AI-generated transcript of City Council 05-26-26

[Zac Bears]: Shane. We good. All right. Great. 10th regular meeting Medford City Council May 26th 2026 is called order. Mr. Clerk please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Thank you. Councilor Kelly. Councilor Leming. Present. Councilor Malate. Present. Councilor Scapelli. Councilor Tseng. Present. Vice President Lazzaro. Present. President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Present. Seven present, none absent. The meeting is called to order. Please rise to salute the flag. Announcements, accolades, remembrances, reports, and records 26-096 offered by President Bears be it resolved by the Medford City Council that we offer condolences to the family and friends of Mimi Gordon and commemorate her life. Mimi was a long-time member of the Medford Democratic City Committee and Ward 8 Democratic Committee, tireless union representative with SEIU 509, public servant, campaign worker, and party activist. She was a beloved member of the Medford community, and we will miss her. Any councilors want to speak? Councilor Tseng.

[Justin Tseng]: Mimi was a true leader in our community. She's one of the first people who I met when I was campaigning for this position. And through her knowledge, experience, her passion, I've learned so much. And I think Councilors, I don't want to speak for everyone, but I'm sure Councilors abound will say that they have learned so much. We've been able to do a lot, and I think what people don't necessarily always see is that behind the things we do as a city council, there's always a community, and there's always people who are driving the effort, who are making us do better. making us learn about issues, making us better Councilors too. And Mimi was one of those people. She'll be dearly missed. And I want to just convey my deepest condolences.

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

[Matt Leming]: Thank you, Council President, for this resolution. So I'll say that I I didn't know Mimi too well myself, but I know a lot of people who knew her and were influenced her through the Ward 8 Democratic Committee. She spent over 20 years organizing that committee, recruiting members across the ward and really revitalizing it in the long time that she spent as committee chair. And a lot of the folks, a lot of folks reached out to me about this. And to echo my colleague, Councilor Tseng, are so many people who add so much to the scene by what they do behind the scenes. There's like any anytime you see political organization, anytime you see city councilors, anytime you see, you know, people that are sort of in front of the crowd giving speeches. is there are even more people who quietly do the work of recruiting people talking to them one on one organizing and Mimi was a person who did that in spades over a very, very long period of time. And so it's no surprise to me that she touched so many people within a uh, within the Democratic Party, especially, especially here in Medford. So, uh, thank you again for this, for this resolution. And this was, this was a real loss to our community.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Leming. Um, Mimi was someone who I've known for, um, maybe more than 10 years. And I think, you know, she represents some of the most important values that we could have as a community. She's a kind person, a principled person, a passionate person, and an engaged person. She was very devoted to the labor movement, to unions and workers, to local politics, to thinking globally, acting locally, And more than anything, she was just someone that you really enjoyed talking to, whether it was about things going on here in Medford, or things going on state, federal politics, local state Democratic Party, or just her love for her family, her friends, her community, and the people around her. I think she had a... She believed in people. She believed in the human spirit. And I think she fought very hard to just try to help her fellow neighbor. And she certainly inspired me on more than one occasion to maybe speak a little louder or fight a little harder or talk to someone who maybe I hadn't considered talking to before. And I've missed her actually already these past couple of years. She's had some health issues and to lose her is a major loss for our community. So I'm thankful for everything she did, for all the people that she influenced, for all the people that she lifted up. and that we can celebrate her tonight. And I know there's some folks here who maybe wanna say a few words about Mimi as well. So we will turn the floor over to members of the public now who might wanna share a few words about Mimi Gordon.

[Barry Ingber]: I'm Barry Ingber, 9 Draper Street. And I was a friend of Mimi's for over 40 years. And she was a very committed and kind person. She was both gentle and fierce. And she built community wherever she went, at every level, from her condo to the labor union to the city of Medford to the Democratic Party. I think as people have intimated, she's the kind of person who I think many people in the community will miss without even knowing that we miss her because she accomplished a lot very quietly. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak at this time about me? Seeing none. Oh, we have someone on Zoom. I will recognize Munir Jermanis.

[Munir Jirmanus]: Munir Jermanis, Three Summits Road. I met Mimi primarily through people power. She was, as everybody mentioned, a quietly active, gentle individual, a woman of principle. And I, for one, will certainly miss her presence. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. And I'll recognize now Matt Sampson on Zoom. Matt, name and address for the record, please.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I'm Matt Sampson, 131 Winchester Street, Brookline. I'm Mimi Gordon's nephew. I moved to Boston seven years ago and only got to know Mimi over the past seven years with the depth that many of you have known her for years and decades. The past couple of years, as some of you have alluded to, were somewhat difficult for Mimi. Her world became smaller as she lost some physical mobility. But I want to assure those folks listening on Zoom and those of you here representing Medford that she thought about you often. the issues that she brought to the floor over the decades, the fights that she fought were still deep within her, and she valued a civic discourse, the political process, and all of you members of the Medford Council. And I just want to thank you for giving her a place, a community, and an outlet for the vast amounts of energy she had over decades. She set a real role model, a role model for her family, her nieces, her nephews, and now her little grandnieces and nephews, Lily, age 17, Addie, age two, Arlo, eight months. They knew an aunt who, while small and somewhat diminished physically, was strong and bright and a role model for those of us who want to participate in civic discourse. Thank you very much.

[Zac Bears]: Matt, thank you so much. And our condolences to your family. And may her memory be a blessing. We'll take a vote and then we'll take a moment of silence. Is there a motion to approve? On the motion of Councilor Callahan to approve, seconded by Vice President Lazzaro. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan? Yes. Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Mullain? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro? Yes. President Bears?

[Zac Bears]: Yes. Seven in the affirmative, none in the negative. The motion passes. Please rise for a moment of silence. Thank you. Paper 26-097 offered by Vice President Lazzaro, whereas first responders and veterans are disproportionately affected by mental health disorders including PTSD, anxiety and depression and whereas many first responders and veterans can feel uncomfortable reaching out for help with mental health concerns. due to negative stigma, often instead turning to substances and whereas people with substance use disorder also face significant negative stigma in this community and elsewhere. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Medford City Council discuss and promote the important work of Medford's recovery coach, Chris Summa, who is now offering a regular weekly recovery meeting for first responders and veterans dealing with substance use disorder. This meeting takes place at the First Baptist Church of Medford every Tuesday at 7 p.m. Be it further resolved that the city council invite Chris and Director of Veterans Services, Victoria Shaw, to the May 26th meeting to discuss and promote the recovery group. Vice President Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you very much. I would invite the two leaders of this group who have worked really hard to put this together. This is a group that meets. It's open to anybody who would like to partake of the services. Chris Summa has been here at city council meetings a few times before. I appreciate any opportunity to have him come back. Director Shah has been also present for a number of occasions. I understand your speech at the Memorial Day celebration. I couldn't make it. I'm sorry. It was very lovely and happy to have you here again. The, so recovery groups are like an unaffiliated kind of AA meeting, but you don't have to do anything specific. It's just talking about your place in recovery where you're at. And Chris put together this group specifically for people who are veterans or first responders and in that, having that in common with each other. can allow people to feel more comfortable sharing about their experiences. So rather than me speaking for you, I just wanted to give you an opportunity to come and tell us and the public about this group and give you an opportunity to sort of talk more about it and let people know how they can join. Also, incidentally, just today I received my email and I saw that it was on Facebook, too, that the mayor's office put out a press release, which is really cool. And so it's on, you know, a lot of different channels. So, you know, I hope you're not overrun tonight. I mean, you're not there, unfortunately. I'm sorry we ran an hour over. You probably could have been. So thank you for coming. Please, I would love through the chair to invite you to speak about the group and how it's been going.

