[Music] good afternoon everybody [Music] my name is ed flynn i am the city council president viewers can watch this city council meeting live on youtube by visiting boston.gov city council dash tv i would like to ask my colleagues in those in attendance to please silence their cell phones in electronic devices at this time thank you please also be respectful and do not disrupt the meeting while you are here if you are disruptive you will be asked to leave if you fail to comply you will be escorted out please also note according to the city council rules there are no signs allowed in the chamber mr clerk will you please call the role to ascertain the presence of a quorum edwards councilor fernandez anderson council of flaherty council of flynn yeah council lara console thank you i've been informed by the clerk that a quorum is present um introduction of the clergy this week's clergy is muhammad who was invited by council of fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson if you would like to come up to the podium with with muhammad he's with iknow relief and i'm honored to have muhammad join us i wanted to introduce muhammad abdullahim today he is a muslim that grew up in the city of boston and became engaged in informing people about the wonders and beauty of islam and the islamic way of life he currently teaches islamic studies at the isbcc and he also works at the national muslim service organization named ichna relief in short he is a powerful and passionate advocate a religious leader and a scholar of the highest order and i am proud and humbled that he has seen fit to grace us with his presence today um in the spirit of ramadan uh ramadan mubarak and welcome brother muhammad thank you just uh just quickly um tanya fernandez thank you for the uh warm welcome but just one correction i i'm not a scholar of the highest evidence um i hope to be one day insha allah a god willing um so tanya as she was getting off the stage she said a very special term she said ramadan mubarak we are in the month the blessed month of ramadan which is a very holy month for us as muslims and this month allah tells us in the in the quran the holy scripture bismillah ramadan ramadan is a blessed month that the quran was revealed to us in that month allah chose the quran to be revealed in this month of all of the months so it is a very special time for us as muslims and we welcome it with open hands we actually have from the tradition of our prophet peace be upon him for the six months after ramadan in the six months preceding ramadan he is in prayer asking allah that we reach the month of ramadan just to reach the blessings of allah so that's just an introduction to to the month that we are currently in and also i wanted to say may allah it's just the creator of the universe for all of us that are non-muslim it's the same thing as saying creator of the universe so we would like allah to purify our intentions because that is one thing that we all know that gets out of hand a lot of times and we have to keep that in check and it's actually from the tradition of the muslim to continuously purify their intentions so may allah purify our intentions i ask all of you today to keep in mind that we are here in unison we are here to see how we can better this world together muslim and non-muslim just mankind in general we are here to better uh our society and especially here the the city of boston because that's where we all reside in so may allah make this a fruitful discussion today a fruitful meeting thank you so much for allowing me to come and speak and introduce myself and introduce this month of ramadan is pointing at me did i forget something yes of course so okay great so if you guys don't mind standing and joining us in this prayer so we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the creator of the universe to allow allow this to be a great discussion where we discuss the things that we all need and that the city of boston needs and may allah grant us the ability to see the right from the wrong just like in the ayah in the quran it says it is a clear distinction between right and wrong may allah grant us that vision to tell which is right and which is wrong thank you so much again and i will leave it off to whatever is going to come up thank you salaam thank you mohammed for those inspiring words and please know the boston city council is is with the muslim community during this ramadan period um if you're able to will you please stand and join us um join us in the pledge of allegiance thank you muhammad and thank you council fernandez anderson for inviting muhammad here now on to the first order of business which is the approval of the minutes seeing and hearing no discussion on the matter the chair moves to approve the minute minutes from the last meeting as presented all those in favor of approving the minutes from the last meeting say aye all opposed saying the eyes have it thank you the meeting of the last minute stand as approved communication from her honor the mayor mr clerk please read docket zero four six three docker number zero four six three message and order for your approval in order authorizing the city of boston to submit to the massachusetts school building authority msba two statements of interest the statement of interest describes and explains the deficiencies and the priority categories for which the city of boston may be invited to apply to the massachusetts school building authority in the future thank you mr cleric doc at zero four six three we'll be referred to the committee in ways and means mr clerk please read doc at zero four six four doctor number zero four six four message and order for your approval a revised order authorizing the city of boston to submit to the massachusetts school building authority msba statement of interest for its accelerated repair program for the following schools haley pilot school curly k through 8 school lower building burke high school henderson k through 12 inclusion school upper campus rmberger school and english high school thank you dr zero four six four will be referred to the committee on ways and means matt has recently heard for possible action mr clerk please read doc at zero three two one doctor number zero three two one petition for a special log regarding securing environmental justice in the city of boston thank you the chair recognizes council royal chair of the committee on government operations council arroyo you have the floor thank you mr chair uh the committee on government operations held a working session on monday april 4th on docket 0321 petition for a special law regarding securing environmental justice in the city of boston which was sponsored by council lydia edwards i'd like to thank my council colleagues for attending councillor flynn councillor lara councillor mejia councillor murphy council flaherty councilor bach and council warrell this home rule petition would declare that a state of emergency exists in the city of boston with regards to environmental injustice and climate change if passed this legislation would amend the bpda's enabling acts and remove public services corporation's ability to seek an exemption to all boston zoning laws by petitioning the state department of public utilities instead this legislation will give the building commissioner the authority to enforce environmental justice standards if the commissioner determines that a use or proposed use of a building structure or land in the city would negatively impact environmental rights afforded to residents by state law the building commissioner would have the authority to issue a stock work order or suspend any issued permits licenses or authorizations associated with the use or proposed use at the working session the committee heard from several environmental justice advocates about the urgency of securing environmental justice in boston and protecting local communities the utility company representative stated that they believe that existing state regulations provided sufficient environmental justice protections the sponsor clarified that the legislation would grant extra authority to the building commissioner and that more specific building standards can be crafted by the zoning commission and the building commissioner if the state passes this there was a suggestion on language be added specifying that the process of deciding those building standards shall be guided by