ready to go where you are mr president thanks kerry good afternoon everyone my name is ed flynn and i am the council president in accordance with chapter 20 of acts 2021 modifying certain requirements of the open meeting law the boston city council will be conducting this meeting virtually viewers can watch the council meeting live on youtube by visiting boston.gov backslash city council dash tv roll call mr clerk will you please call the roll to ascertain the presence of a quorum please counselor arroyo president council of royal president councillor baker yeah councillor baker president councillor bark councillor braden yes council dragon prison council edwards present council edwards president councillor fernandez anderson council of flaherty here the council of flaherty president councillor flynn here councillor flynn president councillor lara president council ira president cancer louisiana present council louisiana president council of mejia here council of mejia president councillor murphy here council murphy president in council world mr president we have a quorum i have been informed by the clerk that a quorum is present [Music] at this time i'm honored to have monsignor liam bergen to give the opening prayer at today's boston city council meeting monsignor liam bergen has been a priest in residence at the gate of heaven in st bridget parish since 2012. he has studied and taught in italy for over 24 years at the pontifical irish college in rome as well in september 2014 he was named professor at boston college and has been a visiting professor there now for over three years as well monsignor bergen is a native of ireland and he is a great community member to our neighborhood here in south boston he's also the parish priests of both myself and councillor michael flaherty and we had monsignor liam here with us last year and we in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the great irish famine we also pray for the for the world hunger issue that had a devastating impact not only in ireland 150 years ago but throughout the world today so uh thank you mount senior liam for being with us and a great friend to so many across the city thank you good afternoon councillors i greet you from my office at boston college and yes i live at st bridget gate of heaven parishes in south boston where as you know it's home to president flynn and councillor flaherty february begins with the feast of saint bridget who is venerated as the patroness of ireland unlike patrick bridget was actually born in ireland in the middle of the sixth century and as of next year the irish government has decreed that the first monday of february will be a national holiday in honor of bridget there are not many holidays that honor women perhaps it's time to insert more on our calendars bridget was a daughter of a pagan father and a christian mother and legend records that she was born in a doorway on a threshold between two worlds rooted in an old secure pagan world and opening onto a new christian world in a sense she was born between winter and spring and that's why her feast day is celebrated on february 1st which is considered the first day of spring in ireland i know you won't get away with that in boston but believe me the daffodils are blooming in dublin may bridget's example help us to appreciate the rich tradition we inherit while remaining open to the myriad possibilities that the future presents and perhaps the greatest legend about brigid tells how she tried to get land from the local king to build a church and a hospice for the poor the king wasn't particularly generous and refused bridget's request go away woman stop annoying me he said but because she was a woman she would not take no for an answer and kept coming back with the request eventually the king agreed to give the piece of land that bridget could cover her cloak so bridget lay down her cloak and the women who were with her took a corner each and facing a different point of the compass they began to run and as they did the cloth or the cloak miraculously expanded until it covered a huge area my cloak is about to cover your whole province with the compassion of god and god's generosity to the poor bridget said to the king i will give you a decent plot of ground to build your church and the hospice for the poor the king replied and i will be more charitable in the future in a time of difficulty and need bridget's action heralded a different vision of reality where generosity overcame miserliness her compassion overcame indifference and where all women and men were covered with the expansive cloak of the generosity of god lord god send your blessing upon us upon our city upon this nation and upon our fragile world bless this chamber and the work undertaken here with saint bridget help us to respect our past and our traditions and yet be open to the promise that the future holds let the cloak of your compassion enfold us so that all might know your gracious mercy we make this prayer in god's name amen amen amen thank you monsignor lamb beautiful beautiful prayer we want to welcome you to stay on this meeting but we also know that you're very busy so we want to say thank you for opening the city council session with the prayer and i just want to let my colleagues know mount sinai liam went down to see my mother and father over the weekend to present them whole week communion because they weren't feeling well so i want to say thank you also monsignor liam for um your kindness and generosity not just to my parents but to so many seniors throughout the neighborhood as well thank you president thank you um now let us stand if you're able to for uh the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance and justice [Music] thank you uh the the first the first order of business um uh mr clerk um could you check um to see what other city council colleagues have come on i know councillor warrell is here councilworld and uh counselor fernandez anderson have joined us thank you mr clark um presentations we we don't have any um order order of business uh first order of business is the approval of the minutes now on to the first order of business which is the approval of the minute seeing and hearing no discussion on this matter the chair moved to approve the minute from the last meeting as presented since this is the virtual meeting we need to take a roll call vote so mr clerk can you please uh take a roll call vote for us yes mr president approval of uh the previous meeting minutes council arroyo yes council arroyo yes councilor baker aye councillor baker yes councillor bach councillor brayton yes councillor braden yes council edwards council edwards council of fernandez anderson yes good morning good morning council of fernandez anderson yes council of flaherty yes council of clarity yes councilor flynn yes councillor flynn yes council lara yes councillor yes cancer legion yes council is in yes councillor mejia yes mejia yes councillor murphy yes councillor murphy yes council of world yes that's a world yes counselor edwards yes my apologies sorry counselor edwards yes mr president um the minutes have been approved mr mr president may i request to be added to the role and have the opportunity to vote bark yes thank you thank you uh mr clerk the minutes of the last meeting and as approved communications from her honor the mayor none reports of public officers in others mr clerk please read docket zero two five a please doctor number zero two five eight communication was received from maureen joyce city auditor regarding the city of boston's cisco 2021 annual comprehensive financial report thank you mr clerk docket zero two five eight will be placed on file we're on two matters recently hurt for possible action mr clerk please read zero one five eight please document number zero one five eight message in order for your approval and order authorizing the issuance of refunding bonds in the principal mark come out not to exceed 200 million dollars the current conditions in the municipal bond market appears to be