you know everyone my name is ed flynn i am the city council president viewers can watch the council meeting live on youtube by visiting boston dot gov slash city council dash tv i'd like to ask my colleagues and those in the audience to please silence your phones in electronic devices thank you i'd also like to ask everyone to be respectful of each other and do not respect do do not disrupt the meeting while you are here if you are disruptive you'll be asked to leave and if you fear it'll comply you'll 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 police councilor murphy and councillor we have a call thank you i've been informed by the clerk that a quorum is present this week's clergy is grand rabbi korff invite invited by city council murphy council murphy would you like to come to the podium at this time to introduce our rabbi today thank you council president and welcome to rabbi korff um you told me earlier that the last time you were in this chamber was when council olynyhan was president so um welcome back grand rabbi korff was born and raised in boston in a family that was very much involved in public service from a young age rabbi y a korff was encouraged to follow in his grandfather's footsteps to become grand rabbi and chaplain of the city of boston his family philosophy was to be committed to public service but not to earn a livelihood from doing so this prompted rabbi korff to embark on a dual education obtaining a ba degree from columbia university in a bje from hebrew college in rabid rabbinical seminary at the same time he then earned two law degrees as well as two ordinations he spent a year in residence at harvard divinity school examining the examination of law and religion in pursuing an interest in dispute resolution simultaneously he served as a special assistant attorney general for massachusetts and as a special consultant to the norfolk county district attorney after he began law school at the fletcher school of law and diplomacy where he earned an m.a in international relations in mald in international law and diplomacy and a phd in international law already serving by that time as a community rabbi along with the growing law practice and recently appointed to succeed his grandfather and uncle as chaplain of the city of boston grand rabbi y a corf then also began to serve as a consultant in international relations in a public and private international law and for lobbying firm in washington dc i do have to say that is quite impressive and i first met you at a fire it was the fire swearing-in yes at florian hall when we had um the the new recruit of the and so it was very impressive so when i looked you up you have a very impressed and we met together and talked several times so i'm really i'm thankful that you're here and without further ado it is my honor to welcome back grand rabbi korff to the city council thank you i didn't know we were going to start with a eulogy um before we before the prayer uh just a quick comment um i came on as chaplain in 1975 um your father's predecessor kevin white so i've had the opportunity to work with some of you counselors for a number of years others it's a whole new council others i've met only recently and a few of you i haven't met at all but i look forward to i am available to you in whatever capacity you wish to consult i can be reached through my boston.gov email or through the boston fire department of boston police department please feel free those counselors who know me know that i try to try to follow god's example and be merciful in other words brief many years ago the boston globe published a report about a poll of individuals who were asked what they would be willing to sacrifice their lives for some said their families others for matters of principle such as religion or their country four percent were uncommitted and 45 percent were unequivocally positive that there was absolutely no cause whatsoever in the world for which they would die but it was the wrong question instead of discussing things we should be willing to die for we should be thinking about what we should live for what we should be committed to doing saying believing accomplishing with heart and soul for if we are committed to the proper life all else including the responsibility to give one's life for the proper cause follows that is the ideal that i've seen pursued by the distinguished members of this honorable body since it was first established and so we pray dear lord bless the leaders we have chosen with wisdom good judgment grace and dignity and blessed to the followers the people of the city of boston with trust and confidence in those we have elected for we have chosen our city officials to lead us not to be us followers without leaders is chaos while leaders without followers is anarchy help us to live for ourselves by living for others teach us to use both our minds and our hearts strengthen us to think like men and women of action and to act like men and women of thought help us to be modest in our demands and generous in our giving keep us gentle in our speech and strong in our actions bring us closer to one another with love and understanding with shared concerns and mutual respect and teach us to sometimes restrain our idealistic goals with the pragmatism of what is real and attainable together help us to draw upon our capacity to care and keep us close to one another no matter how far apart we may be we invoke your blessings o lord on this city family that is gathered here and we thank you for what we mean and for what we bring to one another and to the people of boston bless our leaders bless our followers god bless the city of boston now and always may this be her will and let us say amen if you're able to stand up we're going to do the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the desire of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you rabbi and thank you for councillor murphy for recommending rabbi korff who has played a critical role in in our city him and his family so thank you to um thank you to the rabbi um at this time we're gonna do a brief presentation to recogni to recognize two speakers at this time i would like to ask council me here if you can come to the podium [Music] anderson can you please please join us yes come on ladies take your stage this is our moment um so good afternoon everyone really excited uh to be here today in celebration of the international women of african descent which is going to be on july the 25th we are so honored to be working with the network of afro-latina afro-latin american afro-caribbean and the diaspora women as well as encuentro diaspora afro to recognize the 30th anniversary of the international day of women of african descent on july the 25th 2022 i want to take a second to read a part of the resolution which was written with the organization's own words to describe the importance of this day as they make their way to the stage it is important this is a day to uh of celebration for all women for those who inspire lead and those who are no longer on this plane to celebrate the lives of those who continue to fight against racism and a fight in search of equal rights with fairer and more democratic societies that support all women women of um from african descent continue to experience situations of poverty extreme technology technological and educational exclusion with less access to decent employment and health care during the pandemic this diaspora experienced disparities in access to vaccines and prevention of illness systemic racism is active and persuasive reality and without intervention it continues to fester in the region this 30th anniversary is recognized to help create the space for the articulation of afro-descent women for the construction of the democratic equitable and just multicultural societies which are free of racism racial discrimination sexism and exclusion from this place afro-descendant women fight for collective rights and in many spaces across the globe including right here in the city of boston progress has been made thanks to their struggles and as a afro-latina and the first to be elected here on the council i recognize our roots because i always say when they abducted our ancestors the only difference is the port that we were dropped off on and the first port was the island of kiskaya which i share with my sister in haiti so um with that and for all your hard work wanted to give you all an opportunity to to say a few words and then we're going to bring the two women to the states okay thank you uh thank you council mejia and thank you so much for the lovely ladies which councilman here will introduce soon um as the only african and african woman here uh first african uh elected on the council my experience is just a tiny bit different for my um relatives my cousins my sisters my mothers um our daughters and granddaughters and grandmothers who uh and the men too who were taken from us from uh the west coast of africa in all of our um and we as we know the story of transatlantic slave trade we must never forget the genocide we must never forget the african genocide um i think that i um often hear a lot about you know nazi and hitler and all of these other stuff and that is an atrocious and we should never forget um obviously uh the genocide that took place in germany or all of europe but we also should never forget the genocide the 11 million african people that were killed and slaughtered and raped and abused and oppressed over centuries time here today i stand before you as a proud african woman and i tell you that i'm often talking about the african people the black people the despaired people the poor white people and of course um recently i have gotten a lot of vitro on this and i have to stand here and say i'm not going to defend and i'm not going to continue to tell you my white brothers and sisters how much i love you and how much we are interconnected and how much we should continue to work together i'm going to show you with my heart and actions and as an african woman here today standing for all of the women that have to pave the way and for all of the women that have to fight and for their respect and to make way even here in city hall in government the educators the mothers all of the doctors and people all over the world all of the african women that have to withstand the most disrespected woman as malcolm x once said is the black woman in america and we have to go through this time and time and time again and we have to demand it and beg and sweat and bleed and breastfeed your children and it's still not enough yet we still love you and we stand here today in commemoration of a beautiful day to be able to celebrate our identity is not a threat it's not a risk it's not us taking away your position or your livelihood rather it is us asking you that you see us not as equal because we are not equals we are totally different and it's okay to be different it's okay for us to be individuals and for you to accept me as i am today as an african woman i proudly ask you that you my white brothers and sisters my asian brothers and sisters my lgbtq brothers and sisters and everyone in the world come together as one human community thank you hello everyone i'm councillor louisian and i just want to stand here and celebrate the 30th anniversary of the international day of women of african descent i want to thank you yvette moristein for all the uh work that you do with encuentro and and thank you and also for being here because we follow your lead in so much um when you know my counselor said so much and so there's not so much more for me to say but as a haitian woman as the daughter of haitian immigrants thank you as the daughter of haitian immigrants i think about i often speak here about the uh the meaning of haitian independence and as the first black republic uh the first free black republic and the only republic to be created as a result of a slave revolt i think in 1804 haiti is one of the countries that has kept really close to its african roots because of how early we were able to throw off the yoke of slavery and the yoke of white supremacy which we are still struggling with in other ways but because of that my um my family and my connection to that my our west african ancestry is really strong something that i was able to strengthen uh when i lived in senegal i mean i lived with as i have stated with the cape verdean family and saw all the beauty of our of of the african diaspora and how black women hold up not only this country we see it often time and time again with democratic politics but our families and around the world i've talked to yvette morisse so many times well actually this past weekend about the work that i used to do in the dominican republic with a wonderful woman by the name of sonia pierre who stood um and fought for so many of of of dimit for so many dominic women dominican women haitian dominican women haitian women living in the dominican republic who passed away entirely too soon in 2011 at the age of 48. um and who for me is a guide post of what it means to to fight fearlessly for people for black people for those who have been historically excluded from all sorts of tables and so i thank you for doing the work of showing what uh what it looks like to really center the struggle of black women the beauty of black woman and the way that we show up in this world and to continue in the struggle we know that once black women are free we are all free once black lgbtq women are free we are all free right and so i thank you for this work celebrate your inner first anniversary messi um now that there are haitians among you when we work together across the beautiful tapestry that is woman of the african diaspora when we don't let white supremacy take hold um we really uh show our strengths so i thank you for being here and continue and look forward to continuing working together with you and i am going to ask my friends and my partner and all things mass disruption we have been working for years around issues of understanding the importance of the diaspora my friend my colleague my mentor yvette modesty thank you so much uh good morning buenos dias giving thanks to those whose shoulders we stand on i'm gonna have and open up with some words um and hernandez who's one of the founding advisory board members of encuentro de asporafro and a member of the diaspora team good afternoon everyone as a black immigrant from the dominican republic who has lived in boston a place where many women of african descent hail from all over the world convene in this small city i feel like it is important to recognize this day this is not about your native language be it spanish french patois italian swahili creole this is about the blood and the thread that unifies all of us our african ancestry afro so i i didn't i don't want to take too much time but i wanted to say thank you to this fabulous group of women uh julia as she shared uh his sister in the struggle rootsy and i immediately connected around the issue of uh our friend and dear uh colleague sonia pierre and tanya that hug just made us sisters earlier today so welcome to the family and the team i also want to thank the council because for years we have done this and we have always gotten the full support and i'm looking out into the council and council flaherty and council baker have been with us through all of it because uh chuck started this way back so i want to say thank you to you and to uh councillor flynn for continuing uh the tradition of recognizing you know the network of afro-latin american afro-caribbean women in the diaspora is where i truly learned that we got dropped off everywhere you know i've traveled the entire world the entire region and i have met women black women in all the shades that we are here and the only difference is when someone hears us speak our accent comes out but what we know for sure is that we live a common experience wherever we are standing and that's what makes us stand here today together because beyond language beyond borders we have a common experience that continues to connect us and the ultimate goal is that we find ways to raise our voices and say we are here we demand to be seen we are human beings we are civil beings we are loving beings we are beautiful beings ain't none better than black one let me just say we give ourselves that kind of credit so thank you uh it's 30 years of saying we are here you know out of this space comes the current vice president of costa rica fc campbell bar out of this space comes the first lgbtq black woman senator of puerto rico and out of this space comes the recent vice president of colombia francia marquez so we got things to do and they got things to do and we're going to be calling each other's name out as we move in spaces that people are not ready to see us in but we are ready to take over so give thanks [Applause] please come up for a quick photo yes oh thank you so much thank you [Music] thank you council mejia for that wonderful presentation i would also like to acknowledge in the audience with us i know we're going to be celebrating them later but members of 32bjseiu thank you for being with us [Applause] mr clerk could you reflect the attendance that council warrell is present yes approval of the minutes okay yes yes council baker i'd like to make a motion to amend the city council meetings of june 29 2020 for docket zero five zero three is as follows replacing the last sentence which states remains in the committee on boston covert 19 recovery replace it with docket number zero five zero three as amended was referred back to the committee in boston's coven 19 recovery i'm looking for a second and a vote on this mr president do i hear a second second second all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed it has been adopted thank you mr president thank you yes the minutes have been adopted as amended thank you council baker do we take a minute he just did [Applause] communications from herron of the mayor mr kirk can you please read dark at zero eight six one talking number zero eight six one message disapproving an ordinance amending city of boston code ordinance chapter 15 section 10 and establishing the boston fair chance act doctor number 0259 passed by the city council on june 29 2022 recommending that the city council pass a new draft based on docket 0259 with some technical revisions thank you docket 0861 will be referred to the committee on government operations and assigned for further action mr clerk can you please read docket zero eight six two zero eight six five together please document zero eight six two message in order for your approval in order to reduce the fiscal year 22 appropriation for the reserve for collective bargaining by 145 115 dollars to provide funding for the boston police department for the fiscal year 22 increases contained within the collective bargaining agreements between the city of boston and the boston police school traffic supervisors association inc also known as bpstsa doctor number zero eight zero eight six three message in order for the supplemental appropriation order for the boston police department for fiscal year 22 in the amount of one 145 fifteen dollars to cover the fiscal year twenty two costs contained within the collective bargaining agreements between the city of boston and the boston police school traffic supervisors association incorporated bpst the terms of the contracts are september first twenty twenty through august thirty first twenty twenty three the major provisions of the contract includes base wage increases of two percent one point five percent and two percent to be given in september of each fiscal year of the contract term filed in the office of the city clerk on july eleventh twenty twenty two doctor number zero eight six four message in order for your approval in order to reduce the fiscal year twenty three appropriation for the reserve for collective bargaining by one hundred and eight thousand one hundred fifty eight dollars to provide funding for the property management department so the fiscal year 23 increases contained within the collective bargaining green between the city of boston and the municipal police patrols and patrolmen's association also known as mppa docker number zero eight six five message and order for the supplemental appropriation for the property management department for fiscal year 23 in the amount of 108 158 dollars to cover the fiscal year 23 costs contained within the collective bargaining agreements between the city of boston and the municipal police patrolmen's association and ppa the terms of the contract include base wage increases of 2 percent 1.5 percent and 2 percent to be given in the in october of each fiscal year of the contract term filed in the office of the city clerk july 11 2022. thank you doc at zero eight six two through docket zero eight six five will be referred to the committee on city service in innovation technology mr kirk can you reflect the record that council lara is present please yes mr clark can you please read talk at zero eight six six document zero eight six six message and honor authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of seventy five thousand dollars in the form of a grant for the fiscal year twenty three local consumer program awarded by the mass attorney general to be administered by consumer affairs and licensing the grant will fund staff cost and operational expenses thank you docket zero eight six six will be referred to the committee on small business and professional licenses docket zero eight six seven has been withdrawn we're on to reports of public officers and others mr clerk please read doc at zero eight six eight through zero eight six zero eight seven six daca number zero eight six eight communication was received from the mayor's office of housing regarding the short-term rentals 2022 report to the boston city council doctor number zero eight six nine notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of paul burke as the commissioner of the boston fire department effective july 1st 2022 docker number zero eight seven zero notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of caitlin pacifaro as a member of the boston compensation advisory board for a term exp expiring june thirtieth twenty twenty seven doctor number zero eight seven one notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of selena barrios-milner as a member of the boston compensation advisory board for a term expiring june 30th 2027 doctor number zero 872 notice was received from the mayor of the reappointment of john tobin as a member of the boston compensation advisory board for a term expired june thirtieth twenty twenty seven doctor number zero eight seven three notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of jeffrey y as a member of the boston compensation advisory board for a term expiring june 30th 2027. doctor number zero eight seven four notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of kenzie bark as a member of the residency compliance commission for a term expiring january third twenty twenty six daca number zero eight seven five notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of ross mcdonough as a member of the residency compliance commission for a term expiring january third twenty twenty six number zero eight seven six notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of dr aisha e miller as a member of the residency compliance commission for a term expiring january 3 2027 2026 thank you those dockets yeah docket zero eight six eight two docket zero eight seven six will be placed on file mr cork please read doc at zero eight seven seven ducking number zero eight seven seven the constable bonds of cleveland burton charles clemons marvin miner legia mckenna john connor iris figueroa jason grant regina hanson joshua hanley paul nelly and the city have been approved by the collected treasurer were received thank you docket zero eight seven seven is approved under the usual terms and conditions matt has recently heard for a possible action mr clark please read docket zero six one eight doctor number zero six one eight resolution calling for an end to the u.s embargo against cuba and opening up new travel and collaborative cultural medical and academic opportunities between the two countries thank you the chair recognizes council mejia chair of the committee on labor workforce economic development council me here you have the floor new thank you mr president um i am the chair of labor workforce and economic development i was not at the hearing or was able to lead the hearing but the lead sponsor was in attendance and facilitated the hearing so i'll be deferring to her shortly for her to give some highlights the docket is a zero six one eight a resolution calling for an end of the u.s embargo against cuba and opening up for new travel and collaborative art cultural medical and academic opportunities between the two countries this matter was sponsored by and chaired by counselor kendra lara and referred to the committee on may 11 of 2022 a summary of the legislation if passed resolves that the boston city council calls upon the united states of america to end the embargo against cuba and to allow the opening up for new travel and collaborative arts culture i feel like i'm reading that again opportunities between the two countries the committee held a hearing on monday july 11 to discuss docket 0618 for this hearing council lara served as the acting chair of the committee the committee heard testimony from panelists which included pastor um florescent from equity now and beyond his loan agavo from the brazilian women's group and equity now and beyond catherine de la roy from the women's health institute and sandy eaton rn from health justice for boston the panelists discussed the importance of uplifting the embargo on cuba highlighting the importance of information and resource sharing specifically when it comes to health care which is probably what this would have been ended up in the public health committee as opposed to the workforce development you could take a stab at that the next time around um uh the panelists stated that the cuba's uh health care system outperforms the united states and many public health metrics and an embargo were lifted in the uh us could benefit greatly from learning and partnering with cuba on health care efforts which is probably why i ended in my committee because it's also about job creation and opportunity and employment the panelists stated on the um stated that the pandemic emphasized the need to lift the embargo as the u.s and was unable to share covet 19 related information resources specifically vaccines the panelists also discussed cuba's work in assisting the international community by dispatching numerous healthcare and professionals to develop countries to provide healthcare services and training facilities the panelists shared examples of cuba's successful healthcare efforts in haiti and brazil so i would this resolution was also amended to include the following new draft draft is that the bot the that the boston city council condemns reports of human rights violation by the cuban government although the cuban community has defeating views on on this issue we believe our posture for non-engagement has been unsuccessful in changing the conditions on the island and ending the embargo is our best chance at improving diplomatic outcomes that was recently amended and i'm going to ask my um my colleague who brought this to us and i'm cheering it to give her remarks thank you councilman here the cheer recognizes council alara council of lara you have the floor thank you president flynn and thank you to councilor mahia as mentioned we had um what i seem to be an incredible hearing on monday where we heard over dozens of constituents cuban exiles and people who joined us on zoom directly from the island who testified about what ending the embargo would mean for them and how they feel that the city of boston would be joining if this resolution passes 30 plus cities across the country who are moving these kinds of resolutions forward we heard from our panelists that talked about the humanitarian work that they have been doing in exchange with the cuban people here in the city of boston and how the cuban government has been helpful and supportive of humanitarian efforts in places like haiti and brazil where other folks have not shown up to support in the same way we were joined in our hearing by congressman jim mcgovern who gave an impassioned testimony about ending the embargo and av chomsky who talked about the impact the embargo has had on her work as a professor at salem state university we heard from first and second generation cuban residents who traveled from boston to a sense to attend