the needs of community through a civic engagement process so while we wait to receive specific language amendments that were discussed at the working session we're recommending uh that this remains in committee thank you council of royal wouldn't any of our colleagues like to speak in this matter talk at zero three two one we'll remain in committee mr clerk please read dawk at zero two nine five doctor number zero two nine five order for a hearing to explore municipal bonds and other fiscal options to increase affordable housing and community investments the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson chair of the committee in ways and means council fernandez anderson you have the floor can we can we refer back because i i left my report yes thank you mr clerk can we um go on to doc at 0-3-1-3 and we'll return to docket 0-2-9-5 docker number 0-3-1-3 message in order for an appropriation order in the amount of 20 uh 27 million two hundred and five thousand eight hundred and fifty four dollars from fiscal year 2022 community preservation fund revenues for community preservation projects at the recommendation of the city of boston community preservation committee thank you the chair recognizes council flaherty chair of the committee and community preservation act council flaherty of the law thank you mr president last night we held a great hearing on dark at zero three one three uh the appropriation for the uh 27 plus million for the cpc i want to thank my colleagues who join me and obviously a special thank you to the vice chair uh counselor kenzie bach who helped finish out the hearing with the zoom testimony as well as central staff who worked late to accommodate the evening hearing as someone who led the efforts on this body to help get cpa passed along with some of my colleagues and many many constituents and advocates and voters across the city this hearing is my favorite hearing each year it's the opportunity for us to see a great program evolve and continue to grow and you see more folks get excited about it i think you referenced it last night and after you had left other folks that spoke i referenced your comments about uh talking about something that just brings people and brings communities together it's it's the cpa as i believe in vision with that said we heard following testimony from maureen garcia we heard from chief dillon deputy director jessica boatwright chief miriam hammond ryan woods the commissioner of parks courtney whalen and julian lang from historic preservation and last but not least is dating brown deputy director of the community preservation and she did she does a phenomenal job as referenced and also folks that testified talked about how they dean makes them feel like they're the only applicant um and uh she goes to great lanes to make sure that they have all their information in ducks in line and in that uh whatever is missing or her outreach as well can we do better always we can always do better but if any program in the city is working and is reaching out as best they can it's this group and they'll continue to do so as referenced by our colleagues questions uh last night now the breakdown is as follows 27 million in change we'll go 14 million 660 1559 dollars will go to affordable housing projects uh six billion hundred forty one thousand three hundred fifty seven dollars will go to historic preservation projects and six million four hundred four thousand three hundred thirty eight in recreational use in open space projects so that to date over 92 million has been awarded to 198 projects spanning across the city and with the approval of this appropriation i will be awarding 119 million over to 250 projects since the funding began in 2018. so during the course of the hearing we had robust public testimony in favor of the uh of the proposed project so all of them very deserving including testimony from some of our youngest residents in the city advocating for uh projects that impacted their school their community and others as chair of the community i'd like this mounted remaining committee just to allow for some further public comment given that the hearing went late and we want to make sure that folks that wanted the opportunity to advocate on behalf of these three these three buckets of affordable housing historic preservation and open space have the opportunity to do so in which case i look forward to putting a committee report together uh for this party to consider to vote on next wednesday and uh if any of my other colleagues who the chair would like to speak they happen happy to accommodate that and we'll have this thing turned around by next wednesday thank you mr president thank you council flaherty any of our colleagues like to speak on this matter just want to say thank you to councillor flaherty and council of bark and central staff the mayor's office that was here last night working late we appreciate everything in your leadership on this important issue as council flaherty highlighted the community preservation act is an opportunity for neighbors to come together work with city officials learn about city government and also improve the quality of life of their neighborhood so it's a tremendous program uh thank you council flaherty dr0313 will remain in committee we're moving on to um council fernandez anderson um mr cork can you please read docket zero two nine five please document zero two nine five order for a hearing to explore municipal bonds and other fiscal options to increase affordable housing and community investments the the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson chair of the committee on ways and means council fernandez anderson you have the flaw thank you mr president uh the chair the committee on ways of means held a hearing to explore a prospect of opportunities for more housing or creating more affordable housing by way of bonds and we i'd like to thank the administration i'd like to thank my lead uh the lead co-sponsor or the lead sponsor and my lead my co-sponsor um on this hearing and it will remain in basically will remain in committee and we just basically had a robust conversation about the possibilities administration broke down where bonds was they gave us a lot of back and forth not back and forth but explanations as to what the risks are and in terms of what the possibilities are they say they would go back to us with projections of what those numbers actually look like i don't know if my co-sponsors like to say anything else about it but i think that we definitely saw a possibility of exploring bonds and we'll be happy to report more as we go thank you council fernandez anderson would any of our colleagues like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes um council illusion council illusion you have the floor conversation yesterday around bonds i want to thank the administration uh justice starrett maureen garcia and jim williamson um we came and we talked about bonds we talked about our uh our um about our general uh debt policy but also about you know what would it look like to increase uh to increase our debt service or to actually change our our repayment schedule so that our bond repayments are a smaller fraction of our overall budget which would give us flexibility to do a lot more we obviously have been as a city always touting this triple a bond rating which a lot of us are very proud of in the city but a lot of that is built on a strong economy that is often uh entrenched in inequities in our city and so exploring ways in which we can actually uh attack these issues like affordable housing like community investments like in more infrastructure um in neighborhoods that have been forgotten and excluded and leading into our fiscal strength through our bond policy is one way to do that so i want to thank everyone who participated in that conversation uh you president flynn councillors mejia and um uh obviously my co-sponsors uh councilor bach and and custer fernand and anderson both of whom have presented really great ideas around housing and how we can use uh combine our cities fiscal strength with uh whether it's what we need to do under the fair cloth amendment to get more social housing bills or rental home options i think this really does present us with a really great opportunity to pay for and do the things that we need to do in community uh to address the urgency of the crises that we're facing here as