[Milva McDonald]: Hi.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Thanks for taking my question, and thank you for your work.

[Milva McDonald]: My question is about, I live near West Medford Square, and

[Milva McDonald]: When I look at the map, I'm just curious about how the boundaries of the square were determined and how you made the decision to make some residential properties mixed use.

[Milva McDonald]: When you walk out from the square, when you walk down Harvard Ave, there's maybe a block to max of businesses and then the residential area starts.

[Milva McDonald]: And it looks to me like the,

[Milva McDonald]: It's being stretched now further so that, for instance, there's a gorgeous old house on the corner of Harvard and Boston Ave that is being zoned for mixed-use 2A, which I believe means it could go to seven stories.

[Milva McDonald]: And then I think the house next to it is mixed-use 2A.

[Milva McDonald]: And then some of the other properties around are urban residential, too.

[Milva McDonald]: So I'm just curious what the thought process was around that and how you decided to make some residential properties mixed use and basically change an area that is currently residential to something else.

[Milva McDonald]: No, thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: I believe it's Yeah.

[Milva McDonald]: I mean, I think the house next to it is also zoned as mixed use too.

[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, this one's not because I know who lives there and I've been in it many times.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Mildred McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: I just have three quick questions and I'll be brief.

[Milva McDonald]: One is about the interactive map.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you for making it.

[Milva McDonald]: It's really awesome.

[Milva McDonald]: My question about it is...

[Milva McDonald]: dived in too heavily, but the nuances that were referred to earlier, will those be, will those show in the interactive map?

[Milva McDonald]: If you're looking at the interactive map at a particular property, will you be able to tell some of the nuances that were mentioned earlier about, or will you just see, oh, they can go seven stories, but the nuances that might prevent that, will those show in the interactive map?

[Milva McDonald]: That's one question.

[Milva McDonald]: My other question is for the squares.

[Milva McDonald]: Does this process at all look at some of the traffic issues or particular hairy intersections?

[Milva McDonald]: I'm thinking in particular of the Route 60 and Playstead and Harvard Ave where the commuter rail crosses, where the train crosses, and it's pretty precarious right now.

[Milva McDonald]: So I think there's some concern of residents that increased density could create safety issues and difficulties.

[Milva McDonald]: And so how does this process incorporate that?

[Milva McDonald]: And I know you don't know what's going to happen exactly as a result of the zoning.

[Milva McDonald]: So I know that's part of it.

[Milva McDonald]: But just wondering where along the line, maybe does that come in?

[Milva McDonald]: And my third question is a little unrelated to the squares, but since private ways have come up.

[Milva McDonald]: I could be wrong about this, but my understanding is that there's a process to change private ways to public ways, and that could potentially be initiated by the City Council.

[Milva McDonald]: And since we have so many, and based on the map I looked at, sometimes they cover a whole neighborhood, like Lawrence Estates, for instance.

[Milva McDonald]: Has the City Council ever considered trying to make some of those roads that really do function as public ways, public ways?

[Milva McDonald]: So those are my questions.

[Milva McDonald]: Yeah, like what Zach earlier was saying how, you know, if you look and see, oh, nine stories can go up here.

[Milva McDonald]: with the incentive and you live near it and you're freaked out about that, it might not necessarily be true because there's other factors that would prevent that from going up.

[Milva McDonald]: No, I think the map is awesome.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you so much.

[Milva McDonald]: So basically the map is great and it gives you good general information, but don't make assumptions about individual parcels based on the general information.

[Milva McDonald]: No, I'm not correcting you.

[Milva McDonald]: You get credit for digging up those newspaper articles.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: I just was able to disseminate them.

[Milva McDonald]: But I believe also on the website is the legislative package from 1986, which I collected from the Mass Archives.

[Milva McDonald]: So that's another piece of information that people can look at.

[Milva McDonald]: and also the report from the 1978 Charter Study Commission in Medford, which created a whole charter that actually didn't make it.

[Milva McDonald]: So there's a lot of charter history available on the Charter Study Committee website under resources, if anybody's interested.

[Milva McDonald]: That's all, thanks.

[Milva McDonald]: And thank you all.

[Milva McDonald]: And sorry, Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: Milton McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: I understand that this resolution is symbolic, but I think it's an important statement.

[Milva McDonald]: So I thank you on a somewhat separate topic, but I believe it's related.

[Milva McDonald]: There's also been

[Milva McDonald]: an attack on DEI in this country.

[Milva McDonald]: And I know that I personally have reached out to our DEI director to offer my support.

[Milva McDonald]: And I don't know if the council has, and I don't, I'm not aware that any public statement has been made, but I would like you to consider offering support to our DEI director at this time as well.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm gonna try to be quick because I know I only have three minutes and it's late.

[Milva McDonald]: There's been discussion about the formation of the committee.