school for free in cuba cuban pastors who testified in spanish about how their communities have benefited from the humanitarian exchanges between boston and havana it's typically unorthodox for the city council to hold a hearing on a resolution but my intention with the hearing was and bringing the cuban ambassador to speak with the city council was to create more opportunity for dialogue and learning around this issue um and i think that we were able to do just that as with all things that the city council takes a vote on there is not a blanket agreement on the impact the embargo has had even among cubing americans and the changes to the resolution that um councilor mahiha mentioned in its new amended form reflect that opinion and reflect a stance on the city council against reported human rights violations um to ensure not only to the city council but to the cuban people in the city of boston that this resolution is specifically about lifting the embargo and making sure that the cuban people are able to have what they need and not about support for the government itself um today more than half a century since the embargo was put in place the biden administration continues to uphold this symbol of hostility between the u.s and cuba amid the most challenging humanitarian crisis on the island since the 1990s in 2014 the obama administration lifted restrictions for cuban americans to travel and send family and donate remingtons and re-establish the u.s embassy in havana expanded access to the internet and licensed a range of trade opportunities for u.s companies beyond these specific policies this shift in discourse by a u.s president signaled the most significant change in u.s cuba policy in 60 years it led to 23 bilateral accords on issues of mutual interest between the u.s and cuba of course the trump administration undid all of that progress and imposed new restrictions and what we know is that when elephant fights when elephants fight the grass is the one that suffers i filed this resolution because this embargo complicates a human humanitarian assistance to cuba complex licensing requirements effectively prevent food medicine and medical equipment from reaching cubans and discourage medical equipment sales to the island these restrictive policies make it extremely difficult to send aid to cuba and has damaged the cuban's healthcare system's ability to respond effectively to the covenant 19 pandemic with a toll on human lives the city of boston is home to one of the some of the leading medical public health and academic institutions in the united states and would greatly benefit from the restoration of trade with cuba by permitting the scientific biopharmaceutical medical and public collaboration and exchange including the importation of cuban products that would be useful to the residents of boston such as life-saving medicines like herbaport pro and cimavax that is the cuban developed vaccine against lung cancer our posture of non-engagement has been ineffective for 62 years and with this resolution we will be joining 30 plus cities all across the country and asking our congress to lift the embargo to the benefit of the cuban people so it's my hope today that i can have my council colleagues vote to pass this resolution alongside all of our other sister cities and even other people five other cities in new england here and here in massachusetts to call for the end of the embargo thank you thank you council our the chair recognizes council of flaherty council flaherty you have the floor thank you mr president just rise to offer a letter of an opposing view from the bandera cubano which is the organization in the city that represents the cuban americans here in boston dear boston city council i'm writing to ask you to please vote against the proposed city council resolution calling for an end to the u.s embargo i'm a long-time resident of boston over 50 years i'm also the president of the bandera cubana an organization that has been raising proudly raising the cuban flag for more than 30 years on boston city hall plaza grounds and one of the founders of the cuban cultural center an organization with over more than 50 years representing the cuban community in massachusetts as a governing body the city and public servants i would hope that you would consider how controversial this matter is there are many cuban americans living here in boston and beyond who do not blame the embargo for the shortcomings in cuba this is a complicated and deep subject that often opens up many deep wounds for those who have suffered under what we consider an illegitimate government that has not held free elections since 1959. many of the members of the bandera club in cuban exiles living in boston had no idea that this matter was being discussed or that there was a public hearing scheduled yesterday many have had very strong opposition to this resolution being passed by the city council please take into consideration this point of view that has many that has many sides and very passionate stances i don't believe taking a position on global matters as controversial and divisive as this one serves the city of boston well please consider voting against this resolution it will cause pain anger frustration to a segment of boston's population has been living here for fifty years or more any questions feel free to call me regular gonzalez president bandera cubana and i think they're asking if we could hold this back and have a second hearing to just allow an opposing point of view to be heard i know we had a hearing there was a panel but i don't think the panel included opposition i would advise all of our colleagues when you have the public hearing it's important to get all sides of the issue to the best of our ability and i think that there's a community here boston's cuban community that felt left out of this hearing they didn't feel that they were part of a panel discussion they were able to call in i think they were given two minutes but they weren't part of a panel discussion i think that as a matter of basic fairness i would ask through the maker to the chair that we withdraw this today and we have a hearing and allow all points of view to be heard on the topic and then move the item forward for the boston city council to vote their conscience based on the testimony that they heard taking into consideration all sides of this issue not just one side thank you mr president thank thank you council flaherty uh council our council of flaherty asked if you would consider um having a second hearing on this so that both sides could be heard the chair recognizes council ohara thank you president flynn and thank you um councillor um flaherty for one reading that into the record and making that request i think that as it stands it was already incredibly unorthodox to have a hearing about a resolution um to discuss a resolution to be more specific and i think that the request to have a second resolution excuse me a second hearing is coming from political pressure um and a group of people who are being you know led by by one person um that have been sent to the city council who came and testified here against the resolution i do think that we have heard opposing views i think that the city council as individuals and both as members of this elected body are aware of what's happening i think that we have stated and continued to state and i continue to state that this resolution is not at all in support of what's happening in cuba or in support of the cuban government and that this resolution is a call for us the u.s government ultimately um to say that this boston city council is supporting a lift to the embargo which we know will have positive impacts on the people of cuba as we have seen before um i'm not in favor of holding a second hearing i think that i think that we do have the information that we need both between the hearing and the visit of the ambassador here and all of our individual conversations to take a vote on this matter today and i hope that people will put in support of it thank you council lara the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy you have the fall thank you president flynn so my dad was a sailor in the navy and he served in the cuban missile crisis in 1962. so as a young child it was all i knew about cuba but since then i have clearly learned more about the wonderful country and as a city governing body and as public servants i consider how controversial this matter may be for some of our residents many cuban americans living here in boston do not blame the embargo for the shortcomings of cuba we know that but cuba has many human rights violations unlawful or arbitrary killings torture in cruel inhumane indeed degrading treatment of political prisoners and detainees cuba also has a dark history of the lgbtq plus rights something i know this body continues to lift up in support and i also know um so i do just want to say and i did listen to the whole hearing i was not present i had another meeting at that same time but i did hear the um but i will be voting no today if it is going to go to a vote but i will continue to work alongside the cubans here in boston and make sure that i support them any way i can so thank you thank you council murphy i'm going to call on council of royal next but i should have asked um councillor mejia the question from council flaherty if if if she would um consider having a second hearing but i'm going to call on council royal and then i'm going to go to council me here council arroyo thank you council president flynn i just want to be sure that i speak on this uh openly and on the record uh that we have to acknowledge and i think that this resolution and the edit that has been added to it acknowledges uh the dictatorship and the lack of rights that are currently on the cuban island i just want to make sure that i make clear in my own voice that i understand fully as somebody who has family members who are human descent who have had people who have fled the island that people aren't allowed to freely leave cuba and that one of the complicating issues for me with the embargo is that because they don't have the freedom to leave the embargo has a disproportionate impact on folks who are are stuck essentially without the freedom to travel and who are on the island and that when we talk about needed resources for these individuals it is not the dictatorship that goes lacking it is the people on the streets uh the people in our in the communities in cuba who uh go without needed resources and so this is uh at least for me i want to be as clear as i can be that i am not in support of the cuban government or the ways in which the cuban government operates and maintains its power but i have a very difficult time understanding all of the partnerships that this country has with other countries that have awful human rights records and that do awful harm to those individuals living in their borders and yet in this one instance it's the cuban people on the streets in cuba who are harmed by this embargo the most and so for me i do think you can hold the dual position that the embargo harms cuban residents and cuban individuals and citizens the worst while also holding in position that the dictatorship is wrong and the dictatorship should not exist and that frankly the dictatorship should be condemned uh and so you know i actually struggle with this one uh because i think the embargo is unjust for the the residents of cuba but i don't agree with the dictatorship itself and so this is one of those situations where we have heard from folks who call the united states their home not because it was their first choice but because they felt that they had to flee or people in their family who felt like they had to flee from a dictatorship a dictatorship that in some instances has taken members of their family has killed or murdered members of their family and for those folks the idea of punishing this dictatorship is a powerful one and one that i understand but i also understand that the embargo has existed for quite some time and that those that have been most impacted and most harmed are the very cuban people who have not had the ability to flee have not had the ability to leave and who live there every day and so with that i think this is a complicated matter i defer to the makers on how they want to proceed but i do want to just make sure that i sit on the record that i understand the complication here and i understand that you can be against the embargo and against the dictatorship that those aren't mutually exclusive and i would not want if this goes to a vote today for anyone to construe this as support for this dictatorship that has done awful things to the cuban people thank you thank you council royale i just want to go back to council mejia there was a question on the floor from council flaherty and somewhat from council arroyo as well um would we want to have a second hearing on this so we're able to get both sides of the uh position councilman i see my colleague consultant tania fernandez anderson got her light up but i i will say i'm going to call it counseling fernando zanderson you know i want to make sure everybody gets hurt and everyone everyone will get hurt councilman um yeah so you know i think that for me in the spirit of um because my colleague is the lead sponsor and also chaired the hearing i really want to honor and support her leadership in this and i also want to acknowledge that i always talk about here on this council about all means all and making sure that everybody feels heard and seen and i'm i am somewhat conflicted about the messaging around the fact that and i not to take offense to what flaherty said about the way we roll here with our public hearings but we do invite people to show up we do create space for people to participate and whether they show up or not you know that is very little that we have control over so i just want to say that um as we continue to do this work is being really super mindful of who is in the room and who is not um and and to to that point you know i'm compelled to really follow the leadership of my colleague um and i i also will say at the same time um in the absence of sounding ignorance but for me i'm a city councilor and some of the times you know when we're talking about issues that are happening abroad those impact the families that we serve right and those issues are very real for a lot of the folks that live here and come to this country and so we can't just turn a blind eye to what's happening in other countries because those things impact those folks that we represent so i am i i am compelled um to create space to allow other folks to be heard just because the way that i roll and i am also compelled to create space for my sister to feel like um her voice is is being heard and i'm just i'm i'm conflicted to be honest with you i am conflicted i am conflicted and um i need a little bit of time to think is that okay yes it is at this time i'm going to call council fernandez anderson council of france anderson you have the flow thank you um mr president and uh madam chair mejia my sister kendra lara who filed this i was at the hearing and there was an opportunity and i think as she mentioned unconventional although unconventional but she held it so that it could allow opportunity for folks on both sides to come and voice their positions i am not conflicted so right is right wrong is wrong and the point here is that we're trying to generalize or group an entire country based on policies based on the harm that its government is doing so in that case we should condemn and push back against china for the muslims that they are keeping in their concentration camp we should push back on burma for the buddhists that are massacring and killing babies and pregnant women uh the myanmar myanmar muslims there we should condemn india we should for what they do what they do to and across religion fights we should condemn all of uh north africa and what their what's happening there the civil rights and the piracy in somalia we should condemn even cape verde for the atrocities we should condemn portugal we should condemn everyone and say that everybody is bad in a country and do not deserve opportunity and this is not just about us giving opportunity this is about as uh council lara was saying this is about us also benefiting collaborating in medical fields and other fields that cuba has shown to be in advance now from a personal perspective my uncle who raised me who was everything to me my uncle louise who is everything to me who got killed by a drunk driver who is a gay man and fiercely uh went to the netherlands and escaped cape verde for the same reasons because policies back then would not allow him to be a gay man not closeted and be himself he went to cuba he would travel the world and met a beautiful man there and they got married and they didn't get married in cuba it took some maneuvering or whatever and then because they couldn't thank you but you but i'm speaking because they couldn't thank you and i hate that about that right i hate that about k bird i hate that about other countries that do this to people but for us to generalize the people the poor people we know the conditions that black and brown people in cuba especially face absolutely i'm not speaking to the to the excuse me excuse me only one person can speak and we can we don't accept audience testimony and i do appreciate your opinion and i welcome that we speak and i'm sorry that you didn't have the time to come to a resolution but i am not again confused this country is not everyone there is not the country's policies and we should not judge or condemn an entire group of people based on the country's government thank you mr president thank you council fernandez anderson the chair recognizes council lara council larry you have the floor and then i'm i'm going to call council baker and other than council lara each council will only have one opportunity to speak but since um this is council lara's resolution i'm going to allow her a second time but certainly i'm going to call council baker after this council laura you have the fall thank you president flynn i really appreciate your grace on this matter and i appreciate the um the thoughtfulness that my colleagues are showing on this specific matter i think that the fact that we're still having this conversation the fact that we're hearing from people that have different opinions the fact that councillor mejia is feeling on the fence just shows um how much care the boston city council is taking with passing this resolution and so i am no way offended and i appreciate the discourse that we're having here um i have stated right and i think that other members of the council have already stated um that this is not a resolution in support of that i think that one of the things that we often see and we have seen it with other caribbean and latin american countries is that when a country takes a stance against the status quo they are continuously and very harshly punished we have seen it in haiti we've seen it in cuba and we've seen it in other countries all across the world and i think that the embargo is a 60 year old remnant of that level of punishment it's an unjust stance it harms the people in cuba and it is not lost on me how painful or how difficult this might be for members of the cuban community here in the city of boston but like i mentioned during my speech there are differing opinions um on every single issue that we vote on here on the city council and ultimately uh particularly with a resolution which is not a a statement that the city council is making um not making any policy changes for the whether with the resolution um we should take a look at what has worked what hasn't worked and ultimately what the end goal is here if the end goal for the people on the members of the city council and for the cuban people who are in exile here in the city of boston in the united states is ultimately a more democratic cuba we have 62 years of proof that shows that the posture of non-engagement that the u.s has taken has been completely ineffective in being helpful to the people of cuba and has actually made it more difficult for people to send aid to their family members to be able to send money to be able to send clothes and has really created a wall between the people on the island and their family members here in the united states at minimum we would be alleviating that level um for them and for the cuban people so again i'm asking my council colleagues to vote in support of passing this resolution if it needs to be restated as it has already been restated the boston city council is not taking a position of support towards the cuban government by filing this resolution but we are taking a position of support of the poor and working-class cuban people who are going to be disproportionately impacted if we maintain this embargo thank you councilor the chair recognizes council of baker council baker you have the foil thank you mr president i i stand i'm not conflicted i i for years have shared the opinion of the late joe moakley who always talked about how he didn't think the embargo worked i don't think the embargo works which is what is basic for me i understand what we're talking about here people not feeling heard it is just a resolution that's going to be worked out by the chairs i will be voting in support of this resolution because i think support of this resolution and ending the embargo will support the cuban people and maybe open up i mean they're unable we don't talk to them so if we end the embargo we end up building relationships i think it only helps us in this country as we're helping cuba also so i i view this as a as a vote for the cuban people not in support of the cuban government thank you thank you council baker the chair recognizes council me here council me here you have the floor so i just want to clarify i'm not conflicted as to whether or not i support this resolution because i do what i'm conflicted about just for the record for those who are paying attention is the the whole idea of creating space for making sure that those who have not been heard feel heard i just want to reiterate that and you can rewind it and play it over again for those folks who um who question um that and because i'm all about making sure that people who are leading things that they deeply care about also have a say and a voice in how they want me to proceed in support of their work it is important for me to defer to the lead sponsor and the one who chaired this hearing to articulate her desires so and this is an off what is it unorthodox so this whole situation has been unorthodox okay um because that's just how we roll just so you know take notes um so with that counselor uh president flynn i am going to recommend that we um bring this up for a boat and allow my colleagues to vote their heart and their conscious and i would also recommend for those who have opposing views is to consider filing something in regards to creating space for that so the conversation can continue doesn't necessarily have to this is a resolution there is an opportunity for you all to continue having this conversation but it is important to follow the lead of my um colleague so with that i would like to bring it up for a vote thank you thank you council me here councilman here seeks acceptance of the committee report in passage of docker eight all those in favor say aye aye aye opposed say nay nay mr clerk can you please do a roll call vote roll call vote on docket zero six one eight council arroyo councilor arroyo yes councillor baker councillor baker aye councillor bark council of barca councillor braden councillor braid night counselor coletta president counselor fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson yes council flaherty no council of flaherty no councillor flynn no councillor flynn no council lara yes council of laura yes council louisiana yes council louisiana yes councillor mejia yes councillor me here yes councillor murphy no councillor murphy no and council overall yes council overall yes docking number zero six eight one has passed with nine in favor thank you mr corp mr clerk will you please read docket zero five zero three and zero eight five five together please doctor number zero five zero three message and order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of 349 million five hundred thousand dollars 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 collect a treasurer this grant payment is made from the corona virus state and local fiscal recovery front fund slf rf in the treasury of the united states established by section 9901 of the american rescue plan act of 2021 a rpa pursuant to the requirements of the arpa the grant payment would fund covert 19 response and recovery efforts and accelerate a green 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 eight five five message in order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of 17 million seven hundred thousand 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 pursuant to the requirements of arpa the grant will fund covert 19 response and recovery efforts thank you the thank you the chair recognizes council block chair of the committee of boston's covet 19 recovery council block you have the floor mr president um and uh thank you to all the colleagues who came to yesterday's working session on these two dockets and also to colleagues who have come over the course of the 14 hearings and working sessions that we've had on 503 and now uh zero eight five five um these two dockets together make up a 367 million dollar dollars of arpa investment um in critical needs for the city of boston um and and i'm really excited today to be offering a report that recommends passage of the two dockets in a new draft um i i think you know i want to i want to highlight a few um key items that i think are exciting and also some of the reason for the urgency of getting these funds passed um i just want to note for folks who were at the working session yesterday um that you know we one of the things that we did discuss was the question of the mayor's legal authority vis-a-vis dockets whether or not she has line item veto authority uh we received a memo from the law department asserting that she does there was concurrence from our council and so in light of that well the whole of the package is things that have been negotiated with the administration as acceptable in addition to that i have left in in the committee report at the dorchester field house proposal because it was voted by a majority of the council at the as an amendment at our last meeting and so just want to know that that is included in the committee report today along with the other things that have been negotiated and one of the things that i'm excited about with these two dockets together is the fact that you know we've had an ongoing conversation about how to use these funds in the best way for the residents of boston and also in a way that's collaborative um between the council and the mayor and so the fact that there's 30 million dollars in here of sort of council directed actually with the field house 35 i think is a is an important testament to the opportunity for us to work together and uh and you know it's it's exciting stuff um we're talking about 201 million dollars for housing doing things like spending 45 million on building at new affordable home ownership units one of the things that we've heard from our homeownership advocates is that it's great to have money to support them buying a home but if there's no housing stock in the city of boston then it doesn't get us anywhere and so having 45 million dollars in here that's meant to actually build those units i think is huge there's money for building on public land building housing public land something that's really close to my heart there's money in the homeownership space a number of counselors led by counselor warrell have advocated for a better pathway for low and moderate income homeowners into into homeownership and and i'm excited that that got in here the green jobs program that kicked off a few weeks ago for the city there's six million dollars here to really like really make our investment real in that and as an opportunity to get black and brown young people in the city of boston into the green economy in a way where they're going to be the leaders of that economy i think it's something that just sets up the city of boston in an amazing way um there's some really exciting like hit the streets quickly money in here there's an opportunity to revitalize our our neighborhoods and downtown business districts we're doing everything from investing in main streets to helping get murals and arts and culture investments out to helping actually