms. So I think once we hear from Commissioner McGivern, then that'll really give us a lot of information to use in our discussion. And with that, I am going to turn it over to Commissioner McGivern.

[Tim McGivern]: Thank you, Councilor Callahan. So I did respond to the city council request in report form and it was turned into the mayor's office. So I'm not sure if you guys have had a chance to see it or received it yet.

[Zac Bears]: I don't believe so. At least I haven't seen it. I don't know if the clerk's office has it. Sorry, Anna.

[Anna Callahan]: Yeah, I think what would be the most helpful if you can give us some sort of a presentation here, because also we want to make sure that the public gets to hear about it as well.

[Tim McGivern]: Thank you. So I'll just go through what was in the report, and I'll give a brief synopsis. And I can pull out some of the numbers that I may think are relevant. And you guys can ask me for other numbers that you want to see or whatever. We can go from there. Basically, what the report includes is everything that you asked for, a total cost, which includes a breakdown. The total cost includes the OT, the regular hours worked, the amount that we paid contractors. in the amount we bought for salt. So those are the major cost items. There are others, but those are the major ones. And then we also provided the commercial contract rates as well as non-commercial contract rates, provided a breakdown of departments and divisions for storm overtime and storm regular pay. We provided a list of the contractors and how much we paid each contractor. And we provided a snow equipment dispatch list, which are the 55 or so pieces that the city deploys. And then I provided two invoices for SALT that we used during that particular event. So that's the information that I provided. And then there was a request for some narrative in regards to challenges. So I'll just talk about that a little bit, and then we can kind of go where you guys want to go. The first question was about operational challenges. And actually, that was really the only question. So anyway, I provided an answer to that question. Really, the operational challenges this year included a relatively low availability of plows just in the region in general. We typically have between 30 and 40. Previous years, we've had up to 50 contractors or more. This January 2026 storm, we had 24. We don't have a definitive reason as to why, but the major speculation really is amongst folks like myself in Massachusetts is that we had a couple of winters with almost no plowing needed, and that really resulted in less folks available to provide that service. We even had some different things this year because we anticipated this. So we initiated an effort to get contractors on board early with an early sign-up bonus. We did get a few to sign up early, so that was good. We also advertised on our trucks this year, which we don't normally do, to see if we could get a few extra phone calls. I'm not sure if that worked. It may have. We also had a, we have two sidewalk machines, one of them broke down during this storm, and it was a long repair. So that set us back as far as sidewalk clearing. So that's another operational challenge that particular machine is folks know as Luke side Walker. is close to retirement, so we're looking at the end of life actually for that particular machine, and we're looking to replace it. So it will become a backup until it breaks down forever, but we will keep it in good repair and buy a new one to replace it. That is the plan. a better one, actually, to replace it. So that was another one. And then, of course, the obvious challenge was the amount of snow that fell and then the lack of thaw afterwards. It was really an anomaly. That storm was an anomaly. Typically, when you get a large amount of snow, there's typically a thaw after the storm. There was no thaw after the storm, so we had to deal with every single snowflake that had fallen for weeks thereafter, which is not typical. And then we did have some new employees and we had some new contractors. So that's always a challenge with every storm is making sure that the new employees know protocols and new contractors know where they're going and know what to do. Some next steps and recommendations that I included is to support the CIP. We have two snow removal pieces on there. One of them has been pushed back. But for a few years, and it's really just because we haven't really received much snow, I'd like to get a snowblower loader attachment. It's a very large snowblower that goes on a loader. The problem with that piece of equipment, you end up using it maybe a couple of times a year if you get some big storms. You don't use it for small storms. So it's a piece of equipment, hydraulic equipment, that would sit in our yard for most of the year. So it's a large purchase to have in a place like Boston. If we were in Buffalo, we'd use it 12 times a year, and that would be much more worth it. But I think the demand is there. My workers want it, and it's on the capital plan. So I think that's something that we should look at very closely. And let's see. What else did I write in here? Oh yeah, and just this was a just so you guys realize you know what we do as part of the operation. So after major storms and fires and whatever major storms, we always debrief, we have lessons learned incorporate into operations. So the next storm, we get better basically. And this mostly revolves around route assignments and communication between Foreman and operators, but other things are discussed to equipment failures at whatever. And a good example of this and I put this in my report is in our January storm. We did not have detailed mapping for route assignments. We've never had detailed mapping for route assignments. But after this January storm, we actually created route assignment maps with detailed route assignments on them through our GIS department. So we have that now, which we've never had before. And we used those during the February storm. And everybody seemed to think that they helped out with assignments. So that was a positive. Let's see. Yeah. So anyway, so that all that information I gave you, and then that information just in regards to the narrative and wherever you guys would like to take it, I'm on board.

[Anna Callahan]: Great. Before I call on my fellow Councilors, let me just, um, if I may, I'm curious, cause I can't find that report. And so I don't know whether you or, um, I don't, I don't see it at all. Or if the clerk can, cause it's, it's really helpful if we can actually review the report itself. So, um, between you and the clerk, could you have any idea of like where Is it under something that is not searchable? Is it listed? What's the title of the email? What date did it come?

[Tim McGivern]: So I don't send council resolution responses directly to the city council. I send them to the mayor's office. And this one I believe had multiple departments on the request. So I'm not sure the status of those reports. So the protocol is that the mayor's office will respond to the council resolution.