[Milva McDonald]: I just wanted to say that the mayor formed this committee because the Medford Charter Review Coalition requested it.

[Milva McDonald]: It was part of our work.

[Milva McDonald]: Despite the fact that we were the mayor's committee, we were independent.

[Milva McDonald]: And I wanna just clarify that because I feel, I just wanna make sure that some remarks were not interpreted to make it seem as though the mayor was in charge of us.

[Milva McDonald]: We were independent.

[Milva McDonald]: We had our meetings independent of the mayor.

[Milva McDonald]: She never influenced any decisions or discussions.

[Milva McDonald]: We did consider balance of power.

[Milva McDonald]: The, this, what we learned when we looked at other municipalities is that Medford's mayor is pretty much like all the other mayors in Massachusetts.

[Milva McDonald]: We have a mayor council form of government.

[Milva McDonald]: There was no will among the people.

[Milva McDonald]: We interviewed all the Councilors, most of the Councilors here and many other elected officials.

[Milva McDonald]: Nobody said they wanted to go to city manager.

[Milva McDonald]: Um,

[Milva McDonald]: We still considered balance of power, and I understand that it's an issue.

[Milva McDonald]: Taking the mayor off the school committee would make Medford one of a very, very few communities that doesn't have the mayor on the school committee.

[Milva McDonald]: Changing the charter committee to 333 would make Medford the only city in the state that gives the school committee that many appointees.

[Milva McDonald]: The school committee has a very narrow focus.

[Milva McDonald]: It focuses on the schools, not the entire city.

[Milva McDonald]: The charter focuses on the entire city.

[Milva McDonald]: The part of the charter that addresses the school committee

[Milva McDonald]: is small.

[Milva McDonald]: It addresses the composition.

[Milva McDonald]: The operations of the school committee are defined in state law.

[Milva McDonald]: Those are some of the reasons that we didn't make it equal.

[Milva McDonald]: And if you look at other charters, the school committee almost never has an appointee, but we didn't want to do that.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm just explaining this so it's understood because we weren't asked, but I feel like it's important.

[Milva McDonald]: Anthony Wilson from the Collins Center is on tonight and I don't know if you'll have him next week.

[Milva McDonald]: You might ask him about these changes before just deciding on them.

[Milva McDonald]: We actually looked at best practices.

[Milva McDonald]: We looked at the reasons why mayors are on school committee.

[Milva McDonald]: So it's maybe something that you want to get a little more information about.

[Milva McDonald]: I guess that's all I'm going to say right now.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm going to try to talk fast.

[Milva McDonald]: There was a lot of things said about the committee, so I just want to address a few of those.

[Milva McDonald]: I may have misunderstood, but I thought I heard someone say that the Charter Study Committee left information out of the survey that we didn't want

[Milva McDonald]: to include.

[Milva McDonald]: So if I misunderstood that, I would like, please correct me.

[Milva McDonald]: But I would just want to say, if you have that impression, please come and talk to me.

[Milva McDonald]: Because as far as I know, it is absolutely not true.

[Milva McDonald]: I also just wanted to say, and this has been said before, district representation was not asked about because it does not happen in Massachusetts on city councils.

[Milva McDonald]: And there have been references by Councilors to communities that have it.

[Milva McDonald]: And I would love to hear the names of them other than Boston and Worcester.

[Milva McDonald]: Boston is essentially not comparable.

[Milva McDonald]: State law even separates it out from other municipalities.

[Milva McDonald]: And Worcester is the second largest city in the state.

[Milva McDonald]: So I am truly interested in hearing about the other communities that have it on city council.

[Milva McDonald]: Ward representation has a definition that is understood.

[Milva McDonald]: People know what it means.

[Milva McDonald]: So when all of you ran on it, that's what they understood.

[Milva McDonald]: When all of you have said for five years, 100% in favor of ward representation, when you said to us in interviews that you were in favor of ward representation, everybody knew what you meant.

[Milva McDonald]: So the reason it wasn't asked was because it wasn't on our radar, because it's not really done.

[Milva McDonald]: When the school committee subcommittee started digging in, they found that it is, there are a few school committees that have it.

[Milva McDonald]: And I won't go into the, I've said it before, it's in the final report, why it was considered to school committee, but not city council.

[Milva McDonald]: I also wanna say, this is not like the Senate.

[Milva McDonald]: The problem with the Senate of our country is that you have senators who represent very small numbers of people and others who represent massive numbers of people who have the same power.

[Milva McDonald]: each ward representative would represent the same number of people.

[Milva McDonald]: So you may have a problem with the fact that some wards have low voter turnout and ward three that has high voter turnout has had a disproportionate number of representation.

[Milva McDonald]: And I personally don't think that's an accident, but please don't say it's like the Senate because it's not.

