thank you my name is by visiting boston.gov city dash council dash tv i'd like to ask all my colleagues and those in attendance to please silence your cell phones electronic devices at this time thank you i'd also ask i'd like to ask the public to be respectful and do not disrupt the meetings while you are here if you are disruptive unfortunately you will be asked to leave and if you feel to comply you will be escorted out please also note that according to 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 please council of fernandez anderson council of flaherty council of flynn here council lara i have been informed by the correct that a quorum is present i would like to ask my colleague council mejia to introduce today's clergy who is a well-respected member of the clergy reverend willie broderick from historic 12th baptist church this is also the home home church of reverend dr martin luther king when he was here in in boston so it's an honor to have um reverend broderick but at this time i would like to ask my council colleague council mejia to please um introduce the clergy for today yes good morning good afternoon everyone excited to be here thank you councillor flynn um so i am really excited to have reverend broderick here with us this afternoon um uh reverend broderick is a law clerk at the firm's corporate practice group prior to joining will i will he was a summer associate for the firm focusing on contract disputes and bankruptcy why call in transaction matters while at the university of northeastern in law willie was a law clerk for the federal reserve bank and a judicial clerk intern for the honorable dennis j casper one of the things that we know about willie is that when he takes the microphone he is all about speaking from the heart and uplifting the issues of social and racial justice here in the city of boston and i'm so incredibly grateful for him showing up here in person today to open us up in prayer reverend broderick is um a minister a reverend a senior actually reverend at the 12th historic baptist church reverend broderick you now have the floor thank you good afternoon it is truly a pleasure to bring greetings from the historic 12th baptist church on this day and to bring the prayer for this council it is truly a pleasure to be with each and every one of you let us bow for this time most gracious and wise god we come together on this day thanking you for life health and strength god we ask your blessings upon the women and men of this council who have been chosen to lead this city in such a time as this we are especially thankful for their staff and those who serve this city as we celebrate administrative professionals day but god so much is happening in boston and in times like this we need leadership that continues to acknowledge the great responsibility to serve each and every constituent equitably god my prayers that this council continues to work hard to ensure that our young people have every opportunity available to them god i pray this council works to close opportunity and achievement gaps i pray that they advocate for families that are facing housing job and food and security in this season i pray that they continue to work hard to help us emerge in the midst of this pandemic and god i pray that the cries for justice and healing are adhered to by each and every counselor and so as the council leads this important work i pray god that you grant them wisdom that you grant them courage and more important that you grant them peace to do what is needed to be done for each and every neighborhood of boston right now more than ever we need your divine power to make the tough decisions to help us move this city forward and to address the issues of our day and so as this body deliberates on the business that is before us i lift up the words of dr king that lets us know that the altering measure of a man or woman is not where they stand in moments of comfort or convenience but where he or she stands in times of challenge and controversy our challenges are before us so let them stand courageous to fight for the people this is our prayer on this day this is our hope as we do the work in jesus christ's name i pray let every heart and mind say amen thank you reverend and if if you're able to uh rise and join us in the pledge of of allegiance and to the republic which stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you council mejia for bringing in reverend broderick an outstanding leader in our city thank you reverend for being with us today mr cork please let the record reflect that council mejia is present and council world is also present before we start the formal part of the the agenda we have a a video presentation from jazz boston the music you are about to hear is in recognition of international jazz day this saturday we also want to thank ken fields who is with us in the audience ken is the president of the board for boston jazz the video is put together from jazz boston wanted you to use this opportunity to share with you the power of the american music in in jazz which has since spread across the world as one of america's most beloved exports with origins in the african-american community just celebrates creativity in working together this performance features an irish violinist by the last name of macaulay in a south african-born pianist witness matt liu performing a traditional reel called toss the feathers please enjoy the two-minute performance [Music] do so [Music] thank you and i also wanted to inform you that this friday evening in celebration of international jazz day you can register to watch this concert which will be streamed online called jazz now so thank you to the wonderful musicians we're on to the approval of minutes seeing and hearing no discussion on this matter the chair moves to approve the minutes from the last meeting he has presented all those in favor of approving the minutes from the last meeting say aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it thank you the meeting of the last minutes stand as approved communication from her honor the mayor mr cork please read docket zero five three six in zero five three seven doctor number zero five three six message in order authorizing the mayor's office of housing to accept and expend payments in the amount of 40 million dollars from the city of boston's inclusionary development policy fund for the purpose of producing and preserving affordable housing in the city of boston docker number zero five three seven messaging on authorizing the city of boston to apply for accept and expand the federal fiscal year 2022 housing and community development funds from the united states department of housing and urban development this order includes the following grant programs with final awards estimated not to exceed the totals listed community block community development block grant 18 million home improvement partnership program 7 million housing opportunities for persons with aids 4 million and the emergency solution grant 2 million dollars thank you mr clark dock at zero five three six zero five three seven will be referred to the committee on housing community development mr clerk please read docket zero five three eight doctor number zero five three eight message and honor authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of two hundred and eighty six thousand eight hundred and sixty dollars in the form of a grant for the fiscal year twenty two senior companion program awarded by the corporation for national and community service to be administered by the age strong commission the grant will fund reimbursement for travel and meals plus stipends thank you talk at zero five three eight we'll be referring to the committee on strong women families and communities mr clerk please read talk at zero five three nine doctor number zero five three nine message and honor authorizing the city of boston to accept and expand the amount of 180 000 in the form of a grant for the community first partnership awarded by mass save to be administered by the environment department the grant will fund outreach and engagement with environmental justice communities to drive increased awareness and measurable participation in energy efficiency programs thank you dr0539 will be referred to the committee on environmental justice resiliency in parks mr clerk please read talk at zero five four zero docker number zero five four zero message and order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of 137 fifty 753 dollars in the form of a grant for fiscal year 22 retirement senior volunteer program awarded by the corporation for national and community service to be administered by the age strong commission the grant will fund food and travel reimbursement for senior community service volunteers thank you docket zero five four zero will be referred to the committee on strong women families and communities reports of public offices and others mr clark please read docket zero five four one two zero five four four document number zero five four one notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of ellen hatch as temporary collector treasurer for 60 day period effective april 16 2022 docket number zero five four two notice was received from the mayor of her absence from the city from 8 am on tuesday april 19 2022 until 8 pm on thursday april 21st 2022 docker number zero 543 notice was received from the city clerk in accordance with chapter six of the ordinances of 1979 regarding action taken by the mayor and papers acted upon by the city council at its meeting of march thirtieth twenty twenty two and doctor number zero five four four notice was received from the city clerk in accordance with chapter 6 of the ordinances of 1979 relative to action taken by the mayor on papers acted upon by the city council at its meeting of april 13 2022 docket four 0541 through zero five four four will be placed on file reports of committee mr clerk please read talk at zero three four seven doctor number zero three four seven the committee on arts and culture to which was referred on march 9 2022 docker number zero three four seven message in order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of 266 thousand five hundred dollars in the form of a grant from for the fiscal year 22 local cultural council program awarded by the massachusetts cultural council to be administered by the mayor's office of arts and culture the grant will fund innovation arts humanities and interpretive sciences programming that enhance the quality of life in our city submits a report recommending that the order ought to pass thank you the chair recognizes council edwards chair of the committee on arts culture special events council edwards you have the floor thank you very much we had a i think a very brief hearing about this non-controversial grant that we've received many years in a row from the state of massachusetts we i wanted to commend the uh the arts commissioner and the folks who have worked on the local cultural care or excuse me multicultural council program specifically for prioritizing smaller organizations led by by poc individuals to make sure that they were first in line to receive some of the regrants and i also want to thank them for shouting out the cultural uh council and and hopefully recruiting more people from boston to serve on that council to help advise our arts program for the city but ultimately it was a great hearing i think we all asked our questions and ultimately want nothing more than for this money to get in the hands of those who need it so i move today that we vote for this month for these funds to be accepted thank you council edwards the chair of the committee on arts culture special events seeks acceptance of the committee report and passage of darker zero three four seven all those in favor say aye aye all opposed nay the eyes have it the docket has passed thank you uh mr clerk please read docket 0402 and 0403 together doctor number zero four zero two the committee on city services and innovation technology to which was referred to march 23 2022 docket number zero four zero two message in order approving a supplemental appropriation of two million nine hundred fifty four thousand eight hundred twenty eight dollars to cover the fiscal year twenty two cost items contained within the collective bargaining agreement between the city of boston and the american federation of state county and municipal employees afl-cio council 93 asked me the term of the contract is july 1st 2020 through june 30th 2023 the major provisions of the contract include base wage increases of 2 percent 1.5 percent and 2 percent to be given in october of each fiscal year of the contract term submits a report recommending that the order ought to pass docket number zero four zero three the committee on city services and innovation technology to which was referred on march twenty third twenty twenty two dock at zero four zero three message in order to reduce the fiscal year 22 appropriation for the reserve for collective bargaining by two million nine hundred fifty four thousand eight hundred twenty eight dollars to provide funding for various department departments for the fiscal year 22 increases contained within the collective bargaining green between the city of boston and the american federation of state county and municipal employees afl-cio council 93 afscme submits a report recommending that the order ought to pass thank you the chair recognizes council bloc chair of the committee on city services innovation technology council block you of the law thank you so much president flynn um we held the hearing on this docket uh these two dockets on april 19th 2022 um and i want to thank president flynn for joining me at that hearing um as was mentioned in the um summary of the docket this is for afscme we've got 1040 employees who are covered by this bargaining unit it's the second of the many unresolved contracts that are outstanding that have come before the council in this session for council ratification of their funding it follows the same pattern as the senna one that we that we approved a couple of weeks ago um so that's as was mentioned the two percent raise effective october 2020 the 1.5 percent october 2021 and then the uh two percent for october 2022. um it also includes a one thousand dollar lump sum payment for each member um related to the fact that the afscme uh employees across a number of different departments in the city most of them were really in pretty front line roles during the pandemic and so that was an item that came up at the bargaining table like the senate contract it also adds juneteenth as a recognized holiday within the contract and also adds a couple of um wellness days in relationship to the vaccine moa um the you know one of the things that we discussed in the committee was just um you know councilor flynn raised the question of why is that why is that middle year 1.5 instead of 2 percent um it partly has to do with the fact that this is the the contracts that are being settled this year they kind of have to work with the bargaining reserve that we had for the last because we're back funding things right from prior fiscal years and so there's a little bit of a limitation of scope of what was in the bargaining reserve for fy at 21 and 22. um but again i think the lump sum payment was part of that conversation we one of the things we raised was that the council in sort of the last round of big contract resolutions some time ago now um in 2015 expressed the fact that you know when we're setting a pattern we want to make sure that our civilian workers and the