there's eight million in here that includes an expansion of the sidewalk street clearing pilot for snow in the winter to make it easier for folks of all mobility to get around um the you know there are some pretty urgent uh things that really need to move and it's one of the reasons that i'm here recommending passage view today an example would be there's 2.5 million in here of food security money for contracts that will run out at the end of july if we do not re-up them there's also a lot of the housing money is meant to be going out in rfps imminently there's two rfps that the city's got all queued up for substance use crisis response that can only hit the next stage if we see the arc of funds authorized today and um just a just a bunch of i think really good programs that have been advocated for by counselors and by the mayor alike and and we should just say you know we're extraordinarily lucky that we get to have a conversation in the city of boston about how to spend this money to do better instead of being in the position of the majority of large cities in america who had to use all their arpa funds just to make sure they didn't cut services and i'm so glad that we're not in that position because every one of these things that's funded in this when you talk about creating a whole new behavioral health center at bphc i mean every one of these things is something that's urgent it feels like it needed to be done yesterday and um and normally frankly we would not have the opportunity to spend 367 dollars a million dollars on on all those things um but there is a real arpa spend down deadline and a bunch of the things that the council has envisioned that the mayor has envisioned is are going to require set up and time to really get going and so today i am urging the passage of both docket zero five zero three and zero eight five five in a new draft um those drafts the final versions are attached to the committee report so that everybody should have all of that and and as i mentioned it reflects what we've been discussing over the last few working sessions with the change that i mentioned before um so yeah that's uh that's just a few of my comments on it and um mr chair i'll just if i can reserve the right to come up again if necessary that would be great but thank you so much mr president thank you council block yes you will have the right to come back up council bloc the chair recognizes council baker council baker you have the floor thank you mr chair i wore my sucker today you're welcome you look good because it's a light and airy easy day we had some family tension here yesterday but i have to thank the chair for the way she handled herself and and thank her also for coming around and allowing the allowing the field house amendment to stay in there we'll be voting on that today but i also think that just because that this money is passed i think that we need to be diligent um with the administration across the hall to make sure that we're still involved in the conversation there was some talk around trying to split it up which i was of the mindset but that didn't happen so i'm just happy to be here today i will be voting in in favor of it um there's a whole lot of good things that are going to happen that some of my speaking points were a little aggressive saying um yeah they were a little aggressive i'll just leave it i'll just leave it at that but i'm thrilled to be here in the position that we're in taking taking this this um this vote with the amendment in there and also i appreciate my seven colleagues that john joined me last week and voted for this amendment thank you mr president thank you council baker would anyone else like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes council of lara council lara you have the fault thank you president flynn i just rise in support of voting and passing this today um councilor colette and i have a time sensitive matter with the blue line portfolio that you know if we don't vote and pass on it today ultimately it's going to go to august into the fall and we're going to lose our time window to be able to take those 114 units off of the speculative market i'm really excited that this is moving forward i'm glad that even with our family tension we were able to come to an agreement um that worked for for all of us and i think that in addition to that i really want to stand in support of the three million dollars that we're looking to create the compost infrastructure i think it's going to save the city an incredible amount of money that we're going to be used be able to use for other necessities for our constituents and it's going to create jobs for the people here in the city of boston thank you thank you council lara anyone else like to speak on this i would like to i'd like to say um thank you special thank you to councillor bark for providing positive and engaging leadership during this discussion it hasn't been easy but i think i think you've handled this very well in a professional manner you've been inclusive and you tried your best to listen to listen to all sides i just want to say thank you to councilman bark hearing no one no one else that wants to speak council bloc did you want to did because i know you reserved the right to speak hold on hold on hold on okay uh thank you mr president no i think i'm fine i guess the only other thing was i mentioned this in the working session but just a flag um that one additional thing that was in the um in the 17.7 uh is a half a million dollars for exceeding the implementation of the community community-led mental health crisis response pilot something which it came up in our budget conversations that it couldn't yet be uh funded in budget because there wasn't a clear plan but there was a there's a really eager sense to need to get moment six keep momentum on that and it's something uh that my office is excited to see implemented and we've been talking about since councillor mejia and the mayor and uh councilor edwards introduced the idea back in summer 2020 so just it's really excited and wanted to flag that as one edition also on the floor so thank you thank you counsel me here you have the floor thank you president flynn um so just wanted to thank my colleague councillor bach dealing with all these personalities girl there's lots of them here including mine oh wow i can't believe we're even we're even here but i wanted to just rise and say i'm really excited especially around the alternatives to 9-1-1 having worked with councillor edwards and wu back in the day around this issue just to have some investments to help support this i'm really excited to see that moving through and so really eager to get these dollars passed and i also just want to make for the record that during the working session i was very clear around the the addition with the amendment for the field house that i i stand still um in in concern around the fact that there are some non-profit organizations you know frank well i really do appreciate you know your efforts and your advocacy on behalf of the field health i would not be who i am if i did not speak on the record and state that i am concerned about what that is going to mean and how other non-profit organizations who have also applied for capital funding to support their initiatives are are not going to be moving forward and i think that it is important for us to continue to sound the alarm around equity and making sure that if we're going to be thinking about all and all means all that we're fair and that we set criterias and don't do one for one and not the other so i just want to say that i have some reservations about that and so but i am really excited about all of the amazing things that we do have here ready for passage um so that we can get these dollars out to the people who need it most thank you councilman thank you council me here council box seeks thank you president i just wanted to also say thank you to uh councillor bach for her leadership here and i also wanted to say that i'm incredibly excited about the opportunities that we have here i want to thank council arroyo for working in partnership with my office to make sure that we get funding for emergency housing for populations that are really in need the haitian migrants who and not just haitian migrants folks who are coming in from the border in need of shelter we have our formerly incarcerated residents who um struggle to find housing in with this money when we're talking about an equitable recovery we think about those who have been pushed into unfortunate circumstances so i'm excited about that i'm excited about the funds that we'll get to help our seniors who've disproportionately in this pandemic suffered we talk about those who have died and passed away our senior residents have suffered disproportionately and they've also suffered from isolation so getting money there to support our seniors for senior engagement and senior activity is also really exciting and our businesses that continue to struggle that continue to struggle with the operations with continuing to be able to maintain employees and staff we want to make sure that our residents who are employed at a lot of these resident restaurants and bars are able to continue and have employment and i think continuing to assist them as we come out of this pandemic is crucially important so i'm excited about all of the things that are here in this opera especially you know council warrell led eight million dollars for homeownership really excited to think about how we are leaning into the conversation of homeownership for low-income uh and working-class families and also the conversations that we've had with the administration about how we're able to support even if didn't make it through with this arpa funding how we're able to support all the first trans transitional housing um in dorchester for trans folks for gender non-conforming gender non-conforming folks to non-binary folks that is currently being led by the trans emergency fund and we have real opportunities here to make real investments um in conversations that were sparked by opera so i'm really excited i want to thank council bach and my colleagues who partnered with me in getting dollars to the communities that have been the hardest hit by the pandemic thank you thank you the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson and after this we're going to take a vote council fernandez and send you over the flow um thank you uh councillor president flynn and um madam chair bach uh for your leadership your patience and your grace um throughout facilitating these processes um so i think that you know this this uh arpa or um cover recovery funds have really left a mark on many of us and i think the process that we've led so far has not in my opinion has not truly been inclusive of the council and has not really showed what what true democracy should look like um so i advocated for several agencies nonprofit capital which is for uh children's services of roxbury as well as many black and brown non-profit businesses as well as small businesses as well as programs as well as different entities in d7 as well throughout boston and none of them were supported and i understand that the city or the administration has uh said i guess time and time again or has begun to say that non-profits they don't want to set precedence in funding non-profits that's fine and dandy but we have examples of non-profits being funded throughout the city through the city all the time in fact i've talked about big you know uh top heavy white top heavy agencies nonprofits that are funded through the city when we look at arpa dollars and how it's supposed to be expanded we i talk about the black and brown community in fact everyone that proposed their ideas pull on these the same narrative like we are going to this is going to benefit black and brown when you look at housing and how we build affordable housing especially in roxbury where it holds the largest amount of low affordable housing in boston so i think it's about 58 percent and uh then you look at 75 percent of all of roxbury has uh rents they don't own then you look about you look at the stats that basically in the last year we've displaced 20 of black people out of roxbury so even if we are going to spend arpa dollars and we say we talk about these narratives we say we're going to help the brown and the black and brown communities but yet the housing that's going to be built and i've talked to departments and i've talked to different people and community and shout out to my advisory council to all the civic association leaders in d7 who has helped me in the last six months to have these conversations and do our research we feel that the affordable housing that boston is providing does not actually address the issue of district 7. the issue is that we don't want any more affordable rental in roxbury or south end district 7 does not want any more affordable rental we don't want any more rentals we have enough but then you take our per dollars that essentially are supposed to be for black and brown people because it disproportionately affected black and brown people but seven then you'd use a one-third one-third one-third rule which means that 30 percent of that housing is 30 and under ami and 30 is up to i think about 60 and then 30 the other 30 is about up to 120 ami the average ami in roxbury is about uh under 50. so you use this money that came because black and brown bodies died and then you say it's for black and brown people but 70 of that housing you're going to build does not actually help black and brown people so how is it that arpa dollars that are supposed to be for black and brown people majority is not going to help black and brown people so in the way that these monies are gonna uh be expended yes the narrative says that it's gonna be equitable i've talked about equity i've asked about metrics i've asked about dashboards that actually measure equity in the city of boston that actually talks about how is it that you are creating true racial equity economic mobility for black and brown people and then in government we come in and we sit down through these committees and we talk about how which businesses are going to help black and brown people which which programs which small non-profits the uh the daryl's or the the d7 tavern or the uh soles or the different businesses in boston that are suffering people that have to put their blood sweat and tears toward it and we are actually not going to support these non-profits we're not going to support programs that are actually going to impact us we're going to support our overall general ideas that we say are going to help black and brown people but when you really look at it and in the way in the formula that they've laid out it does not actually help us it does not actually impact or uh help the disproportionate uh impacted people in at least d7 i'm just going to speak for my district so i have to go on record and say that this has been an arduous process and i get it uh departments are waiting for these funds so that the programs can be implemented uh the the mayor wants this to pass so that we can keep going but everything has been rushed and we did it while the budget is happening and then we were supposed to vote on in the 29th when we were supposed to take the budget the vote on the budget and then we we come back today and we have to do it again and then there are people like frank baker who put in his uh idea but then we can't put in the other capital idea because we feel it's not going to be supported anyway it's just been a mess and i think that we can do better and we should do better especially with monies that is supposed to be because a disproportionate amount of black and brown people died we're supposed to revitalize and uh build up and bring people out and support so that it doesn't happen again and yet it's just it feels performative and i'm um i'm just i'm i'm now i'm now uh not conflicted but i'm disappointed that it's going this way that it's that it's not that we haven't had the time that i've i've asked for support for my ideas i've put it out i've advocated you cry you scream you do whatever and guess what it's not heard it's about ultimately the the agenda and it just feels like it's support the status quo whatever the whatever the programs whatever they want whatever we need to do in order to speed this up thank you thank you thank you council fernandez anderson i'm going to go to the vote mr clerk counselor bark seeks acceptance of the committee report in a new draft in passage of dark at zero five zero three all those in favor say aye mr mr can you do a roll call vote please roll call vote on docket zero five zero three council arroyo yes council arroyo yes councillor baker aye councillor baker aye councillor bark yes councillor bark yes council braden council of great uh council coletta councillor coletta yes councillor fernandez anderson council flaherty yes council flaherty yes council flynn yes councillor flynn yes council lara council lara yes consolusion yes council louisiana yes councillor mejia council me here yes councillor murphy yes councillor murphy yes and councillor world yes councilor warrell yes talking number zero five zero three has received 12 votes in the affirmative thank you mr carson council bloc seeks acceptance of the committed report in a new draft in passage of docket zero eight five five all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay mr clerk can you please do a roll call vote on docket zero eight five five roll call vote on docker number zero eight five five council arroyo yes council arroyo yes councillor baker aye councillor baker aye councillor bark yes councillor bark yes councillor braden yes councillor braden yes council coletta councillor coletta yes councillor fernandez anderson council of flaherty yes council of flaherty yes council flynn yes councillor flynn yes council lara council lara yes council louisiana yes council louisiana yes councillor mejia council council me here yes councillor murphy yes councillor murphy yes councillor warrell yes councilor well yes dr number zero eight five five has received twelve votes in the affirmative it is paris thank you mr clerk motions orders in resolutions mr clark please read docker zero eight seven eight please document number zero eight seven eight council let me hear for the following resolution recognizing the 30-year anniversary of the international day for women of african descent on july 25th 2022 in the city of boston councilman here you have the floor thank you mr president um we already did the presentation um so i don't want to occupy too much oxygen and too much space so we have a lot to get through today so we did the wreck um the recognition earlier today and um would just like to give my co-sponsors an opportunity to talk so council louisian and council um tanya fernandez anderson you can call on them thank you council luigen um you have the flow thank you council president fran flynn and thank you to councillor mejia for introducing this resolution i spoke when um the folk when we were earlier when we were uh honoring um yvette moristein and anna for being here so i have not much more to say but thank you and i hope that the council will support this resolution would anyone else like to speak on this matter or support it please raise your hand mr clerk please add counselor baker please add council of royal council block council of braden councillor fernandez anderson council florida council lara counsel louisiana we're suspending and passing right oh i did not formally add sorry you did not perform i did perform my attendance here no i just wanted to formally suspend um rule 12 and add uh counselor tanya fernandez anderson as a third sponsor and i also wanted to make sure that for the record um alex you know that council louisiana is one um one of the close uh original co-sponsors okay hearing no objections um the counselor is so added um please raise your hand again counselor murphy counselor warrell please add the chair um those counselors seek some suspension of the rules in adoption of zero eight seven eight all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket has passed mr clerk please re-talk talk at 0-8-7-9 please daca number 0-879 counselor mejia offered the following resolution recognizing august 14 2022 as dominican cultural day in the city of boston thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes councilman here council me here you have the form thank you mr uh president uh just so you all know that the official holiday um is going to be celebrated on august the 14th but because of our um because i won't be here on the next council meeting wanted to make sure that we file and um and get this on the record um the organization semana cultural and de bosto has celebrated and praised the patriotic values art and culture of the dominican community the second largest latino population in boston and the largest immigrant population according to the u.s census bureau in the us i don't know if that's true or not but wow we're growing i don't think that's right though um people are making some stuff up up in here but the um the the the for me as afro latina and a dominican immigrant i'm just so incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to celebrate our culture here and um just wanted to rise up to celebrate thank you thank you council mejia would anyone like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes council lara council lara you have the floor yes the other dominican on the council would like to speak on this matter um thank you so much president flynn and thank you to councillor mejia for um sponsoring this resolution recognizing august 14th as dominican cultural day in the city of boston um as many people here know i'm first generation dominican both of my parents um came to the u.s before i was born as did all six of my siblings we come from a very very proud dominican background and i spend most of my early years in the dominican republic so i'm incredibly honored not only to represent dominican people on the city council but to have us celebrating this and i want to rise to specifically talk a little bit about how i hope that we can celebrate dominicans in the city of boston outside of just celebrating our day of culture i think that we highlight here in the city of boston all of the good that the dominican community has done and how they feed into here in the city but despite having higher labor force participation rate than both native born and other immigrants dominicans have the highest unemployment rate at six percent compared to four percent for other immigrants and five percent for other native born people the median income for foreign-born dominicans in the u.s is much lower than that than other foreign-born native-born populations um the dominicans reported a median income of 33 thousand dollars whereas other ford and born um native populations recorded median incomes of 40 049 000 correspondingly i think that oftentimes here on the city council we talk about how black families have a median income of eight dollars and dominican families are not left from that figure but one thing that we do know and that that research also showed is that dominican families here in the city of boston have a median income of zero dollars and so i hope that our celebration of dominican culture and our uplifting of all of the good that dominican people have done for the city of boston um follows with the economic policy here in the city that's going to make sure that we uplift dominican and latino families all across the city so i'm really excited to vote for this um and it's an invitation for all of us on the city council to do this work together thank you thank you council lara the chair recognizes council louisiana president flynn i'm not going to repeat everything i said earlier when we were honoring the international day of women of the african diaspora but want to rise in support of this resolution introduced by councillor mejia worked i worked in the dominican republic with dominicans and haitians and a lot of the people i love in my life here are dominican obviously haiti and dominican republic shared the island that is properly known as hispaniola but its technical name indigenous name is kiskaya so i just rise in support and in recognition of the contributions of the dominican community here in the city of boston thank you thank you council illusion would anyone else like to speak or add your name mr clerk please add council arroyo council baker council block council braden council coletta council fiery council louisiana council of lara council mejia council of murphy council rouhania council me here seek suspension of the rules and adoption of dawkin zero eight seven nine all those in favor say aye aye i'll oppose saying nay the eyes have it the docket has been adopted mr clerk please read on zero eight eight zero docker number zero eight eight zero council arroyo offer the following order for a hearing to discuss the boston regional intelligence center also known as brick and the boston police department's response to the escalation of white supremacist groups in the city of boston thank you the chair recognizes council royal council royale you have the floor thank you council president flynn i also just want to note uh due to council rules i was restricted in the amount of original sponsors i could add to this but i was approached uh by councillor fernandez anderson councillor lara and councillor mejia uh to be at his original sponsors i think we we have rules about how many we can add so i promised all of them that i would note that they had asked to be originally sponsoring this uh in lieu of the fact that we couldn't add all of them but i do want to get right into this which is on july 3rd the patriot front came and marched not that far from here from the old state house on about a mile and a half route to what ultimately ended up being the back base station and the response in real time for me had two things that raised many questions that i think we we should have a hearing to have answers on and and discuss how we can get ahead of these things in the future i want to note that i think unfortunately there will be future events like this because we've seen an alarming uptick in trend of white supremacist organizations trying to gain a foothold here in boston whether it's patriot front in march doing graffiti of propaganda and their websites in dorchester whether it's the national socialist club 131 in south boston uh and then the patriot from coming down and this isn't an accident it's because much of the new uh ideology uh the children of the klan here uh have come up with is the idea that this country was founded for them specifically white supremacist individuals and because the country uh as we know it today had its very first steps uh its infancy it was essentially birthed here in massachusetts there is a draw here for them uh this is a propaganda piece for them uh to be able to stand outside of our old state house to be able to stand around the things that we take and treasure here in boston as proof of our our sort of history being the founders of of this country and amongst the very architects of this country and i think one of the issues that i had with this i'll separate this into sort of two it's really three now uh but there's two issues the first is the intelligence issue uh the boston regional intelligence center uh was founded to combat terrorism uh it that's one of its major functions it's in its mission statement uh that includes being a fusion center for data uh former boston police department lieutenant thomas nolan uh who also worked within that fusion center described this as an intelligence failure i would have to agree i don't think that it's necessarily the intelligence failure on the part of brick or bpd i think that there are federal partners here there are state partners here and i think that should be noted as well we are talking about thomas rousseau who was one of the founding members of the patriot front was arrested uh now four weeks but at that time three weeks prior in idaho after taking this very same group these patriot front groups and similar get up with a u-haul van similar to here on his way to disrupt and cause a riot at an lgbtq rally that was in idaho and it was brought to my attention that the fbi had investigated the patriot front there including thomas rousseau for almost a year it's very difficult for me to believe that thomas rousseau who is a founding member of this organization was able to plan a meeting and a gathering with other people from outside of the state that we're in right now coordinate times locations well just having been arrested well just being the target of an investigation for