[Music] good morning everybody good afternoon everyone my name is ed flynn and i'm the city council president viewers can watch the council meeting live on youtube by visiting boston dot gov slash city dash council dash tv i'd like to ask my colleagues in those in in the audience to please silence your phones in electronic devices at this time thank you roll call mr kirk will you please call the road roll to ascertain the presence of a quorum please councilor arroyo councillor baker councillor bark president councillor brayton council edwards council of fernandez anderson council of flaherty councillor flynn yep council lara council louisiana president councillor mejia councillor murphy president and councilor warrell a quorum thank you thank you mr clerk um i have been informed by the clerk that a quorum is present mr clerk will you please add council lara as well yes um council kenzie block will be introducing our clergy for today um council block will be introducing patha bishwa and anja bishwar as well today's clergy great thank you so much president flynn um partha and anja biswas are both hindu spiritual leaders at northeastern university and i'm very grateful to have them here today with us and especially excited to also have their daughters radha and vishakha here with us as well to lead us in a blessing and meditation i'll just note for the council partha's founded meditation clubs in various universities over the last 13 years to share his knowledge of how to live scriptural principles in contemporary settings and anjem has also been visiting many universities over the last 13 years and working with students and she takes special interest in bringing the messages of ancient scriptures alive through stories drama puppetry art and music and the whole family shares a common enthusiasm and passion for bringing hindu spirituality to life and i'm very proud you know i think we have many practitioners of hinduism throughout the city of boston but many of the temples are outside of the precincts of boston but i am proud to have one in my district in commonwealth avenue and then these very strong hindu spiritual chaplaincies at both northeastern and boston university and so we're thrilled to have the whole this west family with us and i want to first invite up partha to say a few words and then they'll be sharing a musical meditation with the council thank you counselor for the introduction um i'll start with a very simple prayer so the eternal quest of all human beings is to move from ephemeral to eternal from illusion to a state of illumination and from death to deathlessness so the eastern classic the bhagavad-gita which is a very well-known wisdom text from india gives us a three-part simple formula of how we can achieve this goal i like to put it as the three r's the first r represents to recognize the second r stands for reviving and the third r stands for receiving so first of all we have to recognize that everything and everyone come from god and therefore they have an inviolable eternal connection with god so as a part and parcel of god we can very easily revive our connection which is very natural our natural connection with god we can rekindle the dormant love of god within our heart by taking the sacred chants the names of god and also by being an instrument of compassion in the hands of god while we are engaged in various human humanitarian activities and this is going to enable us to receive the illumination in the core of our heart and that will give us a platform for lasting peace and happiness let there be happiness all around let everyone become disease free and let there be no suffering and in this way we can invite peace and love and joy within the human society so finally i would like to invite all of you to enter into a musical meditation into what is known as the one of the greatest mantras for peace that's called the hare krishna mantra by chanting these these mantras we can very efficient efficaciously tap into the illumination inside the heart and so at this moment maybe we can invite our players just so that we can invite peace and joy into our heart [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] friday [Music] christmas [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] at this time please stand if you were able to and join us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge under allegiance indivisible with liberty [Applause] thank you council block for bringing such a wonderful family here to open up our prayer thank you mr clark please add council arroyo as present we're on to approval of the minutes uh oh this is a pretty surprising okay at this time i'd like to call on um council block for a presentation uh for a special guest council buck thank you so much councillor flynn um uh and i want to thank again uh the biswas family for joining us it was such a delight and we really really appreciate it as a way to open the meeting i'm up here again because i'm going to be presenting a resolution today to recognize the work of greg gaylor greg i'd love to invite you to come forward and mom if you want to join us feel free um so while greg's coming up i'll just say um i'm very happy to present this resolution honoring his work he's recently bid farewell to the boston preservation alliance um as he's assumed leadership of the association for preservation technology international um and uh greg's been a fierce advocate for historic preservation as the executive director of the um preservation alliance i first got to know him advocating for the community preservation act in 2016. he was a key part of that coalition and mobilizing historic preservation forces in favor of that and and amazingly you know passing the cpa actually gave us funds for the first time directly from the city for historic preservation purposes um and he's also played a vital role in establishing the legacy fund for boston which is focused on how we make sure there's funding for for historic preservation available across all of the city's neighborhoods and not just in a handful of well-endowed um uh historical monuments and so uh i've i'm really gonna miss him we've partnered a lot on the commemoration commission on the question working with lydia edwards last cycle around how to tweak our landmarks statute at the state level so i know greg's going to keep being an incredible advocate for historic preservation and a trusted community partner but as he's moving on from the preservation alliance after nine years um i just wanted to take this moment to congratulate him and wish him well so um i will just read the uh i won't read all the whereas is um but there are many of them uh and i'll just say now therefore be it resolve that the boston city council thanks greg gayler for his contributions to historic preservation the bostier boston area congratulates him on his new leadership role and wishes him well in his future [Applause] i'll be very brief i just want to say i'm humbled and honored to have played a small part in a long tradition of preserving historic resources here in boston and encourage the council to continue to support these efforts and also to remember that historic preservation and something i worked actively on the history of the city is everyone's history it's a broad history and perhaps in the past we haven't done as good a job on that as we should and that's something that i know my successors