[Music] good afternoon everyone my name is ed flynn i'm the city council president viewers can watch the city council meeting live on youtube by visiting boston dot gov slash city council dash tv i'd like to ask my colleagues in those in attendance in the audience to please silence your cell phones electronic devices thank you um if i also would like to ask everyone to be respectful and do not disturb the meeting well we are we are here if you are disruptive you'll be asked to leave if you feel if you fail to comply you will be escorted out um we're going to do the roll call uh mr clerk will you please call the role to ascertain the presence of a quorum fernandez anderson council of flaherty council of flynn here council lara councillor louisian councillor mejia councillor murphy and councillor thank you i have informed by the clerk that a quorum is present this week's clergy is reverend rivers invited by city council of baker council baker and reverend rivers if you'd come to the podium please thank you mr president and thank you reverend for for coming out and being here with us today uh reverend eugene rivers is a former gang member who has committed himself to community development face bait initiatives along with domestic foreign policy issues he's widely published and harvard educated in 1984 he founded azusa christian community in dorchester where he lives with his wife jacqueline rivers is a co-founder of the 10-point coalition and co-chair of the national ten point leadership foundation two programs committed to the revitalization revitalization of families and communities in which boston youth grow up he's a passion for collaboration with the city with the city in building a safe and bright future for our city and is committed to preaching and teaching the gospel of the of the people and youth of boston and he might not even remember when i first met reverend rivers it was back when i i used to be a restaurant owner and when i would stand outside of my restaurant on dorchester ave he would walk by and i would grab him and we would talk and that's when i originally met him close to 20 years ago so without further ado reverend eugene rivers thank you thank you [Applause] counselor i want to thank you and for your generosity and consideration um i'm very thankful uh to be here uh today uh i bring you greetings from uh the people's republic of four corners in dorchester anybody here from dorchester i need to give a shout out some of you don't don't be shame don't be shame from dorchester yes yes god bless you and i'm looking to talk to you right i um i have been blessed to live and serve in dorchester where i moved into four corners in 1987 when the city of boston was on fire it was on fire you had the apple boys you had the detroit boys and um the violence was extraordinary my house was shot in two shot at 26 times since they weren't marksman the first three bullets went in my son's bedroom who was three years old the individuals that shot and to my house on that occasion were not white police officers they were not white racists in fact they weren't white at all they were young men who had got caught up in the gang culture because during that period there were drug cartels that control control certain neighborhoods and as a result people lived in fear as a result of violence uh i'm black my wife is black my kids are black i live in a black neighborhood so i had a real concern having been raised in philly uh where there are real thugs uh i left philadelphia to come to boston uh to go to college uh i'm here before you uh this afternoon to briefly issue a challenge to our political leadership and very specifically to black political leadership this morning there was a meeting held at the l.j baker house that begins at 9 00 a.m where over 40 organizations are represented that's 40 real organizations on a weekly basis some of you i have seen there some of you i've seen once that i never saw you again but this morning we were talking about the challenges that confront young black people as we noted that in too many of our public schools there is violence that's going on and what makes the issue of violence bad is that the victims are overwhelmingly young black people yet i want everyone to catch this northeastern university have armed security details that protect those affluent non-black people that attend that university harvard university where there's lots of danger and violence they have armed details that protect the rich white people and the bourgeois black people who attend mit boston university no one challenges the right of these elite institutions to provide the adequate security to ensure the safety of those wealthy people yet when it comes to black people somehow we get confused there should not be the appropriate level of security provided for young black people and so a game is played at the expense of black youth yes we must provide armed security for the rich the affluent and now one of y'all in here would have anything to say about that yet when we talk about saving the lives of black children at madison park or the henderson where there's violence the elected representatives of color should have been the first people that stood up and said we must ensure security and do whatever is necessary so that our children don't have to now i want you to get how deep this is our children don't have to arm themselves because there's not adequate security to protect them when the bad guy comes in with his pistol it's a shame and i come this afternoon to issue a moral challenge to those that prepared to be leadership i live in the hood my house has been shot into i was in a meeting where they talked about guns that were pulled out on children in the schools and all they had to protect themselves were social workers who could do nothing more than hide when the guns were drawn i want to issue a challenge i invite all of you the violence reduction task force has been around since 1998 consistently in fact we have had visitors from france germany italy the united kingdom jamaica where they've come to examine a model and i'm going to end on this boston in fact if you've lived on the planet earth and you've been to philadelphia jersey city new orleans chicago which is essentially a country baltimore boston in comparison to any of those cities if you bother to do your research stands out as a model and so i'm here to celebrate the facts which are that our children deserve to have the same security that rich white people have when they go to harvard princeton uh yale uh boston university or north eastern and i ask and i challenge you to consider why is it okay especially you you you elected officials of color why is it okay for rich whites to be protected at harvard and mit yet we deny the same security be granted to the poor where is the justice in that i thought black lives matter well if they do there should be security to protect their lives we need responsible law enforcement there were some fools that said defund the police no we needed to reform the police and we need political leadership that have the courage and the decency to defend the interests of the poor don't wink at protection for the wealthy and the affluent and then let our children go to schools where they live in fear because their political leadership has morally and politically failed them and on that note i want to pray god we thank you and praise you for your goodness your love and your mercy lord we pray for political leadership i pray in particular for political leadership of color that they would we would all stand shoulder to shoulder serving and listening to the needs of the poorest of the poor lord continue to bless this great city lord i i pray for our politicians i play for our our law enforcement community i pray for the the mothers of the children that are sentenced to schools where violence is a routine state of affairs god we ask a blessing i pray for my politicians of color that they will step up and come into these violent poor neighborhoods and listen to the suffering and the pain of the mothers whose children end up going to schools where they're denied the security that the white