[Milva McDonald]: The demographic research that has been done is great, but the demographics will change.

[Milva McDonald]: And this charter is going to be in place for, if it passes, for at least 12 years.

[Milva McDonald]: If you're confident that the demographics are going to be exactly the same and the district method will serve, will fix whatever you think ward representation won't,

[Milva McDonald]: That makes sense, but I don't think, okay.

[Milva McDonald]: I don't think any of us think that demographics are gonna stay the same.

[Milva McDonald]: The housing studies that have been mentioned, we also addressed that.

[Milva McDonald]: If there are more, I want to see them.

[Milva McDonald]: Please show them to me.

[Milva McDonald]: There's one study that we were able to find.

[Milva McDonald]: I've asked repeatedly, several people, no one has been able to produce anything but that one study, which is not very conclusive.

[Milva McDonald]: So, and just one more thing.

[Milva McDonald]: It has been said, no system is perfect.

[Milva McDonald]: This isn't a moral issue.

[Milva McDonald]: This isn't something, there's no perfect system.

[Milva McDonald]: So a district system is not gonna be perfect either, but you're willing to ignore your constituents because on the idea that this is some moral issue, that it's right.

[Milva McDonald]: And I don't understand that, because charter review is not easy.

[Milva McDonald]: There are a lot more stops that this charter has to go to after you.

[Milva McDonald]: The last one is the voters.

[Milva McDonald]: And people have talked about word representation in the city for years.

[Milva McDonald]: It was the biggest issue.

[Milva McDonald]: When we talked to people, that is what they talked about.

[Milva McDonald]: So,

[Milva McDonald]: I don't understand why you would abandon that when you have all supported it in the past and your constituents are asking you for it.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: I don't.

[Milva McDonald]: Whatever the situation with the Collins Center is, that wasn't something that we negotiated, so I can't speak to it.

[Milva McDonald]: But the members of the Charter Study Committee were all volunteers.

[Milva McDonald]: Yes.

[Milva McDonald]: No.

[Milva McDonald]: We didn't have a budget.

[Milva McDonald]: We didn't have a staff.

[Milva McDonald]: Some charter committees actually have support staff.

[Milva McDonald]: We did have a city liaison who was very helpful.

[Milva McDonald]: Frances Nwaje.

[Milva McDonald]: Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: I don't really, I just wanted to, because I had asked the question about other communities that have district representation, but as has been pointed out, it is a semantic issue.

[Milva McDonald]: What we're talking about is representation where two of the designated sections of the city, whether they're called wards or districts, are combined.

[Milva McDonald]: Yes, Methuen and Amherst, they also have multi-member, but as we heard from the Collins Center, that probably wouldn't fly at the Statehouse.

[Milva McDonald]: And they also said that one of those communities was changing their form of government.

[Milva McDonald]: It's also notable that those communities have home rule charters, which means the Statehouse never saw those charters.

[Milva McDonald]: Lowell says district on their website, but they are just it's their

[Milva McDonald]: That's okay.

[Milva McDonald]: And it looks to me like Amesbury is the same.

[Milva McDonald]: So the only two that I could find outside of Worcester and Boston were those two, and also Worcester is also a home rule charter.

[Milva McDonald]: So those are all home rule charters.

[Milva McDonald]: So we really don't know if the state has seen a charter that does this for city council.

[Milva McDonald]: I just wanted to make that point.

[Milva McDonald]: Donald 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: It's getting late.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm very tired.

[Milva McDonald]: So there, the committee, the language that Eunice just referred to was supposed to be in the draft charter.

[Milva McDonald]: So technically, it should have been considered as part of it.

[Milva McDonald]: But there was also language on residence requirement for multi-member boards that the committee crafted that got left off.

[Milva McDonald]: We were very rushed at the end, as was previously mentioned.

[Milva McDonald]: We had no staff.

[Milva McDonald]: Um, we were trying to meet a deadline and and a couple of things fell off the radar But there is language that the committee created about a residency requirement from multi-member boards, which I sent Several weeks ago probably months uh to uh, councillor sang so I just want to say that thanks Yeah, and we had discussed it and then we said that counts I think we'll if we wherever we have that we'll run it by the collins center because there was also about to have the collins center draft it Maybe it just got lost in translation who had drafted it

[Milva McDonald]: There's a red.

[Milva McDonald]: Yes, yeah, you're live.

[Milva McDonald]: Milda McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: I just wanted to make the point that because there's been discussion that the city council should mirror the school committee in its structure.

[Milva McDonald]: And I just wanted to make the point that the two bodies are very different.

[Milva McDonald]: Their jobs are very different.

[Milva McDonald]: The city council legislates for the entire city, represents constituents across the city, and the school committee has a more narrow focus there.

[Milva McDonald]: Addressing only the school.

