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The Finance Committee met as a Committee of the Whole with all 11 councilors on Tuesday, March 26, in the City Council Chamber in City Hall. Our objective on the night was to identify our top shared budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2025 and craft resolutions expressing these priorities.

The planning for this meeting began back in January, and involved conversations with all 10 of my colleagues to get their feedback on previous years' processes and suggestions for this year's process. From those discussions, I put together the FY25 Shared Budget Priorities process that was presented to the council at the February 8 regular meeting.

Last Tuesday was the third time we have held this meeting to determine our shared budget priorities as a body, and from my perspective this year was by far the smoothest and most efficient process of the three. Between tweaks to the processes from prior years to address issues that arose and some excellent ideas from colleagues to make things work even better, this year's meeting went fairly well.

We started by adopting a temporary rule for the evening that any resolutions would require approval by two-thirds of the membership, or eight votes, in order to be approved. Then we went around The Horseshoe, with councilors stumping for their top individual budget priorities to try to garner support from colleagues on the survey to follow.

We used an Attorney General-approved method of a Google Form survey to express support for up to 10 areas. With all the excellent individual budget priorities submitted by councilors this year, it was extremely difficult narrowing that down to just 10 areas. Once all 11 councilors had submitted their surveys, we went into recess while our Legislative and Policy Analyst and I tabulated the results of the survey.

When the meeting returned to order, we had the following ranked list of areas, in order of the number of councilors including them in their top 10 areas of support on the survey:

We took up and quickly passed resolutions expressing support for FY25 shared budget priorities for the top five areas of housing stabilization, homeless services, alternative emergency response, housing affordability, and municipal composting -- and referenced all the approaches for those areas listed in councilor individual budget priority memos and resolutions.

When I moved to adjourn to give the body the opportunity to decide whether to continue or call it a night, there was a strong, unanimous support for continuing. So we passed a resolution naming rodent mitigation as a sixth FY25 shared budget priority.

I then pointed out the four-way tie between medical debt forgiveness, municipal building decarbonization, out-of-school time programming, and an overdose prevention center that was up next if we opted to continue, and I again moved to adjourn. This time around there were differing opinions on whether to press on, with colleagues voting against adjournment by a 6-3 margin (with two councilors absent).

Councilor Burnley proposed taking up all four areas with a single resolution. This was supported by everyone present, and so we added those four areas to the list of FY25 shared budget priorities. With a tranche of seven areas looming, the motion to adjourn passed 7-2 and we called it a night.

In the end, we passed the following FY25 shared budget priority resolutions:

• That this Council conveys its support for Housing Stabilization as outlined in memos and budget priorities submitted by City Councilors.
• That this Council conveys its support in the FY 2025 budget, for homeless services including all approaches listed in councilor memos, and specifically including funding for a permanent brick and mortar location.
• That all items in the Alternative Emergency Response category be submitted to the Mayor to be included in the FY 2025 budget.
• That this Council conveys to the Mayor the importance of housing affordability, including the creation of an Acquisition Fund, as a Council priority for inclusion in the FY 2025 budget.
• That this Council conveys its support for the inclusion of municipal composting in the FY 2025 budget, including all approaches listed in Councilor memos.
• That the Administration include rodent mitigation in the FY 2025 budget as outlined in Councilor memos and resolutions, and increase funding and staffing in the city for rodent mitigation.
• That this Council conveys its support for providing resources in the FY 2025 budget for medical debt forgiveness, municipal building decarbonization, out of school time programming, and an overdose prevention center, as outlined in Councilor memos for their FY 2025 budget priorities.

I look forward to seeing how these areas are meaningfully addressed in the proposed FY25 budget. With the growth of our City's revenues slowing dramatically and looming obligations to move programs and positions from pandemic ARPA and ESSR funding to the General Fund, I know it's going to be tough to get too many new things funded this year. But I'll remain hopeful that the City is able to do something in all 10 areas.