[Anna Callahan]: Okay, great. I will now go to my fellow councilors. Let me call on Councilor Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I have a question that's very specific. I would, if this is in the report, I apologize. There's a section of Salem Street along the Salem Street burial ground that wasn't shoveled or plowed at all during any of the storms. And I have noticed it over and over again, and I've actually spoken to a, Andrew from the Chamber of Commerce who, you know, is with the Chevalier because they've had patrons that have complained about that stretch of sidewalk. There's parking over there and then people walk on the sidewalk. but when it's not plowed it gets really icy. It can be really dangerous. I can't think of who else would be in charge of that stretch of sidewalk and I was wondering if you could speak to why that might not have been plowed or if that is part of the plan for the future. Just I think that's an important, it's a really high traffic area in Medford Square. Salem Street that's leading right into where the bars and restaurants, the Chevalier, pretty much, you know, doctor's offices. It's right by City Hall. There's a lot of, there's just a lot of reasons why we would want to maybe make that safer. It's close to the senior center. So, you know, I know that the one side of it is a cemetery, but the parking is right there next to it. So just wanted to ask about that specifically.

[Tim McGivern]: Sure, yeah, that's our purview, so we should be clearing that. It's low priority, I will say. And I don't have an explanation as to why, besides there was some issue that I don't know about. I believe the Riverside side was done, because I remember seeing that. So I think I'm just speculating here. I don't really know. But the assignment is to do those sidewalks, and the route includes those sidewalks, the brick one on Salem Street as well. Don't think it's getting done. I think they're doing one side and I'm not sure if they're doing river as well. So I think it may have been you or someone else brought this up. And this is another correction that we're doing. So we have a sidewalk list that's on paper. of what we're supposed to do, just written out in text. So that is, they may actually be done with it by now. But for next winter, the plan is to have a full sidewalk scope map, similar to our route assignments. It's just a more complicated map to draw because of the different limits of all the sidewalks that we do. But in general, the rule of thumb is that whoever is in control of the parcel should be clearing the sidewalks. So that's a city controlled parcel. It's owned by the city of Medford, and it just happens to be a historic parcel.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Totally. I think that what happens is a lot of the time in situations like that when it's, I mean, the default being that people who own, it's either the businesses or the residents who live there need to clear their sidewalks. And then that one just, it's like, well, it's a graveyard. I mean, Obviously, yeah, it's the city, of course. So, but, and because it's not, you know, there's access to the cemetery, of course, but it's not about access to the cemeteries, but access to everything around it. And if your car is parked there, and also just the other thing being, access for people getting to the doctor's office, accessibility generally to the square, I just think it needs to be not low priority. And if there's any way, any process for adjusting that, I think it should be adjusted.

[Tim McGivern]: What I mean by that is in comparison to basically first responder type stuff. So we have a hierarchy. The first thing on the hierarchy list is during storm, keep roads clear for emergency vehicles. That's number one. Number two is keep roads clear after the storm for emergency vehicles and cleanup. And then we start getting into things like parking lots for schools, parking lots for public buildings, and sidewalks is in there too. And then sidewalks, There's a hierarchy for sidewalks as well. So, it's nothing that you wouldn't want it so we do the sidewalk routes that are usually associated with the school and school bus stops. First, usually, and then we move on to city parcel parking lots and sidewalks. which tend to be the parks mostly, so all the sidewalks adjacent to parks, for example. Really, this parcel should fall into that category, like a park. Yeah, exactly. I wasn't trying to say that it's not a priority. What I'm saying is that on our hierarchy, that's the better word, is hierarchy of snow clearing, it should be down with sidewalks along parks.

[Emily Lazzaro]: And it it fell through the cracks. It wasn't supposed to never have been cleared. But what happened was it never got cleared. It became impacted. It became ice. And then people who park near there and walk to a restaurant and then patronize the businesses in Medford are walking in the street on one of the most dangerous streets that we have where people drive really fast and they're like. all kinds of people of all walks of life walking in the street trying not to get hit by cars in the dark in the winter or they're slipping on the sidewalk so it shouldn't have happened and I think they like it's whatever it was a mistake but it should be you know prioritized in the future and it happened last year too you know like it happens all the time

[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, right, right, right. So I don't have a good explanation for it. So I think the best fix, I think, is what we're doing. Because I can say to those guys, oh, do this, do this a million times. But unless it is not just written down, but we show them, I'm hoping that just solves all these. It's not the only sidewalk that has been missed. When the sidewalk machine gets deployed to a location to clear a sidewalk, do they do all of the sidewalks? Not all the time. And then we're trying to chase it later on, and it gets compacted on ice. And then we're kind of like, well, now there's not a lot we can do. So hear you loud and clear. And hopefully the sidewalk map just changes this for good. So there's no excuses, basically.

[Anna Callahan]: Great. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. I will call on Councilor Scarpelli.

