[Trish Schiapelli]: Good evening. I am Trish Ciappelli, an independent candidate and homeowner running for the City Council. I moved here to attend Simmons and completed my MBA in 2001. I have 20 years of experience as a commercial lender in the banking industry, working with CEOs and CFOs with companies with revenues of $10 million to $60 million. I became politically active in Medford when I led the battle to stop a methadone dispensary from coming to my Salem Street neighborhood, just .23 miles from an elementary school. And then again with the radical rezoning of Salem Street. After many protests from us, the residents, the OCD, delistened and rolled back the zoning to what the neighborhood wanted. Unfortunately, this City Council, under the leadership of Zach Baers and a motion from Matt Leming, denied the citizens what they wanted and reverted back to the original zoning. We must stop radical rezoning, which is now being proposed across the city. Our job on the City Council is to protect our neighborhoods, not exploit them. Yes, we must upgrade our squares and business districts, but not to the detriment of our neighborhoods. Our city has been left to deteriorate for far too long. Density is not going to solve that. The recent fire that took place in Somerville and demolished three homes less than a week ago was caused by all of their zoning changes to accommodate density. Be warned, this will happen here if we allow the density City Council wants forced on our neighborhoods. I will fight for our neighborhoods. We must request a forensic audit. We all work hard for our money and it is incumbent for the city to accurately report to the public exactly how, where, why our money is being spent, dollar for dollar. Yes, we have an audit annually by state-approved firm. However, we taxpayers deserve better financial reporting. Once our finances are in order, we can then make a sound decision and plan to fix our roads, fix our sidewalks, and get the lead out of our drinking water. Medford deserves better. We need to increase our commercial tax rate. The homeowners can't be the sole source of tax revenue. We just lost $600,000 in tax revenue on the old Budweiser campus because our mayor allowed it to be sold to the MBTA, the same MBTA that she sits on the board of directors. I ask you, Madam Mayor, isn't that a conflict of interest, selling out the taxpayers of this city to do a favor for a state agency of which you are a board member? I most certainly would find that is to be the case, in my opinion. And we must support our police and fire departments. They are very important to our city. After meeting with the President of Firefighters Local 1032, I learned that our fire department is understaffed to meet the needs of our current population and will not meet the needs of the proposed expansions. Remember, a vote for me is a vote for you. I respectfully ask for your vote. Thank you.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Thank you. You may owe me one for that. Yes, we appreciate it. We really do. But thank you so much for having me back. I always enjoy the show, and I'm happy to be here. We enjoy having you here.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Well, I originally moved to Massachusetts in 1998 to complete my MBA at Simmons University in their Graduate School of Management. I graduated in 2001. I have 20 plus years experience as a commercial lender. in the banking industry. I work with CEOs and CFOs of companies with revenues in the size of $10 million to $60 million. I help them acquire debt, refinance existing debt, purchase their real estate, whatever they may need. I also help them with their cash cycles in their business so that they can get paid faster, hang on to their money a little bit longer, and then make their payments in a faster, more secure environment. So I am currently a Medford resident. And I moved here in 2009. I lived at Station Landing first for just a little over four years. And I really loved that development with the access to the T and just being so close to so many things. And then in 2013, I actually bought my home. So I actually enjoy the house. It's a Victorian.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Thank you.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Yeah, sure. So I am running for city council because, first of all, I live in the city. And I think it has a tremendous amount of potential and opportunity given its proximity to Boston, Cambridge, and access to the 93. Unfortunately, I believe it's my opinion that it's being horribly mismanaged. And that is something that if elected to the city council, I would really want to change and improve And as you know, the first debacle I became involved in was the methadone dispensary. That was my wake up moment if you will. I have to your point what are my concerns, I have a very long list of concerns to be honest. And the first one is my concern is if we stay on this trajectory and we don't have some drastic changes sooner rather than later, that we may hit a point where there's a point of no return. And I believe that we are in a current downward spiral and we need to correct that as soon as possible. It is going to be a heavy lift. absolutely, given the current circumstances and the six years of the current administration and city council, who in my opinion have really done nothing except raise our taxes. Of course, they must think we're all blind and that because we can't see that nothing is being done in the city. With our tax money, our roads and sidewalks and water are still not fixed. in desperate need of repair. However, they have managed to throw the city into a complete chaos with this radical rezoning that they pulled out of thin air and decided to thrust onto the community.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Absolutely. And I'm going to start at the top with the mayor, which I think is where the buck stops. And while she is running unopposed, which I find shocking to say the least, If she has any interest in saving her reputation and her legacy as the mayor of Medford, I believe she needs to do three very difficult things immediately. The first thing is she needs to deny the city council their request for additional funds for the zoning studies. The second thing is she needs to fire consulting. They are lacking in experience for the project of this size and the location. They were not the right decision for the project in the beginning. The largest project they have done is out in a smaller town past 128. And an example of why I think they really need to be fired and we shouldn't be giving them any more money is at a recent presentation at city council when questioned about some of the streets in the homes that were going to be changed with this zoning, they admitted that they hadn't driven by the actual addresses or walked through any of the neighborhoods to really understand the lot size and the types of houses their planning is going to affect with this radical rezoning, but rather they chose to rely on Google Maps. Seriously? That's what we're paying for? I just was really kind of shocked by that. Then the third thing, the mayor absolutely needs to immediately, because it is so long overdue, I believe, in my opinion, she needs to fire Alicia Hunt immediately today for her pandering to developers. It's really inconscionable and that's just a period, full stop. So once those three things have been done on the city side to really help reflect and make some changes that we can all live with. She has a chance to resume herself with the city of Medford. And then the next thing that needs to happen is it falls to the actual citizens in the city, the good people that live here, the people that vote, the people that want to help and do their part in saving the city and their respective neighborhoods. And it is really very simple. The voters need to vote out every single Our Revolution city councilor, full stop, period. And I'm going to repeat that, and they may need to write it down. The voters need to vote out every single Our Revolution city councilor if they want to take back their city and have a decent city with neighborhoods that they can live in and enjoy and have a say in. Full stop, no questions. So who do they vote for? The voters then need to pick independent candidates who will listen to them and put Medford first, not be all involved in a national agenda and with things that aren't even pertaining to us. And you have to be careful because not all of those saying that they're independents are true independents. A couple are questionable because they really don't want to take a hard line. And this is an election about a hard line. You take a position, you pick a hill, you live and die on it. And that's what this city needs. And so one of my favorite sayings is the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and expecting different results. We have been doing the same thing over for six years and expecting different results, and we have not gotten any. So once there is a turnover, Then we can roll up our sleeves and really the hard work can begin and we must review rezoning and decide what gets changed. We must demand a forensic audit and demand 21st century standards for how we are reporting our finances. and how we show the taxpayers of this city exactly where their taxpayer dollars are being spent. Right now, accountable and transparent with this administration is really just a word salad. I looked at our budget. It consists of three lines. It consists of revenue, expenses, deficit or surplus.