city are are you know seeing their pay increase in ways that are comparable to sworn workers because that's uh that's kind of gone out of whack in the last 20 years um so these are civilian this is afscme is the biggest civilian con union that besides the teachers union that's still outstanding um and uh yeah it was it was a good good hearing um i will just say that i know because i've heard from them that we have a large number of absolute members who are eager for this to be passed because the way this works for folks who are new is that folks don't get their retroactive pay increase until this is approved and funded by the council so i know that there are people waiting on those checks and you know i think it's consistent like i said with the pattern that's come before us already and that seems um within the fiscal capacity of the city um we had both jim williamson the budget director and lou manderini the special advisor for the mayor um come and join us on the 19th so mr chair my recommendation for these two dockets again just operationally one is for us to actually take the money draw down the bargaining reserve which we approved at the last budget cycle and then the other is to actually appropriate it across these various departments to fund the contract so my recommendation mr chair is that both docket zero four zero two and zero four zero three pass thank you thank you council buck council block the chair on the committee of city services innovation technology seeks acceptance of the committee report and passage of dark at zero four zero two all those in favor say aye aye all opposed nay the eyes have it the docket has passed council bloc the chair on the committee of city services innovation technology seeks acceptance of the committee report in passage of docket zero four zero three all those in favor say aye aye aye all opposed navy eyes haven't the docket is passed mr clark please read docket zero four three four doctor number zero four three four the committee on city services and innovation technology to which was referred on march thirtieth twenty twenty two docker number zero four three four message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of christopher cook as a member of the boston water and sewer commission for a term expiring march 30th 2026 submits a report recommending that his appointment ought to be confirmed thank you the chair recognizes council bloc chair of the committee on city services innovation technology council block you of the fall thank you so much president flynn um yeah we had this hearing last friday um christopher cook well known to uh many in this chamber as the city's uh former chief of environment energy and open space um has been proposed by the mayor for the three-person board of the boston water and sewer commission so the boston water and sewer commission is sort of quasi-independent it's got its own budget it does its own bonding but it is governed by a three-person board that's appointed by the mayor and this is the seat that's currently up the the remaining two seats are both up in early january of next year um the committee heard essentially both from mr cook who's now the executive director of the greenway and from henry vitale who's the executive director cfo treasurer of the water and sewer commission um i think the it was exciting to learn that chris has actually already been serving as one of boston's appointees at the nwra which is the water resource authority that that boston water and sewer really works hand in glove with so he really already has had some real learning in the systems and then of course you know what we spent most of the hearing talking about was the need for water and sewer to really shift towards more green infrastructure green storm water management and it really felt as though mr cook's you know knowledge and experience as a parks person thinking through that piece was going to really stand us in good stead in bringing that green lens um to the water and sewer commission in addition to really sort of understanding and empathizing with the nuts and bolts which as we discussed these are the people who manage the guts of the city and uh it's just super important work to get right um so it was a good hearing and my recommendation today mr chair is that the nomination ought to be confirmed thank you thank you council block council block the chair on the committee of city services innovation technology seeks acceptance of the committee report and passage of dark at zero four three four all those in favor say aye aye opposed nay the eyes have it the appointment has been confirmed mr clerk please read docket zero four six three and zero four six four together talking number zero four six three the committee on ways and means to which was referred on april 6 2022 docker number zero four six three message in order for your approval in order authorizing the city of boston to submit to the massachusetts school building authority msba two statements of interest which describe and explain the deficiencies and the priority categories for which the city of boston may be invited to apply to the massachusetts school building authority in the future submits a report recommending that the order ought to pass docket number zero four six four the committee on ways and means to which was referred on april six twenty twenty two docket number zero four six four message in order for your approval a revised order authorizing the city of boston to submit to the massachusetts school building authority s-m-s-p-a statement of interest for its accelerated repair program for the following schools haley pilot school curly k through eight school lower building burke high school henderson k through 12 inclusion school upper campus orenberger school and english high school submits a report recommending that the order ought to pass thank you the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson chair of the committee on ways and means council fernandez anderson you have the flaw thank you mr president on tuesday the 19th uh the committee held a hearing on uh the two dockets and i'd like to thank my council colleagues uh president flynn uh councilbach consolution and councilwoman for joining me in this discussion and also the attendees from administration from and bps included and in discussion mr bloom deputy cfo and for bps gave an overview of msw msba stating that in a state agency that provides additional funding to local districts to be able to conduct facility improvements and construct new school buildings he stated that there are two main programs operating by the sba and the core program supports projects covering extensive repairs renovations additions renovations and new school constructions and the accelerated program arp supports projects covering repair replacements and roofs windows and doors and boilers in an otherwise structurally sound facility mr bloom also discussed the city's relationship with the msba program stating that bps has approved approximately 206 million reimbursements for the msba since 2015 which helped fund 31 schools projects it was explained that the two dockets present authorization to submit sois for two core projects docket zero four six three and correction and previous approved arp sois for six schools for docket zero four six four uh regarding next steps msba will review sois over uh summer in fall 2022 leading to decision in late 2022 early winter 2023 following with bps would return to the council for funding authorizations as a chair of the community ways of means to which the following were referred the docket zero four six three um and i uh on the schools that the clerk has already listed um i recommend that um i submit this report and recommend that these dockets are to pass thank you council fernandez anderson the chair of the committee on ways and means seeks acceptance of the committee report passage of dawkin zero four six three all those in favor say aye aye i'll oppose nay the eyes have it the docket has passed council fernandez anderson the chair of the committee on ways of means seeks acceptance of the committee report and passes passage of dark at zero four six four all those in favor say aye i'll oppose nay the eyes have it the docket has passed we're on to matters recently heard for possible action mr clerk please read docket zero four eight zero two zero four eight two docket zero four eight three in docket zero four eight four two zero four eight six together document zero four eight zero through docket zero four eight two orders for the fiscal year 23 operating budget including annual appropriations for departmental operations for the school department and for other post-employment benefits opec docker number zero four eight three order for capital fund transfer appropriations and dockets 0484-0486 orders for the capital budget including loan orders and lease purchase agreements thank you the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson the chair on the committee on ways and means council fernandez anderson you of the floor uh thank you mr president i um the committee held hearings the community ways and means held i began holding hearings to review fy23 budget this past monday april 25th 2022 both monday and tuesday we held four public hearings so far this week um two on monday two on tuesday on monday we held the city's administration and finance team as well as public facilities for overviews of fy operate fy23 operating in capital budgets yesterday we held the hearing from the boston public schools for an overview of fy 23 budget and then we held an evening hearing dedicating to public testimony tomorrow we will be hearing from bps on these topics from schools and in the morning in the morning for academic i'm sorry from schools in the morning and then academics in the afternoon and over the next six weeks we will continue to review the fy23 budget with departmental hearings and counselor working sessions to discuss potential amendments i recommend that these matters remain in committee thank you councillor fernandez anderson dockett zero four eight zero to talk at zero four eight two docket zero four eight three in dockets zero four eight four two dot two docket zero four eight six will remain in committee motions orders and resolutions mr cork please read talk at zero five four five doctor number zero five four five councils braden and luzien offered the following ordinance providing for remote participation in meetings of public bodies the chair recognizes council braden council braden you have the floor thank you mr president uh i moved to suspend the rules and to add councilor mejia as an original co-sponsor please council braden seek suspension of the rules to add council me here as the third original co-sponsor seeing here are no objections council me here is added to the third as the original co-sponsor council braden you have the floor thank you i offer this remote participation ordinance today as an amended refile of an issue an initiative led one year ago by our departing colleague senator edwards we're going to miss you governor baker and the legislature's extensions of provisions for remote hearings and meetings by public bodies are set to expire within uh adidas and then although it will take state action to amend the open meeting law to allow for hybrid meetings for public for members of public bodies it is it is within our ability to provide for remote participation for members of the public to observe the proceedings of public business whether through live stream or for real-time observation or via zoom for public testimony i want to acknowledge and appreciate the coalition of advocates who have kept this issue at the forefront including the aclu common cause mass public interest research group the disability law group and the boston center for independent living remote participation is not simply about safety or convenience in the midst of a pandemic but about about maintaining equitable and meaningful access to public processes we cannot simply retreat from pandemic provisions which have been in place for the past 25 months and are set to expire in less than three months i want to express that i am less uh concerned uh i am le i i am less concerned for the council's preparedness for july 15th but that but for what many of other public body bodies across the city the zoning board of appeal licensing and the bpda and more we noticed we knew from experience and talking all across our city that community participation in these public meetings increased during the pandemic with the opportunity for remote access and i think that's something we need to continue i believe that this is also timely in the with the budget season so the council can engage in a conversation with property management and do it to identify city hall meeting spaces that need equipment investments for tech fit outs we do not want implementation to be a burden for any particular city body and hope to engage the their chairs to discuss capacity support they they need in order to standardize the practice by providing of providing for remote participation i also want to appreciate the incredible work that our central staff does and supporting our city council in doing their work and all through the um to the through the pandemic they very quickly and efficiently pivoted to support us in doing remote hearings and meetings and it's greatly appreciated so this is about setting a standard for how we continue to engage people with disabilities seniors people with limited access to transportation and people with work and family obligations who would otherwise be unable to attend a meeting in person and i look forward to to advancing our um to advancing this as in our city working together thank you thank you council braden the chief recognizes council legend council lucha you have the floor thank you mr president i want to thank um uh councillor braden for keeping this issue alive and well thank you to senator edwards also for bringing this up we know that this is more than just about uh convenience it's all it's about being very intentional and creating democratic process that is accessible to more of our residents we should always be thinking about how do we bring city hall out of city hall and bring it to people and the remote participation is one way that we can ensure that we've seen firsthand how remote participation as councilor braden mentioned has boosted civic engagement um at all levels throughout our city and so we have the responsibility to to continue that and not to roll it away remote participation meetings has been a key element in breaking down long-standing barriers to access who gets access to who in city hall and we know that access is transactional and it is important that we keep the doors even if there are virtual doors of city hall open to our residents it also allows a lot of our important constituencies to fully participate in the policy making process we're talking about people with disabilities people limited access to transportation our low-income workers and residents seniors people working multiple jobs and having a hustle uh just to survive maybe they can hop on to a zoom and people who have family responsibilities we also on the council have been very taken advantage of the fact that some um parts of our process have been virtual allowing us to uh multitask and attend multiple meetings at a time um you know some of our virtual access still there's a lot to build upon it there as councillor braden said central staff has done an incredible job here of making it accessible and also ensuring that we maintain community