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This week marks for many of us the one-year anniversary since the world around us and daily life began to turn upside down from the covid-19 pandemic. We have lost more neighbors in Newton to covid-19 than some entire nations with millions of residents, due to how poor the US response has been. Almost every day, I think about some of the people I knew but will never see again.
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel now, but we still have a long way to go, and we need to continue to be cautious and promote safety (even when our Governor is unfortunately sending the opposite signal). Many of our beloved Ward 5 community events in our village centers are being canceled for the second year in a row, and I think that’s probably for the best, even if it’s disappointing.
Still, for the City Council, our work keeps marching on. Here are my updates for this week.
As an FYI: MBTA contractors are scheduled to resume major D Line construction work on Monday, March 15. Crews will work weeknights (8:30 PM to 5:00 AM) and weekends to upgrade the track (rail, ties, ballast) and replace the outdated signal system on the D Branch.
As a reminder: Voting is now under way for the March 16, 2021 citywide special elections for two City Council seats. You can read my post from January to find out who I am supporting and the three ways to vote in this election (by mail now, early at City Hall next week, or in-person on March 16 at your usual polling location).
Update on the Grace Church tower funds request
In my last newsletter, I talked in some detail about a community preservation funding request of more than $1.4 million by Grace Episcopal Church in Newton Corner, and I outlined in detail my analysis of why this was not a request I could support. That request was approved 17-5 on Monday night (yesterday). A briefer, less detailed version of my rationale for opposing it is laid out here, based on my remarks last night:
I am philosophically opposed to this request and still do not believe it is permissible. This might be a different situation if the request was for a non-religious purpose at the church, but I believe this one is religious in nature. This also might even be a different situation if we had a comprehensive plan for using community preservation funds for saving religious architecture according to some clear, uniform formula – possibly a plan including public acquisition directly – so that we in the government don't have to pick and choose worthy or unworthy religious institutions and specific projects one at a time. But this is ad hoc and opens the floodgates without a fair, constitutional, and fiscally sustainable plan. We have many religious institutions in Newton struggling for various reasons to fund their own preservation projects. How can we reasonably be asked to play favorites on a case by case basis? That is why we aren't supposed to be in this position to begin with.
Unfortunately, I would not be surprised if we face a legal challenge to this appropriation.
Ward 5 sewer projects
The City Council has just approved some Department of Public Works projects behind the scenes and largely out of sight, which will nonetheless be very helpful to Ward 5 (among other locations around the city). We approved $447,000 for the Sewer Pump Station Rehabilitation CIP Project 1 (after which other projects will follow on a set order). This sewer Capital Improvement Project includes replacing heating, ventilation and dehumidification at Quinobequin Rd, Elliot St (and some other non-Ward 5) wastewater pump stations, as well as replacement of the main influent gate valves at the Quinobequin Rd and Elliot St wastewater pump stations in Waban and Upper Falls respectively – and also replacement of the wet well isolation gate valves at the Elliot St wastewater pump station.
It’s always good to see investment in infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation, because it often does not happen even when we really need it.
Budget ideas for FY22
This year, the leadership of the City Council’s Finance Committee (on which I serve) organized an opportunity for all the City Councilors to submit written suggestions to the Mayor’s Administration before the FY22 budget is finalized, since we have relatively little opportunity after that point to make changes under the City Charter.
Here were my suggestions for the FY22 budget, which I thought I would share with you:
1. Creation of a non-police code enforcement team for responding to minor citizen issues that do not require a full police response, including leaf blower violations, sidewalk snow clearing violations, athletic field misuse, off-leash or unlicensed dog violations, parking violations, certain noise complaints, and any number of other things. We might even want to consider moving many of our traffic-related police functions, including crossing guards and traffic details, to this new department. There is an enormous list of things that this new department could do without requiring police involvement, thus justifying it from a budgetary impact, probably with a matching reduction in the number of sworn police officers, since their mandate would be reduced. In the likely event that this transition cannot be made in a single year, we ought to receive a detailed roadmap this year for making that happen, and the current contract negotiations should reflect this transformation.
2. Moving mental health emergency response to a different department and away from police.
3. Athletic fields and parks need more investment.
4. Further study of cost-savings from in-sourcing various outsourced city services, including ambulances and public fiber internet provision (at least to low-income residents we have already had to contract out to provide internet access to).
There are of course many other things we could talk about, and many of my colleagues have suggested some great ideas as well, but I narrowed my list down to these items for this year.
We are once again expecting a challenging fiscal situation this year due to the pandemic and its economic consequences at the local level. The budget proposal is expected to be released in April this year.
Docket review
You’ve probably noticed that we have a new City of Newton website. All your Councilors have been providing feedback on it steadily since it was launched, since there are still some things not everyone is happy about, even if the old website was long overdue for an upgrade.
But one big suggestion that was already an issue on the old version of the website will be coming up for formal discussion soon as a docket item before the City Council: #83-21 Request for discussion to improve website content management - COUNCILORS WRIGHT, ALBRIGHT, KALIS, MARKIEWICZ, KELLEY, BOWMAN, HUMPHREY, MALAKIE, BAKER, LAREDO, DOWNS, LIPOF, KRINTZMAN, DANBERG, NOEL AND RYAN requesting a discussion with COO Jonathan Yeo, the City Clerk/Acting City Clerk, and Information Technology Department regarding a document control process for all documents posted on the city website, including: adding dates on all documents, and "Revision #" and date revised for updates, numbering and dating all pages in multi-page documents, where to find and view previous revisions of documents, change control logs.
Basically, the problem is that documents (PDFs, slideshows, etc.) posted to the city website often get changed or updated after being posted, usually for minor corrections, but sometimes for serious version changes. This is generally not visible on the documents themselves. Now that everything is electronic – not just the documents but also the meetings themselves – sometimes we arrive in meetings with the wrong versions of materials we need! This is also very confusing and unhelpful for constituents trying to follow our already confusing proceedings and debates.
That's my update for this week. I'm expecting to cover some bigger topics soon. As always, you can reach me for comments, questions, or concerns, by phone or simply by replying to this email. I have not really been able to do much in the way of office hours during the pandemic, but I'm always happy to set up a time for a call or even a video chat. Please just let me know! I heard from a lot of you in February, and that was very productive.