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Right. Annual reports are really not much better and don't provide a lot of additional information. I actually reached out to our CPA audit firm in Woburn and more than once and crickets, of course. So, we need to really work together and partner with each department in the city and hold people accountable for the people's tax dollars. And that isn't as difficult as it sounds. We need to understand where surplus and deficits are coming from so that we can stop the gaps. Otherwise, we just continue to rob Peter to pay Paul. We need to fix our roads desperately. We need to fix our sidewalks. We need to get the lead out of our water system. We need to fix our schools. The scores are abhorrent. And I think I would like to see an ethics guideline added in there for city councilors. Okay. So I think that's important so that we're all playing by the same rules no matter what position you're in. That's important to me. And finally, the people of Medford need to know that every Tuesday night there will be a city council meeting that is consistency is the key. They can come home, turn on their TV or log in online and we will be there in chamber every Tuesday night to discuss and update them on all of the items that we are in the process of working through. These marathon meetings until midnight or later, because they only meet every other week because that is what is convenient for them, really isn't working. The citizens of this city have jobs, they have kids, they have a life to live. Also, it will get rid of all these side meetings behind closed doors, I believe. If we go to meetings every week, the citizens of this city will have the right to hear the facts and the figures and hear the presentation of the pros and cons between their city council members and better understand the concepts of how it will affect them as we move through the discussion of the facts and the figures and research prior to an item being moved to a vote so that they will feel a little more comfortable hopefully with the decisions being made. Of course we would still always have open comments and they would have the right to ask questions and maybe we could delve through it a little bit better. But I really feel like they've been kept out of the loop and no one has the time and the wherewithal to go look everything up and read through 16 pages. That's our job. Then we're going to boil it down and give it to the citizens of Medford so that they can understand what's going on as is their right.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Well, so I think that, yes, they were misled, but I think that my position on zoning is that we absolutely must improve our city. I think as you drive around, it has the potential to be a beautiful city, but right now it looks tired and dirty. We have to be thoughtful about any zoning that we do and look at the zoning as a total number and how it's going to be affected with the city with our resources such as zoning and sewer and things like that, we already had the DPW leader come in and say, you have to give me a number, you have to give me a number. So they can't give them a number, they're just adding, throwing people at it. At some point we're going to end up like other cities were with brownouts and sewage running down your streets, sewage backup during horrible storms. So I actually think that the city of Medford is at a crossroads right now. We have the luxury to design a thoughtful city where people want to live and one that will drive visitors from contiguous cities to come here and spend dollars and enjoy some time. The zoning decisions that we make now will define us as a city going forward for many, many years. And we will either be like Somerville, where so many people say, oh, gosh, I lived there. It used to be great. It isn't anymore. You're jam-packed. It's miserable. They don't want to live in Somerville. People are starting to move out of Cambridge. Or we choose to be smart and manage growth responsibly, where we can keep green spaces, have homes available for people through every season of their life and what they need. And in which case, we would be more like Belmont, Winchester, possibly even Melrose. I would like to see us take that direction and have smart growth, not just throw in density. But to even imply, as our revolution city councilor Matt Leming did, that gone are the days of a single family house, is really just ludicrous. I think people will always have a need for a single family home and want to choose that as their option of a place to live. They suffer from the delusion that all growth is good growth, and as we know in business and finance, that isn't necessarily the case. Growth that is too fast actually drives up costs and takes a toll on the existing situation and the existing assets, and you can actually put the company, or in this case the city, in a deficit position if not monitored and managed appropriately. I've seen it happen firsthand. So interesting legal fact that I've done some research, I've talked to a couple of attorneys in preparing for this, and zoning laws are in place to protect the property owners not for the city to use and change as they see fit in a desperate cry for additional tax dollars. Zoning laws initially were established so that you can buy property and not worry that one day you will wake up to a 10-story building next door to your house or a factory. In fact, zoning ordinances have a valid legal interest in protecting the character of the neighborhood, not destroying the character of the neighborhood. And this gets back to the taking of land that we had had a conversation about a while ago. When you buy a home, you are entitled to certain rights. And that right is that you have a say in the neighborhood that you live in. And the laws are very clear. And there are actually two Supreme Court cases, one in 1926 and one in 1928, that actually involved Cambridge, where a zoning ordinance had depleted the plaintiff's property value, and the Supreme Court overturned it. So I feel if we continue down this road and things get as bad as some projections think that they could be with what they want to do, there is going to be a plethora of lawsuits. So get ready. So Medford is just really just waking up to the truth about what is going on in the city. And my concern right now is for West Medford because I'm worried that they will now get lulled into a false sense of security with the zoning being delayed to March 2026 only to one day wake up and realize exactly the ugly scenario that Salem Street is in and the reality, and that is that our sneaky Our Revolution City Councilor Matt Leming in the dead of the night around 11 p.m. after the Community Development Board had agreed to the request of the homeowners and we had a completely different neighborhood negotiated, Councilor Matt Leming reversed the request to the original zoning and all six of Our Revolution Councilors voted for it. Again, don't be fooled, West Medford. If reelected, this city council will do the same thing to you. Don't let it happen. There is another saying I like to say. People show you who they are and you better believe them. And they've shown me on several occasions. Radical rezoning must stop, period.
