City Council

[Music] i'd like to call the Monday March 17th 6:30 p.m public hearing to order this public hearing is for council order 2025-024 utility grant of location Mass Electric Mayflower Road Standish Road in Huckkins A so at this point I'd like to ask anyone wishing to speak in favor or opposition to come to the podium state your name and address if you don't wish to speak but would like to uh show your support or opposition recorded please sign in on the sheet on the table at the back of the chamber so anybody want to speak in favor or against all right seeing none I I close this hearing at 6:31 we'll be back at 6:35 for the uh next grant of view uh location thank you okay we're back for the second uh hearing i'd like to call the Monday March 17th 6:35 public hearing to order this public hearing is for council order 2025-025 utility grant of location Mass electric Verizon Branch Street at 62 Al Bernita Street uh at this point I'd like as to speak anybody in favor or against to please come to the podium and if you want to show your support or or objection or opposition please sign in on the sheet at the back of the table so seeing none I'll end this um public hearing at uh 6:36 and we'll be back for the regular council meeting thank you good evening we call the Monday March 17 2025 city council meeting to order madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash councelor Campbell president councelor Divine present councelor Deon Council Harris Council Leang present council McCarthy Council Minton President Kane present nine members you have applause thank you Madam Clerk uh please stand with me if you're able to observe a moment of silence please use this moment as you will please turn to the flag for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all madame clerk please read the open meeting law pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting and may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unproceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible thank you very much sorry and uh first item on the agenda please madam Clair open space plan presentation commissioner David Murphy okay we're going to have a presentation led by our commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources dave Murphy please take it away evening President members of the council we're here tonight to present the updated uh open space plan for the city of Quinsey uh just a few thank yous before uh we get into the presentation uh first and foremost I'd like to thank our environmental scientist uh headless from the department of natural resources uh Rob Stevens from the planning department our friends from the BSC group um and the public that participated in the number uh of uh public meetings boards committees commissions as well as the uh public hearing uh that we had in relation to building this plan but most of all I want to thank uh Mayor Ko for his leadership and this city council for your continued support in helping bring a lot of these initiatives to life i think without the continued support of this body uh this is a plan that sits on a shelf and collects dust as you know whether it's the 2017 CIP whether it is the annual CPC appropriations whether it is your support of our annual budget that allows us to maintain these valuable investments that were made in the community or whether it's the special appropriations for Sailor's Pond the Beach Comr Pine Hills Furn Golf Course um those don't happen without the continued support of this body and the continued leadership of Mayor Ko so I did want to point out that um we do appreciate all the support that we've gotten uh at this body uh from a process standpoint uh Heather will go through um the full presentation this evening give you an update uh about what an open space plan is why we do it how we went about doing it and where we go from here um if it is uh received well uh our hope is to get an endorsement from the city council and then present it to the MAPC which is the metropolitan area planning council and then from there it goes on to the state for their approval which we then become eligible to receive uh hopefully a number of state grants to enact many of the plans and initiatives uh within the open space plan the council and the public should know that this plan doesn't bind us to anything it creates a roadmap or a guideline uh that we hope to initiate over the course of the next seven years or so so um with that I'd like to turn it over to Heather for a full presentation of the plan itself thank you okay good evening thank you for the introduction Commissioner Murphy uh good evening President Kaine counselors staff and members of the public i'm Heather Liss environmental scientist with the city of Quinsey i'm very pleased to be here with you tonight to talk to you about our city's open space and recreation plan so I'd like to begin with just a brief introduction uh which I will go into in a little bit greater detail later in the presentation so currently we do have an active open space and recreation plan update from 2019 was conditionally approved by the state that would be the division of conservation services within the executive office of energy and environmental affairs uh we have been working on finalizing this plan to be fully approved uh however during the time that that initial update was done um we had the co 19 pandemic and a number of changes in our open space usage and in the way that we manage our open spaces so at this time um over the past year plus as we have been working on finalizing the plan it's really come to make more sense to extend our plan from now for the next seven years so it's been fully revised and updated and that's what I'd like to talk to you about this evening so let's back up for a moment and just talk about what is open space it may be obvious that you may think about parks playgrounds athletic fields but there are other things that fall into this category as well conservation land forested land lands that have recreation potential agricultural land uh here beaches are a big one quarter parks such as um the Furnusbrook Parkway for example and even amenities such as smaller parks and traffic islands small medians uh those are also open spaces open space can refer to vacant land that may not be currently in an active use but it has potential to be used for conservation or recreation and open space can vary by ownership you can have privately owned open spaces and you can also have public open spaces you can have some spaces that are protected permanently and others that have no protection and it varies of course in the type of uses so why are open spaces important here's just a little snippet of why uh and you can think about these benefits in terms of ecosystem services some of you may have heard the term before it basically refers to the benefits that human society receives from natural ecosystems and they tend to fall into a few categories there's provisioning services that would be generally products or goods like healthy food um sometimes that could include wildlife they can be regulating services things that are um more processes so for example um clean air clean water those would be examples of that they can be cultural so non-material values such as promoting healthy lifestyles stabilizing neighborhoods promoting social interaction when people run into each other or or meet up at a at a park um and they can also be supporting services things that essentially um allow life on Earth so for example um and these are larger ar over overarching things such as uh restoring soil fertility um flood protection or we can even extend that to the water cycle in general so these are all some things that happen locally as well as globally um and by the way all of these things I won't talk about this tonight but they all have very high economic value as well whether they're being in use or if it's more indirect um so the other piece of this plan is the recreation part and you can think about recreation as falling into two main categories uh one is passive recreation that's going to require minimal facilities or development often a little less impactful on the environment so things like walking hiking uh fishing bird watching and then more active recreation so those are going to involve generally more um structured activities they might require um a developed piece of parkland uh some sort of additional management or facilities so for example um playing at a playground using athletic fields and swimming pools so why do we complete a plan of this nature so for one thing when we do a plan like this is a lot of background information that's really helpful for the community so we can learn a lot about what the resources are in our environment here in Quinsey from um a recreational standpoint as well as from an ecological standpoint and what do and we can find out what residents want to see happen over the next seven years um just by doing a plan like this it actually helps to encourage community protection and stewardship of our open spaces uh and in addition as Commissioner Murphy mentioned it makes us eligible to apply for a number of state grants for example uh this is not an exhaustive list uh but park grants land grants formerly known as those both formerly known as self-help grants um land and water conservation fund grants trails grants and a number of others even grants that we may be eligible to apply for now by virtue of having an approved open space plan you typically get additional points on your application um and the state uh tends to look at you know do you have goals that are across multiple plans you know that show that the city is really investing and wants to invest in certain elements um that can really help with getting additional funds so I'd like to walk you a little bit through the planning process of how we got here um because it's an important part of the plan so back in 2018 to 2019 there was this uh open space plan update now it's not the first open space and recreation plan the city has done this is actually the fifth iteration of the that initial plan and then several updates after that and as uh I mentioned earlier the plan was submitted to the state they did conditionally approve it they provide some comments maybe some things that they want this uh city to elaborate on or additional information that they want to add uh and then the co 19 pandemic hit and it was really difficult to focus on things like um completing a plan because there were so many other things to deal with and along the way you know we realized that there was a change in the use there was a lot more use of our open space and open spaces were being used by user groups that hadn't historically used them as much and we know this because people reached out and talked to us because our management crews and our staff would see that when we were out in the parks um and in addition there was a bit of a change in our management approach when the largely initiated by the mayor developing the new department of natural resources and reorganizing some existing departments and creating some new positions and so now there's a focus a bit more on longerterm management proactive planning and so um this is a great time to take a step back and return to that earlier plan and then figure out where do we go from here so when we started in 2023 to revisit the plan and to to finalize it we did some additional public input we did some enhanced outreach in environmental justice neighborhoods uh and then along the course of that process was when we determined gee maybe we should extend this plan out and so we've communicated with the state to make sure that they were amendable to that so the next step will be submitting it to them so I'm going to talk a little bit more about the process specifically with regard to the community input because that is one of the key elements of this plan and and that's part of the reason why it takes a while to make these plans besides it being this large plan with a lot of information so as I said it was August 2023 that we started the second phase um I'll mention that this is the time point at which I became involved in the process and there really I really am very grateful to all of the staff and consultant and members of the public that participated in the earlier process we've used all that information pulled it into this plan so it is not lost uh in translation i was asked to get involved in part because my job responsibilities overlap with some of the action items and other um elements of the plan that I could provide some information and knowledge towards and also I have helped to um create an open space and recreation plan for another municipality and then to implement them in a few municipalities so I can assure you it won't sit on a shelf do plan to use it um and we actually are already so it it's great to be part of the process so moving on to last year we did a pretty comprehensive uh public survey and we combined our efforts with the open space recreation plan as well as the hazard mitigation plan so we had sort of a combined survey um and were able to get more respondents I would say because of that um we presented some of the draft findings to a couple of boards last summer um in the fall the plan was endorsed by the planning board the park and recreation board and the conservation commission and then here we are today in front of you and as uh Commissioner Murphy mentioned we'll also take the plan to MAPC as recommended by the state so what is in a plan um I'm not going to go through every single section it's just simply too much information uh but I'll just give you a quick overview of the topics so in addition to a summary we have an introduction we have a community setting community setting goes through the regional context the history of the community and some of our demographics and population information and our growth and development over time we have an environmental inventory and analysis everything from geology to water resources vegetation fisheries and wildlife and environmental challenges then we have a comprehensive inventory of all of our lands of conservation and recreation interest we have a community vision where we pull in that's that's where we pull in a lot of that community input um and that rolls over into the analysis of needs and we break those down into a few uh different categories that I'll I'll mention later and then finally comes the real meat of the plan and the thing that changes the most from plan to plan or from update to update which is our our overarching goals the objectives that support those goals and then finally a seven-year action plan uh in addition we have some supporting documentation there a bunch of maps which I a lot of people find really interesting and go straight to the maps uh we have the full public survey as well as all of the detailed responses and we have an accessibility component an ADA access self-evaluation so this is an example of what the inventory looks like i know it's a little small i don't expect you to read it word for word but just to give you an idea we broke down our open spaces into categories beaches water-based recreation uh multi-purpose like the bigger community parks neighborhood playgrounds playing fields school grounds and uh passive recreational spaces and then in addition there's a number of categories of information that we collect on those which is required by the um state i I failed to mention earlier there's actually an open space and recreation planners workbook and that's sort of the what lays out the requirements uh that you need to have in here so for example we talk about who owns them who is man what agency is managing them what are the ba the main uses of of those spaces and what's the potential for additional recreation um what what's the overall condition is it protected