[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street, just real quick. I just wanted to point out, I know that this is Debbie Downer time, but it's a hidden tax. When the water is put on through the water rate payers, it's another hidden tax, and it gets around Prop 2.5. And I just wanted to make everybody aware of that. I know nobody wants to hear that because it's not good news, but it's a hidden tax. And so that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. A couple of weeks ago, one of the houses on my street got flipped. And while everything was above board, I'm not complaining about the way it was handled. It was within the law. But I just want to make people aware of a couple of things. First of all, is the human interest. the human side of it, which is that I would encourage mother-in-law apartments or father-in-law apartments or sons or whatever, because it's better than warehousing them in a nursing home or whatever. If you can't afford $5,000 to $6,000, $7,000 a month, then you end up farming them out into large facilities. So that's number one. Number two, developers come in here. They swoop in like vultures. This is a hot city right now. It's been hot for three or four or five years. And if I collected all of the postcards and letters that I get from real estate people and developers, I would look like Santa Claus. I would have a bag filled with them. They come in, and in this case, it happened to me on my street. Not that it's going to make or break the city, the street, that one house was converted to two condos that was originally a single-family house. They had a mother-in-law apartment, and they got permission to turn it into a two-family. This is a single family. They took out all the green grass in the back so that they could have the parking that's required. So now you lost the green space. And I'll get to that, but I have a chip on my shoulder about developers. So I want to get that off my chest. Developers come in here from outside. They flip at the house, and they leave. that's great for them, you know. And the other thing is, you guys were talking about water. Development doesn't mean it's good for me and my street. When they built across the way, they pitched the driveway, so now the water came into my basement. So I used to have a little flower bed, not much, a little mulch, little flowers, little few rocks with the bricks around it. I had to pave over that because I had to raise my pitch so that now it goes back down to the street, and then down the street, so it was great for them. The other thing, the third point, and I'm trying to be quick, I know it's late, but I want to make you aware that, the third point was, conflicts, okay? Conflicts between neighbors, fences make good neighbors, and when you have a single family house that had the second floor turned into, a mother-in-law apartment, which at least they're family, so they're connected, they're relational, it's not so bad. But when you turn, the base of the house is going to be bigger than the upstairs, then you have to put in new, totally new boilers, totally new infrastructure, and who's going to be responsible to shovel the driveway in the winter? If you look at that property, They, they're going to the back of the house. They could have arguments over who's going to shovel. They could have arguments over paying the insurance bill, the insurance bill. Now, sure. Go ahead.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. And I do agree with that except for one thing. If you're dealing with just two people or two entities and one doesn't pay their side of the bill, that insurance policy gets canceled if the other person doesn't pay for it. So these are conflicts that you're bringing on for no good reason. You do not have to, and I thank you for your point, but you do not have to do this. This is optional. This is unlike my house where it changed from a family situation where I had my aunt downstairs, and everybody was relational. We didn't have a contract growing up. There was no contract. And then I had to rent it out. It's something that I had to do in order to survive, right? But this is an option to turn a single-family house with a mother-in-law or father-in-law apartment into a two-family or a two-condo, because now you're adding more stress to the family. That doesn't have to happen. But it's just because the developer wants to make more money. This is a money incentive for somebody living outside the city. And it's completely unnecessary to have to do it this way. It's great for the developer. They make money. But then the conflicts that can happen between these two condos when you do it with a two-family house, too. It doesn't matter if it's a single family with a mother-in-law. or a two-family house. When you do this, if one partner doesn't keep up their grass, you're on top of that person. It's bad enough when they're next door and there's 10 or 12 feet between the property lines. Now you're literally living up and down, and you're thumping, and there's no hierarchy of authority. And it would bury you in legal costs You're one person up against the other person, and they both have legal standing in the same way. I have a 22-page contract with my tenant to protect me. And unlike when I was growing up, I didn't have to worry about putting everything in writing. Today, you have to put everything in writing. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is. And the feel of the house is different than when it was relatives. I used to go into my aunt's kitchen and right into the fridge and grab a Popsicle. That feel is gone. And that is a loss to me, you know. So, but it's unnecessary growth or whatever you want to call it. Sell it as a single family house. There's no problem. You just don't make as much profit. That's the difference. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you, Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. If the mayor listens to me on this, she's going to get a lot of hard phone calls and some emails. Unfortunately, she has started a bad precedent for the city. While I appreciate the intent of public awareness of certain city-sponsored events, posting them on City Hall's outside wall is an inappropriate place to display such information. City Hall is the seat of our government, not a billboard for city-wide information. I find it cheapens the city in a few ways. One, it unknowingly sets up favorite versus non-favorite groups. While some are vocal, There may be other groups that feel intimidated to speak in opposition of the quote, favorite group, which has already attained preference in City Hall. This unseen bias can create unnecessary resentment. It can pit one group against the other. Eventually, we may have two groups who will oppose each other in concept, wanting to be represented on City Hall, i.e., pro-life versus pro-choice. This is a dangerous practice. It detracts from the visual image of the building itself. Our City Hall was built in a time of magnificent architecture. The banners detract from the U.S. flag, which should be the only thing on a person's mind as they pass City Hall. Yes, the MIA flag is there as well, for a reason that you should already also be thinking about. Three, the banners are distracting to drivers. Four, and most importantly, it detracts from the true purpose of City Hall. to be the people's house, the building which holds the right of everyone to enter and express their views in the way that they would like to be governed. We should revere this building as peoples all around the world would die to have a building such as this, where their voices could be heard, not to be an advertisement space. I understand why the gay community wanted to see the rainbow flag up on City Hall. It was simply for affirmation, which is an understandable goal. So since I am asking the mayor not to put up the flag in June, I feel obligated to make at least three other suggestions to affirm the gay population in Medford. They are as follows. We can interview people who are gay on a TV show through the new access station We can write a book on gays who live in Medford, and I would recommend Carl Seberg to top the list. We can rent the Chevalier Theater and hold a celebration of gay life through a musical. We can organize a pizza night for gays at a certain restaurant and invite straights who want to support them, et cetera. I hope that these other avenues will be received in the spirit that I offer them. If the city would like to sponsor something, they could hold a night at the library in June where they have readings on gay material or have gay speakers. These are actually more grassroots methods and require the gay community to advocate for themselves. And seeing this, it will commit more people to participate in the rest of the community. And by example, they will lead and be better received. In conclusion, I am therefore respectfully asking you to take down any and all ads for future events or community communications. For they disrespect the purpose and solemnity in which this building deserves. This is not to say that any of the causes are unworthy of respect. This is just not the place for it. Thank you for considering my request.
[Jeanne Martin]: Present.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And as I stated last week, when you point a finger at one person, you're pointing three back at yourself. And somebody wiser than me said, when you make a complaint, when you criticize, you should have at least three solutions ready for that to solve the problem. So in that spirit, I rewrote the Medford's proclamation. Whereas our nation was originally established for the purpose of expanding the British Empire and for the purpose of supplying England with its natural resources, it thereby established a few key colonies in Massachusetts and Virginia, Medford being among them. Whereas the British colonists, in order to achieve their goal, had but one obstacle, the Pawtuckets, who were already living here. So the British colonists began taking the land of the native peoples, and in some cases enslaving them, while others died of disease and famine, Medford being among them. Whereas the British Empire was a participant in both the practice of indentured servitude, and the institution of African slavery, Medford being among them, we therefore acknowledge that our nation did not start out as a perfect one. Whereas the colonists eventually revolted against British rule, the grievances not settled, and on April 19th, 1775, 59 of Medford's men fought in the battles of Lexington and Concord, resulting in war between England and the burgeoning United States, having won their independence. yet still carrying remnants of its old colonial institutions, slavery among them. Whereas, the colonists became visionaries, having just been released as subjects of a king. They therefore enshrined certain individual protections from the government, knowing the potential abuses of government as they drew up our country's US Constitution. Whereas, it was the U.S. Constitution itself that allowed our own Medford abolitionists, Prince Hall and Lydia Maria Child, the ability to use this most powerful of all government instruments through the enshrined rights of speech, press, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Whereas, Sergeant William Lawrence was the first of many volunteers to give his life for Medford and our nation in the Battle of Bull Run during the Civil War as a member of the Lawrence Light Guard. Whereas, our Medford citizens and soldiers were both instrumental in arguing in the greatest of all debates in this nation, the unresolved issue of human bondage. Hall and Child led the consciousness of the majority in favor of the minority and giving rise to the Civil War, which freed our nation of its original design and liberated all peoples held against their will by adding the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Almost done. Therefore, we who are fortunate enough to live in this most blessed of cities, knowing and understanding our history, are especially dedicated to justice for all. We in Medford know the power of one voice and all that it can accomplish. We in Medford have lived among those who have laid down their lives in the pursuit of our nation's freedoms and cherish those rights unequivocally. Having shed blood in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, to defeat tyranny externally and internally, we are dedicated to protecting the rights of individuals to live without fear of persecution, no matter their race or any other minority designation. We value the individual as a whole person to be respected, freed from fear, and hold up the ability of the individual to live life to their fullest. Medford values all thoughts and perspectives, regardless of how unpopular the person is who states them, or how unpopular the concept may be. We believe all voices are welcome. So thank you very much, and I'll give this to the mayor tomorrow.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. and I'm in a great mood tonight because I played pickleball, and I never played pickleball before, and it was a lot of fun. All right, thank you. I'm not trying to be adversarial, but educational. After attending the Mayor's State of the City Address, I'm once again compelled by conscience to challenge Mea Burke's political view, which this council signed off on, as it is inaccurate and harmful, as it denies our legacy in reality. Medford was discovered as a, discovered in quotes, as a result of the Sprague brothers finding the existing footpaths of the Indian inhabitants from Salem to Charlestown in 1629. They crossed the Saugus Plains into Malden, and then to the edge of the Middlesex Fells, all the way to what would become Medford Square. The square is a result of the continued use of this area as it was the narrowest point in the river at low tide for crossing over, as originally used by the Indian population. Just on the other side was another Indian footpath up to present day Winter Hill, and from there the Sprague brothers continued down to Charlestown. In 1630, the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Matthew Craddock, London merchant and dedicated Puritan, formed his own peculiar plantation, which became our city today. It was seen as peculiar because unlike Cambridge, it was not set up as a town, but a private plantation. The original people whose land started to be taken away from them by these English intruders were known as the Pawtuckets. That was the name of the native tribe, the Pawtuckets. A man named Sagamore John was chief of the Pawtuckets. Sagamore John and his people died of smallpox in 1633. In 1644, the Indians remaining in Massachusetts put themselves under the English government. Once there had been about 20,000 Indians within 50 miles of Plymouth alone. By the close of the century, there were only about 4,000. We know that by the 18th century, not all residents were free. And that's in Medford. Blacks, Indians, and forgive me for using the term mulattoes, that is what is written in the history book that I got this from. It's called Medford on the Mystic, and it was by Carl Seberg, who lived in West Medford on Madison Street. I knew him because I took care of his aunt. Amazing man. Okay, what was I? Okay, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Servants, so these servants were held in slavery. In a census of Negro slaves in Massachusetts in 1755, there were 34 slaves over the age of 16 living in Medford. 27 were men and seven were women. By 1764, the slave population in Medford had increased to 49. And in case you were wondering if northern slavery was any better than southern slavery, think again. Medford Selectman in 1734 voted, quote, all Negro, Indian, and mulatto servants that are found abroad without leave and not on their master's business shall be taken up and whipped to 10 stripes on their naked body by any freeholder of the town and be carried to that respective master's. and said masters shall be obligated to pay the sum of 2S6D in money to said person that shall do so." Unquote. Slavery existed in Medford until 1787, when in the case of the Commonwealth versus Jenison, this institution was finally outlawed. Our nation was not founded on the, quote, fundamental principle that all persons are entitled to equal protection under law, unquote. The Declaration of Independence, paragraph 2, When Thomas Jefferson wrote, quote, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, he currently owned 175 black slaves, including five of his own children, by Sally Hemings.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. Thank you. In all fairness, this problem isn't the fault of the current mayor, but it is her bullet to bite, and the city's as well. I appreciate that she is taking this issue as seriously as it needs to be. Lack of building maintenance caused all of our facilities to collapse. As you recall, we got the new schools for free, and that spoiled us. Credit goes to this city council for bringing light to the DPW. It was rebuilt. for about $14 million. And again, this council started pushing for a new police department, which was assumed to go hand-in-hand with the fire department or headquarters. But remember, a mayor can do nothing without the express consent of the people, even when that consent comes in the form of silence. We allow our government to do what it wants through our voice of complaint or through our mission of responsibility. The people themselves have started demanding a new station since becoming aware of the unacceptable conditions of the current facility. So I would like to thank the citizens of Medford for, for they will be footing the bill for this expensive. And I know that, uh, expense and then I know life in Medford will improve as a result. So thank you. Without a police force, civil order would break down into chaos. As I have stated before, police are the second priority. only to that of the governing body. And the DPW is third. For without clear road access between private and public property lines, a complete halt to all community commerce would cease. All community activity as well. Without a police, that's it. Well, while the history of the fire department generally started out as an all-volunteer force, they have grown. not only in scope, but in professionalism. I will attempt here to let them speak for themselves through the Cincinnati force, and I shortened it. Emergency response. Emergency response calls can come at any time of the day or night and must be responded to immediately. Sleep may be frequently interrupted. Emergency calls can cover many things. Brush fires, structural fires, automobile accidents, life-threatening medical emergencies, non-life-threatening medical emergencies, false alarms, and other hazardous situations all must be responded to with the same speed and professionalism. Firefighters must immediately evaluate each emergency situation upon arrival. including properties of the fire. Probability of the fire spreading, needs of victims, medical conditions, effects of weather conditions, et cetera, in order to effectively deal with the emergency. Fire scenes. Firefighting is a dangerous occupation. Firefighters must enter burning structures. Once inside the structure, firefighters must search for victims, the source of the fire and ways to extinguish the fire. In this process, firefighters are exposed to extreme heat, smoke, fumes, and structural damages. Firefighting is very physically demanding. Firefighters carry 80 to 100 pounds of equipment, such as hoses, axes, ladders, chainsaws, and extinguishers, into and around the fire scene to rescue victims and extinguish the fire. This may include climbing many flights of stairs. Firefighters make forced entries into ground structures by cutting locks, breaking doors, windows, or roofs as needed to gain access to or ventilated structures. This may involve using hand tools such as axes, sledgehammers, battering rams, and power tools. Firefighters use ladders and work at heights to rescue victims and fight fires. They must raise, lower, rotate, and exit and extend these ladders. Ladders are at times used for purposes other than climbing, such as bridges, battering rams, and carrying victims. Firefighters occasionally are overcome with smoke and are burned while putting out fires. Emergency medical treatment. Firefighters now perform the tasks previously done by paramedics. Ordinarily, firefighters will be canvassed for volunteers to perform paramedic duties. However, firefighters may also be assigned to these duties. All firefighters are required to to qualify as emergency medical technicians as a condition of probation. Firefighters must assess a victim's general condition by checking pulse, respiration, breathing, and bleeding, and consciousness, et cetera. This will require physical contact with the victims, who will often be bleeding from open wounds and or have broken bones, and other severe injuries. Firefighters must use first aid and emergency medical techniques to treat victims to the best of their ability. Firefighters may also come into contact with victims who have died before they could be rescued, sometimes two. Victims will die despite the best efforts of firefighters. Firefighter paramedics and EMTs must obtain specific information from or about the victim, load the victim into the ambulance, stabilize the victim, to the best of their ability and care for victims on the way to the hospital. In addition, firefighter paramedics must often obtain more extensive information, draw blood samples, and discuss the case details with emergency room physicians. Rescue operations. Firefighters use systematic search and search procedures to try to find trapped victims without getting lost or trapped themselves. Firefighters free trapped victims from a variety of situations, including car crashes, cave-ins, structure collapses, flood channels, chemical spills, and all kinds of unusual occurrences. Firefighters may be required to use special tools to accomplish a rescue. After locating and freeing the victim, firefighters must determine the safest path of evacuation. Firefighters may be required to lift and or carry the victim with or without assistance in dangerous situations. Other duties. While not out on call, firefighters must constantly work at keeping the station and equipment in excellent condition. Much of the firefighter's time is spent cleaning and scrubbing living quarters, including floors and restrooms, the fire station and the equipment. Firefighters often come into contact with hazardous and infectious materials. Firefighters conduct inspections for fire code violations. Firefighters may have to educate the general public in fire safety and fire prevention techniques. I'm almost done. Thank you for your patience. Personal considerations. Firefighters work 24 consecutive hours of shifts, living at the station for the entire period. Firefighter shifts are organized on the following schedule, 24 hours on, 48 hours off duty. While on duty, firefighters live and sleep at the station. Firefighters, male and female, sleep in dormitory-style quarters. Most stations do not have any physical barriers separating male and female facilities, including bath, bathing, and toilet areas, and rely on an occupied, not occupied system. Unlike the police department, who are an absolute requirement to ensure domestic tranquility or civil order, a fire department is not necessary. For as long as we are willing to lose lives and property, and that's the key, we don't even have to have one, as long as you're willing to accept that people will die in accidents and in fires. I hope that the city council doesn't agree with that, but it's the truth. Many towns in the United States use nothing more than a voluntary fire department. But if we are going to have a professional fire department, then we need to build the two headquarters together. Why? Logistically, both are first responders. Emergency calls sometimes require both agencies in synchronicity. both work around the clock, whether it is a car wreck or a gas leak. Both may be required to be on site at the same time. And even if we don't build the headquarters together, certain realities will still have to be faced on behalf of the fire department. One, a new fire headquarters. Two, their current headquarters is the only place where they can install and use special washers for turnout gear. Three, new training facility tower Also of note, Medford's Tower is used by other surrounding cities as well. They will lose the current storage for all their apparatus. And five, if they stay at the current location, a new heating system will have to be purchased as theirs is was in the old police basement. Our mayor has shown good faith by starting the real process of finally building out the long overdue police headquarters. she now has to step up again, just a little more, and add the fire headquarters with it or next to it. And I didn't even get into the whole, the new role, new role of the, new role of the fire departments. But anyway, thank you very much for listening and considering my thoughts.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. Thank you. In light of the fact that we have the fire department here, And the police department, I'd just like to say that these are people that don't toot their own horns. And both of them are needed and necessary by the city. And the fire department does a whole lot of things that we don't really give notice to until we need them. I worked in nursing homes, and when a patient was too heavy, fell out of the bed, we called the fire department because the aides couldn't pick him up and put him in the bed. They rolled him on a stretcher and lifted him up, four people, into the bed. A flood in their basement, a little old lady friend of mine called me. I went over there and I called the fire department and instantly they knew how to cut off the water. They do a whole lot of things that we need to appreciate. So I just want to say that. Okay. So I first need to acknowledge the great victory of the council on behalf of the people. We were instrumental in locking up the built out of the new police station, this council. This was no small accomplishment and the city will be much better off for it and with it. I would also like to thank the mayor for acknowledging the importance of this new station. I am sure that this was not an easy political sell and shows strength on her part. I would also like to thank the newcomers and the more liberal establishment in this city who met the majority of the city halfway. I know that that some of their expectations for city resources have been delayed. I thank you for your sacrifice. The police officers have just gotten a moral boost, morale boost, that will help them do their jobs better for you. And to the police officers, I now hold you more accountable to do the right thing. And when you are wrong, I expect better from you now. For the last five years, I have fought on behalf of this On behalf of you, from this podium and beyond, and I expect you to thank me by doing right by the people of this city. And finally, I thank the whole city for backing our police officers. Now for a more sensitive, but necessary request of the city. Since September 11th, 2001, we have been in a continuous war with a perverse version of Islam. And even more importantly, we have been hit here at home by jihadist-inspired lone wolves. While we need to continue our fight against this scourge, we must also be acutely aware of the innocent Muslims that have been and are caught up in the crossfire. As recently as January 29, 2017, a mosque in Quebec, Canada, was attacked by a hate-filled white man who equated Muslim with terrorist. Alex Bissonette murdered six innocent victims and injured another eight others while they were worshiping God. Quebec is only five hours away from here. An equivalency would be Boston to New York. Quebec borders Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. If you think this could not happen here, you are mistaken. We as a city have an obligation to defend our Muslim population from this misdirected violence. The problem we now we need to solve as a city is the misinterpretation or the misperception that all Muslims are guilty by association, which by definition is profiling. We have two objectives, to protect this religious minority from physical harm and to engage young Muslims in a way that prevents them from growing alienated, leaving them susceptible to radicalization. While it is easier for most of us to place Muslims in a box, it is not only unfair to them, it is unsafe for us. Many Muslim men and women have risked their lives in our war on terror and are living in the States because of that sacrifice. Quebec never saw it coming. I don't want Medford to miss the signs of religious hostility which can translate into violence. Just because we do not hear about the resentment doesn't mean it isn't there. I am therefore recommending the following, that we hire three new female police officers who will specialize in all racial harassment with an emphasis on Muslim sensitivity. I would prefer four for this task force, but I will take what I can get. Why women? This role will require trust in order to be effective, and men are less likely to gain it. Intuition is women's other long suit and irreplaceable skill. Women are also less likely to be called a racist, which male officers often fear being called this career-ending name. Women can also reach women and children in the community in ways that male officers are unable to. I believe at least one female officer who is also a mother would be another asset to this role. I am recommending at least two black women to work side by side with one white woman because, frankly, white women wouldn't be seen by a Muslim woman as having anywhere near the same experience as them. The department must also have access to a Muslim female contact who is considered an expert in their culture. This expert would be hired as an independent contractor when needed. These three women officers will be first and foremost sworn officers and will be counted in the total number of rank and file police personnel. but with a side specialty. I recommend them as new hires because, as you know, we are understaffed and, quite frankly, I don't want to take any more testosterone off the streets. If we were fully staffed, I might have suggested just switching them out. For those who would like to see women veterans hired, I applaud that recommendation. And if the city finds it in their budget to complete a proper search, I agree that this is the best route to go. Finding only two women on the Eastern Seaboard search is very achievable. Before you argue that this does not conform to the civil service exam process, I don't want to hear it. This country is at war, and local police departments are now faced with frontline combat responsibilities. The military discriminates all the time. An applicant can be too short for the Marines, too tall for the Navy, too fat for the Army, and too dumb for the Air Force. It is time for the civilian police departments to catch up with that reality. Ignore me, and innocent people get hurt. Without this new tool for a new era, our police department can't protect this religious minority, who, given the current climate, is reasonably at risk of receiving threats of harm, if not harm itself. It is our duty as a city to provide this protection with this new technique. And also, I'd just like to say that the Marines have also reinstituted their female engagement teams, which was very successful in Iraq and Afghanistan. Um, they were, they reinstituted that program in 2015 and 2015 because it was so successful. So thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Gene Martington coming straight. First, I want to thank Mr. Falco and I want to thank especially the police meetings that we've been held holding. I think it's wonderful. I think it's great that the police take it on the road because from what I hear from the police chief, it's gotten a much better, um, turnout by going to the different neighborhoods. So I think that's great. And I want to thank, uh, representative Barbara was there and, um, Mr. Knight was there, Mr. Marks was there, Mr. Falco and Mr. Caraviello were there, and you were at the last one there, Mr. Scarpelli. So thank you very much for being there, because it's important for the citizens and the police and, you know, the elected officials. I like politicians, but elected officials, be nice tonight. So this issue is, of course, the mayor knows that this is a big issue. That's not news. And this is a huge tool for the police department to use. It's so big that I'm going to say that it's worth hiring, instead of hiring a police officer or two police officers, if you do it right, it's worth one or two police officers. And I know the police aren't going to like that, but it is that big of a tool for the city to have organized traffic flow because it's such a huge issue. But this isn't just a financial issue. Okay. This is a cultural issue. And that's the one part of it that, that people, that it's going to cause an undercurrent. Because if you change the current patterns, like when they had that big snowstorm winter and they changed all those patterns to one-way streets in South Boston, the year that everybody learned how to snowdive in their yards, they realized that the patterns that they used for those emergencies turned out to be what they actually used going forward, because it created an ease in the flow of traffic. So if we create an ease in the flow of traffic, it's going to cause cultural changes in where you can park and everything else. So there's going to be a cultural shift that goes along with this. This isn't just about hiring. But I do agree that Mr. Knight, that whoever we hire, this is another point, whoever we hire needs to see the long game and be responsible for whatever happens at least five years out. So even if it's a consult or whatever, consultant, Or if it's permanent, they need to be here and held accountable for whatever happens at least five years out so that we can hold them accountable to say, you did this to us. Now we have a nest and everybody's going into the same direction. The other thing is that I think this is a common ground issue as well as a cultural issue. common ground in that I think all of the arteries should be fully examined. All of what we call emergency arteries should be fully examined. And if we need to extend the sidewalks out a little bit, because the precursor to Mr. Falco is actually Mr. Marks. He's been talking about traffic calming for three or four years now. And traffic calming is a huge issue too. So if we need to widen the sidewalks, this is actually a benefit to everyone in the city, all the people that like to walk by, um, not bikes, but, uh, wheelchairs and, um, strollers and pets. If you want to walk your dog down the street, if at least if we can do all of the emergency arteries and have them and, and, and I'm going to be nice, I'm really in a good mood. And if you want to put in those little tiny trees, you know, the little ones that don't have roots to them. As long as you have, the priority needs to be walkers, wheelchairs, and strollers. And then if there's enough room, you can even put in those little tiny trees that everybody likes. Because that'll bring about, if you walk, this is the positive part of the culture. If you widen the sidewalks, you talk to the neighbors. If people are outside in their neighborhoods, walking around on the sidewalks that are nice and clear, then people will get to know each other. And that is a positive, at least on the main arteries, anything we call an emergency artery in the winter. So those are my suggestions. Thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cummings Street. Thank you very much. First of all, I want to thank the mayor and commend her for doing, for looking at Medford Square. I think it's fantastic because Medford Square, the traffic pattern is an absolute nightmare. So I want to thank her for putting that as a top priority for the city. I think it's great and worthy and fantastic. I mean, it's absolutely It's got to be the number one thing, because it's a mess. And we want people to come here, and we want them to enjoy the square. That said, I'm grateful for the library. I'm going to compliment her on the library. Whoever got that done.
[Jeanne Martin]: Right. But whoever got that done, fantastic.
[Jeanne Martin]: It's not a done deal?
[Jeanne Martin]: Well, I wish it all well because I'm a proponent of the library. But anyway, the problem is that the drip, drip, drip of small amounts of money. And I don't know if we're borrowing money. Are we borrowing the $250,000 to pay for this? We're borrowing. So we're going to be doing one of those bonds, right? Oh, no. So you see that can't happen. The problem with that, and with all due respect, is that we need to prioritize the police department first.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yeah, but it all adds up to this money.
[Jeanne Martin]: Not the grant money. No, but the bond money. See, it's a small project.
[Jeanne Martin]: But we are taking out a bond to do it.
[Jeanne Martin]: With all due respect and I get that. But we're still borrowing money for a small project that's not necessary for the city. It's a nice project. The other point that I would like to make is that I like the idea of doing the city square. Instead of just doing it drip by drip by drip, we need to have a master plan for the thing. And if we don't get a grant, then we don't get a grant for it. Because we have to have the whole city, the square process, like in, you know, and then if we can get a grant for it, fantastic. But it has to be straightened out. without thinking that, you know, Daddy Warbucks is going to give us money. And I know it's great when he does that, but it's, you know, I would just warn us that if we keep on doing small little grants and grants and grants, we'll never get to the priorities because we have schools to pay for and repairs and maintenance and police department personnel and everything else. And so every little bit matters. But, um, so I don't want to be a, I really don't want to be a fly in the ointment. I was having a great night. I wasn't going to get up and talk, but, but I can't help myself. So thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: With all due respect, it's going to sound like terrible. But the little thing that you're talking about is a luxury. It's like a thing for people to come and gather.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yeah, but we have to have a master plan.
[Jeanne Martin]: What's that now? Oh, okay. First of all, thank you very much. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. Police staffing. I have a solution that will both satisfy police staffing shortages and black equity. However, this policy needs to be carried out to the letter of my recommendation or it will fail as an integration tool. My point is not to diminish other racial groups, but the slightest dilution waters down the real intent behind this initiative and the black man will once again be left behind. We currently have 107 police officers and we need 130. I propose we develop a policy whereby 10% of the police department constitute black men. Of the 10% black males hired, at least 7% of them must be veterans of military service. If we require a supermajority of the 10% to be black veterans, there will be less resistance from the veterans groups who also have a valid complaint. Since the goal is 130, then 13 will be black men, and of that, nine must be black male veterans. leaving the general population to account for the other four black men. I will discuss women in a minute, but there can be absolutely no substitution, not even a two-for-one black woman veteran. Black men are a unique subset of society, and if our goal is to obtain racial justice for the black men, then no substitution can water it down. Black men need role models on the street through the police department, and I dare say that white people also need to see black men in blue. This is a hard reality, but needs to be said. There's a difference between the atrocities we have committed on black males and the general discrimination other races have gone through. The first requires active steps by our government to correct a past harm, and the latter only equal treatment, not corrective action. Awareness, yes. Extra steps, no. This distinction must be understood and accepted by all of Medford. Otherwise this plan to integrate the city will fail. Yes even Hispanics cannot be accepted as a black minority unless of course he or she is black is he is a black Hispanic not because he is Hispanic but because he is black. If we include Hispanics we start to go down the rabbit hole. The policy will fail to address the number one racial objective. So what if you're a Hispanic veteran? You are placed under the general population outside of the black category, and I will personally advocate that you succeed over a non-veteran white nation.