favorable for the city to potentially realize significant savings in debt service costs by refunding certain of its outstanding general obligation bonds thank you mr clerk at this time the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson the chair of the committee on ways and means council of fernandez anderson you have the flow uh thank you council clinton um in case it needs to be said this is not my maiden speech um you should all have the committee report in your inbox the committee on ways and means held a public hearing on monday february 7th and heard testimony from city ceo justin starrett and maureen grissol and richard d piano from treasury this order requests refunding authorization of 200 million dollars which will cover an upcoming anticipated refunding transaction and future potential transactions refunding transactions are transactions in which new bonds are issued at more favorable rates than previously issued bonds similar to the refinancing of an individual's home mortgage um as of an assessment one month ago the city has approximately 60 million dollars in bonds that could be refunded which would save the city 3.5 million in debt service over the next 10 years the refunding transactions will be credit neutral credit neutral and will not push the current debt out the council last granted refunding authorization in 2019 which has since run out granting additional authorization to uh total allows the city the flexibility to move quickly to take advantage of refunding transaction opportunities when market conditions are most favorable i recommend that this matter ought to pass thank you thank you um council fernandez anderson the chair of the committee on ways to mean seeks acceptance of the committed report in passage of docker eight mr can you please call the roll talking number zero one five eight council arroyo yes councillor roy yes counselor baker aye council baker yes councilor yes councillor block yes councillor braden yes council brain yes council edwards yes council edwards yes councillor fernandez anderson yes council fernandez anderson yes council of flaherty yes council flaherty yes councillor flynn yes councillor flynn yes council lara yes that's a lara yes cancer louisiana yes that's louisiana yes councillor mejia yes councillor mejia yes councillor murphy yes yes godzilla murphy yes council world yes council yes mr president doctor number 0158 eight has received a unanimous vote thank you mr clerk docket zero one five eight has passed in in councilor fernandez anderson is exactly right that was not her maiden speech but we are looking forward to it um in a couple weeks so just want to say thank you for that reminder council of fernandez anderson thank you um we're on to motions orders and resolutions mr cork please read docket zero two five nine please talking number zero two five nine councillor mejia and arroyo offer the following an ordinance amending city of boston code ordinances chapter 15 section 10 in establishing the boston fair chance act the chair recognizes council me here council me here you have the floor thank you mr president um and thank you to councilor arroyo and his staff for co-sponsoring this docket alongside of our office the city of boston employs nearly 20 000 people to do all sorts of jobs from parking attendants to ems workers to sewer workers and more there are a few things in our city that aren't made better by um the work of our city employees we saw during the last storm how essential our boston public works employees really are and for many of them this isn't just about collecting a paycheck their jobs aren't just what they do it's who they are over the past several months i have been in deep communication and meeting with these workers to learn about their experiences working for the city in each meeting we heard the same story workers of color some who have been city employees for nearly 30 years have been routinely denied opportunities to advance their careers to and obtain higher wages a quick look at the city's employment dashboard reveals this to be true according to the demographics dashboard as of january 2022 while white employees made up 48.9 percent of the total workforce they disproportionately represented 61.6 of employees making over 80 000 a year even in departments with large percentages of employees of color the top earners are predominantly white such as the department of public works where black and brown employees make up nearly half of the total of the workforce but only 10 percent of the top 10 earners we have heard from workers of color who have been tasked with training newer less experienced predominantly white employees for positions above them meaning that they are somehow experienced enough to train management but not experience enough to be management we have also heard from qualified city employees who sought to seek higher levels of employment only to be passed over for a buddy or a relative of a hiring manager in hearings we have asked questions to numerous departments as to why they do not have a more diverse workforce each time we ask this question we hear a similar response that the talent just isn't there after meeting with countless workers of color each of whom have demonstrated their expertise their passion and their commitment to the city it is clear that the talent is there but we're just not utilizing it this is why we are filing the box and fair chance act the fair trans act formally codifies a chief diversity officer position who will work with all city agencies to develop a detailed plan for hiring minority employees women employees lgbtq plus employees and employees with disabilities a detailed plan for promotions of set employees a detailed plan for improving workplace culture preventing harassment intimidation and bullying and a detailed plan for disseminating this information to covered employees the chief diversity officer will also take the steps to ensure that opportunities for nepotism or workforce discrimination are eliminated we have the capacity in boston to create a workforce that is representative of our communities and representative our commitment to economic empowerment i look forward to this conversation and to strengthening this ordinance alongside my colleagues and you know i just have to say in being in deep community with a lot of our city employees many of which were even afraid um to speak up uh it just goes to show the the volume of importance that this particular conversation has in this moment in time to ensure that we're moving um the needle when it comes to ensuring that all people have the opportunity to rise up thank you thank you council mejia the chair recognizes council royal council royal you have the flaw thank you mr president thank you mr president thank you council media uh who summarized this really well uh what i'll just add to this is i think it's incredibly incredibly important that as a city we ensure that residents who are qualified to get uh employed or promoted get a fair chance at doing so and my hope is that these changes help make a fairer and more just process when it comes to and frankly a more transparent process when it comes to how we decide they make uh hires and promotions in the city of boston uh and so i look forward to working on this with council uh and i'm i'm grateful to councilor mejia for for her work uh in this thank you thank you council royal is anyone else looking to speak on this matter if you are can you can you raise your hand i don't see anyone wishing to speak on this matter if you would like if you would like to add your name um would you please raise your hand at this time um mr clerk could you add uh counselor fernandez anderson council alara councillor murphy council of braden councillor legend council of rel council flaherty council bloc please add the chair i don't see i don't see anyone else's name um anyone else's hand docket zero two five nine will be referred to the committee on government operations um mr clerk um please read docket zero two six zero please talking