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Madam Chair. Tim, thanks for being here. I know it's not easy, but I, you know, and I agree with you. I think the last storm, the first storm was difficult and it was an anomaly. I mean, and me and you had a conversation. We talked about eliminating any of the rumors that were going around and understanding the process of why we had such low turnout for support. I know that, just to be clear with everybody, talked to Tim and had conversations with some former contractors who stated that the process that's now implemented is too daunting for them, was told that the that the new contractors now would need a separate insurance binder for liability, and talked with Tim. Tim dispelled those rumors to make sure that's not the case. But I've spent a lot of time with your team during the storm, actually. Um, see how hard they've worked. I want to first publicly again commend them. Um, the team with boots on the ground were amazing. They went above and beyond considering the lack of equipment, lack of, um, contractual support and the low number of DPW employees. That's nothing. That's not. That's nothing new. So I appreciate everybody doing their due diligence. So, um, But I think that there are some glaring questions that we need to correct as we move forward. I'm not going to talk about what corner hasn't been done or what has been done. I think that's something that should be done over an email so we can document and understand with the gaps that we've had. But I'm a little confused because as of, I think, last year and the year before, when I've been involved with talking with your team and everything and talking with contractors, you said that the routes have never been mapped. They've always been mapped. I think I can pull up some of the roots that were shared with me maybe last year or the year before, just to understand who I needed a contact when I was getting phone calls. And like I said, this first storm, I received 54 phone calls and emails. So we broke a record. And as we went forward with that, I started talking and listening. I found some issues that really were a little confusing and bothersome to me. The contractors, we know that we have to get to understanding, were people informed, staff informed, were they giving their roots or not? Because that's something new, what you said today. Second, understanding the contractor's numbers that are low, can you provide us with any processes used to train these contractors? Because I think that was, like you said, one of the concerns. And even with some of the newer DPW employees that were in a plot for the first time possibly, that were they trained in any way in going through the process? I'm very familiar with this because I'm part of my snow removal team and snow prepared team in my municipality that I work with. I'd like to ask also, if you can, when I'm done with this list, is do we do a pre-storm prep meeting? We do that in In Somerville, we talk with everybody involved, and we know exactly what's going on, who's going where, what's going to happen, and who's going to support that. I think that's important, that if we're doing that. One of the biggest things, Tim, that, you know, I know that this isn't anything that you need to worry about. I was hoping someone from the mayor's office, maybe you can share this with the mayor's office, but we have a pretty robust communication team. And the communication before and the communication after the storms were horrible. That's probably one of the biggest concerns and issues and reasons why we had such negative feedback publicly, through social media, personally with phone calls and emails, is that people really weren't informed. You know, the business district really suffered. We heard a lot about their issues where they weren't, they didn't know what was going on. And again, like I said, I don't, this isn't on you, Tim. I think that we need more of a comprehensive plan with the whole team. And I don't think we see that. I will be honest with you, in my profession where we are, we have a group of 60 people and the communications team is on the forefront of that. because they're listening and they're relaying everything that's discussed in the pre-storm meeting to be shared with the community so we know everything from when the cars have to be off the streets and when the parking is lifted plus the process of how we're going to eliminate snow if needed or so on and so forth. We can get deeper into that. One thing I've realized that I've heard and I just need to know this, And again, I don't want to be critical with you because I think you're being your hands are being tied. And you can maybe clarify this during the storms. If it's outside of regular work hours, is our leadership team there? Are you there? Is our assistant there present? Because I think that's important also. I talked to some of my friends and teammates in my community, and they were saying that's one of the issues that Medford has. And I said, I don't know where they heard that from, but I said, I want to make sure that's another rumor. Because I think that, you know, when we talk about You know, I was in the process with the prior mayor when we had a DPW director come on, and one of the biggest issues why the person that they wanted didn't accept the job is because the administration at the time wouldn't allow either comp time or flex time or overtime. during during snow storms or after snow storms or after they've worked past their 40 hours because i think that's important that we have to know if that is the case because that has to be corrected again that's not your fault tim if that's the case but i want to make sure that's identified um and then i think as we move forward i think we're really it'd be it would help this councilor understand that what training is done and you know what reports are done before and after so whatever we can do when it comes to budget time that when you know I hear you with the big snow blower and even if it's one storm if it helps us make our streets safe and our sidewalks safe If it's something that we can make work in the capital plan, I'm going to support a thousand percent, even if it's just one storm every two years. I think it's that important because we saw what happened. You weren't ready. Nobody was ready for the first storm. And I think that, to your credit, the second storm was drastically better. Everybody I thought that We really, you really pushed your team together and it really showed. I think the second storm that you didn't, you didn't hear anything. You didn't, we didn't, at least personally, I didn't entertain any negativity with anybody. Understanding that the team was out there working night and day and it got done in a better format. And I think that the last thing is, do we, do you have, um a process where you are in in communications with our state partners because as we know we have um a lot of state roads that intersect and and making sure that we're you know that you know because we have a lot of state roads that intersect so state will take care of one sidewalk then all of a sudden there'll be another sidewalk that's not being touched and i will tell you our two code enforcement officers did it i thought they were phenomenal they any any call i received they were out there sending me pitches with big orange tickets on people's doors so they really did their due diligence making sure that our streets our sidewalks were passable and safe for our pedestrians especially as seniors and our students as they walked to school and And then I know we also talked about this and I think that people have to also hear this publicly that, um, you know, what we're hearing that the city isn't plowing, um, private private roads anymore because, um, they're not part of the system. And I think that if that is the case, in places I think we need to know as the council and we need to prepare. I know that I've asked that and you've presented as well when it comes to getting more of a community meeting with people that reside in a private way and having them understand the protocol of what their responsibilities are now. I know that the mayor is moving forward with more of a detailed plan or rule of what can be done and can't be done on private ways. So I think that if if it was a mistake that some of these private ways just were missed or we're really not doing them, that'll be interesting to know as well. So I know that's a lot, Tim, and I appreciate you coming out and listening and responding. But I just wanted to make sure that I asked all these questions because these are the questions that were posted and presented to me during the storm. So thank you.

