[Music] [Music] good afternoon everyone good afternoon everyone my name is ed flynn and i'm the council president viewers can watch the council meeting live on youtube by visiting boston.gov city council dash tv i'd like to ask my colleagues in those attendance to please silence their cell phones in electronic devices please also be respectful and do not disrupt the meeting while you are here if you are disruptive you will be asked to leave and if you fail to comply you will be escorted out please also note that according to city council rules there are no signs allowed in the chamber mr clerk will you please call the role to ascertain the presence of a quorum police councilor edwards council of fernandez anderson council of clarity councillor flynn here council lara councillor louisian councillor mejia councillor murphy and council of warrell thank you i have been informed by the clerk that a quorum is present the introduction of the clergy this week's clergy is passed to stephen donahue he's invited by city council frank baker if you will both come to the podium at this time thank you mr president uh we won't be as fiery this week as we were last week so just so people know pastor stephen donahue has been a pastor of christ community church from the ponca for 20 years pastor donahue has been serving the dorchester community by making the building available to aa groups on friday and saturday nights teaching the 12-step program weekly and hosting bible study he worked with the boston police on the home front initiative a national award-winning collaborative between bpd school police unit and the youth violence strike force and faith-based organizations pastor donahue is looking forward to a further outreach by connecting with the city of boston again especially the youth with that pastor donahue thank you for coming out today and then mike is yours let's pray father i just come to you for wisdom and understanding for this council we lift them up father for strength and wisdom and lord only you can do it help them not to lean on their own understanding in all their ways acknowledge you and you will direct the path now again father i just lift them up for strength and wisdom and we'll give you the glory and honor for what you're about to do what you have done and well what you will do in jesus name amen pastor and council banker please lead us in the pledge of allegiance and please rise if you're able to i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice all right thank you pastor donahue and thank you councillor baker as well we're going on to the approval of the minutes now on to the first order of business which is the approval of the minutes seen in hearing no discussion on them out of the chair moves to approve the minutes from the last meeting as presented all those in favor of approving the minutes from the last meeting say aye aye all opposed saying the eyes have it thank you the meeting the meeting minutes of the last meeting stand as approved communication from her honor the mayor mr clerk please read zero four three two please doctor number zero four three two message in order for your approval a home rule petition to the general court entitled petition for a special law relative to enact an act relative to b thank you doctor zero four three two will be referred to the committee on government operations mr clerk please read talk at zero four three freight docket number zero four three three message and order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expand the amount of 350 thousand dollars in the form of a grant from the massachusetts diesel emissions reduction act grant the der grant awarded by the massachusetts department of environmental protection under a cooperative agreement with the united states environmental protective protection agency the purpose of the der grant is to reduce diesel emissions from the transportation sector the funds will be used to purchase and deploy fuel-efficient school buses as part of the boston public school fleet thank you docket 0-4-3-3 we'll be referring to the committee on environmental justice resiliency in parks mr clerk please read docket zero four three four document number zero four three four message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of christopher cook as a member of the boston water sewer commission for a term expiring march 30th 2026. thank you docket zero four three four will be referred to the committee on city services innovation technology reports of committee mr clerk please read docket zero three one four dota number zero three one four the committee on planning development and transportation to which was referred on march 2nd 2022 docket number zero three one four message and order for your approval in order for a short-term extension of nine of the 14 remaining urban renewal plans in boston submit a report recommending the order ought to pass in a new draft thank you the chair recognizes council baker chair of the committee on planning development and transportation council baker you have the floor thank you mr president i'm going to read this this committee report if people just stick with me here the committee on planning and development and transportation was referred the following docket for the consideration docker zero one three four an order beginning the process of sun setting urban renewals in the city of boston until december 31st that's actually wrong it's supposed to be march 30 this is the original docket okay this matter was sponsored by mayor michelle will win first committee on march 2nd 2022 committee held a hearing on tuesday march 22 2022 testimony was presented by boston redevelopment authority officials included director of real estate devon cork urban renewal manager chris spreen chief of staff heather capisano and general counsel eileen brophy the summary is in 2016 the boston redevelopment authority doing business as a bpda requested approval for 10-year extension for the 14 active renewal plans that were set to expire on april thirtieth two thousand sixteen the bpda urged the city council to pass this order that will protect the community development tools that will continue to cultivate vibrant neighborhoods around the city after extensive deliberations around the use of eminent domain power trust and equity issues in the lack of accountability and access to the bpda in the past in the past and procedural changes moving forward the city council agreed to grant the approval of a six-year extension of the fourteen urban renewal planned areas which is set to expire april twenty second twenty twenty two this request was subsequently approved by the department of housing and urban development in 2016. devon cork gave a historical look back on the negative impacts of urban renewal tools used in the past that caused irreparable harm to neighborhoods across the city particularly the west end and other parts of the city he explained that the bpda is operating in a new era of transparency and accountability he explained that the bpda's position is that authorization of this order will allow them to continue important work and spur economic development in partnership with public and private investments community stakeholders in in working with the boston city council that is focused on the future development that addresses equity displacement and building affordable housing for the residents of boston he highlighted that the administration is looking at development from the lens of of equity and inclusion community and community development mr clerk highlighted that by using these renewal tools the bpda has effectuated great change in the city's central business district and neighborhoods created new opportunities for affordable housing to solidify units for low and moderate income residents and build new parks and public facilities and more mr clerk explained that since 2016 since the 2016 extension bpda in the spirit of transparency and account accountability has facilitated a community engagement process that has gotten input on the future of urban renewal and has made relevant urban renewal documents accessible to the public through zoning viewer administration officials testified that the bpda reviewed the program and looked at the ongoing use of the urban renewal tools within the existing planned area to determine the future of bpda's urban renewal powers in the city of boston and to begin the process of sun setting urban renewal the bpda is seeking approval for a short-term extension of the nut extension of nine of the 14 remaining plans in the boston in boston that are set to expire december 31st 2022 bpda officials noted that they plan immediately to sunset five of the 14 urban renewal plans on april 22 2022 as the original intent and purpose of these plans have fulfilled mr quirk said that they intend to return to the council with a plan moving forward that requires further extension of some of the plans in order to wrap up ongoing community-centered efforts bpda officials further noted that the importance of the use of urban renewal tools in recent decades which has resulted in the creation and preservation of nearly 10 000 units of affordable housing creation and protection of open space provided new opportunities for many boston residents enabled public-private partnerships and increased police planning initiatives mr breen presented a powerpoint explaining bpda's analysis and review process that helped to determine the reasons to allow the five urban renewal areas to sunset on april twenty second twenty twenty two the five to sunset that's what they presented the five parcels including the following urban renewal areas brunswick king urban renewal plan central business district boylston essex plan central business business district school franklin plan kitridge square urban renewal plan and park plaza urban renewal plan the extension of the nine urban renewal areas through december 31st 2022 included the following fossils central business district south station urban renewal fenway urban renewal plan campus high school urban renewal plan south cove urban renewal plan charlestown urban renewal plan downtown waterfront faneuil hall urban renewal plan government center urban renewal plan south end urban renewal plan and washington park urban urban renewal plan it was reported that ppda has identified over 1300 parcels with existing land disposition agreements ldas that are tied to urban renewal powers some of which provide protection for affordable housing open space and other other land use provisions bpda officials explain that this request if approved will provide the bpda with additional time to set a plan for potential state legislation to transfer or protect appropriate provisions councils expressed reservations around extension of timeline of december 31st 2022 as this will not allow bpda enough time to radically adequately review and analyze all the ldas lda parcels in their inventory councils discuss the impact on the owners of these properties relative to potential tax increases in the possibility of giving developers an edge in acquiring these parcels for market rate development if these parcels were to expire without notice to the general public discussions included the goals and responsibilities of bpda to use the urban renewal tools to shape and promote economic development throughout the city in a way that supports public good particularly for the residents living in marginalized communities council stated that their focus is to protect the residents who were impacted by the urban renewal strategy in the past and most and most importantly are looking to protect residents who will be impacted by the sun setting of these fossils moving forward and recommended that the bpda institute a longer time frame of sun setting the nine parcels that would include six-month check-in with the city council during that time period cognizant of the trepidations and for the next necessity of the bpda's role in future community development the city council felt vigorous meaningful discussions were necessary in a respectful public process that engages the residents impacted by the urban renewal projects still going council block and flynn requested that park plaza urban renewal plan be added to the nine parcels that were extended to december 30 extended to december 31st 2022 in order to address the building height issue in the area council warrell later requested that the brunswick king urban renewal plan also be added to the nine parcels in order to allow more time for to address residents concerns council fernandez anderson requested to add kittridge square urban renewal plan to the nine parcels councils discussed and weighed ramifications of of taking no action on the order and allowed the renewal areas to sunset on april twenty second twenty two twenty twenty two bpda officials explain that allowing the urban renewal apostles to expire will also cause the expiration of lda's deed restricted provisions that include the protection of affordable housing protection of open space and other land provisions councils expressed concerns in connection with eight month extension for aforementioned urban renewal plans including the lack of information regarding bpda's complete list of lda inventory to date they indicated that in order to mitigate the potential future harm post-residents moving forward it was determined that further analysis in review of the proposed nine current lda zones and other bpda ldas is necessary the council discussed extending the requested time period from december 31st 2022 to march 31st 2023 for the urban renewal distance that wouldn't immediately sunset the city council also requested that the bpda do a six-month check-in with the body to provide updates on their progress following the hearing an additional consideration the committee recommends the following that the fir the following urban renewal renewal areas be allowed to expire first one is central business district boylston essex plan and central business district school franklin plan that the following urban renewal areas be extended until march 31st 2023 central business south station urban renewal plan fenway urban renewal plan campus high school urban renewal plan south cove urban renewal plan charlestown urban renewal plan downtown waterfront faneuil hall urban renewal plan government center urban renewal plan south end urban renewal plan washington park urban renewal plan park plaza urban renewal plan brunswick king urban renewal plan and kitridge square urban renewal plan in recognition of city council authority in connection with the aforementioned urban renewal plan changes the city council and the bpda director agreed to implement a series of procedural changes with respect to the number of legitimate concerns discussing discussed at the hearing following the city council approval the bpda will seek approval from its agency board of directors mayor and department of housing and community development for extension of the plans as chair of the committee on planning development and transportation i recommend moving the list docket from the committee to full council for discussion and formal action at this time my recommendation to the full council would be that this matter ought to pass in a new draft for the reasons stated above thank you mr president and uh i'd also like to if council warrell or councillor anderson or councillor um bach would like to to to speak i like them allow them the time also thank you thank you thank you council vaca at this time um i'd like to recognize councillor block council block you of the floor yeah mr trump speaking substantively i just wanted from a point of order perspective to suggest that we take a vote that the account that the new language is properly before the council just because there's a the committee report that um the chair read reflects an update to the order and um and specifically then it turned out the updated version on the order accidentally had brunswick king twice at the end and not kitchen square so what counselors are holding in their hand that you have is the actual order that we are voting on and i think we should probably make sure that this updated language that the chair is proposing is before properly before the body uh thank you council blocks there'll be a motion to substitute seeing and hearing no objection the language of the committee report would be substituted mr clerk will take a vote on that any objections no objections the the language the new language will be added and go ahead council block and with that i would just say briefly because the chair covered it very exhaustively that i think this is a i think the council talked a lot about the fact that we want to make sure this is a thoughtful process it's really important to our constituents and each of us as district councillors have very specific district issues with each of these and we want to make sure that we've got time enough to learn them and process them so i appreciate the chair's recommendation that we extend that time period a bit so it's not hitting us at the exact same time as the crunch on all other legislation and that we move a few of the districts that have some outstanding questions into that bucket for study over the next year so thank you mr president thank you councilwook would any other counselor like to discuss this matter thank you council baker the chair of the committee of on planning development and transportation seeks acceptance of the committee report in passage of doctor zero three one four in a new draft all those in favor say aye aye at this time mr clerk will you take a roll call vote roll call vote on docker number zero three one four council arroyo council arroyo yes councillor baker yes councillor baker yes councillor bark aye councillor bark aye councillor braden aye councillor brain council edwards council edwards yes councillor fernandez anderson council fernandes anderson yes council of clarity council flaherty yes council flynn yes councillor flynn yes council lara council lara yes council louisiana councilor jen yes counselor counselor yes counselor murphy councillor murphy yes and councilor warrell chelsea yes thank you mr clark the docket has passed i just want to say on behalf of our colleagues thank you to councillor baker and thank you the bpda team for uh working on this important matter mr cora please read talk at zero three one two dot number zero three one two the committee in government operations to which was referred on march second twenty twenty two docket number zero three one two message in order for your approval and ordinance regarding targeted residential picketing to protect the quality of residential life in our city submits a report recommending that the legislation ought to pass in a new draft thank you mr clark welcome at this time the chair recognizes council arroyo chair of the committee on government operations council arroyo you have the floor seeing and hearing no objection thank you the language of the committee report has been substituted thank you mr president uh everyone should have the substituted copy on their desk uh it's the one dated march 30th 2022. uh this docket was sponsored by the mayor and referred to the committee on government operations on march 2nd 2022 the committee held the hearing on march 14th 2022 where public comment was taken in a working session on march 25 2022 this matter must be acted upon before may 2nd of 2022 the proposed legislation would prohibit targeted residential picketing between the hours of 9 00 pm and 9 a.m the term targeted residential picketing is defined as picketing protesting or demonstrating with or without signs that is specifically directed towards a particular residence or one or more occupants of the residence and which takes place before or about the targeted residence all other ordinances and statues would apply including laws regarding excessive noise disturbing the peace and blocking streets and sidewalks the provisions of this ordinance would be enforced by the boston police department and violators would be subject to fines of increasing amounts based on the number of offenses 100 for the first offense 200 for the second offense and 300 for the third or subsequent offense that's the version that was submitted i'd like to thank my council colleagues for joining the working session councillor murphy councillor flaherty counselor lara councillor fernandez anderson council warrell councillor mejia councillor louis jen councillor flynn and counselor edwards i'd also like to thank the members of the administration for their participation during the working session the committee discussed why this ordinance is needed when the city noise ordinance already exists and how that noise ordinance was being enforced the committee also discussed concerns with the fines and appeals process of this particular matter the law department was able to provide clarity on the legal analysis and discuss the significant government interest in protecting individuals privacy rights within their homes bpd discussed the need for balancing freedom of expression and enforcement of the noise ordinance stating that the objective of the department is to de-escalate divert and negotiate arrests are a last