number zero two six zero counselor flynno for the following resolution and support of h3115 enact ensuring equitable representation in the commonwealth council arroyo um would you please step in at this time yes thank you thank you mr clark uh the chair recognizes the lead sponsor counselor flame you have the floor thank you council royal this is a refile from last year in support of a state bill that would allow for greater representation in accuracy in data that the state collects this was a resolution that was sponsored by myself and then council wu it was passed unanimously in the council last year we know that different communities have different needs and that there are many different ethnic subgroups within a large racial group right now state agencies are not required to collect this data on race and ethnicity in demographic data often do not reflect the diversity within a racial group for example our aapi residents oftentimes don't have the option to fill out which ethnicity they are whether they are vietnamese chinese indian or other ethnic subgroup and that data gets slumped together under one racial group despite the diversity within the aapi community h.3115 it's sponsored by representative taki chan of quincy it would require state agencies to collect and publicize data for major ethnic groups within our asian pacific island black african-american latino white groups however the bill also clarifies that individuals are not required to fill out this information and mandate that people cannot be denied services for not choosing to participate any personal information is kept confidential and protected by state and federal privacy act data that discusses ethnic subgroups would allow us to better understand the different needs between ethnic groups and without that the needs of our most undeserved underserved groups are often invisible with the rise of hate crimes against aapi community due to the pandemic it is critical that we change policies and continue to render our minority communities we want to make sure that they're engaged they're active in their heard this bill would be a meaningful step in creating better visibility insight understanding into their lived experiences just as an example the in in chinatown the chinese community has the highest rate of asthma of any ethnic group in in new england really but there's a difference between the chinese community and other asian communities maybe in in the south end or in charlestown or the vietnamese community in boston so it's important for us to dig deeper and learn about the data i hope that we can pass this resolution today so that we can send our support for this bill up to the state house they're doing an excellent job trying to pass this and ensure that our communities are represented equally um thank you thank you councilor flynn would anyone else like to speak on that no hands uh would anyone like to add their name uh mr clerk please add counselor murphy please add counselor braden uh please add counselor edwards uh please add counselor baker please add counselor mejia please add counselor bach please add counselor clarity uh please add counselor louis jen please add counselor warrell uh and please add counselor lara and counselor fernandez anderson and please add my name as well uh counselor flynn uh you're asking for a suspension and pass right yes that's correct council uh thank you uh mr clerk uh can we uh seeing no objection uh mr claire can we please do a roll call vote on the suspension and passage of docket zero two six zero docker number zero two six zero councilor arroyo yes councillor roy yes councillor baker aye not baker yes councillor bark aye council block yes council braden yes council brayton yes council edwards yes council edwards yes councillor fernandez anderson yes council fernandez anderson yes council flaherty yes also flaherty yes councillor flynn yes councillor flynn yes council lara yes council lara yes council louisiana murphy yes councillor murphy yes and council world yes that's the world yes uh docking number zero two six zero has received a unanimous vote and it is an email yeah thank you mark uh exactly uh president flynn thank you council arroyo mr clerk can you please read docket zero two six one target number zero two six one councilor flaherty offered the following order for a hearing to discuss declining enrollment at boston public schools miss council flaherty could i stop just for a second i i see councillor edwards has her hand raised in uh council edwards um do you have a question i apologize for coming out of order i was in the in the elevator when there was a sign on for the previous docket uh with council sponsored by councillors mejia and arroyo and i would just like my name added to that that's all thank you council edwards uh mr kirk can you please that counselor edwards yes um council of fire do you have the flaw thank you mr president if there's no objection i'd like to add counselor murphy as an original co-sponsor to docket0261 [Music] see i'm seeing no objection please add council murphy mr clark thank you mr president uh this hearing order is a refile from september 2020 at the original filing i talked about how our boston public schools have been through an enormous amount of upheaval change and uncertainty as a result of covert 19. here we are a little over a year later and bps has gone through even more changes and unfortunately uh more instability as a result decline in student enrollment and bps accelerated during the pandemic and unfortunately hasn't stopped um and it's declined another four percent this school year enrollment uh is down across all races and ethnicities with black and brown student enrollments experiencing the most severe decline in 2016 build bps projected the k2 to k12 enrollment would increase by 1.8 by 21 2021 2022 uh school year and instead the enrollment has actually decreased by 14 since 2016 again decreased by 14 since 2016. while bps has taken steps to support uh the schools while uh with declining enrollment they've provided the 18.5 million on top of the existing soft landing funding as well as the foundation for quality in fiscal year 2022 budget the decline in enrollment is still troubling for a variety of reasons uh chief of which is that the weighted student formula helps determine funding levels for our schools and the declining enrollment may have will have a detrimental effect on our funding levels for schools this year so i i want to ensure that we as a city are being proactive about identifying key factors that are driving enrollment decline implementing changes that will help address these factors and discussing how the declines in enrollment will impact capital plans uh made through build bps many people including all my colleagues here have been ringing the alarm about covert 19 exacerbating the achievement gap in our schools and i'm concerned that if this trend continues we will end up with an even deeper education divide with families that can afford private school tuition and will pull their kids out of the district system and on one side and families that cannot and will continue to be assigned to underperforming a chronically underperforming school so all of our students uh deserve access to high quality public education in boston and for that reason i'm looking forward to an expedited hearing to discuss this issue and through the chair obviously recognize the co-sponsor and uh and recognize that we've had a frontline teacher that is now a colleague of ours that has tremendous experience in the space and uh and has seen things firsthand that i'm sure she'll she can opine about but i look forward to an expedited hearing and appreciate everyone's time and attention and encourage folks to sign on and get involved thank you thank you thank you council flaherty the chair recognizes councillor murphy council america you have thank you and thank you council of flaherty and a lot of what you've already said but we know bps enrollment has been on a decline and we have 4 311 less students the