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[Liz Mullane]: All right. Okay. That's OK. I know we're running a little behind today but we're getting there.
[Liz Mullane]: So just started again. Now is the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee meeting October 7th 2026. Clerk do you mind calling the roll.
[Liz Mullane]: Councilor Leming.
[Liz Mullane]: should be here shortly. Yeah. Councilor Tseng present and chair Malone present three here to absent. We can get started. All right, so the first item on the agenda that we have, we're just going to go through it pretty quickly, is the City Council newsletter. So the resolution to publish the City Council newsletter, be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee shall have the authority to draft and approve regular newsletter. summarizing the activities of the City Council and can vote to publish a newsletter by whatever mechanisms available without referring the draft newsletter to a regular Council meeting for a vote. Be it further resolved this paper be referred to the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee as a standing agenda item. So I know Councilor Tseng has been working on the September meeting. And we will hopefully be getting that out later this month. And the summer edition will be in inboxes shortly. So we will be caught up and ready to start in the fall. So with that, we'll turn it over to the next resolution, next agenda item, is to schedule the neighborhood ward meetings hosted by the City Council. So be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the Council's Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee discuss a plan to schedule neighborhood ward meetings hosted by the City Council in 2026 and 2027. So, I actually put together just a document for us to kind of go through because obviously we had our first ward meeting that took place on the 23rd. So, I thought I would just share. Can everyone see my screen? Is that coming? Okay, great. So for the ward meetings, the first one we had about, I'll give a quick recap and then Councilor Tseng, if you want to share some of your thoughts as well. But we had about 30 people that were in the room, about seven that were on Zoom. I think the format actually went well for people to not have that set agenda, to have the floating microphone and really allowing people to have the ability to share kind of what their most pressing areas or concern or things they'd like to have addressed. I put together, these were some of the top issues that were discussed. The biggest topic was around noise. We heard a lot of feedback around noise ordinance. specifically certain areas and streets within Ward 1 that they were talking about, but just in general, wanting to get involved a little bit more with the ordinance and how to enhance what we currently have, which we'll talk about a little bit later. Pedestrian and bike safety was a big one too. What was great about it was that people could actually give us specific streets and intersections where they really wanted us to look at and put on the list of things to review, which I think was really helpful. certain streets around traffic calming measures and cut throughs that people were utilizing. The city website came up, which is why it's also again on the agenda later on, but being able to navigate it and who to go to for which issues that came up a couple of times. to try to streamline that a little bit. And then there were a lot of people that are interested to hear more about what comes out of the Wellington study. So we did have a presentation on that. I know that there was some documents that we kind of directed people to be able to review online if they wanted more information. Councilor Tseng, anything else you might want to add about the award meeting or any thoughts, recap from what you picked up from the conversation?
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, that's a great point, because when we were doing it, I was trying to take notes to kind of capture what everyone's major piece was, and then we had those sign-up sheets that people get involved in by then going over and writing those out. So I definitely, I like that idea of having some index cards or something that people can feel they can write it down, and maybe that will help it be a little bit more succinct in the beginning, so that everyone can feel like they are heard. Because you're right, that did, was a bit of an issue in the beginning. Great, so just to give some follow-up that happened post, I did send an email to everyone who signed up in all the different sign-up sheets. I also followed up with MCM about getting the video and trying to figure out how best to get that up potentially on YouTube or somehow easily accessible. with a transcript so people would be able to read through it. You know, people signed up for different projects, so trying to figure out, when I sent the email, I, you know, for anyone to have our direct contact, but also to come to this meeting if there's anything they wanted to share around, especially the noise ordinance. or any other pieces from that meeting as well. But I think there might be something else to share for people if they're interested. Some people signed up for bike safety, for noise, Wellington, traffic calming, so somehow figuring out other ways for people to feel more engaged and hear about some of the things that are happening. One of the things I was thinking is maybe like with the bike commission, would it be helpful, you know, if people don't know that it exists, but they're interested in bike safety and what we're doing there, if I sent them information on it, maybe they want to join those commission meetings. So just different ways to try to engage residents, but truly open to suggestions of trying to figure out the best way to follow up. So then I just put together a couple of things, ways to improve better communication and outreach. Microphone use, I did get some feedback from people that those on Zoom, if someone moved the microphone away from their mouth, they couldn't hear them. So it was a little bit difficult. So making sure that residents really do utilize them. I had talked with MCM about having a standing mic as opposed to a floating one. I just felt like the standing mic might be intimidating to people. And the floating mic when you're kind of seated in a crowd is a little bit less intimidating. But definitely reiterating that people should need to put it closer so that people can hear. I'm not sure about the online experience for Zoom. And I think maybe one person raised their hand to ask a question, but I don't know we got to it in time or fast enough. So trying to figure out how to better coordinate that in the meeting. I think having someone really focused on the Zoom as part of it, I think, would be helpful. Someone had offered or talked about offering child care services so that people want to come. So there is a resident that's looking into it for now. Seeing what we've done in other types of meetings, we don't think it'd be possible for this one in October, but potentially further on in December. And then I will reach out to the schools about coordinating with any other kind of like back to school nights or something like that that might be happening. So those were some of the things. But in my email, I also asked for people to respond back, let me know what else we could do, any other ways to improve it moving forward. So if I get anything else, I will share it. And then moving on to the next meeting for Ward 5, this is kind of put together kind of the checklist for Councilors Callahan and Singh, who are going to be hosting the Ward 5 meeting Tuesday, October 20th, 7 p.m. at the Mistak. I'll send you some of these contact info, people, so that you have it, but really connecting with the director of facilities, just confirming with them everything's set. I also did it the Sunday before the meeting as well, but I checked in earlier and did a little bit of a walkthrough. That was just me for my own anxiety around events, but might not be for everybody. Connecting with Kevin to get the Zoom information for MCM. The invitation I think is already done with an RSVP link for people. Then the sign up sheets, you know, I had a sign up sheet for the city council newsletter. It might just be easier to have a QR code for people because it is kind of hard making sure I have the right email addresses from people's handwriting. So any way to kind of make that a little bit easier. easier to have people put that information in. Then just outreach to different publications, email notification to the neighborhood ambassadors. I sent the invitation and all that to all of them. I didn't specify which neighborhood because I know that they have outreach across Medford. And then I do have a Google location map that some residents shared with us as well to post locally where there might be some spots that would get a lot of visibility. And then obviously ongoing posting to social media and encouraging people to spread the word that way. So I can shoot this in an email to both of you and with the contact information to follow up for this next one. And then I will kind of handle it for the December 2nd one. Yes. Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. So then just the remaining ones we have to schedule are, this is what we kind of tentatively had put together for Ward 4 in January. It's myself and you, Councilor Callahan. In February, it's Councilor Tseng, Councilor Leming for Ward 7, for Ward 6. Anna, I don't know why I have you one more time. It seems like too many. Okay, so somebody else will be doing four with me. them and I will send out some dates that I already know won't work because we have city council or other meetings scheduled and try to work around Councilor schedules to make sure that those dates are in. Great. Any other questions, thoughts, additions to this at all? Great. Okay. So that's kind of is where we stand on the board meeting. So I'm going to move on to the next resolution, which is to update the NOE's ordinance. Oh, sorry. Just sorry.
[Liz Mullane]: Oh, I'm sorry. Councilor Scarpelli, do you want to go ahead?
[Liz Mullane]: Oh, no problem. Thank you. Councilor Scarpelli, would you be able to do a January Ward 4 meeting with me?
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Thank you. And then you and I are scheduled for December for award too.
[Liz Mullane]: We'll be quite the duo. I can feel it.
[Liz Mullane]: Love it. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Great. OK. So with that, I will Turn this over to Justin. So the next one that we have is the resolution to update the noise ordinance. The full text and description is whereas the city of Medford's noise ordinance was last updated in 1974 and is lacking any recent updates to types of noise that can impact residents. And whereas residents of Medford have shared a variety of ways in which different noise levels have been impacting their daily lives. And whereas noise levels can also be considered a health hazard and is left to the community to help regulate and advise on noise restrictions throughout their city and towns. And the rest of the next piece of it is just a statement from the American Public Health Association about the loud noise. But be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the council's resident services and public engagement committee review the current noise ordinance to update its language, function, type, and current usage. So. I'm going to stop sharing my screen. Councilor Tseng, did you want to share your screen and some of the work that you put together on the ordinance?
[Liz Mullane]: Councilor is saying, I think like in your past one that we just had, I think the Medford goes only to 6 p.m. for the noise ordinance too.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. Councilor Tseng, thank you so much. This is great to kind of take a look at and the way that you've outlined it. I'll go, I saw Councilor Scarpelli's hand and then I'll go to Councilor Callahan. Councilor Scarpelli, if you want to unmute
[Liz Mullane]: I couldn't agree more. I think we talked about this the last time, too, about how to get a survey out or how to get in front of people. I think maybe even, I don't know. even if we had like an ability for QR codes that people could do, like that we have out at different events, that if people want to access the survey that way or something, I just don't, I feel like it's so difficult to try to get the word out. I think it'd be great to keep having the conversation in the ward meetings. to see what people's thoughts and opinions are and especially as Councilor Scarpelli mentioned too with the businesses, kind of getting a sense of what people really think would make most sense when it comes to decibel levels and probably also setting up some time to talk with the police chief, building commissioner, parking, like parking, the permit office, just to figure out like how best to navigate this and what those fine structures might actually look like and be effective. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Scarpelli, you're, oh, there you go.
[Liz Mullane]: No problem. Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas to try to get this out to more people and get more responses? I personally don't know that we need to rush on it per se. I feel like it allows us to get some more time and input from people and keep bringing it up at these various meetings. I like the idea, Councilor Callahan, talking about it at different war meetings, getting feedback then too from people. So I guess what we could do is maybe continue. Oh, Councilor Tseng, did you want to add something in?
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Maybe we can start our, at least for the next meeting, I can start putting together some survey question ideas so we can kind of all brainstorm so we have something cohesive together too with what Councilor Tseng has done and continue to bring it up at more meetings, see how else we might be able to advertise and get feedback from people. So I think at this point, we probably just want to continue keeping this in committee. and continue talking about it at the next meeting. So we'll continue it here. And unless there's anything else further, I'll move to the next one. Councilor Callahan. I'll just move to keep the paper in committee. Oh.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Clerk, do you mind taking the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Councilor Tseng.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. Four in the affirmative, one absent. We will keep this paper in committee. All right. So the last piece that we had to discuss at the meeting tonight is a resolution to improve the city website. So whereas MedfordMass.org is the primary digital interface between city government and Medford's residents, businesses, and visitors, and whereas a review of the site reveals outdated content, navigation mismatching residents' needs, limited language access, and a gap in online services compared to peers, now therefore, be it resolved that the committee solicit public input on website improvements, invite the communications office and IT department to present on current, capabilities and constraints and report back with recommendations. So I know, Councilor Tseng, I think you had started putting some things together, but as I kind of mentioned at the top of the meeting, this was brought up in our ward discussion. It was certainly an area that people felt that we could dig into to make it more accessible and easier to navigate for information in general. So I think this is a great time to begin having those conversations and figuring out how best to navigate it and to bring those different departments to the table at perhaps our next meeting since we did this, you know, so quickly. But Councilor Tseng, I don't know if you had other pieces that you might want to share with the committee as well on it.
[Liz Mullane]: That's it, Councilor?
[Liz Mullane]: No, thank you so much. This was really tremendous work, and I really appreciate everything you put into it. It really did condense, I think, a lot of the different areas that we heard. Even when we were in the ward meeting talking to residents, I couldn't agree more with the I want to kind of functionality for residents to be able to utilize the website. I heard that numerous times in the award meeting about trying to figure out and navigate who to go to for what and which piece that they were looking for. So those types of things I think would be huge wins. And I agree, it's having tried to navigate the website myself, it's pretty hard with so many drop downs to try to figure out where you want to go and what that looks like. So I think this is a tremendous start and really does kind of target in on some of the high item areas that we could focus on. And I look forward to hearing from my other Councilors, too, about their thoughts on it. Councilor Callahan, are you? OK. I think it's a good start. But I think that
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Yeah, I can reach out to our communication team and invite them to come to our next committee meeting so we can kind of talk through these different pieces. And you're right, Councilor Scarpelli, there are some of these other websites like the high school you can, a little bit more robust in terms of finding information. And certainly when we go to our city council page even, there's not that many things that are really listed on there. And I think there's a lot of work that's happening that we could be able to share with residents a little bit easier online like that. So I think we want to continue keeping this paper in committee, and I will work on trying to get IT and communications to attend one of our next meetings. In the meantime, we can continue having these conversations at ward meetings as well as Trying to figure out how best to do the survey as well to get more input from residents as we kind of figure out how best to update the website. Terrific. Is there a motion to keep this in?
[Liz Mullane]: And adjourned. Thank you. Clerk, do you mind calling the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Sure, I just wanted to, I wasn't sure if there was any public comment. I see that there's, if anyone else had any thoughts or suggestions they might want before we just adjourn. Let's see, no hands raised on Zoom then. Yes, if we'd like to motion to keep this paper in committee and adjourn the meeting.
[Liz Mullane]: Perfect. Thank you. Seconded by Councilor Tseng. Clerk, do you mind calling the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: No. Thank you. Thank you, Director Hunt, for walking through. I obviously wasn't a part of some of this earlier process, so I appreciate kind of getting that background of it. I do agree with President Bears that I think while I get having a smaller committee to kind of go through and be able figure out or whittle down to, you know, maybe one or two finalists. I do think it's beneficial to have those finalists come and speak in front of the council and CD board because it does provide a level of transparency. We're able to see it, be part of the conversation a little bit more. I think it's harder when While I appreciate all the hard work that I know goes behind a lot of this stuff, it's helpful to kind of hear as well the process that people are making in that selection. I can't agree more with getting a communications consultant as part of this process and I hope that they go hand in hand and that there's no um, part in this where we would separate that or move forward with, without it because, um, to what, uh, Vice President Lazzaro said as well, like, I think there was a lot, um, of information that could be shared and presented to the city, um, and to everyone that had questions that, uh, just wasn't as readily available, um, especially with the website, pieces like that for people to feel a bit more comfortable about what's happening. And I think, I'm 100% on board with however we're able to do that to make sure that happens. But in terms of that whole selection process, I do think having a mixture of people in a smaller group going through and kind of culling through that. But I think whenever that presentation comes down to the finalist, explaining a little bit background of the process so that everyone's on board, how many proposals came through, what were some of the highlights. pieces that were most important as we were getting down to these finalists and then having it be out in the open and have everyone hear the same messaging before a finalist is actually selected. That would be my opinion on it, too.
[Liz Mullane]: Thanks.
[Liz Mullane]: Just a couple of quick questions, Director Hunt. From what you went from when you said that the first version of this was very simplistic and made all these edits, did this come from you and Planner Evans? Who did the bulk load of adding all of these different pieces to it?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. And then in terms of kind of going off of what Councilor Callahan asked as well, it sounded like you said originally there was ten meetings with the city council and then there was two with the community open meetings. That was what was in the RFP.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, no, that is helpful. And I guess in terms of this public process then, it's about the same number of meetings or so than in the original. I mean, I see it now, what you're saying, they broke down between community development boards, city council, then joint hearings, then public hearings, but in the end, It's around the same.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I appreciate the clarification.
[Liz Mullane]: No, I think that's good. I mean, because having all lived through it in this past iteration of it, it is a lot of meetings for everybody, not just us, but the public and everything. This sounds like it would be I would hope the maximum number, and to President Bears's point, like I... I would be open to hearing from consultants that come through to say while, yes, we appreciate how thorough you are in terms of the numbers and of meetings that would happen for each different piece of this, we've also seen XYZ be effective and to ensure that there's more public and, you know, there's more ability to, for all of us to absorb the information because this just, I can't imagine there would be more meetings than this. This just seems like a lot to me as is. And I'm, you know, if we're talking about especially price as well in terms of what this looks like, I don't know. I just, I feel if we can leave something in there that also allows for the consultant to come back and say, you know, yes, but also we have seen this be successful in previous iterations that we've worked at and it was in this, kind of allocation of time and committee meetings for both deciding boards and the public as well. because this just seems like a lot and I'm not positive if this is the most effective way for everyone involved to take in and process this type of information.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Yes, we are excited to host the next ward meeting for Ward 5 on October 20th. It's at the Missituk. It'll again be hybrid. Truly want as many people as possible who can come and join us. We had a really nice turnout for Ward 1, learned a lot of great things that people are really addressing and want some help from city council and from city government. So it was a really great way to engage with neighbors and I think they appreciated having that opportunity to speak directly to city government. I think it makes a huge difference that we're there in their neighborhoods having these conversations and really listening to everything that they want to share with us. So it will be hosted by Councilor Tseng and Callahan and we're looking forward to this next one. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Let's improve the city website, right?
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yes, in terms of this resolution, one of the things that we did here as we were at the ward meeting was there seemed to be a lot of confusion and navigation issues when it came to the city website. how to get to certain documents, where certain things were, who can do what from which piece of it. So it came to our attention this was probably another opportunity for us to take a look at it and figure out how else can we make it a little bit more user friendly and be able to have that conversation with the city and figure out better ways for our community to be able to engage and understand what's happening across all the different city departments throughout Medford. So part of the reason of doing this and then bringing it to the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee too is part of the things that when we talked about it, we asked residents to come to the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee to also help us be able to address and identify some of these areas.
[Liz Mullane]: Sorry.
[Liz Mullane]: So at the previous Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee meeting that we just had, we went over some of the remaining pieces of the summer newsletter so that can get out to everybody. We also went into in-depth about the Ward 1 meeting that happened on September 23rd and had a nice conversation to talk about different ways to publicize it, to get the information out, how we wanted to host it. and giving just general information for people who wanted to be engaged. We also talked about what that looked like for newsletters moving forward, and some of the councilors signed up for those, as well as talked about the upcoming ward meetings, which we already talked about, the October 20th one for Ward 5, and then the Ward 2 meeting, which is happening on December 2nd, that's being hosted by myself and Councilor Scarpelli.
[Liz Mullane]: I think I covered it earlier about this. And I think there's a lot of areas that we might be able to help improve that will be helpful for our residents like we heard as we've been speaking with them. So I'll leave it at that.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I just had a couple of quick follow up questions actually from Councilor Callahan. But I know. Thank you for putting this together and letting us know which of the roads that you're addressing and the rating of it at 20. Is that what you said from in the 20s. Is that like the defining reason of how you pick these streets or.
[Liz Mullane]: Oh, that's great. Do you, and just, I don't know if you would know this off the top of the head, but where do we, where do most of the roads line up? If we've got 23 that are in this 20 range?
[Liz Mullane]: Awesome. Great. Thank you very much.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I also want to echo what the other councilors have said too. Thank you so much for all the great work that you've been doing and I'm so sorry that you're in this spot in terms of financially trying to figure it out and appreciate the work that you're doing. When it comes to some of these foundations, is this work that you all as a team internally are doing to apply for the foundations? Okay. So do you work with other departments within the city to maybe coordinate what's a larger gift grant or is it kind of solely per each of the different departments working on it?