[Jeanne Martin]: That's correct. But I do have a right to have my opinion.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you very much. Okay. So anyway, I will personally advocate that you succeed over a non-veteran white man or the general population because you are a veteran. The math so far is 107 plus 13 equals 120 officers. Now, for the other 10 officers, I would like to see women hired. Why? Because women bring something different to the table. They should be trained exactly as their male counterparts, but they are not men. We need women officers for the obvious, domestic violence, rape, and to transport women detainees to higher level prisons as women do commit crime. One black woman and one white woman should be assigned to a racial task force for issues regarding profiling, example, that of an Arab-looking person who may be being harassed right now. They can also be used as detectives in cybercrime and other investigative and intelligence roles. Women have a soothing effect on overjacked male testosterone. And this can help in many ways on the streets. But like black men, there has to be enough of them to make a difference. Tokens do not give us the same result. So I would recommend no less than 15% and no more than 20% female. I do not want to emasculate the department. Men are the majority of offenders and require equal response. Women veterans should be encouraged, but not mandated. Now for the mandate. At least four black women must be hired. Why? Because black women are black. She is often treated more harshly by law enforcement because she is perceived to have attitude. When I was 34, I was the first woman never kicked out of the JPVA women's clinic, and they wanted to prosecute me. The police chief, who looked like he was in his 50s and a veteran, paternalized me and calmed me down. And he and I worked out an agreement. And while I was not allowed to go back to the women's clinic and put on the terror watch list, I was not arrested. I know a black woman in another VA who did the same thing that I did, but was arrested. A double standard does exist. And at least four black women are required for them to have a real voice. This is a plan that, if not deviated from, will work. My fear and warning is that should you start substituting just any black male for a black male veteran, the problems we see in society will not be alleviated. If you say that we cannot do this, Gene, because it is discriminatory, I feel sorry for society. Because the original intent on the anti-discrimination laws were designed to advance black men, period. And everyone else has co-opted his justice. Political correctness is then interfering with black justice. If you really want to see racial justice for the black man, you will make this happen. Even if it takes more money to seek out a black male veteran by casting a wider net the size of New England or the Eastern Seaboard, they are out there. And if this is against the law, which is what Mr. Knight's indicating, then the law needs to be changed because the group that needs the most protection is not protected under the current law. Thank you very much. Thank you. And because this is the Mayor's initiative, I want to speak on it. If it was just a citizen, and I do understand that it was disposed of, but if it was just a citizen.
[Jeanne Martin]: Excuse me, sir. But the resolution was by the mayor, and that's the key here. It's a measure that I have to speak on because it's a city document, and it's a city-sponsored document. And I found out why. Anyway, mayor's conversation initiative. I am not in any way trying to bash the mayor, but I figured out why her conversations initiative didn't sit right with me. This initiative is an official city document, and therefore I have the right to speak on it. It should be rescinded and rewritten. The mayor's premise is wrong. The strength of our nation is not derived from our diversity, but from the strength of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, not from our racial and ethnic makeup. How our diversity is held together is through the power we continue to give the U.S. Constitution by upholding it. The Constitution encompasses a form of government which allows for the dissent of the minority from the majority. Because of this ability, the dissent from the majority, diversity of thought and ideas can hold, can add to our majority culture. And yes, tolerance of differences and ethnic groups enrich our nation as a byproduct, not as a fundamental belief, as stated by the Mayor's Conversation Initiative. Our nation was not founded on the fundamental principles that all persons are entitled to equal protection under the law. It was founded on heterosexual white male supremacy, who committed genocide on the original peoples because they happened to be in the way of the land the white man thought to be his rightful possession. At first, our forefathers tried to enslave the Native Americans, but their spirits died under bondage, and so it was not profitable. and there was indentured servitude of white peoples as well. But they were often given their freedom after seven years of service, usually their most prime years of good health. Do I need to then state the obvious for Africans? Once the colonists who were white males of the landowning class were themselves placed in the one down position by the royal class of England. Taxation without representation, they revolted and earned their freedom while still subjugating other peoples of race and gender. Equal protection of the law was not earned or given to others until much later and was not codified in its founding documents. The opposite is true. Slavery and native subjugation was codified. What is true is that it was given to the following generations whose forebears earned it through their blood, often to the death, sweat, and tears of those two specific racial categories. Because they learned how to apply our founding documents, to their advantage, and the Native and Black peoples were still denied after that. It was not only the Bill of Rights which provided this justice to happen, but the actual process of putting forward resolutions to change the law provided for in the main body of the Constitution. It is only through the continued application of the U.S. law that protection for these two primary groups see any semblance of justice. You cannot start a conversation on race without including the Native peoples, and the Native peoples were not immigrants. Leaving the Native American experience out of the base premise is intentional, and black people did not come here as immigrants groups until much later. The main focus of this resolution, while admirable in some parts of its intent, is a form of subterfuge to include illegal immigrants. And that is why the non-immigrant group, known as Native American, was intentionally left out. The problem with this premise is that it assumes all oppressions are equal and they are not. I served under a possible five-year federal prison sentence in the Army for being a lesbian. And I still knew better than to equate that with being black. I used other rationales to change the law. I argued that a gay man could be blackmailed and divulge military secrets. I argued my own and countless other honorable discharges as proof that we have already served and with distinction. I argued that it made straight women, as well as myself, more susceptible to rape. And I argued that it cost the army money to train and kick me out. But I never once used the black civil rights argument. I knew better. Not all oppressions are equal. While they may overlap, they are not equal. So I do believe we need to talk about race, yes, but not under this framework. I agree that if you are an Arab-looking American today, we need to make sure you do not receive a backlash. But this wording is not about that. This wording is couched to include and protect illegal immigrants with legal immigrants, and that is not the same justice under the law. If you want to talk about documenting illegals, say so openly. We can talk, but not on the backs of Native and Black peoples. Therefore, I believe this resolution, which is an official city government document, needs to be rescinded and rewritten to include the original peoples and African slavery as a prime example of inclusion as a result of how powerful our Constitution is, that it can fix its own structured abuses. still questionable with Native Americans. And then and only then, how other groups thrived off of their struggles. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. And I want to thank that officer for stepping forward, because I know that's not an easy thing to do. And I want to thank you, and I want to thank all the officers for being out there tonight. They held a sign that said, repair it, fix it. I say, replace it. It's time that the whole police building needs to be taken down and rebuilt for a 21st century police department. Mae'n bwysig iawn. Mae'r amgylcheddau wedi'u siarad am ymgyrchu gwyrdd, llawer o ffyrdd sydd ddim yn gweithio. Rydyn ni i gyd wedi mynd ymlaen, ac mae'n llys ymdrechion. Ac nid oes unrhyw arloes i ddim cael adeilad polisi newydd i'w adeiladu. Unrhyw arloes. Ac rwy'n meddwl If you want to, you could buy the Shaw's lot and put it there if you want. I'd be happy to have them in my neighborhood. So if you want to put them at the Shaw's lot, buy the property off of Shaw's, you get a whole new lease on life, you build a new station right there. So I support them and I thank them very much for being out here tonight. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Mae'n rhaid i mi ddweud hwnnw. Mae'n rhaid i mi dweud hwnnw. Nid yw unrhyw un arall sy'n ymwneud â hynny. Dyma dim ond ffaith o bywyd. Dwi eisiau gwneud hwnnw'n ymwneud â hyn mewn ymdrechion. Dwi'n dod o leoed yn Medford, ac nid oedd hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n ymwneud â hynny'n y a byddan nhw'n ymweld â Colin, ac maen nhw mewn gwirionedd wedi cael ymdrechion ffysig, gan gynnwys fy myfyrwyr gynhyrchwyr, sydd wedi cael ymdrechion gynhyrchwyr mewn gwirionedd eraill. Felly, dydw i ddim dod o'r lle y mae pob un yn dynnu'r un. Ac rwy'n credu y byddwn ni'n angen ymdrechion, ymdrechion gynhyrchwyr, a dyna'r lle rwy'n cymryd gyda Mr. Marks, y byddwn ni'n angen mentoring STEM, yn benodol, ar gyfer myfyrwyr nesaf, yn enwedig blaethau nesaf. Dwi'n siŵr, dwi'n mynd i'w rhoi yno. Mae'n rhaid i mi ddweud y bydd yna system o anhygoel mewn y ddinas, mewn yr holl America, ar gyfer myfyrwyr nesaf, yn enwedig blaethau nesaf. Ac mae'n rhaid i ni gysylltu'n benodol gyda nhw, mae'n rhaid i ni ymrwymo iddyn nhw, mae'n rhaid i ni gael plan yn ein districtyau busnes i ymrwymo a gweithio ar gyfer busnesau sy'n ymrwymo nesaf, oherwydd mae wedi bod yn anhygoel. I'm all for that. I'm all for admitting that there is racial inequality and I want to take steps to do it. What I am afraid of with this recommendation is that if we get too flowery and we get too inclusive and we get too watered down, then we talk pretty and we never talk about the real issues. That is the warning that I would like to put out with this because I would like to see justice served. There are some minority groups that deserve extra care. Yn y dyfodol, yw'r muslimoedd dynol. Byddwn yn rhoi hynny ymlaen, oherwydd rydyn ni'n byw mewn bywyd. people who claim to be Muslim. And because of that, we have to be extra vigilant. There are translators who have come back to us in our country that were working with our military. And so in the military, there is not an issue that doesn't strike the military that isn't a microcosm of the greater society. I talk to black women who are combat vets. I talk to pro-life. I talk to lesbians. I talk to Fodd bynnag, byddwch chi ddim yn gallu dweud hynny, byddwch chi ddim yn gallu dweud hynny. Oherwydd yna, mae'n mynd i fod yn ddifrifol. Mae'n mynd i fod yn ddifrifol. Yn ystod hwnnw, rydyn ni'n gweithio gyda'r cyhoeddiadau a'r cyhoeddiadau a'r cyhoeddiadau a'r cyhoeddiadau a'r cyhoeddiadau a'r cyhoeddiadau a'r cyhoeddiadau a'r cyhoeddiadau felly rwy'n eisiau gwneud hynny allan yno, ond rwy'n credu hefyd y bydd y gwreiddiad gysylltiadol yn wir, ond neidwch ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig ychydig
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Comick Street. Just three quick points. First of all, as a lesbian, as a veteran, I am insulted and offended by the rainbow flag, I'm sorry, on the City Hall. The only flag that belongs on City Hall is that one. I'm sorry. I know that offends some people, but that is a huge issue. Those flags divide. I understand, I don't want to see an Irish flag. I don't want to see Black Lives Matter flag. I don't want to see an American Legion flag on City Hall. City Hall has one flag associated with it and it's that one. Many people are covered with that flag coming back from Afghanistan. So I just Mae'r flag yn broblem i mi, felly rwy'n eisiau gwneud hynny allan yno. Yr ail beth yw, rwy'n siarad â dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, dynion, Mae'n rhaid i mi ddweud y byddwn i eisiau cael y cyfrifiadau hyn i ddigwydd, oherwydd maen nhw'n dda. Rydw i wedi rhannu gofnodion ymarferol gyda'n frwyr. Rydw i'n cael iddyn nhw ddeall yn ddiweddar y bydd y blaenoriaeth wedi cael ei leihau. Mae'n cofnodion ddau blynyddoedd i ddweud hynny. Mae'n cofnodion ddau blynyddoedd i ddweud hynny. Ac roedd hynny drwy'r cyfrifiadau, felly mae'r cyfrifiadau'n bwysig. Ond, os ydyn ni'n cael pobl ddifrifol sy'n ymgynghorol, ac nid ydyn ni'n cynnwys y clas a'r gender, yn enwedig y genedlaeth gynhyrchu, y genedlaeth gynhyrchu blaeth, gynhyrchu christian, yng nhw'n ymgynghorau hynny, nid ydyn nhw'n mynd i fod yn gynhyrchu. Dyna'r pethau rydyn ni'n rhaid i mi ddweud. Ond rwy'n ddiolch iawn i chi am wylio. Amen.
[Jeanne Martin]: Good evening. Jean Martin, Tancreda Street. This city was founded in 1630 and has had an ever-increasing population ever since. Our streets and sidewalks cannot accommodate everyone's wishes. That's just the way it is. The people who are on bicycles want to put bikes legitimately on the streets in Medford in the same lanes with cars, trucks, and buses. It is an accident waiting to happen. Someone is going to get injured or killed. It's only a matter of time. When a car hits a truck, the car driver stands a chance of survival. A bicyclist does not. A 19-year-old Taunton woman was charged in connection with a fatal hit-and-run Thursday night. A Taunton man died after being hit by a car while riding his bike Thursday night. I do not want to be responsible for someone else's death, and I'm not trying to hit a bicyclist. It's just that I have been more aware of bicyclists. I look in my rearview mirror more often, and they'll come up on my right. They'll come up in between the two cars, and it's very, very dangerous. And I'm in a car. I can't even imagine if a bus, if they're coming up along a truck or a bus, It's just, it's, and the bus or truck is trying to take a right. They will not see that. That bicyclist moves very, very fast. If you're a bicyclist in Medford from here on out, I'm letting you know that I don't want to hurt you. And we need to do something about this policy. I don't want to be up for my manslaughter charges. I really don't. I'm not intending to. I try to pay attention as much as I can. But the thought of hitting somebody on a bike is just frightening to me. You're risking the lives of others as well, as I may swerve not to hit you, and I may hit another car or, heaven forbid, a pedestrian. And I realize that you do not. even belong on the sidewalk these days either. And I talked to somebody that was a proponent of bicycles on the roads so that I could, you know, figure stuff out. And really, a bike doesn't belong on a sidewalk today either. And the reason for that is if you look at Riverside Ave, everybody's turned their front yards into parking spaces. And they have to go in and they have to back out. They couldn't see a bike if the car was coming out. There's only so much room on the roads in Medford, and there's only so much room on the sidewalks. Everybody wants a tree on the sidewalk. Everybody wants strollers and wheelchairs on the sidewalk. There is so much competition for space that it's just, I don't even think they belong on the sidewalks now. I used to say, oh, just put them on the sidewalks. I don't think it's safe for bikes on the sidewalks either. I just don't. And I realized, okay, so anyway, whatever. And now, the argument that I hear is that bicyclists actually have a right to be on the road. Not really. Not on the street. You know why? I'm a pedestrian, and I have no right to be walking down the middle of Riverside Ave. I do not. I do not have that permission. Do you know why? Because I'll get hit by a car. Unmotorized vehicles should not be on the road with motorized vehicles. And I understand that people like their bikes and everything else. But I know that you guys aren't going to change your policy. But I'm going to feel better when I go home tonight, because this is an issue of public safety. Sure, go ahead.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, thank you. Well, at any rate, they're going to be on the roads, but if I hit you, sorry, I'm telling you right now, I just, I don't like it. You're endangering the mental well-being of people like me who have the excessive worry that I am going to hit you on a road unable to accommodate you. I know that's strong language, but I just feel that way. Bicyclists, this is from a lawyer's website, bicyclists have rights to roadways that are similar to other vehicles. By not properly sharing the road, frustrated motorists who are unfamiliar with rules and regulations can cause serious injuries to bicyclists. We can help you recover compensation for damages and injuries incurred in bicycle accidents. If you incur an injury such as a head trauma, neck injury, fractures or broken bones, rotocuff injuries, scars or catastrophic injuries, Take the necessary steps to protect yourself and build a case for compensation. Gather contact information from witnesses and people involved in the accident. Take photos of damages and injuries and avoid making statements regarding the accident until you have contacted an experienced attorney at our firm. Then the real kicker. Compensation that goes beyond immediate medical bills. Depending on the circumstances surrounding your bicycle accident, The at-fault party's automobile insurance could cover a large portion of lost wages, medical bills, ambulance fees, bicycle replacement services, and wrongful death claims. Homeowner's insurance, this is the kicker. Not only is my car insurance going to go up, because we all are on a group system. You have an accident, I pay for it. That's just the way the insurance process works. My homeowner's insurance could also be involved in the accident was caused by negligent behavior on another person's property. So I know that you guys aren't going to change your policy, but the least you can do is make a permit process in the city where somebody that wants to go on the roads has to pass a class, is going to be heavily fined, is going to have to deal with the rules of the road. I know you're not going to change the policy. I know. The bike people, they're a strong lobby. I think it's very, very stupid, dangerous, and especially given the light that our city has so many cars on it. We not only have our own cars to worry about, we got people going through our city to Boston via 16 or Salem Street or whatever. We have cars, cars, cars, and more cars. And we do have a car problem parked on the Fulton Street. Go to Fulton Street. Every time I drive up there, there's cars on the sidewalk. Now they're so bold, they're actually on the street. And by the way, I'm not picking on just the bike people. The car people, they need to be responsible too because, you know, if they're in the car, if they're on the street and I have to go into the other person oncoming traffics to go around them, you're putting me at danger in that too. So you need to get the cars off the streets, off the sidewalks and the like. So it's not just the bike people. But it's the bike people that bother me the most because you're not going to win in a fight on the road with a bike. You're taking your life into your own hands, but you're also taking my life into my hands, because I don't want to be in jail for manslaughter. I just don't. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: If I may, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to respond. Around Winthrop Street or something, that's fine. If you're going up Riverside Avenue, you have to be in the lane that the cars are in, and that is my problem. And maybe it'll work out that you have that many rural routes in Medford, but I don't see how that's gonna work. I just don't. And I appreciate it, though. I know that they're gonna be doing this. I just, I want my voice to be heard that this is very dangerous. I want pedestrians to feel safe crossing the street. I wanna amp up. all the crosswalks so that pedestrians can cross the street. And I truly believe that we need the sidewalk system that we have. And I believe that, you know, I believe in a priority system. Wheelchairs before trees on the sidewalk. That's just me. I mean, there's a priority list. And I think that bikes get to the, if you want to save the environment, then you got to commute with other people to work. get out to take the bus. We have other ways. Walk. Walk to the bus stop. The bike thing on the roads on Riverside Ave, this road is 350, 400 years old. And it just cannot accommodate everybody's wishes. It just cannot. The reason why you can't park on Riverside Ave is because there's not enough room. There's two lanes. At some point, decisions have to be made where you say we can't do this for someone. even if it's a wheelchair. You might not have the room to go in with a wheelchair. I want to see that, but if there's absolutely no way, then you have to say, well, I'm sorry, we can't do it with a wheelchair. So I thank you so much for listening to my anxiety on this. I appreciate the city for listening to me. And I'm going to be watching out for the bikes. I am. I mean, I check my rearview mirror a whole lot more now than I ever did. But I just fear that I'm going to take a right, the bike's going to be up there, and I'm going to hit them. It's just going to happen, especially at night, the rain, and all the other factors that come into being. And I'm all for bike paths in certain areas, like the river and stuff like that. That's great. But take your car, take your bike with your car to the river. That's my advice. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. Thank you very much for listening. My question is, why would they be being pulled away? It is a public safety issue. All DPW issues are a public safety issue, whether it's snow removal, whether it's trash removal, whether it's manhole covers, whether it's those rain drain things. If they're not set right, somebody can get into a car or an accident or something like that. So the DPW is definitely interwoven with public safety. There is absolutely no question about it, that if you can't drive down the street safely, then it's a public safety issue. And it has to do with that whole overview that I stated and I implore the mayor to look at. The whole city needs to be evaluated for traffic flow, sidewalks, bicycles, buses, trucks, the whole nine yards, everything, including striping. And I think that striping, and I agree with Mr. Knight That it's absolutely, it's absolutely a basic function of the city that we have proper striping, proper signs so that everybody knows where they're going. But I wonder, the question that comes to my mind is, why are they being pulled away from the sign department in the first place? And that's because we are understaffed. So we need to look at that, but we can't look at staffing until we understand and assess the entire city. You have to look at it from the entire city's perspective. If you don't assess the whole city and all of its needs, then you're just playing a little game patch here and patch here. And why are they being pulled away? So they're going to be pulled away, and then some other part of DPW is going to go unresolved. So we have to look at it. I think it's a great idea, and I absolutely urge the city to hire more workers, especially for sections in the city, the squares. They can be the eyes and ears for the police in Haines Square, Medford Square, all the squares, South Medford. We can have section people all over the place cleaning them up and keeping them up, even if it's only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So you have to look at it from a whole perspective. And I think that that's, you know, I asked the mayor to look at it from a whole perspective. And if they get pulled away, then there's going to be a hole someplace else. There's going to be a lack someplace else. So, putting them in their own division helps the signage, but it's going to cause a problem someplace else. So, thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Hi, Michelle Lawler, 5 Rose Lane, Boxford, Mass.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yes, it has. Yes.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Coming Street, and thank you very much for bringing this up, because I think that the one thing that I'm concerned about with any rule changes, and I will be at that meeting, and I encourage all to be at that meeting for method, because that could change the way that this body makes votes, does decisions. This is huge. This is the way our government is run. This is the basic core of how our government makes the decision-making process for the city. So what you do in this rules committee affects the entire city, and how we do business, which is huge. Secondly, our First Amendment right, I just want to remind everybody that this is the one chance that people get, and I remember being in some heated heated discussions in the city council hall, right here, this chamber, back in the days of Mr. Miyako and everything. And, you know, back in the old days. And as heated as they got, it was cathartic and it was helpful to hear from the public. And the one thing that I don't want to see is any kind of rule change that might alter the public's ability to have participation in the process. So I just want to make that perfectly clear. And I will be at the meeting tomorrow night. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 coming street. And I hope, uh, I just hope that the mayor is going to listen to me and I'm not being antagonistic at all. The city needs, and I'm trying really not to be antagonistic, I'm not yelling at her, I'm not doing anything. When the city doesn't look at it from a city perspective, it's gonna cost money, it's gonna be painful to people, not everybody's gonna like it, but I agree with Mr. Knight tonight, I agree with Mr. Falco, and Mr. Marks is always talking about traffic calming measures. It's all the same theme all night. And unless you look at the whole city and you look at the flow patterns and you get a professional in here to do the traffic calming measures, get the traffic engineer, and the parking needs to be done at a city level. It does. Otherwise, you're going to have this constant drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. And I'm not trying to be, I'm not yelling at her. I just, I really want her to look at the whole overview, hire somebody, take the political hits because you're going to irritate people. when you tell them that they can't park there anymore or whatever, it's going to cost. But in the long run, if you don't take care of it, it comes down on the bottom, and I have talked to some of the safety people that cross, and they see the sun in the eyes because it's certain times of day, and the people don't respect the guards. You're right. They don't respect the crossing guards. not considered really, you know, they gotta get to work, or they gotta get their kid off to school, or whatever, and the mindset has changed. And so they don't respect it. So if we don't have a slower moving system, and yeah, it's gonna back up, and yeah, there's gonna be complaints, but yeah, you have to do something about it because somebody's gonna get hurt. One of the traffic people, a kid, and who can't feel sorry for kids getting hit? I mean, there's, you know, I mean, there's no, and the other thing is elderly. Because when you're talking about the Fellsway, I know some elderly ladies that go to St. Francis and they walk down there, and they go down to the senior citizen center, and they walk, some of them actually walk down there. So it's very, very dangerous for seniors as well, because they can't scoot. So I'm begging the mayor to really take a good look at the overview of the city, because otherwise it comes down to the bottom, and those people at the bottom get crushed. And if we need to hire more, auxiliary for the crossing guards, then we have to find the money to do it. So that when there's a sick call or something, that there's a replacement for that person, because you can't use the police, unless you're going to use the police for crossing guards, period. But you can't use the police, it doesn't make sense. There's a reason why we have the police, why we have the crossing guards. The crossing guards are there to cross the children. And so if you pull them, we don't have enough to pull off the police. Because what if there's an actual emergency? Now you've got to catch 22. It's one thing when they're on a site for National Grid, they can be pulled away because, you know, but how can you leave, abandon a site where it's a crossing guard for an hour when you have a robbery or something or something more important? Now you have to, the cop has to make that decision. And he shouldn't have to or she shouldn't have to be in that position. So I really, really, really, I hope that she looks at the whole thing. You need a city engineer, you need to do this, and it's not gonna get any easier. Thank you so much.
[Jeanne Martin]: I will. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. The macro The macro picture of this is that it starts from the top, and it starts from the mayor's office on policing. You can't talk about policing without talking about the government structure, including you guys. You're not gonna like this, but with no accountability at the top, with no term limits, simple things like term limits, no turnover, there's no incentive to do things. And that's just the top, that's just the macro view. Also, we have 58,000 people in this city, going to grow even more. Wait until this casino comes in. Wait until some of these developments in Malden come in. You can find out how many cars we have because everybody pays an excise tax. Everybody is registered in the city of Medford. You can find out literally how many cars are on the city streets. We need, Mr. Falco's right, We need a traffic engineer. If you don't put in a traffic engineer, it doesn't matter, because you're just doing this. You're just plugging this hole. You're plugging that hole. You're plugging that hole. You're plugging that hole. And you're just going crazy, just playing whack-a-mole. stop them here, stop them there. There is no flow pattern to the city. And this includes, and before you talk about policing, you really do need to look at the macro picture. And the macro picture is, is that we, we have been, we have no regular scheduled street sweeping. Cars are up on sidewalks, seriously. Drive around, you'll see them parked up on sidewalks, half on sidewalks. Fulton Street, places where you can't get through. Riverside Ave, where you can't get through. These are two lane, Highways with the two yellow lines, these are not like little side streets. So you have to look at the big picture. If you don't look at the big picture, then you're just throwing good money after bad. That's all you're doing. And so, priorities. I'm gonna get to the facts about what the police are up to, but you have to talk about priorities. I don't like it when people say, well, we should ask the people what they want out of their government locally. No, you don't. There are certain mandates that a government, a local government, a state government, or a federal government must provide before you get into any of the offshoots, any of the luxuries. And if you don't get in, and if you don't provide those basics, then you have no luxury. You can have all the cupcakes you want. Man, if you don't have any spinach, you're going to die. It's that simple. And so you really need to look at, what the city needs as opposed to what the city wants. So I don't like the idea of sending out a survey. They want this, they want that, they want that. Sure, they want the sky, but they can't have the sky, because there's only so much money in the bank. So I just wanted to put that out there, because if you don't look at the macro, then you can't even get to the policing issues. The police, we have a total of 103 budgeted. We're going to have four more come online to 107. We're budgeted for 107. This is a city of 58. 8,000 people. We are close to Logan Airport. They put on seven new lines, airlines. We have Somerville. I just talked to a guy. They have gangs, official organized gangs in Somerville. It doesn't take much to come over here, folks, okay? The city ourselves have social ills. We have people who they call the police because their son is acting out. They can't take care of their son, so they call the police on their son to get him hauled out of the house. I mean, they're not just doing, they're doing fraud, right? They're doing social, they're doing stupidity. Somebody puts a pizza box in their oven to heat up the pizza, sets it on fire. I mean, they deal with stupidity, they deal with real crimes, they deal with murder, they deal with rape, they deal with all of the ugly issues that we don't want to deal with. Okay? I'm going to talk pros and I'm going to talk cons because, you know, it needs to be talked about. We have two civilian clerks and one halftime clerk. And one of the things the chief told me is that he used to have more civilians working for him, but when the budget cuts came and they had to delete and they had to delete, they deleted from the civilian population because they needed the officers. They need the officers. But they also need the civilians. Because we're farming out everything else. We're farming out DPW. It's completely gone. So why not farm out some clerical, too? We need to increase the budget for the police department. In so many ways, it's not even funny. The DPW used to do snow removal, used to do garbage removal. Now they don't even do a stupid sidewalk, cement, little square. They can't even do that. What else are we going to farm out? Where else? Where does it end where we farm out? You need a government. You need an elected body. Then you need a police force to enforce the laws. And then you need a DPW, even before a fire station. Why? Because if you can't get down that street, because there is no street, no access through the street, you can't get to the house on fire. And that is exactly what's happening. We are not looking at the priorities in this city. You don't have to like me, but you have to listen to me. That's my right. And that's the First Amendment, and God bless it. 911 dispatches, we have nine with backups. Patrol officers, 75. 75, now this is three, this is around the clock, people. This is around the clock, seven days a week. That is Monday through Friday, seven days a week, 75 patrol officers. You do the math and tell me if that's enough for a city this size with as many problems as we have. So close to Boston, I know, I'm lecturing, I know, but it makes me feel good. Get it off my chest. We have 14 detectives. Computer crimes are up, in case you hadn't noticed. There's all kinds of cyber crimes. Sergeants, 16. Lieutenants, nine. Captains, three. The recommendation, be a minimum by the chief, is 115, which I think is way too low. I absolutely think 115 cops, and that's like a huge, they would be excited to get that many. And I think for 58,000, this close, we've got a six-mile radius of people congested. Some certain neighborhoods aren't congested, and others are loaded down, absolutely loaded down. Total vehicles in the department, including unmarked of 45, suburbans have 50,000 to 60,000 miles on average. The Crown Vics have 100,000 on average. And I asked him what recommended, if he had a Christmas list, what would it be? And of course, he said a new building. That's absolutely pie in the sky at this point. Because the city has not recognized that the police should come first. They have not recognized that the police has come first. And that comes from the top, and that comes from you. I know you guys say it. But the people also need to talk. The people out there need to demand that police come first. And as bad as it is, if it wasn't for these accidents, especially in the neighborhoods that they were in, we wouldn't be talking about this tonight. And I'm so grateful that people that actually have political pull in this city are coming forward and talking. As far as training, they need to be doing training. We need to build up their self-esteem. I have issues with the police. We all know that, OK? I don't think they're perfect. But I will tell you that if you want a better police force, you have to train them. You have to give them respect, and you have to train them. And as far as the overtimes, yeah, you have to do overtime. But as far as those details, we are all culpable. Every last one of us are culpable. We make a kickback. We make this salary, they don't make a good base salary in this city, but where they make their money is on those details. And we don't have to pay it out, so we are happy, because then we get another little cupcake someplace else from not paying them out. And we get a kickback, which makes it worse. We get, not only do we rent out our cops to agencies like National Grid, that's what we're doing, we're renting them out for pay, and then we get money for renting them out on top of that. So not only do they pay us, pay our officers their actual real pay, their really hefty pay, We also get a kickback. We get 15% on that. We need to get rid of that 15%. And that's something you guys can vote on. Of course, you're not going to because it's not politically to your advantage. You'll have to find that money someplace else.
[Jeanne Martin]: OK, thank you. But training, they need to train. We need to get them trained. We need to get them trained for active shootings, bombings, everything else under the sun, because they're not ready. We need to equip them. We need to get them ready, because the world is changing. And standing out over a hole is a waste of their time, unless it's on Riverside Ave or, you know, some major thoroughfare. It's a waste of their time. They can love me or hate me. That's okay. But I really believe I'm not here because I want a Christmas card from these people. I'm here because I believe in this. Because this is the center issue of the city today. And until you get this right, you can't get anything else right. Yeah, you can make some people happy. Some people. Meanwhile, other people will be getting hit by cars. Other people will be getting mugged. Other people won't be able to kick out their son out of their house. Because, unfortunately, the police officer turns into the discipline. The disciplinarian in a family, single mother. She can't control her kid, she calls the cop on him. That's what's going on. I know that for a fact. So, you know, until you deal with that reality, good luck to you. You don't have to pay attention to me. You don't have to listen to me. But when it hits, I'll be there to say, I told you so. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you, Gene Martin, 10 Cummings Street. Thank you for letting me speak and announce this. There will be a breakfast on November 11th at 9 a.m. at the First Baptist Church, 29 Oakland Street, Medford Mass. And let me just tell you a little bit briefly about it. The church bell tower was first dedicated to 13 men and one woman who died in World War II. from the congregation of the First Baptist Church in 1948. The bells have been recently refurbished, and the congregation would like to once again honor veterans with the patriotic music from these bells. A short performance of this music will occur as veterans congregate on the steps of the church at 9 AM, followed by an honorary breakfast. Please join us. That's right here in Medford. There's no reason why everybody can't be there, veterans and their families, and especially any widows or spouses, family members, because kids suffer too. Especially with this generation, I hear a lot of kids that have to move from place to place and change school to change school when their fathers and mothers are in the service. If you're a child of a veteran, please come too. And then the DAV 5K, if you don't mind, it's a run to honor veterans and you can go to DAV5K.org and you can find out all about it. One of the things that they want to stress is if you have a track team in your high school, so Medford High, get the track team involved, go to DAV5K.org and get signed up on it. If you can't run, Like me, I'm going to volunteer, but you can sponsor somebody with money to run. And it's going to be advertised. There's going to be an RKO spot the whole day before. There's a lot of money being poured into the city for it and everything, so you'll hear about it. But just so that you can sign up early, it's the DAV 5K. It's going to be at Castle Island in South Boston.