[Milva McDonald]: So that was one of the things that the committee considered.

[Milva McDonald]: We did not consider them the same because they're not the same.

[Milva McDonald]: Communities all across the state have different configurations for city council and school committee.

[Milva McDonald]: In fact, I think it's probably less common for a city to have the exact same structure for both bodies, but the call-in center could maybe correct me if I'm wrong on that.

[Milva McDonald]: There are plenty of communities that have ward councils and at-large school committees.

[Milva McDonald]: So I just wanted to make that point.

[Milva McDonald]: That was not something that the committee thought about because

[Milva McDonald]: simply because they're different bodies.

[Milva McDonald]: And as far as voters getting confused, voters would have their ballots and their candidates would be on their ballots.

[Milva McDonald]: We have systems across the state and across the country where people living in the same community have different elected representatives.

[Milva McDonald]: Right here in Medford, our state reps, depending on where you live, are different.

[Milva McDonald]: So voters figure this kind of thing out all the time.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: I just wanted to take a moment to shed some light on the committee's process for this particular section.

[Milva McDonald]: First, I just want to say one of the overarching values of the committee was public participation, citizen participation, and that we've reflected that in the preamble.

[Milva McDonald]: And that was the lens through which we explored this section.

[Milva McDonald]: This, as we've heard from the Collins Center, this is not uncommon.

[Milva McDonald]: It's in charters across the state.

[Milva McDonald]: When we looked at it, we examined charters and we saw that the range was between about 25 and 150 signatures.

[Milva McDonald]: because of the value of public participation and citizen participation, we erred on the low side, but that could be a number that's fluid.

[Milva McDonald]: We also, in these discussions, while we held public participation and citizen participation as a high value, we were trying to balance that with what could possibly be a potential for abuse, which is why the provision is there that only

[Milva McDonald]: Once it won a petition on once one subject can only be presented once a year So the same petition can't be submitted over and over again So I just wanted to sort of talk about that and just so that you all know kind of what informed our process I also just want to make a point that I feel is getting missed and

[Milva McDonald]: This discussion about whether this adds value to the present system doesn't, the fact is that the system now is in your rules and your rules can be changed.

[Milva McDonald]: They can be changed tomorrow, they can be changed next year by a new council or two years from now.

[Milva McDonald]: The charter means that it can't be changed.

[Milva McDonald]: So that there's an inherent difference in what is in the charter and

[Milva McDonald]: when you're talking about, well, people already have the right to do this.

[Milva McDonald]: As has been said by the Collins Center, the charter is for the future.

[Milva McDonald]: So I feel like just sort of comparing it against what people can do now misses that point, and I just wanted to make that point.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: When the committee discussed Milton McDonald 61 Monument Street, when we discussed referendum, when we were discussing the timelines, we did see them as initiative and referendum as inherently different.

[Milva McDonald]: And one of the things that we discussed was that a referendum pauses a measure that was passed by a duly elected body and that it didn't

[Milva McDonald]: that that time frame, we didn't want it to be extended any more than it had to.

[Milva McDonald]: So we wanted to give the citizens the right to do it while also making sure that the elected body that passed it wasn't, that the measure wasn't put, held at bay for too long.

[Milva McDonald]: I just wanted to point that out.

[Milva McDonald]: Milford McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: I just want to say that the language that the committee put into the charter regarding compensation is standard language that's in charters across the state.

[Milva McDonald]: The compensation committee that Councilor Bears mentioned is not in the charter.

[Milva McDonald]: That was something that we recommended that you consider

[Milva McDonald]: creating in an ordinance to address some of the issues that have been talked about in the last several minutes.

[Milva McDonald]: I just want to say that we looked at many charters and we didn't see anything remotely like this in any charter and

[Milva McDonald]: And that because of that, the Collins Center might be, it might be a good idea to ask them their thoughts on it because we know that something that's really unusual in the charter could raise a flag at the State House.

[Milva McDonald]: That's all I have to say.

[Milva McDonald]: Mildred McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you for the question.

[Milva McDonald]: Strong mayor, weak mayor is terms that get thrown around a lot, but we basically have a mayor council form of government.

[Milva McDonald]: And we did look at balance of power, and we had also heard talk around town about Medford having an inordinately powerful mayor.

[Milva McDonald]: So we asked the Collins Center for an analysis.

[Milva McDonald]: and they provided an analysis, which is in the final report, and you can see that Medford's mayor is in line with other mayors in the state.

[Milva McDonald]: Our mayor does not have more power than other mayors in the state.

[Milva McDonald]: But we did talk about balance of power when we looked at a lot of different things, and we talked about it with the budget.

[Milva McDonald]: It was a consideration.

[Milva McDonald]: Test one, two.

[Milva McDonald]: Hi, Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: As part of the discussion, we looked at other charters and we talked about it and that seemed like a reasonable provision, so we included it.