permanently or is it a limited protection maybe because of historic use but not a permanent protection um have we gotten some public grants in the past and you'll see that in a lot of cases we have um what's the zoning and finally what's the location and then there are maps of the open spaces and so we have one by ownership and then we also have one by the level of protection and I invite folks to go on the website to see those up closer if you're interested um there's other maps that c that show additional information about our existing environment from water resources to soils um to other land use tools that we use such as zoning um and in addition population characteristics such as our environmental justice populations based on uh minority status languages spoken and income so the analysis of needs I mentioned I'd give the categories so we talk about resource protection everything from sensitive resources to environmental issues like climate change and invasive species u management needs which are largely categorized by the five divisions within the department of natural resources uh parks forestry cemetery environmental and recreation and then finally community needs this is just a very small snapshot but these are um most of these are examples of things that uh factors that the public said were important or highly valued to them um when it came to our open spaces and recreational amenities the last three touch on some of the improvements and priorities that the public identified as things that they would like to see but there is a lot more detail in the plan itself if you're interested so this is just in here to give you a feel for where we came from with the 2019 plan to where we are now uh and so I'll just read for you that the very first goal was to maintain and upgrade parks in a way that enhances cost effectiveness with high quality design and best management practices so that is still one of our overarching goals it's very normal for those goals to remain consistent over time the first objective was to implement park improvements um within the 2017 park improvement bond so obviously we needed to revise that we also have parks department uh we need to revise that and um happily most of these projects here have been completed so I'm going to just walk you through the seven goals just the goals and objectives i won't talk about all the actions because they are you know there are many of those um and so now we've changed that first objective to implement park capital improvements and open space acquisitions um we also talk about incorporating low impact development in our site planning and design strategies when we're upgrading our parks or building new parks using complete streets design when we're planting along roadways uh encouraging and encouraging and supporting interested groups in adopting and assisting with park maintenance so that includes things like working with local garden clubs and other community groups and continuing this is a new one that we added continuing our comprehensive maintenance inspection of all parks and playgrounds seem really important as we're thinking more about maintenance this is something we're already doing but we're kind of expanding so again I hate slides like this where there's so much text but it's more to give you an idea of where we are now um so this is the first goal and the first objective in the new plan um and uh now this is the implement park capital improvements and open space acquisitions so as I I said I I'll not read all of these um I will just tell you that you know this takes us through 2024 uh and then we kind of picked a point that we had to cut things off and start transitioning into our planning phase but we did try to another way that we try to capture what happened from 2019 to 2025 is that the introduction to the plan has a summary of projects that have happened in the last 5 years and other accomplishments of department of natural resources and other related departments because it's certainly not just my department that is is working on these things and this is what that looks like in the document itself so the actions are now on the left side and then you have a whole bunch of categories and again this is prescriptive in the the state's workbook so we prioritize things high medium low uh we have I'll show you at towards the end um a map an action plan map some of the larger locations are numbered we have the responsible parties now we have Department of Natural Resources and division if if applicable uh budget if known the funding source if known or or what our likely uh funding source will be and then we go from years 1 through seven and we identify which years we anticipate working on that sometimes you'll see a gap those could be gaps where we are giving plants a chance to establish and then we'll be going back and making sure that everything is still looking good for example so now I'll go rather quickly through the other six goals and objectives and I'll just highlight a few of the differences in ways that we've updated these since 2019 so goal two encourage safe public access to waterfront areas we added in water-based recreational activities because that was something that the public mentioned um we're we're continuing to support projects that improve our 27 miles of coastline uh we're improving the quality of water and the overall condition of city beaches we put in ponds because now we're focusing more on things like butlers and sailor's home pond and expanding the recreational and educational activities at the beaches continues to be an objective goal three is expanding recreational opportunities so previously uh we talked about our cultural diversity which is great in Quinsey and there's a lot of new things that you know we've added and want to continue to add uh we also added community interest in the needs of underserved populations to try to get at for example um may there are populations where they may not have a vehicle might not be able to drive to a park or an open space and trying to look at the equity of our open space system and the amenities that we offer and that ties right into the two objectives diversifying our facilities uh as well as we added to this increased public awareness because one of the things that came about in our survey was uh a recognition that some people just aren't aware of all the opportunities that we have out there so maybe doing a better job of kind of spreading the word and then there's a lot of interest in having more passive recreation locations where people can walk sit relax um and enjoy the outdoors goal four is a classic example of one that that we keep in all of our plans it's always important to be looking at funding i feel very grateful that we have uh the CPA here in Quinsey and the hotel motel tax as well as many other um wonderful funding sources those are described in more detail in the plan um we'll continue to look for grant funding and we'll continue to look at other dedicated revenue streams goal five has stayed the same but we've added objectives so we're looking at managing open spaces and natural resources to support Quinsey's sustainability and resilience to climate change the first objective um about using these open spaces to promote sustainability and resilience has stayed in there um we have added the the others managing our open spaces and our natural resources uh in conjunction with our other planning priorities so we have goals in here that list many of other plans and really try to tie those together so our plans are not uh being used in isolation uh that really enhances the value of them and enhances their effectiveness and then finally 5.3 managing our natural and cultural resources using current science and best management practices so there's a lot of new goals and objectives here um that for example the tree warden and myself and our heritage materials conservator and some of our other staff uh pulled into the plan and so this is one other page that I'll show you from the plan just to give you a flavor of a different type of categories that you might see so now we're looking at some of the objectives related to um best management practices and managing our natural resources and these are things that are citywide so not everything is is designated to one particular area some of these actions are citywide some of them are specific to the coastline since that's so sensitive we tease those apart um in addition you will notice that these go across all of the seven years because there are going to be ongoing actions that will continue goal six making open and recreational spaces accessible to people with disabilities we added in older people because you know what what people in the open space and recreation community have realized over time is just how valuable it is to everybody when we make our open spaces accessible to all so whether it's somebody um who has a mobility issue whether it's you know a parent with a stroller you name it um those are things that people appreciate and and we tend to get really positive feedback on those objectives have stayed the same um but they now support a broader goal and finally goal seven treating our open spaces as experiential classrooms to promote environmental stewardship so we're looking at doing more interpretive signage more walks and tours in the park more outreach um there's a lot in here about working with local community groups and our schools and trying to more broadly encourage um environmental stewardship and education uh we also in objective 7.3 we're working more with our neighborhoods uh and we would like to continue doing that and then objective four the last objective in the plan is again capturing trying to get the information out to folks so we didn't have much in 2019 really focused on the website or social media and we would like to do more of that and we've heard from folks that they like it when we do that so you know you can see more of that in the future this is as promised the action plan map so it's a little different than the other maps it's not our existing resources but it is a visual representation of some of what we'd like to do uh I just want to note about this that the items the locations I should say that are numbered are simply numbered in the order that in which they appear in the action plan um and then on the left side is a box for some of the citywide and coastline actions we can't fit everything on here but it gets it captured as many of them and as Commissioner Murphy mentioned it's important to note that you know the things that are in this plan we are not required to do them say some action item becomes infeasible for one reason or another um it's really for the city it is a tool for us uh it's not that somebody's checking up on us um but it is a great roadmap for us and it and then on the flip side of that should we think of additional action items that we would like to do we absolutely can do them there's nothing stopping us and many of the action items are deliberately broad to kind of allow for that flexibility so that we can you know potentially apply for grants for something new that comes up uh finally I'd like to stress again that this plan is not has not been done in isolation um there are many city plans that align with this for example the hazard mitigation plan the uh housing production plan the Wallist urban renewal plan and many others and we made a point to ensure that the goals aligned in many cases there's repetition um because all of these things end up overlapping in reality uh and it's it really helps quite a lot when you're trying to get things done and when you're trying to get funding for them similarly there are state initiatives that also overlap um on the left you probably can't read it but it's the SCORP the statewide outdoor recreation um I've forgotten the end of that um and that is essentially the state's open space and recreation plan and they really want to see that you're aligned with that so we go into detail in the plan about that uh the healthy soils action plan and then some resilient mass plans in conclusion I'd just like to point out I know the council knows this um because it was in your memo but for others this is the website where we have the open space and recreation plan so currently the draft is up there the whole plan as well as just that action plan uh the seven-year action plan that is when the plan is finalized the final plan will be there as well and we will keep it up um we will have it broken down into different sections because sometimes people like to go to one section or another um and with that I thank you so much for your time um I'd be happy to take any questions thanks Heather any questions president recognizes Council McCarthy thank you thank you Mr president heather great job uh thank you you're busy i know you're all busy i know I bother Commissioner Murphy a lot um I think you you've covered everything i'm looking in probably speaking for every ward here that either something that's been requested something that's been in the works something's been that's been finished um all the items all the areas I had a couple of couple of items I just wanted to ask you in in Ward One and and one in particular before I forget is is Manet Lake um sometimes I get ahead probably ahead of you guys a little bit too much and I should make sure I I I pull you in also with the uh Mville Pondo and some of the guys from the water department they uh had uh some um work done on some of the uh water lines sewer lines uh down in Ward One they ended up into Manet Lake uh they look like they've fixed a longstanding problem with the water that fills it in and comes out and I think we've got a little more control over it uh we're also looking at going down behind Lennox Street that marsh that runs down to uh what I call the Willows Babcock and and Stoton but I'd love to get you and the commissioner and and the the water department uh folks that I've been dealing with possibly together to have a little talk about that i think we've come a long way uh in in getting to the point where we can really clean up manet lake now uh that we've found a few longterm problems that um that were posing a flooding issue down there every once in a while that we couldn't control i don't know if you've talked to Mark Heather i I Yes I have um we've talked about a number of those issues i'm aware of some of the work that was done on the pipes and the there was been some changes in hydrarology which you know maybe related to that maybe related to some other environmental factors um it's sort of a work in in progress um definitely yeah so there is a I believe I left the paper on the printer in the office but I can assure that there is a objective within goal five that talks about our marshes um and I tried to list as many as I could to make just to stress that these are all critical places that we want to continue to restore as needed um or to continue to evaluate the hydrarology particularly if it's changing like Manet Lake it seems to me that it's filled in a lot over the years and the characteristics are changing i even noticed um there's some of the plants that are in there appear to be healthier you know marsh grasses and some appear to be invasive grasses so there's definitely more work to be done there but I I I really appreciate that that input yeah and the list here I think it's 5 5.2 uh that is manage open spaces mana Lake's the one that that I just want to make sure you're Yeah totally engaged with with us cuz it it started out as a sewer water issue they they they jumped all over it uh Underground Technologies a company u that a gentleman named Steve Dee uh does some work for us got involved and and we came up with um a lot of answers so I I just wanted to bring that one up in particular but I know it's all ongoing and the list is definitely complete you