[Jeanne Martin]: I'm sorry. Yes, absolutely. That's November 11th at 9 a.m. And I know that they're going to have something at the VFW at 11 as well. So you can go, you can hop from one to the other.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street, and you saved the best for last. Our emergency workers are so much more to us today than they were prior to September 11, 2001, and we as a city need to recognize them as the exceptional people they are. Their sacrifice has not been recognized by the city in deed or material. This needs to change. Starting with September 11, 2001, 411 emergency workers were killed trying to save the lives of those in the Trade Center. This included 343 firefighters, of whom two were paramedics. Of those who were killed, seven firefighters were black men. And yes, this needs to be pointed out, race matters. Thirty-seven police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey 23 police officers of the New York Police Department, and eight emergency medical technicians in private emergency medical services. Of all police officers killed on September 11, 2001, 11 were women. And of those women, four women were of color. Yes, this needs to be pointed out. Yes, gender matters. Also of note, 12 police officers were men of color. The National Guard, whose job it once was to defend the homeland, are now being deployed to the current wars in Iraq and Syria through Operation Inherent Resolve, and in Afghanistan through Operation Freedom Sentinel. Using the National Guard more as the reserves in regular army has forced our police departments to become literally the front line of our national defense. They have been used to stop terrorists in their tracks whether it be Little Rock, Arkansas in June 2009 at a recruiting station where one soldier was killed and another wounded, or whether it was Fort Hood where 13 soldiers were killed and 31 others were wounded. By the way, the cop who stopped the rampage was a female and took a bullet to her hand from the shooter. Or April 15, 2013, a day Boston will never forget. Or whether it be July 16, 2015, in San Bernardino, where 14 people were killed. Or Orlando, on June 12, 2016, where 49 were killed and 53 were wounded. Or this weekend, in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, where 29 people were injured. The first called to the scene are our police personnel. and they literally put their lives on the line for us. And we need to recognize them for their new role and appreciate them for it. The fire department has played the first responder role as the medical team, very much the way the Army medic traditionally has during a battle. They are the triage unit. They are saving lives by being on the front line during an active mass event. I would also include EMS workers with these two groups. They are under-respected for their service and sacrifice by this city in policy and material. While there are many ways to thank you, one is with a statue or a monument. I'm gonna suggest the statue of my dreams, but I know we don't have the money for it, but I'm gonna, then I'll tell you what I really want. But if I had my druthers, I would, that's right, that's right. If I could, and indulge me in this, I would knock down the dance hall outside, I'd pay for it and knock it down, put a green grass area up there, and I would have life-size monuments of a police officer, saluting a flag with a flagpole standing nearby, and a firefighter doing the firefighter's carry of a civilian. And I think that would be cool. And I would put a park bench near there, and I would have that so that civilians can sit there and contemplate those that protect us. But we don't have the money for that. So in lieu of that, I would settle for a large boulder with a brass plaque. But it needs to be centered someplace very special. It needs to be in an area that's very well kept and a boulder with a brass plaque. And I know it costs money, but I don't care if we have to have a bake sale for it. We know that we're not going to do a whole lot of other things in the near future. We know, unfortunately, I don't see any building going to be put up for a new station. We can talk about it, but we know that's not going to happen in the next two years, sadly enough. So it's a small token of I would love to see more training. I would love to see the detailed whole system gone. I would like to see a lot of things, and I'll talk about those later on in the year. You know you'll hear from me. But one thing that we could do, because I don't think that there's a plaque for the police and for the fire in the city of Medford. And I've seen them in other communities. I saw one in Plymouth, Mass, and it was really nice. And it was just along the walkway, It was in a special place along the ocean. And it was a place that was, it has to be a very nice place. If you're only going to give them a boulder with a brass plaque, don't put it in between two parked cars. You know what I mean? It has to be in a very special place. And so that's what I would recommend to whoever the people are in charge of that. And it's not asking too much, because our police and our fire are taking it on the chin. We need to prepare them for mass events, because they are literally the front line. The National Guard has been depleted, and they're overseas. So when you call for help, the people coming are going to be the police and the fire. So I just want to point that out, and hopefully we can get them some kind of recognition. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. Thank you very much for bringing this up. The people that abutted Locust Street didn't receive letters when they put up the smaller buildings. But nobody complained because those buildings weren't as large as the complex that's going down in 61. And also, the 61 Locust Street, they were not notified, not even the abutters, not even the physical abutters were not notified. They did not receive a letter. So just to put that out there that there may be a falling through the cracks issue here. So thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you very much for all this work to refine the schedule.
[Jeanne Martin]: Ms.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. And I was going to keep my mouth shut. I really was. The council does vote, and they don't always agree either, OK? They have a two to five split vote. They can do that. That's their right. I do respect the councilors who vote in the minority who explain why they vote in the minority. But it is their right to vote into the minority. And that's their right. And it's the same way with the Supreme Court. They have split votes, too. So I understand that you want to go in with the United Front, but it's not obligated. They're not obligated. They can have a minority vote. So I just wanted to put that out there. And you will be respected more. if you explain why, I agree with you. Because those that explain why they vote in the minority, when I'm at home, or actually not home, I'm here all the time, but when I listen to it, I have respect for that person because they gave me the explanation. So I just wanted to say that. And it's, but, so, well, just to add to that, you don't have to put pressure on the people that voted in the minority If that's their choice, they don't have to explain it either. That's their choice. But they will be perceived as having an ulterior motive if they don't explain it.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street, Medford. First of all, thank you for letting me speak tonight without Ms. Cohen and Mr. Marks. We wouldn't be here. able to speak at an open meeting like this, so I thank you for that. Normally, I speak for myself, so the weight of what I say doesn't carry a lot. But today, I have been asked by many of the abutters to speak for them, because they are just regular people. And they don't get up here, and they're not public speakers. And so they've asked me to speak for them. So I'm very nervous, because it's an awesome responsibility that I have to speak for these folks. I hope that after I speak, they'll feel more comfortable coming forward. With that, let me introduce you to the people of Cumming Street, the small scale residential neighborhood that the developers called these people. This is them, and they're all along Riverside Avenue, but most of them are for Cumming Street, but they're all along Riverside Avenue. Meet my neighbors. They're all over here, okay? So these are people, and this is wonderful that they've come out. Just their presence here, they don't come out here every day. They got jobs and lives, not like me, but you know, they have jobs and lives. They can't be here every day advocating for themselves. They don't know what's going on all the time. And so it's important that they're here tonight. And so their presence should speak volumes. We also have literally direct abutters to the Shaw's project tonight. literally, without question, literally direct abutters here tonight. Okay? So I want that to be known. And I thank Mr. Marks and Ms. Cohen for bringing this to everybody's awareness. And I think that it's very interesting that today they approved this appeals thing, whatever it is. This is a complex situation. And most of these people, this is over their heads. You have to be a lawyer to figure this out, and land lawyers, and this and that, and the other thing. All they know is that this project's too big for their neighborhood. That's what they know. They know it's too big. They don't care. No offense, city solicitor. They don't know that stuff. This is intimidating. This process is intimidating for regular people. So I just wanted to put that out there. I think they passed it so that the suits didn't have to sit here and look at the people tonight. That's what I think. I think they passed it today so that the suits didn't have to show up from New York, Park Street, or whatever that is. And if they didn't do this in the dark of night, we wouldn't be here, and it wouldn't cost the city a dime. You're talking about $15,000. Well, if this was done right in the first place, We wouldn't have to pay a dime to a lawyer if they had asked for the city's, for the neighborhood's input ahead of time. This is what happens when you try to slip something under in the dark of night. This is what happens. Let's get this passed. 11 different violations of code violations or whatever. If they had asked for this, and yes, maybe if they had asked, maybe three people would have shown up, you know, but you don't know that. We don't know that. Maybe there would have been 20 people that showed up, maybe 25. But now look at us. Where we are, we shouldn't have to be here tonight. We should not have to be doing this tonight. This is because it wasn't done right in the first place. And we have 20 days. The other big thing is that we have only 20 days to do something about this. So when you talk about getting counsel, I don't care what you have to do, but we have to do it tomorrow. We have to do it 9 o'clock tomorrow morning. I want you to work with these folks here. I want you to get the director butters, get their names, get them on paper because they don't, they've asked me to speak for them and I don't know how to speak for them, to be honest with you. I want them to speak for themselves. They're intimidated. This is a very, very arduous process. You guys do this every day. This is what you do for a living. This is what you get paid to do. They don't do this every day. They're not up here. They don't know you. They don't know the routine every day. So this is important that you get this done. And just because something's hard does not mean it shouldn't be done. So when you say, we have to have this done and we have to have that done, Don't, no offense, Mr. Solicitor. He knows me. But just because it's hard doesn't mean we shouldn't go forward with it. So don't say that just because, you know, well, we might have to this, that, and the other. But I do like what he said about coming up with the reasons. The solicitor said we do need to have reasons. We shouldn't have had to come, we shouldn't be here where we are today. But we do need to come up with those reasons now because the horse is out of the barn. The horse is out of the barn now. It shouldn't have been that way. It should have been that the horse should have stayed in the barn, and we would have been fine. You wouldn't see these people here tonight. They don't want to be here. I want to be here. I love coming here. This is my thing. But these people, they don't want to be here. This is not their normal Tuesday night. They have people to take care of. They have things to do. And so I just want you to recognize that. I hope that they can speak for themselves now. I hope that I've given them that much encouragement. Thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And so I'm a direct abutter to this project. So thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak. I went to the meeting last week, and the residents, first of all, I want to humanize the residents in that small scale residential neighborhood. that abuts this project, that's how they referred to us, the small-scale residential neighborhood. That's what Cumming Street was. Four of the direct abutters down the street were there. They're all women, all senior citizens. Two of them have been in that neighborhood. They were second mothers to me. I take one of them to their doctor's appointments. I just want you to know that these people that directly abut this property, You may have opinions on me, that's fine, but they all showed up, these four women at the bottom of the street, all senior citizens. They're intimidated to speak. One of them didn't speak at all because she just, the process just intimidates her. So I'm going to try to get them to come down to this open meeting next week if we can, so that they can have a voice. We had each three minutes a piece to speak on the issue and that wasn't enough time. This is 490 units. It's too big of a scale of a project in my neighborhood. I'm having a not in my backyard moment here. This is directly in my backyard. And they designed it so that they could maximize the lot to put the most units in to get the most money out of this. It's clear because they go all the way to the boundaries. They said that they were going to put in retail space. They said that they were going to have 7,000 square feet or something. And they are going to keep my bank, which is great. I go to Eastern Bank. They're going to keep the bank. But outside of that, they're going to have one or two more stores. It's not going to be completely storefronts on the bottom and then condos on top. That would benefit me as a neighbor. I wouldn't have as much of a problem with that. Put in a CVS or a Rite Aid or something that can be used by everybody. Put in a coffee shop. That would be good. maybe 150 to 200 condos above it. I know that that's gonna blow their minds and that it impacts their bottom line, but they are business people, they are developers, and they're looking out for themselves and their bottom line. It's up to the zoning board to look out for us, the people of Medford that are here now. This is just too large of a project. Now, if you put in 200 units, maybe it... I don't mind businesses on Locust Street. I've lived on Cumming Street all my life, and I have no problem with the businesses that are on Locust Street. Businesses don't bother me. They bring in money to the city. If they want to use it for business, please do. I mean commercial business. I have no problem with that. I've lived with it all my life. They bring in income for the city, and there's not as much traffic. But that aside, if you're going to put in condos, please make the whole bottom floor retail spaces and make it friendly for us to walk in and walk through. They want to keep the entrance to Cumming Street open to this project, and that's because they are going to have pedestrians and they are going to have bicyclists that need a safe road to go up to Riverside Ave. And we are very convenient for them to go up to Riverside Ave. So if I wanted to, I could talk to my residents, my people, and have them block it off with a fence, because it's legally their property. And they could fence it off. We could gate that off if we want to. I don't want to. We actually fought when, not Shaw's, but the Star Market went in there. And we fought to keep that pedestrian walkthrough so that it would benefit us to get to Shaw's, to get to the Star Market. I don't want to block it off. But if they're going to block us off, why not block them off, just to not be nice neighbors? If they're not going to be nice neighbors, why should we? And so that's a lousy way to look at it, but that's how I feel. I feel like this is being rammed through, rammed down my throat, and I'm going to be living with the consequences on Riverside Ave and Locust Street. The traffic is crazy. As it is, they should take out a couple of the businesses on Riverside Ave just so the buses and the trucks can get through. That is a trucking zone. Trucks and buses go down Locust Street from Riverside Ave, and they can hardly make that corner now. Okay. So when you have all those cars, it's going to be backed up to, to, to, and wait until the casino comes in. It's just going to get really fun. But, but, but that aside, that's casinos, you know, we, you don't have any say over the casino, but you do over this project. And I want you to scale down this project. I want the powers that be listen, these women that live down the street have been there for all their lives. They cook for me. I cut their grass. They cook for me. I love them. They are people. They are people and they're not a small-scale residential neighborhood. I mean, you can have arguments with me all day long, but you can't argue with them. They've been in this city forever and they deserve to be respected. They came out. without my prompting. They got the letters, and they came out without my prompting. Now I'm going to let them know so that they can come down to speak and hopefully talk. But remember, these are old school people, and they're very intimidated by the whole process. And they're intimidated, and they might not speak. They might be here, but they might not have the gumption to speak. So I hope their presence alone makes a statement. So thank you very much for listening.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. And I do appreciate Ms. Hunt and all the work that she does. And if I can, if they make it affordable, I'll put solar panels on my roof. I'd be the first one to talk to her if I was going to put solar panels on my roof or do something like that. But the government is in my life too much as it is. Believe me, they're in my life. And the CPA has required me now I had to go and get the exemption for low income, and I had to present my birth certificate. I had to present my tax return. I had to present, which I never had to do, just for this one little thing in the city, just for this one little thing. I had my tax return. I had to put in—I get rental income. They never had to know what my rental income was. Not that I care. I don't overcharge my tenant. In fact, I undercharge him. That's not the point. It's nobody's business if I charge them $1,200 or $2,200. It shouldn't be their business. But it is now because for the first time, I have to give this information out to the city just for my taxes. And I mean, everybody knows everything about my economic status. I mean, it's not news. But it's an invasion of privacy. And back to the city and how they do business. The water and sewer business is what you're in. which is a commodity or it's a mandated thing, the water and sewer. And look at the situation that the city is in with water and sewer. And that is a, and I'm not against the saving money and the electricity and all of that, but we don't need one more layer of bureaucracy in this city for the reasons that Mr. Caraviello pointed out. And, um, the water and sewer pipes need replacement and we can't demand from the government that they get replaced under the ground. We can't, we can't get them to move on that. We can't get the city government to run properly now. whether it's a fire department, police department, there's a lot of areas that are insufficient in the city government now, especially water and sewer. And it's comparable to what this issue is, which is electricity. which is something you need in your house right now. And I'm all for, if I can afford to put solar panels on my house and go, you know, renewable, all the more power to me, right? That's awesome. There's other also complexities. At one point, I needed National Grid to give me a cut in my electric bill because my income was low. before I got my disability check. So I needed that extra money. So that was another thing. I had to go to the National Grid and I got a break in my electric bill when I had a very, very low income. So would I be able to negotiate that with the new provider or whatever? It's just too complicated. So it's just one more layer of the local government. And again, I want her to work here. I want her to save money for the city and put up solar panels and wind farms if it's doable. In fact, the wind farms should be going towards putting this city electric bill on wind farms and on solar. More power to her if she can figure out a way to do it. That's what she should be doing. And so I just think that there's enough government in my life. Trust me on this. I live inside the government. The government lives inside my head. So we get enough of that going. So anyway, thank you for listening. Bye-bye. Name and address.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you, Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And this is a very, very sober topic and we should discuss it. We should discuss it a lot, but we also should have action on it. And I would definitely hope, not hope, expect that the mayor turns this into a priority. Whether it's the police building itself, whether it's to tear down the old one and put up a new one, whether it's to put a second floor or third floor on the existing structure, whatever it takes that's acceptable to the police department themselves. The morale of the police department in the city has got to be terrible. I know I get mixed reviews. I'm sure they love and hate me at different times, and that's fine. They're allowed to do that. But we don't have enough police officers. And a few factors is that, first of all, we pay them through details. And that structure, we're not paying them what they're worth. And number two, we get a kickback from that. So we don't want to give up the details because the city gets a 15 percent kickback on every hour that an officer works. That system is archaic and it needs to go. We need to free them up for training. And when I mean training, I mean they need to be doing exercises on sweeping buildings, which also brings us into the school department issues, because there's no building that's better to sweep than the high school. But if the high school is being sold on the weekends to private entities, then we can't use it for exercising. for exercises for the cops to sweep a building or to practice for an emergency situation, whether it's the fire department or the police department. This has to become an absolute priority for this new mayor, and I'm going to expect that. There's nothing more important than the police department. And like I said, and the other factor is a lot of police officers, I'm doing Memorial Day at the Oak Grove Cemetery, and I'm focusing on police officers that were veterans who became police officers. and police officers who belong to the National Guard and Reserves who have died in action, whether overseas or on the street. I'm going to be focused on that this Memorial Day. We have police officers that might get pulled away from their duties as a Medford police officer to go into the National Guard and Reserves. We need to also have more officers available for that. If we're down to 104, then we don't have enough officers. And we need to have 130 recommended. This is a city that's huge. It's a very compact, small city. And if we don't do something about it, it will be too late. There is a point at which it becomes too late to do something. And a crisis will ensue. Then you will have an overreaction. But if you plan it out, then you can move forward. And also, practicing the traffic calming measures. are absolutely essential for the police, because it'll cut down on the speeding. It will absolutely cut down on the speeding. And wait until the 490 units goes into Locust Street, and wait until Wegmans comes into Locust Street, wait until Riverside Ave becomes, you know, absolute gridlock. Wait until all of this stuff happens, what are you gonna do? You can't expect people to do more than what they're capable of doing. And while I criticize the police at times, I'm more their advocate than not. I don't see too many people up here over and over and over again. I'm grateful that that woman spoke today, Ann, because they need an advocate in the city. And I know that you guys say that you want the police building and you want police officers. Do something about it. Make your voices heard loud and clear that this is a priority in the city. And until, because you know when they want money for parks, they find it, no offense. When they want money for certain things, they find it. But the city as a whole doesn't appreciate the police department. And they need to start. And they will when the crime goes up. When it affects them in their backyard, believe me, the citizens will be in here. And by then it'll be too late because you'll have a lot of angry men and women in here. And they'll be saying, I want this and I want that. And where's the money going to come from then? They'll find it, but it's going to cost on some other level. Some other service in the city is going to have to pay for it. It's going to have to take the hit. And so thank you very much for listening.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street, and I agree with you that this is a wonderful idea, and I think it's great. Bring the show on the road, and bring it to the neighborhoods, and You know, you'll get more participation, hopefully. Hopefully. Some neighborhoods you still won't get a response, trust me. But you can always try. And that's right. But my point is, is that we're asking for the police to come out again and do something for us. What are we going to do for the police? And I'm not pointing fingers at you. No, no, no. I'm saying as a body, what are we doing for the police to motivate them? Because we keep asking for them to do you know, patrols and community organizing and community policing and everything else. But like Mr. Pender said, if the place that you guys can show your voice is not to approve the budget unless there's more money for the police department, whether it be for the police building, whether it be for more police officers, then that's when we can show that we're willing, even if it's two officers, it doesn't have to be 20 all at once. And things like cruises should be on a regular budget anyway. We should get two new cruises every year no matter what because they're always on the road and they're always working. You know, what are we going to do? But cruises are small potatoes because we really do need personnel and we need a new building. So what are we doing for them? Because again, we keep asking of them, but I don't see the hand going back to the other side. And I'm not pointing to you because I think it's a great idea.
[Jeanne Martin]: Absolutely. I think it's wonderful. but I just wanted to make that note.
[Jeanne Martin]: And I'm going to ask the public, what are we willing to sacrifice to have these new police officers? Because it's going to have to come out of some fund someplace, whether it's the bubble or the skate rink or a park. What are we willing to sacrifice to have this happen, unfortunately? And there are certain things that shouldn't be questioned, like we need another teacher for English. I heard we had a shortage of that. So that shouldn't be on the docket. But there are other places where we can come up with funds. for two officers for this year. It's not a big ask. I don't think it's a big ask. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: I have a different philosophy on this. This should be done in-house. There's no reason why we can't have the DPW yard do this kind of work, excavate a little square, and just put it in. We have control. Because what you're talking about, you have no accountability. You're going to give the contract to $500,000, and then they're going to say, well, we'll be able to do three streets. then they're going to say, well, we didn't have enough and we had to do two streets. I mean, it's making no sense. This is making no sense. But if it's done in-house, and that requires putting aside more money in the budget for DPW, workers and material, and when you put in the money for the material, keep it in the material account. play with it, don't borrow from it, don't do anything with it. Cause I know how the magic numbers seem to move around. So, but no, there's absolutely no reason why. And then you have more control over it. And also a couple more questions. Yes.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yes.
[Jeanne Martin]: I agree with you.
[Jeanne Martin]: It requires more people.
[Jeanne Martin]: With all due respect. And I agree with you 100%, but it has to become a priority for the city. This is absolutely a priority for the city to do the streets, right? And, and the piecemeal approach is ineffective. And I just want to make a couple more. points, which is the squeaky wheel gets the grease here. So I'm a quiet neighbor or I'm a tenant and I don't open my mouth because I'm a tenant. I have a two family, three family house and we're all tenants. We're going to keep our mouth shut because we're just paying rent. We don't care. We get it. We get a crack in our sidewalk. We're not going to say anything or I'm a quiet person. I don't want to make a noise, so I don't complain about my crack. So my crack doesn't get fixed, but somebody else does. It's just an unfair system. Now, it's not prudent. I agree. I see both sides of this, that if you're going to work on a street, that you do the whole street. But I'm saying that you need a systematic approach, somebody inspecting each street, going around saying, yep, that one needs fixing, A street, B street, C street. And it needs to be a priority. And I totally agree, Mr. Caraviello. It may be a pripe dream, but all dreams start someplace.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yeah.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you very much. So what I'm saying is if we have to hire four more people just to do sidewalks and whether it's asphalt or cement, hire four people. and hold them accountable under their contract that this is what they do. And that way you have accountability, they give you the list, they tell you what they're doing, and if they don't do what they're doing, you let them go. I mean, you have more accountability. The story, I mean, not the story, what you're doing is nuts because it just has no rhyme or reason, no offense. I understand why you're doing it, I get that. I get that it's a fix, it's immediate, and it works for right now, hopefully. But in the long term, it's really, and you have no accountability. You really don't, because it's just, look at what happens. You know, some streets get done, there's no systematic approach to it, and it needs to have a systematic approach. So it has to become a priority, and if it includes hiring four guys, plus cement and material, and I mean keep it in the cement and material folder. Don't take that money and use it for a park or something else. That's dedicated money for street repair. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you, Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. You're telling me that after this council voted, after the mayor approved, after the solicitor went back and made sure the writing was correct for according to the mass general laws, that it was approved by Pat Jalen. It was approved by Mr. Donato, Paul Donato. And even still, it went up the chain of command with that kind of influence, with that kind of influence after 28, 30 years. And then it came back. Now the mayor, has connections because we know she does because at her inauguration, and this is no disrespect to the mayor, at her inauguration she had Pat Jalen, she had Catherine Clark, she had uh... attorney general of the state all of these people with that this is a lot of influence you're telling me with all that influence and with mister denato's high office in the senate or that uh... this house of representatives that this thing isn't political that this thing isn't shenanigans i'd beg to differ and i'd just have to say that this there's something smelly in denmark over here because it's just doesn't doesn't doesn't but it just doesn't sound right with the council, the mayor, and all these people, and Jalen, who's a senator, backing it, and Donato backing it, and they went forward, and they, this is for a review, this isn't even for a change, this is just to review after 28, 30 years of absolute nothing, something is rotten in Denmark here, folks. So don't let that, but don't let it, you know, dissuade you, don't let it, you know, that means we gotta do more work, that's all it means, but you know what? Shame on them, because this is political. This is politics. Somebody is doing a favor for somebody. There's something in the wind. I don't know what it is. It's happening behind closed doors, because that doesn't sound right. Just on the face of it, it does not sound right. So I just want to say that. But don't let it discourage you. That's the word. Because if there's one thing we know about me, I'm persistent. And so we'll be persistent on this. And we'll keep marching forward. And you know what? In the end, just remember. People got up and have died for this, this ability to speak here. Today, this is Memorial Day month. Just remember, people have died for us to have our freedom, to have our say. And if we have to work harder for it, then we're going to be, we're going to come out looking better than the folks upstairs. So thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Gene Martin, 10 coming street. And, uh, I, I agree this program with Mr. Caraviello needs to be pulled back and stopped right now until we get our hands on handle on the city as a whole. And I remember Mr. Falco saying this, and I agree, We need a city engineer for a traffic pattern. We need regular schedules for everything, because the C-Click fix is for tweaks when those things didn't happen. It's a tweaking system. It is not supposed to be for every pothole in the city. If the potholes were being filled on a regular basis, then if you see First Street has a pothole, then you put it in there. But this is going to demoralize the people. What's going to happen is it's going to backfire if she doesn't stop the program now. And I want her to succeed because if she fails, the city fails. I want you to understand that. If the mayor fails at her job, that means the city fails as a city. And I do not want to see that happen. So I want her to get it right. So she needs to pull back on that. And then she needs to get a handle on the city as a whole and start doing some systematic changes. That's going to demoralize. When she had the meetings of all the residents, and I went to one in West Medford, the number one complaint was everything had to do with the DPW. It was all DPW, DPW. Well, if you don't give back the resources, if you don't provide the resources to fix these problems, it doesn't matter. Then it becomes a joke. It's not a joke. Joke isn't the word. It becomes a farce. It becomes a farce. It makes you feel good. but as nothing's being substantially done. So she needs to take back, I know she had ambition about it, stop it. and get it right, have a traffic engineer come in, do a whole sweep of the city, start doing a whole sweep, and if you have to, you have to prioritize DPW, just like you have to prioritize police. If you do not prioritize DPW, it doesn't matter how many computer programs we update. It really doesn't, because the potholes don't get filled, and everybody's gonna complain, and it's gonna be pothole city, and people are just gonna complain about the same problem over and over and over again. You have to have a systematic approach, And thank you very much for listening. And thank you again for your patience, because I've talked a lot tonight. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 coming street. Thank you very much for having me and letting me speak tonight. Um, I'm going to ask you guys first to, to not be defensive, you know, um, and it's, it's hard not to get defensive because you feel like you're being undermined and you know, your authority is being undermined. Um, It's an overarching concept that with the new mayor, the old mayor did things very, very differently and things were around for a long time. And people just went on automatic pilot. And this is the first time that questions are being asked of leadership. And with Mayor Burke, they're actually not getting pushed under the rug. So that's a good thing. So the dialogue between the council and the mayor needs to improve, as I pointed out to her. And the people need to dialogue with the school committee more. And there's nothing wrong with challenging the leadership, challenging authority. There's nothing wrong with asking questions, and I thank her for asking that question. One of the reasons why it got overlapped is because the people weren't feeling that they weren't getting their answers from this body. And that's why they went to the council, and that's why I pointed out they're calling the Councilors, because they don't feel that their needs are being heard here. So there's a breakdown in communication. So that needs to be said. And I just wanted to say that whether he stays or goes, it doesn't matter. I don't have children in the school system, no offense. But I do know that you've been around long enough not to take anything I say personally. I do know that. He knows me too well. But anyway, I just want the process to happen. It's the same thing with the charter review. It's the same thing. And there is overlap. I don't have children in the school systems, but I do have a tenant who has a daughter in the school systems. So you're always around kids, and kids are always everywhere. They're always everywhere. And so a kid in the school system is my kid in an extended version. But what was I going to say? I did, I don't know. I just think that more communication and more openness, it's not a bad thing. The new mayor has a new start. She's got a long way to go, a long way to go. And it's not bad to review. Oh, and the overlap. If you have the TV3, and I don't agree with having it up at the high school, you all know that. But if you do, I'm a person, I'm a citizen, I'm now going to be in that public building. I'm going to be in the school system. There is overlap between, even if you don't have kids in the system, there's an overlap between the schools. and the city council. And that, oh, go ahead. I just want to say, Jean, you're a taxpayer.
[Jeanne Martin]: That's right.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. So I just wanted to say that There's nothing wrong with asking the question. And I think that every five years, somebody should be judging you. No offense. Every year.
[Jeanne Martin]: But it should come from some higher authority and not yourself.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, you hire him. OK. All right. OK. Yeah, but he's evaluating himself. I don't get it. He should. He submits it to the body. Yeah. OK.
[Jeanne Martin]: Well, that needs to happen, and it needs to be. And I'm all for having it open. The Charter Review, I'm all for open government, and I want to thank everybody for the transparency. It's a new day is dawning. You got a job in front of you. I don't envy you. And I'll see you guys later. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Martin.