[Milva McDonald]: You mean the process of creating the survey?

[Milva McDonald]: The feedback we got was that we wanted the survey to be accessible, so not too complicated.

[Milva McDonald]: We asked about major questions that voters are most concerned about, which is the composition, term limits, things like that.

[Milva McDonald]: The results are all in the final report.

[Milva McDonald]: So, I mean, I can get them, but you all have them, right?

[Milva McDonald]: Whether, for council, you're talking about?

[Milva McDonald]: Yes, for city council.

[Milva McDonald]: Whether to remain all at large?

[Milva McDonald]: to be ward-based, hybrid-based.

[Milva McDonald]: I mean, we can't be all ward-based, because we only have eight exclusively ward-based, because we only have eight wards.

[Milva McDonald]: So that's not really an option on the table.

[Milva McDonald]: Anyway.

[Milva McDonald]: The combining of the wards?

[Milva McDonald]: Oh yeah, combining of words or... No, that was something that came up in the discussions about the school committee to address the challenges of making school committee, applying word representation to the school committee, because that would have increased the body size.

[Milva McDonald]: I see.

[Milva McDonald]: And so that's how that came up.

[Milva McDonald]: Well, it's.

[Milva McDonald]: very common cities all over the state have a different composition for city council and school committee.

[Milva McDonald]: So I think voters can figure it out.

[Milva McDonald]: I mean, they do in most other cities or many other cities.

[Milva McDonald]: You know, I think this is laid out in the final report, but I don't think we saw a call to increase the size of the school committee.

[Milva McDonald]: But we also recognize that the community still wanted board representation for the school committee.

[Milva McDonald]: I actually was not on the school committee subcommittee.

[Milva McDonald]: And I think when you have that discussion, maybe Paulette Van der Kloot would participate.

[Milva McDonald]: She chaired that subcommittee and they had extensive discussions.

[Milva McDonald]: So I would actually prefer to let her speak more about that.

[Milva McDonald]: I can tell you in general, because obviously they came back to the full committee.

[Milva McDonald]: And we then discussed it, so I can tell you more in general, but if you want more specifics of how they reached that, she did give you a more detailed answer.

[Milva McDonald]: But that was the gist of it, was trying to incorporate ward representation without necessarily increasing it to a body of 11, which we felt was appropriate for council, but not for school committee.

[Milva McDonald]: Yeah.

[Milva McDonald]: they don't collect that information.

[Milva McDonald]: I do just want to say that the discussion about competitiveness, we didn't look at that.

[Milva McDonald]: That's not, but what we did look at was representation of the wards.

[Milva McDonald]: And we looked back to 2005 and found that two wards in the city had no Councilor from those wards.

[Milva McDonald]: So they had zero representation and that two wards that those were words one and four and two words two and three had disproportionate representation.

[Milva McDonald]: And in terms of the competitiveness, you know, like I said, we didn't look at that we didn't research it, but.

[Milva McDonald]: I can say anecdotally that in my approximately 30 years living in Medford, I've never seen an incumbent city councilor lose an election, and I wouldn't call that competitive.

[Milva McDonald]: So I just wanted to say that.

[Milva McDonald]: Yes, we did some of those, and they should be in the final report.

[Milva McDonald]: Some of the graphics didn't transition well, and so there's actually a new version on the website, I think, with better graphics that you can check.

[Milva McDonald]: But Jean Zotter worked on that a lot.

[Milva McDonald]: So if you wanted more details on that, you could speak.

[Milva McDonald]: I don't know if she's on Zoom, but she collected a lot of that information and presented it.

[Milva McDonald]: Jean, if you don't mind, if I could just add that one of the reasons, as she mentioned, not everybody gave demographic information, but one of the reasons we chose to collect it was so that we could try to do outreach to populations that we didn't get as many responses from.

[Milva McDonald]: And Jean was an amazing organizer of listening sessions around the city.

[Milva McDonald]: And we tried to go and we, I mean, it's all in the final report.

[Milva McDonald]: So you can sort of see, but I just wanted to add that.

[Milva McDonald]: We wanted the charter to succeed with the voters and at the state house.

[Milva McDonald]: So we didn't necessarily look at alternatives that aren't used.

[Milva McDonald]: Ranked choice voting did come up.

[Milva McDonald]: That is something that we believed would see a hurdle at the state house, especially because Medford during the state question

[Milva McDonald]: voted for ranked choice voting only with a small majority.

[Milva McDonald]: So I think, you know, the success of the charter, the ultimate success of the charter was a consideration for us.

[Milva McDonald]: Could you just repeat?

[Milva McDonald]: I'm not sure I cut that.

[Milva McDonald]: Yes, we had a spreadsheet of cities in Massachusetts.