and powerful take for granted all these things god we pray in your name everybody say amen amen come on say it again don't be scared i'm black yeah there you go you ain't gotta be scared to say it up in here amen thank you very much thank you if you're able to uh please rise um and reverend please lead us in the pledge of allegiance of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all amen thank you reverend and thank you city council baker we're going to start at the approval of the minutes now onto the order of the first order of business which is the approval of the minute seeing and hearing no discussion on the matter the chair moves to approve the minutes from the last meeting as presented all those in favor of approving the minutes from the last meeting say aye all those opposed say nay the eyes haven't thank you the meeting of the last minute stands as approved communications from her honor the mayor mr clerk please read doc at zero four zero two doctor number zero four zero two message in order approving a supplemental appropriation of two million nine hundred fifty four thousand eight hundred and twenty eight dollars to cover the fiscal year 22 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 asks 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 filed in the office of the city clerk on march 21st 2022 thank you thank you mr clerk docket zero four zero two will be referred to the committee on city services innovation technology mr clerk please re-dock at 0-403 docking number 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 and twenty eight dollars to provide funding for various departments for the fiscal year 22 increases 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 thank you docket zero four zero three will be referred to the committee on city services innovation technology mr kirk please read docket zero four zero four docker number zero four zero four message and order authorizing the city of boston to accept and expend the amount of one million six thousand eight hundred forty dollars in the form of a grant for the state fiscal year 22 council on aging formula grant awarded awarding by the massachusetts executive office of elder affairs to be administered by the h strong commission the grant will fund services for eighty eight thousand seventy older adults in the city of boston at twelve dollars per person according to the twenty twenty census thank you mr cleric doc at zero four zero four we'll be referring to the committee on strong women families uh communities uh before we go on to the report of offices let the record reflect that council edwards is present mr clerk reports of public offices and others mr clerk please read talk at zero four zero five through zero four zero eight together document zero four zero five notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of henry lutein as interim director of the office of labor relations for a 60-day period commencing march 18 2022 docket number zero four zero six notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of ralph jackson as a member of the beacon hill architectural commission for a term expiring on may first twenty twenty three docker number zero four zero seven notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of edward fleck as an alternate member of the beacon hill architectural commission for a term expiring may 1st 2024 and doctor number 0408 notice was received from the mayor of the appointment of mark kiefer as a member of the beacon hill architectural commission for a term expiring may 1st 2026. docker 0405 through 0408 will be placed on file before we continue um the chair recognizes council buck just to confirm that those three appointments don't require confirmation by the council because it's the previous appointments for that board i know we've sat and done confirmation and i just i know the board is urgently in need of a quorum so if in fact the council does need to act on these i would rather we figure that out while we can still do reconsideration during the meeting so just if mr president if somebody could just deter double check that those are actually just notices thank you council block for uh bringing that to our attention at this time the chair recognizes council flaherty council flaherty over the floor thank you council flaherty we will check that um during this hearing and we will we'll figure out the answer for that thank you council black for bringing that to our attention uh report of public offices uh mr clerk yeah matt has recently heard for possible action mr clark please read doc at zero two nine four please doctor number zero two nine four order for a hearing regarding a cradle to career tracking system the chair recognizes council mejia chair of the committee on education council may hear you of the four thank you mr president on monday boston city council committee on education 294 order for a hearing regarding a cradle to career system sponsored by my colleagues counselor rorell murphy and flaherty i just want to give a shout out to councillor royale for bringing this forth to the council and his leadership in the space really happy to to have shared um the space with you for the first time on the council floor so so it's great to be with you um alongside this um we were also joined by our colleagues councilors phillyn um breeden luigen fernandez anderson and from the administration we were joined by marcia ines mitchell bps director of post-secondary partnerships and initiatives rasad kope who is the director of youth engagement and employment and alex thaddez the executive director of office of women's advancement we were also joined by a wide array of advocates and experts on this issue including will austin dr nancy hill penny bender simbrain kristen mcswain renee dozier and dr sarah cherry rice we have we had a great um discussion around the concept of a system that monitors a student's success and future career aspirations from a young age and we also learn from the administration that there's currently not a clear and centralized database of information on students that's monitoring students development can sometimes be the responsibility of several different departments we learn from the advocates that there is a clear need for improved access to services in many ways we are already providing the resources it's just a matter of making sure that students and families are aware of them and are taking full advantage of them as i always say boston is a resource rich city but a coordination poor and this hearing really lifted that up i'm hoping that we will be able to follow up with the administration either through a working session and potentially through some other legislative action which i know council royale will be all up for it and i'm going to be asking that we keep this docket in committee and um and invite the lead sponsor if he is prepared so um if flynn says yes to say a few remarks so i'm going to take a seat now okay thank you council mejia would anyone else like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes council rel councilwell you of the foil thank you president flynn and thank you to central staff i know this was a long hearing my staff my colleagues co-sponsors with me on this council murphy and council flaherty i'm looking i'm looking for forward to your continued collaboration and a special thank you to councillor mejia for sharing such a great um hearing this was my first hearing on the matter i sponsored so it was excited to see the enthusiasm around this idea we heard from such incredible panelists rashad cope alex valdez and marcia enos mitchell from the administration and will austin dance dr nancy hill penny bender sebring kristen mcswain renee dozer and dr cyrus terry rice it is so refreshing to hear from so many advocates around a shared goal for moving the needle for our young people in their system the challenge is that there's initiative overload and we need to streamline all these efforts that are currently underway we are looking forward to having having continued conversations around the creation of a department and clarity on what data we will be collecting and how