[Music] 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.gov slash city council dash tv i would like to ask my colleagues and those in attendance to please silence their phones in electronic devices at this time thank you i'd also asked it also asked that we all be respectful and do not disrupt the meeting while you are here if you are disruptive unfortunately you will be asked to leave if you will fail to comply you will be escorted out please also note that according to 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 council edwards sorry no more council councillor fernandes anderson council of flaherty council of flynn here council elara council louisiana councillor mejia councillor murphy and councilor wurrell we have a quorum thank you mr clark um mr clerk will you please add counselor lara yes this week's clergy is father father oresis drossos from saint nichtarios greek orthodox church he was invited by council arroyo council arroyo would you like to come up to the podium and introduce father please good morning or afternoon rather uh father odysseus drossos was born and raised in montreal quebec canada he attended the annunciation of the virgin mary church serving in the altar and involved in the youth ministry programs he earned a bachelor of liberal arts degree in pre-theology from hellenic college in brooklyn brookline mass in 1990 and he earned a master of divinity from holy cross greek orthodox school of theology and brookline mass in 1993. father odysseus served as the pastoral assistant at saint nicholas greek orthodox church in oakland illinois well in the chicago area he met his wife maria calves and they were married on february 5th 1995 at holy apostles greek orthodox church in westchester illinois he was ordained to the deaconant on july 17 1995 at the annunciation church in montreal quebec in canada and ordained to the priesthood on july 18 1995 at saint pentelamon greek orthodox church in markham ontario canada where he served as a parish priest until august 31 2019 he has also served as the director of social services and one of the founding directors of the summer camp metaphor metamorphosis which is a youth camp he's also served as a professor and instructor of byzantine music in both the patriarchal toronto orthodox theological academy and the byzantine school of music as well as the chaplain of the metamorphosis greek orthodox day school in toronto ontario canada father odysseus then served at st george greek orthodox cathedral in vancouver british columbia from september 1st 2019 until november 26 2020 and then with the blessings a metropolitan methodist of boston father odysseus is now serving at saint materials greek orthodox church in roslindale mass since january 4 24 2021 father odysseus and his wife maria have a son thomas and father odysseus has done an excellent job in my district with saint nichtaro's churches a pillar of our community in roslindale and holding it together uh during a very difficult time for all i'm speaking obviously of the covet pandemic in which we are still grappling he has been a fixture in his short time there and i look forward to seeing him continue to be a positive pillar of light in our community and so with that i'd like to invite father odysseus thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you good afternoon everyone i wanted to begin before i begin with our prayer i wanted to simply express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to councillor arroyo and all the respected members of council being a clergyman who served for 27 years so far i understand the pressures and the demands as well as the commitment that is called upon when we are in these leadership roles and it is such a blessing and a privilege to have these roles at this time i invite you to please rise as we pray in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit almighty god the god of our salvation who alone works wonders look upon us with mercy and compassion and out of your enduring love hear us and have mercy on us in all humility we pray to you and entreat you who are the source of wisdom and thank you for all our people who serve in leadership roles our mayor of boston michelle our city council members their staff and all their families enlighten and guide our leaders with reminders each day of why they decided to dedicate their lives to public service and use that commitment to encourage them direct oh lord their thoughts to the way of truth so that they may enact order and enforce whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are just tending toward all excellence and virtue we pray o lord for the staff of our leaders grant also unto them love grace strength and encouragement bless them with the knowledge needed to approach each situation in the best way possible for you are the help and salvation of all of those who place their hope in you and to you we offer praise honor and glory now and forever and unto the ages of ages amen amen god bless if you're able to rise please rise and join us thank you father and thank you thank you council arroyo at this time we have a special presentation um from council block as she has invited the long time community activist jackie royce to the council meeting today jackie is turning 89 so i want to ask councillor bach to um introduce jackie forest thank you so much councillor flynn and thank you for your indulgence in that jackie lives right on the line between our districts so consider this a mutual presentation i want to welcome jackie royce and her family up today jackie is a tireless climate activist in my district and uh and just you know meeting her was one of the most amazing parts of my campaign back in 2019 and then i honestly one of the worst days in 2019 was when i heard that she'd been hit by a car and we thought for a minute we might have lost her and she had a long and arduous recovery in the hospital and then came back and then somehow redoubled her efforts which if you had known her before just all the work she does with the gas leak allies be can nab the green committee the ward 4 democrats some of whom are here you if you had known jackie before you would not have thought it was possible to redouble your efforts and yet somehow it was and and even at now the age of 89 she's also the co-founder of the boston clean energy coalition and the muddy water initiative um and uh and it's just um was just one of the most inspiring community activists i know in the city and so we really wanted um and uh thank you for the partnership with of the award for democrats um we wanted to present this res this resolution today recognizing jackie royce on her 89th birthday and a lifetime of climate advocacy in which she really continues to inspire us all so i i wanted to invite the council and also her family she's joined here by her son ethan but also her daughters sarah and francine and carol on behalf of ward 4 i think you should come up too and i i wanted to ask counselors indulgence in joining us for a celebratory photo with jackie and her family thank you otherwise you look like [Applause] thank you council block and thank you to jackie and on behalf of the council we want to wish you a happy happy birthday mr clerk will you please let the record reflect that counselor fernandez anderson is present approval we're on to the approval of the minutes seeing and hearing no discussion on the matter the chief moves to approve the minutes from the last meeting as presented all those in favor of approving the minutes from the last meeting say aye i'll oppose nay the the eyes have it thank you the minutes of the last meeting stand is approved communication from her honor the mayor mr clerk please read dark at 0-5-7-7-0-5-7-8 together please doctor number zero five seven seven message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of greg wilmont as a member of the boston public health commission's board of health for a term expiring january 15 2025. in docket number 0578 message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of sandro delaus as a member of the boston public health commission's board of health for a term experience january six twenty twenty four thank you doctor zero five seven seven and doctor zero five seven eight we'll be referred to the committee in public health homelessness in recovery reports of public offices and others mr clerk please read dawkin zero five seven nine two zero five eight six doctor number zero five seven nine notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of renee bushy as the director of the office of labor relations effective april twenty third twenty twenty two talking number zero five eight zero notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of inez foster as a member of the make boston shine trust fund doctor number zero five eight one notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of briana miller as a member of the make boston shine trust fund talking number zero five eight two notice as we see from the mayor of the appointment of john romano as a member of the may boston shine trust fund talking number zero five eight three notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of henry santana as a member of the make boston shine trust fund doctor number zero five eight four notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of kevin tran as the member of the make boston shine trust fund and docket number zero five eight five notice was received from the mayor the appointment of tiffany chu as chief of staff effective april 18 2022 and docket number zero five eight six communication was received from the mayor providing a list of the fiscal 2022 reallocations prior to april 15 2022. thank you docket zero five seven nine three zero five eight six will be placed on file matters recently heard for possible action mr clerk please read doc at zero four eight zero two zero four eight two doc at zero four eight three in docket zero four eight four two zero four eight six together please docking numbers 0480-0482 orders for the fiscal year 23 operating budget and crew including annual appropriations for departmental operations for the school department and for the post-employment benefits op-ed docket number zero four eight three order for a capital fund transfer appropriations and dockets zero four eight four through zero four eight six orders for the capital budget including loan orders and lease purchase agreements thank you the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson chair of the committee on ways and means council fernandez anderson you have the floor good afternoon everyone the committee on ways and means began holding hearings to review the fy 23 budget this past monday or april 25th 2022 we have held a public hearings in total so far this week we have held a total of two public hearings on for listening sessions for public testimonies and also a budget work workshop for district seven and one coming up for all of the districts on monday may 2nd we have we heard the boston public schools this time to on enrichment in the morning and social emotional learning and student support in the afternoon dps enrichment will also be sending in their written responses to the questions that on equity that were submitted prior to the hearing as well as possible extending the hearing to get the answers to questions that were not received tomorrow thursday may 5th we will again hear from bps this time on topic of operations in the morning and in the afternoon we'll hear from the mayor's office of neighborhood services and office of language and communications access over the next five weeks we will be we will continue to review the fy 23 budget with departmental hearings and counselor working sessions to discuss potential amendments if you should need or the counselors need any information on schedule or concessions a form will go out i have received support from counselor bach on form to ask the counselors for their um priorities on the budget and moving forward to to work in sessions with those so looking forward to that and again thank you for to all the counselors who's been attending we've been having a very robust attendance and participation and look forward to more i recommend that these matters remain in committee thank you thank you council fernandez anderson dark at zero four eight zero two zero four eight two docket zero four eight three docket zero four eight four two zero four eight six will remain in committee mr clerk please read docket zero five zero three two zero five zero four and zero four three six together please document zero five zero three message and order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of 349 million 500 000 in the form of a grant awarded by the united states department of treasury to be administered by the city of boston's chief financial officer collector treasurer this grant payment is made from the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery from fund slf rf in the treasury of the united states established by section 9901 of the american rescue plan act of 2021 arpa pursuant to the requirements of the arpa the grant payment would fund covert 19 response and recovery efforts and accelerate a green new deal for boston through once in a generation transformative investments that address the systemic health and economic challenges in the areas of affordable housing economic opportunity and inclusion behavioral health climate and mobility arts and culture and early childhood doctor number zero five zero four message in our authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of 40 million dollars in the form of a grant awarded by the united states department of the treasury to be administered by the city of boston's chief financial officer collector treasurer the grant payment is made from the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery fund clfrf in the treasury of the