[Milva McDonald]: We didn't look at other states.

[Milva McDonald]: We don't know what the interaction of municipal governments with state government is in those states.

[Milva McDonald]: There's just so many other factors that could come into play.

[Milva McDonald]: So we stuck to Massachusetts.

[Milva McDonald]: I believe not.

[Milva McDonald]: You know, I don't have it in front of me, so I can't say 100%, but I don't think we did.

[Milva McDonald]: To be honest, I mean, just there is a graph in the final report that represents the number of Councilors who ran from each ward and then who won.

[Milva McDonald]: So there is information about that in the final report.

[Milva McDonald]: I don't think that would be my decision.

[Milva McDonald]: So, I mean, I think that would have to be between you and the mayor.

[Milva McDonald]: I don't, I mean, you know,

[Milva McDonald]: We've officially finished our work, so I don't know.

[Milva McDonald]: I just don't feel like I can answer that.

[Milva McDonald]: Possibly.

[Milva McDonald]: Well, are you referring to multi—I mean, the—

[Milva McDonald]: Sorry, it's getting late.

[Milva McDonald]: The options you talked about before.

[Milva McDonald]: So what are you talking about exactly?

[Milva McDonald]: Just simply district versus.

[Milva McDonald]: Okay.

[Milva McDonald]: But we explained why.

[Milva McDonald]: I mean, we wouldn't be the only city that has this configuration with a different configuration for school committee.

[Milva McDonald]: Lowell, for instance, has an exact, you know, they have eight wards.

[Milva McDonald]: They have 11 ward Councilors, one from each ward, three at large, and then their school committee is broke down with districts at large.

[Milva McDonald]: And they have a seven-member school committee as well.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm just saying it's not unheard of.

[Milva McDonald]: I mean, there are timelines also.

[Milva McDonald]: So that's something to consider as well.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm sorry, of what?

[Milva McDonald]: It's the census data.

[Milva McDonald]: I feel like that's a question for the Pollen Center, because they have more knowledge about that in general.

[Milva McDonald]: We did look at that and we asked, we looked for the research and we asked the Collins Center and we only found

[Milva McDonald]: one study.

[Milva McDonald]: If there are more, we didn't find them and we couldn't, the Collins Center didn't know of any either.

[Milva McDonald]: And we also mentioned that in the final report that that was the finding that you quoted, but there were also caveats, which included that it was a, it was mostly looked at towns and that more study would be warranted for the kind of

[Milva McDonald]: area, areas like Medford cities, and also that he didn't, the author didn't consider potential benefits of ward representation, including increased diversity.

[Milva McDonald]: So it just didn't, it was one study, looked at one thing, and it wasn't a really broad, there wasn't much broad agreement on that.

[Milva McDonald]: and the issues of representation and the potentiality for increased diversity, more accessibility to running for office were just more compelling to us.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Melvin McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: I want to thank Anthony for speaking and sharing his thoughts.

[Milva McDonald]: I do just want to say that we all on the committee have different perceptions and different experiences, but we did consider other numbers besides 11.

[Milva McDonald]: I could bore you with the details of that, but I don't feel like I have to do that.

[Milva McDonald]: I think it shows up in the minutes of our meetings.

[Milva McDonald]: We did not simply only consider 11.

[Milva McDonald]: Other than that, I think we did take a comprehensive look and I think our final report shows that.

[Milva McDonald]: So I feel like it speaks for itself.

[Milva McDonald]: The one thing that I did wanna point out because there's been talk about voter turnout and numbers were given about voter turnout in particular wards and the wards with low voter turnout correlate directly with the underrepresented wards.

[Milva McDonald]: When candidates run for office, they naturally go where the voters are, so it becomes a, a cycle.

[Milva McDonald]: And one of the hopes is that with representation.

[Milva McDonald]: voter turnout could increase.

[Milva McDonald]: So I just wanted to point that out, that the low voter turnout correlates with the underrepresented or zero represented in the last couple of decades' wards.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Hi, Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm the chair of the Medford Charter Study Committee.

[Milva McDonald]: As you know, charter review has been discussed in Medford for many years, and we are at an exciting moment right now with volunteer residents undertaking the task.

[Milva McDonald]: As we work

[Milva McDonald]: with the Collins Center for Public Management, a nonprofit entity out of UMass Boston that has guided many communities through the process of charter review.

[Milva McDonald]: We are examining the charter as a whole and learning, among other things, about how pieces interact with each other, best practices, and trends.

[Milva McDonald]: The goal is to propose a sturdy, fair, transparent charter that provides a strong framework for our city government in the long term.

[Milva McDonald]: This holistic look at the charter is especially important in Medford because of how much time has passed since the last review.

[Milva McDonald]: As the blueprint for how our city government operates, the charter is a vitally important document that affects every person who lives in our city.