resort bpd also stated that there have been no citations issued for violations of the current noise ordinance for the protected protests but that the departments have been coordinating with the west roxbury district court during the working session counselors offered several language suggestions including defining harm as a standard in order to provide context for the ordinance for example regulating activity that rises above a noise level and blocks public ways removing the word towards and replacing a with against or in opposition to and removing a particular residence the committee also asked for clarification around the term subsequent offense and whether offenses would be tracked over a period of time the law department reiterated that targeted residential picketing is permissible for 12 hours of the day the amendments that have been made to the ordinance include the following the removal of the words a particular resonance after the term towards to eliminate ambiguity so that it now reads for the purpose of this section targeted residential picketing means picketing protesting or demonstrating with or without signs that is specifically directed towards one or more occupants of a particular resonance and which takes place before or about the particular targeted residence uh amending the fine structure so that they're now lower so 50 for the first offense 150 for the second offense and 300 for the third and subsequent defenses and then defining the period for which subsequent offenses happen to within a 12-month period in other words after the first 12 months if there's another offence you would start at one again referencing the specific state laws that give the city authority to issue fines inserting the word state before statutes inserting the word harassment in the third paragraph and finally inclusion of severability language which is standard practice for the city to ensure that if challenged only the challenge provisions would be impacted the substituted committee report also includes one additional amendments in the fifth paragraph that would prevent information collected by the boston police department through enforcement of this ordinance from being included in any database maintained by the boston regional intelligence center passage of this docket in a new draft will ensure that the expectation and privacy that individuals have in their homes is protected while maintaining freedom of speech and assembly rights the stock it regulates targeted residential picketing between certain hours and imposes reasonable limitations on the time place and manner of speech and is content neutral the purpose of this ordinance is to protect the quality of life of our residents and prevent them from becoming captive audiences in the privacy of their own home in particular this ordinance seeks to do this during the night and day a night and early morning when such intentional intrusion into privacy is especially invasive and burdensome the proposal in its amended draft provides clarity and is narrowly tailored while leaving ample alternative channels of communication as the chair of the committee i seek acceptance of the committee report as substituted and recommend that this docket ought to pass in a new draft thank you mr president thank you council royal would anyone else like to speak on this matter at this time the chair recognizes council baker council baker you of the floor uh i wish this body came around me when this was happening to me there weren't people out in front of my house but they were crawling all around my house all hours of the evening they were calling my phone calling me a scumbag landlord scum back they were harassing my wife on her phone fireworks being shot at my house post being posted on my house and this was happening march april may june july august of 2020 because i took an action that was about transparency and now because this is happening to one person we're going to change all the rules and i think we i think we're we're edging in on first amendment here i think we're edging in on the right of free speech do i think that people should be out in front of the mayor's house at this point screaming at seven in the morning no but it's their right to be able to do it and because it's happening to one person now we're gonna change the rules i just think it's totally wrong and again i wish i knew the severity of what happened at my house the last time the same guy that drove by my house all summer long and threw firecrackers at my house all summer long i came running out of the house and all my neighbors came out the women with that with their babies and everything and they told me they were watching it happen i didn't see it i'm living on the second and third floor don't see necessarily what's happening on the first floor people were creeping all around my house this body didn't really give that much of a care about me and my family then my family and i proper english correct but now because it's happening to one person and she happens to be sitting over there now she could do certain things like maybe have the police back up into her driveway and get out the back door and drive through them she could do things like that but i don't think she's doing that because this is a back and forth here we're looking to just get people more divided more and more divided so i today will be voting no on this not because i think that people should be in front of anybody's house they were at my house they called my house i lived with them for six months i just got rid of all the text messages calling me a scumbag just got rid of them because i don't need it in my life but i think that this is a problem here so when it doesn't work for us we're going to change all the rules at what point does it end first amendment i think we're talking about here today so i will be voting no thank you thank you council baker any of our colleagues also wish to speak on this matter thank you i'm sorry the chair recognizes at large a great working session on this as but i know that a lot of the counselors had questions from the boston police department regarding some of the language that currently exists saying what laws would continue to be enforced i'm just wondering if the chair's office ever received any data from the boston police department regarding requests from counselors on enforcement over the last 10 weeks in the last year on this on the laws that are included in the ordinance that will continue to be enforced thank you council john council arroyo are you able to respond to that question so uh as far as we know i know that the question specifically and you can correct me if i'm wrong on this council louis gem was uh they had made clear that there were no noise citations that they had put up to their knowledge within the last 10 week period and i think we asked for a time of a year so that we can have a better analysis of when and how they've actually held up the noise ordinance we are still waiting on boston police department to send us those numbers they have not sent us those but we will continue to ask and wait to receive and if required do a 17 f to get the information specifically on the uh noise ordinances and how they've in the past enforced or not enforced them and where they're doing that and where they're not i believe that that was the outstanding request correct yeah so those those violations those sort of civil violations we we're putting a request for that we're still waiting for bpd to give us that data thank you mr chairman thank you council royal the chair recognizes council bloc council bloc you have the floor thank you uh council flynn i wasn't going to speak on this matter but i just wanted to say in response to what councillor baker was saying um you know i i think that a lot of the the outreach in 2020 both both uh as council baker was saying that spring and then you know for many councillors that summer after the budget vote i think that that that was a data point that the recent action has been another data point in that's more about a pattern of the question of sort of like what we what we think counts as civil discourse in the city and and what are the appropriate places for people to make their message heard i think that as the chair has repeatedly said 9am to 9pm still leaves 12 hours for picketing and i don't actually think that the media coverage in the city has left anybody unable to express their message on any number of points recently and so i guess what i would say to counselor baker's point um is that it it seems to me that rather than being a reaction like just for one person you're saying for the mayor it's more like we've got a consistent pattern here in which folks are crossing this threshold and it's a real problem for a lot of our neighbors right and we're trying to deal with how do you think about the fact that elected officials we answer to you we absolutely need to hear what people are are saying but at the same time we've got neighbors who you know have a right to their sleep at seven in the morning and so for me i guess as a counselor who's only been in for a couple of years um it feels as though that this that this last couple of years has been characterized by a lot of activity of this type and so i don't think about the ordinance that we're voting on as being just about the mayor i do think about it is also about what you were discussing happening at your dwelling and i i think that of course that's always the way that we should be thinking about legislation is that as its general impact and yeah we might have a specific instance that makes us focus on the issue but we should always be legislating for general impact and i think for me the reason i'm going to vote yesterday is that i feel comfortable that the legislation is narrowly tailored enough to be well within the supreme court precedent when it comes to the first amendment a reasonable time place and manner restriction that it's going to be evenly applied that we're talking about civil fines here that it's not moving into criminalization and for me as a counselor i feel comfortable that that that is going to be a uniform impact and that it isn't about a particular act of speech so i just wanted to stress that for me there's actually a continuity rather than a discontinuity here as somebody who was really troubled by what happened to councillor baker what happened to many of our houses in the summer of 2020 and and also what's been happening to the mayor and other other folks so i just wanted to say that from my perspective it's more of a reaction to a pattern thank you mr president thank you council block the chair recognizes council royal council royal you have the flaw thank you uh mr chair and i just want to note as well that uh obviously targeted uh harassment of any kind including and especially what councilor baker offered up uh is wrong it shouldn't be happening and frankly you know last year with the budget votes we saw folks homes targeted in sort of an isolated incident this year and i think it's mostly this year to get started this year in 2022 we started to see uh targeted residential picketing in a way that we've never seen before we had superintendent bailey uh on our working session who's been an officer for over 30 years and said he's never seen this in the entirety of his time on the force my mother's home was targeted and whether or not they were attempting to find my home when they were informed that it was my mother's home they remained and they continued to harass my mother at her home and i think one of the major issues with this is when we allow folks to to come to a conclusion that going to our homes or the homes of our family members is acceptable those kinds of mistakes will happen they will end up outside of people's homes that aren't the people that they're actually trying to get to they are going to be putting people in distress who frankly aren't even necessarily the targets of who they're trying to put in distress and so this doesn't and i just want to be clear this doesn't even stop them from doing that from 9 a.m to 9pm if they wanted to they could still go to any home in the city and do what they've been doing it doesn't actually stop that it just gives folks some grace from 9pm to 9am to allow them to get ready start their day put kids on school buses do the things that they have to do in the city regardless of where their political leanings are it allows them to do this this doesn't even stop the behaviors that we're talking about it doesn't actually say you can't go to somebody's home period it says from 9 00 a.m to 9 00 p.m for 12 hours of the day we got 24 hours in a day for 50 of this day if you want to go stand outside of somebody's grandmother's house or mother's house unfortunately you can still do that there's nothing here that stops that and so this is very narrowly tailored very contained i think the idea here uh is to provide some grace to residents to allow them some peace in the early morning hours because frankly they deserve that they did not sign up for that kind of picketing in their neighborhoods and so that's addressing a new issue that i think we see escalating we've never seen this kind of escalation we've never had to deal with this to this degree i think it's awful that it's happened in the past and my hope is that you know i had someone say it's awful that we're legislating civility but we are and so my goal is uh ultimately peace in our neighborhoods for folks to come to the appropriate sections um i have actually spoken with protesters i've taken the time out of the day to do that i have been at city hall and yet they still found their way to our homes and so what i am saying period is when we're doing these things there's a time and place to do them and this is just saying from 9 00 pm to 9 a.m the place is not in front of people's homes so that's that's what this is doing thank you uh mr uh chair excuse me excuse me please please no comment in the in the city council officer can you please escort her out of the room please we're in a brief recess for 15 seconds [Music] we're back and we're back in session the chair recognizes councillor murphy council murphy you have the floor thank you so to follow up on the question my colleague council louisiana had if you could clarify council arroyo why if there were some questions i was at that working session and i know we had many questions and some of them were answered in this new wording but if we have until may 2nd if you could just make it clearer for me why we're voting today and we're not waiting for some of those more of the answers to come back thank you the chair recognizes council arroyo council royal you have the flaw thank you uh because none of the questions that we're waiting to come back deal with the legality of the ordinance itself there are questions about enforcement of other existing ordinances uh that frankly i think are important in our data we're going to get and we can follow up on how and how we expect the city and bpd to enforce or deal with sort of these civil infractions and whether or not there's discrepancies in how they're being used and where they're being used but all of the questions that had to do with legality and whether or not this ordinance would be legally or constitutionally upheld have been answered at this time there are no outstanding questions on that uh that were posed at the working session and so that is why we're moving forward with the vote today uh thank you mr chair thank you thank you council ohio thank you council murphy the chair recognizes council of fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the flaw thank you mr president and thank you um mr chair for uh holding the hearings and working sessions i just have a point to make because um and it's really unfortunate um to my brother frank baker that you had to go through that and um wrong to one is wrong is no matter no matter what is wrong to all so i and james baldwin i think um and i'm not don't quote me word for word but in the letter to angela davis talked about if they come for you in the night they'll come for us in the morning and i think that the tone is about you know wrong done to one human kind is is like you are doing it to all and i'm just a little bit um disturbed that wanted to happen to you but two that the point is if if let's say hypothetically that that was the case you should i i believe you i'm saying in your case you should have been protected and supported and i'm sure our colleagues many of them supported you but let's say hypothetically that it was only about one person in this instance then it's wrong wrong is wrong right is right and when someone is harassed or hurt and if that has to go to the extreme for us to change a thing in order for someone to feel safe then it's wrong then she is not safe let's say it was only about one person remove the mayor from it then we have to do what is right to ensure that now we had the war concession and the police department was very clear that no one was arrested there was there were no actions taken and so and i also i'm to believe that i've seen it with my own eyes because i know some of us have driven to her home to to witness it to understand what's going on and i've seen it where officers stand by and things happen and she's harassed and she has to walk through people to go somewhere as a woman or as a man as a child senior it doesn't matter she doesn't feel safe even if it was only about one person remove her position or her job title and tell me what you think that is that's wrong so we have to address it either way and i i don't believe that we need a new law a new ordinance i knew anything i think we're talking about something totally different this is not protesting this is harassment this is abuse and and verbal assault it's totally different i don't think we need it but if we have to go to the extremes because there's a group of people not doing their job not arresting not taking action for now we do what we must to intervene so that someone can feel safe but i don't think that this is just about the mayor i think that as my colleagues have stated it's about her neighbors and council flynn is going through this council royals mom's going through this and others have gone through this and you just made your point you said you wish that we did that for you when it happened to you so do you wish for this to happen to protect someone or not thank you council fernandez um i wasn't planning to speak on this matter but i'll speak briefly i'm going to support support this proposal um and one of the reasons or several of the reasons i'm supporting it is based on the quality of life of neighbors that live near an elected official or a public official can you imagine a senior 85 years old that's a that's a world war ii veteran that's struggling to try to get to sleep and having being woken up at nine o'clock at night or or seven o'clock in the morning or could you imagine a person with disabilities that's also struggling young young little babies infants or kids that are going to school that need their sleep so that they can function properly the next morning and they're being woken up at nine at night at eight at night seven o'clock in the morning so there has to be some civility some respect for neighbors and i think this compromise is is fair um i i i do have a little prop problem with the nine o'clock one i i couldn't imagine someone going to someone's house at 8 30 at night and trying to wake someone up and especially a little baby is trying to sleep or a senior or a veteran is trying to sleep i'm supporting it but i think this is a fear a fear compromise that's all i'll have to say on the matter the chair recognizes council baker council baker you have the floor um i appreciate your concern but my colleagues weren't wrapping themselves around me they weren't calling to make sure my family was okay when the fire was out behind my house that was at about midnight they were crawling all around my house three four five in the morning the call started at seven didn't until midnight nobody gave two shits about me and my family and this is very specific the legislation comes out after it's happening to her and by the way she's not disengaged with the public that's standing outside there she's still twitting around and everything else so at what point does she show that she's above it or more and she's not going to be harmed there maybe maybe her ears will be harmed but the boston police will not let her behind and now mind you i lived through watching watching newberry street get totally looted nobody was arrested we're looking to arrest people here now for for noise violations we're going to go up with these things and oh that's above 70 decibels we better arrest that guy the city was on fire we didn't arrest anybody i think we arrested the one kid that that burnt the um the police car that's what i saw i saw my city that went through 20 20 championship banners and and and parades and everything not a problem not a problem but yet we allowed people from outside because i was standing on the corners i was standing on the corners i was watching who was creeping around my neighborhood pennsylvania plates ohio plates florida plates this was a