united states established by section 9901 of the american rescue plan act of 2021 our arpa pursuant to the requirements of the arpa the grant payment would fund provisions of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue of such state territory or tribal government due to the covert 19 public health emergency relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year of the state territory or tribal government prior to the emergency and daca number zero four three six order for a hearing on the state of boston's non-governmental nonprofit social sector and chart charting a post pandemic recovery thank you mr correct the chair recognizes uh councillor bark chair of the committee on boston's covert 19 recovery council block you have the floor thank you so much mr chairman and thank you to all the counselors who came to our hearing yesterday afternoon including councillor flynn rayden baker murphy flaherty fernandez anderson warrell mejia and luigen um it was a a good uh first introduction to the administration's proposal on the american rescue plan funds 350 million so casey brock wilson um jim williamson of the budget office and chief mary angelisolo sivera all joined us from the administration um as we discussed at that hearing it was really just a kind of first overview of what they're proposing and then as i've mentioned a few times my intention is to have a series of more kind of topic focused ones where we both talk about the details of their proposals in different categories like housing public health et cetera but also put next to it the things that counselors have been filing and talk about the details of those and kind of hash out what makes sense from this body's perspective since this really is this transformational one-time funding that we're getting and it's got to be an agreement between the council and the mayor as to what the most impactful way to spend it is so that was the first hearing in a process we also noticed it as the clerk mentioned on the 40 million dollar revenue replacement docket that's really supporting the budget that's in counselor financial anderson's committee and and then as well um heard from a number of non-profit leaders on the docket that counselor braden had proposed about sort of what the role of the nonprofit ecosystem should be in this space and in particular thinking about what are the ways that our funding and the program that we set up could um could really strengthen the nonprofit sector as it recovers and i think there was some really good conversation about that recognizing that the city doesn't have money to bail out the nonprofit sector here but are there ways that in our contracting with the nonprofit sector in terms of like making things intentionally available to smaller nonprofits and then really like thinking about how the quality of the jobs that we have that we're supporting with these contracts and agreements look like could we help transform that sector to one that's more sustainable for the people who work in it and the people that it serves so i think it was a really robust good conversation it was and i want to thank in particular counselor braden since she was the sponsor of that third docket um but it was very much the beginning of the conversation um my uh my office will have out uh today or tomorrow morning um our draft information requests from questions that counselors asked but if counselors have any questions that you'd like to add on to that um you can write back to our office with that so we're going to try to wrangle that all by the end of the day friday so that we can send it over so that we can make sure that we've got the right information in hand in advance the next hearing with the administration we're also in the midst of nailing down and we'll hopefully have nailed down by friday the exact schedule of those upcoming hearings so that people can know but what i would encourage in the meantime is that colleagues continue to do what what folks have been doing i think including in the agenda today which is if there's something that you want put alongside the proposal and to talk about as a use of arpa funds file it in the council docket with that mention of arpa funds in the title so that we know that that's the conversation we're trying to participate in and and we'll definitely be figuring out how to make sure that the time in those subsequent hearings is not just about the administration's proposals it really is about what counselors are proposing and i'm excited to keep passing that out together so thank you so much mr chair i will ask that the dockets all three remain in committee thank you council block docket zero five zero three council baker council baker you have the floor thank you thank you mr president and i would like to thank the chair of the um of the of the committee for holding this and and to um listen to us in our concerns i made mine quite clear yesterday i don't really see anything in here that speaks to mental health other than what's happening down on mass and cass and i believe we do need investments down there but i don't think we need to invest in buying things like the roundhouse hotel and things like that i think we should be investing in our young kids that are going to bear the brunt of this um of this what's happened to us the last two years everything that's happened there it's young kids just look at what's going on in our schools the violence and the misbehaviors that are happening in our schools it's all mental health driven and i don't see one thing in this 350 million dollars that speaks to that to speaks to youth development thank you mr chair thank you council baker the chair recognizes councillor braden councillor braden you have the floor thank you mr president i also want to thank the councillor bach for her leadership and sharing the committee hearing yesterday and allowing us to add our docket to the hearing to look at boston's non-governmental non-profit social sector and how they and hear from representatives of that sector and how they're fared during the pandemic it's really um it was a timely reminder that our non-profit sector are essential partners for the city in delivering essential services in the sphere of housing and mental health and health and human services all across the board we have two hundred thousand residents of boston are actually employed in this sector and very uh many of our smaller non-profits dug into their financial reserves and in the in the early days of covert um to meet the her meet the need thinking it would be a short-term challenge it wasn't a sprint it turned out to be a marathon actually probably a super marathon longer than the 26 miles so um you know i think it was a timely conversation and i do hope that we will continue to consider how we might support the non-profit sector as we um consider how we might expand our arbor funds going forward um targeted and mindful uh expenditure in certain things will will actually give us a lot more benefit going forward thank you thank you council braden the cheer recognizes council mejia council me here you have the floor yes uh thank you to the chair and to the sponsors for bringing this um very important conversation to our chamber yesterday i just would like to go on the record and echo the importance of making sure that we as counselors understand and recognize the important role that we play in determining how these dollars are going to get allocated and used i always say that nothing about us without us is for us and when we get presented um things that we need to react to um it always feels like an afterthought and in the spirit of a new administration and in the spirit of collaboration i think that we have an opportunity to change the way we do business and making sure that we're listening directly not to not only to our our council colleagues but also to those who put us in this position so i look forward to the continued conversation and being a loud voice in this um process thank you thank you council mejia the chair recognizes councillor fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the floor thank you um council president um i thank you madam chair for holding the hearing and to my colleagues for their express concerns and i think that you know we we have a long way to go in terms of like procurement and city contracts and managing brjp and ensuring that these processes or how we're contracting or employing people in the city of boston is or not equitable so i did hear that there was a plan for specific allocation to ensure to fulfill some assessments thereafter some sort of metrics in monitoring how we're going to be equitable or how the implementation of these programs would be equitable i did appreciate the the ideas that the administration had i i think they're i think that's most of them for for our wonderful ideas but i also think that counselors have one to four ideas i also think that counselors have been planning and organizing and meeting and working and galvanizing and spending a lot of time in organizing toward their own um projects or consolidation of community efforts so i believe that we should probably go into conversations about how we are expanding on the proposal to include us and so i look forward to that and i won't belabor this any further but to say that again uh when we look at our contracts and our records we're not doing a good job so um allocating such a large amount to projects and say okay here's five million to ensure that it is equitable um i think it's concerning and i think that historically you know the pattern so thus far historically and i know this doesn't speak to the administration currently but because there is a lack of trust because their their relationship has not built upon where we as people of color or counselors of color believe or feel that the equity has truly been solidified in city government then the honest and sincere conversation should roll out where we are included so lead by example to speak to council muhir's point so i look forward to doing that and having those open conversations without without insult without judgment but to say how are we doing this in the way that we say that we're supposed to be thank you thank you council fernandez anderson would anyone else like to speak talk at zero five zero three zero five zero four and zero four three six will remain in committee motions orders in resolutions mr kirk please read doc at zero five eight seven talking number zero five eight seven councilors lara and fernandez anderson offered the following order for a hearing to discuss the impact of inequitable housing code enforcement in boston's proactive rental inspection program thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes council of lara council alara you of the floor thank you president flynn and thank you to councillor fernandez anderson for co-sponsoring this matter with me we all know that asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that's responsible for about 1.8 million annual emergency department visits in the u.s it's also the leading cause of childhood morbidity it is a pre-existing condition that we have seen exacerbate covet 19 increasing the risk of hospitalization and death disproportionately for black and brown people in the city of boston and housing has been shown and housing quality in particular has been shown to be critical determinant of asthma particularly for children with more excuse me with more than 44 of the risk of childhood asthma diagnosis being attributed to exposure at home in 2013 the city of boston passed the proactive rental inspection ordinance which implemented a proactive rental inspection program that requires owners of all non-exempt units to undergo expense inspection every five years last month harvard released a 10-year study of our housing code enforcement specifically for reported asthma triggers which showed a 17 longer median response time 14 higher probability of cases being overdue and a 54.4 percent lower probability of repair in neighborhoods that have the lowest proportion of white residents in the city we know that renters typically are slow to report this type of incident for fear of retaliation and so we can expect that the number of people that are living in private rental units and are being exposed to asthma triggers are much more significant than what we see here i believe that there's really an urgent need to strengthen code enforcement systems and programs like breathe easy at home and the proactive rental inspection program if we want to protect the health and safety of our tenants particularly in the city's most marginalized communities as the chair of the committee on housing and community development i'm committing to ensuring that our constituents not only have access to ample affordable housing but that the places that they call home are also safe and healthy i'm calling this hearing because our current interventions have proven to be plagued by the same systemic racism that we see in all of our city agencies and i think that a policy failure is going to require a policy solution and i hope that we can get to one here thank you president flynn thank you thank you council lara the chief recognizes council of fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the floor thank you uh council president thank you um council lara for lara for um inviting me and uh ask and inviting me to partner with you in this um so i guess just to reiterate uh not what which what hasn't been said right so um you put that so eloquently um in short i think if you live in predominantly black neighborhood because of the intersection between like you know systemic racism and class inequality that neighborhood is more likely to be poor working class so um then obviously um predominantly white navy then they are predominantly white neighborhood counterpart and i think because of this to reiterate