will continue to do and also remember that historic preservation is environmentally friendly it's job creating it's affordable housing friendly it's a very important and valuable tool and so integral to boston and i'm proud and humbled and thank you for the recognition and and i and i do i do just want to note that we have been joined by greg's mom who i grew up in the dorchester and matapan jewish community of many decades ago and is a living part of boston's history and so we're very grateful to have her here with us today and i think with that mr president i would just that i would ask if we could take a quick photo of course could my colleagues please join us for a photo it's a historical record amazing um and and i want to shout out allison frazee who's here also from the boston preservation alliance um all right great thank you so much thank you very much thank you 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 minutes from the last meeting as presented all of those in favor of approving the minutes from the last meeting say aye aye all opposed thank you the minutes of the last meeting stan is approved communications from her on the mayor mr clerk please read docket zero three four six doctor number zero three four six message in order for your approval in order authorizing the city of boston to submit to the massachusetts school building authority statement of interest for its accelerated repair program for the following schools warren prescott haley pilot school curly k through 8 school lower building henderson k through 12 inclusion school upper campus orenberger school and the english high school the statements of interest describe and explain the deficiencies and the priority care category for each of the city of boston which the city of boston may be invited to apply for the msba accelerated repair grant program in the future thank you docket 0346 will be referred to the committee on ways and means mr clerk please read docket zero three four seven doctor number zero three four seven message in order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of two hundred sixty six thousand dollars five in 266 500 dollars sorry two thousand two hundred and sixty six thousand five hundred dollars in the form of a grant for fiscal year twenty two local cultural council program awarded by the massachusetts cultural council to be administered by the mayor's office of arts and culture the grant will fund innovation arts humanities interpretive sciences programming that enhance the quality of life in our city thank you doctor zero three four seven will be referred to the committee on arts culture special events mr clerk please read doc at zero three four eight doctor number zero three four eight message and order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of two hundred and thirty seven thousand five hundred dollars in the form of a grant for fiscal year twenty two hazmat earmark awarded by the massachusetts department of fire services to be administered by the fire department the grant will fund decontamination equipment vehicle and maintenance expenses for the hazard response team at the boston fire department thank you docket zero three four eight will be referred to the committee on public safety criminal justice mr cork please read dark at zero three four nine document zero three four nine message and order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of 150 000 in the form of a grant for the fiscal year covert 19 sadv trust fund awarded by the department of public health to be administered by the police department the grant will fund two full-time domestic violence advocates who will work with social service agency partners at the boston public health commission family justice center thank you dr0349 will be referred to the committee on public safety criminal justice mr cork please read talk at zero three five zero doctor number zero three five zero message in order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of forty thousand five hundred dollars in the form of a grant for the adopt a statue endowment fund awarded by the boston foundation to be administered by the mayor's office of arts and culture the grant will fund the care and maintenance of the john boyle o'reilly sculpture by daniel chester french thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes council edwards chair of the committee on arts culture special events council edwards you have the floor thank you mr president due to the amount of the money and the fact that this is not a controversial fund it is simply to preserve fund statutes and to allow for us to make sure that we have the care and stewardship of public monuments i am moving to suspend and pass for this forty thousand dollars to be immediately put to good use i know my colleague counselor bach has some brief remarks to make about the statute as it is in her district but i would encourage my colleagues not to belabor this nor do we really need a long hearing about forty thousand dollars to help preserve and maintain a statute so i i am moving to suspend and pass thank thank you council edwards the chair recognizes council bar council bloc you have the floor thank you so much uh president flynn and i just briefly wanted to note on this statue since we got st patrick's day coming up uh john boyle o'reilly was a really amazing figure in boston he grew up in ireland um he was actually imprisoned by the british for being part of the fenian brotherhood and pushing for irish home rule and independence he was ultimately shipped off to australia as part of the uh you know the shipping of prisoners to australia he made a daring escape from the australian penal colony on a new bedford whaler ship came to the u.s we've been talking a lot lately about how boston is a city of immigrants and the country is a country of immigrants and i think it really underscores that when o'reilly showed up in the u.s the day that he landed he was naturalized as an american citizen something which doesn't happen these days and he then moved to boston and ended up becoming an incredibly celebrated and beloved man of letters here in the city he was the editor of the pilot which was this big catholic publication and he was also just a really well known poet throughout the country and so when he died oh and i should also say really importantly he ended up being a real bridge cultural figure between the like the sort of protestant establishment in boston and the growing catholic immigrant community it was kind of beloved by all and so when he died in 1890 um it was really like all factions the city that came together to create this subscription fund the statue was actually paid for by just individuals in the public signing up uh thousands and thousands of them from all over the world actually have to fund this twenty thousand dollar statue and but the city council actually appropriated the money for these memorial books to be printed by the city printing office um so when i was doing the history reading about this i i left because there's it's the municipal printing office that printed this and they were paid for out of the city council's incidental expenses fund a thing which doesn't exist these days um but you know just a flag um and so you know rather than having this just be like words on a piece of paper on the agenda i wanted to underscore um that he was just a really important