space but there are also different departments in the city that we have to you know work in partnership with them to increase uh how their uh how they're allowing the public to access those virtual spaces including the bpda there are important community functions that are turned off even in the virtual space that i think are important for community gathering to really mimic what it's like to be in person so i also want to thank the incredible advocates who have been working on this issue the aclu common cause disability law center and others that were mentioned by councillor braden we should really take what we've learned during the pandemic which was of course an unfortunate continues to be an unfortunate event but you know build on the strengths that we were able to and one of them is virtual uh participation uh access to democracy really bringing it to the people so thank you councillor braden and i look forward to working with you and council meghia on this on this effort thank you council lujan the chief recognizes council mejia council me here you have the fall thank you mr president and thank you to my colleagues councilor breeden and louis jean for having me on a as a co-sponsor and i also want to give a shout out to senator edwards i remember when i first started working here one of the things that i was asked on the campaign trail is what would be my first hearing and i said i'm going to do a hearing on public hearings not really understanding kind of the fact of the matter is that most people really deeply want to be engaged but just didn't have access and oftentimes we would host hearings at times that were inconvenient for people who were most impacted so along the way i made commitments about we're going to make it open and we're going to do all of this amazing work to make sure that the power of the people and the voices of the people are uplifted and here we are when we started working here in 2020 we were set to you know we had like 12 hearing orders and in one session thank you to uh jacob the black for his leadership in that space and then we had to go remote covet came and really created an opportunity for us to really show what is possible in in terms of creating space for people to really participate and i think that for us in that journey we've learned that we can do this and we have an opportunity to continue to engage folks in this process after we filed that hearing order we went right into into the world of virtual reality and we made it happen and that experience was shocking to all of us but we but it was also a teachable moment because as soon as we made that transition to virtual events we began to see a crowd of people who had never been engaged with the council before we were able to meet people who were otherwise wouldn't be able to be in direct community with the city either because of language barriers accessibility concerns or simply just because they didn't have the time to come down to city hall through this ordinance we have an opportunity to keep the channels of communication open so that more voices and more people can be heard and centered in the process as the chair of the committee on government accountability and transparency and accessibility part of my job is to ensure that people who have never been part of the process are centered in this work i see this ordinance as a tool that can help us achieve those goals of accountability transparency and accessibility and this is our moment to create a gold standard for our community collaboration in the city of boston i look forward to the work and to collaborating alongside my colleagues thank you thank you council mejia would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone else like to add their name as as a sponsor to this please add counselor book please add counselor fernandez anderson council of flaherty council of lara council baker i'm sorry i'm sorry please um with withdraw that one mr clerk yep um please add counselor murphy council we're all and please add the chair dark at zero five four five will be be assigned to the committee on government operations for the for the next docket which is docket zero five four six i would like to ask council edwards to to stay in here as they chair um mr clerk would you please read the docket document number zero five four six counselor counselors flynn and lyra offer the following order for a hearing to discuss increasing access to swimming lessons and awareness of water safety counselor flynn you have a floor thank you madam chair may i suspend rule 12 and add counsel fernandez anderson as an original co-sponsor seeing no objections counselor fernandez anderson is added as a third co-sponsor thank you council edwards thank you to my colleagues councillor fernandez anderson and council lara as well this hearing order would be to address the important role that swimming can play in our city our city is surrounded by the ocean and 60 60 percent of the of the young people that drowned across across the country our communities of color many of the many of them don't have access to swimming lessons so this this hearing order will to would be to address the important role swimming plays in our city and to encourage bps to encourage bcyf to provide free or reduced swimming lessons to children across boston children with disabilities immigrant children children of color but but all children to make sure that they have access to swimming lessons it's a critical it's a critical aspect of life in boston as i mentioned was surrounded by the oceans we also have many pools across the city that are shut down right now for various reasons this would be a tremendous opportunity for us during the budget process to address those issues as well we also need more lifeguards across the city it's important to train young people about first aid but also about about the important roles women plays in our city in our city so i'm excited about this hearing order it's it's a public health issue it's also a public safety issue as well and all kids in boston should have access to free swimming lessons and glad to partner with council fernandez anderson and council avara on on this hearing order thank you thank you the chair recognizes counselor thank you chair and thank you to president flynn for continuing to be a champion on this work and this issue and to counselor fernandez anderson for co-sponsoring this matter with us there's been a lot of recent discussion about pool closures in the city and it's really been centered around pool usage and i believe that we're really having the wrong conversation i don't think that we can look at pool usage in a vacuum without asking why why do some people take advantage of public pools and why and why others don't and i think that the answer to that lies in a historical policy failure that's going to take a policy solution to fix according to the center for disease control black children drown at a rate of almost three times that of white and latino children and the massachusetts department of public health reported that black children made up 25 of drownings all across the state even though they're only 9 of the child population in massachusetts these kind of racial disparities in swimming trace back to segregation ultimately when black people weren't allowed to swim in public or private pools and even some beaches and they persisted today so i think that access knowledge and safety are all driving factors in pool usage and if we want to ensure that all communities are benefiting from our city facilities we have to tackle the root causes behind the decline in usage i am a black woman and i don't know how to swim don't worry i'm working on it but i have the privilege of raising a little boy who loves the water almost as much as he loves his mama and i wish that every parent and child in boston could share in that joy regardless of their race or neighborhood and increasing access to swim lessons and awareness on water safety is one way that we can move the needle towards equity and truly work to democratize access to recreation in the city of boston thank you thank you the chair recognizes counselor fernandez anderson i know how to swim [Laughter] so most of you know that i was um born and raised up to the age of 10 in a west african country it's an archipelago ten islands and i always talk about you know uh if you don't know this was it used as a port for jesus atlantic trade slave trade so it deeply connects with uh the fact that we come from a land of abundance and swimming and fish and oceans right and we can't swim here or our children swim can swim less than other populations so um i of course uh strongly encourage um everyone to support this and as well as i think there's an opportunity here for us to also include other communities such as so now that i'm all grown and you see me cover my goods and stuff right i cannot swim in public pools because i have to cover my body and so as a muslim woman we would have to have non-coed swimming days and so i would like to open up the floor to discuss in how that bcyf and they've been very helpful but i think there's been some sort of you know bureaucratic issues in terms of scheduling women-only swimming days so i think this is a wonderful opportunity for us to be all-inclusive and how we include communities of color and teaching swimming lessons love to swim sometimes with you so i can give you some lessons and include women only swimming as well with the islamic community included thank you so much does anyone wish to speak on this matter anyone else does anyone wish to add their name if the clerk could please add counselor baker counselor bach counselor braden councillor flaherty counselor louis jen counselor mejia councillor murphy and council royale docket zero 546 will be assigned to the committee on strong women families and communities thank thank you council edwards mr clerk please read docket zero five four seven talking number zero five four seven counselors louisiana and warrell offered the following order for a hearing to utilize american rescue plan act federal and state covet recovery funds to create housing options for returning citizens the chair recognizes council regen council zhang you have the fall thank you mr president i'd like to uh ask to suspend rule 12 to add as a third co-sponsor counselor bach seeing and hearing no objection counselor walk is added as the original third co-sponsor thank you um so this docket really grew out of a hearing that we had uh two weeks ago regarding returning citizens and had the office of returning citizens here and advocates here who themselves are formerly incarcerated folks who were talking about some of the hurdles and challenges they face upon re-entry this is also national reentry week and so thinking about how we can be use the upper money towards equitable recovery we had a really great hearing that was really led by our advocates and the office of returning citizens and that was a hearing order co-sponsored by uh council oral um and counselor fernando anderson who will also hopefully be teaching me how to swim um but what we're trying to do here is really think about uh you know how we can be using our opera money to help those who are often forgotten and who it is too easy to forget when we are talking about housing you know we are as a city council or our body that cares deeply about housing um it being a human right but we also need to think about housing as being healing for populations who have not had the luxury of stability of having a place to call home there's already really great work that we heard from the happening uh leslie cradle um leads an organization called justice for housing that celebrated a report that was issued last week called far from home that really detailed the the issues that formerly incarcerated and just involved folks face um when it comes to founding stable housing she's been working very creatively with the boston housing authority on getting vouchers for um formerly incarcerated folks and they've run a really successful pilot so this is about supporting and creating that work that's already being done by those who are really centered in this issue and so i want to thank my council colleagues who were there i think you know councilor bach was someone who mentioned we should roll this into this the discussion about opera money so really happy to do that i really had really engaged in conversations that mr president you were involved in as well so just grateful to my colleague council colleagues and the ideas that really came out of that hearing that were really led by the folks who know what it's like to be housing uh face housing and stability so really grateful that we can have this conversation as part of the opera recovery thank you thank you council ujjain the chair recognizes council of world council overall you have the floor thank you president flynn and thank you to my co-sponsor counselor louis jen this is a continuation of the returning citizens hearing which if you haven't seen yet it was probably one of the most powerful hearings that i have been since on this council and it's important that we create stability and help protect the focus of individuals while they're trying to re-establish themselves in society how can we expect an individual to focus on workforce development job hunting or their job when they're worried about a place to stay as we are making investments with arpa dollars providing stability and investing in people should be our top priorities there are plenty of barriers when it comes to housing for return of citizens therefore i believe that it's important that we explore what more can we do to make this transition back home smooth thank you thank you councilworld the chair recognizes council bark council bark you have the floor thank you so much councillor flynn and thank you to counselors legion and we're all for including me on this um and for the hearing that spawned uh as us counselor allegiance of the this conversation um as i've mentioned before um you know our real hope on the arpa side is we're gonna have a hearing on tuesday the third next week at two o'clock to kind of do an initial intro of what the administration's proposing for the 350 million and then my intention as the committee chair is to have a series of hearings focused on kind of like policy areas in which we might spend the arpa dollars and really want to put council proposals alongside administration proposals and also really get into the weeds and one of the things that came up in the in the returning citizens hearing you know is that we're all very excited about the idea of spending a bunch of money on housing but it really matters that this population be able to access some of that housing and that's not something that's going to happen by accident like there needs to be real program design and so i think that this is it's absolutely an appropriate conversation for us to have in the coveted recovery committee and i want to make sure we're having it on the front end not after we've already authorized housing funds and then we find out that none of them are eligible um for helping the folks i will just say personally that i went and spoke with the um with you know a whole group of returning citizens as part of the office's work last year and everybody's questions were about housing i mean and it's just like with any population we know it's the fundamental to stable stability and and that's really what we're seeking so i'm looking forward to this conversation and to putting it side by side in the larger housing conversation for arca thank you mr president