[Trish Schiapelli]: It's the truth.
[Trish Schiapelli]: And there's so many things that people in the city don't know, and I think unless you live in the Salem Street corridor, you really don't understand what happened to us. I think people have to go back. And how egregious it was.
[Trish Schiapelli]: And those cases, to this day, have never been overturned.
[Trish Schiapelli]: So I would focus on making the city more business-friendly. I hear we're not really that friendly to businesses. And I would make a target list of companies that our city and residents would like to have in Medford and companies that maybe are not available to the contiguous cities that we have that would then drive visitors to our city to see certain things and then increase bottom line we need to increase our commercial tax base. The homeowners really just can't continue to take the hit for that because our administration doesn't know how to attract or negotiate with certain certain entities and I feel like you know the Budweiser campus is a perfect example of something that took place and we should have been working with the owners of that and I feel like some of the leadership could have gone there and said thank you so much for you know being here all these years and leasing and I understand Budweiser has had to move out because of their, but what can you do to help us and we understand that it's around price and you could even cut a side deal with them. I mean, right now we're losing 600,000, but if you said to them, listen, I understand price is important, but if somebody comes in with a million three and they're a few hundred thousand dollars short, let's go with the lesser and we'll pay you back 200,000 a year. year for three or four years to make up that difference in that sale price, and we're still $400,000 or $500,000 ahead in tax revenue, versus just giving it to the MBTA and then saying, oh, you know, we're losing, we're at a deficit for $600,000 a year. And things like that are done all the time. I know they are.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Well, yeah, that is definitely something I would have advised one of my clients to do. Absolutely. Yeah. Don't let that. If you really want that building, don't let it go. Go in and try to negotiate. What's the worst they're going to say is absolutely not. Yeah. Okay. So you're back to square one, but at least you try. At least you can say to the good people of Medford, I tried to save us $400,000 to $600,000 in tax revenue, and here's what I did, and they refused to do it. Looks a lot better.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Yeah. I sat through that whole torture show the other night.
[Trish Schiapelli]: It was a torture show. I thought it was laughable and a complete waste of time. Four hours of nonsense and four hours of my life that I'll never get back. And they insist on focusing their attention and prioritizing things that are not local and things that are happening thousands of miles away. And I could see if everything was glorious here in Medford, and our roads were fixed, and our sidewalks were perfect, and the birds were humming, and everything was beautiful, and our parkways were perfectly planted, not with weeds and overgrowth. But I think they did it for a reason. I think there was a strategy behind it. And I think it was a much-needed diversion for them so that people can focus on something other than their inept management of the city and their failure at the rezoning, given what's been transpiring. And as they've already confirmed, like three and a half hours into the meeting, I believe it was, they said, oh, well, by the way, we already knew from the investment company they had let us know that we really didn't have an exorbitant amount of percentage that is out of our guideline in those companies anyway. Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? They wasted all that time. You could have just changed the agenda. You could have made the announcement and said we wanted to save everyone's time. But no, they didn't. And so what I thought was fascinating is that they actually allowed people from other cities, Malden and Somerville, to come up. I've never heard of that before or seen that. And that's really, in my opinion, shouldn't be allowed. My greater concern at the end of that whole debacle is for our large Jewish population who just a few weeks ago spoke at a city council meeting and tried to impress on them and explain to them that they feel scared in Medford and they're uncomfortable in Medford with the things that are happening and the anti-Semitism that's going on. And they made it perfectly clear at that meeting, their message was received loud and clear, they just don't care.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Well, I thought it, I thought it was odd. First of all, coming from him because he's been, you know, so rah-rah zoning. And then I thought, yeah, you know, that's actually a pretty good stunt to pass the blame on to the mayor because that's really kind of the overarching theme that I picked up. And as we know, the truth is the city council really has had full control of this whole process all along. Now, is it incumbent upon the mayor to maybe have frequent check-ins, weekly, quarterly reports? Was that done? I don't know. But certainly when they had an opportunity to listen to the residents and do the right thing, they didn't. What I think is more interesting is that they don't seem to be able to have a mea culpa moment. You know, you're right. We're sorry. We shouldn't have done this. We should have listened to the residents. You know, an apology, in my opinion, is owed to the Salem Street residents. And I think what's really more interesting is that it doesn't appear that he actually crafted that whole message himself. As I found out later, the speech that he gave was verbatim to a memo that the mayor had written herself to the city councilors with regard to her thoughts on the zoning a day or two earlier. In fact, her memo is actually posted out on the web, and anyone can view it and confirm this fact. So it's public information, so it isn't like I'm not. But again, it's just a waste of time, and not to mention another meeting violation.
[Trish Schiapelli]: So nothing short of a complete forensic audit for at least the past three years would suffice for me. A new city council would never want to take over the funds and the books without having an accurate financial picture of where they currently are. And while it is true, we are already audited. It is someone that is state approved. It's somebody that we've used for 15 years. And I often find vendors, when you have them come in for assignments such as this, in that length of time, they tend to become complacent. It's just, you know, dollars in, dollars out. This is what you want. Of course, I don't know if maybe that's because our side doesn't ask for more. I'm not in those meetings. I don't know. A fresh set of eyes with some new ideas to help us clean things up would be terrific and money well spent, I believe. I also hope that an RFP would get us a larger accounting firm that specializes in forensic accounting and can give us some financial guidance and benchmarks to reach for the years as we grow. Nice.
[Trish Schiapelli]: One more thing on that. So with regard to that and anything else that takes place, I think one of the things I would like to do is also I like the idea of putting advisory boards together with industry experts for certain tasks that can give us guidance in their respective areas. Businesses do it all the time. There are CEO forums that certain CEOs join to help solve problems that they experience with other CEOs. And it isn't uncommon when businesses are in a huge growth pattern, they put advisory boards together. And it isn't something that you do every week. They wouldn't be at every meeting. But if we have a problem, and certainly something with planning, you would pull some really big, big, big developers in, like Suffolk and CTA Construction. And I know those guys. You come in and you go, hey, are we doing this right? Are we looking at this right? What do you recommend? And even if you have two of them, you're going to get one maybe that has a different idea than the other one, right? So then you can choose. And so I just feel like even for finances and certain things, you need to be putting those things together to give the best city their biggest bang for their buck.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Absolutely.