person in the cultural life of the city 150 years ago and also um that i think it it shows you that the stories of how immigrants become completely essential and embedded in the fabric of boston um is a story that we can we can and should tell again and again and that we should memorialize again and again so grateful to um counselors for supporting council edwards motion for suspension and passage today and the statue is in fenway it is um it's facing if you you're coming on boylston street from the back bay like to cross the fence it's immediately on your left across from the massachusetts historical society building if you know it there's kind of like some seating around it um and uh you know i have a whole two-page poem by o'reilly but uh lydia said i go on too long so you're not gonna get it today but it was you know he he was uh the favorite poet of many boston st patrick's days for many years so thank you for your indulgence thank you council bark and and in south boston on dorchester street we have the john boyle o'reilly apartment buildings as well so just wanted to give you a little bit more trivia counselor edward moves for the suspension of the rules in passage of docket zero three five zero all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket has passed mr corp can you please read talk at 0-3-5-1 document 0-3-5-1 message in order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of thirty six thousand two hundred fifty dollars in the form of a grant for the dialogue to action awarded by the boston redevelopment authority to be administered by the office of resiliency and racial equity the grant will fund pro programmatic activities to deepen participants understanding of racism in historical and present day forms and foster a sense of agency to change the system through actions at individual interpersonal or systemic levels thank you mr clark docket zero three five one will be referred to the committee on civil rights in immigrant advancement mr clerk can you please read docket zero three five two talking number zero three five two message and auto authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of 28 thousand dollars and 13 cents in the form of a grant for for the fiscal year 21 violence against women act stock grant awarded by the united states department of justice passed through the mass executive office of public safety and security to be administered by the police department the grant will fund a civilian domestic violence advocate who provide services for victims in jamaica plain east boston and charlestown thank you darker zero three five two will be referred to the committee on public safety and criminal justice mr quirk can you please read docket zero three five three and zero three five four together document zero three five three message in order for the confirmation of the reappointment of guali valdez as a member of the boston public health commission's board of health for a term expiring january 15 2025 and doctor number zero three five four message in order for the confirmation of the reappointment of philamene philamine laptiste as a member of the boston public health commission's board of health for a term experiment january 15 2025. thank you talk at zero three five three and zero three five four will be assigned to the committee in public health homelessness recovery reports of public offices and others mr clerk please read docket zero three five five and zero three five six together document zero three five five notice was received from the city clerk in accordance with chapter six of the ordinances of 1979 regarding action taken by the mayor on papers acted upon by the city council at its meeting of february ninth twenty twenty two doctor number zero three five six communication was received from nicholas aranello assessing commissioner of the appointment of walter high to a position in the commercial unit in the assessing department docket zero three five five zero three five six will be placed on file matt has recently heard for possible action mr clerk please read docket zero two five nine doctor number zero two five nine an ordinance amending city of boston code ordinances chapter 15 section 10 and establishing the boston fair chance act thank you the chair recognizes council arroyo chair of the committee on government operations council royal you have the floor thank you mr president uh yesterday march 8th the government operations committee held a hearing on docket number 259 an ordinance amending the city of boston code ordinances in chapter 15 section 10 that establishes the boston fair chance act this docket is sponsored by councillor mejia and myself the ordinance would amend existing language in the boston city code establishing a chief affirmative action officer instead of instead creating the boston fair chance act the fair chance act would formalize the position of the chief diversity officer who would provide oversight of the city's non-discrimination equal opportunity and affirmative action policies this ordinance would also require regular updates on progress made regarding diverse hiring hold on one second just make sure i'm where i am and promotions and require the chief diversity officer work with offices to make sure there are fair hiring practices and policies in place for family members of current employees i want to thank my co-sponsor counselor mejia for introducing this legislation as well as my council colleagues for joining uh council president ed flynn councilor rusi louis jen uh councillor erin murphy councillor kenzie bach councillor kendra lara councillor liz braden and counselor brian burrell i also want to thank members of the administration for their attendance and participation and i finally want to thank the advocates who took the time out of their work days and showed tremendous courage in their testimony yesterday and sharing their experiences i'm looking forward to getting to work on the specific language in this ordinance and as chair i recommend that this docket remain in committee so that we can have some working sessions on it thank you thank you council royale the chair recognizes council mejia council me you have the floor thank you mr president um and thank you to my co-sponsor council arroyo for sure for chairing a great hearing and i just want to take a quick moment to thank all the panelists and members of the public who took a big risk showing up yet at yesterday's hearing and speaking up about the injustices that they face here every day we have heard from so many other people who have experienced the same workplace problems but are too afraid to speak up because they fear retaliation but let's be clear it should not be a punishable offense for any employee to try to make a workplace better and friendlier to people from all backgrounds that is in fact actually exactly what our ordinance is designed to do we are incredibly grateful to receive um testimony from urudu [Music] from the mayor's administration in addition to our panel of advocates dennis bunyan daryl higginbottom jerome hargoul and jeff dr jeff lopes we've learned a lot about their personal and professional experiences dealing with workplace discrimination and i look forward to continuing working alongside each of these amazing advocates as we move towards working um in our working sessions and eventually towards passing this ordinance finally i'd like to take