national agenda plan out here and it was the left that brought this all here now that it's happening to the left we're going to change the rules and i think it's very specific towards one person and i disagree with you that's what we're having this this this discussion about because we should be able to to disagree without everybody in this room hating me quite frankly i don't care if you hate me or not i'm here to to represent my people from district three and i'm gonna say what i have on my mind i think it's very specific towards her yeah nine to nine not a big not a big deal but i think it's wrong i think we're encroaching on our right our right to protest i mean the people that were that were that were um looting the stores on on on newbury street not a single person got arrested not a single person got arrested what about that business person that lost all of their all of the inventory did you see the video for the guy on newbury street with the bikes that's in your district what happened there so yeah i think it's wrong i think we're doing this specifically because someone's in someone's in the office over there great you won awesome but we're looking to change the rules here now because the left is in charge so there you go tool of the left and now it doesn't work for them so let's change the rules thank you thank you council baker the last comment i'm going to have is um council our council are you of the floor thank you president flynn uh i just wanted to correct for the record that during the george floyd protest 53 people were arrested the person who was not arrested was the boston police department officer who was caught on video talking about mowing over protesters with his vehicle but 53 people were arrested two of them who were still going into court and being supported by the aclu up until just a few weeks ago thank you thank you council lara i'm sorry i'm not going to take any more testimony counselor flynn he specifically referenced me in my district i just want to make her really all right can you counsel can you respond very briefly let me let me just be clear this will be the last um testimony before we go on to a vote yeah i just i just want to say situation we actually had like a major operational failure where there were no police in the area of newbury street because they were all centered around the common we had out of state folks coming in with vans it was very orchestrated and planned it was pretty clearly a separate action from the folks who are on the common protesting and so i just want to stress that i think the whole history of that is quite distinct from what we're talking about here um and it was of course something that i was deeply concerned about in my district and the ramifications continue to be something we struggle with in the district but it was not i think connected to the to the conversation that we're having today so thank you thank you council block um counselor excuse me sir please please refrain from talking officer can you please council royal the chair on the committee of government operations seeks acceptance of the committee report and passage of docket zero three one two and a new draft mr clerk if you can do a roll call vote roll call on dock at zero three one two council arroyo yes council arroyo yes councillor baker councillor baker no counselor bart yes council of buck yes councillor braden councillor braden yes council edwards council edwards yes councillor fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson yes council flaherty council of flaherty yes council flynn yes council flynn yes council lara council lara no council louisiana council murphy council of murphy no and council of warrell councillor yes thank you the docket has passed in a new draft we're going on to matters recently heard for possible action mr clerk please read doc at zero two three nine doctor number zero two three nine an ordinance creating a commission to study and develop recreation proposals for african americans the chair recognizes council royal chair of the committee on government operations council royal you have the flaw thank you i chair flynn but i actually did not uh oversee that particular hearing because i was actually sick that day counselor louisiana is going to give the committee report that's fine thank you the chair recognizes council lujan consulation you have the floor thank you president flynn and thank you chair arroyo as vice chair of government operations we had a wonderful hearing on monday march 28th at 10 am regarding the ordinance creating a commission to study reparations um the ordinance would establish a special commission on the study of reparation proposals um as currently written the commission would include 15 members from specific organizations who would be chosen in consultation with the named organizations the mayor and the city council the commission's duties would include defining reparations studying disparities and inequalities documenting personal stories and histories and creating spaces for information sharing the commission's findings would be synthesized in a report with specific reparation proposals that address international standards of remedy how the city will offer a formal apology for its role in the perpetration of human rights violations and crimes against humanity and how the city's current laws and policies continue to disproportionately negatively affect african-americans the commission would also include an executive director appointed by the mayor who would have administrative powers to hire an assistant submit a budget and assist with procurement and supplies at the hearing we discussed defining the roles and purposes of the commission debating in the idea of stipends for commission members codifying named organizations and the structure the of the commission whether it should be a commission versus a department and other models of reparations across the country and globe i want to thank the sponsors councils mejia franz anderson and warrell thank you to the councils who attended council president flynn councillor edwards braden bach murphy and lara thank you to central staff christine o'donnell and kerry jordan jordan for their support as i jumped into this to chair this hearing and thanks to administration chief maria angelis solicevera from the office of equity and inclusion and laurie nelson the chief resilience officer for the city of boston it was an incredible group of panelists who have really been dedicating themselves to this work around operations and really encouraging that they believe that boston could be a model uh dr jamadari kamara director of the center for african caribbean and community development yvette modesteen commissioner of the national african-american reparations commission dr raymond winbusch director of the institute for urban research in morgan state you know at morgan state university i want to thank the advocates from king boston new democracy coalition no naacp and thank you to all the people who testified uh towards this very rich discussion and who's written comments who are now all part of the record uh personally i wanna there was one of uh a member of the public who made a really great comment during public testimony is that this is a topic and a conversation that we need to run towards and not run away from even if the conversation is difficult for some or if it's a new topic for others this is an important conversation for us to repair harm that was done so that we can continue to build towards a more just boston and so that we can continue to repair communities the conversation will continue in hearings and working sessions and i'm proud of the council for leading in this discussion um i leave it to the chair to recommend further action on this docket but i recommend that it stays in committee for future working sessions thank you council lujan would anyone else like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes council me here council me here you of the floor i'm sorry the chair recognizes council at royalties briefly this will stay in committee for working sessions and we'll we'll get this out uh through working sessions thank you to uh the original sponsors for their creation and passage and proposal thank you council royale the chair recognizes council me here councilman you have the floor thank you mr president and thank you to vice chair counselor luis jen for stepping in and sharing monday's hearing you know i want to start off by thanking our advocates yvette modestine dr jamara um jamar madari kamara dr raymond winbush and i would also like to thank the administration especially chief soleus cervera who moved her entire calendar around to stay and listen to the full testimony so um thank you for that neil giving you a shout out because i know you made that happen so really do appreciate you we had a productive hearing where we heard from the administration about the initial perspective on the ordinance and from the advocates around the necessity of certain key aspects of this ordinance one thing that i think is important to drive home is that we are working on something that both stands on the shoulders of centuries of work but it's also incredibly new we need to both be looking to other cities or even other commissions here in boston but we also need to be setting an example for what this work needs to look like i know there were some portions of the ordinance that were brought up during the hearing and i am extremely hopeful that we can expand upon that and flash and flush it out further in our working sessions alongside the administration and my colleagues um you know it is always difficult to stand up and speak and oftentimes to speak for folks who have really never felt heard here in the city of boston and sometimes even for myself to speak in this space even sometimes when my voice quivers i need to recognize that i am here for a reason and i've taken up a lot of battles here and have fought for a lot of things and i see this as an opportunity and a responsibility to recognize why we are here and when we think about restorative justice and when we think about repairing the harm we also have to think about our own accountability and how we ended up here in the first place so if we're serious about this work we have an opportunity to flush out the logistics and do so in a way that honors and that does not replicate um harm and so we are fighting uh with and alongside the advocates who worked on crafting this ordinance because that is what we do we step to the side and create space for other people to lead and in the spirit of that i am going to continue to honor that way of working because it's refreshing and as my colleagues continue to bring their questions and recommendations um to the space i'm going to also encourage you to recognize that this is heart work not hard work and if we can open up our hearts as we do this work it might be a little bit easier for us for us to digest and so let's move forward in the spirit of recognizing that 700 000 constituents live here in the city of boston and as a city as a whole we're responsible for all of them so thank you to my colleagues and to my co-sponsors for signing on and taking on this battle because it's going to be a fight thank you thank you councilman here the chair recognizes council world council rally over the floor thank you mr president and thank you to uh councillor louis jen for chairing a great great hearing i'd like to thank my co-sponsors council mejia and councilman anderson and our colleagues that attended i also like to thank chief nelson chief solis sivera dr kamara dr winbush yvette modestein reverend kevin peterson king boston and the new democracy coalition for joining the conversation and thank you to central staff for what they do i'm looking forward to having further hearings and working sessions including at least one in community for example utilizing venues like the bowling center second church of dorchester or the thelma burns building i would love and i think it's important to have our neighbors involved in the early conversations of reparations i'm encouraged that we will be able to work out the details to establish a commission and to be able to lead on rep reparations here in the city of boston thank thank you council overall the chair recognizes council of fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the flaw thank you um i'll try to keep it brief and shout out to all my co-sponsors lead sponsor co-sponsor all the panelists shout out to all the black and brown people my white brothers and sisters who've been working on this allies and everybody nationally working on this um a big shout out to tennehisi coates and um folks that i admire brian stevenson but i wanted to just touch real briefly i had something to read but honestly whatever like i what i want to say is whenever we have to create space and we have to as my colleague mentioned um councilmember mentioned we have to create space to do the hard work um it's somehow we project our insecurities on other and somehow uh begin to uh get uncomfortable right and so to have those conversations we have to question ourselves that the thing that bothers you the most is the thing the pet peeve is the thing that you yourself are guilty of and so you have to be very reflective in this work and really look within yourself and question [Music] what is this really about is this am i upset with this change does this threaten my livelihood or my comfort or my privilege or my power do you then be you know philanthropic and opening up your pockets and your hearts the quest the issue is that when we begin to talk about these things the people that counter these types of dialogues are really just saying how does this does this impact me am i safe am i going to continue to be comfortable am i going to am i going to have my privilege am i going to have my comfort in my livelihood i think there's space for everybody and and sometimes it doesn't mean that because you're white that you're gonna you're gonna be on the opposite side i believe that our brother white brothers and sisters here want what is good for our background in america i believe that in a city but i feel that the conversation is going to get uncomfortable and we should be patient and honest in order to really talk about how what do you really want to talk about how does how do you really feel about this and let's go through the work so that we can perpetuate or be exemplary of the behavior that we want perpetuated in the community so that we are the leaders so that we are saying we together collectively our brothers and sisters and we're working on this issue and we together are exemplifying what the community should look like so i look forward to that that camaraderie to that spirit and i look forward to the work thank you thank you council fernandez anderson would anyone else like to speak on this matter docket zero two doctor zero two three nine will remain in committee mr clerk please read doc at zero two four two doctor number zero two four two order for a hearing regarding recycling compost and waste services in the city of boston the chief recognizes council bark chair of the committee on city services innovation technology council bloc you have the floor thank you so much uh cyprus okay great um thank you so much counselor flynn we had a great hearing on monday and it was really wonderful to have brian coughlin our superintendent of uh waste reduction um certain waste of management services here and he took all of our questions and talked about all different manners of what the city does on the waste management front and then we actually heard from uh panelists from both seattle and um uh i'm forgetting its name right now but just north hooksett new hampshire um hearing about what other model cities and so i think it was a really good model mr president of of the benefit of a hybrid hearing and that i think it made a real difference for us to have brian there in person but then it was great to have seattle beaming in from across the country um so i want to thank all the colleagues that attended um in particular i think the most exciting thing was the confirmation that the the city curbside composting pilot that this council has long been fighting for and i want to particularly flag the work of our colleague councilor matt o'malley on this body we've been fighting for that and funding it for several cycles now and um and it now actually like the rfps come back they're planning to launch it this summer and it's going to make curbside composting available to 10 000 families at the beginning and my hope is that that's a real start down a path of ramping up to a city-wide service in the same way that as we heard seattle has so i thought that was really exciting but we talked about everything from batteries and uh and e-waste management at hazardous materials the fact that the five days the city holds right now are just you know their way above demand to recycling and the recycling market and how we can make sure that um that we really put our city on a trajectory to reach our zero waste goals because i think ryan was very upfront about the fact that they've taken some major strides and yet still we are not on a path to actually meeting our goals there so it's grateful for the participation of the environmental justice chair counselor lara and a whole bunch of counselors and i think another thing that really came out of the hearing that i expect we'll do more council follow-up on um is as councilor baker has constantly um pointed out and i think it's something that council laura and i share i know you do mr president it's just the idea that you know as we see the contracts for us doing this externally becoming more and more expensive and we recognize that we need to do more effective waste management to meet our climate goals like let's look for ways that we can have actual processing capacity facilities and jobs here in the city of boston and let's actually be the place that other cities and towns turn to for help with processing their materials because it seems as though there's a real opportunity there and and like we're going to need more capacity so i think we learned about i can't summarize everything i mean we learned about the fact that state guidance is going to affect how mattresses get recycled and turned and thrown away in the city of boston that's going to be an upcoming challenge and i think just it was very brass tack city services you know what we what we do and in many ways one of the ways that cities were organized and grew in the first place was to help manage um manage trash and waste and make sure that people have the opportunity to live in a clean and sanitary city so i was grateful to host it and we'll definitely be continuing follow-up mr chair and uh my request would be that the daca remaining committee thank you thank you council block oh sorry and uh i i neglected to mention my co-sponsors on the docket counselor flaherty and councillor braden who's right here with me um who were wonderful and stayed for our whole very long hearing so thank you thank you council block would any of our colleagues like to speak on the matter i will speak on it i just want to say thank you to to the chair and to the to the sponsors of this i also want to make sure that when we roll the pro program out the different neighborhoods have different needs in the south end i'm struggling with um barrels and with the recycling and with pest control and adding composting which which which i support but we need to make sure that when we roll this out we have a public awareness educational campaign that especially includes the residents but also includes district city councils so that they can educate their constituents working with ons on the importance of this program one of the the first hearing i'm going to call for this year is on pest control and i think that's also part of the subject i've worked with on this issue with many of our colleagues most recently with with council braden but pest control is a major problem in the city of boston in my district and other districts as well but during this budget process we really need to advocate for basic city service funding for these critical nuts and bolts issues impacting practically every every neighborhood in the city would anyone else like to speak on this matter the doctor zero two four two will remain in committee thank you council bar uh mr clerk will you please read doc at zero one nine five doctor number zero one nine five order for a hearing regarding city level conservation corps for boston the chair recognizes council lara chair of the committee on environmental justice resiliency parks council are you of the floor thank you president flynn on tuesday march 29th yesterday the committee on environmental justice resiliency and parks held a hearing regarding a city level conservation corps that was sponsored by councilor bach i was joined by my colleagues counselors bach braden luigen murphy mejia warrell and council president flynn we were also joined by members of the administration chief reverend mariama whitehammond executive director of the boston power corps as newly named the newly the new name for our youth green