[Jeanne Martin]: Absolutely, because they're in charge of the budget. So I totally agree with that. But I want to just say, instead of just one-on-one and cherry-picking, you know, that it needs to be body-to-body. We need to have the whole body of the city council sit down with the whole body of the school committee and maybe under new leadership we can do that. If you're doing the right thing, you will do that. Thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Gene Martin, 10 coming street. And finally, congratulations. Thank you. The city knows what to do with me. Finally. This is the, huh? Oh no. Oh, Anyway, I want to thank Mr. Caraviello for putting my name in. I'm looking forward to this. I was looking over the website. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel. I'm looking at all the cities around us websites, and I'm going to take the best of what, and I'll work with whoever the people are.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, excellent. OK, I will. I have. I've been looking at other people's websites. Why reinvent the wheel, right? But I also want to incorporate a, I have a lot of suggestions, put a calendar in, a calendar of events during the course of the calendar year, and just so that it's easy to find. Also, today we went with your people, the Chamber of Commerce and the elder services did a pinning for veterans today. And I went over to that place and I was talking to the director over there, Pam, and we got together and we're going to do a coffee social for veterans once a month, which is awesome. It's a it's a great event. And we get to I can take my tablet and actually sign people up for e-benefits and e-health on the website for the VA benefits. It's an awesome opportunity. I'm going to also talk about families and incorporate families into the veterans' community issues, which I'm really looking forward to. Women, of course. People of color, of course. So it's going to be exciting. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be exciting. So thank you very much for helping me, and thank you for bringing it up. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martington, Cumming Street. And, um, there's an overall question about communication and the role of the mayor with the council. And then there's a subtopic that I'd like to discuss, but, um, the overall is it needs to improve because it kind of feels like the old is, is leaking into the new, the old administration habits are leaking into the new and maybe just having email alerts to all of you from the mayor's office when an important position has been filled. whether it be the liaison, whether it be whatever, whether it be a firing, a hiring or whatever, just you don't have to say, I fired so and so today or whatever, just put, you know, so and so has left. And, um, you know, just so that you guys know what's going on, because there are some people who feel very comfortable calling the mayor every time, you know, and there are people that don't feel that they should be calling the mayor every 15 minutes. So, you know, um, there are ways to improve that communication. And I, I want to, Encourage that because she has a lot on her plate. It's a big big job to take over for the last administration So I want to encourage communication and I want to be put a positive spin on that Someone said this week that when they hear me speak that I'm always respectful and I hope to constantly be Respectful when I'm up here because then people have a harder time, you know Kind of denying what you have to say. So the more respectful we are when we're up here Yeah, a regular person told me that this week, that we, whether she agrees with me or not, I'm always respectful. And so she has to consider what I have to say. So, um, and I hope to hold that. I hope to always hold that. Um, secondly, one of the things that you specifically mentioned, which I was at the school committee meeting last night and the superintendent was testy with, uh, miss D D Benedetto in an inappropriate way. Cause she was asking valid questions and he got testy. Um, he's from the old administration. He's been around forever. My sister graduated in 1975 and he was a history teacher. He was a teacher back then for her. So I mean, it's just, it's not that he's a bad guy. It's that he's been around forever and he's part of the old legacy of the past administration. I mean, can you imagine he's been around since the new school was built, which is an old school. He's just been around too long. And fresh eyes on the school system is something that should be considered. I'm not saying he should be fired or replaced or whatever. But that we should.
[Jeanne Martin]: Councilor Knight, excuse me. I didn't say he has to go. I said there is absolutely nothing wrong with looking at other members that could, other people that could come in to this city to re-look at it and give a fresh set of eyes to our school system. Because we do have a new population in Medford. We don't have the old population. And he is part of, he has a lot of bad habits from the May and McGlynn years. Nobody that worked under May and McGlynn for that long doesn't have, but.
[Jeanne Martin]: That's a fair question. That's a fair statement.
[Jeanne Martin]: Fair statement that I shouldn't be, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a brand new look.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yeah, but if she's getting phone calls all day long, this is the last line.
[Jeanne Martin]: I'm sorry?
[Jeanne Martin]: Okay. My point to that is this is the last line of defense. This council meeting is the last line of defense. When people don't feel like they're getting their answers from the school committee or any other place, this is the place to come. So, and I'm not a parent. Huh?
[Jeanne Martin]: Absolutely. And thank you very much for listening to me. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you, Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I'm sorry, Indy, that was my bad. I didn't know you were sick. This could be an energizing battery for the city, for the business community, for the schools, for everything. But I wanted to break down some of the money issues involved because not everybody wants to talk about it. For every $100 that I pay in my cable bill, whether it be Verizon or Comcast, $5 gets taken off the top. The deal that the mayor made in 1988 or whatever it was, was that out of that $5, $3 goes to the general fund of the city of Medford. Now, I was hired on the arts community last week But if they were to seek that money from the general fund back into the arts community for AXS TV, then I would be a proponent of that. That's not what the city wants to hear, but I would be a proponent of having that money go back to what it's supposed to go to. Because when you tell me that Somerville hires nine people, they have to be using all 5% of that money. And so we only receive 2% for our peg, which is public, education, and government access. And 1% is used for, only 1% is used for the public access. The other 1% is split in half, the government channel slash high school channel or education channel. And so people need to be aware that there is more money in there. We're paying that out of our cable bills. It's not coming out of the tax base. So it's not the taxpayer's money. It's the rate payers' money, but it goes to the tax base. So there's a little bit of a mix up there. I know it's hard for people at home to figure that out. It took me a while to figure it out myself. So I just wanted to clarify that that's where the money comes from. And I want to know, if I could ask through the chair, is the theater has a cable drop? It has the ability, the theater, our Chevalier Theater currently has the ability to have a station in that building, it's cable ready. So if it's just because of the Boys and Girls Club, if we move the Boys and Girls Club out of the basement, we could automatically, without even renting a new space, just put the station in the basement of the theater. Because otherwise it's a cumbersome process to go through the square, find a spot, and it would take longer to do that. We could do that in the future or whatever, but if you wanted to have it done today, they're cable ready. The man that's in charge over there, he said that they had a cable drop, so it's cable ready. So thank you very much for letting me speak.
[Jeanne Martin]: Hi, Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. So much for transparency, right?
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. To answer Mr. Knight's point through the chair, that was the old administration. And yes, you're absolutely correct that under the old administration, he decided that. But anyway, one of the problems that I see is that the high school There's many, many problems with the high school, public safety being one of them, of having strange adults wandering those halls. Also, senior citizens, and you're absolutely correct, Gwen, I've talked to 75-year-old ladies that say, if I got off the bus, I would never make it up that hill. And then when you make it up that hill, it's very dark, and it's just not a good place. What is, who benefits from having it up there, unfortunately, and this is not going to be popular, is the school system. The school system gets all those fundings. They get that whole bucket of money. to put into their art system. But as far as feeling like it's a community center, it's a ghost town over there. And so it's not going to seem like it's a community center. But I do agree. Somebody pointed it out to me. Handicapped accessibility and shame on me. Shame on me. Because I didn't think about that when I suggested the theater basement. I don't know if it would be wheelchair accessible. So shame on me for not thinking that through before I suggested it. But it needs to go down the Method Square for everybody's benefit, for the community to feel like it's their thing. Because if they don't have kids in the high school, they're not going to feel, it's just not up there. It's just not a good spot for the hype. So I would recommend, oh, and one more point. We have an arts council in this city, right? So they need to be involved in the process. And we have the money right now to hire somebody for $500,000 to direct this process. And it doesn't have to come from the mayor's office. So it doesn't show any bias of who they want to pick. There's an arts council. And that's what they should be doing is focusing on hiring somebody so that they can oversee this process. And they could go to a Malden or Melrose or someplace else. This has been done before. We're not reinventing the wheel. We already had that committee and that commission. And that went nowhere. That went into a drawer someplace. So we need to hire somebody to get it done. And we have plenty of money in that draw now. And the Arts Council needs to be on top of this. Is there or is there not an appointed Arts Council for the City of Medford through the Mayor's office? There is. So why not invoke them and get them to start this process? Because in any city that I see the community access, it's the arts community that does this. It's their ball. It's predominantly their ball. They invite everybody else to sports. In Everett, they have three cameras on every football game. Three cameras. They are wicked into football over there, and they have three cameras over there for every football game. Why don't we have that? And we're missing out on all kinds of stuff. So I just wanted to thank you very much for listening to me rant on. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Your name, please. Thank you. Jean Martins on Cumming Street. I'm not going to win this argument because the love of money is the root of all evil. But schools are built for kids, and that's my opinion. I just want my opinion on the record. So if a city near us, Melrose, Malden, their kids want to use our facilities for basketball practice or whatever, and they want to pay us for it, I'm good with that. I personally am against having adults from strange groups I'm just, there's too many corners. I have a concern. I know I'm not going to win. I know that you're going to rent out the schools, but I want it on the record that I don't agree with having outside groups, especially if they're religious groups. in public buildings, and I just want that to go on the record, that there's a lot of issues, and I can't agree with Ms. DiBenedetto-Born and Ms. Coutinho. These concerns are real, and they need to be addressed. And so I just thank you very much for listening. I don't like the idea of outside groups of adults milling that we don't know anything about, milling around these schools, unsupervised, it's bad enough when the kids come in, what they could possibly do, you know, terrorize the school, graffiti, whatever, you know, it's bad enough when the kids are doing it. So we don't need to add fuel to the flames. And that's my opinion. So thank you very much. Thank you. On the motion.
[Jeanne Martin]: I want to make sure that I tell you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you, Gene Martington, Cumming Street. Thank you for bringing this up, Mr. Caraviello. And I would just like to add that this is, generally speaking, a nighttime activity. So we can beef up patrols in the business districts, usually. Usually it's mailboxes, signs, public or private store buildings. It's usually not houses, generally speaking. So we need to beef up security. But also, lighting can be added. We need to talk to the people that own these buildings, because if you add lighting to it, people are less likely to do it. And again, if the area is clean, it's not as contagious. It is a contagious activity, absolutely, without a doubt. If you see one beer bottle or one Pepsi can, you're likely to see another one and another one and another one. Same thing with graffiti or trash. So if we keep the area clean too, which is part of our responsibility, That would help, but also I think the arts community could be brought into this and we can work with those people and if the business is okay with some kind of mural, that would be good too. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Ms. Martin-Tencombe Street. This is a very, very, very complex issue, and it involves a whole host of issues. It's not as simple as, you know, let's just put some people on the street. It is very complex, and it needs a summit, Mr. Marks. You're absolutely right, because we need to look at police reform and We do have too few officers, and it involves overtime, it involves details, it involves the numbers that we don't have. But it also involves police taking responsibility for themselves as well. And they're not gonna like what I'm saying, but it's true, they need to be more proactive in this city. But they get mistreated, so it's easy to, they feel a little bit defensive. That said, and I agree, and I'm an advocate for the police, you know that, I'm up here every week. One thing that I would like to recommend is, and they're not going to like me for this, is putting a device on each cruiser that tracks where they go throughout the city. Because sometimes, and I've seen it myself, I know they're not going to like me, cruisers can be found behind buildings for a long period of time. They're just chilling out someplace. So that behavior needs to stop. They're exhausted. You know, there are reasons why they are not proactive in this city. There are reasons why they are not as proactive as they need to be. But at the same time, we do need to hold them accountable. But we can't hold them accountable till we give them what they need. So it's both. It's a balance of giving them all the resources they need and then lifting up their spirits so that they'll want to be more proactive and not so, oh, well, I'm not going to answer that call. I hear from people in stop and shop, I'll call the police, and I never hear that go over police scanner, that call that I just called in for a parked car that's been there for three days, it never goes out. So there's somebody filtering the information through the station. And it's because if it's not dire, it doesn't go out. And that's the way that the police respond in a lot of positions in a lot of conditions. But again, it is a complex issue and it requires a summit. It is, I'm not bashing the police. Please do not misunderstand. that I am not bashing the police. The police are under a lot of stress and duress these days. But it is a give and take. And when we step up, they need to step up too. But we need to have that summit so that everybody's working on the same page. Thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. I was wrong a couple of weeks ago when I backslid on mandating a new public safety building for this city. I remember saying to myself and saying to you, there's not an appetite in this for this city. You know what? Doesn't matter whether there's an appetite in this city, it has to happen. The reason is because Mayor Burke has made a few small gestures in the right direction toward open government. And so in response to this good faith effort on her part, I essentially gave her a pass on building out the public safety building. I was wrong and felt guilty later that night. She needs to be able to do both simultaneously, open up government and make it transparent but she also needs to address the new police building. She cannot claim ignorance to both matters as essential to the running of this city, but she is not the only one. This city is also willfully ignoring the needs of our police department. And if the people are in a state of collective denial, then it is my job to hold the citizenry accountable as well. Not only do the local police have to save people from themselves and others in its traditional role, they are being asked to become the front line for domestic terrorism, and we need to adjust and prepare our men and women in public safety to be ready for this new demand on them. Today, in Brussels, terrorists once again sent fear throughout Europe, killing 34 and wounding 28 others. And that was an early estimate. The target was near the headquarters of the European Union. Boston is also a symbolic city, in case you were wondering. They bombed an airport and a subway. What does Boston have? An airport and a subway. Less than one year ago, on July 17, 2015, the local police, the local police, took down the domestic terrorist who shot up a recruiting station at Chattanooga, Tennessee. and went on to kill four Marines and wounded three others at a naval training station. It was the local police who stopped the shooter. We have a recruiting station in Medford Square. Why do we think we're immune? Also on November 13, 2015, terrorists attacked several sites simultaneously in Paris, killing 128 and wounding countless others. It was, again, the local police the local police who killed the attackers. And on December 2, 2015, domestic terrorists opened fire on innocent people in their workplace, killing 14 and injuring 22 others in San Bernardino, California. If that's not enough, I will hit you where you live. While the following statistic includes school buses, college campuses, and suicides on school property, In 2015 alone, there were 52 school shootings resulting in 30 deaths and 53 others injured. Why do we think we're immune? They're getting so commonplace, they don't even report them anymore. The problem isn't the public safety professionals, it's the public, period. With absolute clarity, I can tell you that sooner rather than later, there will be a group of well-intentioned, genuine people who will want to spend money on renovating the library or building a new high school or, no offense, an art center. And the sad part is that they have a better chance at seeing their want list checked off before a new public safety station is built. Most people's experience with the police is either watching them on a detail, standing in the street, or getting pulled over for a traffic stop. But I assure you that they do a lot more than that today. And you better start appreciating them, or chaos will ensue. I am for police reform, and I believe it is in the best interest of both the police and us. The public included, including but not limited to, details, crowd control, toxic spills, fires, sensitivity training, overtime limits, relaxation techniques, school shootings, terrorist bomber threats, you name it. All of these come under the purview of the police department training. That's just a short list. But it all starts with the solid base of operations, which our police and fire do not have at this time in order to face the issues of 2016, when the building they are working out of was built in 1962. Mayor Burke, you no longer have a choice to look the other way on this. It is not a maybe. or a in seven years decision. It has to be made today. The plan has to be started today in order for it to be up and running in three years. To the people of Medford, the mayor takes her cue from you, and you stand silent to this. You are just as much to blame. These men and women aren't there for the fun of it. They are there in that building to carry out your protection. While it is an ugly topic, it is not one that can be avoided anymore. We need to send everyone in this city to police empathy school. And yes, I do agree with our police and fire from time to time, and I disagree with our police and fire from time to time, and will continue to do so. They're not always right either. The two values can and do sit side by side for me. We need to give them all the right tools for the job and teach them better skill sets to manage today's problems. They are not exclusive of one another. I can assure you today, this city has let me down and let the police down horribly, and it continues to do so. Ask yourselves, why don't I care about the people who swear to run into danger when I am too chicken and run out. Why? Because it impacts your desires to build a park, school, recreation building, or renovate some other interest you have. You don't see it as selfishness. You couch it in some good-for-all construct that helps you rationalize your goals over that of the entire city. And make no mistake, I don't do this for the police department. I do this for the betterment of the entire city. While I am calling out the mayor for negligence in making this a priority, I am also calling out my fellow citizens for selfishness above and beyond recklessness. The police are there for you, and they don't ask you for your insurance card before administering Narcan to your kid. They don't ask you while they are standing between you and your crazy ex, what is it you do for a living? The fire department is there for you when you are having a heart attack, and they don't say, wait, My kid's in Little League. I'll have to get to you later. They say now. I will be there right now. I will be there right now for you. It is our job to be there for them right now.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And you'll be amused to know that I was called pushy this week, so I kind of wear that as a badge now. I was referred to as pushy. But anyway, this is a representative democracy. We don't have a pure democracy. Pure democracy would be 50 plus 1 on any given item. We elect you to represent us in many, many ways. And so it's not a simple democracy. The reason why we have to do 30 years, let's get real, for 30 years the city has not had a charter review. A review, again, does not mean that we have any change to the charter, it just means that an elected body of the people, and I believe none of these folks behind the reel, can be a member of that charter review. So it is up to the people, and it is up to the people to get involved once that body is elected. But what happened over the 30 years is a complete breakdown of citizen participation in government. They were involved in sports, and they were involved in the schools, and the people were involved in different aspects in the business community. But the one area that has not been a place where the people, the citizenry, have been involved is in the actual local government, how it works, input into it in a major way, unless they were directly affected by local government. Those folks, they've been active in it. But for the vast majority of people, they're afraid. They don't know. They're in a very passive position. And this process will stimulate their ability to start to get involved. And it has to be led by you guys, because they've been sheep for 30 years. I know that sounds terrible. It sounds like an insult. And I guess I earned my pushy word today. But they've been sheep. They've been passive. participants in local government. And we want them to be active, and we want to teach the kids to be active in their local government, and that's true. So while I respect the petitioning process, this is not illegal to do it this way. And we elected you to represent us. I don't always agree with the way you guys vote, but you vote for the mass majority of the people. Sometimes I don't agree with you. Sometimes I do. But I have to accept that. You guys vote for me. You represent me. And this is a legal avenue to do a charter review. So don't be afraid of it. Just don't be afraid of it. The people don't know. It's new to them for 30 years. I can't stress that enough. What's it going to take for this city to just look at its own constitution, the way we run ourselves? Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. Just one thing, I'm all for the statistics program. that we need to have that out in the open. What I don't want to see is a link between the numbers of officers we hire and crime statistics, and I'll tell you why. If you're doing a good job and you determine crime because you have a lot of police officers on the street, they're friendly, they're getting out there, they know what's going on, the neighborhood crime goes down. Well, if you deplete them because the crime level goes down, your crime level is going to go back up. So I just wanted to make, do you understand what I'm saying? No, I guess not. I see some questions in there, in the faces. If the police officers, if we increase it by 10, and we have people walking the streets, police officers are walking the streets, crime is actually going to go down. And if it goes down, and we link crime statistics to the amount of officers, then what you don't want to do is delete the officers because crime is down, because the reason why it's up why crime is doing well, I mean not doing well, is because there's presence out there. So we want to increase them by 10, which I'm all for, you know that. But I don't want to link the data of crime statistics to the numbers of officers we need. We need to base it on presence. And if they get out there, they're friendly, they're getting to know everybody, they know what areas are, you know, I want to see them walking the beat, I really do. I think that's the best thing, to deter crime. Officers walking the beat in large numbers. so that they feel supported. But I don't want to link the two, because what happens is, as we know, well, we're doing great. Crime is down. Let's change out these officers for police, for fire, or DPW workers, or something else. And then your police officers will, the crime will go up again. So thank you. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Sorry, Gene Martin. I'll try to be quick. But I wanted to address something that someone said, which is there's two issues, parking enforcement and moving violations, which are two different issues. The Republic can be expanded to take in the whole city, as far as I'm concerned, because I think it's a waste of police personnel to do ticketing for parked cars. That's number one. But number two, moving violations should be under the direct responsibility of the police and only the police. And since there's no appetite in this city by the mayor in this coming cycle of two years, and I'm not putting her down, but she has no appetite to build out a new police station in the next two years. I didn't get that from the meeting. So if she's not going to build out a new police station, then maybe she can put 10 cops on the payroll for now, at least. so that we can do more moving violations. Because if they don't get a ticket, they don't get a surcharge. So if there's no enforcement, then they don't get a surcharge on their insurance. So, and I'm not putting down the mayor, but I got the sense that she doesn't have a plan to put in a new police department in the next two years. Maybe it's four, maybe it's seven, I don't know. But in lieu of that, the least she can do to be good to the police force, who is, you know, way behind on 100 different levels. Before we renovate the library, I'm all for the new roof on the library. I know I'm getting off topic. But before we renovate the library, we need to think about putting more cops on the street. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martington, Cumming Street, and I hope to channel May and not some of the other people in this chamber, so I'm going to try to say it calmly. First of all, Mr. Marks, I want to thank you for bringing this forward. This is overdue. It's very much overdue. And the simplest thing is what he just said. Let's keep it simple. Let's do the first thing first, which is to have the solicitor draw up a draft. And the reason why we need to do that is because the psychology of Medford, and I am going to speak on that, and I can do that calmly, is that we have had an A form of government for 30 years. The people have been passive participants in government for 30 years. 30 years of passive government. They don't know how to get involved. They don't know how to come forward. They're afraid to come forward. They've gotten used to not coming forward. And so we have a lot of rectifying to do. And so let's keep it simple. That's why the signatures didn't work. Because the people are passive. And they're afraid. And when people have change come in their face, they're confronted with change and they freak out a little bit. So we have to We have to take this as a process. But the signatures alone isn't going to work. So I thank Mr. Marks for bringing this forward, because the signatures, it's painstakingly slow. And it's too slow for us to change that way. This is a valid option, by the way, as far as I'm concerned. It's in the charter under the mass state laws that we can do it this way. So this is not bypassing the signature process. But it's legitimate. It is bypassing the signature process, and I do understand that, Mr. Knight. But it's a legitimate way to move forward, and it is the way that we need to because the people are not used to participating in the government and local government. And to have a meeting of the whole, you can have a meeting of the whole here in this forum in public.
[Jeanne Martin]: Okay. Oh, yes, yes, yes. So thank you for correcting me. And I hope that I was channeling a little bit of May and, and not some of the other folks in the hall tonight. So, cause I look up to her. She's a great role model. Okay. Thank you. That's right.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, thank you. 10 Cummings Street. And I just wanted to say this is a public safety issue, so it is under the purview of the City Council, because it's about a public building and what goes on in a public building as far as safety. And that involves the police department. That also involves your oversight. You are—I do agree that there are certain things that the City Council should not have purview over when it comes to what qualifies to become a teacher, what degrees or credentials an aide in a classroom needs to have. That's absolutely within the purview.
[Jeanne Martin]: Right. Thank you. Thank you for getting me back on track. But it is important to point out that this is a public. Now, that said, Mr. Knight is right. I do not need to know, nor should I know, where all the cameras are.
[Jeanne Martin]: That is where we agree. Um, but it goes back to the point of money and maintenance and the same old, same old of what used to happen under the old administration, which is that maintenance is never kept up on any building and public safety inside the public school system is part of the maintenance plan that needs to be, you know, um, put forward in the new year, in the new administration. And then when that falls through the cracks, somebody needs to be held accountable for why is it that 15 or 20 or 25 percent of all the cameras have not been updated. Who's going to be in charge of that? and who's going to be held accountable for that. And it needs to happen because it is a public safety issue. And what happens in today, today's world with bullying, you could catch it on camera, but if you can't figure out who's bullying who, who's attacking who, or who's graffitiing on a wall locker, it could be minor stuff like that, or it could be, you know, letting a guy in or a girl in. to set a bomb, because that's the world we live in. So we do need to have those, because that does save manpower, or woman power. It saves human resources, the cameras do. So I brought it back to the cameras. Thank you for keeping me on track.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. And I'd just like to say that the issue of sidewalks is going to get worse because we have had so much development and we have more cars on the street than ever before. And we have more people on the street. But as far as enforcement goes, The person that's in charge of the ticketing and oversight is Diane McLeod, whose job is the multicultural person, and her job is to be nice. I don't know why she has the job of being the judge of the tickets, because basically her job is to mediate between constituency groups. So I don't understand. It should be under the law enforcement agency of the city. It should be under the chief of police. It should be under his direction and he should be cracking down on enforcement issues. But the reason why he doesn't is because it causes a lot of inner fighting and a lot of grief and people will come up because they're not used to being told what to do. They're not used to being told that they can't park in a certain spot and it causes a lot of grief. and a lot of aggravation. And that's why it's not being enforced. So I just want to say that it's going to have to change. Otherwise, you're going to have people in the streets getting hurt. You really are. You're going to have people in the streets. And wait until the competition. And I'm glad that those ladies spoke from the disability community, because it's called a sidewalk. Walk. A sidewalk. So unfortunately, they can't walk, so they need to wheel. But it's designed for strollers and people and First of all, wheelchairs. And if a wheelchair can't get through a spot, then you need to take the tree out or whatever it is. Trees come second to people walking on the sidewalks, because it's called a sidewalk. I like trees. I'm all for trees. If you can put a tree and fit a tree, and you can fit a wheelchair, all the more power to you. But if you can't, then the tree comes second to the people. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I wanted to say that Mr. Marks is right on the money. He's been on for years talking about traffic calming measures. And it needs to be done systematically. And I think this guy back here, Michael. Michael had talked about an engineer coming in, a traffic engineer or something. to come in to look at it as a systematic thing, because what I keep on hearing is this street, and this street, and this street, and it's not being tackled as a systemic issue. And I'd like to add, it needs to be thought of as a systematic approach, that the whole city needs to have this looked at, all of it, all of it, just the whole But I can't say it anymore. And also in the interim, the speed light, the traffic lights, have we ever put on cameras on the top of the traffic lights? And maybe we ought to, because speeding through a red light is getting more easy to do. As you know, yellow is not yellow in Medford. So I just wanted to let you know that we need to, because people are getting more aggressive. They really are. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martington, Cumming Street. And I actually don't have a comment. I have a question. I know that's news for you guys. I always have a comment. But anyway, is the Chief of Staff going to be the liaison between the Mayor's office and this body? or is that going to be somebody else?
[Jeanne Martin]: Okay. That's all I wanted to know. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Hello, Jean Martin, 10 coming street. And I went to that same meeting that Mr. Caraviello went to on constituency, constituency services. Um, And you're absolutely right, Mr. Marks, if you do not have more people in the areas that were most discussed. And I kind of wonder, because now you've set up this expectation. These people came out, and they didn't just come out from West Medford. They came out from all over the areas of Medford, and they came to this meeting. And now there's a belief system that things are going to change. And I hope that things change, because now you've set up the expectation that things are going to change. And the only way that they're going to change is if you hire more DPW workers and more police. Because the two biggest issues that came up were, one, parking enforcement, street sweeping, plowing, especially plowing in the winter, and all of the car issues and all of that. And also the DPW potholes and you name it. So if we do not hire more DPW workers and more police or reutilize our police so that they're in enforcement mode, then the 311 system is going to be absolutely useless. It's going to set up the expectation that I'm going to be heard. And then if they're not heard, they're going to be even more frustrated. So I just want to point that out. So we're going to have to figure out something to do because there's not enough DPW workers to take care of the issues in this city. Clearly, like you said, at the high school, they can't even salt the hill. So thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Just a real quick comment. Gene Martin, 10 coming street. I went to the pre meetings for this bridge work and Senator Jalen was there and Representative Donato was there as well to most of these meetings. So where are they in this problem solving? Okay. All right. Well, I'm just saying, I'm just asking, where are they? Can they?
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I just wanted to—not on the positions, but on one point that the solicitor said that I was in a definite disagreement with, all due respect, these people get paid a lot of money and they get paid to think. When I was a private in the Army, I was told point blank, you don't get paid to think, you know? And I said, I think, Sergeant, and he said, private, you don't get paid to think. But anyway, these guys get a lot of money, a lot of money. They get paid to think about the future. They get paid to think about what's going to happen in five years from now. So with all due respect to the solicitor, it's not about the positions. I don't, you guys wrangled that out. The point is, is that yeah, you guys are getting paid lots of money to think down the future. And that includes the mayor. So she needs to think what's going to happen in five years. So that's all I wanted to say. And thank you. And with due respect to the solicitor. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Hi, Gene Martin, Municipal Lots. But anyway, this is, well, I'm going to be talking about two different little blocks. This is a citywide issue. This affects the Medford Square projects. This affects the business community. And I just want everybody to know that all of the department heads need to be in and understand what I'm trying to get across. Because this is a citywide project, even though it's going to be talking about two small blocks. First of all, reorganizing Union and Swan Street. There are two small blocks between the police headquarters and the DPW yard. The first block is between Union and Swan, which are more like alleys than streets. And I recommend anybody just drive down Mystic Ave and Main And go up those, quote, streets, they're more like alleys than they are streets. The second block between Swan and James is a little bigger. These two blocks, separating the police facility and the DPW yards, are small privately owned businesses. Along Union Alley, and I call it alley, are the following, Alsar Automotive, Carly Fence, Stevens Auto, and Lew's Custom Exhaust. Swan Street, A&P, Collision Center, After that, a junkyard, complete eyesore, and then Eastern Tool Company. If you go down that road, if you look from above, and actually as you're going down it, there's a huge junk area. It just looks like an eyesore. On the left is a marble and granite company. James Street has all truck company. Unfortunately, the new public safety building is going to need at least the lots on Union to Swan Street to meet code. for the current footprint, which is one-third too small, and so union to Swan is not an option, but rather a mandate. Whether or not we move the businesses on James Street is still optional. Since we are going to have to disturb that area, we might as well do it right to begin with. It makes sense to turn those two whole blocks, including James Street, into city-owned lots so that we can increase our building space for other related departments. We need to work with these business owners and find them new lots for their businesses. And this is where you come in, Mr. Delarusso and Mr. Caraviello especially, because you're both on the rotary and you need to be, you know, pushing for this, I think. Not only do I see the new police fire 911 facility staying where it is, but I see buildings that house other city departments. in it like public health, building management, engineering, water and sewer, cemetery, any departments that seems compatible with police, fire, and DPW. The other aspect of this change is that it will impact the new square's view over the Mystic River. Currently, the view is ugly. So seriously, if you put those fancy condos above the storefronts, you know, where CVS is and all of that, they're gonna have an awful view. I'm telling you, if you look down, do the aerial thing from, that's why I did this, aerial view, it's all junky, it's ugly. So it'll increase your property values of the Medford Square project as well, not to look over the river and then to, you know, to see all that junky stuff, mostly automotive places. And I'm not saying get rid of them, I'm saying help us move them. One other aspect of this change is that it will impact the new square's view on the Mystic River. Currently, the view is ugly. As soon as these businesses are, some of these businesses are dumpy and crappy looking. So if you are going to gentrify the square with condos above the storefronts, then you need to clean up that view for them anyway. The losers appear to be the businesses. However, Carly Fence would do better on a front lot on Mystic Ave with a better eye-catching sign. The other businesses will have a harder time finding lots because they are automotive by nature and have a lot of grease and oil and stuff requirements. I believe that the city would be short sighted not to consider the whole area between the police station and the DPW lots. as possible office and building structures for city business, leaving more room in city hall for new areas of interest. As you know, the city is growing and it needs more space. Um, my point is, is that since this isn't going to happen tomorrow, we need to help plan with the five year vision of, you know, breaking ground at the police station. And if you do, you're going to have to do it where it is. because it's centrally located, it's easy to find. You want police, fire, and 911 all in the same area. Clearly the current building size is not big enough, the footprint is not big enough. So you're gonna have to take over that little alley anyway. So since you're going to do that and you're going to disturb the area, you might as well do it all in one shot with the business community, with all the department heads, with everybody on board and visualize what you want it to look like. And it'll serve as a, everybody will be happy. But what I'm saying is if we just take, take it by eminent domain, you're going to cause a lot of trouble. So if you, if I think that we all need to work with the business communities down there, and find them another home inside the city where these automotive, mostly automotive places, body shops and whatnot, can do their business along Mystic Ave or someplace. There's got to be someplace for them. So if you don't, you're going to have to take the ground anyway. And it'll cause problems if it happens abruptly. So plan it well. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: So they're going to build higher?