a city so it's just the beginning of a conversation and i think the chair holding it and everyone who leaned into it because i know it can seem pretty dry like bond policy but it is really important it's how we pay for a lot of things that we need to get done so i appreciate this hearing and look forward to further conversations thank you thank you council oh and also just want to thank uh counselor former city councilor josh sacombe and professor ben bradlow who came and provided really great testimony and really i think did a great job of of uh centering the urgency of the issues we face and how the our bond policy can can can be a tool here thank you council john the chair recognizes council bloc council bloc you have the flow thank you so much mr president and thank you also to my co-sponsors counselor fernandez anderson and councillor louis jen the lead sponsor um this was a great hearing to have i won't summarize it because they've both done so so well but um it's just exciting to me you know the last time we were having a version of this conversation it was last term and the mayor was a co-sponsor on that and so i think that you know talking to our a f team and and seeing the kind of desire and willingness in the council to really bond for housing in a new and robust way i think like the stars are aligning i hope for us to really talk about that at scale in boston and i just want to stress in this forum that you know when you look at the west coast cities la san francisco portland many of which are in very similar acute housing situations as us each of them in the last five years have put out bonds for a billion dollars on housing and i just think that um you know in the same way that we talked about uh bonding for you know a billion dollars over 10 years for bps with the bill bps strategy i think the time has come to talk about that here and i think that the reality is that there are ways to there are ways to adjust our our policy and even within our policy some of our efficiencies in getting capital spending to actually happen in ways to kind of make room for that type of serious investment and so yeah just really really grateful to the colleagues for um relaunching this conversation and and as everyone knows i'm i think we should be in the business of building more public housing in the city and that we can we're authorized by the feds to build another 2500 units so i hope this is a conversation that we can have aggressively and move forward in the coming months so thank you mr president thank you council book anyone else like to speak on this matter at this time dark at 0295 will remain in committee we're going on to we're going on to motions orders and resolutions mr clerk please read docket zero four six five talking number zero four six five counselors world and louisiana offer the following petition for a special law relative to an act authorizing additional licenses for the sale of alcoholic beverages to be drunk on the premises in boston thank you the chair recognizes council morale councilwell you have the floor i like to suspend and add council arroyo to the docket seeing and hearing no objections council royal was added as the original third co-sponsor all right thank you president flynn and thank you to my co-sponsors council louis jen and councillor arroyo i also want to acknowledge the work that congresswoman presley has done on liquor licenses here in the city of boston out of the 1400 liquor licenses in the city only two restaurants have liquor licenses in matapan and only six on blue hill live um in this home petition we are being intentional by creating liquor licenses for those established restaurants in the neighborhoods of dorchester hyde park and mattapan because we must do more and create equity and liquor licensing i must admit this home repetition is a little selfish of me because like many of our other residents i too want to be able to eat watch the game and enjoy a don julio responsado knee in my own neighborhood liquor license in these areas will help our small locally owned restaurants re-establish themselves after coming through a negative impacts of cover 19. this is an opportunity for us to use our powers to help create local revenue and local jobs and create a clear pathway to small business owners to recover through the creation of capacity-sized liquor licenses we will help the small restaurants establish financial sufficiency generating the revenue to expand and the ability to create more jobs in our neighborhoods this is why we must make sure we increase all liquor licenses each year it's about the economic health of all of our neighborhoods i'm looking forward to discussion and on the discussion around what is the correct amount of liquor license needed thank you thank you council we're all the chair recognizes council of jean council january of the floor thank you mr president i just want to thank uh council morale for introducing this home rule petition it's really important that we do everything we can like light council overall i would also like to have more restaurants in my neighborhood where i can just hang out have a good time with my friends and obviously in our neighborhoods um like matapan like high parks or parts of dorchester those are hard to come by and we know that it's been really difficult and as as councilwoman stated uh now congresswoman ayanna preston really led the charge here and there's still a lot more work to do to get liquor licenses into our neighborhoods obviously that's hard when we have to go to the state each time i've been following on the work that we did last week trying to get uh restricted liquor licenses along with my co-sponsor counselor mejia in roxbury this is continuing part of that same uh dialogue and i think uh counselor wore out for his creativity on ways that we can address that uh for our entrepreneurs and our startup restaurants and businesses and to think creatively about how we can automize uh automate having an increase in these licenses in the future so thank you for your leadership and i look forward to working with you on this thank you council john the chair recognizes councillor arroyo council royal you have the four thank you uh mr president uh and thank you councilworld and council louisiana for moving this forward uh as many counselors no i don't actually drink but i recognize the competitive disadvantage that restaurants without liquor licenses find themselves at in the city when it comes to surviving as a business in the city we know that there's also a difference in the quality of food at restaurants that have liquor licenses in terms of the ability to offer sit-down services as opposed to take out services and when they did a study at the boston public health commission on sort of the butterfly effect of things like this what ended up being found was due to the lack of liquor licenses in some way in a place like matapan uh what actually that cascaded towards was a lack of sit-down restaurants and that led to a lack of food options and healthy food options for residents which then led to health impacts on our communities and so many of these things that may not seem to have any sort of intersectionality with other really important aspects of quality of life in our neighborhoods do and so there's a competitive reason to do this there's a smart small business keeping dollars local reason to do this and there's also distinct health impacts and benefits of doing something like this in neighborhoods that have not seen the kind of liquor license access like high park like matapan like dorchester that other places specifically downtown and other places have seen um and you know this is something that i hope we continue to do i hope that there's an automated way to continue to increase uh those numbers because frankly the liquor license process is a little arcane and i don't really believe beneficial to business in the city period other cities that have different liquor license processes have healthier restaurant industries have healthier bar industries have healthier sort of hospitality industries and i think you know ultimately this is something that has been uh a fight for the council for a very very very very long time when it comes to liquor licenses and preserving the value of people who have liquor licenses and i do wonder in the future whether or not there's uh space to look at whether or not we have the ability to