[Trish Schiapelli]: I know what I know, but you really, you have to be smart enough to know what you don't know, right? Absolutely.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Well, I mean, I don't know what they're currently using now. I just know what the finished product looks like. So I would say absolutely. And a new audit team would be a part of that. They would probably, you know, I would look to someone that deals strictly with municipalities and they would probably be able to make some recommendations and then we would have them come in and we would, you know, figure out which software is the best for us, given our size and maybe the growth that we're anticipating over the next 10 years. And then, you know, maybe pick the top two or three, and we would take it from there with an RFP and definitely update in, you know, software tailored for municipalities. And we need to work closer with the part and partner with each of the departments to better understand their needs and help them accurately budget. As well as monitor the process through the year, right? So, you know, what do you need? Why do you need it? Have an honest conversation around that. Try to get them what they need. You know, the first couple years may be a little dicey. Some may run into deficit and you may need to put a line item that you lent money from this department over to this department and then you pay it back at the end of the year or you look at did you really need that money in the first place. You kind of balance things out as you go along. But within two years, you should be able to have a good handle on what your projections for that year are and not be as in an upheaval as what I think we are. And I think it's also important that there's a proper expense approval put into place. with regard to credit cards and with regard to what they're spent on, and regard to dollar limits and who has that dollar limit, you know, so maybe the person that is the manager of that department can approve, and I'm just making this up, up to $1,000, anything over $1,000, it has to go somewhere else, and then once you get into $5,000, it has to go to a third person. And so everybody is on board with that money being spent. They understand why it's being spent. They understand if there is a need right now that it has to be spent, or could it wait. And I think the citizens are owed the financial reporting that shows them exactly how their tax dollars are being spent and where. And if not, who approved these expenses that they don't like, right? And then have a conversation around that.
[Trish Schiapelli]: I think the passage of the override is disgraceful. I think that as we all know, the votes, and you had someone else on here that can speak to this, but the votes were counted behind closed doors and in an election office where you could peek through a window if you were lucky and not even that. with our revolution city councilor Matt Leming holding guard outside. And I know people who tried to go inside and were not allowed. The whole thing is suspect and very shady. And I know from talking to many people in the city, I can count on my two hands the number of people who actually voted for it. I think what's so sad is they, again, were lied to by this Our Revolution city councilor. They built this big program that you could go in and you could log in your house value and blah, blah, blah. I kept trying to tell people that calculator is not accurate. It is not going to be $45 a month. I will guarantee you that because they haven't taken into, nor can they, the new assessments that are going to hit in January before that tax override is added on top of the assessment. You know, for whatever reason, I think some people got that. It's interesting. Today I was talking to someone else and she said I was out there talking to a woman and she thought that 7.5% override was for the high school. So I mean, I think there's just really this misinformation out there that people really don't understand or know. what that seven and a half percent was, and I think they understand now, as they've gotten their tax bill, that the calculators weren't right.
[Trish Schiapelli]: They understand that. But, yeah.
[Trish Schiapelli]: And so based on some of the things that we've seen posted recently in our politics page, I understand the Department of Justice is actually investigating the whole state of Massachusetts with voter information. Yes, they are. After we have a handle on our finance and we understand where we truly are, I'd like to overturn the override in some fashion. I'm actually working on that and thinking about several different things and trying to figure out if there's a legal way to do that. And if so, what do we do? What's the easiest to do for the people? So anyway, more to come on that.
[Trish Schiapelli]: No, we really did.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Oh, a fun question. OK, great. So my least favorite thing to do in Medford is drive around and hit potholes all the time with my car. And then deal with the bike lane. I'm going to end up with a hood ornament someday. If there was ever anybody in there, I would probably have them as a hood ornament. But there's never anyone in there, thankfully. But it seems like. No one's in them, they're a pain in the neck, and all they do is make traffic worse that's already bad. And then another genius idea by the administration to just put bike lanes in regardless of whether the people want them. My favorite thing is I love our library. I love going to the library and perusing some books. I check out books there. I enjoy just spending a few quiet hours there. Everyone is very helpful and super nice, and it's just an enjoyable time when I get to go there.
[Trish Schiapelli]: And they have some nice events there as well.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Oh, that's great.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Absolutely.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Absolutely.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Well, if they haven't heard enough already and they want more opinions from me, they can e-mail me at Trish for Medford at gmail.com. So Trish, T-R-I-S-H, the number for Medford at gmail.com. Or text me. I have a phone number set up specifically for this at 617-620-7845. Again, that's 617-620-7845.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Thank you for having me.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Good evening, Trisha Kelly, 53 Garfield Avenue. So in my opinion, I agree that we do need more housing and we need a facelift in Medford and we do need to get up to date. I do not think, however, that we have done enough thought process and strategic thinking on this. My concern is that there's never been any conversation around what the infrastructure can handle with regard to electric. sewer, water, all the lead pipes that we have. So I feel to add more density without really fixing some of the things that we have first is going to cause brownouts. sewage backups during horrible, horrible storms and other issues. So I think that we need to fix what we have and then be thoughtful and in a process and then bring people in. What can the police handle? We've never had a conversation around that. What can fire handle? And why would you ever say that Medford, the gone are the days of the single family house, like some of the people on city council. That is what Medford was built on. And I feel like if the state can push back on the federal government for things they don't want to do, I believe that our city should be able to push back on the state with what the majority of homeowners, property owners, taxpayers and voters would like in the environment that they want to live. Thank you.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Hi, good evening. Patricia Ciappelli, 53 Garfield Avenue. I would like to say that the zoning is climate action and it's going to meet our climate goals is laughable. It's also laughable to say that it's going to meet our affordable housing. It is not. And to say that it's going to raise tax money, it will not. And the simple reason is the infrastructure studies haven't been done and the cost that it's going to take on wear and tear on our electric grids, on our sewer, on our water is going to be insurmountable and somebody is going to have to pay for that. And at the end of the day, if we're at a break-even, I would consider us lucky. So I think we do need to stick to, I am opposed to this. I think you need to go back and do the feasibility studies. Start from the beginning. Do it the right way. Don't cut corners. I understand this is a big project and we haven't done this before. All the more reason to do it the right way so we have the right knowledge. And so again, I'm against this. I am right in the thick of it. I love the neighborhood, but there's a better way to do it than this. And we are already in the hot, hot zone. If you look at a climate map, we are red, red, red. So to say we're gonna flip to green by adding more people doesn't work.