[Liz Mullane]: I mean, you have some, for someone who works within fundraising, you have a lot of great metrics and things to be able to share and demonstrate your impact. So if I can be helpful in any way, please let me know. But I appreciate you guys thinking outside the box of looking at these different foundations to find support too. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. So both personally and professionally, I am disappointed that we even need to have this resolution or the fact that these ward meetings are being politicized by the mayor in this way. I'm going to start off by saying that no political organization is planning or has been planning these ward meetings full stop. These are city council meetings. And as an elected official for the city of Medford, it is my responsibility to be out there talking to residents, and this is an appropriate way to be doing that. In the vein of full transparency, I did want to provide the public with some facts and to clear up some misinformation about how these meetings were initiated. On February 3rd, President Bears has put forward a resolution for the city council to schedule neighborhood ward meetings to bring city government into the neighborhoods. The resolution was sent to the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee, which I chair. Councilor Scarpelli is vice chair. Councilor Tseng, Callahan, and Leming are all members. Now, just for clarification, there does seem to be some confusion around this initiative and the program that the mayor established called the Neighborhood Ambassadors. Following the City Council's resolution on February 3rd, the mayor put out a call on February 11th for residents to apply for a task force that aims to strengthen relationships and communications throughout the community. Point of information, at that original time, the ambassadors who were appointed by the mayor, several of them had actually run for city council at some point previously. which is fine. It's great to have as many people want to be engaged as possible. Going back to the ward meetings, knowing that there were already a lot of meetings scheduled around the city council, the budget, zoning, and the high school, the city council decided to wait until fall. Over the course of the spring, the resident services and public engagement committee discussed a variety of options for these meetings and landed on the following. No agenda. With the goal of truly hearing from residents about their concerns, we made the decision to not predict what those concerns might be by any way of a formal agenda and just leaving it open so they can be comfortable to talk about whatever they'd like. A hybrid option, allowing residents who can't attend in person to join via Zoom. Ward locations, ensuring that they were in each of the different ward and neighborhoods and easy for people to access. We received emails directly from residents with suggestions for locations for these meetings and opted for familiar ones that we thought would be helpful. They were already an established voting place for the ward, they should be ADA compliant, they were free, they had easier parking, and could be compatible for hybrid access. I met with school facilities and Kevin and the Medford Community Media to see if they could host them virtually. They could. I booked them all by mid-June. I wrote to the city communication director on July 14th to get all of these ward meetings listed on the city of Medford website and then set up an additional call with him again on August 11th to discuss outreach. At the August 11th meeting, I was told the city was understaffed and had limited resources to help and I had to get approval by the mayor for any possible assistance. I emailed the mayor on August 18th to see what else she needed from us to advertise these meetings, and her response was that she would put them up on the calendar, which they already had been, and would work on a social media post for the city page. I also asked for the meetings to be included in the robocalls that go out, because I don't believe that just posting on Facebook alone will reach all of our Medford residents. Nothing went up on the city's social media page, and since that email exchange, two other robocalls went out for the city without any mention of the ward meetings. In the meantime, residents continued to contribute in a variety of ways, helping create graphics, sharing on social media. I sent an email to the city council asking them to advertise. I sent another email to all the neighborhood ambassadors, since they are also helping to spread the word in the community on behalf of the mayor. and I put it up on Facebook, on Reddit, and I asked everyone, everywhere, regardless, to please share it as broadly as possible. When nothing had happened to promote the Ward 1 meeting from the city, I followed up again on September 17th and asked if we could go in the next robocall with it linked back to the city of Medford events page. On Saturday the 19th, just a few days, this ward meeting was scheduled for the 23rd, so just a couple of days before, I received an email from the mayor saying that It was reported to her that a graphic or some kind of thing had been outlining the wards, was designed by some sort of political org, and that someone had said this ward meeting was being coordinated by the city council along with a political organization, which it categorically is not true. The mayor said to share with me what specifically she is referencing, even after I responded to her email. When the mayor told me she would not promote the Ward 1 meeting, in addition, I was unaware that she had gone and deleted all the future ward meetings from the city of Medford events page. So, unbeknownst to me, I started receiving a few angry emails and a reporter asked me why it wasn't listed or publicized better by the city. I took the criticism because I didn't want the real purpose of the meeting, listening to residents, be overshadowed by all of this noise. Removing mention of the meetings from the city website and refusing to advertise then ultimately resulted in confusion for residents, which was the opposite of what these meetings were intended to be, to create a forum for residents of Ward 1 to come and discuss the issues that need to be addressed in their neighborhoods. And I just want to bring it back to the fact, again, that I chair what's called the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee, which means that I'm working with residents on issues that they bring forward and working to engage the public. And I do want to thank the residents who did reach out, who helped create graphics, posted on social media, spread the word through their networks. to the neighborhood ambassadors who sent out information. Someone had emailed us about helping with offering babysitting services. And somebody even sent me suggestions and a Google map on where we could post information locally to get more people engaged. I did not turn down any of these offers, regardless of where I may have thought a resident may stand politically, because it is my job to be open and receptive to all residents of Medford, and not pick and choose where I think they voted for me or not, but accept their feedback and assistance. I want to thank my fellow Councilors who agreed to host these meetings. These are not photo ops or ribbon-cutting ceremonies, but actual work, an actual meeting with an open agenda and a forum for every Medford resident to be heard. And I want to thank the residents who did show up to the meeting. In person and online, I appreciate your candor, your willingness to share your thoughts, and to be part of the solution. I learned a lot about more of the issues that you're facing in Ward 1 that I had no idea about, and I'm going to pull together all of the information and we can begin to start tackling what we can. I know we've already mentioned the ward meeting that's happening on October 20th at 7 p.m. for Ward 5 at the Missituk with Councilor Tseng and Callahan. December 2nd, Councilor Scarpelli and I are hosting the Ward 2 meeting at the Roberts School at 7. And I'll just end on this. I feel very strongly that my role as an elected city councilor is to represent all of the residents of Medford. Regardless of whether you voted for me or not, your priorities, your challenges matter to me, and one way for me to learn about what those are is to meet you where you live. These meetings are opportunities for all of us, community members, to come together, but also for those in the council to learn what challenges our neighborhoods are facing and work with the community to try and solve them. The people who really lost out most because of the mayor's decision to not publicize are the residents of Ward 1, and I'm hoping we won't have a repeat of this issue moving forward. Walking out of that Ward 1 meeting last week reminded me of why I ran for City Council in the first place, to help improve the lives of Medford residents. It is my hope that the mayor will join the City Council and, instead of hindering their ability to participate, allow for more voices to be heard. And that's it.
[Liz Mullane]: I think one of the last things I will say to you is that what was really heartening walking out of that Ward 1 meeting was how many people wanted to be a part of the solution. It wasn't just that they wanted to say all of these things and then walk away. They signed up because they want to be part of how to be a better part of Medford. And for us, and for someone, again, Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee, so many of them were interested in getting involved, sharing their thoughts, and bringing perspectives around the noise ordinance that we may not have thought of before if we hadn't been out there having these conversations. So I just, I really, really, really hope that we can change the narrative on this and go back to where it was supposed to be, listening to residents and trying to help some of these problems that are within these different neighborhoods.
[Liz Mullane]: Hi, everyone. I don't know if we might need this mic or not. I'm usually normally loud, so I don't know if I need the mic. First of all, thank you all so much for coming. We really appreciate it. My name's Liz Mullane. I'm a Medford City Councilor. I'm relatively new, just started in January, and really just looking forward to hearing from all of you, to kind of talk about issues, things that we can address here in Medford, and looking forward to our fun first Ward 1 neighborhood meeting. It is, oh, I like it, thank you, yes! I like that. This is our first one, so bear with us as we go through it, but really appreciate and very excited to have so many people here in the room today.
[Liz Mullane]: Well, I think part of it too is, you know, I think some of the things that Jess and I have talked about, and again, hearing from a lot of residents around NOISE, is trying to bring all these partners to the table as well, so to be able to talk to code enforcers to be able to talk to the police to just to make sure like what is actually reasonable and what are we able to do. I think I was pretty surprised when we first looked at the noise ordinance and the last time it had been updated was 1974. And some of the big pieces, there was like two major pieces to it and one of them was ensuring that people don't sing in the streets. There's a whole paragraph about that. There's a whole paragraph about how loud. And so what Justin was mentioning, he was starting to look at some of the other cities, too, and see what are some of the different cities looking at and how they're identifying different ways. And I think that's something that we'd love to have residents and public engagement and feedback on as we talk through this, because everyone's getting a different piece of some of those things that we're seeing within that noise ordinance. So in Somerville, for example, they have it very outlined, very specific if it's animal, if it's fireworks, if it's motorcycle. So they really do lay it out for people.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah.
[Liz Mullane]: Well, I think this, I mean, all of this, I think, is very helpful when we talk about the noise piece of it. I think one of the things that we've talked about is how to best solicit suggestions and other pieces of areas that we could cover with the noise. I'm sorry? Well, what do you mean, like if we did a survey or something?
[Liz Mullane]: No, I was actually talking as we, I know there's a lot of different items people want to chat about today.
[Liz Mullane]: But certainly with the noise, and I appreciate so many people showing up for this too, and this is something we're working on. We definitely want to get as much feedback as possible from everybody when it comes to that and their thoughts on it. I know we've talked about sending out a survey or putting a survey out for people to kind of share some of their thoughts about it. We do have Some sign-up sheets in the back, too. Again, if you're interested and you want to help join and share information, or if you have our emails, you can certainly send it that way if that's best. But this is definitely very helpful for us as we try to navigate how best to address this ordinance, and very apropos, since it's something that we've really just started taking up on right now.
[Liz Mullane]: is they can hear you online.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, and I just want to also say, I think what's also been helpful, as we've been hearing from everybody, are identifying some of those areas, those places where you are seeing some of those big issues. We do have, I have some sheets over here for what people are comfortable putting down, but it would be helpful to us as people, eyes and ears, that are seeing this firsthand, of where you are seeing some of those places, where you are seeing some of the, where people are really potentially putting themselves in danger, trying to get across the street. And we can start at least putting together those lists so that we have them. And I can't guarantee we get right to every single one of them right away, but we can at least be identifying them. And I think that's also part of what we're hoping to do is to identify some of these issue areas that we can at least have a list and know that these are really top priority for people in the area too. Yeah. And I know some people were talking about Wellington, too.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, I did, sorry.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, no, it was actually very in-depth. They had a consultant come through who has worked in this area for decades to really come through and assess. And this was done with our housing planner, Catherine, who did an excellent job of facilitating and navigating this through. So they're putting together a full report. We actually were, you know, went through this at one of our most recent Committee of the Whole meetings where they really went step-by-step through that deck. And I would suggest if people are interested, it may be a little dense. But it definitely provides some good information, some good feedback, so you could see exactly how we are getting to these numbers. And then what I thought was also really helpful was, what was our number in relation to other nearby cities? And when was the last time they'd also updated their linkage phase too? So you can kind of see where that assessment came from. It's really in-depth, and it really gives a nice perspective as to what we're looking to accomplish. by updating this linkage fee.
[Liz Mullane]: That's my understanding at least so far, but they do have I think this was brought up on As people were talking about this meeting tonight We do have a report that's been created around the Wellington study And I think it's helpful just to kind of see some of the information that they were able to garner from consultants that came in Kayla who works for the city She does a great job of being able to kind of explain that and walk people through it as well again It was just kind of a study to assess the area Certainly a long way to go from what white what might actually happen with it But it does give you a more kind of robust idea of some of those different opportunities there. Yeah, and I believe they're still looking for feedback I Can't what were in terms of the Wellington study Mm-hmm
[Liz Mullane]: We can look at it and get back to you, John, if that's helpful.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes, I know we're running close on time, so I know one other person's been patiently waiting, and then we can kind of wrap it up.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah. Well, yeah, let's just have one more because I do want to be cognizant because we do have to close up the school. Oh, sure. So I think for us, part of having these conversations, A, is to highlight these different issues. What we'll be able to do, and we have some information, like sign-ups over here, in the sense that I can follow up and ask other questions, any kind of follow-up from it. Our hope is to go back and try to figure out what we may be able to do around, A, updating the noise ordinance, so we actually have something that we can work with. But also talking with the city to to find out what are some other opportunities That may be able to help to address it in the short term But like I said, you know as we're trying to pull together some of these different ordinances would really really really value everyone's opinions and thoughts and sending information in so that we are aware of different areas that we might not know ourselves, so that's why we're that's why I wanted to do this and that's why it's resident services and public engagement because we want you to be engaged and help us hopefully together. So we're doing another one next month, October 20th. It's Ward 5 at the Missituk. So we'll send out information on that too. Oh, yes, I'm sorry. Yes, that's true as well. Yeah, the next ward meeting is October 20th. And then the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee, which I am the chair of, so I would love everyone to be involved and engaged on it, happens every month. And the next one is October 7th. It's City Hall or on Zoom at 6 or 7. Sometimes the times change a little bit. But if you sign up, I can send you that information, too, because truly would love the help, would love the insight. I'm so sorry.
[Liz Mullane]: say directories around City Hall just to know who's where and what they do.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of great people that work at the City Hall, so I do agree. We probably have to talk to someone to see if we can get a little bit more outlined of what that looks like for people.
[Liz Mullane]: I do want to let people go, too, but please, I welcome any feedback, any suggestions to reach more people, to get in front of more people, anything I can do, anything we can do, please, as a resource, really, anything we can help with, please let us know.
[Liz Mullane]: All right. We'll get started. This is the meeting of the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee meeting for September 16th 2026. Clerk Siegel can you please call the roll. Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Chair Mullane. Present. Three present, two absent. We have quorum to move forward. All right. So first we are just going to walk through the rest of the newsletter. So I am going to share my screen. So, what we decided to do, I know that we have done this in the past, where we've been able to put together kind of a summer newsletter. So, the last meeting we had already looked through June, and so this is July and August, and because there wasn't as many meetings, It isn't as long as I normally do them, so I'm still trying to get a little more brevity in here. So basically, starting off, I did highlight the Ward 1 Neighborhood Meeting. I talked through any of the commemorations, remembrances, and acknowledgments, and then highlighted the different City Council meetings that we had. So we had the one on July 14th. Again all of these are linked and they will be linked in the newsletter. So for the meetings themselves will go right to YouTube and then to each of the different. agenda items that are posted up on the Medford webpage. Again, this was just going through the different resolutions, everything being tagged in here. I tried to, again, label out any of the different capital stabilization funds and what that looked like, how much was allocated towards each of them, anything that was appointed or any of the pieces that the mayor's office had asked for us to go through. And then I did try to make sure that with some of these different pieces that were a little bit longer, if there were any other types of presentations, et cetera. tried to link them in here as well, so when it goes out to everyone, they're able to click directly to see each of these different areas. So that was the July meeting, and then August the fourth general meeting, again, during the different resolutions, talking through the different ward meetings that we have there. And then, again, kind of matching up when it comes to some of the information that the elections office had shared with us as well. Any of the commission's appointments that we had, again, any of the outlining from the community preservation committee. of the appropriation requests that we had. And again, tried to link in anything that was up on the website to be able to have people review, and then was putting in here as well any of the different committee meetings for people to go back. You can actually view it on YouTube, the meetings themselves, as well as where we had different resolutions put in there. And I also did, for the community of the whole, put in here as well, there was the presentation on the Affordable Housing Linkage Nexus Study. It was a great report, so that would be helpful as well for people. And I see a hand, I think it's George online. Do you have a, George, we can unmute you if you'd like to add anything or just notice that you're here. Hi, Councilor Scarpelli.
[Liz Mullane]: Oh, no problem. Thank you. All right. Any comments, suggestions, thoughts from anyone? Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. All right. Well, if we have no other thoughts, suggestions, we'll go ahead and get this put together with the previous month as well and send this out as soon as possible so that everyone is able to get that as well. Oh, sorry. Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Is there a second?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli. Oh, Justin, sorry. Clerk Siegel, can you call the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Chair Mullane? Yes. For approved, one absent, we will move forward with the newsletter. Thank you, everybody. All right. So the next piece that we wanted to talk about was the ward meetings. So we do have our next meeting is next week, Wednesday, September 23rd. This is going to be held at the Andrews Middle School cafeteria from 7 to 8. I'm excited that we'll also have the Zoom option available. Thank you to MCM for coming and helping host and setting that up. Hoping to continue to send this out to as many people as possible. Again, we had talked about this agenda a few times in some of these meetings to kind of figure out what made the most sense. And I think everyone wanted to make sure that People could feel comfortable to bring whatever area of interest or any concerns or comments that they wanted to bring that there wasn't anything prescribed that they would be able to come and share. And that was why we kept it as an open agenda. But as part of it, we do have a link that people could add in if there's anything specifically they want to talk about that we have a little heads up and we can bring that information with us. But truly, this is an opportunity for building community, get a better sense around each of the different wards, and allow for people to come and speak on Ward 1, in their neighborhood, or just in general questions, comments, things that they have or want to talk about around Medford. Any questions or thoughts, anything else to kind of share? Again, trying to send this out as far as we can. This is not where I excel in terms of the publicity side of it, so I appreciate everyone kind of putting that information out there. Any thoughts, comments or suggestions from any of the councillors this time for next week? This next week meeting is going to be hosted by myself and Councilor Tseng.
[Liz Mullane]: That is a great point, Councilor Scarpelli. I have not, I spoke to Dr. Galusi about it because I, unfortunately there is, it wasn't up on the Medford events calendar, but I know there is a back to school night that night for one of the schools. Unfortunately, even when I was looking at the calendar, when it was shared with me, there was like, it's hard to not find a night that might be open in September around back to school, but I think it's a great point. And I can certainly email Dr. Galussi too. She can send it out and see if we can get more people to attend either in person or virtually.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, thank you. Any other thoughts, suggestions, anything? What I will do is just also share, kind of, I put together just a couple of notes. to share with everyone. So just a reminder again for the newsletter schedule, just to go back. We have the September newsletter. Councilor Tseng is going to take that one due October 7th, which is our next meeting. The October newsletter Councilor Leming had offered to do. That's due November 4th. And then the November newsletter, Councilor Callahan offered to do, which is due December 8th. And then once we get next year's schedule up there, we can reach out and see if there's others who are able to do some of the newsletters. And then this is just a reminder about some of the ward meetings coming up. So obviously we have the one next week. I'll continue to push it out again. Really appreciate everyone's help to get this out as far and wide as possible. The next one is for Ward 5, and that's on Tuesday, October 20th from 7 to 8 at the Mistak. That's hosted by Councilors Callahan and Singh. And then Ward 2 is myself. and Councilor Scarpelli on Wednesday, December 2nd from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Roberts. So I will send to everyone the confirmation I have from each of the schools. The schools have been really wonderful in helping to put this together. I have also let MCM know about it, but I kind of put together this quick little checklist to follow up with the schools. I did a walkthrough just to see the space and what that would look like for next week's meeting, kind of see where some of the setup would be. But I would suggest following up and I will share with the Councilors, the contact people for that, but also to check in with MCM to get the Zoom link to make sure that's as part of the invitation as soon as possible. And they need a good amount of time to set up in each of the different spaces, so checking in with the schools to make sure that it works. And then to check in, so I will check in with the schools on Sunday to follow up. They asked me just to check and make sure everything's in line and there's no other questions that they might have. So just sharing that again for the ward meetings. And I will send this out, but it will be up to you. Councilors Callahan and Singh to do the advertising and the rest of that kind of checklist kind of stuff. Great. Any questions, thoughts, suggestions, anything about the ward meetings upcoming? We'll be working on trying to set up for next year, for the remainder of the ward meetings as well, just trying to get through this year. And again, we learn as each one goes through. So again, any suggestions, thoughts would be great. All right. So the last piece that we wanted to talk through is the noise ordinance. So I will read through the noise ordinance that was shared at a previous Medford City Council meeting, and then we can start talking through where we stand and what we're working and looking to do right there. So the resolution to update the noise ordinance, whereas the city of Medford's noise ordinance was last updated in 1974 and is lacking any recent updates to types of noise that can impact residents, and whereas residents of Medford have shared a variety of ways in which different noise levels have been impacting their daily lives, and whereas noise levels can also be considered a health hazard and it is left to the community to help regulate and advise on noise restrictions throughout their city and towns. And whereas the American Public Health Association has stated that loud noise causes hearing loss and titanitis and can contribute to non-auditory health problems, chronic noise, even at low levels, can cause annoyance, sleep disruption, and stress that contribute to cardiovascular disease. cerebrovascular disease, metabolic disturbances, exasperation of psychological disorders, and premature mortality. Noise interference with cognition and learning contributes to behavior problems and reduces achievement and productivity. The health of more than 100 million Americans is at risk, with children among the most vulnerable. And whereas the APHA policy statements below relates to this update by advocating for the following, reducing environmental stressors and their harmful effects on public health, rectifying the disproportionate burden of environmental hazards borne by disadvantaged populations, and encouraging actions to mitigate adverse effects, including noise as a stressor in future APHA policy statements, an update is recommended. Be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the Council's Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee review the current noise ordinance to update its language, function, type, and current usage. I may turn it over to Councilor Tseng to kind of talk through where we might stand right now on some of those updates.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you, Councilor Snider. What I can say, too, is in terms of some of the research, I did kind of deep dive. The other piece I would put into that as well from what you stated in those different blocks is also by type. And I think Somerville, from all of the different areas that I looked at, seemed to have the most in-depth and kind of spelled out of the different types or ways of which noise can infiltrate in different areas. So I would also add as part of that piece to add that in as well. Um I saw uh Councilor Scarpelli's hand up for a little bit. Let me um there we go. Councilor Scarpelli.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Councilor Scarpelli. Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Councilor Callahan. I think that's a great idea. The more community partners that we can have engaged and to share thoughts certainly and I do like the idea of getting a better sense of other types of complaints that come in. I know that we oftentimes see e-mails that come to us but I'm sure that there are other avenues and other things that we don't see that are coming in so we can certainly I can take it upon myself to reach out and see if I can get a sense and a listing of what that looks like. But, yes, would definitely love to have more community partnerships. And to Councilor Scarpelli's point as well, trying to figure out how we enforce that and what that looks like. I think that's another important piece that brought up. Thank you to Councilor Tseng, too, for kind of walking through all the different areas and research that went into it as well. There's no other comments from councilors, and I'll open it up to any public. Oops, sorry. Councilor Tseng.