jobs program commissioner woods uh director when and leadership from power corps in philadelphia as a new counselor this was an incredibly informative hearing for me just to hear about the progress that we've made around the youth the the youth um green jobs initiative and a timeline for implementation as well i would like to see the floor to the lead sponsor and i recommend that the stock can remain in committee thank you thank you council lara the chair recognizes council bloc council block you have the flow thank you so much mr president i'll be brief just it was a great hearing it's very exciting uh this council in our supplemental appropriation on june 30 of last year put three million dollars in the budget to make this program possible and so it's been awesome to see it go from an announcement in the jne administration to a real flowering and hiring of the new executive director dave o jefferson um in the woo administration and to see the administration's commitment and just uh i think the the real opportunity we have here to to marry our goal of meeting climate justice with a real commitment to racial and economic justice and getting these good green jobs for our young people in the city of boston i'm just really really excited about it and looking forward to the ways that we can support and grow the program financially as it develops so thank you thank you council block docket 0195 will remain in committee motions orders and resolutions mr clerk please read docket five doctor number zero four three five councillors louisiana and mejia offered the following petition for a special law reenact authorizing the city of boston to grant four additional licenses for the sale of alcoholic beverages to be drunk on the specified premises the chia recognizes council lujan council january of the floor thank you mr president and thank you to my co-sponsor counselor mejia on this home rule petition this is a home repetition for four additional liquor licenses at the bowling building so place restricted uh liquor licenses historically this body and as a city we know how hard it has been to get liquor licenses for our communities um especially in our black and brown communities because of how expensive uh the liquor licenses are um and so this this would be a request for four non-transferable restricted licenses in the past that we've attempted to get a lot more dispersed around the city and we have failed even when the mayor has tried so this is just petition before liquor licenses we hope to in the future work towards getting more liquor licenses to our neighborhoods but this is just uh for the bowling building we have some great businesses in that area uh in roxbury that could really benefit from having those licenses we also know that uh our colleague counselor fernandez anderson has been doing really great work in d7 and this would really help the businesses in her district uh make sure that they're able to make more money and revitalize help to continue to revitalize the nubian square area with these liquor licenses so thank you thank you thank you consoles and would anyone else like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes council me here council me here you have the four thank you mr president um and thank you to my co-sponsor we look forward to the opportunity to partner with the administration on securing four additional site-specific liquor licenses located right in the heart of roxbury the council has had in the past voted to pass homeroom petitions to allow site-specific liquid licenses which had greatly the community the charles river speedway administrative building is a great example of that this is an opportunity for not only to provide for additional liquor licenses to roxbury neighborhood but hopefully this is also an opportunity for us to explore in greater detail the issue that this body has taken up many times which is an equitable distribution of liquor licenses across the city and i want to acknowledge our sister in service now congresswoman ayanna presley when she was on the council fought ferociously on making sure that our city had a real representation of liquid licenses unfortunately a lot of those did not end up in um in matapan in dorchester and other parts of uh our most distressed neighborhood so i'm hoping that this is just the beginning of the revolution thank you council mejia the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the floor thank you um mr president uh let me say for the record that i appreciate the nuances involved as it pertains to the issue on of liquor licenses said licenses do create a degree of economic viability for restaurants but let me also state to quote an old adage that a man does not live by bread alone simply stated my deeply felt religious views and customs placed me in a position of opposition the partaking of spirits as a practicing muslim we believe that the consumption of alcohol is a decision that is detrimental to health and well-being however recognizing the significance of this issue to many of our esteemed small business owners i have stepped aside and allowed or not allowed but welcomed my sister julie mejia and rusi lugia to file in my stead hence there is a duality at play here for yours truly where the importance of economical and spiritual realms are direct indirect confrontation for me and while i recognize that the economic realm is a great concern i cannot compromise my core tenants spiritual beliefs enhance compromise and essential aspect of my being furthermore while acknowledging that alcohol sales do constitute an engine to economic empowerment for restaurant tours i believe that there is a plethora of healthier society society more appropriate ways to grow economy i hope that such alternatives can be discussed and implemented and as time progresses we can work together to develop them but for now i stand strongly on my spiritual beliefs thank you thank you council fernandez anderson would anyone else like to speak on this matter talk at zero four three five will be referred to the committee on government operations mr clerk please read doc at zero four three six doctor number zero four three six counselors counselor braden offered the following order for a hearing on the state of boston's non-governmental nonprofit social sector and charting a post-pandemic recovery the chair recognizes council braden council braden you have the flaw thank you mr president since the outset of the pandemic two years ago it became clear how essential our cities community-based non-governmental nonprofit organizations are many of these social sector organizations quickly adapted their direct services to meet the moment from rapid dissemination of information food and ppe and serving as mutual aid networks reaching thousands of our boston neighbors the non-profit sector is now also often known as the third sector because they fill gaps to reach underserved communities often overlooked by private and public sector services the past two years have shown the importance of local governments coordination with community-based non-profits to collectively need meet the needs of our residents while many community non-profits stepped up to serve our city the entire non-profit sector across the country has drastically taken a hit with smaller locally based organizations serving disadvantaged communities often often being most impacted the country is experiencing what economists have dubbed the great resignation historic rates of workforce voluntarily leaving their jobs due to wage stagnation rising costs of living and inflation and outdated workforce culture with smaller community based social services non-profits being particularly impacted the pandemic exacerbated many of the existing stressors with real estate speculation uh long-standing non-profits have struggled to remain in their office spaces for example the brazilian workers center in allston is threatened because of increasing rents among many others i'm sure many of my colleagues can cite other examples meanwhile support for the from from the philanthropic sector often limits foundation grants to pacific programmatic work rather than general operating overhead costs like rent and paying employees a living wage suitable for the city in january the treasury department issued the final rule which outlined the specified eligibility uses eligible uses of arpa funds to include charitable non-profit organizations as both recipients of assistance as well as providers of assistance to others on behalf of the city that means our goals of achieving an equitable recovery must could act maximize impact through partnerships with non-profits who have existing infrastructure as trusted messengers to hard-hit communities with federal funds we have an opportunity to strengthen partnerships by supporting the incredible import incredibly important work uh infrastruct that important infrastructure that community-based non-profit organizations in our city provide while also establishing infrastructure for long-lasting transformative government non-profit partnerships that could be sustained beyond recovery dollars this is an essential step toward equitable and sustainable relief recovery and transformative future and i look forward to holding a hearing to discuss envisioning that process by for of for intentional investment in our city's non-profit sector i also just today on on a similar theme and a related related to this issue mayor wu has just announced today that 38 million of uh 30 mi 38 million dollars to support non-profit organizations to provide services to individuals experiencing homelessness through by supporting 15 non-profit organizations that deliver critical services to support our unsheltered residents the homelessness and housing instability is one aspect of the work that our nonprofit sector does we have many non-profits working on supporting families supporting food access literacy and job training there's a whole range of of different different functions that our non-profit sector does that and our non-profit sector have been providing essential support for our communities over the past two years and at this moment in time it's a timely opportunity just to reflect on what they've done and how we can support them going forward thank you mr and mr president thank you council braden would anyone like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes councilman here council me here you have the floor i just wanted to rise and thank um council breeding for her intentionality you know our office during um at the height of covet ended up working with a lot of non-profit organizations many of which were small mom and pop shops oftentimes under resourced and really doing the work without any real capacity and i think when we're thinking about equity and we're thinking about making sure that we're supporting folks we also need to be super mindful of who gets on that list and who's getting that support and i think that that is an area that we we may need to lean in a little bit more to ensure that organizations who oftentimes are doing more with less have an opportunity to build their capacity and i also think that in terms of some of the work that we've experienced and it's not just there are a lot of folks who are running organizations that don't know how to speak english but have managed to create miracles during covet and i think that as we think about how we support folks we i always go back to this information justice situation i'm making sure that people understand what's at stake and that we're doing our dual diligence to build capacity and so we're really looking forward to the hearing and leaning in and welcome any way that we are able to support and please add my name as in sponsorship thank you councilman here please add counsel me here would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to add their name please raise your hand mr clark please add council arroyo counselor bach councillor edwards council fernandez anderson council flaherty council lara council lujan council mejia council murphy council rail and please add the chair docket 0436 will be referred to the committee on boston's covet 19 recovery mr kirk can we go back to zero four three five i want to see if any of my colleagues want to sign on as a co-sponsor going back to docket zero four three five i neglected to ask if anyone would like to add their name to that docket if you would like to add your name would you please raise your hand mr clerk please add counselor arroyo please add counselor bach councillor edwards council of clarity council lara council murphy council well pleased at the chair thank you mr clerk please read doctor zero four three seven doctor number zero four three seven counselor braden offered the following resolution in support of house 30 80-senate 1874. enact relative to payments in lieu of taxation pilot by organizations exempt from the property tax the chair recognizes council braden council braden and you're on the floor thank you mr president uh i moved to suspend rule 12 in order to add counselors louisiana and councillor bach please as original co-sponsors of this docket not hearing any objection please add those mr clark yes the proposed bill would provide a local option for cities and towns to adopt a standardized pilot program that is modeled after the city of boston's pilot program for our non our cities pilot program currently calls for tax exempt educational medical and cultural organizations with property values in excess of 15 million to make voluntary payments equivalent to 25 of taxes that would be paid where they are not were they not tax exempt with half of the payment in cash and half through in-kind community benefit contributions however our problem our program lacks enforcement mechanisms and many large institutions are out of compliance with several continuously failing to meet their full requested cash payments passage of a statute mandating pilot payments would afford boston a mechanism to hold accountable the large institutions who call boston home we i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important bill and calling on the legislature to enact it mr president i seek to suspend the rules and passage of adoption of this resolution today after my co-sponsors have an opportunity to speak on it thank you thank you council braden would anyone else like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes council illusion council jean you have the flow thank you mr president and thank you to my colleague counselor braden for introducing this resolution i am more than happy to be a co-sponsor on this because we have a lot of work to do as a city to make sure that we are paying for the things that matter we have a climate crisis on our hands an affordable housing crisis got to deal with repairing a lot of the harm policy harm that we've done here as a city and so i think our institutions that are here that you know benefit from not being taxed even though oftentimes they have very large endowments should really be paying in to the capacity building that we have to do as a government to do things that we have to do so i support this bill and i'm and i am i'm glad to sign on to this resolution uh so that uh cities and municipalities can have a local option um to tax uh institutions in their cities um we depend so heavily on property taxes obviously um and there's so much that we're missing out on when these large institutions don't have to pay in and they need to be good neighbors and so i'm grateful again to council braden for introducing this resolution and very happy to co-sponsor can you continue to work on pilot here to hold institutions accountable so that we can build the city that we deserve thank you thank you council the chair recognizes council bloc council block you have the flow thank you so much mr president and thank you to councils braden and luigen for allowing me to co-sponsor on this um i think it's so important that our large institutions our hospitals and universities pay their fair share in supporting the city which all of our institutions depend on it's a totally symbiotic relationship and and given how dependent we are on property tax the reality is that we just we can't have our very successful non-profit institutions continue to take more and more parcels off the taxable roles it's just an unsustainable situation for the city fiscally and so i'm really proud of the fact that the city back in 2009 sort of forged an initial way forward and it was mentioned it really is a model a lot of other cities around the country and other municipalities in the commonwealth have copied that program but i think we've seen in the last few years and i was proud to share the pilot committee last term like that you know we're running up against the challenge of when everybody doesn't participate then you know it makes the folks who are doing the right thing who are paying their full pilot assessment which in terms of cash is 1 8 of what you'd be paying if you were taxable you know it makes those folks feel like they're getting a raw deal because other people aren't stepping up and doing it so i think the question of what could we actually have as a local option that would authorize this as a more than voluntary arrangement seems like a conversation that does need to be had at the state even as i hope very much um that you know we're able to reconvene a pilot task force under the mayor that was something that happened under many note we were on the verge of doing it under both walsh and janie and the transitions just proved too difficult but i do think that you know in the meantime when we wait for state legislation we want to try to re-up the boston conversation because it's just so critical to our tax base but certainly if this legislation that's up to the state has passed it would give us a very strong legal basis for having a program that goes beyond the voluntary and i just think when you think about all the things counselor legion already listed that we have to pay for in the city you know the the first time we talked about pilot we talked about it the way we ended up with the 25 number which then because they only have to pay half of that in cash is really a 12.5 percent number the way we got there was the idea that 25 of the city budget was fire police and snow that was the sort of theory and i think that since 09 the conversations really move where more of our institutional partners would acknowledge like hey we as institutions in the city we have a stake in the city's school system we have a stake in the city's public health god knows we all work together through this crisis you know we we have a stake in the streets and whether they're clean and whether they operate and whether it's safe to get from point a to point b whether you're a pedestrian a bicyclist a motorist so i think like we've we've embraced a bigger picture understanding of how what we do in this building affects everybody in all of these institutions and we need a pilot program um that reflects that reality so i'm really grateful for the opportunity to co-sponsor this resolution and urge uh colleagues to join in support today thank you thank you council block would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to add their name please raise your hand mr clark please add council arroyo please add counselor edwards council fernandez anderson council flaherty councillor lara council fernandez anderson council mejia council murphy council rel please add the chair council braden seeks suspension of the rules in adoption of docket zero four three seven all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the resolution has been adopted mr clerk please read docket zero four three eight docker number zero four three eight councillor braden offered the following resolution in support of house 3457 and senate 2309 and act relative to electric bicycles thank you the chair recognizes council braden council braden you have the flaw thank you mr president um i moved to suspend rooney 12 in order to add consular's louisiana and councillor blockbach as original co-sponsors of this docket seeing and hearing no objections council and bach are added as co-sponsors uh chair recognizes councillor braden thank you mr president the use of electric bicycles or e-bikes uh has grown rapidly over the past several years and they expand and they expand mobility um particularly for seniors and people with disabilities however massachusetts is one of four remaining states lacking adequate e-bike regulations joining alaska new mexico and rhode island with a rating labeled problematic the proposed bill would standardize regulations and grant e-bikes the legal classification necessary for implement implementing them as blue bikes in boston several major cities have introduced e-bikes for for their bike share systems including new york san francisco chicago philadelphia and seattle the bill would provide legal options for municipalities with jurisdiction over shared use paths to determine if when and where e-bikes are allowed i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill to improve mobility access for all and mr president i would seek to suspend the rules in passage of an adaptation of this resolution