um to thank jasmine from counselor arroyo's staff for helping us prepare all of this hearing and moving this work forward you know and i just want to quickly say that you know over the last year or so we have heard from so many people who were afraid to even meet with me in public because they didn't want to talk about this and so it took a lot of courage for people to step up and and share their personal journeys but i think this is a call to action if is if we're really serious about really looking at the systemic racism that exists and continues to prevent black and brown people from moving up then we need to make sure that we're leaning into this conversation and ready to roll up our sleeves to do right by so many employees who have been passed up for promotions that they were well qualified for and oftentimes are training their white counterparts to do the work that they should be doing so i'm hoping that um as we continue to move forward with the working sessions that we come ready to do the work that it's going to take to bring justice to the folks who have been waiting for far too long thank you thank you thank you council mejia thank you council royal dark at 0-2-5-9 will remain in committee mr clerk please read docket zero two seven two and zero two seven three together docker number zero two seven two message in order for your approval in order to reduce the fiscal year 22 appropriation for the reserve for collective bargaining by two million sixteen thousand four hundred and nine dollars to provide funding for various departments for fiscal year 22 increases contained within the collective bargaining agreements between the city of boston and cena docker number 0273 messaged in orders for a supplemental appropriation order for various departments for fiscal year 22 in the amount of two million sixteen thousand four hundred and nine dollars to cover the fiscal year 22 cost items contained within the collective bargaining agreements between the city of boston and cena the terms of the contracts are october 1st 2020 through september 30th 2023. the major provisions of the contracts include base weights increases of 2 1.5 percent and 2 percent to be given in october of each fiscal year of the contract term filed in the office of the city clerk on february 14 2022 thank you mr correct the chair recognizes council of bach chair of the committee on city services innovation technology council bark you have the flow thank you so much mr president and i know for colleagues that you have a committee report um late filed with you we had a productive hearing yesterday here in the chamber thank you so much to council president flynn and also counselor murphy for joining me and to counselor louis jen for sending a thoughtful letter and we were joined by chief financial officer and collector treasurer um for the city justin starrett budget director jim williamson and our director of labor relations tammy poost and they were here to testify on behalf of the administration um and i also want to thank central staff for getting us back into uh is now the second one of these hybrid hearings where we've we've got all the mechanics of the in-person hearing and also the mechanics of the hybrid hearing so shout out as ever to the folks behind the scenes making that happen especially in this case michelle and kerry docket 0272 transfers funds from the collective bargaining reserve to various departments and 273 authorizes the funding of the collective bargaining agreement between the city of boston and sena which stands for the salaried employees of north america as was recited in the docket by the clerk we've reached an agreement from october 1 2020 to september 30th 2023. um it's you know for further background for those who weren't able to make the hearing um as i think many people know basically all of our bargaining units um are out of contract right now and senna is one of the many that lapsed sort of a year and a half ago and so the way that the city handles that financially is it sets a certain amount of money aside in this collective bargaining reserve just sort of anticipating that we'll spend it once deals are reached and that's what this appropriation today is is doing it's taking 2 million out of that 10 million reserve because a deal has been reached that's to cover the amount of the deal that runs up through the 30th of june this year everything that's part of this contract that the city is obligated to after july 1st will be reflected in the proposed budget so this is just for the balance of the contract period that sort of already happened and yeah and so the main provisions of the contract are the of the moa changes are that juneteenth has been added for these employees as a holiday and that there are increases incremental increases to salaries across the board two percent for the first year 1.5 the second and two percent for the third and this for it to even get to us it's already been ratified by the union um and agreed to the table by both sides and we heard good testimony about how sort of a balance between making sure that we're treating our city workers well and also that everything is within sort of the fiscally responsible remit of the city especially since we have to balance so many of these so with that um mr president i would recommend that these two dockets 0272 and 0273 as read by the clerk pass today thank you thank you council blog we will now take these votes separately council council block the chair on the committee on city services innovation technology seeks acceptance of the committee report in passage of docket zero two seven two all those in favor say aye aye opposed nay the eyes have it and target zero two seven two has passed council bark the chair on the committee of on city services innovation technology seeks acceptance of the committee report in passage of dark at zero two seven three all those in favor say aye aye all opposed nay the eyes have it docket zero two seven three has passed motions orders and resolutions mr kirk please read docket zero three five seven docking number zero three five seven counselor fernandez anderson offered the following order for a hearing to explore a rent to own pilot program the chair recognizes council anderson council anderson you have the four [Music] um thank you um mr chair um and thank you everyone here who participated before i um begin i just would like to start in proper um saying in my spiritual practice we say shaytan assalamu alaikum bismillahir rahman rahim alhamdulillah in the name of god the most merciful the most gracious i like to begin by thanking the people who without their support i wouldn't be here today first thank you to my children louis and shakir lewis who too has chosen the path of service becoming a united states marine yet still found a time to serve my campaign and shakir my accomplished young artist who canvas blocks and kept me company on those extra long weekends they have began they have given me unlimited love and purpose and have granted me immense grace and patience as i've taken this journey i'd like to thank my loving husband tanzirious swash anderson who is to be blamed for my striding about as though i bear the weight of a queen's crown i want to thank my team [Laughter] our dear d7 chief of staff joshua mcfadden our director of budget and operations amina scott a director of communications and community community