[Zac Bears]: Thanks, Chris and Veronica. Sorry, go ahead.

[Veronica Shaw]: So I'm going to just kind of give you a little bit of background on how we got to here, and then I'll turn it over to Chris to give you all of the details. So the group actually came about because you'll know that one of my biggest passions is working on homeless veterans. And doing my research, discovered that one of the biggest causes for veterans to become homeless is substance abuse and other disorders, substance disorders. And the push within the veterans community is how do we deal with there? Do we deal with the substance abuse first? Do we deal with the homelessness first? And there's really no good solution. For me, I want to do both. So I've already spoken with you guys about the initiatives I'm doing to help end veteran homelessness here in Medford. But then we have to address the issues of substance abuse. How do we prevent veterans from needing the other services? We have to address it at the root cause. And that's where Chris comes in. I approached him, said, hey, let's team up. So many of our first responders are veterans. They go hand in hand. Let's create a group here in Medford for anybody, any veteran, any first responder from any city, they need some place to just go and talk with their brothers and sisters about whatever is bothering them, just getting through the day. From my own personal experience working with the VA, There's a lot of groups, but when you come in and you're not an older veteran or male, there's really not much out there. It was very uncomfortable for me to sit in groups with men who were twice my age, didn't have my same experiences. They had their own amazing service experiences, but they weren't the same. They're different generations. And I wanted to create something here for my generation of veteran, for the younger generation of veterans. That's how Chris comes in, because he's the expert. So I'll let him tell you how we formed the group, what's going to happen, and everything else.

[Chris Summa]: Thank you. I appreciate that. So just a little back story on me. Before I got into recovery work, I worked in law enforcement for a little over 10 years. I found that I was unable to talk about the issues that we face on a regular basis, and there wasn't a safe outlet for that. And getting into recovery work, first responders were always near and dear to my heart. As soon as I met Veronica, it was like, the perfect storm. We came together and it just made sense. I personally went through McLean Hospital, the detox program, and they have a program there called the LEADER program, which is designed for first responders. And there was a meeting that they had in Belmont, and they used to call it a badge meeting, and it was first responders, veterans. And it was the only time that I really felt at home. When I got out of there, Getting to Belmont was an issue, especially early in recovery. You take travel time, you take people that may not have vehicles, transportation. It's tough to get there. You're looking three, four hours to get back and forth for a meeting. And in early recovery, it's difficult. When we started talking about this, as you guys know, I run the recovery group, which is an all recovery group on Wednesdays. Anybody can attend. And we said it would be great if we had something close by, something that's T accessible, something that everybody can get to. It doesn't matter what your zip code is. You're welcome. And it's for all former and current military veterans, first responders. And it's titled a recovery group. But realistically, it's a safe place where people can come and dump whatever they're holding inside on the table. And maybe in those moments, you wouldn't burn your life to the ground like I did. If I had an outlet like that, maybe things would have been different. Because the stuff that we see, even other groups that I attend, I can't talk about with other people. I'm gonna use the phrase civilians. But I can't talk about it with civilians because we're put in situations where we see intense things. We do intense things. Things that regular people may look at and shake their heads at. At the group that we run, when I say something that has to do with my past or experiences that I've had, when I look around the room, everybody's nodding their head yes. They understand where I'm coming from. So yes, we do offer support for substance use disorder. But we offer support for anybody that has served, is serving, that can benefit from a safe place to talk all of your problems out. It doesn't matter if it's PTSD, it doesn't matter if it's alcohol, it doesn't matter if it's drugs, it makes no difference. It's just having an outlet. And I just wanna say, we've actually, we've started it the beginning of this month, and we have a good core group of people. Thank you so much for letting us come and present, because getting the word out is, Everything right now. What's running based on where the mouth but with the press release and everything that's happening really excited to see where it can take us this is it's just great for for anybody that can benefit from this and As you all know like substance use disorder and mental health disorder it touches all of us and sometimes people think that because you're wearing a uniform, because you're serving, it doesn't affect you. It does, because we're people first. The jobs that we do and the positions that we hold, they don't give us extra strength. We're supposed to have extra strength, and that's what's drilled into us, but it doesn't mean that you can't talk about things. It doesn't mean that we don't bleed just like everybody else. So this is just a safe outlet for people to come, talk, get support. The group, is running a supportive nature in terms of, you know, if you bring something up and somebody else has, you know, a similar situation in the group, we offer advice, we offer support. So just to give you a quick example, this past meeting that we just had this past week, the topic of conversation, because I'll generally say, you know, does anybody have anything pressing that they wanna discuss tonight? And the topic that was discussed this past week was reaching out for help. So it wasn't even related to substances. It was just the difficulty in reaching out for help. The difficulty in being the person that everybody turns to for help, and now you're the one having to ask for help. And everybody in the group just offered what they do to reach out for help, and it's very supportive, it's very loving, it's very nurturing, and it's just, most importantly, it's a safe space. And the group, as you said, it's every Tuesday night, 7 p.m., First Baptist Church on Oakland Street. And yeah, we're looking forward to, you know, getting this going and getting as many people involved as possible. So thank you for giving us the opportunity to get it out to the public and in front of all of you. We really appreciate that. Thank you guys so much.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you guys so much. It's really appreciated.

[Emily Lazzaro]: I appreciate, I have so many things I want to respond to and what you said, but really quick, just your other recovery group is on Wednesday. Is that also at seven?

[Chris Summa]: So the Wednesday recovery group is every Wednesday from 4.30 to 5.30. That's an all recovery group. Anybody can attend that.

[Emily Lazzaro]: And that's here?

[Chris Summa]: It's held right up here in room 201. And we provide pizza, chicken fingers, salad. So we always put it out there as like, you know, come be surrounded by supporting people, like-minded people, get yourself a meal and one heck of a good meeting.

[Emily Lazzaro]: That's awesome. Okay, so we have two recovery groups in Medford right now that are run by Chris and I also did want to mention that the homelessness veterans homelessness is a huge problem, but I happen to work with a lot of people that Practice the housing first model. So you do housing and then you manage recovery which can be a really complicated when you're doing mixed housing with people who are in mixed income levels and all walks of life. And there's a lot to manage with that. And then it becomes a really high priority to manage the substance use disorder and maybe mental health issues. So it's really great that you're doing a project like this for people who are local. And I'll give you a second to respond. But the other thing that you mentioned, Chris, about proximity to where people are. in early recovery, how important it is to have access to groups like this or maybe a doctor or a facility where you can go to get the kind of help that you need. So it's just something that I like to repeat and remind people that it is really important to have access to the assistive medications, assistive services, and community groups that can help people when they're in those early stages because that can be the difference between being able to stay in recovery or not. If you have to drive somewhere far away and you're trying to keep your job and you're trying to keep your family together, all that stuff can be really difficult. So anything that we can do to continue helping the people in Medford that need help I think is really important.

[Chris Summa]: The one thing I wanted to add to that is, if I'm not mistaken, the T, you take it to Oak Grove, and then there's a bus that takes you right to Medford Square. And literally, it's walking distance from Medford Square. It's like a minute and a half up the street. So anybody can get here. And that's the beauty of where it's located. Where, like I said, when it was in Belmont, getting there was difficult. There's a lot of people that they lose their ability to drive. If now, if you're trying to get there, you're paying a fortune in terms of Uber, or you're asking people for rides, or whatever it is that you're getting there, it's much more difficult. So this is kind of making it much easier for people to get to the help that they so desperately need.