it will be operate opera relation lies to continue to push the needle for our young people for example dr nancy hill of the boston area research initiative who is also a developmental psychologist spoke to the different types of longitudinal data that speaks to the mindset of our students and the outlook of the job market which then determines how they engage in school the department would ideally take the collected surveys from students quantity quantitative data from our schools 311 cases 911 calls building permits and additional metrics to create the index interface needed to use this data to inform policy the goal is that this will be a vehicle to validate and evaluate the data that reflects what risks and opportunities students bring with them in their backpacks based on the neighborhoods and the amount of resources available to them this helps determine where we should be allocated and funded and programming based on opportunities to move the needle for our young people we are happy to see that this has inspired our colleagues to introduce something similar that focus on parent engagement and we hope to congrat collaborate and with every and every interested stakeholder on their efforts to streamline data and create clear pathways for our young people by giving them all the support that they need thank you thank you councilworld would anyone else like to speak on this matter zero two nine four will remain in committee mr clerk please read dark at zero two zero zero please document zero two zero zero order for a hearing on government transparency and accountability towards surveillance equipment the chair recognizes council mejia chair of the committee on government accountability transparency accessibility council mejia you have the flow thank you mr president uh the committee on government accountability transparency and accessibility held its maiden hearing on docket zero two zero zero in order for a hearing on government transparency and accountability towards surveillance equipment this matter was sponsored by myself and counselor arroyo and we were joined by my colleagues councilor bach flaherty illusion anderson um anderson from anderson lara flynn edwards who is the vice chair of the committee from the administration we were joined by lisa o'brien bureau chief of administration and technology superintendent philippe colon bureau chief of investigative services sergeant detective eric bulman special investigations unit and marine joyce who's the city auditor we were also joined by fatima ahmad the executive director of the muslim justice league and kate crawford from the aclu our first hearing in this committee as our first hearing in this committee i would like to express my thanks to all of our colleagues for coming prepared with excellent questions i have to say my colleagues brought it brought in some really great perspective um so really do appreciate uh your level of um willingness to lean in and and really help us get to some of the root uh causes of some of the transparency and of trans accessibility issues that we have been facing here in the city for far too long we learned a lot regarding the purchasing of the cell site stimulator how it's used and what the process is in regards to how civil asset forfeiture dollars are used we also walked away from the hearing with a number of requests uh for information which will be following up in the coming days specifically we will be asking for information on the following the 1997 agreement and the federal equitable sharing agreement mentioned during counselor's box questioning information regarding the federal database on civil asset further a breakdown of the civil asset for which dollars obtained from individuals with convictions versus non-convictions a breakdown of the extinction circumstances a log of every time the cell site simulator has been turned on as recommended by k we are hopeful that the administration will cooperate with our committee as we seek to shed light on this topic and work with our boston delegation in the state house to continue to push for transparency on all things public safety and for now as the chair i move that this stock could remain in committee and i just just quickly wanted to uplift um that when we created this committee was really with the hope of helping people understand the role that government plays but more importantly creating space for people to hold ourselves to hold us accountable and as counselors for us to be able to lean into that and hold space to have these conversations because at the end of the day these are public dollars and people need to know how they're being used so i really do appreciate all of my colleagues for participating and the administration more importantly for showing up thank you counselor flynn thank you councilman here would anyone else like to speak on this matter docket zero two zero zero will remain in committee at this at this time i also want to acknowledge our former colleague is here um former city council former mayor of boston kim janey mayor janie welcome [Applause] the mayor is with a group of students we also want to welcome students here and you have a great a great teacher right there so welcome to the students as well [Applause] mr kirk please read docket 0192-0314 together docket number 0192 order for a hearing regarding use using planning and land use tools for public good and docker number zero three one four message in order for your approval and order for a short-term extension of nine of the 14 remaining urban renewal plans in boston thank you the chair recognizes council baker chair of the committee on planning transportation development council baker you have the floor thank you mr president thank you for allowing me to merge these these two docket numbers um the first one zero one nine two was filed by council bloc and co-sponsored by council louisiana it was to discuss land use tools for public good basically urban renewal tools that we have that are available to us and and i believe council block will get up and speak about some of those so we had two separate two separate panels the first panel was from the bpda and they spoke on zero three one four which was the extension for 14 urban renewal um areas and and so we were able to dig into a lot of content we talked about ldas quite a bit land disposition uh land disposition agreements we talked about land trusts and and a whole lot of there was a whole lot of content content there but what we came up with with the 14 with the 14 urban renewal areas six years ago we took a vote to extend it to this april so basically if we don't take a vote on this all 14 of these go away and within those districts there's there's a number of tools that that we use that help us in developing and also protect the ldas protect affordable housing they protect open space they protect a whole a whole wide range of different things so what we come up with out of the 14 i believe we're going to take uh votes on on extending nine of them and we're thinking about we're not gonna we're not taking a vote on this today we're looking to uh bring it to a vote next week so councils haven't have a a week to talk about it see what's within their districts i know council warrell has some changes so we want to give different people different times but we're looking to extend nine of them 10 of them extend extend 10 of them because we added park plaza in there park plaza was on was on the list that we would sunset but there are some major concerns around height issues and things like that around park plaza so we will have the vote on that hopefully next week and council of flaherty came up with wanted to extend it two years and do a six-month check-in every two years so what i think we're looking at doing and we're open to it is extended a year and do a six-month check-in which would be i believe in the end of september so um we'll these will remain in committee and we'll vote on them we'll vote on zero three one four next week and with that i'd like to turn it over to the to the to the lead sponsor of zero one nine two council bloc thank you thank you council baker the chair recognizes council