The Somerville City Council voted 9 to 1 on Thursday, October 22 for a resolution opposing the city’s draft long-term control plan for combined sewer overflows and calling for a regional solution, with Councilor-at-Large Ben Wheeler the lone no vote and Councilor-at-Large Kristen Strezo absent. Ward 6 Councilor Lance Davis presided.
Ward 7 Councilor Emily Hardt, who sponsored the resolution with Councilors-at-Large Jon Link and Wilfred Mbah, said the city is legally required by the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection to produce the plan, but that the process is limited, the costs significant and the plan unable to keep pace with climate change, “a technical approach to a political problem,” according to the minutes. The resolution calls for examining root causes, hybrid solutions and more state, regional and federal money. Wheeler said he could not support a call for costlier solutions given financial inequities raised in earlier presentations. Ward 1 Councilor Matthew McLaughlin said water and sewer rates keep rising despite assurances they would stabilize after major investments, and that cleaning up a state river should be a state or regional job.
Artificial intelligence
Link, Mbah and Wheeler filed an Artificial Intelligence Ordinance, referred to the Legislative Matters Committee, that would not bar city staff from using AI but would require an annual report on its use and clear labeling of AI-generated content. The council also approved a resolution by Link, Ward 5 Councilor Naima Sait and Ward 2 Councilor J.T. Scott asking the mayor to adopt policies prohibiting staff from using AI to generate public-facing media, favoring local artists, and prohibiting the replacement of city employees with AI, and a resolution supporting the federal Artificial Intelligence Civil Rights Act. A separate order for a report on every AI vendor the city pays was marked complete.
Condo conversions, school roofs, fire-damaged businesses
All ten councilors present sponsored an amendment to the condominium conversion ordinance, referred to committee, that McLaughlin said would make clear the ordinance still applies when a building is demolished and replaced by condominiums. After a leak at the West Somerville Neighborhood School, the council asked the director of infrastructure and asset management for a report on the roof, what the leak revealed about the city’s aging school roofs and how the continuity-of-instruction plan worked, asked the public works commissioner for a risk review of roof drainage at every school, and asked the administration for a written severe-weather protocol during roof construction. A resolution by McLaughlin, Hardt and Mbah supporting local businesses damaged by recent fires was approved and sent to the Public Health and Public Safety Committee.
Money
On the Finance Committee’s recommendation the council approved $100,000 from the Racial and Social Justice Fund for the 2026 community grant cycle, a $35,000 state Department of Mental Health grant for police crisis intervention team training, a $2,097,667.05 reduction in the $89.3 million Poplar Street project borrowing and, by a 10 to 0 roll call, a new $3,143,557 bond for additional design, construction and equipment costs at the Poplar Street pump station. Wheeler reported the committee also discussed Teen Center costs and the bankruptcy of the investor fund holding the empty lab building at 808 Windsor Place in Boynton Yards.
Also at the meeting
- Four mayoral zoning amendments on parking maximums, ground-story elevations, principal entrances and affordable housing terminology were laid on the table pending Planning Board recommendations.
- The council urged the state to protect Mass Save and clean energy grants, the same resolution Malden’s council passed in September.
- Ward 4 Councilor Jesse Clingan won approval for a “Slow, Children Crossing” sign on Heath Street near Moreland Street, and Link asked Inspectional Services what tools exist to act against known short-term rental violations.
- Councilors Clingan and McLaughlin asked for a moment of silence for Patricia A. Galvin Sullivan. The council met in executive session from 8:01 to 8:38 p.m.
The minutes, which the city marks as unofficial until the clerk certifies them, are here; the meeting video is on Somerville GovTV.