relations kalamu kieta and finally and certainly but not least the woman who holds d7 constituent service down our director of constituent service my loving sister aline mercury i'd like to thank my carvalho family who had my back through and through i'd like to thank my campaign team for believing in me and our mission thank you mohamed missouri calvin feliciano noah coolidge jaquetta vincent steve mckenna rich thuma patrick keaney italofini i'm grateful to chief brianna malore for pushing me and convincing me to run for office to my ace dalita rasha a big shout out to all my friends and supporters who came out today my cousin rita fernandez a shout out to my friend aziza robinson joao depina kristen halbert tiffany calgal lois eliza thank you so much for your advocacy and support and of course tony brewer i'd like to thank my friend professor lilly song my spiritual brother saeed abdul karam my auntie senator dianne wilkerson representative liz miranda my colleagues and all those who endorse my campaign thank you to everyone who donated financially who donated their time and their spirit to our campaign and thank you to all the union reps and members a special shout out to all the amazing youth canvassers all 25 of them my friends in my artist community of course a huge thank you to each and every single district 7 voter those who voted for me and rocked with me from day one and those who didn't vote for me thank you for doing your part to my dear loving mentor fadila mohammed who's always believed in me thank you for the time you invested in me and my and my development with great patience and love to my beloved uncle lewis although he is no longer with us left me with a rich legacy of immeasurable strength and compassion as a gay black man during the 80s he was confronted with an unkind world but he never flinched and he for fortified himself with love and honor sacrificing his own happiness to ensure my future could be one day realized he taught me everything about living with truth and justice and kindness and i look forward to making him proud serving this community bear with me y'all you know when i was a little girl in the small west african country of cape verde i never could have imagined i'd be here today talking to you this is definitely a long way from former colonized transatlantic slave trade port to the heart of american democracy but for my entire life i have always been a dreamer and a fighter and looking back many of those dreams came to me as a child walking barefoot on her way to the market carrying more than the responsibility of safely returning home with a loaf of bread to feed my entire family of 17 under one single roof on those walks i also carried with me dreams of a better life of a life that was more than just surviving but those dreams were limited by oppressive poverty because survival doesn't make room for much else but a mother's precipitated heartbeat a motionless ocean a brother's illusions of adoptability or his son stomps to drum beats for mercy i never forget i'll never forget the day my uncle louise boarded me on that plane don't forget your brothers and sister he pleaded at the age of 10 i was in boston logan international airport afraid that the escalator would swallow me up anxiously skimming my big brown eyes hoping to recognize my mother after six long years a woman tapped me on my shoulders and gently asked do you remember me i rushed into her arms with tears of joy fear of unrequited love and guilt of being chosen for this moment over the siblings i left behind boston is a beautiful place full of diversity with world-class education and first-class jobs but we also know those opportunities aren't fairly distributed or made available to everyone undocumented black and female i was made afraid of both law enforcement and gangs it was a scary place and finding success meant finding safe spaces finding supports systems that would nurture my potential and protect me from worse undercurrents of poverty violence and political apartheid i owe much of the my neighborhood where i found moms and aunties who embraced me and taught me what it meant to be a strong black woman living in america navigating the perils of boston and although i was able to find that success due to no fault of their own and despite their best efforts countless others did not and unfortunately i see many of those same obstacles and barriers still with us today during my campaign i'd get invited to church or attend friday juma at mosques and i'd see boston i see boston everywhere because boston is in my heart and now when the world looks at boston city hall full of color and representation suits and hijabs male and female they'll see boston too the beauty and potential of humanity is all around us and it's time we tap into the power to make boston the hub of innovation the standard of inclusion and the pinnacle of equitable and fair economic opportunity a place where no one is left behind our boston should weave camaraderie in the fabric of our constitution where our whites brothers and sisters our asian atlantic brown and lgbtq plus brothers and sisters will merge into struggle to evolve as one people a place where there doesn't have to be just one successful black woman in this district in this city or in congress or in senate that we should look forward to a future where many successful black men thrive here and are allowed to flourish in their blackness or in their culture that they are not expected to be a black person with only anglo traditions that we celebrate history our truths our knowledge our skills instead of erasing them to fit in we have to hold boston to the ideals of this country that everyone has the right to pursue life liberty and happiness black and brown bostonians will never be able to achieve this as long as the shackles of slavery still exists with us 400 years later if boston can't within themselves change so that marginalized bostonians have a better life there's no hope for people anywhere else in this country as a matter of fact we are all interconnected those with privilege have to open up their pockets in their hearts for progress to happen if boston is going to teach its full potential reaches full potential we have to act morally responsible in how we treat our own citizens i'm talking about inconveniencing our kids and sending them to a culture of microaggression by busing them to rich suburban schools forcing them to have dual lives we have to ask ourselves why is it necessary in 2022 to pay schools to take our children to get equality why in is boston incapable of doing this ourselves i'm talking about a medical establishment that sends black mothers home to die because they consistently believe that black mothers can endure more pain i'm talking about the displacement of our ethnic markets for supermarkets that don't fit our neighborhoods or budget i'm talking about how they use mass incarceration to commoditize our black bodies robbing us of our fathers our sons our husbands i'm talking about systemically racist bureaucratic delay tactics that keep us unhoused allowing seaport luxury developers to avoid housing black and brown people 1989 academy homes where gun violence was at its peak but it was my home project heat would dry my skin up but this was my home with little to eat neighbors shared meals where we dealt with our quarrels but no one dared to call coco where miss