example documented here though we could just as easily discuss other examples um obviously asthma and other conditions that come with a lack of inspections in in these communities obviously impact uh the communities disproportionately in a negative way um so thank you again and i look forward to holding here with you thanks thank you council fernandez anderson is anyone else looking to speak on this matter uh the chair record recognizes council region council jean you have the flaw thank you mr president um i rise in support of this daca but also to say that one of the reasons why it's incredibly important to have isd doing these inspections is because people are so afraid already to withhold rent when it is their right when they're not being provided at a an apartment that is up to standards we see it time and time again people are paying for for apartments that are not quality right but they feel like if they don't pay the rent even though they're not getting heat or even though they're you know you know living in subpar conditions that they're still required to pay rent when they're not they are required they're able to withhold rat and the more we get isd out there to inspect the apartments the more people will feel empowered that they can actually withhold that rat that they can um and so i think it's important that we have isd out there also so that our neighborhoods uh people in our neighborhoods feel like they can take ownership even if they're just renting of what's coming out of their pocket and that was coming out of their pocket meets the value of what they're getting so just rise in support and i think this is a really important conversation thank you thank you council john the chair recognizes council morel councilworld you have the floor thank you president flynn and thank you to the makers council lara and anderson um the hearing order points to some staggering data around repairing items that are health hazards i've received pictures of unhealthy living living situations from roadings cockroaches and mode as a city i believe that we should be looking towards a more proactive enforcement that's not that does not rely on tenant reports for example in 2003 the greensboro city council enacted their own certificate occupancy ordinance and requiring mandatory inspections for essentially all rental housing and after they enacted their ordinance they saw that code violation dropped by 77 in eight years and that the city was uh able to bring more than eight thousand seven hundred properties up to a minimum standard over the course of four years i'm looking forward to working with the uh the makers isd to ensure that their resources um and that we're able to enforce and strengthen the policies on inspection repair thank you thank you and you want your name absolutely the chair recognizes council of braden council braden you have the floor thank you mr president i also want to thank the makers for this very important hearing order and it also dovetails very nicely with some work our office has been doing on the issue of scofflaw landlords who do not keep their properties up to cold and defer maintenance and etc without and use the the cold enforcement fines as just a cost of doing business so we're working on that the other issue uh that we are addressing in this context with regard to that um issue is looking at the capacity of our inspectional services department and making sure that they have the technology uh to actually um be more effective in enforcing the codes uh and and and my understanding has been that you know they have been using basically a paper and a pencil and paper pen and a paper approach and that they do that the addition of added technology such as ipads so they can do a field report in the field and have photographs and log the conditions uh will expedite and be much more effective in enforcement so um always with any of these questions i i echo your concerns mr president um we when we bring in new rules new mandates it's really important to ensure that our inspection services department is equipped and has the reg has the appropriate level of personnel to be able to be effective enforcers of the code so thank you so much thank you council braden please have my name thank you council brandon the chair recognizes council me here councilman here yes so thank you uh mr president so i just want to rise and support um and thank the leadership of the housing committee uh for spearheading this councilor lada for your unrelentless uh leadership and all things that deal with housing i really do appreciate and love how you lead in this space as well as council fernandez anderson really looking forward to the work and not only just having the conversation but really putting in the systems that are going to help support your vision so please add my name thank you thank you councilman here anyone else like to speak or add their name i i will uh i will i want to say thank you to the the makers of this important hearing order i also want to highlight what council were all mentioned the important role pest control plays in healthy living in in apartments especially but they contribute significantly to decline in our public health our our health for our children so dealing with pest control is also a critical role i know several of my counselors have mentioned that but that's an important um an important subject and i just want to thank all the counselors for the important work they're doing on this if you'd like to add in if you'd like to add your name please raise raise your hand mr clerk please add counselor arroyo counselor bach council braden councillor flaherty council lujan councilmember councillor murphy councilworld please add the chair docket 0587 will be assigned to the committee on city services in innovation technology mr clerk please read docket zero five eight eight please doctor number zero five eight eight councilors lara and fernandez anderson offer the following in order for a hearing to discuss the malcolm x park renovation thank you the chair recognizes council lara council of lara you have the fall thank you again president flynn um the malcolm x park is currently undergoing an 8 million renovation and due to conflicting community concerns to put it lightly over the design and the tree removal the city has paused on the work on the project this project is about two months behind schedule and we're calling this hearing to share an overview of the community process the decisions that we made based on the feedback we got from our community meetings and to hear from community members who live in the neighborhood and use the park about their ideas and their concerns we hope that this is a second attempt by integrating their feedback that will allow us to get back on schedule so the people of roxbury can enjoy their brand new space as it was intended the committee on environmental justice resiliency and parks will be stewarding this conversation with the support of my co-sponsor counselor fernandez anderson um where whose district the park is in chief white hammond and commissioner woods and we're looking to hold it here soon in the coming week thank you council laura the chair recognizes councillor fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the flaw uh thank you mr president and thank you to uh council lara for again partnering with me or inviting me to um in the lead of this um we in in district 7 there's been um a series of community hearings and different listening sessions with the parks and i'd also like to thank you thank uh chief mariama as well as commissioner woods for the process thus far it's come to a point where people feel that there needs to be a further i guess democratic process and i just i'm just really excited about this because this is a true example of how the government should work and i'm just really grateful that council lara brought it to my attention to handle it in the chambers thank you so much thank you council fernandez anderson would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to add their name please raise your hand mr clerk please add counselor arroyo counselor baker counselor book i'm celebrating council flaherty consolation council mejia council murphy council we're all pleased to add the chair as well docket 0588 will be assigned to the committee on environmental justice resiliency in parks mr clerk please read please read talk at zero five eight nine doctor number zero five eight nine councillor mejia offered the following order for a hearing on diversifying cannabis business models the chair recognizes council mejia council me here you have the floor thank you mr president in november of 2016 the voters of massachusetts made it clear that we needed to create a process to allow the sale of legalized recon recreational cannabis the spirit of that moment was rooted in the urgent need to undo decades of racism and the over criminalization of black and brown communities it was a moment where we stood up and said that if you are a single parent trying to sell some cannabis to make ends meet you're not a crim a criminal in fact we want to work with you and all communities that have been over police for using and selling cannabis to help you start a legal cannabis business four years after that in march of 2020 peoria aces and grove hall became the first marijuana store to open in boston also becoming the first licensed marijuana business opened by the cannabis control commission's economic empowerment applicants a program originally intended to offset the head start in the recreational market granted to existing medical dispensaries which are nearly all white loans even to get to the point where we had one equity applicant stores in boston's took years of work countless hours of advocacy and let's face it millions of dollars because that's what it takes to simply set up shop here in boston i have yet to meet a cannabis entrepreneur who has not spent at least a hundred thousand dollars on leases applications bureaucracy red tape and more and so you have to ask yourself with such a high barrier to entry for cannabis entrepreneurs could a single parent selling cannabis on the side really make their ends meet or even dream of opening up their own store and that's why we're filing this hearing order today because we need to think more creatively about how we're creating pathways to entrepreneurship in the cannabis market for communities that for decades were over policed and over incarcerated and to this day still struggle to access the legal cannabis market i would like to see a future where a cannabis entrepreneur can in a safe and well-regulated system produce edibles or other cannabis products in their own homes and make a living off that we already know that it's happening all across boston as we speak so we might as well find a way to make it safe and and for everyone involved i know that the people who are listening to this may think that it's crazy or even undoable because it's never been done before but if we are serious about championing black and brown cannabis entrepreneurs we need to think about all of the entrepreneurs not just the ones who have access to capital i know that our cannabis laws are complicated delicate and i also know that we still have some of some of the counselors who were there when the law was was first crafted including my colleague councillor flaherty who championed the half-mile buzzer buffer rule that is now in law in our city i'm going to into this conversation with an open mind and i hope that my colleagues will do the same and i think it's really important for us to really recognize what this moment presents itself is as an opportunity for us to literally really think outside the box um and i always say we need to have a can-do attitude and just because it hasn't been done doesn't necessarily mean it can't and i think that this is an opportunity for us to really explore what it's going to take um to make it happen and i hope that we all have the courage um to do that everyone is watching us thank you thank you councilman here would anyone else like to speak in this matter the chief recognizes council baker council council bakery of the four thank you mr president um the the sponsor reference legislation about the home kitchens i've had multiple restaurant owners ask me for help on that where it started i was just oh it'll be craft jams and things like that that will sell at farmers markets well i've been shown facebook posts where people co-opt a full menu from restaurants immigrant owned restaurants too by the way and say we can do anything on this catering all the way down the line so it's basically become a way for people to stay away from health care health inspections to stay away from any sort of taxes to stay away from any sort of regulation that we have to keep people safe that's one point and to talk about allowing people to make edibles in their own homes edibles is where you need to you need to really know what's in there really know the dosage because that's where people can really get wacky if they eat too many edibles or if the edible says it's five milligrams and it's actually 50 milligrams and i don't think home home cooks home chemists we should we should give that sort of um that sort of like ability to do that you know i mean are we just going to allow everyone to just sell weed now to at what point do we have have and continue the rules that we have in place i mean there's a reason why it costs a lot i for one don't want weed on every on every corner because it's no different from the liquid liquor stores what have we fought for years liquor stores on billboards liquor liquor being sold in all of our neighborhoods my neighborhoods every every corner liquor store and that's what the weed industry has been in boston here we've just licensed um dispensaries so we're just selling weed to our kids no jobs we have no i think