board council block you have the floor uh thank you so much mr president thank you to councillor baker um for running uh such a thorough hearing yesterday and to my co-sponsor uh councillor louis jen we appreciated everybody's indulgence letting us combine these two things because in some ways they were kind of two sides of the same coin on the one hand we've got the long and difficult legacy in the city of urban renewal as i mentioned there i represent the west end which is one of the many parts the city that wore the brunt of that um and i think that the the mayor's administration's laying out a path for us to really transform the city's relationship to planning into these tools um and um and looking at places where it's appropriate to sunset at the same time some of the stuff we were talking about yesterday was how do we think about like using some of these tools that we have for things like community land trust for things like building social housing on public land and i think we had a really good second panel with some of the advocates in those spaces thinking about on the climate mitigation side how do we assemble land parcels where we might need them to protect the fringes of the city so i think it was a really productive conversation um and as counselor as councillor baker said i think you know the first part came out with some kind of that good good trajectories for the immediate decision at hand but um i'm very optimistic about the opportunity for the council to be part of a real re-envisioning of how we use land-use tools okay um and public land for public good in the city so thank you so much to everybody who came thank you council book would anyone else like to speak on this matter dark at 0 1 9 2 will remain in committee dock at 0-3-1-4 will remain in committee motions order in resolutions mr clerk please read doc at zero four zero nine docker number zero four zero nine counselor fernandez anderson offered the following in order for a hearing to discuss developing an app to support parental involvement and support thank you the chair recognizes council fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the floor thank you mr uh mr president um so in my experiences i'm going to tell you a little bit about some of the my efforts in my past experiences and things that i've developed over the years working in behavioral health working for the boston public schools as well as just working in community advocacy as well so as a foster parent there are so many ways um that there are resources already existing that supports our children in the community or lack thereof when you're a parent especially when you're a single parent and you lack resources to navigate a child's schedule to navigate all of these services that come into place especially with a high level care of foster care you definitely need more resources to be able to consolidate all of these services all of the collaterals all of the appointments all the people involved that it takes in order for you to raise a child in a healthy environment and so i spent 11 years working as an intensive care coordinator which means essentially an umbrella of that oversees all behavioral health initiatives and the issue that i faced was basically that in providing i also provided in-home therapy to families and so in providing those services you have to assist parents with charts or therapeutic interventions in order for them to you know follow through with the therapeutic treatment plans and so you give them charts you create different ways of navigating these systems or of supporting that child with that out of school time but it's all over the place you know people are inundated with stressors people are busy people have two jobs and there are so many collaterals and different services coming in to the child's home and so all of these charts are not enough to be able to consolidate services and to be able to organize a child's out of school time what iden did is create a toolbox that i would give parents right so back back then it would be a toolbox that you know one is for behavior modification or one is understanding a child diagnosis and what that meant in order to follow through with the treatment plan this one is for de-escalating crisis this one is for communication this one is for maybe problem solving it's a lot on a parent it's a lot for them to track your child's um all of the physical appointments with the doctors maybe the alternative for psych meds is physical therapy or some sort of you know fitness and wellness nutrition and all the other stuff so i thought what an opportunity would be to create this toolbox that offered all of it in one place so i actually created this and i would do like group therapy and all these other stuff that would do it then when i went into bps um i worked partly with parent university as well as family engagement where you can parents can attain classes or credit courses by taking these courses that would support their children with academic supports in the home and i also taught esl so then i went into creating this curriculum sort of a binder that parents can also support the children with academic supports in the home so always thinking of how to consolidating this and making it easier for parents here i am in city hall i thought um wow here we go full circle right as a parent as a single parent we know for those of you who are not parents yet even when you have your nieces and nephew with you or your babysitting it's a lot and let's admit it at first you kind of wing it you just you know what i mean your first child breaks a leg your second child is okay your third child is a genius that's the child that makes it so i am proposing that we get together um and talk about the possibilities of looking at different curriculums the possibility of looking at already stuff that's already in place how do we collaborate maybe with a tech company or maybe a school to look at a possibility of one location to put all of this so that one the parent is saying johnny brushes teeth or behavior modification you get stars and the incentive is at the end of the week you get allowance but you track it all in one place me and my kids i'm a tomboy i know i look cute i'm very girly but i'm a tomboy i ride a pickup truck so i used to run with my kids five o'clock in the morning but what if this app could also do physical fitness tracking what if this app can also do nutrition you're we're teaching parents to have very little resources to put all of this in one place and help them to be involved homeschool connection therapeutic intervention follow support behavior modification connecting to the psych connecting to all the services all on one location we know with digital divide parents are not all don't always have the time or the access to go on computers but they're on facebook right they're on twitter they have a phone and so maybe we can use those resources to um make it more accessible user friendly and support our families in improving and setting up their child for success thank you thank you council fernandez anderson would anyone else like to speak on this matter the chair recognizes councillor baker council baker you have the floor thank you council fernandez anderson i'm the 12th of 13 so i guess that makes me like a super genius or something like that but i just want to rise and sign my name on thank you thank you please add council baker's name would anyone else like to speak the chair recognizes council edwards council edwards you have the floor i wanted to rise to thank the maker i think this is an incredibly creative approach to having the city meet people where they are and really acknowledging who the people are and what their day-to-day concerns and issues are coming from the perspective of a single parent coming from somebody who as you said is just trying to manage so many balls in the air creating an app or creating a city service is what i see it as uh that meets people there so they can download it and possibly help organize wealth organize health organize their day-to-day concerns and issues and this is part of a lot of conversations when it comes to apps as some