elba told the stories about the old days in puerto rico we'd get interrupted by drive-bys where food stamps were sold alongside stolen brand name fashion where the little girls and the old ladies took turns and seat to get their hair braided where the corner store allowed layaways where the boys wrapped on summer stages with dreams to become stars where friends got killed and where police beat us where mothers died from crack where the government left us to die this is what we call home imagine a city where after all of those experiences you are afforded the opportunity to own your own home this is why as one of my first official duties i chose to file an order for a hearing to explore a rent-to-own pilot program as one of as one way to creating solutions to break the chains that bind us in cycles of oppression and poverty as one way our city can redeem ourselves home is where you are nurtured home is where you learn to walk to read and it should feel safe at night home is the place you belong home is where your family unit is solidified and where your tribe heals home is where you are loved and nourished home is our sanctity our home is also our greatest source of wealth so it's no surprise that boston the average area medium wealth for black families is just eight dollars redlining discriminatory lending practices and predatory loans have robbed the american dream from countless black and brown bostonians when we talk about solving the housing crisis it's not enough to just produce apartments to rent we must help people to find a home our boston should be the proving ground for the democratic experiment where no matter where you begin you have the opportunity to life of justice and liberty according to your own merit and determination some will say we are asking for too much that we're dreaming too big they will construct new barriers and trash our names they will try to stop us tell us to slow down and when they think when they can't think of anything else they'll resort to all political tricks of obstruction they'll say that there isn't enough money while lining their pockets of special interest and their cronies but we won't stop we won't give in and we won't lose we may not win every battle but we will win the war of for a more just and equitable boston don't believe those who say that we can't be done i am living proof that impossible means nothing that there is nothing we can't do we are proof that the power of people is stronger than the power of politics we can and we will thank you for trusting me with this mission with god's will and your support i won't let you down [Applause] please excuse me excuse me excuse me excuse me at this time excuse me excuse me here we go [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] well done and thank you for your resiliency and your commitment to your district into the residence of the of the city at this time i would like to ask if anyone would like to speak on this matter at this time i'd like to ask if anyone likes it yet [Applause] at this time we're gonna take a five-minute recess [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] yes the council is back in session thank you we'll be back in session um going back to zero three five zero three five seven with that hearing order wanted to see if anyone wants to speak and or add your name let me let me go let me call on council baker council baker thank you mr president i just want to congratulate the um my sister from district 7. you're amazing you're a superstar and and all the things that we should strive for you talked about you laid it out for us you should be proud of yourself your family should be proud of you and you know hopefully we'll see good work out of you and please sign my name on to that i love your idea this hopefully we're going to be able to hash something out to to put people on a path to housing my mother always said to me she came here as an immigrant fifth grade education my oldest brother was blind she knew the most important thing was housing and stability you need that familiar surrounding you need a roof over your head you need to be fed so thank you thank you council baker [Applause] please add council baker's name would anyone else like to speak or add their name let me call on counselor illusion to speak at this time or to add your name congratulations to uh counselor fernandez anderson for handling everything always with so much grace for your fearlessness for your maiden speech for being a powerful black woman that has added to this voice here in boston city council you are going to do so right by you're going to do so much good for your constituents and i'm happy to have you as a colleague here and excited for your leadership and your work so thank you obrigada for everything you bring to the table thank you councillor um come counselor here okay um the chair recognizes council arroyo council roy thank you mr president and thank you uh council fernandez anderson for running for being who you are for your courage the way you speak truth to power and don't get shy about saying truths that are so very necessary to be said but often get danced around i'm grateful to you for using your first speech to do that i look forward to the work you do this is a perfect example of taking something that is practical doable should have been done should be something we do and putting on the table so we move it forward i look forward to what you do i'm a fan and so thank you add my name uh and i'm just grateful to you for how you did this and i hope that you you take this day in uh for the way it has been and the way it will be as a start to the work that you are doing so i look forward to it i can't wait to see you hit that button more often so thank you uh mr chair thank you council royal please add council royal's name the chair recognizes council me here councilman here you have the floor yes i am so happy that i was here for all of this i am so incredibly like in awe like literally when you talk about you're gonna keep it a hundred you're gonna bring that fire into this council you're gonna join me and counselor baker on the who's got the most swag up in here i am so excited about the energy that you bring no that that's a compliment baker you know you lie um but but uh seriously i'm so incredibly encouraged by just the the level of enthusiasm that you bring into this work how honest you are about the realities that so many people are experiencing and oftentimes are too afraid to say it and you do so with so much conviction right and you might be little but you got that big old mouth girl and everybody's here for it um but no seriously thank you so much for just coming in holding it down being the fierce capricorn that you are for all the late night conversations that we've had for what i know is going to be a long sisterhood journey outside of this council i'm just so incredibly grateful to be able to share this space with you and cause the type of disruption that we know this moment calls for so i'm here for all of it and congratulations on a beautiful speech you brought us back and forth on an emotional roller coaster and that every single word that you put together really inspired people to recognize not only who you are but why you do what you do with so much love and passion for this work so thank you counselor tanya fernandez anderson for your leadership please sign me on on all things