[Jeanne Martin]: Well, I think, I don't know. You guys got to stop it, man, because where are you going to put the police station?
[Jeanne Martin]: I know. But where's the police station going to go?
[Jeanne Martin]: We just can't go and- With all due respect. I don't want to argue.
[Jeanne Martin]: Well, I understand that, sir, through the chair, with all due respect. And you know I respect you. The city has an obligation to provide public safety first before anything else, even my house. So when it comes to public safety, the city should be able to take my house for public safety. I wouldn't like it. I would not like it. But that's, that's the, where are you going to put the public safety building? If not in the Medford Square where it is, where are you going to put it? That's my question. So I'll put that to the chair. I'll put that to the president. If not in Medford Square, right where it is, where are you going to put it?
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And you people are putting me out of work now. You guys are taking my job from me. You're all saying what I would have said. So thank you very much for that. My job here is done. For now. For now, on this one. And I want to thank you for all supporting the library. I'm a fan of the library. I also just want to point out a couple of little things. As I was talking to the assistant director, which kind of already knew, There are certain areas that don't even have plugs because they were designed to have books along that wall. So you're absolutely right, Mr. Falco. When you have that assessment, you need to do the bottom two. It needs to be retrofitted for all kinds of cabling and internet and all of that. It needs to be seen as a whole package. The other thing I'd like to say is when you conceive the library, wherever you put it, whether it's the Springs, apparently not. It needs to be in conjunction with the Chevalier Theatre, with the TV3, wherever the TV3 goes, which I would like to see in the Square someplace. And it needs to also be seen with the business community, and I always think of you, because you know how to talk to all those people. So anyway, It needs to be seen as a bigger plan. The whole square needs to be conceived in one big thing and not to just say, let's do this to the library. Because, you know, especially with the Chevalier, because it's all liberal arts, it's all artsy. So I think that they need to be married. And I know that certain people get territorial. I don't mean this in a bad way. People do. The Chevalier people may not like, you know, what the library is proposing or the library people don't. Well, you know, let's all get together on this, and let's come up with the, let's not be territorial, let's not get defensive, and let's just move forward on that and come together on those things and build them all with the same concept in mind. So that's all I got to say, and thank you for doing my job for me.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Uh, Jean Martin 10 coming street. Um, in the name of transparency, every single dollar that is extra that the superintendent of schools finds is should be open to scrutiny to our visibility. We should know that that money is there as a public. That's our money. That's not his money. That's not the mayor's money. That's our money. So we should know about that. And there are two points, two different areas that you recognize. And the first being transparency. And what are they going to do with that money that they've saved? Are they going to put it into maintenance? Are they going to put it into ink supplies? What are they going to do with the extra money that they've saved? Secondly, the more important piece, is this is not $85,000 once, this is $85,000 a year for a salesman, a salesperson, to sell the concept of the schools. Think about that, ladies and gentlemen. It's a salesman. That's a high class word for, PR is a high class person. That could be a teacher in a classroom, that could be a cop, that could be a DPW worker. That's $85,000 a year. That is a whole person on the ground. We have, no offense, but we have too many supervisors and we don't have enough, you know, privates. We need workers. And $85,000, it's not once, it's every single year. And personally, I think that it's a little bit of finagle the bagel behind closed doors too. But I don't want to bring out the dirty laundry. There's no need. I do want to say that that's one full salary for a cop, a firefighter, a DPW worker, or a teacher. You want to put that towards a regular teacher, classroom teacher, then take the $85,000 and put it towards a teacher. There's no reason why we need somebody to sell the concept of schools. And also bringing up Mr. Caraviello's pet peeve with the maintenance. The reason why they were flooded is because we're not putting that $85,000 a year towards fixing those pipes. We need a maintenance schedule for all the buildings. And that's much bigger than $85,000 a year. So I will give you that, but it is a full scale salary for an employee for the city. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: I don't want to rehash the old stuff. The bottom line is that the new mayor, moving forward, the new mayor has a history of being attacked by the old TV3. So she has personal interest in knowing what a bad TV station can do for the city. But now we need to move forward and we need to It doesn't take rocket science to put this together. All the communities around us have it. All of them. Malden is not as wealthy a community as Medford. I don't care by what standard you use. And they have a very vibrant TV station right in the middle of this square where everybody is welcome. Everybody. You guys all give lip service to diversity? Go to the Malden station. You will see diversity. And you will see the arts. Hello, art community. You will see dancing on that station. You will see the government doing their thing like we are here with the government meetings. But you'll see a diversity in thought and ideas. But you know, that's what the old mayor didn't want and he got away with it because he had friends at the statehouse and because he had friends everywhere. This new mayor has a new start. She can start fresh. She can start with the, you know, and if there are problems like in the past, which she is very aware of, such as money disappearing, attacks on personalities and characteristics, then we need to have a format by which to get rid of those people on the station. And it isn't rocket science because they're all doing it all around us and we're losing out. And this affects the business community, Mr. Caraviello, This affects the, well, I think of business, I think of him. That's why I voted for him. Anyway, and you better do something for the square. So anyway, I'm going to hold you to it. But anyway, you know, it helps the business community. It helps the arts community, the theater, the theater, the Chevalier Theater. It helps everything. And it is a waste of time and money to put it in this Vogue. Not that I'm against having them be taught those skill sets at the Vogue. But it puts more money in the Vogue. Unfortunately, and I have to go through this laundry list, all new schools 10 years ago, a new pool, two new stadiums, all money going towards the students. I'm not against the students, but the students and the schools have gotten the lion's share of all the monies, and now they have another part to play with, which is this technology. They got the tech bill. That was another one. They've gotten a chunk of change. The only thing on the city side has been a $14 million DPW yard that isn't even sufficient And it's brand new, because it has problems. So it needed more money. So the balance is shifted towards the schools already. We can put it in Haines Square, because there's plenty of empty lots and empty storefronts there. I wish it was in the Medford Square, because that is the most vibrant place that it can lift the square right up. Between the library being redone, the Chevalier, and the TV3 being in a storefront, It can really pick up the square and make it more user-friendly, make the square better, bring people in. They'll have something to do besides go to eat. They'll have something to eat because they're there. So it'll all work out. But if you don't, if you let this stay at the high school, which is better than nothing, but it's still going to hamper free speech up at the high school. It really will. Because it's going to be, people are going to feel that they're in a public building, and they're going to feel like they can't say certain things because they're in a public building. Plus, it's not accessible the way that it would be in Medford Square. But right now, you can put it in Haines Square, because I know that there are empty storefronts right on Salem Street. and you can just tuck it right in there for now. But anyway, thank you for listening, and I hope that we have free speech, and the arts, and business, and all of that that can come from this. Those three things, the library, the Chevalier, and TV3, or community access, would all, you know, just build up the square. Those three things anchor. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. Churchill said, those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. If we do not take our city-side building maintenance seriously, They will undoubtedly fall into disrepair, as did the schools, the DPW, and currently the police station. Assuming that we put off tearing down and building out a 21st century public safety building, which I do not endorse forfeiting, we still need to insert a building maintenance budget for each city side building. The school side has a person in charge of school buildings and can identify the problems and priorities for the school side. We need the same on the city side. If we have the money to hire a public relations officer for the school side at the cost to the taxpayer of $85,000 a year, then we can afford a chief of maintenance for city-side buildings. We need a log of problems and schedule for their maintenance. We need a list of all city-owned buildings and inspections annually to identify their problems. Whoever said you can't fight City Hall is wrong. Local politicians do react to the populace when the populace makes its voice heard loud enough. When the parents come out in force, stadiums, the high school pool, and the technology labs are funded and built. The problem is the voice for city buildings are not loud enough. And for those who believe I am against the schools, note that I have spoken out against excessive spending on the city side, i.e., the garage, the Water Taxi, the Brooks Estates, and a whole new building for the arts community. We will do well to save the two, quote, luxury buildings we have, which is the library and the Chevalier Auditorium. As for all other building structures, they are mandatory and need to be tended to. We could also look at street safety, i.e. crosswalk reflectors and underground infrastructure. And I say that because I was in Haines Square And everybody's coming in at the same time. And at night, at 5, 530, all you see is a flood of headlights. And you can't see the crosswalk. And you can't see a person crossing the crosswalk until they actually go in front of somebody's headlights. So it's very, very dangerous there. So we need to public safety of the sidewalks and all the rest of it. I'm ad nauseam. You know my story. This is not a luxury. This will cost you more in the end unserviced. I vote to take the PR money and put it towards a chief of city side maintenance. Keep in mind the building inspector is for the whole city, not just city buildings. So if you have the argument that we have a building inspector, well he's in the, or she or whatever, they, the two of them, are in charge of every single building. That means house, two families, single, buildings, condos, you name it, retail, commercial, The Brooks estates to the Craddock house or the Tufts house to the royal house to the school They're responsible for every building Okay, so we need a person specifically and I think mr. Marx was the one that brought this up a while back that we need somebody for the city side and Unfortunately to my friends over here. I respect their opinion, but the pie is only so big and unless you do a two and a half override the pie is only so big and so I While I've spoken out against excessive city side spending I'm not totally against the schools but the schools have gotten the lion's share lately and it really needs to be shifted so that the fire substations are maintained The police department, even if you don't tear it down, which I believe we should, it needs to be maintained. And the City Hall, hello, anybody? And so we need to have maintenance on the city side. For the library as well, because if you want to use it, you have to make sure it's maintainable, make sure that people can walk into the library without the ceiling falling in on them, which we know is behind and backlogged. So we need to take it and address all these situations. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Councilor?
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Welcome. Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street, and my blood pressure is going through the roof again. This is unessential spending. First of all, word of mouth. If we have a technical high school that has awesome stuff in it, because we have a building fund that puts money into the building, the word of mouth is going to be, oh, man, Medford High has a great tech school. That's going to be word of mouth. I hire construction people. I hire plumbers and electricians from my house. And word of mouth is the best. Not the ads, not the fancy ads. You talk to people and you say, did you use Mike? How did he go? That's what you do. And when he gets reputation after reputation, then you go with Mike. It's that simple. And so what I'm saying is, with all due respect, we're hiring a spin doctor for our schools. That's what you're doing. You're hiring a spin doctor. And you're going to put a spin, and you're going to try to put a nice package on something. Well, let the package speak for itself. OK? This is an excessive amount of money. And I mean, I pick on other issues, too, in the city of excessive spending. And this is just one position that we do not need and should not be had. by the city. And it has nothing to do with the quality of education. And it's absolutely absurd. So thank you for listening to me. There's very few issues that get my blood up more than ridiculous spending. So let's put a marquee on the theater and not hire this guy. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: We're going to have a committee of the whole. Jean Martington, Cumming Street, Medford. First of all, I want to thank Mr. Marks for asking those very good questions. But there's two issues here. First of all is the quality of work. which is in question, but then the second question, no offense to the person, the budget director, but the reason why they're coming to you is because they want another bond. So there are two separate issues here. First, you have the quality of work and that whole idea, and then you have the bonding question. And so that's great that you're holding out on the money until they do what they said they were going to do. Plus, can I say something? It was the DPW yards. To not expect toxins is like a duh. You know what I mean? I mean, DPW yard ground. The contractor should have known that there would have been toxins in that ground and deep. So shame on us or shame, you know, for not thinking that through because we're letting the contractor get away with that one. That's on us. That's number one. But number two, the bonding question, no offense, but there's a hidden agenda to keep the bonding rate low. to keep a certain amount of money in the free cash. And let's be honest about that, what's going on behind that scene, which is that they want a lower bonding rate, which is great for borrowing money. But you're putting us in more debt when we have free cash. Plus, this can go under the water and sewer enterprise account because it's the DPW yard. So, no? Okay, I apologize for that, then I'm wrong. I stand corrected. But anyway, you can use the free cash money, but again, there is a hidden agenda that we shouldn't keep this money if we need it for this purpose. And yes, we should have a little cushion in case there's a rainy day, but it's like $9 million, okay? So we can use the $300,000 for this, because we need a police station, and that's going to also have toxins under it. But thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, Tate Coming Street. I'm actually in favour of this. You know, what happened 20 years ago is not what goes on today. Unfortunately, kids can't play with guns the way I grew up playing with guns. Fake guns look real today, and if I was a police officer, you can't take that chance. Unfortunately, you can't take that chance. There's too many on the streets. And at one time, I had a BB gun, and I gave it up because it looked too real. And I wanted to pick off some squirrels, but I didn't. I called the appropriate authorities to have them come out of my attic, but I did. But I gave up my BB gun because it looked so real, and with my reputation. But I didn't want anybody thinking that I was dangerous. But it is not the times that we used to have. So I just want to say that I support this, because you can't take that chance. Unfortunately, and parents need to make their kids aware of it, that they look too real. And you have to err on the side of caution sometimes. And that might lead to a death when it's just a toy. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, Tuck Cummings Street, and I actually agree with Joe. This is a great opportunity to bring everything together in Medford Square. Medford Square needs the business. They need the arts and the culture to come in. We need to have that banner, the what do you call it? Yeah, the thing. Yeah, yeah, the marquee. Thank you. We need to have the marquee put up there. We need to take this building seriously. Thank you. Yes, I need remedial help. So we need to really take that building seriously in the next coming year. And if we don't, the Medford Square area isn't going to build out as fast as it could. It's just that simple. Between the library, the community access channel, and you can put it down in the theater, you can put it on the second floor of the library for all I care. I don't care where you put it. If you build another floor in the library, I'm all for that and put the channel in there, I don't care. Put the channel in a small little retail spot, I don't care. But that would really, those three things mixed together would really help to boom Medford Square and get the businesses going down there. So I really am in support of that. You have to get the religions out of there. I'm totally, that sets me off. and because it's just totally against everything I believe in, but we have to take that building seriously and we have to take the library seriously. Either these are buildings that the city owns and we take them seriously or not. We had an earlier debate about the Brooks estates and we really need to think hard about putting more money into that because to me it's just, it's not going anywhere. They have multiple issues, but anyway, the money that we, that we need to do, we need to take those two buildings seriously, as well as the public safety building. Those three things need to be taken into consideration in the future year. Thank you so much for listening to me, and I really do want to see Medford Square take off, because then it needs to go up to Haines Square. We have empty buildings up there, too. Empty storefronts that could use the arts once they start in Medford Square. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. Thank you very much. And first of all, I'd like to thank Rachel for all of her comments, and I hope that she keeps coming to these meetings. because she had some great insights. So thank you very much, Rachel. But anyway, I'm against this bill or whatever it is, this initiative. And the reason for that is because these are nice things to have. And you don't need money, hard cash money, for a lot of these projects. You can harness the people of the city to do a lot of these cleanups. And you can get the guys to volunteer on the weekend to do these things. And yes, you need some money for the equipment to clean up weeded areas or whatever. But you know what you need hard cash for? A police station. I know, I know, I know. It's police station, police station, police station. Well, what about the library? What about the $15,000 for the library bathrooms? We have infrastructure problems that we need to raise our taxes for and that are going to be forced on us regardless. This is an override. This is a prop two and a half override. It's just a different way of doing it. And we already have hidden taxes. Just to let you know, we have the hidden tax through the community access monies, whatever peg monies you want to call them. We have the hidden tax monies in the police department where we get a 15% kickback for every detail hour, we have these hidden monies. We're already taxed. We're already taxed. We need to sit down. We need to harness the energy of the city for all of these extra projects. And I know, I know, I'm so, I know, you get tired of hearing me say the same thing, and I get tired of saying it, to be honest with you. But we need a new police station. We need hard cash for that. You can't use volunteer work to put in a foundation for the police department. You can't do it. You have to buy a bigger lot, and that needs hard cash, because we're one-third. The police station is on a footing that is one-third smaller than it's supposed to be. And until we get that, you're going to have to get sick and tired of hearing me, because I'm just going to have to say it over and over until it gets done. But I appreciate your patience. I appreciate the council's patience. And also, the people behind the rail can afford the $56 increase, but a lot of people can't. So if we're going to have a tax override, a two-and-a-half tax override, which is what this is, then let's make it count for something like the library, the Chevalier, which I went to the Bee Gees. It was fantastic. And I want to see a $50,000 banner in front of the place. What do you call that? The banner? The marquee. I want to see the $50,000 marquee in the front of it. I do. I'm not against these things. But this is a two-and-a-half override. Anybody that has common sense knows that. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. I'll try to make it quick. If this is a value of the city, then let's do a whole two and a half override for it. Instead of having a special fund that we have less control over, put it in the general fund and have a committee or a party that advocates for this. And if it makes it, it makes it. If it doesn't, it doesn't. But just put it in the general fund so that it's all above board. And I'm not saying it's not above board. That sounded incorrect. That sounded bad. But it's a specific issue. And it's a smaller group of people. And I just say, do a 2 and 1 half override. If it's that popular and the whole community wants it, then it'll get done under a 2 and 1 half override. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Hi, I'm Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street, Medford, Madison. I'm a big proponent of the theater, as you know. As you know, I also push your buttons, but this is something that pushes my buttons. I love the theater. I love the acts. I'm going to two of them before Christmas, but the way it's being run with the religious groups in there on Sunday mornings has to go. It is inappropriate for religious groups to look at that as if it's a church. It is being rented and looked at as if it is a church by two groups of people, and it needs to come to a close. If we value this city as this asset, then we need to kick in the money for it. I don't know how, but we need to kick in the money for it the right way. If that's the case, and I've already told these folks, We need to have, we can open up all the buildings, whether it's the South Manfred Fire Station and hold it open for other religious events. We could rent out the schools for Buddhist, Methodist, Catholics, Jewish, every other religion under the sun. These folks can practice their religion and they can say things that are very controversial in this city, in that public space, in that public building. They can say a woman should submit to her husband. They can say that homosexuality is a sin. They can say anything because they have the religious right to do so. We need to be very, very careful of how we run our buildings. I love the Chevalier. I want to see it be run right. And that's all I want to say is that that needs to go. And if we value this piece of property as we should, we need to come up with the money for it. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin. Good evening. 10 Cumming Street. Let's remember why we have meters in the first place, because outsiders were parking in our squares all day for free and riding into town. We also had store owners and workers parking in front of their stores, taking up customer spots. And also, I just want to remind people that the permits, parking, we have been already paying. People that live in the city before we even had meters were paying $10 a year to pay to park on our own street. So that money has already been out there, just to remind you of that, too. You recall that we didn't want to waste professional time of police officers on parking enforcement. And while we have accomplished this goal, make no mistake that parking enforcement ultimately still comes under the auspices of the police department. Now, while some of you will throw tomatoes at me because I know that not everybody agrees with this pay for parking issue, I have to say that I'm okay paying for parking for the following reasons. No one plan will satisfy everyone. That's worth repeating again. No one plan will satisfy everyone. This includes the two-hour or three-hour limit. Someone will always say it is too short a time for some reason. This city has had a free parking program for so long, it doesn't want any change at all. We need to admit that. That said, it should not be punitive. The amount could be as little as 25 cents for a half an hour. It doesn't have to be 25 cents for 15 minutes. The point of paying is to create accountability and not milk the people. Free parking for two hours without a ticket creates a problem. You must move your car if you wish to stay in the square. And we want people to encourage people to hang out in the square and spend their money. I would much rather go out and feed the meter again than move my car and try to find another spot. Let's say we grow Medford Square and it is a bustling with life. We're going to have to extend the hours till 8 p.m., and in some communities they do that. We want people to hang out in the square for four or five hours. The longer they stay, the more money we make from the store's businesses, not from the parking. We shouldn't really look at it as making money from the parking program. This is what I think should happen to any proceeds from the parking program. It should be earmarked for mental health and training for police officers. The issue of late was only properly resolved because it was on video and we were a national disgrace as a result of it going viral. We do not take the mental health of our police officers as seriously as we do their physical health. We need to normalize mental health for our officers before something else happens. We need a zero tolerance policy, but we also can't neglect our responsibility to them and expect stress not to bubble up again. While unions protect an officer from being fired by a mayor for flimsy cause, there is a point at which an officer should be taken off the street. But I also agree that we need a union to protect the officers in case the mayor's on the take. If the mayor is corrupt, right, then he could fire an officer that's doing his job very easily because he has the power to do so. So the unions play that role. While unions have a say, they don't have the last say. Unions are limited by their very nature of not having a full sight of view of the whole city's needs. We as citizens have a say in what requirements we want our officers, police officers to have. But don't think the public gets a pass either. Our job is to make sure that police officers aren't afraid to do their jobs. And if we continue to beat them up in the public eye and they fear being scapegoated for society's ills, they will not be there one day when you need them the most. I propose that every officer be required to talk to a therapist out of the city limits who specializes in police stress once a month. If you have a better idea, please let me know. Only if everyone does it will those who ask for help not be stigmatized. If it becomes routine, it will become a social norm and the guys won't pick on the minority of guys who go. To my fellow citizens, this is not a wish list item. This is a mandatory item. You may offer a tweak here or there, but it needs to be done. Police men and women cannot strike. And that leaves them in a very bad place to be overworked and build up pressure. Remember, when a police officer escalates, he or she does that in our name. He or she works for us. The unions need to do what is in the best interest for everyone, including the public they serve. This is one measure that can help prevent police officers from blowing a gasket. If you find another, let me know. We, the public, need to see the danger in not doing our job. which is to see that the needs of our police department are met. Otherwise, the blood will be on our hands. We only have 105 police officers for a city of 58,000. They are a minority. We need to hear them now, not tomorrow when it is too late. We owe the police officers every opportunity to maintain his or her composure by looking after their health, both mental and physical. And we also owe them a thank you. for doing a job that we do not want to do. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Gene Martin, 10 coming street. And my blood pressure goes up when we talk about this, uh, this house. Sorry. My blood pressure goes through no offense to all those volunteers and all that wonderful stuff. They need to take that energy and put it in the library and the Chevalier and some other place because this house, is the least essential building in the city. It has the least amount of good for the bang for the buck. It is going to be the money pit. No offense to any of the volunteers. I thank God for them. That's all well and good, but it's not good enough. We have a police station that's totally, the city hall out here, the cracks in the cement, right up here, the library, $15,000 they can't come up with for a bathroom fix. Okay, I just, no offense, but this is a luxury this city cannot afford. And it just blows my mind that we keep on giving false hope false hope to these people that this thing is going to come to fruition. Under what administration? Not the next one. Not the next one, because I'm going to be up here talking about the police station, the city hall, the library, the Chevalier, the schools that need a 5% budgeting line item for maintenance. So when you add all of that up, there is no money for this $3.5 million for this luxury house over there. There just is none. So, you know, it's giving them false hope, or you're giving the police department false hope, or you're giving the city hall workers false hope, that you're going to fix this and you're going to fix this. You're giving somebody false hope. I don't know who it is. Whatever you decide. We need a priority list of what we're going to do with our money, and we need it now. Because the money is not going to come from the feds. The money is going to barely come from the state. And so if you could get that money from some benevolent cause, more power to you. But that's not happening. And now we have people living in a house that is unviable. It is not a viable occupational spot. And we're going to be putting $350,000 just in lead base, lead paint. And then we're going to be doing this and that and the other. And it's going to be the money pit. It's going to be a little bit here and a little bit there. Doesn't that sound familiar? Isn't that the mayor's old way of working? Isn't that the old way of working for the mayor? Just, you know, patch it here. The boiler's in the high school now. Not a capital improvement plan. Okay, my blood pressure's coming down. Thank you. I don't mean this in a bad way. I'd rather see it spent on education. And I want to see the police station before I see any school funding anymore. But let me tell you, I'd rather have the $3.5 million, because right now it's only $350,000. But after that, the plan is $3.5 million. But that's without cost overruns. So now you're going to talk about $8 million by the time you get done with this project. And it has the least amount of bang for its buck for the whole community. Down in Method Square, we need to rebuild Method Square. And that's why I like the library idea. That's why I like Chevalier. Put up that little sign up in the front of Chevalier, the marquee. That's worth $50,000 to me. Because it's going to bring in business. And it's going to build on itself. It's seed money. That thing down there is just a luxury that a very small portion of Medford even knows exists. Not to mention access, and not to mention we'll rent our space. And it's not that big of a space to have a mass event in anyway, except for the outdoors. But that's only three, four months a year outdoors. Because we have snow, we live in Massachusetts. All right, again, thank you to the volunteers. I want you to take that energy that you've given to the Brooks and give it to the library, give it to the Chevalier, give it to the arts, give it to the new TV3, okay? Give it to the new community access station. There is a place for those people that can volunteer and express themselves through the arts and through the building. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And because this is a political year and we're so close to the election, I would ask that I make my statement, but nobody comments because it'll give you guys a disadvantage. I mean, the people at home, a disadvantage, all the people that aren't here, a disadvantage that you guys get to comment and and rally with me on a new topic. The new topic is the leadership model for the city. All right. No, no, I don't want you to comment. No, I wouldn't, because you'll have an advantage over somebody who might be at fault.
[Jeanne Martin]: It's a city council meeting. Such a request would be under order.
[Jeanne Martin]: That's a fair point. So with that in mind.
[Jeanne Martin]: OK.
[Jeanne Martin]: OK, oh, yeah, yeah. Well, anyway, with that point, no, no, no, that's a good point. So with that point, I'll have to hold my discussion until next year.
[Jeanne Martin]: Janet Donnelly, Three Gibson Circle, and I'm completely in favor of this. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I just witnessed government that works. That was awesome. That was awesome. Good for you guys. Okay. It's repetition, but repetition is the mother of retention. It is not the role of the police department to make the case of a new 911 center and police fire station for us. It is our responsibility to evaluate the need and meet it for the well-being of the whole city. A police station is not exciting people, but necessary. I commend Mr. Caraviello for taking the unpopular view of a Prop 2.5 override for this purpose. At least he understands the gravity of this issue. Police personnel wear a uniform, and that separates them psychologically from the general population, and so we view them as different from ourselves. They are human, and we often lose that humanity when we see them on the street. Most citizens don't interact with police officers regularly, and as a result, don't really understand them. We see them most often as only male and strong, and I say that in quotes, and in not need of support. Also, keep in mind that police personnel cannot go out on strike, unlike the DPW and Teachers Union. And remember, buildings can't vote either. So who has the vote? We do. The rules of engagement have changed drastically in the last 15 years since 9-11, and police officers are having a hard time enough keeping up. Not to have a decent building to work in only compounds the problem. Citizens who enter the building deserve a comfortable setting to inquire, report crimes, et cetera. Citizens should not experience attitude from officers. However, we must also ask ourselves, how do we treat them? We send them the signal that they are our servants only, and that we hold no responsibility to them. Detainees deserve the benefit of the doubt until proven guilty, and therefore deserve fair and adequate treatment. And in strong hierarchies where people have power and stress, it rolls downhill, if you follow my meaning. And it shouldn't land on the incarcerated. In the past, this mayor has gotten the city all its goodies by his political connections with the state and federal politicians and agencies. Those days are over. And money is going to be harder to get, given our $19 trillion debt crisis and a half trillion dollar annual deficit. Even if I were wrong and the money were to be there in, say, three years, that is still three years too late. I'm not done yet. All capital improvement projects should be put on hold until this passes the contracting stage. Why? Because without social order, you have nothing. We as a society must agree on certain collective laws or chaos ensues. Can you imagine the streets if we didn't address speeding or public drunkenness? Or how about a fight between two neighbors? If you want to handicap our police and fire department, be my guest. But don't cry to me when the police officer's morale is at an all-time low, and they start snapping on their spouses and or citizens in the street. Don't complain to me when the technology to handle a medical or fire emergency, which could have been updated and wasn't, led to an otherwise preventable death. We can't be everything to the police and fire department, but there are certainly are things we must and can do, and building out a new facility is one of them. We have the absolute right to and should question an individual officer's conduct and or group of officers conduct who protect the institution at all costs by covering up wrongdoing. However, when we do not alleviate their stresses to the most absolute possibility that within our power, we too commit that offense to the public. We as a city need to work with our police force, or it doesn't matter how many, there are or what kind of building we put them in. Our police officers also require extensive training for the new era that they find themselves in, living in and working in. This city needs a whole new safety plan, one that includes shelter-in-place and lockdowns for environmental or violent-related emergencies. We need a citywide plan for traffic, including bike traffic. We need community input to make this city work within safe boundaries. Someone needs to speak for the voiceless. And while they have a union, they do not have a voice in this city comparable to that of, say, the school system. The school system has young middle-class advocates, a whole committee dedicated to its growth, and the sight of those little helpless children. It's a no-brainer. who the politician is going to cater to. Their job description keeps expanding, and that is the police officer's job description, especially as stresses from the national end up coming down to the local levels. If you like your social order, thank a cop. If you don't like Medford police officers, look in the mirror. If you don't do anything, you have no right to complain. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street, and both Mr. Caraviello and Mr. Marks are absolutely right. It's a complex problem, and it gives a bad name to actual massage parlors. They're actually fronts for prostitution rings. I have personal knowledge, and don't laugh. I actually met some women that are in these rings a couple of years ago, and it's not just Medford. It's Somerville. It's Boston. It's all over. It's Malden. It's everywhere, and it's organized. and people are running these women. It's $80 if you get a massage, and it's $160 if you have a transaction. It's that simple. So it gives massage parlors a bad name, number one. Number two, it's multifaceted, and we need to deal with it. You can deal with it, Mr. Caraviello. All you got to do is put cameras in front of all these stores and put the names of the Johns after they come out. And if you catch them, just put their name in the paper. You'll stop the customers from coming. But again, like Mr. Mark said, it'll only have another one six months later come in and fill that gap, because the gap is there to be filled. And unfortunately, and I'm all for mom and pops, but if Medford Square cannot sustain a mom and pop because they can't compete, then we need to bring in chain stores, chain businesses that are bigger and can handle the kind of prices that Medford has now. It's not a small town anymore. If that's what we have to do, And we also, for the business community, we need to think one step higher than what we have. So if we have a Chamber of Commerce, we need to have them meet with Boston's Chamber of Commerce. We need to start stepping it up one notch and see what ideas they have. Why is Boston doing so good? We need a mentorship program for businesses in this city. And that's how you'll really fill that hole so that nobody else will backfill it. And again, this is a multifaceted issue, and I feel for these women. They're sober and they're clean. They're organized. They're well-dressed. But they're being abused, mentally and emotionally. So thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I— Ms.