today after my co-sponsors have had an opportunity to speak on it thank you thank you council braden the chief recognizes council illusion council region you have the floor thank you mr president and thank you councillor braden for introducing this resolution e-bikes are great encourage folks to try them we need to find uh make sure that we are building a multimodal city and make sure that we are allowing for legal classification to allow them so that we can continue to build out the multimodal city um i am not an e-biker i have a biker but i'm an e-scooter and even that lacks classification here under state law so there's a lot that we can we need to do if we are committed to building a city that is open not just to cars but to cars and bikes and e-bikes and scooters that we can be multimodal as a city so this is just the beginning i know that the boston cyclist union they're the ones first introduced me to e-bikes and the issue of e-bikes here in the city so credit to them in the work that they're doing but yes thank you for your leadership on this issue councillor braden and hopefully this will get through the state legislature so that we can uh have more e-bikes on our roads thank you thank you consoles and the chair recognizes council block council bloc you have the flow thank you mr president um and thanks again to co-sponsors counselors brandon and luigen um i i feel like e-bikes are just such an exciting thing in the sense that um you know when we talk about really widening access to bicycling to a wider set of people anywhere where you got to go up and down hills like you know the fact that you can have that electronic assistance it really gives more folks access it helps more people use it as a reliable commuting option and when we think about a city where frankly delivery vehicles are currently choking our streets the possibility of having like e-bike cargo delivery like what the city's already looking at um is it's exciting and it's potentially a way to move a lot of people in goods more efficiently in a way that's more climate-friendly friendly but it's really important that the city take its like health and safety regulatory capacities on board on this and the only way we can really do that is through state action that enables us to do that because the reality that we have seen in a bunch of jurisdictions is that when you don't do that you know when you have a heavy utilization of for instance like electric scooters and bicycles go up in an area you do see more head trauma in um in emergency rooms and that's because there's not necessarily a safe place on the street for them it's because you know we don't have some of the same norms around around helmet wearing that we might want and now things are going even faster and also you know i always think at the top of the vision zero pyramid is the pedestrian and i think it becomes all that much more important that we have our bicycles and other electric vehicles off of the sidewalks and onto their own street space but we can only do that and have those riders be safe if we're also making them safe on the street and just fundamentally the city's hands are tied a bit in the way that like we can regulate the space and organize and really enable that multi-modal future that my colleague talked about until there's actually a category because right now by law like the e-bike doesn't exist there's like bicycles and there's cars but this kind of in between category of something that can go faster than is safe to be on the sidewalk but where people are not as protected as they are on a two-ton vehicle that's not really like a category that exists by law so i'm grateful that our colleagues at the state house are trying to make that category exist so that we can then do our work as a city and and regulate it at the municipal level and i hope that they'll be successful thank you mr president thank you council balkan from the chair to the sponsor uh council braden uh just one question on on e-bikes um is there a helmet requirement or a or a speed limit requirement um we're we're asking uh that this this issue will be um looked at at the state level and they will determine uh those those issues uh it's really just to put it into the conversation and and establish some some norms around e-bikes because as counselor bach said they're not even recognized as a form of vehicular transportation right now thank you council brandon the chair recognizes council of flaherty and then council block um council flaherty you have the floor thank you mr chair uh please add my name i've tried and tested one of these things you may have seen the video uh the poor bike uh i'll leave it at that but uh so i think that it's time has come uh and uh hopefully someday i'll own five of them but at the meantime i support my colleague and i support this resolution so please add my name thank you council flaherty no one's questioning um questioning you but i'm gonna have we're gonna have to take a look at the video tonight council clarity to see you on the e-bike thank you council flaherty the chief recognizes council bloc i was just going to say it also responds to your question so basically the challenge right now is that we're not the state has not given us permission to have sleight of ebike specific regulations and so that's part of what this would do is it would allow us to address all those issues and the proposed legislation also actually makes distinctions depending on what on what type of e-bike they are in the sense of how fat what their maximum speed is and stuff because that's in many ways the really important thing so something that's basically a regular bicycle that just gives you like a little electric assist push when you're going up a hill is not going to be treated by the state law the same way as something that can take you 30 40 miles an hour thank you council block anyone else like to speak on this matter or raise or um add your name please raise your hand please add council royal council baker council edwards council fernandez anderson council lara mejia council murphy council rel please add the chair as well council braden seek suspension of the rules in adoption of dawkin zero four three eight all those in favor say aye aye all opposed nay the eyes haven't the resolution has passed has been adopted mr clerk please read doc at zero four three nine doctor number zero four three nine counselor fernandez anderson and councilor arroyo offer the following order for a hearing to explore a digital marketplace pilot program the chair recognizes counselor fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the flaw thank you uh mr president i'd like to uh suspend the rules and add a counselor brian varel as a co-sponsor as well please seeing it here no objection council wealth is added as a co-sponsor thank you um the post copy world has seen windfall profits accrue to giant corporations while our small businesses have suffered shuttered doors skyrocketing rents and devastating dimension of sales council royal councillor warrell and myself um are here today to address this uh disturbing economic reality and to begin the process of introducing an idea to the city why digital marketplace that will benefit our bipart small business owners and this to include of course business owners of lower income as well and seek to counteract the domination of international corporates and um in the realm of local commerce in our communities such a digital marketplace um if properly implemented and sustained could be an integral tool to support our beloved small businesses last day parish due to their lack of online presence always problematic but particularly devastating in the midst of a pandemic as such a city-led intervention to create conditions of economic empowerment for our local entrepreneurs strikes me as a vital task that we should commence thank you thank you counseling anderson anyone else like to speak on this matter the chair recognized the chair recognizes council overall council royale you have the fall uh thank you president flynn and thank you to my co-sponsors uh council anderson and council arroyo and as we think of and create tools to help small businesses we know that establishing an online presence is becoming more crucial for businesses as consumers have changed their way on how they buy goods whether it's for a house a car a book even groceries it's all happening online this is another creative pilot by counselor my co-sponsors council the royal counseling andersons and i'm looking forward to the discussion thank you thank you council we're all the chief recognizes council royal council royal you have the fall thank you mr president uh and thank you uh councillor fernandez anderson for this uh and my co-sponsor council rarel uh we know i used to know this number off the top of my head but i think it's something like 80 percent plus of our small businesses in the city of boston are immigrant people of color own small businesses uh because often when you are coming to a new country you have to make your own job and so they are a large driver of our local economies our local identities and we know that when we had the question about the big box corporation stores walmart mayor menino one of the things i actually uh very much enjoyed about him was his uh his not allowing walmart to ever really set foot in boston because of the damage it would do to small businesses uh and we know that when we look at the new sort of metric of what is doing damage to our small businesses it's online commerce it's things like amazon sort of crowding out our small businesses if there's a way for us to create an online marketplace that takes a lot of the heavy lifting off of our small businesses in terms of the creation and maintenance of a website but allows them to compete in a similar way that only brings dollars back to our local communities and again it's these small businesses that are sponsoring our little leagues our our school dance recitals our schools all the things that i go to i always go to my small businesses i don't go to the target in my district i don't go to those areas because generally speaking the money for our neighborhoods always comes from the folks who live in it and work in it and so i look forward to finding any way we can to strengthen our local businesses and our small businesses and i think this will be a nice step towards exploring whether or not we can do that in an online space thank you uh mr president thank you council royal anyone else looking to speak on this matter anyone else looking to add their name the chair recognizes council braden council braiding you over the floor thank you man uh mr madam president mr president sorry about that um i really want to thank the the co-sponsors for for this important uh bringing this issue forward uh one we last year we had a hearing about um the issue of grubhub and other platforms that were interjecting their their presence into our small businesses and acting as a middle a middleman to and taking a huge cut on um a fee from our our restaurants and again last week i i was on a um a walk in our main streets district with uh chief sagon idaho and one of the issues that came up was the restaurants talking about this um this this experience of having a very significant fee taken taken from their uh bottom line by the delivery services so i think that having having this conversation about the digital marketing marketplace for our small businesses in the city is a very timely one and thank you please add my name thank you council braden please add council braden's name would anyone else like to speak on it or the the chair recognizes council me here counsel me here you have the phone you know i'm always going to rise on everything and anything that um my sister over there puts forth because it's this type of innovation that we need more of here in the city of boston and kind of so i'm really encouraged by your leadership in this space and thank you to your co-sponsors for joining you um i know i always keep talking about kovit because that's the only reference that i have that a lot of our small businesses many who um struggle with reading and writing even in their own native language really struggle to have access to information and as we start thinking about creating this digital platform really being super intentional about how we can use it in a way that's utilizing videos and audio and visuals to help the consumer being able to navigate what this could look like and also i think as we continue to have this conversation is the resources that we're going to pour into to helping to support our small business to be able to be set up for success so i think there's some work that we need to do on the council in terms of advocacy to ensure that we're setting up the administration for success and i also think there's such an amazing opportunity to include some of these business owners to helping design what it could look like in terms of a user experience so i'm really grateful for your leadership and looking forward to supporting this and i am encouraged to what is to come if you continue to roll these out thank you thank you councilman here would anyone else like to add their name please raise your hand the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson um very quickly thank you for that point um i'm really excited because imagine a world that it's not grubhub it's our own and yes i have to say more um so imagine a world where it's like you have this digital platform and you combine it with a back office for main streets and i'm so excited because so many of you have done some of this work and i'm looking forward to expand and also have partnered with chief idol and the administration looking at the possibilities so the conversation about merging technical assistance coming from main street as an executive director and understanding understanding this thing in and out i think that it's very exciting and thank you so much for your support anyone else like to speak or add their name mr clerk please add counselor bach please add council lara council legend council mejia council murphy council edwards council flaherty please add the chair docket zero four three nine will be referred to the committee on small business professional licensure since this hearing is focused on small business in other aspects it is appropriate for us to go into that committee mr clark please read docket zero four four zero document number zero four four zero counselor murphy offered the following order for a hearing to address the lack of athletic opportunities for our students the chair recognizes councillor murphy council murphy you have the floor thank you um i'd like to suspend the rules and add councillor louisiana and also my colleague councillor braden as original co-sponsors seeing and hearing no objection mr clerk please add those two city councils the chair recognizes council murphy thank you so i'm calling for this hearing because our public school students deserve a full range of athletic opportunities in nearby towns like concord the public school department spends 821 dollars per student on athletic programs for their kids the state average is 161 dollars but here in boston we only spend 76 dollars per student that is less than one-third of one percent of the 1.3 billion dollar school budget and it's not like we're not spending money in fact at close to twenty four thousand dollars per student boston spends more per pupil than most other cities and towns in the state twenty four thousand dollars per student and we can't find a few hundred dollars for our children i think it's not right this is a shameful statistic and a sad reminder of just how poorly our public schools are doing at fulfilling its responsibility to the holistic education and mental health supports that our children need so badly the current state of the bps athletics program is not good too many middle and high schools have only a small handful of teams and some schools have no athletic programs at all for the schools that do offer sports the funding resources and guidance from bps central office is severely lacking the recent closure of the highly successful scholar athletes program by its private funders adds to the loss of meaningful school sports for most of our public school students the problem like so many problems plaguing our public school system is not funding we have the money what we need is the will and the leadership to follow through teachers coaches and volunteer parents work so hard for our kids this has to stop and i will fight for our students here at the co on the council it's the right thing to do because we know that sports are good for everyone sports provide our children with way more than just the opportunity to exercise their bodies the physical benefits are just the beginning there are social health and physiological benefits that allow our kids to do better in life kids who participate on school teams are far more likely to have improved grades better school attendance report healthier social behavior and to reach higher academic and professional success after high school as a mother of student athletes go dragons who benefited in so many ways from their time on school teams and as a public school teacher who knows that educating the whole child has to include physical and social wellness to be successful i will fight for school sports for our kids boston public school kids need this outlet for their social and mental health now more than ever and i believe we should be doing everything possible to get our boston public school sports back on track our own kids have the will the talent and the right to all the wonderful lifelong benefits that sports offer i hope today my colleagues will join us on this and join the fight to be there for our boston public school students every step of the way thank you thank you council murphy would anyone else like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes um council illusion council region you have the floor thank you mr president president and thank you to council murphy for introducing this hearing order you know the current focus of bps and i think we should be doing is adding a lot more school counselors family liaison social workers and we are headed in that direction we need to continue to push in the direction for a lot of us who go and visit schools you know madison park you go and you hear students complain about the lack of sport options a lack of teams at what they once had that have been taken away we need to make sure that we are addressing the whole child which means their emotional social and physical intellect we also know that making sure that our students have access to sports helps to deal with the issue issues of absenteeism that's both for just sports and for arts the more that we allow our students to exercise different parts of their lives in the school building the better it is and we're talking about all these capital improvements that we need to make to our schools almost 25 of our schools don't have gym facilities right and we're in a city with world-class sports teams um that disparity of being in a city that with those teams but yet having schools that don't have any teams at all and that don't have the physical structure to support that is unacceptable and so um i'm in support of this hearing order so that we can see what we can do to support more at more sports in our schools and to make sure that we are supporting our students as a whole thank you and thank you council murphy thank you council zhan uh the chair recognizes council elara councillara you have the floor thank you president flynn and i want to extend my gratitude to the sponsors um of this hearing order okay sorry you're talking to me um i first want to add my name to it please if i can as a student athlete myself both through bps and in college i understand the importance of investing in our student athletes and investing in bps to make sure that all of our students have access to sports i wanted to rise to talk particularly about the problem of our fields and our athletic fields in the city as the chair of the environmental justice resiliency and parks committee our office has been working with a lot of the youth sports organizations in the city to have a conversation around how we can increase access to our athletic fields and so i think that this is a perfect place for collaboration and a perfect place to extend conversations i think that bps provides a lot of the athletics for our young people but we have pop warner we have jpu soccer and all of the other teams that ultimately provide respite for our young people during the summer and after school hours so we have to have a conversation around the financial investment but we also have to think about the structural investment how are we making sure that we have athletic fields and parks available in all of our neighborhoods to all of our students and to all of the places in the city of boston who are providing enrichment to our students and our young people so i look forward to collaborating with the sponsor on that issue as well thank you thank you council lara the chair recognizes council braden council brandon i failed to call on you earlier as an