[Liz Mullane]: That's great. Thank you. That's a good suggestion as well. Great. I will open up to public comment. I did have an email I was going to read, but it looks like the individual is online. So Robert Carney, I see your hand raised, so I will unmute you.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. All are great points to add in here as well. Any other public comments, any other suggestions people might have to share or thoughts, things that jumped out at them around the noise ordinance or anything that we've talked about too? OK well it sounds like we've kind of got some good pieces and starts on this in terms of research that's already been done in other areas. Some great comments from Councilors and from the public to kind of look and engage and figure out. kind of next steps, the community liaisons, figuring out maybe talking with the police department in terms of the enforcement, what that looks like. Certainly trying to get a survey out, get a better sense from our neighbors. to find out what is really kind of sticking out most of them. So I think, you know, keeping this in committee for us to continue having these conversations and to pull some of this information together, I think would be helpful. Any other Councilors have any thoughts, suggestions around that?
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. Four in the affirmative, one absent. We will keep this in committee and follow up following some of our board meetings. Is there any other motions on the table? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear that. Okay. Okay, so meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone, I appreciate it. All right.
[Liz Mullane]: Councilor Mullane you just wanted to reiterate this is an opportunity for residents within Ward 1 to be able to come and talk about things within their neighborhoods. Any kind of comments feedback suggestions that they have. It really is a chance to build community and to bring people together. So we're really hopeful. that people will come. We're trying to push the word out as best we can, so please, if you can share this as widely as you can to other members within, other residents within Ward 1, we appreciate it. It'll also be on Zoom. MCM will be there as well, so we'll be able to answer any questions that come in in the hybrid option. And it's at the Andrews Middle School cafeteria. So really hopeful to see everybody there. And I look forward to attending either this one or one of the ward meetings in the future. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I found them in order and motion to approve.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Yes, we talked through one portion of the summer newsletter. We'll be meeting again tomorrow at 6 p.m. to finish the rest of it, as well as to discuss even further the ward meetings. Again, a reminder, the Ward 1 meeting is Wednesday, September 23rd, the Andrews Middle School cafeteria We love anybody's help that wants to help us and join tomorrow's meeting as well. To talk through it, you can join on Zoom. And look forward to seeing more people there, and please spread it far and wide. And we'll have more of those ward meetings coming up to announce as well.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I just had one clarifying question. When it comes to these changes that are about the student purpose housing, it sounds like Councilor Scarpelli, you also spoke to the CD board as well, and they want to have a deeper look at this as well. I do remember that they had that special meeting. I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. as well that that's, they want to make sure that this is also kind of.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that clarification.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you Councilor Callahan for bringing this up. I think this is great and certainly as we're seeing this kind of ordinance is needed more and more in terms of protecting our trees. I think the only questions I just had were just around the tree fund itself. And I'm assuming this is something that would be managed by, or I guess I should ask, is this something that would be managed by the DPW, by the tree warden? Is this something that people could donate towards? Like how exactly would the tree fund work? What would be its purpose? And who kind of would oversee kind of management budget of it?
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, sure. So is this something that's like, is the oversight by DPW, is it oversight by the tree warden? Where would the budget or what would that look like in terms of what the needs might be for utilizing this type of fund? That is such a great question.
[Liz Mullane]: All of it, okay.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, it's a fundraising account. I'm assuming if people wanted to give towards it or something as well, or I think so.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, great. Terrific. Yeah, great. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Long time no talk, everyone.
[Liz Mullane]: Looks lovely.
[Liz Mullane]: All right.
[Liz Mullane]: All on an island. All right. I think we're officially good to go then, right?
[Liz Mullane]: All right. So, call to order the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee for August 5th. Clerk, do you mind calling the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Present.
[Liz Mullane]: Present. For present, one absent, we can get started. All right, so I am just going to share my screen. I realized that the newsletter, it was on the agenda for June. So I wanted to make sure we reviewed it here quickly and see if there's anything. I know I did email this out ahead of time. But so starting first with the newsletter, I'll go through this quickly, but at the same time, what I would love to have any help with is I wanted to go through and in the Word document itself to make my life easier. I have already pre-linked all of the different meetings and the notes and everything back to everything back on the website. The only things that I was having a little trouble and I just wanted to make sure were accurate was the wording for the standard compensation ordinance that was moved for third reading. I just want to make sure I'm linking back to the right one. So I don't know if there's another spot on the website to be able to link back to it or to go back to one of the last times it was up, because I can't seem to find whatever is the final one. I don't know if anyone knows where that might be. And the same with the personnel ordinance. Those were the two that I, from the June 9th meeting, that I just couldn't find exactly how to link it back. So I'll keep looking, but if anyone here has any idea, I would welcome any thoughts.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, the, the comments. Oh, sorry, Matt. Go ahead.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, I'll go back and see the most recent one if the meeting minute notes are not linkable up there. So I'll do that for those first two.
[Liz Mullane]: And the other one was the... The standard compensation. Yeah.
[Liz Mullane]: Awesome. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Um, okay. So then for the rest of it, I was able to find everything to relink it. or link it back to the website or to the YouTube videos, to any of the different meetings. And tried to kind of condense it a little bit to make it hopefully easier for people to read through it. So we did both of the general meetings up front. I tried to highlight any of the free cash, any of the different appropriations at the top so that it was kind of easy for people to go through. And linked any of the different types of community preservation committee, any of those appropriation requests, they're all linked back with what was approved. And then I talked about the fiscal year 27 budget that was in that final June meeting and kind of where we landed with putting that all together and where some of the votes landed on that as well. After that, I just went into each of the different committee meetings. For this, I linked all of the awards, all of these back to the events calendar because all of the meetings are on the Medford events calendar listed so far. And obviously any of the video meetings are linked in here as well. For the committee of the whole, I went through and added again the different budgets, the fiscal year 27 budget and any change that happened and occurred from fiscal year 26 to now. So it'd be easy to see. The Medford Public Schools one is more comprehensive. And so I didn't think I'd really do it much justice if I tried to pull a lot of things out. So I ended up linking it back to both the budget presentation and more information about the vote that was taken by the school committee with how that ended up getting budgeted and the change. And then at the very end of it, one of the things that I thought would be helpful in here, I spoke with their communications team and DPW to try to link back to any streets or sidewalks that had been most recently paved. just to kind of be able to demonstrate things that are happening throughout the city as well. So this actually links to a Facebook post that they posted that lists all the different streets that had been recently updated or sidewalks or potholes repaired. So it was approximately 125 tons over 23 streets. And so I linked that as well for people to be able to look at. And that is it on the newsletter. I didn't hear any feedback from people, so I wasn't sure if anyone had any questions on it or anything I can add. Yes, Matthew.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. I can do that. Um, great. Okay. Thanks everybody. So I will make those edits and get that out. Um, ASAP to the newsletter, um, list.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I appreciate it.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you guys. Well, you say that now, because now I'm going to share the, um, agenda, which is, Newsletter sign up. Um, so hoping that, um... I'm feeling kind of sick.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, no, sure. That's where everyone, like, wants to leave. Um, but trying to, uh, get some signups for, um, at least the rest of the calendar year. I have it through November, but I will, um, knowing that there's only going to be a couple people on for tonight, I will send it back out to see if we can get it, um, filled. with other Councilors, but I figured I'd finish doing the summer one, so I'm gonna put July and August together. I'm tentatively looking at middle of September for this next meeting again, which is to be able to go through this. And those dates in here are also tentative right now, due dates around getting the newsletter done. So people wouldn't mind. Councilor Leming?
[Liz Mullane]: Councilor Lemme, which one then if you, if Councilor Callahan's doing the 8th, the November one, do you, September or October? December 8th, yeah.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, no, yes, I'm sorry. Councilor Callahan would do November, the month of November.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. And then Justin, we'll put you for September. Thank you very much. And then I'll reach out to the other Councilors to get additional dates signed up. So thank you. Okay, so then really what I wanted to just go through and talk about and provide an update a little more in depth is the neighborhood ward meeting. So as I mentioned last night, we have through the rest of the year assigned and locations picked. and confirmed for each of the different wards. I did speak with Kevin at MCM. The only issue right now is I had booked it starting at 6.30, and they need an earlier setup time for each of the different meetings, so I'm trying to figure that out with the schools right now. but we should have no problem with doing hybrid. He and I talked through it, shouldn't be an issue with it. We talked through the run of the meetings and felt it'd probably be easier in terms of people lining up or wanting to ask questions to do it with a microphone stand instead of trying to have people run around passing out microphones, just giving staffing and what they have there. The only thing that was mentioned was needing someone to manage Zoom. And some of the questions, I thought personally that we would be able to split it between the Councilors. So while one Councilor might be handling one aspect, the other could look at Zoom. But unless you think we should try to see if someone would help volunteer at each of the ward meetings to help with the Zoom or to any other suggestions that you might have. But it doesn't have to be cited today, but Councilor Tseng and I are the first ones up in the middle of September. Any thoughts before then would be appreciated.
[Liz Mullane]: I know who could be there and like, that is a fair point. The only other thing that we did talk about in previous meetings was the agenda, and we basically kind of landed on not really having a set agenda to have it be more open-ended. I know we've had a couple of meetings and months to kind of think about that. I just wanted to make sure that sounded correct to everyone still, or to still have maybe a couple of items in our back pocket to get conversation flowing. Welcome any thoughts on that.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. That works for everyone. That's fine with me too. Um, the biggest piece really is talking about like the communication and outrage. So in previous discussions, we talked about having at least one month notice. Um, so we're definitely ahead of that, at least four of the next three meetings to getting that in front of people. Um, we talked about whomever is the city councilors hosting the ward meetings, they would take the lead on advertising. So councilor Singh and I would be first up for September and then councilor Callahan and Singh would be up for, um, October and then myself and Councilor Scarpelli would be up for December. And I did December just because with the holidays and stuff in November and our other meetings, it just seemed a little tight. So I just want to make sure I say that again. So Councilor Tseng, you and I should probably connect after this just to talk more about that. I did reach out to the communications department to talk through what and how they'd be able to send out notifications about it. So my hope is to get a meeting scheduled this week or early next to kind of understand the different ways the city can help us kind of communicate. Like I said, we're already on the events calendar for the city. Thinking that we do the City of Medford channels and see if they'd be open to the text, phone call, newsletter, any social media. Obviously, I'd start advertising them, or all of us can start advertising them more within the newsletter. Any other places that we might have on the website, maybe continuously bringing up at the City Council meetings. I can reach out to the different publications just to at least get those out, those first three dates out to people, or if they'll only do it one at a time, but I have the patch, Gotta Know Medford, the Tufts Daily, Medford Bites, I don't know, Medford Happenings, at least sending it to those people that manage those things to kind of help pass that out. I did get some suggestions from different residents about, and I think one was mentioned at the meeting last night as well, about putting out more paper flyers. I don't know where people think about that too for certain areas, but I can also see, I don't know if we have a budget for that or anything to be able to print and put those things out, but would welcome locations or any other suggestions of outreach for the meetings.
[Liz Mullane]: I think it was mentioned for the Ward 5 meeting. I think they mentioned that. And then another resident mentioned to me after the meeting, too, about being able to, for that ward, that that would probably be a good way to advertise more around the meeting. Um, I can follow up and see if there's more suggestions as to location of where within.
[Liz Mullane]: Any other thoughts around communication strategy?
[Liz Mullane]: No, that's a good idea. we can maybe each one start brainstorming lists of being able to send it out to different groups. I did hear from Milva from Neighborhood Ambassadors, so I will send information out to them to send out to their lists as well. And if we can think of any other ways to kind of, any other people that we think would be able to kind of put it out through different lists, I think that would be helpful too. Great. So, I'm counseling you and I can kind of connect later on and just kind of put together more of a plan and then I'm sure as we go through it if we see different strategies have worked we can share it with the other Councilors to.
[Liz Mullane]: And then next steps for any, I don't know if there is any, if we're gonna print things or if there's any budget for that as well, if we're printing any of these flyers, I don't quite know how that works. I can get started on looking at some of the next year's meetings, but if anyone would like to join me in helping to schedule those, I'd welcome it.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah. I can reach out to you afterwards and we can set that up. That'd be great. Awesome. And then the last thing is just, I know last night we talked about the noise ordinance, since it didn't obviously make it onto the agenda for this meeting, it wasn't, it didn't give enough notice for other people to be able to actually start talking about it, but I wanna mention it, that we'll have it, and perhaps some ideas and thoughts on how to address it at our next meeting, which will hopefully be that mid-September timeline.
[Liz Mullane]: Awesome. Great. So I think that was it for me. I just wanted to run through those neighborhood ward meetings and kind of just share where we are with that in terms of setup, what that looks like. And if anything doesn't sound or anything else you think should be happening at those meetings, let me know now because the first one, is only like a week between our next meeting, next committee meeting. So I just wanna make sure we were ahead of it and I gotten in out in enough time in front of people. All right, so that's it. No other questions, comments? All right, is there a motion? Motion to adjourn. Thank you. It looks like Councilor Tseng and seconded by Councilor Callahan. Clerk, do you mind calling the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. Four in the affirmative, one absent. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone for participating this evening.
[Liz Mullane]: Bye.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Yes, you know, what was really interesting was the number of emails that I have been receiving, I'm sure others have received, about different types of noise complaints and different ways that they've been impacting residents. And especially one particular resident got very in-depth about the health hazards and the things that we should really be looking at. So after looking at our own noise ordinance, which really just lists two different types, operation of plant or machinery and performance of certain work and then singing and music, sound devices or machines. They just really lacked a lot of different things that are happening right now that residents have reached out and had comments and wanted to make sure that we were looking to address. So some of the things that we're hoping to go through and I think part of the reason why getting it moved to the committee is that we do want to have public input. We do want to have different residents reach out and be able to suggest other things that we might not be able to or may have missed as we go through this process. I personally have been researching different noise ordinances from Cambridge and Somerville and just right off the bat there was just all different types of definitions that are, lacking from what we currently have in Medford, not only between that, between residential and commercial and things that are measurable versus non-measurable when it comes to noise impact. So given that and given a lot of the information I was reading about the health impact felt like it was necessary to take a real look at this, really review some of the comments that have come in from residents, hoping that more will join us and have this conversation just to make sure that we're addressing kind of what some of the bigger complaints are people are seeing and be able to get something put in place that is also working with the city in terms of being enforceable as well. So, more to come, we just want to start having the conversation, get it out to people to recognize that we want to start working on this and really welcome any other types of collaboration as well.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. So what I wanted to do is just get this out in front of people as soon as possible. And this is the first of three scheduled ward meetings through the fall of 2026. I'm trying to get them obviously through this fall and then I will try to get the rest of them scheduled shortly so we have the full run of it. But essentially this is an opportunity. It was something that was brought up You know, a while ago to try to get out and go to each of the different wards, to have conversations with residents, obviously to hear, you know, things that are pressing for them in their ward, but obviously if there are other things in general they want to speak to us about. We want to be able to have an open conversation. We definitely wanted to make sure that it was as accessible as possible to people, so I did also speak to make sure that it's going to be hybrid, so we will have availability there for each of the different meetings for people to join via Zoom or in person. We scheduled the first one for Wednesday, September 23rd. And again, I tried to look and make sure that there wasn't anything at the time currently scheduled on the events calendar, so we weren't trying to come up against any other different meetings that are happening. But the first one, Wednesday, September 23rd, 7 to 8, the Andrews Cafeteria, that's Ward 1. It'll be hybrid. We're going to have two Councilors that will be hosting the meeting, and those Councilors will also be in charge of really pushing on the communication side. So that first one is Councilor Tseng and myself. Then on Tuesday, October 20th, again from 7 to 8, at the Missituk, it's Ward 5, and that will be hosted by Councilor Callahan and Singh. And then Wednesday, December 2nd at the Roberts will be Ward 2, and that will be with myself and Councilor Scarpelli. Again, really hoping people will come out and join us, wanna continue having these conversations. I've reached out to the city's communications team as well to see other ways that we can push this information out. Certainly gonna do everything that we can to get this in front of people, which is why I wanted to at least start it now. to have that conversation. It's on the events calendar. We will have our next committee meeting tomorrow at 6 p.m. via Zoom. So if you'd like to join, if you have any suggestions, any thoughts, any other ways that we can put out communication as much as we can. Please feel free to do that or to shoot me an email. I know some people have already given me some nice suggestions so we'll continuously try to keep pushing this out to get as many people there as possible. So that's it through the fall and then I will come back to you all within the next month for the rest of the ward meetings through the next year. And that is it.
[Liz Mullane]: I thank you and thanks everyone for the suggestions as well. I did when I spoke with Kevin Harrington from the Medford community media I do believe it'll be recorded as well. So thank you for that question. I just wanted to make sure he and I spoke already. So I think we should be all set with that too. But thank you for that.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. So I just want to say I appreciate all of the work that has been put into this ordinance. You know before I've even been on the council I know there's a lot of time and effort that went into it. I will say that when the chamber members did reach out, I responded to all of them and offered up meetings and met with two of them that responded and said they would like to meet. We talked through a lot of these different proposed amendments in here. To me, honestly, it felt like good business in terms of some of the areas that they were mentioning and things that wouldn't be detrimental on the I mean, especially when they were talking about how long it takes in terms of filling a vacancy with a fine piece of it and extending that to the six months, I felt like that was a reasonable request of trying to get businesses in. And I hear you about not trying, Vice President Lazzaro, about, you know, if there's two different businesses coming in. I do feel that we want to be able to provide all of our businesses with the ability to be successful, and I felt like some of these amendments that were put in here that Councilor Tseng proposed really do help that. And certainly being able to clarify the waiver process, I did think that was so confusing to go back to the person that rejected you to then have that same conversation, so I'm glad that that came through. And I will also say that I'm in favor of doing the early registration incentive because, again, you know, there are many fines that we have in here, and it would also be good to provide incentives in order for businesses and vacant storefronts to come to us early so that we can, or excuse me, we the city can really be there to help move the needle on it. You know, I feel like being able to have something that's yes, we have the fines, they're still in there, they're still going to be hopefully followed. And the incentive also provides on the reverse side to be able to benefit, you know, good behavior and partnerships. with other storefronts and other businesses. So for me, I appreciate the work and time went into it and I would be in favor of moving forward with all of the amendments that have been presented.
[Liz Mullane]: The only thing that I just want to kind of clarify within that is that you know the chamber members that we spoke to are also members and people that are active that we can get a hold of. There's a lot of these vacant storefronts that we can't always get a hold of those people. I think being able to incentivize and be able to acknowledge those people in Medford that are trying their best, I don't think anyone wants to sit especially if they're a small business owner with or have land that want to keep a vacant storefront open for any longer extended period of time at all, for sure, unless there's some other circumstances as to why they're able to do that. I think the fees As proposed in the amendment seem reasonable, and I think by providing an incentive to have people within Medford be proactive about how they are handling their storefront vacancies is a very easy, simple thing to help move the needle on getting some of this stuff done. I'll leave it at that.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you, Councilor Callahan for bringing this up. I think this is great and certainly as we're seeing this kind of ordinance is needed more and more in terms of protecting our trees. I think the only questions I just had were just around the tree fund itself and I'm assuming this is something that would be managed by, or I guess I should ask, is this something that would be managed by the DPW, by the tree warden? Is this something that people could donate towards? Like how exactly would the tree fund work? What would be its purpose and who kind of would oversee kind of management budget of it?
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, sure. So is this something that's like, is the oversight by DPW, is it oversight by the tree warden? Where would the budget or what would that look like in terms of what the needs might be for utilizing this type of fund?