[Jeanne Martin]: Okay. I am pro this business. I live in that area. I do take your concern about parking in the backup, but I'm really loving the idea of the Panera Bread. because it's a gathering place. It's a place, because I love the Wellington Circle Plaza, what it's turned into. I know I never comment well on our business districts, but that's one really nice one. They really did a beautiful job. What it is missing is a restaurant area where people can come together, gather, and eat. I love the Stop and Shop and all those places, and the sports store and Models and all of that. Fantastic. They do, on the other side of Wellington, have the burrito place and a couple of others. So this is a nice compliment to the burrito place, and I'm pro it. And I do remember when it was Happy Hattic, and it was a bustling place when it was Happy Hattic for a long time. But it did go, Happy Hattic went out, and then it was an empty spot for a long time. Back to the concern about traffic, and Mr. Marks always talks about this, traffic calming measures need to be thought through. This doesn't have anything to do with this gentleman here. When you come up to Wellington Circle, it's supposed to be technically one lane. We all know they stack three, and then the person takes the right. There's two lanes without a line down it. It's very dangerous. My cousin got in an accident. She had to pay for the accident because the insurance company said, well, it was one lane, and you were to the right of that, and you technically weren't. So it becomes an issue. So the backing up is definitely an issue, so I'm all for. also the three-month, six-month, or nine-month review. I have no problem with that because the backup of the cars can be a problem. But part of that is on the city. We need to make sure that the traffic pattern at that intersection is also squared away with proper markings, whatever you have to do. But I am definitely for this. This is a clean business. It's a gathering place. It's awesome. It's great for the city. It's great for Wellington. So, I know I always tear down the business districts, but this is a good one and it's not overdeveloped. Whoa, I said something positive about the businesses.
[Jeanne Martin]: Me neither. If this thing is going to take off, it needs community input. It needs a lot of community input. and the people need to come together because it is a resource. Forget all the politics. You can pressure the mayor. The people, not you folks, the people can put pressure on the mayor. Only if they band together, whether it be the arts community, the business community, a combination like I talked about, Cross Nova, and everybody getting together. They need a good, strong 15 to 20 bodies. with a lot of knowledge about nonprofits, a lot of knowledge about media, a lot of knowledge. It can't be just one person. It needs to be a body of people, about 15 to 20, very dedicated community people. And 15 to 20 people could change this whole conversation. If you got those people to show up at the mayor's office and said, we're ready, we want this to happen, it would happen. He wouldn't have a choice if you had 15 people. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yes, Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. First of all, I want to thank you all for showing up tonight. It does feel like a dam has been broken open with the public, and I think that's a wonderful thing. I'm a proponent of the library. I like the library. I want to keep it. I love that idea. I think it was Mr. Marks that talked to me about adding a second floor, making a meeting space maybe for the arts community. I'm for that. I don't think we need to buy it for me. We don't need to buy another building. We need to take care of the buildings we have first. But I do believe that the business community should be talking to the library community. I believe that the arts community should be talking to the police department. I believe that all these little groups should be talking to each other, and maybe one of those spaces could be the Medford Public Library, because we all need to come together. And I am a proponent of the library more than a lot of other projects in the city. But I would like to say, and I know I'm going to bust your bubble, which is the police station has to come first. I'm glad that you paid for the $250,000. I'm glad it came out of the sky. I have no idea where it came from, but I'm glad it came out of the sky. And I'm for funding that. But we also need to be behind the police department and the fire department headquarters, because that needs to come first. But I am for the library, and I think it's great. And I think the partnership with Chevalier Theater, I went to see Frankie and Ella. Saturday night, it was a fantastic show. I think the library and the community, if we do put on a second floor after we build the police station, If we put on a second floor and we have the arts community in there with the library, I love the idea of coffee and some kind of, you know, donuts or whatever, bagels or whatever, so that you can sit down, read a book, play on your computer, your latest gadget, and make it a meeting space. I'm all for that. I think that's wonderful. And I think that should be part of the business. district of Medford Square. I really think that all of these people need to sit down at the same time because you have the Rotary sits over here and they have their business meeting and arts community has their meetings. These people need to crossbreed. We need to cross ideas and we need to see it as one big Medford Square. And I think that if we build it out, I see the Medford Public Library as part of that bigger plan. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. First of all, this was an enforcement issue, and we only have 105 police officers in this city. We didn't hire me to take care of this. We didn't, internally or whatever, We had a parking problem that needed to be enforced, and we only have 105 officers. And to give them the task, the added task, to run after parked cars was a waste of their time and energy and skills, in my opinion. We did need to get the commuter traffic off the streets, and it was a success. Those are the two things that it did accomplish. One, we took the bulk of ticketing off of the police roles, duties. And two, we got the commuters and the employees off of those streets in front of their own businesses. And that was a success. But I do encourage the public to come forward. And so that's because, Mr. Knight, that is the, and I'll probably vote for you this year too, but you're doing a good job overall. But I disagree with you on this one, which is it is only through the public coming forward to this podium that we can push the solicitor to have to answer these questions because the mayor doesn't have to right now. He can just coast on the end of his tour. And so we need to have public input so that we can pressure, and that's only by this podium. So I'm glad that everybody's questioning it. As far as the meters, it's a debacle. I mean, it really is. I'm glad that the parking is not under the, you know, police aren't wasting their time on parked cars. and I'm glad that the commuters are off. That said, Saturday night I saw a woman at 7 p.m. trying to put money in the meter and she was so grateful that I came up to her because she was trying to figure it out. Nobody understands these meters. Nobody from, if you're not from Medford and you don't come to these meetings and you didn't take a class or, I've seen it over and over and over again across from Colleen's old people. trying to figure it out. And when they do know it, they're complaining about it. Maybe after a while, they'd get used to it. But my question is, because we do need a solution to it, is what about putting in meters? How much would it cost the city to transfer over from these parking meters that are computerized and nobody understands to a meter system? I mean, is that a solution? And it has to happen in the next year. You get, like you said, these business people, they're going nuts. And I want the city, I want Medford Square to survive, and I want business in there until 10 p.m. at night. And I want businesses during the week. It's dead after 6 o'clock, and it shouldn't be. And on the weekends, it should be open until 11 or 12 o'clock, and we should be getting that business rotation. But if they're dying during the day, how are you going to produce something that's going to be open during the evening? And we need the income from these businesses, because we do need so much building maintenance. And so this feeds into the police department, which I always come back to. So anyway, thank you very much for considering my thoughts.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. I know I've talked a lot tonight, but, um, Jean Martin 10 coming street. And I want to support Ms. Cohen there because, um, I don't need to know anybody's name. I don't know, need to know anybody's address as a member of the public. Unfortunately, the mayor is the person that's in charge of the school committee and it can look very biased. I personally don't think that the mayor, this is my personal opinion, should be in charge of the school committee. I think he's supposed to be above everybody, keeping the checks and balances. And whether it's the city side, why doesn't he be the chairman of the city council then? So I think that it looks like it could be that favoritism happens under the covers of night. And it has the appearance of looking funny.
[Jeanne Martin]: And I'm glad that they do that, but that is at a sub-level compared to the council and their responsibility. But I do agree that that's one step in the process, and I'm glad. Unfortunately, I want to make sure See, the person checking is on the committee, and it just, it smacks of kind of an, you know, it could be. And I'm not saying that it is. I'm not saying that anybody's, you know, patting their, you know, bed. I'm not saying that at all. But I am saying it gives the appearance. And I think that we should, there is nothing wrong with asking those questions. Do I, Jean Martin, need to know the teacher's name and how much, I don't care. But as long as I am confident that other people are making sure that those checks, that check, if I can have confidence in you guys that you're doing that check, then I don't need to know, because I believe in you. And so I just, that has to do with the role of government in general. Which, you know, I have to comment on. But I thank you very much. But again, I want to support Ms. Cohen, only because she's asking those questions. And transparency, it doesn't have to be personal. I don't have to know. But I need to know that the government is working transparently. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: It's a woman.
[Jeanne Martin]: Good evening.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Coming Street. Thank you for listening. I was a member of the charter review, and it is a massive undertaking if you do it through the channel that doesn't include you folks just voting for it to happen. You have to get so many votes. You have to have, there's time limits for everything. It's an 18-month process. It's going to take a lot for the people to get active and to get engaged. But you know what? The people are ready for it. I mean, the city has changed. The character of the city is changing. From 1988 or 1986 to 2015, 2016, this city has changed a lot. And I think that if it's done right, if you folks are behind it, and you invite everybody to come and to participate in the process, it's their way. And you can do the review, and it might stay the exact same way. You can let it happen that way. Or you can tweak it, or you can change it drastically. It's all up to you. The options are varied. It's like a menu. of plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D, plan E, plan F. I broke it all down. I have it at my house on a computer. And they vary differently. And the one thing that I would say is that this city needs more checks and balances. We have a strong mayor, but that consolidates too much power in the hands of one person. So I would like to see it disseminated a little bit. It doesn't have to be disseminated like it was 1988, because I remember those days, and that was horrific for this city. The E plan was horrific. But there is a middle ground, and I think that we need to find that middle ground. And it's up to the people to decide what the menu of how they want to run their city is. So it's the people's choice. And I think that if you guys invite everybody, and it's done right, we can come together, It also is a place where you can vent your frustrations as a citizen. And believe me, when things get tight, parking, money, developments, there's going to be a frustration in the people. But the people will have more of a voice. And if they feel more heard, their frustration levels will decrease. So I think it benefits everyone. And I thank you very much for listening.
[Jeanne Martin]: spirited debate. This council, in the last two years, has actually accomplished something. I was talking to people and they always say, well, what did they accomplish? And I was actually able to tell them something. I told them about the DPW yard. I told them about getting rid of TV3. You've actually made progress. Not only that, in spite of arguing today, This committee has done a lot better in communicating. I know every once in a while you get heated, but it's doing a lot better, and I would ask that you continue to keep the tempers down and the conversation flowing, because you've been doing a great job. Also, when I drive by on Route 16 and I see the Pompeo Garage, it looks fantastic. And you guys made that happen. So in spite of it all, I just wanted to thank you for that. I wish there was a sticker. that I could put on my truck that said, Blue Lives Matter. The police department in this city is often overlooked or taken for granted. We ask them to work in an environment not worthy of the sacrifice they make for us. The policemen and women of Medford commit to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including weekends and holidays. Give that some thought. Like its officers, the police headquarters is a building that is also open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and used even on weekends and holidays. I can lecture you, the public, on how an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure. But unless you, the people, realize your obligation to stand behind the importance of a new building, it will never come to fruition. I can tell you how our police headquarters is the second most important building in this city, second only to City Hall. But if you, the people, do not value the role of the police department, this new structure will not be built. For everyone has their own wish list of projects, be it an art center or a garage, an old house renovation, or a school improvement. While everyone in this city gives lip service and verbalizes the need for a new police station, and thanks the police for being there for them. When push comes to shove, they choose the project that they value more over the need for a new police station. I have no horse in this race. I have no family member or friend on the police department. But I do know that without civil order, your other projects do not have a long shelf life. My fear is that by the time we pay off enough old bonds, in quotes, As has been stated by our politicians and administrators, the cry for new school funding will overshadow the police department once again, as the political will for schools usually do. Seven years is a long time, and a lot of these other new buildings are going to need a lot of major repair, and I fear that to happen. I'm not done, though. Our police station was built in the early 1960s and is very outdated and has been unable to stand the test of time. I repeat, has been unable to stand the test of time. The role of the police building is not just to house the police and arrestees. It is a place where policy and policing can be discussed by and with the community. It should have a room for that purpose. It should be safe for officers and prisoners. The building needs to be larger for detective work, technology updates, and technology I also include The fire department, which the chief came here, or one of their representatives came here and talked about how they don't have email, that needs to be addressed. These are basic issues that need to be addressed. And when I talk about a police headquarters, I mean a police slash fire headquarters. It needs to have secure witness-proof privacy. In other words, somebody comes in, they witnessed a crime. I want it to be a nice little quiet place for them to meet, to talk to the officers, so that they feel comfortable coming forward. It needs to have evidence-proof lockers. It needs to have firearm safety and accessibility. It needs to be located in a prominent position in the square accessible to all. I personally have decided that I want it right where it is. I like the location. I want it bigger than it is. And if things have to happen, then things have to happen. Because it also deters crime Just as when I see a police officer car and I'm driving down the street, I slow down. If I see the police department, I'm going to say, oh, there, and it's going to remind me. It is also a place where people feel comfortable that they should go to if they're lost, if they need help. It should be visible so that if you want it, you know where it is. Everyone agrees with this assessment from parents to the arts community. The problem is no one wants to pay for it. The political will stops at the funding trough. Allocating the money is where the city stops short of contracting this project out. Why? Because everyone has their agenda, that they value more than the police building, including employees who sometimes would rather see a personal raise in their take-home pay than committing millions to a police building. Everyone has their agenda. Parents want more teachers. Arts Council wants Springstep. Politicians want to be reelected. Everyone has a stake in not committing the millions of dollars required to have a full, real, state-of-the-art police building that the police could work out of. that you, the people, can own and feel proud of. The location of the police station should be right where it is, visible and accessible to everyone. And if that means taking some of the buildings out for eminent domain, so be it. Everyone should know where the station is and it should be built large and welcoming. I repeat, welcoming. It should incorporate the drug education personnel to the judgment area for parking tickets. It should be viewed as everyone's building. There is no immediate gratification in this build-out. Citizens of Medford, all, have their priorities and most do not have the police station at the top of their list. Yet this building is open 24 hours a day and used by everyone. If you choose to ignore my advice, Don't come crying to me when the police morale is down and time on a call lags, because you didn't care about taking care of them. You want the best police department. You want an engaged citizenry. You want crime and drug issues to be handled. This takes money. Money you will not see the immediate benefits of, but in the long run will pay off. No other building project should even be discussed, i.e. the garage or art centers, until a police building is in the works. And if a small amount of businesses need to be taken by eminent domain to make enough room for the police structure, that's a hit they will have to take, and we will have to compensate them for. Public safety comes first. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Please. With all due respect, the budget director did say it would take seven years, and that's my problem. That's too long.
[Jeanne Martin]: Which is ridiculous. No offense to anybody.
[Jeanne Martin]: It's ridiculous. It is? I agree with you. It needs to happen and it needs to start now.
[Jeanne Martin]: With all due respect to the administration, it's too late. It has to happen. It has to be now. Because in seven years, there's going to be more buildings. There's going to be more holes in this ceiling. There's going to be more issues that are going to come up. And schools will come in. And the parents have a very large voice in the city. No offense to the parents, but they have a very large voice. And when the school kids come in and you see the fourth graders, you're going to cry for them. And they always lose to the police, always lose out.
[Jeanne Martin]: Absolutely. And I'm in agreement with you. This whole committee said that they want a new police department. Every single one of them said that's at the top of their list. And I commend you for that. But the people, I'm not talking to you so much. I'm talking to those folks out there because they're the ones that have to put the pressure to get the police station. And they have to realize that there is going to be, have to be a sacrifice on their part because it's not going to happen unless they sacrifice.
[Jeanne Martin]: It needs to be bonded, and it needs to be bonded now.
[Jeanne Martin]: It has to be bonded.
[Jeanne Martin]: With all due respect, if we needed to bond for a new high school, there would be parents right here. And it's not the same as when you see a bunch of police officers. We have 100 police officers in their families. They don't compare in the voice, the political voice, compared to the school department, school committee, and all those parents and all those kids. God bless them. But it will happen, and the police will get pushed to the back of the line once again. So when that happens, don't come crying to me. That's all I'm saying. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. And I do agree also. One second. No. I do agree. I'm totally for a 5%, whatever that number is, for a maintenance plan for every single city building. I am totally on board with that before we do anything else.
[Jeanne Martin]: Chief left already.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cummings Street. Thank you. And I'd like to agree with Mr. Caraviello. I mean, if you go to South Medford, they are crowded and maybe the answer is what Mr. Knight is saying is maybe I don't understand the process, but I do agree with Mr. Caraviello's line of thought, which is that the crowded, the more crowded you become, the more cars on the street, the more stress it puts on the fire department, on the teachers, on the schools, you have more people. more people that aren't related. These two family houses that are getting rented have three non-relatives living in three different bedrooms. They have three different cars per unit. It just causes a lot of congestion, and I absolutely agree. But maybe the right way to approach it is what Mr. Knight is saying, is to go in. But the federal laws came in under 40B, and they get away with stuff anyway. So, you know, the towers, domestic valley towers came in under 40B. You had the 40B over there. And when 40B came in, the towers, it was regulated very strongly for 30 years. Once they got through their contract, now it's open to the general public. And they have three, often three non-related people living in the same apartment. And so, you know, you have a lot of, and they do, they're like roommates to each other. They're not families. In some areas that's okay, they can absorb it. But certainly in certain parts of the city, there's a saturation point at which it becomes a problem. And so I just want to make people aware of that. If you're living in North Medford and you have a couple of houses that, you know, are party central, that's okay because it can be absorbed. But if you have a couple of houses that are party central in South Medford, it's not going to be absorbed because there's already enough congestion. The roads are more congested. The cars make an impact. And I'd just like to say that it puts a stress on the city, so it is a city issue. And also, every week, I get a letter in the mail from a retailer, a real estate person, ready to sell my house. I mean, it is hot. The market is hot. And I know that some people would love for me to move out of the city, but that's another story. I'm just kidding. Oh, thank you. Keeping you guys as honest as I can. But anyway, no, seriously, the market is hot, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't have some kind of cap. How we come about that, how we come to that conclusion on how to put controls on that is up for debate. But the sentiment that he's talking about, I'm absolutely positive with. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Hi, I'm Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I just want to say that the schools don't want to do this. This is not something, this is thrown upon them because kids are behaving in these ways. So what I want to say is it's up to the parents to get more proactive. And this gentleman, this is reactive. The schools react when the kids are behaving in certain ways. And we know it goes on in buses, it goes on in parks, it goes on, you know, whether it's a drug activity, whether it's sexual activity, whatever it might be. So the thing is, the onus is on the parents. And I would like the gentleman there to get all parents. He might be a good parent, but there's a lot of parents out there that aren't talking to their kids about these topics. And when the parents don't do their job, what happens is it ends up being thrown on the school system. And it's a burden on the school system, and it shouldn't be on the school system, to raise the kids with these kind of issues. And I just wanted to put that out there. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: I just wanted to respond. I'm not for the survey. I think it's inappropriate and over the top, but I'm just, the reason why these surveys come about is because the schools know what's going on more times than some of the parents and they need to be more involved with their kids because kids talk to other kids and then word gets around in the school systems. of who's doing what. That's what I wanted to say. So I think that a lot of those questions are over the top. I agree with you there. And it shouldn't be in the schools. But the reason why it ends up in the schools is because parents aren't following up and talking to their kids about these inappropriate topics. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Absolutely. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street, And it's hard to follow somebody that's very grateful because that very seldom happens here. So I want to thank that lady for coming forward and I hope more people come forward when things are done right in the city and they give us compliments or give you guys compliments when things go right. Community policing is what I'd like to talk about. I'm a believer in the broken windows theory of policing, which is to say that if I see one word of graffiti on a wall, I can bet that shortly thereafter it'll be covered with graffiti. And people are much less likely to litter on a well-kept lawn than on a yard that has one foot of high grass. So when people maintain their property, it is less likely that somebody's just gonna throw a can of soda on that lawn if it's well-kept. The question is, though, is what to do with these offenders. Booking someone and creating a record for them is detrimental to their future employment and housing. Well, once just a punk who spray-painted a wall soon snowballs into a real criminal, especially if he or she spent any time in more seasoned criminals in a prison system. I would recommend that we look at new reforms in the city to keep small criminals from becoming a full-blown criminal by making the punishment fit the crime, i.e., if someone spray paints on a wall, we make him or her paint a bathroom in one of our many city buildings. So they get the punishment. They have to clean up the wall that they spray painted, if we catch them, and they also have to do something else on top of that to pay for the crime that they committed so that they're held accountable and yet they don't get a record because once the person gets a record, then it just snowballs into more inappropriate behavior and the negativity just rolls on. So that's different than violent crimes. Please don't mistake this for violent criminal activity. I'm talking about small stuff like broken windows. If a kid breaks a window and then you see another kid break a window, if you catch them, I think that we should make them wash all these windows in the city hall. So not only do they have to pay for the window that they broke, but make them wash the city windows in the city hall. And that way they pay society back, they don't get a record, and we hopefully keep them from doing other stupid stuff. There are many components to community policing. Neighborhood watches, having police walk the beat in the squares and parks. The police officers, not just the chief of police, need to be invited to churches, community centers, clubs, rotary, and every other formal and informal setting so that we see the police as part of the community and part of the solution, not the problem. Police officers are human. I know that's a shock. And if we don't personally know a police officer, we tend to forget that. Police officers also have husbands, wives, and children that are affected by the unique work that a police officer has and does. So when we advocate for the police, we are also advocating for their families. The stress officers suffers from a bad day is often felt by his or her family. Another component to community policing is the need for more women officers. Women officers can be extremely helpful in cases of domestic violence, prostitution, rape of men, women, and children. Women officers are needed for women detainees to ensure women detainees' safety remains intact. Women are also much more better at verbal skills to de-escalate a situation between two parties. And that skill is going to be needed more in the future. That said, women officers must stay above reproach in order to hold that public trust in these most sensitive of areas like family disputes and physical assault. Our police in general must also stand tall and be held to a higher standard than the general population, for they are the only ones given the charge and power to hold someone against their will. They not only carry a weapon of deadly force, but are trained in deadly force. Their body, hence, is a weapon of deadly force. I know that this topic is not an easy one, but as for the black community, I am not sure that just hiring black officers will change the status of the black community in law enforcement and criminal justice. Therefore, I am proposing the following, that the city agrees to appoint three volunteers from the black community and at least two volunteers from the white community to hold the official office of advocate whenever a black person is punished off the books or arrested for any charge. These volunteers must, however, and I do stress must, be viewed by the entire city as valid representatives on behalf of the city and black people of Medford. Their role is to ensure the fair treatment of the system within the law enforcement community. These advocates' intentions will not be questioned because they will have no monetary gain from their positions. The names of the five advocates must be listed on the MEDFED website and seen by every officer from top to bottom as legitimate. A minister or other leaders in the NAACP and possibly one from the Haitian community could be a beginning start for that. And there's a minister in the West MEDFED church that's a white guy, and he's very, very good, and I would recommend his name for one of the two positions. He's in that West Medford Baptist Church over there. Another type of community policing which needs to be explored is communication during power outage, like organizing ham radio civilian operators, thinking outside the box. If our cell towers go down for a weather event or electricity goes down, HIM operators could become one of the only forms of communication that we have, so they could be included. Everything must be on the table to overcome an assault by weather events, mass events, or local crimes. The arts and a bike trail, like you said, Mr. Marks, using the library as a shared space for the arts, because I believe that we need to create new ways of looking at old problems. And the people that can do that is the arts community. So I really am on that. I don't believe in the Springstep thing. But I do believe that the library could be elevated or reused completely for that purpose or shared with the library. Community policing is a much larger concept than the old way of just catch-a-thief policing. We have an increased population who, when they commit a small crime, end up living a life of crime. And there are methods to stop this from happening. But we have to work together as a community. And as far as the bike path, I would like to actually see a bike path from Tufts University down to Mecklen Square to help because the young people from there could actually add energy to this problem as well. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street, and I stand in support of this. These folks won me over when I first saw the electric boxes all painted over nice. When I went to the farmer's market and they had musicians playing that I could just sit there for free. This is about class. This opens up when you do these free things, at the Condon Shell, you invite everybody for nothing. If they want to buy something, they can buy something. But if they don't have any money in their pockets, they can be a part of this community. That is huge. And we are at a crossroads right now in the city of Medford. We have a, to use one of their expressions, a blank canvas on this city right now. And we can make it look like anything we want. We have an open canvas. And one of the things that I like about these people is that they can take Medford Square first. They need to do it in Medford Square. And you're going to hear me talk about, you know, not the other square down in West Medford, OK? I want you to do it in Medford Square. And then I want you to take it to Haines Square. And I want you people to come to Haines Square and make the boxes look nice, make the storefronts look nice. I want you to bring energy to Haines Square after you get done with Medford Square. And I also would say that because if you have a vibrant Medford Square, you have tax dollars. Tax dollars that can then pay for the police department that needs to be completely torn down and built up new. Because where is the money going to come from? It's going to come from the engines of the businesses in Medford Square and Haines Square, South Medford Square, and Hillside. That's where the money is going to come from. So we need to have the businesses come out, and these people can generate that business. They can open up coffee shops, they can open up you know, vegetable smoothie shops. I don't care what they open up. I don't care. It brings money in. It brings money into the city, and if they want a bike path, just do it safely. I've learned to accept certain things. And I just want you to bring that energy to Medford Square, and then I want you to bring it to Haines Square. And as far as a home, they deserve a home. But I wouldn't use this place down over here, I know. Sorry. I would use the library. The reason why I would use the library is because the library, in my mind, is an institution that symbolically, while not always is used today, symbolically is about class. knowledge, and it's about access to knowledge. And so if we put another floor on top of the current library, you guys could make a space up there. We already own the building. All you gotta do is add a floor, and then you guys can have a community unity space, call it whatever you want, and you can have a home, because you deserve one. And you deserve one in the middle of the square. I want everything in the middle of the square. And the other thing that I have to say is, There is $300,000 sitting in the community access, what do you call it, access, that TV access. $300,000, and now that we don't have to accept half a loaf because the mayor's leaving, we might not have to have it up at the Volk. We could, might, take it down to the city square and put the access station in the city square because we're not dealing with the mayor. We don't have to abide by his rule anymore. So maybe in the new future, instead of putting it up at the Vogue, which I'm not against, but if you're really looking at it as community access, putting it in Medford Square will also help these people with the arts. It's a great place to be unified with the Chevalier, and everything's matching up. Everything's just coming together like the stars. The stars are starting to align in Medford, so thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: This is seed money, and we're talking about $15,000. We're talking about $15,000 in a $150 million budget. This is seed money. And we are going to have a casino to fund things around here pretty soon. We have lottery money. That's dirty money, if you ask me. It's dirty money. This is clean money. This is clean money. This is going to be vibrant, clean money. We thought that the mass lottery was going to save the schools at one time. I remember when it was all like, woo, we're going to have the lottery. It didn't save the schools. This is clean money. I just want to let you people know that this is clean money. And I think it's a great thing. And I think that they should be allowed to have a space. It's $15,000 a year. That's it. Ma'am?
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Gene Martington, Cumming Street. I'd just like to, now that we have a new mayor, or we're gonna have a new mayor, we don't necessarily have to take the half a loaf of bread that we were gonna take and put the station up at the Volk. It's not a bad idea to put it up at the Volk, but if it is gonna be a community station, then putting it in a centralized location in Medford Square might be something we need to think about, because it could revitalize, be part of the machine that revitalizes the square. The other thing is that there is supposed to be a high school station because 3% goes to the city, 1% goes to access, and the other half or something like that is supposed to provide.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yeah, so they're supposed to already get money to put up a station anyway.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, not a station. Oh, I take that back. So, but it might be, I'm not, I'm not suggesting that we have to do it one way or the other, but it's something to rethink about. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Hi, Jean Martington coming straight, and I'm glad you brought this up, Mr. Marks. I was just talking to a senior citizen today who often goes down, she lives in Medford, and she goes down to the senior center and all that. She said that there's a lot of abuse of those placards, that people will take somebody's, you know, one of their relatives' placards, and put it on their car, and then is able to park in one of those, you know, spots, the handicapped spots. So I just wanted to bring that up. So whoever is monitoring, whether it's the private company or whether it's the police, to just, she says that people cover the faces of the person and that they need to show the face of the person and try to clean that up because it's not right. The people that need those spots should have those spots and the people that don't should walk. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: I would love to. I'm Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. And I'd like to thank everybody for giving me this opportunity to speak. I too have gone to the 75th anniversary of the Chevalier Auditorium. I too went to the John Denver. And this is a wonderful, wonderful asset to the city. I know you guys are just like, where did I wake up? Because I'm supporting the arts. This is fantastic. This is a fantastic asset.