[Anna Callahan]: And I will absolutely give Commissioner McGivern the opportunity to respond.

[Tim McGivern]: All right, thank you very much. So I'll just go and order the contractor apps. That's the rumor. So we've been doing it the same way for about three years. So we have two applications, two ways to become a contractor with the city. One of them is the full legal way that it should be done, which is they have a full insurance rider. They are prepared to work in the public way with all the protections in place. that they get paid more money. And those are the larger landscaping companies typically or whatever, the larger plowing companies that have that corporate setup and they can do that. Then there's the guy or gal with a pickup truck and a plow blade. Usually they're just plowing for the city. They don't have general liability insurance. They don't have an LLC. They just want to plow and get paid. So that's, you know, we do still do that. It is an option. They don't get paid as much. And just, I'll tell you what the rates are. It's basically, if you have commercial, a commercial setup and you have the proper insurance, you're getting for that pickup truck, you're getting $110 an hour. But if you are just non-commercial, guy or gal with a pickup truck and a blade, you get $98 per hour. Those are competitive rates. And we encourage folks to get insurance because it protects everybody involved. I don't want to be in a situation, and neither do you folks, where a uninsured plow driver for the city hurt somebody badly. We don't want to be in that situation. So, you know, there's that. All right. Root foreman. Sure. We have a map and you've seen a map before. It's a map. It's a root foreman map. It's a map that tells the foreman what they're responsible for. But that map never has gotten into the granular as to, hey, these are the streets that we are obligated to plow. We had them generally on there, but now what we can hand out in 11 by 17s, we can hand out to the root foreman an 11 by 17 sheet that has all of their root streets on it that they can then make copies of and give to contractors. That's the difference. So sure, yeah, you did see a foreman map. So it's just an improvement to the system that already was in place. And the reason for that improvement, I could talk a little bit more about because the next item is training. So new drivers, new contractors, yes, they do need to be trained. Typically, the way we do that is that the route foreman or someone else who knows the route goes with them the first time. That's typically how it's done. If we have a new employee that has never done a route before, they will follow someone else who has done that route for the first time. And then the kinks are worked out. Typically, Before, so that's the training part and then that leads right into the pre storm prep meeting. So we do have a meeting before all of our storms. Sometimes they're up in my office this one was down in the yard, and the police always come, you know, or someone talks to the police but this meeting the police you know we're there. And we talked about all of the things that you brought up, Councilor Scarpelli, all the things that needed. So, so what everybody sees the only way that can happen is if we have a pre meeting, and it's, yeah, so that definitely does happen. You know, the comms piece of that is another set of meetings and another set of communications. So, you know, we're doing our operations preparation with the police and we're doing our equipment preparation and we're, you know, making sure we have enough salt. So we're doing all of those things. And at the same time, I'm also communicating with the department heads and the mayor, the chiefs, the comms director, everybody that would need to be involved in a snow storm emergency first responder type response. A lot of that is done over text message, group text message. We found, especially this last couple of years, it's a very effective way to do it. So we'll have an initial meeting, and then we all continue communication via a group text message. Seems to work out really well. I appreciate it. So I sign up actually for all of the notifications of our surrounding communities and other ones. So I know what they're putting up for communications on their systems. Medford's is comparable. Sometimes we give more information. We have a regular person giving the robo calls as opposed to a robot. And we tend to point folks in, I think, to the website in a better direction than just some of the other towns and cities. But everybody does it a little bit differently. So we can learn from what our neighbors do. So, you know, that's always there. And I agree, it's more of a comms thing. But I will tell you that that person in that department is involved, usually at the very beginning when we start talking about storm prep. And then what happens after that, you know, that really doesn't have anything to do with the DPW we're going to we're going to be our be the first responders and do our best. At that point, once we decide there's a snow emergency then that's we go into full emergency mode. So I think I addressed all those. Leadership presence. So me and the deputy, we don't get paid any overtime or salary. But it's either me or him. We do show up for the storms. If he's not going to go, I go. He actually has been plowing as well for the storms with approval from the unit. So I'm not doing any work at the unit. But for sure, he's there. And I think it was the February storm deputy wasn't available, Scott wasn't available. So I went in at the all in. And I don't know what rumors are going about, but I think we're different, actually, than other DPWs. The leadership does go in at storms. Sometimes it's just for morale, just so the workers can see our face, see my face. They joke around with me, why aren't you plowing, and stuff like that. And I'm not getting paid overtime like they are, right? I usually at that point want to get home and go see my kids. But getting the plow drivers out the door and seeing it happen is something that we do try to do. So then as far as communication with state partners go, yeah, we do that. We have to. We don't really have a choice. And I'll give you just a few examples. We coordinate with them on bridges. So obviously, we don't lift our plow blades up when we go over bridges. We also have to deal with underneath the bridges, sidewalks, and on top of bridges, sidewalks on top of bridges. So we're doing those. We're also doing the MBTA bus stops. That's usually kind of last, but we do do them even though personally I think the TV should do them but I agree.

[Zac Bears]: Whatever.