you've got everything covered so that's great um thank you so much for the input it really it does really help to hear from individuals like yourself and the community who've seen these things change over time um that input's really helpful the other item I had mentioned to the commissioner a little bit I wanted to bring up that somewhere in here uh I wanted to mention the maritime center i know it's kind of a combination of a a new public building but it's a recreational facility um and I I know it's kind of a dual effort and um just to put that on the list somewhere that we we we start to look at that again i know I've spoken to the mayor and we got to get back on that horse we we were detourred off of that for a while with seaw walls and flooded neighborhoods and etc for a while but um I think we've got our our hands around that a little bit i know we're going to start the manet a seaw wall project which I know is on here also uh but but that's that's the only item I see here that um kind of a combination of uh natural resources and public buildings but I wanted to make sure that's on there because that that's still on the radar and um we're going to get back on that yes thank you thank you for that feedback as well commissioner Murphy mentioned that to me and there is already a draft new action ready to be to to be added to the plan um in section two about our waterfront uh it's not in the materials you have yet um but today I drafted up something um relative to uh designing and implementing improvements to the House Neck Maritime Center uh so if if it needs to be expanded beyond that we we certainly can but yes thank you for catching that no and uh just a big thank you um you know you got a lot of lot of items if folks say there's nothing going on in Quinsey then they're they're not paying attention so uh thank you very much Heather thank you thank you Council McCarthy president recognized Council Leang thank you Mr president i mostly just want to provide compliments um and then followed up with a question at the end um yeah I I really appreciate either the thorough presentation that you've um given to us now a few times but but with this specifically just understanding how far we've come um in such a short period of time under your leadership and then all of the exciting things that are to come um is informed specifically by this process of really engaging the public right to make sure that you know given your experience you still have input from the public on what they're looking for and I just want to of course commend the commissioner and thank you for u making sure that it's inclusive and that the accessibility to the surveys and the feedback are in multiple languages i see that that's a priority of yours as well under the leadership of the commissioner and that you know means a lot to me um I think it really is interesting that it informs specifically the environmental justice side i don't know which number it is but it really um coming and just looking at uh the summary of information there right to see that you know the bulk of the city really is considered environmental justice communities if not like neighborhood you know what I mean like when you're looking at other municipalities there's like pockets of EJ neighborhoods right but to see that the bulk of Quinsey is consider considered environmental justice community um I think is just really beneficial right to know that that opens up so many opportunities then for grants to fund all of these projects that you're looking to do moving forward so I love it i'm on board i think that if you can explore and take advantage of any and all grants out there to supplement financially the work that you need to do that's so important let's let's do it right and so um again just all the compliments to you both for the hard work and being proactive and not just leading with your expertise but making sure that you're doing so um with really intentional engagement with the community so that's going to lead me to my question which is what's next right because this is a presentation today there's no vote that we're taking however on the back of this U memo it does say that once you get the plan approved that's when you can start taking advantage of these um other financing opportunities and to support that approval of the plan you could use some support formally from this body right and so does that take place in the form of like a a resolution that we need to pass or do we just you know sign a letter under under the president like what does that process look like so that we can show our support for the plan to be approved to then allow you that opportunity to start going out and getting that grant funding thank you very much for the the positive comments really appreciate it i your point is well taken with the environmental justice neighborhoods it's it's critically important um and as far as the support from this body the state you know looks very favorably upon letters of support or endorsement from elected officials in particular it doesn't have to have any particular language um but if this you know body feels uh feels inclined to do so a letter of support or a letter of endorsement would be would be wonderful and then that would be included the letter itself within the plan uh and that really is all that's needed at this stage um then going forward I think it would be based maybe we're on a project by project basis i can tell you that even you know in the last week we've had a a staff meeting with representatives from a number of departments where we were talking about some of the upcoming grant opportunities like the MVP the municipal vulnerability preparedness program for example um and coastal zone management has some grants coming up and we were actually trying to strategize around well which departments have some specific needs that might need to be funded and it was wonderful to look around and see that multiple people had a copy of the draft plan in hand and we're actually you know using that as a way to spark the conversation and and think about where should we put that money or our resources to potentially get money uh now so you know those are the sort of conversations that I expect there will be more of going forward okay um and then you know we would certainly come back to to this to this board but you know it's it isn't it's a plan that once it's approved you know it then it is complete for the next seven years but that doesn't mean that it's static in that we can't adjust and so you know I've I've said to folks if if there's things along the way that you realize oh you know would really like to consider this the next time or have you thought about that you can reach out at any time even after it is quote unquote final definitely you know I I get the sense from you again that you're very engaging in this whole process but so when would you want the letters if if I assume they would they would come to you and then you can package it and send it off for like a full approval right exactly when would you ideally want any letters that support so there's not a time limit per se um you know we have a plan now that you know we're sort of is valid for another year um having said that should we apply for a grant uh we could potentially be awarded funds but we wouldn't actually be able to receive those funds until the plan was finalized uh so our hope was to wrap it up this spring okay if possible um I don't anticipate the the few remaining elements that um we need to do like a final look at or or or adding in like the letter from MAPC I imagine will be fairly quick so MAPC um has already taken an initial look at it for example we've already incorporated comments from them if this body you know wants to take time to submit any other comments of course you're welcome to do that um so there's a little bit of time but hopefully we're thinking this spring if feasible no I appreciate the offer to do that i'm just excited to start submitting letters of support so as long as we get that to you by spring today is great if you if you want but but truthfully whenever it makes sense it's going to be fine we will make it work sounds like before um the next couple of month like before April May would be a good time to email them over to you and make sure that you have those in hand so yes and you know on on that note um I was envisioning a letter of endorsement from the the council as a body but if you preferred to do individual letters you certainly could um typically what I see from other cities and towns is the chief municipal officer and the chief elected official or bodies such as city council um board of selectmen will do one letter um it's typically what what I see just for your information but Okay by all means um any support is great great sounds good thank you so much i really appreciate it and again thank you Commissioner thank you Mr president thank you Council uh President recognizes Council Camp thank you Mr president thank you Heather and Commissioner um I I've told the story in public a few times uh driving up Southern Otter onto Mary Mount Parkway right that goes all the way up to in front of Central i remember thinking before this was years ago um before I was uh in this position that we we do spend a lot of money on parks and and open space and and I wondered you know it's just a lot it seemed like a lot and then I got to that set of lights and I looked to my right and I saw the fountain i saw the people there and I saw the the um groups working out right in the parking lot and and I thought "Oh that's why they do it because it really makes you proud of of the area that you're from and the neighborhoods that you come from and watching that work it really kind of came back to me." And I think when you re really really gets um hammered home is when you go to different communities and you see you know the differences and and just in the upkeep and and the you know the work that gets done here it really gives you a sense of pride in your community so um I'm it's really a compliment to years worth of of groups of people that I know goes beyond you know the this body this this group and the people that were before us and we'll come here after i know that will benefit from this forever so that to me that that's an incredibly um cap tip to to the whole group and congratulations on that um one thing that I think that you've been really good at uh and before I was on the council I was lucky enough to be on the CPA and um watching the way that that you know Commissioner Murphy would come in and present i think I was there for the the Butler Pond um I think I was there for that i believe I was um at any rate watching that that's how it should should work right i mean that the work that goes into that and I guess my main my first question I guess would be h how on the CPA front um is that offsetting this this balance you know what what type of percentages what type of monies are going to be used i'm sure that there's a lot of of prioritizing that's going on right now uh and how is that going to be helpful yeah that's an excellent question certainly um the CPA funding is one of the funding sources um that's been identified in here where there are action items we you know we've we identified a specific funding source we were careful to not um be presumptive about CPA funding and and put it as a funding source for things where we had not yet gotten the funding approved i think there are a few cases where we said potentially you know funding from that um for example the sailor's home pond project at one point said potentially and then came to this body and you generously um gave us some other funding um but largely it's projects that have already received CPA funding kind of going forward um but I imagine that we would continue to utilize that as a resource um to supplement the other sources of funding um predominantly for maybe smaller capital projects that's great um I don't know if you want to add anything to that so is there this is kind of just something that I thought in my mind is is there um a desired percentage of open space in in some communities and where are we in that you mean in terms of land area you know there there really isn't a specific formula i mean I think it varies so widely from community to community um you know it makes a big difference as you probably won't be surprised if you have a more rural versus a more urban location so the percentage in Quinsey is a little lower than some communities but it's actually pretty high compared to some more urban communities and I appreciated your earlier comments about that um because it it does seem that it's a community even before I started working here that I was impressed with just how much is being invested in it um but there is maybe another interesting question would be how that number changes over time um because there are some communities where they're able to you know an acquisition might be 10 20 acres well we're not we don't have the feasibility to do acquisitions like that but we have and I I didn't actually mention this in the presentation but one of the major things that has happened since 2019 is that we've had several acquisitions so we've got the Beach Comr Park um which is over 2 acres and then we've got the Zero Harriet A conservation land um which is which is smaller under an acre um but those are really significant parcels for open space so um I I don't actually remember the percentage off the top of my head it's it's in the it's in the plan um but you know I think for us in my mind anyways you know it's it's making sure that we are still keeping an eye open for suitable opportunities for acquisitions because they are few few and far between um but there isn't any particular goal say from the state that you need to achieve okay well that that was kind of leading into my final question which was is there a if there's a wish list I'm sure there's a group what's what's the one the one that stands out that that'd be great great project in terms of projects or in terms of acquisitions projects well acquisitions this is a trick a tricky question because you'll note that the responsible parties include a lot of different departments and a lot of people and so I hesitate to call out any one particular project i mean everything in our first goal you know that objective 1.1 almost all of that is underway and we certainly want to finish all those things that we've started um you know my personal priority at the moment besides this this plan is the Sailor's Home Pond dredging and restoration project um but I think you could look more broadly than that and and hit on many different projects so I'm not exactly answering again commissioner Murphy would you like to prioritize any other sound like a politician answer right there yeah right there you go exactly priorities all of them well keep up the great work thank you for all your your efforts really appreciate it thank you so much thank you councelor president recognizes councelor debar thank you Mr president um just want to thank you for the inventory tonight uh you and Commissioner um Murphy coming in and and really just giving us a complete rundown of of what's out there in the city of Quinsey it really is very helpful as the city grows and we have a lot of construction out there we're doing new roads we're doing everything out there and the open space is a key component i don't only speak for myself I also speak for the community preservation um committee uh that I've been a part of as a city uh city um Quincy city council representative for the last 10 years um we we appreciate everything you've done over the years we've come um a lot of these projects that have come into fruition uh we've come to the to the CPC CPA funds for um and we couldn't fund them all um I know you were very creative with the sailor's pond with getting a uh a grant