[Veronica Shaw]: I'll say the other reason when we were looking at a location for this group. The most obvious was do it here in City Hall but that's not a safe it's not a safe place for city employees and we wanted to make sure. that it was neutral ground, that there was nobody that was going to be looking over their shoulder to see who was watching. This is neutral territory. It is a safe place for anybody, whether they work for the city, they're a private citizen, that they have someplace to go.

[Chris Summa]: That's one other thing I wanted to chime in. Just piggybacking off of what she said, even though I'm the recovery coach for the city of Medford, while I'm facilitating that meeting, what's said in that meeting stays in that meeting. And obviously, unless you say you're gonna hurt yourself or somebody else, whatever's talked about in there, people can come and feel absolutely safe that whatever we talk about stays there because it's about finding a safe space for us to dump what we have inside on the table. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, guys. Really appreciate it. Thank you for your work and for the help you're providing. It's really important. Thank you.

[Chris Summa]: Thank you. Thank you, guys.

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

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan? Councilor Leming?

[Matt Leming]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Malate? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Vice President Lazzaro, President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, 70 affirmative, none negative, the motion passes. Thank you, guys. Let's take all the records and reports of committees at the same time. First, is there a motion to approve all records and reports of committees by Councilor Tseng, seconded by Councilor Callahan. Records of May 12th were passed to Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Scarpelli, how did you find the records?

[George Scarpelli]: I found them in order, Mr. President. I moved to approve them.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Councilor Leming, records of the special joint meeting of May 13th.

[Matt Leming]: In the special joint meeting of May 13th, we went over with the Community Development Board some of the Boston Avenue proposed zoning, and the plan is to continue that ultimately to June 3rd, move to approve.

[Zac Bears]: Great. For Papers 26-061, Committee of the Whole, May 12th and May 19th were both budget meetings. You can review the departments that we took a look at their preliminary budget presentations in our records. This one is, has the wrong name on it, but 26-094, Public Health Community Safety, May 20th, Vice President Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I, this was a meeting about the CCOPS report, the Citizen Control over Public Surveillance, and we spoke about, the report from the police department and the report from the parking department, we are going to have to reschedule this meeting to a time that works for a representative from the police department and to give a little more time to review the parking department report for questions from the public.

[Zac Bears]: Much to do for... When was that report due?

[Emily Lazzaro]: That report was due on March 15th and it was received on May 5th and the meeting was on May 20th and there was no representative from the police department present.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Motion to approve. 24-354-26-024, Public Health, Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee, Councilor Millan.

[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Yes, we went over the newsletter that highlighted meetings that happened in April and part of it was really kind of looking at different budgets as well in line. So I know that's a lot of questions people had about that. So please take a look through that. So that was sent out as well as reviewing the neighborhood ward meetings. We had the councillors sign up starting in September. We had some nice suggestions of other locations that might be more convenient for people within the wards, and I was sent some contact information, so I'll begin setting that up, and we'll have that ready for the next time.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Thank you, Councilor Mullane. On the motion to approve the records and reports of committees, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan. Yes. Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Malauulu? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro? Yes. And President Bears?

[Zac Bears]: Yes. 7 in the affirmative, none in the negative. The motion passes. Refer to committee for further discussion. I'm going to ask the proponents to keep it brief because we're referring these to committee for further discussions. 26-098, offered by Councilor Tseng and Vice President Lazzaro, amendments to the welcoming city ordinance. Councilor Tseng?

[Justin Tseng]: Don't worry, I just have a few bullet points that are a few pages long. I'm just kidding.

[Zac Bears]: Five slides later.

[Justin Tseng]: Yeah, five slides later. No, you can read that yourself in the packet. Basically, there was a report out recently examining welcoming city ordinances like ours. It noted that there was a potential loophole. Now, we need to kind of examine a few different aspects of this, including feasibility for the police department, what exactly is happening there, what information is being transmitted. So, I would suggest this be referred to the Committee on Public Health and Community Safety and invite Police Chief Buckley to talk through this. All right.

[Zac Bears]: On the motion, do you want to speak as well? Oh, you can. On the motion to refer to public health community safety by Councilor Tseng, seconded by Vice President Lazzaro. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan? Yes. Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Millan? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro and President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, I'm going to negative the motion, passes. 26-099, Resolution to Review Urban Forestry Management Plan Recommendations for Referral to the Public Works and Facilities Committee. I will recognize Councilor Tseng but I do want to say that the memorandum is fantastic and it really goes through what we need to do as a council to implement the recommendations on the legislative side and then also obviously the budgetary impact. So I really appreciated the detailed work that went into that analysis, Councilor Tseng.

[Justin Tseng]: Thanks. I mean, one of the things I've heard time and time again from residents is just that we spend all these money on consultants, and then it seems like a plan doesn't go anywhere. And something we started years, terms ago was when we have a big plan like this, we sit down as a council or as a committee and talk through what it means for the council. So when we finally got the urban forestry master plan, management plan, which I know people in the community were really excited because it's one of the main concerns. of the community, I thought, this is great, but it's, I think it's over 175 pages, so it's really hard to digest. And so, in order to help the council digest it, I went through it and kind of categorized the recommendations. I also hear, you know, oftentimes, we bring up a policy idea and then we cite back to a plan. And I think sometimes residents feel like they're a little caught off guard about not knowing what was in that plan, and this is to help with that. to let residents know what is in the plan and what we should discuss as a council.

[Zac Bears]: On the motion to refer to the Public Works and Facilities Committee by Councilor Tseng seconded by? Seconded by Councilor Callahan. Councilor Callahan.

[Anna Callahan]: I was just going to thank Councilor Tseng for the incredible work. I know many people in the city were extremely excited to see the urban tree management plan. You know, it's really exciting. I know the public works, Department of Public Works is also, you know, really behind the plan and very excited to make it happen. So, thanks so much for the work. Really, we're just, this is purely voting to be able to discuss it further. So, I also head up the Public Works and Facilities Committee, and I'm excited to have that there to discuss. So, thanks so much.

[Zac Bears]: Great. On the right, on the motion to refer to Public Works and Facilities, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Kelly? Yes. Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Malay? Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro? Yes. President Bears?

[Zac Bears]: Yes. I have the affirmative, none the negative. The motion passes. Hearings 25, 1, 3, 6. I'll take it just after we get rid of the hearing. 25.136 offered by Councilor Leming, public hearing proposed amendments to the Medford Zoning Ordinance Chapter 94. I know we have Catherine Buckingham, Lisa Davidson. Catherine can speak a little bit maybe to this and then we'll take the Vice President Lazar was about to motion to take the Affordable Housing Trust next. So first we want to talk quickly about the proposed amendments. This is for the fractional zoning. This is a public hearing so I need to declare the public hearing open. The Community Development Board did meet on this but there has been a hiccup in regards to the total development cost metric because the state is no longer putting out the total development cost metric. So I'm going to open the public hearing and there's been a request from Planning Development and Sustainability that we extend the public hearing, continue the public hearing to July 14th. But I will let you, Catherine, if you want to talk a little bit more about it first.

[Katherine Buckingham]: clarify what is the first topic that you want?