[Jeanne Martin]: Absolutely. I'm also a proponent of all city buildings having a 5% building line item for maintenance. And since this is such a beautiful presentation that we had professionally done by Hollywood, that should be replicated and it should be part of that 5% building line item for maintenance for this building. It should be awesome, and it would be wonderful because you don't know when you're driving by, and you're absolutely right. In the morning, Forest Street is backed up all the way to 93, and they sit there, and you know what that building holds, and it's fantastic. And I like your idea with the concession stand, because it is missing, you know, and you go downstairs and you have... Yep, it is. And so I like that. The other thing is about rock concerts, the only thing I have to say is Rick Springfield. I heard some stories about stuff that went on in the bathrooms because they rock concerts. And I was a kid once too. And so you want to be careful. And I grew up with Rick Springfield. But I mean, things go on in bathrooms, like drug abuse and other things. And you kind of want to stay away from that. But the John Denver thing was awesome. And the 75th anniversary, that Irish band that played was fantastic. And also, we can have plays, we can have comedians, we can have the diversity of shows, the movie theater, it's fantastic, and it will bring in money to all the restaurants in the area, it'll bring in foot traffic, and our Fridays and Saturday nights should be at least lit up until 11 o'clock on a Friday night, okay? I mean, why this city on a Friday or Saturday night doesn't have the lights on and people walking around? I'm not talking about maybe Monday night could be dead, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, but, you know, Thursday should pick up. People should get off work and go and hang out at Method Square. And Friday night and Saturday night should be bustling until at least 11 o'clock. It wouldn't kill us, and it would bring business and money and tax revenue. And that could be the center key, is the theater, because it's just awesome. The location, the building structure, it's just beautiful. And it should be. And I support this $50,000 or whatever it is, and I'm going to give the guy $20 to make it $20 less tonight. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to speak. The Brooks Estates needs to be dealt with. It needs to be put to rest once and for all. They've tried to come up with the money for it, and they can't. They can't come up with private funding, and there are some issues up there that I need to talk about. But first, I just want to say, we have to remember that the Brooks Estates comes out of the history, a darker point in our history. They were blue bloods. They made their money off of the shipping industry, the insurance of the industry. They insured the ships that were involved in the triangular trade. So they literally made their money off of slavery and rum, and if there were fires or piracy, they insured against those things. So we just have to keep that in mind when we go forward. They insured the cargo. that included enslaved Africans. The Brooks family also owned slaves, so the beautiful carriage house was built with blood money. The well-meaning group of volunteers have not been able to find donors to support the $3.5 million it takes to renovate the place for occupancy. Speaking of occupancy, I hear that there are people living in that house which in no way could possibly pass today's codes. So Mr. Knight, I'm glad we have another person that can check out the buildings, because I want somebody up there checking out that building for occupancies. Also, there is going to be, or might be, I don't know if the baby happened or if it's going to happen, but I heard a rumor that this is a young couple and they could have a baby. That's a problem. That house must have lead paint, electrical and plumbing deficiencies. I'm a landlord and I hold a certificate of occupancy, an inspection from my insurance company, carbon monoxide alarms, a stove, income taxes with all receipts for repairs, home insurance, and a 21-page lease. And I own a two-family house, okay? That's just for the renters downstairs. We, the entire city of Medford, are on the hook for any accident or incident that may happen on that property, not just the Brooks volunteers. It is time to move the occupants out, even if it costs the city to move them out, to do it and tear down the buildings once and for all. I know that it's hard for those people that put so much time and energy and effort into it, but then they're not the only ones that have other ideas for the city I have ideas for the city too. I would love to have that dance hall taken down so that when you come off the highway you see this beautiful structure called the people's house. I would love to take the library, invest three and a half million dollars, put another level on there and call it an art center or something so that we can maintain still maintain a library, make it more useful for modern day people because we have the internet and people don't use the library. But if we made it a library slash art center, maybe we could continue that public building. But I can't do that in good conscience and look at the police department, the police personnel, the DPW, the streets, the plumbing The sewer pipes that aren't getting any younger. The buildings in this area that aren't getting any younger. I can't do that. I can't look them in the eye. I can't look the buildings in the eye. God knows this one could use three and a half million. It just goes on. I also want a center for kids in Haines Square. That's another one of my pluses. That's another one of my dream sheets. What I'm saying is that it's a luxury to have the Brooks Estates. And it's one that we can't afford, and we've got to put it to rest. It's got to end. Because we have to get on with the really serious issues that this city is facing in economics and everything else. And I've spoken to some old timers, and they don't want it to be even remained as a green space. They look at that Brooks Estates, and they go, oh, plots. They have plots in their head. They're dying, their friends are dying, and they want to be buried here in Medford. And they see it. as future burial ground. I'm not suggesting that we do that, but I'm saying that there are a lot of people who would just like to turn that into that. If you want to keep it as a green space, I'm okay with that, but we have to put to rest the house, the structure, and everything else. That said, the $3.5 million needs to go towards a new police station and to fund 15 more police officers. We need more DPW workers for the streets. which need to be regularly swept, striped, crosswalks, squares need some life, like flower buckets and lighting. There are many needs in this city. The Brooks Estates has got to put this to rest, and the city can come together on what we really need to do. Needs and wants are two different things. Again, I want to thank those people that have put their attention into it. But they've got to realize that their dream isn't going to end. And they should get about six months to decompress and cry and grieve, because it just has to come to an end. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I just want to say two things, which is number one, how you can have a meeting without the principal person who signs the contracts is, you know, why are we doing this again where you're setting up the fall guy to be the chief of police again? So he takes all the heat. It's just, I mean, I know why you guys know that you have to do it this way, but why are the people putting up with this? Why are the people not getting behind the chief of police and saying, look, he's got enough to do? doing his job, why isn't the mayor, who is the responsible party for this, the one taking the heat for his own program? He's the one that signed the contract. Okay? That's just number one. And number two, because it's just not fair. It's not right. It's just not the way it should be done. It's not fair as relative. The mayor uses his administration as the fall guys, and then he makes deals with them. And the people need to just start calling the mayor and tell him to show up to these meetings, because he's the one that signed the contract. He's the principal party here. It isn't the chief of police. He has enough to do dealing with an understaffed police station. Yeah, like, why is he doing the favors for the mayor? I don't know, because he's dealing with a building that's 50 years old, and he's dealing with an understaffed police department. That said, the other part of the problem that I see is why is Diane McLeod the ticket person? She's in charge of multiculturalism or whatever, diversity or something like that. What does diversity have to do with parking tickets? And why, again, did she take that responsibility on when it's completely non-related? Why isn't it in the position of the, I don't know, police department or something, put a captain on it, somebody that understands the policies of public parking. Put one of the captains on it, put, you know, something, I don't know, hire a guy. to do it, hire a person to do it. If that's what you want to do and you're going to make all this money, then make that part of the deal. Give them $20,000 a year part-time to take on parking tickets. But why is Diane McLeod, the diversity person in charge of ticket judgments, makes no sense? There's a reason for that behind the scenes that we don't know. That's all I got to say. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I just wanted to say a couple of things. First of all, the city has been, I say this every time, the city's out. I mean, we've lost. We've lost a whole history of like 20 years of this city because of the debacle. And that was under the mayor's regime. And I actually have to use that word because that's basically what it is. It's his word and that's it. But that said, I'm sorry to say these guys got away with it. It's a waste of time because there's no money to be gotten to go after these guys. It's sad that they got away with it. But the mayor is still the mayor, and the mayor is responsible for at least what goes forward from here, from today forward. Or when that whole thing was done, he's definitely responsible. And he should be responsible, and he should own up to what he did, that he was neglectful in oversight of that debacle that cost us a bad reputation. Not just in the city of Medford, but in Malden and Somerville and Winchester and all the surrounding communities, we have a bad rep. That's what I just heard from Joe. We have a bad rep out there. And it's going to take a lot to repair it. Now, if we have to hire a professional, no offense, I don't, Joe is too involved from the old times, but I hope he has a show on the new one. I hope he gets a show on the new one. But I think an outside person, somebody that is completely unbiased, doesn't know a thing about the past, completely fresh, a fresh set of eyes coming from maybe even outside the city, coming in, hire them to get this thing started, to get it up on the media that's now popular. Maybe it's not TV, maybe it's computers. whatever it is, whatever the new technology is, have them get it up and running. If we have to hire somebody from the city, let's do that to get it done. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martington coming straight. And I just wanted to say, um, well, I disagree with Joe. on who should run the new station. I want to give my props to Joe. I think that without Joe's efforts, we would still be dealing with that group of people that was a bunch of delinquents. So I just want to give my props to Joe for that. If it wasn't for him educating me on access TV, I wouldn't know any of that stuff. So I want to thank him for that. I want to give him his props for that.
[Jeanne Martin]: Okay. Well, anyway, but anyway, um, I hope that, uh, we get a new station because the city deserves it. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I want to thank Mr. Penta for bringing this very important issue up. This city, I want to keep it simple, deserves a community access station. It's that simple. And I'm glad that you brought up the 10-year, Mr. Caraviello, the 10-year contract. Thank you. That's a great idea. Maybe 5 years or whatever, but 10 years is a stretch. And yes, we should have to approve it as a body because all the other contracts are over 3 years. Excellent point. And I want to thank Mr. Knight for his suggestion of putting a person from this council to help the negotiation. I think that's wonderful, especially given the past history with this station. The mayor messed it up the last time. It was his ball. He screwed it up. And I don't want to beat that bloody. But I want to recall that the mayor did hire a little – he put together a three-person committee, which in my mind was skewed or not necessarily qualified. We had a priest, which was a very nice guy. He's honest. But what does he know about cable access? We had a person with conflict of interest who gets paid by the PEG monies, and we had another person who was a nice guy, but he wasn't anybody that really represented the community at large. It was a very narrow focus for that committee that he put together. That said, he had those recommendations in his hands, okay, and you know what he did with them? He put them in the desk drawer, and he didn't pay any attention to them. That's what he did. But he does say that he's going to use the money through the school system, through the voc system, which I'm happy to see that, first of all, again, the bad behavior's gone. Thank God for that. The negative uses of the TV station are gone. Thank you for that, and thank you, Joe, for all your work on that. But we still don't see a station today, and we need to see one. We're paying that money, and I think the reason why Mayim McGlynn is doing his dance again is because he's going to wait until the last day of the contract He got the letter December 18th. He's going to wait until April 17th or April 16th. He's going to hold his meeting and he's not going to want to publicize it because he knows it's going to be a complaint session. If you really told the people, the parents out there, that their kids weren't having their hockey games on TV and everything else, that they're being denied the history, the arts. If they really heard all of that and they really, it penetrated in their soul that they've been denied this, they'd be at that meeting and they'd be saying, what have you done? But they, I don't know, for whatever, because we don't have a good media system, they don't really hear that. And they would show up. And we are being denied. Every day that we don't have a station, we're being denied. a historical log of everything that happens in the city, all of the events, the plays that could be being recorded at the auditorium, and he showed up there. I was going to say, you know, the arts community could get on this and do something with it. We do have an arts community, and as far as I can see from all the other communities, the arts people are the ones that run these stations locally, or at least have a huge plug in the system of these systems. We have an arts community. The mayor showed up for the 75th anniversary of the Chevalier, and he gave the Chevalier people a plaque for their 75th anniversary. He showed up for that, so he knows the arts people. It's not like he doesn't know them. He doesn't want to invite them in on the process. He hasn't. Because if he did, they would love that. That's what they do. They live for the arts. They're musicians. They paint. They're creative. That's what they do. They love it. And if he reached out to them, he doesn't want to reach out to them. Because he really wants to keep it in a tight little niche for himself so that he can control the media. Again, I hope that the mayor opens up his mind. and lets this city become a thriving city. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Please state your name and address for the record. Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. And I respectfully disagree with you, Mr. Delarusso. The person who has been the point person for the parking program has been the chief of police, not the mayor. I don't know. Did you say the chief of police?
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, then I apologize wholeheartedly to you. But I would say that we do have a city that I've talked to people in Wellington, and they have relatives in North Medford. And we have a city that's kind of divided by sections or segments. And the folks that live in North Medford aren't as thrilled about the parking permit program, because they don't have as many problems with it. So the thought that they might get ticketed, or have to shuffle things around, or have to pay for a permit parking pass, they're not as thrilled about it as the people who need relief, like the people in South Medford, West Medford near the commuter rail, or Wellington near Wellington Circle. And so I just wanted to put that out there, You know, it's going to have to be a joint effort. But I want to apologize then, because I misheard you. And I'm glad I misheard you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, just real quick. I would love to, Gene Martington, Cumming Street. What I did like about what he said while he was talking, I was thinking about we get these robocalls by telephone, but a lot of people today, you know, get email notices or whatever. I don't get email notices when there's a storm or parking or anything like that. I was wondering maybe we should think about that because everybody, I'm sorry? Oh, okay, that's great. And then the other thing is I like the idea of putting up the council meetings on the computer. Is there a way to put the council meetings on a computer program?
[Jeanne Martin]: Yes, Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I'm going to say two nice things about this program, and then that'll set me off from going off. First of all, one of the good things about this program is that it saves our police from becoming, in other words, for other better words, meter maids, which is a waste of their time, which satisfies one of my requirements parking enforcement. So that's one good thing. I'm glad to see that. And the second thing is it got the commuters from other cities from stopping and parking in the city. So those are my two compliments to this program. Everything else is a complete, if we didn't have a 10-year contract with these folks, we would scrap this whole thing and start fresh. I mean, the amount of changes and everything else. And I have to say, with all due respect to the police chief, It is not his job to set policy, which he is manipulating and working with, not manipulating, that's a bad word, but he is working and tweaking policy that the mayor should be here on. That's what's getting my blood pressure up. The mayor should be here taking his own heat for his own program. He's making the chief of police take the heat, waste the chief's time when he should be doing other things in this city. That's what got my blood up today. You know, I have a whole bunch of things. But the other thing is about Mr. Marks, he was on that committee or commission or whatever it was for the parking enforcement. Total insult to all the time that they spent on that committee. And I know that the police chief is paid to be on it because he's paid as a city employee. But there were citizens that were on that committee that spent time on that parking enforcement program. Had that been recognized by the police chief, I mean by the mayor, we wouldn't be in this position. And I don't have anything against the outside vendor. But because we're in this contract now, we're signed into it. And it just, all of these issues need to be brought up next week when the mayor is in town and sitting here, taking the heat for his own program. Because it's his and it's yours, you know, for whatever. You can argue about how much responsibility is the council's. But it is also, it is primarily the signature is by the mayor. He has the only authority to tweak it, change it, put a stop sign here. He's the ultimate authority for where there's going to be a parking meter or whatever. And the kiosks, don't even get me started on the kiosks, because that has caused more problems than if you had just put meters in, quarter-fed meters. You know, whether you agree with it or not, and put in too well parking, and then have people watch it. Everybody understands a meter, a simple, simple, simple meter. Everybody understands it. And I just have to say that. So, I mean, I think we should have went by the recommendations of the parking commission. I think it should have been reconsidered. But again, the two things I'm going to, so that my blood pressure comes down. One, the police are not wasting their time, although the police chief is now wasting his time on this, when it should be the mayor that's taking the heat for his own program. He is the enforcement of policy. He is not the signature on the policy. He is not the guy that makes the policy. The mayor is the guy that makes the policy. And number two, it got the commuter traffic off of the streets, which was the second good thing about this policy. So with that, I'll shut up. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. Thank you very much for letting me speak here tonight. Haines Square is a great square, and it has great potential to thrive, and yet left neglected, and without proper advocacy from the city as a whole. If you would just take a good look at the architecture, you would see what I see, the base for a wonderful meeting place for the citizens of Medford to commune, as well as purchase goods and services. To revitalize the square, we need to have joint meetings between the state officials because of Route 60, Route 28, and the MBTA bus barns. Local politicians, especially the mayor and small business community, all need to get together to have a good, wholesome plan for the whole unit. It has to be taken as a whole area and not just piecemeal. The best assets the square has are Dempsey's restaurant, without a doubt, the best combination of community with its breakfast menu. I watch people all have coffee, commune, talk, families, friends. It's a social place as well as a place to receive, you know, it's a food place. So it's absolutely the cornerstone in its proximity to the square, how it's central. It's one of the central eye catches of the square and it's absolutely one of the anchors of the square. But again, the sidewalk outside of it has potential. It has those seatings with the picnic tables or whatever, but they're not used. As it is, the man that owns it says he has to come out. It's a city property, the sidewalk city property. He's not supposed to be responsible to shovel the snow, but he often does. He takes care of that, and so do the other two businesses, the florist and the pizza parlor, because nobody else will. because the city doesn't have the services that it used to provide. But that space, that little triangle where Dempsey's is, is absolutely perfect to have umbrellas with people out there eating and communing from, especially Dempsey's. Or eating a sandwich from a local sub shop down Alfredo's Kitchen or something, get a sub, come down. It's on the same side of the block. You don't have to go out of your own way. Modern hardware is another huge staple, which has offered many people the convenience and personal touch for home improvement. The laundromats are a staple for the area because of the large rental apartments all throughout the neighborhood. What needs to be said is that Haines Square has a lot of two-family houses that are now used as rental properties. Both up and down are used as rental properties. People live outside of the city, own those houses. it's not no longer just owner occupied like it used to be back in the day and so you have a high population of people that use the buses and use you know, different mechanisms. And they also use the dry cleaners and the laundromat. The laundromat there is absolutely essential because a lot of people that live in those rental properties, a lot of owners don't let them use the basement for washer and dryers or sometimes have coin-operated machines in their basement or something, but a lot of renters use the laundromat in Haines Square. They can walk right down there and use it. So those laundromats need to stay there. The downside of the square is its central focus. As you drive up from Medford Square, which has a liquor store, which used to be the movie theater. Now, I realize that a liquor store is a legal business. It's a legitimate business. It brings in a lot of tax revenue, because the taxes on liquor are higher than other goods and services. I understand that. However, as you're coming up that square, where Spring Street comes into Route 60, the thing that catches your eye, which used to be a movie theater, is now a liquor store. I'm not against that personal person that owns it. But if anybody could arrange to have that liquor store move to a place along the side of a bunch of blocker stores and not be the central focus, that would make the whole thing different. And also, if you had an eatery inside that theater, if you had an eatery with Wi-Fi, that would be awesome. The whole feel of that liquor store area would change. If you had nice glass windows that were open and not filled with signs for Bud Light or whatever, then, wait a minute, I'm not done yet. Oh, oh, okay, all right. So, because if you look at it, you see Bud Light and whatever. Instead, if you saw people sitting in chairs, you know, using their devices, and I will agree now, I've come to change my mind, I'll even let you put a bike rack in front of that area so that if people are traveling by bicycle, they can go and hang there and have lunch, okay? But anyway, if you change that, you would change the whole feel of that whole region. And I'm not against the liquor store, if you want to put it to the side in another spot, more power to you. But it's a central focal point, and if you put an eatery in there, man, a lunch place, sandwich, soup, something like that, where people have, you know, a lunch thing, because you've got the breakfast thing right over there at Dempsey's. It would really be awesome. Let's see. The other big problem is the MBTA bus barns and the brick building that sits in front of it. The brick building was built in, like, 1922. I realize that there is an electrical infrastructure for the bus barns, and it is a problem, but guess what? It's the MBTA's problem. It's not my problem. It's not Haines Square's problem. It's not the city's problem. The MBTA buses sit there, and they look horrible. Imagine if that bus barn area was a green space. Hello. I guess I'm transforming. The city's going in my head or something. I'm thinking green. But if that place, if that area was green, I've been around you people too long. So if that area was green with some benches to sit, All right, you buy a sandwich, you go and you sit on a bench with some green space instead of the bus barns, it would be another place that would be open for the community to come and sit. I don't want other buildings put there. God knows we've got enough buildings in this city. We keep putting up developments every which way. You get a postage stamp, they put up a building. So if you could take that and turn it into green space, but that's going to take the effort of the state representatives, the state senators, you people, the mayor, the small business community, the Chamber of Commerce, everybody's going to have to get in on that. But visualize it. Have some imagination. Let's see. With the help of the state delegation, blah, blah, blah, I would like to see the green space, blah, blah, blah. Now, the MBTA is another problem, because we have buses and trucks that often go through there. So if you're going to introduce, God forbid, bike lanes, because I personally think it's an accident waiting to happen. But if you are, you're going to have to decide, are we going to take out parking spaces? in order to put a bus lane? I don't know. But whatever you do, you're going to have to involve the MBTA, because trucks, huge trucks, go down there to deliver, especially for modern hardware. I see trucks all day dropping off stuff for modern hardware. And they're not semi. They're just small. But they are trucks. They're commercial trucks traversing and buses that traverse all the time. So the MBTA is going to have to be involved if we move a bus stop. I don't know. Design it. I don't get paid to do this, but there are people that get paid to design these kind of squares, and if we had some imagination, we could transform that square. Let's see. That's it. Okay. What else? Okay. Let's see. As for general cleanliness, we used to have section men, or we could use women today, in the squares, whose sole job was to pick up the litter in the square. Now, I understand that it costs a lot of money, but whether the DPW hires more personnel to become square people, that sounds funny, but square cleaners, I don't know how to say it, but sweepers, part time, part of their sessions, or maybe Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or whatever, or hire senior citizens, I don't care how it gets done, but we need to have people to clean up the litter because there's a lot of litter blown around, and I don't have to tell you people, the lines for the parking spaces are not, they're not there. It's kind of a weird, the way the square is too, if somebody, you're kind of like when you come in from, Spring Street to Salem, it's kind of, I don't know, it's kind of, people do their own thing. So, you know, it could be one lane, but there's two or three cars stacked, like lined up, you know. So, whatever, the traffic people that organized could straighten that out and maybe make the island in the middle bigger make it so that there's only room for one car to go one way so that you don't see piles up or maybe the island could also become bigger for another use like when we have our festivals in the fall the fall festival they use that as the stage prop area for the festival for where the stage is so if you expand that little bit You could have the thing, you know, use it for some other space. But anyway, OK. So I don't care how you get it done, but we need to have section people to clean up and to paint and to do all of that stuff, to monitor flower pots, water them, whatever, you know, those barrels with the flowers in them, make it nice with the lights, with the hanging pots and all of that. I have a dream. Anyway. So anyway, the signage all looks trashy. There's too many things in the windows in the stores, and if you had the awnings or all of the signage uniform, it doesn't have to be exactly the same. You can have your own personality, but if there's some kind of consistency throughout the signage, that would improve the area. As for parking enforcement, The mayor assigned a committee to review the problem back in 2009. He had ignored the recommendations of that committee and it has led to chaos. We've talked about that, but I'm going to go over it real quick because I wrote it down. The decision has been made by the mayor to go with an outside private contractor and has been signed for seven years with three more added options. Many of the businesses in Haines Square are not in the Chamber of Commerce, and therefore have not had a voice in the matter. Not until now, and I understand the Chief has talked to some of those business owners, that's wonderful, but I know for a fact that a lot of those business owners don't belong to the Chamber of Commerce. No offense, but they don't. There are inconsistencies in the policy where Dabbs Lock is. And he's right. I'm a frequent customer of Artery Lock and will still call them for business, but they do have an advantage over the other businesses in West Medford. If you're going to do parking enforcement meters, which is my preference, over kiosks or whatever, you have to go all the way down Route 60 because it's really a commercial slash retail You've got the gas stations. You've got the Brazilian food place, which I'm a frequent customer of. You've got nappies. You've got artery lock. There's a whole bunch of businesses along there. They've got the bike shop. There's a bike shop on Route 60. They should be metered as well, because that is just as much a commercial-slash-retail place as any other place. And so it's, you know, when Dabbs Lock came up here, I was feeling his pain because Artery Lock doesn't have to pay that, doesn't have to have that. With all due respect, people who come from Malden have told me that they haven't stopped at the Dunkin' Donuts in Haines Square because they don't understand the kiosk system. It might be $5, but I want Malden's $5, you know. At the very least, regular coin-operated meters should be put in place for simplicity's sake, and that would be my recommendation, to get rid of the kiosks and go with meters. People see meters, and they understand them. Haines Square has a high rental population, blah, blah, blah. Now, this is a sensitive topic, but while I see immigrant groups from South American to Asian have small family-owned businesses in Haines Square, there are not a lot of black American-owned businesses that I know of. I would like to see a black-owned barbershop and one other black-owned business go into the square. The population of that area is changing, and it would go a long way to incorporate all the new people. There are a couple of open storefronts currently on the Alfredo's kitchen block. across from the stop and shop. And so that would be a great place to put in a barbershop. And so we could reach out to the Chamber of Commerce. You could reach out to Neil. You could reach out to other, you know, people in the business community. Go to places, the schools where they make barbers, where they train barbers, and get somebody and say, hey, can we help you open up a barbershop? And just open up a barbershop, because the area is changing, and we need to change with those times. I'm almost done. In closing, I believe that all the squares should be treated the same. It is no secret that West Bedford is on the wealthier side of the city. I know that. I just had to say it. And therefore receives more attention. I would say that if we have meters in Haines Square, we have to have meters in West Medford. I don't want to see kiosks in West Medford and meters in Haines Square. It might work for Boston, because in Chinatown, they have meters, and on Newbury Street, they have kiosks, but Medford isn't Boston. So I just wanted to throw that out there. I know it's controversial, but that's what I do. All right, well, thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you, Jean. Don't go away.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yeah, I'd be good at that. That would be right up my alley.
[Jeanne Martin]: But in the meantime, I want the mayor to look at all of those ideas, too.
[Jeanne Martin]: That's right. That's right. That's how you make noise. All right. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councilor Penta.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you very much. And I think the space for that should happen in Haines Square. I think that the politicians, the mayor and you guys, should all meet at Dempsey's. And I think that the local businesses should also meet at Dempsey's or the new lunch place that we're going to build where the liquor store is. And then you guys can meet, and I'll be there. I'll be happy to be there. And because until you guys come together because of zoning laws or whatever has to be changed, so that they can eat on that little tri-corner or whatever, because it's not being fully utilized. That little tri-corner outside of Dempsey's isn't being fully used. And it would be so awesome to see umbrellas and people hanging out there and relaxing on a June day. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. It's a great idea in theory, but it's not plausible. We have been living off of federal grants. We've been living high off of the federal hog for a long time. Mayor McGlynn was good at bringing home the bacon from the federal government. We have lived at a standard of living that we're not going to be able to move forward on. Mayor McGlynn has not put 5% in for every single building for maintenance. You can try to put money in this account, but it will get raided for some other reason sooner or later. The federal government does it with Social Security. They do it with the Transportation Trust Fund. They do it all the time. When there's a bunch of money and they need some emergency, they pull it out. That's what's going to happen in the city, I'm sorry to say. I don't see how the program's going to work. It's a great idea in theory, and you can do it in your personal life, but the government isn't good at saving money and putting it aside. And as for the police station, I have one thing to say, which I know you took out. But the mayor was ready to bond for the water taxi. He was ready to bond for the garage. He was ready to bond for the old house. But he's not ready to bond for the police station. And I don't see why we have to wait and put money in their side for $2 million a year until we get $30 million in there to buy it. I just don't see it. It's an emergency. Watch the news. Paris was up in flames last week. We're going to have more and more problems. We have school shootings. We have all kinds of crime. And to have a a police station that is inadequate and up to par. I mean, it technically is up to par, but it could be a lot better, and it could save lives. It could do its job much better, and the people could do a job much better. So while it's a good idea in theory to have this rainy day fund, I just don't see how you're financially going to be able to pull it off. But thank you very much for listening.
[Jeanne Martin]: Name and address for the record. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. I'm so on board with you when you talk about the taxes, but Bob, I got to talk about this. The issues around Ferguson specifically are just very complex.
[Jeanne Martin]: Okay. Well then I, I, uh, I guess I'm okay with the ordinance. I just want to say that, uh, the issues are very complex. and simple answers for complex problems. It can't be happening.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, mine's quick.
[Jeanne Martin]: Name and address, Fleur. Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street, and I'd like to just echo what he said, that this is a great beginning for street walking police officers. It's a great beginning. We need to get out there because we have had demographic shifts like never before. We have more students all over the place at Tufts University. We have whole neighborhoods that have changed. The Glenwood section, If you go to the stop-and-shop, you won't recognize anybody. There's so many new faces down at that stop-and-shop. You can see the new people coming in and going out. And these people are renters. A lot of these two-family houses have turned into rental properties, and so you need to make yourself a... You need to find them because they're not going to come to you. So I just want to encourage this program and to continue it. Thank you. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: I promised her I'd get up here and just say I'm in favour. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Roll call.
[Jeanne Martin]: Hi, Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street, and I'd just like to echo what Joe has to say about nonprofits and oversight. And I totally agree with him if it has the name Medford in it. It should be open for anyone in this city, whether it's the Brooks Estates, the Royal House, literally anything that has to do with Medford absolutely should have oversight. And it should be, and I want to know, because I belong to the DAB, you all know, and the DAB does meet in a firehouse. It meets on a Medford property, and it does wonderful things. And we have strict rules about how the checks go out and come in, and there are spend-down requirements, and a whole host of things. I write down every check in six different places. including the meeting minutes, I scan them in, I have an electronic set of them, I have the receipts, and the state tells me to keep all receipts for seven years. I don't know if the requirement is more than that, but that's what the state DAB told me to do. So I have no problem, if they are working in good faith, as an organization, they should not be afraid to show you their books, whatever the organization is. And I have no problem doing that. So I just want to reiterate that anything that has to do with the properties of Medford, because there's a lawsuit, you have a problem on a playground, you know, Medford's on the hook for it. So there is, you know, a private partnership, private-public partnership that has to happen more and more I hope that it does. So thank you for listening. And I just want to echo what he had to say about nonprofits and oversight. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And I just want to say, I read it on the email system, I don't know if it was the Medford Mass Group or something, that they were thinking about putting a bike path on Salem Street. and I think that Salem Street is an unreasonable request. It is a highly dense populated area. You have a lot of shift workers. I don't know if you know what it feels like to work 11 to 7 or 3 to 11 and then get stuck on the night shift and you're driving home at 7 o'clock in the morning. You have people driving on medications. You have people putting makeup on. You have people drinking coffee, I'm guilty of that. You have people eating while they're driving. You have a lot of distracted drivers. Salem Street is a highly, highly trafficked area. It's very populated and I think it would be very dangerous to have a bike path on that road. Winthrop Street is a different thing, or some of the other roads, that's fine. This is a very dangerous area to have a bike path. You have the buses. I don't know if you've ever traveled, but the other thing is that the biker might not get hurt. I can see myself actually trying to dodge a biker and hitting another car, because you see the biker. So you have to be prepared. The biker may not get hurt, but you might bump into another car, trying to swerve to avoid the biker. because the roads are so tight. So I just want to make everybody fully aware how dangerous that would be to have bike paths on the Salem Street, unless you have more control or you change the whole thing, you make it a one way. I don't know what you got to do to make the bikes safe, but I just think it's a too dense of an area to put bikes. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin 10 coming street. Um, there are some items here that I see is non essential. Um, and the reason why I bring that up is because we have an essential need in this city and it's the police station, which is nowhere to be found as seven years from now is too long. It's not acceptable. Seven years from now is not acceptable for a new police station.
[Jeanne Martin]: But wait a minute now.
[Jeanne Martin]: There's a couple others too that are essential.