over a year and they just didn't know where he was going or what he was doing that's a very difficult thing for me to hear and that's either an incredible intelligence failure or an issue with information sharing either way i'd like to get to the bottom of what happened there the second issue with this is the response itself uh at this point everybody knows mr morrell uh was assaulted by this organization uh i understand that uh by the account that we were given that there was very little uh notice for bpd that the boston police department essentially received the phone call uh around 12 30 and that phone call alerted them to their presence uh i think frankly uh that the response should have had folks in front of that caravan and that little parade or march or rally or whatever they were trying to do there and behind it simply to warn pedestrians away uh from the fact that there was this white supremacist patriot group patriot front group marching down the street what i was told in a meeting that we had with bpd was that the concern was for the optics of this that it would look like they were escorting the patriot front through the city the issue i have with that is that i would never want the boston police department or any of our departments to prioritize the public relations aspect of what it looks like over the safety of individuals in our city and so i think the decision making and how they came upon these decisions and how we are preparing for these decisions in the future should be discussed and and people in boston should know that there's a plan for incidents like this whether we have lots of intelligence up front and we know what's happening or we have a situation like this where allegedly there is no intelligence and we're sort of emergency responding to this event and so i think those two things need to be asked and then i think the third thing is there's a victim of this beyond just the psyche of the city and people who were triggered and harmed by seeing a group of white supremacists holding sort of benito mussolini uh flags and doing sort of fascist uh actions in the city of boston in front of the copley library in front of the tasty burger besides that there's an actual victim here who is physically assaulted who has had questions about what has happened post uh that assault and so i think all of these things are fair to have a conversation about to have a discussion about to ensure that the city of boston is fully aware that this city will always take these kinds of hate crimes seriously we are seeing a rise in hate crimes whether it's anti-semitism whether it's anti-lgbtq communities like in my own district where they had spray-painted these awful violent terms had threatened arson for a senior affordable housing center in my district in the heart of the neighborhood that i live in and so we have to have a zero tolerance policy on that and for me you know this isn't about uh coming down on an organization uh and just being critical i want to ensure that if there were failures here which i think there were clear intelligence failures i don't know that that necessarily lies with bpd i think some of that might lie with our federal and state partners if there were response failures in terms of what the what the rules of engagement are and how they've determined what those rules of engagement are we should just have a conversation about how do we make sure that what happened which i think everybody agrees is not was not a good reflection for the city of boston doesn't happen again and so that is what i'm seeking to do here this is not about teeing off on our law enforcement partners this is about making sure that in the future uh because unfortunately i do believe that there may be future events that we are prepared that we are ready that there is a plan that the people of boston know that this is something we take seriously and that we will not just rest on you know we'll get them next time don't worry about it i want to make sure that there's a plan that we know what that plan of action is that if there is something like this where they take it to the neighborhoods instead of to the to the downtown area that all of the district councilors understand what the protocols are and what should be happening and so that is why i'm presenting this and with that uh president flynn i i i see my time and i look forward to hearing on this soon thank you thank you council roya would anyone else like to speak on this matter the chief recognizes council lara council lara you have the flow thank you president flynn i just want to stand in support of this this is something that um councillor mahia and i were like councillor oriole mentioned we're going to work on together to file to continue having this conversation so we're really glad um that council of royal has put it on the floor and um i'm eager to have this hearing to make sure that we can hear from it as the district 6 city councilor these folks have made it a point and have made a home in my district more than once they have felt welcome there they have scared and caused harm to the immigrant community in my district to the black and brown community in my district to see these white supremacists ultimately marching and gathering in our district and so this is something that's very important to me that we have a conversation as it pertains specifically to brick i know that we want to have this conversation like council arroyo said about what were the systemic failures that are going to ultimately help us respond to this differently because these kind of attacks and this kind of presence is going to continue to rise here in the city of boston i'm also curious about um the kind of intelligence that brick is collecting right now if brick is collecting intelligence on young people in the city of boston on black and brown young people we have a lot of data that shows that they're um gathering data um from a specific segment of the city in a disproportionate way then i want to make sure that the resources the city of boston is using by maintaining this database are also being used to track white supremacists when they're coming into our city it can't just be one way and if we say that we stand against white supremacy and they want to protect the people in our city then we have to make sure that the places where we're spending our money are working um to do just that so um i'm excited to to support this continue to have this conversation and figure out how we can make sure that these people don't feel like they are safe or welcome in our city again thank you thank you councilor the chair recognizes council bloc council bark you have the floor thank you so much mr president i just wanted to ask you to please add my name and to say that as a district counselor in whose district this uh occurred i was horrified and also just to say that i think it's so important the point that council arroyo touched on about us making sure that these people are never allowed to own our history boston's history is as a city of immigrants it's as a city that has had you know obviously originally native american people calling this home but also black people calling boston home from its very earliest days um like immigrants coming in again and again i just think that we as we come up especially on the anniversaries of some of this revolutionary history it's gonna be so important for us to claim that and claim it for the like inclusive and whole boston that we see before us today and that is the the actual revolutionary boston um and so i just i really want us to be prepared both on the on the law enforcement front and also kind of on all cultural and community fronts to really push um the need to own our city's story uh and and not seat an inch to just these file vial groups so thank you mr president please bring my name thank you council block the chair recognizes council me here council me here you have the fourth thank you mr president um so just i want to just thank counselor arroyo for bringing this to the floor and hosting a hearing for those folks who have been following us since 2020 we have been very loud about the discrepancies that exist within the brick more specifically around the fact that the gang database if you look at it in early 2019 more than 90 percent um that's just to break it down for you that's 4 700 individuals in the gang data base at that time or black or latino like that the gang database has been used to wrongly implicate the boston residents that are part of gangs even when they're not we use the gang database to go after people of color and people know that out in these streets but when dozens of white supremacists marched through the city of the streets of boston bpd did not witness their attacks nor did they even anticipate their arrival which for me is baffling the bpd is willing to purchase surveillance equipment under our noses using civil extra um asset fortune dollars and yet none of the vast surveillance infrastructure the bpd has purchased could pick up on the fact that white supremacists were planning on marching here that is a question that i think during the hearing we will uncover so so with that you know i think one of the things that we always talk about here or at least i do um is that when we think about this moment in time here in the city of boston and the lack of trust that exists in communities of color we have an opportunity to really lean in instead of just calling bpd out invite them into the conversation and create space for real accountability and transparency that does not pick us against each other but that we're willing to listen and learn and figure out and own oftentimes what we could be doing differently so i look forward to the hearing and i thank my colleague for bringing it on to the floor thank you thank you councillor mejia councillor fernandez anderson floor is yours thank you council royal we have a policing apparatus that it's often used quite well against um immigrants black protesters union activists um and many others right so we need to guarantee that these forces are utilized as well to combat the right-wing um white supremacist forces that are actually a threat to our collective well-being um and therefore i support council royal in this offer and look forward to the work thank you thank you council fernandez anderson i'm going to go to council warrell and then council president flynn thank you council arroyo and thank you for bringing us to this floor boston strong not only speaks to the resiliency of his people but of a city coming together around its differences in all demographics the thinking here council royal is timely and i believe it's far overdue but it's crucial that we revisit how we use brick to prevent over criminalizing uh black and brown youth um in here in the city of boston um and it's intelligence failure when a group of suspected crimes can fly under the radar and we need our agencies to be able to better collaborate with national and federal agencies to be able to provide that intelligence the message that our police department will be monitoring hates needs to be heard loud and clear to white nationalists and put people on notice that hate does not live in our city of boston so i'm looking forward to this um to discussion and looking for how we can make sure that our community is protected protected thank you thank you council ralph council president flynn floor is yours thank you council royal and um thank you for sponsoring this important matter i wasn't i wasn't planning to speak on it but it's such an important issue but i've been working on this issue probably for for three years during during the pandemic the the first covet meeting we had in the country really before the before covert 19 arrived in into the united states we had we had it at josiah quincy school and we had it there because the asian community that i represent was very concerned about the pandemic and one of the young women that came up and spoke was a young student a asian student asian-american student i believe she went to boston latin academy kind of telling a little bit of a long story but she said um she was getting on the orange line train heading to heading to boston latin academy and when she got on the orange line train the the people on the train mostly white but the people on the train left the train because this eight young asian woman student came in they associated her with um makov mckovic 19. a lot of that certainly was the rhetoric coming out of the white house the the hate speech coming out of the white house but it had it had a huge impact that's my point it had a huge impact on immigrants it had a huge impact on the aapi community and then and then fast forward we saw we saw this march recently that that started in both mine and in council box district i've been tracking and writing about this group for several years now they were at beth brigham and women's hospital several doctors of color were doing a study about disparities in the communities of color and these nazis were protesting out in front of the hospital protesting this study basically trying to intimidate them fast forward they go they're in south boston during the during the south boston st patrick's day parade as well they're they're in the beacon hill area down towards the charles charles river they've been all over all over the city i've sent several letters over the last several years about this group to the human rights commission to document it we have to document every time a hate incident happens in the city so it's important that we acknowledge it and we figure out what we're going to do about it that's exactly i think what council of royal is is trying to do um but it's important to document important educate people but but the last part of my story is the the march started at the haymarket area again borders myself and in council block and council of coletta is right there too um and they marched right through the downtown area right around the chinatown area so they're they're intimidating the chinese community in my district they continued walking through downtown around the south end which has a large lgbtq community as well they ended up down towards the orange line station at back bay which right across the street of it but right across the street is tent city i'm working with um council louisian on on an issue on a housing issue yet that housing development is mostly people of color mostly mostly african-american in latinx but they they chose those sites to intimidate really intimidate immigrants and to intimidate people of color so my final point is boston doesn't tolerate this type of bullying intimidation hate crimes our colleague council lara hawaii who i agree with this white supremacist group should be on the brick and and i think that's an important important um fact that you called out council lars is they should be on the brick they should be arrested and and prosecuted i know the us attorney rachel rollins has also called called for that as well um so i think i think all of us stand against this hate and violence and intimidation in in our city in boston stand strong and supportive of our immigrant neighbors and communities of color and then my my final point is this nazi group you know just don't forget 50 60 years ago 70 years ago we fought that nazi philosophy overseas that white supremacist philosophy overseas a lot of men and women um put their life on the line many many communities of color i'm going to be talking about that in a few minutes with council fernandez anderson um the heroic role of black veterans black servicemen fighting for our country so what they're trying to do is divide the country what they're trying to do is intimidate the country but i know boston stands strong against that type of hate and against that type of bullying and intimidation thank you council royal thank you council president flynn and we can change places now please raise please raise your hand if you would like your name to be added mr clerk please add counselor bach counselor braid and counselor coletta counselor fernandez anderson council of firey council lara counsel louisiana council mejia councillor murphy council royal please add the chair um docket zero eight eight zero will be signed to the committee on public safety and criminal justice mr clerk please read talk at zero eight eight one please document zero eight eight one council arroyo offered the following order for a hearing to discuss the results of the 2020 census and redistricting process for the city of boston thank you the chair recognizes council royal council royal you have the floor thank you council president flynn i'll keep this short i promise once we got through budget season we would start looking at redistricting and putting together our maps and setting out a road map to get redistricting done we will have to do redistricting this year uh it's done every 10 years and so this is the official formal sort of starting gun for that we will start to sit down have our meetings our hearings in our working sessions to iron out what this map will look like we'll make sure to have rigorous community participation this very first hearing will lay out sort of the facts of this where the population changes have happened where they've decreased where they've increased where some changes may be necessary or or not as well as a timeline uh and a breakdown of sort of the federal laws that we have to follow when it comes to redistricting uh and and what the goals of redistricting should be as well as sort of a timeline for community engagement in that process as well so that very first hearing is more informational uh for both the public and for the council uh and then from there we will we will dive right into the work of it uh and so i look forward to getting this started as the chair of redistricting with all of you and this is just the formal necessary step to begin that process so thank you uh council president flynn thank you council royal would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to sponsor it please raise your hand um mr clerk please add counselor bach counselor braden counsel coletta council fernandez anderson council flaherty council lara councillor zhen murphy council royale please add the chair docket zero eight eight one will be assigned to the committee on redistricting mr kirk please read docket zero eight eight two please document zero eight eight two council is lara and braden offer the following order for a hearing to discuss boston's plan to eradicate youth in young adult homelessness receive updates on implementation and progress specific to lgbt plus youth thank you the chair recognizes council of lara council olara you of the floor thank you president flynn um and thank you to councillor braden for co-sponsoring this matter with me i'm going to give a little bit of an introduction to what's happening here and for the next two dockets that are coming up so the lgbtqia community is an integral part of the city of boston however the reality is that queer folks particularly queer people of color are disproportionately impacted by most of the systemic issues that we see in our city that's why we believe that lgbtqia policy is housing policy its racial justice policy and its community safety policy in june uh political platitudes and messages of support are not enough we can and we should build policies that protect uplift and support the lgbtq communities here in the city of boston and as part of our commitment to a more direct and participatory democracy in june our office designed the letters from the future campaign where we asked members of the lgbtq community all across the city to send us visionary letters that would that would outline solutions from some of our more for some of our most pressing issues far too often we talk about policy we limit ourselves and we think that it's possible that by what's possible by the external conditions that we find ourselves in and it's important for us to be strategic but that's only one part of the equation our creative ability to see a different world for ourselves and our constituents is equally important in these letters queer folks from all across the city were clear about what we can do to move beyond pride toward policy housing safety space for community building protections for lgbtq youth and ensuring safe and affirming spaces for bps students were all issues of importance that rose to the top this hearing order and the following two are a part of moving that collective vision forward and i have sponsored these hearing orders with colleagues that have been champions for this work here on the city council the copa 19 pandemic has further exacerbated the lgbtq youth and young adult homelessness crisis in boston and across the city according to a recent study from the chapman hall at the university of chicago lgbtq young people are a hundred and twenty percent more likely to experience homelessness than non-lgbtq youth in april of 2018 the city of boston the boston youth action board and the 280 community members launched the rising to the challenge initiative which explores how to prevent and end unaccompanied youth and young adults homelessness in boston they released a report and an accompanying accompanying action plan in november of 2019. this hearing order is for us to receive an update from the administration on the specific lgbtq plus initiatives and goals that were inside of that plan and hear from the community about what needs persists i'm proud to be sponsoring this alongside councilor braden who is not only a member of this community but has been a champion for safe and affordable housing all across the city thank you thank you council lara the chair recognizes council braden council braden you have the flow thank you mr president and thank you councillor lara for including me on this initiative as an original co-sponsor um the prevention and eradication of youth and young adult homelessness is essential towards solving the housing crisis and often very often these young people are forgotten about as we think about the challenges of housing our residents in boston and particularly the crisis of lgbtq folks access to essential services to address social inequities and propounded at a great at a greater severity simply due to the fact of being lgbtq my office has been working to connect our district's austin brighton community organizations with break time a boston-based non-profit that facilitates partnerships for transitional employment opportunities to empower young adults experiencing homelessness and housing security and according to break time forty percent of the young adults experiencing homelessness and housing and security involved in their programs identify as lgbtq break time has advocated for programs like the commonwealth's youth works initiative which ensures that lgbtq plus young adults and young adults of color experiencing homeless experiencing housing in security are supported through a 24 million dollar dollar fund funding further every approach and solution to tackle systems and structures of inequality need to have culturally relevant and competent informed grounding targeted to the unique needs of every community and targeted strategies specific to lgbtq youth to eradicate youth and young adult homelessness is essential i look forward to hearing updates to the boston youth action board rising to the challenge initiative and the action plan and thank laura councillor lara for initiating this this is critically important work and to a vulnerable section of our community and i hope we can move this agenda forward thank you thank you council braden the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy you have the floor thank you president flynn and thank you to the sponsors of this docket um and as the chair of public health homelessness and recovery and also the chair of the newly formed special commission to end family homelessness i want to voice my support to council lara and council liberated on filing this order to eradicate youth in young adult homelessness specifically in the lgbtq plus community i know from my work on the special commission in 24 years as a teacher that there is such a negative impact on the physical and mental health of our homeless youth their educational progress declines and they become stranded not knowing how to escape their situation our vulnerable youth including black lgbtq plus pregnant parenting and other populations at statistically higher risks of experiencing homelessness need our help especially those who may be forced out of their homes from family rejection or housing instability we will continue to work with organizations to come up with a concrete plan to end this crisis a solution is essential to tackling the racial economic and institutional barriers to supporting our most vulnerable youth experiencing housing and security it's definitely all hands on deck and please add my name to this filing thank you thank you councilman murphy the chief recognizes council of colorado council coletta you have the flow thank you council president flynn i just want to rise to say thank you to the makers and uh please add my name this is an incredibly important issue that i believe the city of boston can be doing more to protect our lgbtqia youth at this moment in time to my understanding bagley has a home first program for youth and there is a trans shelter that just opened up in may in dorchester although there is no designated shelter for trans youth at this moment in time so i do recommend to the sponsors to just include these organizations as well as family coordinators in our boston public schools i'm in full transparency my mother is a family liaison at east boston high school and serves as the point person to coordinate wrap-around services for the child or young adult once they disclose that they are homeless so she has a good window and idea of what is going on in this person's life um and i believe others in the bps system uh do as well so i just believe it'll be beneficial to the conversation to have some of these voices at the table and to just bring their perspective but thank you so much for bringing this forth and again please add my name thank you thank you council of coletta would anyone else like to speak on this matter or add your name please raise your hand mr couric please add counsellor of royal council of baugh councillor coletta council fernandez anderson council flaherty council of louisian councillor mejia councillor murphy council overall please add the chair um docket zero eight docket zero eight eight two will be referred to the committee on public health homelessness and recovery mr clerk please read talk at zero eight eight doctor number zero eight eight three counselors lara and arroyo offer the following order for a hearing to discuss the disproportionate criminalization of the lgbtq plus community and their health and well-being while incarcerated thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes council of lara council lara you have the floor i'm getting tired of saying thank you president today um but thank you president flynn like i mentioned earlier the lgbtq community and the city of boston and particularly queer black and indigenous people of color are disproportionately and have been disproportionately impacted by most of the systemic issues that we see in our city and that includes disproportionate criminalization according to the william institute in 2017 lesbian game bisexual people are three times more likely to be incarcerated than the general population and 85 percent of them have experienced solitary confinement while they have been incarcerated police disproportionately harass transgender black and indigenous people of color one in five trans people who have had contact with the police have said that reported that they have been harassed by them including 38 of those people being black trans individuals compared to 18 of black of of white trans individuals and 23 of latinx trans individuals six percent of all trans individuals have reported that the police have physically assaulted them and in boston specifically the boston police department's policies do not explicitly prohibit the use of gender identity or expression as a basis to stop question or search or arrest any individual as a sole basis for basically initiating the contact or as evidence of a crime and their policies do not require training on interactions with transgender people as part of their officer training this is a timely issue as we're seeing physical and systemic violence against lgbtq people skyrocket across the country as we've seen here in high park with the pride and the city of boston has a responsibility to lead on this issue and not wait for something to happen here before we take action to make