[Trish Schiapelli]: My name is Patricia Ciapelli, 53 Garfield Avenue. So it seems like we've missed a lot of the process. One community meeting does not a community outreach make. I appreciate the fact that you've walked back so much of the units because this is already according to the GIS map and environmental justice neighborhood. The map already has us in a very hot, dense zone. It's mostly yellow and red. If you look at that GIS map, we have 980 residents that are against and have signed a petition not to move forward with the Salem zoning the way that it was. There still is a lot of work that needs to be done, but I appreciate what you've done. However, until there's, I agree that some of the other density needs to be taking place, but let's try it in other areas of Medford. This is already a death trap for walking. I have lived here since 2013 and there have been three deaths. Salem Street is one of the hottest corridors for walking. So if people think they're going to go out there and walk and not take their life in their hands, guess again. Because I have been with one of those people that died on a Saturday night because I heard the accident and I came off my porch to go help the lady. It was horrible. And we just had another one the other night. So you need to do some research. You need to understand what the traffic is that goes up and down this. And you need to follow the comprehensive plan that you've set for the city already in place. Otherwise, you're going to have 980 very upset homeowners, taxpayers and voters. Thank you.
[Trish Schiapelli]: My name is Patricia Chappelle, 53 Garfield Avenue. So it seems like we've missed a lot of the process. One community meeting does not a community outreach make. I appreciate the fact that you've walked back so much of the units because this is already according to the GIS map and environmental justice neighborhood. The map already has us in a very hot, dense zone. It's mostly yellow and red. If you look at that GIS map, we have 980 residents that are against and have signed a petition not to move forward with the Salem zoning the way that it was. There still is a lot of work that needs to be done, but I appreciate what you've done. However, until there's, I agree that some of the other density needs to be taking place, but let's try it in other areas of Medford. This is already a death trap for walking. I have lived here since 2013 and there have been three deaths. Salem Street is one of the hottest corridors for walking. So if people think they're going to go out there and walk and not take their life in their hands, guess again. Because I have been with one of those people that died on a Saturday night because I heard the accident and I came off my porch to go help the lady. It was horrible, and we just had another one the other night. So you need to do some research. You need to understand what the traffic is that goes up and down this, and you need to follow the comprehensive plan that you've set for the city already in place. Otherwise, you're going to have 980 very upset homeowners, taxpayers, and voters. Thank you.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Well, thank you for having me, John. It's a pleasure to be here. I think in May of 2024, I found some information from some neighbors that there was a methadone dispensary that was going to be going in on Salem Street. As an abutter, I had never been notified. And when I started talking to many of my neighbors and people in the neighborhood, they had not been notified either that this methadone dispensary was coming in. And so through looking at where they were going to place the methadone dispensary, it was .2 miles from an elementary school. So I contacted the Attorney General's office and said, this is crazy. How can you let a methadone dispensary be .2 miles from an elementary school? You can't even put, and as he said to me, you can't even put a liquor store that close to an elementary school. I said, or a cannabis shop. He said, exactly. So, that's really what started and was the impetus to me gathering some neighbors together. What do you think of this? Are you concerned? What are we going to do about it?
[Trish Schiapelli]: Well, I think it's probably a couple of possibilities and maybe a combination, a little bit of everything. I think that the administration has their own agenda from the mayor all the way down to the city council members, the community development board, zoning, and just the list goes on. None of them in particular seem to have significant business experience, which is really there's processes involved. You get experience with how things should be managed. And their experience really for the city council consists of someone with a theater major. someone that couldn't get elected in Somerville, so they moved to Medford, and then they were elected to the City Council. You have someone on the City Council that has worked with some nonprofits and managed to bankrupt one of them. And you have a lot of career students. with very limited life experience and no business experience as it stands. They think of the people of Medford are not paying attention. And up until some of the recent things that have been happening throughout the city, that is probably very true. People became complacent. And look at the meetings. Our city council meetings are consumed with they all vote in a pack. They look at their historical trend of how they vote. There's only one outlier on the city council, and that's George Scarpelli. Other than that, you have six members. They all seem to vote alike. And you and I both know you can walk out there on the street. You're not going to get five people that agree on the color of the sky, what the temperature is. And yet, sadly enough, they all vote together. And they ran on a slate. I think they agreed behind closed doors, from what I've heard, that they all vote in a pact. And so that's what they're doing. And unfortunately, what that causes is we have lost democracy on our city council. This is not the democratic way. You should be having discussions. You should be having three and four people against and for something and arguing and having in-depth conversations. And we just don't have it. And one of the city councilors, just a few weeks ago, Collins said, we are elected to make decisions for you. No, that is not correct. You are elected to represent us and vote how we as constituents and taxpayers would want the vote to go.