last time they checked so this rapid decline is going to have a drastic effect on our budget we know this is the time in january when principals are submitting their school budgets for staffing and if we're looking at almost you know 4 500 students that's lots of teachers where they're going to have to be closing classrooms where we already started the year with 700 positions vacant in bps so we already have a staffing crisis throughout colburn right now and the weighted student funding the dollars follow the students so if some school's enrollment could be down a lot more than others that we're going to have to be looking at closing schools or you know laying off teachers so looking forward to this work and thank you my counselor flaherty for having me join this on this with you thank you thank you council murphy would any other council like to speak on this matter if you would could you please raise your hand um the chair recognizes council of braden council great and you have the floor thank you mr chairman german and thank you to councillor flaherty and councillor murphy for sponsoring this this is a really really challenging and complex issue falling enrollment has many many factors inward migration outward migration the just the challenges of covid have exacerbated everything that came before um i am a very strong believer that all boston public schools are the best and could be the best in the country um i think sometimes we do a very poor job of holding up their incredible achievements and and excellence when we see it um and while at the same time addressing some of the uh the um the other more challenging issues it's not helpful that we get a continuous stream of bad press and we don't get some balance in in recognizing all the wonderful things that our teachers and our families and our students are doing every day so i really value this opportunity to do a deep deep dive into looking at this issue and see if we can reverse the trends so thank you so much and uh please sign me on thank you thank you council braden please um yeah council braden's name would anyone else like to speak on this matter i will speak very briefly i i worked on uh i believe with council flaherty as well on getting our hvac systems in our schools uh fixed updated uh making sure our students can learn in a healthy environment um where the heat is on in the in the summer time in the spring and fall the ac is working as well um so council flaherty i guess to the to you um will we also be discussing um the infrastructure of some of these schools that do need some support in terms of infrastructure updates and um investments yes mr president we will bring the bp build bps folks in as well because that's going to be a factor here uh if these trends continue with declining enrollment then clearly decisions will be made as to whether or not schools need to be closed and or what they call mothballed and whether or not those much needed and long overdue repairs they also potentially could be put on hold as well so that will be mr president part and parcel of this discussion yeah thank you council flaherty that's that's important thank you very much um would anyone like to add their name to to this i see council at baker please have council baker please that council of royal please add council bach councillor mejia council morale um oh counselor legend counselor edwards council lara councillor fernandez anderson um dark at zero we mentioned council edwards um council 0261 will be referred to the committee on education uh mr clark will you please read docket zero two six two please document number zero two six two counselor flaherty offer the following order for a hearing to discuss offering property tax abatements to property owners in the new market area the chair recognizes council of flaherty council flaherty you of the fall thank you mr president as everybody on this body knows particularly the district councils that have been covering this the residents and business owners in the new market in mass and cass area have experienced deteriorating and at times horrific conditions over the last several years that includes decline in public safety decline in public health overall cleanliness in general decrease in their quality of life that are not necessarily reflected in uh property valuations uh in this area as an at-large council i've done numerous walk-throughs with residents and business owners and advocates along with neighborhood groups city department leaders and despite those efforts to increase city services and to better coordinate efforts across departments to meet the increased need in the area and that includes expedited needle clean up sidewalk cleaning mental health outreach and street workers etc we've still fallen short on our standards so much so that the new market businesses have created a new market bid and are going around collecting fees from their members to finance supplemental services above and beyond uh what the city has been providing uh property taxes as folks know uh make up nearly 75 percent of our revenues um so again uh you know suggesting an abatement for property taxes is not something that i take uh that i do sort of lightly as a fiscal steward of the city that said i think this is a very unique and special case and i feel that in recognition of our shortcomings to provide an adequate level of city services to to the homeowners and to the business owners is in the area that we should explore the idea of offering a property tax abatement uh generally speaking the driving idea behind this hearing order is the notion that taxpayers do deserve a high level of basic city services and to some degree i think we've dropped the ball here and so looking forward to an expedited hearing bring in the stakeholders uh let's talk about uh what area it would encompass and whether or not it makes sense for the city uh to offer them something even while um the the bid is ramping up maybe that's something that uh we can offer them in in addition to we're going to be going uh at those uh businesses to uh to increase their contribution and or to make uh payments to the bid maybe we can offer them something in the short term that takes a little bit of the bite out of uh getting the bid going so uh and again i know that there are folks here uh our colleague council bake has done a lot of great work um council flynn on the bid uh working with those folks so this would sort of be i guess a compliment to that that if we can provide an abatement to uh to the residents the homeowners and to the business owners over there um you know it might take a little bit out of uh their feeling that uh we the city have abandoned them over the last few years as conditions continue to deteriorate in the area and look forward again and feel free to hear some comments and welcome folks to sign on and thank you council of flaherty would any other council like to speak on this issue if you do can you please raise your hand i say council arroyo um the chair recognizes council arroyo you have the flaw thank you uh president flynn i just have a question through the chair to the maker uh would this apply to the residential folks in the area as well for sort of the same similar reasoning or is this just for the business folks uh and and why the distinction or difference thank you uh for the question and as referenced in my comments uh the focus will be on uh the homeowners the residents that are there uh that sort of priority number one uh the residents and then obviously the businesses uh both of them combined uh equally and i've done the walkthroughs i'm sure you have as well as our other colleagues up and down all those neighborhood streets uh and listening to the talk about having to clean out the needles and having their cars broken into and having people urinating and defecating and literally having sex out in front of their house and their window all of it trash graffiti and they continued to to call us they continued to reach out to the city to public works to everyone that would listen um