of you may be aware attorney general maura healey had an app that dealt with young people and who are in recovery or potentially going to be in recovery and concerns so meeting people through an app is something a lot of local governments if not our state government has already tried to do and it's as and i think it's it's wonderful to meet parents that way they are already reaching out in so many different digital aspects to try and deal with how we run how we eat if you have intermittent fasting if you have uh social social um social connections meeting people across the world it's all happening on our watches so the fact that the city of boston that is so committed to meeting people where they are should also come up with a way to meet people on their watches or on their website that people can download apps for our school buses we do that right now we download apps to figure out all sorts of different things so i think it's great i also wanted to just echo um the work that we have um done in the city council the conversations we've had that as we build this again meeting people where they are opportunity opportunities yeah okay whatever um as we build this um just wanted to note the work that our sisters in service mayor wu and also counselor at large um julia mejia did in the language access ordinance to making sure that as this is developed we're developing in a way that it's meeting all people where they are in the language that they want and again credit where credit's due not necessarily in words but using the app to meet people who may not have the same literacy competency as everybody else so thank you again councillor mejia for making sure that as we grow to meet people we're meeting them that way as well so i look forward to a culturally competent language accessible app conversation about meeting parents and gathering resources together thank you so much for starting that conversation counselor anderson thank you council edwards the chair recognizes council mejia council may hear you of the four thank you president flint and thank you to my sister who is bringing so much innovation and creativity to how we are approaching um city government and and the role that we play so i just want to um thank counselor um fernandez anderson for her uh thoughtfulness and innovative ways of how we move like through our committee around accessibility these are the sort of things that we have really been exploring like how do we make sure that city services are accessible to the people so that accessibility piece is really important and i really do appreciate my colleague counselor edwards uplifting the fact that there are a lot of people adults um you know i often talk about the fact that my mom didn't make it beyond the third grade and struggles to read and write even in her native language and as we start thinking about accessibility that we have to be super mindful of the fact that we have returning citizens who are coming back who are struggling with literacy we have young people who are being passed from great to great who are struggling with literacy so all of our digital accessibility issues need to be centered on the fact that not everybody knows how to read and write and that's a privilege that a lot of us have so thinking about the use of visuals and videos in other ways it's going to cost a little bit more but as if we're serious about making sure that it's everyone has access to the information even if it's through an app that visual um component and audio is going to be key um to the success of this and i also really do appreciate that um you brought in your own story in terms of navigating because as my good colleague consulata always says that the personal is political right and when we're creating policies that we have lived through what the solutions that we come to the table with are based on things that we wish we would have had and and so i i know that um your leadership in this space not only is going to be about the public hearing but you're going to also lean into it to make sure that we also get the resources that we need to be able to do it i just want to say thank you and and council lada i uplifted you and our education committee because you do you do mention that the personal is is is political and professional and the in the intersectionality is the expectation is is that we're supposed to leave ourselves at the door when we come into this chamber but we need to bring all of who we are into these spaces so that we can make sure that we fight for the people who put us here to ensure that we're representing them and their issues and that's what this does today so thank you councillor fernandez anderson thank you council mejia anyone else like to speak on this matter can you have my name too please yes please add council mehia's name um the chair recognizes council flaherty please add council flaherty's name if you'd like to add your name please raise your hand please add council arroyo counselor bach council braden council edwards council flaherty council of lara consola jean council councilman here council murphy council real please add the chair docket zero four zero nine will be referred to the committee on public health homelessness and recovery mr clerk please read docket zero four one zero please docker number zero four one zero counselor flynn off of the following resolution and support of sheridan hotel workers thank you mr clerk the chair recognizes the lead sponsor counselor flynn counselor playing you on the floor thank you council royal uh council royal may i suspend rule 12 in at councillors legend and fernandez anderson as co-sponsors to the resolution please seeing uh seeing no objection and hearing no objection counselors louis jan and fernandez anderson are added counselor flynn you have the floor thank you council royal this is a resolution in support of the sheraton hotel workers many of them are here today but as we know sheraton hotel is managed by the marriott hotel however recent news reports have indicated that there's a possibility of converting these rooms into dorm rooms for a particular university if this happens several hundred workers could lose their job workers such as these workers many of them immigrants communities of color women hard workers a job in the hotel hospitality industry presents work as a clear path to the middle class it's hard work it's break back-breaking work but to protect boston status as a world-class destination for travelers the city relies on these workers they do a tremendous job they're professional they're hard workers they're highly trained they're highly skilled so this resolution which would show our support as a body we've always supported the hotel and restaurant workers all of my colleagues over the over the many years have partnered with councillor edwards many times and mayor wu many times council will um but this resolution would would say to the hotel workers that you matter during this pandemic that you worked hard and you struggled you sacrificed you made boston a city and now that the pandemic is over and now that travel is coming back to the city what are we going to do we're going to cut the jobs after this after this pandemic no that's not what a world-class city would do that's not what a progressive so-called progressive city would do you live in our neighborhoods you're our teachers you're our youth sports coaches you're involved in little league in the pta programs um so you're really the backbone of of our city and we're proud of you um so it'd be unconscionable in my opinion for anyone to try to downsize your work because you do a tremendous job representing yourself your family but also the residents of boston so um i would i'd like to ask my colleagues as well as my original co-sponsors if they would like to speak council royal thank you for giving me the opportunity thank you uh councillor flynn uh the chair recognizes the second co-sponsor council councilor louis jen thank you very much mr chair and thank you president flynn for sponsoring this resolution i stand in solid solidarity with our hotel workers who are here today we are here to say that we are with