[Liz Mullane]: All of it and then, okay.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. And it's a fundraising account, I'm assuming, if people wanted to give towards it or something as well or?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Great. Terrific. Great. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you, Director Crowley. Just a quick question. In terms of the executive search firm, have you already identified a couple of firms you're looking at? Can you just walk us through what that process looks like, what you're looking for in terms of that executive search and recruitment firm? I see you already have, obviously, the 35,000, so it seems like you may have a ballpark of what you're looking for in terms of the full range of services they're going to be providing you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I apologize. I apologize to everyone. It is rookie move. It is rookie move. I have to understand this better.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Thank you. Director Dickinson, I'm, you know, again, I don't want to belabor all this. I know that I have to agree with some of my other councilors here. We're seeing all of these transfers coming through and not having full explanations on them. difficult especially since you know some of it when it comes around salaries and we had all the discussions even with librarians like all of this just makes it very difficult. I guess if you could just explain to me I think it was sort of asked earlier but so I did a quick calculation we're talking about a little bit over 2 million in transfers on a 217 million dollar budget. Can you just explain to me how us not passing these deficits will then somehow torpedo the remainder of a $217 million budget. I guess I'm just not understanding that piece of it, that you'd have to redo the whole thing again.
[Liz Mullane]: Could we do the BA3 scenario again? Do you mind just doing the last one again, the shadow studies one more time on the last section? Yes, please. Thank you. Sorry.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. And again, I appreciate all of the conversations and feedback that we've heard. I mean, we've been going through this for a while now and we've heard and I've received, you know, a lot of positive feedback as well of seeing some of the zoning come through. Certainly, having gone through all of the budgets, also recognizing that this is another avenue for us to really look and help to generate for services that are very much needed throughout Medford. I would probably go between option B or option C. I can see, I feel maybe I'm leaning more towards option C, the 3 plus 1, 4 plus 1 on the corners. but again, um, you know, uh, not hard and fast, but I feel like that might be the best option given some of the information that we've seen tonight. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Emily, can you tell me what is the current zoning for this area too?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Just quickly, in option C, the 6 plus 2, you said that's 92 feet, and right now it's 85 feet, so we're just talking a little bit of difference, but more benefit with the added incentive. Is that what I'm hearing? Sorry.
[Liz Mullane]: Got it. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I felt like the Community Development Board had put together a pretty robust plan on it in the discussion of what they pulled together. So I don't know what more else that would need to be discussed because it sounded like you already had put a lot of thought and effort into it. So unless I'm missing something, I don't know. That's what it sounded like to me when Sean ran through it.
[Liz Mullane]: Sorry, I keep jumping ahead. No, that's great. Sorry. I guess I just wanted to ask, I kind of did it on the side here to George, but Councilor Scarpelli, but even if we close public, quote unquote public hearing, people can still send in comments and then we can still read through and see and be able to get that information as well. Is that, I'm just, people can still send stuff in to us as well.
[Liz Mullane]: I mean, people can send stuff in, but it's closed as a public.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay.
[Liz Mullane]: All right. Fair enough. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes, this is an opportunity to review the newsletter, and we also selected dates for the neighborhood board meetings through the rest of the calendar year. So looking to host Ward 1 on Tuesday, September 22nd at the Andrews, Ward 5, Tuesday, October 20th at the Missituk, and Ward 2, Tuesday, December 2nd at the Roberts. All of them have been confirmed and booked through the school as well. And then at the next meeting, we'll be able to do the rest of 2027 and talk through a strategy for communication to get as many people as possible to come and speak with us and just share things that are happening within each of their wards.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Thank you also for coming here tonight and talking through it. I do kind of want to echo what both Councilors Scarpelli and Councilor Callahan said. I think even hearing you talk through the process of what you started doing in February and laying that out was helpful for, this is a new piece for me as well. So I think certainly at the next Committee of the Whole if it's possible just to lay that out as well. the diagrams as well, get a better sense of what exactly we're talking about. I think that will help us, help the public understand and just, you know, moving forward be able to help us make some better and quicker decisions on it moving forward. But yeah, just even have the outline of the process timeline before and then hopefully even afterwards what happens too just so that we kind of know full circle. I think that would be very helpful. So, thank you. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you for putting this together. I know that I think all of us on the City Council, I guess I should say for myself, have received a lot of feedback about how critical and important it is to provide this type of funding. Having worked in non-profit, I also know how difficult it is especially to get funding when it comes to staff support outside of just even programmatics and knowing this could go to it. I just definitely wanted to confirm because I see that there is that 100,000 budget amendment that we still are unsure of whether that is and that I just wanted to triple check that yes, if that doesn't come through, we'll be able to have another conversation to provide that bridge funding at least for this year. to ensure that they have everything they need in order to operate for the next fiscal year.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you for bringing this. I just had a couple of quick questions. Who is actually going to be doing the capital needs assessment? Do you know what firm is going to be doing that or who's going to be running it? We're still deciding on that. You're still deciding. Do you know like How are you going to come to that decision? Are you putting out bids or what does that look like right now?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. And I guess who's going to be providing? Is it you working directly with them, the vendor, with the requirements and timeline and all the needs that they have around that facility, around the building?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I agree. President Bears and Vice President Lazzaro, I mean, it's $112,000 that we're talking about, and these are critical pieces that we've had these conversations with. I am not going to vote down, especially when I've spoken to various members of the library around this increase for their funding. I'm hopeful, maybe naive, but hopeful that because we've gone through all of this process and we have said yes to these things, that this can be still approved regardless of what happens next. But for, again, $112,000 that we're having, I'm really hopeful that we're able to approve this and get this money funded.
[Liz Mullane]: First, I appreciate both Councilor Scarpelli and Councilor Tseng for bringing up these two different options. We've been having this conversation for so long about trying to find information around the law budget. Um, I, I, I think what makes me the most nervous is that I don't want to leave departments, um, feeling unstable, but also I get where, uh, Councilor Scarpelli is coming from on the 112th budget, and at some point, um, You know, at what point do we finally say, I don't know, enough is enough, and get these types of answers? I guess my question would be, if, if Councilor Tseng's amendments to this go through and the two months, you know, pass by and we still don't have that information, what's, what does the council do then? What does that look like? I'm, again, being kind of new to this process, I'm not quite sure how you handle that. Is it then it jumps into, do we look back to the 112th? I just don't know what the end result is one way or the other and would appreciate any feedback or thoughts that people could share on it.
[Liz Mullane]: So, I would also echo what everyone has said, that this is, you know, a very kind of uncomfortable format to be doing this and having these discussions. Again, I think both candidates bring very unique kind of perspectives and abilities to the same role. I think what I, in terms of my vote and what I was looking for and listening to as part of this process, the things that really stood out to me is kind of that attention to detail, organizational, you know, focus, because I do think a lot of that is important within this position. And someone who was able to demonstrate and give some examples when it comes to how they would move the office forward around technology and really embracing that and how we might be able to be able to catch up on some of these areas and issues that have been brought up in the past. And I think that in listening to both candidates, I was listening for exact examples and where they have demonstrated making an impact in some of those, and I think one of the candidates really did kind of lean into that more. And I like to hear exact examples where someone has done this in the past and and utilize that within different types of systems and be able to navigate that successfully. Again, both bring very unique, wonderful skill sets to it, but I think when I make my decision as well, that's what I'm leaning towards, the person that really provided more of those direct examples.
[Liz Mullane]: Laurel Siegel.
[Liz Mullane]: Laurel Siegel.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee, June 16th. Clerk, can you please call the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: I'm present. Three present, two absent. We can get started. Thank you everyone. First we're going to start with the newsletter. Again the resolution to publish the City Council newsletter be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee shall have the authority to draft and approve a regular newsletter summarizing the activities of the City Council and can vote to publish a newsletter by whatever mechanism is available without referring the draft newsletter to a regular council meeting for a vote. If you have further resolve, this paper be referred to the resident services and public engagement committee as a standing agenda item. So with that, let me share my screen. All right, so this is the May newsletter and basically the first part of it up here just kind of talking about what a busy month that it's been and really focusing on the budget. Just a couple of things that I changed around a little bit here. Because of all the Committee of the Whole meetings had the budget information, it was such a long list. I decided to move it towards the end and be able to highlight all of the different conversations we had for each of the different budgets. Again, I did the same thing where I gave what the fiscal year 26 budget was, and then for fiscal year, excuse me, I gave what the fiscal year 27 budget was. and then highlighted if it was an increase or decrease from fiscal year 26. And some of the pieces on it too, I know we had some adjustments and this is a question to the Councilors. I didn't, I went and stayed with the budget numbers that were presented within the meeting even though we knew some may come back to us and be changed. For example, we knew there was an error within the library budget. So I did make a note of it in here saying that the library budget would be updated because there was a calculation error in one of the pieces of it. But if there's a big thought that I should go and try to find the new library budget and put it in there, I was just trying to be honest to the meetings that we had. The other piece I did, I found it confusing to the way that the budgets came to us between the departments and the committee and commissions. So I separated those out as well, so it doesn't follow exactly from the agendas as you were looking at the different budget lines. But I thought it was helpful just to be able to see which were committee commission lines and which were actual departments funding for the city. And then the last thing I'll say, you know, please, and if people have some suggestions or edits to it as you're going through it, the only other thing I did do is I had a nice conversation today with Steve and the communications team from the mayor. You know, one of the things for resident services I thought might be helpful moving forward is as we know that there are certain new streets that have been paved or things that are specific to be of interest to residents, to put it maybe at the end and just do a quick hits of highlights just so that people can see some of the other things that are happening. I've gotten some comments in the past about wanting to know where we might be on some of those projects. Certainly, I know that the city is communicating in a bunch of different ways and I thought it would just be helpful to add it on here as well. So that's the pieces to the newsletter. I don't know if anything stands out. So you'll see right here, I put the library department as presented. However, it was inaccurate at the time and it needed to be updated and final was produced at a later date. So if you think it's important, I can go back in and change it to whatever the real, the new numbers were that were emailed to us. But again, I just wanted to be consistent to the actual agendas that we had. Any thoughts, suggestions? Thank you. Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Terrific. Unless there are any other thoughts, suggestions, edits, or if people want to send me a message afterwards, just let me know. Otherwise, should we vote to approve it? Clerk, do you mind calling the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Is there a second? Second. Great. Clerk, do you mind calling the roll? Absolutely.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. That's three affirmative, two out. We will move forward. Great, thank you. All right. We've been talking about the ward meetings and the resolution to schedule neighborhood ward meetings that's hosted by the City Council. Be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the Council's Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee discuss a plan to schedule neighborhood ward meetings hosted by the City Council in 2026 and 2027. So hearing what everyone said at the last meeting, I went ahead and reached out to Rob O'Leary at the schools to talk through, A, to describe what we were looking to do, but then to also tried to start scheduling some of this so we could have it in advance. He was already saying that things at the schools have already started booking up into the winter. So given the suggestions for some of the ward meetings to be held at the schools, I scheduled out or sent over dates to Mr. O'Leary for September, October, and November, December for each of the different schools. The dates that I have on hold that are highlighted here are open. I've sent them over to him. He has said those are fine. And what I did was I compared, I looked for dates that were, since the city council dates for the fall had already been posted, I made sure they didn't fall on those. I double checked any of the Any dates that would have been against any holidays, anything else that looked like it might be closed for the schools. So these dates seemed to be ones that would work. I was basically holding the time from anywhere from 6.30 to 8.30, not saying that we were going to use that whole time, but just so that we had it booked. And these dates I ran by Mr. O'Leary. He said these work. I just have to get back to him and confirm. So I just started with the, you know, through the end of the calendar year and hoping that it might work for Councilors to take a look now so we can at least hold them so we don't lose any of these dates. And we can then talk about how best to publicize these different meetings. So I know Councilor Tseng isn't on right now. I check these dates all work for me. So I'll run them by him and see if there's any dates in particular that work. And yes hold Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, no, I didn't go any further into the next calendar year. I started with these and then would go further after that. Good. Thanks. Great. Oh, great. And Councilor Scarpelli, it would be you and I as a dynamic duo for Ward 2. I did November and December, because November was so tough with holidays and trying to make sure it might work. Any dates in particular that would work or would not work for you?
[Liz Mullane]: Awesome. Terrific. Great. And then, Councilor Tseng, all of these dates, so sorry to give you kind of a recap. I reached out to the schools and confirmed that these dates were open and available. And on hold, we just have to get back and let them know which one we want. This is booked from 6.30 to 8.30 where we hold the ward meeting. I've been told that there's hybrid ability as well. And I checked them against the city council as well as any other potential holidays during those dates. So if there's any date that sticks out to you that does or doesn't work for September, for Ward 1, the Andrews, let me know.
[Liz Mullane]: He's very low. I'm sorry, I couldn't really hear that, but I can follow up with you afterwards.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Okay, so I'll go ahead and send over, I'll send each one of you an email, just have the final dates confirmed, and then I will send it over so that we have it booked, and then at our next meetings we can kind of start talking about how best to start getting the word out, and then I will finish scheduling out for 2027. I just wanted to get us through the fall.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. That is all I had for the meeting today for those two, unless there's anything else people have or want to discuss at this time. No? All right. Is there a motion?
[Liz Mullane]: Is there a second? Great. Clerk, do you mind calling the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. Four in the affirmative, one absent. We are good to go. We are adjourned. Thanks, everyone.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes, I wanted to kind of just follow up on the doggie daycare piece. I, as well, own two dogs and take them to doggie daycare places that are outside of Medford because we don't have one. I know that would be a lucrative place to have, be able to have it closer within Medford. Of course, if it's a sticking point, I'm not going to stop it. I understand with noise, et cetera, with parking. I was really, you know, hoping that we can at least keep it somewhere or at least know somewhere it can be potentially thought of in Medford would be great because I think we've kind of excluded it in other places as well. So that's all I would say. And then I think on the neighborhood medical office, if that's, again, needed a special permit, I didn't have any problems with it. Thanks.
[Liz Mullane]: All right. Thank you, Councilor Leming. I see Councilor Zero, did you want to say a few words?
[Liz Mullane]: Um, councilor Leming, did you, you still have your hand up?
[Liz Mullane]: If you want to proceed, why don't we proceed with that? Great.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, so would it make sense, I know normally we usually have the city council go first asking questions, but I know that we've also kind of reviewed this and had gotten back to some of these different pieces. So maybe as we're in a little bit of this interim period, why don't we start first with us turning over the community development board and chair Carr and have the community board start asking those first questions.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Chair Carr.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, it might be helpful to see those a little bit more clearly when people are asking questions.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Councilor Leming?
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, just quickly on the recap piece of it too. Emily, will you be able to share those slides to all of us as well that you went through so we're able to see that? Because I think that would be helpful. I know when we were all looking at it, it was a lot of information to kind of take in. And there were some immediate ones that you said I think we all were in agreeance with from some of the past recommendations. And I know Dina had a couple of suggestions and things too. Is that possible to do that full kind of recap so that everyone's kind of on the same page of where those different pieces came together?
[Liz Mullane]: Not right now. Not right now.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, if there's an email recap, just to make sure that we're all on the same page from the different conversations.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
[Liz Mullane]: You know I'm trying to take in all this information and obviously getting this study about where all of these different positions fit in. I agree with Councilor Leming. The fact that we're talking about them all being in the same CAF level, and then there's different steps, but no one's actually identified what step each one of them are actually seated in within these different levels. I just, I can't see how we're saying that we're being equitable by now not allowing someone who we've just identified in the same category that we don't want to approve that when we have the study that says that he that this person's position should be in that same D category. So I don't know if Director Crowley if you can address that at all but I just don't understand. It seems like we are creating inequity if we don't have them all in here at this point in time. And I don't know if it's been talked through with any lawyers or anything about this too because I just feel like we're setting ourselves up if we're literally looking at the files here and then saying that we're going to leave one out over equity issues.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng for bringing this to everyone's attention as well and pointing this out. I think it's really important that We try to get this spread as far and wide as we can so that people are able to weigh in on it, especially since it will be impactful for so many people to understand and be able to weigh in on. Is it something that we might be able to also put in within the newsletter, be able to share that as well as like another opportunity within that grouping to be able to share this information? I know that won't be in time for this meeting on Monday. support Councilor Scarpelli's suggestion of trying to get some sort of messaging out in advance, but would also like to see if we can include it within some of the avenues we have as well.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Just a quick question. Just high level, what is the communication strategy or how are we letting these residents know when this is impacting them?
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, I just, I want to just follow up again. I'm, I'm also in favor of tabling, especially when it comes to the Medford Family Network. I mean, we're talking about people's jobs and being able to continue a, a huge resource that I would like to see definitely outlined within the budget. I know so many people rely on the services. I know a lot of people have been waiting. We've been celebrating doing all these activities. And I, to not see it in here or to have as, as we've mentioned this email. I wouldn't feel comfortable moving forward with it until I actually saw it outlined in here and be able to say to residents, yes, it's in here. We have the funding. It's definitely noted. And people that are relying on these services, relying on the jobs, have something to look to as well.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Thank you guys so much for the presentation and walking us through. It was really helpful to kind of see the wide breadth of work that you do. I was curious, just one of the things as we look at funding and need and trying to grow different programs. One of the things I always like to kind of get a better sense of is kind of the capacity and what you guys are really looking for when you look at some of these grants. So I know that you started showing us the funding overview and trends with some of the grant applications that came in. You said 90 applications in 2026. Have you seen that increase in the past three years? Is that going up exponentially? How many people are applying year over year? Are they the same people? Are you getting more new people? What does that look like in terms of growth and how we might be able to help address that moving forward? Sure.
[Liz Mullane]: No, that's helpful. I mean, so we do the newsletter that goes out. And one of the things that we're trying to do is, you know, aid and obviously try to get in front of more people, but then also, you know, potentially highlight different areas. So this would be a good way to kind of collaborate to figure out if there's ways that we could send out more information about some of the work or opportunities for people to engage. And I guess my last question to you about the grants, I know this is typically capped at 5,000. What would you say is kind of like the average grant that you're able to give out?
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you for all of your work.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. And thank you again for all of the different diagrams and ways of breaking this down to kind of see some of the changes in here. One of the questions I had was, I know you showed it on the screen as well, but I think I was the one a couple of meetings back that brought back up the drive-through for the pharmacy. I think, you know, some of the comments about allowing for seniors to have access to it, that it's easier for them to not have to get out of the car, et cetera. to be able to have that drive-through. I could only, I was trying to see if I, I didn't think I saw it within the pack. I was trying to read it quickly, but in terms of the feasibility that you're seeing in that area, do you mind just kind of sharing again, like, your thoughts on it or what else needs to be done to see how much of a traffic, because I'm not trying, certainly not trying to create more traffic, but I do hear the need of people aren't not able to, you know, get out of their car and utilizing the drive-through. I just wanted to see if you could just share a little bit more feedback on that.
[Liz Mullane]: OK. Thank you. I appreciate it. I just wanted to I appreciate you taking the time to look through those different aspects of it. And I guess in terms of how you decide or how you figure out what kind of impact that would be traffic wise is it just what you know or have seen in other areas or how exactly do you determine if having a drive through like that would impact that area as much.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, thank you, I appreciate it.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, I do think there was a lot of great comments and a lot of great feedback that came through tonight. And it's kind of hard to be able to, off the cuff, be able to know what's the best next step. So it would be nice to be able to digest it. But I do also agree, I almost feel like all of us need kind of a repeat of what it was that all the different pieces that were brought up tonight, just to kind of reframe and understand moving forward. But it would be helpful to be able to take a little bit more time to look through. That was the first time I'd seen, you know, Chair Carr's presentation, so it's like, it's hard to, you know, off the top be able to know exactly what to say or feedback on, until I can actually really look at it in comparison.
[Liz Mullane]: No, yeah, no, and truly, not a judgment at all, at all. I just, I want to be thoughtful in it, and I just feel like I'd be a little bit, a little bit rushed, that's all.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you Mayor for going through that listing of different items to discuss today. One of the areas I was trying to figure out and I apologize as I'm first time going through the budget process but I have been getting a lot of questions about the Medford Family Network and I was wondering where within the different budgets it might lie or rest or kind of where we might stand in that as I know we're kind of coming up to kind of finalizing the budget and looking at the final budget this year.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. No, and I appreciate it. I know there's a, there's a gap we're trying to fill. So I guess between this next week, we'll have a better understanding of where we might be at least to close the gap for this year. Is that what I'm hearing within this next week or so before? Yes.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, thank you so much for your presentation and kind of demonstrating, especially where you're digging in to kind of find areas to address where services might be charged more than other places do. It was something that you said about, you know, utilizing your staff members. Obviously, as a revenue driving demonstrated increase over the past two years. You mentioned, was there one position you said that you haven't filled yet, but you haven't, you're kind of waiting to see if there was more coming out of some of the other
[Liz Mullane]: Okay.
[Liz Mullane]: No, that makes sense. I guess what I was trying to allude to and oftentimes with the teams that I work with too is kind of addressing where would you, if you could put extra staff, where would you see more of the uptake on the revenue side as you're seeing in, you know, some of the increases. So I was just curious if there was kind of that pressure point that you might be able to push on if there was other staff or other staff members within your team where you could see even more increase in terms of revenue.