original co-sponsor so i apologize mr president i was in late addition and i want to thank councillor murphy for adding me as a co-sponsor um i i'll speak to this issue i really do feel that school sports are a vital component of a healthy development of young young people and i'll speak to my own experience when i was 14 years old my father passed away very suddenly and it was my participation in school sports that really was a lifeline for me as a young person facing a sudden and and sudden loss in my life and for my family and the school's sports teams my my fellow teammates my coaches and my teachers involved in the sports realm were instrumental in helping me weather that time in my life and i really do understand how vitally important it is for young people to have access to sports in school many of them don't have other opportunities um to join clubs and and the y or whatever so school sports is a critical lifeline um i also thinking about my earlier conversation about pilot and and our relationship with our institutions or educational institutions in the city i really feel that we this this hearing of order also offers an opportunity to perhaps explore uh potential opportunities for our local schools to partner with our local colleges to access some of their incredible world-class sports facilities in the off season when there's no students in town we have a lot of resources in the city of boston my colleague councilor flackerty speaks about this all the time we we have so many world-class institutions incredible educational opportunities for higher and further education but we really need to pay attention to our our public school population in the city and i also want to give a big shout out to boston high school teams go bengals they do us proud every every time they hit the field so thank you so much i really welcome this opportunity and think it's a really critical part of a well-rounded education for our young people in our schools thank you thank you council braden the chair recognizes council flaherty council clarity you have the floor thank you mr chair uh please have my name commend the lead sponsor and the co-sponsors as mentioned [Music] sports in general keeps kids in school keeps them away from drugs and alcohol and gangs it fosters competition sportsmanship school pride friendships not to mention the potential for college scholarships and if folks are really that good potential drafts and maybe even an opportunity to have a professional career the state of school sports with respect to the bps is in complete disarray the fact that we had teams that were not able to compete in the miaa because of whether it was a clerical or an administrative issue whatever the issue was uh not only was it a statewide embarrassment probably a national embarrassment uh those kids missed out on an opportunity uh the buck stops at the top with the athletic director i challenge my colleagues to try to get in touch with the athletic director good luck i think the lights are on no one's home so more than appropriate to have a hearing on the status of the boston public schools school sports uh school sports is a game changer for kids for a whole multitude of reasons and why we are not more competitive why we are not providing more opportunities for kids in the schools as it pertains to their athleticism and the connection there's a whole program former state representative kevin fitzgerald created sports and society over at northeastern they've done great work over there and the link between uh folks that are playing sports and again that could be on the ice that could be on the field it could be at the gym there could be anywhere you want um in in the pool school sports in general um can change the trajectory of someone's life on a number of fronts and so time has come to address this issue so i look forward to that uh hopefully be an expedited hearing because as we're heading into the budget season so folks need to answer some questions regarding the state of affairs with respect to school sports in boston public schools thank you mr president thank you thank you council ferrari the chair recognizes councilman here counsel me here you have the floor uh thank you and thank you to the makers for this um very important conversation you know am i gonna hijack it but i will just say you know there are a lot of young people who are working two to three jobs that can't participate in athletics and i just want to name that as we start thinking about this conversation is that we really need to look at um some of the things that prevent young people from participating in sports and so that should be a part of the conversation in terms of how we're going to remove barriers so that young people can actually participate because otherwise um you know it's just another conversation about another conversation and i think that we need to really remove barriers so everybody could participate and then the other piece that i'd like to just uplift is that i've gotten so many phone calls from folks who are looking for access to gyms who are doing not school sports but like are trying to supplement and create space for for folks to be able to um for young people in particular to to continue to participate in sports and so i think there is an opportunity for the city to recognize the role that they play in opening up some of the centers and working more collaboratively with other folks non-profits there are places and spaces that i think we need to include in this conversation so that it goes beyond the school sports but that we're looking at 360 and that everybody is um here to participate and create space for that sort of well-rounded opportunity for all kids so thank you and please act my name please counsel me his name the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson um thank you mr president uh counselor uh murphy i think this is a phenomenal idea it's fantastic everything that you've been talking about and doing around uh mental health and education amazing ideas you sit there and all of this brilliance comes out and i'm i can't wait to collaborate or talk to you more about it and we've been talking to berkeley and a few other schools about bringing in music and facilities as well and it's like my colleague mejia saying we get calls about opening up gyms and facilities and possibly you know doing like how do how do muslim young girls swim separate from or whatever so access and talking about that i just want to say like as so for me sports saved my life i grew up in the projects everybody knows the story right i came immigrant poor i had to work two jobs i was in throughout middle school in high school i fun fact i actually practiced martial arts for 10 years so doing that martial arts being in sports and for all those years yes i can kick but no i'm kidding so doing that all those years and it really did save my life like i had a subunim a trainer that would really literally like whoop my behind if i did if i didn't keep up um to school and then when i grew as i became a young parent i put my kids in mecco right so my oldest was an athlete and they went to weston the best school in massachusetts like when i say the best you walk through literally it's an emotional experience to see all of the facilities that they have everything how i get involved as a parent there in western and then to have clients in bps and see the difference a stark difference it's very depressing i look forward to working with you on it thank you thank you council fernandez anderson i would also like to thank councillor murphy in the for her work on this important issue sports and school is is critical during the pandemic our students suffered didn't have access the right access to sports and it really hurt their development i think it hurt their development especially academically certainly certainly physically and mentally as well but when we hear that there's 25 percent of students that don't have access to an athletic gym at a school that's that's outrageous we had a conversation i know council braden mentioned that we had a conversation on pilot a few minutes ago but we also have to get our colleges and universities more involved i'd be embarrassed if i was a college college president right now hearing this hearing this topic of of being discussed here knowing that boston public schools students don't have access to a gym i if i were a college president i'd call the mayor up in five minutes and and say what can what can we do to be helpful how do we get involved how do we donate more money um so as a as a parent of a a son that's in the bps and plays plays sports sports is critical so just want to thank my colleagues especially counselor murphy for leading on this uh important issue and just following up on a comment of counsel clarity it's it's it's it's important for us during the council budget process to effectively advocate for spending for bps athletic programs to see where that money is going and to have the athletic director of bps here testifying in person about what the what about the state of affairs at bps sports so just want to say thank you to my colleague council murphy council murphy of the floor thank you everyone i do just want to um thank you for bringing that to our attention and i want to make sure that when we are in these working sessions the conversation needs to include what athletics are being offered during the school day also if it's before school or during the day and also not limiting to traditional sports that we're making sure we're including color guard dance share martial arts that we're not just thinking boys playing hockey or like crew all of these so thank you and also the open spaces will definitely be a concern because if you visit schools and you walk through the door they look very different some don't have gyms at all and making sure that how do we get to use those spaces if it's the park next door or if it's getting into the gym i know there's issues around union and custodians opening the doors and we've had many of those conversations during covid with hoping that bcyf could get back into spaces and knowing the importance of our kids playing athletics so thank you everyone and i look forward to our work ahead thank you council murphy if you'd like to add your name please raise your hand please add frank counsel arroyo council baker council book council edwards council fernandez anderson council flaherty councillora councillor mejia council royal please add the chair docket zero four four zero refer to the committee on education personnel orders mr clerk please read doc at zero four four one doctor number zero four four one council of flynn for consultation suspension of the rules passage of dark at four four four one all those in favor say aye aye all opposed saying the eyes have it the documents pass mr clerk please read talk at zero four four two doctor number zero four four two council of flame for council of french suspension of the rules passage of docket zero four four two all those in favor say aye all opposed saying the eyes have it the docket is passed late files i'm informed by the clerk that there are four late file matters delay file matters include one home rule petition two resolutions one hearing order the late file should be in everyone's desk on everyone's desk we'll take a vote to add these items into the agenda all those in in favor of adding the late files matters into the agenda say aye hi thank you the late file matters have been added to the agenda mr clerk please read the first late file mata into the agenda which is the home rule petition please offered by council is lydia edwards and councillor head flynn a petition for a home rule petition excuse me a homo petition for a special law relative to an act regarding the disability pension for elena mcallister elena mccasker sustained life-threatening injuries while in the performance of her duties as a boston emergency medical technician when she was violently attacked and stabbed multiple times while rendering first aid to a patient during ambulance transport as and as a result is incapacitated from further service as an emergency medical technician be it ordered that a petition to the general court accompanied by a bill for a special law relating to the city of boston to be filed with an attested copy of this order being be and hereby is approved under clause 1 of section 8 of article 2 as amended of the articles of amendment to the constitution of the commonwealth of massachusetts and to the end that legislation be adopted precise precisely except for clerical or editorial changes of form only thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes counselor edwards counselor would you have the floor thank you very much i rise in support of an essential worker of a public servant of someone who was simply doing her job in east boston and when doing her job due to the mentality or mental illness of the person she was trying to help she was stabbed multiple times as a result of those injuries she and we will find is unable to do the work anymore as an ems worker this is part of normal process that we have in the city council where those who have sustained injuries police officers firefighters ems workers on the job they are then retired disabled she is now retired disabled but in order for her to i believe fully be compensated for all of the work that she's done she can file this homo petition which allows her to go from 80 compensation to 100 compensation that's what this is seeking we need a special law in order to do that we will have a hearing where her medical records will be reviewed by you and will she will demonstrate to this body that she is permanently incapacitated and unable to do this law now this has been somewhat controversial because people wondered well you know this seems unfair um what's what's really an injury and so on and so forth and we had copious amounts of conversations and we've come down to kind of grouping and looking at these issues one is making sure that the person isn't permanently tired and getting a hundred percent disability and then able to go do the same job someplace else so for example police officers if you're not gonna do law enforcement you cannot do law enforcement you shouldn't be able to get 100 retirement and then go to georgia or go to virginia and then become a police officer there this follows that as well she is not going to be working in ems services for anybody anywhere going forward the other thing we wanted to fix was the fact that there is a certain level of income capped that you can make in the state law that's fifteen thousand dollars so while you're getting a hundred percent of your salary on disability for retirement for the rest of your life by state law your captain working a second job and making more than fifteen thousand dollars and that was a big controversy for us because that's not even minimum wage so if somebody happened to go back and get a job or go back to school and made some kind of extra money not in the field that they're retired from the max that they could ever make is fifteen thousand dollars so we as a body have started to implement a higher cap of one hundred thousand dollars allowing them to do to get a second job or to work someplace else still collect their disability and make a hundred thousand dollars essentially i wanted you to know that this is following exactly what we've done before it also requires her to check in on her disability as well she is not exempt from that and being able to confirm that she's still permanently disabled and unable to work so this is following along with what we have passed in this body before the vetting will be the same it has as it has been before i will however check with her about and her union as to whether she will testify you must understand this is a ptsd this is triggering for her to talk about what she has gone through and if she cannot talk about it i am asking that this body be willing to accept her medical records and the testimony of the union specifically about what she's gone through there's no point in having someone go through this suffering again so so again i've offered this homeworld petition with counselor flynn another great supporter of our ems and public safety workers in in this body with the hopes that we will be able to present this pass this and then get it over to the state house so that hopefully our sponsors on that side will be able to make sure that she is retired with a hundred percent disability also worth noting she is the prime married breadwinner in her family her husband is not so that is another reason why she we would need to increase to 100 percent so thank you very much thank you council edwards the chair recognizes councilor flynn thank you thank you council royale um i think council of edwards said it perfectly about the issue before us miss mcallister really is a hero in our city putting her life on the line for us at a very difficult time here in here in the city so you know we're not she's not asking for any any type of special favor from us she's just asking us to treat her fairly failing to treat her with respect so the ems community they play a critical role in our city these ems technicians and professionals do an outstanding job very difficult job and unsung heroes really in our city so um you know i i obviously support this along with council edwards and look look forward to the uh to the hearing the hearing as well thank you council edwards for the important work that you've done on this uh issue thank you councillor flynn uh would anyone else like to speak on this matter seeing no discussion with anyone else like to add their name please uh mr clark please add counselor uh baker please add counselor bach please add counselor braden please add counselor fernandez anderson please add counselor flaherty please add counselor lara please add counselor louis jen please add counselor mejia please add counselor murphy please add council o'reilly please add my name the first laid file matter will be referred to the committee on government operations mr clerk would you please read the second late file into the record second late file resolution recognizing women veterans during women's history month offered by council as ed flynn and lydia edwards whereas women currently comprise nearly 20 percent of serving military personnel and 10 percent of the veteran population however many women veterans do not receive proper recognition for their services and face a host of issues when they re-enter civilian life now therefore be it ordered that the boston city council affirms its support for women veterans and honors their service bravery and sacrifice they have made towards the city of boston in our country thank you mr clark the chair recognizes councillor flynn councillor flynn you have the floor thank you council royal council royal may i suspend rule 12 and add council murphy as an original co-sponsor seeing no objections counselor murphy's added as an original co-sponsor thank you thank you council royal this is one of the this resolution is something i've done with council edwards for four years now and i i do it because march is women's history month but we also know that the incredible role women veterans play in our country and they're not afforded the same level of respect and dignity that male veterans receive when they come back from from active duty i always like to partner with council edwards because her mother is a veteran and she knows much better than anyone on the the critical role women play in our military but more importantly that the challenges women veterans have when they return from active duty i know council edwards can describe i can describe that yesterday the opportunity to attend a women's veterans roundtable discussion with councillor murphy and mayo wu on this issue but i know when i go to the va in jamaica plain in west roxbury the va in boston is is actually pretty good but nationally we have a poor record in support of women veterans women veterans need gender specific medical care full access to medical care 25 percent of women veterans are victim or survivors of mst which is military sexual trauma we have to make sure women veterans also have received these services and programs that they that they have earned as well so i'm going to stop there and give my colleagues an opportunity to discuss this important issue and i hope my colleagues will support this resolution thank you mr chairman thank you councillor flynn the chair recognizes councillor edwards thank you very much um i'm an air force brat i was born on st patrick's air force base december 13th 1980 they delivered myself my sister and everybody else born in december in large stockings to our families and my mother is the veteran and oftentimes that's i have to correct people when i say i'm a military brat because they want to talk about the father my father did in terms of this country so 23 years she served this country she joined during vietnam and she left during iraq one she like many women have mst and i'm just now learning about the military sexual trauma that my my mother and many other women have gone through it is not 25 that is a low count it is extremely high and you cannot