The Medford City Council on Tuesday, August 4 cut $382,586.70 from Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn’s supplemental appropriation for fiscal 2027, approved one month of law department funding, $42,507.63, and adopted a resolution laying out seven demands for a full accounting of the city’s legal spending since 2020. Both votes were 7 to 0.
The resolution recounts that the council first asked for a comprehensive litigation report in February, authorized a public records request in April when none came, reduced the law department budget in June “due to lack of information,” and on the day of the meeting received a one-page summary showing $2.4 million paid to KP Law since January 2020. It asks the administration to sort those bills into categories such as collective bargaining, employee litigation and settlements, ordinance review and non-employee claims, to report on other outside counsel, to list every settlement or judgment over $10,000 since 2020 and its funding source, to total the legal costs hidden in other departments’ budgets, and to say when a city solicitor will be hired. Chief of Staff Nina Nazarian had emailed that she could not attend.
Vacant buildings
The council took the long-pending vacant and foreclosing properties ordinance off the table and ordained it 7 to 0 after two split votes: Vice President Emily Lazzaro’s motion to sever three amendments passed 4 to 3 with Councilors Liz Mullane and George Scarpelli and President Zac Bears opposed, and Councilor Justin Tseng’s motion to adopt those three passed 4 to 3 with Councilors Anna Callahan and Matt Leming and Lazzaro opposed. The ordinance moves the vacant building rules from the zoning code into the building regulations.
Tufts
Two resolutions on Tufts University passed 7 to 0. One demands the university re-enroll an international graduate worker who, the resolution says, was removed from her doctoral program and shifted to a master’s program after reporting that her adviser required unpaid teaching work in violation of her union contract, leaving her student visa to expire in September. The other backs the SEIU 32BJ facilities workers bargaining for a new contract with the city’s largest private employer.
Also at the meeting
- The council remembered John Westwater, 77, a longtime St. Joseph’s middle school teacher nicknamed “Mister Sister,” who was struck by an Amtrak train at the West Medford station on July 20 and died, and pledged to press the MBTA and Amtrak for safety improvements at the at-grade crossing.
- The mayor’s second capital and general stabilization fund request, which Human Resources Director Lisa Crowley and Police Chief Paul Buckley attended to support, was tabled 5 to 2 after an earlier motion to table failed 3 to 4.
- Approved: a Community Preservation Committee appropriation for a Playstead Park digital scoreboard contingency and gutter and storm window restoration at the Osgood House; an unpaid bill from the prior fiscal year; new director and assistant director positions for Health and Human Services; an updated ordinance for the Commission for Persons with Disabilities; appointments of Chris D’Aveta (Zoning Board of Appeals), Lucica Hiller (Water and Sewer Commission) and Irene Ros and Swabarna Mukherjee (Medford Arts Council); the September 1 primary election call and warrant; and relocation of the Ward 4, Precinct 2 polling place.
- A resolution to update the 1974 noise ordinance and the plan for council-hosted neighborhood ward meetings went to the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee.
The council records are on the CivicClerk portal (August 4 records).