thank you council book the chair recognizes council baker council baker you have the floor thank you mr chair for saying my name on and um i appreciate people thinking about oppa money in the way that we should be building assets with oppa money i'm actually involved in a project that i think is in brian's district it's a already a design building which would be the first law would all be job training and then the subsequent three floors would be set aside for returning citizens i believe we need to build these projects these projects we have to be ready for them there's a project on on on um that's being talked about that is ready with some city infusion we could get the thing built um but we also have to think about it more than just housing because the returning citizen is going to need more than just that key into the door they're going to need supports where to go to find a job how to how to do this how to do that because if you've been incarcerated you come out you have to almost relearn how to get on your bike again so it's it's it's more than just a discussion around housing but i'm thrilled that we're having the conversation about using opera money for real purposes that we'll be able to point to and i think we have to be urgent about this because it's all going to be gone soon so okay thank you thank you council baker mr clerk uh please add counselor baker the chair recognizes council authority council flaherty you have the full thank you mr president uh please add my name and thank the the makers the original sponsors a quick housekeeping note the last whereas there's a typo says by providing through the makers through the chairs of the makers it should say by not providing and then lastly when we have the hearing just want to make sure that um we're sensitive to obviously returning citizens but we're sensitive to particularly residents in in public housing are more vulnerable residents children and seniors and that we're raising the issue of uh of story type of fences when we're thinking about placing individuals in housing and that we just give thought and concern to again those most vulnerable residents and be judicious around sort of the support of housing giving folks a second chance but being cognizant of uh not uh putting a sort of a sorry situation next to a a young family or or an elderly thank you mr president that thank you council flaherty please add council flaherty's name and before i continue just want to ask consolation through with council flaherty's question um about that probably an update that we might have to file at some at some point so i think it should read through the chair to make as it should read by not providing i think if that's i think that was the intention so um and if they would make that change and obviously i'm signing on thank you council flaherty for bringing that to our attention and thank you um council is um so you will provide a update i guess an updated version thank you councillor jen and thank you council flaherty would anyone else like to speak on this matter please please let me know would anyone else like to add their name please add mr craig blizzad councillor brayden council lara council mejia councillor murphy and please add the chair docket zero five four seven will be referred to the committee on boston's covert 19 recovery mr clerk please read docket zero five four eight please document number zero five four eight council of fernandez anderson offer the following resolution to commence making eid au feeder a holiday recognized by the city of boston thank you mr clark the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the floor thank you mr president um i wanted to just uh clarify really quick for those of you who don't know when i say as-salaam walaikum i'm saying peace be on to you as a muslim we are we greet each other in the old customs of religious traditions of wishing peace upon our brothers and sisters and so we as muslims celebrate in muslim the word muslim comes from islam in terms of submitting or striving to submit in peace or submission to god and so it's very important for me as the first muslim elected in the city of boston and as well as the af first african um uh elected in the city of boston to create space for uh other communities not just my my own um but also the community the human community at large and so in the spirit of uh creating that space in the spirit of that looking at intersectionalities that bring us together as one people i believe that it is important that we are able to speak without making others feel threatened that we are compromising their space or their advancement in this life in this society so we're we celebrate what's called ramadan and essentially this is the month when we believe that the quran was revealed to prophet muhammad peace be upon him we as muslims believe that there is one god that unifies all humankind and all creatures and all creation in all of the worlds in the quran we say worlds and god most of the time speaks in the plural sense we as in one source energy that creates uh or creator and so i explain i break that down so that when i say i am muslim i am saying i am striving i am uh making sacrifices i am working hard to uh submit to be to become humble i'm not claiming to be humble i am saying i'm working to be humble and so in the month of ramadan then we take 30 days for this spiritual cleanse so we fast uh from dust till dawn and is that right or dawn till dusk yes and then or the other way around yeah so it's sun so sun up to sun down um and um then we don't drink any water we uh refrain from any uh bad talk or we try to so if you all see me say do something just ask for forgiveness for me um and then we ask all of our brethrens and everyone to forgive us um and we try our best to show good behavior because this is when we're striving to be our best selves and the idea is if you put this in habit for a period of time that you continue to perpetuate those types of behavior at the end of ramadan we celebrate by giving to charity so throughout ramadan we pray every night so if you see me like tired and sleepy we have to wake up at dawn for what we call fajr which is the first prayer and jesus peace be upon him he prayed five prayers and we follow that essentially as well and we so we pray in the in at night and then we after eating after breaking fast and then we pray at dawn for the first prayer at the end of ramadan we celebrate for three days not one this is called eid al-fitr and so i'd like to say ramadan mubarak which is happy eid and the response usually you'll hear ramadan kareem and today i filed a resolution to for the city of boston to recognize eid al-fitr the end or the closing of ramadan as an official holiday for city and i am encouraging our mayor to also follow with action to recognize it as well as a holiday i hope that um everyone here can support my efforts of inclusion i'd like to thank all of the muslims brothers and sisters who are in attendance today and i am asking for suspension and adoption of this resolution today thank you thank you council fernandez anderson would anyone else like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes council block council bark you have the floor thanks so much mr chair um and uh i i ramada mubarak and i'm so excited that we're talking about eid and that we're recognizing it is such an important holiday for so many bostonians i have a sort of technical city services thing to enter and it's not going to keep me from voting for the resolution today as kind of an indication of what we'd like to support but i do think it's worth folks knowing we the city of boston used to have several municipal holidays that we kept that were above and beyond what the state and the federal government did and a decade ago rolled that back under the public sense that we shouldn't have more paid days off at the city level than the other levels of government so i do think it's it's worth flagging that right now the 12 that we have are the 12 that the state has which is one more than the 11 that the federal government has because we have patriots day at the state level so the two that we got rid of were evacuation day and bunker hill day um so i do just want to flag that when it comes to actually adding a municipal holiday such that the city not only acknowledges it but actually gives it as a paid day off and city offices are closed that that would require more substantial action than the resolution that we're taking today and that it would obviously related to the collective bargaining uh items that we talked about a little bit earlier in the meeting the you know it's it's a because it's a day more that the city is closed of the year it's a subject of bargaining um and so just sort of wanted to flag that reality um in terms of you know going to and i know there's also been conversation over time about like is this something that we should do at yom kippur we also got rid of doing it at good friday which the city used to do a while back so i mean personally i think there's probably also a conversation to be had here about how the city of boston has a really robust um like vacation policy for religious observance and makes sure that we're celebrating that and that we're not putting workers in a situation of feeling like to celebrate their most holy days they're going to kind of get the cold shoulder for taking that time off so i hope that's a further conversation we can have but i just wanted to flag that i'm going to i'm going to be voting today in support to express the fact that i think the idea of the city of boston marking eid and making are the many members of the of boston who mark eid feel included and like this is a part of what our community celebrates i think that's really important but i do just want to flag the kind of fiscal constraints in the history around municipal holidays and when city hall is open and shot so thank you mr president thank you council book would anyone else like to speak on this matter would anyone like to add their name as a co-sponsor mr couric please add counselor baker council book counselor braden councillor flaherty council lara consolution council mejia council murphy council well please add the chair council fernandez anderson seek suspension of the rules in adoption of zero five four eight all those in favor say aye all opposed nay the eyes have it the resolution has passed [Applause] mr clerk um i will now ask to take things out of order and we'll ask the clerk to read docket zero five five one first and then we'll come back to dockets zero five four nine and zero five five zero uh miss yeah mr kirk will you please read doc at zero five five one talking number zero five five one counselor braden off with the following resolution calling on the massachusetts legislature and the mbta to advance low-income transit fairs thank you the chair recognizes council braden council braden you have the flaw thank you mr president the mbta has continuously implemented fair hikes after fair hike and is now proposing a three dollar fee to obtain the physical charlie card so no fare included just to get the card you have to pay three three dollars but not to contactless or mobile wallets further widening the divide between those who can afford to go cashless and those who may be less financially resourced or are underbanked but for years transit advocates have called on the mbta to implement a low income fare which should greatly increase accessibility and ridership while also expanding revenue sources to riders who otherwise would not take the t the initiative came close last year but was vetoed by governor baker with federal pandemic relief funds the mbta has a means to enact a year-long low-income fair pilot which would total less than two percent of their annual budget there's also legislation pending at the state house which would direct the mbta to adopt a permanent low-income fare program and allow the regional transit authorities to go to have reduced fare or fair free programs we must swiftly implement reduce fare access for riders who would benefit the most while simultaneously pushing to expand fair free pilots i offered this resolution calling on the mbta to adopt a low income fair program before setting any new fees in place and urging the legislature to take swift action on low income for low-income riders thank you thank you council braden would anyone else like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes council bloc council bloc you have the floor yeah i just want to say how important this is and say that when i was at the boston housing authority this was something that we brought up with the mbta every time we met with them on a joint issue is just like how much the mbta fare can be a barrier and especially the way that certain transfers don't work for our communities um and just like you know it may seem you know for folks with more like the price of one tea pat you know like trip is not that high but it really can add up and it can um limit the access of our our young people and folks in low-income communities to all kinds of goods and services and opportunities and the freedom to travel so i just um i really strongly agree that although personally i would i would like to see us move towards a free mbta i think that uh thinking about robust options for our low-income residents is really important so in the meantime thank you mr president thank you council buck anyone else like to speak on this or add their name mr clerk please add council block please add council flaherty council lara council consolization councilor mejia councillor murphy and please add the chair council of braden seeks suspension of the rules and adoption of dark at zero five five one all those in favor say aye the eyes have it the resolution has been adopted we will now come back to dark at zero five four nine um mr clerk please read doc at zero five four nine talking number zero five four nine councilors bark and flynn offered the following resolution recognizing the bison tenary of the incorporation of the city of boston the chair recognizes counselor bach thank you so much i'm really excited to rise on this today and uh um so 200 years ago boston transitioned from being a town to being a city so folks will know that we're looking forward to the 400th anniversary of the city in 2030 but that goes back to the 1630 date and uh it we were a town for almost 200 years um and then uh you know there was serious a series of very uh disaggregated town boards and it was getting kind of unwieldy and after lots and lots of debate and back and forth um the residents of boston enough of them decided to ask the state legislature to act that they passed an act establishing the city of boston which was then ratified by a vote in the city and um and then the election of the first mayor happened in april of 1822 and then the former selectmen transferred the papers of the city and the responsibility for the city to the new mayor and our predecessors the first city council on may first 1822. so obviously the 200 marker of that is this sunday and to commemorate that we're going to have a commemorative program at old south meeting house doors are opening at 4 and then at 4 30 i will be starting the program and then right after it wraps up around 5 15 or so we're going to do a little procession from old south meeting house to old city hall to new city hall to raise the city flag outside um and so uh mayor will be there i'll be there inviting all colleagues and members of the public to come and you know we're really we're really trying to use this as a chance both to commemorate