[Tim McGivern]: But we do it and we also have to forward complaints to both. DOT, DCR, anybody else at the state is listening. Yeah. So, you know, that's constantly happening. DCR is the owners of a lot of the parks on the river, but we actually operate those parks. So, you know, you'd think that we'd have a lot of coordination with DCR. We don't have that much. It's usually MassDOT that we're coordinating with District 4. And then as far as private roads and driveways, so our policies, I know that there's a lot of, you know, chatter out there. So our policies have not changed. We plow all the public ways. We also plow all the private ways. Private ways are different from private driveways. Driveways are on building parcels. And they are privately owned, and people pay taxes on the land that they're on. Private ways are parcels of land that are right-of-ways that people don't pay taxes on. They're usually derelict, which just means that there's no clear title to them. The city does plow those in the interest of public safety. And it is kind of on that line of, is the city, is the public city using public resources to plow private property? We are, but we're doing it in the interest of public safety. Because the alternative in Medford, I don't think would be a good situation. If we were to ever not plow private ways, it would be a multi, year-long transition to get from point A to point B. I don't see that happening. I mean, there's a huge topic here to talk about. Yeah, I agree. I agree with you, yeah. But we don't need to delve into it, right? But as of right now, status quo, and I don't see this changing for any time soon, is the city plows public ways and private ways, but we don't never have plowed private driveways. Okay, that's perfect.

[George Scarpelli]: Right.

[Tim McGivern]: I think I got all your questions, Councilor Scott.

[George Scarpelli]: No, that's right. For those people who don't know, if you don't lift your blade or going over a bridge, that's how you bury the people on the other side. I learned that because that was my first mistake when I was applying for DOT one year, so I got yelled at.

[Tim McGivern]: When you go over a bridge, you're supposed to lift the blade. They have those expansion joints at either side, and they try to protect those.

[George Scarpelli]: Well, I know. Tim, I appreciate it. Like I said, I think the team has to be commended. I think, especially from Storm 1, that was an anomaly to where we were the second storm. was drastically different and again like I said the clarification the communication you're right it's not you guys I think that um what the team has to what the city has to really what I want to see from the mayor's office is making sure that everybody's informed as much as possible with all the process so they they they're not having to call us to call DPW or and something that's very simple and I think that that's important I think that uh and and to be clear It was some of the employees in our neighboring community that said, hey, what are you guys doing? A, B, and C. These are just, you know, so that's why I wanted to share with you so you know, I think that I've been very, you've been great. Me and you have talked many times. And when I hear a rumor, I call you right away. And that's why I wanted to bring these out to you publicly. And I appreciate all of the answers and the time you took to answer those questions. So I really appreciate it, Tim. Thanks. Absolutely. I'm always available if you guys have questions. Thank you.

[Anna Callahan]: Thank you. I'm going to recognize Councilor Tseng.

[Justin Tseng]: Thank you. Thanks, Sim, for being here with us today. Before I say anything, I'm very grateful to the staff at DPW for all their work clearing all the snow from this year. I mean, it was an incredible amount of snow that I don't think many of us were expecting, and certainly a lot of hard work. I heard staff on the roads at all times of the day during the storms, and I think a lot of residents, you know, despite what complaints we may have heard, a lot, if not most, if not all of the residents that I talked to, I think, recognized that it was a really tough storm and that people were working really, really hard. I also want to just thank you for your responsiveness during the storm in terms of the roads that I was sending in, the communications about state roads, helping pass that on to MassDOT. It was very helpful to residents in the city as well. I think a lot of the questions I have, there's significant overlap with other councillors who've already asked questions before. A lot of Councilor Scarpelli's questions, Councilor Lazzaro's questions about like public sidewalks and assessing businesses and hospitals and clinics, stuff like that. I think a lot of people found it difficult to get to their appointments. And so it's good to know that we'll have more of a plan for the sidewalks for the next year going forward as well. And I think you've also anticipated some of the questions I had about equipment that we might need as well, but I guess going through, I just have a few more questions if that's okay with you, Tim. I'm a bit curious about just the staffing and kind of the need for contractors. Of course, I think you noted that we're seeing a lot fewer contractors available than in the past. reasons for that, you know. But I'm curious about whether there are any, like, there were any capacity gaps that required more contractors than usual besides, like, taking the large volume of snow out of the question, compared to maybe where we were 10 years ago? Is there kind of fewer staff at DPW that requires us to kind of fill more of a gap than before?

[Tim McGivern]: That's a good question. I should wait for- No, no, please.

[Anna Callahan]: I recognize you. Okay.