we have one one grow coming which is where the real jobs are there's no labs in boston i don't know of any manufacturing there's nothing creating jobs all we're doing is selling wheat and i think this will just make it worse so i do not wish to sign on thank you council baker would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to add their name please raise your hand raise your hand mr cork please add council arroyo please add counselor fernandez anderson please add counselor lara please add council legend please add council royale please add the chair docket zero five eight nine will be referred to small business and professional licenses mr clerk please read docket zero five nine zero docket number zero five nine zero councillors fernandez anderson and murphy offer the following order for a hearing to discuss ways in which arpa funding can support an ecosystem for non-profit holistic wraparound health services for disenfranchised populations thank you the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the floor uh thank you mr president and um mr uh clerk when i when i was writing this the title read like that just the way you read it and i was like the not holistic heparin health services i was like i was really uh enjoying the way you read that because that's exactly how it played my mind i was like dang this title is too long but anyway and just the title i listen i'm gonna listen you know what it's a dissertation no okay it's four pages long yes um i know listen um right y'all leave me alone um if i can if i if i can um add uh council illusion um as original co-sponsor as well mr a president yes um council giannis is so ordered thank you mr cork please add console john all right all jokes aside um we hear councilman here talking about this all the time and i don't know the i don't know how to quote you but um boston is resource but coordination poor and so imagine an ecosystem that and i think this is already in play this is not something that i'm just pulling out of a hat but imagine because i do that a lot but imagine though an ecosystem that is actually working in synergy in terms of the health services or wrap-around services a lot of us talk about mental health or behavior health and i think that understanding the scope of it i think even bringing training to the council understanding the scope of like what preventative measures would look like in terms of wrap around services to address mental health is super important so an ecosystem of all of these health services that are working together in collaboration with one one non-profit that is serving as the hub or the connector so in any type of health you need the coordinator or the umbrella if you will of these services so that if i'm going for substance abuse or substance misuse rather services and i need housing that there is an automatic network that you can plug me to so that it actually is wrap around so that if i go for myself and my child needs help and but then you're also working with my uncle or you're working with my grandma that may need elderly housing or something like that that is what we call in the um trauma-informed world or services wrap around that you are working with the full family or you're working with the full community in terms of holistic services i think that there are a lot of certain agencies in our community that have proven best practices that have actually implemented services in a very practical and efficient way and i think it's war it warrants a conversation for us to talk about how are we looking at all of our resources and creating this so-called ecosystem and i do have to say um council braden um i was not i was not motivated by your idea but then because i wasn't really listening when you were breaking it down so i apologize that this goes into specifics of your idea um and i came to see you today to say like hey look oh my god great minds think alike but this is an actual more specific to um to as an extension to what you have brought up already and i would love to collaborate in how we can fuse this together and that's pretty much all i have to say about that thanks thank you council fernandez and fernandez anderson uh the chair recognizes uh council lugen council jen you have the flow i'm sorry i'm sorry um the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy you have the phone thank you um and thank you counselor fernandez anderson for asking me to join on and i do just have to say that it took a few days to read through it my office kept saying did you read again i'm like i'm halfway through but i think i'm on board so thank you for um this work because we know it's so important and so i will just state that you know we always need to support our nonprofits all the time but especially through this pandemic and through the recovery that we'll be going through for a long time and the mental health crisis is one of the pandemics within the pandemic and we know so many are struggling and we had a hearing yesterday where we heard from the nonprofits and what we already knew was really shared more eloquently about the staffing is another crisis that so many of our non-profit social service industry are struggling through they've been hit the hardest you know they've been stepping up and providing these supports the much needed supports to keep our city moving forward when we shut down they were all out there on the front line and they needed to work more and they have a staffing shortage and we know that we don't pay our social service workers the pay that they need and they deserve they also have been pivoting to ensure that our communities get the necessary services they need and i know we hope cove is over but we know it's not and so many of our neighbors and residents not just need mental health services but also basic services like food and heat and housing still so we can't forget that so i believe that this order is going to help mainstream and ensure that the much needed services continue to get to the families in our city so i look forward to the work ahead and partnering with you on this and also with councillor braden because i i feel like um most of the orders that have been filed and council of flaherty and baker those who have been around it might seem like we keep kind of filing the same things it seems like we care about the same thing so moving forward maybe we should work you know we continue to work together but in a way where we know that we're not in any way trying to step on each other's toes but get this important work done for the city so thank you very much thank you council murphy the chair recognizes council zhan council agenda you have the floor thank you mr chairman may the fourth be with you sorry all right all right all right all right i wanted to give a shout out they made sure i said it on the mic i said it um i want to thank um the leadership of counselor finance anderson and councillor murphy on this issue i'm happy to be added we know that nonprofits engaged in cova 19 and health recovery services are already doing the work in the communities that we live in and that they serve i mean if you don't know that these nonprofits are doing the work you're not looking hard enough because they're there they're present oftentimes using money from their own pockets i'm helping a non-profit leader who's been who's been pouring herself into this work of really shepherding her non-profit through the not throughout covid and is re behind on some on some of her housing payments uh because she's poured so much of her own funds into this work so they need our support um as country fernando anderson said wraparound services provide comprehensive and holistic family driven solutions to health services it puts the individual youth and families um right at the center covertly funds have been almost completely inaccessible to our immigrant communities to our undocumented communities um to returning citizens and show the civil rights committee and immigrant advancement committee i want to make sure that everything we do is in partnership with those who it's it's has become and has historically been easy for us to exclude um so we need to make sure that they're getting the resources they need so that they can share in the prosperity of the city um we know that oftentimes providing a housing voucher or job training will not solve the underlying problem because people are complex and you know the the the needs are are very varied um and i think nonprofits oftentimes are doing meeting people at all of their various needs i think about you know with the work of fc the brazilian worker center equity now and beyond acid on la lianza so many non-profits out there that are doing the work sometimes out of their own kitchen and this is especially the case when it comes to black and brown non-profits that don't have the advantage of networking of structures and of access and so i'm incredibly excited to support the work of congress anderson of making sure that we are building ecosystems that work and that are responsive and working in partnership uh with the people already doing the work so thank you very much for this opportunity and i look forward to the work thank you council is anyone else looking to speak on this matter the chair recognizes council of braden council braden you have the four thank you mr president and thank you cancer fernandez anderson for this um initiative um you know just i think the connection and the building of networks and effective effective uh coalition building across different uh nonprofits that do different parts of the job having having a safety net and a network that actually doesn't have big holes in it and when we see the holes being able to to correct the deficiencies uh i'm just want to speak to something that happens out in alton brighton we have the austin brighton health collaborative and it is a very loose coalition of folks who from a wide range of of non-profit entities in our neighborhood is about 40 organizations all together and they work together pre-covered but when coveted hit they the coordinator the executive director had a had a multiple several times a week covered networking meeting so that we pulled all our resources together and connected and that network includes the brazilian workers center the the brazilian women's center uh abcd elizabeth hospital the whole the whole range and the the community health centers and it was really about okay what does anybody need what's going on on the ground how can we get that more resources and it was really that sort of um collaborative approach that helped us weather the storm and you know i think we need to explore more models of that i know at a neighborhood level every neighborhood organizes and does this but it's maybe formalizing it and putting some more resources into it these are these networks these and former neighborhood networks formalizing them more and putting some resources into supporting that grassroots neighborhood level wraparound interventions is is really something we probably should be looking at very very carefully so thank you so much for this hearing order and please have my name thank you thank you council braden the cheer recognizes council me here council me here you have the four thank you to the makers for bringing this hearing order to the space really super excited about the conversation as someone who um always talks about the fact that i started my career in the nonprofit sector and that's all i've ever known aside from my time at mtv and even then i was still working with the nonprofit sector in different capacities i think that you know when i talk about our ability to be resourceful oftentimes those who have the most access to information are the ones who usually get the most dollars and also are the ones that have the most capacity but the ones who are doing the work oftentimes are overlooked and i think creating an ecosystem where we're all really recognizing the strength and we're not going to be acting like you know crabs in a battle always fighting for whatever little resources and whatever crumbs we can get so i think this whole idea of really creating an ecosystem that creates opportunities for people to be in collaboration with not in competition with each other will really help us get at the core of a lot of the issues that we have um relied on our non-profit sector to um lean into and i'll just say that you know i know that this is specifically for established non-profits i just like to add that our office has been doing a lot of work with mutual aid groups who are looking for organizations to partner up with and i think that when we think about building capacity there are a lot of folks who are doing the work right out of their homes with very limited resources and so our hope um through this conversation and we hope to bring some of these mutual aid groups into the into the fold um we're going to be hosting a capacity building conference in july um to help support these organizations and so look forward to having the hearing before then so that we can learn how we can better support everyone so thank you thank you councilman here if you'd like to add your name please raise your hand mr clark please add council arroyo councillor baker council bar council braden council fiery council lara council mejia councillor murphy councillorelle please add the chair docket zero five nine zero will be referred to the committee on boston's covert nineteen recovery mr clerk please read talk at zero five nine one docket number zero five nine one council of flaherty offered the following order requesting certain information under section 17f relative to the mission hill k-8 school the chair recognizes council of clarity council flaherty of the fall thank you mr president for suspension and passage of the 17f council flaherty seeks suspension of the rules in adoption of docket zero five nine one