[Zac Bears]: Fractional hearing. Fractional, the fractional units.

[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, so basically the status update is that the benchmark that we were using to set the price for the value of an affordable unit was monitored by the state, the QAP Qualified Allocation Plan. And it turns out, we just found out, the state is no longer updating that on a regular process or standard timeline. We don't even know. If it will be updated in the future. So therefore it will not be a good benchmark to use. So we're just evaluating new options for how we determine what that value should be. We're looking to alternative models. We have not finalized new language to provide. And so I think the next step would be once we have that going to community development board and then bringing back to the city council. So that's kind of just a status update.

[Zac Bears]: Great. On the motion to continue the public hearing to July 14th by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Vice President Lazzaro. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan? Councilor Leming?

[Matt Leming]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Millenni? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro? Yes. President Bears?

[Zac Bears]: Yes, 7 in the affirmative, 9 in the negative, the motion passes. Vice President Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Okay, great. I was not ready for that. Motion to take paper 26-105 out of order.

[Zac Bears]: On the motion to suspend the rules to take paper 26-105 by Vice President Lazzaro, seconded by Councilor Maloney. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan? Yes. Councilor Leming?

[Matt Leming]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Milley? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro? And President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes. I have an affirmative and a negative. The motion passes. 26-105, submitted by Mayor Brianna Leocurne, free cash appropriation for affordable housing trust. Dear President Bears and city councilors, considering the importance that both your honorable body and I have placed on affordable housing, I respectfully request and recommend that your honorable body approves the appropriation of free cash in the amount of $250,000.00 for the affordable housing trust. The balance of free cash before this vote is $21,012,459. Housing Planner Catherine Buckingham and AHT Chairwoman Lisa Ann Davidson will be present to address the council. Respectfully submitted, Brianne Olingo-Kern, Mayor. Catherine and Lisa, thanks for being here and thanks for waiting.

[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having us. We are delighted to hear that the mayor was interested in supporting the Affordable Housing Trust Fund with this free cash allocation. It would be extremely beneficial for the trust. We're still new, less than two years old. We have currently still less than a million dollars in the trust, and so this kind of free cash allocation would make a huge difference. I don't know how much detail you want me to go into. We could talk about what we have planned or what's going on, but just we're so excited about this. It would really make a huge difference. I don't know if you have anything more to say.

[Zac Bears]: I think very simply what would you be able to do if you do receive this and what won't you be able to do if you don't?

[Katherine Buckingham]: Well, so the board is still kind of ironing out the priorities of what they want to focus on. If developers do come to the trust for support for affordable housing development projects, those can typically be larger requests. So right now, with less than $1 million, that doesn't give us a lot of capacity to make a catalytic impact. And then we're looking into the possibility of other programs we may want to fund, such as potentially down payment assistance programs or equity buy down programs. But that takes a lot of both staff capacity and time and effort. And so those are the kind of programs that we're hoping to look into and to get up and running. So it's really helpful for the trust to have a better sense of what the budget will look like. So it's an ongoing planning process I would say. I don't know if you want to jump in.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. Councilor Scarpell.

[George Scarpelli]: Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you for all your work, and I think that this is important. But I think we're talking about allocating $250,000 in the climate that we're in right now, and I'm going to be critical with the mayor because I think we are in the budget process and we've been asking for so many different answers for so many fiscal questions that are outstanding that we're, this councilor, finds it to be a big issue when it comes to moving any paper along when it comes to budget. Historically, whether you support my actions or you don't, we always come to the stalemate every budget season. And my fellow Councilors could recall that when it comes to allocations like this, I really want to slow things down and really I couldn't support it for the fact that I don't know where our fiscal climate is yet. I don't think our mayor has given us that input yet for me to feel comfortable to say let's move $250,000 where In all due respect, we still don't have a clear path of what we want to do with it when it's in your hands. So it's something as we move forward with something with more of a clear vision, a clear path, that's something I would support and I wouldn't hold that up tonight, but not If you came this evening with a plan, said, George, we need this because it's important, because we want to move this initiative forward, I wouldn't hesitate. But I think right now, we don't have many tools in our toolbox when it comes to holding the administration accountable. When we ask for certain information that we need to really protect the residents when it comes to fiscal responsibility, I know it sounds a little selfish when you're looking at it like I'm holding it hostage, but I think that I'm going to be true to what I normally, why I do, why I make this motion, why I want to explain it in depth to my friends that work so hard. And like I said, I think if it was more pressing, I would support it. But right now, I'm not going to support any of the Mayor's Money Papers moving forward until we get the answers. and that are held out there budget-wise that I find it concerning. I know that the free cash is totally different, but ultimately when we don't get the answers and we approve budgetary items and those budgetary items aren't used for our taxpayers like we vote for, it goes where? Into free cash. So that's why tonight, I'm going to step away and I can't support this just for that reason, just so you understand. It's not that I don't support the initiative, but right now I need to I need to stay true with what my beliefs are when it comes to this issue with the mayor. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. And just, you know, we usually do get a free cash allocation kind of end of year free cash. That's kind of a listing of a number of things. If we were to say hold this until June 9th or June 23rd, would that significantly impact your ability to plan or could we consider in the totality of all the free cash requests we generally receive at year end?

[Katherine Buckingham]: Just through the chair, as a clarification, what kind of information would be helpful?

[George Scarpelli]: Honestly, it's nothing. We've been asking for financial information.

[Zac Bears]: I think it's less about specifically the Affordable Housing Trust.

[George Scarpelli]: And if it would, that's a great, I apologize, but if we could hold that off until we get our information, because I don't want to say no to this, but unfortunately it's coming before before the mayor's presentation of the budget where. we're kind of at a loss. So I, that's why I appreciate that avenue, but.

[Zac Bears]: We made a number of requests, for example, like the Medford Family Network funding with free cash and kind of, so I think being able to see all the free cash requests in one paper might be a way to make sure we have unanimous support for everything. But sure, if, go ahead Lisa.

[Roberta Cameron]: I was going to say, through you, through the chair, I appreciate what you're saying and absolutely like we wait until June We don't have an application right now for an affordable housing opportunity. pass and put it into the affordable housing trust fund, we will, when we have an affordable housing application, we would be able to better fund that application. So what we're trying to do is prepare for affordable housing developers to come into the city of Medford and where there's that gap in the finances that we can be able to assist them. So right now there isn't an application that I'm aware of in front of the board. I do hope to see one in the next fiscal year or sooner. But until then, we're just trying to make sure that when a developer comes to us, because it's a big ask. It's big. We ask for a lot of applications, excuse me, documentation, and we just want to be able to fund the developer should, when they come to us.

[Zac Bears]: Yeah, I think June 9th or June 23rd, and we've heard from you what this would be for. I think we just, it sounds like Councilor Scarpelli just wants to consider it in the context of all the other budget over the next month. So.