[Tim McGivern]: So it's a good question. So just so folks are aware, so the DPW just in general over time, decades, has been getting smaller. So there was a time, people tell me, I haven't gone and looked at annual reports, but I have looked at some annual reports from back in the day. People say that we were 120 people, which I wouldn't be surprised. Right now we're at 70. So if there was a time that they tell me about, we were double. I've looked at annual reports from the different time periods, and certainly the DPW has been a lot bigger than it is today. We, as I think many of you know, we effectively get a cut almost every single year. And as you can imagine, over time, That, you know, you just lose kind of one position at a time and we go from 120 to here we are at 70. As you know, I'm working on sort of right-sizing each division. I talk about it a little bit almost every time at budget season. And, you know, highway is better than it was last year, because we got three more positions there. But it's really a matter of time. If you doubled the amount of pieces that we had on the road from 50 to 100, then we're going to clear the roads twice as quick. So that math is pretty simple and it's real. So when we have 50 or so of our own pieces and then we get 30 or so contractors, we're talking 80 pieces of equipment out of the road. So that's still less than our peak days of an internal DPW. So, you know, if we may, if we had 120 people in DBW and highway, you had, you know, 100 plows to their disposal in-house, then we probably don't even need to call any contractors. But then, of course, you have to support that staff all year round. So hopefully that kind of sheds a little bit of light on that. It's not necessarily you look at the amount of snow and the size of the city and say, oh, well, we're going to need 100, pieces of equipment for that it's more like we have 50, so it's going to take, you know, x amount of hours to clear the streets. I would say if we had less than, then, you know, I don't know 70 or so 70 would be our 50 plus another 20 contractors. you know, we're starting to probably get on that border of it's not big enough is not enough. And we talked about that this year, like what is not enough? And I don't know the answer to that. But you know, if we didn't have contractors, we didn't have those 24 contractors come in, and it was just 50 or 54 plows that we have, then It's just going to take longer and it increases the risk during the storm that an emergency vehicle is not going to be able to get to go where it needs to go. And then, of course, we all know what happens if that's the case. So, you know, those are the games we're kind of playing here. They're very real. And I think, you know, when this body is thinking about the size of DPW and future services, then I'm always willing to talk about that. I've been trying to do a lot of work as city engineer and DPW commissioner to understand what right sizing of a DPW is and what that means and how do you apply it. And there's lots of good information out there and lots of different opinions.

[Justin Tseng]: I mean, I think with this question, right, I mean, I think what the council has been interested in in the last few years is, what is that race face? And it's a very difficult question to answer. I'm sure we've had a lot of conversations about it, especially during budget season. But I mean, as the next budget season is approaching, it's a question I think a lot of us might have in our heads. And I think on the council generally, we've made some progress with the override, but still there's, I think, you know, the concern is that the 50 and the 30 are both shrinking, and I think it sounds like we've turned around or starting to turn around when it comes to the 50 component of it. I know we're just taking a random number for the 50, but that, you know, I think it's something for us to pay attention to as we budget for future years to make sure that we're keeping the DPW part of the pie kind of there, especially as it seems like maybe the contractor number is getting smaller and smaller. So thank you for that answer. I appreciate the answers about equipment. I'm curious about the snow blower loader attachment that you were talking about. Of course, it's hard for us to predict what winter's coming up will be like. there are kind of two different questions I'm interested in. The first one being, is this a formal budget request that's been made to the mayor to incorporate either in this budget or through a capital fund? Or is this just kind of an idea that we're talking about right now? Like, what stage are we at in that? And then on top of that, let's say it doesn't really snow this this much in the next two winters. But it's a piece of equipment we really could use in an inventory. Is it a piece of equipment that deteriorates even when it's not being used? Or is it the use of it that really makes it deteriorate?

[Tim McGivern]: Good question. So I'll go in reverse. All equipment just starts deteriorating immediately when you buy it. And if it just sits around, it's It has diesel fluid in it that can crystallize if it sits around too long. So we would need to exercise it, turn it on every now and then. Anybody who owns a diesel truck and doesn't drive it all that much, I think, knows that. You got to turn it on and run it every now and then. So we would need to do that. So there's some responsibility there. So there's a risk that it sits around, doesn't get used, and all of a sudden, we go to try to start it up one year, and it doesn't work. So then that's really the concern and also the capital cost, because we're talking about a piece of machinery that's well over six figures. And is that the right purchase for this climate and this weather? And I have an opinion on that, but I think it might differ from others' opinions. It would be a very handy piece of equipment, and I would like to have one. And we'd have to take the proper precautions and treat it as an investment. And we'd have to all understand that it may not get used for multiple years in a row.

[Justin Tseng]: I mean, it definitely makes sense that this is like, you can't foresee it, right? But once you need it, you need it. I'm curious, I guess, I guess there's still the component of the question about whether the formal asks has been made, but I'm also curious, generally, our equipment kind of equipment inventory compares to the municipalities around us would like. maybe comparing it by mileage or the mileage that we have to plow as a city or sidewalk equipment at that as well. I know a few residents have kind of complained about sidewalks, snow removal, which we've kind of addressed at this point already, but I'm curious how the number of pieces of equipment that we have for that compares to, say, the municipalities around us.

[Tim McGivern]: Sure. Yeah, you're right. I didn't answer your question. So we do have the Snowblower attachment on the CIP. It's been on there for a number of years, but we keep pushing it back because it's a large purchase that isn't necessarily an immediate need. It's more of a nice to have. So anyway, and then as far as surrounding communities and what they have, I don't actually know what they have specifically for numbers, but you know, We have the capacity really to operate two sidewalk machines. So that's what we have. So we actually have the amount of machines for the size of our workforce. And then I can talk about one other thing, the right sizing of highway. So I did a calculation before the override to compare the size of our highway division to other highway divisions. as far as number of people compared to road miles managed. And we were on the lower side of most of it. But the biggest takeaway was that there's a huge disparity. The Brooklines and Cambridges of Massachusetts have larger highway divisions, more people to take care of their roads, but not necessarily more roads than us. And we have less I think I was like point one per road miles point one people per road mile. And, you know, other places were point two. I ended up being that we should be somewhere in the middle I don't know still what that right number is and I'm not sure anybody knows what the right number is. But I think it should be a little bit higher than what it currently is. So, you know, we had 50, we're just talking winter, right? So in the context of winter, 50 plows out there that are in-house plows, if that was 70, like we talked about, which would be 20 more pieces of equipment, 20 more people, then we're starting to skirt the line of, well, do we even need contractors for most storms? You know, so that, to me, feels like more of an appropriate size if you were to just look at winter. Because contracting, in all aspects of public works, contracting is usually more money at the end of the day than to do it in-house. But you have to pick and choose what gets done in-house and what is done by a contractor. So anyway, hopefully that sheds some light.