[Liz Mullane]: And then I just had a quick question on the night differential. It seems you have it budgeted for 26 and 27 but nothing in the actuals. Is it just because it comes in towards the end or?
[Liz Mullane]: I saw that myself and yeah. For the both budgeted so I was curious. That was it. Thank you very much. Sure.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you very much. I just had a question. On the weapons apparatus stipend, it looks like it was budgeted for 58 and it's again for 58 but there's no actuals in there. Is that?
[Liz Mullane]: For the weapons apparatus stipend that it looks like it was budgeted for 58 and again for 58, 600, I know it's a slight increase, but there's no actuals. Does that come in towards the end of the fiscal year?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Great. And then I think the other question I had was around the contracts, but I think you all explained that already, so thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: This might be just a question to the chair but when did we, and again apologies if this came up earlier, when did we know that the contracted services like this were going to hit the budget at this level? Did we know this like last fiscal year or like, I'm just curious about the timeline of that.
[Liz Mullane]: I wasn't here. We came in front of the council last November with a negotiated settlement. We went to the JLMC and
[Liz Mullane]: And all I just wanted to say, nothing against that. It was more to the point of, I think, at the beginning when we were having the conversation with the mayor about planning and how we're looking at revenue and expenses and looking at it more like a one, three, five year type of time span. That's where I was just curious about when we may have had that. So as it's obviously, we knew it was coming.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. All right.
[Liz Mullane]: I had a question, I guess, starting on the highway budget. I was just curious with the highway streets contracted, the budget at 534, actual is 185, and it comes in at 500. What is kind of the difference in that? Like, what does that mean, the streets contracted?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Do you just anticipate that more will be coming in towards the end of the next month? It's just 185 to 500 is kind of a big. jump between actuals and budget.
[Liz Mullane]: And then I just had a question at the two highway contracts, other services. I think one's at 10.5 and the other one's 95,000. I'm just curious. What's the difference between the two? Like how do you differentiate and kind of that growth from the 9.4, 7.5 actuals to now the 10.5?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay.
[Liz Mullane]: And different from the other highway contracts, other services for 95?
[Liz Mullane]: Sorry. It's okay. Yeah. It ends in 5295. All right.
[Liz Mullane]: OK, great. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I think that's what we were, sorry. So when I had sent this over to Director Crowley, I guess, back early April, my understanding was that there was some budgets, monies allocated for this position because it was a previous position that we had. There wouldn't be any reason why there wouldn't be any kind of funding there. And I think what President Bears is demonstrating is in order to get it to an appropriate amount for a part time, being able to take away from some of our other previous areas within the budget to allocate it for this position. So I'm just as surprised to see that it's not even listed on here as a position that was even looked to be funded previously or even moving forward, especially as it was in the charter. And so we're just trying to follow, you know, what everyone had also voted on as well.
[Liz Mullane]: So I completely I understand that and you know how the budgets work. I just think in my mind when the conversation was being had and we were putting together this job description at no point in time did anyone say there's absolutely no money in here. You have to come up with a completely different way of funding. what we're looking at $25,000 to $30,000 for this part-time position. That was never communicated. And again, I'm new, so perhaps I missed something somewhere in here, but it wasn't communicated to me that that would ever be that much of an issue since the position had already, in some form or other, had existed here. I just find that surprising to have it be completely eliminated, having sent the job description over, having sent it over to the director over a month and a half ago, and just was believing that this was moving through the rest of the process, that it would just be completely eliminated, and finding out just like this is just a little off-putting.
[Liz Mullane]: I just wanted to circle back that when I was in communication with Director Crowley about it, the last piece that we kind of left it on was that She stated, I'm glad to hear this position is in line with the budget allocation set out by President Bears, which was referenced earlier in an email. Also, I'd be very happy to continue this conversation once the position moves forward through the budget approval process. So I was under the impression at that point that we were moving this through. I'm not saying, I'm not blaming anybody, I'm just saying that was the last communication that I had. I was under the impression that we were all moving in the same right direction and she had the job description. So I just wanted to clarify that was the last communication we had about it.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Oh, I think George.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. There's not too much more. I mean, I think a lot of the Councilors have already said a lot of things that I've also been thinking and feeling. I also want to say thank you for all of the incredible work that you're doing within the constraints that you have. Certainly, I look forward to seeing more of that presentation and really digging into it because it's obviously clear that you've kept the data and you've been looking at it and evaluating where to place, where to put emphasis on different pieces of the budget. Two quick things, and I think Councilor Tseng started talking about this, and I apologize if I missed it. But in the personnel piece of it, what do you have for the firefighters, 78, but it looks like it's about $100,000 less than what you paid the same amount last year. I know that we're talking about overtime and payments, and I'm just curious what that is, why that's less there.
[Liz Mullane]: OK. And I guess the other question I had in all of this too I think certainly public safety or firefighter safety. This is top priority in your presentation as you're going through. You mentioned there are several things that are coming to the end of life. So obviously there are some bigger costs that are going to be coming down. It would be helpful, obviously, I know everyone's super busy right now in the budget season, but as we look at some of these capital requests or pieces that come through, some of them are a bit, at least for me, new, only a couple months in, sometimes seems a little ad hoc and I'm not quite sure what's top priority. And obviously some of these things in terms of clothing and, you know, your high hazards list of needs that you have as we're making some, you know, changes throughout the city. Those types of things would be, I think, speaking for myself, would be very helpful to have a sense of and listening of what your priorities are in terms of needs and where you see most catastrophic in some of these areas where the end of life is coming up very quickly. It would be helpful in terms of just forecasting. It, you know, stresses me out not to see three years out of like what that forecasting could be. But obviously you've already identified some immediate things that are coming up very shortly. And it would be, I think, helpful for us to know what those are and priority wise as we look to different types of funding moving forward. So just kind of a general statement. Again, thank you so much for what you're doing and how you're doing with the limited resources that you have. So, thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Sam, I also want to thank you for coming here and really outlining this for us. I know I've said this earlier tonight. I'm new in this role, so I have not sat through all of these types of budget conversations. And I think the public would probably be horrified to know that we're talking about just a $20,000 increase to be able to create such support for the library. As someone who spends a lot of time on Saturdays in the library, I see it as a bustling hub. And I think, as everyone has said numerous times, the crown jewel of Medford and to think the little bit that you are asking for right now in order to keep it open. I mean, to be able to pay people in appropriate ways, especially with morale and the discrepancy between payments like that. I can't even imagine what that, I deal with some of that as well, and I can only imagine when it's as prevalent as this is in the discussions that we're having. I also want to commend you for having this conversation and sharing with us. And I do hope, I know that there seems to be some edits perhaps that we can look through and talk through. I don't know what that. means exactly, but I think the more that we can highlight and talk about this funding discrepancy for the part-time staff, and that all that you're looking for is a very small amount of money to be able to at least do that piece of it. I think as much as we can continue talking about that, we should, because I feel like more people who utilize as often as they do, as I see in so many different ways. And of knocking on doors across Medford, all of the different activities that you have hosted there, following what you do online and seeing it. I mean, it's incredible what opportunities that you make available for the city. And I apologize that we're in the situation that you're in the situation, like a month in. two months in of having this conversation, but I applaud you for doing it and sharing this. And I'm hopeful, you know, that this will help raise even more awareness of what we need to do and fund.
[Liz Mullane]: For the department totals for fiscal year 27 proposed?
[Liz Mullane]: So should we just approve this right now?
[Liz Mullane]: Is that how that works? I don't know. I'm new.
[Liz Mullane]: I don't know how long I can say that for, but that sounds... We got it, guys. I mean, you just got out 40K more, right? So yeah, no, I hear you.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Yes, we went over the newsletter that highlighted meetings that happened in April and part of it was really kind of looking at different budgets as well in line. So I know that's a lot of questions people had about that. So please take a look through that. So that was sent out as well as reviewing the neighborhood ward meetings. We had the councillors sign up starting in September. We had some nice suggestions of other locations that might be more convenient for people within the wards, and I was sent some contact information, so I'll begin setting that up, and we'll have that ready for the next time.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you for putting this together. I appreciate, you know, responding to a direct constituent complaint on this. I was wondering if it could be possible to move it to committee. I had some questions on some of the amendments. On the amendment, too, about the employer liability for employee violations in terms It looks like if they made, if there's one person that does it, that it's a one-year license revocation, and that just seems maybe a bit extreme or a bit harsh on the first try, maybe there could be a way to look at that and try to see if there's, a second or third or something. It just seems like a very harsh. And then the third one was just on the amendment around the imposing a $300 per offense fine on it. I was just curious, like, who would be in charge of collecting that? Like, where would that lie? How would that kind of figure itself out? So I don't know if that's something here to answer those questions or to look at it at committee, just to kind of flesh some of that out in there.
[Liz Mullane]: Amendment 2 in terms of the one-year license piece of it with a violation, if that's typical or it just seems pretty extreme.
[Liz Mullane]: I don't know which would be the best which would make the most sense.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, of course.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you again for putting this together. This was really helpful to kind of see all of this. And I think my fellow Councilors have kind of asked some of the questions that I was looking at as well. Just in general, in terms of the public engagement, the neighborhood residents and the Medford residents, the different participants you have, do you guys have like a breakdown of kind of like a little more specifics about what they heard and what their direct feedback was, if they saw some of those diagrams of these smaller areas. I mean, I think it's pretty cool, but I would be curious to see what people thought when they actually saw it. To Councilor Callahan's point, like it's hard to imagine that without kind of maybe seeing that a little bit more. And I know you said people had different things they could build. So I'm just curious if you have like a recording or something of it that can demonstrate that.
[Liz Mullane]: Great, thank you. And then the two last quick questions I think I have are maybe, better answered by Kayla. In terms of some of the different things that we've seen about near-term and long-term possibilities, it looks like having more of an industrial kind of economic base seems to be most beneficial. And I guess my question is, are we seeing a lot of those types of companies being interested in finding space in Medford? And then I guess coupled with that, I know you kind of mentioned the stop and shop area, In terms of these different areas that we've seen mapped out, are there any property owners that seem more willing to kind of start experimenting or looking at some of this a little bit more seriously, I guess?
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. And I won't belabor the point because I think it's been said, but as someone that's not actually a committee member but wanted to come specifically because of the report that was sent in and had some specific questions, have also been reached out to by various members. of Medford asking questions about this very topic. It is frustrating to be here and not be able to ask them at all. So I appreciate you, Vice President Lazzaro, and the work of trying to reach out and get this scheduled and get a report done and put together. So it was helpful to at least be able to read it but certainly have many questions that I look forward to hopefully being able to answer at some point in the future so that I too can respond back to residents who send me emails and I'm not able to provide any kind of update because things like this happen at our meetings. So thank you. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: want to call to order the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee. Clerk, do you mind please calling the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Present. That has five present, zero absent. We will get started. So the first item on the agenda is the resolution to publish the city council newsletter. So quickly, be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee shall have the authority to draft and approve a regular newsletter summarizing the activities of the city council and can vote to publish a newsletter by whatever mechanism is available without referring the draft newsletter to a regular council meeting for a vote. Be it further resolved this paper be referred to the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee as a standing agenda item. So with that I will share the April version of the newsletter. So. another month, another time of busy meetings, and really kind of the kickoff to the budget. So basically what I wanted to put in here is not only just highlighting some of the different general business, and what I did copy is just a little bit from the last newsletter. We just had some mentions of the April 7th meeting and a little bit about the April 8th. So I added them here as well to make sure that we were just sticking with the entire month of April. What I did try to do as well when we are going through this is try to pull out some of the numbers that I thought would be important from some of the different meetings that we attended and went through, especially the city council. There was a presentation that was given by the school committee member, Jenny Graham, as well as Ken Lord, COO of Medford Public Schools. So they had shown different repair requests. So I just kind of labeled those all out by different schools so you could see how much They were and what was happening, but again, for more of the specifics, when this newsletter gets sent out and you have questions, please feel free to go and take a look directly to the agenda items where they'll have more information on it. So again I wanted to just pull out any of the different numbers around budgets talk about some of the different distributions that were made. You'll see from the Community Preservation Committee what their distribution and how that was going to look for the different areas. They must distribute their funds towards as well as any other appropriations or distributions or expenditures that were requested by the city council from the mayor's office as well. And here I put any of the different meetings that we had in terms of. planning and permitting, committee of the whole meetings. And then the other piece that I put in here is we're going through each of the different budget meetings. I wanted to pull out the different departments that we have already seen and just in totality what their fiscal year 27 budget was as well as what it was in fiscal year 26. And I noted whether it was an increase or not, stay the same, went down just so that you could see. And if anything jumped out at you that you were curious about, As people are reading it, again, you can go right into those different agendas and see the different breakdowns. But I thought it would be helpful just to kind of get an overview and a sense of what each one of these different departments were asking for and what those amounts were and what that was looking year over year. I also put in here any of the other CDBG allocated funds. So, there was 215,000 to nine different organizations. What was really great about that meeting was that each of the different organizations came and were able to speak about the funding and what it meant to them and what they're able to do with it, which was wonderful. And again, you can see all of this online and be able to take a look at each of these different budgets that we've seen so far. as well as any of these different numbers within the budget. So with that, I'll turn over if people had, if any council members had any questions, any comments, would prefer I highlighted things differently or not. I just wanted to try to be as concise but as transparent with information as I could be.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Anything? Any other thoughts, suggestions, edits? Wow, silence. Councilor Leming. There's usually feedback from Councilor Leming.
[Liz Mullane]: Terrific. Second. Clerk, do you mind calling roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. Five in the affirmative, zero against. Thank you everyone. And I will definitely, Councilor, let me double check on those dates to make sure I have those correct. So thank you everyone for taking a look at that. All right so moving right along then to the resolution to schedule neighborhood ward meetings hosted by the City Council be it resolved by the Medford City Council that the Council's Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee discuss a plan to schedule neighborhood ward meetings hosted by the City Council in 2026 and 2027. So we've had a couple of different conversations about this with this committee here and I appreciate those residents who have emailed me and had some suggestions as well. One of the things that as I was putting this together and recognizing between all of the budget meetings as well as all of the meetings around the high school, the city council, the zoning in these past two months, seemed like there was just so much going on. I just wanted to make sure that we didn't overwhelm people by putting on yet another meeting. So what I thought made the most sense was to start this right in September and just kind of doing from September through May to try to do each one of these different ward meetings. One of the things that we talked about quite a bit in the past couple of ones and I know that we want to make sure that this is as accessible to people as possible each of these ward meetings. So trying to find places that have more hybrid options. I will definitely keep looking to see if there are places that are able to do it specifically within each of the different wards. But on the off chance that that's not the case, I will try to find places that are as close to the wards because I just want to make sure we have the technology and that people are able to participate if they're more comfortable doing it over Zoom than doing it in person. So I'm throwing those two major changes kind of assumptions that I started to make prior to this meeting that I welcome any feedback. And then the last piece of it, what I put into this chart and why I'm just focusing on this chart right now on the screen, is that we asked for each of the different Councilors to sign up for different ward meetings. These Councilors would help to host. I will go ahead and once these are kind of confirmed in these locations, I will call through and be able to kind of identify what dates work given some of the scheduling, but I'll confirm with the Councilors as well. But just get these scheduled for the year so that we have them on the books and we can start advertising as soon as possible. So I appreciate all the Councilors who have signed up for it. I may need one or two people to do more than two meetings. I myself, I signed up for three. But if there's another ward in here, you can see that Ward 5, we still have another opening there, and Ward 4, another opening. So if people are able to and willing, that would be great. All right. Councilor Callahan. Why am I not getting this to... I don't know why I keep hitting it.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah. And I'm I'm happy to if people have contacts of who I can reach out to you I would welcome that as well. But I will certainly look into it and see if they're both have options to do that as well. Thank you. Thank you. How's it saying.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. All right, Councilor Leming.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Perfect. Okay. Thank you very much. I will stop sharing. Any other questions on that for right now? So I'll go through and start putting together some of those lists or whatever and make sure we have everything kind of labeled out, if that makes sense. Yeah. Councilor Leming.
[Liz Mullane]: Very good. Other than that those were the two items that I had to discuss. Any other questions. Anything else you'd like to bring up talk about around the ward meetings or any other piece. No. All right. Do we have a motion.
[Liz Mullane]: We have a motion from Councilor Tseng to adjourn, seconded by Councilor Callahan. And I'll keep the paper in committee. Yes, thank you. Clerk, do you mind calling the roll? Sorry, it's almost there.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. 5 in the affirmative, 0 negative. Thank you, everyone. Meeting is adjourned.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you very much and certainly I can see a lot of the work that's happened since the last planning and permitting committee meeting. So thank you all for that. I just had going back to the definitions and the table because I know we had some back and forth around the different definitions for the housing. Looking at the amended document you gave us on page 5 under the residential uses, we're kind of still putting dormitory, fraternity, or sorority house all under the same line. I was curious if, since we're keeping those as two different types of definitions on page 15 between dormitory and fraternity or sorority house. Did we want to separate that again in the table? And do we still want to keep it for each of the different areas, no, no, and then CDB for both of those? And I guess my other question was, I know there was conversation about what the definition was specifically for the fraternity or sorority house. I don't know if this was the determined or the finalized one that you had in there. the dormitory in which during the academic year membership in a fraternity or sorority is required as a condition to residence. And is that sorority house usually maintained or owned by the sorority or fraternity themselves, or is it by the educational institution? And then my last question was on page 15. I know there was a couple of question marks at the top of the page of different definitions. And number two for the animal shelter, small animal rescue, it says small animal boarding, not dogs. and as a dog owner and have two small dogs that would probably fit into the small animal category. I was just curious what exactly that definition was to see if there were still some options for my dogs or anyone else's.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, no, I think that would be helpful, because I know what you're, I went to a university where they did have to actually pull some of those. So it is good to know to have something in there. So we have who's has ownership or who's going to, Step in, if that's no longer recognized. So I appreciate that.
[Liz Mullane]: And then I guess, Director Hunt, does that mean we want to split that number seven to separate out dormitory from what's considered a fraternity?
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, no, I think that's fair. I wasn't, you know, adding more into it. I wasn't sure if you just wanted to distinguish between the two if they come through, but.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, that's what I meant.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Yeah, and I still, I mean, and I also think that it should go through the CDB as well, when it comes through, however you separate it. Wanted to make sure if they're distinct and different to have them labeled that way.
[Liz Mullane]: And then just the dogs.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. There's really not much more I can say than what many of my other Councilors have said as well. But personally, as someone who is new to all of this, when I was going through the process, I remember going to an event and everyone was like, you got to talk to Len. If you really want to know what's happening in Medford and really get a sense of what this is, you need to talk to Len. And I remember having my first conversation with him, and he was just so warm. and welcoming and it felt like there was not any question I could ask that he wouldn't be willing to answer and to be able to help me with. And I still remember when I did my first event and he showed up and it was like, he was like my star person that was at that event. And he was just a wonderful sounding board. And to what everyone has said, he has been an amazing bridge. I want to thank his family for sharing him with us, and, you know, to thank him for the huge mark that he has left here, and he will be very much missed.
[Liz Mullane]: I found the order and I move to approve.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. And I just want to thank all the councilors that have worked on this as someone that knocked on a lot of doors. I did get a lot of feedback about seeing so many vacant storefronts and what can we do about it. And I'm hoping just to ask maybe a couple of clarifying questions through the chair to Councilor Tseng. And essentially, I know there's been some conversations back and forth. Like I said, a lot of residents have been, have spoken to me and have been very much in favor of doing something in order to get rid of as many vacant storefronts as we've had. But I know there's been some questions from different business owners, and I'm just curious, Councilor, if you can just share in your conversations that you've had, have you seen a big difference between small business owners and larger corporations when it came to the impact of these fees and fines and what that looked like or what they shared in terms of was there any big difference of impact between the two.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. And I just had one other kind of clarifying question too. I think in Councilor Leming's presentation, he was mentioning about the fines and when and if they're, you know, actually incurred by business, that those fines would actually help to provide funding for this database or registry. Because I know as we are sitting through all of these budget meetings and trying to put together some of these different structures in there, it seemed like that was one way to be able to utilize those fines. And I just wanted to make sure I heard that correctly. And I don't know if that's Councilor Tseng or Councilor Lamain on that one. Maybe Councilor Tseng, I'm not sure.