sort of purchase out as a city some of these liquor licenses and and really move towards creating a brand new process uh at some point in time but in in the guidelines and in the rubrics and the ways in which we're supposed to do this now i think this is a good start so thank you to the counselors thank you mr president thank you council royal would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to add their name please raise your hand mr kirk please add counselor bach council braden council flaherty council lara council mejia council murphy please add the chair government docket zero four six five will be referred to the committee on government operations mr kirk please read talk at zero four six six docking number zero four six six councilor arroyo offered the following an ordinance creating a municipal identification card in the city of boston thank you the chair recognizes uh council royal council royal you have the flow thank you uh mr president i'm very excited to introduce uh municipal identification or an ordinance to create municipal identification for the city of boston this has been a long time coming uh there was a study done in 2018 exploring the feasibility of this and what services residents would want but other major cities like new york los angeles chicago have already successfully done municipal identification programs and the great part about the musical identification program is it gives boston residents sort of a one card fits all situation so in chicago for instance their municipal residence id cards allow them to access the mbta it serves as what our charlie cards would serve as their venture card so their identification actually works as their t card it also works as their boston uh their chicago public library card so the goal here is to create a municipal id that sort of centers city services on one card but also does things like new york's card which new york's card gives you benefits to cultural institutions it gives you uh sales and discounts to tickets to the museums and to the to their zoos into their different uh city institutions and so it gives this one sort of resource-rich card access the wonderful part about municipal identification is that it allows us to be more inclusive in the city and who has id's we need ids for many different things and some standards for ids are are very difficult for folks who are here with proper documentation or without proper documentation to attain this would allow folks under a very strenuous list of requirements to preside uh identification of who they are to the agency that will issue these but also that they live here this gives the opportunity to create a very inclusive city and to send a message that boston is a gateway city is a city uh that is looking to be as inclusive and welcoming to all who who call boston home and so i am excited to move forward with this uh we have very workable examples that now exist in other cities uh this is no longer a new idea this has already sort of started to take root and has been in place for several years and other municipalities so we're we're sort of following up on that but this is something that really should uh exist and really will go a long way to improving the lives and residents in the city of boston and so i look forward to introducing this into moving this through thank you mr president thank you council royale would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to would anyone else like to add their name please raise your hand mr clerk please add counselor bach council braden councillor edwards council fernandez anderson council flaherty council lara councillor gen council at mejia council murphy council royale please add the chair talk at 0 4 6 6 will be referred to the committee on government operations yeah mr clark please amend the attendance report to include counselor edwards as president mr clerk please read docket zero four six seven document number zero four six seven councillors flynn and braden offer the following in order for a hearing to discuss pest control in the city of boston thank you mr clerk uh the chair now recognizes councilor flynn councilor flynn you have the floor thank you council royal may i suspend rule 12 and add council murphy as an original sponsor seeing and hearing no objection council murphy is so added counselor flynn you have the floor thank you um thank you to my colleagues council braden and council murphy but also all of my colleagues that have been working diligently on pest control related issues whether it's over the last couple months or over the last several years this is this is an issue that i receive i receive many calls on each day throughout throughout my district south boston the south end chinatown bay village in other areas it's a public health situation it's a public safety situation and it's a quality of life concern for me and for residents of the city when discussing rodent control we also need to talk about illegal dumping that's happening across our city but also talking about the proper way to take out a trash barrel and part of that has to be an educational component to residents on the effective improper way of taking out a barrel and how to store it and how to clean it it seems simple but these quality life issues are critical it's important that we discuss pest control because it's literally it's literally impacting every neighborhood across the city and i'm going to hopefully work with my colleagues in advocating for more funding during during the budget process to address this critical issue so again i want to say thank you to all of my colleagues to mayor will and her team i've been on several walk walk arounds on various neighborhoods with with public works with code enforcement with inspectional services especially in the south end about this issue so again i want to say thank you to the dedicated city employees that work in this issue on this issue but they need more support from from us as well thank you council royale thank you councillor flynn the chair now recognizes uh braden councillor braden floor is yours thank you mr chair and thank you to president flynn for continuing to include me as a co-sponsor in this important topic pest control and pest and rodent infestations are certainly a big issue all across our city and in neighboring municipalities as we hear in the news about other newton and somerville and cambridge all have the same similar problems but also brighton has alston has achieved the dubious honor of being named rat city for a reason uh and with the vast influx of development occurring in in the neighborhood we are seeing many many more complaints from um from residents about the increased presence of rodents in our in our in our yards and in our in our streets and in our restaurants uh not in our restaurants but around our outdoor dining facilities and in our restaurants we also have a huge number of absentee landlords many of whom are not are not do not provide adequate as trash receptacles and do not keep their premises clean and tidy to prevent rat infestation the other concern we have is we just heard in a recent hearing that we're no longer going to be able to put mattresses into into on trash day put them out on trash day it's a big concern that as we change these rules about mattress disposal beginning in november that we will we can anticipate an increase instance of illegal dumping and inappropriate disposal that would further increase rat infestations across our city so i look forward to the conversation i hope that this is a perennial conversation i think we've been talking about this for years but i hope that we can continue to push for add more adequate funding to help address these issues and also to see if we can innovate and and come up with good solutions this is not just a a problem with the rodents themselves but also with human behaviors and how we dispose how we live in an urban setting and try and try and limit the opportunities for rodent infestations it's not rocket science rodents have a hierarchy of needs water food and shelter and if we can educate our residents about appropriate trash disposal etc hopefully we can move move the dial on on some of these issues thank you thank you councillor braden chair now recognizes councillor murphy thank you so many neighborhoods across the city we know has have a rodent problem i've had one for years on my street so i'm happy to join president