tanya every day thank you thank you thank you councilman here please add counsel me his name the chair recognizes council alara council reu of the floor thank you president flynn and mana congratulations um i am incredibly excited and i'm incredibly grateful not only for your partnership and the work that we're going to do here on the city council but for your friendship outside of here i think that if the way that you show up for me is any indication of how you're going to show up for district 7 they are in good hands i'm excited please sign my name on to this i'm excited to work on on this with you and all the other things that we're going to work on on the city council you are a shining example of what it means to be a bridge builder without letting go of any of your beliefs and standing strong in your values while also reaching across to work with other people so i think that the people of district 7 did a great job they picked the right one and i'm really excited to you know i know that we we share a precinct in roxbury and district 6 share a very small precinct together so i'm excited to work together not just for the betterment of our districts but for the benefit of all black and brown people here in the city so congratulations council lara we're going to add your name yes please please add council of lara's name um please add council book counselor brayden councillor edwards council illusion councillor murphy council rel please add the chair and talk at zero three five seven will be referred to the committee on housing and community development mr kirk please read docket zero three five eight please doctor number zero three five eight councilor mejia offered the following a resolution recognizing march 13 2022 as essential workers day in the city of boston thank you the chair recognizes council me here council me here you have the floor thank you mr president you know i said it before but this uh this job is not the first time in my life that i've had to work more than one job just to get by i've always had to juggle two or three just to make my ends meet and i spent a lot of time in my youth working to help my mom cleaning offices selling shoes working at mcdonald's everything and anything just to make extra money for our family growing up i didn't know what an essential worker was even if i was one myself i certainly wasn't made to feel like i was essential in fact i was constantly reminded of how replaceable i was because of people making 10 times my salary described what i was doing as low skilled labor and that is why we need days like essential workers here in the city of boston as a city council we need to stand up and affirm that people who clean our buildings bag our groceries serve us our coffee are the most valuable workers we have here in the city more importantly we need to take a central workers day as an opportunity to ask ourselves what are we doing to not just thank essential workers but what systems changes that we need to make to improve the lives of our essential workers that means increasing wages reducing barriers to affordable housing and supporting unions whenever possible this essential workers day is our office working to recognize over 250 workers across the city for their efforts during covet and despite those challenges that the pandemic has brought us we partnered with sciu 509 the greater boston labor council one local 103 mamlio and ems and we want to make sure that we don't just have a day to recognize our essential workers but that we celebrate their work every day this is our moment to step up and support our essential workers as much as they supported us during covet i move that we suspend and pass the rules and pass this resolution and i invite you all to celebrate us alongside us on march the 13th thank you thank you councilman here would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to add their name as a co-sponsor please add counselor arroyo baker bach brayden edwards fernandez anderson lara lujen mejia murphy warel and at the chair as well dawkin talk at zero three five eight oh council mejia is seeking suspension of the rules in adoption of zero three five eight all those in favor say aye the eyes have it talk at zero three five eight has been adopted mr clerk please read darken zero three five nine doctor number zero three five nine councillor mejia offered the following a resolution recognizing march as national social worker month the chair recognizes councilman here councilman here you have the floor don't worry y'all this is the last time okay i don't have any more to find for today but anyways thank you mr president and in the spirit of uplifting our essential workers i also want to note that march is national social workers month i've been working alongside social workers my entire life both as colleagues and also as a recipient of many of their services and i'm sure you all know a social worker is neither glamorous nor profitable but our social work is more than just a job it's a calling i've known social workers to take calls in the middle of the night take time away from their families and risk their own health and safety to provide services to people in need for many social work is not just what you do it's who you are new social workers are predominantly women actually 90 and are diverse in terms of race and ethnicity more than 22 percent of new social workers are black african-american and 14 hispanic latino according to the national council of social work education but it won't be surprising that despite being in industry with a large portion of women gender gaps still 89 of the low-wage social work force are women struggling to get by in an industry where people are already overworked and underpaid so as we move to celebrate national social workers month let us use this opportunity to not just celebrate the social workers in your life but to find ways to improving their working conditions and award them with their selfless work every day i move to suspend and pass this resolution and for us to celebrate our social workers thank you councilman is anyone else looking to speak on this matter the chair recognizes counselor fernandez anderson council of fernandez anderson you have the flow thank the chair uh thank you julia sorry thank you counselor um here as a social as a someone who's worked 27 years invested 27 years in public health i strongly support this i think that social workers are strongly unrecognized or not valued and i remember working with uh my friend here uh i think she's left taisha horner from age strong um and we we basically worked there at roxbury multi-service since a very early age i was 13 i started working and this was a time that i had to save money to bring to help my mom bring my brother and sister from k-virb and taisha horner and myself got into this field because they did a peer education but remembering the patience of the late barbara bullet at roxbury multi-service center miss claudia who's still around um and all of these people who mentor you in the community who do this work with their heart and their spirit in their mind without and they don't get paid enough right so i strongly support it i thank you so much for bringing it to our attention and look forward to doing more about that if you if you shall file thank you thank you council fernandez anderson you'd like to add your name as well yes please please add