sure that these policies are in alignment with protecting all of the people in the city particularly those most vulnerable i'm happy to co-sponsor this with councillor arroyo who has been and continues to be a champion for making sure that all of the people in the city are safe thank you thank you council lara the chair recognizes council of royal council arroyo you have the fall thank you council president flynn uh think from where i'm at on this i just want to ensure that our lgbtq plus population feels safe when they interact with our police department and that they feel as though they are respected the same way we want that for everyone else uh it is alarming to me the percentage disproportionately of uh transgendered individuals as well as uh lgbtq plus juveniles that are coming into contact with our criminal justice system and i think that's something that also requires some uh analysis i do want to note that in 2013 under then commissioner at davis uh there were policies put in line in place in partnership with the massachusetts transgender political coalition and so i'd like to see what the status of those policies are because we commissioner davis is now as of today uh three commissioners or four commissioners actually ago and so i want to make sure that we know how how those uh orders that were put in place in june of 2013 are holding up where they can be updated where they can be put into training and what we can do to ensure that we're doing a better job of making our streets safe and individuals feel safe when they communicate and interact with our law enforcement so thank you council president flynn thank you council royal would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to add their name please raise your hand mr clerk please add counselor bach counselor braden councillor fernandez anderson councillor louisian councilmember here council overall please add the chair council of coletta um doctor zero eight eight three will be referred to the committee on public health homelessness and recovery mr clark please read doc at zero eight eight four please talking number zero eight um the chair recognizes councilor lara please council lara you have the phone thank you president flynn i'm sorry to interrupt i think that um the docket zero eight eight two belongs rightfully in that committee but i think that the 0883 docket would be better fit and the committee for public safety as it relates to the over-criminalization of people and the boston police department's own policies around how they deal with lgbtq members of the lgbtq community and the well-being of people while they're incarcerated on you so you're talking about dark at zero eight eight three yes um you think thank you council lara i had an opportunity to speak to the clerk and my central staff colleagues about that we we all agree that we all agreed that it would be public health homelessness in recovery for various reasons but i i do respect your your request though thank you um zero eight eight four mr clerk please read docket zero eight eight four please doctor number zero eight eight four councils lara and mejia offer the following order for a hearing to discuss the academic performance and social emotional well-being of lgbtq plus students in boston public schools the chair recognizes council aurora council lara you have the floor thank you president flynn and this is the last hearing order that i am filing today in alignment with moving this collective vision of the moving beyond pride towards policy platform and the work that our office has been doing for the last month so the reason why i'm filing this resolution specifically is because hundreds of trans bills have been passed across the country mainly targeting school-age children in the last year whether they prohibit teaching in schools about trans people and related topics mandate educators to disclose a child's sexual orientation or gender identity to their parents without the child's consent or forbid trans youth from participating in school sports based on their gender identity this kind of political hypervisibility without systems of support and protection makes students vulnerable and what we know is that queer students in bps are also suffering according to the high school youth risk behavior survey that bps gives to the students lgbtq youth in boston make up 15 of boston's public high school population and those same young people particularly queer people of color face a disproportionate level of bullying and harassment based on their gender identity or sexual orientation this year the boston public schools announced its student-centered quality guarantee through its 1.3 billion budget that would invest in developing and implementing a quality guarantee framework supporting accelerated academic outcome for students and offering resources to adopt the mass core curriculum boston public schools five-year strategic plan focuses on academic recovery for bps students and states that it has a particular focus on the social and emotional well-being and development of the students that are most in need to this end we can ensure that lgbtq plus students are also centered in this conversation recognizing that each student needs time care and attention to succeed academically thank you and i'm happy to be co-sponsoring this with um the chair of the education committee counselor julia mejia who has been a champion for young people in bps thank you councilor the chair recognizes council me here council me here you have the fall thank you mr president um and i'm hoping that you and the clerk and everybody else has assigned this to the education committee because this is where it belongs and it's just advocating um no i'm really excited to to join my colleague on this hearing order we seen during covet that a lot of our lgbtq plus students were feeling isolated and home in in spaces and places where they didn't feel celebrated heard or embraced and that is the case oftentimes too when they go into our schools so we have a lot of work um to do in that space i will just share one thing i always talk about my daughter um in this in this chamber because you know as a parent i think um i'm living the realities that so many of our parents are often times uh dealing with so my daughter i think it was two or three years ago cut her hair off completely shaved it i think it was in 2019 and everybody in my family was like why would you let her do that i said because she wants to be fully expressed i'm going to let her do that but what really was troubling for me was is that when we would go out everyone would call her a boy or they didn't know what to call her and she called it out she said you don't know what my gender is don't label me right if what if i'm non-conforming like she talked about pronouns at the age of nine and it is important for us as parents to create space for our kids to recognize their themselves and be fully expressed um she also joined her school's um gay and lesbian alliance as an ally and as a parent for me it is important for whatever um for whatever expression that my daughter has whatever emotions she might be going through is for me to create an environment where she is fully embraced and um and loved and so when it comes to the social emotional and mental well-being of our students that is where i think the opportunity lies for us in the boston public schools in particular to look at the mental health and wellness of our children when we ask them to be silent when we ask them to put their feelings to the side when we ask them to not be fully expressed and that is oppressive and so i am really looking forward to having this hearing um and and uncovering all the many ways that we can be more supportive in our boston public schools to ensure that our kids are fully embraced loved and more importantly that our policies reflect our values and that if we have to shift things around we do so thank you thank you councilmember the chair recognizes council braden council braden you have the flow thank you mr president um i really want to thank the co-sponsors for taking this very very important issue and raising this um you know when i came i i i grew up at a time when you didn't talk about your sexuality um unless you're a heterosexual of course um that was a given but if you were queer or questioning there was no safe spaces in your church your school or your community to talk about it and i really feel it's detrimental i know of young people of my age group in my high school who committed suicide because they were not able to be themselves and be accepted um it's a cruelly and devastating impact on young people they're very formative age and you know when i came to boston and i talked about my first experience of going to gay pride and standing um coming out of the interfaith service at old south and walking out into the sunshine and seeing the mayor of boston with the police color guard and all of it and the one thing that touched my heart the most was seeing the gay straight alliances from all of our high schools marching in the parade with their allies and i think there's so much work to do in a climate of the moment when um this these things like in florida where don't say gay or we're really having an all-out um assault on on people's ability to express themselves and transgender and and and lgbtq people all over the country we have a very very toxic civic uh um climate right now and i think it the the the appearance of white nationalists marching through our streets the appearance of of uh asian uh anti-asian attacks and and and verbal and physical attacks on our asian community uh attacks on our religious minorities um all of it is is something that we have to really work every day to try and push the tide back because this is not who we are this is not what this country is meant to be and we have so much work to do so thank you uh to the co this is so important taking care of our young people at this very critical time and creating safe spaces and trying to change the conversation to accept everyone for who they are thank you thank you council braden the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy you have the floor thank you president flynn um and the makers of this order so as an educator and parent i fully support this hearing order to protect our most vulnerable students in our schools against bullying and harassment as i filed a similar hearing order this week as well bullying affects our children's physical and mental health and increases the chance of suicide which is frighteningly on the rise for our youth in addition if students are not socially and emotionally well we know their education falls behind our boston public schools need to handle bullying matters more responsibly so that all of our students feel safe regardless of their sexual orientation gender identity or race the massachusetts anti-bullying laws require that each bullying prevention and intervention plan recognize that certain students may be more vulnerable to becoming a target of bullying or harassment based on actual or perceived differentiating characteristics as a council we need to ensure that our bps system is complying and using the correct methodology in pursuant to the state's anti-bullying law to protect our students from further damage to their well-being we also need to work together to tackle the mental health crisis in our youth mayor wu appointing boston's first chief of behavioral health dr kevin simon is a significant first step as we move forward dr simon's initial focus will be on immediate and long-term strategies to support youth mental health exactly what we need so thank you to the makers um i will be adding my name to this and look forward to working together on this so thank you thank you council murphy would anyone else like to speak on this matter or add their name mr clerk please add counselor bach council of royal council braden council coletta council fernandez anderson council of flaherty council louisiana councillor murphy councillor we're all please add the chair talk at zero eight eight four be referred to the committee on education mr clerk please read docket zero eight eight five please talking number zero eight eight five council louisiana offered the following order for a hearing to discuss an increase in racist incidents in boston and the human rights commission's role in tracking reporting and addressing discrimination and civil rights violations thank you thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes council of luigen councillor you have the fall thank you president flynn i had asked to suspend rule 12 and add um counselor fernando anderson as an original co-sponsor here council fernandez anderson is so added thank you as we've heard with discussions on when council arroyo filed his hearing order on the brick we have seen an increase in under undeniable increase in racist incidents here in our city um you know sparked most recently by the july 2nd white supremacist march throughout our city as we saw with the attack on the pride but even prior to that and in april of this year 70 year old asian american woman was attacked in chinatown there are more incidents in chinatown and around our city regarding anti-asian incidents in east boston there are several incidents of violence have been documented against lion x individuals for merely speaking spanish um and in 2021 reports identified more than a dozen hate groups in massachusetts including 388 specific incidents of racism extremism and anti-semitism we've also all witnessed the attacks on our on our mayor mayor wu and how those many of those have been race-based attacks we have a human rights commission here that is committed to tackling and addressing um hate crimes discrimination civil rights violations and overall human rights issues but we have to do a lot more and this entity has to do a lot better at tracking reporting and monitoring these incidents as they come in you know oftentimes i've been in chinatown with council flynn i've been at these different meetings hearing about these acts and these incidents of racism and not everyone when they experiences these threats or these violations not everyone wants to call the police not everyone wants to you know have those interactions with the police and so we need to make sure that we are strengthening the human rights commission to be a commission that can track and can be a reporting commission where folks in our residence when they feel threatened and they feel that it's based on their race or their gender identity or their religion that they have an outlet that is not just the police that is this commission that we're able to strengthen to do that you know when we were sitting at those meetings listening to people talk about what they've experienced a lot of them didn't even know that they could report threats um or incidences to the human rights commission for a number of reasons folks expressed why they didn't want to call the police and so we need to make sure that this is a strong entity here in our city of boston to prove our commitment to being an anti-racist city and to understand the issues before us and we can't understand that which we don't track um tracking these incidents will allow us to have tangible measures to improve and once we start tracking our goals we'll be able to see the small day-to-day progress that we make as a city to transform our city into the anti-racist city that we want to be i know that the mayor and the city is committed to a zero tolerance approach and committed to eliminating racism in every form and as chair of civil rights and immigrant advancement committee i'm determined to also working on this issue our freedom and our rights are all bound together um this is a crime statement that i've had with the administration starting from day one of getting here on the city council and so i'm excited that now we're ready to bring it uh to a hearing and have discussions on what we need to do to really uh make the human rights commission one that is empowered uh to uh that has enforcement powers that may be looking at updating the language of the ordinance the name of the commission also to make it more responsive to what community members need you know if they hear human rights commission it's not always um it's not always apparent to them that this is a body that they can report issues to and i want to commend our president flynn's father for starting the human rights commission at a time where we're really as a city experiencing issues and and and having the foresight of knowing that the human rights commission was something that we needed here in the city so i'm excited to get to work on this um in partnership with the administration and in partnership with my council colleagues so we can build up the human rights commission as a standalone entity that works with different entities in the city of boston but also as an alternative when people want to report threats to their well-being threats to their communities and maybe don't want to call the boston police department thank you thank you councilman luigen the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the floor thank you uh castle president flynn and thank you to councilor uh boujeen um too often we see the reactionary um responses in our city about you know different um actions such as this you we've seen so many of these fascist uh marches through our city um horrific acts of graffiti spray painted you saw that in jp in hyde park and i think that our response is typically i mean our natural response is to come and sort of do the press conference and we'll do sort of like a march or we'll protest or we'll talk about it and when you really think about uh white supremacy um as it oppresses the different groups this has been an org sort of an institution or a system that's been at play in organizing and strategizing for centuries and so it it almost feels like the oppressed populations never really have the opportunity to catch up and if we're not strategically planning um against it if we're not actually looking at you know what how can we tackle these issues ahead of time and not and and prevent us from always being reactionary then we're we're left to just um you know do the um as i said earlier the performative emotional stuff and so it's emotional and you get sort of like the symbolic token inclusion and stuff like that and that really doesn't resolve anything so beyond just tackling these issues i think that this allows will afford us an opportunity to talk about systemic racism at a different angle and how those red tapes and bureaucracies impede us from supporting oppressed populations i thank you again councillor liu zhen and of course big up to our former mayor flynn and of course the advocates the people on the ground that are always fighting to put this to an end thank you so much thank you council fernandez anderson would anyone else like to speak on this matter council council merchant would anyone else like to add their name please raise your hand mr cork please add council of royal council bloc council braden council coletta council lara councillor nahia council murphy council warrell please add the chair docket zero eight eight five will be assigned to the committee on civil rights and immigration advancement mr kirk please read docket zero eight eight six please document zero eight eight six councils louisiana and mejia offer the following order for a hearing to discuss regulation of limited service pregnancy centers and crisis pregnancy centers in the city of boston the chair recognizes council illusion louisiana council region you have the floor president flynn i'd like to suspend rule 12 and add uh councillor khaled as an original co-sponsor hearing no objections uh council clerk is so added thank you i won't belabor the point because i believe we spoke about this um last week a bit but obviously with this uh you know supreme court's reckless decision overturning roe v wade um we're going to have a lot of work to do here as a lot of folks seek abortion services and reproductive health care in massachusetts that means we have to further scrutinize the uh pregnancy crisis centers and the limited uh service pregnancy centers that operate here in the city of boston by looking at our charter and the boston public health commission's ability to regulate them to make sure that they're not engaging in deceptive practices oftentimes these centers present themselves as resources for individuals facing pregnancies uh these centers are often deliberately located near reproductive health clinics that offer abortion services um however these facilities offer pregnancy tests counseling and baby supplies but also encourage people to continue their pregnancies and do not provide unbiased information for example one of these facilities here in our city states on their website in an easily missible footer that they are not a medical clinic and do not provide medical services under the direction and supervision of a licensed physician um and that they do not perform or refer for abortions and so we need to make sure that we are regulating these clinics there are other cities that do not have uh pregnancy crisis centers or uh similar centers that have gone uh and banned them but here we face first amendment issues and so i think in working with our legal department um and in working with uh the creating the city that we want to see that presents itself as a safe haven for uh individuals for pregnant persons that we look at the regulations and see what we are able to do to the fullest extent of the law to make sure that these facilities are not engaging in deceptive practices i filed this hearing order because we need to have a serious conversation that is respectful but is also responsive to the times as i said earlier the commonwealth has taken steps to address this issue but i think we need to do more than just issue missives and statements saying uh buyer or person beware there's a lot we have to lean into our powers here our regulatory powers as a city uh to make sure that these centers are not deceiving those who are here in the city of boston and who are coming to city of boston to seek abortion care um thank you and i look forward to this conversation with all of the folks who have been working on this both within city hall and our non-profits and organizations outside of city hall who have been working on this issue thank you thank you councillor louis jen i'm going to now turn to counselor mejia councilman hear the floor george thank you mr vice chair president whatever is almost three it's three o'clock y'all i just want to thank my co-sponsors um for bringing this uh here you know i'm just you know i'm gonna just put to the side because sometimes politicians talk a lot so i'm just gonna say a few things really quick one is imagine walking into a space walk thinking that you're going to be um seeking something and then being dissuaded and emotionally disrupted right i think that when we think about these clinics that are serving in the guise of one thing but actually being something else is really emotionally damaging and we have an opportunity and a responsibility through this hearing order not to only identify where this is happening but to also make sure that we're doing everything in our legal power to shut it down because if you walk into a space with your mind made up to do something that you feel is the best choice for you who gives anyone the right to try to dissuade you otherwise um so i am really encouraged by um our colleagues here on the council who have stood up in firm um support um around abortion rights and um i think it's really important for us to be super mindful that you know crisis pregnancy centers operate in direct contrast to abortion or reproductive health clinics and in many parts of the country open up shop close to legitimate abortion clinics and pretend to operate a similar resource which is incredibly um deceptive deceitful and it appears in boston there there is one allegedly operating here the boston center for pregnancy choices choices right then you walk in and not so much so so i think we have again an opportunity to name it and call it and report it several academic studies done on these centers describe their internal operations as having a lack of adherence to medical and ethical practical practice standards moreover empirical research done on the effectiveness and power of these centers revealed that living further away from a cpc was associated with lower odds of a cpc visit though somerville has no cpcs they have proactively worked to prevent them from operating in their city and when their current attack on reproductive rights we need to do the same in boston and protect our already vulnerable birthing population from further unethical medical emotional mental and possibly even physical harm so i thank my colleagues for their leadership in bringing this forward and i look forward to the hearing thank you thank you councillor mejia councillor coletta the floor is yours thank you uh vice president arroyo thank you to the original co-sponsors and for adding my name to this important docket um i will be brief pregnancy centers and crisis pregnancy centers are often misleading to those in the most stressful moments of an individual's life they claim on their beautiful websites that they are there to provide accurate and helpful information in a compassionate environment to empower life-affirming choices that changes lives people go to these centers for resources in good faith in the hope that they will be provided with the full spectrum of options that an individual who is pregnant has for their health and for the health of their baby in reality that is simply not the case in light of the devastating ruling overturning roe vs wade the city of boston must do everything in its power to protect individuals who are and can get pregnant to make informed choices regarding family planning it is within our authority to regulate abortion and abortion clinics through the bphc i agree with the language in this docket that we must explore the full extent of our powers regarding the presence of these centers so i look forward to this conversation um during the hearing and thank you again to the makers and again please add my name which has already been added sorry never mind thank you thank you counselor coletta uh councillor braden you have the floor thank you mr chair i also want to thank the makers for raising this very important issue um crisis pregnancy centers many of which are religiously affiliate affiliated like the one in my district typically typically are positioning themselves as social safety nets offering services like pregnancy tests and resources like diapers and baby clothes but their presence and role as social service provider is not without an agenda as they exist to advance anti-abortion misinformation contrary to reproductive and contraceptive justice so even when visitors do get help at the centers in many cases the resources come with strings attached such as free supplies which only being available if they participate in workshops or classes with required instruction i i have reviewed the ordinance passed in somerville and the proposed came one in cambridge as well as from other parts of the country and i look forward to the hearing to discuss how the boston public health commission may regulate limited services limited service pregnancy centers and particularly how we approach regulating vast number of which are run by religious organization in lease properties such as the existing center in my district thank you thank you councillor braden would anyone else like to speak on this matter seeing no one would anyone else like to add their name mr clark please add counselor bach please add counselor fernandez anderson please add counselor lara please add counselor murphy please add council rel please add my name docket 886 will be assigned to the committee on public health homelessness and recovery uh mr clerk please read docket 887. talking number zero eight eight seven council louisiana for the following order for a hearing regarding the state of anti-displacement as to boston's acquisition opportunity program chair and i recognize this councilor louis jen thank you um i'd like to spend role 12 and add uh as original co-sponsors counselor bach and for non janderson seeing no objections they are so added okay thank you so much i am a big fan and advocate of the acquisition opportunity program uh it's still relatively new and i think this hearing order is a friendly hearing order to hear about the ideas on how to expand and support the program there have been a lot of really great ideas they're getting 27 million dollars in funding from our arpa vote that we just voted on today and i think this