[Justin Tseng]: No, it definitely does. I was going to ask, actually, how do we choose what gets done in-house versus what gets done by a contractor?

[Tim McGivern]: It has a lot to do with regularity. That's one of the variables. So if it's something that we're going to do every week or every month, then you start to say, well, maybe that should be in-house. A lot of that already is in-house. So like, for example, one of the things that we had to decide in-house or contractor somewhat recently is how to deal with sidewalk repairs. We have thousands of sidewalk repair requests. We have to prioritize and figure what we're going to do with them. If they're categorized as that street's going to receive a capital improvement, then highway's not going to go do spot repairs there. Highway is going to do spot repairs that are not going to be problematic from a mobilization standpoint. A good example is if we hire a contractor to spot repairs on sidewalks, which we have in previous years, you're basically paying a contractor to move their equipment from one place to another. So, you know, that's not a good use of money. So that would be something that you say, well, we should, we need to do that in-house because why are we spending 80 cents on the dollar on moving a machine to another spot in the city? So that's just an example, one example of how you make the determination. Is that going to be in-house or is that going to be, you know, outhouse, contractor? There are more.

[Justin Tseng]: I guess in the, in the context of winter storms, is there a difference between like what, what they're doing on the road or not really?

[Tim McGivern]: No. It's written down in our contract, so three inches. If the forecast is for three inches and above, then we set a contractor call in time, and that's when the contractors come in. It's after DPW all in. We do highway first, and that's where you see Salters out, and then it's DPW all in, so all members of DPW come in. Then usually a couple hours after that is when contractors come in. so that by that time all the foremen have their route assignments worked out, how many contractors they need, etc.

[Justin Tseng]: Got it. Thanks for that. I apologize to my fellow Councilors for my volume of questions, but this is a great opportunity and I think we're all learning a lot. Something that came up I think Between all of us months ago, but also in conversations with private contractors, it's just that the fact that it was really hard to find places to put snow with this storm, I guess what What are our current snow storage and disposal constraints? What happens operationally when that capacity is maxed out? And are there any plans for, I mean, any kind of ideas about what we can do about that problem?

[Tim McGivern]: I don't think we've maxed out yet. We have some locations for snow storage. The biggest hurdle for snow storage is the hauling, loading and hauling of the snow. It's not usually finding a location. We have a few. Wright's Pond is one of our main locations. So the parking lot, not the pond. We don't put it in the pond. We put it in the parking lot. And then there are others. We used, which we don't usually use, the high school practice field. This year, because we didn't have any place to put the snow that was there. So we get creative. But yeah, like I said, it's not necessarily the location, it's usually the hauling of the snow, we can haul it ourselves, it just takes a long time. If we decide to haul a street, then we're at that street all day hauling. We're not doing other things. And we will usually try to hire a contractor, so it frees us up to do other things usually. And it's a defined set of work that we can say, hey, contractor, go load and haul that spot. Awesome.

[Justin Tseng]: Thanks. Thanks for that answer. With regards to communications, we've already, I know Councilor Scarpello you already asked. I think it's good to hear that in many ways that our city's communications are more accessible. than others, but I think with anything comes really to debunk the problem of everyone just takes in information differently. Sometimes a statement that's put out or a phone call that's put out is too much information for some people and too little information for others. I guess, has there been any thought to different types of communication, putting out like different summaries or different depths of summaries, I guess, is what I'm trying to get at. It's hard to do that, per se, but just uh i guess a more robust communication strategy that way because i think it's easy to say like what's the website but i think for some people that doesn't isn't necessarily the way the information reached uh reaches them the best um i can't i can't speak for the communications office but i do know that they definitely talk about this stuff um the the level that i've been involved has um um

[Tim McGivern]: You know, has been kind of run it by Tim, see what he thinks. I know that we do robocalls to everybody who signed up, and that's the one that I think most people are familiar with. And it's, you know, it's the snow emergency call to announce the parking ban and to tell people what to do. I'm not sure what else they do for snow communications, but I'm sure they do other things. But yeah, it's hard for me to speak to that, so.

[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, I mean, I think that's fair. I don't want to put this on you either, because it's on the city's communications writ large. But there were a lot of residents, I think, who called or emailed in and were like, I don't really understand the priority hierarchy. that we have set in the city. And I think with the second storm, there was something put out on social media, so that got clearer. But I think in the future, being proactive about the information, I'm just putting this into the ether, hoping that someone is listening. Yeah, I'm listening. I'm eyeing it.

[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I think there's a process where they select what information is going to be put out there. And I know there's a method behind that. I just can't speak to that method.

[Justin Tseng]: Great. Yeah, no, I think that's fair. And I guess my last question is just about the coordination with the state. I mean, the MBTA really should be clearing their bus stops. there are certain lanes and big traffic centers like Wellington Circle that weren't cleared. And I guess what's the best way for all of us to make sure that that work gets done? What's the best way for us to support you guys in pushing them to do more? Is there anything we can do?