[Milva McDonald]: Now, for the first time in decades, we are finally giving it a checkup, looking at our form of government, the balance of powers, the composition of our elected bodies, length and limits of terms for elected officials, budget procedures, mechanisms for citizen participation, and more.

[Milva McDonald]: I have heard this council reiterate many times that charter review should come from the people, and that is exactly what is happening.

[Milva McDonald]: We are all residents who volunteered for this task because we care about our city.

[Milva McDonald]: Our process prioritizes community engagement and input.

[Milva McDonald]: We will use the public feedback we collect to draft a proposal

[Milva McDonald]: that must make its way through several portals, including this council, before ever becoming official.

[Milva McDonald]: The final step is at the ballot box with the voters.

[Milva McDonald]: The voters, the people, will have the final say.

[Milva McDonald]: Our webpage at www.medfordmad.org slash charter study has a wealth of information, including a form inviting public feedback.

[Milva McDonald]: You will find us at Circle the Square in June, the Farmer's Market in August, and other events around the city.

[Milva McDonald]: We will also be circulating a survey very soon.

[Milva McDonald]: But the main reason I'm here is to extend an invitation.

[Milva McDonald]: We are especially excited about our first public information and listening session this Thursday, June 8th at 7 p.m.

[Milva McDonald]: right here in City Hall Chambers.

[Milva McDonald]: All are welcome and encouraged to join us.

[Milva McDonald]: It's going to be fun.

[Milva McDonald]: regardless of which are events or meetings you can or cannot attend.

[Milva McDonald]: Your voice is important, and we want to hear from you, the residents of our city and the leaders of our city about your thoughts, hopes and dreams for our municipal government.

[Milva McDonald]: We hope to see you on Thursday evening right here.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Second.

[Milva McDonald]: Okay, I think John is the last committee member we're waiting for.

[Milva McDonald]: And thank you to Mike for being the Zoom administrator tonight, and Matt for taking minutes.

[Milva McDonald]: We also, we have Janelle Austin from KP Law, Anthony Wilson from Collins Center, and we'll also have, I think, a couple more Collins Center people, and we'll be hearing from them over the course of the meeting.

[Milva McDonald]: But we wanted to start by reviewing, or has anyone had a chance to review the minutes from our December 12th meeting?

[Milva McDonald]: Yes.

[Milva McDonald]: do we feel like we need to review them here or can we just go ahead and vote on accepting them or not?

[Milva McDonald]: Move approval.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm sorry, Eunice.

[Milva McDonald]: Move approval.

[Milva McDonald]: Okay.

[Milva McDonald]: Eunice, did you make the motion?

[Milva McDonald]: Okay, so all in favor of approving the minutes as per Eunice's motion?

[Milva McDonald]: Aye.

[Milva McDonald]: Any opposed?

[Milva McDonald]: Okay, great.

[Milva McDonald]: So the minutes have been accepted.

[Milva McDonald]: That's great.

[Milva McDonald]: Now we're going to move into the business of the meeting and Laurel is going to take over.

[Milva McDonald]: Okay, now we are very excited and grateful to be working with the Collins Center during this process.

[Milva McDonald]: We have Anthony Wilson from the Collins Center, Michael Ward, and was Marilyn also coming?

[Milva McDonald]: She, okay.

[Milva McDonald]: Okay.

[Milva McDonald]: Great.

[Milva McDonald]: So I'm going to hand over the program to you.

[Milva McDonald]: And I know that you all are interested in connecting with the committee members and you can start your presentation.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Does anybody do you want us to just sort of introduce ourselves to start with?

[Milva McDonald]: Awesome.

[Milva McDonald]: Okay.

[Milva McDonald]: I'll start and then I'll call each committee member and invite you to introduce yourself and comment on some of the things Michael mentioned.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm Melva McDonald.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm one of the co-chairs.

[Milva McDonald]: I've been hearing about charter review in Medford for several years and started to get involved in trying to get a review to happen.

[Milva McDonald]: uh, about a year ago and it's taken, it's taken a while just to get this committee up and going.

[Milva McDonald]: So I'm really excited about it.

[Milva McDonald]: Um, I think for me, the fundamental issue is what Michael and Anthony and others have alluded to about the charter sort of being the core document that guides the city.

[Milva McDonald]: Um, and that's my main reason for being interested, um, in, in looking at it and updating it and.

[Milva McDonald]: seeing what would work best for Medford.

[Milva McDonald]: So, and Laurel, do you wanna go next?

[Milva McDonald]: Anthony, do you wanna go next?

[Milva McDonald]: Mike, do you want to go next?

[Milva McDonald]: Matt, do you want to go?

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you so much for this presentation.

[Milva McDonald]: I think we have a lot to look at.

[Milva McDonald]: I have a question.