and again they felt that it fell on deffy as just given the complexity of the situation and all the issues that were involved with it and trying to deal with it in a in both balancing sort of the public safety and the public health needs uh and sometimes they were on the same page sometimes they weren't so the the home owners the residents and some of them some of the the city's highest taxpayers are in uh are in some of these properties so so yes the question is it will be for both thank you for that clarification uh please add my name uh presidency yeah please add council royal's name would anyone else like to speak on this matter before we go to um to to others um council braden your hand is raised beg your pardon that's my omission i forgot to lower my hand thank you okay okay counselor edwards you have your hand raised okay if um if you would like to add your name um please please raise your hand please add counselor murphy councillor baker council morale council mejia councillor edwards councillor fernandez anderson councillor bogg council council braden please add the chair council of legend docket zero two six two will be referred to the committee on ways and means mr couric please read docket zero two six three please dr number zero two six three counselor baker and murphy offered the following order for a hearing to address the public health declaration of 2020. thank you thank you mr clerk but she recognizes council baker council baker you of the floor thank you mr president for um for allowing me the floor um i filed this hearing because we've been in a state in emergency and this isn't a secret to anybody we've been a state and state of emergency for over two years um and along with that state of emergency came um just recently came with the suspension of collection collective bargaining rights um came with the suspension of business rights and individual rights in my opinion um there's been no discussion with the boston public health board if we look at the last couple of months they haven't even met the administration says that this is based on um you know discussions with public health health officials maybe it is we don't know previous administration going back to the wallace administration when this first started happening we had i think six months worth of daily meetings so we knew what the matrix were we knew what five percent positivity rate meant we knew what hospital bed surges where we knew and were totally informed on what we're doing and why we're doing what we're doing um this the way that this was rolled out in a in a press conference where we got literally a half an hour heads up on it looked more like a campaign rally than it did a public health um emergency declaration um cities and towns all around all around boston are dropping their mandates and one thing one thing that's interesting that's happening they're dropping those mandates based on votes from either selectmen or councils or their or their boards of health um just this morning jesse lifted will lift at the end of this month the mass mandate for schools um and again this is just a plea to give people an opportunity to to ask what is going on here it looks political to me it doesn't look like we're we're really paying attention to to business needs to what what people are are are saying about their situations um and i want to make one more point is is that when this when this hearing happens i plan to have this in person so people come in and have their voices heard when when the declaration was first announced in march 2020 there's been 40 40 filings for covert response from the city this latest declaration was two months ago we haven't heard anything from the city council nothing at all we haven't been in we haven't we haven't been kept in the loop i mean the the new city councils they're totally in the dark and i don't mean that i don't mean that in a bad way i mean that in a in a transparency and accountability way we need to hold people accountable for their decisions that are being made so we've made decisions based on council clarity just talked about what's going on down at mass and cass and we've made decisions on on how we're housing homeless now through this declaration we've made decisions where we've taken where we we totally ignore agreements that we have with our collect with our with our our unions we've made decisions to show to show ids at at um at restaurants i mean god forbid if we have a show to show to an id when we're voting what would people do what would most of this council do if we if we ask for that but yet going into vote going into a restaurant we need to show our id's i think that we need to really get serious about this and have the discussions and if we don't want if this administration does not want this hearing next week does not want to discuss this then drop drop the mandates that would be my suggestion if we're dropping the mandates by monday or tuesday then we don't have to have this discussion if we're going to if we're going to abide by collective bargaining agreements if we're going to drop the vax passport to get in to go eat and and mind you none of the other surrounding communities have this so we're putting our our boston businesses at a disadvantage talking constantly about how we're going to get more money into the pockets of the businesses drop this mandate and then and they will have more money in their in their pockets um thank you mr chair for allowing me to speak again this this my plan is to have this hearing in person and with that i'd like to turn it over to my co-sponsor thank you thank you thank you council baker the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy you have the floor thank you president flynn and thank you councilor baker so as we all know governor baker declared a state of emergency back on march 10 2020 took us out of the state of emergency on june 15 2021 and we as a city did stay in that emergency based on our rates and our concerns that the administration had in june we had a big surge after the holiday we knew omicron was coming but because now we have a much higher percentage of our residents vaccinated we didn't have as many people getting sick in january 10th we did see the biggest spike where we had 3729 new cases on february 8th of just the other day we had 336 new cases so if you look at the matrix and the data we are seeing a huge drop in the cases and also looking at the wastewater numbers are going down so we're definitely not just maybe trending towards a safer place but we're definitely in it going into a good place if we're not there already as we've seen in the new salem worcester other surrounding towns and cities are meeting with their border health and their selectmen and their counselors in their voting and looking at the data together my question and hope to get answered out of this is when will we move out of a state of emergency and into a state of recovery also i'm wondering does our board of health meet regularly and vote on these issues i i did see that there are members and that they have had some meetings but i'm not sure if they're voting and sharing that out with us so also um are all of the seats because i know that the boston public health commission board office was created by the health act of 95 1995 and of the six members two shelby neighborhood health center directors and others can be on the other one is filled by the mayor so wondering if all of our appointed seats are filled right now especially in the middle of a public health crisis in a state of emergency where all of these big decisions are being made also as members of the council i speak for myself want to make sure that we're part of those conversations and able to weigh in and have this real-time data if anyone clicks on the health commission website the dashboard hasn't been updated since september 30th 2021 also the um yeah that was the last week ending and if you click on covid cases and you scroll through it will give you the 502 bad gateway error so it's not opening to link so we can't