all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket is passed mr clerk please read doc at zero five nine two doctor number zero five nine two counselors mejia lara and arroyo offer the following resolution recognizing november 20th through december 20th 2022 as national survivors of homicide awareness month thank you the chair recognizes counselor council me here council me here you have the floor thank you mr president and before i even read this i just wanted to acknowledge council morale and counselor baker for bringing the lewis d brown peace institute here a few weeks ago so really do appreciate your support for tina and her team so thank you for bringing them into the space um and i also would like to thank my co-sponsors councilor lara engago i know this resolution will be recognizing um awareness month all the way in november but we frankly need to be recognizing survivors of homicide 365 days a year we use the word quote unquote resilient in a lot of political spaces perhaps sometimes too much but it's hard to think of another word to describe the families and loved ones of those who have survived homicide that kind of loss is pain that sticks to you like no other and as we had recently seen in recent events that have happened with the graves of our young loved ones in our cemetery in roslindale that pain and trauma can renew itself over and over again and i think that too often we lose a loved one to homicide that's that's the initial wave of support people send you meals reach out words of encouragement refer you to trauma services but what happens after that what happens during that first birthday or holiday season without them who is there for the families in that time of need and i think that's why we need a time like survivors of homicide awareness month because there isn't a moment in time when the grieving stops when you finally move on especially when you have lost someone to homicide as i have this sunday i will be walking in the 26th annual mother's day walk for peace as a city counselor but more importantly as a mom i need to be there not only to show my support but because i know that we can't just keep having the same conversations around violence in our community something has to give so that by this time next year the 27th annual mother's day walk for peace can be a place where we can celebrate the fact that we realized our potential as a city and make major systemic changes to how we address the violence in our communities i really hope that we can get to this point and before i moved to suspend the the rules and asked my colleagues to speak you know i met so tina was my neighbor and when i started my career in the nonprofit sector her son lewis was gunned down on geneva ab not too far from where i live and that was 20 something years ago and we keep having the same conversation around violence and i think that what we have lost touch is is with the folks who have to continue to carry on my niece lost the the father of her son to violence um in my first year here as a city councilor and his tomb was one of the ones that were um one of the ones that were um messed with and it was my daughter who told me about it and i think that when we think about survivors and we think about the pain and the trauma all of those things need to be taken into consideration if we're really serious about um this work here in the city of boston i just feel like everything here is so political and it just gets tiring and our people are tired of it and i think that you know we all are responsible and we all have to be held accountable to what we're going to do if we're really serious about restoring the harm that so many are experiencing here in the city of boston thank you mr president thank you council mejia the chair recognizes council lara council vara you have the floor thank you president flynn and thank you to councillor mejia for asking me to co-sponsor this resolution or including me in this resolution and councilor arroyo our other co-sponsor i became a homicide survivor for the first time when i was 11. when my oldest brother who was 25 at the time was murdered uh i didn't know at the time that i would become a survivor another dozen times over in in my life all of my colleagues if not most of the folks here have um are either survivors themselves or know and love survivors and their families who they either work with or are in their communities and so i feel like this resolution is an ode to that strength and that resilience uh and the commitment to keep going from homicide survivors and for me it's really a commitment to the ongoing fight against gun violence um as a member of the trauma response team in jp i spent most of my time responding to victims and survivors of penetrating wounds in my neighborhood i then became a street worker and did violence prevention and intervention work in matapan first then in lower roxbury in the south end and so to say that i have spent most of my adult and professional life um in the midst and trying to manage and fight for uh and advocate for not just our young people who are victims but their their friends and families and our communities would be an understatement there are things happening in my district currently that you know the folks in our community are really feeling the weight of including this issue that we've been seeing at the cemeteries one of which is a constituent of ours and our office has been working really closely to support and so you know when i think about survivors of homicide i like to think about my mom who lost her you know lost her first child and how she dedicated you know her life maybe for the possible next 10 years to finding my brother's murderer who wasn't arrested when my brother was shot and that is the kind of tenacity that i see in all of our people and all of our and all the faces of the people in the constituents of the city of boston who have to carry the weight of surviving homicide so i'm really excited and happy to support this resolution and i hope that we can continue to honor honoring survivors by making the policy decisions that are ultimately going to create safe communities for all of us thank you thank you council lara the chair recognizes council arroyo council of royal you have the fall thank you uh president flynn uh i thank uh councillor mejia and councillor lara for raising this with me i had a murder hit very close to my home richelle nova the pizza delivery man who was murdered in high park uh was the father at the time of my partner and so i was there for the direct impact of that and for the years after that it's actually how i became very aware of the services that the city offers and where they're good and where they're poor i got to meet courtney gray at that time i have to give him some praise in this moment as somebody who is excellent at dealing with trauma and the reality is they only have the resources at that point for folks who don't know richelle nova was a pizza delivery man who had taken a shift and that night was murdered over essentially fifty dollars and when that happens there's obviously a lot of trauma residual trauma a lot of lifelong obvious pain and harm and what the city was able to offer which i think is you know certainly better than nothing was a week essentially of uh courtney gray and sort of the trauma response team services they got a week of that and it was incumbent upon uh myself and people close to this family to basically ask them as many questions as we could to figure out how do you guide somebody through unspeakable loss and trauma just the deepest worst destabilizing thing that can happen to someone uh and with his guidance and his ability to be somebody i could check in with regularly uh there was healing there and and there were things that were in play um but there's there's still that loss there's still that trauma is still residual every holiday is very different every birthday is very different every moment that would bring joy generally whether it's a graduation or a marriage proposal or however that is going there is harm and loss and missing uh and so too think about the families uh in boston uh and in the state and in the country experience that i think homicide awareness month is uh or is is the least of what we can do i think focusing resources towards dealing with that trauma that families are feeling uh in those moments and i would just also note that this was a case where they were able to arrest the folks who did this and bring them through a judicial process but we know that in boston especially many families have never had that closure many families have had to experience the feeling of not knowing who did this to their loved one and so as we do this uh you know i just want to highlight that there are services that we have offered that i can uh testify frankly work really well and we need to expand that accident and that practice and and make that more accessible the other thing i will just mention here too is that people don't often think about this but when people are die unexpectedly but through murder or homicide there is a cost that a family must now carry uh that is unexpected and often uh times it is devastating to have someone who has just lost someone and their first request uh is for money or for help securing money because they are stressed and worried about how they are going to properly honor their their loved one because they don't have the resources to do so in this time of trauma need and i know that the city does do some very small allocations in the budget to help with those things uh but i think that is something that i would like to see focused on in the budget as well because it is heartbreaking to see families that do not have the uh resources to make it day to day have to all of a sudden figure out how to get into debt or how to borrow money from other people so that they can honor their loved one while also going through such trauma and so these are the kinds of wraparound things that i think we really have to focus on as a city and figure out how to address because homicide is awful and terrible and there are all these sort of butterfly effects and ways in which we can be helpful and i can speak to that personally and so thank you for lifting this up i see all of those who have suffered this harm and my thoughts and prayers frankly are with you all of the time but especially now so thank you uh president flynn and the council thank you council arroyo the chair recognizes council authority council flaherty you have the floor thank you mr president uh please add my name and as the lead sponsor um it stated uh it really is a year-round um a year-round thought for for families i lost my cousin back in 1994. 28 years has gone by we think about him the whole family thinks about him all the time and one of the things we do think about is if uh the boston of today uh the boston that supports uh strongly supports um arduously supports our lgbtq community if that was the situation in 1994 we probably wouldn't not have lost uh our cousin and so that's constantly reminding uh me of of his passing but also for those that are in this chamber or those tuning in that have lost a loved one that uh i i understand that and that we do think about our loved ones every day and wish that we could have that moment every day like councilman here just alluded to so please add my name and encourage others to join as well thank you council flaherty those wishing to add the name please raise your hand mr clerk uh please add counselor arroyo counselor bach counselor braden councillor fernandez anderson council baker council flaherty console jen counsel murphy council rowell and please add the chair counselors councils mejia lara and arroyo are seeking suspension of rules in adoption of dark zero five nine two all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket is passed mr clerk please read doc at zero five nine three talking number zero five nine three councillor flynn offered the following resolution recognizing the contributions of asian americans and pacific islanders during asian pacific american heritage month in may thank you mr clerk the chair now recognizes councilor flank counselor flynn you have the floor thank you thank you council royal council royal may i add council of fernandez fernandez anderson as an original co-sponsor seeing no objection she is now added thank you many many know that i represent the largest aapi community in boston mostly in chinatown but also in the south end and in south boston as well outside of my district we have a vibrant vietnamese community that's in council of bakers district and council braden also has a large korean community as well and council bock has a large aapi community as do other councillors there's a large cambodian community outside of boston up and up in lowell [Music] over the weekend i had the opportunity to attend the asian jade banquet which is a celebration of asian police officers throughout new england and they came together and talked about the important role of asian and asian-american police officers that play in our cities and towns and they they do an exceptional job but i i always come back to a story that i have said several times but when the chinese community first came to the united states they helped build the united states literally with the transcontinental railroad and chinese laborers along with irish laborers connected the east coast and in the west coast and they connected up up at um outside of salt lake city and this is there's a famous photo of kind of a ribbon cutting ceremony completing completing the railroad and there's about 200 people in one of these old photos and of the 200 people there's not one asian person in the photo even though they practically built built the railroad and after after completing the railroad what did the u.s government do we enacted the chinese exclusion act which