[Milva McDonald]: When you talked in your slides, there was the option of a complete rewrite or revisions.

[Milva McDonald]: And given that we currently have a planned government, if the committee decides we,

[Milva McDonald]: Does that mean we have to decide not to keep the plan and just write a charter that's separate from the plan government?

[Milva McDonald]: Would that qualify as writing a new charter?

[Milva McDonald]: Or if we just want revisions, does that mean we can keep plan A and make revisions to it?

[Milva McDonald]: How would that work, given that we already have a plan government?

[Milva McDonald]: So you could- Go ahead, Mary.

[Milva McDonald]: Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street.

[Milva McDonald]: Every city has the right to charter review.

[Milva McDonald]: You've heard it before and you'll hear it again.

[Milva McDonald]: The charter, the instrument that dictates how our city government is structured and implemented is a living document.

[Milva McDonald]: Wisdom and smart governance would dictate periodic review.

[Milva McDonald]: Yet Medford's charter has not been looked at for more than three decades.

[Milva McDonald]: That means the last review happened before my 29 years as a resident and has been pointed out here

[Milva McDonald]: before more than one member of this council was even born.

[Milva McDonald]: Charter review has been attempted several times, for at least two of those times, the barrier has come from you, the city council, and you are the body that today will determine the fate of another home rule petition to initiate charter review.

[Milva McDonald]: I started joining some of my fellow residents a few months ago to organize around the issue.

[Milva McDonald]: We contacted each of you to hear your thoughts.

[Milva McDonald]: To those of you who met and talked with us, thank you for the productive discussions and the chance to listen to your concerns.

[Milva McDonald]: Some of you felt the elected charter review commission outlined in this paper might not be representative of all the neighborhoods in our city.

[Milva McDonald]: We responded to your specific asks and we got word representation applied to this petition.

[Milva McDonald]: Now, some of you who expressed support have flip-flopped for reasons ranging from complaints about social media comments to declarations that charter review should come from the people.

[Milva McDonald]: First, I would like to say, councillors, you are the people.

[Milva McDonald]: You are our elected officials, and we have spoken to you on this.

[Milva McDonald]: I have here a letter, which I ask to be entered into the record, endorsed by 227 residents, urging you to vote yes on this paper.

[Milva McDonald]: In recent years, nearly 5,000 people have signed a petition to get a Charter Review Commission on the ballot.

[Milva McDonald]: That's well over 50% of the entire number of votes each of you received in the last election, and in many cases, it's closer to 100%.

[Milva McDonald]: In addition, this paper will put candidates from each ward, as some of you requested, on the ballot to be elected by the people

[Milva McDonald]: to a charter review commission that will engage the community in its 18 month process.

[Milva McDonald]: Recommendations for modifications to the charter, if any, would go on the ballot before they could be implemented.

[Milva McDonald]: In light of all this, how can you argue that this process would not come from the people?

[Milva McDonald]: I ask that you honor the support you expressed to us and vote in favor of this paper.

[Milva McDonald]: While it is not the only route to charter review, it is the most expeditious in the current moment.

[Milva McDonald]: And it offers you a chance to respond to your constituents and show that you value their concerns and you value their civic engagement.

[Milva McDonald]: For what better way to promote civic engagement than inviting every resident of this city to join in reviewing how their city government works.

[Milva McDonald]: We are determined to partake of that opportunity, indeed of that right.

[Milva McDonald]: Collecting signatures is not the only other alternative available.

[Milva McDonald]: We are exploring all of them.

[Milva McDonald]: And if this petition fails, we will pursue them as swiftly and as transparently as possible.

[Milva McDonald]: Every city has the right to a review, and we will have ours.

[Milva McDonald]: It is up to you to decide whether you will help to honor that right in this moment or choose to delay it.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you.

[Milva McDonald]: Hi, I'm Milva McDonald, 61 Monument Street, West Medford.

[Milva McDonald]: First, I'd just like to thank the council for considering this.

[Milva McDonald]: I'm also strongly in favor.

[Milva McDonald]: And I'd like to thank the council members who took the time to speak with me and a group of other residents that really has been working to try to get this to happen.

[Milva McDonald]: Thank you, Councilor Scarpelli and Councilor Caraviello.

[Milva McDonald]: As others have said, I would just be repeating, it's been a very long time since the charter has been reviewed, and this petition is just to elect a commission to look at the charter, and it will be a long, transparent process that will get the residents involved in thinking about

[Milva McDonald]: Our charter is basically the roadmap.

[Milva McDonald]: It's like the constitution of our city and it really needs to be reviewed.

[Milva McDonald]: And I thank you for taking the time and attention to look at it.

[Milva McDonald]: And I hope to continue to be involved.

[Milva McDonald]: And there's a group of people who really support this and want this.

[Milva McDonald]: So thank you.