boston's history and to think about kind of the future of more inclusive commemoration in the city um so we will at that occasion be hearing from members of the massachusetts tribe who were here before this town or city of boston were ever established um we'll we'll hear some brief comments about boston's black community in the 19th century which was really vibrant at the time of 1822 but mostly we're not able to vote on incorporation and talk a bit about the the history of incorporation and kind of what it's meant for boston and our ability to have robust municipal services and enter into collective action together and kind of um fight our corner at the state and everything to be as a city we'll also have a remark from labor as may 1st is also may day as people may know and it should be a good opportunity to commemorate and to kind of lay down a marker for the types of ways we'd like to commemorate history in the city as we work on launching the commemoration commission that we passed last fall so i'm excited about it we will send a formal invite out to councillors but that's this sunday if you're able to join us it's at 4 30. so it's late enough that it's after the greek parade after the hangzhou 40th so it's going to be a busy day in the city we know lots of labor action it's also may day but definitely um you know in 100 years ago in 1922 in the curly administration one of them they did a similar procession and there's actually photos of them outside of old city hall commemorating 100 years of boston being a city so we're trying to 200 years on also lay down that marker so thank you madam chair thank you um the chair recognizes counselor flynn thank you thank you council edwards and thank you council block for bringing this forward and for asking me to be part of it i i wanted to highlight the incredible role that immigrants have played in our in our proud history 200 years and often that history is overlooked and let me just highlight a couple groups the the irish came to this city and we celebrated their arrival recently it was the 175th anniversary of the great famine that's when the irish community left ireland because they were starving they came to cities like boston and new york and established roots here the other the other group i would like to highlight is the african-american experience here in the united states council block referenced it but we have some incredible heroes and in stories that are not known across across our city or country we see this older gentleman come in here once in a while he's friends with myself and counselor bark and council flaherty baker colonel woodhouse he's a tuskegee airman and he's in here once once in a while um and there was a gentleman that i was friendly with in the mid mid 80s 80s his name was deputy superintendent saunders african-american superintendent of the boston police he was also a tuskegee yemen but the incredible contributions of african-americans sacrifices and contributions that they've made to this country is something that we should celebrate and that we're we're we're proud of and then there are so many different groups that have contributed so much that would be it'll be fun as we celebrate to recognize a lot of our proud immigrant roots but then the then the third group i just wanted to briefly highlight is is the chinese the chinese came to came to america and helped build the transcontinental railroad basic basically connecting the east coast with the west coast and when they connected and they met in salt lake city there was that famous photo kind of the ribbon cutting connecting the east and the west but there wasn't one asian person in that photo um and so what did the united states do after we built after the chinese community in the irish community built the transcontinental railroad well we enacted the chinese exclusion act making sure that the chinese could not come to the united states so discussing our history is also an opportunity for us to learn about some of the terrible mistakes that we've made also including incarcerating the japanese during during world war ii especially out in out on the west coast japanese americans were were were arrested and placed in in camps and here they are here they were also serving in our armed forces as well so i just want to acknowledge the incredible contribution so so many immigrants made to our city to our country and i'm proud to partner with um council bark and my colleagues in mayor will won this thank you councilwook does anyone else wish to speak on this matter anyone wish to add their name mr clark could you please add counselor baker councillor braden councillor lara council luigian councillor mejia council murphy and council royale and council flaherty councillors bach and flynn seek suspension of the rules and adoption of docket zero five four nine all those in favor say aye all opposed say nay yeah i have it the resolution has been adopted uh mr clerk please read docket zero five five zero docker number zero five five zero councillors brayden and flynn offered the following resolution in support of the greater boston starbucks workers united the chair recognizes councillor braden thank you move to support suspend the rules and add counselor bach as an original co-sponsor please um um seeing no opposition counselor bach is added as a third co-sponsor thank you from starbucks to amazon and soon enough apple we may be seeing the most significant moment in the country's labor movement where the pandemic is not only shifting the future of work but workers are building collective power for a unified voice and better workplace conditions 16 starbucks stores in massachusetts have filed to unionize including seven right here in boston three in austin brighton and the rest in the longwood back bay downtown and the south end two weeks ago the stores at 1304 comm ave in allston and college corner in brookline voted unanimously to become the first two starbucks to unionize in massachusetts and next tuesday may 3rd in the elect and in the election vote count for three more stores in allston brighton and in longwood while the concentration of starbucks stores organizing in my district my office has has been repeatedly contacted by regional corporate representatives however like many across the country starbucks workers have reported to my office the aggressive union busting tactics including a captive audience one and one one-to-one meetings with misrepresented misinformation as well as increased surveillance and corporate personnel traveling in from outside the region to put pressure on on staff not to unionize i want to acknowledge and extend my support to the start to the starbucks partners and union organizers who are in the chamber with us today thank you so much and i urge my colleagues to join me in adopting this resolution to support greater boston starbucks workers united and call on the company to drop their union busting and election interference thank you madam chair thank you the chair recognizes councillor flynn thank you thank you councillor edwards thank you council edwards and thank you council braden for allowing me to join join you on this important matter this this body has a long history of supporting the rights of working men and women women across greater boston across our our state as well i have two starbucks in my district one in the south end and one in downtown boston that are going to prepare for hopefully to become part of the union council braden highlighted some of the strong tactics management is using to discourage workers from joining a union boston has always had boston has always been a proud union and labor city and we stand here with the workers because these workers are our neighbors our family they're our little league coach they might not be they might not be known to us today but it's important that their voices are heard more of these restaurants and more of these shops are opening up starbucks across the city but it's important that they have an opportunity to earn a decent wage to have some health care to have dignity and retirement into and to be treated fairly and treated with respect so just want to say thank you to my colleague council braden for allowing me to join her but i also want to thank my colleagues here in the city council that have long supported the rights of workers to organize here across the city and really across the country as well thank you the chair recognizes counselor bach thank you so much i think we all know that the reality of unionization in america is a two-track story in which though we have a few industries um and the public sector in which there's still some you know strength and unionization and then just a lot of private industries where we see a dramatic decline and the only way we're going to turn that around is if we get unionization of the really large corporate conglomerates across the country especially in the service industry and so i just think that it is i mean the two most important things going on for like actually having people power rather than corporate power run the country are probably the starbucks and amazon unionization drives that are happening right now and it's incumbent upon all of us to support those efforts wherever they hit in our patch here in the city of boston and so i'm strongly in support of the starbucks workers who are attempting to unionize in my district district 8 and will be of of any who come forward and would be of dunkin donuts workers or any other large industry where workers want to say hey we've had enough and we really need a seat at the table and and good strong equitable working conditions so thank you madam chair thank you um does anyone else wish to speak on the matter does anyone wish to add their name i would like mr clark could you please add uh councillor baker counselor flaherty councilor lara councillor louisian councillor mejia councillor murphy and councillor warrell councillors braden uh flynn and box seek suspension of the rules and adoption of docket zero five five zero all those in favor say aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the resolution has been adopted [Applause] thank you council edwards we're on to we're on to personal orders mr kirk please read doc at zero five five two please talking number zero five five two council of flynn for council of flaherty the chair seeks suspension of the rules passage of docket zero five two two all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket has passed mr clerk please read doc at zero five five three talking number zero five five three council of flint for councillor murphy the chair seeks suspension of the rules passage of dark at zero five five three all those in favor say aye aye all opposed saying nay the eyes haven't the docket has passed mr clerk please read talk at zero five five four doctor number zero five five four councilor flynn offered the following appointment for temporary employees the chair six suspension of the rules the passage of docket zero five five four all those in favor say aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket has passed we're on to lay files i'm informed by the clerk that there are two white file matters the late file matters include a letter of absence from council at royal and a communication from council royal the late file manner should be on everyone's desk we will need to take a vote to add these items into the agenda all those in favor of adding the late file matter into the agenda say aye thank you the late file mata has been added to the agenda we're in a brief recess [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] we're back in session thank you now we're moving on to late files i'm informed by the clerk that we have several late files a letter of absence from council arroyo a communication from council arroyo the late file matters now should be on everyone's desk we will take a vote to add these items into the agenda all those in favor of adding the late file matter into the agenda say aye thank you the late file matters have been added to the agenda mr clerk please read the first late file matter into the agenda which is the letter of absence from council arroyo from the office of city council ricardo arroyo dear council president flynn please be advised i will not be in attendance at the boston city council meeting on wednesday april 27 2022 my staff will be attending the meeting and i will thoroughly review the video and meeting minutes please ask that the city clerk read this matter into the public record thank you city councilor ricardo arroyo thank you that late file will be placed on file mr cork please read the second second late file mata entered the agenda which is a letter also from council arroyo from the office of city council ricardo arroyo dear council president flynn as chair of the committee on government operations i would like to express my support to bring docket 0321 petition for a special law regarding securing environmental justice in the city of boston to the floor and defer to my vice chair council lou gen to pull it from the green sheets thank you councilor ricardo arroyo thank you mr cork the second late file will be placed on file we're on to green sheets anyone wishing to remove a matter from the green sheets may do so at this time the chair recognizes counselor jean console you have the flow thank you mr president um as i share the government operations committee i would like to pull from the green sheets docket number zero three two one from page seven of 18 of the green sheets or page 80 of the agenda packet mr clerk will you please read doc at zero three two one into the record it should be on page seven of 18 in the green sheets dr number zero three two one uh sponsored by councillor edwards petition for a special law regarding securing environmental justice in the city of boston thank you mr corey can you please poll the committee members to see if they would allow the doctor to come before the body members of the government operations committee council arroyo council louisiana yes council overall yes councillor mejia councillor barge yes and council of clarity and council edwards thank you docket zero three two one is now properly before the body council lujan you have the floor thank you uh mr mr president for pulling this uh docket from the green sheets there was a working session held on this home rule petition that was offered by councillor edwards regarding environmental justice in the city of boston and making sure that community can be involved there can be more of a say on the community process when it comes to public corporations and issuing permits and licensing and citing for them we know that our city is one that is experiencing uh the climate crisis and we need to be very vigilant whether it's you know the substation in east boston or anywhere else in our city that we are putting the needs of community before um you know corporations that are not heeding the needs or not you know the primary focus isn't addressing the climate crisis so um i'm going to uh allow you know you know council edwards will speak more because this is our homo petition but there's a very successful working session on this matter and i have full confidence that uh as senator edwards she will be able to advocate valiantly for this homework petition once it's at the statehouse so thank you very much senator edwards thank you councillor chair recognizes council edwards council edwards you have the flow thank you very much um first i'd like to move that the uh that the version and the green sheets be replaced by an event amended um draft i did not get that