[George Scarpelli]: Apples to apples, I would support it. And that's, I just want you to know how, it's a belief in that, what we've been asking for in these initiatives. Unfortunately, the way the world is, we'll say yes to this and then tomorrow we'll get 6,000 phone calls saying that, now you're not going to support this. And it's not fair to everybody. I think that when we know the whole number, I'll gladly support everything together. But right now, I think that she's putting the cart ahead of the horse. But I appreciate you. Thank you.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: I'll recognize Vice President Lazzaro and then Councilor Leming.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Thank you. I recognize my colleague's hesitation. It's hard to do regular business when you're being stonewalled in a lot of ways. But for me personally, I feel like it's really important to not let our political conflicts get in the way of the people who need things to work functionally in government right now so that they can move forward with their lives and access the assistance that they need. And I think the Affordable Housing Trust is an example of that, where it's, like, necessary for us to move forward. Though I have full respect and understanding of why my colleague would want to do something differently, and I absolutely can, believe me, understand it. I also think it's really important to spend free cash, and I don't want to do anything that would encourage the holding of money that was budgeted for something that then maybe it was a position that was never filled or and then it became free cash and then you can just, you know, not spend it. So I think it's important to spend free cash. I think it's important for us to fund the Affordable Housing Trust. I think it's important for us to do with that money the work that you all are doing. So I would definitely just want to move forward with this while we have the opportunity. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Leming. And just because we table it for a week, for one or two meetings, we can approve it at that time. We don't have to reject it. We can just hold it until we get the budget before us and maybe the free cash paper, end of year free cash paper. Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: Yeah, so I agree with the idea of supporting it now. I completely understand where my colleague is coming from. I think that the timing of this around budget season and a very conflicted one is unfortunate. But a couple of reasons I support it. First, this isn't the mayor asking us to give her money. This is the mayor asking us to put money into the Affordable Housing Trust, which is a board that is run by people who this council confirmed So that's one aspect that gives me a little bit more trust that they'll spend it appropriately, too. As Chair Davidson was saying, it is I don't think the Affordable Housing Trust needs to come along with a plan for exactly how they're going to spend it, because as she was saying, the Affordable Housing Trust by nature kind of does need to be opportunistic with how it spends its money, because affordable housing projects don't come along all that often. So these things could sit around for years and years. You don't spend a penny, and then suddenly an apartment building goes on the market, and you need to be able to have a pile of cash in order to purchase that or to support an affordable housing developer who might want to purchase that for the benefit of citizens. Just given the long-term nature of the Affordable Housing Trust, I don't think that we need to ask them to come up with a specific plan for how it's going to be spent because that that's that that's not really what they what they do and second and third uh the budget is you know it's it's it's the operating budget and I know that my my colleagues are all aware of this but just to clarify for the public you know we have a lot of conflicts over the operating budget. There's historically been a lot of active debate on this council about the nature of potentially spending free cash on operating budgets. And we want clarification from the mayor on funding certain positions year after year and why she's made those decisions. But in this case, using free cash to fund the affordable housing trust is a recommended way of funding that trust it is it is something something cities are supposed to do periodically is to put money from free cash. as well as other revenue streams like fractional incentives, linkage fees, the community, the CPA. So yeah, this is definitely one of the revenue streams that should be fed into the Affordable Housing Trust. So I think it is, again, I understand where everybody's coming from. I personally support putting it forward tonight just to avoid politicizing what should be very routine matter. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. And I actually, you know, don't think this is politicizing. I think we have a routine for free cash expenditures, which is we get a free cash paper at the end of the fiscal year that contains all the allocations of free cash before it reverts to unusable on June 30th.

[Matt Leming]: And while I support politicizing might've been a poor vocabulary. Sorry.

[Zac Bears]: That's okay. I just, I support this a hundred percent love the work that you're doing. I don't understand if you guys are saying you don't need it now and you could take it in four weeks, why it wasn't in the whole, in the paper where we get all of it. And so it's really not about you guys at all. It's really just more about understanding like. We, you know, for a long time we had no stabilization funds. Now we have stabilization funds. We've been regularly appropriating stabilization funds for a number of purposes at our meetings all the time. Use of free cash to me, there's basically should be two purposes, which is to either hold it as free cash or put it into a fund. This is obviously put it into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, but I don't, there's a $21 million balance. I don't know if we're going to put any of it into a stabilization fund. I don't know how much. And we're in kind of a budget situation where there are going to be competing priorities. And I would like to see the full list of all the things that we're planning to use free cash to cover because maybe it's something we do in six months and not now if it means we fund something else. And so that's just really kind of the conversation I want to have more knowledge about in terms the standard process for expending free cash. So that's me. It sounds like a couple colleagues are of a different mind, so we'll have a motion and a vote or something, but I hope you can take away from sitting here till 9 o'clock that we all support your work and want to fund the Affordable Housing Trust and that actually it's not really about the information you could provide, but how this appropriation fits into the larger context of our use of free cash each year. Thank you guys. Thank you. Who knows? It looks like we're even on this one. Is there a motion? I'll take the question, but I shouldn't.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Do we have any information on why the mayor proposed this now?

[Zac Bears]: No.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Do you have any information on why the mayor proposed this now? Is there a project that's pending this amount of money? No I was just you were just given you were just given $250,000.

[Zac Bears]: If you get an application next week and this will be on our agenda in two weeks and we can we can go for it. I did hear Councilor Scrumbo say a motion to table. Is there a second on the motion Councilor Malauulu. It's undebatable. Mr. Clerk please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Kelly. Councilor Leming?

[Unidentified]: No.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Milley? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro? And President Pierce?

[Zac Bears]: Yes. Five in the affirmative, two in the negative. Yes. Motion passes. All right. It's tabled. Thank you for being here this late. Seriously, if it's in, if we don't have a free cash paper in two weeks, but there's something the Affordable Housing Trust has gotten unexpected in, come back. We can take it off the table. We can consider it. And if not, if we get the free cash paper on the 23rd, then we can consider it. Thank you.

[Katherine Buckingham]: Thank you. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: All right. Petitions, presentations and similar papers 26100 petition for a class 1 new auto sales and a class 4 auto repair license, Asbury, Boston T, LLC, DBA, Herb Chambers, Toyota Boston. And we have here two applications or yes, two certifications that fees have been paid and all of the relevant statutes and ordinances and city requirements have been met. Is that correct? Mr. Clerk? Yes. All right. So we have the class 1 and the class 4. We have a petitioner here. Thank you for being here. If you'd like to share a little bit more about the petition for these and what's happening at the site.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_18]: Sure. Good evening, councillors. My name is Devon Bodie. I'm council for Asbury Automotive Group. Asbury Boston TLLC is opening up the new dealership. That's the Toyota that took over the former Century Bank building. I'm sure you have all seen it off the side of the highway. It's going to be at 400 Mystic Avenue. This is a new dealership to town, but not a new dealership. It was previously located on Brighton Avenue in Boston. So we're just going to be relocating to a better location. It's going to bring a lot of business to town. And it's on that strip that has a lot of dealerships there already. So I think it'll be a great opportunity for the city. Asbury's very excited to continue the Chamber's name, continue serving the community of Medford. They have the BMW store two doors down. So a lot of jobs and a lot of service bringing people into the city. And we're very excited. So we hope that you'll issue the Class 1 and the Class 4 licenses tonight.

[Zac Bears]: Great. Do we have any questions, Councilor Schiappelli? I've got one.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_18]: Sure.

[Zac Bears]: The pavement cut on Fulbright Street is a little rough. Is there any chance that there might be maybe working with your neighbors across the street to more fully pave Fulbright Street?

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_18]: Where would Fulbright Street be in comparison to, like, by Duff Spring?