[Liz Mullane]: He's saying no next to me. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you kind of highlighting and talking through that as well. And again, I appreciate all of the hard work. I also appreciate that if there are additional questions that people have in between, I know that you kind of said this, but I just want to highlight again that you're open to talk to anyone who has other kind of thoughts. concerns, questions about it moving forward. So I appreciate Councilor Senior offered to do that as well. So thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Nice to meet you. Welcome. Just had a couple of quick questions around the budget here. So I'm assuming I see under like janitorial supplies it's only 16 as of right now that have been spent on the 65. Is it just because it's going to be late in terms of when it actually hits your budget line to catch up to that 65?
[Liz Mullane]: So you anticipate that 65 to be the same moving forward?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. And the other question I had, I guess, around the building repair. I know it had it at 700, and we were at 751, and you're at 725. Do you already anticipate that you're going to see hitting that number, the 725?
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, for the fiscal year 27.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, because you don't, you're the 751 to 725, so.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Thank you so much for coming in and putting all this together. I just had a couple of just kind of quick questions. I know you mentioned about the streetlights and needing more being able to address some of those things are kind of wear and tear. How like how how often are you seeing that like are you seeing this is it are we coming up and we're going to see more of this happening increasingly given the time frames that the last time.
[Liz Mullane]: And you're seeing more of that kind of happening, or? I do. Okay. And I guess from the budget itself to, I know we're at 268 for that, to the 360, is it just, or 350, do you just see that more of that will be happening in the next couple of months to kind of catch up to that, or is that going to be left over to move to the next budget?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Okay, good, thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I also wanted to say thank you so much, especially for your passion and the work that you've been doing. My grandpa was a World War II veteran. He took many advantages of working with his group there locally, and it really made a huge difference for him. So thank you very much. I know you had talked about the veteran service agent and that position. And you have someone in there right now that's part-time. Is that person ever even considering to go full-time, or would you need someone completely different?
[Liz Mullane]: Got it.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you, Chief Staff for running through this with us. I just had a question when it came to the salary piece of it at the bottom. I may have missed this when you were going through some of the explanations, but it looks like the principal clerk was budgeted one at 55 and then we're down to a half at 58. And I was just curious if I was missing something to those numbers.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Are they swapped? Oh, from above? Yeah, it looks like. Okay, that was the other question.
[Liz Mullane]: Great, and then just the other piece of it, I was looking of the permanent employees and the permanent part-time, those two numbers added up to 767 on the 758 that's proposed down. So I just wasn't sure where some of the other monies might've been put in there.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, no, I was looking at the top for the Fiscal Year 27 proposed, the permanent employees, the 738, and then the part-time at the 29. I think when I added that number up as compared to what the department totals were proposed for Fiscal Year 27, they were off by around like 9 or 10,000. I just wasn't sure if there was something else in there that we may have been missing.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Just touched it. Well, first I wanted to say that I also agree. I like the idea of the BA 1, 2, and 3. I think that really does help kind of identify not only the difference between the different areas, but specifically around Boston Ave. I just had a question going back to the slide that had the different definitions for the different types of housing. I know you've, yeah, thank you. And my apologies if I've missed this earlier, but can you explain to me the co-housing and how that differentiates itself from the dormitory, frat, or sorority?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Does someone have to make a determination on that, or? If they wanted to use the use co-housing. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Is there a way to be able to split this motion? Because while I agree with you about the gas station, I was kind of, I do kind of agree about having the drive-through for people who need to go to CVS or Walgreens to be able to get through and not have to get out of the car, be able to use that. Is there a way to separate that out to at least leave that in the higher area for the CDB board to make a determination on?
[Liz Mullane]: I just want to say thank you again for putting all this together and walking us through all these different deep dives on it. I think it was really helpful to kind of get a better contextual view as well as being able to go back and forth between the maps and the written piece of it as well. So I appreciate all of your work on that. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. I also want to say thank you so much for all of your hard work, too. As someone that has been dealing with aging parents, very much so. So, hearing some of the different offerings that you have was really helpful, and I have been receiving your newsletter as well, and I know you hold a lot of different activities, which is terrific. My question is actually a little bit more about the social worker. I know you said that they move from 25 to 30 hours and they're doing both in-house and outreach out in the community. What would you say is kind of percentage of time in terms of in-house as opposed to going out into the community? What would that look like if you had a full-time person? Like what is that kind of volume that you're seeing both in and going? My father-in-law had been homebound, so knowing that there were these services were really impactful for my family. So knowing that you have both is really helpful to know, and I want to make sure people know that they exist as well.
[Liz Mullane]: That's terrific. As you're seeing this, the 25 to 30 hours would kind of hope to be more of a full-time position in this role. Is that something that would help to also grow some of the work that you're doing? Oh, absolutely.
[Liz Mullane]: And I was just curious, what is the average age you mentioned of people that come to the senior center? And then what do you see normally in that too?
[Liz Mullane]: I also want to thank you for all of your hard work in this area. I can only imagine the amount of people that are reaching out to you. And I noticed in here you had said the program will assist an estimated 175 Medford residents. I was just curious, kind of two questions on it. Have you seen kind of a rising uptick in terms of the number of people reaching out to you? If so, are there more than that 175 that you anticipate coming in for this next year that you'll probably need to give assistance to?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I don't have any questions. I just want to say thank you very much for all of your work. I know quite a few people who utilize your services, and certainly when you mentioned not only getting meal service delivery, but it's also the socialization and being able to have contact with people throughout the day has been a really important and critical piece to it as well. And I just, again, just want to thank you for your work and being able to serve as many people as you do. I know that we're continuing to see this rise, and knowing that we have your services is, I know, puts me at ease, because I know, personally, people that have utilized your services. So thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I found them in order and moved to approve.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. Thank you. At this meeting, we discussed the newsletter, which was to cover from February to a little bit of April. We had to reschedule the meeting from the previous month. That's why we're a little bit backed up. But we made some adjustments and the newsletter will go out shortly. We also discussed more about the neighborhood ward meetings to put together more planning around each one of them. We should have more information to be able to share with the community shortly. But if you have any questions, feel free to watch the recording and I'm happy to answer any questions that might come up from it. Can I motion to move this?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I think you may have answered it, but just to kind of be, to wrap it up, you mentioned that putting more safeguards in place so something like this doesn't happen again. Do you mind just highlighting again what those are so that we know moving forward?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Present.
[Liz Mullane]: Thanks. I just wanted to go back to Emily I know you were mentioning about the north part and the south part and the last conversation we had, we were trying to figure out just, I guess, or maybe I should. say it differently. I was trying to figure out how much of it was commercial as compared to residential, and I think that's part of what you're asking tonight, right? That we're identifying which of those boundaries are we going to continue moving forward with. Would you mind sharing the screen one more time and just showing me that South Boston area again, or the South Boston ABA area again? I've just, I know we had the conversation about trying to address it or at least look at it more specifically around commercial and not as much with the residential. And in this new draft, did you find that? Are we still in that same, would you say it's more residential commercial? Like I'm still trying to figure out, I would love to move forward, but I'm concerned because I just don't want to pick a parcel that will still have a lot of residential in there and not as much commercial, like we said, we were going to kind of focus on right now.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. And the current, the green dotted one, that's what we're looking at right now to make the decision on. And that one at this point, per our last conversation, is really focused on the commercial side and getting less and less of the residential. Okay. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Are you saying that in that specific areas that we were looking at with the green piece of it, it would behoove us to move on that quicker in terms of trying to get some of the zoning? Are we missing opportunities, are you saying? Are we still a little bit more in flux as you're?
[Liz Mullane]: Yes.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, calling to order the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee for April 14th. Clerk, can you call the roll please?
[Liz Mullane]: Present.
[Liz Mullane]: All right. Okay, so to just get us started, thank you everybody who has stayed later. I know this has started later than we had anticipated. The first piece that we wanted to go over is the newsletter. So the resolution to publish a city council newsletter be it resolved by the Medford City Council, the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee shall have the authority to draft and approve. A regular newsletter summarizing the activities of the city council and can vote to publish a newsletter by whatever mechanisms available without referring the draft newsletter to a regular council meeting for a vote. Be it further resolved that this paper be referred to the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee as a standing agenda item. So since we had the last meeting had to get canceled in order for another meeting to happen we did not have a review of February. And so we are a little bit trying to play some catch up on some of the newsletter information. So I'm going to share my screen. I had put together some pieces from February and Councilor Lumming was very gracious to take a look at adding in some from March. And a little bit from April as well. So if this works for everyone if everyone can see this on their screen I'm sharing I will just kind of slowly kind of scroll through it. And if there are any other pieces that you'd like to add please let me know. Councilor Leming.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. The one that I am sharing on my screen is one that you emailed over to me earlier. If you'd like to share it out, that might be helpful. Great. So per usual, there's a lot of activity happening throughout the months of February, March, and a little bit of April. Actually quite took a lot of time to go back and forth, even on the February one. So that's not to say after March we had many additional meetings as well. So, as I go through this, these are separated out by the different areas of the newsletter that we've normally had in the past. So, starting with any kind of commemorations and acknowledgements, mention what happened at the February 23rd. Councilor Leming put in some information from April 7th so that we could highlight all the different things that have happened over the past several months. As we get into the general business we tried to condense and put together kind of an over lay of everything that happened within February, certainly starting with February 3rd from the city council meetings, talking about any one of the different resolutions that were introduced, certain conversations that we had around different contracts, and certainly some of the different spending allocations that we approved that were sent to us that we discussed as well throughout the meetings. I also included if there were any additional approved licenses to also highlight some of the businesses that were coming through. And you know as you go through the rest of this newsletter again and a good portion of this is also available on the city website too. It basically tries to take all the different pieces that we've talked about over the past couple of months and try to condense it as best we can. Again, a lot of information, try to be as concise as possible. And then also try to include different meetings that we had, not only just from the city council, but our joint meetings that we held. Certainly there were many of them as well to talk through with the community development board. We had information from the committee of the whole meetings that we discussed, a variety of different items there. And then certainly as we get to the end of this newsletter draft, we tried to pull out information per each of the different committees that met in the meantime. There is obviously information around the planning and permitting committee. Other pieces around committee of the whole and the public health and community safety committee as well as the previous resident services and public engagement committee. So it's a lot of information. I know it's a lot of different pieces coming together. I appreciate Councilors taking a look and adding or making any suggestions as we go through. I'll turn this over to Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes, Councilor Callahan, we can add that into the bottom of it. Probably what I'll do is put a little blurb in, but maybe just have you take a quick look, make sure I capture everything. We can add that in as part of it as well, and move around what we have at the top.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you, Councilor Tseng, for those suggestions. I will go back through and put those additions in there. I know that when we do put this into the actual newsletter format, when it goes out, we'll be able to link things. But to your point as well, like just kind of highlighting, there is actually an overarching document from the council that was sent to the mayor with our budget priorities. We'll be sure to add that. And I will go back in about the planning and permitting the vacant ordinance, the vacant storefront ordinance as well. Vacant properties ordinance. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Any other thoughts, suggestions, edits? I, Councilor Leming, do you want to go?
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Clerk, do you want to call the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. Five in the affirmative. Five in the affirmative, zero in the negative. That passes and we'll move on to the next document. Give me one. Second. So the next part of the meeting is to discuss our defer the discussion that we had at the previous meeting around the resolution to establish the city council neighborhood ward meetings. I wanted to take all of the information that we discussed at the last meeting and I just wanted to put in one kind of strategy document for all of us to look at, review, see if it makes sense and I left some pieces of it open to get some feedback from people to be able to get appropriate next steps in order to move this along because if we are going to to put these ward meetings together. We're going to need to do it sooner rather than later. So essentially what I put together was just kind of an executive summary from our last meeting that we had approved a neighborhood ward meeting proposal. Throughout the course of the next two years, we're looking to host at least one ward-based meeting throughout the eight wards of Medford. Through the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee, a plan will be created that establishes a schedule, structure, strategy, and format to successfully execute this type of engagement opportunity for residents. So at the last meeting we kind of talked about a general idea of which wards we wanted to go first and it kind of lined up with some of the larger conversations we were going to be having that would be impacting those different wards. So that is what I started with here and tried to do a time frame of breaking it out over the next And one of the other things that I did also want to bring up, and again, open to conversation, I know we had discussed and gone back and forth between whether these would all be, or we'd have separate ones for in-person and then separate ones for hybrid, for our Zoom meetings. Thinking about hosting another 16 of these meetings seemed rather daunting to try to fit it within this framework, as well as given it might just be overwhelming for all the different meetings and things that are important things that are happening as well throughout the city. So thinking that we would have these be hybrid meetings, which then means some of the locations we may need to really be thoughtful about if we're going to be able to have the technology to be able to have this be a hybrid type situation. So I started putting in different location suggestions for each of the different wards. Obviously there are some blank because I was hesitant to pick a spot if I wasn't quite sure we'd have the technology for it. Or if you know we wanted to focus more on the fact that some of these areas we may want to look at places that are able to host us both online and in person even though I know we had wanted to be in every single ward if we're positive that we have that kind of technology available. So, the other piece that I put down at the end is just kind of like overarching thoughts and things that I pulled together. And again, this is an open conversation. This is certainly not like set in stone. I'm just, I personally am better if I can react to something. So, I thought we could start here and then take any feedback. But for the ward meetings themselves, we pair Councilors together to co-facilitate each of the ward meetings. Set up the meetings in an open format, allowing for more collaboration and discussion. I know that was a big piece that we wanted to make sure happened. Not having a standardized agenda, but really focusing on what the constituents and our residents really want to talk about, what are their concerns facing them, any feedback that they have. We can bring that up word specific and then soliciting input in advance of the meeting so we have some ideas and topic areas as well to talk about. And then the second piece of this is around communication and outreach. So trying to at least have one month's notice of when we do decide on the meeting to get that out there to everyone and all the different ways in which we could try to get this information out in different communication channels. Again, this was just trying to pull it all together. So from there, I will turn it over for discussion, any pieces that kind of stand out to people. And I will start first with Councilor Lemayne.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you, Councilor Leming. So, in terms of this plan and sharing it with, I have not had the opportunity wanting to pull this all together. In terms of trying to put together a job description or kind of follow up around having kind of a constituent services person, we have had, we've started to have those types of put together that information and you're just trying to be in the early stages of where that might land with the administration.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I having had to reserve some spaces in some of these places before. I agree with you, it does take a while. I am happy to, if we can figure out which of the different places we want to be able to host each one of these, I am happy to take the lead of just calling through and setting these up. I agree with you, I'd rather get it. locked in and advertised as soon as possible. So I have no problem doing that. Just really would love any advice, suggestions on those locations. And then I can start going and figuring out you know, if they have availability. I guess the other piece of it is I would also need to and then share this out with all of the other Councilors too to get a sense of who has availability to be able to kind of sign up for each one of these because I don't want to pick dates for different meetings that if Councilors are able to do, they can't sign up for in advance as well. Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: I have been in a meeting there before. You're right, it does have an open space. I don't know about the technology piece, but for the hybrid option, but I can ask and see what they say. Thank you. Councilor Leming.
[Liz Mullane]: and forego the hybrid side of it? Because it's not like we could throw up a Zoom and agree on that at all.
[Liz Mullane]: Councilor Tseng.
[Liz Mullane]: I think you are correct.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Thank you. Councilor Leming.
[Liz Mullane]: That is very helpful. Thank you, everyone. I guess my next question would just be if I were to email this out to have the Councilors then just figure out which ones they'd want to do and the two people, two Councilors could be able to sign up for each one of these so at least we can start moving the needle on getting these out. Does that seem like a good next step for everyone? Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: I think what I was thinking was if we can at least figure out the different locations and then we have Councilors sign up for which ones make the most sense, I can call these different locations and find out when they do have some availability and we can, once we have that kind of firmed up, I would turn it over to the Councilors to then be the ones to advertise and push out to their networks or however else you want to send out this information. But just to try to streamline it, I can be the one that goes and actually calls and make sure that everything is set up for each one of the meetings and then send that out. But I just feel like once that happens, I would turn over to the Councilors to do their outreach from there. Great. Thanks. Thank you. Councilor Lemon.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, so I will make some of these edits, we'll start trying to figure out when there's availability, get this out for Councilors to kind of sign up on. And then, of course, you know, we can have other conversations when it comes more to agenda, non-agenda, et cetera. But I did want to open it up to any kind of public, unless there's anything else from Councilors, to see if there's any public comments or except Councilor Leming, are you still? Hanging out there, okay. All right, so we have someone at the podium and I will turn it on.
[Liz Mullane]: So... It's like 9-3, and I was like, you're saying?
[Liz Mullane]: And I appreciate those two. And if you have suggestions of where some of those different places, I'm happy to call and see if we can try to get something set up.
[Liz Mullane]: That's the part. That's the, I don't know.
[Liz Mullane]: I think that's a great idea, Councilor Tseng. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Councilor Lame.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I'm not seeing any hands for public participation online. No? OK. So what I will do from this is make the edits to the newsletter. We'll be able to get that one kind of wrapped up and sent back out. I will go ahead and make these edits to this rollout plan. I'll send it around to the city councilors to start taking a look at signing up again with just you can email. I'll email it out if you want. I'll send it out. to the clerk who will email it out and people can respond back to me separately and just let me know which ones they're able to sign up for. I will start proactively reaching out given these different location suggestions per these different months and see if we could start getting it lined up so that by the time we have our next meeting we'll have some of this a little bit more hammered out. Any other thoughts, suggestions, comments? Any motions? Keeping the committee. Clerk, can you call the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. Five in favor, zero against. Meeting is adjourned.
[Liz Mullane]: Here.
[Liz Mullane]: These maps are definitely extremely helpful to be able to get a better sense and a deep dive, so thank you for putting this together and printing it out. I'm leaning here with President Bears in the sense of I'm trying to keep as much as we can between the residential and the commercial pieces that we've talked about. Where I see there's definitely more of an impact that we could have on that northern parcel, but on the southern one, just from, again, trying to look and see this piece of it, it feels like I would like to make a comment on that. I would like to make a comment on that. that kind of bottom half of the southern where we're at least getting more of the commercial side or is that really starting to parse out some of that zoning and slowing this down even further, which is not what I'm trying to do. But I'm just trying to figure out can we get the majority of the commercial or what I'm reading here as that commercial industrial side of it and eliminating some of the residential piece as we talk through. the zoning between commercial and residential.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you Councilwoman. I just had one kind of quick question in terms of some of the other boundary lines. If you don't mind going back just one slide. So within the Tufts piece of it where it's the orange and then the light piece of it but then that boundary still goes down further there. Is there a reason why we're keeping that piece of it within the Tufts side and why we wouldn't have When you flip to the next slide, it shows that looks like more the industrial commercial side of it. Why would, there might be a reason, I don't know, but. Oh, okay.
[Liz Mullane]: So no I'm just saying that's what the breakdown that's what he's saying.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you again for putting this together. It was really helpful. I know when you were talking about looking at it more in the long term, these other apartment buildings and coming into play. But that will then move the break-even point, correct, once we start bringing that up. So we'll have to kind of take a longer viewpoint of when those buildings do come up, how that will actually then impact who does fall above and below the break-even point, right?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. And then you mentioned again about the percent of the apartments in comparison to the rest of the other types of family, the unit types. What was that kind of, what is that range that you're looking for when you say that that's what you kind of need in order for this to be most beneficial?
[Liz Mullane]: And then with that 4700 number, you'll be able to tell us who actually has the trust. You'll be able to break that down a little bit more of what that is exactly?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Well, first, I just want to thank everyone for all the hard work that's gone into putting this together, and I think going through each of these different pieces was really helpful. And I do agree, I feel like we're at a place right now where it's really just little tweaks that we want to make and I do kind of, I am just a little bit worried about the fact if we continue with the public hearing that if anything major comes up again or if there's any big changes. I'm not quite sure what else we would need from that since we didn't get as many comments this time around. But as long as I think we're all kind of in agreement with just really sticking to kind of some of the answers that Ennis has promised to get back to us on the tweaking of that and we can move forward, I think that would be comfortable for me. I just, you know, I feel like we've done a really nice job, all of us together, working through it and having these conversations. So I'm just hopeful that if we do continue with the public hearing piece of it, Nothing major or anything really comes up from there. It's really just sticking with those tweaks and if anyone has comments on them, fine, but that those would be kind of the main things that anyone would be discussing at that point.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. So I basically, when I was looking at this, tried to put it in three different types of categories. And for me, this is a lot of what I heard when I was speaking with constituents, when I was reviewing some of the past budgets and when some of the different departments had for some of their fiscal year goals. So the first area is obviously looking at the city's infrastructure and providing any kind of funding support for increased funding for our roads and sidewalks and pothole repair and improving signage and crosswalks, as well as trying to provide extra support, especially as we've had these huge snowstorms that came through and being able to provide more funding to DPW around addressing some of the snow removal and plowing needs. I was also looking at increasing some of our city services and I know some of my other fellow Councilors have mentioned some of these areas as well, but certainly the library I think serves as such a great hub. So much outreach, community outreach happens there as well and being able to provide them the support they need both for librarian salaries as well as providing some of the additional support for the great outreach that they're doing as well. I'm looking for more continued investments for our arts and culture programming, looking at the Affordable Housing Trust and any other ways that we can look at providing funding and support around affordable housing solutions in Medford, more outreach efforts and supports for our seniors, and really looking at additional type of budgetary support around mental health services and providing additional trained staff and clinicians in there. And the last piece of it, probably one of the most important, is the support of our children and families. So certainly meeting what the school committee needs for the Medford Public Schools and echoing some of my other Councilors as well around addressing any of the funding gaps for the Medford Family Network. So again, I think some of these echo a lot of the areas that my other fellow Councilors have mentioned, and I look forward to continued conversations around the potential of pushing some of these funding priorities forward. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes.