right alex i'm sorry i i would like the better version to replace sorry a motion to amend do we have a second for the motion the second from council braden the amended the amended draft is now before the body all those in favor of the amended version say aye opposed say nay the eyes have it thank you very much just to remind folks um what this homeworld petition does as councillor regime quickly summarized this is a home repetition that really is allowing two major concepts first is that for the first time in our zoning code in boston we we would be putting in environmental justice standards as a reason for enforcement for the building commissioner those standards will be making sure that as just like with our sanitation code just like with our density and all other aspects and safety that our building commissioner now has one more tool in the toolbox to make sure that we are safe and to make sure that we are actually compliant and honestly that we are meeting our constitutional our constitutional rights which under article 97 is the right to clean air and water in the state of massachusetts and so this is just being consistent with that right the other component of this is changing the process to make sure that a utility company cannot just forego local authority local scrutiny and local voices and put their facilities wherever they want in the city of boston right now you can as a public service corporation you can petition to the state dpu to forego all local zoning and simply ask that they decide for the city of boston where is the best location this takes that away and says actually we think the boston zoning commission can determine that and should come up with the regulations and standards for how the we're going to cite utility companies this is not a form of nimbyism this is a matter of local control if we're going to become greener if we're going to build the infrastructure i do think the city of boston should be coming up with those standards for doing that we do want to see electrification of much of our utilities of our buses and all of that is something that can happen with this so after a really robust hearing and i want to thank all of the folks for coming um counselor mejia counselor murphy especially and uh asking that we insert a language that assured that there were two things that would happen one that with councillor mejia's suggestion that the boston zone commission would have to consult with environmental justice advocates and stakeholders as well as i think it was the climate law foundation suggested that they also consult with the environmental advisory council from the state to make sure that when we're coming up with these regulations it isn't in a silo and it isn't without the people who we're trying to protect so thank you very much councillor mejia council murphy especially us also that we come up with and council muhir again asked that we come up with a report um the bad actors the dashboard to make sure that after a year of this enforcement we actually know who is doing what and where and why and again to guard against the nimbyism and people as councilor murphy said we just don't want someone waking up one day saying they hate the competition across from them and they'll use any excuse like environmental justice we really want a standard so thank you both for that robust back and forth making sure also that all of our standards are warnings and our protections are in more than one language so we're very i'm very excited about presenting this and hopefully we will vote this out the mayor as office and i have been discussing about this particular um uh this homeworld petition and i believe the mayor is in favor of it and finally um i did keep the language in that makes it amendable so that it can be flexibly discussed at the state house but it is my hope that you will give me this parting gift of work and that i can take this uh once it's signed by the mayor at the state house and and fight still for our city that we love thank you thank you council edwards we will now vote on the amended draft of docket zero three two one before we do vote on that i want to give my colleagues the opportunity to weigh in if they'd like to speak on it if if you would please uh raise your hand we'll now vote on the amended draft of dark at zero three two one all those in favor say aye all opposed say nay target zero three two one has passed in an amended draft congratulations we're going to go to the consent agenda but before i do that i do i do want to recognize two of our former colleagues that are here councillor zakum is here good to be with you josh and clerk maureen feeney who is also a member of this party thank you maureen and thank you josh for the incredible work that you've done for the residents of boston we're now moving on to the consent agenda i have been informed by the court that there are no additions to the consent agenda the chair moves for the adoption of the consent agenda as a pr as presented all those in favor say aye opposed say no navy the docket has been adopted thank you um we're on two announcements if anyone likes to make any announcements here's your opportunity announcements again anybody have any announcements ultimately yes but uh we wanted to make sure that if there was any other announcements gen honestly any any any announcements in terms of i would like to be the last to speak so that it's not you know so any any announcements going on the district nothing's happening that would be ideal yes counselor bach okay go ahead um i would like to recognize counselor baker thank you thank you madam senator um this is our opportunity to i mean it's a buy but it's not a buy you're just going to be up the street you're still going to be around i have a feeling we're going to see plenty of you um but you've been interesting to say the least in the last was it eight years no six years four years i've only been here four years oh my god i feel like i'm 100. but anyway no it's been i think a learning um for both of us we've we've formed a relationship i don't think we agree on one single issue but we're able to have some relationship building in our trip over the island which i i hold close to my heart and and you know i don't think i've met someone that can get as passionate as you can about your issues right or wrong like i said earlier i don't think we agree on any issues but and i respect that and i respect your fire that's in your belly and i always knew that what you were what you were fighting for was personal to you and and that's that's a you know i know that even though not being in sync on things i totally i totally respect you and i totally you know i i kind of looked at a lot of people around here i'm a little bit older as either a niece or a nephew or something like that i some people used to call me uncle frank sometimes but um i i hope that we continue to have our relationship and i appreciate you reaching out when um i was under the weather my wife let me know what was going on i appreciate that and i'm sorry i wasn't there for for easter so um you're gonna have a really good career up the state house give them hell up there um you know and make us proud make your district proud you you you know your district was a difficult district and you going in there as a black woman not from boston you've become an honorary we'll give it to you you're you're definitely from boston you know i'm saying you're definitely a daughter so um i don't want to go on too much but thank you i love you and and you're going to do really good things at the state house thank you thank you it's official from boston you heard it's official um and counselor flaherty official it's lydia with a y lots of ladies but there's lydia with the y is the bostonian uh let me obviously uh let you i want to let you know how much we're going to miss you and how collegial you've been uh since joining this party and it's been a pleasure to work alongside of you we obviously as an at-large council we share a lot of that same turf some of my best in long-term and loyal supporters are big supporters of yours throughout your district and so we immediately kind of connected on that front and then for folks who didn't know you or were a suspect and you weren't a true bostonian uh they would say hey you know what is she like and and i and i and it's how i feel about you you're smart and you're street smart and in this business being street smart is better than being smart and you're thoughtful and you're tenacious and for folks i'd say to them when they wanted to bring an issue to your to your attention i'd say just give it a straight scoop be honest don't try to be flim-flammy i said because if she's on your side uh she'll go through the wall for you and and she's dogging in that sense and that's how you represented your neighborhood your neighbors and your constituents i also had a front row seat as many of our colleagues did some of the most trying times in your life that in a public position it's really difficult um and to see you go through uh that tragedy that you went through in with grace and perseverance uh says that god is good and god has blessed you with so many talents and talents that you're now going to bring up to the senate and i know that we're going to continue to work together obviously i'm going to miss you here on the council you're always welcome back when we see former colleagues come back but we're still going to be doing that same work uh districts are going to overlap you continue to call and and ask for support and help i'm going to continue to call and ask for support and help and we're going to continue to work together for the betterment of the people we represent you learned very early on in your political career that this business is about helping people and you're passionate about helping people and that's what's going to carry you it's what served you well here in the boston city council it's also what's going to serve you well up at beacon hill and i think having a twin also helped in that having twins and knowing sort of how that twin dynamic happens in a household i think obviously has uh has helped you um as you how you approach uh different issues uh in challenges that you face so i uh i will miss you personally obviously we're going to continue to work together it was an honor and privilege to serve with you love you and wish you the very best in all your future endeavors thank you um counselor lujan thank you senator edwards um you know we didn't you know we overlapped for a period of three months here on the council but um i really enjoyed working alongside you and learning from you and you're gonna kill it um at the state house you know i remember just being a little baby okay uh candidate trying to get on your calendar and how hard it was it was like like i'll meet with her like a month or two from now um but when we finally were able to to connect you gave me some of the best advice probably the best advice i received from anyone and i really appreciated that and i always gave you i give credit and i always give you credit for just giving me really great advice and i just i know that you're going to continue to kill it on the state house please make it easy for all of our home rule petitions just do the thing because you know how hard it is on the other side um you know i'm sure folks in charlestown and the north end and east boston will continue to say lydia to me when they see me up in there up in the neck of the woods i'm like no no no there are two of these i'm an at-large city counselor there's another really dope black woman and that's you know of course me because you are the first um really as um as our colleague counselor baker said really setting the setting the trail there as a black woman uh winning that seat was no easy feat the first time i met you was um at the massachusetts black women lawyers association where you talked about the successes and challenges that you've experienced as a black woman lawyer in the city and as a fellow black woman lawyer i really identify with a lot of what you said so i will continue to look to you for really good wisdom and i look forward to our work together and making good trouble here in the city and in the commonwealth so thank you love you and i bid you ado thank you [Applause] councillor flynn thank you council edwards and i met with council edwards this morning at 10 o'clock and she said to me she didn't want to have this type of um you know going around and talking about her about her and so what am i doing i'm going around talking about it so i'm already breaking the rules so i apologize about that but i didn't want to miss this opportunity to acknowledge that you know acknowledge the incredible job you did here as a city councilor we started off together four years ago four and a half years ago we were sworn in together and became close friends supporters of each other but more more friends and respected you as a as a person but what i what i respected most about you is the the upbringing you had as as the daughter of of her mother was a a member of the u.s military your mother served in the u.s air force but your mother served with with distinction but it wasn't easy it was hard and that's what i admired about you is the perseverance the determination the love you have for your country we always sponsored various resolutions over the last four years on many topics but the the one i always liked most was on woman veterans and the impact it has on families but you spoke from your heart and you provided tremendous tremendous support to so many veterans and military families but i but besides that i i just want to say you've been a very loyal friend someone i respect someone i admire and i know you're only going up the street up on beacon hill but we're going to miss you here and just want to say congratulations on being the senator from that wonderful district as well thank you thank you councillor braden thank you senator edwards um you know i'm gonna really miss you around here um um years ago before you were ever a city councillor you worked at the office of housing stability and my my mary my partner got off the phone this day and she says you have to meet this woman this this woman lydia edwards had just had this amazing conversation and you really got to meet this woman and you were helping her sort out some some issue we had as landlords and um and so here we are um then i i came to the city council and in in those early days it's such a new space you were an incredible friend a mentor uh you were had offered great advice i i echo uh counselor louis jens remarks about you give us some really good advice um as new counselors and i really appreciate that that friendship that sisterhood that mentorship that you have given us um i also think i'm so glad that you had that trip to ireland with our dear friend frank here and that you got to visit donegal which is where my grandmother my my maternal grandmother's from donegal and so i think you know you really sort of have taken on that whole um of love of all things danny gall and i think we deserve to be making an honorary irish woman right um because you're of your appreciation of all of that and this other thing this is this other commodity that comes from ireland it's hard cider made by magners you've also a great connoisseur of cider and you appreciate that magners is the best it's the best one to go for so i'm going to miss your french i'm not going to miss your friendship i know where you are you're just up the hill but i hope that you won't be a stranger to us and i look forward to continuing the