fund of a million dollars which is fantastic and our hotel motel tax is another tool in the toolbox that we've used um in line in in conjunction with our tax funds so I just want to thank you for being creative because it's very difficult um CPA obviously uh over the years um as more communities have come on to the pot especially like places like Boston they take a big piece of the pie i number four when I first got on way back in 2016 we we're almost dollar for dollar uh as time goes along as I think it's over 186 190 communities uh of the 351 have come on circuit uh and push uh the funding uh a little differently so um I mean over the years what we've done is uh especially the playgrounds um I know back in 2017 we instead of doing playground by prayground we we did um 27 to 30 revitalizations of playgrounds across the city of Quinsey um I think it paid off because every everybody in each ward throughout the city uh got something for the kids to go on right away uh I think it was a win-win for us what we did back then and and kids are still using them and uh over the years talking to Commissioner Murphy just go in put some more u you know wood chips in there and and you know clean it up really good and we just keep and maintain them very well so they've been great um I'm looking over everything here um I I love the the different objectives um I think you know butler's pawn sailor's pawns i look at it more of a macro level as an atlarge counselor not particularly in each ward but what are we doing citywide and uh that's why I bring up the playgrounds but another area is I look at objective 53 um and I've talked to Commissioner Murphy about this is the um inventory of the of the trees out there um how elaborate have we gotten with um all the trees that we have in the inventory in the city of Quinsey and the species and and do we have all that in the pipe or Yes yeah we do and thank you very much for the positive comments um it's not every community I think is able to fund their parks and open spaces and recreation in the same way uh and it it's really nice to work on a plan where I feel confident that you know we're going to actually be able to do a lot maybe most maybe all of this it it's a really big deal and and it makes a huge difference that this council has supported so many things through the years um predating my time here so thank you um as well for the CPA funding it's it's an incredibly beneficial uh program to have uh as far as the the street tree inventory it's actually quite detailed now so we have the street trees all identified by species by size by condition and in addition to that it's sort of this living breathing document where as maintenance is done as inspections are done on those trees that information is documented and pulled into the plan some of it you can actually access yourself on the city's website that's something new that we've put up um some of it is behind the you know the scenes um and you'd have to sort of ask for the information um and then the next step for that is to do more of a management plan um and some more strategy around keeping the forest healthy uh and then you know in addition to street trees we also take care of the trees in u parks and open spaces that are not directly adjacent to the streets you talked about a lot of nonprofits that are out there as well as other um I guess packs or whatever uh Quincy Tree Alliance would very happily be happy with working in handinand with you on these particular projects i know over the years we've worked collaboratively with them on you know different species of of of trees um and just over the years just being on the council and what we've gotten a handle on with the trees out there and I just want to thank you kudos to your entire department natural resource commissioner Murphy for really really tackling uh was particularly a problem in the past um you know tackling the different trees and then just educating them if if the tree is not dead we can salvage the tree we can trim back some branches just working with with um the residents um you know over the years it's been a great great uh partnership working with your entire as as we put on the tree warden with your department on on tackling these trees i mean it's it was an issue years and years ago when we first got onto the council and as time went along just like we are right now with the different projects across the city it's a process and the funding as we know we're talking a lot about about funding tonight um the prices have gone up quite a bit um based on you know printing of monies in 2020 uh inflation and all these different things so I just want to thank the entire department uh natural resources yourself for going out into the community i know you did a uh you did a um you know meeting in Ward 5 with councelor Mitten on the sailor's pond and I think the folks really really enjoyed that um to see you were very involved and uh talking to commiss u talking to councelor Mitten just before the meeting about what's going to be underway with sailors so I just want to thank you overall for everything you're doing tonight um I'm looking forward to more um talking and communicating and working together on making Quincy great thank you thank you so much thank you councelor uh President recognizes Councelor Ash thank you Mr president um thank you very much for the presentation it's comprehensive although um I'm sure Commissioner Murphy doesn't want to pick a favorite child i do want to just touch on the couple of or two specific projects in this packet um for those at home that that don't have it in front of them and that that would be uh first the parcel at 570 South Street which um is um the it was the car wash on South Street and uh the city acquired that lot last year with some plans uh for modifications to the soccer field and um that that plan hope um folks will see more parking at least in the interim but I'm looking forward to working with the department um and and um everyone on path as well as some uh enhancements to fax and park we have here under goal three to maintain walking trails and multimmodal paths um and and evaluate opportunities for new trails and that's awesome as well um outside of that more kind of broad um items that are touched upon here would be the um taking into consideration the diversity of each neighborhood which I think is really very important and um not something that I would initially jump to as a part of a plan like this but after going through it you see how important that could be um the the different aspects and backgrounds for each neighborhood as well as the ADA compliance piece of it and um and how much folks that may u be physically challenged um can utilize and benefit from outdoor space so I really um commend you all and the department on making sure and and kind of putting all this together in front of us because although now that I've review now that I've reviewed it um it it's a it's a no-brainer but I wouldn't know where to start with kind of the different aspects and items um and so um I thank you for that and then the question that I had um if we're talking about park I believe you said park land and trail grants um and I'm sure each of those um could be varying amounts but do we have a ballpark of how much potential money is out there once a plan like this is approved is approved at our level and then kind of brought up the chain you know I'm I'm sorry that I don't know exactly what the current ranges are for those programs but I can tell you that I can think of some projects in the past that have received for park grants so park is specifically for um you know land is typically the land grants are typically for acquisitions the park grants are typically for renovations of parkland and I have seen park grants that ranged anywhere from $50,000 to $400,000 um the land and water conservation fund grant um I've seen one half a million so they they can be pretty significant they can also be smaller you know there's $10,000$20,000 projects but usually you know they're they're generally larger pots of money um the trails grants tend to be smaller that's a smaller grant program um one thing that's nice about the state grants is their approach tends to be that smaller is not necessarily a you know it's not necessarily a problem so if you have a valuable project maybe there's a small section of trail that would really help you connect to larger open spaces they're still willing to look at that so it doesn't have to be a brand new park every time that kind of thing great thank you sure all counselor yes thank you uh President recognizes Council Minton thank you now that we're so close the sales home project can you just give us a quick update i thought you might ask so um it we are waiting to some extent on the turtles so the turtles are still hibernating or broomating as they call it and um our our goal is to try to trap as many of them as we can so that they can be taken to the New England Wildlife Center um to be temporarily house there so that they won't get injured during the dredging process and so they need to wake up and and start being active so that they we're able to um entice them with some food and and and humanely trap them um well waiting on that which uh my best guess would be late April as to when that will happen um working closely with the contractor uh ACK Marine general uh and marine contracting to work on the final specifications for the construction details uh the staging exactly what equipment they're going to use um and drafting up some materials to send around to neighbors so that they know what's going on okay objective 7.2 each principles looking forward to having you in the classrooms sounds great thank you thanks counselor uh president recognizes councelor Divine uh thank you very much for the presentation i know I say it every time I see you but I love the fact that we have a a real scientist uh taking care of this environmental uh duty because it's very important and it's very technical uh ACK Marine that's Ward 4 uh that's great to hear that we're using a local company to uh do that uh I like that we're also using a local place for traffic so anytime we can do that I love hearing that um talking about the trees uh we I don't think anybody really knows but we we won an award for almost 700 and change 700,000 and change for some trees uh that was done by a grant and uh all these things it's really important for us like we we're finding money that it doesn't affect our residents um real estate taxes because it's granted money from federal or state and uh I just wanted to get that out there when I was hearing about all the trees i know that the money is kind of frozen temporarily I believe but uh hopefully it'll be unfrozen and we'll be able to use that but I wanted to say thank you very much for the presentation from uh you and uh the commissioner and planning department cuz it takes everybody a whole village to work together to make sure it all meshes and works out um a lot of the stuff's already completed we already have Concaid which is done i saw part of that in there uh we have one of the best playgrounds in Quinsey I think is Concincaid uh state-of-the-art it's used by every demographic and age group from toddlers all the way to seniors uh and it's very active so uh great stuff thank you very much thank you so much one of the things that um you know that we identified as we were going through this plan is some is looking at some past successes to help inform future projects so for example the multimodal path that goes around concaid is something that we might replicate elsewhere and that's another thing that the funding agencies like to see like proof of concept and then they were inclined to fund it so great we did get a lot of mitigation money I mean grant money for Kaid also so uh hopefully you'll be able to find some more money like that or the same one thank you very much i also I realize this is not exactly in response to a question but I I neglected to say when I was mentioning the beginning of you know 2023 when we started this up that in addition to my colleagues in natural resources and the department of planning and community development there are a lot of other staff from other departments that have done a lot of work on this plan in the past and more recently um and they in the acknowledgements as well as the boards and commissions that I mentioned earlier so just want to certainly not just me um though I'm happy to be up here talking to all of you about it thank you thanks Council Divine all right thank you very much Heather thanks Dave um the only question I have is with respect to you said after you're presenting this to us you're planning it to give it to the Mass Area Planning Council Commission uh why them that is actually a requirement of the state um they want to make sure that there's consistency across the region in terms of parks and open space because sometimes you have open spaces that physically overlap um and a lot of times the the things that we hear from the public will be you know at a broader level um things that they'd like to see uh so they ask us to to make sure that our goals and objectives align with their plans which we have done and then they take a look and see if there's anything else that they can add to kind of enhance it so is that something that's farmed out by the state government to that regional planning body um in ter terms of the the resources to have it done no they No I'm sorry in terms of the review no they do it themselves um so we you know we know the staff there that deals with the plans it's sort of a limited subset of the MAPC full-time staff oh no I get that so who from the then it goes to the state who from the state oh got it sure so at the state that's an excellent question so within the ex the executive office of energy and environmental affairs there's a small division the division of conservation services and they specifically review the plans um there is a woman named Melissa Cryan who's been there for many years um and she takes the lead on reviewing the plans and ensuring that they follow the the current workbook and that did they coordinate with DCR uh it does not have to go through DCR although I'll mention that DCR is mentioned in the plan you know collaborating with regional agencies is something that we that we want to do um but there's there's no particular requirement just seems logical though right okay exactly by that face and reaction I think we both think the same well I mean I I think you know it's always they always want to see in these plans that you're working together that you're even if it's one department or two departments leading the charge you know that you're making sure that you're collaborating ating amongst all of the departments you know if we have storm water management you know we're going to work with DPW um you know for example because they're great at that kind of thing and if we have accessibility we're going to work with accessibility coordinator um and if we're working on Furnest Brook Parkway or Wallist Beach initiatives that we're working with DCR um because it's a municipal plan you know the state has their their SCORP their statewide regional um excuse me statewide outdoor recreation plan dcr doesn't have a parallel sort of required plan per se um so it's more kind of working with them as the best you can yeah all right i'm committed to doing as much as I can with them but no thanks again we appreciate it there's nothing formal though thank you thank you so much i think that concludes this portion of the program thank you very much uh Madam Clerk next item on the agenda please number two 202535 an appropriation for 1,500,000 to hotel motel tax tourism hotel motel tax open space thank you Madam Clerk the president recognizes Mr walker thank you Mr president through you to the body um