flynn and councillor braden to tackle this issue like council of flynn said this is a quality of life and a public health issue and my office gets calls and emails all the time not just from austin brighton which i know most of the calls do come from but from neighborhoods across you know every neighborhood in the city so i look forward to the work ahead thank you thank you councillor murphy would anyone else like to speak on this matter uh see councillor mejia councilman here the floor is yours yep uh thank you to the makers really excited to have this conversation just want to point out a few things one in terms of accountability we also need to lean into developers right in terms of how they do business here in the city of boston because when development happens in our city um we see a high influx of of rodents and i think that's something that we need to lean into in terms of who needs to be on our target list and then i also want to uplift landlords right landlords also have a role to play in this so i think that it's great that we are including them and then um it's also important for us as a city to look at bha um and management companies there are a lot of folks the cdcs that get money to support and be property managers but i get calls all the time from parents and families who are dodging literally rats every single day and and you know don't see themselves really being heard so i think that in terms of accountability we need to ensure that we're bringing the management companies into these conversations because they also have a role to play in how we deal with this situation and i think you know i always think back about during remote learning there were a lot of young people who were afraid to turn on their cameras because they were afraid that their their classmates would see rodents cockroaches and mice pass across the screen and i think that that speaks volumes to the the social and emotional impact that uh this is also making on our students so i just wanted to lift that up thank you councilmember here uh counselor lara the floor is yours thank you chair i just wanted to thank president flynn and the other co-sponsors i think that this is a unique opportunity for us to collaborate with other neighboring cities i think as councilor braden mentioned this is an issue that is a regional issue city councilor at large from somerville charlotte kelly um famously ran her campaign uh with a wrap plan for summerville and somerville has a free um pest control assistance program that they run that they offer to homeowners and so there's a lot of there's opportunity for us to innovate and there's also a lot of best practices that are already put in place by our counterparts and surrounding cities and so my hope is that we can invite them to talk about what they've implemented and how we can recreate some of that here in the city of boston as well thank you council lara chair now recognizes council of flaherty council florida the floor is yours thank you mr chair uh please add my name and just through the maker just suggesting that we bring obviously isd and maybe the fire department the solution to this issue is dry ice the problem is apparently someone has patented it in it that was called rat ice so it now requires our road and control division when they want to administer this which is the safest and most humane way to address the issue they have to get in a vehicle drive up to woburn and get what's called a label which is basically a permit they then have to turn around and then go down to rockland and pick up the dry ice and then come back to the city of boston colossal waste of time so we need to figure out a way through isd maybe our fire department maybe the council through ordinance to allow the inspection service department to get dry ice um right over at the new market area which is where they used to get it before someone got cute or smart or whatever term you want to put on it and they've now patented it which now prevents municipalities like boston to be able to utilize a very useful tool to combat rodent infestation and for those that know anything about the norwegian rat and how they migrate and how they repopulate all that stuff reproduce you know that um the baiting and the traps only go so far but also when you have experts in here which we've had uh experts in this chamber they talk about they've almost become immune to some of the the the pesticides the bait that we're using in fact they've built up such a tolerance uh that you know in the old days you would only take a little bait would work now you literally have to put a basically a pound of bait um to be able to sort of just to be able to maintain some sense of catching up dry ice eliminates all that and so you think about the rats that have borrowed uh in the common and or all of our parks or around our bha developments walk along the bha developments when you take tours in your district and see all the rat holes along sides of the building dry ice will solve that problem almost instantaneously so again through the maker if you could make sure that we get isd maybe the fire department maybe even state regulators because this is there's a solution to this problem it's very simple it's dry ice however our hands are tied because someone has patented in his regulations that oversee it thank mr thank you councillor flaherty the chair recognizes councillor flynn yeah thank you thank you um council royale and i i certainly agree with my colleague council flaherty we will have that discussion here about dry ice we will have the appropriate city agencies and that is our plan is to try to come up with the solution where we have easy access city city officials have easy access to dry ice because that's a huge that's a huge asset for us in dealing with dealing with this issue i was in the south end um in one of the public alleys a lot two weeks ago and um the amount of rodents and rats in that area the only way they could kill them is through through dry ice but the the other aspect i feel to mention that i want to mention now since i have the opportunity the city is coming out with the composting city-wide so we also want to make sure that when the city of boston comes out with the composting plan that there's a huge educational aspect to it it's not as simple as just disposing of the of the food waste there's a there's a process to it that residents need to be educated the the other aspect is we also need to educate our residents that don't speak english and we have to have a a campaign around around the city in various languages so that we can educate people in different languages about this quality of life this public health i call it emergency really so thank you thank you to council flaherty and when i do when we do have this committee hearing um my goal is to keep it in keep it open so that we can meet on it every every month or so with various experts continue to learn about it and continue to make progress on it i had the opportunity to talk to the city of newton last month the city of new york has an excellent rodent pest control program um but a lot of good cities are doing great work on this on this issue it's about also about working together so again i want to say thank you to my colleagues for their interest and their work on this issue for um for a long period of time thank you thank you mr joe thank you counselor flynn uh chair recognizes councillor bach thank you uh mr chair i just wanted to dovetail on that to say that as the chair of city services um i i very much think this is like the it is like the ultimate in like basic city services and like what does it mean to have a clean and sanitary city and so definitely look forward to working with the president and the co-sponsors around both holding that hearing and um as he suggested keeping it open making sure that that's an ongoing conversation throughout the term so looking forward to it thank you mr chair thank you councillor bach would anyone else like to add their name uh please add mr clark please add counselor bach please add counselor edwards please add counselor fernandez anderson please add counselor flaherty please have counselor lara please add counselor louis jen please add counselor mejia please add council warrell and please add my name seeing no further docket0467 will be assigned to the committee on city services and innovation technology thank you mr clerk thank you thank