[Tim McGivern]: Sure, we're in District 4, so MassDOT's District 4. So if there's, Wellington Circle's a good example. If Wellington Circle is having problems, you certainly can call the city and we will route your complaint to District 4. But you can also call District 4 or contact District 4 directly. I know they have content information if you have complaints. But calling the DPW and telling us about it is always an option too, if you don't want to go through that website search. So, you know, feel free to do that. We, I think there were, oh, you know, a handful at least that I was involved in. I'm sure there were more. of complaints having to do with state roads, even 93. I think Councilor Leming maybe made me aware of some work on 93 that wasn't done. So we submitted that. I think they got it on their second round, you know, so stuff like that. Always happy to help pass those along. But if folks want to call directly, it's District 4.

[Justin Tseng]: Um, I know other Councilors have questions and the public have questions. I have just one short one, which is a resident complaint. I got a lot just in terms of contractors and flowers kind of dumping snow on the sidewalk that they've already applied. Of course, the snow ordinance, um. kind of says that's not a huge problem, but I think a lot of residents are still worried about that, worried about, you know, maybe they didn't take pictures before, so they can't really prove that they had cleared it. Is there anything you'd have to say to that?

[Tim McGivern]: It's a challenge because it's almost impossible to plow a road without creating a windrow which blocks or fills in plowing or shoveling that a resident has already done. But I also have a driveway in Medford, and I also deal with the same exact problem. I snowblowed my entire driveway, and the contractor came by and left a windrow there. And I'm the DPW commissioner, so I have to deal with it as well. It's just something that is part of a storm. Try to time your snow removal in your private driveway to line up with the plow pass if you can. You know you shouldn't be pushing or plowing or snow blowing your snow from your driveway into the road that usually just makes things worse for your neighbor. So, you know, and if we do, then this happens, if we, if we do plow snow from say one street. That's teed into your street and we plow that snow onto a sidewalk or driveway apron that was already cleared now there's a pile of snow there, call us, we'll put it on the list. We dealt with maybe six or seven of those this year. And it's just really the amount of snow and where to put it. We usually then have to go back after we've cleared the road for emergency vehicles. We have to go back, clean up, move piles, haul away snow, all that. And the January storm, all of that lasted almost a month.

[Justin Tseng]: Thanks so much, Tim. I don't want to take up even more of the council's time. So I appreciate all your answers.

[Anna Callahan]: just realized I was on mute. I will turn it over to President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. And I'll be super brief because we really got to move into executive session. Number one, Artemis 2 has launched and is in high earth orbit. So just if anyone was wondering, astronauts going to the moon soon, that happened in the last 30 minutes of discussion. just wanted people to know that. Everyone has asked all the questions that I had. The only thing I wanted to bring up was I think it's really important to consider or at least think about how we're going to potentially at some point implement a priority sidewalk snow removal program. I know that requires more staff. I know that requires more equipment. We did draft up a map in 2021 and 2022 before you were the commissioner, Tim, but I think we have that somewhere and you may have seen it at some point. But that is, I think, the next priority to address some of the accessibility issues that we see in severe snowstorms. So just wanted to keep that on the radar as something that has been identified as a priority for a while and that I think that would be really valuable to a lot of residents here in the city.

[Anna Callahan]: That's all I got. Do you feel like I'm responding Commissioner McGivney?

[Tim McGivern]: No, I'm just taking that in. I think I've opined maybe on that program before. And yeah, just it would take a program that is supported with money and resources.

[Anna Callahan]: Great. I want to go ahead and give the public a chance to weigh in. Please raise your hand if you would like to speak. I don't see any hands raised. Give it another few seconds here. I think it looks like we answered every question we asked and answered every question that could possibly be asked and answered about snow removal here in Medford. Not seeing any hands, is there any other discussion or any motions from the council?

[Zac Bears]: I'd make a motion to receive and place on file papers 206028 and 26-029. And Tim, if you could just follow up with the mayor's office to have the written report sent over to us ASAP, that would be great. Second.

[Anna Callahan]: great on the motion from Councilor bears, seconded by Councilor Leming to receive a place on file. Um, Mr. Clerk, could you please call the roll?

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Kelly. Yes. Councilor Living. Yes. Council Moline.

[Anna Callahan]: Yes.

[Marie Izzo]: Councilor Scapelli. Yes. Councilor Tseng. Vice President Lazzaro. Yes. President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes. Sending affirmative and negative. The motion passes.

[Anna Callahan]: Thank you, Councilor. President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yes.

[Anna Callahan]: Sending affirmative and negative. The motion passes. And are there any other motions on the floor?

[Zac Bears]: I gotta take up the next papers.

[Anna Callahan]: Ah, great. Sorry about that. Yes, turning it over to you.

[Zac Bears]: That is okay. All right. We have papers 26-053 and 26065 submitted by the mayor. Litigation strategy, request to enter executive session per math general law chapter 30A section 21A3. Is there a motion to enter executive session? for chapter 30 a section 21 a three with the note that votes may be taken and we will adjourn from executive session. The motion of councillor Leming seconded by vice president was our Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Marie Izzo]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Yes.

[Zac Bears]: President Bears. Yes, 70 affirmative, no, the negative, the motion passes. Mr. Clerk, if you could make me the meeting host, I just need to make sure that we do not have the transcription service on.

[Marie Izzo]: Yes, hold on one second, President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: And Tom, Lisa and Tim, we are going to be doing one thing first, and then I will invite you to the breakout room for the further items.

[Marie Izzo]: Okay, President Bears, bingo. You should be all set sir. Great.