you and stand with you in protecting your jobs president flynn did a really great job of saying who you are you're our little league coaches you're our leaders in our community we're the people that we count on but for many of us here in this room we're also our family so many of my family members work in the hotel industry are members of a local 26 and this weekend at a political event a lot of people were like oh i met your sister i met your sister and for me when i'm in that space i always think that they're talking about meeting my sister who's an assistant district attorney but they told me no we met your sister at the marriott she was serving us and so when i talk about these issues about standing in solidarity with all of you i'm talking about standing with my family i see all of you and our working class folks who are here to uplift the city as our family and the ones that we need to do everything to protect when they're coming for your jobs um and as president flynn said definitely during especially during a pandemic so i stand with you because you all are are our leaders in our community but you're also family and so and we always stand with family so thank you so much thank you thank you counselor louis jen uh councillor tanya fernandez anderson the third co-sponsor the floor is yours um i to stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters of local 26 i would just wanted to share um when i when i when i came here from cape verde i know it's always like when i came here for this country it's not like that i'm when i came here from k bird my grandmother would sneak me in the sheraton hotel and i would get all the room service all the foods all the snacks and then for christmas they used to do like this whole like local 26 would come in they would do the party every christmas and i remember um i was too creeped out to sit on santa's lap but i remember santa and i remember all of the gifts and the point is my grandmother dedicated 32 years in service with local 26. she thank you she then um and i would admire just her tenacity and a and resiliency and her ability to be able to work and be so disciplined and be able to serve um with humility and just so much confidence that local 26 was going to protect her after her retirement and they did just that i think that um i speak for all of us when i say that everyone knows that they do not get paid enough so that's the battle to come after this we should definitely send in solidarity this is absolutely um something that every every one of us should sign on i look forward to working with you and thank you so much for everything that you do i too i'm very proud of you thank you councillor fernandez anderson uh councillor flaherty the floor is yours thank you mr chair just rise to have my name added i'm always going to be uh staunch supporter of our hotel workers but also want to give a shout out to to jamie mcneill and his team he's he and they are ever present they're at community meetings they're at public events they're here at city hall they come to our hearings and it's because they're dialed in they pay attention to what we're doing here they pay attention what's happening out in our communities they're fighting for their members we spoke regularly i know that council president flynn and i and jamie were speaking regularly throughout the pandemic trying to find ways to kind of keep folks working and keep them optimistic and hopeful that the pandemic would end and things would turn and we're starting to see that now we've had a number of bookings at the convention center our hotels are now starting to come back alive our restaurants are now starting to come back alive so uh and thanks to their perseverance uh hopefully they and their fellow brothers and sisters in the union will now get back to work uh and be doing what they do best and they put uh they're the backbone arguably of our city uh we both have having a lot of successes here and one of the success stories that we have is our hotel workers union who do phenomenal work on behalf and they put a shine on all the visitors that come here all the tourists that come here one of the first impressions that they have or the folks that they meet are our hotel workers either taking care of them at a dining table or assisting them uh coming and going from a hotel so thanks for the great work that they do and again please add my name mr chair thank you council clarity the chair recognizes counselor edwards counselor who's the floor's yours thank you very much um i just wanted to note that our standing in solidarity in this moment is also standing in solidarity with the hotel industry the fact of the matter is we in this body have done many times many things to protect the industry and thus and always the workers we this body came up with one of the most aggressive airbnb legislations to make sure that hotels weren't spread around in our neighborhoods and people weren't trying to create an underground economy and instead were having a hotel vibrant system that was staying and paying union wages we did that here we in this body pass the hotel and tourism bid thank you co-sponsor councillor baker to make sure that we were actually coming up with a way for the hotel industry to recover they are now collecting money actually since october since we passed the bid we're the first in the state by the way boston did that and they're going to be collecting upwards of 10 million dollars a year to save their own industry and by the way that passed because of the support of these workers in local 26 who came in support of the bid and of the hotel and tourism industry so here we are now the industry is coming back and the hotel wants to convert itself into a dorm which is institutional creep from another matter and our higher education institutions that won't even pay their pilots but that's another conversation but um but on this conversation the fact that they would change the industry change the rules after getting certain benefits after seeing so much coming together for them to come back and bounce back literally just for profit it can't be for anything else just for profit this isn't to help house students you know they're going to charge the market rate and further in debt many of us students who are still paying back student loans this isn't for anything except to for them to make money and we don't do that here in boston we're going to fight that and we're going to make sure that they maintain the good jobs that our generational wealth that we create a retirement system that is necessary for our communities to thrive these are my neighbors these are people who from east boston charlestown in the north end and throughout all of boston and also revere now some of some winthrop too thank you all thank you all for that um helping me get hired in another position but the fact of the matter is you fought for my job i'm fighting for yours and more importantly more importantly um we have to understand this is what we do this we have as a body always stood up against the br when when they want to close down companies when they want to lock out workers when they do that with united steel councillor flynn we stand up and a lot of people ask ourselves or ask what is it our business this is a private decision this is a private company trying to do what they want to do not at all this is our business every single time the business of boston and good workers and good union jobs is always our business and we stand with you to make sure that you you survive and thrive in this city and thank you so much for coming here today thank you thank you councillor edwards uh the chair recognizes councillor bach councillor bach the floor is yours thank you mr chair and thank you so much to president flynn and to councillors legion and fernandez anderson for bringing this before us please add my name i think what i really want to say is a follow-up on what counselor edward said we know the reason that we're here today talking about this and why workers are worried about losing their jobs it's a real estate play right there's the idea that oh we're going to make more money off of this piece