really get updated information [Music] when it comes to metrics and dashboard data so would really like to have you know transparency and reporting that is in real time because if you look at the numbers if we went from 3729 new cases four weeks ago to 336 today things are changing rapidly it could be even lower today right so things are changing so quickly that we really need access to not just us as a council even though i think it's important we have it but um the public should have access to that real-time data so i'm hoping that this hearing will address some of the issues that i have and look forward to working with the public health commission the administration and my colleagues on this so thank you very much thank you councillor murphy i know would any other council's councils like to speak on this please raise your hand um i do know councillor edwards has a hand up uh that the chair recognizes council edward you have the flaw thank you very much i want to thank councillor baker and councillor murphy for your leadership on this i think this is consistent with a lot of conversations we've had as the council and this is when the council is doing its top the best it's asking the right questions it's inviting people to come to the table and i really see this for as what it is this is not a confrontational invitation this is one for us to come together to see how we're going to get through this moment and that's why it's important that we have all the stakeholders here what we want is consistent real data and consistent real measurements and i do want to actually commend the administration for giving some recent amendments or excuse me data um marks and goals in order for us to remove the vaccine and mandate i think that we'd like to consider continue to have that conversation and make very clear to people that this is something i personally am interested in and having more questions answered and more transparency about this particular moment we do this all the time when it comes to race when it comes to gender when it comes to holding our city accountable for the discriminatory act that's taken for years we do this now in our housing our housing policy with affh we hold the mirror up we ask the difficult questions and we demand that the city rise to the occasion this is exactly part of that but i want to make sure part of this conversation is we when we're holding this up this isn't what went wrong this is also in what's going right the fact the matter is majority vast majority into the 90s um of city workers are getting vaccinated i think that has a lot to do with the vaccine mandate i think great deal the fact that our rates are going down i don't want that disconnect to be um ignored could it be that because we are doing these things that the rates of cobit and uh is going down i i i don't want it to be seen as two different worlds or two different disconnects there could be a causal effect that actually having these mandates is helpful and healthy for the city of boston i want that question answered and i want to see how we can continue to go forward but i don't think we should be setting this ourselves up to figure out how we are done with this i think we're going to be living with this for the rest of our lives i think we're going to be living with a pandemic and the question is what infrastructure what culture um what school system are we going to create from this and the lessons that we need to learn to make sure that we don't turn on each other every single time the government has to act when there's a potential pandemic or emergency i'm really disheartened by how how cruel people have been to each other because they disagree about a mask i am disheartened by how this moment has torn us apart and i don't want this hearing to be part of that tearing us apart i also while i appreciate that the hearing may be in person i do i'm pushing and i hope that there's a hybrid option that some people can participate at least if we're having it in the chamber they can participate from home on their screens one because i think that's part of the infrastructure and the new culture that we're going to have at the city of boston where we're going to have hearings that are hybrid models uh we have legislation pushing for that uh where we will have essentially people participating in hearings so i think that's part of just continuing that it's the safer option for some people who really are concerned about uh contracting this disease uh and you know what because of testing there are some people who would have may have covered that day and don't want to expose other people even though they may ac may be asymptomatic so i would encourage the the maker and the the hearing holder to have a hybrid model at the very least i would encourage the maker and the hearing holder if this if this hearing is going to be here in the chambers to make sure that the people who are attending know that they have to wear masks and that if they're and then to set the rules and the culture up front at the beginning of the hearing that this is going to be a respectful conversation i'm not going to lie i'm concerned that people are saying this is a rally moment to um scream about their frustrations and as you've started this conversation counselors baker and murphy i look to you and your leadership to make sure this conversation is respectful kind and actually brings us together thank you thank you council edwards um at this time the chair recognizes council flaherty council fiery over the floor thank you mr president would like to expand on the previous speaker we are the legislative branch of city government uh and we should not be abdicating our responsibility uh in this space uh anything pertaining to public health public safety public schools public transportation small local businesses that's our purview that's what we do we were elected by the people of boston we don't have to ask to be put into the game we're in the game and um in these decisions however big or however small um deserve uh to come before this body uh and particularly for the new members this is where the rubber meets the road uh and new members what what better training than to be to be put right into the into the mix here um and to be part of uh this process so um i would i would uh concur with the three previous speakers clearly that um we have a role to play here as the legislative branch of city government the people of boston particularly i'm elected city-wide we have district councillors as well folks in your district people across the city have elected you they've entrusted you to be at the table to be making the decisions for them we're not at the table making any of these decisions the decisions are being made uh and not within consultation of the boston city council that's not how the charter works uh so any self-respecting member of this body who wants to be in the game and who wants to get involved and have some say over these decisions i would suggest uh not only uh sign on but participate at the hearing uh please add my name mr president yes uh please add council flaherty's name would anyone else like to speak on this matter uh please raise your hand um i will speak very briefly on this matter um in january twenty 20 yeah january 2020. um we actually had the first public meeting in the country at the josiah quincy school that we organized i helped organize it with chief marty martinez and this is really before anyone knew anything about about covert covert 19 and we had a an excellent meeting at the school many from the chinese community many from the um from the aapi community medical professionals dr lowe nancy lowe was there so this this council has a history of of being on the forefront of issues but let me let me just say the the most meaningful comment that night of the meeting is we were talking about the impact covet will have even though it really hadn't hadn't arrived yet into boston but there was a young student i believe she was either at boston latin or boston latin academy and she was