you council royal mr clerk please read docket zero four six eight doctor number zero four six eight councilor mejia offered the following in order for a hearing on establishing a mental health curriculum in boston public schools the chair recognizes council mejia council me here you have the four thank you mr president um and i would like to add my colleague councilor erin murphy as a co-sponsor in this hearing order council murphy is so added um thank you since even before the kobe 19 pandemic we've been dealing with a pandemic in our boston public schools around mental health and wellness it's gotten so bad that the american academy of pediatrics and adolescent psychiatry and children's hospital association have declared a national emergency in children's mental health citing a serious toll of the covert 19 pandemic on top of existing challenges every day students are being asked to leave their backpacks full of trauma at the door um so that they can focus on their studies and recently we have seen how that untreated trauma has spilled over in our schools out into these streets from the shooting outside of tech boston academy to the loaded gun found at young achievers of science and math and school to several tombstones of our lost young loved ones being defaced and even stolen it is clear that we need to be doing a lot more to address mental health and wellness in our schools in school we teach students how to read how to write how to run and even how to eat but we do not do what we do not do is give them the tools and resources to unpack their trauma in a non-violent and productive way this is why we're filing this hearing order in terms of the data the numbers are pretty clear according to the federal centers of disease control and prevention emergency departments visits for suspected suicide attempts among adolescents jumped 31 in 2020 compared to 2019 in february and march of this year emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts were 51 percent higher among girls ages 12 to 17 during the same period in 2019 get choked up because i have a 12 year old daughter so this is hard and i'm also having my own experience with this issue so i'm growing up you already know my story so this clearly indicates that we need to be moving beyond the conventional plans of providing school psychologists and social workers when needed they do great work but we need to be doing more in california a bill which recently passed requires each school district county office of education state special school and charter school that offers one or more courses in health education to pupils in middle school or high school to include those courses some form of instructional mental health and way back in 1999 massachusetts commissioner of education david driscoll released a comprehensive health curriculum framework which seeks to introduce mental health into the classroom but it's clear that we're not doing enough or being intentional around mental health education in our schools so i'm hoping to use this hearing as an opportunity to look at what we what more we could be doing to uplift mental health and wellness in our schools and before i finish i also just want to give a shout out to counselor murphy who has made youth mental health a cornerstone of her office's work and i'm hoping that as the chair and vice chair of the committee of education we will be able to work collaboratively on this issue together our success as legislators is measured by the quality of the world we leave behind for the next generation and we need to ensure that we have all the resources um they need to be set up for success and that very much includes mental health and wellness thank you and i just wanted to say really quickly because you know me i always got a riff off the top um and speak from my heart because that's just the way i know how um you know we have as parents oftentimes passed on our own trauma to our children because we weren't taught how to deal with it you know i talk about the fact that when i was a teen i also attempted suicide but my mom was so afraid that i would be taken away from her that she never did anything about it and i grew up believing that she didn't love me and i think that if we're tackling mental health we have an opportunity to de-stigmatize it in a way that will help our the little ones understand that it's okay not to be okay um and that they need to be able to seek the support services that they need and i think that this conversation it's not just about a moment of of political theater it really is looking at the violence that's spilling over into our streets there is a deep connection here and we need to center mental health and wellness as part of that conversation otherwise we're not getting to the root so my hope is is that as we continue to lean into this conversation we recognize the responsibility and the opportunity that we have to change doing business as usual thank you thank you council mejia the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy you have the fall thank you so we know our children are suffering with mental health issues and we cannot expect them to properly address their stress and mental health struggles if we don't teach them the tools they need to work through this teaching mental health will lead to better outcomes for our children i know councilman mejia has mentioned some of them but we know the statistics are scary suicide is the third leading cause of death for children ages 10 to 24 and many or most of mental health conditions start during adolescence knowledge is power so i thank councillor mejia for being the lead sponsor on this important issue and i look forward to working with her and my other colleagues to make sure that this happens for our students in the boston public schools and across the city so thank you thank you council murphy the chair recognizes council of fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the flow thank you mr president um thank you uh council mejia for your courage to open up to such a vulnerable state with us and to be so beautiful and so pure to be able to share yourself with us in a way that really um exemplifies what a leader uh should um uh conduct herself as and i i really appreciate you know the way you took us through that and um i'm i'm just i'm just humbled to hear you to be able to have so much courage to be that vulnerable with us because a lot of us speak about mental health and it's become a political jargon that i think everyone now it's a catchphrase that we know that we all must support and we all it's an issue it's an issue it's an issue so we all talk about it but the way that i've seen yourself and counselor murphy um can guide us through this or at least the way i've watched you do it i really i just really appreciate you for that in terms of what you file today i really look forward to the work um i would love to please add my name mr president i would love to work with you on it um i think that one of the issues is not just you know the pro the problem is not adding one social worker per school or um as you say bringing the home school connection or creating that platform the cbhi behavior cphi so children behavioral health initiative through mass health covers only medical necessities so this means that the service the clinician will then go in and have to diagnose in order for the service to be rendered the issue with that is fifa service then perpetuates the cyclical effect of prison pipeline because you have to diagnose or sometimes misdiagnose or harshly diagnose a child so i question and i really want us to talk about how are we diagnosing our black and brown children and how many feet how many fees do you have to take in order to render that service sometimes the issues are as you are putting it in your here in your um request for the hearing in the order is that you sometimes the issue is circumstantial it's situational so it deserves a temporary nos just to get that three-month service to figure out why that kid is in the shelter or why that kid's acting up or why what's the problem circumstantially temporarily for that moment but what happens is once they get the diagnosis it follows them throughout their lives and then they end up going you know not getting a job or not or whatever you know how to cookie crumbles but i i can't say enough how passionate i am about it i am a strong advocate and i look forward to