City Council Recap, 11/12/2024

This Council meeting is published on Medford Community Media, and on the Medford, MA YouTube channel. The meeting agenda is on the City Council’s public portal. 

I took 6 months off from Council meeting recaps while I was managing the busiest season I have ever had with my day job. I hope to get back to doing these regularly now! I know that there’s already been some discussion of the 11/12 meeting on this channel, but I hope the overviews are still useful and fit a slightly different niche.

We had no Committee meeting preceding the regular meeting last Tuesday, so we began at 7pm. 

The first item of business was an amended version of Councilor Callahan’s paper 24-491. The amended version is not yet posted on the City Council’s public portal, since the amendment was introduced after the agenda deadline. As is usual, the amendment will be included and published as part of the Records of this meeting, after the Records are approved at the next regular Council meeting (which is 11/19). 

The amendment changed the short title of the resolution from “Resolution to Discuss Compensation Ordinance for Elected Officials” to the more specific “Resolution to Discuss Ordinance to Disallow the City Council from Passing Any Salary Changes that Affect Sitting Elected Officials.” The amended version of the resolution also deleted the second-to-last paragraph of the original resolution, and deleted the final clause, “...and to encourage the City Council to consider regular COLA adjustments for elected officials in the next cycle.” 

I am not a sponsor of the paper, and the paper is still before the Council (was referred to the Governance Committee), so in lieu of any editorializing I’ll summarize what I think were the main points from the discussion on Tuesday: 

• Councilor Callahan emphasized several times that the intent of both her original and amended resolutions was not to create a structure for electeds to raise their own salaries, but rather to create a policy so it is impossible for electeds to raise their own salaries, or the salaries of other electeds, in the current term. Many folks claimed confusion on this point. I think that the original short title of the resolution failed to make the intent clear, but I believe the text of the original and amended resolution made it clear what the intent was. 

• President Bears and several other Councilors noted their skepticism that such an ordinance could possibly have the intended affect, since electeds’ salaries are governed by our City Charter, which supercedes any City ordinance. In other words, it is likely that the proposed policy, if it were passed, could have no effect because the City Charter, not ordinances, governs how electeds are paid. 

This resolution was referred to the Governance Committee for further discussion. 

There has been some talk elsewhere in this sub about this item, and how its discussion devolved. For folks who did not watch the meeting, I just want to point out that while the meeting transcript captures the back-and-forth between Councilors pretty accurately, it failed to fully capture a certain member of the public getting carried away and shouting egregious lies, inventive tall tales, and personal attacks at Councilors. After that frankly sad and pathetic display (whoops, a little editorializing), we took a recess to restore order. 

We then approved 24-492, a resolution by Councilor Callahan to have the DPW Commissioner and City Engineer appear before the Council to give an update on the state of Medford’s roads, and to give an update for how the $500,000 approved in Question 7 to go towards an in-house road and sidewalk repair crew, will be deployed. 

We approved 24-493, a resolution by Councilor Callahan to have the DPW Commissioner appear before the Council to discuss the possibility of a volunteer tree planting program in the City, as part of the effort to expand Medford’s tree canopy. 

We approved 24-484, a resolution by Councilor Leming for Medford to adopt the new local option law known as the HERO Act (An Act Honoring, Empowering, and Recognizing Our Servicemembers and Veterans, Ch. 178 of the Acts of 2024). This Act enables Cities to tie property tax and veteran-specific exemptions to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), so that increases in exemption amounts will automatically increase every year (in contrast with the City Council having to specifically vote to increase exemption amounts each year).

This paper was continued from 10/29, when it was first proposed. When it was introduced, Councilor Leming and Councilor Tseng moved that it be referred to Legal and to the City’s Finance Director or Assessor for comment before approval. It came back with no concerns. 

I am grateful to Councilor Leming for flagging this new exemption opportunity so that we could approve it. Over the past couple terms, the Council has worked to ensure that we are maxed out on all available tax exemptions for veterans and seniors, and I am glad that we are adding this one to our toolkit as well. 

We then took up 24-487, a paper from the Mayor to approve four Capital Stabilization Fund appropriation requests. The following appropriations were proposed: 

• Engine 3 Truck Pump Replacement, in the amount of $51,643.24

• Cemetery Soil Removal, in the amount of $120,000

• Grant Match for Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Action Grant for updating the 2019  Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and developing an Urban Forest Master Plan, in the amount of $24,600

• City Hall Howard Alden Memorial Chambers Window Restoration, in the amount of $322,500

Before these appropriations, the Capital Stabilization Fund had a balance of $3,923,737.00, which was appropriated by the Council from our accumulated “Free Cash” reserves. After the 4 above items are approved, the fund will have a remaining balance of $3,404,993.76.

This paper was originally proposed at our 10/29 meeting; the Fire Chief, DPW Commissioner, and Facilities Director were all present that night to answer our questions about the various projects. The paper was continued to this meeting after Councilor Scarpelli invoked Rule 21, which gives any Councilor the right to delay any financial paper to the next regular meeting. At this meeting, the requests were all approved. 

As a reminder, Capital Stabilization Fund monies are limited in how they can be spent, and can only be appropriated for capital expenses – not operating costs. I am grateful that this year the Council voted to create a Capital Stabilization Fund, so that we could earmark and appropriate monies for purposes such as these, that needs to get done, and can’t be accomplished via the operating budget. 

After public participation, we adjourned.