council fernandez anderson um anyone else like to add their name please add counsel arroyo council baker council bloc council braden councillor edwards council lara consola jean councillor murphy councilwell and please add the chair council mejia seek suspension of the rules in adoption of zero three five nine all those in favor say aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it darker zero three five nine has been adopted we're going on to personnel orders mr couric please read talk at 0-3-6-0 document number zero three six zero council of flint for councillor murphy the chair seeks suspension of the rules and passage of dawkin zero three six zero all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket has passed mr clerk please read docket zero three six one talking number zero three six one council of flynn for councillor murphy the chair seeks suspension of the rules and passage of dark at zero three six one all those in favor say aye all opposed say nade the eyes have it the docket has passed mr clerk please read docket zero three six two document number zero three six two council of flynn for council of brayton the chair seeks suspension of the rules and passage of docket zero three six two all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket has passed late files we're now moving on to lay files i'm informed by the clerk that there are there is one late file matter the late the late file mata is a letter of absence from city council flaherty mr cork if you can read that letter into the record please a letter from city councilor mike flaherty dear council of council president flynn i write today to inform you and my colleagues that i am unable to attend today's council meeting due to a family commitment i want to express my support for docket number 0273 a supplemental appropriation order for various departments to cover the fiscal year 22 cost items contained within the collective bargaining agreements between the city of boston and cena my staff will be in attendance today and i will thoroughly review the meeting recording in minutes should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact my office thank you michael flaherty boston city councilor at large thank you mr clark that will be placed on file we're going on to green sheets anyone wishing to remove a matter from the green sheets may do so at this time seeing none we're moving on to the consent agenda i have been informed by the correct 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 aye opposed the eyes have it thank you the consent agenda has been adopted announcements does anyone have any announcements at this time the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy of the fall thank you thank you everyone so since russia invaded the ukraine on february 24th there have been more than 400 ukrainian civilians murdered including 27 children and over a thousand injured it is horrifying watching this war unfold on our television and on our phones in real time i was proud to stand in solidarity with thousands of our ukrainian neighbors at the rally hosted by the ukrainian cultural center of new england this past weekend at the common it is estimated that 10 000 ukrainians live in the boston area and they have been gathering in solidarity and showing support for each other i was happy to join them and i felt fortunate to meet sasha who was a young 18 year old college student who left her family in the ukraine just this past august to start college at mit as a mother i could feel her pain in her fear and her guilt for her family that was back home when i was able to speak to the crowd i told them i would be wearing this new ukrainian t-shirt that i bought from a fundraiser to show my solidarity and to show that we as a boston city council are here for our ukrainian residents and also our russian residents who may feel fear from any backlash of this war i'm sending love and strength to sasha and all of our ukrainians here and i just wanted them to know that they're not alone so thank you very much thank you council murphy the chair recognizes councillor block council block you have the floor thank you so much president flynn i just wanted to take the moment of announcements um to acknowledge some staff transitions in my office um lauren brody has been my chief of staff since i began on the council i actually met her when i was knocking doors in the back bay and she asked me about where i was on anti-poverty programs and it turned out that she worked for abcd and we got to talking and uh then when i won the seat i asked her to come in and she did an incredible job for me over the last two years as a chief of staff managing what i think in each office our chief of staff have managed which is the transition from fully in person to fully remote and then back to all the different constellations that our offices like so many others have taken and lauren's just been fantastic and also and also just a wonderful liaison to the back bay looking at lots of all district matters how we make sure that the cannabis industry rolls out equitably in our neck of the woods and yeah i've just been really really grateful to her so she her last day was the week that we didn't have a council meeting so i wanted to just take a moment to acknowledge her i think it's always good for us to recognize the staff behind the scenes who make our offices what they are and i also wanted to um acknowledge that with that transition uh emily brown in my office uh we'll be stepping up into the chief of staff role you probably already know emily because she's everywhere and um and tracks everything and has been doing unbelievable policy and budget work uh for me for the last two years and so um and before that was also like a neighborhood liaison so she knows the whole office and i'm just really excited to have her stepping up into that role and uh and kennedy avery and anthony baez on my office are also both taking on new responsibilities as we reconfigure so just want to shout out my whole staff team um i feel like sometimes you can watch these meetings and think it's just 13 of us but we know better so thank you so much mr president thank you council block the chair recognizes council of baker council baker thank you thank you mr president um just want to make a note for people uh the pioneer institute came up with a report today i'm recommending um i can't think of the word receivership thank you receivership for the schools there was a story in the herald yesterday and i think the globe the day before i know we have a an order for hearing on it so you know i think we should fully know and understand what receivership means um so just to put it on people's radar thank you thank you council baker any further announcements from anybody we're going on to memorials um today we we will adjourn our meeting in memory of the following individuals for council is baker flaherty and flynn leo mahon leo mahoney four councillors flynn and flaherty edwin bud waite for council of fernandez anderson fidella mohammed luis manuel ferrer ashley nicole bezzell the chair moves that when the council adjourns today it does so in memory of those mentioned individuals and we are scheduled to meet again in the ayanella chamber on wednesday march 16th at 12 noon all in favor of adjournment please say aye the council is adjourned do do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you