[Liz Mullane]: Oh, sorry.
[Liz Mullane]: I didn't touch it this time, I promise.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, when I was reading through this, I was just getting a little bit, trying to follow where you both landed when you were commenting back and forth on the different pages of like, where we landed on some of the decisions. So for example, when you look at the dimensional requirements for accessory structures and there's a comment from Alicia and then I think Scott responded and I just wasn't sure kind of where we landed or if it was still up in the air or if that's something we need to work through. OK. All right. So those are some of the pieces we need to kind of. OK. Got it.
[Liz Mullane]: I think that does kind of clarify some of the questions that came up the last time we had this conversation.
[Liz Mullane]: Zachary Stocks, City of Santa Monica, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa Monica, Mayor Mrakas, City of Santa commercial, especially for where the building commissioner may direct the shutting off, cutting or capping of utilities. I don't know. I just feel like some of that seems a little bit extreme for on the residential side if we're utilizing this for both pieces.
[Liz Mullane]: I will second that.
[Liz Mullane]: No, I also, you know, I know we spoke about this at the last meeting as we've come into this meeting as well. What I find a little surprising about it is that, you know, we've talked about having more transparency, you know, better communication. I think this is a great opportunity to be able to talk more about these different issues. boards and commissions to hopefully encourage other residents to hopefully apply. As someone who had to do a resume and sent one in a couple of years back to get on one of these boards and commissions and didn't hear anything back at the time, I figured that everyone else was doing that and following that same process. So, especially if we're going to make recommendations and approve or reject, as anyone that's been in any kind of hiring situation to not have any documentation as to why just seems a little odd to me, and I can't see why we just wouldn't to Councilor Lazzaro's part of, like, if there was a reason this person was nominated, why wouldn't we want to share whatever those accomplishments were, what that background was? And maybe that encourages other people who might have thought, oh, I shouldn't do this, say, hey, there's a lot of flexibility or ability for people to come and join some of these different boards and commissions and become more engaged in Medford. I'm also in agreeance with, you know, the people that did send things in and really appreciate that, being able to have a little bit more background of why and their resumes. But I would say if we don't have that kind of information, it just doesn't seem very fair or transparent or sharing of communication, I think, like we've all have been talking about.
[Liz Mullane]: Just a point of clarification, is there any way just to be able to move Sarah from the next to the next one instead of just reject? I mean, I just don't like the, I don't want to, I want people to feel encouraged to apply and send their information in. I just, it would be nicer if we could just move her one and give a little bit more time perhaps to get the rest of the information or any kind of letter. I don't know if that's possible or not.
[Liz Mullane]: No.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes, so we reviewed the January newsletter, which will go out shortly, as well as had a discussion about the ward meetings and what that might look like. And it was a great conversation to kind of get the ball rolling on that. And looking forward to kind of seeing how that moves on our next meeting.
[Liz Mullane]: What I wanted to kind of follow up is, A, to thank you for putting this all together as someone who's kind of obviously new to the council, but seeing some of these things ad hoc, some of these different lawsuits, actually seeing it laid out in this manner of the increase of what's happened since 2019, the different areas in which you've been impacted with it, it was really eye-opening to see it all put together in this way, so I appreciate that it's highlighted in that way. But I also definitely agree about trying to have that budget line put together so that we can actually see what that overarching impact is. And I had originally put it on to Councilor Scarpelli when you said the insurance premiums. That was something that pops in my head and also. You know, what are we going to do without a city solicitor and having someone come up and be able to present this information as well. I think being able to get a better sense of when we're going to see or know or hear anything about a new city solicitor which seems to be obviously as this has been outlined. pretty impactful position for all of us, I think is also really important. So I just appreciate all three of you putting this together, the depth of which it took of putting this information all in one place, because I think it's important not only for us, but certainly for the residents to see exactly where some of this money is going towards, and we need to figure out how we can really address this moving forward and have a better sense of what is actually happening with a lot of these different litigations. So, thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Good evening. Welcome to the Residential Services and Public Engagement Committee meeting on February 10th, 2026. Mr. Clerk, when you're ready, can you please call the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: All right. Welcome, everyone. So the first discussion item offered today is to review the City Council newsletter. So I will share my screen here. It's not showing my... Can everyone see that? All right. Any comments, any questions, anything that I can make edits on in here as we're looking at it? It was just so wonderfully written and put together.
[Liz Mullane]: You know, I tried. I really tried. So basically just try to put together everything that happened from January from the past two city council meetings as well as adding in information around some of the committees that we had from the committee of the whole, outlining all of the grants that were given out, the special committee, the special meeting that was with the city council and the community development board and the planning and permitting committee. It took a long time because there's already a lot of work that was accomplished in the month of January, so kudos to everyone. If there are no edits or suggestions, is there a motion? Oh, sorry.
[Liz Mullane]: So, it's only for the month of January.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes, go ahead, Councilor Tseng.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. Sorry, councilor Singh, can you say that one more time? Which part of it for some reason?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, I can wordsmith that a little bit.
[Liz Mullane]: The end of the entire newsletter?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. I can do that.
[Liz Mullane]: in this one. Any thoughts? Do we want to keep that put that in this one or wait for the next one?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay, thank you. And thank you, Councilor Leming. Any other thoughts, suggestions? Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: All right, so it looks like I have a few edits. Thank you, everyone, for taking a look at it. Councilor Leming's gonna send me some thoughts around December, and then we should be able to hopefully finish this up and get this out shortly.
[Liz Mullane]: Is there a second? Seconded by Councilor Callahan. All in favor? Or do I have to do a roll call? Mr. Clerk, can you please call the roll?
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. All right, so we can move on. So the next item on the agenda is the resolution to establish City Council listening sessions. Does anyone want to report out on any listening sessions that they've been on over the past month or so? Sure.
[Liz Mullane]: Anyone else, any other comments or anything they want to update on listening sessions? Councilor Leming.
[Liz Mullane]: All right. Councilor Calhoun.
[Liz Mullane]: Great, thank you. Any other comments on the listening sessions?
[Liz Mullane]: Great, thank you. And just to say yes, would definitely love input, thoughts, suggestions, any other ways that we can reach people. I hear you about some people are on different parts of social media, some people are looking at things that are more physical too, so open to any and all suggestions to try to encourage as many people to attend as possible, so thank you. All right. Any other public comments either in the chambers or on Zoom?
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. Five in favor, zero against. We will keep it in committee. All right. And then moving to our next item is. The resolution to schedule neighborhood ward meetings hosted by the city council. I'm really excited about this. I think this would be a great way for us to be able to get into each of the different wards, to be able to meet with residents, to hear things that are happening for them specifically in Medford, then also within the ward that we might be able to address. But looking forward to kind of talking this through, hearing more suggestions and thoughts. from other Councilors as well as any other type of public participation. Any comments so far? All right, Councilor.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Thank you, Councilor Leming. No, I agree. It would be helpful to have a schedule or a plan of where we want to start, obviously sooner rather than later, and knowing that the summer months we won't have many people, so we'll have to count that out as opportunities. I just wanted to clarify one of your comments, saying that the first part of it would be kind of a social and event. Were you imagining this would only be in person? Would each of these different locations have a component, an AV component to be able to include people that aren't able to be there in person as well?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Thank you. Councilor Tseng.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Great. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Great. Thank you, Councilor Leming. That does make sense to be able to line it up, especially with bigger things that we're going to be discussing with the City Council that correlate with each of these different wards. So just so that I'm hearing this correctly, we're going to do in-person. a Zoom one separate, at least at the start, to see how that goes. So I'm assuming if we start with awards eight and four, or however we do that, we'll still do the in-person and the hybrid within that same month, so we can make sure that it's not as confusing if we're separating meetings like this for when people are able to join us. Does that sound reasonable? And that we can start generating a list of where we see the ability to host in each one of these different wards to be able to get people to come join us in person. And each of the Councilors will be in charge of kind of handling or running it, or is that within the committee members themselves to be able to do? We welcome any suggestions on that as well. Councilor Lohmmann.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you, Councilwoman. No, I agree with you. I think that would be quite a bit of meetings considering all of the other meetings as well that are on the calendar and I don't want it to be confusing. So we can kind of and I do agree having at least two or having just two Councilors at each of those different meetings. You have someone to bounce stuff off of and to be able to help answer any kind of questions or I think it's a great way to kind of spread that out so we can start looking at how to disseminate that between each of the different wards and what that looks like. I did want to get back to your other point, though, about agenda items. It does make sense to maybe have some initial standing agenda items that we'd want to make consistent through each of the wards, but then also offering it up for each of the wards to have time to be able to either send something in that's specific or be able to bring something up obviously when we're in the meeting themselves. Does that sound like something that makes the most sense to be able to kind of at least keep some of it consistent but also allow for any kind of flexibility that may be a little bit more ward specific?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. And I agree with you. I definitely want it to be a place where people feel open and able to discuss any different type of issue. And, you know, when I mentioned just having standing agenda items, I don't mean to ever stop people from adding other ideas to it. I just thought that maybe it would give a little bit more structure to what people would be expecting, that these are some of the topics, and that we always are open to hearing any other kind of thoughts. So, you know, I appreciate that, and I appreciate kind of the setup and how we can approach it to make people feel as comfortable as possible to be able to come and speak with us as well. Council Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I think those are great points, Councilor Callahan, too, because I do want to make sure that people, that they're not being talked at, that we're feeling more of a conversation and that people feel more comfortable sharing their feelings on it. Councilor Leming.
[Liz Mullane]: Councilor Scarpelli.
[Liz Mullane]: No, thank you, Councilor Scarpelli, appreciate that. Councilor Tseng.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Councilor Lemon.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. No, I think these are, I think it's a good suggestion to get started with boards eight and four and putting together some ideas and suggestions. And to anyone watching or listening, if they also have some thoughts and suggestions of some good places, you know, please feel free to email me and let me know. We can start putting that together. I know we are cutting close on time, but I do want to open up to any public comment in the room or on Zoom. Right now I have someone in the room.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you very much. Any other public comments on Zoom? Okay, seeing none, it sounds like we Great. Thank you. It sounds like we've kind of started putting together a little bit of a plan and of a start working within wards eight and four. And you know also to Councilor Scarpelli's points as well you know we do we really want to make sure everyone feels Welcome, and voices are heard, so any thoughts, suggestions, again, please feel free to reach out to me, and I'm happy to collect them and add them in as we start kind of putting together more of a plan. So I think maybe we continue putting this together. identifying for wards eight and four and just confirming that we have the right spots for it. A little bit of a strategy in terms of the advertising plan for it and leaving it open enough for enough time for anyone to reach out. Love the idea of any super volunteers. So certainly in each of these different wards, if you would be willing to help, you know, please again reach out to me and we can start kind of putting that in there as well. So is there any motion on the floor at this point in order to try to keep this moving? Councilor Callahan.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes. Five in favour, zero against. Meeting is adjourned.
[Liz Mullane]: Good.
[Liz Mullane]: Hey, when it comes to me next time, I'm going to give you one of these. That's right.
[Liz Mullane]: I'm hanging in there. You got it next time.
[Liz Mullane]: And just kind of following up on the statement from Owen, what exactly, like what part of it on the private piece of it would it not be able to fit? Is there a reason why it can't be more on their property then for the business? Why does it have to be more on the public side?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you for putting this forward. This is definitely one of the things that the committee is very interested in doing and making sure that we're getting out in front of as many different community members as we can. So really looking forward to the conversations and setting these up and meeting with people and hopefully other people will want to join and help us to do this to get the word out. Tuesday, February 10th at 7 p.m. is our first meeting. So hopefully others will join us to have this conversation. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I think, first of all, Councilor Scarpella, thank you for kind of highlighting some of this. And obviously, we all came at it in different ways. And I also want to reiterate again, as we said in our our piece as well of how much we appreciate and know the hard work that our DPW teams did over the past several days trying to get us through this massive storm. I think it was the eighth largest storm we've had in Boston, and seeing how much snow came both Sunday and Monday. We felt it, and we know that people were out there working around the clock to try to get this done. So again, I don't want to take away anything from the hard work. that has already been spoken about and mentioned, and I want to definitely highlight that. I think, you know, kind of going off of a little bit more what Councilor Scarpelli was saying, I think for me and the messages and the outreach that I had had a lot to do in terms of the communication, the transparency, what were the priorities, what are the priorities, Where were we headed first? And I think just giving residents that knowledge base, that understanding, alleviates a lot of the stress and makes people understand that there are people out there working. We have a plan. We have something in place. This was unprecedented for us in recent years and that we were trying to make up for it as best as we could. So I think even some of the messaging that did come out if you receive the e-mails or the text messages also you know telling residents you know you need to get out there and shovel again. You'll be fine. At the same time all of the snow is getting re plowed and put on top of their sidewalks. I got a lot of that from people as well. And I understand as someone that was out there shoveling and knowing how difficult it was. So I too echo that we need to have a plan. What is the process. What are the priority streets. even if those messaging through text or emails directs it back to the main website, because I understand that they're out there working. They might not be always able to update exactly where everyone is, but being able to direct to one source so that through social media, through text messaging, through emails, through voice messages that go out, that there's directed to understand here's what the priorities are, here's where we're moving through, and here's what we're trying to do. I think that would have alleviated a lot of that stress that people were going through and trying to figure out what was happening. And additionally, I do think we need to not only, here we are, We've passed through this storm. We're still clearing things up. People are still working through it. What are we going to do for next time? And let's be proactive. Let's work together to try to figure that out and take on that responsibility to say, here's what we're going to do. Here's the response that we've received from the city. Here's some things that they could have used. Here are some things that we can address moving forward. and that we can be proactive, you know, hopefully we don't get another storm like this this winter, but certainly be even more prepared when we come into the next winter as well. And again, I thank all the DPW staff and everyone out there working, all the residents that I know have had to go out numerous times to shovel out their sidewalks, parking spots, but hopefully we can take this information, move it forward, and come up with a better and I think strategic, transparent, and proactive communication plan for our residents to be aware of and that we can all be on the same page moving forward.
[Liz Mullane]: Well, first of all, thank you again for putting this together. It was really helpful to kind of get a better sense of the direction for an issue that, again, I heard so many times when I was talking with residents in various parts of Medford about wanting to see these vacant properties something being done with them. And I kind of asked my first question around the fee structure, especially when it comes to size of building, so I appreciate that. The other piece of it, Justin, you kind of talked a little bit about the timeline that you had drafted within this in terms of how long people have to kind of respond and be able to, you know, be in contact with the city and what some of those next steps are. And I was just curious, as you were talking, and it looks like your team did a lot of great research and talked to various different areas. How did you come up with this being kind of that structure? And where might you see some flexibility when it comes to or push back one way or the other as you're doing this in terms of the timelines?
[Liz Mullane]: No, no, I appreciate that. It's helpful. And, you know, I think as other people have mentioned too, I'll be interested to hear what other feedback is from the public. And, and again, thanks to you and Matt and to your team putting this all together and really trying to take us to the next level when it comes to figuring out how to combat this issue. So thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Second.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I just wanted to say, you know, as someone who wasn't a part of a lot of the conversations previously on the council but attended some of the zoning meetings, I really appreciate how you framed this to kind of see how we got to this point. I certainly think these maps are a lot easier to digest and really are able to showcase to people exactly what we're talking about here and how we got to this point that we are. So I really just wanted to commend the work that you've done to get to this point because I think it's really helpful and hopefully everyone online and everyone that's able to view it too gets a better sense of how this really can impact and change and really make some wonderful progress within Medford. And being able to get this more visible to people as we go through the process and making sure they can see these types of maps and get a better understanding of it, I think will be really helpful as well. So I just really wanted to thank you for kind of level setting us on this and putting us to this point as well.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you for putting this together. So trees, in phase 2, I know phase 1 was 10. So how many remaining ones do you have left to do? How much will this cover and will there be more remaining? How does that look?
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. I wanted to thank my fellow Councilors for putting this resolution forward. But most importantly, I wanted to thank the residents of Medford. So many of you have reached out and sent emails wanting to make sure that this was a pressing issue for us, for the administration, for everyone to take notice. And I'm proud to be here with all of you in this and in support of it. Even in the short turnaround time on January 11th when there was about 100 residents of Medford that very quickly got pulled together to make a statement. I was proud to be there and stand with everyone, and I was so impressed with those of you that put all of this together and to ensure that our voices were starting to be heard. And I want to continue to say, please keep doing that. Please keep pushing that forward. You have, obviously, the support of many of us here. This is an incredibly important issue. It's unbelievable that we're facing this, but I have to say, seeing how quickly and how supportive so many Medford residents have been to get something done and to protect our neighbors, I'm just so impressed, and I want to thank all of you for that as well. So thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I also want to thank Councilor Scarpelli for bringing this forward, and certainly what Councilor Leming has shared as well. I think we've heard at least, I've received a lot of feedback from the public as well over the course of the past week. Not only just about the contract itself, but just things that were said at the meeting last time, things that weren't really clarified. I think for all of us, it would just be helpful to know the contract as longstanding as it had been with Armstrong. Just what were we looking for then in this contract this next time around that was different than in previous years? What are some of those changes that we saw to make this type of a decision? And to just give us a bit more and the public a bit more clear cut answers on what those decisions were. Because I do think that is a constant theme that we keep, or I should say I keep hearing, is not getting kind of the full picture of everything that went by behind it. That the public should be able to have more of a sense of, with such a critically important service and one that my family has used several times in the past several years. I know just how important it is to make sure that we're definitely going through all of our due diligence to make sure that we have the right people in place for it. So I look forward to the conversation tonight and just getting a better sense from each of the different parties where we stand and how we can move forward from here. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. And thank you, everyone, for coming up and sharing some of this feedback. I just wanted to get a couple of clarifying questions. So all of this really seemed to transpire or start to break down in March of 2025. So previous to this, all the other times and conversations you've had, you felt comfortable with where the contract was, but were surprised at that March meeting of some of the changes that had occurred.
[Liz Mullane]: Oh sorry. Thank you. So it seemed like at that meeting at that point in time the main things that kind of fell to the wayside or what they pulled back on was around the reimbursements the transports for first responders and the EMT training. And then after having the conversation with them you shared that those are three things or those are the kind of the biggest issues. and Cataldo was able to do the EMT training and they came back and said, oh, we can do that piece too. Do they say anything about those other pieces that were missing from the contract previously?
[Liz Mullane]: After that piece of it, in March, in April, is when you started talking about the response times and following up on whether or not those were actually lining up with what you were seeing.
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Just in terms of the payment, after you had the conversation and they came back and said they were willing to do some sort of it, you said they gave a percentage of the payment. Is that percentage meant that just that 75 or percentage of a larger amount that has been, excuse me, not paid over the course of the contract?
[Liz Mullane]: Even the percentage that the Chief just mentioned, the percentage of the payment was offered to be made, right? I can't speak to that one.
[Liz Mullane]: Yes.
[Liz Mullane]: I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. from that piece moving forward?
[Liz Mullane]: Okay. And so it wasn't until the December 11th, December 13th timeline that you found out that we were going in a completely different direction without any response back to where you had this. Okay.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: I'll second that. I'm seconding the motion.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you to Vice President Lazzaro for bringing this up and Councilor Callahan. I would say, I don't know if going any longer than 60 days, especially since you already have had it out there for a little bit of time, I think if it's proactive, it sounds like you all have really tried to get this to a place where more people would have eyes on it and more ability to actually apply, given some of the changes, into the actual JDs. So I don't think you need to go, or I wouldn't think you need to go much more than the 60 days.