taking the train on the i believe she's on the orange line and she told us during the meeting when she got on the train she was a young asian student and when she got on the train um the train emptied up emptied out when she walked on because they associated her with with covert 19. um so it's heaven so this coven 19 this pandemic has had a devastating impact on everybody but also especially the aapi community we've seen hate crimes we've seen anti-asian discrimination and violence but what this city in this country i hope will do is continue to work together listen to each other be respectful and um understand each other and you know it's about listening and working together and treating each other with respect and dignity so i just want to highlight those brief comments if anyone else would like to speak on the matter or or raise your hand if you would like to add your name please counselor counsel edwards is already called in in in the chair um docket zero two six three will be referred to the committee on public health homelessness and recovery mr clerk please read docket zero two six four please number zero two six four councillors mejia and flynn offer the following order that the appropriate committee the boston city council hold a working session to review applications for the commission on black men and boys council arroyo um will you please take over at this time thank you uh mr clerk the chair recognized the lead sponsor councilman thank you to the chair and thank you to council president flynn for working with our office so quickly to get this order um presented to the council today in september of 2021 the city council passed an ordinance establishing a commission on black men and boys since then we have been working with the administration uh and with advocates to ensure that the commission is set up for success in the spirit of transparency and as the chair of the committee on government accountability and transparency and account and accessibility we have an opportunity to play a role in who is going to serve this commission the mayor's office reached out to us and asked if the council could submit 14 names of which seven i will be chosen to serve on the commission we then partnered with um councillor uh president flynn and councillor rorell to design an application process in the hopes of getting a wide variety of people interested in applying in the commission starting today people interested in applying can go to boston dot gov slash join dash the dash commission dash on dash black dash men dash and dash boys and submit an application to be on the council's 14 um nominees our our office will send out a link to the application to each of your offices following the meeting applications will be open from today february 9th through february 23rd applicants will be asked to share their professional and personal interests in regards to uplifting black men and and voices once we receive our applications we will hold a working session so that we can come to a consensus on our nominations i strongly encourage my council colleagues to share the application to as many interested individuals and groups as possible we have an obligation to ensure that our commission on black men and boys represents the diverse lived experience and world views so that it is truly a commission for all black men and boys i want to again thank president flynn and his office for their quick turnaround and authorizing this process and i also want to thank council burrell and his team for playing a vital role in ensuring that the application process meets this moment and of course i want to show my appreciation and deep gratitude for kerry jordan for working to get our application up and running this has been a team process from the beginning to the end and we are setting the tone for how we hope the commission will operate i look forward to this process and working alongside each of you thank you thank you councillor mejia uh the chair recognizes the second original co-sponsor counselor flynn you have before thank you council royal um i want to say thank you to council royal but also um councilman here for your work on this important um on this important subject i also want to say thank you to council council brian morrell for his important work as well his leadership council me his leadership um as council mejia mentioned the city council will be able to nominate candidates to be on the commission of on black men and boys so with this order we are setting up a process to review applications to beyond to be on the commission to get feedback from our colleagues i also want to say thank you to mayor wu and her administration um this will be similar to the process that council of campbell had for nominations to the civilian review board i look forward to working with everyone on the nomination process thank you thank you counselor flynn would anyone else like to speak on this matter seeing no one uh would would anyone like to add their names to the docket please add counselor flaherty please add counselor bach please add council warrell please add counselor murphy please add counselor braden please add counselor baker please add my name please add counselor fernandez anderson please add counselor lara and please counselor uh louis jen uh did i miss anyone else no okay uh and with that uh docket number zero two six four will be assigned to the committee on civil rights and immigrant advancements uh back to you mr president thank you council royal uh mr couric will you please read dark at zero two six five lucky number zero two six five councilor baker offered the following in order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend a grant funded through the corona virus state and local fiscal recovery from uh fund cl frf in the treasury of the united states established by section 91 9901 of the american rescue plan act of 2021 arpa awarded by the united states department of the treasury thank you thank you mr clerk the the chair recognizes council baker council baker you have the floor thank you mr chair just just to be clear this is an ask for 10 million dollars i filed this loan order looking for a way to support the boys and girls boys and girls club of dorchester who in collaboration with the martin richards foundation are proposing a once-in-a-lifetime once in a generation opportunity to transform apostle land on columbia point into a vibrant youth development facility a field house designed to holistically meet the ever-evolving needs of boston's 50 000 children and teens living in a in a three-mile radius including the thousand boston public school students who attend the abutting denver and mccormick schools using the af arp monies as received the arp money thus far has come down from the mayor the pathway has come down from the mayor asking us for approvals i would like to change that and and have an ask from a district city councilor and have it go up again it doesn't necessarily need to be asked uh opera money but this is a an official asked for 10 million to go towards this field house so the city would um signal to the state because the state has already made commitments towards this field house the boys and girls club of dorchester currently operates three clubhouses servicing servicing a culturally and ethnically diverse range of children from eight from newborns to 18. i believe i believe if we can help with some funding we can create a community that can stay on the peninsula from a young age through college at umass and potentially right into a job as well as receive the support they need this would be a hub school model where children and adults alike have a safe place from before before school through dinner time this will also be a facility that will be fully accessible and inclusive to all and a great benefit to the school committee community on on columbia point we have an amazing opportunity here to use the funds to be able to point to a tangible structure that would be built successfully in this time of of opera money um and again to re to to restate