[Zac Bears]: It's a street coming off of Mystic, coming off of Mystic Avenue towards the highway. Yeah. It's somewhere between the Colonial Volkswagen and your property. Okay. At the crosswalk, the pavement has kind of been cut in a very strangely shaped joint. Sure. I don't know if it's final work or not either, but... Do you know if this had to do with the construction of the dealership? Yes, it did have to do with some construction of the dealership. Because it was cut out and repaved, and it's like a partial, and I think that's a private way, so it's even more complicated. I know, because I don't know what the deal is between you guys and the adjacent property owners. I'm not saying anything to not say move forward with this, but if you could take it back to the team, there were some issues for a while with traffic trying to turn in and turn out at the same time. It's just a little congested and now it's a little bit rough. So maybe if they could take a look at a more complete fix there.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_18]: Absolutely.

[Zac Bears]: I think it's also where the sidewalk. Is between those 2 sites so is this the sidewalk to cross that like.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_18]: That intersection is if you're heading towards Wegmans is that the area that you're heading towards.

[Zac Bears]: Toyota's on the right, then there's a right turn at Colonial Volkswagens right there.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_18]: I'll absolutely bring it to their attention. Yeah, I can't make any representations as to how it'll be handled or if anybody's looking at it right now, but Asbury takes this very seriously. I know when I was back here in the summer, there was mention of trucks stopping and turning around to unload vehicles in the middle of the night. That was something they took very seriously. I'll bring this to their attention, have them run it up the flagpole, and see what can be done.

[Zac Bears]: And there's a new car wash back there too, so there's a lot more traffic coming in and out of there. Colonial Volkswagen is storing vehicles on one side of the private way, and I'm pretty sure that because it's a private way and not a public, if this was a public way, I think city engineering would have said you have to do it very specifically this way, but because it's a private way, you know, you didn't have to be up to the same standards.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_18]: Yeah, I will absolutely bring that back to my client to the extent it's their property. We'll see what we can do about it. Thank you. No problem.

[Zac Bears]: Any further questions for the petitioner? All right. On a motion to approve by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by. Seconded by Vice President Lazzaro. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Kelly? Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilman Lee? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro and President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes. I'm in the affirmative, none the negative. The motion passes. Thank you.

[Rich Eliseo]: Thank you so much.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_18]: Have a great night, everyone. All right.

[Zac Bears]: Motions, orders, and resolutions. 26-101, offered by Councilor Tseng, resolution to amend the Code of Ordinances, Section 14-315, do not knock, registry Councilor Tseng.

[Justin Tseng]: A resident reached out to me and she had said that she'd registered for our NONOC registry, but that solicitors kept coming and she was worried about a number of things. I think at the end of the day, it's about having peace and quiet at home in your neighborhood. she wanted to know why the registry wasn't working. So in reading the ordinance text and then last week in the chambers, Clerk Alicio and I talked about it a little bit. There's a kind of miscommunication in City Hall, or it's really with the police department. And there's some kind of gaps in our ordinance as well. And I looked at what a more modernized ordinance would look like and what this ordinance looks like. And there are, I think, about three gaps. First one being that the registry's given to solicitors when they get their license and only then. So if you register next week, Every solicitor licensed last month has a list that doesn't include you. So they're not getting up-to-date lists. And no one's violating the ordinance, it's just that the list that they have is old. The second gap is that the enforcement falls on the individual canvasser and not the company. So that's a kind of mismatch with other municipalities. So a canvasser who gets that fine, if they were to get a fine, would then go back to their employer and then tell them about it, but then nothing would happen to the company, so there's no kind of impact on the company, who should be the ones responsible there. And then there's a third gap in unlicensed solicitors, where people could be operating in the city without a license at all, which they really should be having, and our ordinance is actually just silent about whether they're bound by the registry or not. The answer right now is unclear. So the proposals in the resolution closes the three gaps that I've mentioned. They're trying to, the goal I think is to update the registry a bit more and increase communication between here and to the police department, which is oftentimes where the solicitors and businesses go for their lists. And so for me, in my opinion, this is a small procedural fix that tries to get at what we have tried, what we're trying to do. But I'm happy to hear from Councilors about what we think our next steps should be, whether we refer this to a committee or whether we pass it. I know I'd also like to invite Clerk Lucio to provide any kind of input or any ideas that you might have. But I don't want to put you on the spot.

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

[Liz Mullane]: Thank you for putting this together. I appreciate, you know, responding to a direct constituent complaint on this. I was wondering if it could be possible to move it to committee. I had some questions on some of the amendments. On the amendment, too, about the employer liability for employee violations in terms It looks like if they made, if there's one person that does it, that it's a one-year license revocation, and that just seems maybe a bit extreme or a bit harsh on the first try, maybe there could be a way to look at that and try to see if there's, a second or third or something. It just seems like a very harsh. And then the third one was just on the amendment around the imposing a $300 per offense fine on it. I was just curious, like, who would be in charge of collecting that? Like, where would that lie? How would that kind of figure itself out? So I don't know if that's something here to answer those questions or to look at it at committee, just to kind of flesh some of that out in there.

[Zac Bears]: up.

[Rich Eliseo]: So as far as the fines go, those are issued through the police department. They're the ones who issue the fines, so the fines will be paid basically through the police department. They don't come to our office at all. We don't see them. I don't know if they end up eventually at the tax collectors. But I guess it eventually ends up at the tax collectors into some account that they have, like we do with all our other accounts.

[Liz Mullane]: Amendment 2 in terms of the one-year license piece of it with a violation, if that's typical or it just seems pretty extreme.

[Justin Tseng]: If I could, through the President, I'm pretty sure with that one, I just found it from another municipality. I actually, I think, I think you make a good point. That, that seems a bit strong. And I'm very happy for a committee to look at this. I, actually, part of the reason why I didn't put it in the refer to committee section is because this could fit into so many different committees, and I don't want to overload certain committees. So if people, if Councilors have recommendations about which committee to send this to, I'm very happy to hear that.

[Liz Mullane]: I don't know which would be the best which would make the most sense.

[Emily Lazzaro]: We don't have a legislative committee right. We don't. Before I thought harder about it because because Councilor Tseng did did mention police. Councilor Slank did mention police it could be public health or public health and community safety if it's it's not really the community safety.

[Justin Tseng]: It's not really and the thing is technically I looked on our website with the committees and like the the part of the code of ordinances where this comes from technically corresponds with planning and permitting but we have so many meetings. Oh my god we have so much in planning and permitting.

[Zac Bears]: I could send it to the subcommittee on licensing, permitting and signs.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Maybe that's it. Maybe that's it. The last subcommittee. It makes a lot of sense as something that's like licensing. I remember when I worked in the State House.

[Zac Bears]: I will say it's a subcommittee of planning and permitting.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Oh, but great.

[Zac Bears]: All right. Anything else on this?

[Emily Lazzaro]: Well, I was just going to, yeah, I was going to say something about maybe it should be something that's in community safety, but it really isn't. It's something that's much more related to licensing that you would talk about when somebody is getting like, because it seems like something that happens when a solicitor is getting their license, I guess.

[Zac Bears]: License to knock on your door and sell you stuff.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Yeah, exactly. That's perfect. Yeah.

[Zac Bears]: All right.

[Emily Lazzaro]: I appreciate I appreciate Councilor Cheng bringing this forward and being responsive to a resident.

[Rich Eliseo]: Sorry. There's also. Sorry Mr. President. Mr. Clerk. There's also a part in the ordinance that you may want to look into too as far as. the background checks and all that stuff with the police department. They no longer do background checks. The state is actually responsible for issuing the hawker peddlers licenses. So they just go off of that. They no longer have to go and apply through the police department. The only thing they have to do is just inform the police department now that they are going canvassing. So the police department does not issue background checks. They do not issue IDs from what I understand. So that part of the ordinance too is also very outdated.