the work with you thank you thank you council fernandez anderson and mr clerk please add council fernandez anderson um her name would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to would anyone else like to add the name mr clark please yeah counselor arroyo council bar council braden councillor edwards council fernandez anderson council flaherty council lara council of jain council rollin please add the cheer um docket zero four six eight will be referred to the committee on education mr kirk please read docket zero four six nine docker number zero four six nine counselors warrell and mejia offered the following order for a hearing regarding barriers to business thank you the chair recognizes council we're all councilworld you have the flaw uh thank you president flynn and thank you to my co-sponsor council mejia for her work around small businesses here in the city the institute of just for justice recently released a report called barriers to business to study how regulatory birdies impact entrepreneurs across 20 cities including boston the report documents that fees range from 945 dollars to start a barber shop to 5 554 to start a restaurant versus port scores boston one out of five in a one-stop shop analysis reporting that the city's website does not effectively centralize information for entrepreneurs in an intuitive and organized way the report also reveals the extremely complex process for starting a business stating restaurants must complete 92 steps and barbershops 81 steps there are also addition additional barriers in boston and this is something that council anderson always brings up is the clean hands requirement that means applicants for permits or licenses can be denied even if they owe a small amount of fines or fees to the city these burdensome requirements especially impact low-income mwbe entrepreneurs and we need to do everything possible to streamline processes and explore costs associated with starting a business we must do better to ensure that we support small business growth to allow our main streets to flourish and contribute to our city thank you thank you council morale the chair recognizes council mejia council me here you have the foil thank you mr president thank you to council morel for adding us as one of the original co-sponsors as the former chair of the committee of small business i'm really excited that you are now taking the lead on this and so incredibly grateful for your leadership in the space um you know during my time in as the committee chair uh we were doing so during the hardest point here in the city of boston with the pandemic and i saw firsthand how the barriers to businesses negatively impact communities of color both for people who are established business owners and for those who are looking to start their own business we worked to try to eliminate these barriers to business ownership including passing the language access ordinance and as well as establishing the retail residence residential kitchens ordinance i'm here in the city of boston but we know that there is a lot there's not one policy that can be implemented that's going to lift the decades of policy decisions that have been contributing to the equities that we are seeing today as we as retail spaces become more expensive as you know you can't even afford a bathroom these days to set up shop because everything is so expensive in the city no matter who you are i think that the process of obtaining licenses remain as confusing as ever and we need to we need to act to ensure that our city is a model for entrepreneurs and small businesses and i look forward to this hearing and to working alongside councillor morel and the whole council on reducing these barriers to businesses thank you thank you councilman here would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to sponsor sponsored please raise your hand mr clark please add counselor arroyo council block council of braden council edwards council fernandez anderson council flaherty council lara councillor jean councillor murphy and please add the chair docket zero four six nine will be referred to the committee on small business and professional professional license we're off to we're on to personnel orders mr clerk please read docket zero four seven zero docking number zero four seven zero council of flynn for councillor mejia the chair seeks suspension of the rules passage of dark zero four seven zero all those in favor say aye all opposed saying the eyes have it the doctor has passed mr clerk please read it zero four seven one document number zero four seven one council of flame for councillor murphy the chi the chair seek suspension of the rules and passage of dark at zero four seven one all those in favor say aye all those opposed say nade the eyes have it the doctor has passed mr kirk please read doc at zero four seven two doctor number zero four seven two counselor flynn for council edwards chair seek suspension of the rules passage of darkest zero four seven two all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket has passed mr clerk please read talk at zero four seven three document number zero four seven three council of flint for council edwards the chair seeks suspension of the rules pass it to the docket zero four seven three all those in favor say aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket is passed we're on chelate files i'm i'm informed by the clerk that there are there are four late file matters the late file matters include a resolution from counselor braden two personnel orders a letter of absence from council baker um mr crocods will you please read the letter of absence from council baker april 6 2022 dear president flynn please be advised that i will not be in attendance at the boston city council meeting on wednesday april 6 2022 please ask the city clerk to read this and to read this matter into the public record thank you sincerely boston city council frank baker district 3. thank you mr clerk i should have um i should have said that the late file should be on everyone's desk uh we'll take a vote to add these fi these items onto the agenda all those in favor of adding the late fire matters into the agenda say aye all opposed thank you the late file matters have been added to the agenda um mr quirky you already read the um one from council baker um the two personnel orders mr clerk will use this one yeah the letter of absence from council baker will be placed on file um the two personnel orders please two personal laws first one councillor flynn for councillor baker the chair seeks suspension of the rules and um um suspension of rules and passage of the first late file personnel order all those in favor say aye all opposed nay the eyes have it the doctors passed the second personnel order second personnel order council of flint for council baker the chair seeks suspension of the rules and passage of the second personnel late file all those in favor say aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the doctor has passed we're on to the the final late file which is a resolution from council of braden resolution offered by city councilor braden resolution and support of the massachusetts state house employee union whereas since the summer of 2020 formation of beacon l-b-l-o-c building leaders of color led by a collective of black staffers of the massachusetts state house legislative staff have organized for necessary reforms to advance workplace equity and be it resolved that the boston city council meeting assembled go on record supporting the unionization efforts of legislative staff and urges voluntary recognition of the massachusetts state house employee union as the second state legislative union nationwide thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes council of braden council braden you of the floor thank you mr president and thank you for entertaining this late file um over the past several years uh there's been an effort spearheaded by black legislative staff at the massachusetts state house who have been organizing for reforms to advance workplace equity they've spoken up on issues of discrimination and sexual harassment pay disparities and immense and the immense workload that has ever increased throughout the pandemic we all know from attending community meetings that legislative staff from the state house attended you know along with our staff they attend meetings in the community