imagine the sense of violation that you feel when you are serving your country and you're willing to die for the nation and that the colleague that is next to you has either raped you traumatized you in such a way and treated you as a less than human being and somehow somewhere you're supposed to continue to work with them roseanne trifoni masukali from winthrop is the head of the director of women's er veterans services in winthrop and she was a military police officer and she also survived mst and when she came and this is what ties us into this particular conversation when she came to the outpost officer when she was decommissioning and discussing her mst that officer then told her well you're a police officer you should have been able to protect yourself that's how she was received as a patriot that's how her trauma was treated because she was a woman so it is how we are receiving how we're respecting how we're honoring and how we're protecting our women veterans as they have to unpack traditional ptsd from having served in this country and sometimes at war but also mst ptsd i want to bring that up because in so many cases so much of our society hasn't adjusted for them they were still trying to come up with babysitting for myself and my sister on the military bases because my mother was a single mom they were trying to come up with different ways to always adjust for the fact that mothers are serving in the military women are here and honestly it's been formal for the last maybe since the 1930s but women have always been part of every single war ever in this world and women have served protected fought and died for their countries or their communities so i just want to say i'm very excited about continuing this conversation about the contributions of some of the most patriotic people and reminding people that you know those of us those military bats born to women veterans we have a special small club of us where we got to see our mothers put on combat boots and high heels and kick ass and thank you thank you council edwards chair now recognizes councillor murphy thank you and as the chair of veterans and military families i'm proud to join council of flame and council edwards on this supporting our veterans is vitally important but our women veterans we know have different needs so to make sure that we're supporting and advocating our women veterans is very important so thank you for letting me join you in this and i look forward to the work ahead thank you thank you councillor murphy would anyone else like to speak on this matter seeing no discussion would anyone else like to add their name mr clerk please add counselor baker please add counselor bach please add counselor braden please add counselor fernandez anderson please add counselor flaherty please add counselor lara please add counselor louis jen please add counselor mejia please add council warrell and please add my name counselor flynn and edwards and murphy seek suspension of the rules and adoption of the second late foul matter all those in favor say aye all those opposed say nay the eyes have it the resolution has been adopted thank you mr clerk thank you council royale mr cork please read the third late file mata into the agenda which is the resolution from council edwards and councilman here please resolution offered by councillor lady edwards and council julia mejia whereas boston logan airport contracted service workers such as aircraft cleaners security guards ramp agents cargo agents wheelchair agents for elderly and disabled passengers and baggage handlers help ensure that the airport is safe healthy and well functioning for the traveling public and be it resolved that the boston city council recognizes airport service workers for their essential contributions during the pandemic and supports them in advocating for a family sustaining wage and further urges the massachusetts port authority to pass a higher wage standard so that current and future workers see boston logan airport as an attractive and stable place to work thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes counselor edwards council edwards you have the floor thank you very much i'll be brief um we all stood or predominantly all of us stood just uh right before this meeting in support of these workers and heard directly from the workers from 32bj and those who are desperate to make sure that they're part of a union about why it's so important that this body speak in solidarity for their dignity for their respect and make sure that no one thinks ever that they are unseen by us or under appreciated by this body so having said a lot of things already um and the fact that i know that many of my colleagues were there in solidarity i'm going to go ahead and just ask that we move to suspend the rules and vote for this formally right now in order for this resolution to pass and i hope that you will join me in doing so thank you thank you thank you council edwards the chair recognizes council mejia council may hear you of the floor yeah thank you and thank you to councillor slash senator edwards um for sponsoring this resolution and by now you have already you know i always talk about the fact that my mom is 73 years old and still to poor to retire because she's never been able to join a union and we've seen the power of a good union job can make um these days um and so i just think i'm sure all my colleagues are going to join us it was incredibly an honor to be able to speak to the crowd of 32 bj workers earlier today and you could tell by speaking with them that they were passionate and determined when it comes when it came to standing up for their rights for working class it often feels like we're living in a tale of two cities and i'm just baffled that how could it be that airlines across the country reported billions of dollars in profit through 2021 and yet our airline workers are still expected to live off of 15 an hour that is just financial abuse i just don't understand how that is possible um you know i said during our rally earlier and i want to say it here again that i want to challenge anyone who are passengers and folks who are traveling through logan airport to look around you the floors did not clean themselves your baggage did not get on the flight on its own and the work that was done by the hard-working people you see here out there fighting this morning those are the ones who are behind that so it's really important for us to recognize that not only do our workers deserve our respect but above all they deserve a livable wage when you look at the discrepancies and you look at the fact that people can't even afford to live here in the city of boston but yet they have to work two to three jobs just to make their ends meet that conversation needs to be uplifted and as a council one thing is to show our solidarity and show up and the other piece of that work is making sure that we continue to put pressure wherever that pressure needs to be if we're going to move this work forward because i guess that a lot of folks are just tired of having the same conversation and expecting different results and we need to hold those who are profiting off the backs of the hard labor of our people to recognize the role that they play and the responsibility that they have to increase these wages so that everyone can afford to stay here in the city of boston thank you thank you councilman here the chair recognizes council brought council bloc you have the floor thank you so much president flynn and please add my name on this i just wanted to stress how important i think this is as like a model um so for folks who may not know you know 32bj and others have fought hard to get this floor across all subcontractors at massport and i think it's really important to stress that like in today's environment what keeps happening is that our unions have organized hard with our big institutions and they get unionized workforces and then those institutions just outsource the work to other folks not covered and so this fight for a floor at massport that says whatever the subcontractor is you really got to be paying this livable wage that was a huge win and the reality is that that wind is being inflated away right now that ceiling is only at 15 bucks an hour and now minimum wage in the state has risen to 14.25 so where that floor used to be two bucks or more above the minimum wage now that gap has decreased and it hasn't been continuing to rise so i think this is so important for us to support today because i think frankly this battle really sort of should have already been won back when massport committed to that higher ceiling uh many years ago and and just they haven't been keeping up with it um but i also want to stress that like to me it seems like a model as we look across the city at places where the you know the reaction to the union sector has been it has been to push more and more jobs into the non-union sector to really talk about like sectoral bargaining and places where we can say look like bostonians need to make of the kind of wage that can sustain a family in this town so i just i'm really grateful to 32 bj and all of the workers for their leadership on this and i hope the council can not only support this today but also support efforts like this in sectors all across the city so thank you mr president and please i didn't you want your name added to me um anyone else like to speak on this manner anyone else like to add their name please add council royal council baker council bar council braden council fernandez anderson council flaherty council lara consoles jen councilman council murphy council mejia council rel and please have the chair um councillor edwards and council mejia seeks suspension of the rules and adoption of second late mata all those in favor say aye all opposed nay the eyes have it the resolution is adopted um mr clerk please read the fourth late matter into the record which is the hearing order from council hour and council region fourth uh late final amount offered by council is kendra lara and lucy louisiana order for a hearing regarding the state of affordable housing in boston's inclusionary development policy whereas the city's city of boston's inclusionary development policy was created in 2000 to promote the production of affordable housing in boston and it continues to be a critical tool for creating and funding income restricted housing and therefore be it ordered that the appropriate committee of the boston city council hold a hearing to discuss the idp inclusionary zoning and methods to ensure a greater percentage of affordable units income guidelines that create truly affordable units for boston households and requirements for family size units permanent affordability and affordability in smaller developments representatives from the boston planning and development agency mayor's office of housing office of fair housing and equity affordable housing organizations community groups and other interested parties are invited to testify the hearing will also discuss immediate changes to the idp before a new study is complete ways to ensure a robust study and substantial community input and the impact of developments currently under review thank you mr clark the chair recognizes council lara counsel how are you of the floor thank you president flynn and apologies to my colleagues and thank you for sticking with us as we're moving through these late files president flynn i would like to suspend rule 12 and add counselor bach as one of the original co-sponsors senior here no objection council block is added the chair recognizes council hara thank you so much president flynn um for me as councillor mejia mentioned at our um one of our last hearings the personal has always been political and during my campaign run i think that we were all made aware as was the entire city through a very detailed boston globe article of my own struggles uh with housing and security and so it's a great honor for me to be the chair of the housing and community development committee here on the city council i'm also a beneficiary of our inclusionary development policy here in the city of boston the only reason why my family and i are able to not only afford to stay in the city but afford to stay living in the neighborhood where i grew up in jamaica plain is because i'm a beneficiary of one of the lottery spots inside of one of these luxury apartment buildings and so this is something that's very near and dear to my heart and i'm really excited to present it to the city council for the past two months our office has been in active conversation with community members and housing advocates to ultimately create a collective strategy for the housing committee that wouldn't only be coming from me but would be coming from the people who are most directly impacted by the housing crisis this strategy would include codifying the relationship between landlord and tenants expansion of social housing and public housing in the city of boston land reclamation zoning anti-speculation legislation implementation of a ffh and our inclusionary development policy as presented here today like i mentioned before we're in the middle of a housing crisis we have unaffordable housing costs that are rising housing instability and displacement particularly that has been exacerbated by the kova 19 pandemic and eviction rates that are 2.3 times higher in black and brown communities than in predominantly white neighborhoods here in the city of boston the area median income that we use right now in the city of boston uh is skewed and inflated if you know it's for lack of a better word it includes 114 surrounding towns and cities not just the city of boston a lot of which are much much wealthier and so we are using a 70 to 100 ami to talk about affordability here in the city when the ami for the people in the city of boston is actually around zero to 60 percent we have a significant need for family sized housing 63 percent of new development was either a one-bedroom or a studio even though we have a growing need for families here in the city of boston so this growing shortage of affordable housing is really threatening to exclude or otherwise severely harm low and moderate income residents in the city it negatively impacts all of our residents because it's frustrating our efforts to really maintain and increase the diversity of our populace throughout the city and also in neighborhoods who are facing displacement and we're really struggling to maintain our status as a world-class welcoming city and affirmatively further fair housing all of which is going to be necessary for public health safety and the general welfare of the city if i can quote councillor bach the inclusionary development policy is one of the tools that we have in our toolbox and this hearing will ultimately begin the process of ensuring that our housing policy is aiding us not preventing us from keeping our people housed this hearing order is like most things that will be coming out of our office really a continuation of a long legacy of decades work of housing justice work from community organizations and the city and people right here on the city council namely councillor edwards and councillor bach and so i'm also really excited to maintain and continue the work of the housing committee um as they transition into well councillor edwards transitions into her role as senator and i'm sure that she'll bring this work to the senate but to that end i want to also thank the coalition for a truly affordable boston who have been partners to our office in um filing for this hearing order and i'm excited for the conversation thank you president thank you council hara the chair recognizes council council you have the floor thank you so much mr president and thank you to council lara for filing this i'm happy to be a co-sponsor um our you know too often our inclusionary development policy there are some like who are able to benefit but overall uh there it's people who sneak through like council lara there are so many other families that are in need and people who are needed are of in need of some form of affordable housing and don't get it too often our idp inclusionary development policy is functioning as an intentional displacement policy right the idps means something else and we have a lot of work to do to ensure that it is a policy that is really about including our families and our residents in the city of boston um into these new developments that that we see going out i know a lot of us a few weeks ago got an email from a resident at 30 i think early 30s black woman it broke my heart because she was born and raised here in this city and she's trying to do everything right to get out to get somewhere to live and she thinks that she has to leave the city of boston because she just misses the income requirements for an idp unit and those are the people that we need to make sure that we're protecting so here she's here she's a social worker trying to do right by our kids and can't afford to live in this city so we have a lot of work to do um to make sure that we're not just becoming a city of have and have nots you know page two of this hearing order talks about how we have to do an analysis of idp to include that includes uh potentially uh lowering profit levels and taking a look at what that looks like yesterday i was sitting down with a developer and i was saying we need to go down we need to look at the numbers to see what are the numbers the 13 uh policy that we have right now is a displacement policy 13 is not enough and so but oftentimes you'll have developers say that we can't build if it's 20 we can't build if it's 25 so i think it is on our job it is our job to look at those numbers and really take a look at what it means when they say they can't build is it because that would eat into their profit or is it because the numbers actually don't work so i'm excited for to to delve into that more deeply um i also just want to talk about something that was mentioned earlier when we were talking about picketing is that our role um and i and i didn't get to say this our role is is not just to say what's legal and what's legal within the four corners of a piece of paper our role is more than that um because a lot of things are legal and unjust and so it is legal to profit uh millions and millions of dollars off of our property but i think our role is often to ask what is just and so i'm excited to have this to continue to continue this conversation on housing as an attorney who represented families facing eviction and foreclosure as our eviction moratorium is about to end we're about to see more displacement in our city more of our families are going to be suffering so we have to do everything we can every tool in that toolkit to make sure we are doing everything to protect our families thank you thank you council jen the chair recognizes council council bloc you have the flow thank you so much mr president thank you to counselors lara and lujan um for allowing me to join um and uh and and i really want to give thanks to my colleague councillor edwards as well because the reality is i think we're at an exciting crossroads in terms of how to make our idp policy better serve the residents of boston and in significant part that's because of her leadership in getting a home rule petition passed through the state house last year happened in the wee hours of january 6 i think um three um and it means that we're actually going to be able to codify the idp policy not just as a mayoral executive order but actually it's something that's in our zoning and kind of has that that formality that linkage has long had since the 80s and i think that's really going to strengthen the policy and it's going to help us move towards a number of the things that the coalition for truly affordable boston and other advocates have pushed for namely you know how do we lower the threshold because we all know that because the 10 units we get a heck of a lot of nine unit proposals how do we deepen affordability as was mentioned before you know have a range of affordabilities get ourselves down more towards that boston median income and how do we have a higher unit count and i think like the challenges obviously are that each of those things is costly like it you know we don't always focus on the fact that if like we have a 30 ami unit the the way that all pencils out one of those could cost sort of what two of the 70 ones do in terms of like the profit number so i think what what our advocates have really challenged all of us to do is push towards the limits like counselor louis jensen really really think about how are we utilizing all of the like available the profit that's in these deals that make them appealing and make them appealing even when there's mitigation pieces you know how do we really push more of that towards the people in our city who need it most and i will just say that i am previously on the record on this but i want to take the opportunity to say i feel especially strongly that in places where the city is creating significant public value by up zoning an area particularly something that we do through planned development areas i mean if somebody's got a piece of land that currently