this is second appropriation relative to the city's uh 400th anniversary celebration which we are in the process of kicking off as we speak um this is the the good stuff uh as I talked about in the fall uh the mayor um wanted to make this an incredibly special year uh and he wanted to be able to do so in a way that also protects the taxpayer and our sources of funding um for this has been the city's hotel motel tax you'll notice the two orders one to trans it's basically a a bucket transfer from one bucket to another um I think this number reflects um what we projected in the fall we would be coming back for uh to make some of the planning and really uh unprecedented uh events that we're going to have in the next several months uh a reality um before I get into just a little bit of detail and obviously open up to questions I do want to acknowledge the team that may put together u that has been working on this for the last several months this really is a this is a heavy lift there's a lot of stuff going on um just last week we had an event uh with New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hildebrand at Granite Links uh upwards of 500 people there uh by all accounts an absolutely uh first class outstanding event the the reviews have been uh absolutely terrific uh and that's uh in large part the result of a work of u a lot of people um and I want to just note those those folks um Karen Oul from the mayor's office who's been coordinating a lot of this for us together with uh a committee including Lisa Amola Mark Kerry Nicole Leslie Daniel Jagichovich Anthony Aanti Julie Pagano Dagy Ashley our tourism director Moren Gary from planning John McDonald our events coordinator and Aaron Glennon um have been really uh hustling the last 6 to 8 months um couple items I would just want to highlight quickly for the body uh as I noted this is hotel motel tax money so this is money derived the revenue here is derived from tax that every guest at the hotel in the city of Quinsey pays this is not uh general operating uh funding and second I just want to note that a lot of this funding in some ways this this funding becomes a placeholder uh a down payment so to speak uh and a lot of it not all of it but a lion share of it um there's good potential that it will be coming back to the city uh through some corporate sponsorships um and uh ticketed events uh particularly if you look at the events and programs budget that's outlined and the package you all received this week um a lion share of that are the two planned concerts uh one confirmed uh at Veterans Memorial Stadium i think everyone is aware that uh we've announced uh Darius Rucker uh country superstar uh and of Hoodie in the blowfish fame uh will be playing at the stadium uh tickets to that um the mayor very specifically uh wanted to not under wanted to make it as affordable as possible for the people of the community and tickets uh are that they're probably half to a third of what tickets like this would normally cost uh as expected because of that the tickets went very very quickly uh they sold out within a couple hours uh but that whole process of having a worldass music act at the stadium is going to be largely offset even though the ticket prices are low through ticket prices and corporate sponsorships and I can say tonight that um one of our great corporate citizens in the city going back 20 30 years now Dan Quark uh will be a major corporate sponsor of uh the concerts at uh Veterans Stadium we do not have uh confirmation on the second act for that weekend darius Rucker is a August 2nd we're looking at either August 1st or August 3rd to uh bookend uh Darius um there's some economies of scale there too since we're already paying for the production in the stage uh it makes sense for us to have a second act um a couple of other things that go into events and programs we're having a major maritime festival in July a hot air balloon festival uh sometime over the summer and uh maybe I think that's in the fall actually but check quincy400.com for the full schedule of events um right and obviously as mentioned in your package Flag Day uh we're really going to turn it up several notches on Flag Day this year there are going to be a number of different things that folks are going to see at Flag Day this year so the Quinsey 400 the Quinsey 400 parade uh the mayor's determined that will be a Flag Day parade this year um and there's a number of other associated events that are going along throughout the course of the year some will have sponsors some will not uh but this is where we feel we've landed on an appropriate budget thank you Mr questions [Music] president recognizes council McCarthy so we're going to make uh a couple of motions open space to tourism tourism to Quinsey 400 yes this is to uh approve the tourism one time right move to hotel motel tax from to from sorry what is this hotel motel tax and tourism from hotel motto tax open space right so I put a motion to make that from hotel motel open space to tourism that in the form of a motion okay motion made by councelor McCarthy do I have a second on the motion president recognize councelor Ash sorry excuse me um thank you Mr president um on on the motion um Mr walker how much do you think we're is expecting to come back to this fund from sponsorships or or ticket sales and um things of that nature sure through you Mr president uh ticket sales specifically probably 300,000 a pop um on on both con for each concert uh sponsorships um several hundred,000 uh like I mentioned Mr quirk uh has committed uh to sponsoring the concerts um the final number isn't isn't confirmed yet but I I think it's safe to say it'll be several hundred,000 sever several hundred,000 which uh will get us if not there just about to at cost uh for a concert at uh for a 7 to 8,000 person concert at Veteran Stadium based upon production costs than I'm learning a lot more about than I ever thought I would uh these days so um okay and um beyond beyond that I I I again I would I would um sorry didn't complete the answer counselor several hundred thousand conservatively for everything else so there are a number of other sponsors Santandere Bank uh is sponsoring some events southshore Bank is on board sponsoring some events there are a number of other groups uh corporate uh sponsorships that are uh out there right now some of them still need to be finalized uh but again I'm comfortable saying that another several hundred,000 on top of whatever we get for the two concerts at at But just to be clear uh that money goes back into this account that's what councelor Ash was asking or that's that will be used on top of I would No I would I would say that the money comes back to the city the mechanism in which it does whether it yes I would say yes it comes back to the we would probably need to do a subsequent appropriation to get it back into the fund because I think it would go into the Quincy 400 and then go back in but I suggest that what we're laying out here is what we're projecting so we're kind of using this like a credit card correct okay yeah that was my that was the thank you Mr president the the notwithstanding any of the the transfers that will have to happen when the money comes back in just the the question would be um whether the money was is going to come back into this account um at the end of the day so thank you um and then are we expecting or um are we expecting an actual we're going to have a fluctuate more people in the city and I would assume we're expecting or anticipating hoping for more money coming in through the hotel motel tax mechanism correct absolutely councelor through you was actually the third piece of that answer on the revenue that um the better we do uh relative to some of the the scope of these events and the marketing of these events the more people we're going to have in the community the more people we're going to have stat staying at the hotels we're already uh have been talking to the hotels relative to the Darius Recker concert um we do expect there to be a good component from out of town although there's going to be a lot of folks from Quinsey there as well and then my last question would be um and of course now it's escaping me are are we anticipating any further funding requests for Quinsey 400 activities no thank you thank you Council Ash uh on the motion President recognizes Council Campbell uh I'd like to thank uh Council Ash for asking the two the two questions that I had um the um anticipated revenues that would come from the hotel rotel and and and restaurant i would imagine that was that was definitely one of my questions and the other one was were you going to come back for more and uh you answered both of them so I appreciate that that's all I have thank you councelor Campbell all right um so we have uh on the motion president recognizes councelor Divine uh to um Mr walker um are there any concerns of um you know the mayor tried to keep the pricing down low uh which is excellent i love that idea uh are there any concerns of people scalping tickets thank Thank you uh council for asking that question uh there is but it's also not as easy to do uh as it was back in uh the days when you were probably hanging out in front of the garden buying tickets wow um oh so the uh shots fired so SeatGeek is our official ticketing partner um and it is very difficult you are not allowed to place a ticket that originated on SeatGeek the the app the algorithm will not allow you to take a ticket from SeatGeek and put it onto StubHub it will not allow you to do that you can transfer if you bought eight tickets you can transfer them to seven of your family members or friends and maybe Venmo or whatever and that that's the way that's going to work but you can't actually get these tickets onto another platform without doing something really tricky and a lot of times and we know we've already seen it pop up people have shared screenshots um of these alleged tickets popping up on some of these other sites those are scams um and we're working with the the Free Jacks are helping with this whole operation because they they're the pros at this um you know getting some reminders out to folks that really the only ticket you're really taking a big big risk if you go to one of these other sites and uh decide to purchase purchase a ticket what appears to be a ticket the other thing that's going to happen is we'll see it and see it on Facebook see a lot a lot of these Facebook groups and they're not well monitored even around Quinzy that someone will be saying you know something come up uh with my family i had an illness in the family i'm getting rid of four Darius recorder tickets dm me for details well what they're going to do there is get your money and then disappear off of Facebook um that happens a lot uh and we're aware of that and we're trying to to to you know let people know that really the only application that works for these tickets is SeatGeek uh and if any other circumstance you're probably taking a pretty big chance okay so I guess for anybody out there listening um be very careful don't um don't be buying uh tickets that are not authentic but uh yeah so it's great that the mayor kept it inexpensive because I think that's u part of the whole Quinsey 400 and uh our community so it's great stuff thank you thank you Councelor Divine um all right we have a motion to approve by Council McCarthy on the motion um Madame Auditor I just would like a quick walk through here um so I'm looking at the balances here and it says we've got almost $4 million in open space and tourism historic preservation to two accounts in total correct yeah we have about Yes almost four four um 4 million okay but there are some incumbrances here for fiscal year 25 um there would be no incumbrances out of either of those particular accounts um the open space account right now has um about 3,500 and the tourism right now has about $359,000 so what are these obligations for fiscal year 25 um where are you looking oh this the tree planting what that is is that is in the budget for fiscal 25 and you will you will vote on that at the end of the fiscal year at the year end the tourism department the 346 is actually the fiscal 25 budget so there are those obligations there that you will take out of that money and and you have the debt service payment that will be paying back the general fund so just to be clear this says the net available 1.3 million yes but keep in mind there's only two po there's only been two quarters posted so we will be receiving revenue for two more quarters and before the end of Just want to be clear so we're basing this on projections so there will be enough money yes there will be enough money yep got it there will be okay um so motion made by council McCarthy do I have a second by councelor Dono madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell Council Divine yes councelor Deana yes council Harris this is Council Leang council McCarthy yes council Mitten President Kane yes nine members thank you okay uh Madam Clerk next item please number three 2025036 an appropriation for $1.5 million to Quinsey 400 from hotel motel tax tourism motion to approve motion approve made by council mart seconded by councelor deona on the motion not seeing any madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell council Divine yes councelor Deona yes council Harris yes council Leanne Council McCarthy Councelor Mittton yes president Kaine yes nine members thank you madam clerk next item please number four 2025 037 in ordinance adoption of Mass General Law Chapter 149 section 33E leave of absence to serve as an organ donor um President recognizes council me thank you the second chance at life recently I was involved with a Quinsey resident and city employee donating blood stem cells to a 30-year-old New Jersey man who was very sick with nonhodkins lymphoma the match initiated from a donation drive at Quinsey High School last year during the three-day stay in New Jersey I had the opportunity to talk with one of the doctors at the Hackinack Radian Cancer Center he said he wished that more people would enroll in the organization i'm sorry the organ stem cell donor program but the concern of using or losing personal time or their job was clearly the biggest drawback most donors on the registry got there because someone they knew needed a transplant or stem cells but they weren't a match then they forgot about it however years later they got a call requesting a donation from a stranger who may well die without the life-saving transplant or donation second chance at life provides an excused leave of absence to city of Quinsey employees for not more than 30 days without loss of pay or leave who are confirmed to be a donor of an organ blood or stem cells to another person known or unknown the donor would have to be confirmed by the national bone marrow and blood stem cell donation registry or the national donate life registry or similar makes no difference whether or not the donation ever comes to fruition once the process starts for example a recipient dies or there are complications pre-esting would also be included for the days leading up to the donation to include injections to stimulate the donation process on the federal level Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey has introduced the Life-Saving Act of 2024 but this has not progressed presently Massachusetts Chapter 149 section 33E provides an employee of the Commonwealth or of a county or of a city or town that accepts this section may take a leave of absence of not more than 30 days in a calendar year to serve as an organ donor without loss of or reduction in pay without loss of leave to which he or she is otherwise entitled and without loss of credit for time or service the city of Quinsey has not adopted this section nor does it cover leave of absence for blood or