all over the city and late into the evening and many in many instances last thursday representatives from the ibew notified state house leaders that they had obtained the successful majority of union or union authorization card signed by a majority of senate staff and house staff are poised to follow suit shortly and once recognized the massachusetts state house employee union would become only the second such union of state legislative legislative staff in the country after oregon which organized last may every worker deserves a union and a union of led state legislative staff would help create a workplace and and a massachusetts people's house where employees are valued and properly concept compensated for their work staff are calling for consistent pay grades across offices measures to recruit support and retain a diverse workforce of talented staff clearly defined job roles and responsibilities and most importantly the right to collective bargaining to provide staff a voice and matters concerning their work workplace as elective as elected officials we are only as successful in serving the needs of our constituents because of our hard-working staff and they deserve to have a voice in workplace conditions so on a related note i also want to acknowledge the the work of the starbucks workers and the workers united who are organizing for they've already successfully organized 14 starbucks locations in massachusetts seven right here in the city of boston and two stores will kick off a union election this friday at packard's corner in my district and in college corner in brookline and four stores will start voting on monday lower austin cleveland circle in brighton longwood and then and in water time um i offer this resolution today urging our state house colleagues to recognize the state house employee union urge my colleagues to join me in valuing the work of all legislative staff and senator well wishes to the starbuck workers as they unionize their as in their unionizing campaign i i respectfully ask to suspend and pass this resolution thank you thank you council braden does anyone else wish to speak on this matter would anyone like to add their name please raise your hand mr clerk please add council arroyo please add counselor fernandez anderson council of flaherty council lara council lejeune councilmehia council murphy councillor we're all pleasing the chair council braden seeks suspension of the rules in adoption of the first late of of this late file matter all those in favor say aye aye all opposed nay the eyes have it the resolution has been adopted mr clerk we're going on to green sheets and wishing to remove the matter from the green sheets may do so at this time we're moving on to the consent agenda i have been informed by the clerk that there are no additions to the consent agenda the chair moves for adoption of the consent agenda as presented all those in favor say aye all those opposed say nay the eyes have it thank you the consent agenda has been adopted announcements do any of our colleagues have any announcements at this time the chair recognizes that she recognizes council of ferrari council faraday you have the floor thank you mr just want to bring to everyone's attention um the issue that's impacting uh abcd right now with the potential to lose their title 10 funds uh which they've been receiving for uh almost 50 years and i think 47 to be exact so this is one of those things that i think that bob cord would be rolling around in his grave um and being observant so we all have representatives uh some of us attend ourselves others have representers i strongly urge them to be there at tonight's meeting to learn a little bit about this issue and for those viewing at home obviously abcd is a community action agency established in 1962 to empower disadvantaged people by providing them with the tools to overcome poverty they impact over a thousand thousand households in the boston area they receive resources and they support uh efforts including food housing fuel assistance job training skills esol youth services head start and more and with specific funding we learned that their application was accepted and approved but they're saying that there's no funding to support that so we need to do all we need to do and put that effort and support abcd and and be present at the meeting tonight and as it directly impacts boston there'll be 23 service sites that will be impacted that provide family services there'll be 18 staff positions potentially cut with our community health centers and hospitals and there'll also be seven staff positions that potentially get cut at abcd so they're reaching out for our assistance and i think we need to do what we need to do stand by them and let folks know i know that i had a brief conversation with congressman lynch earlier and i know he is doing the best he can down there to make sure that we can turn that funding mechanism back on for abcd so just want to make everyone aware of it if they're not aware of it and ask that they or their staffs attend tonight's abcd meeting thank you mr president thank you council flaherty um could you send the the chair um the details of the meeting and i'll make sure our colleagues do receive it yes thank you thank you the chair recognizes council royal council rally of the four yeah count yeah castle i'm sorry okay i'm sorry uh the chair recognizes council lara council larry of the floor thank you president flynn um i as most of us know april is autism acceptance month um all of my colleagues know that i have a five-year-old autistic son and so i just wanted to one name and i wanted to offer my support if your office is planning on doing any communications or hosting any events for autism acceptance months please reach out there is a lot of language that is oftentimes offensive to autistic people and there's a lot of shifting of the narrative that we're trying to do so if you want any support my communications manager is going to be putting together kind of like a sheet to make suggestions around how to speak about autism and how to speak around autistic people and so i just wanted to offer myself as a resource if any of my colleagues are planning on doing something thank you council lara anyone else like to speak the chair recognizes council of rural council well you have the floor thank you president flynn and i rise with some sad news that we lost here in the city of boston terry dolan a long time advocate for the city of boston she worked under six governors um secretary and treasurer of lower mills for decades ward 17 committee member award in the laura mills voting precinct board member of the dorchest historical society a board member of the friends of shattuck hospital chairperson of the walter baker relighting and she used to knit hats and scarves to the homeless so just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention and my prayers go out to her and her family thank you thank you councilworld anyone else like to speak on announcements i would also like to echo what council lara mentioned about autism awareness month thank you for the incredible work that you're doing council lara on this important issue my my sister has a boy that's a special needs special needs boy that doesn't doesn't is non-verbal um and he spends several days a week with my parents so it's also important for us to recognize that our special needs children are an important part of our society and as a government it's important to also support them but also to support the parents and the grandparents because a lot of the grandparents are supporting the special needs children as well so just want to say thank you to council lara for bringing that forward we're going on to memorials we will will adjourn today in memory of the following individuals from from councillor baker flynn flaherty and murphy catherine white who was who is the mother of father joe white as many of us know councillor baker lujan enwarl terry dolan for counselor brock edward ned johnson a moment of silence please the chair moves that when the council adjourns today does so in memory of those individuals mentioned here we are scheduled to meet again in the ayanella chamber on wednesday april 13th at 12 noon call in favor of a german please say aye aye the counselor is adjourned thank you to city council central staff and to the clerk's office as well thank you thank you [Music] [Music] you