excluded chinese from coming to the united states it was the first time that the united states intentionally excluded an ethnic and ethnic group from coming in here we also during the during world war ii we imprisoned japanese americans mostly on the west coast in california and some other some other states as well even though they were born here during this pandemic we actually held the first public town hall meeting on covet 19 in the country and that was at josiah quincy school and there was a young woman she was a student at either boston latin or boston latin academy and this was in january 2020 and covert really didn't hit this part of the united states yet but we we knew it was coming and this student got on the train heading to school when she got on the train she walked into the train and all the other people on the train got off the train um because they associated her with with covert 19 she was a young kid probably 16 or 17 years old telling telling me that story at this at this town hall and then i thought to myself you know we're gonna see a lot of anti-asian racism in this country anti-asian hate hate crimes that have happened here in the city of boston not just with the aapi community but immigrants the communities of color as well lgbtq as council of flaherty has mentioned also in these these hate crimes against cell immigrants continue to to this day i was at a a hearing the other night an elderly asian woman was visiting boston i think she lived in somerville she was probably 80 years old she got punched in the head by a young guy probably probably 20 years old just just because she was asian but what i but what i want to do as we celebrate aapi certainly we we have to deal with the discrimination and the hate crimes but also to celebrate the important role the asian community has played in the united states the contributions and the sacrifices that they made for our city and for our country so i'm proud to partner with council fernandez anderson but i i also want to say to my colleagues i know you you have also supported the api community not just today or this month but throughout the year so i want to recognize my colleagues for the tremendous work they do in this field and i also want to recognize um our first mayor of the city of boston mayor mayor wu who we've have partnered on on this resolution many times before but just want to say thank you to the mayor for her important work as well so um thank you mr thank you um council royale for giving the opportunity to speak thank you councillor flynn the chair now recognizes councillor fernandez anderson uh thank you um uh counselor uh sorry president flynn for filing this resolution um and i just wanted to um take a moment to just you know um sort of not go by the formalities and just express my sentiments around this um when i arrived to the united states and did not and i was looking for a job to um save money so that i can bring my brother and sister and i would save every little bit and i didn't have a green card so i would i found a way and there was a few friends in cambridge that i met some bengalis and um and other nepalese friends that had hooked me up with some jobs and we would all work together of course the joke was that immigrants that we work two three jobs and um sometimes we're called you know people would say are you jamaican if you work more than three jobs right so we all share this culture of working hard and being disciplined and putting out um you know a lot of work because of our um you know ethics or work ethics in terms of being disciplined and putting out work but i a lot of my friends also share the sentiment and as you know muslims being highly asian or asian pacific islanders share this expression that or the sentiment that because we're because they work very hard and because they're disciplined or humble in the way that they um ask for recognition that they are not recognized as human beings for the work that they put out and not to repeat everything that council flynn has said but i was really happy that you mentioned all of the different historic contributions to the united states and building this country but also all of the hardships that people have gone through and i think that a lot of the times we human as human beings we're not very good with the unknown so we wait for this paradigm shift to take us to oh wait it's wrong to discriminate against lgbtqi oh wait it's wrong to be uh to discriminate against blacks oh wait it's wrong to be this way or that way so i think that we should try to get into the culture of being open and understanding that there are nuances as and as counselor um lara has mentioned we're not a monolith so that's not or to any and that's to every group everybody there's nuances and culture and differences and music and food and everybody's different and i think what happens is we we tend to clump up people in one category or one bucket asians that's it but there's so much beauty and diversity in language and culture that comes with the different type the different asians and asian pacific islanders i'm so happy to partner with you in this and thank you so much for so much for your work but not just because you're um not just because you represent a lot of asians but because you're you are a very kind man council flynn um and i really just appreciate you for taking the time and not it's not about votes for you it's like this these are the people i represent and i'm gonna do that to the best of my ability with heart and passion and i appreciate you for that thank you counselor fernandez anderson would anyone else like to speak seeing no one would anyone else like to add their name mr clerk please add counselor baker counselor bach councillor braden councillor flaherty councillor lara counselor louis jen councillor mejia councillor murphy councilworld and please add my name uh councillor flynn seeks suspension of the rules and passage of docket 0593 all those in favor say aye all opposed nay the eyes have it docket 0593 has been adopted thank you thank you council royale mr clerk will you please read docket zero five nine four please doctor number zero five nine four councilor mejia offer the following resolution and support of senate 2671 and act relative to forfeiture reform and senate 2105 and act relative to civil asset forfeiture data reporting thank you the chair recognizes council mejia council me here you have the floor thank you mr president i'd like to suspend rule 12 and add counselors and laura as original co-sponsors hearing no objection counselor arroyo and council lara are so added thank you in march the committee on government accountability and transparency and accessibility held its maiden hearing on docket 0200 in order for a hearing on government accountability um transparency and accountability and towards surveillance equipment we learned a lot regarding the purchasing of the cell site stimulator and how it's used and what the process is in regards to civil asset forfeiture dollars and how they're used we also walked away with a greater sense of knowledge about the current state of cis civil asset forfeiture across the commonwealth of massachusetts according to the institute of justice massachusetts earns an f for its civil forfeiture laws with the lowest bar um to forfeiture poor protections for the innocent and a large profit incentives we have to do better fortunately there is legislation at the state level that seeks to make an impact an act relative to forfeiture reform will require the attorney general each district attorney and each police department to file an annual report with the executive office of administration and finance and the house and senate committees on ways and means detailing all assets monies proceeds from the assets seized pursuant to this section and that relative to live relative to civil asset forfeiture data reporting will require the state treasurer to establish and maintain a case tracking system and searchable public website that includes among other things name of the law enforcement agency that sees the property date of the seizure type of property seized estimated value of the seizure the outcome of the suspect's arrest and more these are small changes that will by no means fix everything wrong with our civil asset forfeiture policies but they are start in the right direction that has a positive impact on the state of government accountability transparency and accessibility i'd like to thank um alex marathi for bringing these um these pieces of legislation to our attention as well as fatima muhammad mahat and kate crawford from there for their tireless work in seeking transparency and accountability i move that we suspend the rules and urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this resolution thank you thank you councilman here the chair recognizes council arroyo council arroyo you have the floor thank you president flynn civil asset forfeiture in massachusetts has the uh is the sole one in the entire country with 50 states where the only one in which you can seize assets just on the basis of probable cause uh which is the lowest form uh and the lowest bar uh and so you know civil asset forfeiture has a number of issues including the fact that uh we can seize assets when there's no charges brought we can seize assets even in cases that end up dismissed or where a jury ultimately finds them not guilty and in the state that has occurred in multiple jurisdictions this doesn't address that this doesn't change the bar this also doesn't create any restrictions on where and how that money is used the only thing that this does is create transparency and the data of what assets are seized when they are seized and what cases are they seized and how they are spent but it doesn't in any way shape or form impact the bar to seize them or the process who sees them nor does it change in any way the decision-making uh and the processes that allow that money to be spent uh in in whatever way they they gain to spend it uh obviously those are reforms that i would support uh and and look forward to seeing happen but this doesn't do that what this does is it says when and where we are seizing assets when and how we are seizing assets should be transparent to the public we should be able to see those things we should be able to know what cases they come from we should be able to know how they are spent we should be able to know ultimately what the outcome of those charges if there are charges are and i think that transparency is a good thing for the commonwealth especially in light of the fact that we are the only state that allows those seizures uh at a probable cause standard and so with that i i have i'm happy to sponsor this and look forward to seeing appropriate action in support of senate bill 2671 thank you thank you council royal the chair recognizes council alara council lara you of the floor thank you president flynn and thank you to my co-sponsors i have very little to say um for two reasons one because my colleagues have outlined the importance of this bill and this resolution so very clearly and two because i have been out since seven in the morning and i'm running out of steam um i am incredibly supportive of this matter when we held our hearing on the purchase of the cell site simulator by the boston police department i had all of these questions and it became very obvious that there was policy changes that needed to happen at the state level in terms of what we could do to reform civil asset forfeiture and so i'm excited to support this resolution i'm excited to support this bill and like counselor royal mentioned i hope that it's gathering this data and having the information is only going to give us everything that we need to make sure that further reform comes down the line thank you thank you council ira the chair recognizes council of flaherty council fire you have the law thank you mr president thank you to the sponsors and i appreciate the clarification from our colleague council royal those are just the questions that i had i guess the question through the chair of the makers would they consider having a hearing as opposed to sort of a suspension and adoption so we can kind of break that down i know the way it works now is that the the proceeds are divided i believe half go to the law enforcement agency and the other half goes to the suffolk county district attorney's office i think that's the way that it was always broken down i've made efforts on this floor to try to have those funds or at least have uh treatment and recovery be sort of the third leg of that school particularly uh stool and particularly in instances where there was a it was a result of a drug forfeiture but and they would resist it vehemently um clearly boston police had their thoughts and ideas as to where they wanted to spend their forfeiture money the district attorney's office thought that they had their ideas but we always were pushing from this body to get treatment and recovery into that equation if we're going to seize those assets and as a result of a case involved drugs and alcohol we felt that it should go to treatment and recovery so i would love an opportunity to bring the appropriate parties down and have that discussion in terms of clearly how the forfeiture happens and the mindset behind it but whether or not it makes sense to potentially maybe inject treatment and recovery uh into that equation once again but again that's just for the makers i do appreciate the clarification uh and um look forward to seeing whether or not hearing makes appropriate sense thank you council fire i just want to respond to council of flaherty council mejia council flaherty asked if as the original sponsor would you consider a hearing order in not a resolution just want to recognize you counseling here so i i i don't write solo i have my co-sponsors to um help to weigh in uh you know