is an incredible opportunity for us to work in partnership with those who are doing uh work both in the city of boston and around the state to expand things like the acquisition opportunity program and to bring it statewide we know that non-profit developers community land trusts have been able to take advantage of the acquisition opportunity program renters families seniors immigrants and long uh and long-term bostonians are getting displaced at rapid pace uh given our housing crisis um and the aop was created to support the acquisition of existing rental housing in order to prevent this displacement and preserve its affordability it's probably one of the best tools that we have here at the city level to really prevent displacement um and it is one of the most promising programs uh that i think we should continue to build out um you know as i stated earlier in wanting to get support for uh the first trans transitional house that exists in dorchester it's the first one of its kind in new england i wanted to get that through the opera process aop uh program actually presents a really incredible opportunity to support that work and so i'm calling for this hearing so that we can do a deep dive into aop to see what's working what's not what the cliff points are in terms of subsidizing subsidizing the purchase of units um there is a point at which uh you know more and more community land trust and nonprofit developers have been asking the city of money for more dollars per unit to prevent displacement and the city has actually done a really good job at responding to those uh increased uh requests for funding but there will come a cliff point where it may not make the most financial sense for the city to for for the method of supporting anti-displacement to be via this program so i just think that this hearing would be a really great opportunity to hear from those we uh we heard from some jessica boatwright when we were talking about aop during arpa uh some really creative and innovative ways that they're thinking about this program um and so uh i think that this is uh just just an important conversation for us to have as a body uh and it's been made acute by this moment when discussion about arpa housing affordability and insecurity eviction and displacement uh threaten the economic physical and mental health of all of our neighborhoods especially our black and brown communities that are being displaced whether they were talking about low-income poor folks whether we're talking about middle-income folks who are trying to buy we need to do everything that we can to prevent that displacement and i think aop is a really great opportunity to protect our working-class residents and to stabilize tenancies um in partnership with other things that we want to see of course like the tenant's opportunity to purchase acts uh at the state level but um i i think that this is an important hearing and i know there are those here on the body here who really support aop and want to see us lean in to uh what what more work we can do through this program so i'm excited to have this this conversation and excited for this hearing order thank you thank you council luigi the chair recognizes council bought council bloc you have the floor uh thank you mr president um i i'm gonna be really brief i'm thrilled that about the fact that we just authorized this 27 million more dollars for aop i think the acquisition opportunity program is something this council has led in that 27 million is on top of another 20 that this council authorized last june for the acquisition opportunity program and i think what we've recognized and what i've heard so many counselors talk about is this is one of our best bangs for our buck in terms of actually keeping our communities in place and fighting displacement it's a place where we can you know take housing that's already occupied that's already got key members of our community in it and just anchor folks in place and make sure that um people aren't displaced and i i i think that you know taking the deep dive that councilor legion's suggesting and really making sure that the program is living up to its fullest potential is all the more important when we've just funded it further and i just think that you know we we live in a society in which the desire to commodify housing and the desire to like actually provide places for people to live like the inherent value of housing are constantly at odds and so the more that we can snatch housing out of that commodified market and turn it into a place that's focused on people's people's living in our communities the better so i just think aop is a really really important piece of the puzzle for the city of boston pushing back on displacement and i'm thrilled that we're going to continue a partnership with the mayor's office on that front thank you mr president thank you council book the chief recognizes council of fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the fall thank you mr president and uh thank you to consolation uh for filing this and uh my co-sponsor council block um we know that the acquisition opportunity program is um in place to combat gentrification um but it'd be nice to have as my consul colleagues uh so eloquently already expressed concrete data that demonstrates the extent to which it's impact in that stated endeavor right we should know how many folks are being reached by this program or if masses of people are aware of the program and more our city is getting more and more expensive with the average apartment rented in june going to for more than three thousand dollars a month essentially pricing out all poor working class people and middle class folks and boston families therefore the more mechanism in place to combat is the better and of course i look forward to working with my the co-sponsors the original sponsor as well as with the administration thank you thank you council fernandez anderson the chair recognizes council of coletta council clara you have the floor council president flynn i rise once again to thank my colleagues and to please add my name i wanted to underscore how timely this conversation is given how effective the aop program is as a tool as many as others have said to stabilize communities as of late we have heard from our local cdcs who have incredible intentions to preserve naturally affordable housing stock that the hundred thousand dollar cap is just simply not enough to make the financials work so we should be doing everything we can to empower these proven organizations who are doing incredible work and fighting against displacement and gentrification so i do look forward to this conversation especially as it relates to my beloved home of east boston where the fate of our community and our families really relies on the success and predictability of this program so thank you so much thank you council clerk the chair recognizes council of braeden council braden you have the floor thank you mr president um and thank you councillor louisiana for introducing this hearing order i greatly appreciate the city's acquisition opportunity program and its impacts towards housing units taking housing units off the speculative market it really is as we read in the paper every day massachusetts has a crisis we have a crisis and this is a very useful and valuable tool that we can and use in in trying to stabilize and remove our housing from the speculative market in order to compete head-to-head with corporate developers and speculative investors community oriented affordable housing developers community land trusts and tenant and advocacy organizations must be afforded the tools and funds to help leverage the real estate market for the public good i agree that consular with councillor louisiana that an assessment should be made to analyze the distribution of the aop's success on the units on the unit size and geographic spread of housing housing units acquired with the funds to distribute it and when the pilot fund pro when a pride group when a pilot program is initiated by the city we should adopt the standard practice of periodic reviews in order to identify what is and isn't working and areas for potential leverage to maximize impact i also believe that the conversation on aop scale and reach should also be conducted with the power conducted with the powers of the public facilities commission in mind the public facilities commission has acquisition tools available for designated public uses and previous conversations have been had on legislation allowing the city to to designate affordable housing as a municipal purpose we should revisit that and renew its potent review its potential as another possible tool that could be used in conjunction with aop please add my name and i am very excited to participate in this hearing thank you council braden would anyone like to add their name please raise your hand mr clerk please add council of braden council coletta council lara council mejia council murphy council world council royal the chair council of bark talk at zero eight eight seven will be signed to the committee on housing and community development mr clerk please read doc at zero eight eight eight doctor number zero eight eight eight councilor murphy offer the following order for a hearing to ensure that all incidents of bullying and violence are properly reported to ensure a safe environment for all students and staff in the boston public schools thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy you of the fall thank you president flynn um yes so a recent audit of boston public schools by the state department of elementary and secondary education reported that the boston public school system does not support the physical social and emotional well-being of all students and does not ensure a safe environment for all students that audit also found that the district system for managing responding to and resolving complaints is not responsive to parent and guardian concerns this has led to some parents not believing that district schools prioritize all students physical social and emotional well-being and safety acts of violence in boston public schools including physical assaults bullying and sexual assaults are much to blame for this report from desi it is an understatement to say that crime is up in our boston public schools especially with the recent statistics of bullying and sexual assaults district data shows more than an 80 percent increase in bullying complaints to 440 this year compared to 243 complaints in the 2018-19 school year which was the last full year of in-person learning data from the office of equity in the bps department also shows that sexual assault cases are increasing from 493 in 2018-19 to 744 in this school year alone counselor mahir and i had a hearing last month to address the sexual assault cases in our system and the school department came to that hearing but they didn't have any of these numbers with them i've recently received these numbers just a few days ago the recent report on the mission hill school makes painfully clear that unabated sexual and mental abuse of students took place there for nearly a decade to countless students as young as four and five years old with all the recent tragic incidents in schools nationally it's clear that sensible timely communication regarding dangerous school situations is important more than ever now is the time for law enforcement in boston public schools to cooperate rather than alienate due to the 2020 school policy to protect students privacy schools now provide less information to law enforcement than ever before which in some cases adversely impacts the safety of our students the policy requires law enforcement officials to get approval from boston public school lawyers or obtain a subpoena or court order for information about students except in extreme emergencies such as active shooter situations state legislators passed an anti-bullying law about a decade ago after the death of phoebe prince in hadley massachusetts that does not seem to comply with this 2020 school policy as a council we need to check into the city's compliance and how they handle bullying matters according to this state law there is also frustration with the lack of action and accountability by the boston public schools recently the boston globe reported on three assaults this spring where one student beat another with a chromebook laptop leaving one child bloodied and another with a concussion in all three of these cases the parents rather than the school contacted the police crimes happening outside school grounds are also a growing worry for many people the may 11th stabbing at nubian square station is one recent incident both victim and attacker were students of boston public schools in another incident earlier this spring a teacher and a student were shot just outside tech boston academy in dorchester the perception parents have of our boston public schools is becoming a reality concerned parents and guardians are removing their children from the boston public schools enrollment has steadily dropped for over 10 years and has only accelerated in the last two years one of the questions when we as a council were able to meet the two finalists who were in the school superintendent my question to the new superintendent skipper was what are we going to do as a council to gain the trust back of our families it's so important boston public schools is responsible for over 46 000 students in 10 000 school staff the mental and physical safety of these students in school employees is most important the harm of one child in bps system is one too many and we should all be concerned about addressing their loss of innocence the recent acts of violence assaults bullying and sexual harassment must be investigated in a prop and appropriately addressed with the help of the boston police department to ensure the public safety of all students and staff in our boston public schools i asked my council colleagues the majority who have children of their own to vote to hold a hearing to examine how the boston public schools administration handles all types of assaults and misconduct with law enforcement and to discuss much needed transparency and solutions for such incidents in the upcoming school year we must prioritize the safety of our children and students in our school system above politics representatives from the city of boston boston public schools boston police department the mbta transit police department the office of safety services in the boston public schools in the office of equity youth leaders members of the public and any other interested party shall be invited and encouraged to attend the hearing and as all of you know i've spent my entire life before i got here a few months ago as a school teacher so i do think the seriousness of this is something that we can't continue to ignore but also want to make it clear that i also understand the importance of restorative justice and more social workers guidance counselors and all of those needs that we need to wrap around all of you or yeah all of you were here when i did my maiden speech which was to address the mental health crisis of our children and to advocate that we are as a council body using all the power we can to make sure our schools are offering athletics arts guidance counselors whatever it is our children need i understand and have always as an educator myself taken the holistic approach to support our children but the cases were hearing in the i hope all of us read that 180 report from desi the numbers that are showing and the reports we here and i hear personally in our office for the last few months in this new role as a city councilor is forcing me to make sure that we come together and work together with all of the agencies to get this right our children deserve it and like i said one student sexually assaulted is too many having a hearing on a sexual harassment hearing and they came with no numbers and said we can get them to you and we didn't get them until i kept calling and found out that it jumped from 350 to 744 this past school year is alarming to me it should be alarming to all of the families in the city of austin so i think we need to i know we need to take action so i'm here to lead on that action and thank you thank you councilman murphy the chair recognizes council mejia council me here you have the fall yes thank you mr president and thank you to my colleague for filing this hearing order i just would like just some clarity because i know we filed a hearing order earlier this year and it was specifically around bullying and harassment in our boston public schools so i just need some clarity and understanding what the difference is between what we did and what we're proposing to do now one and and two i think as we continue to have these conversations um when i think about safety i think social emotional safety is a part of that conversation too it's how kids feel um safe in spaces and how they are embraced in the spaces that they walk into and what they see when they're walking into those spaces right so i think safety is a loaded word and i think we have an opportunity to unpack that and so i just want some clarity from you um president flynn to explain to me kind of what the rules are in regards to something that has already been heard and what the distinction and difference is between what we've already filed and spoke upon and what this is going to look like moving forward thank you council mejia we're going to take a recess and we're going to get an answer to you um hopefully in the next few minutes thank you we're in brief recess okay um is braden and arroyo offered the following resolution condemning hateful vandalism targeting lgbtq plus seniors and denouncing white supremacist activity in the city of boston the chair recognizes council braden council braden you have the flaw thank you mr president and i would like to um add councillor flaherty as an original co-sponsor please oh sorry i think i'm in the process of adding and adding four i can only have three that's right yeah um cancer louisiana had um asked if she could be a correspondent as well council region is is added was there one other one and councillor flaherty also wanted to be added as a co-sponsor um hearing no objection both both of those colleagues are added thank you thank you for your accommodating this um i you know we spent so much of our time this afternoon talking about bullying and abuse and vandalism and white supremacy it just seems that this is a climate that we're living in right now it's it's such an unhealthy and toxic time that we're living in this weekend's tragic and vulgar act of hateful vandalism targeting the pride affordable housing development in hyde park that is intended for lgbtq older adults was maddening and disheartening the pride is a profoundly inspiring development project seeking to ensure secure stable and affordable housing that is accessible and available for the for the healthy aging of all pride is envisioned as a home where lgbtq older adults can safely and securely be their authentic selves without fear or shame but live joyfully in community and while homophobic and trans queerphobic impacts all in our lgbt communities i have to say that this is especially hurtful when a space for older adults is targeted many of an older generation may have not been able to live in their youth in a society such as the one today which is seeming seemingly progressed to be more tolerant sometimes we wonder about that but yes we we think we're on a trajectory of more tolerance and acceptance and yet many of our older adults still do live with their still do live with their true identities concealed whether from their families their religious communities or in senior housing and while the hateful messages targeting lgbtq folks it was particularly of note that it not it there were explicit uh and direct uh transphobic messages um spray-painted on the on the on the um in this incident as well which further propos further intensifies the generational trauma experienced by trans folks who are seniors who've survived years and decades of abuse and a lack of acceptance in our communities unfortunately i was unable to make it to the stand out in hyde park on sunday afternoon but i had want to extend my love and appreciation to lgbt senior housing aylin montour and gretchen van ness and all of those who showed up to display in the display of love despite the the display of hate which which came so shortly after the events of the previous week when the white supremacy group marched through the streets of boston again i think we just have to reassert our our principles that boston is a welcoming and safe place for all and keep working to make that a reality thank you i would like to suspend the rules and and ask for passage of this resolution today thank you mr president thank you council braden the chair recognizes council of royal council of royal you have the flaw thank you uh councillor flynn thank you councillor braden uh and co-sponsors uh for sort of the urgency behind this i wanna make first clear that uh there are probably no one that i look to more for leadership on these issues than eileen montour and gretchen van ness and in lieu of that i think it's important to give some background here this occurred not just in the district that i represent but in my home uh my home neighborhood where i was born and raised and where i currently reside and it was incredibly painful i want to be clear that the language used wasn't just derogatory or a slur but actually were death threats were threats of harm and violence and in light of that i think it's import this is an appropriate response and i think that there's a couple of things that i want to note which is first and foremost there's district counselors here we've had development projects in our districts and everyone here has that group of folks who hate every project that has ever been proposed period of any district uh this project won those folks this project is the only project that i've had in my three years that has won almost nearly unanimous support within my district and with that in mind we had a wonderful sort of groundbreaking behind this where the community came out less than a month ago frankly uh to support this project and there was so much love and support in that space because high park like much of boston like much of our state and country has not always been welcoming and this was the first and is the first lgbtq plus senior facility in the entirety of new england it's a historical place uh and to then see it marred this way uh less than a month later is a reminder of the harm and the abuse that lgbtq plus people have been facing in this country their entire lives and here we have a home that is for them uh and individuals who identify that way to age gracefully in community with inclusivity and with love for one another and the thing isn't even built yet and people are threatening to burn it down and so i just want to be clear uh that that won't be tolerated uh that whoever was responsible for that or whatever group is responsible for that i hope that they get the message uh that this is not an isolated thing where you can attack our residents and then walk away i hope that you are found i hope that you are caught i hope that you were prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law but beyond that i hope that you understand that you failed that this will be built this will be built more will be built this is the first it will not be the last this is a model uh for people in my community who identifies lgbtq plus and many do i want you to understand that you are loved that you are seen that your leadership represents you understands the pain and the harm that came from this uh and that we won't rest until it's very clear that these kinds of things uh should never happen and that when they do they should be condemned as powerfully as we can uh it's an incredibly emotional thing for me because i saw the pain in the heart i'm still getting texts about the pain and the hurt this is the current active investigation so these signs are still not down and i've continued to receive they're coming down today for folks who have emailed and texted uh but that's because they were an active investigation and just in the hearing and seeing it i've seen people say you know i knew what they said but i wasn't ready for the impact it would have on me when i read it and so for the folks who uh are feeling that way who are seeing that i want you to know that we feel it that same way and that our response will be a powerful one beyond just a resolution we will continue to support projects like this uh we will continue to see projects like this grow and i think it speaks to the importance of projects like this because for those well-meaning individuals who want to say well why do we need to be so clear about the fact that this is lgbtq can we just say this is inclusive senior housing this is why we have to be clear because we have to say with the full force and authority that we have that being lgbtq plus is not just acceptable but it is it is how you were born it is how you identify and we respect you and we love you and that you deserve to be seen in that way it can't be put to the side because those who hate our lgbtq plus brothers sisters and non-gender performing don't take days off and so neither can we and so thank you council brayden and thank you to our original sponsors on this and i just hope that those that were harmed find some measure of solace in this resolution today thank you thank you council royale the chair reconnect recognizes council louisiana council luigen you have the flow president flynn i rise to thank councillor braden for adding me as an original co-sponsor and for all the community work you know this happened i came to everyone's attention sunday afternoon while many of us were at uh open streets and um the community quickly rallied together to support our lgbtq plus community and to say that we will not tolerate this and that we condemn this in the loudest of voices um and we you know i'm an at-large city councillor which means the entire city but high park is home and the pride building is in uh we were there as concert warriors said a few weeks ago we were there for the groundbreaking a few weeks ago but it actually used to be a middle school and it's a middle school that my sisters all went to the reason why i didn't go is because i was rebellious and wanted to go to middle school in dorchester but it is a place a point of pride actually for my family and for it to be called the pride so that it because it's an affordable housing uh senior development to welcome our lgbtq plus community we need to make sure that we stand by it and say that in all unequivocal terms that we want this type of affordable housing this senior facility for lgbtq plus community in our neighborhoods and i also just want to just say to pause and reflect that when these things happen although we come together and we rally and we push back and we say not on our watch this is our city there's no way and we stand together in unison and in love and in solidarity that these are really hurtful and that the messages that we see on these buildings and the hoods and masks that we see on these white supremacists they hurt us and so um emily my chief of staff uh was the first to find out about what happened at the pride and for me and just you know she herself is queer and the messages hurt they hurt us and as we as electives and as people working these spaces are responding and showing up for community just also need to make sure that we take time and space for ourselves because these attacks while we're responding and being there for community they also hurt us and they hurt people on our teams and that um it's important that we check in with each other with love um as we're responding to these incidences know that they're very deeply personal and hurtful um and and and are triggering um and and uh hurting back to traumatic experiences that so many of us have had and so this is just a reminder to treat each others uh with kindness because we never know the struggles that folks are going through and that we stand by and with each other in these moments um i shout out to gretchen vanessa and eileen montour who in you know were just rallied the community so quickly and who also approached this work with tremendous love and kindness and no homophobic anti-trans language will change their tenacity and the kindness and love with which they approach this work so thank you thank you council luigi the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy you have the floor thank you council president flynn so i want to thank my colleagues councillor braden and councillor arroyo for this