[Trish Schiapelli]: So initially we went old school with standouts and this and that and the other thing and trying to go to the city council meetings and voice our opinions and it became very apparent that that isn't what they wanted to hear. So I think right now we are in the throes of legal action. I started reaching out to attorneys that I know to have conversations to start to figure out what are our legal options? Do we have legal options? And sadly, through the methadone experience, I quickly learned that they don't care what you think. And so, you know, people were completely blindsided with the fact that we were going to get a methadone dispensary. We gathered 550 signatures against the methadone dispensary. And that was gathered quickly. That was gathered quickly in weeks. We were running behind the eight ball with everything on that one. We were working weekends. And then it came time to show up to the final city council meeting. And we sent out emails and all the people that had been at the standouts, which was very obvious. People were pulling their cars over going, where is this methadone dispensary going? Right here. Well, there's a school 0.2 miles away. They couldn't believe it. How come we haven't heard of this? We even had people on West Medford signing our petition. And I said to one woman, I said, why are you signing our petition? This doesn't really affect you. She goes, it's Medford. We're all Medford. It affects all of us, right, for the city and how we are perceived. And so Everyone showed up at that city council meeting. Everyone was ready to voice. We had filled that gallery and we were shut down. The city council president, Zach Baer, said we will not be taking public comment. People were in outrage. I was worried somebody was going to go actually over the rails. It was that bad. And so George Scarpelli got a break, and they went in the back. And I think he said, you know, this is not going to be good for any of us if we don't let the people that came here to speak. Sadly, the majority of people had already left because they were just so frustrated. And I felt bad because I said, listen, if you really feel this strongly about the methadone dispensary in the neighborhood that close to a school, then please, show up. Tell them, I can't be the only voice. Ten of us can't be the only voice. Anyway, you know, they were just outraged. And George eventually got them to, who was left in the gallery, be able to come up and speak and things like that. And the reason I think people felt so strongly is that this Habit OpCo is really a company of bad actors. They have a long, long list of complaints. Every city that they have gone into. and every city that they manage from Lynn to Springfield, they're up in arms. And because they purchase the buildings, they really, they have, they're property owners. So there isn't anything that the city is going to do except ask them and they very vehemently say, you know, too bad we own the building. This same company recently, had an article written in the New York Times that there's a federal investigation going against them because they also own inpatient clinics for mental health and bipolar and things like that. And they were found, even the employees are testifying against them in the federal investigation and the federal lawsuit, that they hold people against their will. If you have the right kind of insurance, they're able to figure out that they're going to get paid, so they hold you against your will. I think that's really sad, and I think that fortunately we dodged a bullet by not letting that company into the parameters of our city. And one of the things that was so interesting in a lot of the research, our government, the Health and Human Services Division, went on to say and has done research around the methadone dispensaries, and there's a huge increase in human trafficking and things like that, and sex trafficking of children around those areas, which, you know, so close to an elementary school, it just makes me shudder to think that. And it was then that I decided, after all of that, that really legal action was the only course that we could have where we were going to get the results that we needed immediately.
[Trish Schiapelli]: So legal actions, unfortunately, did not just end with the methadone dispensary. Legal action and having a legal guidance, if you will, and an attorney on retainer is something that we continue with to this day. We believe that is our only avenue currently with this administration to really push back around if there's large numbers of people that are seeing things that they don't want. And the reason we have to do that is, think about it, the mayor hasn't had a solicitor in this town for three years, I believe. It's because the people have no legal guidance. Typically, you would be able to go to the city solicitor and say, this is what's happening. What do you think? But because we don't have that, we have no guidance for the community and for independent people to ask questions and confirm. She has then engaged a law firm that has allegiance to her because she's paying them, rightfully so, and now she can do whatever she wants, wherever she wants, and we are forced to live with it. Basically, she has carte blanche. And she's banking on the fact, and I believe, my opinion, that we don't have the wherewithal and we don't have the financial capacity to hire a law firm, a good law firm, a big Boston law firm that will represent us. We do. And we have. And while we do have the same law firm that represented us with the methadone dispensary, we have a different attorney. And we did that intentionally because the attorney that we now have has a municipality expertise and specialty, which is, we feel, something that we really needed going forward with some of the things that are going on in Medford currently. And he's gone up against KP Law. Our newest fight, as I'm sure you're aware, is the Salem Street debacle that's going on. And so he was able to put together and pen a very nice but strong legal letter as to why this shouldn't be taking place on Salem Street.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Oh, right, yes.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Exactly, yes. She's really dug in and learned a lot about that. Yes, she has.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Well, obviously, all of my neighbors are concerned. But then Sheryl Rodriguez, who we were just talking about, started a change.org petition online. And actually, as of last week, we had 980 verified signatures against the rezoning and against what the administration in this town wants to do. I think that's a strong number. There has, and it isn't, there just hasn't been any community outreach. And there was a meeting we were sitting in when they had just started talking about this and Kit Collins said, oh, if we could have knocked on every door in the Salem Street area, I would have wanted to talk to every neighbor and hear what they had to say and whether they were behind this. Well, you know, put that in an RFP then and have this Innis company, if they're the be all end all to community design and planning, they should be doing that. Put that in the RFP. That is your job to take care of the people in this area of your city and make sure that they are heard. The one thing that they're overlooking is that we are an environmental justice neighborhood. And that means, and this was put in the letter from our attorney at Richmond APC, and that is we are a racially diverse neighborhood. We are an economically diverse neighborhood. We are a multilingual neighborhood. And no notice or community outreach has been done in English let alone other languages for those that don't speak English. And that's not right. And this Salem Street rezoning has been in place since, I believe, July of last year. And the residents are just learning about it. And I find that crazy. And the first community engagement didn't happen until after they received our letter from the law firm. So that tells you that all of the people that raised concerns, many people say, oh, we brought it up. We wrote a letter. We called the Community Development Board. No action was going to be done until they got that our environmentally justice neighborhood is unhappy and the people need to be represented. So I think at the end of the day, we can all agree Salem needs a little facelift. It needs some love, right? But they have not followed processes set forth in their own procedures. They haven't done that. Therefore, by law, if you haven't notified abutters and if you haven't had community engagement, and it's not just one community engagement, one time at the elementary school, six months, seven months after you've already started the process, no. They have to go all the way back and start over from the beginning, and that is what we intend to make them do. There have been no traffic studies, no studies on the effect to the school enrollments. How is that going to affect it? No studies for safety, just our own safety in the neighborhood around fire and police. They're saying you can go four to six stories high and with eight foot between the buildings. Now, does that make common sense? Our streets are old. We are an older neighborhood. Very narrow. Sometimes if, on my street, if you have two cars parked on either side, the fire truck really has to finagle. And I'm like, I hope that guy's a good driver.