[Justin Tseng]: Got it. Should we just add that on to the motion to look at that part of the ordinance as well? Sure.

[Zac Bears]: Councilor Callahan.

[Anna Callahan]: Thanks. I was going to say something very similar to what Councilwoman Lane said, so I want to back up her words. I'd love to see it go to committee. I think the license of committee is perfect. And could we see like a little bit more traditional red line? I can't tell if like all underlined things are additions and there are no redactions.

[Justin Tseng]: Yes, that's true. That is the fact. Okay, thank you. That actually clarifies some of it. Nothing taken out. It's just things added in.

[Anna Callahan]: And so this $300 fine and the one-year revocation of a license, that is not new.

[Justin Tseng]: That is old. I'd have to check.

[Anna Callahan]: Okay. So that would be great to just understand exactly what it is that's being added and changed. And I'd love to see it go to committee. Those were really the same concerns that I had that it seemed quite that like you get one person knocking on the wrong door, which I have to say, when I've knocked on doors, like I've occasionally literally just knocked on the wrong door. I, you know, read the number wrong or something. And so that does happen. And then suddenly your whole license is being revoked for a year. That seems a little harsh.

[Justin Tseng]: Yes. Those are in the current ordinance, I just checked. So the one year ratification and $300 are in the current ordinance.

[Anna Callahan]: Well, good thing we're going to look at this then, because that seems harsh.

[Zac Bears]: Well, just to be clear, this would not apply to a political. Yes. I know, I understand that.

[Anna Callahan]: I'm just saying, like, as someone who has knocked on doors, you know, if you're a commercial, not a political canvasser, like, you might accidentally knock on the wrong door.

[Unidentified]: Scarpello Solar, for example.

[George Scarpelli]: I'm glad you're carrying this.

[Anna Callahan]: That's it for me. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: All right. Thank you, Councilor Callahan. On the motion to refer to Subcommittee on Licensing Permitting and Signs and also review the background checks element of hawker and peddler licenses by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Kelly? Yes. Councilor Leming?

[Matt Leming]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Malay? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? No.

[Unidentified]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro? Aye. And President Pierce?

[Zac Bears]: No. Sixty for everyone in the negative motion passes. Almost had two. Communications from the Mayor, 26-102, Board and Commission Appointments. We have Community Garden Commission, Linda Arrini, Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board, Kayla Lesson, Zoning Board of Appeals, Mary Lee. We have received applications and or resumes for all three appointees. I believe Kayla is a reappointment to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Mary is a reappointment to the ZBA. I'm not 100% sure if Linda is a reappointment or not. Appointment for one year expiring in 2027. Do we have any questions from members of the council on the appointments? On the motion to approve by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by? Seconded by Councilor Malauulu. Mr. Clerk, please call.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan? Yes. Councilor Leming?

[Matt Leming]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Maloney? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro? Yes. And President Pierce?

[Zac Bears]: Yes. I have an affirmative and a negative. The motion passes. 26-103, donation acceptance. We got a donation of $1,000 to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion by Stop and Shop, and they're willing to donate $100. worth of items per event, whether you request City Council approval for up to $1,000. In this case, you won't be able to come before us for each donation. On the motion to approve by Councilor Scarpelli, seconded by Councilor Tseng. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan? Yes. Councilor Leming? Yes. Councilor Malayne? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro? Yes. And President Bears?

[Zac Bears]: Yes 70 affirmative none the negative the motion passes and we have now the 26-104. And if we could make Director O'Connor a co-host please adoption of updated hazard mitigation plan 2025. Submitted by Mayor Brandon Hearn. Dear President Bears and City Councilors, I respect the request and recommend your audible body approve the enclosed resolution adopting the City of Medford Hazard Mitigation Plan 2025 update. This is a lengthy process. There was a lengthy process relating to this plan, but only one round of review and revisions were required by both MEMA, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, and Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, after the initial draft was submitted in January 2026. The final revised plan was submitted to MEMA April 15th. It received FEMA approval, pending adoption on May 6th with final approval of the plan this year, but we will not have to renew the plan again until 2030. Final approval allows us to move forward with applications for federal grant funds that allow for mitigation projects. A copy is sent earlier via email on April 15th and is available on the city's website. Health Director, Marianne O'Connor, will be in attendance to address any questions. Respectfully submitted, Brianna Lingle, current mayor. Hi, Director O'Connor. Thank you for being here. If you want to tell us a little bit more about the plan and we will adopt, you know, we'll take a vote formally on the resolution that was included. I'm not going to read that out loud, but it is in the record and it is what we will submit.

[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Terrific. Thank you. Good evening, President Villescaz and City Councilors. I am here tonight to respectfully request and recommend that your Honorable Body adopt the City of Medford's Hazard Mitigation Plan 2025 update. I know I sent it to you all and it is a lengthy plan and I do appreciate your time reviewing it. The process was long, over a year and a half, but I believe the plan is really informative. I think it's laid out in an easy to read format and it is very comprehensive. So the hazard mitigation plan is basically required by the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. It's a five-year roadmap for reducing impacts of hazards like floods, storms, and extreme weather. It highlights protections and projects and actions that the city can take ahead of time to reduce risks to human life and injury, as well as infrastructure. And it's basically there to help minimize loss and damage from natural disasters. We are required to do this by FEMA in order to receive federal funding going forward for any mitigation projects. The good news is once this is approved and adopted, we do not have to revisit it again until 2030. The approval of funding, so this is an update to the 2017 plan, which you're like, well, that's not five years. The little thing called COVID happened in between, but also we did actually receive approval for funding to move forward with this in 2022. We just did not actually receive the funding until close to 2024. So that's why it's been such a delay as well. But a big part of this whole plan was really community engagement. We went out there, we did surveys, we did community meetings, we had what we called conversation groups, and those were basically with community-based organizations like the Senior Center, the Walnut Street Center, West Medford Community Center, the Family Network folks. So we did a lot of outreach. We did also several community meetings where we gathered input as well. And I think if you look at the end of the plan, it's a lot of information about what folks were concerned about and what their comments were and what we tried to address. So I really am proud of the community engagement that we did. Really what the residents did emphasize was the need for financial supports, including home improvements to prepare for hazards, reliable emergency communications, especially for people with limited English literacy, stronger neighborhood support systems for seniors, caregivers, and people with chronic health conditions, and better coordination between city and trusted community-based organizations. So we took all of that into consideration as we were doing the plan. So FEMA is pretty prescriptive as to what we have to include in the plan. But some of what we did as far as our natural hazards include flooding events, storm events, extreme temperature, geological hazards. And, you know, the geological hazards probably are the lowest risks because they include like brush fire, brush fires, droughts, earthquakes and landslides. But, you know, the most common for us would be droughts, of course, because it streams out water supplies, but our highest risks are really the flooding events. We've had several of those over the past years, and storm events are moderate to risk as well. So like winter storms with disrupt power, and you know Northeasterners and, and that kind of thing. We don't see tornadoes typically here but we have known in the past few years they have kind of come about in local areas. So I think you know I certainly don't want to go through the 200 page plan. But if you have questions, I guess I just would point that the real need of the plan is probably around page 167 with our new updated hazard mitigation goals. And also, you know, in there as well as the status of our previous mitigation goals from our 2017 plan. And most of those were actually met. And if they weren't met, they were deprioritized because they were no longer deemed as being, you know, important or necessary. So I'm proud to say that most of that was done, but we did find kind of a gap in the way those 2017 mitigation goals were put forth, like they were more done like limited and departmental areas or silos. And so what we're proposing going forward with this plan is to really kind of bring in a group or a team of community mitigation, hazard mitigation folks, and to really work on this going forward as a team, and making sure that we're not just operating in silos. So I think that's important. But yeah, I'm happy to take any questions or any more thoughts. I think you will find the response to some of the public comment period towards the end of the plan, at the very end of the plan, is very interesting and informative. So I invite you to look at that. But certainly, you know, get to answer any questions. And thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Director O'Connor. Do we have any questions on the hazard mitigation plan? Vice President Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: I have no questions. I appreciate the presentation. And to be honest, I trust Marianne O'Connor with my life and most of my possessions. So, motion to approve.