resolution and condemning the hateful vandalism that targeted the lgbtq plus seniors as well as denouncing white supremacist activity in the city of boston as martin luther king once said darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that i know it's often said and it seems cliche but i joined gretchen van ness a friend in other community members and leaders from high park across boston many of our colleagues councillor mejia councilman lara councillor arroyo and louisiana were there and our state reps consalvo state rep miranda and al guardo were there also and there was staff from suffolk d.a kevin hayden's office and there were so many community leaders and just neighbors who came out and in a short period of time and like my colleague council louisiana said many of us were either still at the jamaica plain open streets or at other events across the city but as the cars kept pulling up and the crowd kept growing you could just feel the love but you could also feel the pain of so many and the signs that so many made to tape over the hate signs were so inspirational it was moving and i know many of the pictures on the news and others who posted showed that when the rally ended and we started to tape up the signs over the hate signs it really showed that your words do hurt and your words matter but we can conquer and if we work together we can make a difference so i'm here to say thank you again to the makers and as a city and community leaders we must stand and act together like glue during times of hatred that attempt to divide us so please add my name and i look forward to the work ahead and also look forward to continuing to support that strong community and high park and will be there along the way especially as we open the doors to our senior community there so thank you thank you council murphy would anyone like to speak on this matter or add your name please raise your hand mr clerk please add counselor block counselor carter councillor fernandez anderson council lara council mejia council murphy and please add the chair um council is council is braden arroyo and flaherty seek suspension of the rules and adoption of zero eight eight nine all those in favor say aye okay i apologize about that council is braden louisian and arroyo seek suspension of the rules and adoption of docket zero eight eight nine all those in favor say aye aye all opposed saying the eyes have it the docket has been adopted thank you mr clerk can you please read in to the record docket uh zero eight nine zero docker number zero eight nine zero counselors louisiana and flynn offer the following resolution and support of 32 bj seiu security office campaign thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes counselor louis jen thank you uh mr vice chair approximately three thousand boston area security officers are in the middle of negotiations for a fair contract they hope to achieve what we all hope to achieve and work fair wages affordable health care retirement benefits 401k and better working conditions members of 32 bj were here earlier but they left because today is their day of action on this a 10-minute walk away um and i hope that my colleagues will join me in standing in solidarity with the security officers who uh who are members of 32bj um we shouldn't forget that so many a lot of people were able to work from home during the pandemic our security office workers officer workers weren't able to do so nor did they receive any hazard pay although they were forced to work in person security officers are essential workers and a majority of them are people of color and immigrants who call boston home a lot of my family members and folks that i know um have been and are security officers and buildings these jobs can be good union jobs and a stepping stone for future job growth in a growing industry a lot of cities um when we look during the pandemic that commercial spaces and life science spaces weren't as robust but we in the city have a robust commercial and life science space where we often have security officers and these security officers demand deserve to have fair wages deserve to have to pay less in health care deserve to have a 401k which they're still fighting for and many of them work at places that we all traffic and go to all the time that includes institutions of higher education like northeastern emerson and berkeley it includes the booming life sciences industry novartis vertex biomed realty trust it includes our commercial office partners like liberty mutual and state street corporation here we had one of the 32 bj members ryan who has been working at one of these buildings for the past 19 years who was here today and saying i'm just looking for the basics i'd like to be able to um have enough money to feed my family i'd like to be able to uh contribute to a 401k and experience a decrease in in in medical expenses so this resolution is a symbol that we stand in solidarity with our security officers um many of us were on a call last week with them as they were talking about how we can help them their contract expires july 31st a shout out to 32bj we're talking about a number of different uh private companies here that uh negotiate with either uh institutions of higher education or life sciences facilities 32 bj has managed to get them all all the different private companies to the table at one time to talk about private uh to talk about contract negotiations and a fair bargaining process for our workers one of the biggest companies is northeast and they actually are the ones that work at northeastern and and and throughout our city so i just hope that my uh council colleagues will join me in suspending and passing this i should have said this at the beginning i want to thank my co-sponsor uh president uh flynn and would also like to suspend the rules and add council morale as an original co-sponsor thank you seeing no objections council rail is so added uh count council president flynn the floor is yours thank you thank you councillor arroyo and thank you to our colleague council louis jennifer for adding me and council morales as well this is an important issue i know council louisiana outlined the issue very well the unions are a clear path to the middle class these security offices as as the council mentioned met most of them are communities of color and immigrants they work in downtown boston and and in other neighborhoods across the city they're struggling they're working hard they're trying to pay their bills they're working hard to support their families to try to educate their children they're trying to make it to the middle class through hard work and determination we we admire these workers for their their love of this of this country but also their their hard work as well um we support these workers because they're really the backbone of our city they make our downtown area which is a which is many financial air is the financial area so um they help make boston uh move forward especially in the especially during this pandemic they were essential workers they played a critical role so i'm just honored to be to be part of this but also to thank all of my colleagues not just on this issue but on so many issues impacting working men and women across across boston city councillors have always been there representing the interest of working men and women and families thank you thank you council president flynn the chair now recognizes councillor warrell thank you councillor royal thank you thank you to my co-sponsors um council louis jen and councillor flynn and we know our security workers are essential workers they show up day and night to protect us so i just want to say thank you i know they're not here but hopefully they're watching we know that the cost of um cost of living is rising especially here in the city of boston i think we heard some numbers that were staggering to me was it three thousand dollars for a two bedroom apartment so we have to make sure that we are continuously fighting for increased wages here in the city of boston especially for black and brown communities because we know when we fight we win so thank you thank you council rarel the chair now recognizes councillor coletta thank you vice president arroyo i rise in solidarity with my 32 bj union siblings i have many of them who live in my district in their fight for a living wage in receiving the respect and dignity that they deserve especially as they were largely the forgotten front line workers keeping our building safe and potentially putting their loved ones at risk during the pandemic it is insanity to to me that here in the city of boston the innovation hub of the east coast with offices that these individuals largely stewart that we cannot ensure um that one job is enough so we stand with you we will fight with you and we urge uh the security contractors to bargain fairly and in good faith yes we can see separate thank you councilman i just saw all of these lights go on at once so i'm going to try and do them in the right order so i'm going to start with counselor mejia but it sounds like it's counselor lara so counselor lara goes first counselor on the floor is yours thank you councillor arroyo and thank you so much to the makers for offering um this resolution on the floor i do not have to speak about my support of unions and my belief that every worker deserves a union and deserves to be organized and protected by their union and my love and my reverence for 32bj so i'm really excited to support this resolution i wanted to stand because i'm a former security officer myself and as when i was a security officer it was my third job i would work retail in the morning and then at 1 pm i would start my job as a street worker and i would finish at 10 and at 11 pm i would go work as a security officer overnight because that is what it would take to be able to as a single person to afford my apartment where i lived alone and to pay all of my bills and to me um you know i was 22 at the time so we're talking a decade ago still not being able to ensure that people are making a living wage that they only have to work one job to survive like councillor coletta said is abysmal and i think that we need not only to support this resolution and 32 bj but a lot of the unions across the city who are making sure that our workers are protected and that they're getting and receiving liberal wages thank you councilor lara councillor mejia thank you mr vice chair um and this is one of the reasons why i absolutely love you right because no for real seriously i mean i've had my moments today but um just really like to be honest you really lead with the personal is professional and political and oftentimes we see a lot of political theater here in this chamber but i know when i see you and i hear you talking i know that for you this is your lived experience and you lead with your heart and i think that's what these moments call for is more of that and so i just want to say thank you for your lift experience and bringing that into the chamber so that we can center it and the who it is that we're here to fight for so so thank you and thank you to the um the sponsors for bringing this on to to the floor as as well today you know i always talk about the fact that my mom is what now 73 years old and too poor to retire because she's never had union representation and she's barely making 20 dollars an hour right so when we talk about justice when we talk about workers when we talk about supporting our low-wage workers in that you know this resolution is great i'm showing up at protest is great and i'm here for all of that and i think that this council and i'm so incredibly um uh happy that my president flynn my president that biden you um is always so adamant about fighting for workers um and you have been such a strong voice in my first term and my second and you still continue to be so so thank you for for your leadership in that space because oftentimes a lot of these workers are immigrants um and people of color who if they don't have somebody um who is willing to stand up and fight for them oftentimes we all lose so so thank you for that as they say when we fight we win and that's what this is all about thank you thank you councillor mejia councillor fernandez anderson the floor is yours uh thank you um vice president uh arroyo i i just heard my sister counselor uh coletta say that and i just wanted to be official it is you i honestly this is the first time that i'm saying that and i'll make sure that it's correct next time um i think so shout out to uh dalita rasha if you're if you're watching sis you know i love you um this this woman is unbelievable and incredible and as even though she's not no longer with um 32vj she is still grinding and fighting um on behalf of the unions and um her work speak for itself the incomparable deleted russia i love you and i've and i've said it and i'll profess my love for 32 bj because they truly do uh represent everything that my counsel colleagues have said here on the floor um i always say that 32 bj and local 26 myself and my two kids and my sister uh probably a handful of volunteers won my campaign and 32bj happened to be the union that jumped in first and believed in me and really uh went out and worked with me and after learning a lot about unions and them explaining all of the things i do not have experience with union but my grandmother was in local 26 and having to go through that experience and understanding exactly uh what they're about of course my um my my advocacy on you know racial justice in within the unions are consistent as well um but nonetheless i share the same experience as council lara but i was 15 years old working at the piano craft on tremont street and i didn't know what the hell i was doing i was just trying to get as many jobs as possible without a green card um but anyway the point is is that aside all aside i like to mention the extreme vital work that seiu does and in supporting plethora of workers in a number of fields we appreciate you and i just wanted to go on record and say that i fully support uh this and thank you uh council of louisiana and councillor flynn and councillor mural for filing this thank you thank you councillor fernandez anderson i just want to say that i fully support this and i'm grateful to council president flynn and councillor louis again for uh proposing this today uh would anyone else like to speak uh counselor braden the floor is yours oh are you are you raising your hand to just add your name um i would add my name i i should yes i had some very brief comments um i think everyone has already stated just how important the work of seiu 32bj has been in raising up the voices and the um the work of our so many of our essential workers one one job should be enough uh and i want to just add my name in support of this resolution thank you thank you councillor braden uh seeing no further discussion uh please raise your hand if you'd like to add your name uh mr clerk please add counselor baker please add counselor bach please add counselor brayden please add counselor coletta please add counselor fernandez anderson please add counselor lara please add counselor mejia please add counselor murphy please add council warrell and please add my name uh counselor's lieutenant flynn seek suspension of the rules and adoption of docket zero eight ninety all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed say nay the eyes have it the resolution has been adopted uh mr clerk if you could please read docket zero eight nine one document number zero eight nine one councillors flynn and fernandez anderson offer the following resolution and support of an african-american veterans u.s commemorative stamp series thank you mr clark uh the chair recognizes council president flynn the floor is yours thank you thank you council arroyo and may i add may i suspend rule 12 and add council murphy as an original co-sponsor seeing and hearing no objections council murphy's that is the third co-sponsor thank you thank you to council fernandez anderson the u.s postal u.s post office is considering having a special stamp in recognition of the tremendous role service sacrifice bravery of african-american veterans this stamp would really show the us postal us post office commitment and understanding of the service of of african-american veterans and maybe this is just a resolution maybe symbolically but also we stand here really to recognize the incredible role that these veterans have played including the the 54th that's that's in my colleagues district councilor bark i do like to take credit for it but in all honesty it's in council bloc's district um that's a group of african-american veterans that that fought in the in in the war for [Music] and independence have a beautiful memorial right across the street from this massachusetts state house i had a friend many of you might know or some of the older people might know willa saunders who was a boston police superintendent who was a tuskegee airman and here was a group of african-american veterans that fought in world war ii they fought in world war ii for our country they came back they they weren't even able to use the gi bill to buy to buy homes they weren't able to use the gi bill for other other services or or or programs but here they already been willing to die for our country and in in germany in other locations and they and they don't they don't have the same level of services that other veterans have but it's about it's about respect showing african-american veterans that they're important they've sacrificed they've died for our country their families have sacrificed for our country i want to acknowledge council murphy for her support of veterans um over the last year but i also want to acknowledge council fernandez anderson in her support and certainly she has personal history with her son serving serving in in the military so it's important to have have both perspectives so i'm honored to have co-sponsors council murphy and and councillor fernandez anderson recognizing this as well so thank you councillor thank you uh counselor council president flynn uh now going to go to council fernandez anderson thank you vice president arroyo uh thank you council of president flynn um for allowing me to co-sponsor on this highly worthwhile offer african-americans have served in the us army forces and bravely and distinction sensed the founding of this nation uh despite the rampant racism and oppression they often face both in service and in society at large because of both of these elements i think it is imperative that we continue to honor our african-american veterans uh camaromative stamps are an important symbol of recognition from the society in terms of paying proper respect and attention to those who are so honored therefore it is sensible that we support such a stamp series pertaining to black veterans considering their heroic and steadfast actions and behaviors despite entrenched discrimination i reiterate my thanks to council president flynn for allowing me to co-sponsor this offer and i look forward to collecting the stamps once they hit that market thank you council uh councillor fernandez anderson councillor murphy the floors thank you council arroyo um so thank you councillor fernandez anderson and president flynn for this resolution and adding me as an original co-sponsor as the committee chair of veteran military families and military affairs and also the daughter and many family members are veterans i join in support of the creation of a commemorative postal stamp series for african-american veterans we need to highlight and celebrate the services and sacrifices of african-american veterans who have not gotten the proper recognition in the past so thank you for this resolution and i look forward also to buying the stamps when they come out so thank you very much thank you councillor murphy and thank your family for their service uh would anyone else like to speak on this matter seeing no further discussion with anyone else like to add their name uh mr clerk please add counselor bach please head counselor coletta please add counselor lara please add counselor lou jen please add counselor mejia please add my name uh please add counselor warrell uh counselors flynn fernandez anderson and murphy seek suspension of the rules and adoption of docket zero eight nine one uh all those in favor say aye aye all opposed nay the eyes have it the resolution has been adopted thank you miss clark thank you thank you council arroyo mr clerk please read doc at 0-892 please ducking number zero eight nine two counselor arroyo for the following order requesting certain information under section 17 f relative to the boston police department's roster unit assignments complaints history individual overtime records and revenue sources the the chair recognizes council royal council royale you're of the fall thank you councillor flynn and i don't know uh precisely whether or not people are allowed to join in a 17 f however counselor louis jenna's asked to join in the 17f and if it's allowed i would like to add her as a it's my understanding that they're not okay so i'll just share this information with with the entirety of the council but especially with counselor louis jen i'm just seeking uh relatively basic information uh the rosters by year the unit assignments uh complaints history uh which was documented uh by the boston globe but i want it up to 2022 uh all individual records uh regarding officer rank overtime hourly pay and the following overtime categories which is courts special events and details we have that up to uh a specific year but now we need to update that all revenue sources outside of the budget approved by the city including grants and civil forfeiture this is to address a number of outstanding questions regarding discrepancies and discipline for officers of color and officers who are not of color discrepancies and overtime that have been revealed in the past through such searches as well as a better understanding of the roster and how people are being assigned within the force and have continued to be assigned throughout the years uh and so it's a simple 17f uh all of these things should be easily attainable some of these things we've received in the past and so for that reason i'm offering the 17f thank thank you council royal the chair recognizes council louisiana council louisiana you have the floor flynn the reason why i just wanted to be added it was an incredibly frustrating budget process when we didn't have access to this data and information and so um it isn't like it's a game of hide and seek they just hide the ball and so we just need to get as much information as possible so i look forward to the response to the 17f request so that we can get into the more opaque parts of bpd that we as city council need to be able to see through what's happening there and we don't get that without responses to this 17f thank you thank you council lujan council fernandez anderson you have the flaw thank you uh council president flynn um and thank you to uh councillor um arroyo for filing this um as my girl mary j blige said um what's the 4-1-1 we need we need information um from bpd to better understand what's going on within the department and learn how we can better assist them and the communities that they serve for example we just spent months talking about bpd over time it will be highly informative if we can have specific concrete details on what officers are accessing this over time and also under what conditions similarly we need to know about the complaints history and specific officers and how these complaints have been handled and if officers has received uh inordinate amount of complaints perhaps we can assist them in helping that officer find another line of work it's uh i'm just saying in short i endorse this offer and look forward to learning more about these records um regarding the bpd thank you council fernandez anderson council royal suspension of the rules and passage of darker zero eight nine two all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it docket zero eight nine two has passed we're on to personnel orders mr corp please re-talk at zero eight nine free please doctor number zero eight nine three council of flynn for council of foreign suspension of the rules and positive docket zero eight nine three all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket has passed mr clerk please read doc at zero eight nine four doctor number zero eight nine four council flynn for comments cs6 mentioned the rules and passage of docket zero eight nine four all those in favor say aye aye all opposed saying nay the eyes have it the docket has passed mr clerk please read docket zero eight nine five talking number zero eight nine five council of flynn for council members suspension of the rules and patches passage of docket zero eight nine five all those in favor say aye aye aye aye all opposed say navy eyes have it the docket has passed mr crook please read talk at zero eight nine six talking number zero eight nine six council of flynn offered the first seek suspension of the rules and passage of talking zero eight nine six all those in favor say aye all opposed saying the eyes have it the doctor has passed mr clark please read doc at zero eight nine seven ducking number zero eight nine seven council of flynn for council club cheers seek suspension of the rules and passage of doctor zero eight nine seven all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed saying nay the eyes have it the doctor has passed mr clerk please read docket zero eight nine eight doctor number zero eight nine eight flynn for council chair 6 suspension rules and passage of dark at zero eight nine eight all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket has passed mr clerk please read read doc at zero eight nine nine doctor number zero eight nine nine council of fluent for constant chassis suspensions rules and passages at zero eight nine nine all those in favor say aye aye aye all posts say nay the eyes have it the doctor's passed we're on to lay files i am informed by the correct that there are there are four what that there are four late file matters the late fire matters include a hearing order from council coretta and louisiana a revised ordinance from the mayor's office a hearing order from council flaherty in the chair so maybe just for me okay a hearing order from from the chair a resolution from council lara a personal order the late file matters should be on everyone's desk we will take a vote to add these items into the agenda all those in favor of adding the late file matter into the agenda say aye thank you the late final matters have been a jet added to the agenda mr clerk can you please read the first late file matter which is a hearing order from council clutter and council louisiana order for a hearing regarding contraception and menstrual product vending machines in the city of boston offered by council as coletta inc and louisiana whereas the accessibility of affordable contraception has emerged as the forefront of public discourse since the dobbs versus jackson women's health organization u.s supreme court decision overruling both road versus weight and planned parenthood plan parenthood versus casey and whereas it be it ordered that the appropriate committee by the boston city council hold a hearing to discuss vending machines that provide contraception and menstrual products in the city of boston and the mayor's office of women's advancement with other advocacy advocacy organizations including mass now reproductive equity now planned parenthood and other stakeholders invited to testify that thank you mr chair thank you mr corp the chair recognizes uh council clerica council cutter you have the floor thank you council president flynn i'd like to suspend rule 12 and add counselor arroyo as the third co-sponsor seeing and hearing no objections council royale is so added thank you all for your grace and acceptance of this late file matter regarding a hearing on contraception and menstrual product vending machines in the city of boston with the devastating ruling coming from the supreme court just weeks ago overturning roe versus wade we must act with urgency to break down any and all barriers to accessible and affordable contraception and the fight for bodily autonomy everybody everyone should have the right and power to choose if when and under what circumstances to get pregnant and carry a child to term reliable safe and proven birth control methods like condoms and emergency contraception are vital in safeguarding and limiting the chances of becoming pregnant if someone does not want to be we are lucky in massachusetts to have been awarded recent protections from our friends and colleagues in the state house