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Exactly. And there are just so many other problems around Salem Street area. We are fortunate enough to have a trained engineer working with us, and we found out many, many things that need to take place. are not, and so we are bringing those all up together, and there will probably be another legal letter. But ultimately, we are interviewing attorneys for a class-action lawsuit regarding the Salem Street lack of process as defined by the law. It constitutes, from a couple of attorneys, a taking of land, if you will. And ultimately, above all other items, there's discrimination, right? We are an environmental justice neighborhood. We have certain rights. This isn't taking place in West Medford. Why is that, right? Why is nothing like this taking? So that is discrimination, and we intend, you know, to see where that can go, so.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Yeah, yeah. So that's really a loaded question, because there is so much going on. We could be here just for its own show, just on that, what's going on. But I do know that there is a 10-story dorm going in with Tufts in South Medford. The neighbors were very upset about that, and rightfully so. There's going to be 670-some people in that dorm. And as one of the neighbors said, I don't want 670 people staring at me when I'm in my backyard on a Saturday or Sunday morning. And that's not even the biggest part of it. The biggest part of it is they're losing sunlight. We already in New England don't have a lot of sunlight. There's sunlight studies. seem questionable at best, if you will. And, you know, so that's an issue. In fact, they are using our same attorney at Richmond. Those people in that neighborhood have banned together. Mystic Avenue is In the process of being rezoned, I hear 20 stories on the side that's near the water, which is crazy. You know, they want to put in all of this communal living and all of these dorms and all of this, and it's not really the neighborhood environment that people and that the homeowners, the taxpayers and the voters want to live in. There's St. Clair going up where we don't even know really what's going in there. It's supposed to be, it was originally supposed to be a domestic violence shelter then, but they referred to it in their business plan as recidivism, so recidivism and domestic violence. domestic violence victims shouldn't really be used in the same sentence, in my opinion. So there's a lot going on there. But again, all of these projects are going on all at the same time. And this, again, speaks to my point where the city lacks the experience and this administration lacks the experience because there isn't a business out there unless they are a staunch, sophisticated business that has done this for years and learned their lessons and made their mistakes and learned that would do this many projects at once. And so I would say, let's pick one project, do that one project, do it well, experience it, learn from a few mistakes, and then move on to the second project, not six projects. I hear you. Do it.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Well, I think that's the driving force behind all of these projects taking place. I think that that's a great question. And I think most people living in Medford would say, when you look around and you drive around, not much, not a lot. And it's as if the administration has had this epiphany that, oh my gosh, we've been in office X amount of years, and we haven't really done. People are still complaining about the streets. There's still lead in the water. There's still problems at the school. And so they're trying now to overcompensate for that because there's another election coming up. You know, the roads are awful and the schools are not being run efficiently, to your point, and the list just goes on. There's still no city solicitor, right? Why can't that be fixed in three years? And there's nothing but lawsuits. Nothing but lawsuits. And as someone that's, you know, run a business and run profit centers. If you're getting sued that often, someone should be figuring out why. You need to be having conversations. Who's getting all of the lawsuits? Is it one specific department? Is it one specific manager? Is it a group? Where is it coming from? And what is the impetus to that? And how do we stop it? How do we quell that from happening? But, you know, what they have accomplished is they've increased taxes. They've offered to give themselves salary increases. There's complete chaos in every single neighborhood except West Medford. Isn't that interesting? And I just think that there's a lot of reasons for many homeowners, taxpayers, voters, and citizens to have concern, a lot of concern.
[Trish Schiapelli]: I think people... They're starting to... And you know, that's the good thing, right? We were all very sleepy and I used to say, oh, ignorance was blessed. When I didn't know any of this stuff was going on, it was great. Now my whole life is consumed with it when I'm not at work. So, I think, and this is the benefit, they have woken up tens of thousands of people, taxpayers and voters, that are really ticked off and fed up. I hear it day in and day out.
[Trish Schiapelli]: I love Medford. I bought my home here in 2013, and I've lived here. I love being in a diverse neighborhood. I love its location to Cambridge, and you can be in and out of Boston very quickly. But it's not going to get better in Medford and keep the neighborhood feel until there's a change at the next election. I mean, that has to happen. And there are certain things that we need desperately to happen that this administration just will not allow. And one of the things is an audit, right? And we had asked Can we have an audit? Can we vote on that? And unfortunately, it's Massachusetts state law. It's the only state in the country that in order for a municipality to pull an audit, you need to have all 100% vote by the city council and the mayor has to agree to it. So, and it isn't that there's any necessarily wrongdoing. It's just that what we see even in business is dealing with the same vendors, if you will, which is what an audit firm is, they get a little complacent. and don't look as hard as they should. And then what can we ask for from them, right? We don't get line items. We should have line items. Was that department, so without having line items for departments with specific expenses, you have the ability to move funds around. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, as long as at the end of the day your dollars and cents balance out and you know technically where everything is. But the perfect example of not having a line item is they left $9 million in a checking account for a year. And they said, oops, we found a checking account. How do you leave $9 million in a checking account in an interest rate environment that hasn't existed in decades? Correct. And so $9 million at a 5% interest rate 100% collateralized, because you would never take a risk with public funds, right? Lost us $450,000 in one year, and if it had been there for two years, well, let's do the math, right? That's a lot of money. But again, You don't know that because you don't have line items, right? When you have line items, you know every single penny, where it is, and you list all of the financial institutions. And we need to have an ethics committee. I feel really very, very strong. The state has an ethics committee. We can model it after what the state does for an ethics committee. and set the rules of the road that everyone has to adhere to, whether you're a developer in the city, whether you're a business owner, whether you're a taxpayer, whether you're a city councilor, whether you're the mayor. Let's say here's the line in the sand, and this is where we don't go over it. And it has to happen. It just has to happen. And if not, my concern and my fear is that this administration is on the way to bankrupting the city of Medford. That's my greatest fear.