says they can build six stories on it and the city says now you can build 12 stories it's like we've created another piece of land that you can build six stories on out of the sky and i just think that as we think about adjusting the policy we really need to look at places where we're creating major public value and saying we need more of this for the public good and the public good looks like housing our our lower income citizens so i'm really looking forward to digging into the weeds i want to thank the mayor's team and the mayor for the major steps that she announced back in december on this front and and i know that you know part of what the coalition and the administration is weighing right now is what do we do in the interim and what can we codify in zoning as counselor edwards helped make possible for us so i'm really looking forward to that conversation and i'm thrilled that we've got so many housing advocates on the council so thank you mr president thank you council bark the chair recognizes council baker thank you mr baker you have the floor thank you mr president i don't necessarily disagree with with this as it stands but i do think that we have to be careful the more layers of government the more costs coming from government on the development community i think we're going to see the development community start to trickle away from boston that being said we still haven't spent anything on building any units at all we've spent i think i think it was 38 million going in was it 38 million going into support of homeless services one number i got for um the roundhouse was over five million dollars where we're spending on giving people rooms in it and and the people that are performing that are coming to our neighborhoods our communities and wreaking havoc in them and we're giving them we're giving them uh housing we're not helping that family that that can maybe come up with 15 or sixteen hundred we're not giving them five hundred or a thousand bucks to be able to get that unit for twenty five hundred opera money where is it all going still haven't built a single unit with opera money we should be looking at direct designation for the developers because they know how to spend their money efficiently and we should we ought to allow them set them up set them up with ways to put their money into actual developments we're going to build 100 units here from this project that project that project we're not having any of those discussions it's all layers of bureaucracy layers of of rules and more and more money every time we turn around so um but do sign my name on to this because i need to be part of this conversation because i'm probably the only one that thinks like this but thank you mr chair thank you thank you for the hearing order thank you council baker the chair recognizes councillor braden council braden you have the flaw thank you mr president i really want to thank the lead sponsors um i think this discussion is past due um in austin brighton we've seen um we've been working really hard to try and move the needle on this issue and um you know we've we've seen over the past 10 years thousands ten ten thousand i don't know what the number is but it's thousands of new units of housing built in austin brighton and frankly you know the idp units uh the 13 that the developers said they couldn't possibly do any um they were 70 of the area median income so and there were studios and one bedroom so that meant that you can't raise a family in a studio the studios were priced at 2 400 those were the affordable units so most of the folks the working uh people in austin brighton couldn't afford the so-called income restricted housing that was being built so really welcome this opportunity to really see if we can get change this this pattern three years ago we were routinely getting 13 percent now we through incredible efforts from our office and other advocates in the neighborhood we're able to get developers to build to get them to 17 20 percent 28 we percent one project under development or under review right now it's going to be 80 affordable so we really really are grateful to those developers who are provide prepared to dig in and find other mechanisms to help them build more affordable housing but across the city we have so much more to do i heard this morning on the news that boston is going to knock san francisco off the pole position for the most lab space we have uh 60 million 30 million square feet of lab space in the city right now and there's another 60 million in the pipeline or on on the horizon do we really want to be san francisco we have to ensure that there's a balance between we have limited amount of land we have to ensure that there's some sort of a balance between lab development and residential development one thing in our neighborhood we're asking the lab developers is you want to build a lab you have to build some housing because at the same time as we're talking about that we have we're building right now we have 6 000 parking spaces being built to support lab development in our neighborhood that means that where those people that's the assumption that those workers cannot live in our city so we have to change that equation not only from the livability and the sustainability of but also from a climate perspective so i really welcome this this is a a very complex intersectionality of all these different factors but this is a well past due um initiative and i really look forward to being part of the conversation thank you thank you council braden the chair recognizes councillor mejia council me here you have the foil thank you um president flynn and thank you to the sponsors for bringing this um in 2013 um in the height of the the the mural race had uh someone say to me that in the next ten years the city was going to look very different because i was talking about the importance of building black and brown leadership and and more folks being able to stay here and i was really caught off guard and i didn't understand why this individual said it was so much confidence that the city was going to look very different 10 years from now and now i know why because the tools that we have in our toolbox have not been set up for us to stay in the city of boston and i think that now 10 years later that hypothesis is quite clear that we need to do more as it relates to being more aggressive around dealing this with this conversation around displacement and to who said that and you know who you are this is an opportunity for us to own it and do something different so i'm here for all the conversation and um thank my colleagues for bringing it up thank you thank you council me here the chair recognizes council alara council are you of the floor thank you president flynn um i just wanted to clarify a couple of things one i want to share my agreement with councillor baker on one point and it's that we need to use all of our resources to meet the housing crisis right federal state money that's coming to us and that we need to do a better job at that i want to clarify for the record because there was a mention of the resources that we were investing in the temporary housing plan particularly for people who live on mass and cass the numbers that we have in the city data show that 80 percent of the people who we are housing in the low threshold housing actually show a previous permanent address of being in the city of boston it's really important for me to clarify that because that is a really incredibly dangerous narrative that positions people from our city who are struggling against other people in our city who are struggling while developers come into our city and make off with hundreds of millions of dollars of profit on the backs of the residents of the city of boston so i wanted to make sure that i shared that information i don't think that's information that's been shared on the council floor publicly but i think that it's a persistent narrative that we are somehow investing money into people who are not from our city and the numbers and the data that we have for the people that we're housing in low threshold housing show the opposite uh i am not a believer in the narrative that even if these people were not from here that we shouldn't support them but the numbers that we have go against that narrative and i wanted to make sure that it was shared on the floor and that we're careful about not positioning our constituents against other members of our constituency while people are coming to our city and reaping the benefits of our policies thank you thank you council lara the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the outflow thank you mr president and thank you to my to the co-sponsors or the sponsors on this um i felt like i i needed to say something because i as a district 7 city councilor so much development is going um or is being proposed or rfps out from the city from bpda proposing to the community to see what they want in um to take place in district 7. mostly roxbury is impacted by this and when we get into the meetings i agree i wholeheartedly support this and hopefully look forward to the conversations and i think that it's perfect time to say that a lot of these development a lot of these community processes or developers are going to come to you my colleagues to ask you for your support i am i want to go on record that i will wholeheartedly object or not support any further development especially in roxbury encroaching gentrifying moving people out in roxbury that is um a detriment to our community and i think that what they do is they go to different they go to my colleagues to try to seek support behind my back or in front of my in front of me it doesn't matter and i'm saying to you in the spirit of this conversation here we're not we're not having it and roxbury is galvanizing d7 roxbury fenway i have every single leader on one team and we're all saying the same thing it's not going to happen so while we're doing this because this is going to take time everything else is moving at light speed the rfps are going out like this left to right these meetings are happening left to right people are not being heard like uh my counselor louisiana lujan was saying i have elderly people crying and calling me and telling me about how they're going to be homeless i have a elderly sister on blue hill avenue whose ssi is like 1200 her rent is 11.50 how is she eating and then can't qualify for food stamps because technically she has income it's so bad in roxbury and roxbury has the brunt of it and i can i know that my colleague viral can speak to this because his district is the poorest we have people that are dying and suffering and calling our offices and all on this housing thing and telling developers and telling bpda and telling brb zba this ami is too high the calculation is ridiculous idp this doesn't this doesn't pertain to us we don't qualify we can't get in the house it is not roxbury's responsibility to house everybody that's homeless we want to help but you can't play on our feelings you can't pull on our heartstrings to try to tell us how what you don't care about housing so this is how they come at us you care about housing right so what do you want to see in this land no we're not doing it and i'm telling you i don't i came here and my call is here here no i ran for office with my heart 32 bj is why i'm here this is how i got here and then i got everybody else to support after i won the primaries so i owe nothing but god my people and i'm here to represent and this really hurts home because my rent is three thousand dollars as a counselor i can't afford to be here so it's very personal and we're gonna start getting real crazy we're gonna start pushing back and fighting it's time y'all do not please i'm asking you as a favor do not support these developments in b7 we're gonna push really hard until we make sure that it's truly um you know that it actually helps that it doesn't hinder us thank you thank you council fernandez anderson um would anyone like to add their name onto this please reach it raise your hand please add council royal cult yup that's right council baker council of braden council flaherty council fernandez anderson council mejia council murphy council morale please add the chair the third laid file matter will be assigned to the committee on housing community development we're onto the green sheets and when wishing to remove the matter from the green sheets may do so at this time council flaherty um thank you mr president and uh in the in the spirit of uh women's history month and also uh with respect to today's resolution i'd like to pull doc it's zero three five two that's page eight out of nine in the green sheets a committee on public safety and it is a um it's a federal grant from the u.s department of justice which i know the clerk will read violence against women act the stop grant thank you council florida mr clerk can you please read docket zero three five two went to the record docking number zero three five two from the committee on public safety and criminal justice messaging authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of twenty eight thousand dollars and thirteen cents in the form of a grant for fiscal year twenty one violence against women act stop grant awarded by the united states department of justice passed through the massachusetts executive office of public safety and security to be administered by the police department the grant will fund the civilian domestic violence advocate who provides services for victims in jamaica plain east boston and charlestown thank you mr clerk and this uh mr president may just add that this grant um it's allocated from the federal funds that we're not spending yes um council fire this year um if you can give us give me one minute uh mr clerk can you please call the committee members to see if they would allow the doctor to come before our body members of the public safety and criminal justice committee council of flaherty yes council lara yes councilor baker yes council arroyo and councillor braden thank you mr clark zero three five two is now properly before the body uh council florida fiery of the uh yes just to thank mr president just a footnote the 28 thousand dollar grant uh was not spent from the previous year so those funds will be added to the current year and this body has already passed um 125 000 to go to this very same program so a great and worthy program for doing great work over the family justice center and i would like to get these resources over to them again in the spirit of uh women's history month thank you mr president thank you council fairly council of florida removes the passage of dark at zero three five two all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it darker zero three five two is passed we're moving on to the consent agenda um i have been informed by the clerk that there is one addition to the consent agenda the chair moves for adoption of the consent agenda as presented all those in favor say aye all those opposed thank you the consent agenda has been adopted now we're on to announcements does any of my colleagues have any announcements at this time the chair recognizes councilman here council me here you have the flaw yes thank you mr president we've had lots of late files but we were here for all of it so i really do appreciate you all hanging in there i just wanted to take a quick moment to acknowledge some special guests that we have here with us this afternoon we're joined by linda spears who's the commissioner of the massachusetts department of children and families and lynn hogan who's a deputy commissioner for the massachusetts department of children and families we recognize their amazing work through a couple of official resolutions that we passed a few weeks ago but i wanted to take this time during our announcement portion today to talk about their work and the impact it has had on our community commissioner spears began her career working for the rhode island department of children youth and families as a social case worker as someone who has worked with case workers for decades i can speak personally to what it takes to wake up every day and go into that line of work it takes integrity grit compassion and empathy after spending four years there she came to massachusetts to work for what what we know what was then called department of social services now dcf she remained for nearly a decade serving in a variety of roles the last of which was the director of field support in 2015 she was appointed as the commissioner of dcf by governor baker leanne hogan was appointed as deputy commissioner of field operations in 2015 having previously served as an associate regional director of western regional before that like commissioner spears liang brings an incredible amount of passion and integrity to her work dcf is one of the most important social services we provide as a commonwealth and that work cannot go without the leadership of the people like commissioner spears and deputy commissioner hogan it can often be thankless to work under these conditions i know that to be the case so i want to take this opportunity to thank you both for your hard work and to present you with these official resolutions i'm in citations on behalf of the boston city council and we'd like to take a photo so once my colleagues are done the president will let us know what that's going to look like we have them here thank you thank you council mejia uh at this time the chair recognizes council flaherty council clarity of the thank you mr president just briefly on behalf of myself and council of bark and all the members of the council i'd like to adjourn in memory of norman herr norman obviously before mike became the 14th city council uh norman herr held that title as a old-time west ender and i found out recently that he had passed and i was waiting um for the action we took today which was sunsetting the urban renewals because he was just so passionate about that issue and he would come into this chamber every single wednesday never missed a council session uh when i served here and he would sit literally right behind where uh councillor box sits and he was a student of politics he was very knowledgeable he used to host the west end tree lightings every year did a lot of private fundraising helping many different causes a peach of a guy he had died sort of during covet uh with very little if any fanfare i don't even think he really even got a mention but he loved the boston city council loved the institution he loved city hall city government he was passionate about the west end and i just thought it was fitting that we adjourn his memory today particularly because we are sunsetting uh nine urban renewal plans which he spent a significant part of his life fighting as an all-time west end and i believe kenzie may know this or not but i believe he may have been one of the last remaining houses that may not have been sort of touched by urban renewal but again i just want to make sure that this body adjourns on behalf of the memory of norman herrera the 14th member of the boston city council well well said council flaherty and as councillor as council mejia mentioned immediately after after we adjourn we will have a a photo with the state state leaders that are with us a group photo and also we're going to have a quick lunch right in the curly room as well at this time let me recognize council fernandez anderson i'm sorry i'm in a really talkative mood today i don't know what's going on um um i just wanted to this i'm not going to mention the name for this announcement um in respect to keeping it to this person's privacy um sometimes we are reactionary and we may seem a little anxious in interacting with each other um and sometimes you don't know what's going on with that person and i wanted to ask you that you keep um each other in prayer that we keep each other in prayer um we don't know what's going on with each other in terms of our health in terms of um and this person shared something today that's very emotional for me because my sister has the exact same condition as this person and has gone through and has also suffered strokes and is going into a situational procedure so i would like for you to just ask that we all keep each other in prayer in terms of our health and wellness and spirit and be grateful to each other to forgive one another when we're less impatient with each other thank you thank you council fernandez anderson we're on two memorials today we will adjourn our meeting in memory of the following individuals councilor edwards gerardo fabrizio councillor baker john feeney council flynn alicia monero sandra melis the council is flynn and flaherty richard levin valerie greeley for council illusion ethan michael wall for the entire city council peter moncini pasquel a moment of silence please the chair moves that when the council adjourns today it does so in memory of those mentioned we are scheduled to meet again in the ayanella chamber on wednesday april 6th at 12 noon all in favor of a german please say aye the counselor is adjourned thank you mr clerk and thank you to city council central staff and if people can gather up here for our our photo [Music] [Music] you