and this docket is meant to start the conversation of first launching these vending machines expanding them across the city of boston with the ultimate hope of having them in municipal buildings i also hope to increase public dialogue not just in this city but in other cities located in trigger states that are desperate for any ideas and relief or protections providing free or affordable condoms in plan b are already taking place in the city boston university recent recently launched plan b vending machines on their campuses offering it to students at a lesser price than what they get over the counter bps already supplies our high schools with access to condoms with a parent or guardian opt out program it is the city of boston's responsibility to affirmatively provide these products across the city in easily accessible vending machines and some of our most high need or reproductive healthcare deserts as i was initially researching this idea i was very pleased to hear that the mayor's office of women women's advancement is already working with a company to launch a pilot program for menstrual product vending machines across the city four to five to be exact so it's not a large pilot program period poverty affects young people and particularly members of our bipod community period poverty is still stigmatized and not talked about enough even though half of our populations lives literally depend on having access to these products i want to give a special shout out to sasha good friend at mass now who is leading the coalition around the i am bill that seeks to expand access to menstrual products across the commonwealth it recently passed the massachusetts senate in march and is awaiting approval in the house at the close of session this month month so i'm wishing her the best of luck in that effort but in the city we have an incredible opportunity here to leverage the incoming pilot program uh providing free or affordable menstrual products while also meeting this dire moment in our country to protect and safeguard persons who can become pregnant with any and all methods of safe reliable contraception that does not need to be approved by a doctor i look forward to this hearing and having advocates from mass now reproductive equity now and planned parenthood as well as the administration in attendance thank you thank you council of coletta would anyone like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes council of louisiana council louisiana the forest thank you president flynn and thank you to my colleague counselor kaletta for adding me as an original co-sponsor i thank you for the work that you're doing in this space and abortion care should be available on demand to all who need and so expanding this process expanding expanding this pilot um into all municipal buildings um and making sure that we're giving folks access to the health care that they need on demand is vital and important and i look forward to working with councillor coletta on on this hearing order and on our previous hearing order so that we can protect our residents and those who will come here uh seeking refuge from their own states that enact draconian laws to attack abortion care and reproductive rights thank you thank you consola the chair recognizes council royal council royal you have the floor council president flynn thank you councillor coletta and councillor louis jen for your leadership here i was thrilled when i actually read that some of our universities were providing this i don't think it's a surprise to anybody to note that we live in a strongly patriarchal society you know most of our founding documents were written without women in the room uh the vast majority of them and so when we talk about policies that we've taken over the years as a country and a government towards women they have largely been to control their their physical being their their physical ability to uh use their bodies the way that they wish to use their bodies those similar restrictions do not apply to men and so when we talk about accessibility i think one of the things that often is sort of not brought up in the space is that as a culture and as a society we do a lot of stigmatization of women who fight for their own reproductive rights or for their ability to uh do as they wish frankly with their with their own uh sexual history or sexual preferences or however they would like to express themselves and that stigmatization can often lead to them not having access to what they need to protect themselves and to protect their safety and their health and that's before we add in sort of the cost prohibitiveness of this and so i think this attacks and addresses that in a number of different ways it makes this more accessible for individuals who really need this and deserve this but it also increases the accessibility due to cost and it takes away some of that stigmatization by giving them that level of anonymous purchase so that if they wish to do so without having to declare themselves in some way shape or form they are able to do that and i think it's important that we give people and individuals that space and i think it's important for boston to lead on this i would just note do the jobs that clarence thomas did make reference to the fact that he thought we should revisit contraceptives and i think this is an important step for the city of boston to lead on what we can do to sort of address those threats that we now find ourselves under from our supreme court so thank you councillor coletta thank you counselor louis jen and i do hope that this happens and that this brings some relief to those who who really need it thank you councillor president flynn thank you council royale would anyone else like to speak on this matter or add your name uh please raise your hand mr clerk please add counselor braden counsel fernandez anderson council lara council mejia council murphy council rel the chair this first late mile this first slave file will be referred to the committee on public health homelessness in recovery mr clerk can you please read the second late file which is the revised ordinance from the mayor's office second light file matter filed by uh mayor michelle wu to your council as i hereby transmit for your approval and amendment to the city of boston code ordinance chapter 15 section 10 the proposed amendment to the ordinance is submitted along with my disapproval of a similar ordinance ordinance passed by your honorable body on june 29 2022 i urge your body to pass the amended ordinance so the city of boston can bring talent into our workforce and showcase all the city has to offer as an employer thank you the second late file matter will be signed to the committee on government operations i'm sorry the chair recognizes council of royal council royal you have the floor thank you council mr president flynn uh as chair of government operations i am going to seek suspension of rule 33 so that this matter can be adopted i'm happy to give the reasoning for that now or after uh we vote on that as a council but i would just say we've already passed this this is the fair chance act they've made some amendments to make it uh more legally sound uh for the city of boston they're they're sort of minor and technical in nature uh and so because our next meeting is until august 10th i'd just like to get it done now there's there's not going to be a hearing on this it would just get pulled out and voted on august 10th so if possible i'd like to vote on it today yeah thank you thank you council royale and sorry thank you recognize your council royal is seeking to suspend rule 33 so we're able to vote on this matter today so seeing and hearing no objections council royal was seeking suspending the rules and seeking passage of this second lay file matter thank you uh council president flynn uh i don't know uh how much we need to go into it but i will just give folks a little bit of an update of what happened here uh this body passed this ordinance's docket zero two five nine at our last council meeting on june 29th 2022 the administration has let me know of a few technical revisions which include to change the title of the position so that it promotes clarity through the existing chief of equity and inclusion uh language clarifying that any complaint procedure cannot seek to replace employee rights granted by other laws uh technical clarifications of which employees are subject to city diverse and anti-nepotism procedures and not establishing a blank requirement of anonymous hiring but rather be used as a tool to be implemented in departmental diversity plans with the flexibility to avoid delays or difficulties of determining necessary qualifications in some instances i believe these technical revisions still hold true to the spirit and intent of this ordinance as originally filed working to provide the transparent hiring process where disclosures notifications recusal practices are established when family relationships exist and it will prevent conflicts of interest in hiring and promotional practices of the city by establishing standards to ensure fairness and opportunity in the hiring and promotional practices of the city as chair of the government operations committees i recommend that we take this up today thank you mr president mr clerk we'll take a roll call vote on this roll call on the amendment to the fair chance act docket of counselor arroyo yes councilor roy yes councillor baker aye council baker uh councillor bark councillor braden yes council braden yes councillor coletta councillor coletta yes council fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson yes council flaherty councillor flynn yes councillor flynn yes council lara council lara yes council louisiana councillor mejia council me here yes councillor murphy yes councilman murphy yes and council yes councilor well yes the amendment has passed thank you mr claire uh mr clerk can you read the next late file mata into the record which is a late file hearing order for myself and counselor flaherty but knowing council flaherty is not here i think it'll just be just be myself offered by counselors michael flaherty and ed phil order and ed flynn order for a hearing to discuss the south boston waterfront strategic transit plan whereas the south boston waterfront has been the center of boston's development boom with a large number of existing and future big scale projects that add thousands of housing units as well as office commercial and laboratory spaces in the area and via further order that the appropriate committee of the boston city council hold a hearing to discuss the south boston seaport transit plan representatives from the boston transportation department boston planning and development agency and other interested parties shall be invited to attend thank you mr clerk council president flynn the floor's worse thank you council arroyo and i want to say thank you to my colleague council of flaherty the important work he's been doing on this the south boston waterfront is a critical part of our city the economic development boom that we're seeing a lot of it is happening in this area however we want to make sure that we have the right transportation plan we have the south boston waterfront strategic transportation plan which aims to address the transit needs of the neighborhood with the goal of putting forth recommendations to improve the city's transportation network in the south boston waterfront the draft plan recommendations were released in march and the city seeks to release its final recommendations for the plan during the winter of 2020 however there were many concerns in the community regarding the recommendations set forth there are concerns that recommendations for summer street congresswoman street seaport boulevard would negatively impact residential and commercial areas as well as the port which is a significant economic engine in the city concerns remain about a lack of direct and meaningful engagement with both the greater south boston community and the marine and fishing industries located in the raymond alpha and marine industrial park so i hope that we can have a hearing to discuss this plan it's important that residents voices are heard it's important that businesses are heard in the waterfront a lot of these owners in businesses are in the fishing community fish processing and it's a tremendous job for someone that doesn't doesn't graduate from college if you're willing to work hard there's a job for you and we want to keep these we want to keep the fishing industry in in in the port of boston because it plays a tremendous role in our city and it's an economic engine but it's also important for our economy but also important to working class families that they're able to work in the fishing community but what we're seeing is a lot of these trucks that are in and out of the fishing industry in the south boston waterfront um the roads are being changed on them it's making it more difficult for them to pick up fish drop off fish because of the change in the road so we want to make sure that their voices are heard as well i want to again want to say thank you to my colleague councillor flaherty but also i want to say thank you and recognize congressman stephen lynch senator nick collins representative david beal as well and including councillor baker that also works with us on this issue so thank you thank you mr thank you our council royale thank you council president flynn councillor flaherty the floor is yours thank you mr chair just to add on to that um as council president alluded to and just something that i think we all as elected leaders need to take responsible take responsibility for and that's when we're promoting policy you have to engage all sides of the equation it just makes for better policy and in this particular instance as the council president alluded to the main stakeholders the businesses the employers that are all down there working hard the workers that go down there no one had any say in in some of the things that are taking place there so you have the community piece to it uh which is sort of the broader community but then you actually have the stakeholders those that have been down there longer than anybody and they're just looking to be heard and we're making changes down there as a city we're implementing new policy down there in the city and we never asked the stakeholders how they felt about it what they thought about it how is this going to impact your business and i think we're doing a huge disservice by cutting them out of the discussion when we should be inviting them into the discussion so that would be the only the thing i would add uh as again we continue to grow as a city particularly down around the south boston waterfront and also particularly in the reef and main industrial park where those long-term stakeholders and pioneers arguably have been holding the fort down there as an integral part of the port of boston uh in addition to the seafood processing and the freight forwarding we've also opened up opportunity for life sciences and and biotech down there so lots of great things happening down in the rafale marine industrial park uh but the city is also implementing some policies and changes and they're not engaging the community in the major stakeholders down there and whether it's in that part of town or anyone else's district or neighborhood across the city uh we need to make sure that the stakeholders the residents the butters have some say they have an opportunity to be heard and they don't get left out of the process and uh one other piece i don't know whether or not i came in as council president was speaking but these particular policy changes also require transportation studies and data and some of that started and then stopped because of covit and then this didn't necessarily pick back up again so you know maybe a situation where uh folks may be running a little fast and loose with the data uh but more importantly the fact that they're moving uh in a certain direction the residents and the stakeholders in the community have known how to say is we need to pump the brakes uh have an emergency hearing quickly get some additional information see what if any transportation studies are available what are they basing these things on and then let's find out what impacts if any they'll have on the port of boston and those very precious businesses down that employ thousands of of our residents thank you mr chair thank you councillor flaherty would anyone else like to speak on this matter seeing no one would anyone else like to add their name please add counselor baker please add councillor braden please add counselor coletta please add council fernandez anderson please add counselor lara please add counselor mejia please add councillor murphy please add councillor and please add my name uh as chair of the government operations committee i recommend that we take this up sorry one wrong one this late file matter will be assigned to the committee on planning transportation and development thank you mr clerk the next uh thank you thank you council royal the next slave file matter we have is the fourth lay file which is a resolution from council lara council lara you have the floor thank you president i'm sorry consular mr kirk could you please read it into the record oh yes thank you resolution in support of amendment 813 fair relief now for low-income workers offered by council lara whereas the taxpayer energy and economic relief program laid out in h 507 and act relating to economic growth and relief for the commonwealth is a critical step in addressing the high costs of essential goods and be it therefore resolve that the boston city council offers its support for amendment 813 to house 5007 fair relief now for low-income workers and that the clerk of the city of boston is hereby respectfully requested to transmit a suitable a tested copy of this resolution to the chairs and vice chairs of the house committee on ways and means the speaker of the house the presenter of the proposed amendment representative tammy gouveia and the boston delegation to the general court thank you mr correct the chair recognizes council lara council lara you have the floor thank you president flynn and thank you so much to my colleagues for accepting this late file this is a matter that has just recently um picked up at the state house which is why um it's timely and why it is late um the h5007 which is the taxpayer energy and economic relief program ultimately has laid out a relief package for our residents to try to combat the impact of inflation and rising energy costs here in the state of massachusetts the taxpayer edu energy and economic relief fund which is a 510 million dollar bill is going to offer a one-time rebate of 250 um for single people and 500 for people who filed jointly but the eligibility for the program which is based on your income in 2021 is for people who made between thirty eight thousand dollars and a hundred thousand dollars for single filers and thirty eight thousand dollars to a hundred and fifty thousand for people who are joined which ultimately uh setting that floor to 38 thousand dollars is leaving boston's most vulnerable families and our essential workers that keep our city and our state running out of this amendment number 813 would basically remove the 38 000 income floor from the rebate program and i think that this is something that is important for the boston city council to support given that 20 of the people here in the city of boston that means one out of every five people here in the city make and live off of just fourteen thousand nine hundred dollars a year and fourteen thousand nine hundred dollars for one and every fifth person is a ways away from the 38 000 floor that this bill um is suggesting a lot of what we're hearing from the leadership is that they they believe that they have already supported um low income people enough during this pandemic and therefore we cannot lower the floor on this amendment but the relief that um the state gave the residents during the covenant 19 pandemic was specifically to be responsive to the closure of businesses and to be supportive of our essential workers and this package specifically is to help people as inflation continues to rise the cost of goods continues to rise and the cost of energy also continues to rise so i am putting this resolution forward to my colleagues so that we can vote in favor of amendment eight through eight one three um to basically drop the thirty eight thousand dollar floor on bill eight um h five zero seven and i'm hoping to suspend the rules and take a vote today thank you council lara would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone like to add their name please raise your hand mr clerk please add council of royal councillor braden council baker council clutter council fernandez anderson council flaherty council mejia and add the chair please council laura's seeking suspension of the rules and adoption adoption of the fourth late file um all those in favor say aye aye all posts say nay the eyes have it this slate file has been adopted mr president the the the chair recognizes council baker council baker you have the phone i'd just like to revisit a couple docket numbers uh zero eight eight eight and zero eight nine zero and sign my name on to those two documents please [Music] yeah the veteran stamps okay thank you mr clerk um so added thank you council baker the chair recognizes i don't i'm the chair recognizes council flaherty council flaherty you have the fall thank you mr president just uh in similar fashion just like to have my name added to target zero eight eight eight um zero eight nine zero zero eight nine one and i believe it's included in dark at eight eight nine uh by council braden as an additional signatory to the um resolution thank you mr president mr clark did you get those yes okay thank you council fire thank you mr clerk we have one more wave file uh is that is that the personnel order this is the person it's a personal order um would you please read it to the record mr clark personnel order counselor flynn for counselor fernandez anderson the chair recognizes council fernandez and assembly oh yeah yeah um the chia seek suspension of the rules and passage of that late file docket all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay if you guys have it we're finished with we're finished with blade files yes we're on to green shoots anyone wishing to remove a green sheet may do so at this time we're on to the consent agenda i have been informed by the clerk that there are zero additions to the consent agenda the chair moves for adoption of the consent agenda he has presented to all those in favor say aye thank you the consent agenda has been adopted announcements does anyone have any announcements at this time the chair recognizes council of coletta you were first sorry that's a council of coletta um council r and then council braden thank you so much and i'll be quick um next wednesday we will be celebrating july 20th as colombian independence day i am incredibly proud to represent east boston which has a large population of colombians especially from one town in particular don matthias these uh these individuals have always made our community brighter more vibrant and stronger because of their contributions to the east boston community so invite you to two events that are taking place one happening in the pia monte room at 11 a.m and another one outside on the plaza i believe at 10 a.m either way my staff will send you information via email so i just wanted to invite everybody to those events thank you thank you council coletta the chair recognizes council of lara council lara you have the floor thank you so much president flynn this is a quick celebratory announcement on my end at the last city council meeting um especially after roe v wade was overturned i made a pledge in front of the city council to make a thousand dollar donation to the national network of abortion funds and i asked some of my colleagues to join me in matching me in that pledge and i wanted to announce i wanted to thank them formally counselor julia mejia councillor ricardo arroyo state representative liz miranda state representative nikai lugardo sheriff steve tompkins register of probate for suffolk county felix de arroyo mayor michelle wu senator sonia chang diaz and myself will be making a 9 000 gift to the national network of abortion funds so i just wanted to share my share that and celebrate and share my gratitude to all the elected officials in suffolk county who heard the call and made the match so we can ensure that people have access to safe affordable abortion care thank you council ohio the chair recognizes council of braden council braden you have the floor i don't i need to make this brief i have to be the officers and all austin in a harsh time um quickly the open meeting law allowing remote and hybrid participation will expire on friday i'm hoping that the legislature will extend the deadline so that we can continue to have hybrid and remote participation in our public meetings the other issue i wanted to just from a memorial really for boston city councillor brian j honen who passed away unexpectedly on july 30th 2002. he was a predecessor of mine he was the district councillor for austin brighton district 9. and why at the time of his death he was campaigning to be the suffolk county district attorney and he passed away at the early age of 39 years and we still remember him i remember when i was elected people said remarked that he was one of the most incredible city councilors who was dedicated to tremendously good constituent services so i i got in touch with his former um chief of staff and tried to get the secret sauce as to how how he did that and i also want to you know he was a good friend of of councillor flaherty's um brian these are the words of our colleague uh councillor flackerly brian was a role model for me when i joined the city council several years after he was had been elected he taught me a great deal about how to get things done and how to be an effective advocate for the things that i cared about the things he cared about were obvious and he worked hard on those issues making housing in boston safe and affordable improving the quality and availability of public education ensuring basic civic city services were delivered fairly to austin brighton to all were all priorities issues for brian and i'm sure that his passion will inspire many and that he will continue to serve as a role model for many in the years to come it's sad really that we're still dealing with all of these issues but i just wanted to take a moment to remember his service and and you know at this time and then the other achievement i would like to thank all of my colleagues for their support in our campaign uh to in with the harvard enterprise campus phase a um it will come before the board the bpda board tomorrow we have managed to negotiate and achieve 25 percent in income restricted affordable housing and my office especially pushed to include and attain units designated in the range of 30 to 50 percent of the ami this is the largest percentage of income restricted units in a single project by and by a private developer in boston we're also getting 25 million commitment from harvard to establish a vault also brighton affordable housing fund and money to undertake a community needs assessment and a planning process it's a significant um achievement uh it we didn't get everything we asked for but since the erc is the first phase of a massive development of harvard land land holdings involved in austin a total of 160 acres i think we this is the first phase the opening chapter and we hope to continue that campaign to ensure that um that we will develop this land within with inclusion equitably equitable equity and sustainability as a as a a byline and how what we're seeking to achieve in partnership with harvard university thank you thank you council braden today we will journal a meeting in memory of the following individuals from council braden the 20th anniversary of the passing of council brian honan margie mcgregor from council of coletta lucy scapiccio the council of flaherty ian mclean for the chair lma bransfield for council louisian nadi louisian the entire council from the entire city council the former japanese prime minister shinzo abe a moment of silence please the cheer moves that when the council adjourns today it does so in those mentioned individuals and we are now scheduled to meet again in the united chamber on wednesday august 10th at 12 noon all those in favor of a german say aye the council is adjourned thank you to the city council central staff and thank you to the city clerk's office as well thank you [Music] [Music] you