the the fact of the matter is that this is something that's happening in the senate right um and this is a resolution on the council floor in in support of it right that's one and number two we did have a hearing in regards to this conversation so i do think that i just want to honor that that conversation um is still being held in my committee um so there might be opportunities in the future to unpack specifically what you're talking about but i just want to be really clear that this is a resolution in support of something that is at the house right now thank you thank you thank you councilman here would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to add their name please raise your hand mr clerk please add counselor book counselor braden council illusion council mejia is seeking suspension of the rules in adoption of docket zero five nine four all those in favor say aye aye opposed say nay the eyes haven't the docket has been adopted mr clerk please read docket zero five nine five talking number zero five nine five council lose offer the following resolution recognizing may as haitian heritage month thank you mr cork the chair recognizes counselor jean console jean you have the flaw thank you mr president um i am very excited to be rising today in recognition of may as haitian heritage month um actually boston is the first place where we started celebrating haitian heritage month in 1998 and it's because of the number of events that happen in the month of may um that you know that are relative to haitian history that uh it became a whole month including uh the most you know for me the most important haitian holiday is our independence day which is on january 1st what haiti was able to do in a 13-year slave revolt the only the only republic born out of a slave revolt that is the most important holiday but the most celebrated holiday in haiti is actually um may 18th and it is a holiday celebrated around uh the world in haitian communities it's our flag day where we honor catherine flon for creating the haitian flag by essentially tearing up the french flag and creating something new from that which is symbolic of everything that haiti has represented and continues to represent um you know so much of the hate story of haiti as we know um you know there's a lot of pride but there's also you know a lot of people thinking just about the seven months in which you know i was running uh for city council you know the things that came up in the assassination of our president an additional earthquake after continued trauma from our the first earthquake that happened in 2010 um you know dodging hurricanes and really and with the political instability in the country a lot of it are the result of american foreign policy so there's just so much there um and i think too about just growing up as a as a young haitian woman in this city um you know when i was in elementary school we didn't have a haitian heritage month and i was in a school in elementary school with a large haitian population but i was not in the english language learners class um but i was noticeably haitian and my father who was at the school every day he's supposed to be here but he's running late because that's what we do we run late um he i couldn't hide the fact that i was haitian right he was always in the school he has a very thick haitian accent when he speaks um and in my classroom there were other students who were haitian but you know sometimes they didn't always mention it because they made fun of the patient the haitian english language learners and as a result of that they made fun of me in my classroom and i think about how confusing that was as a young elementary student not knowing why it was worth making fun of people trying to learn english or why it was worth making fun of people who had dark skin and so when i now as a full adult and now as a boston city councilor go into classrooms and go into elementary school rooms i always remember that little girl who was in those classrooms and who wanted to see someone say it is more than okay to be proud of who you are and of where you come from and so i'm really happy that i have this opportunity my father who just wanted because he's late um to to otter haitian heritage month and to also you know honor my dad who is one of the reasons why i i'm able to stand here as a very proud haitian person he made sure that my sister and i were reading haitian crayola we're speaking it which isn't a lot a thing that a lot of people can do if you weren't born in haiti and so he made me even though it wasn't cool for your dad to make you someone carry your pride he made me carry the pride of this flag everywhere that i went and so building on that he had this whole month where we're doing a lot of really awesome programming the uss constitution museum in charleston actually has original letters from tucson where he uh the haitian freedom fighter who is the cause and the reason for our freedom and really showed the example to the world of what enslaved peoples can be and become and how we could break off the shackles of slavery we are having the haitian flag day parade on the on may 15th we'll also this council has actually had a breakfast honoring a haitian flag day every year and for the first time since we have a haitian american city councilor i will be hosting it my announcement for the week i'm just putting it here is um that i invite all of you to that breakfast happening here uh next friday at 10 30 a.m um i also just want to also recognize the number of haitians working here in city hall including my cousin um tishali who is here um i just there's there's so many of us here and i think it's important i always say that the third largest hmd aspect here in boston that is cognizable it is here in the city of um in the in city hall um and and you know in our hospitals in our schools um everywhere we are and so i'm just so grateful that i now have this ability to do this um to be a representative for my people and i know that this hearing was also filed last year by anissa sabi george and andrea campbell so many people here have um you know represent communities that are the diamond hatred communities i think of council morale i think of council arroyo i know that we have many friends here um and i just am so grateful for the work that we do um not only to you know go to haiti communities when they need um you know when it's time to get a vote or you know to say that i'm a good friend but to really do the real work of being in deep partnership with communities that are often struggling right we have folks coming here from the border we have folks who are being displaced by fires we have haitian non-profits that are running on shoestring budgets we have a diaspora here that is in deep deep need of having a place where we can be centered and anchored in our culture when things happen so i just thank you all for your commitment to the haitian community here i'm into the work that we are going to do together i'm just going to say this a little bit messy um is so i just want to say thank you to everyone and thank you to my council colleagues i hope to see you all next friday at the breakfast and uh thank you for the work that you do for me and my people thank you thank you thank you council jaina on behalf of the the body we also want to welcome you out we're proud we're proud to have you here as well welcome the chair recognizes council of flaherty council flaherty year of the floor mr president please add my name to this resolution as the very first uh sponsor of that breakfast that uh pastor of working with ino mondecere uh back in the day passed it on to uh former council rob gonsalvo who passed it on to uh former council tim mccarthy who passed it on to our colleague ricardo arroyo who obviously is passing on to our first haitian american uh here in root z luige and louis gin so i appreciate the opportunity to come along to that breakfast but also uh to her dad we may want to hook him up with kerry uh because he came in a little late after her speech so we may be able to get him the full tape uh working through central staff uh so that he didn't miss the uh he didn't miss all the action all right thank you mr president great great recommendation council flaherty thank you the chief recognizes council arroyo council arroyo you have the fall thank you uh council louisiana uh you know the country of haiti is uh really a beacon for the world in the way in which they were formed in a slave revolt successfully and much of the trauma and harm that haiti has experienced has been the result of foreign policy frankly from places like the united states of america which at the time were slave owning and had slave owning leadership that saw haiti as an existential crisis and so there's many different ways in which i think we can raise our voice to ensure that we are relieving them uh frankly of the harm that has been done in all of our names uh and i know one of the ways in which uh we can do so as well is pushing for uh the repayment uh from france to haiti for the debt in which they have incurred upon haiti which was fully paid which was for themselves haiti upon their liberation was imposed a debt from france where they were to pay for their own freedom and that should be uh returned and i and i'd raise my voice to that and i will say that as we uh have uh the privilege and the benefit of a large haitian population here in boston i believe i have the district with uh the most members of the haitian diaspora in the city of boston the breadth of just service that has come from that the culture and in the ways in which they have lifted up our small businesses have joined in and been parts of our community and making them better and in bringing in soccer leagues and doing all these different things that have created a better uh day-to-day for all members of our city uh i'm grateful to them i'm grateful for their spirit uh for their resilience and for their pride and where they come from both from a historic way from a personal way from their homeland but also in the ways in which they uphold their culture and their tradition so proudly for all the rest of us who are members of different diasporas to see and so i'm very grateful to councillor louis jen for raising this i am in full throat in support of this so please add my name and i'm grateful to our haitian community here in boston for all that they do and for the country of haiti for all they have done for other countries like the one that my parents come from who have also grappled with colonialism and with imperialism and in that specific case uh the the ultimate sin of of slavery and so thank you for for that and thank you to all haitians for uh uplifting their country uh here at home so thank you councillor flynn thank you council royale the chair recognizes council alara council council larry you have the flaw okay thank you president flynn i think councilor fernandez anderson was before me but um she very graciously gave me her spot um i i wanted to rise in support of this and to thank councillor illusion for filing it um i've said this before and i want to say this again that black people all across the diaspora in this entire world all the people of haiti a great debt and that we are where we are now because of of their fervor and because of their fight for liberation and i also want to stand because i think it's incredibly important to publicly show support as a woman from the dominican republic um i think that you know what we have seen happening on the dominican and haitian border in the past few years has been unconscionable and i think that as people of the dominican diaspora here in the united states we have a responsibility to stand in solidarity with the haitian people and with your permission i would like to speak in spanish and please add my name thank you council lara the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the flaw well we're just going to make this a multicultural whatever because um robert not so bad huh a little bit um massive for everything that you do for our uh roosie i always say when i met your dad i would told him i said um but she but he was like okay no it doesn't matter you're speaking and we understand let's go so i really i really love your dad and appreciate um watching this and um during the campaign i would tell the people the same thing i'll be like hey you're my cousins because y'all left k bird right west africa went in um i.t being or cuba as well being one of the first islands to land so literally we eat your food thank you for your zook [Music] i know kassaf is not haitian but still it's your culture and thank you for your food um cape verde being that it's a very uh uh new civilization or um in terms of post-colonial we didn't have tv we didn't have music we didn't have a lot so we benefit from your culture and we dance your music and your food and your traditions or rather what you left behind so um merci for uh being here for being present but i also think that you know i literally just watched the documentary again because i love watching it again and again and again to remind me that um how we have the strength to be able to fight but i have great respect for the haitian people for their strength for just the story and how they really showed the world um and being the only one to fight uh colonial colonialism so uh shout out to tucson liberture as you said um and thank you so much for being here and i would hope that in the way that i treat you in the way that i interact with you is exemplary in how i respect you and love you so i'm good to you for that reason because you're a priority for me thank you love you thank you council fernandez anderson the chair recognizes council mejia council me here you have the floor yeah i am so incredibly happy to have our first and i hope will not be our last haitian representation here on the city