stem cells as a donation i'm not aware of any city in Massachusetts that does this in summary we need to adopt section 33e then add stem blood cell donation specifically for our city we all know love or care for people who have been touched by related illnesses takes a brave person to come forward to do this people usually swab for someone they know but in most cases the matches for someone anonymous years later let's make it easier for the donor let the city of Quinsey be that the forefront of this resolution be the impetus for other cities and towns to sign on to this life-saving program thank you yes yes okay this um will need to be referred to ordinance committee and advertise so uh motion to move to ordinance and advertise seconded by councelor Leang and on the motion president recognizes councelor Campbell oh I'm just Oh you just Okay great thank you president recognizes councelor Dono uh I know this is going into ordinance uh thank you Mr president uh know this is going into ordinance just want to commend councelor m uh councelor mitten for putting this forward uh I think people forget we we're the legislative body of government here um we finally got something in here that's really getting sticking here so I just want to thank you for bringing this in i think it's a very integral part of of of you know and you going to resolution with the second chance of life um so just thank you i know we're going to more discuss this more in ordinance thank you thanks councelor Broner president recognizes councelor Minton i like to Oh sorry wait oh I'm sorry the guy next to Minton uh councelor define like to reiterate coming up Minton tonight so I want to say thank you very much to councelor Minton i'm very proud of you it's um these are the types of things that um we uh we do here and uh a lot of people have been working in the past for years to get things like this up here and it it uh it's great that you were able to find it and and figure it out and get it done so um great job very impressed thanks Council Vine okay um all those in favor those opposed eyes have it madam Clerk next item on the agenda please number five 202538 resolution the second chance at Mike okay uh President recognizes Council Minton you went through yeah just Thank you again uh can you refer to this to ordinance yes okay motion to move to ordinance seconded by Council Leang all those in favor i'm sorry we're actually going to put this in ordinance but we're going to uh roll call this to approve it so Madam Cler please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes council Divine yes council Dana yes council Harris yes council Leang yes council McCathy yes councelor Minton yes president Kane yes nine members okay great um Madame Clerk next item on the agenda please nimba 6 2025 039 and resolve enforcement of council order 2024-045 [Music] president recognizes councelor Leang thank you Mr president so I just want to say briefly that this is a vitally important um issue to me and it's not meant to be a marking of territories we have passed and the mayor subsequently signed into law that the municipal school buildings are to be closed on Lunar New Year we would hold any city entity to the same standard for ordinances that have been passed by this body so again let me be clear and let me be brief despite what some people may try to attest or assert this is not about a marking of territories but rather the issue at hand that is that an ordinance was passed by this body has since been signed into law and as such as any other ordinance following the same procedure needs to be enforced so with that I'd like to make a motion to approve this resolve thank you motion to approve made by councelor Leang seconded by councelor Harris on the motion president recognizes councelor Harris thank you councel um um councelor Kaine and councelor um we thank you for bringing this forward um I'm probably not going to be as nice as you just was u so um first I'm going to briefly speak about uh the staggering number of W six students that stayed home on the Luna New Year north Quinsey had 800 plus and plus or minus uh these numbers I'm given are real are pretty close because I don't didn't have I had the exact number um on my desk at work and I was looking at them and I had to leave work today and I uh with something else and uh I left it there and but I I by from memory I'm trying to get them as close but the numbers were staggering um Atlantic Middle School these are I'm just talking about W 6 uh Atlantic Middle School 350 plus or minus uh the Parker 200 plus or minus and Squantum School was the smaller number 50 plus or minus st to me staggering numbers the fact um the facts are clear the school committee has tried to circumvent the law that was approved by this council this body then it was signed into law as was mentioned by the mayor and the action taken by the school committee with respect to the Luna New Year holiday is interpreted by many as a malicious civil rights violation i'll be contacting both state and federal departments of justice's civil rights divisions i'll try the OCR the Office for Civil Rights and again to re-emphasize I'll be contacting all government agencies that will listen to me on this matter certain members of the school committee without hesitation has brought this on themselves many of the members of the community of W 6 has taken this very personally and I don't blame them it really didn't surprise me that the members of the school committee which voted to follow the law not to follow the law um making Luna New Year a recognized holiday didn't attend this year's Luna New Year celebrations open in ceremonies that we were all invited to it truly paints a true p a true picture which is easy to see it's a clear image of disrespect thank you for indulging me more to come again second second the motion thank you okay thank you uh councelor Harris so we have a motion approved by council Lang seconded council Harris on the motion um president recognizes councelor Minton thank you i approach this with a kind of a different perspective school committee members were elected specifically to make decisions relevant to our schools whether it be curriculum staffing union issues or day-to-day operations i have confidence that the school committee has the best interests of our students the parents and the professionals who educate our children this is their job i don't believe it's for me to overrule their decision thank you thanks Council Minton president recognizes Council McCarthy uh thank you Mr president and um I have to commend Council Leang for for staying on this uh I know it's a passion and it's a uh a commitment um the the Asian community uh over decades now have uh in my opinion turned Wallace and North Quinzy around uh not only the community involvement but the kid involvement kids involvement the students involvement um in all of Quinsey but especially in in that that area uh I I just kind of rambling with a couple of thoughts just to um just to throw out there this is the same ordinance that we're looking to get enforced um do we end up where we were the last time i know that uh Councelor Harris made a few comments and making a few phone calls and um but uh I guess my question are we going to end up right back where we were i myself fully support a Luna New Year uh to go on the schedule for the city um I don't know why it didn't happen i know it's 0 for two now uh I I I look at the the Asian population and I know in here uh in the um in the write up that the 40% of the school's population more than onethird of its overall population I I uh I think uh you know they should be on the map they should be involved and that should be um should be honored by the city and I I I know uh what councelor Mittton just said in regards to that the school committee sets the calendar and they do uh but um I'm going to support council Yang and I'm going to support this um again tonight but I don't know where we end up and this is uh just spinning some thoughts where we go from here uh in regards to um to this and I I don't want to alienate or get into any type of um bad karma with the school committee i understand what they're we're looking at but I I I I don't understand I've I've heard a few of them i've watched a few of the meetings i I I I don't understand um their entire thought process on the cons of why a Luna New Year isn't um isn't uh on the calendar and I don't know um you know I don't want to go outside or or as um one school committee member said to me to stay in my lane but um I usually go out of my lanes all the time um so uh uh but but I I' I'd really like possibly us to to get a listing of of of all the cons of of why why it is and and why it doesn't fit into their uh schedule of uh of of having a positive vote i know they were close to last time um but um I I think that the um that this um this should go through and I'm going to support Council Leang on this thank you thank you Council McCarthy president recognizes councelor Divine um we went through this last year and um I wasn't comfortable with it i do respect uh Councelor Leang's um opinion and uh it's clearly everything we have to talk about and make decisions on is always going to be difficult because it's not cut and dry it's uh you know uh nothing's that easy but with that being said I'm not the school committee um the school committee was elected by the exact same people that elected me and they didn't ask me to police the school committee so as much as I'd like to see it I kind of think that it would be a good thing i don't know i don't I'm not going to pretend to have any understandings of exactly how they came up with their opinions and and why they do it but I do know that they've been doing it for a long time and that they're professionals and I'm going to leave their job to them and I'm going to try and focus on my job i'm I'm new and I want to do my best i do appreciate everything that Council Leang's done and I recognize that we have a major a major amount of Asian people in our community which I respect very much and but I'm going to have to say no on this thank you thank you councelor Divine President recognizes councelor Ash thank you Mr president um I would like to start uh with recognizing school committee member Courtney Perios is in the audience um and I know that she supported this at the school committee level um I believe with members um with member Gutro and and the mayor and um the background to that i'm actually not going to get into the specifics um and the the kind of the the the pros and cons and and the the underlying points procedurally this is something that we supported as a body last year and I don't think that there's anything wrong with asking a department head to look at this as the proper next step um solicitor Timmons is here um and really what we're doing is is asking the solicitor's office to look at this legal issue we sign that we passed an ordinance that was signed into law in the city the school committee has a legal opinion that um they believe uh that they have the sole right to set the calendar and that means our ordinance is null and void when you come to an impass the next step is to essentially ask a the ask a judge or I believe and believe it would be a judge in this case not really a jury but you ask the solicitor's office to clarify this issue and have somebody decide who ca who can make this decision and the you know our ordinances with respect to to public buildings there's a number of of differing items within the two bodies but I don't think that there's anything wrong with asking for an enforcement um of the ordinance that is the logical next step here um and um I don't mean to certainly disrespect anybody um any of the members of the school committee that's not the goal uh I think as a body we don't really set uh a great It doesn't look great for us either if we're passing ordinances and and then when they're challenged we're leaving them on the floor um you know if we believed in this as a body and passed it last year we owe the constituents and the people that we voted on this for um we owe them that in carrying this out to the next step so that's why I'll be supporting it thank you Council Ash president recognizes Councelor Campbell thank you Mr president and um I really we must be on the same page tonight U Council Ash because I feel like you hit on a lot of the items that I I felt uh were important uh I believe in the pragmatic approach uh that you know I supported this last year and I plan to support it again this year i'm very proud of the the work that Const Yang has done this she's done it as uh part of her passion uh to represent the people that elected her and and that's how I feel that I'm representing the people that elected me and um I really respect the school committee and their position in fact I think that they're taking uh a stand on something that they believe in and and they have their reasons for for doing what they're doing so by no means is this an attack on on them i think it's an I think it's just a a a highlight of what the process and you know as a as a body and as a group we took a stand and and took a vote and and it passed here to uh go the route of supporting Luna New Year i think that it's it's probably high time that that it is acknowledged um and I know this might be a step too far but I I look at things kind of in in a global sense that you know that as as the right and wrong side of history that I think eventually we're going to get here and I think that we as a body right now are are pointing in the right direction and I think that hopefully uh in due time that the right side of history will be that that there will be um an acknowledgement of the Lun New Year and I hope that at some point um we can get there and um I I uh plan to fully support this and I really do commend Council Lang on on all the work that she's done to to bring this to to this this point so thank you thanks Councelor Campbell president recognizes Council Devon thank you Mr president just uh listening to everyone tonight um you know being a former school committee member um puts me in a position to say okay which which bodies are are correct here um you know I'm all about solutions i'm a solutionbased type of person um you know I thought about this last year and I want to bring it up but it's come in front of us tonight and if we have a a split in the council here tonight about uh what's the right thing what doing the right thing I guess I could say um I've come to some type of conclusion that we can maybe have is is um how does school committee and city council work together or talk amongst each other as a group and thinking back here I've been the education chair here in the city council uh for the last few years and I first got onto the council in 2016 um I don't know if it would be okay to talk to council Leang through you through you um madam um President Kaine um if I could talk to Council Leang about possibly allowing the city the school Quinsey school committee and the city council to deliberate on this and have it as an education um you know meeting of the two bodies and allow us to all discuss it out in public because right now it's in a position where uh other colleagues on this on this committee um as a city council member feel differently and it's very conflicting here um but I feel like you know uh the job of the city council we approve the budget the budget goes to the city school committee and then there's policy made over there um I support the Luna New Year i support the Luna New Year however um as a holiday I've always supported it from number one but you know school committee um has has not approved this the last two years um they've approved their calendars as is um but originally it was a 6-1 vote with Courtney Ponios being the only person and then the mayor the following year went to a 