of real estate if we go a different direction with it and you know some folks are going to read in paper today about the fact that the state is back talking about disposing of the hinds again and you know what that's another real estate play it's another like hey you know what i think there's a little bit more money a little more delta profit if we go this route and i think it's so important that this is the chamber where we do not look out over the city and see a bunch of overlapping real estate place what we see is an actual community where our people work and live and that that's the substance of the city and i just i i feel like we don't have a lot of factories left in this town with great union jobs in that way manufacturing but i mean we have great union jobs in our hotels which by the way local 26 and the workers here fought like hell to preserve a few years ago and i just feel like it's so important for us to say the substance of the city is these is these jobs is our communities and that we are just not going to bow before a perspective on the city that sees it as a piggy bank for investors to extract things from so please add my name i stand with you and we will do all in our power on this [Applause] thank you councillor bach uh chair recognizes councillor mejia councilmember here the floor is yours i thank you council arroyo and thank you to those sponsors for um putting forth this resolution you know i just want to rise to say i'm here for this all day every day add my name but i also just want to underscore um the importance of the difference a union makes in terms of organizing and protecting its workers i often talked about and i know i'm bringing my mom back to the chamber again and i'm not going to go down memory lane but you know my mom right now is 73 years old and she's still too poor to retire we tried to help her become a union you unite 26 did unsuccessfully right and so when you have protection and when you have solidarity but when you have people in government that are willing to stand up and fight alongside you that's when we're going to send a strong message that you can't continue to do business as usual so i rise to say i'm here for you will continue to be congratulations because we're claiming victory right and please sign my name to the resolution thank you thank you would anyone else like to speak on the matter seeing no one would anyone else like to add their name uh mr clerk please add uh counselor baker please add counselor braden please add counselor edwards please add counselor flaherty please add counselor lara please add counselor mejia please add counselor murphy please add councilworld and please add the chair uh councillor flynn counselor louis jen councillors fernandez anderson seek suspension of the rules and passage of docket 410410 all those in favor say aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it docket 410 has been adopted [Applause] thank you council thank you council arroyo thank you to the members of local 26 for being here with us today mr clerk please read darker zero four one one please okay yeah uh mr kirk before you do that the chia calls on council vo council block you have the flow thank you so much mr chair um i would i'd like to move reconsideration on docket zero four zero six zero four zero seven and zero four zero eight to recommend that they be shifted to the committee on planning development and transportation i wanna express huge thanks to central staff who went and dug up the references and we determined that for many decades these were not confirmed by council but in 2018 an amendment was passed that made these subject to council confirmation so knowing that i just it the beacon architectural district is in my district and these confirmations are needed very urgently so my next thing will be to push the chair to hold this hearing soon but i want to make sure it's yeah it was going to be you but um but um but the uh but the point is it would be bad for the commission if we sent them through an error without our confirmation because then they wouldn't be legally valid so it's just important that we do it this way so if i can motion that those be moved to planning development and transportation and mr chick thank thank you council block we don't need to we'll take a quick brief brief recess [Music] uh we're back in session um the chair calls on counselor block council block you have the fall thank you mr chair um if you forgive me i'm going i would like to withdraw my prior motion um and instead uh may yes [Laughter] and instead make a motion to suspend and pass these dockets having consulted with the chair i think he's amenable to that and as was mentioned before we're actually in a situation where there's only one current valid member on the commission there's a few alternates but it's creating a kind of untenable situation so i would love to move for reconsideration to suspend and pass docket zero four zero six zero four zero seven and zero four zero eight mr chair does anybody second that we'll take a quick brief recess [Music] we're back in session chair calls on council bloc council block you have the phone thank you mr president i just withdrew my initial motion and now instead i'm moving um suspension and passage of docket zero four zero six zero four zero seven and zero four zero eight with the consent of the chair of planning development and transportation the beacon hill architectural commission currently only has one um valid full member and so it's creating a real issue on our side and all three of these people are are well known folks who've been very active in the community and so um mr president i seek reconsideration since i know we put them on file but instead to suspend and pass all three dockets thank you thank you council block do i hear a second second uh council edwards second the motion um at this time the chair recognizes council baker council baker yeah you have the flow yeah i just wanted to rise and in consultation with council council bach and i'm familiar with this situation here i believe for the for the beacon hill architectural commission to actually do business with this is this is um this is an easy vote for me here so i have no problem not having a hearing on these ones thank you mr chair mr president thank you thank you council baker so on docket zero four zero six zero four zero seven zero four zero eight mr clerk um are we taking a we're gonna take a vote on each one separately so we'll start with zero four zero six all those in favor say aye aye opposed say no nate the eyes have it docket zero four zero six is passed um talk at zero four zero seven all those in favor say aye aye opposed nay the eyes have it dock at zero four 0-408 all in favor say aye aye opposed nay the eyes have it docket zero four zero six talk at zero four zero seven target zero four zero eight have passed we're onto personnel orders mr clerk please read talk at zero four one one doctor number zero four one one councilor flynn for council arroyo this the chair seeks suspension of the rules passage of dark at 0-4-1-1 all those in favor say aye all those are posts say navy eyes have it the docket has passed mr clerk read talk at zero four one two talking number zero four one two council flynn for council arroyo the chair seeks suspension of the rules passage of dark at zero four one two all those in favor say aye aye opposed say nay the eyes have it the darkness past mr clerk please read dawkin zero four one three doctor number zero four one three council flynn for council arroyo the chair seeks suspension of the rules passage of dark at zero four one three all those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the docket has passed mr clerk please re-dock it zero four one four docker number zero four one four counselor flynn for council arroyo the chair seek suspension of the rules passage of dawkins zero four one four all those in favor say aye all opposed say navy eyes have at the dock of his past mr clerk please read talk at zero four one five doctor number zero four one five councilor flynn for councillor fernandez anderson the chair seeks suspension of the rules positive