Here are some other things happening around Somerville:

Toward unarmed civilian response

One of the things I hear about from constituents the most in my role as a city councilor is a desire for an unarmed civilian response program for non-violent emergencies. Often called alternative emergency response -- a type of unarmed civilian response -- these programs have clinicians (social workers) or community members respond in lieu of or in conjunction with sworn, uniformed police officers. The basic idea is that if a community member is having a substance or mental health crisis, a law enforcement with a badge and a gun might not be the best resource to send out to help. More

School Building Committees & Advisory Groups

On March 7, the Mayor announced the formation of the new School Building committee (SBC), tasked with overseeing the project address the school building needs of the Winter Hill Community Innovation School (WHCIS) and Benjamin G. Brown School communities. The announcement also contained the news of second body that will be formed shortly: the Somerville School Construction Advisory Group. This group will advise on the key decision on the site of the new school building. Furthermore, the release went on to further surprise with the news that it will be the Mayor -- not the School Building Committee -- who makes the ultimate decision on this site. More

March 28 regular meeting recap

The City Council held our second March regular meeting on Thursday, March 28, working through a 91-item agenda in a productive 79 minutes. I arrived 20 minutes into the meeting after coming from a Somerville Homeless Coalition event, and I missed the highest-profile item on that evening's agenda -- the update from the Administration on Fire and Police lateral transfers -- being tabled until the next regular meeting on April 11. More

Return of street sweeping

With the calendar turning to April, residents are reminded that street sweeping has resumed. You can sign up for text, phone call, and email reminders on the City's website, so you never get caught by surprise by a street sweeping day.

Democratic Committee ward reorganizations

If you'd like to get involved in the Democratic Party at the local level, Wards 1, 2, 4, and 6 are having a reorganizational meeting on Wednesday, April 10, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM, virtually on Zoom. If you live in those four wards, come learn more about what ward committees do and consider joining your ward committee!

West Broadway Reconstruction Open House on April 13

Learn about the West Broadway Reconstruction Project that will reconstruct sidewalks and re-pave Broadway between Clarendon Ave and Alewife Brook Parkway. City staff will be on hand to talk to the public about the project at stations in the cafeteria. The open house will be held at West Somerville Neighborhood School (177 Powder House Blvd) from 1 to 4 PM on Saturday, April 13.

Work with the City Council!
The Clerk of Committees is an important role that helps make City Council committee meetings possible. The position recently opened, and it is a great role to get exposure to municipal government for someone with exceptional contemporaneous note-taking skills. You can learn more and apply on the City's website.

Multi-member body opportunities
The City of Somerville's multiple-member bodies (boards, committees, and commissions) are a great way to be an active part of our city and contribute to the community. The Administration currently is seeking members for the following multi-member bodies:

• School Building Committee (apply by Apr. 5)
• Redevelopment Authority (apply by Apr. 15)
• Public Library Board of Trustees (apply by Apr. 15)
• Fair Housing Commission
• Conservation Commission
• Anti-Displacement Task Force
• Cultural Capacity Planning (Somerville Arts Council)

Did You Know...
With the City rescinding the reserve lists for fire and police in April 2022, there are two options for new hires for our Fire and Police departments: Civil Service new hires and lateral hires. New hires follow the Civil Service procedure and must be trained, while lateral transfers don't require training, but do need the approval of the municipality the employee is departing. For instance, last year the Mayor denied a significant number of lateral transfer requests to Cambridge by Somerville police officers.

Donate to fund this work

Office Hours
Thank you to everyone who came out to my joint office hours with Ward 3 Councilor and City Council President Ben Ewen-Campen on Saturday afternoon. It was two hours of great discussions. My April office hours will be joint office hours once again, this time with new Ward 5 Councilor Naima Sait, Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, and Sen. Pat Jehlen. We'll meet from 10 AM to noon on Saturday, April 27, at Zaruma Gold Coffee (37 Woodbine St). Come say hello and talk to us!

If you can't make this or you'd prefer to meet individually, you can find a date and time to meet with me that works for you via my Calendly.

The week ahead
Here's what I'll be attending this week, if you're interested in joining me:

• Wednesday, Apr. 3: Public Safety for All community workshop @ 7 PM (Somerville High School cafeteria)
• Thursday, Apr. 4: Dilboy Auxiliary Field groundbreaking ceremony @ 1 PM (Dilboy Auxiliary Field)

-Jake