what i've been stating since the beginning when we were talking about all the opera money my concern is that if we're not in line with projects to to build with the the money coming down from the feds we're going to look back in five years and and and look at a whole lot of debt coming down on the federal government and have no assets no assets that we've actually built infrastructure meaning failed houses meaning housing meaning libraries meaning parks we need to be building things with money and um yes thank you building building things with this money so we'll be able to point to things that we've able then able to build with this money from the feds again this is more of a um a waste so i can have my colleagues in a hearing and view this structure and and view what the whole plan is over here on columbia point it's part of a lot of minds that are that are that are together on the point talking about education that will start at k zero and end in at umass and also job opportunities that will happen with the new development in the next five to ten years also thank you mr president thank you council baker um is would any other councilors like to speak on this matter if you would would you please raise your hand the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy of the floor yeah um thank you councillor baker and just wanted to quickly say that i do know personally the boys and girls club of dorchester who has helped so many families and children and continue to and the mra foundation and them coming together and really working on this and working hard to raise most of the funds themselves this support from us would just really make the difference and also agree what council baker said that this once in a generation lifetime money coming from the federal government housing and all of these other issues are very important but if we can invest and make sure we're investing in lasting infrastructure that our grandchildren can look back and see you know that it's not things that we're not going to even remember what we put into because this will be generation thousands of children benefiting from this and with love like baker said counselor baker said that when we have this hearing having mr8 and the boys and girls club come to us as the council and really share with us the work they've been doing and their vision for this amazing clubhouse and you know it's an empty parking lot anyone who's been in that area or have you lived in dorchester like myself for the last decades if you drive down that street it's been an empty parking lot forever right behind bc high which is always updating their football field and their soccer field and umass boston is on the other side of it so and knowing that 100 dedicated to making sure that the students the staff at the mccormick denver which is the public school there which had recently got you know in receivership has come out of receivership struggling to you know be successful it would be a really great support for the students and staff there and they have openly and made sure they're committed to be having the school use that as a gym in that clubhouse all day during the school day is something that really mattered to me and when i knew they were committed to that that really makes a difference so thank you um council baker for bringing this up and i hope also that other district counselors who know their neighborhoods best um come forward to this council with their ideas of what they know that they need in their neighborhoods that we can use this money for that's going to help our and i think it ties closely um into the order i filed last week about mental health and making sure that we have spaces safe spaces that are programmed in this wonderful way for our students for our children for our you know our young adults so thank you thank you council murphy i know councillor flaherty has his hand up but let me go to the original co-sponsor next uh council baker sorry mr president i meant to i meant to ask to suspend rule 12 and add council council murphy on that believe it's rule 12 as an original co-sponsor mr kirk can we please add uh council murphy as an original co-sponsor yes um thank you thank you mr clerk uh the chair recognizes council of flaherty thank you mr president uh great organization uh great programming and great results please add my name thank you council flaherty please add council flaherty's name councillor bark has our hand up council block you over the floor thank you so much mr president um i just wanted to say and this really follows up on a comment that counselor murphy just made um that you know just to all counselors that i'm definitely as the chair of the covert recovery committee happy to hold hearings in order to create a public forum for counselors to present ideas they have about arpa funds and so i would just say and although councillor baker framed this one in the form of an appropriation order it would also be fine if somebody writes something more informal it's sort of a hearing order normally just as long as it's clear that you're expressing an interest in the arpa dollar conversation because i know that we talked about you know we have a hearing that we're currently scheduling right now for talking about the arc of dollars more holistically and i think that holistic conversation is really important but i just want to stress as the chair that um that i'm very happy to create a forum for folks to raise ideas they have because as has been discussed obviously we're the legislative body of the city and um and i do see that as the role of the committee chair to create that space i wanted to underscore that point for everyone thank you mr president thank you council block for those comments would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to add their name uh please raise your hand if you'd like to have your name um please add councillor braden please add the chair talk at 0-2-6-3 will be referred to the committee on boston's covet 19 recovery uh personnel we're off onto personnel orders of which we have none late files i am informed by the clerk that there are zero raid file matters green sheets if any council would like to remove the matter from the green sheets you may do so at this time we're moving on to the consent agenda i have been informed by the clerk that that there are zero additions to the consent consent agenda the chair moves for adoption of the consent agenda as presented mr claire can you please do a roll call counselor arroyo yes yes councillor baker yes councillor baker yes councillor bach yes councillor buck yes councillor braden yes councillor braden yes council edwards counselor fernandez anderson council of flaherty yes council flaherty yes councillor flynn yes councillor flynn yes consolara yes councilor yes council louisiana yes that's louisiana yes councillor mejia yes that's let me hear yes counselor murphy yes councilor murphy yes councilworld yes councilworld yes council edwards council of fernandez anderson yes council fernandez anderson yes mr president the consent agenda has been approved thank you mr clerk um the consent deduction has been adopted announcements um do any city councillors have any announcements at this time if you do please raise your hand memorials today we will adjourn our meeting in memory of the following individuals for councillor mark john madigan for councillor braden robert kiley for councillor mejia dolores richardson lauren sampson for councillor warrell and the entire council state representative ray jordan alberto miranda perez the father of representative liz miranda a moment of silence please the chair moves that when the council adjourns today it does so in memory of the mentioned individuals and it is now scheduled to meet again in the council chamber in person on wednesday february 16th at 12 noon all in favor of adjournment please say aye hi hi the counselor is adjourned uh thank you mr clerk thank you council college thank you city council central staff thank you president flynn thanks everyone thank you