[Jeanne Martin]: Hang on a second. You are correct. I see some things that are not essential. I don't see all things that are non-essential. But I see a bike lane. I see, believe it or not, and I know you're going to be against me on this, playgrounds. These are non-essentials. If you're going to put pressure on the mayor, who has all authority to change this, to sign off on this, and you've got to build up pressure in this city. I'm sorry, but you do. If you don't build up pressure with the citizens to get them in here, to get them angry, then you can explain to them that the police station needs to come first, and then they can have their playgrounds. Because if you keep on doing this one million at a time, you're never going to see a police station. You're going to give him what he wants. So if there's a bucket truck, that's a necessity. If there's a plow, that's a necessity. But if it's a bike lane, it's not a necessity. If it's a playground, I understand they can be dangerous, but you're going to have to do something. So you guys can disagree with me if you want, But this is the only time that you're going to be able to have leverage over the mayor. And it's up to you. It's your call. It's your vote. But when the police station doesn't get built, don't come looking for me. Thank you. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, thank you, 10 Cumming Street. I'm glad you brought it up again, and I'm glad you went through it line by line. I do still think that the police chief shouldn't have to get up here at the podium and ask for a basic thing, like the building. He shouldn't have to. Nor should the union representative have to come up here and beg for a decent building to work out of. I just don't think so. I think that the parks are luxuries. I do. The schools are not, but the parks are luxuries. Yes, they add to the quality of life, and yes, the memorial does. Speaking as a veteran, it's still a luxury. Some of the other issues are still luxuries. The bike, everything's done in piecemeal again. I just hear, you know, a bike path, you know, just on Winthrop Street, and the bikers are here to stay. I don't think it's safe personally to have bikes on the streets, but they are here to stay. So we need to work with the bike community, but we need to do these things as a full city project, not piecemeal. enforcement that's out of control. There's illegal parking here, there, and everywhere. So how can you make a plan for where the lines are going to go when the parking isn't straightened out yet? Everything's done in piecemeal, and I just hear that resounding in my head as you went line by line. I want to see the arts community, and we need them. I need Mr. Lincoln. The city needs Mr. Lincoln. I know sometimes I'm hard on him. I'm hard on Mr. Koenig, or whatever his name is, the bike guys. I'm hard on all of these people. Okay? We need them. I'm inviting them up here. I want them to speak up. But I also want them to come up here and speak on behalf of the police chief and the police union and get this building done. I want to hear them petition for the police department before all of these other extras come in. And if they can do that, then maybe I'll be able to have more peace about allowing more money for the old house or the arts community or something that I consider a luxury. Because one day you're going to need the police station here, and maybe sooner than you think. And it's not going to be there when you need it to be there for you. We have a lot of crime. We have a lot of need for detective space in the building. The police building was not designed for 2014. We all know that. So I feel like I'm pounded on the same door over and over and over again. And I know you're sick of seeing me come up here and pound in on that door. But I don't think that the police chief should have to come up here, nor the police union representative. I think it should be the people. And if we have to close down all of the playgrounds and the football field to get the attention of the people, you want to do that, I know you'll never do it. But it's a radical idea. But it would work because the people would be in here the next week saying, why did you close down my football field? Well, because we need something. We need your participation in the city's business. So thank you very much for listening. Thank you. Name and address for the record, sir.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. I know you're sick of me. Again, it's not personal. It's just that the principle is that I'm looking over here and this building could use $3.3 million to. I mean, it's $90,000 today to hold it over so that in the future, hopefully, there'll be this cash flow of $3.3 million to renovate it so that it's actually a usable lot, a usable house, unfortunately. So I just want you to be prepared and know all the facts that I'd rather see the money go to the library for a $15,000 bathroom that never came to fruition because that money was used for an air conditioner someplace else, whatever. You know, there are other needs in the community, in the city that are more pressing than this house, and it's not against the house. And in fact, I like Mr. Lincoln. The fact that he's saving the green space I mean, I couldn't do what he does. I couldn't organize people like him. And we need him in this city. The house itself, to me, just isn't a big priority. But the green space, the Middlesex Fells, he's on all of those boards and committees, and we need him. So I don't want to – it's not against him. He's a great guy. But it's that house doesn't serve a purpose where, you know, we have the auditorium that should be up and running. We have other things that need to be up and running. I'm sorry, because I know that it's just going to hold it over the 90,000. It's just going to hold it over. And if you guys don't act, the police building will be a historic building by the time you guys get a new one. So I know I'm being sarcastic there. But it's not personal. It's just the principle. So thanks for all your patience out there. Thanks.
[Jeanne Martin]: Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. I'd just like to say, touchy subject, folks. And I have neighbors. I live in a two-family neighborhood. And so we have a lot of immigrants in my neighborhood. I have a lot of Asians. I have Buddhists, and I have Muslim neighbors. And I'd just like to speak up for them for a minute and to say that I was invited to their Buddhist wedding and their breakfast ceremony. And so it's a different way of life. But it's not a bad thing. The other thing is that I don't know, all I know is that I helped my Arab neighbor with her car and At Christmastime, she gave me a gift. Now, we don't know if she is here because she was a translator in Iraq or Afghanistan, put her life on the line, and her family put her life on the line to come into this country because they translated for the U.S. troops. So we don't know. I know this is a touchy, touchy subject. I'm a Christian, and I respect that. And any private property in this city can have the biggest glaring crash on the planet. It is when the government sponsors the crash that it becomes an issue. And it becomes an issue. And Catholics were discriminated against when they came here from the Protestants. The Jews were discriminated against. Every, every, there were Protestant denominations that were hung, women that were hung on the common because they weren't Puritans. So this tradition is something. But I don't want to get into all of that. I do want to say that I have neighbors that come from different religious backgrounds that aren't Christian or Jewish. And the city is changing demographically. So I'd say keep it religiously neutral. But if you have private property, You can put the biggest cross on your—oh, that sounded terrible. You can put a crucifix any place you want, and you can put a crush any place you want. And you can put as many lights and trees as you want. In fact, the tree seems to be a neutral thing. But I just—I don't want to be, you know, I just have to say that because it's terrible because we do miss out on our childhood memories of Christmas and school and holidays and Easter eggs. And some of those traditions have been taken out of the schools, which is kind of sad for the kids because they can't do what they used to do, but they're going to have to come up with new traditions. That's just the way it is today. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yes, the Ten Commandments.
[Jeanne Martin]: That is correct.
[Jeanne Martin]: You don't have to today, though.
[Jeanne Martin]: But you know something? I believe, so I don't have a problem.
[Jeanne Martin]: But you can say I affirm.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, one second. I'd just like to say, commercialism has stolen Christmas. I agree with you there.
[Jeanne Martin]: Let's see, anything new? School shootings. School what? School shootings. School shootings? Yes. Can I speak about that? Sure. Thank you. Just last week, there was another school shooting. Starting in the 1990s, there were 35 school shootings without including Columbine. resulting in 59 deaths and 105 injured. On April 20th, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Cabald opened fire on 15 kids, killing them and injured 21 others. The 2000s get worse, up to and including Sandy Hook Elementary, where 28 were killed and two were injured. October 24th, 2014, Jalyn Fryberg opened fire in his school's cafeteria, killing three and injuring three more. We live in a grand theft auto and call of duty culture, and we need to do something about this. I would suggest that we increase our numbers of police to handle this, and that we also need a police station. We need a new police station to handle cyber criminals. And I know it's repetitive, but it needs to be said. Because if we don't say it, who's going to? Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Sure. Jean Martin, 10 Cummings Street. Can I speak on this? Thank you. Oh, thank you. Every day that goes by, this city misses out on an opportunity to digitalize our history, our sports events, our concerts, our plays, our events at the Condon Shell. And it's going to require the citizens of Medford to come forward to create the new non-profit. And I want to thank Joe for all of his hard work and everything that he went through. I want to thank him for that. I personally don't think that buying the new building is a good idea. We need to buy a new police station before we buy a new building. But I do believe that we need to rent a space downtown in Medford Square someplace have an access station, start using it, and getting this stuff digitally recorded. If the new thing is to put it up on the computer or the iPod or the iPad or whatever the new i thing is, then fine, let's digitalize it and put it up on that for everybody to see. We're missing out, the mayor doesn't want to do this, but the people, the people can step up and they can do this. The people are going to have to come forward from the arts community. They're going to have to demand this. If they don't demand it, then it can't go anywhere. You folks can't do it. The mayor can't even do it. But the mayor could ask the people in Medford to come forward, but he chooses not to. That's on him. But I do believe, I don't miss out on anything. It's the citizens of Medford that miss out on this. because they don't come forward. And they need to feel comfortable coming forward. They need to come forward in mass, 12, 14, 15 of them, and start this thing up. So I'm asking those folks out there to come forward, to build out the new 501c3, to get this thing off the ground. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street. And that's exactly what he's going to do. He's going to just fade out the whole program come June or whatever, May, April. And he's going to use it like he does the other 3% out of the 5%. Out of every $100 that you pay on your cable bill, $5 is taken out for, supposed to be for public access. I guess it's technically he's within his legal rights as he always is. But $3 out of those $5 is used and thrown into the general fund. And so if he did it with that $3, he's absolutely going to do it with the other two that should be going towards public access, the 1% that's supposed to go to public access. He's going to do that. So it's not my loss. It is my loss a little bit. But it's really, the people that want a voice in this city, they're not going to have one. It's going to be silent. It's going to be more silent than it ever was once there's no chance of public access. So we're missing out on culture. plays, you name it, and they should be working hand-in-hand with the auditorium that we already have. I don't see why a station can't work hand-in-hand with the big auditorium, the Chevalier Auditorium. I don't understand why the mayor wouldn't want that to happen. Well, I understand why he doesn't want it to happen, because he doesn't want to be challenged on his views and his politics and his policies. And that's why he keeps the whole program silent. So thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jeanne Martin, 10 Cummings Street. Let's see. Parking enforcement should be a uniformed program throughout the city without exception. This city has seen enough favoritism and it needs to stop. All sections of the city should be mandated to abide by the parking rules in order to keep the streets free and clear for public use. A car on a public way is a privilege, not a right. I want to repeat that. A car on a public way is a privilege, not a right. Should this city find itself in a power outage, lockdown, or major snowstorm, DPW and emergency vehicles have the right of way, and no one should argue that their vehicle was destroyed if they are not abiding by the parking rules of the city. It also assists the national grid, telephone companies, and the like to provide services to you. Discontent among the masses will occur, and people with more influence in the city will ask for ticket forgiveness. This cannot stand. If you tweak the program, tweak it for all, not just for the well-connected in the city. As for the money that comes from the tickets in the squares, this revenue needs to go towards signs in all sections of the city as the expansion of the program continues. We will need to hire ticketing personnel, and this will pay for itself. The mayor has In other words, spoiled all the citizens, but the business districts as well, because we should have had meters 10 years ago. And now they are balking. Most cities our size have had parking restrictions years ago. I am sorry that the mayor has indulged them, but the time has passed for free parking. A new day is dawning and a cost of business is inevitable. This is only the beginning. The people will be in this hall complaining once the broader city starts being tagged. I don't believe that the judicial piece of the enforcement should be in the hands of the mayor. He is clearly biased and will forgive his political friends. It should be someone outside City Hall. Sadly, poor sections of the city will be fined more frequently and pay a higher cost of living, but this cannot be avoided. The least we can do is administer ticketing in a fair as possible through all sections of the city to decrease this tension the best we can. Commercial vehicles in front of fire hydrants, wheelchair spots and the like need to be ticketed in the nicer parts of the city so that everyone buys into the plan. it will mitigate some dissent and resentment. And I have a question for those that have read the report. Does this report deal with the issue of the people who already got permit parking? Like, I pay $10 a year. Is that part of this contracting situation, where they're going to have personnel go around and check all the permit parking streets? OK. Thank you, Mr. Mark. OK. And that's my statement. Thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: No. For those people that pay $10 a year, I paid $10 a year for, I don't know, five, six, seven years or whatever. My parents have been gone since 2008. So I've been paying since then $10 a year for parking enforcement on my street. And we don't have parking enforcement in the city of Medford. Nobody comes around to take it on a regular basis. I have a corner. I have a dead end street. The corner has a person parked on there that shouldn't be there because it makes it narrow for emergency vehicles to come in and go out. It should be 100 feet from the corner, the sign, but it's not. So I'd like to have that removed so that there's nobody on the corner because there's only one way in and out of the street.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, my question is, with the ticketing, are you going to have personnel actually coming around? I know that the meters are going into the squares. But are there going to be people going around and giving tickets to the people who already have paid permit parking?
[Jeanne Martin]: I paid $10 a year.
[Jeanne Martin]: It is. Okay, so who's going to come around? The people from the contract.
[Jeanne Martin]: Okay, thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, okay. I didn't understand that. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. So I, my, my point is, is that I want this parking program to go citywide and I want it to be in all sections of the city so that there, that, um, it doesn't cause discontent among certain parts of the city up against other parts of the city. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Mr. Kirby, I'll go.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, thank you. Hi, Jeanne Martin, 10 Cumming Street. I just want to reiterate that you can't look at this parking enforcement program in isolation from the greater city. And when you start ticketing in the residential areas that have permit parking, guess what? Where are those cars going to go? They're going to go into the next streets. Same thing's going to happen in the business districts, especially in West Medford. If you start ticketing, or having signs, those side streets are going to get filled up. In Haines Square, same thing's going to happen. Side streets are going to get filled up with cars, and they're going to walk down to the store because they don't want to pay or whatever. But I do agree with you, Mr. Marks. I think the free 15 minutes or half an hour, that's fine. But it's already signed in the contract. So believe me, you're going to hear from the people. When this thing goes in, you're going to see them here. They will be here, and they will be talking to you about the problems. So you don't have to worry about that. But again, I just want the money from the ticketing that's going to go on in West Medford Square or Medford Square or Haines Square to go towards new signage because there's no reason why we shouldn't have regular sweeping. Why should we have to have cops and bullhorns? We should just have signs that say, you know, street sweeping twice a year, whatever, here's the time, here's the date. Why don't we have a uniform system for snow emergencies and whatnot? So I think that you can't look at it in isolation. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cummings Street. I'm glad that this woman came up to speak on this topic, and I'm glad that she's here, and I encourage her to get her neighbors to come out because this is a big issue. You can do, through a cumbersome process as a landlord, have a separate meter put into your apartment, but it's very cumbersome. to have a separate meter for your tenant so that you have a separate bill from them. But ultimately, according to the law, you are still responsible if they don't pay their water bill. So it really didn't make much sense for me to go through that process.
[Jeanne Martin]: Right. So anyway. I just want to thank her for coming up, and she made a good point about comparisons to cities, apples to apples. I think what we should do is see what Melrose pays, or whoever else is on the MWRA list, and see what they pay, you know, and how much overage they might have. The rate from MWRA. The rate structure, yeah, or whatever. Because we do have an overage of $8 million, which is absolutely ridiculous. We know that the mayor is doing that because he wants his bond rating to be low. We know that he's misusing the money. He should be returning that money back into the infrastructure of the city so that the water rates will actually be lower, and he's not doing that, and that's on him. And so, thank you. Move the question.
[Jeanne Martin]: Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street, and I can talk about it, thank you. And of course, as you know, I'm against having a casino, but the casino is coming.
[Jeanne Martin]: We're going to be getting sued by Atlawin tomorrow morning if you allow this to come up. Well, you know, he's got a point there. No, seriously. The man is a very powerful person. No, we're not worried about that.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, OK. Just in general, it's... She can speak about casinos.
[Jeanne Martin]: If it comes in, We need to be prepared for if it comes in, let's put it that way. Because I've talked to a lot of people that live outside of this area, and they're all voting. They're all just loyal. And so it's going to come. And if it comes, what are we going to do? How are we going to prepare for what? How are we going to prepare Wellington Circle for the traffic? How are we going to prepare law enforcement? and firefighters and everybody else that's involved, DPW workers and everybody else. We need to prepare for what is inevitable. In my opinion, it's inevitable. It's coming. So we need to prepare ourselves as a city for what is coming to hit us. And it's going to be a big hit. socially, economically, you name it. It's going to make a cultural change in that whole region, Wellington Circle. It's going to make a huge cultural change for that whole region, including me, because I'm kind of like not far from that, up Route 16. Route 16 traffic is going to get backed up, and it's inevitable. So I just wanted to say that, that we need to be prepared for it. We need to have a master plan. We need to get everybody on board with what we're going to do when it comes in. I'm against it, but it's coming. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jean Martin, 10 Cumming Street. You're absolutely right, Mr. Knight and Mr. Marks. If we are one of the highest users of water, it's because we're one of the oldest cities. If you look at it from the state perspective, we're 1630. We were founded. We're one of the oldest communities. We're one of the most densest communities. We're not Somerville. We're not East Boston. There are more dense communities than us, but we are a dense community. And as you go out of 495, you come across smaller communities and less need for the water. And they have wells. You go outside at 495 and they have well water. The MWRA is around Boston, and it's a consolidated area. And Mr. Marks hit it on the head. The $8.5 million needs to be drawn down. Unfortunately, the mayor is doing what is in his legal right to do. You can't blame it on the mayor this time, because there's no law that prevents him from drawing off of this account as much as he can. There is no top number. Oh sure, go ahead.
[Jeanne Martin]: OK, so that is his responsibility. So he can.
[Jeanne Martin]: He can absolutely.
[Jeanne Martin]: He can absolutely take that number down and put it towards infrastructure. But it's up to the people of Medford, once again. And until the people of Medford decide that they're going to come here and show up, and make their voices heard. And I really do have an appreciation for you guys now. I don't know if I'm going native or what. I don't know. But I do see you guys as working really, really hard. And as a body, I see that happening. So maybe I've been coming here for like three years now, and so I'm getting osmosis or something. But through osmosis, I'm coming to appreciate you guys instead of seeing you as the enemy. Anywho, so anyway. So anyway, the mayor isn't doing anything illegal. So either the people have to make him, by pressuring him, by showing up at his doorstep and saying, we want that $8 million drawn down to $1.5 million just in case there's a main water break. And until we do that, he can sit there and collect all the money he wants and use it for the bond rating, which is not what it's intended to do. And you're absolutely right. The reason why we are such heavy users of water is because we have so many leaks in our system, too. So it's a self-feeding system. If we don't take care of the leaks in the water and sewer, then we use more water as a city. So it's a self-fulfilling problem. And until we take care of that, but it has to be the people. You guys can sit here all day and all night, and I've really heard you guys, all day and all night, all day and all night, say the same thing over and over again, and it's like a hamster wheel. But you know what? Don't give up, because you guys got the DPW yard built. So don't give up. You guys helped fix housing. You guys helped fix, get rid of TV3. You guys are making a difference. You got to keep on banging on that drum. But until the people start helping you to force the issues, nothing's going to change. But you got to keep your voices out there and be heard. So I agree with the transparency, have your committee meetings. I could start a petition on so many issues in the city.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yeah. Oh, I already signed that one. All right. So that's what I have to say on that topic. Thank you very much.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Jeanne Martin, 10 Cummings Street, and I'd like to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to speak. This is the only public and open forum in the city that the city has. It really is. And it's to be appreciated every single day, because without this forum, this city would be in a total media blackout, really, with the exception of a couple of articles in the transcript, a couple of articles on the patch. But really, This is it. This is the one place where the people have an ability to have a voice. More people should use this forum when they have issues, when they have the issues of the water and sewer rates. They should be in here. And they shouldn't make you guys repeat the same thing. They should be here face after face, different face after different face. But that said, I'll leave that. I do have some things about personnel. Mr. Markson hit it on the head. It's a comprehensive problem. Policing is an absolutely, and Mr. Penta, and all of you, it's a comprehensive issue, and it's not gonna be solved just by increasing personnel. It has to do with the traffic patterns. It has to do with the demographic changes, and by that I mean prior to 2001, Most people that had a two-family house, one of those apartments was owned by the homeowner. We know by huge numbers, those two-family houses, when the old folks moved out, they sold it, and that property was used as rental income solely, as an investment and used as a business. There are so many two-family and three-family houses that are now businesses. What they sell is a home, an apartment, They sell apartments. It's no longer, you know, mom upstairs or dad downstairs or whatever and cousin or, you know, uncle. There's a couple left, but those are gone. There's a lot of people that these two family houses, the person that owns the house doesn't live in the city. And that is a demographic change. And people that rent, I don't care what you say, people that rent do not feel that they have the same voice as I do, who's a homeowner. I can come up here and I can feel in charge of my life more because I have a stake in the city. People that rent have to answer to their landlords. And if they come up here and they make a big deal, their landlords may take it against them. They shouldn't, but, you know, life is life, and that's the way it is. So we've had demographic shifts. We've had racial demographic shifts. We've had a whole bunch of changes. in the city. So that's the traffic issues have to be handled, the parking enforcement should be citywide, and it should be completely citywide. It should be for commercial, it should be for in front of hydrants, I don't care if you live in North Medford or West Medford, it should be completely citywide. Because what happens is you have favoritism, and I know I'm getting to personnel, but it's all part of the same problem. If you, if you can, you can hire 200 police officers, but if you don't take care of these other issues, they're going to be chasing their own tails. You know, they're going to be chasing their own tail. So it has to be done comprehensively. And the building, he always talks about the building enforcement. Um, it, that pays for itself. And so I'm all for that. That pays for itself. That guy or, girl or a couple of girls or guys can help with police enforcement. And everybody knows how many cars there are on this street. And the average single family has two cars. The average two family is going to have four cars. It's just that's the way it is, unless they're really right on top of the T. But they all know that because you pay an excise tax. So all of those issues, it should be handled not in a vacuum. Somebody talked about a vacuum. It shouldn't be handled in a vacuum. It should be all inclusive. And it should be done properly. And unfortunately, we're behind the eight ball. We've been behind the eight ball on parking. There should have been meters in the squares a long time ago. There should have been enforcement. We could say that shoulda, shoulda, woulda, coulda. It doesn't do us any good because it's water under the dam now. We need to move from here. and do the best we can with the contract assignment. And we're going to have to tweak it. We're going to have to back. It might be a mess. It might end up to be a mess. But we're going to have to work with that mess and then move forward from there, because something had to be done. Unfortunately, it wasn't done 5, 10 years ago when it should have been. But that's where we are today, and that's what we have to accept. OK, so thank you for that. First, we only have 105 officers for a city of 57,000. It is ridiculous, given the proximity to Boston. 120 is a reasonable amount to start with. Community policing is also the only way you are going to increase visibility and build trust in neighborhoods which have large rental populations and or minority populations. Walking the beat, not sitting idle in a cruiser, will create trust. I would propose having them walk in pairs of two. They don't have to work together, but in the square in that area. One over here, one over there. They could break up, but they need backup. I'm sorry, we don't live in a nice world anymore. And so they need to have somebody available within a shout for their own safety. People don't want to accept this, but that's the world we live in. Walking the beat, okay. Night shift not included, but certainly days and evenings to 11 p.m. We should have people out of their cars. Because one of the worst things, the perceptions of the police is they're sitting idle in a cruiser. People hate that. They tell me all the time. Well, why should I care? Because they're sitting, look at them, they're playing with their phones in the cruiser, idle, idle. It's different when they're driving around. They look busy when they're driving the neighborhoods. But the perception matters. Perception will decrease crime. They might be busy doing something. They might be reading about a client, you know, testimony that they're going to be given in a court. But they don't know that. The person, you know, doesn't know that. And that perception matters. Second, we are underutilizing trained officers. We do have and we're boring them to death on details. In the name of a 15% kickback, nobody wants to talk about this, it's a sore spot for the city. National Grid pays us for that detail. We rent out our cops, we rent out our police officers to stand over that hole, whether it's National Grid, Comcast, whatever it might be, and we rent them out. We like that because that's where they make their extra money so we don't have to pay them higher salaries. They deserve higher salaries. I think they should just have higher salaries. But the way the mayor gets around that is he has them work a detail. And the real frosting on the cake for us is not only does the city save money by giving them the details so that they don't have to pay them a higher salary, The frosting is that we get a 15% kickback. We get 15% back on that detail. Well, that might have been fine in 1980 in Medford, but it's not suitable to use our cops that way. We're burning them out. We're boring them to death. They're on their phones. They're looking at their phones. And they're standing over the hole. The job is to protect the workers, not to really police the traffic. People don't know that. They think that they're there for the traffic, but they're really there to protect. They're being paid by National Grid to protect the workers of National Grid. Oh, I— Not at all. Too long?
[Jeanne Martin]: Okay. Federal, let me see here, okay, for the average observer, their experience of seeing a Medford police officer standing over the hole is the worst thing that we can do for perception. This does not create sympathy for the officers. The mayor doesn't stop, if the mayor doesn't stop that practice because of the loss of their revenue. Okay, I talked about that. Federal deficits and debt are going to continue to climb in the grant-rich environment that was once in abundance will continue to dry up. School aid and community aid programs will fall short of their previous numbers. Sooner rather than later, the old fight will ensue over hiring to keep a classroom size down or to hire a police officer. The police officer loses to a kid every time. Yet if one of these kids comes in school with a knife or a gun, who will they call but a cop, a police officer? And that cop won't be there for your kid. If the people of the city do not get in front of the crime and safety, it will consume more lives. Wishing in a way will not make it so. Building code enforcement, I talked about that. And now I'm going to talk about another topic that is hard to handle, illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants both live inside city limits and enter the city limits every day to shingle a roof, to paint a room, to cut grass, or clean a house. The police, if no others— Ms.
[Jeanne Martin]: Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, that's right. You got a point there. All right. Well, anyway. But, well, it is the police. It is the police because the police, if no others, should have the right to know that they are living here or coming here. Because they, too, suffer from domestic violence, sex trafficking, or gang violence. So it's in their own interest as well as us. Whatever the policy is, they're here. And how are we going to deal with them? And the police, I don't need to know they're here, but the police need to know they're here. All right, police officers are authorized to use deadly force and therefore need to be in check with their emotions at all times. We need to ensure an absolute locked record for therapy for those officers seeking help before they do something unhealthy to themselves or others. To think that they can do their jobs and not be impacted by it is ludicrous. However, should they act out in violence inappropriately toward family or others, They should be monitored closely and held to a higher standard because they have the authority to use lethal force. Ms.
[Jeanne Martin]: I'm not saying that.
[Jeanne Martin]: And I, no offense, I have a right to say it.
[Jeanne Martin]: This is the people's business. Because if you don't have enough officers and you don't treat them right, if we don't treat the officers right, then they are more inclined to have that stress build up. They can't strike. They cannot strike. So how do they relieve that stress? It builds up and it builds up. It comes out on somebody on the street, comes out some way.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yeah.
[Jeanne Martin]: I'm not saying they don't. They should. And that's great.
[Jeanne Martin]: It is just, I'm sorry, can I? No, no, please. All of the above. It's a comprehensive program, and we know that when you put someone under that kind of stress and you give them that much authority, they can abuse that authority. I'm not saying they should. I'm not saying they will. But I am saying that if you continue to put them under pressure, everybody has a snapping point. And we should really build up any kind of training program. We should add more to it so that doesn't happen. Because this city is turning more and more into an urban environment. It's not going suburban. It's going more urban. And we need to be on top of that before something happens. And I just feel very strongly about that. So I understand you want to, you know, I understand that the police have programs, but we really need to be on top of that. I want to increase the numbers, and I don't want to misuse them.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yes, I agree with that. OK, thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: And I would want to say one more thing. The people of Medford should be here saying what I'm saying. They should be here again petitioning for more police officers for the very reasons that I laid out. And maybe you didn't agree with all my reasons, but it doesn't matter because I'm a person and a city person, a citizen, and I represent some of those people. I represent myself. So if I'm one out of 57,000, that's my choice. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Sure.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Thank you so much. I went to the Washington Disabled Americans for Life Memorial this weekend. It was beautiful. It was wonderful. It was great. The sky was blue, it was fantastic. 2,300 people were there, and most of them were disabled veterans and their wives and husbands. President Obama spoke. He was very sober when he spoke because, anyway, he was very sober. There was a couple of unique stories, which is Jesse Brown, who was a disabled veteran, African American veteran. The Vietnam veterans, because of Agent Orange, are dying at rapid rates compared to their World War II counterparts. He was 68 years old when he died. He started this project in 1998. He did not live to see the fruition of his labors. And another man, Sinise, Gary Sinise, who played Lieutenant Dan in the movie Forrest Gump, was an advocate. His brother-in-law, he was touched by the story of his brother-in-law in the 1970s. His brother-in-law died this week at 68 of cancers related to Agent Orange. So that was sad. There was a woman that was a sponsor. She paid $10 million out of her own pocket for this. In the 1960s, she was a musical dancer in New York, in Times Square, and all that. and she was asked to sing to the troops in the VA. She went there. She was devastated from what she saw. She was singing the song in West Side Story, Take My Hand and We'll Be Halfway There. She went to reach out for a soldier's hand and it wasn't there. She said that if she could ever do anything, In her lifetime, she would, and she did. She donated $10 million. It was a beautiful story. And the DAV fundraising that we did the other week was $1,300, a little over $1,300 for the one weekend. So I would like to thank, and I would like to announce that that is not the DAV's money, that is veterans' money. And if anybody has a Medford resident or a spouse or a child of a disabled veteran, they are all qualified to receive help in the form of an electric bill, heat bill. So if you have a widow that is having a hard time, you have them call me and I can help them. I will not give them the money. I can pay the bill for them. And that's with that $1,300. And that money is for all Medford residents. It can be used for others, but it's for Medford residents. If you have a veteran that can't make it to the hospital, call me and we can help pay. We can also do food by giving them a Stop and Shop gift card or some kind of, we can't give them the money, but we can go to Stop and Shop and can you give us a voucher for $50, $100, whatever. So we can do that with that money, so thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: Yeah, sure, absolutely. 781-395-7942. I'm 7946.
[Jeanne Martin]: Thank you. Gene Martin, 10 Cumming Street, Medford, Massachusetts. And very similar to the way that the Medford housing is a separate but connected entity, so is TV3. I received the Judge Jackson report from our city solicitor. So our city solicitor has involvement with TV3 on some level. And so I think that there is a coupling and an overlap between Medford, Medford residents and TV3. So it is our asset. It is our asset and it should be used hand in glove with the Chevalier Auditorium and with the Condon Shell and all of the rest of the arts community And at best, and I'm glad Mr. Palleri is here in the room, because he's the one that can answer some questions. At best, there's mismanagement. I'm not accusing anybody of anything illegal or inappropriate, but at best, this channel is being mismanaged at such an incredible level that if $5,000 was missing from Bank of America, somebody would be paying for that. So there is no station currently working right now. We need that station. We need it as a public voice. But $200,000 a year they get, and I want to know where the money is. $200,000 from everyone that pays a Verizon bill or a Comcast bill. And it's called the franchise fee. It's on the back of your bill. I thank you very much for listening to me. This is a huge issue in the culture of MedFed. MedFed's ability to connect for videotaping hockey games, football games, political events, the memorial service that we had yesterday. It is part of the vibrancy that could be part of MedFed and MedFed's future. And why it's not up and running? If it's not up and running, it's completely being mismanaged. And not for nothing, but somebody should be replaced or removed, not in any bad way, but just because they're incompetent. is incompetent at Channel 3, that's in charge. And if the mayor cannot adjust that, if the mayor cannot take care of this problem, then we need to go to the FCC or whatever other authorities have control over TV3. It could be the FCC, it could be the tax code because they're a non-profit, whoever it is that's the outside authorities, because the mayor has not taken care of this issue. With all due respect, sir. The mayor has not taken care of this issue. It's been going on for years and years and years. And if you look at all of the past meetings that we've had in city council, and you can go on YouTube and find them and just put in TV3 or Mr. Penter or my name or some other councilor's name, and you will get the YouTubes of the topics being brought up here. Let's have a respectful TV3 channel. Let's fire somebody if that's necessary. And I'm not accusing them of anything illegal. I am accusing them of incompetence, though. Without a doubt, somebody has been incompetent in this. And I'll do respect to Mr. Poleri. But somebody needs to be replaced. Thank you.
[Jeanne Martin]: One minute. I just want to say that he's misrepresenting, Mr. Pleary is misrepresenting the fact that MedFed is not interconnected on some level with TV3. The Judge Jackson report was paid for by MedFed taxpayer money. MedFed oversees, MedFed's mayor, who is paid by the taxpayer, oversees TV3. I just want to clarify that, thank you.