5-2 vote and this year it's a 4-3 vote so I I think the meetings of both parties I think would be a solution to have all members of the school committee the mayor and the and the uh city council um come together as a meeting um I'm only putting that out there this is not a formal um this has to be brought up in new business but I I think it's solution to have everybody talk about it um we can fit a couple of people around this well um and put them in in in line with us so it's only a recommendation it's only a um um I'm going to ask through you um Mr president to Council Yang if that is a possibility um Council sure thank you Mr president um thank you counselor i you know I appreciate that approach i think you know I would hope anyways that I've been able to demonstrate that I'm also driven by the same methods right which is to find a solution and to you know not make things personal despite a personal passion for an issue to not um approach solutions in any kind of personal attack or way i would respectfully decline any opportunity to have a formal debate because the school committee doesn't report to us and to have them in our chambers presenting or making a case during a committee I fear feeds into the misinformed narrative that they are having to debate us or report to us or make a case to us they are an elected body as my colleagues have emphasized they've had their own de debates and deliberations as they should within their purview and they made the decisions that they did we independently are also elected have had an opportunity to have a discussion at this body and made a decision a year ago and this request is a resolve a formal ask to enforce a decision that was already made and again I appreciate where you're coming from i really do i'm not trying to say that it's a bad idea i'm not trying to shoot you down i'm just trying to again be really clear that my concern with that is that it feeds into this this narrative that I don't believe and that I don't support and that does not drive anything that I've done around this that there is any indication that school committee would ever have to come before us and make any kind of you know presentation or answer to our question that's just it's a bad look i don't I would never want to be called in front of them to feel as though we need to answer to them and I would never want to put them in a position to feel like they ever have to do that for us and so I I hope that makes sense that perspective right and where my concern is and I do appreciate you know the offer to have open dialogue between all bodies of government i think between us school committee and the mayor's office right like between all three bodies of government we need to make sure that we're always communicating on this and really any issue right we disagree on the approach I think but they're independent decisions they're independent votes that were taken and again I don't want to I don't want to take any step that's going to go into the direction at all about feeding into the misperception of what's happening so that's my my approach my perception on it and again want to just clarify that this isn't a debate to to pass a new issue or debate a new issue it's simply to say that there was an ordinance that was voted through and I would just like that ordinance enforced that's it so but thank you thank you Mr president thank you Councelor Leang thank you Councelor Deono um before I recognize you Councelor Devine uh Solicitor Timmons's name has been um summoned i'd love to have a quick You have two seconds to jump up here yes um if you wouldn't mind considering that this is uh directing you in your capacity as the city solicitor to enforce a law that this body and the mayor have already uh approved so what talk to us about these the logistics here well through you Mr president to the entire body i've uh previously analyzed this and reported to you last year and the problem we have here is this is not simply enforcing the law the school committee has the absolute authority over the school calendar and that's where the conflict here is that's why you're back here going over this again um the city council has the absolute right to do what it did and the mayor signed the ordinance because he agreed with the spirit of the ordinance however the school committee um I believe ultimately cannot be mandated to change its schedule what has to happen here to break this log jam is the school committee has to somehow either have votes change or the bodies have to somehow lobby each other there was a time in government when bodies worked together and I don't understand why that's not going on here i think what councelor Dabona proposed perfect solution you convene you don't have to ask anyone's permission or anything as long as the president says yes you convene a meeting of the education committee you define what the issue is and the issue will be the merits of your ordinance and so if school committee me committee members come in here and start talking about authority and you can't mandate us to change the calendar they're ruled out of order by the chair if you properly focus the hearing and you make the hearing about the issue that's in contention here then you can have some productive discussion i'm happy that councelor Ash recognized school committee woman um other than the mayor she's the only member of the school committee that I spoke with last year she reached out to me she was open to talking about this um there are several options available here what the school department informed me and I learned last year is they're following the provisions of chapter 151c section 2B what they're doing is on the Lunar New Year they tell kids "You don't have to come to school and you won't be penalized for it." However then at a North Quinczy High you end up with a a smaller body you end up with dynamics at that school that are very negative for the other students that was Can I cut you off for a second so I you're going a little past so I just want to be clear about the resolution that we're discussing right now so we passed this resolution the ordinance that we passed a year ago will still not be enforced um well that's correct because the remedy is to go to court and get a mandate that the school committee change its schedule that's what has to be done here so what about the ordinance that's on the books well there's an opinion nobody's gone to court that that's not enforceable so currently there's an ordinance that we unanimously approved last year correct and so whenever Lunar New Year takes place the public building should be closed so nobody's nobody's said you can't do that well the issue is the limits that I pointed out last year um there's some limitation on local authority and this nibbles into those limitations um that's regarding what the council did um council Yang when I pointed out that there were issues um she worked hard both with Mr walker and with me to amend it so I believe we have something that is compliant but the bottom line is if the school committee is not willing to change its calendar then they're not necessarily violating the order they're just exercising the authority they have over their school um that's that sounds like a different story but I just want to be clear about whatever it is we're trying to do which is enforce the rule that we made a year ago basically right and I guess my point would be that we have to somehow get the school committee to agree to change its calendar to adopt what you need to be done and I was just going to point out there are different options here that were never discussed they could be discussed in a hearing there the provision in the CMR regarding scheduling says that the school committee sets the schedules for individual schools so it's possible that schools where there is a majority of Asian students or where something like this I could hear the passion of councelor Harris because I probably every school in his ward would be affected well there can be a subjective scheduling done that's an option okay all right yes i Excuse me thank you just want to be clear about this because understood uh that's that's fine i I I appreciate the feedback um so all right the the one thing is just to set expectations the loggerhead it's It's uh I I'm not sure what other options you have other than um you know lawsuits and who knows where those go okay but if the bodies we might get somewhere all right thank you Mr ch appreciate it um president recognizes councelor Divine and thank you uh speaker on so uh last year I I did vote for it i was a little uncomfortable and um I had asked if you know all the due diligence had been done and um I I don't feel like it has and councelor Deona just brought up a very good point i was wondering to myself what how come we never had in the last two years we never had the school committee in here to educate us or give their reason for where we're at and I don't understand why why we're I heard the word circumvent used that the school committee is circumventing to come around our ordinance but I feel like we might have done that to them first and that when we gave that ordinance we were going around them so I I don't see it the same way i feel like last year uh we made a mistake and I think councelor Deabona has a very very good idea and they're not coming in here to tell us what to do they're going to come in and educate us for what their thoughts are uh and then we can better understand exactly what's going on and with um solicitor Timonss if it is uh the fact that we can they can pick a certain school that might work for them because one thing is um the D Christopharro school those students there and those families they need regular scheduled things they they can't have them changing on them they're important uh Lincoln Hancock is my children went there the amount of kids that would be eating Breakfast and lunch at these places is huge so now those kids won't have that warm place to go uh not everybody when they have a day off is sitting at home watching TV comfortable sometimes the school is the most comfortable place for these children um so I really like the idea if it is possible and that's something that can be done it might make sense for Council Harris's some of those schools to be closed for the day it would also financially be excellent for us because uh our city we have $460 million budget uh every day we spend a lot of money and if we closed all the municipal for that we'll have $840,000 that is lost and I'm not saying that we're not supposed to recognize this i'm just saying that maybe we can find a better way and work together um I don't like being divided and I really feel like we're extremely divided um so thank you just my thoughts thank you Councelor Divine president recognized councelor Campbell and I'll be brief i I actually had a question for um solicit Timmons if you don't mind yeah it's it's a real quick quick question and I'll so my my question was so I understand last year the the school school calendar had already been completed as I'm doing this off memory uh it was already completed and um I think we had the vote after the fact and then it got put into place when the school committee calendar was being put into place this year why wasn't that considered why wasn't the ordinance that was created considered uh I guess number one and number two um you know if it's if it's the same as another holiday Memorial Day or or anything like that you know they consider those days and where where they're starting and maybe I just misunderstand it so I guess that was the main reason I wanted to ask the question so if it was if that ordinance was put in place we voted on it unanimously i understand why it missed this this calendar year right now i don't understand why it wasn't considered for the following one and maybe you can can explain that yeah that I don't know because that happened the night of the vote at the school committee i don't know what was uh brought before them i know they were adamantly opposed last year and essentially rejected it last year so um but yeah that one I don't know the answer to it should have been considered right should I attend a school committee meeting next year when they're setting their calendar you know I'd have to talk to the mayor about it or should the mayor have people come in and when they set their calendar next year we talk about this and try to get the votes that way there are you know possibly do it that way i know what you're saying and just to interject and kind of comment on that so the federal government mandated Junth a national holiday a couple years ago um so how do they they mandate that during the scheduling of the you sitting there of the calendar well who mandated it the federal government yeah that's why yeah but what do you mean but I mean that's why like they had to have got a notice saying this is a new holiday you need to observe this correct well Quinsey does not have the authority to declare holidays period no that's that's fine but how does the process of recognizing a new holiday which is what Junth is how does that go about in the how is it reflected in the school calendar i don't know that would be up to the I assume the school departments informed i know that um we regular get we regularly get updates on different things that are of consequence to municipal government i'm sure they do that are of consequence to the schools and that once informed of something like that they know they have to take action and the Mass Association of School Committees would be informing the elected school committee members I'm sure okay did Sorry i I mean I did they ignore it and and I'm I'm really not challenging them i just I don't know if if if they just didn't acknowledge it as what it was an ordinance and and um you know again I I feel like if we're consider if they're considering the calendar after the fact I understand why they didn't but but they had that on their table as an ordinance so um I'm not um I'm just guess I'm missing it I think as as as it would would be like so what what category does that fall in that it should or shouldn't be considered you know like that that holiday is it does it fall in to the Junth or does it or is it more localized yeah it's not so much what you've done it's the fact that the Department of Education of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a mandate about the number of school days and it has mandated that school committees enforce that now within that mandate there's more flexibility that is clearly being employed here that's what I alluded to earlier um cuz they just do 185 across the board but um but there's a mandate that's followed as far as setting a school calendar and it's set at the state level and the mandate says local school committees and then they do all the enforcement and the way they uh you know what they hold over us is the state funding if we don't comply with what they mandate then we they hold back state funds okay so it's it's complicated and it's not there's a presumption in the law that everything goes on a a straight line but every once in a while you jump off the line and that's what this is this is a situation where there's there's a failure of a couple of uh laws to intersect thank you Jim thank you councelor okay president recognizes councelor Leang thank you Mr president um okay so let me just say like I'm not a person that is enjoying any of this right i don't want to continue to have this conversation i'm sick and tired of it which is why I led into this with 5-second remarks right it is a tired conversation because it is a very obvious request from hundreds of residents of this city with no opposition and I don't understand why we're continuing to have this conversation and I so appreciate that this body recognized that last year and that when the decision was made last year it