council so thank you council louisiana for everything that you do not only to just amplify the voices of our people um but to also continue to fight as hard as you do thank you and i just wanted to share the same sentiments as councilor lada you know i always talk about being an afro latina and really claiming my black roots right i think that dominicans really struggle with recognizing that we share the island of skis and that this is an opportunity for us to really as dominicans to really lean into this conversation that we're here because of you and i think that's really hard for a lot of dominicans to to digest and i actually met your dad even before i was even thinking of running um when i was advocating in deep collaboration with the haitian community during the earthquake because there was a lot of tension with dominicans and haitians here in the city of boston and i think that the solidarity not needs to just be here on this council floor but we need to work in collaboration and bring our communities together to recognize that we need each other and we need to continue to fight for one another and i do so in the spirit alongside you counselor luigi for this day and every day thank you and please sign my name thank you council mejia the chair recognizes council braden council braden thank you you have the floor thank you mr president and thank you uh councillor luigi and for this um celebration of haitian heritage month you know you've met my my nephew jermaine and he's a very tall handsome black man who came from port-au-prince as a very little child his mom is from haiti and she's married to my brother-in-law henry mccarthy and they live in new orleans and my association with that family and and by extension the haitian community is limited in many many ways but i i just one thing that impresses me is the incredible tenacity perseverance and courage of the haitian people in the in the in the face of so many recurrent and and sequential challenges natural disasters political strife and and political unrest over the last hist of the over the history of the of your nation and i'm very honored to consider you a friend and a colleague on the boston city council the first haitian woman um you walk in this this the the you follow in the in the path of a few other very strong and remarkable haitian women in politics in boston and i'm so honored to have you as a friend and a colleague so and i wish all the the folks in the haitian diaspora here in boston a very happy uh celebration of haitian heritage month thank you thank you council braden the chair recognizes council morale councilworld you have the flaw thank you president flynn and thank you to um council louis jen for uh bringing this to the floor i'm in support of this resolution and i just want to also add that you know just like the haitian community you know um setting the example of being resilient fighters and um preserving through all the uh turmoil that they have gone through you know you know council louisiana brings that fighter spirit to the city council and i'm a big fan of the culture just like uh council italian anderson has said you know the pickley's the copa music and i'm looking forward to celebrating the culture on haitian flag day i mean i also know what it's like to have very prideful parents me being a west indian uh it's one thing that you know your parents are always happy for you when you're you know doing doing the smallest things sometimes or you know even to this hype you know recognizing your culture i mean jamaicans also have a slogan that says out of many we are one so it's in that collaborative effort that i look like be united with the haitian community in my district to kind of move things forward thank you thank you councilworld the chair recognizes council jean councillor jean you have the flaw yeah sorry i'm not going to take all that i just want to say thank you to all my colleagues for your kind words um sometimes we sit here and we pass these resolutions and we're like what is it doing right i just want to say that i will i tell people that no city council is recognizing um haitian heritage month we passed a unanimous resolution god willing right um and they just they it's the it's just the joy uh for folks who for so long have been excluded who are downtrodden who have been forced to when you go into this resiliency well and i just think that like these small they seem small but it really does matter to a lot of people you know when i was when counselor finance anderson was here recognizing eid you know and and fighting for it as a holiday with that when i looked around at you know the muslim folks in this room and how much that meant to them it's the same thing so i just am so honored to have all of you speak so so um so nicely about the haitian community here and hope that that also translates to the work that we have to do so thank you messian que bonsie benitman may god bless everyone thank you council museum anyone else like to speak i would like to add that i'm also proud to sign on to this because of the incredible contributions and sacrifices of the haitian and haitian-american community here in greater boston i was with consolation several months ago out in front of the federal building where we will be protesting in support of fair immigration for um for the haitian community that came to here came to the united states during the earthquake in 20 in 2010 and i was only i was about 80 miles away from that earthquake when it when it hit now and i was part of the i was part of the relief team but i just wanted to say the the resilience of the haitian community here in our country is exceptional and they add tremendous tremendously to boston and to the into the united states so happy to sign on as well anyone else like to sign on please raise your hand mr clerk please add counselor baker counselor bach council braden council flaherty council lara council mejia council murphy council overall in the jail council illusion is seeking suspension of the rules in adoption of dark at zero five nine five all those in favor say aye aye i'll oppose saying nay the eyes have it the docket has passed we are on to late files i am informed by the correct that there are zero light files [Applause] we're on to green sheets anyone wishing to remove a matter from the green sheets may do so at this time the consent agenda we're now moving on to the consent agenda i've been formed by the clerk that there is one addition to the consent agenda agenda the chair moves for the adoption of the consent agenda as presented all those in favor say aye aye all those are all those opposed saying the eyes have it thank you the consent agenda has been adopted announcements any of our colleagues like to make a brief announcement the chief recognizes council lara council lara you have the floor thank you president flynn oh my god i've stood up so much today uh today is council flaherty's birthday [Applause] [Music] oh ramadan for the record council clarity is one year older than i am [Laughter] the cheer recognizes council baker council baker you have the form thank you mr president i just rise to um wish everybody a happy mother's day all the mothers out there the mother is the most important person in the family my mother actually if she were still alive would be 95 this this sunday so i want to say happy birthday and happy mother's day to my mom and also to my wife happy mother's day the most important person in the in the family unit is the mom so are you women out there who have children you're a blessing thank you well said council baker the chair recognizes council arroyo council royal you have the floor thank you mr president i'd like to wish my partner a happy birthday not counselor flaherty though happy birthday cause of fire but uh jennifer or jenny uh today is her birthday uh and uh folks who are in this business know how much we balance personal and private life uh personal private life with public life uh and the sacrifices that our loved ones make and she has made many uh in the years that we have been together and she has been a rock uh to me and to uh our our little family unit uh i love her immensely i am hoping that today is a wonderful day for her uh and i will try to do my part to make that so uh but i would be remiss if i did not thank her publicly in this way for the ways in which she has allowed me to serve uh my community uh and been an integral part of my ability to be successful in doing that uh and in the ways in which she has lifted up her own family uh and been selfless and how she gives of herself every day to everyone she loves and there's folks on this council who know her and recognize her spirit and what she is and uh probably are wondering why she's with me and it's a question i ask myself very often uh and so the least i could do is is give her these shout outs on the council floor because that it doesn't it doesn't hurt uh so thank you counselor president thank you council royal um both both lights went up at the same time um the chair recognizes council braden council braden you have the flaw thank you mr president i just want to um extend my condolences to the family of michael moran's wife helene pallada palodaro had a padalaro her her mom passed away this week suddenly and uh um and just want to extend her our sympathy and her condolences to the moran family the grandchildren ellie and addie have lost her grandma and we want to express her sadness at her sudden passing thank you thank you council braden the chair recognizes council bloc council blocking the floor thank you so much uh mr president um the appointment letters from the mayor uh earlier in our meeting had a familiar name on them henry santana and so i just wanted to take uh this moment to congratulate and recognize um henry who it was announced a couple of weeks ago but it was when the council was out of session for school vacation week has become the mayor's director of civic organizing um as folks in this council know henry used to work on my team here in the council and before that on my campaign he also worked for time for councillor mejia and is just a tremendous individual and and i think just perfect for this role because it's a job you know the the newly kind of conceived office of civic organizing is both doing some of the traditional programs that people have known and love love your block and city hall on the go but also really thinking about how city hall engages in civic organizing and how kind of in the way that counselors have done personally today like we bring all of our communities into the chamber and into city hall but in this case kind of at the grassroots level and um i just think about when when even in our office when we were engaging in the conversation about the mission hill playground and its renovation henry was the first person to like go and say hey let's actually make sure that the young people who go to the tobin school and who live in mission maine right next door let's make sure that those people are actually like in this process and we're not just having a bunch of playground meetings in which no young people participate um and the upshot of all that was that we got the first full size basketball court included in the plans for that playground and it's a little example but it's the type of thing where i just think that he's going to do a great job keeping city hall honest on you know in all of the things all the initiatives that we work on like what's the real grassroots bottom-up organizing that's happening and not just kind of soliciting people for their feedback but making sure that we're actually hearing what's welling up and so um i'm just really excited that the mayor's recognized his talent and put him in this role and i am looking forward to collaborating and as i'm sure many other counselors will as well but he uh he just did a great job in my office and um i wanted to take this moment to congratulate him so thank you mr chair thank you council block the chair recognizes council flaherty council flaherty of the floor thank you mr president just got where there was a collapse of the edison power plant that they're renovating so just want to give councillors an opportunity to offer prayers to those that are several folks trapped so the boston fire department's there trying to uh extricate extricate and hopefully that won't result in any casualties but it's a serious situation that is currently happening in our city so our thoughts and prayers to those workers the families and our first responders who are there now doing what they do best and hopefully uh will get folks out thank mr president thank you council flaherty for that that important message and i want to just acknowledge my friend in the back there john prevenzano that worked worked there so i just want to say our our prayers are with um your friends there john thank you john our prayers are with with those guys um we yes yes counselor braden council braden you have the floor since we're celebrating thank you mr president since we're celebrating birthdays um i just want to take the opportunity to wish my policy director wayne yay a very happy birthday on friday and he's a tireless worker and it's a happy birthday wayne [Applause] [Laughter] um thank you memorials today we're going to adjourn our meeting in memory of the following individuals for counselor braden sandra lee belmont adora for council illusion elizabeth rydo karen smith for council of flaherty henry denirecki for the body for the city council body central staff and council flaherty daryl alfonso rawal when the when we moved today to adjourn we do so in those mentioned individuals we are now scheduled to meet again in the ayanella chamber on wednesday may 11th at 12 noon all in favor of adjourning please say aye hi the council is adjourned thank you central staff and thank you to the clerk's office thank you [Music] you