[Zac Bears]: Most. Thank you. Marion, do you know which ones she doesn't trust you with?

[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

[Zac Bears]: All right. On the motion of Vice President Lazzaro to approve seconded by seconded by Councilor Kelly. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Kelly. Councilor Leming.

[Matt Leming]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Scarpelli, Councilor Tseng, Vice-President Lazzaro, President Bears.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, 70 affirmative, none negative, the motion passes. And we adopted this resolution that's in everybody's packet. That's the resolution.

[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you very much.

[Zac Bears]: All right, thank you, Mary Ann. All right, 26.106 submitted by Mayor Brando, current amendment to the personnel ordinance, tree warden. Dear President Bears and city councilors, I respect the request and recommend the city council approve the following amendment to the revised ordinances, chapter 66 entitled personnel. Article 2 entitled reserve the city's classification and compensation plan formally included as Article 2, Section 6631 to 6640 by adopting the following change, Amendment A, the language of PW17 shall be amended to remove the following position and PW19 shall be amended to include the following position, Tree Warden, Human Resources Director Lisa Crowley will be available to speak on this request, respectfully submitted, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Mayor. And this is, so this is increasing the pay for Tree Warden from PW17 to PW19 and I'll recognize Lisa Crowley.

[Lisa Crowley]: Thank you, president bears and, um, counsel, um, mostly for, um, the reason that we want to increase the calf is because, um, Aggie Tudin, who has now, um, retired was working at a 35 hour a week, um, position, and we are moving this to a 40 hour a week position to align more with the DPW groups. And essentially moving this to a PW19 will give us a broader stroke to get somebody who's qualified and who is also an arborist. And this position will also increase the tree warding to become head of the forestry division, which is a division of the Department of Public Works. This was presented to us by the commissioner of DPW and supporting his needs to have this position become head of a forestry division and to increase the hours from 35 to 40. We felt moving this to a PW19 would be beneficial to the DPW group and to any candidate that may apply. So we ask that you approve this movement so that we can go ahead and find the best qualified person for the position that we can. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you. I'll go to Councilor Callahan, then Councilor Scarpelli, then Vice President Lazzaro.

[Anna Callahan]: Thank you. First, I really want us to recognize the wonderful work of our tree warden of many years, Aggie Tudin, who has kept our, you know, trees beautiful and, you know, chosen the different kinds of trees that get planted where and really kind of taken care of them for many years. Really appreciate her service. And then I did know about this, this desired change, and I really am very excited that the position of tree warden will sort of be integrated more into the forestry department. It's complicated, but I I do think that it's really gonna serve our forestry department to be able to have, you know, a licensed arborist who is part of the hierarchy of the forestry department and able to, you know, sort of direct the forestry department additionally. So I'm very much in support of this. Grateful for the work of our two-year student and excited for the position as it moves forward.

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

[George Scarpelli]: I apologize, Mr. President. Councilor Callahan raised an important fact that in the past, not having the certification of arborist kind of limited us as much as Aggie did and she went above and beyond. I mean, nobody was better, nobody respected and really drove the initiative. of protecting a tree canopy better than Aggie, but I think there were some times, especially the beginning of my journey as a Councilor, that was a little hiccup. So I can see where it's important to have that financial piece in place so we have that person that has all the certifications which won't, limit that position moving forward for anything we need at DPW or with the power, because I know that there were some concerns when you had to take down a tree and some people having liberties where you needed that arborist to come in to make that final decision. So I would appreciate Councilor Cowen bringing that information through. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Any further discussion? Vice President Lazzaro.

[Emily Lazzaro]: Motion to approve.

[Zac Bears]: On the motion to approve by Vice President Lazzaro, seconded by Councilor Callahan. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Callahan? Yes. Councilor Leming?

[Matt Leming]: Yes.

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilor Malayne? Yes. Councilor Scarpelli? Yes. Councilor Tseng? Yes. Vice President Lazzaro and President Pierce.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, 70 for the negative, the motion passes. Thank you, Lisa. Public participation. To participate outside of Zoom, please email rlc.medfordma.gov. If you'd like to participate, please come to the podium or raise your hands on Zoom. You will have three minutes. And if you can provide your name for the record, please. Floor is yours.

[Micah Kesselman]: Michael Kesselman, 499 Main Street. Um, two things. First, I just want to really, um, I want to make sure that it isn't forgotten that we are still waiting on the, um, plan, uh, to deal with ice or any sort of acknowledgement of it as being an issue in the city that the mayor promised us four months ago now. Um, yeah, four months ago now and nothing has actually. come out of that other than actually backpedaling from plans. ICE is still out there. They're still snatching people up. It's still happening on a regular basis. It's not as talked about as much anymore because the current DHS scumbag's a little bit more tactical. But it's still an attack on our city and our neighbors. The other thing I want to, sorry. The other thing I want to make sure to bring up is that we are just coming out of a week of severe and, frankly, really scary attacks on Muslim communities across the country. The big one being San Diego and the horrific terrorist attack on the San Diego Islamic Cultural Center, but there were multiple, that thwarted attacks planned after that throughout the week as well. This, you know, looking at this from a historical perspective, it's not that sort of thing that just, you know, happens and then goes away. I mean, and we are in a city where, within our own city, we have groups that I will not, name, but we have groups that have put out incredibly public, Islamophobic, hateful, bigoted nonsense right on our main streets and haven't even tried to come to terms with that. literally being sued by groups, you guys just had an executive meeting about it, that have used explicitly Islamophobic language in the media in describing this lawsuit and what's going on. It bears recognizing And I don't know what the answer is and I don't know what you guys can do specifically as Councilors or even what the mayor can do or anyone can do. But I think it needs to be recognized and we need to show that we are here for our neighbors and we'll protect them from frankly, this bullshit. So that's it for me. Thanks. Thank you.

[Zac Bears]: Is there any further public participation at this time? Please raise your hand.

[Matt Leming]: Sound cut out for me.

[Zac Bears]: Councilor Leming?

[Matt Leming]: Yes. Wait, wait, sorry. What's the vote?

[Zac Bears]: George Scarpelli for Council President. We'll take that as a yes, seven in the affirmative, none in the negative. It's a motion to adjourn, Matt.

[Matt Leming]: Okay, yeah, good. That's what I thought, but since we're voting for George for council president, I'm, yeah, sure, why not?

[Rich Eliseo]: Councilman Lane. Councilor Schellfeld. Councilor Tseng. Vice President Lazzaro. And president beers.

[Zac Bears]: Yes, I mean the affirmative none the negative the motion passes this meeting is adjourned