[Liz Mullane]: Councilor Mullane? Councilor Emily Lazzaro.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you. Just a real quick, just a real quick question. In terms of the project plan, like how long is this going to take or how long do you think this portion of it will be?
[Liz Mullane]: Great.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. Thank you, Phyllis. And again, I also want to thank everyone for being here this evening and for the opportunity to speak on some of these questions. I think the rezoning in our commercial districts and bringing more businesses down to downtown Medford and our squares and corridors is incredibly important. I think it's a great opportunity for us to be able to bring in mixed use space, for people to be able to have housing, be closer, more small businesses would be able to have more people come in and be able to utilize their services or the different the different restaurants and bars that are there and available. I think that this is an opportunity for Medford to really be able to grow, to be able to bring new people to our community. And I do think that it's something that's really important if we're going to continue to be able to provide housing affordability for more and more individuals. So, for me, knowing that we're trying to look at this very strategically, we're trying to look at the different areas and really trying to focus on places where we are able to build and grow and bring in more of those different small businesses. I think that's it.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. Thank you, Bruce. So I think that the work that the school committee has been doing right now, as they've been working to try to pull together information about pulling a new Medford High School, is incredibly important. And I think it's something that is absolutely needed and something that we need to, as a community, really understand what's available for us and to be able to work with the district and be able to work with our colleagues to figure out how best to be able to provide funding. I think as we're sitting here in the building now, when I've gone to doors and I've spoken to parents, I think it's a huge concern. People want to make sure that we have the money and the availability to be able to provide for our schools and for our students. As someone who works in higher ed and serves as an adjunct faculty member, I know firsthand just how important that is. And I really do believe that being able to invest in our students and making sure that they have everything that they need to be successful is incredibly important. And I know that the school committee is going through all the due diligence to ensure that they put together the right plan and the right things needed. And if that's a new high school, then that's something I'm completely behind.
[Liz Mullane]: Hi, my name is Liz Mullane and I'm a new candidate running for Medford City Council. I want to start by thanking the Medford Democratic City Committee for organizing tonight and to my fellow candidates and everyone in attendance here or watching at home for their participation in this process. I believe that my 20 years of experience working within nonprofits, building programs, raising funds, managing budgets, and leading teams at complex, multilayered organizations would be an asset on the City Council. As a fundraiser, being able to identify new sources of revenue to fund our community services that benefit everyone, like our libraries, senior centers, and mental health providers. with my MBA taking a close eye to our budgets for more transparency, addressing a array of shortfalls, and helping to prioritize key areas, like repairing our streets and sidewalks to make them more accessible for all of our residents. Additionally, this background will allow me to provide guidance in bringing in and keeping more small business in Medford through streamlining our process, providing incentives, and eliminating the barriers of entry into our city, all the while helping to grow our commercial tax base. As an adjunct faculty member in higher ed, I've seen firsthand just how important it is to fund our schools and advocate for our students to set them up for lifelong success. I will stand up and continue to stand up for my neighbors against ICE, protect the individual rights of our residents, invest in affordable housing, and champion for sustainability and more green space. I am a listener, a collaborator, and a person who simply wants to use their knowledge to continue moving Medford forward. Because I believe when we invest in our community, in our children, our families, and our seniors, we all win. I hope you'll consider me as one of your seven votes on Tuesday, November 4th. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Hi, my name is Liz Mullane, and I'm a new candidate running for Medford City Council. As a brief background, I currently work as an assistant vice president of advancement at Northeastern University. And in that role, I oversee several different teams within our department, which includes parents, planned giving, athletics, and the library. Since 2020, I have been an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern's graduate nonprofit management program, instructing adult learners on how to build a nonprofit business. I have been in the nonprofit field for over 20 years, with one of my first jobs at EMILY's List, an organization that raises money for pro-choice Democratic women running for office. Since then, I've continued to work within organizations, reviewing budgets and creating revenue streams for a variety of issue areas, which include need-based scholarships for students, medical advancements for Alzheimer's and other autoimmune diseases, and capital funding for community-based needs around mental health and the library. In each of these situations, I have successfully raised funds through individual, foundation, corporate, federal, and government grant outreach. As a consultant to nonprofits, I also witnessed the need for further education around budgeting, financial management, and strategic planning. So I went back to school to receive my MBA and have found myself utilizing the skills learned in my graduate degree often in my everyday role. I moved to Medford in 2018, where I was a renter until we purchased our home here. Along with my husband and our two dogs, Medford is where we plan on staying. I have been involved with the Medford Democratic City Committee, serving as the chair of Ward 2 for the past few years, trying to get more individuals involved in the local political process. I was compelled to join the City Council race after witnessing areas in Medford that needed addressing. Numerous accidents due to lack of pedestrian signage, poorly kept streets, and sidewalks had become hard to navigate, and also the need for more small businesses to enhance our downtown areas. With budgetary issues being a top concern and a lack of proper funding to some of our more important community services, I felt both my professional background identifying funding sources coupled with my education would bring a different skill set to the city. If elected, I plan to champion for a continued transparent budgeting process with clear updates on how funds are being used, allocated and distributed. Review how the City approaches funding, and to help find new and creative ways to generate revenue, especially for our community services like our library, senior care, and mental health staffing, all of which I have successfully done in my professional career. Incentivize and streamline the process for small businesses to enter Medford, which would only help grow our commercial tax base. As a dog owner with no backyard, a focus on improved sidewalks and streets and more green space by proactively working on the 2026 Medford Open Space and Recreation Plan. Continue to support the Affordable Housing Trust to make housing more affordable in Medford through linkage fees and fundraising initiatives. to complete a pedestrian safety audit across the city to ensure a more walkable and accessible Medford, to provide funding and support of the Medford public school system, which is imperative for our entire community's ongoing success. I've enjoyed meeting so many residents, and I remain a listening ear to anyone who wants to discuss these issues or other areas of concern. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions, and I hope you will consider me as one of your seven votes on Tuesday, November 4th. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. Thank you so much for having me. Liz Mullane, she, her. I am a nonprofit development professional who's been in the nonprofit world for I currently work at Northeastern University, where I am an assistant vice president for advancement. And in that role, I manage and oversee 6 different units that cover kind of a variety of different areas. With our families, I work with individuals who want to leave Northeastern in their estate plans and I do fundraising for our athletic athletics and our libraries. So, a lot of different programmatic support across the university. I've been in this role for about two years, but I've been involved with Northeastern since about 2020. I was hired as an adjunct faculty member in their graduate nonprofit management program. So a lot of my time is spent working with adult learners and basically sharing with them how to build out a nonprofit from the financial, legal, and strategic planning side of it. I have been in Medford since 2018. I live here with my husband, and we have two rescue dogs. We were fostering throughout the pandemic. We ended up finding out about a bonded pair of older dogs that the adopter had dropped out. And my husband's a big Bruins fan and they had lost that day. He was very vulnerable. So we decided to bring the foster, the bonded pair up with us. And we were not able to find another family that wanted to adopt an older two dogs. So we have them. So they're lovely additions to our home. And I have been involved with the Medford Democratic City Committee and that's kind of how I first started getting a little bit more engaged within Medford. And I've been involved as a member, since about when I moved here. and have served as the chair for Ward 2 for the Medford Democratic City Committee for the past couple of years. And in that role, trying to get people more aware of and more locally politically engaged here in the democratic process. And now I'm trying to turn some of that information and some of that experience into running for city council.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. Um, so this actually is a tough one. There are a lot of great places. But I would say there's a restaurant right across the right around the corner from us called nappies. Um, I don't know if people have been, but, um, I took my husband there in one of our first dates and there is nothing more amusing than the fear of someone realizing there is no menu and you have to listen to the servers go through every single type of pasta and sauce and meat combination. Um, I will say it was so humorous, uh, to witness this firsthand. And his answer was spaghetti and meatballs. Which he still gets, even though he's been there several times. I would say mine is Penny Vodka with chicken from there.
[Liz Mullane]: Yeah, it's really good. And it is funny. You are like, you gotta listen.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. So, as I mentioned, I've been here since 2018. I've been a renter. until that point, but bought here in Medford. And so I'm really seeing a lot of things happen over the past couple of years really started to kind of push me to want to get more involved, especially within the city council. I'm seeing, certainly seeing a lot of the things happening on our pedestrian walkways that we had nearby. I live right here on the Fells Way. So I'm constantly seeing people getting near accidents or accidents here. Our streets, I'm someone that I think I may have now officially popped all tires on Grant Street coming up because of the roads and conditions. And really, as I was starting to think about how to get more engaged as the world has been going nationally, I really wanted to make sure I can make an impact here locally. So all of these things kind of helped to push me to really start wanting to get more involved and to really take a positive action forward for Medford. And hopefully after I go through some of my experience and some of the things I think I can bring to the city council will kind of help kind of demonstrate where I think I might have the skill sets to really move Medford and continue to move Medford in a positive direction.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. I got my start in fundraising working at Emily's List, which raises money for pro-choice Democratic women running for Congress. And in that role, I really started understanding how important fundraising was in order to move the needle on a lot of these different revenue generating initiatives. And it kind of stuck with me ever since I've seen what that impact could look like. So Since then, I've worked at organizations where I've really used a lot of my budgeting, strategic management, and understanding of how to find revenue streams for each of these different nonprofits that I've worked with. So I started working at the Advertising Council, which some people might recognize as Smokey Bear. but essentially working within the advertising and media to help push the needle around campaigns for public service and really trying to drive people on how to get more involved and engaged. In that capacity, I learned how to write foundation and corporate grants. I've done capital funds and endowment funds around education, around mental health. I helped to create a facility within the BILH system for one of their hospitals around behavioral health, especially for our youth and being able to provide the right services that they would need. And I've also worked and managed a research campaign for the Alzheimer's Association. So again, working within medical research and treatments and advancement And during all of this I served as a consultant for nonprofits, and I was going in and out of different nonprofits and seen. where there could be improvements around how they're budgeting, how they're running their finances, what that looked like. And I realized at that point in time, I didn't really have a lot of that training to provide more of that support. So I ended up going back to school to get my MBA at Texas A&M. And when I was there, that's actually where I started working on federal and government grants. And I was working within Texas to help provide mobile medical support for low income and rural communities and learning what it meant to write federal government grants. So throughout my career, I've kind of worked in a variety of different ways in which you can drive revenue and felt like, you know, seeing some of the things that were happening within the budget and with what Medford's trying to do, thought that I could utilize some of those skill sets in order to really help improve some of these areas within Medford. So that was kind of how my background kind of pieces came to it. And, you know, when I was looking at some of the budgeting pieces of it, you know, knowing that at Northeastern and within another university, I've worked within the library systems in terms of building out revenue and generating support for technology for programs. I know we've got an amazing library here, but I know they're, they also need more staff support and more support around the incredible programming they do. I'd love to be involved and engaged in doing those types of services, certainly around mental health and providing more mental health services and Councilors in Medford to be able to stabilize and deescalate in situations. I think that's critically important. So those were some of the areas where I felt like I have direct past professional experience within how to kind of work and serve in some of those industries that would be helpful within Medford and kind of moving the needle on some of these different programs.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure, absolutely. I mean, you know, as I mentioned, some of the reasons why I got involved, I also wanted to think of what are some of the things that I could bring to the table? What are some of the things that I could help to do? when we're talking about pedestrian safety, looking to do an audit across the city with hopefully organizations like Walk Massachusetts that has done this in other areas. So not just what I'm seeing because of where I live, but even different neighbors that I've spoken to, there's a variety of different places where we could address that. I think that we should look at that holistically instead of kind of piecemeal in different areas. Um, you know, I've, I've also, as I mentioned, have the two dogs and no backyard. So I am a huge proponent of green space, more open walkable areas. I know Medford is going to be starting their new strategic plan for 2026 around open space and recreational needs. And that's something that I want to advocate and be a part of to help make sure some of those initiatives still move forward. One of the areas that I think I've been very impressed with is the Affordable Housing Trust. And certainly, trying to provide affordable housing is going to come in a variety of different ways. I don't think there's one specific thing that'll get it all done. but what I really appreciate about the Affordable Housing Trust is that it's a first step in a way to move the needle and to be able to identify how we can find new funds in order to make it more affordable to live within Medford. Certainly, I know that they receive grant funding, but there are other different ways to drive revenue into the Affordable Housing Trust that I think could dig a little bit deeper into as well. I also think about bringing in more small businesses into Medford. You know, I've had conversations with some small business owners about how difficult the process is to navigate and there's a lot of roadblocks and how can we streamline that process and incentivize it to make it a more an easier place for small businesses to engage with us. I think there's a lot of opportunity and we just have to figure out ways in which we can make it more feasible for more businesses to be able to do that. And certainly, you know, someone as I work in higher ed, I work with families, I teach, making sure that we're making our education a priority and supportive of Medford Public Schools and being the partner with the school committee as well to ensure that a lot of their initiatives and the things that they're seeing to help drive improvements for our students is important for the entire community. So, I think it's something that we all need to be behind and be supportive of. So, these are all just a couple of different areas that. I'm passionate about, that I think with my experience, you know, having more of an understanding behind working within kind of complex, larger institutions, understanding some of the nuances around the budgetary process for some of these different larger departments and what that looks like, and really being able to help identify ways to encourage growth, I believe are things that could be helpful in this role on the City Council.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. So I think for me, what I have really come to see with OR and the work that they've done is my connection to the progressive issues that they represent and they stand for. And I think if you really do look at those different areas, I think many of us want, I would hope, better school systems for our students, that they would want to have Recycling, composting, greener spaces, open spaces. If there's one thing I have learned, I've learned how to negotiate and to work with people that have a variety of different ideas and opinions. And I think I think that's an area where I've been able to excel within my career to be able to navigate some of those difficult conversations and to be able to, you know, be able to express. These are the issues that I'm really pushing for and really wanting to see change. within Medford, and I think our revolution has done a really great job moving the needle on a lot of these things. And I also think that, you know, they're all individual people as well that come at it in a different perspective, and I think are all working in the same direction, which is trying to make the city better. But having, you know, working with a large group of people and having to navigate those kinds of conversations, I feel confident that I'll be able to continue pushing through on these areas that I see need improvement within Medford and to try to bring people to the table. I think, you know, what I've been seeing and hearing as I've talking with people on the streets is just being able to listen and being an open ear and having a conversation. And maybe we won't always agree on everything, but I want to be here to get a better understanding of where people are coming from, and to be able to see how best to navigate some of those difficult conversations with them if we may not be on the same page. But I do think it's important to listen to everyone and to provide a space and an opportunity for them to share some of their ideas and thoughts as well.
[Liz Mullane]: No, I just, you know, I'm excited about the opportunity. I'm really looking forward to continuing to meet with people and having these conversations and door knocking. I have to say the people have been lovely. And have been sharing, you know, some of the things that are their concerns and sometimes they're in line and sometimes they're things that. haven't heard about before, which is great to take note of and to try to follow back up and see, you know, where myself or where the city council can be helpful in trying to help answer some of those questions. So I guess I would just say, you know, I hope as I meet more people that they feel willing and able to approach me and have these conversations and to talk through some of these different areas, because I think at the end of the day, we're all here trying to make a better place. And I think that if we can do that together, we can really see some great movement and change in Medford as well.
[Liz Mullane]: Sure. So my website is Liz, number four, Medford. And my email address is the same Liz for Medford at gmail.com, the same Instagram and Facebook handles. Um, I try to update it as much as I can, but I'm not great at it. Uh, so please email me if I haven't gotten back or if you haven't seen anything posted in a while. Um, but yeah, I'd love to hear from people and, um, help in any way that I can.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you to Phyllis, Bruce, and the Medford Democratic City Committee for organizing tonight's event. My name is Liz Mullane. I'm an Assistant Vice President of Advancement at Northeastern University, and in that role, I oversee six different teams within our department, which includes parents, planned giving, athletics, and the library. Since 2020, I've been an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern's graduate non-profit management program, instructing adult learners on how to build a non-profit business. I have been in the industry for over 20 plus years with one of my first jobs at EMILY's List, an organization that raises money for pro-choice Democratic women running for office. Since then, I've continued to work within organizations reviewing budgets and creating revenue streams for a variety of issue areas, like need-based scholarships for students, medical advancements for Alzheimer's and other autoimmune diseases, and capital funding for community-based needs around mental health and the library. In each of these situations, I have successfully raised funds through individual, foundation, corporate, federal, and government grant outreach. As a consultant to nonprofits, I also witnessed the need for further education around budgeting, financial management, and strategic planning, so I went back to school to receive my MBA. I moved to Medford in 2018, where I was a renter until we purchased our home here. Along with my husband and our two dogs, Medford is where we plan on staying. I have been involved with the Medford Democratic City Committee and serving as the Ward 2 Chair for the past few years, trying to get more individuals involved in the local political process. I was compelled to join the City Council race after witnessing areas in Medford that needed addressing. Numerous accidents due to lack of pedestrian signage, poorly kept streets, and sidewalks that have become hard to navigate. With budgetary issues being a top concern and a lack of proper funding to some of our more important community services, I felt both my professional background coupled with my education would bring a different skill set to the city. If elected, I plan to champion for a continued transparent budgeting process with clear updates on how funds are being used, allocated, and distributed. to review how the city approaches funding, and to help find new and creative ways to generate revenue, especially for our community services, Likert Library, senior care, and mental health staffing, all of which I have successfully done in my professional career. Incentivize and streamline the process for small businesses to enter Medford, which would only help to grow our commercial tack base. As a dog owner with no backyard, focus on improved sidewalks and streets and more green space by proactively working on the 2026 Medford Open Space and Recreation Plan. continue to support the Affordable Housing Trust to make housing more affordable in Medford through linkage fees and fundraising initiatives, complete a pedestrian safety audit across the city to ensure a more walkable Medford, and to continue providing funding and support of the Medford public school system, which is imperative for our entire community's ongoing success. I've enjoyed meeting so many Medford residents through this process, and I remain a listening ear to anyone who wants to discuss these issues or any other concerns. Thank you.
[Liz Mullane]: Thank you to Phyllis, Bruce, and the Medford Democratic City Committee for organizing tonight's event. My name is Liz Mullane. I'm an Assistant Vice President of Advancement at Northeastern University. And in that role, I oversee six different teams within our department, which includes parents, planned giving, athletics, and the library. Since 2020, I've been an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern's graduate nonprofit management program, instructing adult learners on how to build a nonprofit business. I have been in the industry for over 20-plus years with one of my first jobs at EMILY's List, an organization that raises money for pro-choice Democratic women running for office. Since then, I've continued to work within organizations reviewing budgets and creating revenue streams for a variety of issue areas, like need-based scholarships for students, medical advancements for Alzheimer's and other autoimmune diseases, and capital funding for community-based needs around mental health and the library. In each of these situations, I have successfully raised funds through individual, foundation, corporate, federal, and government grant outreach. As a consultant to nonprofits, I also witnessed the need for further education around budgeting, financial management, and strategic planning, so I went back to school to receive my MBA. I moved to Medford in 2018, where I was a renter until we purchased our home here. Along with my husband and our two dogs, Medford is where we plan on staying. I have been involved with the Medford Democratic City Committee and serving as the Ward 2 Chair for the past few years, trying to get more individuals involved in the local political process. I was compelled to join the City Council race after witnessing areas in Medford that needed addressing. Numerous accidents due to lack of pedestrian signage, poorly kept streets, and sidewalks that have become hard to navigate. With budgetary issues being a top concern and a lack of proper funding to some of our more important community services, I felt both my professional background coupled with my education would bring a different skill set to the city. If elected, I plan to champion for a continued transparent budgeting process with clear updates on how funds are being used, allocated, and distributed. to review how the city approaches funding, and to help find new and creative ways to generate revenue, especially for our community services, Likert Library, senior care, and mental health staffing, all of which I have successfully done in my professional career. Incentivize and streamline the process for small businesses to enter Medford, which would only help to grow our commercial tack base. As a dog owner and with no backyard, focus on improved sidewalks and streets and more green space by proactively working on the 2026 Medford Open Space and Recreation Plan. continue to support the Affordable Housing Trust to make housing more affordable in Medford through linkage fees and fundraising initiatives, complete a pedestrian safety audit across the city to ensure a more walkable Medford, and to continue providing funding and support of the Medford public school system, which is imperative for our entire community's ongoing success. I've enjoyed meeting so many Medford residents through this process, and I remain a listening ear to anyone who wants to discuss these issues or any other concerns. Thank you.