talk at zero four one five 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 four one six doctor number zero four one six council fling off for the following order for the appointment of temporary employees and city council effective march 19 2022. chair seek suspension of the rules passage of dark at zero four one six all those in favor say aye all opposed say nay the eyes have it the doctors passed we're moving on to late files i am informed by the clerk that there are no way file matters we're on to green sheets any council looking to remove something from the green sheets please let me know on to consent agenda i have been informed by the correct that there are zero additions to the consent agenda the chair moves for the adoption of the consent agenda as presented all those in favor say aye opposed nade the eyes have it thank you the consent agenda has passed has been adopted announcements does any council have any announcements at this time the chair recognizes council edwards council edwards you have the floor i want to thank you all i come with some sad news today in east boston we lost a young mother 27 years old leaving two young children to the ongoing and increasing epidemic that we've had with the opioid crisis and it was it was it's um i think it's important to remember that she she was not what she died of she was an incredible human being alicia was a kind-hearted soul who struggled like a lot of us and unfortunately in this moment god called her home her mother mimi is incredibly active member of the gold street community knows our what we do here at city council and i just i wanted to make sure that people we didn't forget i mean she leaves the little ones behind so i want to just say lisa's name today and i'm very sorry to meet me for her only child the loss of her only child um also this sunday well many of you have um met gerardo he's a kind man he's um with um special needs an incredible heart though he's from the north end he's works in our office he actually speaks italian still as a first language he had been an incredible pokey for the north end and he worked very hard and he was so we brought him on in the staff to hope that he could maybe be brought on to continue on to work at the city of boston he's my first staffer that has died and we found out that he died on sunday in his sleep and so i will be talking with his mother um but many of you met him some of your staffers knew him too he's very quiet and so i actually brought this for for you all to please sign i don't know if we've had any staffers lost in this time but this is my first one and i'm just for gerardo and his mother to see this so i'm sorry thank you council edwards the chair recognizes councillor baker council baker you have the four yeah um council redwoods sorry for your losses and and and i appreciate you you um saying the young woman's name i had a young niece that i lost the same way and left children it was difficult um but with that i would be remissed it's actually happy in my house this week i celebrate three birthdays my whole when you talk family you have your family your parents and then your family but when you have your own children it's your family and my whole family celebrates their birthdays in the next couple of days my wife today she celebrates her birthday tomorrow yes her name is today and um we've been together 36 years we're on our 20th anniversary next month and i'll announce that next month i just i need to um you know tell her that i love her and her support for me makes me the man that i am and also the um benjamin maxine my twins turned 16 on monday and they're totally awesome and great kids and they really nice outside the house not so nice inside the house but nice outside the house and and i'm i'm fortunate to be um to have the family that i have and the supports that i have so i have to show that respect to them so thank you mr president for allowing me thank you thank you council baker the chair recognizes council murphy council murphy of the floor announcements today firstly um many counselors say how we're only as good as our staff which we all know is true they work very hard day in and day out supporting our offices and all of our residents across the city but i want to shout out two of my staff members today first my scheduler ryan clark who's a family member to baker she's the one who keeps me in line she keeps me on time and showing up to all the right places across the city she is quite arguably the most important job in our office and she started working with me here on day one when i came in on december 1st like many of our staff they have busy lives outside of city hall and ryan has been in school and juggling life the reason she's not at work today is because she's at her graduation so i want to congratulate her for putting her hard work in and making that happen i'm very proud of you she's family to me so i'm just happy that so second thomas mannion who is our director of constituent services who is also a proud member of the air force national guard has been ordered by the secretary of the air force to active duty so he will be deployed on march 28th for the last for the at least the next 96 days so i would like all of us to join me in thanking him for his service to our country and to pray for a speedy return as you all know when you um get this job it's 24 7 so your staff becomes family if they're not already um thirdly i'm not going to cry on this one but i do want to say and recognize michael larocco raqqa sorry more commonly known as known as the 14th counselor for marching with us rolling with us on sunday and also want to shout out council of flaherty who i know always invites him to march in the parade and i look forward to joining you next year and i did print out that photo that we took along the parade route so i wanted to give that [Applause] and one last thing it's quick it's good so um i know we talk a lot about supporting our neighborhoods and our restaurants and our small businesses and so this will most arguably be the most delicious announcement i've ever made on the council chamber in the floor but i was scrolling through and saw that our very own mike's pastry right here on hanover street has um which is a small you know family business that was founded back in 1946 which isn't so small anymore but it was recently named as one as one of the top 25 yelp review reviewed places in the entire united states so i did go over before the meeting and i brought some cannolis i told them i'd come over so you can't just thank local restaurants you have to support them with your money where you're you move over so i did bring these for central staff and our counselors to enjoy so thank you very much and congratulations mike's pastry thank you council murphy i'd also like to acknowledge two of our our neighbors here from south boston that are in the room john prevenzano and billy coyne i want to say thank you to both gentlemen for being here both city point guys thank you and council flaherty was trying to put mike our 14th city council on the payroll but we couldn't do it would the the the chief recognize his counselor fernandez anderson council fernandez anderson you have the flow please um if i can sit i'm sorry um i um just wanted to uh share my sentiments to um my colleague lydia edwards um it takes an amazing strength to be able to go through what you went through and to go to announce your announcement today i'm sure was not easy um and i pray for your healing and love and peace and thank you so much for sharing that thank you council fernandez anderson today we will adjourn our meeting in memory of the following individuals for council of braden louise a coin for councillors flynn clarity and baker bob olson the associate probation officer a moment of silence please the chair moves that when the council adjourns today it does so in memory of those individuals mentioned we are now scheduled to meet again in the nl chamber on wednesday march 30th at 12 noon all in favor of adjournment please say aye the counselors are adjourned thank you central staff and thank you to the clerk's office [Music] [Music] you [Music]