[Trish Schiapelli]: I mean, how many lawsuits can you take? Especially if we start a class action and especially if we do. I mean, you have 947, 980 people in And a class action lawsuit, that's going to be expensive.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Right, right, right. They didn't want to spend the money. They don't want to spend the money on that, but they'll spend the money on the lawsuits. They don't want to spend the money on hiring the right planning company that's going to do an RFP that's going to include going out. their comment to us when we said, well, you haven't even done traffic studies on Salem Street. Their comment to us is, well, when the businesses come in, they'll do their traffic study. When what they want to build comes into play, why do we have to do 10 different traffic studies that we, you know, we do one traffic study, then you know where you go, right? And they do it a little bit backwards. It's almost like you need to run the city with a business plan. What do we need for money and where are we going to get it? And how are we going to divide that money up that we want to get between the homeowners and the taxpayers and the businesses and the new businesses coming in and how can we attract people here that are going to help that?
[Trish Schiapelli]: Okay.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Patricia Ciappelli. 53 Garfield Avenue. I just wanted to make sure that the Community Development Board got our legal letter from a group of neighbors this evening. We have 837 people that have voted no for this corridor expansion. No one has been included in any community involvement questions. All we hear is, we think you need, we've decided. What about the voters and the taxpayers? I feel confident in the next week, we will have over a thousand people in this neighborhood that do not want this corridor. This is a social justice neighborhood, as our legal letter imply, who have done nothing to offer any kind of, there's language barriers, nothing has been done in another language, nothing has been done regarding a reverse 911 call. And I think it's despicable the way this has been hidden from the neighbors and the constituents in this neighborhood. Salem Street, if you would even bother to come over here at six o'clock in the morning and six o'clock at night, you would see bumper to bumper traffic. And I think this is all of this rezoning. It is just too much, too fast, too big, too dense. It is not what this neighborhood needs and nothing that the voters, the homeowners and the taxpayers want. And we all know that, you know, you have to do something to expand some of the living. But this is ridiculous. It's not taking into concern the neighborhood at all. And we are prepared to take legal action.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Patricia Ciapelli, 53 Garfield Avenue. I think it's important to note that the residents, the voters, the taxpayers, the homeowners that have made this neighborhood are against this. They have rights just as everyone else does. And we are ready to appeal this and fight this in court however we have to. Thank you.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Hi, I'm at 53 Garfield Avenue in Medford. And I just want to say that, you know, if you do your research on the owners of the building, and some of the president of the yellow house, you will find some questionable dealings listed. And I think that as the Community Development Board and the city, you owe it to us residents to do your due diligence. I think we're tired of being told what we're going to live with when we're the taxpayers and homeowners in this area. We have voting rights. We have the ability to live in an environment that we wish. And as someone that grew up in a home with domestic violence, to say that you're gonna take someone that is a domestic violent person and leave them in the same city where their abuser is, is absolutely crazy. That means you know nothing about the industry at all. And if that is the case, then they will be sought after because the abusers do not walk away without coming after what they want. So I suggest you rethink and you reconsider before you approve this, because this is not the place to have the violence in this neighborhood with the taxpayers and the homeowners trying to raise their own children. Thank you so much.
[Trish Schiapelli]: Patricia Ciappelli, 53 Garfield. So one of the comments was last to the table, and I would say that's about right for Medford because nowhere did we apply for any road grants, which the federal government granted to Everett. They granted it to Somerville, and Springfield got $15 million in road grants. So what are we doing about that? Grants for the water and sewer are up and available now. What are we doing about that? Yet we're told, oh, you have to come up with the $200 million for that. $9 million sat in a checking account. In the highest interest rate times, in something conservative with a decent interest rate, you lost us $450,000 in one year's time. How long? In two years? You tell me. So we still haven't learned our lesson because I chased down Ted to say, why am I on the DLS website and it's showing me something different for the rate that our taxes would be coming up? And he said, oh, you added in the fire station. I said, well, of course I did. That's coming up next year. So people need to plan. So again, we haven't planned like we should three years, five years. We're just looking one year ahead. What do we need for one year? When the fact is, people who live on budgets actually do have to plan three and five years ahead.
[Trish Schiapelli]: We can only do expenses we can afford, but we can do an electric street sweeper. So my question to you is, why would I trust this administration with another dime of my money?
[Trish Schiapelli]: Patricia Ciapelli, 53 Garfield Avenue. As an abutter to the methadone dosing facility at the end of my street, I was never notified. There's a reason why legal notices are to be sent certified mail. Then imagine my surprise when I find out this firm is the same firm that has wreaked havoc in Lynn, Springfield, Lowell, and Boston, Mass and Cass, where people defecate and urinate in the streets, and the engagement center had to be closed because the employees were afraid to go to work. We have gathered hundreds of voters' signatures, hundreds, over the past few weeks against this facility coming to our neighborhood, and we will continue to gather more. People from North Medford, West Medford, Brooks, Lawrence Estates area, when we asked them, why are you signing our petition? This doesn't affect you or your neighborhood. They responded, it's Medford, and we've heard about this company. We don't want them in Medford. We already assist those afflicted with this horrible disease. We have 10 locations within two miles of just downtown Medford. You recently asked for a 2.5% override for our taxes to fund the schools for additional programs because you care about our children. Do you really? Does putting a methadone dosing facility 0.2 miles from an elementary school speak to your care for the children? Or is prostitution and walking through needles on the street to get to school a new program of education you are offering? I can't believe you let Habit Opco be in charge of their own traffic study. This is a horrible way to run the city. We trust you to provide a checks and balances on how you produce your business and how you make your decisions. You are the equivalent of a publicly held company and we are your stakeholders. You owe us the complete transparency on information and financing. Recently, the Administration for Children and Families, a division of Health and Human Services, recently held a human trafficking and the opioid crisis webinar conference. Dr. Catherine Chong stated, there is an intersection where opioid users and human trafficking cross. We have learned that human traffickers are increasingly recruiting in drug rehabilitation facilities and other similar programs because they see the vulnerability when someone is trying to recover from opioid or substance use. They are also focusing on the parents that come to those facilities and exploit their children. How do we know this would stop here, given the close proximity to any neighborhood or elementary school where they want to come back? The Glenwood area has received your message loud and clear. We are a racially, ethnically, and economically diverse neighborhood. It is clear you are blatantly discriminating against us. You may be the Our Revolution, but we are the Take Back Medford. Nice to meet you.