was not made lightly it wasn't something that I came in with with no conversations had leading up to that point for years that that wasn't informed by conversations with our solicitor and with the administration and members of the school committee and most importantly with members of the public it was an informed ordinance that I presented and so we'll forever be great despite the conversation today we'll forever be grateful to have the support of this body because it was an informed ordinance that I presented and you know as far as yes having you know amenable conversations where we can all come to a decision I would love nothing more than that I am not a person who enjoys conflict it makes me sick and I'm sick of this conversation right but ultimately At the end of the day this is something that we you know that I wanted to move forward with because it's under the purview of what we can do as counselors i cannot tell the school committee what to do i respect that i would never want them to feel like they report to us which is why I'm never going to call them in front of us to report to us and that's how it feels even if they're not doing that right by by how it is procedurally like it still feels that way to me and I I just can't bring myself to say "Yeah let's have a hearing where they need to report to us." And you know as far as the thought process with having some schools close I mean I'm sorry but how insulting if I didn't grow up in North Quinzy and thank God my counselor in W 6 represents the community the way he does but if I didn't live in that ward and I grew up in this city what because I don't have enough fellow Asian students that I wouldn't be able to celebrate it but my friends and my cousins who grew up in W 6 could what what kind of message am I sending to my friends kids who live in a ward that doesn't have a high Asian population oh but your kids don't matter enough because they're what not at a certain percentage and to your point Mr president Junth was enacted and we are following it are we not and that wasn't something that was enacted you know for years and years and years and years and years when schools were first started and we and we suddenly implemented it was something new that was implemented change is hard conflict is hard i never ever pretended like this conversation was an easy one what I did try to do was be honest and transparent and and upfront about how I got here why I'm here why I'm asking for this it is not because I'm enjoying it i'm sick of having the conversation we passed an ordinance i I'm not interested in having debate and and make it tit for tat and one body against the other what I'm interested in is following through with an ordinance and saying if something was enacted and it is now law can we not explore enforcing that law and whatever comes we'll deal with it but I just I cannot continue to entertain a conversation that this is that this is a again a a marking of territories between two bodies it is not how I approached the situation when I first started it continues to be you know the approach that I'm taking now um I refuse to feed into that that that notion and I just want to bring us back to the motion I made which is to pass a resolve to enforce an ordinance please thank you thank you Councelor Yang president recognizes Councelor Ash thank you Mr president um just a a few things um I agree yeah oh maybe it's I guess I agree with Councelor um Leang i I agree with you that I think it would be completely disrespectful to ask um other elected officials to come in and answer to us or make it seem like that was somehow that there was going to be I I completely understand the sentiment i really do i I think that it would in carrying that out the sentiment in the in the spirit of collaboration would be lost and it would end up being more of a debate and it would end up being more of um almost a hearing in a way um I don't the I don't think we get anywhere with talking about closing certain schools on certain holidays either i mean I have over 600 kids at Clifford Marshall all of different religious backgrounds and that would I mean imagine the precedent that that sets um I I stand by the fact that if we are at an impass with legal opinions as to the next step at you ask for a hearing ask for a decision and then how great would it be notwithstanding the result no matter where the order comes down wouldn't it be nice to not have to revisit this every year or because it's not going to go away i mean every year that when the calendar is set it's going to keep coming up so wouldn't it be nice regardless of the outcome that it is put to bed and then uh everybody's interests we everybody knows um the the protocol going forward and it doesn't become a hot topic every single year thank you thank you Councelor Ash president recognized councelor Deono thank you Mr president i just want to go back on just a clarification and correction this was first initiated by vice chair at the time Frank Santoro 3 years ago so I want to make sure that he was the first person initiated this and it was a 61 vote that year the following year was Courtney Pertios and Mayor Ko for the 5-2 vote unfortunately um vice chair of Santoro was on the committee and this particular year became 4-3 so the votes have come from 61 52 to 43 over the last 3 years also take into consideration that the fact that the Asian population is growing in the city of Quinsey every day we were at a 35% we're at a 40% I would predict that to be closer to 42% um the most children that we have in our Quinsey public schools of of Asian descent so you know the numbers I I've I've talked to the school committee um um um folks that have all these numbers and I've I've gone through each school and and I've got those numbers but um um the Asian population is growing here in the city of Quinsey and uh uh here as as as city council members I mean I feel strongly supportive of of of the lunar lunar new year holiday um I just know that in clarific in in procedural situation with the calendar um as solicitor Timmons came in I I thought we would maybe have a solution with that so it was just I I just asked Council Leang it wasn't anything I was going to do that's why I asked through you Chair through you Mr president to her and we leave it at that but um I just want to clarify uh how important it's been it's it's gone from 61 to 52 to 43 so you only need one more vote now as you know up here in the council it's a 54 vote and then it becomes a four five but over there seven seven members um it's it's getting pretty close it's one vote off so um it's just I wanted to clarify that cuz Vice Chair Frank Santoro three years ago initiated this and that's where it's come to fruition now so thank you Mr president president recognizes Councelor Harris thank you i'll I'll try to be be brief um you know there's nine states nine states in the United States that recognize Luna New Year so if um Governor Healey was all of a sudden to have uh declare Luna New Year as a state that passes in the in the House and the Senate um what what would we do kids wouldn't would what would we do and that's a pretty reasonable question and why why and that's a governing body are they going to um are they going to [Music] ignore the governor and the state and state senators and the state representatives we are the governing body with the mayor of rules and they the city the the the school committee can't create a law and then have it passed correct am I right we do that we voted it in as a group and myself I really took offense to some of the comments and that's probably why I was really on my I'm really pretty ticked off and I have been hearing some of the crass remarks that were in the paper and there was no conversation with them any of them and me none so if they're surprised how I'm acting or behaving well again W six W six right now only has two elected officials on in in two in the two bodies mayor Ko is on the school committee by virtue of his position in me what six hasn't had a school committee um person i can't even go back um to you joe Newton do you remember the last school committee person it was a long time ago wasn't it yeah it was that long ago i'm sorry Joe i just put you on the I just wish Look at you've had a couple bad days between what the mayor said on on on Friday and but um um but I really hope that uh me personally I hope that somebody uh I hope more people get involved uh W six needs more representation uh on the school committee that's for sure the mayor represents us very well but he's just one and right now uh as far as I'm concerned um uh they board six only has the mayor and Courtney and now the third person was uh Mr guthro correct so uh kudos to you for thinking about W six and the people I represent even though we encounter our votes cover everybody in Quinzy um thank you thank you thank you Council Harris okay I'm going to All right um so I think one thing that you said that was interesting I think council I think we should have put forward a home rule petition if this was a thing that we could have made a um something up to the state house for them to pass but I don't know i I you know this is not that difficult for me this is uh something we unanimously approved last year i don't know how the sentiments for support for members of our community can change so fast i understand the dynamics of the governing bodies but this is seems to be an instance where um a governing body has had multiple occasions to rise to the occasion and passed and that's within their purview and this is within our purview um you know I I was interestingly in the Quinsey Sun the other day uh you know in the sun in the uh Quinsey's yesterdays there was a a measurement of the city population in 1991 and it was saying that it was about 85,000 people uh were the population of the city and uh I joked with my family because 928 of them were black and so that was about one two whole people black people in our household but there were almost 6,000 Asian and the rest are predominantly white and I think the whole thing I ask about JUNTH because that has never been anything that my family celebrated nothing that anybody from the community has ever asked for but I know that this Lunar New Year holiday is something that matters to uh families throughout our city um you know I think one thing about the Asian community that has been so prevalent in its in its slow but very apparent growth in our community over the past 40 years of my life um is how much cultural value uh that they add to our city you know you've got huge uh North Quinsey is so vibrant and culturally rich and it it spreads all the way down Hancock Street from one end to the next and it's one of the best things we have going here and Lunar New Year holiday is not just for none of these things are just for Asian people just like Christmas is not for Christians and Hanukkah is not for Jews it's these are holidays that we all celebrate together and we all watch the lighting of the Christmas tree at Christmas time with thousands of people outside and we all like watch the lighting of the monora so this is just another holiday that brings our community together because we have a plethora and a huge amount of people that this is meaningful to so this has never been about stepping on anyone's toes uh to me this vote tonight is a reaffirmation of the support i support uh this measure i support my colleague Nina Leang who has steadfastly stuck with this that's not easy right this is courage this is what this is and she wanted to get something done so she's going to get something done and I admire that because uh you know you've got conflicting voices but that's leadership so thank you Councelor Leang for your leadership so we have a motion on the floor from Councelor uh Leang seconded by Councelor Harris madame clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes council Divine no councelor Deona yes council Harris yes council Leang yes council McCarthy yes councelor Mitten no president Kane yes seven members thank you very much Madam Clerk next item please number seven 2025 040 a gift for $2350 from various donors to deal motion to approve made by councelor McCarthy seconded by councelor Deona madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes councelor Divine yes councelor Deona Council Harris Council Yang Council McCarthy yes council Mitten yes president Kane yes nine members thank you that concludes our regularly scheduled agenda approval of previous meeting minutes we have two from February 24th and March 3rd motion to approve from Councelor Campbell seconded by Councelor Leang all those in favor those opposed eyes have it uh communications and reports from the mayor other city officers and city boards madame clerk yes I do have um a utility request to refer to public works committee for scheduling and advertising grant a location national Bridge Center Street Granite Street Garfield Street and a traffic request to refer to ordinance committee for advertising ward 5 councelor Mitten at Handicap Pockin at 54 Flint Street thank you Madam Clerk thank you unfinished business and proceeding meeting seeing none uh reports of committees chair Harris thank you public works thank you President Kaine um with um okay uh with a public hearings being held prior this evening in the city council uh on the following orders 2025024 utility grant with location Mass electric Mayflower Standish and Huckkins positive recommendation from the public works committee motion to approve motion approved made by councelor Harris seconded by council McCarthy madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes councelor Divine yes councelor Deborah yes council Harris yes council Lee Yang yes council McCathy yes councelor Mitten yes president Kaine yes nine members is that all Chair Harris oh I'm sorry um 2025-025 Utility Grant location Mass Electric Verizon Branch Street at 62 Al Bernie Street positive recommendation from the public works committee motion to approve motion approved made by councel seconded by council McCarthy madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes councelor Campbell yes council Divine yes council Dona yes council Harris yes council Leang yes council McCathy yes councelor Mitten yes president Kaine yes nine members thank you that's it all Thank you um president recognizes Chair Leang from the ordinance committee thank you we just have one traffic in ward 1 uh 2025-026 remove handicap parking at 47 Merry Mount Road Mode Mary Mount Road positive recommendation out of committee uh re uh positive recommendation motion to approve made by councelor Dang seconded by councelor Campbell madam clerk please call the role councelor Ash yes council Campbell yes council Divine yes council Deborn yes council Harris Council Leang yes council McCarthy yes councelor Mitten yes president Kaine yes nine members thank you Madam Chair thank you Madam Clerk uh presentation of petitions memorials and remmonstrants okay uh motions orders and resolutions scheduling of committee meetings and public hearings chair Leang from ordinance thank you i'd like to schedule an ordinance committee meeting um prior immediately prior to our April 7th meeting so luckily um likely it'll be a 6:30 start for that and then we'll go into city council okay madam clerk okay great gotcha okay great great and that's again on um Monday April 7th before our next um scheduled council meeting um we'll take a look and see because I think there's some things that we want to get on the agenda all right thank you okay are uh then our next meeting we're going to have a public hearing for utilities at 6:30 p.m on Monday April 7th followed by an ordinance committee meeting followed by a city council meeting after that and on that I will entertain a motion to adjurnn by council all those in favor those opposed have a good night everyone