work whatever the the pathway may lead us going forward but i thank you for the journey so far and i wish you all your best and your in the next days your great career that you're going to do some great things up at the state house all the best we love you i love you thank you okay councilor thank you uh senator edwards and uh thank you for being a trailblazer a fighter and a welcoming spirit ever since i came on the council you received me and welcoming arms and open arms and gave me great advice and i appreciate that means a great deal to me and what was so impressive too is you know during this three months i think you ran two races and then ran a marathon and i think that's just incredible and i know you're gonna do great things over there in this uh state senate and if you can try to give us more autonomy here back on the city council we will love that so thank [Applause] you so senator edwards i know we met we were classmates back in 2017 in our emerge training and then a couple you know years later we're now colleagues we've only been here together for a few months but i love your fight your spirit and i know that we'll continue to be strong partners and work together and the north end and east boston still have you so like council of flaherty said as an at-large counselor we'll continue to work together and advocate for your community so good luck and i know we'll see you thank you thank you [Applause] councillor bach um so the first time i met lydia edwards we were in an elevator and she was furious at me um and all of the boston ward 5 democrat committee because we had voted for our friend jay livingstone the man who had personally shoveled eight feet of snow off my grandmother's roof over her a woman who i had not met until then but who was terribly impressive um at the forum and who we nonetheless did not endorse um and it was my first time being exposed to that sort of like pure fiori of lydia's that makes you start to wonder whether you've miscalculated the whole situation and actually she's right because it's just so white-hot but we got it the second time around and the uh the great irony for me is that by the time lydia was running for a state senate the second time around i am not sure that i have ever done like supported a candidate for anything in this case state senate where it was so entirely against my personal interests and happiness for them to win because it means losing you from the council and you know it's only been two and a half years of overlapping as colleagues but you've just been such an extraordinary friend to me um and such an extraordinary role model um i i will i'll be brief because i know you think i go on too long at these things but um but you know i think we could i could talk all day about lydia as a friend and michael referenced it but i think just i mean the indomitable spirit of getting through this year and all the things that you've done in this year after such an incredible loss with greg and and the fact that i mean to me you're just a model of being the counselor who is both a big picture policy person um who like like me likes going back and forth on red lines and thinking about how to get legislation right um and is pushing you know the big picture things and gee when it comes to you know affirmatively furthering fair housing or growing funding for aop or creating your housing trust in east boston i mean there's just so many things where you've moved the needle in such a big way and and and you know run the table a little bit while people are off running for mayor but also lydia is like a model district counselor she's the only district counselor who has had me in multiple mayor's offices talking about whether or not they're going to fix this random curb in east boston because it's like the question that um things that that things hang on along with um all those big picture things and so i just think that for me coming along behind you it's been it's been such an education to work with you on the council um but um early this morning i you know it's it's national poetry month i wrote it with sauna um it was written at five in the morning so everyone's gotta like grade on a clip here okay um so i'm gonna read it to you i have a copy so i'm not i'm only reading this once guys but um but uh yeah i can go to you after um but yeah i initially i was gonna not speak and just give you the sonnet and that was gonna be my short brief remarks but it didn't happen but i couldn't help myself and it didn't happen okay but i think just to say the thing that i decided to focus on at five in the morning in my poem um is about the fact that the most impressive thing about lydia is that she's so competitive that she wants to win every game and then when she realizes that the rules of the game are stacked against her winning it she changes them like she just projects the premise that like that things need to be structured this way and i think you've seen that time and time again with the legislative achievements she's had that are really going to continue to be things that all of us make use of long after she's gone from the chamber so this is a sonnet for lydia edwards on the occasion of her final boston city council meeting a fighter a brawler they say well sure but better yet our lydia is a smith no cast offs for her she makes her own swords wields law to prove impossible a myth make her mad and she's lydia teapot watch all that steam coming out of her ears but passion that scorches will make steel hot then bent to shape by the will that it fears what shape a pla an hrp a zoning or charter amendment swords and stones for us who come after sea to be used in a critical moment so grab the hilt you bostonians true read the words lydia forged me for you thank you thank you so counselor porque and so i really do appreciate how hard you fight for immigrants for the latino community you speak multiple languages which goes to show your deep commitment from making sure that everyone is included so i really do appreciate that i also would like to just say that um you know as the chair of government ops in my first term you were incredibly generous with your ability to help me articulate oftentimes i would show up in that space and struggle to understand half of the things that people were saying and you always recognize that even through the zoom and help translate and whenever i would ask a question sometimes the question people understood what the question was but they didn't want to answer it and you took that moment to help advocate and translate on my behalf to make sure that people understood what i had to say so it is that level of dedication that you have to folks that i really do appreciate i um just i didn't get all of all of the mentoring i i i but i am looking forward to it once you get to the state house because i do believe that the the work continues and i look forward to building a relationship with you on the other side so that we can move the work forward so thank you for all that you have done on the council looking forward to the work that you will continue to do in the state house and more importantly the voices that you will bring into that space and i know that you will honor them and fight like hell for them because i've seen you do it here and i know that you will continue to do it everywhere that you go lydia so thank you for always keeping me on my toes and for being such a fierce spirit you're gonna be missed thank you thank you okay are there any other announcements okay um it's time to say goodbye and i i really i don't normally struggle with what to say in moments but this this this has been very hard i will say first thank you um to a lot of people i i owe so such immense gratitude to some people but we'll start with the og's by that i mean the ones who bust through some of these barriers to allow for some of us to be here today i'm talking about the og from dorchester maureen feeney i'm talking about diane monica from east boston i'm talking about peggy davis mullen and then may she rest in peace rosemary sasson these women were part of breaking a lot of barriers and making sure that us especially as women could be here today and then um for me at least in my um impact and influence there was the sensational six i don't know um i'm the last of the six actually um we were put on a cover of boston magazine and we took this famous photo that was me ayanna presley anissa sabi george michelle wu andrea campbell kim janey and i wish you could have seen us uh posing for that picture and having to walk and we were laughing at each other because they told us to show up with like purses and hats and sunday best and like we were like i'm not wearing a stupid hat and we were just laughing and walking and we would you know someone oh inevitably it was kim who always did this catwalk and i'm like what are you doing why are you walking like and it was just so much fun and when you look at that picture then it's six city councilors now it's a congresswoman future attorney general senator mayers and i think about that and i want to thank them because i think kim and i came in but the other four women were there before us and i have to give thanks to my original my brother's in service at that time too um we were special 13. of course uh eddie came in mike flaherty came in or was already there frank you were already there um tim tim mccarthy uh my friend josh sacombe matt o'malley uh mark siomo uh what am i forgetting i think that was it yeah so there's the 13 that was the the body at the time and it was interesting it was a different dynamic different kinds of conversations and i just think back on that time uh and what to even say and i can ha i honestly have to say thank you i learned so much i was the patience that you gave me the talking to's that i got and i got several um and this body is special it's 13 of us now serving on a body with 40 people it is completely different and the ability to truly become friends colleagues and fighters for each other is something so deeply unique for this body and i hope that you don't ever give that up at the end of the day stand up for each other you are the boston city council and you should stand with each other i am i want to also thank central staff i don't i don't think anybody can really appreciate uh especially in the audience who's watching this central staff allows us to function we function at their election we had a pandemic and but for the technological work of kerry and getting us and making sure that we could move and literally do our jobs i central staff is everything for this body and so just to name them carrie you lady christine michelle candice juan cora lorraine ron ashley i think shane is left but shane was part of central staff as well i don't know how many political careers you have saved you lady i don't know how many times you have uh or how many times uh carrie just managed to move the camera the right way away from whatever was going to happen or was happening and saved us from ourselves in the moment but central staff you are you're the backbone of this institution i am so grateful to have to work for you and you've raised such the bar you've raised a huge bar in your approachability your dedication to the body and wanting us to be our very best and you have been attacked you've been called out you have been under appreciated and there was not a day that you didn't meet you weren't 10 out of 10 every single time so i want to thank you and i would like everyone to thank and give a round of applause to central staff and just for future you know thoughts really could use a union increased in cola on a regular basis sorry mr president no um but seriously we can we we support unions and organize labor everywhere we should be supporting it here too and i absolutely want to see that happen one day um so to my family also known as my staff i don't think people understand um what staff is i mean we say it and it it means so much and it's you say it like it's this one blob of of staff because it's just easier to say my brothers my sisters my aunts my rider dies my give this shirt literally off their back because i spilled coffee on mine and i have a tv interview and so gabriella and i are about the same size so she gave me her clothes um the text message at like 6 a.m or something that greg has died um i'm out i can't deal with anything and that um if i look like i didn't miss a beat when i lost my partner it's because my staff was literally holding me up i mean it it was like i was a puppet on a string and they would if they could have moved my mouth and and had me move and function that's what my staff did i want to thank them each lina tremelli who's with age strong janet knott who's now retired kathy carangelo who is with the bpda i want to thank them deeply and joe wool what's up joel thank you and levels you don't know how much i appreciate i don't think uh there's very few people who will suffer my wonkiness my immediate need to know the answer ness the back and forth and why is this ness besides joe wool and when i think of a systemic world where it's equitable where we people are paid a living wage where people can afford um to pay rent or buy a house when i think about children being free from asthma and i say that that's the goal joel's mind sets to the systemic problems that block those goals you are brilliant you are a dear friend and thank you for working in the office and being my friend ricardo ricardo patron uh joined my office i think he worked two days a week part-time from east boston i had never heard of him and i wasn't sure about him he showed up wanting to work for me all bright-eyed bushy-tailed after a very hard-fought city council race so we're like and you are and the answer is amazing kind loyal intelligent he went from part-time to full-time and then he became my chief of staff i think the first latino chief of staff for district one he is a guiding light a straight soldier but most importantly ricardo i think you brought a sense of humor and realness uh to me and i think you made me more humorous and real to a lot of people who didn't know me um for some reason i have this reputation for being i don't know rough around the edges is it aggressive strong fierce not to be toyed with i don't know but um and sometimes that that reputation because it's in front of me a lot of people make assumptions about my heart whether i'm a nice person whether they can approach me about anything and i have to say ricardo i think you have been one of the biggest breaker of those walls to push that down and remind people i'm just a human being remind me that i'm just a human being so i'm proud of you i'm so fiercely proud of you look at you press secretary for the mayor look at you look at joel chief of staff over at bha look at them i have good staffers um jesse me and jesse's daughter are besties and jessie is a brilliant legal mind and there's where joel on the policy pushes back and comes back and forth jesse does the same same thing on the legal part and um when we when joel left we needed to hire a new person and we're like okay jesse he seems interesting he now works for russia he would just laugh really hard um just jessie is um that i have to put and this is the best thing i would say jesse reminded me constantly about what parents are dealing with uh jesse has a two-year-old three-year-old daughter and well two when when you first started and so it was real for him to say listen i have to i have i have bedtime i have this time i can't do this and it was so real for us for the first time because we we were staff mostly of younger folks or older folks whose kids were out of the house that never did we have to think about babysitting and jesse made us think about that i think you made us a better stronger staff for that and then we'd stay up until 3am and work on that groundbreaking historic memorandum arguing why the city of boston for the first time of any city should be able to place a question before the people of boston without the mayor's permission and we won that argument at the attorney general and got that charter done um so jesse i am extremely proud of you and i am just honored that you came to work with us for as long as you did take care of him lutzy do right by him um to the first lady of charlestown judy evers i just saw today that she has been working at the city council since 2003 and that's i think coming back from a retirement so if you want to talk about someone dedicated to the city to the nuts and bolts to one of the toughest areas of the city to the toughest times of the city that's judy evers she's in her 80s and she is rock solid unapologetically towny through and through and she's amazing um and then we have the confetti master bonetti from the north end um benetti i think you cover up so much of your heart dedication and love for this city through humor and sarcasm but i am telling you i don't know a truer bostonian and someone who loves this city especially the north end more than michael binetti he has he will dedicate and has dedicated his life to that neighborhood and i hope they truly appreciate him but i'm proud of you where you're gonna go we know talk about it loudly one day but benetti i wouldn't be here thank you thank you um i want to i haven't then i have a new class of kind of folks coming in i don't know if jake is here jake he was um he'll be with counselor box office now but jake was an incredible person who on the senate campaign who worked extremely hard and is a veteran and i'm proud that we had him come in our office and work with us and now he's over at councillor bach he actually lives in our district um then tesha and yamina you two are amazing they're easty girls yamina's shy 21 and uh i want you to know she's shy 21 here but when someone was messing with her sisters and that someone happened to be a boston police officer she was fierce and unapologetic and loud and got an apology from the commissioner and the d.a to herself and her family and then got a job offer from me because i think that's badass and i'm proud of you you stand up for who you are proud young muslim girl and i am so proud that you're in my office i know you tasha from church and all the times i have to go there for confession but uh tasha i don't think people understand tasha's heart is in service i don't know that's how i met you in church over at teresa's house you give more than anybody i know and i hope and i'm begging you take that vacation i'm serious spoil yourself because i i don't know anybody else more deserving of just treating themselves besides you i had to save these two for um last elaine donovan i met elaine going to the knights of columbus and during the campaign i have to say i had never really been to charlestown when we decided we're going to run for the district city council seat her candidate was not running decided not to run and she was devastated that her candidate our dear friend jack was not going to run so she said she was going to give me a shot and i went to the nights it was trivia night and i walk in the door i'm the only person of color and i'm like there's someone named elaine here i don't know what she looks like and she's going like this and we kind of lock eyes and she's like yeah come over here and the rest is history i don't know how many drinks later how much fun we talked how many oh gosh what is a divorce everything elaine's been there she is so amazing a good friend and she loves charlestown boston this city and i think the best thing about elaine uh is that she is the realest woman i know real recognize is real and elaine you provide that perspective of realness whenever i get up sometimes in the clouds of the wonkiness you remind me there's someone on the other side of that who needs to pay rent there's a real family and they need it right now you remind me and and educate me about what boston has been through you robust you know the busing that's a trauma in charlestown and throughout the city that you live through and you educate me all the time about that it's important to remember how we got here it's important to remember our history and i just want to thank you because i for everyone's you know they comment about the fact that i'm a black woman i represent charlestown east boston the north and uh i read common ground in college i read about lisa mcgough in college the mcgoff family i read about that that back and forth that god awful back and forth school busing i read and studied boston's toughest times before i even knew i was going to live in boston and the thought that when i would go to church at saint francis and sit on sit in the pews and i'd be thinking 30 40 years ago someone was sitting here praying for the safety of their kids because of bossing i i thought wasn't this interesting when i'm walking up green street or coming down bunker hill going into grasshopper owned by the smith family and talking to folks and meeting people what we would have been would we have been friends if i were their age or if they were mine i'll never know um i don't have to know you're my friend now this is the boston we live in now where me and a frank baker can go to ireland together come back with a bottle of punching we haven't split it yet we will one day but that's the boss thing we live in now warts and all back and forth left right whatever you want to call it it's our city and elaine i couldn't imagine representing this part in charlestown this city without you at my side i love you um hey gigi gigi called me out of the blue when salamattina said he wasn't going to run and she said are you going to run for the city council seat i said i don't know i don't have money i don't know what i'm gonna do and she said i'll quit my job and i will be your campaign manager whatever you want me to be if you run and i ran and that day our campaign started i didn't even have money to pay gabriella cletta i didn't know where it was going to come from she quit her job though and we ran like hell we ran all over the place and yes i mean i'll say it now we ran even in the face of the boston mayor at the time we were fearless and ultimately sorry it's my sister and i just want to say it was your spirit you're being fearless you're fighting for everything you had is why i think you're going to be an excellent city councilor i love you [Applause] you love this district you love this work and you were the chief person who kept my head up during the most worst part of my life thank you for being my friend my little sister i know i've gone on a long time but i i tell you trying to summarize four years and memories and heart and the people who helped you got here it's worth the time sometimes it's worth the time because so much of how i got here and what we went through is just amazing bomb cyclone eddie remember that we went through that um then there was the day i got my nickname lydia with a y remember that you lady yeah okay um let's see i was hoping you didn't but okay well either way statue limitations all that is gone but now it's four years at least i'm sure um then there was the um let's see uh uh yeah there that who could forget that fun pandemic we're still going through and how we had to switch to everything but i will never forget that night the first night when we decided we weren't going to meet again we all gathered or a chunk of us gathered in o'malley's office i won't say who brought the bottle of whiskey well we have whiskey here and um we sat down and we were all thinking what's this gonna be like i can't wait to get back to my life and then one of us paused and said who do you think will be the first and someone said what to get to get covered and i said no to lose somebody in their district like how's this gonna go who's gonna get hurt the most are we gonna lose who what how and i'll never forget that because we had no idea how many people would lose in this time or who would catch it it's been a it's been a wild ride suffolk downs affirmatively furthering fair housing doing zoning amendments doing all sorts of fun stuff but i have to say man one my district is amazing we do have the best food and i have the microphone so we have the best food district one um and i just have to i'm grateful deeply grateful to every single section of my district the north end i heard stories about how i would never have been able to walk in the north end years ago now i go to st leathers on a regular basis we have meet and greets there you know folks at the casa maria the michelangelo they treat me like i'm their granddaughter it's true i mean once you're in your family your family east boston is my home has been i i guess it's just been the place where newcomers come where people only second to ellis island come to this country and become citizens we welcome people we make americans in east boston it is an incredible neighborhood that is growing sometimes too fast and definitely is getting too expensive but it is a beautiful neighborhood and i'm so happy so happy it's diverse personas it helps um but i have to come back to charlestown because i'm leaving as a representative from charlestown the charlestown will always be my home it was the toughest nut to crack and i will tell you they told me many people told me about charlestown and it was i would never win it they can barely stand the italians across the bridge what do you think they're going to do with the black girl from east boston oh by the way you're not even from east boston you're not from boston uh you you're not going to have a shot you're a liberal you you're all everything that they hate and everybody had a lot of things to tell me about charlestown and then i went there and charlestown said i don't know what the hell they're talking about come inside i talked to mothers who lost their children to addiction i talked to people who were wanting to get into the union i talked to people who wanted to pay rent i talked to people who were proud of my mother's military service real recognize is real if there's any advice i give anybody it's that real recognize is real and ultimately yeah we won charlestown because we were real we didn't promise too much we didn't pretend to be anything we weren't we just said we'd work hard i think i did elaine so i will always represent and fight for charlestown even though i'm not their formal elected official and i just had to say thank you because i will miss deeply um so it's probably the worst speeches i've ever done in my life because it's just just very hard to give i will say this the bravest moment of my life i had two brave moments as a city councilor one was unexpected and the other i i felt up against the wall the one that was unexpected i was learning sign language on vacation enjoying myself when a god-awful decision came down from a jury that decided that two boston city workers were guilty it was the boston calling decision and they were guilty of extortion or something obscene for fighting for workers and work union jobs and i tweeted out this is a horrible decision they're wrong they did nothing wrong i went back to vacation expecting you know fanfare and whatnot that was the loneliest tweet i ever gave up my life no one said anything for a week and i was just felt like i was flapping in the wind and people said you know this is you versus the u.s attorney why would you say anything i said because because it's it's wrong that they were convicted of anything city workers however heard and saw that they came to my office shook my hand said thank you for standing up for our friend and it took about another week or so before other people joined in the chorus and eventually we had the press conference here where we said this is enough if if them now us later who hasn't advocated for workers rights who hasn't said you're going to meet certain standards who hasn't done this and if they're going to be accused of extortion for that then get ready naacp get ready lawyers committee for civil rights get ready aclu planned parenthood immigrant organizations get ready because all of us stand up and go on strike and protest and do all those things and if that's that could also all be considered extortion well the decision ultimately was overturned and i just want to say being bold sometimes comes accidentally but you stand your ground trust your gut if it's wrong say it whether it's the loneliest tweet in the world don't ever silence yourself and then the other part the budget vote 2020. uh i got calls from everybody including the cardinal on weighing in on whether i should do at that moment so i voted for the budget as you know and that broke a lot of my progressive and some people's hearts and some of my friends felt that they were thrown under the bus other people felt that they as city workers i was fighting for their jobs but being up against the wall and i have to thank my staff for all of that because they were with me we realized we're up against the wall because we have a bad choice up or down is not real up or down is not a real choice and it's because being pushed up against the wall having people tell me i broke their heart or having people they loved what i did that i realized this is not a sustainable system so i changed the rules right we change the rules on how we budget here in boston and it breaks my heart i will not be part of that process i won't even be able to get to do it but it wasn't about me it was about the system and we changed those rules and more importantly we changed the process to change those rules by coming up with a historic way to go with or without the mayor's permission directly to the people of boston so and we stood up over and over again for that and of course the coalition grew was multilingual incredibly diverse all over the city because everybody understood that the very fundamental question was do you want in or not do you want to be able to control your money do you want to be able to hold us accountable do you want to see us fight on the floor and everybody said yes so i'm happy about that i'm happy that the city of boston leans into boldness so i'm sad to leave but it's time and i love you all and i'm grateful for all of your friendships come over my building is prettier than this one but this is the realest building i've ever worked in so thank you thank you all thank you for and thank you [Applause] thank you thank you council edwards yeah immediately after this immediately after this session we'll we'll stand for a photo we're on to we're on two memorials at this time today we'll we'll we will adjourn our meeting in memory of the following individuals for council arroyo and voc aidan conley for council bach theodora ted victor brodick kyle rick richter for councillors flaherty in flynn audrey ruth williams helen mcginnis rosemary mccarthy for council legend ken clifton a moment of silence please the chair moves that when the council adjourns today that it does so in those mentioned individuals we are now scheduled to meet again in the iowa chamber on wednesday more may 4th at 12 noon at this time i want to say thank you to the the clerk and city council central staff thank you all in favor of adjournment please say aye the council is adjourned thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] you